#paradigm shifting stuff

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

So something I really like is how Thich Nhat Hanh defines love in Teachings On Love (I mean, it’s Buddhism, but that comes in a lot of varieties, many of which center concepts differently than this one, etc).

Any way. Pretty much the first thing he does in the book is explain The Four Immeasurable Minds: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. None of those are defined exactly the way i’d have thought, from a culturally Christian perspective. And in more than one of them he stresses the importance of understanding the beloved. In fact, to the point that understanding is a PREREQUISITE to being able to love someone at all well. And seeking that understanding as a skill that can be cultivated.

What I’m getting at is: the more Zhuo Yichen understood Zhao Yuanzhou, the more he loved him. Even more so, the more Li Lun understood Zhao Yuanzhou, the better he was able to love him. Zhao Yuanzhou, although he came at his new friends with a lot of benevolence, hurt them by assuming about them instead of trying to understand. And that’s really real. (Wen Xiao was miles ahead of everyone with this skill).

I’ve tended to think, ok if I love someone I’ll want to understand them. But it’s really turning out to be that understanding is necessary for love that feels like love to the other person to be possible in the first place.

[anneapocalypse]

The thing is, even if Lucanis did hate mages generally (which as @dreadfutures says here, is probably not why he's called the Mage Killer), surely we can understand that that means something completely different in the north than it would in the south, right?

It's going to be really interesting to see how the fandom engages with Tevinter tbh. Like, back in DA2, a lot of people thought Fenris was pretty unreasonable about mages. It's easy to feel that way. Even I feel it sometimes and I love Fenris. But then you take a step back, and you remember that his entire life experience is mages having absolute power over him and using that power to cause endless suffering. Those people are still chasing him until Act III, making it difficult for him to shift his paradigm and see the situation in the south for what it is. And some players, even knowing that context, still had trouble seeing Fenris for anything more than a bigot. They couldn't see his context anymore than he could see Anders' or Merrill's.

And as players who have played and loved three games set in the south of Thedas, we are the ones who are going to have to shift our perspectives now. The power structures in the north are different. The way they operate and maintain their power is different. Sure, the base principles still apply, but the devil's in the details. Someone "hating mages" simply does not have the same connotations in the context of the north. If a character in Tevinter says something like, I don't know, "Something must be done about those mages," it doesn't in any way mean the same thing as it would when spoken in Orlais under the southern Chantry. And maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but Idk, I felt like it warranted saying, not just for Lucanis but for all the new characters we're going to be meeting in the north.

[fidelishaereticus]

I think people would be a lot more receptive to new information if we stopped framing the natural flow of knowledge as some kind of fucked up power play that nobody consented to.

People won't want to admit they were wrong/ignorant if we keep equating being wrong/ignorant with admission inferiority, failure, and defeat.

And I *know* that Never Admitting Fault and bending over backwards to make sure you go down in history as Right About Everything Since Always are some of the most common social power plays in greater America and that culture is so deep in our bones it just feels like human nature but it truly does not have to be that way. Honest to God I grew up in subcultures where this wasn't a thing at all and i can tell you, information exchange is something that can actually be so neutral. I'm still baffled as to why people gotta make it so weird all the time.

[nie7027]

Understanding the quadratic equation and what it represented and what conformed it and in general how ro plot equations and the way they would shift according to what you did to it (what you added or subtracted or multiplied) were what did it to me in middle school and highschool.

And then in uni the proof that 0≠1 and how you just need those and certain operations to build fields and literally all your math from the ground (basically everything about linear algebra) (❤️)

And because I'm a physicist I must add the moment that I understood that by describing all the forces acting in a system you could describe the whole past present and future behaviours of the system and then that newtons gravitational law/coulombs law were not just simple formulas but were the abstract representation of actual poems that when recited described some of the most fundamental physics of nature.

That everything was there, in those letters: the attraction between charges, the inverse proportional relation to distance, the increment in magnitude, etc.

They really are very beautiful equations.

I didn't wanna derail the other post but I still wanna spread some love for my favourite subject...

Reblog if you've ever felt genuine joy or excitement from doing and/or thinking about math

[cerastes]

4chan dying is a pretty huge ecosystem paradigm shift, regardless of how you felt about it. Stuff like Encyclopedia Dramatica or Kiwifarms are small peanuts, 4chan has been here since what many consider the start, and in many ways whalefell a lot of content to the rest of the internet.

It’s a bit sad from the perspective of the internet losing an iconic bit of it that stood counter to sanitized social media.

