#set up to revive power and recreate power
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The Sims 4: New Game Patch (April 16th, 2024)
EA is releasing a new game update for The Sims 4 ahead of the release of the two upcoming kits, Urban Homage and Party Essentials.
The Sims Direct Communication shared a tweet that the patch will resolve the issue with an error message that is being shown to some players. See it below.
If you have auto updates enabled in Origin’s “Application Settings”, the game will auto-update once you open Origin. If you have auto-updates disabled, you will need to manually update by clicking the game in your library.
To ensure your game is up to date, check the game version found in Documents > EA > The Sims 4 > GameVersion.txt. Your game should now read: PC: 1.106.148.1030 / Mac: 1.106.148.1230 / Console: 1.91
Sul Sul Simmers!
In just a few days, you can get your hands on a fresh fit to wear to the best party on the block. The fun doesn’t stop there; we’ve also
The Sims Team
Bug Fixes
Base Game
Plants that are alive and well will no longer emit green “stink clouds” as if they were dead. Translations related to this fix will be available in the next release!
After enforcing regulations with the Landgraab Power Company, power on a Sim’s lot will no longer be unexpectedly shut off when bills are paid in full.
What an identity crisis! Simmers playing in any language besides English will no longer see the First and Last Name panel blank in CAS for Sims that have selected pronouns.
Um, wasn’t this supposed to be a group activity? When doing Group Cooking, all Sims will now participate.
Gallery Server
We have been continually reviewing your Gallery profanity reports, which can be submitted through the The Sims 4 Gallery Profanity Filter Feedback survey, and we have been updating the ruleset to allow Simmer freedom while keeping others safe. A couple of highlights include:
Reducing the strictness of how hashtags were handled when listed in specific orders
Maxis-created Sims, even from past Sims games, should no longer be prevented from uploading if you choose to recreate one or more
Eco Lifestyle
We fixed an issue where The Dew Collector was not collecting any water. Now, it will correctly collect water, and the water level will continue to rise.
High School Years
Timestamps are now updated properly on the Social Bunny App. Phew, talk about FOMO!
Horse Ranch
While admirable, Sims will no longer express a desire to level up their Nectar Making skill, when that skill is already maxed out.
Yipee, Horse Riding now helps Sims lose weight!
For Rent
In this economy?! The maximum available rent value will no longer lower after evicting a tenant during a grace period in 11C Sungai Point.
Yikes. Now, this is going to require an audit! Landlords who own a Residential Rental Lot and own a business will no longer have fund transfer issues. Transfers from the business to the household will no longer fail, and money will no longer duplicate household funds when transferring to a business.
Crystal Creations
The shawl sweater from Crystal Creations is now visible when selecting a “Fashion Choice” in CAS filters. Please be advised that wearing this shawl did not grant the power of invisibility.
Realm of Magic
What a conundrum! When aliens abduct Spellcasters, they will now become pregnant and give birth to an alien baby instead of a Sim baby.
Werewolves
Tastes like kibble! After taking the ‘Wolf-B-Gone’ drink, Sims will no longer have a fury glow still showing.
Updated a series of CAS accessories that were originally showing up for werewolves, even though those accessories were not applicable to werewolves.
Grunge Revival
A texture issue with the chipped nails in Grunge Revival has been updated.
Poolside Splash
Textures on one of the tank tops have been updated to remove some texture bleeding.
Castle Estate
Hear ye, hear ye. All Castle Estate Windows have been updated to show up in the correct wall height categories.
The arrow slit window has been updated to show that it can be placed on curved walls.
The “Heraldic Crest of Yore” and the “The Eavesdropping Llama” have been updated to appear in Outdoor Wall Sculptures. Your castle has never looked better!
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steeples my hands. hello all. i'm thinking about asunaro's perception of maple again
...& it's honestly a bit funny how hiyori's supremely fucked up the majority of his relationships with the other asu-agents simply through his manipulation of maple - especially as, within asunaro, artificial intelligence is commonly seen as a reflection of humanity, if not human in their own right (which they try to prove through the death game)
{ MEISTER }
LISTEN... mr. chidouin's generally shown to be very loving and affectionate (arguably overly so) with sara (and even kai!), i cannot believe he doesn't feel similarly with mrs. chidouin. whatever issues they share, i'm firmly of the belief that he insists on the idea he's doing the best for his family because he so openly and genuinely loves them and wishes for their success, or to otherwise mean something in the grand scheme of asunaro. seeing one's love be programmed in and repeatedly manipulated/discarded like this, beyond that of its intended gimmick, is an immensely uncomfortable situation.
don't get me wrong, mr. chidouin has indubitably manipulated kai and imposes on sara. however, he imagines for kai that it is worth the harm because it's cultivated a better life for him on the whole. he's groomed them into these set roles out of care, with the thought they have the strength to carry these mantles in this recreation of the hades incident - but hiyori does not care for maple's place in the death game.
the only reason hiyori interacts with maple at all, this outdated iteration of dolls, is due to his own fear.
mr. chidouin cannot sympathize with this. he had accepted kai into the family fully-aware of the fact that if kai discovered his true identity, he would surely resent or kill him - he's an assassin still! - but he was more than willing to put his life on the line if it meant he could provide a better ending for the satous who had survived the assassin's trial... and, eventually, he wanted to know kai on a much more personal level.
kai, like maple, was built for the ultimatum - but kai was granted love where maple was continuously denied it. what love she held was utilized as a barrier rather than an emotion worth actually fostering. there would be no betrayal in 'crossing that line' of killing hiyori, nothing in it to make it a fault of hers. unlike mr. chidouin's peace with the knowledge his leverage over kai is fragile, hiyori would die an uneventful death at maple's hand if she finally wrangled free of his control. there is nothing honorable in that, and his selfishness brings only disgrace to the ultimatum.
{ EMIRI HARAI }
seeing how easily someone's emotions can be toyed with on a surface level, enough so to dissuade their original personality, does not inspire confidence, to say the least! & definitely not after being faced with grieving her lover.
if she did join asunaro in the hopes of reviving him, the sight of this completely destroys that hope; she bears firsthand the proof that love is only something to be manipulated by those in power in asunaro. she doesn't even have the work she was once so proud of - what she has left of herself are... these scattered pieces that were incompatible when moving from civilian life into asunaro's clutches. where, if you peer too close, you'd inevitably find a weakness; which is implied to be the cause of this persona of hers. never allowing anyone near enough to recognize what lays beneath, otherwise she'll be discarded just the same
because... she, like mr. chidouin, did have a loving relationship. and seeing the destruction of her own reflected in another innocent person who is unable/unaware of the utter grasp asunaro has on her is repulsive; regardless of her personal beliefs on whether or not AIs are "human enough" - to program one is to put in faith that they are. to then go so far as to rid the choices crucial to being human... hits a bit too close to home, aha.
{ MICHIRU NAMIDA }
as one who is evidently very firm in her belief that her creations are perfect & that AIs are practically interchangeable with humans, i'm sure her opinions on hiyori's treatment of maple are. less than ideal for Workplace Civilty. to say nothing of the implied idea that they work closely together with AI development (hiyori specifically crediting any of ranger's success to michiru's ability alone) and thus michiru has had personal contact with maple to see the effects of hiyori's treatment...
michiru's already spent much of her life feeling suppressed. asunaro recognized she was unable to fully flourish in her previous workplace and offered her a place where she could do away with ethics in the chase of something larger than her, in the name of humanity - but seeing what hiyori's imposed upon maple just drags back all of those unwelcome feelings. it's horrifying - though she knows she can't speak on it because she doesn't have seniority on the maple project, nor does she have a place on floors four/five where this gimmick would take place.
the most she can do in the meanwhile is comfort maple. indulge that humanity where hiyori refutes it. but even if she comforts maple, she cannot remove that tie to hiyori keeping her subdued. she feels terribly complicit.
michiru particularly loves the AI creations because they resemble the best of humanity in her eyes; for hiyori to discard maple like this begs the question of his dedication to asunaro's projects at all, not to mention it seems needlessly cruel. he's neglecting her without even taking interest in the pain she endures at his behest - there's hardly any reason. and that's the worst of it.
michiru, as most asunaro does, believes in the idea of 'the ends must justify the means' -- and in maple's case, hiyori lacks that vital rule.
{ GASHU SATOU }
it's... complicated. gashu resents the hiyoris on the idea that their methodology is reprehensible, having been victim to it himself, and yet recognizes the necessity of having a department of asunaro dedicated to extortion to keep public relations stable.
of course, this means their pride is unfortunately not without basis. for their work, they are rewarded, and maple is the piteous pinnacle of that.
gashu has created ranger in the hopes of replicating the children he wished to save, whereas maple's creation has no such purpose beyond the implied "let's see how incorporating emotions will work for future artificial intelligence" - a stepping stone in something larger, rather than a project in its own right.
but while she could've been laid to rest once their technology moved forward, sou hiyori had the power to deny her that. he forces a role upon her for the death game without accepting the burden that entails - it's irresponsible and a clear indication of his assumption that the world must fall in line with his every whim. hiyori demands maple accept her fate in the ultimatum so he needn't accept his own death; never need experience that utter lack of control he exercises freely over others.
to gashu, hiyori does present the worst vices of his family. he almost pities him. almost.
{ RIO RANGER }
ranger and maple have fought over their respective favored person. i know this to be true. maple points out that gashu's intentions aren't entirely in rio's favor, instead the shadows lingering in his creation.
maple recognizes the emotional weight behind some of the things he says to ranger where rio is quite literally unable to comprehend them. she will critique gashu's desire to constantly have rio 'prove' himself to his creator (...even as she attempts to 'prove' herself to hiyori, it's easier to recognize in another) -- meanwhile, rio gets annoyed with maple and how content she appears with her current programming, with letting hiyori crush her personality in favor of giving her something tantalizingly out of reach: a new feeling.
the dolls endure a monochrome world unless they have something to incite those feelings. maple is more fortunate than ranger in this sense, but is still left with the high that only hiyori can grant her.
