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fazedlight · 7 months

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Enchanted (idiots in love)

“Try something fun,” Nia had said. “Get your mind off science,” Nia had said.

Lena huffed as she flipped through the pages of her spellbook, scrawling notes in her notebook. Science was fun. Labwork was soothing, data analysis was exhilarating, and tinkering solved that itch deep in her bones. She wanted to understand, and science was always there for her.

… except for right now.

It just didn’t make any sense. The double-slit experiment should have produced a diffraction pattern - or at least two straight lines, if somehow magic behaved as a classic particle. But magic did neither. Instead, it either caused a damn fractal or did not seem to pass through the slits at all. How the fuck does this work?

Nia - knowing full well what it was like to struggle with capricious and chaotic powers - had suggested that Lena take a break, try something fun with her magic instead of constantly churning through its utility or its inner workings. The thought made Lena grumpy, but she was out of experiment ideas at the moment - so there she was, flipping through her mother’s spellbook, trying to find something… fun.

Lena continued her grumble, trying to get her mind off her experiments - maybe magic is some sort of phasic neutrino nonsense - and turned her page to a pair of spells that always caught her eye, though she would never admit it. It’s not as though she would ever use the spells for LUST and OBSESSION anyway.

Still, it was interesting, where these two spells lay. The spellbook wasn’t organized alphabetically or in any other methodical fashion - instead, the spells near each other always seemed thematically related. Malicious spells were grouped together, as were benevolent spells, as were helpful spells, often with some illustrations in between to separate the groups.

It always amused Lena that there were only these two spells in this cluster - OBSESSION on the left side, LUST on the right, in nearly the exact center of the book. There was nothing else… no love spell, she thought to herself. Not that she’d ever use it, even if there was a certain kryptonian whose affections she yearned for.

“Are you okay?” came a familiar voice.

Lena looked over her shoulder, finding Kara walking down from the balcony entrance. “Kara,” Lena said, feeling a little lighter as the blonde entered the room. Romance or not, the kryptonian always managed to put a smile on her face. “I’m fine.”

“That’s not what Nia said,” Kara said with a patient smile, halting at the foot of the table, as her hands rested on her hips.

“She has a big mouth,” Lena mumbled.

“She said you’ve been frustrated,” Kara said with a small laugh.

“None of my experiments are working,” Lena grumbled. “Magic acts like nothing I’ve ever seen…”

“You can’t always learn new skills from first principles-” Kara began, before her drifting eyes suddenly halted on the book.

Lena’s brows furrowed in curiosity as she watched a rose tint rise in Kara’s cheeks. Confused, Lena followed Kara’s gaze to the spellbook, before remembering… Obsession and Lust. “Oh, no, no-” Lena started, reaching over to the book to close it. “Not that type of frustrated…”

“W-well, it’s okay if you are,” Kara said, stuttering.

“I’m not, I’m- I’m fine.”

“You don’t need a spell, Lena,” Kara said, her embarrassment tempered by sincerity. “If you wanted someone. You could have anyone.”

“I- I wouldn’t use a spell, Kara!” Lena said. Goodness knows her brainwashing days were well behind her. “There’s not even a love spell in here anyway.”

“No, there wouldn’t be,” Kara said pensively. “Love can’t be forced.”

“I’d want it to be real anyway,” Lena said, her fingers drifting over the book’s cover as she tried to fight the heat rising on her face. But Kara’s comment was… interesting. “How do you know it can’t be forced?”

“Just a conversation I had with an imp once,” she said, a fond - if perhaps a little sad - smile tugging at her lips. “Love has to be found. It doesn’t work otherwise.”

Lena hummed noncommittally, rising from her seat.

“You’ll- you’ll find it, Lena. Like I said, you could have anyone.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Lena said softly.

“Lena,” Kara said, suddenly concerned as she closed the distance between the two, taking Lena’s hands into her own. “Lena, I’m serious. You’re kind, and so smart, and beautiful-”

“Kara, please,” Lena said, finally meeting Kara’s eyes again.

Kara eyed Lena, shifting anxiously on her feet. Lena tilted her head, curious as to the kryptonian’s newfound nerves. With a pursing of her lips, a determined gaze, Kara nodded to herself, giving Lena’s hands a small squeeze.

“You don’t need a spell to enchant me,” Kara said, her voice shaking. “You don’t need a spell to enchant anyone.”

“Enchant-” Lena paused, her eyes darting between Kara’s.

“I’m not- I’m not expecting us to change, Lena. I just want you to know. Anyone would love you, you just have to put yourself out there, to find the person you want.”

Lena raised her hand to cup Kara’s cheek. “Kara…”

It was sweet, how shy Kara was, how her cheeks burned red - Lena was sure that hers was a matching shade - and yet the kryptonian sought only to give comfort. Lena smiled, as she tilted Kara’s head up, as the kryptonian looked back at her with those deep uncertain blues.

Lena smiled. “You enchant me too.”

#this is to make up for the psyche damage of my last 2 ficlets #it's already tomorrow somewhere (in my country even!!) so may as well post #supercorp #supercorp ficlet #mel writes ficlets #supercorptober #supercorptober2023 #fazedlight #fazedlightgifs

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zorbs · 10 months

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《XƎTЯOVerthink》 Kaleidoscope Analysis

Remember those funky little toys called kaleidoscopes you used to play with as a kid? The ones you'd twist and look into it to see shifting reflections with pretty colors? Yeah, yeah these guys.

Well I noticed the new Link Click MV heavily incorporates a kaleidoscope as a visual motif. Throughout the MV there’s imagery involving mirrors and rainbows and repeated patterns and rays of light, all qualities of a kaleidoscope.

The most direct references are this frame which illustrates the mirror physics of a kaleidoscope:

And this frame illustrating the repeating patterns displayed within a kaleidoscope:

Seeing all this imagery got me thinking as to why it’s all there. The clock and camera imagery within the show make more obvious sense to their meanings, but kaleidoscopes don’t have anything to do with anything we’ve explicitly seen in the show before. However, after some thinking, I believe the kaleidoscope motif is a lot more relevant than it may seem.

The word “kaleidoscope” itself comes from Greek roots, which translate into “observation of beautiful forms”. To me, this MV seems to be painting Red Eyes as the current observer in control of the kaleidoscope.

The aspect of a kaleidoscope being a toy causes me to think about the line from Vortex, “But Imma win this silly game / until then I will never leave”. During those lyrics is when we see Red Eyes appear.

