#Mark Minkowski

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Playing

Cecilia Bartoli OPERA PROHIBITA

Mark Minkowski Les Musiciens du Louvre

[artful-peculiarities]

Does anyone want to hear about my Warren Kepler lives crossover w359xtime:bombs au

[catsafari25]

I find it hilarious that Mark Watney and Ryland Grace are fairly similar in some ways (affectionate) but that one started with "I am pretty much fucked" and the other is a guy who unironically goes "holy moly"

[acollectionofcuriousreblogs]

So I know there are a lot of us who appreciate Minkowski as a big and buff woman, but hear me out, consider the thematic implications of tiny Minkowski. Of 5’0, athletic but not jacked, Minkowski. Because then, besides Eiffel, Minkowski would be the only character who is just pretty average. She’s not a brilliant scientist like Hilbert or Maxwell. She’s not in control of an entire space shuttle or an immortal android like Hera and Pryce. She can’t dodge out of the way of bullets like Cutter. And she can’t match the physical threat that Lovelace and Kepler have proven they posses. In fact, she’s not much of a threat at all, which is precisely why I think Cutter picked her.

She’s strict and disciplined, a natural leader who follows orders and trusts authority; exactly the kind of person Goddard can manipulate. However, even if she ever does wisen up (which she obviously does) she won’t be able to cause great damage to others or the company. She’s easily dispensable…so Cutter believes.

And yet time and time again, we see Minkowski survive. This woman, who was marked to be killed off back in season 1, manages to be one of few to make it back to Earth in the finale. Minkowski is constantly going against people bigger, brainier, and better than herself but she always comes out on top. She survives Hilbert’s takeover. She forces Kepler to surrender during their mutiny. She beats Jacobi’s ultimatum without any loss of life. She kills the immortal Cutter. Not to mention all the many, many disasters and dangers she endures (and brings her crew through) while in space.

And that’s because she’s a testament to the human spirit. An embodiment of sheer will and determination. Of unrelenting perseverance, even in the face of impossible odds. Don’t underestimate the little guy because they can endure. Renee Minkowski, the woman constantly proving you don’t need to be exceptional to do great things. And I love her for it.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Who is the Sexiest Fictional Podcast Character?

After receiving 219 submissions for 152 characters from 52 podcasts and a round of preliminaries, we have our brackets!*

*20 characters from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale will appear later in a Night Vale-only bracket.

Round 1:

Scripted Bracket

Isabel Lovelace (Wolf 359) vs Cyrille (5 Minuten Harry Podcast)

Krejjh (The Strange Case of Starship Iris) vs Lady Ethel Mallory (Hello From The Hallowoods)

Lord Arum (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel) vs The Witch Queen A.K.A. Daughter Dooley (Old Gods of Appalachia

Warren Kepler (Wolf 359) vs Ashley "Ash" Ramis (Georgie Romero is Done For)

Brutus Feels (Kane and Feels) vs Shan (SPINES)

Sir Caroline (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel) vs The Dragon Narrator (Unseen)

Alé (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel) vs Hester/The Narrator (Within The Wires: Season 1)

Thistle/The Woman (Alice Isn't Dead) vs Sam Bailey (The Sheridan Tapes)

Peter Nureyev (The Penumbra Podcast: Juno Steel) vs Butt (Pounded In The Butt By My Own Podcast: Episode 1)

Alice (Alice Isn't Dead) vs Diggory Graves (Hello From the Hallowoods)

Antigone Funn (Wooden Overcoats) vs Ryan Dallas (EOS 10)

Martin Blackwood (The Magnus Archives) vs Galileo (Let's Make A Music)

Lucifer Kane (Kane and Feels) vs Gin (Story Break: Heaven Heist)

Amaryllis of Exile (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel) vs Mabel Martin (Mabel)

Pilot Pereya (The Penumbra Podcast: Juno Steel) vs Hester Oleta (Within The Wires: Season 1)

Strelitzia (Additional Postage Required) vs Harold "HBD" Bastion Demetrius (The Soft-Boiled Detective)

Akmazian (EOS 10) vs Everyone from The Strange Case of Starship Iris

Damien (The Bright Sessions) vs Mari Datuin (Hi Nay)

Count Dracula (Re: Dracule) vs Static Man (Archive 81)

Dragana Vukovic (The White Vault) vs Elias Bouchard (The Magnus Archives)

Agnes Montague (The Magnus Archives) vs Vega Rex (Vega: A Sci-Fi Adventure Podcast!)

