#alt-right thinking is self-destructive

[cryptotheism]

How is "reality boils down to belief" fascist? Genuine question, you're a smart person and I want your opinion.

I'm gonna be oversimplifying here so bare with me:

Sometimes I feel like people these days think of fascists like bullies from a movie. They see the dedicated fascist mind as something almost knight-like; a rigorous machine dedicated to things like duty and honor and strength and cruelty.

The experience of being a fascist is a deeply, deeply emotional thing. Hell, a common mantra in alt-right circles is "feels over reals," meaning "evidence cannot truly be evidence if it makes you feel disgusted. Your internal experience of the world is the ultimate metric of truth."

And this isn't a recent idea. Fascists have always been obsessed with the concept of individual willpower. Read: the idea that if you don't get what you want, you didn't want it enough. If you tried your best and didn't reach your goal, it was due to a fundamental weakness of your will.

Humans are not logical creatures. Part of being human is being irrational, and making space for other people when they are irrational. But a massive -massive- part of being a fascist is actively and gleefully ignoring reality to a self-destructive degree. Might makes right, so whatever makes the mighty feel good must therefore be right.

I am not exaggerating when I say "reality boils down to belief" is how fascists see the world. Anything that makes them feel good is true, and anything that makes them feel bad is false. That is how they see the world.

[1800titz]

FETISH MASTERLIST

The one in which there's an interesting blog focused on a niche genre of soft-core pornography, two next-door neighbors in an apartment complex with paper-thin walls, a simple case of misinterpretation, a man that runs from intimacy like there's an award waiting at the invisible finish line, and a pet bunny called Snuggles.

The early access spanko fic ♡ | get ahead here

wattpad alt | PATREON MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST

CHAPTER 1 ←→ wattpad alt

the pilot episode feat. a simple misinterpretation of consensual kink as violence

“I called the police on you,” she tells him, utter dismay lacing the words together.  “You did, yeah.” Harry still remembers the blank expression varnished along the officer’s face— the kind of emotionally vacant stare reserved for department store mannequins. The echo of the distant, metaphysical NOPE that definitely rode along his brainstem the moment the curly-haired brunette mentioned “it’s a kink thing,” and the way his partner, hands allocated to his holster belt, started very obviously examining his own shoes.  “I thought—“ Y/N stutters, her wobbling voice sounding squeezed from her trachea, “I thought—“

“You thought you were living next door to a criminal,” Harry supplies. When he tilts his head, a rogue curl flops over his forehead.

CHAPTER 2 ←→ wattpad alt

There are things about a next-door neighbor that one should not, under any circumstances, ever discover— how long, exactly, his refractory period lasts; what kind of guttural, wrecked sound crawls from the pit of his chest mid-orgasm; the way his inky, toned forearm looks, flexing, right before he plants a bruising smack to someone’s ass, punctuating the reciprocal whimper with a low, devious hum. 

Unfortunately, Y/N is now acquainted with all three— two by forcible default and one by self-destructive curiosity. 

CHAPTER 3 ←→ wattpad alt

Only a couple of days ago, he’d stepped out to water his plants and overheard a group of girls, unbeknownst to his eavesdropping— a circle of collegiate roommates, as far as he understands, given that he’s heard them discuss Kappa Sigma’s infamous Brett’s cock in disgustingly avid detail (is girth more important than integrity? The world may never know)— conversing out on the balcony right beneath his own. Once, he’d sat through four whole minutes of what sounded like an intervention about “the ethics of fucking your lab partner for Adderall.” The conversation wasn’t nearly enthralling enough to stomach more before he finished his joint and went back inside, but this time, the snippet he hears gives him pause. He stands still with his watering can in his hand, hovering over Monte (a bushy thing that’s tripled in size since he first acquired it from the plant nursery), and his pink mouth slowly settles into a grimace the longer he listens.  “I heard he was on house arrest, but they removed the ankle monitor early.” “No, no, he’s just in witness protection. But like, bad at it.” “Wait, I thought he was an ex-cop?” “No, he’s a dom.” “…A what?” “A dom. You know. A professional one.” “Like a dominatrix?” “Isn’t that just a woman?” “I don’t know, I just know he runs one of those torture chambers and probably wears leather.” “Holy shit, Jess.” When someone else tacks on, after an awed pause, “…Do you think there’s a sign-up sheet we could hit?” and a peal of girlish giggles erupts, the man literally has to muscle down his eye roll. The last group of people he wants on his roster are a freshly-legal coalition of matching crop tops with vodka breath.

It’s not exactly his ideal demographic.

CHAPTER 4 ←→ wattpad alt

“He was an asshole,” Y/N delivers the context with a blink, waving her hand as if to clear the slate of his lingering ego trail. Her lashes flutter like she's recalibrating for the shift in energy, and she gestures with her head into the direction of the cooler beside him, “There’s a fridge right next to you.” “Right,” Harry purses his mouth, knocking his bare knuckle against the counter softly as he cocks his head, “but that’s self-service. I’m looking for a bit more hospitality.” A creeping heat wells in her the longer his eyes stay pinned and smogs her head. “Right. Well. We have coffee, and,” she juts her chin, “…things…”

“Coffee and things,” his eyebrows climb as he nods at the elusive explanation, lids falling to a teasing half-mast, “That’s very insightful.”

CHAPTER 5 ←→ wattpad alt

Harry would argue that the majority of the human population doesn’t prefer the unknown, and he’s no outlier in that department.  He likes knowing where his keys are, so he always sets them into the same spot. He likes having a drawer specifically dedicated to loose cables, even if some of them are unidentifiable and may belong to devices he no longer owns. He prefers his breakfast to be the same most days: toast, half an avocado, an egg, and lemon if he remembers. There’s a particular brand of olive oil that he restocks beside his stovetop— extra virgin, Terra Delyssa, always— and he always finds himself reaching for the same shampoo at the store. He still uses a face wash a girl had once recommended in 2017, mostly because he’s scared to try anything else and potentially break out. What’s the point of fracturing and restructuring a routine that already works?  Harry prefers routine. It is the antithesis of chaos, and therefore change (which, as mentioned, he doesn’t particularly enjoy), and that is funny given that his regular coffee rotation has grown from two reputable cafés to three. The third, incidentally, being the one that Y/N works at, and incidentally, his stops there happen to occur when Y/N is on shift. 