From what we've seen of the two different Red Eyes (likely siblings/twins), they appear to be children. With that info, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Red Eyes we’ve seen take control of Qiao Ling and Liu Min still views this whole thing as a game (toy), especially after being lured into the “game” set up by CXS and LG. Red Eyes is just playing with power to entertain themself, the same way a child would play with a kaleidoscope for entertainment.

Additionally, CXS, along with other characters throughout this MV, appears to be trapped in the kaleidoscope with the way the reflected colored light and fractals or glass are displayed around them. It even seems like Qian Jin is trapped, possibly implying he’s a mere pawn in this game as well.

What I find most intriguing though is the fact that the tiniest rotation of a kaleidoscope creates drastic changes regarding what is seen inside the toy. There’s a seemingly infinite display of patterns. This idea parallels the visuals that show multiple (infinite?) versions of CXS. Some of which are dead, others distraught or gravely injured.

I think the kaleidoscope motif is yet another metaphor for time. Those that have the power to control it with slight changes, the unthinkable number of possible outcomes…thinking of it in this way all starts to make sense. The ones trapped in the kaleidoscope are all at the mercy of time and the ones who control it. Thus, this narrative must rely on “the ones aren’t in control”.

Many have already been speculating this, but I’m also getting the sense that there have been multiple timelines that have been manipulated way before the events of Season 1 began. And those events all involved a sort of engineering of CXS’s fate.

Which leads me to…what the heck is Lu Guang hiding??

One of the first visuals we see is LG falling during the line “When I’ve sunken so low”.

This lyrical imagery can be paired with the line “Knowing it all, am I destined to fall / Like once you did for me”. I feel like these are implying LG has had transgressions of his past. He’s undergone mistakes that have caused him to fall. Again, multiple people have raised this point, but there must be a reason LG is so strict about the time travel rules. Is it because he’s learned them first-hand the hard way before?

What if LG previously manipulated the timelines in order to save CXS over and over again?

Immediately following the “like once you did for me” lyric is a montage of the way LG came into CXS’s life.

This visual and the coupled lyrics add to the idea that LG saved CXS and his past actions led to the moment in time we’re currently watching as an audience.

I also want to point out the line of “Where do we end up when we save the world?”. What if LG already disrupted the timeline enough by saving CXS and has now sworn off any further timeline changes in order to protect the current present, leaving Red Eyes with complete authority over its manipulation. He’s already completed his past objective but is now left dealing with the adverse effects.

Anyways, this is just a theory, a LINK CLICK THEORY.

#sorry this is SO long and is really just word vomit of my thoughts #i had to force myself to cut out a lot of things bc i started rambling w no conclusions #and this was already v rambly #link click #shiguang dailiren #cheng xiaoshi #lc theorizing #lu guang

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thatpodcastkid · 14 days

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Magnus Archives Relisten 8, MAG 8 Burned Out

Mag 8 analysis! I have listened to this episode twice and am okay mentally.

Haha Burned Out. Get it like- Burned Out like- get it it's like- get it- because. Burned out

Facts: Statement of Ivo Lensik regarding his experiences during construction at 105 Hilltop Road. Statement given March 13, 2007.

Statement Notes: HILLTOP ROAD MENTION HILLTOP ROAD MENTION

I am mentally okay.

If you're not thinking about the meta or the entities in this episode, this is a haunted house. Not a superstructure or cursed land or living space, but a house possessed by what once lived within it. Raymond Fielding lived in this house, and then he died in it, and he is going to make this everybody else's problem. He has unfinished business, he has a message he is trying to send. The issue is, it's another 102 episodes before you hear it.

Entity Alignment: This episode has some obvious Desolation and Web elements, but I have what might be a hot take:

This episode features every entity.

This episode introduces us to the Web's ritual.

Hilltop Road was both Agnes' and Annabelle's childhood home, so it is inherently associated with the Desolation and the Web. Lensik fears that he is developing schizophrenia like his father, who studied fractals and describes a man with "all the bones are in his hands." This man is likely Michael, and this associates the episode with the Spiral. The incessant pursuit of an explanation for the fractals which ultimately leads to his death incorporates the Hunt. The tree bleeds as Lensik becomes blinded by his need to destroy it, depicting the Flesh and Slaughter respectively. The apple he discovers is full of spiders, but also rots on contact, bringing in the Corruption. The box he finds the apple in is Buried beneath the tree. Lensik says he avoids working at night or by himself because that is when the visions would occur, incorporating the Dark and the Lonely. When he first meets Raymond Fielding, he says he was "keeping one eye on this stranger," bringing in fear of the unknown and the Stranger. The house is haunted by the dead Raymond Fielding, incorporating the End. Throughout the piece, he describes a feeling of unease that he is being watched. This brings in the Eye.

The inherent flaw in my theory is, of course, I can't find a solid element of the Vast in this episode. A part of me felt that the use of Father Edwin Burroughs might count as God, which could be a seismic eldritch horror, but that's kind of a stretch. Still, this statement takes place 13 years before Cane finishes her ritual, so who knows what could have been brought in during that time.

Character Notes: Another little part of me wants Annie to be Annabelle Cane in disguise. Annie is described as a very old woman, and there's no evidence that Annabelle Cane can shapeshift or use mirages or anything like that, so there's no reason for me to think so and this is probably just another "Jonny Sims knows four names and one is his own" moment. But still, wouldn't that just be wild?

I found Ivo to be a really compelling character. He had a positive demeanor, an interesting backstory, and a very strong approach to dealing with the supernatural. Overall a cool guy and awesome character I would have liked to hear more from.

An exploration of young Agnes would be incredible too. When she was at Hilltop Road, did she already know she was "the messiah?" This stint in the halfway house raises questions about her timeline and the progression of The Lightless Flame's plans. Additionally, the neighbors report that the children began going missing after Agnes was brought in. I (want to) assume Agnes isn't killing them, so is it Raymond? Are Lightless Flame members taking them? Where do they go?

Agnes' death is such a visceral image. It's a brief paragraph at the end of the statement. It's one of Jon's "And yet..." moments, intended to leave you with just a little bit of fear when you unplug the headphones. But that connection to the tree, to her childhood home. It's a simple section of text, but so vivid and full of imagery and meaning.

When the statement ended, the only thought going through my head was, "Mean Jon! Mean mean Jon!" He was foul with this one. First he goes on a tangent about schizophrenia and head trauma being second only to drug use as a means of seeing ghosts, then he immediately roasts Gertrude's filing system again.

He loves to go off about Martin and Tim being incompetent compared to Sasha, but who found a history of the house's ownership? Who interviewed Anna Kasuma? Who found Agnes' death report? Ya bois.