[elkian]

So I never really questioned Kabru and Mithrun's dynamic given what's coming up, but that episode really emphasized some stuff to me. We know already that long-lived races, particularly elves, have a tendency to dismiss the other groups as being childlike. But the sheer infantilization that everyone, and specifically Kabru, have to deal with in that episode really hammers it home.

When Kabru mentions his adoption, pretty much all of the Canaries start immediately treating him like a toddler. And we know from flashbacks in the manga that he received pretty much the same treatment from his adopter - I wouldn't say he was quite treated like a favored pet, but it's much closer to that than any kind of healthy relationship dynamic.

So when Mithrun stands up, gets in his face, looks him eye-to-eye and says: "You're plotting something. I'm going to find out what.", that? That is the first time in this scene - maybe in his life - that an elf takes Kabru seriously. Mithrun has his own thing going on, but regardless of his reasoning, he addresses Kabru as a person and an adult. As someone with complex motivations who could potentially trip him up. I don't doubt Kabru has in the past used that infantilization to his advantage, but it's blatantly obvious that he doesn't enjoy it. Who would? So Mithrun starting their relationship by treating Kabru as a peer explains a lot about their dynamic down the line, in my opinion.

Kabru doesn't have to prove his humanity, his personhood, his adulthood to this man, one of a group infamous for how they treat younger species. It must feel like one hell of a paradigm shift.

EDIT: I've seen it pointed out on this post and others that Kabru also shows Mithrun understanding and decency and sees him in a way that others haven't been and I think that's a very important parallel and good point.

[hexcodewisteria]

i love how shisui's actions at the end of vol. 4 haunt the rest of the story even if she's rarely ever mentioned by name. her actions and plan first of all are what causes the entire paradigm shift in the series— ending the power of the shi clan and warning jinshi while also effectively forcing jinshi's disguise in the rear palace to end.

and then the effects follow maomao throughout the rest of the story— the obvious stuff with maomao grieving her when the appropriate mentions come up and looking into markets for the hairstick and then in vol. 5 maomao even figures out the locust/grasshopper mystery because of the clues shisui left behind and then there's the one moment in— i think volume 10 or 11? where maomao touches jinshi's scar and tells him he's not immortal, that he can be scarred and brought low— that scar wouldn't have been there without shisui doing so in the first place (admittedly this is a very little thing compared to the rest but it's still significant because its part of the whole cascading events at the end of vol. 4). every action she made and the relationships she created even if it was under a false identity still deeply mattered and her presence is felt even when the scene isn't about her or the shi clan but because her actions and character were so momentous, even if her total time in the story proper was barely two or three volumes.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Paradigm Shift 2

Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, such noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.

Summary: you get transferred to a new position but it’s hardly a breath of fresh air. (plus!reader)

Characters: Loki, Bucky Barnes, this reader is known as Billie.

Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜

💼Part of the Bad Bosses AU💼

You finally get access to the calendars and set to work. Thor wasn’t exaggerating. Overlapping blocks, unanswered RSVPs, overdue items. You do your best to sort through it all, ignoring the ache in your knees until you have to reposition on the hard floor. You don’t think this is ergonomically safe work. 

When you get a handle on Laufeyson’s calendar and start on Barnes’ the door to your left swings open and before you can react, the box is on its way across the floor. You’re not quite sure how you managed it, but you saved your laptop before it could go with it. The contents scatter as you hold up the computer and puff out. 

Mr. Laufeyson steps back and huffs as he crosses his arms, “what are you doing on the floor?” 

“Well, sir, I tried to say something before but...” You brace the wall and stand, “I do need a desk--” 

“Yes, yes, find one,” he tries to shoo you with his long fingers. 

“I tried, sir. I don’t see any available down here--” 

“Have them bring your old one down,” he demands tersely. 

“Yes, sir, will do,” you frown. “And er, I’ve got your calendar figured out.” 

“Mm, do you now?” He challenges as his eyes drift by you. 

You turn and look down at your possessions as they lay strewn. Right. You turn and go about collecting it all and shove it back into the box. When you’re done, he’s gone. Great. 

You hitch up the box and stand, blowing out a breath. It’ll take some time to get movers to deal with your desk. Nothing ever happens in a timely manner around here. As you resign yourself to taking up space in the breakroom, Mr. Barnes’ door opens. 

You face him as you hug the cardboard, “sir, I'm working on your calendar. I just need to--” 

“You need a desk,” he says promptly. 

“Yes, sir, I was just going to call the movers--” 

“Nonsense,” he snaps his fingers and signals you to follow him. 

You shut your mouth and nod. You trail after him as he strides down the hall into the bullpen. His long brown hair flicks under his ears and away from his neck, a few strands caught in his collar. He stops and puts his hands on his hips, scanning the room. 

