#Diogenes Entertainment

[tv-moments]

Ripley

Season 1, “III Sommerso”

Director: Steven Zaillian

DoP: Robert Elswit

[starkraivennemad]

Waiting...

Text 16:45>> Can we meet at Diogenes? 6pm? Important and *private*. – GL

Mycroft Holmes stared at his phone in surprise.

Gregory Lestrade had never asked for a private audience with him before. Yes, they have shared private dinners in the office at Mycroft’s behest, not Gregory’s. And certainly not with an emphasis on privacy which Gregory would know was innate with being at Diogenes.

Text 16:47>> I am here and available for you now if the need is urgent. – MH

Text 16:48>> Be there in less than 30. - GL

He has waited for Gregory for a variety of reasons in the years he has known the man, but this was the longest less than thirty minutes of Mycroft’s life as he tried to deduce why Gregory would have need of him and could not come up with anything.

Mycroft waited with bated breath as Gregory was let into the office.

He looks happy... That is good. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen him look truly happy and not just smiling because it’s expected.

Usually affable and expressive, Mycroft had not realized how much he had come to enjoy those traits in Gregory until their slow decline as the knowledge of his wife’s affairs took its toll. Gregory’s pride and heart had taken a major blow and Mycroft waited as it played out to its inevitable heartbreaking conclusion.

All Mycroft could do was watch, wait and be something to Gregory that by some miracle he realized Gregory has been to him – a friend. That he himself wanted to be so much more than a friend to Gregory continued to be his secret. Still, the last few years had been misery for the copper.  

And yes, part of that misery was his fault with Sherlock’s ‘dying’.

The guilt of it had made him pull away when Greg needed him most. When Sherlock returned to London as last, he was immediately forgiven. Mycroft however, begrudgingly accepted the blackeye, then endured the painful weeks of silent treatment, as he - Mycroft Holmes - begged forgiveness before they slowly found the way back to being friends once more.  

Through it all Mycroft watched and waited as Gregory slowly found his footing again.

Mycroft watched and waited as Gregory found his self-worth and pride again.

And as much as it killed him internally – Mycroft watched and waited as Gregory began to date again.

His only satisfaction was that none of the dates seemed to fulfill Gregory enough for even a second date. One evening during dinner, while Gregory whinged about yet another disappointing date, for a very brief moment, Gregory had smiled at him. It was such a warm beguiling smile. A smile where Mycroft almost, almost, confessed his love, but fear sealed his lips. He could not make himself say the words. And when the moment passed, he told himself it was his imagination and he waited.

Gregory was certainly better, professionally and personally, but Mycroft understood he was not fully happy. Still, he kept his secret to himself. What was the point? Men like Gregory Lestrade: warm, solid, salt of the earth, moral, not to mention unbelievably handsome simply did not date men like Mycroft Holmes: uber-intelligent, cold, posh, exacting, and constantly skirting the fine line of what’s moral and lawful. Though dreams of Gregory Lestrade permeated his nights, in the cold light of day he knew he would not be the person Gregory would ever turn to romantically and being his friend was better than nothing – so he watched and waited.

Thus, seeing Gregory look at him with that beguiling smile again filled Mycroft’s heart with cautious joy. He beamed as he stood to greet him. “Good evening, Gregory.”

“Wow… I miss the way you used to smile at me…” Greg closed and locked the door behind him.

“Pardon?” Mycroft, basking in the glow of Gregory’s smile and his locking the door, was taken aback. “The way I used to smile at you? Is that a joke? That’s not funny.”

“The truth is not here for our entertainment, but for the elucidation of facts.” Gregory teased with words Mycroft had once said to him. He crossed the room to stand near him, still smiling. “Though to paraphrase what your brother likes to remind me – my being so slow at seeing and observing is one thing – but oh observing and absorbing that truthful light is at a snail’s pace. Still, even a snail as slow as I will eventually get there...” Gregory loosely gestured to the room and the two of them, “…Well here...”

“Gregory what are you on about?”

“Sorry… This is a first for me…” Gregory said, slightly pinking. “…my asking…”

“What is…? Asking what…?”

“When I was a young spotty thing, I was a pretty boy – I know hard to believe as ragged as I am now…”  Greg joked self-deprecatingly, then quickly held up a hand to stop the numerous protests about to fall from Mycroft’s lips. “Though I don’t see it personally, I am aware that I’m found to be attractive. And perhaps that is why I have not need, but did you know that I have never been the one to ask first?”

“Never?”

“Never. Every single one of my dates in life happened because the other person asked first. Hell, even my ex was the one who proposed, not I.”

The incredulousness that a man as secure and confident in his professional mien as Gregory, has never asked anyone on a date personally, was overshadowed in the enormity of what was being implied now.

“Gregory… Are you asking…?”

There was something – a feeling, a slow joy that slowly began to creep from the depths of Mycroft’s soul at Gregory’s words. He did not dare to call it hope. That was far too dangerous a thing. The looming shadow in fear of the emotional crash if what he feels is wrong, have him frozen in place.

“Asking you out on a date?” Gregory clarified, “No.”

Mycroft inhaled sharply from the blunt impact of it. Unable to exhale, unable to speak in that miniscule spark of hope that dared to shine, swiftly snuffed

“Mycroft breathe…” Gregory lightly placed a hand on Mycroft’s tie, right over his tie clip, right over the heart he’s not supposed to have as the breath rushed out of the contact. “As I said I’m slow. In all the dates I’ve gone since my divorce I noticed a few things. 1 - you stopped smiling at me like that when I began to date again. They all failed because snail me realized that 2 – after each date I all but ran to where I preferred to be as soon as possible – with you.” Gregory emphasized the point by firmly tapping Mycroft's chest with his finger.

It is not lost on either that, whether by surprise or desire - or both, Mycroft has allowed this.

“Gregory, I…”

“Shhhh, let me finish….” Gregory smiled shyly as he laid his hand on Mycroft’s chest again, fingers gently caressed the fine material of Mycroft’s shirt while his palm stayed in place. “The point of dating is to get to know to someone. To get to know them and see if you’re compatible. To see if you want more from them. If you want a future with them.  And the way I see it Mycroft, you and I have been dating for a couple of years now, yes?”

Dumbstruck in the reality that his dreams just might be coming true all Mycroft can do is nod as he waited, knowing there was more.

“We - well I - didn’t know that. I thought it seemed like you wanted to for a while after I was divorced, but you never actually asked. And as you now know - I have never asked anyone before. So when nothing happened, I tried to tell myself you wouldn’t want me, but now and then you smiled that smile… And this snail finally realized I was so tired of looking in other faces when all I want to see is yours.”

The hand on Mycroft’s chest had slowly travelled to cup his face and Mycroft was transfixed staring into the eyes that stared into his.

It was only natural when Mycroft found his hands have gently rested on Gregory’s hips. As much as he is screaming on the inside to just DO something. He understands that this ONCE Gregory needs to be the one to do this. He’s waited so long for this; he patiently waits a little more. 

“I know what I want is you, Mycroft. And I do know you. And I do know we are compatible. And I do know I want more… And I do know I want a future… So no, I am not asking for a date - I believe we’re well past that. What I am asking for…” Gregory closed his eyes and took a breath. When Gregory opened them again, the resolution in them is rock solid. “Mycroft Holmes, I’m in love you and for the first time in my life *I* am the one asking: will you be…mine?” 

