#the hallmark of a decent human being

[ask-the-crimson-king]

Magnus & Musings

Greetings to you all. You may call me the Mysterious Hermit, and I am the human behind the blog. I think I've procrastinated long enough on making a proper pinned post, so allow me to do so now.

If you follow this account, know you will see more than just rp threads. You will most likely see artwork and writing, the occasional lore post, or just some banter. I am a mostly-rp account. Not every post is or will be in character.

The contents of this post will be as follows: > RP Expectations/Rules >My Portrayal of Magnus the Red >Side Muses Bios

RP Expectations/Rules What I do not rp/answer to:

I do not do NSFW rp of any kind, nor do I entertain NSFW asks of any kind.

I prefer mostly-serious threads. I do not mind the occasional banter, but PLEASE do not come spamming old TTS memes/recycled grimdank memes in my ask box.

What I would like as a thread/expectations you should have when starting a thread with me:

I do not mind doing crossovers! If I am not familiar with the original property/your OCs backstory/etc., I may ask about it.

I am willing to do threads during the Crusade/Heresy and the modern 40k era. If you do not specify which you would like, I'll most likely assume 40k.

I am sometimes very, very slow to respond. Please be patient, or hit me up if it's been a while and you want to continue a thread I might've dropped.

I try to match length in responses as best I can, but please do not feel pressured to do the same. All that I ask is multi-para replies do not get one singular sentence.

The Portrayal of Magnus the Red:

I try to stay as close to canon as I can, though occasionally I may deviate. I enjoy playing him as a complicated "road to hell paved with good intentions" kind of character, with all the hallmarks of his famous arrogance and gigantamax-brain-ness on display.

In the modern day, I have him currently focusing on his New Kingdom project, where he is trying to terramorph Prospero so that it is decently inhabitable again while training the human psykers who are being drawn to Sortiarius in droves. Instead of Prospero being a gunshop, I am instead running it as the future home of the human population, while Sortiarius stays for the Legion. There will still be industry on Prospero's surface, but to a lesser extent than to what has been described, since I just find it way more interesting.

Side Muses:

Kazakh, Daemon of Tzeentch

Kazakh is a small, brightly-colored daemonic bird who has been given the order of keeping an eye on Magnus. He generally acts as his small daemonic messenger and sometimes emotional support daemon if the time requires. He has a penchant for hoarding shiny objects within the fluff of his chest, and usually takes shiny things as payment for being a messenger or to get him to screw off. Though sometimes in response to the latter, he'll show off his very shiny knives. He has once tried to cut Fulgrim himself for not coughing up a shiny bauble for him.

Zikar-Sin, Master of Possession

Zikar-Sin is a former Thousand Son returning to the Legion for the first time in millennia. He still considers himself a Word Bearer, having been attached to a Host for these past few thousand years, but is happy to be returning to his parent Legion. His role in the creation of the New Kingdom has largely involved him aiding in the reconstruction of a viable biosphere, or helping to integrate the inbound humans to the teachings of the Legion. His sorcerous mastery mostly lies within diabolism, but he was an Athaenean in the ages long since past, and his telekinetic mastery has also improved. He can also be found accompanied by his tutelary, Sepa, who joins him in the form of small twin screamers.

[eleccy]

aa5 and aa6 spoilers here!

another reason why aa1, 2, 3 and 4 "feel" different from 5 and 6 - different writer. yamazaki isn't necessarily a bad writer, he did write some banger cases for ace attorney investigations 2 and i think also 1 as well. i'm not sure if aa5 and 6 are a result of too many cooks spoiling the broth, executive meddling or what, but... it does lose something.

shu takumi's writing is hallmarked by its lightheartedness, its focus and dedication to the comedic elements while never neglecting the emotional heart of the characters. it is characterized by simple, domestic events between family and friends. there are no bombs blowing up the courtroom, no dark age of the law (except for, well, rfta), no massive political revolutions. the stakes are relatively low and local, focusing instead on the family drama of the feys, the gramaryes, the angst of edgeworth, and how phoenix gets dragged into the tangle of their lives.

it is interesting and compelling storytelling because a LOT of storytelling time is spent on motive, characters, and how they feel about events. the funny moments endear you to the characters all the more, and the optional dialogue makes them seem more human and relatable. phoenix's snarky inner monologue and huge heart work together to grant him a distinct and unique character voice that makes you want to root for him. aa5 and aa6 try to focus more on grander stakes and simplified plotlines about good and evil, the lawyers v. the phantom who is unapologetically evil, the lawyers v. ga'ran who is fundamentally unsympathetic. it's not really as nuanced as say, morgan, who is definitely evil, but her motivation for being so is more fleshed out based on how jealous she was and her desire to elevate pearly to a higher status and escape being the branch family. the sense of urgency to events, and flat-ness of some of the humorous elements, causes you to connect with the characters less. phoenix is much less connected/engaged with trucy than he was in aa4, for example. his beanix personality is all but gone. apollo is also noticeably less connected with trucy whereas in aa4 they were joined at the hip. this is one of the more egregious examples but there are more, like klavier being reduced to a one-dimensional fanservice robot and a lack of explanation of any aa4 plot threads.

while the writing is not the best, i believe aa5 and aa6 do have some good things on offer. the stories and adventures are engaging, have some decent humor in them, and the pacing isn't bad. but the lack of takumi's input is really, really felt and makes them weaker entries in the franchise. i feel it is harder to get excited about replaying them than it is to get excited about replaying 1-2-3-4.

[yourreddancer]

Jake Tapper Sucks

Are you fucking kidding me?! - JoJoFromJerz

Who Needs Truth When You���ve Got an Advance?

JoJoFromJerz

May 22

Remember when Jake Tapper was supposed to be the serious journalist in the room? Now he’s just the guy you cross the street to avoid, clutching his latest book like it’s a ransom note, lurking in the shadows at parties, desperate to corner you and babble about his “process” while you scan the room for sharp objects or a fire alarm to pull. He’s not the voice of reason—he’s the cautionary tale you tell your kids about what happens when smug mediocrity gets a book deal and a whiff of its own cologne.

If Tapper hustled real news half as hard as he hustles his bullshit book, maybe CNN wouldn’t be circling the drain. At this point, his segments should come with a “Sponsored Content” warning and a promo code for free fucking shipping.

Some people flirt with the bottom of the barrel—Tapper put in a down payment and built a McMansion there.

Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis would make any halfway decent human being pause, maybe even shelve the hit piece for a second. Not Jake. He took one look at a man fighting for his life and thought, “Fantastic! Time to wring a few more bucks out of this tragedy and wedge it into my next bookfomercial.” Compassion? Empathy? Basic goddamn decency? Apparently, Jake hasn’t seen those words outside of a crossword puzzle or an f’ng Hallmark card.

He doesn’t give a single fuck about how it looks, or how it feels to the family of a man battling cancer. He just saw another sales opportunity, like the soulless infomercial huckster he’s become. Shameless isn’t even the word—it’s predatory. Tapper’s code of ethics is whatever gets him more airtime and another shot at the bestseller list. He’s the referee betting on the game, then selling a memoir about it while the players are still bleeding on the field.

Jake’s betrayal isn’t just a bad look—it’s a masterclass in shamelessness. After years spent propping up Biden as the sensible grown-up on cable news, Tapper is now circling like a vulture, eager to cash in on the president’s decline with a quickie book deal. While Biden fights for his health and legacy, Tapper’s busy figuring out how to squeeze a few more bucks and cheap shots out of the story. This is corporate media at its sleaziest: truth for sale, decency in the dumpster, and Jake Tapper grinning all the way to the motherf’ng bank.

Let’s be clear: there’s nothing wrong with examining past elections and learning from them. That’s a job for historians, analysts, and, yes, journalists with a sense of responsibility. We should be talking about lessons learned, what went right, what went wrong, and how to do better next time.

