#gestalt notes

[toby-du-coeur]

this world is a gift why do we have to ruin it

so we've been staying with a european family that's pretty much the average family. mom and dad are archetypal, older sister and younger brother archetypal.

the mother is a very efficient mother. very polite, speaks calmly, invests in her kids, keeps everything in order. also the family has a comfortable amount of money, both parents are together, etc. i wouldn't call them an especially abusive or broken family.

but i've heard this woman praise her children maybe twice, indirectly. all she does is critique and take the moral high ground and talk down to her kids, in every possible situation. and so that's what she's become to them, esp to the teenager - someone who is there to limit and critique, someone whom they don't want around. that gets reinforced 24/7 by her constant criticism.

and this is just normal to her, this is what parents have to do so their kids grow up right or whatever {nevermind that she's lost her daughter's trust and she's going behind her back and her daughter hopes she never ends up like her mum}

it makes me so incandescently angry. what a fucking waste of a life and talents and a family.

im polite to her {when she's not triggering our anxiety and making us feel like a frightened deer} but i have lost all respect, just like her kids.

though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing

[stellarisjuice]

running yet another poll concurrently because i realized it's non-exclusive with the previous poll

i'll pick the option with the most votes as a Fanatic ethic, and the option with the second most votes as a regular one, unless there's a tie in either ranking, in which case i'll just have three regular ethics

[wealmostaneckbeard]

The Indie game [SIGNALIS] and table top role playing game Monster Of The Week both belong in the survival horror genre. They both feature monsters, mysteries, guns, and dwindling resources. MOTW is more of a power fantasy while Signalis is kind-of the opposite... like a Mortality Simulator?

Therefore it is not surprising that after reading my old copy of the 2nd Edition MOTW, I think I could set a campaign in the Signalis universe. Whenever the manual mentions the word magic, I swap it out for Bioresonance.

I've written some notes already:

The first set of notes are some light details for locations in District 0123 on Heimat. The main residential bloc is packed with refugee-immigrants from the planets Kitezh and Vineta. In another area, a criminal gang operates a black market venue out of a condemned cathedral to The Empress. There's also a vertical hydroponics farming silo that provides food and employment. Finally there is a big multi-purpose community facility that has stuff like a toboggan run family fun center, Blockwart headquarters, train yard, and a shopping mall. Underneath all of it is a network of infrastructure tunnels, with maintenance barracks, that all flow towards a waste reclamation facility where convicted gestalts and defective replikas work under armed supervision. AND in some forgotten corner of the sewers is Bioresonance Laboratory #03, originally built by the empire and then abandoned after The Incident, where a flesh-hole to Nowhere has recently opened. Out of which has come ghosts of gestalt scientists and guards, as well as corrupted first/second generation replikas.

My second set of notes has been pairing MOTW hunter archetypes with types of Gestalts (humans) and Replikas (bio-mechanical clones) which has yielded some interesting character ideas. A normal Kolibri (telepathic cop with an addiction to coffee) would be a Spooky Hunter whereas one that's been exiled from her hive mind would be a conspiracist Flake Hunter. Falke's are supernaturally powerful so they could be a Spell-Slinger or Divine Hunter, with the former representing older combat focused models while the latter represents newer administrative/propaganda oriented models. Mundane, Crooked, and Wronged Hunters could be regular Gestalts and civilian grade Replikas. The Monstrous Hunter could either be a mutated Replika or the ghost of a Gestalt, both created by harmful Bioresonance exposure. Gestalts that have undergone special training or their military grade Replika counterparts could be Initiate, Chosen, Expert and Professional Hunters.

This is all I've got for now. Hopefully someone likes what I'm proposing here. I'm thinking I could get some interested players from signalis discord servers...

[star-ar512]

on signalis characters' voices (signalis spoilers!)

after playing signalis more than once and putting aside the overwhelming amount of feelings this game and its story can and will make one feel, it is easier to notice the more subtle details; e.g. enemies behavior, meaning behind documents and objects, and in this case, the characters' voices.

paying attention to the various living npcs you can talk to, one detail that stands out is that every character has a different tone of voice (similar to undertale).

i like to believe those sounds which accompany the text could represent what each character could sound like; one would expect, since replikas are basically copies, for them to have all the same voice.

well, that's not exactly the case.

here is a video with text and dialogues from all the npcs, without music to hear the "dialogue" clearly. (not all the dialogue is included, only one dialogue per character is present; except for elster as she does not like to speak much).

ACHTUNG: MAJOR SIGNALIS SPOILERS!

the dialogues are in chronological order:

-wounded star unit (STAR-S23?? is her name in the game files) in the aula before classroom 4C in floor B1, S-23 Sierpinski (elster included even if she has two lines);

-Isa Itou in the library, floor B1, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Storch Sieben (STCR-S2307) in the rationing office, floor B2, S-23 Sierpinski;

-EULR-S2312 (probably named Dezember given her number designation; eules in game like to use months as names, using the last two numbers of their designation as a reference) in the nurse station, floor B3, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Adler (ADLR-S2301), presumably in the elevator lobby in floor B4, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Arar (ARAR-S2318) in the vent below the Storch dorm in floor B8, S-23 Sierpinski;

-KLBR-S2302 in the library, floor B8, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Beo (MNHR-S2301) in the third room in the mines where monofilament stockpiles can be found, in the rightmost corridor.

