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auspex · 2 years ago

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6.) 7.) 20.) and 22.) for Mark and Pory!!

YIPPEEE fun onesss

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

IDK if this means natural laws or legal laws so I’ll answer both…

Mark: Since he’s an academic he knows that laws, such as the law of gravity, are subject to change with new discoveries. But that there are ultimate truths in the world so it’s just a matter of finding the right one. Hell, his discovery of kindred sure disproved a lot of natural laws for him. Haha.

And as for legal laws, as a historian, he definitely sees how they change and/or are applied differently to different groups of people throughout history and the present.

So in a word: Flexible

Porphyria: Oh please, she’s a mage. The laws don’t apply to her. Powerful mages can change natural laws, and even weaker mages can. Alakazam frequently just breaks gravity for example. Legal laws can be worked around. Like literally so flexible. The world is exciting and much more changeable than she thought just a few months ago :)

What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

Mark: Nostalgia is often painful for Mark now. I started going into this with the last question I answered, but nostalgia for the Before Times (before being turned lol) are painful. After being embraced, he does enjoy some level of peace from seeing how far he’s come but those early memories were of a very stressful time so its a bittersweet thing.

As for what triggers it, certain things Sampson says would definitely do it, anything that references their history, really. He feels nostalgic for the Before Times while teaching his class sometimes too, but quickly represses it. And finally I think Rose would trigger nostalgia for the early times occasionally, when they share a knowing look, remembering their early time together when the coterie was very different and they didn’t trust each other yet. Another thing that will trigger nostalgia for the early times will be next new years, because that was his first day actively as a kindred. And his birthday as well, because it's on January 8, and Sampson tried to throw him a party. Oh and the movie Blade. lol.

Porphyria: Seeing her son and daughter would trigger it, as well as random details (explained below). This is an interesting thing for me to think about with Porphyria because as a time mage, she has a very different perspective of time, and as well as this she remembers an alternate past that no one else can remember. I think remembering that past makes her a bit lonely sometimes, so she doesn’t try to think of that often. Random details would make her nostalgic because of this - for example, in universe 1 Alburich’s mentor (Alburich is another PC) had a habit of rubbing grass together, but now he rubs leaves. So seeing someone rub grass or leaves would remind her of that alternate reality. and there's several small things like that that'd trigger it. But yea to actually answer the question I think she could definitely savor the feeling but in a different way than non-time mages do (and different from mind mages who have perfect memory lol). She can trace butterfly effects… the strings of fate that shifted around… so I imagine it would be enjoyable for her to think about such things.

If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

Mark: His honest feelings on the subject are that romantic love is something very different from other types of love, and something more important. I don’t think he’d go so far as to say he believes in soulmates, but romantic love is something special; true love is rare and valuable. To him it is a feeling of being in sync with someone else, not in the sense of being similar, but in the sense of just fitting together like 2 puzzle pieces. It’s someone becoming the most important person in your life. It’s devotion. And it’s trust and a feeling of understanding - yes the fact that his and Sammy’s relationship was a lie for at least 2 years hurt him very deeply. <3 <3 <3

So yea, he’d say the difference simply is that platonic and familial love simply don’t have that essential feeling to it, and that for the other types of love you don’t have to feel like you’re that in sync, or have that devotion. Other types of love could have some of those feelings, but they don’t have to, and it won’t be nearly as intense.

Plus like, you know, for Mark, no split attraction model here (nor is that an idea I think he’d encounter at this time). He believes romantic love also includes sexual attraction.

Now good luck getting that out of him unless you’re his long-term boyfriend or husband! LOL. Couldn’t torture that honest of an answer out of him normally. (Ok he would crack under torture at some point cause it’s not that shameful to admit and even he knows that but. The point is. He doesn't share these thoughts with others.)

I re-read the question and see the question is about how he would explain. So if someone he moderately trusted asked, say Rose, he would probably just say that romantic love involves commitment and a deeper sense of care. Short and to the point. He doesn’t want to get into things much because he doesn’t want people asking about his personal experiences with it; he’s currently still closeted. If he did come out to Rose (which could happen) then he would probably mention how he feels it’s something really important and special. And would be more open to follow up questions.

