#somehow scientific theme

[callmepyrus]

「不可逆のクロノスタシス」 ⏳✨

Vocal: そらる (Soraru) x ろん (Lon)

Music & Lyrics: Kanzaki Iori

Soralon duo is back!

P.S. I've found the fan translation here ✨

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr Gaiman, if you don't mind, could you please tell me if the fact that you once asked an official in China that Chinese people need more sci-fi stories to fuel their imagination and hence innovation, hence their invitation of sci-fi writers and yourself many years ago, was a true conversation?

I once found this in one of your journals but somehow I couldn't find it anymore and thinking of digging deeper in your archives through China tags sound way too daunting as I just had many exams today and in one essay I cited this very example and you in it to prove a point that scientists need artists (I see writers as artists too) in this world, and now I'm kind of freaking out on whether I hallucinated the whole story or something.

Whatever it is, if you managed to read this ask, thanks a lot and hope you have a good day/night ahead!

It was in 2007 in Chengdu, at the first offically approved and endorsed SF convention. Here's Bob Sawyer talking about it on his web site at the time:

And here's Michael Swanwick:

and a Chinese article from the time:

And yes. When I asked why the disapproval of SF had turned to approval, I was told that Chinese fact-finding conversations at Apple, Microsoft and Google had revealed that most of the engineers, creators, designers and inventors had read SF when younger and had become interested in making what they made because of SF, and that the official Chinese position in 2007 was that SF should now be encouraged -- thus the convention.

From the article at the time:

The 2007 China (Chengdu) SF/Fantasy Conference hosted the event. The theme: “Science, Imagination and Future” is an ambitious Chinese effort designed to inspire public creativity toward future scientific and technological development as well as promote national insight for scientific exploration. The conference has been scheduled immediately before the World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan.

The conference has designated August 25 as “China Imagination Day”. SF and fantasy lovers signed their names on a banner to commemorate this day during the opening ceremony.

“Imagination is an important premise for creativity. Science fiction literature plays an important role in inspiring people’s imagination and creativity,” said Li Xiuting, vice director of the International Department of the China Association for Science and Technology, at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

“Our (science fiction) words become the world and our words become places that you can visit. They become books and stories that inspire people. It is both surprising and reassuring to know by accident that the places have helped to make a future we are now living. Places like Microsoft and Google, Apple and places like MIT are packed with science fiction readers and fantasy readers,” Neil Gaiman said on Saturday.

[discotitsposts]

You’re lucky you’re cute

reader and reid flirting at the party of a mutual friend

she/her pronouns used

some mature themes and choice words used. overall supposed to be lighthearted and silly

i love this photo so much

You were getting ready for a party a good family friend of yours was hosting. You had known David Rossi since you were a little kid and it’s rumored you were somehow related. Rossi treated you like his own and had been there for you your whole life. He had even helped you out of a few legal jams you’d found yourself in high school.

He had seen you first learn to walk, started school, hugged you while you cried on his expensive suit when you went through your first breakup, and graduate high school. Now you were going through academy training to work at the FBI. You wanted to be just like David.

You had never met anyone on his team in the BAU except Hotch. He had told you about everyone though. You were most excited to meet Penelope she sounded like a ray of sunshine. You were very intrigued by the mysterious Dr. Spencer Reid. He sounded very interesting. According to Rossi he could read 20,000 words per minute and had an eidetic memory. How amazing is that? Being a bit of a smarty pants yourself you definitely wanted to talk to him.

You had also learned he was apparently wildly handsome from what some girls at the academy had said. Though you’d never seen a photo of him, he sounded fantastic.

On the drive to Rossi’s mansion you listened to your favorite music. Singing every lyric to kill your nerves. You parked and it seemed everyone else had already arrived.

You ring the doorbell and Rossi opens it. When he sees you he smiles proudly and yells “Principessa! Sei bellissima!” He hugs you and brings you in to meet the team.

“You know Aaron, this is JJ, Emily, this is Derek Morgan.” You shake each persons hand as he says their name.

“Ah, the infamous Derek Morgan.” You say. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Pleasures all mine, gorgeous.” Derek winks at you. Emily punches his arm. “Leave her alone weirdo.” She scolds.

A brightly dressed woman with beautifully styled blonde hair runs into the room carrying two wine glasses and speaking excitedly.

“Is she here yet? Oh hi!!” She pulls you into a big hug.

“You must be Penelope! I’ve heard so much about you. All of you. What about the infamous Dr. Reid? Is he here yet?” You nonchalantly ask.

“She’s developed a little bit of a crush on our good doctor.” Rossi spills.

“I have not!” You pout, embarrassed by this very true fact.

Everyone chuckles. The doorbell chimes loudly through the foyer.

“Uh oh, it’s your future husband.” David teases.

“Keep it up and I’ll pour your vintage scotch down the drain.” You retort. Rossi puts his hands up in defeat and goes to answer the door.

“Here’s the one I want you to meet! Spencer, this is our little star of the FBI academy!” Rossi boasts. Dr. Reid smiles and waves at you. You reach your hand out to shake his and he frowns. They were right. He’s literally so handsome I can barely think. You think. Barely.

“I don’t shake hands. Too many germs. It’s actually safer to kiss.” He tells you.

“Ok, come here then.” You reach out and pucker your lips. Spencer slowly backs away and clears his throat.

“Oh my god, wait no I was joking.” You quickly attempt to retrace what you said. Ever so embarrassed you quickly change the subject. Spencer smiles shyly.

“Anyways, um David told me you have an eidetic memory. I think that’s really fascinating. I actually couldn’t wait to meet you and have a conversation with you. I really really want to get to know more about you! Not that I was obsessed with you before even meeting you, definitely not the case. That would be weird. You’re really cool, I mean you seem cool because how would I know that. I never met you before. Although I was expecting more of a mad scientist look to be honest. You’re really attractive though, I mean your face is scientifically perfect I mean… you know what I’ll be right back” You ramble on and realize you’re embarrassing yourself. It’s not your fault. When you look at Spencer’s face your brain goes to mush.

You excuse yourself and try to run away to the safety of a nearby restroom. Someone grabs hold of your wrist despite the estimated germ count.

“I’d love to get to know you too.” Spencer’s smiling at you.

“You don’t think I’m a crazy rambler?” You ask, worriedly.

“I’m a bit of a rambler myself.” He chuckles and leads you to a nearby couch. You two end up talking for over an hour about everything. He tells you about his mother, his life in Vegas, and how he’s banned from multiple casinos which made you laugh so hard. You tell him stories of Rossi when you were growing up. The time Rossi had choked on some of his pasta when babysitting you and had spat it out through his nose. This makes Spencer crack up.

“Guys look.” Morgan motions to you two talking and laughing. Everyone else at the party looks over.

“I had a feeling they would get along.” Hotch breaks into a smile. Rossi however is scowling.

You leave to refill your root beer and David walks over to Spencer.

“Hey Rossi, she’s really fun to talk to. Thank you for inviting me tonight. I’m having so much fun.” Spencer smiles up at him.

Rossi plasters on a fake smile. “Are you?” Spencer nods happily. Rossi’s face grows serious and he leans in, “Good, because if you hurt her, just remember, I would know exactly how to get away with murder.” Rossi smiles at Spencer and pats his back and walks back to the party. Spencer swallows nervously.

“Wasn’t planning on it.” He whispers to himself.

“Wasn’t planning on what?” You walk back in and hand him an extra root beer.

“Nothing. Thanks.” Spencer smiles and opens his root beer.

“So tell me more about when you got kidnapped by a cult leader?” You ask eagerly.

“Well this guy, his name was Benjamin Cyrus. We infiltrated his cult by pretending to be child protective services. Me and Emily got caught in the middle of crossfire. SWAT shot at them, they shot back, and put us all in danger.” He tells you everything about that case. You watch in awe at the way he talks. “Rossi actually brought them fried chicken with a microphone bug in the bucket.” Spencer laughs recalling the silly detail.

“Mmm sounds delicious.”

Rossi has been keeping his eye on you two. You look really happy but he likes having Spencer terrified of him. Your back is to Rossi and when Spencer makes eye contact. Rossi points at you and then Spencer and makes a cutting motion on his throat. This makes Spencer nervous. You notice him turn pale and turn around. You see Rossi is just playing cards with Aaron.

Penelope goes around passing out liquor to everyone. “Bottles for everyone!” She cheers over and over slurring her words. Morgan wrangles her to sit back down, stumbling, also intoxicated. You down your bottle and Spencer watches in shock.

You get crazier and Spencer goes to put the bottle Penelope had handed him, back in the kitchen. You’re dancing or trying to anyway. Spencer accidentally bumps you and you pull him down with you. The bottle in his hand breaks and splashes all over you both. Rossi hears a loud crash and comes into the kitchen.

“What the hell happened in here!” Rossi shouts noticing the red liquid trickling everywhere and you, in a now-red stained dress.

“We fell.” You and Spencer say at the same time.

You giggle, “Jinx!”

“You know the origin of the jinx was actually-“

“Clean this up brainiac!” Rossi cuts him off and hands Spencer a sponge.

“Yes sir.” Spencer falls to his knees and starts scrubbing. You notice the room felt hotter as he did so. Was it the weather or the sight of Spencer working hard?

“I’m sorry you got red wine all over you. You looked really nice. Not that you don’t look nice anymore. You look beautiful. I just feel bad your clothes got stained now.”

“Of all the days to wear a white dress. You’re lucky you’re cute Dr. Reid.”

You pick up a different sponge and help him clean.

“You don’t need to help.” He starts.

“It was partly my fault. Plus I know he’s gonna come in here and try to see if he can see his reflection in the tile. If he can’t,” You make a cracking sound and air-motion bending something, Spencer presumes to be, his neck if the red wine doesn’t come up.

“The guys so rich he can afford someone to professionally clean.” Spencer laughs at this.

“I know! One time when I was seven I accidentally spilled some jam and he told me if I didn’t clean it, all the jam in the world would disappear and I could never eat it ever again.”

Spencer opens his mouth in shock, “That is so mean!”

“It worked though.” You say while scrubbing the floor harder. He laughs so loud. Something he noticed he hadn’t done in a long time.

You decide to push his buttons a little since practically none of the wine got on him. You flick some water and soap at him.

“Hey!” He splashes you with some water back.

You stand up and discreetly grab the water sprayer on the sink and turn it on full blast. Spencer yells and with no way to defend himself, tries to stop the water with his hands. Penelope and Morgan run in and you spray them. Everyone’s laughing so hard you don’t see Emily come up behind you with a bucket of water. She throws it on you and you scream.

“ITS COLD!”

Hotch and Rossi walk in and shake their heads in disbelief.

“I’m disappointed in you all,” Hotch starts. Everyone stops and fearfully looks at him. “for not including me in the fun!” He grabs the water sprayer from you and splashes Rossi. While you’re all fooling around you notice a groundbreaking discovery. Spencer’s lilac purple shirt is completely see through and soaked. His nipples are even hard from the cold water. Hot damn.

You show up behind him and squeeze his hand and pull him to one of the bedrooms. You both lean in and kiss softly. You attack his lips with kisses and soon the kisses mesh together and become messier. He’s moaning into your mouth while you attempt to rip his shirt off.

“Wait.” He stops you. You pull away confused. “If Rossi’s upset about some red wine won’t he be more upset if we get… you know what on the bed?”

“Cum?” You ask. Spencer makes a disgusted face at your choice of words. “Nah only if he comes through with a black light.”

“No I meant the…stains.” He points at your dress, his face completely red.

“Oh this?” You motion to your now red dress. You reach behind you and untie your dress, letting it fall to the ground. You stand in front of him completely bare. Good thing you chose to not wear anything under it this evening.

You start to hum a song while you stalk towards him. When you push him back on the bed you hear a loud knock at the door.

“AHHHHHHHH” Spencer screams while covering his crotch with a blanket. You simply pick your soaked dress off the ground and sloppily put it back on. Rossi continues pounding his fist on the door.

“Tie me.” You command.

“Huh?” Spencer looks up confused and disoriented. You motion to the back of the dress and Spencer ties a cute bow with the strings. His nimble fingers moving as quickly as they’ll allow. He thinks Rossi’s fist might soon break through the door. You calmly walk to the door and carefully turn the knob.

“Hello.” You smile sweetly.

He simply crosses his arms and glares at Spencer. “Both of you, out. Now. I don’t even want to think about what you were thinking of doing in my guest bedroom young lady.” He wags his finger at you. When Spencer stands up to leave, Rossi stops him with his hand.

“Remember what I said I’d do if you hurt her. She’s like a daughter to me.”

“I-I-I won’t David, I was actually going to ask your permission. If I ma-maybe could take her on a date?” Rossi’s eyebrows raise at Spencer’s request, as if to say, tell me more. “I think she’d enjoy a film fest, they’re playing some old monster movies down at the drive in, some are in Russian, but that’s alright because I could translate to her. I’ll have her home by 11:30 I promise.” Spencer’s stumbling over his words nervously.

Rossi bursts out laughing, “Kid she doesn’t live with me anymore. She’s an adult. You don’t need my permission. Hope you two have fun. I was only worried about my sheets!” He runs to the bed fixing the creases you two had made.

After that he asked you if you’d like to go, of course you said yes. That Saturday night you two had so much fun and fell in love even more.

the end :)

pls pls tell me some of u thought this was even a little bit funny

actually pls tell me if u enjoyed this at all

i’m laughing so hard writing the part about his nipples help

fun fact when i wrote the part about reader wearing a white dress i was listening to this

[angelic-ambedo]

The Weirdest Fucking Movies I've Ever seen Pt. 1

Okay so I sort of champion myself as a lover of weird movies. And it's funny because regardless of how many I've seen, every time I watch a weird movie I genuinely feel as if it is the weirdest movie I've ever seen in my life.

So, I decided to make a list which compiles all of said weird movies and then a description of why I find each so uniquely weird. If you find any of these descriptions or titles intriguing, I recommend you seek these movies out, because a weird movie = a good life ya know so yeah

If you have more weird movies please please recommend them im hungry for new crazy cinema bebesssss

Eraserhead (1977) - genuinely makes no sense.

