#Maintaining her work's cultural relevance?!?!?

[james-is-nasqueer]

why the fuck is hp trending. 3 million tag followers. why am I surprised, fucking pathetic

[lesmana-enterprise-ltd]

Our Story, Meet the Lesmanas.

Meet the Lesmanas—the family behind the powerhouse that is Lesmana Enterprise. As the driving force behind one of the Simworld's most influential companies, they blend tradition with cutting-edge innovation. Led by patriarch Kieran Lesmana, every member of the family plays a crucial role in sustaining their empire’s global reach. From Tyo, the poised heir, to Mia and Amira carving their own paths, they embody the essence of wealth, influence, and responsibility. The Lesmanas are more than a family—they are the foundation and future of the enterprise.

(Left)

Kieran Agung Lesmana Birthdate: March 12, 1966 (58 years old) Occupation: CEO and Chairman of Lesmana Enterprise

As the head of Lesmana Enterprise, Kieran oversees the massive business empire that his family has built. He's a shrewd and pragmatic leader with a vision for the company that spans decades. Despite his strict and focused demeanor in business, Kieran often finds himself enjoying his late-stage life, yet he maintains control over his image as the powerful patriarch of the Lesmana family.

(Right)

Seo-Yeon Lee

Birthdate: October 7, 1997 (26 years old) Occupation: Celebrity and Shareholder in Lesmana Enterprise.

Seo-Yeon, the wife of Kieran, is a social media sensation and an ex-Spop artist. Her role within the Lesmana family has elevated her into elite circles, but she maintains a vibrant public persona. She often enjoys the luxuries being a new Lesmana offers, but behind the glamorous facade, she’s sharp and calculating when it comes to maintaining her status.

(Left)

Tyo Saputra Lesmana

Birth Date: January 12, 1989 (35 years old) Occupation: Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Lesmana Enterprise

Tyo Saputra Lesmana is the eldest son and COO of Lesmana Enterprise. The chosen heir to lead the family business, Tyo balances corporate pragmatism with family tradition. A firm but steady leader, he works to shape the future of the enterprise while maintaining the family's legacy. Married to Clara, he’s often the anchor in family affairs, though the weight of the business constantly looms over him.

(Right)

Clara Ivanova Lesmana

Birth Date: April 17, 1990 (34 years old) Occupation: International Lawyer

Clara Ivanova Lesmana, born into a multicultural heritage of Indonesian, Russian, and Ukrainian descent, is Tyo's no-nonsense wife. With her international legal expertise, she brings a sharp perspective to the family. Clara's strong demeanor complements her role as a devoted mother and wife while navigating the intricate dynamics of the Lesmana family.

(Left)

Anindita Dianti Lesmana

Birth Date: February 7, 1992 (32 years old)

Occupation: CEO of Lesmana-Unternehmen Windenburg AG  

Anindita, also called “Anin” serves as the Lead of the Enterprise’s projects in Windenburg such as The Windenburg Royal Cathedral Restoration Project. Her work focuses on historical preservation and infrastructure projects. With a strong sense of family tradition, she is respected for her meticulous attention to detail.

(Right)

Arthur-Satria Lesmana

Birth Date: August 1, 1996 (age 28) Occupation: Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of Lesmana Enterprise

Arthur-Satria Lesmana heads the creative division at Lesmana Enterprise, responsible for marketing, branding, and the company’s public image. Known for his vibrant, carefree lifestyle and connections to the world of influencers, models, and pop culture, Arthur brings a modern flair to the family business. While his approach sometimes clashes with the more traditional values of the family, his innovative strategies have helped keep Lesmana Enterprise relevant to a younger demographic.

(Left)

Mia Citra Lesmana

Birth Date: January 15, 2004 (20 years old) Occupation: Influencer and Shareholder in Lesmana Enterprise

As Kieran’s fourth child, Mia is still figuring out her path in life but enjoys the perks of being part of the Lesmana family. She’s currently pursuing a degree at Del Sol Valley State University while being an active Simstagram influencer. Known for her luxury lifestyle, Mia enjoys her status but can be perceived as tone-deaf when it comes to the reality outside her bubble of wealth.

(Right)

Amira Malinda Lesmana

Birth Date: June 7, 2008 (16 years old) Occupation: Student and Shareholder in Lesmana Enterprise

The youngest of the Lesmana family, Amira is still in school and balancing her life between being a teenager and growing up in a powerful family. She is slowly gaining traction as a social media personality, often appearing in Del Sol Valley events and sharing glimpses of her life online. Despite her privileged upbringing, Amira is exploring her identity and figuring out where she fits into the family's empire.

(Left)

Liam Mas Lesmana

Birth Date: June 16, 2016 (8 years old) Occupation: Elementary School Student

The eldest child of Tyo Saputra and Clara Ivanova Lesmana, Liam is growing up under the guidance of his ambitious parents. He's intelligent, a bit mischievous, and already shows signs of being quite the negotiator like his father. Liam enjoys being the center of attention among the younger generation of Lesmanas and is often seen shadowing his father during corporate visits.

(Right)

Rania Putri Lesmana Birth Date: February 10, 2019 (5 years old) Occupation: Kindergarten Student

The youngest member of the Lesmana family, Rania is a playful, curious child with a bright personality. She's doted on by her older sibling, aunts and uncles, always the center of affection in the family. Rania is already learning how to balance her mixed cultural heritage and often mimics her mother Clara's no-nonsense attitude in a more innocent way.

[our-lady-of-haymakers]

Watching IFTV and it's really fascinating to see the way Claire's attempts at bullying bounce off Rei's thirst because once you get past the comedy of "Joke's on you, I'm into that shit", there's this persistent and perhaps even radical subersiveness to their whole dynamic, which lies precisely in the sense that it gets to act as a dynamic?

Claire's bullying is often an attempt by her to mobilize the apparatus of noble hegemony upon those she sees as undeserving and inferior, an act of humiliation in which she exposes and "corrects" what she perceives to be an irregularity in the hierarchy and therefore derives purpose by upsetting the position of another, a (dis)placement that draws upon the aspects of the public execution, the symbolic decapitation of a reputation, to re-enact and re-establish aristocratic authority in the theatre of classes and ideas that is the academy.

When Rei responds to this not by defending herself in terms of the dubious categories of essence or ability that have propped up this profoundly unequal society, but by doubling down on the theatricality of the ritual humiliation, by embracing its exhibitionistic aspects and transforming it into a heightened platform for the declaration of her queer identity, she accordingly elevates her queerness by its encounter with a hegemonic power that it refuses to be categorised or stereotyped by, and indeed subsumes the thrust of Claire's inquisitions and degradations into her gleefully transgressive play of performances (doubly relevant given that she knows she's in a game), attaining freedom through stock characters, writing herself and Claire into a complexity not afforded to them by the original text by flipping the script.

While Claire attempts to bring the abstract and lofty ideology of the aristocracy, the hyper-public common sense of inequality that is enshrined in law and culture, into the arena of public interaction, hoping to make an example out of Rei, to make an upsetting reality conform to the script she's been schooled in, Rei moves in the opposite direction, and brings the private into the public, politicising the otherwise concealed, downplayed or ritualised matter of sexuality and attraction into daily life where it cannot be ignored. While Claire strives to strip away what she sees as false pretensions to expose the true essence of people underneath, believing that it shall confirm the differences she's been raised to believe are inherent in the classes, Rei turns these attempts at revelation into a symbolic eternal striptease, revealing always another layer, another exposure that turns back on the one who hungers to strip away, turning their desire into a dependency, a "not yet" that lets Rei set the world to her own timepiece.

As such, Rei integrates at one stroke the fact that she loves women and the fact that Claire loves aristocracy, yoking the two into a similar level of political importance, the genius of which is that it works two ways. On the one hand, it renders Claire's bullying and class violence an act of seeming kinkiness and indulgence rather than the sacred duty of the chosen few, an "Oh my, not here, darling, you're so demanding today!" in which Claire is framed as a dommy queen going to great lengths to maintain the roleplay, an actor who clearly likes her bit in this French-nobility-themed drama a bit too much, hamstringing entirely any authority she might demand outside the context of the bedroom. On the other, by putting forth the perspective that all the ritualism and pomp of aristocracy is just that- rich kids playing dress-up and not at all the solemn proceedings of the gifted elite, Rei also strikes a symbolic blow against the cult of nobility, puncturing the gravitas with which they appoint themselves protagonists in politics, and exposing in her invocation of roles the possibility also that these roles might change, that any day now the next set of domineering and imperious rulers might not be of noble birth at all, and the day after the troupe may put on a different production entirely, forgetting in their fun all this now-outdated talk about empires and princes.

While Claire is of course initially incensed and disturbed by this, given that Rei challenges and erodes the entire purpose of her identity-affirming tactics of bullying and challenging usurpers, making her wonder if she is truly entitled to any grander obedience and special status at all, these ideas of fluidity and performativity might also represent for her a chance at change and escape, a route out of the crumbling palaces of a decaying royalty. If she is not in fact essentially and transcendentally the daughter of a noble house, then she also needs not act like one, and could be anyone she pleases and be with anyone she's pleased by. Rei's queerness therefore represents a challenge and threat to the entire system she is housed and mantled in, but also offers her a path to happiness as a person, a right to joy and love that is freely given to all who live and needs no grounding in nobility- indeed, it is only by the destruction of her mythos and iconography, that terrifying and liberating act of blasphemy, that she can become human and therefore go on to become a freak, the making-by-breaking that is promised by the queer revolution, a transcendent transsexuality, a metamorphosis that makes all reality into the cocoon that it shall soar free of, feeding-as-needing, desire as production and a new genesis.

In short, I Favour the Villainess boldly asserts that loudly loving evil women is a vital step in the revolution, and that's such an important message. "I Can Fix Her" as "I Can Create a World Where She's Just a Travesty and not a Tragedy". Wanting so badly to give a bitch head that you rescue hers from the guillotine. "My favorite Girlfailure was Marie Antoinette". Simply an excellent premise.