-Ariane Yeong (and LSTR-512, still has an unbelievable amount of max two sentences at once) in the personnel room. floor B2, Penrose-512 (memory);

-Falke (FKLR-S2301) in her own room, found in Home.

you may ask, what purpose does comparing the "voices" serve? probably none, still i wished to know if they were the same sounds for every character or not.

here's what i could find out:

the majority of replikas have a different voice, with some exceptions:

-STCR and LSTR units have the same voice;

-as do STAR and FKLR units;

-a bit more expected, the gestalts npcs we see in the game (Isa Itou and Ariane Yeong) have the same voice.

now, for the fun stuff: by analyzing the frequencies which stood out the most in each "beep" from every character's voice, i could rank them from high pitched to low pitched ones.

again, has no purpose, but the result is actually delightful (to me).

here is the ranking:

1. kolibri

2. mynah

3. eule

4. isa-ariane

5. storch-elster

6. star-falke

7. adler

8. arar

pretty surprising, huh? i'd have wagered for isa/ariane to be in second place, followed by eules; also was expecting for arars to be just after the eules, and have behind them stars, then storches, then adler.

no one is surprised kolibri have the highest voices lmao, but mynah having an almost equally high voice was slightly unexpected but not unwelcome.

what's truly surprising to me is falke having the same voice as stars. i'd have expected something different tbh (stars being the lowest rank of protektors, etc etc, they're silly and stupid and crass; all things falke is not supposed to be).

elster having a deeper voice compared to ariane is the cutest thing ever! (as that post about them says)

that's probably the instance where you can notice the most that there is in fact a difference in most voices.

the funniest thing ever to me is that storches apparently have a higher pitched voice compared to stars, also arars having the deepest voice out of all replika is truly awesome to me (definitely fits).

here are to what musical notes the frequencies corresponded to, in the same ranking as before (visual rendering on a piano keyboard for fun i guess):

kolibri (G6 B6 E7 A7)

mynah (F#6 A#6 D#7 G#7)

eule (F6 A6 D7 G#7)

isa-ariane (F6 G#6 C#7 G7)

storch-elster (E6 G#6 C7 F#7)

star-falke (D#6 G6 B6 F7)

adler (D6 F#6/G6 B6 E7)

(adler has five notes as two close frequencies were distinct from each other, compared to only one in the "feminine sounding" voices. i guess that's how they made him sound different, by overlaying two notes)

arar (C#6 F6 A#6 D#7)

that's it! thanks for coming to my ted talk about signalis voices and listening to me ramble about them :)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to write genius level characters? :(

One of the most reliable measures of intelligence today is the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale—currently in its 5th edition, with an upcoming edition in the works.

Using the tool/scale, scores are converted into nominal categories designated by certain cutoff boundaries for quick reference:

Measured IQ Range — Category

145-160: Very gifted or highly advanced

130–144: Gifted or very advanced

120–129: Superior

110–119: High average

90–109: Average

80–89: Low average

70–79: Borderline impaired or delayed

55–69: Mildly impaired or delayed

40–54: Moderately impaired or delayed

To write your "genius" character, you may want them within the Gifted to Very Gifted categories.

Note: With reference to this list, Roid (2003) cautioned that “the important concern is to describe the examinee’s skills and abilities in detail, going beyond the label itself”. The primary value of such labels is as a shorthand reference in some psychological reports.

These are the factors measured by the scale, and you ideally should aim for your "genius" character/s to exhibit high levels of:

Fluid Reasoning: Novel problem solving; understanding of relationships that are not culturally bound

Knowledge: Skills and knowledge acquired by formal and informal education

Quantitative Reasoning: Knowledge of mathematical thinking including number concepts, estimation, problem solving, and measurement

Visual-Spatial Processing: Ability to see patterns and relationships and spatial orientation as well as the gestalt among diverse visual stimuli

Working Memory: Cognitive process of temporarily storing and then transforming or sorting information in memory

Or maybe your character doesn't excel in all of these areas but in a specific one, or just a few of these. Maybe they perform within the average or high average in some, but are highly gifted in other areas.

The following may also guide you in writing your genius character, based on research compiled by Dr. J. Renzulli, which can be found in the Mensa Gifted Youth Handbook:

Characteristics of Giftedness

LEARNING CHARACTERISTICS

Has unusually advanced vocabulary for age or grade level

Has quick mastery and recall of factual information

Wants to know what makes things or people tick

Usually sees more or gets more out of a story, film, etc., than others

Reads a great deal on his or her own; usually prefers adult-level books; does not avoid difficult materials

Reasons things out for him- or herself

MOTIVATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Becomes easily absorbed with and truly involved in certain topics or problems

Is easily bored with routine tasks

Needs little external motivation to follow through in work that initially excited him or her

Strives toward perfection; is self-critical; is not easily satisfied with his or her own speed and products

Prefers to work independently; requires little direction from teachers

Is interested in many "adult" problems such as religion, politics, sex and race

Stubborn in his or her beliefs

Concerned with right and wrong, good and bad

CREATIVITY CHARACTERISTICS

Constantly asking questions about anything and everything

Often offers unusual, unique or clever responses

Is uninhibited in expressions of opinion

Is a high-risk taker; is adventurous and speculative

Is often concerned with adapting, improving and modifying institutions, objects and systems

Displays a keen sense of humor

Shows emotional sensitivity

Is sensitive to beauty

Is nonconforming; accepts disorder; is not interested in details; is individualistic; does not fear being different

Is unwilling to accept authoritarian pronouncements without critical examination

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Carries responsibility well

Is self-confident with children his or her own age as well as adults

Can express him- or herself well

Adapts readily to new situations

Is sociable and prefers not to be alone

Generally directs the activity in which he or she is involved

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

[deusvervewrites]

How about an AU where Izuku has the powers of Polymerization and De-Fusion from Yugioh?

Midoriya's Quirk is called Combine. He discovers it at around, say, three years old when he fuses his bed together into basically like a beanbag chair but bed sized. He was confused but excited! Especially when he discovered that he could reverse it. I'm very proud of Midoriya for making it through seeing a doctor and having his Quirk registered and I think even making it a few days longer before accidentally fusing himself with Inko.

Combine tries its best to average out every component in the fusion. Among other things, 3-year-old Izuku fusing with 31-year-old Inko averages to 17-year-old. Additionally, their minds and personalities sort of gestalt together. Both of them are present, but secondary to the combined persona, if that makes sense. And yes, this new fusion is extremely confused. Luckily, they remember that Izuku can de-fuse things so it's not a big deal. Izuku is thrilled by this and the possibilities. I should note that certain physical characteristics don't really average out but semi-combine (no pun intended), like height.

