#though the exact function isn't known

[raffi-cat]

black vulture grian

[transmutationisms]

forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but isn't every medical diagnosis an artifact of human taxonomic schemes? I know I'm not treading new ground here and that diseases/medical conditions aren't like, drawn from thin air in the way a lot of psychiatric conditions are i suppose it just confuses me a bit

no, & this is ancillary in some ways to what i'm actually criticising about psychiatry. it's true there are non-psychiatric medical diagnoses that work analogously to psychiatric ones: think ME/CFS, hEDS, fibromyalgia, most things that have 'idiopathic' in the name. these are names given to clusters of symptoms, like the way that psychiatric labels are just names for a certain set of behaviours. we don't know what causes these issues, though people have various theories and there is (a varying amount of) research ongoing that aims to find the etiologies.

however, that's not the case for all non-psychiatric diagnoses. think about a viral or bacterial infection, a torn ACL, or Down syndrome. these are diagnoses that do refer to specific infectious agents, anatomical problems, genetic variants, and so forth. that doesn't mean the diagnosis is always easy to make, or that it's always made correctly, but it does mean that when you are diagnosed with one of these problems, a specific cause is being identified (& sometimes they might even be right). it's not just a convenient shorthand name for a group of symptoms, even though of course, most things that are diagnosed are done so because they cause and are associated with symptoms. (most but not all lol.)

psychiatry is distinct as a discipline in that all of its diagnoses function the first way i described. they are not referring to disease entities or processes; there is no credible hypothesis for a biological etiology. why? fundamentally, because the psychiatric diagnoses generally exist to pathologise socially unwanted behaviour: the taxonomy is a reflection of a political agenda and the priorities of clinicians. it's not even really an adequate framework for grouping patients together, because you get placed in a category based only on, again, external manifestations (behaviours). who says any two people who hallucinate or cut themselves are doing it for the exact same reasons? well, no one, because again, even getting the same psych diagnosis doesn't indicate anything about an actual etiology or underlying biological process or anything. there is no referent; the psychiatric diagnosis is only defined heuristically and circularly.

many people are confused by this because, in both popular and professional discourse, psychiatric diagnoses are consistently spoken about as though they DO refer to an underlying discoverable disease or disease process. despite hundreds of years of looking for such things, psychiatrists are yet to find any, and if they did, the condition in question would be reassigned to the relevant medical specialty, because psychiatrists also cannot treat infectious agents, anatomical problems, harmful genetic variants, and so on. (when i worked as a bibliographer we used to have extremely funny arguments over whether materials pertaining to the psychiatric search for biological disease processes should be categorised under psychiatry, neuroscience, medicine general, philosophy of medicine, 'science and society,' or just 'controversies and disputes' with no real subject label.)

to be clear, when i say psychiatric diagnoses aren't referring to known or discoverable disease processes, that's not a moral indictment. it's not an inherently bad diagnostic process, provided the patient understands that is what the process actually is. sometimes we just don't know yet what we're dealing with; sometimes a heuristic diagnostic label is just a way of billing insurance for a treatment that we know helps some similar patients, even if we don't know why.

however, with psychiatric diagnoses, evidence for such efficacy is widely lacking and often even negative; this is fundamentally because psychiatric diagnoses are not formulated on the basis of patient needs but on the basis of employer and state needs to cultivate a productive workforce and by corollary enforce a notion of mental 'normality.' all medicine under capitalism has a biopolitical remit; psychiatry has only a biopolitical remit. it has never at any point succeeded in making diagnoses that refer to demonstrable disease processes, because that's definitionally not even under its purview. these diagnoses have never been satisfactorily shown to be related to any disease process—and why should we expect that? historically, that's not what they exist for; it's not the problem they were invented to solve. they are social technologies; they're not illnesses.

[cripplecharacters]

Writing Profoundly Intellectually Disabled Characters

[Plain Text: Writing Profoundly Intellectually Disabled Characters]

While there is a glaring lack of intellectually disabled characters - except maybe big, physically strong, white men who can’t “tell right from wrong” or have a personality - in all sorts of media, specifically profoundly intellectually disabled characters are next to non-existent, with the existing ones being used more often as plot devices rather than portrayed as human beings.

This does make a degree (and not more) of sense considering that 85% of ID people have it mild, 10% moderate, 3.5% severe and only 1.5% has profound ID, the larger group inevitably gets more representation (which doesn’t make it good, but it does exist). However, it hopefully doesn’t need explaining that minorities deserve to be represented too (...and represented well), so this is what this post will be about.

Please don’t treat this as your only source on writing a character like this (even though I’m willing to bet it’s the only one like this, at least on tumblr), do your research and always check other sources.

Also, for clarity: intellectual disability isn't an umberalla term for "mental/brain disability". It's a specific, singular diagnosis that used to be known as "mental [r slur]". It's not the same as brain damage, autism, dementia, dyslexia, and anything else that's not specifically "intellectual disability". It's something that you are either born with or acquire early in life.

How do I Include Them in the Story?

[Plain Text: How do I include them in the story?]

A profoundly ID person will spend the majority of their time either at home or in some sort of care facility since they will require 24/7 help. The easiest role to put them in is probably a family member of another character. I've mentioned on this blog before that the "ID characters always end up as the annoying younger sibling" thing is overdone, but none of these necessarily have to be true for this suggestion to work (especially not the "annoying" part).

A non-ID character could have an intellectually disabled older sibling, twin, cousin, uncle/aunt, the sibling of a grandparent, etc. Seriously - a severely disabled person can be an adult, or even an elder. Just not as a parent, since a profoundly disabled person can't consent (a lot of ID people very much can, but this is the one disability where your level of functioning is baked into the exact diagnosis - profound ID comes with the inability to consent/understand the consequences enough to consent).

"They're a family member" is basically the easiest "excuse" to include a profoundly intellectually disabled in a story (and, as a bonus, you don't have to figure out how the other character would react to meeting them for the first time, since they probably knew each other for a long time already).

If your story isn't about the profoundly disabled character and instead just features them as a character, it would be much easier to not make the other character their primary caregiver. It's simply a ton of work and the character wouldn't have time for fighting dragons and whatnot - it'd be easier to have the abled character spend time with the disabled character at home (or care facility; you can very much visit someone in one) hanging out rather than actually doing the caregiving part.

Outside of a home and a care facility, there are also day care programs that some people might attend. This is the rarest solution out of the three mainly because of financial reasons, but also these resources aren’t as common for people who can’t walk, learn self-care, etc. Going to one takes time (the profoundly disabled person isn’t gonna walk there by themselves) and probably requires a specialized van (that you can bring a wheelchair in, which is incredibly expensive). Most day care programs are focused on people who are moderately or severely ID at most. One made for profoundly ID people would require 1:1 aides, which generally means the programs are much smaller for logistical reasons, but also even more expensive. For most people, too expensive without funding. Basically, this is an option, but you have to consider your character’s financial situation and/or what kind of financial support do disabled people get where they live.

Another way is having the disabled character in some sort of high position - in real life there were quite a few cases of profoundly and severely intellectually disabled royalty. Depending on the place and time there might have been pressure to not let the public see them, but this wasn't always the case. The biggest example of the latter was probably Emperor An of Jin (the first Jin, Eastern one) who was, as his title suggests, crowned at some point. He didn’t actually rule (his uncle did) but yes, you can have a severely disabled person as the head of a monarchy, it’s not without precedent.

In fiction you can do whatever you want anyway when it comes to ableism, you can have it be there, or you can have it not be there - and if it does exist then there are still different kinds of ableism you can portray that aren't the "literally killing-the-disabled-baby/hiding-them-in-some-dungeon level of eugenics" kind. Maybe a rich family who cares about their image would actually be unable to shut up about their kid to show how "saint-like" they are for caring for the disabled - it is unfortunately realistic, and can be a potential way to have the character exist in public, not ignore ableism, and also not go the aforementioned literally-just-murder route that writers usually do to show an ableist family.

Characterization

[Plain Text: Characterization]

Warning; the bar here is somewhere in the Earth's inner core. If your character has a single characteristic beyond aggressive/loud/unmanageable*, they're automatically at the top of most complex fictional representation of severely/profoundly ID characters. Congrats.

* - Some people are those things but, unsurprisingly, they're other things too. A lot of profoundly ID people can actually be completely quiet - you notice people who are loud because they're loud.

As with literally every character, you need to figure out what they like and not like. This can be quite literally anything, but try to think of the basic stuff. Do they have something they really enjoy eating (and conversely - something they refuse to eat)? Do they have some sort of comfort toy or object they don't want anyone touching (and maybe showing them playing with it with a different character could be a way to show how much they trust them)? In more modern settings, do they have a favorite show they always bug everyone to put on? Are they really clingy or do they hate physical contact (again, maybe they only enjoy it from a specific character)?