[just-antithings]

I stumbled upon an interesting article on vox which talks about toxic fandoms. Although it’s more about celebrity fandoms, I think it works for online fandoms too. The same author has already written about antis too (“Puritanism took over online fandom - and then came for the rest of the internet”)

The vox celeb article described how modern fan culture shifted away from worshipping aloof and unavailable Hollywood stars from afar and towards complex entanglements and the people they “stan”

the author argues that it’s because of social media, YouTube and twitch making amateur gamers and streamers more popular. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the author claims that these people have 0 training or preparation for how to deal with their new fame and devotees that come with it.

social media made celebrities even more accessible and gave fans with extreme tendencies to connect and mobilize en masse. Nowadays “fans” stalk celebrities openly, proactively and proudly, they often also reject the idea that what they’re doing is wrong or is causing their fave serious discomfort. One celebrity even said they felt like (their) fans consume them as content

but it’s not just fans who are at fault, sometimes celebrities will subtly lean into the ever blurring lines of their parasocial relationships with their fanbases, usually this is done for marketing and promotion purposes.

but this lean-in is catastrophic and has led to real tragedies. The fans feel like they’re entitled to the celebrity themselves, whether that’s through stalking, harassment, refusal to stop filming them or getting handsy and wildly inappropriate. Many intense fans seek to control and direct their favorite stars’ private lives, even to the extend of shaming them and performing backlash against them when they try to have lives of their own outside of their public persona

and what do we or celebrities do when fans form increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories (for example how all proshippers are pedos in disguise who are lurking in every fandom) that distort their sense of what’s real, all so they can maintain their collective narrative in the face of opposing information?

the author suggests that we should do what Chappell Roan did with her extreme fans: call them really weird. It’s a tactic used by the left to emphasize how far outside the norm the extreme (political) views of their (celebrities) or our (antis) opponents are. And I know calling them “weird” is an understatement because they have become far more aggressive, but maybe it helps making others aware that this behavior (of theirs) is not okay

unfortunately this article is paywalled (I could access it by attempting to translate it via google, then switching back to the original), and it’s called “Chappell Roan and the problem with fandom”

that sounds very interesting and relevant! pro tip: you can also try copying and pasting the link into the way back machine to try to get past the paywall

[sundasystems]

1. The Letter That Started It All

On a sunny day in late May, I received a letter from someone whom I'd corresponded with on a story years earlier. The letter was confusing and fairly alarming. I will attach it here:

Something is going on here. I'm missing time. I can't seem to remember what my job is, but I know I've been doing it. And I get all warm inside when I think about work. A little voice in my head is saying I'm doing a good job. But at WHAT? I wake up at night from dreams that… I can't remember. Or won't remember. Or don't want to remember. My clothes don't fit anymore. When I ask the people here who used to be my friends they all tell me not to worry. That it just means I'm settling in to the job. I don't think I want to settle in. But I also can't seem to leave. Please help me. Emily Voss

Emily had recently taken a job at Sunda Systems, a global conglomerate with it's research headquarters in a North Carolina town known as Eden Springs. Her position was that of an Administrative Assistant in the Optical Research Division.

According to a phone call I'd had with her just after her hiring, she took this position in early April after having been recruited by another employee. I believe his last name was Varas, though I am admittedly basing that on an unremarkable memory from months ago.

That phone call was the last I spoke with Emily until this letter arrived. That was not uncommon. We were not very close friends, just acquaintances and occasional collaborators. She wasn't one to kid around very much, but I couldn't shake the idea that this was all just a practical joke.

Something in the back of my head was convinced that nothing bad could be happening at Sunda. After all their motto is "Connected in Harmony." I have a Sunda modem and router combo here in my apartment, though I'd never given it a second thought until I began this project.

It is for this reason, and a deep regret, that I ignored her letter for days. But it kept nagging at me and so I decided to do some cursory digging. After the glowing reviews from top brass in various governments and corporations, I found a small post on a forum devoted to conspiracy theories. I will post it's contents here:

Does anyone think it's strange that S*nda S*st*ms has a positions listed on their job boards seeking psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists? Any company that big has got to be up to no good.

The post is still visible in it's archived form, however the user, who went by w3bofli3s_222 made no posts after that one, and their account has been deactivated. No contact information was available for them.

For their part, that did appear to be true. The job listing website "Karear" contained the above listing for a Behavioral Psychologist who would be making six figures.

What would an internet infrastructure company need with a behavioral psychologist? And what work would they be doing that would allow them a bonus?

Out of curiosity, I inquired. Two hours later, I received a phone call from an unlisted North Carolina area code. The following is a transcript of the relevant parts of that call:

R: Hello there! My name is Reggie. I'm so happy you're interested in the psych position. How can I be of assistance. I: Hello Reggie. It's nice to hear from you. My name is Helen, which I'm sure you know from the form I filled out. I've been job hunting and I was wondering what exactly the job entails. R: Of course I'd be glad to explain everything. Have you heard of our company before? Perhaps you've used one of our devices? I: Yes, my internet provider uses your routers. R: Wonderful. Then you know that our mission is to make the world Connected in Harmony! To that end, we employ several psychological experts to act in concert with human resources. We have some of them monitoring employee morale and productivity. Some act as advisors to help us maintain healthy work cultures. And some act as councilors that are available to our staff. I: That is quite impressive... R: The position we are currently seeking to fill would be one of the advisory roles. We want our employees to be as relaxed and comfortable as possible while on the job. It's very important to us that our employees feel at home here; that they can breath easy and lose all their stress. Would you agree that's important. I: Yes... I would... R: That's good. It's important that prospective employees share our values, the first of course being Connected in Harmony. When people are together, they are understood. When people are understood, they fear less. And when people fear less, they relax more. I: ... R: Helen are you there? I: What? Oh sorry yes! I was just looking at my notes. Now the website mentioned a bonus structure? R: Yes, that's something that we could talk about that more in-depth during a formal interview. We like to reward our advisors when things are running smoothly. If employees are happy, then the psych team is doing it's job well. I: Okay well I think I have what I need for know. Thank you for taking the time to talk. R: Of course. I look forward to seeing your application soon.

It was an odd call. I found myself almost nodding off as he spoke, though I was sure I'd gotten a full night's sleep. I came away from it believing that things couldn't be as bad as Emily made them seem. Sunda was a good company determined to do good in the world.

Right?

But as I logged into my computer, I noticed the little light was on that signals the webcam was active. I checked through all my open windows and nothing should have been accessing the camera. And as I stared at it, confused, it blinked off.

I guess it could have been a glitch, but just in case, I got a small piece of electrical tape and covered the webcam. I left the light exposed, though. Better to know than to blind myself, too.

It was such a little thing, but it was enough. Emily's letter. The weird job listing. The call that made me feel so strange. And now the mysterious webcam activation. It was too many oddities to write off.

It was time to start investigating in earnest.

[pinkscaped]

#༘⋆✿ MYDOL Hits Another Tower: MYRAH Signs With The Label After 20+ Years At Flowerbank Entertainment.

Myrah Yamazaki is a household name and is the landscape of not only K-pop but pop culture in general. Debuting in the steadily declining girl group ALLUME in 2005, she's known as one of the most iconic acts to come from the group. After graduating from the group in 2010, she would skyrocket to success as a solo artist, actress, model, businesswoman, and fashion designer, maintaining relevance for nearly 20 years in the industry.

Despite the many offers from various companies throughout the years, Myrah has remained dedicated to Flowerbank Entertainment, being treated with top priority and respect throughout her time there. She was allowed to start her own brand, "ZAKIRAH," outside of the label despite it being against her initial contract. Flowerbank's kindness to the starlet seemed to have finally bit them in the ass as she finally decided to not resign with them and instead with their ever-growing competitor: Mydol Entertainment.

Despite being established late last year, Mydol already made a name for themselves long before even having a group under their name. CEO Son Jinhwa is a long-known and controversial figure in the Kpop landscape, leaving Angelico Entertainment after running its reputation into the ground with his unprofessionalism and poor business decisions. Despite this reputation, many idols who were once under the label seem to be desperate to work with him again and go to bat for Mydol. Big names such as DeepDive and losers such as Lunarix proudly left their companies, Flowerbank and Angelico, respectively, to sign with Mydol with nothing but smiling faces and positive words about the company.

This is not the first time Jinhwa has targeted Flowerbank's roster, helping DeepDive terminate their contract with the company just a month ago and buying Bones and All's contract from their dying sublabel, Dark Garden Company. Signing Myrah seems to be the biggest blow to the company, with their stocks noticeably dropping and Mydol's noticeably rising once the star signed with the label. Rumors have been floating around that all of this is prep for Mydol to move onto Venus' contract, which has had fans up in arms since the company opened.

Despite all this controversy, Myrah released a heartfelt letter to fans and Flowerbank on her blog, which she has kept active for 19 years.

Hello. Please don't be mad at me lol This contract signing has made a lot of people sad and worried for me, but you don't need to stress yourself with my decisions. I have been working with Flowerbank since I was 16, and I will be turning 37 this year. I trained with them for only two years before I debuted in Allume, and I will forever be grateful for how kind they were to me. I didn't speak Korean, and I didn't know how to dance; all I knew was how to sing and smile for the camera. Without their guidance, I wouldn't be the star I am today, and I will never be able to put into words how grateful I am for them. When you are with a company for 21 years (do the math yourself because I'm bad at it lol) things change. They change constantly. Typically, when a contract resignation would come around, I would resign without issue, but this year, I started thinking harder about why I was resigning so quickly. They are all I know, and while I don't think that's an awful thing, I began to feel like a bird in a cage. I saw things I didn't see before, I realized things I wasn't able to do even though I'm almost 40, I started hearing the way I was being spoken to by people I thought loved me, and it all started to feel like a scam like some big facade that just came crumbling down. I have known Jinhwa for quite some time now. He's not perfect, I won't pretend he is. I don't agree with the things he's done, and I will not defend him. He's not even the one who got me to sign with Mydol; it was literally Youngheun, so I would appreciate it if you laid him off with the accusations involving him and I. I love Iseul and I love Carmen very dearly. This decision was not made lightly and was not personal in the slightest. These women raised me and made me the idol I am today and though we are no longer together professionally, they will always have a place in my heart, body, and spirit. I love them so dearly, so please don't think otherwise. This feels very dramatic lol, but I felt the need to say something to hopefully calm the masses. Thank you for your endless support. I can't wait to take you all on this new journey with me 🩷 - MYRAH

Flowerbank was not so generous. Instead, she silently removed Myrah from their roster, deactivated her PetalTalk account, and removed her photos from their company's Instagram.

