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kamy2425 · 23 days ago

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(Fanfic) Discworld-"The Meaning of Death" Chapter 12 "A Place To Go To..."

~~Death's Gift~~A Place Of His Choosing~~~Baby With A Bow~~ ~~A Third First Encounter Is Everything~~

Rincewind pulled up a seat as the creaking of its journey echoed across the hushed library. Death, already comfortably seated, raised his cup of tea with ease. The tea mysteriously didn’t go through his robes.

“Look,” said Rincewind, nervously settling in, “I know what’s been going on. I’m not stupid.”

WAS IT TOO OBVIOUS?

“It’s not like I don’t appreciate it,” Rincewind admitted, “I’m glad that these people that I’ve met in the past, are doing more than fine.”

YOU HAVE TOUCHED THEIR LIVES, RINCEWIND.

Death put down his cup on his floral decorated saucer sitting on his other hand.

EVERY ONE OF THEM. THANKFUL TO HAVE RAN INTO YOU.

“And I get that, Death. Really.” Rincewind grimace, “But why me? Why are you so determined to want to make me see that?”

Death tilted his head slightly. If he had eyebrows, one of them should have been lifted about now.

YOU ALWAYS RUN AWAY FROM DEATH.

“And that’s completely normal!” protested Rincewind, jumping to his feet, practically tripping over the chair.

AND YET, YOU COWER WHEN LIFE PRESENTS TO YOU.

Rincewind awkwardly raised the chair and sat back down,

“Oh, and…Life is-is a person-as well?”

A PERSONIFICATION OF LIFE? DON’T BE SILLY, replied Death. I MEANT THAT FIGURATIVELY.

Rincewind took a moment to process that.

“Look,” he said, trying again, “My life’s twisted as it is, because of the gods. Seriously, if I ever DO get a chance to get a break, I would do so gladly!”

“But no,” Continued Rincewind, not even focusing on who he was talking to, “How can I enjoy what life I have, if I need to constantly look up to see which God wants to land an anvil on top of my head? It’s impossible!”

I CAN MAKE YOU INVISIBLE.

Rincewind paused, his brain screeching to a halt. “You—what?”

IT MIGHT ONLY WORK FOR A DAY OR TWO. THE GODS AREN’T EASY TO FOOL TWICE.

“...invisible? From the Gods?”

JUST AS I AM INVISIBLE TO HUMANS.

For the biggest moment of his life, Rincewind could actually stand in one place and think. So he was now left there, petrified, as his mind played different tunes all at once.

“But, what am I going to do with that time?”

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR OWN PATH, RINCEWIND.

“Invisible? So…no meddling from Gods? No FATE? No Lady? No Gods sending me to the nearest apocalypse?”

Death reached a comforting hand on the wizard’s shoulder. It was icy cold, but the action itself was the warmest feeling he had in a long time.

IS THERE A PLACE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO GO?

To his own surprise, Rincewind found his mouth answering faster than his brain.

“Actually, there is.”

______________________________________________________________

There was a swirl of chaos and colors. Paper lanterns were being held up high in the sky as confetti rained down in a dizzying shower of celebration. The air was alive as the rhythmic joy of the drums and the high-pitch laughter of the children glowed all around. Adults twirled in tight circles as they too danced along the laughter of music. If only there was a rainbow in the sky, it would have completed the picture.

SO YOU HAVE CHOSEN THIS. Death observed, as a child ran past, a kite dancing on the clear blue sky behind him.

“Don’t start.” Warned Rincewind as he let out a massive sigh, “I just didn’t want to be here a second time during a war or a big world crisis, okay?!”

SURE, Death’s tone had a little hint of being amused at that.

Humans were such curious creatures to Death. He knew about Rincewind’s whole life (it was his job to know about it, of course). But, looking back at different parts of his life, it was meeting that tourist that started Rincewind's loop of unfortunate events.

If Death learned anything from watching humans, anyone in Rincewind’s position would feel anger or have no other reason to cross paths with this tourist ever again. And yet, Rincewind, have chosen, for the little free time he had…to visit him? Such an interesting human, Rincewind is.

The Luggage nudged at the hooded figure, which managed to wake up Death from his train of thoughts.

OH, MY APOLOGIES. Death looked around, SEEMS I HAVE LOST THE WIZARD.

The Luggage clattered off towards the gates of the Agatean Empire, Death trailing after. The city had transformed over the years—once it had just one festival, now it seemed to celebrate everything. If Death had to describe it in some way, it would be that this city felt... the most alive. Somehow.