“Hackett,” he points without looking, “pack your stuff. You’re fired.” 

A man with a shining bald head grunt, “sir?” 

“You heard me. You missed that Southeast order. Won’t happen again. So leave.” 

“Mr. Barnes,” the man you assume is Hackett stands, “Southeast--” 

“Your paperwork is down with HR. You can get sorted there,” Barnes overrides him, “clear out your desk.” 

Hackett winces and looks down at his computer, defeated. You stand speechless as Barnes faces you, “there, you got a desk. You’re welcome.” 

“Sir, thank you,” you murmur. 

“Call the movers anyway, they’ll need to move it closer.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Actually, fuck it,” he jabs his finger in the air and marches away.  

You stand dumbly as you are as Hackett packs up and you try not to make eye contact. You hear Barnes low rumble from the hallway before he reappears with Laufeyson at his back. They approach Hackett and the latter swipes his arms to clear off the desk of the small bits and bobs. The terminated employee cries out in horror. 

Barnes rips out the extension cord from the wall and tucks it under. The two men each take an end and lift the desk, balancing the monitor and essentials on top as they carry it past the employees who try not to crane to see. You’re in disbelief, humiliated by the unnecessary scene of your transfer. You could’ve waited for the movers. 

You make yourself move and catch up to them as they plant your desk at the crux of the hallway. You’re the gatekeeping of the domain, sat right where everyone will have to walk by you. Great. 

The plunk it down and clap off their hands. You wonder how long it’s been since they did that amount of manual labour. Laufeyson nods and strides off as Barnes frames his hips triumphantly. 

“I’m a man that gets things done, doll,” he declares, “let that set the tone.” 

You attempt a smile but it probably just looks like a weird twitch, “yes, sir. I’ll have your agenda ready each day before you get here.” 

“You will,” he agrees, “before his.” 

He spins and stops before he can stride away, “coffee. That’s what I came out for. Dark roast, black.” 

“Sure thing, sir,” you set the box on the desk and go to step around it. 

“Ah, not that shit, Roasters’ down on King.” 

You take a breath and grab your purse from on top of the box, “dark roast, black.” 

“Good girl,” he caps off the conversation before he struts off, hands in his pockets. 

Right. They are both awful. This is going to be like pulling teeth. You already miss Odinson’s demands. At least he gave them. These two seem too far up their own asses to bother. 

You take out your phone and check the group chat. Ugh, yes. Drinks. You swear, if there isn’t alcohol at the end of this day, you’re going to cry. 

[autball]

Part 1 of a 5 part series about the ways harmful practices are being made to sound more appealing through the co-opting of language and how to spot the differences between helpful and harmful approaches.

The language of the Neurodiversity Paradigm is soooo hot right now. Everyone from ABA centers to social media creators are adopting it to sound like they’re safer and more knowledgeable than they are.

But you can’t just pop some neuro-word in place of “autism” and stop picking on a couple of Autistic traits and call yourself “Neuro-affirming.” That’s the low-hanging fruit of #neurodiversitylite.

REAL Neuro-affirming practice comes from a complete shift in mindset, unlearning all the harmful things you once thought were true, and learning about all the things you never even knew you didn’t know. It’s also an ongoing process, not just something you can learn from reading an article or taking a single training.

ABA practitioners are probably the worst offenders right now, mainly because they know they need to rebrand as more and more people learn about what ABA really does to people, but also because their practices in particular are THE furthest away from being Neuro-affirming compared to any other discipline.

They are not the only ones, though, so be wary of #neurodiversitylite in ANY resource aimed at autistic people that appears to be saying all the right things, including: OT, speech, play/talk therapy, early intervention, education, your favorite parenting expert or social media personality who just discovered the world of Neurodiversity, etc.

Look beyond someone’s use of the “right” words or symbols. Do they talk about teaching people to fit into the normative world, or how to more safely and authentically navigate a world not made for them? Do they talk about making the person easier to deal with, or making life easier for the person? Do they concentrate on external behaviors, or are they more concerned with internal experiences? Does most of what they know come from people who studied autistic people from the outside looking in, or from actual autistic people who can speak from lived experience? And are they even using the words right??

The good news is that there are SO MANY resources out there BY autistic and otherwise Neurodivergent people for anyone who wants to learn how to make their practice *actually* more Neuro-affirming. SO MANY!! Three such resources are featured in the second panel from Autism Level UP, Neurowild, and Kieran Rose-The Autistic Advocate. (Big thanks to them for letting me include their work in the cartoon!)