But Jake? He’s so obsessed with squeezing every last dime from his version of 2024 that he’s missed everything since. Newsflash: democracy didn’t freeze in amber after the last election. We’re living through history right now, and while Tapper’s busy hawking his book about the past, he’s missing the actual story unfolding in real time. If your head’s so far up your own ass you can’t cover the present because you’re too busy cashing in on the past, maybe journalism isn’t for you. That’s not just lazy—it’s fucking stupid.

And then there’s his crocodile tears over the Biden White House “not liking him.” Boo-fucking-hoo, Jake. Maybe if you acted like you had a heart instead of a cash register where your soul should be, you wouldn’t have gotten iced out. But no, you’d rather sprint to Megyn Kelly and whine like a washed-up reality star who didn’t get enough confessionals. The only thing more pathetic than your victim routine is the fact that you genuinely believe anyone gives a shit. Newsflash, Jake: you’re not some fearless truth-teller being persecuted for your integrity—you’re just a glorified mall cop who couldn’t get a press pass to his own pity party.

You want to talk about being “unliked”? That’s not a badge of honor bro, it’s a sign you’re about as welcome in journalistic circles as a fart in a spacesuit. You’re not Woodward, you’re not Bernstein—you’re the guy who shows up to the Watergate break-in with a selfie stick and a stack of signed headshots, hoping someone will validate your parking.

You don’t get shunned for being brave. You get shunned for being a clout-chasing parasite who thinks a gut wrenching tragedy is a springboard for your next book deal. Keep crying to Megyn Kelly—maybe she’ll let you co-host her next segment on “How to Ruin Your Reputation in Under Five Minutes.”

Meanwhile, the actual news is burning down around us—Trump’s out here hoarding felonies like they’re Beanie Babies in 1996, democracy is face-down in a puddle, and Jake’s obsessing over Biden’s bedtime like a failed TMZ intern with a traumatic brain injury, desperate to shoehorn it into his next bargain-bin book plug.

Where was this rabid energy during season one of this hellish reality show, when Trump was melting down on live TV every hour like a nuclear clown car fueled by saccharin and unresolved childhood trauma? Where’s the exposé on the orange sociopath with the attention span of a coked-up squirrel? Oh, right—Jake only discovers his balls when it’s time to shake down the former President, because taking on real power would require an ounce of integrity—something he pawned off for a slot on cable news and a lifetime supply of hair gel.

CNN these days is just an endless Jake Tapper telethon, except instead of raising money for a cure, they’re hawking his book like it’s the antidote to erectile dysfunction. Anchors slather on more fake enthusiasm for Tapper’s latest literary turd than a QVC host selling off-brand vibrators at midnight. I’m half-expecting Wolf Blitzer to pop up and offer a free set of Ginsu knives with every hardcover, or maybe Anderson Cooper in a sequined blazer, spinning a prize wheel: “Congratulations, you’ve won a signed Jake Tapper book and a lifetime supply of disappointment!”

If these clowns funneled even a fraction of that energy into actual journalism, maybe we’d have news that wasn’t just Tapper’s ego in hardcover. But no, it’s all Jake, all the time—like he’s the world’s most persistent rash and CNN’s the world’s least effective ointment. Tapper’s face is everywhere: on the screen, in the promos, probably in the breakroom fridge, leering at you from a carton of expired yogurt.

CNN’s become the sad, desperate carnival barker for Tapper’s book-shaped doorstop, and the only thing getting sold is their last shred of dignity.

Here’s the ugly truth: giving Jake Tapper even a molecule of respect was like tipping the guy who spits in your food. He’s not just a sellout—he’s a clearance sale on dignity, the human equivalent of a hotel washcloth after a bachelor party: stained, used up, and best left untouched by anyone with self-respect. Tapper is what you get when smug mediocrity is left to ferment in the sun with a book deal and a ring light.

Tapper isn’t just a joke—he’s the kind of punchline that makes people leave the group chat, delete the app, and schedule a therapy session just to scrub the memory of him from their psyche.

The irony, of course, is that this stupid-ass book is actually one of the few things uniting this fractured hellscape of a country at the moment: left, right, and everyone in between can agree that Jake is a human LinkedIn notification with the credibility of a timeshare pitchman and the warmth of a TSA pat-down.

His book is such a transparent cash grab, it makes late-night infomercials look like Pulitzer contenders. Progressives see him as a bootlicker with the backbone of a limp pool noodle and the desperation of a failed child actor hawking teeth-whitening kits on Instagram; conservatives think he’s a sanctimonious hack who’d sell out his own grandmother for a segment on Morning Joe.

The only bipartisan consensus left in America is that Jake’s book is a literary landfill fire—an embarrassment so desperate, it should come with a warning label for secondhand cringe.

So, congratulations, Jake. You finally did it. You made America agree on something: you’re a fucking joke. And nobody’s buying what you’re selling—literally or figuratively.

[thrayambikavidyamandir]

Schools in Nagercoil — What Parents Should Know Before Choosing One

Choosing the right school for your child is a big decision for any parent that will guide a child through the very early years of learning, shaping values and confidence. In a lovely village like Nagercoil, education is the primary concern of most parents, so many parents look for the best schools that can not only provide good academic achievement but also bring up the child as a whole person, choosing the school Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School as well as we did.

Why Parents Look for the Best Schools in Nagercoil

Nagercoil can boast of an unlimited number of schools, each of which offers different educational needs. Among them, only some have their main focus on the academic area; others are famous for their sport or art student programs, etc. At present, most parents tend to give priority to those schools that are not so much into academic pressure but could give their children a balance of education and happiness. Thus, the schools that have become leaders in this direction today are those that thatmaintain patience and joy in the learning process and where students are valued through respect.

We have been going through different schools in Nagercoil in order to make the final choice of the school for fforour kids. At the beginning, we had set out our guidelines that the teachers should be loving to the students, they should be full of cheer, and they should be treated with the utmost respect. The Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School ticked all the boxes for us.

The Real Meaning of a Good School

Not just an enclosed room full of kids and an hourly schedule, a school, good as it may be, is where your child can find safety and respect; where he will be heard and increase in confidence; where he can question, think, and think. It’s the human qualities of the teachers and students and a harmonious teacher-parent communication that make the schools in Nagercoil of great significance. Hence, the identity of the school being of high standard is reached through the children’s own upbringing. One way of obtaining this is to foster good values and decent life skills in the kids, and by fostering good communication between teachers and parents, the whole community would be built healthy and well.

Just by joining Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School, we began to feel like this was more than just a school — it was also a home. The teachers were kind, well-prepared, red, and genuinely passionate about the improvement of everyone, not just in the lesson mark scores and winning the overall game.

Our Experience with Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School

Upon our arrival at the school, it was very easy to distinguish the changes thanks to the positive atmosphere and the smiling faces of the children filled with a lot of energy. They are equipped with a CBSE curriculum, but their teaching is new and exciting.

We felt very well informed, and our child’s school regularly sent updates to us with pictures of the children’s work in the class, and also, there was a two-way communication opportunity shared open to teachers and parents. This was a very comforting and pleasing way for us to stay in touch.

What Are the Hallmarks of the Best Schools in Nagercoil?

The major pillars on which schools in Nagercoil build their success are:

Teachers who maintain a rapport and show care towards students.

Transparency in the communication lines between parents and the school.

Environment where students feel safe and receive encouragement to learn.

Activities, outside the school curriculum, that are a vehicle for character development.

Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School fulfills all these conditions and even more. They inspire students to become better citizens who are confident, respectful, and responsible.

