#then i was like how about we combine them

[itscamile222]

HOW SHIFTING WORKS- scientifically based thesis

“we´are infinite beings destined to explore the infinite universe”

NOTE: i´m not a scientist nor a physicist. This essay is based on self interpretation of information and things i´ve learned about consciousness, quantum physics, nature of reality, etc.

We´re four dimensional beings, meaning we´re composed of both physical and non physical (intangible) things. We have three layers: body, psyche (alias consciousness) and soul. Our bodies are just the envelope, the vehicle our consciousness occupies in order to live a human experience. Accordingly, our true self is not our body, but the consciousness that occupies it. Having that in mind, we´re able to move to the next point.

Everything — and this is scientifically proven — is made of energy. Vibrating energy makes matter, and consequently both matter and energy have frequencies. Every single thing has a different frequency: objects, sounds, emotions, etc. Therefore, reality as a whole, with all of its elements combined, vibrates at its own frequency.

Thanks to quantum physics, we know particles of energy can be in different states and multiple places at the same time in superposition when there isn't a conscious observer. While being observed, energy/particles behave differently, being perceived at one state and place. This experiment shows the same particle can and does exist in many states/places at once, but we´re only able to perceive one state/place at a time.

ENERGY → MATTER → REALITY

We can only perceive one reality (state of energy/matter as a whole) at a time for the reason the human experience we're living limits us to do so. Although, like energy is coexisting in many places/states at once, and we know for certain that energy composes matter, which makes the (physical) reality, we can affirm there are many other realities besides this one, but we´re not able neither to perceive nor interact with them.

ENERGY → MATTER → REALITY

“ ↳ MATTER → REALITY

“ ↳ MATTER → REALITY

“ ↳ MATTER → REALITY

“ ↳ MATTER → REALITY

+∞

PINK: what we percieve

BLUE: what coexists but we don’t perceive

Summing things up, there are many other realities coexisting in the very same space as this one, but each reality exists in different frequencies, so realities never interact with each other. That said, we are able to introduce the main character: shifting.

Shifting doesn't happen in your consciousness, shifting happens with — and thanks to— your consciousness. Your body is trapped in this reality because it's part of this reality, for the reason bodies are physical things that can only exist in one state. Your consciousness, on the other hand, contrary to your body, can shift because it's not something physical, it's not made of matter. Consciousness doesn't belong to any reality, it just experiences them. Consciousness cannot die, so when your body faces death, your consciousness continues existing in other realities. This can explain both reincarnation and heaven, since your consciousness shifts to a reality that fits what you expect/believe you´ll experience after death.

With shifting, we´re doing the same but intentionally, choosing the reality we want to experience,with the difference our Cr body is still alive, so we can come back.

By shifting, we´re changing the frequency of our consciousness — which is the same as our Cr— to match the frequency of the reality we want to become aware of. You have to shift your inner world in order to shift the outer physical world (the 4d and the 3d).

[frozenemus]

It definitely feels like a combination of player culture and some DMs concerns over having players interact with their setting.

On one hand, players should absolutely be respecting their DMs more given the amount of work that is invested to play (especially with D&D 5e). The fact that we have to be careful about picking up new players out of fear that they’re going to intentionally try to ruin a given campaign is already exhausting.

On the other hand, I definitely do think there is also an issue with how some DM’s approach their settings that makes them more prone to having stuff unravel and fall apart. As they say “No good plan survives first contact with the enemy.”, and this applies for campaign design as well. Players are fundamentally random variables that need to be accounted for. They want to have an impact in the world that they’re interacting with, and the more you’re able to weave that into your adventure, the more fun it can be for both sides.

D&D 5e supposedly has a GM shortage and idk maybe if the player culture of the game didn't treat GMing as a thankless job and the rules of the game as an issue to be fixed by the GM maybe things would be better. Ah well, who knows. Maybe a couple hundred more "we ruined the GM's campaign on purpose" memes will make people enjoy running the game better.

[louisupdates]

If you’ve been on social media today, you may have seen a certain word trending: Zouis. But what does it mean? Well, Zouis is portmanteau of Zayn and Louis. Specifically, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson from One Direction.

The pair were spotted together in Los Angeles, with Tomlinson attending Malik’s gig—sending the internet into a frenzy

With Zouis spreading like wildfire on social media, this story operates as an interesting example of how fandoms can deal with grief, and, for once, how the internet can be a positive communal force.

What’s Happening With Zouis? Why Were Zayn Malik And Louis Tomlinson Together?

Zayn Malik is currently on his Stairway To The Sky tour, and is playing several nights at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, California.

Louis Tomlinson—who was in boyband One Direction with Malik—attended the show on Jan. 29. This is the first time the pair, known as Zouis, have been together publicly since One Direction bandmate Liam Payne’s funeral on Nov. 20, 2024.

After Malik left the group in 2015, One Direction broke up the year after, and the members have rarely been together since, with each pursuing solo careers.

This makes the appearance of Zouis a special moment for fans, as well as seemingly for Malik and Tomlinson themselves, with the former referencing his bandmate’s attendance at his concert in glowing terms:

How Did Social Media React The Appearance Of Zouis?

The online world went wild for the return of Zouis. There are tens of thousands of tweets about the event. Many of which show pure enthusiasm:

While others contain simple declarations of love towards Zouis:

There’s a sombre tone to some posts which reference the death of Liam Payne:

While difference accounts are self-referential about their own reaction to the partial One Direction reunion:

There’s one overwhelming trend though: pure excitement and adulation.

Why Is Social Media Reacting To Zouis In This Way?

There are a few things at play. Firstly, One Direction fans are renowned for their obsession with the group. Combined with the size of the boyband—3.4 million people saw them during their Where We Are tour alone—this means there’s a huge community of interested people whenever news about them drops. Like Zouis.

But there’s also a more sombre side to this overwhelming online reaction, and that can be linked to a sense of loss.

It’s common for fans to form parasocial relationships with people they follow. Effectively, this is when individuals believe they have a close tie with public figures, even though this is a one-way friendship. Often, this is driven by the perceived intimacy of social media.

This can induce serious emotions. So, when a member of a group like One Direction passes away, as is the case with Liam Payne, it can feel as though someone they’re close with had died.

When Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson came together for the first time since the funeral, it can feel like a cathartic moment for fans, as though things are righting themselves. One way of dealing with this outpouring of emotion, then, is to post on social media.

And that’s a key way of viewing this explosion of activity about Zouis: a celebration.

People are not only expressing joy at seeing members of One Direction together, but this enthusiasm also acts a tribute to Liam Payne. This creates a sense of community, of an entire fandom coming together and praising a new chapter in something they love.

Ultimately, the spread of posts about Zouis displays a positive side to social media, one where people share a connection and come together in unity. In these divided times, that’s a beautiful thing to see.

[dkniade]

🌌💫🌒

Fan art of @kianamaiart’s characters from I Don’t Want To Be A Magical Girl! (with glasses, ft misc glasses characters & two IDWTBAMG universe fan characters)

I’ve been following this project from the start so it’s been great seeing interactions between the characters and how the fandom is so excited for it. ^^

I tried to draw the cast from memory and, while Miss seems a little different from canon, at least I got the dark hair roots and strands sticking out lol. But details aside they’re all recognizable! Which means they’re lovely designs that are unique from one another✨

Eclipse’s shades are a combination of his usual eye mask and the shades from this artwork, and Hoshi’s glasses are inspired by this one!🌒⭐️

Designs… (I don’t have a name for her yet but) the pigtails girl’s shapes are a combination of curves pointing downwards and curves pointing upwards. The idea ended up being that she’s on Eclipse and Lady DeVoid’s side so (after reading this post by Kiana about how most of the characters had Aika’s design as the springboard and are designed to complement eachother) I wanted her design to complement those two’s, with some influence from Zira. I like that the strands of hair on her forehead and the shape around them mirror both Zira’s hair and DeVoid’s horns haha. Plus, I was trying to figure out how to design her glasses and they ended up being kind of the inverse of Eclipse’s eye mask, which is very nice. Eclipse and DeVoid seem to be associated with sharp curves and circle shapes; maybe her outfit could be a lot fancier…

As for what her role might be in the story… I dunno, if she works with Eclipse and DeVoid, and Eclipse is all ~theatric and grand~ then maybe she could be like… his assistant… or something? Who knows. Or, I say “observer from afar” so perhaps she actually gets along with Zira well and they’d watch on the sidelines while Aika and Eclipse duke it out…?

Eclipse… Moon… Umbra… man what if I just name the pigtails girl Yueshi (月食, lunar eclipse)(for both the moon motif that Zira and Eclipse have, and the darkness motif that Eclipse and DeVoid have haha)

Shooting star and telescope don’t feel quite right, but with the circular shapes and the lunar eclipse, I could kind of see her having some star trail motifs with her sweater…

I guess Umbra would be the same type of elf (? darkness/concept personified?) as Lady DeVoid but I’m not sure haha. We don’t have much information on DeVoid other than the fact that she is darkness itself and that she lost most of her powers which she can’t remember how to use. Banished by a Star Guardian, revenge, recruiting Eclipse to help spread the darkness particles to destroy the Star Guardian… If she has a similar backstory to MLP:FIM’s Princess Luna then does that mean she was originally Aika’s teammate or something? haha

About Umbra’s hair… (Feel free to correct me for any inaccuracies.) I think from the reference photos I was trying to draw box braids but got so focused on also making the braids look like moon phases that I’m not sure if it’d still be box braids in the end? They seem more like cornrows now, at least for the side ones?

Here are some earlier versions of the OCs! and more rambling about designs

Well, initially I scribbled down Yueshi so I could experiment with values because I was thinking about how light-coloured pants draw the eye too much if the outfit or the top half of the character is darker. (Half way through she ended up looking like a IDWTBAMG character so I tried to match the proportions with Aika’s turnaround.) But I suppose if there’s enough contrast for the upper half (and IDWTBAMG’s stark black design style gives a lot of contrast) then it works out better. I think the combination of making Yueshi’s hair and the top half of her sweater black and the circle shape white worked out okay. Initially she had large round eyes so I tried giving her round glasses too but since she ended up being a fan character in the universe, it was too similar to Aika and Zira.

