#The wired narrator

[squuote]

wire tampering

[vaguely-concerned]

Ever since watching The Wire for the first time, my brain has doggedly kept working away at the Especially the lies of it all, and specifically at how much the structure beneath the different stories Garak tells contributes to the overall meaning of what he’s trying to say. While the contradicting narratives of course expertly obscure the factual circumstances of his getting exiled, using them also allows him to tell aspects and facets of the emotional truth I don’t think he ever could have, if he’d simply told the actual story of what happened. (It’s very Varric-core of him honestly.)

The first story — the ‘oh, you think you know me?’ story — says I have done things that would sicken you if you knew any detail of it. It’s clearly meant to scare Bashir away so he’ll leave him to die shamefully in peace already lol. But it’s also one of his (probably much-needed lbr) little lessons to Julian that are so frequent in the beginning, given while Garak still has some hold on himself — “Don’t be so quick to forgive me if you don’t even know what I’ve done; what would you do if this really were the sum total of what I am?” (And Julian seems to surprise him by going ‘Well, exactly the same thing, because no matter who you are I am a doctor. But I sort of take your point.’)

The second story — the letting the orphans go story — says I have failed to smother my soul in its cradle when it was required of me, and I regret that more than anything I’ve done. To my ears this is the one most shot through with active self-loathing too, which is interesting. He’s officially lost the control he’s been clinging to and it’s about to get ugly. His TL;DR is ‘Sentiment is the greatest weakness of all’, even all the way back here. (Which is the one lesson Julian steadfastly refuses to learn, which I think in turn does some serious rearrangement of Garak’s soul over the course of the show haha. Get uno reversed into the process of loving and being loved without shame asshole.)  This is also where he builds up to admitting to having any sort of need for companionship or closeness at all and — so much worse — that Julian’s role in his life actually has fulfilled some of that need, and he’s DRIPPING with defensive venom over it b/c well I get it Garak vulnerability is scary it can take a person like that. 

(I also feel there’s something honest and forbidden in ‘Suddenly the whole exercise seemed utterly meaningless’. I suspect ‘actually… why the fuck are we even doing this???’ is not a welcome sentiment in an Obsidian Order water cooler environment, no matter what you’re saying it about lmao. The very first seeds of him deconstructing the things he’s been taught about Cardassia and his work might be hinted at here, though they of course take a looong time to come to any real fruition.)   

The third story — the ‘Elim was my best friend’ story — says hey, remember that thing you said once, about how sometimes, you have to be loyal to yourself before you can be loyal to anything else? Well. guess what. I couldn’t even be that lmao. It also furthers that thread of being divided from yourself, split, that having ‘Elim’ as a separate person around in all versions of the story brings in. He’s in control of himself again, but he essentially hands his life and soul over to Julian to decide what should be done with them. 

I’ve done horrible things and it finally caught up with me, I’m getting what I deserve → I let sentiment master me and the fact that I’m too weak to do what’s needed of me shames me more than the evil I’ve done → I fucked up. I betrayed myself and everything I held to, all for nothing, and I have no one to blame for it but myself. But it’s very nice that you’re here anyway, Doctor. (Wow. I didn’t realize quite how isolated and lonely that last one was before right now. The way Tain has shaped him really has just… locked him completely into himself, huh.) We can also see a movement through from a completely professional context in the first story, to an intensely interpersonal and internal context in the last one — even his fake stories spiral in towards intimacy, which I think is what he longs for here even if he can’t quite like. Touch that without the stories as a buffer yet, it’s clearly like touching a hot stove for him to interact with it too directly. 

And you know what I find incredibly interesting the whole way through? Even on his deathbed, where he’s dying from the thing Tain had put in his head, he’s protecting Tain. He puts all the blame for where he is on himself (‘My future was limitless, until I threw it away’), even if he has to employ a strange twisty logic where he’s split himself into two to do it. Don’t get me wrong, Garak has done horrific things all on his own haha, but it’s notable that he almost isolates Tain from that. ‘Tain was the Obsidian Order. Not even the Central Command dared challenge him. And I was his right hand.’ Tain in Garak’s stories is this infallible implacable weirdly distant figure, even now. Indeed, as will make a lot of sense with the revelations further down the line, more than anything it seems the gaze of an abused child desperate for recognition looking up at an idealized (if not in any way nurturing) parent.‘He was retired at that point; he couldn't protect me’, Garak says, as if what he’d need protection from in the first place isn’t Tain himself lmao, as if Tain had no active part in any of this. He never lets blame touch Tain at all. At this stage he would rather consider himself a broken flawed tool than accept that the hands that have wrought and wielded him have ever had any fault in them. AND in the middle of it all, with plausible deniability, on death’s door and knocking meekly to be let in before he must finish the mortifying ordeal of being known and test the even more daunting possibility of being loved, Garak at the same time manages to drop the breadcrumb trail of clues to make it possible for Julian to find Tain if he so chooses and gets in the ‘sons of Tain’ thing too for future dramatic irony purposes. Truly he is the Michelangelo of lying. Every falsehood a multifaceted masterpiece. Elim ‘achieving a state of intertextuality in real life is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself’ Garak. I love him so much. 