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atamascolily · 2 months

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As someone who makes fanvids and AMVs, I spend a lot of time looking at media in unconventional ways--cycling the same clips over and over again, jumping around in a non-linear fashion rather than watching straight through in chronological order, etc, etc. Usually, this is in service of getting shots to line up with the music or finding that one snippet that perfectly illustrates a lyric, but it also means I spend a lot of time engaged with the source material at a level of repetition and detail that most viewers do not indulge in.

I thought nothing would be able to top that level of granularity, but then I started making text post memes by juxtaposing media screenshots with clever and witty posts made by strangers on the Internet. Instead of watching the same clips over and over again, I was now watching specific individual scenes shot by shot, searching for the perfect frame to pause and screenshot. Suddenly, I was engaged with the source material on a whole new level, staring at stills I have never really looked at before, despite having watched them in motion a billion times already.

This was especially true of Madoka Magica and even more true for Rebellion, where the animators had lovingly incorporated whole new levels of detail I had never encountered before--some of them so complex and intricate, they could only be fully appreciated as stills, either because they were only on screen for an instant or because there was so much action/other stuff going on in the foreground that drew my eye when I was watching casually or for plot. (As much as I love subtitles, they did not help with this, since their presence meant my eyes were also naturally drawn to the bottom of the screen as well instead of focusing on the background.)

I started documenting my PMMM observations here on Tumblr, partially because it was low-stress and informal fun, and partially because this site has such excellent and convenient image hosting (for now, anyway) that it's really easy to discuss and compare multiple images at a time, which I think is more effective than reams of text at proving my points.

When I look at a screenshot, I have two major questions in mind:

1) What am I looking at? 2) What does it mean?

The first question is one of observation and identification. This part is usually straightforward, but can be more complicated if the animators are drawing on an element of Japanese culture that I'm not already familiar with. The answers to this question vary considerably depending on context, but they're usually not a source of tremendous controversy among the fandom; they are fairly objective, with a definitive right or wrong answer.

The second question, however, is more complicated and subjective. This is where analysis and interpretation come in--of the shot itself, the scene in which it occurs, and how it fits into the installment/series/franchise as a whole. It's entirely possible for different people to have wildly different takes on this, and multiple readings can and do exist simultaneously.

In my meta writings, I usually attempt to answer both questions: first, by pointing out details that I think are interesting, and then by offering my interpretation of them. Rebellion in particular is so visually dense that it's possible to randomly pause at any scene and find something new; no matter how much I watch it, there is always more to analyze.

To be clear, I don't think that watching Rebellion frame by frame is inherently better than watching the whole thing straight through, just that different perspectives and insights are possible. In this sense, both Madoka Magica TV series and Rebellion are inherently fractal in nature, with meaning multiple levels and layers regardless of scale. Unlike real-life fractals like the Mandelbrot set, however, there is a clearly defined limit to this--I doubt once you zoom into the pixel level there is anything to find, but hey, you never know with SHAFT.

I generally prefer to work with material that has already been released rather than stuff that hasn't, but I try to ground my predictions in my observations as much as possible--by which I mean, consistent with the show's themes and motifs on both a macro and micro level. That in itself doesn't guarantee that they're right, but I like to think they are plausible, which is all you can really hope for with that sort of thing. And of course, all my analyses and predictions tell you as much about me--how I see the world and what I value--as they do the work itself.

I used to joke that I was working on an honorary master's in media studies and Rebellion in particular, but after looking back at my output over the last six months, I'm not so sure that's a joke anymore...

#puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #madoka rebellion #pmmm analysis

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acorpsecalledcorva · 6 months

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It's actually harder to find a psychologist or philosopher that views the self as a singular completely unified and cohesive being than all the ones who recognise and acknowledge that the human Psyche is inherently multiple in nature. In fact we likely couldn't develop DID if it wasn't.

Whether it's the ID ego and super ego, the conscious unconscious and the archetypes of the collective unconscious, bundle theory of the self, internal family systems, transactional analysis, all these concepts and ideas explore the fractal nature of the human brain to compartmentalise differentiated (and often conflicting) aspects of ourselves and call upon them when needed. Fuck, if you wanna get all Descartes about it then the fact that you can have conflicting thoughts and feelings about something demonstrates that it's actually "we think therefore we are and we're gonna have a fight about it".

What makes a CDD brain different is Dissociative barriers. It's like having a room full of people all screaming "I'm Spartacus!", they've all been working together and communicated together to agree that they're all Spartacus. If you start putting walls up between them so they can't coordinate their efforts then some aren't going to know that they're Spartacus, they might start yelling that they're actually Caesar, or Brutus. It's these walls in the way that lead to disorder and dysfunction because consensus can never be reached, they can't even argue about it they just know what they have available to them. That's why communication is such an important early step in recovery. Eventually you bring down the walls, get everyone working in sync, and if they want to they can start calling themselves Spartacus again. They're still separate people but now they fight under a single banner.

Even for someone without those walls though it's very common to have factions and groupings and teams to emerge leading to internal conflict. There's nothing stopping those factions from choosing another identity for themselves. In fact it's incredibly common for them to do so. The characters you meet in dreams are you, they're part of you, they're just temporarily taking up a different identity and personality to act out a training simulation to help you process information and at the end those parts are reintegrated back into being you and calling themselves Spartacus again. Well what if they decide not to? What if they do it while you're awake? What's actually stopping them? The lack of walls between them doesn't force them to be a single identity, the presence of walls just prevents CDD parts from becoming a single identity due to a lack of access to the rest of the brain.

It really is just a societal thing that puts far too much significance on external appearance as being indicative in any way on the inner experience. Just because I look like one person on the outside doesn't mean I'm one person on the inside. Just because I look like a guy on the outside doesn't mean I'm a guy on the inside. Just because I look like a 20(ish) person on the outside doesn't mean I'm 20(ish) on the inside (or actually 20(ish) thank you estrogen)

P.S. obviously this isn't a comprehensive or universal understanding of the selves in the plural community, if anyone perceives themselves as working differently to this then that's totally valid and I'd love to hear how you experience yourself as I just think this is all really interesting

#syscourse #plural community #system community #pluralgang #pro endo #endo safe

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growth-death · 1 year

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I love you computers. I love you calculators. I love you fractals. I love you solar power. I love you data analysis. I love you open-source code. I love you pdf archives. I love you digital libraries. I love you helplines. I love you wikipedia.

#hopepunk

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tokiro07 · 7 months

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Undead Unluck ep.2 thoughts

[Getting the Shaft]

(Contents: Animation, ch.2-3 comparison, OP/ED analysis)

So I found out that a number of people employed at David Productions were formally members of Shaft, and dang does it show. Fuuko practically did Shaft's signature head tilt like three times! I wonder if they weren't allowed to go all the way with it specifically because it's iconic to Shaft so they have a copyright or a trademark on it?

