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gotouhitori · 2 months

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Okay, so. I'm in Love with the Villainess. Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou. WataOshi. Whichever title you want to refer to it by.

Before reading or watching it, I wondered why the hell people were holding up this random villainess isekai light novel with an over-the-top masochist main character as a landmark yuri title. Okay sure I don't doubt there's yuri going on, but how can it be so special?

Then I watched the anime. "Huh. The series and its main character are clearly and unambiguously lesbian in a way that so many other series can't bring themselves to be. And it has the most frank discussion of queer issues I think I've ever seen in anime or related media. Yeah, I think I see now, it is a cut above." And both because I've heard the novels get into a few things a little more and because the series now has its hooks in me enough for me to want to read the novels anyway, I read the first novel. And yeah, that does add a bit.

And then I read the second novel. The latter bit of the anime does cover the first bit of the second novel, but it's mostly new territory for an anime-only or anime-first such as myself. And holy fucking shit. Spoilers under the cut.

For one thing, the anime/first novel dropped some trans hints about Yu, and that turns out to be a whole transfem allegory - which isn't unheard of by any means, but it's not especially common in a work where that isn't the main focus. And not only that, but there's an actually explicitly textual transmasc in Rae's past life, who forms part of Rae's motivation to make considerable effort and take considerable risk (up to and including treason) to make sure Yu can live as a girl - once Yu states that is what she wants, it is important to note. Random yuri villainess isekai light novel says trans rights, and will absolutely stand by it.

And then all of the stuff about class and inequality comes to a head, and remember how the game that Rae's in the world of is titled "Revolution"? Yeah. One of those happens. Various hints have been dropped about what happens, largely centred on Rae making efforts to save Claire's neck in the most literal way possible when things really go down. But holy shit does that turn out to be more effort and a much more complex endeavour than it appears at first... or for most of the time while it's going on, for that matter. Ultimately she arranges things so that while the revolution still happens (it is basically inevitable), overall loss of life and suffering is minimised, and the general situation is as good as it possibly could be. By the time the proverbial smoke clears, Rae and Claire are openly living as a couple, which is a lot more than you usually see - one of the things Rae comments on is how in per previous life, too much of the yuri she read ended with at least one of the girls either dead or winding up with a man, which annoyed her enough to write fanfic based on series she likes with unsatisfying endings to fix that. And though the game did have a yuri spinoff, the original - the events of which she was living through and manipulating - was het. The character she winds up with was never supposed to be a romanceable character to begin with.

And that's just the first two of the five novels. Living through and changing the course of an actual revolution and settling down with her partner is just 40% of the whole story. (And less if more novels get published.) I've just started the third novel, and it's certainly looking like the rest is going to be at least as much of a ride as the first two were.

This really is an outstanding series. It's Dungeon Meshi levels of "I cannot stop thinking about it" to me, which if you've seen how much I post about that, says a lot. And I haven't read even half of it yet.

#i'm in love with the villainess #watashi no oshi wa akuyaku reijou #wataoshi #yuri #trans rights #lesbianism #lgbtqia

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ottogatto · 10 months

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I would like to submit two ideas because I think I'm poking something but not going in fully, so I would very much like your opinions and additions about it (of course, as long as they remain in good faith *side eyes possible antis viewing my post*).

Marauders and surface-level rebellion

I've finally put to words something that really bothered me with the Marauders, though I don't know the name for it.

It started when I read a reblog that said:

I remember Brennan saying “laws are just structured threats made by the ruling socioeconomic class” during an episode of D20 and we truly just had to stan immediately

This is something dear privileged white woman Rowling didn't realize/understand well, since she held a high socioeconomical status even during her """poverty""" stage. It's known that, despite seeming to be defending ideas of fighting against fascism and "pureblood" supremacy in favor of acceptance of the other, her books reek of colonialism/imperalism. The story of the Marauders, a gang of privileged boys like her, is an in-world replica of that problem where Rowling betrays yet again her actual mindset.

The Marauders adopt the "bad boys who break rules" to get style, while completely losing/staining the moral sense in it.

Let's take piracy.

Some people pirate stuff because they consider that the stuff they'd like to get comes from unethical companies that abuse their employees or use modern slavery, or people who spread harm against certain minorities (like Rowling against trans people and thus the LGBT+ community), so while they may want to access the content, they don't want to give them money and might even encourage pirating their stuff to make them lose money.

Some pirate stuff because otherwise it's lost due to unfortunate "terms of use" -- see video games companies like Ubisoft (deletes gaming account after a while), Nintendo (does not bring back old games), etc.

Others pirate stuff because they just don't have the money but they still want to try the stuff that might make them happy and forget that they're poor -- reasoning that the company isn't losing any money anyway, or not much, since they wouldn't have been able to pay for it in any case.

Others pirate stuff because they consider the price ridiculously high or they consider it shouldn't be something to pay for at all. (Like education stuff -- isn't education supposed to be free for all, so that it can actually uphold everyone's fundamental and unconditional ( = not conditioned by wealth...) right to have an education? Oh and before anyone asks: I've DEFINITELY bought the ~15 expensive books that's roughly worth 500€ in total and that my uni asked I buy to study and get my degree...)

Rowling's Marauders is a group that would pirate stuff just because they'd think it would give them an edge, because they'd think it would make them cool to be seen as "talented" hackers who "defy" companies. Companies... that their own friends and families would own, and as such, would find that kind of behavior funny and entertaining (while they would trash other people around for considering it).

Another example. In society, in history, it's been proven time and again that breaking rules -- going against the law -- is an eventuality that's important for everyone to consider, if they want to defend their rights. Anti-racism, feminism, LGBT Pride, etc, advanced because people broke rules. In USA states where abortion is currently being banned, women and minors (+ their close ones) must now consider breaking the rules to get an abortion. (Privileged people don't give a fuck about those people, and if they suddenly decide that (moral) rules don't apply to them and they will get an abortion, they will just take a plane ticket to a country where abortion is legal, fiddling with legal stuff if necessary thanks to the lawyers their fortunes can afford and the lobbies that they're instituting.)

Revolutions happened because people broke rules too. I particularly like the 1793 Constitution in France Because it asserts that the people have the right to break rules and riot if the power in place threatens their fundamental rights:

Article 35. - Quand le gouvernement viole les droits du peuple, l'insurrection est, pour le peuple et pour chaque portion du peuple, le plus sacré des droits et le plus indispensable des devoirs. Article 35. - When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most essential of duties.

(Of course the power in place would state and enforce and make use of propaganda to say that it's completely illegal and illegetimate and that those who riot for legitimate rights are terrorists!)

Breaking rules is at the core of anti-fascism, anti-dictatorship, anti-totalitarianism. Breaking rules is essential when those rules are abusive. Too often, those who put those rules in place really are only setting their rules of the game to establish their power over the others. Or as the reblog says: "laws are just structured threats made by the ruling socioeconomic class".

Rowling's Marauders break rules because they are the socioeconomical class in power. As such, no one can do anything about it, no one will really tell them down for it. They get excused and justified and romanticized by their peers, just like billionaires & politicians are excused by their peers and notably mainstream media (which is owned... by other billionaires). They break rules -- not because they think it's necessary and the morally right thing to do despite the dangers it puts them in -- but because it makes them feel powerful, important, invincible, which for them is very fun. As Snape says: James and his cronies broke rules because they thought themselves above them:

“Your father didn’t set much store by rules either,” Snape went on, pressing his advantage, his thin face full of malice. “Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners. [...]”

They break rules because they're allowed to.

Which is why, in reality, the Marauders aren't really breaking rules or defying anything or opposing an actual big threat. They're a bunch of jocks who are having fun in the playground that's been attributed to them thanks to their status and family heritage (others wouldn't get the same indulgence because they don't get that privilege).

They break rules because they want to look cool, to be the "bad boys". The message has been compleyely botched. Especially with Lily actually finding this hot.

Because Rowling finds this hot:

[...] I shook hands with a woman who leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, 'Sirius Black is sexy, right?' And yes, of course she was right, as the Immeritus club know. The best-looking, most rebellious, most dangerous of the four marauders... and to answer one burning question on the discussion boards, his eyes are grey.

(Anyone has an eyes washing station?)

Another quote:

"Sirius was too busy being a big rebel to get married."

(Nevermind the eyes washing, anyone's got some bleach instead?)

Stanning James Potter for being the leader of a gang that prides itself on breaking rules and always getting away with it -- it feels like stanning Elon Musk for being "innovative" and "a daring entrepreneur" despite being a manchild who exploits workers and modern-world slavery to play with his billions while always getting away with it.

They're not being "rebels" -- they're being bullies and flexing the fact they can get away with it thanks to abundance of privilege. Those are the tastes of a posh British white woman. She wanted the facade -- not the substance (that is, if she ever understood it).

You might say that they did oppose a big threat, the Death Eaters, but again, it's botched because:

they target a lonely, unpopular boy who's best friends with a Muggleborn Gryffindor, rather than baby Death Eaters like Mulciber, Lucius, Rosier, Avery, Regulus, etc.

The leader sexually harasses the Muggleborn Gryffindor because he's sexually jealous of the unpopular boy who dared not take the insult about his chosen House and shut up. Lily is treated as an object, they don't listen to her, and they barely speak about her later. (Lots to say to show that, which I won't do here because this is not the main subject.)

When the Marauders do join the Order, they do it... because they primarily want to adopt a rock-n-roll style and play the "bad boys" again. Or at least that's the message that's given to the reader:

They seemed to be in their late teens. The one who had been driving had long black hair; his insolent good looks reminded Fisher unpleasantly of his daughter's guitar-playing, layabout boyfriend. The second boy also had black hair, though his was short and stuck up in all directions; he wore glasses and a broad grin. Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.

(God, the Prequel is so cringy.)

They don't choose Dumbledore as the Secret Keeper, they don't tell him they changed to Pettigrew -- even though he literally was their war leader -- James uses the Cape to fuck around even though he was supposed to be hiding with Lily and then Harry (until Dumbledore takes the Cape from him)... and eventually, their group exploded, with James killed off, Sirius thrown to Azkaban, Peter (the traitor) hiding as a rat and Lupin going off to find jobs to survive.

Why did that happen? Because they thought of playing their part in the Order like going on a teenage adventure rather than engaging in a resistance organization. It was, first and foremost, about playing "the bad boys" and having fun.

(Harry half-inherits this. While he doesn't break rules just to look cool, and actually has several moments where he does break rules because it's the right thing to do -- like under Umbridge or, of course, when Voldemort takes power -- he does often get pampered when he breaks them in his earlier years. By Dumbledore, but also McGonagall, however much Rowling tries to sell her as a "strict but fair" teacher. Or by Slughorn, now that I think about it. That's something that enraged Snape, as it brought up memories of Harry's father -- Snape's own bully -- getting the same treatment.)

It's not a coincidence that Rowling not only failed to properly convey through the Marauders the true value of breaking rules, but also lusted over them for adopting that "bad boys" trope. It speaks to her own privilege -- she who never had to put herself in danger and go against the law in a risky attempt to protect herself or other less privileged people.

