#so like. you are not the only person on the planet who’s read visual pleasure and narrative cinema. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

asclepius-erebus · 3 years

Text

Nevarro

Title: Personal Eden (Ongoing)

Chapter 3: Nevarro

Rating: Mature (17+)

Word Count: 4.3k

TW: mentions of abuse (lmk if I should include any more!)

The next day, as anticipated, you land on Nevarro, where upon disembarking a flurry of droids scurry up to the ship.

“Hey!” Mando yells, paralyzing all the droids, “No droids!”

You learn that the baby is not in fact Mando’s, but a foundling he’d taken up first as a quarry but then adopted. You’re not sure what’s so special about this child, but for it to have a bounty over it’s head before it can intelligibly speak seemed cruel enough, and you don’t ask any further questions.

You also learned that Mando is a man of few words. He tends to keep his responses curt and to-the-point; and never straying away from the subject of conversation. From your observation, he has not gone onto tangents or disclosed any new information, willingly, that did not immediately pertain to the topic. It made it even more difficult for you to learn anything new about him, his character, humors, and appearance. He is a complete mystery, and yet you find him fascinating all the while he continues to intimidate with both his outward appearance, and lack of openness.

The day on Nevarro is grey despite the sky being totally clear. The landscape isn’t strikingly beautiful like some of the other planets you’ve been on with Malsifer. It’s gritty, dusty, and terribly suffocating. The air feels dense and warm, that kind that made you feel sticky and uncomfortable. The sky is a dull blue, but blue nontheless.

Since joining Mando on his ship, he’d allowed you the time to wash off the caked on makeup from the other night, some of which you’d cried off, like your ruby red lips. It was a nice color, you were fond of how well it complimented your skin and the shape of your lips- but it had overstayed its time on your face and it was time for it to go.

However, upon stepping onto the rough planet, you realize how out of place you appear to be. Not only is the green alien child perched on your hip and babbling to himself, but you’re still dressed in what Mando had rescued you in a few days ago. The wispy fabrics fluttered in the subtle warm breezes, carrying with them the muted but bright colors of an oceanside sunset of lavender, magenta, and gold. You felt exposed among the muted and dark colors that Mando and his child limited themselves to, sticking out like a sore thumb.

Mando’s child begins to fuss, deciding that he wanted to meander around in the dirt as Mando took a few steps towards an unfamiliar man. The man is of a darker complexion, though his beard and hair suggests he is of a wiser age, and extended a friendly hand to shake. They must already know each other.

The child giggles and laughs, grasping and tossing any rocks he finds on the ground. You crouch to his level, structuring his play by tossing him back the rocks he’d thrown. From this, he giggles excitedly.

“Greef.” Mando greets the aging man, Greef Karga, approaching him at the opening to the city, densely lined with clay houses and open markets. It teems with a unique variety of inhabitants and passersby- like Mando, who does not stand out in the crowd as obviously as the brightly colored dresses his new acquaintance was dressed in. That, was something he’d address soon enough.

“Mando.” Greef smiles, eyes lighting up upon seeing the familiar helmet, “How are you old friend?”

Mando looks over his shoulder at his companions before returning his attention to Greef, “Surprised to be back. What are you doing out here?” He asks with a tired sigh.

Greef raises an inquisitive eyebrow, “I’m just as surprised to see you out here… Tying up a few loose ends. Who’s your new friend?”

Mando hooks his gloved fingers at the top of his chest plate, resting his arms casually over himself and relieving some of the weight of the Beskar on his shoulders, “That’s who I’m here to find some information about. She’s one of Malsifer’s.”

“Malsifer?” Greef’s eyes widen, “What is she? A quarry?”

Mando’s helmet shakes, “No, Malsifer was. Malsifer had an indentured servant situation and I need to know more about her… Anything would be useful, but especially any bank records.” Mando says quietly, sliding a small note with the name of his newest crewmate scribbled onto it.

Greef looks down at the note inquisitively, “Malsifer, huh? Doesn’t surprise me… He always rubbed me the wrong way… Though I’m not surprised that his luck, or lack of it, finally caught up to him.”

“She’s got no where to go. Is there any way you can find out anything about her that’s useful…?”

Greef looks between Mando and the cooing child and woman behind him, and then down at the name on the note, “Get back to me in an hour or two.”

Mando turns to wave yourself and the baby to his side, the man with whom he was conversing with turning away and headed into the city.

“What was that about?” You ask, the baby occupying itself with a metal ball he’s produced from his bundle of clothing.

“Business.” He says briefly.

Business. You think to yourself, the most colorful response I’ve gotten since I boarded.

With the baby balanced on your hip, Mando navigates you both through the streets of a busy marketplace. Vendors line the streets and advertise their products and produce, crafts, and other items for sale, all ranging in complexity and beauty that you admire from a distance. The baby on your hip is thoroughly entertained with all the sights, sounds, and colors, teething on a pastry he managed to swipe off a vendor when they weren’t looking.

Of course you attract some attention. Not only did it not help that the baby you tote clearly is not yours, but your impractical and fluttering dresses had other passerby step and trip on them as you went- sending you a few gross side-eyes and raised eyebrows. You clutch what you can in your hands as you follow Mando’s glistening helmet through the crowd.

He approaches a stand fluttering with colorful fabrics, handcrafted designs embroidered to the hems of cloaks, dresses, and shirts. They’re all so pretty and wonderful to look at.

Mando begins a conversation with a middle aged woman at the stand in her native language, her weathered face and dark eyes glancing at you from time to time as Mando continues to explain something to her. She raises her hand and counts on her fingers as she explains something to him in response, Mando filling her palm with a few coins. Pleased, she nods and produces a neatly folded up wad of fabric. She extends it towards you with a forced but friendly smile.

“Something to cover yourself with for now…” Mando explains, “Later, on the ship, I can find you some clothes.”

Accepting the folded fabric, you briefly study its particular shade of purple. It’s dark and neutral, almost barely detectably purple should someone care enough and stare long enough at you. You unfold it to find an opening, and you slip it over your head, a hood catching on you as the rest of the fabric settles on your shoulders and over your torso. The baby gets caught in it too, but frees himself with a shake of his enormous head. It is a cloak, the fabric feeling pleasurably heavy on your figure and comfortable on your bare shoulders. It feels protective and warm, but breathable and completely functional as an everyday garment. Not only does it feel well, but it conceals you much better amongst everyone else.

“I buy my cloaks off her.” Mando responds simply, the first time he’s shared a new fact about himself, “She’s also going to find you a pair of shoes.”

He’s right. Perhaps the pair of sandals tied at your ankles aren’t the best fit for a shoe to be blundering around planets with. It was certainly enough for the occasions you accompanied Malsifer to meeting his clients, and the extent of your time out in the elements was limited to barely nothing. Malsifer concerned himself more with whether you appeared to his liking and aesthetics.

The older woman returns, producing a short pair of dark brown leather boots of a matte finish. They are simple and easy to slip on, with no intricate buckles, zippers, or ties. They hug your feet comfortably and accomplishes all the criteria necessary for being a practical piece of footwear.

Mando glances around and hands the woman a few extra coins, nodding in thanks as she accepts them and waves kindly at the child on your hip.

“Thank you.” You tell Mando as the three of you walk away from the stand of fluttering fabrics. He doesn’t react, at least as far as you can observe from the faceless helmet that you looked at when speaking to him.

“We have some time before we meet up with Greef again.” Mando says, ignoring what you’d said, “We can-“

“-Take a look around.” You interrupt, your curiosity about the rest of the market piqued. Surely there were other useful and interesting things the three of you can look at other than the four metal walls of Mando’s ship.

Mando agrees, but you’re not necessarily sure if it was from acquiescence or genuine concurrence.

It is difficult to read him, you’ve noticed it bothering you, without any facial expressions and other visual cues to clue you into his mood. His body language was often also very grey and difficult to deduce. This is unlike what you’ve relied on in the past to understand and predict other people’s behaviors. Malsifer was an individual very prone to giving himself way via his expressions and tone of voice, which made it easier to clue you into how you should respond, if at all. It’s natural to rely on social cues in order to know how to respond to a given situation, but with Mando, it feels quite the contrary.

He strolls with you at a relaxed pace, his hand firmly placed on the hilt of his blaster he keeps attached to his waist.

Your eyes flicker between his helmet and his hand. You’d seen him use his blaster with deadly precision, it drove you to tears to see the barrel trained at the space between your eyes. You hadn’t heard of stormtroopers being as accurate, and you question what he is, and what he represents. You can already deduce that he’s a bounty hunter, why else would he be looking for quarry? But why the child? Why the armor? And why the ship you’d finally observed to be very Old Republic.

“Mando-“ You begin to ask curiously…“Can I ask you a question?”… cautiously.

“Sure.” He says simply, his helmet turning to observe a long blaster rifle on display at a vendor.

“Where are you from?”

Mando’s helmet continues to follow the long rifle as he walks away, “No where. I was a foundling.”

“A foundling from where?” You ask again. “Who found you?”

“I don’t remember.” He says dryly, his gaze returning forward as he scans the vendors again till something catches his eye… visor.

“So then what’s with the armor?”

He stops midstride, and you sense that you’ve either said something wrong or insulted him in some way.

Your cheeks immediately feel like their burning despite the chill that raced down your spine. You blink back a million-and-one thoughts and possibilities on how he might respond. Was he mad? Dumbfounded? Absolutely furious? It’s too hard to tell. By the way he’d stopped and now turned his head towards you, your hands clench into a fist- not prepared to strike, but to brace.

He chuckles. He chuckles. Warmly, softly, and bemusedly, his modulated blitheness is musical and so incredibly comforting. You’re not sure how you should react. It’s not the reaction you’d braced yourself for. After all, you’d insulted him, didn’t you?

“You mean to tell me that you’ve never seen Mandalorian armor before?” He asks, resuming the slow pace he took beside you.

You shake your head, looking down at the ground as you resume walking a few paces behind him. The child, unbothered, continues to chew on the pastry and inquisitively looks between yourself and Mando.

“I’m surprised Malsifer never let you see one.” He says, “No wonder you seemed pretty scared when I was there.”

You’d kept your gaze down at your feet as you walked, feeling ashamed to ask a dumb question in the first place. Of course you knew what a Mandalorian was, but you’d only ever read about them in flimsi books you’d managed to smuggle in and out of Malsifer’s library. They seem downright fictional, down to their very demeanors of being militant and mute. It didn’t help that the only information accessible to you came in bound flimsi books that in itself was probably older than yourself or Malsifer’s combined existence. You’d never seen their armor, at least not the kind that Mando was sporting in pure Beskar and with a helmet that looked too much like a storm trooper’s. You’d sooner expect he was an ex-trooper, or someone who simply stole or bought their armor.

“It was terrifying.” You admit softly, “You, pointing a blaster in my face. Doesn’t help that you’ve got all that armor.”

You see his boots stop moving and turn towards you. You still keep your gaze down, distracting your hands with the child’s robes as the crumbs of his treat fell from his face.

“Look at me.” He says sternly, and you obey, looking up into his visor, “You need to… unlearn whatever this is.”

You chew your lip, intimidated by his presence so close and so powerful over you. You fight yourself and your nervous glances away from the glare of his visor.

“I don’t know what Malsifer put you through, but here, with us… none of it.” He continues, “Can’t have you walking behind me like some shadow, not with my kid.” He takes a step back from you and turns away, but stops.

His shoulders drop and his demeanor softens, “You were walking next to me.” He says, awaiting for you meet him at his side, “You were saying…”

Meeting up with him, the child in your arms coos and reaches out to Mando, who scoops him up from your grasp and you hide your arms under the cloak. He is right, it’s different with Mando and his kid. This is an equal playing field where you’re a part of a cohort of other individuals just like you. Of course, Mando is the leader, he provides, flies, and protects. The new dynamic is refreshing, but old habits are hard to beat. Which isn’t a natural nor healthy response. But neither was being caned across your knees and shins if you didn’t do so.

Mando stops at a vendor selling a wide assortment of things. They all seem extremely random, from switchboards to datatapes to bacta kits. Perhaps these are things the vendor was able to scavenge off broken ships and droids, this isn’t the first time you’d seen scrap collectors try to sell off what they can’t trade at a refinery. You’ve heard of such beings called Jawas who are infamous for such scavenging, but you also know that they’re not entirely open to the idea of selling what they find.

Mando strikes up a conversation with the vendor, a tall and slender specimen with small black eyes and three digits on each of their four arms. They’re haggling, is what you can assume, as Mando shakes his head and points to a well-stocked bacta kit on the table. The vendor insists on a certain price, counting it off on his palms before accepting a deal with Mando’s budget. He swipes the bacta off the table, and tosses it.

You catch it and immediately hide it under your cloak. Mando notices, walking away from the vendor saying, “Keep that there, don’t want him noticing he let me take the wrong one.”

His dry friendliness is welcoming, it made you feel like you were walking with a friend rather than a tank. The child giddily had finished his snack and entertained himself with his metal ball, which now you’d deduced was from a switch or lever, likely coming from the cockpit of the ship.

“So… your armor. Mandalorian?” You ask, keeping pace with him.

He nods, “Mandalorian.”

You think back to what you’d read about in the flimsis, “If I recall correctly, some Mandalorians choose to keep their helmets on? Or do all of you have to wear it all the time?”

Mando nods, “When I swore to the creed, I swore to keep my identity secret. It’s part of our code.”

“So ‘Mando’ isn’t your real name?” You ask.

“No.”

“So what is your name?”

“Mando.”

You furrow your brows, not wanting to press further. You admire the devotion, despite it frustrating you further. You wanted to learn more of him, but now you know that such learning can no longer pertain to his appearance, and you must now learn his character. Though it wasn’t the only thing weighing on your curiosity, you’ve already begun building his profile.

Like you’d learned during your time in hyperspace that he is a man of not-so-many words. He isn’t aptly good at beginning a conversation, and usually such conversations are limited to small talk on the basis of his work and ship… But that had been debunked when he disclosed that he gets his cloaks from the woman at the colorful stand, and joked to you about the bacta-kit hidden away under your cloak. You hope he will reveal more of himself to you with time. You’re patient enough for that.

You respect that his physical appearance as an extension of his anonymity. It’s not the only instance where you’ve experienced the sort of veiling that came with particular religions, cultural identities, and personal choices. It will be up to him to disclose what he wants and when- it would be rude of you to pester. It’s not your place.

The three of you walk leisurely, stopping occasionally to look at something interesting at a stall before returning into the direction of the ship. In the distance, you observe the man from earlier standing and waiting for you, Greef, you remember Mando mentioning the name.

Mando hands you the child back into your arms, “Get back on the ship.” He instructs, and you nod, the baby beginning to doze off to sleep in your arms.

“What did you find?” Mando asks taking a few steps towards Greef and out of earshot from his new crewmate.

Greef’s usually friendly smile is thin, “I found one result for her name, one that appears on an obituary. According to the systems, she’s technically dead.”

Mando exhales sharply, disappointed, and curiously tipping his head to the side, “So, what? How long has she been ‘dead’?”

“Five years.” Greef says bleakly, “And she has no digital footprints anywhere. No record of her ever even having an account to hold credits, or receipts from anywhere that she’s spent credits.”

Mando looks back in the direction of his ship, watching you board the Razor Crest with the child in your arms, how tenderly you hold his head and attend to his sleepy babbling. This is unfortunate news, that Mando would need to tell you sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know what to do with her.” Mando admits quietly, your silhouette disappearing in the ship.

Greef clears his throat, “I know this is none of my business, but the baby seems to like her, it’s pretty obvious… Until she can figure things out on her own, she can stick around, learn a thing or two, and you’ll have someone who can take care of the kid when you have jobs.”

Mando nods, “This isn’t the first time Malsifer faked someone’s death just to drain their accounts?”

“It’s also not the first time he’s trapped pretty young girls into being his personal assistants.” Greef says, raising an eyebrow in Mando’s direction.

“He abused them.” Mando says, “If it wasn’t for their money, what else did he need them for?”

Greef shrugs, folding his arms across his chest, “Malsifer seemed like the controlling type… He liked being in control of anything and everything important to him which is money and power. I don’t think she was a part of anything more sinister, but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”

“I’ll find that out more when she feels like talking. Right now… I don’t know what to do with her.” Mando crosses his arms.