“Yes.”

Mycroft softly brought his lips to Gregory’s at last.

The kiss is soft, slow, almost languorous… As if neither can believe the moment is happening.

Then Gregory’s tongue slides across Mycroft lips asking, begging for entrance and the kiss becomes – more…

Knowing at last the wait is over.   

[pahrak-the-sinnoh-slizer]

Game Night: Cassette Beasts

Pokémon fans threatening to find a new monster taming series is like Americans threatening to move to Canada: we’ve all said it at some point, and for completely valid reasons, but the reality is that it just isn’t that easy to pick up and go.  For me at least, it’s hard to pin down exactly what it is about Pokémon that’s central to my interest in it, so I’m not quite sure what to look for in other monster tamers.  At the very least, when something like Palworld rolls around I can easily tell that it’s not that.  The last several Pokémon games have been some of my favorites, but I’ve remained curious about the genre at large; unfortunately these games are innately a rather large commitment, which doesn’t pair well with my indecisive uncertainty.  All this to say, while I was definitely intrigued by Cassette Beasts when I first heard about it years ago, that intrigue never actually went anywhere…until now.

I believe I recently heard someone toss it out as a recommendation on a stream I was watching, which is why it stuck out when I was browsing the Games Done Quick channel on YouTube.  Out of curiosity, I wound up watching the speedrun.  I then poked around the official wiki a bit and came to realize this game could be very appealing to me specifically.  And BOY was I right about that!

Before we get into it, spoiler-free tl;dr: Cassette Beasts both wears its inspiration proudly on its sleeve and iterates upon it in many truly fascinating ways, with an atmosphere that switches effortlessly between delightfully cozy and creepy cool.  I have some gripes, but I have been thoroughly entertained and downright mesmerized playing this game.  If you have any interest in monster tamers, pixel art indie RPGs, and/or cosmic horror, I highly recommend checking Cassette Beasts out.

>PLAY

The game first asks you to customize your character, sans outfit—that comes later so you’re not entirely overwhelmed right away.  There’s also an option for pronouns, including he/him, she/her, and they/them, which is lovely to see.  You are then dropped onto the shore of a mysterious island, and are found by a girl who tells you that you’ve landed in a different dimension.  So, yes, technically an isekai.  But this is a limbo-esque world that only has humans because they keep falling into it from time to time—every single character is either from another world, or was born to parents who are stuck here.  That, combined with making your character’s explicit goal “find a way home”, excellently avoids the most common pitfalls of the genre and lets you assess it without preconceived notions.  What’s really interesting about this is that people are pulled from many different worlds, and from various points in the timeline: you have characters talking about the Mars landing of 1969 and the 20th century peace treaty with the elves, and also famous Greek philosophers and Karl Marx.  I love how eclectic it is, and it’s frequently used in really funny ways. (You all remember Diogenes, right?  Guess what traits are shared by all the monsters he uses.) The people brought here have all banded together in a mutually supportive community, with everyone contributing what they can and materials like wood and metal being traded for goods as opposed to using money.  Why do we want to go home again?  This sounds like a nice place to live!

But anyway, we’re here for the monsters.  And in-game they are just called “monsters”, never “Cassette Beasts”.  Which strikes me as odd.  But the monsters have been in this world way longer than the cassette tapes, which are actually a relatively recent arrival courtesy of an isekai’d shopping mall.  Rather than catching a monster, you record them on a blank tape, meaning that even if you are successful you’ll still need to defeat the monster or flee to end the battle.  You then use your tape and cassette player to take on the form and powers of the recorded monster, and fight your battles first-hand!  Pokémon briefly flirted with this idea in a spin-off manga (Pokémon ReBURST), but here it’s fully embraced; this sort of approach can be seen in other aspects too, as we’ll see later.  After learning the basics, you’re given a few major questlines and then set free into the open world of New Wirral, tackling whatever catches your attention as you romp around.  There is some level-scaling, though I’m not sure of the specifics.  Regardless, both it and enemy AI can be adjusted via Settings, and you can also turn off the glitch effects that show up if those are impacting your experience.  In battle you control both your avatar and one of several recruitable partners, and can carry up to six tapes at a time—essentially Doubles format, with all the complexity and chaos that entails.  One very interesting wrinkle in the formula is that in addition to the tapes/monsters having health bars, the humans also have their own health bar, hidden under that of their tape as if the tape’s HP was a shield meter.  If attacks overkill your tape, the excess damage is dealt to your own HP, and if you lose all of your HP then you’re done regardless of how many tapes you have left.  It’s an important extra resource to keep in mind, and the same is true for (most) NPC cassette-users: if you deal enough damage to their own health bar you can defeat them without having to get through all of their tapes.  Until the late/post-game, that is, where your human foes are invulnerable beneath their tapes while you very much are not, and that feels very unfair.  I also find it strange that there’s no item for restoring your human HP—campfires to rest at are fairly plentiful, but it’s still somewhat odd.

Each monster has one type, and rather than limited uses for each of its moves, both characters generate AP every turn they can then spend on certain attacks.  Moves also each have a type, but while there is a same type attack bonus (STAB), it’s not as significant as it is in Pokémon.  Naturally, each type has advantages and disadvantages over other types, but!  Weakness and resistance is also toned way down, and is not your primary goal when using type advantage. Type interaction is far, far more nuanced in this game, involving the entire spectrum of ailments and buffs and debuffs, and even changing the target’s type.  For example: Water extinguishes Fire, temporarily reducing its attack power.  Using Fire on Water creates steam, which heals Water over the next few turns.  Fire also melts Ice, changing it to a Water type for a few turns.  And this is all just barely scratching the surface!  A chart showing these interactions is given to you in-game, which is nice; more than that, whenever you discover a new interaction for the first time, a tutorial box pops up and elaborates on the effects, as well as providing an explanation of why (extinguish, steam, melt, etc) that goes a long way in keeping track of them all.  While a fantastic feature, it can get repetitive at times: the mystical Astral type has identical interactions with all four classical elements, and despite all 4 being mentioned the first time, you’ll still get that same text box explaining that interaction 4 times.  Types range from the usual suspects (Fire, Water, Air) to some very…surprising choices (Glass, Plastic, Glitter), plus Typeless moves that take on the type of the monster using them.  Moves are treated as stickers applied to your tapes, and can be peeled and moved at your discretion; you obtain them either from leveling up a tape, or from shops and chests and drops.  Leveling up monsters (from 0 to 5 stars) also increases their max AP and how many move slots they have, and I think slightly increases their stats?  Your human characters, though, have their own stats which increase as you level them up from 1 to…well I’m not sure exactly but it exceeds 100 at least.  I couldn’t tell you the exact mathematical way the two sets of stats interact, but it’s a neat idea, strengthening yourself as well as the tapes you collect.  Your partners gain experience even if they’re not with you, and thank God they do, otherwise it’d be a pain to spend proper time with each and every one of them.