Umbra’s design kind of popped into my mind today so I tried to scribble it down and experimented with hairstyles. But green and purple are already associated with Zira, and that shade of lavender is more like Eclipse so I guess I’ll fiddle around with her colour scheme more. Maybe there’s not enough of the signature black there, and both could use some more details to match the level of details in the canon designs… (If Yueshi works under DeVoid then she’d probably get a fancy outfit too.) Then again, Umbra is more like Miss in terms of detail so it seems she’d be a background/supporting character or something…🤔

(I can’t seem to escape the puffy sleeves/cone shape silhouette🤔 Gotta diversify. Also, not sure if it’s ‘cause of the project’s style or if I just really love circles in character design haha)

[xechu]

cw: nsfw, fem!reader, 18+ mdni, sexual content

notes: from the same au as my one shot: "Warm on a Cold Night" // check out part 1 HC here & part 2 HC here

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who has an insatiable sex drive, especially when it comes to you. It still boggles his mind that you're the perfect combination of sexy and cute.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - would prefer it if you didn’t use toys (except for butt plugs). Why use it when you have him? That doesn't stop you from owning them though, you like it when he gets a bit riled up.

"What is this useless junk?" He scowled.

"I couldn't wait, Ryo," you admitted.

"Tsk, so impatient. Well then, show me how you played with yourself, and then I'll show you how I can top that," he smirked.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - may not be the most patient man to walk this green earth, but when the two of you are getting down and dirty, he will make sure each time you are coming undone, screaming his name, and clawing his back - no matter how long it took. If the two of you happened to be experimenting that day, he'll make sure that you are enjoying yourself, and if it doesn't work out, then he'll immediately switch back to something he knows will get you cumming.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - loves grabbing your hips and thighs, not just during sex but even outside of the bedroom.

"So, what are we thinking here? Have you decided?" He snuck up behind you and placed his hands around your hips.

"Hm, I'm not so sure, Ryo," you let out a small sigh as you contemplated on which dress to buy for your upcoming vacation to Greece.

"Why not get both then?" He says nonchalantly.

"I don’t know…it’s quite expensive."

"What am I? Chopped liver? I’m paying for them, why should you care?" He was genuinely offended.

Or, when you're at home watching Netflix (usually he goes with whatever you want to watch, he's not much of a TV/shows guy):

"I can't believe it! He actually did it," you turned to Sukuna, as the crime documentary you were watching was coming to an end.

"It's so fucking obvious he did it, I could tell immediately that he's batshit crazy," he rolled his eyes, taking in another swig of beer. His hand was on your thigh, as he mindlessly rubbed circles with his thumb.

"Okay, next one!" You said all giddy, reaching for the remote, but Sukuna stops you.

"Hey, it's my turn to have some fun," he murmurs, as he trails kisses down your neck.

Needless to say, he (and you) had a fair share of fun for the rest of the night.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who would almost always fuck you in the back of his car whenever you came to visit him for lunch. He would tell Jin and the other workers that he's taking you out for lunch, and while he does treat you to a nice lunch (by the way, he loved it when you ate well), you also become his afternoon dessert.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - loves to push you to your limits in the bedroom. The more you say you can't take it anymore, the more it spurs him on.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - has an overstimulation and exhibitionism kink. On one of your travels, he brought you to a fancy hotel with a floor to ceiling window, where he had your naked body pressed against the window while he savagely fucked you from behind.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - isn't super talkative during sex. He would grunt, swear, and praise you once in a while - that's about it.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - usually prefers to top, as someone who has a tendency to dominate and be in control. But if you request to be on top he will gladly oblige. Highkey revels in it when you caught a mood that day and use his dick to blow off some steam.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - given how badly he lusts for you, one would expect that he has some obscene photo of you on his lock screen, but surprisingly it's very tamed. It's a photo of you smiling by the ocean when the two of you visited Paros (Greece). He also has that same picture of you in a photo print, put in a very expensive silver frame, and proudly displayed in his workstation. If you couldn't tell already, that's his favorite photo of you. You were always so goddamn beautiful when you smiled.

"Shit, Ryo - that your girl?" one of his regular customers asked.

"Mhm, that's my woman," he responded casually, but inside he was brimming with pride.

"Does she have any single friends that y'know - kinda has the same vibe as her?"

"Like what you see, huh?" It was more of a challenge than a genuine question.

"Eep."

(Even during your one year separation, he still had the photo on his workstation, and on his lock screen - but he will never tell you that)

ex/boyfriend!sukuna- speaking of pictures, he has this one polaroid picture of you that absolutely brings him to his knees (you secretly slipped it in his back pocket for Valentine's Day). It is carefully tucked between his ID and cards in the window slot of his wallet.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna- said polaroid picture is of you in black lingerie, splayed out on his bed, with crotchless panties and a jeweled butt plug. Needless to say, that night you both had your fill of wild, steamy, debauched sex.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - on the topic of that R rated polaroid, he would get all on edge when someone touches his wallet, but ironically, he couldn't give two shits about his phone (even though there are also some obscene pictures of you two in there too. His FBI can see it for all he cares). That polaroid though, was for his eyes only. He had a nightmare one time where he got pulled over and instead of giving his ID to the cop, he accidentally gave the photo. In the nightmare the cop says to him "Hm, interesting. I'll confiscate this and you can be on your merry way, buddy." He thought he was going to have to go to jail a second time. After that, he begrudgingly put the polaroid in his safe.

ex/boyfriend!sukuna - who noticed the way your eyes slightly darkened when Choso (his apprentice) accidentally mentioned in front of you that he had a frenum piercing. He is now seriously contemplating on getting one himself.

a/n: The polaroid and Choso incident was something that happened after the events of 'Warm on a Cold Night'. Do we all want our big strong Kuna to get the piercing or nah? ;)

[plotthotrobin]

I am honestly convinced that Byleth as a character would be received a lot more positively if they were just given more lines and voice acted in Three Houses like they were in Three Hopes. They’re so interesting to me, but to get to the compelling things their character provides requires players to do two things:

One: See Byleth as their own character and not simply an extension of themselves, which Instys actively works against most of the time because they want to appeal to their audience with a direct stand-in.

Two: Piece together a lot of their personality from what we are told rather than shown most of the time. They’re unnervingly stoic and awkward, but desire connections even if they don’t know how to go about it some of the time. They’re politely blunt to everyone regardless of status or social expectations. They grew up completely isolated from most of the world and don’t know much about life outside of being a mercenary. They like fishing, just like their dad. They care deeply for their students, along with the members of the church. They’re loyal and dutiful. They’re stressed and guilt-ridden. We’re told all of this, and it makes sense given their setup, but Byleth just blinks and shakes their head when they’re on screen.

Silent protagonists aren’t always a bad thing. I adore Link, for example. (Who doesn’t? Lol) But in a game where the main connections between characters are conversations? Byleth being both visibly emotionless and silent is not a good combination for this game especially. It was a big miss on Instys’ part.

I know Three Hopes tends to be hated on (I myself find it to have good yet clunky highs and really low lows), but it did so much good for Byleth as a character to be able to see them voiced and from an outside perspective.

[kanansdume]

You started these tags with "oof" and I went back to re-read the second part of this post and... yeah, oof is about how I feel, too. Oh how hopeful I was for something good to come out of that show, BOTH shows actually since I was looking at Mandalorian season 3 as well it seems.

This post is already a little long, so I'll put the rest under a cut, but tl;dr is that I think you're giving the people writing in the Mandoverse SO MUCH more credit than they deserve and they'll likely never do anything good or creative with these characters again.

I don't think that making Sabine a Jedi had anything to do with Sabine at all. A lot of people have pointed out that Sabine is acting like a bratty teenager despite being literally 30 years old and that she feels a lot like an ANAKIN stand-in so that Ahsoka can figure out her feelings about Anakin through her relationship to Sabine. We know that the Rebels Search for Ezra storyline got combined with Ahsoka's show and that they weren't originally intended to be the same story. So it makes sense that Ahsoka likely HAD a padawan-figure originally who was probably a new character and that they just replaced that character with Sabine when things got combined, regardless of what that would mean for Sabine's character.

Sabine doesn't even grow or learn anything by the end of the show. I've see people try to argue that when she left Ezra behind in order to save Ahsoka that it showed she'd grown from when she abandoned everything to save Ezra, except... she's literally just making the same choice for a different person. Thrawn is LEAVING and the whole point of jumping onto his ship is to try to STOP HIM or something, and instead of doing that and helping Ezra, she runs back because one person's life is at stake and now Ezra is alone on that ship and Sabine never has to face the consequences of her own actions. Personally, that doesn't feel like any actual growth to me or like she's learned from the mistake she made by going to get Ezra. The narrative itself doesn't even seem to think that it WAS a mistake she needs to learn from, which leaves her character with literally nowhere to go.

If they were going to bring her back to Mandalore as a leader, they probaby would've been EMPHASIZING her connection to Mandalore rather than basically erasing it. It would've made more sense to leave her family ALIVE, even just ONE of them, to give her more of a connection to that cause. But no, aside from her wearing the armor, there's absolutely no indication she gives a flying shit about Mandalore or its people anymore.

So even if they DID start pushing Sabine in the direction of being a leader again, I wouldn't like it. THIS Sabine should never lead anybody ever. THIS Sabine is a selfish piece of shit who is willing to unleash Thrawn upon the galaxy just to get what she wants. REBELS era Sabine was awesome, and had the makings of a great ruler. REBELS era Sabine had learned mercy and patience and selflessness by the end of the show, while THIS fucking Sabine is impatient, impetuous, irresponsible, and selfish. Nobody should EVER allow the Ahsoka show version of Sabine anywhere NEAR a leadership position, and if they try to do it, it'll just be unbelievably bad writing. Perhaps hilariously bad writing, it could be amusing to see them attempt to make that claim, but it'd still be bad.