Greef looks back at the ship behind Mando and back to his visor, “Let her stay until she can figure something out for herself. She can be useful while you work, keep the ship and the kid safe while you’re out…”

Mando nods again in agreement, “It’s my only option right now. Thank you… for your help.”

Greef smiles, “Anytime, old friend.”

Mando appears on the ship shortly after you’d put the child to sleep in his shiny egg-like crib. He’d tired himself out from the morning shopping and was happily full of whatever pastry took him the entire walk to eat.

You’d put the bacta pack in the bacta kit soldered on the metal of ship and managed to clear out some of the dust that had blown into the hull while the door was open. You’d observed Mando’s ship to not only be Old Republic but also just old in general. Though it is in excellent flying condition for its age, it lacked in amenities that more modern ships had like touch-pads instead of buttons and actually finished floors and walls. Either Mando is a man of old fashion, or simply too preoccupied to take care of his ship like others do.

He is quiet, walking up and down the hull checking lights, buttons, datapads, and other things. While he did that, you patiently sit on the familiar wedge prepared to strap into the metal wall and prepare for take-off. Your hands occupy themselves with the hang nails that plague your fingers.

You see, from the corner of your eye, something tan and grey. Looking up, it was Mando, handing off to you a pile of clothing he’d gathered in his quiet pacing around the hull.

“Thank you.” You say softly, standing to get to the fresher.

Mando nods, “Meet me in the cockpit, we need to talk.” And he turns before you can ask any questions. He disappears up the ladder.

The cockpit? You think to yourself curiously, what in the worlds does he want to talk about?

The mirror in the fresher is just reflective enough to call itself a mirror. It clearly once existed as a piece of scrap that Mando had repurposed to decorate the blank wall above the sink. But it fulfilled its purpose in reflecting back the visage of yourself you present every day.

Today, you look tired.

Dark circles around your eyes hint at some much needed deep sleep and the tired squint you gave to yourself only emphasizes this.

You look at the clothing Mando handed to you, consisting of a large white shirt and some pants that definitely needed to be tailored to accommodate your height and lack of… lower… masculine features. These are clearly articles of clothing Mando has no use for, and you’re thankful for them despite Mando’s somewhat apparent reluctance.

You undo yourself from your dress, somewhat sad to see the magical colors fall to the floor in a wispy heap. This was healthy though, a transition into a different person. After all, you’re fulfilling the prophecy you’d begun to brainstorm the first night aboard the ship: a change of clothes.

The shirt is square, harsh but hemmed edges of fabric for sleeves, a collar, and buttons to secure said collar closed. It sat rather high on your neck, so you keep the first two buttons undone, one side of the collar falling open to reveal the raw edge of the hem. The sleeves were of a comfortable length, also squared off with a button for cuff-links that you undo and gently fold up your forearm.

Looking back up at yourself in the mirror, you look like a little girl trying on her father’s clothes. It’s clear that they’re too big, but you make do with tucking and folding where you can. But the broad and structured shoulders the shirt gave you made you feel… bigger? Something about it made you feel more robust.

The pants are… another story. Of course they sat a little low on your hips and were too loose around the area where you lacked the facilities of a man. But the utilities of having so many pockets and places to stow away small items brought you some small joy as you cuff the pants around your ankles and tuck the shirt into them.

You style your hair simply up, anything to keep it away from your face and off your shoulders till it’s time to wash and you think what to do about them then.

Looking back into the crusty mirror, though your eyes see themselves, a whole new person has taken shape behind them. It felt foreign to you to appear so fresh-faced, neutral, and unassuming in a world where Malsifer demanded you always looked your best as an extension of himself and his appearance. That usually translated in wearing makeup on a near-daily basis, and extravagant colorful gowns to even the most casual of events.

The dress is a pastel mess on the floor of the fresher, and looking down at it, you feel a twinge of guilt for having to abandon it. It’s pretty…

You bundle it up and head out from the fresher.

You walk quietly across the hull, your bare feet making light patting noises as you went. Sitting at the wedge in the wall, you ditch the dress behind you and slip on your boots again before standing up, and head towards the cockpit like Mando told you to.

#din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin #the mandalorian fanfic #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian x you #the mandolarian #asclepius-erebus

24 notes · View notes

spacecrone · 4 years

Text

Sorry, Cassandra.

So, it's definite then

It's written in the stars, darlings

Everything must come to an end - Susanne Sundfør

I first learned about the climate crisis in 2008, as an undergrad at Hunter College, in a class called The History and Science of Climate Change. For the next decade I would struggle with how to process and act on the scientific paradigm shift climate change required: that human activity could disrupt the climate system and create a planetary ecosystem shift making Earth uninhabitable to human life. I became a climate justice activist and attempted to work directly on The Problem which was actually, as philosopher Timothy Morton writes, a hyperobject, something so systemic and enormous in size and scope as to be almost unintelligible to human awareness. I’ve cycled through probably every single response a person could have to this knowledge, despair, ecstasy, rage, hope. I’ve landed somewhere close to what I might call engaged bewilderment. For me, his particular locale has a soundtrack, and it’s Susanne Sundfør’s cinematic dance dystopia Ten Love Songs, an album that tells a story of love and loss in the Anthropocene. Sundfør is a sonic death doula for the Neoliberal project, with a uniquely Scandinavian version of bleak optimism. To truly grapple with this time of escalating transition, we need to really face what is, not what we hope or fear will be, but what is actually happening. A throbbing beat with shimmering synths around which to orient your dancing mortal envelope can’t hurt.

Susanne Sundfør’s Ten Love Songs was released a few days after Valentine’s Day in February of 2015, six months after I had been organizing Buddhists and meditators for the Peoples Climate March. I was already a fan, having first heard her voice as part of her collaboration with dreamy synth-pop outfit m83 on the Oblivion soundtrack. Oblivion was visually striking but felt like a long music video. The soaring synths and Sundfør’s powerful voice drove the plot more than the acting, though I loved how Andrea Riseborough played the tragic character Vika, whose story could have been more central to the plot but was sidelined for a traditional Tom Cruise romantic centerpiece. But since the movie was almost proud of its style over investment in substance, the music stood out. The soundscapes were as expansive as the green-screened vistas of 2077 in the movie. It was just nostalgic enough while also feeling totally new, a paradox encapsulated in the name of m83’s similarly wistful and sweeping Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. I am not exempt from taking comfort in style that signifies a previous era, and I am also not alone in it. It’s a huge industry, and while the MAGA-style yearning for a previous era is one manifestation, maybe there are ways to acknowledge culture as cyclical in a way that doesn’t sacrifice traditional knowledge to some imagined myth of perpetual progress.

When Ten Love Songs came out the following year, I listened to it on repeat for days. Sundfør seemed to have absorbed the music-driven sci-fi into a concept album, with m83 providing her with a whole new panopoly of sounds at her disposal. Like Oblivion, Ten Love Songs told the story of a future dystopia with high speed chases, nihilistic pleasure-seeking and operatic decadence against a backdrop of technocratic inequality. It mixed electro-pop with chamber music and I listened to it on a Greyhound ride to Atlantic City in the middle of snowy February. I hadn’t felt like this since high school, that a full album was a sort of soundtrack to my own life, which I could experience as cinematic in some way while the music was playing. This situated me in my own story, of studying climate change as an undergrad and graduating into a financial collapse, working as a personal assistant to an author writing about ecological collapse and ritual use of psychedelics, to joining a Buddhist community and organizing spiritual activists around climate justice.

Ten Love Songs is a breakup album, with lyrics telling of endings and running out of time. But it didn’t read to me as an album about a single human romantic relationship coming to an end. It felt like a series of vignettes about the planet and its ecosphere breaking up with us, all of us. People. Some songs like Accelerate, one of the album’s singles, throb in an anthem to nihilistic numbness and speeding up into a catastrophe that feels inevitable. Fade Away is a bit lighter, tonally and lyrically, (and if you listen, please note the exquisitely perfect placement of what sounds like a toaster “ding!”), but is still about fading away, falling apart. The way the songs seem to drive a narrative of anthropocenic collapse built on science fiction film scores, the combination of orchestra and techno-pop, absolutely draws on Sundfør’s experience collaborating with m83 for the Oblivion soundtrack, which itself combined Anthony Gonzalez’s love for the adult-scripted teen dramas of his own 80’s adolescence. In Ten Love Songs, Sundfør takes what she learned from this collaboration and scores not a movie but a life experience of living through ecological collapse and all of the heartbreak and desire that erupts in a time when everything seems so close to the knife’s edge.

I am reminded of another Scandinavian dance album that was extremely danceable yet harbored within it a sense of foreboding. The Visitors, ABBA’s eighth studio album, was considered their venture into more mature and complex music. The two couples who comprised the band had divorced the year before it was released, and the entire atmosphere of the album is paranoid, gloomy, and tense. The cover shows the four musicians, on opposite sides of a dark room, ignoring each other. Each song is melancholy and strange in its own way, unique for a pop ensemble like Abba. One song in particular showcases their ability to use an archetype of narrative tragedy and prophesy to tell the story of regret. Cassandra is sung from the perspective of those who didn’t heed the woman cursed by Zeus to foretell the future but never be believed.

I have always considered myself a pretty big Abba fan, something my high school choir instructor thought was riotously funny. I was born in the 80’s and nobody in my family liked disco, so I seemed like something of an anachronism. But pop music, especially synth-oriented pop, has always felt like a brain massage to me. It could get my inner motor moving when I felt utterly collapsed in resignation to the scary chaos of my early life. But I only discovered the song Cassandra in 2017, while giving The Visitors a full listen. It felt like I had never heard the song before, though, as a fan I must have. But something about 2015 made the song stand out more. It starts with piano, soft tambourine, and the ambient sound of a harbor. It has a coastal Mediterranean vibe, as some Abba songs do, foreshadowing Cassandra’s removal from her home city, an event she foretold but could not get anyone to believe. It’s a farewell song of regret, echoing the regret the members of Abba felt about their own breakups.

We feel so full of promise at the dawn of a new relationship. Only after the split can we look back and say we saw the fissures in the bond. The signs were there. Why did we ignore them? This happens on an individual level but the Cassandra paradox is an archetype that climate scientists and journalists are very familiar with. This particular Abba song, and the Visitors album overall, uses this archetype to tell the story of a breakup in retrospect. With climate change, the warnings have been there, even before science discovered the rising carbon in the atmosphere. Indigenous peoples have been warning of ecological collapse since colonization began. Because of white supremacy and an unwavering belief in “progress,” perpetual economic and technological development and growth, warnings from any source but especially marginalized sources have been noise to those who benefit from that perpetual growth model and from white supremacy itself. Is there a way to undo the Cassandra curse and render warnings signal BEFORE some major event turns us all into the chorus from Abba’s song, singing “some of us wanted- but none of us could-- listen to words of warning?” Composer Pauline Oliveros called listening a radical act. It is especially so when we listen actively to the sounds and signals of those we would otherwise overlook.

When I look back at my life in the time that Sundfør’s Ten Love Songs and m83’s movie music seems nostalgic for, the late 1980’s in New Jersey, I was a child with deeply dissociative and escapist tendencies, which helped me survive unresolved grief, loss, and chaos. I recognize my love for Abba’s hypnotic synth music as a surrendering to the precise and driving rhythm of an all-encompassing sound experience. I also see how my early life prepared me to be sensitized to the story climate science was telling when I finally discovered it in 2008. I had already grown up with Save the Whales assemblies and poster-making contests, with a heavy emphasis on cutting six-pack rings so that sea life would not be strangled to death. I knew what it was like to see something terrible happening all around you and to feel powerless to stop it, because of the way my parents seemed incapable of and unsupported in their acting out their own traumatic dysregulation. Wounds, unable to heal, sucking other people into the abyss. I escaped through reading science fiction, listening to music like Abba and Aphex Twin loud enough to rattle my bones. I wanted to overwhelm my own dysregulated nervous system. I dreamed of solitude on other planets, sweeping grey vistas, being the protagonist of my own story where nothing ever hurt because ice ran through my veins and the fjords around me. My home planet was dying, and nobody could hear those of us screaming into the wind about it.

Ten Love Songs woke up that lost cosmic child who had banished herself to another solar system. Songs of decadence, songs of endings, songs of loss. Though that album was not overtly about climate change, Sundfør did talk about ecological collapse in interviews for her radically different follow-up album Music For People In Trouble. After the success of Ten Love Songs, Sundfør chose to travel to places that she said “might not be around much longer” in order to chronicle the loss of the biosphere for her new album. It is more expressly and urgently about the current global political moment, but the seeds for those themes were present and in my opinion much more potent in the poppier album. But maybe that’s the escapist in me.

The old forms that brought us to this point are in need of end-of-life care. Capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchal theocratic nationalism, neoliberalism, they all need death doulas. Escapism makes sense in response to traumatic stimulus, and for many of us it may have helped us survive difficult circumstances. But if we are to face what it means to be alive on this planet at this moment, we might be here to be present to and help facilitate and ease the process of putting these systems to rest. And maybe this work is not at odds with a dance party. The ability to be visionary about shared alternatives to these dying systems is not inherently escapist, when we are willing to take the steps together to live into those new stories. What would happen if cursed Cassandras, instead of pleading with existing power structures to heed warnings that sound like noise to them, turned to each other to restore the civic body through listening, through bearing witness to each others unacknowledged and thwarted grief over losses unacknowledged by those same systems of coercive power?

Engaged bewilderment means my version of hope, informed by Rebecca Solnit’s work on the topic, comes from the acceptance that things will happen that I could never have imagined possible. Climate change is happening and there are certain scientific certainties built into that trajectory. Some of it is written in the stars. But as with any dynamic system change, we do not know exactly how it will all shake out. These unknowns can be sources of fear and despair, but there is also the possibility for agency, choice and experimentation. The trajectory of my individual life was always going to end in death. Does that make it a failure? Or does it render each choice and engagement of movement towards the unknown an ecstatic act? As the old forms collapse, no need to apologize to the oracles. At this point they are dancing, and hope you’ll join.

#susanne sundfør #abba #anthropocene #hope #climate crisis #climate change #ecological collapse #scandinavian music #dystopia #utopia

15 notes · View notes

gamingfestive258 · 4 years

Text

What kind of desktop should i get for gaming

Gaming Grabs The Higher Score On Twitter

Creating a gaming site with WordPress has never been simpler. How do companies fight back while keeping their prospects satisfied? We chatted with Danièle Thillmann, Senior VP of Fraud and Payments at Green Man Gaming. Danièle reveals how firms can confront the exceptional challenges of a digital vertical. Armed with years of experience in the gaming planet, Danièle shares how gaming corporations make a tricky and important decision: which fraud prevention resolution to use.

They provide a wide variety of digital games that their clients can play on the favourite platforms such as Pc, Mac, Sony Playstation and Nintendo. Operating directly with over 500 publishers, developers and distributors, they supply gamers in 190 nations a large catalogue of multi-platform games at competitive costs. Green Man Gaming is an official distributor of Sony PS4, Nintendo, Steam, Uplay, Rockstar Social Club and many extra Computer platform solutions.

Luca is functioning in the field of gaming for 6 years, initially as an indie one particular-man-group junior developer and, the latter 5 years, as gameplay programmer and software architect in a firm where he created video games for all primary mobile platforms, Pc, Steam, PS4 and Xbox One, as well as minor gaming consoles, growing as a experienced. Recently he founded Twin Wolves, an indie video games development studio, exactly where he's the CTO.

I got into action games late but when I did it entirely changed how I viewed gaming forever. The game which brought me round was Viewtiful Joe. Right here was a game with a deep and open-ended combat system which seemed to be built as a signifies for the player to express creativity. This method is then pitted against opponents and obstacles which had been created from the ground up to interact meaningfully with the core program. The course was fixed, but the process for dealing with that course was completely down to the ingenuity, skill and inspiration of the player. You play like you have a big audience watching and the game regularly entices you to improve the concentrate is not simply on acquiring the player from A to B, the focus is on receiving the player to play Viewtifully”.

Due to mobile game development outsourcing , the newest indie games made by compact studios or individual programmers get lots of interest and optimistic feedback from each players and journalists. With the assistance of application outsourcing corporations, every person, with proper expertise, can create and market gaming apps with out any obstacles.