Coherence (2013) - trippy scientifically interesting thriller

Some Velvet Morning (2013) - abusive cat n mouse relationship

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - emotional violence

Greener Grass (2019) - let's shame suburbia!

Trash Humpers (2009) - people fucking the trash...?

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) - mental illness be so sad and trippy

Gummo (1997) - literal photo album of a dysfunctional town

Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006) - bulimia PSA in disguise

Black Bear (2020) - art seeps into the "real" world

Begotten (1990) - god kills himself

Trouble Every Day (2001) - eating people presented as...a turn on?

Baise-Moi (2000) - punk feminist murderous women are sick and society sux

Palindromes (2004) - one character is played by a ton of different actors of different ages, races, and sexes

964 Pinocchio (1991) - so much vomit, even more cyberpunk lobotomy sex machine madness

Meet the Feebles (1989) - the muppets give each other STDs and commit mass murder

In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - a torrid, pornographic affair used to escape the horrors of a war-torn world

Enter the Void (2009) - going to the past, present, and future, POV shots that include blinking, going inside the body, taboo themes with a psychedelic style

Love (2015) - horny pseudo-porno about a misogynistic asshole who somehow pulls hot, sexually adventurous women

Climax (2018) - LSD fueled nightmare

Pink Flamingos (1972) - a competition to be the "filthiest person alive" (spoiler alert: the cool drag queen wins)

Vivarium (2019) - Suburbia is still creepy, guys

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015) - can we please stop having erotomania like celebrities aren't into u babe :(

No No Nooky TV (1987) - Computers being cool and saying "boobs" and "clit"

The Piano Teacher (2001) - unsafe nonconsensual bdsm and sexual repression is...no. please no.

The Night Porter (1974) - stockholm syndrome and wild bdsm stuff with postwar themes

Belle de Jour (1967) - more bdsm themes

Titane (2021) - woman fucks a car and gets pregnant

Daisies (1966) - two girls cut up pickles and destroy the patriarchy

Creep 1 and 2 (2014, 2017) - murder has never been this funny

Garbanzo Gas (2007) - a human cow gets an all-expenses paid trip to a motel before it hits the slaughterhouse

Melancholie der Engel (2009) - ew.

In Our Garden (2002) - old men dicks + weirdest dialogue I've ever heard in my life

The Rehearsal (TV series) (2022) - this is the ultimate weirdest thing ever and I don't know how else to categorize it.

Trigger Warnings (all of these movies are weird/fucked up but some of them contain actual fucked up stuff that like. happened in real life. so below are the triggers for that kind of stuff. All of these films are genuine films, not the gore stuff the internet produces, but some of them because of the country/time period/transgressiveness include content that is inappropriate and/or ethically unacceptable, so I've included those movies below)

Baise-Moi - unsimulated sex scenes which includes SA scenes that actors consented to but characters did not. this proves a feminist point but is still incredibly upsetting and stayed with me for a while as there are close ups and its awful.

In the Realm of the Senses - Please look into this one more before you watch it, I'm not going to describe things in detail because it makes me so uncomfortable but there are some scenes that involve young actors that should not ethically have been in the situations they were put in. The movie is exceptionally well made and from what I know globally respected so I don't know why they had to ruin it for me but whatever.

Pink Flamingos - One infamous scene involves an actual chicken death. It was the early 70s (long time ago and no PETA) and they apparently ate the chicken afterward, so I felt less immoral about this one but still gross.

Melancholie der Engel - okay please genuinely never watch this movie unless you're super into traumatizing yourself and are very desensitized I guess. There's a ton of actual animal abuse in very very graphic/unnecessarily disturbing shock type situations. There's other bad unsimulated stuff but this is the worst of it from what I know.

Love and Meet the Feebles contain scenes that are transphobic and/or racist, which is gross. Slaughtered Vomit Dolls was made by a very bad person. A bunch of the movies also have unsimulated sex stuff, I don't know if that makes anyone uncomfortable but if it does I'm just putting it out there.

[funnycreatortimetravel]

Every time I see the art of Sans that's uncomfortably realistic to how he'd look in-game, my world trembles.

Like, I'm so used to the fandom making him just this cute little guy, you know? Just a cute little guy with a few nihilistic issues and pranks glore.

And then you find art that destroys your perception of Sans just being a cute little guy because no, a mofo skeleton that doesn't stop smiling and somehow winks without any muscles and threatens to kill you only to offset it with a joke is not whimsical, it'd be fucking uncomfortable to any normal child who's, at most, maybe twelve or thirteen.

And I don't mean how some of the fanart portrays Sans in the genocide route; covered in blood, glowing eye ablaze, ready to put some kid in the dirt, or even during the dinner date in the Pacifist route when he threatens to kill Frisk where they stand with his eyes all blacked out. But rather, as just an unsettling character when he's just STANDING there; an uncanny person (if you can even call him that) with too many secrets to fully trust and too many pranks to take him seriously, quirky theme song be damned. He doesn't even have to do anything for the vibe to be off, for you to be uneasy.

It's hard, but fairly common, to make Sans of all people threatening with all of his unexplained powers and knowledge, or to make him seem scary at the cost of him not seeming like Sans (cough cough, Horror tale), but I feel like it takes just as much effort (if not a little more) to make him uncanny without relying on horror or the intensity of the genocide route, but rather keeping up that quirky upbeat persona that he has and still having his design by default make someone uneasy. Not afraid necessarily, but something you'd put an eyebrow up for questioning before you shrug off the weirdness and move on.

I'm honestly in such a dilemma rn because while I like the depiction of Sans just being some cute little skeleton guy who may or may not be canonically two feet tall and just so HAPPENS to have crazy scientific knowledge on random shit while also knowing how to cheat the RPG system Undertale is built around, him being intimidating not because he's trying to be, but because he's naturally uncanny rules too, so I can't decide.

Maybe he's just a weird middle-ground somewhere. I'm still looking for more art that portrays him as both and not either or though, like, yeah, he's this short little skeleton guy who doesn't take life seriously, but also is a freaking weirdo just because he can be.

[respocked]

I'm thinking about work anyway so fuck it

Star Trek Public Primary School AU 🛸 !

Kirk

-the headmaster!

-went into education because of his own unfortunate childhood

-has an uncanny ability to tell which student has a bad home life

-remembers everyone's name, even if you went to his school 5 years ago for 2 months

-misbehaving teenagers send to his office get some candy and a motivational speech that changes the course of their lifetime

-most days can be found hovering suspiciously outside of spock's classroom

-way better with older students, 12-13 - has absolutely 0 idea what to do with young children

-which is awkward when while waiting for spock outside his classroom he tries to make small talk with them (-so... son... read any good books lately? -i can't read!)

Spock

- teaches early education, 6 to 9 year olds

-greatly overqualified for the position, had a human psychology degree, interspecies child development degree, highly regarded in scientific community

-could be teaching university but prefers to spend his time sitting on carpets with children drawing clouds

-his class is extremely nontraditional - no desks, sitting on the floor, tons of meditation, classes in nature

-does not adhere to the program at all but somehow his classes always score the best on all exams

-turned down a position in a trendy montessori school for a public one

-parents either go out his way for their child to attend his class or request someone else - either from homophobic or xeniphobic reasons

Uhura

-the school's cultural assistant!

-also runs student exchanges with other countries and planets

-speaks every minority language that has representation in the student body

-also a substitute teacher

-she can give a super interesting lessons

-but takes 0 shit from students who won't respect her

-runs an extracurricular activity with spock when she teaches immigrant and refugee students to express their emotions with music

-is the best at pitching a project idea for funding, which is why her office and spock's classrom are the best equipped ones in the school

-spock's bestie, they hang out after work (gay/lesbian solidatity)

-still lives with her parents, they're super close

-wants to date but it's too boring compared to writing another lesson plan

Bones

-the school nurse! & in charge of nutrition

-teenagers are afraid of him

-small children absolutely love him

-takes his daughter to work and lets her draw with crayons on his important papers

-also constantly in spock's classroom, but to complain

-"damnit, spock! give them all the vulcan cuisine you want, but don't send them crying to me after they get an allergic reaction!"

-"meditation? maybe have them meditate on doing some real work for once"

-but when parents with pitchforks come to complain abt spock's methods he defends him like a lion

-he sends them piles after piles of scientific proof of why spock's method are actually the bestest and most efficient

-when kirk thanks him for stepping in he pretends like he doesn't know what he's talking about

Chapel

-teaches sex ed!

-the sweetest teacher ever

-one of those teachers that noone is intimidated by but noone disobeys because noone wants to makes her upset

-uses her Blonde White Straight Pretty Woman priviledge to convince reluctant parents to sign up their kids for sex ed

-goes All Out on halloween tho

-you know she is there, dressed like a witch, running an educational halloween themed activity! paper bats hanging from the ceiling!

-has gluten free and vegan candy in case the winners have a food sensivity!

-has a secret crush on Uhura and Spock both

Chekov

-teaches IT

-burned out miracle kid

-graduated university when he was younger than his current students

-lets students play roblox on the computers

-and teaches them how to torrent

-somehow noone from the faculty knows where he lives

-background check turns up nothing

-"did you know computers were invented in russia?"

-puts 0 effort in but somehow his students love him

-little girls take sneak photos of him to edit in a flower crowns

Scotty

-teaches a woodworking & engineering class and does janitor duties on the side!

-like kirk, absolutely 0 idea on how to treat younger kids

-strict

-has to be, no joking around power tools!

-but you know praise from him hits different

-will tell students he's proud of them when they make theit first little table

-can fix everything

-say "this interactive blackboard is broken!" three times to summon him

-marries to his career, teaching fulfills his paternal calling

Sulu

-teaches biology!

-rule follower

-stressed out about exams 3 years before his students

-not very inventive but everyone wants his class because there is a hamster in the classroom

-classroom full of houseplants

-if you agree to water them when he's away you will receive a 50 page manual on proper misting techniques

-not strict at all but will give a dressing down to a student who is seen treating a living thing badly

-can be bribed with plants

[animeyanderelover]

Anon: Can I request Muzan, Kokushibo, Douma, Akaza, Daki and Gyutaro with a darling who has abilities like Wanda from Marvel?

Requests will be opened on the 4th August. I made the s/o a human, btw. Also, I stopped watching Marvel after End Game so I'm only aware of Wanda's telekinetic abilities and her powers to mentally control/manipulate someone.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, obsession, possessive behavior,delusion, stalking, clinginess, manipulation, abduction, drugging

Abilities like Marvel's Wanda

Kibutsuji Muzan

🩸 You would never expect it nor could Muzan ever accept it but his feelings for you are initially only consisting of burning envy and, by extention of such a pitiful emotion, hatred. This is a man who prides himself on being unbeatable, on being the closest thing to being perfect if he could only obtain the ability to walk under the sun. You're mortal, you're delicate, you're not a demon yet you were born with abilities far surpassing what mortals are supposed to be able to possess. It's no wonder that he hears about you thanks to his many underlings although he doesn't believe the rumors at first. How could a human possibly possess such great powers? Yet he's cautious, despite underestimating humanity largely so he decides to use some worthless paws of his and orders them to attack you whilst observing from the safe distance. You're no Demon Slayer but manage to trap the demons long enough until the sun starts rising and they burn to ashes, leaving Muzan terrified and in disbelief.

🩸 Something he couldn't believe is now something he doesn't want to believe, not after having looked down on mortals for such a long time. He instantly sees the potential in your abilities, as of now still unpolished and imagining what you might be able to do if you gain full control is a terrifying thought. Your powers could rival and even surpass those of his Upper Moons, perhaps even his own but Muzan does not allow himself to finish this thought. His underlings continue spying on you and that's when he hears how people call you perfect and praise you, something that triggers paranoia and wrath deep inside of him. You're still mortal! What use could all your powers have if you're destined to writhe and die eventually?! His emotions nearly threaten to overwhelm him yet he forces himself to compose himself, after a short outburst in his laboratory. He fears you deep down, someone who has defined everything he thought he knew about humanity. As a man highly skilled in science though, he can't help the spark of interest. How could you have such abilities despite being mortal?

🩸 Knowledge about your abilities would help reduce his fear and so he strives to discover what makes you different from others. A mutation of some sort would be his best guess but for that he needs samples of your blood. His scientific purpose is what you might call the start of his obsession. His pawns keep an eye on you, waiting for a chance to steal a bit of your blood. Information about you are constantly reported to Muzan who watches everything intently. Entertaining thoughts of killing you and by consuming you perhaps gaining your powers change over time as he considers you worthy of staying alive and perhaps becoming a demon. You would have great potential, he might even give you enough blood to make you one of his Upper Moons, an early sign of his growing favouritism towards you. Eventually his attention shifts to the things that truly are irrelevant for his scientific research yet your daily routine and your presonality somehow capture his attention.

🩸 Muzan isn't oblivious though, he catches onto his obsession fairly early and he doesn't take it that well, although the fact that you're special might make it at least a bit more acceptable for him. Needless to say, it's this point where things truly go downhill as the demon is unbelievably possessive. He wants you as a priced possession, the most unique human on earth who defined nature. He needs to have you, he won't lose someone as special as you to the Demon Slayers. He sends one of his Upper Moons to retrieve you but warns them to not kill you and that he won't tolerate failure. You don't do bad against the demon but lack experience and knowledge how to use your abilities fully so ultimately you get knocked out and land in Muzan's Infinity Castle where he keeps you poisoned and under the influence of drugs to weaken you not only physically but also mentally to stop you from using your powers. He continues his research on you but treats you mindfully as he has no intention to kill you. No, he's sure as his obedient and immortal pet, you'd do wonderfully.