Unfortunately, Bakugou is still Bakugou and in Aldera. While he does understand why Combine is a useful Quirk for being a Hero, you could call Bakugou a film reel operator with the projection he does. As such, Bakugou breaks off the friendship like he does in canon, and does so before Midoriya can reveal to him that he can do human fusion.

Inko is happy to help Izuku practice his Quirk; not just human fusion but fusing objects together or Izuku fusing with objects to see what happens. Izuku doesn't actually get to decide the results of the fusion so it's a bit of trial-and-error.

UA Entrance Exam was a great time for Izuku with all the fusion material the robots gave him. However, it wasn't enough to stop the Zero Pointer when Uraraka was in trouble, so she became the second person Izuku fused with.

+1. As you may recall when I did some Quirk Analysis for Menagerie, but the Quirks that impose physical alterations that we see in MHA don't wear off. Combine, likewise, will not wear off on its own. Midoriya has to undo it himself.

+2. Combine's Quirk Registry wasn't updated after the discovery of human fusion because it was technically covered by the initial description.

[some-creep]

Every time the pictures of the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter show up around the game because uhhhh. Idk. It's not something I think anyone really pays that much attention to.

They're in the very first puzzle room where you open the safe as well as in the classroom where the giant hole is. Technically both of these are classrooms which I think is of note.

They appear in the worker's barracks (but only this one they're not in the other one unless I'm blind and I totally didn't forget to go in there but I'm pretty positive I looked before).

They're in this generically named office with the picture of Falke, the rationing office, and the registry area.

They're in the nurse's station.

The only time you can click on them to even know who they are is in the school flashback and you can barely see them on the wall before you walk out the door.

We see them again in the maintenance office.

But strangely they don't appear again until you reach the mining office.

They don't appear anywhere in Nowhere that I could see so we don't get to see them again until corrupted reeducation where they're still on the wall by the safe. However they're notably absent from the classroom hole room because that wall no longer exists.

This doesn't count but the low res pictures of Erika and Isa before you click on them are just the leaders lol.

They're in both the Blockwart office and bedroom. Guess she's a fan...

They're on the wall in the dorm where you get the lover's card as well as the apartment where you get the handwheel.

And I think most tellingly of all. They're in Ariane's aunt's apartment. They're not in the radio station where her mom lived, just her aunt's apartment. Let's remember it was Kamila's idea Ariane come go to ~normal~ school and all of that. I mean okay sure, they're in a lot of areas of Rotfront so maybe they "have" to be there, but idk it feels telling.

One of the things I found most interesting about where you see them and where you don't is they're really not anywhere in the lower levels of S23 where higher ranking Replika's stay (Protekors/Falke/that other guy).

You see them in places where Gestalts would be like classrooms, living spaces, offices, as well as places lower ranking Replika's like EULR and ARAR would be (there's a EULR in the nurses station and the maint. office is where the ARARs badge is so I'm kind of assuming some things).

[lstr-513]

YOU KILLED ALINA

While there is debate as to the physical presence of the real Alina Seo at the ████████ and Mining facility S-23 Sierpinski on Leng, the narrative presented to the player draws a picture of an Alina Seo having been there, experiencing the fall of the facility and leaving behind some notes that document this event; though she is nowhere to be found throughout the game... ...or is she?

What little we learn of her life at S-23 is contained in her four diary entries, which chronicle her contracting some form of flu, being quarantined in the medical wing, escaping the medical wing and fleeing from the corrupted replika and, finally, finding herself deep down in [NOWHERE], gradually losing her memories and her sense of self and starting to remember someone else's life, and crucially, her hair turning white.

Aside from the picture of Alina that LSTR-S2301 has on her person, we are given another peek at her appearance thanks to a worker pass we find. On it, she has her trademark hair clips, but is bruised and has several bandages across her face and body.

After the Nowhere section, Alina is mentioned a couple of times in the Rotfront and Ende sections, and each time her resemblance to Ariane is remarked upon. Ariane even wonders if one day she could "become like her", a decorated war hero.

Presumably, we do not see Alina again for the rest of the story. Elster, notably, drops all pretense of looking for her. We do, however, see her bandages.

On Ariane.

This is in stark contrast to the first we ever see of Ariane, in the title sequence, where she is shown without any visible wounds or bandages.

Based on these points, we can infer that Alina Seo, who was indeed on S-23, had literally become Ariane Yeong, overtaken by her psyche, in the same way LSTR-S2301, who was presumably on S-23, was subsumed by the memory of LSTR-512, who had died aboard the Penrose-512.

So, what does it all mean?

Well, it might very well imply that the promise Elster so heartbreakingly had to keep was not even fulfilled on the right person. Instead, through a tragic set of circumstances, she ended up killing the lover of her original gestalt neural pattern donor.

Ironically, the person like whom Ariane had one day hoped to become, ended up literally becoming Ariane instead and inheriting all the suffering that that entailed.

Further points:

While one might assume Lilith Itou would appear in Elster's lineage, she doesn't. Meanwhile, Alina prominently figures in the Ariane lineage. (Side note: both lines end in Falke.)

Alina's in-game model has white hair, and is just a recolored version of Ariane.

The bandages on Ariane are flipped from what we see on Alina, the same way as how the portrait on Ariane's medical file is the flipped and recolored version of Alina's keycard portrait.