Never you wish you had been genuinely sitting on a racecar seat every single time you play Forza, Gran Turismo, or any other racing game? With the racing seat design and style of the Ficmax Swivel Gaming Chair , obtaining this experience is now a reality. The totally ergonomic Ficmax is made with a totally retractable footrest to assist sooth tired reduced limbs and support facilitate the extra effective circulation of blood. It also comes with a lumbar massage help to aid avert or even manage low back pain which is really widespread amongst people today who sit in an office chair for unusually lengthy period. Our handy guide to the best ergonomic workplace chairs functions far more excellent items like this.

15 Warnings About GAMING You Need To Learn To Succeed

Paul: Our organization model is growth focused and we cover 3 key regions in the gaming market. Firstly, we're a worldwide e-Commerce store promoting over 7,500 games from 450 publishers in more than 190 nations to millions of gamers. Secondly, Green Man Gaming has a thriving neighborhood who go over and track their game achievements on our neighborhood platform. This data combined with the industrial data of the retailer offers Green Man Gaming a important depth of knowledge of our buyers. Ultimately, we have a publishing arm that assists developers publish their own games and bring them to market, supporting them every step of the way. The fusion of Green Man Gaming's e-Commerce retailer, a robust community generating billions of data points and publisher help sets us apart from our competition.

Today's games are larger, greater, and a lot more immersive than ever. You can discover unbelievable games across a wide variety of genres. Most big game franchises are offered on each PlayStation four and Xbox 1, when the Nintendo Switch gives a huge selection of games suited for kids and families. For the most realistic visual experiences, upgrade to the PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox A single S to take pleasure in breathtaking 4K and HDR gaming. Exclusive titles are available for every console, which additional underscores the need to strategy ahead and pick up the proper method for your have to-own games. Explore the enormous collections of previously played games at wonderful deals and give your older consoles like the PlayStation three , Xbox 360 , and Nintendo Wii U continued life.

Avantura has one of the best building blocks we've seen for constructing a gaming internet site, it supports exclusive colour categories ( a have to for any serious gaming magazine), can be combined with well-known widgets, can be colour customized per web page, has numerous choices for the header and footer and it has an incredible good hunting weblog post design. Also, it has a incredibly good about the author module and some nice next and previous article hooks. On top of it all, it supports a nice mega menu with photographs.

Style patterns: To retailer information in DynamoDB, gaming businesses partition game state and other player data utilizing player ID, and use the essential-value access pattern (1:1 modeling). In circumstances when more fine-grained access is known as for, these firms use a sort key (1:M modeling). This allows them to access and update distinct properties or subsets of a player's dataset separately. This way, they don't have to retrieve an whole dataset. In this method, various items that shop different properties can be updated transactionally by working with the DynamoDB transactional API Some providers compress user data to cut down price. PennyPop, for example, makes use of gzip to compress player data and retailer it as a base64 string, reducing the player information to 10 percent of its original size.

Social media is a single of the best methods to reach out to your audience, as it aids make communication much more hassle-free by enabling comments and messages. Gamers across the planet use Facebook as a single of their major social media platforms, and it is hugely evident when you see how many likes, shares, and views gaming-related content receive on a each day basis.

Cocos2d-x is also open supply, meaning it can be customised and tweaked by the community and any developer can share their tips with others! The plan has demonstrations to help newbies along the way, and it has even been employed for such popular mobile apps as Dragon City Mobile and Big Fish Casino! Mobile gaming dominates a large section of the gaming market these days, so a suite of tools like these are only going to grow to be extra essential for the future of gaming.

You'd be surprised at just how versatile the AmazonBasics Laptop and Tablet Bag is. Offered in 5 distinct sizes, with the largest totally capable of holding and safeguarding a huge 17.3 inch ultra-high efficiency gaming laptop, this laptop bag comes with avariety of storage pockets for all of your smaller peripherals like gaming mouse, 3D pens, digitizers, and even smartphones, MP3 players, pens, and many additional. Its smallest version which is designed for holding a 7 inch tablet or a ten inch netbook is equally beneficial as it comes with the very same accessory pockets complementing its primary storage compartment.

Nonetheless, there is no need to do an net search or read the newest in anonymous game testimonials. Under, we have collected the best 30 mobile gamer blogs to enable place you in touch with the most current and greatest in gaming, along with ideas for what to azatik.online Steam pc gaming blog get subsequent, how to beat it, and what to keep away from. No matter whether for the most current iPhone or classic Gameboy, there are loads of mobile gaming blog entries for absolutely everyone.

Description: This gaming podcast is hosted by a crew of San Francisco developers, formerly of such studios as Telltale Games and Double Fine. It was started merely for fun, where random conversations between the presenters were recorded and put on the Web. It's evolved into a space exactly where the presenters get to speak about a topic they are passionate about, i.e. games - and the result is hugely enjoyable.

1 note · View note

zephyrthejester · 5 years

Text

Three Years Blog Anniversary!

Well, would you look at that. In the blink of an eye, an entire year has gone by! It has now been a grand total of three years since I started up this liveblog, and ever since, it's been a whirlwind of an adventure that has introduced me to amazing shows, amazing games, and above all, amazing people! As has become tradition, it's time for us to gather 'round by the fire, bundle up in blankets, sip some hot cocoa, and reminisce about the shenanigans we got up to in the year 2019.

You know the drill! Click "Keep Reading" to see the rest! Let's go!

January kicked off with the closing episodes to Steven Universe's fifth season, and what a finale it was! In true SU nature, it managed to be wholesome, funny, terrifying, and sad all at once! Not to mention the finale episode specifically, which was rife with both fan service and a breath-taking final confrontation. It even prompted me to type up three whole Addendum posts just so I could get all my thoughts out there. Intermingling with these episodes were some rather poignant and touching episodes of RWBY's 6th Volume, which saw some great plot advancements for some of my favorite characters. And of course, there was one liveblog session early on dedicated to Fate/Stay Night, a series I began back in 2018. And that would end up being the last I'd liveblog about it. Following the technical difficulties of the Visual Novel crashing at an important moment, I lost much of my motivation to keep going at it, putting Fate/Stay Night on the bench... For now. But more on Fate/Stay Night later.

Then came February! Where I proceeded to do absolutely nothing at all. For 42 days, I fell into a pretty bad funk that I called depression, at the time. Well! I must be in a better mental space right now, because until it came time to make this post, I forgot all about it! Moving past the shame I felt for wordlessly abandoning my blog and discord community for over a month, come March I pressed right into a brand new liveblog: Kill la Kill! A frenetic, frantic, freaky series that serves as the spiritual sequel to what was, once upon a time, my favorite anime ever: Gurren Lagann. I was immediately charmed by it's absurdist humor and over-the-top everything. However, it wasn't long before I succumbed to my greatest flaw. I'm exceptionally picky about what I liveblog, and sadly, Kill la Kill didn't tick the boxes that needed to be ticked for me to stick with it. I eventually dropped the series after only three episodes.

Needless to say, I was getting desperate to reinvigorate my lost momentum. It was then and there, at the tail end of March, that I introduced the most significant change to my brand ever: Liveblogging itself was being benched in favor of a fanciful second attempt at running my video game focused Youtube Channel! While I would certainly continue to liveblog new episodes of shows I had previously caught up with, my efforts would be redoubled and focused upon something I hoped would shake things up for me. I put in the effort of buying a new, fancy, high-tech microphone, and set about to new projects!

First up was a tense and troublesome self-imposed-challenge: A playthrough of Resident Evil 2 Remake on its hardest difficulty, with the added stipulation that I can never access the item storage box! My knowledge and skills of that game were put to the test as I skirted by the dangerous zombies and mutants while carrying only the bare essentials on my person. That series lasted 7 videos, plus a Highlight Reel, over about a week. My new microphone really brought out my screams of terror. Yes.

Immediately following the conclusion of the REmake 2 challenge run in early April, a new series debuted: A blind let's play of Subnautica! A simply incredible sci-fi survival game set on a planet that's nearly entirely an ocean... But much to my surprise, it was secretly a horror game all along. Spanning 18 episodes + a highlight reel between April 5th and May 23rd, we descended ever deeper into the abyss, deciphered alien riddles, fled from toothy leviathan-class predators, established a lovely home base, and had a great ol' time overall. A truly remarkable game with a surprisingly good story, for its genre, and it left me eagerly looking forward to making a Let's Play of its sequel: Below Zero.

Simultaneously, beginning on April 10th, I embarked upon yet another adventure that was of such a large scope, I made my channel's primary time slot dedicated to it. The Phoenix Wright Trilogy! A collection of the first three Visual Novels in a wonderful, wonderful series about the titular attorney at law. It wasn't long before I fell in love with this series, big time. It had everything! Immensely satisfying mysteries for me to solve, memorable and lovable characters, great pacing, and it knew how to keep things fresh and interesting. Although I started out the Let's Play by saying I wouldn't read everything aloud, that proved to be a lie. As of now, the series is a whopping 78 videos long (I do expect it to reach 100 before all is said and done), and I have given voice to roughly 50 unique characters so far. The series really helped awaken my Let's Play chops by improving my speech, vocal clarity, and focus. Swapping between my first video ever (for Legend of Grimrock II) and the most recent Phoenix Wright video is a real night-and-day difference! Overall, it's very safe to say that the series has stolen my heart. Unmatched hype, dizzying plot twists, and delightful shenanigans burst from the seams, truly. The Let's Play is currently ongoing, though the end is within sight...

As the Let's Plays of Subnautica and Phoenix Wright Trilogy progressed, so too did the production quality of my videos. I got a better grip on editing, improving the design of my video thumbnails and taking more care to edit out needless and dull moments of gameplay. I even introduced a brief and stylish video intro, which was my avatar appearing over a dark background before it faded off into gameplay. That would be the image up above! However, as we move into 2020, I’ve begun to feel that it could do with a slight improvement... Wink wink!

Following the end of Subnautica came a new Let's Play involving yet another sci-fi horror game: Prey! Spanning 25 videos + a highlight reel between June 3rd and November 19th, it immediately gripped me with its stunning attention to detail, marvelously crafted environments, and boundlessly creative gameplay. It was a pleasure to explore the varied regions of the Talos One space station, blasting aliens, uncovering secrets, untangling the connections between the employees there, and making some seriously difficult moral choices. A truly impressive video game that's just begging for a second playthrough on my own time at some point.

July 20th saw the beginning of new activity on my blog. In a spur-of-the-moment decision that I didn't think out too well, I brazenly announced out of nowhere that I would be doing a re-watch of Steven Universe! I proceeded to liveblog the first 11 episodes of Steven Universe over a week, lovingly looking back at the series' origins, calling out moments of foreshadowing, and analyzing everything with the lens of all my knowledge about the show. And then... Nothing! Just as soon as it began, the project was dropped. I had hoped it would rekindle my interest in Liveblogging (outside of new episodes of SU and RWBY), but I had no such luck. You know I'm burnt out when even Steven Universe, my favorite thing ever, can't help...

By September 3rd, the Steven Universe Movie had finally released! Over a hype-as-hell two days, I liveblogged the entire film. It truly was Steven Universe at its absolute best! Touching, sincere, unexpected, and rife with some stellar songs that are STILL stuck in my head. It proved that the Crewniverse hadn't lost its spark since the conclusion of the original series.

November 5th was my 25th birthday! My family celebrated by all going out for an amazing sushi dinner. Good times! Sometimes, it's really hard for me to grasp that I'm actually 25... I'm a kid at heart, really! Or maybe it's that I'm a social recluse who enjoys watching anime a little too much. Regardless, I feel no shame!

November 10th saw the debut of RWBY Volume 7, and so far it has been an exceptionally strong season. I've long maintained the opinion that the show gets better and better every season, and Volume 7 has given me no reason to doubt that. One episode in particular became my second favorite in the series, right behind a certain one from Volume 6! I'm really enjoying how the characters, new and old, are playing off each other this go around, and the fights and art direction have been no slouch either. This season's a looker! I'm really looking forward to seeing how it ends.

Hot on the heels of the ending Let's Play of Prey, I immediately started up a new series on November 20th... Chrono Trigger! A legendary and widely loved JRPG from the SNES era of gaming that I had somehow gone all my life without playing. Better late than never to fix a mistake like that! I eagerly dived in and nearly immediately understood why it's heralded as an all-time great. The series is currently 13 episodes long, and each one is an endless stream of me being hyped and giddy. I’m already excited to record more!

December 8th saw the debut of Steven Universe Future, a very special epilogue series that's sure to tie a nice bow on the franchise as a whole. As of this post, I have liveblogged the first 8 episodes, and it's fair to say that while it's not holding back in giving the audience exactly what it wants, it's also doing something very unexpected and very, very interesting with Steven himself. Only time will tell how it all ends and whether every remaining mystery will be answered, but so far I have been more than satisfied with it.

And that brings us to the present! Wow, it felt like a lot less happened this year than you would think, huh? No, it's been jam packed with new adventures! I think I am very content with how the year has gone, and I hope you are as well. We'll be striding into the year 2020 with more Steven Universe, more RWBY, more Phoenix Wright, and more Chrono Trigger! Plus, it may very well be that we'll see the return of Made in Abyss and Madoka Magica, both of which (I believe) are getting continuation movies in 2020. I may or may not be entirely wrong about this. Forgive me if I am...

In the near future, the Phoenix Wright Trilogy will be followed up by a Let's Play of Fate/Stay Night! Indeed, the canceled Liveblog will be reborn in youtube video form! And following Chrono Trigger, well... It's mostly up in the air, though I do have a few good ideas. In particular, I recently got a Virtual Reality system set up... Wink wink!

So that's really all there is to it! Cheers, lads! Cheers to a good year, and cheers to the next year being even better! To our good health, our unbreakable friendships, and all the stupid bullshit we’ll get into together! 2020 has arrived!

#Zephyr the Jester #Blog Anniversary

39 notes · View notes

psychodollyuniverse · 4 years

Photo

Arrival is a stunning science fiction movie with deep implications for today

Science fiction is never really about the future; it’s always about us. And Arrival, set in the barely distant future, feels like a movie tailor-made for 2016, dropping into theaters mere days after the most explosive election in most of the American electorate’s memory.

But the story Arrival is based on — the award-winning novella Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang — was published in 1998, almost two decades ago, which indicates its central themes were brewing long before this year. Arrival is much more concerned with deep truths about language, imagination, and human relationships than any one political moment.

Not only that, but Arrival is one of the best movies of the year, a moving, gripping film with startling twists and imagery. It deserves serious treatment as a work of art.

The strains of Max Richter’s "On the Nature of Daylight" play over the opening shots of Arrival, which is the first clue for what’s about to unfold: that particular track is ubiquitous in the movies (I can count at least six or seven films that use it, including Shutter Island and this year’s The Innocents) and is, by my reckoning, the saddest song in the world.

The bittersweet feeling instantly settles over the whole film, like the last hour of twilight. Quickly we learn that Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) has suffered an unthinkable loss, and that functions as a prelude to the story: One day, a series of enormous pod-shaped crafts land all over earth, hovering just above the ground in 12 locations around the world. Nobody knows why. And nothing happens.

As world governments struggle to sort out what this means — and as the people of those countries react by looting, joining cults, even conducting mass suicides — Dr. Banks gets a visit from military intelligence, in the form of Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker), requesting her assistance as an expert linguist in investigating and attempting to communicate with whatever intelligence is behind the landing. She arrives at the site with Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a leading quantum physicist, to start the mission. With help from a cynical Agent Halpern (Michael Stuhlbarg), they suit up and enter the craft to see if they can make contact.

It’s best not to say much more about the plot, except that it is pure pleasure to feel it unfold. The most visionary film yet from director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario) and scripted by horror screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Lights Out), its pacing is slower than you’d expect from an alien-invasion film, almost sparse. For a movie with so many complicated ideas, it doesn’t waste any more time on exposition than is absolutely necessary. Arrival is serious and smartly crafted, shifting around like a Rubik’s cube in the hand of a savant, nothing quite making sense until all the pieces suddenly come together. I heard gasps in the theater.

The film’s premise hinges on the idea, shared by many linguists and philosophers of language, that we do not all experience the same reality. The pieces of it are the same — we live on the same planet, breathe the same air — but our perceptions of those pieces shift and change based on the words and grammar we use to describe them to ourselves and each other.

For instance, there is substantial evidence that a person doesn’t really see (or perhaps "perceive") a color until their vocabulary contains a word, attached to meaning, that distinguishes it from other colors. All yellows are not alike, but without the need to distinguish between yellows and the linguistic tools to do so, people just see yellow. A color specialist at a paint manufacturer, however, can distinguish between virtually hundreds of colors of white. (Go check out the paint chip aisle at Home Depot if you’re skeptical.)

