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testudoaubrei-blog · 4 years ago

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Content note for discussions of eternal damnation, and all sorts of other shit that will trigger a lot of folks with religious trauma.

Before I get started I might as well explain where I’m coming from - unlike a lot of She-Ra fans, and a lot of queer people, I don’t have much religious trauma, or any, maybe (okay there were a number of years I was convinced I was going to hell, but that happens to everyone, right?). I was raised a liberal Christian by liberal Christian parents in the Episcopal Church, where most of my memories are overwhelmingly positive. Fuck, growing up in the 90’s, Chuch was probably the only place outside my home I didn’t have homophobia spewed at me. Because it was the 90’s and it was a fucking hellscape of bigotry where 5 year olds knew enough to taunt each other with homophobic slurs and the adults didn’t know enough to realize how fucked up that was. Anyway. This is my experience, but it is an atypical one, and I know it. Quite frankly I know that my experience of Christianity has very little at all to do with what most people experienced, or what people generally mean when they talk about Christianity as a cultural force in America today. So if you were raised Christian and you don’t recognize your theology here, congrats, neither do I, but these ideas and cultural forces are huge and powerful and dominant. And it’s this dominant Christian narrative that I’m referring to in this post. As well as, you know, a children’s cartoon about lesbian rainbow princesses. So here it goes. This is going to get batshit.

"All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God." - John Calvin

“We’re all just a bunch of wooly guys” - Noelle Stevenson

This is a post triggered by a single scene, and a single line. It’s one of the most fucked-up scenes in She-Ra, toward the end of Save the Cat. Catra, turned into a puppet by Prime, struggles with her chip, desperately trying to gain control of herself, so lost and scared and vulnerable that she flings aside her own death wish and her pride and tearfully begs Adora to rescue her. Adora reaches out , about to grab her, and then Prime takes control back, pronounces ‘disappointing’ and activates the kill switch that pitches Catra off the platform and to her death (and seriously, she dies here, guys - also Adora breaks both her legs in the fall). But before he does, he dismisses Catra with one of his most chilling lines. “Some creatures are meant only for destruction.”

And that’s when everyone watching probably had their heart broken a little bit, but some of the viewers raised in or around Christianity watching the same scene probably whispered ‘holy shit’ to themselves. Because Prime’s line - which works as a chilling and callous dismissal of Catra - is also an allusion to a passage from the Bible. In fact, it’s from one of the most fucked up passages in a book with more than its share of fucked up passages. It’s from Romans 9:22, and I’m going to quote several previous verses to give the context of the passage (if not the entire Epistle, which is more about who needs to abide by Jewish dietary restrictions but was used to construct a systematic theology in the centuries afterwards because people decided it was Eternal Truth).

19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

The context of the allusion supports the context in the show. Prime is dismissing Catra - serial betrayer, liar, failed conqueror, former bloody-handed warlord - as worthless, as having always been worthless and fit only to be destroyed. He is speaking from a divine and authoritative perspective (because he really does think he’s God, more of this in my TL/DR Horde Prime thing). Prime is echoing not only his own haughty dismissal of Catra, and Shadow Weaver’s view of her, but also perhaps the viewer’s harshest assessment of her, and her own worst fears about herself. Catra was bad from the start, doomed to destroy and to be destroyed. A malformed pot, cracked in firing, destined to be shattered against a wall and have her shards classified by some future archaeologist 2,000 years later. And all that’s bad enough.

But the full historical and theological context of this passage shows the real depth of Noelle Stevenson’s passion and thought and care when writing this show. Noelle was raised in Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christianity. To my knowledge, he has never specified what sect or denomination, but in interviews and her memoir Noelle has shown a particular concern for questions that this passage raises, and a particular loathing for the strains of Protestant theology that take this passage and run with it - that is to say, Calvinism. So while I’m not sure if Noelle was raised as a conservative, Calvinist Presbyterian, his preoccupation with these questions mean that it’s time to talk about Calvinism.

It would be unfair, perhaps, to say that Calvinism is a systematic theology built entirely upon the Epistles of Romans and Galatians, but only -just- (and here my Catholic readers in particular will chuckle to themselves and lovingly stroke their favorite passage of the Epistle of James). The core of Calvinist Doctrine is often expressed by the very Dutch acronym TULIP:

Total Depravity - people are wholly evil, and incapable of good action or even willing good thoughts or deeds

Unconditional Election - God chooses some people to save because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, not because they did anything to deserve, trigger or accept it

Limited Atonement - Jesus died only to save the people God chose to save, not the rest of us bastards

Irresistible Grace - God chooses some people to be saved - if you didn’t want to be saved, too bad, God said so.

Perseverance of the Saints - People often forget this one and assume it’s ‘predestination’ but it’s actually this - basically, once saved by God, always saved, and if it looks like someone falls out of grace, they were never saved to begin with. Well that’s all sealed up tight I guess.

Reading through these, predestination isn’t a single doctrine in Calvinism but the entire theological underpinnings of it together with humanity’s utter powerlessness before sin. Basically God has all agency, humanity has none. Calvinism (and a lot of early modern Protestantism) is obsessed with questions of how God saves people (grace alone, AKA Sola Fides) and who God saves (the people god elects and only the people God elects, and fuck everyone else).

It’s apparent that Noelle was really taken by these questions, and repelled by the answers he heard. He’s alluded to having a tattoo refuting the Gospel passage about Sheep and Goats being sorted at the end times, affirming instead that ‘we’re all just a bunch of wooly guys’ (you can see this goat tattoo in some of his self-portraits in comics, etc). He’s also mentioned that rejecting and subverting destiny is a huge part of everything he writes as a particular rejection of the idea that some individual people are 'chosen' by God or that God has a plan for any of us. You can see that -so clearly- in Adora’s arc, where Adora embraces and then rejects destiny time and again and finally learns to live life for herself.

But for Catra, we’re much more concerned about the most negative aspect of this - the idea that some people are vessels meant for destruction. And that’s something else that Noelle is preoccupied with. In her memoir in the section about leaving the church and becoming a humanistic atheist, there is a drawing of a pot and the question ‘Am I a vessel prepared for destruction?’ Obviously this was on Noelle’s mind (And this is before he came out to himself as queer!).

To look at how this question plays out in Catra’s entire arc, let’s first talk about how ideas of damnation and salvation actually play out in society. And for that I’m going to plug one of my favorite books, Gin Lun’s Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction (if you can tell by now, I am a fucking blast at parties). Lun tells the long and very interesting story about, how ideas of hell and who went there changed during the Early American Republic. One of the interesting developments that she talks about is how while at first people who were repelled by Calvinism started moving toward a doctrine of universal salvation (no on goes to hell, at least not forever*), eventually they decided that hell was fine as long as only the right kind of people went there. Mostly The Other - non-Christian foreigners, Catholics, Atheists, people who were sinners in ways that were not just bad but weird and violated Victorian ideas of respectability. Really, Hell became a way of othering people, and arguably that’s how it survives today, especially as a way to other queer people (but expanding this is slated for my Montero rant). Now while a lot of people were consciously rejecting Calvinist predestination, they were still drawing the distinction between the Elect (good, saved, worthwhile) and the everyone else (bad, damned, worthless). I would argue that secularized ideas of this survive to this day even among non-Christian spaces in our society - we like to draw lines between those who Elect, and those who aren’t.

And that’s what brings us back to Catra. Because Catra’s entire arc is a refutation of the idea that some people are worthless and irredeemable, either by nature, nurture or their own actions. Catra’s actions strain the conventions of who is sympathetic in a Kid’s cartoon - I’ve half joked that she’s Walter White as a cat girl, and it’s only half a joke. She’s cruel, self-deluded, she spends 4 seasons refusing to take responsibility for anything she does and until Season 5 she just about always chooses the thing that does the most damage to herself and others. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, the show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Catra is morally culpable in every step of her descent into evil (except maybe her break with reality just before she pulls the lever). The way that Catra personally betrays everyone around her, the way she strips herself of all of her better qualities and most of what makes her human, hell even her costume changes would signal in any other show that she’s irredeemable.

It’s tempting to see this as Noelle’s version of being edgy - pushing the boundaries of what a sympathetic character is, throwing out antiheroics in favor of just making the villain a protagonist. Noelle isn’t quite Alex ‘I am in the business of traumatizing children’ Hirsch, who seems to have viewed his job as pushing the bounds of what you could show on the Disney Channel (I saw Gravity Falls as an adult and a bunch of that shit lives rent free in my nightmares forever), but Noelle has his own dark side, mostly thematically. The show’s willingness to deal with abuse, and messed up religious themes, and volatile, passionate, not particularly healthy relationships feels pretty daring. I’m not joking when I gleefully recommend this show to friends as ‘a couple from a Mountain Goats Song fights for four seasons in a cartoon intended for 9 year olds’. Noelle is in his own way pushing the boundaries of what a kids show can do. If you read Noelle’s other works like Nimona, you see an argument for Noelle being at least a bit edgy. Nimona is also angry, gleefully destructive, violent and spiteful - not unlike Catra. Given that it was a 2010s webcomic and not a kids show, Nimona is a good deal worse than Catra in some ways - Catra doesn’t kill people on screen, while Nimona laughs about it (that was just like, a webcomic thing - one of the fan favorite characters in my personal favorite, Narbonic, was a fucking sociopath, and the heroes were all amoral mad scientists, except for the superintelligent gerbil**). But unlike Nimona, whose fate is left open ended, Catra is redeemed.

And that is weird. We’ve had redemption arcs, but generally not of characters with -so- much vile stuff in their history. Going back to the comparison between her and Azula, many other shows, like Avatar, would have made Catra a semi-sympathetic villain who has a sob-story in their origin but who is beyond redemption, and in so doing would articulate a kind of psychologized Calvinism where some people are too traumatized to ever be fully and truly human. I’d argue this is the problem with Azula as a character - she’s a fun villain, but she doesn’t have moral agency, and the ultimate message of her arc - that she’s a broken person destined only to hurt people - is actually pretty fucked up. And that’s the origin story of so many serial killers and psycopaths that populate so many TV shows and movies. Beyond ‘hurt people hurt people’ they have nothing to teach us except perhaps that trauma makes you a monster and that the only possible response to people doing bad things is to cut them out of your life and out of our society (and that’s why we have prisons, right?)

And so Catra’s redemption and the depths from which she claws herself back goes back to Noelle’s desire to prove that no person is a vessel ‘fitted for destruction.’ Catra goes about as far down the path of evil as we’ve ever seen a protagonist in a kids show go, and she still has the capacity for good. Importantly, she is not subject to total depravity - she is capable of a good act, if only one at first. Catra is the one who begins her own redemption (unlike in Calvinism, where grace is unearned and even unwelcomed) - because she wants something better than what she has, even if its too late, because she realizes that she never wanted any of this anyway, because she wants to do one good thing once in her life even if it kills her.

The very extremity of Catra’s descent into villainy serves to underline the point that Noelle is trying to make - that no one can be written off completely, that everyone is capable of change, and that no human being is garbage, no matter how twisted they’ve become. Meanwhile her ability to set her own redemption in motion is a powerful statement of human agency, and healing, and a refutation of Calvinism’s idea that we are powerless before sin or pop cultural tropes about us being powerful before the traumas of our upbringing. Catra’s arc, then, is a kind of anti-Calvinist theological statement - about the nature of people and the nature of goodness.

Now, there is a darker side to this that Noelle has only hinted at, but which is suggested by other characters on the show. Because while Catra’s redemption shows that people are capable of change, even when they’ve done horrible things, been fucked up and fucked themselves up, it also illustrates the things people do to themselves that make change hard. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, two of the most sinister parts of her descent into villainy are her self-dehumanization (crushing her own compassion and desire to do good) and her rewriting of her own history in her speech and memory to make her own actions seem justified (which we see with her insistence that Adora left her, eliding Adora’s offers to have Catra join her, or her even more clearly false insistence that Entrapta had betrayed them). In Catra, these processes keep her going down the path of evil, and allow her to nearly destroy herself and everyone else. But we can see the same processes at work in two much darker figures - Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime. These are both rants for another day, but the completeness of Shadow Weaver’s narcissistic self-justification and cultivated callousness and the even more complete narcissism of Prime’s god complex cut both characters off from everyone around them. Perhaps, in a theoretical sense, they are still redeemable, but for narrative purposes they might as well be damned.

This willingness to show a case where someone -isn’t- redeemed actually serves to make Catra’s redemption more believable, especially since Noelle and the writers draw the distinction between how Catra and SW/Prime can relate to reality and other people, not how broken they are by their trauma (unlike Zuko and Azula, who are differentiated by How Fucked Uolp They Are). Redemption is there, it’s an option, we can always do what is right, but someone people will choose not to, in part because doing the right thing involves opening ourselves to the world and others, and thus being vulnerable. Noelle mentions this offhandedly in an interview after Season 1 with the She-Ra Progressive of Power podcast - “I sometimes think that shades of grey, sympathetic villains are part of the escapist fantasy of shows like this.” Because in the real world, some people are just bastards, a point that was particularly clear in 2017. Prime and Shadow Weaver admit this reality, while Catra makes a philosophical point that even the bastards can change their ways (at least in theory).

*An idea first proposed in the second century by Origen, who’s a trip and a fucking half by himself, and an idea that becomes the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which protestants vehemently denied!

**Speaking of favorite Noelle tropes

#she ra horde prime #she ra #she ra catra #she ra spoilers #redemption arcs #toxic religion

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conaionaru · 4 years ago

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Honor and Blood (Ivar the Boneless)

Anyone can betray anyone

Synopsis: While Ivar is away, Vanya does everything to keep her mind off his possible death, meanwhile Aslaug faces an enemy from the past.

Warnings: fluff? (Aslaug + Vanya), betrayal, character death, angst, slight anti-Lagertha (she deserved it), talk or revenge

Tags: @shannygoatgruff @queenbeeta @lol-haha-joke @xbellaxcarolinax @youbloodymadgenius @chynagirl13 @didiintheblog @astridbaby @heavenly1927 @thereareendlessopportunities

I don’t own the gifs. Also, thank you for your support. I really appreciate it. If you want to be tagged please write me<3

It was the middle of the night as they sat in a circle; some of the women were familiar, others weren't, but they all shared the same goal. They all prayed for their families to return from raiding alive and well. No matter if they went to the Mediterranean with Bjorn and Hvitserk or to England with Ragnar and Ivar, the women of the family prayed to the gods.

Hoenir sacrificed a goat and smeared the blood over their faces as they prayed to Thor for strength. Ever since the Ragnarssons left, Aslaug has been distant, and Vanya feared the Queen felt Ivar die.

And so distracted herself from these thoughts by spending time with the common folk. Prayer circles, visits to the orphanage, or just strolls through the marker, Vanya was always surrounded by people. But inside, she felt hollow just like the rest of them, Aros being her only source of joy.

Ubbe joked that the babe would be able to walk by the time Ivar came back, as he's very eager to stand. Of course, he can't do it independently, but he has no problem holding himself up if you hold him. And Vanya was very proud of that.

Right now, the Ivarsson is with his grandmother, who asked to look after him for a little bit. The request was sudden, but Vanya was very happy that the Queen was feeling a bit better.

"Are you alright, Princess Vanya?" questioned an old woman, she had gray hair and looked worn down, but she came to every prayer circle. Her two grandsons left with Bjorn, and her son joined Ragnar.

"Of course, a little bit dizzy from the sigh of blood. But I am alright." The woman didn't believe her at all and put her withered hand on top of Vanya's.

"The gods aren't always just, but they listen to the prayers and act on them if they are pleased. You have pleased the gods since the ships left; you should rest a little bit too. Or you will wear yourself thin."

Vanya chuckled and shook her head at the answer. "I will be fine. The gods will hear our prayer and help us. Everything will be alright."

Not so far away from Vanya's place of blissful denial, Lagertha was hatching plans. "I am taking Kattegat back. Aslaug isn't fit to be Queen."

"What about Ragnar's sons?" Astrid asked her lover, curious about what will become of the boys.

"Born of a witch." The shieldmaiden replied simply, stroking her own like a conversation about the weather and not about usurping a Queen.

"They are still his sons."

Lagertha looked at Astrid with solemn eyes and stood up from her seat. "Bjorn, Hvitserk, and Ivar are all gone."

"But Ubbe and Sigurd remain. Are you going to kill them too?"

Luckily for them, Torvi had the perfect solution in the form of Margrethe. But one thing remained unclear to Astrid. "What of Vanya? What will happen to her?"

"We can't hurt her. She is the sole heir to a kingdom in England. If she dies as well, they will sail to our shores and demand vengeance." Lagertha's words held a tone of anger in them. They tried to pull the Princess to their side on the feast, but her mind was too warped by Aslaug's witchy ways. Just like Ragnar's had been.

"She will remain where she is, we just have to make sure she won't interfere, and no harm comes to her or Aros," Torvi suggested looking at her mother in law for approval. When Lagertha asked for an explanation, the younger blonde was happy to provide. "For leverage against Ivar."

Margrethe nodded at this and looked at Lagertha unsurely. "When Vanya went missing, he lost his mind. If she and the babe are safe, he won't be so angry. She calms him sometimes."

"Then it's decided. Now, enough questions. I have to talk to Torvi."

Vanya entered the Queen's chambers to retrieve Aros right after the prayer circle. When she saw Aslaug sitting on her bed, holding her grandson close with sad eyes, she didn't know what to say. "I always wanted a daughter. I am thankful for all of my sons, and love them very much. But sometimes I wondered what it would be like to have a daughter."

Vanya walked closer to the bed, sitting down next to Aslaug to watch Aros sleep. He looked just like Ivar when he slept, serene and innocent with a little frown and scrunched up nose. At least he slept easier than before.

"When the marriage offer came in, and it said they choose Ivar, I was worried. I wanted him to find somebody worthy of him, who would love him just as much as I do. And then this little scared Christian came in, and I was so angry that he would have to marry her. But she showed her true colors little by little. Suddenly there wasn't a scared girl who would bring his boredom and misery. The Princess didn't judge him and even grew to love him over time."

Vanya smiled at the Queen's kind words; no matter how much it hurt to remember Ivar and his possible fate, it warmed her heart to hear about him nonetheless. "I gained a daughter thanks to a monster from another place far from here. A daughter I grew to love even more when she gave me a grandson. Even if I lost a son, I gained two more people to care for. And I am very thankful for that."

She looked up to show her tearstained face and laid her palm against Vanya's equally teary face. "I want you to know that you are a part of this family, blood or not. You are my daughter, and Aros is my grandson. And nothing can or ever will change that."

"Why are you saying all this?"

Aslaug smiled and hugged her close, hiding her face in Vanya's neck. If it weren't for the closeness, she wouldn't be able to have heard the Queen's next words. "I thought it needed to be said. We never know when we might draw our last breath. Ubbe and Sigurd went on a visit, and you are the only family that remains here. We should stick together."

Vanya nodded and hugged the woman tighter. "Of course. Do you want me to stay the night?"

"I would love that."

Hoenir walked the path around the village with a horn of ale in one hand, his other resting on his new sword. His morning walk towards Ivar's and Vanya's hut was always pleasant. Usually, he took a walk around town first, but today something felt off. So he chose to go straight to their home.

The atmosphere around him made Hoenir uneasy and on edge. He felt like prey in the lion's den, just waiting to be swallowed by the bigger animal lurking around the corner. His visions have been horrifying for some time now, and he couldn't make sense of them.

Yesterday he came with his worries to Aslaug waiting for an explanation, but the Völva told him not to worry. The Seer wasn't of any help either, and so he was left to solve it on his own.

The visions of blood and carnage weren't anything new to him. Destruction was where he was, or better said, he followed it. The Gods sent him where blood was shed, and he did what they asked. In some places, he helped the sick; in others, he slaughtered enemies. Here, he protected a Princess.

Not his most admirable work, but the easiest so far. Looking after Vanya was a challenge, and unfortunately, he was more used to a routine. The ginger preferred to vary her tasks between charity, sewing, or visiting Helga and Floki. She liked to do things spontaneously, and he had to follow. So he implemented routines where he could, morning walks at dawn, a tavern in the evening, training before bed.

But these visions were foreign to him; never before did he dream of owls on thrones or burning ships. He tried every approach to deciphering the pieces he had, but the meaning was still unclear.

He entered Vanya's hut without knocking; without Ivar home, the chances of his seeing something he wouldn't want to see are slim. But the house was empty, and the fireplace was cold. "Fuck."

He runs out of the hut, making his way to the Great Hall, but the snapping of a twig startles him. "Who’s there? I don't have time for games, so show yourself."

Eight women with shields and swords walked out from behind the huts, glaring at him as if he offended them. The shields were painted with the colors of Lagertha's Earldom. "I would say I am shocked, but that would be a lie."

The women charged at him as he drew both of his swords, fighting them off. He cut through two easily, but an arrow flew from somewhere, hitting him in the shoulder. The remaining six women used the opportunity to disarm him, another well-aimed arrow to his knee, putting him to his knees.

Hoenir looked up to the rooftop from where the arrow came from to see a blonde woman standing there, notching another arrow. "Torvi." A shield hit him over the head right after he felt a pain in his tight and a hit to his jaw. And then everything went black, he collapsed into the mud.

Aros whined in Vanya's arms as Aslaug got dressed for her meeting with the Usurper Lagertha. The woman invaded Kattegat to become Queen, and Vanya would rather they escape than face the shieldmaiden that could kill Aslaug in the blink of an eye.

But Aslaug was determined to face her husband's first wife; she could see it in her stance and eyes. This made Vanya wonder if yesterday's sentiment was because of today's situation. Aslaug turned to Vanya with the sword of Kings in her hands and walked towards the shaken ginger.

She pulled Vanya to her, a hand on the back of her head, and leaned closer to her ear. "Be brave, Vanya. If you let them see fear, you let them win. Be invincible." With that, Aslaug pulled away and kissed her forehead, leaving the Great Hall surrounded by warriors with Vanya and Aros in the rear. Hoenir was gods know where, which made her worry for his safety.