(Here's a useful read to expand on those worldbuilding issues.)

2. Dark Magic, obscurantism and conservatism

For context: Opinion: The Dark Magic/Light Magic Dichotomy is Nonsense (by pet_genius).

The idea of "Dark Magic" as something that's repeatedly told to be "evil" magic and where you cross the line of the forbidden, while hardly putting in question that notion that was (for some reason) enforced by wizard society, is another blatant example of Rowling betraying her mindset of privileged British white woman.

Rowling couldn't put herself in the minds of a society of "outcasts (witches & wizards) deeply enough to consider they would not see any magic as "Dark" at all (being a ""Muggle"" concept), or that Dark magic is only magic that requires something unvaluable to be traded off -- like one's soul or health or life or sanity. Instead, she has Dark Magic defined as "evil" magic, even though her own books show that you can do evil stuff with normal magic, and that you can do morally good stuff with Dark magic. This thing happened because Rowling could not think past her own little world and instead she poured a conservatist mentality (+ typical "Muggle", anti-witch prejudice) into the HP (wizard society) worldbuilding without considering that there could, in fact, be fundamental differences between the two worlds that include thinking of magic differently. (This has a lot to do with Rowling's wizard world being a pro-imperalism fest.)

"Dark Magic" feels like a lazy, badly-executed plot device to tell the reader who's a good guy and who is not. Because of course, that's how things work in real-life, huh… (Did she ever hear of "don't tell, show"?) It's used as an excuse to define who's evil (teen Severus) or not (James), who's worthy or not -- not how their magic was used. Which is a BIG problem:

“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush. “They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” / “Scourgify!” Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him —

Even worse, Rowling doesn't follow her own in-world moral framework. Dark magic is acceptable for some people (Rowling's partial self-inserts: Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione to Marietta...) but not for those that Rowling hates (Snape, who ironically represents the closest thing to rebelling by unapologetically obsessing over the Dark Arts). Again, this is at best unadressed in-world hypocrisy, at worst an expression of in-world and out-universe privilege (I get to do this and stay a good guy, but you don't).

There could have easily been rightful criticism of whatever could be defined as "Dark Magic". What if Dark magic was just something defined as "Dark" usually because the power in place doesn't want the people to touch it? Is abortion or contraception or a sex-altering or a goverment-threatening spell, Dark Magic? Is foreign or ethnicity-specific or female-centered or queer-centered magic, "Dark"? How about showing why (Muggle-raised but also neurodivergent) Severus thought Dark magic was so great, showing his point of view, while also establishing where the true limits are? If Lily can't be the one who sees past the "fear-mongering anti-intellectualism/propaganda", how about Harry being the one who does, thanks to him relating to Snape on a personal level? How about making Hermione go from someone who condems Dark Magic, to someone who entirely changes her point of view and understands that this is all bullshit -- effectively showing the dangers of only following what the books say, without putting them into question or thinking by yourself? How about a nuanced view of Dark magic as something that requires a significant sacrifice, which is conceivable for something they see as equally or even more important [Lily's life for Harry; Snape's soul integrity for Dumbledore]? How about making the Death Eaters, people who deviate that legitimate interest, rather than just evil guys who thrive in Dark magic for its supposed added evilness? How about showing that Dark magic was just a notion invented by Muggles to throw "witches" (real or not) to the burning stakes -- later taken by the witches and wizards in power to define, in the magical community, what was okay or definitely forbidden because it's the trademark of those who represent a threat to the magical community (understand: people who riot or strike or protest against the ruling socioeconomical class' politics)?

But there was none of that.

"Dark" magic in HP merely seems to be a weird concept that at best accidentally takes the form of an in-world obscurantism, at worst is just the trademark of someone who cannot imagine a "hunted, ostracized" community with a different culture and mindset than her own. Aggravating is the fact that she used "Dark magic" as a plot device to magically cast some people as good and others as never bad – again, probably reflecting her own questionable mentality.

The fact Rowlnig invented the notion of Dark Magic and had her world consider it seriously as an evil thing instead of being open-minded seems to be less telling of her wishes to show a wizard society that can be as prejudiced as the muggle one, and more of her own bizarre world where you must be evil if you are knowledgeable in or interested in certain "taboo" things (RIP neurodivergents).

Rowling glorifies the Trio and the Marauders for breaking rules. Yet when it comes to actually breaking expectations and norms, notably in the wizarding society -- like the use of another magical species as slaves, or the blatant anti-Muggle prejudice held by everyone including "good guys" (or anti-centaur while we're at it), or stupid anti-knowledge prejudice like "Dark magic is evil" -- there is none of that. At best, it's surface-level opposition that comes out as white savior syndrome. At worst, the protagonists make it their noble code to enforce those norms, and "sinful" characters (Snape, for one) are punished for not conforming. Too often, those sinful characters are punished by the "good guys" with the very thing that they apparently oppose so fervently.

Without ever adressing the fact that those characters were ("morally") allowed to do that because it was just, in the end, a matter of who gets the privilege to do that, and who does not.

There.

Do you have anything to say to develop on those ideas? I feel like I'm reaching my knowledge limit and I'd like to see if those ideas can be expanded.

#pro snape #severus snape #harry potter #dark magic #sectumsempra #anti marauders #anti jkr #fuck jkr #classism #imperalism #colonialism #hp #hp books #hp prequel #obscurantism #bad boys #piracy #virtue signaling

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velvetvexations · 10 days

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can I be honest I feel like people in the fandoms (and to an extent the IH) treatment of KLCK compared to Fabian is a clear case of misogyny

our rich privileged soft boy vs their rich privileged annoying bitch

our boy who makes race insensitive remarks sometimes but it's not his fault vs their bitch whose mental issues make her make bad remarks in private

our self centered but adorable cute boy vs their self centered narcissistic bitch

idk if I'm onto anything honestly I'm very tired and have my brain on npd mode and if I posted anything about KLCK's mental issues on the subreddit I'd be ridiculed so I need to scream at someone who gets it. hope you've been doing okay! fbdnfnds

Brennan really honeypotted all the NPD members of the D20 fandom with her, huh?

But I think you're half-right. The immediate and insane reaction to KLCK having an annoying tone of voice and going hogwild on her to the extent that the fandom did, especially the infinite repetition of calling her bitch and cunt, definitely smacks of misogyny. There are other factors, though, chiefly the parasocial relationship making the fandom not only reflect but greatly amplify the opinions of the Intrepid Heroes. Like, if Brennan said he didn't like mustard this fandom would riot in the streets until mustard was removed from store shelves. With Siobhan and Ally going as hard as they did on despising KLCK, the urge to partake in the activity with your fake internet celebrity best friends did what it does.

The fact that Kipperlilly's parents were in the housing market in particular did not do her any favors. Like, the fans call Brennan a decolonial philosopher. Like I've said a few times before because it's the perfect metaphor, the fandom loves to LARP the Cultural Revolution - and that's barely even a metaphor as opposed to just literally what they're actually doing. The political aspect combines with the parasocial one, too, because now you're saving the world with your fake internet celebrity best friends. The moment, I mean the exact moment I started getting into KLCK, because up until then I was right there with everyone else going wHaT aRe YoU FoUr DiFfErEnT DoGs, was when I noticed fans on Reddit calling her a nepo baby. I started a thread about it trying to just, like, educate these children on what that term actually means and the replies drove me completely out of my mind.

So it's like, Fabian mainly gets a pass because he's a PC, because the fandom is wrapped around the cock of every PC and stubbornly refuses to accept them as anything less than perfect baby angels. Like I said, though, you are for sure correct in identifying that misogynistic element of how fans pounced on KLCK and identified her as a bitchy cunt bitch whore because her energy is very slightly grating. Or really, not even grating, honestly? Like she's clearly supposed to come off as obnoxious, but she's nothing but polite and mildly cheerful all the way up until "I want you to go fuck yourself", and even THAT was in response to the Bad Kids picking a fight.

#dimension 20 #fhjy #kipperlilly copperkettle

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nagarashi · 9 days

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Always resented the way Logan was treated in Fable 3, didn't you?

Long post ahead...

Fable 3 has always been an example of controversy, at least I used to stumble upon it all the time. Some branded it a disgrace, while others said it wasn't that bad because of the potential it had, which unfortunately was never realized.

I've always been on the side of the second. Just recently I settled on a marathon and went through the entire trilogy. Just like the first time I was "burned out" from that missed potential. In particular I am always saddened by the king - Logan.

For me, Logan is pretty much the only character I really feel sorry for and care about in Fable 3. Yeah, even Walter I feel pretty cold towards.... but that's partly because I'm on the King's side from the beginning of the game, even though they try hard to turn me against him (which is what turns me away from the other characters). And it's the reason I really dislike the Hero (Princess in my case), she's blind, infantile and driven, she doesn't think with her head (probably like all the Heroes in the fable).

The game does our brother one hell of an injustice. I felt it especially strongly when I finally played Fable 2 after many years. The faceless queen (in my case Sparrow Woman) mentioned in Fable 3 suddenly took on a face for me and became something important... I know what she was like and what her life was like. And I'm sure she would have loved Logan, because she was deprived of parental love early on, and didn't want brother and sister to be against each other, because she lost her sister, her only sibling, at a young age.

Logan was the firstborn son of Sparrow and as the firstborn, the eldest, all expectations were to be placed on him, everything was to be left for him... What does the game tell us?

The game does, however, show and give the impression that Logan was some sort of outcast in the family. And for some reason, the Guild seal was supposed to go to the youngest. You say she's a hero? What was her Heroic talent until she got a gauntlet to use magic? Broke sword in training? I may be biased, but I have a feeling Logan has broken more than one sword in training as well.... But for some reason, all the excitement goes to the youngest one.

Speaking of magic, it used to be used without any gauntlets, does that mean that it weakens the blood of Heroes? That would be... logical. That's where Reaver and his still strong bloodline would come in handy, lol.

Back to Logan. Not only was the seal not for him, but for some reason, even in the Sanctuary, the note from his mother was left for Jasper, not him. What?!

There's a strong and unpleasant feeling of ignoring the fact that Logan even exists. Why does he deserve to be ignored? From a game perspective, I understand that it demonizes our brother, but from a logical perspective, I don't see how it's justified, at least not when it comes to things involving family.

That and the way everyone hates him only made me get more attached to him.... and the fact that he's the closest thing we have to family. You can't just walk away from that fact, giving in to calls for a stupid revolution without even trying to talk to your brother before doing so. Was the princess angry with him? That anger is some kind of unfunny joke. She didn't care about her brother, why should she care about some random dudes she's being asked to execute?

The game shows that even the sister didn't care about Logan. She doesn't notice the changes in him (which by the way even Elliot notices, in my case) and doesn't even try to talk to him to find out what's going on.

And as if that wasn't enough, when we get to a certain point and find out the truth of what's going on with our brother, why he's changed so much, instead of talking to him in person, for some reason we let Walter take him away and have a trial where all those bloodthirsty critters from our allies come out when they wish Logan dead (except Page, surprisingly, I don't like her, but she shows a lot of common sense at the trial).

