#or any citizen really

[layton-heritage-posts]

From what I could gather, your government may be a shitstorm at the moment, but thank God that doesn't stop the heritage thing.

I won't let such a silly thing like the collapse of the German Government stop me from my full-time job of reblogging posts on a failing social media site.

[snekdood]

"if we make america worse and more of a dictatorship that will be even harder to unravel and make it the way we want the country to be, maybe then everyone will join our Glorious Revolution!" bb girl you cant even be in the same room with someone who thinks you should vote, how in tf do you think you're gonna unite people to fight in The Revolution with you? it's gonna be you and your 5 friends, i hate to break it to you.

[puppyeared]

fake ep idea + doodles

[whitesunlars]

targeting civilians. murdering them, raping them, torturing them, and then desecrating their bodies. annihilating entire families. kidnapping babies as young as 6 months and Holocaust survivors as old as 100. shooting down attendees at a rave that was for peace. this is not freedom fighting. this is not liberation. and this will certainly not free palestine.

all this does is cause more suffering for both israelis and palestinians. all this causes is war and death and atrocities.

it is terrorism. if you try to justify it, you are supporting terrorism.

[anghraine]

Hi! Can you explain what really the power of foresight was with Faramir? I read the books earlier this year and I don't really quite understand it. He could predict the future? Like he would see it in his dreams? But how did he found out from Gollum that he was taking frodo and sam to cirith ungol and that he had committed murder before?

No problem, it's one of my favorite topics!

The concise explanation: I think Faramir's foresight/aftersight in terms of visions is a largely separate "power" from his ability to bring his strength of mind and will to bear on other people and animals, and to resist outside influence. The visions seem more a matter of broad sensitivity, something Faramir doesn't appear to have much if any control over. The second power is (in our terms) essentially a form of direct telepathy, limited in some ways but still very powerful, and I think this second ability is what Faramir is using with Gollum.

The really long version:

In my opinion, Faramir (or Denethor, Aragorn, etc) doesn't necessarily read thoughts like a book, particularly not with a mind as resistant as Gollum's. Faramir describes Gollum's mind in particular as dark and closed, it seems unusually so—

"There are locked doors and closed windows in your mind, and dark rooms behind them," said Faramir.

Still, Gollum is unable to entirely block Faramir's abilities. In LOTR, it does not seem that Gollum can fully block powerful mental abilities such as Faramir's, though his toughness and hostility does limit what Faramir can see. (Unfinished Tales, incidentally, suggests iirc that Denethor's combination of "great mental powers" and his right to use the Anor-stone allowed him to telepathically get the better of Saruman through their palantíri, a similar but greater feat.) I imagine that this is roughly similar to, but scaled down from, Galadriel's telepathic inquiries of even someone as reluctant to have her in his mind as Boromir, given that Faramir is able to still see some things in Gollum's mind, if with more difficulty than usual.

(WRT Boromir ... ngl, if I was the human buffer between Denethor and Faramir, I would also not be thrilled about sudden telepathic intrusions from basically anyone, much less someone I had little reason to trust.)

Disclaimer: a few years after LOTR's publication, Tolkien tried to systematize how this vague mystical telepathy stuff really works. One idea he had among many, iirc, was that no unwilling person's mind could be "read" the ways that Gollum's is throughout LOTR. IMO that can't really be reconciled w/ numerous significant interactions in LOTR where resistance to mental intrusion or domination is clearly variable between individuals and affected by personal qualities like strength of will, basic resilience, the effort put into opposition, supernatural powers, etc. And these attempts at resistance are unsuccessful or only partially successful on many occasions in LOTR (the Mouth of Sauron, for one example, is a Númenórean sorcerer in the book who can't really contend with Aragorn on a telepathic level). So I, personally, tend to avoid using the terminology and rationales from that later systematized explanation when discussing LOTR. And in general, I think Tolkien's later attempts to convert the mystical, mysterious wonder of Middle-earth into something more "hard magic" or even scientific was a failed idea on a par with Teleporno. Others differ!