There’s one other major battle mechanic unlocked at the end of the tutorial segment: Fusion.  After filling up a meter, your avatar and partner can fuse their monster forms together to unleash hell upon your enemies.  Monster sprites were made modular so that the game could automatically generate fusions on its own, meaning that there are in fact over 16000 different fusions you can make, and your bestiary will keep a list of them all. (Thank God there are absolutely no incentives for filling that list!) Fusing will also cause whatever music track is playing to gain vocals, which is a fun way to up the presentation factor.  Your relationship with your partner is key to Fusion: its measured from 0 to 5 hearts, and you need at least 1 to be able to perform Fusion at all.  At 2 hearts, you gain a super move.  Every level gained increases the stats of your fusion as well.  It’s a fun mechanic to mess around with, even if a lot of the fusions can look a bit derpy—small price for the sheer flexibility of the system.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Pokémon fans have been enamored with fusion since at least B2W2; I doubt it’s coincidence that Cassette Beasts chose to implement it as a Mega Evolution-esque gimmick.  Once you get to the late/post-game, the NPC fights also gain access to Fusion, giving you a chance to figure out ways to play around the feature from the other side.

Like I said before, this game greatly expands upon a number of fan-favorite concepts from Pokémon, and I’m pleased to say that extends all the way to Shinies.  Every monster has a small chance to be a “bootleg”, with not only a different color scheme, but a different type.  There are a total of 14 types in the game.  Do you see where this is going?  Every single monster has 14 variants with different types and color palettes (even their original type, weirdly enough?).  And every single one has a page in their bestiary dedicated solely to tracking how many of these variants you’ve found.  Probably nightmarish for a completionist, but holy shit is that insanely cool!  Multiple palettes to choose from instead of being stuck with just one that might suck!  And they have mechanical differences to incentivize recording them beyond simply collector’s value!  Fantastic!  There are also various ways to increase your odds, all the way up to 20% in specific cases, which I imagine will entice quite a few players into the hobby of bootleg hunting.

Let’s see, what other mechanical topics can I cover before moving onto more story-related stuff?  Field moves are a thing—you obtain them by recording a specific monster, and in the case of some like the glide you’ll partially transform when it’s activated.  I think it strikes a nice balance: it’s dependent on what you yourself have actually recorded, but doesn’t ask you to dedicate move or party slots to it.  Their approach to evolution feels simplified: when you rest after getting a tape to 5 stars, you’ll be prompted to “remaster” it if applicable, rather than having to guess which level you should be aiming for.  There are a few wrinkles when it comes to branching evolutions, but only a few, and mostly come down to either having a certain move on the monster to change its remaster, or, after choosing to remaster, being given two options right there.  Those options can be a bit vague, though; I looked into it ahead of time, and if I had gone with the option my gut opted for when remastering my starter, I would have gotten the less cool-looking monster.  I also want to mention the loading screens; you know how The Sims lists random stuff on its loading screens?  They do something similar here, except they’re all related to one of the monsters: “Directing Traffikrab”, “Tuning Kittelly”, “Sharpening Ripterra’s knifeclaws”.  It’s a little thing but I find it charming, and perhaps a bit devious in making players curious to track down these various monsters being teased.  Oh, and selecting the Flee option will tell you your percent chance to flee, and even if you fail you can still choose to blackout if you really just want to get out of there.  There’s also a Mystery Gift analogue that’s been used to distribute various bootlegs, and things I haven’t even tried like the “Gym Pass” to customize your player character's stats.  Beating the game also unlocks customization options for future playthroughs like randomizers and permadeath.  There’s a LOT.  It’s a very packed game.

Right then, story.  There are two BIG big questlines, one of which being a setup similar to collecting Gym Badges: there are 12 special NPCs all over the map who give you a stamp when you defeat them, but rather than specializing in a certain type, they tend to have a favorite tactic they employ in battle.  One of the easiest to find specializes in moves that create defensive walls; one particularly annoying one prioritizes controlling accuracy and evasion; there’s even one who specializes in just one particular monster with an elaborate signature move.  It’s perhaps not an enormous difference, but again, it’s nuanced.  There is also a “Champion” fight at the end, but I won’t get into that.  More importantly, the questline that the game is largely centered around and leads to the end credits, is the hunt for hidden subway stations that house powerful, eldritch boss monsters known as Archangels.  Apparently, when humans first wound up in New Wirral, they didn’t know what to make of the monsters and tended to refer to them as angels or demons.  That fell out of fashion as the community came to understand monsters better.  The Archangels, however, cannot be understood by human minds.  Each one is drawn/animated in its own style that clashes with the world around them—your partners all say that it hurts just to look at them, and just being in the stations makes them feel uneasy.  A personal favorite is the claymation skeleton with a vertical mouth, to give you some idea of what to expect.  These fights have their own unique mechanics, and the Archangels tend to hit very, very hard; if you do survive, some floating guy in a red coat with a 3D rendered reflective triangle for a head shows up and absorbs the boss (concerning), and you’re given part of a riddle that will eventually lead you to the final dungeon.  The vibes are incredibly at odds with the typical overworld gameplay, and I mean that in THE best possible way.  The Archangels were a real highlight for me.

In addition to those, every partner you can recruit has their own questline, which can range from a single fight all the way to finding 6 hidden locations around the map with their own substantial battles to win.  The girl who finds you at the start of the game, Kayleigh, is your first partner, first having a quest that’s essentially “finish the tutorial” before switching to a more personal quest that involves dealing with an actual cult.  You’re also very early on pushed in the direction of Eugene, who has that long, long quest finding hidden locations all over the map.  Slow-going as it is, though, it’s about fighting off a horde of capitalist vampires who are trying to establish a housing market, so.  That’s fucking hilarious.  But it has stiff competition in Felix’s quest, where you follow his middle school OC brought to life as she journeys to four sacred altars to slay their guardians.  That’s right, Felix’s edgy anime OC, an angel demon catgirl ninja named Kuneko, is also up and about in New Wirral and he is mortified by this discovery.  Excellent questline, no notes.  Another partner you’ll run into fairly early is Meredith; her quest involves navigating a dungeon you probably won’t get to for a good while, though it’s a solid dungeon when you do get to it.  There’s also Viola, the character from Twelfth Night by William fucking Shakespeare, whose search for her brother takes her into a haunted shipwreck to face a villain from a different Shakespeare story.  New Wirral is very eclectic.  But perhaps least expected of all is Barkley the dog.  One of your playable partners is a dog.  His quest is the shortest and an utterly fucking brutal punch to the emotional gut.  Anyway I like all these folks, they’ve got personality and endearing character development that touches on some personally relevant topics.  Aside from Barkley, you can romance any partner after maxing out your relationship level, and that was a tough choice to make.  The Gym Leader analogues are sufficiently quirky for their role, and you meet a handful of other perfectly fine recurring characters—including a few who are only encountered in post-game quests.  If I’m really being strict here, I don’t think I’d say any of this game’s characters have jumped the ranks to new blorbo status, but take that as you will.

The post-game has an interesting structure to it.  You don’t unlock any new areas, not really, but after engaging with the newly-unlocked sidequest board for a bit, you gain access to a few longer questlines.  There are two that eventually come together which each feature their own new characters, one following the direct consequences of actions you took earlier in the story, and one that’s about someone new being dropped onto New Wirral, showing that the world keeps turning even if your particular story is over.  There’s also another questline which delves even deeper into the background lore of the game, and that’s something I’ll never get enough of.  The repeating sidequests are brief and rewarding enough to from a satisfying gameplay loop to disguise the grind, and I’m only just now considering an extended break after nearly 70 hours total gameplay (which I would guess is around half post-game).

