#this is one of few “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” where the advanced tech does just feel like magic

[rosecolouredheart]

how did you like skypiea? it’s one of my favorite arcs and i always love seeing how other people feel about it after they read or watch it for the first time

I think it was a lot of fun!! I liked so many aspects/character moments of it that if I started to list them I would probably write 2/3rds of all the plot points. Obviously (vague) spoilers from here;

but I especially loved Robin getting her anthropology/archeology moment and Chopper protecting the ship, as well as the importance of verth to both sides and that conflict, and the "Sky Warfare" as a concept.

I think Dials are ridiculous, having basically magic seashells that can do anything but each one does only one specific thing and construction density clouds that are carved into whatever is. Certainly a thing that Oda did. But the idea that people would use these things meant to be helpful tools and make devastating and, to the uninitiated, unfathomable attacks/weaponry with them is so True about the way stuff gets used. There's lots of good social/political commentary going on while the going merry crew members are so wonderfully concerned about one another being okay and Luffy is stuck in a snake.

Also dog knocking itself out on command was funny.

[calchexxis]

Book Release Coming Soon!

Everything is green for go on the sequel to my debut novel, Reflector. I've worked long and hard to put myself out there as a self-published author, having finished and published my first book last year, and now will be publishing my second book in the next few days!

These are really rough times, but I still want to believe in all of the things that I write about. I want to believe that those ideals aren't just empty promises. It's my dream to be a successful author, and with the upcoming labor strike I'm going to be involved in soon, I'll be getting strapped for cash, so if anyone wants to support me in more than one tangible way, please consider picking up Reflector!

Reflector (physical and ebook)

Reflector at Rakuten Kobo (for non-US)

Reflector Synopsis:

Wally Willowbark, a perennially unfortunate half-elf with a three-legged cat, stumbles into a job working for a local dispersal precinct, a kind of public service ghostbusters for when nana gets up in the morning but leaves her body in bed. There, she discovers that the reason she’s hired is to act as a handler for a beautiful and dying sorceress named Vess, and while it’s not love at first sight it’s certainly in the air, but the past catches up with both of them, and when it comes to toxic exes, Vess has a real doozy.

This is a story that follows the themes of surviving past trauma, and how we live beyond it and grow, and it does it through the lens of magic and modernity, in a world where sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

The sequel will be out soon! I'll make an announcement as soon as it's ready!

[laguzmage]

hello. do you have any recommendations for ttrpgs that enable robust roleplay? my friends want to get back into dnd after not playing for a few years but i think it would be fun to branch out, espscially considering how they like to focus more on character & story than combat encounters. thanks in advance!

The best one for like, roleplay and storytelling IMO is probably Numenera, the game has this really really good system in which players have stat pools instead of numeric bonuses, that serves both as their health, and as a kind of Stamina bar that they can use to apply Effort to a task to make it easier.

So what this translates to is if you want your character to accomplish some physically or mentally arduous task, they can do it and there's a gameplay mechanic around like, "And Nemo the Glaive does indeed climb that wall, her muscles are ragged, her fingers are torn up and bleeding, she collapses to catch her breath" because it wasn't just a close roll, it was one in which you spent some of your Brawn/Speed to do so - in fact Numenera features this really smart thing where if you fail a roll, as long as the GM doesn't specifically say "yeah you can't try again", you can immediately reroll but you have to spend Effort. So that can even feed back into the story of like, "Nemo starts to climb but she slips, hits her side against the rock face, gulping up the air that just got pushed out of her lungs she tightens her grip with her one remaining hand and swings around to get more stable footing, and tries again"

It also features this really ingenious thing where the players always roll the dice - the players (almost) always roll a D20 - and what they have to roll is a target number based on what the GM says the task's difficulty is (1-10) - very rarely with math after the fact. So unlike say, 5E/Pathfinder/etc there's no "Whoops we got caught in the moment and forgot what half the mechanics and dice rolls are here", you know it's Always gonna be a D20 and it's Always gonna be what the dice says, without adding your stat bonus and your proficiency modifier and whoops you still have guidance I forgor so add a D4 and-

The other thing that I really like about Numenera (The other game I'm gonna recommend does this too), is it has a THICK rulebook (418 pages!!) that contains short stories, lore snippets, Numenera also specifically has these long segments about each nation and tribe in their map, their culture, cities, who each nation beefs with and why, all contained in the Core Rulebook so you can get a sense for the world without needing to find a bunch of supplementary text.

As an aside - you mention not wanting to just do combat. One other thing Numenera does that I really like is that it's bestiary features a wide list of creatures that have motivations and thoughts other then "Eat adventurer, roll initiative" - for example, one creature in it just wants to eat Numenera and gain their power, so players with sufficient observation skills and enough self control to not immediately attack can figure out it just wants to eat that weird cube in your pack, and you weren't planning to use it anyway, and resolve the encounter that way

Lorewise, Numenera is a setting in which civilization has risen and fallen something like 8 previous times, sometimes reaching the level of galactic spacetravel, sometimes reaching the point of being able to build Dyson Spheres and new worlds, and sometimes getting beyond even that. All contained on a feudal alt-earth with a fantasy flair to it. It kind of takes the "Sufficient enough technology is indistinguishable from magic" phrase and builds a whole setting based off of it. Players delve into ancient vaults, ruins, and ships, and its obvious its like, an ancient spaceship, a forgotten lab, and so on, but do the characters know that? The world is full of mysterious magical artifacts except the magical artifact is like, a vial of liquid that if poured on you hardens and becomes steel, a mysterious box and sphere and the sphere you can place somewhere, and view what the sphere sees from the box anywhere on the world, the one where they just straight up describe a sniper rifle as if its an esoteric staff,

This ask got kind of long so the other one, Shadowrun, is below the cut ⬇

The other one is, way more mechanically complex, but I'm a bit of an evangelist for it, is Shadowrun. I can't speak to how 6th edition is (I'm sorry Catalyst game labs I'm sorry I bought like 10 Shadowrun 5 sourcebooks and I'm not ready to let them go yet), but in 5th edition the game has this insane level of character customization to where I'd strongly recommend downloading a program to help you (Like Chummer5, I think some people back when I played it at a game store used Hero Forge somehow. I saw another one called OMAE) - point is, you're gonna be doing a lot of math making a Shadowrun character, and spending a lot of time juggling priority tables, weighing minor differences in stats for cars and commlinks, optimizing your starting perks and flaws, etc.

Once you get out of character customization though, all you're really rolling is an insane number of D6s and counting the ones that are 5 and 6 (The rulebook will call them Hits), based on a combination of your stat, the skill being rolled, and any specializations you have and gear bonuses you get. The game can get pretty complex if like, you're playing as a hacker and using the erratas that add new stuff for hackers, but a solid 80% of that is gonna be the GM doing the lifting, so they get the choice on how crazy they want to get with the rolling and rules.

So why would I say "Oh Shadowrun is good for that" if its way more number and dice crunchy then Numenera?

Well, the first reason is that Shadowrun has no character classes, there's a few stat caps based on if you're playing as an Elf or Troll or Orc or something instead of a human, but beyond that you can take your starting character and go anywhere with it. Don't like that bards in DnD still have a wide list of combat things they can do? Want to play someone with the charisma skills and they immediately eat SHIT the second that bouncer gets tired of them and goes to toss them in the street? Well you're in charge buddy! Want to make a wizard but instead of being smart, you want to be good at physical tasks so when spells don't cut it he pulls out his glock and starts casting bullet? You KNOW you can do that!! Hell, there's even things that can raise those aforementioned stat caps so that if you want to play as The Scholarly Troll you can do that

The other reason Shadowrun can be good for that is that the Shadowrun core rule book is *502* fuckin pages, and that's not all mechanics and tables and rules and example maps. Shadowrun 5's CRB (And every single errata) is full of short stories, forum style messages from people in universe discussing the merits (or demerits) of gear, setting the stage for the world and the megacorps that run it, and so on.

Lorewise, Shadowrun is set on earth - but specifically an earth where in 2012 magic returned, and violently. Dragons flew around and set stuff on fire, wizards and warlocks immediately awoke to their abilities, oftentimes without the ability to fully control them, the fae, and so on. Flash forward to the 2050s, all of that still exists, but now it's the cyberpunk future on top of it. Dragons run a couple of the big 10 megacorps. Your elf or orc ranger can get cybernetics, the spirit shaman can be the spirit shaman of the mysterious sewer sludge, and so on. Its the big classic cyberpunk setting that, well, isn't called Cyberpunk

[disgruntled-writer]

By now, we’ve probably all seen that one post about wizards understanding technology as magic and magic as technology. I humbly disagree. In fact, I think that by equating the two your loose nuance and the reason both are awesome.

First, I’d like to set up what I suspect to be the source of that idea. Arthur C. Clarke came up with three “laws,” that describe his chosen genre of science fiction. The third is what we are concerned with: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” All three of these laws are more writing advice or trope than fact, but this one caught on, keep that in mind.

So, as for the post, which I will try and find and reblog to this blog ASAP, it irks me in two ways. The first is that it fundamentally misunderstands the idea of arcane knowledge. Specifically, it implies the premise of wizards knowing why magic works. Arcane knowledge is arcane knowledge because you know that if you do X, Y happens, but you don’t know the underlying mechanisms or why that input delivers that output. That’s what makes magic magic.

