#diegetic

[needledropproject]

Monkey Man (2024) | Redlight - Swedish House Mafia, Sting

[queen-ch3rry]

"Some nights, the ghosts live beside us. They stand in the shadows, observing us silently. When I stand on stage, singing like it's the only thing that keeps my life grounded on this earth, I see them in the back of the lounge. Standing there, forcing me to think about everything that led up to this moment under stagelights so bright, they feel like the sun. Hellbent on burning me down." - Ginger Hestwood "I see her everywhere. When I lie in the silence of my room at night, if I let that silence consume me long enough, I know I will also hear her. That voice of hers, so sweet and tender and gentle. That laugh so girlish and innocent. I'm torn when I hear her. I want to open my eyes and see if, finally, it was all a bad dream. And what if it were? What if I did one day open my eyes and see her sitting there, smiling and as full of life as the hours before it ended? But even if that could be true, I'm too scared to tempt it. If I opened my eyes and broke the spell, and had to face forever the fact my darling is as invisible as air, I would for certain lose the last scraps of sanity I have somehow hung onto." - Harlan Beaumont

[minindo]

Some thumbnails from April Fools 2025 on SiIvaGunner

A few weeks ago I made a DeviantArt account to download a few resources for thumbnails for SiIvaGunner's "in-universe games" April Fools' Day 2025 event. I appreciated that those random resources happened to already exist, so now I've decided to post (some of) the thumbnails I made for the event to the same platform. The next time some fan wants resources for any of these, I'll hopefully have made it easier for them just as the random fans on DeviantArt years ago made it easier for me.

I did more thumbnails than these, but some of them were just touchups/crops/exports of existing assets that I don't feel like I put enough work into to post, and some of them were collaborations with other people where I provided a minority of the work.

The previews look compressed, but you can use the download button to get the uncompressed original files.

[aetherictree]

Diegetic Worldbuilding

Or, something like that, anyway.

I really like worldbuilding. More than I like writing stories; what interests me is the story of the world as a whole, the broad sweeps, how everything fits together. I can spend hours reading Wikis of fictional worlds, hundreds of hours dreaming up worlds of my own. I've decided to start writing them down, creating fictional guides, textbooks etc.

And... as far as I can tell, there isn't really a name for non-narrative fiction.

Narrative non-fiction, sure, that's a recognised thing. Epistolary fiction is also recognised, and sometimes has this character e.g. World War Z. But fictional encyclopedias, like the SCP Foundation or the Orions Arm project? Guides like The Zombie Survival Guide? History books written in universe? There doesn't seem to be much academic attention paid to this kind of writing. Or non academic either. It's a disappointingly ignored niche.

Maybe there is a term and I just haven't been able to find it yet. Whatever the case, for now I'm calling it diegetic worldbuilding, and will keep writing my Guide To The British Wilds (Enchanted Forest) and Introduction To Thaumaturgy (3rd Ed.). I like it, even if publishers don't.

[poisonedepths]

Has you or a loved one suffered at the hands of negligent mages or enchanters?

Have you been exposed to mana here on the surface?

Guild mages are to be held responsible for their actions. Head to your local delver guild office branch building and submit a formal complaint.

You could be entitled to up to three gold in damages.

[[The local posting on the town's board is colorful and garish despite the subject matter. It itself covers a recruitment flyer from the guild asking for curious unclassed to inquire how to unlock the mage class.]]

[juddgeeksout]

Diegetic Advancement

For some god-forsaken reason, the words, Diegetic Advancement got stuck in my head this morning. Here is what was born from that phrase rattling around in my head: Diegetic AdvancementDownload Inspired by Into the Odd and Apocalypse World and Swords Without Master. If you would like to get an email notification when blog posts are published, please subscribe below: Email…

[irc-d-x-ao3]

Thank you for un-concising it in the most concise way, corvidcall.