Maybe he was fighting outside, and they will arrive to see Lagertha's corpse in the middle of the street. With unsure steps, Vanya walked behind the confident Queen, praying for everything to end soon. They stayed behind as Aslaug walked through the cheering crowd to the blond shieldmaiden.

The sight behind Lagertha made Vanya's breath hitch. Some shieldmaiden's had Hoenir captured, his face bloody and body impaled by three arrows.He was breathing heavily, kneeling in the dirt with a pool of blood under him. Tears gathered in her eyes when she saw him; he looked half dead.

They pulled the hood of his head to show Aslaug what happened to one of her best fighters. But to their surprise, Aslaug stood her ground, looking at the seasoned shieldmaiden before her.

"How strange Lagertha, that you would play the usurper. One woman against another. It doesn't quite fit with your reputation."

"I was never the usurper. Always the usurped." She put her sword away, watching the other Queen with determined eyes. "You took my husband, my world, and my happiness. The fact that you are a woman is neither here nor there."

"I didn't take your husband. He chose to be with me."

"He didn't choose. You're a witch. You bewitched him." Even from afar, Lagertha's serious face and tone made Vanya take a double-take. What's more believable, that the Völva used magic to make Ragnar sleep with her, or that he cheated because he met a pretty girl far away from his wife? Honestly, Ragnar didn't strike Vanya as a man who would fall for magic. The pretty girl was more believable.

Even Aslaug couldn't help but giggle at the absurdity of the claim. "If that's what you want to believe, it's up to you. I don't disagree women can have power over men. But it's not always magical, is it, Lagertha? In any case," Aslaug looked around the crowd and raised her voice so they could all hear her next words. "Ragnar is dead."

The crowd gasped and talked among themselves in a mix of confusion, shock, and disbelief. "You don't know that." Lagertha accused Aslaug, not wanting to face the possibility he was actually gone.

"I dreamed it. I warned him about his journey. In my dream, his boats were sunk in a storm. Ragnar died." The Queens face saddened, and Aros whined in Vanya's arms. "So did my son, Ivar."

"But you don't know that." The desperation on Lagertha's side was obvious. Aslaug averted her gaze as if she was thinking before looking back up at her with a tilted head.

"No. I don't know that for sure. It was just a dream." The people whispered while Lagertha glared at the woman who taunted her in a dire situation. Hoenir looked towards the direction where the crying of a baby came from to see Vanya. He opened his mouth to call out to her, but Torvi dug her nails into his shoulder wound, silencing him.

Lagertha's eyes were tearful, and her voice honest as she steered back to the topic at hand. "And I have dreamed of taking back my home. I have dreamed it for a long time. But if I have to fight for it, then I will."

Aslaug smirked in amusement. "Don't worry. I could never fight you, Lagertha. I am not my mother, nor yet my father. I would never win." She threw the sword of Kings to the ground, raising up the murmurs once again. "But still, I have fulfilled my destiny. The gods foretold Ragnar would have many sons. And I have given him those sons. I am as much a part of his saga, Lagertha, as you are. But now I renounce everything."

The crowd kept getting louder as Aslaug continued her jabs at the usurper, finding the whole ordeal amusing in a sense. After all, when Ivar was born, they seemed to have made up, only for Lagertha to change her mind seventeen years later.

"All I ask is safe passage. All I ask is that you let me, my daughter Vanya and my grandson leave here in peace, to go wherever the gods decide. And you shall have back your hearth and home..." Aaslaug preened at the shocked shieldmaiden. "With my blessing. And my sons, when they hear how it was done, will be grateful for the manner of it... And not seek revenge."

Lagertha nodded at the reminder of Aslaug's three living sons. "I understand." She moved out of Aslaug's way, Vanya running up behind her so they could leave together. Aslaug motioned for the ginger to walk in front of her, thanking the new Queen of Kattegat.

The two women and babe walked forward bravely; heads held high. A swissing sound and Aslsaug stopping made Vanya halt as well. She turned around to see Aslaug collapse to her knees with a smile on her face, Lagertha standing behind her with a bow in her hand.

"NO!" Vanya run towards her mother in law, catching her in her arms, Aros crying hysterically in his sling. She pulled the Queen tighter to her, laying her head against her shoulder as she tried to put pressure on the wound in her back. "No, no, no. You can't die, you can't die."

But she could feel the lack of heartbeat and the sticky blood on her hand, the dead weight of her mother figure a painful truth. "No." Vanya sobbed into her shoulder, raising her eyes to meet Lagetha's, the satisfaction in the blue eyes the last nail in her coffin.

She watched the blonde with disgust and hate in her eyes, wishing she would burst into flames on the spot, giving her the most painful death imaginable. "You..." She spat the words out, tears streaming down her face, failing to hold up the corpse any longer.

Carefully she laid her down on the ground, guards running up to her to haul her away from the body. Vanya struggled against them, screaming her throat raw, just like her son against her chest. But it was no use as they dragged her away, Aslaug laying on the cold ground, alone.

Vanya did as Aslaug ordered her to do; she hid her fear and resentment under a mask of power and pride. Lagertha watched her walk to the shore; the ginger had her hair loose and was dressed in black from head to toe. A golden crown rested on her head, big dangly earrings, and a golden necklace around her neck.

The funeral was a miserable affair; the moment they lit the boat, it felt like a part of Vanya died. As if she crawled into the ship and curled herself around the horse head, burning alive alongside Aslaug's corpse.

The Queen looked as magnificent as she did while alive, finally free of all the burdens that came with marrying Ragnar Lothbrok. Vanya stood alongside the shores, surrounded by shieldmaidens, a prisoner. Brynja was forbidden anywhere near her, and she never felt more alone. Hoenir was being taken care of by some healers; the only one she had left was Aros.

Her son hated the scene as much as her, clutching her black dress in his tiny fists, hiccuping in between sobs. Humming a lullaby into his ear didn't help either. She wondered if he understood what happened or what danger they were in now.

She may have walked onto the shore surrounded by Aslaug's guards, but a nod from the new Queen made them abandon her, Lagertha's warriors surrounding her instead. Their loyalties lay with the new ruler, which meant that if she ordered Vanya's death, no one would try to stop her.

Vanya's head was on the chopping block, the axe dangling over her head. But she had to hide her fear, look as if she was at peace with death, or hid an ace in her sleeve. But she was powerless; the only thing she has is her courage.

Lagertha stood away from her, smiling in satisfaction, unbothered by Vanya's hateful stare. This time, Vanya didn't pray for her demise; she wished she could kill the bitch herself. An eye for an eye, a life for a life.

By the time Ubbe and Sigurd returned, everything was in chaos. Asluag was buried, and Lagertha sat on her throne. "Where's our mother?"

"She's dead, Ubbe." She replied nonchalantly, causing the two brothers to look at her in shock. They refused to go to England with Ragnar to protect Kattegat and their mother and failed both. "I killed her."

"Why?" The question was soft and laced with confusion and hurt. Despite being the oldest, Ubbe felt useless, helpless. He left her and signed her death sentence in return.

"She took Kattegat away from me. I wanted it back." Torvi and Astrid watched the Ragnarsson curiously, waiting for them to attack. Ubbe drew his weapon, and just as fast, the rest of the hall did as well.

Sigurd tried to hold him back, knowing it would be futile and would probably result in their deaths as well. "Where's Vanya and Aros? What did you do to them?" He asked, looking around the hall for his nephew and sister in law, but couldn't see them.

"They are alive, but not here. I do not know where they are."

"Why didn't you also have us killed?" Sigurd asked again, trying to make sense of Lagertha's plan. Did she really think they wouldn't avenge their mother? No matter how strained his relationship with her was, Lagertha's actions would hold consequences.

Sitting on her throne of lies, Lagertha smiled somewhat smugly. "This was nothing to do with you. You are Ragnar's sons. It was not your fault that your father was bewitched."

Ubbe pointed his dagger towards her, spitting words like venom. "It was a mistake not to kill us."

"That's a chance I was prepared to take." Ubbe turned his back to the new Queen, dropping his coat and charging towards her. Sigurd was held back by numerous warriors with swords to his throat as his brother fought his way to Lagertha.

He would have made it if it were not for Astrid stepping in and the others using the chance to pin him to the ground. Lagertha watched the Ragnarsson growling on the floor like a feral beast, worry evident in her eyes.

Sigurd and Ubbe left the Great Hall, the older of the two beaten up pretty badly. Brynja watched them go, taking the dark alley's between the houses to stay out of the usurper's sight. Striding after them, she picked up a pebble and threw it at Sigurd's head, startling the young Prince.

He turned around in shock to see her red hair in the alley, mentioning for him to come closer, he pulled his brother after him. "Brynja? What do you want?"

The ginger rolled her blue eyes and took both by the hand, leading them through the less crowded ways, taking various turns to shake off any followers. In the end, they reached a farm on top of a hill, hushed voices spoke inside the hut. "We were worried that they killed you too. Luckily, the Gods heard some of Vanya's prayers."

"You know where she is?" Ubbe questioned the servant earnestly only to ear a shushing sound and a nod. When the door opened, they were greeted with a bearded man with a bow pointed at that.

"Put it down, father. The Ragnarssons are back."

"Thank the Gods." He lowered the weapon and allowed them in. Behind a curtain in the kitchen were hushed voices by candlelight. One belonged to their sister in law, which made them sigh in victory.

"Vanya!" Sigurd called out, pulling back the curtain to see the Saxon Princess on her knees with an older woman by her side, tending to someone on a bed of furs. The someone was barechested, with bandages over his shoulder and pants ripped in some places to give access to his other wounds. "Is that Hoenir?"

"Arrow wounds, bruises, a broken nose, and two broken fingers, cuts, and scrapes all over as well. They beat him in the morning, left him on the ground to bleed out." Vanya explained, wringing the bloody cloth in a basin of water.

"Will he be ok?" Sigurd questioned, walking closer to his friend's bedside. The two men grew close over time, bonding over their love for music and Vanya. Hoenir was a good listener and gave wise advice when needed; it would be a shame if he died like this instead of the battlefield. A man like him deserved Valhalla.

Vanya bandaged another wound on the knee as the older woman wiped his face clean, and Brynja moved to find him some new clothes. "If the Gods's will it. We gave him tea to put him to sleep. But it's up to his strength and the Gods if he lives."

"We should move him." Ubbe declared, looking down at his sister to see her crying, eyes bloodshot, and Aros sleeping on another fur next to Hoenir. "I am sorry we left."

"She shot her Ubbe." Vanya sobbed out, looking at the beaten-up man in desperation. As if Ubbe could bring Aslaug back from the dead. "After renouncing everything and asking safe passage! Lagertha shot her in the back. I felt her die in my arms..."

#history vikings #vikings #vikings imagine #ivar the boneless #ivar ragnarsson #ivar lothbrok #ivar #ivar x oc #ivar imagine #original character #original female character

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doomedandstoned · 4 years ago

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Are You A Bible Basher?

~By Billy Goate~

Art by J. Hannan-Briggs

Words from the Bible,

...riffs from Hell.

This is BIBLE BASHER, a lumbering, sludgey beast of a death-doom band, drawing its fellows from Kurokuma, Archelon, Spaztik Munkey, and a band whose name alone intrigues me enough to spirit them out: Temple of Coke. The debut recording before us is 'Loud Wailing' (2020), just released last month on the Sludgelord Records Label and it's good stuff.

Chances are good that if you're unfamiliar with the band, you're waiting for the other shoe to drop: what's the agenda here? It bears mentioning that "Bible Basher" is an almost uniquely UK term. In the States, we tend to use the more politically acceptable (though still insulting) "Bible Thumper." Getting to the point: a Bible Basher is not someone who subjects the big black book and the pages there to beating, maiming, or otherwise spilling syrup on its Holy Writ nor turning its sacred pages into roll paper for a cheap high.

No, a Bible Basher is someone single-mindedly determined to bash you with their beliefs, clean across the head. You gotta get you on board with the whole worldview, the Last Days manifesto, the 3 steps to this place, the 5 steps to somewhere else, and however many more steps to the sanctuary doors. Usually, this evangelism has all the clumsy subtlety of a Jack Chick tract left on the Gas Station john. Sometimes it gets a bit more intrusive, like a manic street preacher with a megaphone or, more annoying still, a brainwashed politician determined to fence you into their highly selective idea of "God's Will."

All culture warring aside, it might surprise you to learn that I hold a great deal of respect for the Bible and believe it has an important role in developing our understanding of what makes human beings so fundamentally religious. The Bible is just one expression of people's religious and spiritual identity, of course. There have been many volumes written, by the gods it was said, attempting to reconcile the real and the ideal, time and eternity, the drab and the divine.

All fancy preambling aside, I wonder why more bands haven't gotten into the Bible and other sacred/profane lit, you know kinda breathing new life into old words? You have to admit, the concept is fascinating and the medium of expression surprisingly fits the unsparing nature of the content.

Perhaps afraid of appearing sacrilegious or being denounced as a Deicide wannabe, bands have just decided to walk away slowly. That or they don't even know how truly bizarre and sometimes brilliant the Bible can be. True, there are bands like Trouble/The Skull who have adapted Scripture into music, even succeeded in crossing over to a non-religious audience. Hell, The Byrds practically immortalized the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes back in '65 with that folk rock classic, 'Turn, Turn, Turn." Bible Basher are definitely onto a thing here.

Regardless of where you find a band called Bible Bash on the meter between "disgusting" and "fucking awesome, dude," they really aren't here to mock Scripture or Christians, not even to pronounce a value judgement. This is an artful attempt at retelling the stories of old, allowing us to gaze upon their vision.

☩

So Samson Sang

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

Out of all books, The Bible is perhaps most prized for its collection of ancient stories, many of which become embedded in our collective consciousness over time (if not the unconscious mind itself). The tale of Samson, for instance, is practically universal (Hercules, anyone?). Bible Basher invoke its powerful imagery for this Rage against the Philistines opener. The bulldog gruff of "So Samson Sang" suits the song unexpectedly well. Perhaps the impact is greater because we feel the punch of each word, measured and metered, calculated to leave the most indelible impact.

Simson verslaat de Filistijnen met een ezelskaak (1562) by Cornelis Massijs

Plagued

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

You'll never hear the anguish of Job expressed with as much weight as you will in "Burning and Blackened," for example. And the death-mongers among us, you'll enjoy the swirling storm of blast beats that "Plagued" stirs up and whips around Egypt, 10 plagues in all it is said. As this topsy-turvy number swarms along, the song feels like it's burrowing itself deeper and deeper into the ground in a crazed hypnotic dirge, as if seeking some relief from this madness of rivers turned to blood and a head full of lice.

Seventh Plague of Egypt (1823) by Martin John

Burning and Blackened

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

I'm really digging the Middle Eastern vibe of "Burning and Blackened," on the tape's flip side. I could all but feel the cool of dawn and that first burning lick of the sun's rise. As a die-hard doomer, it won't surprise you that I marked this my favorite song of the experience. The way this grand skeleton of chords suffles about had me thinking of Iowa City's Aseethe (I hereby wish an Aseethe-Bible Basher tour upon the world come 2021).

Job and his Friends (1885) by Gustave Dore

Sodom & Gomorrah

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

By the time we reach "Sodom & Gomorrah," we're battered, basted, and baked, ready for a fine finish to this four-course nosh. The vocals seem harsher than usual this time, but you have to understand that's the prophet divining judgement upon the most infamous twin cities of history (we find out in the interview to follow that there are multiple vocalists).

The whole song's got a nice, chewy groove to it. Plenty of meat on them bones. The lyrics consist of nothing more than the Bible's words, adding as much expressive liberty as death vocals will allow. The thick, smoky atmosphere of this whole song gave me flashbacks to 71TONMAN's "Phobia" and Old Man Gloom's "Procession of the Wounded."

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Jules-Joseph-Augustin Laurens

If I've any gripe with Loud Wailing, it's the runtime. Okay, yeah, sure, it's appropriate for an EP, but I can't shake the feeling that this is actually more of a teaser for something even grander in scope. Perhaps this is a toe in the water for the band, to see how people respond? Well, it's enough to reassure us that this sound and subject matter is poised to make some mighty big footprints.

Heck, I'd do the whole Bible book by book, if I was in their shoes. 66 in all, right? No problem. Okay, 73 if you're Catholic, 78 if you're Eastern Orthodox. Whatever, bonus editions. Works either way, 'cause you've got a guaranteed record deal and freaks like me to follow you wherever this piper lures. The band can break up from the repetitive bore of the long-ass genealogies in Leviticus and Numbers, but then reunite again to take on Deuteronomy.

All kidding aside, the dramatic potential of this collaboration is unreal. Bible Basher's debut is a promising record that presents tantalizing artistic possibilities (perhaps even with a roving collective of performers). The EP wears well on its own terms with repeated listens and I never found myself disinterested, even for a moment. Loud Wailing is the brutal dawning of a New Age in dirty grunts and dank riffs.

Give ear...

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

An Interview with Bible Basher

By Billy Goate

Intrigued by this hulking beast shrieking out in my backyard, I had to move in for a closer look. Following is my conversation with band member Joe E. Allen, who most of us know from Kurokuma and gives us insight as to who Bible Basher is and what the band is up to.

☩

Would you be so kind as to give me some background on the band, how you guys ended up coming together, basically the whole history?

Tich has recorded and helped produce most of the Kurokuma releases up till now, most of which you've heard or written about. Tich mostly makes electronic music and is pretty well known for it, but he was also in a band called Temple of Coke back in the day. Daft music with two guitarists and no bassist. Some big riffs in there.

They stopped doing much after one of the guitarists left Sheffield, but Tich still had a lot of riffs lying around. Obviously, he used to come to a lot of Kurokuma gigs in Sheffield -- and even saw us in Japan -- so he felt like getting back on writing some big guitar stuff and asked me if I'd give him some input. Over the course of a year or so we just reshaped those old riffs and added plenty of new ones and as we progressed it just kept getting bigger and heavier.

What's up with the name? You've got pretty distinct religious themes (love the motto). I come from a strict religious background myself (preacher's kid). What are your own backgrounds relative to the themes you explore?

I've always thought that some of the stories from the Bible, especially the Old Testament would make for perfect concepts in heavy metal. Unrelatedly, one day we were sitting around and Tich said let's call this Bible Basher -- it just came out of nowhere. I agreed, it just seemed to make sense. Here in the UK it's what you get called if you go to church, it's an insult. I had a really Christian upbringing with my dad being a vicar, as well, so was very into all that when I was younger.

Plus I went to a religious school, so I've definitely been called a bible basher quite a bit. It's actually taken me a while to remove that whole paradigm from the way I see reality, but that's another story. Tich wasn't like me in that aspect, but he did go to a religious school, as well. At this point, I think we're both not massive fans of organised religion, but that doesn't mean we're not into philosophy and more celestial concepts. We've both read quite a bit of things like Manly P. Hall and The Kybalion. We didn't wanna make a "statement" on anything with this, though. Just wanted to present it "as is."

I'm sure we'd all love to know how the individual tracks came together. The single on this one was "So Samson Sang," which met with some pretty positive reception.

I know the Bible pretty well and it wasn't too difficult to find concepts for the tracks. "So Samson Sang" was the first one we did. The lyrics are: "With a donkey's jawbone, I made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, killed a thousand men." And then "I have slain, heaps on heaps." They were from the book of Judges, when Samson slaughtered loads of Philistines, pretty much taken straight off the page. It was that easy. We got George in to do the vocals, for obvious reasons. We sat on the track for a bit and sent it round a few mates and everyone was like, "This is sick," which made us want to finish up the other tracks, which already were mostly done.

The other three tracks all came together in one night. We basically asked three mates from other bands to come over and figured out concepts for each of them. It was good to get their input and it was pretty collaborative. I think they all enjoyed being given a bit of a brief to work within and we were buzzing to end up with four different vocal styles for each track. So on track 1 you have George from Kurokuma, then on track 2 you have Bing who used to be in a thrash band called Psython and can obviously do the really fast/rhythmic thing and his death growls were just spot on. That track ended up sounding like Pig Destroyer or something to me. Obviously, it's about the ten plagues of Egypt and the fast/swirling nature of the riffs just seemed to fit.

On track three, we have Craig from Archelon and Holy Spider, so I know him pretty well. He did more of a Neurosis style on the track about Job. That one starts off with a zurna, which is a pipe from the Middle East area. There's a spoken word section in the middle, a conversation between God and Satan. I actually only realised what this was when we were going through the Bible for the lyrics.

God calls all his angels together, Satan being one of them, and they get into this conversation where God is saying he likes Job and Satan is saying if his life went to shit, I wonder if he'd still worship you. So God is like, "Okay, go for it." It's stuff like this that fascinates me. I think there's a fairly deep message to be heard in that if you read into it, but most Christians won't. As a text of folkloric wisdom the Bible is pretty meaningful to me, but most Christians don't treat it in that way in my experience.

And then we have the demented squeals of Chris from Spaztik Munkey doing the voice of God on track four which is about Sodom and Gomorrah. It worked out well that the ending riff fit perfectly with the syllables in the phrase "Sodom and Gomorrah."

In general, this release was a right laugh to work on. The songs just came together and it was good for us all to collaborate on something outside of our normal bands. And the response has been mega positive so far. Aaron sold out the first 50 tapes in three days so we're already on the second batch now.

Get Their Music

#D&S Reviews #Bible Basher #Doom #Sludge #Metal #Death Doom #Doom Metal #Sludgelord Records #HeavyBest2020 #D&S Interviews #Doomed & Stoned

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zaethro · 6 years ago

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Midwest Furfest 2018 Straw Poll

This is not science. I counted people’s hands in a video, rapidly, without double checking. The population sample was not randomized and changed throughout the polling. I did not re-ask questions after clarifying. None of this should be taken at face value as factual. Furscience.org does an okay job with demography. Ask them if you have real questions about furs. I’m here to yell at 30 people in a room and pass out napkins.