And, as you mentioned, they've already put Bo-Katan in as the leader of Mandalore for the THIRD TIME and, ostensibly, destroyed the Dark Saber. There doesn't seem to be any real planning around who gets put in as the leader of Mandalore, to be honest, it just kind-of flip flops and goes to whoever they deem most convenient in the moment. Sabine was being set up for it for a minute until they decided it would be problematic with what they wanted to do with her later in Rebels, so they threw it at Bo-Katan with no good reason. Then they took it away from Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian so that they could set Din up to take on leadership of Mandalore except that then they decided they didn't really like that so they abandoned all of that set-up and tossed it back at Bo-Katan because, hell, she's already there isn't she, might as well just give it back to her because THAT'S satisfying to see! So, sure, MAYBE they'll give it back to Sabine and take it away from Bo-Katan AGAIN later on, maybe Bo-Katan will die fighting Thrawn and so Sabine gets put back in as an option, but I don't have a single ounce of belief that it'll make any sense or feel in any way satisfying.

For all that the Mandoverse is focused on Mandalorians in the extreme, I don't feel like they're writing them all that well or care all that much about giving these characters good strong narratives. Sabine is just the latest in a string of terrible writing choices for their Mando characters.

Sabine Wren is not just the true wielder of the Darksaber, but the only one who should’ve been chosen to rule Mandalore and I will die on that hill.

The entire point of Sabine’s whole arc through the show is that she is learning JEDI VALUES, that she’s learning that the Mandalorian way has its place, but it also has so many flaws and that it’s what has led Mandalore to fight itself into dust. She’s impatient and distrustful and learns to listen with Hera about Fulcrum. She’s more inclined to kill someone out of anger until she learns the value of mercy and second chances from Kanan with Fenn Rau. She tries to pretend her problems don’t exist and won’t truly face them until she learns to wield the Darksaber with Kanan and then goes to make amends with her family. The entire episode with her familiy shows how Sabine brings together everything she’s learned: she waits and listens to her family’s grievances, understanding exactly how her actions impacted them, and then she shows mercy to Gar Saxon rather than killing him after her win like a true Mandalorian would.

Having Bo-Katan claim that the Mandalorian way is a way of MERCY, when we’re intentionally told and shown that Sabine’s willingness to show mercy explicitly goes against her Mandalorian upbringing and teachings and was something she learned from Hera, and from Kanan and his Jedi teachings, is really insulting. The Mandalorian way, as shown through Rebels, is NOT one of mercy, that’s the entire point. Sabine recognizes that, recognizes that that’s what’s caused them so much misery, caused them to turn on each other so much that their planet hasn’t ever had the chance to heal and regrow.

Bo-Katan even says IN THIS EPISODE that Sabine represents the best of what they have been in the past as well as the best of what they could someday become. That Sabine is a true leader.

To have Sabine turn around and say that the Darksaber came to her, after she EARNED IT, for the FIRST time since Tarre Viszla she truly EARNED the Darksaber, just so she could pass it on to Bo-Katan, someone who once gleefully helped set a village on fire after the people she was helping subjugate tried to resist?

I’m sorry, but no.

Sabine Wren is Tarre Viszla’s true successor. Not just as the wielder of the Darksaber, but as Mandalore’s uniter, as its truest ruler. Sabine Wren has the patience and mercy and wisdom of a Jedi with the passion and mettle of a Mandalorian warrior. She has learned to listen as well as she fights, and she has learned how to appreciate different points of view and how to bring them together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The Darksaber came to her because Sabine Wren always had the capacity to use it to fulfill Tarre Viszla’s vision, to unite Mandalore, to save it from itself, to make it more than it is. The Darksaber came to her specifically because Sabine has the greatest ability to lead Mandalore into a peaceful future.

[00valentina-writes00]

✞⛧ Restless Hearts & Midnight Comforts ✞⛧

Warnings: Mentions of exhaustion, brief allusions to intimacy, soft fluff.

Word count: 700

You’re sprawled on the couch, your head leaning against Vi’s shoulder, her scent—a mix of faint lavender and the leather of her jacket—wrapping around you like a blanket. Her fingers trace absentmindedly over the back of your hand, her touch grounding, familiar. The weight of the day clings to you like a fog, the exhaustion settling deep into your bones, but Vi’s presence is like a warm light cutting through it, steady and reassuring.

She shifts slightly, her thigh pressing against yours, and her free hand slides up your arm with featherlight touches. Her lips curve into that signature smirk, the one that always sends a flutter through your chest. Her voice drops to that playful, teasing tone that makes your heart skip. “So… what do you say we make tonight a little more fun?” Her words are accompanied by a soft kiss pressed to your temple, lingering just enough to make you bite your lip.

You hesitate, your cheeks warming under her attention. The idea is tempting—her touch always is—but the exhaustion buzzing through your limbs wins out. “Vi, I… I’m so tired,” you admit softly, your voice carrying a tinge of guilt. “Work was brutal, and I don’t think I have the energy for that tonight.”

Her hand pauses for a moment, and you feel a twinge of nervousness, glancing up at her through tired eyes. But when you meet her gaze, all you find is warmth, her features softening in that way she reserves just for you. Her brows relax, and the teasing edge melts into something gentler, more tender. “Hey,” she says, voice low and soothing, “no big deal.” She leans back, adjusting her position so you’re more snugly tucked into her side. “We’ve got all the time in the world for fun, babe. You’re tired—I get it.”

The relief you feel is almost instant, like a knot in your chest unraveling. You sink further into her, letting the strength of her arm around you hold you together. “Thanks for understanding,” you murmur, your voice muffled against her shoulder.

Vi grins, grabbing the remote and flashing you a wink. “Well, since we’re being boring tonight, let’s at least make it interesting. What are we watching?”

“Criminal Minds?” you suggest, a small smile tugging at your lips.

Her face lights up like a kid at Christmas. “Oh, hell yeah,” she says, already navigating to an episode. She looks down at you, her expression softening again, and she brushes a strand of hair from your face. “You’re cute when you’re all tired, you know that?”

You roll your eyes, though you can’t fight the blush creeping up your cheeks. “You’re impossible,” you reply, but the warmth in your tone betrays the fondness behind the words.

As the episode begins, you rest your head fully against her chest, the steady thrum of her heartbeat soothing. Her hand resumes its lazy patterns on your arm, her calloused fingers gentle and careful as if she knows exactly how fragile you feel tonight. The flickering light from the TV casts soft shadows across the room, and the sound of the BAU agents fills the comfortable silence.

“You know,” Vi starts, her voice low but amused, “if I was on their team, these criminals wouldn’t last five minutes. I’d have them confessing in record time.”

You let out a sleepy laugh, your lips brushing against her collarbone. “What, just intimidate them into submission?”

“Exactly,” she replies smugly, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of your head. “Stick with me, and no one’s messing with us.”

You hum in contentment, the combination of her warmth, her heartbeat, and the soft rasp of her voice lulling you into a calm you didn’t think possible after the day you’d had. Every so often, she whispers comments about the episode—how she’d take someone down, how she’d totally win an arm-wrestling match against Derek Morgan—and you chuckle softly, her voice like a balm against your fatigue.

And as her arm tightens slightly around you, her thumb brushing rhythmic circles on your shoulder, you let your eyes drift shut. Safe, loved, and completely at peace, you can’t help but think that this—laying on the couch with her, watching TV and existing in her presence—is better than anything else you could have asked for tonight.

[esote-rika]

reader giving chip a blowjob as a reward after a successful robery

Lover, my darling I see you and your Chip Taylor agenda and I fully support it. Went a little off the rails, but I’m ovulating so sfjegerlk

Contents: fem!reader, mentions of burglary, blowjobs, MDNI

Here’s the thing. Neither of you expected for the plan to work. Chip certainly seemed anxious the entire time, and you would have been offended about that if you didn’t have the same, very slight hint of doubt in the back of your mind. After all, this plan to rob a rich asshole’s house could very easily blow up in your faces.

Trespassing, breaking and entering, attempted robbery. The list of crimes whirls in your head, taunting you with the promise of prison, of being away from Chip, and the very thought of separation from your boyfriend is enough to make you completely locked in. A hundred and ten percent focus.

When you leave with thousands of dollars in cash, you wait until you’re both on the highway, on your way to leave the state before you let out the loudest, happiest laugh.

He’s laughing too, forehead still sweaty from a combination of the adrenaline and the hot summer air. Skin wrinkling around his eyes from how big he’s smiling. The most beautiful burglar to ever exist. “I can’t believe we pulled that off.” he’s saying, voice high with elation. 

“I told you to trust me.” You’re all cocky satisfaction as you head into the closest exit. He looks around confused, but he’s long since learned not to question you. You hold his very being in the palm of your rough, calloused hands, and it’s a fact you never take for granted. He deserves love, and care, and after tonight, the best damn head he’s ever experienced in his entire life.

You drive past empty fields, one hand on the steering wheel, the other reaching over and palming him through his jeans. 

He jerks, eyes wide as he looks at you, “God, baby—”

“You’ve been so, so good tonight, Chip.”

“Yeah?” he rocks his hips up to your palm, and you can feel him growing hard beneath the rough denim.

“Yeah, baby, I think you deserve a little treat.” You remove your hand from him, trying to focus on driving. 

He whines, the shameless man. 

“Go ahead and touch yourself, baby.”

The sound of his zipper fills the air, and you laugh as he takes his cock, quickly working his large hand up and down its length. Slack jawed and unblinking, he strokes himself in the passenger seat, head leaning heavily on the head rest. 