EXPLANATION OF WHAT’S WRONG IN THE “FAKE” PANEL:

- The phrase “individuals with neurodiversity” misuses the word “neurodiversity” and utilizes person first language. The Neuro-affirming phrase would be “neurodivergent people,” or “autistic people” if they specifically meant autistic people.

- Getting rid of puzzle piece stuff is merely a surface level first step, not an end point.

- Not forcing eye contact and allowing hand-flapping are also only surface level first steps. The fact that they still target other stims means they do not understand the importance or functions of stimming, making them incapable of being Neuro-affirming.

- Social skills training aimed at ND people usually centers NT social skills as the “right way” and frames ND social skills as the “wrong way,” making them shame inducing and not at all affirming.

- “Tolerating distress” most often means “suppressing distress.” Neuro-affirming practice would concentrate on identifying and avoiding triggers, helping the person stay regulated, and teaching the person how to accommodate and advocate for their needs so that they are not distressed in the first place.

- “Sensory desensitization” is not a thing that can be done to someone without harm. It is usually done with exposure therapy, which should not be done TO someone who cannot consent. It is also inappropriate for sensory issues, which tells us they don’t understand sensory processing differences at all.

- The posters: Whole Body Listening is based on neuronormative expectations; “They say I’m neurodiverse” is incorrect usage of the word “neurodiverse” (it should be “neurodivergent”), and “but I say I’m perfect” insinuates that being “neurodiverse” is a bad thing, while the use of the rainbow infinity symbol with such a non-affirming message adds to the dissonance; the ABC’s of Behavior is an indicator that ABA/behaviorism will be used, which is the opposite of Neuro-affirming practice.

EXPLANATION OF WHAT’S RIGHT IN THE “REAL” PANEL:

- The person accurately explains what Neuro-affirming practice looks like, without needing to use (or misuse) any Neurodiversity “buzzwords.”

- Bumper, A Whole Body Learner, is a resource created by Autism Level UP that encourages people to discover what it looks like for them to be ready to learn, acknowledging that there is no one right way to appear attentive.

- The poster by Neurowild indicates that they value difference and neurodiversity and that they know there is no one right way of being.

- They use the Advoc8 Framework, a resource created by Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate. Using this framework means they want to help the people they work with achieve Agency, Autonomy, (Self) Acceptance, and Authenticity.

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

Anime only watchers and people who aren't caught up with the Manga, BEWARE... Cuz I'm about to discuss Spy X Family Mission 113... You have been warned...! 👌

[SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT ON]

This chapter was a cute one!! 😁 It was both fun and quite silly!! 🤭

I had a good time with today's chapter, so let's talk about it, shall we? 😄

This chapter begins with Damian trying to swat something away...!! 👀

It soon becomes very clear (if it wasn't already obvious to begin with) as to what exactly Damian was trying to swat away... 😌

...HIS THOUGHTS OF JEALOUSY TOWARDS ANYA'S NEW FRIENDS, FREDDY & TERTIUS...!!

And then, Becky proceeds to add fuel to the Damian's jealously fire...!! 👌😌:

BECKY, YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE MENACE!!! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

I love how everything becomes Shojo-ified as Becky tells Damian about this, it's just so damn funny...!! 🤣🤣🤣

Later that night, Damian has a dream about fighting off his buzzing jealousy, but the buzzing soon fuses together into one giant monster!!! 😵 (I also really like there's a note that says that the monster's face spells out "buzz" in Japanese!! 😆):

Damian tried to fend off the monster, but it was all for naught as the monster defeats Damian & he wakes up from the nightmare...! After that, Damian tries to keep a cool head after waking up, then Emile and Ewen come by to check on him!! 😁 But to keep his friends from figure out what's really going on, he tells them that his "other friend" is actually the one with trouble, then Ewen and Emile have a revelation...:

OH MY GOODNESS, THESE TWO...! 👌😌

The next day, Ewen and Emile are looking into how to help Damian's "friend" out, but Ewen feels like there's no point in helping Damian with this because they're "no longer number one in the boss man's heart"...!! 😭 Emile brings Ewen back around to helping Damian out by telling him that they are the ones that Damian can on, so they decide to go ask Mr. Green for some help and he gives them some really good advice...!! 😁:

After that, Ewen and Emile tell Damian about what they learned from Mr. Green, they also added that he told them about something called a "Paradise Fist", when in actuality he was talking about a Paradigm Shift...!! 😅 Ewen then brings up that Damian's "friend" must really important to him, but Damian tells them that he isn't even close to that "friend" and tells Ewen and Emile that they are his true friends, which makes them both extremely happy!! 😊 Later that night, Damian dreams about the facing the monster (Mr. Buzz) again, but this time he's ready for him!! 😎:

With his Paradise Fist, Damian was able to successfully make peace with Mr. Buzz in his dreams so that he can rest easy now...!!:

The next day, Damian comes to school wearing a handcrafted of his Paradise Fist!!

