#the paranoia the inner and outer monitoring

[normalbrothers]

still thinking about how spencer was such sharp movie about bulimia/anorexia nervosa in particular: i've seen a couple of movies about that subject and some were better than others, but this one really struck me as compellingly resonant. completely unexpected tbh

[itsbenedict]

This is tricky! There's a lot of unknowns to worry about.

Like... volcano: I'm assuming this amulet is like, a normal amulet-strength amulet, so chucking it into a volcano is just an immediate failstate. The demonlord we can assume is indestructible enough, but not the prison.

Security through obscurity (chuck it in a landfill or bury it somewhere): Man, what if that corruptive force compels some shmuck to come dig it up? You don't know how detectable this thing is.

Deep-sea trench: problematic because the corruptive forces might attract squid or whatever deep-sea creature might be attracted to the amulet. You can't rely on the ocean to be more hostile to amulet-seekers than land. Plus, subduction might happen and take us back to the volcano situation.

Shoot it into space: not really on the table, assuming this is your standard medieval fantasy setting. You can't just waltz down to your local space agency or satellite launching company and say "hey, one-way ticket to Betelgeuse, please". Hypothetically you could engineer some sort of improvised launch solution here using magic??

Though- possible complication for the space option even if it works: how's the demonlord feel about being launched into a star? Is that enough to kill it? Or do we now have a Demon Star coming for us? Probably the amulet melts before falling all the way into the star anyway, and the fucker can just... fly back, I guess. Troublesome.

So- short of a fantasy space program that can figure out a trajectory that guarantees this thing isn't coming back until our own sun has burned out- this thing needs to be supervised.

-

Okay, how's supervising the amulet work? We could try establishing a holy paladin order dedicated to keeping it contained- but holy paladin orders are, despite their whole branding situation, not actually insusceptible to corruption.

This is where the unknowns really bite us. We're just hypothesizing a corruptive force here! We don't actually have any working knowledge of how such a force would operate- the most critical information gap being its maximum range. Given infinite money, you could hypothetically establish a facility to contain the thing, making sure no one gets close enough to be corrupted- but how big would it need to be? You couldn't draw blueprints with safety tolerances for a phenomenon you're just imagining. You need data.

So how do you get the data? That's tricky, too. It necessitates keeping it contained in the short term, which has all the same problems just for less time.

You could... set up a ring of concentric habitats, maybe? Station a hierarchy of guys at some log-scale distances, with outer rings having a way to contain and monitor the inhabitants of inner rings in case they get mind-whammied by a demon amulet. Maintain these habitats long enough to see who gets corrupted and who doesn't, and you've got a measurement of its maximum range.

Except obviously there's a thousand problems with that.

What if the maximum range is bigger than your whole ring of observation stations? You're immediately fucked.

How are you measuring corruption? How is such a metric not immediately a boondoggle of paranoia and popularity contests? Is it even possible to get accurate readings on this phenomenon?

What if the "corruption aura" is some direct exercise of the demonlord's will, and it can intelligently game your metrics or lie low to screw up your data?

Even if the effect is obvious and measurable, how are you keeping it contained? You've got to have people with enough firepower to contain any corrupted subjects inside, but the more rings fall, the more the problem compounds- each successive ring has to be able to go toe-to-toe with all contained rings banding together.

Or with those plus the demonlord, if the subjects on the inside getting exposed to the corruption manage to break whatever physical security you have on the amulet inside.

Even if it's obvious and measurable and you can prevent an outbreak somehow- hey, what're you going to do with all those test subjects you exposed to demon corruption? Do you just have to kill those guys now? Good luck finding anyone willing to volunteer for inner ring duty.

Grab bag of logistical issues funding this whole operation. How're you going to get enough people to volunteer to run this and/or die for it? Holy paladin order again? You don't have one of those on call- you'll have to grow your own. And any plan that starts with "start a cult about it" is inherently pretty volatile.

Obviously trying to obtain this information from scratch is not safe or practical. But is the information out there already?

You're going to need to hit the books. What's this corruptive force you're imagining- is there precedent? Have demonlords done this before? This is a fantasy world- this sort of thing has surely happened before, most likely exactly one thousand years ago (standard procedure for this sort of thing). Information on demonic corruption is available somewhere- but you're a canny adventurer. You are not a history nerd. This is not your wheelhouse.

So you delegate.

Who do you delegate to? You need someone who is intimately familiar with the mechanics of demonic corruption- and preferably, has experience surviving and managing its effects. Someone who knows all about what these sorts of things are capable of, and will know what to do to keep them from corrupting them.

You are gonna look up the evilest wizard you can find, you are going to march up to the top of their wizard tower, and you are going to hand the amulet to them.

This is the only way to be safe and responsible in this situation. Trust me.

Ok, ok, hypothetical. You and your party have sealed the great evil demonlord in an amulet.

You are a canny adventurer, and have heard many a tale of artifacts like these that end in tragedy, either from some corruptive force emanating from them or some dickhead finding where the thing was hidden and breaking the demonlord free.

You're going to be smarter than those chumps. What do you do to safeguard the amulet and keep the evil sealed for good?

[sloshed-cinema]

A Man Escaped [Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut] (1956)

The film spoils its outcome in the title, yet manages to contribute an abundance of suspense throughout, thanks largely due to sound design.  Bresson’s picture categorizes its spaces, consigning layers of sound to their own cells.  The prison itself is a largely silent place.  Fontaine is trapped with nothing but his own inner thoughts and the omnipresent footsteps of the guards.  This boot clicking builds a sense of paranoia.  Rushing steps are surely hastening to catch Fontaine’s efforts to escape.  He is always monitored, even when he can’t see his captors.  There are fleeting glimpses of an outer world.  Whenever Fontaine goes to the window, passing trains can be heard, the laughter of children: there is something beyond these walls.  But even that glimpse of freedom is tainted.  The courtyard at times is filled with the gunfire of executions, a threat of what may come to him.

THE RULES

SIP

Fontaine whittles away at the door.

Fontaine works on his rope.

Prison yard time!

BIG DRINK

Fontaine is moved to a new cell.

Fontaine looks through a window.