#always spacetime between them

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

"hang on i think youre calling me from the control room" 13s side of this relationship summed up

[foone]

My one bit of advice I think every gamer should hear:

GO PLAY OUTER WILDS.

Seriously. It is easily one of my top 5 games of all time, and that's mainly because I'm being cagey about if it's the #1, because it probably is.

It's a game where you're a little alien who is taking their first flight into space, in their little spaceship. You go to space and find a mystery, and have to figure it out.

It's a game entirely about learning things about the world you're in: it's a tiny solar system modeled amazingly well, with varied planetary environments, archaeology, and quantum fun.

It's a game that's hard to talk about without spoiling, because it's about solving the mysteries. There used to be some other aliens here, they're long gone. What happened to them? Their whole society was built around trying to find something: what was it? Did they find it? And there's a weird disastrous event that keeps happening, why? Can you stop it? Should you stop it? Is it connected to the other weird things that keep happening? What happened to that ice planet that exploded with vines? One of the astronauts who came before you was the best pilot who ever lived, but they vanished. What happened to them? And why can you sometimes hear their harmonica over the radio when you point it at your own planet?

The game is wonderful and non-linear and the most unique approach to a Metroidvania I've seen years: it's basically "what if we did the Metroidvania idea but with no items or power ups? What if the thing that you got to unlock new areas WAS INSIDE THE PLAYER'S HEAD?"

Because you don't unlock the next area by picking up the high-jump boots, you unlock it by learning something new. Now you can do something you didn't realize you could before, but now you know you can.

And that's only one of the amazing concepts they stuffed in this game. The itemless Metroidvania, the tiny simulated solar system, the quantum mechanics... Each of these alone could be enough to carry an indie game. They stuffed them all in one game combined with a great story, and that's in a gamewith relatively little dialogue!

There's like a dozen people to talk to, but you spent a lot of time reading conversations left by the long-gone aliens. You get to know them, what they were working for, how they interacted, and what happened to them, thousands of years later. It's less the bioshock style audio-logs, and more like going over bits of ancient writing, making connections and correlations from the fragments you can find.

And don't get me wrong, this might sound like this game is going to be dry and boring: it is so very not. It is a game about mysteries in the void of space, the death of a civilization, and the potentially world-ending dangers that face a living one, and even bigger concepts. It could so easily be a cosmic horror, about the cold death of space and the universe itself, and the nihilism of realizing that even a race that could cross the gap between the stars and bend spacetime to their will... They too died out. If they couldn't make it, what hope do you have, in your little spaceship that's primarily made of WOOD?

And yet... The game is always engaging. It has a few scares, and space is never a safe place to be, but it maintains a sense of humor and wonder. Yes, the universe can be scary, but it's also amazing. And you're just a little salamander-guy who wants to see it all, and figure out all the things. Maybe you don't know something yet, but tomorrow is a new day, and you can go blasting off to another planet, find some writing in a city suspended upside down over a black hole, try to fly into the core of a water planet, dodge giant anglerfish inside the warped space of an exploded planet, and try to explore an ancient city that's slowly filling with sand. It is a game about Things Ending, and it refuses to give into despair. It is one of the most relentlessly optimistic games I have ever played.

And the experience of playing it is so unique. This isn't a game where you could watch a letsplay and only get spoiled on some plot points, it's a game where the fundamental gameplay loop is about learning things. You should try it for yourself. It's got hints and many different avenues to explore (and it even keeps track of them for you, in case you forget!), so you don't have to worry much about getting stuck for too long. You can always put aside a "puzzle" and come back later, after you've learned more. (I put puzzle in quotes because it's not exactly a puzzle game. It's more of a mystery game. You aren't solving a logic puzzle or putting the pegs into the right holes, you're asking "Why is this like this? Where does this go? What is this for?" and then figuring that out from clues)

It's like 25$ on steam, and you can get it for Playstation and Xboxes as well (sadly no Switch version. They were working on one but it seems that version has stalled, with no announced release date)

You can probably get it for like 10$ if you're patient and wait for a sale.

One final note: there's also a DLC. The DLC is fully self-contained, in that you won't miss anything playing the main game without it. It basically adds a huge side-area to the game which goes and fills in some gaps in the history, explains some things, and introduces some more variety to the Outer Wilds universe.

It's utterly amazing, too. It's basically Outer Wilds 2 in everything but name, but it's totally fine to just grab the base game and play that. You can always come back and grab the DLC later if you want more Outer Wilds.

Seriously. To sum up, Outer Wilds is one of the greatest games ever made, it won a ton of awards, and it should have won more. They should invent more gaming awards just to give to Outer Wilds. This is one of the games that is going to be talked about in future "history of gaming" classes and put on lists of the 50 most groundbreaking and influential games, alongside things like Myst and King's Quest and Zork and Mass Effect. It's just that good, that groundbreaking.

[yuri-is-online]

Do the timeline post!!

Right so before I get cracking on this I want to make a few things clear:

This is all speculation and should not be taken as fact, due to how XP and stamina gain work in this game I will probably re-vist this post once I am finally able to work on Zayne's myths card (i am prioritizing Xavier since I have both of his as opposed to just one of Zayne)

For simplicity's sake this post is just going to be focused on Zayne, though I will reference things from the other boy's lore where applicable. He ironically seems to have the easiest timeline to understand, which is saying something.

I will gladly make a post for Xavier later this week when I am able to unlock his last anecdote, but if you are more interested in Rafayel I will have to direct you to this post by u/joonmin on the love and deepspace subreddit as I don't have a lot of Rafayel cards and lack the information they posted. I will say that he seems to have the most complicated timeline out of all three of the love interests, and that a lot of the information on that thread won't make sense if you have not read chapter 7.

Ok? Ok. Here is my best attempt at a timeline for Love and Deepspace Zayne: SPOILERS FOR ALL IN GAME CONTENT UP TO CHAPTER 7, VARIOUS MOMENTS, AND ANECDOTES, PROCEED WITH CARE.

I lied I have one more thing I want to clarify: yes there is a timeloop/alternate reality thing going on in this game. That is not really something that I think needs debating because that's kind of the genre this developer does, and the game starts off telling you that the deepspace tunnel is a spacetime anomaly. It isn't subtext, it is just text.

Current Timeline

The current timeline where the main story of LAD takes place is set in the year 2048 in a place called Linkon City. We are told that the Deepspace Tunnel opened 14 years prior and that is when wanderers started invading earth. There is a lack of understanding about why this has happened, and it has sparked an interest in space exploration in the hopes of finding a solution.

The hunters association is sort of like an adventurers guild? It's supervised by the government, and is sort of split between Hunters like MC and researchers attempting to understand what makes the wanderers tick.

This includes researching protocores, currently the only thing the hunter's association knows for sure is that they contain a great deal of energy, and that they can cause disease in humans based off of which category the protocore falls into. This is confirmed to be what is wrong with MC.

It is also mentioned that protocore energy is used for lots of things, in technology I assume. This will be important later so keep it in mind.

The "arctic" that chapter 5 is set in appears to be referring to the Northern arctic circle. The in game "spacepedia" says there are lots of energy fluctuations (and therefore wanderer attacks) due to its close proximity to the earth's magnetic pole. The epicenter of these fluctuations appears to be Mt. Eternal, where most of the research institutions in the arctic are based.