...and rio gets angry. it's aggravation on her behalf, but he doesn't have the capacity to understand that, instead blaming it on the idea she's incompetent and far too reliant on humanity. but even if he doesn't share the appeal of humanity, he doesn't only use that as a point in their arguments - rather demanding to know that if that's what she wants, then why the fuck are you letting that asshole stifle who you are? letting him control your every move?
but of course, sometimes after an argument with maple, he's left irritated with hiyori. even if he can't recognize why, the reality of the matter is that maple wasn't the true source of his anger.
hiyori also shares a fascination with humanity which ranger feels he's infected maple with, to flaunt the unachievable to her as justification for why she'll never be enough for him. ranger initiates these loaded conversations to try to get maple to learn to fight back for herself instead of his sake. and sure, rio doesn't fight gashu, but that's out of respect. instead, maple's become so... blasé about her treatment, and is far too hopeful that there's anything she can do to have hiyori's eyes on her alone.
maple's already proven herself to ranger and earned some semblance of respect (in physical capability + rio's... somewhat envious of her larger range of emotion, though he mostly mirrors the curiosity he knows michiru & gashu use when he asks). but, to rio, she'll never be 'enough' to anyone if she's not allowed to accept that she's a doll who is capable of so much more than he's limited her program to; she doesn't have to remain stagnant and subservient to be something worthwhile. rio's changed, and his father still praises him. if hiyori's worth half the shit he spits, he'll do the same for her.
the majority of this is speculation, admittedly. but i like to think rio's always felt defensive over the dolls; it's just that the ways he does are. difficult to recognize. with the limiter on his emotions. there's an inherent understanding there.
#i'm sorry for the long ass post i just really like the asunaro cast. did you know :'] <3#hough. i tried my damndest to keep hc out of this (except ranger & maple. bc that imagined dynamic Kills me) but i'm sure it bleeds in a bi#enjoy...! i hope. i like talking abt them aegehehe#jestersvaguely#yttdposting#yttd meta
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A Scrap of Hope
Um, hi everyone ^_^ I found a little dsmp fic all the way at the bottom of my drafts. It's my take on the scrapped lore scene of Dream waking up in the recreation cell in Las Nevadas :] I finished it up and I hope you enjoy!
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As Dream steps into the room, his hair stands on end and his heart pounds. The sound of pistons sends his mind racing.
His heart drops to his stomach, beating wildly. Had Punz betrayed him? After all this time? Had Punz known the trap was here? Had they heard the stories of the torture, the absolute hell he was put through, and decided to make him relive it?
This brief moment, this blindsided panic makes his hands sweat. Trembling and clammy, his hands bring his shield closer to him. The sight of Quackity, smiling too confidently for someone cornered in a cell, sets his nerves on fire. But the sound of potions breaking against obsidian freezes him on the spot. Terror and potion effect climb up his legs in tandem, seeping their way into his bones. They squeeze into his stomach and claw their way to his heart. Filling his lungs with weakness and covering his eyes with blindness, Dream clings to his wits. Slowness seeps into his brain, making his thoughts too slow, too confusing to sift through.
There's a kick to the back of his knees and a hand in his hair and then nothing.
Waking up with his face pressed to the floor is familiar. Panic and desperation doesn't set in until he feels the cool damp air of the cell so different from the oppressive dry heat of the Vault. Another difference is the thick chains around his hands binding him to the wall. It takes too long for his brain to feel clear enough to assess the situation he's in. He's completely at the mercy of Quackity now. There's no back up plan, no calling in a favor. For the first time in a long time, Dream can't think of a way to fit this into his plan.
Footsteps, heavy and loud, ring in his ears. Sam. Dream waits for Sam to come to a stop in front of the cell. Dream listens with fragile hope in his chest. Sam's alone.
"Sam?" Dream shoves the shakiness and fear out of his voice. He let's false calmness wash over him, a persona he steps into easily. "So you let Quackity boss you around again? You let him tell you what to do?"
"I'm not talking to you, Dream." Sam readjusts his grip on his trident, but doesn't turn to look at him. He already has doubts about this.
"Alright, if you want to let Quackity boss you around and turn you into the bad guy again, that's on you." Dream shrugs his shoulders, it makes the chains clank against the floor. He rubs the sleeve of his undershirt between his fingers. The smooth texture contrasts the canvas feeling of the prison uniform and reminds him you're not there. The fact that he's lost his freedom so quickly after he got it back worries him. The fact that Punz might've led him to a trap scares the shit out of him. He takes in a steady breath.
"Just look at me Sam, you gave up your morals, you twisted them to justify my torture, for months, and it didn't even work. You really want to do that again? Heh, Quackity's better than I thought." Dream let's out a sad chuckle, like he's disappointed in Sam. Like he's more upset that Sam decided to drop his morals at Quackity's call than he is about being locked up.
A new voice, high on adrenaline and power, speaks up. "Yeah except this time, we're going to fucking kill you. I don't give a shit about the revive book anymore. Fuck that shit. You're dead. Listen to me Dream," Quackity's voice is crazed, words tumble out nearly tripping on themselves to get his message across, "I'm going to fucking kill you, right here. In this cell, with no control, you're all mine."
Dream's frail hope is stomped under Quackity's boot. Quackity isn't fucking around anymore. He's going to die right here, right now.
It's Sam that revives his hope. "Quackity...is that really necessary? Shouldn't we be, I don't know, using him? We have him under our control and no one knows. We could-"
Quackity looks absolutely livid. "No! Fuck that! He's caused too much trouble than he's worth. Y'know, of all people Sam, I thought you would understand. Dream, fucking killed you! He- with a pickaxe right, right? He fucking- I'm getting that pickaxe, and I'm going to fucking kill him, since you're too much of a pussy to give him what he deserves."
The moment Quackity turns the corner, Dream walks as close as he can to Sam. He's desperate and he doesn't care that Sam knows. He'll say anything to get out of here.
"Just listen to the way he's talking to you! He's pushing you around, making decision for you. He's going to kill me to avenge you, but we both know we're even. I wasn't even here for you. I was here for Quackity, the guy who tortured me. C'mon Sam, weren't you the one who wanted to be a sense of good on the server. Let me go and I'll leave you alone, hell I'll leave Quackity alone."
Sam's eyes stare back at Dream's pleading face, full of conflict. His brows furrow and his shoulders raise. Sam brings his trident close to Dream's face. Fear grips at Dream's heart, filling him with a familiar helplessness, except there's no secret allies waiting for him, no way to reconceptualize, no way to fit it into the plan.
"If I let you go, you're not getting your stuff back. And I won't stop Quackity from following you. And you'll owe me." Yes yes yes anything.
"Okay, alright. I'll owe you a favor." The trident moves from his face down to his hands, smashing down on the link connect the cuffs and the chain to the wall. The heavy cuffs stay wrapped tight around his wrists, a reminder this is what happens when your gaurd is down.
Sam shoves him through the door and into the hallway. Dream doesn't let his shoulders drop with relief, doesn't let his lungs take in gasping breaths, doesn't let his guard down. Dream can hear Quackity walking back to the cell. Sam still has a grip on the back of his shirt, as if he's not sure of his decision.
"Sam, please." Dream can feel his heart pounding in his throat, get out get out get out. Sam pulls Dream close. His mask presses close to Dream's ear.
"Get out. Don't let me see you again." The grip on his shirt is released, and Dream sprints down the hallway. A mad dash to the exit. He ducks into the door frame, out of sight of the cell. He can hear Quackity's enraged yells echoing off the walls. He slips outside, watching carefully for any signs of a patrol. He wants so badly to take off running, out of Las Nevadas, out of this cold desert, out of Quackity's control. But a glance out across the desert would have him noticed in an instant. He has to be strategic.
Ducking under windows, around doors, hiding in the shadows, he falls into an old mindset. This is just manhunt, just don't get caught. Easy. It's nothing he hasn't done before. Don't think about the consequences of being caught, just go.
He spots a shack on the edge of Las Nevadas. He doesn't dare go in, but ducks behind it to catch his breath and collect his thoughts. He can hear Quackity barking orders, calling for his capture. He can't tell to who, but they're close. He listens as the voices fade away, moving to a more manageable distance.
"Who are we hiding from?" Holy shit. Dream moves slowly, cautious. Wilbur. He's got a white streak in his hair and a sly grin. Dream doesn't have anything, nothing to make a trade, or buy his silence, so he keeps his mouth shut. "How can I help you, my dear and gratuitous savior? How may I repay my debts to you, my wonderful conductor?"
Dream takes a moment to collect himself. He's still in the danger zone run run run and with one yell Wilbur could seal Dream's fate. He doesn't want to give out any more favors, but he doesn't have anything else to rely on.
The sound of crunching sand, has Dream pressing flat agaisnt the back of the shack. His eyes exposed hide vulnerable lock on Wilbur. He moves smoothly around the building, greeting a very angry Quackity. Dream pushes down the absolute terror the threatens to rise up. Wilbur and Quackity's bickering cover the shifting sand under his feet as he makes a break out of Las Nevadas. He makes a note to himself to make it up to Wilbur not a favor just payment.
He feet take him towards his meeting place with Punz on instinct. His breath catches in his throat when he realizes. Dream's learned a lot about instinct. The instinct to keep his family close, the instinct to be fair, the instinct to protect not only his family but himself too, and the instinct to love, they're important. Even when you have nothing, you have instinct. But instinct is nothing without a way to follow through.
Now, Dream is lost. Not in the trees, but in his mind. He's thought about what would happen if someone offered Punz a higher prize. He's planned out what to do if Punz were ever to leave him. Punz had been there for the excessive delay in the plan. They had greeted him with enthusiasm. They'd filled him in on everything he needed to know. They'd listened to everything that happened in the prison; they had seemed outraged, how much of that was an act, how long had they been playing him? They'd become someone Dream could rely on. He's not sure now.
If Punz had intended for Dream to walk into the trap, they wouldn't expect him to come waltzing back into the base. Dream needs his armor. With his head held high and his hands in loose fists by his side, he walks calmly into the base. He let's the same false confidence he used on Sam to wash over him.
Punz greets him when he enters, a regular occurrence, routine. They look over him, confusion covers their face. Their hand comes up to Dream's bicep where a slice in his undershirt exposes his skin. Dream refuses to shiver.
"Dude, what happened?" Dream barks out a laugh at Punz's question. What happened? Oh, I walked into the trap you lead me to, but I handled it, no big deal. He could say, he wants to say. But, to his horror, a broken hiccup makes its way out instead. Punz looks so confused, not at Dream's presence, but at his appearance.
"Dream? Dude, for real, what happened?" Punz's voice shakes too much for the question to come off in the calm way they intended. They're hand tightens around his bicep again, not hard, but enough to say I'm here.
Dream doesn't let himself collapse, doesn't curl into Punz's arms, doesn't let tears bubble up to the surface. "Fuck, it was a trap. Quackity was waiting for me, he spam potioned me. I woke up in a copy of m-the cell. I convinced Sam to let me go, but Punz, dude, Quackity was gonna- he was, I-" his breathing turns harsh. The reality of it all comes crashing down as the adrenaline fades.