Which is to say, in the most polite terms— Harry deems— that he would like to fuck her. 

CHAPTER 6 > coming (07/15/25) OR access here now

[raileurta]

You mentioned expanding this AU into different continuities and it just reminded me of the fact that technically rescue bots and prime are in the same universe (and also ghosts are canon???? Like human ghosts). Do you think unicron keeps tabs on the kids initially just to try and convince them to go full feral but eventually comes to just like talking to them? Like he starts out with the whole “you’re right on his shoulder, you’re so close, that spark must be mighty tempting.” And it eventually becomes stuff like “you need to drink more water” not cause he cares or anything, it’s just that his little spark eaters can do more damage if they’re in good health (sure that’s the reason).

Thinking about how you mentioned Wheeljack and Bulkhead squirreling away immobilised mechs and like, do you think unicron is lowkey helping them out with that? Like, “wow that’s an awfully convenient hiding spot for this mech. Not gonna think too much into that.” Hell, do you think he’s kinda fond of them in a way? Like he’d never admit it but he’s kinda like “well…even if they are creations of primus…they are helping feed one of my spark eaters…so they get a pass…for now.”

(Lowkey very tempted to write a little horror drabble from an immobilised mechs pov about that cause the potential is very interesting. listen I’m a nerd who will always fall for horror and angst tropes lol)

You’ve mentioned being willing to talk about messenger/metamorphosed humans appearances so I’m kinda curious about what impacts their appearance. Like I know you said insect wings aren’t really viable but hummingbird wings kinda work in the same way 👀. (Double hummingbird wings???) Is it straight “biology” based on the traits they already had or does the humans personality impact their appearance? Since the kids are…y’know, kids, are they done growing after metamorphosis or will they keep growing normally? Or maybe would they grow slower because they live longer now?

Do you think Unicron is trying to convince Miko and Raph to put themselves into situations to allow him to messenger metamorphose them? I figure it needs a specific set of circumstances if only Jack has been “messengered” so far cause he absolutely wants Miko at maximum chaos potential lmao

Anyways uhhhh…I’m a bit brain dead from a 7 hour car ride, here’s some shitty doodles I made cause I thought they’re silly and fun.

(Can you tell I can’t draw?)

Have a nice week!

Firstly, thank you for the fanart. I will treasure it greatly. *Hangs it on my Tumblr fridge* I did chuckle at some of the stuff I saw lmao. XD

Yeah I also forget rescue bots and prime exist in the same universe- (We're not talking about that poor excuse of a sequel that shall be named) it is a little funny as tfp is like the one singular alt edgy older teen at a family gathering.

I do believe after a while on Unicron trying to be the all powerful robot Satan manipulator he…. just kinda gives up. Humans- the kids, let's be real here are quite frankly too stubborn and self destructive to deal with. Especially with people like Miko who's self preservation is in the negatives, and probably beyond that. He is forced into the role of an actual caregiver as he has to drag the kids kicking and screaming into taking care of themselves. He's just so distracted by this he just puts the manipulation onto the back burner then later ultimately decides it's not worth the effort.

Unicron is enabling the hell out of them without actually trying to be caught or admit to doing it. Once he first heard of this happening he was completely on board with it 100%. He just doesn't admit it since he does have a reputation to uphold, plus he's also just a tsundere. He conveniently, “accidentally” just happens to make perfect caves to hide undisclosed large objects a lot, does a few distractions here and there, all kinds of things.

I would encourage you to do so. 🙏 What they are doing is pretty horrifying and it definitely makes you question their morals. However it is a great premise for a horror fic with all kinds of fucked up.~

I don't remember saying that??? I think I didn't? If I did, regardless, consider that retconned. I don't care too much about physics considering *gestures vaguely to the entire tf franchise* and all that. So go crazy.

It's kinda a mixture of their personality, what they represent as a Messenger, and “biology.” I don't want to spoil you as that's a post for the redesigns but there is lots of stuff at play here.

Oh absolutely yes he does. For someone to become a Messenger-

*spoilers*

they have to embody what they would represent fully at a point in their life. Jack, as the Freedom part of chaos, really needed to want freedom. When he was abducted he was caged and subjected to lots of things he was definitely going to talk about in future therapy. Once he was terrorizing the ship he was completely panicked. He was now forced into a body he didn't want or understand desperately trying to evade capture by the decepticons. It all came to a head when he was cornered and before he was set out into the volcano Jack wanted to be free.

Jack needed to be free.

He couldn't believe Megatron has possibly done this thousands of times to various people already. At that moment the once human yearned with all his heart that no one would be trapped like this ever again.

He then was ground bridged and the rest is history.

Have a good few days too. 👋

[lieutenant-kettch]

In case anyone wanted to cry more after the ending of Andor, here's my whump idea for Mothma's family post Endor (because I love suffering)

For this, that whole deleted scene where Perrin knew the whole time goes out the window.

So after Mon flees Coruscant, Perrin basically self-destructs a little bit. He starts drinking a lot more, gambles away what's left of the money he has access to. Starts an affair with Runai Sculdun after Davo gets arrested by the ISB because they find the paper trail of him moving Mon's money around to unwittingly fund the Rebellion.

Eventually Perrin drinks himself to death right around the battle of Hoth. Leida is distraught by this, and essentially doubles down on the Traditional Chandrilan Values™️and falls deeper and deeper into the GFFA's version of the alt right pipeline.

A few years after Endor and the New Republic is declared, Leida follows in Mon's footsteps and gets elected to the senate to represent the Bormea sector. But by this time she's a fervent neo Imperialist and publicly against Chief of State Mon Mothma.

Why is this idea in my head? I think I just love misery 🙃

[lucabyte]

i want to be nosyy what r ur jadesprite thoughts? shes around so little

okay so i should probably horde ur ask until i get past all jadesprite's appearences in the comic while im rereading (<- fell behind due to *gestures* but am finally in act 4 good lorddd) so i can be more coherent because right now my thoughts are mostly me grasping at half-remembered themes re: her and how they tie into post-retcon jade & epilogue jade & people reeeeallly not liking epilogue jade. as someone who.. okay so "like" is a reductive word. I was very compelled by epilogue jade(s) and am curious to see where she goes. but like.

