#as the Erudition is involved

[glytchedmuffins]

We could get a Belobog arc in 3.8-3.9. Personally, doubt we will immediately go to the new planet/4.0 right after Amphoreus is concluded in 3.7, so maybe there is a chance for him to appear in 2025

Now that we know Amphoreus will last from 3.0 to 3.7, i highly doubt they'll have the space for Belobog's story in 3.x and that also probably means no 5* Sampo in 3.x...

[another-goblin]

Why Ratio isn't in Genius Society - theories

Nous regarded him and decided that he's doing fine without them.

Or because he isn't a genius. When he calls himself mediocre, it isn't a humblebrag. He's just a normal human with average intelligence. He achieved everything through hard work (in one of his character stories, his old professor talks about how, even as a kid, he'd wake up very early, exercise, and spend the whole day studying).

That's why he's often frustrated with his students. Like, guys, you are provided with all these opportunities to learn, you can surpass me, why are you squandering them? Or, I sacrificed my childhood and youth to science, why isn't everyone else willing to do the same? (turns out most people only become students to finally enjoy adult life away from their parents and maybe acquire some minimal knowledge and credentials to have a chance of a cushy job in the future.)

BTW, as a teacher, isn't he a self-made emanator of erudition? Not in a mystical Aeon-related sense, but literally—he spreads knowledge.

[doeeyeddyke]

Sometimes I look at the DC fandom and then I look at my involvement in other fandoms and go "yeesh y'all would rip my head off"

[chloe-skywalker]

Hate This - Eric Coulter

Eric x Fem!reader

Warnings: none

Word count: 361

Summary: Eric has to tell Y/n some news she’s gonna hate.

Masterlist

Divergent Masterlist

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

“I love you.” Eric said wrapping his arms around her waist.

“What’d you do?” Y/n raised a brow at him in question. It wasn’t normal for him to just come home and say those 3 words. Those words he normally said in more intimate settings.

“I”

When that was all he could get out Y/n turned around to face him with narrowed eyes. “What are you planning?”

“I’m sorry.” Eric apologized in advance and the fact that he was apologizing in advance made Y/n nervous for what he had to say.

“How upset am I gonna be?” She asked him, looking at him with worried eyes.

Eric grimanced at her question as he pulled her to sit on the couch. He grabbed her waist and pulled her down on his lap.

Eric maneuvered her to have one leg on each side of his waist.

“More than I’d like to see.” He said with a disappointed tone. He hated seeing her upset and Eric knew this was going to make her upset.

So with that Eric explained everything that Erudite was planning and how Dauntless was involved. What was going to happen. Everything.

Once he finished Eric waited with bated breath for her reaction, rubbing his thumbs into her hips under her shirt. Hoping to calm her worries.

“Why are you apart of this?” Y/n asked with a quiet hurt tone of voice.

“Y/n-”

“Why? How can you know about this and participate?” Y/n looked at him urgently with a slightly scared look in her eyes that broke his heart.

“I don’t have a choice. And if I said no then I wouldn’t know every detail. That would make it harder to protect you.” Eric moved her hair back and cupped the back of her neck with his right hand.

Eric knew she was divergent and the only way to protect her was to be at the center of it all.

“I hate this.” Y/n stated leaning her head down and rested it on his chest.

Eric wrapped his arms around her pulling her tightly against him, resting his chin on her head. “I know.”

Taglist: @padawancat97

[buttercupfiction]

Be it fate or just plain misfortune, all it took was one little chance encounter to set you on a path you never even imagined you'd tread. Now, it's up to you to decide where it will lead you. As a child, you got your hands on a Vestige, a remnant of a bygone era containing immense power and potential. It was an opportunity many would pay dearly for, and pay you did, as finding the relic did not come without a cost. The encounter left you with a parting gift you wish you could return, and sent you and your sister on the run - and you've been running ever since. Years later, you find yourself in the bastion of knowledge, Verimys, joining the local guild in search for answers. But, it appears you have arrived at exactly the wrong time; a series of murders plagues the city, seemingly without rhyme or reason, and you are about to get dragged into the fray. With the fate of more than just your own life in your hands, can you weather the storm ahead?

Vestiges of the Hallowing is an interactive fantasy game written in Twine and published on itch.io. The game is heavily character driven, with a focus on character interaction and interpersonal relationships.

