#but the similarities are uncanny

[blood-orange-juice]

Pushing my "Childe is inspired by Uther Doul" agenda.

I wrote about how everything that he does contains a contradiction and we discussed with Cricket how Canotila's quest implies that the Abyss might not be just a place with monsters and dead forgotten gods, but rather a place where things randomly flicker in and out of existence or change to random other things.

And a huge part of my fascination with Childe is how three years after the start of the story I still can't figure him out. Human psyche doesn't bend at this angles, his combination of traits is not supposed to exist in one person (nor it can be imitated).

Yet, somehow it doesn't feel like ooc or bad writing, I have a very clear sense of what would be childelike and unchildelike, it just doesn't feel like anything that can exist inside a human brain, unless I resort to a very weird theory.

*

The theory.

China Mieville's "The Scar" has a concept called "possibility mining", certain places and certain magic/technology being able to conjure all the possible versions of a person or an object at once. It can be navigated to some extent.

There's a character called Uther Doul, a warrior-scholar, the pirate city rulers' bodyguard and overall a charming fellow. He's consistently described as someone changing the direction of his actions too quickly and unpredictably or having traits that shouldn't coexist in one person.

(he also wears grey, is proficient in most kinds of weapons and is generally polite and soft spoken. do you see my vision?)

First meeting:

  “Surrender,” he said quietly to the man before him, who looked up in terror and sobbed, fumbled idiotically for his knife.    The grey-clad man spun instantly in the air, his arms and legs bent. He twirled as if he were dancing and stamped out quickly, the bottom of his foot slamming into the fallen man’s face and smashing him back. The sailor sprawled, bleeding, unconscious or dead. As the man in grey landed he was instantly still. It was as if he had not moved.

A fight at a city arena (mostly quoting this for the reaction of other people to him):

It was only when the frenzy spread to her own boat that she realized it was a word. “Doul.” It came from all around her. “Doul, Doul, Doul.” A name. “What are they saying?” she hissed to Silas. “They’re calling for someone,” he said, his eyes scanning the surrounds. “They want a display. They’re demanding a fight from Uther Doul.” He gave her a quick, cold smile. “You’ll recognize him,” he said. “You’ll know him when you see him.” [...] Uther Doul did not seem to live in the same time as anyone else. He seemed like some visitor to a world much more gross and sluggish than his own. Despite the bulk of his body, he moved with such speed that even gravity seemed to operate more quickly for him.

The heroine contemplating after (I don't think need to comment):

They left and walked the winding nightlit pathways of Thee-And-Thine toward Shaddler, and Garwater and the Chromolith. Neither spoke. At the end of Doul’s fight, Bellis had seen something that had brought her up short and made her afraid. As he had turned, his hands clawed, his chest taut and heaving, she had seen his face. It was stretched tight, every muscle straining, into a glare of feral savagery unlike anything she had ever seen on a human being. Then a second later, with his bout won, he had turned to acknowledge the crowd and had looked once more like a contemplative priest. Bellis could imagine some fatuous warrior code, some mysticism that abstracted the violence of combat and allowed one to fight like a holy man. And equally she could imagine tapping into savagery, letting atavistic viciousness take over in a berserker fugue. But Doul’s combination stunned her. She thought of it later, as she lay in her bed, listening to light rain. He had readied and recovered himself like a monk, fought like a machine, and seemed to feel it like a predatory beast. That tension frightened her, much more than the combat skills he had shown. Those could be learned.

Uther explaining lore:

   Uther quoted something like a singer. “ ‘We have scarred this mild world with prospects, wounded it massively, broken it, made our mark on its most remote land and stretching for thousands of leagues across its sea. And what we break we may reshape, and that which fails might still succeed. We have found rich deposits of chance, and we will dig them out.’    “They meant all that literally,” he said. “It wasn’t an abstract crow of triumph. They had scarred, they had broken the world. And, in doing so, they set free forces that they were able to tap. Forces that allowed them to reshape things, to fail and succeed simultaneously-because they mined for possibilities. A cataclysm like that, shattering a world, the rupture left behind: it opens up a rich seam of potentialities.    “And they knew how to pick at the might-have-beens and pull out the best of them, use them to shape the world. For every action, there’s an infinity of outcomes. Countless trillions are possible, many milliards are likely, millions might be considered probable, several occur as possibilities to us as observers-and one comes true.    “But the Ghosthead knew how to tap some of those that might have been. To give them a kind of life. To use them, to push them into the reality that in its very existence denied theirs, which is defined by what happened and by the denial of what did not. Tapped by possibility machines, outcomes that didn’t quite make it to actuality were boosted, and made real.