Becky tells Damian that she thinks that his "Paradise Fist" is so uncool, but someone else sees it and thinks that it's cool...:

THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S ANYA WHO THOUGHT THAT DAMIAN'S PARADISE FIST IS COOL!!! 😆

Then, the chapter ends with Mr. Henderson being jealous of Mr. Green for being the one the kids went to for advice...!! 😂😂😂

And that was Mission 113, a nice fun little chapter this week!! 😆 I love that this was basically a follow-up to the end of Mission 112, with Damian dealing with his jealousy of Freddy and Tertius hanging around ANYA now...!! 😌 I also loved Damian's dreams and how in the first dream, he kind of looked like he was dressed like the Hero from Dragon Quest III...!! 🐉 Not to mention, Ewen and Emile were great in this chapter, as well as Anya loving Damian's Paradise Fist near the end of the chapter (though, I already had a feeling that Anya was gonna like it because she prefers the cool stuff...!! 😁)

Anyway, I think that's all I wanna say...!! 😄 So until the next Mission; take care, be safe out there and be kind to one another...!! PEACE OUT MY HOMIES!! ✌😁

[holysh1ft]

i think loass is not the savior a lot of us were hoping it would be, especially those who wanted to shift away from the toxic positivity teachings that can come out of loatt. there is value in changing your thoughts, in shifting your awareness. but if it was as simple as affirming 10k times, we’d all be millionaires, i.e, there’d be less questioning, struggling, etc.

the law above all laws is the law of being: you manifest who and what you’re conscious of being—who you are. therefore, all other laws—attraction or assumption—are calling you to shift who you are at your core. for some folks, this is as simple as switching your thought patterns. for others, it’s your emotions. for some, it’s knowing how reality operates and being one decisive, stubborn mofo.

whatever allows you to persist (i.e., continue to stay true to) that new identity of being is what will create those bigger shifts in your life, so you can get out of trying techniques to see “what works” and you become the technique because you’re a new identity.

different people will require different approaches and modalities to help them change, and what you do to accomplish that doesn’t matter as long as you, in the words of joe dispenza, break the habit of being yourself. or, in more neville language, you let the old man die.

it’s really all the same stuff because there’s only one being here, and yet there’s infinite individualized points of consciousness and therefore infinite individualized experiences that will require different switches and tweaks and revelations to actualize the destiny intended for them (you) of knowing thyself as god.

i don’t think it’s about whether or not you’re doing the technique right as much as “is this technique helping you become and sustain who you really want to be?” and if the answer is no, to hell with it. you judge the technique/paradigm, but i think so many, myself included, are creating the experience of letting the technique and the illusion of “right execution” judge them as worthy of having what they want.

techniques and methods do not manifest. even awareness alone does not manifest or everything you’ve ever thought of would have manifested. what manifests/shifts is identity. so, the only thing that really matters is are you who you want to be and are the current tools, paradigms, and teachers you’re learning from helping you become who you want to be? and this is how you take your power back.

it was never about manifesting like neville or shifting like shiftblr user no. 57 or like youtuber loa star who manifested their dream life. because you don’t have the same identity as neville or shiftblr user no. 57 or youtube loa star. you have the currently identity of YOU. what do they need to become someone new?

[demon-country]

One thing I think people tend to forget is that, due to how short the episodes are and how few there have been despite the large time frame that's been covered so far, we know very little about the lives of any of the characters. Including Blitz, who is the main character. We've only seen a handful of interactions between Stolas and Blitz and even fewer solo scenes regarding how they feel about their relationship, and they're all important because they set up future plot points, but they're not in depth and thus are functionally taken out of context. We can only speculate about stuff like some of the memory fragments in All 2 U or the exact content of the many phone calls between Blitz and Stolas, using deductive reasoning to figure out what makes the most sense given the clues we have.

There's so much that the writers are forced to only drop hints and subtext about, because they simply do not have the time to explore things more if they don't want to drag the show out forever, so people who don't pay close enough attention or who don't want to acknowledge the romantic feelings between Blitz and Stolas end up saying that things went too fast. It's like, guys, you know they've been interacting for over 20 months, right? Surely you can't think the few minutes of them we've seen on screen is indicative of their entire relationship, right??? It only seems fast now because it was really important to show the rapid paradigm shift that happened as a result of the crystal exchange.