There seem to be sort of "fixed points" that repeat themselves within Zayne and Rafayel's timelines, and a theme of MC forgetting things. The lyrics to the opening theme even say "Time goes by but memories rewind" and while Zayne doesn't say MC has forgotten anything to do with him specifically, she has forgotten something about both Xavier and Rafayel. For Rafayel, the thing she forgets also seems to be his "fixed point": he and MC always meet when they are younger. For Zayne, he always hurts someone with his evol at age 12.

While there are technically three versions of Zayne and two of them seem to be aware of each other: current/Dr. Zayne and Dawnbreaker Zayne. They both started dreaming of each other at 12. It is unclear if either version dreams about Forseer Zayne, or if he is aware of them, but all three versions of Zayne are fond of jasmine. I haven't made much progress with Zayne's myths card, but it is clear that this like has something to do with MC, just from the little bit I have been able to read.

Dr. Zayne dislikes talking about the incident when he was 12, simply telling his friend Will that he lost control of his evol and hurt someone. He refers to this someone as a friend, and I might be a smidge delusional... but I think that friend was probably MC. If she's forgotten about it, Dr. Zayne might see that as "for the best" and not wish to remind her of it.

It would also explain why Grandma trusted him with MC's care and those secret documents. He has gone very far out of his way to try and not be someone who hurts people, and is obsessed with working himself to the bone to save as many people as possible. Grandma might seem like a sweet old lady... but we know she has some questionable morals so I could see someone like her thinking that since Dr. Zayne feels like he owes MC he is a good choice to protect her since he won't betray her.

The Fragmented Dreams moment is typically pointed to when talking about Dr. Zayne and Dawnbreaker's dream connection, but after reading the Never Ending Winter anecdote I don't really think it is. Look at what the nightmare actually says:

I think this moment starts out with Dr. Zayne dreaming about MC coming to visit him at work and bring him lunch, but devolves into him dreaming about what he did when he was 12. Dr. Zayne's dreams of Dawnbreaker as depicted in the anecdote are almost always related to his mercy kills, he doesn't seem to see the finer details I'll get into when discussing Dawnbreaker's timeline. The anncedote makes me think that Dr. Zayne sees Dawnbreaker as a sort of manifestation of his fears for himself; he fears becoming a killer, he fears hurting people, the only things Dr. Zayne wants is to save lives. That wish applies to more people than just the MC, he genuinely enjoys being a doctor and is very popular with his patients.

Beyond Dr. Zayne seeing his friend turn into a wanderer and being forced to kill him, we don't know much about his relationship with his teacher or the arctic. We do know that he still visits the arctic from time to time to help Dr. Noah with his research, and we can only assume it has something to do with protocores. I think it might specifically have something to do with humans being transformed into wanderers, but that's wild speculation on my part.

Dawnbreaker Timeline

The concept of Dawnbreaker Zayne is introduced in the annecdote Still In Dark. It is set in an unknown time and place, but it is confirmed to not be Linkon as Dawnbreaker mentions wanting to visit there, but that it was destroyed a long time ago.

In this timeline in this unknown city, wanderer attacks are so common that people don't really leave their homes. Most menial jobs (such as staffing convenience stores) are done by robots and most people find their entertainment through VR.

It is known by the government of this unknown place that prolonged exposure to protocores and their energy transforms people into wanderers. These infected can then kill and infect other humans. When Dawnbreaker Zayne was 12 years old, he watched his adopted father transform into a wanderer and turn his mother. He used his evol to kill them both to save himself. This is also when he begins dreaming of Dr. Zayne, though he is much more interested in MC.

In the anecdote he is under investigation by the police as a suspected serial killer, as he has been mercy killing infected people as they transform so they can't turn more people. This includes children, which is what Dr. Zayne ends up dreaming of in Never Ending Winter.

The police officer investigating Dawnbreaker ends up learning about the infected, and destroys his investigative files after realizing his superiors know about these wanderers. He wishes Dawnbreaker Zayne luck in finding a solution before things get too far gone.

This anecdote does two very important things. First and foremost it confirms/introduces the concept that some wanderers used to be human, and that this transformation is caused by prolonged exposure to protocores. The second is that it suggests that MC is not a part of that world's timeline. Why is not clear, but Dawnbreaker doesn't know who she is, just that from what he can see in his dreams he wishes to be loved by her. I mentioned that Dr. Zayne hates Dawnbreaker, but it doesn't seem that Dawnbreaker hates him at all. He likes to watch medical dramas, and seems to genuinely want to be his other self even if he is aware that's impossible in his current reality.

Forseer Timleine

I haven't made much progress on this one, so we are going straight to bullet points on things I think are relevant.

Each of the myths cards take place in a world called Philos. It is unclear if this place is a planet, a country, or just a city as each Myths card seems to have a distinct cultural feel and history to it. I am leaning towards planet as Xavier is an alien and refers to earth as if he is foreign to it.

Xavier and MC also talk about how Philos is dying in his Myths card because of the wanderers, and that the wanderers will eventually leave Philos and make there way somewhere else.

It is a commonly liked head cannon that Dr. Zayne became a cardiologist because of MC's heart condition, and while that still might be true I think it might be a sort of residual desire to help her from his Forseer self, as MC breaks into his prison to try and cure her heart condition, which is slowly turning her into ice.

... forseer's MC is a little out there tbh. Kind of out of pocket and honestly I love that for her. If I was told I only had 3 years left to live my reaction wouldn't be to break into the Vatican to see if the Pope had any reliquaries that could prove my doctor wrong but I guess we all deal with grief differently.

I talked in the original timeline about the fact that all versions of Zayne like jasmine, but I am noting it here again as he agrees to not kill MC if she can convince his houseplant to bloom. Did I mention she broke into his house? Did I mention she did this practically claiming to be a government official? Of course Zayne is just going to shrug off her antics, even if he doesn't remember it he has seen worse.

My last sort of point I want to make here is that Xavier has a bit of throw away dialogue in battle asking whether or not something is "immortal or undying." Forseer Zayne refers to himself as undying, and has an issue with controlling his ice evol to the point it should be killing him, but isn't for some reason. It is also implied in MC's dialogue he is being used as a tool by Philos, which is something she can't stand. As for why this distinction is important, as of this point in time, I don't think Zayne is aware of his life as the Forseer because he is not immortal, unlike Rafayel or Xavier. When the Forseer dies, his memory of his life will go with him while Rafayel keeps his and Xavier- Well he just hasn't died yet.

Dr. Zayne and Dawnbreaker Zayne might be aware of each other because they still posses the same gift that the Forseeer (allegedly) does, or it might just be because of their connection to the MC, or because of the rift in spacetime above Linkon. It might even be a combination of all three. Whatever it is, it's a lot less complicated to understand than whatever the hell Rafayel has going on and makes me wonder how exactly all of these various timelines fit into place.

When I get more familiar with the rest of the lore I will make a very pretty diagram on my white board complete with color coding because this story has me in a chokehold for no good reason.

Final Thoughts

While I was thinking about all this, an idle thought came to mind that maybe the three current ROs sort of represent the past (Rafayel), the present (Zayne), and the future (Xavier) even though all three arguably have some sort of past with the MC in their Myths cards. The mystery fourth RO would then represent an alternate reality in my deluded mind, maybe a split timeline created by MC's current actions???

I am doubtful that the events in Linkon city we are currently experiencing are meant to be MC's "origin point" (or whatever timeline she originally came from), but that just makes me wonder what the hell is. I want to know who or what caused the deepspace tunnel to appear. I said on another post that it probably has something to do with the destruction of Philos, and while I do sort of still think that I have no real reason to beyond a hunch.