Every once in a while, I decide to host a panel at a fur convention just to shake up the basic attendee routine for myself. This year I submitted four panels to the Midwest Furfest programming team. This is the one panel they accepted, passing on an African Wild Dog meetup (unforgivable), a discussion of amorphous sexual identity (slightly more forgivable), and an ersatz talk show on furry political drama (submitted mostly to see where they draw the line). It was tempting to just mash those other topics into one power hour but, as a self-respecting pseudoscientist, I instead performed the task proposed. Here are the results.

20 to 30 people found their way to the bottom floor of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, walked through a door marked “Tech Center”, hung a right past a water cooler, then sat down in one of four stair-stepped rows of mesh back chairs. I didn’t check ID’s, so it’s entirely possible none of them were here for the convention but instead arrived in this room by random chance. 5 minutes past the hour, I instructed those present that this was the Straw Poll panel: that I would make statements and then raise my hand, at which time they would decide whether to raise their own hands in agreement. For example:

Each participant was also greeted with an unmarked Paw Patrol napkin. As a method of free response, I asked them to please write or draw something on it with the provided Sharpies. These are the results.

Analysis

Two goats: one lovingly rendered in profile, the other spelled out with descriptive adjectives (“GAY”, “Trans”). Combined with a small horse what appears to be a llama-class creature to my eye, this is a grand total of 4 ungulates. As with last time, a lot of gay self-identification as well as one entreaty to be gay. I was once again accused of looking like Owen Wilson. One person appears to have written their full actual name on the napkin, though this could be a head fake. I see only one “““mature””” drawing in the bunch: a relatively tamely proportioned sheath with “Sheathes 4 Lyfe” written next to it. Whether this is a lifelong passion for the writer or a characteristic of sheathes themselves is unclear. Two people drew ASCII emoji’s (“OwO” and “¯\_(ツ)_/¯ “), a direct breach of the internet/real-life barrier that spells doom for us all. One fish. Significant amounts of overlayering on the Paw Patrol graphics: black eyes, two cat faces, an eyepatch, a pig snout, a spinoff series called Mow Patrol. This kind of additive creativity pervades our now meme-governed culture. More will be added here as new patterns emerge.

Fistbumps

Everyone was asked to turn to the person next to them and perform a fist bump. Several styles were observed:

The Bread Loaf scale

In the interest of expanding the purview of science, the Machination Log implemented an experimental bread loaf scale for certain items. Participants were asked to raise their hand when the number of slices raised corresponded to their level of identification. The operational variable in this case was Brownberry Premium Italian.

7 of 27 participants claim to have experienced a phantom limb. 2 claimed to feel 3 or more; both believe this has improved their lives.

7 out of 26 consider themselves to be “on the spectrum”.

9 out of 26, after a lot of drawn out “ehhhhhhh”s considered themselves to be sexual deviants (the term was deliberately not defined).

16 out of 26 like to pet people who are dressed up like animals.

19 out of 26 like to be pet by people who are dressed up like animals.

The farthest flung attendee in the room was from Los Angeles. The closest were two people who both drove 40 minutes to get to the hotel; they didn’t claim to know each other.

12 out of 28 “Pokemon Go’d to the polls in 2018”.

The participant with the coolest pet in the room had a sugar glider. They also had a variety of other animals including guinea pigs and hamsters.

15 out of 26 have considered moving to a reclusive commune consisting entirely of furries or other kindred folk.

It took 11 out of 26 longer to get their badge than it did to commute to the con itself. In case you weren’t there, this picture of one half of the registration line should help explain the query:

Applause scale

For this section, we have an audio clip documenting audience enthusiasm for a variety of subjects. They include Kirby, Incineroar, bagels, representative democracy, Spanish nationalism, curling, the live-action remake of Cowboy Bebop on Netflix, Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix, Jib Kodi, dogs, cats, bread, ears, tails, haunches, snoots, paws, and maws. Feedback for this section is subjective, so we recommend auditors take a listen and come to their own conclusions. (If I find my drawings of paws and maws and such I’ll post them here; not sure where they wandered off to).

So, what did we learn? What practical lesson can we take away from the science?

Consumption-based trends in the fur community don’t last very long. Bronies were absolutely a thing in 2015 and not one walked in the room this time. We are a self-determining style of folk.

Fist bumps have a serious diversity crisis, with most participants not even bothering to “spice it up” with an exit strategy. The data recommends a 6-month re-education boot camp on the subject for all Americans.

Bread is a more contentious and confusing grading scale than anticipated, despite audience enthusiasm for the substance itself.

For a community that isn’t directly about being gay, furs remain—on balance—pretty gay.

Brown liquor was the most popular alcohol by a slim margin. Twice as many people would consume decaf coffee as dirt, despite those being the same thing.

Twice as many people prefer the bottom half of their fursona to the top half. This will require some additional exploration in a future installment.

Everyone is bad at high fives sometimes.

Furry art and furry pornography are not seen as overlapping magisteria and more people considered themselves well-versed in the latter than the former.

Paws are better than maws. We already knew this to be true going in, but replicability is important.

Naps are great and no one takes enough of them.

Until next year, or whenever.

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vinku-iikku · 6 years ago

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Yay I finally finished 2018 inktober! If you want to just scroll through them all please go here, and if you want to see some comments on each please look under the cut.

Day 01 Flowey and Overgrown Ruins This prompt I picked as is because as far as I remember Flowey stayed behind when the monsters left. If you can’t find him, he’s near the big root on the left. All other days the second prompt got randomised by a die (except when I reached the last two).

Day 02 Grillby and Exotic Flora Grillby’s on a journey to look at all the flowers that aren’t living in a wet environment. Maybe he’ll make some wine from the non-poisonous ones.

Day 03 Chara and Cave Entrance They are still curious about morbid things and places that could be portentially dangerous, practically running at danger.

Day 04 Undyne and Astral Plains/Dreamland Welp I’d rather have had her with some other prompt, but now she has an anime showdown/faceoff with a mean monster that harasses a moldsmal.

Day 05 Asgore and Rocky Ruins Asgore had a trip down memory lane and visited the place where their castle used to be, before the war. Not much is left any more.

Day 06 Frisk and Ancient Tree They are still precariously looking for adventure. I saw this article about a 800 year-old Finnish tree, as soon as I saw that top I wanted to climb that, looks like a perfect spot to see everything around you and chill for a bit.

Day 07 Temmie and Nature Untouched I did some research in a nearby forest for this one, the sales-Temmie has made a nest in a tree that has fallen down in a storm. The soil is shallow before solid rock so trees have their roots mostly close to the surface, when they fall the roots go up as well. Temmie on the left is sitting on an ant nest lol. There are seven Temmies in total.

Day 08 Muffet and Crystal Coves Crystal Coves is either a place where crystal business is the main employer, a cove that has crystals, or a cove with crystal clear water, I think. I tried to implement them all just to make sure. Muffet has now made a business in making spider-products with glass expertise.

Day 09 Fuku Fire and Freezing Fjord Finally back to the ‘monsters travelling’ theme, Fuku is taking a longer trip and is currently on a boat by Norway.

Day 10 Gaster Blasters and Townsquare The blasters are on their own for whatever convenient reason, Pap’s one is figuring how things work by destroying them, Sans’ is... playing with local children. :D The fountain is loosely based on Havis Amanda.

Day 11 Nice Cream Guy & Shanty Town He’s travelling the world and selling nice cream! Definitely inspired by Beadle in BotW.

Day 12 Mettaton EX & Cemetery This combination took me a moment, Mettaton is a bit loud and showy for a cemetery. Then I remembered that Napstablook said they’re already dead when you try to kill them, so here Mettaton’s visiting haunted places and telling everyone about this wonderful body he got and where to get one if you’re interested in becoming physical again. I worked in a cemetery for one summer years ago, felt weird pulling those visual memories to this...

Day 13 Toriel & Hall of Deities In order to become a teacher I’d imagine she’d have to brush up her knowledge on lots of things that’ve happened on the surface, and here she’s in a secret underground place with some sacred scriptures or something, she reads them and writes down notes and then returns the scrolls.

Day 14 Annoying Dog & Volcanic Terrain Another weird combination, but eh, it’s the dog. It’s feeding bones to the vulkins and admiring danger up close.

Day 15 Monster Kid & Path Along the Water I made a huge area with different textures so I could try learn something new by scribbling around, and I’m really happy how the boulders on top of the waterfall and the water itself look like.

Day 16 Doggo & Ancient Altar Room Took a moment to come up with an idea, then I read Doggo likes squirrels. So now he’s travelling the world too, and he always has time and seeds for any squirrel population he discovers.

Day 17 Alphys & Summoning Altar I thought I’d not be drawing Mew Mew, but here was a perfect opportunity for that! Alphys isn’t travelling, but discovering new things in her home, humans have such interesting books! All of the Japanese text mean something; the bowl has the kanji for ’love’, books under it are Mew Mew manga, there’s two yury books, a reference to Free!, Digimon, Pokémon, Rose of Versailles, Natsume Book of Friends... and it’s fine if you don’t get the one that says ‘corn’.

Day 18 Photoshop Flowey & Windmills and Grasslands I think the modern wind generators look super cool. I tried to make Flowey as cute as possible so he’d be more fun to draw there, this is some dream stuff or alternate universe since Flowey did stay behind.

Day 19 Papyrus & Desserted Drylands I’m pretty sure that’s an accidental typo, but since it was Papyrus I wanted to roll with the new pun meaning. First thought was Papyrus somehow being in the drylands and dropping a huge cake, thus ’desserting’ it, but that would’ve been a bit mean. This cake is made with 100% organic sand (some of which he ground himself when grooming Rocky), the tiny cow ornaments are modified mouse skeletons. :) The chef hat would be straight but there wasn’t enough room on the page of the notebook I draw these on... I remembered he had a triangle on the battle armor, but didn’t remember what way it points so avoided it by replacing it with a heart. :D

Day 20 Sans & By the Beach Sans is getting some more sand for Papyrus with his shortcut, then he took a nap unfortunately close to the tide..? The shore felt a bit bare so I added some animals to keep him company. I h/c that animals don’t mind having monsters around unlike how they usually try to run away when a human is near.

Day 21 Shyren & Buried Statue(s) She’s doing that Disney princess thing where you sit down and start singing and all small animals within hearing range come to listen.

Day 22 Asriel & Underwater Temple Another dream thing since Flowey stayed behind, this is how he imagines the oceans look like outside.

Day 23 Lesser Dog & Market Place Some people have to learn the hard way to not trust a dog that has opposable thumbs.

Day 24 Box Mettaton & Merchant’s Store Any website run by a popular monster must get an insane amount of curious folk, which leads to ad revenue being a good way to fund the next tour. There’s some.. insider jokes there if you’re in any kind of website business.

Day 25 Rocky the pet rock & Eldritch Forest I don’t actually know what the latter means, looking at Google images it’s probably just a forest that’s very dark or something. Wanted to try a different perspective for a change. Rocky has a bowl of food there but I can’t really think of any non-sad reason for why it’s in this forest.

Day 26 Froggit & Inn in th Middle of Nowhere Had to take a break for one day, regardless I’m proud of myself on being consistent this far despite everything going on. I first only had the top Froggit and the bg in the sketch, and didn’t like how it looked. Somehow adding more Froggits made it look a lot better to me...

Day 27 Burgerpants & By the Docs Birsd with human arms and birds sitting like humans will never not be hilarious to me.

Day 28 Bratty and Catty & Deep in the Woods Tried to play with perspective with this one, it’s kind of the opposite of the Rocky drawing.

Day 29 God of Hyperdeath & Idle Portal I had a hard time coming up with anything for this, so now poor goat is somewhere in a completely white dimention and the only way out is not active, though he’s quite chill about it.

Day 30 Amalgamate & Abnormal Formations This and last one’s world I didn’t leave for the die to decide, I really wanted to do Tetris with Napstablook and out of the two still left this prompt suits Endogeny more anyway. There’s a forest in Poland where several of the trees bend to north like this.

Day 31 Napstablook & Puzzling Platforms Only one I did during morning, my hands shake more then so all the lines are more or less wobbly. Every Tetris piece has it’s own signature design except the L-shape which is just blank to keep it interesting. Napstablook is enjoying game music while inside the game, maybe ghosts can possess videogames..? This also shows the notebook I drew all of these in and the tools I used most of the time.

It’s hard to tell if I’ve improved at all when comparing these to 2017 inktober, I haven’t draw regularly through the year and the main focus point this time was on backgrounds and not so much on lines and characters. I did learn new things and that’s always exiting, I think my trees, glass and rocks look way better than before I started, and I did some progress in shading metal too. All of these took 3 hours or less to finish, some only took an hour. I didn’t need to erase pencils like last year because I used a trick where I placed the sketch under the notebook page and my tablet with 100% brightness and a white bg under them, and traced that with ink. The notebook paper is pretty thin, you can see the Amalgamate drawing’s clouds showing through in the Napstablook photo. Anyway, this was fun, and I think I’ll try do it next year too!

#myart

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ciaomichaella · 3 years ago

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Good luck & good curling to 🐐 @niklasedin & @teamniklasedin at the #ECC2021 which gets underway in a few minutes (for the women’s side. I’ve been busy w/ work & cosplay prep that I only just now got around to converting the draw times to my timezone & putting together my schedule for the upcoming week. . . Disappointed that the WCF will no longer provide free livestreams of games on their YouTube channel. My experience w/ Recast during the Euro Super Series was horrible. I paid money for 1000 credits & virtually every single stream has audio and/or video issues. I’m still salty AF that the Edin featured stream was so plagued w/ issues Recast manually issued refunds. I’m sad we’re losing the chat function that the YT channel had too. A lot of people are upset - angry enough to say they’re boycotting the event altogether especially since Canadian Olympic Trials and American Thanksgiving are plenty to keep folks occupied. I’ve already run into issues and the event hasn’t even started yet somy expectations are low. But I love my @svenskcurling teams too much to boycott the event. I’m hoping Sweden sweeps the golds in both disciplines again this year though some people have put Spidey as the favorite for both Europeans and Olympic gold already due to his GSOC successes. I’ll still be backing Edin 100%. Here’s hoping they get more gold medals to add to their already illustrious resume 🙏🤞 . . There are 132 days before my birthday and 133 days before the start of #WMCC2022 in Vegas. I’ve had my tickets for section 116 for awhile now & so far I haven’t decided to return them even if Team Edin haven’t been confirmed as Team Sweden for that event yet, though I haven’t finalized travel & hotel yet. If my birthday trip happens as planned, I plan on showing up w/ a goat onesie and cardboard cutouts a la US Olympic trials LOL. Who else is going? . . 📸 @nationalcoachmaria https://www.instagram.com/p/CWfXAPqLMzU/?utm_medium=tumblr

#ecc2021 #wmcc2022

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raygirlramblings · 7 years ago

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~~~MERRAY CHRISTMAS 2017!!!~~~

It’s been a rough and turbulent year for many, but I hope that everyone who sees this can have some peace over this holiday season. Spend time with the ones you love, enjoy some yummy food, open and share gifts, just have some time for you.

And if you really want to, celebrate Christmas with whatever traditions you hold dear! The more unusual the better.

This year the Rayman family are celebrating Christmas with some unique and unusual traditions from around the world. Had a lot of fun reading up on some of these traditions and their origins, and then deciding which character would best represent each tradition. It seems fitting considering how many wonderful friends I’ve made from around the world through this iconic game series. And here’s hoping to meet many many more in the coming year!

A full list of what each character represents is under the read more ;)

Going clockwise round the tree, starting with Rayman: Rayman: Yule Lads - Iceland Christmas isn’t christmas without a little festive mischief, and in Iceland they have a whole team of mischievous mythical chaps to cause mayhem called the Yule Lads. These include folk like Askasleikir (Bowl Licker), Stekkjarstaur (Sheep-Cote Clod) and Pottaskefill (Pot Scraper) but Rayman is specifically dressed as Gáttaþefur, the Doorway Sniffer who uses his big nose to sniff out tasty baked goods :) Finally Rayman gets to put that nose of his to good use XD Globox: Traditional St Nicholas - England/Germany Actually struggled to find the accurate origins of this version of St Nicholas. Before CocaCola decked Santa in red in the 1930’s the jolly present giver appeared in a variety of different costumes including a green robe and a crown of holly. Credit should also be given to the Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickins A Christmas Carol who wears the same outfit. Really Globox represents the non-commercial depictions of Father Christmas! Uglette + kids: Christmas Pudding & Silver Sixpence - UK The Christmas Pudding is a popular traditional stable of the Christmas dinner in the UK, and there are a few traditions associated with preparing it. One tradition states that each member of the family should take a turn stirring the pudding mixture from east to west (which considering the size of the Globox family could take some time!). Another tradition is the inclusion of a Silver Sixpence, which is placed in the pudding mixture before baking. Whoever receives the sixpence in their pudding portion gets to keep it! The Globox Kids: Mari Lwyd - Wales Probably the creepiest Christmas tradition I found was from Wales, and it was particularly bizarre since I’ve lived in Wales for 3 years and have never heard of this XD A horse skull decorated with ribbons and trinkets is attached to a stick and draped with a white cloth (to cover the person ‘wearing’ it), and the Mari Lwyd is lead from house to house to sing and perform dances for the residents. It’s a little like Wassailing, bringing round joy and holiday cheer to neighbors. Raymesis doesn’t seem to appreciate Mari Lwyd’s song ;) Raymesis: The Krampus - Germany If you’ve been naughty it’s not Santa you should be afraid of, as Mr Krampus is a LOT more horrifying. A demonic creature who accompanies Santa and punishes naughty kids, the Krampus has gained popularity in recent years inspiring people to make their own costumes and parade round as him. Also everyone should watch The Krampus movie, it’s great :D Voodoo Mama: Christmas Spiderwebs - Ukraine/Eastern Europe Considered to be the origins of Tinsel, the Christmas Spider is a tale about a hard working arachnid who helps decorate the tree of a poor family in time for christmas. When the first sunlight of christmas day fell on the spiderwebs they turned to gold and silver, and the family were never poor again. Such a sweet story, and considering the prevalence of spiders in Rayman’s world this seems like something the Glade residents would celebrate. Sssam: Hanging Stockings - Europe/America While the official origins of this tradition are unknown the concept of hanging stockings by the fire for Santa date back as far as the 1800’s. The most famous story is of St Nicholas leaving gold coins in the stockings of three poor sisters, which were hanging by the fire to dry. Nowadays stockings are elaborate and often personalised. Can you guess who the stockings Sssam is wearing belong to? ;) Lac-Mac: Gävle Goat - Sweden In Sweden the Yule Goat is a popular and beloved Christmas creature, a friend to Santa on par with his own reindeer. As part of their Christmas celebrations the town of Gävle erects a giant straw goat in the town center, which has become a popular tourist attraction. But unfortunately it’s not just the size that makes it famous (despite the fact it’s a Guinness World Record winner). The Gävle Goat has the unfortunate curse of being vandalised or set on fire by random people to the point where it’s become a tradition to see if the goat will make it to New year. Probably a good idea to stay away from open flames, Lac Mac ;D Murfy: The Christmas Pickle - America/Canada While a lot of cultures enjoy eating pickled foods around Christmas time, the Christmas Pickle is an oddity as while people believe it started in Germany it’s actually an American/Canadian invention based on a pickle tree decoration! In some homes the family will hide a pickle ornament on the tree for the kids to find. But real, edible pickles are good too and better to share with friends :D Betilla: Befana the Witch - Italy Santa isn’t the only deliverer of pressies to kids. In Italy the kindly witch Befana flies about on her broom filling the shoes of good children on the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan 6th), and will even sweep your floor before she moves on! I figured Betilla would like playing the part of a good witch bringing kids joy :D Barbara and Holly: Roller Skating to Mass - Venezuela On Christmas day it’s not uncommon for the cities of Venezuela to close their roads and open them only to the people, hurrying to Mass services on roller skates! Seems like the Holiday Princess has managed to rope one of her interdimentional cousins to skate with her, and Barbara is a little out of her depth XD The Teensie Doctors: Three Kings Night - Spain Much like Befana the Three Kings/Wise Men of the Bible are responsible for filling the shoes of good Spanish children on Jan 5th. The Teensie Doctors seem to be taking their work very seriously…for the most part… Romeo Patti: Shoe Throwing - Czech Republic Normally a tradition performed by women (but Romeo is all about breaking the norm!) the idea is to toss a shoe over your shoulder while facing the front door of your house. Depending on how it lands will determine if you’ll be married that year, though I’m not sure the prediction is accurate if you hit your friends in the process. O_O Ly: KFC Mascot girl - Japan While many families will traditionally sit down to a home cooked meal at Christmas, in Japan KFC does gangbuster business with families ordering their seasonal chicken bucket meals months in advance! Ly is dressed in the clothes worn by the Japanese KFC promotinal girl…though now I’m looking at it maybe I should have dressed her up as Colonel Sanders. She could have easily rocked the white suit! Tily: St Lucia - Scandinavia Decipted as a young woman dressed in white with a crown of holy and candles, St Lucia is a symbol of light and comfort bringing food to the hungry. She is often shown carrying bread and sweet buns to distribute to the poor. Funnily enough I know I’ve seen someone draw Tily as St Lucia in the past, so that inspired her appearance in this picture!

#Rayman #Christmas #my arts #sorry about the long post #tumblr mobile broke the readmore >_<#should be fixed now

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humanwithherpes-blog · 7 years ago

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Herpes Whoredom

January 6th, 2018.

Candidness is key.

I had sex in the university’s science lab. Actually, the place where they genetically engineer goats to excrete spider silk. Like, these little guys produce milk that has copious amounts of one of the strongest, most indestructible materials made by nature. So I guess you can say I’m intricately woven into the larger scientific community.

Back to the sex. I was having sex in the science lab. Exciting as it sounds, I actually realized I had left my tampon in after a couple of minutes. Extracting it wasn’t too difficult, but it left me extremely sore.

