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ossifer-bones · 8 months

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Liminal Physics 101 - What's wrong with the River?

I want to preface this theory/analysis by giving credit to the excellent, thought-provoking response left on my theory on the mechanism behind lyctoral thanergy generation by @greyhairedgeekgirl, because it inspired me to finally finish typing up this post.

There is a lot of conjecture contained within this theory but I've attempted to firmly root it in the terminology used by the characters in relation to the River, as well as how the River itself is described. My avenue of thought is closely related to that of @greyhairedgeekgirl, but I think my conclusion likely differs due to how I have chosen to interpret the definition of the River as a liminal space.

Anyway, onto the question I'm seeking to answer here: I feel that the answer to it lies in Harrow the Ninth, during the explanation we get in response to a question asked by John Gaius himself, and the veritably horrific implications of it.

“Harrowhark, what happens when somebody dies?”

“Thalergetic decay causes cellular death,” you said carefully, pressing the nail in harder, “which emits thanergy. The massive cell death that follows apopneumatism causes a thanergetic cascade, though the first bloom fades and the thanergy stabilises within thirty to sixty seconds.” “What happens to the soul?” “In the case of gradual death—senescence, illness … certain other forms—transition is automatic and straightforward. The soul is pulled into the River by liminal osmosis. In cases of apopneumatic shock, where death is sudden and violent, the energy burst can be sufficient to countermand osmotic pressure and leave the soul temporarily isolated. Whence we gain the ghost, and the revenant.”

Note how this explanation is structured in a sequential way that is likely deliberate:

We establish that thanergy is emitted by thalergetic decay: thalergy is characterised as life energy, produced by cell growth and reproduction. Thanergy is also said to be produced by cell death in the glossary of GtN, which to me indicates that the thalergy produced by a cell is in some way tied to it, beginning to decay into thanergy when the cell dies.

Massive cell death follows apopneumatism: the soul leaving the body results in mass cell death, resulting in the body's thalergy 'flipping' and rapidly decaying into thanergy.

Gradual death results in the soul being pulled into the River by liminal osmosis. Sudden and violent death results in a thanergetic energy burst sufficient to countermand (lit. revoke or cancel an order) osmotic pressure, leaving the soul temporarily isolated outside the River.

The soul leaves the body, the cellular thalergy begins to decay into thanergy in the absence of the soul, and the amount of thanergy produced results in the soul either being pulled into the River or being temporarily stranded.

River Terminology

liminal - occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold; relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. This word is used in reference to the River a lot.

apopneumatism - apo meaning 'from, away from' and pneumatism referring to the pneuma, or soul; this is the process of the soul coming away from the body. put simply, this is death.

liminal osmosis - osmosis is 'the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region of higher solute concentration)'; a solution is a solute dissolved in a solvent, meaning that osmosis is the process whereby a solution resolves the discrepancy in solute : solvent ratio between itself and another solution that are divided by a selectively-permeable membrane. imagine you have two bodies of water, of unequal volume, one with more solute in it than the other: osmosis will result in the body with more solute gaining water from the body with less solute until the ratio of water : solute is equivalent in each body. it equalises their concentration of solute.

osmotic pressure - 'the minimum pressure which needs to be applied to a solution to prevent the inward flow of its pure solvent across a semipermeable membrane', but it is also defined as 'the measure of the tendency of a solution to take in its pure solvent by osmosis'. this is to say that osmotic pressure can serve as the current that pulls a soul into the river, if you assume that the river is a solution and the soul is a solvent. Alternatively, one could also consider the River as the selectively-permeable membrane dividing two solutions.

What does this mean?

Assume the following:

The world is a solution, solute dissolved in a solvent, and the soul is the solvent in that solution.

The River is a selectively-permeable membrane.

The River beyond that Abigail Pent speaks of is another solution.

The soul (solvent) is pulled through the River (selectively-permeable membrane) by osmotic pressure into the solution with less solvent in (the River beyond), except it can't, because that semi-permeable membrane has been rendered impermeable: why?

Solute concentration.

What is the solute?

You collected bits of dried wood—dried wood?—and empty-coloured stones—stones?—from the banks of the River beyond death, and you collected armfuls of the sharply unkind osiers and tall, feathery plants, the ones with long fibrous stems as tall as you were and thin, tangled leaves. Filthy salt wind whipped your faces as you formed wards from the flotsam that grew, apparently, on the bank.

She stood before the coffin of the Sleeper, and gathered those white, soft, solid rips in her hands, and she popped the bubble, and the River came rushing in. It came down around her in shreds, as light and insubstantial as drifts of spiderweb. The water sprayed through white holes, rushing in with a pounding roar: that brackish, bloodied water that only existed within the River. She was buoyed up by a spray of ice water and filth.

The River is described as brackish, it is associated with salt wind. Brackish means water with higher than average salinity, saltwater concentration, so let's assume our solute is salt.

What did John do when he became God? He introduced a copious amount of thanergy into the system, because murders generate more thanergy, enough to make souls unable to pass into the river, and used it to fuel himself.

He murdered Alecto. The salt-water creature: the first thalergetic planet he flipped. The water is the solvent, the solvent is the soul, salt is our solute, salt-water is our solution.

I was so close to cracking this third thing, the soul. I’d realised there was the energy you produced from being alive and the energy you produced when you died, but the fact that energy was produced when you died meant there was another phase. I could get a corpse’s heart beating and get all the neurons firing in the brain, but it wasn’t producing the alive stuff anymore. It wasn’t an on-off switch.

“The body needs thalergy and a soul to keep the lights on. Anastasia’s tripod principle. Body plus thalergy, but no soul, is basically a very weird vegetable … after a while it gives up and shuts down.”

Nona the Ninth shows exactly what the soul is: the third thing, the on-off switch, the leg of the tripod. A body full of thalergy without a soul shuts down after a while because the thalergy isn't stable in the absence of a soul, and decays in its absence. Thalergy decay emits thanergy.

Thalergy is salt, water is the solvent, water is the soul, salt-water is the solution of a living creature: thalergy stabilised by a soul.

How does salt affect water?

A river is freshwater: it doesn't have high salinity. It is not salt-water.

What does salt do to water? It adds to its mass, makes it more buoyant. Buoyancy, or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object.

The Riverbed is studded with mouths that open at proximity of Resurrection Beasts, and no ghosts venture deeper than the bathyrhoic layer. Anyone who has entered a stoma has never returned. It is a portal to the place I cannot touch—somewhere I don’t fully comprehend, where my power and my authority are utterly meaningless. You’ll find very few ghosts sink as far as the barathron.

Ghosts don't venture near the Riverbed. The Riverbed is studded with stoma. The stoma are mouths that open when Resurrection Beasts near them, and the Resurrection Beasts are the souls of murdered planets, the only souls that can sink that low; the stoma lead to a place John can't touch.

[...]“And that was a titanic effort on the part of Cassiopeia the First, who was brilliant and sensible and careful—she thought she could bait physical portions of the Resurrection Beast into the current. She was right. It followed her.”

They were writhing together, wild and excited—the current swirled in an agitated pandemonium—there was a massive sickening jolt, and the Mithraeum started to slide again, forward … tilting … sliding. “We’re in the current now,” said Pyrrha calmly. “We’ll be pulled in, if the mouth doesn’t close.”

The current of the River leads to the stoma. The River is a semi-permeable membrane that leads to the River beyond, and the stoma are mouths in the Riverbed that lead to a place beyond the power of John. Osmosis pulls solvent, souls, through the membrane into the neighbouring solution.

Conclusion

You went en masse into the River, leaving your bodies behind to slump into C-curves—or at least, yours did, the rest of them stood—and crunched the silvery sand of the bank beneath your feet as the three saints led you both to assemble wards. No blood or flesh or bone here: the first two might be scavenged, the last swept away by the capricious tide. You collected bits of dried wood—dried wood?—and empty-coloured stones—stones?—from the banks of the River beyond death, and you collected armfuls of the sharply unkind osiers and tall, feathery plants, the ones with long fibrous stems as tall as you were and thin, tangled leaves.

The River holds no blood, flesh, or bone. But its waters are made brackish by a kind of salt: the thanergy of murdered billions. How can one make a ward from something unthanergetic, from dried wood and stones? It's impossible, unless they are suffused with thanergy, made pliable to a lyctoral touch.

When John murdered the planets and humanity in one fell stroke, he flooded with the River with enough thanergy that its buoyancy countermanded the osmotic process that draws souls into the River beyond. The River is full of ghosts gone mad: souls that should have moved beyond, but can't, because the current cannot carry them through the stoma, the thanergy working against its pull.

“A powerful necromancer at the peak of their game could last ten seconds in the River,” said God, pushing himself up to stand. “Soul magic is the great leveller. In the first few seconds their thanergy would all be stripped away … then their thalergy, and then their soul.”

The River strips away thanergy and thalergy, but it can only do so much: when its waters are already so permeated with thanergy, souls float, fail to sink to the depths and pass through it, carried by its current. They cannot reach the stoma because their souls are too light compared to that of the Resurrection Beasts, the thanergetic buoyancy pushing them back up.

What lies beyond the stoma isn't Hell, or rather, it is Hell: it is a place where John Gaius can't touch. It is where souls are meant to go. It is the River Beyond.