[dandelionsandderivatives]

Tell me everything about infinity.

Oh, a very loaded question! All right. Let's start with the sizes of infinity!

Roughly speaking, there are two sizes of infinity; or, in proper terminology, "cardinalities." (There is some debate, as I recall, over whether there are more sizes of infinity. But we know there are two.) The first cardinality is the same size as the integers, which are the positive and negative whole numbers; essentially tick marks going in a line forever. 1, 2, 3, and so on; and in the opposite direction, -1, -2, -3, and so on.

The second cardinality is the same size as the real numbers, which are all the numbers that most people use on a daily basis; think, instead of tick marks, a line, and every place on that line is a number. No matter how close two places on that line are, there's always another number in between them. So you have 2.5 and 2.6, but between them you have 2.55 and 2.5932, and infinitely many more.

The concept of infinity, of course, gets a bit weird once you move into more than one dimension; it's easy enough to point in the same direction as a line and say, "that goes to infinity," but once you have multiple dimensions, is it meaningful to talk about a negative or positive infinity? Oh, and adding and subtracting get weird once you start adding infinitely many things together. Addition loses commutativity (e.g. 5+3 = 3+5), which still blows my mind, even though I've seen the proof for it. It's the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.

Generally mathematicians get around the multiple-dimensions problem by using the modulus of a number, which is the distance from the number to zero, measured using our dear old friend the Pythagorean Theorem: so, if your point is at 4 in one dimension and at 3 in another, you use the Pythagorean theorem to get 5, and then you consider that point to be 5 away from zero. (This would be easier to explain if I had a chalkboard!) Then, infinity is sort of a circle that surrounds the whole plane; or, if you think of your 2d plane like a flat circle, if you folded it up into a ball, infinity would be all the points at the very top of the ball, and zero would be the point at the bottom. (Obviously this gets weirder if we have three dimensions, but you get the idea.) Okay, so that's a quick introduction to infinity from a mathematical perspective. I think there were also some physics questions re: the expanding universe and spacetime? I'm happy to write a bit about that, too, but I think it belongs in a separate post! So if you have questions about that, please let me know and I'll try to share what I do know! Disclaimer: while I DO know more math than the average person, I have essentially a bachelor's-degree level of knowledge in math. I think everything I've typed out is correct, but I may very well have missed some details! Dear readers, please feel free to correct me if you have greater knowledge than I.

Edit: also, I should have mentioned that the pythagorean theorem only works in a euclidean space. But I feel like going into non-Euclidean stuff is a bit past the scope of (this) tumblr post.

[firesofdainix]

HI HI THERE (@moonnati0n)

i come from ao3 i love ur spacetime continuum stories (just read ur latest one on jupiter n saturn)

share some jupiturn hcs?? plspls

*rubs hands together* do I HAVE HCS??? OF MY FAV SHIP?? YES SIR!!!

FLUFF!!!

Jupiter's love language is quality time and acts of service. Saturn's is physical touch and words of affirmation.

ever since that time when Saturn wished for Jupiter to have glasses, though, Saturn tries to make Jupiter feel appreciated when

surprisingly, Jupiter is more in tune with his emotions than Saturn is. at least, he doesn't feel like it's necessary to hide them underneath underlying sensitivity. we've all seen him slowly collapsing into a nervous wreck as the show continues

Saturn loves listening to Jupiter's voice, he likens it to songs or melodies

when Jupiter gets nervous or has a breakdown, Saturn offers his hair so Jupiter can play with it. alongside Saturn's words of affirmation, he helps him calm down.

past times include dancing, singing, reading, and taking care of each other's appearances. mostly Saturn, since Jupiter is a fashion disaster.

Jupiter has curls and Saturn loves to play with them if Jupiter allows him to

as per marriage tradition, Jupiter gave Saturn his feathered cloak while Saturn gave him his leather cape

Saturn is the only one who can hold Jupiter beyond holding hands- he's very touch-averse

pipe smoker x cigar smoker?!?!?!?!?

ANGST!!!

Saturn compares Jupiter to Planet X sometimes, especially when he's upset with him for one reason or another. during the moon revolution, he's so irritated by Jupiter's paranoia he begins thinking X would be a whole lot better honing his paranoia. Always feels bad when he realizes this.

Saturn never asked why Jupiter killed Hades, and just chalked it up to him being jealous- a simple assumption to a complicated problem. We all know how that turned out.

Saturn HATES being proven wrong, which is why his arguments with Jupiter often end with a stalemate and Jupiter having to be the one apologizing to him.

Jupiter knows that Saturn's hiding secrets, but every time he indirectly brings it up, Saturn shuts those down.

Saturn never asks questions that are important to Jupiter (even though Jupiter would appreciate it) vs. Jupiter ALWAYS asking questions Saturn thinks aren't important (Saturn wants to move on, but Jupiter can't)

after everything, Jupiter STILL can't help but feel like Saturn continues to hide secrets. Saturn is never keen on keeping any promises between them, after all. they get into arguments about it, too, to the point Uranus has to meddle in their relationship problems.

[cuubism]

k so I've been thinking about the mechanics of hob's immortality because (as I think you've mentioned) we don't know EXACTLY how it works — just that he can't die.

now as I see it there are several options, some of them I've seen and some of them I came up with because I thought they would be interesting. also this is pretty long, so feel free to ignore, but I have Thoughts and Must Express Them. (tw gore)

option 1 is the most common one, where hob heals fast & if you do something that would kill a normal person, he just heals from it. maybe he goes unconscious for a bit, then he wakes up and he's better. so there are questions about does his heart actually stop for a while and then restart, what happens if you cut out his heart / cut off his head / blow him up or sth. your standard impossible-to-kill package. sometimes this option includes Father Time interfering so hob doesn't age.

option 2 is a variation which personally I like a bit better: hob heals faster than whatever kills him. so if you try to blow him up, he heals really fast so he doesn't actually get separated into a bunch of tiny pieces. cutting off his head? his neck heals into place around the knife. shoot him? the bullet is pushed out of his body as it quickly heals. but with a minor injury, he has to deal with it like anyone else, because his body doesn't need to heal super fast to avoid him dying. a paper cut won't kill him, so he has to live with it for a while. his cells are regenerating at the exact right speed so he isn't ageing or getting younger.

option 3 is that he heals at normal person speed, but no matter what you do, he just doesn't die. so if you stab him, he'll bleed out and out and out and he'll pass out but he'll still be alive even when he has almost no blood in his body left. if you blow him up, he will be alive while being a bunch of tiny pieces. so there are possibilities for some sort of unending torment.

option 4 is that he heals normally, but if you kill him, he goes unconscious for a bit and wakes up with no injuries or even scars he's acquired since the last time he was killed. each almost-death is like a reset button. maybe he ages between deaths and resets to age 34 each time he "dies", maybe he doesn't age for some other reason.

option 5 is possibly my favourite. in this one, it's just impossible for anything to kill him. like, he's impossibly lucky — you fire a gun at his head, it'll miss or the gun will misfire or he'll duck impossibly quickly. a building falls down with him inside, he happens to be standing in just the right spot so that he doesn't get crushed. the spacetime continuum bends around him to preserve his life. this version of hob would be injured & get sick like a normal person, he'd just always be lucky enough to recover. he doesn't age because his cells just happen to not deteriorate over time. some questions here about how the 17th century went — according to this theory, he would've found food before he starved, which doesn't quite make sense with "do you know how hungry a man can get when he doesn't die but he doesn't eat", but we can ignore that for now.