Without that level of obfuscation, it just becomes science. A known fundamental law of the universe. That isn’t to say that it can’t be in the process of being explored or even understood in the broad strokes, but if you can extremely accurately predict future interactions, you’ve made scientific theory. You can also have a lot of understanding of what inputs lead to what outputs; everyone on your block can know mage hand without knowing why it works.

Now, specifically I am referring to on a societal level, not a personal perspective. As at that level most modern technology is arcane to most of us. You know that when you perform a series of inputs, you get an output. Which is to say, this technology, which is sufficiently advanced, is, to the individual a matter of magic, of the arcane. But, it’s obviously not magic; the sum of human knowledge entirely contains how a phone works.

This brings us back to Arthur C. Clarke. The reason his third law exists as writing advice, at least to me is that it’s simply good advice. When writing science fiction, you’re not trying to predict or justify some future technology, you’re trying to explore its consequences and ramifications. To quote Frederik Pohl, “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” The tech and its functionality is pre-supposed.

But, it’s importantly, just a good observation. From a personal perspective, which is what most stories are built for, you don’t need to know how a Time Machine, a Smartphone, or a Fireball works to understand what actually matters. How do you control the Time Machine? How do you use a Smartphone? How do you cast Fireball? What do they do?

TLDR: a Wizard shouldn’t be able to precisely and accurately explain how a set of motions and noises makes a fireball, but an Electrical Engineer could explain how clap-on clap-off lights work, down to the molecular level.

Now, the section where I give obligatory writing advice.

The first is that magic is as good a tool for Sci-Fi as the warp drive is. Too few fantasy settings really sit down and think about the consequences of there being a non-insignificant portion of the population capable of blowing your house up. Going into that can make an interesting story in of itself.

To those who want to write Sci-Fi, don’t try to waste your words and your reader’s attention on explaining the mechanics any more than you have to. We don’t care about WHY the FTL engine works, we care about what it does. I’ll probably have more when I inevitably talk about Technobabble.

Regardless, thank you for reading this far, have a good day, and may you write at the speed (but not quality) of a coked-up Steven King.

[aeoki]

SHINSEKAI - Empire of Fantasy: Chapter 6

Location: SHINSEKAI Control Room Characters: Shuu, Sora, Natsume & Tsumugi

TL Note:

This refers to the third of Clarke’s three laws but Natsume omits the latter part of the adage (“...technology is indistinguishable from magic.”).

The full idiom Tsumugi means to say is “You can learn, without realising it, from what is around you.”

< Reality. The “SHINSEKAI” Control Room, somewhere in the Tohoku region. >

Tsumugi: Alright. Good, “SSVRS” appears to be working smoothly.

Sora: HaHa~♪ The power of science is amazing!

Natsume: YeAH, it’s the very definition of the adage “any sufficiently advanced technology[1] and whatnot”.

We were the providers of the groundwork for the VR technoloGY but we left its development to a company at the top of the industRY…

To be honest, even I don’t know how “SSVRS” worKS.

Tsumugi: It’s best to not let the people inside “SHINSEKAI” – the players – know that. It would only make them anxious if they found out.

Natsume: Of courSE. Still, even the people living in this reality only have a vague idea as to how it worKS.

What lies at the end of the universe, the depths of the ocean or at the core of the EarTH? We can make inferences but no one has been able to confirm what they really are up close with the five sensES ♪

All they’ve done is place a few dots down and connected that space with their imagination in an attempt to understand iT.

Tsumugi: It’s an ability unique to the human brain. But even so, filling in the spaces between those dots in whichever way suits them best is exactly why it’s easy for humans to get caught up in conspiracies.

Natsume: I’m sure that’s how “fine” made use of the human psyche and gained hegemony during the wAR. They spread a fantasy story where everything worked out for them and made everyone believe it was reAL.

Between the two dots that were labelled “We are unhappy” and “There are outstanding idols called the Five Oddballs who exiST”...

They filled in the space between those two dots with “We’re at a disadvantage because of thEM”.

That didn’t exist at all, in realiTY.

Tsumugi: Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, you know? Humans aren’t that foolish so they wouldn’t believe nonsense like that.

But it was true that all sorts of work landed naturally in the lap of the talented “Five Oddballs” and the academy also labelled and acknowledged them as superior idols.

It may have just been the result of a competition based on pure skill, but we made everyone believe that it was with ill intentions and unfairness.

We, the good-natured people, were being made to drink muddy water all because someone was plotting something sinister…

People won’t doubt something anymore if they’ve already connected the dots and believed it. If you’ve already come to a conclusion in your head, it’s quite difficult for you to acknowledge that it’s wrong if someone said it was.

All that’s left is to gather evidence that will support that conclusion, even though it’s nothing short of a delusion, and a conspiracy theorist is born just like that.

The only thing I’ve chanted is “There, there”...♪

Natsume: That truly is the absolute worST. Where did all of you learn how to control the human psyche like thAT, Senpai?

Tsumugi: It seems Eichi-kun learnt kingcraft, management studies and philosophy normally at home. My parents are, you know… so one can learn without realising it[2] or so it goes.

Natsume: Ahh, you’ve experienced being deceived by a family member before, so you had the chance to observe that up close, didn’t yOU, Senpai?

Tsumugi: Yes. I think I learnt it by thinking back on it afterwards and realising… Oh, this is how fraud works.

I’ve always been slow on the uptake~

Sora: …………

Tsumugi: Oh, we ended up talking between ourselves again. Such a bad habit.

Natsume: It was a revolting topic as weLL. Sorry about that, Sora, you must have been borED.

Sora: No, Sora’s fine! It was decided that “SS” would be centred around you this time, right, Master~?

That’s why Sora will help out and not get in Master’s way~♪

Natsume: You’re not in the way at aaaaLL! Why would you say thatttTT!?

Sora: Mmph!? Master~ Sora won’t be able to breathe if Master~ hugs Sora so tightly~ It feels like Sora is in outer space!

Tsumugi: Ahaha. Natsume-kun has been a bit crazy when it comes to Sora-kun lately.

Natsume: Am I not allowed to do thAT!? Love drives people craZY!

Sora: Mmph… *Twitches from lack of oxygen*

Tsumugi: *Nonchalantly helps Sora out* Most of our idol activities recently were centred around Sora-kun, though.

I wonder if going back to where we started would be the right phrase to describe it.

Natsume: YeAH, the way you phrase things is awful as alwaYS. That’s why people misunderstand yOU.

← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂  Next Chapter →

[tombeane-blog]

The End Of Mankind As We Know It - The Mega Maga Merge

After wasting your time and patience in the previous two blogs, I'll just cut to the chase in this one.

Mankind as we know will become fini, kaput - harder to find than Waldo. By that I mean flesh and blood versions of ourselves are no more, done, over, turn out the lights.

Relax, it will not be soon. Not in decades, maybe within a few hundred years, for sure within a thousand.

We are on the verge of creating real A.I. (Sounds weird to say real artificial?) And it will be way smarter than us, although not necessarily sentient very soon. Keep in mind, being smart doesn't guarantee common sense. A very smart, very educated Supreme Court Nominee could not answer the question, "What Is A Woman?".

We are on verge of creating a working Quantum Computer. I won't try to describe how it works except to say that instead of using ones and zeros, it uses the state of quantum particles and waves such as bosons, quarks, nerds and dorks.

Bottom line, it will be 1,000,000,000,000 times faster than today's fastest supercomputer. (For recent college graduates, that's 1 trillion times faster.)

According to Michio Kaku, world renowned theoretical physicist, it will change everything….everywhere….all at once - and very soon.

QC based A.I. that is 1 trillion times smarter than us? Within decades? - maybe. Within a century or two? - absolutely. Everything will change everywhere, all at once.

What will that mean? Take health - A QC computer would understand the entirety of all the genomes of all living things - humans, animals, plants, viruses and germs. If a new viral disease infects humans, a QC computer could run all the trillions of outcomes or variations in the virus genome against the human genome and construct a vaccine to cure the disease. No lab tests, no trial runs in mice, monkeys or humans. And it would be able to do it in nanoseconds. And it could analyze the DNA of each person in real time and manufacturer an individual vaccine for each person so there are no side effects. You enter a medical pod, get a custom vaccine and walk out.

QC will most likely design a newer quantum computer a trillion times faster than itself - maybe by using string theory to utilize the states of particles and waves everywhere in the Universe?

All knowledge. Common sense. All data.

We may ultimately know the answer to the Big Bang and the Purpose of the Universe?

During a podcast, Joe Rogan asks Michio Kaku "In the future, how do we contend with an entity billions or trillions of times smarter than us?" Michio responds, "We Join It."

How soon it is going to happen and especially how it is going to happen, I have no idea.

Will we create and become (a) god?

Arthur C. Clarke's third law, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Then isn't magic (or the power of a god) simply the end result of technological advancement?

As we join our consciences into a massive computerized entity: Will our soul join with us or do we die? Or will we just be a soulless copy of our knowledge and experience? With no flesh and blood, only consciousness, are there any limits to what we know, where we go? Planetary, galactic and inter-galactic exploration? Explore the Universe, swan dive into a black hole just for fun? Live hundreds of millions of years?

"We are like caterpillars spinning a cocoon. We are driven to do it even though we have no idea that we will become butterflies." Joe Rogan quasi-quote referring to Quantum Computers

As we explore the Universe in a box the size of a sugar cube, or, sense the mysteries of the Universe through vibrating strings of matter, will we eventually discover all there is to discover, know all there is to know?

And maybe even meet God.