If i get more coherent about this ill just find this post again and reply to it or something. Anyway.

there's... somethingggg... about jade's temper that i've been noticing during rereading even this early on. she's very bubbly in a3 obviously, but her big "angry" moment in act 3 is her staging a verbal fight with her grandpa. She invokes that all on her own. That she antagonises Grandpa Jake so thoroughly throughout it too. While all of her words are happy and sweet, her narration is Really Really fucking Mean? Like, moreso than the other kids! And the narration, while external in-text, does give an insight into the caliber of the kid's internal monolgoues a lot of the time. And Jade's is the first sign that she's that angry deep down.

Obviously later in act 4, 5a2 and especially a6 we get a whole lot more angry Jade. And much like most girls in HS her anger is justified basically always, even if everyone else puts her down for it. And while I'm going to need to keep rereading before I can make proper statements that actually refer to stuff post "the start of act 4-ish" I do wonder about that reaction to Jade Being The Specific Kind Of Unpleasant That She Is In The Epilogues. Because once again, (YMMV ALERT) I completely understood her reasonings for acting out like that, even if the raised stakes of adulthood made the choices kind of wild. Honestly, especially because of those raised stakes.

But onto Jadesprite-- She is maybe the distillation of this, I think. The fact that all of Jade's anger is supressed and inwards until she finally lashes out. The fact Jadesprite's crying is so overwrought and outwardly 'annoying' being the thing Jade can't stand-- Compared with how much both the characters and fanbase seemingly can't stand when Jade turns her self-destruction outwards and catches other people in the crossfire. (That 'catching in the crossfire' being another thing. for a character so defined by loneliness, self-destructing by destroying social bonds seems like the way to go. Again: Jadesprite is so upset because she (oh so selfishly) wanted to stay with her friends and she's been torn away from them)

Anyway ^^^ ALL OF THIS IS PREFACED BY A MILLION 'based on my recollection'S BECAUSE ITS BEEN . A MINUTE. so if im wrong or am talking kinda vaguely. that is why... But I do think Jadesprite is a really overlooked facet of Jade's characterisation. Once again, i think people struggle in general to percieve characters as A Gestalt Of Their Alt-Selves. Like... Idk how to explain the disconnect but sometimes it feels like people see them as Seperate to the "real"* version of the character, but in cases like homestuck where the Alt Universes are *time travel* and not like... idk. "An AU" in the fandom way-- You GOTTA remember that all versions of the character are valid outcomes of the same guy. and that the "real" guy is functionally indistinct from the "fake" guys. they wouldn't Act Different for any reason other than literal occurances. their Cores aren't different. So for Jadesprite-- You have to remember she's not some "AU" Jade-- This is in some way just how Jade "really" feels. So. ??? i am talking in circles. you get it. you also get what i mean by people being unable to percieve characters as 'the same deep down' in a characterisation sense just because theyre acting 'different' when stood next to themselves. In perhaps other arenas we're both familiar with. Bestie.

*how ironic. almost like davesprites whole thing is this. or something

[plaidos]

A while back you were talking about gender in Homestuck and ended the post talking about how Jade makes for a better transmasc/tme enby character than a majority of the rest of the cast, and while I think that's accurate, I feel like there's also the potential for a quite good transfem reading

Grimbark Jade being a volatile version of herself, having all of her inner pent up emotion forcibly released, being made into a weapon by a fascist and wielded against her closest friends,

Then later in the comic she has a whole conversation with Alt!Calliope (obviously Calliope is nigh canonically transfem) in which she is told that as a space player it is her nature to be alienated from her friends and loved ones and that when she is eventually called upon it will be in the form of a cataclysmic roar that results in her own self destruction and in taking everything around her down too,

Idk i feel like there's SOMETHING there even if I can't fully articulate it in its entirety

i feel like you only half remembered this post of mine because i almost immediately started talking about how she’s pretty obviously transfem coded too lol i was just saying that from a watsonian perspective Jade was almost certainly assigned female at birth (at least, as of the Epilogues) and that there is textual evidence for her considering non-binary as being a label she might’ve liked as a kid. like you’re totally right! but i spoke about some of this stuff already hah

[sonicasura]

Me: *sees AUs where if Transformers Animated Optimus and Black Arachnia switch places* Let me give you all something better.

First off Optimus' robot mode. His will be based on a drider, a mythological creature with a human top half and a spider lower body. Retains Autobot colors but with additional orange markings on the abdomen similar to a jumping spider in pattern.

Alt Mode? Goliath Birdeater aka the world's largest spider and a tarantula. These beauties right here! I like to mention Goliath Birdeaters are actually gentle giants who only bite when threatened and rarely eat birds.

Optimus is a BIG BOI particularly around 32 ft in size as he had some growing to do so his body could fully support this new frame. If you are wondering, yes he does molt like spiders. And Optimus also kept them as a morbid reminder that the bot is now a monster.

Yeah I forgot to mention the guy went into self exile. Instead of the behavior people usually portray Arachnus Prime, he's still a kind soul but now layered with self depreciation, loneliness and thinks 'monsters like him' don't deserve companionship. OP more likely to run away than chase someone off.

He ends up on Earth ten years before Megatron and made his own nest somewhere near Detroit. Optimus becomes a local cryptid akin to Big Foot on levels of popularity. The only proof people could gather is the tracks he leaves behind, empty punctured oil drums, or molt fragments.

Spider brain tends to go off where he tries to catch birds and other critters. Only casualties were a few deer alongside the realization Optimus can subsist on organics too. He shuts himself in whenever this new craving occurs as he rather not eat a human during a feral state.

The rapid rise in technological advances for Detroit later forces him to relocate within the sewer systems since his previous den faced absolute destruction. Feral episodes become more difficult to manage as Optimus resorted to fishing to satisfy himself. It takes awhile before things become normal for him.

Then a repair crew from Cybertron emerge lead by his dear friend, Elita-1. A blast from the past Optimus wished to never face again. Nor the Decepticon threat that will soon expose his existence.

Good luck Optimus as you'll need it.

[saltineofswing]

ANOTHER EARTH, FILE 003 – KILLER MOTH

And Here We Find That Most Noble of Nature's Creatures... The Moth

Providing a service to all the people on the internet who think that Killer Moth should wear thigh-high boots. That's, like, everybody, right?

Writeup & gadgets below.

Each page of the file above has its script in the alt text for the image! I thought this would be a fun way to spruce up the write-ups. They won't all be this long, but the format I chose for this gimmick gives me a lot of room to run. Plus, this one is a pretty dramatic deviation from baseline. If you are a Drury Walker fan... I'm sorry for what I did to your boy.