“That’s it, baby.” You coo, watching him out of the corner of your eye. God, he’s so pretty, soft brown curls pasted to his forehead as he jerks himself off. Finally finding a clearing that’s empty and secluded enough to your liking, you pull over and quickly unbuckle your seatbelt.

He watches you with stars in his eyes as you maneuver yourself over the console. He leans his chair back, freeing more room for you. Always so thoughtful, even when he’s near desperate. 

You smile, kissing the tip of his throbbing cock, “Can’t believe we pulled that off, baby,” you say, running your tongue and letting the taste of his precum flood your mouth, “And all because you were so good and followed my directions.”

“Of - of course, baby, I did say I’ll do anything to make you happy.” His adam’s apple bobs as he gulps, hands gently threading through your hair and gathering them at the crown of your head. So fucking thoughtful. Your heart could burst. 

“I know,” you whisper, wrapping your mouth around the tip and sucking. He lets out a strangled sound, and all of your original plans to tease him fly out the window. You take more of him down, carelessly letting him hit the back of your throat. It barely makes you gag anymore. After months of dating, you can easily push through his impressive girth and length. You hollow out your cheeks and suck, before pulling back.

It’s always such a thrill to give him head. He’s already gasping, making the prettiest sounds and you’ve barely even begun. A man of his height reduced to a stuttering, mindless mess all because of your mouth. It’s the best and easiest power trip you can have. 

You settle on a rhythm then, bobbing your head up and down his cock, hands on his thighs to balance you. It’s a sloppy affair, your body draped across the console, ass up in the air, your knees digging into the driver’s seat.

Threads of saliva drip down your chin, making everything so much warmer and slicker as you take him deep into your throat. 

You can feel his muscles tensing, fighting against the urge to thrust in, and since he’s been so good, you pull away and give him permission. “Fuck my mouth, Chip.”

“You sure?”

The breathiness of his voice has you rubbing your thighs together, but you remind yourself this is his turn. All about him. So instead, you look at him, eyes peeking up sweetly from beneath your lashes, “Yeah, baby, you’ve earned it.”

He lets out a strangled sound, and the force with which he thrusts does have you gagging. You hadn’t expected so much force, but god, it’s the hottest thing ever. So rarely does he take, always so eager to give, to make you feel good, that when the roles are reversed, it always takes you by surprise. He has a hidden strength that he tempers in order to be gentle with you, but at this moment, it’s all forgotten. He’s fucking up into your warm mouth like there’s no tomorrow, your throat swelling from how deeply he’s buried himself into you. 

“Fuck,” he whines. Fingers tightly gripping your hair, he holds your head in place as he ruts. You barely manage to hold back the choked sounds, knowing that if he hears them, he’ll slow down. You don’t want him to slow down, you want him to take and be selfish after such a job well down. “Baby—gonna—oh god!” 

He’s babbling, though you probably wouldn’t be able to make out his words anyway, what with how focused you are in taking his thick cock in your mouth. Your nails dig into his thighs as he moves your head to meet his thrusts, a vain attempt to anchor yourself to something.

“Just a little more, baby,” he gasps, and you wish you could see him clearly, immortalizing the look of pleasure on his face. But your eyes are blurry from tears, and his hold on your hair is so tight you couldn’t angle your head up to look at him if you tried. 

He pumps once, twice, and then he’s crying out and you feel ropes of his release overflowing your mouth. You swallow what you can, but strings of his cum and your saliva still trickle from your lips and over your chin. He pulls you up gingerly, brown eyes half open.

“God, baby, that was—are you okay?”

You laugh, wiping your chin with the back of your hand. “I’m perfect, baby, are you?”

“Of course I am,” he says breathlessly, pulling you up his lap and tucking your head beneath his chin, “That was amazing. I can’t believe I get to have you.” he’s more quiet now, lips grazing the crown of your head. You hum, smiling as you imagine what the future holds with the stolen money, and your sweet, perfect boyfriend by your side.

[geekgirles]

Dardondakal: "You used your Dofus' powers to bring this psycho back to life!"

Not gonna lie, it is very satisfying to see somebody call Grougalorasalar out on the willing atrocity of his actions after he spent 95% of his screentime dragging Yugo and Adamaï for things that were either accidents or out of their control.

(Seriously, for all the things he blamed Yugo and his people for, he actually left out the only thing besides Qilby's actions to be directly caused by them—Yugo endangering the World of Twelve when he used the Dofus to fight Ogrest).

There's also the fact that, just like Grougalorasalar brought up valid points regarding the damage—intentional or otherwise—the Eliatropes have caused to their world, Dardondakal is also right in getting angry over the lengths his brother is willing to go to just to make a point.

Dardondakal: "You sacrificed a thousand innocent lives for her!"

After all, tragic as she might be, Julith is a well-known menace and selfish enough to sacrifice hundreds of innocents for the sake of her own family. And she would have succeeded hadn't Jahash acted as her moral compass. Which in turn suggests her husband was the only person she truly cared about, as not even Joris, her son, managed to talk her out of her plan.

With the added fact that she originally planned to destroy Bonta before falling for Jahash, then Dardondakal makes an excellent point on how bringing her along could do more harm than good. Combined with the fact that the Ebony Dragon kept preaching about how everything wrong with their world was the Eliatropes' fault while he, remorseful as he was, didn't hesitate to sacrifice a thousand innocent souls for the sake of his goals, let's just say it only makes Grougalorasalar look like a hypocrite and the only actual threat here.

Dardondakal: "We had a deal. I agreed to help you as long as you didn't go too far. And killing a thousand innocents to bring this murderer back to life is anything but not going too far!

As the Ivory Dragon says, he agreed to help his brother as long as he didn't go too far, and sacrificing hundreds of innocent lives in exchange of a murderer's is indeed going way too far. Especially when Salar makes it clear Julith is mostly a back-up. He killed a thousand people just in case Yugo and Adamaï refused to go along with his ultimatum.

Fella really knows how to put the crazy in "crazy prepared".

But let's be honest. The whole entire chapter is just Dakal spitting facts and bringing his brother's paranoia into question.

Dardondakal: "I told you I could go with you." Grougalorasalar: "You're too soft. We needed to be persuasive during a first meeting. If we want to save this world, Brother, we must be firm!"

Now, raise your hand if you think Salar's animosity against Yugo and his people and his actions are going to end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that will result in the very catastrophe he was trying to prevent.

Grougalorasalar dismissed his brother as "too soft", but in doing so he has inadvertently caused more trouble for himself, because chances are Yugo and Adamaï will choose to hold onto their Dofus and the Eliasphere if it means they get a fighting chance of protecting their people against whatever Salar has planned for them if they don't comply.

Now, if he'd only brought Dakal along and they presented themselves before them without all the mind games and the attempted murder, chances are his more diplomatic brother would have been able to plea their case to Yugo and Adamaï and reason with them to hand over their weapons peacefully. Because as much of an emotionally-driven warrior as Yugo is, he is still deeply caring, empathetic, and prefers to use violence as his last resort. Alongside Adamaï's logical and cautious nature, and Amalia's understanding of their current standing in the World of Twelve, he would have most likely backed down a lot sooner and without collateral damage.

As things are right now, Yugo and Adamaï are equally likely to give in to his request, as they are to refuse him and to hold onto their weapons out of fear of Salar going against his word and hurting even more innocents regardless of what they choose to do.

Because let's not forget how he still wasn't above potentially killing Amalia when he also poisoned her glass. Or how he basically spelled it out for Yugo that he isn't exactly above killing his wife or his little siblings. That level of threat is sure to result in one very pissed off, very protective Eliatrope King. And we all know the things Yugo is capable of when it comes to protecting his loved ones.

(Thank you @cocogum for the screenshots).

And finally, we have this gem of a line that perfectly encapsulates how far Grougalorasalar really is going with his demands.

Dardondakal: "You're asking them for the impossible"

And again, cat boy aims his shot and hits all the targets.

Because Salar's demands are excessive! Not only is he demanding they hand over their weapons, which could very well be their only line of defence against a world that has made it clear time and time again that it won't accept them; but he is also incredibly hypocritical in his demands!

As @cocogum elaborated on in her review, while it could be argued that asking them to hand over the Eliasphere can be reasonable (it's not, and I'll get to that in a minute), asking them for the Eliatrope Dofus is not.

Because that's their Dofus. Powerful as they are, they undoutedly belong to their people, which was precisely why Adamaï was so incensed back in the OVAs when they were stolen or someone suggested they used them. Because it was not their decision to make, but of their people. Likewise, except for Efrim and Nora's, those Dofus house the souls of the remaining members of the Council of Six, of their siblings! He is basically asking Yugo and Adamaï to give their family up for ransom.

Not to mention, such demand is highly hypocritical of Grougalorasalar.

Last chapter he revealed he and his siblings were aware of everything that happened under Ogrest's control, and how much they resented being reduced to his pets just because he possessed their Dofus... And yet he expects Yugo and Adamaï to just hand over their Dofus to him even though they risk following a similar fate? Especially when they have always tried to keep them either hidden or in good hands while it's apparent the Primordial Dofus are basically up for the taking?

Now he really is crossing a line.

And, arguably, he is equally foolish to demand the Eliasphere and expect nothing bad comes out of it.

For all he ragged on about Nox, Qilby, and Oropo, and the damage they did with the Eliacube, he seems to be forgetting one crucial detail: even if the Eliacube and Eliasphere technically belong to the Mechasms, the only ones who can actually wield them efficiently are the Eliatropes (and Eliotropes)!

That's why Nox completely lost it. Because he couldn't handle or properly utilise the Eliacube's power. And Salar expects things to calm down just because the Eliatropes are no longer in possession of the Eliasphere? No! If anything, he's only risking further destruction and mayhem in case it falls into the wrong hands.