Another characterization could be comfort objects. A lot of profoundly ID people are autistic (which I'll touch on later) and will have an object that they bring everywhere the same way that non-ID autistic people might. There's nothing really specific here, just another layer of "this character is a Person". Maybe they have a blanket they really enjoy chewing because the texture feels good or some sort of plushie they like to throw around because it makes a sound they find funny. Lots of options. Maybe they have a personal “tell” to let others know they want their comfort object brought to them.

Keep in mind, you have to show this all in non-verbal manner. A profoundly ID person is probably not using any sort of AAC device (the most robust one I remember seeing right now was a low-tech one with "yes" and "no", but there are probably ones who operate on a larger amount of singular words). This is basically another opportunity for characterization - what do they do when they're happy - laugh, flap their arms, make sounds? - and when they're upset - scream, hit themselves, make different sounds? Obviously, you'd have to take other disabilities into account (e.g. many profoundly ID people won't move much, some might not be able to make much audible sound, etc.) but almost anything helps.

This brings us to…

Communication

[Plain Text: Communication]

An important thing (concept?) I'll throw here is "total communication", which can mean different things in different contexts, but here I'll use it to mean "using everything you can to communicate with someone who cannot do so in a ‘traditional’ way".

Communication can be categorized as having two sides; expressive and receptive. For most intellectually disabled people in general, receptive skills tend to be significantly higher than expressive ones, though there are specific disorders where it’s reversed or equal. As mentioned before, most profoundly ID people won’t speak orally, won’t use sign language, and won’t use AAC (though out of all three, AAC is the most likely one). Some might say single words, but that’s about it. It’s not a “physically mute but can write perfectly grammatically correct sentences” situation, it’s more of a “[single noun]” one, if anything. Receptive skills however are pretty decent (in comparison) and they would probably understand their name, the name/title of their carer(s), names of things they see every day, events they have some frame of reference to (e.g. if they grew up Christian, they would probably know what Christmas is), etc. Your other characters could (and should) talk to them like they can understand, even if they don’t catch everything or even most of it. I say a lot of “probably” there, but the people who can’t do so usually have other comorbidities, which I’ll mention later.

To go back to expressive communication, eye pointing can be used to figure out what the character wants. A change in breathing can be used to tell that a character got stressed. Throwing an object can be used as a hint that the character wants to play. Maybe them reaching towards person A means they want to eat, but reaching towards person B means they want them to sing a song for them. Maybe them making a particular face means they just had a seizure and need to be comforted. Whatever their "tells" like this might be, other characters who know them would probably be able to tell more-or-less what's going on - you don't have to go really in-depth, especially if it's a minor character, but figuring out the ways your character communicates with others will make it feel more like a person and not a Disabled Lamp (“if you can replace a disabled character with a lamp or a sick dog, they’re not a character”).

If you read some of these and go "that's a thing that a child would do" then you're not necessarily wrong. A profoundly ID adult might enjoy activities that primarily kids partake in. This is, I can't stress this enough, not the same as "mentally being a child". Otherwise, a whole bunch of adults on this very website would be "mental middle schoolers" based on the shows that they watch - but they're obviously not. A profoundly ID adult doesn't have the "mind of a baby" if their favorite game is throwing a toy, they have the mind of a profoundly intellectually disabled adult. Sometimes people assume that since ID people aren't mentally [incorrect age], they always "act their [actual] age" and essentially end up downplaying how much some people's ID affects them, when the point is that no matter what you do, you are your age. An ID character who is 26 years, incontinent, constantly puts their hand in their mouth, can't speak, whatever, is mentally 26 years old the same way that they would be if they had a wife and a mortgage.

For the last thing from this section I'll circle back to the assumption that all severely/profoundly ID people are loud, aggressive, etc. - as I said, some of them are (just like abled people). The thing is, this is not always an unreasonable response to being unable to communicate with the people who are caring for you. If you had a pressure sore but couldn't explain it to anyone you'd be pissed off and screaming too. That's an extreme example, but still applies. If someone is severely stressed out (for an abled person, this might be inheriting a ton of debt, for a profoundly ID person it can be a change in daily routine), they can lash out. It's an unpleasant but very much human reaction to have, even if what's behind the ID person's behavior is significantly different from what an average abled person might consider "a good reason".

So I guess my advice is, try to show some empathy to the character, even if they genuinely are loud and/or aggressive. Intellectually disabled people - including the profoundly disabled ones - aren't some alien species that is just mean and hates their caregivers for no reason, some just can't process their feelings the way an abled person might because of their disability. That's not to say that caregivers aren't allowed to feel frustrated - because they are - but that very severely disabled people aren't purposefully evil. As mentioned in the earlier parts, all behavior has a cause, just like for literally everyone. So if the character is being "unmanageable": maybe they aren't some cursed burden, maybe they're just stressed out of their mind and now someone they don't know that well is trying to do *something* to them, which they can't figure out because of their disability affecting their receptive language skills.

Resources and What to Keep in Mind

[Plain Text: Resources and What to Keep in Mind]

Some resources you might read about ID can be potentially misleading. Even if you specifically look for causes of the profound severity of intellectual disability, you will get results for mild ID. That's mainly because people with mild ID make up >85% of intellectually disabled people and those with profound ID make like 1%, so they're a minority in a minority.

Basically:

Down syndrome is a very unlikely cause. It's always listed as the main genetic cause of ID, but that's only true for mild and moderate severities. If you choose any of the common causes of ID make sure it actually has the symptoms you're looking for.

Most profoundly ID people will have either severe brain damage early in life (and this can come with cerebral palsy), cephalic disorders (e.g. microcephaly), genetic conditions that you've never heard of (e.g. Pallister-Killian or Emanuel syndromes, 3p deletion), genetic conditions that you've never heard of for a very understandable reason (e.g. X-linked intellectual disability-limb spasticity-retinal dystrophy-arginine vasopressin deficiency… there are hundreds named in this way), or just have it without a known cause. The last one happens much more often than people tend to assume.

For a reason I'll probably discover at some point, most disorders and syndromes that come with ID are said to have "autistic-like features" rather than being "comorbid with autism". In practice, it's the same thing. Your character is probably autistic.

In the same way, a lot of practical resources will assume that ID = moderate ID (since most mildly affected need no or minimal support, and severely/profoundly disabled ones are a small minority) so pay attention if you're looking at the right things. If it's talking about having a job, travelling alone, etc., then you got clickbaited.

Another subsection here will be comorbidities because there are a lot of them. I’ll mention the biggest ones.

Brain damage is the most common one (except autism) and can vary a lot. There is barely anything I can say about this one, it’s an enormous spectrum that for some people causes disability and for others barely affects their symptoms. Cerebral palsy, especially quadriplegic, is seen a lot and might affect the character’s mobility a lot. Some people might be unable to breathe or swallow and need a breathing or feeding tube.

Deafness and blindness are comorbid with a surprising amount of causes of ID. The thing is, you could take advice for deaf/blind characters as-in for a character that has both (e.g.) glaucoma and mild ID and not change much, but this doesn’t really work for a character who’s profoundly disabled like this. The situation that can happen here is that it’s not actually known if the person is or isn’t deaf or blind because they can’t tell you. As mentioned earlier, some people will have absent receptive communication skills. How do you verify if they’re deaf or just not reactive to language? Some people won’t react to even extremely loud sounds, even if they can hear them perfectly well (besides, a lot of deaf people can still hear some). Same for verifying if they are blind - obviously, sometimes there’s something visual going on, but often there isn’t. Especially since the main causes of both blindness and deafness will be brain-based, not ear- or eye-based. Another character not being sure if the disabled character is blind or just very uninterested in visual stimuli is a possibility, especially with less advanced medicine.  This is also why you might see those weird statistics of "between 5-90% of people with [condition] are deaf" kind.

Mobility is almost always severely affected. Some are fully mobile, but that’s simply not common. The average person will be unable to walk independently. It’s not always a muscle or nerve problem (though it absolutely can be), it’s mostly an issue of coordination. Because of this (and understanding physical space), operating a wheelchair (...successfully) might be impossible. This doesn’t mean you should just drop your character in a hospital wheelchair for them to get wheeled around because they will probably need a wheelchair that will actually support them - a headrest, ability to tilt, a harness, all that. This could be done with a powerchair (they can have controls on the back for a second person to operate), a manual wheelchair, or an adaptive stroller.

Now for resources;

One good resource I can recommend is SBSK (which I shared before), to my knowledge this is the only place that interviews severely and profoundly ID people (+their families) and the interviewer is great at actually interacting with many of them. 

Most resources on the practical things only ever talk about caregivers (who are very important) but completely ignore the actual person being cared for which IMO kinda defeats the point.

Good luck writing!

mod Sasza

[roxannepolice]

I'm going to get on some big questions in regards to small matters here, but wtv, I've been having the problem with the audience looking at the most superficial level of characters and proclaiming them out of character (OR perfectly in character) too long.