Oh, I should also talk more about the bestiary and completing it!  Each monster has the standard flavor text and habitat listing, plus that page that tracks bootlegs, and a list of how many you’ve encountered/defeated.  However, when you raise a tape to 5 star level, you also unlock an additional page of flavor text, usually something related to the inspiration for the monster’s design.  While heavily scaled back, having this sort of progression in the bestiary reminds me of doing research in Pokémon Legends Arceus, and I very much appreciate that.  Going that far is optional, of course—really, doing anything involving the bestiary is optional.  But the game does nudge you in that direction and reward you several times along the way.  When you first encounter the “professor” character, he gives you a series of quests that just ask you to record one of the monsters found in the central region of the map.  Easy!  From there, he gives you a handful of resources and tapes every time you hit a new milestone of 10 monsters recorded.  In the post-game you can also randomly get quests asking you to get a certain monster to 5 star, or perform a specific fusion, or use a specific monster to fight the professor’s assistant, all slowly, slowly nudging you in the direction of completion.  But what’s really interesting is that you don’t necessarily have to fully complete the bestiary to get the grand prize (this game’s equivalent to the Master Ball).  Cassette Beasts originally had 120 monsters.  A later update raised that to 128, and some time after that, they released a DLC that added a handful of unnumbered monsters.  You get the Master Tape by recording 128 monster species.  So, if you record a bunch of the DLC monsters, you can “complete” the bestiary without tracking down every last monster in the base game.  If you do go beyond that, the completion percentage will actually go over 100%, which is so weird to see, but in a cool way.  It seems the intention was specifically to not make completion increasingly difficult as new updates are added, which is honestly pretty rad!  And, again, though I appreciate the bestiary remembering all of your fusions, I’m so glad there’s nothing incentivizing you to from every last one of them.  Same goes for bootlegs.  So, does this mean future updates/DLC with even more monsters are on the way?  No clue.  But they are working on a multiplayer update expected to release soon! (I don’t have Switch Online so I won’t be able to do much with that lol.)

I did purchase the DLC right away; I was confident I would enjoy the game enough I would want it eventually, and buying them both together was slightly cheaper than buying them separately. (The bundle also comes with a cosmetics pack but it’s nothing that interests me personally.) After progressing through the main quest enough that you become able to access the final dungeon, a small boat washes ashore, and you’re able to ride it to a dock in the middle of the ocean housing some sort of carnival.  The ringmistress asks you to explore the three major attractions and beat their power sources, the “Infernal Engines”, into submission.  Despite being a small area it’s still just as open-ended as New Wirral, an effort I appreciate.  You can tackle the attractions in any order you want, even leave in the middle of one to go do another if you prefer.  The place is also populated by several new monsters to record, including one of my personal favorites, a ghostly book monster named Hauntome.  It’s a few mini-dungeons, some solid bosses capping them off, and then one last boss, with a loose story in the background that has some connections to the main story but isn’t anything essential.  I don’t know if I’d go as far as to call it a must-buy, but it is fun, and inexpensive, and more Cassette Beasts.  Up to you.

There are two major themes I picked up on during my playthrough: community and art.  The people who’ve ended up in New Wirral, in spite of coming from countless different dimensions, have all banded together to support each other and however many newcomers show up; they don’t even ask for anything in return, they just value life and want to be sure people are cared for.  The theme that plays in Harbourtown is transparent about this: “we’re all in the same ship […] but at least we’re together […] I don’t know you but we’ll make the most of / wherever we are now”.  Fusion is about literally joining with someone to create something stronger than either of you could do on your own.  There are even some genuinely scary twisted manifestations of this idea, like the Mournington cult and the truth behind the Landkeepers—people crave community, and there are some who will use that to their own advantage.  It’s baked into the motivations of all your partners, and, switching gears, most of them are heavily connected to art too!  Felix is an artist learning he doesn’t need to be ashamed of his past, less “polished” work.  Kayleigh, after addressing her regrets with Mournington, reconnects with her old hobby of playing guitar.  Meredith actually takes things in a different direction: she used to spend all of her time consuming vast quantities of art to the point that it cut her off from her community, showing that you still need to exercise moderation when it comes to art.  Viola is a character from another, pre-existing work of art!  The Archangels play into this as well: one of the biggest things setting them apart is the way they clash with the rest of the game’s art style, and their nature as incarnations of humankind’s ideas is a delightfully malevolent spin on the whole thing.

Taking these two themes together, Cassette Beasts presents a thesis on our responsibility to our fellow people and how we can all find our own way to fulfill it, with a particular focus on art and how it broadly conveys our ideas and inspires change.  The final boss fight punctuates this beautifully when, after Aleph destroys your cassette player, Morgante awakens and tells you that you don’t truly need the cassettes.  “THE ABILITY TO MANIFEST YOUR WILL TO ALTER REALITY…TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD, AND YOURSELVES...THAT LIES WITHIN YOU.”  Then she and ALL of your partners fuse with your avatar, and through your combined might, you strike down the malevolent forces in your way, secure a path home, and bring a huge, fundamental change to New Wirral as its inhabitants now have the option to decide if they should stay or go.  It’s an extremely satisfying ending, even if it does see you and your partners going their separate ways.  But, who knows?  Given a few tidbits from the post-game, it sounds like we just might get to meet them again someday.

Again, I had a really, really great time with Cassette Beasts and highly recommend it.  It’s charming, its fun, and it’s only $20!  Maybe don’t get it on Switch, though, not if you can’t stand frequent load times.

And, just to brag about my bootlegs a little:

-The random free bootleg from Harbourtown was a Glass-type Dandylion for me

-The freebie Ritual Candle netted me a Water-type Glaistain!

-The post-game bootleg starter, I got a Poison-type Candevil

-Was able to use the mailbox to get a Fire-type Undyin

-And obviously there’s Barkley’s Ice-type Pombomb

-The first one I encountered purely by chance was an Astral-type Jellyton

-Air-type Jellyton

-Ice-type Carniviper

-Astral-type Carniviper

-Fire-type Traffikrab

-Plant-type Squirey

-Ice-type Boltam

-Lightning-type Snoopin

-Poison-type Kirikuri

-Glass-type Scubalrus

-Glass-type Spooki-onna

-Lightning-type Dominoth

-A Fire-type Piksie

-A Glitter-type Picksie

[tvmigraine]

Random Doctor Who RPG Facts about the Paternoster era

A possible Time Lord is still alive in Victorian England. Running the Diogenes Club is Dame Regina Smythe. The club itself is able to change size, miraculously gain rooms and have its interiors change on a whim, making it appear as a TARDIS. The game suggests they could be a Time Lord who's been chameleon arch'd, but I like the idea that it's an incarnation of the Doctor.

The Artful Dodger was a real person - specifically, they were Sam Swift the Quick (The Woman Who Lived). He isn't immortal but he ages at an incredibly slow pace (basically making him Jack Harkness). He looks after street urchins called "The Raggedy Children" while continuing to do crimes.

There is a giant Labyrinth underneath London. One suggested theory is that it's a dying TARDIS, due to its ability to traverse through history when travelling through it.

Madame Vastra and the Doctor both stopped a Krynoid Pod from hatching in London.

Ada Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror) has her own K-9. Their K-9 is an actual dog that's telepathic.

The political history of Who is further complicated by a wholly new Prime Minister for London - his name is Nathan Fairfield.