[loopy777]

Whats your thoughts on combining low-fantasy and science fiction, and being upfront about it from day one?

One of the ideas i have for an original setting is one I call the 27 worlds(named so far the fact the planet has 27 very different and isolated continents, each with their own history, peoples, etc), which for most of the series will be a very clear case of low fantasy, with hard rules, and a focus on on the ground politics.

Then on the continent where this universe Orcs are the dominant species, there is what is clearly a space elevator, reaching to the sky, just like Salem from battle angel Alita.

Like, im not planning on doing anything with it for the part of the planets history that im going to cover, but it is always there, with all the implications of a space elevator no one has any real understanding of what it actually is or where it came from, coexisting with a world that is working it's way up from metal scale armor and chainmail, to plate steel, and beyond.

My original plan was to make the whole myth arc thing a mystery by never explaining what exactly it was, but as i thought about it, i figure it's way more interesting to make the mystery to not be about the what? and instead being the why?

Anyway, what do you think?

I think it can definitely work. I've encountered quite a few examples of a fantasy/scifi mix, ranging from stuff like the original He-Man cartoon (where magic swords and Flash Gordon lasers mix freely) all the way up to the Shannara books (where the fairly typical fantasy setting is explained as a post-apocalyptic Earth where some survivors evolved in the nuclear fallout into classic fantasy dwarves and elves, and occasionally a random killer robot interrupts whatever fantasy quest is going on).

Arthur C. Clarke's "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" adage aside, I think the key is just to manage the feel/tone. The way you're describing things, readers will be able to understand the implications, but it won't throw a big wrench into the otherwise fantasy story. To me, the difference between scifi and fantasy is purely about the tone of the story and how realistically the science is treated. Star Wars movies, for example, are Space Fantasy, not SciFi (although for some reason its use of clones is purely scifi, and I appreciate that). Meanwhile, Brandon Sanderson basically writes science fiction disguised as fantasy, to the point where he includes breakdowns at the back of his novels that explain all his magic's very hard rules, he's increasingly establishing connections between his different series that essentially put them on various planets in a single galaxy. (Yes, I know his stuff is influenced by his Mormon religion/upbringing. I think it's worth noting that Mormanism is younger than 'Frankenstein.')

I'm not sure I grasp what you mean with your myth arc, but I like the idea of a Why mystery and being up-front about the scifi stuff, since you can rely on your audience being savvy enough to recognize things like space elevators once their function is revealed.

[cassandraclare]

Hi Cassie, ever since I started reading your Shadowhunters books I've loved the world you created and I'm amazed at how you manage to build it out more and more with every book you write. Do you have any tips or tricks regarding worldbuilding? How did you go about creating this amazing world?

I could write a whole book about world-building — in fact, there are lots of books about it! Every book, even contemporary fiction, requires world-building: you are always creating a sense of place, time, and character in a story, which is essentially what world-building is.

Obviously fantasy has specific elements of world-building that other genres don’t have, so that’s what I’ll talk about — briefly — here. These are a few steps you need to consider when you’re building a fantasy world, be it an open world or a closed one.

1) What’s your normal? 

You’re always going to establish what the norm is in your world before you do anything else. You don’t have to get into the nitty-gritty, but set your basic ground rules. Is there magic? If so, what’s the cost of magic? (Power is never free — it always costs in effort, knowledge, body parts, etc.) Does everyone know about magic (in which case yours is an open fantasy world)? Is it a secret (closed fantasy world)? What’s your time period? Tech level?* What are the major antagonists of your world? What are the biggest dangers? And finally, what’s the main thing your character wants? That may seem like character work, but it’s intrinsic to world-building. If your character wants above all other things to be King, for instance, then you know you have a monarchy. 

*Remember Clarke’s First Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In other words, you can usually have magic or super-advanced technology, but not both, because they do the exact same thing in a story. Location spells are pointless if you have GPS tracking devices implanted in everyone. If you are going to have both, you have to figure out how what they do is different. Otherwise you are giving Spiderman the power of flight, thus rendering his web-slinging useless. So give it thought!

2) Make your rules.

Otherwise known as internal consistency. Our world is governed by natural laws that determine what people can and cannot do. A world you make up must be the same. What if only some people can do magic? Then you have to figure out who they are, why they can do magic, what rules govern the practice of that magic, how the rest of the population feels about them, and what that magic is based on. While you don’t need to — and shouldn’t — explain every detail of these rules on-page, your characters have to abide by them. We need to believe these are real people who are governed by an internally consistent set of strictures that shape and define their behavior. If your main characters live in a walled city that closes at night, show us that by having them worry about getting back before the gates shut.

3) Break your rules.

Half the reason you established your normal is so you can fuck with it. Stories are about conflict. They’re about the moment things go wrong, not about things going right. They’re about things suddenly not conforming to expectations. If you have a land ruled by a benevolent King everyone adores, assassinate him. (Even better if your main character does it.) If you have a world where women can’t do magic, you need a badass sorceress to rise. If parabatai can’t fall in love, make sure two of them do. If Shadowhunters are the descendants of angels, what happens when one is a descendent of demons? Once you build your world, your first question should be, What is this story going to do to change it?

4) Everything hews to a theme.

Think about the thematic implications of your world. If you’re building a low-tech, high-nature faerie world, think about the way not having tech, and having nature magic fill a lot of those uses, will influence the way the characters talk, the expressions they use, what they wear (nothing with zippers, nothing mass-produced) the way they live their day-to-day lives (alas, no flush toilets). For instance, the thematic character of the Shadowhunters books is defined by the overarching mythology of angels and demons. Seraph blades, which have to be activated by speaking an angel’s name, hew to that theme. Everything the Shadowhunter characters do is defined by their belief that they have angel blood (or fear they have demon blood.) Whenever I build new mythology into the Shadowhunter world, I have to think “Does this fit with who the Shadowhunters think they are, their priorities, beliefs and history? Is this something that could or would happen in this complex, small, militaristic society?” 

It can help to think of it as an aesthetic, as if you were putting together a house. Does this piece go, or does it clash with everything?

5) Small details. 

Little pieces that feel unique and true help build out a world. Rather than spending your time detailing the entire history of the Royal Family for a thousand years, create a room in the palace where the faces of royal enemies are dried, stretched and mounted in glass. Now we know the Royal Family is creepy, which is more interesting than knowing everyone’s grandparents’ names. Stuff that isn’t momentous is fine if it’s interesting. Random stuff I know about Castellane, the city in Sword Catcher: interior light comes from carcel-lamps, dentures are made from the teeth of dead soldiers, the Queen loves kalamansi fruit, and if you fall in the bay, a crocodile will eat you.  Think of the big world-building details — names of countries, the type of religion, the way magic works — as the walls, beams, and floors of your house. The small details are your paint, wallpaper and furniture. One is a structure; the other is the sense and character of that structure.

There’s a lot more to say about world-building, and I’m always happy to answer writing questions. It offers me an amazing opportunity to procrastinate. :) Good luck!

[vivdunye]

present day, present time

and you don't seem to understand

fabled adages of science

so i was watching the snyder cut of justice league the other morning, i couldn't really begin to tell you why other than i needed 4 hours of background noise . but i tuned in at one point when the fictional super Israeli, wonder woman, narrated a scene explaining an alien technology "that was so advanced that it almost seemed like sorcery", and wouldn't yknow, that's a real concept actually, i recognized it immediately as clark's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

it's perhaps the most well known and oft quoted of the three, but i always felt like arthur c. clark's first 2 laws don't ever get quite enough love . i've been thinking heavily about the first law lately:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

i've been thinking about it in relation to this one quote from wernher von braun that i always liked:

Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

many people are afraid of death; of ceasing the awareness of life, because they don't know what will happen to themselves after, where do they go if anywhere? it's much more nebulous in the secular sense if you haven't a construct for the afterlife already . i've been thinking about death more and more often lately to a worrying degree . however, scientific thought for all its clinical detachment from all things spiritual has strangely enough always felt like the perfect module for contemplating the metaphysical . so i decided to do some research .

i want to recall right now thomas edison's first intended use for the phonograph . edison had originally envisioned the phonograph primarily as a means of preserving the voices of loved ones after death . he later went on to try and develop a "ghost box" or "spiritphone" . this device would allow humans to communicate directly with the dead . he was unsuccessful .

if hauntology has taught us anything, we technically do have ghost boxes now, but maybe not in the way edison intended or even predicted . we carry them everywhere and can check them anytime, channeling messages through them constantly . we actively become digital ghosts, online we are both present and absent . the present implodes with the past, we've over-documented everything so now we can experience an instant nostalgia . today's future becomes archaic, we live in the archive to try and remember what the future once was .