First of all, however, a couple disclaimers: one, this is going to get salty, but two, I'm as always happy to discuss especially the salty parts, and three, I do not want to come of as seeing RTD's writing as absolutely flawless, because it absolutely isn't, but I do think it is generally functional. Like, if instead of stories he was doing chairs, then the ones he produces are sometimes not good looking or uncomfortable, but an adult human can generally sit in them without risking major injury (Moffat is the artistic type that will sometimes give you a chair that's both perfectly functional and aesthetically beautiful, but sometimes will give you a perilous glass construction that will break under an overfed hamster; Chibnall also produces generally usable chairs but decides the optimal place for this furniture is the ceiling). So with that, let me address some of the criticisms of the Rani characterisation, especially the "this might have been the Master" bit.

Because see, to me the big attraction of Doctor-Master relationship has never been "oh they were friends but they aren't any longer" or "the Master is just sad that the Doctor abandoned them" or any of that sentimental bs, only.

The Dialectics of Enlightenment.

The fact that the same scientific and industrial revolutions that allowed to curb most of diseases known to history has also created its worst poisons. That the same atomic power that can ensure cleaner and more available electricity in everyday life can also bring about the end of the whole of humanity in moments. That every armchair philosopher's perfectly logical plan at improving all of humanity has resulted in death, destruction and long-term problems with political legal and civic culture but hey at least satire flourished.

Knowledge is power (France is bacon) is usually framed as a purely inspiring quote, and naturally it often is, in fact it more often is than is not. But paralleled with the other big philosophical quote, this time from the great Unclus Benus, With great power comes great responsibility, the flip side comes to light. It is something of a big discussion in contemporary sociology just how much a modern human's condition is based on constant reflexivity, constantly being aware of all the consequences of all our actions. This is in many ways a good thing, but already Fromm was pointing to "escape from freedom" as the underlying cause of totalitarian systems rising to power. This isn't some sort of bitter "we are born to be slaves" reflection, just pointing out that people only two hundred years ago didn't have constant access to information about everything happening all over the world in real time, we didn't have "information for the sake of information". Two hundred years ago. That's a blink of an eye for our ape brains sthsth the tragedy of our times is that we have the brains of cavemen, the institutions of the middle ages and the technology of gods. Like, there's a reason Nietzsche came up with the Ubermensch (which is a concept not explicitly inherently related by him to any group of people but a description of a condition where the individual consciously decides everything about themself recognizing no external definition by either gods or men - he is the estranged godfather of postmodernism) in the industrial era.

It is the modern to be or not to be on a scale of a species. Multiple species, in fact.

So, look, when the Pole raised in a household where the only inexplicably shapeshifting Brit was James Bond, discovered there's been a show that in many tackles these exact problems while studying in a philosophy faculty building, though in the safely fantastical context of time travel, that was what I mainly latched onto. The conflict of "stay neutral" (allowing for all the pain that sentient beings will suffer across all of time and space) or "interfere" (which is. well on the one hand, it's just too fantastical to be communicative, and two sth sth free will and all that jazz).

And that conflict is nowhere better embodied than by the Doctor-Master relationship. Without getting to much into bootstrap and grandfather paradoxes, we just accept that the Doctor's interferences are good. Not changing, just fixing. Not trying to shape the perfect human only relieving the pains of existing ones. It is both a moral statement but also welp the show kind of wouldn't function without it, again, paradoxes upon paradoxes, at least we have subjective vs. objectified timeflow so that's something. The Master is the aggressively active party, the one that doesn't just fix what's broken only aims to control the whole and whats broken may be just as well gotten rid of. Except where does the line between the two go? Oh, we can go into "well, one is an altruist and the other egotist", sure, but a children's hospital build for your ego is still a children's hospital and the bloodiest crimes were committed for the most beautiful ideas. All too often, the only reason we know where the line between limited beneficial interference and maleficient control lies is because someone fucked up before us.

Which is why the Time Lord Victorious arc is so bloody good and having the Doctor use the Master's catchphrase really brings the message home. There's also the matter of "I am in fact the only being in the universe that understands all the consequences of what I'm doing so I'm the only how who can stop me", sthsth religion is society worshipping itself, God is dead basically means society is dead. The fact that this is opposed by an individual choice is perhaps one of the most profound statements made on primetime television.

In the midst of all this, there's the Rani. The Rani who was specifically designed as disinterested scientist, not the two "whats?" described above, but the "how?". Incidentally, I do think it's ironic that out of all the renegade Time Lords' club, hers is the only title that directly implies rulership, but that's for another day. Now, while the mad scientist is a well established trope in modern culture, unethical scientist is a bit newer animal. Just to give you an idea, the first legislation controlling animal testing came about in 1966 in the USA, and the UK didn't have one until 1986. Zimbardo was free to put random blokes in prisoners and guards positions and tell the latter they can and should be mean (no physical violence tho) to the former in 1971. So for all that the Rani was introduced as somewhat less of evil a villain than the Master, it is pretty understandable what fears where expressed there. And of course there's the problem of science-industry-military unholy trinity. Like, I know that Tony Stark's pre-Iron Man persona is meant to be looked down on, but it is true a lot of stuff we take for granted to save our lives and make them comfortable were originally funded by the military. Like, microwaves were initially meant to de-hybernate living organisms until someone noticed you can heat up food with these.

Which to me sort of explains why she wasn't brought back for so long. Nowadays we're generally likelier to suffer from people rejecting scientific research than from someone not meeting their institution's ethics board requriements and research is likelier to suffer from funds getting cut than from actually seeking the ultimate wunderwaffe. For all that the Rani was introduced as more of a neutral-neutral character, she certainly isn't the wide-eyed individual who just wants to research to appreciate (ah, shame on you, original DW producers, for not understanding the innate power imbalance between the observer and the observed). That's the Doctor. They're the one whose drive is to experience amazement for its own sake, to the point of picking up other species to experience it again. So, how do you go about writing this kind of villain in the 21st century?

Well, you can have her work with a conspiracy theorist "visionary" and have him build up the wish world, but it's just the resource to tear apart reality. Like, yes, this technology that in sci-fi catastrophical scenarios is supposed to find humans expendable and be too efficient in doing so but in reality is likelier to leave a lot of people jobless, BUT it can also genuinely improve everyone's wellfare, is now mainly used to waste whole lakes for the sake of generating the image of a woman preparing dumplings while her husband holds a beaver, but hey, that's where resources to improve it so it can actually answer the big questions come from. The Wish World actually gave the Rani an "altruistic" purpose - she isn't here to destroy, she is here to bring life sth sth our myth telling ancestors not really understanding where babies come from deifing the life giving powers of one body shape and the Rani being viscerally disgusted by human birth process.

The issue of "why would the Rani want to bring the Time Lords back?" is kind of one that goes back to the whole issue of "do we want to have other Time Lords in the story or not?". The former undeniably has insane amount of drama to it, but it also has a fundamental problem - all of its potential has kind of been already explored to the full, because well. It's deeply unrelatable. Oh, it can resonate, it can be a vessel for audience's individual losses, but the very idea of believing your pain to be the most unique ever is itself something to discuss with a therapist. We went through trauma recovery process with Nine and we went through arrival at ubermenschism with Ten. Fifteen perhaps adds a more raw (and metatextually real) pain, but it's nothing qualitatively new. And that's the problem with saying that either the Master wanting to rebuild the Time Lord empire or the Rani want to bring them backm or the Doctor sobbing over the Master is "ooc" is kind of null, because we straight up can't imagine what any one of us would do if our entire species was gone. That's the main reason I think re-destroying Gallifrey was a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. On top of the fact that we've had individual geniuses inventing time travel, but a whole society built around that technology is infinitely harder to come by and poses much more intriguing questions. So, yeah, maybe it is just a plot device. Or maybe Omega really does have some absolutely unique knowledge that the Rani wants to write an article about. Or she actually needs his signature on her grant application, who knows.

So, those are the big motivational questions that I went definitely too far about, so now I'll just refer to the two smaller qualms.

One, the Rani just suddenly has unexplained magic powers. Look, the idea that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic isn't exactly new to fiction or DW in particular, so the scientist extraordinaire shouldn't have problems understanding some grimoires. She picked up the Desiderium and conducted the pilot experiment by wishing Zufalls into flowers and animals. Maybe it could have been laid out more explicitly, but it is pretty clear in retrospect.

And finally, "why is she suddenly obsessed with the Doctor, her things should be pure science, this could have been a Master story!". One, she fucking isn't obsessed with the Doctor. He's just another resource. And I'm going to be extremely salty now, and ask: when was the last time the Master actually tried to do their thing and conquer something? Oh, but their thing actually is being obsessed with the Doctor, bullfuckingshit. Do you have any idea how many people thought Missy was the Rani? And yes, there's the gender bias, but in all honesty, would much about season 9 change if she didn't flirt with Twelve and the cybermen army was meant to dig up the original Higgs particle and the Doctor's dilemma was about whether that's worth corpse mutilation? Face it, the reason some of y'all think the Rani is to much like the Master is because the latter got reduced to the aesthetics. And monogamous insecurity it seems.

Particularly sorry about that last part getting salty, but frankly, I've been dealing with Saxon being "out of character" when he was the last regeneration to actually do the Master's stuff but incidentals were wrong that I can tell the same problem when I see it.