so basically I have lots of ideas and feel like they could all be really interesting... thoughts?

i honestly love pretty much all the options for different reasons and i'm not sure i could even pick one i think is "canon" because there are so many possibilities

the first one (he heals faster than normal) is the one i see in fics the most, which makes sense because it's super plot-convenient especially if you're writing action. i think it's maybe... the least interesting thematically? it just makes writing easy XD does make me wonder about if he was blown up or something, but maybe he just magically avoids getting completely blown up and just gets a bad wound he can heal from. i do like the idea of him "dying" in the sense that his body shuts down, he just comes back because death doesn't take his soul. makes for great angst potential

option 2 is FUN. hob: 5000, injury: 0. he gets blown up and yeets back together. "you cannot kill me in a way that matters". kind of eldritch terror hob, strange feral creature hob too.

hob just surviving despite anything works really well with his characterization, I think. it pairs with his sheer determination to live. you can drain all of his blood but he'll still come back. you can do anything to him and he'll still want to live. it's resonant. i also like the idea of him having to heal normally, it's almost too easy if he just heals automatically. life isn't easy and hob knows that well. and he still wants it. this also matches with the way death describes what she's done: she withholds her gift, she doesn't bestow a favor. so whenever hob was meant to die, death just doesn't show.

aging between deaths and then resetting is a fun idea. it would make his life easier in some sense because he wouldn't be caught out as an immortal as easy. it makes me wonder, if he "dies" of old age does he just revert, too? does he meet death each time and she does some kind of magic to put him back? almost has a reincarnation feel to it. hob gets to reinvent himself over and over, as he does in canon.

i LOVE the luck one, it's funny and charming XD hob just wilding his way through life avoiding bullets at every turn. this would require a lot of power on the part of the endless, i think, but it is VERY fun. hob can do a little Metaphysical Parkour as a treat.

i propose a sixth, which is not very canonical but would still be fun to play with: hob cannot die, but he can be killed. (sort of in the way that vampires won't die but can be killed). so hob will live "forever" in the sense that he will not age and die, will never perish of any natural malady or illness, but he can be killed so he must safeguard his life very carefully. i think it's extremely unlikely hob would have made it to 2022 (probably wouldn't have even made it to 1489) with this eventuality, but it lends a tasty weight to any moment when hob actually does risk his life. he can be killed, but he still jumps in front of his stranger with no hesitation when trouble arises. some things are worth the risk; what those things are is very interesting.

one time hob does get seriously injured in one of these stunts protecting dream, nearly dies, manages to pull through, and dream says, "I did not think you would live," and Hob just grins at him through the blood all over him and is like, "didn't I tell you when we met that I wasn't going to die?" the sheer hubris of that man, but it works out for him.

again this goes against the canon framing of death's gift - or lack thereof - but i think it's fun.

[ocoddities]

Warnings: Slight gore at the end, unhealthy behavior, yandere tingz, random thoughts.

Imagine a god who had been the creator of the world, who was forced down onto the world, and wss hunted down by everyone across the lands for being an "imposter".

Imagine a creator who was beaten, killed, and scarred by the very men, women, and all in between he created. The very beings he fathered with love and affection, killing him again and again.

Imagine you, seeing this dishevelled and battered man, and taking pity on him. The word of the imposter god has spread far and wide, yet you can't help but want to tend to this poor excuse.

Imagine you being the only person who's offered him any kind of kindness or sympathy thus far. Being the only one willing to take him in and care for him when no one else would. Imagine going so far as to protect him from the ones who want to hurt him?

Oh goodness.. He's in love.

Imagine if it's just you two against the world. The time you both spend together, the battles you two endure, the scars of each conflict bestowed onto the both of you for sinning bringing him even closer to you. He'll take every stab, every arrow, every bullet, every weapon in existence to protect you. And if he fails, he'll never let it down, and he'll be engulfed in rage to go after whoever did it.

Imagine, as you two get into a fierce battle, someone cuts his head off. And his divine blood finally spills freely, now resembling rivers of gold. When he comes back, they bend their knees and drop their weapons, begging for his forgiveness. They'll do anything, they'll cut off their limbs, they'll take out their tongues, just for his forgiveness! They'll give him anything.

And he wants you, and you (probably) want him. It takes no time at all for him to make himself yours, throwing a massive celebration as you become his consort eternal. His one and only. The lands are forced to rejoice as their god announces the hand of their spouse, and his acolytes are forced to clap as they watch him melt in your arms.

He loves you with all his heart, and you will always come first.

So imagine using him to make a palace, a castle, the entire realm to your own liking. You ask him to terraform the lands into your own image, you tell him to lift the seas and crush the mountains so that you can build a new world of your own.

Imagine telling him to eradicate the very people you despise. Telling him to put them through the worse torture avaliable, be it physical, psychological, or supernatural. You want them to bleed, to hurt for what they did.

Imagine making the ones who pined for him, who did everything they could to try and earn his forgiveness for what they did, who were his loyal and fierce acolytes who would shatter the world for him, watch as you make love to him and whisper things into his ears.

Imagine telling his loyal acolytes they will never amount to anything, that they will serve for eons and not even hold a candle to you. They hate you, they want to hurt you, kill you… buy they cannot. Their God is attached to you by the hip, and he will not hesitate to erase them from existence if they even so much as upset you.

And he'll do it. He'll do it all without a second thought… because he loves you. He will crack the world open and give you its core, he will pull the limbs and organs out of any living creature and person and craft a being to your very liking. He will pull off his own skin and rip out his own bones if that's whay you want. He will snap the very threads of spacetime if it is something you want. Because he loves you.

He loves you. Oh god, he loves.

He may be a god to the many. But you are his god eternal.

[sunflowersunite]

You seem to be very bent on positivity (which is a beautiful thing, by the way). Is there anything in nature besides sunflowers which you've seen that inspires you?

Thank you for the ask, @starshower1215!!! This is a very interesting question actually. Tbh sunflowers and stuff in nature are lovely but the things that inspired me to stop seeing the worse in situations lie deeper, and it took time and effort to become this way (and I'm still trying). Appreciating nature (and sunflowers) just came as a result.

So let's see what there is that I appreciate.

Mornings. I like having the whole day ahead of me.

The hour just after a summer sunset. A lingering light between day and night.

Stars. Millions of explosions and dead things which aren't there anymore, but the light of which we still see. Because death doesn't mean forgetting. People made stories out of those dead things and still do, so they still guide us, they still matter.

⭐

Speaking of which, stories. I think it counts. People are in nature and stories are deeply rooted in people. I've appreciated stories since I was young and they mean the world to me.

Standing under a tree while it rains, water dripping down the leaves onto the ground around you. At least you're dry. At least you're safe for a while.

The sea, always. The best secret keeper. Only there it is that things can be gone forever, never to be found. It's a friend and your worst enemy at the same time. The flow of rivers, the crash of waves. It sounds like home.

When nature reclaims human structures. Abandoned castles and walls and houses. Ivy growing around them, moss onto the stones. Soon, they'll return where they belong.

Black holes in the universe. An actual paradox for us to witness. A miracle of physics, a bend of spacetime. They're just wonderful.

Mountains. They're so big. I'm happy they're here otherwise the world would be boring. I like seeing villages built around them, on them.