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #tlt theories #tlt meta #hi it's me again i've gone even more insane :)

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windvexer · 5 months

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Cartomancy After 101: Developing your own sets of card meanings that you swap out depending on your needs [concepts & tips]

My hypothesis for this post is that most forms of cartomancy heavily rely on the context of the question or situation being read on.

As context shifts, so do the specific interpretations that readers pluck out of a pool of general meaning.

By leaning into the idea of context and building extremely contextual meaning sets, readers can elevate their skills and more reliably produce very specific readings within contexts they have studied and prepared for.

This is going to be a long one, so I'm making sections for readability.

1. Cartomancy Relies On Context

Most "little white books" that come with tarot and oracle decks, and cartomancy websites and published resources, divide card meanings into the general and contextual.

E.g., a tarot card's general meaning usually includes key words such as heartbreak, betrayal, and backstabbing. Then, contextual meanings might be provided:

Interpersonal relationships: Is a relationship about to end?

Business: Make sure any new business deals won't screw you over.

Spiritual: How can you use your spirituality to help with heartbreak?

While these contextual meanings stem from the base source of the card, they aren't interchangeable. Imagine if a querent asks you about their small business, and you reply, "well, have you tried using your spirituality to deal with interpersonal heartbreak?"

Therefore, a major role of the reader is defining the appropriate context of a question.

In order to practice their skills, many diviners offer to do "blind" readings for others. This means that the reader doesn't want any background information about the question at all - but even so, a reader may still ask for the context of a question.

E.g., a reader may say, "don't even tell me your actual question, but just tell me what kind of question it is - if it's about employment, a relationship, etc. Otherwise I won't know how to frame the answer."

[I don't mean to say that all readers always require context in this manner. Many readers do not, especially very practiced ones. But I don't think that means that context is irrelevant, even to very experienced readers who can obtain context on their own.]

2. Developing Meanings for a Specific Context Results in More Specific Readings

The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook by Caitlín Matthews begins by introducing the typical meanings of Lenormand cards. Later, she provides a custom set of meanings she personally developed related to her years spent in live theater.

Because of her time spent performing readings for theater workers, and about theater, she had developed a complex and unique system of meaning for Lenormand which, for the purposes of reading about live theater, was immensely more accurate and specific than the general Lenormand system.

While the general meanings of Lenormand informed her custom system, the custom system was not interchangeable with general meanings and was only applicable to a specific context and its related themes.

I discovered the same phenomenon by accident years ago, when I was frustrated with how general and nonspecific my readings had become.

I wanted to be able to use tarot to read accurately for everyday situations. So, over the course of several months, I worked with my primary divinatory ally to develop my own set of notes for the tarot, specifically for reading everyday, mundane situations.

The meanings given for the cards don't work very well at all for mystical, spiritual, or meditative self-exploratory readings. The meanings are things like, "you're the only one putting energy into this relationship," or, "don't go to the party if you didn't receive an invitation."

I use this set of meanings when I want very plain and straightforward readings on everyday situations, which it's very good at. I got what I wanted: accurate and specific readings on day-to-day questions with the tarot.

The meaning set fails at every other kind of question.

Recently, in my ongoing experiments with a custom oracle mashup of playing cards and tarot, I decided I wanted a meaning set that was useful for troubleshooting creative writing projects.

This deck has general meanings like, air/movement/exchange, water/observation/stagnant, and earth/categories/planning.

I developed contextual meanings like, "the dialogue in this scene is doing what it needs to do," "the character's motivations aren't clearly explained," and "the external goals of the character don't match what's already been explained about them."

By focusing on a specific context, readers can get very good at reading certain types of questions.

3. Exploring Specific Contexts Improves Overall Reading Ability in Any Context

By taking the general meanings of a card and developing them in new, unique ways that are still true to that card's roots, you create a huge learning opportunity to connect more deeply with that card.

Not only can you explore the unique evolutions of each card as it intersects with your interests and life, but your understanding of the deck as a whole can evolve.

When I was working with my original set of "everyday" meanings for the tarot, I discovered that many times I developed card meanings that really overlapped each other, making some cards redundant. When I decided to sort this out, my understanding of - and relationship to - tarot rapidly changed. I'm at a new level of understanding that I hadn't been able to achieve just by using general meanings for the 15 or so years of reading I had been doing before that.

The elements are currently a major part in my practice of witchcraft. As silly or abstract as it may seem, exploring how an oracle card that generally means water/observation/stagnant could apply to a specific type of fiction writing deepened my relationship not only with that experimental deck, but also to my craft as a whole.

As I've explored custom meaning sets in general, my ability to rapidly link abstract symbols has improved. Even if a specific meaning set doesn't apply, just having explored that makes my readings stronger.

For example, if I draw a card and I don't know how to apply it to a certain situation, having different sets of meaning floating around in my head is a little like having three or four helpful aunties shouting suggestions. None of them may be completely accurate, but it's a far better starting place than having no aunties at all.

By investing in very specific sets of meaning that only apply to certain contexts, readers can gain insight and skills that assist them in all types of readings throughout all contexts.

4. Sundry Suggestions for Those Convinced

Here are a handful of tips and tricks I've collected throughout the years. Take or leave them as you desire.

Choose very specific contexts. The more specific, the better!

Well, I'm sure this one is more down to personal preference, but don't be afraid to choose extremely specific contexts.

In my examples above about the creative fiction meaning set, the context wasn't "literary analysis" or "creative writing." The context was, "troubleshooting commercial fiction manuscripts and outlines to be more in line with modern commercial standards."

That isn't great at brainstorming, coming up with story ideas, dealing with literary fiction, grappling with major artistic themes, etc. It does one thing great: helping you workshop a commercial manuscript that you'd like to send to a publisher.

Put thought into what deck(s) you're using.

Even when using general meanings, many readers identify that certain decks are just better at certain kinds of readings. If you have multiple decks, try swapping them out as you experiment and see which ones work best.

Develop not only individual cards, but the deck as a whole.

Depending on your preferences, you may find value in not only developing individual cards, but also groupings of cards.

By taking entire sections of cards (say, all of the wands cards) and linking them to an important concept within your context (say, the behaviors of all the dogs you train), you can make large leaps of progress.

The same could be done for all the kings cards (your mentors in the dog training world), all the #3 cards (they're all going to relate to, say, small change or progress), and you can end up quickly mashing up new meaning sets:

Today's dog training business reading suggests that a Youtuber who's information you rely on is going to release a video about the importance of small behavioral changes.

Assigning broad meanings to different sections of cards is a good way to start exploring specific contexts.

Let card meanings evolve as you explore.

As you take notes, there's no need to settle one one meaning for the card as it is and then avoid changing it.

If your original idea for a card is "stubborn dogs who are not motivated by treats," and you perform multiple readings on it where the card only really makes sense if it means, "this dog will show up super tired and just want to nap," then it's fine to modify notes as you go.

I find that over time, modifications actually end up being multiple possible interpretations, once again deepening my understanding of the card as a whole (this card refers to difficulty inspiring action and engagement).

Often, card meanings come to me very vaguely and are practically stand-ins until I can figure something out for them.

Be mindful of spreads.

I can apply some meaning sets to literally any spread and it'll come out just fine.

Other meaning sets I have don't play great with tons of spreads, and may only work well with small spreads, using signifiers, and so forth.

There's no need to avoid highly contradictory meanings.

If you've got two ideas for a card (the dog is well-adjusted and friendly, or, he's very reactive and dangerous) and you aren't sure which fits, keep both meanings and use a combination of readings and real-world verification to experiment.

Your unique context sets don't need to be congruent with each other.

While I believe it's a good idea to seek fidelity to the original/general meanings of a card, this doesn't imply that the unique contexts you develop have to coincide with each other.

Maybe you have a meaning set specifically for energy work, and a separate one for religious spirit work.

In your energy working set, the wands cards could always relate to fire energy and only ever refer to a spirit if drawn in conjunction with a court card.

But, in your religious spirit work set, the 4/wands might always refer to the spirit of a home, regardless of elemental alignment.

The meanings you develop for one context don't need to adhere to the rules you create for other contexts.

Playing card decks can really simplify the process.

Tarot cards, with their intrusive little pictures, can often impose their own meanings on a context whether you like it or not. Even if horrendous betrayal makes zero sense for your context, sometimes it's impossible to get those ideas of the 3/Swords out of our heads.

If you're finding tarot to be too confining, try experimenting with playing card decks. They're smaller, draw less attention, and most importantly, do away with the art that can anchor our minds to the wrong concepts.

(Split the difference by working with a tarot deck that just uses suit symbols for the pips, but has full art for the major arcana.)

