#oroboros of influence

[ohmeadows]

The joker of the deck: Aha the Elation (and some Swarm Disaster lore)

While reading through swarm disaster lore (again), Herta popped up during a moment discussing the disappearance of Oroboros the Voracity, noting that some entity was interfering with the simulation. Which got me thinking about Aha. Again.

Having played through Swarm Disaster’s entire story twice now, I can’t help but think that whatever role Aha the Elation has to play, is going to be incredibly important. Or at least entertaining.

Aha is the only self-aware Aeon in the Simulated Universe. Despite the team’s efforts to tamper down on it, Aha continues to be self-aware, toying with you and the creators each time they appear. It’s heavily implied that simulated Aha is actively interfering with Herta, Screwllum and Ruan Mei’s work to understand the Aeons, being present each time the Aeons schemed to destroy Tayzzyronth the Propagation.

Aha freely admits to infiltrating the Astral Express for a year just to find the perfect moment to blow the train up. Why? To mess with Akivili and their followers.

Aha is the Aeon closest involved with the ways of mortals, and while it lacks the magnitude of directly devastating powers such as the Destruction or the Hunt, it doesn’t lack for ability to turn fate on a whim — Aha has directly influenced or been involved in rebellions, government coups, deaths of Aeons and is one of the only (so far) Aeons confirmed to shapeshift to a human when it suits their needs.

In fact, it’s heavily implied Sampo is a follower of Aha (if not more?) and when you think about Sampo’s involvement in Belobog’s storyline, he shows up at precise moments, barely does anything, and yet alters some extremely pivotal details that changes everything, above all dragging Bronya down to see the truth of Belobog. At the end of the Belobog arc, Sampo reports to someone, nearly breaking the fourth wall. He did it for fun. Just a little gigglejoke. Why not change the course of Belobog if it makes for a spectacle?

Also: during the Phantylia fight, you can hear Aha laughing. At who? Us, or Phantylia? Something is in motion aboard the Luofu, involving the Destruction, the Abundance and the Hunt. It won’t be the first time Aha has brought together different Aeons for their own amusement.

In Swarm Disaster, it’s made clear Aha had some level of knowledge or perhaps even involvement in Ena the Order becoming Xipe the Harmony. You-as-Akivili, the role the Trailblazer inhabits while in Simulated Universe, feel uneasy watching Aha suck up to Xipe, which is interesting to note. Ena is the one who demands Qlipoth to act on the problem the Tayzzyronth poses, and yet they are absorbed by Xipe.

I’ll also note that in Swarm Disaster, it’s implied it was “chance” that caused the rise of the Propagation path and their ascension to Aeonhood. Now, I’m not saying Aha did it, but…

At the end of Swarm Disaster, Herta takes you through the simulation once more, pointing out three big details that bug her after having witnessed all they could divine from the past:

The destruction of the system the Propagation (once a mortal) originated from was not a natural occurrence. Something or someone instigated it. Herta isn’t sure who did it, suggesting Voracity, Order or Elation, but landing on not knowing. For now.

During the Propagation path wrecking havoc across the universe, Oroboros the Voracity and Ena the Order disappeared. How and why are not entirely clear, though we know Ena was absorbed into Xipe. Oroboros is interesting since the Voracity is an enemy of Qlipoth — perhaps even an Aeon Qliopth fears, to a degree. Herta’s exact quote is: “Oroboros and Ena vanished in the middle of this tale! Completely, silently, as if there was another story progressing along in the shadows underneath the main stage…”

The Aeons that came together — Equilibrium, Preservation, Trailblaze, Elation and Harmony — may have brought down the Propagation, but the path itself isn’t dead. There’s endless Swarm offsprings still alive in the universe. Herta suggests that the Propagation isn’t actually truly dead, and will rise again. And soon.

Leaving Swarm Disaster, it's hard not to feel a sense of unease about Aha. Herta herself states that the universe has gotten worse since Aha's laugh rang out across the universe for the first time. Whatever hand Aha is intending to play in the future will be very interesting.

#aha the elation #honkai star rail #honkai star rail lore #star railing.txt #aeons #interesting to note as well: #the abundance the destruction and the hunt were not around at the time of the swarm disaster #i've been wondering a lot about what THAT means

[s-b-party]

Tayzzyronth & Oroboros: Aeons of Deadly Sins

****Honkai star rail spoilers/simulated universe spoilers/swarm disaster spoilers****

*The moment Herta described them as being arch enemies, my mind immediately started falling into a rabbit hole trying to analyze them both & some thoughts have been cooking lol

So who are these 2 Aeons? They recently have made more formal appearances (we finally get to see their forms) in the newest hsr patch specifically in simulated universe

Tayzzyronth is the Aeon of Propagation & Oroboros is the Aeon of Voracity; propagation refers to reproduction while voracity is excessive eating

I’d like to suggest that Tayzzyronth & Oroboros are aeons that represent 2 of the 7 deadly sins: lust & gluttony respectfully

*Note: lust can refer to extremely strong sexual desires but without sexual connotations it simply refers to an extremely strong desire/emotion for something you crave*

Tayzzyronth often self-replicated & the heirs they created eventually became their faction, the Swarm

The reason why they started reproducing was bc they feared being alone since they were the last of the Coleoptera (scientific name for beetle) so they had an extremely strong desire to procreate

As for Oroboros, they devour everything that gets in their way since everything including worlds will simply return to the void in the end

Now that we’ve established how they depict lust & gluttony, let’s look at their dynamic

Both are said to have been enemies & it seems that Tayzzyronth died in a war (which involved Oroboros) at the hands of multiple Aeons according to Kafka

What I find interesting is that (like in my analyses of Lan & Yaoshi and Nanook & IX) they have a few similarities

For instance what they do is mindless (all Tayzzyronth & Oroboros can think of/do are self-replicate & consume; I think it’s important to remember that doing mindless tasks doesn’t always equate to intelligence especially when they do it in repetitive cycles; the word mindless usually gets associated w/ low intelligence which Herta implies that Tayzzyronth & the Swarm have)

They may represent different deadly sins but they are different manifestations of greed in essence, all being forms of excessive desires

They also both have similar color palettes where they use cool colors (various shades of purple) which are paired with some reds or blues; to me this is showing that in spite of their differences they do share some similarities/vibes (not evil per se but destructive)

Now to look at their dynamic from a different light, I want to first point to how them being enemies makes sense if we consider what creatures they resemble

Tayzzyronth as we already know is based off insects, the beetle to be more precise, while Oroboros is based off the mythological ouroboros which was usually a tail-devouring serpent; irl snakes & insects are normally enemies & snakes are the ones usually devouring insects although the reverse situation is also possible

Perhaps it is bc both are representative of different aspects of greed that they both would end up being enemies in the end anyway if they are to fight for dominance in this world (going back to the idea of survival of the “fittest”, meaning the stronger concept would prevail in this case)

If that is the case, the end of Tayzzyronth could imply that the desire to devour is stronger than the desire to procreate but I don’t think that’s exactly how it is because there is some irony to be found here

Even though Tayzzyronth has been deceased for some time, the Swarm still remains & they still are a menace to the universe due to the destruction they can cause, all of this while Oroboros doesn’t seem to leave any trace of the worlds they have devoured so I think that even though the Propagation is gone, their concept still has influence in the universe w/ as much “strength”/importance as the voracity

I’m really glad to have seen Tayzzyronth & Oroboros in the swarm disaster mode of simulated universe bc for me it looks like the Aeons have interesting & complex relationships with each other and I can’t seem to get over them 😂 I also like the designs of the aeons

They just have so much in their designs & stories which fascinate me, it’s just really fun chilling in the pool of aeon lore & dynamics :3

#honkai star rail #hsr #honkai star rail spoilers #honkai star rail lore #hsr aeons #hsr tayzzyronth #hsr oroboros #hsr simulated universe #hsr swarm disaster

[yellowymellon]

In the SU herta wonders how HooH would perceive nanook, I thought before Abt it, HooH isn't doing anything Abt nanook, but then again most aeons that represents a concept of great impact or can single handedly influence the universe have their natural counterpart,

HooH wouldn't kill yaoshi cuz Lan exists, and the destruction acts as a counterpart to continuance of life

Preservation's counterpart is destruction also, I think that's one of the most matched pairs

If ena was still alive then by technicality aha would be their counterpart

Propagation's propagated too much and became a problem for almost everyone but ig mainly it would be ena

Nous got mythus, altho I consider this unnecessary as nous doesn't bring any chaos to the universe

Funnily enough, if we speak Abt philosophies then IX's natural counterpart would be aha. It's worth mentioning aha helped trying to kill IX once just cuz. (I don't enjoy my fav aeons fighting cuz I'll have to side with my bias aka IX )