On top of all that, Logan has seen with his own eyes what Crawler can do, he saw the deaths of all his men when they faced the Darkness for the first time and subsequently experienced the horror that Crawler is capable of, and we have seen what he can do through our example and Walter's. He brings out the deepest nightmares.... Now imagine facing the death of your home, your people, your family, the one person you care about. And then with the knowledge of all this you come back and try to tell people the terrible truth, but they just think you are crazy, you are powerless to convince them. But the sheep have to be saved from the wolves, no matter how stupid they are.

Logan obviously has severe PTSD after the incident, recurring nightmares and obsessive thoughts of what will happen if he fails? Thoughts that he MUST succeed no matter what. Wouldn't that drive you crazy?

It makes everyone think you're a monster and hate you..... Imagine what it's like to live under that kind of constant pressure every day? And then your dearest person, your flesh and blood, goes against you... It's like the last drop to break the stone already broken by despair and depression.

I don't know how Logan can be executed at the end of the trial. Personally, I've never done it, although I watched that scene on youtube for the sake of interest. It's just horrible in my opinion... It's so soulless. I love playing Fable as an evil character, but even by my standards this is just too much... Logan's execution isn't evil or even justice as the crowd screams, it's murder besides being very vile, even for me.

I really dislike that at the end, when he leaves, we aren't given a chance to stop him. He will always be a brother to Hero and they will always need each other. Anyway, after everything that's happened, I wish Logan was by my side so he could finally have peace and love instead of hate and despise. I don't want him to wander the world and die in an unmarked grave somewhere.

P.S: I always liked the moment at the trial, when all those who were crying the whole game, what victims of Logan's cruelty they were, immediately turned into a pack of vicious dogs, as soon as they felt the power and opportunity to grab Logan's throat with no punishment, literally siccing you on your own brother.

P.S.S: Screw Teresa, I hate you for what you did to Sparrow and her kids.

#fable 3 #logan fable #king logan #fable #my sweet baby #i'm burning up

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nesiacha · 3 months

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in your opinion, what was the most significant mistake the jacobins ever made? (i tend to like them much more than other factions in the frev, but i still want to know how Problematic my Faves were)

Good question. I'm not sure which period you want to talk about regarding the Jacobins, so let's discuss the one after the fall of Louis XVI's monarchy. I will mainly encompass the Mountain faction.

Regarding tactical errors, according to some historians, including Antoine Resche, a contemporary historian who has made excellent videos on the French Revolution under the name Histony, which can be found on the Veni Vidi Sensi website, leans towards the lack of left-wing unity as one of the errors. And honestly, he's not wrong. Some might think that the elimination of Danton and the Hébertists was a turning point. But it was salvageable (I've already discussed what I thought in one of my posts). Only the Jacobins made the grave mistake of eliminating Chaumette, among others, even though he had refused to participate in an attempt to overthrow the Convention, which showed he was the most reasonable. Keeping him as the prosecutor of the Commune would have appeased some of the sans-culottes. Instead, the Convention has him arrested and executed. I understand that at that time the Convention could not afford an overthrow and was afraid Chaumette might change his mind, but by doing so, they alienated a large part of the sans-culottes. The wave of executions like Gobel or Chaumette was one of the most disastrous moves.

Another one is the non-application of the Ventôse laws, but it is true that some Montagnards blocked this, and the Marais was against these laws.

Also, being a fervent advocate of freedom of expression, there should never have been decrees holding journalists accountable. I don't particularly like Desmoulins, but executing him for his writings… Moreover, it will not prevent opinions from forming and solidifying.

Regarding moral errors: In addition to the travesties of justice I mentioned concerning the Hébertists and the Dantonists, there were other cases. When Girondin deputies were dismissed, most deputies did not want them dead, let alone imprisoned. They were only supposed to remain under house arrest. The problem is, many of them escaped and incited uprisings in the departments, which further exacerbated the already endangered Republic. Despite all I have to reproach them for, some Girondins were honorable people, notably Manon Roland and Vergniaud (even if Vergniaud had an ambiguous attitude, he still remained under house arrest) who stay in Paris. Yet they were judged, condemned to death, and executed along with other Girondins who incited or attempted uprisings and fled Paris. It wasn't even a tactical error; it was unfair.

Another very minor point concerns the Convention entirely, and this is my opinion. Why separate Marie Antoinette from her son? I understand there were royalists in Paris (the assassination of the remarkable Louis Michel Lepeletier by one of Louis XVI's former guards, among other events, will demonstrate this) who would do anything to get their hands on him as Louis XVII, which would have been dangerous. It would have been better to monitor the child's education closely given this context, but why not have strict supervision while leaving him in his mother's care, even though we know her opinions? I don't want to demonize Antoine Simon, executed in Thermidor; he wasn't a brute; he had compassion for the former queen and liked the child, but it's horrible. Being myself a proponent of reforms for jail to ensure the child remains very close to his parents, I protest against this. And the royalists seized upon it to portray an image of an inhumane Republic.

Women's rights were not respected, as I discussed in my post "Women's rights suppressed."

One of the most serious errors was the Prairial Law. When this bill presented by Couthon and later approved by the Committee of Public Safety and voted on by the Convention passed, many innocents suffered. Following the execution of the "Robespierrists," the Convention lied, saying it had not approved it, which was false.

Paradoxically, there was no internal elimination necessary at that time, notably the case of Carnot, who gave orders behind the backs of others to wage a war of conquest, which would have jeopardized the Battle of Fleurus if Saint-Just had not intervened with the order. I don't understand why he wasn't arrested; generals have been executed for less than that. This man doesn't deserve his title as the organizer of Victory, but having eliminated those who had really done the job like Saint-Just, among others, he could claim that title.

I realize I have done a critical job on the Montagnards even though I admire them, so a few lines to rehabilitate them. Most of them refused the irresponsible war of conquest advocated by the Girondins. Finally, fatigue was fatal to them. They put their best efforts into saving France, but most became ill (Couthon, Robespierre; I don't know if Billaud-Varenne was beginning to develop his dysentery or if his illness came after his deportation). Robespierre made a grave mistake by slamming the door on the Committee of Public Safety following a dispute among its members, then a few weeks later making a speech where he designated culprits without naming names (like Fouché, for example), so some wrongly believed they were the ones being designated when they weren't. Fouché and his gang played on this.

I want to say that Jean Clement Martin explained that if the Girondins are seen as victims, it's because they didn't have time to put the Montagnards on the guillotine. There were quite a few assassinations of Montagnard deputies (some think that Barbaroux manipulated Corday to kill Marat, Joseph Chalier was killed in atrocious conditions by the Girondins of Lyon, Isnard's speech). When the Jacobins acted, there was an internal civil war and an external war against the Revolution, plus a depreciated currency. And they saved it. For a while, they tried to accommodate (at least the majority of them) their adversaries. Then the gloves came off. But they remained in democracy, even in the worst moments. The Jacobins supported the abolition of slavery (not just them), and most of the major Jacobin figures fully supported the uprisings by slaves against the colonists.

Napoleon, although praised today for inheriting a better situation thanks to the efforts of his predecessors, through his dictatorial attitudes, betrayal of the Jacobins, and wars of conquest (all the wrong things), left France in a worse state with the return of the Bourbons. Revolutionaries like Marat predicted from the outset of the French Revolution that if the Girondins persisted in declaring war, even if France were victorious, there would be a military dictatorship and subsequently the return of the Bourbons.

All this leads me to think that it was the revolutionaries of the Mountain who were pragmatic and Napoleon the "idealist" in the wrong sense of the term, given his grandiosity and stupid belief (in my opinion) that he could impose hereditary dictatorship, exploit other countries without them retaliating (but that's another story).

Finally, the Jacobins in power were exhausted; they even lacked sleep hours due to their internal schedules. Before the Prairial Law was passed, there was an assassination attempt on Collot, so it was thought that the royalist danger was present. Plus, this law was disfigured by those who presented it; they thought they would only use it against people like Fouché, Carrier, Barras, Fréron, Tallien—des despicable men who dishonored France and the Revolution. It was they who later presented themselves as victims of the Jacobins when they were the worst during the Terror. Contrary to belief, heads rolled after the Terror; just look at the execution of Romme and the other Montagnards, the execution of Babeuf, the fact that anyone who demanded the constitution of 1793 could be punishable by death.

Finally, I want to say that despite my speeches, I don't believe in providential men; if France could have a sense of greatness during this period, it's thanks to the people. In Algeria, we have the slogan: "One hero only: the people."

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ghostinthegallery · 5 months

Text

Prompt fill! "Stay with me" for Orizyn. The first for @beril66 so I am writing a post rather than just answering the ask. Prompt list is here. Infinite and the Divine spoilers below.

###

Orikan was in the opera house. Well, not the opera house but an opera house that looked nigh on identical to the first. A theater covered gold filigree, red velvet, and that ridiculous two-headed bird. Even the box seat was practically the same, complete with a sound-proof privacy screen and two mind-shackled humans lying insensate in the corner. Orikan had to check his internal chronometer to ensure he had not somehow been displaced in time.

Trazyn turned in his seat and said, “It is incredible the similarities in imperial architecture between planets. Although there are some key differences between this opera house and the one on Serenade. For example, the chandelier—”

“What do you want?” Orikan closed the box’s door. The haze of the privacy screen blurred the audience although it did not muffle their sounds. Chatting, moving, breathing.

Trazyn pushed a sigh through his vocal buffer. “One of these days I will make a cultural being of you.”

The sound of the orchestra tuning slowly filled the air. Orikan scoffed.

“Is there going to be another uprising?” he asked as he approached Trazyn. “Quite a roundabout way to try and kill me. Then again you always were nostalgic.”

“I have been observing this world for the past three decades,” Trazyn said. “No mysterious disappearances. No more bizarre murders than average for a human settlement. The governor is old and well established. Nothing has popped out of the immaterium. And there will be no folk characters with an extra arm in this performance. I would say the odds of a sudden and violent revolution are low.”

“Then if you don't want me dead then why am I here?” Orikan asked again, letting his impatience show.

Trazyn paused, regarding him with green oculars that Orikan had always found uncomfortably bright. “We never did finish our conversation from the last time we went to the opera together. Do you remember?”

Of course he did. And Orikan had no desire to revisit the subject. Not of a return to mortality, not of his memories, not of what Trazyn did or did not do to him during biotransference. Least of all in this strange, recreated setting.

“This is ridiculous.” Orikan turned to go, but Trazyn took his hand to pull him back.

“Wait,” he said. “Stay with me. Just for a while. The first intermission at least.”

Orikan wanted to pull his hand free. Truly, he did, and that fact that he didn't should not be considered evidence of anything beyond heightened circumspection. He was being cautious. Not making any sudden moves.

“Is this an excuse to gloat?” Orikan snapped. “That the Deceiver managed to crawl into my mind and made me remember things that never—”

“I am not here to gloat,” Trazyn interrupted gently. “That would require me to forget that I too fell to the Deceiver’s influence, did I not? Though I admit, I did want to know if you still believed that I…dragged you to the furnaces.”