Kokushibo

🌙 Tales of a human with very special abilities aren't something Kokushibo concerns himself with as the greatest swordman and strongest human for him will always be his younger brother Yoriichi. Not to mention that apparently they aren't even part of the Demon Slayer Corps. It's only when he hears the rumors about how this human possesses abilities that only Blood Demon Art should be able to do does he find his interest peaking ever so slightly. Perhaps one short visit wouldn't hurt, although Kokushibo has no intention of wasting his time if you do not live up to the stories that he has heard. On the first glance, you look very ordinary like every human does and if it wouldn't have been for the Upper Moon's enhanced senses and an instinct that one only develops after years of battles and fights, he would have dismissed you as a plain human he would have devoured for letting his expectations down. Something about your presence though sets his senses on slight alert as he knows that he should not completely underestimate you.

🌙 With his sixth sense informing him that you must be more than you allow to be seen, he trusts his instincts and starts stalking you and follows you. You never catch him but sometimes you turn around and stop and he instantly knows that you try to detect a presence. You have a hunch that someone is following you and Kokushibo silently comments you for your shap intuition. It's during a stormy and rainy night that he witnesses your abilities for the first time. It's a wonder that he has kept up that long with you even without having seen your powers once, perhaps his faith in his judgement is that strong or perhaps it's something else. A few trees fall over during that night, unable to stand the strong wind and the rain that feels like a whiplash as they threaten to crush you. You stop them though and his six eyes take in the scene in front of him with clear intrigue as you stop them midair and navigate them to fall down somewhere else before continuing your journey.

🌙 He's left surprised on that night but not because of your abilities. Whilst it is surely beyond unusual to find a human who has such special powers, something he will definitely observe closely, it's his own mindset and his own feelings during the accident that leave him stunned. A surge of slight panic, a wave of protective instincts taking over and one hand on his katana, ready to slash those trees and save your life if it wouldn't have been for your own skills. He would have exposed himself by doing so yet subconsciously let himself almost slip up. It's a loss of his own self-control, something that has never happened before to Kokushibo who is normally always composed and in control of himself. You're the trigger of his loss of control, only one reason more to observe you as the demon needs to know why he acted so unlikely. He disposes of serious threats normally yet such a thought never crosses his mind when his six eyes gaze upon you and he finds every thought of his mind revolving around you.

🌙 Kokushibo is no fool as the weird flutter in his chest and the way his eyes do not want to tear themselves away from you are dead giveaways. He's in love with you. A possibility he has never considered yet he humbly accepts his feelings and the obsessive thoughts it includes. The lack of ill will doesn't mean anything good for you though as Kokushibo is incredibly possessive, something which steams partially from his inferiority complex caused by his younger brother. The abduction happens soon after his realization as he decides to waste not anymore time. He has observed you long enough, can estimate the limit of your abilities as you have yet to learn how to fully master them. He doesn't want to cause a big ruckus nor greatly harm you if he can avoid it. It happens when you're asleep and at your most vulnerable and he for the first time dares to approach you, one of his hands reaching out to touch your sleeping face as his skin absorbs your warmth. He feels a strong yearning for this very warmth, for the feeling of your heartbeat pressed against his own. When your eyes flutter open, you only see six piercing eyes but before any scream can leave your mouth, you feel him hitting your pressure point before you slowly drift back into darkness.

Douma

❄️ You've recently joined the Eternal Paradise Cult for reasons you don't seem to quite know yourself. You've mostly just been sort of urged to do so by some other members who quickly offered you the position when realizing that you were struggling with your life, promised you a fulfilled one. Their leader is a man named Douma, hailed as some sort of god by the members although you do not believe in that nor do you plan to truly praise him and worship him. In fact, you do your best to avoid him since for some unknown reason, you have a very bad feeling about him. Unfortunately for you, one day you decide to use your abilities to finish your work as you believe that no one is there. Then it comes washing over you, a dreadful fear that makes your stomach turn, that has sour bile push against the back of your throat and that almost makes your heart jump out of your chest. You sense that someone's staring at you yet you can't see anyone. The feeling eventually fades away and leaves you nearly choking on your own breath as soon as it releases you.

❄️ The very next day, you're requested by Douma himself nder the disguise of asking the newest member of his cult how they're doing. To say that you're nervous would be an understatement, you're terrified but have to hide it in front of all the other members who are excitedly telling you what an honor it is to have Douma request you and that you have to be on your best behavior. You do not wish to earn their ire after all. When you're led to the room he awaits you in, you keep your head down all the time and bow as soon as you've entered, still not looking up. You hear his cheerful voice asking to be left alone with you, a sentence that forms a lump inside your throat but it's only as soon as the shoji doors are closed that you truly realize in how much of a peril you are when that same feeling from yesterday washs over you again and you come to the horrifying conclusion that it must have been Douma himself who saw you yesterday.

❄️ The pressure is gone as soon as it came over you and instead you hear him lilting you encouragingly to look up. You do so slowly, your body in a paralyzed state of fear as you meet his eyes. They're of magnificent rainbow-colours and shine in the dimly lit room, perking down with clear intrigue at your trembling form as a smile stretches across the demon's face and he asks you of your name and what a damsel in distress like you is doing here. You barely manage to choke out your half-hearted excuses of joining the cult, terrified and yet equally captivated by those orbs staring at you. Douma seems to notice your distress and gives you a sickening sweet smile, cooing that there's no reason to be so nervous in front of him. He just wants to get to know you a bit better, that's all. The time you spend in the room alone with him is agonizing as you can not figure out what his intentions are. You only know one thing for certain. He knows but you don't know what he plans to do now. This puts you constantly on edge, long after you've been dismissed by him.

❄️ You quickly seem to become his favorite follower among his cult, something that does earn you the envy of many others yet Douma makes it very clear that no one should even dare to touch a strand of your hair. Talking about touching, this order does not apply to him as you quickly figure out that Douma enjoys keeping you close and touching you. From running his fingers through your hair, pinching your cheeks or even grabbing your waist, he loves touching you and appreciates the flustered and scared reactions you always give him even more. By now you feel like you're about to go insane as you don't know if he tries to lull you into a false sense of security only to kill you brutally afterwards, you do know that you can't stay here anymore. You try to escape, something that Douma was expecting and he's quick to catch you and reveals his true self to you, although you surely already knew that he was not human. He urges you to show him your powers again and out of panic you do, only that instead of anger you're met with thrill as he grabs you, claws digging painfully into your skin. How splendid you are! How could he ever let someone as adorable and special as you leave him?

Akaza

👊 Akaza is always up for a good fight, no doubt about it. So that should make him especially interested in his darling and when he happens to hear the story of them, spilled out by his next victim that tells him everything as fear loosens their mouth, he finds himself pausing. He does not spare the life of the unfortunate man though, it's actually quite disgusting to witness the man telling him a secret you trusted him with. What a pathetic excuse of a man, it almost ruins Akaza his appetite. Still, he's now curious to see this special human the man oh so willingly talked about shortly before the Upper Moon crushed his life. He should have time for a short side trip to judge for himself if you're all that intriguing and special. True so far to the man's word, he discovers the little cottage hidden within the forest where you have been living so far a quiet and isolated life, growing your own vegetables and selling some of them in the nearby city. Your life is about to change though.

👊 You have no one to help you with in your garden or with the other labor you do everyday so you have resorted to using your powers to help lift and carry stuff that would put physically too much of a strain on you. There's no one around you after all so you don't see any reason why you shouldn't use your gift. That's perhaps the big mistake you make, too naive and not careful enough as Akaza's eyes take in your powers and catches him by surprise. He knows that the man had no reason to lie in the face of his death yet it still comes as a shock to see that not only demons have special powers but you apparently too, a very simple human. It fascinates him as he can't help but wonder if there are other humans like you who have such powers. The most prominent question in Akaza's mind is though how far you could go with your abilities as it's quite obvious in his eyes that you lack experience and the knowledge how to properly wield your abilities as you only use them to finish your labor quicker.

👊You earn yourself a new stalker who watches you closely from that day on, who seems captivated by your powers whenever you use them , mind racing with possibilities what you could do. Imagining you at the peak of your powers fighting against him excites him and makes his head and heart alike start racing. Your life otherwise is painfully boring and he bemoans your wasted potential as you could do so much more than growing fruits and vegetables. Oddly enough he slowly finds enjoyment and a weird tranquility in the very act of watching you just being plainly normal and at night he's often lurking around your house, watching out for any potential demon that might get too close. If he doesn't sense any danger, he catches himself in the act of watching you sleeping, blissfully unaware of his presence. There's this tight pull in his chest as he gazes upon your sleeping form, an unknown feeling that longs to always be able to watch you and have you with him.

👊 His feelings grow until they threaten to drown Akaza and that is when he snaps and decides to take you for himself. He's certainly delusional as he not only believes that he can teach you how to really make good use of your abilities but also because he's convinced that you will forgive him if he has to use less appropriate methods. Surprisingly enough he reveals himself in front of you as he tries to verbally convince you at first. He admits that he's been watching you for a while now and that he wants you to come with him, that he wants to help you with your powers. His reflexes are way too fast so when you try to use your telekinetic abilities, he quickly restrains you, uses this chance to emphasis how you need training. He wasn't aware up until this point that you could mentally manipulate someone until you do it on him and it's only thanks to his sheer willpower and the fact that he smashes half of his skull that he regains control, much to your shock. His eyes have grown colder now as he grabs you by your arms, although his gaze soften when he sees the fear. Poor thing, try to understand that he only wants to protect you. You didn't know after all what lurks around at night until you met him.

Daki

🌺 You're only a mere servant in the house of the famous and feared Oiran Warabihime, one personally assigned to cater to said woman's every need and wish. The way everyone stares at you with pity already tells you that something is rather wrong and it's when you witness the temper of the Oiran that you know why everyone kept throwing you such glances. Because Warabihime is cruel and believes that everyone and everything should adore her and bend to her will and the fact that she is the most famous Oiran of the house who earns the most money only gives her more power. Her loss would be fatal to the house and so to not anger her and keep the other women in this house safe, you do your job as dutifully as possible. You act as submissive as possible, always adress her with respectful titles and rush to give her anything she desires. If she does get angry as her temper truly is an ugly one, you instantly go down on your knees, humiliating your pride but sparing yourself any violence as the Oiran calms down upon your acts of obedience.

🌺 In fact Warabihime seems to take a liking to you as your patience and endurance to stay with her, the clear obedience you adapt to please her, flatter her a lot. Finally a human who understands how to act around her, who knows how to treat her with submission and respect. As she takes her ire less and less out on you, you start to realize that she allows you to hang out less and less with other people. Suddenly the Oiran insists you to stay with only her and even the smallest protest from your side instantly makes you a target of her wrath again so you learn to shut your mouth and accompany her silently. You're treated with a lot more respect and just as much fear as everyone soon knows that interacting with you would only earn them the fury of Warabihime herself. She's the only one deserving of your attention and spends her time starting to dress you up in finer clothes, insisting that her darling has to look presentable in her company. You turn into her little dress-up doll she likes to dote on as long as you continue your submissive behavior.

🌺 You've hidden your powers so far from everyone since previous experiences have taught you that people fear your abilities. You reveal them by sheer accident and only to protect Warabihime as another Oiran, terrified of her cruel reign and the disappearance of other woman because of her despite clear lack of proof, attempts to attack her and her darling with a knife. Obviously Daki could have easily overpowered her but instead you stop her with your power and take the knife away from her, the object flying in the air before dropping down in front of your feet. You did that all without realizing it but before you can stop the woman from screaming, her eyes scared as she looks at you and then behind you, obi sashes suddenly wrap themselves around her, suffocating her and that's when you hear her voice, right next to your ear and angrily hissing at you what you just did. The ire in Daki's voice is dripping out of every word as she's immensely mad with you.

🌺 You never told her about your abilities, that's not what a good and obedient lover does. Daki feels entitled to know everything about you, no matter how ashamed you might be of your past. Your feelings do not concern her as it's only important for her that she knows. To think that you kept such a big secret as your own abilities away from her is infuriating, so much to the point that she doesn't wonder how and why you, a human, has such abilities nor gives you credit for having used your powers to protect her. You're kidnapped the very same evening, don't dare to resist as you sense her foul mood and realize that if you fight back now, she'll hurt you. Her obi slashes are tightly wrapped around you, you have a feeling that they could crush your bones if you struggle. You better have a good explanation for why you never told your beautiful master about your powers, otherwise Daki will punish you. Chances to escape her are higher in comparison to other Upper Moons though as Daki tends to underestimate her opponents. The question is if you dare to have her calling Gyutaro who certainly won't be as foolish as his sister tends to be.

Gyutaro

🟢 Gyutaro gets to know you through Daki as you are part of the same house as she is, although he has no interest in you initially. He despises humans with a burning passion so why should he care about someone like you? You're potential food for him at best. It isn't until he's out to hunt down some humans and devour them that he witnesses you for what you really are. He recognizes you when he sees how you're being threatened and bullied by some people of the disttrict and just watches with half of a sadistic grin and half of a disgusted sneer on his face. All of you are so pathetic. He might as well kill all of you to kill several birds with one stone. Only that it never comes that far as your powers explode sort of out of you when they get physical and you accidentally knock all of them out with your telecinetic powers and your mental manipulation alike, lost in your wrath and anger. When you snap out of it, you're mortified of what you did and fled the scene, leaving Gyutaro fascinated.

🟢 You're anxious to be exposed by the people who attacked you but weirdly enough they disappear after that night and no one knows where they are. See it as a a kind gesture of Gyutaro who decides to help you as you clearly lack the guts to take a human life. He doesn't know why he spares you and even helps you to protect that little secret of yours, perhaps because the look in your eyes reminded him of himself, even if only for a short second. Now you definitely have caught his eyes though and Daki is left having to have you around her more often as she can sense her brother's peaked interest in you, something that makes her quite jealous and sometimes just makes her want to strangle you if it wouldn't be for Gyutaro growling at her to let you be. He takes it upon himself to stalk you too as Daki makes it clear that she can't be bothered to look after you like some sort of babysitter all of the time. Whatever he has witnessed that night doesn't allow him to just kill you. Yet.