And while we're at it, this is what bothers me so much when people say Stolas probably doesn't know Moxxie and Millie's names. Stolas has, by Blitz's own admission in Oops, been interacting with him on social media and calling Blitz on the regular to ask about his day for about a year and a half, if we don't count the months where they didn't talk after Ozzie's. And note that even though this is part of his rant about how Stolas is only using him for sex, Blitz doesn't mention phone sex, he only says that Stolas calls to ask about his day - meaning that they must actually end up talking about what Blitz has been up to fairly often. When put into that context, do you honestly think that Blitz has somehow never once mentioned Moxxie and Millie by name?

Moxxie, Millie, and especially Loona are very important to Blitz and Stolas would undoubtedly remember their names for that reason alone, but they're also a huge part of his everyday life so they're gonna come up in conversation pretty often, both on social media and anytime Blitz indulged Stolas and talked about his day. Blitz has probably ranted about something Moxxie did fairly often during his phone calls with Stolas, and where Moxxie is mentioned so too will Millie inevitably be brought up. And you know Blitz wouldn't miss an opportunity to gush about how perfect and amazing Loona is. All of which we can infer due to the fact that Blitz does all of those things many times in a variety of settings over the course of the series.

The assumption that he doesn't know their names is ultimately based solely on the belief that, because Stolas has certain unconscious racial and class biases, he must not care about any imp other than Blitz, to the point where he'd have had to intentionally ignore and forget every mention of their names to not know them by this point. Stolas has a lot of shit he needs to unlearn and has said/done a number of harmful, demeaning things to imps (including to Moxxie and Millie in Loo Loo Land), but this is not one of them.

[artbyblastweave]

You think Americans would abandon the dollar in the event of a zombie apocalypse? I don’t. Everyone says bartering or bullets or bottlecaps would be more essential but our first instinct when shit hits the fan is to hoard shit we don’t need lmao

1 of 2

So I'm not an economist. If I were, I wouldn't have time to post here. So everything I say on the subject should be taken with an appropriate grain of salt. But I do think that even outside of a strictly American context, it's always an interesting standing worldbuilding question about what happens to the currency in the event of a zombie apocalypse, because how the people in the world prioritize or deprioritize physical currency can act as a barometer for A.) whether the crisis at hand is actually apocalyptic or B.) whether the characters perceive the situation to be apocalyptic. Which outlook is appropriate shifts from continuity to continuity. In Romero's Dawn of the Dead, for example, you can easily imagine some idiot who views the disruption as an easy payday, gathering as much cash as possible from abandoned homes and completely failing to understand the paradigm shift in which he finds himself; this guy would in fit seamlessly alongside homicidal racist SWAT guys going hogwild against minorities and newsmen blindly repeating outdated information in pursuit of ratings. By contrast, you can pretty easily picture a side story in Shaun of The Dead about some guys who correctly realize that all of this will shortly blow over and proceed to make thousands of dollars by jumping wealthy-looking zombies for the contents of their wallets.

Then, of course, you get to the third kind of status quo represented by, among other stories, Army of The Dead-not a good movie but a very fun one- a middle-ground where the outbreak is genuinely apocalyptic but localized, and, in that context, yeah, hoarding currency is very incentivized in a run-for-the-border kind of way. Whole premise of the movie, in fact. Configurations like this, where there's a clear dichotomy between where the rule of law is and isn't in effect, with a whole bunch of dead people's stuff very abruptly up for grabs and with a very clear market of people who'd buy it, is a setup I personally find extremely compelling and am looking to do something with myself at some point.

[gofancyninjaworld]

I have a funny feeling

Remember Flashy Flash musing that his long-shot investigation might just turn something up about God that changes everything? Yeah, let's admire his pretty face for a second:

Isn't he pretty? He was right, too.

This arc has plenty to explore about 'God' and his minions and ninjas and more, but I'm getting a funny feeling, a wee tingly bit of a hunch, that we're about to find something paradigm-shifting about cyborgs too.

What's tweaking my nerve endings so? Two lines of occurrences ( I won't yet dignify them with the term evidence).

The first is Void. Back when he first appeared, my first thought was that he was a cyborg.

Those arms look decidedly mechanical

His second design still strongly suggests prosthetic arms rather than armoured ones.

His ability to twist his neck and limbs independently through 180 degrees and still have them working could totally be a bonus of taking 'God's' hand, but they could just as easily be a result of extensive body modification. Not saying it's definitive, but I remember so well Garou learning about how tricky a greater-than-normal range of motion could be.

Blast being wrong-footed (or is it wrong-armed?) by Void's unexpected flexibility.

As Garou found out to his cost, cyborgs aren't limited to the normal human range of motion.