Death has spotted the wizard. It was fortunate he had, considering that his power to make the wizard invisible, also caused Death to not know of his exact location. And considering the massive crowd, it certainly made it impossible to go through the sea of happiness.

Of course, Death has the power to move people aside to create his own path. However, that seemed to be quite difficult if there was no free space for the crowd to move to.

“Hey, move it pal!” shouted a voice at Death.

Death apologized and turned back towards the voice in confusion. He was met by a small figure floating in midair. His face, as difficult as it was to describe, was as if a baby was also an old man all at once. Its tiny little white wings phenomenally held the creature in the air. And Death couldn’t look away at its heart-shaped tattoo that has been crossed by an arrow on one of its muscular biceps. It was also difficult to not look away as this baby man lit up a large cigar and sucked on it like it was a pacifier.

“Ah, there he is!” Said the winged baby. Somewhere in his pink stash, the baby now held onto a bow and arrow. The arrowhead, as you would guess it, was heart-shaped.

As a professional to another, Death bent down to meet the baby’s height as he replied in the calmest way possible, MIGHT I ASK WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

“You see that Rincewind bloke, over there?” Said Cupid without taking his eyes off his target, “Overdue for love.”

Ah, of course, Death thought. Since he made Rincewind invisible to the higher gods, lesser creatures like Cupid here, could now call dibs on him. You cancel one subscription, and the junk mail doubles. And his wizard was a pretty popular fellow in the community of the Gods.

Cupid kept his bow steadied as he took aim. He shoots. Arrow flying through the air, piercing hats and wigs in its direction, gets closer and closer to the wizard until- Rincewind looks down, causing the arrow to click against a wall.

Cupid swore under his breath, drew another arrow, fired—and missed again, as Rincewind obliviously wandered on.

“GODS, dang it!” Cupid fumed, throwing down his bow, “Seriously! It’s like he forcefully doesn’t WANT love.”

I SEE, replied Death.

Cupid went through his magic pack and opened up a scroll. The paper itself, rolled down on the ground and rolled endlessly through the city. “See here? See all these dates listed here? Those are the times THIS fool was supposed to be in love, but does it happen? NO!”

HOW UNFORTUNATE.

“Do you know what that’s like?” Cupid snapped his fingers and the scroll vanished, “Having your job failed every time because of some weird anomaly?”

I CAN’T IMAGINE, replied Death.*

*Death can’t imagine things of course. But he sure can remember everything. And that means…everything. Death used to hate this anomaly that calls himself Rincewind. But over the years, Death has ended up appreciating this abnormal and surprising individual. It certainly kept his job interesting.

“But it’s strange…” Cupid scratched his head, “My powers called me out here because his Love Meter has been higher than it’s ever been! It has never reached this high before!”

Death’s skull moved slowly at the blurred image of Rincewind as his body dispersed inside the crowd.

“I wonder what is going on, in that little brain of his…”

INDEED.

…

OH, Gods! Why am I here? Of all places? Why here? Everyone is staring at me! Oh, is it my haircut? Will people recognize me? Do I WANT to be recognized?

Rincewind stopped for a second to look at his reflection against a shiny decorated pot, “I looked worse…” He spit on his hand and styled his hair a bit. Rincewind’s other hand slapped at the traitorous one, What am I even doing? Why am I so nervous?!

“Mama! Mama!” A child pulled on his mother’s dress for attention, “Is that the Great Wizzard?”

All eyes immediately looked from where the kid pointed. Rincewind was now the center of attention.

On second thought, maybe I’ll come back when there’s a crisis.

And Rincewind did what he did best. He ran.

He knew this was a bad idea. Maybe he’ll use his free time to just go back home and read a nice cozy book. Help out dusting off the old shelves at the library…give the Librarian his daily bananas…Yeah, and have a nice cup of hot cocoa while being wrapped in a warm blanket. Yes…this idea is starting to sound good! He just needs to find Death and-

His path was abruptly blocked by a looming statue standing in the middle of the plaza. His eyes wandered up to see the statue's head, only to be blinded by the piercing rays of the sun. And from a distance, a clank of armor drew closed. Now, Rincewind was surrounded by three guards of the city.

“I really don’t want any trouble!” Rincewind declared, “I-I just-”

An arrow zipped by, missing him by a hair.

“Seriously, who keeps doing that?” Rincewind peered around for the source of the arrow, finally spotting Death standing at the back of the crowd, giving him a friendly wave.