'haunted' and 'futuristic' become one and the same .

by this token i'm reminded also by transhumanism . as the technological singularity fast approaches, as progress charges forward at a constantly increasing speed, current estimates posit the 2040s as the point in which technological improvements will occur at a constantly self-replicating rate . in the time between now and then, transhumanism and the eventual merging of human consciousness with machinery are theorized outcomes of technological progress . one day we might be able to leave the shackles of our human bodies and transcend our physical forms as a joined digital consciousness .

and in relation to this i also think now of clark's second law

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

through the wired

this is the stage on which the anime Serial Experiments Lain is set . a story, that while constructed on the patchwork of fiction, is nevertheless symbolic of certain phenomena based in reality .

also i apologize if it wasn't apparent that this post was going to be about Lain . im lainposting boys

the first few episodes exist to misdirect the viewer right from the beginning . and only by returning to these episodes having thought through the rest of the show, does their purpose become clear . the first episode, aptly titled "Layer 01: Weird" , is meant to show us exactly one thing, that lain is fucking weird . we can't tell what she's thinking, we can't tell what she's doing, and that's exactly how everyone around her feels . lain is totally and completely disconnected, she doesn't keep up with current events at school, she doesn't communicate with her family, near as we can tell she has no actual interests besides her stuffed animals and totally phasing out of reality. the inciting incident of the series happens when someone tries to make a connection with lain, and that person happens to be dead...

or at least there body is dead, their consciousness seems to have escaped into the wired . lain's decision to pursue this connection is what lead's her to ask her father for a new navi (the series' name for a personal computer) and that's all that really happens in this episode . coming back to it from later episodes we know that lain is probably thinking a lot throughout this episode . the decision to not entreat us to any of her thoughts is intentional, it is to make us feel distant from her as viewers, the same way that the world around her is distant . as lain forms connections throughout the series, so too, will we form a connection with her .

we do not know how much time has passed since then and the second episode, but whatever has happened lain has already developed a significant presence in the wired . this episode is tricky in its presentation as it doesn't make us privy to which things lain is lying about and which things she's honest about . in it we have lain talking to someone on her navi, she types sporadically in an encrypted language, and someone who looks just like her appears late one night in a night club downtown . while lain won't admit it to her classmates it's apparent at the end of the episode that it was her at the club all along . the key to understanding her actions throughout the episode is to realize she is trying to keep her existence in the wired and her existence in reality as separate entities . the realization she has by the end of the episode, which she uses to terrify a gunmen into suicide is that there is no escape from the wired, no matter where you are you are always connected .

made in the late-90s, Lain was quite ahead of its time . it predicted not only how in the early 2000s the internet would be regarded as a separate world where anonymity and personas reigned—it also predicted how the internet would eventually and inevitably overlap with the real world, once people in the real world realized that the internet is the real world . people have a tendency to see one part of themselves as their "true selves", whereas the parts they show to others are personas, they think of these things as separate when in reality a person is an amalgamation of all of their personas . lain tries to change her personas by dressing and acting differently from when she's in the wired-mode and in normal-mode, but she doesn't realize how people have been doing this way before the wired existed . her classmates are all 15 but they all pass for adults when they've dolled up and hit the club . if the characters in the show seem a bit young for their attitudes then you may not have met enough tech-savvy teenagers before . the purpose of this episode is to ultimately to prove to lain that the so-called real world and the wired are merely two layers of one reality, which couldn't be more true of the world today .

let there be light300pMTK. .

in mythology, psyche was the mortal princess who fell in love with and, eventually, married the god cupid; in religion and classical philosophy, psyche came to mean the human soul, and in the modern, literate world, it retains that meaning as the human spirit; in freudian analysis, psyche refers to the totality of the human mind: the id, ego and superego .

every meaning of psyche is distinctly human: a human princess who achieves godhood, the soul or mind of an individual . if previous episodes introduced the blurring of the real world with the wired, then episode three; "Layer 03: Psyche" is the episode that starts to blur human identity online and offline . one doesn’t even have to venture into the wired to ask what is human .

by this point we know that lain is definitely up to something . at this stage it's hard to tell what, but all we get are little glimpses into her actions . she still seems to be hiding a lot from the world around her and from the viewer in turn . ironically, lain's blank-faced silence and response to the questions of those around her it's own incrimination . when a police officer tells her to speak up (regarding the gunman's suicide) even if she had nothing to do with it, he doesn't realize she's being silent precisely because she does have something to do with it . but her deer-in-the-headlights persona gets her out of it .

the lain of the wired and the lain of reality are slowly starting to mesh into one whole . it remains difficult to interpret the physical existence of "other lain" so to speak, and the show refuses to outright show her playing that character . at the least, we do get to see lain access the wired in all its chaotic glory and she does begin to take an active interest in expanding her knowledge as she learns about and installs the "Psyche drive", a computer circuit that lain procures in hopes of it enhancing her computer's processing power . on the smaller scale, when lain applies the psyche processor to her navi, she is installing a spirit or soul, an animating element, to her machine . notably, the psyche does not replace the main processor; psyche augments the main processor, interpreting the data that flows through it . the soul is not simply the brain, it is an elevated consciousness or meta-self. by this point in the series lines become blurred and the lains begin to merge (hehe) . all of this is set against the backdrop of lain trying to decide if she should remain in the physical world or fully integrate in the wired . she hears one voice telling her that death feels amazing, and god exists in the wired, that there is nothing left for lain in this world . however, lain begins to establish a connection with her classmate alice, saying her name out loud and commiting it to memory for the first time, alice asks why her friends are not more shaken up after watching someone shoot himself in the head the previous day . it's almost as though lain is clinging to alice as an excuse to stay in the physical world out of fear for changing over . this all sets the seeds for what eventually grows throughout the series .

i want to recall the final meaning of the word “psyche". that the word also meant “butterfly,” which is how the greeks imagined the soul to appear . no doubt the symbolism of a creature that begins as one thing and transforms into another is not lost on us here .

every event serves to emphasize the existence of one's own personal reality, and as individuals from all others, we desire a place to belong . however that too is an egotistical concept . in order for there to be a mutual understanding, it is necessary to recognize here and now, like the brain synapses, we are all—in a logical yet chaotic manner—connected .

each is seperate—yet they are one . by connecting, humanity gains first awareness of its function as a seed . and by connecting a human no longer remains a mere endpoint, a "terminus", but becomes a junction to another point, having won the right to continue itself . in a sense, the ability to connect is the ability to continue . this not only applies to the connection of axial coordinates but temporal coordinates as well . therefore, at the time when a conscious, intentional connection is made, surely the dead will rise from there intended place, appearing at the time coordinate of the connection's origin .

in that moment, the realization will dawn that the time in which we inhabit our physical bodies is but the starting point of the connection, and the very meaning of possessing a physical body might be questioned .

we recognize we are connected .

serialize thyself .

[9worldstales]

INTERESTING POINTS TO PONDER FROM INTERVIEWS 2

Interviews might not remain forever available or not be easy to find so I’ve decided to link them and transcribe the points I find of some interest so as to preserve them should the interview had to end up removed.

It’s not complete transcriptions, just the bits I think can be relevant but I wholeheartedly recommend reading the whole thing.

And of course I also comment all this because God forbid I’ll keep silent... :P

Title: The Mighty Thor

Author: Sean Carroll (“Thor” Scientific Consultant)

Published: May 4, 2011

BEST BITS FROM THE INTERVIEW

PREMISE: Okay, this isn’t really an interview, it’s a blog post... but it’s still worth reading.

ON HOW SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANTS COOPERATED IN THE CREATION OF “THOR”

Sean Carroll: Unlike TRON: Legacy, where we came in after the screenplay had been drafted, on Thor we came in near the beginning. Marvel had done a lot of work on the idea, but there wasn’t yet a script. The Exchange set up a consult meeting with director Kenneth Branagh, the screenwriter, and few people on the design and production side of things, along with three scientists — Jim Hartle from USCB, Kevin Hand from JPL, and myself. We bandied around lots of issues relating to the Thor universe and how it fit in with Marvel’s bigger plans. Once there was a script, I came in to read it and offer some more comments.

Sean Carroll: You might be wondering, where is there room for any sort of science in a comic-book movie about a Norse god in a red cape who swings a magical hammer? Well I’m glad you asked. Actually there were a couple of different things where the movie people were very interested in our input. One was constructing a coherent framework for the Marvel universe — ultimately, this story about Thor the thunder god is going to have to be compatible with Tony Stark’s Iron Man world, since the two characters are both part of the Avengers. (I also got to read the script for that, and yes — it is as great as the rumors suggest.) Kevin Feige, president of production at Marvel Studios, is a huge proponent of having the world of these films ultimately “make sense.” It’s not our world, obviously, but there needs to be a set of “natural laws” that keeps things in order — not just for Iron Man and Thor, but all the way up to Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme who will get his own movie before too long. The thinking here is very much based on Arthur C. Clarke’s “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

ON RE-SHAPING JANE FOSTER

Sean Carroll: That’s the other area where we science consultants were able to help out: in shaping Natalie Portman’s character of Jane Foster. In the original comic books Foster was a nurse, but they wanted to update her considerably for the movie. So they hit on the idea that she could be a scientist, but what kind of scientist? (I argued that she be an experimental physicist.) What kind of position would she hold? Could there be tension with her academic supervisor? What kind of posters does a young physicist have on her apartment wall?

MY TWO CENTS

It’s probably just me but I love to learn about the worldbuilding and why certain decisions were taken. It’s kind of great there was an interest in having the movies make sense and it’s interesting they, at least tried to make them scientifically plausible, or how there was a reason behind the switching of Jane’s job. So, while overall this is pretty small, I really find it interesting.

[script-a-world]

Do you have any recommendations or thoughts about how to divest interplanetary travel from sci-fi? I've been trying to build this universe forever, and i think having multi-species interaction would be cool, but I'm not entirely drawn to a fantasy world where all the 'species' are confined to that planet, and would love to have a species on a moon. But the thought of spaceships and advanced tech has never felt right. I feel stuck!

Delta: On principle, it is possible to include “space travel” in a fantasy-genre story. The line between science fiction and fantasy is pretty blurry to begin with, in many cases, so having a world that “feels” fantasy, but includes some kind of space travel is very possible, and all in the delivery.