Porphyria: I think due to her time period she’d consider the differences pretty obvious, some standard answer about the commitment between a man and a woman. Plus with fate magic and the way she perceives things she’d probably give some fluffy answer about folks being fated to being together. BUT different from Mark is that she’d say familial love and platonic love can be just as strong and important. <3 She also hasn’t really ever been in love - marriage was more of convenience. So i think she has *ideas* about romantic love but has much more experience with platonic (cabal) and familial (children and her mom) love. So may have difficulty describing romantic love due to that.

Sorry Mark, you ain’t a parent like her and your parents were kind of shitty.

How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?

Mark: Possessive for sure now. Before being embraced, he would be aloof but due to the beast’s influence it has shifted to being possessive. Now what he would do with those feelings depends a lot on the situation. He’s somewhat self aware about it. If jealousy got REALLY bad he'd probably go to the person he’s jealous of to ‘set boundaries’ before getting angry at the one he’s possessive one… however, again he is pretty rational. If he believes its an irrational jealousy, he would be pretty good at not acting upon it. For example right now he is slightly jealous of Sampson’s friendship with Lucky but recognizes it is good for Sampson so doesn’t consider it a bad thing (quite the opposite, he recognizes that it is really important for Sampson, he just wishes that they were that close) and so isn’t going to do anything to hurt it.

Porphyria: Hmm I don’t think she gets jealous really… her cabal are all like, super tight, and I don’t think its possible for any of them to seriously believe that anyone is encroaching on what they have. And she isn’t attached to her husband so doesn’t care.

But if she were to be jealous - if she believed it to be irrational, she would be more aloof about it, perhaps a snarky comment or two. If she believed it more valid, I could see her trying to manipulate fate about it a little bit but more likely, since that’d usually be immoral to do, she’d confront the person about it if she believed she was Right to be jealous.

#porphyria mage oc #mark vtm oc #sorry if this is not so coherent i am very tired

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thejosh1980 · 4 years ago

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Update #21 – 1 week at “The Ocean Shores Resort”

A week ago we left quarantine in Adelaide!!!

It's been another week of mixed emotions, but I have to say, for the first time in months, they've been mostly on the positive side of things.

Last Tuesday, we left the hotel without too much hassle. They'd given us a basic breakfast the night before to have first thing and they called us down early; luckily we were ready and down the stairs we went. Before you know it, we were in the hotel reception taking our masks off!

Adelaide and South Australia are COVID free, so no masks, no problems.

The checkout was quick (the big bill comes in a few weeks!!), the staff were awesome and the police informative. They all understand that quarantine is not easy on anyone, and they were patient with our questions and worries. We had won the jackpot of quarantine hotels: Pullman Adelaide and the staff helped make our stay tolerable.

Jumped in a taxi (with masks on cause we really weren't sure yet how to behave in the outside world) and off to the airport. We had to leave the hotel by 07:30, because another bus of incoming “Covicts” were coming in that morning. Our flight was at 11:50 up to Brisbane, so it was yet another waiting game to check in and fly. But first... coffee! (we actually bought a coffee from a coffee shop! Amazing!! It's the small things...).

The flight was about about 2/3's full, no masks.

Landing in Brisbane we had to do a border check, show our papers, explain where we had been and all that. The check was there to stop anyone who may have COVID from coming in without quarantining. Each State has slightly different rules, and they do change from time to time, depending on hotspots and COVID numbers. Because the flight was from Adelaide and we left the hotel directly to the airport, we made sure we had no problems entering Brisbane (Queensland). We definitely didn't want any chance of another 14 day hotel stay!!!

Our original plan was to fly into the Gold Coast airport, which is only about 35 minutes from Mum, but there were no flights on our leaving day, so we had to fly into Brisbane (which is 2 hours from Mum's). My cousin picked us up (bloody legend!). We were hungry, and we went directly to Yatala pies. This was the moment I started to realize we were almost home. The taste of home! (Yatala Pies is a well known bakery south of Brisbane, a regular stop for many).

My cousin could drive us as far as the QLD/NSW border. Once there, we walked across the border and Dave picked us up on the other side. A little complicated, but sure enough, the plan worked.