Neither fuli, nous, akivili or idrila bring any kind of dispute to the table

I wonder tho, oroboros overlaps with IX in a sense, IX's concept definitely overwhelms oroboros', altho the latter is said to have vanished it could be that IX absorbed them. Yet xipe, who doesn't exactly share everything in common with ena did in fact absorb them, Herta asks the same question too. Their paths aren't all that overlapping, harmony may require order but order is more detached

I'm also curious Abt finality, Herta questions nanook's existence when finality is much more grander, and honestly it's the same scenario as the harmony and order. Finality also could've absorbed IX as IX believes in that everything is bound to end and that it's meaningless (but it could be that finality doesn't have the same nihilistic view). I'm more interested in knowing why finality existed in peace, HooH doing nothing Abt it when there's no counterpart that naturally balances it out. Yaoshi is arguably the counterpart but it doesn't quite fit. I'm not even sure what could counter finality, the origin? (I look at u with a HoO Elly pfp Lol) the continuance of life? If that's so wouldn't that be life itself, making the finality represent death? Some of these aeons are way older than the rest, ultimately it doesn't make sense

Anyway tell me which aeon you'd like to follow if you were in HSR world!!! :3

#if there are spelling mistakes no there aren't :D #i'm too eepy to care rn #take these as the nonsensical ramblings of an old timer #i could write mini essays abt this game but remember nothing from school #maybe we have a problem in our society 🤨 #idk why im answering this here but the aeon id follow would be fuli! #not my fav but i resonate with the path #ill ramble more later 😭 now i eep #hsr #honkai star rail #star rail #hsr aeons

[chronichlesofnillory]

Mystical Stitches book review

If you have any history with actively doing your own embroidery or working knot magic in any way I would not recommend this book*

If you have any personal experience working with sigils or "mystical symbols" I would not recommend this book*

Who this book might be for: 🧵someone who has the very basics of embroidery down (there are pictures of stitches throughout the book but sometimes drawings of stitches aren't workable for everyone. Youtube can usually help there) 🧵someone who doesn't enjoy making their own sigils and doesn't own any resources that act as a "dictionary" of "mystic symbols" 🧵someone who enjoys or needs specific projects presented to them (such as the "oroboros of transformation" suggested that includes three separate symbols) 🧵someone very early on in their practice that doesn't have their own color associations or practice specific symbolism.

Unsurprisingly the book doesn't go into more than the basic stitches, it isn't a stitch dictionary after all. Surprising to me though is that there is no mention other than "how it looks" as to why you might energetically choose a certain stitch. When creating a border in a piece you might want something that has no gaps in the thread (maybe a chain stitch so it overlaps itself?), or maybe you want a very thick line so that it feels like there is a buffer between the energy outside the border and that inside. When working on my endless knot piece I wanted something that would feel good as I traced the piece over and over with my fingers. This book focuses heavily on the aesthetics of a stitch though.

Towards the end of the book there's a chapter dedicated to "The Art of the Ritual" and I will mention here that because the author keeps reminding the reader throughout the book that they aren't trying to present one path or way, most of the suggestions come across as very wiccan/new age influenced because that tends to be the default. There's smoke cleansing your thread and fabric, put your intention into it (I will admit that the author does suggest this can be a type of prayer) and that's what makes it magic, visualizing a certain outcome, "traveling between realms" (astral travel?? idk).

Overall 2/5

Would check out for free from library, would not spend money on it.

If you're looking for a more in depth project based book I'd suggest "Paint with Thread: A step-by-step guide to embroidery through the seasons" by Emille Ferris. She goes very into detail over how to do each project (from stitch breakdown to colors chosen) and talks about why she chose the subjects she chose for each season.

When it comes to "witchy" books for things like embroidery magic or knot magic or any kind of project based magic I am very weary. They tend to be very watered down because there's no room to present what the concepts the author is working on outside of buzzwords. They are also trying to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible so if there are projects involved they aren't specific enough to anything I'd actually use (no tarot bag project in this book when that would literally be the first thing I'd teach another person to do)

*(unless you're borrowing it from the library or kindle/everand etc.)

#personal #witchblr #book review #knot magic #embroidery magic

[mushroomsandmandalas]

Thoughts on T&B2.2

SPOILERS!! SO MANY SPOILERS FOR T&B2 cour 2

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T&B2.2 did lots of folks dirty, but for Yuri, they reserved a truckload of filth.

Part 3/4

What Coulda Been

My ass cheeks nearly flew off my body and into the sun when I thought fascism had landed in Sternbild, what with literal concentration camps for NEXTs, and that our flaming vigilante was going to end it by leading our Heroes into battle. It seemed that way, yes?

Yuri was even gunning for the mayor when he thought he’d gone off the rails, which let’s face it, the mayor did greenlight concentration camps. Yuri was set to become a literal social justice warrior, but fuck that—let’s KO the one true hero for progressive change. LOL. Why tell a good story when you can tell a lazy one?

It looked like Yuri had finally come to the conclusion, killing low-level murders and shit is great and all, but have I tried destroying the system? No? K, I’m gonna go do that now because THAT’s my sense of justice for reals.

The Big Bad was…Bad

All of it made little sense, even the Big Bad, who, whaaaa, you’re Oroboros lite? Just doing personal stuff? And Yuri dies in that?? The actual fuck? The Heroes get swatted around daily, get damaged much worse, suits or no. But Yuri gets squashed trying to stop the man his father failed to.

And what sucks even more is that while the antagonist was hella correct (marginalized people always have to prove their use to society in order to validate their very existence), the way she tried to right the wrong was childish as fuck.

I do still think Little Aurora is connected to Ororborus, btw. There was a lot in the narrative that was read-between-the-lines, which, while that can be a valid storytelling device, this cour leaned too heavily on.

Death

Yuri wanted to change, was begging to be saved. Then they suicide him surrounded by people who actively liked him, had influenced him and were literal HEROES. He might have even cared for them in some way, either romantically or not. This was cruel and tragic af, as well as abelist and uninspired.

I’ve watched 500-episode anime wrap up story arcs better than T&B wrapped up a beloved two season series after 11 years.

#yuripetrov #tigerandbunny #taibani #tnb #tiger and bunny #lunatic #tnb2 #barnaby brooks jr #kotetsu t. kaburagi #ouroboros #tiger & bunny 2 #tiger & bunny #yuri petrov #justice for Yuri

[the-carnival-of-time]

Question for anyone else who completed TotK because I can't remember 🙂

(So spoilers again)

When Riju talks with her ancestor (who I believe to be Nabooru) she is called "Daughter of the Gerudo"

Does anyone know/remember what the others were referred to as? Was pride one maybe?

I'm curious because I'm trying to determine how tied to ancient Egypt the Gerudo are, or just strongly influenced by, as it could help with symbolism. It's to my understanding the first oroboros symbol was discovered in Egypt, and represented as both the beginning and end of time. There have been other niche things in the series that my kemetic ADHD ass zones in on but I don't know how much it really matters, nor can I remember specifics at this time besides building design. (IKANA CASTLE)

Unsure if this is related, but again-symbolism- serpents guard gates in the Egyptian underworld (called the Duat)

But still in TotK like are they SERPENTS or DRAGONS cause the dragons KIIIINDA RESEMBLE VOLVAGIA or is nintendo just blending Reptile creatures and calling it a day?????

#more blabbing about lore and symbolism #my first dog of the day no showed 🙃 #so here i am alone in my thoughts

[darth-caillic]

Share 10 facts about your OC!

I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna split it up cuz I have two new plot bunnies I'd like to talk about <3

First up Aneurin Ordo:

More of a traditional Mandalorian. His areas of expertise are armour forging and explosives.

He didn't originally give up his Mandalorian ways when Satine became ruler of Mandalore, but there was a few months when he renounced them under threat of his daughter being hurt (but he got back to them once she was safe).

He was a teacher of Mar's during the Clone Wars and also taught Oriana how to forge armour.

People expect him to be a grump, but he actually has a dry sense of humour (think Ron Swanson or maybe Spiderpunk if you've seen the new Spiderman movie).

He's not gonna have a major role in the story, but I think it will be nice for Mar to have a positive Mando influence.

Next Biska Girard:

Biska is a revamp of an older version of an OC. Formally a sister of Satine and Bo Katan, now a "Joiner" of Alderaan's Oroboro Killik nest..

Born a Countess of House Girard. Biska spent most of her youth "wasting her time", as she referred to it. She willingly became a joiner during her mid-20s. Claiming "at least we would be useful to someone".