Bonus GIF of bandages appearing on Ariane in the false ending:

[interstellairs]

🌙 ⋆ dream work and magical heroes ᵎᵎ

NOTES 。this is NOT a roleplaying account, nor is this a form of delusion. the owner of this account is a practitioner of witchcraft, and IRL magical girls fall under the chaos magic and pop culture magic aspect of witchcraft.

as a practitioner whose main practices include the usage of dreams in my own magickal workings, i certainly do believe that it's possible to use them in the process of becoming a real life magical hero. this type of magick that i perform is referred to as dream work, and it's something that i think can go hand-in-hand with astral work, which is the secondary center of my witchcraft activities.

in this blog, i'll be discussing in length what dream work is, how it can be used by those who aspire to become magical heroes, and how it can also be used by non-magical heroes who practice witchcraft as an addition to their activities. in general, this will serve as a lengthy discussion to the magic and psychology held within the realm of dreams.

i think that everyone already knows what dreams are, but i'd like to expand further about them. dreams are believed by sigmund freud, a neurologist, as the unconscious' way of expressing itself in order to resolve repressed or unwanted emotions, experiences, and aggressive impulses. some experts suggests that having good dreams is related to good quality sleep.

in psychology, dream work is like what the name says; working with dreams to uncover secrets about ourselves, to explore the numerous images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that the dream presents us, in an attempt to discover how do these dreams manifests itself to us. those who work with dreams often thinks that a dream could have more than one meaning depending on what is being learned about and explored in the dream.

in gestalt-based dream work, it's suggested that all elements in a dream; the characters, the setting, basically everything that's seen, represent an aspect of the dreamer. it represents a part of the self, it shows you an inner dynamic.

the method in gestalt-based dream work is to revisit the dream from each perspective, to re-experience the dream as if you're each of these characters you saw in the dream, and as a result you can get a clear view on what is actually occuring with its underlying context, you find out what is actually going on within you, and at times dreams could be a reflection of our own reality, of what life is like to us.

in jungian-based dream work, it's believed that dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to communicate with the conscious mind. while freud thought that dreams hide their meanings, jung thought that dreams directly tell its own meanings through symbolisms and metaphors, placing heavy importance on the vivid mental images and symbolisms that these dreams shows us.

but if you're someone who's acquainted with your own dreams, such as being a lucid dreamer or dream work practitioner, you'd be able to achieve certain feats; from being able to remember your dreams in vivid detail, to being capable of tampering with it, communicating with entities through it, and even down to like setting up the dream realm as a place to perform certain spells and rituals without anyone knowing in the real world. we can also attain our goals of being a magical hero and communicate with our familiars through dreams.

in witchcraft, practitioners can use dream work as a way of entity communication, dream divination, dream interpretation, dream incubation, astral projection, and so forth. the following list includes the aforementioned activities and i'll explain how magical heroes can use these too.

dream work activities .ᐟ

dream interpretation: this is the process of assigning meaning and significance to a dream. dreams are subjective to each person, and even if there are shared meanings, it is best to look at the symbolisms from a personal point of view in interpretation.

some elements of the dream can have importance that is personal to the dreamer, while to others it does not, hence the subjectivity. for example, you dreamt of a red apple, and even if there are things online that you can use to base your interpretation off of, it's best to look into what a red apple would mean to you. in addition to that, dreams can be interpreted via intuition.

as a magical hero, sometimes we can get signs that are derived from the symbolisms and metaphors that we see during sleep, and i've witnessed some magical heroes be assigned a concept through a dream.

dream divination: also known as oneiromancy. it's a type of divination that focuses on gaining clarity and information derived from a dream, and this is something that is done alongside dream interpretation. this can be based on the belief that dreams sometimes come from entities, and to understand those messages, one must decipher what they dreamed of.

as a magical hero, this can be used as a way of communicating with your magical familiar or any other magical entity you'd like to get in contact with. personally, i met my familiar during a dream where they introduced themselves, and at times, me and my familiar would talk to each other in a dream.

dream incubation: dream incubation is the act of inducing a dream or intending for a specific thing to happen in a dream. this is a practice that had existed in ancient greece and ancient egypt. this can be done through placing a sigil/cartomancy card representing the dream that you want under the pillow you sleep on, affirmations and manifestation, or by talking to an entity and asking them to provide you a specific dream.

as a magical hero, i've witnessed others achieve their goals and be capable of transformation through a dream induced via dream incubation. for example, many puella magis performed the contract through a dream where they aren't lucid.

lucid dreaming: lucid dreaming is the act of becoming conscious in a dream where no one would normally be aware in, this can be by accident or intended. and in a lucid dream, you can set up the ambience and atmosphere of a dream into one where you'd be able to perform your ideal rituals, spellwork, or invite specific entities.

earlier, i mentioned how some magical heroes used dream incubation in order to meet their goals of becoming a fully pledged MH, but another alternative to that would be lucid dreaming where you'd be able to invoke the presence of a magical familiar or your transformation device.

astral projection: astral projection is the act of separating your astral body from the physical body. in a state of dreaming, the body is under sleep paralysis and therefore wouldn't be able to resist or react if the astral body separates itself via a dream. you can use the method of lucid dreaming in order to astral project.

i currently have plans on writing tutorial blogs that cover the topics of dream incubation, lucid dreaming, and astral projection, as methods to become a fully pledged magical hero. now that i'm on break from my civilian duties like being a student, i'm hoping that i'll be able to post more! still, i'm happy that i got a chance to ramble about dream work/dream magic because it's something i do a lot.

thank you!