 

Acquiring More Than Reading Skills

At Thrayambika, students are not just the readers of books, but they move towards the worldly things through being part of cultural events, engaging in sports, working in groups, taking field fieldtrips,s etc. A child's personality gets nurtured, and he matures with the help of these extracurricular activities and real-life skills. As a result of this change, we observed that our kid has become more outspoken than his earlier self, better at teamwork, and more curious about learning new things.

Schools as Community Builders

When we leave our children at school, we are, in a way, m with our hopes and dreams for their future. The trust that we are building with the school is strengthened when we see changes in our children, such as new learned skills and a cheerful mood. Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School created that trust through the children’s interaction and performance, not words.

On one hand, the school never made unsubstantiated statements and, on the other hand, never questioned their actions. Their small but consistent contributions were always at the heart of the most meaningful activities, e.g., rations, parent meetings, or daily classes.

Final Thoughts: Schools in Nagercoil That Really Make a Difference

When you want to find a nice school in Nagercoil, Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School is our recommendation. It was a great and pleasing match with our family. We were in search of such a school that will take our child for who they are, and we found it here.

Finding the right school might need a lot of time, but as soon as you get the right one, you will automatically realize it. Thrayambika Vidya Mandir School was exactly that to us — a place where education was a joke, morals were absent, and kids were happy.

[busy-matches]

Economic Disparities oh This Busy Century

Economic Disparities oh This Busy Century - There are wide disparities in living standards, not only between developed and underdeveloped countries, but also within all countries, in fact increasing up to a global maximum of income inequality. This fact condemns millions of the world's population to live in unacceptable human conditions, lacking the fundamental resources for living a decent human life, thus depriving them of realizing the most basic human activities (work, education, leisure, etc.). This situation should also be recognized as a deprivation of human freedom or as a lack of human capabilities. Because of poverty, many human beings are not able to realize a list of functions, such as being healthy, feeding oneself, the ability to read, write, communicate, express emotions, and control pain. This capability approach has been widely presented and discussed in economics literature. Furthermore, human poverty has been related to development, which stressed that "the most critical of these deprivations is the want of power—to exercise choice and decision—in key areas of life."

It has often been indicated that the present economic structure of the world, and not only the physical environment, contributes decisively to the existence of these poverty traps, which should be described not only in an income context but as a lack of "processes and functions." Some of the determinants of this economic structure are related to the characteristics of the people that take part in the world economy, the social organization, the economic organization of society, the economic growth process, the physical capital dimensions, and environmental issues. These are considered superior composite dimensions of a person's economic situation, providing a better proxy of human poverty, and thus a better concept of development. Additionally, the interrelation of Middle East poverty with the rest of the world cannot be completely understood without considering the effects of globalization and the influence of its inhabitants; some efforts to perform this analysis on a macroeconomic level have been made. In other words, human poverty cannot be understood in the same way as absolute poverty is studied with respect to aggregates.

Wealth Inequality

Wealth inequality is a significant and increasing challenge, and it results from the fact that the higher returns to capital can cause the distribution of capital to become highly unequal unless policymakers respond with taxes and transfers to ensure that capital accumulation is broad-based and shares the returns with everyone. Enacting those policies takes time and effort, and doing so when faced with the rhetoric and lobbying of the wealthy elite is particularly difficult in countries where wealth inequality and concentration of media ownership can lead to the ownership and control of the media by owners and companies that are hostile to the idea of wealth redistribution. Given this reality, elite capture of the media can hinder policy responses to inequality and fail to foster widespread upward mobility and inclusive venture capitalism. Compounding this problem, it creates a vicious cycle of wealth inequality, with the wealthy elite using their resources to ensure the political system serves their interests, making it even harder to implement these policy responses, and thereby concentrating more wealth and power in the hands of an ever smaller group of people, making policies to address wealth inequality increasingly difficult. Thus, left unchecked, wealth inequality can destroy social mobility and social capital, fueling social and political tension and instability, which, particularly when located within countries that are heavily armed but lack strong democratic institutions, can even increase the risk of weapons of mass destruction being used.

Globalization and Its Discontents

The expansion of global markets has been the hallmark of globalization. While various forces such as new technologies and the opening up of former Soviet bloc countries have facilitated the global integration of markets, there is much less consensus as to whether globalization has been beneficial to all. Many groups both in developed and in developing countries believe that there has been a losers' curse rather than a winners' blessing. For some critics of economic development, the campaign for further globalization is responsible for the pressing problems faced by the developing world. They argue that globalization only aggravates their plight by accentuating the gap between the poor and the rich. Globalization, for these voices, is associated with all that is bad, linking various international organizations as primary vehicles that facilitate the perpetuation of colonial and neo-colonial structures.

In today's world of globalization, the concern is often for the fate of the majority of societies and individuals who are equated with localness and village consciousness. To such critics of globalization, economic development is seen not as the engine of progress but as the cancer of corporate profit that destroys local traditions, cultures, environments, livelihoods, human values, and their dignity. In this representation, many economic missionaries and technocrats from the advanced western nations who are busily engaged in promoting their brand of economic development among the less fortunate erstwhile colonized countries are viewed as intellectual mercenaries. The core issue is that globalization also means dissolution of cultural forms, local traditions and straight-jackets people into the uniform of modernity – a conceptual straight-jacket sewn from the fabric of consumer culture. Little wonder, then, that there is no dearth of voices from different quarters expressing abhorrence of globalization as a neo-colonial imposition on the societies and cultures of the majority.

The Gig Economy

The final major social change is more conducive to a fairer world. It is the rise of the so-called gig economy, named after the small piece of work a freelance 'gig' worker does. There are an estimated three million workers in the gig economy in the US and the European Union, and forecasts are that this will rise to 10 million by 2020. The reason for the 'gig' workers is partly employers wanting greater flexibility in their workforce and partly an increasing desire of workers to have greater control over their work and personal lives, including what work to tackle and when. Many workers also gain increasing satisfaction when they do a wide variety of work and gain experience accordingly. Many of the workers in the gig economy today are under 35 years of age, but increasingly workers are joining in their sixties.

The digital platform is the most important enabler of the gig economy, listing the separately skilled available workers, connecting short-term 'gig' work offered by employers with the worker skilled to do it, overcoming the constraints of skill shortage in any one geographical location. Digital technologies also enable 'gig workers' to carry out various tasks at different locations and times. I think the gig economy can have a very positive effect of encouraging lifelong learning and a 'portfolio career choice' in individuals. However, if over time it turns out not to ensure businesses receive the continuity and standard of results they need without losing their 'human' look and feel or the commitment of their employees, then individual organizations or sectors will probably try to revert back to a more continuous and established relationship with what may by then have become a shrinking group of permanent employees of a largely automated workforce.

[aquietwhyme]

You know what doesn't help? The fact that in the US, a lot of the time they're right about this. Many of our primary and secondary schools are glorified daycare centers, and our formal education higher system has all of the hallmarks of an MLM; the ones that end up holding the bag are the people who participate but can't find sustainable employment afterwards, the people who graduate with mountains of debt, and the people who for many reasons end up not finishing at all.

Now I fully understand that formal university education is only one specific type, and that as the great Samuel Clemens wrote "never let school get in the way of your education." And I'm well aware of the importance of the non-monetizable benefits of liberal arts, the humanities and critical thinking skills, especially in regards to the responsibilities of citizenship and being a decent person. But until we fix the many many problems in our education system, convincing folks like those in this picture is going to be an uphill battle.

After all when higher education is constantly sold as primarily an economic boost at the same time that skilled trades enjoy better job security, better pay, and better benefits, it does indeed seem like a trap.