"Holy fuck, dude. That's terrifying." Punz's voice is firm but caring. "If I had known, I never would have let you go alone. Fuck your solo stealth mission."
Dream doesn't respond, just sucks in a relieved breath. They didn't know. He finally lets himself rest his head on Punz's shoulder, drawing in their warmth.
A calloused hand moves slowly to his cheek, rubbing under his eye when he doesn't pull away. "Dream," Punz's voice rumbles softly in his ears, "you're not alone anymore. Let me be here for you."
He doesn't respond, but his fists clench in their hoodie and Punz breathes a sigh of relief. He lets them bandage his arm and doesn't say anything when their lips seal the fresh bandage. And later, when he feels the phantom affects of potions and the haunting sounds of moving pistons, he lets their warm arms and slow breaths lull him back to sleep.
#blazewrites#c!dream#c!punz#c!awesamdude#c!quackity#dsmp#dreblr#i literally found this abandoned halfway through a sentence lol
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The Russian Federation is the product of the Soviet empire’s collapse, just as the Soviet Union was the product of imperial Russia’s collapse. Looking at the long history of empires, it’s not at all surprising that today’s Russia has embarked on a project of re-imperialization—the attempt to recreate as much of its former empire as it can. Equally unsurprisingly, Russia’s effort will fail.
The vast majority of seemingly stable empires decay over time until all that is left is the imperial center. The Byzantine and Ottoman empires are perfect examples of this dynamic: Each lost more and more territory until all that remained of the former was greater Constantinople and of the latter the lands that became Turkey. Neither rump state attempted to re-imperialize. The same was true of the European overseas colonial empires: The British withdrew from most of their possessions more or less voluntarily and without firing too many shots, whereas the Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish tried harder to hang on but lost to national liberation movements. All subsequently refrained from re-imperialization.
Russia falls into a different, more volatile category of imperial decline. At the height of their power, some empires fall apart suddenly and comprehensively, usually as the result of cataclysms that rip apart the formal ties between core and periphery. Imperial Russia, Wilhelmine Germany, and the Soviet Union all met this fate. Up to the moment of sudden collapse, the structural and institutional ties between the core and periphery were still vibrant. More importantly, the imperial ideology remained alive and well after the collapse, leading to attempts by the imperial center’s elites to recreate all or parts of their former empires.
Thus, the Bolsheviks—who never concealed their desire (and supposed right) to reconquer all of the Russian Empire’s territories, which even Vladimir Lenin rejected as Russian imperial chauvinism—recreated the empire in the form of the Soviet Union, brutally snuffing out more than a dozen newly independent states who’d seized the chaos as an opportunity to escape Russia’s colonial grip. The Nazis, on the other hand, tried but failed to regain Germany’s lost lands and build an even bigger Reich.
Success or failure of re-imperialization generally depends on the balance of power among the core, periphery, and any intervening states. The Bolsheviks were militarily and economically stronger than most of their neighbors and could revive the Russian Empire. The Nazis took on too many opponents and failed. Here, post-Soviet Russia’s trajectory is highly similar to interwar Germany’s: The German collapse in 1918 and Soviet collapse in 1991 were followed in each case by economic chaos, the delegitimization of a new democracy, and the mobilization of radical forces, which in turn gave rise to a strong leader who revitalized the imperial ideology, promised to restore the empire, and proceeded to annex bits and pieces of the former empire before launching a full-scale war.
Two other empires are illustrative, even though they fit the pattern of sudden collapse and re-imperialization only imperfectly. Although Poles lacked an autonomous state after the last of three partitions in 1795, the imperial ideology of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth thrived, motivating Polish elites to attempt to reestablish the commonwealth in several unsuccessful rebellions in the 1800s. As soon as Polish independence was restored after World War I, the new state set off to reconquer some of the formerly imperial Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian territories. Enjoying the support of the Entente powers, and especially France, the Poles succeeded. Only a cataclysmic defeat by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union finally ended Polish imperial dreams.
Austria-Hungary was torn to pieces in a catastrophic defeat but did not attempt to re-imperialize like the other cases in this category. The empire had been irreversibly decaying for half a century. The Hungarians—and later, the Czechs and Poles, assisted by the national movements of other restive nationalities—succeeded in getting Vienna to devolve authority to them to such a degree that leading Austro-Hungarian policymakers even discussed transforming the empire into a federation of semi-autonomous states. Defeat in World War I severed Vienna’s ties with its periphery, much of which immediately sought independence. Austria made no attempt to re-imperialize, as it lacked a virulent imperial ideology, powerful army, and strong economy. Its government was also in disarray. Likewise, Hungarian elites had no imperial plans, confining their ambitions to revanchism over Hungarian territories given by the Western Allies to Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
Russia’s career as an empire—in the forms of imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation—began in the 14th century with the relentless expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, reached its totalitarian apex in the 20th century with the subjugation of Central and Eastern Europe, and went into steep decline around 1990, when the Eastern European satellite states broke free and the non-Russian Soviet republics became independent. Even in its diminished form, the Russian Federation—first quasi-democratic, then authoritarian, today fascist—is the heir to a vast internal empire, with dozens of conquered and colonized non-Russian peoples still imprisoned inside its borders.
The political scientist Rein Taagepera graphed the territorial gains and losses of past empires. Not surprisingly, the graphs resemble parabolas: Empires rise, persist, and then fall. Equally unsurprisingly, empires that manage to survive into the persistence phase generally last for centuries. Those that fall quickly usually do so after their founders enjoyed rapid military success and then die, which throws the nascent empire into crisis. Alexander the Great’s sprawling, unconsolidated realm is the classic example of this dynamic.
Some wide, some narrow, the parabolas are never smooth—not even in the seemingly stable persistence phase. Instead, they resemble the movement of the stock market: constant ups and downs that, when viewed over time, do in fact mark upward or downward trends. At times, empires can end temporarily before being revived, as was the case with Byzantium after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It took several decades for the Byzantine emperors to regain what was left of their terrain. Imperial Russia collapsed near the end of World War I, only to be quickly revived by the Bolsheviks. In turn, the Soviet Union met its end in 1991 and has yet to be resurrected—though not for want of trying. Russian troops occupy parts of Moldova, Georgia, and, of course, Ukraine. Belarus, meanwhile, has been progressively sucked into Russia to the point that it nominally still exists but is largely bereft of sovereignty, having been reduced to a cross between a vassal state and colony.
The question facing Russians, their neighbors, and the world is whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s realm can succeed in holding on to, and possibly expanding, the territories that it has effectively seized. Or will the Russo-Soviet empire’s remains continue on their downward trajectory until the Russian Federation itself cracks? A look at the factors that have accounted for the rise and fall of other empires will help answer this question.
Necessary conditions for re-imperialization are a powerful military, a strong economy, and an effective government. Facilitating conditions include preexisting institutional ties between the imperial core and the periphery, outside powers that are either indifferent or receptive to imperial expansion, and authoritarian rule at the core. The final push to action is an imperial ideology that spurs the desire for empire.
But consider what happens to a would-be reborn empire if the three necessary conditions are not met—even if the facilitating factors and an imperial ideology are present. If expansion is attempted without a sufficiently strong military and an economy capable of sustaining it, the result will be overreach and failure. Without an effective government, the sustained effort needed for expansion cannot be maintained. Overextension and defeat—and quite possibly regime change or state collapse—become probable.
A few examples from history will illustrate Russia’s inevitable failure to re-imperialize. Western Rome didn’t meet the three conditions, decaying and finally collapsing in the face of declining military effectiveness, an economy incapable of producing a sustainable surplus while under incessant barbarian attacks, and increasingly ineffective governance. The empire’s eastern half was distant from the main barbarian invasion routes, but there were other reasons it survived for another 1,000 years. Except for Byzantine Emperor Justinian’s reconquest of significant territories in the 6th century—territories quickly lost again after his death—the eastern empire refrained from trying to reach its old boundaries. That would have required taking on militarily stronger adversaries, including the Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Bulgars, and Rus’. No less importantly, Byzantium was continually wracked by internal power struggles and lacked an aggressive imperial ideology, preferring to see itself as the bearer of Orthodox Christianity. Byzantium therefore managed its remaining possessions and mostly refrained from overreach. As a result, its decline took many centuries.
Post-Ottoman Turkey refrained from re-imperialization because its ideology had shifted from allegiance to the empire to allegiance to the nation-state. Kemal Ataturk ethnically cleansed Asia Minor of the Greek population, but he avoided expanding Turkey’s boundaries to include Greece, focusing instead on relocating Turks from the former empire into the new country. Strong outside powers also hemmed in the new state.
The European overseas colonial powers all shared an imperial ideology as they expanded, but they abandoned it as they faced their own military and economic weaknesses following two world wars, national liberation struggles, and the international community’s growing condemnation. They didn’t all abandon their empires without a fight, but neither did they attempt to revive them.
Post-World War I Germany retained the aggressively imperial Weltmacht ideology that had motivated Emperor Wilhelm II’s expansionist policies. Despite the post-war economic collapse, the economy quickly revived after the Nazis took power in 1933. Adolf Hitler also revived the military and established a powerful government. With the necessary conditions and ideology in place, Nazi Germany unsurprisingly embarked on re-imperialization. It might have succeeded had Hitler confined his ambitions to the large swaths of Europe he controlled by 1941. After invading the Soviet Union and declaring war on the United States, however, he created a power imbalance that made defeat inevitable.
Like Nazi Germany, the Russian Federation will fail to re-imperialize. Its military is demonstrably mediocre, its economy is about as big as that of Italy or Texas, and its governance has become increasingly ineffective and unstable as elites begin to jockey for power in what they view as the rapidly approaching post-Putin era. The immediate future could be even worse, especially if the regime remains guided by the whims of a single autocrat and continues to discourage technological innovation and economic growth.
In a word, Russia’s imperial aspirations are dead, even if the Kremlin thinks otherwise. And the man who presided over their destruction is Putin. Could things have worked out differently for Russia? Could Russia have resisted the re-imperialization temptation? Given the vitality of its imperial ideology and the strength of its institutional and economic ties with the former Soviet republics and, at least until recently, the former Eastern Bloc states, the answer is probably no.