Birds and cats and dogs. If an animal can worry less about what it's going to eat the next day, so can I.

People. They can be very helpful, if you know where to turn.

I appreciate all those things. What is there not to appreciate anyway? 🙃

[aftokrator-official]

some Thoughts on chapter 13 now that i've finished:

I LOVE HOEDERER.... i already did but like. Really enjoyable to get his POV in this event and see more of his inner thoughts and motivations. I'm fond of characters who are so tired and worn down and jaded, but manage to hold onto some scrap of hope regardless, even against their own better judgment. A lot like Mlynar in that way, tbh.

regrettably this chapter sold me on hoederines a little. i'm CONFLICTED because i love wines so much, dammit. (and manhoe, but there's not as much of a conflict with my headcanons there.) But their relationship is so good regardless of whether you read it as romantic or platonic.

speaking of, Ines was a delight in this chapter. Love her role as the resident non-Sarkaz Sarkaz who is completely unaffected by whatever arcane bullshit is getting to Hoederer and W in any given moment, so she can yell at them to snap out of it and save all of their lives lmao. I love her deep loyalty and care for them that she expresses in everything but words. ugh ugh i love her

the little subplot with Vendela and the Sarkaz commander who tried to keep her safe was sweet and sad, I wish he'd gotten a unique sprite at least. I kind of want to see her meet Flamebringer now and her reaction to the friendship between him and Perfumer... I feel like there's some parallels there.

We're starting to see some payoff to the buildup with Siege in this arc, and I'm so glad! I've never really understood the hate her arc gets - I know it's partly that I'm biased, she was my first 6* so I'm rather fond of her, and I just really like the whole concept of the Glasgow Gang. And I think it doesn't help that ch12 was (imo) the weakest part of act 2 so far. But also, it was always really clear to me that we've been just... laying the groundwork with her up til now, I didn't really expect her to have big moments or turning points yet? Idk. i kind of want to write a whole post about her arc and my thoughts on it at some point. BUT, I really liked her in ch13, seeing her start to really come into her own and how all the events of act 2 up until now have shaped her decisions.

I'M REALLY SAD ABOUT GUARD ACTUALLY??? :( Tbh I have not really cared much about New!Reunion until this chapter, except for Talulah, but I'm finally getting invested. And Talulah's confrontation with Eblana was AMAZING. I've always seen her as a foil to Talulah - while Talulah started down her path with good intentions and ideals, Dublinn seems to have been like late-stage Reunion from the very start, because Eblana has always cared more about seeking power than about the oppression of the people around her. SO FUCKING SATISFYING to see Talulah, of all people, calling her out on that, and protecting Reunion from her. I really hope we get more of these two in future, and also more Reed in main story please please pleeeaseee.

This chapter was wonderfully cohesive with the themes of tradition and bloodlines vs forging a new path. Siege, Delphine and Horn, all beginning to break away from their inherited roles in Victoria's hegemony and fight on their own terms instead. The Kazdel flashbacks, the spacetime feranmut, and Hoederer's POV - a character who wants to see a better future for Kazdel, while still remembering and learning from its past. Nine, Guard and Talulah dealing with what Reunion means as a symbol, and figuring out what it should become. Shining and Nightingale, confronting the Confessarii and their own past. Even Vendela, having to let go of the life and traditions she'd grown up in, the townspeople clinging to familiarity and the hope that things would go back to normal to the point that it was literally going to kill them. The confrontation with the Sanguinarch was such a great culmination of all of this, with his fixation on blood purity and the glorious lost past of the Teekaz. And he's defeated by several people who all soundly reject his vision of what the Sarkaz "should" be - Amiya, the outblood King; Logos, who does have a "pure" bloodline by the Sanguinarch's standards but refuses to be defined by the role he inherited; Hoederer and W, two of the mixed-race "commoner" Sarkaz he's so contemptuous of (and Hoederer specifically rejecting the idea that the Sarkaz's destiny must always be soaked in blood); Ines, who isn't a Sarkaz at all, except she is, because her family is Sarkaz, and she's always going to be one of them. It was! So fucking good!

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Friday

SpaceTime 20240920 Series 27 Episode 114

Did dwarf planet Ceres originate in the asteroid belt?

A new study has raised fresh questions about the origin of the dwarf planet Ceres – the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

A galactic mystery about Dark matter and stars finally solved

Astronomers have overturned the longstanding idea that stars and dark matter are interacting in inexplicable ways.

China's secretive spaceplane returns to Earth

China's highly secretive reusable experimental spacecraft has successfully returned to Earth following a 268-day orbital mission.

The Science Report

Using cruciferous vegetables to lower high blood pressure.

Study shows larger bumblebees fly faster, but that middle-aged bees fly longer and further.

Study shows dogs can remember the names of objects two years after learning them.

Skeptics guide to Wycliffe Well - the UFO capital of Australia!

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[echojays]

── .✦ distinguished guest

✮ . ⠂ the under presents

wc; 2.6k

summary; you work as the acting manager for the under when the mc refuses to do so. it's exhausting.

warnings; like. suicidal ideation if you SQUINT. otherwise all good in the hood !!!!

a/n; hi gang. guess who's never published on tumblr before (mee !! it's me !!!!) so if this is formatted horribly or just generally ass. give me grace. i am learning. this game actually has me rolling around like a lunatic bouncing off the walls it is SO scrumptious . idek how to tag this it's such a niche piece of writing LMFAO. to all seven tup fans out there if you've seen this on ao3 no you have not !! haha. what are you talking about. anyways.

— — —

Your days always begin with chaos. 

The sun never sets, which in turn means your sleep schedule isn’t defined by night and day, but is instead defined by when you can no longer will yourself to keep moving. Your hours of nonstop work are often ended by the loud thump of your body hitting your mattress. The curtains close. Fade to black. 

The Under never slows down. There are always a million Timesprites buzzing about, breaking things and summoning things and throwing shit around. When the “open for eternity” business model of the Under meets your struggling sleep schedule, there is no good time to wake up. Shit is always going down. Or up, depending on how much magic the Timesprites manage to throw around. It doesn’t really matter which direction it’s going. You’ll still be tasked with cleaning it up. 

The absence of rest is horrible news for you, but great news for the MC, who practically writhes whenever there’s not something exciting happening for him to watch. You’ve watched him bounce around spacetime far longer than any other Timesprite has, and the entire time you’ve never seen him slow. He’s an unstoppable force. You’re just the unlucky thing he’s dragging along. 

He’s a peculiar man— if you can even call him that— one you’ve tried to unravel for however long you’ve been in the Under. The two of you are certainly close, you’ve spilled your guts to him several times in the lulls between work. Your work, it should be specified. You’re not sure he’s ever applied himself to any situation. Ever. 

Exhausted, and sometimes drunk, you’ll talk talk talk. Sometimes you’ll tell him you love him and you hate him and you wish you were dead, but most times it’s just yearning. You want to go back home. He looks around your room as you talk yourself to sleep, gaze drifting from the items you’ve found and been gifted from Timesprites. He’ll finally look at you when you finally go silent and wonder if he’s condemned you despite your innocence. Then he’s gone. 

The promise of eternity tends to force feelings out of a person like that, but he never discusses anything of his past. You have your theories of course, the same ones whispered amongst the actors and Timesprites, but nothing’s ever certain. 