The DEMO currently goes up to Chapter 2, standing at 38k words (without code).

play as male, female, or nonbinary; cis or trans

customize your appearance, skillset, and personality

romance any (or none) of the 6 potential love interests (2 male, 2 female, 2 nonbinary) without any gender restrictions

join a guild, investigate the murders in the city, and uncover a secret or two (or ten)

explore the Archives in the city and find out more about the Vestiges and your...unique situation

the Companion

A member of the Greyhounds guild your sister talked into vouching for you. Eager to help and friendly with everyone, but when the spotlight is off him, that spark in his eye dies out. Is he really as relaxed and easygoing as he tries to appear? Appearance: Lanky and of average height, with tan skin and big round chocolate brown eyes framed by short fluffy hair of the same colour that falls in messy waves, encircling his face.

the Journalist

A journalist working for a local newspaper called The Meridian. Resourceful and naturally charismatic, she has a way with people that seems almost effortless. Persistent in the pursuit of the truth almost to the point of recklessness, how far is she willing to go to achieve her goals? Appearance: Tall and lean, with rich brown skin and hazel eyes with prominent specks of green. Her long black hair falls down her shoulders in big curls.

the Archivist

An archivist of the Order of Erudition. Poised and perfectly cordial at first glance, though anyone who has crossed their path would say it's all a front, concealing their razor sharp wit and heartless disposition. Seemingly always in the know about everything, with just the right words to say, one can't help but wonder what goes on behind that calculating gaze? Appearance: Lithe and on the taller side, with olive skin and dark, midnight blue monolid eyes. Their silky black hair falls in a fringe over one side of their face and reaches a little past their shoulders.

the Renegade

A mysterious stranger that appears to be living full-time in a tavern. Bitter and asocial, with only a stray dog as company, he refuses to get involved in anything, yet seems suspiciously connected to the happenings in the city. It's clear he's hiding something, but what? Appearance: Tall and athletic, with fair, freckled skin and forest green eyes. His fiery auburn hair is shaved on the sides, while the rest is left short and unruly.

the Investigator

One of the two agents sent by the City Council to investigate the murders. Soft-spoken and level-headed, with a keen eye for details and an even keener mind, their forte is obtaining information and interpreting it. Though it's obvious they're devoted to the task, something else draws their attention away from it; what could be so important? Appearance: Lean and on the shorter side, with pale skin and sandy blonde hair that falls in a fringe over their dark grey eyes.

the Enforcer

Second of the two agents sent by the City Council. Assertive and ambitious, with an unorthodox approach to solving problems, her skill with a sword and quick reflexes make her an invaluable asset. Driven, but not too concerned about her task nor the goings on in the city; is there something else that holds her interest? Appearance: Toned and of average height, with fair skin and icy blue eyes framed by bangs of sleek platinum blonde hair that, when loose, reaches the small of her back.

DEMO | KO-FI | ASKBOX | PATREON

[gia-batmm-crickle22]

!! Dr. Ratio, Nous & Fuli and Amphoreus Theory !!

Okay, I've got something cooking up, and this is just a theory, don't worry, so please take all of this with a grain of salt ^^; Also, this involves spoilers so please turn away if you haven't played the 3.0 update yet!

So, people have theorized that Dr. Ratio is from Amphoreus. Before the proof was just simply "His clothes and aesthetic are similar to Amphoreus!" But after Amphoreus was released, the theory is actually getting more proof.

Here's one proof:

Ratio and the Titankin of Strife have interesting similarities. Not simply because of the color and the book, but power-wise, they have similar abilities. They both can turn into stone, with Ratio more replicating himself after turning into stone while he has also the ability of wearing a stone bust.

So my theory goes;

What if Dr. Ratio is a half-Titankin that was exiled from Amphoreus?

After the Main Quest, we get a message from Aglaea that sends us to the Adventure Quest "I Once Was In Arcadia", which uncovers a love story between a guy named Paris and a Strife Titankin Furiae Archer.

This was enough for me to understand that Titankins CAN feel more than their original path like Strife. From this quest, I've also understood Amphoreus natives fear Titankins and would have them discriminated at one mistake.

From that, I made the theory of Ratio being half-Titankin. Of course, that would mean his parents were hated and possibly executed. And since Ratio has the face and intelligence of a human with the skills and power of a Titankin, he was seen as a danger to Amphoreus. This aligns to the fact that the Sky Titan Aquila refuses to let anyone leave the planet (from what Aglaea had stated), so the people sent Ratio (probably when he was a child) in attempt to get rid of him. However, Aquila spared him (given he was exiled, not attempting to escape).

Now, ik Amphoreus was destroyed and what we're looking at is just the memory of it, so...

How would this be possible?

Well, in the game, we see that Titankins can change into stone, right? And when you change from Past/Day to Present/Night, the Titankins change too. They turn to stone, almost like a hibernation that keeps them alive despite the years.

With that in mind, I theorize that Ratio was also able to do that, even as a child, his powers/instincts took over and he stayed in stone when he landed in another planet, unbothered and sleeping. When he finally awakens, he's still a child, but Amphoreus is long gone.

Now, where does Nous play a part in this?

As we know, Erudition is one of the paths that's involved with Amphoreus, thus Nous has a role to play in this theory, especially in terms of Ratio. Unlike Fuli, who kept the planet's memory, Nous (as theorized) has no interest with a planet that no longer exists.

