Alright So Part Two Of My Explaining BSD French Authors:

“Reading David Sirlin's writing on an actual issue affecting Yugioh is honestly one of the most special experiences I've had with this game“

good enough to boost.

Oh yes WTNV actually went into the horror territory.

Wasn’t one of the valid interpretations that satan is stuck frozen because he keeps trying to free himself by flapping his wings? Speaking of, wouldn’t it take advantage of expectations by revealing that there is no antagonist? The hellpup being a red herring? I mean, it in itself is a thing - could it be that if it were exposed to that fact (which didn’t happen before because KILL IT WITH FIRE), it would disappear in a puff of logic?

Wasn’t there an episode way back with the main story being a race through a cavern? The one that was almost back-to-back to The Strangers?

We went there. We sent messages in Morse code to the people we once had been, asking for help, but they could not help us. They were outside of the Narrow Place. (...) The Distant Prince wore a golden coat, and had always existed.

(With gratitude for @cecilspeaks)

Of course there was An Epilogue between, because why not ask the hellpup for coffee.

@Last Note Nightmare: in the last episode we had Cecil listening to ??? through a phone’s speaker. This episode we have us listening to ???... through our speakers/headphones. Make of it what you will.

WTNV Theories and Ramblings - Episode 89: Who’s a Good Boy?

There’s one at the door

At the gate to Damnation

And there’s room for one more

‘Til the end of Creation

While we don’t have the whole story yet, there’s much here to gnaw on. In particular, Night Vale’s interpretation of Hell warrants some special attention. And I, like a dog with a bone, am forced to give this attention.

In my previous write-up, I paid extra attention to Maureen’s mention of Hell. We don’t get references like this in WTNV very often, and so we should sit up and take notice when we do.

As it turns out, Maureen was not being hyperbolic: Hell has come to Night Vale.

Keep reading

Read More Now!

Read More Now!

YES SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED IT.

You cannot have Fyodor's entire fucking plan hinge on the vampires, over which only Bram and the person who has possession of Bram have any control, and then try and tell me that Fyodor lost because he didn't have faith in people.

it's long but go read it

P sure it's supposed to be Fyodor who writes down on the page, as iirc the handwriting is shown to be quite shaky? (unless it's alcohol tremors kek).

re: pilots: doesn't anime implicitly cover that by a shot of him bleeding himself out into a chalice (drama queen)? This would foreshadow pilots and signal C&P can be used remotely by blood.

Meursault could have been taken over preemptively, but then: why not just vamp everyone instead of Chuuya murdering a bunch of guards? As for communication, previous speculation came up with various book-based explanations. As for how information was passed inside - with food selection, presumably? The reader's attention was brought to it for seemingly no reason.

as for Fukuchi and Fyodor not being friends/allies: this completely disregards the angle that Fyodor is willing to risk being permanently stuck in Meursault to establish world government, meaning: one way of accomplishing Fukuchi's goal (to end all wars) would be good enough to give up his own. Also: 500 deaths' limit is something Fyodor just… kept to? This would explain why he had a bead on Dazai - percieved equal - and didn't get him shot. (the other option is being perfectly normal about Dazai for fujoshi-approved reasons, which in this context is rather weak; see above.)

ech Meursault was super fun but Chuuya not being a vampire the entire time retroactively sours the entire bit, along with the speech underscoring how the entire time both demons were framed as roughly equal, but the arc resolved by uncertainty working solely in Dazai's favor, making contrivance glaring (= willing suspension if disbelief breaks).

at it's heart, the problem is importing the anime, which notoriously dumbed things down and removed the quiet bits. As a consequence, Fyodor had to be rewritten from Johan Liebert knockoff (a gift that keeps on giving, speculation-wise) to Light Yagami knockoff (who doesn't work as an antagonist). The other problem with adapting the anime is that last time we see Dazai in the manga it looks quite gory - but anime can't show that, so it carries on with a broken leg. If one counts wounded hand in the anime as a 2nd-improved-take on the sequence, both work with what anime already has going for it - hiding in broadcast norms for the former and A LOT of foreshadowing for the latter. Like, Asagiri is perfectly aware that there are bits that anime will do better via color and motion, so why not take the L and write it out for static panels of the manga that has already been written?