There is a female splinter of Scaroth. Her name is Scarlett Valentin and she is both an actress and opera singer hailing from Paris. The book states that she stole her skin from a prostitute in order to specifically appear young and healthy.

A splinter of Clara works for Torchwood - her name is Rhona Austen. It is suggested that she was only recruited as bait for the Doctor, but she is said to be a capable Torchwood member.

Jackson Lake's TARDIS (Tethered Aerial Release, Developed In Style) is available for aerial rides above London. It is now a business run by a brother-sister duo called Henry and Charlotte.

The Silence are a threat in London - specifically there is one called The Revenant Reverand, who uses his position hiding in a church to place suggestions into people's minds.

One of the main plotline hooks they offer is continuing the adventures of Victoria Waterfield, exploring what she did after leaving the TARDIS. It is not what I expected in this book.

Saving my favourite pint for last... there is a Dalek hiding in the criminal underworld called "The Napoleon of Crime". He was pulled out of the Time War following the events of The Evil of the Daleks and is trying to return to the TIme War. After acquiring Cyberman technology (The Next Doctor), he uses it to try and build a Time Corridor and get back into the Time War.

He has two lieutenants - the first is Mister Steele, a partially converted Cyberman who's fighting against his programming. Because of that programming, he is still planning to build a new Cyber-King and convert London, but fights against this so he can remain loyal to Napoleon. The second lieutenant is Miss Lovelace, a clockwork robot that is almost fully human that is entirely devised to be a rival to Steele, all for Napoleon's continued entertainment.

Napoleon also has an alien army thanks to his collected alien wares. On top of Cybershades, he now has Chessmen - pawns in his games that are controlled through Cyberman, Clockwork Robot and other alien technology. He has recruited The Revenant Reverand and Scarlett Valentin before, along with the Borad who is still alive!

Notably Napoleon commissioned the Borad to create a Dalek clone as a form of company - he eventually managed to create Josephine. She has a scrapped, bulky shell made from leftover pieces, being dubbed a "Steelclad". She was originally a woman named Lyssa Marden who the Borad "saved" from a fatal accident, although she does not realise what she's been turned into.

I love this character - he enjoys being a leader of the criminal underworld, especially being a nemesis for the Paternoster Gang (the book suggests Napoleon unconsciously sabotages his own plans because he would enjoy remaining in Victorian London).

Cubicle 7 beat Big Finish, this is way more fun.

[boxohobo]

Rereading Nightingale's field notes to refresh my memory and I remember this little tidbit. Apparently he just calls Cynthia Lady Diogenes off handedly and it's a reference to a greek philosopher from ancient times.

I jokingly threw out once whether Nightingale actually knew all of those authors he kept calling Alan or if he just googled them for the bit but now a far more entertaining thought crosses my mind.

What the dude was a literary major and couldn't get any work with it and had to go into law enforcement instead?

[dolphin1812]

We’ve reached the first Grantaire ramble! Here are some interesting and/or funny lines:

“Ecclesiastes says: ‘All is vanity.’ I agree with that good man, who never existed, perhaps.”

We’ve already read about how Grantaire is contradictory and his disrespectful attitude toward religion (his jokes about the cross in his introduction). Here, we get an example of both of those at once. He questions if Ecclesiastes (also a part of the Bible) was real, which would probably offend the religious sensibilities of more devout Christians, but he’s agreeing with him as he does so, thus affirming the words of the text. 

“Caligula made a horse a consul; Charles II. made a knight of a sirloin. Wrap yourself up now, then, between Consul Incitatus and Baronet Roastbeef.”

I don’t understand the reference with Charles II, but the wordplay is at least entertaining.

“ As for the intrinsic value of people, it is no longer respectable in the least. Listen to the panegyric which neighbor makes of neighbor.”

This suggests that he’s upset by the lack of community and callousness toward others that he observes in his daily life, but that his response has been cynicism rather than action. He even makes a reference to cynicism as a philosophy later on, joking about Diogenes’ cloak.

“Virtue, granted, but madness also. There are queer spots on those great men. The Brutus who killed Cæsar was in love with the statue of a little boy. This statue was from the hand of the Greek sculptor Strongylion, who also carved that figure of an Amazon known as the Beautiful Leg, Eucnemos, which Nero carried with him in his travels. This Strongylion left but two statues which placed Nero and Brutus in accord. Brutus was in love with the one, Nero with the other.”

Given that so much of Grantaire’s introduction was about his adoration of Enjolras and was filled with allusions to ancient Greek figures associated with homosexuality, it’s not surprising to see what appears to be another reference to queerness. It’s also not surprising that Grantaire’s attitude here is unclear, as he’s always full of contradictions. On the one hand, Brutus’ love for a statue of a boy is portrayed as a “spot” on his character, marring his image of virtue. Grantaire, though, just questioned the meaning of virtue itself, claiming that it was linked to violence (the “slayer”) and was determined by the victor, not by one’s character. Moreover, Brutus’ love of the statue of the boy is equated with Nero’s love of a statue of an Amazon (a woman), suggesting some level of equality between their loves. Consequently, this story could be less a commentary on queerness from Grantaire and more an instance of his general rejection of love, mocking Nero’s affection through the comparison with Brutus’. It could be a continued criticism of virtue, too. If “virtue” is violence and destruction, then love is a “spot” on virtue, even though love is typically thought of as a better trait.

His cynicism is a product of despair as well, as we see from his admission that he’s “sad” in between all his other statements. He’s still very petty, though, continuing to speak even after Bossuet silences him.

I admit that I don’t follow the references to theater and law in the other discussions (aside from the Charter), but it does give us an idea of the range of interests here. Les Amis may be bound by republicanism, but they not only have different opinions within that, but different hobbies and priorities. Grantaire’s in his own category (disavowing politics and also ranting in a very specific way), but Jean Prouvaire’s interest in mythology is really distinct from the focus on mistresses in Joly and Bahorel’s group, which is also different from the definitive political focus of Courfeyrac and Combeferre here. This isn’t to say they couldn’t all discuss these subjects - Grantaire is definitely knowledgeable about mythology, and Combeferre is basically interested in everything - but it still says something about how they choose to spend their time when they’re not doing activist work. It also gives us an indication of who’s closer to whom, even if they’re all friends. On top of that, the list of discussions (theater, politics, love, etc) gives us a feel for what a Parisian café was like at that time. It’s a wonderful way of giving us a sense of place while helping us get to know the characters.

Courfeyrac burning the Charter in the middle of all this is so funny. Combeferre, with his belief in gradual progress through education and small social changes, really tried to defend it (albeit “weakly”), but Courfeyrac was feeling chaotic, and the fire was right there.

[nicklloydnow]

“Like his ancient predecessor, the Cynic Diogenes of Sinope, Cioran turned his poverty into a badge of philosophical honour. For the most pressing needs of his body, he would rely on the kindness of strangers and the generosity of friends. He wore other people’s hand-me-down clothes or entertained them with his wit and erudition in exchange for a meal. He would do anything, except take a proper job.

Doing nothing in a world where everybody seemed busy doing something – anything – struck Cioran as the only lifestyle worth pursuing and defending. A life devoid of action and practical ambitions, of distractions and busyness, is a life in which room has been made for meaning: ‘Anything good comes from indolence, from our incapacity of taking action, executing our projects and plans,’ Cioran wrote. And he behaved accordingly. When a journalist once asked him about his writerly routines, his answer was candour itself: ‘Most of the time I don’t do anything. I am the idlest man in Paris … the only one who does less than I do is a whore without clients.’