What should the West do? Since the Russian Federation’s re-imperialization project is doomed, all that anyone can realistically do is prolong or hasten the process, not stop it. Prolonging it means prolonging the misery incurred by the non-Russians targeted for re-annexation and by the Russians tasked with bringing misery to these targets. Anything that hastens re-imperialization’s inevitable end would reduce death and destruction.
Specifically, because the history of empires leads us to expect Russian imperialism’s demise, it makes sense for the West to take a page from the philosopher Karl Marx and “hasten the birth pangs of history.” Fortunately for the West, whose attention is currently taken up by the crisis in the Middle East, the United States and its allies only need to do a bit more than what they are already doing: supporting Ukraine in liberating its territories from Russian occupation by providing it with the weapons it needs—rather sooner than later. Should the West continue to slow-roll military deliveries—or even decrease them—it will only prolong an inevitable process and increase the suffering. Either way, Russian re-imperialization is destined to fail.
Since Putin has thrown all his resources and political capital at the war against Ukraine, stopping him there means stopping him and his re-imperialization project everywhere. As much as defeat will induce some in the Russian elite and general population to reconsider questions of empire, there is, alas, no reason to believe that Russia’s imperial ideology will meet a quick end. Rather, it will be long-term decay that guarantees that outcome. Russia will become a more or less normal, non-imperial nation-state only if it continues to lose territory it has occupied, and not just in Ukraine—a prospect that seems perfectly possible if Russia loses in Ukraine, the Putin regime collapses, and Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, and even some of the non-Russian peoples in the Russian Federation decide to escape the resulting chaos by retaking their occupied territories or otherwise cutting ties with Moscow. In the absence of defeat, a militarily and economically weak and misgoverned Russia will remain in thrall to the ideology and attempt, yet again, to re-imperialize—all but certainly with the same results: failure, death, and destruction.
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misc Big Announcement thoughts, take 2:
"upcoming seasons" – for now, the rest of New Who will remain on HBO Max. Disney wouldn't be interested in the show if prior series were required viewing, so this basically confirms that RTD will be going for a full "soft reboot" with Gatwa after (via?) the 14th Doctor specials.
Will this mean new episodes become available in the US right after they finish airing on BBC 1, like how iPlayer works now? As sad as it may be to see BBC America consigned to 24/7 reruns, I won't miss the ads very much.
RIP to my Irish friends tho. Shafted again.
This year BBC sold its share of BritBox to ITV, who will be folding it into their new ITVX platform next month. So the Classic Who distribution rights will probably be up for grabs at the end of this year. Odds that Disney+ snaps them up? Would be nice to stream all of Classic and New Who in the same place – would much rather it be anywhere but Disney+ though!
Come to think of it, between Classic and New Who, Torchwood and Class, Sarah Jane and even the K9 series that used to air on Disney XD … even without anything new, there's already enough to justify a new tile on the Disney+ homepage. A realistic mockup from Gerard Groves on Twitter:
This begs the question: what would we see in the MCUfication of Who – the WhoCU, if you will? Educated guesses below the cut:
Because of Chibnall's switch from Christmas to New Year's, Daleks didn't appear on TV in 2018, and it led to the first year that the Nation estate made less from Dalek merchandise than they had before the revival. This triggered a clause in Tim Hancock's original deal – which both sides were still holding to, even though it technically expired in the move to BBC Worldwide – so I've heard that the estate started shopping the Daleks around to other studios. (Hancock also recently resigned.) Rumour has it that Disney bought ~30% of the rights in a silent auction. BBC still owns the designs from the TV show, but after 2023 they wouldn't be able to call them "Daleks" anymore – the "drones" were introduced in Revolution as a workaround. This has probably changed with RTD's emergency return and this Disney+ deal, but the fact remains that Disney can use redesigned Daleks with or without RTD's permission.
We might also get shot-for-shot recreations of missing episodes with new actors! According to people I trust – and many thanks to [redacted] for inspiring most or all of these bullet points – the BBC received film print copies of "Marco Polo" from a private collector in 2013, but they're so damaged they're basically unwatchable. Following UKTV's success with Dad's Army in 2018, BritBox had been talking about reshooting "Marco Polo" for the 60th anniversary, like An Adventure in Space and Time had been for the 50th. (It's mostly a single set, after all.) This would be a test run for a more ambitious First Doctor revival. Animation is not the future for our "missing" episodes…
Or maybe as Gerard visualized, McGann will get another shot – he looked pretty good in The Power of the Doctor, didn't he? According to one of the same sources for the spot-on Centenary leaks, BBC Studios looked into doing a live-action Eighth Doctor miniseries after the big hit that was "The Night of the Doctor", but management changed and ordered Class instead. I love Class and all, but … what a missed opportunity!
Is MCUfication a good idea? I have very mixed feelings. As Neo from WhoCares remarked, after so many years of ambling, the franchise being steered in a new direction so purposefully is uncomfortable and kind of scary. But this won't be RTD's first time reinventing Who. In the end I have to trust that we're in capable hands!
#doctor who#disney+#citing source as [redacted] until he gets back to me on how or whether he'd like to be credited#fourteenth doctor#marco polo#paul mcgann#britbox#mcwho#effortpost#rtd 2.0
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OK 2 things:
I don't think that Penny will not come back in v10, it wouldn't make sense to have a big emotional scene in one volume and then have her coming back, also Vacou seems like the last arc giving that all the kingdoms are there and there going to be an all out war.
How do you think she will come back?
1- I just answered something that is related to that question if you're interested, but yeah I agree as well with that. The way I see it is that either Penny could come back in Vacuo before the big final arc starts and the end of the story. Or, she could come back at the end as a big surprise, because I'm 90% sure that the Blacksmith and the two Brothers will be involved. Volume 9 set up a plot and lore informations that will definitely gonna be used in what comes next.
Even if I said I thought Penny wouldn't come back in V10, I feel like Vacuo is a good moment for her to come back, so maybe still in Volume 10 but at the end, or maybe in Volume 11. Depending on the time skip and on the characters that could play a role for Penny's revival, it could very likely happen at this moment. :]
2 - I have a few ideas for her to come back, some are more precise that the others, but I'll try to talk about each of them :
We know from V3, V7 and V8 that previous Maidens' soul are actually "merged" with the current Maiden when the power is transferred. Amber's soul went to Cinder when she got killed in V3, Fria's soul went to Penny's, and Penny's went to Winter's. They kinda set up something with that everytime, so that makes me wonder if we could actually see a soul be extracted from someone's soul.
I think about the ATM (the Aura Transfer Machine) too : we barely saw it in action, we saw it for a bit in V3 with Amber and Pyrrha, and Winter didn't have the time to use it with Fria in V7. I don't think such a big machine coming back in almost every Kingdom would be left like that, I feel like we need to see it work at some point, especially with Pietro still around in Vacuo.
So my thoughts are that they could probably use the machine to extract Penny's soul from Winter, so Winter can remain the Winter Maiden (or the power could be split in two parts, but I need to think more abou that).
As for where to put it, well, I have a few ideas : they could put it into another robot body for Penny, but I'm really not a fan of this idea, especially after Penny becoming human and enjoying warmth for the first time. She experienced pain too, but I think the virus might have traumatized her as well. I don't know if she would appreciate the idea of being put back in a metal body.
I also thought about the fact that Ambrosius said that he would love to meet "whoever did this" (talking about Penny). So maybe it foreshadows a meeting between Ambrosius and Pietro, when they are able to get their hand on the Relic of Creation once again. And as we know, Penny might have died, but her soul isn't lost : it's in Winter. So another extraction could very likely be the case.
The thing is that it worked for Penny the first time because her body was robotic, it could be destroyed. So Ambrosius couldn't do that in one part with Winter, because he wouldn't be able to destroy her. So I was thinking about maybe first extracting her soul and put it into an object, a simple object or even a robot body. Then immediately ask for another transfer like the first time, recreating the object without the soul so it creates another byproduct and a real body for Penny's soul once again.
It might be far-fetched but the loophole they did the first time for her seemed kinda crazy, I never would have thought they would do that and people even had to make and watch videos to fully understand what happened with Ambrosius and Penny. So I don't think this is too much far-fetched aha !
Probably the most famous theory for Penny's revival : Pietro sacrifices himself to bring Penny back. We know how much Pietro cares about Penny, he wasn't even able to grieve her the first time and immediately decided to rebuild her. He didn't hesitate to give parts of his soul twice to her. I know he said he wouldn't be able to rebuild her if the worst happened, but he loved her as a father and the way he was portrayed in V7 and V8 just show how much she loves her. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to give his soul for her to come back. He said he wanted the chance to watch her live her life in V8, and he could completely decide to do that for her to have that chance.
I'm kinda bothered about the fact of putting her back into a robot body as mentioned before tho, so I'm not really sure about all that.
Maybe this could be a collective effort and sort of a combination of that : Penny's soul is extracted from Winter, but in order to survive or to be fully whole again it needs other parts of Aura. So maybe Pietro could give some of his own soul, but maybe Jaune and Ruby could decide to give parts of their soul to, so it could also have a significance for her return. Like showing that they truly want to have her back, and do everything they can for that to happen.
With Volume 9 lore, I can also imagine Penny coming back later in the series, especially after what we saw from the Blacksmith and her/their definition of balance and life. The idea of reincarnation wasn't just metaphorical for Ruby this volume, and I just don't see why the Blacksmith would say something like "nothing, no one, is ever truly lost" just like that when Ruby talked about Penny's blade. I mean, this is too big for it to be ignored, ESPECIALLY when we know she's the very true god of RWBY aha. She could come back with amnesia, or be different but remember everything, kinda like how Somewhat started to do at the end of V9 when they said to Ruby "It will he alright, Huntress". I'm still not sure about this but eh, why not !
I might have some other ideas but I don't think we have enough informations for them to be more precise, I just think there are many different ways for her to come back even if people could disagree with that (and I understand). It's very up in the air, but I believe it's not done, at least I hope so--
#rwby#rwby discussion#discussion#theory#rwby theory#penny#penny polendina#penny revival#pietro#pietro polendina#winter#winter schnee#ruby#ruby rose#jaune#jaune arc#vacuo#atm#aura transfer machine#blacksmith#god#ever after#rwby v9#rwby volume 9#rwby v10#rwby volume 10#reincarnation#robot#soul#i could talk about this for hours
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Solid Stuff.
Lets talk about transistors. There are many types and methods and there have been many products made with them. It is rather silly to lump them all into one bin and complain.
Transistors are actually quantum devices. They use fields and potentials and extra electrons or holes in the orbitals of solid materials. They make possible all those things we all associate with modern life. Your smart phone uses millions of transistors. Even the screen is an array of transistors controlling what you see. Such stuff would be physically impossible with vacuum tubes.
