#and you have the right not to engage with their creation.

[vensnus]

"In the creation of the animated series Arcane, the roles of lead writers were primarily held by Christian Linke and Alex Yee, who also served as co-creators and showrunners. They were deeply involved in developing the narrative and overseeing the storytelling process,additionally, Amanda Overton contributed significantly as a writer and co-executive producer, particularly in the second season. She played a key role in shaping character arcs and pivotal scenes, such as the development of the relationship between Vi and Caitlyn"

I'm taking the 3 of them in consideration, what Amanda Overton said:

So the whole police brutality theme, and high class vs working class conflict was so the writer could get off their oppressed/oppressor + the aesthetics look cool.

Arcane is a show based on real life politics, mainly USA,and police brutality does happen in every part of the world,not only USA, if you going to make your show a political commentary, then people are allowed to bring politics to the table and discuss it.. of they didn't want that,they shouldn't have.

2. "How about some queer perspective"

I don't need to be queer to justify hitting your partner,or comparing it to a parent hitting a child vs a cop woman hitting her girlfriend,who was a victim of police brutality, this goes for anyone: man,women,and everything in between,bisexual,lesbians,pan, omni,gay,trans,poc,disabled,etc.

It's not the same as a parent that hits a child, out of frustration vs an fully adult hitting their partner another adult.

also you are the one that doesn't take POC queer's perspective, especially black queer folks.

I'm assuming the "woman who hates right wing" you referring too is Pugs4Thughs ( @garythesnailsupremacist ) who is a mixed race (black/white) genderfluid lesbian.

and the other video is made by anansy's library, a black queer person (they/them) who did face brutality.

taking out the caitvi part, both talked how they related to Vi, how she was their favorite,and how she got done dirty, pointing out despite being her lol lore (where she got amnesia,thing they could have used it on her lore to make her decision make more sense),they knew she was a cop, but the way they handled Vi becoming an enforcer wasn't done right, and remarking that Vi, not masc,she is LABELED by creators as BUTCH bringing out why butch lesbians never engage with cops. (Twitter threads that appeared in the video)

Both videos explored her character and even pointed out how mad and dissapointed they were when Vi's trauma (enforcers,her dead ,etc) were never that adressesed properly in comparison to Jinx's trauma. both expressed how they rooted for caitvi in season 1, but they feel uncomfortable with how dirty Caitlyn got done, they both talked about how the fandom normalizes femme lesbians hitting their butch partners because "they are masc looking,they can take it".

I bring them out because when it comes to Vi , they make good points about her.

Oh wow,queer black people hating right wing ideology?, feeling uncomfortable when police brutality,prisons,politics are used as an aesthetic?, oppressed x oppressor, JEEZ I WONDER WHY THAT IS/s

If anything you lack black queer perspective,because it's obvious a yt queer experience it's not the same as black queer person.

Because trust me, both got done wrong, it saddens me because caitvi in season 1 was great.

You know what's also disrespectful? Turning violet's alcoholism self-harm and suicidal tendencies into a fucking montage. Not to mention trying to frame it like she's only upset about Caitlyn and losing her abusive girlfriend? She has a lot more to be upset about.

Also we never talk about the fact that she's literally homeless? Like without Cait she doesn't have anywhere to go and we never talk about this the show sure doesn't. The show also doesn't give a fuck about her alcoholism on top of the fact that they made it into a montage it's either never talked about or it's seen as like a funny haha. Which pissed me off to no end.

[lilyofporcelain]

DWC - 09 Feb - Day 1 - Hypnotic / Star

In the quiet of the Grim and Tonic apothecary, she carefully peered around the various potions, elixirs, tinctures, and other concoctions that Saith so masterfully made. He labelled everything, of course, which didn’t surprise her in the least. How many of these things had been made for others, and how many had he made for personal projects? Rows and rows of bottles and vials sat before her, each in its own perfect little setting. One wrong idle move from her or Toasty having a sudden case of the zoomies, and she could just envision the domino effect of shattered glass and hissing liquids on wooden floor.

A smile hooked its way into half of her mouth as sher head tipped, hair not quite violet curling over her collar. And she’d worried about taking too much of his time away from his work. Or that he would grow bored and listless with her companionship. It was good to see that he kept himself busy. Saith’s background as an informant had controlled so much of him. Belidrae still worried that suddenly trying to acclimate to a life where he no longer had to do that would too much for him. She’d tried to be supportive of him and ultimately, the story was always the same. She only wanted him to be happy. To feel like he was significant. To know that he mattered and that he was important. For things other than his body or dust or thistle.