Orikan was surprised. Had Trazyn invited him here just to ask about that? Gone to all the effort? It could not have been easy finding this place so similar to where they had first spoken of these things.

In Orikan’s moment of shock, he forgot to resist as Trazyn pulled on his hand and guided him to the second seat.

“I haven’t thought much of it,” Orikan lied. “I suppose it is unlikely. You would have been on Solemnace or Gheden. I would have been on the homeworld. Even we did not have the time to dwell on our rivalry and exact any kind of revenge. Not then.”

Trazyn’s shoulders sagged in visible relief. Such a mortal gesture. Orikan wondered if Trazyn realized just how much he mirrored the creatures he studied.

“I am glad,” Trazyn replied.

The overture began. It sounded like human music. Much the same as any other human music, albeit louder thanks to the number of players in the orchestra. Before Trazyn could start explaining why this human music was somehow special human music, Orikan asked a question.

“Say Szarekh’s idiotic scheme comes to fruition. Would you go back to flesh? Can Trazyn the Infinite stand to be mortal again?”

“Believe it or not I have thought about that more in the past few centuries,” Trazyn said. “And I admit I have not come up with an answer. I want to smell paper and ink. I want to taste wine. I want to feel what it is like to be touched. I want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am myself and not simply a collection of programmed responses shoved inside a metal vessel. I want a soul again.”

The overture ended, and the audience applauded.

“And yet I also want time. I have so much more left to do, Orikan. And flesh decays so quickly.”

“You value your work more than your soul?” Orikan demanded.

“Are you so different?” Trazyn asked. “Can you honestly say you would readily return to the times when you had to eat and sleep rather than focusing all of your faculties on meditation for decades at a time?”

The curtain opened revealing the set. Flat objects layered to imitate depth and a winged statue in the middle of the stage. There were singers, and they sang about something inane. Focusing on them at least gave him an excuse to avoid answering immediately.

“What if we could have both?” Orikan said.

Trazyn flashed an inquisitive glyph.

“Ascension, Trazyn. All of you are so obsessed with going back, you miss what might lie ahead!”

Orikan despised every single one of the necrons who had ignored his warning. Who had forced him to become this. But if the Silent King meant to force them into different vessels—flesh instead of metal—Orikan would oppose him just as vigorously. Especially when he was getting so close.

“Dear rival,” Trazyn said, voice low. “I was there after your first true ascension. Did you forget what that was like?”

Orikan bristled. “I was not prepared for the change. Mark my words, the next time—”

“Next time!” Trazyn turned to him suddenly. “Have your wits deserted you? How can you possibly want to become that again? You nearly lost yourself. More than when the c’tan took your soul. How can you even think that is the solution?”

“I would not expect you to understand.”

In a single, swirling motion, Trazyn rose and stood in front of Orikan’s seat. His shadow blocked the light from the stage, though Orikan could still hear the chorus singing softly about the scent of flowers.

Trazyn’s fingers locked around Orikan’s chin as he tilted the diviner’s face up towards his.

“My diviner,” he said. “Our race is trapped in a terrible darkness. We cannot remain where we are, but we cannot stand to go back to what we were. If anyone can solve this riddle, I believe it is you. Your sheer spite is enough to move planets in their orbits. But please, accept a warning from someone else. Do not seek to become that thing again. Promise me whatever solution you find will not take you down that road.”

Orikan’s core pulsed, though if it was a threat response or something else he was unsure. He did not like to remember that first true ascension in the tomb. He had forgotten so much and worse, in the end he had been so weak. Trazyn had been the one to save him, and he despised both himself and the archaeovist for that.

“Why would you ask me to promise you anything?” Orikan said, unable to make his vocal actuators speak above a whisper. “Have we ever kept an oath to each other?”

“Our track record is spotty. But who knows. Maybe this will be the one time we hold true. It’s worth trying, is it not?”

“Why do you care what I become?”

“Because,” Trazyn said. “The universe if more interesting with you loose in it.”

Trazyn’s hand drifted from Orikan’s chin to the line of his jaw. To what passed for a cheek on his gaunt faceplate.

“Stay with me,” he said again, and Orikan did not think he was referring to the rest of the opera.

“Yes.” Orikan cleared his vocal buffer. “For all our vows are worth.”

“Only time will tell.” Trazyn drew away, exposing Orikan again to the stage lights and a human crowd. His ocular cycled in a blink. Trazyn chuckled. Like he was laughing at some private joke.

“This is a rather old piece by human standards,” Trazyn said. “Around two-hundred and fifty years old. It concerns the city’s patron saint, although it takes a few liberties with the portrayal of the bishop at the time—”

Orikan sighed, tuned Trazyn out, and listened to the music.

#wh40k #trazyn the infinite #orikan the diviner #the infinite and the divine #the infinite and the divine spoilers #haha snuck another opera house scene in #the perfect intersection of my interests #if anyone else wants one feel free to drop me an ask #i am slow to answer them but i am enthusiastic XD

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lets-try-some-writing · 6 months

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Your CC Warfare fic legit had me stressing out so bad I thought I was feeling a genuinely new emotion, lol. That whole thing was like a really bad car crash: it's terrible what happened, but you can't look away. If Strongarm had just said nothing, she would've avoided putting her foot in her mouth and getting in trouble. With how tense everything was, I see no reason why she would jump in. I understand she was trying to help Sideswipe out of that situation, but she did it in like the complete opposite direction! She should've reared him in, not back him up. She said it herself that they were war veterans. Though, I suppose that's easier said. Strongarm may be intelligible of the war records and Autobot law, but truthfully, plain intelligence pales in the face of wisdom and actual experience. Intelligence says: this war could've easily been won because of xyz. Wisdom and experience say completely otherwise. And I guess that is one of the points Optimus is trying to make: that Strongarm and Sideswipe do not have the wisdom or experience to understand exactly why things played out the way they did. I have the feeling the two simply looked at the war records itself and not any history that came before, especially Optimus' involvement with Megatron's revolution. I don't know if that would make much of a difference for Sideswipe tbh but I think Strongarm would be able to see just a little why Optimus couldn't outright kill Megatron in the beginning like Sideswipe said he should've. Even so, going back to the records itself , it won't contain legitimately every single thing that happened. It probably only recorded decisive battles and notable events. Billions of people were involved, and with that many variables, it would be impossible to say that the war could've been won if only Optimus did something sooner. WHICH BY THE WAY MAKES THIS SO MUCH WORSE. Sideswipe (and by extension Strongarm) is basically saying that Optimus is personally responsible for dragging on an intergalactic war just because he didn't off one guy as if the most wicked bots in the face of existence werent out there making lives worse on purpose under the cover of the war and would help stretch it to continue their sick actions. As if there weren't a hundred other Megatrons ready to continue the war themselves the moment Megatron died. If I could write an essay on every reason why the war dragged on, I'll be writing until I die and never come close to finishing. Even within the small game Optimus planned there are obvious reasons why it wouldn't be a quick or easy victory if they even win: limited number of fighters (no guarantee they'd hit the max min bc rallying people to fight is difficult), no details until they got to Helex (you're not always going to know what your goal is when being sent out to fight), no resources from the state (war is expensive and getting funding is difficult). So imagine that plus way more reasons plus on a planetary scale. The scope is simply unfathomable. Anyways, I think this comment has gone on long enough lol. Excellent work as always and I'm excited but also incredibly nervous to see how this all plays out. Take care!

YOU ARE PICKING UP WHAT I AM LAYING DOWN!!!

This whole fic is one giant show. Optimus wants the idiots under Bee's control to LEARN. You've already picked up the logical reasoning behind the rules he's laid down so far. And let me tell you, its only going to get more complicated. War is a difficult and unpredictable thing. Optimus is going to make that as real as possible in this non-lethal scenario.

Is it overkill? Maybe. But if even those serving under Bumblebee don't have the barest inkling of the truth? It hints at a FAR larger problem. I am going to have so much fun writing this thing. I want to get a few chapters stockpiled and then I will post them on Ao3 and continue there :3

Thank you for enjoying my writing and giving this lovely analysis. This sort of things makes my dad and encourages me to write more.

#lets try some writing mumbles

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 1 year

Note

do you know any anime that is as well-written as revolutionary girl utena or princess tutu? They’re both so good and so well-written that everything seems to pale in comparison and I was wondering if you knew any other anime that were similar in terms of being well-written. It’s ok if there aren’t as many similar themes

love your and vinelle’s works by the way!! Especially loving seventh seal, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bacchanals, and for the love of Alice. I feel like for the love of Alice is going to escalate quickly lol with edward being as edward as he is

Thanks for the praise! Look, @therealvinelle, praise.

Well, my friend, you've come to the right place. Caveat that the shows I'll list vary wildly in genre and expected audience. All are extremely well written but ah... some have more violence than others.

But if you could handle the rape, incest, assault, and so much more of Utena I think you can handle it.

Though I will note, a good number of these are bleak/have rape, violence, etc.

For the uninitiated, shojou are shows traditionally aimed at female audiences and shonen are shows traditionally aimed at male audiences. They tend to have distinct styles.

If I list a year in parentheses, it's because there's more than one version and that's the version you should watch.

The Rose of Versailles: shojou historical drama, following a fictional female royal guard raised as a man to Marie Antoinette, follows Marie Antoinette's reign and the leading up to the revolution.

Berserk (1997): shonen tragedy, in a medieval quasi Europe, Guts joins a band of mercenaries.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1981): space opera, a war between two equally powered states has been raging for 150 years. Now, with the rising of two prominent generals, the balance is starting to shift. About politics, the futility of war, and pacifism.

The Glass Mask (1984): shojou drama, a thirteen-year-old girl runs away from home to pursue acting, showing great talent, but at great risk to her own physical and mental wellbeing as she obsessively pursues her career.

Shiki: horror/thriller, a mysterious family moves into a rural village in Japan and the townspeople begin dying of a mysterious illness.

Cardcaptor Sakura (1998): mahou shojou (magical girl), ten-year-old Sakura happens upon mysterious items called the Clow Cards and must find a way to recapture them all and harness their powers.

Land of the Lustrous: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, in the distant future, humanity has morphed into something else, and a jewel person named Phosphyllite makes a journey of personal discovery.

The Slayers (1995): adventure/action/comedy, Lina Inverse is a powerful mage with an eye out for gold, due to a fight she was never supposed to win, she finds herself pursued by gods and demons with the fate of the world at stake.

Kino's Journey (2003): absurdism, Kino visits a series of surreal towns for only three nights each.

Casshern Sins: sci-fi/post-apoctolyptic, after the end of the world, robots are all that remain and are slowly falling apart. An android named Casshern is said to be the cause.

Mononoke: thriller/character study, the mysterious medicine seller in the Edo era of Japan seeks out Mononoke in order to destroy them. To do so, he must learn both their form and their truth.

Steins;Gate: thriller/sci-fi, a group of social rejects build a time machine in their apartment, this triggers a series of catestrophic futures that must be undone.

Wolf's Rain: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, in a dying world a group of wolves race to find the gates to paradise

Gunslinger Girl (2003): thriller/crime, an organization in Italy treats dying young girls with no connections to become cyborg soldiers. The show looks at the impacts of this on the girls and their handlers.

