Back on my bullshit, except I broke the character limit again oh well, the reply to this will have its second half!
This Interlude doesn't have much transbian antics, so if you're just reading for that feel free to skip this one.
Unjust Depths Interlude II posting, pt1
II.1 Revelations:
Ahwalia was a carnist reactionary, and Kansal was/is an IMMORTAL!! Between that and hearing about how Jayasankar slaughtered Solistice's Imperial governor makes me reflect: Unjust Depths is "MORE 👏 FEMALE 👏 WAR 👏 CRIMINALS 👏" but unironically. Sheesh =)
In other news this Interlude features a lot of internal politicking which is deeply fascinating to my still-green liberal brain.
I wonder if it is sorta bad that I agree with Jayasankar kinda? I mean, I guess the text wants us to agree with her... I don't think there's nothing in compromising between parties with similar visions sometimes, but clearly Kansal was a bit too lenient with that silly utopian socialism guy. If you can trust that the dictatorship is of the proletariat and benefits them(us), then what's even the need for a "marketplace of ideas"? It could be considered pompous to basically take a stance of "we have arrived at the best system for everyone", and I think some people will always chafe at being dictated, but... Jayansakar is right, right?? I guess her seemingly independent movement above any dictatorship of the proles is what bugs me slightly? And yet, her plays benefit the people.
I cannot fault the results; the based Jayansakar tells off the Bosporan anarchists about their Khaybar campaign, no the commies will NOT participate in settler colonialism! Again, when all of the anarchists in your setting are cringe buttmad racist no-bedtime anarkiddies.
Also I sense that there is a lot of gay flirting in the Union's diplomatic affairs, going by both Ulyana and Bhavani Jayansakar's demeanours. Lol. "Aggressive" and "receptive" is definitely a choice set of terms, madame Veka... do you I guess. It must be my rotted brain that makes this type of shit feel weird, I'm certain of it. However the premier calling her a "raunchy bird" had me rollin'.
II.2:
Seeing an "outsider" perspective on the Union, where the POV lady has sort of cultural differences with it, is incredibly fascinating, very cool. That Maya thinks Union people don't appreciate the luxury of meal options enough, like huh, yeah. I think it's also the first time we see any sort of minority-demographic perspective in UD? given that trans people don't seem to be a minority in the Union, nor do POC. Getting an "outsider" perspective on the Union is super cool. I find Maya charming, "No, ma'am, thank you for your service" is great. Her meetcute with Maya is fun!
I did end up wondering, though: is it kinda bad and smelly that Parvati and Jayansakar are basically using Maya for propaganda ends? It's in service of a good cause because y'know, Ahwalian thought is cringe, clearly this was all the right move, but... Idk? It feels weird that she's only getting her due because it suits the current rulership's political ends, I guess that's just the way things be...
"Fair currents" is an awesome greeting, very cute! And frankly Deshnov deserves this physical abuse from Hanko, uncritical support, yes I am still fuming about that one flashback chapter. Between that little bullshit stunt and addressing Hanko as "Katarran", my sympathy has run out and Deshnov is now in Racist Transphobic Grampa Jail, by my estimate. It's whatever that he hates the Ashura, but this whole arrest thing might not have gone down so badly if he weren't such a clown. Enjoy deep sea labour re-education, gramps, that you are a stank-ass misogynist does not shock me.
His buddy Yerdlov is such a silly hypocrite too, like he goes on and on about Democracy and Process being their own ideology, and then his inquiry into the arrest of Deshnov requires formal debate because it's totally without precedent and outside of process. "Obstructionism"? You fucking CLOWN, guy who says he is a process fetishist then gets mad when Jayansakarists do a process about his inquiry.
Getting inside looks at the gears and levers of the Union is awesome though, look at all the Thoughts in my funny brain! I missed Semi-Automated Luxury Transbian Underwater Communism, truly.
II.3: Oh this one has a CW for queerphobia & transphobia, a bit :> as well as a mention of suicide, but of a fascist.
Whenever I'm in the weeds of these Interludes I tend to think they're a pacing bump, sometimes they slow my reading to a crawl. This one is shorter than the first though, and a nice check-in with things outside the Brigand, but Idk. Idk! At least this one tells a single continuous narrative through different characters, perspectives and locations. It is within its bounds well paced, much better organised than the unmitigated hot mess of Interlude I.