Admittedly, I don't think I ever considered Shaft as a possible studio for UU, and in certain respects I kind of wish I weren't seeing that future come to pass. The excessive use of negative space and the lack of background characters makes the world feel lifeless, and the occasional full-body shadows literally drain the color from the frames whereas I feel based on the volume covers and color pages is the opposite of the blinding neon vibe that I would have expected. I also worry that using the trappings of a Shaft production's visuals will result in UU looking like any other Shaft work rather than having its own visual identity, though I suppose we'll have to wait and see on that

However, this is the future we got, and all in all, those are just gripes. The combat has exactly the energy that it needs to, the comedic moments are given a lot more gravitas than they had in the manga, and once again David Pro loves to add in fun details. My favorite in this week's episode was Andy realizing what the source of the Unluck was going to be and slowly inching closer to Shen and Void so they'd be more likely to get caught up in it. I don't believe I saw the almost electric trail of blood from Andy's finger as he prepped his Parts Bullet against Void, but maybe i just missed it. If I did, let me know, I'd love to be wrong about this one

As I (and many others) predicted, episode 2 covered chapters 2 and 3, and I think it did it quite well. I'm not sure if it's because I read the manga, because it's an anime, or because the director specifically was trying to do this, but I felt like the anime made the exposition and details a lot easier to absorb than the manga did. If I had to attribute that to something, I would say that a panel can cram in multiple details and layers that the reader needs to be active to pick up on while an anime has to show everything individually and any deviation can be detected through movement. I don't know that for a fact, but it's the impression I get

The difference between Unavoidable and Shen's ability was pretty difficult for me to wrap my head around at first in the manga, but I feel like this iteration will make it a lot easier to differentiate them, hopefully. I wouldn't say that UU is obtuse in general, but I imagine a lot of it is going to be clearer going forward

We also got the opening and ending themes, both of which had great songs and animation. Both were definitely odd, though; they were kind of subdued compared to a lot of other shonen anime openings, with the OP spending about half of it on abstract fractals rather than establishing the characters or setting as one might expect and the ED being extremely somber and heavily symbolic. Even as a manga reader, both of them gave me a bit to chew on, which isn't something I usually expect from OP/EDs

I'd really like to read over the lyrics, but I don't think they're up anywhere yet, and even once I find them I imagine they won't pertain to the story and instead will just match the vibe more than expounding on the themes

Without going into spoilers, my favorite part of the ED animation is Andy waking up under the sakura tree with Fuuko after drifting along the River Styx and passing under dead trees; it's said that under every sakura is a corpse, so the idea that Andy is, in effect, burying his past and leaving his previous life behind him for a brighter future with Fuuko is extremely poignant and touching

If there's anyone worried about Andy and Fuuko's relationship based on the first two episodes, just know that that one bit right at the end of the ED is a better representation of their ongoing relationship than the first couple of episodes are. They are easily the best romantic couple in shonen manga, at least that I've ever seen, so just know you have that to look forward to

I'm particularly excited for next week's episode, cus I really like the Union member they're going to meet. I only recently came to like this character as much as I do, but they make a strong first impression at least, so I hope everyone out there enjoys them too. See ya then!

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews

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dipperdesperado · 9 months

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Get Strategic!

TLDR: We want to figure out how to analyze the world around us (past, present, and future) so that we can create the futures that we want. We do this so that we can understand why the world isn’t what we want it to be, and to get ideas for how to change that. It also allows those ideas to be experimental in nature, where we can review the results and assess them. More spontaneous actions that exist in a vacuum (as in substantive strategic thinking isn’t present in the movement) are great but can have wildly varying effects that are hard to discern and make useful long-term. Creating strategies that are flexible allows us to have our cake and eat it too, where multiple tactics are employed to service liberation in ways that are symbiotic and reinforcing, rather than parasitic and counterproductive.

Continuing my conversations around creating social change (including how to get started, how to organize, and the importance of worldbuilding), I want to talk about the importance of strategy. I’ve made a couple of posts about this, with some broad notes on changing the world, and some more specific notes on the importance of anti-authoritarian, distributed resistance. I want to come at it from a different angle. Let’s discuss why strategy is important, and how to create strategy.

Let’s start with defining strategy. If you imagine social change work as fractal, where the vision (as in the idea of what you want the world to be) is the fractal, zoomed out to the largest scale, and specific actions as zoomed into the smallest scale, strategy sits at the middle scale. Said otherwise, strategies are the culmination of bundles of actions (also known as tactics), and/or pieces of visions. So, a vision would be akin to a snowflake, an action would be a specific triangle on that snowflake, and the strategy is one of the “arms” of the snowflake. Strategy is how we get from disparate actions to our world-building vision. Strategy builds on and creates the spaces for spontaneity to be effective, towards the end of improving the conditions of dispossessed folks. It’s an additive element to those ruptures that happen in society. We can protest, occupy squares, and do direct action… but if those are not in the context of some wider orientation, those folks just get singled out, and at best become martyrs. Again, I am not against spontaneity. It’s going to happen. The more strategic elements should cultivate a space to maximize the effectiveness of spontaneity, and strategically figure out ways to create change, understanding the different elements that exist. There should be efforts made to work around and network disparate parts of a movement, even if it’s for the sake of being aware of the landscape.

To create an effective strategy, it’s important to have three things: a vision, a method of analysis, and a matrix of tactics. We’re focusing on the method of analysis, including how that informs strategy and creates a bridge to our tactics.

What is analysis? For our purposes, it is three things. One, is an understanding of the world in the past (history). Two, an understanding of what the current situation is (current events + intelligence). Three, a theory of change, as in, a theory of how the world can be different in the future, along with the broad things that need to happen to get there.

We should understand the past, to create a mosaic of how we got to the present, contextualizing it, from current events to intelligence gathered. As we study popular and revised history, we should gather accounts from many perspectives, to shore up our knowledge for effective action.

We should understand the present, reading the current events using a similar methodology to our exploration of the past. Gather a variety of perspectives, discern discrepancies and understand why they occur, and acknowledge the different perspectives of your sources. We should also gather intelligence, through OSINT, rumor and gossip networks, and whatever else we need do for information on what’s really happening. Again, this is not the space for conspiracy. We gotta be able to back up our information.

