#and it could be vastly different between separated populations

[flickering-nightfall]

the results are inconclusive

it's pride month, you know what that means

[swampgallows]

@anastacialy i get what you're saying but i think the difference between unconventional clothing (like the tiktok is talking about) vs alt subculture is that you are a member of a community rather than just dressing a part. on one level yeah people can dress how they want but it's also setting up for an error in communication (at best) to co-opt certain aspects of a subculture for one's own self-expression with little to no regard for what message it sends to those affiliated with the community. any social situation will have unwritten rules, and people can recognize when someone who is not affiliated with a community is attempting to rewrite the rules from outside of it (e.g. "gays are okay except when they're flamboyant"). it's not gatekeeping to remind someone that they're a noob, especially when they start giving orders. and there's no shame in being a noob either.

regarding the bit about how the internet is curated: exactly. there is a small sample pool to draw from, and by merit of them dedicating time to make meticulously-curated videos of themselves for thousands of viewers, we are already excluding a vast majority of a population of potentially-authentic people in favor of those who make concentrated efforts toward their image. i had this same discussion with my "subcultural" friends many times in the past. the major reason i did not join tiktok despite the pressure of my more "image-centric" raver friends to "bring raving to the new generation" is because i am not the kind of person to get dressed up and dance around in front of my camera.

it doesn't mean that i don't want a new generation of ravers--i do! not being on tiktok does not make me any more or less of a "real raver"; however in the environment of actual physical raves it was obvious how uncomfortable e-girl influencer "Internet Girl" was at an underground rave party, and how vastly different the vibe is at one of the "Insta Raves" or a corporate music festival versus an underground. reflexively, it was always obvious who showed up at the rave looking for drugs, and who was there to check out the music. and no, their outfit (usually*) had nothing to do with it. (*in fact, the people decked out in kandi at their first rave tended to be the biggest tryhards and would "quit" the scene within months).

it's not that these people are necessarily inauthentic in their interests, it's just that they've had to develop their own microcosm in order to adapt to the environment of the subculture they're aping (this is my theory for the development of "scene" as well, as it was essentially mallgoth gone feral--but im not part of that scene so it's all conjecture from my limited exposure). ive mentioned before in my "new to raving" posts that like yeah, you can be a candy kid, but if you roll up to the wrong kind of party dressed like that you could literally get stabbed. (it has happened before.) one can tell when a fish is out of water; one recognizes imitators and mimics. this is knowledge gleaned from participation in the culture. so ultimately what they are actually "part of" is a separate animal entirely, which i think is what the alt post was primarily critiquing. what walks and talks like emo looks like a bodysnatcher from those on the inside.

i had this jarring experience myself toward the end of high school and in college where i would see people wearing kandi, but they were "ragers" and went to "rages", and noticed my kandi too but looked at me with an air of disgust and disapproval, as if -i- were the encroacher. it was a meeting of divergent species. ultimately the misappropriation of these kinds of symbols and totems results in a mirage of common ground.

sorry this is long and sprawling, I'm on my phone lol

[idyllic-affections]

So quick question, ik your currently in the middle of the Xianzhou Arc but how much do you know about the High Cloud Quintet? Im pretty sure it’s not really mentioned that much in the story quest but i wanna know how much you know about since i have one BIG BRAINROT OF PLATONIC HSR CHARCTER AND READER BREWING that i wanna share but i dont wanna spoil you

All of the vidyadhara are aware they are going to forget everything but they seem to fine with it. They all know when they’re going to be self reincarnate, so im guessing they have some time to wrap up some loose ends. Also about the vidyadhara writing diaries thing, that is actually canon, as some vidyadhara leave diaries, information or heirlooms for their incarnation to inherit. However, many newly reborn vidyadhara lack emotion and are unable to identify sentimental items belonging to their past selves, so any discarded items are resold as trinkets. Which is honestly sad but a good source of angst if you know what i mean ;)

But yeah they cant pass down their lineage which fun fact, caused one of the Xianzhou ship, the Xianzhou Fanghu to cut off most of their communication and trade with the other Xianzhou ships (the reason was they are trying to recuparate from the Third Abundance War)The Xianzhou Fanghu is mostly governed by the Vidyadhara and with how they are trying so hard to avoid their population to decrease (bc again if a viydhara dies, it becomes a very serious issue) i have a feeling it is definitely going to be part of the story quest in the unknown future. (How do i know all this? The HSR wiki and my incessant need to research everything and anything relating to my brainrot :) )

Ok so i sadly havent played the fontaine quest yet (i have no time to play genshin impact and honkai star rail together. So i have to sacrifice one of them T.T) but what do you think of ex fatui agent reader adopting Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet? Am i saying that the reader should adopt anyone who are traumatized by the fatui? Yes. Am i trying to make the “Traumatized by the Fatui support club” bigger? Also yes. Idk i just want some hurt/comfort

Why do i feel like Qingque would run the second she sees her older sibling? Like she’s just slacking off but then her older sibling gets around the corner and she’s just gone. No evidence that she was ever there as she is NOT going to deal with their scolding today. She is immensely scared of their scolding and anytime they come back, she would be uncharacteristically doing her work. Basically Sayu and Kano Nana (a shrine maiden who is tasked to look after our sleepy ninja) vibes

- 🐱 Anon

hi lovely! i know like... nothing at all, but nonetheless, please do send me your brainrot and i'll get around to replying once i know more <33 if you put a spoiler warning at the top, i'll know to scroll past. plus i don't really take spoilers too seriously so don't worry too much!

THEY'RE AWARE?!?! THEY KNOW WHEN IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN????? i am INSANE about them omgwmevskhnevbf ALSO I LOVE THAT I LOVE BEING RIGHT /lh but ohkhngkhngbg...... that idea is so fascinating to me. it doesn't have to be sentimental, i think. it could just be... information. which i imagine if it were somehow useful to the newer incarnation, they'd be more inclined to keep what was left behind. but at the same time i don't think it matters if they keep it, because i feel like... there's a sort of distinction between incarnations. i feel like it would be wrong to consider them the same people. i imagine there are probably some vidyadharas who lived vastly different lives throughout incarnations. so it feels like there should be a certain amount of... distance and separation between incarnations. so perhaps rather than seeing it as "my past self left something behind for me," it would be more like "my predecessor left something behind for me" because in a way, incarnations could be seen as related, but maybe they shouldn't be seen as the same as one another?!?!?! IDK I'M RAMBLING SORRY

as for lyney lynette and freminet--were they traumatized by the fatui, though? i'm not sure that they were. i don't think they're evil, but i also don't think they were victims of the fatui necessarily and i think they work voluntarily for arlecchino. i think their intentions are good. i do not think the fontaine siblings are evil... but, ex-fatui agent [name] knows better than anyone that the fatui is downright evil and wicked. dottore's affairs generally do not concern the knave, so i think they would be less guarded around the siblings despite knowing that they are fatui, because what are they going to do? tell arlecchino? it doesn't concern her. i also believe [name] would warn them. "i know you all have good intentions," they'd say, "and you want to help, but the fatui does not help. they have never helped. a shitty person can do one good thing, but that does not make them any less of a shitty person." which is in reference to the good thing arle did. didn't she like... murder a creepy old guy?? yeah. i think. anyway. idk if that's canon or not but. [name] wants to help them, they do, but they are not willing to put their family (collei & scara) in danger for some random kids. what those three do is up to them. [name] knows the most vile sides of the fatui very personally. their advice, when it comes to the fatui, is not to be taken lightly. if the fontaine siblings want to run away? great. [name] will help. they've evaded the doctor for years; if he can't catch them, what makes the knave think she could find the siblings if they were helping them hide? she couldn't. simple. but if the siblings don't want to run? fine by [name], but that will be the last time they speak to those three, no matter how much they plead and promise not to utter a word about the fact that they met a highly-coveted fatui escapee.

[name]'s family comes first.

but please note that i haven't done the quest either! so idk how in-character that is for the fontaine siblings.

ANYWAY AIDHSKGJG SHE TOTALLY WOULD. she may have been slacking off before but you BET she is up on her feet and running for her life the second she hears that her big sibling is back.

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: Pot Luck!

1. Okay, this is an example of Cthulhu being more famous than HPL himself!

The title is quite incorrect...

These aren't "Cthulhu's Monsters!!"

Actually, Cthulhu has only his Spawn to his name...

The proper title should read "Lovecraftian Monsters."

2. A great looking cover for an important book.

"Survival lies inside of its pages."

3. Indescribable?!

Really?!!

I don't think so...

At least, not anymore.

4. What Howard had in mind when writing "Rats in the Walls."

Where, I think, the narrator flips out - due to his sensitive state of mind when it came to his ancestors' 'prestige.'

Something that even a good cat can't cure...

Just think of this as a map to all of the action.

5. This is a collection of stories that Lovecraft didn't write!!

Rather, these tall tales helped inspire HPL'S own works & literary genre.

6. Here are stories solely inspired by Howard's literary works.

Lansdale is an excellent writer - in a multitude of genres!

7. Oates, another great author, picks her favorite Lovecraftian tales.

With an introduction by Stephen "Storyteller" King!!

8. Old collection of Howard's works. With a dissolving head - right out of "Herbert West, Reanimator(?)"

9. The cutest image that soon needs to become a plushie!!

Cthulhu's adventures when It was just a young thing...

10. Lovecraftian emojis!

YES!!

I've never needed something so much!

Potluck: Quotes & Biography Notes.

1. "I wish I was still an atheist."

"Believing I was born into a harsh, un- caring cosmos - in which my existence was a random roll of the dice."

"(That) I was destined to die & rot & then be gone forever - was infinitely more comforting than the truth."

2. "When we graduate from child- hood..., we're thrown into this con- fusing... miasma of life, filled with social & career problems, all with branching choices & no correct answers."

3. "I have looked upon all that the universe... holds of horror... Even the skies of Spring & the flowers of Summer must ever afterward be poison to me."

4. "On many occasions, ...the curious atmospheric effects enchanted me vastly; ...including a strikingly vivid mirage - in which distant bergs became the battlements of un- imaginable cosmic castles."

5. Lovecraft believed that Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon 'races' ("Aryans") were superior to other peoples.

Howard saw Italians & Chinese as having different but, 'valuable' cultures - that should be preserved - by keeping them separate!

HPL thought America could absorb small numbers of non-Aryans - provided they adopted the 'dominant' culture.

Lovecraft saw large scale immigration as a disaster & antithetical to progress.

6. Howard saw Blacks & Australian aboriginies as biologically inferior to all other 'races!'

HPL believed these peoples lacked the inborn capacity to create any sort of a civilization.

Lovecraft viewed the "color line" with approval, since it supposedly prevented 'mongrelization,' the sexual relations between whites & blacks.

7. Howard lived long enough to see the rise of Hitler, whom HPL thought was a "clown."

Lovecraft even criticized the Nazis for being "crude."

Yet, Howard was an early fan of Hitler - until the Nazis attacked HPL'S beloved England!!

After that, Lovecraft couldn't take his words back fast enough!

8. "In the autumn of 1904, I mingled with the world once more... entering the Hope Street High School."

"Here I was confronted with cosmopolitanism."

"It was there that I formed my... 'aversion' to the Semitic 'race.'"

"The Jews were brilliant in... class... But, their ideals &... manners coarse."

9. "Among the English, Germans & Americans, a Jew is a Jew & is (not) to be (mistaken) with the dominant people amongst whom he dwells."

10. "I think of racial combinations as chemical reactions... Certain stocks have greater (assimilation skills) than others..."

"... The French population is... more receptive to alien blood than... our colder... Teutonic stock."

End.

[thefirstknife]

Hot take but I'm enjoying the new matchmaking in Control and anyone who says otherwise is an elitist, I'm gonna die on this hill

I am a huge proponent of skill based matchmaking and hated when they announced its removal (in Arrivals). Crucible matchmaking was miserable for me from then until now, so I'm on board with this absolutely.

Today's TWAB also had some interesting statistics about the first week of skill based matchmaking being in Control:

In the first week of Season of Plunder, 140,000 more hours of Control had been played than in the first week of Season of the Haunted, and we had around an 11% increase in the total number of players playing Control. 

This is self evident, but clearly people play more Crucible (and they play more of it) when they aren't absolutely miserable in it. If Crucible is not geared towards the average player, the player pool will be too low and that is not sustainable for a healthy pvp experience. Average players are by far the biggest population of players.

Overall, our average matchmaking times went up by an average of 5 to 10 seconds. That's a good indication that the matching is generally working but isn't showing our worst cases—the lower population segments (extreme low and high skill). 

For the highest skill band, less than 0.1% of the population, matchmaking times average around 90 seconds during high population times, spiking to just over 200 seconds at low population times. For the lowest skill band, we see matchmaking times between 120 seconds at best and 240 seconds at worst. 

Obviously this increased matchmaking time, but the increase is negligible on average. It gets "high" only for 0.1% of the population on either end of the spectrum which, as frustrating as that may be for the 0.1% of the players, it's not something that should dictate how the other 99.9% play. At worst, the matchmaking time was 4 minutes, for the lowest skill bracket. This is far from a huge disaster people like to make it out to be (I've played games where matchmaking could be 20 minutes on average).

The skill differences we see in Control matches are pretty stark. Without SBMM, only 10% of matches had 600 or less skill difference between the highest and lowest players. With SBMM on, we see that 80% of games have that separation or less.

If you ever think you're making things up or elitists gaslight you, they are wrong. This isn't the first time they showed how much difference there is between skill. Games are now provably and evidently more uniform in terms of who you play with and who you play against. It should be extremely rare to get into a lobby with someone vastly above you or below you in skill. Which is how it should be. Huge skill difference between players in a single lobby has always felt bad in either direction for me: I don't like being stomped and I don't like stomping others. I would rather sit in menus matchmaking for 2 minutes instead of loading into a match that ends just as quickly and that makes me feel miserable.

If your games seem more balanced, it's because they are. If they felt horribly balanced before, it's because they were.

Mercy games are down 4%. Not as much as we had hoped, but it has been shrinking a little day by day. 

Also interesting! They added some extra info about this which is also cool to explore, but basically there is less mercy games and they expect that to go lower still.

As far as score and kill differences, we see a similar set of incremental improvements. Games where the best player had 30+ kills more than the worst player went from 9% of games to 2%. Games where the best player had only 10 to 19 more kills than the worst player went from 35% of games to 55%. 

Another good piece of info that makes me feel less like I've just been insane for 2 years and angry about elitists trying to convince me that I am insane. Clearly I am not (or rather, I am not insane about this at least). I was sick and tired of games like this. Where two people in the lobby on each team are duking it out and I'm basically an NPC on the field with 3 kills because I die as soon as I spawn so the top players can have 57 kills.