The following day, I continued feeling a burning itch down there, which was unsurprising, and I assumed I had gotten a UTI, or yeaster infection, or at the worst, maybe even TSS (which I actually know nothing about), but the pain got more intense as the weekend went on, and I noticed a couple of bumps in my genital region. I remember lying in the bathtub with Epsom salt, and my roommate came into the bathroom to pee. I even had her take a look, and she commented that it might just be bacterial vaginosis, something she had gotten a while back. “Yeah, that’s kinda what it looks like. Just go to urgent care and they’ll give you antibiotics. You should be fine. It’s probably because of the whole tampon sex thing.”

“Thank you, wise roommate! I indeed shall go to the doctor first thing in the morning.”

January 8th, 2018.

The nurse led me to the examination room, and I declined to sit in the chair; instead, I squatted on the floor because that was the only position in which I felt semi-comfortable. She took my pulse and got my weight and asked me the normal questions, and I told her about the Tampon Sex and how I had self-diagnosed with Bacterial Vaginosis.

She was honestly kind of bitchy. She was making this kind of sour expression on her face the whole time and rolled her eyes at me when I was telling her that I was in pain.

Maybe she was having a bad day, or just like, has RBF, but she rubbed me the wrong way, and when the male doctor had me put my feet in the stirrups so he could peer into my aching vagina, she stood in the corner, with the stupid pinched look on her stupid bitchy face, all I could think was Does this bitch have to be in here right now, and the doctor, right away, in a low voice, said, “Hmm, yeah, that looks like it’s herpes.”

He wouldn’t make eye contact with me, and that stupid nurse stared at me with her nose wrinkled up and did a little eyebrow lift before she left the room.

I wanted to punch her.

And then I was like, okay, so what now? And he was like, “’kay, here are some meds, good luck, and bye!”

The Next 10 Days

were the worst of my life.

This was the first week of the semester. I tried going to class one day, but I had to walk so slowly and gingerly that I got there 30 minutes late, and then I had to pee, and I ended up just crying in pain on the bathroom floor until a friend could come pick me up.

What started out as little bumps turned into fiery little sores and even open lesions that extended all the way into my cervix and around my urethra. Yeah, the acid in my piss burned the hell out of me every time I had to pee. Eventually, I figured out this routine where every time I would go, I would get on all fours in the bath tub and kind of splash water on myself when the pee would come out to relieve some of the pain faster, screaming in pain the whole time, and then I would rinse out the bathtub and just lie in there for like half an hour.

I didn’t want to drink fluids because I didn’t want to pee. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t leave the house, I couldn’t sit down. Everything was painful.

And I was like, holy shit holy shit, no one is every going to want to have sex with me again. I’m a modern-day leper. I have this nasty little virus inhabiting my body and it will never go away. It’s invaded me. Like, it thinks that it can just use me as its home and hurt me and just basically fuck up my life.

Most of my friends were supportive. My mom sounded shocked and appalled, but she was really nice, and my best friends brought me over soup and candy and books almost every day. I did have one friend, however, when I disclosed to him about my STI, that looked me in the eye and told me, “I will never see you the same.”

I contacted the men I’d been with in the last six months, encouraging them to get tested. Many ran into the same problem: the clinics were unwilling or reluctant to test them since they had no symptoms. (Even though 85% of HSV-positive individuals DON’T HAVE SYMPTOMS.) And can herpes be spread asymptomatically? YES IT CAN. I got my herpes from a person with no symptoms.

Stuck at home, with nothing else to do, I did a lot of research. I have to give a shout-out to Ella Dawson, whose herpes blog provided a lifeboat to my mental and emotional health.

I dedicated my time to several online support groups, and I educated myself on everything there is to know about HSV2.

And then life went back to “normal”

The Valtrex eventually did its thing and the pain of the herpes went away, but I was left to deal with the negative social stigma that accompanies it as I dove back into the dating world.

There was this Tinder dude who was trying to have sexy talk with me, and this is how the conversation turned:

Okay dude, you don’t want herpes but A. who even said that we were going to have sex and B. don’t be an asshole.

And while we are talking about douchebags, here is another unrelated, non-herpes conversation I had with a tinder dude:

Jesus, like I DON’T WANT TO SEND YOU NUDES AND IF I DO I WILL BUT BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU GET.

Sidenote: I have met many lovely, kind, respectful gentlemen on tinder and bumble.

I started seeing this guy, we’ll call him Marty, for a couple of weeks, and he seemed to handle the herpes thing pretty well. In fact, it didn’t bother him at all. We were going to have sex, but I could tell he was uncomfortable. He started acting weird, and finally admitted that he was afraid of contracting HSV2 through my blood. If he couldn’t handle it, that’s fine, but I can’t handle being around someone who can’t handle it, so I told him goodbye.

Yes, I faced the cold sting of rejection, as certain men decided I wasn’t worth their time, which is fine, because ultimately, those type of people aren’t worth my time either. I’m honestly a very fit, sexy, funny, intelligent, kind, successful 25-year old woman and anyone that can’t see past my herpes can go bury their head deeper in the sand where it belongs.

I came to some realizations:

1. I can’t break the stigma if I stigmatize myself. As an HSV2-positive female, I have 3 choices: add to the shaming of herpes by putting myself down, hide from the shaming of herpes by keeping it a secret, or fight the shaming by telling people my story. In sex ed they show you gross, scary pictures of genital infections, but where was the part about those parts belonging to a human being whose identity is bigger than an STD? What about her likes and dislikes, her community of people she loves, and in return loves her? What about her career, what she does to pay her bills, her vices, her habits, her passions?

We aren’t just looking at an STD, we are looking at part of a multi-faceted individual.

I am an individual. I love coconut water and I hate Chili’s southwestern eggrolls. I like karaoke and game night, and I like sitting in the sun while I draw or read a book. I’m a waitress, a student, a transcriber, a musician, an artist, a lover, a sister, a friend.

I am HSV2-positive, but it does not change my value.

2. The bad reputation society has given herpes comes down to sex shaming.

Though it is a popular Christian belief that sex should be saved for the sanctity of marriage, or used only for reproductive purposes, it is not a consequence or punishment of “promiscuity.” Having herpes does not make one gross or undesirable. Any individual with one, none, or multiple partners, does not “deserve” to get an STD. Sex is a part of life, therefore, STD’s are a part of life, and it is nothing to snub or look down upon.

3. STD-screening and Sex Education needs some serious reform, folks.

You are not a “dirty, used shoe that has been worn by the entire football team” if you’ve had sex. That was the video I was shown in my sex-ed class, and it made me feel like shit about myself for a long time.

Maybe instead of pushing for abstinence, we can be realistic and talk about safety and condoms and create an UNDERSTANDING of sex, rather than FEAR.

If you don’t have symptoms, get tested. If they refuse, get tested somewhere else.

Don’t let your doctor be a dick-wad. I went to get a Valtrex refill the other week, and he told me, “If you got herpes at the beginning of the year, and you’re already sexually active again, maybe you should reconsider how much sex you’re having.”

Maybe you should reconsider your right to comment on my sex life, mister. I reported him. Don’t let them say shit like that. It’s not okay.

But you know what is okay? Having herpes!

I have herpes, and it’s actually pretty okay.

(me rn, typing this in the library)

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survivor-mountmerapi · 4 years ago

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Ep. 6: “You never know what some people may have up their sleeve” - Rachel

DeNara

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY VOTED OUT JAMES!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOOOOO FLIPPING MAD!!!!!!!!! HE WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS GAME I WANTED TO PLAY WITH!!!!!

This has Julia written all over it.... I don't expect to make the merge now, but if I do, I am going for blood....

Julia

HOW ARE PIETRO AND I STILL HERE?!?!?! This is sexy

Pietro

I cant believe this allow me and Julia to survive another round. We not only have now a 4 person alliance, but Julia told me she has an idol. We are running this game and we are here to stay, and we will keep slaying the favs. Julia was telling me earlier the day that she was gonna play her idol cause everyone was definately voted her out, but when I talked to Rachel I realised there was a chance she could flip, so I quickly made a group chat with me, Julia, Anastasia and Rachel to try to get them on our side... and it worked!! I LITERALLY THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA TAKE US HOURS TO FLIP THEM, and they decided to flip in 5 minutes.

AND ALSO, this people are playing so stupid! Like Elle in tribal saying how much she trusted James, and how Moth backstabbed her in the past like girllll why are you revealing so many info to EVERYONE?? you are a warrior or a wannabe?? I'm probably sounding very cocky but damn it this people are all so easy to read!!

Raffy

So. Much. Happened. Tonight. Firstly, I think DeNara and Nicholas both realize that Warriors are on the bottom after watching the other tribe's tribal council. This put them both in Mess mode. According to Steven, Nicholas told him about a 5-person alliance that was created with Madi, Gian, DeNara, Ginnifer, and Nicholas. Nicholas said it was created to take out the Winners (Steven and I). He said to Steven that he wants to work with us and to get the tribe to a 2-2-2 tribe split by voting out Ginnifer. Voting Ginnifer did not require this amount of effort as I believe she was the easiest target tribe. But wait. It gets messier. DeNara comes to me and tells me that Nicholas is snaking everyone on the tribe. She says that Nicholas came up with the whole alliance, and that he's been trying to play Steven and I (which we already kind of figured from Gian and Madi). Steven told her that Nicholas was throwing her under the bus which prompted to send quote receipts to both of us about how Nicholas has been playing puppet master to get the newbies and winners to target each other. Now, DeNara fully thinks Nicholas is trying to snake her, and she created an alliance with Steven and I to get him out pre-merge. Meanwhile, this required no prompting from Steven or I as we watched the Warriors eat themselves alive without even going to tribal council. These people are a Mess. And I love it. DeNara also told me that she thinks Julia is running the other tribe from head to toe. She believes that Julia is the reason one of her allies (James) was voted out. Therefore, I told her about Julia's idol to get her to target her even more come merge. DeNara seems very willing to vote out Julia, and to enact some revenge from another ORG which I happily fueled. Now, I can go into merge with someone who will target Julia FOR me. This is what happens when you mess with me and try to play me. Julia whenever you read this, I hope it was worth voting out Ellie. Kisses ~Raffy

DeNara

Well, Nicholas is screwed. I spilled the tea to Raffy and Steven about how hard Nic has been playing and they spilled some tea back. Nicholas has been playing all of us and got caught. They even tried to use me as a scape goat. Works for me because now I have an alliance with Steven and Raffy to get out Nicholas and get revenge for James by taking out Julia. TEA, she has an idol apparently. At least I know now! I really hope this goes my way.

DeNara

Nicholas seems like they almost want to get voted out! They are so chaotic. Nicholas was on call with me and Steven saying we should vote out Ginnifer. Then they told me privately it was to lower our target and then take out the winners. THEN messaged Raffy saying he was their Ride or Die! oh my goodness! Nicholas you are a great person, I really think you are fun to video chat with, but this intense premerge play is gonna get you voted out next.

Raffy

Nicholas is already thinking about tribal before the challenge has even ended. He's already trying to "manipulate" everyone into voting Ginnifer when it would not even take half the effort he is putting in to do it. I'm sure everyone would be happy to vote out Ginnifer, but Nicholas is playing so messy that we have to get rid of him now. He's calling me his "ride or die" and how we have "so much in common" when I have barely had two conversations with the dude. I suggested to Revenge R Us (DeNara, Steven, and I) that we could potentially throw next challenge if we win this challenge to get Nicholas out pre-merge. I feel like a devil on their shoulder.

Elle

God I hope it's actually round 6 😅 Not entirely sure lol uhm anyway yayyy Pictionary went great despite me rushing to get dinner done and then setting up my tablet on call 😂 and photoshop temporarily fighting against me its fine we did it folks we made it to merge✨ well after tribal tomorrow for the others. Now the annoying part: I severely doubt I'm lasting more than like, one, two rounds post merge 😔. I think by being an important piece on so many winning challenges (shape memory, with DeNara and Nicholas in Storytelephone, having a big role in the movie trailer challenge (which won in my heart ❤️), and being the drawer in the Pictionary) I'm like... well I'm entirely and utterly screwed 😂. I can hope people like me enough to keep me around maybe? But that's not really how the game is played... oh well. Oh and because I didn't make an earlier confession: I'm so upset they kicked off James it completely blindsided me D: my buddyyyyyyyyy ugh I should've known that if the math was obvious to me it was to the others as well, it was smart to boot an og warrior :(. James didn't deserve this though!! Upsetting, completely and utterly.

Ginny

Me and the warriors strong alliance have a huge plan in store sucks to suck

Gian

Nicholas being a pot stirrer, but that’s gonna cost him his game :)

DeNara

Holy Crap! This is pure chaos! We found out we we were going to tribal and it was scrambling and messages from everyone to everyone. After talking to Raffy and Steven, I made a group chat with the newbies calling out all of Nicholas' chaos. The 5 of us are splitting the votes between Nicholas and Ginnifer in case Nic plays an idol. My brain is hurting today lol.

Raffy

DeNara started a 5 person alliance with Steven, Gian, Madi, and I called "Down to Business." She did this so the plotting of Nicholas' demise can begin. First of all, Ginnifer and Nicholas are throwing everyone's name under the sun out. Secondly, Nicholas has been PM'ing Madi and Gian about what they should do NEXT TRIBAL after they get Ginnifer out. I have no idea why he would ask that because we have to deal with THIS TRIBAL at the moment. Thirdly, it seems Nicholas has been trying to throw the Winners under the bus. Or, at least, he's trying to set himself up to play the middle between the Wannabes and the Winners. However, his plan only works if we don't talk to each other which we did. Now, it's a #NicholasExposedParty over in our alliance. The plan is to split the vote 3-2 to get out Nicholas and, in case he has an idol, vote out Ginnifer. This plan should work because even if Nicholas votes with Ginnifer he gets out. Plus, even if Nicholas votes for Ginnifer, it ties 3-3-1 which would send Nicholas out. Additionally, I threw Julia under the bus hard to Madi and Gian, making them not trust her at all. It's all coming together for me tbh. These next few rounds should be HIGHLY entertaining if you are a Raffy Stan or a Drama Stan.

Moth

I’m gonna make the merge omg. My life in the game was definitely on the line, I was worried about getting voted tonight because it was between me and Elle and I think they’d vote me out first

DeNara

Morning of my first tribal day..... I really hope I can trust Steven and Raffy tonight. Really my fate rests with them for now. I trust Steven more because he seems to play a more loyal game. Raffy didnt want to make an alliance chat last night and that is suspicious to me... I really hope he isnt lying to me abs Revenge R Us is strong

Julia

Pietro and I are low key running this game right now it’s kind of amazing. I am so here for this it’s iconic. We’ve gotten what we’ve wanted each tribal so far and people really haven’t figured it out yet. I’m hoping Steven still wants to link with us at merge because I think the three of us could run this shit

Rachel

Well, I know the merge is upon us. The plan is for hopefully Gian and Madi to survive the vote (i'm going to be praying all day at work; i miss them!) and us six make it to merge(which includes myself, julia, pietro, anastasia, gian, and madi). We could then have a 1/6 shot of winning this if we can convince someone from the other side to flip at the vote! but realistically, it will be hard and you never know what some people may have up their sleeve. *cough cough* raffy *cough cough*. This game is so mentally stressing, but I love it!

Anastasia

We won the competition thanks to Elle's really good drawing skills. I have a feeling merge is coming up so me and my alliance are making plans for majority. We know that if we have Madi and Gian, all we need is one more person and we have majority. So, we just need to persuade someone to join us before it's too late. I am thinking that we could recruit Moth or Elle (or both) but they could still be loyal to the warriors. Plus we voted their fellow warrior out... So I don't know what they would do. What if I just threw the idea out to both of them? I think I have nothing to lose? AHHH maybe I do have something to lose because I cant like expose our plans.

Moth

The tea is... I have no clue what’s gonna happen after tonight, I’m not sure anyone does but I feel like I definitely would have been voted out had we not won this challenge —

Nicholas

We finally are going to tribal! I’m a little nervous but hopefully the plan to vote out Ginny works. I’ve been using Ginny this whole game with the trading gear back and forth and etc. I think I’m the only person Ginny talks to. I got Ginny who was already people’s target to make herself even more of a target by throwing out lots of names. I also tested people by having Ginny tell them to vote me. Steven and Raffy immediately messaged me and Gian told me only after I was talking to him but that’s probably because he didn’t care what Ginny was saying. Hopefully Ginny doesn’t blow up and call me out at tribal when she starts getting votes.

Steven

https://youtu.be/nLX0HYo7dh4

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armsinthewronghands · 4 years ago

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Ron Edwards Making No Sense

https://plus.google.com/u/0/110790893064742233179/posts/JJj6ow3fEX5

Wayne Snyder Shared privately - Aug 18, 2015

Simon Bisley, 1997

(NOTE FOR THE TRANSCRIPT: The post consisted of a Simon Bisley painting)

43 Ron Edwards's profile photoMike Evans's profile photoMichael Moscrip's profile photoRichard Grenville's profile photo 84 comments

Richard GrenvilleAug 18, 2015+4 5 4

If I were in my bikini and bird mask ensemble I would not like to be in that position under all those razor-sharp spider parts, is all I'm saying.

Richard GrenvilleAug 18, 2015

+Jeremy Duncan #startingequipment for Oriax?

Asia PickleAug 18, 2015

I do like his stuff. You ever seen that TV show Spaced?

Ron EdwardsAug 18, 2015

plus for audacity, but yeesh, Simon, you get the big bucks, try some figure drawing

Zak SmithAug 18, 2015+5 6 5

That is a baffling comment +Ron Edwards. I don't know if you mean to have a conversation about art here but techmastery snark against Simon Bisley is about as misplaced as taking Aretha Franklin to task for not knowing how to sing. Any distortions of naturalistic anatomy in Bisley are chosen stylistic effects.

Rafael ChandlerAug 18, 2015+3 4 3

Sweet. Love the bird-girl. Thinking she might not be human -- look at them fingers.

Ron EdwardsAug 18, 2015+3 4 3

+Zak Smith Ohhhh, I have been schooled now. I'm saying this as someone who likes you: fuck off, Zak. Can't a person post anything without you comin' in as Master Scold? Do you own art? All of it, or just Bisley? Can you not face being baffled, as you call it? Or that a person can post something wrong, like really wrong horribly OMG wrong, and the world won't collapse if you don't correct it?

And no, this isn't a debate. I don't like Bisley so much, so what, it's not going to change the world.

People knuckle under to you for one reason: because they're scared of being vilified Limbaugh-wise. You've got the moral high ground, the professional success, the accolades, and a life you can be proud of. Any reason you have to be a bully?

Answer me that before you crack down on me again.

Zak SmithAug 18, 2015+1 2 1

1. There's a difference between "I don't like Bisley" (statement of opinion, unarguable) And "Bisley lacks technical ability" (assertion of fact, arguable) and the second is so far as I can tell, simply misinformation. I have a moral obligation to correct it if I see it because you don't want people acting on bad information. 2.How are the rest of us supposed to know which of your many public opinions you want to discuss and which one we'll be attacked for discussing? You snarked at Simon Bisley (he didn't attack you), I neutrally commented that I don't think that was warranted, now you're biting my head off? 3. If you didn't want to talk about your opinion, why'd you say it where other people could read it? 4. How can a person with no coercive power over you be "bullying"? +Ron Edwards +Mike Davison

David BaityAug 18, 2015

+Zak Smith lmfao

Victor Garrison (headspice)Aug 18, 2015+1 2 1

+Rafael Chandler, Dude, what are you? A "fingers man"?

Ron EdwardsAug 18, 2015+1 2 1

+Zak Smith You hold and openly wield immense coercive power. You are a master of single-messaging people about whom they plus or not-plus, of posting public messages to shame, and of leveraging your deserved reputation as a great artist and contributor to the hobby for weight in conversations. You are widely feared and operate as a chilling agent throughout many discussions in which your tangible interests are not involved. You may intend this or you may not; I am not speaking to that. But either way, do not play "Li'l ol' me."

I won't be looking at this thread again until tomorrow, in case that interests anyone.

Zak SmithAug 18, 2015+1 2 1

Which one of these "powers" is forbidden from Mere Normal Men? "A master of single-messaging"? That isn't a magic spell, Ron, you can do that, too. +Ron Edwards You just type. As for "leveraging my reputation"--you can't simultaneously claim someone has a deserved reputation for contributions in a field and then claim that their influence is unfair . Either the reputation is deserved and so they should be influential. Or it isn't and they shouldn't.

Tony DemetriouAug 18, 2015+2 3 2

I love Bisley, and his style. This is pretty representative of my ideal goal, if I could magically make art in any style I choose.

The distorted anatomy is perfect, in the same way that I enjoy Disney animation - the choices of how to stylize or not to stylize it gives so much character to the piece. And I'm lucky that the choices Bisley makes are the ones I find appealing.

And those colours!

+Ron Edwards Um, not intending to dogpile or anything. I totally get why you might not like this :) - But I can't agree with the "figure drawing" comment, to my eye he clearly has mastered figure drawing, and now is deciding which rules to break. That's what I love most about this piece!

So when I see you criticize his anatomy, I assume that we've got a mismatch when it comes to what we enjoy about the stylizations.

I say this because in other posts you've made, you've linked to comics and referenced art with much weaker figure drawing than this without commenting on the lack of technical skills. While that might not mean anything, is it just that you find these particular ones to be ugly?

Joshua BlackketterAug 18, 2015

David Lewis JohnsonAug 18, 2015

Ron EdwardsAug 19, 2015

A new day, and two fallacies await.

1. The "magic spell" is classic deflection. I said nothing of who can and cannot do those things. Single-messaging is obviously available to everyone; . The question is why you do them, which you are failing to answer.

2. Deserved reputation in doing a thing, in this case art, is not a moral obligation (your term) to do some other thing. Especially if that other thing is itself morally unsound.

These were also posted as provocation: I said I wouldn't be looking at the thread again until today, which I didn't. You posted immediately with fallacy statements, which you're not dumb enough to believe are valid. I think you know well a person can barely if ever resist replying to such things. Then you can play "ah ha you were too looking." You caught me with that once, and that dog hunts no more.

