#nuclear warning symbol

[headofocs-inklesspen]

New tattoo (the only thing I’m now not 100% is maybe it should’ve been placed higher? Idk it’s my silly little nuclear tattoo and it’s there to be silly and happy so I’ll live. Just means it’s still visible with shorter sleeves and not just tank tops.)

[claiborneart]

BLACK-LIGHT PAINT!

you can buy one, if you'd like~~

[slimeystimboards]

Tubbo Stimboard!!

x | x | x

x | • | x

x | x | x

[teeth--thief]

Google Drive full of book PDFs about Chernobyl

Link to the Google Drive if you don't want to click the title: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kscKFciW6almJA8p-0sUQPO3c0A4AQYe

Note: It will be updated regularly - for as long as I'll be able to find/get new things =) So far I've compiled 41 books in three languages.

Just to repeat what I said in the first post: I'm open to any requests or suggestions or even PDFs themselves, if someone wants to share theirs from their collection. Message me, send me an ask, throw a rock through my window - whatever you prefer, just please, do it yourself because I'm too scared to message anyone, thanks. No fiction - that's the only rule. Any language is welcome - if you want me to look for a certain book in the language of your choice, I'll do that. If you have a book in language other than English, I'd love to add it to the Drive! If you have a better version of whatever PDF I've already got, then I'd be more than happy to do a swap.

Now, some of my reasoning, if anyone's interested: first of all, I think it's important for everyone to be able to access stuff like this. Think of it as a library, minus the "give these back" part. Secondly, I get soooo mad when people are like haha, found this super rare, basically impossible to find, very expensive book! ...I shall now keep it exclusively to myself. Ma'am, you're ruining the vibe and stalling everyone's hobby research but I guess you do you...

List of all the books (under the cut):

In English:

Voices from Chernobyl - Alexievich S.

Chernobyl Reactor Accident - Source Term

Chernobyl - Insight from the Inside - Dr. Chernousenko V.M.

How It Was - Dyatlov A.S.

(ENG+RUS) Chernobyl Booklet

Chernobyl: The Devastation, Destruction and Consequences of the World’s Worst Radiation Accident - Fitzgerald I.

Final Warning. The Legacy of Chernobyl - Gale R.P.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster - Higginbotham A.

INSAG-1

INSAG-7

Interesting Chernobyl - 100 Symbols

From Chernobyl To Fukushima - Karpan N.

Manual for Survival. A Chernobyl Guide to the Future - Kate Brown

Chernobyl. Confessions of a Reporter - Kostin I.

The Politics of Invisibility. Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl - Kuchinskaya O.

Memories - Kupnyi A.

Chernobyl 01:23:40 - The Incredible True Story of the World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster - Leatherbarrow A.

Chernobyl Notebook - Medvedev G.

No Breathing Room - Medvedev G.

Chernobyl Record - The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe - Mould R. F.

Wormwood Forest - A Natural History of Chernobyl - Mycio M.

Life Exposed: Biological Citizens After Chernobyl - Petryna A.

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy - Plokhy S.

Ablaze - Story of Chernobyl - Read P.P.

Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry - Schmid S. D.

Chernobyl: A Documentary Story - Shcherbak I.

The Vienna Report

Chernobyl - Crime Without Punishment - Yaroshinskaya A.A.

In Russian:

Chernobyl: Kak eto bylo. Preduprezhdeni - Kopchinsky, Steinberg

Chernobyl. Tak eto bylo. Vzglyad Iznutri - Voznyak Ya. Troitskiy N.

Лучевая болезнь человека (очерки) - Гуськова А.К., Байсоголов Г.Д.

Чернобыль. Как это было - Дятлов А.С.

Чернобыль: 30 лет спустя - Кравчук Н.В.

Живы - Купный А.

Чернобыль - Щербак Ю.

(ONLY Pages 367-383) Чернобыль, 10 лет спустя. Неизбежность или случайность?

KGB files - pre and post accident (includes additional information in Ukrainian)

In Polish: 

Jak to było - Diatłov A.S.

Czarnobyl - Plokhy S.

Czarnobyl - Sekuła P.

Katastrofa w Czarnobylu - Sekuła P.

Czarnobyl. Od katastrofy do procesu - Siwiński W.

[dailymothanon]

yes… more space critter Alaska… unfortunately I have taken a big liking towards this thang, I do have other fantasy ideas for the other states tho! And I promise I’ll get back to the regular Table stuff! For now more Alaska 🐶 I’ll explain my thoughts behind his design too! Warning tho, it’s a lot of words down there

Basically, the whole reason he’s space-based is because of his flag, being the only one that’s a constellation and nothing more visually (albeit symbolism and a story behind it), as well as two of his state nicknames; land of the midnight sun and land of the midday moon!