I just thought it would make a really cool concept to bring Killer Moth back to his roots as a Batman hard counter – long before Hush, or Prometheus, or Wrath, or any 'a those fucking jabronis. And I thought, what better way to do that than to mirror Bruce's life experience? What if Cameron Van Cleer never got retconned into Drury Walker? What if Cameron Van Clear had a son?

I mostly go over that in the file above. What I will tell you here, is that I originally did this design for him to appear as an 'NPC' in my fiancé's superhero tabletop campaign (the one with Visage, also ultimately the genesis for me starting the Another Earth project). It is sort of a beautiful risotto of all our favorite superhero genre tropes, settings, and characters.

I wanted to swing his costume all the way in the opposite direction from the unserious throw-up of jumbled colors and patterns (which I love) – make it melodramatic and 'intimidating', which I think becomes goofy in its own way.

I gave the character some traits that I feel make him more of an 'anti-Batman' than, like, Hush or Prometheus or the Joker; Batman's 'Dark Mirrors' tend to just boil down to 'this guy is CRAZY and he's JUST as CLEVER as BATMAN, but he KILLS PEOPLE!' I don't really feel that's an 'Anti-Batman', though, it's just a crazy guy who is super clever and kills people.

This version of Killer Moth shares Bruce's core 'dead parent' motive and 'wealth allowed him access to high-level training' means, but where Bruce is selfless and brave but violent, angry, self-destructive, Cameron is not at his core a violent person; he takes good care of himself; and he is highly pragmatic and will usually bail when things get too tough.

Cameron killed the man who killed his father, and in doing so he achieved closure for himself; Bruce couldn't do that, and so he will never know whether or not it would give him peace. Ironically I think that Cameron is probably more stable than any of the 'Anti-Batmans'. All this isn't quite a job to him, it's more like a priority hobby he is very passionate about (running CleerCorp is his 'job', which he takes seriously – again, where Bruce doesn't even really engage with the management of Wayne Enterprises beyond where it can serve his needs as Batman). Making him a businessman who believes in the idea that the cape community is a market system unto itself, and therefore requires balance on both sides, was a cool way to justify him being sort of morally flexible... again, mirroring Bruce's moral rigidity.

Five songs off of my Killer Moth playlist:

I'm Designer – Queens of the Stone Age

Mojo – Peeping Tom

Dog Eat Dog – Weird Al

Madcap – clipping.

Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave – Morphine

Next... how about somebody who ain't in the Batfamily, huh?

[th3-0bjectivist]

Not a question. Just a comment. I wanted to let you know that I am impressed by the different things that you try and the things that you post and write about. It's very classy and well done and I have enjoyed looking at your posts. Thank you for sharing.

Dawww, thanks. You know, these days I think I get like two sincere compliments per year and usually it’s something like, ‘Good work!’ That kinda made my day and I’m on the tail end of a pretty crappy week, so, a humble thank you. I’ll tell you a quick story about the way I format this page, and I’ll try not to bore you to tears:

About a decade ago I ran another Tumblr that I ended up shutting down out of pure frustration. I just couldn’t attract any followers, and I think I maxed out on like 77 followers after two straight years of effort. The problem was, I was running a very confusing page that wasn’t at all formatted in any way that made sense. You wanna know what the theme was!? CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND ART. Yeah… all I would do was yammer on about conspiracy theories and then post my newbie-ass art on Tumblr, LOL. I’ll tell ya, some of the art that I posted ended up in the hundreds-of-hits range. But the theme itself was so lame, contradictory and self-destructing that I ended up just shutting the page down and taking a Tumblr break for about three years.

Three years have gone by. During the height of COVID, I was stuck home and bored a lot. I also had this large back-catalog of art that I had created throughout the years, which I was absolutely dying to show off. So, I decided to come back to Tumblr and this time I had a plan; ditch the conspiracy nonsense and just make a variety page that centered around art and music. The formula worked pretty much right away. As soon as already-existing big art aggregators like stewacai started to reblog my stuff, it all just snowballed from there. I got tons of attention from around the world and very quickly. There were a couple of harsh lessons that I had to learn at first. One lesson was avoiding politics pretty much entirely. I found that whenever I tried to get political, at all, I’d lose followers. So, I jettisoned politics from this page nearly entirely within about three months because it just wasn’t serving me. I also used to post a lot of news articles to my page, which during the COVID years were expurgated by a very censorious Tumblr staff. So, I stopped posting news articles for the most part. The entire theme of this page has simply centered around art, humor and music. It worked for me, it can work for others as well, trust.

When I look back on the last half-decade, I can’t help but feel a little mushy about all the attention and experiences I’ve had due to a simple format change. I’ve managed to sell and give away art to people all over the world. I’ve met some wonderful people and fellow artists, some of whom I very regrettably don’t communicate with these days due to complex, emotional and layered interpersonal encounters that were most certainly at least half my fault. I used to be a lot more crass on this page as well, so what you refer to as ‘class’ I simply refer to as ‘restrained execution’. I’ve been putting some thought toward purchasing a web cam/microphone and posting short vids to Tumblr in recent days, just so I can put a little bit more of my ideas, voice and general presence out there.

Well, again, thank you for the nice comment. It ended up spurring a four-paragraph response from me so that’s how you know it hit me in the feels. Be well and thanks for following. I’m enjoying your page as well!

Best,

~ th3-0 (Luke)

PS- Feel free to visit my alt-links below, I've been very busy in the last half-decade.

The 0bjectivist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2sONH8IwzL_2sZie0ZNSnw/

I’m also on BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/uvKfJpNkzkIL/

FULL ART GALLERY and crispier artgifs on DeviantArt at: https://www.deviantart.com/th3-0bjectivist/gallery

[minotaurcircuits]

sometimes you write a line and then lose your shit doing art about it for who knows how many hours, i did not time this. (based on previous pieces, i'd estimate ten hours but, anyone's guess tbh, could be more, but probably not that much less)

(oh my god please click for quality, tumblr is so mad about the size of this file)

anyway just, thinking about the true dynamic of a sun and moon, a sun that is attention grabbing but dangerous to look at, to engage with, self-destructing and burning out until it inevitably goes supernova, and a moon that offers light in the dark, that fades into the background, but is ever-present, consistent, critical.

the way the sun's light reflects back off the moon, how connor's reputation and presence affects zoe after his death, "amazing. all of a sudden, everyone wants to be my friend. i'm the dead kid's sister." the way even before his death she probably often found herself defined in other people's eyes as "zoe murphy? oh like connor murphy's sister, right?"

just,,, the murphy siblings got me Fucked Up, we been knew

[image ids in alt text]

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Hello! I was wondering if you've ever posted about the Robin Hel resplendents? I couldn't find it and I'm curious about your take. I love your analyses.