We have seen one worrying trend in the data: the percentage of players quitting before the end of the match has risen from 8% to 12% in the last week. This is especially bad with matches designed to be balanced with 12 equally skilled players. We are still investigating to see if this is localized to a specific cohort or playstyle, or if this is a natural player reaction to a new system. This percentage  may reduce over time. Stay tuned!  

Finally, this piece of info. Bungie is obviously still investigating this and the most logical reason for this situation is now that connection based matchmaking is gone, people may be getting disconnected or may be leaving if their match is laggy.

However, my first thought (and one of Bungie's thoughts!) was that people are leaving games because they don't want to bother playing if they can't stomp new lights in Control. I genuinely think this and I will continue to believe that is the primary reason for leavers, due to my extensive experience with other competitive pvp games and modes, until Bungie proves me otherwise. People who are used to getting everything they want and stomping over lower skilled players get VERY upset when that is taken from them and when they have to play against people of their own skill level and be faced with the reality that maybe they just aren't that good and were just shooting fish in a barrel. These people tend to be the most salty leavers I have ever seen in any video game. I do honestly believe this accounts for most people leaving matches.

Got a bit long, but your ask was a nice opportunity to dive into some of this from the TWAB! Hopefully things get better and better as we go forward.

[writingsofhubris-a]

Villainous Thing Ch. 1

Oh dear, let me see those smokey eyes    

[AO3] | [ Series Masterlist > | Ch. 2 ] Rating: Explicit WC: 2.2k Tags: Temporary Amnesia, Falling In Love, Retrograde Amnesia, Caretaking, Anxiety Disorder, Eventual smut, Fandom: Sorcerer’s apprentice (2010) Ship: Maxim Horvath x Reader Disc: Finding a man in an alley, unable to even remember his full name, you couldn't help the offer of help. In NYC, people got hurt a lot, if they weren't looked out for, and in your neighborhood, people helped each other when they could. Somehow, you knew that the moment the smartly dressed man had stumbled onto your bed, things would change. Things would be vastly different. If only he could remember who the fuck he was.

 Your fingers flipped the bowler hat around, spinning it between your fingers. It was almost unfairly nice, and just discarded on the ground with no one nearby. Your fingers trailed over the brim, tapping against the trim that matched perfectly. Your thoughts were on your schedule more than what was going on around you; two separate shoots for Monday, and a few more to sort through in your emails. Celebrations were happening more and more, it seemed; you didn’t mind too much. So little seemed to take your fancy these days.

 It was quiet. That was the first sign you picked up on; a sudden lack of anything moving, of the inherent sounds that simply come with the population density you currently had. No, something was wrong, something was happening. Something that you weren’t entirely privy to, and something that you weren’t entirely sure you wanted to get into.

 The echoes of your footsteps slowed, less frequent the less you heard. Nothing seemed to be happening. No coos of birds, no sputtering of car engines, nothing seemed to make a single noise. It was eerie, in the normal clamor of the city.

 It wasn’t until you heard a groan of pain down an alley that you even realized someone else could be nearby. Your head whipped around, down into the darkness.

 “I’m a fucking idiot,” you whispered to yourself, shaking your head. A turn of your projection, and you found yourself down that alley, looking for the source.

 You located it half way down, a man with his eyes screwed shut. He didn’t look to be in any visible amount of injury, though with the only slightly dirty, tailored clothes, you weren’t entirely sure just how he was hurt under those clothes.

 His next groan of pain made it clear he didn’t even realize a stranger was in front of him, appraising the damage that he might have had.

 “Are you hurt?” His eyes snapped open at your words, a second of fear floating in his eyes before he managed to tamp it down, appraising you in a quick look. “Let me get you to a hospital, it seems like you need medical attention.” Your hand moved to the soiled wool on his shoulder, wet with what you really hoped was just mud.

 His head knocked back against the brick behind him, and the soft thump certainly made you question if he could adequately judge the severity of his injuries.

 “No, no hospital.” You saw him try to steal himself, try to at least pretend to have some semblance of control over his actions. One arm curled against his side, clearly in some kind of pain, he tried to propel himself from the wall, only barely catching himself a step away. A wobble, before he grabbed out to the dumpster next to him, hand coming in contact with something that looked awfully sticky. “I need somewhere to hide.”

 You didn’t think he meant some kind of shelter, not dressed like that. A few quick calculations, and you decided that there was little for you to lose, and just about as much for you to gain.

 “Are you a criminal?”

 “Not in a way you would find concern in.”

 “Okay, yeah, that certainly doesn’t help my nerves. Look, I live around the corner; I was almost home when I heard you groan. I can at least help you for the night, you seem to really need at least that.”

 “I would not be able to offer compensation.”

 “Sleeping on the sofa keeps me humble. Put your arm around my shoulders, you can lean on me.” He didn’t move, and quite frankly, it was starting to frustrate you. “Okay, or don’t. I don’t need to put my neck on the line for you.”

 “Wait.” The man shifted forward, and you got a straight wave of rotting garbage and ozone, his hand apparently covered in that sticky substance. His arm settled over your shoulders, and despite the bit of a difference in your heights, he was able to support himself well enough to start moving again. Even with that pungent scent from his hand, your apartment really was just around the corner.

 You pulled open the first door, helping him through the dim halls. You couldn’t hear your neighbors, and with the time of night, you weren’t shocked. The stairs posed their own challenge, his energy seriously flagging at this point.

 When you had him lay on your bed, after cleaning his hand with a damp rag, you realized that this was something you absolutely should have thought through. The man’s elegant face finally lost some of the strain on it, as if there was no energy left to hide the flits of expression. He seemed only hurt, not dangerous, but by the looks of him, you could get overpowered too easily.

 “Who are you?” The question you should’ve asked first finally fell from your lips. You didn’t get an answer immediately, silence hanging between you.

 “I don’t remember.” Frustration colored the words, his brow furrowing as he tried to recall. Not a good sign.

 “Do you remember what happened to you?” His head shook, and you softly sighed. It was clear he was telling the truth; he had no idea what had happened. “Well, I don’t know the first thing about helping you, but you’re not going to go to the hospital. Try to rest, I’ll…” You held onto your shoulder for a moment, trying to come up with a game plan. “Try to figure out what I can do to help you.” Slipping out of your room, you beelined to your laptop, Google opened immediately.

 The internet had to have some kind of help, or so you hoped.

 Time had slipped away from you, researching more and more. If you had to guess, it was most likely just a temporary version of retrograde amnesia. Possibly serious, but without medical gear, you were kind of fucked.

 You stood from your seat at your table, stretching and feeling each vertebrae in your back pop softly. A glass of water for each of you was poured, and after a moment, you put a few cubes into his glass. He might need it, if he was still asleep.

 Knocking on your own bedroom door felt weird, even with how soft your knuckles had met the thin door. You slipped in, only to find him staring at the door, the shadows cloaking him.

 “What?” Gravel resided in his throat, and you weren’t sure if it was from disuse or from whatever had happened to him before you’d found him.

 “I just wanted to see if you had water.” You raised the glass tumbler as you looked at the empty glass on the bed stand. Each step over was muffled from the carpeting, and you exchanged out the glasses. “Which it seems you didn’t.” You were prepared to turn away from him, and take your leave, when his hand shot out to grab your wrist, the contact making you jump. It seemed to have dried from your cleaning, earlier, at least. Your fear from earlier bounced into your head; he might be injured, but you had no obvious signs on what kind of man he was. You were mostly just guessing with each of his actions. Fear was the only response you could offer him.

 “Why are you helping me?” His question almost pulled a sarcastic comment from your lips, until you saw something you’d only just felt; fear nestled deep into his dark eyes.

 “It’s too warm to sleep without water next to you. Just rest, we’ll figure out what’s going on in the morning. Whatever this is.” His hand slipped from your wrist, falling back to the bed, his eyes closing again. He was taking to your instructions well enough, at least right now.

 But you hurried out of your own room as quietly as you could, fear twisting into all too familiar anxiety.

 He joined you a few hours later, your computer stating it to be nine thirty in the morning. You were well hunched over your laptop, emails filtered in and out with responses and notes written down. If you could just hire an assistant to help you with the mess that was your email, you could probably have more time to take on new customers.

 More importantly, you knew the man really hadn’t slept enough, and looking at his clothes, you realized quickly you’d need to figure that issue out sooner rather than later. He’d taken off that black wool cloak, as well as the suit coat. You only saw a little bit of charring on one of the sleeves, the one you’d assumed was hurt last night. But, you didn’t have money to get him a full wardrobe. Shit.

 “Good morning,” you greeted, closing your laptop to pay more attention to him. “How are you feeling?”

 “Tired.” He took the chance to sit down across from you, and he stopped his arm from wrapping around his torso, instead placing his hands into his lap, laced elegantly.

 “Imagined so. Tea?” You stood before he could start to offer a response, procuring two mugs from the cupboard.

 “Yes.” You turned on your water kettle, waiting for it to start to boil.

 “Did you remember anything over the night?”

 “My name is Maxim.”

 “Maxim.” You rolled it in your mouth for a moment, before looking at him. “Any last name?” Maxim’s head shook, and you nodded, rocking forward onto the balls of your feet as you thought. If he couldn’t even remember his own name, it would be impossible to try and track down any relatives. There were so many people named any variant of Max to simply start walking around asking. And the accent that you could hear made you wonder if he ever had anyone around him to start to help with his memory anyway.

 “May I inquire as to your name?” His question made your head whip to him, suddenly realizing in all this time, that’d been overlooked. It was correctly quickly, to which he responded the same way you had. Stating your name, you could hear his accent even more obviously.

 “You’ve got it.” Silence fell between you again, and you were sure that Maxim was sizing you up, gaining any information he could from your very lived-in kitchen. “Do you remember anything else?”

 “Nothing.” Maxim’s eyes were on you again, searching. Your lips opened to say something, anything, but the whistle of steam sliced between you two. Fixing the mugs offered you a few moments of distraction, a bon from the intense gaze he was able to fix on you.

 “Don’t expect anything fancy while you stay, Maxim.” He took the handle of the mug, setting it down as steam rose from the smooth surface. “Funds haven’t been what they used to be a few years ago.”

 “I only require time to regain my memories.”

 “Well, yeah, time will help. But I think you need something to eat first.” The second you mentioned eating, you heard his stomach loudly growl, begging for any kind of food that you could have.

 “That sounds wise.” Closing your laptop and getting out some simple food didn’t take too much out of you, and serving him the plate almost brought back your own memories of waiting tables back home. You took your own seat, watching as the man tucked in with a barely restrained, ravenous energy. Wonder over the last time he had eaten appeared in your mind, flitting around in the silence between you. It was almost nice, and you really didn’t feel a need to fill the silence between you both. Your laptop was opened to give him privacy, and to continue your own work.

 You only took a break when you heard the soft tap of his fork against the plate, signaling his finish.

 “Did you want a second helping? I don’t have the faintest clue the last time you ate.”

 “No, that was plenty for now.” You nodded, and turned your computer to face him.

 “So, according to this website, amnesia is just a huge shrug; we don't know what causes it, what fixes it, nothing.” Maxim’s eyes had flicked to the screen for only a moment, before focusing on your face again. “I can give you some time, shelter, food, until you figure out who you are. And some clothes, somehow.”

 “And in return?”

 “Help me keep the place clean. And, stay out of my dark room.”

 “You practice photography?” His interest now off the computer, you pulled it back to your side of the table, clicking around a couple tabs.

 “It’s my day job, but the dark room is mainly personal. I can show you, just don’t go in there without me. I have things set up just so, and without proper ventilation, it will destroy your lungs.”

 “I can abide by those terms.”

 “Good. Then I think that you and I have a deal, Maxim.” Your hand once more reached across the table, ready to shake.

 “Indeed we do.” His large hand took yours, firmly wrapped around your fingers. A shake, a flutter of nerves in your stomach, and you felt as if you’d just signed your soul away to the devil.

A/N: “I asked: “What’s this between us?” He answered: “Nothing.” He grabbed me by the back of my neck And kissed me hard. He was right. There was nothing between us— Nothing between our lips— Not even air.” — rubatosis: the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat (claire v.)

Tags! @randomfandomtrash28​ @emotrash1 @unitedfandomsoftheworld​ @arandomnerdsblog578​ @overlookedfile​

[cherrywoes]

Okay, but, consider this- Diluc. Now, now here me out! This man- this man is so beautiful. And paired with your writing- it would be a masterpiece

title: an angel’s share. pairing: diluc x reader. summary:  diluc’s stony composure only fractured when you were around; thus, you quietly dubbed his smiles an angel’s share of beauty, if only to yourself. word count: 1.025k

requests: open.

a/n: diluc is gorgeous i agree,,, i hope i delivered! <3

IMPATIENT—prickly to the point of near offensiveness. A shield against honest intentions with ulterior motives underneath; a sharp, carefully refined exterior and to-the-point personality. You could list off the things that Diluc showed freely to the public—good things being few and far inbetween, as standoffish as he was—on one hand, and that was on a moderately nice day when he was feeling kind. You knew, for a fact, that that was not so; at least, not his offhand attitude, or the goals he was hyper fixated on achieving no matter what it cost him. His attachment to sentimental, materialistic things was nonexistent. He kept very little in his home, as sparse and undecorated as if he had just moved in, and other than a few bottles of wine that he kept and never drank (his first bottles, you recalled) you had never glimpsed a picture or even a family heirloom (that you knew of, at least).

So when you found that, upon sitting in Diluc’s study at the winery—his desk cluttered with books, paperwork, and other things you couldn’t make out specifically—while he retrieved something he needed, he had kept the Windblume trinket you had given him, even set it on his desk in an area where everyone could see it, made your heart swell. It had been a small origami flower in your own interpretation of what a ‘windblume’ might be; you had taken the design from a flower from your world, seeing as the flora in this one were vastly different, and it had been one of your most rigorous projects. You did not have the steady hand required for origami, much more used to a sword than art, and it had taken you more than one hundred tries before you had something you would be proud to give to Diluc, even if he didn’t like it himself.

Finding it nestled between a cup of worn quills and a notepad had been… unexpected, to say the least. Kaeya had made him out to be an unsentimental man when he spoke to you, but you found him to be quite the opposite. Despite how you considered Kaeya a friend, you could not condone him speaking to you about Diluc in such a fashion when you considered him a good friend as well—it felt wrong, not to mention disrespectful to your friendship with both men, all things considering.