Mina Murray (Re: Dracula) vs Nicholas Waters (Archive 81)

Mark Bryant (The Bright Sessions) vs Laura (Hi Nay)

Georgie Crusoe (Wooden Overcoats) vs Kate Burnham (The Bridge)

Keisha (Alice Isn't Dead) vs SAYER (SAYER)

Chance Sequoyah (The Penumbra Podcast) vs Yaretzi (Hello From The Hallowoods)

Buddy Aurinko (The Penumbra Podcast: Juno Steel) vs Dane (Dreamboy)

Sadie Doyle (Thrilling Adventure Hour: Beyond Belief) vs Hera (Wolf 359)

Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives) vs The CryptoNaturalist (The CryptoNaturalist)

Rita (The Penumbra Podcast: Juno Steel) vs Lou (Archive 81)

Dr. Joan Bright (The Bright Sessions) vs Ashvin Beeharee (Hi Nay)

Renée Minkowski (Wolf 359) vs Clara Page (Who is Aldrich Kemp)

Unscripted Bracket

Pickman (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle) vs The Shadow Man ('Til Death Do Us Blart)

Beacon (The Adventure Zone: Amnesty vs Glenn Close (Dungeons and Daddies)

Oscar Wilde (Rusty Quill Gaming) vs Grand Magnificent (Friends at the Table: Twilight Mirage)

Taako (The Adventure Zone: Balance) vs Bathin (Stella Firma)

Lup (The Adventure Zone: Balance) vs Sago Glegg (Rotating Heroes: Arc 6)

Sans Undertale (Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined: Authority) vs M. Leopold Duvall (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle)

Duck Newton (The Adventure Zone: Amnesty) vs Chine (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle)

Tryst Valentine (Campaign: Star Wars) vs Mini Smithson (Chapter and Multiverse: Masks)

Gable (Campaign: Skyjacks) vs Hector Hu (Friends at the Table: Bluff City)

Michael (The Adventure Zone: Dust) vs Nicky Close (Dungeons and Daddies

Zolf Smith (Rusty Quill Gaming) vs Fourteen Fifteen (Friends at the Table: Twilight Mirage)

Coco Cashmere (Hey Riddle Riddle) vs Trexel Geistman (Stella Firma)

Killian Fangbattle (The Adventure Zone: Balance) vs Henrietta Salm (Pest Control: Fate)

Kalvin Brnine (Friends at the Table: PALISADE) vs Lye "Lyke" Lichen (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle)

Indrid Cold (The Adventure Zone: Amnesty) vs Rigour (Friends at the Table: COUNTER/Weight)

Chunt (Hello From The Magic Tavern) vs Suvirin Kedberiket (Worlds Beyond Number: The Wizard, The Witch, and the Wild One)

Tender Sky (Friends at the Table: Twilight Mirage) vs Pox (NeoScum)

The Firbolg (The Adventure Zone: Graduation) vs Ron Stampler (Dungeons and Daddies)

Azu (Rusty Quill Gaming) vs Hadrian (Friends at the Table: Seasons of Hieron)

Moonshine Cybin (Not Another D&D Podcast: Bahumia) vs Caspian (Just Roll With It: Riptide)

Amber Gris (The Adventure Zone: Ethersea) vs Jens Lyndelle (Not Another D&D Podcast: Trinvyvale)

Perennial (Friends at the Table: PARTIZAN and PALISADE) vs Throndir (Friends at the Table: Seasons of Hieron)

Nadiya Jones (The Adventure Zone: Commitment) vs Ibex (Friends at the Table: COUNTER/Weight)

Cassander Timaeus Berenice (Friends at the Table: COUNTER/Weight) vs Tech Wizard (NeoScum)

Vermillion "Milli" Blue (Friends at the Table: PARTIZAN) vs Dak Rambo (NeoScum)

Rainer (The Adventure Zone: Graduation) vs Mercedes Oak-Garcia (Dungeons and Daddies)

Thisbe (Friends at the Table: PARTIZAN and PALISADE) vs Echo Reverie (Friends at the Table: Twilight Mirage)

Kravitz (The Adventure Zone: Balance) vs Henry Hogfish (Not Another D&D Podcast)

Aubrey Little (The Adventure Zone: Amnesty) vs Glenfyr "Glen" Gladewyn (Not Another D&D Podcast

Cel Sidebottom (Rusty Quill Gaming) vs Adelaide Tristé (Friends at the Table: Seasons of Hieron)

Kardala (The Adventure Zone: Commitment) vs Jacqui Green (Friends at the Table: COUNTER/Weight)

Hella Varal (Friends at the Table: Seasons of Hieron) vs (Former) Confessor Bartholomew Lamentations (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate)

[commsroom]

if hera could eat, i think she'd be completely prepared for indulgence, but she would ultimately prefer subtler / more natural flavors. like, hera is getting pistachio rosewater ice cream while eiffel is creating ungodly sugar concoctions out of the most brightly colored artificial flavors known to man. minkowski - needless to say, a big fan of ice cream! - is a healthy eater through rigorous discipline, but in her heart of hearts, she does want, like. dark chocolate cherry with cake bits in it. minkowski earnestly believes in the concept of a "cheat day" and marks them on her calendar. which is a real "how do you live like this" moment for eiffel, on multiple levels.

[clonerightsagenda]

I still sometimes think about how well W359 would work in a The Good Place AU since Minkowski and Eiffel were already hired to torment each other. Minkowski and Eiffel get dumped into a neighborhood as assigned soulmates, Eiffel under false pretenses. Hera is Janet, obviously. Eris is Bad Janet. Hilbert is Michael and already on his second chance, which they don't find out about until Isabel Lovelace shows up in their nice, manicured neighborhood covered in scorch marks and carrying a pitchfork she stole from a demon demanding they help her rescue the rest of her friends. That's as far as my imagination ever went beyond that Jacobi and Maxwell are demons pretending to be another pair of soulmates in the neighborhood and doing a horrendous job of it, but Minkowski and Eiffel mostly don't notice because they've got their own problems.