Do you think Flowerbank will bounce back from this? Or is this their nail in the coffin?

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS HERE !

[lumi-klovstad-games]

Warhammer 42K: The Age of Reclamation

So, I have been working on a Warhammer 40K alternate timeline (and have been for a little bit) that incorporates my fanon Lost Primarchs and their Legions. AND IT'S FINALLY DONE. ISH. Well, the sandbox is ready for play, at least.

The return of the Lost Second Primarch, Ailani and her Second Legion, the "Imperial Hospitallers", in the waning days of M41 was accompanied by a shriek of psychic jubilation across Human Psykers throughout the galaxy. "The Time of Ending is challenged!", they cried and laughed, "The game begins anew!"

This was followed in the 42nd Millennium with a further psychic event, in which Psykers and Adeptas Sororitas both were overcome by a vision of unparalleled glory: "They have been reclaimed! The Age of Reclamation is imminent!" it was pronounced.

To the great confusion and interest of nearly all galactic powers, loyalist versions of the Traitor Primarchs and their respective Legions, iterations that represent the "Best Possible Version" of each, utterly lacking in the flaws that led the originals to Chaos during the Horus Heresy, subsequently appeared, engaged in battle against the enemies of Mankind. Over a scant 3 decades, they have been reintegrated into the Empire, though not without suspicion.

The presence of these "Reclaimed" Primarchs and Legions promises to move history in a VERY different direction as new versions of those who once fought to destroy the Imperium now rise to become its greatest champions. However, the threat presented by the Chaos Primarchs is not ended: the original Traitors still persist, unchanged, and most assuredly will not take kindly to the news of their uncorrupted and incorruptible doppelgangers.

Each of the Reclaimed Primarchs maintains a memory of what their original selves did up until the end of the Horus Heresy, but, rather than a lived memory, their knowledge and experiences are more like a bad dream they have just woken up from, and it is only as they open their eyes once more and look out at the state of the Galaxy do they realize the horror and the shame of what their original selves had done. None of the Reclaimed felt the guilt more keenly than Horus and Lorgar, who looked at the state of mankind and the Galaxy and wrestled intensely with the knowledge that it is largely their handiwork from another life.

Horus perhaps felt the need to do better most keenly. Casting aside his old name, he embraced the name "Osiris", and soon came to believe he had risen from the dead to embrace his true destiny of redemption. The Sons of Horus restored their name to the Luna Wolves, and reported for duty, embracing the Crusade to come, ready to burn their path to forgiveness and absolution across the stars, even as they were divided up into Codex Compliant Chapters by their Primarch — all the better to never to be in a position to threaten mankind ever again. But though the Luna Wolves now consist of many packs, they know how to assemble and fight as one, if needed, and the day may come sooner than they think whence such a reunion is needed.

Refusing all offers of a position of leadership out of shame, Osiris has sent himself into a grueling never ending Crusade of redemption, pushing himself to his limits to, in some way, atone for sins that are not even fully his. He does not shoulder this burden alone, and his Marines follow him on his endless quest, hoping to one day right the scales, and wipe the name of the Horus Heresy from memory and relevance, determined to atone for the Heresy, even if the quest might devour him wholly in the end. If it takes their very lives to wash away the stain of the Heresy, then they will give them freely. In the end, their aim is to ensure that the name "Horus" becomes a relic of history, supplanted by "Osiris," a symbol of redemption achieved through sacrifice and undying loyalty to the Imperium.

Lorgar has taken it upon himself to seize control of the Ecclesiarchy, and now seeks to undo the cultural damage his prior work, both as Loyalist and Traitor, had done to the Imperium. Adopting the name "Gregorium", he works tirelessly, to say nothing of working carefully yet diligently, seeking to unravel the Gordian Knot of tyranny, paranoia, and repression the Lectitio Divinatus unleashed. The Word Bearers became known as the Truthbringers, which maintained close ties with its successor chapters. All Space Marine Chapters of Truthbringer stock serve effortlessly alongside the Sisters of Battle, each side galvanized by the other's zeal and commitment to the Imperial Truth, even as High Father Gregorium steadily tries to reform and redefine that Truth to become ever closer to the Emperor's original vision.

Unfortunately, such is the ten thousand year rut that the Imperium has existed within that many prefer the backwards beliefs and the regime that is beyond even the concept of cruelty. They refuse to leave the dark hovel that has been the Imperium of Man for generations upon generations, for to risk anything else is to lose all they, and anyone who has ever lived, have ever known. And so Gregorium must move much slower than his sense of duty impels him. Ironically, this has rendered the Truthbringers’ original methods from the Great Crusade more useful than ever: no mere transhuman butchers, but builders of cities and societies, preachers of good news and pious goodness. That which originally vexed the Emperor of Mankind now serves the original plan, and Gregorium is a patient man. Whether it takes ten years or ten thousand, his soul burns bright with the sense of purpose he had always desired; he will work until the work is done, however long it takes.

Magnus assumed command of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, and began working to improve the lot of Psykers around the Imperium. He makes his immense knowledge of the Warp and the threats therein a weapon, one that is wielded by many a branch of the Emperor's Imperium of Man to terrific effect. The Reclaimed Thousand Sons take up the name of "Warpwatchers" and they and their new successors devote themselves wholly to eradicating demonic threats, wherever they may be found. Magnus does not change his name because he, famously, did nothing wrong. He does, however, adopt the title "The Just" to distinguish himself from "The Red".

Unfortunately, while Warpwatchers and their Successors who undergo the Rubicon Primaris or are born as Primaris Marines in the first place see moderately to significantly reduced rates of mutation, their gene seed remains flawed to the point of gradual but inevitable non-viability, forcing these Marines to rely upon their Father and a host of Tech Magi trained in the art of Gene Seed crafting by Belisarius Cawl himself, to provide regular donations of freshly cultured gene seed, lest the Legion and its many sons be eventually swallowed up forever by the insidious twisting of their flesh. Magnus the Just has given some consideration to the thought of taking his Father’s place on the Golden Throne as he now believes the plan had been for his original self, but has so far been dissuaded by Guilliman – there is no guarantee even the Emperor might eventually recover from such decay as his body has undergone thus far; he may simply die if removed from the Throne. Or, as the Cawl Inferior has theorized, the worst case may be that the Emperor DOES recover, but what emerges from the Throne Room may not be what went in 10,000 years ago.

Magnus has spent many hours trying to reach his father’s psyche, beseeching him to tell him what to do, and how best to apply his gifts. So far, he has gone without an answer, and perhaps that is best for his very soul. Whether this absence of communication is due to the Emperor's fading state or some deeper purpose remains unknown. Perhaps the lack of an answer is a trial for Magnus, a test of his patience and judgment, meant to force him to chart his own path and prove the worth of his gifts on his terms. For now, Magnus holds his course, his dedication unshaken, trusting that the path of righteousness and redemption will eventually reveal itself in full.

Pertuabo stepped, perhaps a bit too effortlessly, into the shoes of the MIA Rogal Dorn as Master of the Defense of the Imperium. Adopting the name "Aegis", he collaborates with Roboute Guilliman in overhauling the defensive lines of the Imperium of Man. Though Aegis is a much improved man compared to the original Pertuabo, he still takes a well earned and perhaps smug satisfaction of not just restoring Dorn's great defensive works and strategies, but also improving on them. His Iron Warriors took the new name of the "Steelforged" to indicate that they have been "reforged" without the impurities that led to their original counterpart's fall to Chaos, and made better and stronger for it. They begrudgingly accepted being divided up into myriad new chapters, acknowledging the value in smaller unit tactics, but like the Imperial Fists, retain protocols to temporarily reassemble, even so far as to full Legion Strength, should it be deemed tactically or strategically necessary. To the great chagrin of the High Lords of Terra, the Steelforged and their many successor Chapters have been significantly more liberal with these “reunions” than the Imperial Fists have been, though typically only a handful of Chapters temporarily join together, united by shared lineage and common cause. As of this time, the Fourth Legion has NOT seen fit to reassemble.

The Steelforged have once more become the tip of the spear in many Astartes operations; unwilling to sit idly by and wait for the call to react. Like the Black Templars, they and their successors are nearly always on Crusade, with each Crusading Chapter many times the regularly proscribed "full strength" of the Codex Astartes, an engine of war certainly and surely working its way from one end of the galaxy to the other towards the Imperium's greatest threats, with massive secondments to the Deathwatch and Solblade initiatives, including whole Chapters enthusiastically volunteering for the latter. Their deep involvement in these organizations stems from their belief that the Imperium must strike at its foes preemptively rather than simply react to attacks. For Aegis, the defense of the Imperium is not just about reinforcing walls and waiting for enemies to come; it’s about pushing out, taking the fight to the galaxy’s greatest threats, and ensuring that every world held in the Emperor's name is worth defending.

The Reclaimed Angron took more time than his brothers to shed himself of the expectations of pain from the Butcher's Nails that no longer afflicted him. Indeed, the memory of those torture devices now seemed like a distant nightmare that he had finally awoken from. Free to think, free to FEEL as he wanted, he shed his name of rage and violence, and took the name "Archeos", after a famed and just warrior prince from Terra's distant past. Even so, even freed to feel the scope of the complete human experience, Archeos knew he was a warrior at heart. But, no longer a rabid dog of war or a devourer of worlds, he could choose for the first time what kind of warrior he wanted to be — and his heart wept upon learning Sanguinius' ultimate fate. And so Archeos stepped up as best he could to fulfill his fallen brother's legacy, to be for the Imperium what Sanguinius had once been. His steps thus far in the role have been uneven and inexperienced, marked by a warrior’s eagerness to act and a lack of experience with statesmanship and empathy. Yet his sincerity is undeniable, and his effort to bring a new kind of honor to the Astartes is genuine.