(…)

Having thus received ‘the revelation of the universal insignificance’, Cioran decided that the best possible social existence would be a parasite’s life – a loser. In a meaningless world, he observed, ‘only one thing matters: learning to be the loser’. Embracing loserdom, making the most of it, becoming one with it, became the great project of his life. Cioran aspired to be a loser as single-mindedly and passionately as others aspire to make a name for themselves in business, academia or politics. For he realised early on that loserdom puts us in the best position to understand how society works, and how it can surreptitiously turn our sociality into a form of self-enslavement. Most important of all, loserdom gives us the key to life’s best-guarded secret: at its core, the world – and we in it – is nothing but a failed project. Let me elaborate.

We fail all the time, in things large and small, yet our biggest failure may be that, as a rule, we don’t understand failure. And since we are not equipped to think about it, we can’t grasp its broader significance in our lives. A long evolutionary history has hardwired us to go blindly for whatever increases our chances of survival in the world, and therefore to chase immediate success. Brooding over failure, just as brooding over our finitude and mortality, doesn’t improve our chances of survival. Failure is the sudden irruption of nothingness in the midst of existence, and contemplating nothingness, while spiritually enlightening, doesn’t make much evolutionary sense. That’s why when failure happens – and it happens all the time – we instinctively tend to move on, without paying much heed or studying it in depth. This must be one of failure’s sweetest victories over us: on a deep level, we are designed to fail, and to fail badly (including our final failure: physical annihilation), and yet we are conditioned to remain blissfully unaware of failure’s darker message because our thinking can’t come to terms with it, just as it can’t come to terms with death itself.

Take the Beckettian quote about failing better, which self-help gurus, entrepreneurs-turned-spiritual-masters and other ‘life hackers’ repeat with abandon. Nothing is easier, if you listen to these sages, than to stumble upon spectacular achievements after experiencing disaster. On this view, failure is always pregnant with fulfilment, like a quarrel between lovers, which makes their eventual reconciliation all the sweeter – a little trick meant to spice up an already grand relationship. What these people always fail to mention, however, is what comes right after their favourite failure quote. For there is, for Samuel Beckett, something even better than failing better: failing worse. Going down and going under. Capitulation. Looking for an exit. Expiration. Here’s the larger context of his novella Worstward Ho (1983), which, as a rule, is conveniently left out: ‘Try again. Fail again. Better again. Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse again. Till sick for good. Throw up for good.’ Failure doesn’t necessarily lead to success, but to even more failure – abject, painful, unbearable failure. Did I mention that Beckett was Cioran’s friend? ‘Amidst your ruins I feel at home,’ Beckett wrote to him once.

This sugarcoating of failure is part of a larger societal process. Everything that is unpleasant, disturbing, depressing in our culture is neutralised, sterilised and promptly taken out of view. Not so much for mental health reasons as for economic and social ones. To be productive members of society, to be able to make large amounts of money and to spend even more, to take loans and to pay them back with interest, we need to be hooked to a ‘positive outlook’. Capitalism doesn’t thrive on loners, depressives and metaphysicians. No respectable bank will lend money to a client today who may snap and go Henry David Thoreau tomorrow.

Navel-gazers can be dangerous elements. And so can philosophical nihilists. Should their numbers be left unchecked, they could undermine even the most industrious of communities. That’s why such antisocial tendencies must be watched closely and weeded out as needed. An impressive army of therapists, wellbeing coaches, yoga instructors, self-help experts, entertainers, educators, entrepreneurs and other charitable souls is deployed to make sure that we don’t ever stumble upon the dark side of existence, let alone look the void in the face, as Cioran used to. This is problematic even when it comes to us through the mediation of art or literature. The great books that explore the abyss of the human soul (the mediocre ones never go there) now come with ‘trigger warnings’. Inhaling serious literature is apparently as dangerous as smoking. Granted, this sugarcoating industry has turned life in modern society into a highly artificial affair and largely a mockery, but most people don’t seem to mind. For mindlessness is another important dimension of modern life.”

[bethnalgreen]

The Preston and Child Books

Welcome to my corner of Tumblr, and my first-ever post. Sorry about the length!

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

I can't even remember when I first read "Relic," the first novel in what became the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It was probably sometime in the 1990s. I do have specific memories of reading "The Cabinet of Curiosities" in the summer of 2002. My sister and I had just moved to New York City, and I was working at Barnes & Noble. You could borrow any hardcover book from B&N to read as long as you put a protective book cover on it. I spent several late nights reading it in our sublet, scared half to death and definitely entertained.

For the next six years, I was a passionate fan of these books. I even managed to snag an audiobook version of "The Book of the Dead" before its official release date (not from B&N) because I was going to be on a plane that day and wanted desperately to read it ASAP.

It's hard to believe that's been almost 15 years ago. I'm still reading the P/C books, and looking forward to them, but I've found myself increasingly disappointed in them.

I don't want to just dump on them. I write for fun but have never finished a story, and I truly applaud the imagination and dedication evident in even the books I truly dislike. (And there have been a few. I give every P/C book a second chance, but it doesn't always make me like it more. The novels I love have been read at least half a dozen times.)

The sticking point for me in the last half-dozen books or so has been the character of Constance Greene (she's so special she can't just be a Green, she has to be a Greene.) She's like a female version of Agent Pendergast, minus the empathy, charm, and any other personality trait that makes him tolerable.

Pendergast can be a pill, that's for sure. But I always manage to root for him, because he does occasionally show signs that he's human. Constance may as well be a robot ... actually, that could explain a lot. Pendergast's outrageous intellectual and physical feats can be explained to some degree by his wealth, his education, his experience in special forces, and his FBI training.

Constance, on the other hand, was picked up off the street at age six by a sociopath. He molded her into exactly what he wanted in a companion. She had more than a century to practice the harpsichord, study languages (Gaelic, really? How convenient), and read hundreds of books on esoteric subjects. She apparently never left the house during that time, which is why her physical feats really beggar belief.

As much as I like "The Book of the Dead," this crap with Constance started then. She'd been a long-term shut-in, but she somehow was able to track Diogenes all around the world, get the better of him in Florence despite his meticulous planning, and outthink him on the slopes of Stromboli.

From there, it's only gotten worse. She's become an "all-knowing ninja," to quote someone on Reddit. She can fire a machine gun after watching (with ill-concealed boredom, no doubt) a man show off the weapon for a few minutes. She can swim, even though she couldn't just a few weeks earlier. She becomes an adept at Chongg Ran after a few lessons (of course she does!).

And what makes it all worse is this gross quasi-romance that's taken up too much time in the series. Constance has convinced herself that she's in love with Pendergast, and she won't take no for an answer. (He's told her "no," with words and body language, more than once.)

If Pendergast has to have a romantic partner, doesn't he deserve better than a short-tempered, monomaniacal sociopath? This woman threatened to kill him in "Blue Labyrinth" for reminding her about her dalliance with Diogenes, then planned her own suicide as he lay dying in the hospital. She saves his life because she's obsessed with him and is dependent on him.

I haven't yet read "The Cabinet of Dr. Leng" -- given how Constance-centric it sounds, I've decided to get it from the library instead of spending my hard-earned money on it -- but I'm hoping the trilogy is a way to gracefully get rid of her. Have her fall for a man back in the 1880s and stay there. Hell, have Diogenes pilot a spaceship from Area 51 back into the 1880s and whisk her off to Mars!