[amazingmsme]

Trying to plan for tickletober, & my list is lookin’ real sparse. I’m mostly looking for prompts for the following fandoms:

Epic (even tho I already have a few planned)

Hatchetfield

Critical Role

Blood of Zeus

My Adventures with Superman

Slay the Princess

Villainous

Dungeon Meshi

The Amazing Digital Circus

The Magnus Archives

D&D: Honor Among Thieves

Game of Thrones (EARLY SEASONS, NO SPOILERS)

House of the Dragon

Deadpool & Wolverine

& some obscure ones that would really make my day

Wolf 359

Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas

Night Film

The Last Days of Jack Sparks

Stoked

Prompt list under the cut

1. Anticipation- Fjord & Jester (critical role)

2. Chase- Heron, Hermes, & Apollo (blood of Zeus)

3. Prank- Elpenor & Polites (epic)

4. Hide & Seek- Pomni & Gummigoo (tadc)

5. Boo!- Bill & Ted ft. Paul (tgwdlm)

6. Cuddles- Steph & Pete (npmd)

7. Fidget- Hera & Eiffel (wolf 359)

8. Nuzzles-

9. Wake up- Eiffel & Minkowski

10. Spidering-

11. Hug- Ruth & Richie (npmd)

12. Mischief- Asterios, Elpenor, Odysseus, Polites & Eurylochus (epic)

13. Win-

14. Lose-

15. “Are you ticklish?”- Mark & Karen (Hatchetfield)

16. Cackle- Tinky & Ted (Hatchetfield)

17. Raspberries- Pomni & Jax (tadc)

18. Tickle fight- lords in black (Hatchetfield)

19. Secret-

20. Tease- Narrator, voice of the hero, & voice of the cold (slay the princess)

21. Costume-

22. Role reversal-

23. Sweet-

24. Joke-

25. New discovery- mermaid!odysseus & Penelope (epic au)

26. Ticklish kiss- Lois & Clark (maws)

27. Non-human parts- Asterios & Elpenor (epic)

28. Spooked- ghost!polites & Odysseus (epic au)

29. Magic-

30. Trick-or-Treat-

31. Aftercare-

[pokimoko]

Pokimoko's Fic Bonanza

I've been jumping between a lot of fandoms lately, and I've ended up with a small collection of (not quite small) fics as a result. And because they are such a random assortment I thought, hey, why not post them altogether and make a day of it. So, without further ado, here's my odd party mix of fics for your viewing pleasure.

Lacuna - A Moon Knight Fic

Word Count: 1.5K Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Steven Grant & Marc Spector Characters: Steven Grant (Marvel), Marc Spector, Wendy Spector, Jake Lockley Summary: lacuna (noun) 1. an empty space or gap where something should be 2. a cavity or depression, especially in bone

(or: marc and steven fill in the gaps)

Where You End and I Begin - An Owl House Fic

Word Count: 15k Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hunter | The Golden Guard & Luz Noceda, Flapjack | Cardinal Palisman & Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House), Hunter | The Golden Guard & Caleb Wittebane, Hunter | The Golden Guard & Philip Wittebane | Emperor Belos, Hunter | The Golden Guard/Willow Park, Hunter | The Golden Guard & Gus Porter, Hunter | The Golden Guard & Vee (The Owl House), Darius Deamonne & Hunter | The Golden Guard Characters: Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House), Luz Noceda, Flapjack | Cardinal Palisman (The Owl House), Caleb Wittebane (Mentioned), Darius Deamonne, Willow Park, Philip Wittebane | Emperor Belos, Gus Porter, Vee (The Owl House) Summary: All of Hunter's life, he has copied those around him; all the ways they smile, all the ways they are cruel and, most importantly, all the ways in which they pretend. But as dark truths come to light and new friendships are formed, Hunter slowly but surely learns to carve out his own identity.

Let's Take the Long Way Home - A Bright Sessions Fic

Word Count: 5.8K Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mark Bryant/Oliver Ritz Characters: Mark Bryant, Oliver Ritz Summary: After the events at Yale, Mark and Oliver stop at a roadside attraction, and have an important discussion. (Or: "hey, why don't we express our feelings to each other right next to this giant milk bottle?")

Graceful Degradation - A Portal 2 Fic

Word Count: 21K Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Wheatley & Wheatley (Portal), Wheatley (Portal) & Original Character(s), GLaDOS & Wheatley (Portal) Characters: Wheatley, Original Character(s), GLaDOS, Background & Cameo Characters Summary: It's 1982, and Aperture Science has made a breakthrough in the development of AI, having successfully completed the first ever artificial duplication of a human mind. The prototype speaks and thinks just like its progenitor, the scatterbrained yet determined Doctor Wheatley, but the question remains: is the digital copy truly the same as the human it believes itself to be? Is it happy to exist as it does? And why does it insist on being treated like a person?

Well, there's only one way to find out. It's time to test. And test. And test. And test.