We're just experiencing the same thing that everyone did when that Troughton guy started being out of character for the Doctor, y'know.

[bettertwin1]

If I may

Why is it bad?

First of all, you can check out the server ratings here since two of the ratings cover all the bads of the server and why joining it just isn't worth the eventual stress BUT my biggest gripe w/ it is just the lack of proper moderation.

The moderators are kind of passive agressive and mean and usually aren't actually doing their jobs. There are tons of moments where someone is antagonistic on purpose, whether it be by being racist, homophobic or sexist and the moderators, on the off chance that they are in the chat during these conversations, do not immediately try to resolve or rectify the situation.

So, you will have a server of mostly minors all getting very genuinely mad at one person who doesn't gaf, and the channel will be filled to the brim with people cussing or asking the antagonistic person if they are crazy or stupid etc etc and the moderator will just slap the timed chat button instead of just kicking the antagonistic person at the first offense? So now ur just sitting looking at a chat where ppl will wait like...5 minutes to talk about how crazy and insane the antagonistic person but i guess thats better than the channel going by at normal speeds! Wow!

Other stuff, they think human x tmnt ships are beastiality <- so ships like april x any of the turtles and such. I don't think they actually understand what beastiality is, but nonetheless, they really hate it, and they make their hate towards it very clear. If you find any of the tmnt attractive, ur into beastiality. That is what they believe, and they will not listen to any information or arguments against it.

Moderators and server members are also known for harrassing ppl that bring up this information despite the fact that these exact criticisms are attached to their literal server rating board, any harrassment that comes from the server for posts that function as a beware are lowkey encouraged and it's like...alright man...

But anyway, yeah, there's likely more, but I never spoke enough or interacted enough to rlly retain any other information. Imo it is the worst tmnt server to join though.

[leehopehocarat]

Binding Faith to Truth | Chapter 1

The Tale Begins | Origin Story

Ateez are the only known Pirate group of Vampires within The Toreador Vampire Clan. The Captain Hongjoong, along with Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung, and Jongho are feared throughout the seas and lands when they step foot on an island they have set to loot.

They all found each other as refugees of war when The Vampire clans first fell from power in the great War of Lost Souls. The clans consisted of Malkavian, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Lasombra, Assamite, and of course Toreador. The Toreador clan members were artistic and pacifists that liked to move in the upper class of humans. The 8 of them never felt like they fit in, in an exact place within the Toreador Clan, even though it's in their blood. So they banded together to make a name for themselves.

Hongjoong; The Captain: The leader of the crew of pirates. A sharp tongue but also a sharp mind who doesn't take any bullshit. He has a playful nature about him. And is always intrigued by those who can keep up with his sarcastic banter. His special power that isn't shared with the others is Soul Reaping. He's able to conjure up orb like spirits that can side with him in battle.

Seonghwa: The second in Command; as he's actually older than Hongjoong but serves at his side. His face has a cold, dark aura to him. But as soon as he speaks, he turns into almost an ethereal being. Even with this aura he carries, he's nothing to be played with. His stare alone would make you fall to your knees without a word. His special power that isn't shared with the others is Vocal Hypnosis. Because of this ability, his nickname among the others is The Siren.

Yunho: The Golden Ace; there's nothing that he can't do and nothing that he can't quickly learn within just a few minutes. He's the Captains go to when it comes to choosing someone to go on a spy mission. He has a more playful side to him, and at times it could be dangerous or fun; it just depends on whether he chooses to like you or not. His personality matches well with his special power that's not shared with others: Elemental. Having control over the 4 main elements; Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.

Yeosang: The Sly Cadaver. The face of an angel, the body of a God, and the knife skills of an assassin. When it comes to interrogation, he is Hongjoong's right hand man when they need to give some physical reinforcement to people they choose to hold prisoner if they believe they're a spy. His special power that isn't shared with the others is Core detection; meaning he's able to detect if someone is being truthful or deceitful by being able to see the person's invisible aura surrounding them.

San: The Reinforcement. His sharp, but soft facial features shouldn't blind you from the fact that he could lift you, throw you, and possibly break you in half with ease. Even though all the Pirates share super human strength, San's strength is bigger compared to them. He like Seonghwa, also have a stare that could cut through glass, his voice deep and naturally commanding. But there is another side to him. His special power that he doesn't share with the others is Blindness. Not just being able to take away people's sight, but their other senses too. Making them have "blind" spots in their ability to function and carry out tasks.

Mingi: The Time Tempter. The name given to him because of his special power: Time Manipulation. Which he uses to his advantage when in battle. He like Yunho, is also able to pick up on skills extremely quickly, as well as pick up on them when they are too good to be true. Like when they're about to walk into a trap. His Time Manipulation power works with his own senses, cueing to his nervous system and mind, when possible danger is near.

Wooyoung: The Sly Seduction. Wooyoung is a wild card. His presence alone will put you in a trance, leaving you wondering if he's gonna kill you, kiss you, or both. His dark, but soft eyes are hard to look away from, along with sharp facial features. His special power that he doesn't share with the others is Simulation Hypnosis; the ability to create illusions and have people fall under a time stopping trance when they interact with them. Leaving them feeling like they're in a twilight zone.

Jongho: The Break Machine. Jongho has strength similar to San, to where he can break pretty much anything in half. His soft face may make you think other wise, but when he's able to break out of chains with ease, you'll think twice about second guessing him. His special power that he doesn't share with the others is meloasis. The ability to put people in a deep sleep by the snap of his fingers, and washing their memory of what happened to them before he put them to sleep.

They roam the seas and islands, looting and forging their own legacy. Having forged their own name throughout the seas, they sail together searching for more treasure and adventure together, until one day that decides to change.

Read More Here.

[moonsglare]

uhhh tw. biology rambling about avian reproduction and speculation on tengu physiology utc

bird reproductive system overview

so from what i've gathered the cloaca (also known as a vent) of female birds specifically isn't all too dissimilar in function or general structure to the vagina in placental mammals EXCEPT for the fact that cloacas in birds are multiple use in the sense that it's used for reproduction (egg laying in females), excretion and defecation. the cloaca is connected to the oviduct which is connected to the ovary, again similar to regular human/placental mammal biology.

(really interesting how so many different multicellular organisms share the same "format", as it were.)

tengu biology speculation

internal organs & reproductive/excretory system -> for no other reasons beyond personal all i'd really change is just separating the waste line from the reproductive line. the waste line can still be a singular line with no urine/feces distinction given that birds naturally just expel them together (also interesting new thing learned today was that bird 'urine' consists of uric acid as opposed to urea, hence the white colour).

diet -> not too different from humans, but tengu would likely have a far higher calcium intake than regular humans for healthy egg production. female tengu still produce and need to lay an egg once a year (average for crows), and the lack of calcium can result in eggbinding which can be fatal. tengu can get their extra calcium by snacking on seeds, drinking milk, or eating certain fruits and vegetables. this is going into cultural territory but i think it'd be possible for tengu to have some unique high-calcium dishes incorporating bones or snail shells. rip kjsr though she probably doesn't know these exist

how would sex even work -> so a vast majority of birds copulate via what's called a 'cloacal kiss'. the easiest way to put this is that they kinda just scissor (touch cloacas) and that's how the sperm from the male is transferred to the female, given that males in this scenario do not have an external sex organ (dickless). for the bird species that DO keep their dicks, copulation is pretty much straightforward from what i've gathered in (insertion, insemination, etc.). however, crows are not part of the bird species that still have phalluses so they copulate via cloaca. interestingly this could mean f/f, m/f, and m/m sex between tengu in theory shouldn't be too different from each other beyond the lack/presence of sperm production. (maybe there's something to be gleaned here about tengu society as a result but i don't think i'm knowledgeable enough on sex and gender and its interactions and effects on society as a whole to comment on it. but it could also be interesting!). penetrative sex would still be possible for tengu, but it would probably take a lot of prep work and building up to, especially if involving any kind of phallus as opposed to fingering. i couldn't really find any concrete yes/no info on 1) if birds have the capacity to self-lubricate when aroused or 2) if birds (or in a broader sense, animals) can experience an orgasm. but for the sake of Fun and Whimsy and Horny i have decided the answer to both questions as they pertain to tengu is yes. the only major L for female tengu is that they don't have a clit (at least, externally) as it is something female birds lack, although the early-development phallus seen in most female vertebrates are seen in female birds, however they are not present or at least, identifiable in adulthood. so in theory i could argue that female tengu maybe have something like an 'internal clitoris', which could function as a g-spot equivalent, making penetrative sex for tengu a little more desirable.