5. Hey! Thanks for reading.

I hope you're having a good day ^-^

#divination #tarot #cartomancy #witchcraft #witchblr #beyond 101 #psychism #readings

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thepoparena · 1 month

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Thoughts on "Quiet on Set"

I imagine, being one of Youtube’s “Nickelodeon Content Creators”, you want to know what I thought. QUIET ON SET, the new four-part documentary detailing inappropriate behavior and abuse on the set of Dan Schneider’s various Nickelodeon shows, starts off on its worst foot, with all the earmarks of trashy tabloid journalism. A couple of gossip journalists walk us through events and interject how you’re supposed to feel about them. There’s one moment where Leon Frierson, former ALL THAT cast member, talks about how uncomfortable some of the costuming made him, about how the noses on a nose-themed superhero costume has some unfortunate phallic resemblances, and then we cut to a writer from Buzzfeed going “and then the sneeze gag is basically a cum shot joke!” Frierson never says that. In a later episode, a similar comparison is made to a gag on ZOEY 101, but there it’s actress Alexa Nikolas making that connection from the workplace environment she had found herself in. It’s an authentic observation, where in the earlier example it was outsider sensationalization, playing to the “crusaders” on Twitter and Tiktok where the public side of Schneider drama has mostly lived over the past decade. They bring on Marc Summers, Nickelodeon elder statesman who had virtually no presence in this era of the channel, for all of twelve seconds so that he can watch a clip of a Schneider show and go “oh, wow, they aired that?”

You can imagine how the producers' eyes must have lit up when they learned that Brian Peck, former Nick dialogue coach and convicted sex offender, owned a John Wayne Gacy painting. I mean, yeah, that’s fucked up, but it has virtually nothing to do with anything. It is, however, a perfect “can you believe this” moment that can be clipped and shared on social media for shock value. It’s something that the documentary can ride as a viral moment.

QUIET ON SET was produced for Investigation Discovery, whose bread and butter is schlocky true crime documentaries. Shows like EVIL LIVES HERE and WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY. Not exactly tasteful television. The channel is owned by Warner Bros Discovery, and was simultaneously released on Max. Warner Bros Discovery owns Cartoon Network. The documentary puts emphasis on Nickelodeon being on the top of the children’s cable game, and often brings up the Disney Channel as Nick’s main competitor. At no point is Cartoon Network mentioned, because, well, nobody wants to say their competitor is doing better than them, and saying you’re doing better than Nickelodeon would defeat the documentary’s narrative. My point is that I do not believe QUIET ON SET comes from a genuine place. It’s cheap schlock shock documentary filmmaking that wants to attract the same crowd who watch serial killer shows for fun. However. It’s also a space where a lot of people who were hurt during this time at Nickelodeon have come forward to tell their stories, and that pretty much nullifies all the gross exploitation elements present in the early parts. When these people start speaking for themselves, the documentary has no choice but to let them speak, and its more garbage instincts fade away. By the time Drake Bell starts telling his story, the gossip journalists all but vanish until the end, and there’s a stronger sensitivity to everything. The topics raised are harrowing. Workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, child abuse, sexism on set, racism on set, and general mispractice paint a meaningful picture of the toxic environment Nickelodeon was allowing at this time. The stories told by AMANDA SHOW writers Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen are infuriating. And then the sexual assault of Drake Bell by Brian Peck. Not an easy watch. It shouldn’t be an easy watch. What a fucking awful thing. It’s heartbreaking to watch. The documentary handles it with an unexpected tact and evenhandedness. It doesn’t excuse Bell’s later behaviors, and it allows Schneider to come off as one of the few adults who handled the situation correctly, even if the rest of the documentary is largely against him. I wish this had been the tone of the entire piece. QUIET ON SET is an important document of a terrible entertainment workplace. It’s a shame they dumped a bunch of trash on top of it. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s one of those things that’s going to be referenced to a lot over the years, and I hope that the people who make children’s television were learn the right lessons from it.

#quiet on set #nickelodeon

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bitchesgetriches · 6 months

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Queer Finance 101: Ten Ways That Sexual and Gender Identity Affect Finances

For my readers who have a good relationship with their parents, I really want you to imagine what it would feel like to receive a Dear John letter from them, saying they didn’t want to come watch you get married.

For my readers who are parents themselves—is there any circumstance in which you can imagine telling your child this? Think of your son standing alone, watching his husband dance with his own mother, knowing you chose not to be there to dance with him. Who could endure that? I’d rather dig my own heart out of my chest with a child’s plastic sand shovel.

Social isolation is the root issue of the financial struggles queer people face. Your family is your first and most important safety net. Your next is your community—your church, your school, your workplace. When these nets chuck you out, there’s nowhere to land but the cold, hard ground.

Keep reading.

If you liked this article, join our Patreon!

#queer finance #personal finance #adulting #gay rights #trans rights #lgbtqia rights #lgbtq community

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fivekrystalpetals · 8 months

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Core of the Abyss and 'her' Children of "Misfortune"

(aka I can't stop thinking how the Core always welcomed and reached out to the Children of "Ill-Omen"— just some observations)

So, once again quoting Lacie's words from Retrace 101:

Yes, always alone and lonely...without even knowing what loneliness is. Still, 'she' kept yearning.. for someone to push through the cold darkness and reach her. —'She' longed for 'someone' who could do that.

[Anyway I am ignoring everything the Glen(s) and the Jury ever said about the Core of the Abyss or the Children of Misfortune (because I don't trust them at all) —and taking only Lacie's theory here to be the truth,]

so, a few theories:

1] Break would have been drawn into the Core of the Abyss whether or not the Intention wanted his eyes

When his illegal seal finished a full turn, Break reached the Core of the Abyss unlike other illegal contractors who fall into the Abyss.

I had assumed this was possible only because the Intention of the Abyss herself summoned Break there so she could pluck out his red eyes for her blind Cheshire before he turns into a chain.

Even the other dolls mention this situation as unusual. The Intention never lets a human/illegal contractor into her room.

You don't usually bring humans here when they drop into the Abyss.

Meaning, the other illegal contractors on completing their contracts get dropped into the abyss and turn into chains without ever meeting the Intention for whatever they wished of her. So much for going through all this trouble lol

So, I imagined that only those whom the Intention permits could enter the Core of the Abyss (that is, her lovely toy room);

But.

Vincent does "waltz" into her "room" without any problem???

Now, I don't think Vince entered her room to purposely antagonize her as he usually did, because he was pretty shaken by all the bloodshed and massacre he just witnessed at Sablier. It was a coincidence and even he seemed shocked he was meeting White Alice in her "other" room when he was sure "Alice" had died in the real world. In fact, he wonders if there being another Alice and all the madness going on in the toy room was his fault as well...

Secondly, this is a feat none of the other older and more experienced Baskervilles could achieve, right?

All the surviving Baskervilles got swept into the Abyss during the Tragedy of Sablier. Yet not one of them came in contact with the Intention. They were only able to traverse the Abyss and come out at various points of time. They did not know what the Intention looked like; neither do any of them talk about actually having met her. They merely repeat what Xai or Glen told them that it was the sudden appearance of the Intention that changed the very configuration of the Abyss as they knew it before.

That's why I think the Intention's words are only partially true (but I don't think she realized this either).

That is, she does have complete control over who enters the Core of the Abyss/her room—

Except for the Children of Ill-Omen.

Because the Children of Ill-Omen are specifically birthed by the Core and are very precious to 'her', the Core wants them to reach out to 'her' at the very depth. So that whenever a Child of Ill-Omen falls into the Abyss willingly*, they are directly led to the Core that used to be a dark shapeless form during Lacie's time, but took on the form of a toy room after the Intention became its vessel.

Lacie insisted that she could see "someone" at the depth of the Abyss and that the "someone" couldn't answer her—

but of course, the Glens and Jury only regard the Core as something not to be touched or approached unless "a serious crisis occurs"

and every time the Core produces another Child of Ill-Omen, hoping, waiting, over and over again that they will reach out to 'her' at the very abyssal depth... instead, they are meted out the punishment of being dragged down by Black Chains and left to die in the very Abyss that wanted to cherish their company. They are being "returned" to the Core because of the misinformation/falsehood that the presence of a Red-Eyed child is an accidental distortion created by the Core and pose danger to the integrity of the world

whereas the actual reason is that Core just wants someone to help her not be lonely anymore.

See:

How sweet is it that the Core loved her toy so much that 'she' gave it a tiny spark of life and trembled in grief when 'she' hears that Lacie will never visit her again? ;_;

The Core never asked for the "ill-omened" children to be punished for being born; on the contrary, they are the ones most precious to her.

That's why I think they inevitably end up in the Core to keep 'her' company, whatever be the reason they fell into the Abyss in the first place, whether the completion of an illegal contract or being swept into the Abyss.

(willingly*: I mean, when the Child of Ill-Omen falls into the Abyss by any other means than being held down by the Black Winged Chains. Because Lacie could descend into the Core by herself but held down by the Black Chains, she could only wait out her permanent death.)

(Since Gil was with Vince, he too winded up in the Core, but he was not cognizant of his surroundings so that's a moot point anyway.)

2] That Break listens and commits himself to the one and only request of the Intention of the Abyss

This is in continuation to the first point; hence, kind of a paradoxical situation—

Because only a Child of Ill-Omen could have ever reached to the depth of the Abyss; and so, only a Child of Ill-Omen could have ever got to listen to her request at all.

But by the end of the story, (thanks to Lady Shelly, by the way, because if not for her, would Break have lived on to pass the Intention's desire to the kids? I don't think so), everyone came to know what the Intention really wanted and worked towards the goal.