🟢 Thoughts os murdering you gradually fade away though as Gyutaro gets to know you a whole lot better through all the information he drains out of his little sister and his time spent stalking you. It's obvious that you resent those who hurt you and put you down yet you do have a certain kindness to you, one he can't help but scoff over yet simultanously be curious about. Kindness is a needless waste of time in his eyes yet you still try to express compassion as good as you can, even if rarely. At times he wonders how it would be if you would show him some of your kindess, although he quickly tries to shake those thoughts off as soon as they cross his mind. What was he just thinking? Certainly something that infects his mind more and more, a weird itching need rising all over his skin to touch you, have you with him and away from those people you so secretly despise. Realizing that he holds affectionate feelings for you is everything but easy for Gyutaro but rising from that resentment is the sadistic possessiveness that demands to take you and drag you down the same hole he's falling in.

🟢 You freeze in horror when Gyutaro shows himself to you right after Daki has forced you to follow her somewhere, doing begrudgingly as her brother has told her to do. An angry mask shadowing his face when he sees how you start cowering in front of him, about to use your powers before he immobilizes you with his next words. That he knows what you did to those humans on that night and that he is in fact the one who got rid of their bodies for you. So instead of trying to attack him with your powers, you should just maybe be a bit more grateful. Otherwise you would have been exposed as the freak you are after all for your strange powers. He's a demon after all, he's normal. You on the other hand are a true outcast even amongst your own kind. If Gyutaro knows that you're afraid of your own powers and have been forced to hide them due to the fear of being treated as a monster, he will go for that weak spot of yours. You could try to attack him only to risk him hurting and punishing you later on but who exactly do you want to go to? He'll manipulate you into feeling all alone and that there won't be anyone besides himself who will accept you for who you truly are.

[timeagainreviews]

Dust and Darkness Prevail

Panspermia is the theory that human life was seeded by comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and space dust falling to Earth. Directed panspermia is the idea that an unknown third party purposely seeded life onto this planet through similar means. These are perhaps the most ancient of aliens. For whatever reason, be it propagation, a future food source, or simply contamination from an explorer’s boot, somehow, we were created.  It’s easy to see why mankind looked to the stars for parentage- we are made of star stuff, after all. As our understanding of the stars grew, so did our desire to understand them in relation to ourselves. Staring down the concept of being a mere dust mote floating within sunbeams, some of us began to wonder if the Gods we abandoned weren’t actually a different form of sky daddy. In the words of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos- “Aliens.”

Science fiction has a rich history of depicting ancient Gods as alien lifeforms. Doctor Who is no different. Sometimes these extra-terrestrial visitors are used to explain odd phenomena, and other times, they’ve been used to outright undermine the achievements of ancient civilisations. One of the most popular ancient alien theories is that aliens helped build the pyramids. Some Egyptian-themed polyhedron-obsessed aliens influenced ancient Egyptian culture. You can see it in movies like Stargate, or in television stories like the 1975 Doctor Who serial “Pyramids of Mars.” Recent books like Erich Von Daniken’s scientifically dubious “Chariots of the Gods,” or numerous documentaries narrated by Rod Serling had garnered interest in ancient astronauts. A year after “Pyramids of Mars,” aired, NASA released photos from their Viking 1 orbiter that would only feed these theories. The black and white photos of the Cydonia region appeared to depict a carved facelike structure and gigantic pyramids on the planet’s surface. Needless to say, some people let their imaginations run wild.

While many of the concepts explored in the History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens,” have been labelled pseudo-science or even racist, some of these concepts still crop up in popular media. A more benign example would be Marvel’s own Thor and Loki. Sure, they call them Gods, but they are very clearly from advanced alien civilisations. It feels appropriate then that Doctor Who returning with Disney money might also explore one of its own ancient aliens in Sutekh the Destroyer. Considering the build-up with the Toymaker and the Maestro, it all seems fairly obvious in hindsight. But what does this have to do with Ruby Sunday? In seeking out her own parentage, might she also benefit from looking to the stars?

One aspect to this season of Doctor Who that I feel has actually fallen a bit flat is the question of Ruby Sunday’s parents. Considering that the fandom has been interacting more with the question of the identity of Susan Twist’s character, it’s safe to say I’m not alone in this. It’s just not a very interesting question, and I think it’s partly because we already know the answer. Doctor Who’s official Twitter recently asked fans who they think Ruby’s mother really is, and only a few people actually got the answer right. It’s Carla Sunday, obviously. I find this whole question to be as flawed as the conversation around it. Ruby uses words like “abandoned,” to describe herself. And while I can understand the desire to know your roots, I know my adopted siblings were never abandoned. They were found. They have a family who love them. My mother who was also adopted had a mother in my grandma. My greatest hope with this storyline is that this is what Russell T Davies has been leading up to all along. Ruby’s real mother is the one who changed her diapers and cleaned up scraped knees.

Speaking of family, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” begins like a bit of a family reunion. Yasmin Finney is back as “Rose.” As are Gemma Redgrave as “Kate Lethbridge-Stewart,” Bonnie Langford as “Mel,” and Alexander Devrient as “Colonel Christofer Ibrahim.” Also returning is the Vlinx, with a shiny new chassis. Strangely absent is Ruth Madeley as UNIT’s scientific advisor “Shirley Anne Bingham." In her place is Lenny Rush as “Morris Gibbons,” a boy genius with a taste for excitement. We’re also introduced to Harriet, UNIT’s newest lead archivist. More on her later. The light tone of this family reunion is much needed as the majority of this episode is Doctor Who at its most bleak.

Something I have completely failed to mention this season has been the TARDIS’ weird groaning. It’s not as though I hadn’t noticed, there have just been so many things to talk about lately. I had meant to bring it up last week when the Doctor told Rogue the TARDIS doesn’t like bounty hunters. I figured then that it was the Doctor ignoring a bigger problem. Speaking of which, it does strike me as a bit odd that the Doctor hadn’t addressed the issue for such a long time. The TARDIS has been groaning and sliding into landings like a football tackle. I understand that the Doctor has a lot on his mind, but it would have been nice if they could have shown the Doctor showing any kind of concern for the TARDIS. He’s been flying her for thousands of years, he would notice any slight change. This isn’t a huge issue for me, though it does feel a bit out of character. But who am I to complain? Even I forgot to bring it up.

The Doctor does have a lot on his mind, which is what brings him to UNIT HQ. It was nice to see the Doctor lay all of his cards on the table for a change. You don’t often see the Doctor outright asking for help. Luckily, UNIT was already on the case. The woman the Doctor keeps seeing also exists in modern-day London as Susan Triad. I found it a bit odd that the Doctor would know a politician from an aborted timeline like Roger ap Gwilliam, but not a tech industry giant with her name on a skyscraper. Even Colonel Ibrahim recognised it as an anagram of TARDIS, so what gives, Doctor? 

Part of their gathering intelligence on Susan Triad has been using Mel to infiltrate her organisation. When I had heard they were bringing back Mel, I was excited. Mel has never been a fan favourite, and even I took a lot of time to warm up to her in classic Doctor Who. But bringing her back feels like a no-brainer. She’s a tech whiz and Bonnie Langford is a great actress. There is only room to grow with her character, and grow she does. Not only have they given her a bit more backstory with losing her family, but we also get to see her acting as a double agent and puttering about on her scooter. Seeing Mel in this capacity is a delight. I am really enjoying how they have built up UNIT to be more like the ‘70s (or was it the ‘80s?) with recurring characters. Instead of Yates and Benton, we’ll now have Ibrahim and Sullivan. I really hope they continue this trend, though I would appreciate it if they stopped haemorrhaging scientific advisors.

Despite around-the-clock surveillance, the most UNIT has managed to gather on Susan Triad is that she’s a seemingly nice human woman with no underlying alien traits. Her company’s upcoming event will announce that she is making the Triad OS free to the world, which seems like a weird flex. Ubuntu and Fedora are both free operating systems, so this is nothing new. What’s even more perplexing is that UNIT would integrate Triad into their own systems. Call me crazy, but if I were a government organisation spying on a tech giant because their name is an anagram of an alien time machine, I might opt to use Windows or Mac. The whole storyline was giving shades of “The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky,” or even “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” wherein miracle technologies are secretly deadly. We still don’t know the ramifications of the Triad system’s worldwide rollout, but I imagine we’ll find out next week.

Something a friend pointed out to me that feels important happens during the Mrs Flood scene. According to Kate, the Triad press conference was scheduled for fifteen hundred hours, or 3 pm. What’s odd is that when Ruby and Rose show up to Ruby’s home, Cherry’s digital clock reads 15:08. At first, I had misremembered this scene and figured it must take place during the events at UNIT HQ, but the inclusion of Ruby and Rose implies that it’s not. I can think of three possible explanations for this. One explanation is that it was a continuity error. The production crew simply goofed. It happens. Another explanation is that Cherry’s radio is like my coffee machine in that the digital time display is incorrect. That’s possibly the most human answer. But television doesn’t often allow for such realistic discrepancies as they can confuse audiences. Seriously, how often do you see fictional stories where two characters share the name John? One of my closest friends is also named Natalie, but that wouldn’t usually work in fiction. This leaves us with a third explanation which is that it was done on purpose. Either something wibbly wobbly is happening, or they goofed.

As expected, Mrs Flood appears to be someone. With the reveal of Susan Triad being Sutekh, my hopes of the Rani have been dashed against the rocks of reality. Or have they? In explaining regeneration to Ruby, the Doctor describes it as a way to hide away with a new face. When Ruby fetches Mrs Flood to mind Cherry while Carla joins them back at UNIT, Mrs Flood mentions hiding herself away. While Mrs Flood was a bit rude to Ruby and downright hostile toward Cherry, these could be the actions of a bitter Susan Foreman, aka the Doctor’s granddaughter. However, I am reticent to call her Susan for a couple or reasons. For starters, Carole Ann Ford was present at the premiere for the 60th anniversary specials. Sure this could have simply been due to her history with the show, but it could also imply she’s been filming things for the RTD2 era. You could speculate that the only thing she actually filmed was a flashback regeneration scene into Mrs Flood, but that feels like a waste of a much-needed reunion. My money is on the Rani, but mostly because I want her to be and because Carole Ann Ford deserves her moment. If they bring Susan back, there’s only one person I want to see play her.

Ruby and Rose fetch the surveillance tape from the night Ruby was left on that church stoop. I loved that Carla joined them the moment she learned that Donna was involved with UNIT. It’s nice to see that at least one character hasn’t forgotten who Ruby’s real mother is. This also gave rise to one of my favourite Doctor moments of the episode when he says "Yeah but it’s Carla. Come on," in response to the claim that not even the prime minister has access to UNIT HQ. I loved the exchange between the Doctor and Kate about their possession of a time window. They claim they don’t have one, the Doctor knows they do. Classic. It’s the Doctor knowing of the existence of the Black Archive all over again. Even further, I loved the Doctor laughing at the way UNIT has “lashed together,” the time window. I doubt he really feels that way, but the Doctor needs to remind UNIT not to get too comfortable. Undercutting their achievement is a reminder that these items aren’t toys. It’s a subtle way to establish himself as an authority while also reminding UNIT of their limitations. The Doctor’s aim isn’t to belittle UNIT, but to instill a healthy fear of these technologies. As it turns out, the Doctor’s fears were well-founded.

The time window is a large room capable of viewing moments in time. The Doctor refers to time as a memory which is a bigger Whoiverse change than people are giving it credit. I always thought of the TARDIS as a supercomputer that stores moments throughout time in its memory like files. It makes sense that time and memory mingle like this. The effect of the VHS degradation on memory is one of the coolest visual effects in Doctor Who. It’s nice to see that Disney money coming into play. I also have to tip my hat to Lenny Rush for his performance as Morris here. Lots of UNIT characters were given little moments to shine in this episode like Harriet and Colonel Chidozie. The latter of whom we’re given a bit of background information about so that when he meets his demise, we care a little bit more. He’s just a Manchester lad with a cheery disposition. It would be a shame if something were to happen to him.

In an almost cruel twist of fate, the visual of Ruby’s mother is obscured. Not just obscured, but seemingly darkened as if on purpose. The moment she walks close to the Doctor and Ruby, she glitches past them. It’s sad for Ruby, but I feel it’s important that Carla is there to witness this moment. She needs to see that the mystery of Ruby’s life isn’t just one of being an orphan, but that something is deeply and darkly wrong. I feel as though Carla’s involvement in this storyline is due a rather big payoff next week, and I am looking forward to that. The Doctor notices that the TARDIS appears more corporeal than a simple image from a video. He asks the tanatalising question “If time is memory and memory is time, then what is the memory of a time machine?” It’s a question I have been mulling in my head ever since, and I still don’t have a great answer.

Colonel Chidozie disappears around the same time a swarm of dark energy begins to incircle the memory TARDIS (omg I think I just figured it out). The MEMORY TARDIS! Ok. I see what you’re putting down, Russell. Carla refers to the dark energy as “the Beast,” as in, the devil. But who among us didn’t automatically think of the Beast from “The Satan Pit”? Hell, it’s not as though it would break the show if Sutekh and the Beast were one in the same. They’re both voiced by Gabriel Woolf. Furthermore, we know Sutekh takes on multiple forms like the doggo or Susan Triad. There are plenty of examples of gods taking on multiple forms. Christianity has the Holy Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hindu gods often have multiple forms such as Vishnu manifesting as Krishna, Rama, or even Buddha. It’s fully within the realm of possibility that the Beast is yet one more aspect to Sutekh. After all, the Fourth Doctor did refer to him as Satan at one point. Why not?

Possibly the most interesting aspect of the scene is when Chidozie’s speaks out from the darkness. It’s not so much the fact that he’s in Hell or that his consciousness feels like it’s been hijacked like Angel Bob’s was, but rather the fact that he only seems to respond to Ruby. The Doctor tries to commune with the entity and gets nothing. Kate commands Chidozie to report and comes up equally empty-handed. It’s not until Ruby attempts to communicate with the entity that it responds. If Christianity has the Trinity and Hinduism has the Trimurti, perhaps Sutekh has the Triad. Perhaps there’s Sutekh, his doggo form, and Ruby Sunday. This might explain why Ruby’s birth mother has been obscured- she never existed. Whoever left Ruby at the church that day could have been a servant of Sutekh, or even Susan Triad herself.