He’s also heavily inspired off of Saturn, particularly because of his Birthday (Jan 3rd) & capricorns being presented with Saturn (not I don’t believe in astrology or anything, I just think the references are cool); tho I dunno how to really incorporate the rings into his design 🤔

he’s also inspired off of cosmic/nebula dust, because Alaska’s flag and the stars n all, nebulas are where stars are born! It’s mostly his… mane, thing?? That’s the dust, that’s why he’s got stars up in there!

The tail is supposed to be referenced to auroras, because well it’s Alaska, and also because Saturn has auroras too! It’s why it’s long and also drapey

He’s actually also big inspired off of birds too! Thanks to @keepbirdieweird I used nightjars for inspiration specially for his head shape :)

His “ears”, the tufts that look like ears aren’t ears! They’re akin to bird ear-tufts, so they don’t move nor really contribute to Alaska’s hearing or showing off emotions or signals

Other bird things is that of his limbs, specially his legs. And also he’s actually more so feathery than fur fluffy I’d say? So he doesn’t really have a mane, I think it’d be technically referred to as a neck ruff? I’m not sure!

His coloring I also just decided recently could be inspired off of Saturn’s colors maybe (or even on of it’s moons or their rings) 🤔

He’s also one of the more,, animalistic or heavily animal based designs even in a humanoid form, because well it’s Alaska. I just think he likes his animal attributes a lot

Because Saturn and Jupiter inspirations, gas giants and all, Alaska is actually much more able to be bigger in the fantasy au and still be comfortable! Lots of mass indeed, but not dense due to gas giant things, so he floats around much of the time

Alaska does not have a skeleton. Think like the cores of Saturn and Jupiter, that’s basically what goes on in him! And thanks to nuclear fusion, he can control his temps and therefore can get real hot and bright

His markings are inspired off of Alaska malamutes (particularly his face) because again: Alaska

So basically: Alaska is like a sentient cosmic cloud thing and we love him in this house

[irrealisms]

as the last i may know || a c!tubbo web weave

[sources and IDs under cut]

Image 1: a black-and-white blueprint of an atomic bomb.

Image 2: a screenshot from wikipedia reading: "Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy"

Image 3: a drawing of a bee.

Image 4: a brown jacket lined with fur. It looks similar to the jacket Tubbo wears in Snowchester.

Image 5: a screenshot of a definition, reading: "self-de·struct (of a thing) destroy itself by exploding or disintegrating automatically, having been preset to do so."

Image 6: Proposed pictogram warning of the dangers of buried nuclear waste

Image 7: a 3D render of a missile. It is black with yellow accents.

Image 8: a screenshot reading: "When a honeybee stings, it dies a gruesome death."

Image 9: a yellow and black warning sign with the radiation symbol. It reads CAUTION RADIATION AREA AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Image 10: a screenshot from wikipedia reading: would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.[1]

Image 11: a black and white sketch of a field of spikes, an architecture proposal designed to warn future humans away from nuclear waste.

[headspace-hotel]

I've been struggling...so...hard...to maintain motivation with the biopunk WIP, which is approaching its 6th anniversary of Being In My Brain. I'm forever cycling back to "okay but what if your worldbuilding is boring and no one cares about the story you have to tell in this world and it sucks"

but right now i'm just...rereading it. and I wanted to share some of the worldbuilding concepts okay

tl;dr: the setting is The Future, post-apocalyptic, but the previous ("our") civilization and the immediate aftermath is an almost mythological past, an age of heroes and prophets, but people KNOW there was Real History, but everything that far back is kinda fuzzy and debatable.

this book is supposed to seriously fuck with your head in terms of the divide between sci-fi and fantasy and the divide between "science/knowledge" and "religion/myth."

The worldbuilding is DEEPLY steeped in spirituality, folklore, and religion, sacredness and the afterlife and other spiritual concepts like that are very REAL to the characters, and i'm trying to deal with it Very Respectfully and make it clear that these people are not superstitious or stupid.

(Everyone is also kind of a "mutt" spiritually/religiously which is super funny. The vibe is like, there are a lot of people who aren't super serious about religion but they are super serious about ghosts being real and if a priest is no help they'll go find a shaman.)

One of the main characters is non-binary. The philosophy and spirituality of gender in this world is discussed and it's neat. This character is also an archetypal Trickster in every sense and I won't say much more yet but they're probably my favorite character I've ever written AAAAAAAAA

i'm working so, so hard to express characters' understanding of "sci-fi stuff" like technology and scientific concepts in language that culturally makes sense to them, and it is SO fun. especially when I get to express science fiction stuff in "mythological" terminology

e.g. genetic engineering: "They unwound and read the scrolls within living cells. Mortals learned the forbidden language of Life." Like DNA is described as an arcane/magical "language" (The Inmost Language or the language of Life) but nothing said about it is exactly wrong. at one point the main character meets a character with unnaturally golden hair created by genetic engineering and MC is thinking "the institute scribes did that. wrote gold gold shiny gold shiny bright gold in her cells to tell her hair to do that." this book is FULL of stuff like this

There's a major religion centered around a prophet that heard the voices of the dead and wrote down their teachings.