I don't think you are posting in good social or intellectual faith. What frustrates me is that you usually do post in good faith, and with points I generally value - until someone flips your Scold Switch, and you launch into these modes of attack which have long passed their high-school sell-date. They're beneath you. Yes, anyone can do them, and again: why would you?

One more check-in tomorrow to see if you answer this time. Then I'm done.

Zak SmithAug 19, 2015+1 2 1

+Ron Edwards *People don't have ideas different than yours just to piss you off, Ron* You assume bad faith: this is not good. - 1. It isn't "Deflection"--Bullying by definition requires the bully have abilities the target does not. I cannot bully you as I possess no such powers. - 1b. As for why I'd single-message someone: Because sometimes going "Dude do you know what's going on in that thread?" would derail a public thread so you send them a private message. Right now I genuinely don't know why you're attacking me or why anyone of good conscience would join in with you. I need facts. So I asked. - 2. Everybody has a moral obligation to fact-check stuff that's discussed. Period. You (or anyone else) say an inaccurate thing, it needs to get fact-checked. "I don't like Simon Bisley" requires no comment. "Simon Bisley lacks technical ability" requires a fact-check, just like "girls don't play D&D" or "game have to look like textbooks" or any other incorrect fact I come on here and check. - 2b. I say and believe things you disagree with because I believe they're true, not out of a sadistic desire to upset you. (This probably goes for a lot of people.) I, of course, never post fallacies and don't do so in order to "provoke" people. Provoking you achieves nothing. It is a bizarre and paranoid conspiracy theory to assume I someone get some special cookie for making you (or anyone else) mad. Like what's my supposed motive in your worldview? I didn't wake up hating Simon Bisley just as much as you yesterday and suddenly pretend to think he had technical skill just because I thought it would upset Ron Edwards! And what a joy upsetting Ron Edwards is? Right? Oh I am so glad I got to do this! What glee I have reaped from manufacturing this false opinion about my own profession simply in order to upset one random man! That would be like you pretending bats are made of goat cheese in order to piss off a biologist you don't like. Evidence I liked Bisley before today is not thin on the ground, nor is evidence that I fact-check people when they get things wrong. I would hope, as a biologist, you'd think fact-checking bullshit about your area of study is an end in itself . I feel the same way about art. When you make false accusations and I counter them you are not the only audience for fact-checks I may do to those false accusations. Every single person who might ever read since the beginning of time needs to know you aren't telling the truth, not just you. Now: The person making a claim has the burden of proof--if you are claiming I am lying prove that now.

Wayne SnyderAug 19, 2015+3 4 3

That's some pretty funny shit right there. This could have been one of those art posts where folks comment, "Cool." Or "Awesome!" But ya'll have brought the comments bar up a notch to down right entertaining. To bad you can't hear me slow clapping.

Wayne SnyderAug 19, 2015+2 3 2

But I must admit, I'm a bit sad it turned out to be an argument about arguing instead of an art criticism debate.

Tony DemetriouAug 19, 2015

Alas - the internet!

Zak SmithAug 19, 2015+2 3 2

+Wayne Snyder Would be happy to have the art criticism debate if there was someone who wanted to throw down on the other side. But that never really does happen.

Tony DemetriouAug 19, 2015

I don't know if anyone here has the technical chops to have that debate, +Zak Smith ?

Zak SmithAug 19, 2015+1 2 1

The whole talkin'-RPGs business relies on articulate amateurism +Tony Demetriou, if everybody here can say why they don't like Palladium or Pathfinder or Prometheus, they can, in theory, say why they think a painting fails. They may not be able to refer to personal experience painting, but I am not going to pull rank here and claim you need an MFA to critique a picture.

Tony DemetriouYesterday 12:22 AM

I kinda feel that, having played 2-10 hours of RPGs per week for a couple of decades now, I can speak as an expert on the topic (while recognizing there are many other experts)

With pictures, I can talk about what I like. But I don't really know how to engage in a criticism debate. Willing to try, of course! Especially since I learn so much by a good debate :)

Soooo....

What's with Bisley's neon colours? I love them, but my first impression when looking at this picture is a mess of brightness. That seems to be the opposite of when I look at, say, Franzetta who tends to use one dominant colour for the whole picture.

Is that a failing on Bisley's part, or just a stylistic preference? I love the colours, but could it have been possible to have made a picture like this, without the first impression being such a mess? Maybe better separation of them, rather than similar tones on overlapping objects?

I also find he often muddies the picture with unnecessary detail - like this picture has a great silhouette, and he pulls the two humans out of the background by making them brighter than the background. But the spider seems like it's a mess. What's with those skulls beneath its legs, that are the same colour as the legs, and the same brightness and contrast? It forces my eye to do work to figure out what I'm looking at. It doesn't "lead the eye" around the picture very well.

I'm a fan of both headdresses, but the material on the guy's one seems off - it looks like it's meant to be feathers, but to me it looks like some sort of white cardboard. The girl's headdress feathers look soft, which is what I'd expect from the guy's headdress too.

And the spider's abdomen kinda looks half finished? It looks like there's the brown from the background drawn over it. Or is that some sort of green in the background and not an abdomen? I dunno. I don't like it!

... but these are my nitpicks - as a whole image, I adore it!

Zak SmithYesterday 2:21 AM

I don't understand +Tony Demetriou , you have looked at far more pictures in your life than played games, why aren't you an expert on that, too?

Tony DemetriouYesterday 3:16 AM

Because of my nature.

I've mentally broken down and analysed what makes RPGs "work" and created my own, which tests my theories.

I've looked at many pictures, but until relatively recently (maybe 5 years ago?) I haven't been engaging with it in the same way. I'm trying to learn to draw, and it's given me a new perspective on art - I'm noticing things that I was never aware of before. My understanding of form and structure and linework is so much advanced just from this hobbyist learning - and I'm sure that once I go further I'll have similar gains with my understanding of tone, colour etc. once I start learning how to apply that too. So I "know how much I don't know" if that makes sense?

Maybe it's just how I learn - I very much "learn by doing", which explains why I'm more comfortable considering myself an expert on things that I make or do, rather than things I mostly observed.

That said - in the post above, I've given my criticisms of this picture. Do you agree or disagree with them, or have any comments of your own?

Zak SmithYesterday 3:26 AM+1 2 1

It can't be just you, as nearly every single intelligent person not trained inthe field is terrified of rendering an attempt at an intelligent opinion of a piece of art. As if it were somehow 1000 times more complex than a movie (which every person has opinions on). As for your criticisms: perhaps what they lack is a sufficient counterexample--like who does right the things you guess possibly he did wrong ?

Tony DemetriouYesterday 3:39 AM

Good point. I have no problem at all discussing movies, and the artistry involved. Maybe it's some sort of assumed-complexity due to art criticism being viewed as some elite field?

Hmm, a counterexample - I can absolutely give examples of people who do it differently but I don't know if that means they're doing it right.

- For the bright colours, a lot of cartoons and 3D animation uses bright colours without the first impression being so confused. The artwork isn't nearly as good (in my opinion), but this picture is also brightly coloured, while still "reading" easily at first glance: http://www.wisdomswebzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tangled.jpg

I suspect it's because, although there are bright colours, it's still a pretty limited palette - mostly blue and purple. It also keeps the characters silhouetted by dressing Flynn in darker colours and with dark hair against the white horse, and putting the darker blue behind the horse.

Rembrant's The Night Watchman is a great example of a very busy picture with a lot of detail, where the detail doesn't muddy the picture (although it makes me feel like I've forgotten my glasses...) https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/the-night-watchman/

If Bisley had done something similar around the spider & figures it might have helped give it a clearer shape, and stopped the spider being such a mess?

For the headdress - I think Bisley's own picture is the best example of doing it "right" - the woman's headdress feathers look great, the man's looks like cardboard. I think he should have softened the edges of the man's feathers.

For the spider's abdomen... uh, it just looks half finished to me. I don't think that needs a comparison? Although there certainly are other pictures that use that same effect.

Zak SmithYesterday 3:46 AM

+Tony Demetriou "I can absolutely give examples of people who do it differently but I don't know if that means they're doing it right." Well if you like it they're doing it right and if you don't they' aren't

Wayne SnyderYesterday 3:55 AM+2 3 2

Bisley is known for his bizarre pallette choices. I know he often used automotive paint in his illustrations. He's riffing off Frazettas choices, but taking it up a notch. Bisley is a heavy metal painter. He is painting visual representations of heavy metal music for the covers of a magazine called heavy metal. So the subject matter is over the top brutality and horror and sexuality. If you removed the spider and the warhammer from this piece it would just be pornography. The beef cake warrior's bulging junk is aimed directly at the sorceress's bulging junk and the course of image is obvious. But it is both, it is sex and violence in a pure cartoon proportioned form. It is the teenage mind and that is who is supposed to buy the magazine this is a cover for. I don't know why he put that skull mess in the center. I suspect without it the composition would be lopsided. Maybe it just wasn't "metal" enough for the Biz, so he added the skulls. It may have even been the choice of a art director and the Biz just wanted to get it out the door and get paid. But I doubt that.

Zak SmithYesterday 4:05 AM+3 4 3

I think "when in doubt skulls" is a pretty good creative default

Richard GrenvilleYesterday 5:37 AM+3 4 3

Regarding people's reticence about art crit, I guess I'll state the obvious to get it out there: there is a whole industry of art critics, which was at some stage dedicated to placing painting and sculpture (although not really printmaking) in a special separate category elevated above the vulgar horde - to promoting the value of art as a vital endeavour in which humans aspired to the level of gods. And even if critics haven't done much of this in the past couple of generations, some of those old attitudes still linger on, especially in primary schools which tend to be the last refuge of ancient pedagogical ideas.* And those old values still inform the economics of the art market (the aura of the art object, the figure of the artist as a conduit into some extraordinary other world). So I suspect people might be reticent to talk about paintings partly because they're haunted by the snooty ghost of e.g. Vasari or Jacob Burckhardt, refracted through a thousand indirect sources, telling them there is something spiritual and ineffable in there which is not for the likes of them. The fact that this picture in particular is not in the (socioeconomic) category elevated by Vasari or Burkhardt but makes use of its gestures probably makes things worse, not better.

In contrast, AIUI in the early days of film there were conscious efforts made by auteur directors on one hand and populist producers on the other either to place the medium firmly in the elevated sphere of Art or to rescue it from that ivory tower and make it democratic, for the people. Perhaps the economic possibilities of mass-market film just blew away the arguments on the high art side. Perhaps the costs of commercial film production spiraled out of the hands of individual directors making their individual artistic statements and left only oligarchical demagogues, reliant on sometimes-subversive film-making experts.

* and some innovative ones too, I'm not dissing early education here.

Ron EdwardsYesterday 8:38 AM

+Zak Smith You're not hitting anything with that reply. I never said you were doing this vindictively to upset me personally as me. I'm saying you use rhetorical and social tricks to marginalize people when they post things that .. whatever it is those things do that prompts it. It fits into your own definition of bullying - because using techniques not only that others don't have, but that they won't use, counts in that definition. You said my post "baffled" you, yeah, well it baffles me that a person of your qualities and insights would do these things.

You're saying Bisley's distortions serve his (an) artistic purpose. You can just say so. You don't have to pursue anyone who plusses me saying something else. You don't have to claim "moral obligation" to put me or anyone else down, with chilling and silencing techniques. It's this pious scolding and shaming I'm talking about. Not difference of views about the artist - in fact, if you'd asked in a real way, you'd have found that I like the way Bisley does it most of the time, not so much in this picture this time. I did not say "Bisley can't draw bodies and can never draw bodies and never did." That is your trip, you brought it in, and all your high-minded fact-checking claim to being the intellectual in the room is based on that alone. You revved up your moral fires for nothing.

All of the potential for easy contrast of posts, no status issues, open to the reader to evaluate or ignore, is gone when you descend with your blazing moral obligation in play. You talk about assuming things? You assumed vast tracts of attitude, position, and intention in my post, so hard you "saw" them. You've created an entertainment environment where people can enjoy you putting someone down. That's bullying.

Daily check-in tomorrow. It is remotely possible that this could be a worthwhile conversation.

Zak SmithYesterday 9:04 AM

+Richard Grenville Sure, but just because someone is telling you to stay in your class and let them handle the heavy lifting, why would you let them?

Zak SmithYesterday 9:18 AM

+Ron Edwards 1. Why would I want to marginalize you? Your claim has no motive. 2. Asking people why their friends or allies are being dicks isn't a "trick". It's a straightforward way of dealing with bad behavior. 3. No definition (including mine) of bullying includes "don't use techniques that are totally legit and make sense and that are designed to make the person making a false accusation stop" which is what these "techniques" were doing. 4. You're using a begging-the-question argument "What you did is obviously motivated by badness because it uses techniques that are bad and those techniques are bad because they are motivated by bad" 5. "You're saying Bisley's distortions serve his (an) artistic purpose. You can just say so. You don't have to pursue anyone who plusses me saying something else." I didn't do that. I only talked toone other person--Mike Davison--once you called me "bullying" because that is an insane charge. If you call me bullying--you are lying. If someone I consider a friend plusses that lie--I must address that with my friend. Period. Anything else would be irresponsible on my part. Also, in my original comments to you I didn't say the distortions "served an artistic purpose" I said he wanted them to serve an artistic purpose , which is different, in case you didn't know that, which your joke (implying the distortions were mistakes) seemed to indicate. 5. "You don't have to claim "moral obligation" to put me or anyone else down," I didn't "put you down" I fact-checked you. You asserted Bisley's distortions were down to not knowing how to draw accurately (rather than choice).This is not subjective--his distortions may be (subjectively) undesirable but they are (objectively) not "because he doesn't know any better". Therefore you said something objectively inaccurate in a semi-public space . Anyone who knew you had said this and knew the truth would have an obligation to point out the fact-checking error. 6. "in fact, if you'd asked in a real way,..." Once you express yourself in the form of a snarky attack, you don't then get to demand benefit-of-the-doubt from someone defending your target. Bisley did not begin a conversation by making fun of you . You attacked Bisley. I defended him. You then attacked me. 7. ". I did not say "Bisley can't draw bodies and can never draw bodies and never did."" No, you just made a joke to that effect at his expense and then accused me of bullying instead of going "Oh, sorry, that's not what I meant, let's sort this out" 8. "You assumed vast tracts of..." I assumed nothing. I interpreted that you made a snarky joke at Bisley's expense. *I can only be accused of assuming if you are claiming your comment was not a snarky joke at Bisley's expense.* You got a reasonable response to that directed not just at you, but to any naive 3rd party who doesn't knowmuch about art who might be reading (naive viewers might take your joke at face value and they need to be disabused of that and know the artist you're attacking can actually identify body parts and where they go). 9. " You've created an entertainment environment where people can enjoy you putting someone down. " I wasn't putting you down, I was fact-checking you. If someone enjoys that outside of some pre-existing reasont o dislike you, they are a total asshole. If someone sees that as important and necessary, they are correct.

Richard GrenvilleYesterday 9:48 AM+2 3 2

just because someone is telling you to stay in your class and let them handle the heavy lifting, why would you let them?

this seems like it might also have some bearing on your conversation with Ron - my guess is that a lot of people feel discouraged in talking about art the same way they would feel discouraged in discussing engineering, only even more so. On one hand, they feel ignorant about what they imagine is a specialized field of knowledge (like engineering). But also they have a sense that they might trip off some kind of lurking art trap and get laughed at by the cognoscenti for their ignorance or something, as if they'd used the wrong fork at a gala dinner.

Class anxiety may be silly and useless but it's real for lots of people and harder to negotiate than ever now that it no longer runs in simple hegemonic directions.

...I'm not saying that Ron is suffering from class anxiety. Just realised I didn't leave that clear.

Zak SmithYesterday 9:53 AM+1 2 1

Use whatever fork. Know why you made that decision. Speak with the courage of your convictions if someone gives you static about it.

Victor Garrison (headspice)Yesterday 9:54 AM+2 3 2

My only criticism of this piece is: why did he paint such awesomely proportioned derriere and legs and stick those spooky, fucking spindly assed fingers on her hand?!?!?

I mean as far as drawing in your gaze, it's obvious Biz intentionally wanted her ass to be seen first. I say this not because I'm a perv (tho I won't deny that charge) but because it's pretty much center and hi-lighted more brightly than anything else. Your gaze moves from there over to his crotch, up his breast plate, to his face and then -- OH SHIT!-- to the monster. I like how he lures you in with submissive sexuality, brings you further along with brute sexuality, then BAM knocks you in the head with a hideous creature. Nice work, nice work.

Rafael ChandlerYesterday 9:55 AM

+Victor Garrison He gave her fingers like that so you could tell your friends, "Hey, man, she gave me her digits." <rimshot>

Richard GrenvilleYesterday 10:12 AM+1 2 1

for me it's a tangle of long golden-brown forms that could be a tree root or something, and then I see a butt, and then the rest kinda unmasks slowly.

Zak SmithYesterday 10:16 AM+1 2 1

The greens of the spider come on before anything else for me

Victor Garrison (headspice)Yesterday 10:28 AM+1 2 1

+S Robertson , If you're telling a linear story, yeah, that's the route to take. But it seems to me that Bisley is going for a visceral "EWWW" reaction. It's a dark piece, so much so, that IMO, it almost looks like a black velvet painting technique was used. The bird woman's butt is the brightest spot in the painting, which is a signal to start viewing there. Especially since that spot seems to be the counterbalance to the large, dark negative space at the top of the painting. The next closest bright spot is the cod piece, then the breast plate, then the helmet, and that's when I made out the spider creature. IDK, that's just the way I encountered it, not as a story, but as an....oh shit, MONSTER! kinda thing.

Victor Garrison (headspice)Yesterday 10:32 AM

+Zak Smith Damn, I didn't realize that green was the spider. Seriously, I thought it was shrubbery and had no clue wtf he stuck that in a dungeon.

Justice PlattYesterday 10:45 AM+1 2 1

Good to see that Zak knows what Ron said better than Ron does. There is absolutely no contradiction between the belief that Bisley chose not to do good figure drawing for whatever reason and RE's comment.

Victor Garrison (headspice)Yesterday 10:57 AM+1 2 1

+Rafael Chandler, I wanna say I "dig it", but I'm reaching, yet I can't grasp it.... :)

Zak SmithYesterday 2:06 PM

+Justice Platt How do you interpret: "yeesh, Simon, you get the big bucks, try some figure drawing" ?

Justice PlattYesterday 2:14 PM+1 2 1

+Zak Smith , three points:

1)There is no logical contradiction between saying that and believing the artist capable of figure drawing.

2)The guy who said it says that' he did not in fact assert that Bisley cannot draw bodies.

3)It is entirely plausible that he meant to point to the lack of use of figure drawing skills. Example: The Packers go 3 & out on consecutive off-tackle runs. I say "Yeesh, Rodgers, you get the big bucks, try some passing" in whatever tone of voice you like. I clearly mean, as a reasonably informed football fan, that the Packers are making a strategic blunder by not using Rodgers' passing skills. I think the situation is exactly analogous for RE as a comic fan.

So, yeah, you seem to have jumped to conclusions about his asserting Bisley's lack of skill.

Zak SmithYesterday 2:23 PM

+Justice Platt Are you saying you think the comment was intended to be a responsible and constructive comment rather than (at best) vague snark?

Justice PlattYesterday 2:28 PM+1 2 1

I make no claims to being able to read RE's mind. He speaks for himself well. I'm saying that your blanket statement that RE asserted that Bisley has no skill is false on logical grounds, on the grounds of the testimony of the author, and on the grounds that there exists a strongly plausible alternate interpretation. Is any of this not true?

Zak SmithYesterday 2:30 PM

+Justice Platt I suggest only that RE;s comment was snarky and negative enough that my initial comment was necessary to clarify the facts. His subsequent comments could have been "Oh, that's not what I mean" and I'd go "Oh, ok" But instead he went "YOU CLARIFIED AFTER MY SNARKY COMMENT! YOU ARE BULLYING ME!" at which point he passed from "requiring clarification" to simply "wrong and insane"

Justice PlattYesterday 2:36 PM+1 2 1

+Zak Smith , bullshit. You have repeated a false thing-that RE asserted that Bisley has no skill in figure drawing-multiple times, even after clarification from the author. In no way did RE's reaction force you to do that, and blaming him for it is ridiculous.

Zak SmithYesterday 2:41 PM

+Justice Platt If he disagrees with that assertion, then he may say that and I will have no choice but to take him at his word. It does't retroactively mean: -My initial clarifying comment was in any way insulting or unnecessary (as his initial comment was, at best, ambiguous and, at best, still insulting snark) and -any of his later statements were in any way ok, since they contain crazy false accusations

Justice PlattYesterday 2:53 PM

+Zak Smith , the issue is not RE and the terrible things he allegedly forced you to do. You are not telling the truth about what he said. My 1st & 3rd points from my comment above at 4:14 applied before you replied, and you jumped to the conclusion that he must be asserting that Bisley had no skill. Further, it is a rather insulting assumption that a lifelong, voracious comics reader like RE has no awareness of Bisley's work & skill.

Zak SmithYesterday 2:56 PM

+Justice Platt If Ron feels that I have misrepresented his position, he can say so. My first comment is wholly justified because it was there to clarify the situation after his snark. My subsequent comments were necessary to to establish that he was not telling the truth about bullying.

Justice PlattYesterday 3:09 PM

+Zak Smith , textual evidence is what it is. Did you in fact jump to conclusions and make false statements about what RE asserted or not? Were those conclusions based on the insulting assumption that RE was unaware of Bisley's skill or not? If the answer to any of these is no, which of my three points is untrue?

Zak SmithYesterday 3:48 PM

+Justice Platt I already spoke to this: " If Ron feels that I have misrepresented his position, he can say so. (Neither of us know what he meant.) My first comment is wholly justified because it was there to clarify the situation after his snark. My subsequent comments were necessary to to establish that he was not telling the truth about bullying. "

Justice PlattYesterday 4:12 PM

More bullshit. Your entire justification for ongoing intervention has been that you need (in fact have a moral obligation) to correct RE's error of fact-an error of fact that you made up. RE points out to you that you did so, and you repeat it yet again! In bold even!

