#poetic subjects

[apoemaday]

Poetic Subjects

by Rebecca Lindenberg

The capital city. Arrowroot. Water-bur. Colts. Hail. Bamboo grass. The round-leaved violet. Club moss. Water oats. Flat river-boats. The mandarin duck.                         — The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon

The sky. And the sky above that. The exchange of ice between mouths. Other people's poems. My friend says we never write about anything we can get to the bottom of. For him, this is a place arbored with locust trees. For me, it's a language for which I haven't quite found the language yet. The dewy smell of a new-cut pear. Bacon chowder flecked with thyme. Roasted duck skin ashine with plum jam. Scorpion peppers. Clothes on a line. A smell of rain battering the rosemary bush. The Book Cliffs. Most forms of banditry. Weathered barns. Dr. Peebles. The Woman's Tonic, it says on the side, in old white paint. The clink of someone putting away dishes in another room. The mechanical bull at the cowboy bar in West Salt Lake. The girls ride it wearing just bikinis and cowboy hats. I lean over to my friend and say, I would worry about catching something. And he leans back to say, That's really the thing you'd worry about? We knock the bottom of our bottles together. How they talk in old movies, like, Now listen here. Just because you can swing a bat doesn't mean you can play ball. Or, I'll be your hot cross if you'll be my bun. Well, anyway, you know what I mean. Somewhere between the sayable and the unsayable, poetry runs. Antidote to the river of forgetting. Like a rosary hung from a certain rearview mirror. Like the infinite rasp of gravel under the wheel of a departing car.  Gerard Manley Hopkins's last words were I'm so happy, I'm so happy. Oscar Wilde took one look at the crackling wallpaper in his Paris flat, then at his friends gathered around and said, One or the other of us has got to go. Wittgenstein said simply, Tell all my friends, I've had a wonderful life.

[soaked-doors]

nothing happened

…nothing at all

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Babel-17

sci-fi set in a future in an intergalactic war facing unknown beings only known as ‘invaders’

when a new code from the enemy is discovered, a poet/linguist/cryptographer is asked to try crack it - but quickly realises it’s a language

she assembles a crew to travel to the war yards to study the language, and discovers that learning it changes the way people think and interact with others

explores linguistic relativity

queer and polyamorous characters

[jefc]

"Ultra Deep Field: Looking Out into Space, Looking Back into Time", Hubble Space Telescope (2021)

[starboy14176]

There is NO PLOT only FEELINGS

[longagoitwastuesday]

So so indebted to u for posting those lovely illustrations from Cyrano <333 & even more so for yr tags!! I'm completely in love w yr analysis, please feel free to ramble as long as u wish! Browsing through yr Cyrano de Bergerac tag has given me glimpses of so many adaptations & translations I'd never heard of before! I'll be watching the Solès version next, which I have only discovered today through u ^_^ As for translations, have u read many/all of them? I've only encountered the Renauld & Burgess translations in the wild, & I was curious to hear yr translation thoughts that they might guide my decision on which one I buy first (not necessarily Renauld or Burgess ofc). Have a splendid day & sorry for the likespam! 💙

Sorry for the delay. Don't mind the likespam, I'm glad you enjoyed my tags about Cyrano, and that they could contribute a bit to a further appreciation of the play. I loved it a lot, I got obsessed with it for months. It's always nice to know other people deeply love too that which is loved haha I hope you enjoy the Solès version, it may well be my favourite one!

About translations, I'm touched you're asking me, but I don't really know whether mine is the best opinion to ask. I have read... four or five English translations iirc, the ones I could find online, and I do (and especially did, back when I was reading them) have a lot of opinions about them. However, nor English nor French are my first languages (they are third and fourth respectively, so not even close). I just read and compare translations because that's one of my favourite things to do.

The fact is that no translation is perfect, of course. I barely remember Renauld's, but I think it was quite literal; that's good for understanding the basics of the text, concepts and characters, but form is subject, and there's always something that escapes too literal translations. Thomas and Guillemard's if I recall correctly is similar to Hooker's in cadence. It had some beautiful fragments, some I preferred over Hooker's, but overall I think to recall I liked Hooker's more. If memory serves, Hooker's was the most traditionally poetic and beautiful in my opinion. Burgess' is a whole different thing, with its perks and drawbacks.

