#and maybe to other authors as well

[jasmyluv]

be realistic for your fucking smau

The smau is for people who are actually like that tho jejsjjdje

[grenade-maid]

Signalis, Authority, and History

There's a level of nuance to how Signalis presents the violence of the authority of the nation that doesn't call attention to itself but which I really appreciate. Which is basically just, all the officers and cops and spies who make life hell for people like the Gestalt mine workers, Ariane, and the Itou family--we get little glimpses into who they are in Adler and Kolibri's diaries and despite the propaganda and the authoritative tone they take in official communications, for the most part they don't seem to actually be particularly invested in the hard line of national ideology. They uphold it though, viciously, both because things were worse under imperial rule (we don't get hard details on what it was like but it's mentioned in passing enough that I believe it) and because they're scared that if they don't they will be decommissioned and easily replaced. They are literally stamped out of a production line after all. There's a subtext of well, if I don't do it my replacement will anyway and I'm not trying to die so what's the point of rocking the boat?

I think Kolibri stands out to me most clearly on this because in communications from the block warden regarding Ariane there is emphasis put on how it is unacceptable and suspicious that she should be so interested and invested in art and literature that does not serve the purpose of furthering the goals of the nation. But we know that Kolibris themselves are bookworms, Adlers are fiends for stimulating experiences, and both get miserable FAST when deprived of art and puzzles and entertainment and hobbies. Y'know, just like anyone. Far be it from being a paragon of The Nation only interested in productive labor, we are reminded that the block warden, too, hates this shitty town and wants to transfer but is denied. They're hypocrites, but not monsters, nor brainwashed puppets of the state.

The monstrousness at play is not contained within any particular subset of evil individuals, or even an inherent universal force of evil contained in the broad notion of The Nation. There is no cosmic evil force that makes them all do these things to each other. The monstrousness is within the social systems, the mechanisms of how authority perpetuates on a structural procedural level, held in place by fear and tangible threats of violence, each link in the chain restraining the next through those threats out of fear that if they don't, then they'll be next. Regardless how many, if any, of those people in this chain are true dogmatic hardliners, they must act as such because failing to do so opens them up to danger.

Here then I think of the quote that is so prominent, "Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl", from Lovecraft's The Festival. This is not just a chilling abstract visual that conveniently evokes a mineshaft-- in Lovecraft's story, this line refers to worms which ate the decomposing bodies of wizards whose wretched souls had remained after death, complete with the terrible powers they gained through contracts with demons. Those worms inherited both their power, and also the evil. The Nation, despite having overthrown the Empire, is built on imperial technology, in particular Replikas and bioresonance. So too, then, we can imply that The Nation inherited with those things some of the monstrousness of The Empire as well. There is no end of history, nor clean break with the past, no matter how violently it may seem to be rejected. That which remains from the past--and something inevitably always does--creates the present.

This is a game that is not shy about evoking East Germany. And I think all of this provides a sophisticated picture of repressive authority that we rarely see in fiction of the English speaking world, especially in games. The year the S23 incident takes place is notably 84, but, frankly, I find this to be more compelling and illustrative than 1984 (and I'm a librarian and have taught English classes so I get to say that). Orwell, let's be honest, presents a fairly one dimensional picture of authority, where people seize power and wield it against others out of seeming mustache twirling evil or malice.

Here though we get a more humanistic view. Authority did not come from nowhere and is not wielded arbitrarily out of gleeful cruelty or mindless brainwashed allegiance. People aren't "just following orders". Individuals have rich inner lives. They make decisions, and those decisions are based in the context they're in. Even the decision to carry repressive tools of the past into the present is a decision that was made strategically with the big picture in mind. Nobody woke up and decided to be evil that day. Everyone operates on self interest, and, we must assume, an earnest desire for things to get better. Even the [spoiler] program which served as an inspirational demonstration of The Nation's power, you can imagine the chain of officers and bureaucrats who genuinely wanted the people of the nation to believe in the future, to confidently trust that everyone was working together towards something great and beautiful. And, through a long chain of those people who couldn't say "No" without being decommissioned, we ended up with something unbelievably cruel.

We get to know Adler and Kolibri and the other officers not to say well they're human too, maybe it wasn't so bad that they condemned all those people to agonizing suffering, but to remember that if we keep looking for true monsters we will not find them. There are no monsters and there are no demons. There are only people making decisions. A better world is possible. A better world, where Adler is just a paper pusher who does puzzles after work instead of signing papers to authorize torture, where Kolibris are librarians instead of spies and cops, where EULEs can gossip and play piano and ARARs can do maintenance on facilities that don't contain torture rooms, is one that would not have led to the Ariane and Elster's tragic cycle and ultimate end.

Authority and its attendant cruelty is not contained, radiating forth from The Great Revolutionary and Her Daughter, it is within the social systems of control. When those two women die, that cruelty will continue so long as those social systems continue. Like Lovecraft's worms, no matter how long dead the evil of the past is, so long as it continues to be fed upon, that evil will not only remain, but evolve into something new in the present. A better world can't be achieved through the death of the old world alone, even if violent overthrow is warranted. There is no end of history. There is no clean break from the past.