As far as your subsequent statements go, this is more "Ron made me do it" nonsense. Simply put, you can take issue with someone's tone, or with someone's attribution to you of bullying behavior, without insisting that your tendentious interpretation of his statement is utterly correct. You are perfectly aware of this.

So, do you believe that RE's statement must and can only mean that Bisley lacks technical skill or not? If not, will you retract those parts of your statements in which you definitively, unambiguously assert that this is the case? . And, yes, this is important. There is at least one person on the internet with a strong propensity to twist any statements by RE that can be twisted and attack RE with them. The person I have in mind also clearly values your opinion, and would be happy to have fodder for his horseshit that he can present as approved by you. Whether or not there is an analogy to your own situation is up to you.

Zak SmithYesterday 4:21 PM+1 2 1

+Justice Platt " do you believe that RE's statement must and can only mean that Bisley lacks technical skill or not? " I do not know what it means, I only know what: -I think it implied and -that Ron, instead of clarifying, chose to attack me " If not, will you retract those parts of your statements in which you definitively, unambiguously assert that this is the case?" If Ron says this isn't what he meant, then he can say that, at which point I will go "ok, then that's clear now" but all of my actions remained justified: His first statement morally required that I (or someone) clarify--as it strongly implied Bisley didn't know how to draw. My later statements were likewise, *morally required* because Ron falsely claimed he was being bullied.

Justice PlattYesterday 4:35 PM

+Zak Smith , a man who does not know what a statement means does not repeatedly, confidently, unambiguously, in bold offer an interpretation of that statement, nor does he present it as a definite error of fact someone made, nor does he assert that he has a "moral obligation" to correct it. Why are you so reluctant to admit that you jumped to conclusions?

And again, this "If Ron chooses to correct me" horseshit doesn't wash. Either you parsed his statement right, in which case I owe you an apology, or you did not, in which case you owe him an apology.

Zak SmithYesterday 4:38 PM

+Justice Platt How, pray tell, do we know if I correctly interpreted Ron's statement, psychopath?

Justice PlattYesterday 4:56 PM

+Zak Smith, either the author agrees with your interpretation or there is no plausible alternate interpretation. Pretty simple. Neither is the case here. You can answer my questions whenever you like.

Does you calling me a psychopath mean I'm officially on some list of trolls or RPG drama club members or whatever? Can I have a membership card?

Zak SmithYesterday 5:03 PM

+Justice Platt "either the author agrees with your interpretation or there is no plausible alternate interpretation" YES. That's why we have to wait for Ron to get past addressing: -1. The minor moral crime of responding to a work of art by an artist who'd done nothing wrong with a snarky attack and -2. The major moral crime of accusing me of being a bully and then move on to -3. The minor and arguable possible crime of ignorance or incompetence of attempting to express a possibly-believed inaccurate view of Mr Bisley's working process ....before we can answer the question of just what interior mental space Ron's absolutely totally objectively shitty comment was meant to reflect. When and if he finally gets around to clarifying that, I'll address it. As for you: you are simply obviously a psychopath for being so worried about 3 after all the 1 and 2 going on and doing so with so much pointless swearing. It would be remiss if I didn't point it out, for the benefit of anyone who hadn't noticed and might considering collaborating with you on any projects or discussing anything with you.

Justice PlattYesterday 5:53 PM

+Zak Smith , how on earth can a comment that you admit you don't know the meaning of be "absolutely totally objectively shitty?" And before you go to the "it was snarky" well, remember that my alternate interpretation turns the comment from "Hurr hurr Bisley can't draw" to "Bisley would have done well to exercise more figure drawing skills." You appear to have admitted that my interpretation is at least plausible, so you;ll be wanting to make an actual argument about why that's "objectively shitty." Otherwise, all you're really doing is tone policing RE, since, agree or disagree, that's a reasonably productive thing to say.

Also, we have both essentially been ignoring RE's 10:38 AM comment, in which he both specifically points out that he did not explicitly say that Bisley cannot draw, points out that you made assumptions (one of which I pointed out above as an insulting assumption) to get to that interpretation, and states that he generally likes Mr. Bisley's work. All of this makes my interpretation substantially more plausible.

As to my concern with 3-I was under the impression that you agreed with me that smaller falsehoods in the service of "larger truths" was a bad thing.

Unnecessary swearing? Never thought I'd see the day when you'd blanch at bad words explicitly directed at your ideas, but times do change.

Last, on the psychopath thing, I look forward to seeing your compendium of "dumb things Justice has said." Maybe you'll find some stuff I don't remember or whatever. Little trip down Memory Lane. I am disappointed by no membership card.

I don't, however, expect to see it soon. Unlike RE, I have no real reputation in RPGs to lose, and my name, to the best of my knowledge, has never been mentioned in a thread I am not in. That's not the case for RE. Agree or disagree with him, like his stuff or don't, he's been working very hard to write good games and think clearly about RPGs for quite a while. This is a good & worthy thing. Allowing distortions of his remarks to stand just gives him more nonsense to contend with, especially at the hands of the individual I referred to earlier, who clearly values your opinion, covets your influence, and craves your approval.

Zak SmithYesterday 5:56 PM

+Justice Platt "my alternate interpretation turns the comment from "Hurr hurr Bisley can't draw" to "Bisley would have done well to exercise more figure drawing skills."" Your translation inaccurately removes the snark, which is there regardless of whether you want to acknowledge it or not. And is still opinion expressed as if it were fact or advice expressed to someone who clearly chose otherwise, which is also inexcusable and does not lead to a good discussion. The helpful or informative form of the remark would be something like "I wish he showed off more of his figure drawing skill here". Most of your comments are unnecessary, you just need to wait for Ron to respond rather thant repeatedly trying to find new interpretations of his objectively dumb remark " Agree or disagree with him, like his stuff or don't, he's been working very hard..." Calling me a bully torpedoes any and all good intentions on his part and means his alleged accomplishments don't matter. He ceases to be a reliable voice immediately at that point and becomes a chew toy for the rest of his life unless he manages to apologize and there can be no real defense of him. Even if my interpretation of his remark in my first response was inaccurate, nothing licenses him to say that--it is evil.

Justice PlattYesterday 6:13 PM+1 2 1

+Zak Smith , you can do better than that. One man's hateful snark is another's witty tone. I found your initial response nastily condescending, but that's not an argument against you. It's just straightforward tone policing either way.

And, as far as opinion expressed as fact goes, come on. Just silly.

Zak SmithYesterday 6:21 PM

+Justice Platt "Witty snark" or "hateful snark" are still just snark at the artist, which makes you not A Respectable Helpful Voice In The RPG Scene it makes you The Comments. And the way you build a decent RPG community is not be ok with people acting like The Comments. The Tone was snark (not ok to make a negative comment without facts to back it up). The Content was implying inaccurate facts (likewise not ok). "Tone policing" is when you make an accurate criticism and get attacked for your tone. Ron made either: -an inaccurate criticism (which is wrong, regardless of tone) or -an opinion-as-fact criticism (which is wrong, regardless of tone) The internet SO doesn't need more opinion-as-fact or baseless snark.

Justice PlattYesterday 7:44 PM

+Zak Smith , my alternate interpretation, whether or not it is particularly incisive, is substantive. Which, frankly, is the better standard-"accurate" kinda sucks, since how could we possibly ' whether or not a counterfactual criticism, like my reinterpretation, is accurate? Do we have access to all the pictures Bisley could have drawn?

The opinion as fact thing is still silly. Work harder.

I agree about elevating the tone of internet discussion to at least some degree.But notice, you've gone from a duty to correct any & all errors of fact to a duty to elevate the the tone, as judged & enforced by you.

Which, given your earlier name-calling and ridiculous blue-stockingness about swearing, allows me only to say "Be the change," y'know?

Zak SmithYesterday 7:59 PM+1 2 1

+Justice Platt "The opinion as fact thing is still silly. Work harder." This alone makes you wrong. The rest is icing after that. If you think the internet needs more "Kirk is just better than Picard" then you're not a person anybody else need to listen to. As for "being the change" you don't stop someone from robbing banks by quietly not robbing banks. You have to call out bad behavior or it will continue, as the entire RPG internet proves every day.

Justice PlattYesterday 8:03 PM

+Zak Smith , would repeatedly, unambiguously asserting that your somewhat implausible interpretation of someone's statement was absolutely true count as OAF?

Zak SmithYesterday 8:09 PM

+Justice Platt Only if they contest it. If I think a house is on fire that isn't because of taste it's because of what i thought was a true fact about the world (which is all any of us can do: draw conclusions from sensory data). A grown-up like Ron needs to know the difference between taste and fact right off, but everyone can take the facts in front of them and make an incorrect inference--there's no shame in that so long as it is investigated if it was insulting to the target. Since Ron's comment was a bad thing to say because represents all bad options: -"Bisley lacks technical facility (incorrect) -"Bisley doesn't lack tech facility but it's good to express personal distaste by pretending it does" (counterproductive and trolling) -"Bisley made a choice I don't like and I'm going to both obscure that it's a choice and obscure that it;s just a taste thing" (counterproductive and trolling) -"I'm gonna snark for mystery reasons" (counterproductive and trolling) ...my inference was not particularly insulting since all the options make Ron's statement bad

Tony DemetriouYesterday 8:19 PM

I also interpreted Ron's comment as implying Bisley can't draw figures well.

I can absolutely see how the comment could have been intended to imply that Bisley can draw figures well, and chose not to in this picture - but even so it was clearly snarky. By saying "try some figure drawing", in either interpretation, it's saying that he didn't do figure drawing in this image.

To me, the implication that he didn't do figure drawing in this image is objectively wrong - there are two figures in the picture with (although stylized) relatively realistic proportions, musculature, etc. - there is clearly figure drawing there, whether it's good or bad.

So, using your football metaphor, it'd be more akin to Rodgers regularly passing the ball, but failing to do it to your satisfaction. And then you make the comment about "Yeesh, Rodgers, you get the big bucks, try some passing"

So clearly snarky.

(But it doesn't bother me if Ron is snarky or not. Bisley isn't here on this thread, and isn't having his feelings hurt, so we don't need to defend him unless we believe that some tangible harm will come to him or others from this snark.)

I'm not convinced that Ron's comment was shitty or bad - but it was inaccurate, and I don't have a problem with someone disagreeing with a comment they believe to be inaccurate.

I was quite surprised by Ron's response - although Zak's comment can be read as condascending, the reply was more vitriolic than I expected. Especially as I've seen Ron handle other, more direct attacks, with grace. I'm assuming that is due to their history, rather than this thread itself. As such, hanging this disagreement on Ron's originating comment feels like everyone is talking around the actual issue*.

* Whatever that actual issue might be.

+Zak Smith - Although I recognize that you were using the word in a non-medical sense, if we're being technically correct, +Justice Platt is only a psychopath if he scores above 30 on the PCL-R checklist. http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html

I dunno if he's likely to show up as a psychopath, as one of the primary traits is a lack of empathy, and Justice seems to be showing a lot of empathy towards Ron. (Although a psychopath might attempt to simulate that empathy as an excuse to exert their dominance in a conversation.)

Tony DemetriouYesterday 8:22 PM+1 2 1

+Zak Smith As a matter of taste, I don't know if this house is on fire, but it certainly is flaming

http://www.cynical-c.com/2015/06/19/relentlessly-gay-yard/

Zak SmithYesterday 8:25 PM

+Tony Demetriou the fact that Bisley isn't present is not the issue. Nor are his feelings. The point is a snarky negative comment does 3 things: -makes the conversation worse (because it is vague but contestable) and -(in this case) implies incorrect information. and -Violates the golden rule You don't avoid snark to spare peoples' feelings (surely thousands of people have snarked at Bisley before--he is an artist, this is a consequence of making art, it would be bad to let it affect your feelings), you avoid it because it makes the resulting conversation worse or (at best) does nothing but take up space. And, further, everyone must be subjected to the same standard whether they are present or not because they could easily see the comment in the future, and--MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY--uninformed 3rd parties, new to the situation might see it in the future.

Tony DemetriouYesterday 8:29 PM

+Zak Smith Out of context, I have zero problem with snark. I've got a friend that communicates almost entirely via sarcasm. I'm also Australian, where we'll use insults as everyday conversation tools. To me, this doesn't muddy the conversation.

In context, if snark is used as an attack, then I've got a problem with it. If it's used to express an opinion, but not specifically as an attack, then I don't. In this particular case, I couldn't say which is true.

I do think whether Ron believes Bisley is going to see his comment makes a difference on my interpretation of whether it was an attack or not.

If you feel that snark makes the conversation worse, regardless of whether it's an attack or not, then it doesn't matter whether Bisley is present or not.

I absolutely agree with you that Ron's comment implies incorrect information, and that incorrect information is bad (which is why I also disagreed with it.)

Justice Platt12:25 AM

+Zak Smith , RE did contest your interpretation. I've pointed this out a few times. So yeah, OAF, by the standard you explicitly set out. Really makes the rest of your post moot. Snark always and everywhere bad might be defensible, but it is not the argument you were making in your posts to RE.

What I do want to address is your take on my opinion of OAF. You immediately ascribed to me a complete straw man-that I want the internet to have more "Kirk is objectively better than Picard." You had no warrant for saying so, and before you say that I should have clarified, does that justify the insulting ascription of the most ridiculous position I could possibly hold?

It's of a piece with your professing to find four uses of a rather mild expletive "pointless swearing" and offering that as a reason people should avoid me. In both cases, I cannot imagine that you did not recognize what you were doing and go on to do it anyway. You are vigilant for strawmanning where you are concerned, and your body of work (to put it mildly) shows little concern about cussing.

These are the kinds of things that concern me in argument. Your sanctimony about snark and OAF is sadly misplaced and rather grotesque when it occurs almost literally in the same breath with these other tactics. You admit that snark can be harmless, OAF is pretty well understood as a statement of opinion by the vast majority of English speakers. Faux outrage and strawmanning are always harmful. So, yeah, be the change.

Zak Smith12:58 AM

+Justice Platt You ignored this: " If I think a house is on fire that isn't because of taste it's because of what i thought was a true fact about the world (which is all any of us can do: draw conclusions from sensory data). " You also ignored the fact that while Ron has repeatedly said pieces of what he thinks Ron has NEVER claimed his original snarky comment could not imply to a good-faith, educated reader that Ron thought Bisley lacked technical skill Until he: - does so, - does so convincingly and -then I deny him and can give no counterevidence ...then I am plausibly in the realm of fact. Right now I have an interpretation of his words "He implied Bisley lacked technical ability, despite possibly not meaning it" and my responsibilities "Therefore someone needed to establish this was not a true thing to imply". Nothing that has happened has changed any of that, and none of that is me taking something I know to be an opinion and claiming it's fact. So far as I can tell (and this is a guess),, from what he's saying, Ron agrees with this: "Ron implied Bisley lacked technical ability, despite possibly not meaning it" and his take is "Who the fuck cares? I get to just say random shit on the internet because who cares if anyone believes it? The important thing is nobody should ever clean up after the mess I make." As for the rest: OAF always leads to "Kirk is better than Picard" arguments, so you are totally defending that practice. On swearing: you're doing it against a target that's done nothing wrong in defense of a target that objectively has (he said I "bullied" which is objectively incorrect), that's the disturbing bit. ' OAF is pretty well understood as a statement of opinion by the vast majority of English speakers.' Incorrect: the whole reason for edition wars and other shitty internet phenomena is that nobody clearly draws lines between what's fact and what's opinion. Like it's a fact that people I know grasp percentile systems easily. But if I go "percentile systems are easy to grasp" then we don't know whether I mean that fact I just reported or whether I am just saying they are having done no research. Same with 90% of RPG arguments, treating claims you've researched the same as info you haven't ("This is "unworkable" "--well is it literally unworkable as in the math can't ever work because of a literal error or is it just you don't like it? "You can't satisfy both this and that at once!" Well are you sayng you tested it or are you saying you guess that? "This drives most women away?" Well are you saying you checked or you're just guessing because you don't like it?) leads to nearly all the pointless fighting on the internet about games. So, just because you aren't smart enough to see why doing bad things causes problems doesn't mean they don't cause problems. Also, because you're not smart enough to see the reasons I call out bad behavior while at the same time engaging in behavior you think is the same, doesn't mean it's the same.

Justice Platt2:03 AM

+Zak Smith , you wanna get some sleep? Rethink that post? It's pretty feeble,

Zak Smith2:12 AM+1 2 1

+Justice Platt Again, the fact that you even posted that, resorting to just straight trolling and attempting to sort of wish away clear objections to your mistaken argument, suggests further that you have no value as a person to talk to. If you have an argument: make it. If you don't: apologize for wasting everyone's time.

Justice Platt3:06 AM+1 2 1

+Zak Smith OK. In order then:

I have no idea what you're talking about with the house on fire thing. Hence ignoring it.

You're shifting goalposts again. The idea that RE clarifying his position requires proof to the good faith etc etc is ludicrous. It's also an entirely new standard. My position has been consistently that your repeated, unambiguous statements that RE asserted (Not "implied"-another goalpost shift,. "Asserted" is your multiple repeated original word choice) Bisley had no skill were not warranted, given that you don't know what RE means, and plausible alternate explanations exist. "Plausibly in the realm of fact" is a ridiculous standard for big bold text this is true statements. It is "plausibly in the realm of fact" that you're going to the bank tomorrow morning, but I'm still not going to claim that you definitely are, especially if you say you aren't..

You again change the claim you make-your original straw-manning is that I want more KP arguments, not that I'm ok with them.

You, a grown-up with some experience of the world, find it "disturbing" that someone called your argument "bullshit" in a cause you think bad? What exactly does "disturbing" mean here, anyway? Ooh-a vague insinuation!

Last, I can summarize your claims about OAF as: 1)Leads to unclear/confusing claims that sometimes require requesting warrants. 2)Abolition of this form of statement abolishes, or at least greatly diminishes, 1. 1 is not unique to OAF statements, and it is frankly risible to imagine that unclear claims and/or the need for warrant clarification stop or greatly diminish with their elimination. So, minimal harms and inadequate solvency. I'm not saying the practice is laudable, but c'mon.

Zak Smith3:26 AM

+Justice Platt 1. "I have no idea what you're talking about with the house on fire thing. " Then the decent thing to do is ask not continue to be a tremendous shithead. I will explain: A grown-up person reporting on their taste knows they're reporting a mere opinion. If they dress it up as fact, they're pulling a rhetorical maneuver. Intent to deceive or bluster past rational objections. A person who thinks a house is on fire (they see the smoke, etc) and reports that it is and turns out to be wrong, has simply made a mistake no intent to deceive there. They inaccurately reported a fact which we all do innocently from time to time because we rely on our senses. My remarks in response to Ron have been of the second kind at worst--I believe Ron's remarks to be asserting (perhaps against Ron's real beliefs, because they are jokes) a certain thing that people may believe. Just as a joke may assert that a chicken crosses the road even if the person telling the joke doesn't believe that any chickens ever cross rods. 2. "You're shifting goalposts again. " Incorrect, I never shift goalposts, that would be disgusting, and it's disgusting you'd say that. My initial comment was based on and continues to be based on (and justified by) this idea: " (a) Ron's initial comment was such that a naive viewer might believe that Ron was expressing the following idea: "Bisley lacks technical skill" WHETHER RON BELIEVES BISLEY LACKS SUCH SKILL OR NOT. (b) It is therefore the responsibility of someone to explain to such a naive viewer that Bisley does indeed have technical skill " ...this has been my contention since the beginning. We know that Bisley does not lack technical skill. If he asserted Bisley lacked technical skill despite not believing it, he is evil and negligent. If he asserted it and believed it, he is ignorant and subsequently got mad about that being exposed. Neither of these conclusions is good for Ron therefore assuming one rather than the other does nothing to harm Ron's reputation more than the other choice. But there is no evidence anywhere that he did not assert this . You don't tell someone to try figure drawing if they're trying figure drawing. (a) Is not an opinion . It is an assertion of fact, so far as I know. If Ron wishes to contest the idea that his snarky remark may be read in such a way by a third party. I am (because I am sane) willing to consider the idea that my analysis is an inaccurate statement of the facts, but thus far there is zero evidence of this. Ron's defense and yours has simply been to talk about what Ron believes not what was implied to readers by the remark (the only relevant thing). - As for the rest: you equivocate "not all harm is caused by x" (true statement) into "therefore there is no reason to eliminate x" (not a rational conclusion. OAFs cause: -some harm and provide -zero benefit ...so there is no good argument for them. Like bedbugs.

Victor Garrison (headspice)4:03 AM+2 3 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrCPIrs90eg

Ron Edwards3:32 PM

Looks like people were busy.

+Justice Platt thanks for the input.

+Zak Smith as I've stated before, there is no connection between my initial statement and a statement that Bisley cannot draw figures. Demanding that I repeat it was unnecessary, and as this is the second time, please don't demand it again.

You also demand that this statement be assessed or discussed in terms of its impact on readers. This is not the first time you have elected yourself the Voice of the Readers - I believe we agreed that you weren't going to do that to me again.

This is the day, unfortunately, when I have decided you're not going to explain why you single-message people to criticize their plussing choices, and why you often reply to others' stated views or takes on works of art in a chilling fashion yet post very similar statements about work you don't like. These are bullying acts. Why, in the complete absence of discernible need, do you do them?

My last statement before signing off. Willing or not, knowing or not, you have cultivated an environment of fear in this subculture. You can call this crazy and talk about more and more colorful metaphors all you want. Or you can try to assess this claim in any way you want that's not your gut, and see what you see then.

Signed off now, finished with the thread.