She's taken up enough space in this series. Please, guys, just ditch her already ...

Favorite P/C Novels

Relic, Thunderhead, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Still Life with Crows, The Book of the Dead, Fever Dream, White Fire

Least Favorite P/C Novels

Brimstone, Cemetery Dance, Crimson Shore, Obsidian Chamber, City of Endless Night, Crooked River, Bloodless

[cooledtured]

REIGN: The Conqueror — Madhouse Studios’ Medieval Futurist Anime

Anime ahead of its time, REIGN: The Conqueror (アレクサンダー戦記 [Arekusandā Senki]) is a Madhouse Studios (One Punch Man, Death Note, Trigun) gem deep in its back catalog. Based on a novel by best-selling Japanese author 荒俣 宏 (Hiroshi Aramata), it’s the story of the rise and ensuing battle against Persia of the ancient world’s greatest emperor, Alexander the Great.

We’ve an engaging cast of characters which are all, at least in name and relation to him, accurate to ancient accounts. Onscreen are King Philip II of Macedon and his pagan queen Olympias, both rearing Alexander to one day assume the throne. Alexander finds adventure alongside many friends including Ptolemy I, his most trusted general of the fearsome and mighty Macedonian army. Carrying Alexander to victory is his famous black stallion war horse, Bucephalus, who takes down soldiers and assassins with golden armored mechanical muzzle and hooves. Also in this epic is Alexander’s personal tutor and famous ancient philosopher of the Western World, Aristotle, driving story subtext and plot. In fact, many memorable philosophers are there, such as the cynic-philosopher Diogenes “The Dog” and the ghost (or “essence”) of Plato.

One interesting dynamic to REIGN: The Conqueror is we never quite know if we’re watching the past or the future unfold. It subverts any familiar timeline, suspended in a surreal and timeless period where fantasy elements abound, such as shapeshifting spirit alchemist factions (like the Pythagorean Cult, bent on hopes to assassinate Alexander), cloud resident titans and elemental gods. While undercurrents of electricity and advanced technology are part of this world, battles are won by horse cavalries, swords, spears and shields. Landscapes are adorned with moving walkways and extreme architecture. Flying machines course the sky. This is medieval futurism at its best, and Madhouse Studios probably couldn’t have chosen a better art designer to create such hypnotizing and impossible juxtaposition. That animator’s name is Peter Chung, the very same Aeon Flux legend himself.

Perhaps none of the ethereal themes would have been so elegantly animated, or as moving and entertaining, without Peter Chung (IG: @peter_k_chung) at the helm of this multi-nation anime project. Chung’s animation is influential for many. Those less familiar with his work, you might be surprised to know his portfolio includes some of the best and most popular animation of the last 35 years. Notwithstanding his well-known MTV series, Aeon Flux, his animation and collaboration is responsible for the original Transformers TV show, the title opening sequence for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and also co-designing Nickelodeon’s Rugrats. Chung’s art direction and contribution is part and parcel to the stunning visual imagery and magic you experience in REIGN: The Conqueror.

I could imagine this 13 part series landing perfectly among today’s anime and post-Game-of-Thrones era. But it aired on WOWOW and Adult Swim a little too ahead of its time in ’99 and ’03. REIGN: The Conqueror challenges watchers to sit back and enjoy the beauty of anime that’s packed with style and memorable story, makes you feel anime in a visceral way. It will surprise and intrigue you.

Enjoy the series on YouTube here!

JEFFREY WELLS | Writer

POP-COOLEDTURED SPECIALIST

818–394–0023 | cooledtured.com | info@cooledtured.com

[myfavouritecroft]

@cuttingcanine || starter call

 ♞–What a despicable thing, to have to deal with public events and getting out of his beloved stationary havens. Really, this time of evening, Mycroft would much rather spend at Diogenes. The only thing to get him out of his office with no regrets would be keeping his brother out of trouble-- but that seems to not be what's happening right now.

      However, his brother was supposed to be here, somewhere. Not that he is easy to spot. The night is dedicated to Scotland Yard to make connections with outside offices of law enforcement. Pathetic pleasantries and biting off more than one can chew, if you ask the elder Holmes brother.

      His invitation was expected due to his government status and making sure his eyes and ears were paying good attention. Not that it was clear what he did, or him advertising it. For now, he simply sat at his assigned table, drinking. This will do for now-- or... well, it would-- if his table was not currently entertained by a particularly sloshed high ranking officer. Mycroft turns slightly and whispers to the man sitting by him.

      ❝Would rather go deaf at this point...❞

[imaginependergast]

Re: Angel of Vengeance. It’s the 1880s. Diogenes is there, ready to break bad. Aloysius spent a large portion of the previous book getting stoned. Given these things, if no-one ends up off their face in an elegant yet slightly sketchy opium den, I will be extremely disappointed. 😂

(I think I’m only half kidding lol)

I swear I remember somewhere in Cabinet/Leng D'Agosta and/or Hayward casually mentioning during the Helen trilogy when Pendergast just did a shit ton of blow* in the Dakota and everyone just kept filtering in like the world's slowest, shittiest intervention.

I don't think we'll see opium den Pendergast brothers (but I agree that would be entertaining). I really, really hope we get hilariously awkward brother moments where each of them are just aware of the sexual tension between themselves and Constance but no one wants to say anything and Constance is just so above it all.

[tv-moments]

Ripley

Season 1, “II Seven Mercies”

Director: Steven Zaillian

DoP: Robert Elswit

[denimbex1986]

'Ripley, a new eight episode Netflix original series starring Andrew Scott, premieres on the streaming service this Thursday, April 4th.

Andrew Scott (Fleabag), recently nominated for an IFTA for his performance in Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, can next be seen in Ripley. The eight episode series based on characters by author Patricia Highsmith, whose work has previously been adapted as The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Ripley follows the titular grifter living in New York and Italy during the 1960s, as he is hired by a wealthy man to begin a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.

Scott plays Tom Ripley, Dakota Fanning (The Watchers) plays Marge Sherwood, and Johnny Flynn (The Lovers) plays Dickie Greenleaf. Writer Steven Zaillian (The Irishman) is the showrunner, director, and producer of the new miniseries. Scott, also serves as a producer on the series with Enzo Sisti (No Time To Die).

Ripley is co-produced by Showtime and Endemol Shine North America in association with Entertainment 360 and Filmrights. Executive Producers are Zaillian, Garrett Basch, Clayton Townsend, Guymon Casady, Ben Forkner, Sharon Levy and Philipp Keel of Diogenes.

Ripley premieres on Netflix this Thursday, April 4th.'