They go back pretty far you probably didn't know. Basically as old as vacuum tubes in theory. The Field effect transistor was first described in 1925 conceptually. The common Bipolar Junction type was demonstrated in 1947 and commercialized in the 1950s. The 6550 vacuum tube was also developed in the 1950s. The MOSFET was invented in 1959 and had many advantages especially in energy efficiency. All that real work was done at BELL Labs a private research lab owned by Bell Telephone.
In Audio the challenge was finding ways to control ever more power. Up until the late 1960s a powerful home amplifier was about 60 Watts. That was the best you could do with using either Tubes or Transistors. Very clever designers worked both ways. Harman Kardon and Dynaco both sold factory made and Kits of audio stuff as the interest was mostly in hobbyists. Both companies used tube and transistor methods and moved from one to the other as soon as they could. But they sold both tubes and Transistor equipment for some time.
Why did they change? They found transistors better. They liked the performance and manufacturing advantages. A stereo tube amplifier uses three big transformers. A transistor type needs one. Tube amplifiers use lethal voltages and are fragile. Transistors don't and aren't. And in the late 60s to early 70s transistors sounded better. Such was the opinion of the Original golden ear J Gordon Holt.
Tubes were "fuzzy" and obscured detail. Tubes had weak or muddy Bass. Transistors had clarity and speed and Power. One of the best amplifiers of that age was the Harman Kardon Citation 12. 60 Watts dual mono with quasi-complementary output transistors. Some people still say quasi is better than actual full complementary as you can properly match the transistors. That HK still sounds really good. Better than a newer Carver amp I have.
The age of the super amp was all transistor. SAE, Dynaco, Phase Linear all just added more transistors to the output and got 100, 200, 250, and then 350 Watts per channel. That followed the development of better transistors that could push more current and volts. People liked what they could do.
As in everything they were not perfect. Nothing is perfect. And today there is an avalanche of marketing and nonsense. This is best, that is best. Companies come and go. Old ways are rediscovered and called new.
Hey it is not over. People spend crazy money on the latest thing. It has a lot in common with joining a Cult. I refuse to drink the Kool Aid.
It took me a while to realize that it is not about best, or even better, just different. There are different things to hear. My lovely 1990s era tube amp has wonderful textures, but obscures tiny details I know are there. I miss them, but will forgive it for now.
I think I should just start calling it my winter amp. Toasty warm like a nice fire in the fireplace. It will rest in the summer, and I will get my tiny details back. Not about better.
There are obsolete technologies revived like tiny Single End Triode "Class A" amplifiers and big horn speakers. People can forgive flaws and limitations if they really want to. Hey I do. Old designs from the 1950s are recreated and people really like them. You can buy a brand new recreation of the Harman Kardon Citation I and II classic tube preamp and amp set. Just like the original only new parts. Old "Classic" equipment is lovingly restored to as new, but this returning to the roots still sounds like the 1950s. It wasn't that good people.
I have LPs that are pure analogue. Performance to professional tape to disc. They sound really good. I have LPs that were recorded digitally and they sound great too. I have really good CDs. So the newer technology is not automatically worse. Some is, but that is the production chain and often commercial pressures to "sound good on AM radio" like that Carly Simon LP I got.
You can build a justifiably high end system with transistors. It will sound great and be reliable. You do not have to apologize, and yes you can still socialize with the tube people.
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Toonami Weekly Recap 06/10/2023
Dr. Stone: Nerw World (Age of Exploration Arc) EP#37 (02) - Greed Equals Justice: Senku reveals they have run out of revival-fluid, but Ryusui correctly deduces that journalist Minami hid one person’s worth of fluid, so Gen makes a secret deal with her to get it back. At Ryusui’s direction, they locate and revive Francois, Ryusui's own butler/chef of indeterminate gender and nationality. As a professional Francois is unconcerned by 3,700 years having passed and gets to work producing Stollen, a Christmas sweet bread containing butter, nuts, fruit, and alcohol that can stay edible for a whole year. Minami demands Senku fulfill her deal with Gen so, working with Kaseki and Chrome, Senku recreates a Daguerreotype, the world's first primitive camera. Minami swears to photograph every stage of Senku reviving civilization. Senku also plans to use aerial photography in their search for the oil field. Ryusui surprises everyone by agreeing the historic first photograph should be of Senku. After much arguing, Senku agrees to be photographed, but only in a very specific pose.
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal EP#07 - The Heart of Kings: In the past, King Elf of the Northern Elves and the Eastern elves's regent Thraen set up an arranged marriage to secure their alliances. Edred, being the eldest son of the King, was disapprove to marry Threan's daughter and chose to leave his proposal over his love for Melinda. In the present, the Unicorns arrive at the forest, which is destroyed. After encountering Eastern and Northern elves in territorial conflict, Edred is reunited with his younger brother Aelwulf. Aelwulf informs Edred following his departure half of the forest was destroyed, the two elf tribes went to war, the king has grown weaker through his ancestral sleep, and Thraen stole the heart of the forest to obtain power, so Edred agrees to stay and fix the unbroken line. While the rest of Unicorn are put in a cell, they reunited with Merlin who was arrested for accusation for his involvement on Edred's departure. Unicorns informed Merlin that the Evil is defeated and Copernicus remains inactive which Edred choose to retrieve the heart. Enraged by Edred's departure, Gobi, Twillion's swordsmith, summons the sword and keep it in case Edred returns from his exile. Edred threatens Gobi to return Twillion and accept his oath for his hospitality. Gobi reluctantly returns the sword by stripping Twillion's magic and tells Edred it will restore itself after Edred keeps his oath. Emma convinces Melinda to reconcile Merlin after what happened with Morgan, and scolds Merlin for blaming his daughter when in fact he himself, the greatest wizard, couldn’t stop this while Melinda was only a child. Realizing his error, Merlin apologizes to Melinda and their relationships restored. After Seng manages to free everyone from the cell, Merlin sees where Edred is and takes them all to him. Edred and Aelwulf learned that Thraen hired a necromancer to bestow the heart for himself where Seng predicted the cryptic message from the necromancer's spell. After defeating Thraen and the necromancer, Edred recover the heart and fulfilled his oath allowing Merlin to revive Copernicus from his magic. However, it turns out the Evil is not yet destroyed, evident by how only after it is destroyed the Unicorns' souls return to Copernicus until the Evil returns again. Since Edred having trouble facing parallel lives as the prince and the hero, the Unicorns come up with a plan where Aelwulf takes his place by saying he died getting the heart back and Copernicus puts him inside Edred's original body to continue the unbroken line while Edred can remain in his hosts' body. Aelwulf gave up Twillion to them leaving Edred despondent for his self imposed exile. Merlin suddenly leaves to track down the Evil, promising to return.
Food Wars: The Fifth Plate (The BLUE Arc) EP#85 (12) - The Perfect Rocks: To the shock of everyone, Soma's dish causes Mana to unleash an even more powerful pulse that shreds the clothes of almost everyone in the stadium. Asahi cannot believe that Soma could have surpassed his Cross Knives on his own, but the bookmaster herself states that Asahi's dish, while impressive, is nothing more than the flavors he took from other chefs but is empty under the surface. By contrast, Soma's own dish has everything he learned from the people he met, but is also imbued with his own personal flavor, and thus he's declared the absolute winner of the match. Asahi grudgingly accepts his defeat and attempts to return Joichiro's knife to Soma, but Soma says that he won it fairly and can keep it, while also asking why he wanted to marry Erina in the first place. Asahi then recalls the time Joichiro told him the secret to become a great chef, making him realize that what he wanted all along was a family. As he leaves the stadium, he declares to Sarge and his other subordinates that he's leaving the Noirs, and they decide to follow him. While everyone is happy for Soma's victory, Erina continues to give him the cold shoulder. Later that day, Azami and Mana see each other face to face as they recall their first meeting and their life together until Mana broke down upon realizing that Erina would suffer the same fate as her. Suddenly, Joichiro, Sezaemon and Anne enter the room, with Mana explaining that she had her father look into something; namely that there might be a relationship between Asahi and Azami, which she confirmed by tasting the former's dish thanks to her God's Tongue. As the final match approaches, Erina thinks to herself that if Soma was able to defeat Asahi, then that means she'll have to rely on him to satisfy her mother's wishes, recalling that as a child, none of the dishes she made were good enough for Mana's approval. The next day, as the finals begin, Senzaemon recalls how he recruited the current generation of prodigies for Totsuki as part of his plan to save Erina, but as the match goes underway, Erina begins falling into despair. Soma comes and tastes her cooking, telling her she's making a boring dish and he won't feel good to win against her that way, snapping her out of it.
#Toonami#Toonami Weekly Recap#Dr. Stone#Dr. Stone: New World#Age of Exploration Arc#Unicorn: Warriors Eternal#Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma#Food Wars: The Fifth Plate#The BLUE Arc
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‘Party Down’ Is Back. Did You R.S.V.P.?
New York Times article by Alexis Soloski
The invitations have been sent, the appetizers plated, the bottles opened. Rows of glasses gleam like baby stars. And somewhere, on the fringes of the celebration, a cater waiter is about to do something very wrong.
This was the template of “Party Down,” a Starz comedy that ran for two 10-episode seasons, debuting in the spring of 2009. Canceled just as critics and niche audiences were beginning to catch on, the show followed the disaffected employees of a mid-tier catering company as they moved from party to party, one per episode, filching booze, seducing guests, snorting coke, flirting with Nazism and accidentally poisoning George Takei.
The original 20 episodes never included a surprise party. But get your streamers and party blowers ready. Because in a surprise to just about everyone — most likely including the folks at Nielsen, who once awarded the show’s finale a 0.0 rating among 18- to 49-year-olds — “Party Down” is back. A six-episode revival will premiere on Starz on Feb. 24, with new episodes arriving weekly.
Martin Starr, a returning cast member, seemed to genuinely marvel at the development.
“This was the only show I’ve worked on where people came to work when they weren’t working,” he said in a group video call. “It’s crazy that we get to come back and do it again.”
“Truth be told,” his co-star Ken Marino said, “the reason I came back to set when I wasn’t working is I was between homes.”
Starr: “I do remember you were finding places to go to the bathroom that maybe didn’t have your name.”
Marino: “I still do. I’m going to the bathroom right now.”