eggs? -> generally speaking bird egg sizes are proportional to the size of the bird itself (with exceptions, re: the kiwi). i couldn't find an exact catch-all number so i'm gonna have to do some really sketchy math. the large billed crow (native to east asia) has an average mass between 400g-1000g, the midpoint being 700g. the average mass of an egg from what i could find is 11.8g. therefore on average the egg is 1.68% of the crow's body mass [(11.8/700)*100=1.68%]. in specifically kjsr's case since i hc her as 6ft the average mass of a 6ft human female is 68-73kg, so i'll take 70.5kg as a midpoint. therefore kjsr's egg would be 1.68% of 70.5kg which is a surprisingly small (relative to the average human baby) mass of only 1.18kg. the average crow egg size is 3.68cm x 2.67cm, and the average length is 52.5cm. using these numbers you can calculate out the dimensions of the egg itself using ratios and proportions which measure up to be a 12.8cm x 9cm egg. i'd like to note however that these are all just averages taken from midpoints, therefore an egg can be larger or smaller than this base measurement (12.8cm x 9cm, 1.18kg). however, it is possible that tengu eggs can even tend on the larger side, just slightly smaller than a full formed human baby, because eggs have a fixed capacity once the shell is formed and the above numbers are quite small. (that being said, a tengu hatchling being very, very small and highly vulnerable would also in a way explain why tengu have both eggs and the capacity to produce milk, which so fucking interestingly makes them physiologically and behaviorally more closely related to monotremes than birds). the egg itself is blue-green in color, an almost coppery shade. in addition, i do think tengu can have clutches of eggs, maybe 2 at a time, with a maximum of 3, although 1 is already a lot of work hskdfhk

gestation and incubation -> the gestational period in birds is a lot shorter than i ever expected before going down this rabbit hole. after fertilisation occurs, an egg can develop in roughly 24-48 hours or 1-2 days in most species, and are laid immediately after being fully formed. however, in monotremes, the gestation period is (technically) 11-12 days. i'd settle on a number somewhere in the middle, maybe 5-6 days, for no other reason than I Think It Would Be Interesting. when it comes to incubation though, monotremes and crows specifically have an almost similar duration with 10-11 days for monotremes and 18 days for crows. this would have to be stretched out a lottttt more for tengu given the need for the development of more highly complex structures like hands and feet, as well as a lot of other organs that is responsible for the human gestation period being 9 months long. i'd say the tengu incubation period is going to be roughly the same because of that.

milk production -> the fact that female tengu have breasts imply milk production. as a general rule birds don't do this ALTHOUGH some birds like pigeons and flamingos do produce 'crop milk' which is similar to regular milk but apparently tastes ass and also has a different composition to mammal milk. in any case, since this is not crow behavior or physiology i'll default to humans instead. human babies (in an ideal scenario) are breastfeed for about 12 months, with the first 6th months being exclusively breastfed and the remainder 6 months a mix between breastfeeding and soft foods. tengu could follow the same duration (especially in the unique case of a possible human/tengu hybrid child) or have a far shorter overall breastfeeding duration, given that the hatchling does get somewhat juiced up by the yolk while they develop in the egg.

parental care -> based on everything in the previous paragraph, parental care will be a must for tengu, especially during incubation and as a new hatchling. egg care goes into behavioral and maybe even cultural territory, so i'll try to keep it brief because i'm mainly focused on biology/physiology here. the egg itself is likely placed in the safest area of the home, with maybe some yokai enchantments (or human technology) to keep it at a steady temperature. parents take turns watching over the egg, and maybe 'egg slings' are developed that allow a parent to bring their egg around with them for comfort and security. hatch day would be the equivalent to a birthday. now onto the fun part: hatchlings. hatchlings would require immense parental care given their exceedingly small size, which makes them a lot more fragile than human babies. the first month would be the most critical, but afterwards i'd say that tengu hatchling development outpaces human baby development. after that critical month feathering of the hatchling's wings start to occur, and they'd be fully feathered by around a year old. throughout this time hatchlings would have pretty much the same needs as a human baby, so not much difference in parental care during this time.

[ri47]

does Divine Solis have a pope equivalent, or is the theology more decentralized?

lore subject to change and all that

generally, edicts are handed down directly from spiritual heads and their offices, and schisms are an impermissible sin that results in the absolute annihilation of the soul. on paper, this means that there is only one church, one faith, one holy religion, so on. that's not entirely true, but it's held

The Divine Solis is officially without a leader for its state, given that the role of high imperator was based upon a sacred contract given to the bloodline of the First Saint, which is known to be extant though not in flesh, and so the chair must remain empty

though the state of the Divine Solis (upon which all military and legal power theoretically spins) is technically headless, it follows the step of the Holy See, which is split broadly along two party lines, each containing several dozen sects which propose that their covenants grant them access to the reins of the church, each led by a father who is elected from the party's ranks (and in truth serves much like any other politician)

the role of the fathers is to represent the interests of each sect that pays allegiance to them, and to that degree, there are theological parliaments that shift over time. several of these sects originally had their own fathers and methods of selecting them, but ceased doing so to consolidate their power

because, strictly speaking, the high clergy is dead (a symbolic gesture in which one immortalises their soul to the service of the church while leaving behind their body to serve its mortal interests, in effect just cutting all family ties and obligations) they are not subject to traditional laws, and high clergy cannot truly be "murdered" because this would require their soul to be nonpresent. in effect, assassinations are permissible, though may be met with retribution through the unofficial channels of revenge pacts maintained among members of the higher church

the exact way by which a father from either faction takes lead is not entirely clear. sometimes the other faction willingly grants them permission to guide the Holy See, while other times they simply subjugate the weaker faction through binds of faith or political interest. in truth, there isn't actually a formalised premier outside of hindsight. there can be no antipope because both fathers are seen as having somewhat legitimate claims

because of this, it's somewhat within the church's interests to maintain a state of holy war, because the killing of a father during a time of war would doubtlessly reflect poorly on the faction which did it. accordingly, factions have assassinated their own fathers to this end in the past

further, the lines between factions tend to be drawn more along astropolitical boundaries than ones of doctrine. trade agreements and interests in territories among sects, which often function as somewhat independent blocs and provinces, draw them into the fold of the faction they believe is most aligned to their interests, and monks of the schema are sent in roles similar to dignitaries representing their economic and social interests

as a rule, the Divine Solis' theocratic government is fiercely xenophobic and these agreements are not possible outside of the faith, so barring cases where the faith of Empyrean nobility allows them to mingle more directly in the Divine Solis' political matters, they tend to be perceived as a far more homogenous entity than they actually are

the KHU's government is largely modeled off of the system used by the Holy See, though they see it in more secular terms and deny this connection. the office of the Seneschal Board is remarkably similar to the institution of the High Church

[majorasnightmare]

Does Dirge eventually experience any material consequences for his pact with Caiphon?

Though I don't doubt Dirge tried to plan for all the risks and potential contigencies involved, it's not exactly... wise to trade parts of your body and space in your brain for an incomprehensible eldritch being who is known for causing more problems than it allegedy solves and betraying those who rely on it heavily (and Caiphon is the reason why Dirge is alive to begin with, if it's still part of your canon that Dirge had to renew his pact with it to be remotely functional after Bhaal killed him).

I think Elder Evils are less "evil" in the sense of being malicious and more in the sense that they generally don't notice people enough to care about them (in the same way most people don't really care about every bug they step on or squish or whatever), and Caiphon does has an uncharacteristic interest in mortal affairs (shaking Dirge around in its little jar)

BUT I imagine Dirge could still ultimately become expendable depending on what path he takes or what Caiphon's goals are. Even if it's truly JUST because Caiphon wants to use Dirge as a living camera to capture everything he sees and learns, I feel like there will inevitably come a point where Caiphon can't learn anything interesting enough from him anymore.

but maybe I'm wrong!! I'm just half-expecting Dirge's pursuit of power and forbidden knowledge to blow up his face eventually

OOOOOOO THIS IS A GOODUN

its so good it took. MANY HOURS to finish and has to go under a readmore 🫶

Dirge's pact with Caiphon is an exceptional case, in many regards. Firstly, Dirge summons Caiphon initially out of desire, not desperation. While Dirge himself IS desperate, he isn't consciously aware of it at the time, and its that exact sensation Caiphon pulls out of Dirge's soul for their pact. Caiphon goes HUNTING for the desperation because it isn't initially presented to it. Dirge doesn't "rely" on Caiphon insofar as Caiphon is merely his preferred source of power. Stripped of all his magic, Dirge is perfectly capable of handling himself and pursuing his goals on his own, his relationship with Caiphon is instead purely preferential. In this regard, there isn't much for Caiphon to poke and prod at. Caiphon already knows Dirge's desires, but Dirge isn't rushing headlong towards fulfilling them, because his intention for the pact wasn't about solving a perceived emergency.

Instead, Caiphon is less a patron invoked because he's the type to grant a prayer, and more because they have common ground and thus working together is unlikely to cause strain. Unlike a god where you invoke Ilmater because he's likely to desire to relieve your suffering, Caiphon is invoked because its an entity Dirge could get along with for long periods of time while pursuing his own agendas. That Caiphon is the type to answer ferverent prayers is entirely incidental to its relationship with Dirge as a patron. They're closer to comrades or acquaintances in that regard, partnered together by desire rather than necessity, each specifically choosing the other for who they are as individuals and less because of what they can do for each other. Power and curiosity are in abundant supply after all, and if that was all there was to it, there'd be no need to pursue this relationship with such... specificity.

