#After Virtue

[thatscarletflycatcher]

"One of the key moments in the creation of modernity occurs when production moves outside the household. So long as productive work occurs within the structure of households, it is easy and right to understand that work as part of the sustaining of the community of the household and of those wider forms of community which the household in turn sustains. As, and to the extent that, work moves outsides the household and is put to the service of impersonal capital, the realm of work tends to become separated from everything but the service of biological survival and the reproduction of the labor force, on the one hand, and that of institutionalized acquisitiveness, on the other."

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981), chapter 16: From the Virtues to Virtue and After Virtue.

[eternal-echoes]

I don’t believe that nationalism is incompatible with Christianity but at the same time I don’t think any Christian should have the preservation and propagation of one’s race as the main focus of his or her worldview because I don’t think the Christian martyrs during the Roman persecution had that in the forefront of their minds. They above all else focused entirely on doing the will of God in their lives regardless of the benefits or unfortunate outcomes that would come their way.

“… although the virtues are just those qualities which tend to lead to the achievement of a certain class of goods, nonetheless unless we practice them irrespective of whether in any particular set of contingent circumstances they will produce those goods or not, we cannot possess them at all. We cannot be genuinely courageous or truthful and be so only on occasion. Moreover, as we have seen, cultivation of the virtues always may and often does hinder the achievement of those external goods which are the mark of worldly success. The road to success in Philadelphia and the road to heaven may not coincide after all.” 

-Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

[philosophybitmaps]

[mjgkirke]

Endgame?

This is the way the world ends   Not with a bang but a whimper. Unless… Unless what? The problem is, we cannot give a coherent answer to that question. The truth is we seem not to know even how to begin to answer that question. That is, the agencies which try to govern our destinies on this planet, our governments, our academics, our experts, do not know, have not got the slightest idea of what…

[dog-uncrushed]

[fourdramas]

“The modern radical is as confident in the moral expression of his stances and consequently in the assertive uses of the rhetoric of morality as any conservative has ever been. Whatever else he demounces in our culture he is certain that it still possesses the moral resources which requires in order to denounce it. Everything else may be, in his eyes, in disorder; but the language of morality is in order, just as it is.”

-Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

[bet-on-me-13]

Ghostly Host AU

So! Ghosts need a physical Anchor in the living world, or they are liable to fall apart and fade away if they stay for too long.

In Amity Park, this usually isn't too much of a problem. Sure most Ghosts can't stay for a week without a Host, but the ambient Ecto-Levels in Amity Park are enough that they can stay for a few days or so at a time with little worry.

This changes however, during Reign Storm.

When Pariah Dark awakens, Tens of Thousands of Ghosts use the Fenton Portal to escape the Rule of Pariah Dark, running away into the Human Realm.

If Amity Park had stayed where it was, this would have been fine. They could have stayed in the Living Realm for a few days, and maybe the Weaker ones would need to find a temporary Host, but that was fine since Amity was filled with thousands of Liminals.

Unfortunately, Pariah Darks first move was to suck Amity Park into the Ghost Zone, alongside all of the Ecto-Energy that had accumulated there.

Now left trapped in the Living Realm with no way back to the Zone, thousands of Ghosts suddenly needed Hosts or they would start dying off by the Hundreds. In a Panic, they spread out across the Planet in search of viable Hosts.

Any normal Person wouldn't do, they needed a Living Being that could actually handle their Power, or someone who matched their Soul. Preferably both. Liminals were the best since they had a durable Body and a Malleable Soul, so any Ghost could use any of them as a Host.

But outside of Amity Liminals were very rare, and finding someone who matched their Soul was time-consuming and hard. Thankfully, in recent years the population of Aliens, Metahumans, Enhanced Soldiers, and even extra durable baseline Humans had spiked across the world.

All across the planet, People suddenly found themselves stuck with a new Passenger in their Bodies.

Those new passengers thankfully weren't malicious, for the most part, but it was still annoying. The only good thing was that they now had new Powers, which neat.

They could summon the Ghosts in their Body outwardly, and then command the Ghost to use their Powers in whatever way they wanted. Only other Hosts could see another person's Ghost, which meant they looked very awkward to normal people when they fought. Generally, Hosts seemed to act more strangely after getting a Ghost, as if they lost a few of their Inhibitions.

Why did they feel the sudden need to strike a flamboyant Pose? Or over dramatically scream?

[turtleblogatlast]

Every day I’m haunted by the fact the boys happily swim in sewer water

Even if it’s filtered somehow there’s no way it’s not still nasty 😭 Bet they can defeat any of their villains just by accidentally giving them diseases I swear

[nyoomzz]

whenever i had to get into that stupid elevator and just awkwardly stare at the screen i remind myself that they probably had it worse

[thatscarletflycatcher]

"We allocate conversations to genres, just as we do literary narratives. Indeed a conversation is a dramatic work, even if a very short one, in which the participants are not only the actors, but also the joint authors, working out in agreement or disagreement the mode of their production. For it is not just that conversations belong to genres in just the way that plays and novels do; but they have beginnings, middles and endings just as do literary works. They embody reversals and recognitions; they move towards and away from climaxes. There may within a longer conversation be digressions and subplots, indeed digressions within digressions and subplots within subplots.

But if this is true of conversations, it is true also mutatis mutandis of battles, chess games, courtships, philosophy seminars, families at the dinner table, businessmen negotiating contracts -that is, of human transactions in general. For conversation, understood widely enough, is the form of human transactions in general (...)

I am presenting both conversations in particular then and human actions in general as enacted narratives... Barbara hardy has written that 'we dream in narrative, day-dream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan revise, criticize, construct, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative' in arguing the same point.

