#WRT: Part 2

[journey-to-the-attic]

the new nightmare is cool but i think not putting them in hanfu was an missed opportunity

(+ long hair version that i wasn't as sure about)

[honeyblockm]

generalizing statements like 'all men are evil' are for sure wrong but also i think its important not to cut discussions of gender out of the picture esp bc they are extremely relevant in this case as misogyny is a big part of wilbur's abusive actions and the wider discussion of the. social environment of cc spaces that enables things like this. so.

[lamentable-comedy]

you know, that one story about a relationship between a guy with an unprecedented one of a kind power and his kind of dead love interest who wears a lot of fancy floral print outfits

(aka Simon Snow Pushing Daisies AU)

[starryoak]

Making memes out of my headcanons, part 3, swinging bats at hornets nests edition!

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[lemongogo]

why do i love the conflict more than anything else . the misery . the incompatibility that spreads like oil slick . wanting so desperately for resolution that never comes . hmmm

[mr-magoriums-im-sorry-emporium]

on one hand, nobody is entitled to ai generated art because their disability prevents them from making it, because As It Stands Now, ai models are built off stolen artwork. there is not a SINGLE (publicly available at least) ai model trained off art that was willingly given to the model by the artist, and using the current models only helps exasperate this problem

on the other hand going "well i/this famous artist was disabled and THEY figured out how to make art, so its condescending to say that some disabled people CANT make art, and if ur disabled just figure it out :)" is the kind of rhetoric that time and time again hurts disabled people wrt the "well if THEY can do it, so can YOU" false dichotomy and really should not be used to make your point

& i say this as a disabled artist who absolutely does not like ai art, ESPECIALLY used in a commercial sphere. on paper it would be a fun Fucking Around Machine (esp if there was a bot trained on consentually aquired art) but capitalism requires every last scrap of revenue be squeezed out of anything like blood from a stone so we cant just have a fun thing to have a fun thing and we have shit things like it being a threat to peoples' liveliehoods and training it to mimic dead artists. and we cant really have the fun part without feeding into the bad part. what im saying is its a shame also maybe bootstrap theory is not good

[sweetmage]

I am genuinely sorry for people who aren't enjoying this game but I am having a ball in this bitch.

[lorillee]

[mifhortunach]

.

[rexcaliburechoes]

the lyrics to detect my love sound oddly ominous, not gonna lie...

[starryoak]

Me: I am a totally reasonable person capable of accepting that some people won’t enjoy my favorite media and not freak out over that.

Someone: (expresses even a mildly negative opinion about Psychonauts)

Me: I am no longer reasonable, I am ready to murder.

[tele-mesmerism]

pleasantly surprised by how much my interest in milgram ramped up starting trial 2.. i was mildly intigued by a few characters & their stories but idk voting on that one wouldve been hard to base off anything (the final verdicts ended up pretty close to what id have voted tho). and im relieved by most of the results, i was expecting misogyny and cruelty but esp shidou and kotoko were what i hoped for.

but yeah was pretty lukewarm on it at first but so far 2 characters in to s2 i like them a LOT more theyre really interesting characters actually.

[spark1edog]

im in a terrible mood today idk why

[andthen-light]

thinking forever about taako and lucretias dynamic. something i rlly disagree with (and admittedly i havent seen this opinion surrounding their relationship lately im just thinking of the days of old (2017)) is the notion that after story and song taako and lucretia are like. at eachothers throats all the time or taakos always picking a fight with her. bcoz really aside from story and song taako and lucretia like. do not fight. they have their disagreements but taako and lucretia are more alike than they are different in terms of their nature - theyre both fairly reserved when it comes to showing big displays of emotion

[fatalism-and-villainy]

#GOD YEAH   #when i see meta that's like “will puts on a vulnerable persona as part of his person suit” i'm just ????   #he Does Not   #he very blatantly wants ppl to leave him alone not take care of him; that's part of why he's so rude and abrasive   #and though he did cry crocodile tears for alana he does not want to be saved   #that's what he tells kade prurnell - that he has to save his own life   #i can think of only one other example of him faking vulnerability and that's when he pretended to hannibal that chilton was drugging him   #but that scene was deleted for a reason   #also thinking of how hannibal said will can't hide who he is and how he admires that honesty in him   #will can't hide how he's “off” from others so he leans into it and lets people form their own assumptions instead of trying to hide it   #(apart from when he's grasping for stability w alana and in s3 when he arguably learns to form his own person suit) (via @bloodaria)

Real!! I see this alluded to sometimes too, and I don't really get it, because so much of Will's deal early on is chafing against people trying to manage him. There are people who are invested in protecting or saving him - Alana, and later Jack as well - but that's not because of vibes he's intentionally putting out. And they're both well aware that he doesn't want to be saved (like, Jack saying "I know you don't like to be the cause for concern, but I am officially concerned about you").