Given how Dakal is clearly the most reasonable and most principled of the two, I sure hope he goes behind his brother's back in an attempt to stop him. Who knows? Considering he chose Joris as his guardian, unless that changed in the centuries following his childhood, maybe he'll go to him to warn him of what Grougalorasalar is planning and that will be why Joris appears next chapter.

[canmom]

Hello me from November. I don't entirely disagree with the ideas I expressed back then, but I do think I was neglecting the socially inflected process of consumption of art, where the viewer brings interpretations that may not be intended or considered by its creator, as a fairly integral part of the process. I still think art is basically about communication, but the noisiness of the channel in combination with a lot of feedback cycles is a feature, not a bug.

I would say that the significance of Impressionism to humans can't really be separated from its history - the context in which these works were made, what they were responding to, how audiences interacted with them. The context in which we make expressions is continuously evolving. A 'simple' utterance can have a lot of significance in context. For audiences in the 19th century, familiar with the conventions of academic painting, impressionism entered as a challenge to that paradigm, proving by example that another form of expression was possible in this medium. We can think of it like an utterance in a conversation - one whose participants come and go, listen in for a bit, and speak up when they're ready.

So, with the example of the calligrapher adjusting the line weight of characters - it may not require much sophisticated technique to adjust the line weight of characters. But the master in question apparently discovered that a certain technical move (fiddling the line weight) evoked a certain emotional effect. That is part of a feedback process - both the artist interacting with their medium and themselves, and then interacting with their audience.

If aliens came along and trained a neural network on human artworks, and then sent us the results of this process, assuming they paid attention to how we responded and didn't just spam up our networks, our response would also create a feedback loop. We might get bored of one type of the aliens' output and favour another, form personal relations to what it creates, etc. etc.. If the aliens have their own art, and we could perceive them, it could go both ways. It is similar to the process of two people from different cultures meeting each other and figuring out how to communicate. At first you start with just 'point at thing' and figure out basic vocabulary. You copy sounds made in the target language, gradually filling out their context so that they start to acqurie meaning.

The aliens may not really understand what emotional responses they are invoking, but in a way that's true of all art - as an artist I can't know exactly what people will think and feel when they encounter my creation, just try to infer it based on how they communicate back to me and extrapolation from my own experience. Perhaps as they got to know us better, the aliens would form a more sophisticated model of different things that humans respond to...

So I don't think it's ultimately corrosive for some categories of artwork to reproducible by surprisingly simple means. Any more than it is corrosive for it to be possible to photograph a painting really. Every form of meaning is contextual. And indeed, a lot of "expertise" in art is actually in finding effective ways to simplify and distil - the expression might seem simple but knowing which simple expression is appropriate to the situation and executing it cleanly is a trick.

As far as creating impressionism algorithmically - while diffusion models have been one way to generate novel 'this looks impressionist to me' art on the computer, there is a parallel strand that has been seeking to replicate 'painterly' visual styles through the more traditional type of computer art - that is, figuring out ways to generate that 'coarser brush work' and render it controllable by artists. The main purpose of this is to apply 'painterly' looks to computer animation and games, so computational efficiency is a major concern. Numerous techniques have evolved in this field, with slightly different nuances, slightly different characters of glitch, etc. etc. - in part because the problem is not perfectly posed, and we discover nuances as we try different approaches. Here's one that I find quite good:

Typically approaches start with a traditional rasterisation render, and then apply the painting as a post-processing effect, e.g. by layering up textured Bézier-curve arcs based on the contents pixel buffer. But if you do this, you need to figure out how to best handle the noise introduced by a moving camera and objects, to maintain some notion of 'coherence' frame to frame.

Another approach is to treat the brush strokes as 3D data in the scene, which artists can modify; this is the basis of a new tool recently added to Blender, developed through 'Project Gold':

Here there is a strong emphasis on artistic control; the strokes are generated algorithmically but the tools give humans an intuitive way to direct the strokes and adjust their properties. It is all about that feedback loop between the artist and their tools.

Another approach still involves painting onto an object-space normal map so objects catch light in a brushstroke-like way, and feeding that into a toon ramp.

All of these approaches have slightly different effects, dimensions that humans immersed in this field can become familiar with; then they can be chosen and applied in games and films etc., suiting whatever is being conveyed in that piece (from at least Ōkami onwards). Far from reducing painting to simplistic application of algorithm, we've opened up new avenues of expression, inspired by previous human expression, and our close study of the paintings that inspired these efforts in computer graphics leads us to appreciate the paintings' nuances in new ways. I think humans tend to inject complexity into everything we do; every effort to simplify tends to result in new complexity springing up, because we are terminally, delightfully restless creatures.

And also we still paint, because it's fun, because making paintings lets you relate to light and colour and shape differently - even if we don't attach so much prestige to creating new Impressionist-inspired paintings as we did when Impressionism first arrived on the scene. But fuck prestige tbh. Art is a game and a conversation.

Reasoning such, I am ultimately not too worried by AI fundamentally disrupting humans' respect for our own creations by revealing it to be a sham at heart - though of course its economic effects on the context in which artworks are made and distributed is another story.

Thinking about that that "slop accelerationism" post, and also Scott's AI art Turing test.

I also hope AI text- and image-generation will help shake us loose from cheap bad art. For example, the fact that you can now generate perfectly rendered anime girls at the click of button kindof suggests that there was never much content in those drawings. Though maybe we didn't really need AI for that insight? It feels very similar to that shift in fashion that rejected Bouguereau-style laboriously-rendered pretty girls in favor of more sketchy brush work.

But will we really be so lucky that only things that we already suspected was slop will prove valueless?

As usual with AI, Douglas Hofstadter already thought about this a long time ago, in an essay from 2001. Back in 1979 he had written

Will a computer program ever write beautiful music? Speculation: Yes, but not soon. Music is a language of emotions, and until programs have emotions as complex as ours, there is no way a program will write anything beautiful. There can be "forgeries"—shallow imitations of the syntax of earlier music—but despite what one might think at first, there is much more to musical expression than can be captured in syntactical rules. There will be no new kinds of beauty turned up for a long time by computer music-composing programs. Let me carry this thought a little further. To think—and I have heard this suggested—that we might soon be able to command a preprogrammed mass-produced mail-order twenty-dollar desk-model "music box" to bring forth from its sterile [sic!] circuitry pieces which Chopin or Bach might have written had they lived longer is a grotesque and shameful misestimation of the depth of the human spirit. A "program" which could produce music as they did would have to wander around the world on its own, fighting its way through the maze of life and feeling every moment of it. It would have to understand the joy and loneliness of a chilly night wind, the longing for a cherished hand, the inaccessibility of a distant town, the heartbreak and regeneration after a human death. It would have to have known resignation and world-weariness, grief and despair, determination and victory, piety and awe. In it would have had to commingle such opposites as hope and fear, anguish and jubilation, serenity and suspense. Part and parcel of it would have to be a sense of grace, humor, rhythm, a sense of the unexpected and of course an exquisite awareness of the magic of fresh creation. Therein, and therein only, lie the sources of meaning in music.

I think this is helpful in pinning down what we would have liked to be true. Because in 1995, somebody wrote a program that generates music by applying simple syntactic rules to combine patterns from existing pieces, and it sounded really good! (In fact, it passed a kind of AI turing test.) Oops!

The worry, then, is that we just found out that the computer has as complex emotions as us, and they aren't complex at all. It would be like adversarial examples for humans: the noise-like pattern added to the panda doesn't "represent" a gibbon, it's an artifact of the particular weights and topology of the image recognizer, and the resulting classification doesn't "mean" anything. Similarly, Arnulf Rainer wrote that when he reworked Wine-Crucifix, "the quality and truth of the picture only grew as it became darker and darker"—doesn't this sound a bit like gradient descent? Did he stumble on a pattern that triggers our "truth" detector, even though the pattern is merely a shallow stimulus made of copies of religious iconography that we imprinted on as kids?

One attempt to recover is to say Chopin really did write music based on the experience of fighting through the maze of life, and it's just that philistine consumers can't tell the difference between the real and the counterfeit. But this is not very helpful, it means that we were fooling ourselves, and the meaning that we imagined never existed.

More promising, maybe the program is a "plagiarism machine", which just copies the hard-won grief, despair, world-weariness &c that Chopin recorded? On it's own it's not impressive that a program can output an image indistinguishable from Gauguin's, I can write such a program in a single line:

print("https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gauguin,Paul-Still_Life_with_Profile_of_Laval-_Google_Art_Project.jpg")

I think this is the conclusion that Hofstadter leans towards: the value of Chopin and the other composers was to discover the "template" that can then be instantiated to make many beautiful music pieces. Kind of ironically, this seems to push us back to some very turn-of-the-20th-century notion of avant-garde art. Each particular painting that (say) Monet executed is of low value, and the actual valuable thing is the novel art style...

That view isn't falsified yet, but it feels precarious. You could have said that AlphaGo was merely a plagiarism machine that selected good moves from historical human games, except then AlphaGo Zero proved that the humans were superfluous after all. Surely a couple of years from now somebody might train an image model on a set of photographs and movies excluding paintings, and it might reinvent impressionism from first principles, and then where will we be? Better start prepare a fallback-philosophy now.

[tunemyart]

When I'm thinking about Agatha and Rio, I'm so often thinking about what it means for Rio to be who she is. We don't know when they first met, but it was certainly before Agatha was giving birth in a forest in 1750. Which means: Agatha was young.

And yes, all the things this would mean about Agatha's ego and overconfidence, teenage-or-just-beyond-it Agatha feeling invincible in the way you do when you're young and stupid but combined with the mega dangerous Agatha-specific qualities of being literally the smartest person in any room, extremely powerful, and accidentally a serial killer. And then suddenly on top of that, she's quite literally fucking Death. Regularly. Because they're in love. Or more to the point, because Death is in love with her. Like, God. If that isn't invincibility, what is?