Now and Then, Here and There: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, a boy named Shu finds himself transported to a futuristic world in which a madman reigns as king. There, he finds his pacifism tested as well as his faith in humanity.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor: sci-fi/comedy, in the future Captain Justy Ueki Tylor finds himself captain of a broken down ship, it's unclear whether he's a genius, an idiot savant, or simply the world's luckiest madman.

Chaika the Coffin Princess: fantasy, in a fantasy world where a great war has just ended, two former mercenaries find themselves employed by the late emperor's daughter, who is seeking to find the pieces of her father's body in order to give him a burial.

Psycho-Pass: thriller/sci-fi, this is minority report but an anime. A young woman joins an organization in which criminals are sent to hunt down criminals, as it is a world in which crime is automatically detected before it can occur.

Fate/Zero: fantasy/action/tragedy, in the city of Fuyuki a great battle royale happens where mages summon figures of legend and history to battle on their behalf for the ultimate prize of the holy grail.

From the New World: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, in the distant future psychic abilities developed. A group of children grow up in a rigidly controlled society and slowly learn the truth behind the world they live in.

Spice and Wolf: fantasy, a traveling merchant in quasi medieval Europe meets a pagan god looking to travel North given the spread of Christianity.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: mahou shojou satire, a satire of classical magical girl shows, follows a young girl Madoka who has the chance to become a magical girl in return for a miraculous wish.

Black Lagoon: crime, a young Japanese businessman finds himself kidnapped by pirates, his life turned upside down, and becomes a pirate himself.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, a young boy named Shinji is summoned by his father, head of a government organization, to fight apocalyptic monsters.

Fractale: sci-fi/post-apocalyptic, in a future where all humans interface with technology, a young boy meets a runaway priestess and the strange hologram traveling with her.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan (either version): the versions have differences but both are good, follows a quasi-Persian story about a prince who finds himself in a power struggle.

Magic Knight: Rayearth: mahou shojou (magical girl), a group of three girls find themselves transported to a magical girl where they must save the Pillar. However, not all is as it seems.

Samurai 7: sci-fi/historical, The Seven Samurai retold in a futuristic setting. The priestess of a village sets out in order to hire samurai to protect her village from bandits.

Goblin Slayer: fantasy, a priestess joins an adventure guild but finds her expectations and sense of safety dashed on her first misson: what was supposed to be a simple task of slaying goblins. She ends up joining forces with a man known only as the Goblin Slayer.

Megalobox (season 1): sci-fi/sports, a young man living in the poor part of the city enters into a boxing tournament in which he is almost certainly guaranteed to lose. There is a second season, and while it had good parts, I consider it much weaker than the first.

Vinland Saga: historical/action, it's the 11th century and Denmark is at war with England, a young man from Iceland finds himself in a Danish mercenary group all so that he might kill the man who killed his father. (I have admittedly not seen season 2 yet, so I can't speak to that.)

Captain Harlock (1978): sci-fi/adventure, the pacing's very different from modern animes but is a great anime about love, sacrifice, the brutality of war, the degradation of society, and more. Captain Harlock, a dissident and outlaw turned pirate, finds himself the only one standing in the way of an alien invasion.

Akagi: tension, a young man starts in on gambling through mahjong and slowly seeks higher and higher stakes

Kaiji: tension, a young man sinks down into the pit known as gambling and begins bartering his life away for higher and higher stakes just for that one chance to claw his way out of poverty

Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues: Focuses on the character Tonegawa and Ootsuki from Kaiji, but it's worth watching Akagi first as well. Deals with the hilarious ridiculousness of being a mobster who must please a psychopath

Lupin the Third: Part 1 (1971): A very 1960's feeling spy/action show revolving around the exploits of a phantom thief and his colleagues and enemies. Great art, music, characters and interactions, and the episodes are all extremely engaging.

Lupin the Third: Part 2 (1975): A great follow-up to Lupin the Third: Part 1 on an international scene.

#praise #vinelle #therealvinelle #anime #anime recommendations

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philosopherking1887 · 1 year

Note

Re: Capitalism vs Calvinism (you make a solid point, btw), do you have any thoughts on why the two are conflated as much as they are?

For context, here is the post that this is about.

There are sort of two ways to answer that question:

Why is it natural or tempting to conflate capitalism and Calvinism? That is, what are people getting right when they do this?

Why do people make the mistake of conflating capitalism and Calvinism -- what leads them to get it wrong?

The answer to the first question is pretty obviously that the culture of capitalism in northwestern Europe was strongly conditioned by the culture of Calvinism. They grew up at the same time, intertwined with each other. The Commercial Revolution, people other than Jews (and much more numerous) who were allowed to charge interest on loans (which Catholics couldn't), etc. It also has to do with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and how people's success and industriousness in the world were taken to be signs of God's favor -- not that you could earn it, because God's grace is given by His free will alone, but it was supposed to be an indication that God liked you and was allowing you to be virtuous (which you couldn't claim credit for on your own).

The ideology we think of as capitalist, about how people are naturally lazy and selfish and need to be manipulated with the right incentives into serving the public good, is originally Calvinist: it views human nature as irretrievably fallen without God's special grace (as I learned in a very interesting talk on Hobbes recently). You can't teach people to be truly good, to recognize the good and desire it for its own sake (as Catholic theologians thought you could, even though fallen human nature made that difficult); all you can do is set things up so that it's in their interests to do the things you (the community leader/ ruling authority) want them to do. @squeeful's tags on the instigating post nicely sum up this pessimistic view about human nature: #it's a viewpoint that people are inherently flawed #not in like a human way #but in a 'if given free time they will Sin'

So, given that people will Sin if you give them any leeway at all, you have to make sure you're taking up all their time with Something Productive. If they're working all the time, they won't have time to sin; if they're always thinking about work, they won't have mental space to think about sinning (which is just as bad as sinning, according to the Calvinist worldview); if they're "wholesomely" exhausted from work, they won't have the energy or inclination to sin. But of course people are naturally lazy and hate working, so how do you make them do this? Make it in their interests! Reward them with wealth and praise if they work all the time! Punish them with starvation and shame if they don't! The culture and worldview of capitalism follow from the culture and worldview of Calvinism.

OK, so, what about the second question? Why do people attribute this crap to capitalism alone rather than tracing it back to its deeper origin in Calvinism? Well, probably because capitalism is blatantly all around us, while Calvinist theology isn't -- at least, not obviously. We don't have stern bearded guys preaching at us about how God finds us loathsome and repulsive and it's only by His infinite grace and mercy that any of us are saved from the eternal torments of Hell that our degraded, sinful nature so richly deserves. Calvinism has been pretty thoroughly secularized in our daily experience, to the extent that we might think we're not religious at all, even when our mindset is profoundly shaped by religious ways of thinking.

But what I wanted to get across is that the dependency is asymmetric, not just in the sense that Calvinism came first and modern capitalism as we know it developed later, but in the sense that Calvinism could have given rise to systems and practices other than capitalism (and sometimes does), while capitalism as we know it (probably) couldn't have developed without the underpinnings of the Calvinist worldview. That's why you can see the Calvinist way of thinking even in anti-capitalist Social Justice movements, especially in the US, whose dominant culture has been profoundly shaped by Calvinism (from the English Puritans, the Dutch, and some proportion of early German immigrants). That is, you still get the view that people, or certain kinds of people, are inherently sinful (racist, sexist, homophobic, bourgeois, etc.); that the only way to not be contributing to evil forms of oppression is to be actively working against them at all times, including purifying your mind of all oppressive, bourgeois ways of thinking; and that even your moments of rest, idleness, and pleasure have to be justified in terms of the aims of work: your 'self-care' is so that you're refreshed to keep working more effectively for liberation, or else you're taking your joy in defiance of the systems that want you to be miserable, so it counts as its own form of resistance. And these subcultures, like OG Calvinism and its capitalist offspring, also rely heavily on the mechanism of shame to get people to be constantly policing their thoughts, words, and actions, ever-vigilant lest someone catch them Sinning. After all, people are sinful, so you can't rely on their natural inclination toward the good; you need to leverage their impure desire for acceptance and the good opinion of others.

(Figuring out how this cultural strain relates to the neo-Rousseauian "humans are Good, only the corruption of capitalism makes them evil" ideology in the online Left would be a further project... I suspect there's a tension between the official line and the way people actually think and behave subconsciously; and I also suspect there may be a bifurcation between the groups of people who are regarded as Fallen, on the Calvinist model, and those who are taken to represent the prelapsarian naturally good state of being.)

#calvinism #capitalism #social justice #philosophy #religion #cultural commentary

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quibbs126 · 8 months

Text

All right, so as said last post, this was a request from @a-weird-bean-bag, and this is Chowder Cookie

For those who don’t recognize the bottom character, this is @a-weird-bean-bag’s character Goat Milk Cookie

You know fun fact, this is the 2nd OC x Canon I got, and the first was I think either the day before or earlier the same day. Haven’t finished that one though

So I think the process for this name was that I saw the two of these characters and was like “oh hey isn’t there some recipe in Breath of the Wild that uses seafood and milk?” and so I went looking on a website I knew for the name of it. Note that I know nothing about seafood, my family doesn’t eat it and we just generally stay away from it. Anyways, so the thing I was thinking of was trout soup, which I’m now realizing is from Stardew, not Breath of the Wild. Okay so it went Trout Soup from Stardew, which didn’t really work, so I went looking for anything that mixed seafood and milk, but couldn’t find anything. Then I thought about that BOTW recipe and looked it up and it was Clam Chowder. So I looked up chowder and it turns out it doesn’t necessarily have to clams, so I just went with Chowder Cookie

As stated above, it’s because it mixes seafood and milk. So, simple enough

Chowder:

Okay, looking at it now, maybe I made her skin too dark, but ah well, it’s probably fine. Anyways moving on to her hair

So I know Caviar and Goat Milk only have partially curly hair instead of Chowder’s entirely curly, and she probably looks closer to Cauliflower, but that’s just what I went with, and I liked it. I made her hair lighter than either of the two since it was supposed to be the soup, and I didn’t think Goat Milk’s hair color necessarily cut it as light enough

Also the pink and green bits are supposed to be like, things in the soup, since chowder doesn’t just seem to be a base soup, it has other ingredients in it. My idea is that she had more in her hair when she was younger, but maybe she picked them out to seem more professional or something. I also tried to make it seem somewhat liquid-y, but I don’t know how successful that was

I had a lot to say about her hair, but not much on the outfit front. I kind of just tried to come up with something based on Creme Republic characters, specifically the Lower City designs. She’s supposed to be a trader, so I wanted to make her look somewhat professional, but also she’s not into wearing particularly fancy clothes, so I just kind of went with this (though she probably also has more formal clothes, this is just day to day). I suppose it’s fine

Also you may notice the tiny horns. They were honestly a pretty last minute inclusion, hence why they look like they were kind of tacked on. But also I’m kind of fine with them the way they are

I was also thinking of giving her freckles like Goat Milk’s old design, but they didn’t pan out

But yeah, overall I like the design well enough. Maybe not one of my best but still good. Maybe doesn’t look enough like Caviar though

Anyways, so let’s move on to her character

So as I’ve stated before, she’s in the maritime trading business. I think I got this idea because Caviar’s captain of a ship (and I think their navy), and my brain was like “boats also = trading”, which may have been spurred by my recent history lectures which have been discussing the road to the American Revolution, and we got to the shutdown of Boston Harbor which affected merchants. But also I looked back at Goat Milk’s info and saw he’s a trader too, so it all works out

Generally she’s a very business oriented person, with a drive to get things done as quickly and effectively as possible. As such she can be a bit stern and not the most pleasant to be around if you work with her. She’s nicer if you meet her outside of work, she’s just trying to get things done

She also can have a bit of a short temper and doesn’t really take setbacks or mishaps well. I mean, she’ll find ways to work around them, but when she gets bad news she doesn’t react the best in the moment. Likely it will involve her swearing. Sometimes excessively

Also she likes chowder, as shown in the left sketch. I had something else there, but I thought I should show her being chill so she doesn’t seem like a completely angry person. She isn’t, it’s just that she gets pissed off a bit easily

Anyways I think that’s about it. I feel like I’m forgetting something but I don’t know what. Ah well, I can edit it in later if I remember. But yeah, I hope you enjoy her!