This could explain why Nous refuses to answer Herta's questions about Amphoreus.

Now, about Ratio. Ratio was rejected by Nous in joining the Genius Society because he cares about people more than the pursue for knowledge. Ratio has a weakness that Nous makes sure none of the other Genius's have, so THEY turned him away.

But what if it was so much more than that?

What if Nous is aware that Ratio is from Amphoreus and not only do THEY not like the fact that Ratio has a weakness, but THEY also believe that Ratio will take advantage of his place in the Genius Society to help/rescue Amphoreus from ruin? Whether Ratio remembers his home planet or not, Nous didn't want to take the chance, believing that Amphoreus is a doomed planet from the getgo and their fate shouldn't be changed.

This could explain why Fuli (possibly) sent THEIR Memokeeper Black Swan to input the planet Amphoreus into the thoughts and ideas of the Trailblazers while (possibly) sending THEIR Memosnatcher to attempt to distract Nous and Herta from the building of THEIR plan.

When you exit Amphoreus, it's very different from the other Bad Endings. Elio is usually the script supervisor, but Amphoreus isn't.

It's an adventure that started with Black Swan, possibly sent by Fuli, thus the conclusion is that Fuli is the one who tugged on the strings and changed the script/altered the script to have the Trailblazers in Amphoreus, a land that even Akivili hasn't been in, and save Amphoreus.

With this theory, these questions remain:

Why is Fuli trying to save Amphoreus?

Will Nous try to stop the Trailblazers from saving Amphoreus?

Will Ratio return to his home planet after it's saved?

---

Again, this is all just a theory! I'll probably publish this in other platforms, sooo yeah ^^;

[glytchedmuffins]

I dunno how likely this is but I think Amphoreus has a great opportunity to introduce a new 4 star version of Dan Heng.

Most of this is my own wishful thinking, as I want both more 4 stars characters and because I want Dan Heng to match with the Trailblazer and March.

So how does Amphoreus fit into this? Well, remember how we got March's new 4 star form?

Girl got involved directly with the Hunt via both her two new masters, who both follow the Hunt, and because she was right in the front lines in the Hunt against Hooley, literally, girl was trading blows with that wolf.

Kinda the same goes for the Trailblazer, only they get to be extra by having the literal Aeons themselves give us their blessings.

So, in essence, if Dan Heng got involved with a path as well, he could potentially get a new form. And what do you know, Amphoreus has three of those.

Now, I doubt Dan Heng will also get involved with the Remembrance, we already have March and now the Trailblazer too for that, and we dunno the 3rd path yet for certain, but I highly doubt it will be one of the playable ones, so that leaves only one;

The Erudition.

We know Dan Heng is a rather Erudite person, there is the whole Data Bank, how he seeks and stores (and hordes like the dragon that he is) more and more knowledge, any type he can get his hands on, we also know he has published actual scientific papers online.

So him being himself, I can see him wanting to know and seek more information about Amphoreus and how the paths are involved, causing him to be involved with the Erudition that's on Amphoreus and BAM! New 4 star form!

Look, I know I am grasping at straws here, but I REALLLLLLY want Dan Heng to get a new 4 star version okay?!?!?!

(Another option I thought of was Preservation because a. We need more of those and b. It will make him and March match)

[cepheustarot]

Message to yourself from the future

Paid Readings

Attention! This reading is for entertainment purposes only. This tarot reading does not give a 100% guarantee that all the described situations will occur. You build your own life and destiny.

Pick a pile. Choose one or more pictures. Trust your intuition.

Pile 1: Your future is presented in gloomy colors, here the solution of some problem has dragged on for so long that you have neither the strength nor the resources to deal with it, you are very emotionally exhausted here. Perhaps someone is already in such a state that there is literally no strength for anything, you feel tired, it is difficult for you to return to the usual rhythm. However, this period ends here and you find a way out of this situation, so it's not so bad! you find the strength and get out of it, well done! Allso, you from the future wants to warn you not to get involved with one person, he may be a gemini, libra or aquarius, he may also be younger than you. Even if these facts are not about him, rely on characters traits, the person himself is quite windy, does not know what he wants, he is one of those who first does and then thinks. He can also aggravate the situation, start a conflict or a dispute and at the same time get away with it, leaving the guilty one who is in fact not guilty of anything. He also does not keep his promises, shifts responsibility for his actions to another person, so be careful! The advice to you from the future says, you do not need to give up, keep moving, even if it will be small steps, you will still deal with all the difficulties of life, remember that you are stronger than you think!