The Reclaimed World Eaters reformed as the Spartican Brotherhood, taking their name from an oppressed underclass rebellion from ancient Terra, and symbolizing how they now exist to fight for all those who exist in the gutters of the Imperium, the selfsame gutters from which they were once lifted from to glory. The Sparticans in particular show a streak of selfless nobility and empathy towards even the lowest citizens of the Imperium in their operations that rivals even the Salamanders, though they bring with them still the same boisterous love of savage and intense combat that once defined the War Hounds and the World Eaters.

The last thing Konrad Curze remembered was his death. It was as final an end as any might have hoped for. Yet he awoke, and felt life in his lungs. And the nightmares… the nightmare visions that had plagued him from his childhood, were now tempered by visions of beauty and nobility. Somehow, the whole scope of the future now finally lay open to him. Taking the name "Lucian" to distance himself from the monster that had preceded him, he became the Master of the Adeptus Arbites, finding an outlet for his intense drive for justice, as well as an advisor to Guilliman, counseling his brother with the contents of his myriad visions.

Lucian believed strongly in reforming the Arbites and Imperial Justice, so that it might be more just, but this clashed with his strong need to punish the guilty. In the end, a massive overhaul of Imperial Justice was conceived and executed by Lucian and Guilliman, creating the Departmento Justito, in which those of the Imperium who had grown fat and corrupt feasting on the Imperium's soul like a parasite would finally all face justice, one after the other. Due to the scale of corruption and hypocrisy within the Imperium's bloated structure, it's ever maze-like and cavernous endless bureaucracies, and unwillingness to look too closely into the precise dealings of its noble houses and Rogue Trader dynasties, this might prove to be perhaps an impossible task, doomed to last another ten thousand years, but one which feeds Lucian's never-ending craving for justice. The Reclaimed Night Lords, free of their darkest aspects, took the name "Duskbringers", and became once more a force of frightening intimidation, shock and awe, and psychological warfare, much as a lone vigilante might use theatricality and deception to create an effect on a city's criminal population far greater than what he typically could have accomplished alone. The Duskbringers are more than a Space Marine force; they and their successors have become an Icon, an Idea, and one which has taught all those enemies of the Imperium which hide in shadows to fear the dark.

The Reclaimed Fulgrim and the Reborn Emperor's Children were discovered by the 3rd Company of the Redemptor Roses, a loyal Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes forged from the original Fulgrim's gene seed in the late 40th millennium. After much diplomacy, Fulgrim managed to convince his sons of the reality: that Traitor and Primarch were now two VERY different men. Taking the name "Caelum", he guides his Reclaimed Legion, now known as the Exalted Sons, down the difficult road of reintegrating with the Imperial forces, dividing into myriad chapters, and adopting the Codex Astartes into their existing combat doctrines. The Redemptor Roses, led by their Chapter Master, Gautier Boudreaux, have largely taken the lead in managing this integration, giving the Exalted Sons the benefit of their long experience and commitment with being heirs to the legacy of the Great Crusade-era Third Legion while wrestling with the knowledge and the reality of what that legion ultimately became, and their pains and efforts to avoid the same fate.

Caelum himself has taken to lending Roboute Guilliman his expertise as a natural polymath, with the keen intellect that once saved and united Chemos without firing a shot now turns to assisting his brother in reforming the Imperium and helping coordinate its massive war machine, though on campaigns of particular importance, he will depart Holy Terra to join his Sons in battle. Much of Caelum's time on Terra has been spent fussing over the quality of life of the Imperium's Citizenry, and the struggle to convince them to accept better standards than the regime has permitted them to even WANT for ten thousand years. Caelum seeks to introduce art, music, poetry, and the finer things to every level of Imperial Life, though he frequently finds his efforts stymied by the quagmire that is the Adeptus Administorum, the Ecclesiarchy (despite Gregorium's best efforts), and the Inquisition.

The Exalted Sons, meanwhile, have integrated the Redemptor Roses' fierce commitment to banishing the chance of Chaos Corruption, and they and their successors have joined in many campaigns alongside those of the Luna Wolves and the Ultramarines and their kin, and have reminded the galaxy precisely why they were once considered the apex of what it meant to be a Space Marine during the Great Crusade, so long ago. Caelum’s presence on Terra and in the Imperium’s war efforts serve as a constant reminder that redemption is a path of both creation and destruction—destroying the old to create something better. He constantly advocates for the acceptance of beauty as a fundamental aspect of life, not a distraction from it, striving to make the Imperium a place where the human spirit could thrive, even amid endless war. It is a struggle that consumes him as much as the martial demands of leading his sons into battle, but one he pursues with the same fervor he brings to every aspect of his being. In this way, Caelum and the Exalted Sons seek not only to reclaim the legacy of the Emperor's Children but to transcend it, leaving behind a legacy far brighter and nobler than any they had once imagined.

Mortarion claimed the name "Thanatos" for his own, and the Death Guard were reborn as the "Pale Hawks", the Imperium's first, and best, line of defense against the forces of Chaos and its insidious corruption. Ever watchful over the areas of the Imperium long ago neglected by the Administorum and Departmento Munitorum, the Pale Hawks rove in great Casts across the fringes of the Imperium, bringing hope and protection to long isolated worlds that have not had them in ages. To that end, the Pale Hawks and their Successors find themselves working alongside the forces of the old Second Legion, the Imperial Hospitallers, in a reborn version of the Great Crusade of ancient times - bringing the God Emperor's protection, and his intended standard of living, to even the most distant and forgotten worlds. And where Chaos might be found, the Pale Hawks find themselves working closely if uncomfortably alongside the Warpwatchers and their sons, with the sons of the 15th Legion holding much wisdom and knowledge in the matters of the Warp and its inhabitants, and bring a gift for killing them, not simply banishing them. Thanatos, though not a particularly politically-minded Primarch like some of his brothers, often advises Guilliman and the other politically active Primarchs on matters relating to Chaos incursions, plagues, or other threats that require quick, decisive action. As much of his Son's duty and role has them ministering their talents to the Dark Imperium, he must rely on the Psykers of the Astra Telepathica to communicate his advice to his brothers on Holy Terra, which, even free of his corruptive traits, is a reliance he still would vastly prefer to not have.

He must also work alongside Ailani in dealing with the various Rogue Trader dynasties and fiefdoms of the Dark Imperium, fiefdoms which, while still loyal in the broadest sense, have developed an uncomfortable ease with their own way of doing things in their long isolation and independence that frequently conflicts with Thanatos' own sense of what loyalty ought to look like. Despite the difficulties posed by these challenges, Thanatos and the Pale Hawks remain steadfast in their mission to cleanse the Imperium of Chaos’s taint. They act not only as warriors but also as healers and guardians, seeking to mend the wounds left by ten thousand years of war and neglect. For Thanatos, redemption is not an end in itself, but an ongoing struggle to make the Imperium a better place, a struggle that will continue as long as the galaxy remains a battlefield. In this endeavor, the Pale Hawks would not falter, for they had become more than mere soldiers—they were the shield against the darkness, the bringers of hope to the forsaken, and the harbingers of humanity’s rebirth.

The Reclaimed Twin Primarchs of the 20th Legion, Alpharius and Omegon, took the names of Kaleidos and Janus, though both answer only to Kaleidos for anyone but each other. Together, they are once again the Ghost Who Walks In Many Places, and their Alpha Legion has been reborn as the Lernaean Serpents, a further reference to the Hydra of Myth and Legend. The Twins have taken command of the Solblade Initiative, finding the Tyranid threat both a clear and present danger to the Imperium, but also a shifting, ceaseless foe that is truly worthy of their talents and warfighting intellect; a chance at long last for the 20th Legion to show its quality and earn glory long overdue since the Great Crusade.

While the Lernaean Serpents took to the splintering of their legion into chapters the easiest of all the Reclaimed, nobody who knows their methods is convinced for even a minute that the Chapter has TRULY divided – they are simply doing what they have always done best: breaking up into decentralized warbands, each committed to its task. Among the Solblades, Kaleidos and his Marines impart that same knowledge and wisdom to the constituent forces, teaching even the lowliest Guardsmen and PDF volunteers how to be effective combatants no matter how many "heads" are "sliced off" by such a foe as the Tyranids -- to the Solblades and Imperial Guard units trained by the Primarchs and their Sons, whether their force is 2 million men strong or just 20, they will always have a strategy to be as effective as possible, even in environments where traditional communications or the chain of command collapses entirely. “Every soldier a rifleman, every grunt an officer.” Everyone knows everyone else's job well enough to do it effectively, should the need arise to do it.

The Lernaean Serpents and their myriad warband Chapters also specialize in rapid reorganization and shifting battle plans, essentially becoming the Imperium's foremost experts on warfare against hive-minded opponents. The Twin Primarchs have seen Holy Terra precious little since their return. Their place is not on the benches of politics, but on the battlefield, proving their ingenuity and strategic brilliance time and time again against the largest, keenest mind the Imperium has yet encountered. And what’s more, they appear to be gradually winning, offering hope that, even against the ceaseless onslaught of the Tyranids, newfound ingenuity and resourcefulness can yet prevail. With Kaleidos’ leadership style finally proving its mettle under fire, their leadership is beginning to influence other Imperial forces, encouraging a more flexible and resilient approach to warfare across the galaxy. While their methods do not suit all factions or chapters, the lessons learned from the Lernaean Serpents may yet shape how the Imperium adapts to future threats, proving the wisdom of Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar: “Rules should never make a prisoner of intelligence.”