Honestly, I don't think Will even has a "person suit" the way Hannibal does. Hannibal's person suit isn't just about hiding that he's a killer, it's being charming and personable and fitting in with society when deep down he's lonely and just as much of an outsider as Will. That's why the episode ends with the irony of him having his cannibal dinner applauded by his guests after him approaching the concept of friendship like he's never heard of it before now. Will is very invested in clamping down on his murderous impulses and generally macabre imagination, but that's because of his own morals, not because he values being likeable and approachable. His outsider status is visible and not something Will tries to hide or compensate for. That's why Hannibal sees himself in Will - he reflects Hannibal's isolation without the investment in image. (I'd agree you Will could be said to have more of a person suit in season 3, given the way he projects an illusion of normalcy via getting a family.)

Thinking more on this discussion -

I was going to say, “Will always acts up, not down” - i.e. doesn’t manipulate through pretending to be weaker and more vulnerable than he actually is. But that’s not strictly true - there’s the example of his faked tears for Hannibal and Alana while he’s in prison. (Do let me know if I’m missing some other example that would go against this argument.)

But I do think it’s true overall. When Will is manipulating others, putting on a front, etc, he’s nearly always acting confident and assured. In season 1, it’s established that he’s uncomfortable with being perceived as vulnerable, both because he’s used to being pathologized and treated as a spectacle and because he’s not used to people sticking around (“abandonment requires expectation” and all that). His dynamic with Jack is interesting in that regard, because he does open up to Jack and level with him about the work being bad for him, at the end of Coquilles. When that doesn’t go over well, by the time Jack expresses concern over him in Buffet Froid, Will’s instinct is to downplay and minimize what’s going on, and then later get angry when Jack tries to take responsibility for him and (in his mind) impinge upon his agency. His dynamic with Hannibal in some ways operates the same way - he opens up to Hannibal about what he’s dealing with, and asks him for help. The rarity of this gesture from Will makes Hannibal’s betrayal and manipulation hit all the harder, and he slams that door shut with Hannibal (well… temporarily).

The kiss with Alana is an early example of Will putting on a show of confidence around others - he freaks out over hallucinating the animal in the wall, but then puts on a show of suave bravado with Alana. It’s only later that he clarifies the kiss was a desperate attempt to grasp at emotional stability and safety. Around other people, his instinct is to act more confident and collected than he actually is, and downplay his fears and vulnerabilities. And even letting it show that he needs help takes a massive amount of trust.

His deliberate manipulation of others in season 2 constitutes a shift in his demeanor, but it does follow the same patterns he’s already cultivated in his behaviour. With the exception of the faked tears (I can only assume he did that because he knew it would be the most effective approach with Alana - and then later on, the landscape of their relationship changes such that it would no longer be convincing), in his interactions with others while in prison (Chilton, Freddie Lounds, Matthew Brown, Jack later on) he’s very outwardly articulate and assured, while internally haunted by disturbing visions. And he carries that demeanor into his interactions with Hannibal once he’s out of prison.

In contrast to Hannibal, who plays the wounded bird a little bit with Jack and Alana in season 2, or Bedelia, who portrays herself as a helpless victim of Hannibal to avoid being taken as an accomplice, or arguably Abigail as well, who plays up her (real) fear so as to avoid suspicion, Will doesn’t usually portray himself as weak or helpless so as to appear innocent or drum up sympathy.

(Honestly, this is why Chilton gets Will so wrong in the court scene in Hassun, when he says that ��the confused man” that Will presents to the world is “a fiction” - Will doesn’t generally project confusion or uncertainty to manipulate! He cares much less about appearing nonthreatening than appearing in control. The prickly and reserved attitude he has at the beginning of the show reflects this - his priorities are not with avoiding people finding him odd or offputting, but with preventing himself from being overwhelmed with people’s emotions, and losing control of his impulses.)

It isn’t that the persona he assumes in season 2 isn’t “the real him” - it draws on traits he actually has, and he expresses things he’s genuinely thinking and feeling during his sessions with Hannibal. But it’s used to mask his uncertainty, internal conflict, and emotional volatility. (Truly one of Will’s most fascinating contrasts is the way he’s outwardly very composed and firm in his convictions, while inwardly being extraordinarily conflicted and prone to doing a complete 180 on his intentions at the last minute.)

All of this is to say:

a) Will coming to lean more into his capacity to be a killer, and more actively deploying his ability to manipulate others, are key developments in his character arc, but his method of channeling those in his engagement with others is not new, it’s an extension of the kind of social performance and self-protecting impulses he’s already developed, and

b) Will’s behaviour towards Hannibal specifically, during the latter half of season 2, is a consequence of Will not feeling secure or emotionally safe around Hannibal. (This is for multiple reasons - righteous anger at Hannibal, the need to hide his deception from Hannibal, the fear that he himself is enjoying this little charade far too much and has to hold himself back from giving in, etc.)

Will wasn’t putting all his cards on the table with Hannibal in season 2, and hadn’t given himself over to him completely. Post-WOTL, he has. So I imagine a post-canon dynamic would feature Will being more willing to let his guard down around Hannibal, and more willing to once again be emotionally vulnerable with him. I don’t think the subtle antagonism would ever fully go away (just go dormant), because they do love pushing each other and testing the limits of each others’ behaviour. But I want to think Will himself would be much more relaxed than he is in late season 2, because they have a much more authentic relationship now.