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theimpossiblescheme · 2 years

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*arrives in the Dark Souls fandom a decade and a half late with Starbucks and this ancient meme*

So I guess it’s my turn to say my piece about these games I’ve recently discovered I love so much. And the thing I want to talk about is this insistence from so many people that Siegmeyer and Siegward of Catarina are just the exact same character lazily reskinned. Even though when you look at the actual text of the games, you know that’s not true. Yes, they share a voice actor and some of the same vocal tics, and their armor is almost identical (which I always thought was a silly criticism because presumably that’s just how Catarinian armor looks), but beyond a surface level their personalities and presences in the games really couldn’t be more different.

Siegmeyer is a man who holds himself to a very high standard--much too high for any ordinary adventurer to achieve, Undead or no. He dreams of being a true legend, a knight of the highest caliber who can conquer any obstacle set in front of him. But whenever he finds himself coming short of that goal, he just kind of... shuts down. If he can’t open a huge gate, if he can’t fight his way past a coterie of Silver Knights, if he can’t get through a poisoned swamp without weakening--all things he believes a true knight should be able to do without a problem--he just doesn’t. Because if you can’t be perfect at something on the first go, what’s the point of trying? He’s certainly a very proud man who places a lot of stock in honor and gallantry, but because he despairs of ever living up to his own standards, he becomes insecure and indecisive, and we can surmise that some of his jovial nature serves to mask that. The only time he volunteers to fight beside the Chosen Undead is when he’s already “run up quite a debt to (them),” and he feels ashamed of letting them both down. “I curse my own inability,” he says, and the uncharacteristically grave tone of his voice is honestly kind of haunting. We worry about Siegmeyer because we know his insecurity and indecisiveness runs deep, and it’s going to get him into much more serious trouble someday. Trouble we won’t be able to get him out of. So when we hear about him heading down to Ash Lake for his “final adventure,” our first thought is “ohhhhh, no.” Because that’s where the Black Hydra and the Everlasting Dragon are... Siegmeyer’s going to try to fight them. To prove himself worthy at last. It’s a suicide mission. And when we make it down there, we find Siegmeyer dead at the hands of his own daughter--a still-living human who came to pass on her mother’s last words. There’s two more people Siegmeyer feels as if he’s failed. At the end, Siegmeyer couldn’t live with his own imperfections. We knew him as an easy-going, warm, cheerful, and rather brave man in his own right... but for him, that wasn’t enough.

Siegward, on the other hand, always seems a lot more comfortable in his own skin. There’s no “by my knighthood, I’m ashamed to ask” from him--just earnest talk about courage and duty, and we can tell he takes those things very seriously. And it’s not just talk either. While the Ashen One does help him out of a few tight spots, he’s more than capable of taking care of himself. Within seconds of us rushing down to fight the demon in the Undead Settlement, he’s right there with us, rushing into battle by our side instead of letting us do all the work. If we get his armor back from Patches, he saves Greirat from certain death in Irithyll. And when we march in to take down Yhorm, Siegward appears there, too... ready to finally bring his old friend a much-deserved final rest. He doesn’t agonize about being an adventurer and hero--he just is one. On another note, knowing about his friendship with Yhorm and promise to him puts a lot of his behavior in the game into perspective. His insistence on “talking sense” into enemies much bigger and craftier than himself? His best friend is a giant, so of course he thinks he’d be able to do that. His constant stopping to drink and sleep? He’s deliberately dragging his feet. He doesn’t want to kill Yhorm, he doesn’t even want to think about it yet, so he takes the scenic route and enjoys a few creature comforts while he still can. As we learn later, his mission to find and defeat Yhorm was the only thing keeping him alive and sane, and shortly after the fight and one last toast, the Ashen One finds his soul and armor where he once sat. It’s a bittersweet moment because our friend--the one we shared both battle and peacetime with, who warmed us with the only real food and drink besides estus in the whole trilogy--is gone... but he went on his own terms. No final despair, no doubt, no drastic rash decisions. He fulfilled the duty that meant so much to him, and his last words were wishing us luck on ours.

So in short, in a way Siegward is Siegmeyer... but a fully realized one who managed to find his courage and sense of purpose, overcome his insecurity, and become the true knight he’d always dreamed of.

#dark souls #siegmeyer of catarina #siegward of catarina #the schemer speaks #It always drives me a little bit nuts because while there are valid criticisms to be made about DS3 #(I think coming out after DS2 which was so radically different from the first game accounts for most of it)#it's galling that everyone falls back on 'Oh it's Anor Londo/Earthen Peak/Onion Knights/Gwyndolin/what the hell ever again'.#And I'm like... okay so let's interrogate that a little more from a story perspective?#Let's talk about how these repeating elements--in a story that's *always* been about natural cycles and how they can be twisted and broken #and how people can be trapped within these cycles and used and abused by much more powerful people and forces--#actually serve the narrative being told instead of dismissing them out of hand?#Yes I know that Doyleist and Watsonian readings are often quite different but I do like to take *both* into account when analyzing art.#When you take it for granted that artistic decisions are made for a reason and sometimes it is Really That Deep #it makes things a lot more interesting y'know? :P

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legendofzoodles · 2 years

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Era of Hylia Lore 3

The Sheikah

I forgot to mention what happened to Hylia’s most loyal servants during the war. In short they were used to keep the hordes of monsters at bay while the Hylians and other defenceless tribes escaped.

During their time directly serving her, Hylia shared with them secrets of the world that she never disclosed to the Hylians, allowing them to create magic and technology faster and better than the other tribes

Hylia’s reincarnation spell

Sky and Sun are their own people, so don’t compare them to Allen and Hylia please. Tell Sun she doesn’t seem at all like a Goddess and needs to act like one, and Sky will smite you

The only thing Sky has in common with Allen is sharing the original hero’s courage and drive for justice (that green coloured spirit I mentioned in the first lore dump), always answering the call to action.

Like how in ATLA, each avatar is a completely different person, only sharing the avatar spirit and the ability to bend all four elements. Both Allen and Sky have their own strengths and weaknesses (which follows through when this reincarnation is forced to repeat itself following Demise’s curse, as in no two incarnations of the hero are the same)

Personality wise they’re both pure hearted and courageous, but they’d be very different outside of that. Since Allen caught the eye of the Goddess herself he’d have been a popular and famous figure despite his humble origins, truly selfless, committed, goal driven and stubborn. In SS Sky starts out as the opposite, a lovable but lazy dork, content to go where life takes him and not very motivated to do much

In Sun’s case she has access to Hylia’s powers, but loses the innate ability to command the full Triforce and now has to have the whole balance of all three virtues in her heart, like the rest of us scrubs.

In terms of personality she still has that confident authoritative nature about her as shown when she defends Sky from Groose’s bullying and pushes Sky off a ledge...twice. But she’s warmer, friendlier and sweeter than Hylia. Y’know, more human.

It’s cute that Sky and Sun are childhood friends, I like to think that it’s a manifestation of how close Hylia and Allen became. Or since it was Hylia’s spell maybe she wanted to them to be close in their next life, or it was just a practical measure to give Sky incentive to protect Sun and vice versa

It’s less cute that Sky doesn’t seems to have any close connections other than Sun. There’s no mention of family in the game, Sky seems to be an introvert (maybe a reason for him sleeping in a lot of the time was to skip class. He’s not shy but definitely a little awkward if you look at the dialogue options) preferring lounging around on his own to socialising with classmates (to me, talking to other students at the academy like Pipit felt more like talking to acquaintances than friends) and let’s not forget that he gets bullied on the regular.

The reason nintendo did this was probably to give Zelda as much focus as possible since her relationship with Link is the most important thing, and getting the player to care about her is vital in engaging them with the story. I’m just saying, in lore it’s a tad sus that she seems to be the only person in his orbit.

Demise’s curse

Demise’s curse was centred around the Hero of the Sky (rip Allen).

All reincarnations vaguely echo Sky in appearance because that’s how Demise remembers him, they share his name because that is the name Demise with forever rue and they share his vaguely humble beginnings because...that’s a remnant of Hylia’s version of reincarnation

To be fair those were his dying breaths. He’d be forgiven for not thinking everything through and accidently creating loopholes, in the couple of minutes he stood across Sky and pointed at him like a child

The curse as a whole tied himself, Link and Zelda to forever fight in an endless cycle of reincarnation for the rest of time. He probably hoped/thought that Sky would come back as himself so that he could fight him again, and take his revenge.

But in a strange twist of fate his curse followed Hylia’s reincarnation spell (maybe due to a loophole or some divine meddling). He probably didn’t want Sun to reincarnate, hoping that her divine powers would weaken across the ages through her descendants. Or hopefully they’d die out entirely.

I’d argue that Demise shot himself in the foot by reincarnating himself. It may have worked out for the hero and the Goddess, but as shown in TP and HW his later reincarnations prove to be not as patient and calculating has he was. Not all of them thought, the Calamity and WW Ganon were very methodical.

Random idea here: What if the reincarnation cycle only featured Link and himself? Zelda was used in order to break Hylia’s seal and resurrect Demise, but she didn’t participate in the fight and Demise didn’t expect her to. Probably seeing her human form as weak and pathetic, not worth the time. As shown in game, she posed absolutely no threat to him. Link was the danger. So maybe the royal bloodline was left out of this curse to focus on getting even with the hero, and Zelda’s across have gotten involved purely because they have the power to deal with Demise’s incarnations. And them doing was something Demise never anticipated or wanted. idk