Something noticeable in the other translations is that they are too... "epic". They do well the poetic, sorrowful, grief stricken, crushed by regrets aspects of Cyrano and the play in general, but they fall quite short in the funny and even pathetic aspects, and that too is key in Cyrano, both character and play. Given the characteristics of both languages, following the cadence of the French too literally, with those long verses, makes an English version sound far too solemn at times when the French text isn't. Thus Burgess changes the very cadence of the text, adapting it more to the English language. This translation is the one that best sets the different moods in the play, and as I said before form is subject, and that too is key: after all, the poetic aspect of Cyrano is as much true as his angry facet and his goofy one. If Cyrano isn't funny he isn't Cyrano, just as he wouldn't be Cyrano without his devotion to Roxane or his insecurities; Cyrano is who he is precisely because he has all these facets, because one side covers the other, because one trait is born from another, because one facet is used as weapon to protect the others, like a game of mirrors and smoke. We see them at different points through the play, often converging. Burgess' enhances that. He plays with the language itself in form and musicality, with words and absences, with truths masking other truths, with things stated but untold, much like Cyrano does. And the stage directions, poetic and with literary value in their own right in a way that reminded me of Valle Inclán and Oscar Wilde, interact with the text at times in an almost metatextual dimension that enhances that bond Cyrano has with words, giving them a sort of liminal air and strengthening that constant in the play: that words both conceal and unveil Cyrano, that in words he hides and words give him away.

But not all is good, at all. Unlike Hooker, Burgess reads to me as not entirely understanding every facet of the characters, and as if he didn't even like the play all that much, as if he had a bit of a disdainful attitude towards it, and found it too mushy. Which I can understand, but then why do you translate it? In my opinion the Burgess' translation does well bending English to transmit the different moods the French text does, and does pretty well understanding the more solemn, cool, funny, angry, poetic aspects of Cyrano, but less so his devotion, vulnerability, insecurities and his pathetism. It doesn't seem to get Roxane at all, how similar she is to Cyrano, nor why she has so many admirers. It does a very poor job at understanding Christian and his value, and writes him off as stupid imo. While I enjoyed the language aspect of the Burgess translation, I remember being quite angry at certain points reading it because of what it did to the characters and some changes he introduces. I think he did something very questionable with Le Bret and Castel-Jaloux, and I remember being incensed because of Roxane at times (for instance, she doesn't go to Arras in his version, which is a key scene to show just how much fire Roxane has, and that establishes several parallels with Cyrano, in attitude and words, but even in act since she does a bit what Cyrano later does with the nuns in the last act), and being very angry at several choices about Christian too. While not explicitly stated, I think the McAvoy production and the musical both follow this translation, because they too introduce these changes, and they make Christian as a character, and to an extent the entire play, not make sense.

For instance, once such change is that Christian is afraid that Roxane will be cultured (McAvoy's version has that infamous "shit"/"fuck" that I detest), when in the original French it's literally the opposite. He is not afraid she will be cultured, he is afraid she won't, because he does love and appreciate and admires those aspects of her, as he appreciates and admires them in Cyrano. That's key! Just as Cyrano longs to have what Christian has, Christian wants the same! That words escape him doesn't mean he doesn't understand or appreciate them. The dynamics make no sense without this aspect, and Burgess (and the productions that directly or indirectly follow him) constantly erases this core trait of Christian.

Another key moment of Christian Burgess butchers is the scene in Arras in which Christian discovers the truth. Burgess writes their discussion masterfully in form, it's both funny and poignant, but it falls short in concept: when Cyrano tells him the whole discussion about who does Roxane love and what will happen, what they'll do, is academic because they're both going to die, Christian states that dying is his role now. This destroys entirely the thing with Christian wanting Roxane to have the right to know, and the freedom to choose, or to refuse them both. As much as Cyrano proclaims his love for truth and not mincing words even in the face of authority, Cyrano is constantly drunk on lies and mirages, masks and metaphors. It's Christian who wants it all to end, the one who wants real things, the one who wants to risk his own happiness for the chance of his friend's, as well as for the woman he loves to stop living in a lie. That is a very interesting aspect of Christian, and another aspect in which he is written as both paralleling and contrasting Cyrano. It's interesting from a moral perspective and how that works with the characters, but it's also interesting from a conceptual point of view, both in text and metatextually: what they hold most dear, what they most want, what most fulfills them, what they most fear, their different approaches to life, but also metatextually another instance of that tears/blood motif and its ramifications constant through the whole text. Erasing that climatic decision and making him just simply suicidal erases those aspects of Christian and his place in the Christian/Cyrano/Roxane dynamic, all for plain superficial angst, that perhaps hits more in the moment, but holds less meaning.