We should understand the future, through a theory of change. This could be a broad theory made up of more specific theories, or a very specific way of how to make change. I tend to be against a purely universalist (there is a universal answer to complex issues) approach. I am also not very excited by the ephemerality of some poststructuralist critiques, which can sometimes devolve into non-answers. I’m interested in a dialectically structuralist, meta-structuralist, or meta-modernist approach, where we oscillate between more ephemeral and more rigid forms of understanding as necessary. Theories of change are necessarily and beneficially broad. It allows us to prepare for an uncertain future while giving us something to look back at. We can see how far we got by knowing where we started.

To create a theory of change, we can use this framework: If⇒ Then⇒ Because.

If we do this thing/action/tactic/strategy/campaign (this can be at any scale of our fractal)

Then we’ll get this result (what we’re expecting to happen)

Because of these reasons (our hypothesis going into the pending work).

Some interesting elements for a theory of change, from the Resource manual for a living revolution, are:

The nature of human beings (be careful exploring this—people tend to be very universalist with this)

The nature and sources of power (how does power-over [power as most people think of it] work and operate)

The nature and sources of truth and authority

The analysis of the causes of social problems (returning to our analysis phase, along with the perspectives we bring)

The role of individuals and institutions in social change

The vision of the way it can or should be (I’ve also referred to this as worldbuilding)

The mechanisms of change, existing or potential (how people make the changes)

These elements will color and shape your If⇒ Then⇒ Because statements. We can think of these as implicit elements to that statement. It could be useful to make those explicit, so that you and the folks we’re working with have more clarity on our built in assumptions, and challenge them if needed.

Focusing in on that last point, the different mechanisms of change here are some of the ones that the manual mentioned cover:

Becoming the decision makers/powers that be (I am hyper skeptical of this…undemocratic decision-making is the issue)

Influencing the powers that be to make better decisions (a lot of opportunity here, in the interim between undemocracy and democracy)

Confronting the powers that be and forcing them to do what you want (very effective from a speed perspective, can quickly lead to repression of not done deftly)

Education (of decision makers and/or everyday people)

Care Taking (meeting the immediate needs of the crisis)

Social change through personal change (not in the liberal [individual choices sense], this is an acknowledgement that you should make sure that you’re working on yourself while working to change the world)

Building alternatives (this is where alternative institutions come in.

I have a special affinity for confronting power, education, caretaking, and building alternatives. These feel like the things that are, when possible, some of the best ways to ensure change occurs. This is not to say we shouldn’t do the other things. But again, we should move away from the interest in finding one massive fix to change the world, and look for how an ecosystems of changes creates that world that we want.

Once we have our If⇒ Then⇒ Because statement, we can start zooming in on our fractal. We can get into tactics. Ideally, we are constantly changing the shape of our fractal as necessary. If tactics aren’t working, we should understand why and adjust, referring to our analysis and revising. It is always worthwhile to make sure that our models are as aligned with reality as we can manage at that moment.

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art-of-mathematics · 5 months

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what is your favorite subject in math? Do you have formal education or is all self taught?

My favorite subject in math? Hm, difficult to say. (My following answer is also a partial answer to your second question.) I am fascinated by dynamical systems, chaos theory and fractal geometry, but I dont have much knowledge there yet. Graph theory is also interesting and appears intuitive to me. I also have an interest in logic/axiomatic systems, but have very limited knowledge in these realms. I also enjoy geometry. Combinatorics might also be interesting, but my knowledge is rather scarce there as well. Statistics, fuzzy logic and learning/prognosis algorithms are also subjects/topics I find interesting. (But also rather scarce knowledge.)

It's less the subjects I find interesting, but more some topics inside the subjects.

As for my formal math education: My formal math education stopped after trigonometry (after that: shitty live events for some years and related health issues hindered me to continue my education and career. some of these problems could be adressed and some major aspects of causes of distress could already be resolved.) - hence i am (hopefully) re-entering my academic path next year.

I try to make my Abitur - in Germany with Abitur you get the permission to study at a university. ( I do not know how this compares to educational systems outside germany.) Next month I have an appointment at the local Abendgymnasium - (it is a school for adults with classes in the evening, where I could make my Abitur.)

Math in Abitur will include some linear algebra and some real analysis/ calculus.

I have a (not so significant) formal math education, but most if not all of the stuff I do and share here is self-taught.

#School was mostly boring back then #but doing nothing like in the last years is even more boring tho #ask #asks #math #education

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blueaiyuice · 8 months

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Uriel Character Analysis Deep-Dive: Mingyu from GSM

hey yall! this is gonna start becoming a recurring thing; idk if anyone actually reads these but im starting this series so that you can check out how i meant for these characters to be portrayed, their character arcs, and so on so forth.

today's analysis is JUNG MINGYU from GOD-SHATTERING MANIA, the sequel to my infamous zoom-team centric fic FRACTALS AND DOMINOS. this was requested by @peridoughnutt, so here it is as promised (finally, lmao). THERE WILL BE HEAVY SPOILERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

and of course, if you want to see my EVEN STARS DIE EVENTUALLY KAMDEN character analysis from last time, check it out here!

Mingyu's General Character Arc

Mingyu is one of the main five, and he's supposed to be the parallel to Hyunbeen — wanting to prove himself and be just as useful to the rest of the team. This ties in with his naturally-hardworking nature that we can see in BP—even though he was in on it as a joke and didn't really care for debut, he still gave it his all and tried his best to get as far as he could. His whole arc in GSM is quite similar—wanting to prove that he's able to be a useful member of the team. Unlike in BP, however, this backfires, due to the mistakes that he ends up making that end up proving fatal to his mental state.

Speaking of his mental state, he was already in a bad state of mind from the start of GSM. It's mentioned in his talk with Jihoo post-Hiroto that he never actually recovered from the trauma of Fractals and Dominos: "Honestly, I...I've always been acting like things have been okay for me since I got possessed, but they haven't. They never did. Sometimes, I feel like Mnet's...clawing its way back into me, like I'm going to spiral all over again because of what it did to me...I'll always feel like Mnet's somewhere in the back of my head, trying to corrupt me all over again." As the first district back in Fractals and Dominos, he was under Mnet's mind control the least amount of time along with Doha, making him one of the only other two aside from ZOOM team to fully remember everything that happened, with very very minimal gaps in memory. Unlike Doha, he never truly recovered from that hell, nor did he ever truly feel as if he really escaped Mnet. It's almost like he could subconsciously notice that Mnet wasn't truly gone, a backwards foreshadowing to what would come in GSM. It's why Jihoo couldn't empathize with him, because Jihoo wouldn't be able to truly understand the amount of mental trauma Mingyu was going through.