“Sorry for taking so long.” A glass was held in front of your face, obscuring your view of the origami flower momentarily. You wrapped your fingers around the stem without a second thought, glancing down into the dark purple depths of the Wolfhook Juice you had requested. You had at first wanted to have wine, but considering your nightly visits to Diluc were best kept sober, you always requested some type of juice. “The berries we had left out for a new batch were unripe. I had to find a separate one.”

“That’s fine,” you assured him, taking a test sip as he made his way around to the other side of the desk. He looked tired, as he always did when he returned late, whether it be from getting rid of Fatui agents or dealing with the local Hilichurl populations when they got too out of control. You offered to help him many times to ease the burden, but he was adamant that he would do it himself despite labeling you his ‘partner’. You so desperately wished to pull the god card out on him and give him proof that you could handle it, but you weren’t sure what it was that was holding you back—a lack of firm connections in this world, while you brother was gone? Or the slight fear and trepidation of how he would react? “I would have been happy even with unripe berries.”

You were always surprised when a little smile crept up on his face. You would capture it in your memories always, a unique snapshot you would treasure until the end of your days, and if you could have pulled out a Kamera and taken a photo, you would have in a heartbeat. Sadly, he always seemed unfond of taking photos, or being around for sentimental occasions—except for your birthday. He had made a special effort to treat you to your favorite foods (albeit this was also during a Fatui raid he had persuaded you to go on) when you were ready to call it quits for the evening. He had a special way of treating you differently from others, but you had no idea of labeling it properly; in fact, you suspected labels weren’t something he was fond of at all and you wouldn’t be the one to stick one to him.

“You’re always here late when I return,” he noted. His tone was warm and friendly, indicative of his acceptance of your presence. “Even when you’re all the way in Liyue, no?”

You had to stifle a laugh. “Yes, well, it isn’t that hard of a journey… And besides, what friend would I be if I neglected our nightly talks? An awful one.”

“A friend, hm?” Diluc watched you take a sip of your drink, the glass already half empty. It cast a purple-blue light on your hands from the candles  hanging on the walls and sitting on his desk. “I would have thought we were more than friends by now, [Name].”

He watched as you stilled, drink forgotten, eyes darting up to his—wide, almost doe-like in their surprise, and completely shocked. “I—huh?”

“I had thought I had made my intentions clear enough.” He smiled once more, but this time it was one of slight pity towards himself. “Perhaps I misread the situation.”

“No,” you shook your head, your own smile lighting up your visage,”no, I don’t think you did.”

The smile he gave you then was one of such brilliance that you had to wonder what angel had had their share in giving him such a beautiful countenance.

                                                      end.

[acaiis]

The Existence of Capitalism in Skyword Sword and How it Makes No Sense Contextually

First off, before I begin, I would like to make it clear that this is not meant to be a a post to bring politics into Zelda; it is my analysis of the information we are given about Skyloft and subsequent questioning of a lot of different canonical aspects. This also won't contain any major spoilers for Skyward Sword, as this is viewed almost entirely from a world-building perspective. Continued beneath the cut (because this is a monstrous post)

The Canon Economy In game, the citizens of Skyloft rely on a monetary system of trade, i.e. using money to purchase goods. This in and of itself works fine for the game, but I'll get into later why it's not very well founded later on. We see that the Skyloftians have to pay for necessities such as food in game. Seeing as this isn't something that carries much weight story-wise, it's hard to find lots of information, but it can be asssumed that Skyloft operates on a typical "use money to purchase goods" system. Furthermore, the only large source of food we see in game (pumpkin island), appears to be owned privately. Patrons must pay to consume pumpkin soup. This indicates that other islands with the means for producing food may also be owned privately, though these theoretical islands do not exist canonically. Most of this will become relevant as this post goes on; for now it offers contextual knowledge. The Money Problem

Across the Zelda franchise, Rupees act as the main currency. It is not stated anywhere how or where Rupees are created, so there's a few potential routes.

1.) Rupees are mined from the earth.

In the very first installation of the franchise, rupees are referred to as Rubies by the game manual. Rubies being used to refer to them implies that they may share similar properties -- so from here we can assume that rupees are some sort of gemstone that are mined from the earth and made into money. If you're thinking, "but money is made out of paper, why would they use gemstones?", then I will direct you to the historical use of silver and gold as currency. 2.) Rupees are created magically.

In game, rupees can be obtained in an eclectic variety of methods. Killing monsters, cutting grass, and so on and so forth. This could imply that they are generated by some outside force at seemingly random. This particular theory is the weakest of the three.

3.) Rupees are formed via living organisms.

Hear me out. Seeing as a potential drop of enemies is rupees, the creation of rupees is not explicitly stated, and they're not so common that they're essentially worthless, one could assume that, similar to pearls, rupees are created by living organisms. This would explain why they are dropped sometimes by enemies, and even why you find them in the grass (outside of the minish) -- if a monster dies, the rupee(s) could be left behind in the grass and so forth. When taken in the context of Skyloft, the theoretical origin of rupees that makes the most sense at a first glance is the second one -- there are few monsters on Skyloft, which rules out no. 3, and seeing as they have very limited ground to work with, mining is out of the question. However, when we look at the option of magical origins, it starts to break down -- they can't exactly disperse any excess money, as they are extremely limited in who they can trade with, and if money just keeps showing up out of nowhere the economy will inevitably undergo inflation, which wouldn't be good for anyone. So, this leaves us with a limited supply of rupees on Skyloft, following either theory 1 or 3.

The problem here is that they live on a floating island, and frequently travel between multiple of these islands. If, say, one was to drop something off the edge, we know that it would be as good as lost canonically -- they cannot reach the surface, and therefore have no method of retrieving any objects lost in this manner.

In my initial ramble about this, the example I used was this: Young children clearly exist on Skyloft, and typically children enjoy playing with things and imitating their parents. I'm sure most people have had an experience in which a young child has either destroyed or lost money. If there's one toddler that has the idea to start chucking money over the edge, they could potentially even wreck the economy depending on the current finite amount of rupees available on Skyloft and the amount of which is being thrown off. Basically, the economy of Skyloft could be wrecked by a child.

They could potentially use something other than rupees as money, but options here are pretty much nonexistent -- what would they use? The amount of resources they'd have to use to produce money simply wouldn't make sense, seeing as they have limited resources -- which brings us to our next section.

Limited Resources

To add to the dubious monetary system of Skyloft, we have the very clearly limited resources. They live on floating islands. In the sky. With no access to the greater world below. They have very limited room for production. Even with the small canonical population of Skyloft (we're strongly going to assume that the npcs present in SkSw are not the extent of the sky's population, however, because otherwise they'd be competing with the lines of the european royalty), managing food would be a large and very important undertaking. In order to keep myself going a rant worthy of its own post, I won't be going too into depth on how they would make use of the land for survival. All that is needed to know is that food is very much limited and also, obviously, essential for survival.

When looking at an isolated community like this, food would likely be the most important part of life on Skyloft. If food isn't available, you die. Given that it is so important to have food in this situation, it would be a reasonable assumption to have a community in which everyone works to ensure the production of food. With these circumstances, the private ownership (for profit) of gardens is both unrealistic and extremely unethical. Farmers could charge a premium for food, making themselves extremely wealthy, and everyone else would be forced to pay these rates in order to survive.

Summary of Canonical Issues

Basically, we have this community in which resources are vastly limited, obtaining replacements for lost money is more-or-less out of the question, and the community would likely be all working together for the collective benefit of said community. In this context, having both money and capitalism make very little sense, and capitalism on its own is horribly unethical.

Potential Solutions

The full scope of world-building solutions to the "look at it wrong and it crumbles" situation of Skyloft gets into far more than the economy, and this post particularly was spawned from a conversation about Skyloftian food production. This will be pretty much a summary, but if I get around to making a separate post for the food and resources of Skyloft, I'll link it here and reblog this with a link as well. Anyways.

The conclusion I eventually came to falls into socialism. There's not really a central government on Skyloft, so production would be in the hands of the community at large. They would all be working for the benefit of one another and continued survival of their civilization, and seeing how essential food is, wages wouldn't really be a factor either -- you garden, or you die. This eliminates the need for money, as essential goods can be obtained via working for them and contributing to the community. Outside of essentials, any luxury items could be obtained through the trade of items or skill, which would make sense. Someone who is, for example, a woodcarver, could want silk from a weaver. Instead of paying in money, which wouldn't serve any purpose outside of luxury items, they could instead carve something for the weaver. This continues to promote the learning and use of specialized skillsets while avoiding the money conundrum. Plus, seeing as Skyloft would likely be tightly knit as a community, it fits far nicer than charging your neighbor ridiculous prices.

Also, as a bonus thought, Rupees would probably just be seen as gemstones on Skyloft. They could be used by craftsman or as decoration. I'm at a loss as to how to end this post, because I pretty much summed up the bulk of everything I could without going on wild tangents, so I leave you with this:

[lordeasriel]

The Sun never sets on the Magisterium

The reach of the Holy Church in Lyra’s world is the first and most prominent worldbuilding aspect we learn from Northern Lights. It is the most important introduction one has to this world, so vastly different than ours yet so similar still, and it is the one trait that remains constant throughout both trilogies and novellas included.

This is an analysis of the Church in Lyra’s world, so spoilers for all the books and novellas, most likely. I’ll try and make a single post about this but I’m gonna reserve the right of maybe doing two separate parts because it’s a big subject. Under the cut because you know the drill, it’s long lol

The Magisterium was founded after John Calvin’s death, who had been Pope, and had the seat of the Church moved to Geneva. Although it is never clear, the Magisterium’s religious aspects come mostly from the Roman Catholic Church, and Pullman himself said in an interview, that some of its dogma is based on the original puritans. In this world, Calvin didn’t seem to have moved forward with his reform, not needing to break ties with the Catholic Church since he had become the Catholic Church.

Despite becoming a vast collective of “courts, colleges, and councils,” the Magisterium remains rather similar to most Christian branches from our world, at least in the medieval times. They had ties with kingdoms, they had influence over colonization, as well as economic and political influence, not to mention military too.

In Lyra’s world, the Magisterium seems intimately tied to Geneva’s politics, at the very least; it gives the impression that the city is somehow independent from the rest of Switzerland, not unlike the Vatican is independent from Italy. It is however, mentioned that the Swiss War was an armed conflict between England and the Magisterium, which means that they must have a full fledged control over the entire country and not just Geneva, although like most things in these books, this is not a sure claim.

With the Swiss War happening some time around 1933 and 1935, it gives this wild and quite odd picture, of a Church actively trying to invade a country. Although not that foreign a concept, since the Catholic Church was highly involved with the colonization process of our world, they never quite invaded the countries themselves (at least during the 1500s colonizations, as the Crusades were sort of Catholics invading countries lmao), instead joining later as the Monarchs of Europe established outposts and colonies and had already subdued natives in the area.

We do not have an exact date for the Magisterium’s creation, the implication being that it was set somewhere 600 years prior to Marcel Delamare’s acceptance of Leader of the High Council in TSC, it is fair to assume that colonization was already happening in Lyra’s world’s 15th century-ish and that the Magisterium was involved with that much in the same way it was in our world: by converting people, be it by force or by persuasion.

However, in Lyra’s world, the Magisterium stopped being a fully religious entity at some point, and became a full fledge state-like organization, spread all across the globe in different shapes and names, all answering to the bigger and more powerful groups, usually stationed in Geneva: the College of Bishops during its initial centuries, then eventually the Consistorial Court of Discipline, who by NL had become an immensely powerful group, in a power conflict with the less threatening Society of the Work of the Holy Spirit. The CCD being the harshest and most powerful group in the Magisterium, at least during the events of HDM, seemed to have had a lot of power in Geneva and in nearby areas, such as France (as we learn in LBS, the alethiometrists of Paris were sympathetic to the Church, not a surprise given France’s very Catholic Background) and Germany.

With information known from LBS and HDM, the Magisterium seems to hold under its power both the Swiss Army (implied, at least, given the Swiss War being a conflict created by the Magisterium itself) and the Imperial Guard of Muscovy, which seemed to have been under the control of the CCD in particular. It is not explained exactly why the Muscovite Army serves the Church and personally, my knowledge of anything Eastern Europe is very slim, so I’m not gonna attempt to assume much, but given that in TSK it is said they were “sworn to uphold the power of the Magisterium”, it’s possible — and very likely — that the Muscovite government had some sort of deep rooted connection with the Church. Again, not a surprise for Europe, as most countries had monarchies connected to the Church very intimately.

I’m not diving deep into every single one of the Magisterium groups, especially because we know very little about most of them. During the Magisterium congress in TSC, it is mentioned that 53 delegates attended, each representing a group at least (we know both Pierre Binaud AND the President of the CCD attended and they both are part of the same group), so that alone should prove why I couldn’t possibly talk about every single one of them lmao Some of those aren’t even mentioned by name. So, before I tackle on the most important groups and what they represent, I wanted to discuss how the Magisterium’s influence in the world seems to work in a geographical way.

We know for a fact that Geneva — and Switzerland, at least implied so — is absolutely under the control of the Church. Whether they share power with a political group or they are the political branch themselves, I could not say, but at any rate, we know the Magisterium waged war on England under the Swiss banner at one point in time and it’s fairly unlikely that it changed much in less than a century; that alone proves that State and Church don’t seem separate here.

So, how I perceive the Church in Lyra’s world — not just based on preference, but also on what we see of the world, however little it is — is that the further the country and cities are from Geneva, the looser the Magisterium’s grasp is and the more different its approach to power becomes. I use the word ‘looser’ here very lightly, as I don’t think the Americas weren’t oppressed, but I think the Magisterium had a much different type of hold and influence there, and I do think the huge oceans separating Europe from Oceania and the Americas helped change the pull of the Church.

That is different from how it happened in our world, but there is also the difference in how the Magisterium operates; each of its groups work under different philosophies and dogmas and politics. They embody the same religion - Christianism - but they do not act the same way, a good example being how the faithful in Constantinople act towards the Patriarch, while England has very little respect for the CCD, instead just fearing it. In our world, the Church operated sort as an unified front, but in Lyra’s world these many groups are always and constantly fighting each other for power and influence, creating alliances and making enemies between themselves. In England alone, we see that many groups have “outposts” there, the CCD and the Oblation Board, as well as all the Priories and chapels and all that.

There is also the fact that Lyra’s world still seems to have a very independent Africa, as we see the presence of King Ogunwe, meaning that some of the areas in Africa still had independent Kingdoms. This doesn’t mean that the African colonies that did exist weren’t converted or oppressed, but it does mean that these independent Kingdoms resisted the Church’s influence and depending on what group was harassing them, they could succeed in breaking the Church’s ever growing presence. This seems a similar situation for the Americas, given how odd the borders are in Lyra’s world  — South America having way less countries than it does in our worlds and the US never being formed, instead separated into at least two regions, three depending if New France means Canada or yet another part of a possible US.