So that, knowingly or otherwise, Break did fulfill his role as the bridge between the living world and the Core of the Abyss before his death.

As Leo asked of Vince in Retrace 104:

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genshinnrambles · 1 year

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[3.5 analysis] The Uncanny, Fate, and the Machine

In Genshin Impact, machines and automatons matter. They are everywhere in the world, from small devices and gadgets to hulking, imposing mountains of metal created for the purpose of war. I wanted to know what happens when we look at these machines through the lens of the uncanny in hopes of better understanding their narrative purpose. It turns out, machines tell us a lot about the plot's direction, from smaller stories like Karkata, Benben, and Tamimi’s relationship to humans, to the larger story of the twins landing in this strange world. This theory will deal with the larger story by applying the uncanny to the Akasha, Irminsul, and the Loom of Fate.

SPOILERS: Caribert (and all Sumeru Archon Quests preceding it, basically), Inversion of Genesis, Aranyaka (Aranara world quest), Alhaitham’s Story Quest (like two screenshots), two of Faruzan’s hangout endings, and one out of context screenshot from 3.5’s Windblume.

DISCLAIMER:

A part 0 to this can be found here, which was produced along the way to writing this theory. It is not absolutely necessary to understand the points in this post, but might be of interest if you liked the psychoanalysis bits and want to take a closer look at the meaning and significance of dreams.

All external sources will be listed at the bottom! If digital, they are linked. If print, the title and author are given.

The Uncanny 101

To be clear, this theory won’t be overly reliant on the psychoanalytic perspective of the uncanny, but I think Freud is a good place to start in order to get to where we need to go. If you’ll indulge me for a moment…

In his essay Das Unheimliche (1919) [The Uncanny], Freud proposes the psychoanalytic significance of the uncanny by first examining its linguistic meaning and then by applying it to literature. In order to fully understand the uncanny (unheimlich), Freud argues that we must first understand heimlich. We will follow suit. Heimlich has two common meanings, and we will start with its first meaning.

Heimlich’s most common meaning denotes familiarity, “belonging to the home,” homely, tame, and intimate. The literal translation of heimlich to English is also “of the home/house.” Seems simple enough. It is something pleasant and familiar.

But, heimlich's second meaning complicates this definition. Heimlich in this second context is “concealed, kept from sight, so that others do not get to know about it, withheld from others.” Secret. Private:

“To do something heimlich, i.e. behind someone’s back; to steal away heimlich; heimlich meetings and appointments; to look on with heimlich pleasure at someone’s discomfiture….to behave heimlich, as though there was something to conceal; heimlich love, love-affair, sin; heimlich places (which good manners oblige us to conceal)” (Freud, 3).

I like to think about heimlich's two meanings as a matter of perspective. Imagine that you are in a house in the middle of an unfamiliar place with your loved ones. The feeling of being together in this familiar, intimate setting puts you at ease. This is the first meaning of heimlich. As the days go by, you settle into the monotony of your routine within the house's walls and begin to wonder about what is outside of the house, concealed from your sight. This is the second meaning of heimlich.

The reason this difference in meaning is interesting to us is because unheimlich has only one use and meaning, and that is strange, unsettling, eerie:

“‘Unheimlich’ is the name for everything that ought to have remained . . . hidden and secret and has become visible,” (Freud, 4).

In other words, unheimlich means the opposite of the first definition for heimlich, but it is synonymous with the second meaning. In this way, what is heimlich is also unheimlich. What is familiar is also strange. What is of the home is also outside of the home. But how can that be?

Dainsleif: My memories are quite foggy, but my subconscious and instincts both assert that something once happened here.

Central to Freudian psychoanalysis is the notion that both traumatic and non-traumatic memories and thoughts we experience throughout life, but especially those experienced as children, are forgotten and repressed in the unconscious, censored from the ego's perception. Freud thought that even if we cannot immediately recall these things, they do not simply disappear from the psyche.

The process of repression, which relegates these formerly conscious or “preconscious” thoughts to the unconscious, makes something that was once familiar to us, in this case a thought or belief, feel strange and unfamiliar upon its resurfacing. Freud argued that this is the true nature of the uncanny. It is why uncanny feelings are characterized by dread and anxiety - because the object or story or phenomenon triggering the memory's resurfacing reminds us of something we once knew intimately, but that has become unfamiliar through repression and distortion.

Alhaitham: However, these memories aren’t truly lost, but merely sealed away. They can be restored with the appropriate stimulus.

The uncanny, then, is characterized by a return of the repressed, a recursion or repetition if you will. This was quite long-winded, but the most important takeaway here is that the boundary between the uncanny and the familiar, the unheimlich and heimlich, would seem impermeable on the surface but is in fact fluid and changeable. With time, things that were once familiar and pleasant can become strange and unsettling.

An example might help here. Let’s take a line from A Drunkard’s Tale, an in-game fictional book (credits to Tuna for this example, which I would not have thought to analyze with the uncanny without having read their observation thread on Caribert):

“What you humans call wine, we wolves call the Abyss.��

There is a sentence in Freud’s essay that has a very similar structure to this one, printed here:

“We call it unheimlich; you call it heimlich” (Freud, 3)

Or, to more closely mirror the structure of the quote from A Drunkard’s Tale:

“You call it heimlich; we call it unheimlich.”

So, let’s break this up and analyze it in parts:

“What you humans call wine/You call it heimlich.” Wine is a “known” thing, it is a product from an ordered world with rules. We know how it’s made and what effects it has when consumed. It “belongs to the home,” the “home” being an abstraction of all that is familiar.

“We wolves call the Abyss/we call it unheimlich.” Unheimlich is something strange and unfamiliar, a feeling of dread, but it is synonymous with the second meaning of heimlich, a word most commonly denoting what is familiar. The Abyss is "beyond this world," it is everything that exists outside of the boundaries of “Teyvat.” So how can the Abyss even be compared to wine? Maybe because there isn’t as big of a difference between them as we would initially think. The quote is asking this question: how can the Abyss be something beyond this world/outside of it (unheimlich) when it’s right here in your very human/Teyvat things (heimlich)?

Or, if you’ve ever experienced the sensation of déjà vu, that’s also an uncanny feeling. Speaking of déjà vu…

Recursion, Repetition, Samsara

“We think we are creating the system for our own purposes. We believe we are making it in our own image... But the computer is not really like us. It is a projection of a very slim part of ourselves: that portion devoted to logic, order, rule, and clarity.” -Ellen Ullman, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents

One of the many machines we became acquainted with in the Sumeru Archon Quest was the Akasha. The Akasha was advertised as an access point to knowledge from Irminsul, but in reality it was a dream-harvesting machine unevenly distributing “bundles of human wisdom” to the terminal-wearing Sumeru populace in exchange for their dreamless sleep.

We know how the story goes: Nahida leads us to the truth of the samsara in Act II by having us make associations about our strange environment ourselves - a process that takes inspiration from Freud’s method for dream interpretation, free association (more on that here). She does this because delivering the truth to us without having made these connections ourselves would “blow our minds,” permanently confusing our sense of reality and dream. Basically, she has us do the opposite of repression - we take information from our strange environment, associate it with things we are familiar with, and arrive at the answers on our own. This exercise helps us understand the hidden truth of the Akasha, a secret concealed by the Akademiya’s sages.

To take our understanding of this a step further and connect it to another angle of the uncanny, I want to turn our attention back to the first meaning of heimlich, specifically how it describes things “belonging to the home.” Another English word for this would be domestic, things pertaining to the house and running the household. Familiar things. All other things outside of the house, like the wilderness, the foreign, would be unheimlich. As we’ve established earlier, the line between these two categories is changeable. Things previously regarded as domestic, belonging to the home, can become unfamiliar with time.

There is a lot we can do with this, but let’s focus on its applications to the Akasha first. Aranaga actually takes a very similar approach when explaining its function in Agnihotra Sutra:

Aranaga: Here, Aranaga's remembrance, is this flower. Cannot blow him away, the Ad Oblivione; cannot destroy him, the device that takes away dreams.

Traveler: The thing that takes away dreams...?

Aranaga: The living memory of nature, dream. Man-made dead thing, mechanism. Taking away living memory, grinding and crushing to extract its juice, like a grinder, for dominion and domestication... Don't like this, Aranara.

Paimon: Eh... Why?

Aranaga: Because the garden of freedom, the source of power, dreams and memories, not only for Aranara, but also for Nara. But Nara don't know. Not good action... extraction, grinding.

Aranaga: Memories and dreams are gone, reason for action is gone, strength is also gone.

Domestication is the process by which things “outside of the home” are brought “inside.” In human history, we can observe this process through the domestication of crops, livestock animals, dogs, and so on. What was once wild and outside the realm of human control is tamed and cultivated within the boundaries of the city center. Domestication has a greater purpose: to extend civilization’s power and control over what is “outside” by controlling its reproduction.

It’s an apt description for the Akasha under the control of the previous sages - it was a Dream Domestication Machine, bringing a “source of power” within the Akademiya’s control in order to populate the Akasha’s records with knowledge. Eventually, it would also be used to attempt to create their own mechanical God, in hopes of bringing a sliver of divinity within human control. In essence, the sages made the strange (dreams) into the familiar (a power source). Domestication, then, is the inversion of repression and the uncanny.