TL;DR the demon king is a sore loser

~~~

Lore for the Era of Hylia 1

Lore for the Era of Hylia 2

#legend of zelda #legend of zelda link #loz #loz demise #hylia #hylia's chosen hero #loz link #link #nintendo #skyward sword link #skyward sword #lu sun #lu sky #loz first #first hero #chosen hero

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heymistercory · 4 years

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7 Tips To Obtain New Inventors Believing Like Effective Developers

Specifically, as a more recent financier, try to keep in mind that slow and stable success this race. Don't rush anything; your perseverance will certainly pay off as long as you are careful.

Investing in each action of the invention procedure reciprocates in both the short term (your first patent, and so on) and the longer-term (an understanding of exactly how this process is repeatable). Also find out InventHelp Crunchbase

1: Do Not Tell The World Concerning Your Invention Suggestion...

I received an e-mail lately that appeared like it was from Wal-Mart. Become a fraudster seeking to turn me into a target.

In 2015, my bank card was reported as utilized in Florida when I remained in New York City-- for $4,000.

There was even a Vice President at one of my old businesses who took my idea for an analytics reporting system and also shared it with the entire company as his very own.

What's the point of these tales?

The world has lots of people seeking a shortcut or an easy way to get rich.

They are probably heartless contrasted to you; predators.

Don't let somebody take advantage of your idea-- who recognizes, it could be a million (or billion) buck idea!

The last point you desire is to see it on the shelf understanding it was your brainchild, however, you do not obtain a cent in royalties for it. So try to keep your suggestion under covers, specifically in the early stages of the invention process.

2: Study The Need For Your Item Idea.

Eventually or one more, we've all had great concepts ... or so we thought.

In 3rd grade, I would have vouched that a double-sided toothbrush was going to save the globe about 25 seconds of their morning.

That was till I damaged a toothbrush as well as glued the head to the back of an additional full toothbrush. When I stuck it in my mouth I understood that I was mostly brushing (or stabbing) the inside of my cheeks.

I handed down that, thanks - It was better to enjoy the various other children explode volcanoes full of food coloring at the scientific research fair.

I was lucky though.

The study it took me to understand my intention was not possible was just about 10 minutes.

The truth is, if you want your invention idea to appear, you'll need to spend time and also resources in investigating the concept to identify if there is a market for your product.

Here are just a few of the concerns you'll wish to respond to when you're starting.

What problem does my item resolve?

Has this issue been addressed before (or tried)?

Just how will my item be made use of?

Will my product sell? (Exists industrial stability?).

To whom? (Target audience?).

Is it like anything else in the marketplace? (Elaborate on this, certainly - what fads are taking place in the market? Just how jampacked is it? Are people spending essentially on products I might take on? What're the social networks buzz around my specific niche?).

What marketing difficulties might I encounter?

A lot of innovators avoid this action as well as I completely comprehend why they do.

Two factors.

It can be lengthy.

It can seem (or be) costly.

I get it. You're delighted concerning your product so you feel like the world will certainly be delighted - certainly, there is a requirement, you're fixing a problem!

All that time and all that money invested in research study as well as answering concerns will only confirm what you already know, best?

Not always.

The successful ones are the ones that do their research.

Those who fail to spend ahead of time are supplying the typical death penalty to their invention. As a financier, you require to comprehend if the market demands your service You can also check https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q64627233

3: Record WHATEVER.

From the minute that suggestion precipitates, it's paramount to monitor every facet of the concept.

No matter if your concept changes a hundred times over, you always want to be the proprietor, the owner, of every idea that went into the invention as well as ultimately became the product.

So, specifically, what should you be recording?

Every thought and suggestion that at all concerns your invention (I uncommitted if you dream it ... PAPER IT!). You can always return to these notes, repeat on them, incorporate them in brand-new means, and so on. Much more notably, if anything is ever doubted, you have proof that the suggestion is yours.

All information that you can think about that helps you explain the invention.

Usage instances. What is your product for? What does it do? What problem or difficulty does it address? That will be utilizing it?

Where do you think it could be sold? What kind of shops? Is it part of something that currently exists?

How will it be made? Out of what?

Just how will you construct a prototype? Will you require aid?

To find full-circle right here, simply DOCUMENT EVERYTHING! I do not know if I can pierce this in any additional:-RRB-.

Why you ought to record your invention.

At some point in the invention cycle, you might need to prove that you are the proprietor of your suggestion. You may also need to confirm that you thought of a particular element of your invention.

Taxes! That's right - you can use your notes as well as files on costs for tax deductions.

Maintaining solid, systematic documentation of every idea you have and also every action you take allows you to take advantage of in-depth research and examine your work in the future so you can obtain innovative as well as build even more on it.

You're taping every little thing regarding your invention so you never forget also one thought you had regarding your idea.

4: Look For Professional Assist With Patents.

If you are new to investing, you'll intend to discover as high as you can around licenses (in addition to trademarks and also copyrights, yet that is a later lesson).

A research study ought to be an everyday activity for you.

Patents are a vast topic; it's the ocean of the invention procedure.

It's additionally a subject in which oceans of information are offered ... and also not all of it is true.

If you don't do your recon, it's a type of simple to get misguided or, also worse, capitalized on. As well as all of us recognize misaligned folks are plenty.

One terrific resource is constantly the United States Patent & Hallmark Workplace (USPTO). Nonetheless, in full disclosure, their site can be rather difficult to navigate and follow. It might befit you give some people there a call to ask certain concerns (though I'm not exactly sure the length of time delay time gets on their call center).

Another thing you can do is talk to a patent lawyer.

Below's a free life hack for you, some patent advice you probably won't find in other places:

Provide out concerns you want to ask the initial one. With those responses, try to ask smarter, much more enlightened questions to the 2nd one ... and so on - you get me.

5: Learn Exactly How To Present And Pitch (yes, I indicate OFFER!).

When I watch Shark Storage tank, I always keep a close eye on the instance each individual makes to the Sharks for their invention or product.

There are specific qualities I search for and also in my head, I generally rank each business owner weak or solid on each (or, in some cases, simply terrible).

The characteristics fall into 2 categories:

The speaker.

The discussion.

The owner of the suggestion or invention, the speaker, ought to show some innate top qualities if they intend to be perceived as a person a Shark can do service with. Before I provide those qualities, I simply want to mention "innate" ... meaning, some individuals are natural at specific points.

What I wouldn't condone is attempting to entirely be something you aren't.

If discussions, as well as sales, aren't your strong suit, I suggest training.

I've recently added an article regarding pitching your concept, whether it's to a shark or other investor, to a business, or a prospective partner.

To me, the best presenters are positive.

They make eye call, talk eloquently, and rely on their words.

When you do that, when you control the space fearlessly, you start to regulate the audience to pay attention to what you're stating.

As soon as you've "hypnotized" them, you can start to throw off Subliminals (such as a nod when you desire the possible buyer, investor, or Shark to believe "yes" in their head).

If you present self-confidence as a presenter, your distribution will constantly go from a 6 to an 8, specifically.

An additional quality of a wonderful presenter is going to hold your horses.

You work out persistence by paying attention, taking in, as well as analyzing things as you are offering your presentation.

Don't quickly look to be listened to; you'll get your chance.

Slow down, listen to what a prospective investor is stating, as well as see just how you can empathize.

The toughest presentations need to be tales, computer-animated by utilizing the brand name photo, look, and also really feel.

Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, as well as they always have a point.

Props must be utilized as required.

I when saw a person who developed a canteen that opened up on both sides (for far better cleansing). It was geared towards the athletic neighborhood as well as sporting activities gamers.

When he came on Shark Container, he had Costs Walton as his mascot - what a mind-blowing concept! (Particularly if you take into consideration that Mark Cuban is a Shark ... as well as he got a handle him).

If you have an invention and you wish to sell it, simply remember that you eventually need to sell it in some way.

You'll require to pitch the suggestion probably numerous times before it begins to materialize. Function on that lift pitch and also never stop boosting it from there.

6: Learn About Appraisal, Equity, Accountancy, And Organisation Money.

You wish to be fiscally responsible with your invention idea. I can't claim it any less complex than this.

As the proprietor of an invention, you definitely must know what the invention is worth.

Know your numbers.

As well as when you do, you sure better understand why it's worth that.

I have discussed research many times in this post, and also it's a popular string throughout this website for a factor: If you're not knowledgeable, you can pretty conveniently end up on the wrong side of a bad deal.

I recommend you do some analysis regarding bookkeeping, personal financing, company valuation, and various other financial subjects.

If time is way too much of a commodity, find out exactly how to take in info various other means - podcasts could be an excellent technique.

You'll intend to be a master of numbers.

It guarantees you aren't taken benefit of.

Second, when you do go pitch this concept or invention to investors, you'll likely be prompted on-the-spot to chat numbers. You better understand them. And when a person starts to make a deal, you wish to ensure the numbers they are offering are in the array you valuated your invention or business.

The evaluation of inventions is vital when identifying the general value.

Yet valuation is a pretty complicated subject; this is hardly introductory to Assessment 101.

And the truth is that evaluation can come down to a mix of complex calculations, extensive projections, and a peppering of ordinary old intestine instincts.

If you can confirm out that your invention fulfills an unmet demand or gets over a typical obstacle that appears to bug a big number of individuals, after that you can make a fairly strong situation for an economic benefit (and a good one for buy-in from investors) ... however, that doesn't suggest a real worth can be established.

With gray areas, the best point a brand-new investor can do is develop their abilities on the financial side of points. Math ninja would certainly be excellent.

7: Be Reasonable. You, Will, Requirement To Invest Time & Money To Make Money.

It takes a lot of individual financial investment to succeed as a capitalist.

That investment is available in several means: You'll be investing time right into establishing your suggestion; initiative into your patent; money right into your model; personal room and/or family time to make ends satisfy ... you get it.

This isn't a very easy roadway. Nothing beneficial was ever that easy.

And also as much as you're an optimist, be open to the potential of not making it, specifically with your initial invention.

It's OKAY to stop working.

A fantastic capitalist as soon as claimed "A creator can fall short 999 times, as well as if he is successful once, he remains in. He treats his failures simply as method shots.".

#InventHelp #patent #ideas #inventions #prototype #innovation #Wiki #Crunchbase

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kierongillen · 5 years

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Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 44

Spoilers, obv.

I'm aware that this is either going to be a relatively short one or an epic one. The risk of the latter is that rather than just talking about the issue, for the first time I'm free to talk about the series as a whole, and so talk about some of those other choices. There'll be some of that, but it would warp the nature of the notes, and give some false perspective. I can talk about it being over now, sure, but talking about it all means I'm not talking about this element. Not least because I can't talk about it all – there's still the question of issue 45.

But still. There's a lot to talk about, and a lot of hard things in here to do. We knew where we going, but the devil is in the details. The devil's everywhere.

Jamie/Matt's Cover

Minerva finally gets her head-shot. I was a little worried that people would realise exactly what was happening to Minerva here, but I didn't see anyone realise she's falling, and speculate why. Of course, I knew what it was and couldn't not see it. That's how it works.

It's a striking last image though – this is an especially blank glance, in the middle of all the motion. Matt's pink/white nimbus is really powerful too.

Emma Rios/Miquel Muerto

Emma's one of our favourite artists, and we were so glad that we managed to get her before the end. Emma's always someone who gets this evocative drama of it all – this is obviously a momentous cover, but you don't know the moment until reading. Laura and Lucifer being a core relationship, and the hint of leaving. Miquel does strong, atmospheric things with the colours as well. It's a great cover to end the story on. On - Pretty Deadly is back on the same day as 45, and I can't wait. Gets!

IFC

In terms of minor things we did which have a big emotional effect, changing the gods' names to their human names was certainly one. It sits there and stings.

Page 1

This issue is particularly tightly wound, so we set the clock on the issue in this one page.

I had a couple of people wonder where the cops came from. I presume it's because the delay in publication – the "we have to go now because of woden's tape has revealed we're almost all complicit" is the only reason why they went for Minerva immediately.

For a page that's so tightly wound, Jamie does some great establishing here. Opening panel with the fire in top of Valhalla, to link to last issue. A shot with all these people in it – a character beat, and three extremely dialogue low panels.

Page 2

Riff on Better The Devil You Know.

The weird rhythm in WicDiv is the arcs-which-take-place-in-a-very-short-time and arcs-which-take-place-over-months. Faust act, Rising Action, Imperial Phase II, "Okay" are the over-a-short time. Fandemonium, Commercial Suicide, Imperial Phase I and Mothering Invention are the extended ones. The closest to one which does both is Faust Act, which spreads its action over a week or two.

Page 3

Lovely stuff in here with Jamie, in terms of character work – obviously this is Lucifer hamming it up, but seeing individual responses around the room is a hell of a thing. Minerva's a total mess here.

Valentine giving up clever insults at this point is probably a thing.

Page 4-5 "Bothersome" is a very Lucifer word. The expression in panel 2 is also key Lucifer – that eye-roll of it.

Laura's captions also arrive mid way through – key, as they're clearly going to be key. I was thinking of having them at the start of page 3 as well, but we can let us live in the moment.

Laura's performance tentacles is a lovely panel – seeing how Matt works the colours on the space. The blues fading to white, the reds. Honestly, this is making me miss working with Matt already, and seeing how good he and Jamie are together.

Callbacks here to Lucifer in the first arc – the cycle of it all.

"There were two girls in hell" makes me well up. |It's one of my favourite Jamie expressions in the issue.

Page 6-7

When planning the larger structure of WicDiv, I was aware that I made certain calls in hope I would be able to save people. The early "death" of the Heads was actually a way to protect them. I was aware that characters who were in play were far more likely to die, as they had more chances to do so. I knew I could likely save the heads, so by making them heads, I made it more likely.

I originally planned for Dionysus to die, but I couldn't bear it. His hubris was real, but the idea that someone could give so much without anyone really caring or doing something for him was too heart breaking, even for me. I realised during Rising Action that I could actually save him – the pieces were already in play, and I just had to lean into those relationships to lead to Baph's choices. At the start, I wasn't sure where Baphomet ended in year 4 – part of me thought he'd survive, as I didn't have that final beat for him at the start. That I didn't have a hard end for Baphomet always made him open to the story finding another purpose for him – which is an end which I can't imagine any other way now. WicDiv is an awful necessary machine.

That applied to Lucifer too. She was a darling, obviously, but she was always going to be trouble. Part of me was aware that she could come back and almost immediately get killed again. I'd like her to make it out, but it was possible she wouldn't.

So, as I said last time, when I realised she was the final opposition I was pleased – that was perfect to the themes and the structure.

I wrote in my synopsis that Laura uses a performance to touch Lucifer and convince her into renouncing her godhood, and left it at that.

There it sat until I came to script it.

Because, in all honesty, I had no idea how Laura was going to convince Lucifer to give up her godhood. I just trusted that there would be some way Laura could reach her. Or, really, I hoped there was – because I knew if I wrote something that didn't feel convincing to me, I wouldn't do the scene. Lucifer would have died instead.

So, the day came when I was scripting this sequence, and I started writing, and wondered what the performance would be, and I just wrote "Laura descends the Ananke head sequence and drags Luci back."

Then I leaned back, a little shocked, because that was clearly right, and so clearly fit with what the series does – a final deconstruction of one of our core visual icons, giving a new way to look at the sequence and think about it. It was just there. As if it was there all along. Or just the sort of thought that emerges when you've been obsessed over this fucking thing for five years.

I'm aware of the weird resonance as well – Laura's finding a performance to save a friend is me finding a performance to save a character. WicDiv was a weird book.

Jamie and Matt go to town, of course – the melting faces are just painful, and wonderfully done. The fleshy reds, the fires. How Clayton uses the captions across the page to play with pacing...

I originally suggested we do it completely as the WicDiv spread, with Laura crawling across the centre spread and making her way up – that it would be treating what is meant to be two columns as a space was decided to be too much, so instead we went with flipping to a subjective perspective on a space that we've only experienced from a single objective outside viewpoint. That's got magic too.

Page 8

A long time to get to this kiss, right?

We moved the dialogue around a little to nail some moments – we had the magic effect on the final panel so the transition to the next page wasn't too much.

The annoyance of Eleanor in the last panel is just my everything. I described it to Jamie by using a metaphor of me in my early thirties, having split up with an Ex, and torn between various places, including seriously wondering whether, after everything, the simple answer to my sexuality stuff was that I was just gay. How annoyed I would have been, after all those years, if it was that. Just a "Oh, FFS. I'm just gay! Why didn't I get that earlier? Why have I wasted all this time? What a fucking fool I am."

That.

Page 9

Repeat of core WicDivian imagery, turned to a different purpose. After these magificent godly reveals, we do this very normal world.

Yeah. This would have been a happy place to end the series.

Page 10

Laura wants to be better, of course. It's easy to say you want to do better.

A+ Cassandra-ing in the background there.

Page 11

Now, Minerva is dead in a few pages time, and she is a genuine monster, trapped in a system of her own making. But I didn't want to send her into the void thinking she had that horror awaiting her. I can't forgive her, but I can give her a little peace.

Title drop, of course, with a wonderful expression by Jamie. There's a lot here.

Okay, let's do this.

"Okay" is a phrase that's haunted WicDiv. We've come back to it multiple times – it's a fascinating word in the English language, and has caused problems for people translating it, in the mixture of ambivalence and optimism in it is really tricky. Clearly, we use everything inside the word.

It wasn't my Dad's last words, but it's the last exchange I remember with him. Everyone else was out, and I was helping him back to his seat. He says to me.

"Son, I know this is strange, but I can't help but think it's going to be okay."

And I can almost imagine my eyes bulging out of my head, as I wanted to howl at him: no, Dad. It really fucking isn't.

This comes up almost verbatim in the first arc, with the exchange between Laura and Lucifer before she breaks out. The series is about many things, but my Father's death was the core inspiration for it, and that "It's going to be okay" haunted me and it.

I don't think this is what my Dad meant, clearly, but it's how I've ended up metabolising it. I've been signing "It's going to be okay" when I sign Faust Acts, partially as it's the WicDiv phrase, partially as a secret-promise-that-they-won't-all-die-and-there-is-hope and partially because "When death comes, it's okay" is that buried in it. If I had to boil the book down to a sentence, it'd be it. It means different things depending how you look at it. That's all I've got.

Page 12

I talk about Solving The Equation of the third year, and Dio being in play for this section is absolutely part of it.

That first panel. I said that the cast were all people I'd have killed to be at various stages of my life. Umar is someone I try to be now. I don't succeed, but he's a worthy goal. Kind is not soft and all that.

While the silent panel is something you've all seen before, it's worth highlighting how good Jamie is. The favourite gesture of the scene is the eyes upwards of Cassandra – I don’t remember Jamie using this angle before, and it's really striking. I suddenly miss that I won't be working with Jamie again for a while. Have fun, Jamie. You were the best.

And now, this.

Page 13-14-15

"It would take a real monster to kill a kid" is one of those lines that have been sitting in the files since the beginning.

There was a fan artist in the WicDiv community early on who kept on doing these totally charming portraits of Baal and Minerva playing around in a big brother and little sister way. Every time I saw them, I felt both love for the art, and a sadness. "In four years time, you are going to have a terrible day."

That's one of the weirdest things of the last four years – that. Knowing that stuff is out there.

Looking at this at a little distance, I see the elements in – the standing on the edge, the "Please Don't" and all that. I sigh. This is awful and upsetting and that page turn is one of the hardest in the series. I wish Valentine would forgive himself, but he couldn't.

This is the sort of thing I want to write a lot about, and want to write nothing. I think I'll keep it as just the facts, in terms of trying to plot this.

Occasionally you get to a knot – I knew Valentine had to kill Minerva, that Valentine couldn't bear to live after that was done and that Minerva had to die after Baal gave up his powers. How to you put those three together, without introducing something else.

C asked "Where does it happen? Could it happen somewhere high?" and the rest was there. Falling being the repeating WicDiv image as well.

I think I pictures this actually side on, without the drop. Jamie's choice is better, just because of the eyes.

The three panels is something we're returned too, but choosing the distance was key. You know it's there, but I didn't want to revel in the dead bodies. This is a different kind of death to many of the ones in the book, and has to be treated as such. Any more blood than shows they're dead would be obscene.

I sigh again. I note that Matt does the lights on the guns perfectly, but I want to highlight craft. The shot of eveyrone waiting is a huge thing – Inanna's grief, Dio stepping in, and the crossed arms of Cassandra...