The tone of the episode by this point is very gloomy. I think the last time Doctor Who gave me the creeps to this degree was “The Impossible Astronaut.” As a fan of dark and disturbing movies, I consider myself rather resilient to horror and dread in media. But there is something about turning the TARDIS into a malevolent force that chills me to my core. Bad Wolf Girl once said “You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope wherever it goes.” But here, the TARDIS offers no comfort. It goes beyond seeing our beloved symbol of hope twisted and perverted. We have seen what the TARDIS is capable of doing. We know how powerful it can be. We can also imagine what that power can do in the wrong hands. My dear late friend Quinn and I used to say that the cloister bell was the scariest sound the TARDIS could make. But this howling groan and sinister energy turning into a hound of Hell is like the cloister bell on steroids.

The Doctor and Mel head off to S Triad Technologies in the vain hope that Susan might be the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. It’s a last-ditch effort to gain insight into what is happening. Earlier in the episode, we see Kate telling the Doctor that he brings joy, but after Chidozie’s death, you get the impression that her view has sobered up a bit. The Doctor sees the fear in Kates eyes. He sees the fear in Carla’s eyes. He even let down his best friend Ruby. But it’s Mel who picks him back up. Mel who has seen him at his worst and knows who the Doctor is underneath it all. Only she can give him the tough love he needs in this moment and I loved that they gave this opportunity to Bonnie Langford.

The Doctor makes contact with Susan Triad but there is no Time Lord recognition on either end. However, we’ve been here before. Maybe she has a fob watch she doesn’t like to look at. Maybe she’s hiding away. With her press conference due to begin, Susan is whisked away. But as she leaves the Doctor calls out asking if she’s ever dreamed of a girl named Lindy. Has she ever dreamed about a place called Pacifico Del Rio? Has she ever dreamed about being an ambulance? Out of context, he sounds insane. I mean, sure, I dream of being a sail barge, but that’s my special time. It’s enough to set things into motion.

At this point, we still don’t know the true identity of Susan Triad. She very well could still be the Doctor’s granddaughter. But the moment she walked onstage doing that awkward Theresa May arm thing, I knew she had to be evil. Historically speaking, if you want someone to appear evil in Doctor Who, compare them to a Tory. It worked in “The Happiness Patrol,” and it still works now. Could you imagine being the person who milkshakes Sutekh? I feel like throwing a sweet banana dairy concoction into the face of a terrible god would only resort in eternal suffering. While Susan Triad is having her public meltdown for all to see, UNIT’s own Harriet Arbinger is doing one as well. Once again we get another Harbinger. I’ll be honest, the H. Arbinger joke isn’t nearly as strong as RTD seems to think it is. But then again, Batman is the “world’s greatest detective,” and it took him a while to learn that E. Nigma was the Riddler.

I had begun to fully suspect Sutekh by this point, but part of me was starting to wonder if Harriet wasn’t going to turn out to be Sutekh instead. It would have been a very effective misdirect. I was really liking Harriet up to this point too, so I was a bit sad she just turned out to be a servant of the God of Death. Her “I was born for this,” line had me a little hot under the collar. But it looks like she’s gonna get a lot to do in the next episode, so that softens the blow a little bit. As she names off the various gods of the Pantheon, I was very happy to see them reference the Mara as I am a big fan of both “Kinda,” and “Snakedance.” Some have also speculated that the threefold deity of malice, mischief and misery could be a reference to the Gods of Ragnarok. I really hope this is true because I’ve always thought they were cool.

I’ve seen some people complain that they seem to have somewhat retconned Sutekh. People have said it makes no sense to make him the god of gods. He’s an Osiran, not the most powerful god of them all, right? Well, if you think about it, in many ways, death is the ultimate power. If a god like the Toymaker can die, then of course he would run from Sutekh. Also, he’s a god, of course he’s going to claim to be the best. That’s kind of their whole deal. They’re quite full of themselves, gods. Sutekh’s whole deal is that he believes himself the only being worthy of life. Thus all living creatures are an affront to him. Where he treads, he leaves only dust and darkness. Sutekh demonstrates this by reducing Susan Triad’s poor assistant to dust much like he did to Chidozie. With the TARDIS commandeered by evil Anubis and the Doctor being next in line to receive Sutekh’s gift, things have never looked darker for our Time Lord and saviour.

So who was Susan Triad? Was she always Sutekh? Harriet referred to Sutekh as “the mother, father, and other of them all.” I suppose I should start using they/them pronouns for Sutekh. But who were they? Did every incarnation of Sutekh know they were Sutekh? You could wager that they had a hand in a lot of what was happening, and a lot of what was happening could lead to death. The Space Babies were forced into existence and left to die. Roger ap Gwilliam and the Maestro were set on nuclear annihilation. Lindy and her lot were racists which often leads to death. And let's not forget the cold algorithm of the capitalistic war machines from Villengard. What’s even more interesting then is that if these are all aspects of Sutekh and death, then we know Sutekh is stoppable. In “73 Yards,” we’re shown that whatever Ruby’s follower said to Sutekh was enough to send them scurrying. Sadly, Ruby has no memory of this aborted timeline.

With a new episode of “Tales from the TARDIS,” in the pipeline, I expect we’ll see the return of the memory TARDIS in a big way. According to news sources, the new episode will feature the Doctor and Ruby discussing the events of “Pyramids of Mars,” so make sure to watch that if you need a refresher or have never seen the original. One aspect you might find interesting is that Sutekh initially manifests at a priory on the site of the original UNIT HQ. I have no idea if that will come into play, but it’s interesting that both stories are focused around UNIT, if nothing else. Even more interesting is the fact that in both stories, Sutekh is intent on possessing the TARDIS. I wonder if the Doctor will be forced to use the memory TARDIS to stop Sutekh since the regular TARDIS is compromised. We see Ruby’s memory begin to manifest once more when she and Sullivan enter the time window again. It’s entirely plausible.

I’ll be watching the finale like many others in the UK this weekend, at the movie theatre. The last time I got to see a Doctor Who episode in the theatre was in Kansas City when they simulcast “The Day of the Doctor,” at a local indie-theatre. I’ll never forget the feeling of a theatre packed with nerds cheering over Peter Capaldi’s attack eyebrows. I’m also going to see it in the theatre because, evidently, this is a big enough episode to merit a cinematic experience. I bought nine tickets, so it’s going to be a bit of an event for me. I’ll try not and let that colour my experience too much. All in all, I loved this episode, but we’re still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I loved “Fugitive of the Judoon,” but the lacklustre finale left me retroactively disappointed. But for the time being, RTD has my full attention. I can’t remember the last time Doctor Who left me this excited for what’s to come.

[saneandrocking]

I need more about dead stan au

To be clear, I'm not sure if this idea has been already exposed and is the theme of someone's fanfic out there. I just like Dead people AU and suffering. With that said, I kinda raw dog this righ here and I hope you like the flavor!

Bits of context: This is the AU where Stan dies while he's sleeping in his car, is basically a casuality of him getting robbed, reacting and getting killed, nothing much in the side of the extraordinary. I don't remeber exactly all of the series details, but I'm rewatching it, I promise! Yes, it's a music fic, cause I'm corny. The lyrics at the right are Standford's and they belong to Come Home by One Republic and the lyrics at the left are Stanley's and they belong to Take me home by Jess Glynne, because this is how I pictured they both feel at this moment in their respective lives. Remember: Stanley's is barely a legal adult whe he's is evicted from his house and he has canonically hold a grudge because of it, and I don't think I need to justify Stanford's anger. They both have made decision that are unmistakenly selfish, and that does not define their whole characters. Kissessss!

Major trigger: Grief. Major Character Death. Curse language.

After the fallout between the Pines twins, Stanford was accepted into another university, less prestigious but with generous resources for his research. Alongside Fiddleford, he was determined to prove to the rest of the scientific community that this world was far from being fully explained by the already known elements of nature. He was more motivated than ever to delve into the obscure side of anomalies. He was going to make sure his name was not forgotten in history. He's ambitious, he has something to prove, and he feels—or has always felt—like he's already running out of time to do it, so he's fighting against the clock.

Well, hello, world

Hope you're listening

Forgive me if I'm young

For speaking out of turn

He's in his dormitory room at the college he attends, and Fiddleford is taking a well-deserved nap after helping him with some more references, while he's still researching one of the maps of anomalies recorded in the last decade. There's a certain frequency in certain areas, not old-fashioned publicity tricks to attract attention, no, it's something more… He feels like he's going in circles, even though he can see there's a pattern there. He squeezes his tired eyes; the low lighting isn't doing him any favors when the telephone (something Fiddleford found in the trash and brought home to fix) rings. It's three after midnight, and he knows nothing good can come of this.

He doesn't have time to say anything after picking up the damn thing ringing like crazy and putting it to his ear.

—Stanford, for God's sake, why aren't you answering this damn thing?! I've used all my coins trying to call the university, but they only gave me your roommate's number— a feminine voice berates him. He waits a few seconds, trying to place that strident voice, but the answer comes quickly, of course. The only woman who would call him in the middle of the night is his mom.

—Mom. I've already told you, I don't have time! I have to study even harder since Stan— He stops himself, angry. Sometimes, remembering his brother is still a mix of anger and resentment that he can't fully name to this day. He sighs.

There is someone I've been missing

—It's not the time for that! It's about your brother.— Her tone is not authoritative, but there's an agony there, a desperation that only a mother can express. A guilt trip is what she does best, he thinks bitterly somehow.

Wrapped up, so consumed by All this hurt If you ask me, don't Know where to start

—Mom, what the actual—why would I care what he does?! He ruined everything for me! I'm going to hang up now, I'm busy, call me later.— Deep down, he already feels bad enough for talking to her like that. His poor mother has tried her best all her life, just as he is doing now. And, vaguely, probably Stan is living like that too, even if his best is in another category of stupidity.

—No, no, please!— Loud sobs interrupt her speech, and he sobers up right there. His mom is not one to cry over just anything. —Ford, he is…

—Mom? What happened? I'm sorry, I lashed out.— He runs his hand through his hair, breathing in and out. —What did he do now?— A long and strained sigh, again. Why does everything have to be a problem with Stan? —Are we talking about Stan or the baby? If it's the first, let me guess.— There's a certain humor in the guessing game; he bets Stan did some nonsense expecting him to clean up after him. Again.

Anger, love, confusion Roads that go nowhere I know that somewhere better

—He's dead, Stanford. Stanley's dead,— she says finally.

—What,— he says, as if in a chokehold, struggling to get the words out.

—I'm going to pass you to your dad, he'll…— His mother chokes on her words and murmurs loudly, —My baby boy Stanley…

—Mom?! What—I can't—!— He's lost. That's all he can say and think. Stanley's lost, not dead, just lost. The idea of death is too much.

I think that they could be

The better half of me

They're in the wrong place

Tryin' to make it right

But I'm tired of justifying

—Hello, son.— The serious and deep tone of his dad doesn't do much to calm the desperate young man; it only intensifies his horror. Stanley's lost. Lost is the word they are searching for.

—Can someone just tell me what I just heard? Stanley is—it can't be, Dad…please, talk to me! He's lost?— Why does he ask something as stupid as this? He knows what he heard.

So I say to you

Come home, come home

'Cause I've been waiting for you

—It's what your mother told you. I have nothing more to say. The funeral— The rest of his words get lost in the moment. All Stanford could hear was the sound of the pen he was holding before it fell onto the table, and the room he shared with his friend became a world of its own. An empty and devastated world, full of silence and sorrow.

Would you take the wheel If I lose control? If I'm lying here Will you take me home?

Stanford can't remember how this conversation ended, how his too-hard-to-impress father explained with a shaky and strained voice when the event was going to be. He didn't even have the money to buy something formal to wear to his brother's burial. Would he be buried in his father's suit? He can only describe the slow and painful realization that came with the equally painful heartache: his twin was dead. If there was such a thing as another half of someone, his was dead and about to be buried six feet under within the next hours.

Could you take care Of a broken soul? Will you hold me now? Oh, will you take me home?

The one and only Stanley Pines died far from home, probably alone, while Ford was studying the anomalies of the world, trying to once in a lifetime feel like he belonged, only to discover that nothing could have been more important than his blood—but suddenly, that was a too-late realization.

Fiddleford stared at him as he fell to his knees, too stunned to utter a word, too broken to make sense. He later woke from this numbness holding a cup of coffee in his hands, tears rolling down his cheeks. Stan was dead, and he was alive, and now this is what he'll remember for the rest of his conscious life. This, and the broken look on his mother's face when she saw him at her door on the same day her other son died—his father did not have the strength to look directly at him.

And right now there's a war between the vanities

But all I see is you and me

And the fight for you is all I've ever known

So come home

At the funeral, the only ones present were him and his mother. Despite all the emotions (too overwhelming for Ford to watch, by the way), his father outright refused to see Stanley in the coffin. —I can't take it. I'm not man enough to watch it. Take care of your mother.

He prayed that day, to a God he wasn't sure could even hear him. The guilt was louder than him, but he tried anyway. With all the conflicting feelings in his chest, between his anger and profound grief, he did what he could with all of that, standing side by side with the cold body of his deceased brother. The mirror image of himself lying down, more neat than ever.

The world ain't half as bad

As they paint it to be

If all the sons, all the daughters

Stopped to take it in

Well, hopefully, the hate subsides

And the love can begin

It might start now, yeah

Well, maybe I'm just dreaming out loud

—I will fix this, Stan. I swear. Or I'll see you after giving up. Either way: wait for me one more time.