Are you happy, Saith, with the way things are? This relationship with me. Is it what you really want? Our engagement? I’d be all right if you changed your mind.

Would she, though? Belidrae didn’t think so in entirety. But if things went topsy turvy, which was entirely possible, she knew she’d find a way through it. She always had. In the end, all that really mattered to her was that he found what he was looking for. What he felt like he needed. She knew very well it just wasn’t healthy if he was using her as a form of escapism. She hoped it wasn’t that. If it was, the conversation would be a difficult one to have.

She could hear the soft, raspy ‘miaow’ that came from the siamese kitten who nonchalantly wandered in. Straightening herself up, Belidrae turned her attention onto… Well. She still didn’t know if Toasty was a boy or a girl. Trix had not told her when he gave the kitten to Belidrae on a chilly Winterveil day. Sweeping the kitten up carefully into her arms, she lifted a hand and gently prodded the curious kitten on the nose. “Aren’t you a curious thing,” she greeted her feline friend, a wide smile pulling at her face. “Wanted to come see what Mom was up to, hm? I don’t think your dad would want you in here, but we’ll keep it our little secret.”

Turning her attention back to the rows and rows and rows of Saith’s creations, Belidrae slowly moved down along the shelf and then she paused. There was one he’d been working on specifically for her. More than one, actually. She didn’t know where he’d even gotten the idea for it, but suspected it had something to do with the shade of her skin, something he’d always described as dusky. When he’d first told her about it, he’d described it as a concoction that when ingested would make it look as though constellations spread across her skin.

Belidrae had always liked a starry night sky. Plenty of them she’d spent her time under, even. Did he know she liked them? Had it just been a guess on his part? Leaning closer in to the bottle on display, its label in Saith’s rather picturesque handwriting, she smiled.

“You know, Toasty, you didn’t get to see this, but he made one for me before.”

Her expression was fond. On the night they’d met when he was certain she was divining tea leaves in her coffee, he’d taken her to a beautiful overgrown area with a waterfall and crumbling stone. And there, they’d spoken the entire night. And he’d been convinced that she was an agent of SI:7, something that continued to regularly amuse her. She’d not known it at the time, but his reasoning had been sound. She really was like an informant in her own way. Connections with people, believing those connections were important. Except she’d never been in it for the information. Sure, she’d heard things that otherwise loose lips wouldn’t have freed, but…

Shaking her head, Belidrae freed a sigh, gently squeezing Toasty to her. Saith had taken her back up there. Or rather, she’d taken him.

“It’s where I go when I need a moment’s peace.” She’d told him. “It’s where I go when I need time to think.” And it was as much one of her favourite places to be as the lamppost outside of the city or the river where they had washed Woogle’s clothes together beneath a moonlit sky.

The night she took him up there again, he’d finally completed his constellation potion. Or, rather, what was likely the first version of it. Warned her it tasted horrible. Said it wouldn’t be immediate. She’d grimaced like a child taking medicine that would surely do more good than the taste it left on the tongue. They whittled the time and got lost in conversation. A home in Suramar. His home in Hillsbrad. Futuristic talks of where they saw one another. A seductive dance of words. And she had finished something she started long before then in the Wetlands.

And then she’d glowed just like a night sky glittered with diamonds. Belidrae remembered it all so clearly. In the same way all of her memories of Saith were vivid. Moments in time that were suspended for her occasional perusal. Lightly scratching behind Toasty’s ear, she found herself taken back to those moments that she revisited with frequency. She’d asked him if he could make her something permanent that did the same thing. That she might already have constellations etched into her skin. He’d said it was possible, but as with all of his alchemical things, it was a process.

“How far have you gotten, thas’dorah?”

Looking down to Toasty, she offered a sly smile. “We should probably stop poking around his things, hm?” Although he’d known she was going to. In the city’s tavern, she’d asked him if she could. Her newest garment collection would incorporate all of the different things he’d made. She’d wanted to bring as much attention to his works as she could bring a similar attention to her own.

Making way back for the doorway, she closed it after herself and only after she’d set a rather befuddled Toasty on the ground, Belidrae rested her back to the door. How was she going to emulate the constellations? Imbued cloth, maybe. She’d been able to do it with the fabric that shuddered in light during her testing. But a constellation replica was going to be so much more difficult. Saith wouldn’t have an answer either. He’d admitted rather easily that he knew nothing about her tailoring work or what really went into it.