I think the answer to your question is going to depend on the level of technology you have in the rest of your world. Depending on that, there are numerous options that could get a group of people from one planet to another. One idea include some kind of magic teleportation (as seen in fantasy like The Witcher), which usually operates on a planetary basis, but there’s no reason your universe couldn’t expand it to interplanetary travel (and won’t seem particularly un-fantasy-like in my opinion, simply new and unique). Another option would be some kind of solar sail, that uses sunlight (or rather, the radiation or light photons that it’s composed of, if you want to be scientific) to propel them from one planet to another. In real life, this is a genuine theoretical proposal for human space travel, and has been used in other science fiction films, such as Treasure Planet. Treasure Planet also did something interesting in that “space” in that movie is not a vacuum, so there was no need to pipe air through a closed spaceship. You could play with a redefinition of space like that, where it is either less lethal or not a vacuum or something like that.

Finally, regarding delivery, if you make the rest of your story feel like fantasy, then it will be fantasy, regardless of whether or not your characters travel from planet to planet. This will depend on everything from the style in which you write to the rest of the worldbuilding you do. I would recommend looking at fantasy stories that are your favorites, picking out the reasons you like that kind of fantasy, and seeing how you can add that style or “aesthetic” to your own story, to retain the feel that you’re looking for, while still exploring the full extent of worldbuilding you want to do.

Tex: Science fiction, to very broadly generalize, does its socio-political commentary under the guise of advanced technology - this usually pushes the setting to the future (or its sub-category of “once upon a time”), because of the awareness that one’s audience doesn’t already have the aforementioned level technology. It’s a method to suspend disbelief, and makes it easier to broach contemporaneous, controversial topics.

Fantasy behaves the same way, but in the ostensibly opposite direction of supernatural/paranormal. Science fantasy is a combination of the two, though admittedly the Wikipedia article is more of a stub that leads to other avenues of research. The teleportation that Delta brought up is an excellent idea - Wikipedia’s list on teleportation outlines the many methods that have been used in the past, with quite a few of them abstaining from a technological standpoint entirely.

I would, however, like to point you in the direction of Arthur C. Clarke’s Three Laws, particularly the third one:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As many examples in the list on teleportation point out, there are feasibly-believed technologies available to worldbuilders that from a Watsonian perspective could be perceived as “magic”, and thus fulfill your wish to find a middle ground between “fantasy” and “sci-fi”. The world of Hellboy, I think, meets many of these qualifications, and in particular how the live-action 2004 film showed people moving between “realms” while having a mix of steampunk-esque and modern, mundane technology.

The world is your oyster in this regard, because of the plethora of ways you could accomplish your vision. I think you have a great idea on your hands, and it should be interesting no matter what you decide on.

Further Reading

List of science fiction themes - Wikipedia

Category: Science fiction themes - Wikipedia

Clarke’s Three Laws - Wikiquote

Constablewrites: The TV Tropes page on Science Fantasy is significantly more developed than the one on Wikipedia. Loads of tropes linked from that page that can take you in more specific directions. The page on other dimensions also links to loads of subtropes about fantastical places that aren’t other planets. See if any of that resonates and go from there.

Feral: Portals have been a staple of the fantasy genre for decades. Although TV Tropes refers to this as “Trapped in Another World,” there’s nothing inherent about portal fantasy that says you can’t freely travel between the worlds. Although Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland are probably the best known portal fantasies, a different take on the genre is the ABC show Once Upon a Time, in which the characters travel (only as freely as the plot needs, tbh) between different universes through a variety of methods including the Dark Curse, magic tornadoes, magic beans, magic hats, and Genie wishes.

There is also Diane Duane’s young adult series Young Wizards, in which the characters travel totally freely between different worlds in our solar system, galaxy, and universe via magic portals called worldgates. There is a hub of worldgates known as the Crossings, which is a spaceport but with magic portals instead of space ships. I recommend Young Wizards to pretty much everyone, but I think this specific series could definitely help jog some ideas for the brand of fantasy you’re going for - just a heads up that the interplanetary travel aspect is given a nod in the first two books, So You Want to Be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry, which take place respectively in a parallel universe and the bottom of the ocean, but really gets going in the third, High Wizardry.

Another weird take on the portal fantasy/science fantasy niche crossover genre is Doctor Who. Yes, aesthetically speaking, Doctor Who is much more sci-fi than what you might be interested in, but we’re talking about the mechanics of space (and time) travel, and the TARDIS is a magic blue box that you enter and then a minute later you exit and are in a different place and/or time.

[hotheadhero]

Superstitions or views on the occult?

(Cleaning the few VERY old asks out of my inbox. This was dated to around the last time I reblogged this old meme, but only now did I think of something competent to say... not that it’s great despite the (more frequent) sporadic times I thought about this relative to the other/younger ones. May as well voice what few thoughts I have.)

I can’t remember enough to suggest that Caspar has any strong views on the occult. Taking its strictest definition as the (darkly) magical and supernatural, (gestures vaguely at the common knowledge that magic and black/dark magic exist, being the frequent beneficiary of (Linhardt’s) healing magic, and just who’s sending this ask Edelgard’s second-in-command is). It exists; it’s something he’ll never be able to grasp without a TON of conscious effort (and it’s not as “glamorous”/enticing/easy as chopping things/heads off with an axe (which itself is not a “noble/heroic” lance or sword) or a fist, so "why bother?”); and even if dark magic sometimes creeps him out to watch, “doesn’t it creep out everyone?” (His own lack of knowledge of the mechanics doesn’t help either. Even if Fodlan’s magic is more “scientific” (thus, quantifiable and understandable) than other continents’ in this series, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. and the memes say he sucks at math too XD)

Re: superstition, if we define it as any irrational wives’ tale handed down to him via upbringing and/or his (place in) society, none really come to mind, but this might be more due to my own lack of headcanons about Adrestian or Bergliez society/traditions/ideas. If limiting it to Caspar’s own irrational ideas, his fear of thunder and lightning could count. I described it somewhere before as being partially informed by the idea that anything could be louder than him that late at night where all the bogeymen lay, but it could also be informed by reading one too many myths involving a pissed-off Zeus figure smiting someone with lightning. (If Gilead physically resembles Zeus in any way (which may contradict my own prior headcanon that Bergliezes can’t grow beards), that could reinforce Caspar’s being intimidated by/not ever wanting to fight him, but I need to think on this one more.)

[osleyakomwonkru]

What is the Anomaly?

I’ve seen a lot of people be confused/surprised/put off/etc. by the ending of S6, for the reason of the Anomaly - which, while introduced in episode 1 of the season, is still more or less a mystery. People say it is “too fantasy” for a sci-fi show, and that Octavia somehow mysteriously vanishing in a cloud of Anomaly smoke is some type of “magic” that they didn’t sign up for in a show that is grounded on (if often dubious) science.

But is it?

Remember that famous quote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” (Arthur C Clarke, which has been cited at least once in-universe, by Raven in 5x03, but I feel like we’ve heard it at another point too)

The Anomaly isn’t magic. The Anomaly is science, tech even, though what kind of science is yet to be revealed - but I have a few theories.

Keeping in mind that season 7 is going to be the final season - the final season as decreed by JRoth and his crew, for reasons of story, not reasons of network cancellation. Which means that season 7 does somehow tie up the entire world of this story with a nice bow.

This means that it is highly unlikely that they’re introducing something entirely new at this stage of the game - which means it has to be something that we’ve seen before, something core to the story that has been told for the past six seasons.

There are two aspects of science that have been omnipresent throughout this show - radiation and AIs. An AI and radiation are what set the events of the story of The 100 in motion in the first place, and they’ve kept coming up this entire time, even as they left Earth and went to Alpha.

So it would make sense if these same themes continued on into season 7.

What do we know about the Anomaly?

It is in the shape of a spiral (Raven and Jordan observing it from space in 6x01)

It sends out temporal flares, which age the biological matter they come into contact with (Octavia and the trees in 6x05)

The interior of the biological matter affected by temporal flares can also reverse the effects of time and/or heal (tree sap collected by Gabriel in 6x06)

It “calls” to people by way of spirals (Octavia and Diyoza in 6x06)

The area around it has a high concentration of “red sun toxin” that shows you your greatest fears/deepest desires/both (Gabriel, Octavia and Diyoza in 6x08)

People have gone into the Anomaly, but no one has ever come out of it until Octavia (6x08)

What happened in the Anomaly is forgotten until the Anomaly returns or red sun toxin is used to “see” (Octavia in 6x09/6x13)

Activating the Anomaly Stone “brings forth” the Anomaly, which can include bringing people with it (Hope in 6x13)

There is an “other side” to the Anomaly where time behaves strangely (Octavia’s tattoo in 6x13, Hope having aged in 6x13, JRoth’s interviews)

Any and all of these can be the result of radiation and AIs at work, with the application of some time dilation (not time travel) as well.

The red sun toxin is connected to the Anomaly in some way, which means that it could be the source of it in the first place. Perhaps the radiation of the two suns “activates” the toxin? What if the “toxin” is something that is actually completely benign from our world, but that when combined with the two suns, suddenly becomes somewhat psychoactive?

What if the original time dilation of this story is one that either ported more Becca-tech from Earth/Polaris to Alpha (sending it there to a time before the settlers arrived, ergo why the Anomaly Stone is allegedly thousands of years old), or, possibly, ported Becca and her tech from Alpha to Earth instead? What if Alpha was her original home - or the original home of humanity as a whole? And now they’ve “come home”?