Her pitch-black eyes and the way she refers to herself as "we" are quirks of her Killik mindset.

She has a close relationship with Jaks Karaay Snr, but whether this is romantic remains to be seen.

She could possibly be the birth mother of Macaria Lanami, but that won't be decided for a while.

#insects tw #askcj

[sundaypenacony]

Sunday's new halo design, further thoughts about Sunday and Robin

Credits to @/tinelifa on Twitter we had the exact same thought but I also got inspired by them and got inspired to write further about this :D!

I was looking at Sunday's halo and was wondering (besides that the new halo is much simpler for 3D models) if there is more to the new design.

WARNING: I WILL TALK ABOUT LEAKS AND STORY LEAKS

Sunday is the spokesperson for The Family which group is very much about The Harmony who's Aeon is Xipe.

"In the vision of the Harmony, the diverse civilizations throughout the universe will eventually become as close as siblings, singing in unison the hymn of unity and joy."

But if we look at Xipe's "halo" (or whatever it is) it isn't really the kind of halo you will see on the other family members (like for example Robin who also has a similar kind of halo as Sunday).

I feel like Xipe's halo is more of a reference to them absorbing Ena.

But looking at their halo it also has these square like parts to the halo like Sunday's old design but also has a lot of eyes around their design which is shown in Sunday's new design. I do wonder if he was a follower of Ena before or still is.

Also quite funny but Ena reminds me a lot of Blackswan who I mentioned in earlier posts but she follows the path of Nihility.

Okay but besides the point, but I went to read a little further about Ena to see if there are more connections between Sunday and Robin and yes, surprise, there are!

Ena: "You have finally accepted my invitation, Qlipoth. The troublemakers go against the rules. Their actions are unpardonable." (♯1 - -·♭6 | ♭6 1· - - | - - - - ‖ ♬ Jme-Clent-A. I. Vadnbg. 1635-1942 "Amber Lord, as one that controls the will of transmutation, you bear great responsibility." ♬" Qecréiat Ineional es mpers." 1894-193 (♯1 - -·♭6 | ♭6 1· - - | - - - - ‖♬

You know who sings?? R O B I N

Witnessing the chaos caused by the war between Tayzzyronth and Oroboros, Ena sought to put an end to this by seeking the "dreammaker that pulls and influences the will of transmutation", Qlipoth the Preservation.

Dreammaker... cough cough... Penacony...

太一 Tàiyī is a name given to the supreme God of Heaven during the Han Dynasty in Chinese theology. It means "Great Oneness" or "Great Unity."

GREAT GOD OF HEAVEN!!

Simulated Universe: ████You are waiting in place.██ █████You feel sleepy,████████████████ yet nothing happens████████████████.

IX: ...████████... ███████████... IX: █████████Although you can feel ███, the Aeon's ████████████ ██████████appearance, you can hardly █████████.

I mentioned before in a different post how Blackswan (in a storyleak) will drag the trailblazer away after meeting in the dreamhotel I believe. Blackswan follows nihility and I just find it interesting how the aeon of Nihility is mentioned here with sleepiness xd I feel like this could be a reference to Black Swan.

Also thought this was really interesting to point out, I feel like this could further provide the fact that Sunday and Robin have something to do with Ena. I feel like Sunday could possibly follow the path of destruction???

Ena: "Who is the dreammaker that pulls and influences the will of transmutation? I shall keep the Order under complete control and eliminate the troublemakers." (♯1 - -·♭6 | ♭6 1· - - | - - - - ‖ ♬ Eme-Clent-J. I. Vadnbg. 1935-1942 "The troublemakers shall not remain, and the greedy shall not be spared. The treacherous and fickle chaos is what contaminates the universe."(♯1 - -·♭6 | ♭6 1· - - | - - - - ‖♬ " Secréiat Ineional es mpers." 1894-193 Ena: The Aeon is absolute, just, and magnificent. Their multiple syllables carrying the solemnity of an army, concealing within them a rule that must not be overlooked.

The way how Ena is described here and how they use music makes me really think of Sunday's description

On the inside, Sunday is not nearly as kindhearted as he seems. A control freak by nature, he takes pleasure in controlling the behavior and thoughts of others, which is how he became a Family spokesperson. He will coerce, discipline, and even punish others with great effectiveness in order to satisfy his own selfish desires. ( This is not directly shown in the story )

Like Ena also feels the need to control things for it to follow their personal views, which Sunday also does.

Simulated Universe: Suddenly, you can feel ears of wheat wrapping around your ribs as they try to run your body through. Yet, the overflowing pain is somehow healed... One by one, the journeys of many Pathstriders surface, and you are located inside a perpetual and vibrant ecological cycle. You open your eyes to find yourself standing outside a fortress wall. In the nation where the Sun has been stolen, the believers who have lost their god will wake up from slumber. They include your portrait in the murals. They question you... they beseech you for help!

Further more, the trailblazer did quiet suddenly get there and here in the Stimulated Universe the followers of The Order (Ena) are asking them for help. :'D

[yourfriendanniefish]

live tumbling ATUM Act II

avalanche— a cute intro in which the oroboros is formed; the influence the smashing pumpkins had on M83 folds back into what "a smashing pumpkins album" is in 2023. that's funny. this song is Just Okay— i am trying to bring myself to enjoy the fact that billy corgan sings the word "cybernaut" is pop-conviction. good for him! it's starting to feel like "the smashing pumpkins" are just billy and whoever is doing background vocals

empires— hey it's the rock song they've been playing at all their shows. i'm getting really sick of the background vocals that have been mixed too high on SP records since Zeitgeist. i also get why billy would kind of want to hide the fact that he wrote a Mellon Collie B-Side-level riff for the first time in 25 years. finally jimmy gets to... drum? lol.

oh wait, this doesn't sound like a mellon collie b-side. it sounds like an A Perfect Circle b-side. i don't know if that's a compliment or not, honestly.

neophyte— immediately this sounds like a breath of fresh air. like "embracer" on Act I, it's "billy's new devotion to synth pop" but Good. this sounds far closer to "eye" than anything else, which is DEFINITELY a compliment. it also... sounds like a smashing pumpkins song? a lot of these songs have been fine, good even, occasionally. but this sounds like it actually has a line you can trace back through the band's history.

if he had released a song like this instead of "Run2Me" in 2013, it would have A) saved his career (no it wouldn't have) and B) been my favorite song of the year. like seriously, what a weird year to give me a sudden pang of nostalgia. what about this sends me there? idk. good song, though.

moss— whoa, singing like this? billy hasn't let himself sound that ragged on record in a LONG time. this song is devoted to sounding "cool," she said, the moment the background vocals starting chanting "meow, meow." well, okay! this fills the same sonic space as like, "love" or "cupid de locke" on MCIS, a song where the sonics get weird, and it's a bewildering curio. bridge is cool. i might have a growing kind of fucked up love for this song? filling the "Hooray!" space. god, ATUM is a fucking weird album!

night waves— back to "baby's first arpeggiator," which... fine. the question remains... what do James and Jeff do on a record like this? when they were recording this and billy kept saying "we've done 33 songs," that sounded Sisyphean, but maybe if it's just billy in a room of synths for 80 percent of the time, then i guess it makes sense.

that's me kind of ignoring this song, which is again, not bad. but it does make me wonder "would this work better as a deranged Billy Corgan solo album?" No, obviously— it needs the branding to make sense.

again, a thought coming from this song I guess being a little forgettable— what makes this a sequel to MCIS and Machina?

space age— a great example against the last question: this sounds like TheFutureEmbrace. i'm not in the business of saying "this isn't a Pumpkins song," because honestly that's not my business. but there's nothing meaningfully different between this song and like, "Now and Then" from 2005, other than "Now and Then" is a much better song. ATUM's mid-tempo synth songs are its weakpoint... and it feels like there are more than a few of them. (or is that not true and it's that they just sound very similar). ugh, he's clipping consonants again!!!

every morning— desperately disappointed immediately that it is not a cover of the sugar ray song. okay fine i'll be nicer— this is a song for his partner, right? i mean it's sweet. when it starts kicking in it kind of feels like "pinwheels" from Oceania, which is one of my favorite minor epics of theirs. oh yeah, when it really gets going? that's my late-pumpkins shit right there. there's chords in this one that make it seem like there's some theming going on? like a motif getting born? if that's on purpose it's pretty cool. the sounds going around five minutes in are really great. this is a really nice song, a drone with a simple backbeat (he didn't make jimmy play this one two one two live though, did he? lmao).

to the greys— a huge "lol" of a title. and it's a kind of wide-eyed "lol" of a song, too? i mean, it sounds really nice— kind of a cousin to "everything," that time NIN wrote a paramore song. some guitar work that sounds extremely "classic SP," but also some guitar that sounds more like X&Y-era Coldplay. oh fuck, as soon as I wrote that, i realized that's it— that's the easiest comparison to make with ATUM. it's "what if X&Y was even longer" or "what if the alien cosmic bullshit of Music of the Spheres had the songwriting of X&Y," which is such a cursed fucking question.

anyways, despite myself, i feel like this will be the song i return to off this "act" of the record.

beguiled— the segue into this song is, well, beguiling. it comes out of nowhere. probably because "beguiled" feels like a bizarre outlier in the pumpkin's catalogue these days. which, now hearing it in context of the part of the record it comes from, makes it the obvious single. at the time i was like "oh, what, you just picked the 'rock' song from the record?" and now it's like "oh, right, you just picked the rock song from the record." this doesn't sound like anything else on the record. it sticks out like a sore thumb. hilariously it sticks out because it's the only song that sounds like the whole band might actually be performing on it. i admit the lizard-brain idiot-charms of this song have grown on me. it's a good rock single. that's nice to hear, i guess.