Rubbing her hands together, her gaze turned sharp and keen. “Well, Toasty, we don’t know until we try, right? Maybe I should make you something to wear. I bet you’d just love that.” Although she doubted the kitten could understand a single thing she said, the fact that she was met by her kitten’s back as they wandered off entirely disinterested in Belidrae’s conversation aloud, she couldn’t help laughing. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d be into it. Back to the drawing board, eh?”

She’d figure it out. She always did.

— @daily-writing-challenge

[bruciemilf]

Anyway. Frustrated reminder that if artists pour time, energy, passion, thought, and skill into their piece, it’s their right to do whatever the fuck they want with it. Fandom is a playground and you can do what you want always

[lightbulb-warning]

so has anyone figured out WHY there is the Need To Share our Artworks™ or is it just the vibes and our Soul apparently

[ataykiri]

Our stay on this earth is so so short, we’re in such a dream state that we keep forgetting this truth

[getvalentined]

Hey, so, it's all well and good to not like newer titles in an older fandom, but the moment that you say that anyone who does like anything about those titles is ignorant and stupid and wrong, the moment you say that anyone engaging with newer material in a positive way doesn't actually care about the source material, you are completely out of line.

I understand disliking later iterations. I do. I've been there, many times. I understand being upset about a piece of media being taken a direction you didn't want it to go, I understand feeling let down by the handling of new media. I understand lamenting about it with friends, on your blog, whatever. That is perfectly valid behavior, that's part of being a fan of something. It's normal and it's human and it's expected. It's fair. It's your right, in fact.

However.

The instant that you turn that frustration into vitriolic insults toward other fans for having the "audacity" to be excited about newer material, the instant that you decide that you get to choose who is and isn't a "real fan," you are grossly out of line.

That's not up to you. What people get out of a series, what people enjoy about a series, what people want to see in a series—that's not up to you. What the creators do with a series, what direction they take it and what declarations they make—that's not up to you.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being upset, with disagreeing with other people in fandom, or even with disagreeing with the creators. But spouting off about people whose only "crime" is interest, asserting that they don't know what they're talking about, that they don't deserve to be here because they don't feel the way you do? That's pure, unadulterated entitlement.

That's not how media works, and it's certainly not how fandom works.

[sysig]

Your Weekly TV Guide

On Monday you can expect:

2:30 PM: Star Control II - Helix

And Tuesday:

2:30 PM: Star Control II

Wednesday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Thursday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Friday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Saturday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Sunday:

2:30 PM: SCII - Helix

Thanks for tuning in! (Patreon)

[tamaharu]

ive inherited a copy of lolita from my parents (i.e. i stole it from the library in our basement and started treating it like its mine) with the 1989 vintage international cover and i think its actually not that bad. better than the 50th anniversary one with the lips anyway imo (which is the cover for the library ebook vers ive checked out).

like i think any cover that incorporates the "only convincing love story of our generation" quote anywhere kind of sucks on principle, and the fact that it features a photo of a girl at all really goes against nabakovs instructions, but compared to other covers that break those two rules, the haziness of the photo creates a really evocative atmosphere i feel matches the book more or less.

[dreamersscape]

Does it feel like life is permanently set to extreme hard mode and I still feel super crappy greater than 90% of the time? Yup. But! Emboldened by our relative success with last year's tomatoes, we have given it another go and have added a little pepper plant friend for them. :)

(It may look like the peppers aren't doing as well as the tomatoes, but it cannot be overstated just how bananas this plant's growth chart has been; it's determined to escape the confines of its basket-cage; it has to be constantly rotated so it doesn't completely lose the battle with gravity; I only took this picture the other day and it already looks SO outdated. Can't stop, WON'T STOP.)

[katzirra]

I'm not a musician or a writer but I do feel this can apply about visual works like animations or movies too!

As an artist I love oogling a good piece of media like anyone else, but when it comes to movies my favorite thing in this world is a good piece of cinematography in a film. Holy shit.

Having a friend who works in film, and is crazy passionate about it, who has explained how some things are achieved or handled only makes me analyze shots and movement more these days.

I love the idea of how storyboards work from conception to final shot, and a lot of times when I watch a complex scenes, or see a crazy colorful arrangement I'm lost in that thought train of "how did they achieve that?" "what did that board look like?" "what was the conversation about this like??" I'm lost admiring composition set ups and such.

I think that's kinda the beauty of any kind of media; deconstructing it down to why it's hitting or missing with us. The beauty of discussion and media analysis!!