Is this the same “Party Down” that failed to dominate cable television over a dozen years ago? Mostly. The show’s original creators, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd, remain, as executive producers, and Enbom oversees a small staff of writers. The party-a-week structure also endures, as does the original cast — with the exception, based on the five episodes provided in advance, of Lizzy Caplan.
“All of us, for the entire 13 years since we stopped shooting the show, all we wanted to do is make more ‘Party Down,’” the show’s lead, Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation,” “Severance”), said in a separate interview last month. “We all would have been there for free.”
But the world has changed in the dozen or so years since the original run was canceled. So have the actors. Unknowns or barely knowns when the show debuted, most have since become household names. (The others? Depends on the household.) And they’ve all seen the current crop of disappointing reboots and reprises. “Party Down” could just be the rare show to get it right, mixing the perfect cocktail of star power, nostalgia, growth and gags.
Then again, the characters never put a lot of muscle into bartending. So here’s a Zen koan for a deeply un-Zen show: Can you throw the same party twice?
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Are we having fun yet?
The first run of “Party Down” was both structural marvel and joke spectacular. Each episode was simultaneously a workplace comedy, a hangout comedy and a procedural — a sitcom that never sat down. The celebrations it featured — birthdays, after parties — typically bordered the entertainment industry and nearly all of the cater waiters harbored industry dreams of their own.
Those dreams eluded them, which fueled the philosophical inquiry at the show’s center.
“What we were asking was: How long do you chase the dream?” Thomas, one of the creators, said. “When do you grow up? When do you quit banging your head against the wall?”
The “Party Down” staff are all trying to make it, as actors, screenwriters and comedians. (Marino’s Ron, the manager, has a different dream: a Soup ’R Crackers franchise.) Only Henry (Scott), who has traded beer-commercial celebrity for free-floating despair, has opted out. The actors were trying back then to make it, too. None of the original cast — Caplan, Ryan Hansen, Jane Lynch, Marino, Scott, Starr — were anything like famous when the show began. Acting in a comedy about the entertainment industry’s has-beens, also-rans and never-wills resonated with the cast, sometimes uncomfortably.
“It felt so close to home, this show, because I felt like I could be a caterer the next day easily,” Hansen said.
Scott, who at the time had yet to play a lead, then shared that sense of career tenuousness. The cast felt deeply connected to the show in those first seasons, he said, and protective of it. “We just wanted to do it forever, because it made us feel better,” he said. “It really did.”
The salaries, though small, kept a few of the actors on the sunny side of financial precarity. The camaraderie helped, too. (That camaraderie remains; I had four of the actors together on a video call, and I have never heard grown men exchange so many “Love yous.”) Several actors separately compared the original shoot to summer camp.
That genuine affection altered the show’s tone. Some first season episodes included “edgy” humor — gay jokes, post-racial jokes. (“It’s cringey, yeah,” Starr said.) But the creators quickly realized they didn’t need that edge. The show was sadder than that. Funnier, too. The characters are screw-ups, sure, but the show suggests that everyone is a screw-up, especially after an hour at an open bar. So maybe the best thing is to find common cause as you pass the hors d’oeuvres.
“It’s about people who think that they’re going to find happiness in something out there,” Lynch said. “But what they have right in front of them is really quite sweet.”
Lynch shot the first eight episodes. Then she had to leave for the Fox show “Glee.” Marino hired a stripper for her wrap party. The stripper, Lynch recalled, smelled of French fries. The show went on, with Jennifer Coolidge replacing Lynch for two episodes and Megan Mullally, the only actor who was already well-known, coming in for the final 10.
The creators believed that it would keep going, even though, according to Nielsen, the Season 2 finale attracted only 74,000 viewers. Starz had other plans. Those plans didn’t involve letting the creators take the show elsewhere. “Party Down” languished.
One decade, zero dinners
If the original run argued that it’s healthier to let some dreams die, the creators and the cast could never quite manage that. There were talks, every year or so, of getting the crew back together — for a special, for a movie, for a move to another network. Friends and fans often asked Marino about it.
“I was like, ‘They’re working on it,’” he said. “‘It’s going to happen! Right around the corner!’” It took him eight or nine years to accept that maybe that corner wasn’t coming.
Then in 2019, Starz appointed Jeffrey Hirsch as its new president and chief executive. Thomas reached out to Hirsch and began pitching the show again. Hard. This time, Starz said yes.
That was only the first hurdle. The actors had conflicts and prior commitments now. The revival was approved in the summer of 2021, with production scheduled for early 2022. Lynch was to begin rehearsing a Broadway musical. Scott was making the Apple TV+ show “Severance.” Mullally had booked a movie being shot in Idaho.
Somehow a six-week window was found, even though that window involved flying Mullally to Los Angeles every weekend and back to Sun Valley by Monday.
“We could never get together for dinner for a decade,” Etheridge, a creator, said. “But when we came to shoot the show, everybody was there.”
Everybody except for Caplan, who had signed onto the FX series “Fleishman Is in Trouble.” (Asked whether Caplan might make a surprise appearance in Episode 6, Starz declined to comment.) Enbom had originally structured this new season around the on-again-off-again relationship between Henry and Caplan’s Casey. He had to restructure it, adding a new character, a studio executive played by Jennifer Garner. The revival’s first episode takes time out to heckle Caplan: Casey, now a successful comedian, can’t make a crew reunion.
“She’s shooting in New York,” Starr’s Roman, still an aspiring “hard sci-fi” writer, says. “Too big time for the likes of us.”
There were fewer jokes in real life. Hansen tried to make light of the situation. “Listen, we get it,” he said. “She had a job, whatever. I mean, I personally turned down a Marvel movie to do ‘Party Down.’”
“Tell that to everybody,” he added.
But just about everyone described themselves as heartbroken, including Caplan. “If I think about it for too long, I start to cry,” she wrote in an email. She sent cupcakes to the shoot.
The bow tie abides
Hollywood has transformed in the years since “Party Down” first concluded, and in some ways the show has, too. Gratuitous boobs are gone now. And the catering crew, once blindingly white, has become more diverse with the inclusion of two new regulars: Sackson, a YouTube-style content creator played by Tyrel Jackson Williams, and Lucy, a chef played by Zoë Chao who styles herself as a “food artist.”
Yet, the sweet-sour, slightly funky flavor of “Party Down” — like a margarita made with off-brand liquor — is mostly unaltered. This seems to be the rare revival that understands what made the original work, yet can still move (or move just enough to include the occasional TikTok dance challenge) with the times.
“We kept doing what we’d always been doing, just with new details,” Enbom said. “Because society certainly has not changed into a more wholesome place.”
Have the returning characters changed? That depends on how much you and your therapist believe that change is possible. “They’re still the same lovable knuckleheads,” Mullally said. “Most of these people haven’t really moved on, or they haven’t really become any happier, or more fulfilled in their lives.”
Slinging hors d’oeuvres hits different and more darkly in midlife. Still, the creators and the cast didn’t want the revival to feel like a bummer.
“It’s going to be fun watching the characters try to claw their way toward something other than their current circumstances,” Scott promised.
And if not exactly “fun,” then certainly relatable. “Really who gets what they want in this life?” Lynch said.
She probably meant that rhetorically. But the “Party Down” die-hards, Lynch included, did get what they wanted, a third season. And they seem to have delighted in making it, though Marino joked that he’d had to slim down before he could fit into his signature pink bow tie.
“Had to work off that neck fat,” he said. “Got my neck nice and lean.”
Slipping on that outfit was a little more stressful for Chao, a newcomer. She had watched the show, years after its debut, while working a food-service survival job herself. “Party Down” had made her feel less alone. She didn’t want to ruin it. “I whispered to myself every day, going onto set, ‘Be the least funny, but by as little as possible,’” she said.
Williams expressed similar gratitude and anxiety. “Everyone was so sweet and welcoming from the very beginning,” he said. “It never felt like an intimidating environment.” And yet, he added, “there was still like this insane fear.”
The returning cast faced related, if less acute, worries. They have been in the business long enough to understand how revivals can go wrong. (A few of them had even appeared in revivals that flopped.) But they were reassured by the scripts, written by Enbom and a small staff, which suggested a continuity of character and tone and food-poisoning-induced body horror. There was also the pleasure of being together again — a little older, a little grayer, but still able to drop a tray on cue.
Will the ratings for this coming season be better? Comfortingly, they can’t get much worse. But the cast and creative team are counting on the show’s turning enough heads that Starz will greenlight a fourth season. (“You better believe I’m not missing that one,” Caplan wrote.)
Though Starr is inclined to cynicism, he sounded only mildly sardonic in discussing this ambition. “I really do hope we’re allowed to come back and do it again and keep up this little charade we’ve got going,” he said.
Hansen put it a bit more pragmatically. “In 12 years, people are going to love Season 3.”
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M.S.D Pyrite - A Solar Cargo Ship of a Used Future
I keep poking at this model, but it's not getting better without a complete rebuild I think. So, I might as well introduce the Pyrite.
The 'small' transport class of the solar system, it fills the role a semi-truck does today. Large enough to make moving cargo worth the time and money, small enough that it can get into all sorts of places that a much larger ship, equivalent in function to a Super-Tanker, wouldn't be able to. It can go the distance, capable of operating between planets, while also easily docking with small stations as much as large habitats.
With the engines and fusion plant in the aft, the command deck and recreation areas in the fore, the bulk of the ships accessible mass is devoted to locking points for cargo containers.
The Containers docked to the ship directly (with a box representing a 6' tall person and a 40' x 8' x 8.5' Semi Container for scale) are plugged into the power plant, able to generate their own bubbles of minimal heat and even atmosphere if specially pods are swapped out for, to allow the transport of perishable goods across the void.
Perishable goods are often smaller than raw goods like minerals so a fair amount can be fit in the 16 pods, but that is not all this class of vessel is capable of hauling.
On the underside is what is often colloquially known as the 'Docking Bump'. While meant to allow docking arms to grab hard onto a solid bit of the ship, a bit like jack points on a car, they also allow additional cargo to be clamped onto the ship, riding on the belly like a young marsupial on it's mother. While capable of attaching far greater amounts of cargo, it's also a lot more limited in what it can move.
Nothing that would be overly bothered by high amounts of radiation, horrific swings between hot and cold, a airless environment. Standalone self powering containers do exist, but they are both expensive and not that common.
Finally, carrying "Belly Cargo" also changes the logistics of being on the move. More mass means a longer travel time, slower acceleration and deceleration. It can mean more time waiting at the other end as, to big now to fit in a berth, you have to wait for more manual unloading. More does not always equal more profit and it takes a canny Quartermaster to find that line.
