“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”
— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)
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I have just finished Chapter 10 of Northanger Abbey. Some thoughts:
I kind of wish I had read this book first out of Jane Austen’s works, if only because I would have related to Catherine more
since I’m mostly familiar with Pride and Prejudice and Emma and Persuasion, and a little knowledgeable of Sense and Sensibility, (I have yet to even touch Mansfield yet, I am so sorry) I was immediately like what the heck do you mean Catherine’s got a brother
who is this man?? what is he doing here???
I’ve read too many P&P fics,,, the state of being brotherless is just so ingrained into the story conflicts and character dynamics in my head, whoops
Mr Thorpe was annoying from the first, and he has only gotten on my nerves even more (and do I smell a fortune hunter??)
Isabella is also hmm
at first I was leery of her and Catherine’s friendship because of how she’s older and more polished; I was sceptical of the sincerity of how quickly they seemed to get attached
also I get the vibe that she’s hiding something from Catherine (has she met Tilney before…?)
but if she’s really James’s love interest, then I see her as more harmless; more of a disappointment, less of a threat, I guess?
still absolutely relieved Catherine’s not overly attached to her now though
Miss Tilney intrigues me
I like her so far
might be my favourite character but we’ll see we’ll see
Mr Tilney also intrigues me but less decisively of a favourable bent
I’m kinda suspicious but idrk why
tryna withhold judgement since he hasn’t actually done anything sus yet (that I can think of)
plus I genuinely enjoy his and Catherine’s tête-à-têtes
so mostly on the fence
I am most curious about General Tilney, idk why but he is piquing my interest
the exposition about the late Mrs Tilney seems very deliberate
the whole family is just intriguing I s’pose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
loving the writing, unsurprisingly
I put off Northanger for a long time because I hadn’t expected it to be as lighthearted as it is due to some reviews I’d read but
there do be plenty of funny parts
and of course Miss Austen’s characteristic wit is ubiquitous <3
Please forgive me for any egregious mistakes, I am no literary academic and cannot spot themes or symbols or meta details for my life. 🙏🏽🙏🏽
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I cannot be the only book Warlock enjoyer out there. I know he's a very small part of the story, but even without the Adam's first friends addition you've got:
"I just don't see why everyone and everything has to be burned up and everything," Adam said... even if you win, you can't really beat the other side, because you don't really want to. I mean, not for good. You'll just start all over again. You'll just keep on sending people like these two," he pointed to Crowley and Aziraphale, "to mess people around. It's hard enough bein' people as it is, without other people coming and messin' you around."
and
Crowley grabbed Aziraphale's arm. "You know what happened?" he hissed excitedly. "He was left alone! He grew up human! He's not Evil Incarnate or Good Incarnate, he's just… a human incarnate—"
Warlock is the most messed around person -possibly ever, definitely in modern history- and it was him being messed around that left Adam in peace to grow up a human incarnate and save the world. He's a cosmological whipping boy. If he sucks he sucks specifically because Crowley and Aziraphale are bad at educating children and that's very funny to me. They did that! Obviously in the show it's more intense/interesting because they did that in person, it's borderline deliberate baby acquisition, and then after they spend years looking after him they contemplate murdering him, but even in the book he's the recipient of their dubious godfathering efforts and even though he's stubbornly a normalish stem kid that probably left a mark. this kid was given every opportunity to be the most ridiculously specific flavour of catholicore goth and rejected it all in favour of being one of maybe three people living in england who cares about baseball. Aziraphale and Crowley took a human child and taught him to enjoy artificial banana flavouring. that's on them.
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I'd dug it up earlier to send to someone as it had been relevant in conversation recently, so may as well post it here too; a lil bit of CatLore(tm) for my main Warhammer Army; the Knights of Noble House Valere.
When I decided that it would be healthy for me to try to partake in physical hobbies more often rather than spending all my free time online and having almost exclusively online friendships, the first thing I went to try was Warhammer. I'd been trying to get into it for nearly a decade and I've always loved my funny little minis and models so it was the most obvious choice to me, especially being that I'd just been given a new 3d printer I could make terrain and models with. However, this came with a small issue; I didn't like the style of the models I already had as much as I used to. Which meant I needed to browse through which factions 40k had to choose from, and find something with an aesthetic I did enjoy.
What I found that i liked was the Imperial Knights and Grey Knights.
First, some official lore as Context;
Imperial Knights are huge mechs owned by influential families called Noble Houses. Before the founding of The Imperium of Man wherein the God-Emperor took the Golden Throne, the Noble Houses were some of the first humans to leave Terra and colonize the galaxy in an event referred to as The Long March. For the purpose of this colonization, they built huge agricultural mechs with chainsaws that could reave forests for lumber, explosives that could level mountains for construction, etc. Of course, these tools were repurposed into weapons of war. The mechs were equipped with armour that can withstand a nuke and autocannons that shoot shells wider than a man is tall. The planets colonized by these Noble Houses are referred to as Feudal Worlds. When the Age of Strife began and humanity lost a significant portion of the knowledge required to create and upkeep their most advanced technologies, contact between distant worlds was also lost. Many Feudal Worlds that were isolated from this regression have yet to be rediscovered by The Imperium.
Grey Knights are the God-Emperor's Special Boys who live on Saturn's moon Titan in a Grand Fortress-Monestary. unlike other chapters of space marines, there are only every 800 Grey Knights at any one time, and every single one of them is a psyker and has mad wizard powers. They also all wear ~Special Boy~ armour that's been sanctified and blessed with Mystical Rituals that makes them harder to kill than your average Space Marine. They exist only to fight invasions of the Daemon forces of Chaos, and will take any measure to do so. The whole thing is very edgy and they try very hard to be cool.