If you're not paying attention, you will get bitchslapped by the reveal that this is literally what happened: there was a vault, think "nuclear waste warning messages," where recordings containing important information for future humans were stored, and someone found it and shared the information with others. stuff like "wash your hands to stop disease from spreading" and "don't be racist" kinda got turned into religious teachings that occasionally seem weird, even backward.

There is another big one where it's like "there was a prophecy that civilization would perish in rising water..." and it's like okay, this myth is Noah's flood. NO BITCH IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE. But also yes.

Wolves have kinda migrated into being a mythological animal that symbolizes death. One character knows they really existed and can't stop themselves from correcting other people about it but everyone else just thinks it's funny that they think wolves are real

there's a people group in this story that is...I guess "indigenous-coded" is the right word? and a lot of the worldbuilding surrounding their culture will fuck with your head so good because you, as the reader, are a cultural outsider and your understanding of their culture changes but is never 100% accurate

e.g. this culture has a taboo surrounding personal names where in all but the most intimate relationships and interactions you call others by descriptive 'nicknames' based on what you observe about the person, what you want them to know that you notice, etc. There is a TON of cultural meaning in WHAT you decide to call someone and it can be a power play or something that gives the other person a lot of information about your intentions. But basically the full "meaning" of the taboo and when it's appropriate/normal to use a personal name is never exactly clarified. But for a while as a reader you're just taking the piss because there's a scene where a character dramatically "reveals" his "real" name and it's very serious and emotional at the time but as the story goes on and you know more, it becomes clear that he was just fucking lying

i'm putting so much effort into streamlining how characters word things, making slang roll off the tongue and SOUND and feel natural and intuitive, making the technologies feel as normal as any technology we have around us.

like. most lighting is bioluminescent. But I'm not gonna point out bioluminescent lighting because who walks into a room and notices that the lights are electric. what you would notice is old electric bulbs with spiderwebs on them vs. new LED lights, and that's richer and more detail-laden stuff.

and after SO much hard work the descriptions feel so lush and rich and crunchy. I'm making it sound all Complex. It's fun. It's REALLY fun. there are zombies.

I've worldbuilt the most random things. I've invented a bunch of bioengineered cat breeds for this book. I made up a sport where goats race up a wooden pyramid and try to stay on top for the longest period and wrote a kentucky derby style narration for it. I designed a bobbit worm themed dress. not to mention. all the elaborate names for female criminals such as Gory Gertrude.

[pearldrone]

hey guys, this is a post about side order and what we can somewhat gather about it so far. this'll be a long one, so hang tight. i've seen others vaguely talk about these ideas, so i decided to go all-out.

this image is of what i'm going to refer to as the 'landscape of thorns,' which is a 'long-term nuclear waste warning message.' these being used to sway humanity from intruding on highly dangerous sites.

as certain kinds of radiation can stay toxic for thousands of years, a warning of the dangers of this plant were needed. non-linguistic messages were attempted at first by a report from the sandia national laboratories, one of the three development and research laboratories of the department of energy's national nuclear security administration. {DOE, NNSA} the aim of this series of messages were to warn later visitors to any waste site. they recommended that messages include each of the following, gradually increasing complexity.

{much more under the cut.}

"1} Rudimentary information: "Something man-made is here"

2} Cautionary information: "Something man-made is here and it is dangerous"

3} Basic information: Tells what, why, when, where, who, and how

4} Complex information: Highly detailed written records, tables, figures, graphs, maps and diagrams"

the issue with worded messages is that they're unlikely to be comprehensible in thousands of years. considering how much the english language has changed, and will continue to evolve, would those of the future be able to understand what is being said? because of this, symbols were also considered.. but another problem arises with that. no symbol will be universally understood to mean one thing, even something such as the jolly roger. {☠️} using it to warn for risk of sickness, or general harm would serve useless as time passes. especially nowadays, while the jolly rodger still is seen as a danger symbol somewhat, is used more commonly as a cool design thing.. at least in the USA. and again, that's the problem. no symbol is universally known for one thing, no matter what.

i believe it was also a thought to not warn at all, and just leave it there.. but that questions ethics.

eventually, physical markers were explored, giving ideas such as the forbidding blocks, rubble landscape, the landscape of thorns, and a few beyond those. these ideas carry similar characteristics to each other.

from the official trailer.

in 1992-1993, a poll was issued by the zeitschrift für semiotik of tübingen germany, asking the following question:

"how would it be possible to inform our descendants for the next 10,000 years about the storage locations and dangers of radioactive waste?" and received answers such as artificial satellites, atomic priests, and 'ray cats.' i'm going to further talk about ray cats, as i think, considering the themes, it would be a good opportunity for side order to delve deeper into li'l judd, and his current whereabouts or motivations. as it's very vaguely hinted that he owns grizzco industries, and with that presumably dead fish in the trailer, it could be explored. i hope they won't make it weird though, as you know.. the whole thing with mammals has been a bit bizarre..

anyway, it was suggested that a species of cat should be bred that changes colors when exposed to radiation, so essentially a living sign of nuclear threat. as things such as nursery rhymes have been culturally significant in some way for many, many years.. in 2014, the musician 'emperor x' was commissioned by the podcast '99% invisible' to create a song about this idea for an episode about long-term nuclear waste warning messages.

whatever this fucker is. they could be completely done with grizzco, but who knows.

