Began a Southern Reach series crochet cardigan when I started Absolution. Finished the book long ago but only just finished this project. Just need to find the perfect buttons--they'll go where the stitch markers are :)
I realized I never showed the completely finished cardigan with buttons, and I wore it to work today so I figured I'd also show what it looks like on :)
hey anyone wanna chat about the Southern Reach series 👀 I just finished it recently and I need to talk about it and share my theories and headcanons lol
Control and Whitby are the two I'm most obsessed with, but I love all the characters and they're all so interesting in their own ways, buuut I really do love my rabbitboy and alligatorguy most of all :3
Hiiiii I''m still working my way through Acceptance (about 100 pgs in) but I'm legitimately so ill about all of it so if you're willing to wait a lil longer to let a guy catch up :0 I'd love to talk about it!
So, I was working in a lab, right? My job in the lab was preparing a pure, concentrated enough sample of virus. This is tricky since, y'know, viruses require hosts to replicate, but you then need to get the host cells (and the pieces of the host cells that died!) out of the sample while still keeping the viruses. Once I'd finished and the samples had been sent to the database for analysis as well as a second one sent to be frozen for future reference, there was still some left over that needed to be disposed of.
I, knowing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, waited carefully for the lab director to be deep in conversation with someone else on the other side of the laboratory. And then I took my chance.
Test tubes, as it turns out, are really bad as shot glasses. Their shape turns any liquid inside into a stream, so you really can't knock it back quickly - it takes a couple seconds. Additionally, the best way I can describe the taste of virus concentrate was "sterile rot". A very unique kind of bad! Made worse by the test tube's inefficiency as a shot glass.
(by the way we were studying bacteriophages, not animal viruses. these viruses are too specialized on attacking prokaryotes to even recognize our cells as targets at all, according to studies.)
(but also like. if the viruses managed to successfully switch hosts and killed me with a violent infection, itd still be worth it.)
heart i had to think about for a bit, but i think he's the vast. the vast is all about feeling like you're small and meaningless in the universe. a lot of his songs focus on insignificance. just apathy is the most obvious example, being all about how insignificant everything is and how nothing matters, a common theme of the vast. there's also good day, where heart flips between "it likes to say that it is nothing" and "it insists that it is something," both resigned to his meaningless existence and desperate to prove he has meaning. there's a touch of end in there, with mentions of "everything will turn to dust" and entropy, but the end is a passive fear, and heart certainly isn't passive. in fact, I'd argue his attempts at hurting mind fall under the vast too - he feels insignificant while mind acts so important, so he tries to drag mind down to prove that he's just as helpless. there's also some buried in there, with the entire "being in a hole" thing and feeling suffocated, but this is way too long so I'll leave it there {hah}
mind is the web. there's a touch of the eye, of course, but knowledge isn't what makes him scary - it's his manipulation, his power over others. the recurring ruler of everything motif {within the song itself and him singing it in other places} is somewhat self explanatory. he needs to be in control of everything, to pull the strings and be the... well, ruler of everything. mind is referred to constantly in this way, especially by heart: "see how the mind tricks the soul," "controlled by digits," "take control, let's see how you fare." he's convinced his methods are the best and most effective, and he's willing to exert control over others in order to ensure he gets his way. at the same time, he's trapped in this role himself, feeling the fear as well as projecting it onto the others. he feels powerless, so he takes that power by force, which is consistent with what we see of web avatars - their controlling nature stems from a deep fear of being controlled themselves.
soul is the stranger. soul's entire thing is being the "identity" part of whole, therefore being a not-quite-whole. the identity of whole without an identity of his own, a mimic instead of an individual. and he's treated as essentially a surrogate whole throughout the narrative, furthering the theme of being an impersonator taking the role of whole in his absence. soul becoming or representing whole but not truly being him because it's lacking the full spectrum of humanity. not quite whole, not quite human, not quite anything else. something in the shape of a full person that goes through the motions of being a person but without true humanity. furthermore, soul treats this loop like a neverending performance. he's "paraded," he tells the listener to enjoy the show, and in the bidding he's clearly playing it up for the audience. the stranger has a heavy emphasis on playing a role, which is exactly what soul is doing throughout the entire album.