You hear the whispers about him. You hear just about every damn word uttered in the space you look over, so it’s no wonder you’re in on all of the gossip. The loyalties, the betrayals, all of the silly little factions and groups that waddle about, all of the buzz floats around the space like nothing. But when the discussions grow quieter, and the heads tilt down, you can tell the topic’s changed. You lower your head too and near the muttering. You have your two cents, after all. 

I heard someone talking backstage, Sean muttered, turning to you as you handed him his blazer behind the curtain. Talking about Him. They said that when he gets bored with the acts, he just turns them to mud. You laughed at that, and this seemed to ease Sean’s mind a little. You’re the one that knows the most around here, the source of comfort for the acts and the residents that risk fading away. The highest rung on the ladder people genuinely trust. Most of them just want to go home. You gave up that a long time ago.  You watched Sean’s eyes crease into a soft smile as he threw his blazer on. Kind of funny, huh? You nodded, peeling back the curtain for him and watching him walk on stage, the smile slowly fading from your lips. 

The MC is usually the one to wake you up, letting you know about a situation unfolding somewhere in the Main Stage before it gets too bad. He’s the one to wake you up today. 

There’s a knock at your door, and you turn in your bed, staring at a poster on the wall. It’s an artist’s rendition of Gerald. Oh, how you’d kill for a day without a mention of that fucking dolphin.

You meditate on your hatred for a second. It slowly slips away as your eyes drift closed.

There’s the knock again, and this time, the MC’s voice carries under the door. “The chandelier broke.” He announces unceremoniously, handing you the first task of the day. “Not the hour this time, a Timesprite—”

“Yeah.” You blurt, stretching and fumbling for your mask beside you. “Yeah, I’ll get on it.”

“You’re great.” He praises, but you can tell by his tone it’s not something he really means. You think about suffocating yourself in your pillow. “I’ll be around.”

There’s a noise from outside, a light whoosh, and you figure he’s gone. 

You wonder how exactly the chandelier broke. You wonder what exactly ‘broke’ entails. You wonder if he just stood there and watched it happen.

He probably did. 

You know he did. 

You slink out of bed with a long sigh.

You throw the mirror a sideways glance, then let your gaze linger for a few more moments as you sling your robe over your shoulders. When you try to remember what you looked like in the Over, you’re usually unsuccessful. So instead, you stare at the form you’ve been granted, simple and lifeless. Whatever grip you had on what you once were seems to slip away.

— — —

Standing over the foyer from one of the above balconies, it’s easy to tell what happened with the chandelier. You think about how “The Chandelier fell and crushed four dining tables,” would have been a more accurate statement. 

A giant onion lays a few yards away from the mess of crystal, sparkling shards sticking out and catching the lights from the stage.

‘Somebody threw a big ass onion at the chandelier,’ would have also sufficed. 

Go fucking figure. Granted, it’s something you probably would have done when you were still green. When your mask was a toy and the whole Under was yours to explore.

You take your mask off and drag a hand down your face before getting to work.

The few Timesprites that notice and recognize you as you step into the foyer take a moment to fix a few plates and vases with you, but as soon as you turn to assess the chandelier, they all seem to conveniently scatter. Much to your dismay, the entire chandelier doesn’t fit on the inside of your mask. 

The magic in the building isn’t buzzing like it usually is at the top of the hour, so the job is much harder to do. You finally make the decision to shrink the chandelier in order to fit it onto your mask and repair it then, before blowing it back up again and fixing it up to the ceiling. It takes a good moment for you to figure all this out, including how the hell to rig it back up to where it had fallen from, but after a long moment of sweat and tears and cursing so loud the performers on stage pause to watch, the foyer is free of broken glass and fallen chandeliers. 

There’s a brief moment of quiet. The only thanks the Under will ever give you.

As you turn to go backstage, you watch a Timesprite chuck an onion at Apple Pie Bundy. 

You thank the Timesprite under your breath and slip into the shadows behind the curtain.

— — —

The MC looks over at you from the small model hotel that he’s inspecting. Your offer for another Timeloop, one you’d snatched up and polished with Coleman’s help. You were proud of it. Everything was ironed out and ready to be put on display for the guests. All he had to do was nod.

He stares at you for a moment, watching you stand there, entirely still, expectant. Eager. You, at least, still have a purpose in this place, even if it’s just doing what you’re told. Though you’ll never be able to tell, he enjoys watching you flit around, snapping at the guests and the actors, disbanding whatever mess is stirring up before the whole building comes down. What’s left of it, at least.

You think the fire inside you is down to an ember, but he disagrees. He sees it when you yell, and when you cuss, and when you come to him after a tireless day of work and babble nonsense about the Over. 

He watches it flare up whenever a new act is brought in, your efforts to accommodate whichever poor soul is trapped here. He watches you care, and something in him starts to do the same. 

“You’re going to work yourself to death.” He chimes. You stifle a groan as he quickly juts off-topic. “I almost didn’t wake you up this morning. I wanted to see what would happen if you got a full night's rest.”

“You’re the one who watched it happen.” You mutter, eyes flicking down to the hotel you wish he’d focus on. “You could have saved me the trouble and stopped it.”

He just shrugs, mask perking up to the door as the opening notes of Wet Food carry in from down the hall. He stares out for a moment as he listens. “Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I’m not one to stop guests from having their fun.”

You struggle to find cohesion in whatever point he’s trying to make. “Mhm.”

He’s never been a buzzkill, this you know. A bit of a suck up, at least to the Timesprites, letting them do anything they want as long as they have their fun and sing praises to the place. 

“My point is—” He chimes, turning back to you. “You’re worrying too much about everything. In a place like this, things are always happening. People are just having fun.” He waves a hand through the air with purpose, as if it’s proving his point even more. “You need to relax.”

“I’ve done everything else. The only thing left for me to do is worry.” 

He pauses at that, then looks down at the small hotel in his hands. For once, he’s out of witty banter.

“Sorry.” You blurt, even though you’re not entirely sure what you’re sorry for. There’s an awkward silence that has you shifting your weight between your feet. 

“Tell me about the hotel.” 

“Oh—” You perk up, looking down at the hotel and then up at him. Right. “—it starts when a storm comes through the Florida Keys.”

— — —

Scratch stands beside you as you watch the MC introduce an act on stage. The two of you watch his form saunter around the spotlight with little amusement. The charisma wears off after a few years. He recycles jokes. He laughs at nothing to fill silence. His confidence is becoming very quickly aggravating. 

You turn to Scratch, taking a sip of your drink. “What’s the thing you miss most?”

“From the Over?” 

You nod, and he leans back on his heels, letting out a hum as he thinks. “My hair.”  

You laugh at that. Good answer.

He turns to face you fully, echoing your question back at you. “What do you miss the most?”

You know your answer. “Genuine nature, I think. Like, actual birds and trees and stuff. Not… artificial.”

He nods, humming in approval. “You should rig a little something something, get a Timeloop in the forest somewhere.” He nudges you with his elbow, and you grin. You could if you wanted to, but you’re not sure how much that would console you. It would be the same as a window from a prison cell. You can look out, but you’ll always be trapped. 

The curtains part, and you both stare at Helvetica and Tina as they do the same act they’ve performed for what you can only assume has been years. There’s a long beat before Scratch speaks.

“You don’t think we’ve all died and gone to hell, do you?”

You’re not entirely paying attention to him anymore. The question catches you off guard. “Hm?”

Scratch turns to face you fully. “What if this is hell?”

You shake your head. You’ve thought about this, too. “People can get out of here. There’s always the opportunity to leave.” He tilts his head at that, and you continue. “You know, really die. Turn to mud, rest your soul. All that shit. They don’t have that in hell.”