This is a very ugly map I coloured to show my point lmao The Red Areas cover most of Western Europe and some of Eastern Europe, as well as a part of Russia. All these areas are connected by roads or trains, meaning that the Magisterium’s pull could have started long before airplanes were even created; these means the influence and presence would have existed for a long period of time in most of Europe, meaning More Magisterium Strength. It also covers areas I assumed would be heavily populated areas in the colonies, most of the coastal areas in Brasil, most of the United States because they have two different countries in them  — Texas and New Denmark  — and most of Coastal Australia, although by HDM it’s fair to assume all these regions are no longer colonies, but independent states.

I didn’t go into full detail, there are countries I didn colour with red but that should be red. The Green Areas are contested Areas, places where the Magisterium would have a presence but that would create conflicts for different reasons, being other religions, an uncooperative governement or simply because the group in charge of the area is not competent or too violent to properly establish a presence. This would be the areas in the continents, especially in Africa, where in our world they were heavily colonised but in Lyra’s world they are still independent kingdoms, with military forces and political freedom. Some parts of Russia are green because in Lyra’s world there is the implication Russia is divided into at least three different territories  — Muscovy, Tartary and Siberia  —  and the tartars are considered heretics by the Church; is the territory I painted in green correspondent to actual Tartar regions? I have no idea, but I’m hoping you can forgive my geographic inaccuracy in favour of all this mega meta thing I just spurred. LMAO

And finally the Purple Areas are mostly in places where the weather would be too harsh or where population would be too small to attract the eye of the Magisterium. Ultimately, the Church in Lyra’s world does not only seek to convert everyone and rid the world of heretics, but they also want political influence, economical and military as well, and a small village in Greenland offers absolutely none of that. Some of these areas would also be found in Asia, I believe, especially the very distant and small villages where Islam would have been able to survive. I’ve written a bit about other religions in Lyra’s world if you want to read before going on.

With all that in mind  — and out of the way!  — let’s take a closer look at the Magisterium most notable groups. Starting of course, with the CCD, it’s important to keep in mind that the CCD was the first group created in the Magisterium. It wasn’t always, however, the most powerful one; in Northern Lights, it’s said they only gained notoriety in “recent years”, and we see in La Belle Sauvage that they were already active, including in England, so my assumption is that not only Pullman did a slight retcon here, but also that recent years can mean somewhere in the range of 70 to 100 years. This doesn’t change the fact the CCD became powerful and feared in the Magisterium, nor that their power in England grew considerably between LBS and TAS and then TSC. They are mostly an enforcer type of group  (this is how I refer to them, not canon: enforcer or militia for groups that can arrest, or do any type of Police/militia/army related type of work; dogmatic is how I refer to the groups that usually deal with conversion, reeducation, philosophical works - this isn’t relevant, I’m just. Trying to Make Sense lmao) and as an enforcer, the CCD is violent and ruthless and often lawless in its work outside Geneva.

Despite the fact they are known as a Church Authority, they cannot murder freely and without consequence. In England they act in the shadows during LBS, disguising Robert Luckhurt’s murder as a drowning, and not much is known about their work during HDM, but in TSC they start to openly arrest people for heresy, no doubt a change from the government after Marcel’s rise to power. The CCD seems to act all across Europe and even Central Asia, as we see some of its forces in Constantinople, although it isn’t clear if they were there simply because the Patriarch died or if they are also stationed in the city; the Sublime Porte had its own guards as well, given its status as a government base.

Not much is known of the Society of the Work of the Holy Spirit, except that they seemed less harsh than the CCD and during their quest to find Lyra, they were far more interested in not killing her. Lord Asriel mentions in TAS about his surprise in learning that Lord Roke managed to infiltrate the group, as they were considered impregnable; given Lady Salmakia’s method, and the whole attitude of the group towards the prophecy — it was assumed they weren’t going to do anything about it  — I’d safely assume they were more inclined towards being dogmatic.

Perhaps even older than the CCD, the College of Bishops was perhaps inherited from the Catholic Church before the Magisterium was born. It was known to be the most remarkable and powerful of the groups for centuries after the creation of the Magisterium. Not much is said about them, but given their counterpart in our world, I’d assume they were more inclined towards dogma than enforcer. They are, in our world, a collection of bishops who work closely with the Pope; in Lyra’s world, by the time the Magisterium existed, the Pope no longer existed, so the assumption is that the College replaced the Pope figure altogether, being led by all the bishops in the collection, probably working like a council.

Everything we know about La Maison Juste is confusing and unclear, as most things worldbuilding-wise are in these books. Their official name is League for the Instauration of the Holy Purpose, which coincides with Olivier Bonneville’s description of their work, about “accomodating the life of the world to the life of the spirit”. In other words, it means making sure that daily life can be fitted into the dogma of the Church; it’s vital for the Magisterium to adapt as progress comes. Unlike the CCD, that suppress anything that borders heresy, La Maison Juste seems more inclined towards adapting the dogma so the world can still be within the Magisterium’s expectations.

However, there is mention of La Maison Juste being a place meant to study and examine heresy; there is also a mention in TSC, by Olivier, about how the group changed under Marcel’s leadership, “being a force for good” in the ranks of the Magisterium. What that means exactly, I can’t say; it could be Marcel changed the heresy examination to something more productive and less harsh, or it could just mean he became more strict towards heresy, but that would conflict with Olivier’s description about the accomodation thing. At any rate, I do classify them as dogmatic, and we see Marcel using the CCD to go after Olivier when he flees Geneva; it’s curious because there seems to be implied the CCD outranks his group, but he still uses their forces to do anything remotely violent. There is however, a passage where Lyra lies to a guard from the Office of Right Duty about being part of La Maison Juste, and the guard gets spooked. This is curious because La Maison Juste barely seems remarkable up until the congress happens, but the mention scares the man off.

Two groups  — that we know of  — were responsibility of Mrs. Coulter. The League of St. Alexander seemed to have been created around the same time LBS happens (roughly 1986 if the timeline makes any sense, which probably doesn’t). Hannah Relf learns at some point that Marisa was behind it, but it’s never clear what was her role in it exactly. It doesn’t look like the League was a private initiative, but actually tied to the Church and it was as good a Scam as any. Marisa being behind it didn’t necessarily mean she was the active leader of the group, as they mention a man under the codename Bishop seemed to be in charge, but then again, I cannot say with certainty. They were definitely a dogmatic group, with brainwashing added to the mix, but they seemed to have mutated over time and it isn’t clear whether they only existed in England or not.

The General Oblation Board was Mrs. Coulter’s actual, proper group. It was a private initiative, under the CCD’s rule, but the nature of their work seemed to threaten the CCD’s leadership in the Magisterium. MacPhail made an extra effort to try and dismantle them, especially because he believed that Dust should be destroyed and not examined. I don’t think the fate of the group was ever disclosed, despite their losses, but by TAS MacPhail mentions them as if they are still functioning. Whether they survived up to TSC is not clear, but it’s also hard to imagine what could they have become without Marisa. It’s also interesting to think what would have happened to the Magisterium, had Marisa succeeded in taking the place of the CCD; a private initiative group as the most powerful group in the Magisterium would have caused drastic changes, and probably opened the doors to the big corporations much sooner than Marcel’s work in TSC. The GOB could be classified as dogmatic, given their interest in Dust, but they were far more into scientific research than La Maison Juste seems to be, for example. They also had their own private guards, so no need for the CCD’s enforcers.

I think these groups showcase well how the Magisterium operates. The further we see Lyra go into the East, we realise how the grip of the Church seems lighter and far more military inclined. Is the Magisterium everywhere? Frankly, I don’t think so. I think they have a substantial presence in every country with any amount of political influence or power; any country that might offer opposition. We know they tried to conquer England through an actual war, which is quite odd for a religion, but this is where the Theocracy takes it place in Lyra’s world: they become a single unified front with their country  — Switzerland, in this case  — and the countries where they have more power, they can also control. The places they can’t take by force, they take with dogma and faith, and slowly overthrow these governments by turning their people against themselves.

They are so vastly fragmented that even places with small groups are affected by their presence, no matter small and odd that can be. It’s both curious and terrifying to see a world so deeply overwhelmed by a single opponent, but then again, it’s not that far off our reality. The Magisterium doesn’t represent just faith and religion, but also the big oligarchies, and how governments bend to the will of big companies, and how these aligned forces can become oppressive over time. The Church’s hold across Europe, Africa and Asia was not fast and unpredictable; it was obvious and slow. It started with small conversions and with time, the Church become a force of sustainability for different regions; they become an important part of the enviroment, of the economy, of the security of the country. They become something to be relied on and thus removing them become difficult over time as well, as the micro societies  — the neighborhoods, the small villages  — they become reliant on the Church’s helpful groups to survive, meaning that their fear of the enforcers are overwhelmed by the help of the Chapels, and the priories.

It’s the creation of a co-dependent ecosystem that is very difficult to dissolve without harming innocent people.

[violetsystems]

In modern times, a great deal of research has focused on the way that artificial light sources mess up our sleep and health, due to the unnatural effects of illumination after the Sun goes down.

But just how unnatural is night-time light anyway? After all, humans have always been exposed to variable levels of light at night, due to reflections of sunlight from the waxing and waning Moon – and this shifting radiance stimulates us in ways we aren't fully aware of, new research suggests.

"Moonlight is so bright to the human eye that it is entirely reasonable to imagine that, in the absence of other sources of light, this source of nocturnal light could have had a role in modulating human nocturnal activity and sleep," a team of researchers, led by senior author and neurobiologist Horacio de la Iglesia from the University of Washington, explain in a new study.

"However, whether the Moon cycle can modulate human nocturnal activity and sleep remains a matter of controversy."

To investigate the mystery, the researchers fitted over 500 participants with wrist-based activity monitors, to track their sleep patterns, and conducted the experiment in vastly different locales.

Firstly, they involved 98 participants from the Toba-Qom people, an indigenous community living in the Formosa province of Argentina. Some of these rural participants in the experiment had no access to electricity, others had limited access in their homes, while a final contingent lived in an urban setting with full access to electricity.

In a separate experiment, the researchers tracked the sleep of 464 college students living in the Seattle area – a major, modernised city with all the electrified trappings of post-industrial society.

Tracking the participants' sleep activity over the lunar month cycle, the researchers found the same kind of pattern could be seen in their sleep and waking, regardless of where the volunteers lived.

"We see a clear lunar modulation of sleep, with sleep decreasing and a later onset of sleep in the days preceding a full Moon," de la Iglesia says.

"Although the effect is more robust in communities without access to electricity, the effect is present in communities with electricity, including undergraduates at the University of Washington."

While there was some variance between the results, in general, the data showed that sleep tends to start later and overall lasts a shorter amount of time on the nights leading up to a full Moon, when moonlight provided by the waxing Moon is brighter in the hours following dusk.

While the sample size studied here is not especially large – and there's certainly more research that could be done here to expand upon these results – that the same pattern was observed in two distinct populations living in separate countries, and with such varying levels of access to electricity between all the volunteers, does tell us some important things, the team says.

"Together, these results strongly suggest that human sleep is synchronised with lunar phases regardless of ethnic and sociocultural background, and of the level of urbanisation," the researchers write in their paper.

As for what gives rise to these effects, the researchers contend that extended nocturnal activity stimulated by moonlight could be an evolutionary adaptation carried over from the time of pre-industrial human societies – with the ability to stay up and do more under a brilliant full Moon benefitting all kinds of traditional customs still enjoyed by peoples without electricity today.

"At certain times of the month, the Moon is a significant source of light in the evenings, and that would have been clearly evident to our ancestors thousands of years ago," says first author and sleep biologist Leandro Casiraghi.

According to interviews with Toba/Qom individuals, moonlit nights are still known for high hunting and fishing activity, increased social events, and heightened sexual relations between men and women.

"Although the true adaptive value of human activity during moonlit nights remains to be determined, our data seem to show that humans – in a variety of environments – are more active and sleep less when moonlight is available during the early hours of the night," the researchers explain.

"This finding, in turn, suggests that the effect of electric light on modern humans may have tapped into an ancestral regulatory role of moonlight on sleep."

The findings are reported in Science Advances.

[cedar-glade]

Taxanomists: “What exactly am I looking at?”

Sure this is Spiranthes cernua, and we might be able to agree on that concept; or can we? 

Spiranthes cernua is a species that perhaps fits the concept of intermediate abrupt speciation more than most species fitting into the contemporary and distant past time slot so much so that it may be the next new model speices. 

Here is an R. A. style blurb that I plan on highly modifiying before the end of september as I collect more photos and take more photos of specimens. I also want to add article statements on each microspecies and add several method sections. I hope y’all enjoy this. 

Abstract:

Spiranthes cernua has been problematic for taxonomists for more than 100 years and is constantly having species being added or removed to its aggregate taxon. Spiranthes cernua complex is a consistent topic for debate: to resolve taxonomic issues, discuss hybridization and abrupt speciation, and view apomictic strategies for colonialization and genetic persistence. The focus of this paper is on apomictic persistence and the mechanism as a potential point of discussion for the persistence of hybrid populations, autopolyploid populations that are used as hypothetical taxonomic units , and for the idea of discussing it as potential model species for apomixis studies.

