Random Stuff

[Orlion Blight he/him]

[Kestrel she/her]

Well, ain't that random.

In any case, I'm fairly sure that my "I'm not hungry for lunch" directly translates to "I'm too lazy to go find and make food."

[+Slowswift]

I'm torn between really loving "Galaxies" by Owl City, which is possibly one of the coolest songs I've ever heard, and objecting to its use of "Dear God." 

 

#moralquandaries

 

Bless whoever made an instrumental version of that song.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Slowswift

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I'm torn between really loving "Galaxies" by Owl City, which is possibly one of the coolest songs I've ever heard, and objecting to its use of "Dear God."

#moralquandaries

Bless whoever made an instrumental version of that song.

I think of his use like a prayer. Not in a taking-God's-name-in-vain sort of a way, but more calling God dear and telling him how his hand guided him when "the galaxies crossed and the sun went dark."

[+Slowswift]

I think of his use like a prayer. Not in a taking-God's-name-in-vain sort of a way, but more calling God dear and telling him how his hand guided him when "the galaxies crossed and the sun went dark."

 

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I knee-jerked a little, given how it is more or less shouted. And again, I may have a slightly different version of what constitutes taking God's name in vain, given a different religious upbringing than the rest of the world (I'm Mormon).

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I knee-jerked a little, given how it is more or less shouted. And again, I may have a slightly different version of what constitutes taking God's name in vain, given a different religious upbringing than the rest of the world (I'm Mormon).

I had a pretty strict definition of th phrase growing up, but the usage in that song strikes me as respectful. Especially with the line "But dear God, you're the only North Star I would follow this far."

[+Slowswift]

I had a pretty strict definition of th phrase growing up, but the usage in that song strikes me as respectful. Especially with the line "But dear God, you're the only North Star I would follow this far."

 

...which is why I keep listening to it.

 

I love Owl City's stuff. Especially a new one of his, "My Everything."

[Kobold King he/him]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I knee-jerked a little, given how it is more or less shouted. And again, I may have a slightly different version of what constitutes taking God's name in vain, given a different religious upbringing than the rest of the world (I'm Mormon).

 

It was shouting, but it sounded to me more intensely passionate than disrespectful.

 

I'll have to look up this "My Everything" now.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

It was shouting, but it sounded to me more intensely passionate than disrespectful.

I'll have to look up this "My Everything" now.

Same here. I may have heard it, but I don't recall...

In other news, remember that page on explanations of each House? I'm going through the part on burned primaries and I cannot stop Sorting every Epic along those lines someone save me from myseellllllffffff.

Actually, don't. I'm having fun.

[Kobold King he/him]

Same here. I may have heard it, but I don't recall...

In other news, remember that page on explanations of each House? I'm going through the part on burned primaries and I cannot stop Sorting every Epic along those lines someone save me from myseellllllffffff.

Actually, don't. I'm having fun.

 

We're having fun watching you descending deeper and deeper into nerdsanity.

 

(Also, I think we all want to hear what Houses you're sorting Epics into now. )

[+Slowswift]

I just lugged four !@#$%^&* rusting heavy fence pipes. Now I can't feel my hands.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Slowswift

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

We're having fun watching you descending deeper and deeper into nerdsanity.

 

(Also, I think we all want to hear what Houses you're sorting Epics into now. )

 

I've only read through the page on Stripped Gryffindors, but I've already identified a couple. 

 

First, a quick explanation, as the page I'm referencing is a little long (but intensely fascinating to a Ravenclaw like myself): A primary House is the House with which a person's values most closely align. In a nutshell, Gryffindors view right and wrong as paramount, and believe the ability to distinguish it to be an intuitive thing; Ravenclaws see truth as something to be discovered, that can be learned by anyone; Hufflepuffs view people as the most important thing and will put their own needs aside to help nearly anyone, including an enemy; and Slytherins view their personal connections and inner circle as of utmost importance, and see betraying a family member or friend as the most egregious of sins. 

 

Now, a burned primary is a person who, usually due to some sort of trauma, has turned their back on the core values of their House, whose faith in those values has been irreparably shattered. The only one I've read about in-depth is Stripped Gryffindors. A Stripped Gryffindor is one who has lost their sense of right and wrong. They haven't lost their sense that right and wrong are important, but they can no longer tell which is which. They might cling to outward systems of control, in order to maintain some inward sense of peace, but it isn't quite enough and they may seem steadier than their un-Stripped counterparts, but the authors point out that Stripping is more like drowning and being unable to tell which way is up, rather than finally coming up on land. 