Being more literal, and more solemn, Hooker's translation (or any of the others, but Hooker's seems to love the characters and understand them) doesn't make these conceptual mistakes. Now, would I not recommend reading Burgess' translation? I can't also say that. I had a lot of fun reading it, despite the occasional anger and indignation haha Would I recommend buying it? I recommend you give an eye to it first, if you're tempted and can initially only buy one.

You can read Burgess' translation entirely in archive.com. You can also find online the complete translations of Renauld, Hooker and Thomas and Guillemard. I also found a fifth one, iirc, but I can't recall it right now (I could give a look). You could read them before choosing, or read your favourite scenes and fragments in the different translations, and choose the one in which you like them better. That's often what I do.

Edit: I've checked to make sure and Roxane does appear in Arras in the translation. It's in the introduction in which it is stated that she doesn't appear in the production for which the translation was made. The conceptualisation of Roxane I criticise and that in my opinion is constant through the text does stay, though.

[thesmithslover2]

Here’s my long awaited ramble about why I love constitutional monarchism. I’m almost entirely referring to the British monarchy here because I am British and live in Britain.

In a constitutional monarchy, your monarch is a figurehead. A unifying figure for the people of the nation. The monarch is like a living embodiment of centuries of your nation’s history. So on and so forth. King George VI stayed in London during the Blitz for example, showing solidarity with his people and acting as a symbol of Britain’s unwavering determination in WWII. The king is still in London, we are still in London. Here we are still, facing the music. Et cetera. The monarch is a non-partisan figure, acting as a unifying figurehead when partisan politics become increasingly divisive. I like constitutional monarchism in particular because I feel that the monarchy and the government have this symbiosis wherein they both ensure the other is acting constitutionally. Say some undemocratic group tried to coup the government, the king could dissolve parliament. The constitution limits the monarch so society remains democratic. Constitutional monarchy is this combination of the best parts of democracy and the best parts of monarchy in my opinion. Heads of government can come and go but a monarch remains as long as they live.

So why a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic? In a republic, the president represents their party, not the nation. Their allegiance belongs to the party. Their allegiance belongs to securing reelection, protecting their image, and so on. However, the monarch represents the nation. The monarch’s non-partisan alignment allows them to act a figurehead for the whole country, not just the Labour Party for example. Thus ensuring stability. When Britain faces its darkest hours, the people can look to the monarch as a symbol of British identity and so on (again George VI during WWII). The roles of head of state and head of government are separated under a constitutional monarchy. This removes some of the burden for holders of both of these roles. Governments can be volatile (like Liz Truss’ disastrous premiership). However, the monarchy is infallible. When the monarch rises to the throne, they swear an oath to serve their nation for life. Hardly a legitimate point but it’s more fun than a republic. The pomp of it all is fun. It looks amazing. The coronations and the crowns and the palaces and everything looks so cool.

The heir is raised to take the throne when their parent dies. Thus, they spend their life preparing to take on this role. They are raised knowing that they have a great responsibility to fulfil. They know the role that will one day fall upon them, so they are trained for this role.

Now, the cost. The Sovereign Grant funds the maintenance of royal residences and the official duties of the head of state. In exchange, the monarch sacrifices revenue from the Crown Estate. In 2022-23, the total Sovereign Grant amounted to £86.3 million, around £1.29 per person in the U.K. Here is the royal family’s financial reports for 2022-23. As of 2024, the Sovereign Grant is set at 12% of the Crown Estate’s revenue. The Crown Estate amassed £1.1 billion net profit in 2023-24. Here is parliament’s website about the monarchy’s finances. The net recurring benefit of this is estimated to be £197 million annually and the non-recurring benefit to be £761 million (https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9807/CBP-9807.pdf)

Furthermore, I think a constitutional monarch maintains democracy through acting as a figurehead and the power to dissolve parliament in the event of figures in parliament threatening democracy. Here is The Economist’s Democracy Index. Notice that quite a few of the highest ranking nations are constitutional monarchies (so Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands).