But it's not her invincibility that Rio's in love with. Rio is the natural order of all things. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think Rio was ever particularly fearful or overwhelmed about the eventuality of Agatha's death. In 1.08, the way she looks at Agatha while she reminds her so gently, "You will eventually die, Agatha." There's pity there, because Agatha is so furious and terrified and wild in this particular moment about the idea of her death. But Rio's accepted it - and why wouldn't she have? Literally what could be more normal to her?

And extending that backward: why wouldn't she worship every change in Agatha's body due to aging, each new wrinkle that appeared on her skin, honor the changes and the order? In no small way, that's her. That's Rio in Agatha. How could anything be more intimate?

But layering this onto the sexual forms of intimacy between them - how increasingly difficult would it be for Agatha, being Agatha, to bare herself to Rio like this? Especially with the gaps in their relationship where they don't see each other for years/decades/etc? And I mean, Rio already knows. It's not like Agatha can hide her aging from her. But it's one thing to be self-conscious of your body as you get older, especially when your lover is on a similar journey with you. It's another when a) your lover has never changed, will never change, and b) your aging body is only one outward sign of c) something that your feelings about go far beyond self-consciousness and straight into terror and fury... in no small part precisely because of who your lover happens to be.

[coffeecacao]

People don't like veilguard?? It's my favorite game now! I've been playing it nonstop! Between love interests, decisions, backstories, foreshadowing, and nearly everything "Varric" says being subtle hints he's controlled by Solas (from "I wish I could be Out There with you, Kid, BiAnCa is getting cranky cooped up In Here" to constantly telling Rook in different ways to sleep, aka, talk to Solas/let their guard down so Solas can get back in their head), it's super replayable, the graphics are fucking gorgeous look at that HAIR look at that LIGHTING, the combat mechanics combine my favorite parts of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, the story of regret and redemption and trauma is incredibly moving, our character can be trans and actually fucking TALK about it in nuanced and complex ways with other characters making an ENTIRE minority population, myself included (I'm nonbinary so a segment coming up may be biased), feel seen and represented by the person they're playing, and understood, there's a fucking nonbinary LOVE INTEREST, we TALK to them about how they're feeling and WITNESS them realize who they are and that it's fucking OKAY, they're fucking BADASS, SEE that nonbinary character try to come out to their conservative parent and witness how that parent is a bitch about it at first but comes to accept it, the love interests are ALL fleshed out and beautifully written and compelling, romance takes a natural amount of time to go from flirtation to serious, and my post about the first female companion you meet being straight? Yeah? This game broke that cycle, because everyone is fucking gay and it's great. ISABELA did PUSH UPS to apologize for misgendering her recently out nonbinary friend. The cast is incredibly diverse. You can go on honest to God DATES. You get to get to know companions on quests with and without combat, you can just fucking like TALK to them out in the world hanging out. MANFRED. ASSAN. You have interesting conversations with who we thought would be the main "villain" of the game in your head, only for him to have been using that to get to know you intimately enough to fuck with your head and betray you, what a power play. You CHOOSE whether to forgive him in the end and trust him to bind himself to the veil or to just trick or fight him. The story is so tightly written it's insane, with everything coming back to the themes of trauma and redemption. The game CARES about the player, getting to know the player through dialogue options making the experience ever customisable, and did I mention, letting them TALK ABOUT being TRANS and their unique experiences with that. The people who made this game CARED. They cared about trans people. They cared about minorities. They cared about the characters and the story and every aspect of the damn game. And now they're fired. And I'm heartbroken. I will always love this game.

[tellmegoodbye]

Welcome to the first installment of my monthly rec lists, where at the end of every month, I share some of my favorite fics and tell you what I loved about them!

I hope to have one of these out each month, so stay tuned for more down the road. And please, don't forget to show these incredible writers some love.

---

The Railyard - @strandnreyes

Detective AU anyone? This fic combines so many tropes that I absolutely love. Only one bed, fake relationship, etc. All while we get to follow Tarlos as they solve the unfolding mystery! I also love the found family aspect that we have, even if it's not the most conventional origin story.

Somewhere In A Song - @paperstorm

I have been obsessed with this fic ever since the first chapter dropped. The premise of a musician AU already had me in a chokehold, but everything about this fic from the song choices to the development of Tarlos has been incredible. It has everything. Energized scenes where they perform for crowds, soft and vulnerable scenes when they're alone, and lots and LOTS of pining and tension.

So Damn Close - @ironheartwriter

This fic was an absolute TREAT of a 5x09 coda. I thought it was a beautiful take on what that conversation would have been like. These are the soft and inseparable soulmates we all know and love.

And if that wasn't amazing enough, we also have this gorgeous art by @sapphic--kiwi to accompany it!

A Storm From Heaven - @carlos-in-glasses

A beautiful coda from Cig. Is there any other kind? 5x11 has so many moments that deserve to expanded on, and of course one of them was the weight of the disappointment after the social worker left. I think the fic does a brilliant job of slowing that moment down and showing how TK and Carlos are supporting each other through this process.

Turn And Burn - @rangersoup

Carlos "good with horses" Reyes is here! And he's everything we've ever wanted. This fic takes you on an immersive journey into the world of horseback riding, combining present day with flashbacks that give us an insight into young Carlos. We're only one chapter in, but I'm excited to see where this story goes!

So Sick Of Online Love - @strandnreyes

This one is a lot of fun! If you love case fics, jealous TK, and Carlos being a badass, then this is something you need to go read. These are the type of Tarlos shenanigans that make me love them as a couple. They're equally playful and serious while working together to solve a case, and it's a beautiful reminder of how we don't have to lose that dynamic because we have so many fics like this keeping it alive for us.

My Love, I'll Run Through Everything To You - @kiras-sunshine

Another beautiful 5x09 coda! I especially love how this one dives into Carlos' feelings and how he was able to come to the decision that he did. This fic does a great job showing how he's healing, and how he and TK are getting through this as husbands.

Something Inside You Is Feeling Like I Do - @lemonlyman-dotcom

As much as we all love Tarlos, I also love reading fics that shine a light on other characters, and Lemon always does such a wonderful job with that! This fic shows us some of the ways in which Carlos and Marjan can relate when it comes to their relationships with their parents. They both found happiness, but they had to fight for it along the way, and I absolutely adore how this fic highlights their friendship in a way that we never get to see on a show.

Pull Apart The Darkness While We Can - @morganaspendragonss

Phoning all of my fellow Nanteo shippers and angst lovers! We've all been speculating on what exactly will happen to Mateo in the finale, and if you want an emotional, heartbreaking take on that, then this fic is for you! I swear, I sobbed when I got to the end.

Ready For The Ride - @theghostofashton

This is another coda that highlights the similarities between Carlos and Marjan's experiences. They conversation they have here is one that is very healing, knowing that they both have people who can understand the things they went through. I also loved found family vibes and the soft Tarlos moments we see in this fic as well.

Right Where You Left Me - @strandnreyes

Last but not least, this fic is the ULTIMATE angst with a happy ending experience. It's a take on what might have happened had Carlos not been ready to be a father to Jonah, and how Tarlos eventually comes back together. It will break your heart and put it back together again. It's sad, sweet, smutty, and everything you could ever want from a getting back together fic!

[dufferpuffer]

Old post, I know - but revisiting this… I think I can better voice disagreements I felt before but couldn't say.

First off - the Author is a fucking weirdo. Saying she based it on AIDs was a gross mistake. There is a lot of antisemitism in HP. The way Lycanthropy is treated gives it a strange combination of being shockingly insightful in regards to disabled experience while also being almost completely glossed over as a theme. Very strange. I'm not defending any of that - it's just a different discussion that I'm not touching with a barge pole rn.

But I take issue in the idea that ◎ "The line between prejudice and self-preservation on the part of wizards is blurry at best." I don't think the text frames it that way. I don't think it's blurry.

I think it is framed as prejudice over self-preservation through: + wizarding society being full of blatant misinformation. + werewolves being most viciously hated by Death Eaters and those who would lump them in with purity-driven bigotry against 'half-breeds' (they are not half anything) - while the heroes are sympathetic and treat Beings, Beasts and 'half-breeds' well - not just Remus. + werewolves hardly being a problem in the war outside of Greyback who is a weirdo himself + Harry's concept of Remus being 'normal' is framed as the rare and correct way to view him. + Lupin thrives with support and acceptance. He struggles with accepting himself, but succeeding in that is framed as the positive outcome. ...

◎ "the marginalized group she establishes through Lupin actually DOES do these things. It's not that there's unfounded bias because a group is "other" because the bias is based in repeatedly perpetuated violence that's inherent to the nature of this mythical, fictional creature. Lupin is an outlier in that he isolates himself during the full moon; it's made clear that most werewolves in this world don't take precautions."(Quote small for space)

This is simply not in the text. There is no evidence of repeatedly perpetuated violence - despite the violent nature of their illness. There is evidence of unrest and dissatisfaction, lead by a cult leader - but that is not inherent to Lycanthropy. It is more common to being marginalized with no hope of escape.

While Lupin is indeed an outlier in how he lives (though who knows how many werewolves are managing to live like he did until he was exposed) there is no proof society experiences much werewolf violence at all.

ALL cases of werewolf violence we hear of have been from Fenrir Greyback himself. Maybe one other werewolf rumored to be Greyback, but still working on Fenrir/Voldemorts orders. This is despite the fact Fenrir has been intentionally growing the Werewolf population, creating communes away from society - taking kids from their homes and raising them with his values:

“Fenrir Greyback is, perhaps, the most savage werewolf alive today. He regards it as his mission in life to bite and to contaminate as many people as possible; he wants to create enough werewolves to overcome the wizards. Voldemort has promised him prey in return for his services. Greyback specializes in children… Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards. Voldemort has threatened to unleash him upon people’s sons and daughters; it is a threat that usually produces good results.” (HBP ch16; Lupin's POV)

('Produces good results' - suggests less children get bitten than are threatened.)