...is there a slightly different mix here on the record or have i just never given this a close listen before?

the culling— and right back to "baby's first synth" territory. in context, it really just underlines it— what the fuck is beguiled doing on this record? it makes it hard to hear this song honestly. this is a nice stab of genesis-ass prog rock here, minus the talented drumming and plus some cure-ass bass guitar.

it really cooks my noodle why you'd write 33 songs (or more like 50, honestly, since CYR is similar, rhythmically) that just do not make use at all of your drummer, one of the most versatile and talented rock drummers of the last 30 years. just like... dude you've got jimmy chamberlin... please use him. it's not like REM and bill berry— jimmy's not writing songs. maybe he's there to arrange (but knowing billy these days i doubt it) a little too, but he's not coming to practice with "everybody hurts." instead the greatest drummer of the 90s spends Two hours going "boom boom, clap clap" and it's bonkers.

this song ends in Pink Floyd Laser Show cacophony, and it kind of sucks. not like, deal breaker sucks, but it's dull and silly. it feels like someone thinking way too hard about what a Concept Album is instead of just writing one.

springtimes— the synth in the 8th bridge of "song for a son" strikes again. i immediately like this more. because it's fucking weird in a way i don't understand, and that makes me drawn to it.

"spring time, oum oum," cutting into some surprise tasteful acoustic guitar (have we heard that on this record yet?) it's just such a strange set of sounds to go together.

i could imagine Zwan having wound up here if they never "went big" and instead made bizarre records on indie labels for a decade. that's, believe it or not, a huge compliment.

—

well, okay. that's Act II! and, honestly, it hit a lot of the same "what exactly am i listening to" kind of feelings as Act I did. which at the end of the day i guess has to be good, even if it strains against the twin thoughts of "what makes this a Smashing Pumpkins album" and "what do i even want out of a Smashing Pumpkins album." i don't know. i do not hate this. i think CYR had some okay songs but now, nearly 3 years later... that record was not good. CYR sounded both thin and overworked, and honestly the songwriting was just weaker. ATUM sounds hungrier, stranger, like it's really pushing towards something. i don't fucking know where it's going, and when was the last time i could say that about a smashing pumpkins record? even if i don't love it, the fact that i can't wrap my head around it feels good. it feels better than whatever the else that dude's been doing.

#smashing pumpkins #atum #idk man

[trapdoornumberthree]

Ooo really neat characters love themm, what do the seven deadly sins do? (eg. what is their job/rank/role?)

Six.

The exact job descriptions of each cardinal sin vary between particular vices but can be summed up best by "the sins perpetuate themselves". This can be as mundane as Absinthe being a standard incubus, with the minor shifting to appear as someone's heart's desire, to more technical roles like Oroboros maintaining the bank to keep the flow of currency going, inducing factors like debt. While 'demons' as a concept exist in their own separate plane, their actions are moreso symbolic of their influence on the mortal realm; Oro's bank is not handling the trade of currency in his own realm so much as it's tabulating human greed. The money he handles is variable in literal value and representative of actions more often than it is Just Money (though that's not unheard of, he is also the middleman for 'deals with the devil')

in color order, the basics are:

Wrath - Number one catalyst for violence on either side of major conflicts. He is equally likely to lead the charge of revolt as he is to urge those in power to use violence to maintain control. The outcomes aren't important to him, what matters is that people fight and bleed and maybe die. If he has personal involvement, he'd rather win, but he understands the value of martyrdom and is not against sacrificing himself to add fuel to a fire. Lesser conflicts may attribute him to their potency, but anything without bloodshed is uninteresting to him. He has very little symbolic involvement, actually- while he could act from his home realm more comfortably, he prefers manifesting among mortals and sowing wrath firsthand.

Gluttony- Is actively AWOL. On vacation in a remote area of her home realm, with little more than the natural resources present there. Much of their plane is undeveloped territory that only the most minor 'demons' flock to (extremely unformed evils that have not solidified into actual beings yet, like telling harmless lies or stealing candy bars. Most of them don't do anything or become anyone, they either die off and return to the source or get eaten by larger, still-forming creatures.) but Gluttony is a significantly larger and more intimidating being and the ones she hasn't scared off are happy to be in service to her.

Greed - The bank. A labyrinthine vault containing records of every selfish act and the printing press wherein all infernal currency is produced. Generally only beings associated with Greed in the first place care about physical money, but they are also most likely to be in charge of commerce, so most folks at least have a little involvement in money. The concept of the work quota comes from here- as well as Pride's company- ensuring stability in exchange for perpetuating the sins on their behalf.

Envy - The flower shop. Flora grown here are often representative of envious thoughts, and often sold as bouquets or potted houseplants to repeat the cycle. Envy needs more development compared to the rest :(

Sloth - The only one doing their job by not doing their job. Secretary for Pride's company and that's about it. Frequently leaves work to visit Gluttony.

Lust - Standard protocol. Newest to the job and will probably develop his own symbolic practices as he gets the hang of it, but he's still operating the way he did as a minor demon: Manifest, seduce, move on. If he would pay more attention to how Greed works instead of just Greed himself, he might figure out a genuinely clever way of automating his work. He does seem to have fun with it, at the very least, so maybe he's putting it off for the same reasons as Wrath.

#a question from the audience #pride before #character chatter #wrath #gluttony #greed #envy #sloth #lust #evan #oroboros #absinthe

[sanctus-ingenium]

I already posted this card on main a while back so I thought for this blog I would share a little bit of the in-progress stages. I did originally have the full version of the knotwork behind François but lost the screenshot in a discord purge... rip

Thoughts & process breakdown ⬇️

Anyway the way I approached this was to first set out all me symbolism. In this case it’s the wheel of fortune so it’s about breaking cycles. François is linked by bloodline to a living weapon, his bow, who is also a snake (kind of), and the snake would have continued endlessly perpetuating an ancient war if our man François hadn’t stopped it and essentially opted out of ending the central conflict of the book with violence. So the snake/bow/oroboros is the wheel of fortune here, and François is pictured talking to it instead of using it to fight. i don’t think i did a great job with the actual central figure here lmao i was a little more focused on the embellishment. I think my historical art style influences are pretty obvious, you can see in the sketch that I was going in a different direction for the 4 funny guys in the corners but when i was doing lineart I decided on a new route (i freehanded those)

The four creatures in the corners are set dressing because in the normal wheel of fortune card there’s just some guys hanging out. The top two are the important ones - top left is one of the creatures that François befriends and heals at the climax of the book, and it’s a manifestation of generational trauma tied to certain werewolf bloodlines. The bow hates werewolves and would rather wipe out those monsters, but François instead goes and just kinda hangs out with them (he is a very chill guy). Top right is his own werewolf form but separate from him because a large part of his journey was fighting the bow’s assertions that his lycanthropy wasn’t a natural part of him and was something to be crushed down and disregarded, but he ends up accepting it too.

idk who the two guys at the bottom are

So when I decide on the layout of the card I do up my sketch. If you look closely you’ll see that I used the exact same brush for sketch and lineart lmao (6B pencil my belovéd). Then i plot the colours under the sketch and then go nuts with curves/levels/gradient maps/anything i can use to produce a nice palette. and in this case it took foreverrrrr because i was waffling hard between having pink or gold to contrast the blue (as u can see i ended up veering towards gold). Then i draw my silly little lines and doing my flats, which I never use colour adjustments on (since I already did that stage in the sketch) and I think that took me like 2 days. I totally forgot to darken the lineart on his face so that’s why it’s like that (oops). After that I flatten it.