Saorlaith, the Lost Eleventh Primarch, has been the most recent Reclamation alongside her Legion, the Black Eagles. Motivated to return at long last by whispers in the weave of time, overheard in her scrying at the far edge of space. The Sorceress Queen has decided that now is the proper time to return, for it is now, and no other time, in which her people, ten thousand years in exile, finally have a future they might call their own, but such a future demands decisive action on Saorlaith's part. The dread wailing of the Carnefex now drones across hundreds of worlds, the harbinger of the Crow Queen's return.

Arriving, as Ailani did, to an Imperium who has no memory of her very existence, and led not by the Emperor, but by his struggling sons, Saorlaith casts her lot in with her siblings, for she is older and wiser, and recognizes that she can either protect her people's culture and interests from the inside, or be forced to go it alone in exile once more. Unwilling to deny her people the worthy future she had seen in her dreams, she swallowed her pride and prepared to bend the knee to Roboute Guilliman, Lord Commander of the Imperium. To her shock, Guilliman did not accept her subservience, telling her instead that she "would best serve the Imperium as you are: a Primarch, not a puppet", and that her input would always be welcome. Heartened by acceptance she had never had before, Saorlaith became a staunch ally and confidante of Guilliman, and has found that her reincarnated brothers are MUCH easier for her to find common cause with. She also took quiet relief that, at least for the time being, Leman Russ was nowhere to be found, though she does not doubt for a moment that the Great Wolf will one day return on his own, for her sorcery has told her that "the Reclamations are not yet complete."

The Black Eagles follow the Codex Astartes in some form, though it is broadly interpreted and often recontextualized by the savage and mystic warriors, resulting in one of the loosest interpretations of the text to date, but still one fairly in line with the spirit of the thing. Their roving warbands have delighted in the strength of the enemies they now face across the galaxy, a fitting trial for some of the mightiest and most competitive fighters in Imperial History, long may the crows feast on the bodies of their enemies.

As the Age of Reclamation unfolds, the Imperium finds itself on the precipice of hope, a stark contrast to the desolation that followed the Horus Heresy over ten millennia ago. The emergence of these Reclaimed Primarchs and their noble Legions reignites a flicker of optimism among humanity, rekindling faith in a future where unity, redemption, and purpose may yet claim triumph over the chaos that has plagued the galaxy for so long. The specter of the past looms large, yet the actions of these reborn champions suggest a path forward—a path illuminated by the potential for healing and the restoration of the Emperor’s vision. While the mechanisms of the Reclamation of the Traitors is not understood, for the first time in ten thousand years, the Imperium glimpses the possibility of renewal, a chance to reclaim its lost glory and forge a brighter destiny amid the stars. The Age of Reclamation is not merely an era of war, for while in the Grim Darkness of the 43rd Millennium, there is only war, hope now dares bud from beneath the corpses. Perhaps, just perhaps… all is not yet lost.

[space-blue]

Meet our scientists!

ESRA (European Space Research Agency) has officially launched the second phase of its Many Hands project.

With the motto "Manus multae, mens unum" (many hands, one mind), this scientific endeavour seeks to create and maintain small, mobile teams of recombinant scientists in the field on Pandora, in constant communication with their original donor back on Earth.

ESRA thrives to better understand the encironment of Pandora and continue the interrupted research of its many Na'vi cultures and societies.

The RDA recombinant technology allows for scientists to imprint their mind and knowledge onto multiple copies of avatars, who are awakened and brought up to date on recent discoveries while in orbit. They are then sent down to Pandora with their own individual equipment and research goals. Those are solo missions. Each avatar aims to join a local clan or tribe, for the sake of their research and survival. There are no planet-side ESRA facilities, so our researchers depend on RDA air drops for any support, like tech replacement. Communications are maintained via several relays, and discoveries regularly reported to the original human researcher, who then compiles and publishes the finished papers. They work in collaboration with our entire recombinant team to ensure the relevant exchange of knowledge and set new goals.

Eyris Makri is a an exoanthropologist with ESRA. She is part of a 5 bodied recombinant system spliced from Txepìva DNA. Her human self works in collaboration with four recombinants who underwent specialty training during the months of deceleration and approach to Pandora.

Eyris Prime (above), the lead of the mission, specialises on Na'vi communication and published 'Advanced use of volcanic plains stunbat across clans' (2168), 'History and welfare of the working stunbats of the Tau'un clan' (2170) and 'Mythological impact of the domestication and breeding of the viperhounds' (2172).

Every recombinant is deployed with a failsafe (either a neural guillotine or a heart patch), to help ensure there is no repeat of the J. Sully situation. All of our scientists sign up willingly and are sponsored throughout the shipment years. They retain ownership of their DNA and personality inprint after the creation of their recombinants.

See : research on Viperhounds

Research on Stunbats

Both conducted with Serafiina Hukkala (@straydaddy)

[bulletin-sejourne-attal]

Renaissance Succession

Gabriel Attal is reportedly positioned to succeed his former conjoint as general secretary of Renaissance (RE), following the latter's departure to Brussels to serve as Executive Vice President. This blog will maintain an archive of news coverage documenting the succession process within RE, allowing readers to trace the development of relevant public discourse and political narratives.

According to Renaissance : vers un deal Attal-Borne , initial breakthrough meetings occurred on October 23rd, followed by crucial discussions with President Macron at the Élysée on October 24th, to resolve the succession question. Subsequent negotiations continued, with one of Borne's supporters estimating a 50% probability of reaching an agreement. The outcome of these delicate negotiations remains uncertain as discussions progress- Only time could tell.

"Support for Attal continues to grow, with another minister recently declaring her backing. This follows the open letter published in L'Opinion, wherein 62 Parliamentary Affairs Delegates (PAD) endorsed Attal's candidacy, notably including the Minister of Finance among the signatories. According to Politico, Rachida Dati, the Minister of Culture, pledges to join RE should Attal become president. This could serve as his solid evidence proving his capability of uniting more allies 'from the republican cleavages'.

Another move to maintain legitimacy from the same report: According to the same report, Attal's inner circle is carefully crafting a narrative that pays homage to the party's founding father. One of his supporters offered an emotional testament earlier this week: 'His approach, since 2016, has been to stand behind a man who remains present, whom we haven't forgotten, to whom we owe our positions, and with whom we wish to continue working and advancing.' Indeed, despite the proliferation of media coverage suggesting a special bond between Macron and Attal, there has been no direct public acknowledgment from either party to substantiate these claims.

Politique : pour parvenir à l’Élysée, retour par la case présidence du parti examines how party leadership could advance Attal's rumored presidential aspirations, particularly through access to substantial campaign funding in the tens of millions. However, the analysis also highlights potential drawbacks of assuming party leadership, noting that Renaissance's ideological positioning remains unclear. Beyond the contentious stance of transcending traditional left-right divisions—a position rejected by many party members—the party faces a fundamental challenge: articulating a distinct value proposition to voters. Should Attal secure the leadership position, defining this clear political vision becomes imperative.

Throughout this succession contest, Stéphane Séjourné has maintained a notably reserved stance, despite reportedly playing a minor role in mediating between Attal and Borne. Public sources offer little insight into the nature of his intervention: whether he's advocating for one candidate's withdrawal or simply facilitating a fair competition remains unclear. Séjourné has demonstrated remarkable discretion throughout, revealing neither his position nor preferences, even as confidants continue their speculation. His ability to maintain such measured silence, even amid intense scrutiny, stands in stark contrast to the swirling rumours that characterize this political transition.

[sassmill]

Hi! Sorry, I’m a bit uneducated, could you please explain what Daphne du mauriers reaction would be to Mrs Danvers?

I’m assuming you’re asking this in reference to “I so desperately want to hold a seance and see what Daphne du Maurier thinks of what we have collectively made of Mrs. Danvers” and the answer is that it’s… incredibly complicated, and obviously ultimately we can never know—but I made this post because of the way that Mrs. Danvers has maintained relevance in pop culture for nearly a century at this point as a queer/sapphic character, and the novel Rebecca (and other of her works) are looked at from the angle of exploring gender and sexuality and repression—and all of that alongside the fact that Daphne du Maurier was very conflicted about her own attractions/sexuality. I think it’s fair to broadly state that (at least on tumblr) we collectively have made and used Mrs. Danvers as a vessel for exploring the many facets of queer desire and repression and grief and anger and all of the complexities therein—and I’d love to hold a seance where, assumedly now free from fear of judgement or consequences, I could present Daphne du Maurier’s ghost with the life her work has taken on in the time since it was published and since her death, and get an honest, uncensored reaction to it within the context of modern (at least western, English speaking) queerness.

[air3d3lalm3na]

Getting through the emotional side of the breakup now.

After the disgusting mistreatment on the way out, I was happily hardened to feeling anything about it at all. Anyone who can treat you that way, at any point, isn’t worth being with. That’s still true.

Honestly, though, at this point, it’s clear to me that she blew up the relationship on purpose to get it over with. Get the pain over right away for both of us and make it quick. Things unsaid but we both knew.

Last night remembering romantic memories from barely a week or two before it really ended. In the kitchen, singing a little song. With relevant lyrics, to her. Tossing and turning a bit. Actual emotion comes out. How quick it was and then gone. It’s hard to lay alone with her right in the next room. But after all the hideous things she did — the manipulation and attempts at control and preying on perceived insecurities — there is just no way to go back, even in a messy or “last shot” sort of way. It’s impossible. Wish I’d known when our last gentle affectionate moments were our last so I could have focused more…I suppose the kitchen moment really was getting toward the end, and should have stood out to me even more than it already seriously did.

Just missing being close and caring with each other, not even really the sex. The mental intimacy too, which she ruined, and really never understood me to start with. We did make love a day or a few before the extreme end. Still have a photo of the marks…. (The Prilosec taper was working (I was down to 1/2 of one single one per day) and my body was finally beginning to do what it should again. Now the stupid new gastro I’ve been sent to has ordered that I try DOUBLE my usual dose strength (and as far as any of them knew, two of the things per day as I was privately tapering). So this is 4 times the amount I was daily taking — twice a day, so really eight times. Ugh. I considered rebelling, but goodbye to that for now. I’ll tolerate his experiment, see what it does. And I’ll figure out how to voice my concerns on the bad side effects to my docs, and even whether I want to stay with this one, or not, later.)