Pile 2: Here your future is significantly different from what is happening to you now, your life has changed, you have changed it yourself! Perhaps you didn't have the courage or the resources, or you didn't have the opportunity to change something in your life, but you finally take everything into your own hands, and as soon as you did, doors with opportunities opened up in front of you! In other words, here is a new stage of life, something new and it can be anything from a change of activity to a change of residence, a new social circle, appearance, in general, everything that you have long wanted to bring to life. A warning to you from the future says, you should not refuse the opportunity, one person will offer you his help, according to the zodiac sign he is capricorn, virgo, taurus, but it is not necessary that the zodiac sign coincides, look at his character! by himself, a person is active, achieves his goals, knows what he wants, he has plans for life, he has already outlined a path to achieve his dreams there and is now following it, he is also financially stable, he always has money and he spends it wisely, he is also smart enough and erudite. If you refuse, you will greatly regret it and will be sad for a long time about the missed opportunity. Perhaps this person is you yourself and then you should not throw everything halfway, you need to keep moving towards what you want. Advice to you from the future: you should know your limits and understand that you can't jump over your head, don't overdo it and don't overestimate yourself too much. everything will come to you in time!

Pile 3: In general terms, your love sphere is radically changing, and your status is changing, perhaps you will marry someone or vice versa get divorced. There is a chance that you will create a family business and develop it in the future, or you will find a good partner with whom a successful transaction will take place and it will bring you a lot of money.  Warning: if talking about business, then you will face a lot of competition, and in general this may concern not only business, but any area where competition is possible in one way or another. If you get married or get divorced, then many people, your acquaintances, friends, parents or someone from your partner's side will be against this or that decision, they will put pressure on you and try to force you to change your mind, reconsider decisions.  Advice to you from the future: do not listen to anyone and do as you see fit! You need to listen to yourself, your desires, thoughts, priorities, only you know how to build your life

[ylangelegy]

harrowing kae (pt. 3)

DINO DAUNTLESS DINO DAUNTLESS DINO DAUNTLESS ✊ i would absolutely spar (and lose) to dauntless dino

tara, my dearest, i have nothing to show for my dauntless!dino wip except bullet points and one too many photos of how i imagine he would look like... as a dauntless security force member :)

[set pre-pre-divergent canon, which means eric and four are not yet in dauntless]

chan who is born in amity, and it's good, it's nice, it works, but it doesn't feel right. he's from a family that's fairly well-off in the faction. if he chooses to stay, he'll be set for life. marry some nice girl, farm his days away! he should be happy... right?

except he obviously isn't, and everybody knows it. his family is restless about him moving factions; their refrain/whispered prayer is relatively to-be-expected. go to erudite, go to abnegation, sure. anything but dauntless. anything but dauntless.

alas, chan lives to defy expectations. the more he's told "don't do it", the more he thinks the idea is appealing. next thing you know, he's cutting his palm over the coals of dauntless with that almost dopey grin on his face.

except chan kind of sucks. he passes initiation through the skin of his teeth. he's good with the physical aspect— body trained with years of toil— but he barely gets by through the emotional/mental aspects of the tests. he's goaded for being a pansy, one of those 'tree-hugging amity fuckers', and he gets into just enough fights that he's threatened by his trainers that he'll be factionless by the end of this whole thing.

he survives. by the grace of his old faction's gods, he survives, and chan is assigned to be a fence guard. he thrives a little more here, his amity sensibilities making it ideal for him to interact face-to-face with people. he gets promoted to the security force, where he maintains a cushy position involving keeping the City safe.

[branching plot points — need to decide which plot to go with considering this ↑ chan!]

dauntless!mc - either 1) dauntless born!mc who was in the same initiation class as chan. was so good that everyone thought she'd end up a dauntless leader, but has a seeming 'fall from grace' when she ends up in the security force alongside a bemused chan. "doesn't matter where we came from. we all end up in the same place, don't we?" or 2) dauntless!mc who works as a nurse and has to deal with chan's bullshit. "why are you always getting injured?" "maybe i'm trying to find an excuse to see you. ever think of that?"

amity!mc - the girl/life that chan left behind. she's a counsellor now, and chan is assigned to be one of her security detail. "do you ever regret the choices that you made?" "i don't. i can't."

factionless!mc - the factionless are restless, and prior to the arrival of evelyn johnson-eaton, there was mc. mc struggles to manage the ragtag group of factionless into a more coherent system, and chan has to reckon with what the City is expecting to be an uprising.