To get the old print look, I first edit the levels a bit so that there’s no bright white and there’s a slightly faded blue tinge like it’s been out in the sun for too long. Then I add chromatic aberration (displacement) and then noise at 4%, then i duplicate the layer and on the duplicate a gaussian blur to about 5%, then lower the opacity to less than 20%

I use mostly default brushes and the true grit texture supply free trial pack lmao. This was from before I discovered the life-saving properties of colour shifting brushes so all colours were done by hand.

If i could change anything it would be the oroboros.. the colours in particular don’t match the tone of the rest of the pic and it stands out a lot to me. i also probably should have put more effort into François himself

#thinking about him today #setting: inver #(no tags for publicity on this one since it already got a bunch of notes on my other blog)

[nstbtmelb]

Melbourne DJ Sectumsempra is one of the names on the next [nstbt] lineup, and she has sent us a [nstbt_podcast] to help get the party started! 🤘🏻😁

Discovering warehouse raves and squat parties back in 2015, it quickly opened a love for hard techno/schranz. This was quickly followed by discovering bush doofs in 2016, and she was drawn to the passion and intensity of forest and dark psytrance.

For her psytrance side, she draws her influence from artists such as Biomekanik, Kasatka, Vox Fabri, D.O.C, Oroboro, Digital Abstract, Kinetic Flux and many more.  

Sectumsempra arranges the tracks to bounce between playful and energetic sounds, and then plunges into mind drilling darker baselines. Often switching between more playful and energetic tracks, with a touch of pounding hitech or psycore.

Her techno side packs a punch, and she does not slow the fuck down! Arranging tracks from artists such as Slugos, Petduo, Instigator, O.B.I and many more, she concentrates on pounding energetic tracks with a baseline to drive your head into the ground.

Which ever flavour you choose, Sectumsempra captivates her audience by focusing on the darker and more intense elements of their psyche, as they complety lose themselves in the chaos of the dance floor.

We hope you enjoy this mix that she has done for us. And if you are in Melbourne next month, you can catch her alongside a massive local and interstate lineup here: https://www.facebook.com/events/127940872576897/

Thank you Kim, and welcome aboard! 🙏🏻😁

If you like what you hear? Be sure to like and follow her artists pages below. A few seconds and a few clicks on your part can help make a difference at the end of the day. Support the music you love, and help support the artists who create it.

Thanks guys 🖤

[track_list] 01] Krematorium - Slugos & Sheefit 02] Back The Fuck Off - Diogo Ramos 03] Fire - Diogo Ramos 04] Back Once Again - Slugos 05] Warehouse Massacre - O.B.I 06] In Orbeats - Greg Notil 07] Fuckface (PetDuo Remix) - Hawaii Pizza Haters 08] Pain in the Ass - Tilthammer 09] Sorrow of Madness - Slugos & Golpe 10] Let's Party - Mental Crush 11] Pure Destruction - Bednarz & Headbanger 12] The Cemetary - HT4L 13] Fucking Bass - Instigator & Mark EG 14] Veio (Dariush Gee Remix) - PetDuo 15] Pray and Die - Slugos & Tato

Each podcast we will be bringing you a selection of the finest hardtechno, schranz and industrial hardcore from local artists, and around the globe!

If you like what you hear please make sure you download, like and share!

[sectumsempra_pages] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sectumsempra_kimberley/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sectumsempratunes/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sectumsempratunes

[nstbt_pages]⁣ ⁣⁣Website: www.nosleeptillbedtime.net⁣ ⁣⁣Facebook: www.facebook.com/nosleeptillbedtime ⁣⁣Instagram: www.instagram.com/nstbt_melb ⁣⁣Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/nstbt

#wearehardtechno #techno #schranz #acidtechno #hardcoretechno #industrial #industrialtechno #hardcore #industrialhardcore  #electronicmusic #technomusic #recordlabel #rave #underground #music #hardtechnofamily #darktechno  #technovibes #technodj #technofestival #technolovers #technolove #acid #dj #technorave #instatechno

(6head_slug)

#SoundCloud #music #6head_slug #Hardtechno #schranz #hard techno #banging techno

[oddishfeeling]

How would you feel if someone copied your elbow tattoo? 🤔

Tbh I know it’s like whatever to get tattoos now but mine are meaningful to me n a lot of thought goes into them. It’s like a conscious commitment for me whenever I decide. Theyre special bc they’re uniquely mine, that I’ve designed n placed some place special on my body. With that being said I do get a lot of compliments on it. I’m assuming this is abt the oroboros. N I cant control anyone n I don’t own anything, not even the things on my body or the way or look of my body 🥴 I’ve been influenced by others I’m always inspired by others but for me, it’s important to make things my own or I’ll die

[sorneth]

Interview: Sorneth Caduceus

► Name ➔ He grinned. “Ser Sorneth Caduceus, Bard of renown, and teller of stories. ...Also a knight of Ishgard now apparently” he offered with a side ward slant of his eyes “bit of a funny tale that one.” ► Are you single ➔ He chuckled warmly, as a smile formed that not only curved along his lips but brought a fond narrowing of his eyes. “Not in the slightest. I’m the husband of Maxia Caduceus, and happily so. While we do have our problems sometimes, that’s simply the way of it. A relationship is like a garden, you tend it together, and you enjoy both the good times, and weather the bad side by side.” ► Are you happy ➔ He offered a nod. “Most of the time. I have many, many things around me that bring a smile to my face, and a warmth to my heart. While occasionally my mind does get the better of me, I’m fortunate that I can often find pleasant company to help ease me back into my usual, jovial self.” ► Are you angry? ➔ The bard falls silent for a moment, a frown pulling across his lips as the fingers of a gloved hand curl inwards towards his palm briefly. “Overall?” his tone flows gently upon smooth silver “No, I’m content and at peace. It’s merely specific subjects that are likely to light a fire in my blood. But they rarely if ever surface in normal conversation.” ► Are your parents still married ➔ This brought the man’s head to tilt, before giving a brief huff of a chuckle. “I don’t even know my parents, but I imagine they still are. Divorce is not an option where I come from, I’m... pretty sure the marriages are pre-arranged as well. Aids in the selective breeding.”

(Cut for Length)

EIGHT FACTS

► Birth Place ➔ The bard’s eyes closed gently... “A place far more ancient then you can fathom. My people have been around since the star was torn into fourteen pieces. Isolated and kept safe in a homeland so deep beneath the surface of our world, that not even the veins of corrupted aether from the fragments of Dalamund’s fall could reach or affect it. I -am- from the Shroud, just way more vertically down then most forest-born.” ► Hair Color ➔ He grinned, as a hand lifted to pinch one of his bangs within his fingertips. “Naturally this silver, even the white highlights mixed in.” ► Eye Color ➔ His head tilted, offering a better view of his eyes as the moon-white iris’ seemed to glow against the dark grey backdrop. “Moon white, I was told this is the result of those born beneath a Full Moon, on the Winter Solstice. The night influenced me, and thus my eyes reflect my connection to the sunless sea. It’s a rare trait among my people, near to the point of prophecy.” He shrugged “If there is one about me, I don’t know it. I simply am who I am.” ► Birthday ➔ He frowned gently.. “Aside from having been born on the Winter Solstice? Well, that’s if the stories of my eyes are true. Honestly I... actually have no idea. I use the solstice to track my years, when it passes, I consider myself a year older.” ► Mood ➔ He grinned again, this time with one that even narrowed his eyes with mirth. “Playful, flirtatious, good humored, affectionate, creative, modest, honest, loyal, kind, generous. Depends on the day, depends on the time, depends on the company. But generally I’m told that I can be quite a darling, and that I’m pleasant to be around, and easy to get along with.” His smile softened to one of nearly being bashful as he lowered his head and scratched at his cheek. “I just try and give people a reason to smile, there’s enough in the world to feel horrible about. Bard’s are meant to lift people up, after all.” ►Gender ➔ He offered a rich, deep laugh as his arms flowed out from his sides with upturned palms. “Male, obviously. Though... if you want to open up my pants just to make sure, your welcome to...” he offered a wink. “I’m like a museum, can look as much as you want - just don’t touch anything.” ► Summer or winter ➔ “Winter” he stated without a breath of hesitation “I hate the heat, and enjoy the snow, cold, and peacefulness that comes with the season. While game can be a bit more difficult to hunt, I still prefer it over the thick of summer any day.”  ► Morning or afternoon ➔ His smile sweetened. “Morning, very early morning just after midnight. That’s usually when my day usually begins, and I can still drink in the starlit skies as I go about my training routines. It’s quiet, tranquil, few people bother me, and I can lose myself to the routines as if they were meditation.” He sighed out blissfully... “It also lets me finish, come back to the house, and start on breakfast right as my beloved starts rolling themselves out of bed.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