I could easily use this in college as I study literature. This whole post is just *chef kiss* perfect.

hey folks, I’m gonna introduce you to two very important fandom terms and they are watsonian and doylist 

they come (obviously) from the sherlock holmes fandom, and they are two different ways of explaining something in a story. say I’m a fan and I notice that, in the original books, watson’s war wound is sometimes in his leg and sometimes in his shoulder. the watsonian explanation is how watson (that is, a person within the story) might explain it; the doylist explanation is how sir arthur conan doyle (a person in real life) would have explained it. 

sherlock explains the migrating war wound by making the shoulder wound real and the limp psychosomatic. the guy ritchie films explain it by having the leg wound sustained in battle before the events of the film and the shoulder wound happen onscreen. the doylist explanation, of course, is that acd forgot where the wound was.

this is very important when we’re discussing stuff like headcanons and word-of-god. I see this when people offer watsonian explanations for something, and then a doylist will say something like “it’s just because the author wrote it that way,” and I see it when a person is criticizing bad writing/storytelling (for example, the fact that quiet in metal gear solid v is running around the whole game in a bikini and ripped tights) and someone comes back with “but there’s an in-story reason why that happens!” (that reason being she breathes through her skin).

there’s nothing wrong with either explanation, and really I think you need both to understand and analyze a text. a person coming up with a watsonian explanation has likely not forgotten that the author had real-life reasons for writing something that way, and a person with a doylist interpretation is likely not ignoring the in-universe justification for that thing. 

but it’s very difficult (and imo often useless, though there are exceptions) to try to argue one kind of explanation with the other kind. wetblanketing someone’s headcanon with “or it could just be bad writing” is obnoxious; dismissing someone’s criticism with “but have you considered this in-universe explanation” is ignoring the point of the criticism. understanding where someone is coming from is important when making an argument; acting like your argument is better because you’re being doylist when they’re being watsonian or vice versa is not.

[needledropproject]

Derry Girls 2x04 | Rock the Boat - The Hues Corporation

[comme-du-monde]

Gadin 20 Réponse de la centurionne Amis Adzervi

Tribun,

L’été dernier, j’ai reçu ma nouvelle assignation. On m’envoyait diriger une centurie de l’armée de terre, déjà stationnée à’ marche chéiroptérienne. À ce moment-là j’tais postée à Loyokser, faque vous pouvez imaginer le déracinement que ça implique pour moi pis ma suite. J’aurais ben aimé y aller direct, mais j’ai à mon service dix aides de camp, deux cooks, un dépouilleur tout frais sorti du séminaire, pis un écomètre. Des subalternes de confiance, mais aucun hastúl là-dedans. C’tait évident qu’y nous faudrait marcher.

Le plan initial c’tait de quitter les vieux pays par les routes impériales, une expédition de quatre mois selon mon écomètre – contre une semaine si j’avais simplement volé, mais bon, on a le miel qu’on se jabote, han? J’ai avisé la cohorte de notre date d’arrivée. Ça le faisait pas pour eux. Le légat-primipile m’a répondu que si j’tais pas en poste au premier jour de la nouvelle année, ch’rais rétrogradée pour refus d’obéir à un ordre.

En brainstormant, mon dépouilleur a mentionné une autre route, une que pus personne emprunte de nos jours : le chemin Tirmeos. Y s’agit de remonter un peu le fleuve, traverser le désert jusqu’à’ vallée thakissienne pis ensuite suivre les rivières intérieures, pour un total de deux mois et demi de marche, ce qui rentrait dins temps. L’écomètre lui a vite fermé le clapet en disant que c’te route-là avait été déclaré « écométriquement insuffisante », mais tsé, une trompe se trompe. Faque j’ai demandé au dépouilleur si les sols étaient assez favorables pour quitter le pavé. Y m’a répondu qu’on arrivait en saison sinistre pis que le mycélium nous ferait la vie dure dins rivières. Tsé ce qu’y disent : ignore l’écomètre, ignore le dépouilleur, mais ignore jamais les deux. Contre toute recommandation, j’ai élu de passer par la vieille route.