The whole experience felt like something out of the movies. Not that it was all “Hollywood”. It was more like: I can't believe this is finally happening. I wasn't really in the moment. Yet.

As we were getting close to “The Ocean Shores Resort” (which is the name we have for my Mum's house) I still didn't feel calm...

Anyhow, we arrived, and if you've seen our IG or FB Story on the day, you'd know that when I knocked on the front door, we had actually surprised Mum (a little early), and she couldn't find the front door key to let us in!! So our reunion started off with a scream and eventually a laugh!!

Mum did cry, but we all expected her to cry more... ;) Honestly, I think we both had cried too much the past 2 months, it was no longer needed. It was all about joy and happiness.

After meeting and hugging Alex (some more tears) we entered the house to find Mum had a “welcome home” sign and our picture up on the walls (lots of me and Alex, can't go wrong with that!!).

It was surreal.

A quick house tour for Alex and we settled down. Lots of chatting and catching up to do, and a roast dinner!

We'd made it.

The next morning (Wednesday), a son's work is never done and I was up early to take Mum to school. She's part of the support unit inside the primary school, working with kids with Autism.

Even though her eyesight is deteriorating, Mum can still work. Driving a car; that's out of the question. Reading the “use by date” on a packet of chips is almost impossible. Keeping an eye on children in the playground, developing their social skills or helping them with their school work (considering the text is usually quite large and the pictures bold) Mum can still do really well.

I've learnt she has figured out ways to cope with her eyes. She has a great memory, so once she's told something, she can remember it really well (like recipes for cooking etc). She's still a keen bargain hunter when it comes to shopping. I enjoy learning that she's kept her life as close to “normal” as possible, making small changes to the bigger things to keep her independence.

But it's those small things that are hard to do alone, which is why I'm here...

After dropping Mum off, Alex and I spent the morning of our first full day in Brunswick Heads. This is the town I lived in from the mid 80's until late 90's. I went to primary school here, learned to surf here, and know the old names of the shops (the hair dressers is now a surf shop, the butcher's is a cafe, the ice cream shop is a real estate agent and the bank has recently closed). Lots of changes for me, lots of new things for Alex.

We also went down to the beach, the south wall of the Brunswick River, where the river meets the ocean. We watched some waves. Taking in the salt air (I don't think I ever realized how salty the air is here until now).

It was a relaxing day.

But I still wasn't quite “here” in my head and heart. Leaving Dresden back in July, only to be delayed for 7 weeks, then another 2 weeks in quarantine, was going to take sometime to overcome.

Time to pick up Mum from school... Home... Unpack a little, dinner, chatting and a little TV.

Thursday morning, it was time for another radio interview. To finish off the 3 part story with ABC North Coast Radio I did another live interview with Joanne Shoebridge. I'm always nervous doing these kinds of things, even though in the music world, I've had to do interviews, they were never quite as personal as this.

After we dropped Mum off at school Thursday morning, we drove up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse and luckily got a park up close to the top.

I wanted to introduce Alex to the area as much as I could, without overwhelming her. Brunswick Heads, Ocean Shores, Mullumbimby and Byron Bay all played a big part of my childhood, and I wanted her to at least know these villages a little bit as early as possible. We'd covered Brunswick Heads and Ocean Shores a little, so now it was time for Byron Bay.

Bring on the whale watching!!

Within minutes of leaving the car, we could see whales jumping out and swimming around the cape. It was a wonderful morning. I'm so glad Alex got to see them (in fact I can't remember the last time I saw whales so close to the shore). They migrate each year around September/October, so it was perfect timing.

It was a special day for Alex...

The sun was shining, the whales were in plain sight and the tourists were kind enough to stay away from Byron Bay. COVID does have its benefits. Fewer people in these tourist spots isn't always bad (although I am quite aware the economy is suffering. The borders are opening up next week and it'll be very busy then).

Back into Ocean Shores, picked up Mum from school. Home... Dinner.. Chatting... Some TV...

Friday was the first day we had to do “stuff” in regards to living here permanently, and that was banking. So after dropping mum off at work, we drove into Mullumbimby “The Biggest Little Town In Australia”. I went to high school here.