Zak Smith3:45 PM

+Ron Edwards 1. " as I've stated before, there is no connection between my initial statement and a statement that Bisley cannot draw figures. " Then what was it meant to communicate and why should we care? What's important is what it could logically be interpreted to mean literally by third parties 2. " You also demand that this statement be assessed or discussed in terms of its impact on readers. This is not the first time you have elected yourself the Voice of the Readers - I believe we agreed that you weren't going to do that to me again. " Citation needed. Why would I ever agree that the _most important thing about a public distortion of fact not be discussed? That would be like me agreeing to let you kick readers in the balls. 3. " This is the day, unfortunately, when I have decided you're not going to explain why you single-message people to criticize their plussing choices, " I do not message people to criticize them I message them to see if they are insane or not. If they are insane, it is important to block them from my circles. You haven't even explained how that's bad . It's Good Citizenship 101 to privately contact people you have conflict with so that you don't rake each other over the coals publicly unnecessarily. You are just grabbing random acts out of the air and affixing the word "bullying" to them out of what appears to be sheer insanity. How is sending someone a message in any way a harmful act? 4. " and why you often reply to others' stated views or takes on works of art in a chilling fashion yet post very similar statements about work you don't like. " Citation Needed. Since you aren't that smart and apparently can't read very well I suspect your definition of "very similar" is the problem here. 5. " These are bullying acts. " Incorrect: a bullying act would be: -negative and -something I can do that the target cannot or refuses on moral grounds to do. ...you haven't cited any such acts. You've only cited awesome good things I did.

6. " Willing or not, knowing or not, you have cultivated an environment of fear in this subculture. " If you're trying to say "Oh no, back in my day, indie game designers used to feel totally cool about posting false allegations and now they're afraid they'll be asked for evidence" or "I can't falsely accuse someone of bullying, then run away with no calls for accountability any more" well cry me a fucking river. I don't know any good person doing good work who claims to be afraid of jack shit--in fact people seem markedly less afraid than they were a year ago when you could be publicly accused of everything from hate crimes to cattle rustling and the Oh-I-Know-That-Guy network would back the accuser up because they both had the same grudge against the same dumb game. You can allege I've had an impact--but if you do so, then you have to weigh that against the fact that the DIY RPG scene is fucking kicking ass these days, in ways it hasn't for 30 years. I am totally proud of calling out shit people for their shit behavior--it's worked and we've made things better.

Zak Smith4:28 PM

I didn't come into this assuming Ron was insane, but now, I guess, we all know he actually is.

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mugenmcfugen · 7 years ago

Text

Update: On my art, myself and future

I’m not the type of person to write long ass blog posts; especially when I want to write about myself. Nor am I kind of person that writes long posts in a first place, but I have a feeling I might write something as well, at least I owe it to you guys that are still following me, even though my blog has been dry and devoid of my art forever now.

If someone asks me what do I think of 2017, I’d have only one word to describe it and that’s ‘clusterfuck’. Big, giant clusterfuck of everything. And I don’t count in this happenings from over the world, just ones that shaped my personal life.

Since I had death in my family half a year ago, I’m still unsure of how to digest the situation. I’m certain I’m not feeling sad anymore, but there’s that lingering ‘‘feeling thingie’‘(I can’t properly describe it) over my head. Most of the time I accept it as it is, however it is causing me bigger anxiety spikes that I’m usually used to. To the point where I just shut down my thoughts and focus on playing games and such. Gym has been huge help in dealing with it, but it became apparent to me that this is something that I still have to ride out, change cannot come overnight unfortunatelly.

One big mistake I did(or rather, a big lesson now that I look at it) was that I tried to subject myself to is doing projects that are far divorced from my actual line of work. I tried to get into one start-up as UI/UX designer, and while beginning was pretty much OK, I came to soon realize that’s not what I want to do. However since I’m not type of person to give up (not only because I decided to give it a try, but there was palpable pressure from few family members that just because I can draw, I can switch careers with snap of the fingers). What was interesting in beginning, turned into one big chore with no end in the sight, and shitty part of it was, it was all unpaid work. I don’t blame folks that gave me that designer position on the start-up, nor do I blame my family members; they all tried to be supportive and I got a chance a few people in my town would. Not to mention that there was one more project on the hand that was also a failure, and with all of this combined, it led me to big creative burn-out. I haven’t painted anything coherent in 3-4 months. I did doodle here and there, but for last month and a half, I didn’t draw anything, at all.

So, with everything that happened recently, I came to conclusion that I must not lie to myself anymore. I tried to ram myself trough the issues like stubborn goat but its not working anymore. I decided to say ‘‘fucking enough’‘ to all of this. I’m done trying to please others and start making myself happy with who am I and what I want to do. I was thinking too hard of how I shoudn’t fail others while only person I failed the most was myself. I have to find my spark again, I have to love my work again. I decided that in 2018 I’ll take sole focus on my art and polish that fucker gud. I also have project planned with my BF (who was my biggest support in all of this, and I thank God and every other holy figure for him, I’d probably flip long time ago).

I also owe a big apology to you my followers, who, even when I’m really hard on myself and self critical to the point of self-hatred, you’re the ones who still love my art for what it is. And I couldn’t be happier that my artwork brings joy to someones life. I’ll make sure to update my blog and other sites more frequently.

So that would be it. I know its tl;dr and me bitching about my issues, but I felt I had to put this on paper. I’m also sorry for so many ‘‘I, I, I’‘, english is not my main language and I’m not the most eloquent out there. But if you read this trough the end, I appreciate you fam <3. Here’s to 2018 and hopefully we kick its butt instead other way around.

#personal #tl;dr #something I had to get out of my system

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fableweaver · 6 years ago

Text

Arc of the Dwarven Warden

Sitting in the small cottage, Darin pushed away a black cat that seemed intent on sitting on his lap. Grandmother Meredydd seemed to care for any animal she could get her hands on, cats, dogs, birds, and even a large tortoise crowded her tiny cabin at the edge of the city. They had followed her to the ivy-covered cottage and she had served them tea. Now she walked about her home, watering the thousands of different plants she had in pots around her home.

A silence had fallen after Meredydd had told them of Bailey and Ian’s escape, of the king’s curse, and of Pepper’s passage through Dun Eald. Darin sat feeling remorseful. Meredydd had been unable to say when Pepper had passed through Dun Eald, but he was guessing it had been weeks at least. How far she had gotten since then he could only imagine, as well as what the other kingdoms were like.

“I gave my word to Duke Glas that I would speak with the king,” Donar said at last looking up at Meredydd as she watered her plants. Some were dead yet she watered them all the same, seeming unaware life had left the plants. “Can you get me into the keep to see him?”

“Nowt, ifn he ken I be a witch he’d have me burned,” Meredydd answered. “Ifn ye present yerself at the keep the Grand Sect may just lock ye up afore ye even get ta see the king.”

“What do you suggest we do then?” Darin asked. “You can see into the future as you said.”

“I can see many things but that baint mean I should tell ye,” Meredydd answered. “N sometimes it be best I leave things be, ye’ll find a way on yer own without mine aid.”

“What’s the point of foresight if you don’t use it?” Hakk asked sourly. Meredydd didn’t seem to hear him, continuing her watering unconcerned. Darin racked his brain for means of entry into the keep without risk of capture. Donar had given his word that he would speak to the king, and Darin knew he would not leave until the king was convinced that he needed to gather his armies.

“What of the queen?” Donar said. “The king’s mother Epona, we heard she was reliable.”

“Aye she be, but she be in the keep n rarely leaves at her age,” Meredydd answered. “But ifn ye spoke ta her first she would be sure ye gain audience with the king.”

“So, we still have the problem of getting into the keep without being caught,” Donar said.

“What day is it?” Ronan asked Meredydd who laughed.

“Boy I hardly ken what year it be,” Meredydd answered. “Ye be lucky I be lucid enough ta come n get ye afore ye had gone inta the palace.”

As she said this she poured water into a pair of boots by the door. Darin guessed looking into the future all the time had its draw backs.

“It should be near Isra’s night right?” Ronan asked and continued without an answer. “Isra’s night is a grand celebration all over the kingdoms. It was once called Talamh in Daun, kenned as the night of the dead. To hide from spirits and the vengeful dead we wear masks.”

“Masks?” Donar said interested and Ronan nodded.

“There’ll be a great feast,” Ronan said. “With masks I bet I can sneak us into the keep as performers, no one will look twice at all of you with masks and costumes.”

“What kind of performers?” Darin asked. “We aren’t very musical.”

“Baint worry bout that,” Ronan said with a grin that made Darin worry very much.

They left Ronan to gather what he needed, staying in Meredydd’s cottage for little over a week as they waited for Isra’s night. They soon saw the cost of premonition on Meredydd. One day Darin saw Meredydd sweeping the yard of leaves, going around in circles just spreading the leaves around. There was a big oak tree in the yard, which had shed all its leaves covering the ground in a colorful blanket.

“Meredydd, do you need help with cleaning the yard?” Darin asked and she turned to him. She leaned on her broomstick looking at him as if she could barely see him.

“Who be ye?” she asked as she blinked.

“Darin, you know me,” he answered puzzled. She blinked again and then sighed.

“I baint ken ye,” she said shaking her head and sweeping the leaves. “Why are there so many leaves?”

“Because it is autumn,” Darin answered.

“It were the Little Sleeper yesterday,” Meredydd answered with a huff. “Raining with a hint o wind. Now look at all these leaves.”

“Let me help you with this,” Darin said reaching for the broom. “You go in and rest.”

“I don’t need rest,” Meredydd said crisply. “Why are there so many leaves?”

She continued to sweep and mutter to herself about leaves, and Darin decided to leave her to it. As he turned away he saw a boy coming down the path towards them carrying a basket. The boy stood surprised to see Darin but walked up and nodded to him. He was mid-teens, as tall as Darin, with a wild crop of red hair and freckled brown skin.

“Mornin,” the boy said. “Ye be a friend o Meredydd’s?”

“Yes, me and my kin are staying with her for a time,” Darin answered not sure what to say to the boy. Meredydd continued to walk around in circles sweeping the leaves around. “Do you know what is wrong with her?”

“Oh it be just un o her mild days,” the boy said. “Ye should see her when she be deep in a vision, terrible.”

“You mean she is seeing things right now?” Darin asked.

“Nowt, she just baint ken what day it be, confusin her whens n all,” the boy answered. “Ah, I be Loam.”

“Darin, you take care of Meredydd?”

“Mine ma has me come down n check on her time ta time. We baint be kin, but ma said Meredydd delivered me n mine ma n da, sos I owe her much she says. Best leave her be when she be like this, won’t hurt herself wanderin round the yard like now.”

He started off to the cottage and Darin followed.

“You’ve lived in Dun Eald your whole life?” Darin asked.

“Aye,” Loam answered as he set his basket down by the door.

“Could you maybe show me around?” Darin asked, deciding he wanted to see the city of Dun Eald some more.

“Aye, sounds like fun,” Loam said with a grin showing he was missing a few teeth with new ones growing in. “Just ye?”

“Yes, best keep a low profile,” Darin answered, deciding too many dwarves would draw attention to them. “Lead the way.”

“Right-o,” Loam said as he turned and lead the way back up the lane. “First thing ya gotta see be the Holly King.”

“I saw that on my way into the city,” Darin said. “Were you there when it happened?”

“Nowt, mine ma n da baint let me er mine sibs see it,” Loam answered. “See, down south they make children go ta burnins n executions like, but here in Daun we ken it be cruel ta children sos they baint ever go.”

“Burnings?” Darin said.

“Aye, the witches were gonna burn only instead they turned the flames inta the Holly King,” Loam answered, his green eyes bright. “I would’ve given mine left arm ta have seen that.”

Meredydd had told them a bit of what had happened of course, but Darin felt some details had been missing. What he hadn’t understood was the part about burning witches.

“So why were the witches going to burn?” Darin asked.

“Baint ken,” Loam answered. “Cause they were witches I guess.”

“And that is against the law?” Darin asked.

“It be against the gods,” Loam answered. “Sos the Sect says. The Phay baint be real n doin witchery just brings people away from the truth o the gods.”

“Do you believe that?” Darin asked.

“I believe any un who can turn fire n air inta a green growin tree be amazin n it be wrong ta destroy somewhat amazin like that,” Loam answered. “Sides which the mages have magic n baint be against the gods so why witches be so bad?”

“Mages?” Darin asked having remembered Glas mentioning them. “What are mages?”

“Bone people sos I’ve heard,” Loam answered. “They live ta the east o here in Dridia. They have great magic that can make carpets fly in the sky n magic mirrors n all sorts of stuff. They be all white, their hair n skin, n their eyes be red like fire. They be very powerful sos I’ve heard, n it baint be wise ta cross em.”

Darin had nothing to say to this, more because he wasn’t sure what to make of the possibility of another race of power. Worst what would this race make of the Phay? He knew so little of the Elder Magic so he wasn’t sure what another magical race would mean for the Phay. He decided to discuss it later with Donar, though he doubted Donar could shed any light on the situation either.

They had walked from Meredydd’s cottage through a small wood and back into the wide streets of Dun Eald. The houses all had sizable yards with chickens, goats, and sheep roaming them. Trees and bushes were in plenty, and Darin saw many gardens between the houses. The people were all going about their business in a calm but determined manor. No one seemed to be in a rush, but at the same time the energy wasn’t lagging.

Soon they were passing shops rather than homes, signs and open patios welcoming customers to the stores. The crowds thickened but the wide streets made sure there were no traffic jams. Loam led the way out into the main square where once again they could see the Holly King. Here people stopped to stare up at the great tree, but the guards still kept them from approaching the tree.

“Why do they guard it?” Darin asked.

“The Grand Sect says it be cursed,” Loam answered. “Yet I ken those what touched it when it first appeared said they felt all their pain go away. Healed any ail they had.”

“That is why everyone stops here to see it?” Darin asked. “They hope to touch it?”

“We stop cause it be beautiful,” Loam answered. “Doubt the magic still works after all this time. It be hard nowt ta stare at it.”

Darin nodded, but he knew he saw more in the tree than the people. He could see the wild kin in the branches when they could not. He heard a babe crying and turned to see a woman walking up from a side street carrying a child in her arms with two more clinging to her skirts. As soon as they got near the tree the child stopped crying. The mother stood with her children staring up at the tree, a sense of peace settling over them. Darin saw there were many like them, old folks, children, or even grown men just standing bathing in the peace coming from the Holly King.

Even the guards who stood between the crowd seemed at peace, Darin noting a few suppressed yawns. Darin wondered what it would be like if the people had been permitted to rest under the tree, the square would become a place of peace for the city.

Darin felt a change in the crowd, people shifting and stirring as if woken and he turned to see the cause of the disturbance. Walking through the crowd was a group of men. One wore full armor that Darin guessed to be made of ceramic plates. The other was one of the blonde man Darin remembered as a Regarian. And the last was a Daunish man wearing a circlet of silver. They were walking up to the Holly King, pushing their way through the crowd.

Darin pushed his way through as well trying to get closer to see the king of Daun. They arrived at the blockade and the guards let them past. Darin stood near a tall Daunish man, almost hiding behind him as he watched the king approach the tree. He could tell the Regarian was saying something to the king, but could hear nothing from this distance. They stopped at the foot of the tree and the king stared up at the branches.

He seemed torn standing there, as if he wanted to find something, but could not. He sighed heavily and then leaned against the tree. For a moment Darin saw the tree quiver and the wild kin within the braches all stopped and looked down at the king. Then the Regarian shouted and pulled the king away from the tree, shaking him and shouting in the trade tongue.

“…dangerous and cursed!” the Regarian said as his voice rose loud enough for Darin to hear. “You should not go near it!”

“I am already cursed!” the king shouted back at him. “The gods have abandoned me!”

“They have not majesty,” the Regarian said putting his arm over the king’s shoulders and started to lead him away. He lowered his voice again so Darin could not hear, leading the king away from the Holly King and back towards the keep. The knight stayed behind, staring up at the tree. Darin risked stepping forward a bit past the guards, but one saw him.

“You there,” the guard said drawing the attention of the knight. “Step back.”

Darin saw the knight frown as he looked at him and he turned and fled. He heard footsteps, but no one shouted. When he was free of the crowd he saw that the knight had tried to run after him, but had not called an alarm. The knight stood at the edge of the barricade scanning the crowd looking for Darin and talking to the guard. When he did not see his prey he sighed and turned away back to the keep. Darin realized then that he had looked almost disappointed. Maybe it was not only Epona that could help them speak to the king.

Darin had lost Loam in the crowd and so walked back to Meredydd’s cabin alone. He told Donar of the King and knight and once again got an agreement.

The day of the celebration arrived and Ronan came bearing their costumes. He carried in a large box and dumped it out onto the kitchen table. The masks were the first thing Darin noticed. Made of ceramics they were animal like in their shape and appearance. There was a cow, an elk, a wolf, and a bear. The masks were very earthy, the details crude and clay unglazed. The costumes all appeared to be made of the respected animal’s pelt, cow’s horns and deer antlers added to the hoods of the cow and elk’s costumes.

“Animals?” Donar said puzzled.

“Animals are a very common costume,” Ronan answered. “And most masks are like these. We baint be all fancy with our masks, probably because we actually make most of the masks they do in the south. We make them plain and then ship em off south to be painted. Done that weeks ago of course. But with ours we do simple masks to be like animals. Said here in Daun we like to get in touch with our beast nature during Isra’s night.”

“So these will get us into the keep?” Darin asked, seeing Ronan grin at them.

“It’ll do that for sure,” Ronan answered. “I ken a performer in the keep that’ll get us in, these disguise you enough that you’ll pass as short men.”

“We aren’t much of performers,” Donar said skeptically.

“Baint worry, you won’t have to perform,” Ronan answered. “It’s just a cover to get in.”

“Where is yours Ronan?” Bgrim asked. Ronan answered by taking out another mask, this one made of clay as well. This mask was a lynx, the detail a bit more elaborate formed of a knotted pattern.

“This was my mask last year,” Ronan answered. “Be a bit finer than those there. I already have my costume too. You’ll want to start getting ready; it’ll take a while to get into the keep.”

They nodded and started to sort through the costumes trying to decide on the animal each wanted to wear. Donar ended up being the wolf, Darin the elk, Hakk the bear, and Bgrim the cow. They put the furs on over their clothes, keeping their mail on under their tunics but sadly that had to leave their swords and weapons behind.

Meredydd walked in after they changed wearing her own costume. She wore a wool dress and a sheep skin cloak, her mask a sheep’s face with intricate detail of a knotted pattern. She leaned on a shepherd’s crook, the wood intricately carved with a knotted pattern as well.

“I see ye be ready,” Meredydd said sounding sober for once.

“You ken where you be Meredydd?” Ronan asked.

“Aye, mine sight always be clear on this night,” Meredydd said. “I baint be going with ye ta the keep though, I’ve other duties this night.”

“What?” Darin asked.

“Ye’ll see,” Meredydd said. “Good luck.”

She walked out of the cottage and they followed out through the city. It was much changed from before. Darkness seemed to permeate the city now, shadows dancing as they walked through the streets. Only candles burned, no fires or torches lit the city. The people walked through this darkness clad in their skins and masks, silent without conversation or music.

“Why is it so dark?” Darin asked.

“Because the king baint lit the fire yet,” Ronan answered. Darin was about to ask what fire when they arrived at the main square where the Holly King stood. There a great crowd gathered looking up at the keep. Darin looked up as well but could see little from the darkness around them. Then from the top most tower of the keep a great fire blazed to life, lighting the night. In answer another bon fire lit the square and the people cheered.

Darin looked out into the night and saw beacons were lit on every hill top of the city and the people cheered. Now the mood had changed from the silent darkness to one of festivity. Soon music was being played, harps and lutes along with drums and flutes. Darin watched from the sides as dancing began, and saw what Daunish dancing could really be like. The crowds of people moved around in a great flow of dancing, the country jigs carrying them around the square in great groups. Darin had never seen anything like it, and was afraid to join in the confusing tide of people as they clapped and stomped their feet. He could see their feet moving in complicated steps as they danced around, moving swift but sure over the cobbles.

Meredydd wandered off into the crowds without a word, Darin daring not to ask where she was going. He noticed though she was making her way over to the Holly King which had more guards around it than before.

“We light fires to keep the dead at bay, and to honor those that be gone,” Ronan said.

“How can you honor them if you want to keep them at bay?” Darin asked.

“This night is a night when the dead are said to wander,” Ronan answered. “We light the night to keep them away aye, but the fires honor the dead by letting them ken we still remember them. We love those gone from us but we baint want em ta return ta life, then the dead n living would be together and that be against nature.”

He led the way up the hill where many torches were burning now. They passed knights, all wearing armor and helms like masks, armed with glaives. They walked up the hill and when they got to the gates several guards stopped them.

“What business do you have here?” the gatekeeper asked.

“Performers,” Ronan answered. “Maybe you’ve heard of us, the Dwarves of Emir. Grand old fun we have, great cracks and all. Played in Dun Glas nowt too long ago.”

“Never heard of you,” the gatekeeper answered frowning.

“I’m Molly’s friend,” Ronan said.

“Every man be a friend o Molly’s,” the gatekeeper answered. “You should shove off if…”

“Ronan!” They turned to see a man walking down from the keep, a Daunish man with a red beard and balding head. “Bout time ye go here Ronan.”

“You ken them Daley?” the gatekeeper asked.

“Oh aye, I asked Ronan ta bring in some fresh talent ta entertain the king,” the man Daley answered. “What with the feast n all I kenned it be best ta liven things up a bit. That be alright baint it?”

“Aye but tell me next time,” the gatekeeper said crossly. “Makes it harder on me.”

“Sorry,” Daley answered. “Come along, we’ve got a lot ta do.”

They followed the man through the gate and towards the keep, Darin looking around at the fortifications. They were lacking to say the least, and of course all the guards stood at their posts bored, they were here only to keep drunken revelers out of the keep not any actual threat. The keep itself looked to have been built without defense in mind, or what someone thought a keep should look like. The stone work while well done, wasn’t built to repel any siege towers or battering rams. The keep wasn’t militant, it was more ornamental.