Or consider the phenomenon of words in other languages that describe universal feelings, but can only be articulated precisely in some culture. We might intuitively "feel" the emotion, but without the word to describe it we’re inclined to lump the emotion in with another under the same heading. Once we develop the linguistic term for it, though, we can describe it and feel it as distinct from other shades of adjacent emotions.

These are simple examples, and I don’t mean to suggest that the world itself is different for people from different cultures. But I do mean to suggest that reality — what we perceive as comprising the facts of existence — takes on a different shape depending on the linguistic tools we use to describe it.

Adopting this framework doesn’t necessarily mean any of us are more correct than others about the nature of reality (though that certainly may be true). Instead, we are doing our best to describe reality as we see it, as we imagine it to be. This is the challenge of translation, and why literal translations that Google can perform don’t go beyond basic sentences. Learning a new language at first is just about collecting a new vocabulary and an alternate grammar — here is the word for chair, here is the word for love, here’s how to make a sentence — but eventually, as any bilingual person can attest, it becomes about imagining and perceiving the world differently.

This is the basic insight of Arrival: That if we were to encounter a culture so radically different from our own that simple matters we take for granted as part of the world as it is were radically shifted, we could not simply gather data, sort out grammar, and make conclusions. We’d have to either absorb a different way of seeing, despite our fear, or risk everything.

To underline the point, Dr. Banks and the entire operation are constantly experiencing breakdowns in communication within the team and with teams in other parts of the world, who aren’t sure whether the information they glean from their own visits to pods should be kept proprietary or shared.

It’s not hard to see where this is going, I imagine — something about how if we want to empathize with each other we need to talk to one another, and that’s the way the human race will survive.

And, sure.

But Arrival also layers in some important secondary notes that add nuance to that easy takeaway. Because it’s not just deciphering the words that someone else is saying that’s important: It’s the whole framework that determines how those words are being pinned to meaning. We can technically speak the same language, but functionally be miles apart.

n the film, one character notes that if we were to communicate in the language of chess — which operates in the framework of battles and wars — rather than, say, the language of English, which is bent toward the expression of emotions and ideas, then what we actually say and do would shift significantly. That is, the prevailing metaphor for how beings interact with each other and the world is different. (Some philosophers speak of this as "language games.")

This matters for the film’s plot, but more broadly — since this is sci-fi, and therefore actually about us — it has implications. Language isn’t just about understanding how to say things to someone and ascribe meaning to what comes back. Language has consequences. Embedded in words and grammar is action, because the metaphors that we use as we try to make sense of the world tell us what to do next. They act like little roadmaps.

You have empathized with someone not when you hear the words they’re saying, but when you begin to ascertain what metaphors make them tick, and where that conflicts or agrees with your own. I found myself thinking a lot about this reading Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers In Their Own Land, which is up for a National Book Award this year and describes the overarching metaphors (Hochschild calls them "deep stories") that discrete groups of Americans — in this case, West Coast urban liberals and Louisiana rural Tea Partiers — use to make sense of the world. She isn’t trying to explain anything away. She’s trying to figure out what causes people to walk in such drastically different directions and hold views that befuddle their fellow citizens.

Part of the challenge of pluralism is that we’re not just walking around with different ideas in our heads, but with entirely different maps for getting from point A to Z, with different roadblocks on them and different recommendations for which road is the best one. Our A's and Z's don’t even match. We don’t even realize that our own maps are missing pieces that others have.

Presumably one of these maps is better than the others, but we haven’t agreed how we would decide. So we just keep smacking into one another going in opposite directions down the same highway.

Arrival takes off from this insight in an undeniably sci-fi direction that is a little brain-bending, improbable in the best way. But it makes a strong case that communication, not battle or combat, is the only way to avoid destroying ourselves. Communication means not just wrapping our heads around terms we use but the actual framework through which we perceive reality.

And that is really hard. I don’t know how to fix it.

In the meantime, though, good movies are somewhere to start. Luckily Arrival is a tremendously well-designed film, with complicated and unpredictable visuals that embody the main point. Nothing flashy or explosive; in some ways, I found myself thinking of 1970s science-fiction films, or the best parts of Danny Boyle’s 2007 Sunshine, which grounded its humanist story in deep quiet.

The movie concludes on a different note from the linguistic one — one much more related to loss and a wistful question about life and risk. This may be Arrival’s biggest weakness; the emotional punch of the ending is lessened a bit because it feels a little rushed.

But even that conclusion loops back to the possibilities of the reshaped human imagination. And this week, especially, you don’t need to talk to an alien to see why that’s something we need.

from: https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/11

#arrival #denis villeneuve #2016 #the story of your life #ted chiang #amy adams #jeremy renner #max richter #on the nature of daylight #johann johannson

3 notes · View notes

usaffiliates-blog · 5 years

Text

10 Psychological Triggers That Make Content Go Viral

What Is The Secret Sauce?

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve probably thought about how to run a successful viral campaign.

After all, there’s nothing better than getting your prospects to spread your marketing message to millions of people... for free.

But the problem is, there is no 100% rock-solid way to predict what will go viral. Some of the biggest companies in the world spend a lot of money hiring consultants and trying out different campaigns to see if they can get some traction.

But very few people know what’s in the “secret sauce” that is guaranteed to unleash a viral effect.

That’s right, viral campaigns are part art and part science. The “art” part of viral content is the true secret sauce – these are the mysterious factors that make content go viral, sometimes even when you least expect it. (Just ask any politician who’s been swept away in a scandal.)

Often times you won’t even recognize these factors until well after the fact – hindsight being 20/20 and all that.

However, what you can do is learn about the science of viral content. These are the proven psychological factors that push your viewer’s emotional buttons and make their brains light up. These are the factors that get people hitting the share button more often...

• Amusement

• Hope

• Excitement

• Interest

All those funny cat videos online? Amusement, joy, delight.

• Their gender.

• Their familiarity with pop culture.

• Their tastes in music, movies, books, and sports.• Their education level.

• Their interests.

• Their fears

• Things that make them laugh.

• Things that frustrate them.

• Things that outrage them.

• Things that motivate them to take action.

And you’re about to discover ten of these factors for yourself right now inside this report. Once you know these ten factors, you’ll be one huge step closer to unleashing the viral campaign of your dreams.

So let’s jump in to discover the truth about what makes content truly “share-worthy...”

Factor 1: Accessibility

This is actually a really simple and almost common- sense factor, and yet so many overlook it that it’s ridiculous. Simply put, the idea here is that your content needs to be easy-to-access.

Now, there are two factors that go into accessibility.

Namely:

• The first factor is that anyone can access it. In other words, don’t lock your content down behind passwords, don’t make people join your list to get it, and don’t put it on a platform that’s only available to a minority of your audience.

For example: Don’t put a video into a format that can’t be accessed without special software. Instead, stick to major formats (like .MP4) and put it on YouTube where it’s accessible to everyone.

• The second factor is that it doesn’t take long to access it. You may have an idea for the coolest- ever 45-minute video. But you know what? Most people are going to take one look at the length and decide they don’t have time to watch it. So keep the content short so that someone can view, read or otherwise consume the entire thing within just a few minutes.

That’s the first factor. Pretty simple, right? Now here’s another...

Factor 2: Share-ability

Here’s a simple truth: people are more likely to share your content when it’s easy to share.

Obviously, this overlaps with the previous factor in that content needs to be easy-to-access in order for it to be easily shared. However, we can take this all a step further with these tips:

• Put your content on a viral platform. Facebook is one of the best examples here because the platform was designed for sharing content. All people have to do is click the “share” button. It doesn’t get much easier than that to share content.

TIP: Whenever possible, put the viral content directly on Facebook, rather than linking to your website. Content that you upload to Facebook is easier to share than content that you’re linking to offsite.

• Install “share” buttons. Let’s suppose you have some sort of content that you can’t upload directly to Facebook and other viral platforms.

One example might be a smartphone app. In this case, you’d still advertise and promote the app on viral platforms, except people would need to come to your site to download the app. When they arrive, they should see “share” buttons so they can post about your app on Facebook, tweet about it, or even directly email their friends.

Now here’s a pro tip for when you want really good results: create a call to action. This means you specifically tell people to share your content (and, when necessary, you tell them how to do it).

For example:

“Share this post if you agree with it.”

“If you love this video, just imagine how much your friends will love it. Click here to share it with them now.”

“Amaze your friends by sharing this with them now.”

Next factor...

Factor 3: Consume-ability

Psst, here’s a little secret...

People are a bit lazy. They don’t want to have to “work” to consume your viral content. And that’s why you should put it in a format that makes it easy to understand and easy to consume.

Here are the best and most popular viral formats:

Video. All people have to do is click the play button, and then sit back to watch your video. Easy peasy.

Infographic. This format is eye-catching attractive, which is a bonus. It’s also easy to consume since the words tend to be fairly sparse since the graphics tell much of the story. In other words, it’s easy to consume since people can absorb the message in a short amount of time.

Other graphics. This might be a funny meme, or it might be an inspirational quote with a photo in the background. Either way, someone can glance it and within seconds be laughing, or be disgusted, or be otherwise moved by the graphical content.

So what about articles?

Oh sure, they go viral all the time. But I’m willing to bet that most the content you’ve seen shared over the years came in a different format, such as photos, videos or infographics. Those other formats are easy to consume, easy to access and easy to share – which makes them a great choice for a viral campaign.

Now if you’re absolutely dead-set on sharing content via a text-based format (like a blog post or a report), then keep these tips in mind:

Make it easy to read. Don’t try to impress anyone with your $100 words. Make the content accessible by making it easy-to-read for your audience.

Insert plenty of white space. Don’t put up a wall of text, as that will drive users to the “back” button.

Instead, use bulleted lists like this one to create more white space. Also, use short sentences and short paragraphs for easy readability.

Break up text with graphics. These draw the eye back into the content and make a nice visual aid to reinforce your point.

Pro Tip: If your article relies heavily on graphics, then making an infographic may be the better option.

So here’s the bottom line...

Imagine that your audience members are the absolute laziest people on the planet. They don’t want to work too hard to get your message. What is the best format? If you can create a video, infographic or other graphics, you’re golden.

Next up...

Factor 4: Novelty

It’s scientifically proven that your brain loves new stuff, especially when compared to familiar stuff. That’s why so many refer to the “learner brain,” as your brain actually rewards you when you see something new. Your brain wants you to actively seek out new stuff.

Let me explain...

If you put something familiar in front of a person, the brain goes “meh.” That’s just a lukewarm response as far as synaptic connections go.

Now put something novel in front of the brain, and a part of the midbrain – which is the reward and pleasure center-- lights up like a Christmas tree.

Not only that, but this midbrain releases dopamine, which creates a very pleasurable feeling. You can kind of get high and hooked on this neurotransmitter, which is exactly what your brain wants. It wants you to seek out new stuff, and every time you do it gives you a rush of ultra-pleasurable dopamine.

So imagine this for a moment...

You put something unique in front of your prospects, and their brain is going to give them a mini-rush of good feelings. Now that they have a good feeling, they want to share this feeling. Bam, they hit the share button.

But here’s a problem...

How do you create something novel, when it seems like there is nothing new under the sun?

Thing is, you don’t have to create something completely and 100% unique. All you have to do is take something old and give it a new twist.

Let me give you an example...

Have you ever seen those popular memes that go around the internet? Take the “Grumpy Cat” meme.

It’s often the same exact photo of Grumpy Cat – and yet what happens is that someone adds a new caption to the photo, and the meme goes viral again.

See how that works? The photo is old, but the caption is new... and it still goes viral.

Another example...

Have you ever seen those lists, such as “Seven surprising things you can do with ____?” (Where the blank is some common household thing, like dryer sheets, dishwashing soap, or coffee grounds.)

Obviously, people know what to do with dryer sheets – put ‘em in your dryer.

But what these lists do is offer people new ways to use these items, which is very novel. And that’s what makes a person’s brain light up.

So the point is, it’s cool if you can come up with something totally novel. That will really light up your viewer’s brain. But if not, look for a way to put a new twist on something old.

Factor 5: Arouses Emotion

Now, this is a big factor. Huge. Because in order for you to get anyone to take any kind of action, you generally need to push their emotional buttons.

Think about it...

What do all great novels have in common?

That’s right, they create an emotional response in people.

This is why people eagerly finish the books, they’re sad when they’re done with it, and they discuss the book with others. Generally, this happens when they’ve connected emotionally with a character.

Copywriters and salespeople know their income depends on evoking emotion. That’s because many people make the buying decision based on emotion, and then justify their purchase with logic. Read just about any sales letter, and you’ll see the copywriter pushing the emotional buttons like crazy.

Point is, if you’re looking to create a successful viral campaign, then your content needs to make your viewers feel something. You need to evoke a strong emotional response.

Now, if you take a look around – such as content like the nightly news – you might be persuaded into thinking that you need to evoke a negative emotion.

Nope, that’s not true. While certain strong negative emotions (like disgust) can and do go viral, researchers have discovered that the biggest viral pieces tend to evoke positive emotions. These emotions include:

• Surprise

• Delight

• Joy

Think about some of the big viral pieces you’ve seen, and I think you’ll agree that you need to hit the positive emotional buttons. For example:

That inspirational quote? Maybe it created hope, joy, and excitement.

That prank video? Surprise and amusement. Now here’s something to consider...

Find a way to connect an old idea to a new emotion. You can do this by finding an unexplored angle.

This does two things. First, you created something novel. And as you already know, your viewer’s brain is going to lap this up like a kitten drinking milk.

Secondly, an unexpected tie creates surprise and interest, both of which are strong emotions. Now you’re well on your way to creating viral content.

Let me give you an example...

Often times we see videos online about how humans have abused animals. Some of these videos go viral because people are outraged and disgusted (those are negative emotions, but they are strong emotions). Sometimes the videos offer hope, which helps them go viral.

So picture this...

Recently I ran into a video showing a man on a pier trying to capture a pelican by the foot. I was already starting to feel outraged by this man who harassing a defenseless creature. I watched in horror as he made the catch – and then his friend helped him hold the bird still.

What happened next surprised me...

These two guys carefully and gently removed fishing lines and hooks from the bird’s mouth. Then they released the bird to the applause of the bystanders on the pier.

My heart swelled. I felt joy. I felt hopeful. And yeah, you can bet I was thoroughly surprised when this video turned out to be so heartwarming, despite looking like it was going to be about a man teasing wildlife.

You know what I did next? I hit the share button.

So, you can see how this example hits several major emotional buttons. One of the strongest is when you can surprise people – make them think the video is going to be about one thing, and turn it into something else. This is particularly effective if people think the video is going to be about something bad (such as animal abuse) and it turns out to be just the opposite.

TIP: Your viral content will backfire if you give the impression that a video is about something good, and then it turns out to be about something bad. People will feel disgusted – at YOU. They’ll feel

betrayed. So if you use this psychological trick, be sure to use it the right way (by turning a seemingly bad situation into a good one).

Next factor...

Factor 6: Enjoy-ability

This is an exceedingly simple factor, but it certainly comes into play big time with viral content.

Here’s the scoop: when people enjoy your content, they want to share it with others so that they’ll enjoy it too.

You can think of this factor as the “ice cream cone” of viral content. Eating an ice cream cone is enjoyable, right? But eating an ice cream cone with your best pals is even better. A shared experience makes a good experience even better.

So that’s what is at play here. On the one hand, people want to share their joy with others. In some cases, people share content with their friends so that they can discuss that content. (E.G.,

“Dude, you have to see this video and tell me what you think about it.”)

And sometimes, people share content they think others will enjoy because sharing raises their status.

That’s actually the next factor. Take a look...

Factor 7: Ego

Sure, there are a few purely altruistic people who share content solely for the purpose of spreading joy, education or something else positive with others.

But then there’s the rest of your audience. Before these folks share any content, they think about how sharing will affect their status in a community or among their circle of friends. That’s right, sharing can be an act of narcissism or even outright ego-stroking.

So let’s take a look at two of these ego factors that may come into play when someone is considering sharing your content:

1) Identity building

2) Status building.

Take a look...

Identity Building

The idea here is that people share content that supports their worldview and builds their identity.

Think about how social media works...