I think it was when I was plotting the second year at WicDiv that I realised that I couldn't see a way out of this which didn't involve the majority of the cast ending up in jail for a while. I was okay with that, as it made some sense. It's thematically resonant for a few ways – it's a choice which shows their acceptance of their acts, and their actual humanity as well as an understanding of their power, and lots more.

However, due to all the straight, white characters being dead, it does mean that a all-queer all-PoC-minus-Lucifer cast going to jail, in the current jail system. That said, while far from perfect, the UK is not the US. I don't think I could have written this ending in the US. Even in the UK, I safety-proof it conceptually as much as I can.

They are all queer, and almost all PoC... but they are also superhumans (and mostly rich.) They have a degree of power, and options which are not open to other people... and it is their one chance to try and navigate this space with no-one else (either them or other humans) getting killed. It's their last chance to act in good faith to the rest of the species.

I wouldn't trust the system if they were people without their resources. They're not. And this is the least-worst choice I can see.

I'm sure some of you will disagree with me on that.

More safety-proofing – Voluntuaryism is an anarchist idea. "The only true order is voluntary order" basically.

18-19-20

This is a lot of space for a sequence which is relatively minor dramatic weight, but as we segue towards the end, we want it to breathe a little. Plus there's the matter of the page turns – the previous interstitial was about pushing that as well, so both the "surrender" and Laura's final headshot are on a turn.

Matt's lighting in this sequence is wonderful – I said to Jamie that I was thinking of almost suggesting we're changing genre before Laura steps in. It's a "The special forces go after Batman" sort of sequence. I was thinking of the one from Batman: Year Zero, which is some top class special forces entering darkened environments.

Another moment of the weird-colouring-in-a-balloon, and the actually living in the moment.

Taking the guns is more safety-proofing, showing they are not acting in blind faith of the system. That Laura can take the guns also shows that Laura likely could walk out of prison any time she wants, and the rest will be able to do the same too.

(Not that the people in power know they don't presently have access to their big ones, of course.)

We originally has Cass shouting that final line, but had it much more matter of fact. This is kind of past shouting.

21-22

Yeah, this is calling back all manner of stuff. Back to the courtroom.

Jamie asked me a lot about the final expression, as is only right. This is a story where we've used head shots a lot, normally with pose. This is something else.

Worth noting that Laura couldn't be sentenced to life imprisonment. She's 18 so would be sentenced for "custody for life". Not that the story actually says what she's been sentenced to that either – we cut before the sentence is given. Don’t expect a firm answer to that in next issue either.

But they all have been sentenced to life, in the obvious metaphorical way. Laura has been depressed and self-destructive to the point of a death wish throughout. At the end, she's decided to try to live.

I count that as bitter sweet, and I count that as a win. I'm proud of her. I'm proud of them all.

I'm in tears now.

24-28

And we were when compiling the letters page. Thanks you lot.

Jamie and I both had really intense feelings about the final cover. It's clear why we've kept it secret (it gives away Laura survives) but to see this young woman we've been writing about older was incredibly moving.

Laura was 20 years younger than me at the start of WicDiv, and she's 20 years older than me at the end. Feeling suspended between the two poles, identically. The duality of it, one more time.

I love this cover so much, and I loved these characters, this book, you lot.

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #Writer notes

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Life in Film: Ben Wheatley.

As Netflix goes gothic with a new Rebecca adaptation, director Ben Wheatley tells Jack Moulton about his favorite Hitchcock film, the teenagers who will save cinema, and a memorable experience with The Thing.

“The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it.” —Ben Wheatley

Winter’s coming, still no vaccine, the four walls of home are getting pretty samey… and what Netflix has decided we need right now is a lavish, gaslight-y psychological thriller about a clifftop manor filled with the personality of its dead mistress—and a revival of one of the best menaces in screen history. Bring on the ‘Mrs Danvers’ Hallowe’en costumes, because Rebecca is back.

In Ben Wheatley’s new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s best-selling 1938 novel, scripted by Jane Goldman, Lily James plays an orphaned lady’s maid—a complete nobody, with no known first name—who catches the eye of the dashing, cashed-up Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer).

Very quickly, the young second Mrs de Winter is flung into the intimidating role of lady of Manderley, and into the shadow of de Winter’s late first wife, Rebecca. The whirlwind romance is over; the obsession has begun, and it’s hotly fuelled by Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas, perfectly cast).

Each adaptation of du Maurier’s story has its own quirks, and early Letterboxd reactions suggest viewers will experience varying levels of satisfaction with Wheatley’s, depending on how familiar they are with both the novel and earlier screen versions—most notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Best Picture winner, starring Laurence Olivier Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson.

Why would you follow Hitchcock? It’s been 80 years; Netflix is likely banking on an audience of Rebecca virgins (the same kind of studio calculation that worked for Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born). Plus, the new Rebecca is a Working Title affair; it has glamor, camp, Armie Hammer in a three-piece suit, the sunny South of France, sports cars, horses, the wild Cornish coast, Lily James in full dramatic heat, and—controversial!—a fresh twist on the denouement.

A big-budget thriller made for a streamer is Wheatley coming full circle, in a way: he made his name early on with viral internet capers and a blog (“Mr and Mrs Wheatley”) of shorts co-created with his wife and longtime collaborator, Amy Jump. Between then and now, they have gained fans for their well-received low-to-no budget thrillers, including High-Rise, Kill List and Free Fire (which also starred Hammer).

Over Zoom, Wheatley spoke to Letterboxd about the process of scaling up, the challenge of casting already-iconic characters, and being a year-round horror lover. [The Rebecca plot discussion may be spoilery to some. Wheatley is specifically talking about the du Maurier version, not his film.]

Armie Hammer and Ben Wheatley on the set of ‘Rebecca’.

Can you tell us how you overcame any concerns in adapting a famous novel that already has a very famous adaptation? How did you want to make a 1930s story relevant to modern audiences? Ben Wheatley: When you go back to the novel and look at how it works, you see it’s a very modern book. [Author Daphne du Maurier is] doing stuff that people are still picking up the pieces of now. It’s almost like the Rosetta Stone of thrillers—it tells you everything on how to put a thriller together. The genre jumping and Russian-doll nature of the structure is so delicious. When you look at the characters in the book, they’re still popping up in other stuff—there’s Mrs Danvers in all sorts of movies.

It remains fresh because of its boldness. Du Maurier is writing in a way that’s almost like a dare. She’s going, “right, okay, you like romantic fiction do you? I’ll write you romantic fiction; here’s Maxim de Winter, he’s a widower, he’s a good-looking guy, and owns a big house. Here’s a rags-to-riches, Cinderella-style girl. They’re going to fall in love. Then I’m going to ruin romantic fiction for you forever by making him into a murdering swine and implicating you in the murder because you’re so excited about a couple getting away with it!”

That’s the happy ending—Maxim doesn’t go to prison. How does that work? He’s pretty evil by the end. It’s so subtly done that you only see the trap of it after you finish reading the book. That’s clearly represented in Jane Goldman’s adaptation that couldn’t be done in 1940 because of the Hays Code. That whole element of the book is missing [in Hitchcock’s Rebecca]. But I do really like this style of storytelling in the 1930s and ’40s that is not winky, sarcastic, and cynical. It’s going, “here’s Entertainment with a big ‘E’. We’re going to take you on holiday, then we’re gonna scare you, then we’re gonna take you around these beautiful houses that you would never get a chance to go around, and we’re gonna show you these big emotions.”

After High-Rise, you ended up circling back to more contained types of films, whereas Rebecca is your lushest and largest production. How was scaling up for you? Free Fire does feel like a more contained film, but in many ways it was just as complicated and had the same budget as High-Rise, since it’s just in one space. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is literally a contained film, that’s right. What [the bigger budget] gave me was the chance to have a conversation where I say I want a hotel that’s full of people and no-one says you can’t have any people in it. You don’t have to shoot in a corner, so that scale is suddenly allowed.

Elisabeth Moss and Tom Hiddlestone in Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’ (2015).

The other movies I did are seen as no-budget or, I don’t even know the word for how little money they are, and even though High-Rise and Free Fire were eight million dollars each, they’re still seen as ultra-low budget. This is the first film that I’ve done that’s just a standard Hollywood-style movie budget and it makes a massive difference. It gives you extra time to work. All the schemes you might have had to work out in order to cheat and get around faster, but now it’s fine, let’s only shoot two pages today. We can go out on the road and close down all of the south of France—don’t worry about all the holidaymakers screaming at you and getting cross! That side of it is great.

You had the challenge to cast iconic actors for iconic roles. What were you looking for in the casting? What points of reference did you give the actors? I don’t think we really talked about it, but [Armie Hammer] definitely didn’t watch the Hitchcock version. I can understand why he wouldn’t. There was no way he was going to accidentally mimic [Laurence] Olivier’s performance without seeing it and he just didn’t want to have the pressure of that. I think that’s quite right. It’s an 80-year-old film, it’s a beloved classic, and we’d be mad if we were trying to remake it. We’re not.

The thing about the shadow that the film cast is that it’s hard enough making stuff without thinking about other filmmakers. I’ve had this in the past where journalists ask me “what were your influences on the day?” and I wish I could say “it was a really complicated set of movies that the whole thing was based around”, but it’s not like that. When you watch documentaries about filmmakers screening loads of movies for their actors before they make something—it’s lovely, but it’s not something I’ve ever done.

The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it—“we’ll use this shot from 1952, that will really make this scene sing!”—then you’re in a world of pain. Basically, it’s my interpretation of the adaptation. The book is its own place, and for something like High-Rise, [screenwriter Amy Jump] has the nightmare of sitting down with 112 pages of blank paper and taking a novel and smashing it into a script. That’s the hard bit.

Armie Hammer and Lily James in ‘Rebecca’.

Current industry news is not so great—cinemas are facing bankruptcy, film festivals in the USA are mostly virtual, Disney is focusing on Disney+ only. How do you feel about a future where streaming dominates the market and the theatrical experience becomes, as we fear, an exclusive niche? Independent cinema was born out of very few movies. If you look at the history of Eraserhead—that film on its own almost created all of cult cinema programming. One movie can do that. It can create an audience that is replicated and becomes a whole industry. And that can happen again, but it needs those films to do that. They will come as things ebb and flow. The streamers will control the whole market and then one day someone will go “I don’t want to watch this stuff, I want to watch something else” and they’ll go make it.

It’s like The Matrix, it’s a repeating cycle. There’ll always be ‘the One’. There’s Barbara Loden in 1970 making Wanda, basically inventing American independent cinema. So I don’t worry massively about it. I know it’s awkward and awful for people to go bankrupt and the cinemas to close down, but in time they’ll re-open because people will wanna see stuff. The figures for cinemagoers were massive before Covid. Are you saying that people with money are not going to exploit that? Life will find a way. Remember that the cinema industry from the beginning is one that’s in a tailspin. Every year is a disaster and they’re going bust. But they survived the Spanish Flu, which is basically the same thing.

Two months ago, you quickly made a horror movie. We’re going to get a lot of these from filmmakers who just need to create something this year. What can you identify now about this inevitable next wave of micro-budget, micro-schedule pandemic-era cinema? I’ve always made micro-budget films so that side of it is not so crazy. There will be a lot of Zoom and people-locked-in-houses films but they won’t be so interesting. They’re more to-keep-you-sane kind of filmmaking which is absolutely fine. Where you should look for [the ‘pandemic-era’ films] is from the kids and young adults through 14 to 25 who’ve been the most affected by it. They will be the ones making the true movies about the pandemic which will be in like five years’ time.

People going through GCSEs and A-Levels [final high-school exams in England] will have had their social contracts thoroughly smashed by the government after society tells them that this is the most important thing you’re ever gonna do in your life. Then the next day the government tells them “actually, you’ve all passed”, then the next day they go “no, you’ve all failed”, and then “oh no, you’ve all passed”. It’s totally bizarre. Anyone who’s in university at the moment [is] thinking about how they’ve worked really hard to get to that position and now they’ve had it taken away from them. That type of schism in that group will make for a unique set of storytelling impetus. Much more interesting than from my perspective of being a middle-age bloke and having to stay in my house for a bit, which was alright. Their experience is extreme and that will change cinema.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers in ‘Rebecca’.

It’s time to probe into your taste in film. Firstly, three questions about Alfred Hitchcock: his best film, most underrated film, and most overrated film? It’s tricky, there’s a lot to choose from. I think Psycho is his best film because, much like Wanda, it was the invention of indie cinema. He took a TV crew to go and do a personal project and then completely redefined horror, and he did it in the same year as Peeping Tom.

There’s stuff I really like in Torn Curtain. Certainly the murder scene where they’re trying to stick the guy in the oven. It’s a gut-wrenching sequence. Overrated, I don’t know. It’s just a bit mean, isn’t it? Overrated by who? They’re all massively rated, aren’t they?

Which film made you want to become a filmmaker? The slightly uncool version of my answer is the first fifteen minutes of Dr. No before I got sent to bed. We used to watch movies on the telly when I was a kid, so movies would start at 7pm and I had to go to bed at 7:30pm. You would get to see the first half-hour and that would be it. The opening was really intriguing. I never actually saw a lot of these movies until I was much older.

The more grown-up answer is a film like Taxi Driver. It was the first time where I felt like I’d been transported in a way where there was an authorship to a film that I didn’t understand. It had done something to me that television and straightforward movies hadn’t done and made me feel very strange. It was something to do with the very, very intense mixture of sound, music and image and I started to understand that that was cinema.

What horror movie do you watch every Hallowe’en? I watch The Thing every year but I don’t tend to celebrate Hallowe’en, to be honest. I’m of an age where it wasn’t a big deal and was never particularly celebrated. I find it a bit like “what’s all this Hallowe’en about?”—horror films for me are for all year-round.

What’s a brilliant mindfuck movie that perhaps even cinephiles haven’t seen? What grade of cinephile are we talking? All of the work by Jan Švankmajer, maybe. Hard to Be a God is pretty mindfucky if you want a bit of that, but cinephiles should know about it. It’s pretty intense. Marketa Lazarová too.

‘Marketa Lazarová’ (1967) directed by František Vláčil.

What is the greatest screen romance that you totally fell head over heels for? I guess it’s Casablanca for me. That would be it.

Which coming-of-age film did you connect to the most as a teenager? [Pauses for effect] Scum.

Who is an exciting newcomer director we should keep our eyes on? God, I don’t know. I would say Jim Hosking but he’s older than me and he’s not a newcomer because he’s done two movies. So, that’s rubbish. He doesn’t count.

[Editor’s note: Hosking contributed to ABCs of Death 2 with the segment “G is for Grandad” while Wheatley contributed to The ABCs of Death with the segment “U is for Unearthed” and also executive produced the follow-up film.]

What was your best cinema experience? [Spoiler warning for The Thing.]

Oh, one that speaks in my mind is seeing The Thing at an all-nighter in the Scala at King’s Cross, and I was sitting right next to this drunk guy who was talking along to the screen. It was a packed cinema with about 300 people, and someone at the front told him “will you just shut up?” The guy says “I won’t shut up. You tell me to shut up again and I’ll spoil the whole film!” The whole audience goes “no, no, no!” and he went “it’s the black guy and the guy with the beard—everyone else dies!” That made me laugh so much.

Do you have a favorite film you’ve watched so far this year? Yeah, Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Related content

Classic Gothic Literature to Film—Jennifer Boddaert’s list

Ava’s Dark Romance list

Ben Wheatley’s Life in Film list

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

‘Rebecca’ is in select US theaters on October 17, and streaming on Netflix everywhere on October 21.

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dustedmagazine · 4 years

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Listed: Elkhorn

Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner joined forces as Elkhorn in 2013, Sheppard on 12-string and Gardner on 6-string. Together they’ve made a string of gorgeous duet albums on Feeding Tube and now Beyond Beyond Is Beyond records, while supporting the growth and scholarship around American Primitive guitar playing in a variety of ways. Sheppard, in particular, has been active in organizing the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival and documenting players including Glenn Jones, Nathan Bowles, Chris Forsyth, Ryley Walker and others in video. Their latest album, The Storm Sessions, comes from a snowed-in session in Brooklyn when a cancelled concert turned into a prolonged and graceful meditation on the possibilities of guitars and guitar-like instruments. In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “… a tribute to filling in the quiet spaces that have arisen unexpectedly out of chaos and disappointment, but which are, themselves, very peaceful and beautiful.” Drew Gardner contributed this list.

I put this list together with the thought of talking about some music that overlaps with elements of The Storm Sessions. There are several shared elements at play in these records: songs using longer durations that unfold in suites, improvisation, the blending of several genres-sounds-traditions, gradual development, the use of calm/blissful moods, and players who tend toward letting the music guide the playing.

Mary Lattimore —The Withdrawing Room, “You’ll Be Fiiinnne”

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The Withdrawing Room, harpist Mary Lattimore’s debut album, unfolds beautifully with delay-soaked harp mixed with bubbly psychedelic electronic textures courtesy of Jeff Zeigler. Lattimore knows how to use patience to build a feeling of calm tranquility and often walks her harp figures beside a stream of contrasting ambient sound. She glides though different sound areas without trying to push the songs around, letting the music be. The results are lovely and dreamy.

Maya Youssef —Syrian Dreams, “Queen of the Night”

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Maya Youssef is an expert player of the maqan, a traditional Middle Eastern plucked instrument in the zither family. She grew up in Damascus and now lives in England. Defying the tradition that only men could play it, she has innovated the maqan as a solo instrument beyond its conventional use in larger ensembles. The instrumentation on Syrian Dreams is maqan, percussion, cello and oud, the textures of which blend into sets of suites that seem to tell many stories. This is a record of original compositions of Middle Eastern music that seamlessly incorporate the sounds of flamenco and jazz. Somehow Youssef’s group also reads like a freak folk chamber band. She’s unafraid of the healing power of music, and she connects her compositions with both the ancient and the difficult recent history of Syria.

Sunburned Hand of the Man—Headdress, “Shitless”

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Gloriously lo-fi collage-ist space jams, cohesive in their disjointedness. Like GBV, the low fidelity makes it more intimate. As with most of their catalogue this is a head-trip and also a lot of fun. This record puts all the myriad things they’re capable of into perfect balance: uniquely fried “Massachusetts dub,” comical Dadaist prank-chants, slow loose funk grooves with all kind of friendly space debris orbiting around. Each song has at least three different genres melting in and out of it, and it all sounds like a party. They don’t order the tunes around, they let what’s happening happen. There’s plenty of improvisation here, but without a big demand for the guitars to need to get anywhere—what a relief. They’re happy being where they are, floating over the rhythm section and soaking in the cascades of color, relaxed and weird-blissful.

NNCK—Qvaris, “The Doon”

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NNCK went to great lengths to secure certain freedoms, especially freedom from fame and freedom from commerce. Those freedoms are put to great use here and the result is a floaty ego-differed collective texture and with a groove and a vibe. It feels like all the players are steering the boat. Everyone is thinking about the total sound and the overall flow. Everyone’s in charge and no one is. They improvise and move from zone to zone, sound world to sound world. There are trippy drones, ritual percussion, and calm, bizarre and soothing textures. The songs sound like they’re improvised in a way that allows them to be self-assembling/self-disassembling ensemble music. It sounds like life forms are evolving. The various combinations of different elements create a lot of variety as the landscape scrolls by. Need some dilating texture-walls shifting into a bonus of damp squishiness? You got it. Need some mescaline-fueled post-rock? You got it. Rustically glowing biomechanical insects morphing into autumnal haze? Yup. Malfunctioning alternate-dimension windchimes into Dada kabuki Muppet theater? Cannabinoidosaurus Rex chill out wedding music into Martian organ grinder swing winding up at third-pot-brownie-surf-rock? You get the idea. There’s something for everyone. All the song/soundscapes flow through these ecosystems with a “how did we get here?” effect. The players find different windows in the soundscape. It never feels crowed. Sonically occupying the space they’re in, they let the music become itself rather than trying to control it.

Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society—Mandatory Reality, “Finite”

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I first heard this record last year in the Elkhorn tour vehicle while Jesse and I we were driving from the Milwaukee Psych fest to Chicago. It turns out that being stuck in a car for several hours moving at twenty miles an hour in a white-out is the perfect context for experiencing this music. There was something about the slow speed, the need for concentrated attention, and the monochromatically unfolding landscape that really enhanced the experience of the music. Abrams’ use of slow tempos, repetition, long durations, gradually shifting textures and cycles of chords and melodic figures was perfectly mirrored in the snowy drive. He allows the music to repeat and unfold without needing to rush in contrasting sections or motifs. It’s patient and languid and mesmerizing. Done in real time with no overdubs, it blends several sounds beautifully: minimalism, Gnawa music and modern Chicago free jazz. At times it feels like a radically becalmed Braxton Ghost Trance piece transmuted into something like the spacious Tabla Tarang playing of Pandit Kamalesh Maitra or the straight 8ths of Gamelan music with John Luther Adams-style long tones stretched over it. When we arrived in Chicago the snowstorm had abated after the long drive, and as I stepped out of the car into the slush I felt refreshed rather than exhausted.