As a result, we got this speech to the scene's detriment, instead of doing more show-don't-tell. ranted about this as well earlier (lel), but how about: Dazai - dumbfounded, incredulously - asking the vampire wtf, and him answering that Lord Bram ordered so (they can hide in the populace, so why not). To which Dazai murmurs - but close enough to hear - that Ranpo must have figured it out. Then be like 'i leave keeping an eye on the rat to you~' and just go talk to (freshly unvampirized) Chuuya/inject antidote, without care in the world. Leaving Fyodor to think/die mad about it.

It would work better to underscore the difference in manipulation style: Dazai hides his behind seemingly harmless/beneficial actions, Dostoy runs on FUD. Yes, Sigma bit is there - but they survive solely due to Fyodor deciding to be a good sport about it (this man routinely offs underlings, but someone with ALL HIS SECRETS is k?).

It's like there is an entire 'Fyodor not going to do the efficient thing because then only Deus Ex Machina could bail the protagonists out doing a suicidal life's goal wouldn't be fun for the character carrying it out.' thoughtline that makes sense only with the portrayal anime went for.

@peachymoriarty

imo not even that - the angle to reach that conclusion would be by referencing 'diamonds polishing diamonds' concept, and/or straight up scrimming for practice on the side, and/or showcasing where this works - mostly with Ranpo, ex: - having the motive to pull a Ranpo Ex Machina that just so happens to have the delayed side-effect of saving the world - early on him and Dazai iterating on plans, so now he can scheme on his own

But since both demons are already Peerless Anime Geniuses(tm), that ain't happening.

BSD 111.5: A Complaint (again)

All right. So.

I have criticized the S5 finale extensively, and now that the manga is following the same storyline almost exactly, I feel I want to air my grievances one last time, because it's just so bad. At least in my humble yet correct opinion (to quote Fyodor from the BSD dub). And it only gets worse the more I think about it. 

The writing here is...not good. I’m talking about the big “Chuuya was never a vampire to begin with” reveal, the retconned hand injury and what absolute contrived nonsense that is - and most of all, I’m talking about Dazai’s speech about why he “won” the "game," and how it makes no actual sense because what he says happened is not what actually happened. 

All of this is stuff I've talked about in other posts (I'll be repeating myself a lot here), but I really want to focus on Dazai's speech and why I just. Don't like it.

"You don't trust anything you can't control," Dazai tells Fyodor.

This is supposed to be the reason Dazai "wins": because he trusts people, and Fyodor does not. He relies on others he considers friends; Fyodor just uses others that he considers pawns.

And this is fine in theory. Indeed, it's been heavily foreshadowed. Personally, I think "Dazai wins because he has friends, Fyodor loses because he doesn't" is a super boring way to go with both Fyodor's character and with the conflict between him and Dazai, but whatever, we all knew something like this would be the reason for the ADA's victory over the DOA. Theoretically, it makes sense.

Except, it doesn't actually work the way they did it. It doesn't work because Fyodor's plan apparently hinges on the vampires, and Fyodor does not actually have control over the vampires.

In fact, Fyodor does not have direct control over any aspect of the Decay of Angels plot.

Fukuchi does.

First of all, the Decay of Angels plot doesn't begin until after Fyodor is already in prison. Fyodor is not the one who writes on the Page, and Fyodor is not the one in possession of the Page. Fyodor is also not the one who is in possession of Bram. All of this falls to Fukuchi.

Now, there is one interesting scene where Fyodor tells Dazai that he "added a line to the page":

But - unless I have my timeline mixed up - since the Page was not stolen and used until after Fyodor was sent to prison, this only suggests he told Fukuchi what to write. There is still no point where he actually had possession of the Page himself.