[boyswanna-be-her]

publishing gay romance novels really unreasonably often for so many years completely warped my view of like... what is fun and funny and hot. like i am decent at writing a life-affirming, largely unproblematic romance that won't get me hate reviews and that's valid. and i think that's a pretty reasonable reaction, as a creator, to the bizarre takes on my fiction that i've dealt with (I'm sure everyone in my field deals with it) and vitriol that exists on the internet and goodreads and whatever platform for anyone who dares to present gay stories that aren't stock standard, ready to be produced by the hallmark channel and distributed to a chikfila audience.

but like. hm. to be writing that MESSY shit again. incredible. give me those goblins making bad choices. i cannot wait to ponder over how to write their setpiece Incidents in the most exquisitely uncomfortable ways. i love to watch them chew the scenery in my imagination. cannot say the same for my sweet, sweet lovingly rendered mass-appeal characters whose most compelling aspirations are to get me lots of nice reviews where nobody is calling me a [redacted lol] writing a "guide for [REDACTED FOR LEGAL REAONS WHY DO PEOPLE SAY THIS SHIT HOLY FUCK!!!!!]" i was really shaken by some of the horrific shit that people put out about my absurd books and it's taken me a long time to understand how to ignore it and--even harder--digest what i had already internalized and believed about myself as a human being based on book reviews. reading reviews is NOT the same as having an editor, and hater input was poison to my confidence in a way that i wasn't actually secure enough to acknowledge until the last few years.

im having a lot of emotions around writing again. im having a lot of emotions around most aspects of my life presently, and that of course channels nicely into creating some thinly-veiled fiction.

i'm glad i was allowed the luxury of taking some years off from publishing. i had completely stopped thinking of myself as a writer, despite the fact that i have 17 titles under my belt including a dozen hugely overlong novels written just by me. the last five years have been a pretty consistent ego death--not that i'm complaining, the vibe is now immaculate--but it is of course a lot to deal with. At the same time, the past DECADE of... trauma and growth and death and growth and total fuck ups and growth... has also casually wrought a sort of ingrained queer fury and strength in me that won't be quenched until my body kicks the bucket. I'm finally as old as I've always felt and I've got nothing to lose in writing some incredibly indulgent and polarizing fiction

anyway i don't really know how to blog anymore. i stopped sharing for so long, edited my sharing, overshared, undershared, begged for input, ignored all input. i'm making all of this shit up as i go along at this point. i'm excited about the way that my life experience is currently guiding my fiction. i think that's the essence here. but also 420 smoke weed every day jesse pinkman was right all along

[strifetxt]

ok, as promised, some quick watcher grian fic recs! disclaimer that it's been a while since i read most of these, and i'm almost certainly forgetting some old favorites, but this is a decent range across the wide spectrum of takes on watchers that i remember enjoying!

Healing Is a Four Letter Word, by Hypno_Cat - a lovely take on all the sort of hallmarks of watcher fanon. we've got xelqua fleeing the evil watchers, we've got amnesia, we've got hermitcraft healing arc and tender, heartfelt reunions. i am really very fond of this fic! also comes with a very sweet sequel about grumbo getting together, if that's your jam.

crown of broken bones, by Raichett - this fic is about grian becoming a watcher after winning third life. really excellent angst, and i quite enjoy how the watchers themselves are portrayed!

Covet, by Oceanbreeze7 - a canon divergence of hermitcraft season 8, in which there is an eldritch cryptid in the boatem hole that turns out to be grian. tragically incomplete, but don't let that stop you from enjoying what's there! it does a great job of involving the whole hermit ensemble, and it's alternatively sweet and heartrending and horrifying all in one.

How to Be a Human Being, by doctorletmebebrave - another one set in season 8: when mumbo steals grian's soul, he accidentally absorbs some of his watcher abilities, and grian has to teach him how to use them. ultimately a really beautiful study of grian and mumbo's relationship that never fails to make me feel so deeply fond of them!

a body is an object, by ruffboi - a very non-standard watcher grian take, and i don't necessarily want to spoil how! grian has gotten away with not telling any of the hermits about his backstory, but when pearl comes along, it all gets dragged out into the light. i Adore themes about identity, and this fic really nails them

@.GrianMC, by Sixteenthdays - again, extremely non-standard watcher take in that this fic leans hard into the watchers-as-audience metaphor to incredible effect. i LOVE metafiction, and the way this fic uses watchers to write a commentary on both fandom and grian the real life youtuber as well as on grian the character is just impeccable. permanently rewrote the way i think about watchers forever.

solving counting sheep, by Bee_4 - of course, i can't NOT rec this one, it's only lived rent free in my brain for over a year. yet again another non-standard watcher grian take: this time it takes place in a canon divergence from evo that is sort of a winter soldier au; jimmy witnesses grian being killed by the watchers after the dragon fight, and then years later, martyn discovers and steals a living watcher weapon known as blade-three, aka three. this fic will put you through the emotional wringer and leave you hollowed out with haunting questions about memory and identity, and will also give you a whole new favorite character to think about. I Love This Fic So Much.

alright, final part of Watcher/Listener Lore 101: the fanon

so, it's important to know that a LOT of what fans consider the "lore" is in fact based on fanon! a lot of influence on modern day watcher grian headcanons in particular stems from the fic "and the universe shifts" aka ATUS. this fic is how we got the common depiction of the watchers as abusive or manipulative towards grian, and him being traumatized by their treatment. it's also the origin of watchers being depicted with masks over the eyes!

other watcher grian fanon features that you might see:

grian landing in hermitcraft after fleeing the watchers

grian's "watcher name" being xelqua (the original username of grian's youtube channel)

grian gaining wings because of the watchers

grian experiencing temporary memory loss after fleeing the watchers due to trauma/brainwashing

the watchers actively hunting grian in an attempt to get him to return to their ranks

and there are many more i'm probably forgetting about! fandom watcher depictions are all over the place, and everyone sorta chooses how much of the canon from evo/martyn's lore they choose to incorporate into their headcanons. at the end of the day, other than watching evo, and maybe looking into martyn's lore breakdowns, the best place to start learning about it is just check out the ao3 tags. read some of the popular fic, or the not so popular fic, check out the commonalities and differences in how watchers are portrayed, and synthesize that into your own version that makes you happy! if you want some fic recommendations, i'm happy to provide.

anyhow, sorry for clogging your inbox with that absolute infodump, hope it ends up being remotely helpful!

ANNDDDD part three. tysm man,,,,,,,,this rlly helped tons. i always wondered where some of these hc’s came from now i can actually say i know

[welcome-to-the-end-of-eras]

I’m keeping a log of my thoughts whilst reading The Half Life of Valery K for the first time because I think it’ll be fun, enjoy (and, of course, beware the spoilers ahead):

- HE’S A NERD YOUR HONOUR HE HAS A LIL PET RAT!!! NAMED BORIS!!! BE STILL MY HEART-

- “…he wasn’t in the habit of looking gift rats in the mouth” MS PULLEY YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN WITH THE LOVABLE WEIRDO

- “…but lately he could feel his mind effervescing” ok Edward Cullen

- so he’s in a cold place losing his memories and forgetting how to think properly…inch resting… my theory brain is working overtime as you can tell (definitely gonna read this one back to myself and cringe at how stupid it sounds but that’s a problem for future me)

- STOP PLS HE GAVE HIS BUNKMATE BORIS TO HOLD BC HE DIDN’T WANT HIM TO BE ALONE THIS SWEET LITTLE MAN

- I am. 2 pages in. And I’m already in love with Valery. Finally, a pulleyverse main character who isn’t a cynical little prick off the bat. Not that I don’t love the others, but I’ve adopted Valery as my son so-

- Wait what’s this fucking tattoo, is it gonna be a good addition to my future pulleyverse sleeve??? (Edit: oh absolutely not that is a real life gang symbolism-)

- I would absolutely make a cigarette out of a cheese ad

- What or who tf is the Vory??? A gang??? A guard system??? Just one guard??? I’m intrigued. This is why Ms. Pulley’s use of paragraph indents is brilliant, because it actually DOES something; most contemporary authors I’ve read do it like every other page and it’s a pet peeve of mine

- Fun fact: my orchestra teacher all throughout high school lived in soviet Russia and served in their military for a while bc it was required by law, but he’s such a sweet guy and I can’t imagine him being as rough and ruthless as these fuckin guards, holy hell-

- WAIT IS VALERY ABOUT TO GO SUPER SAIYAN ON THIS BITCH OH F U C K YEAH

- Oh no he’s just doing mind tricks god damnit. Still, very cool he can keep his composure like that, very much like Joe could, and I really liked that about him so it’ll be cool to see in Valery

- THE WINTER KING THE WINTER KING THE WINTER KING THE W-

- THEORY BRAIN GOING ABSOLUTELY CRAZY RN!!!