Unfortunately, the rules of warhammer40k don't normally allow one person to use models from two different factions in their army at the same time, and doing so is referred to as a "Soup Army" which is generally very frowned upon by the gaming community. Regardless, I happen to be and continue to be a fool of a kitty that likes my funny little Knights, and what I wanted to do was run an army that's made half and half of the two factions I like.
That begs the question though; Why would these two factions be fighting together? the Grey Knights are Daemon Hunters, and as such only fight against those corrupted by Chaos, and while the Noble Houses of the Feudal Worlds which have been rediscovered by The Imperium do fight alongside The Imperium, they don't do so Often or Consistently. (And, by game rules, while any imperium army is permitted to field either one large or up to three small Imperial Knights models, that isnt enough for me)
While I do like the Imperial Knights official lore, I'm pretty neutral on that of the Grey Knights (as much as I do like to make fun of them, the idea of an order of paladins that'll show up anywhere, anytime to lay the smackdown on some demons is pretty cool). So, my solution to that question was; What if they aren't Grey Knights? Any military that's fielding gigantic irreplaceable Death Mechs is also going to employ footsoldiers, aren't they?
The Knights I paint and play are of the Noble House Valere, one of the many to take part in The Long March and the many to still be isolated following the Age of Strife. The House, however, has not been idle in it's isolation. From the time contact was lost in the 25th millennium House Valere has continued to make technological progress, re-engineering the systems utilized in their great Knights to smaller and more compact forms, to create Exosuits in which even an untrained wearer could rival a Space Marine in combat. While this is surely impressive, the real feat of innovation achieved by Valere's researchers is undoubtedly their progress in harnessing The Warp. Normally only Psykers would be able to utilize the reality-bending power of The Warp, however the continued study and research between the 25th to the 41st millennium has seen these researchers engineer methods for machines to make use of The Warp, and integrating this into the Exosuits of House Valere's Knights allows every one of their footsoldiers to wield the power of a Psyker.
The current Standing Army of House Valere, which is to say the models I currently have (though many are currently unpainted), numbers at six Knight Mechs, one Armoured Troop Transport, and seventeen Exosuit Soldiers.
In Game Terms that's;
one Knight Preceptor, two Armiger Helverins, and two Armiger Warglaives for 1,000points of Imperial Knights,
one Nemesis DreadKnight, one Brother-Captain, one Brotherhood Champion, one Razorback, five Terminators, five Grey Knights, and five Purifiers for 1,000points of Grey Knights,
which all together makes a happy Tournament-Standard sized army roster of 2,000points.
House Valere's age of peace is not to last much longer, as the universe permits none to escape it's wrath and there are a great many who, whether for Tech-Heresy, claims of territory, or simply Hunger, would see The House's citizens dead.
As a footnote; I do want to clarify that when i wrote this i felt like an absolute madwoman and it seemed very Chuuni / "9th-grader's Overpowered Self-Insert OC" but fuck it cringe is dead, I'm having fun, and others have said its neat so im keeping it.
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in the spirit of that last post -- obviously, astarion burning in the sun and running off to hide, alone, would not fly.
amity would be running after him right away, casting darkness. she'd throw her cloak over him. crouch down next to him, behind those crates he hides behind, and start casting the teleportation circle spell that's linked to the circle she made in her home/company basement while frantically muttering all the invitations she thinks he could ever need as she writes the sigil(s) -- it takes a full minute to cast so she has time to cover everything, she hopes. "i invite you into my home and my place of business and anything and everything i do or have ever called mine -- okay go go go go go"
helps him into the portal, if he needs the help; it only lasts 6 seconds so they've gotta be Real Quick
runs back to everyone else and gives an almost incoherent goodbye/explanation before scurrying off, like "YOU'RE ALL INVITED TO MY HOME, I WILL SEND WORD TO THE ELFSONG TAVERN WITH WHERE TO FIND IT BEFORE NIGHTFALL, I HAVE TO GO NOW"
and then she fucking books it through the city
full crying because two of her best friends just consigned themselves to wandering the hells just to keep one of them alive and yeah they can probably fix that eventually but that's so awful, karlach is so scared, and now astarion is all burned up in her basement, gods damn it
a tiefling running at full speed, openly weeping, probably snotty, bloody and covered in brain goo, getting closer and closer to the actual ritzy part of the city and getting stranger and stranger looks all the while
using a sending spell as she runs -- she has three 3rd level spell slots and she's using all of them on sending spells, addressing them to whichever of the company employees she thinks would be most likely to be there and/or to go down to where the teleportation circle is -- "friend in basement FRIEND NOT FOE DO NOT HARM help please, be there soon, close windows and draw blinds please, urgent urgent urgent"
meanwhile in the basement of the morninglade trading company hub, someone is coming down the stairs with an armful of scrolls, sees a dazed man hastily wrapped in a cloak who smells distinctly of ash and burnt flesh, and says "oh hey! new recruit? haha, wow, you're in slightly worse shape than we usually get. welcome aboard tho!"
astarion has just had something dear to him ripped away from him, and might never see sunlight again. just rolled into a portal that spat him out into a basement. has just sustained a minimum of 20 points of sunlight damage. he's not at his best.
it's a nice basement tho, at least
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