Fyodor is the one who set up the entire plot and arranged for all the pieces to be in place, but once it actually starts to unfold, he is no longer in a position to directly manipulate his pawns, because he's locked up underground thousands of miles away.

Of course, this does not mean he has been removed from play entirely; he is still communicating with the outside, and he is still able to manipulate the course of events to some extent, as we see when he (somehow; it's never explained) killed the pilots so Fukuchi could get his hands on the One Order:

But how is this any different from what Dazai is doing? Dazai lets himself be captured and locked away, too, to keep an eye on Fyodor and read his moves as things unfold on the outside. He is also in communication with his allies, and he is also able to do some string-pulling, as we see when he stops Fyodor's assassination attempt on Fitzgerald and the neutralization of the Eyes of God:

Basically, both Fyodor and Dazai have the same level of control over what is happening.

Dazai being superior to Fyodor because he "simply had faith" in Ranpo (and the rest of the ADA) implies that Fyodor did not have faith in Fukuchi. But that implies that Fyodor had some means of direct control over Fukuchi throughout the unfolding of the DOA plan and therefore did not have to leave anything solely in Fukuchi's hands. Or it implies that Fyodor had a plan independent of Fukuchi. Except he didn't. On both accounts. At least not that we know of.

In fact, in the anime (which I assume will be repeated in the manga in later chapters), Fukuchi says that Fyodor didn't have any direct control. Fukuchi tells Fukuzawa that he had Fyodor sent to prison for the purpose of preventing him from interfering in Fukuchi's actual plan. And Fyodor agreed to this. He got himself arrested on purpose. The reason he does this is suggested to be that the prison is essentially the safest hideout in the world. Except Fukuchi tells us that this action also severely hindered - though not outright neutralized - Fyodor's ability to influence events.

And I'm not trying to downplay Fyodor as the spider at the center of a complex web of manipulation, not at all. I'm simply pointing out that: a) Dazai is exactly the same, and is countering Fyodor move-for-move, and b) the plan still heavily relies on Fukuchi's independent actions.

As I mentioned, the DOA plot doesn't begin until after Fyodor is arrested and sent to Meursault. Fyodor was using vampires planted as guards as his means of communication (which doesn't even make sense itself, because when exactly would this have happened? When does Fyodor communicate with these vamps? Why did Dazai not notice this?), but Fyodor himself is not controlling those guards, Fukuchi is. Because Fukuchi is the one in control of Bram, and the vampires can only be controlled through Bram. It is certainly conceivable that Fyodor might have had these guards planted before his arrest, but the vampires are only usable as pawns as long as Fukuchi has control of Bram, or at least as long as Bram isn't in control of himself.

Using Chuuya as a pawn also requires Fukuchi to be in control of Bram. Therefore, Fyodor's entire escape plan relies on Fukuchi.

Fyodor literally cannot do anything with the vampires without Fukuchi. And if his entire plan rested on the vampires, that means his entire plan rested on Fukuchi.

In other words, Fyodor's entire plan rests on him having faith in Fukuchi.

It doesn't matter that Fyodor and Fukuchi are not "friends"; it doesn't matter that Fyodor thinks of Fukuchi as a "pawn" instead of an "ally" (although I should note we've been given no evidence of this, because we have never actually seen them interact and we don't know their relationship; we're just meant to assume this). The point is that Fyodor structured this plan of his to be centered around the actions of someone else. This is no different from Dazai. In fact, this is how the both of them usually operate. They just tend to have different ways of going about manipulating their "pawns"/"allies."

Then there's the "hand full of uncertainties" line:

How, exactly, was Dazai's hand "full of uncertainties" in a way that Fyodor's wasn't? How exactly did Fyodor have "the world in the palm of his hand" in a way that Dazai didn't? How exactly was Fyodor in more control of what was happening than Dazai was? As I've already pointed out, what we've been shown suggests they both had equal measures of influence on the outside, and therefore equal levels of manipulative power and equal amounts of uncertainties.

In fact, if we are to believe that Fyodor was surprised by Nikolai and Sigma, that was a whole hell of a lot of uncertainties being thrown at him. And just like Dazai, he just ran with it.