Strange but true, body modification is not unknown to ninjas. Witness Gale Wind telling Sonic that monsterisation delivers more than body mods ever could.

Training, drugs, body modification? Eh, one monster cell and you'll leapfrog all that sweat and pain!

So far, so hmm.

What's the second line? Well, there's ONE's tendency to wake up and choose violence. Whenever a character decides they have something all figured out, he loves to come kick over their bucket of milk and force them to reconsider the way things work. He especially loves doing that to Genos... but that's beside the point.

Anyway, back when Saitama came back from the future and derailed the Ominous Future, Genos, on reviewing what his time-traveled core had to say, decided that it was his duty to let those who needed to know about what happened. We subsequently saw him do so at great length in chapter 173 at a secret meeting, which he left, declaring that whenever Blast returned, Saitama was to be contacted as that was all they would need to deal with God.

This is above my paygrade, but I know the right man for the job.

Genos was initially disgusted that all the Hero Association seemed to take from it was to promote Saitama from B-Class to A-Class rather than make him the guest of honour right away. However, he's much happier now. We know that Saitama and Flashy Flash meeting up with Blast was a lucky accident but as far as he's concerned, the HA was listening after all, and Blast is now consulting and working with Saitama as it should be.

Look at him: he's so proud of how things have turned out.

It's interesting to note that Genos has not offered to accompany Saitama to whatever contretemps the ninjas and their god-bothering ways are getting up to. He came to track down a mysterious mass murderer, and the power he seeks is to ensure that he kills the guy without fail. Along the way, eliminating monsters and bad guys is the right thing to do. He can leave the really gnarly stuff to the likes of the transcendentally-strong Saitama or those with freaky powers, like Blast. He completely accepts the paradigm that his strength as a cyborg derives from his parts. There's no way that parts will enable him to play jump rope with the laws of physics or ignore distance, effort, and other unrealistic things, so this is not a plane of power he can touch, and it's one he does not need to concern himself with, as long as Saitama exists. Off we see Genos go, happy to walk the dog and go buy groceries like a contented little NPC.

Nothing to see here, just a happy little 'borg with his dog and shopping.

With me so far?

How does this all twist together?

Well, 'God' works with whatever He finds when he finds a worthy apostle, so if Void is a cyborg now, he was one then, back when he was Blast's partner -- sufficiently strong to have supported Blast in his God-bothering activities and apparently still so important that both Sicchi and Blast are determined to wrest him from God's hands at any cost.

Yes, he's evil, but more importantly, he's useful. What operation? I guess we'll find out.

If Void has had any amount of body modification, even if it's a low percentage, it blows Genos's suppositions about how the world works out of the water. Maybe it'll just be left as dramatic irony, for us the audience to know and Genos to continue groping around in the dark about, like how Nichirin's grasped that living and non-living parts don't matter -- it's your chi that determines how strong you are. [Yes, we know that that's what Saitama told Genos at the beginning but the latter hasn't truly learned what he meant by that.] But I have a nasty suspicion that some aspect of this will come and kick Genos up the jacksie. Because choosing violence is what ONE loves to do to his characters whenever they start getting comfortable.

Just a hunch, no more. At least for now.

[eelnoise]

MASTERLIST

sry i finally got around to it

zoro stuff

with hearts aligned 🔞

anamnesis 🔞

incandesce

for me only 🔞

second confluence 🔞

first confluence

seraphim🔞

deliverance earned, reverence paid 🔞

gilded 🔞

paradigm shift 🔞

you, me, us 🔞

dawnlight

zoro fluff

cockwarming 🔞

caveat 🔞

sweat 🔞

ace stuff

morning sex with ace (i didn't give this a title?) 🔞

law stuff

unexpected comforts

beset fixation 🔞

sanji stuff

all dressed up 🔞

multiples/3somes/w/e

emmêlé 🔞

[paragonrobits]

concept to directly address the idea among some people who came to Hunteer the Parented and World of Darkness overall directly from If The Emperor Had A Text to Speech Device with the assumption ntthe whole thing is a delusional fantasy or dying wish of the Emperor, or that its somehow the distant backstory of TTS and Big D will become the Emperor (which usually fails to explain things like vampires and werewolves, the spirit world/Umbra being the almost polar opposite of the Warp, the nature of reality as a consensus-based paradigm dictated by the collective assumptions of people overall and other stuff)

so you have Big D going through some kind of an event and he sees EVERYTHING

he sees past the Lie, past the various magical occlusions disguising the secret affairs of the world, how Time is itself only an idea measured in experiences

he sees the inevitable. The Apocalypse is coming. Whether it is Caine arising to slay his wretched kin as God Himself arrives to judge the world (and oh yeah, Abrahamic God canonically exists in at least Masquerade, try fitting that into 40k canon!), as forces of decay arise to cheer as all life comes screaming down, as terrifying forces of death arise to shatter the world itself

(that will, if they win, send the universe into the maw of absolute Oblivion, and kill everything, everywhere, forever.