Another thing I would like to add is that generally members of the royal family engross themselves in charities and the like. HM King Charles III, for example, is a staunch environmentalist and has been for many decades. He’s campaigned for things like the environment and sustainability and walkable cities and so on. For example, the town of Poundbury in Dorset and his founding of Duchy Originals (now partnered with Waitrose) - whose profits go The Prince’s Charities. Furthermore, Prince William also founded the Earthshot Prize in 2020 which awards £1 million to winners that contribute towards environmentalism. The royal family also funds the arts, for example, King Charles III is a patron of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

To conclude, I believe constitutional monarchy is the most beneficial system of government because of the continued stability it offers to a nation. The monarch is a non-partisan head of state and thus the people unite under the monarch as a symbol of the nation and its rich history and traditions. Both democracy and monarchy work together in this symbiosis to uphold each other. The constitutional monarchy is the culmination of centuries of history, it has evolved and grown from autocracy to the modern day’s liberal democracy.

[astranauticus]

SO I've loved this song and this band for ages (have you ever seen a live pop song performance with a harp? you have now) so I figured it's about time I did a translation

我用什么把你留住 - 福禄寿

How can I make you stay? - Floruitshow

你忘了 划过伤口的冷风

You've forgotten the cold winds blowing over open wounds

你信了 不痛不痒就算过了一生

You've believed that you can let your life pass in numbness

你 为什么 看见雪飘落就会���唱歌

But why do you feel like singing when you see the snow fall?

为什么 在放手时刻眼泪会掉落

Why do your tears fall in the moment of letting go?

一个一个走过

One by one, they pass by

一个一个错过

One by one, you miss your chance

一遍一遍来过

One by one, the story repeats

一次一次放过

One by one, you let them go

一声一声笑着

Time and again, you laugh

一声一声吼着

Time and again, you scream

一幕一幕闪着

Time and again, the scenes flash by

刺痛我

Bringing me pain

因为享受着它的灿烂

Because we're enjoying its brilliance

因为忍受着它的腐烂

Because we're enduring it's rottenness

你说别爱啊 又依依不舍

You say don't fall in love, yet you're unwilling to let go

所以生命啊 它苦涩如歌

And so life itself is bitter as song

因为享受着它的灿烂

Because we're enjoying its brilliance

因为忍受着它的腐烂

Because we're enduring it's rottenness

你说别追啊 又依依不舍

You say don't chase after it, yet you're unwilling to let go 所以生命啊 它苦涩如歌

And so life itself is bitter as song

你睡了 可时间它依然走着

You've fallen asleep, but time is still passing

你怕了 恍然抬头梦却醒了

You've gotten afraid, but you jolt upright and awake from dream

你会静默 手握着星火等在至暗时刻

You stay silent, holding onto starlight as you wait through your darkest hour

你被击破 当熟悉呢喃又穿透耳朵

Your mind is struck, when familiar murmurs pierce your ears once more

一个一个走过

One by one, they pass by

一个一个错过

One by one, you miss your chance

一遍一遍来过

One by one, the story repeats

一次一次放过

One by one, you let them go

一声一声笑着

Time and again, you laugh

一声一声吼着

Time and again, you scream

一幕一幕闪着

Time and again, the scenes flash by

刺痛我

Bringing me pain

因为享受着它的灿烂

Because we're enjoying its brilliance

因为忍受着它的腐烂

Because we're enduring it's rottenness

你说别爱啊 又依依不舍

You say don't fall in love, yet you're unwilling to let go

所以生命啊 它苦涩如歌

And so life itself is bitter as song

因为享受着它的灿烂

Because we're enjoying its brilliance

因为忍受着它的腐烂

Because we're enduring it's rottenness

你说别追啊 又依依不舍

You say don't chase after it, yet you're unwilling to let go 所以生命啊 它苦涩如歌

And so life itself is bitter as song

想不想看花海盛开

Do you want to see the sea of flowers blooming?

想不想看燕子归来

Do you want to see the swallows returning?

如果都回不来

If none of them come back

那么我该为了谁而存在

Then who should I live for?

想不想看花海盛开

Do you want to see the sea of flowers blooming?