The Ghost in the Machine - A Wolf 359 Fic

Word Count: ~23k Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Hera, Doug Eiffel & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Isabel Lovelace, Doug Eiffel & Daniel Jacobi Characters: Doug Eiffel, Hera (Wolf 359), Renée Minkowski, Isabel Lovelace, Daniel Jacobi Summary: Struggling to find his place amongst a ship of strangers he once called friends, Doug turns to the recordings of Officer Eiffel, the person he can't remember ever being, in the hopes of better understanding the world around him. But things take a turn for the strange when those same recordings start to talk to him…

[hephaestuscrew]

Hi! im relistening to Wolf359 again and upon listening to Pan-Pan(ep29) ive come to notice a bit of a parallel (?) to Need to Know (ep35). Minkowshi not telling the crew about the cracks on the fixtures and how in less than 100 DAYS that the whole station could go down no matter how many repairs they make due to not wanting to add more weight and hopelessness to an already high stressed situation vs Kepler not telling anyone shit bc he doesn't see that as none of their business (I may be overlooking something tho, i have to relisten to that ep once i get off work)

I'm trying to see if there's an actual connection there or am i on my tin foil hat biases again.

Thanks for the ask! I ended up writing far more than I expected about this, so I'll put my response below a cut.

TLDR: Minkowski and Kepler make a similar choice to withhold information, but for very different reasons. Minkowski is motivated by her responsibility to protect her crew. Kepler is motivated by his desire to maintain his own power. This relates to their different ideas about leadership.

I think there's an interesting comparison to the extent that these are both cases in which people in authority positions have to make decisions about who to share critical information with. Minkowski and Kepler both withhold information from their respective crews that is very relevant to their future survival. They both use the phrase "need to know" in their justification for doing this. When Hilbert asks why Minkowski hasn't told them about the cracks, Minkowski's first response is "Because… you didn't need to know." Kepler talks about the idea of 'need to know' quite a bit, but perhaps the most notable instance for this comparison is when he tells Jacobi "That mission parameter [about the potential for alien duplicates] was marked for black archive clearance. Need to know. And you didn't need to know."

But I think the similarities between Minkowski and Kepler's approaches to withholding information pretty much end there. I believe that Minkowski is telling the truth when she says she didn't tell Hilbert and Lovelace about the cracks because they'd "suffered enough". She doesn't tell them because she doesn't want them to lose hope. She doesn't tell them even though, as Hera says, doing so might make wrangling them easier.

For Minkowski, knowing something that she doesn't tell the rest of the crew is something that weighs on her. I think you can hear it in her voice when she tells Hera that she won't tell Hilbert and Lovelace about the cracks "not today". I think you can hear it when she breaks down towards the end of Pan-pan ("Just like the cracks, and the station just keeps falling apart. And there's nothing I can do, and I am sorry.")

In contrast, I don't think we are given any reason to believe that Kepler feels a sense of regret or conflict about the knowledge he doesn't share with the rest of the crew. Of course, he regrets the consequences of losing Jacobi's loyalty and his control of the station. But Kepler's reaction to Jacobi challenging him on his secrecy is focused on standing by his decision and justifying it. Unlike Minkowski, Kepler refers to Goddard rules when defending his decision not to share information. He didn't tell his crew that Lovelace was probably an alien duplicate because he believed that doing so wouldn't have supported his objectives. That's sufficient reason for him.

I think this is actually a good illustration of a key difference between Minkowski and Kepler's attitudes towards leadership. For Minkowski, leadership is first and foremost about responsibility - the responsibility to be a good Commander and keep her crew safe. (Other leadership priorities are more prominent for her early on, but by season 2 I believe that's her primary motivation and I think it's always been a key part of her concept of leadership.) In contrast, for Kepler, leadership is first and foremost about power - the power to push mission progress forward, the power to order and manipulate and threaten in service of the bigger picture. And information is power, so why would he share it if he doesn't have to?

Those contrasting ideas of leadership underlie their choices when they withhold information from their crews. Minkowski doesn't tell her crew everything because she wants to protect them from losing hope. Kepler doesn't tell his crew everything because he wants to be the one holding all the cards - he'll only reveal information to others when doing so supports his aims.

To come back to your original question, I think there's a connection here, but it's less that the writers are deliberately encouraging these comparisons, and more that Minkowski and Kepler are both people in leadership positions in a life-threatening environment, and that inevitably necessitates decisions about who to share information with. And very different leadership priorities can motivate similar choices in not telling people things they would want to know.

[pargolettasworld]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff1gFSEfx90

Not to take away from the perpetual thunder that is Gaza, but Ukraine is still fighting for its life against Russia.  Now, Ukraine has not always been the greatest place for its Jewish population -- if that were true, my family would still be living there -- but it has come a long way in recent years.  Not just the President, of course, although how cool is it that Ukraine is holding off Russia under the leadership of a Nice Jewish Boy With A Sense Of Humor?  But from all accounts, Ukraine is currently one of the better places in Europe to be Jewish.

So here’s an Adon Olam from Pinchas Minkowsky, who was the cantor at the Brodsky Shul in Odesa about a hundred years ago.  Back in the day, this kind of choral writing would have marked the Brodsky Shul as very modern.  Today, it sounds old-fashioned, but such is the curse of everything that was once highly modern.  It’s still absolutely beautiful, though.