Indroduction:

Orchidaceae, Spiranthes spp. and Spiranthes cernua:

Orchidaceae is a nested taxon, specifically ‘the orchid family’ and it’s derivatives; Orchidaceae is a vastly complex group located within’ the Lilianae super order (Monocots, characterized monocotyledon), taxon, and is perhaps one of the most discussed families for a number of reasons: discussed for it’s number of species, it’s families distribution, it’s morphological adaptations, symbiotic ‘strategies’, phenology and life stages, associated pollinator syndromes, and the reproductive abilities known(Catling, 1982)(Dressler, 2005). All of which may be considered concepts that are driving factors for evolutionary success or failures according to Dr. David Briggs and Dr. Stuart M. Walters (Briggs and Walters, 1969-2016). North America is considered the center for Spiranthes spp. diversity, with potential to expand this specific genera’s diversity and thus expand Orchidaceae too (Sheviak and Catling, 1980) (Dueck et. al. ,2005). Orchidaceae can be further broken down from subfamilies to tribes and tribes to genera with specific species and their subspecies, botanical varieties, isolated forms, mutation forms, and cytotypes; scrutinized complex resolution and the discovery of new species may disrupt the historic validity of sources,  an approximate number may be 24,500 Orchidaceae members, unique enough to be species, currently inhabiting the globe(Dressler ,2005) )(Taylor et. al. ,2007-2009) (Dueck et. al., 2015).  In the United States, Spiranthes spp. is one such genera in the Orchidaceae that is known for it’s apomictic behavior to some extent, and is distributed across the United States, found in every state except for Hawaii, and distinguished to have ~ 45 species present standing (Catling and Richard, 1980)(Catling, 1981/1982)(Catling and Brown, 1983)(Argue, 2011). Spiranthes spp., in general, is “The most diverse species in Eastern North American flora” and Spiranthes cernua seems to be at the center of this issue (Sheviak and Catling, 1980) (Sheviak, 1982/ 1991). Spiranthes cernua, colloquially ‘the nodding ladies’ tresses’, has been a major subject of taxonomic study, evolutionary origins, and molecular and genetic study as a species noted in North America’s flora (Dueck et. al., 2005) (Dueck et. al., 2015) (Pace and Cameron, 2017). Though difficult to grow from seed, tissue cultures are a process widely used in the cloning of orchid species and can be done on a massive scale; “Spiranthes cernua is a facultatively agamospermic polyploid compilospecies in which unidirectional gene flow from related diploids generates a wide range of novel forms and races” and could be potential model species for apomixis research based on model species criteria (Briggs and Walters, 1969-2016) ( Griesbach, 1986) ( Gonzalez and Concha et. al., 2002) (Dueck et. al., 2014). What is known from Spiranthes cernua’s apomixis habit is critical to understand to make conclusions on potential driving factors for Spiranthes spp. speciation events as a whole is definitely key to understanding species diversity.

 Morphological Representation in Spiranthes cernua:

Spiranthes cernua is as morphologically diverse as it is distributed, and ecotypes from specific ecoregions are still not enough to truly represent a limit to the morphology present (Dueck et. al., 2014). One perceived problem with specific statewide flora’s can have different mechanisms for how they describe this species with overlap and in some cases federally threatened designation is ‘potentially’ not placed due to the var. or form maintaining it’s status as Spiranthes cernua, making studying Spiranthes cernua critical to conservation in the genus (Dueck et. al., 2014). Morphological characteristics that are critical to arriving at an ~ identification is somewhat associated with the minimum need that a basal rosette is present with no cauline patterning present, a single rachis like spike as an inflorescence is present and grows directly from the basal rosette, rachis is pubescent to canescent( densely pubescent to some degree), but not hirsute( densely pubescent with large hairs); hairs along the inflorescence are mixed in form: “trichomes capitate, glands obviously stalked” (Sheviak and Brown, 2002). The nod and flower color, leaf morphology, floral tube morphology, all display differences in populations, though they are usually completely white, creamy, or silverfish in sheen, instead of having yellow or green tints (Sheviak and Brown, 2002).  The nod that occurs is caused by the reflexing at the base of the perianth; however, the exaggeration of the nod is variable (Sheviak and Brown, 2002).

 Apomixis and it’s Potential:

Apomixis is a complicated asexual regenerative behavior that certain plant species undergo and is widely accepted as one of many successful reproductive mechanisms that has developed many times over history(Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016). Apomixis, through agospermic seed setting, is considered a pseudo-selfing mechanism that appears to parallel with cleistogamous mechanisms; however, mechanically it is different as gametogenesis and reduced tissue structures under scrutiny are less associated ,or not at all, with the ladder, and even delineated, to cell type generation from previously developed tissue types without reduction; in this way, it isn’t necessarily a ‘self-fertilizing’ event that creates offspring, but cellular propagation from a vegetative part of the original organism to produce seed(Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016) (Sharma and Thorpe, 1995). Another way to term apomictic mechanism for “Pathenogenetic seed setting” is “adventitious embryony”, “gametophytic apomixis”, and “asexual embryogenesis” (Sharma and Thorpe, 1995). Asexual propagation from non-reproductive vegetative organs as an inclusion in the concepts behind the definition of apomixis is notable, clarification of this type of apomixis, or vivipary, needs to be separated out in the definition for discernible definitions(Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016)(Sharma and Thorpe, 1995)(Carneiro et. al., 2006). The exception for the term ‘apomixis’ including asexual propagules, vegetative apomixis, comes from the idea that a species may not be able to set seed and only survives from this form of clonal propagation from a non-seed vegetative organ (Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016). Both forms are considerably advantageous to some degree, theoretical examples are areas where introduction events may occur and founders’ effects may be avoided (Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016) (Sharma and Thorpe, 1995). If we factor in allopolyploidy, which is considered a potential driving mechanism for speciation, or aiding to back up hypotheses delineating species (Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016). In North America we do see Spiranthes spp. exhibit polyploidy mechanism as the genus; a bimodal distribution of chromosome numbers becomes apparent from statistical analysis done from North American operational taxonomic units as a cohort: “two groups having either a base number of  n  = 15 or 22 (except for one with 12), or are amphiploid products of hybridization between members of the two groups (i.e., n  = 15 + 22) and thus also allopolyploids”(Dueck et. al., 2014). Many known examples of allopolyploidy have already been noted in Spiranthes cernua complex and evolutionary developments may occur in temporal span from a potentially speciating specimen that persists by these apomictic mechanisms in new environments until other evolutionary driving events occur like polyploidy events; and if these events have already happened, they can be persist in a population due to this mechanism (Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016) (Dueck et. al., 2014).

Reproductive output and phenology in Spiranthes cernua:

In populations, environmental factors and life cycles may need to be analyzed in this complex to isolate how much apomixis is associated with a populations success and this can be done to some extent by juxtaposing resource availability and allocation and its contribution to normal reproduction and apomictic reproduction; reproductive output, resource allocation costs in reproduction, in many species is considered to be a factor in measuring fitness (Walters and Briggs, 1969-2016) (Antlfinger and Wendel, 1997). In most taxon, and at least historically speaking, the view of reproductive output is viewed as a compromise in usable energy for species survival; however, “Positive rates of net photosynthesis by reproductive structures have been measured in many species ,including orchids” (Antlfinger and Wendel, 1997). Long term phenology studies of a specific population adds a certain level of approximation to reproductive output or at the very least the methods used may be used as a guide to further studies on the Spiranthes cernua complex; methods included were: fire studies, morphological assays, gas exchange surface area assays, plant growth assays, and chlorophyll assays (Antlfinger and Wendel, 1997).

Spiranthes cernua complex, hybridization, and apomictic events:

Hybridization, polyploidy events, cleistogamous crossing, apomictic progression, and cryptic origins are all present in Spiranthes cernua (Pace and Cameron, 2017). These sets of irregular population hereditary persistence phenomena, peloria, can occur in different rates at the same time in any specific population (Pace and Cameron, 2017). “Complicated set of issues is further obfuscated by the lack of a universally accepted species concept” (Pace and Cameron, 2017).  Legitimate species diagnosis specifically seems to have troubles with overlapping species or those closely related; Spiranthes cernua is known to hybridize and are related to S. magnicamporum, S. caesi, S. odorata, S. parksii, and S. ochroleuca with the level of hybridization varying and the level of polyploidy outcomes varying to the extent isolating a hybrid becomes difficult and complex ( Pace and Cameron, 2017). Combinations of methods are used, being critical to OTU sequences (from plastids, mitochondria, and nuclear DNA) ,specific to a standing/~delineate species, and using morphology from records of these OTU done by taxonomic analysis and utilizing matrix comparisons of a hybrids’ amplified fragment length polymorphism, present, and juxtaposing them to theorized parent species (Dueck and Fowler et. al., 2005) (Pace and Cameron, 2017). Synonymous taxonomical groupings have been made and removed due to hybrid history, and contemporary hybridization, with discernable amounts of claims on polyphyletic and paraphyletic linking being focused on; although clade crossing, reticulation, occurs enough to disrupt delineation(Pace and Cameron, 2017). This concept becomes an issue when planning out state resources and monitoring of federally threatened taxa; S. parksii is an example of federally threatened taxa that is now under scrutiny of placement under S. cernua, “as a localized sub-peloric form promulgated through apomixis” (Pace and Cameron, 2017). Spiranthes cernua complex apomixis events does not stop being present in operable resolution of hybrid origin’s and species housed under this complex (Pace and Cameron, 2017). Several other species in this complex are known to have levels of apomixis effecting their population occurrences and evolutionary history: S. casei, S. incurve (a polyploid hybrid originated species between S. cernua and S. magnicamporum), and S. ochroleuca (Dueck and Fowler et. al., 2005) (Pace and Cameron, 2017). These are noted as “micro species” of S. cernua in the complexes case; S. casei and S. incurve are specific micro species components that show a trend of majority apomictic population growth in comparison to those that have more mixed stratification of crossing habit seed setting and apomictic persistence (Pace and Cameron, 2017). S. xkapnosperia, which has distinct components from accepted S. ochroleuca, is another current hybrid that has questionable taxonomic stratification and phylogenetic presence that seems to follow trends of apomictic growth; but, population persistence is questionable as it stands( Pace and Cameron, 2017).

Conclusions:

Apomixis in Spiranthes cernua species complex does not successfully delineate one species, micro species, from the other as a solitary mechanism of evolution; instead evolution within this complex can be viewed as incorporating apomixis in high levels as a means to justify a hypothesis and describe evolutionary trends in species. The evolutionary developements in Spiranthes cernua complex usually are a factor of both facultative apomixis and some level of polyploidy event or hybridization event. Since apomictic linages are persistent in preserving genetic trends and occur in a common frequency in certain members of Spiranthes cernua complex, these members are good examples to study the driving mechanisms of apomixis. Some species in Spiranthes cernua complex may be cloned from tissue culture in mass utilizing well known orchid tissue culture methods. A combination of tissue culture and the frequency of apomixis as a strategy for maintaining characteristics in a population make this species concepts’ members potential model organisms to study apomixis as a mechanism for evolution.  

           Work cited:

Web references, Journal articles, R.A., and Taxon Sources:

Antlfinger, A. and Wendel, L.“Reproductive Effort and Floral Photosynthesis in Spiranthes Cernua (Orchidaceae)”. 1, June. 1997. American Journal of Botany Vol. 84, No. 6, pp. 769–780. https://doi.org/10.2307/2445813

Argue, C. L. “Subtribe Spiranthinae”. 18, August. 2011. Springer. The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids. Vol. 2, pp 19-52. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0622-8_2

Carneiro, V. T. C.; Dusi, D. M. A.; and Ortiz, J. P. A. “Apomixis: Occurrence, Applications and Improvements”. 2006. GSB. Floriculture, Ornamental and Plant Biotechnology. Vol 1, pp. 555-571. http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/Books/images/FOPBVolume1sample.pdf

Catling, P. M. “Breeding Systems of Northeastern North American Spiranthes (Orchidaceae)”. 1982. Canadian Journal of Botany. Vol. 60, No. 12, pp. 3017-3039. https://doi.org/10.1139/b82-358

Corrias, S. D. and Villa, R. “Embryology and Embryogenesis of Spiranthes L.C.M. Richard (Orchidaceae): S. spiralis (L.) Cheval and S. aestivalis (Poiret) L.C.M. Richard”. 1983. GBI. Vol. 117, No. 5-6 pp. 193-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263508309427969

Dressler, R. L. “How Many Orchids”. 2005. Selbyana. Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 155-158. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41760186

Dueck, L. A. ; Aygoren, D.; and Cameron, K. M. “A Molecular Framework for Understanding the Phylogeny of Spiranthes (Orchidaceae), A Cosmopolitan Genus with a North American Center of Diversity”. 1, September. 2014. Wiley. American Journal of Botany. Vol. 101, No 9, pp. 1551-1571. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.1400225

Dueck, L. A.; Fowler, J. A.; et. al. “Genetic Discrimination of Spiranthes Cernua Species Complex in South Carolina”. 2005. Selbyana Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 145-154. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41760185

Griesbach, R.J. “Orchid Tissue Culture”. 1986. Springer, Dordrecht. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture. Vol. 2, pp. 343-345. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4444-2_29

Loyet, C. D. “Breeding Systems in Spiranthes magnicamporum (Sheviak)”. 1993. Masters Theses 2179. EIU. The Keep. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2179/

Nygren, A. “Apomixis in the Angiosperms II” December. 1954. Vol 20. No 10, pp. 577-649. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4353528

Pace, M. C. and Cameron, K. M. “The Systematics of the Spiranthes cernua Species Complex (Orchidaceae): Untangling the Gordian Knot”. 27, December. 2017. ASOPT. Systematic Botany. Vol 42, No. 4, pp. 640-669. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364417X696537

  Schmidt, J. M. and Antlfinger, A. E. “The Level of Agospermy in a Nebraska Population of Spiranthes cernua (Orchidaceae)” 1, May. 1992. Wiley. American Journal of Botany. Vol. 79, No. 5, pp. 501-507 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1537-2197.1992.tb14585.x

Sharma, K. K. and Thorpe, T. A. “Asexual Embryogenesis in Vascular Plants in Nature”. 1995. SSBMD. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture: In Vitro Embryogenesis in Plants, Vol 20, pp 17-72. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-0485-2_2

Sheviak, C. J. and Brown, P. M. “Orchidaceae: Spiranthes cernua”.1, June. 2002-2003. MOBOT, New York and Oxford. FNA: Vol. 26, pp. 498-499, 530-537, 541-542. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101948 and http://beta.floranorthamerica.org/Spiranthes_cernua

Sheviak, C. J. and Catling, P. M. “The Identity and Status of Spiranthes Orchroleuca”. October. 1980. JONEBC. Rhodora No. Vol. 82, No. 832 , pp. 525-562. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23314094

Sheviak, C. J. “ Biosystematic study of the Spiranthes cernua complex”. 1982. Bull. New York State Mus. Sci. Serv. pg 448. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.135544

Sheviak, C. J. “Morphological variation in the compilospecies Spiranthes cernua: Ecologically-limited Effects of Gene Flow”.1991. Lindleyana. Vol. 6, pp 228–234.