[sequence-trotter]

my old feverish sunday megapost popped back up in my notifs and got me thinking about his trailer in light of it.

the thing about sunday is that he is so, so, unbelievably mad at god (well, the gods). and wouldn't you be? he's the protege of the dreammaster of paradise; his sister is a famous pop star; he's charismatic and popular and privileged. he lives an unimaginably charmed life because he is a spiritual leader who professes a faith in and loyalty to xipe the harmony. and he spends every single day of his life listening to people share their worst sins and most painful suffering, and he knows god will do nothing. nothing.

living in the HSR universe has got to be insane. gods are real! they are incredibly powerful! one time a computer became one! if they like you, you get for-real actual real-life superpowers!

and not a single one of them is benevolent.

save for THEIR involvement in the swarm disaster, qlipoth the preservation, perhaps the single most obviously influential aeon in the modern HSR era, appears to be utterly silent and uncaring, and THEIR primary devotees have the goal of "accumulate endless, unceasing wealth to literally no practical purpose." xipe the harmony regularly sends THEIR personal emanators to celebrate at penacony, a place that is basically "what if disneyland was also las vegas and could steal your soul and was pretty much premised on disaster and exploitation from day one and was also a literal former prison and current metaphorical prison." lan's pathstriders include actual straight-up superheroes (the galaxy rangers) and nonetheless lan THEMSELF is regularly depicted as cold and uncaring with a tendency to create massive collateral damage that kills THEIR own devotees.

so. gods are real. they will only give you power if you give your life over to their ideals (or happened to share them already). they will never aid you without conditions. they will seemingly never stoop to aid an individual except for their personal favorites. the only thing they care about is their own weird internal battles. and the people to whom they personally grant their power are generally even worse!

and THEY could fix so much. THEIR power appears to be more or less limitless. as far as anyone knows, THEY simply don't care to. unknowable domain suggests nous the erudition is actively preventing humanity's advancement for Reasons. aha the elation appears to have gotten universal power from being better at finding tragedy funny than anyone else in the cosmos could hope to be. THEY are, pretty much to an aeon, just dicks.

if you thought you had the power to make a world without them, why wouldn't you take it? "not everyone would agree to it" okay thanks great i guess we will make "building a better world" permanently off-limits, then.

fuck that. that's stupid! the aeons obviously suck! if someone has to be in charge, if someone has to have godlike power, as someone will inevitably be under the current system, it may as well be someone who doesn't demand fealty or submission! who lets you live a peaceful and happy life before your death, rather than treating humanity like so many ants!

and if that won't work...well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? time to hit the road and find out what's next.

[another-goblin]

A little analysis of Ratio's owl symbolism. He's absolutely covered (and surrounded) with stylized images of owls. Here are just some examples (feel free to study him to find more). He was even (apparently) supposed to wear an owl mask in an older version of his design. But why.

1. In western culture, owls are traditionally associated with knowledge and wisdom, which indicates his connection with Erudition, as a scientist. That's the most obvious explanation for his owl imagery, and probably the only one intended by the designers. But why stop here. Why not overanalyze it.

2. Owls are known as highly specialized and effective predators. So basically, an embodiment of the Hunt.

Dr. Ratio (about the phase flame): Do you know what to do with cornered prey? Hunt it to the death.

Btw, considering that paths are not just a gameplay convention but the actual in-universe things characters recognize in themselves and others, it's even more ironic that the character who dedicated his whole life to science and education belongs to the Hunt. Because gameplay-wise, the Hunt is the opposite of Erudition. The poor guy couldn't have been further away from Nous even if he tried.

3. Owls are good at being unnoticed. They hunt by hiding, observing, and waiting for the right time to strike. It reminds me of that mission at Herta Station, where we first met him. Most people on the station didn't even know that he was there, even though he personally saved these researchers. 

Screwllum (about Ratio's involvement in that mission): …and pulling the strings from behind the curtain is akin to laying down the gauntlet to a genius.

There is a theory that more or less the same thing is happening on Penacony, with most characters probably not knowing that he's even there.

4. The special structure of an owl's wings and feathers makes their flight practically noiseless, so they can approach their prey unnoticed. In addition to point 3, with him moving through Herta station unnoticed, it also reminds me of how he silently disappeared a couple of times in the middle of his conversation with Aventurine.

5. They gave him vertical pupils, probably in an attempt to make his eyes more owl-like. The problem is, I wasn't able to find a single photo of an owl with vertical pupils. They are round. So, if anything, it makes him look more like a cat.

6. And the last point, it's most likely not true, it's my little conspiracy/crack-theory. 

But he's sometimes referred to as a Professor; he's as much of an Owl as Aventurine is a peacock. Game, please don't tell me he has nothing to do with Penacony's Professor Owl the origami birds often mention, whoever it is.

In fact, if he wasn't too young for that, I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with the creation of Dreaworld. Because he mentioned before that taking a bath helps him with going to sleep, and on Penacony you take a bath to go to sleep (what are the chances), and then you enter a world filled with images of owls. It's probably actually nothing, but what a coincidence.

[dewkissedtighnari]

hsr 3.0 discussion below the cut

Okay so this isn’t even really a theory, just me trying to connect dots that probably don’t connect.