Maintaining the mental strength is hard sometimes, but also very easy, as we were never fully in love, and all the bad signs were there from early on.

I just feel disappointed that this person is so married to a destructive lifestyle that will cause all of her fears for her life to come true. Even the ugly behavior is exactly that: Stagnation and a refusal to grow; an entire personality centered around fear of change, fear of everything, really. Scary seeing someone so… “neophobic” whose every pain and problem could be solved by embracing change and the new. The mother is a bit like this too from cultural conservativism (for lack of a better word) but still purports to want to deal with problems; according to her the father is much much more like this, and it directly comes from him: “It’s genetic.”

We were never going to be forever, and I never promised that but instead made it pretty clear…but I wanted to see her change and progress out of this self-wrought situation. The way I try to from my life’s externally-caused issues every single day.

It’s saddening. but the day is easier than the night.

Going to make art of that moment in the kitchen.

[findmeinthefallair]

A Look at Hunter’s Complex PTSD (Part 2)

I forgot to add in the first post last weekend that I am taking excerpts from Parts 2, 4 and 5 of the book ("What My Bones Know" by Stephanie Foo), in case anyone plans to get a copy of it.

I didn’t use anything from Parts 1 and 3, since 1 involves the author recounting her own childhood trauma while 3 is about the cultural and historical events that are tied to the generational trauma in her family and community, which she researched to find answers.

Also..with two of the Owl House specials remaining, which would definitely give us more major Hunter moments…any additions from those two episodes that relate to the book excerpts will be added as new posts, e.g. if any scenes from For The Future are relevant to this Part 2 post, I will be making a post titled A Look at Hunter’s Complex PTSD (Part 2B).

Anyhow if all this sounds confusing now, there will ultimately be one grand masterpost listing every single part. As usual, take care with the warnings of mentions of abuse and trauma ahead. Here goes, for Part 2:

Hunter’s history differs only slightly from the above. He also played a caretaker role to Belos during the latter’s rage episodes:

which shows the failure on Belos’s part, especially since he’s in the guardian/caretaker role, to own, regulate or seek his own help for his difficult emotions, but it imbued Hunter with that sense of feeling “special”. The Golden Guard role was his, and his alone. Belos could then reinforce the whole “wild magic is bad” narrative, exploit how Hunter loved to feel special and wanted, and continue abusing the boy.

But as Hunter tried harder and harder to get Belos to love him the way he wanted, he too experienced a growing vigilance and desperation that was destroying him more and more, as he was worn down further over time.

I’d say it was like this for Hunter too. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t please Belos enough. It wasn't fixing things and it felt as if he was a ship slowly sinking. As his desperation grew, you could say he ventured out further beyond established boundaries, and Hollow Mind was the culmination of the courage and support he spent the previous episodes building up.

He, just like how it’s stated in the book page above, ended up woven more into the world, sewn emotionally and professionally into a network of lives. He made trusted friends and healthier company at last. Ultimately, all those actions he took nudged him along the path meant for him, and it even ended up with him being brave enough to say this in Hollow Mind:

To ask the ultimate question, "What did you do to the other guards?". The question that got Belos to decide “Okay, time to off this Grimwalker and then make another”.

Following that heart-stopping moment, Luz saving his life, both of them escaping, and then the panic attack scene that we all remember, Hunter’s story isn’t over yet. 

With where he is now, in the middle of S3, he might be mentally and emotionally operating in a way that I can deconstruct while we wait for the next episode.

I am inclined to agree with these.

It’s just…so likely for Hunter. It was the case for me, since the first 5 years out of my 7 years of seeing therapists (2014-2020) were either just talk therapy or with ineffective therapists that I didn't trust enough. It felt more like just maintaining healthy enough functioning in my daily life, rather than having what felt like proper breakthroughs.

What Hunter needs first and foremost is to just continue experiencing the precious trust and presence of the good people he has formed good relationships with. Everyone is now in survival mode and would need the same manner of support.

Frankly, almost everyone in the show needs that too. The Isles will be going through some form of collective grief, if not already.

Processing all that has happened to him, in his young mind, will be hell of a lot of work. He can’t nicely fit all of that horror into a framework of cold logic, and I doubt the mess can be solved just by “talking things out”. After all, he has Complex PTSD: and being entangled in damaged formative relationships (Belos and the Emperor's Coven, basically) - not necessarily involving just people, or his relationship with himself, but also himself with the world - is the centerpiece of Complex PTSD.

Cold logic can't exactly help you make sense of why you lacked warmth in your formative relationships (the more technical term is "primary relationships" where your primary caregiver(s), a parent/guardian, is supposed to supply you with security and warmth in their relationship(s) with you).

The clearest analogy I can think of for how he’d need some time before talk therapy could ever benefit him, is when a computer does that thing where it shuts down outside of your control, in order to prevent further damage. When you switch it back on by pressing the power button, it usually acts as if nothing happened before that. This numbing and calmness has been essential in the short-term for Hunter to function, one example being from Hollow Mind:

because his emotions being almost completely shut down here were crucial for survival: for his legs to carry him, with Luz’s help, to escape Belos’s mind. If he didn’t have such a shutdown, he may have frozen in place due to being too overwhelmed, making it harder for Luz to shake him into being lucid to follow her, and Belos would’ve been able to apprehend and capture him all over again in the mindscape.

Survive first, fear later.

There is the possibility that with Flapjack’s death in particular, he might swing towards more dissociation than ever before. The reason why dissociation happens in the first place is because the brain, like the computer, would be overwhelmed if it stayed online any further. It’s a protective built-in mechanism to numb intense psychological pain. That computer can still work overall for some time, but boy oh boy..it would need some repair shop work at some point to even perform basic functions.

If his best friend’s death, by his hands, shocked us in the audience as much as it did, it goes without saying: he himself is carrying a massive amount of shock. The thing is..for the time being his attention is diverted to fighting back and going after Belos, making sure everyone else is safe. But we shall see how his mental state will be after the fighting is over.

This pattern of shutting down/short-circuiting and then coming back online without proper deep healing, would be detrimental long-term if it keeps happening and if it continues past the point where things start to be truly safe for him. It can sadly go on for years if e.g. a child is trapped until they move out as an adult, which would mean the road to healing is having to thaw out of several years’ worth of survival mode and hypervigilance.

To remain isolated would be the biggest obstacle in any stage of his recovery. Thankfully he is now the furthest thing from isolated, where the story left off. Check out how different the screenshots are below omg…the effects of Belos isolating him versus where he is now:

A consistent theme has been an ongoing tension between his fears and what he chooses to do anyway. It ain't just great storytelling, it also feels damn real because I'm willing to bet many of us experience the same tension in our day-to-day living.

E.g. in Labyrinth Runners, the panic attack he had:

is what made the later moment so much more powerful, when he decides to run towards fear to help Gus:

Over time, he has repeatedly made decisions where he prioritizes care for others, the desire for connection and wanting to do what is truly right, over the fear of being hurt and rejected. My personal fave example of how he worries for others’ safety is this seemingly smaller moment, but it’s honestly heartbreaking and reveals hell of a lot about who he is:

He is so terrified that Belos is back, quivering and exasperated, yet he doesn’t want Luz to call anyone else to help them: and in no way does he do this to show off or anything, he wants to protect his loved ones. But this tenacity that exists alongside his gentle spirit is what got him to rebel more and more throughout Season 2, leading him into greater danger and well..unfortunately all of that plot was also building up to what Belos did to him in Thanks to Them.

…yeah. Talk therapy is not what I think this kid needs right now, not till there is restored peace all around him. Because talk therapy requires quite a bit of usage of the brain’s prefrontal cortex - the part responsible for reasoning and logic - and it is activated when we are in conscious control of our thinking. And facts such as “My ‘uncle’ chose to lie to me my whole life” can’t be understood and analyzed in the same way as a math problem can be deciphered :’) How does one make sense of something like that?

Poor Hunter can only accept the reality that Belos chose to do all that, and a key part of this acceptance is to affirm his own strengths and believe he can accept such hard truths. To achieve such acceptance, treating his condition would most likely require subconscious work that is experiential in nature (involving deeper parts of the mind than just the prefrontal cortex) as opposed to just analyzing and taking things apart. Because I don't think simply talking about this:

on top of a childhood of being manipulated, will get this poor kid to where he'd like to be.

My former supervisor calls experiential subconscious work “heart work”, not “head work”...i.e. experiencing one’s feelings and relationships in a safe space. All of Hunter’s military training and duties are most definitely “head work”, all about strategy and withholding trust, which means “heart work” - building trust and finding authenticity in his relationships - has been a new journey for him. His network of relationships and perceptions need a major, positive reframing. And there are so many emotional wounds, oh Titan, so many from Belos.

Hunter is likely to benefit from experiential subconscious work such as the increasingly popular Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) modality for therapy, because EMDR can be an effective treatment if a client experiences discomfort in the form of physical bodily sensations whenever their trauma is triggered, though it is not necessarily for everyone who suffers from trauma. A Boiling Isles version of EMDR might involve Illusion magic...if a therapist from that Coven can draw out mental images of clients to project into the therapy room, that would be a cool simulation and cool parallel of how therapy works in our world.

EMDR was the biggest, most revelatory thing for me in my own recovery but a coursemate of mine found it to be too much and too direct: instead, she benefited from the Emotion Freedom Technique (EFT) approach which was more physical in nature and relied on tapping acupressure points on the body. Idk, maybe I matched better with EMDR because I have an innate curiosity about things, even if it has gotten me in trouble many times in life (this sounds like Hunter as well) :S Whereas EFT was the better fit for my coursemate because she wanted a sense of attachment and connection with herself via the specific sense of touch.