Everything I can't be

Is everything you should be

And that's why I need you here

[madara-fate]

This is ridiculous it's 2024

And there still trying to claim the curse of hatred is gaslighting propaganda or a theory somehow tobirama wasn't the only person who mentioned the curse of hatred not only did obito mention the curse of hatred so did hagoromo

And not one person not even hashirama denied the curse of existence infact hashirama added on to the conversation and mentioned madara love for izuna

How the hell do these people not see the absurdity of accusing the concept of the Curse of Hatred, of minimising the experiences of those who have been abused or racially discriminated against?

How? Where is the link between the two? Kishi gave a very clear reason as to why Uchihas specifically fell victim to the COH. What has women suffering mental breakdowns due to social neglect or abuse got to do with anything? They're stupidly trying to insinuate that giving the COH as a reason for the Uchihas hatred is minimising their trauma in the same manner as diagnosing women who have suffered abuse with hysteria, but there is no correlation. Again, because a very clear reason was given as to why it affects specifically the Uchihas. It began with Indra who hated his father and brother for the former's decision to entrust the future to Ashura. And as Indra is the progenitor of the Uchiha's, his hatred was passed down. That's all there is to it. What the fuck is all this nonsense about minimising people's traumatic experiences in reality?

No one tried to "confuse" anyone, Tobirama literally described the Uchiha to be a clan possessed by evil. That, and he didn't even say that they were inherently filled with hatred (or "hysterical" as this person likes to claim), he explained that very specific criteria have to be met in order for the Uchiha to fall victim to the Curse. It's not as if every single time an Uchiha feels hatred or gets "hysterical", it's automatically because of the COH. So this just further debunks this persons already feeble point. Because they're acting as if the story indicated that whenever an Uchiha gets hysterical, it must be because of the COH, showing how little they paid attention.

Because in this situation, it is their particular group's problem.

Scientific proof? It's a fucking supernatural phenomenon. There's nothing scientific about it. That's like asking for scientific proof for the existence of chakra. Do they not see how stupid that sounds? It's fictional. These people are ridiculous. The only scientific part about it is the part where chakra gets released inside the brain and reacts with the optic nerves which leads to the emergence of their Sharingan. But again, chakra is fictional.

Then they bring up Shikamaru's revenge mission against Hidan and Kakuzu in attempt to support their point, when not only does that again ignore both why the curse only affects the Uchiha as well as the specific criteria that must be met for the Uchiha to fall victim to it in the first place, but it also indicates that they think that the manner in which they sought revenge was in any way comparable.

Let's test that out.

Shikamaru wanted revenge on Hidan and Kakuzu and only Hidan and Kakuzu, as they were the ones who were directly responsible for Asuma's death, that's understandable.

Sasuke - He didn't only want revenge on those who did him wrong, his hatred extended to the entire village, the vest majority of which did him no wrong whatsoever.

That would be like Shikamaru's revenge extending to everyone in Hidan and Kakuzu's villages too, there's no comparison.

Madara - Much like Sasuke, his revenge extended to the entire village too, the vast majority of which again, did him no wrong.

Again, no comparison with Shikamaru.

Does Obito even need any explanation? He's the one who caused by far the most shit in the entire series, but let's just stick with the theme from Sasuke and Madara. Much like those two, Obito's carnage extended to the entire village, who did him no wrong.

The series made it exceedingly easy to distinguish between a regular person wanting some measure of revenge, and when an Uchiha who has fallen victim to the Curse of Hatred, wanted some revenge.

[cheswirls]

playing around with an experimental idea of different modern scenarios all tethered together by the theme of ill-fated, star-crossed lovers doomed to their destiny. below is probably the penultimate if not the final in a string of scenes, a taste of happiness closer than others but still out of reach.

i think it would be cool to work backwards?? to start at the last and then transition to the beginning. all varying length, some more brief than others to hammer in the futility. this is????? uhhh idk i am still questioning if this would even be interesting. entirely an idea for now.

this one comes after sabo has decided that he's going to escape fate at all costs, this time. the start is more choppy as i'm rambling to establish what's in my head but it settles out when i get into the scene :) sry in advance

-

Even when sabo tries to cut his losses and get away, somehow, ace still finds him

Sabo maps his life around a career in the most remote area of the world so he won’t ever have to see ace again, gets a reputation as “devoted to his work” scientist at base camp that doesn’t like to socialize and usually keeps to himself. After a year, one of the (to him) more senior researchers announces her retirement plan, and more importantly, her replacements. Sabo is surprised they’re getting two new people in return but this is apparently old news. Senior is moving back home to marry astronaut returning from iss, their homecomings coincide and it’s supposed to be really sweet but it just leaves a sour taste in sabo’s mouth that he has to forcefully smile around to make amenities. 

Against all odds, ace is one of the newcomers that joins them after the month is up. Sabo tries to maintain distance despite ace’s friendly attempts and affection, and his coworkers brush aside sabo’s attitude to ace as “his usual, he’s always like that. He likes his samples and specimens more than he does any of us.”

But ace doesn’t back down, and surprises sabo by being fluent in english despite his japanese background. It’s not posh european english like sabo had grown used to, but tinged with an accent that suggests he probably spent some extended time in australia. Sabo pretends to not speak english, knocking ace off guard, but the next time they run into each other, ace says his greeting/question/offer in german.

It’s good german too, which shocks sabo enough into giving a normal answer, if not just a response in general. Ace is pleased by this and tries his luck, keeps going with a nonchalant explanation that his mother’s family was german and he’s picked up enough of it over the years to pass as fluent in conversation. 

Sabo feels his cold exterior thawing. He allows ace’s greetings from then on, sometimes quietly echoes back the sentiments in soft-spoken german. No one else at camp ever knows what the two are saying and they’re not keen to share, but they do notice that easygoing ace has finally worn sabo’s shell until he can squeeze himself inside. 

Slowly, sabo feels himself giving in, unable to resist ace’s pull. He starts teaching ace to read written german as he pens in his research notes for the day, ace squeezing his way onto the bench corner sabo’s sat himself in or worming close to sabo’s side wherever he’s decided to settle down for the evening. At first it’s just the little articles and basic words, but soon sabo is muffling his laughter as ace gets tongue-tied trying to read off some of the more long-winded scientific terms. 

Ace knows a bit of spanish from his father and often converses to the researchers from argentina and chile in their native language, and he’s found a special place in the hearts of the scientists from south africa, norway, sri lanka, and new zealand. He’s a busy body and very sociable, so it’s no surprise that he eventually ends up pulling sabo into the edge of goings-on. 

Though sabo is still keen to keep everyone at a distance, ace becomes the exception. An observation slowly makes its way through camp following ace dragging sabo out (just the two of them) on a much-needed day off. They plant themselves safely in the snow out in the middle of nowhere and stare into the sky through their uv goggles. 

Conversation floats between them, idle and meaningless. It’s sabo that first broaches a personal topic, asking ace why he’d ever want to come out here and what led him to this path. Ace throws the same question back and sabo feels encouraged to answer first, less vaguely than he’d like admitting that he fell in love with the work he’s doing, but also that he wanted somewhere remote to be at to escape the bustle of the world at large.

Ace, like sabo, says that he’d experimentally tried something similar in secondary education and enjoyed it, and that led to a research seminar in aussie that turned into a full summer of him being a temp in a science facility. Eventually he’d fallen down the specific rabbit hole (that he’s concentrated on as his area of focus while in antarctica) and after being an assistant for a while, he got this opportunity.

And, yeah, it was different. He’s used to “the bustle” as sabo put it, used to sprawling metro areas and unceasing noise and unending crowds. Given this chance to come out here was definitely something he’d had to think about, but also . . . found that the decision wasn’t all that hard. He felt compelled to take the offer, like something was calling to him.

Maybe . . . he’d been destined to spend time in the middle of nowhere because it’s where sabo was, because sabo had chosen to remove himself from society. Ace says this as a joke, but the notion makes sabo’s breath catch. He doesn’t fight back when ace’s hand settles into his own. He can’t resist the pull of the universe, and he lacks the desire to do so this time around. He’d tried, hadn’t he? And still, here was ace, worming his way into sabo’s heart. With his wavy surfer hair and bright eyes and the tan that should’ve faded after his first month on the continent. 

So sabo lets ace pull him close and whisper “ich liebe dich” where he knows sabo can hear, and maybe they make out and roll around in the snow as much as their protective gear allows. They come back composed and don’t stay glued at the hip, but sabo smiles more that night over drinks as everyone celebrates the wrap-up to their long-awaited day off than he has the entire rest of the time he’s been at this base camp.

Sabo keeps smiling after that night, which is how others start cluing in. he adopts this relaxed air that becomes saturated whenever he’s in reaching distance of ace. Suddenly it’s not ace making space for himself near sabo, but sabo leaving it for ace. Ace may become slightly more accommodating, just a bit more in tune with sabo’s condition, but it’s not ace bringing an extra cup of hot water when sabo’s been hunched around his notes for long enough. It’s sabo accepting the cup without argument, with a warm smile, and shifting so ace can settle down beside him. 

It comes as a shock more to the other six that sabo isn’t asexual, rather than him and ace being (probably) romantically involved. What had been paraded around as a joke, maybe as a bromance of sorts, or just that ace was sabo’s only friend, settles in as something different entirely as everyone clocks in at different points. The “oh, they’re not buddies, they’re like that”

Some nights, when it’s late enough that sabo is the only one awake and ace’s careful prodding manages to win him over, he’ll let ace pull him from his work and settle him down in ace’s own cot, both pressed close together to stave off the night’s chill. Some nights sabo will let ace pull one of his sleep shirts down over sabo’s head and tries not to bask in the similar sensation of a thousand different lifetimes as he huddles into the soft material. 

Ace knows sabo likes his personal space, so he doesn’t encroach on sabo’s room, nor does he ask sabo to move his current task to ace’s own room. But sometimes, he’ll find himself perched on the edge of sabo’s cot, legs swinging as he quietly bemoans how much longer sabo is going to leave him. He’ll recline onto sabo’s comforter and counter sabo’s short refusal with another long-winded lament on his boyfriend leaving him to get cold.

It’s one of these nights that sabo stops and powers down his monitor and sets his spectacles aside and turns to find ace conked out behind him. While it’s easy enough to rouse ace, it’s hard to resist temptation when ace opens both arms for sabo to fall into instead of moving off the cot to lead sabo to his own room. They end up falling asleep on top of the covers with one of the small lamplights left on overnight. 

The combination of ace’s room being empty when someone comes looking and a light being visible under sabo’s door has an unanswered knock lead to a fellow scientist peeking into sabo’s room to see the two nestled together. (and the only indication to being discovered is a comment about conserving power made that next morning that sabo takes as someone noticing the light he’d left on instead of what ace clocks it as - the two being discovered.)

The only time it becomes obvious that they’ve been found out by a majority of camp is a rare moment when a digital camera is produced and a point is made by the photographer to center in on ace and sabo sat side by side on a couch in the main room and (“say cheese!” ot equivalent). Sabo looks toward the lens in question, not quite caught up in the hubbub like everyone else present, but ace throws an arm around sabo’s shoulders and grins wide, maybe flashes a peace with his other hand that appeases the photographer of the hour. When sabo looks confused by ace’s hold, ace leans close to whisper in sabo’s ear (in german) that they’ve been found out.

Sabo looks rightfully flustered by this, but ace takes it in stride, refusing to release his arm from around sabo, and then having the audacity to grin big and bright when sabo faces him with face just a bit flushed that it’s noticeable, and then another click of the camera draws their attention away, and taken further still when the room erupts into raucous applause with everyone’s eyes on the two of them. 

Everyone is polite about the whole affair, no vulgar jokes or innuendos are made or anything, but it is obvious that the jig is up concerning the two of them and their relationship. Sabo spends the evening with his face covered by both hands, buried in ace’s sharply-defined lats, or nay-high in another glass of champagne from the bottle that’d been smuggled aboard. He becomes more and more mute the longer the night goes on. At the end of it all, the designated photographer calls for attention and asks what the celebration was for, of which only ace has the answer: that same person’s birthday is that day. Sabo is surprised ace remembered such a mundane fact but keeps it to himself.

When asked, ace admits he’d known because said researcher’s passcode to some impt shared machine is their 8-digit date of birth, but after being ragged on, ace names off everyone’s birthdays in turn, surprising them all that he’d bothered to remember. It’s also, to note, the first time any of them learn sabo’s birthday, and that it’d been the same day off he and ace had spend together earlier in the year, at the end of summer.

That next morning, since there’s nothing to hide anymore, those that wake up especially early are greeted to the sight of sabo’s glorious bedhead slumped over the kitchen counter as ace busies himself fixing up a personal hangover cure with what ingredients they had available. Sabo had been on (delivery) duty that week and had been roused unwillingly from bed at an ungodly time of the morning to oversee their shipment of fish being delivered while ace played chaperone. It’s the very first time any of them see sabo in his nightclothes, and probably the only time ever they can claim sabo as “cute”, or his behavior anyway - the sole way he relies on ace but also the way he pouts and how he remains only half-awake with the excuse of his head pounding. His german is so sluggish that no one but ace has any chance of parsing what he’s saying, but before the sun is up too high, ace has fixed sabo’s headache and ushered him back to his room to get ready for the day. The late-risers miss the event entirely, and ace swears those present to secrecy to keep sabo’s dignity intact.

This of course ends in some grandiose way where ace’s time on the continent runs out and he’s set to return home and put his results to use. He stays up late making silly plans with sabo to move somewhere the two have never been to before and work remote, hinged on the notion that their norwegian coworker originated from greenland, and the one from sri lanka is sponsored by and works in tandem with an indian facility. They know in the long run that it’s all far-off fantasies and well-wishes born from their limited time left together.

But then sabo gets an offer. He’s working in a remote multinational camp while reporting all his results to a year-round german station, and it just so happens that one of the station’s new on-boards is interested in sabo’s (area of continent). Sabo has a chance to trade posts with another german scientist, and he jumps on the opportunity. It takes a bit for the transfer to be approved, and in that time, sabo manages to secure a summer-only position that will ensure he’s off-site april through september. 