Après trois semaines de chemins de terre, on s’est engagés dans le désert. Je pensais avoir toute planifié parfaitement – les réserves d’eau pis de bouffe, les bivouacs, les antivenins pour nos mammifères, mais j’avais pas calculé le facteur camélien.

C’est là qu’y nous ont embusqués. Des Fosomdarun. On a rien vu venir. En plein milieu de la nuitte, me su ramassée une lame à’ gorge à genoux s’a dune avec ma suite. Y devaient être cinquante, soixante peut-être, des Caméliens flambant nus sauf pour leurs couvre-bosses d’albâtre pis leurs coiffes de bronze. Le genre d’accoutrement qu’on voit juste dins vieux contes préconquête.

J’avais un aide de camp qui était Camélien. Y chignait, y’implorait pour sa vie pis y gesticulait vers nos ravisseurs. Y devait penser qu’y’aurait droit à un passe-droit, mais si y’a de quoi, c’est lui que les Fosomdarun avaient l’air à haïr le plus. Les Syeb-Rinta se vêtissent de Syeb-Sana, après tout. Ça m’apparaissait évident qu’y’allait se faire égorger dins secondes qui suivraient, faque je me su parée à l’attaque, mais mon dépouilleur m’a faite des gros yeux. C’est vrai que j’tais la seule dans’ gang qui avait de l’expérience au combat. Si je faisais quoi que ce soit, je condamnais tout le monde. L’aide de camp s’est vidé de son sang pis son corps a dévalé la dune. Suivi de trois autres : deux serpentiens pis l’écomètre.

Y nous ont trainés en chaines à travers le désert pendant des semaines. Au moindre son, au moindre ralentissement du groupe, y nous frappaient, nous sliçaient, nous arrachaient un doigt, un membre, une antenne. Chaque fois qu’on passait par un campement, les désertiques locaux nous accueillaient avec une haie d’honneur de matraquage. Au début je me demandais c’tait avec des os de quel animal qu’y nous frappaient, pis un manné j’ai reçu un coup de défense.

À ce que je calcule être le huitième jour, la chélonienne s’est affalée pis a nous a toute faite débouler la dune. Al’arrivait clairement pus à trainer sa carapace au soleil. Ça nous a pris des heures pour la remonter s’a crête, pis quand qu’on est arrivés, nos ravisseurs l’ont détachée pis passée au cimeterre. Mon dépouilleur avait l’air en tabarnac, mais tsé, on peut pas toute baigner dans’ gelée royale.

Ça a pris une autre semaine avant qu’on arrive à une oasis. Ayanif était en plein midi. À ce moment-là, on en avait perdu trois autres à cause de plaies infectées. Y restait moi, mon dépouilleur, un aide de camp formicien pis les deux cooks, des fongiens qui au final semblaient vraiment plus dérangés par la déshydratation que par les sévices.

Y nous ont tirés jusqu’à une structure troglodyte, une sorte de butte de roche avec une dizaine de balcons sans rampe faisant face à l’oasis. Arrivée à mon balcon, j’ai vu la fosse qui m’attendait en bas. Les pieux avaient déjà faite la passe à plusieurs autres prisonniers. Une Camélienne en robe verte m’attendait. A psalmodiait des vers dans sa langue mâchonnée. Y semblait se passer la même chose s’es autres balcons, je le voyais aux regards de la foule qui se promenaient de haut en bas. Après ça, j’ai entendu des claquements de mandibule, avant qu’un corps de fourmi me passe dans’ face.

Mon dépouilleur, à autre balcon, s’est mis à argumenter. Je l’entendais leur dire qu’y connaissait des trucs pour irriguer les sols les plus sableux, qu’y pourrait leur être utile pour consacrer leurs morts pour qu’y trouvent la paix dans l’après-vie. Toutes ces affaires-là. À travers toute ça, lui, y’avait jamais catché que nos ravisseurs parlaient pas hiryal. Anyway, je l’ai vu rejoindre l’aide de camp dans le pit. Les cooks pis moi on allait y passer bientôt.