Mingyu and Hiroto

One of Mingyu's biggest mistakes, but also his saving grace, was befriending and later falling in love with alternate-universe Hiroto. He and Hiroto already shared a lot in common in both worlds, having the same part for the same song for K vs G. Despite all the warnings, Mingyu's more of a bleeding heart than anything else, and it shows in his caretaking side, which is why he ends up reaching toward an outside yet familiar face. His soft spot for Hiroto existed even before switching over to the other world. It's this kindness that he extends to Hiroto, who's never experienced that sort of hope in a long time, that causes them to get drawn to each other.

Despite their growing relationship, Mingyu already knew he was setting himself up for failure, whether or not he knew Hiroto would become a world eventually. He's already trying to hide all of the information about being from an alternate universe to Hiroto, trying to keep the fragile timeline together in order to stay undetected by Mnet (even though at that point there was no reason). Almost everyone warns Mingyu too, such as Gunwook ("I don't think you keeping this up is a good idea. Not because it's Hiroto, but because of the timeline and shit—he's not gonna be the same Hiroto when you come back, you know."), Woonggi ("Hiroto's memories won't sync up like Seowon's. I'm not gonna stop you, Mingyu, but it is a setup."), and Taerae ("Hiroto isn't going to become magically aware, like Seowon or Zihao did. He was never touched by the alternate reality back in our world, so there's no way he's going to change all of sudden."). Jihoo is the only one who doesn't say anything, but even he knew ("I know, Mingyu. But it's not our Hiroto.").

Mingyu still insists on sticking with Hiroto because he's grown too attached too quickly to the point where he ends up relying on Hiroto's existence as an anchor. Even though he's self-aware that Hiroto's memories won't sync up, or that eventually the timeline would be destroyed and Hiroto would go along with it, he wants to hang onto that brief moment of happiness and hope. In this way, he also still calls out everyone for being a mild hypocrite, with them still deciding to befriend Zihao even though his memories wouldn't sync up either (though to be fair, Zihao was possessed and later awakened). It makes Hiroto's death all the more painful and tragic, and it's why Mingyu is so devastated post-death. It takes Jihoo's comforting and words of encouragement, as well as seeing the creature that led Hiroto to his death, for Mingyu to regain his resolve: "No, I can't linger on him anymore. The only thing left to do is crush Mnet."

Mingyu's Ending

Back in the real world, Mingyu finally reunites with the original Hiroto, though this Hiroto doesn't share any of the memories that the alternate-universe Hiroto had. With Mnet's influence finally gone for good, and Mingyu still recovering from all of the long-term grieving and trauma, he's able to finally place that hope back in Hiroto again—though this time, there's no Mnet to take Hiroto away from him. Mingyu, being the hardworking person he is, has a lot of perseverance, and even when he's still in a low and trying to recover, he still decides to place his faith in something he knows is fundamentally good and he can trust—and to him, that's Hiroto. To him, Hiroto is like home, and even if that home has escaped him many times, he still tries anyway. It's a very hopeful ending, and maybe, just maybe, Mingyu will finally get the peace he deserves.

Thanks for reading this analysis! Not sure who I'll do next, but I think I'll be asking a fellow friend of mine for the next character arc :)

#boys planet fanfiction #boys planet fanfic #jung mingyu #wow i really did just write this entire thing at 12am #this was long overdue lmao #thank you for reading if you did

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exitwound · 1 year

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hi zoe i love ur blog and opinions. u always have just amazing analysis and like. general ideas that just are mindblowing. and i was wondering if you're often inspired by art and stuff around you that helps you come to your thoughts? asking because honestly i always feel like im stealing and plagiarizing other people's ideas and thoughts when im inspired by someone's work to create my own - like my tone or style is too similar, or my words are practically the same. and it feels awful because im like is this even inspired or am i literally just stealing? it feels like i can't ever create work with my own thoughts and idk what to do with that. sorry i know that was like a ton of info feel free to ignore

wow omg thank you. this is crazy to hear because i would personally say that the last time i had an idea it was about dean winchester. but for sure those ideas would really really have not had been posts if i didn’t see other ideas and stretch them to a new location on the media body. but thank you.Ummm i would say that it’s difficult to tell when i have a thought where it came from except when it’s not and know exactly where it came from. but definitely i don’t live in a vacuum and i am always always always always always very inspired by everything and by art and art and art and art and other peoples analyses and ideas about art and and and and and. and honestly i think that originality of ideas is a little bit nothing i think that the meaning is mostly in the expression of the idea bc like most art is a pretty simple idea but it’s done welll it commits to the idea and it trusts you to be blown away. slightly unrelatedly I think there is enormous value in intentionally attempting forgeries of others work although of course for this you wouldn’t pass it off as your own. Back to being related i think generally it’s more difficult to actually plagiarize on accident than you might fear. sometimes i worry im writing something i just forgot i read but there was kind of nothing i could do about that worry so i decided to move on and anyway if i forgot i read it then i definitely forgot the context so im already doing something new with it. i find that when i consume a lot of one type of writing for example like if im doing an english paper i sometimes slip into writing in the same style of the book im doing a paper on without realizing. Maybe a solution to feeling stuck in copying a style is to just get it out of you like new document and purge it just keep copying until you’ve run out of recombinations based on this source material and then you begin to scratch at the surface of the thing you were submerged in and break into the new yourself that swallowed a source like a spider and uses its thread to make a new web but it’s not your thread but it’s your web. I think that tends to happen to me in a way when I have an obsession on an idea i first encountered expressed in art and then began trying to re-express it myself. Which is super normal and most art is the re-expression of other expressions for sure. i don’t know i guess i used to be very terrified of plagiariaztipn in my poetry and then i started reading poems and i would find lines in things i had never read before that were very similar to things i had written already and i started realize you will be copying something whether youve seen it already or not so thats that and not really because of this and more because of fractals but definitely relevant to this is i started to make a belief system that the wider your lens the more infinitely small the number of things and all you can do is try to say something that in all of history has never been uttered but means something that everyone who ever lived has felt you know. i hope this helps definitely most of my thoughts are not my own but once i think them they’re mine and immediately being recontextualized with the other thoughts and the new environment if that makes sense… it comes from where it comes from . sorry if this isn’t helpful but i hope it is much love sending reassurance and confidence xxxx🪰🫙🥣🔌📡🪆🪣

#anon

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no6secretsanta · 1 year

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The Painting of Mao

A/N: For @glorifiedscapegoat from @a-still-small-vox.

[Ao3 link] (now live!)