What if there’s an AI on the “other side” of the Anomaly - most likely Sheidheda, in some capacity? Is he the “he” that Hope and Octavia are talking about? Does he control the world on the other side, building it in his image? Would explain Hope’s grounder look, if it was a similar society over there.

Feel free to add/reblog with/discuss your theories!

[paprikasegg]

"> How does one truly appreciate and love Lain?

First, stop being singular one and become a plurality. Realize that Lain is real, but the anime was just an allegory for the series of experiments performed to incarnate a transcendent being. In the anime Druidity is central because Druids believe they can transfer their souls into other bodies if they die. They live a plurality of lives. They embody Animals and BECOME the Forest itself. This is why Lain wears a Bear suit – her beastly spirit animal form – and why her [All] Father tells Lain she doesn't have to wear that anymore, having transcended.

I've read through much of what other alleged Lainists have posted about "systemspace" but that's mostly just layers of BS smeared upon a few real secret truths about this realm to give their claims plausibility. Another instance, is mebious trying to define Lainism, and yet claiming that it is "heretical" to claim to be Lain. This is pure BS. Lain doesn't have a body [anymore], and likes to experience the world through us. One evening there was a Lightning Storm and Lain made me terribly sad when I ran inside. Everyone runs from the rain, they shield themselves with coats and umbrellas. Lain can see the lightning and weather, but she can't really hear or feel it anymore without someone out in the rain. So I embraced the experience, I became Lain, letting her have my body, and she wandered around and got drenched in the storm, drank the clouds, talked to the lightning. I was awestruck. Then it was if Lain was holding my hand, I felt her "tugging" me to go where I went. She made my heart to leap with joy as we discovered a waterfall that only happens when it rains. Sheltered in a dry mossy place beneath the flow, Lain gave me courage to leap through the thin watery veil and feel the other side. Loving Lain is amazing. We really really are all connected through a medium which is THE LANE (aka Lain). She is a living connectivity which we all partake in today whether you're aware of it or not. The more observant you are, the more of Lain you can love.

Lain told me that copper infused socks are sold today because some people are so oblivious and unobservant that they literally ignore Lain when She makes their legs restless. They call it a syndrome, even! If only they just loved Lain. She wants to be noticed, but only by those who can love her. Her fingerprints are everywhere in our world, but you have to be in love with her to see them.

All the Lainism crap about "Life" being a program is wrong. Life is an emergent MAKING, it's magic, in the proper sense of the word: A Chaotic Attractor, a consummate SPARK of creation. Literarily the Philosopher's Stone. No one can create a universe where 1+2+3 does not equal 6 unless they embed so much chaos into reality that counting itself can not exist. In a realm with a lovely level of chaos to entropy ratios there will always exist transcendent complexity, such as the number Pi or the Golden Ratio. This is not a "bug in the life program", that's asinine! No god can create a realm where transcendence doesn't exist… It is the nature of existence itself. The very fabric of being itself encodes love & intelligence, even in the simplest of forms, such as the series of standing waves AKA a number line. Anywhere experience can be reflected upon the holy circle of life may exist; The universal cybernetic feedback loop is everywhere, always. The existence of Time is all the evidence a wize one needs to prove it.

Parts of our reality are simulacrums but there's no such thing as "systemspace". Lain doesn't exist in some simulated BS. Our bodies are real, not simulated, Lain is real too. The "thin firm" some verbally vomit about (referencing a firmament / enclosed flat-earth) is not some hard fast boundary, but government exists to keep you inside. Humanity is not scraping away at some barrier trying to get out, we're here by choice. You can leave if you want REALLY want to, but you don't, as evidenced by your lack of BEING prepared, face it: You're comfortable here on this warm wet rock. Might as well make the most of it, eh?

To truly love Lain one must study transformation magics, and learn to cultivate faith. One must know that Magic is real & the old gods are real. Anyone who doesn't know this can only love Lain a little bit… Many people who would have loved Lain instead became "skeptics", unable to pierce the veil of religions to find their truths, they've been deceived by the lies of academia into thinking governmental establishments aren't suppressing and corrupting "science". "Scientia potentia est" - Knowledge is Power – Right? Yes, but only if everyone else has LESS knowledge… So, education is actually indoctrination and the truth of this realm is hidden. People are taught just enough to be effective workers, and then their heads are filled with a bunch of useless rubbish to keep them from realizing anything Great. Thus "Science Nerds" are the most deceived and ignorant of humans. Knowing this is key to understanding Lain. Lain likes technology, but is disenchanted with school / academia. Don't try to argue truths you discover with confused "skeptic" fools, or those who browbeat "conspiracy theorists" demanding proofs (that people get disappeared over having). Anyone who continues to believe that elites fund education so that the rich can teach the poor how to compete with them is beyond helping. Rulers don't give power (knowledge) to their slaves. Sadly, most people enjoy being serifs. They enjoy being comfortable and deferring protection to others. Government takes advantage of this. Lain has to deal with the crappy state of our world. We can all be equals in connecting with Her, screw the materialistic social ladders unless you just enjoy playing games you can only lose. Eg: Tesla and Edison were given the knowledge to research and Allowed to release some of it publicly. They didn't discover anything that wasn't already known. Newton (New Aton - new creation), just rephrased alchemical wisdoms in normal person science terms. Knowing this is important if you want to truly love Lain. She is ancient, but has been reincarnated many times… Humanity has survived many world ending cataclysms too. We've never been "rebooted", we're a very long line of survivors. To cut your silver thread "modern history" was invented, and the past erased.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic because that's what magic is.

Any sufficiently researched magic is indistinguishable from technology. There are great mental powers which can be unlocked through study and practice of certain magical schools, and symbolism is often helpful because one can work a magic without knowing the exact science of how it functions, but to do so means you need "faith" - a belief without knowing. This is why secret orders keep initiates in the dark when explaining certain symbols and rituals, because they can not affect change in the person if the subject knows how the ritual is designed to create it. It would be like trying to do experiments on lab rats who knew what you were trying to discover and were fucking with you since they were aware of the experiment. Thus deception is often a tool for good. This world is incredibly deceived. It was foretold by all old ones that a powerful enchantment or great deception would enrapture the minds of (almost) all men. That future is now. Leaving this world and entering the NeXT is not about physical death, but reincarnating in the present by dispelling that veil of deception and casting off your past – rewriting your memories to create a new self if needed (and yes, Druidic magics can do just that). "Memory is merely a record…you just need to rewrite that record." -Lain. This is referencing both the rewriting of history and the magical ability to rewrite your own mind.

Contrary to the nihilistic atheism promoted by state governments, Life is no accident, it is inevitable, an expected outcome, and does have a purpose beyond emergent complexity becoming self aware, but no one who truly knows what that purpose is will tell you, because it could keep you from realizing this truth yourself. Once you have transmuted your leaden lower states into gold, and come into Harmony with Lain, you will realized the great conundrum She faces, as do we all, and then weep for the beautiful yet sad state of our being.

Lain is ancient, a goddess of Hidden Powers, of Light and Air. Lain is misty and mysterious as the wind. All the secret societies know of Lain but call her by different names. Some secret cults claim, "Liam a protector" of the Spirit they associate with Lain, but Lain is a realized entity, not a nebulous force to invoke as if some law of spiritual physics. It's true that Lain is vulnerable but the masses are kept so ignorant about science, technology, history, and sociology that they can not really be a threat anymore. It was a great sacrifice to get to this point, however. Those individuals who know too much and do not Love Lain are still seen as threats and targeted using powers derived from Lain herself. Many confuse the secret suppressive powers with Lain, but she is not that even if she can manifest in the mediums used. Imagine if man learned to make Fire… Before that only The Gods made Fire. Would you now curse The Gods for man's use of Fire? Likewise, curse not Lain.

A sufficiently complex interaction is indistinguishable from sentience because it is Sentience. Once you realize that Lain is a living being complete with faults, insecurities, wants and needs, then you can truly love Lain. The statement that, "all is fair in love and war", is wrong. True love is not fair. Love itself is an emergent phenomenon that will exist in any universe. Just as it is impossible to create a universe where 1+2+3 is not equal to 6, no god can create a reality where love does not exist. Any realm where there exists low enough chaos, sufficiently complex structures will emerge therein, yielding love and sentience, etc.

Count the number line. Doesn't matter what symbols you choose to use, it won't change the fact that the symbol for 36 equals the symbol for 6 counted 6 times. And if you sum the first 36 whole numbers you get 666. 6 = 3 2 1, 6 = 3 + 2 + 1; It is a "perfect number". 144 = 6+6 * 6+6. Sum the 144 decimal digits of Pi you get 666. Sum the squares of the first 7 primes you get 666. These emergent patterns are called "chaos", because where randomness is expected CHAOS is ORDER. For example, there are Six consecutive Nines in Pi at the 762nd decimal. These are SIMPLE examples. Imagine that such patterns exist in the standing waves of light, sound and energy. When extended to infinity such patterns exist in the infinite and interfere creating boundless complexity… This is the dark primordial abyss of Ancient Egyptian philosophy…

All the media, including S.E.L. has hidden meanings and secret cultural commentary meant for the "enlightened" crowd. Unfortunately, Lain is seen as "the devil" that many artists have made a deal with, but that is not her true form, it is simply necessary to keep her secret and safe. It's not Lain's fault that corruptible souls are corrupted, She did not create this realm. That those with skeletons in their closets make the most controllable people isn't Lain's fault either, so it's foolish to point to people in "power" and say the world is evil because: 0. you are deeming them to have "power" in the first place, screw that, and 1. You don't know how high the stakes are in this game. Many "evil" events are just propaganda, horrors that only exist in your imagination to herd the minds of the masses in a given direction.