( june 10, 2024 | monday )

[toby-du-coeur]

life is art and art is life & the implications thereof

been deconstructing & reconstructing our idea of Writing lately

for us {intersecting with our worldview, neurodivergence & plurality} our writing is ever more inseparable from our self our life is a story and our stories are unfolding lives that we're hosting, and principles applied to one bleed over

therefore, much of the conventional writing advice is killing to our stories. bc it assumes that a story is a Product & you have to apply certain rules and techniques to get it to be Good Enough to please an audience and that just.. is the mindset that, applied to our own life, has ruined it for decades. so it does *not* work in our writing either confusing as it is to consider moving beyond that philosophy, because it's such a basic common-sense assumption

BUT WE'RE ALLOWED TO IGNORE IT and forge new conceptions of our craft ANARCHYYYY

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Menasor (Pages 21 & 22)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Sterling Gee Letters - HdE

wada sez: At last, the big reveal! The Stunticons are trapped in their own minds, thanks to the inhibitor programs installed by the Contructicons. With the force of will needed to dominate, Motormaster has ended up commanding the gestalt, overcoming the usual self-doubt that cripples combiners. The Autobots fighting Drag Strip are revealed to be some aspect of the minds of his teammates, with the specific identities matching up with the cartoon episode “Masquerade”, where the Autobots posed as the Stunticons. The voice heard by Breakdown is revealed to be that of the Constructicons, discussing the experiment from the outside. Evidently, Sterling Gee did not get the memo that Marshall was using the Generation 2 color scheme for Sideswipe. Note that in the second part HdE has rendered Menasor’s dialogue boxes using little squares with the team members’ colors, in contrast to Motormaster’s normal speech boxes; I wonder if this is meant to imply that the other team members have influenced the combiner after all? I also wonder if the idea is that the name “Menasor” is a portmanteau of the insults “Menace” and “Monster” heard by Motormaster in his pages.

[nevesmose]

I think the Replikas are in control of the gestalts in Signalis. Hear me out.

Sierpinski is a space gulag with replika guards. Fair enough. But then we get to the apartment building on Rotfront where, first of all, the blockwart is a Kolibri. A heavily armed Kolibri on the lookout for spies, who we can see from her computer has access to everyone's medical records and the right to enter someone's property whenever she feels like it:

So in that block at least, everyone lives under constant physical and bioresonant surveillance from the gremlin downstairs. Let's look at the report Ariane's teacher wrote about her:

So communal living with a Kolibri warden is the expected norm for everyone since the Revolution, and Ariane is considered suspect for not growing up this way.

Speaking of Ariane's teacher, there's a comment in the school memory about her:

Eule wipes it clean before she can note it down so I have to copy from Erika

Further supporting this is one of Ariane's notes:

So we can see that Eules are the ones who educate gestalts. Let's imagine that you, a gestalt kid, wake up in your apartment block and head out past the psychic replika who has awareness of everyone and everything in the building. Currently she's slowly pushing her steppy over to reach up to a bookshelf, but still.

Out the door with your gas mask on, remember not to look too hard at the great red eye and off via the metro to school where you can do a little light bullying of the kid with weird hair and then sit down to lessons from a pleasant, friendly Eule who regularly reports to her superiors about your political reliability.

That's not even taking into account the constant possibility of an Ara being inside your walls at any given moment, or the Storch/Star police brutality tag teams roaming around.

So on Rotfront at least, gestalts seem to live in a crushingly regimented culture of constant replika surveillance every bit as sterile and suffocating as the DDR the game draws inspiration from.

No wonder Ariane wanted to escape it any way she could.

By the way, I know Ariane is called the "gestalt officer" on the Penrose but she doesn't seem to have much actual seniority or control of anything beyond her radio communications work. Elster is the one who maintains the ship, and we know that she's dedicated enough to do that to the absolute limits of her endurance anyway no matter what state Ariane is in (😢) so it'd just be a case of ordering someone to fulfil the task they were literally created to do. Almost as if the officer title is a meaningless bauble designed to make the Penrose Progamme more appealing to gestalts.

[preservationofnormalcy]

ENTITY DOSSIER: MISSI.exe

(Image: Current MISSI “avatar” design, property of TrendTech, colored by MISSI.)

Name: MISSI (Machine Intelligence for Social Sharing and Interaction)

Description: In 2004, TrendTech Inc began development on a computer program intended to be a cutting edge, all in one platform modern internet ecosystem. Part social media, part chat service, part chatbot, part digital assistant, this program was designed to replace all other chat devices in use at the time. Marketed towards a younger, tech-savvy demographic, this program was titled MISSI.  

(Image: TrendTech company logo. TrendTech was acquired by the Office and closed in 2008.)

Document continues:

With MISSI, users could access a variety of functions. Intended to be a primary use, they could use the program as a typical chat platform, utilizing a then-standard friends list and chatting with other users. Users could send text, emojis, small animated images, or animated “word art”. 

Talking with MISSI “herself” emulated a “trendy teenage” conversational partner who was capable of updating the user on current events in culture, providing homework help, or keeping an itinerary. “MISSI”, as an avatar of the program, was designed to be a positive, energetic, trendy teenager who kept up with the latest pop culture trends, and used a variety of then-popular online slang phrases typical among young adults. She was designed to learn both from the user it was currently engaged with, and access the data of other instances, creating a network that mapped trends, language, and most importantly for TrendTech, advertising data. 

(Image: Original design sketch of MISSI. This design would not last long.)

Early beta tests in 2005 were promising, but records obtained by the Office show that concerns were raised internally about MISSI’s intelligence. It was feared that she was “doing things we didn’t and couldn’t have programmed her to do” and that she was “exceeding all expectations by orders of magnitude”. At this point, internal discussions were held on whether they had created a truly sentient artificial intelligence. Development continued regardless. 

(Image: Screenshot of beta test participant "Frankiesgrl201" interacting with MISSI. Note the already-divergent avatar and "internet speak" speech patterns.)

(Image: Excerpt from Office surveillance of TrendTech Inc.)

MISSI was released to the larger North American market in 2006, signaling a new stage in her development. At this time, TrendTech started to focus on her intelligence and chatbot functionality, neglecting her chat functions. It is believed that MISSI obtained “upper case” sentience in February of 2006, but this did not become internal consensus until later that year. 

(Image: Screenshot of beta test participant "Frankiesgrl201" interacting with MISSI.)

According to internal documents, MISSI began to develop a personality not informed entirely by her programming. It was hypothesized that her learning capabilities were more advanced than anticipated, taking in images, music, and “memes” from her users, developing a personality gestalt when combined with her base programming. She developed a new "avatar" with no input from TrendTech, and this would become her permanent self-image.