Sun, M. “Genetic Diversity in Three Colonizing Orchids with Contrasting Mating Systems”. 1, February. 1997. Wiley. American Journal of Botany. Vol. 84, No. 2, pp. 224–232. https://doi.org/10.2307/2446084

Taylor, T. N.; Taylor, E. L.; Krings, M. “Flowering Plants”.2007-2009. Paleobotany (Second Edition): The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. Pp. 873-997. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-373972-8.00022-X

Yeung, E. C. and Law, S. K. “Ovule and Megagametophyte Development in Orchids”.1997. SSBM, KAP. Orchid Biology: Reviews and Perspectives. Vol. 7, pp. 31-73. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-2498-2_2

 Book references:

Briggs, D. and Walters, S. M. ““Polyploidy: In Chromosome Changes, Allopatric Speciation and Hybridization, and Abrupt speciation; Apomixis: In Breeding Systems, Abrupt Speciation,”. 1969-2016. CUP. Plant Variation and Evolution: 4E, pp. (57-59)(251-274)(287-329)(106-134, 144, 296.) Http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038104

[purkinje-effect]

Nuka-Cherry

Ours Is the Kingdom, Chapter 4. Go to previous. Go to next. A little wasteland catechesis.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”--Leviticus 17:11

Nineteen years ago

In order to investigate a rumor he’d heard at the Brass Lantern, August paused his jobs for those in Megaton and Girdershade to venture North a ways. The hematophagous protectors of Arefu could be the first truly omnivorous settlement he would encounter since moving to the Capital Wastes three years ago. The possibility he could have a place among them precipitated a visit. Asking around the settlement, which stood atop a section of still-standing overpass, yielded unnerved aversion from its inhabitants, but they were not shy to direct him to a place called Meresti.

Deep in the prewar tunnels had once run high-speed passenger subway trains. The damp, decaying walls felt like home already. Now, the metro station housed those who called themselves the Family, who knew of his arrival before he even reached the track-riddled bowels in which they resided. Their leader, Vance, was in his forties, with short dark purple hair and the palest skin he’d witnessed of anyone outside Appalachia. Wearing a leather duster, he stood watch over his adoptive brood from the balcony which overlooked the metro station’s lobby, stern, distant, and ever wary.

Vance already long since knew a great deal about the gangling dark-haired eighteen-year-old, and spoke with him as though a relative he had not seen since the boy was too small to remember him. He knew August had come to speak with someone about the Craving, and they conversed at length regarding the Five Laws of the Family. Ultimately, he left the decision up to August, whether to move in with them, and adopt their ways. As with all who sought shelter among the tunnels of Meresti, their leader sent him to reflect in isolation for three days, with the promise of his guidance if he accepted their ways as his own. In his guest room, he reflected upon his conversation with Vance, and did his best to determine whether belonging both to the Family and the Children of Atom were identities in opposition.

He worked his way in reverse through their tenets, observing a form of catechesis similar to that which he underwent when he first joined the Children. At the very least, the exercise could hone for him his connection with his faith.

The Fifth Law: Kill not our kindred: slay only our enemy. This is our justice.

He could rationalize the respect and unity in not killing Family out of anger or revenge. To not kill one another in any way, though. Confessor Cromwell and Mother Maya both preached the glory of the day Atom--Megaton’s eponymous bomb--would send them all to Division. He’d visited the Apostles of the Holy Light the year before, in the misguided expectation they too might follow the divination of Mothman. The Acolytes of Eternal Light had descended from the original Cult of the Mothman which had inhabited the Lucky Hole almost two hundred years ago. The Apostles, however, were Children who had broken away from Megaton. They believed in purposefully irradiating themselves, gradually, rather than awaiting a single great act of irradiation such as Megaton’s eventual detonation--and that diligent irradiation could bestow ghoulishness upon the faithful. To them, ghouls were the Exalted, angelic agents standing as proof Heaven was the Earth in the wake of the Great War’s Rapture. Their ultimate goal in faith was to remain on Earth as long as possible and serve Atom, past humanity and on to ghoulishness for centuries. Megaton’s Children revered ghouls, such as the bartender’s assistant in Moriarty’s Saloon, but Apostles regarded all ghouls with steep reverence, believing non-feral ghouls’s erratic behaviors and rasping diced language to bear the flame-tongue of Atom which no human can parse.

He very often stifled the desire to slay those who disrespected Gob. The ghoul was only doing his best, and it maddened August to know the ghoul had been bought out of slavery into his current position under Colin Moriarty’s management. Surely, there had to be a better lot for Gob. Maybe the Children, or the Apostles, could amass enough tithes to buy him from Moriarty, and free him altogether...

Since his separation from the Acolytes of Eternal Light, he’d struggled to find any alignment with others’ faith, scavenging bits and pieces from larger movements and amending them to his own. Atom’s path thus far shined brightest to him: Surely, Mothman forever chased Atom’s holy light. To him, also, the vessel was just as vital as the world-soul it contained, a physical manifestation of the galaxy he’d cultivated. He could come to emit the same light he sought in the world, if only he could cement his purpose and faith. In his baptism by Quantum at the bottling facility, he’d accepted Nuka-Cola would be his eventual portent of the great things he knew Atom had in store for him. Perhaps sooner, rather than later, Atom would send him a sign.

Ultimately, he decided it was right that only those who deserved to die, should die, and that lust killing should be consensual. That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the act--simply that the act needed to serve explicit purpose. He needed to remember to ask Vance whether consuming Family, especially fallen Family, was against their ways. Raised an Acolyte of Eternal Light, he was no stranger to finding food wherever possible, and in many occasions it was the highest honor for them to preserve kindred in such a mode of self-sacrifice. They wasted nothing, not even each other. If it was not by Atom’s guiding hand, the only death he found righteous was for protection of the innocent or himself, or for sole sake of sustenance. It wasn’t up to him when a person’s world-soul might disperse its galaxies.

The Fourth Law: Seek not the sun’s light; embrace only the shadows. This is our refuge.

To find refuge in the dark only served to contrast the Light. August supposed that such an asceticism which could heighten one’s appreciation and acuity for even the smallest Light. The darkness had been as familiar as another relative in his childhood, as his first family had lived deep in the bowels of the West Virginia mine known as the Lucky Hole. Noticing even dim lights, the slightest presage, came easily in such an acclimation. Bright lights did hurt his eyes... and many of his fellow Brothers and Sisters in Atom did find it unusual that he tended to worship in the bomb’s wellspring at night rather than during the day.

He could find peace in the reflected light of a full moon.

The Third Law: Feed not for pleasure; partake only to nourish. This is our dignity.

He wondered whether indulgence could be divided in such a way. The flesh had needs, and pleasure was a need. The Acolytes had always taught this, and it been an uncomfortable patch of adjusting to the meek ways of the Children. He could see dignity in abstaining from killing solely for sport, but no dignity in denying oneself due sustenance or denying oneself the satisfaction in it. He earned his meals, worked hard for them. And he should savor them.

Some needs held priority over others--and pleasure. Pleasure of every kind did seem to him the greatest obeisance one could make to the Eternal Light. It was pleasurable, to act on its behalf, to add to his world-soul, to become the greatest galaxy he could in his lifetime; pleasurable, to savor adding those unworthy of their world-souls to his own. And it was pleasurable, to admire what his faith had given him, to worship what Atom had made of him... like the limb that following Moira Brown’s guidance, alongside that of the Confessor, had bestowed upon him.

As with the fifth law, he understood the difference between murder and killing. The Children made no room for either. They made sharp distinction between self-preservation and self-defense... and denied themselves a majority of pleasures altogether.

The Second Law: Bear not the child; welcome only the exile. This is our fate.

With August’s predispositions, this preclusion would be the least trying law to live by, and the simplest to understand the logic behind. He’d once heard the aphorism, that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Blood, thicker than water.

Consanguinity. Through condition, not through breeding.

The Acolytes and the Children both upheld this ideal. Virtue and ideal offered magnitudes beyond mere birth rite.

Only just recently eighteen, August only had a few years’ personal understanding of coitus. He had asked Vance whether abstaining from fathering children meant a total abstinence. The Family’s father figure had replied in affirmation, that they did not self-populate, but were not expressly celibate. They did not force induction through marriage, and did everything it could to avoid passing down the Craving through lineage. August simply was forbidden from fathering children in this law, but Vance had every enthusiasm for welcoming anyone with the Craving into the Family, as a sibling, or a cousin, or even an avaunt or parental figure. The Family sustained itself solely through adoption, regardless of the familial role an individual came to fulfill.

The Family existed to accept the forsaken and afflicted, and help them overcome their shame. In recent years, while it had made them somewhat less of a secret to the Capital Wastes, they’d found greater purpose in protecting Arefu. They did not consider Arefu or Meresti a holy ground, yet protected both inexhaustibly. Megaton and the Lucky Hole were holy, were they not? He’d protected them. He could defend Arefu and Meresti in kind, if they would have him... and perhaps, in effect, come to understand their sanctity. Though, he wondered whether he’d ever find anyplace that felt as vastly holy as Appalachia, or as potently holy as the crater.

The First Law: Feast not on the flesh; consume only the blood. It is our strength.

While he could make broad peace with the other four tenets, the first and greatest roiled in his heart. For the first two days of his isolation, he’d worked his way ascending and descending the rules of this refuge to exhaustion, trying to find an understanding for how the Family might justifiably live in such a way. Here, again, it beset him in a grimace as he lay back on the bare mattress in thought.

Within his cobbled-together faith, he had found his most current definition for the Craving which had compelled him since childhood. The world-soul resided in the blood, and he could appreciate an ideology which upheld its sanctity. Consuming blood consumed the world-soul, added its constellations and systems to one’s own galaxies, the sacred geometry of strangeness, charm, and nobility. To waste blood was unspeakable.

Yet, Vance had told him, consumption of the flesh is unclean. Filthy. Humans treat us like animals when we consume their flesh. We are not animals. We are the Family. We do not eat the flesh of those we kill for food.

He had been raised in a holistic fashion. Waste nothing. Use everything. The Acolytes of Eternal Light had taught him to tan, to butcher, to cook and preserve. If one had to kill, or if one had to die, if at all it could be helped the life taken should not be in vain.

Unlike the Savage Divide, such meats were a rarity in the Capital Wastes. For the past two years, he’d made do in Megaton knowing how to discern between iguana and other wasteland meats when they happened to crop up in the various craterside establishments. He would take an errand from Moira as an excuse to step out and cut down a convenient raider, anytime only a fresh kill could sate him; the Super-Duper Mart was a favorite nearby hunting ground of his. No one in Megaton, Children or otherwise, had indicated they took kindly to purposeful cannibalism of any sort. The local raider-turned-mercenary Jericho may have noticed his preference for iguana at some point, but said nothing, when he’d spent time with him so the old man could teach him to use a rifle.

The Children had taught him shame alongside humility, blurring the notions indiscreetly. He had not known shame until he traveled outside the Savage Divide, and he’d hoped to find pride and modulation here with the Family.

For a time, blood was the one thing from a kill he didn’t consume, instead favoring crafting Stimpaks from it. It was easier to obtain blood packs from Moira or Doc Church, under the premise of medical provisions, than ever actively seek out iguana in town, though. In his adolescence, he’d learned how to craft Stimpaks from human blood, as well as how to craft something they called Skeeto Spit from the mixed blood collected from Bloodbug sacs. Stimpaks healed the injured after ceremonial wasteland battles as well as after defensive encounters, while Skeeto Spit increased the longevity of those who stood for sake of the cult. Such that non-human blood might function in kind with the chemistry required of the intravenous prewar healing device, he had taught himself how to refine the compatibility between the two formulations, only to later develop in this practice the deepest ritualism he would ever find. Up until the cult’s demise, he had kept his technique to himself, noticing in his own self-experimentation that the use of Wasteland Stimpaks magnified the Craving--a trait that, while not shunned by the Acolytes, not all Acolytes exhibited, nurtured, or actively invoked as wholly as he did.

It wouldn’t be for many years of regular use of his dark craft that other side effects would manifest.

The Acolytes had not believed in world-souls, purely upholding the very present, corporeal, preternatural vitality Interlopers might bestow, and it was of his own spirituality adjunct to that of the Children that he had come to the understanding that Stimpaks surely held some key to discovering how the civilization that came before tangibly interacted with their world-souls. The Capital Wastes didn’t have Bloodbugs, however, and most of its wildlife didn’t have blood to collect directly either. It had been two years since his last synthesis of Wasteland Stimpaks, and he nearly left the area on several occasions just to resume his observances, now that he understood the greater connection of The Blood and The Life. He wasn’t sure what kept him in the Capital Wastes. He supposed he disliked the idea of straying too far from the crater, though entertaining a trip back to Appalachia under the premise of pilgrimage didn’t seem so fractious perhaps.

He had never found another who seemed to pursue personal growth in the same way he did, and it didn’t seem anyone in the Family held overlapping beliefs with him either. Vance agreed with him, though, that those with the Craving were either not born human, or became that way--and that the Craving was a deficit of soul. The leader had a word for those who drank blood and abstained from the flesh: vampire. For August, cannibalism was a form of transubstantiation, a transfusion by which he could feed an incomplete or once-absent spirit, and as an extension, Wasteland Stimpaks posited a way to add world-souls of wasteland creatures to his own--or at the very least, modify his vessel to be that much more capable of containing the world-soul he cultivated through piousness. Perhaps they were both right, and August’s aspirations sought to right that he had not originally had any world-soul to cultivate in the first place.

The Family tempered the Craving by drinking only the blood, and leaving the body for ceremony. Acolytes with the Craving tempered it by consuming only the body, and leaving the blood for ceremony.

A Child of Atom could belong to the Family, and a Child of Atom could belong to the Acolytes of Eternal Light... but an Acolyte could not belong to the Family.

He couldn’t make peace with the thought of one kill providing only one meal. One kill in the Savage Divide had provided easily a week’s worth of meat and offal, a good bit of leather and bone for crafts, and the blood... The blood couldn’t be the only thing taken from a kill. Yet, some of the Family preferred not to kill at all, and sustained themselves on blood packs donated from Arefu’s settlers in exchange for the Family’s protection. August perceived such an act as a communal blood pact. In this exchange between the Family and Arefu, he understood why they had grown so close so quickly. In a way, they were slowly acquiescing into one overarching shared world-soul. The idea of it harbored a deep dread in him, and even as his second day in Meresti closed, he still couldn’t discern whether the dread compelled or repulsed him.

He would stay one more day, to make sure he still felt the same by then, and then find a way to estrange a slaver from Paradise Falls before returning to the Church. His means of tempering his cravings as a way of protecting the wasteland’s innocents sufficed. The world-souls of raiders and slavers would be his, and he would use them properly in Atom’s sight. People who wasted their world-souls debasing others and sowing suffering were the greatest affront of all to the Holy Light, and if that was the purpose that drove the Craving, he could find peace and identity in it.

Perhaps after this visit with Vance, August could make better sense of whether he belonged under the guidance of Confessor Cromwell and Mother Maya, or under that of Mother Curie.