La prêtresse s’est avancée vers moi, a m’a détachée pis du bout de son cimeterre a m’a poussée dans le vide. Faque chu rentrée à Loyokser.

Comme on dit par chez nous : pourquoi regarder la danse si on sait déjà ’est où la bouffe? Depuis, je prends ça relax. J’ai encore un mois off avant de rejoindre mon nouveau poste.

Bref, toute ça pour dire que mon dépouilleur pourra pas dire la messe à l’enterrement de votre cousine. J’espère que vous en trouverez un autre à temps.

Une bonne journée à vous,

Centurionne Amis Adzervi

⁂

Cacheté par le Bureau du Tribun, Elurmurd

J2-S3-M4-A4-L2-C20, Ère de Syeb

Traduit de l’hiryal par le Jorneau

[krisrisk]

had to look this up now my brain is stuck at the thought that there's sound in movies that the people in the movies cannot hear. The implications. The possibilities. omg. mindblown. tits clean off fallen to the floor.

told my 17 year old brother what it means for sound in a movie to be non-diegetic and he said it sounds like it would be a great insult, and he's right. non-diegetic motherfucker. you're not even part of my canon universe. i can't even hear you, that's how main character i am. this idiot isn't even diegetic.

[zeropro]

How did Bee and Thundercracker get to be on such friendly terms?

They met during the war in IDW's Spotlight: Thundercracker

Here are the actual pages from the comic:

Anyway, in my version of events, after Thundercracker left the Decepticons, he tried to hide out on Earth and not attract any attention from either side, but Bumblebee found him. Instead of turning him in, he ended up helping him stay in hiding and even provided him some Energon.

Thundercracker would later repay his kindness by saving his life.

[poisonedepths]

Magic has been, best described to me, as 'weaving strands of reality into the fabric of existence as a specific complex pattern in your mind'. Something which I obviously do not understand enough to even attempt to doubt.

However, something which I can comment on is the mana generated from such spells. The attribute 'requirements' were chosen by the mages guilds not simply because of safety for the practitioner, but as a benchmark for how much mana the spell produces when it unravels. Yes, the spells when woven and released have to unravel and fray before the mage can utilize the same shape and type again.

Why? That is a great question that they have yet to explain satisfactorily, but that is the common belief amongst mages.

Weaving these spells can be done in shorter and shorter timeframes with practice, but to make them unravel faster, a pattern must be explicitly woven into them. This 'pattern' does two things. It increases the amount of mana coming out of the mage in both quantities as well as shortens the spread in which the mana comes out of the mage.

Luckily, mages can reabsorb some of the mana their spells produce by holding their breath, and they are usually also given containers to contain the mana and allow it to decay naturally.

The reabsorption by the way, as best as I can tell, is why they seem to often be naturally enchanted much of the time and why I believe they unlock many mana resistance achievements. Though...none of the mages I've asked have been willing to confirm for me...

Anyways, as useful as magic can be despite the potential danger mana poses, magic is generally less useful against monsters than it is against beasts. At the upper reaches of the Breach, this is less noticeable, monsters are lower-tiered. But deeper in, they become more dangerous, like the difference between a Tiger and a House Cat, and they become more and more resistant to magic. Similar to how beasts become more and more resistant to physical attacks. This creates this weird and honestly frustrating paradox, where mages seem to want to delve but are less capable, and where warriors are not geared to go into the Breaches that far yet are required to a degree.

- Journal of Kaydir the Lost

[tsartistry]

[starleska]

this whole bit is so funny man 😂💖 Mr. Ring-A-Ding looking like the pleading emoji...Belinda being confused by the sad soundtrack...the way the Doctor's face goes from awe and delight to "ooh you little liar!" absolute cinema 🙈💖

[redhotchilies]

Technically, it was Voyager that made Vulcan emotional suppression biological, not SNW. In "Mind-Meld" we are told that the "mesiofrontal cortex" is the part of the brain responsible for Vulcans' unique brand of emotions inhibition. If this part of their brain is damaged or, say, flooded with hormones, their self-control goes out of whack.