We can see this in the Akasha’s predictive capabilities as well. Given enough information, the Akasha can use behavioral logic to predict (though not dictate) the movements of a person, but only to a certain point. Its ideal subject was someone like Cyno before the Archon Quest - a “decisive and principled person,” someone who prefers to operate independently of other people and their behavioral logic, which can muddy and change our own. Cyno’s behavior was once predictable and familiar to the Akasha’s algorithms, but by changing his behavior he became unreadable, unfamiliar, and strange, if temporarily.

“A Flower Not Of This World”

Considering the Akasha was made by the Dendro archon, whose origins lie in Irminsul, and the copious foreshadowing in Act II’s samsara for the resolution of Inversion of Genesis, it is not outlandish to view the Akasha as an analog to Irminsul. Though they may not function exactly the same way, we can already observe that Irminsul behaves more like a machine than something biological, what with Nahida functioning as a sort of system administrator to it (with limited privileges, it would seem…), its use of system permissions, its virus vulnerability (forbidden knowledge), its strictly literal interpretation of commands executed to its database...you get the picture.

So what is the purpose of this arboreal machine? And what are the rules?

While the intimate details of Irminsul are still murky, including who all can control it and who made it, we do know a few important things about it:

It contains a record of everything that has happened in Teyvat in the form of collective memories. It acquires memories through the Ley Line network, which stretches all over Teyvat, and records information as it happens. It also seems to acquire the memories of those who pass away - it is repeatedly stated in Aranyaka that everyone “returns to Sarva” when they pass.

It can alter memories of the past when edits are made to its database. We have two known instances of this so far, both of which are deletions: the removal of the memory of Rukkhadevata, and the removal of the identities “Kabukimono” and “Balladeer.”

The Traveler's memories are not affected by edits to Irminsul because they are not of this world. This is because of the truth hidden by Irminsul’s records - it contains no records of “descenders,” because to do so would be to admit that the sky is fake.

Deleted memories are not lost forever if necessary precautions are taken. While non-fiction books, quest dialogue, domain descriptions, and other quest items are altered by Irminsul edits, fiction is outside of its reach. Nahida understood this intimately, so she hid the true history of the Wanderer in a fairy tale story, which was her own unique form of distortion independent of Irminsul’s distortion. This allowed her to freely associate the elements of the fairy tale back to the truth, just like what we did in Act II to arrive at the truth of the samsara, and just like what Freud had his patients do to interpret their dreams. Through this, she resurfaced her memory of the truth.

Returning to the idea of the uncanny and the familiar, what happens when we think of Teyvat as a “home,” and everything considered separate from it (like descenders, the abyss, or forbidden knowledge) is the uncanny, outside of this world? The utility of Irminsul becomes clear: it delineates the boundaries of “Teyvat” so as to maintain a closed system of memory production in its inhabitants.

Another way to look at Irminsul, then, is as a Memory Domestication Machine. This analogy requires us to stretch the definition of domestication as not only involving something under human control, but it still functions the same way.

It’s important that we understand the rules of this machine and familiarize ourselves with its boundaries - only then can we understand its limitations and exploit them:

Alhaitham: You may find it hard to believe, but for those people, everything the Akasha transmits to them is nothing short of absolute truth.

Alhaitham: Imagine if you've been using a device like the Akasha since the day you were born. And this device has always supported you during times of need...

Alhaitham: After all that time, what do you think you'd become?

Paimon: Uh... A fool? A machine?

Alhaitham: A slave to orders. And that's why rules are so important. In addition, those who understand the rules can delineate boundaries, and identify gray areas.

Paimon: Hmm... but why would you need to identify the gray areas?

Alhaitham: You could say that those kinds of ambiguous zones can be very interesting. One might even say they're advantageous in the right hands…

Dottore: And now, it seems they can no longer hold back their sheer adoration..

Under the dominion of the Akasha, the line between human and machine was blurred. The same can be said for Irminsul – even alterations to its records produce the same fates with different recollected details, further calling into question the notion of free will under Teyvat’s laws. In the real world, we use the Turing test to measure a machine's ability to imitate a human, but the Akasha and Irminsul turn this idea on its head - are humans, in fact, the machines here?

If free will is an illusion, then one perspective might posit that human lives in Teyvat are no better than programs running to completion. It’s part of the irony that the remnants of Khaenri’ah’s technology are humanoid automatons (“Machines of war built in man’s image”). Whether or not that perspective is correct is for you to decide.

Alhaitham: One way to stabilize a collective consciousness is to remove the test subjects’ humanity altogether.

(look, I’m not saying Irminsul is a machine with an Overmind using it to create a collective unconscious, but that is also what I am saying).

Although it can change how the past is remembered, Irminsul has to abide by fate. Considering that the Akasha had predictive capabilities and is an analog to Irminsul, we might be tempted to ascribe predictive capabilities to Irminsul as well. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility. But, I think what is more likely at this stage is that Irminsul and the Ley Lines are just parts of a greater system of machines delineating Teyvat's boundaries, and one of those machines has dominion over fate.

One last piece of information we gained from the Sumeru Archon Quest was that the Traveler’s sibling is recorded in Irminsul. The Wanderer states that “[the sibling] only came to this world because the heavens responded to the summoning,” that Khaenri’ah was their first destination upon arriving sometime before the Cataclysm, and after which they traveled the Seven nations before their fate became “deliberately obfuscated” by “someone.” Now, they are running the Abyss Order.

At the end of "Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises," Nahida told us this:

Nahida: There's only one possible explanation: [they] belong to this world.”

But Nahida’s wording here is very important. It reminds me of Sucrose’s philosophizing about the prophecy Collei found in this year's Windblume:

Sucrose: I was thinking about the flower that is "not of this world." It could mean a human-cultivated variety that doesn't occur in nature... But that's basically claiming that it doesn't come from this world in the first place, when actually it's just a variant of an existing breed.

Sucrose: So the initial question is: Can the flower's origins be traced back to a natural organism? If so, it cannot be correctly described as "not of this world."

Sucrose: But then... supposing we identified something outside of that category, whose job would it be to decide whether it belongs in this world or not? Then the question becomes: Do "of this world" and "from this world" mean the same thing... or is it deeper than that?

The heimlich and unheimlich are divided by a permeable, fluid boundary. While there is absolutely still room for more plot twists regarding the Abyss Sibling’s origins, for now I think the additional information we have about their arrival to Teyvat simultaneously contradicts and supports Nahida’s initial hypothesis. The Abyss Sibling may indeed not be from Teyvat, just like the Traveler, but that does not preclude them from being brought into the boundaries of Teyvat through an unknown method of tampering with Irminsul, so that they now belong to Teyvat and are “of this world.” I mean to suggest that the Abyss Sibling was domesticated into Irminsul’s memory, and therefore into the boundaries that delineate Teyvat. How exactly, by who, and for what exact purpose is currently unclear. But if I were to guess….

The Uncanny and the Abyss

Chlothar: To us, you were the Abyss…a wondrous mystery far beyond our imagination and comprehension…and the one who controls the Abyss can control everything!

So like…we need to talk about Caribert.

In Chlothar’s despair at having failed to recover Caribert’s consciousness, the Abyss called out to him and opened a strange domain near Sumeru’s entrance to the Chasm. Once there, he and the Abyss Sibling discover a mysterious hanging crystal which whispers about a power the bowing Hilichurls and Chlothar covet. This power, which Chlothar understands as the Abyss, does indeed resurface Caribert’s consciousness, but it comes with a price. Chlothar’s obsession with the crystal steers his attention away from his son, who in child-like wonder gazed upon his maskless reflection in a hand mirror, only to discover the horror of reality: this is not a fairytale world like his father said, he has really become a Hilichurl, his home has been obliterated, and there is no going back to life as he once knew it.

So, he rejects his fate and removes his mask one final time, unleashing a dark power that engulfs his body. Though the player passes out at this moment, Chlothar later says something cryptic regarding his son, who has now vanished from sight:

Chlothar: You saw it too, didn't you? Unmistakable... The power inside Caribert and the power of the one you call a "Sinner," it was one and the same...

Chlothar: I am positive now... it's the power of the Abyss, isn't it?

Chlothar: At long last, I have seen it with my own eyes...

Traveler: I didn't see clearly...

Traveler: What happened to Caribert?

Chlothar: That is no business of yours!

Chlothar: A sinner... Yes, salvation for a sinner can only come from a sinner...

Chlothar: Caribert did not deserve his fate, but now... It's wonderful — he will be able to weave his own destiny anew.

Chlothar: Born into abject sorrow, he shall now become... "The Loom of Fate."

There is a LOT in this dialogue to unpack. First, let’s talk about what happened to Caribert. Though we do not see it ourselves, Chlothar says “salvation for a sinner can only come from a sinner,” and that now Caribert can weave his own destiny anew. He also states that he has never seen the power of the Abyss before now, but I also wonder if he is saying he has never seen the Loom of Fate’s power with his own eyes before. To me, this suggests that Caribert fused with the Abyss, or even with the Loom of Fate (assuming these two are separate things to begin with).

Then, Chlothar says more strange things about the Abyss Sibling:

Chlothar: ...Sinister? ...Dangerous?

