nireidi

[nireidi]

https://twitter.com/Kbearart/status/1433601390429892621

wizard

thats plectronoceras its the first 100% definite cephalopod in the fossil record, wizard friend :)

[nireidi]

tired guy: oh no! How will me and my band of weirdos ever successfully create an institution that will change the city for the better now! If only a hot autistic woman could save us with her extremely relevant and specific special interest!!!

Terry Pratchett: is this shit crazy or what? Anyways, here is a list of all my political opinions,

[nireidi]

the r/curatedtumblr -> tumblr migration is so funny to me. it's like going to the zoo and enjoying it so much you climb into the enclosure to live with the monkeys

[nireidi]

the wildlife photographer of the year peoples choice award is always fun

there's a stoat hiding in that last one

source - go check out the rest of the awards too, they're really incredible

[nireidi]

"Bananas for pigs? That's not traditional, is it? I'd have thought acorns, perhaps. Or apples or swedes." "Yes, sir, but the Librarian likes bananas, sir." "Very nourishin' fruit, Mr. Stibbons." "Yes, sir. Although, funnily enough it's not actually a fruit, sir." "Really?" "Yes, sir. Botanically, it's a type of fish, sir. According to my theory it's cladistically associated with the Krullian pipefish, sir, which of course is also yellow and goes around in bunches or shoals." "And lives in trees?" "Well, not usually, sir. The banana is obviously exploiting a new niche." "Good heavens, really? It's a funny thing, but I've never much liked bananas and I've always been a bit suspicious of fish, too. That'd explain it." "Yes, sir." "Do they attack swimmers?" "Not that I've heard, sir. Of course, they may be clever enough to only attack swimmers who're far from land." "What, you mean sort of… high up? In the trees, as it were?" "Possibly, sir." "Cunning, eh?" "Yes, sir."

-Hogfather by Sir Terry Pratchett

[nireidi]

Pose by @adorkastock

Veiled lady

[nireidi]

Someday your hands will be old and wrinkled, the skin spotted and bunching over your knuckles. And a child will watch you make something. It's a simple task, you'll have done it a thousand times before. But to that child, the smooth, confident way your hands move will seem like impossible magic. You have to keep living.

[nireidi]

Vetinari and Ridcully, bonding:

"People do not understand the limits of tyranny," said Vetinari, as if talking to himself. "They think that because I can do what I like I can do what I like. A moment’s thought reveals, of course, that this cannot be so." "Oh, it is the same with magic," said the Archchancellor. "If you flash spells around like there’s no tomorrow, there’s a good chance that there won’t be."

-- Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

[nireidi]

Thinking about the potential for Sybil Ramkin to have been utilising the soft power of her rank and wealth in a pre Guards! Guards! Ankh Morpork and have decided when Vetinari announced the creation of the Beggars' and Seamstress' Guild, Rosie Palm and Queen Molly both received an invitation for tea with Lady Ramkin. Does she fully understand what Havelock is doing? No, but she does understand that people like Ronnie Rust are furious about it....and yet If The Richest, Oldest Family in the city (as the Ramkins *are* - even if the only Ramkin left is eccentric old Sybil) openly accepts the move, centuries of believing that the more money and the more impressive ancestors a person has the more right their actions are will steer Rust and rest to follow Lady Ramkin's lead- at least for a while.

And yes, Havelock can take care of himself- that doesn't mean Sybil's not going to look after him where she can

[nireidi]

You know, I'm starting to think Terry Pratchett did actually invent a god by accident.

Because every time I get a drawer stuck I say "dammit, Anoia" and it pops free.

I can't decide if he'd be entertained or wildly irritated by this.

[nireidi]

*through gritted teeth* every day i choose to be kind *barely restraining myself from violence* i choose to have compassion *tamping down the vicious bloodlust inside me* i choose to care and to be kind and to love

[nireidi]

feeling so many feelings about all of this

[nireidi]

Wow, it sure is crazy how Terry Pratchett wrote Good Omens completely on his own. With nobody else involved. At all.

[nireidi]

[nireidi]

Summary: Jon Sims was not human. Jon Sims has never been human, but he was beginning to be ok with that. The Jon Sims is a Time Lord AU that no one asked for. Knowledge of Doctor Who not required.

Author: @nireidi

[nireidi]

[nireidi]

I love the way the Horror™ works in the Magnus Universe, because the way we understand it is wildly ill-equipped to actually describe what's happening beyond the immediate context. It's all vague descriptions of patterns and motifs. The only detailed taxonomy or pantheon we get is Robert Smirke's, and while I like it for what it is, I am fascinated by how other people in other cultures and time periods would organize these ideas.

For example, I think you could combine The Buried and The Vast into one idea- the fear of space. It's just two extremes of the same scale, it's about feeling helplessly small against a force that doesn't even care to notice you. It's not vindictive, it's apathetic. There is no bargaining with the ocean, no fighting with the sky, no compromising with the crumbling cave.

Can you really say that the Flesh and the Slaughter are particularly different? Sure, the Flesh is about the horror of being meat, but what makes someone more aware of that than the ruthless cutting of a life? Isn't there inherent body horror in rot? At what point does a parasite cross from Corruption to Web?

And then we have the avatars. Would you call Ink5oul a being of The Eye or of The Flesh? Simon Fairchild is obviously of The Vast, but can you say with confidence that The Lonely doesn't benefit from his shenanigans? Jared Hopworth is 100% Flesh, but when your body is twisted around in impossible ways until you are unrecognisable... That sounds like being made into a Stranger to me. The Eye wouldn't be nearly as distressing without the paranoia of paranoia you get from The Spiral, and how can you doubt a reality you can't perceive?

I hope that Protocol takes advantage of this nebulousness going forward to explore other frameworks besides Smirke's, it's so damn fun to think about.