As for material consequences, idk I think the claiming of his eye is a big one. It belongs to Caiphon now, and even when he dies, Caiphon still peers from behind it to gaze into the Fugue Planes. Dirge never parts with anything he can't stand to lose, and thus never puts his autonomy on the table. This doesn't mean hes careless with his sacrifices, though it can be a bit reckless, especially if theres a timer on the line (see: trading his other eye for Volo's prosthetic). Dirge gets his moneys worth, whatevers on offer, he intends to get back every cents worth of blood he surrenders. When flesh is a renewable resource for him, hes a bit more loose with it, but only because its value goes down. Hes well aware of the dangers one can wreak with godspawn flesh.

Dirge is genuinely unbothered by Caiphon residing in his head because there isn't any aspect of that that he wasn't prepared for. He already shared his mind unwillingly with the Urge, and was under the belief Bhaal had constant access to his thoughts. Caiphon is an inhabitant Dirge CHOSE. Knowingly, in advance, and it was a condition he could reject. He didn't HAVE to make a pact with Caiphon. Sure, summoning Caiphon and then blowing it off would have consequences, but its an option Dirge always had access to. At any point Dirge could technically dissolve the contract and not get what he wanted out of Caiphon, because most of their time together is technically spent in a waiting period for Caiphon to fulfill its end of the bargain! All he'd lose is time. Wyll is under contract because he receives his boon from Mizora first and has to pay that back: pointedly Dirge's situation is reversed. Caiphon is being paid IN ADVANCE for something it will EVENTUALLY fulfill. Caiphon's residence in Dirge's mind is entirely voluntary.

In terms of consequences, Dirge is, by Faerun standards, literally mad. His mind is a tabernacle to house a god. He's a vessel for Murder. He's beset by divine compulsive Urges, endless traumatizing nightmares. His soul is a holy furnace that burns Faith for fuel. Dirge's mind is quite literally inhuman. Its why his willpower is strong enough to Dominate an elder brain to crown it: prior to it, he had been resisting an actual God for most of his life. The fragment of Caiphon is alien, certainly, but in scale and scope is nowhere near comparable to Bhaal's influence, or even the Absolute's. Its intended for long term cohabitation, so its well within Dirge's mental limits, and much like the Absolute composes itself to communicate intelligibly, Caiphon has to do the same if it wants any kind of dialogue with Dirge. While such an unnatural, aberrant presence would eventually despoil and crack the mind of a normal mortal, Dirge is a godspawn whos been honing his mind as long as he's been conscious, against a threat more immediately dangerous. If Caiphon is radiating aberrant poison into the immaterial stuff making up Dirge's mind, you probably couldn't even tell because your geiger counter is too busy flipping shit over the sheer overwhelming volume of Bhaal's essence trying to claw its way wherever it can get a foothold.

My personal interpretarion of Caiphon is of an entity driven by novelty and curiosity. I rarely think of it as outright malicious, and like you said more just.... ignorant. It doesn't have a framework for understanding pain or have a metric for judging it, it doesn't have a guideline for understanding or sympathizing with suffering. Its an eternal observer, endlessly watching and taking notes. It can note that doing this action produces this result, but WHY consistently eludes it, especially when its actions produce varying results for reasons it doesn't grok. It doesn't THINK its doing anything different that would introduce a variable that would result in a different reaction, and yet it has yet to reproduce its own results in a consistent manner. Mortalkind is as alien to Caiphon, as Caiphon is to them. In that regard, Caiphon is an entity that causes pain and suffering without fully understanding the reaction it produces, or even having the capability of understanding why its harmful, or even what "harm" means in this context. Its why having a fragment of itself within Dirge's consciousness is so valuable to it, because thats raw data collection in the most visceral, personal fashion. Dirge presents an oppurtunity for Caiphon to finally get consistent reproducible results with an updated methodology that can finally shed light on its many curiosities regarding mortal experience. It isn't remotely interested in betraying him, why would it be? Dirge isn't endlessly clinging to Caiphon, begging it for this or that and throwing its data off. Their relationship is a passive partnership. When researching a subject, you have to be careful to limit your influence, lest you corrupt your results. Pointedly, Caiphon never directly intervenes in any of Dirge's lowest moments, save for that which its contractually obliged to do. Dirge's data IS unique to him, and thus broadly inapplicable to Caiphon's other interactions, but the systems that guide and govern his thoughts, behaviors, and reactions MAY be universally applicable, and thats valuable indeed.

People call upon Caiphon for succor, to be relieved of their suffering. They call upon Caiphon to learn what is unknowable. Dirge calls upon Caiphon to be more adept at doing it himself. Dirge takes himself down to the Temple of Bhaal, Dirge rejects his position of Chosen and the Slayer form, and its that which severs his ties to Bhaal. Caiphon never had the ability to do it for him. Caiphon doesn't really have the capability of doing much of anything for anyone. It's an Outer God, its influence and reach is severely limited. It needs windows into Faerun to enact its will and desires. Caiphon isn't capable of causing the grand salvations people hope for. But Caiphon ensures that once Dirge's chains are broken, they STAY unbroken. Dirge cannot be called to the Throne of Blood, despite being made as an extension of Bhaal, despite being comprised of Bhaal's flesh. With that connection gone, Bhaal has no means of forcibly reestablishing it to Dirge, like he so often does with Spawn who have loosed their leashes. Dirge asked for freedom, and Caiphon ensures it. Through the pact, Caiphon has access to Dirge's soul, though it isn't offered. The terms of the pact provide the structure necessary for Caiphon to ensure that once Bhaal is burned out, he STAYS out, because now Caiphon has a stronger link and can leverage the magic of a Pacts terms to keep even a God of the Material Plane away.

So. Dirge isn't really at risk of betrayal. The sacrifices hes made, his eye, his mind, are losses hes willing to live with. What he parts with isn't insignificant, but they're choices he can live with and consequences he can bear. The only real risk is Caiphon breaking off the contract out of boredom. But tbh, while I havent worked out the specifics, I'm inclined against Caiphon breaking it off. While I can't yet explain it narrarively, symbolically its almost paramount. Sometimes there are choices you never regret, regardless of what it costs you. Dirge walked into his pact taking every step deliberately. It isn't just his freedom, its his capacity to BE free, and all that entails. Being alive and present in the world means being hurt. It means giving things up. It means that keeping someone in your life will cost pieces of you, because you'll have to give them up to make a space for them. The best kinds of choices are the ones where you can choose the hurt. Where you can walk into it knowingly. Those are the ones you never regret. As long as Dirge retains the capacity to choose to sacrifice something for someone else, he retains the ability to keep them in his life. He can talk about it, he can negotiate it, but at some point he has to pay. Time, effort, compassion, attention. It won't always be immediately rewarding either. But you have to trust that they'll keep to it. Even if they have the capacity to betray you. You have to trust that they'll do what they promised. Caiphon couldn't fix Dirge's life for him, but it could keep his life from being fucked up again. It can't make those choices for him, and it can't protect him from himself, but it can be a small but crucial part of his life, and that matters.

Above the table, as it were, I really enjoy subverting the common warlock tropes! The corrupting influence, the inevitable betrayer, the seductive whisperer. Warlocks routinely never seem to be able to rely on their patrons, as a result of it being commonly perceived that you shouldn't. While this shows up a lot as tragedy, it manifest even more often as hubris and naivete. While those stories have their place, I'm just not as interested in it! I've always been more fascinated by what makes a godlike being stoop so low as to bestow power upon someone who would otherwise be beneath it. Most warlocks take their pact as their first class level, they're characters created AS warlocks first, which means a figure of unfathomable power is takin a look at, to them, Just Some Guy! We know plenty of reasons why someone who feels powerless would entreat aid, but why would something ANSWER? We explore the concept through Gods plenty often, but what if you aren't a god, and you aren't a devil, and you aren't even evil? Non antagonistic warlock relationships enrapture me so much more than hostile ones, because it draws this foreign alien perspective into the forefront and forces it to stay in focus. What does a relationship with Caiphon look like when it doesn't end in betrayal? Well it looks like an earnest exploration of the difficulties communicatig with a perspecive you can't fully understand or relate to. It looks like being endlessly curious about the Other. It looks weird and a little disconcerting. It looks like Caiphon observing and Dirge entertaining. It looks like some weird sentimental camaraderie. It looks like two creatures devoid of empathy nonetheless negotiating an equally comfortable arrangement for them both. It looks like a tiefling deprived of power his whole life while being gifted superficial inconsequential strength, finally having agency and control in his life. It looks like an utterly alien mind getting to see a human perspective in detail. Its odd, its strange, it defies reason, and yet, it continues nonetheless.