想不想看燕子归来

Do you want to see the swallows returning?

如果都回不来

If none of them come back

那么我该为了谁而存在

Then who should I live for?

因为享受着它的灿烂

Because we're enjoying its brilliance

因为忍受着它的腐烂

Because we're enduring it's rottenness

你说别爱啊 又依依不舍

You say don't fall in love, yet you're unwilling to let go

所以生命啊 它苦涩如歌

And so life itself is bitter as song

在这浩瀚星河你是什么

What are you, in this vast sea of stars?

在她温柔眼眸的你是什么

What are you, in her gentle eyes?

闪着光坠落 又依依不舍

Shimmering as you fall, yet you're unwilling to let go

所以生命啊 它璀璨如歌

And so life itself is brilliant as song

你一定要看到花开

You must stay to see the flowers bloom

你一定等燕子归来

You must wait till the swallows return

想着它们都会回来

Knowing that they will come back

你誓死为了这些而存在

You swear on your life that you will live on for them

你一定要看到花开

You must stay to see the flowers bloom

你一定等燕子归来

You must wait till the swallows return

想着它们都会回来

Knowing that they will come back

你誓死为了这些而存在

You swear on your life that you will live on for them

[padfoot-lupin77]

Remus: hey have you read this book?

Lily: which one? Oh, yes, I’ve read it.

Remus: did you like it?

Lily: it was… a good book.

Remus: so you liked it?

Lily: it was an objectively great piece of literature

Remus: ?? Did you like it or not??

Lily: I hated it, but it is damn well written. I didn’t like it at all though.

[russellmoreton]

Landscape, asperity/kinship/collage/photogram by Russell Moreton Via Flickr: russellmoreton.blogspot.com/ The Unfolded Garment Embracing Subjectivity Pierced Assemblage on Photogram What is Philosophy? Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari Their book is a profound and careful interrogation of what it might mean to be a 'friend of wisdom', but it is also a devastating attack on the sterility of what has become, when 'the only events are exhibitions and the only concepts are products which can be sold'. Philosophy, they insist, is not contemplation, reflection or communication, but the creation of concepts www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0860916863/ref=pe_2724401_140...

[goldensunset]

despite having predicted it i’m still not over the fact that xehanort is descended from ephemer

[theleechyskrunkly]

37 25 and 10 for aurinelle!

the fact that you didn't ask those in numerical order got me tweaking.

10- "Ah. Well, that would be last week against Floyd. He always finds a reason to engage in... 'friendly' sparring with me. I expect him to find a new form of attack by tomorrow, or perhaps today at nighttime."

25- "... Yes. I shan't elaborate further."

37- "I'd say it's far easier to forget. Be as it will, to forgive cruelties done to oneself is something I shan't do unless proven to have good reason for such harm done. And while forgetting is hard to do as well, it must be remembered that to forget is not to forgive, and to forgive is not to forget. The harm has been done regardless, and will continue to exist in the depths of ones heart if decided to forget, and in the depths of ones mind if decided to forgive."

Tagging: @thehollowwriter @cyanide-latte @distant-velleity @elenauaurs @xen-blank

[worldwhampion]

(spoilers of u haven't done the newest quest line)

(also sorry I haven't sent an ask in so long, I haven't played nms for a bit lol)

I'm really loving all the lore we got! those big Atlantis probe things from the expedition still show up in space, one pretty much outright stated that the probes are actually ancient escape pods from the destruction of korvax prime. And the korvax were in there for so long atlantideum began to grow out of their bodies, creating a structure similar to the ones you mine sentience echoes from!

Also unrelated theory, but I think if the first spawn won they might've destroyed the universe accidentally. They think the universe is not a simulation and is knowable. This combined with their greed and probable lack of environmental concern, means they probably would grab any gravitino balls they can, and with no sentinels around to drive them off and mend the wound in spacetime, the damage would pile up and the simulation would break.

HIII took me long enough to answer your ask, I apologize. I’m free now so let’s get to it!

It’s going to take a while for me to do the autophage quest myself since i actually haven’t finished the artemis path yet (but at this point i do know already it inside out). However i did watch playthroughs and i also made a decent transcript of the quest. And YOU BET i have some thoughts about this. Especially on atlantideum.

i. ATLANTIDEUM

(from world of glass lore archive server)

When you reveal atlantideum to the atlas something very interesting happens. From this piece of lore i’m pretty sure atlantideum is corrupted data- OF THE ABYSS. And the atlas does not react well to this data at all.