That was the beauty that Communism held for Maya, when she was going through her readings years ago. The Union was something all of them could join hands to fight for- something that was worth fighting for.
It gave her unnatural birth a shred of meaning.
GOD I WISH THAT WERE ME Depths is pretty good agitprop I think.
The Volksdorks talking about occupying Serrano station makes me curious to see the Union forces in a liberatory position, Murati will be very pleased. Watching the fash walk like idiots into a snare while ignoring multiple command fuckups and poor odds is instructive, holy shit these clowns suck at fighting. Zero discipline, real dipshit move getting pulled out that far; if they'd held formation and commanded their fucking ships, they wouldn't have been ventilated in new and inventive ways from the upper scattering layer. Common fash L!!! Maya is like "All missiles, saturation fire on the Volkische right wing!" and I'm like Sheesh, save some for the social democrats in the fleet :^)
Here's the bit the cw is for:
The Volkische had characterised the Union as a state of ethnic inferiors with a pretend navy composed of lesbians and effeminate men in women's uniforms. Their government that could barely feed them kept them docile wirh handouts and propaganda. The masculine and martial Volkisch state, which was already on its way to defeating the Royal Alliance, should have been able to easily cast aside the communists.
Classic move, common all-politics-is-sexual-projection-L, how can fash constantly cope with getting their white asses handed to them by 'inferiors' of various types literally everywhere all the time?
It was not a fear of facing Lehner nor history itself that led Bloch to his decision, however.
It was more sudden than that. It was rawer, more emotional.
Chiefly, he was tormented by the idea of surrendering to a band of untermensch homosexuals and being subjected to whatever d*generate torments and humiliations they had in store for him as a prisoner of war. A devoted and loyal fascist, Bloch obsessee with this lurid fantasy by himself for over thirty minutes, supported by everything that made sense to him and the brutal shock of his vast, and total defeat. He would not let the communist lowlives make a fool of him and debase him - he would die with honour.
Fuckin losers, die salty & mad at the bottom of the sea.
After Bloch's little humiliation kink sesh we get Maya and the gang doing the Murati thing where they've never seen the class divide before, made more funny by how Serrano is literally divided vertically by class. Nice to see her order some heads smashed by rifle butts and such, and now we get to see the liberation!
A liberation effort which has cool prison abolition beats, but quickly turns briefly goofy alongside Marceau and Nadia's awoo-nyaa antics. Newly liberated Mayor's office in an Imperial hellhole? Gay sex.
Man the liberation is like a fuckin' disaster relief effort though, for what was ostensibly a functioning society. Loads of people freed from the Empire's prisons, stock taken of inadequate housing and living conditions, fuckloads of rations handed out. It might look like this if my town was spontaneously taken over by socialists ( ) too. If near any town or city in an imperial core country were. Even in the "less bad" ones, probably, homelessness being such a problem in North America as a whole lately.
In the meantime, capitalism ground on. Prices went up, and the market shock was particularly used by landlords to raise rents. Motivations ranged variously from anticipation of market hardships due to rising prices in other goods, to simply wanting to be rid of undesirable Serrano tenants in the hopes they might house richer Rhinean residents if a deal with the Volkisch came through. Houselessness in Serrano rose steadily for the past few weeks to a whopping 20%. Then, when the masses of the poor on the streets became unsightly, Serrano engaged in beating them out of the busine districts with police violence.
Hey wait this is just like real life, right now! I can look out my window and see that, near enough! Madiha put the man-made horrors in the famous online webnovel, nice
II.5: Meow, nyaa
New Karach Station is neat because it was a literal architectural symbol of Imperial slavery and industry, and the Union turned it inside out with the help of its Shimii populace, turning cramped under-seafloor living spaces into storefronts, distribution centres and such. The above-seafloor portion got turned into the living space for its cat residents, which is neat - turns out all this bullshit the Empire ordered built by back-breaking labour can be repurposed to cool and liberating ends, I dig it.