And what’s odd is that Death appeared to be… gesturing? Well, Rincewind has always been good at charades…let see:

Small…flying…ah yes, that’s a heart. A small flying…heart? …Me? At me? A small flying heart at me?

What could it mean confused the wizard greatly. He better not be right for what he was thinking. He and Death surely weren't that close. Better not make eye contact.

“You better not mess with my gig!” exclaimed Cupid, as he shoved Death out of the way, “Or I’ll tell the Gods on ya!”

OF COURSE NOT.

“Well, watch and learn.” Cupid lowered his head to his bow and took aim, “I won’t miss this time.”

The arrow flew and Rincewind quickly ducked out of the way. One of the guards groaned in pain for a second, until the wizard cautiously went up to check on him.

“Um, are you alright sir?”

The guard gazed at him, hearts dancing all around him. “You have… lovely green eyes.” Then he crumpled to the ground in a heap, leaving his comrades to attend to him while Rincewind edged away from the surreal scene.

“Dang it!” Screamed Cupid as he once again threw away his bow and arrows to the ground, “So close!”

I THOUGHT THAT WAS A NICE ONE.

“Well, whatever, I’ll just follow the next target on my list.”

Far off, a figure with glasses nervously browsed the market, occasionally bowing in embarrassment as merchants bombarded him with gifts. Just a few feet away, Rincewind wandered on, oblivious to the presence of this stranger, as the crowd acted as a barrier between the two.

“Where could he be?” The wizard mumbled under his breath.

Cupid flew up and noticed his previous target and the stranger, “Hah would you look at that! It’s all lined up for me perfectly!” The arrow shot through the air…and ricocheted off the stranger’s glasses. It bounced off around cooking pans, pots, mirrors—until it found its way towards Rincewind.

Cupid held his breath.

Rincewind, noticing his sock had fallen, crouched down to fix it. The arrow sailed harmlessly over him and struck a parrot in a nearby cage.

“Smoochies! Gwak! Hey, pretty boy!” Flirted the parrot, “Kiss, Kiss!”

Rincewind leaned back up, confused at his surroundings, “What is wrong with this city? Is it really the beard?”

“Rincewind?” came a familiar voice. The wizard spun around, but the crowd blocked his view. He strained to see, unsure if he’d imagined it.

“Two-flower?” Rincewind yelled just in case, ears perking.

After about five seconds the same voice replied, “How have you been?!”

“Are-are we really having this conversation?!” Rincewind shouted against the noise of the crowd, craning his neck in attention.

…

“I’ve been fine, how are you?!”

“Hold on!” Cried out Rincewind, “I think I can spot you!”

“Really?!”

No, not really. He had no idea. As the crowd shifted, the mystery figure seemed to have vanished.

Figures. Just when I actually LOOK for the guy, he doesn’t show up. What am I even going to say? ‘Oh, just passing through the Agatean Empire, no big deal, not running from an apocalypse at the moment. Also, sorry for ignoring your hundreds of letters. Tea?’

Suddenly, his legs became numb. Everything felt overwhelming—the colors, the noise, the heat. Death had warned him that the ride might cause nausea in living beings, and it seemed the effects were kicking in. The world became blurry. The statue from the plaza seemed disproportionate and wavy. He never really did get a look of what the shape of the statue was…

“You alright?” came a soft voice.

“I just wanted to see a fr—" Rincewind’s voice trailed off as he stared at the figure before him. A nervous smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “…Friend.”

Rincewind collapsed on the floor as the crowd circled him in utter confusion.

For the fic!

#discworld #rinceflower #rincedeath #the meaning of death #rincewind #two-flower #death #we're at the rinceflower tag folks #how are we doing today?#Was this a good third first encounter between these two? XDDDD

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999-roses · 2 years ago

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unpacking 'sinophone' and its sinophobic roots

so. it never occurred to me to just type "sino diaspora" into google before.

and google is like "oi!! you meant sinophone yeah? here's wikipedia on sinophone" and here's like the other top results

I'm squinting. What the hell do you academics have against diaspora using the term diaspora?? I click.

inb4 this whole rant: I have no qualms with using sinophone as a language-family-use descriptor (like sinophone media), but coming from academia or as an academic field unto itself. but. the literature about wanting to use it as a demographics thing & separate it from "chineseness". just. looook if anyone knows that they're no longer like this let me know. with what im seeing, im having a bad faith moment

so... this is the academic that's hard pushed the term for sinophone.