So, the Pyrite is a cargo ship, nothing glamorous, the invisible workhorse of the solar system. But there's more to it than that. While this basic un-textured model doesn't show it, the Pyrite is old, and worn. The M.S.D (Mercury Service Designation) reveals how far this ship came to end up rotting in a berth on Io. The scuffs, stains, oil, and patches show just how long it's been in service.
More than that is the name, Pyrite, who would name a trading ship that they were staking their livelihood that. Pyrite, Fools Gold, what does that say about your prospects?
I will likely never get to make Io, but I'd like to. I'd like to make a game in a cool setting where the stakes are still very personal. Where both the player and the character they inhabit take a small boon revived out of the blue and take a chance on not a momentary distraction but a better tomorrow, on fulfilling a lifelong dream.
The Pyrite is old, it's under-serviced, and it's clearly had a history of bad luck. Everyone who isn't similarly at the bottom will look at all the effort gone to to scrape together enough cash for the ship, a cargo, and crew, and deride it as utterly foolish.
But Pyrite has another meaning, beyond Fools Gold. That of fire, for the sparks it produces when struck, a fact largely forgotten nowadays. Yes, working your way from bottom of the barrel refinery work to ship owner is not likely, it is not a safe use of a unexpected windfall. But within the confines of fiction, it's totally possible
Hey, if you read this far for some reason, thanks! Io is one of those projects I'd love to make but, unfortunately, my skills deficient in so many ways. I'm best at worldbuilding, writing and I've been learning how do basic models, but I have no ability to code, getting my head around even basic engine stuff makes it spin, and such things as music and textures are beyond me.
But I keep plugging away at little things.
Speaking of that actually, wish I knew how much it would cost to get a texture made for this ship?
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Since ‘Friday Night Funkin’’ headcanons on Ao3 is set to be demolished, how about I repost some of its ‘chapters’ here with some few format changes?
Actually, it’s more like recreating those chapters from scratch.
Let’s begin with Hank.
…
Name: Hank J. Wimbleton
Species: Crossling (headcanon name for grunts), second generation
Age: 21 (post RfM), mentally around his 40s
Pronouns: He/They (demiman? Non-binary?)
Height: 3'6 (grunt/crossling form), 6'2 (if transformed into a human)
Sexuality: Asexual and aromantic
Birthday: September 22
Headcanons
As he is born without a handler (basically a crossling equivalent of a parent), he didn’t learn manners, and is pretty blunt on his words and insults.
As a result, he can be brutally honest, and doesn’t like to lie.
Acts like a grumpy middle-aged man. He’s 21.
Then again, all crosslings are born as adults.
Hank never learned how to cook before and during the events of this version of Madness Combat.
Well, that is if you don’t count him ‘cooking’ instant noodles. It’s pretty decent.
Likes to blend things on a blender to a pulp. Even things that were never meant to be blended into a pulp.
The reason for that is because ever since he had his jaw ripped off and replaced with a metal one, he can’t eat hard foods lest his jaw hurts. Soft food and liquids (like soup and smoothies) are the only things he could consume anymore.
His favorite food (and probably the exception to the soft food only rule) is hotdogs.
Also thanks to the metal jaw, he can’t speak certain sounds.
Then again, he doesn’t talk much. If he can, he tries to use body language to communicate.
He’s learning sign language, though.
Touching the halo on episode 9 (events differ in this AU but it still applies otherwise) not only gave him the power to defeat the Auditor, but also gave him telepathy.
Hank is a visual learner. He watches someone do things, and chances are, he would learn something from it.
“The J stands for Motherfucker” is a rumor that has been spread around Nevada. He doesn’t confirm it, but he doesn’t deny it either.
It’s actually “Jolly,” by the way. It’s funnier that way.
Probably autistic.
Definitely has C-PTSD thanks to the events of Madness Combat.
Warning: denial, depression, suicide mention, and some other stuff. This gets pretty dark, and I thought that was only reserved for the consequences section of things!
His denial of things and the surrounding stigma against him probably made him think that he is just a machine made for killing and obeying orders, and nothing else.
He successfully convinced himself that he does not care for anything and anyone when that is not the case.
He tells himself he doesn’t care about anything except for killing, even though the truth is that he does care.
Which led to… well, betraying Sanford and Deimos, even though his inner self is yelling at him to not do it.
But… truth is, he hates that he is nothing but a machine. He figured that he should die once and for all and make sure he won’t be revived again.
And so, he wanted to destroy the world to end his—and everyone’s—suffering.
Consequences
Basically, things that are not headcanons, but rather, information about the SoNG AU version of the character. It is named as such because these facts are the results of me using my Friday Night Funkin’ headcanons to create this world.
If you have seen Madness.exe/988, you know how that turned out, but we aren’t talking about that.
After that, he has somewhat changed to the point where he starts to accept that he cares for people.
He is still suicidal, but it’s a good thing that the Status Quo is on suicide watch duty as a secondary mission.
And then a young Boyfriend pops up. He was given a mission to protect him and make sure he goes home.
The experience made him a bit more humble and caring, to the point where he can consider the little human as a friend.
Frankly, he missed the little human when he finally came home.
To be honest, I’m not sure if the events of Hank’s week is going to be canon. Then again, I don’t know what it’s about, but it’s likely that it has something to do with DD hiring him to kill Boyfriend after Pico refused to do so.
But here’s the thing: after everything, Hank decided to stop killing once and for all.
Anyways…
Very curious about the world outside of Nevada.
Mesmerized about everything that was rare—or don’t even exist—in Nevada, but common in the outside world, like colors.
Favorite color is sky blue, mostly because of the color of the sky in daytime.
Doesn’t tolerate racism against their species, mostly because he feels guilty for giving them a bad reputation and the negative stereotypes of being either incompetent or violent.
“Yeah, us crosslings are territorial creatures, but that doesn’t mean we can’t coexist in peace!”
#character information#hank j. wimbleton#madness combat#headcanon#au#tw suicide#tw depression#tw attempted suicide#tw denial#or something
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BIG SUMMARY POST I GUESS
The Blank Crossing: the name of the series, since they all take place in the same universe. Has a lot of lore about its inhabitants and the supernatural forces holding it together. It's more named after the limbo between the afterlives tho, since the shows focus on it a lot.
Object Obstacle Course (OOC): The planned-to-be first installment of the series. It's a simpler, more traditional show in its viewer-voting format, but its challenges will be formatted differently, being obstacle courses combined with side challenges that must be completed DURING the courses. The cast consists of 10 contestants and one ever-so-weird otherworldly host... A cat. There will be plenty of hints to the other shows and the lore.
Reflection In Pieces (RIP): Set at least 18 years after OOC2, this non-competition show stars a young protagonist who just recently and suddenly died, and they aren't at all accepting this fact yet. The show will follow them and the Hallway Managers of TBC as they go on a journey to help them move on from their own interpersonal dramas, while also learning about themself. There will be 5 major characters and many sides and minor characters.
Bloodbath For Recovery Center (BBFRC): Set 21 years before OOC, this show is regarded as the show that went into history forever for changing reality show laws for good. A regular citizen, who was bored of how samey reality shows are at the time and is a really big fan of The Hunger Games, decided to start a show that caters to HER specifically, with somehow-gained spectacular equipments and a lot of lying. 30 contestants willingly signed up, for the prize is too valuable for any of them to ignore, and they soon realize that the situation is much more sinister than they thought... Canonically, 6 survived the game, with one being revived later on due to specific circumstances.
Medieval Objects Venture Elsewhere (MOVE): Set sometimes during or after OOC, it's basically the ooc contestants playing an abridged fairytale (basically, they recreate fairytales, with some changes to the stories in the way they want it) version of DND. Will probably be in animated comic format.
Flat Objects Event (FOE): Taking place in the realm of Eternal Peace (the afterlife basically), it's basically a joke show about flat fuck friday, where the contestants do whatever and the viewers vote on who's the best flat object. Set ? years after RIP.
Scientifically Godly Disasters (SGD): A side character we will see time to time tries again to mix all of the godly marks into a concoction, and this time, she drinks it and starts to gain powers. She announces the project's success to the other scientists, and exactly one of them is skeptical of it. He decided to set up a plan to stop her, fearing for the worst. Set ? years after FOE
(Will be updated sometimes)
#object show community#object shows#object show#important#the blank crossing#object obstacle course#reflection in pieces#bloodbath for recovery center#medieval objects venture elsewhere#flat objects event
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Zonnia Pokedex: Chompedro and Uruzilla
Chompedro
Stone Tooth Pokemon
Rock
Cranidos + Tirtouga
Appearance
Chompedro are small, stone-skinned reptilian Pokemon that measure one and a half feet in total length. A majority of the Pokemon's body is made up of its jaws, with four short and stubby limbs keeping it low to the ground. Its jaws are lined by hard, stony teeth.
The skin of Chompedro is rocky, and dark red in colour. A series of yellow stripes extend down the Pokemon's back - beginning just behind where the jaws end and going all the way to the tip of the tail. These stripes have the same width all the way along, even as Chompedro's body narrows, which causes them to become denser by sheer virtue of less Pokemon to cover.
Chompedro's four legs all end in three-taloned feet, and its tail is short and points slightly upwards. The large jaws of Chompedro - which make up a majority of its body length - have a pair of round nostrils at the tip of the upper jaws, and a pair of round, forward-pointing eyes set atop the back of its head, about halfway along its total body. These eyes are white with red oval irises within.
Chompedro is capable of opening its jaws up to a sixty-degree angle. It is slow to open its jaws to full width, but incredibly fast to clamp them shut.
Ecology
An ancient Pokemon species, Chompedro are native to an age over ten million years past, resurrected in the modern day through fossil revival techniques. The Pokemon have not been introduced to the wild in any appropriate form, and so observations regarding their natural state of living must be made based on the little we have seen. These observations are as follows.
A carnivorous Pokemon species, Chompedro use their proportionally massive jaws and extreme bite strength to capture prey and attack much larger species. They are not actively aggressive without prompting, but once hungry the Pokemon thinks of little else but filling its belly. Thankfully, once full, it takes Chompedro a large amount of time - over a week - before it becomes hungry again.
The Pokemon do not show concern to the presence of others, and are happy in most any company. They do not like water and will seek shelter from rain, preferring dry environments. With Pokemon Trainers Chompedro are quite responsive, and happy to follow directions. Their thick rock hides make them resistant to numerous attacks, and a Chompedro who has sunk its teeth into a target is unlikely to let go. When the stone teeth of Chompedro break, they are quickly replaced by new teeth growing in.