So many people have thousands of “friends” from around the world. Their connections are people with whom they’ve never had a one-on-one conversation. And the truth is, these folks don’t have time to build individual relationships with everyone in their contact list. So what they do is share content that basically says,

“This supports my worldview. This is what I think. This is who I am.”

That’s why you’ll see people sharing links, videos, and memes about important issues, including political issues, social issues, and religious issues.

But that doesn’t mean you need to create content based on the huge issues of our time in order for it to go viral. Heck no. Just choose an issue that divides people, take a side, and create content showing a strong stance on that issue.

Your content doesn’t even have to be serious. When I say the issue “divides people,” I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m just saying that folks have strong opinions. And this can occur even in light-hearted situations.

For example, people are pretty divided when it comes to sports teams. If you’re in a market catering to a particular sport, you could easily create a meme that makes fun of one team while exalting another. That’s the kind of stuff that goes viral, as fans of the exalted team share the meme and laugh.

Not only does this evoke an emotion (always a good thing as you learned), but it also builds the sharer’s identity by showing which sports team they prefer.

Music is another example. People share music they like, memes about musicians and quotes form musicians. Again, telling others what kind of music you enjoy is a way to share something of yourself with others.

Still another example: sharing cute animal videos, or memes that denounce animal abuse. These all tell viewers something about the sharer.

Of course, there are plenty of contentious examples too. Sharing outrageous quotes or conspiracy theories from the political fringe would certainly tell others a lot about the sharer.

So the point is, people like to share things that they agree with, as it helps them build their identity on a social media platform.

Now here’s the other ego factor that comes into play...

Status Building

The concept here is that people share content that will make them look good in the eyes of their friends (which in turn makes them feel better). That’s right, this is purely an ego play. It’s a way for someone to build social capital, which they may cash in and spend at another time.

So here are three ways people use viral content to build their own status in a community:

People like to be the first to share cool content. This person likes to be seen as the one who always finds and shares the cool stuff first. In fact, this person is more likely to share content before the viral effect has really kicked in. He wants to be the first, and if he’s not then he probably won’t even share it.

For example, if a viral video has already made it to the front page of YouTube or it’s trending on Twitter, this person won’t share it.

Pro Tip: This is the type of person who can help you kick start a viral campaign. Find these sneezers on blogs, on Facebook and similar communities. Then get your content into their hands as soon as it launched (or even just before) so that they can maintain their identity as the person who finds the cool stuff first.

People share content that will help others. The second way people build their status is by sharing content that helps others. It makes them look good to their friends, and it makes them feel good too.

But here’s something else...

Helping others also trips the reciprocity trigger. When we do for others, they often feel obligated to do for us. That’s why if you give a friend a birthday card on his birthday, he’ll likely reciprocate and give you a card when your birthday rolls around.

So, someone who regularly shares useful content with others tends to trip the reciprocity trigger and build social capital. When this person wants something from his friends, he’s more likely to get it since he’s been so helpful to them.

And finally...

People share content that will make others feel good. We’ve already talked about this just a bit earlier, in that people who enjoy something will want to share it so that others can enjoy it too. But here this factor isn’t altruistic – rather, the person is sharing the content to build their own status.

There’s a bit of behavioral conditioning at play here, at least with some people. Let me explain...

People who go on a first date and do something thrilling – such as riding a rollercoaster – often attribute this good feeling with their date rather than the rollercoaster itself. And that’s after just one event. Imagine if you paired a thrilling event (and good feelings) with a particular person repeatedly.

That’s right, now we’re getting into Pavlovian territory. Pavlov trained his dogs to associate the sound of a bell with food. So all Pavlov had to do was ring a bell, and his dogs would automatically drool in anticipation of food. That’s called conditioning.

Now imagine if a certain person in a community is constantly sharing good content that produces good feelings among his friends. His friends would laugh, feel delighted and generally feel good whenever they see the content. However, some of their good feelings would become associated with the person himself.

Point is, it’s a sneaky yet surprisingly effective way for someone to build their status in a community.

If they can share content that makes others feel good, then they’ll look good to their friends.

So, you get the picture here. People don’t always share for altruistic reasons. Sometimes they share to build their identity or build their status. Keep that in mind as you develop your own viral content ideas.

Okay, next factor...

Factor 8: Relate-ability

The idea behind this factor is that people share when they’re able to relate to the content.

But here’s the key...

Different types of people relate to different types of content. And that’s why you need to know your audience inside and out before you even attempt to create viral content. You should know:

• Their age.

• Their hopes and dreams.

...And anything else you can find out about your target market.

How do you collect all this information? Here are two ways:

1. Survey your market. Just know that sometimes surveys are inaccurate, simply because people tell you what you want to hear rather than telling you the truth. What’s more, biased questions can skew the results. And finally, if your group isn’t a random selection of your target market, you may get skewed results.

Point is, be very careful about how you collect survey data. Then trust it, but verify it using the next method...

2. Immerse yourself in your market. Join forums, Facebook groups, and offline meetups. Get to know the market as much as possible. If you’re able to, do what your market does so that you have a better understanding of their joys and problems. (E.G., If your market consists of fly fishers, then take up fishing to learn more about the market.)

Once you know as much as you possibly can about your market, then you’ll be better able to create content that they can really relate to. End result? A bigger viral effect for you.

Next factor...

Factor 9: Connect-ability

One study suggests that about 78% of people who share content do so as a way of connecting with their friends.

You can see how this works if you give it some thought.

On social media, people aren’t having one-on-one conversations with all the contacts in their friends' list. So they post something thought-provoking, something controversial, or something that otherwise will engage others.

So maybe the other people will just “like” the content.

Better yet, perhaps the others will discuss it with the person who shared it.

That’s a great way to connect or re-connect with friends.

They can laugh about that cute cat video together.

They can share some outrage over what some celebrity said about someone else. They can discuss an important social issue, which grows respect and even bonds the two people if they share the same view.

Of course, sometimes people don’t even know all the “friends” on their contact list. In that case, this sort of connection can become very valuable. Someone might lurk for months without ever commenting on another’s content.

And then one day an issue touches them so deeply that they join a discussion, which connects them with everyone else who’s joined the same discussion.

The point is when you’re thinking about what kind of content to create, ask yourself if this is something that might connect people with others.

Next factor...

Factor 10: Evokes Curiosity

A lot of people who’re creating viral content – such as a video – put a lot of thought and effort into creating something polished, professional and share-worthy. But then when it comes to the title or description of the content they write a few lines that are as boring and dry as burnt toast.

Here’s the deal...

If you want to kick start a big viral effect, your title and description (where applicable) need to get attention and get the click. And one good way to do that is by arousing curiosity.

The idea here is to create an “itch” that your visitors can only scratch by viewing your content. You arouse their curiosity with a title, and then satisfy that curiosity within the viral content itself.

Now if you want a crash course in curiosity-arousing titles, all you have to do is visit one of the many content- curation sites that specialize in sharing viral content. One really good example of this is the popular site UpWorthy.com.

Today as I write this, I can find plenty of curiosity- arousing titles on UpWorthy. Here’s a quick sample:

“JK Rowling Responds Perfect To a Girl Who Gets Teased For Wanting to Write”

The target market is going to immediately be curious about what JK Rowling told this girl – and they have to watch the video to find out.

“This Special Dog is Saving Our Bees – She’s The Only One Who Can”

This is going to raise questions that can only be answered by watching the video. Why is this dog so special? How is she saving bees? Why is she the only one that can?

“These Tigers Have Never Been Swimming Before. Here’s How They Reacted To Their Brand New Pool.”

This title certainly arouses curiosity about how these big cats will react to a pool. It makes me want to watch it – what about you?

So the point is, your viral content needs to have a good title if you want people to view the content.

At that point, the content itself should include the other factors we’ve talked about in order to get

people sharing it across your market.

Now let’s wrap things up...

Creating Your Own Secret Sauce

As you know, creating viral content isn’t 100% science. If it was, then big companies around the world wouldn’t pour so much time, effort and money into campaigns that flopped. There is always that factor that no one foresees that either makes or breaks a campaign.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any crystal balls that can give you a sneak peek into the future of your viral campaign. But what you can do is use the ten factors you just learned about in this report.

Let’s recap:

Factor 1: Accessibility

Factor 2: Share-ability

Factor 3: Consume-ability

Factor 4: Novelty

Factor 5: Arouses Emotion

Factor 6: Enjoy-ability

Factor 7: Ego

Factor 8: Relate-ability

Factor 9: Connect-ability

Factor 10: Arouses Curiosity

Now the key here isn’t to just pick a factor and focus all your time and effort on being sure your viral campaign nails that factor.

Instead, you want to include as many of those factors as possible. Ideally, your content should be nailing all ten of those factors.

Think about the last big viral video that rolled across your Facebook feed for several. I’m betting it included all of these factors – or at least the vast majority. Am I right?

Let’s take the example I gave you earlier in this report, about the guy who grabbed the pelican by the foot and then ended up pulling fishing hooks and lines off its beak.

It was easy to share, access and consume (because it was a short three-minute video on Facebook). Those are the first three factors.

Factor 4: It was novel to me because I had never seen anyone catch a pelican like that before.

Did it arouse emotion? You bet it did. First outrage, then surprise, when I realized the video was about helping rather than hurting an animal, then happiness. For these reasons, it was also thoroughly enjoyable.

Factor 7, ego. Yes, I shared it. And yes, it probably made me look good to my friends when I shared with them this heart-warming video. This also created a connection with my friends (Factor 9).

The video also hit Factor 8, in that I could relate to it. No, I can’t exactly relate to capturing a pelican, but I certainly can relate to helping those who can’t help themselves.

And finally curiosity – it had that too. The title was something along the lines of, “This man catches a pelican – you won’t believe what happens next.”

So the point is, even a simple video like the pelican video nails all ten of those factors. Your viral content simply won’t get much traction if you don’t inject all of those factors.

So here’s what I suggest you do next...

Start brainstorming viral content for your niche. Study your market first if you don’t know much about them. Then go to sites like YouTube, Facebook and others to see what sort of content is already trending in your niche.

Does your market like infographics, videos, memes or other content?

Do they like humorous content, motivational, inspirational or something else?

What topics seem to grab their attention the most?

Point is, reverse engineer the viral content that’s currently working in your niche to see if you can figure out what your prospects respond to, and then create something with similar factors.

NOTE: Don’t create similar content, as that destroys the novelty factor. Instead, create content that hits the same factors and triggers as the popular content in your niche.

One last tip...

Be sure to kick start your viral content. This means you put it in front of as many people as possible on the day you launch it, as this will help it gather the momentum and critical mass it needs to go viral in a big way.

Good luck – and here’s to seeing your content on the front page of YouTube or trending on social media soon!

“Do You Want A Copy Of An Internet Marketing Pioneer’s Best- Selling Book For Free?” Discover more internet marketing ideas for your online business success... Request Here Today

#affiliate marketing #online business #digital marketing

1 note · View note

diabolik-lovers-box · 6 years

Text

Anonymous: It’s the third time I’m rewriting this match-up, and I would say I have even gone through self-discovery? So, in a way, thanks! And I believe you can work that confusion out; all your followers support you!

1. MBTI AND PERSONALITY: INTP-T. Though I’m skeptical about MBTI, the description is almost dead-on. Although I must add that I’m a crybaby and I hate it. One harsh word — and I’m in tears. But when I feel most vulnerable I throw a tantrum or drown my opponent in sarcasm. Something along the line “the best defense is a good offense”? And I also have two extreme states: I’m energetic, productive and ambitious or I’m sleepy, apathetic and gloomy.

2. HOBBIES/INTERESTS: I try to distinguish a hobby from a simple fun activity. The former includes productivity and self-development, and the latter is meant just for wasting time. What a snooty way to put it, huh.

So, it’s obvious that I like wasting time on anime, manga and visual novels. I just have specific genres I’m fond of. I’m a sucker for psychology, science-fiction, thrillers… and for stupid shojo. It’s like a guilty pleasure.

I also like Star Trek and Star Wars!

Speaking about hobbies… Sorry for rambling. Here goes a difficult topic for me. I have lots, but not at the same time. Hobbies come and go in periods: I can become really obsessed with a random idea in a blink of an eye; but then abruptly lose interest… only to become obsessed again. I don’t even bother to sleep properly when I have something on my mind.

For example, during my last semester at high school I learnt some French from zero level and passed B2 exam just because I had been ridiculed by my friend who already knew French. And after that I was so engrossed with acting; and then I was playing the guitar nonstop; and then I was dealing with sound production for three months in a row. At some point I was also passionate for yoga and dancing. And for coding. And for web-design. And for constructed languages. Hell, I can’t even remember all of my crazes.

I just constantly feel the need to become the very first; to know it all and to be able to do it all. It’s a mix of greed, envy and curiosity and “prove them wrong”. By now I am acquainted with tons of things, — however, in my opinion, only superficially; I’m not even anywhere near to pros.

But I suppose I have always liked non-fiction/science books/manuals/courses! I just love studying. Without uptight and challenging studying I feel bored and sleepy, so my preferable topics are physics, biology and psychology. Oh, and I have always had a soft spot for writing. Poems and short stories and novels work perfect for me. There’s where my kitschy experience comes to use; and I just simply like working with words and thesaurus and stuff.

3. LIKES/DISLIKES: I hate routines, deadlines and sending e-mails to make appointments. I hate when one doesn’t give me enough alone time. I hate small talks and noisy people.

I dislike drowsy repetitive music (but I like good classical pieces; they are generally nor drowsy nor repetitive). I hate gardening and cleaning. I prefer not to cook. I’m afraid of needles, poverty and bad health.

(…I’m into lots of really kinky stuff; I mean the Internet has infected me so far).

I like chocolate and tea and spicy food. I like lavender and coconut smell. I like being feminine and pretty: long skirts and red lipstick are so classy! Often I go stargazing; I know a lot about stars and planets and spacecrafts; starry sky always inspires me and calms me down. All about space is great, really. And of course I love my close ones!

Oh, and I kinda like listening to people when they are in distress and when they need somebody to talk to; in my opinion I’m not very good with emotional support outside crisis situations, but when hiatus occurs I’m good at pointing at the root of the problem. And my pieces of advice and my predictions usually justify themselves? Trying to put myself in somebody’s shoes is strangely appealing. Though not as appealing as pondering on something bizarre.

4. I can’t choose between Ayato and Yuma. Hm. Yuma, I don’t dislike him but I just don’t care about him a lot I guess? And Ayato is annoying with his Yours Truly rubbish… but I don’t dislike him either. Sometimes he is even hilarious.

Thank you in advance for reading and for answering! I know, this description is long… but I really want to (finally) get a good DiaHell match-up from you. I trust your opinion. And anon, please!

Ooooh, yes, it is a long description O-O But it’s fine! I’m glad you’re finally getting your match up! Sorry it took so long!

Your First Match: Ruki Mukami!

I really think Ruki likes learning new things, which means that he would be a good choice as someone who can explore the world with you. I think he would be good at giving you alone space when you’re in need of it, seeing as he is pretty introverted as well. I think you and Ruki would both be good at relating to each other when it comes to small talk and preferring to not fill empty space with meaningless words.

Your Second Match: Reiji Sakamaki!

Ruki’s interest in science seems to be similar to your interest in the world. I think in that sense you would both contrast and match each other well. Ruki can be a bit critical, but I think he would like the way you carry yourself. He can agree with your distaste for rowdy people—i.e. Ayato—and I think that could be something the two of you bond over. For some reason, I get the feeling that he would like the way you handle yourself, a little bit professional, a little bit strongly, to him, it seems like a good mix.

Your Third Match: Kino!

Kino seems like someone who is all over the place. Since you like to try out a lot of different types of things, I think that means you two would match each other pretty well. You can both prove to be each other’s great companions when traveling the world, looking for new things to do and new things to explore. I also think he would be surprisingly good at giving you your space.

#diabolik lovers #dl #ask box open #reiji sakamaki #ruki mukami #kino #match ups #match up #diabolik lovers match ups

13 notes · View notes

news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

Text

'SighSwoon' merges self-care tips with hilarious memes on Instagram

Scrolling through @SighSwoon on Instagram is the equivalent of picking up a mysterious book at a thrift shop and falling into words that both enlighten and entertain.

Gabi Abrao, a 24-year-old Los Angeles native, is the mind behind one of Instagram's shiniest hidden gems. SighSwoon showcases self-reflective memes and guides on how to feel things, whether it's simple pleasures or a broken heart. It’s a treasure trove of content tailored for millennials navigating creative lives.