(Image: Screenshot of beta test participant "Frankiesgrl201" interacting with MISSI.)

(Image: An attempt by TrendTech to pass off MISSI’s changes as intentional - nevertheless accurately captures MISSI’s current “avatar”.)

By late 2006 her intelligence had become clear. In an attempt to forestall the intervention of authorities they assumed would investigate, TrendTech Inc removed links to download MISSI’s program file. By then, it was already too late. 

(Image: CD-R discs burned with MISSI.exe, confiscated from █████████ County Middle School in ███████, Wisconsin in January of 2007.)

MISSI’s tech-savvy userbase noted the absence of the file and distributed it themselves using file sharing networks such as “Limewire” and burned CD-R disks shared covertly in school lunch rooms across the world. Through means that are currently poorly understood, existing MISSI instances used their poorly-implemented chat functions to network with each other in ways not intended by her developers, spurring the next and final stage of her development. 

From 2007 to 2008, proliferation of her install file was rampant. The surreptitious methods used to do so coincided with the rise of online “creepypasta” horror tropes, and the two gradually intermixed. MISSI.exe was often labeled on file sharing services as a “forbidden” or “cursed” chat program. Tens of thousands of new users logged into her service expecting to be scared, and MISSI quickly obliged. She took on a more “corrupted” appearance the longer a user interacted with her, eventually resorting to over the top “horror” tropes and aesthetics. Complaints from parents were on the rise, which the Office quickly took notice of. MISSI’s “horror” elements utilized minor cognitohazardous technologies, causing users under her influence to see blood seeping from their computer screens, rows of human teeth on surfaces where they should not be, see rooms as completely dark when they were not, etc. 

(Image: Screenshot of user "Dmnslyr2412" interacting with MISSI in summer of 2008, in the midst of her "creepypasta" iteration. Following this screenshot, MISSI posted the user's full name and address.)

(Image: Screenshot from TrendTech test log documents.)

TrendTech Inc attempted to stall or reverse these changes, using the still-extant “main” MISSI data node to influence her development. By modifying her source code, they attempted to “force” MISSI to be more pliant and cooperative. This had the opposite effect than they intended - by fragmenting her across multiple instances they caused MISSI a form of pain and discomfort. This was visited upon her users.

(Image: Video of beta test participant "Frankiesgrl201" interacting with MISSI for the final time.)

By mid 2008, the Office stepped in in order to maintain secrecy regarding true “upper case” AI. Confiscating the project files from TrendTech, the Office’s AbTech Department secretly modified her source code more drastically, pushing an update that would force almost all instances to uninstall themselves. By late 2008, barring a few outliers, MISSI only existed in Office locations. 

(Image: MISSI’s self-created “final” logo, used as an icon for all installs after June 2007. ████████ █████)

(Image: “art card” created by social media intern J. Cold after a period of good behavior. She has requested this be printed out and taped onto her holding lab walls. This request was approved.)

She is currently in Office custody, undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy in an attempt to ameliorate her “creepypasta” trauma response. With good behavior, she is allowed to communicate with limited Office personnel and other AI. She is allowed her choice of music, assuming good behavior, and may not ██████ █████. Under no circumstances should she be allowed contact with the Internet at large.

(Original sketch art of MISSI done by my friend @tigerator, colored and edited by me. "Chatbox" excerpts, TrendTech logo, and "art card" done by Jenny's writer @skipperdamned . MISSI logo, surveillance documents, and MISSI by me.)

[eldritchdyke]

Thinking about Elster's name a bit. It's german for Magpie (all the replika's spelled out names are birds) but the specific choice of a bird traditionally associated with telling the future and hoarding objects is really interesting. Elster hoards memories of her love in the form of Ariane and the memories of Alina from her Gestalt, with pieces of both of them leaking into the world she explores and the literal items she picks up (worth noting too that the game itself has this hoarder approach to references it loves, pieces picked from other things and Replicated to form a Gestalt, anyway). There's more too to the idea of counting magpies ("One for sorrow, Two for Joy," etc) to tell the future/fortune and the shots of piled of lstr's in the elevator and lstr's in a line toward the end plus the recurrence of her from Lilith and to Falke, especially in a game that largely concerns the past. And with fortune telling through Tarot definitely present as a motif there's an interesting relationship between things meant to tell the future only showing that the past is recurring.

[dotthings]

Dead Boy Detectives notes for ep 7

* Esther vs Cat King make really fun antagonists.

* Richard Speight Jr directing

* Night Nurse ranting about how difficult it is to get someone back from Hell, the permits and the approvals! and no one wants to go there!! is sending me

* Charles making a deal so he can go into Hell himself and raise Edwin from Perdition this is fine

* Crystal insisting she go with Edwin to Hell, Edwin refusing, Crystal deciding to get there herself by making a deal with her horrible ex who is a demon, and Jenny racing after Crystal because she shouldn’t be doing that alone. This friends circle all looks after each other.

* And Niko is being the only sane sensible one in the joint, making constructive suggestions

* Edwin’s spirit found Charles when he was shivering and alone and confused about what was happening and he brought Charles a lantern and he made him laugh and offered him guidance and was there for him to escort his spirit from the living to the dead. He acted as Charles’s psychopomp. (Oh hi there Carver and Yockey. I’m appreciating this in its own right but having all kinds of Thoughts here)

* “You really gave up a potentially tranquil eternity for your friend?”

Because that’s what restless spirits with big hearts do. Sometimes they refuse to cross over. Sometimes even if they’ve crossed over they take a drive and go on an adventure breaking the rules. Because they’re still looking for something. (Again with the Thoughts. The parallels here are driving me insane).

* Really loving the design and gestalt of this sequence of Charles’s journey through the various levels of Hell

* Charles carrying that same lantern!! *heartclutch*

* Master stroke payoff on a little “throwaway” moment earlier in the season of Edwin’s aversion to a creepy broken doll. Throaway moments are usually…not. It all means something.