Hmm... I definitely HAVE, because I have interpretations lol, but mmmm my tags are so inconsistent asdfghjkl so sorry to everyone who's ever tried to find anything on my blog (not to mention, tbh, I'm not sure I didn't exclusively post about this on Twitter...). So... let's just do a full writeup right now, shall we?

Basically, uh... Hel M!Robin is "covert Grima" but Hel F!Robin is just wearing edgy clothes.

So the thing is, M!Robin got his resplendent pretty early on, back in 2020. Now, I'm not going to break into a full analysis here because it's a tangential point, but I would argue that FEH's treatment of Robin/Grima/Robin-as-Grima has actually changed over time, with them shifting from "this is literally just Robin gone wrong" to a more... (I can't pretend to be unbiased about this; you KNOW how I feel about Grima = Robin)... genericized "evil entity snatched the body" take (which I can't help but feel is a result of the developers no longer having Awakening fans on staff. I mean look at Rearmed Grima's Forging Bonds. They just straight up forgot that it's a plot-important detail that Lucina doesn't know Robin is Grima. Or look at the Forging Bonds for either of the Brave Robins. The entire premise is flawed because Chrom only takes the title of Exalt postgame, meaning that for Robin to be advisor to the EXALT they must have already defeated Grima and regardless of ending they should NOT be worried about being taken over by Grima.) Anyway, I digress, but the point is that back in 2020 they were still hitting hard on Grima being a Fallen Robin. We hadn't gotten Halloween F!Grima yet and frankly I'm not sure anyone thought that a fallen alt could get alts or resplendents of their own, so... I sort of suspect that's why they wanted to bring in elements of Grima to Hel Robin.

And here's what's really interesting... Hel Robin is the ONLY Hel Resplendent that is implied to ACTUALLY be dead. It's... subtle. "These are the raiments of Hel, the realm of the dead. Don't read too much into that." is... a little bit suspiciously specific in its denial, isn't it? Like, saying NOT to read too much into it is basically an invitation to start scrutinizing it asdfghjkl. And then you have "I may look a little scary, but I'm still the same Robin underneath. Have no fear." And just WHY do you feel the need to assure us of this, Robin? Nobody thinks the Resplendent alts are changing personalities...

But maybe it's because, idk, his eyes get a little redder in his special art?

Again, it's SUBTLE. And if you only look at the special art, you could easily say it's just brown. But, then... why make this change berween normal attack and special? Robin has certainly been portrayed with inconsistent eye colors before, but not in the SAME alt.

And then let's actually look at his special activation lines...

UM... What's that one in the middle there??? "Accept your fate!" ???

Does that not cinch the deal? Do we not know enough about Robin to be able to conclude definitively WHICH Robin would say THAT (and which Robin would reject that kind of thinking outright)?

(I think "Death can be a mercy!" is also very consistent with Grima's worldview and their belief in their power of destruction as "the one true equalizer")

And if all of that wasn't enough, there's also his page on the FEH Pass website, which includes a short introduction written in-character by Sharena. M!Robin's says

Robin's wearing attire from Hel, the realm of the dead! Ohhh, I hope he's OK... Even if he's not feeling like his normal self, this new outfit keeps the black-and-purple theme from his classic look and adds some spooky flair with new patterns and a stylishly frayed hem!

So yeah, Sharena is worried about him and thinks he isn't feeling like his "normal self." Again, M!Robin is the ONLY Hel Resplendent who has any indication of a personality change coming with the clothes. Resplendent F!Robin, despite sharing the outfit's design, doesn't share ANY of the "covert Grima" features. Not the lines, not Sharena's concern, and absolutely not the changing eye color. Honestly, it was a little disappointing to me, because the little details with m!Robin are just so brainrot-worthy, but idk, F!Robin got the better glowup art-wise (seriously, her Respledent is some of my favorite Robin art out there) and when you think about it, it IS extremely funny to imagine the two of them interacting while M!Robin has to keep pretending he's not the one who went back in time and got his ass kicked.

Because I mean... that's sort of the obvious inference, isn't it? That he's Original Timeline Robin who became the fell dragon, followed Lucina back in time, and was killed by Good Timeline Robin. Lol I really wish more fanfic authors would take this alt and run with it, because is that concept not just totally ripe with potential?

Anyway, thank you for coming my TED Talk today. I will tag it as Grima Studies this time and add it to my masterpost for any of you who might like to one day find it again asdfghjkl.

[szilverer]

gotta confess that although i decided to give reisz the amnesia trope beam just bc i wanted to start playing before having to settle on their background, i did have a barebones semi-canon backstory for them all along.

its just that. out of all the canon-compliant manners of messing with memories that i came across so far (mostly mentions of irrigo & bottled oblivion). the One idea that i like the most just had to be the most convoluted possible

it wormed its way on the back of my head from the very first week or so when i was thinking about making a seeking alt and came across random unmarked nemesis ending spoilers in the discord.

the idea is reisz as the returned loved one of a nemesis alt, yeah.

naturally, the whole thing didn't work out that well for the two of them in the end..........