Why a piece of writing is received well, and what sticks it in the consciousness of the world or what it could do better - what YOU may do different, or what inspires you. There's a reason people love to quote books and writers - reasons sentences stick with you and make you pause at times reading a truly good book. It could be a line about something as simple as the turning of the season, but what words slotted together to make that image might really HIT something.

What a song is doing lyrically that's impressive, or what about the background/instrumental track is good - is that a sample? What are they doing to achieve that little hook that's going on? Are these two things meshing well? There's so many times at work I've put stuff on a playlist to listen to and pick apart later. Playing mostly harmony roles in orchestra in my childhood gave me an appreciation for what's going on in the background, and it's interesting to really LISTEN for that stuff tbh :0

But movies are a big thing for me as an artist... I love going to the movies, sure!! But sitting at home on my PC while I'm working on art? A movie going on half my monitor, and pausing every so often to admire a shot, a composition or a sequence of how a camera moves through a scene? Man. Rewinding and analyzing a shot and how they frame things - visualizing the layout planning? So fun. So neat. Inspiring, truly at times!

Media intake, analysis, deconstruction - whatever have you is so interesting in general. But it's also ya'know, some people just take it in and nod their heads - ALSO VALID!!

okay sorry, one other thing annoyed me about that writing class. one of the students is this super clean-cut doctor who works at an HIV clinic, and he asked the prof "do you ever get distracted while reading books, because you find yourself analyzing the craft of them instead of sinking into the story?"

and she said "no," and turned away. and the whole class laughed awkwardly, bc it was a pretty abrupt and dismissive answer. so then she turned back to him and said "you wouldn't ask a musician if they get distracted listening to songs. they just enjoy the music."

but I dunno, I'm a newbie writer with only one (scheduled-to-be-published) book under my belt, but I get distracted sometimes when I'm reading. if I find I'm not sinking into a block of text, I'll squint at it and be like "okay, they're using too much passive voice, that's why my brain isn't grabbing on to it." so I'm sorry Mr. HIV doctor, I thought your question was reasonable!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

heard someone say archive of our own should install a "dislike" button and I thought I should say this: no, there's absolutely no need for archive of our own to install a "dislike" button.

why? because archive of our own isn't tiktok or youtube or twitter/x where users can monetize their content. archive of our own is a nonprofit site run by fans for fans, which means every content — every fanfic — you see on archive of our own was made out of pure love and passion from the artists/authors.

ao3 authors write because writing about these characters is their happiness and passion. they write for themselves, but they were generous enough to share with you their creations.

they're not "content creators" the way tiktokers or youtubers or instagram models are. they don't "make content" for views and engagements that can be monetized.

so no, you don't get to "grade their works" unless they specifically and directly ask you to.

you don't get to "say what you dislike about their works" unless they specifically and directly ask you to.

you don't get to "dislike" works that are not made specifically to please you in the first place. you're just a guest in someone's house, a house in which they let you in because they were kind, you don't get to roam around their house and say what you dislike about their furniture. you don't get to roam around their house and say you "dislike their house".

of course, you can have your opinion about the house its host invites you in. but if it's a negative one and you find yourself not liking the house, the polite things for you to do is excuse yourself and leave without telling them you dislike their house.

and just because you personally dislike the house doesn't mean the house is "ugly" either. the house you dislike could be a favorite, most luxurious place to many others.

my point is, don't be entitled by wanting the rights to voice your disapproval of things that you get to enjoy for free. don't be entitled by wanting the rights to voice your disapproval of things that were made out of love and passion — things the artists made for themselves for fun.

it makes you look like an entitled jerk with main character syndrome. the universe does not revolve around you.

now repeat after me: don't like don't read. no one forces you to continue reading a fic you don't like. quietly leave instead of being rude to authors who write for free because writing is their source of comfort.

people are so used to contents that were made because it's a trend / contents like tiktok that were made with the main purpose of reaching high engagement and making profits that they forget sometimes things can be made out of love and be made just for fun. sometimes things are supposed to just be for people to enjoy, and if some people don't enjoy them, then they can simply leave without being unnecessary unkind.

[prokopetz]

I think a lot of folks in indie RPG spaces misunderstand what's going on when people who've only ever played Dungeons & Dragons claim that indie RPGs are categorically "too complicated". Yes, it's sometimes the case that they're making the unjustified assumption that all games are as complicated as Dungeons & Dragons and shying away from the possibility of having to brave a steep learning cure a second time, but that's not the whole picture.