And the reality is that Dazai actually had a whole hell of a lot less uncertainties than Fyodor did, and a whole hell of a lot more control, because Chuuya was never a vampire to begin with. The moment Chuuya arrived, Dazai had the upper hand. It's not like he was ever in any actual danger from the point Chuuya showed up. He was in full control of the situation from that point on.

And you can say that's the whole point, Dazai was in control because he had an ally, but the point I'm making is that the only control Fyodor thought he had over the situation was also because of an ally that he believed he had. If he believed he was controlling Chuuya, he also had to believe that Fukuchi still had Bram and was still on his side. He was operating on faith in pretty much the exact same way Dazai was.

You can also argue that Chuuya showing up was proof for Fyodor that Fukuchi was still in control of Bram (even though he wasn't by that point) and that things were going according to plan. But I'd counter-argue that if at any point before Fyodor managed to escape Bram had had his will restored, Fyodor would have been fucked (had Chuuya actually been a vampire). The very act of using Chuuya as a pawn was a huge act of faith on Fyodor's part.

It's important to stress here that Fukuchi was not under Fyodor's "control" at any point, at least not so far as we've been shown. He is not brainwashed like Nathaniel. He is also not a throwaway piece. He is vital to the plan. And he has his own motivations. We aren't quite there yet in the manga, but we know from the anime what Fukuchi actually wanted, and we also know from the anime that Fyodor approached Fukuchi and propositioned him. They made a deal. Of course, Fyodor always had his own plan, but he knew what Fukuchi's real motivations were. Even so, he trusted that Fukuchi would carry out the plan as he instructed, at least so far as we've been shown.

The argument can be made that Fyodor doesn’t actually have any trust in Fukuchi, he simply trusts that he knows exactly how Fukuchi will act and that everything will go as he predicted. But how is that any different from Dazai? Ranpo negotiating with Bram and Bram ordering the vampires to attack Fyodor might not have been something Dazai and Ranpo set up beforehand, but it is certainly something Dazai planned for, because he purposefully set Fyodor up to be in a vulnerable position, anticipating that exact scenario. Again, they are both operating in the same exact way: not directly controlling their allies, but assuming that their allies will act as they expect. The only difference is that Fyodor’s “allies” did not meet his expectations and Dazai’s did.

I get that the point of this is supposed to be that Fyodor is undone by his cruel manipulation of others and his ruthless attempts to impose his own order upon the world. And that's fine. It's good, even!

The problem is...that's not what happened. Fyodor lost because he relied on something that was outside of his direct control: the vampires. Fyodor lost because he put too much control in the hands of Fukuchi.

And this in itself is a problem, because Fyodor should not have so heavily relied on Fukuchi. All of this would work for me just fine if everything didn't revolve around the goddamn vampires. You cannot have Fyodor's entire fucking plan hinge on the vampires, over which only Bram and the person who has possession of Bram have any control, and then try and tell me that Fyodor lost because he didn't have faith in people. Why would he use the vampires at all if he had no faith in Fukuchi?? Why would he get into a helicopter with the vampires piloting if he had no faith Fukuchi was still his ally and Bram was still under Fukuchi's control?? Why would he have agreed to go to prison in the first place if he had no trust in Fukuchi????? It doesn't make any sense.

And don’t try to tell me, “Well, Fyodor’s just arrogant.” That is the laziest fucking excuse you could possibly give to justify why Fyodor’s IQ points have been cut in half this arc. And, for the thousandth time I ask—how is this any different from Dazai, who also just assumed everything would go his way? Why is it "faith" when it's Dazai but it's arrogance when it's Fyodor?

Personally, I think BSD made a massive narrative mistake in putting Fyodor and Dazai in Meursault in the first place. It's over-complicated things.

Also, one thing that really bothers me about all this is that it's supposed to be a big character moment for Dazai, but...I don't see how this is any different from how he usually operates. Hell, this ruse Dazai and Chuuya set up is even something that SKK did before when they were a team in the Mafia. We've seen Dazai do this shit a thousand times. What's supposed to be the big deal here? The fact that he made a friendship speech this time?