[redfoot08]

Diogenes Sitting in his Tub. Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1860 CE)

I've chosen the painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1860 CE) of Diogenes sitting in his tub because I can relate to his story. Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek Cynic philosopher who walked around the marketplace of Greece (and later Athens) to find an honest man. Diogenes believed that the citizens of Greece and Athens lived in a fabricated world of manners and kind gestures for the purpose of burying the unifying naked truth of reality. He believed that the culture itself was a cradle for unprepared minds against whole truth. He would travel the streets of Greece or Athens (depending on the window of time) and beam a lantern into unsuspecting citizens faces to grill their dedication to formal interactions, steadily breaking down their cordial persona. Diogenes goal was to prove that what people called `manners' were simply lies used to hide the true nature of the individual. Fast forward to the year 2024 and we can see how this idea of manners, being a mask of deception, is propagated throughout our own culture. I really like this painting because it depicts Diogenes living in his tub, surrounded by lesser creatures, signifying that they may be the only ones listening. I relate with it, especially when looking out into the world and wondering if the pursuit of truth is dying. We live in a technological age of fabrication where media is being generated and not created. Determining what is truth and what isn't seems to be becoming a harder and harder task. A few examples of this include the gender crisis, America's two proxy wars, the possibility of election frauds during presidential elections, and a surprise epidemic of a new deadly virus. As Diogenes may have pondered before, I wonder if these major events, among the lot, could have been prevented or lessened if people were more oriented towards truth and action than simply observing and anticipating their next session of entertainment.

[obiternihili]

there's something about the "work is necessary and also good actually" argument levi is trying to make but goddamn does she suck at it, like, so incredibly so, it's embarrassing

like the thing is those premises can be true while it also being true that much of labor is actually bullshit and not part of the labor that is good or the labor that is necessary. and that usually work fetishism spirals into protestant work ethic/soviet forced labor/ayn rand shit, and more importantly anti disability bullshit

there's more shit fetishists in the world than i wish i knew about but they still aren't enough to run a sewer system and that's a job that's not going away under socialism or communism or anarchist libertarian whatever the fuck. And that's not the only job like that - there's a reason we pay doctors, lawyers, and the like so much. Yes CEOs and shit are grossly overpaid but so much real work is tedious, stressful, uncreative, complicated shit just barely functioning as is. And like yes we're overproducing food thanks to a few miracles in agriculture technology (that actually have some really deleterous effects on the environment but that's here nor there) but also that every world economy is ***really focused on making that happen right now.***

And like have you ever really compared the things you do as a job versus the things you do for hobbies? Or tried to turn a hobby into a side hustle? It's just... night and day the rate at which things get done when you have deadlines vs when you can just blow it off to play a game. And I still can't actually wish "turn your hobby into a career" on anyone because of how soul killing that is.

People aren't going to do the necessary things just because they want to. That doesn't make "don't work? then starve" moral or even per se necessary. But like, it's the Maoists and Polpotists and iirc Suharto's regime also? and such who took the attitude that being a doctor was just a function of how people spent their time and shit. It's not an inherently insano tankie position to be like "maybe we should incentivize labor"

But even more psychologically, there is a kind of a fundamental... something, Dasein, idk - to being able to contribute to society according to your ability. It's several orders of downriver polluting from that that you arrive at work is good. But it's not work, per se, it's not the capitalist material conditions or the communist material conditions or whatever that makes it good. The blood on you hands in fact makes it bad. The necessity of it makes it bad.

But like altruism at its core is one of those things that make us human. Not that rats don't try to untangle each other, but humans take it to an extreme not seen in the paleological record or whatever. It's the expression of that, even if it's somewhat symbolic and abstract that is Being Human; that is, living according to our nature, in the way Diogenes wouldn't have appreciated but would have recognized as following his logic to eudaimonia.

Like take this

there's a charge that gays don't contribute to the next generation, therefore they're parasites. But that isn't true even under that reasoning; we work, we pay taxes, we take care of family by babysitting or being their for our siblings or parents, we create demand and therefore jobs for food, housing, entertainment, all the needs. Even the non-humans like the penguins can adopt orphaned eggs, or perform actions benefitting the group and their genes indirectly. Like, I mean, most ants you meet are infertile, let alone questions of gay or straight or whatever.

Disabled folks run the gamut of abilities. Like as cringe as the euphemism might be for some, differently abled is meaningful in its own ways. And from that the logic that makes gays something nature has repeatedly 'evolved' applies as well. Disabled people create demand, and from their own abilities the physically but non-mentally impaired frequently contribute especially to the arts and hobbies - entertainment, stuff we need to lessen the impacts of stress, etc.

If nothing else they create someone to love. In a capitalist framework that means little, sure. But like

that whole altruism is human thing? the most human thing about it is when bones started showing up in the fossil record of people who survived injuries that left them completely disabled or bones old enough that their abilities to contribute to society through menial labor or what not fell away long before their death.

sabes que, "actualization is important" o cualquiera

going all "work is a virtue in and of itself" is cosmically missing the point; it's what that work is an expression of. Altruism.

like maybe it's a me thing? I had a cat not too long ago. I was taking developmental psychology stuff in conjunction to linguistics and a lack of siblings or cousins being the right age at the time led me to thinking of her during exercises and shit. So not only was I attached to her, I let some part of my brain get *really way far too* attached to her. Then she died at the age of 2 from cancer. And now my brain is pretty broken. And like, I kept trying to think of the things that made her special to me and such. Like it's true she was an easy cat who'd let you move her when necessary and she was good. But at the end of the day I have to face that she was just a cat. She didn't really have time to really show a special personality. She didn't "do" anything except be there for me to feed treats to or give toys. She didn't "mean" anything in this goddamn world except what she meant to me. So like maybe there's a fucking existentialism argument based in all of this

like the material conditions blah blah blah. the value of food is very low when you're on hospice. the value of food is how much you want it. maybe the fucking basics of supply and demand under scarcity follow from that! maybe it doesn't and the value of labor is nothing. Maybe "someone needs to work" is dependent on the subject of that predicate! idk

it's certainly an empirical problem that other people are rating people's abilities to do things. Like, you don't feel what they feel! You don't know their thoughts or life histories or prejudices or empirical limitations of their doctors! fuck anyone legislating you into position!

maybe there's a real fucking systemic injustice that people are even allowed to, let alone how they're required to, do something they're empirically incapable of doing!

Maybe that's a sign that the system needs to be destroyed? But then who would dole out welfare at all? Maybe that's a sign that system needs reform? Only to be legislated right back into place by the deluded people who Do Not Understand What It Fundamentally Means To Be Human

Maybe it's a complicated, complicated problem that needs to rank and value many "competing access needs" or whatever you call this kind of payoff matrix where lots of people lose no matter what gets normalized.

Here's my go: Disability Protections > right to food, shelter, and the minimum needs required to Work On Your Mental Shit > necessary work > work people do to thrive or whatever > etc

i guess the best society i can imagine that would be sustainable as I understand world needs at the moment would guarantee everyone at least a living wage with people like farmers, doctors, sewer workers, etc earning enough to afford reasonable luxuries others can't afford, and empower people who like working or what to turn their hobbies (whether that's underwater basket weaving, fashion for poodles, making videogames, or like architecture or linguistics or teaching or whatever) into something serious, living somewhere in the middle.

at the very least if you read this rambling, disorganized rant i hope at least you take away that This Is Actually A Complicated Problem And Not Just Some Commie Being A Dumb Asshole Again

[mundanethoughtsfromastudent]

10.3.22

just saw a few guys in the middle of the clapping circle, figuring out that it makes a different sound in the middle vs. on the outside. they got extremely excited. maybe there is still good in the world? i will conduct my own research.

sidebar - figure out the mechanics of the clapping circle.

a second sidebar - my profile picture will no doubt change as i mature as a person. currently, Diogenes of Sinope holds the coveted role, one of my favorite and no doubt the most entertaining classical Greek philosopher.