I think all of this is why “I forgive you. For whatever it is you did,” works so well, because it too works on a structural level. It’s such a deceptively multilayered response — it has the syntax of a joke, in a way, and it is kind of funny even under the circumstances, but delivered with such earnest warmth and fondness. It’s both recognition and acceptance (forgiveness!). It’s saying ‘I finally understand enough of what you’re trying to tell me beneath and through all that, in whatever way you’re capable of, I see you’ and ‘my answer hasn’t changed (bitch)’. The forgiveness Julian offers here is complete — on principle, and out of personal feeling and empathy (only one of which Garak deigns to respond to during the second story, where he calls it ‘smug Federation sympathy’, placing it more completely on the principle side than it probably is. ‘Dude you’re my friend please don’t just lie down and die in a completely avoidable way on me, who else is going to not only tolerate but actually gleefully enjoy me being annoying as fuck over lunch’ seems to be the subtext that’s a lot harder to acknowledge and invite in for both of them. And yet Tain seems perfectly clear on the fact that Julian is Garak’s friend, which, y’know. Must be fun living with the knowledge that Tain has eyes everywhere looming over you every day haha guess you’d just have to tune that out.) 

Most of all — ’Don’t give up on me now, Doctor’... and he didn’t! He didn’t. Augh. Ow.

[gothic-mothic]

Stanley learns about the inherent eroticism of the machine

Original image under cut

[lifenconcepts]

part 2 to how I see the narrator from Stanley parable

[oodlesodoodles]

A wip that im probably not going to finish.

[thechaotichorselord]

Nar’s battery and doodles

LOOOOORRREEEEEE GET YA LORE HEREE 🔔🔔🔔📢📢📢

To get charged Nar usually has to hook himself up to electrical wires for a while so that he can get enough electricity into his system.

Too MUCH electricity caused an overload.

It’s extremely painful and takes a while to wear off. It’s dangerous to approach him in this form because he tends to affect a range around him with the excess energy. It’s like drinking too many red bulls at midnight and not being able to sleep in a way!

Undercharging is WORSE though, because it can lead to him being sluggish, inconsistent, and clumsy. If he’s in a rush and uncharged too fast he’ll run out of energy faster than expected and will need to spend longer getting charged than before.

If his battery drops below 5% his body will start shutting down bit by bit to save battery. His eyesight goes first, then his ability to move his legs, then his ability to move, and so on.

IF NEEDED he can resort to other types energy (like solar), which will give him a small energy boost and restore him for a brief moment. Luckily he rarely ever dropped to 5%. Probably won’t ever happen though, hehe.

One more little tidbit of info! If his battery runs out, he’s pretty much DEAD. The wires need to have an active charger to charge, and since a charger shuts off when the battery runs out, the wires cannot charge, therefore meaning Nar is gone.

Unless the Crows decide to fix him up, but they don’t exactly like him. And they mostly like people to be awake when inserting a charger or fixing them up, so they’d be bored and when Nar wakes up they’d have to satisfy their boredom SOMEHOW.

Best option? Charger torture. His back is insanely sensitive, and a punch to his charger can be so painful he’ll throw up.

Nar sure has a lot of scars near his charger from the Crows, teehee!

okay bye

[0turnthelightsout0]

Figured out (more or less) What Cody's face looks like woo-hoo!!! \(^-^)/

Couldn't decide if I liked the digitally coloured or original version better so you get both :3

You also get a bonus Y!Squid and The Line™

[saintmichale]

I think the set up for season 9 is definitely set up to give us a deeper look into child development centers in the society, but BOY HOWDY I hate Kat right of the bat 🤦

[sumquiasum]

if you had to base a new riverdale season off three movies, which would you choose and why? they could be tonal choices or you can pluck entire elements of the movies and work them in.

One theme of the season is (un)reality, with plots loosely inspired by World on a Wire with a touch of Videodrome. The latter would be emulated in its vibes more than its plot. Regarding World on a Wire, they'd realise they're trapped in a narrative instead of a computer simulation (But can they escape? Can you ever truly escape? Doesn't escape from the narrative equal death? Do they WANT to escape??)

One episode is called "The Archie Show" in direct reference to The Truman Show and features the voice of the creator (RAS) directly communicating with the characters at some point.

I know you said three but also if I got to pitch even just an episode of Riverdale, there would be a Chucky reference somewhere in there because I still can't believe they never did one. Also I made up a The Devil's Carnival musical episode for season 5 that doesn't work with this concept, I just wanted to mention it.

[stabbyfoxandrew]

one of my biggest writing problems is that i feel the need to explain what happens every second

[moreawesomethantheaveragepossum]

I have been in such a weird and bad mental place recently, and it's caused me to do some things I wouldn't normally do, like revisit media I liked as a teenager, which is the long winded way to say I've gotten back into night vale, and through that I was put onto Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Mathewson's novel You Feel It Just Below The Ribs

You should go read You Feel It Just Below The Ribs

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character — Scripted Bracket — Round 1

Propaganda

Alé (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel):

Snarky swordsman. So pretty he gave a knight a sexuality crisis. ACAB.

Hester/The Narrator (Within The Wires: Season 1):

Increeeedddibly relaxing voice. Just listen to it. She’s gonna talk you through the escape from a dystopian camp no problem. Just breathe.

[zer0-otheactualnumber]

im so normal about computers razberry , please believe me i mean i may be attr- *gets killed by a government agent*

[shironezuninja]

Trying to lay off of cookie butter until December. The 4 jars I have left have an expiration date for next April.

[genderbinaryisforlosers]

i will be honest i still do not completely understand tony's game but if his main goal is to engineer blackmail material on people then it's actually extremely funny for him to also cuck brian just to ruin his marriage for fun on the side

[spotsupstuff]

Has sparrows ever seen caper without his face plate on?

she Is his Mechanic (which is like.. a doctor almost) so like every month, yes! sometimes it should happen more often but Euros hates sittin' still with his puppet. if he's already Focusing on it and Using it, it bettah be feckin movin