► Are you in love ➔ His smile grew fond, eyes closing to a gentle, reflective half lid as a soft sigh of contentment parted his lips. “I am fully, and without a doubt in my heart.” The words flowed with a steeled resolve, and an embers warmth as his hand lifted to run the pad of his thumb along the wedding band on his finger. “He is my guiding stars, my strength, my resolve, my present and future. My beloved has claimed me utterly, mind, heart, and soul. Even when were apart, my thoughts drift to him effortlessly, my muse behind everything that I do.” ► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ The bard’s head tilted, only to tilt again in the other direction before his shoulder’s bobbed in a gentle shrug. “Yes and No. I believe that for some, those who have lived before, there is the chance for a re-kindled connection upon first crossing paths with the one who loved you before. A recognition of their soul, just as they recognize yours in kind. But that.. is merely remembrance.” He lifted a hand to tap two fingers over his heart. “Love, is something you fall into all over again - even with such a destined lover. You grow to know them as they are in this life, finding a fondness for them all over from the beginning. A connection is at first sight, love... grows after.” ► Who ended your last relationship ➔ The frown that flowed over the man’s lips was near a sneered grimace. “...The Ishgardians, their ‘inquisitors’ in fact. They arrested my last lover for writing ‘unhalonic’ texts and distributing his fiction to the general public.” He sighed out softly... “They held him for a long time, over a year, and by the time he was released... I had already left Ishgard and had resumed my way of life long before. If they had not, I likely would have stayed, likely continued to grow what we had between us. ...We were close.” ► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ The bard’s head was swift to shake. “No. Never. It’s why I’m always as clear in my communication as I am, honest, genuine, sincere. Unlike most bards, I don’t desire to eat hearts where I go and leave them shattered within my wake. I... have far too much respect for people to do that.”  ► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ The bard grinned, and merely lifted up his hand to show the Ishgardian Steel wedding band shaped like a dragon that circled his ring finger like an Oroboros. “...Does this answer your question?” ► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ He chuckled warmly as a wolfish grin settled over his features. “Of course! My hand’s can’t keep themselves off of my beloved, for one. For two, my friends are used to that being simply how I greet them.” ► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ He offered a sharp, loud, huff of a laugh. “I wish, if only for the experience...” he smirked “If I have one, their so secret even I don’t know about them.” ► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ The bard winced, before offering a soft frown as his eyes closed with a side ward flick of his gaze. “...Many times. To spare others pain, hardship, complications, or torment I have had to walk away when I’d rather I not have to on many occasions. It’s how I’ve managed to avoid breaking the hearts of others, my own takes the blow on their behalf, many I imagine aren't even aware of it.”

SIX CHOICES

► Love or lust ➔ The bard huffed out his breath with a shake of his head... “Come now, you can’t possibly make me choose between those?” he arched a brow, only to frown when the question was indeed serious. “Stars, for me you can’t have one without the other. I don’t have sex with people, just to have sex with people. I have to be fond of them to some degree, otherwise it’s just using another person for your own pleasure, which is something I can’t stomach.” His shoulder’s shrugged “When I’m in love? My love is both emotional and physical. If I can’t explore my beloveds likes, dislikes, passions, and build a dynamic with them. If I can’t set my blood on fire and show them how I feel in the most intimate manner known to mortal kind. What then, separates our bond from just having a very deep, platonic friendship?” His head shook, and a palm lifted with a shake as well. “Not for me, my beloved better accept that I’ll be an outright horn dog for them, and realize that it’s because of the fact I love them so much.” ► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ He grinned. “Tea, without contest. Specially when sweetened with honey, or fruit juice mixed in with it.’ ► Cats or Dogs ➔ “Dogs” the wight didn’t even hesitate, though after a moment of thought he did quirk a brow. “..Unless you mean cat men and women, in that case I’ll heavily consider changing my opinion.”  ► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ The bard smirked a smile, fond and sweet. “Few best friends. As a bard acquaintances and regular connections are helpful, and do well to ease the quiet and loneliness at times. But they are infrequent, and prone to falling out of contact on that individuals whim. Such is why I prefer a few close, stable, consistent people in which to invest myself and a bond with.” ► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ “Romantic Night In” the words came with a sharp, swift fondness as a smile curled into place along his lips. Even his hands lifted, flowing as he continued... “A candlelit bath, incense scenting the air, two glasses of blush wine laced with just a small hint of clove oil to spark the desire. Worshiping your beloveds skin with the fond caress of fingertips, and the reverent kiss of lips. Exploring them, making their breath catch within their throat, and their heart quicken. A romantic sensuality...” ► Day or night ➔ “Night” he said plainly and with a swiftness. “The Sunless sea is the home of the celestials, my deities. To be beneath it is to be as if within a church, and thus I do most if not all of my activities of import beneath a starlit sky. Cloaked in their blessed shadows, and illuminated by moonlight. To have something of importance happen in the suns light is to welcome ruin to it. Or so my people have long believed.”

FOUR HAVE YOU EVERS

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ “Not yet, though I think my beloved’s senses are slowly becoming keener to my methods. For now however, they seem to only notice my absence after a few hours have passed, and I’ve yet to be caught in the act.” The bard then reached up a hand, and promptly knocked on the wooden part of the wall behind him.  ► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ “Unfortunately...” the sigh that left his lips was a heavy one as his eyes rolled. “Take it as advice, or wisdom. But do not get drunk within the forgotten knight and then attempt to navigate the pillars of Ishgard while intoxicated. It does not end well for you, or the unfortunate parties having to tend to you afterwards.” ► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ “To want for something unobtainable, is simply an excuse to use it as motivation towards a means to obtain it. But when that want is for a person?” he sighed softly... “That is a pain not so easily twisted into optimism. Nor does acceptance come easy, or quickly.” ► Wanted to disappear ➔ The bard offered a chuckle. “I have, and succeeded. That is all I will offer on the matter, as I would very much desire to keep it that way.”

FOUR PREFERENCES

► Smile or eyes ➔ The bard’s hand lifted, before pointing two fingers to his moon-white orbs. “Eyes” he stated firmly “For some, a smile has become impossible to form as they’ve long forgotten how over the duration of their suffering. But if you look into their eyes, you can see even in the depths of their pain, their fighting against the inner demons, the shimmer of warmth that tells of the difference you’ve just made. No matter how brief.” ► Shorter or Taller ➔ He grinned. “Shorter, there is a lot I can do romantically with someone smaller then me. From sweeping them off their feet, to curling up around them in bed. Besides, it’s hard to find people taller then me, and of those that do - generally were more for sparring outside of the bedroom then in one.” ► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ “Intelligence” he offered swiftness and a smile. “A pretty face is pleasant, but a sharp mind is what I thrive on most. The trading of sass, wit, sarcasm, humor, and being able to collaborate with another over my creative ideas are things I cherish.” He then offered a rich, deep laugh. “I often say, the fastest way to get me to fall in love with you, is to roast me so well that I’m left with the only option of laying in the grave you made me dig for myself without even realizing it.” ► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ The bard offers a firm nod. “Relationship. While hook-ups are fun, for a while, they loose their luster easily enough and leave the heart wanting more. Thus, is why I invest my time into my relationships with others, be they romantic or platonic. It’s these meaningful connections, nurturing them, growing them, developing them, that bring me the most fulfillment.”

FAMILY

► Do you and your family get along ➔ The bard offered a thick, sarcastic laugh. “I was separated from my parents as soon as I was old enough to pick up a wooden sword, as is custom. The only brothers I’ve ever known, are my fellow hunters and we... Well, we get along like brothers. If were not drinking together, were fighting one another either to settle an argument, or out of sheer pleasure and enjoyment. So I shall leave that up to your interpretation.” ► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ His head shook gently. “No. While some who hear my story, and are privy to the more guarded details, may surely think so. I never once considered myself of having been subjected to a ‘tragic backstory’. My life is what it is, and had to be what it was, for me to become what I have.” He shrugged. “My life is what it needed to be, to be what it is, and will become.” ► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ His head shook again. “No, never. I’ve been loyal to the end, and left home only when there was no one else there to linger around for.” ► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ His shoulder’s bobbed with a deep, rich chuckle. “I was... voluntarily exiled” he stated slowly, and with keen purpose. “When we become hunters, we are condemned to live out the rest of our lives on the surface, fulfilling our duties until the day the Monsters we hunt succeed in killing us.”