Pauline Oliveros with Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis—Deep Listening, “Lear”

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Deep Listening was improvised with no overdubs using just-intonation accordion, trombone, didgeridoo and voice in a cistern in Washington State that once held two million gallons of water. This space featured a natural forty-five-second reverb. As dolphins know, reverb is a kind of image—information about space in sound form. On this record the players, the environment and the instruments all combine to become intertwined into one system. I’ll let Oliveros say it: “The Universe is improvising and we have evolution, so improvisation is always happening.”

Cul De Sac—Immortality Lessons, “Blues in E”

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Cul De Sac featured Glenn Jones on electric twelve-string guitar before he turned to solo acoustic music. The band played improvised instrumental rock that crossed over several genres: Krautrock, psych-rock, surf-rock and American Primitive. This record was recorded live at a college radio station in one take under less than ideal circumstances and it’s a great example of turning lemons into psychedelic lemonade. This music flows and develops in suites, using various groove/dissolve/solo patterns than unfold with an expansive vibe. Everyone in the band is thinking about the whole arrangement, not just the parts. It’s genre blending, full-band texturing and rewards repeated listening. One can only hope for a reunion one day.

Marisa Anderson—The Golden Hour, “In the Valley of the Sun”

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The Golden Hour is a record of solo fingerstyle electric guitar improvisations recorded straight to tape. It sounds like she’s doing variations on open themes and the results feel modern/spontaneous and composed/traditional at the same time. She has a warm, woody guitar tone, often tastefully overdriving the amp in a lush manner, using a nimble rhythmic gait. This works as psychedelic guitar music and at the same time resonates with the old American music traditions she’s connecting with. Her blend of genres is country blues, country and western, and folk, put together in concise songs that always have a coherent flow of ideas with sometimes subtle hints of deconstruction. She’s not afraid of the pleasures of meandering. This is music that sounds like it’s dreaming through guitar history as a kind of meditation.

Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain—Rag Madhuvanti, Rag Misra Tilang, “Rag Misra Tilang”

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Shivkumar Sharma plays the Santur, an Indian box zither, not unlike a western hammer dulcimer. Sharma is credited with bringing this folk instrument, normally associated with the Sufi music of Kashmir, into Indian classical music. Indian music involves several of the elements I’ve been discussing in this list: long duration, improvisation, and drone. There’s something about the cascading overtones of Sharma’s Santur playing that reads as especially psychedelic, unfolding in undulating patterns using his knowledge of tabla rhythms. He wasn’t afraid to risk innovation and prove that a folk instrument could be used for high art. This album is mesmerizing, beautiful, and rejuvenating.

#dusted magazine #listed #elkhorn #drew gardner #the storm sessions #mary lattimore #maya youssef #sunburned hand of the man #nnck #joshua abrams and natural information society #pauline oliveros #stuart dempster #panaiotis #cul de sac #glenn jones #marisa anderson #shivkumar sharma #zakir hussain

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gasoliya · 4 years

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*air horn noises*

this is a massive post, so if you’d like to see some of the wanted connections i’ve typed out for my girl soliya, please read through the cut!! if your’e interested in any of them, please feel free to like or comment!!

let’s get writing, y’all!!! and come in here and catch this snuggle (and these plots)!

if you want a quick and dirty run-down of soliya, please click here for my intro where i talk a little bit about her past and bio! if you want to read her bio (it’s pretty short!) click here! but if you want both the live action and the replay...read both B^)

a few things to say - i know i have alienated her to a degree since the highest population of muses are in their early to mid 20s, but that’s why i purposefully wrote her as a traveler to offset some of that!! so that this way, at least she’d be able to travel around to the other nations and make meaningful connections with a whole variety of people!

also - these titles are all song titles/lyircs from songs on a playlist i’ve had on repeat for the last few days in quarantine. some are directly applicable feelings/vibe wise, others are just the right feel in the title itself and not necessarily the song lyrics apply to the plot! (wow this feels like krp tumblr in like, 2014). sidenote: i am a very flexible rper, and am comfortable with nsfw themes but PLEASE let me know if you are not! would never want to make any of my partners uncomfortable and PLEASE do not try to push yourself if it’s something you don’t like to/don’t usually incorporate!

LASTLY, i’m 100% down to plot out original connections too! and if you have a plot or role that you think liya might be able to fill for your muse, just let me know! but the below are certain connections i’d love to see for her c’:

now, onwards & upwards!

the other side x. (m/f/nb! any age! 2 open!)

for how angsty that title sounds this plot is not angsty at all LMFAO. while traveling with her father i imagine that she’d make some friends that she consistently seeks out whenever they’re in that nation! soliya is pretty relaxed and friendly, especially since that’s the whole point of a diplomatic visit. plus, just traveling to all the different air temples and nations, you naturally make connections! she probably tries to get to know as many people as possible and make as many connections as possible - plus a tour of each place from a local? heck yes! post-black sun, as she’s going through and getting the feel for how each nation is, as a representative of the air nomads and on her father’s behalf, i can imagine she’d be so fucking worried for all of the people she’s met and knows! this also allows us for current plots and past plots!! at the moment, looking for 1 muse for each spot from the other nations to start!

fire nation: open!

water nation: open!

earth nation: @zuerga

way you move x.(m/f/nb! +/- 6 years! 3 open!)

sometimes you just gotta get out excess energy! what better way to do so than a friendly spar? love the idea of our muses passing the time not just with companionship, but with some bending sparring! learning the tricks and the trades of each other’s bending styles, and pushing each other to be even better. there may not be a need per say, to train, but it’s always nice to keep your skills sharp and learn more about each style and person! i think soliya would be fascinated by the other types of bending out there, especially the particular and unique subsets of each, and also by how each person’s own style affects the moves/impact/force! since she’s also on the older side of the spectrum, could definitely see her being a mentor type not just to other airbenders, but also just in tactical elements/critical thinking during spars, etc. post-black sun...there may be a need to spar for the intents of training. but also - check ins on status, health, is there anything that i can do for you?

fire nation: open!

water nation: open!

earth nation: open!

love me less x. (m/f/nb! younger sibling! open!)

cough, so this requires the making of a muse, and i will put this on a wanted connection ask to the main page maybe like...a few days after i first start but like...this is a big part of liya’s origin story! i go over it here and here, so i won’t make this too long, but yes! i would SO LOVE someone to work this in their bio if they’d like and we can play out the various interactions pre, during, and post the incident. liya holds SO MUCH guilt from the accident and will probably never fully forgive herself, especially as she gets older, as the more mature she gets, the more obvious it is to her how much of a shithead she was as a teen. and even now, in her relationship with her bending and her personal relationships (esp. romantic) she’s guarded to a degree, even almost 15 years later.

I got too much dirt to come clean Closets full of skeletons that you don't wanna see Will you judge me? All my ugly? I won't blame you if you do

me & your ghost x. (m/f/nb! any age! 2 open!)

after the accident with her younger sibling at around age 16/17, she went into a period of self-isolation for about 4 months. 3 of which were spent on air temple island, and one in which she soul searched at the other 4 air temples (nesw). after she comes back home she’s ready to take on her father’s teachers on self-discipline and applying it into her everyday life & demeanor. that probably takes about another 4 months of intensive learning/meditation/isolation, along with traveling to other air temples for training with other airbending masters which comes to a total of 8 months in which she is just MIA. the idea for this plot would probably be that she is significant is some way to your muse - be it a big ass crush, an older-sister figure, a mother figure???, an incredibly strong friendship or any other dynamic, and when she just disappears without notice (i feel like she cycles through all the nations at least once every 2 months or so, stays for at least a few days) your muse is just “what the hell?” primarily a pre-black sun plot for the drama and character development, but that probably also means that by now (almost 15 years!) their relationship is hella strong and they’re very, very, close!

spot one: open!

spot two: open!

good news x. (m/f/nb! +/- 2 years! open!)

emotional support. someone to talk to, to confide in. this is someone, one of the VERY few people (maybe even the only one?) that she would confide in and talk openly about her feelings with, regarding the accident. i imagine this is a - after her 8 months of isolation/soul-searching, they��d meet for the first time, exchange kind of stilted pleasantries, and then just *emotional breakdown* as soon as they hugged. she’s be 17 at the time, so this is someone who would need to be about the same age/maturity to be able to handle it (or not!!! lmfao!!!!) and comfort or just, be there to help her work through it as she wouldn’t want to talk to her family about it - they’re just too close to the situation and their reassurances always feel a bit fake (to her).

similar to the above! primarily a pre-black sun plot for the angst and drama and character development, buy they’re super fucking close by now (or do they have a fallout???) so whatever we decide, it’ll affect what their relationship is like post-black sun!

I spent the whole day in my head Do a little spring cleaning, I'm always too busy dreaming Well, maybe I should wake up instead, A lot of things I regret, but I just say I forget Why can't it just be easy? Why does everybody need me to stay? [...] Well, so tired of being so tired Why I gotta build something beautiful just to go set it on fire? I'm no liar, but sometimes the truth don't sound like the truth [...] Good news, good news, good news That's all they wanna hear No, they don't like it when I'm down

roxanne x. (m/f/nb! +/- 3 years! open!)

the general gist of this plot is like...liya, in her head: man, fuck this asshole!

it’s that person that just gets under your fucking skin for some goddamn reason. be it completely different values, incompatible personalities (which is some a1 shit cause she usually gets along with most), or they’re just flat out hostile...something makes it almost impossible to stay calm around this person. they just dig at her finely shaped walls, and though she’s spent YEARS cultivating her self control and discipline, this person always gets her so close to breaking it and having her lash out (aka returning back to her younger days), but she’s not going to let them get the best of her (right?)

post-black sun...honestly i have no idea LOL. this would probably just have to be worked out in more detail with whomever takes this plot! as the undercurrents of why they don’t get along can be attributed to many different things (pure unadulterated hatred? simple annoyance? hate chemistry?), which would then affect how they are/interact after black sun!

Goddamn, Roxanne Never gonna love me but it's alright She think I'm an asshole She think I'm a player

alright let’s make a right at this stoplight into sad bitch hours! beep, beep, we’ve arrived! (i’ve been listening to a lot of sad ballads don’t mind me)

details: i’d always imagined that liya’s had 3 significant heartbreaks/relationships in her life. why three? because it’s a magic number and there are 3 main sad songs that have been in rotation on my spotify!

when we were young x. (m/f/nb! +/- 1-2 years! open!)

*krp writer voice* childhood sweethearts...*aza voice* but with a twist it doesn’t have to be requited if you don’t want it to be! i’m totally down for the longing childhood sweetheart/crush dynamic but if that’s something you’re interested in! i’m down for liya to be the one with the fat ass crush or it can be your muse too! but at some point i imagine they do go it a try, but it does end cause they’re...young and dumb (lol). but it’s your ‘i didn’t want to lose you as a friend, no romantic relationship is worth losing you forever’ dynamic but they’re already past that point!!! but is it of no return? especially with recent events? they obviously care for each other very deeply still, and i imagine that they still keep in good contact, and now that they’re older it’s easier to brush off/get over, but did all of those feelings fade completely? who knows! you decide (pre-black sun)! post black-sun...hold the ones your love a little tighter.

Everybody loves the things you do From the way you talk to the way you move Everybody here is watching you Because you feel like home You're like a dream come true

all i want x. (m/f/nb! +/- 4 years! closed!)

CLOSED: @ddmaiga unrequited in a way (?)!!! i don’t have hard opinions on who is who, but they fall into a relationship naturally (probably either instant chemistry, same interests, shared spaces, same opinions, yanno, the way young adults fall in love). but one of them keeps holding back because yanno!!! they’re BARELY young adults (think 19-23)!!! and while one is ready to deep dive, the other one gets cold feet and things end...not badly (but it could if you want it to!) but things just aren’t the same. it’s not a BAD breakup but it’s one that’s never really resolved because neither was willing to completely hear the other person out, and seet things from their perspective. it felt like neither was willing to meet the other halfway *sad violin music* so it’s a breakup with lots of loose ends! even better if we can make up situation in which they HAVE to interact and it’s awkward as hell (pre-black sun)! post-black sun...cue situation in which they have to interact probably LOL

And there's one more boy, he's from my past We fell in love but it didn't last 'Cause the second I figure it out he pushes me away And I won't fight for love if you won't meet me halfway

bruises x. (m/f/nb! +/- 3 years! closed!)

CLOSED: @gataash i’m gonna keep this one a bit shorter and only give the gist, as i’d really love to flesh out this plot via...well, plotting! essentially, they/she fell really deeply in love (i’m thinking she’s like, 26-28 during this), as in - ‘i may actually end up marrying this person’ kind of deep. they’re not co-dependent by any means, but they’re attached at the hip whenever they’re near each other, and i think this would probably be a relationship that’s REALLY steady for at least like, 3+ years, but whatever the exact reason, something comes up and it’s related to her incident when she hurt her younger sibling as she’s naturally incredibly guarded about this (i mean hey, she went into a self-isolating state and didn’t airbend for about 4 months after it happened). they fight, she tries to keep calm, ends up losing a bit of that control, and VERY VERY MILDLY injures the s/o, but due to the precedence and the guilt and lasting trauma from all those years ago, she breaks down, ends it, and runs away (aye) and plays the avoidance game for as long as she can manage.

post-black sun...there’s no way they’re not going to reach out to each other, just to make sure they’re okay. (wow this wasn’t that much shorter...darn it, self...)

I've been holding on to hope That you'll come back when you can find some peace 'Cause every word that I've heard spoken Since you left feels like a hollow street [...] There must be something in the water 'Cause everyday it's getting colder And if only I could hold ya You'd keep my head from going under

#ga:plotcall #gaplotcall

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dellebecque · 5 years

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Looking for RP--Aden Dellebecque

In-game: Aden Dellebecque Alias: Aden Aubeaux Race: Miqo’te Seeker of the Sun (X tribe/C tribe) Profession: dragoon, scout/surveyor, hunter

History

Of the Sky

They came many generations ago, sisters and cousins, and the Tias and Keeper men they had met along the way, or if not the men then heavy with the children the wandering men had left them with. Desperate to break out of their tribal life, full of youthful rage against their lot in life as mothers and hunters and little else, they struck out to find a new way. And find it they did--nothing could be more different than Ishgard. They set about learning a new way, building a new life, one with dreams of comfort and riches rather than long hunts and far horizons, and even taking on new names: the Aubeaux family, one branch called themselves. In their children’s children no tribal outcast lingered: patriots born, through and through, and obsessed with the social climb as many of low status in Ishgard must become. And one cage was fully traded for another.

Yet you may take the miqo’te out of the tribe, but you cannot beat the tribe out of him. Daughters were raised in grace and manners, to catch eyes with their tamed exoticism and curry favor with silver tongues. Sons had too much wandering blood, too much of the drive to fight for supremacy--which made them perfect candidates to go to war, to seek glory or knighthood in deed. Sons die young in the Aubeaux family, ground up in the bloody crucible of endless war, and daughters inherit the legacy.

And Aden’s father might have too, if not for a wandering woman of the C tribe, a thief and ne’er-do-well who had been a mercenary for many years before finding employ on some secret errand in Ishgard. What became of her remains a mystery, but her lover raised their son alone for a few years until he sent him away and disappeared himself.

Serenity

When someone delivered a young child to Nadine Dellebecque and Arild Brewster's farm in the Black Shroud, they knew the worst had befallen a dear friend from their mercenary days. Aden, a letter said his name was, and they took him in and raised him as their own.

Aden had a good life with his adoptive mothers, growing up safe and loved. But he paid too much mind to tales of their time as adventurers, and to Arild's beloved travelogues. He took a little too keenly to Nadine's self defense lessons. He remembered the gleam of his father's lance, even if he insisted he didn’t--he’d seen their disapproving looks when they caught him jumping from the hayloft with a pitchfork, and abandonment had made a naturally quiet, thoughtful child reticent.

But Aden hadn’t forgotten. He grew up obsessed, asking at every opportunity when his mothers might let him join the lancers guild--because this was all that was left to him. In pursuing the spear he could be with the father who had sent him away, in spirit if nothing else. Finally he proved a danger to himself if they denied him any longer, and Aden went to Gridania to pursue his heart’s desire.

From the Sky

In his time with the lancers guild Aden caught the eye of a semi-retired dragoon, Flynt Knoltross, who saw in him a shadow of his younger self and perhaps a chance to make things right. He saw too a familiar face, finally putting truth to the secret Aden had carried for years--his father had been a dragoon, though he had disappeared before Flynt knew him well. Aden pursued his training at a punishing pace, obsession merely growing when the lance offered him a sense of purpose and belonging, a more tangible connection to the place of his birth. Despite the prejudices of his countrymen Aden meant to prove his worth in the spear, never realizing he was repeating the cruel cycle his father had sent him away to break.

Prove himself he did during the end of the war--but politics forestalled his advancement proper to the ranks of the Knights Dragoon the day of. He has instead been classified as a reservist, and done everything from scouting and surveying in dangerous territory, to diplomacy and leading reconnaissance teams during the Alliance offensive in Gyr Abania.

Hooks

Must Love Chocobos

Aden grew up on a chocobo farm, and as such he’s an experienced rider and an expert in caring for them. He loves chocobos, especially his rather possessive and ornery destrier, Keva. He occasionally returns to the farm to help his mothers as they’re getting on in years, and can be found there at times. Whenever Keva is stabled somewhere that the grooms don’t already know him, Aden takes care of Keva himself, and it’s another situation that might be easy to encounter him in.

Knives and Lanterns

Aden is a member of the Wandering Tonberry hunt lodge, and when he’s not busy with his duties to Ishgard he’s often taking care of hunts for them or doing other work that needs doing. He can be found in and around the lodge, or out in the field on hunts. They’re his found family, and he’s very loyal.

Bookworm

Aden is well-read and consumes books at a rapid pace around the rest of his activities. The only time he slows down is when he’s in a bookshop or a library, and he’ll easily lose track of time.

The Wanderer

Aden has wanderlust deep in his soul thanks to Arild’s travelogues, especially after an eye-opening moment on the Azim Steppe. If there’s somewhere strange or wild to explore, he’ll be there.

For the Sky

Aden spends most of his time in service to Ishgard, and those who interact with military elements--particularly with dragoons, military intelligence, or certain sorts of politicians--might have a reason to know him. Being a miqo’te makes him an excellent scout in locations where someone being visibly Ishgardian might be a problem, but it also leaves him open to the prejudices of his countrymen and makes deploying him on any mission of high visibility a political act. Those who have benefited from his service have set events in motion that will soon lead to his promotion into the position and title he should have had for years now, and potentially something truly far-flung and dangerous For the Sky….

But for now he remains a dragoon in everything but name, and on familiar shores.

OOC

Playtime: Weekday evenings and weekend days, schedule RP ahead of time (I don’t do walkup unless I’m at an event). Eastern US time.

FC: Wandering Tonberry Trading Co.

Server: Balmung

Looking for: Friends, adventuring partners, fellow Ishgardians, chocobo fanciers, nerds, travelers, rivals, and enemies.

Tips: Aden is quiet, reserved, and usually very polite. He’s awkward, anxious, and has trouble speaking to strangers (unless he’s working--but how he got that way is a story all its own). Persistence pays off, though what lies beneath is not entirely like what you see on the surface--Aden is driven, passionate, and full of a long-held, slow-burning anger. He’s philosophical and intellectual but a violent adrenaline junkie at the same time. He’s spent a lot of time living inside his own head, observing the outside world and thinking, and a lot of time with his head shoved in a book or alone in the wilderness. He has abandonment issues and struggles with depression and social anxiety. Rather than a fanatic or obedient loyalist, Aden is a warrior-philosopher. He’ll follow orders, sometimes without question, but he’ll seriously challenge his superiors when it’s appropriate to do so. He has a reputation for thinking too much, but still getting the job done. Slice of life isn’t really my thing unless the character is already established as a friend or ally of Aden’s, in which case, sure! I am deeply uninterested in quick romance or uncomplicated relationships. If reading over all of this calls to you in that regard rather than as a friend, contact, or rival, we can talk, but be warned that I have an extremely low tolerance level for bullshit, and Aden is a complicated person who is not here to play house, and will not tolerate someone who cannot keep up with him in the field--whether that be by force of arms or force of aether is irrelevant. He’s grey-ace and homosexual/homoromantic. However, people who are down to get punched in the face for making an advance are always welcome--it could be the start of a beautiful friendship! I’m also very busy IRL, hence being forced to schedule RP in advance. I have a full time job that sometimes requires overtime, a loving partner I’ve been with for 15 years, a house to take care of, two D&D games, part-time work on a friend’s farm, a HUGE extended family, and am an avid outdoorsman. There’s a lot to squeeze in there! If we start RPing, please be patient with me. I will do out of game RP on a rare case by case basis. It used to be my bread and butter, but I’ve discovered as I get busier I’m too unreliable and forcing more realistic expectations on myself as a result.

Contact: Aden Dellebecque or Merrick Lockwood in game; Stormcalled#5187 on discord; or my ask box!