Fun detail: he also wields what's called a "possible sword", it takes the shape currently preferred by the owner.

If I recall that correctly, it's never actually stated explicitly or explained why does Uther have such a weird combination of traits and fans argue a lot about which side was real.

I think all of them were. He just switched constantly between all the different versions of himself. And I think so does Childe. Not just in "he compartmentalizes" way (although that probably too) but in reality-shifting way.

I also think that's the real reason why Childe wasn't in Sumeru. His thought process itself is probably a massive spoiler. Also Nahida would have probably speedrun a corruption arc with a pace inconceivable both to King Deshret and Rukkhadevata if she tried to peek into his head.

*

It gets weirder and even more fun when you see the drops from the 4.2 boss, but I'll wait for the patch to drop to draw parallels. For now I'll just say that it involves a whale and a music instrument.

[bethhiraeth]

Is it just me or does it feel like Stranger Things has almost become the new Supernatural? Like, gay monster hunting show? A mlm ship that almost everyone loves? Mainstream TV that a lot of people watch but they don’t really watch? Die hard fan base? Trending while major political events are going on? Come on

[banana-themed-url]

He is literally Miles Bron from Glass Onion:

Shitty knowledge of disruptor theory

Hyping up a product that all the experts know is unsafe and framing it as “innovation”

Has a team of people who blindly encourage him or get kicked out when they point out the dangers of the product

Willing to sue his dissidents into oblivion to prevent bad press

Puts more effort into avoiding legal liability for causing harm than into preventing that harm in the first place

Is responsible for the deaths of multiple people

oh my god this New Yorker article about the Titan holy fucking shit fuck???

[frownyalfred]

we don’t have enough *coughs and raises voice* WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH BATFAMILY ART OF BRUCE AND JASON WITH BOTH OF THEM ROCKING THE WHITE STREAKS IN THEIR BLACK HAIR

[timbit-robin-art]

I have been plagued with a vision and must be lobotomized.

[chaikachi]

"Look, whatever you're thinking... do me a favour. Don't let me go."

rosegarden transistor au because them being separated in canon isn't enough. i need to make them yearn in alternate universes too, apparently.

[fallenoftheromaempire]

Recreation of a realization i had today

[toytle]

my two favorite easily-flustered scientists 🫶

[alt text, id + refs below cut]

image 1: grayscale redraws of jayce talis (arcane) and barry allen (the flash). both are similarly flustered, stammering over themselves trying to explain something.

image 2: jayce is blushing and disheveled with dark circles under his eyes. a bead of sweat forms at his temple and he holds his face awkwardly, making eye contact at the viewer as he says, “t-that’s—that’s not what i— ha ha… we tested our hextech under every conceivable condition for years…”

image 3: barry is blushing and putting his hand behind his head in embarrassment, looking to the side to avoid eye contact. he lowers his head and his lips are awkwardly pulled to the side as he says, “yeah, i… well, i mean. it’s MORE than just science, it’s…”

image 4: screenshot of jayce awkwardly trying to explain himself.

image 5: panels of iris teasing barry about science books and barry awkwardly trying to explain himself.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

hot take maaaybe but imo the core tragedy of satoru is that he’s not a god, he’s literally just a normal guy who got godhood pushed onto him by other people . a god would be able to handle eternal solitude no problem but satoru isn’t one so he suffers for it

[sleepy-hyperfixations]

finally someone said it

Harry I love you I promise I love you so much but-

[fluffyninja91]

Stolen from twt timeline, but it's too good to keep it just there

[splo0shh]

HM?

[demigods-posts]

throwback to that time when i was eight and a spider came out of fucking nowhere and attacked me in my bedroom. if this doesn't scream annabeth chase, then i don't know what does.

[scandalousadventures]

Town-on-Gorkhon map carpet! This is what the Powers That Be were playing on the whole time

Who is YOUR 🫵 favourite Pathologic building???

[stinky-bus]

If I had a nickel for every time I fell in love with a toxic enemies to lovers/lovers to enemies Mcyt ship featuring a small and short-tempered bird-hybrid guy in love with a taller, brown-haired, crazed, morally grey guy I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

Like I swear I’m getting serious Deja vu guys

[olskuvallanpoe]

Don’t get me STARTED on the fact that Wylan and Kaz BOTH DO THE SCHEMING FACE