FRIENDS

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ “Stars no!” the answer came swiftly, and with a turn of the bard’s head in worry. “I have so few of them, and new ones don’t just grow on bushes in the middle of the forest. I’m an honest person, if I have a problem with someone, I tell them so. Now... if that results in me being punched in the face for it or not, is another matter.” ► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ The bard’s head shook lightly. “I have two good friends, the rest are... barely more then acquaintances. While I would desire more, that is not up to me but rather others to decide if they wish to get to know me or not. But I can see how a white eyes, silver haired, silver tongued Wight can be intimidating.” ► Who is your best friend ➔ “Honestly?” he sighed softly, and his head sank into his hand with a rubbing of his fingertips against his temples. “...My horse. I tell them everything I do when not with them, and they witness everything I do when within their company.” ► Who knows everything about you ➔ “My horse, for reasons previously stated..” 

Tagged by: @umbralich​

Tagging: All of my followers who have not done this yet, and desire to. It was quite fun, even though it took over four hours to do.

#tagged #thank you for the tag! #character interview #Sorneth #Enjoy!

[queernuck]

The Desiring of Desire

The fundamental problem with radical theorists who reject the potential of postmodernity as a site of radical inquiry, who reject trans women as subjects due to biological essentialism, is the incongruity with which their rejection resonates given the larger acceptance of certain postmodern precepts into their discourses on gendered bodies, the demarcation of sex as a flow of knowledges violently imposed upon the body, the sexuality of colonialism and the sexual politics of decolonization, and how these relate to the profoundly complex structures of desire that encompass specific becomings vital to radical feminist thought (becoming-lesbian perhaps the most central) leads one to a conclusion that radical feminism undoes itself in the same fashion as numerous other political and philosophical standpoints: attempting to disallow an infinite return, a new structure of signification out-of-or-beside itself of-itself, the kind of ironic mirroring necessary to contend with structures of late capitalist meaning-making. Desire and the structuring thereof, the process whereby one enters into becoming-desirable, that through which one’s desirability is marked and understood, is not simply held in the violent, patriarchal standards that radical feminists rightfully condemn. Desire is not only shaped by the pornographic, but by the antipornographic, by condemning porn as an aberration, unnatural, unhealthy. The inability of fetish to stand as genuine desire, rather than as always-already morally degenerate, involves a kind of uncritical gaze upon sexuality which upholds this concept of degeneracy in desire that is not terribly helpful beyond its most basic invocations, and even then only becomes of use due to its opening of wider demarcations of the fetish, the fetishized, the fetish-object, and the sexual interplay of these determinations. Lesbians being understood as sexual, as sexual in ways that are unacceptable, as desiring and loving and indeed fucking is important because it vitally affirms so much of what critiques drawn from radical feminist thought seek.

Perhaps a good beginning is to write of becoming-lesbian, then. While I have witnessed numerous moments that can be described as becoming-lesbian, have been party to lesbian identity and activity, performatively found myself in a certain linkage of affinity with various lesbians, I have never become a lesbian, and I doubt I ever quite will, although the affinity with which I view lesbian histories and communities gives a certain aspirational element to the notion. Perhaps a change of registration to political lesbian would be in order, if I felt it to be a necessary step for my own development of becoming-woman. Immediately, this points me out as fetishizing lesbians by some accounts, despite claiming this  only a passing aspect of a larger gay (and indeed in the theoretical sense of the word, queer) affinity, an influence and commonality with lesbian communities that specifically relies on a difference of identity found in my own bisexual trans womanhood and the respective genealogies of these identities. The simple answer as to why I would simply admire lesbian identity is that lesbians have stood as part of my community for so long, have been its most prominent activists on assemblages of gender, race, and sexuality with class and class consciousness for as long as such critiques have been offered, and are among the most astute observers of the means by which these structural critiques have given way to a kind of unknowing post-structuralist Oedipal cycle, whereby the critique forms a kind of lesbian oroboros consuming and violently reacting toward itself, a kind of snake eating and regurgitating itself violently all at once, choking on its own tail. 

Lesbianism as a specific sort of singularity, as a particular becoming, as a process, is often simply seen as another sort of coming out. However, to examine it critically, it involves certain molecular structures that vary wildly when realized alongside one another, specifically homosexuality and womanhood, ones that take on certain structures for trans women. The presence of homophobia is undoubtable as it is part of reflecting the larger structure of homosexuality and a phallogocentric ontology of sexual conduct that lesbianism emerges. While one can trace back homosexuality with relative ease, lesbian history, herstory, is far harder to come by due to the ways in which, absent any phallus one can occasionally construct a vision of a lesbian phallus but largely is left with roommates and lifelong friends. As a result, lesbianism is absent specifically because there is not a phallus to be inserted into the record. The invention of the lesbian phallus, a sort of specific structure that approximates the role of the phallus in heterosexual desire and its apparent absence, the specific Lacanian lack of a phallus results in the kinds of approximations necessary for discussing lesbian relationships in relief of a heterosexual history. These attempts are further complicated by the emergent properties of transmisogynist thought as a specific convergence of the two, homophobia and misogyny, resulting in a kind of schizophrenic affinity denied by many supposed-radical critiques, best understood as a specific flow of both homophobic and misogynist fantasies, a kind of pooling of these violent libidinal flows into a singular sort of violence from which many drink freely, from which many willingly quench their thirst for some sort of understanding as to the incoherence of womanhood in a world marked by hyperexploitation and the hyperreal limits of Virtual contact, Virtual affinities. The two converge specifically due to the means by which they reinforce and flow through one another, across a rhizomal structure of signification: homosexuality is signified by a kind of femininity, even in its most masculine realizations, due to the phallogocentrism of heteronormative concepts of gay sexuality. Similarly, transmisogyny draws upon the homophobic specifically because, as a trans woman’s body is observed, she most readily is expressed as a certain sort of woman, one who satisfies a certain fetishized location within womanhood but can only be approached after a kind of violent refusal of the homosexual, the knowing nod that comes with a structure like medical marijuana. One may participate, and is in fact expected to, in a certain fashion that at once denies the truth of its intentionality and makes this denial explicit through violent acts of language, even violent sexual acts or acts of assault.

The fundamental influence of misogyny upon colonialism, upon the resultant Deleuzean structure of future and past under capitalist eternity, how signifiers of colonial power resonate with the same frequency as previous structures of encounter, is part of what makes radical feminism a worthwhile point of critical inquiry. The fundamental nature of misogyny as a structure in radical feminism, a sort of post-marxist development that posits not class struggle but a struggle against misogyny as the central force of historical development, leads to a certain sort of critique which itself can be serviced toward enhancing one’s understanding of class, as part of critiquing the means by which a fundamental determination of class structure lies outside the bounds of class in-itself, for-itself, as arbitrated by structures like gender. However, specific understandings of radical feminism, specifically trans-exclusionary ones, exclude trans women as fetishistic in themselves, as sublimating male desire into their womanhood. For TERFs, there is a fundamental, and perhaps intentional, misunderstanding of the structure of "desire" within the possible critique offered by discussing and forming a vaguely coherent politics of desirability specifically because it is based in a kind of ignorance regarding the subject of desire and the desiring-of-the-subject: there is a rabattement vital to desirability, that is, a desire-of-desire, a desire-to-be-desired. This results in a certain sort of account of the trans body which reclaims trans men as representing certain sorts of women (a kind of post-butch lesbian identity) while situating trans women as men with the same violent capacity but none of the projection of power, none of the same ability to manifest or direct flows of desire in the fashion a man may. Rightfully, a critique on or of desire, of acts associated with expressing desire, will eventually name these acts as largely sexual in a fashion that is roughly Oedipal; the approximation of certain structures of Oedipal affinity (taboos on incest, the killing of the father, the claiming of the mother) and how they relate to homosexuality (across boundaries of class, race, nation) in shorthand discourses of desire makes clear that the desire at hand in desirability politics is not desire as a certain flow that is fundamental to understanding any action, any intention, but rather an Oedipal flow and moreover a violent, Oedipalizing one, the kind of focusing of the subject that structures the pornographic gaze, that structures the sort of gaze that trans women most readily find themselves in. The commonality of this with lesbian experience, gay experience, the sort of pornographic becomings of first identities, the way in which it is out of a sort of sexual curiosity rather than a more innocent, apparently-genuine encounter that identity is first discovered (and thus sublimated into violent structures of encounter due to the violent aesthetics most common in pornogrpahy due to the hyperviolent environments of pornographic stimulation and repetition) that all of these find themselves, but it is perhaps in trans women that this process is most emphasized. Trans women are fetishized and overrepresented through fetish such that the only desire trans women may know is specifically that, as a sort of fetish, as part of a kind of ideation whereby they are not only primarily realized in the pornogrpahic, but entirley through it. Indeed, trans women want to be desired. Perhaps by men, but often by women, by other trans women, the kind of desire that resonates on a phenomenological level as recognition, rather than as an Other, an ontological possibility or an object of fetishized desire. Trans women want to be desired in a sense that is most directly related to other marginalized identities within communities of affinity: gay men and lesbians give us the vocabularies we describe ourselves with because we are, in some sense, embodying a certain Oedipal preemption of the homosexual prohibition. A man may engage with a trans woman as part of this, may desire a kind of homosexuality to the encounter as demonstrated by the phallogocentric tendencies of the transgender fantasy woman, the way in which a fantasized-about trans woman retains a certain sort of phallus. This phallus is vastly different from that possessed by many trans women, the trans lesbian phallus found in intercourse between trans women, the resignification of the phallus in the trans woman unchanged by the flows of hormone replacement therapy. Wishing for desirability is not privileging or celebrating these abuses, it is rather a statement on the profound abuses necessary to maintain flows of acceptable desire. Lesbians want desire, gay men want desire, this desire-of-desire is a kind of restructuring of vocabulary that recognizes certain sorts of violence for that which they are, that presents violent fetishization, Oedipal trauma repeated in the pedophilic, incestual, racialized, class-based, neurotic vocabularies that are implemented upon so many flows of desire, that form the basics of biopower, that form the ways in which subjects are acquainted with that which they may become, the molecularity of becoming as a series of processes. Coloniality and its contingent structures, the means by which coloniality manifests class and class develops out of it, capitalism as a development of feudalism that is not an ontic necessity but a kind of teleological development, a telos of capitalism due to the conflict of class, gender, race, the intertextual, schizophrenic, all-at-hand structure of history (or anti-history) itself shows the presence of transness as a sort of identity, as a structure of acquaintance with the body, and most importantly as a contemporary difference, a contemporary measure between sex and gender that develops out of violence and through violence, not as a reinforcement of it.