Chlothar: I never imagined that you, of all people, would deny the Abyss... How ridiculous!

Chlothar: We once believed that you would bring new strength and hope to Khaenri'ah.

Chlothar: To us, you were the Abyss... A wondrous mystery far beyond our imagination and comprehension...

Chlothar: ...And the one who controls the Abyss can control everything!

Chlothar: We yearned for that future. We looked to you to take us there.

Chlothar: But what did you bring us instead?

Chlothar: O Prince... of Khaenri'ah?

Remember how in Inversion of Genesis, Wanderer told us that the only reason that the sibling was able to come to Teyvat was because “the heavens responded to the summoning?”, and the Traveler immediately suspected that Khaenri’ah had to do with the sibling’s appearance in Irminsul’s records? Yeah, well. I'm not exactly saying they summoned the twins, but they clearly were up to no good once they encountered the sibling.

“To us, you were the Abyss.” The Twins are external to the laws of Teyvat, making them unknown, strange, and unfamiliar to this world. Chlothar’s dialogue suggests to me that Khaenri’ah has been seeking a power from beyond for a long time now. My speculation is that Khaenri’ah has known for a while about this “Loom of Fate,” but could never prove its existence. The Loom of Fate is likely what materializes fate into reality, if it does not also dictate fate, and it seems to be located in the Abyss itself. A loom is a wooden machine of sorts, used to hold thread or yarn taut as the user weaves them into cloth or tapestries. This is the machine I suspect Irminsul is working with as a system. Whether the Loom of Fate is a “Fate Domesticating Machine” is unknowable for now, but surely we can conclude that the Loom of Fate Operation is a fate domesticating mission. Perhaps they sought to control the Loom of Fate through the sibling. Perhaps they hoped to do so in order to change their own fate, as ignorant beings ruled by a cruel order imposed by the heavens above.

One final, somewhat tangential remark I’d like to make is about the name of the Hilichurl curse, the “curse of the wilderness.” This again gestures toward the idea of a home place and a wild place, what belongs to the home and what is outside of it. Something tells me from the last quest with Dainsleif in the Chasm that Hilichurls do not go to Sarva when they die, they disintegrate into the dark mud of forbidden knowledge. The curse casts them “outside” of the cycle of life and death, outside of the memory production system, and outside of fate. Though they are still from this world, in a sense they no longer belong to it either.

A Companion Machine Manifesto?

Faruzan: As for me…I want to stay with Tamimi for a bit longer. Just a bit.

I don’t want to get too into it now since this post is already too long, but it would be normal to wonder after all of this what to do with these boundaries at the center of Genshin’s world structure and conflict. We can’t just get rid of them all – King Deshret already tried that, and it didn’t work out so well for him. For now, when I think of the answer to this question, I can’t help but think of Karkata, Benben, and Tamimi, and their unique relationships to humans.

To be honest, they are what originally got me thinking about domestication as a way of reading Genshin’s worldbuilding. They participate in mutualistic relationships with the humans around them, living together in what feminist scholar Donna Haraway calls a relationship of “significant otherness.” As automatons that belong to lines of machines designed for war, their difference seems significant. I don’t have the precise language for this yet, but when I think of these care-full relationships they share with Tighnari, Jeht, and Faruzan, I can’t help but feel hopeful that things can change.

If you’ve made it this far, I truly from the bottom of my heart thank you so much for reading <3 Until next time!

External Sources/Further Reading

Das Unheimliche by Sigmund Freud, translated by Alix Strachey.

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott.

The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness by Donna Haraway.

“The Uncanny Familiar: Can We Ever Really Know a Cat?” by David Wood (this is amazing btw).

…Okay but the wild part is this is the second post I’ve made about the uncanny since this idea was born in September and I STILL HAVEN’T WRITTEN THE POST I WANT TO WRITE YET. When I get back from my thesis hiatus, we are talking about the ‘bots. And I mean ALL of them. And Dottore. And the Golden Slumber!!

edit 6.16.23: cleaned the post up! edited sentences for clarity, added to some unfinished thoughts, and re-formatted a few things that got lost between gdocs and tumblr. also grammar is hard :[

#genshin impact #genshin lore #genshin impact lore #genshin meta #caribert #chlothar alberich #dainsleif #irminsul #loom of fate #faruzan #theory #I will stop writing about machines when the sun explodes

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memecucker · 1 year

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If you wanna surprise people with the answer to a trivia question, ask them to name the first Disney full length movie to use computer generated images?

Because the answer is 1961’s 101 Dalmatians. “They had CGI in 1961?!” you might ask and yes though it wasn’t anything we might call CGI nowadays but they were images which were “generated” by a computer so to speak. And by “generated” I mean they used a Xerox machine.

By 1961 Walt had started to become jaded when it came to animation following Sleeping Beauty being a flop at the box office in addition to costing twice as much as previous animated films from Disney (especially since Sleeping Beauty was something Walt actually put a lot of passion into, similar to Fantasia which and how that also bombed and I don’t care much for Walt as a man but I can get how this would be pretty demoralizing) and shifted his attention to theme parks and his futurist utopianism. So with 101 Dalmatians, Walt was less directly involved than in the previous animated movies and largely was there to approve ideas people had.

One day art director Ken Anderson came to Walt and proposed a cost that they use a new method for animating the film, Xerox machines. The technique is called “xerography” (Xerox is actually both “named after” the word but also invented it) and allowed for greatly reducing costs and time when it came to animation because rather than having people hand draw sketches onto animation cels they would instead xerox those sketches onto the cels. Now at the time this was only viable with black and white images and so the cels would still need to be hand colored but 101 Dalmatians ended up being the ideal movie to use the technique on because of the Dalmatians and particularly how there are certain scenes where you have dozens and dozens and at some points all 101 Dalmatians present at the same time. Imagine the amount of effort that would be used in hand drawing cels where you have all 101 Dalmatians present considering that each Dalmatian is supposed to have their own unique spots and the ample room for animation errors to come up and you can understand the appeal. And while it doesn’t meet modern understanding of “computer generated images” the fact that a machine was copying and producing these images and taking over what was formerly a human task (I mean human animators still needed to color it in but whatever) and Xerox machines at the time were essentially analog computers and you can get it. There’s an interview with Chuck Jones from the 70s where he talked about 101 Dalmatians and used the word “computer animation” to describe it so that was how it was seen at the time and even ten years later

Now like I said Walt had been disillusioned with animation but was aware it was his companies bread and butter so when Anderson came to him with the proposal he replied with “"Ah, yeah, yeah, you can fool around all you want to". But when Walt finally saw early versions of the movie? He fucking hated it and said Disney is never going to use one of those “goddamned” Xerox machines again. It destroyed the enchantment and wonder in Walt’s view. This was a guy that had already sorta given up for the moment on actually putting passion into animated films from his studio and just let the animation department handle it but upon seeing all the end result of xerogrgraphy, he was disgusted! Where was the humanity in this? All he saw was the work of machines and said Anderson would never be an animation director again (Anderson says Walt would eventually apologize shortly before his death).

And I think that’s interesting. Without knowing any better, would any contemporary person watching 101 Dalmatians claim it’s anything other than “hand drawn animation”? Because that’s not what it was considered to be at least circa early 60s Disney animation department. Hell, the technique isn’t even really noticeable unless you’re watching the blu-ray version of the movie which is in a higher resolution than it was ever intended to be watched in (there’s actually a lot of agreement that the film is much visually worse in blu-ray). But for Walt Disney, the futurist who in 1961 had already been stepping away from animation? He only saw the work of machines and something stripped of its humanity. But nowadays? You can have CGI movies in our sense of “cgi” where you aren’t even working off any hand drawn sketch but instead images wholly created by computers being directed by artists and the humanity and passion can be made readily apparent in something even more removed from the days of hand drawn cels than the Xerox machine technique.

Anyway, whenever there’s new technology in the arts it’s normal for people to initially see just the work of machines and artificiality. But once people get used to it and it becomes normal, they stop seeing the machine and start seeing the people behind it. Same as it ever was

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thewitcheslibrary · 18 days

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Grounding 101

Grounding and centering are two of the most important things a witch should know, especially because they often work with energy. The purpose of grounding and centering is to stabilise your energy, draw energy from the Earth, and produce a positive state of being.

Your energy reflects your emotions. It's your "vibe", where your mind has strayed, when you get goosebumps, frightened sweats, or happy tears.

I am sure you can feel your vitality if you concentrate hard enough. Unground energy might feel "fluttery": a racing heart, butterflies in the stomach, and stray thoughts. Noticing your energy is the first step towards grounding, and the more you practise it, the better you will get at tuning in.

Your energy is the first line of protection for how you move through the world: do you recall the proverb "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? Words have the potential to injure or heal, depending on your energy level. Have you ever felt that someone's words punched you in the gut? They basically pummelling your energies (particularly your solar plexus). Sometimes the punch continues to strike even after the person who delivered it has left. Anyone who follows the news knows this for certain! But it's not only about the "bad" stuff; when we're very excited about something, it may be tough to stay in the moment as we wait.