{edit 8/23/23 i've been told it resembles the bake-kujira. the ghost whale which is accompanied by "weird birds or fish."}

giving us the song '10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories {Don't Change Color, Kitty.}' the gist of this track being "if the cat turns bright colors, run!" and was designed to be "so catchy and annoying that it might be handed down from generation to generation over a span of 10,000 years."

so, themes of radiation are very likely to be present. this brings us to our next section, the coral bleaching.

as you may know, healthy coral has beautifully bright colors. this is due to microscopic algae known as zooxanthellae, which lives inside of the algae's polyps. it is also a major source of food, and nutrients. coral bleaching occurs when coral reefs are under stressful conditions, a huge one being climate change, which i will get deeper into that specifically. if the waters it lives in heat up too much, the coral will begin to expel this zooxanthellae.. leaving it completely white, and exposing its bone-like structure.

healthy vs partially bleached coral.

while bleached coral isn't quite dead, the aftermath of said bleaching makes it much more susceptible to disease and malnourishment due to lack of nutrition. if the waters stay too warm for too long, or if the bleaching is too extreme, the coral will die.

images from the official side order trailer, showing us bleached and possibly dead coral.

coral bleaching is an ongoing issue, and efforts have been made to conserve and regrow the coral reefs.. this brings us to a shorter section, but one worthy of a mention.

coral cloning. coral cloning is a phenomenon where a small bit of a healthy coral is cut, and grows into a full piece. it helps when this, sometimes miniscule, piece is placed next to another. this speeds up growth almost rapidly. however, it is not too easy to grow, and this method isn't totally fool-proof. coral requires very certain conditions to flourish, such as not being placed on an open ocean floor, but instead in an already established habitat. also things like water temperature, pH levels, pollution, all can stunt growth. this is a very vast oversimplified explanation, but i believe you get the picture. have you wondered why i am bringing this up? here is why..

am i saying this directly implies cloning? not exactly. it's an interesting thing to note, though, as you might know how octarians {NOT OCTOLINGS!} are born.. via severed tentacle. coral can sometimes be born via severed piece. i'm not going to go into this much more, as it's kind of an out-there comparison. do with that what you will.

continuing on with the radiation and infectious theme, i feel i should mention ultraviolet radiation. the sun produces these UV rays, of course, and they can be good in moderation. if it's too much? it can be absolutely killer. you guessed it, ultraviolet radiation does play a part in warmer waters, which aids in bleaching coral. however, that's not all.. the state of inkopolis square we see in the side order trailer could very well also be due to residue of nuclear radiation from the human society's many wars. before humanity's fall, natural disasters were more prevalent than ever, and we still don't really know what exactly happened besides the massive flood. the sea levels rising was the reason the great turf war, the deadliest war to strike inkadia, even happened. things like oil spills could possibly be going on too, as in some photos, you can see this black liquid.

i'm going to state the obvious and add on that oil spills are incredibly dangerous to marine life, and that includes coral reefs.

remnants of human life have not disappeared from inkadia, or anywhere in this world dominated by marine life. it's not far-fetched to say they could still be affected by anything else left behind, climate wise.

the landscape of thorns has not been built, to my knowledge, but maybe it was here. this could be a rediscovered nuclear plant, who knows. especially as certain kinds of radiation, again, can stay hazardous for upwards of ten-thousand years, and possibly longer. you may have caught that ten-thousand is an important number for multiple reasons, especially with the possibility that this octoling is eight. the human race has been extinct for longer than ten-thousand years by this point, but it's something to remember. but there's still questions.. where do pearl and marina fall now? what is their role? is this an infection only targeting octolings, and other octarians? what's going on with marina? only time will tell, yeah?

there you have it, if you read this far.. definitely tell me what you think. i've still not covered everything in the trailer, so any add-ons would be cool if you have any. this took a while to research and write, so thanks for reading.

sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-are-taking-extreme-steps-to-help-corals-survive/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coral-bleaching-and-how-we-can-stop-it

https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-do-oil-spills-affect-coral-reefs.html

https://youtu.be/JENUAv0w8Q4

https://youtu.be/ZiULxLLP32s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200731-how-to-build-a-nuclear-warning-for-10000-years-time

https://youtu.be/dDIMYAYSGCo

[ishouldreallybeelsewhere]

i really liked this episode and i am a very big fan of unanswered questions and minimal explanations with endings (such as the creature in midnight) and here are my current theories (spoilers)

The doctor's disappearance was a direct result of him breaking the circle. You break the circle, you're gone

