Rose Tico defender

NATALIERSO'S FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION 

Mariam Afshari as Shiva for @jynjackets

a lot of people (myself included) have already pointed out how nolan managed to make a greek myth adaptation christian, but it's not just the way in which the greek gods are treated like a mystery (which is so stupid because of how relevant the gods' roles are in greek mythology in general, but especially the odyssey) while literally having the cyclops and circe running around. its the way odysseus calls the underworld "hell", the christian influence seeping in even when discussing a central part of the mythology

it's the armour, the ships, the treatment of "zeus' law" as some kind of amendment instead of a cultural tradition

NATALIERSO'S FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION 

Mariam Afshari as Shiva for @jynjackets

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS -- It's not that I hate her. We were really close before, now we're not, and now she wants to be close again, but I don't want that.

SOCIETAL INDUCTION [medium: success] -- She believes herself.

"mhm"

"right"

"are you sure you really mean that?"

"and how does that make you feel?"

YOU -- and how does that make you feel?

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS -- Mostly I look down on her. We were together for months and she never put in the effort to improve. She would say she was getting better but she never would actually try.

FOREGONE CONCLUSION -- she could be describing you.

GODDESS COMPLEX [easy: success] -- She's not talking about you. You grow and change much faster than this. And even if you weren't growing, you could convince her that you were. It'd be easy.

SYMPHONICS -- mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

FLAWED SENSORIUM -- There's a hand inside your stomach. It's clawing to get out. It keeps pushing and grabbing and pressing. It's against your stomach lining. It wants to get out. It's digging upward through your throat. Trying desperately to get out. It's almost there. When it crests it will hurt like everything's wrong.

CLOCKWORK SOUL -- Almost ten seconds (9.7) have passed. Respond.

"yeah"

"mhm"

"it sounds like you could be talking about me"

"have you never felt that way before?"

YOU -- mhm

SACRIFICIAL LAMB -- i shouldnt be talking to her like this i really hate myself

THANATOPHILIA -- None of this matters. There's no point to doing anything.

VITREOUS TEMPERAMENT [medium: failure] -- You don't know for sure that she's in the wrong. You're lacking so much information. For all you know, she could be in the right. Everything she says to you could be totally justified. You have no right to judge her.

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS -- It's not really even that she wants to be close. She always reaches out when she gets like this. Ignores what last happened and tries to pretend that she'll be better even when she knows she won't be.

TRIUMPHANT LOSER -- you should 'close' these dms and stop talking to her.

PATTERN MATCHING [hard: success] -- you know what she's talking about you've done this before you'll do this again and again and again and again and again and again

MARQUESS DE SADE -- Huh. She genuinely lacks the self-awareness to see her own role in any of this. It'd take a bit of work, but you could show her some real empathy, here. Teach her exactly what she did wrong. Show her what's going on.

PRINCIPLE OF EXPLOSION -- you don't know that to be true. you don't know anything to be true. you only know what you know. nothing more. nothing less. tell her that.

CLOCKWORK SOUL [trivial: success] -- It's been almost thirty seconds (28.5). If you send a long enough message, it'll seem like you've been genuinely thinking and you can recover this.

"mhm"

"kill yourself"

[PRINCIPLE OF EXPLOSION - Hard] tell her exactly what's going on.

[MARQUESS DE SADE - Challenging] Stab the knife.

PRINCIPLE OF EXPLOSION [hard: success] -- you see what's going on here. you talked to her a while ago, too, so you have some insider information to draw from. you've been in both of their footsteps, too. you just need to employ a little thought. add a qualifier just in case.

FLAWED SENSORIUM -- There's mold on your walls. Black and rotten. There's mold all around you. The proof is in the flies. You can hear them all around you jeering. Buzzing everywhere. Can't kill them fast enough. But until you do something about the mold, the flies will only get worse. You'll have to sleep with them there too. But until then, you're still breathing in mold.

ETHICS ENGINE [easy: failure] -- it goes against your few remaining morals to vindicate her on this, but that doesn't matter.

FOR THIRTY SECONDS [medium: success] -- HOLD YOUR BREATH. PRESS SEND.