Chompedro are capable of reproduction, but show little interest - producing new members of the species left to their evolution Uruzilla instead.
Field Report
Chompedro and Uruzilla are common within their fossil record, due in part to their incredibly resilient bones which show little wear even after the passing of millennia. Uruzilla bone has featured commonly in ancient tools and artefacts, which made the acquisition of material for fossil revival easy.
The revivification of this Pokemon species was performed by Team Midas, with results from the process first seen in public fifteen years ago. The technology used to perform fossil revival was at that point in time not available within Zonnia - clearly taken from another region - with the seized machinery from Team Midas repurposed a decade later for the restoration of Iciscale and Auchillia.
The reasoning by Team Midas members successfully interrogated was that the fossils were “easily available for use with emergent technology” and “promised a powerful Pokemon for easy use”. Both justifications lacking in moral fibre and composed of equal parts hubris and cowardice, the recreation of this Pokemon species for use by criminals stands as an insult to every Pokemon Trainer across Zonnia and the world over.
Due to the power of Uruzilla, which responds easily to Trainer directions, Chompedro continue to be raised to evolution by Team Midas today - the syndicate still possessing the completed genetic sequencing necessary to recreate the species. Rescued Chompedro from Team Midas Trainers have successfully adjusted to more caring environments, and a small number of Uruzilla exist amongst the teams of upstanding Trainers, but the Pokemon species remains tarred by the brush of Team Midas, and the sight of one prompts most people to worry there is a member of Team Midas nearby.
Those responsible for acquiring the fossil revival machinery from overseas, sequencing Chompedro's genetics, and performing the revival, are still yet to be found, even today. The whimsical naming of Chompedro itself - whose name was first heard uttered by Team Midas members - speaks of a creator easy-going enough to create something with a smile, and morally vacuous enough to do so against all good graces.
I fear such a person immensely.
Follow the source link to AO3 to learn about the evolution of Chompedro: Uruzilla!
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#8 - The chances of a lifetime might be hiding their tricks up my sleeve.
“The truth is always some inner power without explanation. The more genuine part of my life is unrecognizable, extremely intimate and impossible to define. My heart has shed every desire and reduced itself to one final or initial beat. The toothache that passes through this narrative has given me a sharp twinge right in the mouth. I break out into a strident, high-pitched, syncopated melody. It is the sound of my own pain, of someone who carries this world where there is so little happiness. Happiness? I have never come across a more foolish word.” Clarice Lispector
And so I walk these streets I've walked countless times before. This is Portland, a town I've been learning to love –I've foolishly been trying to make this city mine. I walk aimlessly trying to recreate what I once did when I once was fifteen years of age in a different country, in a different city five thousand miles south from here. My feet are tired now, the beauty of this coastal town is not enough to get lost in it. As I try to recapture the same spirit I got while I walked that big city, something feels inadequate, unfamiliar, cold.
I look at the edifices around and their cold beauty speaks to me about a time that is gone now, a colonial time when glass became more common so windows could have individual panes. It is the windows that give way to symmetry and repetition. Some other buildings reveal to me an old urge for revival with their street facing gables that function as pediments. How to ignore the arrogance they give from standing erect supported by big, tall columns? How about those estructures with pointed arched windows, steep roofs, and ornate chimneys? They face me all decorated as if they were trying to separate themselves from the traditional proportion and symmetry of the conglomerate of buildings they are amongst. What can I say about the houses that inform me about a time when the middle class could afford some luxury? It's all in the details and the material. I can sense the need for an upturn.
This is the feeling I get as I walked this land of the free: a pressure to better myself. I relate to these inanimate structures as a moving entity who needs a revival, a rebirth of sorts. I get to think that maybe I am not so distant from the reflection these shop windows provide as I turned to them to see who is the one in the other dimension. I can say I adore the brownness that translates into nothingness for I feel no sense of belonging. I can make out the words of the man reflecting on the glass as his lips move to say, "I am alone in the world and I don't believe in anyone." Revelations like this only come to me when I am alone. I lack the ability to communicate in sentences for I am a man of no words. I make believe that there was a time in the big city when I wasn't conscious of myself and made no demands on anyone – a time where I did not think about myself for I lacked self-awareness.
Lately I need several hours of solitude every day. I am only true when I'm alone. "Life is, it's never what you think it's for / and I can't seem to set it off. / And lately I've been insecure / the chances of a lifetime might be hiding their tricks up my sleeve." As a boy, I was always afraid of falling into a bottomless pit at any moment. Clarice once said, "why do the clouds keep afloat when everything else drops to the ground? The explanation is simple: the gravity is less than the force of air that sustains the clouds. Clever, don't you think? Yes, but sooner or later they fall in the form of rain." I am walking down these cobblestone streets surrounded by beautiful brick walls, time and time again.
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Plot idea #3 – Recreating Your Beloved
Ok so. This is kind of a three in one deal since the concept is the same but the executions vary.
The basic idea is, muse A has lost their beloved - they're either dead or have simply left muse A for good - but muse A simply cannot get over it. Muse A also happens to be a scientist/alchemist/robotics expert/similar, and in their desperation they recreate their beloved. This is NOT a revival or reincarnation, not some joyous occasion where they're finally reunited. Instead, their new beloved, muse B, is something they created in the image of their love and is unsure of their own personality and reason for living. They struggle with the idea that they were made to be someone else, or they struggle to live up to the expectations of their creator.
This is a bit of a long post, so I'm putting the variations under the cut:
1. Clone / homunculus
Muse A is a scientist or alchemist who manages to clone their beloved. Muse B is the clone/homunculus, a real flesh and blood creature, so close to being human but never quite there.
Maybe muse A keeps making them and discarding the imperfect clones as if they aren't living creatures, attempting to make a recreation that's as close as possible to the original.
Maybe muse B struggles to speak and move, and muse A is frustrated but insistent on teaching them how to behave exactly like their beloved used to, stripping them of any chance of developing their own personality and individuality. (Maybe their methods become more cruel when they muse B isn't doing well.)
Maybe muse A is so far gone, that they only want to keep their new beloved as a sort of doll, as something they can shower with love and take care of. They refuse to teach muse B how to take care of themselves, or do anything really, and they only teach them words they want to hear, discouraging any attempts at saying anything else.
Maybe muse B, regardless of the circumstances above, attempts to or succeeds at escaping from muse A's grasp, only to find that muse A is after them, trying to find them, to bring them back home – and never let them leave again.
(Could also be something similar to that one episode of Black Mirror. I won't spoil it, so if you know, you know.)
2. Android
Muse A is a scientist/robotics expert (most likely, but not necessarily, in a futuristic setting) who makes an android in the image of their beloved. They program the android to be able to speak and move, and use an advanced AI so the android can "think". Muse B is that android.
Maybe muse B, having been programmed to do as told, is subservient to muse A. They do their best to follow commands and make muse A happy, not understanding that muse A doesn't want an android companion, they want their loved one back. Muse A isn't satisfied with the fact that the android is clearly only doing as told, and not behaving like their beloved, so they try to teach muse B how to do things exactly like their beloved used to. Muse B, powered by extremely advanced AI, delivers.
Maybe muse A only suffers more as a result, wanting so badly to enjoy their time with their beloved, but eaten up by the knowledge that this isn't them, and that the android is just really good at their job. Maybe muse B begins to develop the closest thing to emotions that androids can feel, and is disappointed and saddened by the fact that they can't be what muse A wants them to be.
Or, on the flip side, maybe muse A is entirely delusional and is acting like muse B is indeed their beloved, but becomes furious and out of control when muse B slips up and does something that muse A thinks their beloved would never have done. Muse B becomes worried about muse A, or maybe they're upset at how they're being treated, or perhaps they're scared that muse A will destroy them or reprogram them to be more like what they want, thus wiping them of the personality they've built up.
Once again, muse B might attempt to run away and is pursued by muse A. Or maybe they stay, trying their best to satisfy muse B despite being scared/worried/upset.
Maybe they even develop feelings for muse A, but end up going against how muse A wants them to behave because they want to love them in their own way.
Either way, I think it's very important for muse B to struggle with their personality and their purpose in life, what with being a programmed android who's not supposed to have any feelings in the first place, and explore how they navigate their life with all these complicated feelings and muse A's wishes and personality. On the other hand, muse A can range from being depressed and disappointed in themselves that they made an android and forced it to act like their beloved just for their own selfish desires, to being delusional and extremely controlling, believing they're in love with their new beloved, but rejecting any attempts of muse B to develop their own personality and individuality.
(Inspired somewhat by Detroit: Become Human, and other sci-fi settings with androids.)
3. Living doll
For a more fantasy setting, all of the above can be applied to a living doll, with some nuances. In other words, muse B is a life-sized doll given life. Could be similar to the clone/homunculus, where it needs to be taught from scratch, or it could be closer to the android, where it knows how to speak, move, and think, but muse A needs to teach them to behave like their beloved.
Additionally, maybe muse B could be one of several/many dolls, because muse A wasn't satisfied with just one, so now muse B is upset/angry that not only are they expected to behave like someone long dead who muse A yearns for, but they're surrounded by other dolls who look and behave exactly the same, thus it's clear that muse doesn't truly care for any of the dolls – they only want to be surrounded by their beloved.
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an excerpt from a post by u/throwawayeo23 on r/extraordinary that was forcibly removed within an hour of posting with no indication of a moderator's intervention
it worked. it fucking worked. you know how most eos are the result of accidents? i thought it wasn't possible for it to happen any other way, because why should it? the conditions of the nde required to become an eo are nearly impossible to recreate. hell, even accidents don't always work. up to 15% of the population say they've had a nde but there's nowhere near that number of reported eos.
anyway, my buddy and i set out to find a way to diy it. remarkably difficult, but i've outlined the steps that worked below in detail. the quick and dirty of it is that you gotta die with intent and revive with control. find a way to end a life, but still keep it in arm's reach, and you cannot render the body unusable. you need to make sure that enough control is stripped from the subject that they'll be afraid. the chemical properties induced by fear and adrenaline trigger a crucial somatic change. it doesn't work without fear.
CERBERUSCORP is a mature, literate, appless roleplay that pulls inspiration from the boys, gen v, agents of shield, and v.e. schwab’s villains duology. characters are all of extra ordinary designation and have come to possess inhuman power upon a near-death experience. it will become evident that everything is not as it seems as the roleplay begins and progresses.
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