#perpetual dawn

[momoguido]

Antissa and Beatrice are both devout (Beatrice having had a profound conversion from atheism when her god basically told her "I'm god and you're religious now") while Sophia is more of a semi-religious, "I like the aesthetic" person. Colonel Richardson was a "phone it in for my parents" person who believed just barely enough to keep his dying god alive. Nobody (character name) is beset by spirits, Everyman was beset by spirits but stopped believing in them and pathologized his spirituality.

There are so many interesting ways for a character to be religious.

Tired of stories where the author worldbuilds a whole religion only to chicken out at the last moment by making the main character a skeptic. You mean to tell me that there’s all this richness in lore and culture, but you’ve trapped me with the one person in this society who doesn’t care about it? So bland. I could meet an agnostic easily enough by walking down the street, but your story is my one chance to hear the perspective of someone who follows whatever religion you’ve contrived. You made this whole world; convince me that your character really is from there.

[rastronomicals]

10:22 PM EDT October 12, 2024:

Pelican - "Perpetual Dawn" From the album Forever Becoming (October 15, 2013)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Post-metal (in the more current sense)

[momoguido]

My PT was doing some seriously painful deep tissue work yesterday, and I was like "hm maybe I can dissociate into fantasy to make this easier."

Either he really eased up after that or my plan worked fabulously. And now I have a new story written that I'm super excited about. Finally gonna get some back-story on who Jingwei was before she drowned.

[spriteguard]

Hunter Gray and the Fox

(listen here)

A hunter spied a noble fox

Her fur as red as red could be

Sat nobly atop some rocks

He drew his bowstring, then did see

Into a lady she transformed

Her hair as red as red could be

And spoke to him, and sternly warned,

"Because you would have shot me dead,

Into a lady I transformed

"I'll put a curse on you," she said,

"A curse you well deserve to bear

Because you would have shot me dead

"To wander endlessly seems fair,

And never rest nor reach your goal

A curse you well deserve to bear"

Away from him his life she stole

For how can one go on that way

And never rest nor reach your goal?

"I did not shoot, that's all I'll say.

This curse I don't deserve to bear

For how can one go on that way?

"You can't just say 'beware, beware!'

A hunter did what hunters do

This curse I don't deserve to bear!"

So who was right, and what was true?

What trouble came to pass because

A hunter did what hunters do

A lady or a fox there was

Sat nobly atop some rocks

What trouble came to pass because

A hunter spied a noble fox

Her fur as red as red could be

Sat nobly atop some rocks

[casteliacityramen]

((No update this week!))

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[momoguido]

This is the crux of one of my stories, and I'm still working out what the heck I want to say with it. An immortal woman who is maybe a thousand or so saecula old falls in love with a mortal woman with nearly 6000 saecula of past life memories. So Beatrice knows Antissa for most of her 6000th life, from childhood to death, but Antissa remembers a time before Beatrice was born. And they've known each other for thousands of years, but don't fall in love until Antissa #6000 is an adult.

But Antissa's memory isn't perfect. It's handed down in the form of an epic poem that contains everything all of the past lives, up to the most recent one, thought was worth remembering. So she has memorized and analyzed all of the things in the poem, but it's not the immediate memory of lived experience.

And then when Antissa #6000 dies, there's a problem: she was promised to live 6000 lifetimes, but also to be reborn 6000 times. So does she live 6001 lives, or is she reborn 5999 times? But the next Antissa isn't born on the day that the old one dies. So Beatrice memorizes the epic herself, and combines it with all of her memories of Antissa #6000, and says in her mind all of the things she'd like to say to Antissa #6001, and creates a factive as the last Antissa, who lives on in Beatrice's body alongside her. But since this factive is based on the 100-year-old Antissa, and not a child, and she has access to Beatrice's memories, and Beatrice's thousands-of-years-old body, so how old is she?

Bad idea: Age gap discourse but in a fantasy land where there's multiple races who have vastly different lifespans and life styles.

Is it wrong for a 27 year old human to date a 140 year old stone elf, considering most stone elves don't get out of diapers till their 30s?

Is it wrong for a 80 year old dwarf to date a two year old fire wisp, when fire wisps only live up to 5 years (between the eruptions) and have memories of their past lives, so in a way they're "born" at age 400,000+? That octogenarian dwarf is way younger than the fire wisp that's only physically younger than some of the socks the dwarf has!

Is it wrong for a chronomancer who was never born to date, well, anyone? They are zero years old and infinity years old and negative one hundred and seventeen years old all at once. They look like an old human, sure, with the long white beard and the wrinkly skin, but as far as anyone can tell, they've always looked like that. We've seen the cave paintings.