Basically, Vulcans have an extra frontal lobe that works alongside Surak's teachings to keep themselves in check.

Of course, this opens up more questions, like if they had the mesiofrontal cortex before or after Surak's Awakening. 2,000 years isn't enough time for a long-lived species to evolve new population-spanning traits like that.

Humans-turned-into-Vulcans wouldn't have the Vulcan cultural teachings, but it could (presumably) still work with their human morals/ethics to keep themselves under control.

Human!Spock vs Vulcan!Spock is a different story bcs the visual conflict is a diegetic rep. of Spock's inner turmoil, not necessarily Vulcan vs human biology.

The Vulcan half represents cold logic, and emotional supression, control, and detatchment. That is what Vulcan culture values, and he has to work extra-hard to prove himself in spite of his human heritage.

His human half represents emotional freedom, expression, indulgence, and strong social bonds. In SNW, hs human self is physically weaker than his Vulcan self, neglected, and literally starving for nourishment. He gorges on food and alcohol and indulges every impulsive emotion that Spock does not allow himself to express under normal circumstances.

One thing that bugs me about the way Vulcans are usually depicted (with some lovely exceptions) is that their philosophy—logic, or the teachings of Surak, for short I'm just going to call it Surakianism—is very often shown as a bad thing. Either that, or Vulcans aren't following it at all.

Writing about religion (and I do think Surakianism is best approached as a religion*) is always fraught. Because generally as a writer, you don't actually practice the faith in question, so naturally you'll have an outside view. That's doubly true of Surakianism, a way of life humans basically can't follow and it would probably be bad for us to try.

[*I know they don't call it a religion. But the way it deeply affects the interior life of Vulcans, their ethics, and so on feels very religious to me. It doesn't seem to have a position on theism; Vulcans get their beliefs about god(s) from elsewhere, such as traditional Vulcan polytheism and their own perceptions of the universe. But the way it exists as a social structure AND a guide to the inner self is absolutely religious to me.]

We are told that Vulcans developed this philosophy specifically because they needed it—they were destroying themselves without it! Their emotions were overpowering and violent, and they were clannish to the extreme. So despite what most of the human characters say, especially Bones, I think the path of logic is a good thing for Vulcans, even if humans don't get it at all.

Surak's teachings can be summed up into three basic points (a Vulcan somewhere just raised an eyebrow clear into their bangs at this oversimplification, but I'm doing my best here):

1. Logic, or the use of reason as a guide and the control of emotions

2. Nonviolence

3. IDIC—infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

Of course we only ever hear about the first one, because that's part humans notice. I'd say it was like reducing Catholics to fish Fridays and Mormons to underwear, but that's exactly what people do, so I guess it's understandable.

But I think the ordering goes the other way for Vulcans. First, acknowledge that others are of value, including and especially when they're different from you. Then, do them no harm. And finally, to achieve that goal, control your wild, violent emotions.

People imagine pre-reform Vulcans a lot of ways (and I never get tired of reading about them), but I think the best guide as to what they're like is by looking at Romulans. Romulans aren't wildly expressive with their emotions, we're certainly not talking about people who would otherwise be laughing and crying constantly. Instead, they're secretive and carry long, hateful grudges. They're loyal only to those closest to them, and they seem entirely without empathy otherwise.

Imagine the Vulcan emotions are like that. They have strong bonds to their clan, probably in part because of their telepathy. They're suspicious of outsiders, angry, prone to violence. Preferring the familiar is an instinct in humans too, but a mild one. Certainly humans have been and still are racist, but it's something we can generally overcome. I'm not sure the Vulcans could, not by relying on their emotions.

So they came up with the solution to control their emotions completely. Use reason instead as a guide to behavior, because logic will tell you that your own clan is not more important than another, and that reaching out in peace is beneficial to yourself and others. Don't give your emotions any credence and don't let them run wild.