Good to see that Ahwalia's entire faction is apparently as fuckin racist as the Bosporan Anarchists are, and getting the lowdown on Omarov's revolutionary actions and his proposal to join the Union shows the rest of those clowns how it's done right: not being a fuckin racist coloniser weirdo. Mutual respect, even. There's not actually a good reason for the Bosporans or the Ahwalian faction to be derisive and bigoted toward their Shimii neighbours, they just can't help it, I guess. It strikes me again how the anarchists just barged into Khaybar Pass and refused to really consider its people's needs and requirements, letting one of their envoys be a racist freak. Sucks to suck.
So I like seeing what a good outcome looks like instead, II.5 kinda serves as a mirror to the Khaybar Pass chapters, bears for the reader the benefits of intersectionality. I was gonna end it there but Oh man, Lehner
Tale as old as time: Fashy Daddy dealing with metalworkers on strike in the wake of his fleet getting yeeted has to call in his personal militia to break the strike, except the militia-leader is his child and trans faildaughter whom he's weird and transphobic toward. My favourite kind of guy, floods my mind with images of Natasha from The Last Girl Scout. There is always a fashy trans faildaughter in these things, I suppose. Unfunny! I wonder what her fate will be!
With that, I am onto Anthology Two, real Weltgeist hours who up? Smash that upbear button for more, hopefully shorter liveblogging about a smash-hit best-selling webnovel.
yeah god. this stuff is incredible, but also SO depressing. it's so good seeing the relief efforts basically any city suffering under capitalism would need, but i'm just like. i live there, you know? that's here, where i live. all that stuff happens here. god i wish that were me
ii.5
the union is firm in its anti-colonial and anti-imperialist stance, and is dedicated to dismantling the structures upholding them as soon as they can. the khaybar pass stuff is really gross but glad to see they have some allies. also the lehner stuff is fascinating, her place in the volkische is so interesting
Yeah pretty much... UD has a lot of "god I wish that were me" huh Something to aspire to and strive for, at least...
ii.5
I knew our based commies would be as soon as the first Interlude, but the station is great to see, I'm a huge fan. Some dumbass Imperial squad is gonna get fuckin mulched by that Omarovist brigade, right? and it's gonna fuck
Haha but Violet is gonna be trash, right? Like we're gonna see her beating down those steelworkers and then she's gonna have to get rekt, right? I guess she could be on the road to redemption sometime, but... Pan-Imbrianism? Ma'am are you certain about this ur dad is a seething nazi ya see...
nah i think jayasankar is basically right. there's some quibbles i might have but for the most part she's right about that stuff, especially given the circumstances she's working with. like, utopia is not real and you have to actually be able to do things that help people
ii.2
maya is so good, i love her. her stuff with the cafeteria and the choice is so cute but also really good perspective on things. it's a little skeevy, but it's one of those things where it's all just backroom politics and i don't think the mildly distasteful method overtakes the result. and yeah deshnov sucks! big time! glad he got got like that, very funny that no one had any trouble believing he did it because he did! it was a setup but also he was very much guilty of the things he was accused of
ii.3
yeah the volkische suck big time. both in that they are evil fascists, and also in that they're extremely incompetent. this gets into both. good to see them get fucked
Yeah that's mostly the conclusion I came to myself, I still have some misgivings about our Premier but she seems like decent people even if I can question her methods. Her Union seems better than any previous leadership's Union, so...
ii.2
I hope we get more from Maya and her lady, she's great, uncritical support :) and yeah, I guess if she gets her due and it helps the Union out, it's all the better... This chapter feels like it was written for me, like all my fury about Deshnov was let out at once. Really damaged my perception of him, again if he had just been reasonable to Hanko it would have looked much much less bad. Cranky fucking misogynist pigs take the L.
ii.3
It's so comical, can the Volksdork really be a threat if they're getting shredded like this, and daddy Lehner is having such a bad time? Idk if the crew of the Brigand will even have trouble when they encounter THE VOLK, like Sawyer and her clowns are only scary when they're terrorising unarmed people!
Happy Early May Day!
Back on my bullshit, except I broke the character limit again
oh well, the reply to this will have its second half!
This Interlude doesn't have much transbian antics, so if you're just reading for that feel free to skip this one.