Is it wrong for a 30 year old lizardman (that's old in lizardman years) to date a human who is 60 years old in biological years (because of aging spells), 26 years old in lived-experience years, but only 13 years old in calendar years? (ie, they were born 13 years ago, but spent some of that time in sideways timelines, so they've lived more years than have passed in their home timeline?)

Is it wrong for a 12,000 year old dragon date a pile of 400 kobolds when kobolds only live like 10 years on average, but reach full maturity in one year? And if you disagree, can you do anything about it? You do know what happened to the last policeman who tried to arrest a dragon, right? Their city is still smoldering, 50 years later.

Is it wrong for anyone to date the time worm? It's the same age, every year. So the age gap can only intensify. If you start dating the time worm when you're both the same age, when do you break it off because you've become too much older than them?

And most confusing of all... What about the fairies? They could be anything between a thousand and a day old, they would lie about their age either way, and they can look like whatever they want. There's fairies we know for a fact have been around since the founding of The City of Towers, who met the silent mother herself, and also look like they're at most ten years old. Is it wrong to date them, or just really uncomfortable for everyone who sees it? And on the other side there's fairies who are "born" (hatched? They come from plants, I'm not sure what the verb even would be. Seeded? Sprouted, maybe) this week who are already appearing like middle-aged men and dancing with widows in what looks like a scheme to run off with her fortune but they never take the money, because what would a fairy want with worthless metal discs? Maybe fairies have a hive mind or genetic memory or reincarnation with full memories, they'd never tell you or give you a straight (or consistent) answer anyway.

Stone golems are really the only inter-race dating situation anyone can agree on. They're unthinking & unmoving solid rock during the day, so those hours don't count. Thus their "real age" is a nice even half of their true age. So if you meet a stone golem who was dug out 30 years ago, watch out: that's a 15 year old, and if you're a 25 year human, that's too young for you, even though their dig-date is five years before your birth-date.

[usyrps]

aegon and being the sun king, associated with the dawn, and the coming of light. he did a tour around KL on sunfyre after his coronation and that's the visual of him that is remembered, in the mind of the people.

[calamity-calliope]

something something equal and opposite reaction

[thegreatyin]

i finally stopped by steward's dawn just to gather my thoughts about it/finally see the text variations that come with having an anti-liberationist moulin-hurlers city. and i'm happy to report that it still hates the scoundrel so damn much

[rastronomicals]

4:20 AM EDT March 30, 2023:

Pelican - “Perpetual Dawn” From the album Forever Becoming (October 15, 2013)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Post-metal (in the more current sense)

[momoguido]

I'm not even done highlighting all the episodes from Perpetual Dawn season 3, and it's already well over 6 hours, more than an hour longer than season 2.

Meanwhile I'm already writing the end of season 4, which may end up being very short, but I think it has also been some of my best material.

[seedofjoseph]

Ethan Seed: YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME. YOU'RE NOT MY REAL MOTHER.

The Judge's inner monologue: Your Uncle John forced me to say 'yes' to him at the altar, your Uncle Jacob gaslit me into being his only, I used to hotbox Bliss with their adoptive sister, and I am fucking your dad. I am your mom and your aunt! Now stop praying on his downfall, and help me set up the dinner table!

[spriteguard]

One recurring motif in the Epic of Antissa is that each Antissa gives instructions for recreating a memento of someone who was important to her.

While not every Antissa recreates every memento, whether due to lack of resources or simply the overwhelming number of them (totalling 5999 by the time of the Last Antissa) there are some that are more commonly recreated than others.

The first such memento is a reminder of the First Antissa's husband: a white feather stained with a single drop of blood. The exact origin of this tradition was not recorded, but several folk explanations have arisen over the years. The most enduring of these is that her husband used a quill and some blood to write something important, but this is contradicted by the fact that the stain is usually placed at the top of the feather, not the tip.

The most commonly recreated is a chain, representing a chain she removed from a dear friend who had been imprisoned, and placed around her own waist to carry with her as a reminder of their escape together. It then became common in future generations to hang other mementos from this chain.

[kirayaykimura]

it doesn’t matter how much changes, hak’s incredulous face and bedhead will always stay constant

[yoakenouta]

ㅤㅤSHE'S melting into her desk. Becoming one with it.

[boygirlctommy]

love posting about ev and an as if theyre in love. i mean are they? i have no idea. nary a clue