It's just fallen really flat to me, and that's a bummer because I think Dazai is one of the most well-written and interesting characters I've ever come across, and I want to see great character development for him.

I've complained endlessly about Chuuya being in a Halloween costume the entire time so I'll just say here that it's really fucking dumb that Fyodor just. Didn't notice. That he was fooled by fake fangs and contact lenses. Dazai would have noticed, if their roles were reversed. Ranpo would have noticed. It really is just a case of Fyodor being made stupid out of nowhere so Dazai could win.

The retconned hand injury is also incredibly dumb, because first of all, in the manga it didn't exist until the last two chapters when it needed to exist. And second of all, the hand is clearly shown to be usable after the incident that is supposed to have injured it so severely that Fyodor needs the vampires - who, again, are not under his direct control - to pilot the helicopter so he can escape, and this is true for both the manga and the anime. It conveniently only becomes a problem when Dazai needs it to. Because plot, I guess. Because the universe is chaos unless Dazai is pulling another deus ex machina.

I really hate being so critical and so negative, especially about BSD, because it's been my favorite series for years now. But ever since the S5 finale I've been finding more and more things about this arc and it's conclusion (?) that make no sense to me. And considering that Fyodor and Dazai are my favorite characters and a large part of the reason I'm invested in this story, to see them both so poorly handled has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

In conclusion:

I just read this reddit comment about yesterday's staff post and ... 100%

People in the notes of the post don't seem to understand how massive of a move this is. Sure, this is not the Tuileries palace storming, nor the execution of Louis XVI, but it very well could be Tumblr's storming of the Bastille.

See, what happened yesterday was a bunch of trans staffers very politely saying "our boss is full of crap, what he is doing is absolutely not ok", and also "the official line he had been posting narrative of everything being peachy with moderation is bullshit, we acknowledge the systemic problem, and we demand addressing it ASAP".

Now, this has probably been possible just because of the exceptional circumstances: Louis XVI (Matt) is on vacation on his summer palace, and the person who he had left in charge of the court has refused to order the army to quell the internal strife... so they have stormed the Bastille to ask for the abolition of the ancient regime. Mind you, that doesn't mean we are at a point where they are in the middle of a revolutionary coup to create the Paris Commune: that's not in the cards right now. This is more about the people rioting to demand the king powers to have checks and balances. this is about demanding a constitutional monarchy instead of the current absolute king.

The people in the notes don't seem to understand the exceptional situation that the post creates. We are at a point where Matt Mullenweg has been called out by his own employees. His company, in his absence, had allowed his employees to break with the unified PR narrative that usually is forced to follow whatever path the CEO points to.

Now Louis XVI is in a peculiar position. His Authority had not only been questioned by the Paris rabble (us), but now he also had a regiment of elite grenadiers (1er Régiment du Trans Guards) openly in revolt and siding with the people of Paris. They are not firing at the royal palace, but they are saying "you know what? The people in the streets are right. We are not firing at them, your majesty". So Matt's next move is crucial. As I see it, there are several possibilities:

- the king / Matt acknowledges he had been in the wrong (either honestly or just because he doesn't feel powerful enough to win a civil war), accepts to get his powers limited, and allows some partial reform to address people's demands. This is obviously the best option for my friends still working for Tumblr. That doesn't mean tumblr would become a queer communist paradise, but at least we would see things improving.

- the king refuses to engage: he moves the court to another city (names a new Tumblr CEO reporting to him) and move the army to Paris to repress the rebellion (fires the people behind the post, double down in the current moderation policies). Things keep being the same, but without the people who asked for improvements.

- the king gets fed up of having to deal with ungrateful rabble and decides to just make an example out of Paris and orders the army to reprise the St. Bartholomew night, but on Paris population this time. This would be Matt firing everyone involved and closing Tumblr two months from now.