(…whenever i make a new Main oc it's like a curse. it doesn't spawn on its own, no. it comes in twos and they always come with an unsatisfying enmeshed relationship from a shared past. so those nemesis spoilers made me point like the dicaprio meme and BOOM second doomed character materialised in my head instantly. and cuz im a simple cliche bastard, a sucker for foils and mimesis whose autism craves narrative patterns, these two would have had inversely parallel developments.)

nemesis is just about the perfect ambition for a seeking alt bc it seems like the natural next step for a ultimately compassionate person that decided to commit their life to a vengeance that did Not pay off (due to the whole. not remembering thing.) so if i do decide to canonize this idea the matter of her current whereabouts is already answered: NORTH. and now that reisz got their first (and last) weeping scar. well. they match <3

i'd be playing events from years past but going north means she doesn't get to do the railway or any of that other stuff, so it fits nicely in the phantom's timeline.

this also would give me two very good explanations for their memory issues:

somehow rebooted themself on purpose bc they simply Couldn't Deal (same reason the… avenger? scourge? went north. they got to watch the beginning of her self-destruction, of course.)

it's an occasionally reoccurring consequence of whatever the hell got done to bring them back to life (i do not know what it was . i know there's cider involved but idrk what cider is.)

the only reason im wary of canonizing this right away is that aside from vague ending spoilers i Do Not Know what happens in nemesis. i Do Not Know if this idea is viable for a pc or if the circumstances of being brought back this way would contradict what a pc can or cannot do.

am in a weird spot that i Need to know more spoilers to check if everything would fit in a way that makes sense, and bc i want to play the ambition someday i don't want to spoil myself by trying to look it up!!1 flops down on the floor.

alas. i promised myself i'd only make an alt once im way into the endgame with reisz, so this boutta be their Schrodinger's Past for a good while. and if i do get to the end of nemesis a year from now and find out it doesn't actually fit, well . that's a problem for future me

[nougat-rockrozma]

tumblr crunched the quality so bad hahaha. image desc in alt text been rping with my new iterator oc for a few months, but i think they deserve a proper introduction to the world! meet conative beckon, young iterator determined to find a solution, no matter what.

extra tidbits and a cb version of my ol iterator oc bingo under the cut!

fun facts:

Conative speaks in quite a professional tone, and likes to keep it that way. However, a more... impulsive side slips through often, as much as Conative wants to keep it in check.

When frustrated with a task or overly emotional, they like to throw their pearls around.

Can be quite kind, but their undersocialized nature impedes this.

Specifically fears directly breaking the self-destruction taboo.

Has no city, and no significant cultural value.

Was made between a joint effort of a few regional, lesser-known houses as a communally-worked on project. Their cooperation began to have... issues when the mass ascension was announced.

Barely spent time with their creators at all.

Future!Conative's design would have yellowed plastics replacing the white-cyan ones in the present, an inside-out, slightly battered poncho and a broken (our right, their left) inner antennae.

???

[kkbardd]

so uhh i got summoned to asurei court, if anyone's interested in my testimony papers, theyre down below the cut. (aka my whole take on how i believe their dynamic would develop in cannon)

asurei isn’t for everyone & its whole point is unhealthy dependence.. toxic yuri if u will.. anything resembling a healthy relationship would only be in one of the alt universes created by the 3rd impact 💀 rei and asuka both have what the other wants (whether it be the worth asuka puts on recognition of piloting skills or rei's desire to break from mindless obedience like asuka seems to do so easily.) They both hate and admire each other for this, and asuka specifically expresses this by lashing out at rei. asuka's whole relationship w lesbian comphet plays a HUGE role into all of this but let’s gloss over it for the time being. (now, with asurei u gotta get a bit delusional cuz cannon doesn’t give us much so from here on out is just my opinion on how it'd play out.)

in terms of rei's POV in this:

rei hates the attention they gets from men, and is especially disgusted by gendo's fake kindness. he sees rei as a replaceable doll and pushes yui's image on them. gendo has never actually seen rei for who they really are, and rei later begins to hate and despise not only gendo but themselves too. in the anime, rei is shown to have self destructive tendencies & suicidal ideation because not only are they constantly being replaced & having their memory wiped, but each time they forget any sort of emotion that they learn in the meantime. recall the scene in which rei, right after being "revived" and left with no memory, sees gendo's glasses. although they cant remember anything, its hinted that their "soul" still remembers and hates him. rei tries to break the glasses but in the end, they’re still unable to defy and break free from their situation. feeling frustrated and helpless, rei starts crying & remarks how this should be the first time they've experienced it but somehow it feels like its not. back to the present, reis acting very reckless in battle and basically using themselves as a meat shield. they're so full of self-hate, and seeing asuka's obvious inferiority to them just upsets them even more. why does she put so much worth on the one thing that acts like a plague to them? compared to these pointless test results on a screen, asuka has something so much more valuable. the ability to think for themselves, to not be someone's doll. asuka's inferiority is almost insulting. rei verbally lashes out at asuka in the elevator, showing defiance that they never knew they could produce. it felt almost liberating. they find that being around asuka gives them emotions that they've always longed for, no matter how ugly they may be. they soon find themselves seeking asuka out, and the inferiority that was once insulting became a means to control and keep her close. asuka, someone who was seemingly invincible and can roam free without care, has one weakness that causes her to crack and shatter from the slightest touch. and that weakness is none other than rei themselves. rei becomes possessive in a way that they've never known possible. so much so that a part of them starts to hate themselves, fearing they've become just like their abuser gendo. nonetheless, rei begins to value their life more. they become deathly afraid of dying & being replaced by some mindless clone that has forgotten everything they now know about asuka and themself.

now what is asuka doing in all of this?

asuka deals with a lot of comphet and its an integral part of her character, so much so that it doesn’t seem right to not mention it. but to quickly summarize, because of this she has a love-hate relationship with attention from men. she feels disgusted by it but gets extremely jealous when it seems like another girl might replace her. then comes rei. (now what most ppl don’t seem to notice is asuka didnt start off hating rei, she tried to be friends but ever since the beginning misato has ALWYAYS pitted them against each other. this of course led asuka to feeling threatened & seeing rei as an enemy. especially since it involves piloting ability, something that asuka sees as her whole point of living.) she begins to hate her because how can someone who is so good at piloting be so brainless and doll-like. that’s exactly what asuka was trying so hard to not become! in this aspect, rei's entire existence defies what asuka has tried so hard to believe in up to this point. her hate & inferiority towards rei is only made worse when she sees that they're not only being objectified by men, but are seemingly unbothered by it unlike asuka. rei is now constantly on her mind, and asuka starts to realize that what she's feeling towards them isn’t just hate. its around the time of the elevator scene that these confusing emotions and inferiorities are at their peak. right after this, asuka goes into battle & is ordered to be rei's backup. she defies this order but receives a mental attack from an angel that causes her to re-live all of her trauma & comphet issues. the person that saved her from this is none other than rei. at this point asuka is at an all-time low, and states that she'd rather be left for dead than saved by someone like rei. she’s still confused by her feelings towards rei, but right now her hatred and insecurity is taking priority. its right after this battle that her synchro rates plummet and she loses the #1 thing she based her life worth on. she then goes out to die in an abandoned building but is eventually retrieved by NERV. I believe that during this time alone, she’s also wallowing in her feelings for rei and coming to terms with a lot of comphet stuff, especially after that psychological attack. right after this the world like ends or whatever but lets forget that for now & extend time cuz the gays need it 🥰 .