Humans do some of this ourselves, and should arguably be doing more. We spend a huge chunk of our childhood learning to control antisocial impulses like screaming, hitting, and biting. We demonstrate self control in many tiny, unnecessary ways, in order to show to others that we are in control of ourselves: stuff like etiquette, social rules, even just leaving the last cookie on the tray for someone else. These are signals that say I am not governed by my appetites; I can be trusted to consider the needs of others.

And we could obviously be doing more. Too many political questions are being answered by people's emotional, knee-jerk responses like "I feel threatened by people who are different" or "I am angry about my enemies and want them punished" instead of "what produces the most benefit for everyone?" If we leaned more heavily on logic and reason to get us our answers, we'd make way better decisions than we do. Star Trek doesn't often acknowledge that in real life, making a snap gut decision doesn't actually have a very high success rate. Logic gives you better odds of saving the day.

But, you might say, Vulcans aren't doing very well at any of this. A heck of a lot of them that we've seen are racist. And while they repress their emotions just great, they don't actually make the most logical decisions most of the time.

But I don't think this actually discredits a religion at all. We all know Christians who are great at the easy parts of their religion—learning Bible verses or saying rosaries—but don't seem to be even trying to love their neighbor. That's in fact the way religions are usually practiced! External elements that people can easily see (like never smiling) are adhered to by social pressure, but more heart-level things are aspirational at best. That doesn't mean the message of a religion is bad; it doesn't really tell us anything.

This is especially true for a religion whose practice isn't optional. You have to follow Surak to stay on the planet. I can see this rule was necessary during the time when the Romulans were kicked out—pacifism doesn't work as a global solution unless everybody's doing it. Now, it seems a bit harsh. I think they get around it by not exiling anybody who's at least giving lip service to logic. That racist baseball guy in DS9 isn't a good Vulcan, but as long as he doesn't do anything violent or openly reject Surak, they're willing to say he counts.

Why are Vulcans so often the opposite of what their religion teaches? I think it's the other way around: their religion focuses specifically on their chief faults: clannishness, racism, ego. It just hasn't successfully transformed everyone. Makes perfect sense, really. We might as well ask why Christianity goes on and on about sex when humans are well known to be super obsessed with sex. Well that's WHY! It's one of our strongest impulses which in the past we felt the most desperate need to control.

The best argument against Surakianism is that total repression isn't the best way to handle emotion, that we need self-awareness of our emotions before we can account for them.

To which all I can say is, don't you think Vulcans know that?

I imagine there are lots and lots of viewpoints on this among Vulcans. Some favor repression and some favor understanding and acceptance; some think it's okay to have a little dry humor and some think we should be serious. We have the kolinahri who believe in the excision of all emotion (which I imagine is universally seen as extreme, like we might see cloistered nuns or monks who reject the world to achieve enlightenment). And surely there are ancient, wise Vulcans who deeply understand all their emotional impulses and are completely in control of them. Spock certainly seems this way by the movie era if not before: he knows that he has emotions, what they are, and how to respond to them. He has overcome the emotion of shame. So he seems not impassive on the outside, but a person at complete peace inside and out.

I just feel like we could stand to see more good Surakians, who are good not in spite of their belief in logic, but because of it. Kind of like how we see both good and bad followers of the Prophets on Bajor. I'm kind of anti religion myself, but I still want to see it given its due—especially a religion founded on such good principles. Sure, it's not a religion humans can really practice, nor need—a good half of our emotions are positive and pro-social, so it's no wonder a person like Bones would be convinced Vulcans are just punishing themselves unnecessarily. But it successfully turned Vulcan from a planet so violent it almost destroyed itself to a home of peace and learning. Of course Vulcans aren't going to mess with what works!

That has been my rant about logic for today. I highly recommend @dduane 's book Spock's World for a much deeper dive into logic and the path Vulcan took to get there.

[officialbruciewayne]