 

With that in mind, I dive into a spoiler tag. 

 

Read no further if you have not read Firefight.

The most obvious Stripped Gryffindor I can think of is Regalia. Prior to Calamity, she was a pastor and a judge, so confident in her ability to distinguish right from wrong that she had her own TV show, where she could mete out judgment for millions to see. While we are given few details of her career as a minister, my own personal experience tells me that it is a rare minister who is not absolutely confident in their sense of right and wrong. When confronted on truths they hold immutable, many ministers are likely to correct whoever they perceive as wrong—and this correction can be gentle or it can be harsh. But I digress. 

 

Now, what we know of Epics is that each one has some trauma in their past. It can be a single event, or an ongoing situation, but the trauma is what allows Calamity to grant them powers. Again, we know almost nothing of Abigail Reed before she was Regalia, but the most traumatic thing for a Gryffindor is to have their sense of right and wrong shaken. For Abigail, it was traumatic enough that being wrong became her weakness—her greatest fear. 

 

Much of this is extrapolation, true, but there is ample evidence for Regalia's Stripped status in canon. One sign of a Stripped Gryffindor is that they seem, at first glance, to be steadier than their un-Stripped counterparts. When David—also a Gryffindor primary—first meets Regalia, she watches him cooly. David shoots her in the head, never considering that it might be a water projection—which it is. She speaks to Prof calmly, while David watches, palms sweating, shaking all over. Her steadiness, however, is a mask for a deeper instability—the sort of instability that would make her lure a former friend to her city with the intention of tricking him into becoming totally and completely corrupted. This is the sort of instability that stems from jealousy. "I'm corrupted, and you're not," Regalia says to the dart-pocked photograph of Prof hung across from her bed. "If I can't make myself good again, I'll make you evil. Then you can't be better than me anymore." 

 

Another sign of Stripped Gryffindors is a tendency to cling to outside methods of control. Adherence to a religion is not always a sign of a Stripped Gryffindor, but it can be, and Regalia manifests this in a rather unusual way: In Babilar, a religion has sprung up around an entity called Dawnslight, a being who may or may not be an Epic, who has turned the city into a glowing, warm utopia filled with delicious fruit and beautiful colors. Although Dawnslight's motivations are still a mystery, the one thing we see is that Regalia doesn't take steps to keep Babilarians from praying to Dawnslight—because she has taken Dawnslight captive. With this in mind, it is easy to picture her thoughts as she watches her people pray to Dawnslight: Haha, I have your god in my secret base. He's weak. He's in a coma. And when I die, he won't be able to do a thing to stop Prof. You're all imbeciles. Rather than find her control in her own religion, Regalia most likely finds control and solace in tearing down the religion of others. 

 

Again, most of this is extrapolation, but given Regalia's actions, I don't think it's a step too far.

Edited June 15, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[Kestrel she/her]

What did i miss

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Okay, I read the rest of the burned primaries pages while getting my car's oil changed, and I realized something: 

 

In the Reckonersverse, Fallen Ravenclaws are scary.

 

More Firefight spoilers. 

 

Last chance to turn back. 

 

Fallen Ravenclaws are an interesting bunch. Their entire values system—their entire worldview—is based upon discovering, interpreting, and understanding truth. A Gryffindor who is told their entire worldview is a lie, and who is given undeniable proof of that fact, will more likely than not become Stripped, but a Ravenclaw who is told the same won't Fall. It'll be traumatic for them, sure, but once they've gotten over the shock, they'll pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and say "Well, if what I believed wasn't true, then I'll go find out what is." Chances are, a Ravenclaw will come out of that ordeal stronger than ever. For a Ravenclaw to lose faith in their core values, they have to lose faith in their ability to find and understand truth. A Fallen Ravenclaw is one who no longer believes themselves capable of recognizing truth, of finding truth, of comprehending it if it's given to them. Rather than something that is understandable and knowable to all, the truth, to a Fallen Ravenclaw, is something beyond their grasp, something they cannot hold onto in even the smallest quantities. For the Ravenclaw, I'm sure you can imagine, this is a terrifying experience. 

 

And in the Reckonersverse, it's even more terrifying for everyone else. 