Unjust Depths Interlude II posting, pt1
II.1 Revelations:
Ahwalia was a carnist reactionary, and Kansal was/is an IMMORTAL!! Between that and hearing about how Jayasankar slaughtered Solistice's Imperial governor makes me reflect: Unjust Depths is "MORE 👏 FEMALE 👏 WAR 👏 CRIMINALS 👏" but unironically. Sheesh =)
In other news this Interlude features a lot of internal politicking which is deeply fascinating to my still-green liberal brain.
I wonder if it is sorta bad that I agree with Jayasankar kinda? I mean, I guess the text wants us to agree with her... I don't think there's nothing in compromising between parties with similar visions sometimes, but clearly Kansal was a bit too lenient with that silly utopian socialism guy. If you can trust that the dictatorship is of the proletariat and benefits them(us), then what's even the need for a "marketplace of ideas"? It could be considered pompous to basically take a stance of "we have arrived at the best system for everyone", and I think some people will always chafe at being dictated, but... Jayansakar is right, right?? I guess her seemingly independent movement above any dictatorship of the proles is what bugs me slightly? And yet, her plays benefit the people.
I cannot fault the results; the based Jayansakar tells off the Bosporan anarchists about their Khaybar campaign, no the commies will NOT participate in settler colonialism! Again, when all of the anarchists in your setting are cringe buttmad racist no-bedtime anarkiddies.
Also I sense that there is a lot of gay flirting in the Union's diplomatic affairs, going by both Ulyana and Bhavani Jayansakar's demeanours. Lol. "Aggressive" and "receptive" is definitely a choice set of terms, madame Veka... do you I guess. It must be my rotted brain that makes this type of shit feel weird, I'm certain of it. However the premier calling her a "raunchy bird" had me rollin'.
II.2:
Seeing an "outsider" perspective on the Union, where the POV lady has sort of cultural differences with it, is incredibly fascinating, very cool. That Maya thinks Union people don't appreciate the luxury of meal options enough, like huh, yeah. I think it's also the first time we see any sort of minority-demographic perspective in UD? given that trans people don't seem to be a minority in the Union, nor do POC. Getting an "outsider" perspective on the Union is super cool. I find Maya charming, "No, ma'am, thank you for your service" is great. Her meetcute with Maya is fun!
I did end up wondering, though: is it kinda bad and smelly that Parvati and Jayansakar are basically using Maya for propaganda ends? It's in service of a good cause because y'know, Ahwalian thought is cringe, clearly this was all the right move, but... Idk? It feels weird that she's only getting her due because it suits the current rulership's political ends, I guess that's just the way things be...
"Fair currents" is an awesome greeting, very cute! And frankly
Deshnov deserves this physical abuse from Hanko, uncritical support, yes I am still fuming about that one flashback chapter. Between that little bullshit stunt and addressing Hanko as "Katarran", my sympathy has run out and Deshnov is now in Racist Transphobic Grampa Jail, by my estimate. It's whatever that he hates the Ashura, but this whole arrest thing might not have gone down so badly if he weren't such a clown. Enjoy deep sea labour re-education, gramps, that you are a stank-ass misogynist does not shock me.
His buddy Yerdlov is such a silly hypocrite too, like he goes on and on about Democracy and Process being their own ideology, and then his inquiry into the arrest of Deshnov requires formal debate because it's totally without precedent and outside of process. "Obstructionism"? You fucking CLOWN, guy who says he is a process fetishist then gets mad when Jayansakarists do a process about his inquiry.
Getting inside looks at the gears and levers of the Union is awesome though, look at all the Thoughts in my funny brain! I missed Semi-Automated Luxury Transbian Underwater Communism, truly.
II.3: Oh this one has a CW for queerphobia & transphobia, a bit :> as well as a mention of suicide, but of a fascist.
Whenever I'm in the weeds of these Interludes I tend to think they're a pacing bump, sometimes they slow my reading to a crawl. This one is shorter than the first though, and a nice check-in with things outside the Brigand, but Idk. Idk! At least this one tells a single continuous narrative through different characters, perspectives and locations. It is within its bounds well paced, much better organised than the unmitigated hot mess of Interlude I.
GOD I WISH THAT WERE ME
Depths is pretty good agitprop I think.