rei and asuka at this point realize their feelings in one way or another, and there's a lot of tension in their conversations. asuka is at a very fragile point rn bc of all the stuff that just went on, and rei is unsure how to go about things, half due to their inexperience & half due to their fear of becoming like gendo. however, asuka realizes rei is acting different from before, and advances on them as a way of lashing out. but to her surprise rei is undefiant and actually willingly helpless in her hands. she feels a rush of superiority and is amused by how inexperienced rei is. she also realizes that unlike her previous experiences with men (like when she tried to kiss shinji but didnt want to see, smell, taste, or even feel it & had a mental breakdown afterwards lol ) she actually likes it!? the romantic/sexual affirmation that asuka has always wanted from men like kaji is being fulfilled by rei in a way that asuka feels completely in control & comfortable. she's not forcing herself or being objectified, but rather is taking the lead. this is something she never imagined possible before. and all of this is with rei to boot! the rei that, in asuka's eyes, has always looked down on her and been unobtainable is now melting in her hands like putty. there’s a sense of accomplishment she feels, which makes her want to push rei even more. she finally has authority and to make herself feel better, she takes it out on rei through advances like this. she goes further and further, and in an ironic way, uses intimacy as a form of self-harm. she feels shame and despises herself for doing such things with ill-intent, and with another woman at that. its a toxic relationship that tries to fill the hole in her heart, but only leads to a bigger one forming.

when asuka first advanced onto rei, they felt something unlike anything before. unlike when gendo would often touch their shoulder, rei didnt recoil from asuka's touch. rei also felt something similar to asuka, in that the person who always seemed unbound by anything in now giving them her undivided attention. the fact that this came from an act of anger didnt really bother rei, since they knew from the beginning that was one of the only ways to get asuka to even spare them a glance. rei would gladly become hated if it meant binding asuka to them. in a mix of touch-starvedness & unhealthy dependency on asuka, rei kept looking forward to any interacting with asuka, since it was what really made them feel alive. asuka slowly becomes rei's world and meaning for living, but they eventually realize that causes a great insecurity. asuka is independent and can go anywhere she wants if she feels like it. from rei's pov, asuka desperately wants attention from men, something that rei could never give her. rei's afraid that asuka will leave them, & to tie asuka down they play the role of a villain. rei keeps asuka feeling insecure by becoming what asuka envisioned them as, and slowly starts hacking away at asuka's Achille's heel. rei desperately uses the short time that asuka has given them to engrain themself into her, so much so that asuka would be nothing without them. rei cannot let asuka realize her worth for fear that she would leave them. rei notices that asuka enjoys seeing them helpless and plays the part, almost like a honeytrap. slowly tho I believe that rei starts to take control of the relationship in hopes of making asuka dependent on them.

Asurei is in no way a wholesome relationship, and ik that’s not for everyone.. my vision of a happy end for them would be both of them becoming comfortable in their relationship and finding that the actions they once used to express hatred for themselves and each other is now slowly becoming fueled by love and desire for each other. They form a very unhealthy co-dependence on each other, but for them it works. They cant envision a world without the other in it.

[sharpth1ng]

Saw your post replying to the ask about 'losing a Billy person' and it got me thinking about this. I guess I'm a Billy person who's (nearly) lost their Stu person (which is actually rare and quite the opposite to their dynamic) In WoM Billy decides to move and start a new life afar from Stu because all the shit that's happened and his feelings about him and stuff so he's being sort of avoidant too. They both have very poorly communication skills and they definitely don't resolve anything so I can totally picture Billy getting away from Stu when he starts doing dumb shit (and because of Billy's fear of abandonment because of his mom, he doesn't wanna get hurt, feel vulnerable... etc) and when he doesn't get in exchange the kind of feedback he wants, ( a Stu who's devoted to him and their relationship, a lifetime partner, and everything he's bowed to) How would Billy deal with a lack of commitment? An unexpected betrayal? I guess I love angsty Billy way too much, lol. I'm a big fan of Stu going thru the process of grief but if the opposite happened how would Billy cope with it? My take on this is: bad copying mechanisms, tons of unleashed anger that he's been boiling up and listening to the same 3 depressive alt rock CD'S.

Also, re-reading Debaser and Wom it's like my biggest source of comfort atm so thanks for sharing your amazing writing with us<3

I think the way I write him Billy is also terrified of the idea of a lifetime partner tbh. Does he want that internally? Desperately, but because of the situation with his mom he doesn't feel safe wanting that.

Allowing himself to fully want and have Stu means acknowledging that he would be worse off without him, that he needs him on some level. Billy's got that self-sufficiency type toxic masculinity, he thinks he needs to be perfectly ok on his own and that he shouldn't ever need to rely on anyone else (which is just not how people work).

As a result, Billy running away in WoM is very much avoidance because he got a taste of what it would be like if he lost Stu and he couldn't handle it. Literally all of this is happening because Stu is too trustworthy, too reliably supportive, and Billy essentially thinks that enjoying that makes him weak.

So if there was an actual betrayal? He's going nuclear honestly. It doesn't even have to be the biggest betrayal. Stu's basically the last person he actually trusts in the world, he definitely doesn't trust Nancy anymore. Really the only reason he hasn't totally blown up at her is that he's put her on a pedestal, he sees her as a victim in this situation. So her actions are somewhat justified to him, but at the same time any trust he had for her has completely eroded.

Now with Stu, where he actually does trust him and also is essentially afraid of what that means? If he was betrayed or that trust was broken he would take that to mean that he was right; trusting or relying on anyone else is a bad idea. I think his specific reaction depends on what happened- if its a smaller thing yeah he might just run away, self isolate, smoke too much and get really aggro in general.

If it's anything even a little bit bigger though I think he would be on an actual warpath, like its Billy Loomis vengeance time and we all know what that means. He might decide to make Stu's life a living hell in a lot of little ways or he might decide to bottle it up, act like things are normal the way he did with Sid and then completely tear Stu's life down around him.

Either way I think this results in a much more self-destructive Billy than what we saw in his revenge plan with Sid. A Billy who's lost his trust in Stu is a Billy without direction, without comfort, and I think ultimately a Billy without hope. Like worst case scenario I do think he might try to kill Stu, but either way this is a Billy defending fully into nihilism.