Right now, I wouldn't know which of these three options is more probable. Matt has been very quiet since yesterday, and whatever he posts next would be a big signal of how he is going to react to this development of The Situation.

They are already selling data to midjourney, and it's very likely your work is already being used to train their models because you have to OPT OUT of this, not opt in. Very scummy of them to roll this out unannounced.

and here i was, thinking i'm immune to deranged baseless ranting.

so, within the BSD plot we're informed/led to believe that the 5 in question points to Decay of Angel (5 stages etc), with some extra Buddhism to pitch the idea to Fukuchi. The name itself is a reference to the Decay of the Angel book, which in itself is part of a series. One of the key characters, apparently, is a young manipulative sadistic orphan. In lieu of reaching 0% coherency, my suggestion is for the reader of this post to skim the synopsis with the idea of Touru <=> Fyodor, weaving in the vague theoryspace of Crime and Punishment being some form of resurrection, if only as the other way to look the same through the years. As a bonus, it would implicitly answer 'why not just put him in a box, forever', and if he's 2nd copy of (mafia) Dazai, where did the equivalent of the latter's suicidaility go? Is the stated end goal a red herring? Is it because he *can't* off himself? Or is that the red herring and it's actually just extension of C&P's 'specialest boy' angle? Is the sword Kladenets bit foreshadowing that the sword Bram was impaled on WOULD work? AAAA---

On top of that, the namedrop suggests Yukio Mishima exists in BSD (similarly to how ppl go 'Meursault? ah, Camus probably exists') - which also adds the possibility of 'fake reincarnation' leveraging some third party. …in fact, as i'm typing it, we are at ch112. At this point:

Sigma failed to die at the casino/interplay of All Men Are Equal and Sigma's ability means they'll wake up whenever it's plot-appropriate

Gogol failed to be sawed in half

Bram failed to die from having the sword pulled out (in anime) / the coin is still in flight (manga)

Fukuchi failed to die(?) as per the 'two hours later' (in anime) / the coin is still in flight (manga)

Dostoy [COPIUM OVERDOSE]

at this point i want Fukuchi to be k, let's see what themes of the story will do with a traumatized vet.

also: yep, the Untold Origins play sounds as ridicious as last time. Are we sure this isn't a mix of introducing idea of ability users = bad (but also: 'fallen' angels hiding in the normie populace), while Dostoy is tooting his own horn? I'd rather if it wasn't tho, and at least pulled double duty re: Fukuchi. Then it makes more sense to use theater specifically.

re: stars/singularities, isn't it stated… somewhere… that it's possible for one ability to into a singularity, by itself? As in, a star collapsing into a black hole?

Fourth (Third is here):

Tumblr

あり^^

Third (Second is here): Second (first is here): There are a few things that just won't leave my head, I had to write them down (my friends

last but not the least

I've been reading bsd writers' works

I strongly recommend you do the same, they're absolutely magnificent

Sometimes you can even see obvious references

Like this one

I was reading Doppo's River Mist and other stories

I think Dead Apple is mostly inspired by it

one of the stories is named The Stars

it's about two stars in the sky who are in love, and come down to earth to talk in the garden of an author, in form of humans

Look at this part

sounding familiar?

No?

Ability Users are Fallen Angels,

Abilities themselves are Fallen Stars

It's even true scientifically

Remember the 'Singularity' mentioned?

Astronomically, a singularity can be formed by two gigantic celestial bodies (such as stars) crashing into eachother, resulting in the corruption of matter, forming something with infinite mass and zero volume, which we call "singularity" (yeah my study field's math/physics lol)

that's what was done in Dead Apple

Combining two stars

I love Kafka

We need to sing about mental health.

take a sad song and make it better

(trigger warnings: depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, anorexia, chronic pain, drug abuse, gender norms, anything and everything mental health related. Don’t read this unless you’re willing to be offended.)