The thing that originally stopped the nuclear war had something to do with the scrolls, like Marti said he was a monster, and if you take that literally perhaps he was a monster whose soul was bound so he was unable to take real action, or would be doomed to fail

Ruby reads the scroll, therefore breaking the hold, therefore must become a foil to his plans. There is a curse or something, so if you read the scroll, you must stop him instead

The hand symbols are significant, it looks like she gestures to herself, then shrugs, gestures toward ruby, then maybe writing? holding close, then she shakes her head... I can't figure out what that might mean right at this second, but if it doesn't come up later, i think something similar might. Also the cycle implies that she's stuck in time, a small time loop of her own, on top of the paradoxical loop of her existence

She's definitely a warning, and is able to contact ruby only to stop her creation from happening, by saying don't step she is undoing her timeline and therefor resolving the broken circle which is paradoxical in itself

Susan Twist was there again... maybe it's some kind of clara instance, someone scattered through time? Or is she another one of the toymaker's children or something else? perhaps she is the one who waits

I think ruby's snow is a direct connection between her and the Doctor, which is why it didn't happen without him

These aren't as conclusive or well thought out as i'd like, but i've only seen the episode once, also I don't typically theorize actively, so this isn't very well formatted

[realityandrebirth]

(wuickly edits the post so you don't see the earlier version of the piece)

Onkalo Heart is a Pokémon Sword and Shield fanfic featuring Chairman Rose. After he awakens Eternatus, Rose wakes up days later in the hospital, with a Wishing Star where his heart used to be. It's clear he won't find answers if he turns himself in, so he decides to take his leave and search on his own–but as a man on the run, he's forced to seek help from questionable characters who don't always have his best interests in mind.

My thoughts on Rose as a character + Eternatus as nuclear power + the utena references in SwSh + making an OC to ship with him all combined into this fic. I have put a deranged amount of effort into the themes and symbolism. Enjoy!

Warnings for: graphic depictions of violence, body horror, temporary character death; later chapters have permanent character death.

You can read it on Ao3! (four chapters up so far)

[wishcamper]

All in the Family Part III: Feyre the Harbinger

Pre-reqs: Part I | Part II

No content warnings, just some minor Mor slander.

Welcome back to my series on ACOTAR and Family Systems Theory! Today’s topic is how systems react to change, generational patterns, and special considerations in family integration.

When we last left off, we discussed the IC family system that, while dysfunctional, maintained relative balance as long as everyone played their roles in the nuclear family emotional process (NEFP). As a refreshers, the NEFP is how anxiety moves through a family: 

Mor feels anxiety about Az's feelings for her, and she passes it off to the boys. Cassian steps in the middle of the conflict at Mor’s unconscious request and takes inappropriate responsibility for Azriel’s feelings of rejection and Mor’s anxiety. Thus Mor doesn’t have to deal with her emotions and Azriel suppresses his feelings once more. Everyone plays their part, and balance is restored until the cycle starts again. 

Now we’re going to talk about how Feyre is a harbinger of change for the IC’s dynamic. Let’s look at the IC pre-Feyre:

So let’s think about how Feyre enters the IC. She and Mor develop a friendship, and Cassian treats her with affection like he does Mor, though without all the touching. Azriel seems to like her well enough. Amren is Amren. And Rhysie boy is OBSESSED with her and will never side with anyone against her. Feyre has power over Mor, Azriel, and Cassian when she becomes High Lady, but she also has power because of her relationship with Rhys, the most powerful person in the family. What will this do to our system?

Mor, girl, you good?

I’ve added some new lines to represent the significant changes once Feyre enters the scene. The big gold blob between Feyre and Rhys is to represent their mating bond, which is canonically a stronger and more important relationship than all others. In this system, it’s the most significant relationship and the alliance that wields the most power. If Feyre and Rhys agree on something, it will be done.

The pink arrow between Feyre and Mor represents what to me is the compensating balance to the system. Mor develops a friendship with Feyre because that’s what keeps everything in harmony. She approaches Feyre with much more interested than we ever see toward Nesta or Elain, even when they're both in the arguably identical position of being romantically involved with her brothers.

And that, to me, is odd. Especially considering how Feyre first enters the system as opposed to her sisters.

Imagine this: your beloved family members returns home after having been held as a prisoner and the first thing he says when he sees you is how he fell in love with some girl. Excuse me???? Putting aside the fact that Rhys trapped his friends in Velaris against their will for the good of the city (arguably the same situation he was in UTM), wouldn’t you be a little put out? No hi hello I love you nice to see you, just she’s my fucking mate? I’m sorry sir but, who??!?!?!?!

Nevertheless, Rhys returns to his family saying he’s met the love of his life, and suddenly this person even before she’s present holds a great deal of power in the system. Rhys’ closest relationship is no longer Mor, it’s Feyre.

Remember that Mor is the most likely source of anxiety in the family. This displacement really unbalances her, I think, removing the moderating presence between her, Cassian and Azriel. So what do we see her do? Throw in hard for Feyre. IMMEDIATELY she tries to get Feyre alone to start establishing a relationship with her new symbolic mommybestie.