In any case, when Gollum "unwillingly" looks at Faramir while being questioned, the creepy light drains from his eyes and he shrinks back while Faramir concludes he's being honest on that specific occasion. Gollum experiences physical pain when he does try to lie to Faramir—

"It is called Cirith Ungol." Gollum hissed sharply and began muttering to himself. "Is not that its name?" said Faramir turning to him. "No!" said Gollum, and then he squealed, as if something had stabbed him.

I don't think this is a deliberate punishment from Faramir—that wouldn't be like him at all—and I don't think it's the Ring, but simply a natural consequence of what Faramir is. Later, Gandalf says of Faramir's father:

"He can perceive, if he bends his will thither, much of what is passing in the minds of men ... It is difficult to deceive him, and dangerous to try."

So, IMO, Faramir's quick realization that Gollum is a murderer doesn't come from any vision of the future or past involving Gollum—that is, it's not a deduction from some event he's seen. Faramir does not literally foresee Gollum's trick at Cirith Ungol. His warning would be more specific in that case, I think. What he sees seems to be less detailed but more direct and, well, mystical. Faramir likely doesn't know who exactly Gollum murdered or why or what any of the circumstances were. Rather, Gollum's murderousness and malice are visible conditions of his soul to Faramir's sight. Faramir doesn't foresee the particulars of Gollum's betrayal—but he can see in Gollum's mind that he is keeping something back. Faramir says of Gollum:

"I do not think you are holden to go to Cirith Ungol, of which he has told you less than he knows. That much I perceived clearly in his mind."

Meanwhile, in a letter written shortly before the publication of LOTR, Tolkien said of Faramir's ancestors:

They became thus in appearance, and even in powers of mind, hardly distinguishable from the Elves

So these abilities aren't that strange in that context. Faramir by chance (or "chance") is, like his father, almost purely an ancient Númenórean type despite living millennia after the destruction of Númenor (that destruction is the main reason "Númenóreanness" is fading throughout the age Faramir lives in). Even less ultra-Númenórean members of Denethor's family are still consistently inheriting characteristics from their distant ancestor Elros, Elrond's brother, while Faramir and Denethor independently strike Sam and Pippin as peculiarly akin to Gandalf, a literal Maia like their ancestress Melian:

“Ah well, sir,” said Sam, “you [Faramir] said my master had an elvish air; and that was good and true. But I can say this: you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of—well, Gandalf, of wizards.”

He [Denethor] turned his dark eyes on Gandalf, and now Pippin saw a likeness between the two, and he felt the strain between them, almost as if he saw a line of smouldering fire drawn from eye to eye, that might suddenly burst into flame.

Meanwhile, Faramir's mother's family is believed to be part Elvish, a belief immediately confirmed when Legolas meets Faramir's maternal uncle:

At length they came to the Prince Imrahil, and Legolas looked at him and bowed low; for he saw that here indeed was one who had elven-blood in his veins. "Hail, lord!" he [Legolas] said. "It is long since the people of Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all sailed from Amroth’s haven west over water."

In addition to that, Faramir's men believe he's under some specific personal blessing or charm as well as the Númenórean/Elvish/Maia throwback qualities. It's also mentioned by different groups of soldiers that Faramir can exercise some power of command over animals as well as people. Beregond describes Faramir getting his horse to run towards five Nazgûl in real time:

"They will make the Gate. No! the horses are running mad. Look! the men are thrown; they are running on foot. No, one is still up, but he rides back to the others. That will be the Captain [Faramir]: he can master both beasts and men."

Then, during the later retreat of Faramir's men across the Pelennor:

At last, less than a mile from the City, a more ordered mass of men came into view, marching not running, still holding together. The watchers held their breath. "Faramir must be there," they said. "He can govern man and beast."