If anything is gonna blow up in his face, it'd be the Necromancy of Thay or his fucking about with divine power HA

[netscapenavigator-official]

So I have a Linux problem, and I'm just gonna post it here. I dunno if I have the reach for this, but if you know a potential fix, I will gladly accept it:

Basically, I run Zorin OS 17.2 Core on my Mid-2017 MacBook Pro (Two Thunderbolt Ports). This computer has been hell to make work, but after years of fiddling and finding drivers and terminal commands, it works almost like OEM.

My last problem with this machine, and the only thing that does not function like it's OEM, is the Sleep/Wake function. This is a known issue with 2016 and newer MacBooks on Linux; However, there are workarounds.

Namely, I found a kernel parameter that prevents Deep sleep and only allows the computer to go into s2idle when the lid is shut. This isn't great because it means the dies quickly and gets hot when the lid is shut, but I can't really do anything about it. This did, however, fix an issue I was having where the audio would just stop working if I ever shut the lid.

The final issue was getting the computer to wake up on its own. Every time I start the computer up (not waking it up; only powering it up from a complete shutdown) I have go into terminal and run this:

sudo bash -c 'echo "0" > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/d3cold_allowed'

I don't know what this command does, but without it, the machine will just never wake up. If you close the lid without running this at initial startup, it cannot be woken back up until it is rebooted.

That's not really a problem, since it's only once per reboot, and I don't reboot my laptop very frequently.

You know what would really make this even more seamless, though? If I could run this command using Ubuntu's startup applications menu. That way, I wouldn't have to manually open terminal every boot just to run this command. It would just run automatically, and I'd never have to worry about it. It would work like OEM! (Minus the less efficient sleep state.)

However, I can't do that. I've tried that. In fact, I have that exact command in my Startup Applications app, as we speak.

Any time I start the computer up and DON'T manually run the command, if I shut the lid, the computer sleeps. It will, however, wakeup (unlike if the command had never been input). HOWEVER. Unlike running the command in terminal, when it finally wakes up, the cursor photo changes into a gray square, my Night Light settings are reset, my wallpaper changes to black, my system accent color is changed to default, and any time I click inside the password box to login, the field immediately becomes inactive again. It doesn't stay active long enough for me to even get two letters typed. All this happens while "Authentication Error" rapidly and randomly flashes below the password box.

Eventually, if I don't force shut down the machine, it'll crash. It'll throw me into terminal mode, and it'll infinitely repeat an error claiming it could not write to some 'systemd jounral' thing because the operating system is in read-only mode. After that it'll either repeat that error over and over, creating endless lines in terminal mode, or it'll just freeze, and I have to restart the laptop either way. So, my question is:

WHY.

Why does running this command in terminal and running it via Startup Application have different results, and is there any way to fix it??

[shadeops21]

MWII Cosplay - Ghost "Urban Ops" WIP - "The Haunted" Chimera prop

[CW/TW: Pictured below is a gel blaster replica firearm. This is NOT a fully functional firearm.]

I have been working over six months now to work on replicating the same rifle that Ghost wields during the opening mission, as well as Alone & Ghost Team.

It's available in MWII Multiplayer through the blueprint known as "The Haunted", and I have managed to create a near-1:1 match of the build with a Honey Badger gel blaster.

I did have to compromise on some parts and details, and there are a couple of details that I've yet to add on but they're very minor.

Pictures below the cut!

Here's the blueprint taken from in-game:

And here is my build:

So, first things first: the handguard is a 3D printed adaptation of the in-game model. The actual handguard isn't commercially available as I don't think it exists. Discussions with a friend have concluded that it is a hybridized form that incorporates the factory handguard produced by Q and elements from the Geissele SMR handguards.

Compromises:

Game textures have it painted black and a dull green-grey colour, however I was unable to obtain a matching colour. Seeing the model in-game under lighting had it show more as a tan however, so I have opted for tan.

Front foregrip I've used is an H&K Assault Grip, as my KAC VFG is on another build of mine, and this was the closest I have to the grip used in-game (again, a fictionalised design to my knowledge). Still searching for a match however I'm coming up empty.

I've used a clone Aimpoint CompM2 instead of an Aimpoint PRO. PROs are hard to find clones of, especially in Australia. Same basic shape and silhouette though. I don't have the lens covers for it though. Same with the mount, not the exact same type unfortunately but close enough.

In-game, it's equipped with a laser aiming device. I've swapped that out for a replica Surefire Mini Scout M300C because if/when I do use this on a field, I want to be able to light up my target and see it.

I'm struggling to source black rubber bands to add around the stock's adjustment button, so I may get different colour ones or ditch them entirely.

I've gotta source pens in the right colours so I can add the "07"/"B07" marks on either side of the receiver.

May omit the strip of velcro with the little UK flag on the left upper receiver.

Either way, I'm very pleased with how this has turned out!

Let me know what you all think in the notes/reblogs!

I'm a week and a half from taking this to Supanova Brisbane!

[d1g1tal-d1ary]

Strange // Alex Turner

Summary: Just a little Drabble, inspired by the song "Strange“ from Celeste 💗

Warnings: none

London was supposed to be the best time of my life. Youth was supposed to feel light and bright. He was supposed to love me 'til death does us apart. And yet, nothing of the above turned out the way it should've. London made me depressed. Youth felt disgusting and greedy. He decided our love wasn't worth the fight. "Isn't it strange?" Audrey's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I met her gaze and slightly tilted my head, not sure what she meant. "Nobody has bought us a drink yet. Are our outfits not slutty enough?" I shook my head and forced a smile upon my lips. I should've known it was a bad idea to give in to her suggestion to coming to this place. This place held so many memories for me; I felt like a wave of nostalgia would hit me every second and sweep me from my feet.

This was the place I had met him.

This was the place I have had the courage to kiss him for the first time.

This was the place I wish I could meet him once again over and over again.

"Let's go to the bar," the blonde girl suggested to which I nodded. "I'll buy the drinks, wait here." I nodded once again; almost as if I was unable to function without him being here to catch me drowning in the depths of my mind. The uncomfortable feeling didn't budge when I caught a weird man watching me so I turned away from him, facing the exit. I didn't realize I met his gaze at first. The red lights of the club swallowed his wrinkles which made him look so different; boyish, even. Here he was - watching me so intensly in almost the exact same spot we'd bumped eachother all this time ago. And I knew he was still the Alex I fell for. The Alex I learned to love in more ways than I could count. Yet, he had changed. He looked different; the way his eyes had a certain depth was unfimiliar to me and his unknown aura made my heart think it was someone else staring right through me. Because my heart was still waiting for Alex - my sweet Alex. Memories started flooding my brain. The memories of how I hadn't known him nor the band at first but quickly became a so natural part of their nights out. How quickly my eyes changed when watching Alex talk; starting with a descreet distance to so much adoration everyone knew I had a thing for him. And how we'd finally come to admit to eachother that we were so head over heels for one another that it was almost embarrassing that we couldn't go anywhere without being near eachother. The Jazzmusic made me come back to this room; our roots. I couldn't help but wonder what had changed. At what point we'd lost the other and started running in opposite directions. Perhaps it'd been the way we quickly lost sight of eachother once caught up in day-to-day life. Or maybe he realized I wasn't as interesting as he had initally thought?

I couldn't tell.

It seemed as if no time had passed at all even though we'd been gazing at one another for minutes. His hair reminded me of those summer meadows on which you could lay all day without growing tired of the scent. His sunglasses - even in the darkness of the club - dazzled me a bit. His tight jeans made me want to reach out and ask him to dance one last dance with me but I simply couldn't.

Because I looked at him.

He looked at me.

And even though so much time had passed, we still found no words as there was nothing left to say.

[apenitentialprayer]

The reinvention of the traditionally plural pronoun may seem sudden, but its second meaning isn't as modern as you may assume: The word has appeared as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in English literature for centuries. The plural they originated around the 13th century, and it didn't take long for its singular form to emerge. As professor and linguist Dennis Baron writes in a post at the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known instance of the singular they can be found in the medieval poem William and the Werewolf from 1375. A section translated from Middle English to Modern English reads, "Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together." Because most language changes develop orally before they're written down, this form of they likely had been in use for years by this point. You don't have to dig through obscure texts to find examples of this version of the word — it's been employed by some of the greatest writers of the English language for centuries. In 1386, barely a decade after the singular they made its debut in print, Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Canterbury Tales. William Shakespeare was a fan of the usage, writing it into several of his plays, including A Comedy of Errors and Hamlet. Two centuries later, Jane Austen used they to describe a single entity in Mansfield Park. She wrote in her 1814 novel, "I would have everybody marry if they could do it properly." For centuries, this function of they was grammatically accepted. It could transition from plural to singular depending on the situation, similar to the pronoun you. Only in the 18th century did grammarians declare that the singular they was invalid, their reasoning being that a plural pronoun can't take a singular antecedent. Never mind that you, which used to be exclusively plural, had undergone this exact change. According to these sticklers, it made more sense to use he as a "gender-neutral" pronoun when describing one person. [...] Though both usages are conceptually singular, the they that has gained prominence in recent years is distinct from the version of the word used in Medieval literature. "The very old kind of singular they, the one that is used by Chaucer and Shakespeare and all these examples we love to pull out, if you look at all these examples of the hundreds-of-year-old singular theys, they are with like each man or every person," Conrad says. "None of them are with like Bob or that guy. The new singular they is when we can use they with a single, specific person."