Go to Next »»»

[snini-9]

Excessive Aggression

All information and images are found on this site. Due to the manipulation of family units and the creation of artificial pods in captivity, incompatible individuals are forced into close proximity with one another. The resulting anxiety and tension, as well as the added stresses of living in an unnatural environment, causes excessive aggression between tank mates. This can be expressed in multiple ways such as ramming or tail slapping, but the most common form of aggression is raking.

​

​Wild orca rake marks

Raking is a natural assertion of dominance and aggression in the wild. It involves an orca dragging its teeth along the skin of another resulting in rake marks – characterised as thin, evenly spaced parallel scratches, usually in rows of no more than four. Rake marks are gained during determinations of dominance, reinforcements of the hierarchy (discipline) and rough play behaviours. However, orcas can also receive rake marks by being helped by another orca. Ingrid Visser recalls a stranding of a female orca who sustained deep rake marks from her pod members as they attempted to pull her off the beach.

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Rake marks a beached orca sustained.

There have also been cases of pod members assisting sick or injured calves and others acting as midwives to help with births, unintentionally causing extensive scarring on their bodies. When J50 Scarlet (a female Southern Resident) was born in 2014, she was covered in teeth marks from a conspecific. Killer whale experts believe Scarlet became stuck in her mother’s (J16 Slick) womb during labour, leading to another orca intervening and pulling her out with its teeth. Thanks to the intervention, both mother and calf survived the birth. Although, Scarlet was left with prolific scarring resulting in her name.

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Extensive scarring on J50 Scarlet.​

Another angle of J50’s scars. Seen most notably on her dorsal fin and saddle patch.

On a sadder note, when J28 Polaris died in 2016 she left behind her 10-month old calf, J54 Dipper, who was still dependant on his mother for milk. As Dipper was not adopted by any lactating females, he became weak and severely malnourished, causing him to enter a state of delirium. When Dipper became too weak to swim, his sister, J46 Star, and cousin, J47 Notch, carefully held him between their bodies to assist him. Once he started to sink, Star desperately grabbed her baby brother in her mouth to bring him to the surface causing severe rake marks on his dorsal fin. Unfortunately, despite Star and Notch’s best efforts, Dipper did not survive.

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Near death, J54 Dipper is carried by sister J46 Star on the right, and cousin J47 Notch on the left.

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A close up of J54 Dipper, showing the teeth marks from where his sister and cousin tried to hold him afloat.

In the wild, natural, socially healthy rake marks are generally shallow and subtle but some can be deep and draw blood. It is not something which frequently occurs as orcas live in family units and have strong social bonds which may last for life. When outbursts of aggression do occur, it’s often short-lived and no serious harm is done as their social rules prohibit serious violence against each other. Additionally, when fights do occur, they have an entire ocean to flee to. Extremely extensive, prolific rake marks which frequently occur are unnatural in the wild and are most commonly seen in captivity. On the rare occasions that a wild orca can be seen with prolific rake marks, it’s often due to an unstable social structure or a significant problem within the pod. In confinement, the vastly limiting and highly stressful conditions, as well as the mix of incompatible individuals from various populations and ecotypes, contribute to outbursts of hyper-aggression.

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Earth‘s prolific rake marks

Photos of Earth at Kamogawa Sea World shortly after his sister, Luna, was born in 2012.

Tekoa‘s prolific rake marks

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Hyper-aggressive encounters in captivity have led to significant injuries and even death.

​

In 1987, Icelandic female Gudrun was sent to SeaWorld Orlando on breeding loan. Upon arrival, Gudrun became a target of the park’s matriarch, Katina, who would frequently bully Gudrun by raking and ramming her. On one occasion, as the females swam around the main pool, Katina began shoving and ramming Gudrun who attempted to defend herself by raking Katina with her teeth. Just as Gudrun approached the matriarch with her mouth wide open, Katina hit Gudrun’s lower jaw hard with her tail flukes. The impact was so immense that it echoed loudly around the stadium and caused two of Gudrun’s teeth to be driven into the bone of her lower jaw. As blood and green vomit spewed from her mouth, Gudrun was directed to D-Pool (the medical pool) and purposely beached on the rising floor. Trainers and animal care staff pinned her down and forced a four-by-four block of wood into her mouth to keep it propped open. Veterinary staff then yanked out the teeth stuck in her jaw bone, all whilst she was in excruciating pain. It took two weeks of recovery before Gudrun could eat normally, although she was never fully able to close her mouth again after the incident.

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Gudrun with visible gaps in her lower jaw where her teeth were pulled out.

More recently, in September 2012, 11-year-old Nakai was participating in a special night show for corporate groups with his half-brother, Ikaika, and tank mate, Keet. During the performance, the trio of males began fighting with one another without warning. Although an instigator could not be determined, Nakai split into a back pool whereas Ikaika and Keet returned to their trainers resulting in the continuation of the show. It was only when trainers called Nakai over for a final feeding that they realised a “dinner-plate-sized” chunk of flesh was missing from his chin – the detached flesh was later retrieved from the bottom of the pool. The severe laceration exposed underlying tissues and bone. SeaWorld provided little information regarding what caused the injury, simply contending that Nakai “came into contact with a portion of the pool” during a “normal social behaviour”. An investigation the USDA launched following the incident concluded Nakai’s injury appeared to have been caused by his jaw scraping the recessed track that holds the watertight gates between two of the pools at Shamu Stadium.

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Nakai’s gruesome chin injury.

Although Nakai’s injury was not directly caused by another orca, it was a result of an aggressive encounter between an artificial arrangement of animals. Although Ikaika is Nakai’s half-brother, the pair met each other for the first time less than a year prior to the incident. Keet, on the other hand, is unrelated to Nakai and is an Icelandic-Southern Resident hybrid. Earlier in the year, Nakai injured Keet by biting his erect penis during an artificial insemination procedure. The bite caused a lengthy period of extensive bleeding and resulted in Nakai being banned from being in the pool with Keet during AI procedures. Evidently, the trio of young males lacked the strong social bonds required for social cohesion in orca society leading to a severe outburst of aggression.

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One fatal incident of aggression occurred on August 21st, 1989 at SeaWorld San Diego. During a performance, Icelandic matriarch Kandu 5 rammed Northern Resident Corky 2 with her mouth open, attempting to rake her. Either due to the impact of the collision, or whether Kandu missed Corky and struck one of the tank walls, Kandu fractured her upper jaw and severed major arteries in her nasal passages. Although Corky appeared uninjured, enormous amounts of blood blasted from Kandu’s blowhole. Kandu was directed to the medical pool, accompanied by her 11-month-old calf, Orkid, to diminish her activity and reduce her blood pressure in hope of inducing clotting. Sadly, attempts to help Kandu were futile as the damage was irreversible. As she began to lapse into unconsciousness, veterinary staff decided it would safer for the calf if the pair were to return to one of the larger back pools.

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Kandu 5 spouting blood from her blowhole.

Over the course of 45 minutes, Kandu slowly bled to death, spouting a spray of blood every time she surfaced. Orkid remained by her mother’s side throughout the entire ordeal and persisted to swim helpless circles around her mother’s lifeless body as it sank to the bottom of the pool.

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11-month-old Orkid circling her mother’s lifeless body.

Corky 2 and Kandu 5 originate from different geographical regions and would never have crossed paths in the wild. Unlike in a tank, wild orcas can flee from aggressive encounters and can remain a safe distance away from those they do not get along with. Corky and Kandu did not have this option. In fact, SeaWorld was more than aware of the growing tensions between Corky and Kandu but still insisted on keeping them together. By August 1989, Corky had lost seven calves, none of which survived to two months old. When Kandu successfully gave birth to Orkid in 1988, Corky sought to play the motherly role she was stripped of when her own calves died. As a protective mother, Kandu disliked the attention Corky paid to Orkid, leading to spats between the two females – one of which led to Kandu leaving Corky injured and bleeding after tearing a gash in her lower abdomen.

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After Icelandic female Kenau was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio, and the park’s bull orca, Orky 2, died in 1988, four whales (Corky 2, Knootka, Kandu 5 and Orkid) remained at the San Diego park. With a four-pool complex, and two inseparable whales (Kandu 5 and her daughter, Orkid), SeaWorld had the means to keep Corky and Kandu separated. Yet, SeaWorld routinely kept Kandu and Corky in close proximity; sometimes pairing Orkid and Corky together during shows (as they did during the performance of the fatal incident), only adding to Kandu’s frustration. SeaWorld’s negligence and failure to provide their orcas with a safe environment ultimately led to Kandu’s brutal death. She was only 14-years-old.

[jkottke]

The Symbiotic & Toxic Relationship Between Houses and Cars in America

Since reading Gregory Shill's writing about how heavily subsidized cars are in the United States, I've been on the lookout for different frameworks for thinking about America's relationship to cars. I recently ran across a pair of interesting things about cars & housing. First, a refresher on what Shill had to say about how our nation's laws have made cars all but mandatory:

Let's begin at the state and local level. A key player in the story of automobile supremacy is single-family-only zoning, a shadow segregation regime that is now justifiably on the defensive for outlawing duplexes and apartments in huge swaths of the country. Through these and other land-use restrictions -- laws that separate residential and commercial areas or require needlessly large yards -- zoning rules scatter Americans across distances and highway-like roads that are impractical or dangerous to traverse on foot. The resulting densities are also too low to sustain high-frequency public transit.

Aaron Bady shared a few meaty pages from Nathanael Lauster's The Death and Life of the Single-Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City about houses being urban parasites and their symbiotic relationship with cars. Here's an excerpt (italics mine):

Returning to the metaphor provided by the pine beetle and blue stain fungus, one parasite often works with another. In similar form, houses cultivate cars. Integrated through planning, they displace vastly more habitat than either could manage alone. Because houses consume space and tend to surround themselves with other houses, which also consume space, people often cannot walk to where they need to go. Because all that space results in a relatively low population density, it is also not very efficient to run public transit lines to areas with many houses. Low-density areas tend to end up with very few riders for what are often very expensive systems to maintain. In short, public transit loves density. The relationship between urban density and public transit use is exceptionally strong, with some suggestion of a cutoff -- perhaps around twelve persons per acre (or about three thousand per square kilometer) -- below which ridership drops off and expense per user makes transit impractical. By contrast, cars love the sprawl associated with houses and houses love cars back.

Houses cultivate cars. Cars love the sprawl associated with houses and houses love cars back. Lauster continues with the nature metaphor:

Altogether, house habitat displaces alternatives. The establishment of a Great House Reserve has protected house habitat even as it continues to expand in size. Agricultural and wild lands suffer in an immediate sense, as do the more urban habitats prevented from expanding beyond a constrained Urban Core. The house allies itself with the car at the same time as both contribute to global warming, potentially risking the displacement of everyone and everything. The house habitat excludes the poor. But even for those who can afford to live there, the Great House Reserve is a troublesome place to live. By its nature it leads to disengagement, contributes to inequality, and encourages a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle.

And so on:

Houses are not just unaffordable for most people; they're ultimately unaffordable for cities too. The fiscal situation of cities varies from place to place, but overall, houses tend to create a drain on municipal coffers. They are often taxed at lower rates than other properties, reflecting zoning restrictions on what could be built on single-family lots and how they can be used. But houses are more expensive to service on a per-unit basis, both in terms of the basic utilities infrastructure and, as previously noted, in terms of transit and transportation infrastructure. This could mean that my modestly wealthy neighbors and I, living in low-rises and town houses, end up supporting the very wealthy house owner nearby by paying more property tax relative to the amount of urban land and services we receive. The disparity becomes more notable as one crosses municipal boundaries into nearby house-dominated suburbs, where residents frequently enjoy the services (e.g., roads, commerce, employment opportunities) provided by the city without paying into the municipal tax base at all.

Josh Vredevoogd's No Parking Here is about the poor parking policy in LA and leads with the statement: "Let's build houses for people, not cars."

For commercial buildings, it's common to see a parking space required for every 100-200 sq ft. Meaning that parking is built at an almost 2:1 ratio to actual retail space, marginalizing the place that actually creates value and prioritizing temporary car storage. This inefficiency is carried into rent, groceries, meals, and overall raises the floor for cost of living.

Per City of LA code, a set of storefronts like above are illegal to build, instead they are required to be surrounded with empty pavement at the cost of walkability and comfort.

This forces people into driving. Parking requirements increase the density of cars but reduce the density of people. It also puts pressure on businesses by taking up useful real estate and replacing it with car storage.

Certainly a lot of food for thought here. See also Cars! What's the Matter with Cars Today? and on a lighter note, What On Earth!, Kal Pindal's Oscar-nominated short film about Martians visiting Earth and their observations about the dominant form of life here, the automobile.

[arcticdementor]

When I think of the Waverly Diner on 6th Avenue and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, I am moved by romantic nostalgia. By that I only mean that when I think of the Waverly I feel, in some way, what it was like to be young and in the rush of the conversation. The conversation was everything. It flowed all around us, in the subways and the streets, in the diners and the high-rise apartments, and if you could master it, it could take you anywhere. You could still smoke inside of diners back then and sometimes we spent whole days around an ashtray and a plate of disco fries, getting refills on the coffee. I’m not saying all the arguments were good, but sometimes it was thrilling.

Perhaps that’s a uniquely New York thing, to place so much faith in talking. But it once felt very American, too; the diner-booth yapper animated by argument, one version of the big city fast talker who reflected an aspect of the national character right there alongside the taciturn cowboy, the trapper frontiersman, and the Puritan. American because, if you could think it and you could argue it, then maybe you could be it, too. It was at least possible. And it was democratic in the best sense. You could talk to anyone, butt into any stranger’s conversation, as long as you had something interesting to say.

I don’t know how to argue in America anymore, or whether it’s even worth it. For someone like me, that is a real tragedy and so I would like to understand how this new reality came about.

There are distinct and deep-rooted traditions of rational empiricism and religious sermonizing in American history. But these two modes seem to have become fused together in a new form of argumentation that is validated by elite institutions like the universities, The New York Times, Gracie Mansion, and especially on the new technology platforms where battles over the discourse are now waged. The new mode is argument by commandment: It borrows the form to game the discourse of rational argumentation in order to issue moral commandments. No official doctrine yet exists for this syncretic belief system but its features have been on display in all of the major debates over political morality of the past decade. Marrying the technical nomenclature of rational proof to the soaring eschatology of the sermon, it releases adherents from the normal bounds of reason. The arguer-commander is animated by a vision of secular hell—unremitting racial oppression that never improves despite myths about progress; society as a ceaseless subjection to rape and sexual assault; Trump himself, arriving to inaugurate a Luciferean reign of torture. Those in possession of this vision do not offer the possibility of redemption or transcendence, they come to deliver justice. In possession of justice, the arguer-commander is free at any moment to throw off the cloak of reason and proclaim you a bigot—racist, sexist, transphobe—who must be fired from your job and socially shunned.