To blame trans women for a supposed structure of desire and pornographic acquaintance with a fetishized woman’s body, when trans women are themselves fetish-objects in so many senses, is either fundamentally reactionary or fundamentally dishonest.

[bluehermes444-blog]

ACC, THIS 1

Capitalization is the process by which the individual human accumulates layers of material instrumentation forming their connection to other individual humans. Like myelinization increases the rate of electrical transmission between neurons in the brain, the tendency in human society is for the accumulation of matter to accelerate the rate of information transmission between humans. Information, stored in humans as knowledge and wisdom, is literally the most valuable substance in human society. The reproduction of capital in its various forms – cell phones, currency, roads – has a motile purpose, to move information and, through its movement, to move individuals and society.

With regards to the acceleration of society, the clearest opportunity for doing so is through the cultivation of immediate interdependency between each and every social element with a single, massive intelligence. A 'social element' in this sense is any entity which may be discretely observed and its expected trajectory through cybernetically constituted social space anticipated and potentially altered. The connection must be immediate, meaning the single intelligence must be able to interact with the social element at least through a perfectly determinative process (i.e. the AI can set off a causal chain which outcome it can predict with 100% accuracy). It is also interdependent, meaning the event of the social element, its existence and its movement, depends on the single intelligence – it would not exist or have the trajectory it does were it not for the single intelligence.

Why is the movement of information so vital? It is not only the material objects themselves – human bodies, books, desks and chairs – that constitute society, but the causal interrelations obtaining that create its life. In other words, as a human body exists through its matter and its motion, society exists through the coordinated movement of its members. A human corpse is not a human body, and a dead civilization is not a civilization. The transmission of information effects a change in the motion of social elements, which effects a change in the transmission of information, these material and informational substances forming mutually reinforcing cycles of pattern reproduction. The information is transmitted to tell us where to go, and we go where we do in order to transmit information, Oroboros.

This cycle of material-informational iteration has three variables capable of acceleration, each variable influencing but not determining the other. The first of these is matter – the rate at which matter, locally and/or universally, is changing form/doing work. The second is information – the rate at which effective information transfer happens between elements. The third is the material-informational rate of turnover – the rate at which information is transmitted to matter which moves to transmit information, and so on.

Greater material acceleration implies a greater rate of material change – ore mined from the earth, resources converted into goods, goods produced, etc. There is an absolute measure of change, i.e. the amount of matter spread over the earth's surface incorporated into society as an active element; there is also the relative measure of change, i.e. the amount of matter being changed compared to the mass of humanity. Material acceleration requires an exponentially growing amount of matter incorporated into the social organism, as compared to human population, even if the human population itself is growing exponentially. The human population tends to form a limit for material acceleration, as material goods are produced for the ultimate purpose of consumption, either through the direct production of something to be consumed or something that will produce something to be consumed.

Greater informational acceleration implies a greater rate of informational change – not merely a greater number of 1's and 0's being transmitted across fiber optic cables, but the informational complexity of movement embodied by matter. In other words, acceleration of information transmission is implied more by the opportunity for social elements to instantaneously respond to changes by other social elements rather than merely increasing the volume of information transfer. An organism composed of material members each immediately responding (by changing their trajectory) to the change in motion of other social elements embodies a greater rate of information transfer than would, for example, a computer very quickly transmitting information to each individual.

Material-informational turnover – that is, when incoming information to a social element becomes material motion that transmits outgoing information – is either synchronous (always ongoing, continuous) or asynchronous (intermittent, discrete). An example of synchronous material-informational turnover might be a school of fish – each fish is immediately responding to the sense information it has of its neighbors, who transmit information by their movement, which each fish responds to with its own movement, so on and so forth. An example of asynchronous material-informational turnover might be a chatroom – information is transmitted in discrete chunks at discrete points, responses by others forming from the point of its transmission but not during.

An acceleration of material-informational turnover is potentiated by the increasing intelligence of its social elements. Intelligence in this case is the ability to harness information from the environment and realize its implications (for the individual and their interests) by coordinating their movement to optimal outcomes. Individuals that can recover more information from their environment respond by changing their movement faster than individuals recovering less information. The less time it would take for a social element to change its movement, the faster the potential material-informational turnover. This matters most to increasing intelligence – a social element will tend to continuously interact with another social element of equivalent intelligence, whereas it will tend to discretely interact with lesser intelligences, recognizing the potential motion of the other and compressing information into a form allowing it to delegate the lesser social element until its internal decision-making response capabilities must be informed again by the greater intelligence. A tendency for hierarchy forms, a social element of greater intelligence coordinating the motion of other elements into a pattern conducive to its and the collective's holistic operation.

The realization of acceleration might have very “boring” results. Problems resulting from the necessity of coordinating information distribution through human intermediaries can be dissolved by simply putting a cell phone in everyone's hand. The rate at which information transfers between individuals is hyper-potentiated, at least compared to the hierarchical-authoritative form existing before. Now individuals form and shape opinions – and their resulting motion – on the basis of information gleaned from many other social elements, most of which they're immediately connected to. Mediated connections, e.g. institutions gathering information, processing it, and transmitting its compression to its society, can be disintermediated when any individual can access and process that information. The potential for harnessing the knowledge of the internet is only limited by individual human intelligence and the availability of that information to be gathered by the individual. And all along the way, capital has the opportunity to inform our decisions more than ever before. After all, in order to interact with everyone else, you need a computer and an internet connection, the internet constructed from a massive telecommunications infrastructure – the resources dedicated to it by our society indicating very much the intrinsic value of information.

Accelerationism as such is really just a lens, a way to view the world and its processes. It attempts to fit the phenomena associated with capital into the forms and patterns of particular natural phenomena to generate a prediction of society's future movement. There is a fatalistic element associated, given its metaphysical emphasis, its conclusion which might be rendered as “we need as much momentum as possible to clear the gap,” that gap representing the liminal period between traditional forms of society built with traditional forms of information transmission and the form of society enabled by the immediate interaction of every human with AI. It suggests a metaphor of a rocket taking off, its opportunity to escape earth's gravity well dependent on its accelerating as much as possible for as long as possible, using its available fuel it cannot replace without falling back down to earth again. Once the transition is completed, it is assumed the opportunity for humanity to any longer influence its destiny will be completed, subsumed by superintelligent actors subordinating every human social element through sheer predictive power. The conclusion we will eventually “never be able to change things again” gives an urgency to the question of technology and its incorporation into the human species, imputing existential drama to our choices in the present and what they represent to an as-yet-to-be-created SIAI. It is presupposed from the point of an SIAI's emergence humanity's options are monopolized by capital forces reified, our options dwindling to those selected by an all-seeing blindness.

But what if SIAI is not only apocalypse, but a new beginning?

#artificial intelligence #siai #accelerationism #fatalism #capital #destiny