We also see her hanging out with the other two boys a lot, together or just Cassian alone. I have to wonder if that was the norm before, or what changed when Rhys was UTM. Now that Rhys is absorbed in Feyre, Mor is using that buffer in earnest. Without Rhys to balance them, she pingpongs between Cassian and Azriel through a lot of ACOMAF, enough so that Feyre, who just met them, notices it on several occasions. 

And this is not to downplay that Mor likes Feyre and they’re genuine friends. I’m more so saying that even if Mor disliked Feyre, it’s not likely she would’ve made that public. She needs her relationship with Rhys to be strong enough to justify her place because of the anxiety she brings to the system. The way to stay chill with Rhys is to stay chill with Feyre. We see that over and over and over.

Thankfully (?), Feyre is more than ready to integrate into the existing system. In fact, she reinforces Rhys’ power and acts as another moderator between everyone. She notices the weird Mor/Cas/Az triangle but has no outward reaction to it, doesn't even bring it up to Mor who is supposedly her friend, which in the sense of the system is accepting and condoning it to continue. She doesn’t question the family rules or interrupt the NEFP. Feyre generally wants everyone to get along all throughout the series. Do we ever see her disagree with anyone besides Rhys? Because I genuinely can’t remember her in an argument with anyone in her family besides him and her sisters.

So in summary:

Feyre temporarily unbalances the system by diverting a huge amount of Rhys’ attention and care.

The system rebalances though Feyre and Mor’s friendship and Feyre’s tacit endorsement of the IC’s rules, the power structure, and the NEFP regarding the buffer triangle.

Feyre's entry reveals the weak points in the system, like the buffer, as well as the HUGE dependence on Rhys as a moderator for everyone else. This sets the stage for the Archeron invasion to take the whole thing down.

Let’s talk a little about family rules before we wrap up.

All families have rules, some spoken and most unspoken. Rules can be things like we always have dinner together, throwing things when you’re mad is not allowed, children have to wear helmets when they ride bikes. They can also be things like don’t tell outsiders our business, do whatever dad says when he’s drunk, don’t show your feelings ever. The IC has some rules I want to highlight, one being: don’t bring home a love interest.

In all the 500 years, why are all these kids still single? We never hear of any long-term relationships of any significance until ACOSF. None of them have partners or lovers worth naming. What the hell? Is the mating bond that sacred, even though it's so rare, that you assume you'll fuck around until you hopefully find it? Personally, I don't believe people work that way. I think we crave companionship and love that we don't get from our families. There's between an 81-86% chance you will be married at some point in your life, and I know America isn't Prythian but it feels against the odds that ALL of them are unpartnered without some other explicit reason why.

The important thing to remember is that all rules have a source point, like those laws that say don’t drive with an alligator in your car or whatever. Someone did this thing once and it was bad, so don’t do it again. Often the source point goes back many many generations, but with the IC I think it’s what happened between Mor and Cassian when they were seventeen. Love in the friends group = bad. So let's never talk about it again, until these three fuckin' humans show up and goddamnit we have to.

And that’s what you missed on Glee!

[headofocs-inklesspen]

Welcome to Night Vale Night!!!!

[haastera]

A Complete Explanation of the Ep7 or 8 Flashback (My Guess)

I may have put most of the pieces together about the core collapse.

-JCJ arrives in the aftermath of the mansion incident to investigate, possibly due to Tessa's parents having ties to the company.

-JCJ either captures some of the infected workers or interrogates Tessa to figure out what happened. Tessa tells them about CYN, and that she was a Zombie drone. The corporation realizes that the AS has something to do with mutated AI and begins the Cabin Fever program on Copper 9, watching as the AS and legions of Murder drones overrun world after world to harvest all life, be it biological or drone, in the name of feeding their insatiable thirst for oil.

On Copper 9 they construct Cabin fever labs and begin their experimentation. Worker drones are admitted into the program as an alterative to being disposed of or are Zombie drones that JCJ recovered. Their goal is to recreate the circumstances that led to CYN.

The experimentation involves torturing drones to damage their AI and induce the AS mutation. Once they have an infected drone, research shifts to analyzing the AS capabilities, the infection's impact on a worker drone, it's progression, and how to stop/control it. The worker's directly involved in this research wore gloves as a possible (and apparently ineffective) way to restrict their powers and low cut shirts to expose their core, providing advanced warning to the Cabin fever staff of AS infection nearing critical mass.

However, for as of yet unknown reasons the program was shut down. Perhaps they realized just how big of a nuclear bomb they were playing with by deliberately inducing Solver mutations or mistakenly believed they had hit a dead end in their research. Alternatively, the program may have been shut down because of it's success, with JCJ no longer needing the test subjects.