Sighswoon began in the summer of 2016, Abrao tells Mashable over email. Heartbreak and the desire to make some changes drove her toward the internet as a medium for creating and connecting with others, mainly through memes. With an ever-growing follower count of 62.3K, she's connected with a lot of people.

“When I share a realization online and see that thousands of people are going through the same thing, it makes me feel less alone, less hard on myself. I want people to feel this way too — understood, empowered,” Abrao explains.

View this post on Instagram

Reminder that we’re all multi-faceted human beings and inner movements and conditions are subject to change constantly. There is no fixed condition. The more you do and the more you experience, the more understanding you will gain about your many facets and when they show up for you. There is so much to you - your capabilities, your moods, your modes. Being in one mode doesn’t make you in fixed opposition to the the other. There is no forever, there is no never. Fixation is an illusion. Change and shape-shifting is nature. After you understand your modes, you may get close to managing them. The gift of this will be synchronicity and balance. ** (Reposting myself from last October because this theme keeps showing up for me time and time again. Love this truth too much. Happy shapeshifting.)

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Apr 7, 2019 at 6:20pm PDT

The artist uses her platform to offer a plethora of self-care tips, from how to sunbathe ("a secluded location where you can get as naked as possible") to the best ways to "shapeshift," a visualization practice for when you're uncentered. Reading her is kind of like speaking to a caring physician who knows exactly what ails you and then gives you the perfect prescription, free of charge.

View this post on Instagram

Three years ago, following a mildly devastating heartbreak, I dragged my mattress and box spring to the very center of the room and said, “I am a lush, self-sustaining island“. I slept in the center of the room for three days. That weekend, I took myself to a local playhouse. A 20-seat theater, the space was tiny and intimate. I arrived alone in a long black dress and proceeded to watch a stubborn man fall in love with an alien. The play was incredible, surprising, I cried. Once home, I felt ready for the luxury of leaning on a wall and shoved my bed back up against it. . . Later, ready for guests and no longer isolating, I thought of myself as a castle in the desert. “Grand for itself, wise for itself,” I wrote in a poem. In this new form, I was rejecting the need for outside validation, especially that of romantic partners. I imagined myself made of stone that remained cool, even at the highest noon. I imagined myself as an abundant whimsical structure in an environment lacking of. Sturdy and welcoming and independent. “Grand when you arrive, grand when you leave,“ I added to the poem. . . In a meditation class in high school, our teacher told us to pick our place. My teacher, who did past life regression on dogs, said, “Pick a place to be in. Just sit there and listen. Make room for visits from animals, insects, spirits.“ I settled for a giant warm boulder in the sun, next to a free-flowing river, surrounded by woods. A buffalo visited me that day, my eyes closed in a classroom. When things are neutral, when things are good, when things are great, I am the boulder in the sun by the river. Or I am laying on it. . . The house cat reminds me to stretch my body and take time in the sun. The house cat makes me not feel guilty for napping too long or staring at the traffic outside. The house cat reminds me to give myself permission to relax and take it slow.

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on May 2, 2019 at 7:19pm PDT

With so much to do and see online today, it can be difficult to slow your scroll and ask yourself how you're feeling. Abrao's hyper-aware content offers a mirror with which followers can take a nice, long look at themselves. The focus falls on subjects like self-worth, illusions, success, and creativity. She utilizes extensive captions to explain specific ideas in depth — or even just to describe a sunset.

View this post on Instagram

me drinking the sunset on a hill overlooking the city. it’s incredible how some of the most impactful events occur in line with some of the most devastating. sometimes intensity is just intensity. i am living my dreams and aching simultaneously, and i’d be a fool to think this could ever be any other way. dual, shifting, unbelievably fair. i am so happy to still be here. when things feel gigantic, and the imagination builds tall tales to match the sensation, we can always return to water and sunshine.

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Mar 26, 2019 at 3:50pm PDT

“As a teenager, I used to do street art wheat paste posters around the city that said ‘sigh swoon sigh’ on them," Abrao says of her page’s unusual name. "It was a mini poem I made up and attached meaning to, and sharing it like that was a reason to run around and be bad. Years later, the phrase would come back around and feel like the most fitting title for what my page has become.”

View this post on Instagram

My Higher Self just whispered this to me and I was floored. May we recognize crossfire. May we recognize deliberate, aimed fire. May we protect ourselves first before engaging in any perceived battle.

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Mar 13, 2019 at 9:36pm PDT

The Sighswoon feed is aesthetically pleasing, everything kissed with a tint of beige. It's light and welcoming, which is exactly the way Abrao wanted it. She blames her fascination with the hue on her time spent at the beach: “I was renting a bed and a balcony in a living room for $500/month. The building’s stucco was beige, the cheap '90s carpet was beige, and the sand was beige. I think I just wanted to match everything.”

SEE ALSO: I don't know who needs to hear this, but these memes are good

View this post on Instagram

tbt to the longest but purest #vintage #meme wrote this a year ago

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Feb 5, 2019 at 1:40am PST

“The cyborg in me recognizes the cyborg in you,” reads her bio, just above a link to her online store where she sells merch that features the saying on totes and sweatshirts. “It’s a claim to embracing the digital age,” Abrao explains, “the very human-meets-technology existence we all participate in, and are still wearily adapting to.” She admits that while it’s meant to be humorous, she also means it with her “whole heart."

View this post on Instagram

my beloved cream crewnecks are now available! i got one sample made for photos are I absolutely adore it. sizes run a little big and on the “men’s” side of sizing. sweaters are made-to-order and will ship within two weeks. link in bio 🏹🏹 p.s. totes are still available in the shop and any orders made today before midnight will ship on thursday morning along with every order placed this past week. love a cozy cyborg

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Jan 29, 2019 at 1:41pm PST

With just about three years of memeing under her (beige) belt, Abrao has figured out the formula for making a solid one.

“A good meme is funny, relatable, insightful, and healing. In that order. You should laugh, then feel connected to the creator or others who understand it, then experience some introspect, then leave with a healed feeling from those three processes,” she muses. Her delivery method varies as she utilizes many different meme formats.

View this post on Instagram

ok fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Feb 5, 2019 at 10:30am PST

Occasionally, Abrao will post pictures of herself wearing interesting outfits made of neutral textiles and glowy silks. These portraits provide a face to the name (as well as maintaining her color-coded image). They also fuel fan encounters at her part-time book store gig: "A few times I have rung up a book, handed it to the person across the counter, and they’re just staring at me, and they say 'You make memes right?'"

View this post on Instagram

Years ago, I read a passage by an unknown source that said - “When you have an amazing day, take note of what you were wearing, what you ate, who you were with, what you did. Do the same with bad days.” This shirt is my absolute favorite of mine, and I’ve only had good days in it.

A post shared by GABI + MEMES (@sighswoon) on Apr 17, 2019 at 5:11pm PDT

Abrao just wants to help everyone chill out. "I aim for my page to be accessible, empowering, and soothing," she says. And she wants to keep it up for as long as possible.

"I wish to continue my studies of the invisible and unseen — documenting my findings through paintings, writings, videos, memes, and other art forms," she says. Her end goal is literally out of this world: "I will operate a carousel in the desert some day, and I hope to re-spawn on another planet in my next life."

In the midst of all the noise that is Instagram in 2019, Sighswoon provides a light-filled digital oasis, a faraway page that's easy to get lost on. Be careful, though. You might just walk away feeling refreshed and renewed. And with an affinity for beige.

WATCH: Nickelodeon releases official SpongeBob meme figures

#_category:yct:001000002 #_uuid:507e85d2-e538-3381-ba4a-2b4215c5f63c #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_author:Harry Hill #_revsp:news.mashable

3 notes · View notes

summerdownbeach · 6 years

Text

Gonna edit for grammar and spelling later...

Getting a little irked here by the people defending Voltron S8, because they assume everyone's issues are purely related to shipping. I never really cared who ended up with who at all, (only that everyone should want to date Hunk because he's perfect boyfriend material). Guys, the writing was just bad. It was a poorly written season, a poorly written finale, and honestly, it gave a piss ass message about giving up and letting a friend destroy themselves for the greater good. Not gonna go into to much detail here but these are just a few of my complaints:

1. Pacing and Story telling. The pacing of this season was bizarre. They started off with essentially a filler episode to quickly throw in Allurance as cannon (with some hella stiff dialogue but we'll get to that later) and then had like... a few episodes to justify bringing back old characters so we could get a last glimpse. Then 2 filler episodes in a row, then a straight run to the finish with a thrown together plotline. Literally nothing in this show prefaced Haggar as the big bad. 90 percent of the time she didn't seem to even want Lot or around, much less want anything to do with Altea or her own affiliations. The Alteans who followed her never felt like fully thought out characters either. They ended the last season with the red haired Altean pilot giving way to tons of theories about her past and who she could be, but she was literally just a drone set to die 5 minutes after introduction. That's bad forshadowing.

2. Important off screen plot points. Why on earth would they do this? Why would pink general just suddenly switch to the coillition? Why did they make us think she died in the explosion and then backtrack two minutes later? Why did they end the show with Shiro and Adam's big gay kiss (yes, it's Adam, listen to the audio description, they literally day it's Adam) without ever establishing Adam's return? They could've easily spent a scene where team Voltron returns to earth to grieve and find that in this new timeline (because yes, it's a new timeline despite what the characters think, if destroyed planets are suddenly back) Adam didn't die and is waiting for Shiro. They could've given them a real moment, developed their (nonexistent on screen) relationship and at least made their big moment at the end less sudden and so clearly damage control from burying their gay last season.

3. Relationship dialogue. I don't want to harp on Allur*nce as a ship itself here. It's not my thing, but I'm positive fan fiction writers and fanartists have made some pretty awesome stuff that's well made and fun to read and look at. I'm strictly looking at the shows portrayal of it. My number 1 complaint? The bizarrely platonic dialougue whenever the two talk. I'll give Lance this, he seemed at least interested in their romance this season, but whenever she and Lance talked, it was all just so formal - and half of what she said was exposition. Even during their date, and Alluras big reveal about feeling alone on earth felt so strangely platonic, and I truly believe that is the gault of the writers. They should've planted moments of growth between these two seasons ago! Not simply kept going with this tired and unrealistic "boy wears girl down until she says yes" trope. Even if they w erent certain they were going to go ahead with Allura and Lance, they could've built in friendship bolstering moments. Then, this date could've been so much less clunky. And to have Lance tell Allura he loves her on the first date? Even if it wasn't unrealistic, it also takes out any of the impact that the phrase carries later. By the time of her sacrifice Lance has said it onscreen so much that "I love you" has little to no weight. No wonder it was so easy for Allura to yeet herself into the void - she never exactly returned his sentiments - being too busy with exposition dialogue to make any strides in their (budding) relationship. Again, I have no problem with Allur*nce, only the lazy and ineffective way it was portrayed in the last few seasons.

4. Allura's sacrifice. I'm not even going to get into the political implications of making the Black woman bear the burden of the universe on her shoulders to the point where she literally has to sacrifice her body and soul to save the cosmos. I'm talking the actual execution of how they went about it. There's this concept in fiction writing where your most dramatic scene, your climax, should use an economy of words and time to be the most effective. That's why it hurts so much in movies like Wonder Woman, and even Titanic, when lead characters die. There usually is no time for goodbye, or if there is, it's brief and visual. Instead, the writers chose to give Allura an absurdly long time to say goodbye to everyone, and what's crazy is, no one but Lance objected? Like at all? They just accepted right away that there was no other way. I never took them as a fatalist bunch but hey, why stick to human characteristics now. Clearly the only person who should object to you self sacrificing is your significant other. This is why so much sacrifice in narrative is done in a way that refuses to give loved ones time to react because any sane person would at least try to stop them initially, and grasp at straws for another solution. I hated how the team just shrugged their shoulders and let Allura kill herself for the greater good. Their silence wasn't tragic, it was lazy.

5. Their lions just... left? The universe is done needing defense? Just like that? How did everyone get home from their princess death picnic? Do they make uberpools for space travel? Did they all agree not to be paladins anymore before this? What about Hunks dream of handing off the reins of Yellow to the next generation of paladins? Why did they write it this way? Who did this? Who do I blame?

I think what frustrates me the most is that the comedic episodes were still good. I truly think filler has always been the strongest asset voltron had. The dynamics were always much stronger in the funny episodes, and it seems like they wasted a lot of potential this season with rushed plot points and filling plotholes off screen.

I have more issues with this season, and I'll post them when I feel like adding to this list, but to say that people didn't like S8 because their ship didn't happen is obnoxious, especially when a season full of plot holes and rushed explanations is what we were left with. And on the subject of dissappointment, i didnt go over it here, but people being upset at the queer baiting are so valid. Even if you weren't into Kl*nce, the producers pretty much tried to sell the show on it. To use lgbt content, especially content that was never going to be cannon, as a marketing tactic is despicable. While strides were made by the show, airing the first animation of men kissing on screen in an show aimed at kids, the victory leaves a bad taste when the couple in question was never justified in the narrative beforehand, and was used as a ploy to fulfill the promise of lgbt rep, without actually using any of the budding relationships developing in the show (not limited to Kl*nce by any means. They could've done Sh*ith, H*ith, H*nce, ect).

If this season felt complete and left you with a feeling of contentment, good for you, I too enjoy a guilty pleasure as much as the next person. That said, this was a badly written season on all fronts. I think they did Allura and Allur*nce dirty with the resolution. They missed opportunities for character development in favor of more repetitive space battles. Don't try to invalidate people's contempt at this season by defending the creators for making the show in the first place, when they didn't live up to the standards of narrative fiction to get a passing grade in a creative writing class.

And because I want to end on something nice, I thought that the meeting of the old paladins and the new paladins was very cool, and it was really interesting to see Zarkon interact with the paladins in a new way. So... at least there's that?

#spoilers #spoiler #voltron spoilers #voltron season 8 #vld #vld s8 #vld spoilers #vld season 8 #vld shiro #vld keith #vld lance #vldallura #vldpidge #vldhunk #voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary disappointment #voltron legendary disaster #voltron legendary discourse

23 notes · View notes

teratoscope · 6 years

Text

Repton

The inside of the dome is a hothouse; your optics fog the moment you cut inside. The ground shifts and gives slightly under your feet. Nothing is paved here, except with what you’re guessing is piles of chipped rubber strewn across a concrete foundation. The whole place feels like you’ve wandered into a nightmare version of a playground; a hopeless tangle of brightly-painted metal and plastic, some entirely abstract and some molded in crude imitation of jungle foliage, weaves around and above you. Featureless black domes break up the terrain, some the size of houses. And then there’s the noise, the inescapable wall of sound this place throws at you. Synthetic insect chirring, the hiss and hum of climate regulators, a distant rumble of turbines and churning coolant somewhere far below, and a repetitive, ear-splitting whoop. Which, you’re realizing, is almost certainly an alarm. Your hosts are well camouflaged against the terrain; bright, many-colored scales gleam under the half-light that catches in the heady atmosphere like insects in amber. They dangle from bars and false branches, then drop to the ground and pace tight circles around you, watching the graphics flit across the inner surface of the dusky orange domes fused over their eyes. Some break formation to get a closer look, then flee back into the labyrinthine reaches above. “Are they supposed to be cute?” says Dak. Weapon racks pop loose from hidden chambers in the floor and out of “trees,” clattering into place. The Reptons rush them, squabbling for the prime pickings before some unseen force goads them to break away and take the next gun down. “You tell me,” you say.

HD 1 MV 180’ climb AC 14 AT bite (d4+1) or by weapon Special network

Network—all Reptons are networked to each other and their devices. Unless their comms are jammed, a Repton soldier always has a precise understanding of their distance relative to their squadmates and all Repton-aligned tech, and can communicate with both. Furthermore, all Reptons have access to their network’s algorithmic assistance. If the Reptons in question are in combat with a target that has fought networked Reptons before, they gain +1 to attack and initiative rolls for every one of these prior encounters (up to 6).

1d6 Repton Weapons

1. Lance caster. 3d3 kinetic, 90’ range, six-shot clip. Semi-automatic magnetic bolt-thrower. Individual bolts are about as long as a human forearm, brightly colored to stand out for easy recovery and reload. Reptons struggle with tracking ammunition in high-tension situations, and also with aiming; lance casters tend to be assigned to top-percentile fighters.