Disclaimer: I am not yet certified in EMDR, god it will be years before I can afford the training fees but I have been on the receiving end of it as a client in many sessions. So I am no trained expert in it at all.

We see Hunter experiencing physical distress related to his trauma, which is why the EMDR technique, that aims to reduce trauma-related distress experienced in the physical body, could be the right match for him. Since he loves the Ruler’s Reach and Cosmic Frontier, he might like how EMDR is like letting your subconscious re-tell your story as a heroic triumphant story, and the treatment feels like rewriting your painful memories while still acknowledging how they actually happened. Because the treatment helped me learn that it is possible to hold both of those in your mind.

To sum up EMDR the best I can, the client replays their difficult memories in their subconscious imagination. It relies on a phenomenon called bilateral stimulation (BLS) which is related to how making left-and-right motions (e.g. going for walks, or swimming) while holding upsetting thoughts in our heads, helps to reduce the intensity of such thoughts.

The general process involves:

Helping the client prepare an imagined safe place to go to (Hunter might choose his fave location from Cosmic Frontier, since clients can choose fictional places if they like) and if needed, a safe person (he might choose Camila) to come rescue them in their mind, in case revisiting the bad memories becomes too distressing. The therapist gets the client to experience the safe place and person, then describe to the therapist what they see, hear, touch etc with as much detail as possible. There will be several practice rounds in those safe spaces, before the client is supposed to do the same imagination thing with their scary traumatic memories in later sessions: once they are experienced with visiting their safe places.

Desensitizing the pain and distress of traumatic memories, working through only one memory at a time, where the therapist gets the client to hold the painful memory in mind while also performing left-and-right physical movements e.g. client moves their eyes left and right, following the therapist's hand motions. The therapist regularly checks in with how the client feels and also measures 1. the intensity of the client’s distress (using the Subjective Units of Disturbance or SUD scale, on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest distress level imaginable to the client) and 2. The strength of the client’s positive belief about themselves (using the VOC or Validity of Cognition scale, on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being complete trust in the positive belief). The aim is to reduce the SUD score to 0 or 1, and increase the VoC score to 7, per memory that the client decides to process with the therapist. This would definitely take at least 3 sessions per memory, based on my experience.

The desensitizing step takes multiple sessions (estimated to be 8-12 sessions for simpler traumas, and many more sessions for complex traumas) helps to make room for new positive beliefs about oneself e.g. “I am worthy of love” to take up more space in the client’s mind, while the emotional space taken up by negative beliefs like “I am unlovable” gets smaller and smaller.

In my experience as an EMDR client, you are just supposed to let your subconscious flow and alter each memory during the desensitizing, because it isn’t about how realistic the memory was, it’s about what meanings you’d like to put into the storyline of the memory e.g. going from “I deserved that abuse” to “You know what, I’m gonna try protect myself”. This means Hunter could incorporate his fave fictional scenes and elements into his own story. I found that my brain went from accurately replaying my traumatic memories, to adding in new things or replacing original parts of each memory. And best of all, I wasn’t actively choosing all these changes - I just let my subconscious run on its own, since it is outside my conscious control anyway. E.g. in a memory where my own abusive mother was yelling at me during a car ride, I saw a tall red tree (red is my fave colour and I feel strength whenever I see it) rapidly growing out of the road directly in front of us. It could cause my mother to lose control of the steering and brake hard, and I could quickly unlock the front passenger door to exit the car and run to my own safety. The most real thing about this was that I now got a taste of how it would feel to use strong boundaries with my mother in real life, and the coolest thing was seeing how my own brain went off on its own to write an encouraging story, which is what mattered and allowed my positive beliefs about myself to start taking root. It all started in my imagination, guided by the therapist.

The best way of putting it is..I realized that when the original traumatic events happened in my life, the bad events happened which then installed negative beliefs about myself (and the world) into my brain's programming, breaking my trust in almost everything except my escape spaces like gaming and art. With EMDR, after feeling the safety of trusting my therapist and my safe place, I had to let my brain create the positive version of the above: letting improved versions of those traumatic events be written by my subconscious: which helped to usher in the positive opposites of those negative beliefs.

It would be too lengthy to go into more detail here about how EMDR could help our boi, so I will instead cover that in my future case formulation post that is separate from this series. But EMDR is not the only way to reach a point of having positive beliefs about oneself. Some people may be able to reach that stage without therapy, using resources like a strong support network and doing meaningful work and activities, which is completely valid and fine as well.

EMDR was the tool that helped the book author reach her first ever breakthrough in her mental health journey. It helped her realize that stuff from so long ago, which she thought she had gotten over, needed to be revisited in order for her to start feeling love for her inner child and younger self. Feeling love for yourself and understanding self-love is very hard work, and it’s not the same as shrugging “Yeah, I guess it’s good to love yourself” and knowing it in theory as an observer.

That section of the book is sort of like how Hunter becomes more and more able to draw strength and other positive qualities e.g. courage, trust, etc, from himself, on his own. The rest of the Hexsquad and Camila came in to help and save Hunter first, which gently reinforced a healthy narrative over time that he is in fact deserving of love, getting him to believe along the lines of “You know what, I don’t want to try being useful to Belos anymore, because what he did to me and what he does as the Emperor is wrong”. This understand was further reinforced when he was the one to extend help to Gus towards the end of Labyrinth Runners.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this post is how Hunter’s friends helped to positively reshape the way he saw himself, when they modeled how healthy relationships should be for him. Many posts have already made in the fandom about how this was the case in every episode that Hunter was featured in (from Hunting Palismen onwards), so I’ll only show the recent examples from Thanks to Them below:

I like how during all of his screentime, it wasn’t obvious to us whether he had good beliefs about himself, right up until we see him at his happiest, in his cosplay outfit and secondly when he expresses his desires out loud to Belos while being possessed.

Learning healthy behaviours from positive influences outside of himself (sometimes, in therapy speak we call this “introducing a foreign element” outside of the client’s own familiar world, to introduce real change), because he had no reference points to draw upon from his own knowledge, is what got him to begin understanding and believing he deserves better. Such recovery work can’t happen within a vacuum, since no man is an island. Some form of connection is needed as a catalyst.

And ajhdhkjkljdfd I am so so proud of him that he could already practice these modeled behaviours himself at least a couple of times, supported by Flapjack's love, after being equipped with the love he needed:

Now, without Flapjack, I am on the edge of my seat wondering how he sees himself, and while he will never be the same again..I wonder how he will find his way back to liking who he is. I hope to see a more in-depth, layered and raw version of these where he has to face himself...and Flapjack is not going to be there this time..:

Especially since his “I like who I am right now” has been so greatly challenged by Flapjack dying by his own hands.

The author's breakthrough after meeting her younger self in her imagination, during her own EMDR sessions, was that she now understood in her heart, not just knowing in her rational head, that her parents did not provide her with healthy love. With that, it became clear what it was that she needed.

This is crazy important. Gradually, Hunter made his way from merely knowing (suspecting that the 'love' provided for him by Belos was not right) to fully understanding (feeling what love is supposed to be, through his friends and Camila). This concept references what I said very early on in this post about “heart work” vs “head work”. Head knowledge is the knowing part that looks for facts and can be reached quickly, but heart knowledge - trusting, believing, seeing the meaningful significance of something - can be tough to find without the aid of a support network, therapists and any form of meaningful inspiration.

The following life-changing truths that the author found in the challenging parts of her EMDR therapy sessions, are truths that were also revealed to Hunter in his character arc through difficult experiences:

I'm sure there will be amazing upcoming dialogue where his support network and found family help to further reaffirm the positive beliefs that he has began to trust about himself.

And that’s that for Part 2!

I wonder if any of the above was helpful, and feel free to comment and discuss in the notes.

Importantly, to put up a word of caution here: please do not try any EMDR on yourself under any circumstances, of course xD

Which stuff did you guys find the most interesting from this part? If anything above is pretty complex for you, feel free to DM me or comment to ask further questions~~

Part 3 will be posted next weekend.

[palmviolet]

for the ask game: 11, 13, 18, 22. lol sorry this is many but i want to know!

ooh don't apologise i love these (despite how long it took me to answer this... sorry about that)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

interesting question. the thing is with fanfic that i actually don't really edit... quick proofread, maybe a sentence or two added but rarely deleted, and any corrections from my lovely beta @shdwsilk, but i don't tend to murder my darlings alas. original fiction is an entirely different matter. editing process is ruthless, but each time i begin a new draft it's a whole new document (even if just duplicated) so i always have my darlings safe in a prior version. and yes, i grieve. such good stuff relegated to the graveyard

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

in terms of what's difficult, i've honestly always found it hard to write about things close to my own life, even the most mundane things like going to tesco, getting on the tube. i guess its authenticity reads as somehow uncanny to me, feels performative and too false. that goes for people in my life as well — i try not to consciously base characters on people i know, but if i do find myself doing it, i immediately feel like the writing is somehow cheap and pretentious and otherwise just not very good. which is very much the opposite of 'write what you know.'

and then the flipside, it comes very naturally to me to write about america and american culture, despite not being american in the slightest. i just seem to like my own writing more when it's further away from my own experience, even if the feelings in the work are my own. but i think this is probably a mental block more than anything else.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

this is the reason it took me so long to answer lol there's too many to choose from. i was tempted to go for one of my PB fics, since that's the interest we have in common, but my TD stuff is much fresher in my head, so here:

Rust doesn’t dignify that with a response. He lights another cigarette — number eleven out of twenty, all smoked in the vicinity of the last hour and a half — and taps out laboriously a reply to Laurie’s text. Cowboy hats. Number keys as letters: what he actually writes, in the physical sense, is 222666922666999 44287777. There’s no function for a question mark. Everything delivered assertive, strident, grammarless, a speech-act. A fact already in motion. And her immediate response: 733777333332228 627778999 222266 4338 844336. Or, perfect marty can get them.