Tolkien said of the ancient Númenóreans:

But nearly all women could ride horses, treating them honourably, and housing them more nobly than any other of their domestic animals. The stables of a great man were often as large and as fair to look upon as his own house. Both men and women rode horses for pleasure … and in ceremony of state both men and women of rank, even queens, would ride, on horseback amid their escorts or retinues … The Númenóreans trained their horses to hear and understand calls (by voice or whistling) from great distances; and also, where there was great love between men or women and their favorite steeds, they could (or so it is said in ancient tales) summon them at need by their thought alone. So it was also with their dogs.

Likely the same Númenórean abilities were used for evil by Queen Berúthiel against her cats. In an interview with Daphne Castell, Tolkien said:

She [Berúthiel] was one of these people who loathe cats, but cats will jump on them and follow them about—you know how sometimes they pursue people who hate them? I have a friend like that. I’m afraid she took to torturing them for amusement, but she kept some and used them—trained them to go on evil errands by night, to spy on her enemies or terrify them.

The more formal version of the Berúthiel lore recurs in Unfinished Tales:

She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things "that men wish most to keep hidden," setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them.

Faramir, by contrast, has a strong aversion to harming/killing animals for any reason other than genuine need, but apparently quite similar basic abilities. He typically uses these abilities to try to compassionately understand other people or gather necessary information, rather than for domination or provoking fear. Even so, Faramir does seem to use his mental powers pretty much all the time with no attempt to conceal what he's doing—he says some pretty outlandish things to Frodo and Sam as if they're very ordinary, but it doesn't seem that most people he knows can do all these things. This stuff is ordinary to him because it flows out of his fundamental being, not because it's common.

It's not clear how much fine control he has, interestingly. This is more headcanon perhaps, but I don't feel like it's completely under his control, even while it's much more controlled than things like Faramir's vision of Boromir's funeral boat, his frequent, repeated dreams of Númenor's destruction, the Ring riddle dream he received multiple times, or even his suspiciously specific "guess" of what passed between Galadriel and Boromir in Lothlórien. Yet his more everyday mental powers do seem to involve some measure of deliberate effort in a lot of the instances we see, given the differing degrees of difficulty and strain we see with the powers he and Denethor exhibit more frequently and consistently.

This is is also interesting wrt Éowyn, because Tolkien describes Faramir's perception of her as "clear sight" (which I suspect is just Tolkien's preferred parlance for "clairvoyance"). Faramir perceives a lot more of what's going on with Éowyn than I think he had materially observable evidence for—but does not see everything that's going on with her by any means. He seems to understand basically everything about her feelings for Aragorn, more than Éowyn herself does, but does not know if she loves him [Faramir].

I'm guessing that it's more difficult to "see" this way when it's directly personal (one of the tragedies of his and Denethor's relationship is that their shared mental powers do not enable either to realize how much they love each other). But it also doesn't seem like he's trying to overcome Éowyn's mental resistance the way he was with Gollum, and possibly Frodo and Sam—he does handle it a bit differently when it's not a matter of critical military urgency. With Éowyn, he sees what his abilities make clear to him, is interested enough to seek out Merry (and also perceive more than Merry says, because Faramir has never been a normal person one day in his life) but doesn't seem to really push either of them.

So I tend to imagine that with someone like Faramir, Denethor, Aragorn etc, we're usually seeing a relatively passive, natural form of low-grade telepathy that simply derives from their fundamental nature and personalities (as we see in Faramir with Éowyn, possibly Faramir with Aragorn). That can be kicked up to more powerful, forceful telepathy via active exertion of the will (as described by Gandalf wrt Denethor's ability to "bend[] his will thither" to see what passes in others' minds, and seen with Faramir vs Gollum, Aragorn vs the Mouth of Sauron, more subtly Faramir vs Denethor). At a high point of strain this can be done very aggressively or defensively (Denethor vs Gandalf, Denethor vs Saruman, Denethor vs Sauron seriously is there a Maia that man won't fight, Faramir vs the Black Breath given his completely unique symptoms that Aragorn attributes to his "staunch will", possibly Aragorn vs the Black Breath in a healing capacity...).