The Volksdorks talking about occupying Serrano station makes me curious to see the Union forces in a liberatory position, Murati will be very pleased. Watching the fash walk like idiots into a snare while ignoring multiple command fuckups and poor odds is instructive, holy shit these clowns suck at fighting. Zero discipline, real dipshit move getting pulled out that far; if they'd held formation and commanded their fucking ships, they wouldn't have been ventilated in new and inventive ways from the upper scattering layer. Common fash L!!! Maya is like "All missiles, saturation fire on the Volkische right wing!" and I'm like Sheesh, save some for the social democrats in the fleet :^)
Here's the bit the cw is for:
Fuckin losers, die salty & mad at the bottom of the sea.
*to be continued*
Unjust Depths Interlude II posting, pt2
II.4:
After Bloch's little humiliation kink sesh we get Maya and the gang doing the Murati thing where they've never seen the class divide before, made more funny by how Serrano is literally divided vertically by class. Nice to see her order some heads smashed by rifle butts and such, and now we get to see the liberation!
A liberation effort which has cool prison abolition beats, but quickly turns briefly goofy alongside Marceau and Nadia's awoo-nyaa antics. Newly liberated Mayor's office in an Imperial hellhole? Gay sex.
Man the liberation is like a fuckin' disaster relief effort though, for what was ostensibly a functioning society. Loads of people freed from the Empire's prisons, stock taken of inadequate housing and living conditions, fuckloads of rations handed out. It might look like this if my town was spontaneously taken over by socialists (
) too. If near any town or city in an imperial core country were. Even in the "less bad" ones, probably, homelessness being such a problem in North America as a whole lately.
Hey wait this is just like real life, right now! I can look out my window and see that, near enough! Madiha put the man-made horrors in the famous online webnovel, nice
II.5:
Meow, nyaaNew Karach Station is neat because it was a literal architectural symbol of Imperial slavery and industry, and the Union turned it inside out with the help of its Shimii populace, turning cramped under-seafloor living spaces into storefronts, distribution centres and such. The above-seafloor portion got turned into the living space for its cat residents, which is neat - turns out all this bullshit the Empire ordered built by back-breaking labour can be repurposed to cool and liberating ends, I dig it.
Good to see that Ahwalia's entire faction is apparently as fuckin racist as the Bosporan Anarchists are, and getting the lowdown on Omarov's revolutionary actions and his proposal to join the Union shows the rest of those clowns how it's done right: not being a fuckin racist coloniser weirdo. Mutual respect, even. There's not actually a good reason for the Bosporans or the Ahwalian faction to be derisive and bigoted toward their Shimii neighbours, they just can't help it, I guess. It strikes me again how the anarchists just barged into Khaybar Pass and refused to really consider its people's needs and requirements, letting one of their envoys be a racist freak. Sucks to suck.
So I like seeing what a good outcome looks like instead, II.5 kinda serves as a mirror to the Khaybar Pass chapters, bears for the reader the benefits of intersectionality. I was gonna end it there but Oh man, Lehner
Tale as old as time: Fashy Daddy dealing with metalworkers on strike in the wake of his fleet getting yeeted has to call in his personal militia to break the strike, except the militia-leader is his child and trans faildaughter whom he's weird and transphobic toward. My favourite kind of guy, floods my mind with images of Natasha from The Last Girl Scout. There is always a fashy trans faildaughter in these things, I suppose. Unfunny! I wonder what her fate will be!
With that, I am onto Anthology Two, real Weltgeist hours who up? Smash that upbear button for more, hopefully shorter liveblogging about a smash-hit best-selling webnovel.
interlude time
ii.4
ii.5
smashing that upbear button as requested o7
Again!!
ii.4
ii.5
I knew our based commies would be as soon as the first Interlude, but the station is great to see, I'm a huge fan. Some dumbass Imperial squad is gonna get fuckin mulched by that Omarovist brigade, right? and it's gonna fuck
Haha but Violet is gonna be trash, right? Like we're gonna see her beating down those steelworkers and then she's gonna have to get rekt, right? I guess she could be on the road to redemption sometime, but... Pan-Imbrianism? Ma'am are you certain about this
ur dad is a seething nazi ya see...
Ty for ur service o7 ❤
interlude time
ii.1
ii.2
ii.3
AW HELL YEAH
ii.1
ii.2
ii.3