Keep reading

the darling Glaze “anti-ai” watermarking system is a grift that stole code/violated GPL license (that the creator admits to). It uses the same exact technology as Stable Diffusion. It’s not going to protect you from LORAs (smaller models that imitate a certain style, character, or concept)

An invisible watermark is never going to work. “De-glazing” training images is as easy as running it through a denoising upscaler. If someone really wanted to make a LORA of your art, Glaze and Nightshade are not going to stop them.

If you really want to protect your art from being used as positive training data, use a proper, obnoxious watermark, with your username/website, with “do not use” plastered everywhere. Then, at the very least, it’ll be used as a negative training image instead (telling the model “don’t imitate this”).

There is never a guarantee your art hasn’t been scraped and used to train a model. Training sets aren’t commonly public. Once you share your art online, you don’t know every person who has seen it, saved it, or drawn inspiration from it. Similarly, you can’t name every influence and inspiration that has affected your art.

I suggest that anti-AI art people get used to the fact that sharing art means letting go of the fear of being copied. Nothing is truly original. Artists have always copied each other, and now programmers copy artists.

Capitalists, meanwhile, are excited that they can pay less for “less labor”. Automation and technology is an excuse to undermine and cheapen human labor—if you work in the entertainment industry, it’s adapt AI, quicken your workflow, or lose your job because you’re less productive. This is not a new phenomenon.

You should be mad at management. You should unionize and demand that your labor is compensated fairly.

re: Fyodor's goals / Logistics of the Book

tl;dr cause can't be assed. The actual end goal is irrelevant. The point of pursuing the book is attaining infinity of power to accomplish whatever, aka. instrumental convergence.

If you had one, what would you do? Naturally fuse yourself with it, without losing agency, while gaining power to warp out of trouble, be unable to lose consciousness, et cetera et cetera. All to make sure whatever you actually write into it cannot be undone.

As a sidenote: that what has to be written on the page (and implicitly, into the book as a lookup system) has to have story-like structure. However, what does it actually mean? What determines if this criteria is fulfilled?

There is an external - and thus ultimate - authority, making the Book mere admin console you can't use to modify the book itself. Outside of inflicting Death of the Author (in which case how Homestuck-y BSD has to get for people to notice....), not too spicy. A call to fanwork-action (already there with general structure & Beast) and/or rebuking externally imposed purpose (which some smaller opponent can set up just as well), sure.

It's in the eye of the writer - that is, if the book's user thinks it's story-like enough it'll works. But also - if something breaks the writer's suspension of disbelief, they cannot pick that outcome (see also BSD Beast?).

The 2nd option has more edge cases that just keep getting more ridiculous, so let's go:

If it's the writer deciding if the story is legit, it implicitly bakes into the new reality author's assumptions how the world works. What if their ideas have no internal sense in a way that can be reconciled; will it disappear in a puff of logic? Does the great winner turn the page and there's just this huge EAT SHIT, like a Junji Ito scarejump?

In Beast, the option of the world being unstable is brought up. In a deliciously meta fashion - because we the readers know it's fictional, there are now too many in the know and thus it in-universe dissolves out of sheer 4th wall break. But what is the in-universe explanation? The above? The existence of an alpha timeline, and this one only exists as long as needed for someone else to do a thing that will Grandfather paradox it out of the timeline? We already know Fukuchi stabbed from the future to the present, and can do so via self-erasing time paradoxes.

But what if the writer is, say, horror-brained and decides the setting should progressively be more terrifying and incomprehensible. In a way that breaks the very laws of physics that enable (human, since the book probably has sanity check of "will this result in an intelligent species capable of writing") existence. Everything is consistent within the framework of "what good horror story should be". By the previous logic alone, it should work nonetheless.

But what if! The horror writer finishes up the manuscript, hands it over to someone that runs on fluffy slice-of-life pieces and have them write it into the book? Maybe changing word choice here or there, without changing the meaning?

But! what! if! The original manuscript is 1) translated multiple times 2) old as fuck? that would mean the text itself is powered by multiple perspectives - of both the OG writer, but also every translator AND every translator's opinion on not only the text, but the text's context!

it just raises too many questions.jpg