Anyway, I hope these massive walls of text are helpful or interesting! Thanks for the ask :)

[stealingpotatoes]

In your, Ani comes to the future AU. in regard to the pod racing who is dumb enough to talk shit to Vader all 6 feet 8 inches of him.

if you have a survival instinct, you move off tatooine IMMEDIATELY. everything on that planet is trying to kill you and if you're scared of ANYTHING it will succeed! so the only people left there are the people insane enough to chat gas to the scariest man in the galaxy <3

[yandere-collections]

Your post about yandere! small town is absolutely delicious 💞 Please tell us more about them!!!

I'm glad you like it, thank you so much!

So to begin with, a little bit about the town itself. There is only one road in and out of town and it is several turns off the highway. The only people who come into town on a regular basis are truck drivers delivering goods to the local shops. There is almost nothing in town to appeal to regular tourists except for camping under the stars as a way to get away from the modern world. You may encounter some people taking advantage of this isolated society to run from their past out there.

Despite having a relatively small population, the town itself is rather large as the wilderness is technically incorporated since around 15% of people living in cabins out there. The rest is a densely packed downtown, with shops branching off Main Street and roads leading to residential districts. Of course, your neighborhood is one of the densest (and most expensive) with many hastily built apartments surrounding you.

The nearest city is almost an hour away by car. Since regular civilization is so far away, most produce and dairy come from local farms. However, most citizens will still make a trip to the city every once in a while to get non grocery items like medicine and hygiene products at a cheaper price since local stores have much higher prices (for everyone but you). People may try to gain favor with you by bringing you things from the big city that you can’t find in town. 

There is a church in town that later became the community center when no one used it. If you yourself are religious and want to practice in a house of worship, other townsfolk will join you but it won't get used beyond that. You may or may not notice that people only practice said religion while you’re present and that there aren’t followers of other beliefs in town. Little do you know, the church/community center has an underground floor kept completely hidden from you. This is where the temple dedicated to you resides. Here, there are paintings of you and random things that have been stolen from you, along with benches and an altar for citizens to worship and pray to you. 

Living within the church are your most dedicated disciples. These people devote themselves to tending to your shrine, taking a vow to never leave once initiated (the only exception is if you wanted to invite them out- they would never deny you anything). They will also punish sinners (anyone who doesn’t respect you enough or tries to take you out of town) and keep the church free of fighting as it is considered holy ground, never to be tainted by spilled blood. They are well respected among the community and enjoy special privileges. For instance, since they never leave and can’t encounter you in public, the little time they do get to spend with you is never interrupted. They also get free information about you from brokers and have access to a live feed of your whereabouts from the librarian.

[hsslilly-blog]

claire should be allowed to engage in psychological warfare against hunt. and my god if she isn't the greatest psyop of them all

[peony-pearl]

June was the only woman older than Katara and Suki to show up and help the Gaang in the finale and I think that’s ridiculous. We could have seen Yagoda and the Herbalist in the White Lotus (and Miyuki!! She has a cute miniature lotus collar). Perhaps even Haru’s mom showing up somewhere??  IDK the lack of older ladies as respected guides and teachers is irksome and until further notice I’m headcanoning out of spite that they were there we just didn’t see their scenes but they were there dammit

[redvelvetwishtree]

So Israel spent the last month lying and making up fake self-victimising stories and expect us to believe that they didn't kill their own hostage, showed tunnels in Sweden and said they were under Al Shifa, put their own laptops with labels and passed them off as belonging to Hamas somehow fully charged with no passwords, showing us the days of the week poster and saying it was a list of Hamas people, lining up weapons neatly against a wall and ughhh I can keep listing the kindergarten level setups they've done to convince impressionable people but please use your brains.

[honeyconez]

guys hear me out would painis cupcake pay taxes? Because he’s not like mega insane like ass pancakes I think he’d pay his taxes in my professional opinion.