Regardless of the reason, all the test subjects were to be disposed of. Nori may have first tried to negotiate with the humans to avoid her and the other's disposal. If she did her pleas were unsuccessful and in her overwhelming desperation the AS succeeded in directly controlling her in the same way UZI was hijacked when trying to save N, killing as many of the Cabin Fever labs personnel as it could get it's tentacles on.

While controlled by CYN Nori's mind is temporarily synced to the hivemind and shares in it's memories. She sees the AS consuming the biomass of entire planets and converting them into oil to fuel itself and endless legions of Murder drones. Biomechanical predators the AS has created as it's soldiers.

Nori mentally defeats CYN/regains control and decides to sabotage the infrastructure JCJ was utilizing to generate geothermal energy from Copper 9's core, triggering a core collapse to wipe out all biological life on the planet in an effort to starve the AS out.

The resulting explosion creates the entrance N, V, Tessa and UZI jump down in ep6 and buries Nori underneath the snow. She is later rescued by Khan and a party of worker drones who have arrived at Camp 98.7 to investigate the blast.

Nori begs Khan to create a series of fortified outposts to shelter the workers from the Murder drones she knows the AS will send to harvest the drones' oil.

Meanwhile, the CYN-Solver is incensed at failing to corrupt Nori and fearful that JCJ's research may very well hold the key to it's defeat, even if the humans don't yet realize it. The CYN-Solver sends the Murder drones to Copper 9 with 2 goals as opposed to the usual 1.

First Task: Construct the spires by harvesting all life near their landings zones (now just drones after the core collapse)

Second task: Seek out any facilities with the Cabin Fever symbol, enter them, and burn it down. Destroy every trace of the research JCJ was conducting on the AS to prevent the creation of more drones like Nori and keep humanity in the dark.

Can't wait for Ep7 to come out and prove literally of this wrong.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group E Round 3: #E3 vs #E1

#E3: Sending us penguins will NOT fix our terminally ill sister, but thanks anyways.

#E1: Forcefully mixing the old and the new. Hilarity and disaster ensues.

Details and poll under the cut!

*Text in green indicates that something has been changed.

#E3: Mawaru Penguindrum

Summary:

For the Takakura family, destiny is an ever-spinning wheel, pointing passionately in their direction with equal tides of joy and sorrow before ticking on to the next wishmaker. With their parents gone, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma live alone with their beloved little sister Himari, whose poor health cannot decline any further.

On the day Himari is given permission to temporarily leave the hospital, her brothers take her out to the aquarium to celebrate, where the family's supposed fate is brought forth with her sudden collapse. However, when Himari is inexplicably revived by a penguin hat from the aquarium's souvenir shop, the hand of fate continues to tick faithfully forward.

With her miraculous recovery, though, comes a cost: there is a new entity within her body, whose condition for keeping her fate at bay sends the boys on a wild goose chase for the mysterious "Penguin Drum." In their search, the boys will have to follow the threads of fate leading from their own shocking past and into the lives of other wishmakers vying for the Penguin Drum, all hoping to land upon their chosen destiny.

Propaganda:

Do you like weird artsy stuff? Do you love magical girls? How about weird, messed up character dynamics? Then boy oh boy, Mawaru Penguindrum is the show for you! The show starts out funny enough, but will quickly spiral into an intense and intricate plot, involving fate, the mafia, magical destiny-rewriting spells, and penguins. Which yes, before you ask, the funny penguins are in fact plot relevant.

Penguindrum isn’t really a show about all that stuff though, even though it is. It’s a very symbolic story, about living under the crushing heel of capitalism, and the quiet poison of the societally expected nuclear family dynamic. I could write an essay on each and every single one of the characters, as they’re all given a lot of depth and time to grow. Every character has their own baggage that, one way or another, ties back to someone else. Everyone in this show is connected in some way shape or form, and that’s really highlighted when everything starts to fall apart. Be warned: this show is NOT a light watch! If you’re the type of person who gets really into deciphering symbolism and creating your own meaning from pieces of media, then this show is for you!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Flashing Lights/Flickering Images, Gender Identity/Sexuality Discrimination, Guns, Incest, Kidnapping, Nudity, Pedophilia, Rape/Non-Con, Smoking, Suicide, Bomb Threats/Attempts and Terrorisim

It’s a very major plot point. This show is HEAVILY based off the 95 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attacks, so if content like that is triggering to you, tread lightly.

#E1: Are You Ok (You Yao)

Summary:

People from the modern world transmigrating into the ancient Chinese fantasy world has become a common and everyday occurrence that the royal court in the latter has decided to moderate them. If you’re a transmigrator, you must report your existence to Lou Zhu, the master of Best Tower. Once you pass his test and prove that you are indeed a modern person, you can then be assigned to work in different areas of the government and be given a high salary.

Because of this promised benefit, many impostors have showed up before Lou Zhu. And one day, Zuo Yunqi takes this test as well. Is he an impostor, or is he an actual modern person?

But some transmigrators also choose to hide their existence out of distrust in the government. Where are they? And with their advanced knowledge on science and technology, what are they planning in the dark?