So. The memosnatcher was trying to get into contact with nous. is it a coincidence that this is happening while we’re running around on amphoreus? Maybe. but it feels like there might be more to it.

when nikador’s virtues were split off and sealed, he managed to salvage his reason. it seems his reason alone was able to resist the corruption long enough to get help in freeing himself. this suggests the concept of reason might be pretty important.

i can’t remember when it was mentioned exactly, so i’ll need to go track it down, but it’s been implied that the reason titan died long ago (the beauty titan was particularly saddened by it, i think?). if reason is important to resisting corrosion, that bodes poorly for everyone’s survival if the reason titan is gone.

if only there was another god of reason people could turn to, one perhaps even more powerful than cerces…

erudition and reason aren’t that far off from each other. and furthermore, its already been stated that erudition is one of the three paths that amphoreus “hangs in the balance” of.

it’s interesting that this memosnatcher was sent to try to get into contact with nous right around the same time fuli’s gaze finally fell upon amphoreus through the trailblazer. i’m not quite sure yet why fuli’s faction would want to bring nous into things, but i think its not impossible.

i also think it’s possible that this isn’t the first attempt to reach nous on the behalf of amphoreus.

i know a lot of people were bummed out that ratio on amphoreus was a bug. but whether or not he shows up physically, i think he’s involved.

becauseeee he’s designed like a character from amphoreus, he certainly has Opinions about Reason and Wisdom, and he’s purportedly been trying desperately to catch the eye of nous. what if he doesn’t want nous’s gaze to be a part of the society, but rather for the sake of his home world?

whether or not ratio is involved, i think that nous themself will be very important to solving the crisis in amphoreus, if anyone can manage to get in contact.

[holdbeast]

Still trying to piece together my Jing Yuan + Garden of Recollection conspiracy theory.

Facts to far:

Mara is a mental illness that strikes when a person has so many negative memories that they are no longer able to feel positive emotion or think rationally. In those cursed by The Abundance, it is eventually accompanied by physical mutations.

Mara usually afflicts immortals at around the 800-year mark, which is why the Vidyadhara life cycle causes them to reincarnate at about that time.

JY is preternaturally mentally stable for an immortals. He’s at an age where Mara has usually already taken normal people, and he’s far from a normal person - he’s got >800 years of military trauma under his belt. If I recall correctly, they say that he’s by far the longest-surviving Xianzhou General.

JY allegedly killed his master, Jingliu, after she fell into Mara. But we know that’s not true. Jingliu survived and somehow regained a measure of lucidity. How??

We in fact know very little about JY’s personal life and history, outside his relationships to other established characters. We know that he recalls his old friends, but we don’t actually know the details of his involvement in the sedition.

JY once had a pet lion. This is confirmed by both his assistant and his son. But he doesn’t seem to remember that connection?

The story of JY and his pet lion has a very sad ending.

JY is raising Yanqing, a child of unknown origin who just-so happens to have magical ice powers. We have no idea where or how JY acquired this kid and Yanqing doesn’t seem to know who his parents were. Yanqing’s color scheme the exact same as March 7th’s, suggesting that, like her, he may have been placed in sixth-phased ice after interference by the Garden of Recollection. Yanqing would have been a small child at the time so he wouldn’t be aware of this.

We know that JY is an Emanator because he says as much to Luocha. The obvious conclusion is that he is an Emanator of The Hunt, but he never actually says that, and there’s no law saying people on the Laofu have to be aligned that way. Fu Xuan got her blessing from The Erudition.

So I mean. What are the odds that JY did some sort of deal with The Rememberance to keep himself together and/or help Jingliu? He might not be an Emanator of The Rememberance, but it’s not completely off the table.

I’m just saying. A whole lot of things about JY would be explained if he can edit memories to prevent Mara, or the Garden of Recollection is doing it for him.

[brainrot-mx]

I DON'T KNOW WHERE ELSE TO POST THIS BUT HERE U GO ‼️spoilers hsr 2.2‼️

I am aware the danganronpa fandom is prolly really inactive rn and I also have no idea if the HSR fandom is on here BUT I HAVE TO SHARE MY IDEAS (saiouma mixed into hsr)

Kokichi would be an emenator of the Enigmata or Elation:

I'm leaning Enigmata honestly, but his lies and hatered for violence would be a great motivation for him altering history to prevent humanity from ever commiting heinous crimes ever again (like the killing game?)