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

[bloomingbluebell]

since playing twilight princess again i cannot get behind the lu fandom characterization of twilight and wild i'm sorry. like i think twilight would be an overprotective big brother figure towards wild, absolutely. but wild doesn't take that sitting down. he doesn't like being coddled, and it's pretty clear (side note: i do really appreciate the analysis posts about wars and how hard he's been on wild potentially pushing wild closer and closer to a rather big memory. you can sort of see how twilight is not happy with how warriors is acting, but he's not saying anything right now. probably because it's not his place to, and also probably because wild wouldn't want him to right now).

i think that twilight and wild have a very different relationship to what most of the lu fandom thinks. they're close - that much is obvious from how they react when the other is hurt, and how twilight pushed through the rest to get to wild during the memories comic. but i think that a lot of the time, it feels like wild only exists around twilight, or he can't be left without twi otherwise he'll "do something stupid" or whatever. wild doesn't exactly appreciate twi's protectiveness or his advice all of the time, but he still looks up to twilight. despite whatever went down when they first met, wild worked to gain twi's trust in order for them to be so close. they're equals - just like the rest of the chain are equals. and yes, wild does a fair amount of dumb things and he's impulsive about it, but i would like to argue that twilight also does a fair amount of dumb things (in game and in comic)

(i think it also kinda feeds in to how wild is sort of infantilized by the fanbase. he's already not exactly trusted by the rest of the chain (legend especially, for some reason), and i think i'd like to explore that and how his relationship with legend formed. they seem to think he's sort of a loose cannon, especially after the previous arcs. wild hasn't seemed to realize it yet, but i do think something is coming, especially with him and warriors)

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Compound Fracture

YA thriller set in rural West Virginia

follows an autistic trans boy who survives being almost killed by the Sheriff’s son after a party, and accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him when he tries to get back at him

and is pulled head-first back into the 100 year old feud between his & the sheriff’s families, that began when his great-great grandfather was executed after inciting a miner’s rebellion, the grandfather whose ghost has started to haunt him

community & family & socialist revolution

aro-questioning MC

arc from netgalley, out september 3

[thrumbolt]

Thrum friend. Would you recommend the ACOTAR books? I see people in a Discord book club mention thinking about reading them and I'm like. 🤔. Obviously you have at least taken to certain characters but everything I see on timeline seems to be. Kind of in spite of the actual books 🤔

Not me finding this ask wedged between several hate anons from this fandom lmao

ANYWAY mzyraj, my friend, my long term mutual, how best to put this....

STAY AWAY FROM THESE BOOKS! (Yes read them? Maybe?)

Long answer: The first book is a 3/5 retelling of beauty and the beast mashed up with the ballad of tam lin. It's nothing special but it's a relatively entertaining, easy read. The first half moves slow and the second half gets more interesting. It has grown on me when I revisited it after finishing the whole series so for me it's a 4/5 now. But I'm biased.

When you ask the general fandom however, they will tell you that the first book is not that great, but you need to read it so you can get to the second book, which is the true masterpiece. For 90% of people this is their favorite book. I am not 90% of people. Book 2 retcons a lot of book 1 and gaslights you about events and I just couldn't really deal with that, I was hate reading this thing for the most part.

And yet. AND YET I finished book 2 within days and had to immediately order the next one. And same story for all the books really. Kind of a hate read, but there is something in these things (fairy crack?) that just sucks you in. Or at least it worked on me.

Is the writing good? Not terribly. Is the plot good? No. The world building? Nu-uh. Is it horribly straight and the fandom awful? You bet. And yet look at me! It's been over a year and I'm still trapped in this hole, eagerly awaiting book 6 to know if my fave will beef it and who gets to bang whom.

So, can I recommend Acotar? Not unless you want to potentially end up in the fairy hellhole with me.

[krispiecake]

tell me why i can hear another tenants fucking music from my flat. HE DOESNT EVEN LIVE IN MY BUILDING. HE LIVES IN A COMPLETELY SEPARATE BUILDING ON THE SECOND FLOOR AND I CAN HEAR HIS MUSIC FROM MY FLAT. MY FLAT WHICH IS IN A DIFFERENT SEPARATE BUILDING.

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking that this Gojo is just like Sukuna. I truly don't see much of a difference between them beyond the human/curse point of view

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

I’ve been thinking of like what would happen if the CN and JG ppl somehow met each other, like

Childe would probably die of embarrassment from realising that Ajax and Morax were like lovers in CN while Hu Tao would laugh the shit at him while Zhongli just stood there confused

Then Hu Tao would coo at how cute little Xiao looked (and he DOES look cute who could blame her)

Zhongli would try to play it cool like “Haha wow who could’ve guess this alternate version of me was a god haha” while Xiao gives him the most stinkiest side eye ever.

genuinely zhongli would be more intrigued by all the timeline shenanigans and not really confused at the ship situation. he'd probably just go: actually? yeah i can see that, sure

the real kicker would be hua guizhong and ping yan and their possible angst at the fact their counterparts aren't dating nor even remotely as close (remember cyanide was before the crackship was revealed so neither guizhong nor madame ping are characterized there as having anything going on between them)

honestly? fanan and the fox siblings would be such a wild difference that when folks like xiao stare at zhongli like "what do you mean you're a god there?" zhongli would be able to just shrug it off and say "if fanan is from a completely different country why wouldn't i, an already acomplished thaumaturge, be an Immortal? it IS an alterlate reality after all" and xiao would be inwardly still kinda sus but have no basis on which to really argue LMAO

[ellenchain]

I'm playing some old missions again to update my challenges and was surprised at how good I find the 7 Deadly Sins compared to the newer content (pff) But playing Ambrose Island, I realised again how little we know about Lucas Grey's past.