This AU popped into my head when I was doing the matches, and I was like, ‘Who likes AUs? Ah, I know. Mira!’ so I assigned myself to be your gifter. I understood your request to mean “if you write angst, give it a happy ending”, not “please write me angst with a happy ending and not something else”. I hope I interpreted that correctly, because this story is not very angsty. It does, however, have a happy ending. I really hope you enjoy it, and happy holidays!

P.S. The name of Shion’s town in this story, Maceria, means “wall”.

⁂

Shion sat before his easel, frowning as he idly scraped his palette knife back and forth against the edge of his palette. The said palette was a riot of colour, adorned with daubs of all the rainbow colours and splashes of all the unnameable colours in between. Blues and greys predominated, however, giving the impression that Shion might be painting a mystical ocean, perhaps under a sunset or struck by a fiery storm.

Shion’s smock was similarly adorned with flecks of colour, which he hadn’t even noticed before. This particular painting tended to cast a hypnotic spell on him, blotting out great chunks of time and holding his focus against all the needs of his body. Hunger, thirst, and exhaustion were no problem when in front of this canvas.

The trouble was, Shion didn’t actually know what he was painting. It wasn’t that he had no plan. Most, if not all of his artworks, were carefully planned beforehand. Clients had certain expectations after all. Shion specialised in portraits, and because paintings were expensive, they were usually portraits for the wealthy, so they had to be done right. So maybe this painting was a portrait? Shion didn’t know.

He didn’t know because his brain simply could not comprehend what he put down on the canvas every time he sat down before it. He could see shapes and colours, but when he tried to focus on them, they went fractal, kaleidoscopic.

The only thing he did know was that the painting compelled him. Every time he thought of discarding it, he got a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. It was irrational to feel like painting over, discarding, or donating a canvas for re-use was a crime akin to murder. And yet.

There was a knock on the doorframe behind Shion, and he turned his head to see his father standing there.

“Still working on that enchanted canvas, son?” he said.

“Dad…” Shion groaned, setting down his palette and palette knife on the table beside him. The canvas probably was enchanted or magical in nature. But he felt like his dad didn’t take that possibility seriously, and was just saying that to tease him.

“Still haven’t figured out how we can turn a profit on that thing. Maybe if it turns out to contain a long-lost prophecy or ancient hero. Then it’d be worth a pretty penny,” Shion’s dad continued.

“Daaaaaad…” Shion groaned again. “You never change.”

Shion’s dad laughed and winked. “Nope. And that’s why we’re the most profitable studio in Maceria.”

Although Shion’s mother had been born into a wealthy merchant family, she had chosen to marry a young woodworker instead of a person with an equal social standing to her own. Fortunately, her parents had given her enough money for Shion’s father to apprentice to a woodworking studio, where he learnt to make decorative frames and canvas stretchers, among other things. He had then encouraged his young son, Shion, to apprentice to a master painter so that they could establish their family business, where both painting and framing was done in-house. It wasn’t the first career that Shion would have chosen for himself, but he liked the intellectual aspect of it, the meticulous attention to detail, the analysis of the painting subject, the puzzle over which techniques to use to create the impression that he wanted the viewer of the painting to have. And he liked working with his father as well, for all the mischief he caused.

Shion rolled his eyes at his dad, who looked not the least bit discouraged.

“I’m done for the night. I’m heading up to see your mother and to have some of that leftover apple crumble she baked. Better hurry up or I’ll have the whole thing.”

Glancing back at the canvas, Shion felt a tug in his gut. He found his hand closing one of his paintbrushes before he even realised he’d moved. “I think I’m going to stay here for a while. Please don’t eat all of the apple crumble.”

“Don’t bet on it,” Shion’s dad said, although Shion suspected that his dad would save him some anyway. Shion’s dad turned towards the stairs that led to their apartment over the studio, and then paused. “Son… be careful with that thing.” He gave Shion a heavy look.

“It’s not evil…” Shion began, glancing at the painting out of the corner of his eye. “He – um, it is just… nervous. I think.”

“Well, it’s probably not evil because it hasn’t consumed you,” his dad said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. I think it’s probably fine, but you know how your mother worries.”

It’s enchanted, not cursed, was on the tip of Shion’s tongue. Instead, he just sighed.

“It’s fine, Dad. Go have your dessert.”

After lingering for a moment longer, Shion’s dad shrugged and then disappeared from the doorway. Shion heard the thuds of his footfalls on the stairs, until the door at the top of the stairs creaked open and then shut, and there was silence.

Shion closed his eyes. He took a deep, fortifying breath. Then, he turned back to the canvas with the paintbrush and palette in his hands.

“I’ve done everything I can to help you,” Shion muttered to the painting. “What do you want from me?”

The canvas with its mystifying swirl of colours failed to respond. But Shion noticed, for perhaps the first time, that the central form of the painting seemed to be very much akin to the shape of a human face.

So it is a portrait, then.

Shion resisted the urge to brush his fingers over the still-wet paint to feel the shape of it, as if by touch alone he could determine what colours were really underneath his fingers, and if the face that they might form was a kind one or a cruel one. He had a feeling that the person who was perhaps represented here was just as mysterious as the painting he – um, they were depicted in.

Before he had really anticipated it, Shion was gathering paint from his palette once more. His hand moved toward the canvas, and he fell into a soft oblivion.

Some time later, Shion let his aching arm drop with a sigh. He looked out the window, expecting to see a thick black swathe of night. But to his total shock, he saw a blush of pink on the horizon. It was the morning of the next day. Shion had painted all through the night, something that had never happened before.

It wasn’t just his arm that ached, but his whole body. His head throbbed. But when he looked at the table beside him, he saw a half-full glass of clean water and a plate with what looked suspiciously like crumble crumbs on it. Apparently, he’d gotten up to get food and water at some point, and hadn’t even known it. That had never happened before either.

Shion felt a pit in his stomach. Was I wrong about the portrait? Is it evil after all?

He couldn’t help but turn towards the portrait, to try and re-centre his understanding of it. When his eyes met the gleaming, river-grey eyes on the canvas, the room... stopped.

It was like being held in the centre of a crystal. Cocooned against the outside world in glass and in silence. All was still, the dust motes hanging in the air and the breeze that had ruffled the branches outside instantly pausing. Shion was caught between two breaths, suspended.

And he could see, really see, for the very first time, what he had painted.

As he had suspected, a portrait. A man with grey eyes, at once dark and yet silvered with light. Shion had never seen eyes like that before, though somehow he had painted them – or the man had compelled him to paint them that way. He had pale, delicate skin with long, blue-grey hair tied up in a curious ponytail knot behind his head, its soft strands charmingly framing his face. Another colour Shion had never seen.