He does not know why, but his brain think 'NEVERBORN' and his thoughts come screaming back out, weeping and black and bloody, at the thought of those things that should not be. His brain sings, "the Great Maker coughs his last, and the Engine of Extinction powers on" and he doesn't know what it means)

he sees the past. He sees all of human endeavor, and how it is ultimately, at least to his eyes, the result of manipulations by vampires and other creatures pulling the strings; the only truly exceptional aspects of humanity are on the one hand, the awakening of true wonder when humanity sent men to the moon and brought them back. And on the other hand, the evil and wretched, hopeless evil of humanity in its atrocities.

Everything else is manipulation.

He sees the Impergium; werewolves and other creatures killing humans before history began, cruelly and fiercely, and in time relenting, and going to war with each other whether or not to keep up the killing, but the world wonders: did their culling keep humanity in check?

Would the apocalypse still happen, if not for humanity itself?

He has no answers.

And now, he sees the whole. He sees the truth.

His gaze turns wider, wider... beyond anything any human could see, the beginning and end. He sees not gods, but three entities, bigger than universes.

tthey're still not gods. They are bigger than that; they are force and doom and birth and definition all at once, the primordial sea of powers which wrought all that could be, into Being

he beholds them. His mind all but breaks.

a vast sea of chaotic impossibility; shifting, swirling, of all things that could be. It is the closest thing to genuine, true Good in this universe. It is also insane, and mindless, a pure chaotic storm given shape. The rats who walk as men serve it, and in his heart he knows the rat-men hate humanity for all they have done, and he knows, they deserve it

(his mind cries out. 'WYLD')

A... spider, perhaps. Or a machine? Some vast calcified personification of order? It is a thing of purpose and definition. It is the origin of purpose and order. For all things to be, they must be defined, and this is the entity, vast beyond measure, that gives them shape. It takes the the chaos and constrains it, making stable form.

(His mind whispers,, 'WEAVER')

And between them is destruction. It was a serpent, or perhaps a dragon. Maybe once it had been good in its way, or at least necessary. But the webs of the definer have chained it, and now it bleeds black, its whole body torn inside out in its desperate struggles to escape. Once, it was a destroyer; burning away the old to make room for the new. Now, he sees the hate festering from it, echoed and magnified in humanity; all over the world, corporations in thrall to it serve their petty lusts and atrocities, feeding what had once been destruction and was now corruption incarnate; a defiler, a horrific and bleak tragedy ruined by its own desperation to be free.

(His mind sobs, 'WYRM')

They do not look at him, and he understands. It is not that they ignore him, as he would an ant. They would not see him as an ant, if they are even capable of comprehending his presence.

They would regard him as, if he could see one, he would regard an individual atom. Not beneath presence, but so irrelevant and tiny that it would be uttterly beneath them.

There is, he knows, a cosmic balance and conflict. But it is not between gods, at least not in the sense others might suspect.

Highest of all is the Triat, the trio of creation, definition and destruction. Destruction was chained, and become corruption, and in its thrashing, drove the definer mad with the need to control all things.

It's not evil. Not even what the destroyer has become. There is no perverse pleasure, or brutal satisfaction, or even innocent joy in it. There is no moral dimension in these entities, if they can even think at all; perhaps they are too big, too cosmic for a thought.

The Wyrm does not destroy the world, encourage men to batter their wives and murder their children. Its presence makes those things worse, and the things born of it corrupt and hatch schemes to further such horrors, to cut down forests and create ecological disaster for its own sake. But the destroyer makes no choices. This is just what it IS. It can make no more choice than gravity can choose to stop pulling things.

A scarlet empress and an ebon dragon watch. They seem resigned. Big D cannot place them, and he wonders if they are remnants of some other era, some other time that can no longer be. If they are from another world, it is a world that has moved on.

But he is no god-emperor, holding the line against extinction or dooming humanity through his hubris and belief in supremacy. The end is not something that can be fought; hordes of ravenous predators from beyond the stars would be preferable to this... indifference.

But then again, this is a whole different sort of game from the world where you might have a God-Emperor of any sort. This is not a world of endless warfare, tactical considerations, eternal stalemate, and conflict.

This is a place of gothic horror.

This is a world of darkness.