A big part of it is that there's a substantial chunk of the D&D fandom – not a majority by any means, but certainly a very significant minority – who are into D&D because they like its vibes or they enjoy its default setting or whatever, but they have no interest in actually playing the kind of game that D&D is... so they don't.

Oh, they'll show up at your table, and if you're very lucky they might even provide their own character sheet (though whether it adheres to the character creation guidelines is anyone's guess!), but their actual engagement with the process of play consists of dicking around until the GM tells them to roll some dice, then reporting what number they rolled and letting the GM figure out what that means.

Basically, they're putting the GM in the position of acting as their personal assistant, onto whom they can offload any parts of the process of play that they're not interested in – and for some players, that's essentially everything except the physical act of rolling the dice, made possible by the fact most of D&D's mechanics are either GM-facing or amenable to being treated as such.*

Now, let's take this player and present them with a game whose design is informed by a culture of play where mechanics are strongly player facing, often to the extent that the GM doesn't need to familiarise themselves with the players' character sheets and never rolls any dice, and... well, you can see where the wires get crossed, right?

And the worst part is that it's not these players' fault – not really. Heck, it's not even a problem with D&D as a system. The problem is D&D's marketing-decreed position as a universal entry-level game means that neither the text nor the culture of play are ever allowed to admit that it might be a bad fit for any player, so total disengagement from the processes of play has to be framed as a personal preference and not a sign of basic incompatibility between the kind of game a player wants to be playing and the kind of game they're actually playing.

(Of course, from the GM's perspective, having even one player who expects you to do all the work represents a huge increase to the GM's workload, let alone a whole group full of them – but we can't admit that, either, so we're left with a culture of play whose received wisdom holds that it's just normal for GMs to be constantly riding the ragged edge of creative burnout. Fun!)

* Which, to be clear, is not a flaw in itself; a rules-heavy game ideally needs a mechanism for introducing its processes of play gradually.

[edenorisshitposting]

Who's the idiot who spread that myth milk is pus? Turns out it spread so badly even my vegan (not brain damaged) roommate believes there's noticeable pus in cow's milk.

[yugsly]

Do you have any advice for artists who so desperately want to create something- anything- but nothing they do feels or comes out right? To the point where it feels like a herculean task to even draft ideas out. I wouldn’t describe it as an art block because it’s been years now, in my case.

I know it’s a bit of a heavy question and the same advice won’t work for every body. I suppose I’m just curious if you’ve ever dealt with similar emotions. Your art plucks my heartstrings and makes me think in ways few other artists have, thank you for making such wonderful creations and thank you for providing the opportunity to engage like this.

It sounds like you need to find your voice. Or, find your Voice again. I have dealt with similar things. I was in a similar slump the past couple of months. ... Uh, like six months. It was Really Bad. Nothing felt right. I forgot why I did art and why I liked it, for a beat, and I felt very lost. Was incredibly hard to draw and think.

What finally took me out of it (I guess I'm still digging myself out, but) was revisiting things that lit my fire to begin with, reminded me what I was fighting for with my visions in the first place. Music, comics, movies! Talking with my friends about those things. Go to the library for a day and dig around. It sounds silly maybe but Trust.

And starting small. Don't start something thinking it has to be Your Big Thing. Something consumable. You gotta do it for yourself. Make something you want to see. Make comics on napkins. Doodle with crayons. You gotta let loose. It sounds silly but you gotta start with, "it ain't that serious." You're just you. Playing dolls. Draw what you WANT to play with. Share it with others if you want to, if that motivates you, but don't let others become the only reason you create.

I don't know if this helps.

Thank you, by the way!

[oc-ology]

How to get past the fear of OC posting

People should create for the sake of creating but people post to engage with the community. However, posting can be intimidating and anxiety-inducing for a lot of people. It’s easy to say “do it scared” but much harder to put into practice. So, I’ve put together a few steps that lead up to doing it scared. These won’t work for everyone and this is meant more as general advice.

Step One: Why are you scared?

The first step is to figure out what about posting is scary for you. Oftentimes, it’s not as simple as “what if my post flops” or “what if people think I’m cringe”. Once you’ve figured out the surface-level reason, dig a little deeper. If your post flops, does that lead to you doubting the worth of what you’re creating? If you’re worried about what people think, is that because you’ve experienced judgement before or are worried your inbox will be flooded with criticism?

Identifying why you’re scared will not only help you understand yourself better (yippee!) but you can also then work on the source of your fears and anxieties at your own pace.