Apart from the fact that Grey suddenly comes around the corner with a mission that also happens to have something to do with Providence, I'm sure it's down to IOI looking for content that fits in with the overall game. So no further questions.

But still I ask myself: Who was Noel Crest for Lucas Grey?

Because have you noticed that Grey sounds super, super sad when Crest dies? Or when he announces him? Or when he briefly talks about his past? In general, Grey was extremely vulnerable in this mission. John Hopkins does a fantastic job as always, but I really wonder why Grey is so emotional. I mean, I melt every time he says "I'll see you soon" when the mission is over. It's very sweetly purred. Longingly, even.

Crest was probably one of Grey's confidants, they worked closely together. But for comparison, Sean Rose, the guy who ran the big militia in Colorado (on Grey's behalf), also seemed to me to be a confidant of Grey. Otherwise he wouldn't give him such a task. Grey himself worked in the house alongside all the others (we remember the cellar). Intense co-operation, as with Crest. And we see Grey directly after 47 has done his deed, namely on the hill with his sniper rifle. But here, he didn't look sad at all. More like "well, now they're dead, crap, I'll have to think of something else now"

With Crest, I had the feeling that he needed 5 minutes to himself to process the death of his former... friend? I don't know, maybe I am reading too much into it.

Are there any fan theories on Noel Crest and Lucas Grey yet??

[strawberrywindow]

I couldn't stop thinking about an AU where Daniel resorts to gathering vitae again, this time to 'cure' Hazel, after his Brennenburg adventure💫, thoughts all mainly derived from this loadscreen text that tells us that Hazel is still in hospice care by the time the game's story began.

As much as I love Daniel, I don't think he really learned all that much from his experience even in the most charitable ending towards him in which he saves Agrippa. I can very, VERY easily see him slipping back into old ways if it meant saving Hazel. The most he seems to approach viewing torture as bad is when he realizes he himself no longer counts as an innocent so he can't justify killing others to save himself anymore. But killing no good, horrible, bad people to save HAZEL? Now, we're cooking with gas 😀 💀

[lucaonthropy]

Overheard someone saying T*re Liy* is the best author in my country and subsequently took psychic damage

[metaphorical-goblin]

“There’s the boots of levitation, the Zine of Truth—“

Well DnDads fans, we have a title, now it’s time to band together and make a Dungeons and Daddies zine

[bitterseaproduction]

Me: *sits up straight in sickbed out of nowhere*

Me: That ‘akeshu bond as children but they don’t recognize each other in P5’ idea, but it works because, as detective prince and criminal transfer, they’re both using pseudonyms. 😳

Housemate: ???

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Our Lady Of Mysterious Ailments & The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle

books 2 & 3 in the Edinburgh Nights series

paranormal mystery set in a climate-ravaged future Scotland, plagued by ghosts and magic

follows a 15yo Black girl who’s finally gotten an in to learn scientific magic properly - but it turns out to be an unpaid internship, so she has to take more jobs delivering ghost messages and investigating mysteries to take care of her gran and little sister

in book 2 she’s investigating a strange illness centred on a magic school for boys

and in book 3 she’s attending a global magician conference held in a creepy castle - when someone’s murdered, and they’re locked in until she figures out the culprit

Zimbabwean magic, friendship, disabled characters, no romance (so far)

[chaoticwhoknows]

currently reading the atlas six and my current favorite pov is tristan solely bc he is like “everyone here is batshit crazy and im saying that as a guy with insane daddy issues, who was raised by a witch gang leader, and who just quit my job and broke up with my billionaire heiress fiancée to come to a mysterious academic cult” and it’s the realest shit. why is he the most normal. why is he the only one who is phased by anything that has happened so far. also he Fucks (literally)

[rockdrop]

hey there idk if you remember me! but i wrote a fic about kanadog? kinda? it's more of an idea haha...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58753954

here it is if you want to read it :)

HEYY OFC I DO! THIS FIC IS THE EPITOME OF KANAPUPPY WORLD DOMINATION 🔥🔥 mafuyu feeding kandeeauwi,,,kanadegurlie being nervous and at the mercy of her,, r u trying to kill me author >:(( plus the teasing + overthinking kanade + unbothered mafuyu has me giggling thank you so much for this!! :))) twas a fun read

I encourage ppl to go support the author and read this fic ^_^ (tho keep in mind its RATED M for those who might be UNCOMFORTABLE)