#FFXIV RP #FFXIV #Balmung RP #miqo'te #seeker of the sun #ishgardian #Aden Dellebecque #long post is long

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cognitivecapricorn · 5 years

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A Pre-Sequel? The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

So I’ve watched both the 1980s movie and Age of Resistance.

Maybe it’s because I saw the movie first and then the series, and I know fully aware that the series is supposed to be a prequel, but I purpose that the series is instead a pre-sequel.

So first, what is a pre- sequel?

In laymans terms it’s a sequel that can tell a prequel story

Some examples:

Lion King one and a half

Boarderlands the Pre-Sequel

So in the case of The Dark Crystal, I’ve found evidence that can suggest that Age of Resistance can be a prequel while telling a sequel story that is after the movie.

Spoiler warnings are now ahead if you haven’t watched either...

Disclaimer, I know there are novels as well, but I am only going to focus on the relationship between the 1980s movie and the new series.

Case one, The Ending of The Movie and the Opening to the Series

In the 80s movie it is very much stated that the urRu and the skeksis were once one being but split. When the movie ends, they are joined back as one and the Crystal is restored. They leave the crystal in the care of the Gelflings.

In the intro to AoR it talks about the Gelflings came together to form the great clans and watched over the crystal. It was only until AFTER the Skeksis came that they then turned their loyalty towards them instead of the crystal.

Also in the intro, Mother Aughra has a new laboratory because in the movie her former lab was destroyed when the Skeksis were trying to hunt for Jen. So that only tells me that some time after the crystal was restored, either by the Gelfling or the Skeksis, someone helped her build a new laboratory before she went into that deep sleep into the stars.

So this, to me shows a sequence of events that can flow from the movie to the series instead of the other way around.

Case two, The Heretic & urGoh

In the later episodes of season one, we are introduce to a Skeksis named “The Heretic”, the reason he is dubbed so is because he sided with his urRu counter part. And he tells Rian, Brea, Deet and Hup about the concepts that were the main plot of the 80s movie.

He tells them that the Skeksis and urRu were once one being and talks about the prophecy.

So, here’s the question: How would the Heretic know about those things if this is supposed to took place before the movie?

If you’ve notice, none of the other Skeksis talk about that throughout season one. The only others who bring mention to it are: The Hunter, The Archer, and Mother Aughra.

Since we know Mother Aughra has been around for both instances as well, my mini theory is that when Skeksis and urRu were split again, some of them chose to reject their past and chose to revert back to their former lives as lords of the crystal. Thus when the Heretic didn’t, they expunged him from their ranks, thus earning his namesake. This is also a choice in that, when you compare, all the Skeksis kept their names. It wasn’t a case of- “oh they follow their predecessors likeness” no, they ALL know and they ALL remember what their past was like.

But unlike the Heretic, they chose to reject it.

So, when the Heretic saw the corruption spread, he took the necessary steps to try and “reenact” the prophecy from the movie, with Rian, Deet, and Brea. More specifically, when Brea discovers Lore at the bottom of the castle and they journey to the Circle of the Suns. (Of which I personally think is the ruins of the old castle from the movie, further proving that The Heretic remained and actively remembers what happened from the movie)

Case three, Maudra Argot the Shadow Bender

Ok ok hear me out on this. I know this character doesn’t have a big role to play but she is very interesting in the grand scheme of things.

First, let’s talk about her origins. She is the Maudra of the Grottan clan. They’re the cave dwellers and live among the wildlife of Thra. They are down to earth, humble, and care about Thra arguably the most out of all the clans. They care about the well being of the natural balance and they house one of the Sanctuary Trees.

If you’ve seen the movie as well, you’d know this fits like a glove with none other, than Kira.

So, I purpose that Kira is the founder or at least the ancestor to the Grottan Clan. Also, Argot does something that very well may link her lineage to Kira even more:

Argot can call a landstrider.

It may not seem like a big deal because Vapra domesticated them before. But the difference is that Argot can call a wild one on demand. And she says and I quote “I still remember some tricks from topside!” - Season one episode 9

This stuck out cause for the most part aside from Deet, none of the other Grottan venture to the surface. Argot has apparently.

Also in episode 9, she says that Rian’s father wielded the Dual Glaive and trusted her with half of it after the Arathim Wars.

So this lets us know that:

The Gelfling have been around long enough to wage wars against the Arathim.

The Dual Glaive and the fact a Gelfling is always the one wielding has been a constant in both the series and the movie.

The Heretic must have known that the cycle of the Skeksis lust for power was doomed to repeat itself so he made PREVENTATIVE measures for such an occasion.

Also to throw into the whole Argot mix, look at her full name “The Shadow Bender”.

Now you don’t just give out badass names like that on a whim. She knows far more than what’s been lead on, and possibly did a lot in her prime. Gelfling life expectancy isn’t really expressed in the movie or the series, but if there’s any connection between Kira and Argot, I’d say she could be a very great grand-daughter of some kind.

The parallels seem too coincidental imo.

Counter arguments

As I said, I know the initial intention for AoR is to be a prequel

Dreamfasting being this new concept in the movie between Jen and Kira

Jen and Kira surviving the downfall of their clans

The Scientist creating the Garthim

I get it, don’t worry...

However that doesn’t mean it could also hold some sequel elements while still telling a prequel story. It has been done before in the case of The Godfather Part 2:

Also I want to point out, this is a series that’s driven by the cycle momentum.

Meaning that after X amount of time the cycle repeats itself. Same concept different characters.

You’ve seen this with other series like:

Dark Souls

Avatar the Last Airbender

And many other shows were it involves certain events repeating themselves. Who’s to say that the cycle in the 80s movie is a precursor to the cycle in the series? Maybe it’s vice-versa!

All in all, this is just my thoughts and theories on the relationship between the two.

If you made it this far, thanks for taking some time out to read it I know it’s a lot!

And please, no rude comments thanks!

#Meta talk #Dark Crystal Theory #The Dark Crystal #Dark Crystal Age of Resistance #Long post #Spoiler warnings #Spoilers #Long post tw

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shoeandseok · 5 years

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ATEEZ as Bodyguards Fic: The Element Part 2

Synopsis: You get invited to a nightclub for the first time, but nothing is easy when you need personal security 24/7.

This is part of a Bodyguard AU series, which I recommend you read first for context (if you haven’t already). Thanks!

Part 1, Part 3 (Final)

Being undercover as patrons in a nightclub was a strange experience for the away guard, who were getting familiar with the space before you arrived. Mercifully, the nightclub was on the smaller end and not too dark. It was one level, consisting of a dance floor, a bar, and several nooks for seating.

The away guard spread themselves out, favoring edges of the room so they could see everything that went on. Jongho and Yeosang took the bar, Seonghwa and Wooyoung placed themselves at seating area in one corner, and San lounged on the opposite side, close to the hallway with the bathrooms and emergency exit.

The guard had identified one patron as being especially problematic. He was already drunk and belligerent, bothering other patrons and showing some attitude. San stealthily took a picture of him for the away guard group chat, writing we’ll need to keep an eye on him, could be trouble for the boss.

A minute later, Jongho sent a cryptic message:

I’ll handle him.

Seonghwa was furiously typing about not making a scene when he was elbowed by Wooyoung, who pointed to the bar. Jongho was ordering a drink, something they were not allowed to do on the job. Seonghwa was about to call his junior to ask him what the hell he was doing, but Wooyoung kept telling him to look up. Jongho, a swagger in his step, drink in hand, began zeroing in on the man.

The rest of the guard watched as Jongho bumped into the patron, “accidentally” spilling the drink down his shirt. The patron tried to throw a drunken punch, which Jongho easily avoided. As Jongho toyed with the man, never allowing him to land a hit, Yeosang hurried to the bouncers, who muscled their way in and dragged the guy out. When the bouncers confronted him Jongho played innocent, and since he was sober the bodyguards let him off with only a light warning.

The next message in the group chat was an applause emoji from San.

Mingi had spent the car ride playing pump up songs for you. Yunho was in the back seat with you, and had picked up on your nervous energy. You were constantly fidgeting, adjusting your clothes or your hair or your jewelry. When you arrived Yunho got out and walked around to open your car door.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Is all this too much?” You gestured to yourself. “Maybe I should take off the wig..”

Yunho gently stopped you from retreating back into the car. “You have to be disguised, remember?” You nodded in defeat. “I’m sure they’ll like you, boss.”

Mingi came around from the other side of the car, smiling. “Of course they’ll like you. You don’t pay us to like you, but we do anyways!”

Something about his words stung, but you smiled at his gesture. With Mingi and Yunho flanking you, you headed to the club’s entrance line. It stretched about a block out from the entrance of The Element. Nina waved you down, and the unfamiliar faces of five women turned to look at you. Nina was warm and lovely as ever. She introduced you to the girls, and introduced Mingi and Yunho as your friends.

You could tell the girls were impressed with your two tall companions. Their smiles were too charming to resist. You always thought your away guard was handsome, and it was nice when other people saw that too. Both Mingi and Yunho seemed a little stunned to be surrounded by such glamorous women. To your surprise two of her friends complimented your hair as you waited in line. Yunho caught your eye and gave you a wink.

Immediately on entering The Element you were cloaked in the dim atmosphere, punctuated by neon purple, blue, and pink lights. Once you checked your coats Nina led everyone to the bar, stopping to say hi to her friends along the way.

You looked for the other members of your away guard in the crowd. Subtly all of them acknowledged you with a smile or a nod. For a moment you thought Hongjoong was missing, then you reminded yourself that he wasn’t there.

In your scanning of the room you noticed that you, or more likely the women you were with, were turning the heads of several male patrons. Their awed expressions made you feel a little sexy, and the beat of the music was already tugging you towards the dance floor. You followed the group to the bar, however. The other girls started ordering drinks and you recalled Hongjoong’s second condition.

“Excuse me,” Jongho, smooth as hell, slid next to you at the bar. “My friend,” he pulled a reluctant Yeosang into view, “would like to buy you a drink.” Jongho patted his partner on the back and exited like the perfect wingman.

Yeosang was tense, and weirdly it made a convincing performance. “Uh, what would you like?”

You politely waited to catch a bartender’s attention and placed your order. Yeosang was blanking on something to say. You looked back, Yunho had been talked into buying a drink for one of the girls, it seemed, and Mingi was sadly telling another that he was the designated driver for the night, so he couldn’t do shots with her. You turned back to your quiet guard.

“Have you been here long?” you asked, resting your chin on your hand as you leaned on the bar.

He replied, but you couldn’t hear him. He repeated himself louder “My friend and I came about an hour ago.”

“Oh I see,” you said, smiling conspiratorially. “What do you think of it?”

“It’s crowded,” he told you seriously.

“I’ll be careful to not step on anyone’s toes then,” you responded.

Your drink arrived, and Yeosang paid.

“Cover me,” he mumbled. A little unsure, you leaned forward on the bar, the two of you covering the drink as he pulled out several types of drug testing paper strips. This felt like overkill. His sharp eyes flickered over the papers as he tested each, and eventually he gave you a thumbs up.

“Enjoy your drink. Goodnight.” He left, probably headed to Jongho. You smiled as you put the straw in your mouth. Didn’t men who buy a drink for a woman stay for conversation?

“Who was that?” It was one of Nina’s friends, a petite girl with golden hair.

“Not sure,” you lied.

The girl crossed her arms in thought. After a pause, she commented “He’s cute.”

“I know, right?” you agreed enthusiastically. She gave you an odd look.

After you finished your drinks, it was time to hit the dance floor. In the circle your group formed, Yunho put himself next to you, while Mingi placed himself across the circle to keep an eye on what was happening behind your back. As everyone loosened up you discovered to your absolute delight that Mingi and Yunho were really good dancers. As you danced you watched them, trying to figure out what made them so good at it.

Yunho tapped on your shoulder and motioned for you to look behind you. Your jaw dropped. Wooyoung, who was most definitely wearing leather pants, was dancing a few feet behind you. He smiled when he saw you looking.

In the pulsing lights he looked criminally good, and you were positive he had guyliner on. Then it clicked. Wooyoung, Mingi, and Yunho were all such good dancers because they were confident: confident to be goofy, confident to be sexy, confident to be seen having fun.

He stopped dancing briefly and tried to mouth something. He pointed to himself, then to you, and then pointed at his back. You nodded at his message: I’ve got your back. Happy and safe, you turned back to the girls and let the music take you.

The night turned into a cycle, the group going back and forth from the dance floor to a nook near the bar and back. The others kept drinking. You awkwardly ordered water, soda, or the few snacks they served. When sitting with the girls you had some conversations, but it was hard to follow in the loud club, and sometimes they’d reference stories or inside jokes you didn’t know.

Mingi was actually better at staying in the conversation than you, his friendly nature on full display. In some moments, you’d just hold your soda, sharing a glance and a shrug with Yunho.

He was often checking the group chat, and would occasionally update you on everyone’s tallies for how many times they’ve been asked out while on duty. The guards were on duty, but since they were disguised as patrons in a nightclub, the scores were going up much faster than normal.

The girls stuck together pretty closely for the night, but plenty of other patrons stopped by to make conversation. Many were definitely trying to flirt with Nina and her friends. You got a little irritated by how handsy some of the guys were, freely touching the arms or backs of the girls or trying to pull them into a dance. You were rarely approached, and if one of the men tried to talk with you, you deflected away the conversation. Or you just pretended you couldn’t hear them over the music, that worked too.

Part of you assumed guys weren’t engaging with you because you just weren’t as attractive, but it was more likely that Yunho, tall and broad and always near you, kept anyone from trying.

When you were on the dance floor, either Wooyoung, San, or occasionally Jongho danced in the space behind you. They effectively blocked anyone who wanted to approach. The rest of your guard occasionally changed position, but always were spread enough to have a view on the whole club.

The only times your group split was for trips to the bathrooms. At one point you went to the bathroom with Fatima, who was slim, tall, and had striking dark eyes. She probably was a model, for all you knew. Yunho went with the two of you, aiding you in cutting through the crowd. On the way you passed Yeosang, who seemed to be stuck with a drunk girl trying to talk to him about her ex. You gave him a sympathetic smile.

Yunho waited outside as you and Fatima went in to the bathroom. As the two of you were checking on the state of your makeup, she asked you a question.

“Are you dating Yunho?”

You immediately blushed, waving your hands. “No no no no no, we’re just friends.”

She raised a brow at you. “Really? You don’t like him?”

“No, I like him. I like him a lot, I just don’t like him like that,” you floundered. “I’ve known him for a while.”

Fatima turned back to the mirror, reapplying lipstick. “Well he’s definitely into you. He’s been hovering around you all night.”

That’s because he’s your bodyguard, you thought. This was why going undercover was hard.

Fatima capped her lipstick. “Take it from me: he’s into you, but something is holding him back from telling you.”

“I don’t know about that,” you trailed off. He was paid to be with you, to hover, to attend to you.

“Why don’t you go for him? He’s a catch.” You found yourself agreeing with her, then squashing that thought. He was your employee.

“I might’ve asked him out myself,” she continued, “but I know it’d be pointless.”

Her words rankled you, but you pushed that down. “I’ll think about it,” you ended the discussion.

Yunho, patient as ever, was waiting for you when you stepped out. You didn’t meet his eyes, just saying “Let’s head back.”

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez fanfic #bodyguard!ateez #bodyguard au #ateez fanfiction #hongjoong #seonghwa #san #mingi #yunho #yeosang #wooyoung #jongho #ateez writing #my work

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premakalidasi · 6 years

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The Will, extreme nondual/immanentist practice, initiations, and responsibility. Amma, Shiva, Kali, the medicine of stillness, awareness, witnessing.

The difficult path of taking your life into your own hands, making your own judgements about what's valuable, using your own heart instead of blind dogma as your moral compass, the world as Scripture, being aware of all the tremendous power you have, and then truly manifesting the Divine as the Goddess you are--not just *saying* it but living it, whatever you want to call it, extreme “I Am That”, “Samsara is Nirvana,” “Do What Thou Wilt,” really walking the talk--

You know what that is?

It's fucking terrifying. That's what it is.

And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, especially if they try and sell it as just sitting there peacefully with a smug and radiant smile--that’s not the entire story they’re telling you (or then they’re so out of touch with this world that you’re better off walking away from them very slowly). Or they’re of the sort that’s sitting there happily imagining everything’s an illusion and they’re smiling because they’re so high on that--on the opium of it all being a big play, a big joke (which is fair enough; I like Amma and she’s like that).

But you know what? Opium is a painkiller, and they’re milking their inner poppies exactly because deep inside,

it is all

still

frightening

fuck.

Even Amma’s charity work began from anger at being so appalled at human suffering. And Shiva himself, white as poppy milk, is a painkiller, and I will get to that a bit later. But let me digress here for a bit, since we mentioned self-initiations earlier.

You will be frightened when you realise your full power. Especially--since we were talking about initiations--after having had that power of yours affirmed by an external source, you know you can't pretend you’re an inexperienced idiot any more, can't run away from it all any more. Because when you self-initiate (which *is* legitimate, as is spontaneous enlightenment), it has its own problems. One of the biggest ones being this: exactly because of the “you’re a fraud” crap from outsiders, because of everyone outside of you thinking you’re not *quite* ready anyway, it *can* give you an excuse to fall back on that when the shit hits the fan. If you fuck up, you can lean back on that and lisp “ok, yeah, I guess I wasn’t ready for so-and-so after all. I guess even that big, epic enlightenment experience I had as a kid when staring at the sky, and that spiritual explosion I had that other time when I felt my pulse beating as one with the Earth’s, weren’t somehow enough. Maybe I really do not have enough skill yet.”

Which is bullshit. Those experiences don’t magically become less valid if you fuck up. Which we all do sometimes. You do have the power. It’s not gone anywhere. You’ve always been Divine.

But our minds *love* excuses, and one of the main reasons behind all these passage rites and initiations (hell, all rituals) is exactly because they hit your brain harder when things are made Official. The human brain loves symbols and rituals; animals have rituals. So we work with symbols and rituals because Ug the Cavewoman inside of us all really gets off on a big-ass bonfire. And rites of passage serve to tell you that you’re grown up, now; that it’s time to leave the previous stage of your life behind; to lay down that shit, completely forget about *that* shit, and take this shit, and that shit, and the upcoming shit over there seriously.

Initiation is a part of what teachers are all about: it’s an external person doing the same thing you *could* do yourself, but because they are good at it due to practice and knowledge, and because your funny monkey mind thinks that they’re Special (even though they are the part of the same goddamn Force), it will hit you harder. Just like legal documents are just ink and paper, but once you sign them, everyone’s forced to take them more seriously than had you just said those words out loud. And because we’re all parts of Nature, an initiation is ultimately Nature patting herself on the head: you only *feel* that it’s someone else placing her hand on your head and your funny little monkey mind is ripped open and goes “whoa.”

Funny, ain’t it?

And there are different initiations for different times. These are all different for everyone, depending on your spiritual makeup, personality, whatnot. Some great soul can just snap into Goddess mode just like that; the power just opens up and that’s it. They’re born with the hardware for that software upgrade. But more often than not, what you hear from quite a few interesting people, is that their journey has always been a mix of spontaneous enlightenment (self-initiation), visions, and then someone else giving them teachings, the world itself acting as their teacher once you’ve reached a certain point (it’s all a matter of opening your eyes to it--if Nature is your divinity instead of someone hard to reach high up on a cloud, removed from the world, it’s easy to tune in to that station and listen). There’s also truth to the old cliche that once the student is ready, the master will appear. But in the meantime, there’s no need for despair, because--and I repeat--the knowledge and the gurus and the wisdom are already within your reach, and you just need to open your mind to the possibility that there’s a teaching in everything.

But again, I digress. The point I wish to make here, in the middle of this crazy, crazy neo-conservative culture where people are obsessed with “authenticity” and initiations and authority (and I see a lot of you young people suffering because of it) is that it’s *not* a sign of your unworthiness if you can’t find a physical teacher, let alone afford the journey to see one in a different part of the world, or attend one of those godforsaken 750e ~weekend intensives~. It’s easy to talk about initiations when you live in fucking San Francisco or Boulder or New York or London, or a culture where there are mystics around every corner! But if one knows anything about the nature of the world (I don’t want to say “privilege,” but I am saying “privilege”), one also knows that great teachers don’t grow on trees. As someone who’s lived in very remote areas herself, in incredibly spiritually sparse cultures, I know the reality of how difficult it can be to find even fellow devotees, let alone great teachers. So if you’re living in Bumfuck, Novaya Zemlya, it’s going to be more difficult for you because you’re going to have to go the way of books (please, do read books, old books, pre-2000 books; the Internet is full of really, really poor-quality and watered-down and contaminated “information,”) and learning from friends and family and the world to get your learning and evolve as a person. But that doesn’t mean attaining (or, rather, rediscovering, re-linking yourself to the Divine) is not possible, and there have *always* been individuals who were great souls in the middle of nowhere. It’s just that they lived and died without the world knowing of them, because they lived in jungles, tundras, deserts.