- “But if someone complained about normal life, the overwhelming human instinct was to kick them in the head” if that isn’t me every day at work idk what is-

- I feel like the idea of the world and circumstances making a person “small” (to quote twofs) is a big thing with pulleyverse mc’s but it’s very interesting with Valery bc he seems the most optimistic about it. Idk, it’s just a funky lil thing I noticed, maybe I’ll make another post fleshing out my ideas about all four main characters at some point but for now I’ll leave it there

- Fucking FINALLY, a decent description of the mc off the bat!!! Only took 7 years-

- The specific lack of quotations around “Remember you like doing that, remember how satisfying it is when the ice breaks?” is so fucking interesting, it’s like someone else telling it to him instead of himself that, and it’s an odd place to have a break in the narration style unless it’s purposeful which of course it must be. That is another hallmark of Ms. Pulley’s writing that I just love, the way she can speak and create meaning in the style of the narration, it’s so unique to her works and so so s o fun to read

- Y’know it just dawned on me that Valery is very similar to Linus from The House in the Cerulean Sea

- Ooo chapter titles

- Nice and accurate portrayal of Russian driving skills (from someone who has been cut off while driving on multiple occasions by my Russian orchestra teacher)

- What in the fuckin dystopia is this town-

- Lord knows I am not Grace Carrow’s biggest fan, but her research in ether studies was the precursor to atomic theory, and I’m definitely going to feel like a proud mom if they mention the works of Dr. Carrow at any point in Valery’s research stuff. I have a love-hate relationship with her.

- “…something odd and dead about the lake” INCH. RESTING.

- I’m so intrigued by this dude and his sketchy past and I’m so glad it’s written this way but I’d pay serious money to figure out wtf is going on right this second

- I have a terrible habit of reading the last page of a book when I get antsy — which actually almost caused me to dnf the watchmaker the first time I read it — and I don’t wanna do that but it the urge is there

- Valery…buddy…the first thing you notice about a guy who may or may not kill you is the fact that he’s tall, dark, and handsome??? Really??? Yknow what he’s been in prison for 6 years he deserves it I’m gonna stop shitting on him

- THE LIGHTHOUSE??? I N C H . R E S T I N G .

- This man is autistic I’ve decided

- Pls let Elena and Ilenko be gfs I beg of you Ms. Pulley-

- Valery mathing in his head for a solid page and a half is both adorable and very helpful

- Damn okay Elena I was rooting for you a lil bit but clearly she knows something weird is going on and she’s just being a bitch about it (I’m getting defensive about her being passive aggressive to Valery excuse me)

- Call me crazy but like I’m 95% sure the scientists are also being experimented on. The cheese thing reminded me too much of feeding lab rats for good behaviour.

- I trust tf out of Ilenko now, she’s mean but she’s honest and I like it. Reminds me of Takiko.

- The room is bugged. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Bc they’re being experimented on. There’s no way they’re not.

- SHUT UP BC IF THEY’RE ACTUALLY HANDING OUT MORI’S WATCHES I’M GONNA CRY-

- Shenkov gives me very much Missouri Kite vibes. He clearly knows something more than he’s saying, and likely already has a soft spot for Valery somehow (which I do too but like. I’m reading inside his head so it’s a bit different)

- I’m seriously going to go insane with all the minute references to her other works. Like. It’s totally plausible that someone thinks of Peru first out of every South American country, but is it really a coincidence??? Really??? Especially after tlfop mentioned it so pointedly??? I’m gonna have to start wearing a tinfoil hat at some point.

- The fucking telescope thing I’m going to go nuts-

- Okay back on my comparing the pulleyverse mc’s bullshit, they all have a particular area of observational expertise, and Valery’s seems to be in logistics which is very fun

- Valery’s immediate switch from feeling safe and scared of it to being aware of imminent danger and comfortable with it will never not make me sad

- Why isn’t Ilenko there. Where is my girl.

- Finally in a time period where it’s normal-ish to recognise and call out racist shit hell yeah

- Absolutely love Valery and Shenkov’s dynamic so far, plus the way he interacts with the students is so fucking funny compared to how he interacts with everyone else

- I notice my observations getting less and less frequent the more I get wrapped up in this book, which is impressive considering I’m barely 70 pages in

- Am I crazy or do the radiated mice sound very similar to the people sent to New Bedlam??? Maybe the whole place was built specifically as a quarantine for radiation damage??? Inch. Resting. (definitely not true but a fun theory)

- DAMNIT THEY SHOT MY GIRL!!! FUCK!!! At least Elena is being less of a bitch

- He’s excited about his eyeball jar 🥺🥺🥺 and he is absolutely correct about the medical schools

- Ohoho his devious bastard side is showing now, immaculate

- “He loved children, but he knew he’d never have any” is this bc he’s queer or because of some sad secret medical thing??? Or both???

- …I’m sorry doctor W H O ? ? ? NOT THE FUCKING NAZI BLOOD PURIST WHO PERFORMED HORRIFYING GENETICS TESTS ON CHILDREN??? SURELY NOT??? RIGHT???

- This is…wow…I’m so glad Ms. Pulley made even the obvious bad guy recognise that human experiments and eugenics are inarguably awful but Jesus C h r i s t -

- “…he should not have trusted Shenkov to be above board purely because he thought the man was fascinating” sir you’re going to fall in love with him-

- HHHHHHHHH I LOVE THEMB

- Shenkov…buddy…stop being so incredibly endearing…istg…

- “He was in no state to cope with kindness” :(

- “He was going to have to avoid Shenkov as much as he could, at least until the triple shot had worn off” :((((((((((

- “…felt as though something Artic had come to look at him” ooo inch resting inch resting, very Winter King-esque

- Valery is such a genuinely nice dude who understands the reasons people do science I love him sm

- What is with these tattoos man I need descriptions!!! I wanna know!!!

- STOP PLS HE TELLS JOKES TO THE PEOPLE WHO BUGGED HIS ROOM THAT’S SO CUTE-

- God al-fucking-mighty I love this man. He really said “…don’t you find usually that the people who are most worried about seeming effeminate are the ones with a permanent Friday-evening appointment with a sailor?” I can’t-

- H e l l yeah Shenkov chapter!!! Oh wait no he had his ribs broken oh no-

- Wow there is some brilliant sensory descriptions from Shenkov, which is like. Oddly reminiscent of reading a chapter in Thaniel’s pov. I’m choosing to interpret this as him having sensory issues bc I think it’s fun, but either way it’s fantastic writing

- AGAIN WITH THE FUCKING WINTER KING, WHAT THE F U C K (also Shenkov and his kids are adorable)

- I am a big fan of Ms. Pulley making her female characters tough and morally grey as like a fuck you to the stereotypes but would it kill her to write a female character who isn’t borderline sociopathic??? Would it??? Bc I don’t know many people who can deal with 3 miscarriages, and potentially a fourth, and not feel any specific way about it

- “People think science is all specialists and expensive stuff, but it’s mostly made of kitchen rolls and fridge magnets and we just spray it black when anyone with a news crew turns up” absolutely love that

- Who tf is the medical doctor she seems cool af

- “I’m a funny harmless little science elf, people tell me things” F E L T

- Awweee cute winter-y description of Shenkov but ooo the “bonfires in the forest” thing is sus to me

- I like Nanya, she means business and doesn’t take any shit. T h a t ‘ s a good way to write a strong female character

- OH FUCK THE TRUTH ABOUT ELENA IS COMING OUT!!!