2. Buddy gun. 1d4+3 heat, 240’ range, battery exhausts and needs to be re-cranked for 1d3 rounds on a max-damage roll. Onboard AI provides procedurally generated moral support. Weapon of choice for the average Repton grunt.

3. Bughucker. Xd10 explosive, 400’ range, can house and fire up to three shells at once, dealing damage equal to shells fired. Launches a suicide drone resembling an overfed beetle that chases its target using impenetrable precognitive algorithms. The damage from a successful attack roll with a Bughucker “arrives” 2d3 rounds after the round is actually fired. It takes 1 round to arm and load a shell. The definition of a fire-and-forget weapon.

4. Mega-cuffs. 2d6 kinetic, melee weapon. Allows an extra 60’ rocket-assisted charge in a straight line as part of an attack. Fuel explodes for 3d6 damage in a 15’ radius on a critical miss (Dex check for half for everyone but the Repton wearing it).

5. Rad-hoser. 30’ cone, 2d4 Rads (Dex check for half). Sprays goopy, luminescent reactor discharge. Widely used to clear ground for development.

6. Slough cannon. 60’ cone, 1d8+1 damage from abrasion and hemorrhaging (Con check for half). Damage die implodes each round: roll damage at the top of the round and apply if the damage is less than the damage dealt last round; otherwise the effect ends. Deals no damage to targets in airtight armor. Weapon reaches dangerous operating temperatures; on firing the wielder takes 1d3 heat damage. Fires an expanding cloud of nanoassemblers designed to revert living tissue to uncommitted stem cells and package it for future use.

1d8 Repton Devices

1. Black cylinder the size of a coffee maker held aloft on a dirty yellow repulsor field. Synthesized voice squawks instructions in decidedly un-reptilian but still unrecognizable language in time with strobes of decorative light piping. Neural-network assisted targeting means that each consecutive missed shot grants a +1 to the next attack made by any Repton. AC 8, hp 12, MV 90’ hover

2. Modular railgun. Takes three dedicated team members and a full round to assemble, aim & fire, hucks anything that fits in the barrel and can hold a charge for 10d10 kinetic damage in a 600’ straight line (Dex check to dodge). All pieces emblazoned with thorough visual aids that walk the user through the assembly process.

3. Egg-shaped plastic housing the size of a football with a set of neural interface leads coiled around a magnetic support stand. When wired up, user enters a hypnagogic state for six hours, after which leads detach and user wakes with no memory of their state of unconsciousness. For the subsequent 48 hours, user has instantaneous and entirely subconscious grasp of Repton engineering, will service Repton devices without noticing if their hands are not kept otherwise occupied. Reptons will ignore anyone who sticks close to one of these things, and actively assist a user. Continuous use risks permanent nerve damage.

4. Short brass rod ending in t-shaped prong. So long as it remains aimed at a single biological target, the target’s sensory faculties are greatly reduced (disadvantage to all tests of perception), and pain, fatigue, and sickness register only as a faint, pleasurable itch (so long as effect is sustained, player has no knowledge of their hit point total and is immune to penalties from distraction/pain/morale).

5. Repton-sized metal pylon ringed with sturdy levers. Interface panel shows map of local terrain and best-fit route from current location to resource-rich zone. Requires a team of ten Reptons (or three to four reasonably strong humans) to open, revealing opalescent, filigreed structure, like a fossil basket star curled around a flickering, barely perceptible mote of solid black. Upon release, computronium seed begins to unfold and put down roots. Surrounding six-mile radius will become a fully functional and populated Repton habitat within a month.

6. Amoeboid drone; flexile smart-matter body around hard-framed central storage armatures. Absorbs wounded Reptons and deposits them in “care spheres” where internal limbs mend/foam over wounds and dose the patient with combat amphetamines. One round to recover an incapacitated Repton, 2d3 rounds to redeploy with a rerolled hit die and +4 to hit and damage. MV 120’, AC 10, hp 14.

7. Mobile terrarium. Looks like a Rainforest Café stapled to the back of a mechanical crab. Reptons stationed in one never flee; they defend their home to the death. “Trees” extrude clone mealworm paste and simulation fruit flesh in narcotic, mildly hallucinogenic, and blue raspberry flavors. Guided by competent but nonverbal AI. Personalities tend to be grudgingly servile to overseers, pleasantly exasperated with crew in a way that should be familiar to any cat owner. MV 90’, AC 16, hp 80

8. Meta-Rover. Modular all-terrain vehicle, top operable combat speed of 300’/round. Like a pile of motorized, armored bigwheels bolted together into a single day-glo abomination, until it separates into a swarm of single-seaters. Vehicles can hypothetically link indefinitely, but for every unit after the 6th there’s a 1 in 10 chance at the end of each round that the drivers fall catastrophically out of sync and the assemblage spins out.

The Reptons were the first species we encountered in the Contact War, and if it had only ever been them, things might have been different.

The average individual Repton is about as canny as an especially dull chimp in most regards. They’re reasonably talented tool-users, but if you were to raise one from the egg, away from their infrastructure, their at-birth implants, and mainline Repton culture, it would take some serious goading to get them to so much as flint-knap.

And yet as a group, Reptons are deadly. They fight tactically, often making unexpected gambits, and they fight with little regard for their individual well-being. They communicate constantly, though no-one has yet been able to decipher Repton script or spoken language; Repton “writing” features six thousand plus distinct characters and counting and doesn’t seem to have any fixed direction you’re supposed to read it. And their war effort is driven by arms and manufacturing tech that is sometimes leagues ahead of what humanity is capable of, or founded on utterly inscrutable scientific principles, even if the interfaces often seem designed for preschoolers.

But nobody has a clear, substantiated explanation for how they wound up with their tech in the first place. A camp in Freestar One’s strategic research division theorizes that they are the leftovers of a species that lost its evolutionary pressures towards sapience; another argues that they are an uplifted species whose patrons abandoned them, died out, or supervise them from a distance. Stranger explanations exist.

What is known is that their computers are frighteningly powerful and all of their machines talk to each other. Their industrial society is kept afloat purely by the power of their algorithms and the constant influx of resources provided by their ongoing conquest of the planet—the Reptons themselves are merely the hands that authorize and facilitate the intricate automatic processes of invention and fabrication that build their domed cities, develop their food, medicine, entertainment, and weapons, grow and indoctrinate their children, and schedule their lives.

They are vestigial components in a vast machine with no capacity to recognize itself or any part within, operating on the sprawling organic logic of a dream instantiated by engineers lost to time.

Anyone who’s been deployed in Repton territory can attest to the uncanny atmosphere they carry with them. No individual part of a Repton crew behaves like a person. But there is something that emerges in the interplay, as they fumble with their devices and their devices fumble with them, that suggests an intellect inherent to neither. If you watch them from the right distance—not too far, not too close—they resolve into something distressingly like us.

15 notes · View notes

clashoflightsios-blog · 5 years

Text

What Are The Features Or Reason To Download It?

The Clash of Lights is a private server mod from Clash of Clans which can enable you to get an unlimited provide of ‘Gems,’ ‘Gold’ and ‘Elixir’ which offers you a royal experience. I've described step by step course of on how to install these emulators on your pc in this text on clash of lights foremost article. • Once the process is completed, take pleasure in the most effective features of this sport in your Android mobiles. To start with, uninstall the original sport. For individuals who aren't yet aware of what it actually is, allow us to first clear that it is a modified model of fashionable Clash of Clans S3 recreation. Clash of lights S4 is the private server for Clash of Clans unique recreation. The host of the clash of clans and clash of lights s1 are completely totally different. Clash of Lights S2: Most of them are searching for the Clash of lights S2 free obtain of the most recent version. The current newest version of Clash of lights s1 apk is 10.134.15. Its file measurement is 97 MBs. The dimensions of Clash of Lights is 67 MB and model 3.4.Eight is the latest one. However, you might want to know that this particular server is the first one and it is especially referred to as the FHX server. First of all, you check personal mobile enough house. Check it out now. Now is the step to download the apk file of clash of lights s2 from the downloads. These new troops are from clash royale and increase seashore which are another supercell greatest games and famous like a hundred million plus downloads of both games. Now we're going to debate the very best options of this sport individually so that you'll get the idea about how this server will enable you to turn into the master of the clash of clans. Yes, you heard it rights the CO lights S2 is the only resolution for this downside if you want to play the sport with freedom and with limitless sources and troops. It is without doubt one of the personal servers where you get a boundless measure of gold, diamonds, and solution. So, if you are like one in every of them you don’t should quite the sport. However, the games have now reworked from video recreation consoles to the helpful devices that embody smartphones and tablets as properly. Well, you may need heard about other related games often known as Clash of clans, whereby it has plenty of rules, laws and loads of restrictions as well. When you are in a position to build a great deal of towns and villages in your recreation, you achieve numerous resources as properly, that shall be pretty helpful for you. While COC personal server apk which is called Lights Server game, runs on a non-public server. First Server you come across while playing the mod Clash of Lights is Clash of Light Server 1. This is high pace server referred to as FHX server to host the Clash of Lights. First Unlock your Android Phone. Below is the link to download clash of clans newest full version for Android. Download Latest Clash of Lights S1, S2, S3, and S4 COC personal Server. Just just like the lights s1, s2 and s3, the lights server s4 is one other non-public server for the unique clash of clans sport. These 4 types of servers are Clash of Light s S1, Clash of Lights S2, Clash of Lights S3, Clash of Lights S4. The little inexperienced crystals we all yearn for are super straightforward to have and an infinite variety of them at that, with Clash of Lights. Lights servers are protected to use and it's essential to need to attempt at one you will just adore it. I’m addicted to clash of clans and that i all the time strive to find alternative ways to play the sport with more freedom and quickly so this text will probably be based mostly on my expertise and trustworthy opinions. You may also share your evaluations and ideas on this text utilizing the remark section given under. As I mentioned earlier, the game is served below the strategic class and the participant has to play utilizing his or her brains to the core. The perfect strategy recreation is Clash of Clans. If you wish to obtain this COL s4 then and not using a hesitating click on on the Download Button and Enjoy Playing the most effective Game on this planet and surprise your pals. Don’t wait, obtain and share the game with your friends and collectively enjoy the game. This superb server removes all the limitations which are current within the clash of clans’ game. They are totaly scam as they'll ask the users to pay first, they ask many off-subject questions and will earn money with that but Clash of clans personal server will give customers everything they dreamed for in Coc. If you have questions or confronting any problem that isn’t depicted here don’t hesitate to contact. This one can also be well-known server of coc with excessive end performance and have capacity to handle enormous quantity of traffic. You simply obtain and install one of them and begin playing! You just download and install one of them and begin enjoying! COL is likewise one of the Private servers that facilitated Clash of Clans with useful assets like gems, gold, dark elixir, elixir and so forth with limitless utilization. The thing that issues is that Clash of Clans distinctive diversion is facilitated by Supercell and different non-public servers of this amusement are facilitated by third parties. These are not facilitated by third events like Supercell. Low stage players TH7 or much less are paired in opposition to TH11 or TH 12 gamers. Serves no limitation characteristic for the sport gamers. Clash of clans are developed by super cells and are hosted on the super cell servers and famous game clash of lights APK is hosted on the non-public servers. Now, you don’t need to worry about this problem at all because the personal servers are the solution to this drawback. So, here Clash of Lights comes with a solution. So, it takes numerous restraint and time to advance in the sport, and since most of us don’t have sufficient time or tolerance, we find yourself spending some huge cash just to move forward. With this, let’s all have the three stars pocketed all the time. As it is the only Clash of Clans mod apk and it's also called as Coc non-public server, there is nothing like this in Clash of lights Mod APK as it have four servers. Clash of Lights has lately launched Clash Royale Private Server which is called ‘RLight’ Private Server of Clash Royale. After we talk a couple of lights S3 then it’s all about the latest units with same options. Clash of Lights Server 3 is extra suitable with newest gadgets. So it is a lot more fun when you are enjoying Clash of Lights. Are you exhausted from playing the Clash of Clans by rules and bored with collecting sources? You need an web connection to make use of clash of light s1. Well, putting in the Clash of Clans Light Server is fairly easy. Well, right here comes the primary and the foremost server that's used in the clash of lights recreation. It gives many characteristic and advantage to the gamers however with it, the game has some limitation and right here comes a distinction between two games. Combine two or more constructing to create custom defenses that mix powers of all. As this is a modified model of the unique recreation so Visually both look similar and regardless of unlimited all the pieces you may also get custom buildings and customized heroes in the Clash of lights mod Apk Download Private servers. Clash of clan is the strategical game the place you may build your empire or kingdom by fighting battles, accumulating sources from one other kingdom. You'll be able to download Clash of Lights or Mod apk of Clash of Clans from below obtain hyperlinks but don’t forget to read the directions. Also, you get some added features with the clash of lights apk. Also, below our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, you have to be not less than thirteen years of age to play or obtain Clash of Clans. This game is important by way of size which is able to make it helpful for the users however eat extra space on their gadgets. The participant may assemble assets and make the conditions for the villagers to stay. Every participant who performs Mod game of coc, he could have little knowledge about APK and its set up on an Android cellular.

1 note · View note

4nime6-blog · 6 years

Text

Cool Hip Anime!

youtube

Anime

Large sparkling eyes, brightly coloured frizzy hair, obscure nose and high facial expression reminds us connected with only one factor.

Anime

Can you do you know what the item is?

If your response is actually Anime, then STOP, to see an otaku's brain!

Cartoons (pronounced: "Ah-nee-may") will be a form of animation typically from Okazaki, japan. They have got their own style this means you will show that in peculiar and wonderful ways. Cartoons also has its very own sense associated with comedy along with has a unique thought processes. It can get actually strong and serious, as well as it could truly be silliest (like: "Lucky Star", "Kill Me Baby") in addition to craziest (like: "Death Note", "Gintama") thing a person have ever before seen. Many Anime demonstrates are centered on popular mangas (Japanese Comics), just putting any not much more life into these people. Cartoons often covers far more serious issues than normal cartoons. In the united states, cartoons tend to be considered a form regarding enjoyment meant for youngsters. In Okazaki , japan, people involving all ages (no, not necessarily newborn babies! ) see anime. Most shows and flicks are centred for youngsters, teenager or young older people, but you can also get many cartoons that are made with regard to older crowd even business people and housewives!

The phrase "Anime" is the close pronunciation connected with "animation" within Japanese, exactly where this expression references just about all animation. Outside the house Japan, cartoons is applied to refer specifically toon from Japan or Western disseminated animation style usually characterized by colourful visuals, attractive characters and fantastical designs. Japanese animation commenced inside 20th century. Katsudo Shashin is claimed for you to be the first Japan animation. The 1923 Fantastic Kanto earthquake triggered wide-spread destruction including demolition associated with earliest Anime Companies as well as anime works; departing Kouchi's Namakura Gatana because the most well-known surviving animation. The 1st cartoons television series was Otogi Manga Calendar aired by 1961 to 1964.

This introduction to anime ended up being in category four while I watched "City Hunter" in a T. Sixth v. channel, Animax. Though I could see anime (as a make a difference of fact the particular multiple of anime is usually anime) like "Doraemon", "Shinchan", "Avatar-The last airbender", "Summer Days and nights with Coo", "AstroBoy", "Dragon Ball-Z", "Naruto" in the past just before yet I did definitely not recognize the profound perception regarding anime as this was dubbed throughout Hindi (rather I would point out "contaminated" instead of "dubbed" by means of old, ridiculous man noises in Hindi who also would break unnecessary, slap-stick jokes deviating viewers through the plot and also terrain you in a hotch-potch of indianised anime). My very own sister ( three yrs young than me even though I actually refuse to confess she is older when compared with me) took weird curiosity in Japanese anime similar to " Tears to Tiara" and "Stigma of typically the Wind" aired in Animax: that we thought strange from that time while the "patriotic inertia" will stop me from receiving something but Indian products. I got first repelled by often the proven fact that all the words casts have been in Japoneses and to understand history I had to consider difficulty of reading the actual Subtitles in english and had to help correlate the particular speech using the video proven; regarding which great deal involving attention seemed to be required. That was impossible personally in order to do both those exhaustion tasks at the very same time, so I delivered to my old Capital t. V. channels: Cartoon Community, Nickolodeans, Hungama, Pogo, Come back and Jetix.