and whole is the lonely. from what we see of whole's life, particularly in hidden in the sand but also in special and taken for a ride, he's a fundamentally lonely person. he suffers from a deep sense of alienation from others, struggling to connect with others. at the same time, his isolation is also self imposed - he admits that the rejection is "what I was convinced," not an accurate telling of events, as well as saying he remembers "practicing most weekends at the expense of spending joyful time with friends." he shuts himself away from others to avoid the risk of being shut out by them instead. he convinces himself that it's the best option and finds some level of comfort in the isolation. whole as a construct is another story, and honestly with how metaphorical the concept of whole is, you could argue basically anything. so I'm sticking with what we see of whole as a person ^-^
Soul is stranger coded, he'd both fear it immensely (being identity-less) but also be such a good avatar molding his skin like clay to try and imitate the face he knows he's supposed to be seeing in the mirror. Imagine, if you will: Harmonia who works in a coffee shop and often see Soul who's been trying to kick his energy drink habit by transitioning to coffee and tea. One day Soul comes in and something about his face is... wrong. But Harmonia doesn't want to be rude by bringing it up. As he sips his coffee, he just stares at Harmonia trying to memorize his features. Day by day Soul's face contorts until he looks just like Harmonia. One day he goes to get a coffee and Harmonia is gone. Guided by some unknown instinct, Soul goes to the back, slips on the apron with Harmonia's name tag, and takes his place. This isn't right, Soul didn't want to replace Harmonia! Maybe if he keeps working, while he's standing at the counter, Harmonia will walk in like Soul would.
The rest of this is rather spoiler-y up to S4 for TMA so beware
Mind could be an Eye avatar, but I think Web suits him too. He'd probably be a mix. Not surprising he's Archivist coded. He craves for control so that his secrets and weaknesses don't surface. I could see him collecting Leitners and artifacts in order to better control how the entities affect him. He'd very quickly take on powers not realizing that he is in fact being puppeted. He thought the entities to thoughtless since he built his own classification from scratch. the web, of course, has been pulling threads since the beginning and didn't let him know how the Web truly functions.
Heart has been a challenge for me to figure out. The Lonely is very Apathy coded, for the sake of weaving a story I like to think he's running from it and into one of the more animalistic fears I want to say the Hunt for the purposes of: could you imagine a Heart who functions almost like Daisy? Who is trying to hunt down Mind who's the Archivist? Who flings himself into endless chases trying to run away from other entities? He gets looped into the fuckery that is the Institute, and lashes out whenever he gets the chance. Maybe he blinds himself to escape the institute once they figure that out. He's still an incredible shot despite the lack of eyes.
The Forest for the Trees Jashlings would be:
Green - Desolation, I feel this one speaks for itself. Burning the forest for the trees. Something that once was peaceful burned to the ground, a life so young already stained red with destruction.
Red - Slaughter, senseless violence that lashes out at others and himself. The guitar smashing in the music video is what is giving that energy. I was very tempted to give him Desolation too but he's far less controlled that Green, his violence has less of a target.
Blue- Lonely coded, so so very lonely coded. Living in nostalgia until he's no more. It's simply an effect of plugging that cartridge into the DS.
And some assorted lil guys with less justification just vibes:
Fine I'm Fine/Rose is vast coded because vastards are usually full of whimsy due to finding a certain meaning in meaninglessness.
YSLLB is rather Buried coded the pressure is crushing. I could also see spiral.
20xx is flesh coded because body building (teehee)
THDPH/Devil is incredibly spiral coded. Extinction could also work quite well considering savages.
The Narrator (GWotNLH) is dark coded, leader of the monsters who lurk at night.
The test strand is drying, and I'm really nervous. My friend is helping me and she's really knowledgeable.
It seems to be fine, a little thinner texture-wise, but if I get the nerve to let her bleach the rest, I can have pink hair!
And I want pink hair even if it makes me nervous. I won't always get to have pink hair, but I can have it now so I should enjoy that.
Anyways, hair grows back right? I've ruin it and cut it all off before! Last time it was red, and then I used Splat (bad, do not, it fucked up my hair), and then it was purple and blue, and then I got to have super short hair!!
The test strand is drying, and I'm really nervous. My friend is helping me and she's really knowledgeable.
It seems to be fine, a little thinner texture-wise, but if I get the nerve to let her bleach the rest, I can have pink hair!
And I want pink hair even if it makes me nervous. I won't always get to have pink hair, but I can have it now so I should enjoy that.
Anyways, hair grows back right? I've ruin it and cut it all off before! Last time it was red, and then I used Splat (bad, do not, it fucked up my hair), and then it was purple and blue, and then I got to have super short hair!!