 

Like Regalia, we know little of Obliteration's past prior to Calamity. We know he was a preacher, but aside from that, we have almost nothing. We don't even know his real name. What we do know is that he wants to destroy the world—and he has the means to do it. 

 

Ravenclaws have a reputation for intelligence, and Obliteration is no exception. Rather than the loud, blustering fool one might expect from a superhuman intent on destroying the world, Obliteration is a soft-spoken man who likes to quote the book of Revelation. When he first meets David, he quotes Revelation 20:1—"And I beheld an angel coming down from Heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding a great chain"—while fastening a ball and chain to David's ankle and pushing him into the water. That is something of a trademark for him—he quotes Revelation out of the King James Version while performing heinous acts of destruction. If you haven't read the KJV, let me tell you, it's not the easiest translation to memorize. That Obliteration has a KJV verse for every occasion is a testament to his dedication and intelligence. 

 

His Fallen status is evident in his worldview: 

 

• Epics are wicked and destructive. 
• Revelation talks about wickedness and destruction running rampant at the end of the world. 
• Epics are the end of the world. 
• The capability of becoming an Epic—that inherent wickedness—is in everyone, all over the world. 
• I am an Epic. 
• I am wicked and destructive, whether I want to be or not. 
• I am the end. 

 

Obliteration has not stopped believing in his core worldview. He still believes in God, and in the Bible, but he no longer believes himself worthy or even capable of accepting salvation. He knows what the truth is, but he cannot live up to it. Furthermore, he sees everyone else as one or two steps away from stepping off that precipice he plummeted over the moment Calamity chose him. Anyone else can be just as evil and destructive as he is—so the only answer is to destroy them before they have the chance. 

 

As with Regalia, there's a fair bit of extrapolation in here. But as with Regalia, I don't think it's too far off the mark. 

 

Obliteration is scary as heck.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

And now, for something completely different:

 

"Let us call what is to be analyzed as the analysandum, and let us call that which does the analyzing the analysans. The analysis then states an appropriate relation of equivalence between the analysandum and the analysans. And the paradox of analysis is to the effect that, if the verbal expression representing the analysandum has the same meaning as the verbal expression representing the analysans, the analysis states a bare identity and is trivial; but if the two verbal expressions do not have the same meaning, the analysis is incorrect" -C. H. Langford.

[+Slowswift]

OH MY HOLY STARS THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVAAAAR

 

SLICE OF LIFE IS BEST THING

 

BEST THING

 

ASDFGHJKL;

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

OH MY HOLY STARS THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVAAAAR

 

SLICE OF LIFE IS BEST THING

 

BEST THING

 

ASDFGHJKL;

 

WASN'T IT THE MOST AMAZING EPISODE EVER CREATED IN THE AMAZING HISTORY OF AMAZING AMAZINGNESS????? 

[+Slowswift]

YES YES IT WAS

 

I COULD NOT STOP SMILING

 

FREAKING DOCTOR WHOOVES THOUGH

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I just re-watched the Ninth Doctor episode "The Parting of the Ways." Aside from all the feels, it got the Dalek voice in my head. 

 

So when I saw the chapter name "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" on a sporking I follow, guess which voice I read that in.  

[Kobold King he/him]

I just re-watched the Ninth Doctor episode "The Parting of the Ways." Aside from all the feels, it got the Dalek voice in my head. 

 

So when I saw the chapter name "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" on a sporking I follow, guess which voice I read that in.

 

Who wants to place bets on how long it takes for TwiLyght to be driven insane by the void and start speaking like the Dalek Emperor?

 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Who wants to place bets on how long it takes for TwiLyght to be driven insane by the void and start speaking like the Dalek Emperor?

More like the interwebs, but yeah, pretty much.

Or maybe I looked into the interwebs, and the interwebs looked into me.

[Kobold King he/him]

More like the interwebs, but yeah, pretty much.

Or maybe I looked into the interwebs, and the interwebs looked into me.

 

So... does that make you Bad Wolf, or Somewhat-Naughty Pug?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

So... does that make you Bad Wolf, or Somewhat-Naughty Pug?

Psycho Pug, maybe?

[Kestrel she/her]

It midnight

HAHAHA

[DanTheSeamonster he/him]

I'm on the East Coast so actually it was 1 a.m. when you posted that. And now it's 3 a.m. so I'm assuming it's 2 there. Aren't time zones trippy?

Edited June 17, 2015 by The Crooked Warden