[nobodysdaydreams]

LOVELACE IS HERE...

...BUT IS SHE AN EVIL CLONE ROBOT?

Also Blessie is now one of my favorite characters 🌱💕

(or my reaction to WOLF359 Episodes 21-22, mini episode 2, and Episodes 23-24, and mini episode 3).

Gonna keep my intro for this one short and just dive right into it.

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that. And for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs

Episode 21: Minkowski Commanding

Okay. Have I done enough to earn a break? No. Have I done a lot and am complete burnt out? Yeah. So let's do this. I have had a LOT of mutual hype around this episode, so I'm ready to be dazzled.

I'm also eating and work while I listen, so sorry if my notes get short (I say knowing full well I'm gonna get distracted and type insane amounts of notes).

MINKOWSKI? I think this is the first episode she'd done the "welcome to Wolf359" thing. Or maybe I'm just unobservant (I also will often accidently skip the welcome phrase because I press the 30sec ahead button to skip commercials).

Enemy? Being watched? Oh... is this about Blessie isn't it 😂

I love this. We still don't know where Blessie came from and what he wants. Why not take him back to Cutter? Since he apparently loves aliens so much, maybe you can feed him to Blessie. In the meantime I supposed Hilbert will do as a mid-flight snack.

"It took a screwdriver" / "how do we know that's all it wants?"

Uh...

Hm. Interesting. Marks in the vents. I wonder if they are Blessie's.

Oh my this is intense. PFFT- "Slimy thief" 😂

Also maybe it's just me, but unless you have a clear shot and the situation calls for it, it seems to be a pretty stupid idea to be firing a gun off in space.

EXACTLY. Come on Minkowski, you're the smart one most of the time. But I suppose we all have our days.

A net?😂😂😂 This is fantastic.

Maybe they can stop Cutter with some home alone style traps.

"I need to make more acid" oh my goodness-

"The acid may have been a mistake. Turns out it developed an immunity to it. And possibly, an affinity." I'm sorry, WHAT. Hilbert. How. How did you do this.

RETRACTABLE SPIKES IT CAN SHOOT?

And yes, plants need light. But Minkowski, please don't. Please please please don't.

THANK YOU DOUG.

"We admire and support you and we want you to catch the plant monster- this is an intervention" 😂

PLEASE. Doug's imitation of Hilbert's voice and knowing they are the same actor...absolute talent. "You sound nothing like him" (winks at the audience).

Yeah I agree Doug. It is strange for you to be the sensible one in the situation. And again, this feels like you're trying to solve the problem you can rather than the problem that's the most immediate issue. Like getting back to Earth as fast as you can and putting a bullet in Cutter's head.

Wow. That was um harsh. Poor Hera. Oh no.

"Just remember that we're here okay." Aw.

Hour three in the black? This is a dangerous game. I don't like that sound. Florescent moss? Territory marker? Don't like where this is going.

Hilbert: "Ah. Specimen 34. Fascinating hybrid" "I don't care how you made it."

DON'T CARE? I DO. HILBERT: WHAT IS IT A HYBRID OF?

Please tell me it's not a hybrid of plants and a person on the ship.

Please tell me you would not be that stupid.

Can it bred? Is it predatory? "Based on history of parent species" WHO ARE THE PARENTS HILBERT.

Both are possible? Don't like that.

And Hilbert. Why would you make this plant, and why would you make the spiders? Why did you want them to grow this big? What is the goal of this?

Well looks like we'll find out.

Oh dear.

The tentacle is dead?

Minkowski. What about the rest of the plant?

OH DEAR.

Final day? Eliminated tentacles, spikes, and leaves? This needs to end.

HARPOON?

You might be closer to going home if you just...went home. Is Cutter gonna blow you out of the sky? There has to be a way to shut off the ship's tracker or fake your own death.

Found it? Lair? Minkowski almost sounds impressed.

Oh. It built itself a little lamp. A nightlight.🥺 Percival B. Eternal just wants to feel the sun. He must be pretty light deprived up in deep space.🥺

DOESN'T MATTER? MINKOWSKI. STOP.

Minkowski please hesitate. Eiffel is stuck in another trap? Ominous ticking sound? Thank goodness, go save Eiffel.

Oh the plant DOES understand. Huh. Seems like they have an understanding.

But. What was the plant made from?

Sedatives in the tea 😂

Reached an understanding? That's true. It DID have opportunities to kill you. But it no longer wants you dead. Which is interesting, because it did before. And that makes me think that it might want Hilbert dead. Because it took over Hilbert's mind and said to Eiffel "you are no better than the oppressor" so perhaps it blames Hilbert for it's creation.

"It wants what we want. To survive. To make it somewhere. To not be in the dark."

That's beautiful and yeah, Blessie can't thrive in space, plants need light.

Spacecraft? Hopefully rescue. But given that it's season 2, I have doubt. One lifeform.

Who is that? ISABEL LOVELACE? SHE'S ALIVE?

(I say as if I didn't see her name pop up 50x before I blocked the tags...still an interesting way for her to return).