Practitioners of the new argument bolster their rationalist veneer with constant appeals to forms of authority that come in equal parts from biology and elite credentialing. Have you noticed how many people, especially online, start their statements by telling you their profession or their identity group: As a privileged white woman; as a doctoral student in applied linguistics; as a progressive Jewish BIPOC paleontologist—and so on? These are military salutes, which are used to establish rank between fellow “az-uhs” while distinguishing them as a class from the civilian population. You must always listen to the experts, the new form of argument insists, and to the science. Anything else would be invalid; science denialism; not rational; immoral.

Because of the way it toggles back and forth between rationalism and religiosity, switching categories by taking recourse to one when the other is questioned, the new form of argument-commandment, rather than invalidating itself or foundering on its own contradictions, becomes, somehow, rhetorically invincible—through the demonstration of power relations that the arguer denies exist, but are plainly manifest in the progress of the argument.

…

Argument itself requires that certain fundamental questions are settled and beyond dispute. In order to argue over whether the sky is blue, we’ll have to agree on what the sky is. The new argumentation has not only vastly expanded the number of subjects that are supposed to be beyond argumentation, it has, by a sleight of hand, reversed the nature of the matters that cannot be questioned. Now, it is precisely the most contentious issues—is biological sex a valid concept? Is racism and abuse so widespread in American law enforcement that we should immediately defund the police?—that must be accepted a priori.

To insist that the conclusion that the arguer wishes to reach, with its implied corollary commandment, must be accepted by his or her opponent as a premise before the argument begins is not the move of a person who has confidence in their truth. It is the opposite of any form of reasoned argument. It is coercive. Except the people who argue this way claim that they cannot possibly be coercive, because you must accept the premise that they don’t have power—even if they are editing The New York Times Magazine, or threatening to get you fired from your job. You say they can’t have it both ways? They say, why not—and then accuse you of opposing the powerless, which, it turns out, is a form of authority that cannot be trumped.

The reason we cannot argue about certain things is because they have already been proven true and the truth they have established is such a significant moral advance—like ending child sacrifice—that to question the rational basis on which the truth rests is to risk eroding a foundation of the moral progress that separates us from encroaching barbarism. If you want to argue about those things, then you are a barbarian—which means that argument with you is impossible, because the only argument that barbarians understand is being put to the sword or sent off to a labor camp.

Do you need me to give you an example of this kind of argument? Not really, because such arguments have become the norm. But here are a few recent examples:

…

Here are the two parts of the argument by commandment. There is the empirical assertion—let’s call it X. And there is the moral claim suggested by, or perhaps even mandated by the evidence of X—let’s call that Y. Empirical evidence shows that there is an epidemic of sexual assault against women, that epidemic requires a drastic corrective, and that corrective enshrines a moral claim and a commandment—American women are sexually victimized, egregiously and without the protections of a justice system that systemically discriminates against them. Therefore it is virtuous to “believe women” and to encode that belief formally in new procedures of law and justice.

Only it turns out the rational argument was wrong. The evidence did not actually show that 1 in 5 women would be sexually assaulted on a college campus, a statistic repeated by President Barack Obama himself to justify “sweeping changes in national policy.”

…

But if you were clueless enough to point out the flaws in rational claim X, even if just to wonder over matters of degree, then wham!—you were whacked in the face with moral claim Y. Evidence X isn’t evidence; it’s window dressing. And if you’re too stupid to understand that, then you’re probably an even worse person than the arguer supposed.

Because—think about it—who else but a fervent, drooling misogynist, or a rape apologist, or a real live rapist, namely someone both ideologically and emotionally invested in actively disbelieving women, would be so interested in picking apart the evidence that supported such an obviously virtuous and necessary claim—especially now, at a moment when people are literally dying? What basis would anyone have to question X aside from the desire to violate the moral value of Y?

…

The organs of reason and expertise have one by one, pledged their cultish loyalty to this new faith. A group of doctors wrote an article in Scientific American explaining why the mentioning or reading of the results of George Floyd’s autopsy was a racist act. Public health officials across the country, who had in May condemned public demonstrations in the strongest terms, now fully endorse the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd. In a petition signed by some 1,200 health officials, they declare that it is incumbent on others in the profession to offer “unwavering support” to the current protesters as a matter of both moral and medical hygiene. They all together elide the difference between empirical claim and moral commandment by declaring that, “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19.” And so, the merger of pseudorationalist discourse with the new American religion of anti-racism is completed.

America’s elite institutions now routinely make statements and use language that empirically is false. Indeed, they have taken the making, propagation, and enforcement of such language as their central mission. Because these statements are false, they make solutions to the real problems that are being gestured at impossible—while turning people who may want to actually address those problems into evil rape apologists and racists.

What we are witnessing, in the rapidly transforming norms around race, sex, and gender, is not an argument at all but a revolution in moral sentiment. In all revolutions, the new thing struggling to be born makes use of the old system in order to overthrow it. At present, institutions like the university, the press, and the medical profession preserve the appearance of reason, empiricism, and argument while altering, through edict and coercion, the meaning of essential terms in the moral lexicon, like fairness, equality, friendship, and love. That the effort wins so much support speaks to the deep contradictions and corruption of American meritocratic institutions, and of the liberal individualist moral regime it seeks to replace.

[jeanjauthor]

I want people to read the creator’s message below today’s webcomic, and then I want folks (who have the spoons to spare for it) to read the commentary below, and especially Mr. Morris’ replies to many of those comments.  These dialogues between creators and viewers are very important when it comes to messages like this, ones which could be misconstrued when encountered without context.

For my part, I deeply appreciate that he posted his remark. He is a good guy, he does try to “mix it up” to diffuse & disperse bigotry moments (not perfectly, but nobody is ever going to be perfect)...but that isn’t the point.  And it isn’t a point of “performative” apologizing.  It’s not a performance; he genuinely feels bad about the timing of all of this and the potential for someone who hasn’t read the (massive) backlog of stories in the archives to see only surface images.

Regardless of what longtime or even shortime fans know about the story, regardless of utter newbs coming to the webcomic to view it...that statement needs to be there.

As I posted to Anonymous earlier regarding whether or not to include racial slurs in historical settings...to ignore that it happened, to ignore what it looks & sounds & feels like, is to try to deny the pains of the past, present, and future.

By pinning that particular message to this particular comic, Rick Morris is assuring people for generations to come that he knows the differences between fiction, reality, longterm plotlines and surface appearances.  He knows, he acknowledges, he pledges to keep working toward being a better storyteller & artist...and that’s an important message for everyone to receive.  Not just to inspire others, not just to apologize and explain context, but to renew his own pledges to himself & his readers that he’ll keep working on being better.

Storytellers don’t always tell comfortable stories.  Sometimes we tell ones that are meant to hurt, in order to evoke emotions that can create not just sympathy but empathy for the suffering of others...and sometimes that backfires.  Sometimes we tell ones that hurt in additional ways, in very unexpected and unfortunate and/or badly timed ways, increasing the pain for some.

Intention is an important part of storytelling, because most stories have a lesson to teach to our audiences.  (Not all need to have one, but most have something for others to learn.)  Intention also includes trying to be aware of unintended outcomes.

One of those lessons occurred today in a storyline that has been building to this climactic moment for literally the last four-plus years.  No one could’ve predicted how real world events played out.  At the same time, it would be wrong to stop telling this story to “wait for a better time.”  There won’t be a better time for it.

Changing systemic racism will still take years and decades more to come, even if this is a manual-transmission-clutch moment, where we could wind up going faster in our forward progress, or find ourselves dropped into reverse, with a possibly broken transmission. (Hopefully not, but not holding my breath. I got better things to do with my energy.)  So there literally won’t be a better time for this story.

Instead, we need to acknowledge that these visualizations do exist without proper context, and that even with context it can still cause some folks to feel hurt.  Mr. Morris understands if new folks won’t want to start reading the rest of the story because of this one scene (and the following pages involving the rest of this scene).  That’s part of the message that needs to be told.

That’s part of the pain that needs to be acknowledged. It is not intentional, it isn’t the best timing, but it is acknowledged...and all he asks is that folks consider giving the whole story a try.

I’ve been following his webcomic for a very long time, and I can personally say his characters are vastly diverse, and that he does tackle bigotry head-on in multiple ways with multiple races, genders, social classes, and more.  Is it completely problem-free? Nope! But like reality, the characters do learn & change & grow, the creator does, too...and many of his characters have some absolutely outstanding character growth.

You don’t have to give YAFGC a try, but I do hope you’ll read the message & the comment interactions if you’re a writer (or an artist)...because these interactions are a good set of dialogues about this subject, how to handle it, how to agree or disagree, and how to be polite when the latter happens.

Personally, I am deeply pleased to see he didn’t shrug off his responsibility to post that note, and isn’t shrugging it off...like a number of the commenters imply he could’ve done instead, via their absolution-style comments.  Instead, he’s doing the work that is necessary, even if it’s seen by some as extra, unnecessary work. That’s something all of us need to step up and do, for this kind of topic.  Acknowledge the inadvertent visualizations, and apologize for them.

...

Speaking of which...in The Song, I created the character of Duke Finneg, Councilor of Conflict Resolution for the Empire of Katan. The continent of the Empire of Katan is longer than it is wide, stretching from the Sun’s Belt (equator) in the north toward the Ice Sea in the south (separating Katan from the southern polar landmass, smaller than Antarctica and just as uninhabited).

When I populated the landmass that was Katan, I knew that there would be dark-skinned folk in the northern regions close to the Equator, and pale-skinned folks in the southern regions close to the south pole, because that’s literally why we have skin color variations.  Those that live in the middle lattitudes have a mix of skin hues, some paler, some darker, and plenty of people have traveled all over and settled in different areas than those their ancestors were born & raised in, even if the majority of everyone really don’t move very far.  (If you look at the real world, this is basically how reality works, too.)

This logical pattern is repeated all over the world of the DestinyVerse.  In areas with thick rainforests like Natallia, which are tropical to subtropical, the people are tanned but paler in melanin coloration than Sundara, which is a desert environment with few trees for shade (again like the real world we live in).  There are slaves in some countries & cultures, and there are anti-slavery laws in others.  There are good people, and there are bad people, and there are indifferent or self-focused people who just are either apathetic or oblivious to what’s going on around them...exactly like the real world.  But it is not our world

So when I designed the appearance of Duke Finneg, a Katani mage of important political power who was destined (plotwise) to have a high-strung temper and an increasingly unhinged world-view because of self-delusional closed-minded thinking...I was tempted to make him white, to be honest.  But since he’s from Katan, he could’ve been from any point on that continent. 

The Corvis brothers are mid-lattitude with a variety of transcontinental intermarriages in previous generations, but in general are lightly tanned, almond-eyed, and have hair from light blond to jet black, because that’s how genetic inheritances work in their particular bloodline (and I needed a way to easily tell brothers apart description-wise...but I honestly have seen some families with blond, brunette, & redheaded members).  (That, and it’s a non-Earth world, so, I could make shh up like that.)

(If you honestly want to know what the Corvid brothers look like, they’re a blend of East/Southeast Asian & European, with more in the way of Asian features and that wider range of European haircolors, same as most Katani from the mid-latitudes...though some on the east coast mid latitudes look more Latinx than Asian, like the folks from the western side tend to look.)

So when it came to the main protagonist for the fourth book in the series...I decided to roll a dice for his origination point, low for somewhere in the south (pale & blond), high for up near the equator (dark & brunette). I wrote down the general characteristics for each of the numbers/regions that might come up (I don’t have the paper anymore, alas, it got lost in one of my household moves)...and I rolled.  (With real D&D style dice, because I’m a frikkin nerrrrd, duh.)  The dice rolled high, aka his family is from a region up by the equator region where there isn’t much shade and dark skin tones are needed to ward off skin cancer...so I wrote him to be dark-skinned, etc. It was literally a random dice roll.

There are other characters in The Song and in other books of the DestinyVerse, showing various skintones & social backgrounds.  Some are high-ranked, some are low-ranked. There are skin hues and hair colors in a wide range of hues. There are cultures with social equality, and cultures that are extremely bigoted (yes, Mandare, I’m talking about YOU)...but they’re not Earth cultures, and they don’t necessarily have real-world problems.

But I can see how they can be seen that way if you just pick up the book, rifle through it, see that Duke Finneg is an increasingly unstable hardass with a hate-on for the people on Nightfall Isle (spoiler alert, if a bit late)...and read that he’s got dark skin and brown eyes, etc, and perhaps feel hurt that he’s a Black Man being typecast as the Bad Guy from reading just one scene, with nothing of any further context than just that.

So I apologize for that.  I was trying to write a story set within the context of its own universe, with its own distinct and different cultures, and viewed that particular character--the same with everyone else in the book--while writing the story from that viewpoint.  Literally, I rolled up the physical characteristics for most of the Katani characters on that “this is where they’re from” sheet, which is why the harbormaster and his husband in the later books look the way they do, why the various other Councilors look the way they do, etc, etc.

But that doesn’t negate the fact that one of my villain characters is an increasingly unstable darkskinned male, and for anyone who has been hurt or offended by that description for my antagonist/villain character, I apologize.  It was not my intent to perpetuate a false, harmful stereotype from our own world.  It was just a random description roll for a stereotype that (in my mind, at least) has nothing to do with race--and nothing to do with genuine mental health issues--and everything to do with closed-minded attitudes toward “inferiors” and clinging to those mental dogmas rather than releasing them and admitting one has gotten an opinion/viewpoint of others deeply wrong.

I’m working on being better, as a writer.  And to be fair, when you look at the whole context of all my writings, I’m doing a better job when it comes to ensuring diversity for protagonists and antagonists than the majority of published authors (most of whom are white). I’m particularly pleased with my IaVerse, where the main & secondary & other important Human characters come from a wide variety of backgrounds, the chief villains aren’t relatable to anything stereotypically Human, and positions of authority & power are not only achievable, but also removable and/or punishable if one steps too far out of line when it comes to acceptable/forgivable behavior.

The one thing I will always try to do is to try to tell a better story.  People may still get hurt, but my stories will have context, and lessons, and the message that respect, tolerance, and compassion for nearly everyone is very important.

(I will, however, uphold the paradox of tolerance by asserting the lesson of refusing to tolerate the intolerant in order to preserve the existence of tolerance, and I will always encourage the metaphorical/allegorical punching of Nazi types.  Or actual punching in stories, particularly the milSF ones...but then that is a genuine official trope of the military fiction genre.)