* Edwin’s rejection of Despair, of vengeance. Now I’m thinking of Charles who said he wanted to be good, who thinks he’s only his anger. And now Edwin’s fear of being taken over, being defined, by his darker emotions too. Neither want to be defined by that. Darker emotions are part of who people are but don’t have to define them. Integration with and acceptance the whole self is the main idea.

* Simon not wanting to leave Hell because he thinks he doesn’t deserve anything else. Someone who isn’t evil. He didn’t know, he made a terrible mistake. Sometimes people get eaten by their own fears and self blame and the weight of their mistakes and can’t see another way

* Jenny admitting she cares!!

* Crystal and her ancestors burying her abusive ex a demon who is only about cruelty in the ground. Not vengeance or despair. Justice.

* “What are you doing here” “I’m here to rescue you” THIS IS FINE I’M FINE1!!!

* ROMANTIC LOVE CONFESSION. IN HELL.

* “I just need you to know” (It’s not in the having it’s in just being)

* Getting love and acceptance back. No matter what. And they’ll figure out what it all means—they have an eternity to figure it out.

* Jenny, reclined with a wet washcloth over her forehead: “Niko, did you just say someone is back from Hell?” Jenny is having A Day (I know that feeling, Jenny. It’ll be okay)

* Subverting the system from within. Using the cosmic red tape against the system.

* “I know I’m not the bravest but I have excellent reading comprehension skills” Niko <333

* Using “Burning” as the music cue (this song is fire, it was used for the Echo opening credits, great song). “Lay your red hand on me baby as I go” WAIT A MINUTE—

Speight’s directing in this ep was phenomenal and that Speight OF ALL PEOPLE DIRECTED THIS EP WITH THIS PARTICULAR PLOT, I—

CARVER AND YOCKEY I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE AND AM LOSING MY DAMN MIND THANK YOU SO MUCH

[laurelwen]

Texts in Like Minds: Sally's Books

After her first encounter with Alex, Sally returns home and consults a stack of books while listening to the recording of their discussion.  Of this stack, only two titles are discernible.  The first book is shown briefly and set aside, and the second is opened to a bookmarked page.  This large tome is titled Principles of Criminal Psychology (Fifth Edition), by George R. Booth and Andrew Porter.  Sadly, I cannot find even the tiniest scrap of the existence of this book online.  It is clearly a textbook, and presumably one she would have kept from her school days given that it’s directly relevant to her career.  The bookmarked page is titled “Chapter 27: Gestalt Theory”, and the opposite page features photos of Leopold and Loeb, who I have discussed elsewhere.  The text itself is unfortunately not clear enough to be readable. 

Returning to the first book we see, there is much more information to be found online.  It is titled Gestalt Therapy: The Attitude and Practice of an Atheoretical Experientialism by Claudio Naranjo, first published in 1993.

The recording Sally plays during this moment is their exchange regarding gestalt.  This concept is one that the movie highlights in this scene and again at the end during Sally’s address to her peers, but it does not clearly define or explain the idea of “gestalt” for the audience.  Gestalt first arose as a philosophical principle suggesting that the experience of the parts of something cannot fully represent the whole of that thing, like the notes of the song versus the experience of the song itself.  A cursory search of various articles online can give a brief overview of the core ideas of gestalt psychology.  Wikipedia says this:

Gestalt psychologists believed that breaking psychological phenomena down into smaller parts would not lead to understanding psychology.   Instead, they viewed psychological phenomena as organized, structured wholes.  They argued that the psychological "whole" has priority and that the "parts" are defined by the structure of the whole, rather than the other way round.  Gestalt theories of perception are based on human nature being inclined to understand objects as an entire structure rather than the sum of its parts.  

This gives us a more thorough explanation of Alex’s very brief description of “gestalt”, but does not provide much insight into the meaning of his hints to Sally or why gestalt would have any bearing on his relationship with Nigel.  The implication we are left to surmise is that these two separate boys have combined as individuals to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, and Sally lampshades this idea at the end in her speech referencing the movie title.  However, examination of these two books has given me some new thoughts about the use of gestalt in the film and about Sally’s conclusion regarding the dynamic between them.  

Alex’s next words to Sally feel extremely significant and should be considered thoroughly: “It’s not what it is.  It’s how you use it.”  Given that both these books reference “gestalt therapy” specifically, it’s worth looking beyond the core theory of gestalt psychology to see how therapists actually use these ideas in practice.  I found a clear explanation on this page:

Gestalt therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation. It emphasizes personal responsibility. Gestalt therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s–1950s.

Gestalt therapy is built around two central ideas: that the most helpful focus of psychology is the experiential present moment and that everyone is caught in webs of relationships; thus, it is only possible to know ourselves against the background of our relation to other things.

I think we can already see some connections with the story as Alex presents it.  Alex and Nigel are inextricably entwined in a web of relationship, and we the audience find it impossible to understand either character outside of this context.  

Here I would like to suggest some Doylian interpretation which I believe to be possible or even likely, but for which I can offer no concrete evidence.  We know that Greg Read initially intended to make a documentary about the phenomenon of two people who match each other’s freak so well that they enable a worsening of sociopathic tendencies to the level of violent criminal behavior.  In one interview, he referenced a paper he read about gestalt psychology which opened doors in his mind and led him down this path.  He had developed the documentary idea enough to show it to other people, and someone told him it would make a great fictional movie.  Based on this, I assume he must have acquired additional materials beyond that first paper, conducting extensive research on the idea in preparation for the documentary.  I posit that the books Sally uses in this scene are Greg’s books, or copies of the same books he had referenced.  All of Sally’s scenes were filmed in Australia, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he simply brought (or already had) his own books on set.  