Even if you don't receive one of those gut-punches, you might sometimes lose your energy. Have you ever felt like you arrived home but your thoughts was still in the grocery store? Grounding your energy in your area can help you set clear limits for who gets your energy and when. It might make you feel comfortable and supported rather than unbound. Grounding may help those who don't have a secure physical spot to call home, as well as anybody dealing through trauma and facing triggers, discover a safe place within themselves while they manage the issue.

How to ground yourself-

Take a deep, deep inhalation through your nostrils and hold for a second. Exhale through your mouth until all of your breath is out. Repeat as many times as necessary to feel present.

Position both feet or hands firmly on the ground and concentrate on the four corners of your palms or soles in succession. Focus on your base to feel as stable as possible.

Take a bath or shower and cleanse yourself from the top down. Focus on sending unnecessary or unbalanced energy down with the water.

Take a few deep breaths while picturing a ball of light at the base of your spine. Use your mental skills to imagine it spinning and spinning, catching any loose energy (like spinning cotton candy into a bundle), and then pushing it down into the earth. For a more in-depth ritual, repeat this process for each of your energy centres, beginning at the top and working your way down.

To anchor yourself in your environment, sprinkle salt on the floor and spend a few seconds visualising it shining with rainbow light, connecting with your own light and bringing down any unwanted energy. Then sweep up the salt and discard it.

Make any activity that needs your focus into a grounding ritual: making coffee, combing your hair, writing, gardening, cooking, or anything else that speaks to your spirit and keeps you in the present now.

Light a candle and focus your attention on the flame. Firegazing has been psychologically proved to help focus your mind and relax your energies. If you're using a scented candle, take deep breathes and enjoy the aroma and warmth.

Hold a grounding crystal or use a grounding essence during any of these tasks to summon extra help. Darker-colored stones tend to be the most grounding, although even rock from outside works (and may even work best).

#pagan witch #witch #witchblr #witchcore #witchcraft #grounding #centering

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tosahobi-if · 9 days

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ngl i'd play a produce 101 or a boys/girls planet interactive fiction. i can imagine the cringe performances the mc could get if their stats are low and the fruity moments with teammates

HAHAHA PLEASEEEE it feels topical to say the comedy of the mc being extremely attractive but untalented would be unmatched. main visual sub vocal 2 second line distribution. the stan wars would be legendary.

#anon #you guys fr are about to make me pull this out of my drafts #/j

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stoopid-turtle · 9 months

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June BTS Summary + Takeaways

This is in reference to the June bts timeline here and here.

So I noted in May that gg hadn't seemed as interested in dd as vice versa. Then June goes ahead and starts with gg whispering in dd's ear and heckin' kabedoning him between takes. Clearly, there's some developments happening outside the bts scenes.

By the time of Produce 101 (6.3), gg and dd are sharing an earpiece. To be fair, I have no clue what level of intimacy that implies. Is sharing earpieces intimate? Is it something you'd do for your buddy that's doing another project with you? No idea.

The clip on 6.7 with dd ostensibly asking for a kiss is interesting to me. Is he joking? Are they already on kissing terms? Is it flirty, trying to get to kissing terms? Whatever it is, it seems as if dd helping gg with his Produce 101 dance kicked things up a notch.

I run into the same ambiguity with the 6.14 porny cold springs adventures. Is the porniness coming from two guys who are already intimate or is the porniness part of some tension of desire for intimacy that hasn't been realized?

I mean, we'll never know (I imagine even a tell-all book wouldn't delve into that). The most we can tell is that they were definitely "together" on 6.18, the date of the dragon boat festival. There's a hotel room photo probably taken by dd and then a walk of shame the next day (Kinda hate that phrase, tbh. No shame in sleeping with gg).

So yeah, June definitely escalates things between them. We finally see gg being outright flirtatious, there's a lot of sexually charged moments and there are indications that they had begun a relationship (if they weren't already in one).

The transformation of gg is honestly really noticeable when watching these in order. Not only is he more flirtatious, he also starts kinda codeswitching into a...um...gay voice.

Okay, I feel it's loaded to say that. Let me explain.

The "gay voice" is recognized as a thing (studied by science), and some gay men talk about being in a glass closet because they're just not able to present as straight. Of course, not all gay men speak with such a voice and not every man who speaks that way (more stereotypically feminine) is gay. But it's a recognizable thing, and I can hear gg slip into it this month even though he's speaking a different language.

I've seen some bilingual speakers comment the same (my understanding was that one of the reasons the spicy wontons clip is considered revealing is because gg "sounds gay" in it). In 6.30, when ggdd are sitting against the column, gg slips into the gay voice when prompting dd to be more romantic (by protecting gg/wwx with his body rather than just his sword).

There's a few other times in the next couple months where gg slips into the voice, so it's something he can turn on and off. Obviously, when he uses it, he's typically being flirty or romantic towards dd. He doesn't use it with anybody else.

6.30 is also notable because it shows that there's a romance between them, not just sex. GG wouldn't be chiding dd to be more romantic if they were just casual sex partners. That's something you do with a person you're dating.

In sum, they're boyfriends now, your honor.

#bjyx #yizhan #the timeline of ggdd love yue #prezzie for turtles

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monkeymanproductions · 1 year

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I've seen the end.

Yesterday, I wrote the last script for Moonbase Theta, Out. (There'll still be some revising and cleaning up to do, but the last time starting from a blank page and an outline.) It's still sinking in that I'm that close to being done.

Not that the *show* is done for a while yet. We've still got seven episodes and four bonuses left to finish producing and put out into the world. (Including these last scripts I'm still cleaning up.) There's a lot of story left, a lot of work by incredible actors and a lot for Cass to edit (also incredibly).

But the biggest part of my work, the main project I've thrown myself into for five years now, is complete. I had no idea at the beginning, or the middle really, that it would get this big, or take this long to tell. It's not a bad thing ... but very unexpected.

101 scripts, all told. Over 1,400 pages of dialogue. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300,000 words. Working with some of my favourite actors in this field, creators of their own great stories (some of which we crossed over with), making friends and collaborators and fans I can't imagine not knowing.

I'm not sure what happens afterwards. I mean, I do, I'm already well into notes for a completely different show. And the best thing about MTO is it won't really be gone, people can still discover it, listen, talk about it, share it with friends. But it's a lot, sitting where I am right now, the last pages still fresh on my desktop, being able to see the very end of this story.

And because I've got to end with a plug - I've been talking about MTO for a long time, I'm gonna keep talking about it. If you have any interest in listening to the biggest thing I've done to date, with the biggest part of myself caught up in it ... you can find us in any podcast app, or on our website at https://monkeymanproductions.com/ . Sharing and supporting our work is huge, and so appreciated - but mostly, I hope you give it a listen. <3

#moonbase theta out #audio drama #audio fiction #monkeyman productions #podcasts #sci fi podcast

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rainbowsky · 2 years

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Perspectives on the Mystery Man

In reference to this previous post, here are a few more things to consider...

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

I asked someone familiar with the equipment they are seated by, and they told me that they are racks of wireless microphone receivers, and the only time anyone would be interacting with those racks is when they're setting the mics up. They don't require any sort of regular monitoring.

Which is exactly what it looks like. None of the three sitting there are doing anything. They don't even look at the gear.

And it's very 👀👀👀 that someone who happens to look like GG, dress like GG, wear glasses like GG, laugh and do other gestures like GG's, have uncannily similar features, hairline, skin tone and ear shape as GG... just happens to show up in the background of a SDOC3 shoot, as a bystander who is there for no apparent productive reason, never once showing his face.

I'm going to stop short of saying it's GG because we can't verify it 100%, but it is definitely a strange 'coincidence'.

For those of you who remember, GG did a similar thing when he was on Produce 101. He posed as a photographer and went into the room where the contestants were and started taking pictures and acting like a photographer and he had a fake name and everything.

The girls figured it out, I'm sure in part because the crew were not acting normal and I think they kind of outed his disguise, but it does show that he is up for that kind of fooling around, and he seemed to really enjoy it.

As I said in the notes for this post, Huang Bo, GG and DD, and the producer of SDOC are all known pranksters, this is a segment specifically devoted to pranking. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine that this was just a bit of clownery on their part. A way to put GG in a little cameo for the show without anyone knowing.

It's no different, really, than GG leaving DD's name in his Qingdao snacks video, or putting little candies in his ideal life painting or in other drawings, or the heart mole, or DD making all of his Nike posts about GG. If we believe that those things are genuine candies, then I don't really think it's a stretch at all think that this might have actually been a planned prank.

But it's completely crazy as well, to think they'd engineer a secret GG cameo for SDOC3. But I guess if he was visiting DD on set it would be a lot more fun to wait in the shot for him to be done filming than to sit in some back room. 😅

Of course it's all 🤡 and we don't know for sure and probably never will, but it is a fun one, and a bit of a weird mystery.

Edit: more here.

#the mysteries of yizhan #🤡🚙#sdoc3 #🤡 in the twilight zone #dd drops candies gg drops bombs

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catofadifferentcolor · 11 months

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Terrible Fic Idea #53: House of the Dragon, but make it Quasi-Salic

Everything about the Great Council of 101 AC sets Westeros up for a future Dance of Dragons - and always would have, regardless of the outcome. There's no way around that. Rhaenys was the only child of Jaehaerys I's oldest son, Aemon. Viserys I was the oldest son of the king's second son, Baelon. The choice of Viserys I as king goes against every tradition of the Seven Kingdoms save chauvinism - and sets the stage for a thousand future wars of succession.