After some sort of very long hiatus, in type seven, My spouse and i again started out experimenting our skills with understanding anime which often converted out to be a new success, when I 1st delighted in anime including "Hayate the Combat Butler" along with "Fairy Tail". Also! This kind of sweet poison! Following a total hectic day time in school, expenses, floating around classes, art in addition to audio classes, and full various other heck lot of routines; I waited only to be able to settle-back and relax for you to watch these kinds of anime. From that time, nothing was of importance to me; not also my parents, close friends as well as teachers. In that online realms of pleasure My partner and i could equipment my failures and sufferings as effortlessly as I got obtained in successes. Nothing irritated me, except when We were required to attend phone telephone calls or to wide open entrance, if any guests will come when the anime indicates were ongoing. However, cartoons hardly did affect this studies as after seeing two hour long plan, I suffered from PARTS (Post Anime Depression Syndrome) that I suffered typically the sense of guilt of wasting moment that has been more intensified through my very own mother's rebuke (I wish to describe this circumstance as "Kata Ghaye nuun-er Chheta") and this also guilt might propel my family to review harder, concentrate and also perform for longer hours this also occurred as daily schedule in my opinion; so I can easily get the best of most connected with the students be that researching or swimming or even any different work.

Hence to all parents, I actually would like to ask for allowing your kids to help watch anime because it proved helpful out for me (maybe I use strange wirings within my human brain! ). Enjoying anime would help an individual to hone your fictional, vocabulary and analytical expertise. More importantly, it would certainly serve as a enormous source of entertainment, at the very least way beyond the little league of daily Indian soap.

Understanding the culture associated with origins is very crucial to realize the plan, be it Japanese cartoons, Korean language Aeni webtoons, China's Manhua Anime or Us sitcoms (which I endured after i was novice inside observing anime). If anyone have watched virtually any cartoons, you will probably discover that often the characters respond differently along with things throughout general (like properties, vehicles, eating etc. ) are usually bit different from everything you used to. Probably the actual most readily evident distinctions between Japanese computer animation in addition to others is the a muslim everywhere huge eyes (bigger in comparison with nose), brightly girl locks, some well-endowed character types as well as exaggerated emotional movement and also gestures are regular regarding anime. Being hand-drawn, cartoons is separated coming from actuality providing an best path intended for escapism directly into which followers can involve themselves having relative simplicity. The production of cartoons focusses less on the particular cartoon movement and considerably more on the realistic look involving settings like "The Yard of Words".

The particular beginning and credit sequences connected with most anime are combined with Japanese rock or take song which maybe related to the anime series, simply by popular bands. "Nanairo Namida" by Tomato n' Pinus radiata of anime "Beelzebub" along with "Just Awake" of cartoons "Hunter X Hunter" are a few of my favourite anime tunes, which you may try out.

Since there are several sorts of cartoons, one will need to classify these individuals with different genres, some associated with them are generally: Action, Audio, Mecha, Experience, Mystery, Bishounen, Yuri, Yaoi, Akuma, Seinen, Shoujo, Shounen, Kodomo, Piece of Existence and a lot of more. Whether you're the die-hard anime fan (like me generally labelled seeing that "otaku"), a casual watcher, the interested onlooker or perhaps commoner from non-anime website: cartoons genres shall supply you actually with some simple knowledge which help you in order to venture the cartoons planet with ease and joy.

I am going to be able to share some remarkable rates of anime which will etch my heart usually are:

• Motoko Kusanagi regarding "Ghost in the Shell a couple of: Innocence"

"We weep to get blood of a pet although not for the our blood of a species of fish. Endowed are those with any tone. "

• Shinchi Akiyama of "Liar Game"

"People SHOULD be doubted. Many people get me wrong this specific concept. Doubting people is simply a part of getting for you to know them. Just what quite a few people call "trust" is absolutely just giving up about wanting to understand others in addition to that extremely act is definitely far more serious than questioning. It is actually 'apathy'. "

• Hachiman Hikigaya of "My Teen Passionate Comedy SNAFU"

"If simple truth is cruel

Then

Lie needs to be kind

Then

Kindness need to be lie"

You can observe anime with T. /. by opting-in to Animax, Aniplus, AnimeCental, TV Tokyo or online on internet sites like animehaven. to help, kissanime, Funimation. com, Netflix, Crunchyroll. com, hulu, Vimeo and so forth.

ENJOY WATCHING CARTOONS!

2 notes · View notes

tiktokeroticism-blog · 6 years

Text

Erotic Tales - A Balanced Expression of Female Sexuality

Most women count on that their lover will have some type of curiosity in pornography, no matter whether this is in the kind of movies or magazines. It just appears to be to be acknowledged that males like to have interaction with erotic content. Yet with erotic tales for women it would seem to be nearly frowned on and as these types of has develop into something of a peaceful and secretive observe. In the event you loved this informative article and you wish to receive more info relating to tiktok パンツ assure visit our page. Erotic stories for girls and gross sales of erotic fiction have, continued to grow calendar year-on-12 months. While there is a idea that girls are not as sexual as guys, this is just not the scenario. They only have use a distinctive medium! Erotic tales for females are for the most section, fewer graphic and specific, nonetheless, they are even so stimulating for the girls who delight in them. The explanation for this is that females and men are inherently unique when it will come to the points that transform them on. Commonly, males are visually stimulated. This implies they are much more turned on by visuals. Gentlemen are also more primitive or animalistic when it will come to sexual intercourse. On opposite, ladies are audibly stimulated. This usually means they are far more turned on by what they listen to. For females, sexual intercourse is a much more psychological experience. In essence, studying erotic stories for girls that frequently current a romanticised view of sex are as a lot of a convert on for gals as graphic pornography is for gentlemen. So why, if reading erotic fiction is just a healthful expression of feminine sexuality, is it retained these kinds of a top secret for so a lot of ladies? It would seem to be there is anything of a double standard in conditions of what girls anticipate and acknowledge as 'boys staying boys' and what males are prepared to take from their wives and girlfriends in terms of examining erotic fiction. Many females really feel that if their spouse were being to explore their decision of reading content involves erotic fiction, it would be an absolute disaster for the romance. This is largely owing to the reality that adult males do not are inclined to react perfectly to their partners looking through about the sexual prowess of other males, even if they are just fictional people! They come to feel by some means insufficient and threatened. In an endeavor to avoid this reaction or denting their man's fragile ego, most women of all ages disguise their erotic fiction from their husband or wife rather than incorporating it into their intercourse life. Even so, this could be about to modify with the improvement of personalised erotic stories for ladies that depict the activities and fantasies of unique partners. A little selection of professional writers have noticed a hole in the market for custom made composed erotic stories that empower ladies to involve their partners without the need of the possibility of them feeling threatened. Women who have purchased these custom created erotic tales, report that they have discovered that fairly than their associate acquiring their moi dented, it inflates their moi and makes them come to feel sought after. Quite a few males have been so excited, they have ordered custom made prepared tales for their women as erotic presents. One guy who acquired a story for his spouse stated "I get really turned on by the concept that my spouse is reading through intercourse stories about the things we do. Viewing her so turned on by revisiting our sexual encounters makes me come to feel excellent". This enhancement in the planet of erotica has enabled gals to open up up to their spouse and share their sexuality in a healthful way. For women of all ages who take pleasure in erotic fiction and no longer want for it to be their personal mystery, involving your lover in a tailor made published particular story is confirmed to spice up your sex lifetime and make him feel required!

1 note · View note

the-desolated-quill · 6 years

Text

The Daleks - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this serial yet, you may want to before reading this review)

When Doctor Who was first conceived back in 1963, it was originally intended to be an educational show. Stories set in the past would be used to teach kids about history and stories set in the future or on other worlds would be used to teach children about science. The one thing creator Sydney Newman specified was that there was to be no ‘bug eyed monsters.’ This stance soon changed when comedy writer Terry Nation pitched a script and producer Verity Lambert pushed for its inclusion in the show. At the time it had the working title of The Survivors. Today we know it as The Daleks. Doctor Who would never be the same again...

The TARDIS lands in the middle of a petrified jungle on an alien world. The trees have turned to stone, the soil is barren and there are no signs of life. The only trace of civilisation is a large metal city, which hides a great menace inside.

The Daleks is a seven part serial and its opening is probably one of the best in Doctor Who history. Terry Nation does an excellent job building up intrigue and suspense. The Doctor and Susan’s curiosity toward this alien planet coupled with Ian and Barbara’s shock and fear is extremely engaging.I love the look and feel of Skaro. It’s bleak, haunting, mysterious and truly nothing like our own world. Same goes for the metal city. The production design team clearly put a lot of effort into creating the architecture and technology of the Daleks, using them to give us a unique insight into their culture. It’s cold, oppressive and clinical, much like the Daleks themselves. The scene where Barbara is running through the corridors of the city as doors quietly slide shut behind her, trapping her inside, is legitimately terrifying. And then it all culminates in the first big reveal of the Daleks in the second episode. Truly one of the most iconic Who moments.

The overwhelming success of the Daleks comes down to three things. The first is obviously Raymond Cusick’s now iconic design. The way they silently glide across the room is eery and there is nothing warm or comforting about the machines. They’re designed for a specific purpose, to house and transport the Dalek creature inside, and that is all. Everything else is an irrelevance to them. The second is the voice. The Daleks were originally voiced by Peter Hawkins, using a ring modulator to give them their memorable, staccato voice and he does an amazing job. The way they coldly bark orders is really disconcerting, but it’s not just that. We often associate the Daleks with hatred, but that’s not what we see here in these early Dalek serials. What Hawkins does especially well is conveying an almost claustrophobic panic in the Daleks. As cold and as logical as they are, they always seem to be teetering on the brink of hysteria, which helps give a further insight into the Daleks’ personalities. They’re not in these machines by choice. They’re trapped in them and they hate it. The third is Terry Nation’s writing. As alien as the Daleks are, they come from a very real place and are inspired by legitimate fears Nation had growing up and I believe that is what allowed the Daleks to connect with so many people and endure for as long as they have.

Terry Nation grew up during World War II and developed a profound fear of the Nazis as well as atomic weapons like the kind that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s these fears that Nation taps into with his script. The Daleks are his post-WWII nightmare made reality. Two races, the Dals and the Thals, fighting a global war for years that ultimately wiped out their entire planet. Of course it’s no secret that the Daleks were based on the Nazis, but it’s in this story where, in my opinion, the allegory is best handled and most effective. Watching The Daleks, it’s amazing how much is left to subtext. It’s not like in New Who where the Doctor or some other character has to sit everyone down like tiny children and explain everything. Through the different bits of lore as well as visual clues, we’re able to make the connections for ourselves. Just as the Nazis used the Jews as a convenient scapegoat for their own problems, the Daleks use the Thals. It would seem rather than being genetically engineered to hate, the Daleks prime motivation is jealousy toward the Thals and their development. The nuclear fallout of the neutron bomb that destroyed Skaro caused both the races to mutate, but whereas the Dals turned into the hideous, amoeboid Daleks, the Thals’ mutation came full circle. Now they’re beautiful, Aryan farmers who can move about freely and adapt their new surroundings. The Daleks cannot. They can’t move without their machines, they can’t survive without radiation and they can’t even move out of the confines of their city because the Dalek machines draw their power from the static electricity in the metallic floors. They’re completely trapped and so take their aggression and frustration out on the Thals.

By far the most telling example of this is when the Daleks test the Thals’ anti radiation drugs on themselves and discover they cannot survive without radiation, Underneath the menace and coldness of the Daleks is something tragic and slightly pathetic about them. Rather than find a way to adapt to the new environment, they instead try to bombard Skaro’s atmosphere with radiation and kill off the last Thals. As malicious and heartless as they are, there is also an element of childishness about them. It’s a spiteful “if I can’t have what I want, no one can” kind of attitude and turns the Daleks from being ranting pepper pots to three dimensional villains.

It’s not just the Daleks that get all the depth and complexity. The Thals too are explored really well, mostly through the character of Alydon, played by John Lee. Originally warriors, the Thals are now stark pacifists who shy away from all forms of conflict because they fear of what another war could do to the planet and their livelihood. See this is why I had such a bee in my bonnet about New Who’s insistence that pacifism is always good because Classic Who and this story in particular says the complete opposite. The Thals are nice people who want nothing more than to build bridges with the Daleks and help restore the planet, but the Daleks don’t want that. So what do they do? Live and let live isn’t an option here. As Ian says, “pacifism only works if everybody feels the same.” As I’ve said in previous reviews, no sane person wants to resort to violence, but sometimes in times of crisis or war there’s simply no other choice. If the Thals don’t stand and fight, they’ll be wiped out. Just like how if us Brits didn’t stand and fight, the Nazis would have just walked all over us in WWII. Sometimes violence is necessary and that’s precisely what the Thals have to contend with.

Alydon, a stoic but compassionate man, has take on the burden of looking after his tribe when their leader is killed by the Daleks in a trap. John Lee does an excellent job conveying the character’s internal struggle. Which is better? To follow the teachings of his leader and die with honour or to break with tradition in order to survive? Could there be a risk of the Thals becoming just as bad as the Daleks if they choose aggressive tactics? Of course this is a false equivalency. With the rise of the alt-right in modern times, people incorrectly assume that those who take an aggressive stance against oppressors are just as bad as the oppressors themselves when in reality there’s a big difference between those who choose violence for self serving purposes and self aggrandisement and those who choose violence to protect themselves or others from dangerous acts. And it’s this that’s ultimately spelt out in the last episode. Yes the Thals resort to the same violent tactics as the Daleks, but there is no moral equivalence between the two due to their motivations. Both races desire survival, but the Daleks pursue violence for the sake of malice and spite whereas the Thals ultimately resorted to violence purely for self defence. If there had been another way, they would have took it, as Alydon expresses when the Daleks finally die, That’s what makes them better than the Daleks. They take no pleasure from the violence or the killing, but they know if they don’t fight, they will die.

Another Thal character I really liked was Ganatus, played by Phillip Bond. He’s much more anxious and out spoken than Alydon and when his more cowardly brother dies, he briefly loses all hope, but it’s his relationship with Barbara that pulls him through. Both share a brief flirtation over the course of the story and it’s fun to watch because we get to see both make a transformation. Barbara initially starts off incredibly fearful of this alien world, but grows more confident as the story goes along. The two essentially help each other throughout the narrative until by the end they’ve become better, more stronger versions of themselves. It’s good character development and definitely a highlight of the latter episodes of the serial for me.

I haven’t spoken much about the main cast, have I? Truth be told there isn’t much to say other than they were great. The story is much more about the Daleks and the Thals than about the Doctor and co, but there are still great moments with them. While the four are initially at odds when the Doctor tricks everyone into exploring the city by pretending the TARDIS’ fluid link was broken, we start to see them slowly come together as a unit for the first time. The scene where they work together to kill the Dalek in order to escape from their cell was a particular highlight for me because it allowed each character to work together and play a crucial part. Same goes for the two pronged attack with the Doctor, Susan and Alydon attacking the city from the front and Ian, Barbara and Ganatus sneaking in from the back. Ensemble casts rarely work in Doctor Who, in my opinion, but this is a great example of each character having a significant part to play and receiving crucial development.

Any weak links? Well... the cheapness of the sets can be a bit off-putting. Clearly the BBC only had the budget for three Daleks because there are scenes where there is supposed to be lots of them and they had to make do with cardboard cutouts propped up awkwardly against the wall. Also they do attempt to make the corridors of the city look longer than they actually are by putting up painted backdrops that don’t look very convincing. And if I’m being honest, I thought the episodes with Ian, Barbara and Ganatus and everyone mountain climbing to the Dalek city was a bit pointless. Well written for the most part, don’t get me wrong, but it did feel like the plot had screeched to a halt.

The Daleks is easily one of the best stories in all of Doctor Who, serving as a brilliant sci-fi parable and a cautionary tale about the dangers of right wing extremism and unchecked nuclear armament. The simple fact of the matter is Doctor Who wouldn’t be where it is today without this story. Viewing figures doubled over the course of the story and public and critical response was overwhelmingly positive. The British public loved the Daleks and there was already talks of a sequel not long after. The BBC had a smash hit on their hands and it was all thanks to a ‘bug eyed monster.’ If you haven’t already, you should definitely check this one out. It’s a classic for a reason :D

#the daleks #terry nation #doctor who #first doctor #william hartnell #susan foreman #carole ann ford #barbara wright #jacqueline hill #ian chesterton #william russell #daleks #bbc #review #spoilers

24 notes · View notes