Even with this threat stalking their kids since the first war people don't seem to know much about Lycanthropy. They don't recognize the signs and are full of misunderstandings of the condition. Being bitten by an uncontrollable transformed werewolf is a tragedy that will separate you from society - being bitten by an un-transformed werewolf is basically unheard of:

“You said Greyback attacked him?” Mr. Weasley asked Professor McGonagall distractedly. “But he hadn’t transformed? So what does that mean? What will happen to Bill?”“We don’t yet know,” said Professor McGonagall, looking helplessly at Lupin. “There will probably be some contamination, Arthur,” said Lupin. “It is an odd case, possibly unique… We don’t know what his behavior might be like when he awakens…” (HBP ch29)

So even when uncontrollable werewolf bites are rare - and when controllable, they're unheard of. Because they aren't violent.

All this paints Fenrir as a strong outlier amongst his own people, his own communes, his own ideology - and he seems to work alone. Which makes sense, if you want to infect people (especially children) its dangerous enough having ONE werewolf around, let alone a pack.

“Yes. My father had offended him. I did not know, for a very long time, the identity of the werewolf who had attacked me; I even felt pity for him, thinking that he had had no control, knowing by then how it felt to transform. But Greyback is not like that. At the full moon, he positions himself close to victims, ensuring that he is near enough to strike. He plans it all. And this is the man Voldemort is using to marshal the werewolves.[…]" (HBP ch16)

Greyback's thirst for blood is an outlier - and is part showmanship. I'm sure he does enjoy soft girl flesh or whatever, but he enjoys grossing people out about it just as much. His monstrous image, social and physical, is cultivated and meticulously kept.

“Is that you, Fenrir?” asked Dumbledore. “That’s right,” rasped the other. “Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?” “No, I cannot say that I am.” Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely.“But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore.”“Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual… You have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?”“That’s right,” said Fenrir Greyback. “Shocks you that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?” […] “I wouldn’t want to miss a trip to Hogwarts, Dumbledore,” rasped Greyback. “Not when there are throats to be ripped out. Delicious, delicious…” And he raised a yellow fingernail and picked at his front teeth, leering at Dumbledore. “I could do you for afters, Dumbledore.” (HBP ch27)

“Your boyfriend’s going to have worse than that done to him if he’s on my list,” said the horribly familiar, rasping voice. “Delicious girl… What a treat… I do enjoy the softness of the skin…” Harry’s stomach turned over. […] “Reckon she’ll let me have a bit of the girl when she’s finished with her?” Greyback crooned as he forced them along the corridor. “I’d say I’ll get a bite or two, wouldn’t you, ginger?” Harry could feel Ron shaking. (DH ch23)

So why do Werewolves follow him, if they aren't relishing in blood and flesh like him? If they aren't violent people and not making problems on the Full Moon, staying obscure...?

“How come they like Voldemort?” “They think that, under his rule, they will have a better life,” said Lupin. “And it is hard to argue with Greyback out there." (HBP ch16)

A better life. They can't fit into society - but want to.

They are pushed to the outskirts by segregation laws, misinformation and prejudice - long before Fenrir was even bitten. They are safe 98% of the year - the 12 nights they aren't are obvious, easy to contain, the dangerous part of their condition is treatable… but there have been no measures to make such things accessible.

Werewolves need to suffer just to survive within society - not because they 'can't keep themselves safe'. They DO. All Remus needs is a solid room or supervision - and preferably a potion. All the other werewolves seem to need is distance. They are hated because they are disabled - 'impure'.

We see this in Lupin: with the dignity of some support, safety facilities and medication he is a wonderful, happy teacher. He made a dangerous mistake under extreme circumstances, but the reason he left Hogwarts wasn't that he had a dangerous slip-up - nobody knew he had exposed himself to children.

He left over fear of a rumor causing backlash he couldn't handle. It was likely the thing that triggered harsher werewolf-segregation laws, given the timing - and it had an effect on Albus' reputation. All of that... just because someone said he was sick, without proof.

So the prejudice is only loosely based on the idea that they CAN be dangerous - with very few examples outside of extreme individuals. Such is the same with many disabilities, physical and mental. ...

◎ "This isn't a metaphor for bias, marginalization, or othering, and trying to claim it is can give you blinders for how you approach these issues in real life, so I would encourage people to think about the text critically and consider whether they genuinely think it's good metaphorical representation, or if they're just twisting themselves in knots to justify their blorbo." (Quote small for space)

Lycanthropy doesn't fit neatly into any specific label, only the broad umbrella of 'disability' - especially how it relates to poverty. (which is why her saying it was based on AIDS is so uughh - because it is NOT similar to HIV other than being contagious and feared. Like other disabilities.)

Like many with under-studied, misunderstood or feared disabilities (which includes HIV) they are pushed to the outskirts of society. Too sick to meet expectations and intentionally excluded - they often find themselves homeless, joining communities to survive... and are especially vulnerable to cults and gangs, who can offer the dream of brighter futures, a sense of belonging, treatment and care.

I think the big mistake here is that it isn't framed strongly enough. Lycanthropy of course takes a backseat to Harry's story - but a little more had to be done to portray the messages of how they should be treated vs how they are. We get glimpses, but they're so scattered between the masses of bigotry from almost every character (bar Albus, Harry, Arthur and Dean) that it's drowned out and watery.

Masses of self-loathing from our main werewolf that isn't addressed outside the framework of a romantic/sexual relationship. News on the werewolf that was in hospital with Arthur would have been good - insisting he gets support, keeping him away from Greyback when at his most vulnerable... but there's nothing. A little more time with Greyback to highlight further that even he isn't a crazy killer, but an intentional leader of a rebellion.

It is clumsy and scattered - but I do think this framing is what was intended. The author has life experience barely escaping homelessness with a disabled mother and suffering her own illnesses, witnessing and experiencing social exclusion, needing to fight for basic needs and rely on the kindness of individuals for any medical or social support (especially in Thatcher times, bleegh)

Everything to do with Remus is TOO spot-on to be thoughtless. ...But that doesn't mean Snape was wrong, even within his incorrect prejudice. As a disabled person myself: I think Snape was doing his best in a difficult and terrifying situation.

...

◎ "Was Lupin going to teach werewolves at all? It's on the third year curriculum, but the trio end up in the Shrieking Shack at the end of the year, after final exams, and only Hermione knows about werewolves. He doesn't just scrap Snape's essay. It seems like where Lupin had the opportunity to teach about werewolves in a more progressive, inclusive way, he instead didn't teach it at all - even though he fully knows he's an outlier and that after third year no one will teach these students about werewolves, leaving them vulnerable to all the others who aren't like Lupin and do enjoy targeting people deliberately" (Quote small for space)

Go off!!!! ❤❤❤ SO true - Lupin absolutely wouldn't have taught it. He is a pussy ass motherfucker who isn't interested in improving the lives of werewolves. He wants to scrape by, play-pretending he isn't disabled as much as possible because of internalized prejudice. The same prejudice Snape has, only aimed inwards. (he is MY pussy ass motherfucker ❤ you are so real to be weary of it all Remus)

All I’m trying to say is that you don’t even have to be a pinnacle of morality, goodness, and intelligence to challenge bias, even when it’s posed to you in education.

They’re taught how to identify and kill werewolves by Snape, who clearly went out of his way to curate and deliver this particular lecture.

Ah yes... how unreasonable for Severus to teach the class the textbook curriculum for their subject. Which they are behind in - partially due to having shitty teachers, Remus falling behind on his work due to his illness and/or being a new teacher (he is disorganized too, and gets some facts wrong) - and perhaps partially due to him intentionally avoiding the topic.

After all: he didn't shorten the essay they were given on werewolves, or give them more time to do it - or do anything to make Severus' lesson with them worthwhile for their education. He instantly cancelled it - and was pleased everyone was so upset.

And I don't really blame Remus for that. He was scared. Students had worked him out twice in the past. But I don't blame Severus for focusing on it, either.

On Wolfsbane Remus seems to only takes 2 or so days off a month. The likelihood of it landing on their class twice in a year is slim. Severus has one chance to really drill this werewolf lesson home. Teaching them how to defend themselves against a werewolf is a HIGH priority, especially for Potters class:

Because he believes Remus is working with Sirius Black - the man who got Lily killed. And for good reason: all year Remus has been antagonizing and gaslighting him, spending time with Potter and blatantly lying about things he didn't need to lie about.

Severus believes Remus to be a dangerous man, beyond even a dangerous werewolf. Him doing all that he can to educate students to potentially defend themselves from someone working alongside a murderer, a known betrayer of his friends, is responsible.

You say you 'don't need to be a pinnacle of morality, goodness, and intelligence to challenge bias' - that's true. But typically you need at least something to prove what you have been taught from infancy to be true is actually false. What has Remus ever done that might make Severus consider he might be more than what society says werewovles are? Bully him? Gaslight him? Intentionally antagonize him? Bystand with a position of power? Sneak around? Lie? Undermine him? The BEST thing on Remus' record, as far as Severus is concerned, is that he doesn't seem to have killed or bitten anyone yet. YET.

+ Severus keeps his secret for 18 years. + He makes his Wolfsbane potion (highly difficult) PERFECTLY every month so, as Remus says, he 'didn't suffer as much'. Severus could have damaged him or exposed him if he tampered with the potion, but he didn't. He kept him healthy. Remus is thankful. + When confronted Remus and Sirius TOGETHER in the shack - he didn't hurt or kill Remus. He tied him up to have him face justice. Same with Sirius: he treats Sirius' unconscious body gently, carrying it up to the castle in a stretcher, when neither Remus or Sirius has EVER been gentle with him.

Very few Wizards would treat a werewolf with this much faith, care and justice. He tentatively trusts Remus despite his bias and fears, which are well reasoned but without solid evidence. I'd say that's challenging bias - and being rather moral, good and intelligent.

[ngage2003]

Alright. So, here is a fun question.