So yeah, if there’s a lack of commitment? Billy is gone, he’s isolating and he’s telling himself he doesn’t need anything or anyone. If it’s a betrayal? He’s on the warpath.

[catbountry]

It has been 22 years since 9/11; I was 15 years old in second period art class when a kid, who'd been running down the hallway, opened the door and announced a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then ran off down the hall, leaving everyone confused. The principal advised teachers not to turn on televisions for us when this was happening, leaving us in further confusion as he tried, feebly, to carry out the rest of the day. We were dismissed before lunch, before fourth period ended.

There are people who are able to legally drink that weren't born yet when this happened and let me tell you, the actual event was fucked up but what happened afterwards, the decisions made in the wake of this fucking event, are a big reason why everything is so fucked up now.

I remember the color-coded terror threat chart, explained by Tom DeLay, who would become a minor internet meme just because of a weird photo of his face. I remember the phrase "known unknowns" in regards to justifying the invasion of Iraq. The "yellow cake" uranium. Being assured that there were weapons of mass destruction. Shock and awe. Bush in a flight suit in front of that "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" sign. The 2000's was the decade of neo-conservatism and 9/11 was a glorious and golden opportunity to have what America had lost with the fall of the Soviet Union; an ideological enemy that hated us because of how great we were. A perfect vessel to pump patriotic sentiment into the public. And it worked... kind of. Not so much for us younger people, those of us who were teenagers or in our 20's. You have to understand that we were at a point where Jon Stewart, the host of the Daily Show, was considered to be some sort of beacon of truth. We would rather get our news from a satirical news program than the actual news, because Stewart would at least recognize the absurdity of it all. A lot of artists did. Green Day's American Idiot is considered to be their most important album and the whole thing was a protest album. I've always had a soft spot for Radiohead's Hail to the Thief for the same reason. Counterculture was dark and bitter and cynical and brooding, and often incredibly edgy, flying directly in the face of the propaganda about how great America was. Counterculture was more queer, more atheist, dressed in black and online, making memes about 9/11. 9/11, this day that was supposed to be symbolic of the nation's greatest modern-day tragedy since the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was being photoshopped to make it look like Hulk Hogan was taking down the Twin Towers through sick wrestling moves. 4chan seems to have since been infected with reactionary brainworms over the course of the 2010's, but in the 2000's, counterculture wasn't conservative. It was making conservatives upset. We saw destruction and mass human death played on repeat over and over and we grew numb to it. Desensitized. We saw the obvious emotional ploy that was being used as an excuse to inflict even more violence and oppression on people on the other side of the globe. We reveled in shock sites, in edgy jokes, in transgression, in scaring the normies.

The young men who fall into the alt-right rabbit hole, who might not even be old enough to remember 9/11... I can't help but wonder what they think of it. Because they still want to be edgelords, but now to own the libs. To work in service of the very same people that we were trying to piss off 20 years ago. Trump spoke on 9/11 about how now, the Trump Tower, which had once been the tallest building in Manhattan, was now back to being the tallest building in Manhattan. He's a completely different breed from Bush, Cheney and company. Completely self-interested. Not even bothering with the pretext of things like conviction or truth. Truthiness incarnate. Embrace it. Feel it. Be it.

I think back to a few years ago, I posted a doge meme with the child doge in front of the Twin Towers, with a joke about how great the future was going to be in the coming decade. I had a teenager try and educate me on how insensitive this was. They hadn't even been born yet and I snapped at them that the meme was a real sentiment, that all of us who were old enough to remember essentially watched our futures explode on television, over and over, in a fireball of jet fuel.

This went stream of consciousness again. It always does. It's hard to summarize 9/11 and its aftermath in a cohesive way because we're still living in the shadow of it. COVID-19 is now the big historical event that traumatized us all that we will have to reckon with for decades to come, and how it affected young people growing up at the time. The new scar on our collective psyche. But 9/11 will continue to be that formative scar. Before that for me, it was Columbine, but only because the aftermath did directly affect me. Before that? Princess Diana's death, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the O.J. Simpson trial, and of all of those, the bombing was perhaps the most actually impactful on us. Before 9/11, it was the largest terrorist attack on the United States, carried out by a far-right racist retaliating against the FBI firebombing a compound because a pedophile cult leader with a bunch of guns refused to give up and used his child brides as human shields. That'd be Waco, by the way.

There was another bombing of the World Trade Center that happened in 1993. It was much smaller, using a bomb inside a van in a parking lot underneath; it's the reason Biggie rapped about "blowing up like the World Trade." Osama bin Laden was also behind that one but that wouldn't be fully realized by us until 1996. It only killed six people. It was considered a failed attempt; it was supposed to take down the entire North Tower. It didn't come out of nowhere. The CIA knew that this was in motion since Clinton was in office, and this ball got rolling because of training the United States offered to resistance fighters in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 80's. I remember the shock I felt first seeing that photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam Hussein's hand, knowing about the Gulf War and living through the War in Iraq. All these puzzle pieces are scattered on the floor and my brain is making connections between all of them as I try and fit them together. I'm looping red string around push pins and asking who Pepe Silvia is, except it's not a conspiracy, it's just me trying to fully grasp this event that happened in my lifetime, before I was an adult but after I'd started paying attention to the news regularly and had developed an interest in politics. Just as I was forming my own political beliefs. 9/11 and its aftermath has informed so much of who I am politically, and what my values are. George W. Bush is my Nixon, and yet, somehow, things got so much more cartoonishly worse as I entered my 30's that I was in denial about it until COVID. Trump's presidency felt like a clown show. How on earth was I supposed to take this man seriously? This motherfucker made the neoconservatives appear restrained and reasonable by comparison, and those motherfuckers are actual war criminals.

I can only really tell people who are too young to remember what this era was like what it was like. It's hard to explain if you weren't there in that moment. We're seeing Y2K nostalgia become a thing, which fits, because of the 20 year minimum big nostalgia cycle, as those whose childhood was 20 years ago are now young adults. And some of those adults were born after 9/11. They never knew the world before it. I knew, but I was a child and couldn't really fully grasp it. The 90's felt very distinct from the 2000's, with it's very open cynicism and even nihilism in the very first years of a society with no Soviet Union.

If only we knew how bad things really would become.