He considers this for a moment, before turning back to the stage. It’s hard to read a skeleton’s face, but you can assume he probably understands. Silence settles over you as you both watch the act. He draws a breath like he’s about to say something but stops before anything leaves his mouth. Another bout of silence. You can tell there’s something he wants to ask, and you’re almost certain you know what it is. 

“Can you die?” 

There it is.

You draw a breath, a shaky one, and he turns again to make sure he’s not said anything wrong. You’re still watching the act as you shake your head.

“Nope.”

— — —

You had a habit of telling yourself you weren’t really tired until it was too late. Usually a staff member would help you to your room, but this time around, it’s the MC who you’re stumbling down the hall with. He watches you in silence as you fumble with your doorknob three, four, five times before the door finally opens. 

You collapse onto the bed. “Thanks.” You mutter into your pillow, not even bothering to shed your cloak as you quickly go still.

He closes the door, leaning into it as it shuts. “Good night.” 

He doesn’t sleep like you do, or drink, or eat. Dreadfully human things, something neither the acts nor a large lot of the Timesprites do. 

Despite the drastic differences, there was still solidarity between everybody else there. They were all in the shit together, thanks to him. Somebody had to keep it all running, had to keep the chaos at bay, and that someone just so happened to be you.

He figures if you had been brought in later, it probably wouldn’t have unfolded the way it did. If he had brought in any one else before you, you probably wouldn’t have been brought in at all. There was nothing interesting about you, at least not in the way that most people were in the Under. You couldn’t sing or dance or perform. You weren’t anything extravagant, you just were. 

The reason your unlabeled job had been handed to you was dumb luck. You were the first human brought into the Under, but you weren’t picked with any intention. You were here before Timesprites. Before anyone else but him. Before he’d really cracked the system, and before he had any clue what he was doing. 

You were a first attempt, a shoddy and misguided try. His first reach into the Over, just to see what would happen, and he happened to grab onto you.

It was a long time of adjusting, of course, but after a while you settled into the place and took it upon yourself to manage the things that he seemed to not care about at all. You coordinated the acts and helped log the staff, you shuffled around and handled all of the dirty work around the Under that he was too distracted to even think about doing.

He wonders, for a moment, if the Under could take a break. Just for a day— maybe an Over holiday or otherwise— to let you sleep in. A day where the chandelier doesn’t fall and the curtain never opens to serve as the ‘thank you’ he’ll never say to your face. 

There’s a moment of silence as he slows in the hallway, and then he chuckles to himself. 

What a ludicrous idea.

The show must go on, and you’ll just have to come along with it.

[communistkenobi]

i never really paid much attention to star wars before the mandalorian so please forgive me if this is super obvious but: are we supposed to view the droids as being kind of alive? beings with artificial intelligence? i was very uncomfortable with how the ugnaughts (sp?) were portrayed in the last episode but i didn’t think much of the droids because always just saw them a technological tool. i was a little surprised when the bartender droid gave their monologue about the droids wanting to work and catch the bad droids, and thought maybe they want to work to fulfill their programming. but maybe i should have been more considerate. (i am kind of a dumb bitch too tho so maybe this is just something that’s super obvious to most people and not me :s)

Narratively I think droids are supposed to represent an advanced form of automation - astromechs are navigational droids that handle the immense amount of math that’s required to travel through space, droids like C3PO house linguistic and cultural information for diplomatic purposes, etc. I think originally, given that Star Wars was created prior to the internet being a thing, they were used to represent mass sums of human information, but access to that information was restricted to wherever those droids happened to be in spacetime. They’re essentially mobile computers, but not in the way we think of them (eg phones). But because they’re mobile and have to communicate with human beings without any touch screens or interfaces, especially in the case of droids like C3PO, they are by default anthropomorphised. It’s on par with people naming their roombas. These are tasks that are within human capability, but have been offloaded and automated to make everyone’s lives easier (and probably also many financial and political reasons, but that gets into like, the political economy of Star Wars, which if you talk about that you threaten to take Star Wars too seriously).

But, given how expansive Star Wars is, the answer to your question is maybe sometimes. Chopper in Rebels seems to fill the role of the beloved family pet. L3-37 in Solo is explicitly calling for droid liberation and insists that she and all other droids are equal to organics. Mouse droids likewise seem to be viewed as robotic animals. Mando again makes equivalent droid automation and slave labour.

However, this becomes complicated because there are also actual slaves in Star Wars. The clones are the most obvious example, but the twi’lek as a species also are often enslaved. There are also slaver “planets” and “races” who base their economy off of the buying and selling of slaves (that was in the clone wars, I can’t remember what episodes though). Droid liberation is often framed as inherently farcical in the franchise, but “droid liberation” also exists as a form of deracialised political action, and I mean that in the real world sense - droids are not analogous to a given real world conflict or historical process the way that like, twi’lek are (who even have french accents and speak space french! Now Filoni is an idiot and says this is because he’s drawing inspiration from the French Revolution as opposed to the much more appropriate and obvious Haitian Revolution, but whatever). So when drawing parallels between slavery as a thing in Star Wars and slavery as a real world historical process, it becomes frustrating to talk about, because droid lib is both set-up and punchline, but it’s also the most “acceptable” way to explore ending slavery in SW because it means the white writers don’t have to engage with systemic racial oppression in a way that might make them feel uncomfortable. As a comparison, there are multiple episodes in clone wars where clones refuse to follow orders or try to escape and they’re treated as defective or wrong or insane. That shit fucking sucks and it takes on a much more insidious tone than “haha, the droids want weekends off. how cute.”

And then the counter COUNTER problem with that, which is explicitly invoked in The Mandalorian, is that droids are essentialised to their code or “base functions.” These are facts about a droid that are intrinsic to their nature and cannot be altered or removed, and to attempt otherwise means perverting the “true nature” of droids - they are doomed to be what they were created for (I guess forget about IG-11 being rehabilitated lol). So when you call them slaves, and then insist they are forever shackled to their programming, that’s not a neutral storytelling choice, and you are essentially invoking the idea that there are some races or people for whom slavery is more naturally suited. Which is explicitly a white supremacist idea. And given the context of this storyline in The Mandalorian’s broader political problems, it becomes particularly nefarious.

All this to say - droids are maybe slaves. It depends on the story being told and why, it depends on the writer, etc. But when analogising it to real world history it becomes fraught, given that there are actual slaves in SW who are intended as obvious parallels to real world acts of slavery in human history, a thing that is omnipresent in star wars while also being largely ignored or dismissed by the writers

[many-faced]

HELLO MY FRIEND ON DISCORD [m00nlit_sage] MADE A REALLY COOL THING AND I NEED TO SCREAM ABOUT IT INTO THE VOID BECAUSE ITS SO COOL AND A U G H

Here's some art i made for it >:]

You can see exactly where the worldless hyperfixation tainted it/silly

their lore and my design notes under the cut [I got their permission to share it!!]