What the fuck is up with Brian's/"Hoody's" continuous use of religious-coded phrasing?

⟦Note: I am Jewish and not that familiar with a ton of Catholicism, and am mostly just going crazy here. Don't take my theory too seriously unless you agree with me in which case do.⟧

⟦Also, content warning: graphic verbiage towards the end, also heavy religious discussion, duh. (Also maybe sacrilege?)⟧

What I mean specifically is his use of the term "Deluge" in one of his videos, the association between himself and the word "Advocate," and most importantly, him calling the face connected to the Operator "The Ark."

Footnote: Face as in the center of the Ark is the "mouth" of the Operator, (in other words, how it eats) and the Ark as a whole is the closest thing we see to a representation of what it is, an unfathomable monster, like a face can be seen as a representation of a person/personhood.

These names are on first read are just seemingly randomly chosen, but I think there is some small sense here, if a bit abstractly. Based on comic 3.5 of Marble Hornets, ToTheArk, we know Brian is stuck talking in codes, so lets try to unravel this one.

Lets start with the simplest.

】 Advocate

Brian calls himself "Advocate" in relation to an old video of himself where he is talking to Alex, but due to the glitchiness on the video I believe you could kind of take this as a general statement about himself. Regardless, what the hell does that mean?

When we use the term "advocate" in plain speech, it means a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy, but there are specific ties with it under Catholicism. There is variation depending on what translation you use of course, but one example of religious use is in one title of Christ as "our Advocate with the Father" (I John 2:1). Another is how the word advocate is used in relation to the Holy Spirit, (John 14:16,) as another advocate to more or less "help [humanity] and be with [them] forever".

"Ok, cool I guess," you say, "but uh what does that have to do with Marble Hornets?"

Well! While Jesus is off having a Phoenix Wright case with God/being god's messenger pigeon for humanity, Brian is helping someone himself! Specifically, he is helping Jay, the person all the ToTheArk videos are for, for the most part. He is quite literally guiding him around, what for we could debate, but he clearly has his own abstract chess game going on and leading Jay by a metaphorical carrot on a stick is part of it.

I believe this is why Brian calls himself the Advocate. He is with not only Jay but also Jessica, while also being on the former's side, (he doesn't want him dead like the Operator does at least,) and also helping and/or guiding him. I mean, he gets him out of his house before Alex burns it down, as example, and he gives Jay the name of the Operator, along with hints that Alex is dangerous/doesn't exactly have his best intentions. Hell! In Entry 78, if you're comfortable jumping that far ahead, he even gives Jay a knife to free himself with, and his camera back. This of course accidentally leads to Jay's death, but I don't think Brian wanted that to be honest, not with how he hates Alex and the Operator. Brian is just unfortunately human rather than actual divinity, and probably couldn't plan for that.

Let's move on.

2.】 The Deluge

This one is in my opinion the least clear, which is why I stuck it in the middle, but I am still going to give it a shot.

The "Deluge" video is a ToTheArk video where we see a flashing light, weird audio, and then the words, "watching you," along with the description being "///". Purportedly, if you speed up and reverse the audio, it is saying "Alex" over and over again. Combining it with the ending words, we get "Alex [is] Watching You."

What is the Deluge in Catholicism though? Well, simply put its the Great Flood, specifically that really swag one (/sarcastic tone) that God summons for 40 days and nights to drown everyone for being too sinful or whatever, except for his favorite boy, Noah, and his family, who are inside a big boat. Awesome. Cool. Makes sense.

We could get up in the semantics about the "ark" of Noah and "ToTheArk" but A) I have a whole chapter on ToTheArk and The Ark, and B) I personally believe the Ark is named for the Ark of the Covenant so lets just scrap that idea.

Instead, I believe that in this part, Brian is making a comparison between Alex and the Deluge. After all, Alex did kill the cast of Marble Hornets in kind of rapid fire succession like a quickly rising Deluge would, all except for Jay who he had emotional ties to. (And Tim but Tim's survival is complicated and isn't purposeful.)

"Wait!" You cry, "how do you know that Alex killed everyone in rapid fire succession??"

Well, technically I don't, but I do know he tried to kill like 3 of his friends in literally the same 24 hours, which would make sense as if the extremely close cast of Marble Hornets noticed other people were missing and they were last seen with Alex, that would get suspicious, but I digress. All of these killings take place in the hospital in my opinion, where the Operator seemingly has some power, or at least is able to appear more regularly like other places in Rosswood and Alex's house.

First of these was the least successful, Tim, who Alex led to the hospital in Entry 56 and then beat into unconsciousness with a stick that is canonically a pipe based on cast commentary. We see him (or in my opinion, Masky,) scrambling around at night then, using the camera to find his way in the dark, before hiding against a wall. It is very likely to me that he stayed here over night. There are some strange parts of the tape though, like Alex being randomly in the hospital at night, as if he was looking for Tim for some reason.

Regardless, there is then Brian in Entry 51, who is led to the hospital before the Operator snatches Alex away for a moment. (In my opinion probably to Operatorture him a bit because he was hesitant to kill Brian because he actually knows him as a friend (Entry 84) but whatever, coughs.) Brian then wanders around the hospital with Alex's camera before finding Tim huddled up against a wall, much to his confusion, before the Operator shows up and some weirdness happens and Brian dies while Tim/Masky disappears.

Now, we have seen Masky go to the Hospital after Operator encounters seemingly to cope, so maybe this was coincidence, but there is some dialogue in Entry 51 that makes me believe this isn't, especially based on Entry 22, where we see Alex seemingly leading Seth either to his death by the Operator in a strange dilapidated building at night. (Hey, that sounds a bit familiar?) That dialogue is :

Brian: Where’s Seth at? Alex: Uh, we came out here yesterday and he wasn’t feeling too good so he just stayed home today.

Hey that is convenient. You brought him here yesterday and now he just magically isn't feeling good.

In my opinion it is kind of obvious here that Alex probably killed Seth and Brian along with trying to kill Tim after merely finding a convenient place to do so. This was all in the span of 24 hours or less, kind of much like a certain flood might.

This moment is definitely a subversion though, (as use of christian imagery often is in Marble Hornets) as rather than the Flood being a tool of God to destroy the wickedness of men or whatever, Alex is becoming a tool of the Operator to feed it.

And finally, 3.】 The Ark

Wooo Boy. The Ark. Ok. okOkOKOK.

Now, we all know what Brian named the face/mouth of the Operator "The Ark," but what IS the Ark in Catholicism? Maybe you're raising your hand right now and saying "ah that thing Noah went on" and you are technically correct but also wrong. There is a far more important Ark in Catholicism than that one.

Lets talk about the Ark of the Covenant real quick, specifically what it represents rather than solely that fun little golden box, as much as I would love to talk about it and the arks of synagogues.

Ok so I am probably going to mangle some theology but stick with me. There are two Arks of the Covenant in Catholicism, the one of the Old Testament, (the first book of Christian canon which more or less covers backstory,) and the New Testament, which is more or less Jesus's teachings.

Sidenote: The Old Testament is NOT the same as the Tanakh/Hebrew Bible. The former is one scripture while the latter is technically three, and even if it shares some similarities with the Torah, (the first part of the Tanakh,) the two are pretty different and both have their own wildly differently translations and cultures around them.

The Old Testament's covenant is of similar design to that of Judaism's, being a symbol of the covenant between God and his followers, built by the holiest of man's hands but carrying divinity in the form of the commandments within it.

The Ark of the Covenant of the New Testament though is a bit different, as it is Mary.

She literally carries the covenant between God and man, the connection between him and his followers. She builds it inside her, acting as both carrier and partial creator to this firm bridge.

I believe, Brian gave the Ark its name, because in a sense, it is its own sort of womb.

The Ark is a close off yet impossibly living environment, one that bridges between our reality and the true center of whatever it and the Operator are. It feeds by leeching off of the world outside it, reaching through Rosswood and growing and gorging. Much like the natural parasitic nature of an embryo or fetus to its mother, it is tied to our world, dependent on it, dependent on us even as it warps and robs people of themselves.

Whatever is beyond the Ark, it is something as unfathomably monstrous as divinity, a holy tapeworm that siphons off nutrients from our world, warps it to fit its needs, literally shifting around the land to get closer to satiating its hunger, apathetic to the rules and limits of our world.

-

Even as we get to this answer though, we still technically haven't answered our original question.

Why is Brian of all people using this continuous religious-coded phrasing?

Well, this I believe in part has to do with how the Ark feeds. It is as much stomach as it is womb, digesting you slowly, acidity peeling back your layers until it eventually gets to your core, your most fundamental beliefs and self.

Alex's core was Jay in a sense, which is why he refused to kill him, at least until the Ark and Operator fully broke him down at the end of season 2, at which point he fell apart completely as a person in season 3. (I.E. he stopped shaving, he didn't get new glasses when Brian knocked off and presumably broke his in Entry 67, he started constantly corrupting film.)

Brian's core is still in tact though, even with how ruined he is by the Ark and Operator, left only able to speak in codes.

I think Brian was raised with a strong sense of wrong and right. It is also why he becomes so obsessed with Alex dying, with Jay surviving, with taking on this great burden of playing this complicated chess game against this paranatural entity and stopping all this. Right and wrong were simply taught to him at a very young age, ingrained into him, and his compassion and empathy, (the things that led to him goading Tim into helping because Alex needed actors and inviting Alex to dinner because he was lonely,) were torn away by the Ark.

I think his moral compass could in part be so strong be due to, or at least in conjunction with, the fact he was raised religiously. I think he probably strayed a bit from his religion in College as most people do, but it is still something integral to him, something at his core that he knows even when nothing else is making sense.

This is not to say I think Brian is still religious now, (I doubt you could look into the center of the Ark and still be religious honestly,) but it is why he clings to religious metaphor in the middle of all his strange codes.

That is my headcanon.

Thank you for reading.