Step Two: Find ways to lessen your fears

One way of working through anxiety online is to find ways to mitigate the specific source of your fear.

Some fears have easier solutions than others. If you’re worried about people criticising your work, you can turn off anonymous asks (as most people are less likely to be haters when there’s a name attached to it) or turn asks off entirely, as well as limiting replies to those who have been following for a week. This way, if someone does want to be an unpleasant individual, it’s a little harder for them to do so.

A lack of engagement is a little harder to remedy. Here, the only real solution is to try and divorce the idea that engagement = worth. Remember why you’re creating an OC. Because it’s fun! It’s an act of creation! Because you want to find a community…? A community or OC friends will never just drop into your lap. You need to seek them out yourself. Look into discord servers, forums, tumblr networks (are they still a thing?), fandom events and exchanges, and most importantly: go out of your way to send asks/questions to others and build friendships with them! If you’ve got social anxiety like me, this is going to be a big challenge. Which leads to the next step…

Step Three: Start small

It doesn’t matter how small your first step is - so long as that step is forwards! If you’re nervous about OC posting, find the smallest thing about them and post it with the expectation of getting no notes. That’s right, I want you to go in and expect it to flop. Anything over one note is an automatic win. This first post isn’t about engagement - it’s about getting over the initial fear of posting. 

It can be tempting to just go right out the gate with elaborate explanations of backstory, lore implications, power levels, everything. But the trick really is to start small. Most people scrolling tumblr aren’t going to read a few thousand words on something they’re not invested in yet. TL;DR is a curse that I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to. 

Instead, break up information about your OC into small pieces that can be posted one by one and have some kind of visual piece with it. People are usually more drawn to images than text. For example, which of these two things are more visually interesting?

What Perseus keeps in his bag:

Amulet

Tinderbox

A broken blade

50ft of hempen rope

25gp of silver powder

Waterskin

Rations (cheese, bread, sausage)

OR

Obviously this comes down to personal preference but a lot of people would find the illustrated version to be more interesting. You don’t need to be an artist to do this either! You could make a version of that example in photoshop or a similar program. Picrews, moodboards, edits, game screenshots and photography can all be used to add a visual element to your posts.

Step Four: Why am I still scared?

Fear is not easily stamped out. Anxiety is definitely the kind of thing that lingers. These steps aren’t meant to immediately make OC posting not-scary. That’s something that will only come with time as you get used to it. Again: Do it. Do it scared. Gradually, it’ll be less terrifying and in the meantime, you might be able to make a few friends who also want to talk about your blorbo.

[sapphorror]

The Narrator's perspective only gets more horrifying the longer you think about it. Like, imagine being an Echo of yourself—one of many, all made to serve a very particular purpose and knowingly living on borrowed time, if 'living' is even the right word for your current state of pseudo-existence.

You've inherited the mission of a dead man—it's literally the only thing left that you can do before fading, so you sure as hell better believe in it; the alternative would be unbearable. Only you keep failing. With every loop that you don't remember, your lack of agency in this situation becomes starker—you can influence small things, sure, but it becomes increasingly clear that you have no real power, no matter how personally invested you are in the events unfolding in front of you. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to meaningfully engage with the world.

Worse—every loop you're made aware of is another time you've failed, with unimaginable consequences, though you had no control over these previous iterations of yourself and can't even learn from their mistakes. Everyone around you is operating on a shared perception of reality that you are not part of, will never be part of. After a few repetitions, you are, ironically, the least informed person in the room. All you have left to go on is an evidently outdated script. At the same time, everyone else is experiencing a contiguous version of you, comprised of parts that are, in some sense, also you, while at the same time existing at a complete remove from your current perception of self. Whatever you don't know you did—that's you now. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to define your own identity, never mind know what it is.

Even worse—this has trapped you within a stagnant hell of your own creation. Nothing you say or do really matters in terms of your own self (the rest of the world is a separate issue entirely). Anything you've come to believe—say, for totally hypothetical example, that you were wrong actually and your envisioned paradise is really a hell beyond any you had the capacity to envision—has about as much permanence as a drawing in the sand. 'You' will continue, exactly as you were, no matter how much you might like to change your behavior. Every possible future has already been set in stone. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to say anything you haven't already said.

For some reason, no part of any of this has made you feel more comfortable and at peace with the general concept of finality.

The really, truly absolute worst part, though?

There is no one for you to blame but yourself. And that's exactly what turns your story into such a tragedy.