Behind the man was a verdant forest. But the sky was not blue, but grey with smoke that rose from the trees in plumes. Here and there Shion caught glimpses of the red and orange of fire. Seeing it made his stomach turn, for reasons he didn’t understand.

“You’re beautiful,” Shion couldn’t help but softly say to the man in the portrait. “And mysterious…” he sighed, running a hand through his already-messy brown hair. “I wish I knew your name.”

The man’s grey eyes seemed to gleam.

There was a word on the tip of Shion’s tongue.

“Hmmm,” Shion hummed. Yes. It came to him all in a rush, then – “Nezumi.”

The man’s dark eyelashes fluttered.

“Hello, O Mighty Painter,” said Nezumi. Shion could hear the playful irreverence in his voice. Like Nezumi’s face, his voice was mysterious and beautiful. His words were formed more like a song than like speech.

“My name is Shion. And you’re amazing,” Shion breathed.

“No vocabulary, and no sense of self preservation. You should be worried that I’ve been stealing your will.”

Shion shook his head. “No you haven’t.” It was true. Although Shion had felt uneasy about being compelled, he’d never felt that he wanted to stop working on the painting, that he couldn’t get free. He’d known he was under a spell, but he’d been okay with that.

Nezumi raised an eyebrow, and Shion caught his breath as he noticed the elegance of the simple movement.

“Who are you – really?” Shion said.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Nezumi said, but then relented. “Fine. I owe you that much.”

Shion looked into Nezumi’s grey eyes, and he began to speak.

“I am a nymph, a forest spirit, bound to a tree in the Mao forest. My tribe lived there in peace until a fire was started by greedy humans who wanted the land for their cattle. We all hid our spirits away in our trees, knowing that our magic and their strength together would make them resilient against the fire.

“Most of us survived, but our trees grew sick and weak when their leaves were burned. Some of my tribe and my family were able to escape, but I was too weak to leave my tree. The humans came back and saw an opportunity. They cut down all the trees that had not been turned to ash by the fire, some of them with spirits inside them and some of them without.

“The tree I was in was made into a canvas stretcher. So you see, it isn’t actually the canvas which is ‘enchanted’, but the stretcher. And it’s not enchanted, but inhabited.”

Nezumi smiled a dangerous smile, his white teeth gleaming. “And that is how I came to be in your painting, human.”

Shion didn’t reply, but simply stared.

“Well?” Nezumi said. “Are you an idiot? Speak.” The sting in the words was lessened by the slight tinge of worry in his voice.

Shion blinked. Then, he was wiping his eyes with his sleeve, heedless of the thin purple paint streaks he was leaving across his cheeks and nose.

“That’s horrible!” he burst out. “Didn’t those humans know that you lived in that forest?”

Nezumi looked taken aback, but then shrugged. “It’s not like they would have cared.”

“They’re worse than scum!” Shion burst out, still watery. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Nezumi. It was a travesty! But –” And here he was struck with a thought, “Now that I’ve painted you, can you come out of the stretcher? Can you go find your family?”

There was a pause, where Nezumi looked Shion straight in the eyes. “With the grace of the one who painted me, I can.”

“Me?” Shion said. “Of course I’ll help you, Nezumi. But what do you need me for?”

“You are the only one who really sees me. You are the only one who can speak me into reality once more. But beware, Shion. If you don’t truly know me, I may not turn out to be the person I’m supposed to be.”

Shion drew back, pondering the weight of Nezumi’s words. “You mean… if I just expect anyone to appear, it won’t work? Or… if I imagine you wrong, you’ll turn out wrong?”

Nezumi only shrugged enigmatically.

Narrowing his eyes, Shion tapped one finger against his lips. How could he know Nezumi, when he’d met him just tonight? Shion wanted to help him get out of the painting as fast as possible, but what if he needed more time to get to know him?

But now was the singular moment. Somehow he knew that this crystal moment was perhaps the only chance he’d get to speak Nezumi back to his rightful existence.

It’s now or never.

“Alright,” Shion said, talking aloud. “I’ll do it. Just… stay still.”

Nezumi rolled his eyes. “Shion, I’m a painting.”

“No, you’re a canvas stretcher. Be quiet.”

But Nezumi kept chuckling as Shion closed his eyes and tried to think.

What did he know about Nezumi from all those days he’d sat before this canvas with a palette in his hand, drawn to complete it without really knowing why?

It came to him, from the depths of his mind. He did know who Nezumi was. Someone who was sarcastic and prickly, distant, and yes – hurt. But at the same time, someone with a quick intelligence and humour, interesting and clever. And beneath his cool exterior, there was someone who was warm, who cared.

Nezumi could have driven Shion to complete the painting at a back-breaking pace, and Shion would have told himself it was the fire of inspiration, and let him. And yet, Nezumi hadn’t taken advantage of him. In fact, he’d sent Shion packing off to bed more than once when Shion had wanted to keep working, to hasten the uncovering of the mystery. Looking into the depths of Nezumi only reinforced what Shion already knew.

This painting is not evil, it is not cursed. It is good. And Nezumi is my friend.

“Alright,” Shion said, opening his eyes and giving a sharp nod. “I’m ready.”

Nezumi let out a breath. Although it was subtle, Shion thought he could see the muscles around his eyes tighten.

“Then hold me in your mind, and reach out for my hand.”

Shion closed his eyes, and held thoughts of Nezumi behind them like water held in cupped hands. He reached forward, farther and farther than he should have been able to with a canvas and easel in front of him. Then his fingers brushed warm skin. Nezumi’s hand tightened around Shion’s, and Shion pulled.

The world turned upside down. There was a clattering sound as wood hit tile. Shion opened his eyes, and there was a man standing in front of him, head and body and arms and legs and all, taller than Shion and still clutching his hand.

Nezumi.

“You’re here,” Shion breathed, and then a bell rang, and then the crystal silence shattered.

The world turned right again. Shion and Nezumi were standing in Shion’s studio, the easel and canvas lying on the floor behind Nezumi. Behind him, the sunrise had reached the top of the sky, burnishing the room with warm morning colours.

“You’re here!” Shion said again, delight suffusing his voice. He dropped Nezumi’s hand and threw his arms around him.

“Oof,” Nezumi huffed out. “Is this how you treat every stranger you meet?”

And yet his arms came up to enfold Shion’s body, and gripped tight and warm and real. And Nezumi pressed a kiss to Shion’s brown hair.

#no. 6 #no.6 #no 6 #no6 #nezumi #shion #nezushi #the painting of mao #glorifiedscapegoat #a-still-small-vox #a still small vox #voxiferous #vox

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