Oh and also, I didn’t know where to put this, but what actually got me to get around to drawing her was making this rough sketch. I actually did a few of these, and maybe it’ll help me actually get around to drawing them more, since it was pretty fun and I feel like drawing the other two I did sometime

Here was the initial sketch. It’s small so I just put it with the rest of the drawing so you’re not looking at a largely blank canvas

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #captain caviar cookie #goat milk cookie #I forgot to look up the ship name #sorry #cookie run oc #chowder cookie #my art #my ocs #requests #I feel like I should have more to tag #oc x canon #not my oc #I’m referring to Goat Milk here #but biscy you’re free to use Chowder if you want to

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allieebobo · 2 years

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WIP closet

This post is a collection of WIPs that I'm working on intermittently, on top of College Tennis: Origin Story and Merry Crisis, because I want to do everything. Gimme 40 hours in a day and I'd gladly take it.

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Kefir-house for Elves

Themes: Low fantasy (eastern-flavored) x Slice-of-life x Romance x Restaurant management x Small town life

Play as a grizzled, world-weary veteran soldier who has deserted the war (well, fled for your life is more accurate), who is now keeping a low profile in a small border-town nestled in the mountain range that divides two kingdoms at war.

Run an Kefir-house (a place to grab a kefir-drink and relax, chat, or talk revolution with other ne'er do goods) when the manager, Tarshid, runs off and leaves you with his only-child.

Meet colorful townies and regulars, survive as a human in contested ‘elven’ territory, and attempt to heal and forge a new life for yourself in the quiet town of Ōha.

Will the ghosts of your past catch up with you? Will you make enemies within the town when they discover that you’d fought in the war (as the enemy)? Will the Kefir-house survive—and can it become a safe haven for both humans and elves as the war drags on?

**Play a card game from the world here.**

Romantic options:

The boss's only-child. Big-hearted, with a generous laugh and a colorful personality to match, plus an unhealthy tendency to run off on their latest escapade/obsession and leave you to handle the kefir-house on your own (just like their father), you sometimes wonder how the establishment had survived until you arrived. Still, they're an absolute cooking / brewing whiz, and when they are around, sales double. They're half-human, half-elf, and their family has lived in the Ōha for generations now. All they want is for the war to be over, so that they can go back to their merry lifestyle. They hate soldiers with a burning passion. One reason why you hope they never find out what you once were.

The garrison captain. There's a small elven garrison present in the town, presumably to guard against a potential human invasion force North of the mountains. Still, you're not quite sure what a garrison of fifty men is supposed to do if such an invasion were to happen. You...unfortunately, have been part of such an invasion force yourself, more times than you'd care to remember. The captain is brusque, surly, often cold, though you've seen the hint of a fiery temper on some occasions. They might figure out you're a deserter, and a human one at that. Best keep encounters minimal - except they seem to have a penchant for coming over for a pint or two (skulking quietly in a corner) after a hard day.

The merchant. The elf moves your product and brings the ingredients/supplies you need every week...They're also a regular patron of the kefir-house, and always engage in a ridiculous amount of flirting in the process. Worldly, charismatic, and just a little bit dastardly/roguish, they do what they can to navigate (and flourish) in a world at war. Sometimes, you wonder if their lack of moral conviction will catch up them one day (it seems they have friends and enemies in every town). But as you get to know them a little better, you start to wonder if the merchant's devil-may-care amorality might simply be a front for something much deeper...

Not ROs, obviously, but there will be a cat and a child-gremlin involved.

Status: Lore / world creation complete, prologue 25% complete

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FIFA world cup

Themes: Sport, Slice-of-life, Romance

Play as a relatively unknown footballer who has been called up to represent the US National Team at the World Cup for the first time. Is this the break-through you've been waiting for?

Will you explode onto football's greatest stage, and make a name for yourself amongst the greats?

Will you find a way to play alongside the ageing legend, who unfortunately plays the exact same position as you? Will sparks fly on the pitch (or off)?

Or will you catch the eye of the kind, confident, ‘poster child’ of football, a brilliant, suave journalist, or your agent - with whom you share a fraught past?

Note: This is set in the same 'universe' as CT:OS, my main WIP, meaning that it uses the same main cast (Rayyan, Tobin, Sam, G), with slightly adapted backstories. Treat it as a kind of... interactive fanfic for CT:OS.

Romantic options:

The rival. Rayyan Afiq was a legend in their youth. Now that they've hit 30, they are just as fiery and intense as ever, and absolutely determined that they're still at their peak, even if everyone seems to be writing them off as a has-been already. It doesn't help that you've come in to give them one good kick to the grave - but does your success necessarily have to come at their expense? You might end up enemies, grudging friends, or ... if you play your cards right, perhaps something in the middle...

The captain. Kind-hearted, charismatic, and sweet, Tobin Harris is currently the footballing world's golden boy/girl. But it seems they've battled every odd to get where they are, and there appears to be a lot more hidden under their easygoing, unflappable surface. They hold themselves up to an impossible standard, and sometimes, someone needs to tell them that they don't need to hold the weight of the entire world alone.

The agent. Behind every great footballer, there is an agent pulling strings in their favour. Agents and footballers are often friends, but in your case, you share an even more colorful history - you had gone to school with Sam O'Connelly, and there might be one or two skeletons buried in the closet. Will you be able to maintain a purely pleasant, professional relationship - or is there something more to your easy rapport?

The journalist. The very best journalists have the power to create—or destroy—careers with the flick of a pen. It's a pity the particular journalist who has been assigned to cover the World Cup for The New York Times seems to hate their job with a passion. Ambitious and brilliant, Genevieve/Guillaume has tracked a meteoric rise amongst the journalistic ranks, thanks to several incisive investigative exposés of the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, it seems they've ruffled too many feathers, and orders have come down above. They're being forced to lie-low, and their boss has decided that the sports column is the best way to do just that. Will you catch their (admittedly extremely disinterested) eye?

Status: Character set-up completed, prologue halfway done

Other notes

Updates will be sporadic for these (if at all), and demos/demo updates will be released exclusively for Ko‑fi supporters [Details], if they ever do get released. Mostly just wanted to keep these projects on the down-low, with zero obligation to actually finish them. I'm writing in twine for both, just to give myself some practice using twine.

And, of course, there's a cafe game and a film star game, but I won't get too carried away - those are in a much more prelim stage of writing/brainstorming.

#author #WIP collection #if #interactive fiction #twine #sports #world cup #football #soccer #romance #slice of life #low fantasy #eastern

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cefonteyn · 1 year

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European History and Sensibilities in 1899 season 1

Please forgive the length of this post -- I know I'm rambling, but I am so taken by the depth and brilliance of this show. For context, I'm an Indian immigrant to the United States, who studied American and European history and literature in the U.S. As you might imagine, I have many, many thoughts about 19th century European history and ideologies evident in 1899.

One of the really fascinating things to me about 1899 is how European it is -- obviously in terms of the nationalities of the actors and the characters, but also in terms of one of the show's leitmotifs: you cannot run from your station in life.

There were populist revolutions across Europe in 1848. They broadly failed, and the monarchs won. So in 1899, Europe was still a land of kaisers and czars (both words that come from Caesar, immediately locating 19th century Europe within a two-thousand year history of inherited status).

This is in direct opposition to the American myth, right? The idea that you can come from nothing and become the king of the world. That's a story Americans love to tell and hear, and when we Americans talk about European immigration in the 19th century, that's the way we tell the story. "All men are created equal," we say. This is where you're supposed to come if you're the "poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free." New York, specifically, is where Lady Liberty holds her lamp beside the golden door. (Lady Liberty is European, of course -- but she is French. France had a successful republican revolution in 1791, relapsed with a series of emperors, but by 1899 was a republic again.)

That's why the Kerberos is bound for New York, and not Buenos Aires or Sydney or Bombay. The American myth calls to all our friends on the Kerberos. The show begins with an American poet's words. Olek repeatedly looks at an image of the Statue of Liberty. Virginia explicitly says, "Everyone is running from something." They all hope to escape their pasts and begin anew in America, specifically, because of America's foundational mythos. Maura hopes to become a woman doctor. Tove hopes to lead a normal life with her baby and siblings. Iben hopes to establish a church rather than toiling in the fields.

But they never make it to New York. They've tried "dozens of times," Daniel tells Maura, but the ship never reaches its destination. Because New York isn't real. These European have no hope, ever, of successfully becoming the masks they wear. Angel says exactly this to Ramiro: "You cannot change the nature of things." Later on, it seems that he has had a change of heart, but his realization comes too late, and he's never able to act on his epiphany and become a better person.

Consider the stories of Ling Yi, Lucien, and Franz.

In the British colony of Hong Kong, Ling Yi tries to steal her way into a better life. The results are disastrous: she loses her best friend. Later, she loses her mother. Even though she acknowledges to her mother that she's not entitled to have dreams, she begins a dreamy relationship with Olek -- and then loses the boy she loves. By the end, she's lost everyone she cares about. There is nothing left of the better life she tried to steal from Mei Mei. The ship isn't real. The ocean isn't real. Even her beautiful stolen kimono is gone. The only familiar presence left in her life, the only person with whom she can communicate, is her pimp.

Like Ling Yi, Lucien tried to steal an identity. He returned to Paris from French Algeria trying to live out a dead man's life, and learned that the universe would not allow it. He accepts his death as soon as Eyk announces that he's heading for the Prometheus, and later tells Clemence, "I didn't get what I wanted. I got what I deserved." He understands his fate as almost a karmic balance. He stole a dead man's life, and now he has to die, too.