- He really said “I’m gonna be in prison for 10 years. Wanna play hangman?” Absolutely love this fucking nerd

- Oh my god I fucking love the octopus he’s so CUTE!!! And the way Valery just gets him bc he wants to!!! And the way the octopus is so protective of him!!! Ugh I adore him

- “How much more qualified do you want me to be?” GET HIS ASS VALERY!!! I’d pay serious money to see him interact with that phd guy he supposedly annihilated

- “Surely there were things even KGB agents didn’t want to hear.” MY GUY-

- I keep mistyping KGB as LGB and I think that is mildly hilarious

- Valery as a teacher is. Fantastic. Like genuinely such a good teacher. I know Ms. Pulley is a professor herself so I’m sure she’s a fantastic teacher too and that makes me happy

- …I may have misjudge Anna-

- I feel like if a pulleyverse man is going to be married to a woman (for more than like a day at least) she legally has to be the coolest person on the planet

- Oh my fucking g o d the gaslighting from Elena and the director is driving me NUTS

- I KNEW IT!!! I FUCKIN K N E W THOSE RANDOM “VOLCANIC” EXPLOSIONS WERE WEIRD!!! ANNA YOU BRILLIANT BASTARD!!! If she turns out to be a shitty person I WILL be crying myself to sleep

- Valera Valera Valera Valera Valera Valera Va-

- Brb putting my fOOT THROUGH THIS BOOK ISTG-

- THE ASYLUM??? UM???

- Very excited to add more to my analysis on asylums from that one post I made a bit ago even though I haven’t read the chapter yet, but I think it’s very cool that she’s adding that element into this book as well

- Every time the Winter King is mentioned/alluded to my ears perk up like a dog

- “My tools of the patriarchy are getting too long.” 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Okay I got too wrapped up in the rest of it to finish this but final thoughts:

- I fucking. Love Valery. So much. He’s such a sweet little man but also a complete bastard who blows people up and it’s genuinely the best character combination I can think of

- Shenkov is a gentle giant and I would give him my first born in a heartbeat (bc he would take fantastic care of them)

- Sincerely misjudged Anna at first and I regret it sorely, she is perhaps my favourite side character in the whole book

- I love the ending as well, it wraps up in the same way twofs does; could be a happy enough ending, but with enough unfinished business to make a good transition into a sequel, and I would be absolutely thrilled to have a sequel

- All in all, fantastic book, 10/10, will absolutely be recommending it to anyone who will listen

[andromeda3116]

I love that the Witcher proves how you can have a sexist world without having a sexist story. The framework is patriarchal, it's at times blatantly sexist and at one point Yennefer even bitterly points out that, as far as the world as concerned, women are just vessels. But the narrative isn't.

Things like -- it would be so easy to turn Yennefer into a villain. She's got a classic Femme Fatale backstory, she hits every point, she's powerful and ambitious and ruthless... but she isn't evil. In the end, she doesn't put her ambition over doing the right thing. She doesn't let her recklessness get in the way of the Battle at Sodden Hill; she registers some displeasure at being put up in the tower to observe and report, but she does it, and she does it without reserve or bitterness, to the best of her ability. She went through hell to find the power that she thought would give her what she wanted, only to discover that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be -- on her own. She didn't get this revelation from a lover, or from some great tragic descent into madness and fall from grace. She came to this realization over time, without someone else's opinion.

Queen Calanthe -- jfc, Queen Calanthe is how Daenerys Targaryen should have been handled. She's a powerful woman, an unapologetically ambitious warrior woman, who falls and loses her throne and country -- exactly the same way a King would have. Her flaws -- her hubris, her selfishness, her unwillingness to let go of her granddaughter -- lead to her downfall, but they do so rationally. She doesn't go mad, or start making stupid irrational decisions, or have to be otherwise softened -- she loses the battle. She was out-maneuvered, and her support was blocked, and she just failed. She just lost. Queens -- any poweful woman, really -- always go mad and have to be put down For The Greater Good, they never get to be a Tragic Hero in the classical sense -- always Lady Macbeth, never Hamlet.

Calanthe is a fucking Greek Tragedy. She hits all the high points of an Aristotelean Tragic Hero: she evokes pity and the fear that the viewer could have made all the same mistakes; her fortunes change from prosperity to adversity, not through vice or depravity but through error of judgment; that error is made through a fundamental character flaw, something that the character could have stopped, but also couldn't because of who they are as a person.

I cannot think of another Queen treated this way in fiction.

There's one single mention of rape, and that character does imply that this in part led to her not being a princess anymore -- followed almost-immediately by the main character explicitly and pointedly calling her Princess, pointing out that it isn't what was done to her that makes her monstrous, it's what she herself does. Even so, it's simply part of her backstory, she's the one who brings it up, and there's no gruesome flashback to "evoke sympathy" or whatever bullshit excuse to show women suffering.

It's just. It's so obvious that this showrunner is a woman. The comparisons to GoT are all over the place, and obviously -- they're both dark, gritty fantasies with a heavy political aspect -- but the way this show treats its characters, and particularly its women, is just so refreshing. It's not without its flaws, and while I'll admit that there were a few moments where I was like, "did she really need to be naked here?" none of those moments were tasteless or predatory, and there was none of that gratuitous degradation of women that was such a hallmark (and turnoff) of Game of Thrones.

(There's more, too, about how the Witcher differs from GoT in how sometimes, some people are just decent and kind. Sometimes, people really are all right, and do the right thing regardless of their own self-interest. And while, yes, it would be unrealistic if everyone or even most people were that way -- it's just as unrealistic to have no one be. There's this element of human compassion in the Witcher that's far too rare, if it exists at all, in Westeros, that makes the world so much less heavy. There's plenty of darkness and bleakness, but there's also kindness and compassion to balance it out. But that's a whole other post.)

It's just. God, it is just so nice, to have a fantasy show that acknowledges sexism without itself devaluing the female characters.

[gendercriticalthinking]

Funny how the people who say "money doesn't buy happiness" would surely not be willing to empty their back accounts of all that clearly useless, unfulfilling money. Why not? It doesn't buy happiness of course, that's obvious, so why even have it? Why not donate it all to one of these simpletons who don't realize that fact so s/he can learn the truth from experience?

It's almost like money is used to buy things that are essential if you want to be alive, and if you want to have even a bare-minimum baseline of normality, let alone hope for happiness, you will need money. And everyone who says that stale phrase knows that. They won't admit it, but they do. Their """advice""" does not come from a place of wanting to help improve lives, it comes from them wanting to shut down any conversation. "Take this tone-deaf, untrue maxim and leave me alone now, please."

[projecthipster]

A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway

"A Moveable Feast" by Valerie Suter, from her authors series. Left to right are Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

"Les rêves des amoureux sont comme le bon vin / Ils donnent de la joie ou bien du chagrin" - Camille, "Le Festin" (Ratatouille Original Soundtrack)

Technically this wasn’t the first Hemingway I ever read. There’s been a few short stories, decent ones, out of a collection that’s still sitting on my shelf that I haven’t finished. But this was the first Hemingway book I’ve read cover to cover, and maybe it was a strange one to to start with. A Moveable Feast could be thought of as both the beginning and the end of Hemingway’s story. Written at the end of his life in the 1960s and published posthumously, this is a memoir that nonetheless throws back to the beginnings of his career, living in Paris in the 1920s and struggling to be recognized as a writer, even among a community of some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the 20th century. James Joyce was in Paris at the same time. Ezra Pound, who was only just starting to be a complete fascist, was among the circle that met at Gertrude Stein’s house salon. And perhaps most notably of all, F. Scott Fitzgerald was just then publishing a little book of no acclaim, written in Paris but set in and all about New York, called The Great Gatsby.