This is the best he can do on short notice, but it’s enough for now. He can transition until he’s out of antarctica permanently, eventually, but to do that he’ll have to figure out what exactly he wants to do after he leaves. Something he hasn’t bothered to parse his thoughts about, apart from late-night nonsensical talks with ace. Talks that suddenly seem more in reach now more than ever.

At the main station, sabo gets limited access to slow wifi and manages to talk with ace over video call twice. They make plans for sabo to come to australia on ace’s visa while ace is still finalizing the last of his research and transfer to a japanese company. They don’t have to stay in japan, but if they get married in australia (which will ensure the union is recognized in japan), it’ll be easier for sabo to gain citizenship from a spousal visa than it will from a work-related one. 

All of this is hashed out over two limited conversations, with promise that the details can be sorted out in person. Before the last call ends, sabo engrains in his mind ace’s smiling face, waving hands, wishing sabo well and safe travels. He finishes his summer term at the station with enthusiasm and says goodbye to antarctica for a short while after many years of residency without once leaving the surface.

He talks with ace over the phone just before his plane in germany leaves. It’s a long flight with a brief layover, and sabo is too preoccupied finding his next terminal to touch base with ace again. After over half a day, sabo lands at an airport almost dead on his feet even with the nap he got in earlier while among the clouds. He has a travel visa on his person that he’s expected to get changed to a spousal visa as soon as ace was able to book them, but he’s never given the opportunity.

The airport is full of activity as usual, but those not buried in their own world are focused on the same news feed playing over every other screen in sabo’s wing of the building. The focus is a developing story on a certain research facility that caught fire early in the morning. Sabo stops to observe right as a list of the deceased covers the screen. To him, ace’s photo is front and center, almost laughably so.

And so, once more, ace is destined to die while sabo can do nothing to prevent it. Fated for the worst of outcomes, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. And then the story works backwards, showing glimpses of sabo’s life with ace, each preceding the next, all up until a certain encounter in the jungles of a small island in the east blue. Some lives, sabo will know everything. Then there are lives where he’s blessed to be ignorant up until the very end. Sometimes all he will know is ace, and other times all he’ll have is the faint idea of ace, an impression that only makes itself known when ace presents himself. Sabo never can decide if it’s reincarnation or some twisted form of immortality: All he knows for sure is that the universe will never, ever let him keep ace for long.

[pikolswonderland]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Urban Conspiracy...EXPLAINED!

HELLO EVERYONE!! I've been putting this off for a while now, but I think it's finally time I make an explanation post for my original TMNT iteration, Urban Conspiracy! However, before we begin, there is some stuff I need to clarify first.

This is NOT a full explanation of the WHOLE iteration, such as complete descriptions of characters and the ENTIRE storyline (those will be saved for future posts). This is just an introduction to the main premise, characters, world building, and lore. Secondly, some aspects of this iteration may potentially change as time goes on (for anyone who read my ComputerBug fic set in this iteration, there are already some significant differences between when I uploaded that fic and now). Finally, this iteration will discuss and portray some potentially triggering themes and content, including in this post. Please keep this in mind and proceed with caution. Also, this post is going to be a bit long, so watch out for that as well!

Now, with that all out of the way, let’s begin!

15 years ago, a mysterious tragedy occurred in New York City, known as the TCRI Disaster. The TCRI (Technological Cosmic Research Institute), was a government organization stationed in New York, dedicated to researching anomalous scientific phenomena and materials.

One night, however, a huge disaster occurred causing a large portion of the facility to be completely destroyed and exploded, completely out the blue. As a result, many of the scientists, visitors, and animals used for experiments were killed or went missing. To this day, nobody knows what really happened that night. Who or what caused the disaster, and what happened to the people and animals whose bodies were never found?

One thing was for certain though, something shifted within the general populous. Even long prior to the disaster occurring, there was already a famous urban legend that plagued the streets of New York. It was believed that there existed a mysterious substance known as the ooze, a bright green glowing sludge said to have the ability to turn normal humans and animals into mutant monsters. Yet still, despite the numerous reported sightings of these so-called mutants roaming the city, no concrete evidence existed that proved that the mutants and the ooze actually existed. However, things started to change after the TCRI Disaster. The reported sighting of mutants skyrocketed, and more and more people started to speculate the possibility of what was once a simple urban legend...could actually be true...and whether or not the TCRI Disaster and these mutant sighting were somehow linked.

But whether or not you actually believed it or thought it was all bullshit, what nobody realized was that the legends...were all true. A certain bunch of turtles could attest to that.

Leo, Ralph, Donnie and Mikey were all originally just normal baby turtles, born in the TCRI laboratory to be used for experiments. In reality, the ooze...or by its more proper title as mutagen, did, in fact, actually exist. The mutagen had the ability to mutate any organism within the kingdom of Animalia into hybrid of it and the last organism (also within the kingdom of Animalia) it had made physical contact with.

In the case of the four brothers, it was the humans that cared for them within the laboratory, turning them essentially into humanoid turtle people. Though in the case of their adoptive father, Splinter, his situation was a little different. Once a famous action movie star by the name of Hamato Yoshi, he just so happened to be visiting the TCRI facility when the disaster occurred and having come in contact with one of the lab rats within the facility, his fate was sealed. He was now stuck as a humanoid rat with a bunch of turtle children to raise, who just so happened to be mutated in the same disaster as he was.

Yet despite them technically not being entirely human, at least in their bodies, they were human within their brains and hearts. They had human lifespans, they thought like humans, they talked like humans, they were essentially...humans. However, the outside world was too dangerous for them, if anyone ever found out about the existence of mutants, who knows what terrible things could happen! They had to stay safe, to stay hidden. They made their home in an abandoned subway tunnel, right underneath an old 24/7 internet cafe, only occasionally leaving for quick trips on the surface. Additionally, Splinter decided to teach and train his sons in the art of ninjitsu, so they could fight and defend for themselves, just in case.

However, on the brother's 15th birthday, 15 years since the TCRI Disaster, 15 years since they were mutated, 15 years since they became this weird little family, Splinter decided to do something. He believed the turtles were strong, old, and responsible enough to go to the surface, all by themselves, without the supervision of their dear father. The four teenage boys were excited and overjoyed, finally being able to have their first real taste of freedom that night! There was only one rule, don't let any humans know about you...

...unfortunately, that rule just so happened to be broken in the exact same night. At least this teenage human girl by the name of April O'Neil is more than happy to keep quiet about the existence of mutants, especially since these four mutant turtles just saved her life as well. The only reason their secret even got out was thanks to them being suddenly attacked out-of-the-blue by a bunch of members of the Foot!

The Foot was said to be a mysterious organized crime syndicate from Japan but stationed in New York. Little was known about them and their goals, all that was known was that they were extremely dangerous and not to be trifled with. However, many people also believed the Foot were having an increasing interest in the rumors about the mutants. People have slowly been going missing without a trace over the past 15 years, and with that being just around the same time the Foot had shown up, and when the TCRI Disaster happened, there was indefinitely something strange going on. Something bad was happening, and it's going to be up to these mutant turtles and their new friend (and some future friends as well) to get to the bottom of it. From mutants, to gangsters, vigilantes, robots, crazy scientists, an underground society, and interdimensional aliens, things are certainly going to be interesting.

However, one thing is for certain, good old New York City is about to get a whole lot weirder!

Special thanks to @catonamatchbox, @glitter-alienz, and @acidichcl for inspiring me to make my own TMNT iteration and for accidentally really getting me into this franchise at all! I'll be making some more explanation posts in the future as well. Also, I encourage you to send me asks for this iteration based on this and this Ask Game as well, I tend to have an easier time explaining things by being asked questions! My ask box is always open! Until then, I'll see you all soon!

Ɀረ ዐ𐌄ዪᏵ፱𐌐ቹ𐌐ል, Ᏽ፱𐌐ረ ክ𐌄ዪ የ𐌁ጊᕓል𐌕 𐌔፪𐌄 𐋅ቻ ክ𐌙ሃ. Ᏽ፱𐌐 𐌓፱𐌍፪𐌅 Ꮦ፱ᕓየ𐌵 𐌄ዪᕓፕ𐌀ቻ ፪𐌉ዪ𐌄 𐌁ⶴ𐌄 𐌵፪Ɀዪ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌀፪Ᏽ Ꝋዪ ዪᏵዪ𐌄ል𐌍ሃ, 𐌀፪ ጊ𐌍ፏᏵዪ𐌄 Ꮦ፱𐌍ፏ, Ꮦዪ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌔ህ𐌀ዓ ር𐌍ቹ𐌍ዓᕓቻ𐌐. ህ𐌔 ᕓፏ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌀፪Ᏽ Ꝋዪ ነ𐌁ቹ ⶴ𐌅, ፏ𐌵ዪ𐌀 ᕓፏ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 Ꝋዪ ነ𐌁ቹ ፪𐋅ቹ የ𐌵ህ𐌙ዓ𐌄ዪ𐌀. ነ𐌁ቹ ፏ𐌵ዪ ፕ𐌙፪𐌄ረ ፪𐌔 𐌁ⶴ𐌄 𐌙ህ𐌉ዪ𐌅 𐌍ል𐌒 Ᏽ፱𐌐 𐌕ሃ𐌁ፓᕓል𐌕 𐌕ቹ𐌐ዪ𐌀 ᏖህᏵ፱ᕓል ፪𐋅ቹ ዐ𐌙፪𐌁ዓ, 𐌔፪𐌄 ᕓፏ ጊ𐌍ሸ𐌐ቻ ⶴ𐌅 Ꮦ፱𐌁 Ꮦዪ ክ𐌄ዪ.

[asherlockstudy]

Wonderhole E2, E3 & E4

I am going to write about these three in the same post because there is significantly less to write about episodes 3 & 4 than about the first and the second episodes and even last year's monthly videos. I am hoping there will be more to discuss in the upcoming Red vs Blue episode. I wonder whether they considered the Flight Simulation and the Time Capsule so "heavy" that they decided to ease it a bit before the finale. I guess we will find out soon.

We Time Traveled to the Year 2224

Certainly, the Rhinkiest of these three episodes and the one which certainly belongs to the One Story saga.

Rhett and Link decide to pursue extended longevity and eternal life. Rhett explains how they just have to survive in a good condition for 20-30 years more and then they will be able to achieve it. At face value this is not exactly Rhett's crap by the way. I was reading a book about the progress in geriatric medicine and this was stated there; whoever makes it to twenty years from now will hopefully have a lot of new age medicine available to delay growing old and the health issues associated with it.

This episode has some of the most lewd jokes Rhett and Link have ever made. However, they are often given so offhandedly that I did not see much seriousness, any significant symbolism in them. For example, yes, they suck anal toys (Link sucks Rhett's heavily used one) but this was just meant to be an adult joke, I'm not gonna derive any meaning for their relationship through this. Another example is Rhett's titanium - tight ass or the "I don't think I can last much longer with you inside me".

"From journeys long and miles worn, within these walls you are reborn. When weary soul sole is stripped away, whether from work or whether play, come to me with offerings and I will show you fresh new strings." Now, that's more interesting. Rhett points out that there is a double meaning in this. This totally reminds me of the concept of the Bahau Moon riddle, although there the allegory was a little different. Here it is nowhere as serious but it remains 100% sexually coded.

There are two mentions of their wives, one is that they are waiting for their wives "to be thawed", the other is that they both look distressed and uncomfortable when the letter from their past selves assumes their families are doing all right. My speculation is that their wives' bodies were cryopreserved until a revival became scientifically possible. So they are waiting for them to be thawed but it has not happened yet. What does this tell us though? It tells us that whatever knowledge or decision they had to make to achieve eternal life, they shared it with each other and not with their family members. Somehow, there was a choice made or there was a consequence that led to Rhett and Link living forever together but the revival of the wives, maybe even the children, was desirable yet secondary, optional. That's... that's something, for sure.

Did you guys notice the name of the shop next to the shoe repair shop? Their commitment is crazy:

We actually do get some pretty interesting themes here. Rhett and Link visit a shoe soul sole repair shop and the owner promises to keep their clue for the time capsule hidden inside a treasure box, protected very well. This just seems to hint at somebody keeping a secret very well and Rhett and Link completely trusting them to keep doing so. Is the time capsule an allegory for... truth? The official premise (or whatever it is) seems to further support this:

Keep it buried... as long as possible.

The next clues lead them to the desert, the same desert where they dug the medium (and the huge) sized holes. They even wear similar outfits; some of the garments are the same and some are changed. This was clear homage to the Hole Digging video. Besides, Rhett and Link have said there is connection between all these videos (although they probably have made it too hard to discern this for their own good).

There they pick up a fight, disagreeing about the direction they should follow. Rhett prefers the one way, the main way, the standard way pointed by the play button, whereas Link argues they should try "all the ways". The argument escalates and Link screams how Rhett's longevity idea has stuck them into an eternal hellscape (the 2224 universe seems to be particularly unfree and restrictive). Link also adds he 'd rather be with Rhett at their pod watching a sequel of Fast & the Furious than in this adventure, hunt and all, which must be 2224's equivalent for domesticity. Link protests that Rhett is not always right but he simply never changes and in his fury he missteps and falls from a cliff to his death.

During Link's last moments, Rhett desperately considers carrying Link to the nearest cloning facility and put his chip to another Link, a loud nod to their Sketchtober 2015 BFFs video. With the very subtle prompt "Put me in you" Link implores Rhett to put his chip in him, in an attempt to rescue his consciousness. Rhett complies, so he tries to save Link. We return to the One Story tropes (not that we ever left them with this one) where Rhett needs to save Link from something and like we will also see here the only outcome is that Rhett gets destroyed as well. Rhett finds the treasure box only to see there was a whole lot of nothing inside it. In a deteriorating condition he returns to the former grounds of Mythical where the semi-android hacker working there gives him two options: a) they yank Link's consciousness chip out and he's gone forever but Rhett lives on or b) they yank out both chips which have merged and become one and save them in a deadlock in a hard drive.

A deadlock is a situation in which two computer programs sharing the same resource are effectively preventing each other from accessing the resource, resulting in both programs ceasing to function.

