#and there is no ultimate truth

[alteredsilicone]

ok real talk i would love a game that handles it's lore "realistically" and by that i mean:

-you have to go out of your way to look for it and different bits of lore that come together may come from unlikely places (something you find early on nets an answer via a seemingly unrelated thing later on)

-there might be contradicting accounts: history doesn't lie, historians, however...

-there are different opinions about the same thing and it's up to you to decide who you agree with (and maybe the answer is - no one!), gaining knowledge in certain ways might change your perspective on something you learned earlier on

-some things are just never fully explained, because they are lost to time either accidentally or deliberately

[philosophybits]

There is a tragic clash between Truth and the world. Pure undistorted truth burns up the world.

Nikolai Berdyaev, The Divine and the Human

[opheliasam]

god he (dean) used to be so different my chest hurts

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo’s love for magicians and magic shows isn’t brought up enough tbh, because it directly ties into the idea of a persona and fooling the audience’s eyes to see something that’s not actually there. This connects to his love of performance in general but also ties into why he struggled so much with his mystic powers.

Magic tricks are exactly that, tricks, a performance, masked actions hiding the truth. Meanwhile mysticism is intrinsically linked to the self and so Leo’s difficulty in even unmasking to himself is a big part of his journey that he continues to struggle with and in this essay I will-

[trek-tracks]

Do you ever think about how Kirk had a "best friend" on the ship before Bones in Gary Mitchell, a man who:

a) deviously manipulates him into heartbreak for Mitchell's benefit,

b) shames him for not being "fun" enough when he's in a position of power,

c) openly insults intelligent and powerful women,

d) treats everyone cruelly as soon as he gets power and tries to seize everything for himself,

e) finds it fascinating that he can stop a person's heart for fun, and

f) tries to murder Kirk instead of admitting that he's a danger to the universe,

and then chooses to replace him with Bones, a man who:

a) tries to save Kirk from heartbreak at every opportunity,

b) gets him to smile and relax by being genuinely interested in how he's doing and telling him that he's great and respected just as he is,

c) openly toasts intelligent and powerful women,

d) treats everyone kindly as soon as he gets power and tries to use it to help as many people as he can,

e) cries about how people suffered when medical treatments were less advanced, and

f) says, "Jim, I can't destroy life, even if it's to save my own. I can't."

because I do

[zipstick-art]

working late at the hoover building

reference image under the cut

[bitchthefuck1]

Tom's line about Shiv being selfish and "find[ing] it very hard to think about me" is actually so telling because while it's absolutely true that she rarely takes his position into consideration, Tom never once thinks about what he can do to help Shiv unless it also benefits him.

Every single time he makes a move or sacrifice that might help her, it's always something that he thinks will give him a leg up. He volunteers to take the fall for cruises, not for Shiv, who is in no way implicated, or even for Waystar, but because he thinks it'll ingratiate him to Logan, and the second it seems like he might have to actually follow through on that, he immediately tries to get out of it and even throws Shiv under the bus. Meanwhile, for all that Shiv disregards his interests, there are a number of things she does that only help him, and she's the one who actually sacrifices something and undermines her position with Logan to beg him not to let Tom go to jail.

It just makes it so clear that no matter how much he might love her (and I think he does, in his own compromised way), for him their relationship was always built on the underlying assumption that it's her job to prop him up, but it's not his job to help her.

[4dbarbie-archive]

More books in Ada's Drive!

I'm a bit late to the update as I've been on break (still am) but Ada added some more books to her drive!

In the main drive: The Ultimate Truth by Lester Levenson 💖💕 It's a great succinct summary of his teachings and I believe it's a reprinted version of his earlier book Eternal Verities which was published in 1962.

Edit: I just looked through Lester's excerpts on the archive and Ada actually shared the same extract when she was on Tumblr! Although the last line is extra; it spoke to me which is why I wanted to include it

And in her scientific research folder:

States of Mind: ESP and Altered States of Consciousness by Adrian Parker

Altered States of Consciousness by Charles T. Tart

CIA Gateway Experience

[nyaagolor]

I think my biggest ace attorney hot take is that Kristoph’s black psyche locks not being broken was the best possible decision Takumi could have made

Phoenix trusts people, that’s his whole thing, but i think more importantly he trusts in the truth— that if he can just find that truth and put all the cards down on the table that things will be ok. We see in so many instances that his deeply ingrained savior complex and pursuit of truth often comes back to bite him and hurt himself and others. So honestly, him seeing Kristoph having black psyche locks and being able to accept that he doesn’t have to break them is such a vital step in his character to me

Phoenix doesn’t need the entire truth anymore— he doesn’t need to figure out what makes Kristoph tick. Time and time again Phoenix will not stop until all the dirty laundry is hung out to dry, until he knows the why’s and how’s and everything in between— but for once, with Kristoph, he doesn’t. Kristoph hurt people, and to him, that’s enough

[waywardted]

I really do have love to give. I just don't know where to put it.                - Magnolia (1999)

[yonpote]

ok i dont have my tarot cards on me so i redownloaded this tarot app i used to use that ive generally had good results from

i asked basically "what the hell are dnp up to"

and...

OH. OKAY.

[lesliemeyers]

y'know thats pretty goth

[thirdity]

Like the primal spirit of the universe, like the unshakable Absolute, the One, the All, the creator, i.e., the artist, expresses himself by and through imperfection. It is the stuff of life, the very sign of livingness. One gets nearer to the heart of truth, which I suppose is the ultimate aim of the writer, in the measure that he ceases to struggle, in the measure that he abandons the will. The great writer is the very symbol of life, of the nonperfect. He moves effortlessly, giving the illusion of perfection, from some unknown center which is certainly not the brain center, but which is definitely a center, a center connected with the rhythm of the whole universe and consequently as sound, solid, unshakable, as durable, defiant, anarchic, purposeless, as the universe itself.

Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart

[molinaesque]

"You would have been heroes if you had only dealt fairly with me, instead you're not so different to doom Karsus, overreaching your limits and burning your world to ash!" - Raphael (Baldur's Gate 3, 2023)

[ineffabildaddy]

i'd like to thank neil gaiman and terry pratchett for helping me realise i'm neurodivergent hah

like i'd had my suspicions for a few years. there'd been just enough signs to keep me constantly wondering whether or not that term applied to me, but i was never certain and it wasn't so worrying that it was debilitating, so i didn't do anything much about it. then i reread good omens and watched the show for the first time and i just went "right, no neurotypical person has ever liked something as much as i like this" and that was just that

[trustworthycinnamon]

Howdy Ultimate Dirk nation how are we doing today I'm sorry for my evil crimes (or am I)