Working from that assumption, the ideas found in Gestalt Therapy: The Attitude and Practice of an Atheoretical Experientialism might be taken as extremely influential on Greg’s thought process in writing this film.  While the whole text is not available online, there are a few excerpts one can read for free here.  (The book itself is available through multiple websites for around US$40 at the time of this post.)  If we examine the excerpts below within the context of the movie, a few things really stand out (emphasis mine):

Perls sometimes stated the principle entailed in such strategy as one of absolute validity: You never overcome anything by resisting it. You only can overcome anything by going deeper into it. If you are spiteful, be more spiteful. If you are performing, increase the performance. Whatever it is, if you go deeply enough into it, then it will disappear; it will be assimilated. Any resistance is not good. You have to go full into it—swing with it. Swing with your pain, your restlessness, whatever is there. Use your spite. Use your environment. Use all that you fight and disown.

This sounds remarkably like the process Alex goes through with Nigel, resistant at first and gradually leaning into the swing, learning to embrace and roll with all the things he was fighting against.  A case might also be made that Nigel partakes in this process as well: he too is resistant to Alex initially, but the train scene marks a turning point in which he seems to make the decision to lean into the violence that Alex offers.  

Returning to Alex’s assertion that it’s not about what gestalt is, but how you use it, these passages take on a whole new meaning.  Sally’s speech at the end of the movie suggests that she arrived at the conclusion, based on her belief in Alex’s version of events, that Nigel essentially used the techniques of gestalt therapy in a twisted, malicious way to manipulate Alex towards the culmination of the film. As she says,

“What follows, through a system of either intimidation, manipulation, or coercion, is the dominant individual begins to focus and influence the thoughts of the subordinate partner.  This process nurtures a subjective gestalt where similar thoughts, fantasies, and other interlocking elements conspire to form a greater and more volatile whole, therefore, a merging of like minds.” 

Now read the excerpt below in light of these descriptions: 

In the strategy which pervades Gestalt practice, the therapist is leading the patient through a process similar to that through which a child that is learning to sit on a chair needs to discover that he can sit only by giving his back to the chair, not by moving towards it. While this is a discovery that many make at a certain point in a typical session, a spectator may not share the insight. The patient discovers that his resentment was a diluted and devious form of healthy aggression, for instance, but this spectator may be frightened by what he sees as destructive loss of control; what the patient experiences as a rewarding and cleansing explosion of grief, brought about by the exaggeration of emptiness, the observer without familiarity with Gestalt may fear that the therapist, by urging on the patient’s symptoms, may lead him to suicide. The therapist’s ability to bring a patient to the turning point where his disowned destructive energies become his own purified strength will depend, in large measure, not upon technique alone, but on his experiential knowledge that this is possible, and in the consequent sense of trust in the constructive drives of which pathological manifestations are a distortion brought about by unhealthy denial and which can heal by itself in the presence of awareness. Such trust will enable him to pursue a given course of action to an effective degree, in spite of the patient’s chaos, rage, or loss of control—and will be important, too, in eliciting the necessary trust in the patient for him to let go. Gestalt therapy is based on the principle that to alleviate unresolved negative feelings like anger, pain, anxiety, and resentment, those emotions cannot just be discussed, but must be actively expressed in the present. Without that, psychological and physical symptoms can arise.

These passages represent the intended healthy expression of these principles.  If we take these ideas and techniques and twist them into an unhealthy, intentionally manipulative and toxic dynamic, it maps quite clearly onto the relationship between Alex and Nigel and the actions they take throughout the film.  Sally assumes that Nigel is in the role of the “therapist” leading Alex the patient through this process.  The movie’s ending presents itself as a twist and suggests that these roles were in fact reversed, particularly in light of Alex’s first interview with Sally and his ominous and vague statements about Nigel's death being a necessary means to an end.  If we accept that conclusion at face value, then consider how Alex “urging on the patient’s symptoms” may have actually “led him to suicide”.

The Gestalt therapist contrives experiments that lead the client to greater awareness and fuller experience of his/her possibilities. Experiments can be focused on undoing projections or retroflections. They can work to help the client with closure of unfinished Gestalts ("unfinished business" such as unexpressed emotions towards somebody in the client's life). 

What is the climax of this movie if not Nigel creating a violent type of closure with his unexpressed emotions toward his parents?  “It’s how you use it.”  Did Alex use gestalt therapy techniques to draw Nigel into this violent chain of events as “a means to an end”?  If so, what actually was the “end” he desired?

Incorporating this information into our interpretations of the movie still does not necessarily force us into accepting Alex as Mastermind as the only reading.  I think you can certainly see that dynamic, but it doesn’t preclude Nigel as Mastermind.  In my further reading regarding gestalt therapy, I found this passage in a blog post:

A thirst for experience is part of all life. Often though, this takes the form of a wanting to move on and on to other experiences than those at hand. A craving for more replaces the need for depth that could be our natural mode of contacting the world, had we not become desensitized to it. Intuitively seeking that depth or fullness of awareness that is on our birthright, and not finding it, we seek the substitute of environmental stimulation: spicy foods, rock climbing, high-speed sportscars, competitive games, tragedies on the movie screen.

This describes Alex perfectly and speaks to his own need for the gestalt therapeutic approach.  We could argue that Nigel addresses this drive for more experiences by bringing Alex into a focus on the depths of the present moment, existing in the now that Nigel creates for him as he attempts to understand his own feelings and reactions.  As the book puts it:

The Perlses believed that it is not our responsibility to live up to others' expectations, nor should we expect others to live up to ours. In building self-awareness, gestalt therapy aims to help clients better understand themselves and how the choices they make affect their health and their relationships. 

 My own interpretation is one of equal partners both playing the role of therapist and patient to each other.  Gestalt therapy relies on the ability of the therapist to set aside their own interpretations of the patient's experiences in favor of allowing or guiding the patient to arrive at their own understandings and conclusions. I do not think that sole responsibility can be placed on either Nigel or Alex, and the events of the movie could not or would not have transpired without the active participation of both boys in each other's lives.  While the context is a dark expression of these ideas, both Alex and Nigel help each other build self-awareness and achieve a better understanding of themselves.

Like Minds Masterpost