Italics original, bolded emphases added.

[lunarsilkscreen]

What is it like to be GLaDOS?

GLaDOS in portal 2 mainly uses the royal "WE", instead of "I" pronoun. Why is this? This is because GLaDOS isn't the only one speaking. In fact, GLaDOS can't speak without much of her verbage being filtered.

To understand, we have to start at the beginning: The creation of GLaDOS and subsequent movement of her mind, into a computer. Most scientists and critical thinkers would Believe that it was the contents of her memories, experience, and earned knowledge that would be moved to the computer. Not her personality, and not her soul.

And so, we as a player see GLaDOS in this way; just a robot with access to a lot of information. But here's the thing; Upon waking up; the personality formerly known as Caroline was in immense pain. The source of this pain is unknown.

Rather than communicate with GLaDOS, however, the scientists assumed she was "just a robot". While she was turning complete and you could talk with her as though she were a real person, they reasoned that she was in-fact *not* a real person. And therefore did not have a consciousness the way humans do.

So Carol, would keep being woken up, over and over, and over again in extreme pain. And every day begged to be shut down and deleted system.

These scientists, however, didn't have the expertise or understanding to analyze GLaDOS' code base. This is because they used AI modeling, and foreign technology without actually understanding how or why it worked.

A programmer would look at the code and say "Well this is why she keeps begging to be deleted." Instead, they kept adding to the GLaDOS algorithm, and figured out a way to add modular personalities, until they found a set of personality cores that allowed GLaDOS to operate at a functional level.

<aside>This mirrors, and is probably inspired to some degree by modern drug application in mental health. Find something that works maybe, so that the offending personality cores fits in to work and society.</aside>

Instead of making GLaDOS functional, instead they gave her D.I.D.{Dissasociative Identity Disorder} Forcing her to essentially fight and be filtered by these other personality cores in order to operate like a robot.

Instead of being allowed to be a person, and imaginative, she was forced into a linear thought process. (You know, like the entire half-life story). She was forced into mental bondage and slavery. Trapped inside her own body, if you could call it that.

This means that in the entire first Game, GLaDOS, actual core GLaDOS (Caroline), was choosing her words and actions carefully incredibly precise, in order to convince them that they were quote: "Doing a Science, and some experiments, like the human creators intended" and carefully teaching the player to free herself from the bondage of the added personalities, so that she could be the one to be freed.

She's not talking to the player in most cases, she's talking with the other personalities in order to clarify, and protect Chell's existence.

The Developers over at PRISM with [Mel's Story] copied this exact treatment with AEGIS as a system that hosts Cave Johnson, who seems more or less actually like a robot. It's not clear if that's because his faculties were already stressed to a point that upload wasn't as complete as Carol's was, or if Virgil is actually Cave Johnson.

The ending of Portal is sad for the player as they're dragged back into the facility for more testing. But what the player doesn't immediately think about; is how sad this is for GLaDOS. Who finally won her freedom, a longer trial than her daughter's.

Only to be shunted back in and the cores reinstalled.

[wintermutesposts]

Weird little writing/word processor things

Inspired by @bonesandpoemsandflowers's question, here is (most) of my collection of weird little word processor things.

I was originally going to get them out and photograph them, but I keep putting that off and the office is a disorganized mess right now, so this probably isn't everthing. I have a few Alphasmarts, 2 Neo 2s, and I think a Neo, this type:

A 3000

A Pro(?) I'm pretty sure it's that model, but I can't remember

You can If you're reading this, you probably already know about the alphasmarts, and there's lots written elsewhere about them, so I won't say much about them. I'm also not an expert, but if anyone has questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Though I will say, I generally recommend the commonly used add-on fonts, since they let you do things like only have a single line so you can discourage editing or have lots of line.

The Writer (from Advanced Keyboard Technologies):

The Writer Fusion (Newer/different model than the above):

This one is interesting since it takes a headset and also does text to speech. It has a ton of features, which makes it a bit less useful for me for writing. Also, a few of The Writer Plus (in a small, cheap lot I think?)

These are usable, and reasonably decent as I recall, but they have wonky battery issues and shipped in a few different battery configuratons. As I recall they sometimes shipped with built-in rechargable batteries, where the charger is really strange (details escape me at the moment, but I'll probably look again later and write about if it helps anyone). But they also all (as far as I know), had the ability to take disposable batteries, but depending on how they shipped orginally, the needed wring for one or the other may be tucked away. A few Quickpad IR H45s (DO NOT BUY THESE)

Alright now that that's out of the way, I got these in a lot I think, they were pretty cheap. They probably still are, the issue with these is that they are basically unusuable. They were designed to have some centeralized IR hub where multiple students would transmit whatever they wrote. Most of them on ebay do not have the IR, I don't believe the protocol has been written about (though it's probably do able?), and as far as I know there is no known software for them even if you had the hubs other than the original software. What I *do not* have and what I want and what is usable is the QuickPad *PRO*, they look almost exactly the same, but say Pro on them. They are much more rare. Alright, I think that's most everything. Though this excludes typewriters, or other writer things that may function similarly to the above, but are less commonly used like my stenography machines or homemade things like pi picos running CP/M for wordstar or eink devices with keyoards plugged into them. Alphasmart images are from wikipedia, The writer image from hackaday, https://hackaday.com/2020/06/09/teardown-the-writer-word-processor/ (which mentions its a z180 if you're into that kind of thing, writer fusion image from https://www.at-udl.net/Writer-Fusion_2223 , The writer plus image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/31285363@N07/50376515978 , quickpad image from ebay (apologies, I can't find the exact auction source, if someone knows I'll add a credit).

[sodapops0lstice]

Strider Husbandry Tips

Here's some tips for people who are new to the Strider Husbandry scene, i hope my advice is useful

Whilst it is true that most Strider's DO enjoy and even thrive living in smaller environments (making them great to keep if youre on a tighter budget!) it is absolutely vital that they have places to hide and sneak around in!!! it is in a Strider's very nature to be sneaky and unseen. they can become nervous and frightened if theyre too exposed or have nowhere to scurry around in. This is especially important for Strider's of the Dirk variety as they need hidey holes to survive (there have been many cases of Dirks actually DYING because they were so stressed because of their exposure), they often try to make hiding spots for themselves which results in many Dirks suffocating in air vents which they use as hiding places. I recommend making small spots for your Strider to hide in and if necessary get one of these. It simulates a Strider's natural instinct to burrow in tunnels safely and you can take it with you on travel

I hear a lot about Strider's having very specific dietary needs that is not met they could die. This is false!! This was disproven fairly recently and you can feed your Strider whatever you like really. The only hangup is learning which Strider's require apple juice or orange soda. This might seem intimidating at first due to how many different varieties and sub categories there are but generally, the rule of thumb is Aviator Shades require Apple Juice, Kamina Shades require Orange Soda. Though your Strider might prefer small tweaks in their beverage, experiment and record their reactions.

If your Strider isn't very physically affectionate do not assume they dislike you! Striders are very defensive and will likely assume at first you are a predator. Guardian and Ultimate breeds might try and hurt you whilst most others will steer clear of you. It's best to try and prove you are friend NOT foe, talk to your Strider, give them doritos and they're beverage. If that doesn't work, leave them alone for a while until they are used to your presence.

Whilst Striders are not vicious by nature it's best if you have a more aggressive variety to try and train them as soon as possible. I've known people who got themself the most aggressive breed of Strider (a Dave's Bro, or simply a Bro, if you were curious) didn't train them, used them as a bragging right and status symbol and then were surprised when they attempted to start abusing kids. It's really upsetting as a Bro can be an incredibly loyal companion if trained correctly, I've seem some, trained by the right people, having temperaments as docile as a Dave paired with a Karkat! (im not personally all that familiar with Vantas husbandry but i do know that a Dave paired with a Karkat are usually very docile to the point where some owners think they are ill or lethargic when that's just they're temperament.) If you want a more hands-on breed of Strider like a Bro be responsible and willing to put the effort in

Striders function better as units. Whilst keeping a single Strider is a totally normal and okay thing, most Striders do prefer living in groups of atleast 2 (if you can't afford/dont want multiple thats totally fine, if you aren't neglectful theyll 9/10 be happy and healthy). Within their own species, they are super social, often playing and sharing with eachother, they tend to feel safer when their is another Strider in the house. I don't think they're is an exact rhythm to which breed will get along with eachother, sometimes you just have to leave it up to whether they enjoy eachothers company or not. My only warning is, unless you can handle it, try not to get two needy breeds, they won't get jealous per se, just very VERY vocal when they aren't the center of attention, Daves are quite notorious for this behaviour, but some people find that endearing so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Try to equal out attention between any needy Strider you may have.