Thankfully, in this day and age of the jet engine, there are amazing teachers who can travel the world (especially Amritanandamayi, to whom I’ll get in a bit, who has embraced 30+ million people and is doing it somewhere right now), but even then, it’s going to be difficult to find the right one. If you’re following a rarer path, especially a world-affirming and sex-positive path, these teachers may not even exist, and there are so many abusers out there in those paths that, especially if you’re female, it’ll actually be safer for you to not go near *any* of those guys. (But just because you have to do it on your own, that’s not an excuse for you to be an egotist, either--rather, it’s a burden, because it will make things even more difficult for you because you have to watch out even harder for your ego. Being different is a quick way to feeling you’re a special snowflake, a great adept who knows The True Way, and the shelves of esoteric bookstores are lined with masturbatory works by people like that.)

On the other hand, the right teacher may well exist, but you’re not ready for them yet. I wasn’t ready for Amma when I was an angry teenager rebelling against all organised religion and a cynical twentysomething who’d seen it all by then; I am still not a fan of the elements in her teachings that are aligned with mainstream Hinduism and I still don’t believe a 4-year-old dying in agony from leukemia deserved it because she cheated on her husband in a past life. But I did not know the level of her universalism, then--I did not know then that she didn’t care if I accepted that or not, but that what I *did* accept--my own path--was the most important thing, and that she would only tell me to dive deeper into that. When I first heard of her, I shrugged it off because I knew how most Hindu gurus, just like most Hindus in general, are pretty conservative and most certainly aren’t fans of Pagans or Tantrics (if that sounds contradictory to those of you who don’t know much about religion on that side of the world, extreme Tantrism is as anti-dogma and as far removed from conservative Hinduism as feminist witchcraft or Satanism are from fundamentalist Pentecostal Christianity. And the worst and most visible types of Tantrics are massive abusive, black-magic-fetishising, conceited, violent assholes way beyond what an American highschooler wanking over childish “left-hand” books can imagine, so Hindus have reasons to dislike them/us). Most Hinduism is focused on escaping the world and the cycle of birth and rebirth, not about venerating it all as the Goddess (only a small handful of Tantric/Bhakti cults and individuals do the latter, and their role is exaggerated in the West). But when I heard from one of her disciples that she had a temple to Kali in her ashram and had done extreme nondual sadhana herself and that she equated Nature with God and sounded like Ramakrishna more than any of the stuck-up gurus, and when I saw just how 100% affirmative she was about everyone being different and that being a *strength,* and how she did *not* force anyone to accept those mainstream Hindu (or any other) ideas about religion, and was--at her core--about only absolute, immanent love, having dedicated herself to supporting every goddamn soul on this planet and not judging them or even thinking about their “sins” but just affirming the divine spark in everyone--was I ready.

Now, Amma gives mantra initiation (mantra diksha) to each and every soul who asks. That’s pretty much the most accessible initiation from a spiritual master (and full-time 24/7 channel of the Goddess) one can get in the world right now. I can’t think of anyone else of that level who does it so universally for everyone on that kind of global scale, regardless of your religion, without imposing hers upon you--*you* choose the deity or the concept you want a mantra for (atheists have asked for a mantra for love or compassion, and so on). She doesn’t want to make you into a Hindu unless that’s your path; she wants to make you go deeper into your own faith/practice. The diksha itself will be over quickly and you’ll be pushed and shoved through the crowd, and it will probably feel like a downer, but you’re nevertheless walking away with a gem. The value of a mantra given by someone who really Gets It, on that Ramakrishna-but-female level of equal vision where she can kiss a leper’s wounds and initiate someone as antinomian and as erotic in her practice as yours truly without a shred of judgement but rather the message “well, go forth and do it *properly,*” can’t be overemphasised.

But, like I said before, there's no turning back after that, so ask yourself if you really *are* ready for that initiaton, whatever form it will take. A guru, or being ravished by a trickster god on the edge of sleep, anyone else. You don’t fuck around anymore after that. Perhaps you’re self-initiated and don’t fuck around either, so that’s good. But just know that whatever it ends up being for you, it will be a big-ass turning point and that even after that, fear is normal. Real initiation, when it happens, will be Huge. Perhaps you’ll only feel it as something subtle at first, but it will be Huge later, trust me.

[Amma being what she is, she half snuck it upon me--I should've realised that this was her way (with me) at mantra diksha already, when I'd asked for what I thought was a handy kitchen work knife and she gave me a fucking chainsaw instead. But it was only two years later, when she bestowed nama diksha (name initiation) upon me (and all kinds of other, unexpected things and life-changing things besides, that same moment, similar to the damned chainsaw thing) that I really had to come to terms with the fact that this was fucking *it.* I could not sit the fuck around any more; that’s why you have this blog. Decades of mostly private devotions were ripped open and even old and fucked-up poems written in the style of self-torturing bhaktas/Sufis wanting to be crushed by the Beloved, poems which I knew people would misinterpret, were poured out as acts of bhakti (but that's another post entirely; either on some spiritual masochism as an offering of one's neuroses to the gods or on how I will never understand how the Tumblr generation/culture can be so obtuse as to forever and always think the author=her works, I haven't decided yet). Besides, I thought I was dying by that point anyway, so I didn't have much time left for faffing about in any case. I suspect the clever bitch might also have given me some extra time on this planet as well, so that I could make the most of it in Kali's service--well, I *had* asked for her to help me become Kali’s instrument, just NOT ON THAT LEVEL, HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK--but that's how these things go with her and myself, it seems. Whether it’s just the hug, or a mantra, or a name, or an answer to a question, she gives you more than you ever think you deserve, and then some. She hugs you but she also punches open your heart if that’s what has to be done, delivers a mighty defibrillator-blast of energy to wake up your own heart-power like a goddamn volcano and then gives you That Look and a conspiratorial smile that's basically all "That's it, kid; you've got it. Now, don’t fuck it up.”]

That realisation, that unveiling of your own power is going to be a bomb going off, blasting you to bits and then glueing you back together with irradiated mutant powers.

And if you *don't* feel awed, afraid about it--if you don't feel "shitshitshit" about it on a regular basis--

--Then I'm afraid you are a narcissistic, egotistical, privileged git who hasn't experienced awareness more than halfway, if that. You are the spiritual equivalent of someone running around with scissors, but unaware that you are doing so. You need to go back. You need to dig into the 101. And only when you’ve shat yourself, can you come back.

True awareness, true power, true understanding of your Divine Self comes with a crushing, devastating responsibility that you feel you can't handle at times--and feeling this is a good sign, because this kind of feeling is not likely to happen without empathy. If you do have empathy, if you truly do understand just how intricately everything in this universe is interconnected and just how human delusions, idiocies and oppressions--especially self-inflicted oppressions--work, you will feel like absolute rubbish and helpless and small.

This is why so many yogis, so many intelligent empaths, so many hypersensitive people are so fucking angry all the time. It's not that they are crap at knowing the Self, crap at knowing Reality. It's that they are all *too* aware of it all, and it stinks.

But it’s what you do with that pain that is the enlightened part, the divine action, the divine embodiment. Awareness is the ignition, suffering is the fuel, your heart is where the combustion takes place, and your body/mind is the vehicle. It's that pain that impels you on, the whip at your back, the tack on the chair that makes you jump up and do something about it all. It is what makes you strive for the ecstasy of love all the harder, for establishing more of that love and that awareness in the world around you; it makes you work until exhaustion to make at least one little corner of this world less of a dark and miserable place.

In fact, you can say pain is the very catalyst of transcendence.

And by transcendence, I always mean the transcendence of human, societal idiocy and the suffering it's caused, not this beautiful world and embodied existence that is the Goddess. People have mistaken suffering, wounds and illness for the entirety of the world and the body for too long; they’ve mistaken human/societal crap for all there is; when in reality, we/the world are much more than that. Even physical pain and death are but opportunities for us to transcend them through analysing how we approach them, and how we could do that more fruitfully; how we could get something even out of these things to make the world less miserable a place. They're nothing but buttons that switch on the turbo mode for your capacity for intense empathy and compassion--for example, a temporary illness limiting your motor abilities making it easier for you to understand people with 24/7 limited mobility.

After you’ve understood that, there’s no excuse.

You have to, as they say, feel the fear and do it anyway.

***

This terror, too, is Kali. She cuts and smashes and chews and rips and tears and stomps away at everything until it's all a bloody, painful mess; but it's all ultimately in the service of liberation, of cleaning things up. She’s the doctor who lances the boil, the surgeon that cuts out the tumours. And at the end of that bloody stampede, the only way out of the pain and confusion that’s the battlefield of existence, the only way out of her drunken, righteous battle-rage is Shiva: pure consciousness, pure witnessing, pure Love offered, waiting for her to join her power with his stillness. In an extreme state of one-pointedness, become but Awareness--symbolised by the erect, ready linga pointing towards her--he awaits until she sits down upon him, lover into womb, babe onto breast, whichever version you prefer--and the world *snaps* back together again, the pieces fit together perfectly again, and there's but the Whole. Nature reels contented, beyond dualisms and permeated with the blissful peace of Awareness; her tongue--rajas, the active principle in the world; action, drive, passion--rolls out to point to her heart, the centre of All.

And it's that dance of chaos and destruction that is the human world, the world of society, and it's *supposed* to feel bloody terrifying if you have a heart; only Love-permeated pure Consciousness can ever anchor us within it, snap us out of it, too, to return us to the Whole. Only stillness, only calmness, only Love given with strength and integrity. Not a neurotic love or a possessive love or an overly self-sacrificing love, but a love that is about wholeness, about equalising, about balance. It’s only apt that it’s symbolised by the phallus because it’s far less vulnerable than the yoni, far more difficult to abuse and to hurt. It’s love that stands on its own, as it were, the Beloved given the freedom to do whatever She wishes with it, taking what she needs, at her own pace, in the way that satisfies her, without hurting herself or him. Revolutionary. In a world where the opposite is the default--women’s and other givers’ and carers’ bodies and souls being abused and exploited in the name of love--it’s an idea worth contemplating, realising, embodying in one’s thought and action. A love that stands on its own and gives without diminishing, without being enslaved, vampirised.

But you can only be that, you can only give that if you are Consciousness and if you are Still and a Witness to the craziness outside--when you start thrusting too hard into things, thinking you’re just trying to love (but are only really satisfying your own desire/ego/dick), you’ll end up hurting the recipient and that’ll trigger a cycle of pain that will end up hurting you too. Only if you can contain yourself, *then* will the energy sit down with you peacefully. And together, now a balanced whole, can you get to work. Only that stillness, only that patience, only that witnessing is the opium that enables even the cripple to walk--Kali the doctor, Shiva the medicine both working hand in hand, linga in yoni, soul in body, consciousness in matter.

***

So, it's not about being not terrified. It's not about never feeling crazy, weak. It's about knowing all that and going ahead anyway because you've got work to do.

There are enlightened, supremely intelligent beings out there who are, in some part of their seemingly serene bodies, absolutely fucking *shitting* themselves and screaming with fear, and/or running amok, absolutely batshit crazy; but it's just that they hold on to the consciousness, the anchor, identify with the Shiva principle so tightly that they seem calm. They may even be in great pain, but the pain is but fuel for them and drives them ever onwards, even with gritted teeth and bloodied feet.

And that's the vast majority of what they call enlightened existence. Not necessarily a state of being permanently blissed out, but one permanent internal scream of

--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--

--and going forth into the world anyway.

#fear #shiva #kali #initiation #nondualism #amma #amritanandamayi #advaita #i guess i am doing sermons now #immanence #tantra #prema kalidasi #sermons

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ginyang98 · 6 years

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Duck Avatar AU Chapter 1

Ok, now I accept I am crazy, but I really loved this AU.

Also, really thanks to @adamarinayu forhelping me with the translation <3

Chapter 1: Burning the ship.

When the triplets hatched, there was no one caring for them. There was only a single lamp above them to keep them warm, protecting them from the frozen wind of the South Pole awaiting them outside. Naked with yellow feathers and with no one there to care for them, one by one, with only a few seconds between, they broke through their shells and left that safe place to enter this world alone. But even though an act as beautiful as birth, especially that of triplets, becomes sad with no one there to hold them and keep them warm, there is still something even sadder; Death. In the moment the ducklings were breaking through their shells, elsewhere with the strike of lightning and upon the glass-strewn ground, before his best friend’s very eyes an important public figure died. But what was special about this person? The fallen one was the avatar, the only person capable of mastering all four elements. And what does this have to do with the birth of these ducklings? One of those newborns was his successor.

A duck entered the room where three little ducklings were sleeping together in the large cradle they shared. One of them was wide awake, moving around in the crib despite being wrapped in a blue blanket. The elder watched him and only smiled, and he took the duckling in his arms. He began to sing a lullaby, trying to soften his hoarse, harsh and sharp voice so that he could lull the little one to sleep. When the child started to yawn, the duck lowered him back into the cradle and wrapped him back in his blankets. “I wish your mother was here. SheShe would be so proud of you ... You are growing very strong,” the older one smiled, and he gave each of them a kiss on the head: first the one who was wrapped in a red blanket, who yawned softly as he shifted; then the one with the blue blanket, whose eyes were half-closed as he fell back into Morpheus's arms; and lastly the one with the green blanket, who smiled a little, revealing small dimples in his cheeks. “... Why do they look so much like you…?” As he walked away, tears gathered in his eyes. He was not their father, he was just a relative who would take care of them from then on. Uncle Donald ...

Donald wrote letters every day. He repeated them but he always ended up burning them all in scorching fire. What did they say? Nobody knew, but it was for someone important. For whom?… The only thing anyone really knew was that he began writing them after his nephews hatched. The nephews were normal children, or at least they looked like they were. The three of them were special, but it first showed up in the eldest triplet. Do you know the legends of this world? There are people who are able to control a natural element: water, earth, fire, air ... The eldest brother had manifested the ability to control water at six years old. For this reason, he helped his uncle with some domestic tasks that included the use of the skill. However he hadn’t really trained his ability, at least not until he became a part of the "Boy Scoutz: the Junior Woodchuck" group. Louie also developed this ability a year later, but more vaguely than his eldest brother. In truth, every time Dewey or Huey started to bother him when they were out of the house, small cracks formed in the ice at his feet, but they went unnoticed. At least they did until one day, when Dewey was being bothersome, Louie threw a blow and accidentally made the ground crack, causing them both to fall into the water below. And Dewey ... Well, we'll talk about Dewey a little bit later.

The letters never stopped- he wrote them and always burned them- but they did decrease in number. At first there were five letters, but in the end there was only one with five names in it. Burned in the fire, his words became smoke.

“Listen to me all! A story for dinner time!” shouted an old dog with large ears, dressed in the typical fashion of the Water Nation, though his clothes looked very worn. His eyes looked crazy, but the inhabitants sat around the fire to hear him speak, as if he were the wisest of them all. “Hey, Huey, do you really think those clothes keep him warm?” asked one of the children around the fire, chuckling. This child was a duck, and he was sitting in between two others who, curiously, looked very similar to him. The only thing that differentiated them were the feathers on their forehead. “Yes, they do, Dewey,” answered Huey, a boy with a small winter red cap, contrasting completely with the blue suits worn by the populace. “We, the Junior Woodchucks, made those thermal clothes so that old Jenkins doesn’t die of the cold.” With a call from the eldest of the family of ducks, who wore a sailor’s hat, the two little ducks fell silent. Thus, the story began: stories of the different "avatars" of the world: about the avatar Felix and how he accidentally caused a small fight between spirits and mortals, about the avatar Julius who was one of the most violent and died in the spirit world, of the avatar Walt who was the first of them all, of the avatar Pattience who was the first woman and who gave the official order to learn the elements, about more avatars, about the spirits, about the white lotus and how these together with the great spirit master Yen Sid maintain the balance of the world... But the one who he spoke of the most was the avatar Mickey and his team, to the disgrace of Donald.

The old man in town knew who Donald Duck was. Or rather, what he had been. He told stories of epic battles, about the great waterbender he was, about the most powerful avatar up to that point, about a warrior from the Earth Kingdom, about a reporter from that same nation, about the princess of the Fire Nation, and the last female airbender in the world. He told of the great team they were, the "avatar team" as they called them: Mickey Mouse, a benevolent and childish young man who kept at bay a growing war until his imminent death at the hands of someone who is currently in prison. Donald did not like to hear this, but he always ended up listening to the old man for his nephews: Huey, Dewey and Louie. Especially for the middle one, who seemed to be even more excited than the other two about the stories each day. Donald never denied having done such feats, but he never confirmed it either. What has happened to this poor man to only be present for his nephews and not for himself? ...

“Imagine that the avatar is in our tribe! Just imagine that!” Dewey said to his brothers excitedly, raising his arms and pretending to do the motions that the old storyteller made when relating historical events. “It would be great to meet the avatar. I mean, that guy is a celebrity since his birth…” the third child who, until now, had not spoken, smiled, and amusedly tried to imitate the one with the wild hair, pulling from the ground a small, inconstant flow of water that floated around him, which due to little experience fell back to the ground without warning. He let out a small, disappointed sigh. “Well yes, Louie. It would be pretty cool... but I do not think he'll show up again. According to the old Jenkins and the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, it's been seven years without an avatar and he was supposed to be born among the air nomads but…” the eldest of the triplets gave a grin, remembering the old man's words saying that the cycle was broken since there were no more air nomads in the world. Or well, there was one but this guy didn't have kids. “Oh, come on. All this is a matter of magic and those things, right?” said the youngest of the three, draping his arms around his brothers’ shoulders from behind, looking from one to the other. “I mean, you have that weird magic too.” “It's called Waterbending and it's not about magic. It has to do with energy and our brains,” Huey scolded Louie, annoyed. “And you’re also a waterbender, I'm not the only one!” “Magic, energy, whatever.” Louie raised both eyebrows, smirking in amusement. “The avatar has to exist! ... yet…” Dewey said, looking thoughtful, before he finally smiled towards his two brothers confidently. “I know it. I mean, he could not disappear just like that.” “Oh, yeah? And how do you know, dear Dewford?” Huey raised both eyebrows as a challenge, jokingly. “... Maybe intuition? I don't know.” “Maybe you are the avatar!” Louie said mockingly, giving a little push to the elder, who did not hesitate to push back. “Boys, stop talking, please,” their uncle said, turning to look at them with irritation. “Yes uncle Donald…” The triplets chorused.

Years passed. Donald raised them, burned letters, trained in secret to not forget anything he knew... and in the meantime, the boys played, studied and were protected by the eldest of the house. Typical in a small and broken but good family... One day, however, that protection turned into overprotection, as just a month after Louie’s ability made itself known Dewey’s own revealed itself. But it was not water. It was air.

That day Donald wrote letters again, two to be exact. One was addressed to four people, and the fifth was going to only one person. Who…? But these... He did not burn them.

Donald's nervousness increased, and he had the three locked in the house most of the time. Huey was no longer allowed to be part of the woodchucks, Louie couldn't get along with the other children in the town, and Donald never took his eyes off of Dewey. He had even forbidden the use of airbending in public. Although in the beginning this bothered the children a lot, they managed to survive their paranoid uncle for three long years. Sometimes they even ran away from home to have fun outside, and although he always found them, they remembered those moments of freedom with joy. They really did not understand the current danger ... At least Dewey, who was the most daring of the three, did not understand. The moment came when their uncle locked them up when he had to leave. This was the moment Huey realized why his uncle was so paranoid.

“Water, earth, fire, air. When we were little the old man of the town told stories about a person, born every so often between each nation, who could control the four elements they called "the avatar". He told how the last avatar maintained peace throughout his time until he died due to the betrayal of one of his relatives and that, due to this, a war was about to begin. I also heard the stories, told by that crazy man, of how the avatar had had a group of companions in which my uncle Donald was listed as a great waterbender and sailor. I personally did not believe these stories and I was skeptical. Seeing is believing. We all knew that the next avatar was among the air nomads, but according to the old man there was only one, who didn’t practice the air nomad habits, and, according to him, had no children... Strangely, my younger brother, Dewey, was an airbender. Uncle Donald, after my brother showed his power, did not let us out of home. Would he be the Avatar…? No, I really do not believe, it's just coincidence ... It has to be coincidence.”

