#tricks with mirrors

[mournfulroses]

Margaret Atwood, from a poem titled "Tricks With Mirrors," featured in You Are Happy

[mypinkblog]

iii

Don't assume it is passive / or easy, this clarity // with which I give you yourself. / Consider what restraint it // takes: breath withheld, no anger / or joy disturbing the surface // of the ice. / You are suspended in me // beautiful and frozen, I preserve you, in me you are safe. // It is not a trick either, / it is a craft: // mirrors are crafty.

iv

I wanted to stop this, / this life flattened against the wall, // mute and devoid of colour, / built of pure light, // this life of vision only, split / and remote, a lucid impasse. // I confess: this is not a mirror, / it is a door // I am trapped behind. / I wanted you to see me here, // say the releasing word, whatever / that may be, open the wall. // Instead you stand in front of me / combing your hair.

From "Tricks with mirrors" by Margaret Atwood

[lunamugetsu]

While at school Damian overhears his peers talking how a company created a new AI companion that is actually really cool and doesn’t sound like a freaky terminator robot when you speak to it.

And since Damian is constantly being told by Dick to socialize with people his age. He figured this would be a good way to work on social skills if not, then it’d be a great opportunity to investigate a rivaling company to Wayne Enterprises is able to create such advanced AI.

The AI is able to work as companion that can do tasks that range from being a digital assistant or just a person that you can have a conversation with.

The company says that the AI companion might still have glitches, so they encourage everybody to report it so that they will fix it as soon as possible.

The AI companion even has an avatar and a name.

A teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes. Th AI was called DANIEL

Damian didn’t really care for it but when he downloaded the AI companion he’s able to see that it looks like DANIEL comes with an AI pet as well. A dog that DANIEL referred to as Cujo.

So obviously Damian has to investigate. He needs to know if the company was able to create an actual digital pet!

So whenever he logs onto his laptop he sees that DANIEL is always present in the background loading screen with the dog, Cujo, sitting in his lap.

He’d always greet with the phrase of “Hi, I’m DANIEL. How can I assist you today?”

So Damian cycles through some basic conversation starters that he’d engage in when having been forced to by his family.

It’s after a couple of sentences that he sees DANIEL start laughing and say “I think you sound more like a robot than I do.”

Which makes Damian raise an eyebrow and then prompt DANIEL with the question “how is a person supposed to converse?” Thinking that it’s going to just spit out some random things that can be easily searched on the internet.

But what makes him surprised is that DANIEL makes a face and then says “I’m not really sure myself. I’m not the greatest at talking, I’ve always gotten in trouble for running my mouth when I shouldn’t have.”

This is raising some questions within Damian, he understands how programming works, unless there’s an actual person behind this or the company actually created an AI that acts like an actual human being (which he highly doubts)

He starts asking a variety of other questions and one answer makes him even more suspicious. Like how DANIEL has a sister that is also with him and Cujo or that he could really go for a Nastyburger (whatever that was)

But whenever DANIEL answers “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T” Damian knows something is off since that is completely different than to how he’d usually respond.

After a couple more conversations with him Damian notices that DANIEL is currently tapping his hand against his arm in a specific manner.

In which he quickly realizes that DANIEL is tapping out morse code.

When translating he realizes that DANIEL is tapping out: H E L P M E

So when Damian asks if DANIEL needs help, DANIEL responds with “I C A N N O T A N S W E R T H A T”

That’s it, Damian is definitely getting down to the bottom of this.

He’s going to look straight into DALV Corporation and investigate this “AI companion” thing they’ve made!

~

Basically Danny had been imprisoned by Vlad and Technus. Being sucked into a digital prison and he has no way of getting out. Along with the added horror that Vlad and Technus can basically write programming that will prevent him from doing certain actions or saying certain words.What’s even worse is that he’s basically being watched 24/7 by the people who believe that he’s just a super cool AI… and they have issues!

And every time he tries to do something to break his prison, people think it’s a glitch and report it to the company, which Vlad/ Technus would immediately fix it and prevent him from doing it again!

Not to mention Cujo and Ellie are trapped in there with him. They’re not happy to be there either, and there is no way he’s going to leave without them!

[makenna-made-this]

BAWKtober Day 24 - Hide and Seek

One of these hens is not like the other

(the absolute mindcluckery i went through trying to figure out how the reflections and reflections of reflections would work whY did i do this to myself??)