They went up a set of stairs where the big double doors were thrown wide. Light poured out of the doors along with song and voices. Inside was warm; candles, torches, lamps, and fires lit the hall n bright dancing shadows. Yet even this light did not illuminate the ceiling far above like the night sky. The three fire pits burned brightly and the large table in the center of the room was full of food and wine.

The masks of the nobles were much different than those of the common folk. They were ceramic as well, but of a finer quality. Some were like Ronan’s, a knotted pattern covering the face and making the features of an animal. Others though were plainer and were a human face, painted or glazed with the features of the person. Those that wore animal masks wore furs over their clothes, while those that wore a human mask wore human clothes. There seemed a divide between those wearing old masks and those wearing new masks.

Music played, the harp dominating the music here. Darin was surprised to see not a servant or musician playing the harp, but a noble lady. She wore a fine mask of a doe, a fawn seeming by the shape of youthfulness to the mask. She played the harp with exquisite skill, her hands plucking the strings with long delicate fingers. She wore a fine velvet blue dress, a dark fur cloak covering her shoulders. Darin watched her amazed by her skill and realized by the slant of her head and the way she stared off at nothing that she was blind.

“Come, the Queen is over here,” Ronan said pointing towards the center of the room snapping Darin out of his contemplation of the woman. The center of the room was dominated by a great circular table which was now piled high with a feast. The lords and ladies sitting at the table were chatting and talking, while they watched the king warily. The king sat with his knight to his right and the Regarian to his left. Further down the table Darin saw the Queen sat with her own contingent of ladies in waiting.

“Who is the harpist?” Darin asked lowly as they moved through the crowds of servants and lesser lords. Other tables had been set up around the king’s table for the lesser lords and servants, plenty of food and cider going around.

“That is the Lady Bree of Dun Wiell,” Ronan said wistfully as he glanced at the harpist. “She is the finest harpist in Daun; she’s been blind since birth but still learned to play the harp. She is the only daughter to the Count Wiell and be the apple of his eye.”

He glanced at the noble lady longingly, like a man that knew all too well he gazed at a lady far above his reach. Darin felt sad at the signs of a tragic love and at the same time hoped that Ronan would not have his luck with women.

They made their way over to the Queen careful not to draw attention to themselves as they wound their way through the crowds. Darin was tempted to filch some food from the tables they passed, fine breads, pies, roast lamb, and potatoes tempted him with their smell. He kept his hands to himself though, fearing drawing attention. The others weren’t so disciplined, nicking a few morsels as they walked past the tables, except Donar who only had eyes for their goal.

Before they could reach the Queen however, the lady finished her song. An applause went up and the Lady Bree stood and took a bow. Darin saw Ronan had stopped to applaud as well, his face hidden by his mask.

“Very good Lady Bree,” the king said once the applause had died. His words were slurred a bit and Darin noticed he held a wine goblet in one hand. “It is a shame that you wear a mask milady, your beauty is rumored to rival Dione’s. Not that you would know this of course.”

He laughed but no one else did, the queen breaking the silence.

“That was rude of you son,” Queen Epona said. She was probably glaring, but it was impossible to see behind her mask. She wore a mask in the old design of knotted patterns, hers depicting a horse and a mane of horse hair around her head and shoulders. “You should apologize to the Lady Bree.”

“I meant it as a compliment mother,” King Dylan answered as he set his cup down. He stood a bit unsteady and the knight at his side stood to help him. Dylan shook him off and went over to the Lady Bree. He took her hand and leaned in to kiss it only to have his mask get in the way. “Sorry milady, I forgot about my mask.”

The Lady Bree pulled her hand away, her arms folded over her chest as she shied away from the king. He didn’t seem to notice and reached out to her again. Before he could touch her, her father stepped between the two.

“I am sorry majesty,” the Count Wiell said with a bow but his voice held steel. He wore a mask of a stag, horns crowning his head. “My daughter be a bit shy.”

“Of course,” the King said withdrawing, but Darin sensed he hid something under his mask. “Let the music continue. Perhaps a fiddle now.”

“Shit,” Ronan said as Daley waved him over. “I’ve gotta go. You just stay back out of the way.”

He took his crwth and joined some of the other musicians. As he walked over he passed the Lady Bree, and his hand brushed hers. She turned, but he had already passed her and had his own music to perform. As the music started again, Ronan playing a lively tune on his crwth, Darin saw Queen Epona stand and leave the hall.

“Darin come with me, the rest of you stay here,” Donar ordered as he went to follow the queen. Darin followed, going out of the bright hall and into the darker hallways. The keep was cool and damp, but after a few quick turns following the candle the queen carried they came out into a garden. The garden was wild and overgrown, holly and elm trees bent under the weight of ivy and moss.

The queen had stopped before an overgrown statue, her candle a small light in the darkness of the garden. She didn’t turn as they walked up to her, though Darin was sure she had heard their approach. Donar waited a moment, Darin unsure of what she was doing. She didn’t seem to be praying, she only stared up at the statue forlornly.

“We had it carven after he died in battle,” Epona said at last. “I wanted my son to know the face of his father. Doesn’t look a thing like him. This was once my private garden, as you can see I’ve let it fall into disrepair, like I have my son.”

She turned to them then, her eyes behind her mask bright.

“So the crow’s prediction is true, the men of the mountains have come down. War is to come to our lands.”

“I’m afraid so milady,” Donar said. “I am Donar Chief of the Emir clan and this is my captain Darin. I need to speak to your son.”

“He won’t listen,” Epona answered. “He has been warned already of the war, seeing you will make no difference. After my husband died in the king’s wars I had to keep the kingdom together, especially with the Sect building over the land. I put my duty to the kingdom before my duty to my son and this is the result. My son is lost to me.”

“We put duty before our love for our family because we must,” Darin said, feeling empathy for Epona. “To turn our backs on our duty would destroy us and those we love. Would things have been better if you had let the kingdom fall?”

“No I suppose not,” Epona said. “But as a mother I weep to know I have failed my son.”

“Have you?” Donar said and Epona seemed startled. “This curse of his, I think it was the doe’s attempt to set him upon the right path. After all, someone that is lost can still find their way again can’t they?”

“There is hope,” Epona said standing still a moment, her face hidden by her mask. “Very well, I will take you to see the king.”

“First I think we should speak with the knight who is always at his side,” Darin said.

“Sir Conor?” Epona said surprised. “Yes you are right; if we convince him we can convince my son. Come.”

Epona led the way out of the garden and they followed her back to the hall. In the hall dancing had begun, the hall full of people dancing around in a confusing array.

“How are we going to find Sir Conor in this?” Darin muttered. Epona didn’t seem to hear him because she continued to walk through the crowd of dancers. Donar and Darin followed her as best they could and eventually they were free of the dancers once more. Epona led them to a table where a man was sitting slumped over a mug of cider. It was the knight, he wore a half mask of ceramic finely crafted and decorated. It had no character to it or animal aspect so Darin guessed this was a mask of southern fashion.

“Sir Conor,” Epona said in a firm voice, not shouting but she was easily heard. The man raised his head, his eyes behind his mask blurry and unfocused. “Sir Conor, this is a most disrespectful state for a knight of Daun.”

“Tis Isra’s Night,” Conor grumbled. “I can drink as I please.”

“Where is the King?” Epona asked through clenched teeth.

“His rooms I believe,” Conor answered. “Why?”

“We need to speak to him,” Epona said.

“We?” Conor said looking at Darin and Donar puzzled. He seemed to stare at them a moment before his eyes widened and he leapt to his feet reaching for his sword. Darin reacted first, lunging forward he grabbed Conor’s sword just as he did. Darin shoved the sword back in the sheath as Conor tried to draw it, holding the other man’s fist over the hilt. Darin glared up at the man, he was a full head and shoulders taller than Darin, but he glared him down all the same.

“Do not abandon reason and listen!” Darin said angrily. Either his tone or the fact he still held the man’s sword seemed to make Conor pause. “You have heard the warning; you know what our coming portends. Daun needs you more than ever, your King needs you. You must see reason!”

Conor’s eyes rolled under his mask and he shook his head.

“A trick,” he muttered. “This is a trick of some kind…”

“If you truly believed that you would not have listened!” Darin said. “Look around you, these people are your own. Your king is guardian to them and bears that burden. A burden that will crush him if he does not find his way and he will fail them. You can help him, you know it.”

Darin felt Conor’s fist under his loosen its grip on the hilt of his sword.

“You know how he has lost his way,” Darin persisted gently. “And you know how the curse can be broken.”

Darin felt all the tension drain from Conor in a moment and the man collapsed back into his chair. Darin let him go as Conor pulled off his mask to cover his eyes; if he was weeping Darin couldn’t tell.

“Where is Dylan Conor?” Epona asked after a moment, her tone softening now. Conor though leapt to his feet, his face gone ashen suddenly.

“We have to hurry,” Conor said and Darin felt his blood run cold at his tone. Conor hurried off before he explained and all they could do was follow. Conor headed straight for a set of stairs which he had been sitting by, Darin realized as a guard. They hurried up the stairs, Conor taking them two at a time with his longer legs. Epona lagged behind hindered by her skirt, but Darin and Donar managed to keep up with Conor.

Conor ran out of the stairwell and down a hallway, past several doors until he reached the end where a large set of double doors stood. Without knocking he burst into the room, Darin and Donar hot on his heels. Darin took in the scene in one glance. Dylan and the cleric stood by the fire, Dylan wearing nothing but a robe his mask discarded. They had been discussing something, but stopped startled by Conor’s intrusion.

“Conor?” Dylan said frowning. The king had dark bags under his eyes and looked thin and weary. “What are you doing? I asked you to guard the stairs so my mother didn’t find me.”

Conor didn’t answer, he wasn’t even looking at the king but at the large four posted bed on the other side of the room. Darin followed his gaze and saw a figure huddled on the bed. A woman lay there weeping, her sobs muffled by the blanket she was wrapped in.

“You didn’t…” Conor whispered.

“Elisha assures me he can send her away to a nunnery in the south,” Dylan said with a grim smile as he patted the cleric on the shoulder. “No need to marry her after a night in my bed. No one will miss Lady Bree.”

Darin felt his hair stand on end in understanding; the king had raped a blind woman. Conor’s face went ashen, his hands shaking. Seeing his distress Dylan hurried over to him, grasping him by the shoulder.

“Come Conor you know it has to be this way!” Dylan said forcefully. “No one wants a blind woman for a queen.”

Conor’s face went from gray to red and he shook free of Dylan’s grasp.

“You are not my king!” Conor shouted. “To do this to one of your people, you never deserved the crown you wear. You will never be the king your father was!”

Darin saw each hurtful word strike home and Dylan’s face went gray. Before he could say anything Epona finally caught up with them, panting heavily. She had taken off her mask at last, her lined face red from exertion. Her cheeks drained of color as she looked around, and then she raced for the bed. She sat next to Lady Bree and took her into her arms, looking back at her son as if she did not know him. Dylan could not meet her gaze or that of Conor’s, his head hanging low.

“You do your king an injustice Sir Conor,” Elisha said scathingly. “Had you not agreed to watch the stairs while Dylan took his pleasure with the girl? You knew this was all harmless fun.”

“Harmless!” Epona shouted from the bed. “Rape is harmless! The Count Weill will not stand for this and he will see to it other lords will turn against the crown! And he has every right to! What will you do about this Grand Sect?”

“Send the girl south before she can tell her tale,” Elisha answered. “Any child that may come of the paring must be disposed of as well so it cannot threaten the stability of the kingdom.”

“Snake!” Epona hissed wrapping her arms around the weeping Lady Bree. “I will not keep quiet about this! The lords will hear of this travesty.”

“Are you saying you would overthrow your own son milady?” Elisha said. Epona glared back at him defiantly, her eyes saying she would. “Majesty I fear age has gotten the better of your mother. I think it best we send her away with the Lady Bree to the south.”

Dylan wasn’t listening; his eyes were on Conor again.

“You don’t mean what you said Conor,” Dylan said. “You and me, we were always like brothers.”

Conor answered this by turning his back on Dylan and going to the bed.

“Does she need a healer milady?” Conor asked.

“Conor!” Dylan shouted. “Don’t turn your back on me!”

“We should send Sir Conor to accompany them,” Elisha said grimly. “It seems his loyalty can no longer be trusted.”

Dylan stood looking like he might collapse at any moment, his eyes dead and lost.

“Majesty,” Donar said, stepping forward and removing his mask. Everyone turned to him and Darin reached up to remove his own mask. “My name is Donar Chief of the Emir clan and this is my Captain Darin. You know who we are.”

“The men of the mountains,” Dylan said amazed. “Dwarves.”

“Majesty these men are frauds,” Elisha said angrily. “There is no such thing as the Phay. They are simply men born with some disfigurement come here to trick you into wasting money and time on a fruitless war. Some of my clerics from Dun Glas brought word of them to me. What proof do they have that the witch’s words are true?”

“I have none,” Donar answered. “Any proof I could bring would only be discounted as a trick would it not?”

“So you would ask us to follow you by blind faith?” Elisha asked.

“Ironic you a Sect speaking of blind faith,” Epona said acidly and Elisha glared at her.

“I am not speaking to you cleric but to the king,” Donar said. “It is his decision not yours. King Dylan, you are the king of Daun; that does not mean you rule the people and kingdom as you please! You are their protector, their guide, their leader when they feel lost, afraid, hurt. Dark times are coming and I come here to warn you not for your benefit, but for the benefit of the people of Daun. The army that comes will not have mercy on the weak or innocent, they will take pleasure in destroying every last man down to the babes in their mother’s arms.

“So I bring this warning to you for you to heed. Take up arms to defend Daun or those you have sworn to protect will fall.”

Darin watched the king’s face as he struggled to swallow Donar’s words. Dylan looked away from Donar and back at the three by the bed. Conor still would not look at him, Epona still glared at Elisha, but the Lady Bree had stopped weeping. It was her Darin realized the king was looking at, but the blind woman could not return his gaze. Dylan stood perfectly still and Darin started to see a change.

He saw a film of light around Dylan, like a haze that blurred the eyes coming off snow. The cloud rested on Dylan for a moment before dissolving, lifting free of the king’s shoulders. No longer bent under the weight of that cloud Dylan seemed to stand taller now, his eyes clear of the fevered light that seemed to shine in them. He walked over to the bed and put a hand on Conor’s shoulder.

“I am sorry my friend for doubting your words,” Dylan said and then he reached for his mother who turned to him surprised. “I am sorry mother for all the sorrow I have caused you.” He turned to the Lady Bree last and reached out to her, lifting her up into a sitting position. “And to you Lady Bree I have harmed in the worst manor, I cannot apologize or seek forgiveness for such a crime to you. Whatever you ask of me I will give you if only it would ease your pain, though I know it will not.”

Bree didn’t answer her face unreadable as her blank eyes.

“Majesty what is your decision?” Elisha asked puzzled and Dylan turned to him. He stood to face the cleric, his entire demeanor had changed.

“My decision is that we shall go to war,” Dylan answered. Elisha’s round face was one of astonishment at first before it darkened to rage.

“I will not stand by this majesty!” Elisha said looking about to explode but Dylan spoke first.

“I do not expect you to,” Dylan said calmly and Elisha’s eyes bulged. “You are hereby banished from Daun, and all those who follow you.”

“You cannot expel the Sect from the Kingdom!” Elisha roared. He took a threatening step towards the king but Conor suddenly stood between them, his hand on his sword.

“Allow me to dispatch this cur my king,” Conor said lowly.

“No, he will carry the message south,” Dylan said. “We will see what the High King will make of this.”

“You know what he will do Rawn,” Elisha growled. “War.”

“War has come to Daun anyways,” Dylan answered. “And we will face it. Leave my sight, I expect you gone by the time Eos touches Empyria with her colors.”

Red in the face Elisha turned on his heel and left. He passed Donar and Darin on his way out, glaring at them and Darin saw murder in those blue eyes.

“See that he and his Sects leave Conor,” Dylan commanded. “Gather the guard, those that are sober enough for duty.”

“Yes majesty,” Dylan said with a smart bow and he too hurried from the room. He nodded to Darin and Donar in thanks as he passed them and Darin nodded back to him. Darin looked back at the bed and saw Dylan looking down at the Lady Bree.

“You should go,” Epona said breaking into her son’s thoughts. “I will see to the Lady Bree and get a healer.”

Dylan hesitated, his hand reaching out to the Lady Bree, but stopping midair. She had stopped weeping and seemed to be listening, but she did not raise her head as she leaned against the queen.

“Lady Bree, I offer you marriage if you would have me,” Dylan said softly. Lady Bree’s reaction was covered by Epona’s who took a sharp intake of breath.

“You would ask her to marry the man that raped her?” Epona said with reproach. “Go Dylan, we will discuss this matter when hearts are less raw.”

Dylan withdrew looking guilty. He walked over to Donar and Darin by the door seeming weary.

“We have much to discuss,” Dylan said.

“I think first you should dress,” Donar said. “And don your mask again.”

Dylan nodded and went away behind a screen to change. Darin turned back to see Epona had drawn the curtains closed over the bed, hiding the Lady Bree. Dylan came out shortly, wearing a fine woolen tunic and trews, a fur draped over his shoulders. He wore not a southern mask like he had before but a ram’s mask, the ceramic thick with knotted patterns. Ram horns curled around his head as a crown.

“Come, we should see if Conor has gathered the guard,” Dylan said as he walked from the room, sparing one last glance for the curtained bed. “Will she forgive me?” he asked as they walked down the hall.

“Hatred is burden that only sours the soul,” Donar said, Darin knowing he spoke from experience. “For her sake I hope she does, you must do everything you can for her.”

“I will,” Dylan said nodding, “Though I doubt my mother will forgive me.”

“Mothers always forgive their sons,” Darin said. “Though they never let their sons know that.”

Dylan almost laughed; the sound he made was more like a dry chuckle. They left back down to the main hall where the feast was still in full swing, no one aware of the happenings in the King’s chambers. Hakk and Bgrim joined them as they walked through the crowd of people.

Dylan led the way out of the hall and into the courtyard where a contingent of Daunish knights stood ready. Darin could judge a warrior well and at last he saw skill in arms in the men here. Many were the grizzled aged veterans rather than the strong youth or middling year old men. They all wore ceramic helms, the face guards drawn over their faces as masks.

“King Dylan,” one of the older men said sounding for a moment like he was totally relieved. He saluted and the rest of the men followed suit.

“Sir Owen,” Dylan answered. “Are these the only sober men?”

“Sober enough majesty,” Owen answered.

“Sect Elisha left already to the Sect majesty,” Conor said.

“Sir Owen take five men to the Sect and make sure Elisha leaves with only his robes,” Dylan said. “I’ll not have him take anything from Daun. Though make sure he is supplied with horses and food.”

“Yes majesty,” Owen said and signaled to five of the other men. They were about to leave when the gate guard gave a shout. Everyone turned to see a boy running past the gate guard and towards them.

“Wait!” Dylan shouted in such a commanding tone that the guard that had drawn a bow stopped and dropped his arrow. The boy ran up to them and though he wore a mask of a fox and a fox pelt, Darin recognized Loam. He stopped before them and bowed quickly.

“Grand… Grandmother Meredydd told me ta fetch the king,” he said panting for breath. “She said he would be willing ta listen now. Ye have ta see this!”

“See what?” Dylan asked. “Who is Grandmother Meredydd?”

“A green witch,” Darin answered. “We should follow.”

Nervous, obviously his last encounter with witches had not been as pleasant, Dylan nodded. Surrounded by the knights they left the keep, Loam leading the way. Darin looked around amazed at all the lights that burned throughout the city, and even over the countryside. They entered the crowds again and Darin marked the change in the crowds immediately. An energy permeated the people and air, everyone talking in excited tones.

They fell silent as the king walked among them and the energy grew as they watched their king walk through the crowds. Some were nervous, but others seemed to sense the change and now watched them pass in anticipation. Loam was leading them to the Holly King. The guards were gone from around the tree and now the people gathered under the twisted branches of the tree.

At the foot of the tree a space was cleared and a line had formed as people came one by one before the tree. They entered the clearing and saw Meredydd sitting under the holly tree, a basket on her lap full of holly leaves. A man in the line stepped forward and Meredydd passed him a leaf before he moved off to let the one behind him get one.

“Ah, so the King has come,” Meredydd said as she nodded to them and stood, balancing the basket on her hip.

“What are you doing?” Dylan asked, sounding puzzled rather than displeased. “Why give out the leaves?”

“They are a talisman,” Meredydd answered. Darin noticed all those with leaves had pinned them on their tunics, and some women wore them in their hair. “Those who wear these leaves this night will be protected in the times to come.”

“Why not give out the berries to eat?” Darin asked.

“Holly berries be poisonous, they cause nausea and diarrhea,” Meredydd answered. “Even those o the Holly King. The leaves will last longer as well. For ye majesty.”

She held out a leaf and Dylan took it and Meredydd handed out leaves to the knights and dwarves. She bowed to them all and they bowed in turn.

“Now I must go,” Meredydd said. “There are more leaves I must hand out.”

“Wait,” Dylan said. “When you are done I would like to make you a member of my council, your guidance will be needed in the time to come.”

“I would aid ye as I could majesty but sadly it is not that way,” Meredydd answered. “I fear my sight will not be clear for a long time.”

“You’ve foreseen this?” Darin asked and Meredydd smiled sadly. She did not answer, simply walked off into the crowd handing out her leaves.

“She can see into the future?” Dylan said amazed.

“The sight costs the seer their sanity,” Donar answered. “They begin to lose sight of the present and never know what time they are in. I think that Meredydd has a limited time now in which she will be sane.”

Darin heard Loam sigh sadly and then hurry off after Meredydd, the boy going to help her hand out the holly leaves. Darin looked to the sky and gave a start. Rippling in the wind of the sky They of the Aria danced between the stars and lit by the embers of fires across the moors. Necks craned back and the people of Daun stared up at the northern lights, a sign of the changing times.

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