YOU -- i get the impression she's mostly just desperate for another connection. she knows the feelings she wants and remembers having them with you but doesn't respect you enough to want to have those conversations.

YOU -- that is to say, she's mostly just reacting. and you can't handle that because you see everything she's constantly throwing away.

ARITHMETICS -- this message was sent at 11:59. these digits add up to 16. these digits add up to 7. 7 is the 4th prime number. 4 4s can construct any number. 4+sqrt(4)+4/4=7. (sqrt(4)*4!-4)/4=11. 4!/.4-4/4=59. everything makes sense.

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS -- Thank you. I like talking about these things with you because you get it.

TRIUMPHANT LOSER -- 'get it', get it? get it like the joke. the joke that you're not getting.

SOCIETAL INDUCTION [medium: success] -- That's a genuine compliment. You've received compliments like this before. It becomes increasingly statistically likely that you have an actual talent for this kind of thing. You're good at this.

DERMATILLOMANIA - skinpicked clean it came off clean so veryclean and now it hurts hurts hurts but atleast it'sclean and maybe it'll growanice scab or maybe it'll just be smoothforeverandever

GODDESS COMPLEX -- Of course you're good at this. You built your entire self about this kind of thing. Defined by negation. Crafted by construction. Perfect and resplendent.

"i try."

"thank you"

"do you really mean that?"

YOU -- i try.

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS -- I admit I also hate the way she talks about it. Always presenting herself as the victim. She doesn't even say it. When she was moving out, she spent hours unpacking. Going slowly, messing up on purpose, and dragging it out as long as possible. She kept looking at us. Begging us with her eyes.

VITREOUS TEMPERAMENT -- oh

THE MASK SPEAKS -- It's still your victory. She's never going to figure out your true feelings about any of this. You sent only a single real message and still you've led her around by her nose. You win.

PATTERN MATCHING [trivial: success] -- you'll be thinking about this for weeks because you're a terrible failure of a human being

WEAR THE MASK [hard: success] -- nothing has changed. face muscles like rubber. if you don't move, no one will see you.

"yeah."

YOU - yeah.

FLAWED SENSORIUM -- There's a dripping in the distance. The sink is still running. You forgot to turn the tap off all the way. Or possibly the fridge has a leak. If it has a leak you'll have to replace it. Fridges can explode if they have leaks. You saw that in a video. It was a science video.

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS - Ugh. Thank you for talking with me about this.

THANATOPHILIA -- just say it already and let everything will be over.

SOCIETAL INDUCTION -- Let the conversation reach a natural conclusion.

"ok"

"kill yourself"

"i hope this talk helped you figure things out."

YOU - i hope this talk helped you figure things out.

EFFECTIVE RANGE [easy: success] -- the expired bottle of pills would still be on the table within arms reach if you hadn't thrown it away last week.

GIRL WHO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO IN MONTHS - It did. See you around.

then in the actual text of the books we get seldom few direct interactions between paul and alia. the moment in the council where they’re notably on the same wavelength, the one in the training room where she’s naked and describes herself as feeling post-coital after their conversation, aaaaand uuuuhhhhh ??? the in-text evidence of them being so intertwined is severely lacking!!!! paul hardly thinks about her over the course of messiah!! while much of her narrative is fixated on him

BUT ON THE OTHER THIRD HAND, thats how herbert writes…! we don’t actually see a lot of paul and chani’s interactions in the books either, them falling in love and having their first child is confined to the timeskip, and then by messiah he’s so fixated with delaying the fate he sees for her that I don’t recall them having any conversations outside of those regarding her pregnancy. so herbert’s definitely an “I told you they’re close, they’re close” kinda guy that wouldn’t be lingering in those moments anyway.

hayt and bijaz, at least, also perceive/buy in to the closeness. it’s bijaz that says to attack one is to attack the other and hayt, who’s literally been sent to spy on them, doesn’t disagree.

so there’s this whole wide CANYON (and the timeskip!) of unknowns about their bond that is just fascinating in trying to suss out the ‘truth’. did hayt and bijaz just fall for irulan’s propagandizing? are they actually super close but we don’t see the whole of it because of herbert’s writing style? somewhere in between? but, also, seriously—