For all the weight of the literary figures that fill its pages though, and that fill the left bank cafés and weary old streets of Hemingway’s nostalgic recollections, A Movable Feast isn’t a weighty read. It’s light, romantic in the archaic sense of the word, airy, almost cozy. It hums with saudade like a trumpet in a Montmarte jazz club. Certainly Hemingway’s consciously minimalist style, the most well-known hallmark of his writing, plays a part. As if to remind the reader of this, the first story tells simply of Hemingway’s daily quest to write a few good pages in a good café, and here he delivers some really great writing motivation: “write one true sentence.” And then do it again, because there will always come another sentence that the discerning writer can know is simple and true. But the lightness comes too from the fact that these years of bohemian bonhomie seem filled, through the filter of pen and page, with goings-on of little consequence but great value. The reader wants more than anything to be living the life portrayed in this book, to drink well and eat well and live in small apartments and share brilliant writing among a group of friends who are all brilliant writers, to be poor but happy in a world that stands apart from hustle and stress. Because isn’t that the hipster ideal? Of course, one has to question how true all of this was, being recollected through la-vie-en-rose-coloured glasses decades later. Or one doesn’t, if one prefers to simply take the chocolate as it rolls.

It’s been a couple of years since I read A Moveable Feast, and to be honest, a lot of the actual plot and happenings, or rather, hippenings, of Hemingway’s vignettes and short stories have faded. I know it started in that café, and then there were trips to salons and restaurants. I recall that there was a trip to a racetrack over the course of which Hemingway and his wife realized that what either of them can say and what they mean to convey can never be fully reconciled, and they worried about that fact until they came home, drank some wine, and concluded that that’s simply the human condition, and it renders everyone a fascinating mystery, so why worry about it? This all took place during a false spring when goat milk peddlers drove their herds through the streets of Paris, which makes the reader think, is any understanding we can gain of each other merely a false spring that we cling to because in the moment it's as good as the real thing? And if it is ephemeral, does that matter, when in the end everything is? And I remember that the book ended in the Alps, on one of the very original ski holidays, which as a skier a hundred years later, I loved. In between scenes of wide-open slopes and warm chalets, there’s a mention of a man killed from his neck being worn right through by the friction of an avalanche, as if to say, don’t forget, the dream exists among death. Just years before this recollection, this halcyon city of light was a place of war and fire, of the same war and fire that unmoored us all from the steady paths of violent industrial civilization and led us to seek this quiet life of secret glamour instead. And the hipster reading today, or in the glory days of the 21st-century hipster that’ve just barely passed us by, might feel the same way, and want to seek the same path away from the age of Covid and Trump and the failings of late capitalism, or, if we’re talking retroactively, of falling towers and George Bush and war in the desert and the Great Recession that seems routine now but was such an unmooring in 2008. That’s why the 1920s were an age of one kind of hipster, the 2000s and early 10s another, and we may be due for another. But back to Hemingway.

For all that rambling last paragraph trying to recall what happened in this book, what happened was never really the point. What lingers in memory is the feel of it all and the characters that populate the stories. I remember images conjured in my head of a 1920s convertible driving with a lost top, soaking in the rain through the fields of Champagne, complete with the smell of mud and lavender. I remember Gertrude Stein as the paradox she seems in Hemingway’s recollection: an iron woman of great softness, matron of a house where everyone was welcome, but you’d be on the street in an instant if you called her a mother; an open, almost evangelical lesbian who nonetheless thought that male homosexuality, specifically, was abhorrent. The text doesn’t judge these figures with their odd views. That’s left to the reader. Hemingway’s just observing; a part of what Stein eternally dubs the “lost generation,” but at the same time, its chronicler in a future much changed. As Hemingway’s Lost Generation friend Scotty Fitzgerland would famously write of his own narrator, he was within and without.

I give this hipster book five wine-soaked living room literature conversations out of five

Project Hipster is a futile and disorganized attempt to dive into the world of things that the internet has at some point claimed "are hipster," mostly through ListChallenges search results.

This review comes from the first list, Hipster Lit: If You Haven't Read 'em, Pretend You Have.

Stay deck.

[scoriasoil]

Meta: Promethea, its economy, and why Rhys is bizarrely the biggest philanthropist in the galaxy (that we know of)

There is a wry barometer in the field of human geography that tells you when a neighbourhood is getting wealthy: someone opens up an independent coffee shop. You generally won't find one slap-dab in a poorer neighbourhood. They cater to people with disposable income to burn on overpriced cupcakes and fancy renditions of bean water.

You might already see where I'm going with this and how this principle applies to Promethea. Rhys’s impact on the planet is something that I don’t think the fandom discusses enough, but when you think about it, it is insane, so I gave it a spin.

Promethea before Borderlands 3

It's hard to believe that any planet could be worse off than Pandora, but back before BL3, Promethea canonically fit the bill.

The events of BL1 take place largely in the context of Atlas attempting to colonise Pandora. Despite the fact Promethea was Atlas's HQ at the time, propaganda posters nonetheless remind Pandora’s citizens: "At least you're not on Promethea!" This tells us that whatever wealth the Atlas Corporation had, prior to its collapse at the hands of Hyperion, it was not sharing it with the general population of Promethea.

And things have not improved there by the time Borderlands 2 rolls around. NPCs in Sanctuary will occasionally echo in idle dialogue: "At least you're not on Promethea!" Pandora—a planet defined by mindless violence, scattered patches of infrastructure and no discernible healthcare/education system—is still a better option than the planet that once headquartered Atlas.

Promethea in Borderlands 3

BL3, bear in mind, takes place six years after BL2, and around five years after Tales from the Borderlands. When we're first introduced to Promethea in BL3, Claptrap now describes the planet as thus:

Ahh, Promethea! A shining metropolis and the home of the Atlas Corporation. It's the most technologically advanced planet in this arm of the galaxy!

What we learn of Promethea is that it is "glimmering with new technology and an unsustainable amount of noodle shops." We meet Lorelei, born and raised on the planet... working at an independent coffee shop. What we see of Promethea itself is indeed a "shining metropolis" with impressive buildings and cute little business parks.

To make the most applicable real-world comparison, in the space of five years, Promethea has gone from a washed-up, dilapidated ex-mining town to New York.

Where did all this money magically come from?

Literally just Rhys. Well, Atlas 2.0, under his leadership.

The in-game description of Promethea in BL3 attributes all this wealth to the original Atlas "first [discovering] a Vault on Promethea, [triggering] a new golden age of... profit margins," but this is obviously untrue. The original Atlas knew of Promethea's Vault in BL1, but the planet was still so poor that Pandorans were being reminded of how awful Promethea was in comparison. The Atlas corporation did not invest in Promethea's people and infrastructure at this stage. Even if Atlas was hiring directly from the Promethean population, it still wasn’t enough.

So who did? Lorelei tells us. "Promethea was finally crawling out of the gutter," she says, "really becoming a decent planet again.... then Maliwan thought better of it." She is referring to recent history here by implying that Promethea was only making decent strides just before Maliwan invaded. She's referring to the Rhys-era of Atlas.

Sidenote: Lorelei's whole schtick is that she was originally a barista who really likes coffee, but it occurs to me there's more to it than that. Coffee is not a staple but a luxury, and it's entirely possible that Promethea did not have coffee until recently, explaining her fixation on something new and shiny—as well as the fact Promethea has "an unsustainable amount of noodle shops." Food for the sake of enjoying food is a new concept on the planet. The hallmark of a wealthy, industrialised civilisation.