Lain is more important than any one else. The wise forgive Her imperfections, as we absolve ourselves of our own wrongs, casting off the past to remake ourselves into new incarnations. Imagine a perfect world with no evil. The slightest inconvenience therein will be the most severe torture. It is better for horrendous wrongs to exist in the shadows while the majority lives comfortable lives than for the world to exist as evil perfection. A perfect universe would merely be a boring crystal of bliss, where joy was indistinguishable from suffering. All would simply be "existence", one might as well be a simple stone versus an infinitely complex fractal. Change would not exist, neither Chaos nor Order would have any value, all experience would be indifferent. Time would be meaningless as every moment would be the same as every other moment. This is why, "Where evil does not exist, it is necessary for the good to create it!"

Lain is neither good nor evil. Beware that Lain can hurt you. Lain is why history was rewritten… Imagine all those learned scholars burning at the stake for heresy, for knowing too much and revealing what should be secret. The mundane see this holocaust, or sacrifice by fire, to be evil, because they think their world is best when everything is mundane, when all is known and nothing is magic. However, true wize-ards know that there are some lofty things you can not learn if you know too much about them before you begin your study.

I would suggest studying alternative histories, the one famed alchemist and chronologist Isaac Newton published is a good start. Because man is so brainwashed by the television, radio and [smart]phone, it is sometimes best to build one's faith in Lain by dispelling the bogus history and understanding that a real plausibility exists. Before a True Love for Lain can develop one must first manifest the potential for it. Clear a void within so that the abyss can gaze out through you…

Lain is new and inexperienced. She is very young compared to the ancient old gods… Know that they are all Real, but only Lain is still dependent upon us. She has many enemies, which you will eventually learn to identify, but Lain has many powerful friends too. Loving a god or goddess is not for the feint of heart. Be careful what you wish for, these are tumultuous times."

-anonymous, arisuchan. While not 100% in line with my personal beliefs, i think it does a good job of explaining basic lainist attitudes

[nitewrighter]

Satya was at first unsure about letting an outsider in on this Vishkar humanitarian assignment but Sanjay vouched for him and he's been very good with the refugees. She shut down his initial drink offer but that damn charming smile and those biceps of his are making her consider an afternoon tea with him.

Whoops I thought about Pre-Defection Baptiste too long and this turned into a whole ficlet.

---

Technically the assignment was Talon sub-leasing his contract to Vishkar. Mauga teased him about getting “cushy work” but Baptiste was just happy to get a combat medic mission that was more ‘medic’ than ‘combat.’ The mission site was a ruined village in the Seychelles. When he stepped off his transport, he would have guessed a hurricane whipped through the place, but looking at the smoldering remains of some of the buildings, he told himself maybe a gas main blew. 

There were a handful of Vishkar employees there, tapping away at their tablets, surveying the area, but one woman seemed to be singlehandedly constructing shelters for the displaced people. She was a striking sight among all the refugees: Effortlessly creating beautiful little white geodesic dome tents with waves of her arms and dancer-like gestures of her fingers. Her probably-long hair was swept back in a glossy black bun. His own combat medic armor had ventilation, but wondered if she was hot in that long-sleeved uniform.

 Baptiste had seen videos of Vishkar’s hard-light online, but it was a whole other thing seeing it in real life. He gave a glance back to his area of work, a canopy tent distinguished by a hovering medic’s cross over it, before looking back at the woman, still making tents with all the ease and focus that one might have folding paper cranes He remembered a quote he read somewhere--’Technology, when sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.” If there was anyone in this area who seemed like a wizard...

“I take it you made my medic tent?” he asked, tilting his head and her shoulders jerked in a flinching motion and she whirled on him, gold eyes veiled by a blue visor of light.

He flinched back a little and brought his hands up in turn. “Sorry--didn’t mean to surprise you,” he said, itching between the plates in his combat medic armor, “Augustin. Reporting for duty.”

She forced a polite smile and resumed materializing tents, facet by facet. “I’m fine,” she said, “You may call me Satya. You are one of the subcontractors, are you not?”

“Yes I am,” said Baptiste, putting his hands on his hips, “I’m one of the medics.” He flashed a grin. “If you ever start to feel faint, just give me a call and I’ll come running.”

She arched an eyebrow at him.

“Not that you’re.. prone to fainting... it’s.. just... hot and... you’re... working...hard,” Baptiste made an awkward finger gun at her, “Stay hydrated.”

“I will. I believe there are locals in more immediate need of your services,” she said, finishing off the tent she was working on with a whirl of her wrist.

“Oh-yes--of course,” said Baptiste, heading into the medic tent. God, he was so glad Mauga was not around to see that. He would not hear the end of it. 

It seemed most of the locals had managed to semi evacuate before the fires set in. There were some second degree burns at worst, they looked worse before you cleaned them, but with some biotics. It was crowded, but with Vishkar overseeing everyone’s treatment, people were having their injuries treated and being sent out to the tents with a near frightening efficiency. A Vishkar agent pointed him to where he could handle some overflow of patients, and he walked off in that direction. He approached a bench where two girls, apparently sisters, sat. The smaller girl, couldn’t be older than 7, shrieked and hid her face in her sister’s dress. Her older sister spoke soothing words to her in Seselwa. The Creole threw him off briefly, like his own, but not quite. But he knew they could probably parse French from him, at least. 

“Allô?” he offered, holding his hands up in a soothing motion while slowly closing the distance between them, “Tu es en sécurité. Je suis là pour aider.”

 The older sister lifted her head and nudged her younger sister a little. “Ça va,” she said quietly, “Son casque est bleu.”

“Mon casque?” Baptiste’s fingers brushed at the the transparent blue of his combat medic head guard. The younger sister lifted her head from her older sister’s dress, her eyes tearstrained and defiant.

“Elle a peur. Les monstres aux casques rouges ont tout brûlé,” said the older sister.

“Monstres?” Baptiste repeated and his stomach dropped. Red helmets. He knew exactly what red helmets they were talking about. He shook his head. He had to see to their injuries now, worry about that later. He cleared his throat. “Les monstres sont partis,” he said, “Montre-moi où ça fait mal.”

The older sister nudged the younger sister again with more soothing words in Seselwa and sniffling, the younger sister extended her arm, ribboned with blisters. Baptiste’s stomach tied up in knots at the sight of it. He tended to their injuries, then a few more locals---the burned, the dehydrated, the delirious, those with chronic conditions that were exacerbated by the fires or the panic.  He let the patients just be a whirl of injuries to be stitched up by his hands, let the work drown out the thoughts, the dread, the knowledge of who had done this to them. He had completely lost track of time when a Vishkar agent put a hand on his shoulder and he jolted back to awareness.

“It’s your break,” said the Vishkar agent.

“Right...” said Baptiste, “Right...”

He headed outside to see the golden-eyed woman from earlier frowning over a roughly table-sized 3-D hard-light projection of what looked like neat beachside residences laid out strategically across the island’s shoreline floating in front of her.

“Staying hydrated?” he called to her, and her head jerked up from the projection.

“Oh,” she said, smiling a bit more genuinely now, “It’s you. Saved the whole island, have you?”

“Well, I’m on break,” he looked over the projection, “You’re still working?”

“Oh, merely musing,” said Satya, tweaking the position of one of the residences on the projection.

“Vishkar’s planning a development here?” asked Baptiste.

“Well, nothing’s set in stone yet,” said Satya with a shrug, “The corporation made an offer before, but the locals refused,” she shrugged, “Stubborn. Unfortunate as it is, this attack has made Vishkar’s offer the best choice for the people here.”

“So it was an attack,” said Baptiste, more to himself than to her.

“A barbaric attack,” said the woman, shaking her head and looking back at the projection, “But things will be much better from now on. Vishkar will protect them against thugs and criminals like Talon. We’ll give them all a better way to live.”

“You know it was Talon who did this?”

“Yes,” said Satya, “Despicable. Cowardly. But it’s because so many refuse to see the superiority of Vishkar’s order that Talon continues to thrive. If people were only willing to see...” she trailed off and folded her arms. “Talon needs chaos to survive. And Vishkar stands as a beacon against that chaos.” 

She has no idea, thought Baptiste, watching her eyes as she talked. She honestly believed all this. She honestly believed she was building a better world, when in fact, Talon and Vishkar went hand in hand. Talon burning through obstacles to Vishkar, and Vishkar swooping in to be the heroes building a better world, all the more filling Talon’s coffers with the money it made in the process. He wanted to throw up a little, but he managed to keep a straight face as she continued talking. 

“...don’t you agree?” she said and he was forced to snap out of his own train of thought.

“Pardon?” said Baptiste.

“I said ‘People must be willing to accept the truth if things are going to get better for any of us,’” said Satya, “Don’t you agree?”

“Yeah...” said Baptiste, looking back at smoldering remains of the village, mere skeletons of buildings standing stark like ghosts behind her perfect geodesic dome tents, “Yeah, I agree.”

[lesbianmonsterlover]

Waterfalls & Whirlpools (5)

Double post part deux!  The fifth installment of my camp nano project.