The remark from Shuichi after the 5th trial about Kokichi being a lie itself would fit perfectly for being someone either made by a fictionologist (like Gallahager) or being an emenator

He's also incredibly smart which would help him with covering up history, twisting facts and generally messing with public opinion/knowledge about history in subtle ways by using lies

His belief that lies can be used for good also factors into this

Messing with anyonr related to Nous, specifically Shuichi here but I think the memebers of the Genius Society would hate him <3

As an Emenator of Enigmata, it fits that his backstory is very unclear and messy/dkesn't make sense even when you have clues (like DICE for example)

Him not being given any credit for his plan in chapter 5 also solidifies him being perfect for this, as he wasn't written down to be remembered, leaving him with no legacy and no history

I take his ultimate to mean he is the perfect leader, so he fills a groups gaps and the support or drive, depending on what is needed, which is what I think a leader should be. Here, it would be used the way he did in the DRV3, which is to say he turned people against him (either by writing down false history and acting it out or making the planet hate him specifically therefore throwing the repeating history off it's rails with a new factor)

A lot of people would mistake him for a Masked Fool. He is friends with a bunch of them though and uses it to his advantage

Because he is so elusive and has very similar ideals to Mythus, he'd probably be given a lot of power. Deciphering the messed up history and stories he leaves behind is a giant pain

Would go very heavy on the planets that constantly repeat their own history, especially if it involves lots of killing and unreasonable authorities doing it

Hates the IPC, constantly messes with their records and

HOWEVER for the Elation:

Being a Masked Fool or even an Emenator would fit him becuase he loves pranks and subtly changes the situation is ways to fit himself (which is a characteristic of Aha)

Messing with people, making fun of people, having his own agenda and generally orchestrating everything from the background works as well.

And Shuichi would probably be part of Genius Society and blessed by Nous, the Aeon of Erudition:

As is customary for anyone in the GS, he would live a life engrossed in his own work, trying to find the truth of cases across the cosmos

The cases he solves are very important, usually solving mysteries connected to important figures in the universe or were unsolved for years before being solved by him, prompting Nous to actually notice him

A lot of people dislike him for revealing corrupt leaders, especially the IPC, because he exposed how horrible they were and as a result the IPC was unable to invade his home planet

Accidentally solved a case where an Aeon was involved, it was a really big scale conflict/event and he got involved, then solved it

Is curious about the Aeons since (and because he was blessed by Nous). Has been invited to work on the Simulated Universe, where he tries to solve historical events like the Swarm, dissapearance of Aeons and what could've happened to them

Probably constantly getting fucked with by Kokichi, by having his records of cases and notes of findings from years ago altered. He gets targeted because of a case he solved earlier in his life, where he exposed that someone messed with the evidence, that person having been Kokichi

He always figures out when his records were messed with, while alse realising that Kokichi was the one doing it, but he could never solidly prove it, causing him to continue his research on the other

Their end comes when Shuichi fully realises who Kokichi is and finds out everything there is to know. None of the information makes sense, accept for the others name. He then dubs Kokichi a "living lie" and calls him by the only things he's certain is true, prompting the Eminator of Enigmata to start fizzling away, as he has become "real" because of Shuichi solidifying him as "real" and "true" by the use of his name instead of a "lie" and "nonexistent" or "altered"

(this is because the Enigmata wants history to be obscured and therefore untrue, which is why I believe it's Eminators would follow, having fabricated lives with no records to show their true history.)

Shuichi would then spend his whole life trying and forget Kokichi's true name, just so he could see him one more time.

[krawlernyannyan]

It's the week for the v2.6 character teasers, and first up on the post-Xianzhou docket is a new Galaxy Ranger, Rappa!

"With stars above, everywhere doth evil lurks! Under the witness of the solemn skyscraper, recite your final words — three gunshots — The winner has been decided. My Cosmic ninjutsu methods are ever-changing. Better luck next time… in your next life." A peculiar girl who appears in Penacony like a flashbang at the darkest hour of night, identifying herself as a ninja and attributing everything in the world to "ninjutsu." Upholding the recitation of ninja mantra, creating Dazzling Ninja Seals, and mastering ninja techniques, the Way of the Ninja involves rap, graffiti, and comics. Through rigorous self-discipline, she roams the stars, upholding justice and righteousness. As a member of the Galaxy Rangers, she relentlessly pursues the villain known as Evil Ninja Osaru, chasing them to the very edge of the Cosmos.

We finally have an Imaginary/Erudition character! And it looks like we're going back to Penacony for v2.6!

[justforbooks]

What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

Orlando Reade’s fascinating study of John Milton’s famous work, through the eyes of myriad readers from Malcolm X to white supremacists, shows how it has provoked the widest range of responses and interpretations

In Dan Brown’s thriller Angels and Demons (2000), the protagonist, Robert Langdon, combs the Vatican archives for proof that the astronomer Galileo Galilei was involved with the sinister secret society known as the Illuminati. He is stunned to discover a manuscript containing four cryptic lines of poetry, not in Latin or Italian, but, his companion tells him, “written in English”. “English?” Langdon gasps, disbelievingly (the breathy italics, just two of hundreds of examples in the novel, are both Brown’s). Not only are the lines in English (English? English!), but their author, despite belonging to a clandestine group, has obligingly put his name to them: “The poem is signed John Milton.” Even as Langdon’s mind boggles, it helpfully spells out the relevant facts: “John Milton? The influential English poet who wrote Paradise Lost?… he was still dazed over the document’s spellbinding implications.” Warning – more italics incoming: “John Milton was an Illuminatus.” While the revelation might not quite be as mind-blowing as those to come in Brown’s next novel, to literary buffs the prospect of Milton the Illuminatus might be almost as sacrilegious as the idea of Christ’s fruitful loins at the end of The Da Vinci Code.