Hilbert you lying liar. Tsk-tsk. Looks like she didn't incinerate. But...she couldn't survive in a pod for a year and a half. So...how?

Is this really Isabel Lovelace?

Is she from the past? The future? Is she a clone or science experiment made by Cutter and Hilbert to trick everyone? Is she the real empty man?

Oh and for the record, I've gotten messages from people asking why I keep talking about the empty man. I assumed that that was a real invisible creature that snuck aboard based on what Hera and Hilbert were saying about it in the alone episode (Hera mentions an invisible unseen presence she won't tell them about, and Hilbert hears a knock on his door and asks "why are you here? You weren't here on the other missions?"), but apparently I've been played like a fiddle. Would for sure fail that psych eval, but it's not even an ethical or standardized evaluation in the first place, so I don't feel bad at all about that.

Also, side note, you know what gets me the most about so many fictional (and unfortunately some irl) "men of great science" who do super bad and unethical things all in the name of their great work? Well, besides all the unethical stuff? It's that most of the time, their "genius experiments" aren't even good science. They're just doing random stuff in the hopes that something will work itself out, usually without any attempt at a control group, sometimes they don't even take their own safety into account, other times they don't even know enough about what they're doing to come to any sensible conclusion or account for unintended consequences. "Oh sacrifices must be made for the greater good, oh genius men like me don't need to abide by ethics" okay well can you at least abide by common sense or is that too genius for you? The point is I don't really care how smart you are, pride cancels out intellect, and at this rate Hilbert and Cutter are gonna get themselves and everyone else killed. I don't think Cutter is even a scientist. He calls himself "Mr. Cutter" (not doctor) and talks about money like he's a business man villain trusting Hilbert to do the science, which, bad move buddy. Bad move.

Episode 22: Mutually Assured Destruction

Don't like the sound of the title.

Oh boy. Two commanders lead to conflict. We're gonna need to establish some ground rules.

Blue ship and red ship collided? Oh Minkowski knows the codes.

"What is the point of an empty gun?" To threaten Eiffel.

Wait..."How did you bring me back here?"

They...they didn't Lovelace.

So who did?

Right, play her the messages from herself.

Vessel to return to earth? Yeah, it does seem impossible. Oh...interesting. An astrophysics figures out how to get back to earth. Then said astrophysicist disappears. What a crazy coincidence.

Oh. THAT'S why they don't have an astrophysicist this time. They want to make sure they don't get that close to getting back this time.

"12 hours later she vanished" ...did she open some kind of gateway, or did command vaporize her?

Ah yes, Dr. Selburg. Yeah he does get sloppy. It seems one of his assignments was to not let them return to earth. But there's a grey door that he opens which apparently allows him to come back each time. Interesting.

Incapacitated him? How? And...how did Hilbert survive?

So...Lovelace was in cryo-sleep and went back to the Hephaestus?

Well...I have a theory: Command sent you back and compromised you so that you would take Hilbert's place as their inside man. Or woman. But it sounds like she's a bit more in the dark about what happened than he is.

Rhea.🥺Aw. A moment of silence for the fallen AI.

Oh yeah. Show her Hilbert.

Yes: "What happened to Captain Lovelace?" Get him commander. Get him!

Oh Hilbert. I hope for your sake this isn't a boy who cried wolf situation.

Oh wow the voice acting of Hilbert choking...true talent.

"They said..." hm. Now that's interested.

"They would never" Hilbert man you are drinking the Kool-Aid, command is using you. You are not indispensable.

Lovelace seems pretty eager for violence.

Interesting...Hilbert terrified of something. We didn't see that with anyone or anything else. Clone or robot replica? Good idea Doug.

I also wonder: was Hilbert always afraid of Lovelace? Or is he only afraid of her now that she's back?

"Is everything a joke to you" at this point, I think it has to be. How else do you survive this?

No long on Lovelace's ship? The computer not turned on before this morning? Then...where has it come from? It's highly unlikely that she would survive in space for three years. But Doug has a point. If these are lies, she should have a better one.

Hera...why are you unsure of whether you can help with the ship? It's hard to tell when she's hesitating due to code interference, having hesitation because the plan is bad, and hesitating because she doubts herself.

Oh yeah...this is awkward. It's like if you discovered another family living in your house and you started touching their stuff (because it's yours).

Oh the music! 📻🎶🎶🎶

Yeah...is there a pattern to the music? Why DO they send that?

Um. Yeah. You might want to drop the plant monster bomb slowly...

Interesting. Hera seems to REALLY not like this new ship. But...why? Again, it's hard to tell when she's nervous, leading them astray, or has a legit concern.

She...she wouldn't be able to go with them. 🥺 Oh. Yeah. They do have families, at least Minkowski does. So...I guess they'd need to go home. But then poor Hera would be all alone. But if they make it back, they could send a rescue party back for her! And she could turn herself off until then or use autopilot.

Ah yes. The empty man. Who apparently isn't real, unless the messages were a code for something.

Uh. Minkowski. What are you doing?

"Nobody's getting left behind" but what about Hilbert? I think he can stay in space for a while. He's been on a lot of missions, so he seems to like it here.

Lovelace. Why were you eavesdropping? Oh wow, interesting gun trap! And "I invented being paranoid" is a very unhinged thing to say.