The situation of confinement worsened with the passage of time, to such an extent that Donald no longer allowed them to even help him clean up at home, as if he thought that they would escape or something. Unconsciously, this caused fights among the children: Louie blamed Dewey for the situation, Huey was not a great mediator and only took care to make sure they did not get hurt from the blows, Dewey blames the other two for doing nothing against Uncle Donald, Huey yelled a lot at both of them (especially to Dewey because the child is too reckless)... it was just a disaster. One day, when one of these fights occurred, the brothers were in the kitchen. Louie boredly watched as Dewey tried to create a swirl of air in his hands, another good excuse to get into trouble. “Leave that, you'll never make it,” Louie said mockingly, leaning his elbows on the kitchen counter and his head on the palms of his hands. “Do you want to try?” Dewey glared at Louie, crossing his arms. “... No thanks. I'm not an air person, you know…” He turned to a small glass of water, trying to move the water without success. “... Meh, one day I'll get it…” “You know you have to practice, right?” Huey asked, and with a single motion he lifted the water from the glass and put it back into it. “Stop doing that, kids!” Donald's scream was heard from the top floor. “I do not want you to get hurt or something!” Louie leaned on the bar, face down, in frustration. Dewey grimaced. Huey just sighed in resignation... “This is impossible…” said the middle brother. “You said it,” Louie’s voice, muffled by the large jacket he wore, grumbled out an agreement. “We'll find something to have fun. We always do…” said the eldest, trying to encourage the other two. And so, Dewey just started hitting the bar like it was a drum. What? He was bored. It did not cause Louie to flinch, nor did he lift his head from its place on the counter. Huey, on the other hand, did react, and he raised an eyebrow questioningly at his brother. “Excuse me, but what are you doing?” “Rhythm…?” Dewey answered, and he continued to beat lightly on the counter without noticing that each tap left a small black spot on the wooden bar. “I'm bored.” “Eh... Dewey…” Huey, noticing those little marks, tried to make his brother stop. A second blow on one of them generated smoke, but the kid with ruffled hair did not flinch even a little. Huey kept trying to make Dewey stop, but as if believing it was a challenge the younger kept on even stronger. Annoyed, Louie looked up to try to make them shut up for once, but felt a strong blow to his right arm, on the sleeve of the jacket, and stared at it in shock. After a few seconds watching a small incandescent light on the garment he finally screamed. After him was Huey, and in the end Dewey shouted.

Donald heard the cries of the triplets and, surprised, he ran awkwardly down the stairs. What was found was something unpleasant; his kitchen was on fire. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” With nothing more to think about, he grabbed them one by one and took them out of the house while the flames swept across each and every piece of furniture, through every room. And in the distance, the family watched the flames destroy their home. “... Now… eh… Pay me, Dewey…” Louie, freezing without his large jacket, just stretched his arm to Dewey, waiting for something. Dewey, without even looking at his brother, just took out of his pocket a pack of dry meat and a few coins and gave them to Louie. “I can’t believe you were right…” Dewey just whispered, with shock written in his face.

“I didn’t wanted to believe, but THAT day arrived. The day that Dewey accidentally burned our home down with his hands, since he actually controlled the air. My uncle Donald went into such a great panic that he took us out of town a few hours after that, in a boat that he says he bought. I could see the terror in his eyes and I did not know why, but I was also very afraid. The avatar was born again, and it was my brother... What could be worse than this?”

First chapter.

OKEEEEY NOW THIS IS IT!!! I wish you like it... eh. I’m going to feel free to tagg a few people...

@donaldtheduckdad @squorkal @colutm @miilkyprism @tricia-morvill@heythatsdeep @tiaradrawsnotthatgreat @cartoonfan7 I wish you like this guys!

Again, thanks @adamarinayu for helping me at the translation!!! <3

#duck avatar Au #ducktales #ducktales au #disney au #fanfiction #mickey mouse #donald duck #Huey Dewey and Louie #dewey duck #Louie Duck #Huey Duck #avatar au

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khorazir · 7 years

Text

A cartographic plot

The first part of this was written for Spark. I went a bit over the wordcount while talking about the importance of places in my fanfics, and decided to post the entire thing here on tumblr. The bit published in Spark is above, the rest below the cut.

I started writing BBC Sherlock fanfiction in the back of my parents’ car after a week spent cycling in the French Alps. For years, my father had talked about tackling the Col du Galibier, a pass of Tour de France fame, by bicycle. In the summer of 2012, we finally did it. Ah, but Sherlock and cycling? Where’s the connection? When I began writing the story, scribbling on whatever scrap of paper was available in the car, at first the only connection was that I loved both Sherlock and cycling, and that my recent experiences in the mountains, spending hours in the saddle arduously ascending winding roads, had made a deep impression on me. I was desperate for an outlet for my pent up inspiration.

Eventually, what started out as a cracky premise for a Post-Reichenbach Sherlock story became Over Hill and Under Hill, a fanfic of 75k words and the first finished instalment of my Over/Under series. In the story, the extreme, beautiful landscape of Savoyen serves as a backdrop for the Baker Street boys to deal with the fallout of the Fall (written before Series 3 aired, my version of Sherlock’s reunion with John is different from canon) and their feelings for each other while basically doing what I had just done: climbing Alpine passes on their bicycles. At some point, a case creeps into the story, too, which Sherlock solves from abroad.

Apart from telling my version of the reunion, I wanted to write a story about grandiose nature, the hardship of ascending two thousand metres of altitude on a bicycle, the elation of standing on top of the pass glancing over the mountains, and the rush of adrenaline during the steep descents. I yearned to include some of the strange people we’d met on the way and who return as minor characters in the story, such as the chap cycling all the way in tight black swimming trunks and nothing else. How fortunate for the storyteller that the long ascents give John and Sherlock time to think and to talk, while the descents make their adrenaline junkies’ hearts soar. They have to share a room and a double bed at the hotel, of course, which leads to ... things. The plot itself is structured by the landscape, almost following the roads they cycle on bend for bend and landmark for landmark. Weather conditions such as hot, relentless sun and a sudden thunderstorm add a touch of drama. Stops along the way provide incentives for reflections, conversations and realisations, and for the boys getting to know each other again after their separation.

I was surprised by how well it worked to transfer these very urban characters so closely associated with London into this new setting and unfamiliar activity, keeping their essence (hopefully) while letting the landscape and its particular blend of beauty and danger work its magic, moulding the two men into the couple they hadn’t realised they’d been all along.

Looking back, the way Over Hill and Under Hill came about shouldn’t have surprised me. Of the books and stories I grew up with, and which have left a lasting impression on me, most have a very specific setting and precise sense of place. Be it the stories by Astrid Lindgren, mostly set in the Swedish region of Småland during the time of her childhood in the early 20th century, or Vasapark and the small islands around Stockholm of her adult life, or Otfried Preußler’s masterful descriptions of the Lausitz region in Eastern Germany where his captivating novel Krabat is set. Or be it JRR Tolkien, the master of making the fictional yet reality-grounded landscape of Middle-earth absolutely integral to the plot and structure of his writings. Even if many believe Middle-earth to be found in New Zealand, based on Peter Jackson’s film adaptations, the true inspiration for the Shire are Tolkien’s beloved West Midlands. The hemlock glade where Beren sees Lúthien dance for the first time in The Silmarillion is based on a similar glade near Great Haywood Tolkien watched his wife dance. And the gruesome Dead Marshes on the borders of Mordor Tolkien experienced himself on the war-torn battlefields of the Somme. I think it’s safe to claim that the landscapes that he encountered as a child and young man seeped into his writings, in many cases becoming not just interesting tableaux to add colour to the stories, but important tools to provide characterisation, suspense, and poignant reminders of the preciousness of the natural world.

For me, the spatial setting of a story and its detailed description have always been an important requirement for my enjoyment of a tale. The “willing suspension of disbelief”, to quote Tolkien, works best for me when the setting of a story is as detailed and well observed as possible, grounded in physical laws and restrictions as well as the distinctive laws of the story. Weather, vegetation, distances, languages and the effects they have on the characters have to be realistic – both when existing and imagined places are described –, otherwise I’m quickly pulled out of the narrative and lose interest (by the way, this is one of my major gripes with “The Final Problem”: the way it sets at naught many of the basic “laws” established in previous episodes of Sherlock). Hints at local customs and peculiarities add colour, depth and believability to a setting, providing the characters with material to rub against and to engage with, to test their limits and limitations.

For me as an author (and illustrator), researching locations for fanfics or art is part of the enjoyment of writing, especially when it can be linked with visits to said locations (my excuse for frequent trips to the UK – I’m based in Germany). I’m a stickler for detail born out of a profound interest in the natural world, in botany, eco-systems, geology and geography, but also in the way historic events shape and influence landscape and its inhabitants. All these aspects I need to see reflected in fiction, and rendered faithfully, or else I can’t take a setting seriously, not the characters and their motivations. Most of the fanfics I’ve enjoyed so far have a very strong sense of place, be it London, Edinburgh, New York, Continental Europe, the Near East or the English countryside. In my own stories, I try to emulate this, preferring to write about places I’ve come to know through repeated visits and extensive literary and online research, as well as correspondence with locals.

Researching my WW2/codebreaker AU Enigma constitutes a special challenge in this respect, because it not only requires me to gather information about existing locations like Bletchley Park, Kent or London, but also wartime Britain in general, removed not just by space but by more than seventy intervening years. Although the internet is a brilliant tool for research, while trying to find out more about the history of the Enigma locations, visits have brought the places to life for me, particularly Bletchley Park. The venue has been transformed into a commendable museum that seeks to recreate the atmosphere of it’s hay-day as a secret codebreaker base through reconstructed huts and historical installations, as well as information about important figures such as Alan Turing, and live demonstrations of his inventions. Interestingly, at the museum, I even found factual confirmation of what I had considered an invention for my story. When it came to locating Sherlock’s and John’s billet in Bletchley in 1941, Google Maps was of limited help: most of Bletchley was built after the war – it’s now part of Milton Keynes –, and from the map, it was almost impossible to tell which parts of it would have existed during the war and which were built afterwards. Old maps or arial photographs were scarce. So I used a bit of deductive reasoning and common sense, basically looking at the main roads leading in and out of town and assuming that they would have been built first. On a whim, I chose one of those thoroughfares, Buckingham Road, and placed the billet there. And lo and behold, during a subsequent visit to the Bletchley Park Museum, I found a photograph depicting billets of the park’s staff situated on the very road.

Lucky coincidences aside, nothing beats a visit to a location one wants to write about. However sometimes, due to constraints of time or money, visits aren’t possible and research from afar has to suffice. I worked like that when I started writing The Summer Boy. I’d been toying with the idea of a story partially set in Sherlock’s childhood for a long while. 1980s nostalgia played a part since I was a child during that decade as well, as did the desire to get to know the character better and to speculate what made him the man we encounter in the show, after glimpses of his past shown in Series 3.

However, a fitting setting for my story to unfold long eluded me. I was striving for an atmosphere similar to that of one of my all-time favourite films, “Stand By Me”, a bitter-sweet yet authentic depiction of childhood with a strong sense of spatial setting. I wanted the location to be a rural one, preferably close to London, with a distinctive landscape and somewhat fragile eco-system, the partial destruction of which would feature in the story to symbolise a place Sherlock could not really return to, but that offered him the chance of “growing up“ and finding an alternative retreat through his developing relationship with John.

Given the canonical links Sherlock Holmes has with Sussex, I began looking for potential locations along the Sussex coast and in the South Downs. I didn’t just want to invent a village or landmark, but wanted the story that was going to contain mythical and supernatural elements (based on how it’s interpreted, at least), to be set in a real place. The landscape and particular vegetation of the chalky downlands were going to play an important part in the story. And remember: stickler for detail. The plants, animals and historical sites Sherlock encounters had to be correct. So I researched the South Downs and their particular chalk-based vegetation, read up on South Down sheep, about Bronze and Iron Age settlements and their remains, and about the myths and legends of the area. I found striking similarities to Terry Pratchett’s masterful depiction of the Chalk in his Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men and its four sequels), which is doubtlessly based on the chalky Wiltshire Downs he lived on. The link to Pratchett, his blend of real, meticulously observed, and fantastical elements based on myths and local culture (which are again inspired by the landscapes they originated in) seemed a good foil for my own story, which grew to contain lots of references to his works. I even partly modelled some of the characters on figures from his series of books.

Still, the dilemma remained to find a concrete place, preferably one featuring an ancient site or landmark such as a hill-fort or a barrow that would function as a focal place for young Sherlock to discover and to spend time at with the mysterious friend he encounters there, and who seems to be a personification of the South Downs, and of summer. By chance (and Google Image Search), I stumbled across a place called Chanctonbury Ring, a henge of trees planted in the 18th century on an Iron Age hill-fort. The South Downs Way leads past it, it commands a good view all around. Sheep graze there in summer, and on the grassy and partly wooded slopes surrounding it many rare plants grow. It’s in walking distance of a quaint village (Washington), which I could use as a base for Sherlock to be accommodated at with relatives. And what ultimately made Chanctonbury Ring the perfect location for my story was the fact that during the Great Storm of 1987, the trees of the henge were almost completely destroyed. I had wanted to set the story in that very year, because I imagine BBC Sherlock’s age to be around Benedict’s and my own (we are only seven months apart), which would make Sherlock around nine in the story, pre-pubescent. Perfect. His fake gravestone from TRF even says 1977, so that fit. And we all know what’s said about coincidences and lazy universes ...

So, perfect spatial and temporal setting found, I still faced the sad fact that I hadn’t actually visited Chanctonbury Ring, nor could see any chance of getting there soon. Nevertheless, the story demanded to be written. Consulting Google Maps as well as photographs helped to get an idea of the place. I looked at similar places in my home country across the Channel. Thus equipped, I started writing (the muse wouldn’t suffer any delay and kept pestering me until I relented), in the hope to actually be able to visit Chanctonbury Ring before I had come too far, enabling me to revise potential mistakes.

Eventually, when the story was already half written, and during the wrong season of the year (the story is set in the summer, I went in December), I visited Chanctonbury Ring. I was pleased to find that my descriptions of the landscape were surprisingly accurate based on what research I’d done, although the visit did add a feeling for the place that hopefully enabled me to make the latter chapters more poignant.

Arguably the most important location for writing Sherlock fanfic is London, a place I’ve become very familiar with in recent years due to frequent visits with long walks and a full timetable of museums, exhibitions, galleries and cultural events, lots of reading about the history of the city, a strong interest in current events, and constant curiosity that lets me explore places off the beaten tracks.

London was one of my favourite places even before I my obsession with BBC Sherlock happened. Actually, I’m convinced the way London is portrayed in the series is one of the main reasons Sherlock struck such a chord with me. Apart from the humour, the obvious chemistry of the protagonists, the cleverness of the dialogues and the overall aesthetics, it was the way modern London was depicted and made an integral character that fascinated me so much about the show. Despite large parts of Sherlock being filmed in Cardiff and elsewhere, they nevertheless feel like parts of the British capital just off the main tourist tracks. Sherlock’s London is both familiar and strange, ugly and beautiful, dark and bright, historic and modern. The character’s particular way of focussing on seemingly unimportant details is reflected in the cinematography. The choice of unusual settings and locations such as Speedy’s Café, Battersea Power Station, the streets of Soho, Leinster Garden, a disused Tube station and the banks of the Thames add atmosphere and colour, making London a living, breathing character in the show – as it was in the original Conan Doyle stories. Occasionally, a touch of Victoriana, ever present even in modern London, creeps into the series, linking it back to the stories it’s based on. Sherlock has definitely rekindled my love of London, or rather, has fanned the already existing embers into hot flames. In the sequels to Over Hill and Under Hill, and several of my other Sherlock fanfics, I’ve tried to honour this tradition by including curious locations in, and little-known minutiae about London to make it come to life as an integral part of the narration, and also to create credibility for the setting.

I have plans to dive even deeper into London past and present. For about a year and half I’ve been working on a Sherlock/London graphic novel in which the location becomes centre point. The story is simple: to alleviate boredom, on his birthday, Sherlock is sent on a “treasure hunt” through London, moving from riddle to riddle and clue to clue set, from one little known location to the next, discovering facts and anecdotes about what he visits in the process. The idea for the book was born out of my many walks through London, along the South Bank, through the City on Sunday mornings when it’s like a ghost town, deserted, along the Regent’s Canal to Camden and on to Hampstead Heath, through the East End and the West End, Chinatown, Soho, Bloomsbury, through Chelsea and Kensington, and further out to the Docklands and Greenwich. I’ve discovered real gems through these walks, some of which Sherlock is going to visit as well – as many as I can realistically squeeze into twenty-four hours without completely exhausting the poor man.

The project is going to occupy me for a good while yet. Also planned are two sequels to The Summer Boy. One is based on a painting I did for the Holmestice Exchange and which depicts John and Sherlock in a disused Tube station. There was some clamouring for a story based on the image, so I’m going to oblige. Since the Tube is such an integral part of London and I’ve long been fascinated with its history, I look forward to researching it.

The second sequel is going to be set in the Lake District. Some of the research for this new story has already been done, and another visit to the area has been booked for the autumn. I haven’t really thought of a plot for the story yet, some vague ideas aside, but I’m very sure that the landscape of Cumbria will provide it once I’m there. A cartographic plot, as usual.

#sherlock #fanfic #spark #enigma #summer boy #over hill and under hill #over/under #sherlock graphic novel #tolkien #jrr tolkien

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matau-the-228th · 7 years

Text

Mahianō: A G2 Story

Part 5: Underground

The first thing Whenua noticed when stepping off the Government Transport was that the Earth Sector’s pleasantly quiet atmosphere had been replaced with a subtle echoing buzz. Chatter mostly. About him. The worst kind

The Escort had left him in an unfamiliar part of the caverns, probably far away from the Archives. The few civilians he saw talking seemed nice. Asking them for directions shouldn’t be too hard.

“I heard one of the Toa is coming here!” An orange-and grey one said.

The brown-and-silver one nearly spit his drink out. “What? A Toa? Here?”

A sigh came from the purple-and-black one. “No way Dosne, they’re all too busy up in the City Center to bother with...”

She trailed off as she turned to see what her friends were staring at. Whenua loomed over the group, looking very... out of place.

“Uh... sorry to interrupt...” Whenua spoke softly, “Would you, um, happen to know the way to the Archives?”

The brown-and-silver Tekoan seemed to try and hide behind the purple-and-black one. Ignoring her friend, she stepped forwards toward the looming Toa, looking him straight in the eyes.

Her voice betrayed her seemingly brave demeanor . “Y-you’re going to need to leave by the south exit, then go east. If you see the-uh, old iron mine, you’re going the right way.”

Whenua timidly smiled. “Thank you... uh, I’m kinda... new to this. I need all the help I can get...” He was about to get on his way when the purple-and-black one shot out her hand.

“Name’s Komu.”

Whenua paused awkwardly, looking dumbfounded at her hand. She gestured again, sticking her hand out further. Gingerly, he took her small hand in his giant one, and shook it carefully. “I-i’m Whenua.”

“Then good luck, Toa Whenua. May the Spirits of Virtue continue to guide you.”

As He began his journey to the Archives, he heard Komu exhale and begin talking with slow excitement to her friends.

Whenua stared up at the entrance to the Archives. Home, at last. He hoped. It had apparently been at least a cycle since he last stepped foot into the Archives. Maybe he could get back to his old job... no, no.

He’s a Toa now, and that brings new responsibilities. Like protecting those in his sector. All three thousand metra of it.

Whenua suddenly felt severely overwhelmed.

“You’ve been standing there a while. Would you like to come in?”

The voice of the Archives Head of Staff jolted Whenua out of his trance.

“Nohui, sir!” Whenua smiled, reflexively standing up straight, making the height difference between the two all the more apparent.

The old man gently laughed, shaking his head. “Now, now, you don’t have to do that anymore, Whenua,” Nohui patted the Toa of Earth on the back, ushering him inside. “You’re a Toa now. I should be calling you sir!”

Whenua felt the organics in his face flush. “Oh, uh, n-not really, um... sir. I-ah, kinda like the way we’ve always talked.”

“I see disappearing for three cycles and becoming a Toa hasn’t changed your personality. Good on you.” The Head of Staff tapped one of the suspended animation canisters, observing the small ghekula toads hopping around inside. “It feels like the Archives started to go downhill the day you disappeared. A lot of things did, actually. Oh, uh, would you mind?” He gestured to the canister.

Whenua obliged, picking up the Tekoan-sized canister with ease, and looked around for the proper chamber to set it in. “Where should I...?”

“Oh, anywhere out of the way will do. We’re going to set these specimens free. The stasis fields are starting to fail in this model.” Nohui beamed with pride. “My son, actually, is helping develop the next version!”

Whenua set the canister down with a soft, familiar thunk. “How is Nuhrii doing, anyway? ...Other than his new job, I mean?” He absent-mindedly picked up another canister, and started organizing the stack.

Nohui chuckled. “Oh, you know, he may wear my old mask, but he’s still as fiery as his mother. Quite literally, almost. Had a nice mask-making job for a while. Didn’t hold that for long, let me tell you.” He sighed, looking off down the tunnel. “You two should catch up yourself sometime. He hasn’t seen you since you got a job here...”

Whenua smiled. “I miss the days we would play in the old mining complex,” He placed the last canister in its place. “There. That should be good for a while.”

The Head of Staff put on a mock expression of anger. “You shouldn’t have done that, you’re a guest here!” He couldn’t keep the face, however, and started to laugh. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

“It...it was day before yesterday last time I did this. For me, at least,” Whenua spoke slowly, “I don’t know how I lost so much time...”

Nohui quickly stopped laughing and looked at Whenua, studying his sullen expression. After a long silence, Nohui spoke, a warm smile on his face. “You’re always welcome to come back and work here, you know. On your days off from being a Toa, of course. I’ll pay you.”