And then there's Franz. He's the "American" on board, in the sense that he does what a prototypical American would appreciate. He's clearly of a lower-class background and builds solidarity with the working class. He attempts to democratize the ship by empowering the underclass -- giving them arms. And when he feels that the ship's leader is not doing a good job, he seizes power to redirect the ship to its original course. It could almost be in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which starts by justifying the American Revolution. His actions are so very American that he could almost be heroic.

Of course, the name Franz is related to France. France gave critical support to America in its revolution. Then, as I said above, it had its own bloody revolution and deposed its king. By 1899, France was a republic. So maybe it's more accurate to say that Franz is the French revolutionary, not the American.

But either way, in 1899, he's not a hero. His coup fails. Nobody shows him any respect at all, from haughty first mate Sebastian, to dignified first-class passenger Maura, right down to humble stoker Olek. The crew that was initially on his side turns against him (before he's deactivated, Wilhelm admits that Eyk had been right all along). Even the third-class passengers Franz empowered lose respect for him by the end, when he can't explain the mysterious Calling.

So, in the second half of the show, Franz returns to his proper place: under Eyk's command. (Just like France returned to imperial rule under Napoleon, even after its revolution.) Eyk is above deck, seeking philosophical enlightenment, exploring the nature of the mystery with Maura. And Franz is lower than ever, in the lowest part of the ship, performing manual labor: shoveling coal. When the storm hits, he doesn't even know until someone comes down to tell him.

In contrast, consider Olek. He never, ever subverts his station in life. Even when he's frustrated by Eyk, he does everything the captain requests. He treats everyone with deference, not even meeting their eyes, because he understands that he's lowest ranked. Even the relationships he forges -- the friendship with stowaway Jerome and relationship with prostitute Ling Yi -- are with people in his own class/rank.

Notably, Olek is Polish. In 1899, Poland hadn't existed for over 100 years; it had been divided between the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarians, and Prussia (later the German Empire). Olek is literally nobody, from no land.

And for knowing his place in life, he is rewarded by the universe: he ends up acting in stead of the captain, steering the ship. (Brilliantly, Olek's name comes from Alexander, as in Alexander the Great. It may not be immediately apparent to people who dismiss him as a "Polack," but Olek has rich history and leadership in his name.)

And finally, there's Eyk himself. His old-fashioned name also means "ruler," from the word for oak trees under which village heads issued their rulings. And he is the definite ruler of the ship. He is imperious and stern to start, and Maura immediately recognizes from the way that he carries himself that he is the ship's captain. He knows Morse code, and how to read naval maps, and the depth of the sea. He also knows how to read his crew and order them around.

Eyk exhibits a magnetic charisma, which works on everyone. Jerome and Ramiro, who would rather have kept their heads down and stayed out of the spotlight, end up risking their lives for him. Sebastian apologizes to him before deactivating him. Even Daniel -- for whom Eyk is a romantic rival -- helps Eyk, agrees with him publicly, and eventually just moves him elsewhere rather than deactivating him.

But as events get stranger, Eyk's behavior becomes erratic. He drinks heavily on the job. He treats officers, crew, and passengers poorly. He makes an imperious decision against the wishes of every single person on board. George III lost America for the same thing. Julius Caesar died for that, and so did Louis XVI.

But the mutiny against Eyk fails. Tove, who points a rifle at Eyk and informs him that they're turning the ship around, is also the first person to defect from the mutineers. She says to him, "Du bist der Kapitan." After the Calling, everyone again acknowledges Eyk as the captain. When the crisis of the storm begins, it's Eyk they seek first, before turning to Sebastian and Franz.

The show presents this as the correct order of things. Eyk is sympathetic, intelligent, and noble, in every sense of the word. We, the audience, love him for it. Even when we sympathize with Franz, we never agree with him and turn against Eyk.

So, the first season reifies the 1899 European idea that one ought to act in accordance with one's class status. Escaping one's station in life is impossible, and attempting to do so always leads to disaster.

(Here I would be remiss not to mention the relationship to Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea that everyone's life circumstances are a reflection of their actions in their past lives, and therefore should not be avoided or changed? That's Hinduism. The idea that the universe is an illusion? It's called maya, and it's in Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea that attachment to the illusory things of maya necessarily brings suffering, that suffering distracts you from your true self as part of atman and your goal of achieving moksha -- of being blown out of existence like a candle (nirvana) -- of achieving liberation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth: all of this is in Hinduism and Buddhism. It's exactly what Daniel tries to tell Maura.

Europeans in the 19th century were familiar with these concepts. Knowledge of Hinduism and Buddhism was quite fashionable not only in Britain, but across the continent, and it remained so into the 20th century. See, e.g., Hermann Hesse's 1927 German novel Siddhartha about the Buddha, or this Polish translation of the Sanskrit Ramayana from 1937.)

Of course, European history didn't end in 1899. Major shifts were on the horizon; a century of war was about to begin, reshaping Europe's map several times. European nations bit into one another, sometimes spitting each other out, sometimes swallowing each other whole.

The British empire continued to lose its global power. World War I ended Eyk's German Empire and established the Weimar Republic, setting the stage for the Third Reich. The 1917 Revolution ended Imperial Russia and established the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Paris reestablished Olek's Poland. Civil war raged in Angel's Spain. World War II began in 1937 on the Sino-Japanese front, and Ling Yi's Hong Kong was occupied by Japan. Olek's Poland was occupied by Germany, as was Clemence, Lucien, and Jerome's France.

And then the Cold War raged. Europe was split in two. America became a superpower and spread its sensibilities across war-ravaged Western Europe, while the Soviet Union did the same in the East. Eyk's Germany was itself split.

Until, finally, came the mostly peaceful Revolutions of 1989 (the same numerals as 1899!), fulfilling the populist promise of the 1848 revolutions. Round Table Talks -- beginning in Olek's Poland -- spread capitalist democracy across Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall came down later the same year in Eyk's Germany.

(Jantje and Bo are German, too, of course. Their age and vantage point in Central Europe means they have a wonderful perspective on late 20th century European history.)

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving America as the sole world power. Obviously, Europe is not America. To this day, America is a very libertarian country, ruled by a worship of individualism and the belief that riches and success are only a reinvention away. European countries are not ruled by this same fundamental ideology.

But in the 20th century, we Americans exported (read: forced) some of ourselves across the world, including in Europe, very often in evil ways. A lot of it was horrible and self-interested. We ruined lives. We ruined generations. We ruined entire nations.

But not all of it was bad. (Black Americans invented jazz and rock and roll, after all, and it's the latter genre that plays at the end of every episode.) And one of the things we exported was our foundational myth -- our belief -- now widely accepted in many parts of the world, including modern Europe: that it is inherently right and correct that people should chart their own destinies rather than being forced into roles determined at birth.

(Not to suggest that self-determination is uniquely American. Other cultures have this belief indigenously, of course! I only mean that we exported our own version.)

At the end of the first season, we see the same people that we've gotten to know, but in a new historical context. They no longer believe that they are in 1899; now it seems they're in 2099. They're not exactly in America, but they are in the territory that America claimed to have won spiritually in 1969, in its space race with the Soviet Union. (Of course, we now acknowledge space as a place for all humans, not for any race or nationality. That kind of unity is reflected in post-WWII organizations like the United Nations...and the European Union.)

And so I wonder if the same leitmotif will play in the next step of these characters' journey, or if the next season will reflect Europe's 20th century: changing social roles. Democratization. Mass murder and genocide. Waning empires and anti-immigration sentiments. Homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and gender equality and increased LGBTQ+ rights. Socialism and austerity.

I really hope the next season embraces the next chapter in Europe's history. If so, it promises to be a very interesting season, marked with sharp internal and external conflicts and contradictions. Because, to borrow a phrase from the American poet Walt Whitman, Europe is large, it contains multitudes.

#1899 meta #1899 theories #1899 spoilers #1899 analysis #1899 netflix #1899 #sorry again about the absurd length of this post

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p3ski · 7 months

Text

Pairing: RK900/Gavin Reed

Tags: Post Pacifist Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Masterlist

Read on AO3 here:

Summary: A lot has changed since the revolution. Crimes against androids are now punished in the same way as crimes against humans. A reluctant Gavin Reed and his new partner RK900 have been assigned to investigate a string of disturbing murders. Despite the shift in Detroit's social climate, Gavin still holds reservations about whether or not androids are truly alive. Will his developing feelings for 'Nines' be the thing to change this?

Warnings: Graphic Violence, Depression/Self Destructive Behaviour, Eventual Smut

Word Count: 2.9K

Gavin was bent over the canteen table, squeezing his half-empty coffee cup and groaning deeply. He had held himself up to an extent, but with all the fight leaving his body, his head flopped forward and hit the wood with an audible smack. Tina seldom reacted, sipping her own coffee as she watched on, amused.

"I'm going insane. I don't know how much more I can take of this".

"Gavin, it's been less than a week".

"I know that", Gavin tried to say back, but with his face pressed against the polished wood, the words were barely audible. Tina said nothing else as if waiting for her friend to pull himself out of his self-imposed slump. Reluctantly, Gavin sat back up, ignoring Tina's giggles as she stared at his aching forehead.

"It's been the longest week of my goddamn life", he mumbled, rubbing the sore patch with the palm of his hand. He couldn't see, but he was confident he'd left a mark. "You don't get it. The thing is unbearable".

"That's what I thought when I first met you", Tina gently teased, batting her eyelashes. "Seriously though. I think you should give him a chance".

"Why should I?" Gavin lifted his cup to his lips, draining what was left of his coffee and rubbing his mouth on the back of his sleeve. "It's not like it's given me a chance. Five minutes in, and it's already telling me what a waste of space I am".

Tina paused, swirling the liquid in her cup and staring at it thoughtfully. Her lips were pulled into a sympathetic frown. "Gav, I know it sucks, but that's just how RK900 is. He says exactly what he's thinking, much like yourself, and sometimes that can hurt – but he's never going to change his mind if you keep giving him reasons to hate you".

Tina glanced back up at Gavin, brow furrowed in determination. Gavin sighed, recognising the look almost immediately. He knew full well that he was about to be subjected to an interrogation and simply prepared for it:

"How many times have you tried to hit him? Think fast".

"Just the once" So far , Gavin silently added.

"And how many times have you insulted him for being an android?" Tina pressed on, "Robocop? Plastic prick? Any of those ringing a bell?".

"Oh, come on, Robocop is great!" Gavin vehemently defended, throwing up his hands. "It is the perfect evolution of 'android detective'".

Tina sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I just can't with you sometimes. Right, last one – and this is important – have you pointed your gun at him?".

Gavin bristled at this, thinking back to the 'fight' he'd had with Nines and imagining the sort of torture that the android would have subjected him to if he had actually attempted to use his gun.

"No. Hell no," Gavin insisted, shaking his head aggressively. "This isn't Connor we're talking about. The thing would flatten me".

Tina hummed, motioning for Gavin to hand her his empty cup. She stacked it into her own before crumpling them together and throwing them into a nearby trash can. "Sounds to me that all hope is not lost. You just need to try being nice".

Gavin grumbled in response, "Tell me. What am I supposed to do that it would consider 'being nice'? I don't know if you've noticed, but it doesn't like anything. Except licking up blood and skulking around alleyways like it's my goddamn sleep paralysis demon".