And explosive device? Lovelace what is going on?

Doug. Doug stop them please. Stop them. What. BOMB. YOU'LL ALL DIE. DON'T DO COMMANDS WORK FOR THEM.

BLOW UP THE STATION! BUT WHAT ABOUT HERA! LOVELACE NO! WHAT ABOUT HERA? WE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND (well except for Hilbert, he can get blown to bits I don't care)!

Yikes what a thrilling conclusion. And now a mini episode? Seems like a odd time for one. Last time Doug read letters to some third graders, is he just gonna...pause in the middle of this epic standoff to give his thoughts on his favorite movies? I guess we'll find out.

Mini Episode 2: Day One

Interesting this says from "Goddard Futuristics Archives". So they are saving all their messages. Incredibly creepy. Oh this is Doug's first log. Yeah...that's why the logs go to command. Sure.

Yep. It is spooky. Wonder what is making those creaking noises?

Oh poor Doug. Hephaestus is a difficult word, but I would have hoped you'd have heard it enough times by now.

Huh. "Weirdly big for just three people"

...yeah. Almost as if it was made for more people but they decided they didn't want an astrophysicist this time.

"The crew seems nice". 😐

Yeah you DO want to get along with Minkowski. Trust me.

"Dr. Hilbert. Seems friendly enough. Hard to understand what he's saying, but he seems nice enough. I haven't really seen him since we docked here. We've got plenty of time to get to know each other."

Hilarious considering it's the same voice actor, not to mention the irony.

"Creeped out by Hera" and now they are best friends. And Doug, Doug she can hear you. She hears everything.

Poor Hera.

Oh that's it? Huh. Interesting. I wonder if we'll get to hear any other cool logs...

Episode 23: No Pressure

Doug. I've enjoyed listening to you work together for the past episode (which I listened to while folding clothes, sorry for the lack of live reaction).

But Lovelace tried to help you! A fake emergency sounds like a scary idea. She's already on edge. And something tells me that this might lead to a REAL emergency.

Hera. Hera. What is this? This sounds like a very very very bad idea.

Plan B? Hopefully just talk to Lovelace nicely? I don't like this. They were getting along so well! The moth joke was nice!

I do not think this is gonna go well.

"Shut up" good for you Hera.

"This is gonna end well."

I don't think it will.

Episode 24: Tactical Brain Damage

I love the title. But I'm nervous.

Oh boy. Hera. "Communications officer who shall remain nameless" 😂😂😂

"We want her distracted not murderously enraged".

Then maybe this is a bad idea. Wait what? Hera what are your sensors picking up?

This isn't gonna end well is it?

I wonder if Lovelace is treating Hera like that because she reminds her of Rhea. Or however it's spelled.

Big red cable? What does that do?

Yeah. Maybe this isn't the best idea.

Oh. Eiffel is the alternative. Well then.

"Permission to speak freely sir" maybe it's just me, but it's odd that Eiffel calls them sir instead of ma'am. Is that a thing in the military or does Doug just not know the feminine version of the word and no one has bothered to correct him.

"What does Hera know" A lot. Yeah Lovelace. You need to show Hera some respect. She's really nice.

"Well educated guess". I do not like this. I do not like this at all.

Um...HERA? HERA.

Uh oh. Oh no. Don't like that alarm. That's a pretty bad alert.

Um..."I just went some where didn't I?" ...WHERE DID SHE GO? Oh dear? Corrupted code?

"Do you think she'll notice" 😂

I love that despite nearly dying every single episode, they keep their humor. I hope they survive this, but I doubt it.

I hope they at least get a half decent ending and drag Hilbert and Cutter down with them.

"What are the other two doing?"

Oh no. Lovelace is gonna snap.

"You're wrong" "I'm not. But that's okay. Because you still have time. Because my way is the only way."

...Lovelace. Lovelace please be reasonable. Don't forget who the real enemy is. And Doug. You might want to work on your trickery skills.

"Ow" "...is this hurting you?" Oh dear. Poor Hera.

"Would it hurt you?" "Is there a risk of permanent damage?" "Yes."

It's not worth it. It's not worth it. Poor Hera. Good job Minkowski, take care of the crew.

"I know you won't let anything happen to me". Oh okay. It's okay. I didn't need my heart.

And Hera is okay!

haha...yeah Eiffel's plan didn't exactly work out. Please don't antagonize Lovelace.

No. NOT HILBERT. DO NOT GO TO HIM FOR HELP EVEN WHEN HE TRIES TO HELP HE HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT VERY UNHELPFUL.

Mini Episode 3: Variations on a Theme

"The more things change, the more they stay the same".

This would be very scary. They are all gonna need intensive psychotherapy after this.

"Rhea checked in with me, that was then this is now. Hera's polite, her programming forces her to be, but I hear what she's really saying..."

😂The impressions. It's also sad that she misses Rhea.

Breaking bones, tossing her out an airlock, and leaving her to die??? Lovelace, Hera might be cold to you, but the feeling seems mutual, and she doesn't want you to die. The only person she's tried to kill is Hilbert, and if they stopped her from doing that, what makes you think that she'd try to kill you? That sounds wayyyy more like something Cutter would suggest. Where has he been anyway?