"crit on orientalism might be complicit for allowing Chinese intellectuals to call themselves victim under an 'unreflective' nationalism" & "but the flipside may be a new imperialism" yeah?? any more unsubstantiated claims???

What a joke!! Clearly only takes authority about Chinese history from western sources, like literally has the uncritical echo of "X country doesn't deserve territorial integrity" that literally fueled western imperialism, and not just of China. Treaty of Nanjing 1842 ringing no bells? Sigh. National sovereignty is the barest basis against overt imperialism where someone just comes over and declares where you live their colony!!! ... is this a test in how far can you stretch the definition of imperialism or colonization? lmfao, China invests in poverty-relieving measures like building houses and improving infrastructure out in Tibet, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and you have the audacity to call that colonizing?!? 我真无言了。

different article by the same person:

laughable to think that the Chinese state even bothers to think I exist, let alone talk to me about my diaspora status. (I was born in the US)

also, people are really out there saying 'diaspora has an end date' huh

here it is. here is the 'scholar' conflating American or western imperialism with things Big Bad Scary Red China does.

Clearly mixing up concepts of tributary system with colonialism, and acting like historically (other than Yuan era under Genghis) that ancient China/Chinese culture was expansionist, going around trying to conquer peoples and set up colonies. Admiral Zheng He would spit on you.

Comparing the spread of culture and language in Ancient China to the colonization and subjugation that the French/Belgium did in Africa, or the British Empire, or the Spanish and Portuguese in Latin America, is so blatantly dishonest. The indigenous people of Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang still speak their own languages and use their own scripts, and yes, they learn them in schools alongside the national language... which is Chinese!!! Yes the Hanyu writing system was adopted and adapted by many neighboring cultures in ancient times, but you literally don't examine WHY? The fluidity in its system: frequently non-Han peoples invented characters to suit their language, like there's even some Canto-specific characters that are in use today. Another reason that Chinese writing system was so popular was because two Sinitic language speakers who do not speak the same language could communicate through the same script. Yeah, Ancient Chinese scholars and dignitaries often had an insufferable elite-ness and superiority complex, but describing their attitude as subjugating and forcing other people to adopt their system? What a wildly malicious mischaracterisation!

just... mask off, gringo butt-licker.

Please. where is the "Chinese containment" policy? The white papers reaffirming what the international community agrees, what Taiwan historically agrees (tho Taiwan held that it was the true capital/head of all of China), that Taiwan is part of China?? I know this article was written back in 2010s but are you seriously comparing American weapons deals and boots on the ground with Chinese military exercises in Chinese territory that haven't harmed a single civilian? "critical" my ass!

gotta love the title of this one. yeah, I know it, I've seen it before. the Chinese or feminist binary, pick a side /s

but hey in this piece she admits she's ignorant and unobjective and out of her league sometimes?

edit: found this:

yeah that about seals it for me. anti"diaspora" sinophobe

#sino diaspora #diaspora #逆向种族分子 #long post #chen yells at clouds. more at 10 #sinophobia #sorry. personal rabbit hole. and taking things personally #we're committing ad hominem crimes today folks #sure chinese->lunar new year. im fine w that. but can you fucks stop trying to take away chineseness away from people who still ID as???#this person is literally doing the western empire's work of laying ground for sinophobia #can't tell if this academic is a grifter or actually serious lmfao #as if american chinese diaspora don't call americans 老美 and call ourselves 老中. i mean yes i call myself 老美 when in china but hello??#you cloak your 'expertise' in the lingua & clothes & rituals of western academics. just shake your colonized ass for white people more #reading this drivel makes me want to go into asian american studies & grab this and shake it around like a ragdoll.#but im reminded that western institutions and definitely academics unquestionably cite western sources w/o hesitation #but give anything coming out of China even just academics not anything gov related with skepticism. so it's probably a no-fly #yeah sure im a 'sinophone' but im also diaspora so fuck you. 你忘了你祖先你的族梗。你这个逆子找白人拜金去了。就你这样做榜样？让海外华裔立起来？丢死人。跟你的英文大白菜出卖同类吧 #fuck you for saying that diaspora's connection to their heritage & culture are currently being severed& should be severed & studied as such #like literally uncritical of how exactly that happens. why so many diaspora have internalized racism driving them to scrub themselves of #their asianness heck even chineseness. try to scrub it all away but you still got an asian face. so fuck you #didn't look into 'asian american studies' much before but if it's a lot like this... well. 🤨#like this academic is so disconnected from our shared histories AHSIJIJDSIAJDAAAHAAHGGHGGG #+ my poasts #imperial core circus

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