But the other frontrunner in the Council was not Rhaenys: it was her son, Laenor. Had the Council chosen him, it would have set a precedent among the Targaryens for Quasi-Salic inheritance - and, likely enough, lead to the exact same situation we find ourselves in in HotD.

Or: What if Laenor Velaryon had acceded to the Iron Throne after the death of Jaehaerys I?

Bear with me:

Quasi-Salic inheritance excludes females from the line of inheritance, but allows their male children to inherit their claim.

In HotD, this would mean that inheritance would pass through all of Prince Aemon's male descendants before Prince Baelon's claim could be considered. Princess Rhaenys would still be excluded, but her son Laenor would inherit her claim.

Until Laenor had a male heir, next in line of succession would be Viserys I, his male heirs, Prince Daemon, his male heirs, &c.

Under this law, none of Laenor, Viserys I, or Daemon's daughters could hold the throne in their own right, which seems in accordance with Andal thinking.

Just imagine it:

Laenor becomes king following Jaehaerys I's death in 103. He is nine years old. His mother, Princess Rhaenys, is regent - but Otto Hightower remains Hand of the King, in part to retain a sense of continuity in the realm, in part because he's actually good at his job.

Meanwhile, Prince Viserys is either given the lands along the Blackwater Rush (that would, in a different future, be given to Daemon I Blackfyre) or a minor role at court. His need for male heirs is not as pressing as in canon, but still kills his wife and leaves him only with a single living child, his daughter Rhaenyra.

Once her son is old enough, Princess Rhaenys needs to find Laenor a Valyrian bride so that he can produce heirs as soon as possible. While pairing him with his sister Laena is attractive, that does nothing to mend the fences broken by the Great Council. And so Laenor and Rhaenyra wed for much the same reasons they do in canon - albeit at few years earlier.

Until they produce a son, Viserys is still next in line to the throne and without any male heirs of his own. This changes after he marries Alicent Hightower - again, for much the same reasons in canon (because Otto may be good at his job, but he's also in it for himself, as are most people who rise to become Hand; Viserys is still the best groom he can get for his daughter by medieval standards) - who births three sons and a daughter in short order.

Problems start when Rhaenyra gives birth to a son - Jace, who looks nothing like his father - and continues with the births of Luke and Joffery. Bastards, everyone whispers.

Things get worse with the birth of her younger children - Aegon, Viserys, and Visenya - for while they look the image of Valyrian royalty, many assume they're actually the children of her uncle and goodbrother, Prince Daemon, who is seen more often in Rhaenyra's company than her husband.

Though Laenor maintains Rhaenyra's children are his, there are many who begin looking towards Viserys to succeed him.

Then in 129 AC, two things happen: Laenor Valeryon and Viserys Targaryen both die - perhaps in the same hunting mishap, perhaps from an illness that sweeps through the Crownlands.

Jacaerys is crowned king...

...and the people rebel.

There are a variety of reasons why people would not be happy with the king's legally recognized heir succeeding him, ranging from 1) not wanting a bastard on the throne to 2) not wanting someone partial to Daemon - and inclined to take his advice - on the throne to 3) genuinely disliking the policies implemented during Laenor's reign and hoping for a return to the good times under a Targaryen king to 4) wanting to use the chaos as a ladder for their own advancement. Like the canon Dance of Dragons, it's a complicated intersection of social, political, religious, and economic issues at play.

And that's really all I have - the same players, the same game, just a slightly different board. The actual outcome of this Dance and how it comes about is entirely dealer's choice, but the takeaway should be that these characters were always doomed by their circumstances to a war they could possibly stop if they tried - only to see it play out in the next generation or the next, until war has wiped out all alternative contenders.

Bonuses include: 1) Laenor being a doting father and a sweetheart of a human being, but a disappointment as a king. He is indecisive, generous, friendly, easily swayed by his friends, and - ultimately - not strong enough to stand on his own in the cutthroat world of Westerosi politics; 2) Less concentration being given to the people in power than the children who will succeed them: Jace, Aegon II, and their respective siblings. The focus should be their bright childhoods and friendships being destroyed by the realities of their positions, which are entirely out of their control; and 3) In keeping with previous, a childlike wonder at Westeros and the glittering court at the Red Keep that slowly turns dark and heavy with the burden of adult expectations and inherited sins placed on young shoulders. The fracturing of a storybook, safe world into the nightmare that Westerosi politics actually is. Or: coming of age in the Seven Kingdoms.

As I said, that's all I really have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #house of the dragon #hotd #laenor velaryon #rhaenyra x laenor #viserys i targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #rhaenys velaryon #dance of the dragons #jacaerys velaryon #aegon ii targaryen #alicent hightower #otto hightower #no one is perfect

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brokenntable · 1 year

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Haii, i am a new luvity. Can i request about them? Could you please write how cravity reactions when ycomforting you if you worried so much? Thank you ^^

welcome! ofc I can, please- I'm writing this with a high fever... I'm sorry if I make any mistakes. ALSO HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY ALLEN 🐧

Cravity Members Comforting You

Serim

as a leader, I'm sure Serim has seen plenty of stress and worry in all sorts of formats. I can imagine at first meeting you he'd start noticing small details about your emotions, things you didn't know about yourself. so if one day he saw how distressed and panicked you were, even if you thought you held it well, Serim would be the first to pull you aside and ask you to talk about how you were feeling. I wouldn't allow you to bottle up your feelings. I think he would really try offer solutions but as well be there to be a shoulder to cry on. he'd allow you to let it all out before picking you up off your feet and wanting you to do something fun to relieve you of your stress. I can see him suggesting you join a yoga class or something of the sort for no apparent reason.

Allen

fixer-upper, fix-it Allen indeed. Allen is for sure going to try and break down your worries and do his best to try and fix them, he doesn't like to see you worrying so he'll try and manually take it away. worried over an exam? Allen will sit and help you study until you're fully confident. worrying about a presentation? he will ask his members to join him as you do your presentation in front of them all. start off small, aim bigger. his love language is acts of service im sure, there's no escaping it.

Jungmo

I can imagine believing Jungmo would be awkward at first hearing you're panicking over something but I really think he would have such a caring approach, especially after seeing how much stress you're under. don't think you can escape his grasp, you'll be locked in his affection and hugs until he's ready to let go. Jungmo isn't very good with words so I can imagine he'll try his best in every other way to help. he'll play with your hair, order your favourite food, check in on you as much as possible.

Woobin

you know what's one of the most comforting things; food. and when I tell you, woobin would cook the most scrumptious, mouth watering comfort food ever. you would cry eating it. all jokes aside, good food and a heart to heart would solve so many issues and I think that would be woobin's approach if he saw you worrying one day. and, if you weren't ready to talk about it, that would be completely okay too, he's happy to just stay by your side and assist to make sure your as okay as he can possibly get you to. I'm also positive he's memorised all your favourite foods to.

Wonjin

I have watched enough produce x 101 to tell you, if you're worried, Wonjin will do anything in his power to help you in any shape he can. he cares so much about everyone he will try and carry your burdens giving hugs, distractions, solutions. you name it, he'll do it. he's also super sentimental as well, he will definitely try and talk it out with you until you realise most of your worries were irrational. you walk out after a conversation with Wonjin thinking you can take on the world.

Minhee

minhee's such a difficult one because he's so unpredictable. if he found out you're worried I can imagine he'd definitely knit his brows together and think what he can do to help. Definitely pats you on the back (like one of those dad pats). I also think though that Minhee notices very small details about you too. like when your sad you only eat a very specific flavour or type of food. or ur at ur most happy when you drink a specific drink. he would go out of his way to go get them without you even being aware. or if you were stressed and couldn't keep on top of things, he would do small things like your washing, or make your bed to ease your burden.

Hyeongjun

at first, Hyeongjun seeing you panic would definitely make him panic. he's someone who will reflect how you're feeling but he also cares a lot about you so if you're worried he'd try really hard to distract you from your worries. he's the type to drag you out of your room to go do fun things, take you out for desserts or a karaoke bar. no better stress relief then screaming down a microphone. and not to forget either, hyeonjun gives the best hugs, no doubt he will be hugging and clinging onto you all day too.

Taeyoung

I can see him definitely encouraging the both of you at least once a week to talk about feelings and emotions with each other. even if it isn't something deep, I think taeyoung would be a really efficient communicator. besides all the jokes and laughs, if you stress to him you were stressed and worried I think he would try to work through it together. he's another member who will try and break down how you feel and try and help you but he also definitely keeps it light hearted and can't help crack a joke here and there because he also wants to see you smile.

Seongmin

another panicker me thinks. I think Seongmin would be happy to help you though if you're worried as I think Seongmin would go all out. at first he would take you out to take your mind off of thinks. you go clothe shopping, you eat ice cream and take pictures together. then, when he knows you're in a better position, he'll ask what's bothering you and he will offer to help the best way he can.

I have irlens syndrome, if anything is spelt bad its because I can't read. have a nice day <3

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