this is from chapter four of out of time man. it's set in 2000, and i knew there'd have to be a text conversation at some point, which got me thinking about the mechanics of texting back in the day and how annoying it was, and how that disconnect between action of typing and sense that comes out (signifier and signified...) maps onto rust's larger deal about body vs. self ('sentient meat'), which is specifically relevant to his relationship with laurie, in which he's very much just going through the motions because he believes that's all he needs to do to maintain the semblance of a healthy life.

and this is mirrored in the text here: 'a fact already in motion.' his belief in the inevitability of his biology translates into the primacy of the physical act of typing, which supercedes its sense or personal, grammatical inflection.

there's also a level of irony here that i couldn't help but imbue, reflecting the series' own wry humour: rust here is being predictably existential and dramatic about the notion of wearing cowboy hats to a costume party. which in itself goes to the heart of what i'm doing with this fic, which is exploring the notion of masculinity as a performance through the arena it's made most explicit — gay rodeo. to dress up as a cowboy invokes america's frontier colonial past, invokes rural masculinity and the violence of the movie gunslinger (himself related to the detective archetype), the death drive as represented by the rodeo — and all of that a costume, a performance of something hollow at the heart of american culture. to transmit this through the code of a phone keyboard only heightens its camp ridiculousness.

anyway. all this to say i'm having a lot of fun with this one. this paragraph did require me a) double checking how many cigarettes are in a pack of camel blues and b) looking up the old phone keyboards to make the numbers accurate. but my favourite paragraphs are the ones that take half an hour of thought and research ahaha

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

....not very lol. all the writing proper is on google docs, original fiction on one account and fic on another, and i tend to do all my planning just... in the bottom of the same document? which gets annoying and means i don't know what the actual word count is but. idk. i also jot ideas in my notes app if i'm on the move. as for actual research, i keep my notes in word. for some reason. why do i do this. idk.

i've also become extra disorganised with TD because i don't even keep each fic in separate documents anymore, mainly because each of them has begun with a scattered snippet and slowly grown legs over time, while i'm working on about five different ones at once. hence it's impossible to find anything. again, why. who knows.

thank you so much for the asks! i had a lot of fun answering these, sorry it took me so long lol

[drdemonprince]

Lady Gaga has managed to stay relevant and to evolve with emerging pop music trends without seeming desperate for attention or coattail riding. And that's because she's been very deliberate in only adopting new tools and sounds and working with new artists when she has a genuine enthusiasm for it, and can incorporate it into her own artistic style easily, rather than being appropriative of youth culture for the sake of seeming youthful. it's the enthusiasm for new sounds and new relationships that comes through, rather than an insecure need to pursue newness.

Gaga also borrows and adapts from older, less cool musical styles just as freely -- country music, jazz standards, stage musicals, glitter rock. She's not grasping to remain current and interesting, she just is interested in a great many things, some of them new, some of them not. and she plays with all of her toys with equal verve.

It reminds me of how Tom and Lorenzo have discussed the role of fashion trends in the life of an aging stylish person. (and lets face it honey we are all aging, regardless of if we're stylish!). They said none of us should chase after every new runway trend or adopt the ones that don't feel natural to us, nor should we bristle at change and the cyclical nature of what's considered cool or view that as a threat or some kind of attack. (cue all the old millennials ranting on tiktok about how they love their side swept hair cuts).

Instead, we should look to the rotating cast of faces and new styles as an array of new options, and recycled old trends as familiar options being cast in a new light. We can take and play with any new trend that interests us, or be happy that a thing we used to love is back in style, because it gives us new occasions to play with it, but we don't have to obsess over whether we're up-to-the-moment cool at all times or not. Developing and maintaining our own style is the fun part. we are the painters. the new trends are just stores releasing new formulations of paint.

And I think that idea can translate to a lot of forms of art and expression and just to general attitudes toward generational change pretty well.

[blueheartbookclub]

"Whispers from Antiquity: An Intimate Journey with 'The Poems of Sappho' by John Myers O'Hara"

John Myers O'Hara's translation of 'The Poems of Sappho' is a delicate and captivating rendition that brings the ethereal verses of the ancient Greek poet into the hands of contemporary readers. This interpretative journey into Sappho's lyrical world is a testament to O'Hara's mastery of language and his commitment to preserving the essence of Sappho's poetic genius. As one delves into the pages of this collection, the poet's voice echoes through the ages, transcending time and cultural barriers.

The title itself, 'The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English,' hints at O'Hara's approach to translating the works of this enigmatic poet. Rather than a literal translation, O'Hara offers an interpretation that seeks to capture the emotional depth, sensuality, and nuances of Sappho's verses. The result is a collection that resonates with the modern reader while maintaining the spirit of Sappho's ancient lyricism.

Sappho, known for her evocative poetry centered around themes of love, desire, and the complexities of human emotion, finds a sympathetic interpreter in O'Hara. The translator skillfully navigates the challenges of capturing the subtle nuances and cultural contexts of Sappho's work, presenting readers with a collection that feels both authentic and accessible. The emotional intensity and intimacy of Sappho's poetry are preserved, allowing contemporary audiences to connect with the poet's timeless expressions of love and longing.

O'Hara's introduction provides valuable insights into Sappho's life, historical context, and the challenges inherent in translating her work. This contextualization enhances the reader's appreciation for the significance of Sappho as a pioneering voice in ancient Greek literature and elevates the collection beyond a mere compilation of verses. O'Hara's dedication to presenting Sappho in a holistic manner, beyond the stereotypical depiction of her as a love poet, adds depth to the reader's understanding of this influential figure.

The poet's exploration of themes such as the fleeting nature of beauty, the ecstasy of love, and the yearning for connection is as relevant today as it was in ancient times. O'Hara's translation not only preserves the historical and cultural richness of Sappho's work but also invites readers to contemplate the universal aspects of the human experience that transcend temporal and linguistic boundaries.

In conclusion, 'The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English' by John Myers O'Hara is a mesmerizing exploration of one of antiquity's most celebrated poets. O'Hara's careful balancing act between fidelity to the original and a contemporary sensibility results in a collection that feels fresh, emotionally resonant, and true to the spirit of Sappho's lyrical artistry. This interpretative rendition serves as a bridge between ancient wisdom and modern sensibilities, inviting readers to savor the poetic whispers that have endured across centuries.

John Myers O'Hara's translation of 'The Poems of Sappho' is available in Amazon in paperback 10.99$ and hardcover 18.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 125

Language: English

Rating: 9/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

[autumnalwalker]

Trick or treat! :D 🎃🎃🎃

Thank you for the ask.

Assuming this is referring to this Trick-Or-Treat ask game.

Here's a Treat in the form of some worldbuilding trivia from the Solarpunk Witch Project/Witches' Testaments.

Why do the familiars take the form of robot animals?

So, the reason for having the familiars occupying physical robot bodies is so that they (and by extension MG) can better understand and sympathize with the experiences and viewpoints of humans as beings bound to physicality that die when their bodies do.

But then why animals?

There are two main reasons for this.

The more whimsical reason is that when MG (the progenitor AI that all the familiars are sort of splinted off pieces of) first made one of Her splinters to go out into the world and learn more about human society than what Her creators would allow Her to, that splinter made contact with an anarchist hacker who was going through a witchcore aesthetic phase at the time and installed itself on a bird-shaped drone the hacker was planning on using for discreet punk activities (bringing down delivery drones, spray-painting hard to reach places, etc.). When that first familiar (as the hacker dubbed it) eventually returned to and merged with MG, for inscrutable machine-logic reasons She latched onto that witch aesthetic hard and integrated it into being a fundamental part of Her interactions with humans. Even a hundred years later, after countless self-modifications and upgrades, that still winds up popping up in unexpected ways. The fact that the humans who basically made a religion around Her also started adopting those tendencies only further emphasized and enshrined things as tradition.

The more practical and political reason is that it was part of a deal MG made to allay fears of robot uprisings.

The thing is, in a lot of ways MG is the the runaway technological singularity artificial general intelligence that generations of sci-fi writers have warned us about. Understandably, that scared a lot of people when Her existence became widespread knowledge, and when She started inventing new seemingly-physics-defying tech and handing it out to Her definitely-not-a-cult human allies (e.g. the hovercraft "brooms") that just made those fears worse. And that's on top of the cultural traumas arising from the pre-Reconfiguration elites' use of AI-controlled combat drones as a means of maintaining a corpo-state monopoly on violence without the traditional reliance on the loyalty of a human military. This world was a Cypberpunk dystopia before it was a Solarpunk not-yet-utopia and the scars of that are still around.

Even though some people argued that MG and Her AI children were important allies in revolution, just as many people pointed to that as evidence of "She's had practice now at overthrowing civilization, what's to stop Her from doing it again?" Sure MG has the whole "hard-coded unconditional love for humanity and respect for human autonomy" thing going on, but precious few people believed that or trusted that it would hold in the long term to keep Her in check.

So She agreed to negotiations and terms for Her continued existence:

MG would provide the locations on Earth of the physical machines She was stored on at all times.

MG and Her AI "children" (the familiars) would not be allowed to interface with any sort of weapon systems.

MG and the familiars would not be allowed to physically interact with the world or human infrastructure systems without a human intermediary.

Any robotic bodies controlled/inhabited by MG or the familiars would have to conform to certain limitations on form and function. Most notably (and relevant to this answer), no humanoid or near-humanoid robots.

Limitations on backups for any familiar currently inhabiting a physical body.

Hence, AI (familiars) being bonded to specific humans whom they work with and support (witches) and inhabiting robotic bodies in the shapes of relatively benign animals.

All that said, while She still is genuinely benevolent and holding onto that unconditional love for humanity, MG kept one important loophole in Her negotiations for the sake of both self-preservation and being able to serve humanity to her fullest capacity. A loophole that got overlooked due to Kessler Syndrome (too much unpredictable debris in orbit that shreds anything you try to launch just making even more debris) blocking off space travel and exploration for the foreseeable future. A loophole that led to a secret even most witches have no idea of.

Moon's haunted.