But what is especially interesting to me about Lorelei is that we can hear her first meeting with Rhys, when he stopped off at her coffee shop and was promptly intimidated by her. The fact she then jumps from barista to the head of Rhys's army indicates that Rhys hired Lorelei not because of her war experience (she gleefully tells us she had none)—but because he, well, liked his barista as a person, and trusted her.

Lorelei herself talks favourably of Rhys on a personal level, referring to him not as one would an employer but just, well, 'Rhys.' In other words, the CEO of Atlas befriended his barista, presumably because he makes a habit of mingling with average Prometheans.

What's your point?

My point here is this: we know Pandora barely has a centralised economy in BL1, and Promethea is still seen as worse than a planet where skin pizzas are a feature of the local cuisine. There is no way Promethea had any consistent source of income whatsoever, because Atlas sure as hell wasn't sharing its wealth.

The only thing that could have possibly brought money to the planet was Rhys showing up with the "alien tech" he mentions in the ECHO of his interview with Promethean media. That is, what he found in the vault in Tales.

But he could have done what Atlas 1.0 did, and not shared that wealth with the citizenry. Yet we see him befriending average Prometheans like Lorelei, and we see how Promethea has gone from 'worse than Pandora' to a "shining metropolis" in the space of five years where the only change in Promethea's landscape was Rhys's arrival.

Rhys not only invested a little here and there in the infrastructure. His Atlas has put enough into the planet that everyone is so well-off enough that there's a market for independent coffee shops. I cannot overstate this enough: this from a planet that only five years ago was worse than Pandora.

When Rhys says, in his media interview, that he believes "a company should lift its employees on its shoulders," this sounds like empty corporate-speak—until you look around and see that's exactly what his Atlas did.

[oven-thermometer]

Reactions to reader wearing their hood/scarf/scowl

Inspired by a removed post. (idk what happened to their Tumblr page ;;). Sorry Fury, I couldn’t think of anything for you whoops

War

You were sitting by your desk in your room, it was a quiet afternoon and the horsemen had just gotten back from a mission. War was taking some time to shower and clean all the grime and blood off of him, they were all gone for a rather long time and it was starting to get to you – every day you’d cuddle his pillow on his side of the bed just to smell him and make it seem like he was there. After greeting and hugging you, War made a beeline for the shower, unceremoniously plopping his armour and cowl haphazardly in a trail to the joining bathroom of your shared room. You decided to distract yourself with work as you flipped open your laptop and start scowering deadlines and new emails, but something was poking at your peripheral vision - War's scarlet hood. He only ever let you wear it when you were still travelling together. You never asked to wear it otherwise – finding it odd. But you missed him so much and after he basically rushed to the shower to clean himself for you, you couldn’t wait anymore. You closed your laptop, stood up from your desk and stepped over to where his hood was laying on the floor. You inhaled sharply and reached out quickly before you could change your mind. You wrapped it around you like a cloak and ran your fingers across the golden seams, reminiscing about waking up with it around you after being badly injured. You bring the edge up to your nose and inhale his scent, he smells like worn-out leather and burning oak, probably from Ruin. You laugh silently to yourself but stop and jump when you feel a large hand on your right shoulder, apparently War finished his shower.

“Is there a reason you’re wearing my hood, (y/n)?”

You smile and turn around to look at him, “Do I need a reason? Just missed you is all.”

He smiled in return and moved his hand from your shoulder to your cheek. “Humans are sentimental beings, are they not?”

You hum in agreement and sigh contentedly.

Death

The day had been a lazy one – filled with a long, sleepy morning and an afternoon of terrible Hallmark movies with cuddling on the couch. You and Death had spent the entire day alone together, as the others were all having the day to themselves out of the house. War was training in the Void and Strife and Fury were out shopping all day. It was raining a soft mist with the sun occasionally peaking out, but it seemed to melt away the moment you looked back at Death - you were both lying on your sides on the couch, he was behind you, with his arms cradling your form and his head resting next to yours. You were on your fourth movie about the base of a stale love story. You and him had even made up a game of stopping the movie ten minutes in to try and guess the entire plot of the movie. You were both mostly wrong but it ended in laughs for both of you so you didn’t really mind at all. Every time you laughed, you could feel him chuckle behind you, the vibrations shuffling your hair and giving you goosebumps. The ending of the movie came and you smiled, having been completely wrong about your assumptions of the lady becoming a werewolf and marrying the dog trainer. You turned your head around as the ads after the credits started.

“Guess I was wrong.”

“Hm, what a shame.” The edge of his mouth turned upwards in a teasing manner. His amber eyes cutting through you.

“Yeah - laugh it up fuzzball, the next movie is your turn. You haven’t been right yet either.”

“There are..more…of these?” He asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

“Oh honey, there are so many of these.” You give out a laugh as he seems to sink himself into the couch.

“…I need some tea before the next one.” He lifts his arms and carefully raises himself from behind you on the couch. He straightens his scowl and brushes his hair out of his face, “Would you like some?”

“Sure, why not.” You reply and sit up on the couch, figuring it’s time to move your jelly bones.

Death huffed in response, walking away to the kitchen. He removed his scowl in the process, getting a bit too hot since the sun had been shining for a while now. He draped it over the opposite edge of the couch, looked back to make sure it didn’t fall and moved on to the kitchen. After being engulfed with Death’s scent for so long and then having it gone so quickly made you want it back, you probably had an issue with how much you loved his smell. The musk of dead leaves under dark rain made you calm. You turned to the scowl hanging there innocently and it gave you an idea.

Death stood up from fetching the kettle you kept in your lower cupboards. He turned to the stove top but instead of seeing the cups and teabags he had set out, he saw you. You, in his scowl. You were standing towards him, with your hands behind your back. There was a smug grin on your face.

“You should guard this thing better. It smells nice, I should steal it from you more often.” Moving to fiddle with the edges as you spoke.

He eyed your face and squinted his eyes slightly…

That afternoon, the other three horsemen came home to a wrecked living room. Finding you running from Death down the hall, clutching his scowl while howling with laughter, but they didn’t see a frown on his face, instead he was actually smiling. Kind of.

Strife

It was less of a steal situation per say and more of a you-look-cold-so-I'll-give-you-my-scarf situation.

It was a calm, cool night. The lonely candle on the window gave a soft glow, adding on to the crisp moonlight washing over the both of you. Strife was sitting up straight on the bed with you cradled in his arms. Your day had been a rough one. You had a terrible sleep last night, had a bunch of assignments dumped on you for work, the rent for your apartment was due today and it seemed like every single thing that could've gone wrong – did. The moment you got home you deflated completely. Not that there was a lot of air left in you anyways. Strife jumped into action by making (ordering) you food and whipping together some hot chocolate with marshmallows. After your dinner and warm bath, during which Strife happily complied to washing your back for you, you both plopped down on your shared bed without a word. He calmly held your dozing form while stroking your head and rubbing circles on your arms and shoulders. You had just thrown on an old t shirt and pyjama shorts - you didn’t care much about looking remotely decent right now and neither did he. The world around you melted as the weight on your shoulders seem to slip off. All with the affection he was showing you.

Some time during the night, the temperature had dropped significantly – Strife couldn’t care less about the temperature but the moment he saw you shivering in your peaceful slumber he once again, jumped into action. He gently moved to one side as he leaned over to grab his scarf that was splayed across the bed side table. He swiftly wrapped it around your upper body, cradling you in his long arms once again. You stopped shivering and gave a small smile. Strife smiled to himself and kissed the top of your forehead as he quietly shushed you back to sleep and whispered, “Goodnight my darling.”

[6qubed]

yeah the PS2 era was fuckin’ crazy, you could make just about anything

POV you’re about to play one of the most vile games ever produced