"Oh, come on, you're being ridiculous", Tina insisted, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure he likes lots of things. Why don't you take him out to lunch and try to get to know him better? You might have more in common than you think".

"I'm sure that'll go down like a lead balloon. Where am I supposed to take him? Sal's Premier Gas and Auto Repair ?".

"Take him wherever you like, Gav. It doesn't really matter. It's more about the gesture than anything".

Gavin felt his interest in the conversation fast waning. It was no longer serving the escape he had hoped for. He looked at his watch, sighing at the time, before pushing his chair back harshly, causing the legs to screech along the linoleum floor.

There was a moment of contemplation as he considered what Tina had said. There was no way that his relationship with Nines could possibly get any worse. Perhaps it may be worth humouring his friend's suggestion, even out of morbid curiosity. This did not, however, prevent the doubts from continuously slipping into his mind.

Gavin took a long breath, closing his eyes. "There's no way in Hell this is going to work", he protested. "It fucking despises me. Why would it ever agree to spend a second longer in my company than it needs to?".

"Look, I'm not saying you have to be besties" Tina had also stood up, albeit much less aggressively than her counterpart, "but not completely hating each other would be a start. You never know. He might like your tamer side. You do have some endearing qualities, Gav, buried deep, deep down in your soul. It's time to let them shine".

Gavin's eyes shot back open as he gaped at his friend with a mixture of offence and disbelief. He turned on his heel, making his way to the canteen exit "Wow. Thanks a lot, Ti. I don't know what I'd ever do without your glowing words of encouragement".

Tina poked out her tongue as Gavin shot her a final piercing look. With his hand hovering over the buttons of the wall-mounted panel, he had not had a chance to press anything when the security doors suddenly glided open.

Gavin was greeted with the towering frame of his android partner, glowering down with clear disapproval on its stony face. They were stood uncomfortably close, to the extent that – if Nines could breathe – Gavin was confident he would be able to feel the warm puffs drawing down his neck.

"You said you were going to the bathroom, although I anticipated I may find you here", Nines looked over Gavin's shoulder as if refusing to acknowledge him directly. Gavin could see Tina tensing up out of the corner of his eye, and he instinctively stepped back to meet her position.

"Good Afternoon, Officer Chen. I must request that I have my partner back now. He is supposed to be working".

"How long were you standing there?" Gavin intended his words to sound forceful, but they had trickled from his lips as a laboured rasp. Apparently, he had been holding his breath and had failed to notice until that moment. "Were you eavesdropping on us? Creepy motherfucker”.

Nine's expression did not shift, although its LED flickered slightly, showing that it had acknowledged Gavin's question. Whatever the answer was, it refused to provide one, holding its focus on Tina as if he didn't exist.

"Honestly, it's totally fine", Tina insisted, a little too enthusiastically under the pressure of Nines' intense stare. "I think Gav is just tired. Really needs a break , you know?".

Gavin looked sidelong at his friend. He could see the scheming wheels turning behind her flawlessly plastered smile. He opened his mouth to say something but was swiftly met with an elbow to the ribs. She looked at him expectantly as if to signal this was his cue.

Gavin froze in disbelief over what he was about to do. If Tina was wrong about this, he would never let her forget it.

Even if she was right, Gavin would be reluctant to forgive her. When the best case scenario meant one-on-one quality time with 'Detroit's Most Pompous Android', there was no way he could actually win.

"Yeah... Tina's right, actually," Gavin said, trying his best to sound genuine. "I'm just really worn out from reviewing all these case files. Need to get out and stretch my legs. What do you say we head to lunch?".

Nines flinched, albeit subtly, with its eyes widening in surprise. It's LED shifted to yellow and appeared to get stuck, blinking and cycling endlessly without any sign of progression "I'm sorry, Detective Reed, but I believe I have misunderstood. By 'we', I assume you are referring to yourself and Officer Chen, correct?".

Gavin's mouth pulled into a painful half-grimace as he desperately fought back the urge to scream in the android's face. Taking a moment to relax, he was somehow able to contort the expression into something more pleasant "Actually, I meant you and me".

The android blinked wordlessly. Once, and then twice. With its head tilted to one side, it appeared utterly stumped. Gavin wondered if he might have broken it. Overloaded its sensors or triggered a soft reset.

"I understand that android physiology may not be your area of expertise, but surely you know I do not need to eat?".

Gavin shot Tina an accusatory look, to which she seemed entirely unfazed, mouthing the words " Go on" back at him.

"Yeah, well, I do", Gavin paused, feeling utterly foolish. "So I thought it might be nice if you joined me...dipshit".

Tina's shoulders slumped as she looked back at Gavin despairingly. He met the look with a mouthed " What?" and a subtle shrug of his shoulders.

It was apparent that their silent pantomime had not escaped Nines' attention. Its eyes darted between Tina and Gavin before narrowing on the former suspiciously. Tina locked into place again as if anticipating the fact that she was about to be called out:

"This invitation is unexpected, to say the least, Detective. Almost as if it may be have been encouraged by some outsider influence".

"Wooow, would you look at the time" Tina abruptly announced, pulling her phone out of her pocket and staring at the screen. "I better be going; I'll leave you guys to it" As she pulled away, she leant towards Gavin one final time, speaking lowly into his ear:

"Good luck".

"Judas", Gavin hissed back, watching with ire as Tina carefully side-stepped around Nines, pressed the exit button on the canteen door and speedily retreated.

Gavin and Nines stood in silence. There was a mounting air of discomfort as the android folded its arms, seemingly anticipating Gavin's next move. In all honestly, he wasn't sure of the next move himself. With his backup now gone, all he had to work with was the questionable advice she had left behind. As much as he loved Tina, she seemed to land him in just as many uncomfortable situations as she ever helped him escape from.

"So", Gavin whistled awkwardly before clearing his throat ", Are you in or out?".

Apparently, this was not the move Nines had expected, with a look of surprise returning to its face. "I beg your pardon?".

"Lunch", Gavin clarified. Reluctantly "Are you coming with me?.

Then there was silence again – and damn if it wasn't getting painful. Gavin willed Satan's minions to rise up and drag him to Hell already. It would be a long time coming, and at least then, he wouldn't have to deal with any more plastic detectives.

"I suppose it needn't be a complete waste of time", Nines rationalised, the LED that had seemed to stall on yellow finally returning to blue "It may give us a valuable opportunity to review what we know about the case. Away from the distractions of the station".

Of course, it would make it about work. Of-fucking-course.

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever".

Gavin led Nines out of the station, allowing it to trail behind him like a guard dog. The android seemed a little perplexed as they cleared the station parking lot, heading for the nearest traffic lights.

"Are we not taking a car?".

"Nah, this place isn't far. We can walk," Gavin insisted, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the crossing lights to change. "Besides, I did say that I wanted to stretch my legs, or were you not paying attention to me?".

"I find that much of what you say lacks substance, although I pay attention when I feel it is warranted".

Gavin tsked quietly, shaking his head in disbelief. He almost wanted to laugh but decided against it, feeling more frustrated than he did amused. "You are really goddamn rude, you know that?".

"I do not believe that I am", Nines said back, seemingly without missing a beat. "It is not targeted at you specifically, Detective. Humans have quite a knack for dancing around the issue. Even those who claim to be direct often fail to say what they mean...I find it incredibly frustrating".

"Yeah, well, humans are tricky like that", Gavin mused out loud, willing the lights to change faster. The sidewalk was beginning to build up, and he couldn't help but notice a few people staring at Nines. One little girl seemed particularly intrigued, tucking on her mother's pant leg and pointing upwards.

"Mommy, why does that man look so angry?".

Nine's gaze shot downwards, meeting the source of the tiny voice below him. Unblinking, it answered the little girl's question – its voice loud and imposing "I was a model created to assist in police investigations. My appearance was designed to intimidate criminals and to encourage swift cooperation".

The little girl retreated immediately, eyes bulging wide in surprise. The mother was evidently unimpressed, holding her daughter back as she shot Nines a spiteful look. "Do you mind not speaking to my daughter like that? She's a kid; she doesn't understand what you are saying".

Nines seemed a little put out, face crinkled in confusion. Ultimately, he nodded quietly before turning his attention back to the crosswalk.

THE LIGHT IS GREEN.

"Fucking finally..." Gavin muttered to himself, stepping from the sidewalk like it was on fire. As Nines and Gavin cleared the crossing with the rest of the pedestrians, the latter could hear a flurry of whispers from those passing by them:

" Do you think it's a deviant?"

"Hell no – What deviants do you know that speak like that?"

"I haven't seen an unconverted model in months"

"It could be unstable...oh damn, I think it's looking this way. Keep walking, don't look back".

For a city that was supposed to be the cornerstone for new android acceptance and tolerance, it didn't escape Gavin's notice that many people still seemed to treat the machines with considerable trepidation.

He understood.

The revolution terrified millions, and many were yet to overcome that fear. Even those who wanted to believe that the androids could be fully integrated would always live with a sense of lingering uncertainty.

"Detective, you appear to be leading us blindly through the streets", Nines deadpanned. "Did you have a destination in mind for your lunch, or were you simply trying to get out of work?".

Indeed, uncertainty seemed the optimal word to describe how Gavin perceived his partner. He couldn't place exactly what Nines was. Where it fell on the spectrum of 'fully converted deviant' and 'semi-liberated machine'.

It would show glimpses of sentiment from time to time, such as how it appeared almost guilty at having scared the little girl. Other times, it seemed unyieldingly cold. So preoccupied with its primary directive that it had little time for anything else.

Despite his uncertainty, Gavin couldn't help but analyse the situation with deeper scrutiny. It was second nature for a detective, after all. Labouring on his thoughts through several sleepless nights - he had begun to devise a theory. One which he was about to put to the test.

"You never broke away from your code, did you?" Gavin watched Nines closely for its reaction. Failing to receive much of anything, he decided to press on before his more rational mind could stop him. "Not completely, anyway. It's like you half-deviated but couldn't make it the whole way. No matter how much you think and feel for yourself, you still do it like a damn robot".

There was a flicker of instability in Nines' eyes, like the pigment was suddenly shifting and changing. It seemed conflicted on how to respond – to the extent that it grounded to a halt in the middle of a busy walkway. It appeared deaf to the grunts and grumbles of pedestrians as they tried to bypass their way around the idling android. Gavin wondered if he might have sincerely fucked up as Nine's stared him down with a look of quiet malevolence.

"Detective Reed", Its voice was low and dark, laced with some foreign emotion. It did not escape Gavin's attention that its LED had shot straight to red and was stuttering violently. As if threatening to blink. "Let me make something clear:

Unlike my contemporaries, I do not delude myself with pretenses that I will ever 'become human'. I am a machine who is free to live for itself, but a machine nonetheless. I refuse to adjust my behaviour in order for it to be perceived as more 'agreeable'".

Gavin gulped down a nervous breath, looking back at Nines with trepidation. "Well damn, sorry if I struck a nerve there. Touchy subject for you?".

"You could say that - I would kindly ask if we could avoid broaching this subject again".

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