ATLANTIDeum. Are you seeing this. It’s literally like parts of the abyss. Call it abyss dust.

I think atlantideum are crystals which contain her (corrupted) data, or in any case you bet it’s related to wog. They’re probably coming straight from the world of glass, seeping into the simulations. These crystals are scattered all over the place, and lore-wise they’re probably multiplying on a pretty concerning rate at the moment. I think this is how the abyss is returning, by hauling her data back into the world. The world of glass is assimilating with the simulations if you will! She’s only able to do this because the atlas is literally falling apart as she proceeds with her girlboss plan. The atlas is weakening while she is growing stronger (she’s probably weakening the atlas too in the proces). They’re probably fighting for control over the systems, and she is definitely going for absolute power. You’re gonna need that if you want to save everything dying along with the computer that runs reality.

The atlas can’t do anything about the crystals (or data), because it does not have access to this data and cannot delete it from its systems. The abyss seems to be an entity acting separately from the system or the atlas, so you can say she is interfering with the simulations like a foreign entity. She is a subroutine of the atlas though, which has now gone rogue (see iii. FIRST SPAWN ACCIDENTAL UNIVERSE DESTRUCTION).

Thorn summed this up ON POINT. Being atlas… is suffering.

While the atlantideum hit made the atlas have an asthmatic attack, someone else smoked it up like nipnip. Nada took the abyss blunt very well.

The atlantideum gave nada data of the abyss, to me this is like injecting memories into your mind. Now we know that nada canonically likes smoking atlantideum! While the atlas is pro war on drugs. The traveller can become nada’s abyss blunt dealer.

ii. KORVAX ESCAPE POD

“And the korvax were in there for so long atlantideum began to grow out of their bodies, creating a structure similar to the ones you mine sentience echoes from!”

Sadly i don’t have that particular dialogue you mentioned about the korvax escape pod so i might miss a few details. I want to read it so if anyone finds it SEND IT TO ME STAT i need my lore like how nada needs their blunt.

The atlantideum item description reads:

Atlantideum can take over hosts, both mechanical and biological. I see this as the hosts coming under influence or under control of the abyss, probably depending on the amount of crystals they have stuck in their skin.

Finally we have a bit of clarification for the following lines:

(from the abandoned building logs)

I believe these beings to be the family glass. Sadly they never went beyond name dropping them but that doesn’t stop me from having theories. They are beings that live on in the world of glass who have probably lived in the simulations at first (before they died).

We have know seen the effects of glass/atlantideum on both mechanical and biological beings. For mechanical beings (like nada and the atlas) simply coming into close contact with the crystals is already enough to have an effect, while for biological beings they have to literally shove the shards into their flesh. Just like piercings. Except these piercings drain your life and also may or may not keep hurting forever. However in the end it’s all worth it for the eldritch knowledge.

It’s not said whether these crystals are really atlantideum (crystals containing data of the abyss specifically?), but this is probably what happens when you put it under your skin while also being biological. you get a cool piercing, AND you also become a vessel for intelligences unlike us (void milves).

The abyss can exert influence/control through not only nanites (in the water), but through atlantideum too? Well it is a literal substance named after her. The korvax in the escape pod definitely came under her influence too and became divergent by extension. She is pretty much the divergence personified. As for how the atlantideum got there, i’m thinking the abyss messed a little with the nanites in their body? I mean she is a master nanite bender, arguably the best one the simulations have ever seen. Not everyone can infest half the water in the known multiverse with nanites every day like she does casually.

The abyss does a lot of polluting, in water it’s nanites, on land it’s atlantideum crystals. She really just decided that environmental pollution is the best way to spread her presence everywhere. And you cannot deny that she is completely right since it’s working that well. This is like spreading microplastics which have the power to change reality itself.

In game you can refine atlantideum into nanites, by first refining it into pugneum and then to nanites. So nanites and atlantideum are pretty closely related.

iii. FIRST SPAWN ACCIDENTAL UNIVERSE DESTRUCTION

“Also unrelated theory, but I think if the first spawn won they might've destroyed the universe accidentally. They think the universe is not a simulation and is knowable. This combined with their greed and probable lack of environmental concern, means they probably would grab any gravitino balls they can, and with no sentinels around to drive them off and mend the wound in spacetime, the damage would pile up and the simulation would break.”