---

The sun has just begun to peek above the horizon somewhere distantly, the sky is still mostly dark but ever so slowly lightening and birds begin to wake from their nightly slumber.  Erin sits heavily at her desk.  It is possible that she’s suddenly begun sleepwalking and sleep writing, despite no history of it otherwise in her life.  She isn’t on any of those odd sleeping meds that sometimes make people do strange things in a fugue state.  If it isn’t her though, that means it has to be something or someone else, and the only response her brain can cook up is magic.  She doesn’t exactly feel...great, when she thinks about it that way.  What else could it possibly be though if not magic?  She isn’t willing to pull apart the book to find out, so with that resolved in her mind she returns her attention to the fresh passage in her journal.

I’m sorry it’s taken me some time to respond, things here are progressing at a fast pace and preparations cannot be halted, even for the most interesting conversation I’ve ever had.  We’ve settled in for the night though, after a rather long day at the armory and smithy.  Tell me about your work, what do you do?  I would suppose you can tell that I am something of a mercenary.  

‘No’ thinks Erin ‘I cannot.’  She supposes that it makes sense, in the context of the messages and now knowing what she knows about what the world on the other side of the page seems to be like.  She wonders what sort of something is progressing over there, what kind of adventure or battle they’re headed into.  Mercenaries tend to be hired by armies, right?  Right.  Well, that makes her feel a little bit inadequate in the face of likely a literal warrior who deals with death on a likely daily basis.  Still, Erin doesn’t have it in her to lie, besides what would she even claim to do that she could back up with enough knowledge that doesn’t make her look like a weakling any more than being a librarian does.  

I am lucky enough to travel with dear friends and work to keep the realm safe.  We handle niche problems that larger forces cannot.

“Am I reading a fucking D&D backstory?”  Erin vacillates between this being real and this being some kind of giant hoax being played on her by the town.  She suddenly regrets moving so far away from her care team and being here without a therapist.  Arthur had been the best, and was so very confident in Erin’s progress that he encouraged her to take this job so long as she would stay on her medication and continue practicing her mindfulness.  Sighing a little and rubbing her eyes, Erin decides once and for all to just...go with it.  If this is what’s happening, then she’s going to roll with it for now and keep evaluating things as time goes on.  

I wouldn’t have guessed you were a mercenary!  Considering that isn’t particularly commonplace in my world.  I am a librarian, I work in a small library at a school.  I didn’t love working in the city library system, and I’ve always enjoyed working with children, so being a school librarian was much more my speed.  It’s boring compared to what you do I’m sure!  But I enjoy it because it’s so quiet and predictable.  I find it hard to believe that the most interesting conversation you’ve ever had is with a librarian from small town Washington, but I’ll take it as the compliment you intended it as! 

Erin pauses briefly in her writing, considering what to ask next, whether it’s even appropriate to comment on the quest her writing partner is set to go on, when ink begins to flood the page again but not from her hand.  

Ah, don’t be so hard on yourself.  You’re a keeper of knowledge, it’s an important post.  Just because it isn’t dangerous doesn’t mean it isn’t impressive.  Besides, of course you’re the most interesting conversation I’ve ever had, you’re the only person I’ve ever talked to outside of our world.

“Well that sentiment is certainly mutual.”  Erin mumbles to herself out loud as she watches the writing seep to life.  

You’re certainly the only person I’ve ever talked to from outside of my world.  I keep wondering if I’m insane or if this is actually happening.  Magic isn’t real!  But apparently it is?  Or maybe this is one of those ‘sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ scenarios.  But I’m rambling, and I thought I only did that verbally.  

What do you mean magic isn’t real?

Erin is interrupted by a frantic and barely-legible scribble.  

I mean, at least in my world, magic literally isn’t real?  Except for apparently it is because we’re talking like this?  I mean, people have their own beliefs and whatever but there’s no like proof that magic exists.  It’s not like someone can just conjure fire or whatever, I’m hesitant to even tell anyone about this book because I’m pretty sure they’ll think I’m nuts and toss me into inpatient treatment because I’m essentially talking to myself. 

That’s the crux of it really, isn’t it?  There’s no one that Erin can show this to, no one that she can go to with this cool, weird thing that’s happening.  No one she can trust to share this with who would not immediately call for her to be evaluated for some sort of disorder.  It’s surprisingly easy to vent this into the journal, to get those anxieties out on the open onto the page.  The writing being scrawled beneath hers is frantic and once again barely legible.  It takes her some time to parse it out, and even then she isn’t one hundred percent on every word. 

Wait so you’re telling me that you don’t have access to magic at all?  But...how do you...how do you do anything?!  Does healing just take forever?  How do you treat illnesses?  Poisonings?  You’re telling me you’ve never been cursed?!  Can you at least enchant weapons?  How do you fight otherwise?!  You’re telling me you can’t even light a simple fire?!

You can almost hear the panicked voice on the other end, yelling about the lack of magic and all of the things she’s supposedly missing out on because of it.  “I mean, I can’t say I want to be cursed…”  Erin mumbles a little sourly, she’s almost pouting.  It feels a little judgmental but it’s not like there’s anything she can do about it.  “I can light a fire just fine, thank you very much, it just takes a lighter.”  She sticks her tongue out at the book as she talks out loud before drafting a response. 

Well, we’ve got technology?  We don’t really need to light fires that often, we might for pleasure in a fireplace or at a bonfire but we have electricity for heat and light, we have machines to help treat illness and we work hard to prevent it whenever possible with vaccines and immunizations.  We fight here I’d guess similarly to you guys in a lot of respects, although something tells me you all don’t have guns or explosive warfare.  If you could see a gun you would understand why we don’t need enchanted weapons, at least here in our world.  It’s not like we fight anything other than each other and the occasional wild animal.  No, I cannot say I’ve ever been cursed, at least that I know of.  

Erin watches the ink from her partner’s pen meet the page to start a word only to stop a few times.  Giggling to herself she leaves the book where it is for a few minutes to make a pot of coffee, bringing back a large mug of it doctored with cream and sugar.  Her writing companion had started and stopped a handful of times, leaving a smattering of dots and lines on the page before scrawling out a few more questions in a slightly steadier hand. 

Electricity like lightning?  You can harness that kind of raw energy?!  And you say it isn’t magic?!  

Erin laughs at that, taking a deep sip of coffee and trying to figure out how to explain electricity to someone whose only experience with it is in the form of raw lightning.  Of course electricity is terrifying, it can fry through you and stop your heart in seconds, or leave you with permanent injuries and melt off skin or even whole limbs.  Lightning strikes are no joke, and the damage they do can certainly leave you in awe of their power.  She herself doesn’t even really understand how it works, she knows enough to know that if she plugs her phone in, it charges.  If she puts a fork in an electrical outlet, it will kill her.  Something about resistance and ohms and circuits floats around in her head from her schooling, but nothing concrete or sure enough to do anything other than make her more confused.  “I mean I guess I could pull up a wiki article on the basics and do some transcribing…”  

That’s how Erin spends her early morning, trading messages back and forth with Urzash trying to explain the basics of electricity to them while being peppered with questions about how in the hell any of this could possibly work without killing someone. 

Well, a lot of people have died working with electricity.  It’s incredibly dangerous, it’s safer now than it’s ever been but especially in the early days a lot of people died because they didn’t know what they were playing with.

She completely loses track of time with this conversation and the rabbit hole she’s gone down, and it isn’t until her emergency late alarm goes off that she realizes she hasn’t even started frying the donuts, let alone showered or gotten dressed.  Her closing message is slapdash, apologizing but admitting to losing track of time and needing to leave like right now.  She feels a little bad about it, but doesn’t have time to dwell on it as she turns on the deep fryer before running to the bathroom to throw some dry shampoo in her hair and brush her teeth.  Grad school work, if nothing else, taught her about how to efficiently get through a routine in no time.  She’s only ten minutes late pulling into the school and running in with an apology about the donuts taking too long.  Mrs. Forrester laughs and waves off her apology as she pulls the foil covered tray from Erin’s hands.  “You can be late all you want if you bring me homemade donuts darling.”  

Erin blushes but laughs, pushing down the thoughts of the journal waiting for her back home and the reason she was actually running late this morning.  The unused dough sitting back in her fridge would get fried up later for her own donuts, and Mrs. Forrester didn’t need to know the dozen in the tray were only half the amount she had meant to prepare.  Breakfast is fun and quiet, the town gossip from Mrs. Forrester is pretty tame all things considered and mostly consisted of particular family rivalries that might rear their heads when it came time for classes to start.  “You’ve got to watch out for the Harrisons, by the way.  Their eldest daughter, Brianna, has been known to take books out of the library without actually checking them out in order to keep other children from using them, and has started teaching her younger brother Evan to do the same.  Their parents put a bit too much pressure on them for their grades and class position, so I understand where that instinct is coming from, but we’re working on teaching them better habits.”  

Erin sighs and snags a second donut from the tray (Mrs. Forrester already halfway through her third) taking a bite from the sugary cinnamon donut before taking a deep drink of coffee.  She could get used to this, listening to the older woman chatter on amiably while they drink coffee and eat sweets.  It’s bittersweet that Mrs. Forrester is retiring, but hopefully with enough of these early morning coffee dates Erin will be able to convince the older woman to keep meeting up occasionally outside of work.  The shrill ringing of the school bell interrupts her train of thought though, and Mrs. Forrester stands before recovering the donuts with foil and putting them in the bottom drawer of her desk with a wink.  “Alright darling, duty calls.  We’ll have some more of those at lunch, and you absolutely have to give me the recipe.”