Whenua seemed to cheer up a bit. “I guess doing something familiar every so often would be nice. But are you sure? I mean-”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll work it out somehow,” His old boss interrupted. “Besides, you’re an employee-turned-Toa, obviously you’ll get some benefi-”

Nohui’s words were cut short by a loud rumbling from somewhere in the cavern. Instinctively, the two of them rushed under the reinforced supports, bracing themselves for falling debris.

Whenua silently counted to five. They should be safe. An automated voice came over the speakers.“Cave-in in section D-16. Repeat: Cave-in in section D-16 . Please stay clear until rescue crews arrive.” The intercom beeped twice, then continued to repeat.

“They might not get there in time.” Whenua looked to Nohui. “Are you alright here?”

The old man sat down, taking care to not strain his knees. “This place is well-reinforced. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Go on.”

Whenua took off as fast as he could.

Nohui smiled and turned to the ghekula toads. “He’s going to do great things, let me tell you.”

“D-16. D-16. D-16. D...16!” Whenua turned sharply, his shoulders grazing the narrow passage. The cave-in was quite severe. The entire back half of the housing section was covered with rocks and earth. Whenua could see multiple people just barely trapped under the rubble.

Whenua wasted no time, using his strength to move the boulders and broken houses, making a path towards the back of the cavern. Others rushed in to those trapped around him, pulling them free as soon as he had cleared the debris. Two... six...nine... Whenua counted to himself as each person was rescued. He ignored his sore muscles. He couldn’t stop, not until everyone was rescued.

“How many?” He yelled out above the commotion. He was quickly overwhelmed by people calling out for their missing family and friends.

“My brother!”

“Mama!”

“Yelu and Teinak!”

“How many people?” Whenua yelled out again, still pulling stones away.

“About thirty of us!” Whenua looked to his side, seeing Dosne, one of the Tekoans from before, trapped under a crushed building next to him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out!” Whenua moved to push the debris off, but was stopped.

“I’m fine! Komu and Ahkmou were behind me when the cave collapsed! They’re back there!” He pointed to a boulder, larger than Whenua himself. “Help them first!”

Whenua nodded, placed his hands firmly on the boulder and pushed, straining against its immense weight. If only he knew how to use his elemental powers like Onewa....

Looking quickly over it, Whenua recognized the blotches of silver-blue on the rock face. The boulder was a dense metal ore. Usually they would have to bring in heavy machinery just to move this thing an inch. But they didn’t have time. If the boulder wasn’t going to move. ... he’ll just have to break it. Whenua took out the thumper tool he had taken from the forge room, and strapped it to his smaller arm.

He braced his larger hand against the rock and punched, using the thumper’s chisel-like head to strike the boulder.

Thunk.

Whenua could barely see the grey mark left on the stone’s surface. Hardly chipped, he thought to himself. Not good enough. Again.

Thunk!

The rock broke a little more. Still not good enough. Again!

Thunk!

Again! As the Toa pulled back to punch, his thumper tool rumbled to life, a strange purple glow emanating from its core. Whenua, not seeming to notice, struck the boulder again. The purple glow spread from the thumper to the boulder, making a fleeting pattern across it’s surface.

With barely a whisper, the rock crumbled away, creating a makeshift tunnel large enough for the Toa of Earth. Whenua, without a second thought, stepped through into the darkness.

It was a short time until he reemerged, carrying an unconscious Komu in his large hand and a weakened Ahkmou under his other arm. As soon as he left the tunnel, the earth shook again, slowly closing the path behind him.

As if it had been waiting for him to leave.

“<Sensors detect no further civilians trapped. Recall, twenty-two, subside.>”

Medical and rescue Vahki arrived, bringing the usual cave-in equipment, setting up protosteel supports around the remainder of the settlement, and had managed to pull free the remaining victims. Recovery canisters, replacement masks, and a few rations were organized on the ground, ready to be used. Whenua set the two gently down in front of the medical drones.

“<What is the nature of the medical emergency?>” a Vahki chirped with a comforting (though eerily synthetic) bedside manner.

“How are they? Can you help them?”

The sleek white Vahki looked over them, scanning for injuries with cold, unfeeling eyes.

“<Citizen Ahkmou: Minor lacerations, slight bruising. Status: recovering. Immediate medical aid not needed.>”

The Vahki paused, calling over for medical supplies.

“<Citizen Komu: Major bruising, endoskeleton has been bent in multiple places, mask is dented. Status: Repairable. However, immediate medical aid is needed to prevent further damage. Please stand back...>”

A few Vahki carried over a canister and placed Komu inside.

“<Citizen Komu should be able to return to her duties within a season. Thank you for your cooperation.>”

The Toa of Earth followed the medical unit until they reached the transport station, keeping an eye on Komu and the few others inside canisters. Their safety was his duty, after all. He almost got on board with them. But no, he must remain here.

“Toa-Whenua!” He turned to find Dosne, his torso wrapped in a jumble of dermis bandages, breathing heavily. “Did- did they-just... leave?”

“Erm, y-yes. Oh, but Komu is going to be fine.” Dosne breathed a sigh of relief before wincing.

“I-shouldn’t have... run... here.” He noticed Whenua’s look of concern, smiling back reassuringly, “I’m-alright... though. .” Whenua chuckled softly. Dosne's breathing returned to normal as he looked down the railway at the departing transport.

“You left before everyone could say thank you.”

Whenua was taken aback. “I’m, uh, not too comfortable with a lot of attention put on me. It makes me feel like I’m not... normal.”

Dosne nodded understandingly, carefully adverting his gaze from Whenua’s disproportionate arm. “If I were in your place, I don’t think I’d like having so much attention either.”

They sat quietly at the station for a little longer, taking in the gentle cavern breeze. Away from everything.

Maybe being a Toa isn’t so bad.

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

#bionicle #Mahiano #Toa metru #Whenua #ahmou #Dosne #nuhrii #story

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marvelandponder · 7 years

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Seems Like the Answer Should be No

I want to start this off by repeating something I’ve already said on my blog at various points: most of the time Rainbow Dash has terrible self-esteem. In that, she either has too much or too little. It’s kind of a problem.

So the goal, here, being healthy self-love, doesn’t necessarily mean building up kids to be a bunch of tiny ego-maniacs. If done right, I’m willing to bet it could do some good.

If for no one else, then for Rainbow Dash.

And, I mean, as a member of the generation who grew up with constant self-esteem campaigns and also has to face criticism for being too self-centered (go figure), I know teaching kids how to love themselves a healthy amount is notoriously complicated.

So, what is healthy self-love and how can Rainbow Dash finally achieve it long-term, thereby teaching the kiddos how to do the thing?

You know what time it is.

Friendship is Self-Love

Our first goal is to find a way to teach kids self-love in a nuanced, balanced way. Which... admittedly would be tricky for an adult show not to oversimplify, let alone a kids’ show that necessarily has to simplify things to some degree.

So, when I say this it’s something you’ve heard before and yes, it’s cheesy in the extreme: treat yourself like you would your best friend.

Honestly, it’s the perfect message for Friendship is Magic, for very obvious reasons. This show is all about well-developed relationships, so coming from this source, it doesn’t just mean ‘be nice and compliment yourself.’

It means develop a deep respect for yourself. It means be loving enough to build yourself up, but also be able to give yourself a reality check when you need one---be supportive. It even means to have a sense of humour about yourself where appropriate, as the girls aren’t afraid to poke some well-meaning fun at each other every now and then (but note that humour is never really mean-spirited).

It means treat yourself how the mane six treat each other, in everything that means.

Every element that makes up harmony---Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and Friendship---is extremely useful in loving yourself to a healthy degree, and it gets more nuanced the more lessons you take from the show and reinterpret. Because, perhaps just like Friendship, self-love is just another kind of Harmony: being in harmony with yourself.

And it gets even better when you add in characters like Sunset Shimmer and Starlight, who’ve had to struggle forgive and trust themselves, respectively. And going back to the friendship metaphor, Discord, who’s had a backslide since reforming but was forgiven anyway because he recognized the error of his ways. In fact, most characters who got a second chance only deserved that second chance just because they realized how much they messed up (at the time, they hadn’t done much to earn it, and only proved that judgement right in hindsight)---which is an equally powerful lesson when it comes to forgiving yourself.

By invoking lessons from the show’s past to teach this new lesson, we get to see how complex self-love really is. It helps us see pass the cheesy sentiment to the real meaning of the phrase. Treating yourself like a best-friend comes with just as many lessons as friendship itself does.

Well, that’s a fine goal, you say, but how do you plan on achieving that self-love? That’s where Rainbow Dash comes back in.

Is Rainbow Dash Rainbow Dash Without a Big Ego?

Here’s something I kind of touched on in my recent Twilight editorial. When a character develops past their defining trait(s), well, are they still the same character?

Thankfully, we already have an answer: Fluttershy!

Sure, our girl’s still introverted and quiet, but shy? Not quite. I went over how I think Fluttershy’s developed extremely well in recent seasons in that link up there, and what strikes me is how much Fluttershy still feels like herself since developing, just a healthier, more mature version of herself.

She’s still a complex character with flaws, but she’s learned to be comfortable with herself and stand up for her own feelings.

And frankly, at this point I think we could have Fluttershy teach Rainbow Dash about self-love.

The two of them have often be paired together (I mean, not just in the shipping sense) because of the obvious and stark contrasts between them. One of those contrasts being how Fluttershy valued herself so little, and Rainbow seemed to value herself too much.

Well, seemed to.

Before I dive down this rabbit-hole, I’d be remiss if I didn’t direct you to Azkre’s analysis of Rainbow Dash’s self-esteem, because I’m about to get to a number of the same conclusions they did, just through different means. It’s a good read, I totally recommend it.

Anyway, like I said at the top, Rainbow is a realistic portrayal of someone with an ego. It’s not just highs that are too high, but lows that are too low. It’s why I usually disagree with fans who would label Rainbow Dash as a narcissist (although, yeah, she’s close enough that I totally get the comparison).

Mainly, what separates Dash from this particular personality disorder is 1. Her empathy (the disorder is often characterized by a lack of empathy), and 2. She has massive insecurities that she tries to cover up with her ego.

For example, from as early as Read It and Weep which I still think should’ve been called Reading Rainbow, there was a hint that Rainbow’s insecure about her intelligence. At the episode’s end, instead of saying she thought reading was boring or just for lame ponies, she tells Twilight she “thought reading was only for smart ponies, like [Twilight].”

This comes back into play in Testing, Testing, 1,2,3, when we see this insecurity explained, as Dashie explains her show-bouty class-clowning prevented her from learning how to learn. And not only that, considering how schools normally teach and how Rainbow Dash actually learns, it seems like the school system itself gradually taught Rainbow she was “too dumb to learn anything.”

As a total aside, it interests me to think whether the class-clowning came first or the failing grades. Was there an order, or was this always just a perpetual cycle?

She then used her natural flying ability to define herself instead---a “world-class athlete” or a “future Wonderbolt.” She had to prove herself in a different way, and you can see that insecurity still there in how she has to brag to assert her worth.

I think her ego is genuine to some extent, don’t get me wrong. She can back-up most of her big claims, so it’s not hard for her to genuinely believe she is the best flyer in Equestria or just all-around awesome.

But it goes to show what a complex character Rainbow Dash actually is. She’s not just a dreamer who simultaneously wants praise and to inspire others, she’s insecure and big-headed.

So, back to our point. How do we teach Rainbow Dash healthy self-love? Well, I think we have to attack this from both sides.

Rainbow Dash has slowly been learning humility. For example, her entrance into the Wonderbolts marked a turning point in her professional career: instead of striving to stand-out in hopes of gaining entrance to the Wonderbolts, she now has to learn how to fit-in and work with them as a team.

She’s learning to get a healthier amount of praise and spotlight, I think, and even learning to accept praise with humility. It was legitimately exciting for me, as a Rainbow Dash fan, to see Quibble Pants and Spitfire (in Rarity Investigates) praise her, and more importantly, to see Rainbow Dash respond by accepting these compliments without going too far.

But, that’s only half of the story.

I do believe Rainbow’s lessons in humility and focusing more on others are extremely important to her development, but I also think we have to tackle her insecurities if we’re ever going to get her to stop bragging in excess.

And here’s Fluttershy’s role. Back in Hurricane Fluttershy, Rainbow helped to boost Fluttershy up in the face of adversity and the memories of Fluttershy’s childhood bullies. Dash needs something similar from Shy. With Fluttershy’s help, she needs to learn how to stop seeking approval from external sources so much, and instead be satisfied giving that approval to herself.

Sounds like just being egotistic when I put it that way, but what I really mean is times like in 28 Pranks Later, Newbie Dash, and some of the Mysterious Mare-do-Well.

There are times when humility is the thing that would stop her from bragging (like the first half of Mare-Do-Well, when she’s unopposed), but then there’s times like these where Rainbow Dash’s bragging and impulsive actions are to impress ponies for the sole reason of proving herself to them.

Just like Fluttershy, who developed performance anxiety because of the teasing she endured, there’s still a part of Rainbow Dash who’s that little filly trying to shout over the bullies tearing her down. To some degree, her ego is a coping mechanism.

Which is why she needs to learn to care less about what others think of her, and more about what she thinks of herself.

Fluttershy’s had to learn this lesson for other reasons and could be a great teacher in helping Dash to learn to be her own best friend. Someone who can support herself and keep herself in check, in addition to all the other lessons I talked about before.

And you know, Rainbow Dash is capable of learning this lesson. Hell, she taught it a different version of it to Scootaloo when she had doubts. Rainbow Dash thankfully never expects Scootaloo to live up to her example, and instead teaches her to avoid comparing herself to others who can fly.

So, what does a healthy, but still complex Rainbow Dash look like? Well, Silver Quill just put out an awesome video on Rainbow’s archetype (go watch, it’s great), and among other things, he points out Rainbow’s drive to meet challenges. To overcome the impossible.

I don’t think Rainbow Dash would have to lose that drive to be a more humble, well-balanced character, and I have to think she’ll always have that confident pizzazz of hers. Just... to a healthier, less obnoxious degree. And to be clear, she still has plenty of lessons to learn (no one ever stops learning), like balancing her impulsiveness with some manner of fore-thought, so she’s not ever going to be perfect. Just more mature.

So, with any luck, maybe by the time Rainbow Dash makes Captain of the Wonderbolts, she’ll be humble, considerate, and self-assured enough for the job. Hopefully, we can learn with her.

That’s all, folks! But, I’ve done other stuff, if you liked this editorial. Here’s a link to all the editorials, and here’s the last three Year of the Pony posts, so you don’t have to look far!

Rainbow Dash Editorial, Spike Editorial, and Design and Animation Analysis

Year of the Pony

Header Image Only Possible Thanks to...

Rainbow Dash Vector by Speedox12

If you’re in need of excellent vectors Speedox12 might just have what you’re looking for! Though inactive currently, many of Speedox’s vectors are still up for use so long as you give proper credit back to the source.

Who Do You Love?

#Rainbow Dash #yearofthepony #mlp #rd day #my little pony #friendship is magic #analysis #mlp:fim #mlp: fim #rd #mlp rd #rainbow dash day #animation

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reekierevelator · 4 years

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A Jacket for a Holy Book

a short story

My great-grandfather may well have been a Jain never failing to sweep ahead of where he was walking lest he destroy some person reborn as an ant or a beetle. Admittedly the beastie would probably be someone who had lived a previous life of poor dharma and accumulated too much bad karma, but still…

Like most followers of the great Eastern religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and so on, he would have believed that life followed the same principle as the first law of thermodynamics, viz. energy can be changed into different forms but can never be destroyed. Life is conserved and goes on forever in different forms. Buddhists call it the saṃsāra cycle but they believe it can be ended through ultimately achieving Nirvana.

And Nirvana is like becoming one with everything, with the Buddha, actually becoming the Buddha yourself. Everyone is god, at least potentially. That’s why Buddhism is essentially atheism rather than religion.

Now the Abrahamic faiths – Jewry, Christianity, Islam – they’re monotheistic. They believe one god controls everything. And while there might be all kinds of different living things mankind is the only species where individuals have the ultimate potential to live alongside their one god. And, of course, some followers of all these faiths believe the spirits of the dead can sometimes reappear in the material world.

Hindus have statues of godheads in which god in that form is genuinely believed to reside, sometimes wandering about on his own. At least in Mount Fuji doesn’t ramble around Japan in Shinto. Roman Catholics have statues of the Virgin Mary and other Saints which they swear are alive enough to shed tears or blood. And let’s not get into transubstantiation.

Bubbling beneath most of the major religions are elements of the old religion, the worship of nature in recognition of humanity’s existential dependence on it. Call it wicca, paganism, witchcraft or whatever. There’s often an acceptance of the vital importance of all kinds of elements that make up the natural world, whether the elements are superficially alive or inanimate – trees, cows, lakes, elephants, mountains – any or all might embody a form of life. So while some believe human life can only reside in or be transformed into other living things, or theoretical heavenly bodies, some believe the human spirit can migrate to inanimate objects.

This may at first seem paradoxical. How can an inanimate object be alive? Why would anyone hold a lake, fish, or mountain in high regard? Maybe we need to ask David Attenborough.

Remind me, why do people throw coins into goldfish ponds or the Trevi Fountain, or tie rags on tree branches at the Clootie Well, and on May Day wash their faces in the dew atop Arthur’s Seat?

So now you’re wondering why I’m giving you this madcap scrapheap lecture in theology? Well, it’s because it’s a denim jacket that’s talking to you. A screwball didactic blue cloth jacket with inferior stitching at the seams and quite badly tailored at the lapels. And I’ve been hanging around on a rack in this clothes shop for ages now and no-one who looks at me wonders who I am or what I used to be. Of course, the other jackets on the rack all know. Or at least they should do, I’ve told them often enough. It’s a long story. They know I wasn’t always a jacket. My most recent ‘restructuring’ involved being scattered on a cotton field and harvested before morphing into the form of a jacket.

Ah, but how can you talk if you’re an inanimate object I hear you say. Maybe, you suppose, inanimate objects have spirits supposedly residing in them, but you’re still pretty sure they don’t do a lot of direct communication. Well, it’s easy really.

In fact the noise of all the communication going on is sometimes quite deafening. You should hear the paving slabs outside this store when they start complaining about being lifted and operated on yet again. And believe me the chairs in your house don’t hold back if you’ve been putting on weight. And the things they say behind your back can’t be repeated any more than the things those creaking beds are always getting excited about. It’s occasions like that when inanimates feel the need to make themselves heard, to contact the humans. Baths gurgling, pans banging, doors suddenly slamming shut - you don’t need to put it all down to some kind of poltergeist, some of it is of course, but mainly it’s just the inanimate objects communicating between themselves.

Contact between we inanimates and the ‘living’ is tricky though. The chairs and doors can put on a bit of exceptional scratching and whooshing and so on but actual verbal exchanges are harder. If you’re in the floorboards or elsewhere in the fabric of a house it’s sometimes possible to manifest yourself in a sort of ghostly way, do a bit of thought to thought extra sensory perception, or communicate via a medium if you can find a susceptible intermediary and sometimes convince whoever you’re talking to that you’re their long lost aunt rather than a T-Shirt.

But with the advent of mobile phones – well, you don’t really believe that all the incessant chatter going on all around you is really necessary just for human beings to communicate with one another do you? No, I’ve got to tell you that ninety per cent of all that noise is communication between inanimates.

I mean obviously I can’t move about much just now unless I’m on someone’s back but inanimate life has been around for so long, and there are so many of us, that it’s not surprising we’ve developed ways to communicate without having to rely on a handful of plastic, glass, rare earths and precious metals. To be honest the only problem is the mobile phones themselves. Some people think they’re inanimate. But in reality they spend hours and hours just prattling on to one another so that it’s often hard for anyone else to get in on the act. It’s a bit like those queues you used to see outside public telephone boxes in the old days. These days people talk to friends on the other side of the world using mobile phones, though they’ve got no idea how the phones actually work. And they’ve equally often got no inkling that life interned in statues, souvenirs, mementos, floorboards, or even denim jackets, can do exactly the same thing. And don’t get me started on SmartTV - it really is watching you you know and communicating with other inanimate objects while it talks to you, just like your smart speaker and your tablet. Mind you, your refrigerators and door alarms are at it too. What, you think Alexa, Cortana, and all those others are just made up names?

But hey, maybe you think I’m getting too garrulous for a denim jacket. Anyway, I’d better shut up now because I’m hoping someone is going to come along soon and take me home with them. I really would rather be somewhere else. The way they’re reducing staff in these stores the wait to get on their phones is becoming longer than ever. You wouldn’t believe how long some of the coats and dresses have been waiting. After a futile interminable wait come night-time they sometimes resort to the old ghostly manifestation thing and glide over to use the official sales desk phone. Some of the pants and socks have resorted to the old high pitched noise method of communication, the one only dogs can hear. Personally, I’m hoping whoever picks me up has a nice modern smartphone and that it’ll be me using it most of the time. My granny’s in Loch Ness you know, well actually she is Loch Ness, and she hasn’t heard from me in ages. You know, your phone doesn’t look too bad; I might try a bit of the old ESP and plant some ideas in your head about which clothes shop you ought to visit and what kinds of jacket would really suit you. After that, who knows, now that the cowboys and hippies have done with it could you be the one to found the great new Temple of the Denim Jacket?

#Reekie Revelator #short story #Religion #internet of things #spirits #ghost

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