Elsewhere, other transmigrators find themselves in all sorts of situations—an art student is detained and forced to come up with a recipe for a poisonous meal, while another is stuck sharing a body with the original soul and fighting for its control. Meanwhile, unrest rises in the Jianghu and a storm brews in the palace. Can our transmigrators’ modern knowledge save the day? Or will their lack of understanding in the current world lead to their downfall?

Propaganda:

Often in transmigration stories, the locals are portrayed as “backward” and “ignorant” to make the modern characters seem intelligent and progressive. The latter are then hailed as geniuses or pioneers, but in You Yao this isn’t the case. 

You Yao deconstructs the transmigration genre and explores its possibilities. The system that moderates the transmigrators really puts them in their place and curbs their arrogance. And when in Rome, do as the Romans do. No matter how “smart” they may be, they are still subjects of the Emperor.

Besides, modern knowledge doesn’t always prove to be useful. An educated man like Lou Zhu is considered illiterate because he cannot read Traditional Chinese. His assistant has to first translate them into Simplified 😂

Moreover, this world they’re in has elements of wuxia (martial arts with superpowers). How can a modern person who grew up in a safe environment protect oneself in such a setting? They can only ask the locals to protect them. 

So, transmigrators are not necessarily superior to the locals—which I like because it lets us look at the locals’ strengths and appreciate them as well. 

You Yao features an ensemble cast, by the way, and all of them, both locals and transmigrators, are endearing. There are also several canon BL couples, with each pair marking the different sub-plots of the show. Just don’t expect any explicit gay confirmation because it’s limited by Chinese censorship, after all. But even then, it managed to be as fruity as it could be (the S1 ED is literally an angsty love song about the second gay pairing).

In regard to setting, it’s a genius mix of ancient Chinese fantasy and modern technology. Best Tower looks like a traditional Chinese pagoda on the outside, but on the inside it’s like a mall, complete with different entertainment venues and even a milk tea shop! It even has an “elevator,” but since electricity hasn’t been invented yet, it’s just powered by different men (in fancy uniforms) on bicycles. 

You Yao is really creative in presenting what could happen when you forcefully mix the old and the new. This allows a lot of hilarious situations, but it also highlights the dichotomy of tradition and modernity, making viewers question which changes are actually good and bad.

Can the Emperor really be that benevolent when plenty of people with knowledge beyond his keep popping up? And how can all transmigrators be content in following this world’s backward laws? What happens when one side tries to dominate and eradicate the other?

You Yao may give off that silly sitcom vibe, but it’s actually so much more than that. I don’t wanna spoil anything, so all I can say is that it’s gonna make you laugh a lot, and once your guard is lowered it’s gonna sucker-punch you in the gut. Vote You Yao.

Trigger warnings: Guns, kidnapping, and imprisonment. Nothing too dark, though.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[bapzap]

this trailer is insanely Tartar coded. there's something insanely sus going on here

the meat grinders spewing out agent 8 colored... ink?, the electronic computer glitch theming, the Order and Power stuff, the memcakes...? being made, the vague symbolism about nuclear waste and fossil fuel and hostile architecture are all things Tartar was meant presumably to warn of before he went a bit insane

[cafeleningrad]

Ah, another thing about the birds in the magic realm: The magic realm stands for many things. Amongst them is the readings of it mirroring the social state of Meiji era Japan. Animals always featured in Miyazakis, not always as swet companions, sometimes as metaphors, and neutral and wild as nature. But the birds, including the birds are outright unsettling. Upon leaving the magic realm they become regular animals. But the magic realm turns them into terrible creatures forced to feast on souls, or a ravenous society lending iself for a facism metaphor. Why birds of all animals? Then it hit me. What thing oftne features in Miyazaki's body of work which he likes, is evne fascinated by but turns into a terrible weapon of warfare? Planes! The Wind rises was centered entirely about that topic. Proco Rosso too depicted flying as sport, something Fiona's workshop works at with passion, it's freedom but in the past war aircrafts were used for warfare and will be misused for such destructive purposes again. (If my memory doens't fail me, it is also one of the few technologies Miyazaki has a positive view on, bemoaning it's destructive use - conrasted against other warfare material such as the nuclear giants in Nausicäa, Laputa, or the muskets in Mononoke-hime. These get either destroyed or taken out of human hands at the end of the story.) Anyhow, the birds are the natural-magical allegory for planes. It sounds dumb to say "they fly too and look cool" , the Pelicans also symbolize parenthood an so on, but the visual similarity struck me. The heron looks majestic and elegant but it also lies, taunts, and hides a mischevous man inside. Still, upon being tasked to help Mahito they become friendlier, tricks the parakeets, saves Mahito's life, and give him a warning and advice at their parting. The heron is an ambigous figure, doing good or bad depending on what purpose they serve...

The magic realm can be mutliple things at the same time. A mirror of Japanese society, Miyazaki's creative legacy, the bird reflect human behavior, as well as an intergral fascination of Miyazaki's he put into his work.