Rhett opts for the latter. He sacrifices his life and follows Link. Meanwhile, the hacker indeed saves their consciousnesses - which have become one - in this deadlock, "alone" in a hard drive and hides the hard drive in the previously empty box. They place the box in a dusty shelf and there is this implication that nobody will know or care about this ever again. Also, the fact that it is a deadock is important as well: we have two consciousnesses operating like computer programs which are apparently assessing data differently and this leads them to a deadlock that neutralises them both. So, to bring this to reality, the reason there is so much delay or nothing happens at all is because they have completely different mindsets about what's to be done and how it should be approached. This is actually something we have discussed several times before, how they seem to be on a totally different page.

Beyond the interpretations that can be made for this, we see again a conclusion that we have seen before in several scripted videos. In Hazel, they end up trapped in the woods of the middle room for eternity, in the Brown Diamond they remain trapped to the Bahau Moon to their deaths, in the Unhaunted House they are murdered inside this house without any witness. We have this theme of their souls, their consciousnesses, sometimes even their physical bodies being trapped together, as one, forever without anyone knowing.

So, if we attempt to connect all these pieces together, first of all we get the "wherever you go, I go", the timelessness, the forever. This is a promise to each other, they will be together forever. Then we also have the buried time capsule, which Rhett wants to keep buried for as long as possible, which eventually leads to a long, torturous life that frustrates Link deeply. Link tries to distance himself from this situation but he falls to his death (because it's impossible for him to just let go). Rhett has the choice to go on on his own but instead he opts to try and save Link or die along in his efforts, which is what happens. Ultimately what remains of them is their love, their joined souls, consciousnesses and how they poured their truth in their creation and although it endures forever, it is for nobody to see.

Again, this is the classic story arc we see in most of their scripted videos. Whether it is because he loses control (Digging a Medium sized Hole), memory and freedom (Hazel, TLCOBC), his very life (UnHaunted House, Time Capsule), Link needs to be saved by Rhett but Rhett falls in the trap even more deeply and condemns them together.

Regarding the emptiness of the box, an Anon I just received has a great interpretation that finds me very agreeable, I am linking their mail here. What I will write here is basically the same or very close to what they describe, maybe with a slightly darker twist. Throughout the video, we have the concept of time which seems to be eternal but is not (at some point Rhett says about eternity that it feels like "you have too much time yet not enough") and even though current Rhett and Link seem to be amused by the idea of a scavenger hunt for an empty box, the surviving future Rhett found it disappointing. We can only imagine how mad it would make Link, had he not died already, because he was already frustrated and angry for the hunt alone, so he would probably be furious if he saw what the "reward" was. Moreover, Link puts the blame on Rhett for all of this and it's true that Rhett came up with this idea.

It's like an allegory for Rhett who has this drive and ambition for their career, their creativity, a life of adventure in this context and with this obsession he overlooks and delays other things that in truth may be more meaningful. Years will pass and Rhett will be looking for his masterpiece, their peak creation, recognition and eventually they will go, retire, withdraw, die and nothing will remain behind except for their love, the connection of their souls, which was what was truly timeless about them yet it was the one thing that was kept buried in a box in the dust and never brought to light properly. In the end, nobody appreciated it for what it truly was, neither an observer nor they, for they wasted their time delaying it and trying to find meaning elsewhere. By "they", let's be real, I mostly mean Rhett.

To my understanding this is self-reflection, maybe also a critique of Rhett to himself, a warning of what could be coming, something that Link seems to have notified him about multiple times (the e-mail, everybody?) but maybe it's poor timing to say this now, I sense there is a lot of distance to be run still from theory and creativity to actual action. This video alludes to a reality in which the action was not taken.

We Went to Extremes to Drink a Cloud

Episode 3 is not as heavy with meaning and symbolism. It is surely a "retelling" of their childhood dreams and their commitment to bring them to fruition. Young Rhett and Link promised to do something great together when they grew up and drinking a cloud is likely the symbolism of this struggle. They try a lot, in many different ways, but it's never exactly what they are looking for. In the end they are very happy they managed to do it, although the method they employed seemed very underwhelming and fake to me, which might be the point, I don't know. Of course this is a huge part of their relationship; achieving something great together. It's just that I did not find anything to mention beyond this, except of course for the very heavy deepthroating insinuations when they were drinking the fog.

Now to the important stuff, will the Fog Chasers song be released? SOON PLEASE???

We Chopped Down a Tree with a Peanut Butter Axe

To be honest with you I don't want to write about this episode because I don't want to watch it again. Not because it made me emotional but because watching the squirrel family again is equivalent to torture for me. I am sorry but I actually really disliked this episode. Fortunately, there is still not much to say here either. Or maybe I did not notice because I was impatient to be done with it....

The episode is largely a tribute to Ben and it offers this exposition they had also done in a very heartfelt Ear Biscuit episode. In Ben's memory they chose to chop down a tree in their state with a peanut butter axe made by their university; peanut butter because Ben died from testicular cancer and tree chopping because Ben thought it was fun.

The only thing I wonder is whether there is any meaning with what happens with the squirrel family and whether it is a side story not associated to Ben's life. I wonder this because Rhett and Link seem to have thought about it thoroughly; the tree would go down anyway, they will plant 1000 trees in its place, so it's all good. Even though they have thought this through, it turns out there will be victims due to their decision. A flying squirrel family, with a non-winged squirrel stepfather whose home is obviously going to be destroyed. Rhett and Link cause the dissolution of this family and this is what I find interesting. The kids eventually try to see the positive side: they are close to adulthood anyway, so they choose to leave home behind and start their own lives. The stepdad, the non-winged squirrel, literally opts to stay at home and die. The mother squirrel tries to change his mind but it's not like she's losing her mind about it to be honest and soon she goes too and leaves him behind. Who the stepfather squirrel stands for - if he stands for anyone in the first place - I cannot say. But I did find interesting this side theme of Rhett and Link's action basically leading to a family falling apart and everyone taking a separate path in life (or death).

One Story Masterlist here

[bohioeveanga]

Oh, boy do I got a dumb Zelda theory that I will not be translating into any other language because this will be long as heck...🙃

And I do mean long, so buckle up and get ready. Because the theory goes as follows: what if the Zonai and Minish are somehow connected?

I know I'm grasping at the stupidest straws and I actually thought about it while falling asleep last night, I've only got one open eye this morning while writing this, so these are really rambles of a madwoman!🤣 Still, I think this needs to be discussed. I think there might be, in the smallest of chances, a connection.

Let's start with the obvious, physical traits. There's not much, I know. We only have the extremely large ears and snout. That's about it, really. Minish have lighter skin, and seem to have a feathery tail coming from behind. On the other hand, Zonai have a grayish-greenish skin, overall white hair, and don't have tails. The biggest and most obvious difference is size, with the Minish being small and the Zonai, well, do I really need to explain that? The Zonai are even much taller than Hylians in comparison.

Though it seems they can have a lot hair, both, if we compare Rauru and Ezlo in his Minish form. Who knows if Zonai can grow beards too?

Also, the Minish came from the sky, much like the Zonai did. Coincidence?!

But wait! There's more. Let's talk about designs.

Can you see it? The eye. That effing eye! Took one look at that shield, and all I could think was the Four Sword Sanctuary. Now, granted, that's in FS and FSA, but those stories are connected to MC. I saw the Elemental Sanctuary, and while there's no eye, it's safe to say that maybe there's a connection to the sanctuaries, housing the Four Sword and elements. And the Ranger Constructs seem to have an akin eye to the shield and sanctuary, even hanging at the side of their faces. It's so similar, that I can't help but think there might be a connection. (Low-key, I actually thought the Ranger Constructs would be a new version of the Eyegore.)

Still on the eye-theme, the Zonai themselves have a third eye. You know two other people who seem to have a connection to a third eye? Hmm, yeah, Vaati and Astor.

Now, Astor is from AoC, so I'm not too worried on him, but he's eerily similar to Vaati, to the point I actually believed he was an incarnation of him back before AoC came out. And why not? Similar dark clothes, gold accents, red highlights in magic, the circlet with red jewel, gray skin, maniac tendencies, need I say more? But Vaati used to once be a Minish, remember? He turned human with his newfound powers through the magical cap Ezlo made prior to the MC events. The Minish are creatures of magic and desire good. Zonai too. If we analyze at a slightly scientific and magical perspective, maybe the Minish might have evolved into a large and superior advanced race, even going as far as abandoning there small stature and simplistic lifestyle. Similarly to our smart Sheikahs from BoTW/AoC/ToTK and 10,000 years prior.

Eye these other shots! (See what I did there? No, okay, I'll shut up.😏)

Dark Hyrule Castle in MC? Filled with eye-related puzzles. Zonaite armor? Eye on the freaking helmet! Mazaal, boss for the Fortress of Winds in MC? Eyes on his hands, literally! Plus, who's to say that Mazaal isn't some super ancient prototype of a Construct? Look at the shape of the head and Zonaite helmet! (WHAT IF THE SHEIKAH TOOK INSPIRATION TO CREATE GOHDAN FOR THE TOWER OF THE GODS IN WW?! Theory for another day.)

Now, finally giving a shut-eye to that topic (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself,) let's talk about Constructs. Asides from Mazaal above, you know what device is super similar between Minish and Zonai?

A classic Zelda staple seems way too similar for this particular theory. Sure, the Remote Bomb is gray, but the aspect between the Remote and Time Bomb are way too similar. Even the 'fuse' is pretty much the exact same look and color! On top of that, its usage is exactly the same. It's a small stupid piece of circumstantial evidence, but I'm going with it.

Now, finally, for my last bit. TotK brought some new flora into the game, fitting naturally. But there's one that's unique and stands out, and surprisingly shares a part of its name with a plant that makes an appearance in MC. Can you guess?

Aren't they pretty? The shape and look of the Brightbloom and Pico Bloom, respectively, are identical. When the bud is close, its shape is similar as well. When the bud is open, it provides lighting in its general area. Pico Blooms, in particular, offer different lights, asides from the above yellow, including, yes, white. Pico Blooms lights glow very obviously while the Brightbloom's glow is steady and unwavering. While it's hard to guess if Pico Blooms are able to provide as much light as a Brightbloom in the darkness, maybe the Depths, the similarities are impossible to ignore. Even the way the leaves at the bottom of the stem are similar. Brightblooms don't make an appearance in BotW, much like the Pico Blooms do not exist, or at least, not seen, in any other Zelda game. And while Pico Blooms serve more as a side quest appearance, they still form a part of the Minish's general flora. Brightblooms appeared right after the Upheaval, a crucial item to explore the Depths. And they seem to have a strong connection with the Zonai, as they are seen as a part of the Ranger Constructs decoration, as well as within the shrines, and even in the mines and other architectural locations found in the Depths.

The entire Miner's freaking Set is an entire copy to the Brightbloom!

Welp, that's my tea and essay for today, y'all. I think I'm still kind of asleep, despite everything I wrote and all the above images. Am I crazy and seeing too much into it? Probably am, but it seems there's a connection. Maybe the Minish evolved into the Zonai, much like the Zora evolved into the Rito. Maybe the Minish, while trying magic, backfired into the Zonai? Or maybe they're just completely separate from each other. The possibilities are endless. At the end of the day, that's what makes the games so great, and makes me just another sleepy Zelda theorist.

See later ya later guys! Back to bed!🤣

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i've been thinking about the fallacy of attributing realism to a model and the "secret"/law of attraction/good old fashioned philosophy of bootstrapping american individualism. you know, the watered down possibly cosmic-themed self help inspirational business psychology you can get from everyone from esther hicks to rachel hollis to elizabeth holmes to anna delvey. you just have to believe in yourself and visualize the future you want to see in order to manifest it, and its attendant unspoken inverse, if it doesn't work you're not doing it right. the somewhere in time mentality. as long as you don't have an anachronistic penny in your pocket you'll be fine

so, much like in physics right there's this common misunderstanding among the public that if a model makes accurate predictions, this somehow confers upon it a status of becoming or having been all along physically real. the stars are projectors and we live on the surface of a black hole because of maldacena's ADS/CFT correspondence, we're embedded in either an 11 or 24 dimensional brane because of witten's m theory, there must be an infinite number of parallel earths because of everett's many worlds, and gell-mann's quarks are literally red blue and green even though they're smaller than photons. lord help us, if a majority of the population of the earth believes in wheeler's one electron or law from lawlessness, they will suddenly become true, so the thinking apparently goes, in this misconception of automatic realism. don't tell anyone about vacuum decay or the lack of a known upper limit for solar flares, or else they might happen

so like you see the connective tissue, right? in this misunderstanding of physics and scientific modeling, there's this idea that when you develop a sufficiently correct model, your name has a cosmological genesis story bestowed upon it. speak it and it becomes true. when in fact that's not how it works at all of course, the prevalence of a model is ideally defined by how useful its predictions are for a given experimental regime, which is how we get this overlapping patchwork of incompatible stories, which is why we don't and might never have a total and self-consistent model to explain everything

these parts always get left out of the pop-psych business philosophy as it adapts and expropriates concepts from science research to give itself a sheen of legitimacy. that any model's regime is necessarily limited, and if it had realism, it would also have borders, where its physical realness becomes less certain and eventually unknown, and the area outside its borders vastly outsizes the area it's designed to explain. that in actual practice it's more like stitching together a bunch of little explanations that govern their regime exceedingly well, and that the vast majority of scientists never see their work stitched in

but if the purpose of a system is what it does then there's a much darker undertone to what promoting this sort of magical thinking does to people: in practice it mostly serves to give people who had the opportunity for success something to attribute their success to other than wealth and privilege, in a way that keeps people who believe it despite not having opportunity locked in a futile cycle of "i must not be doing it right/i'm not good enough/something is wrong with me" instead of questioning why a limited number of people are granted opportunity

[homuraholic]

Did you know that Boops boops is an actual scientific name for a specific of fish?!

It's truee, they're very cute!

Gotta keep the meguka theme somehow.