[yellow-yarrow]

kinda funny how cities skylines has this cutesy fun vibe but you are basically a dictator in it and the citizens ask for prisons and cops even if you build a perfect city while Frostpunk 2 has this stressfull dark mood but there is a council you have to convince to vote for your ideas and you can have things like equal pay for everyone, ubi, support for disabled people, etc

[why-rock-look-tasty-if-no-eat]

Gave my mom a good morning with the news about Russia threatening nuclear war as pay back for that time she woke me up from a nap screaming about me watching lesbian porn even though we both knew her husband watched it (I signed in and out of my youtube account and she knew it)

[rockethorse]

So far, Calcinidae Bay has:

A public primary & secondary school

A sports field

One public library

A spa

A cinema

One hotel/restaurant (somewhat fancy)

A city hall

A water park

A mall (supermarket, tech store, chain restaurant, chain cafe, jewellery, newsagency, clothing)

A train station

A small organic store/cafe

A pawn shop with an apartment upstairs

One apartment lot with 4 individual flats

10~ residential lots

The Kitstop (important)

What do you think I should prioritise next? 🤔 I'd love to build a park/playground but I really want those to fit into the surrounding lots & suburbs, so I can't really build them until I've built said lots, LOL.

What would YOU build next?

[n7priv]

how do you start sth like this even?..

uhm, hi, so; recently i picked up this video game, i bought it cause i really loved another game its creators made and i wanted to check out their previous work. i'm talking about citizen sleeper (which this post isnt about but this is totally an amazing experience!!!) and jump over the age's first game;

in other waters

its a game about Ellery Vas, a xenobiologist in their dive suit following the tracks of Minae, a former work colleague and friend, onto an exoplanet (which btw is a real planet, but — as far as i know — isn't filled with water and life) and discovering what happened there.

however, your (the player's) point of view is not that of either one of these two friends, but instead that of the supporting AI inside the dive suit (kinda like siri but cool bc its you).

and this is where my adoration for this game comes from:

all you get to see is a user interface.

the mesmerizing wide depths of the ocean, the new species you discover in these foreign waters, the multiple suns that never set because of the tidally locked orbit of the planet,

you get to see none of it.

all you get, is a navigation interface on a map consisting of vague shapes in three, maybe four, colors max at a time;

the AI's POV.

and yet, the game still manages to deliver its environments and story convincingly.

shallow waters feel shallow, depths feel deep, hazardous areas feel toxic, life feels alive, Ellery feels like a person, a scientist who's working together with you to find out what happened to their friend, and to the life on this planet, and you feel responsible for your human.

i'll leave you with a few more screenshots, maybe you'll see what i mean:

apart from the obvious (the colors) it's also the interactions with Ellery that make this game feel so;; alive

they describe the world to you, though not always directly, sometimes you have to read their diary entries, their research notes, their coments on landmarks.

as you explore and scan and sample the different life forms around you, you unlock taxonomy entries for different species, and completing research on each of them will unlock a sketch of the life form from Ellery

(spoiler ahead i guess; just one example)

you end up caring for them because they are your eyes, your window into the real (well, as real as video games get) world, and yet, the only way you can communicate with them is occasionally answer yes or no to a question.

or is it? because i felt that through my actions in the game i was showing them i cared, and i that wanted to help. the entire game felt like a conversation between me and this somewhat lost scientist. when they thanked me for helping them out and looking after them, it feels heartfelt and appropriate; not cold and out of nowhere because "we need a bonding moment"

also, the soundtrack and sound design of this game just create the perfect atmosphere:

so, tldr, i am amazed by how jump over the age conveys this foreign environment, makes me care for their characters, and tells their story convincingly, all with nothing but a few colored lines n blobs, a bit of text, and a wonderful soundtrack.

tldr^2: in other waters is an amazing video game.

thanks for reading if u made it this far ‹3

- Lu

[brittlebutch]