It’s arguably too easy – albeit enjoyable – to make fun of Brown’s overblown plotting and prose. What makes this episode worthy of note is that it is just one entertainingly silly instance of Milton’s remarkable tendency to pop up in unexpected places in the centuries since his death, like some kind of poetically visionary, ferociously erudite, fervently anti-monarchical jack-in-the-box. This tendency is the subject of Orlando Reade’s thoughtful, wide-ranging and astute book. In 12 short and elegant chapters, Reade examines a range of contexts in which – and writers for whom – Milton’s great epic poem Paradise Lost has come to matter, both as an object of fascination in its own right, and as a flexible instrument with which to probe and ponder a variety of psychological, social and political predicaments. Each chapter has a chief protagonist, but arrays around them a set of contemporaneous responses to Milton that adds richness and texture to the narrative.

Some of the figures upon whom Reade focuses, and their Miltonic preoccupations, are quite well known, such as Thomas Jefferson, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and George Eliot. His selection as a whole is, however, deliberately and challengingly eclectic, pushing us to consider the whole gamut of responses that a great writer can inspire. There is a particularly fine and insightful chapter on the use made of Milton by prominent figures in the Haitian revolution, for whom a literary sensibility was “a crucial indicator of the capacity for self-government”: Jean Louis, Baron de Vastey, claimed that it was not the liberated Black Haitians, but rather their former masters, who were “like the infernal spirits” conjured by “the immortal Milton”. Reade also richly explores the counterintuitive acuity with which Malcolm X read Milton’s works while imprisoned. “Malcolm’s ability to interpret was the foundation of his political activism,” Reade argues, and his “rejection of western civilisation was an epic act” in which he both read Paradise Lost against the grain and captured something of Milton’s own internally divided energies.

The readability and economy of Reade’s book is all the more impressive given the sheer amount of information on which his account relies. He explains at the outset that the book will be accessible to “someone who hasn’t read Paradise Lost”, and he achieves this by threading a summary of the poem’s action, enlivened by frequent citation, through the book’s chapters, juggling it with contextual information about the later figures whose engagements with Milton he describes. Inevitably this strategy is not always successful. Some of the summaries could have allowed in more of the texture of Milton’s poem, and a few of the potted biographical portraits have an inescapably Wikipedia-like tone to them (“Born in 1882, Virginia Stephen grew up in the upper-middle-class idyll of Hyde Park Corner, London…”; “Cyril Lionel Robert James was born in Trinidad in 1901”).

Not all of the chapters convincingly show that Paradise Lost mattered to their central figures – this is especially the case with the account of Hannah Arendt, which is insightful on her relationship with her one-time teacher and lover, the philosopher and Nazi Martin Heidegger, but light on actual Miltonic engagements. Overall, however, Reade is to be applauded for a remarkable feat of distillation and elucidation as he ranges adroitly across historical time and geographical space in search of Paradise Lost’s afterlives, sprinkling his calm and precise prose with an occasional sparkle of impishly absurd simile (in the space of two pages, Satan and Beelzebub on the fiery lake “hold their heads above the surface of the water, like two lizards in a Jacuzzi”; God heaps endless suffering on Satan “like a tourist at a bottomless buffet”, and Satan contemplates his minions’ prospects in hell “like a tech chief executive contemplating child labourers in a mineral mine”.

The finest and most difficult balance that Reade successfully strikes is between lauding Milton as a rich resource for those in search of inspiration and of freedom, and recognising the abhorrent characteristics of his imagination that have made him amenable to his more repulsive interpreters: these include Milton-worshipping white supremacist participants in the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans and in more recent times, as Reade startlingly explains, the attraction to Milton’s works expressed by the psychologist Jordan Peterson, guru of online “incels” and misogynists. These disturbing interpreters are not just wrong-headed, Reade shows; they are responding to off-putting tendencies in Milton’s own mind, which veered between assertions of human equality and the insistence that some groups – perhaps the English, or Protestants, or just Milton himself – were superior.

Reade movingly frames his account with reminiscences of his experiences teaching Paradise Lost to incarcerated students in New Jersey during his graduate student years, and recognises that Milton can be viewed both as a symbol for the individual lives crushed by the modern prison industrial complex, and as a symbol for the forces doing the crushing. As a response to such a complex and equivocal historical figure neither hagiography nor iconoclasm seems quite adequate, and Reade’s excellent book strikes a difficult and deft balance between the two.

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