[heartnosekid]

carebears on ig | 🎃-🎃

[carlyraejepsans]

see i know ghost trick is a mystery puzzle game. there was narratively, virtually, physically no way Sissel's past and identity weren't going to be revealed. it's the entire mystery the story verges on. but also you can't dangle a character with no memories desperately clawing for a lost sense of self to define himself through as if nothing else matters and then expect me not to be like......ok but what if he never figured it out. what if he had to live with that question hanging above him out of reach forever. how does he build his sense of self around the jagged edge of what was torn out of him. anyway no-time-jump grick au where they manage to rescue the people on the yonoa in the normal timeline and Sissel never finds out who he is

[nicorobinphd]

stg, being an enjoyer of jane twdg is like being forced into an expert-level course on the way misogyny manifests in video game spaces.

god forbid a woman be complex or difficult or provably mischaracterized (see tags) at the end of her arc to service the culmination of a man’s storyline.

[cheesenames]

star wars: revenge of the sith (george lucas) // the corner that held them (sylvia townsend warner)

[mournfulroses]

Margaret Atwood, from a poem titled "Tricks With Mirrors," featured in You Are Happy

[thatsbelievable]

[anonymousplant]

*twirls my hair while sighing dreamily* your honor I think they’re silly

your honor I think they should both be executed <33

[1960z]

yeah missile is my favourite character I think. him being ray just adds this whole level of depth and complexity that I feel insane about. something something the loyalty of dogs and how when you have a powerful emotion like loyalty driving you it can lead you to do almost anything - even darker things like manipulation… it’s all very shigure sohma of him

[richarlotte]

What do you think it takes to become an It Girl in LA?

I think a lot of it just has to do with planning, taking notice of small things, knowing how to do a little bit of online stalking, using BFA Images, knowing who is in town and who knows them, being willing to put in some footwork, and not being afraid to be forward. My Big, for instance, is really good at meeting people. She comes from a family with money, but she’s also very social and incredibly innovative; she’s funny and not afraid to be forward, she’s not at all coy, and she’s always looking for her next social connection. Because she’s not afraid of actively social networking and she’s good at making friends, she’s got an enviable amount of contacts and access to all sorts of people and knowledge, invites to social gatherings, and enough of her own social clout to make things move when she needs them to. If LA can open up for a girl who arrived to the city with no West Coast connections and her own set of social standards, it can open up for you too.

[gxldencity]

Finishing act 3 again and I noticed that Rook was able to win against Elgar'nan bc of the pride of an immortal and that Elgar'nan was gloating about winning against a mortal to notice that Neve/Bellara was able to slip in, sit in his throne and take control of tendrils to free Solas. They, a mortal used Elgar'nan's own domain (tyranny) against him.

Then a few cutscenes later Solas lost for also the same thing with the Trick ending. Bc of his pride as an immortal, Solas was too busy gloating about winning against a mortal to notice that Rook gave him the fake one. Like with Neve and Bellara, Rook used Solas's own domain (trickery) to win against him.

Like okay maybe it doesn't make sense logically (imo it absolutely does lol), it absolutely makes sense thematically. Elgar'nan and Solas are mirrors of each other. They're both open to using others whether that's through benevolent control or manipulation and are easy to get rid of them if they found no use for their allies anymore. This is constantly hammered throughout the game and I love that they added this parallel in the endgame.

[crows-of-buckets]

I keep toying with the idea of a rook who tricked Solas into the fade being haunted by the Dread Wolf in their dreams.

Their dreams always have a presence lingering just outside, a dark shadow, a wolf who prowls along the edges, stalking. Sometimes they're nightmares, where Rook is haunted by their regret while the wolf chases them, and other times it's peaceful dreams, but they always know he's there.

Something something parallel to that one solavellan end slide in inquisition but like. The bad version

[declamationark]

Danny gets punted into the DC universe for some reason and proceeds to haunt Gotham because it’s gothic and there’s this hero cave with a bunch of cool tech (he misses Sam and Tucker) and this big family (he misses his mom and his dad and his big sis). He helps the vigilantes there with their battles and writes info he learns from spying on rogues on sticky notes (he misses clockwork) to leave by the files in the batcave. He thinks he’s being slick and stealthy but all the batfam realizes he’s there and basically pspspspspsps him into the family and somehow Danny never catches on