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (1981) Chapter 15: Virtues, Unity of Life and Concept of a Tradition

[eternal-echoes]

“For according to that [classical] tradition to be a man is to fill a set of roles each of which has its own point and purpose: member of a family, citizen, soldier, philosopher, servant of God.”

 - Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

[runespoor7]

I've been thinking about the time post-canon where WGXN break out of the honeymoon phase because LWJ gets hurt. Maybe protecting WWX; that'd be the worst.

It's not a break-up; it's just LWJ realizing that WWX isn't acting quite the same. It's the glance LWJ's side when WWX brags about his husband. It's the bragging being less hyperbolic and LWJ not being sure if WWX's laughter is fake. Not relying on LWJ as much. Not mentioning details relevant to their night-hunts to LWJ. The more it goes on the less LWJ is being trusted by WWX, and LWJ is unable to find a way to change this. When LWJ grabs WWX and insists upon his devotion to WWX, WWX replies that of course he knows! LWJ tells WWX that he'll never let anything happen to WWX, but he's not sure WWX believes him.

Anyway LWJ is feeling some kind of way about being frozen out of WWX's confidence, not that he's put it in those words, and then they find themselves on a night-hunt with YMJ - it's a night-hunt with an investigation part so it takes them a while, and SLJ is there, which LWJ usually hates but isn't even his least favorite thing about the endeavour at the moment. LWJ isn't paying as much attention (glaring) to SLJ as usual, he's too busy with trying to regain WWX's trust being sad being focused on his relationship with WWX.

WWX and LWJ do spend some more time than usual with JC, ostensibly coordinating the night-hunt, really because spending time with JC is easier than WWX remembered (not least because it means not being alone with LWJ). Huh! JC has changed. No longer quite the pathetic, petty, weak boy WWX enshrined in his memory.

At the end of a conversation, when WWX has flit away and LWJ is brooding, and for some reason JC didn't leave yet and is still with LWJ, JC gives a little sigh. "So it's started, then."

LWJ looks at him. He wants JC to shut up and go away - he always wants JC to shut up and go away - but he also wants to know what JC means.

"He's started walling off. What did you do that made him lose confidence in you? He couldn't talk your strength too high and now he's finding excuses not to let you investigate on your own."

LWJ bristles. "You dont--"

The denial dies off on its own. What would he say? SLJ makes what is happening into a bad thing. But isn't it a bad thing, isn't it something LWJ wishes would go away? But he makes it something LWJ's did, but LWJ didn't mean to - but does LWJ's intent matter, when the result is letting WWX down? It feels unfair; it feels deserved. Would LWJ rather JC make it into WWX's fault somehow? Simply imagining JC casting WWX as the culprit makes anger swell in LWJ's belly.

He stares at JC, mute.

The corner of JC's lips twist in something that's not quite a smile. "Did you think it would never happen to you?"

LWJ hears the echo of the question he's thought about JC for years. Did you think you were good enough for him?

I've been thinking about it a lot.

The isolation and alienation of your loved one denying you the acknowledgement that there's something wrong; the loneliness of carrying a relationship with someone who's neatly slid you out of the people he's willing to be vulnerable with; the unbearable kinship with someone you hate, someone your loved one left behind, someone you're horrified to realize went through the same, like a mirror the future holds out to you.

[mjgkirke]

Endgame?

This is the way the world ends   Not with a bang but a whimper. Unless… Unless what? The problem is, we cannot give a coherent answer to that question. The truth is we seem not to know even how to begin to answer that question. That is, the agencies which try to govern our destinies on this planet, our governments, our academics, our experts, do not know, have not got the slightest idea of what…

[hecksupremechips]

Something to be said about how much more fucked up the nonary game that Sigma and Akane made is compared to the one that Akane and Aoi made. Like the experiences of the 999 cast were fucked up and traumatic and they did suffer nine hours all genuinely believing they were on a sinking ship with bombs planted in their bodies, but the game didn’t put them in any actual danger. There were no bombs, they were in a normal building, the nine door was modified to let everyone escape, they were given a car to drive home with. There was the risk of Ace killing them if the wrong path was taken (or clover), but the only actual danger from the game itself was the incinerator and idk the water at the beginning. They were still kidnapped and went through some terrifying shit but measures were taken to make sure they people being used for Zero’s gain would get to return to normalcy afterwards

In vlr though it’s completely different. The threat of penalty is very much real, it’s less of a fucked up death than bombs but it’s still a real thing that will happen if the rules are broken or if someone’s bp is 0. They’re also infected with the deadly disease that caused the literal fucking apocalypse. The number 9 door can be opened by anyone with 9 bp and everyone else will just be trapped for the rest of their lives. But those are all bad ending ass scenarios, everyone can make it out if you get the good ending, right? Except no actually, these bitches are on the moon. Luna and K were specifically made for this purpose. Alice, Clover and Phi have to discover they’ve been trapped in deep sleep for 45 years and are incapable of ever getting their lives back. Tenmyouji and Quark were tricked and have nothing to gain from this experience except for more trauma. Everyone was just a pawn used to make Sigma go create the magical happy timeline that they will never see. They don’t get to return to normalcy, Zero doesn’t give a single shit about what happens to them, they’re just disposable objects. Just termites incapable of understanding the beauty they helped create

[xxplastic-cubexx]

WAIT WAIT WAIT CHERIK MPREG IS CANON

i cannot stress enough how canon cherik mpreg is, yes my friend

[rottentiger-art]

Not Polin breaking every single rule here 💀