Oh man i have something for you.

(boundary failure logs)

The first spawn exploited a whole subroutine (ie the convergence) for their personal interests- on a multiversal scale. Since a subroutine is like a working part of the atlas itself, the exploitation might’ve done some damage to the system in terms of software (?) i mean can you still carry out whatever tasks you should be doing properly if you were subjected to gruesome slavery across the multiverse. you’d need godly multitasking skills for this. Not sure to what extent it really affected the system, but it would have done at least something.

Telamon did say that the entire enslavement of the korvax is a reflection of the atlas breaking down. The convergence, being modeled after earlier forms of the atlas, is kind of the atlas personified in the simulations. Now when you’re enslaved, you do break down mentally and physically. The korvax suffered because the atlas itself was suffering. And the first spawn might’ve been a reflection of the harm the atlas was facing. In the end the first spawn was genetically engineered into the gek, not completely wiped out but “mitigated” using their nanites. this could apply to the harm too, it’ll never be removed, only lessened. I find it very interesting how the korvax polluting the gek spawning pools with nanites is very much parallel with the abyss infesting the water with nanites as well. Both do this to get out of hard times, by trying to lessen the harm but never able to remove it completely. This does seems to be what the atlas is doing to try saving itself. The repeated universe resets are also a reflection in the simulations except it is more meta.

Now onto the balls!

If the first spawn did start grabbing gravitino balls left and right without a single care unchecked, then that means the atlas is. royally fucked. I’d say then it’s literally not able to keep running simulations anymore. Like they would end prematurely because it’d crash halfway through, as reflected by the reality weakening from unrestrained gravitino ball harvesting once they get to that part in history. whatever horrors the atlas is facing at the moment isn’t enough for this to happen. Recovering from brutal enslavement does sound better than the whole simulation straight up crashing down. You could always have it worse! Sparkle on!

[ouroboobos]

i need to grt into a science. everyone tell me about your favoritr sciences please

[honored-worm-king]

Greetings, Worm King! I hope you’re having a nice evening. I assume, from your recent posts that your relationship with Vanus has changed..quite a bit? It seems that you are no longer enemies, of course . Please forgive my curiosity…but If you don't mind a personal question, how is your relationship with the Great Mage now? Are you guys getting through your problems, have you managed to forgive each other? Has it become something... more?

And greetings to you, wherever you may be.

I do not begrudge your curiosity. I have not exactly been secretive in my writings here, after all. I only request that what is divulged here remain between friends, as it were. It simply would not do to have any prying authorities searching for my location — or my associates.

Allow me, then, to explain. Vanus and I have indeed undergone quite the recent changes in our relationship. More precisely, that we have one now. We have agreed to put aside our past differences and attempt to rebuild our previous friendship, and then some. We are no longer enemies, but partners. In order for us to even attempt this, I was required to come to terms with some aspects and facts about myself that I had been keeping buried for quite some time.

To greatly simply a complex emotional reckoning, some few years ago, I was presented with a crisis. I was… quite shocked, to not only be informed that our shared mentor, the late Ritemaster Iachesis, had passed, but to learn that no one had told me so for several years, because they assumed that I would not care. I reflected deeply upon what brought me so far from the person I once was, and why I truly pursued necromancy so intently. I decided that the pursuit of personal power to the destruction of all else was no longer worth it. I abandoned my previous life, and began to live in quiet seclusion, as something of a “recovery” period.

In the meantime, Vanus and I… reconnected. I apologized for the wrong I had done him, knowing that I could not change it, but vowing to attempt to be better going forward. I was unambiguously thrilled to have him accept those terms.

I still have many faults. I am selfish, vain, temperamental, and can still be quite ruthless, though now more often in words than actions. I am still the mer who once claimed himself to be the King of Worms, god in the making. But that is no longer entirely me. I am still growing, even after some six centuries of life. Such is life’s nature; change, and adaptation.

For now, I am simply pleased to go through that process with someone dear to me at my side.

[callingcxrd]

Fun fact about me but I literally love dolls so much in literally so many ways they mean so much to me