At some point there may be a discord server or smth about these goobers,, but if i randomly start spam posting about them,, here's your context/silly

My design notes

Both

They tend to be greyscale / tinted greys, but it is possible for them to be coloured

They aren't necessarily humanoid and often have some kind of warped feature [big hands or legs, eyes/mouths in odd places]

Having an entirely human looking face is very rare, but possible

Both can have features of the other, but it is INCREDIBLY rare [inkforged with halo or starforged with horns/ink drops]

Inkforged

Inkforged are rounder and more fluid looking

Their skin has the texture and qualities of things like glass and viscous liquid

They tend to have horns and thick tails [if any]

Feral and animalistic inkforged tend to take after herbivores and docile omnivores [rabbits, squirrels, deer, songbirds, etc]

Inkforged are more likely to have clear facial features than Starforged

Starforged

Starforged are more angular, sometimes even being literally sharp

Their skin has the texture and qualities of things like metal and stone

They tend to have haloes and thin tails [if any]

Feral and animalistic starforged tend to take after predators and more hostile animals [cats, dogs, bears, birds of prey, etc]

Starforged are less likely to have clear facial features than Inkforged

Sage's Worldbuilding

Forgefolk

forgefolk are entities that were originally created by an anomaly in the spacetime continuum, and since each have reproduced in a unique way.

starforged reproduce by collecting enough matter over time to construct a new entity, so technically they don’t have biological parents. starforged do typically form bonds with other starforged though, which could lead to a parent-child relationship between two starforged. this can also lead to other types of relationships, i.e. siblings, or romantic partners.

the inkfolk reproduce by idfk yet lmao

forgefolk do not have biological genders, but some may wish to present themselves more feminine or masculine.

forgefolk do not feel sexual attraction.

all forgefolk live to be thousands of years old, some even hundreds of thousands.

Realms

none of the realms are considered “better” than one another. the overworld and underworld almost always have some sort of conflict going on, but they are very careful not to get the mortal plane involved with their existence.

Overworld

realm of the starforged

there are 7 types of starforged, organized in a hierarchy from least to most powerful

O (supreme royalty) B (lords) A (royal advisors) F (nobles) G (knights) K (merchants) M (commoners, the type of starforged most likely to mortalwalk)

Design note - these are based on the main sequence stars, this affects their rarity and the colour of their star face

Mortal plane:

realm of mortalwalkers and mortals

• mortalwalkers are starforged or inkforged that want to experience what its like to be a mortal. when they are born they don't remember anything about the overworld or underworld, or that they were a forgefolk at all. when their mortal body dies they return to their original body, with all of the mortals memories/experience

forgefolk royalty mortalwalkers are looked down upon because forgefolk feel they should look after their kingdoms instead.

not all mortals are forgefolk, and not all forgefolk experience being a mortalwalker

Underworld:

realm of the inkforged

[xsoulxsilencex]

Seriously, how to you go from this...

to THAT:

Now I know some will say "the second shot is from Kuaidul's spacetime so this can be just a fake look for Epoch" but then explain the first shot where she's shown having darker hair? And it's not the only time when Epoch's hair was portrayed with a darker color when she was walking around in her box.

Edit: This is even from ep 105!

So now acting like her hair was always supposed to have the same color as Tiger's feels like retcon to push some more similarities between them. (the breathing/voice part also seems like coming out of nowhere...)

[thefirstknife]

Chances of The Nine being the antagonists of Destiny after the Darkness Campaign is over, in your opinion?

I'm not sure. Mostly because I don't think that they would be strictly antagonists, though there are some things to consider here that I'll go into. First, the Nine are not really unified amongst each other; 5 seem to be on our side:

Because there are factions among the Nine: one faction sent Xûr and Orin to study Guardians and the Light, to seek the secret of effect-without-cause and to protect the source of that secret, the last source, now that the Ahamkara are gone. Those five played at alchemy with the Cocytus gates, turning dark dust into energy and then into matter, but they could not unlock the secrets of our mad existence. They needed ambassadors. Go-betweens.

But the other 4 not so much:

The other faction walks a different path. A path of folds and needles slipped through spacetime itself, existential syringes yielding new spaces, to be remade as the Nine desire. They have tried to gather enough dark dust in one place to form a black hole, and found it difficult: when the dark mass collapses in gravity's fist, the dust passes through itself and scatters.

It's also weird because the Nine are technically just our planets and their consciousness that depends on dark matter and the gravity of our system. It's a really hard thing to explain; the lore book Dust about Lavinia helps a little, especially this lore tab.

They also depend on the planets themselves and the life around them:

And in time they understood that they were as fragile as they were mighty; for if the life that seeded their thoughts ever passed away, they too would vanish.

In one way, they can't be our antagonists. They need us and the system to exist.

With a horror of revelation so absolute that it would drive her mad if she still had sanity to lose, Lavinia understands where the Nine have always been. They are within everyone, every system, every living and moving thing. Trillions and pentillions of slim dark matter tentacles plunged through all our bodies, drinking up the complexity of our lives and thoughts.

However, the next entry also says that the Nine could potentially free themselves if they could learn to control the Light:

Came now the Traveler, and with it a strange hope—for the Traveler's Light had the power to cause without causation! If the Nine had the Light, they could seed their own minds, free themselves from the dependence on matter-life! They could gain forces beyond Gravity to structure themselves, and so become more than wraiths of dark dust. They could enter the mad alien superworld of our chemical reality.

So on the other hand, depending on how TFS ends and if the Light becomes available to them and they could free themselves and enter our reality as physical beings... Then perhaps they could end up being antagonistic!

A very interesting additional piece of info from this same lore tab about the 4 of the Nine that seem to be working against us (or at least trying to do something to free themselves of their dependence of us):

But difficult is not impossible. And there is far, far more dark matter in the universe than bright. They will find a way to make new worlds of it. They will end their dependence on life, and on the Light of Guardians, which the falling veil will soon snuff out forever…

Hm. This is really old lore, but a portion of the Nine trying to "make new worlds" is eerily similar to the Witness' attempt to use the portal to construct a new reality. And of course, any retroactive mention of the word "veil" brings an interesting possibility that this was foreshadowing. A "falling veil snuffing out Light" is something that seems to be the overarching plot we're trying to prevent in both Lightfall and The Final Shape. The Veil is what opened the portal and the Witness is trying to end everything. Interesting stuff. As always, be careful with taking any old lore super seriously as hints because we have no idea how far back these details were planned, but it's a really neat thing to think about.

So for the question itself; it's complicated, but it's possible! Depending on the ending of The Final Shape, it's possible that the Nine might be able to free themselves, to not depend on us or our planets anymore and for some of them to decide to take up the mantle of the new antagonists.

[leohtttbriar]

a captain and an engineer who don't really trust each other (yet) both extemporaneously problem-solving with theoretical physics, making them very much not theoretical anymore, is the height of intimacy. and this "debate" that b'elanna references is the bergman-seventh-seal debate and even in this moment where they're going back and forth "port" or "starboard," an either/or scenario between being lost among a powerful community or being lost with just each other in the swell of a black hole, is so beautiful.

what a debate it would have been, if janeway had been wrong. what oppositions would've come up first, which ones would've been the sticking points, which ones would've hurt, which ones would've been resolved. what chess game would give them the impression of extending their life. and, theoretically, no one looking down on them, as they crossed the event horizon, would even be able to see them move or disappear or die--not for billions and billions (maybe) of years. from the perspective of those outside an infinite warp of spacetime, they would simply be frozen forever, always living the consequence of making the wrong choice.

a strangely theoretical/unreal potential-end/life for two people now so practically and materially oriented. but also as far as story goes, the characters seem well-equipped for something so much bigger than them: that is, an actuality so far only described by abstractions and theory. equipped by the fact that i feel like they would just have a lot to say and to learn about the whole experience. they would play the chess game, even with a guaranteed loss.