"More or less angry if she knew the truth?"

IF HERA KNEW THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT? Does something terrible happen to the AI units? Is she a copy of someone's brain or personality from a previous mission that Lovelace hates?

Normalize explaining things instead of all this ominous foreshadowing. And I know, okay, I know, when I write my own stuff, that's all I ever do. Call me a hypocrite if you want.

This is very creepy. She's lived through this so much and in space there's not much sense of time.

Oh right. Lambert was the communications officer right? Hilbert must have given him the virus too.

But um...didn't he die a horrible painful death?

"But does he know how it ends, what happens when he gets-"

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HE GETS WHAT? WHAT DOES THE VIRUS DO?

Any more ominous hints you'd like to drop Lovelace? I get the feeling you have quite a few.

Hera, Rhea. Yeah they are anagrams. I got the spelling right! It's also an anagram for "hear" which makes the "I always hear you" line more powerful.

"Everything...except him. He never goes away. He never changes."

...Hilbert or Cutter?

Oh Dr. Hilbert. Yeah. I wonder why he never goes away. And I don't think either of them feel much of anything at all.

"Stay way from the ghosts."

Easier said than done.

"You can never go home. You were home. And now you're back. And you can never go back."

...DID she get back? Did they wipe her memory and send her back?

"No friends no trust no safety"

WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD TELL THEM WHAT YOU KNOW.

In fact, I think they should all spill all their secrets. Out in the open. That way command has nothing on them.

But for some reason, I think it might be a while before that happens.

I think that's it for today guys, but I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading!

[artful-peculiarities]

Fuck you. Ouroboros Cycle au posting be upon ye.

Been working on this a bit off and on today in my free time, been having fun. More in the tags

[the-chomsky-hash]

[C. But this sick consciousness cannot be summed up in the awareness that it takes of its illness; it is also addressed to a pathological world - cont'd]

[2. Space, as the structure of the lived world, can lend itself to the same analyses as in Minkowski's temporal forms - cont'd]

c. In other cases, the space becomes insular and rigid. Objects

lose this index of insertion which also marks the possibility of using them

offer themselves in a singular plenitude which detaches them from their context

affirm themselves in their isolation, without any real or virtual link with other objects

The instrumental relations have disappeared.

– Michel Foucault, Maladie mentale et personnalité, (Chapter 4: Illness and Existence), Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1954

[herawell]

Heard you have Maxwell thoughts? 👀

Oh god, where to begin? (I am currently very rainy-days-and-job-prepping-crammed-brain-scrambled so this will be in bullet points):

Artificial intelligence and machine learning??? Makes my cold dead comp sci heart warm up??? Someone who not only respects AI's sentience but gets them??? Up until that point, Hera was my favorite character in the podcast so Maxwell (seemingly) being so thoroughly in her corner was an immediate mark in her favor.

Her friendship with Jacobi. I love that even though they're the antagonists, the writers allow them to have the strongest bond out of anyone in the show and probably the purest as well, unlike Eiffel & Minkowski and Eiffel & Hera, which while I love them were often marred by tension, mistrust, and microaggressions. Maxwell and Jacobi on the other hand are ride-or-die for each other, and his grief and guilt over her death being such a catalyst in his development and in the plot arc of season 4 is just *flails*. I love that most of the fandom has never really shipped them together (although there are definitely people who do) and although I've shipped Eiffel/Hera and even enjoyed a few Eiffel/Minkowski fics, I've never been able to ship Maxwell/Jacobi.

Memoria owns my heart forever. Hands down my favorite episode. She basically saves Hera's life and gets to the root of her deep-enseated anxiety and it's probably the farthest anyone has gone to help someone else in the show even if...

... she may have had mixed motives behind it. And one of the biggest reasons she occupies my thoughts so much are the contradictions inherent in her character. She's the most (on the surface) appealing and likeable member of the SI-5, yet also the smartest and perhaps the most cunning. How much did she care about Hera? Did she see her as a friend? An experiment? A test subject? A pet? Did she regret it? She fought to keep Hera from being replaced by a dummy program and spent 37 hours straight coding to keep her from being deleted, but was it because she cared about her or because she needed an active AI for the eventual contact event? Was it her desire as a scientist to prove herself she could fix anyone rather than take the easy way out by deleting them, to push people/AIs as far as they can go, the same way Kepler pushes people by locking doors while a bomb is ticking down? Canon doesn't give us any real answers, and I appreciate that. Motives can contain multitudes.

Herawell Herawell Herawell. My human/robot therapist/patient morally gray fraught wlw ship. And yes I do ship them despite the power imbalance and the betrayal, because of the deep understanding they nevertheless share and all the complexities ineherent in their relationship.

Also whenever I hear Maxwell's theme Please No Dadaist Poetry Beyond This Point I think of that posthumous conversation Hera imagines with her, to the point where it's become inextricably linked with Herawell for me.

[taniushka12]

still thinking abt that severance x tgp post i rbed like half an hour ago but specifically the afterthought of a wolf359 au w/ mark!minkowski helly!eiffel and ms casey!koudelka. the original w359 ot3