Basically Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby are like Neustadt in Dresden. You can't walk down the street without seeing someone you know, stopping and chatting. It happened in Brunz the other day, I literally parked my car, and lo and behold an old high school friend came out of the video store to say hi... Or in Mullum, as we arrive at the bank I see an old friend who used to teach me rock n roll dancing (yeah, I can still cut a rug)... and even inside the bank, I said hi to a fella from my high school year, we hadn't seen each other since 1997.

It's a small world...

The banking took a bit longer than expected, after much back and forward we settled on our new bank accounts and how to arrange things going forward. While I've had an account here since I was very very young, I cancelled most of my stuff when I left in 2002, so now it was time to set up shop again, especially since I had my wife with me and we have a future to work towards...

We walked the street of Mullum, grabbed a coffee and we let the country hippy vibe soak in. Alex commented on how many folks don't wear shoes here and she can't believe how many new coffee shops there are for her to try (there's a lot more than when I was a kid).

Picked up Mum from school... School holidays for 2 weeks! Yippeee!!

Home... Dinner... Chatting... some TV...

Over the weekend we sorted out things around the house. Set up better internet Wifi around the house, the pool is in good condition after the winter sleep, cupboards got cleaned out and we unpacked and the car was washed (first time I've hand washed a car in over a decade!).

Sunday I watched Mark's live stream (from his front porch in upstate New York) and I felt inspired (he does that to me). So I am considering live streaming next week. I have a guitar and good internet, so why not? I just have to find time to practice ;) I'm thinking net Sunday evening here, which would be Sunday lunch time in Germany. If I don't get to it this Sunday, then maybe next Sunday... I'll keep you posted.

Overall the weather has been warm, often over 20 degrees. But the mornings are still quite chilly, with frosty dew on the golf course out back. It's not bad for coming out of winter...

Today, Monday, we went “up the coast”, to Tweed Heads.

First thing we tried to exchange my German license for a mandatory NSW (State) license, unfortunately I gotta wait for some back checks, no idea what I did 19 years ago in Melbourne, but they wanna check it out. So onwards to shopping...

Yes!!! We bought a coffee machine! Finally we can wake and with a press of a button get ourselves a cup of joe. It's the small things....

Helped mum with the grocery shopping. She knows her stuff. She knows where everything is in every shop, but sometimes she just needs me to reassure her what is actually written on the box or package!!!

So that's basically our first week...

We are settling in well. Alex and Mum get on like a house on fire. I often can't get a word in edgewise and I'm always outvoted!

I still miss Germany and I still miss Europe... (I always will). I miss a lot of the “past life”, but that's just cause Australia has moved on without me these past 18 years. Each day here I get a little closer to that homey feeling I used to have as a teenager (when I didn't know better).

In hindsight, the past 3 months wasn't too bad... We survived... But that's easy to say now...

When we were in the middle of it, it was really tough.

It was really hard packing up our lives into boxes. It was emotionally draining saying goodbye after goodbye to our wonderful friends. Playing my goodbye show was one of the musical highlights of my life, even if it was one of the saddest.

Then we were ready to leave...

As you all know, that didn't go according to plan.

That's when the really bad feelings crept in. You know it's one thing to know you gotta pack up and say goodbye to leave (you are prepared for that)... It's another when you're ready and the world says “nope, not yet”... and again and again that build up and let down was happening, and until the last 2 weeks in Germany, we had no idea why!

As some of you know, I'm not really good at spontaneity. I'm not good when the plan changes... It was tough... But...

When we took control of the situation and booked new flights, it helped a lot. We were back in control.

Quarantine was a difficult time, it got a little dark there. It brought with it, it's own set of challenges and a steep learning curve. I, for one, learnt a lot about pressure. I put too much pressure on myself. Since we arrived here, I have tried my best to relax more, in my own way at least. My to do lists are shorter...

Alex and I had already figured out how to survive the German lockdown, the packing up of our lives and clearing out the apartment. Then we had 2 months at her parents stuck in “limbo” and then 2 weeks stuck in a room together. Our marriage is really new, and we survived that without any damage to our relationship. Sure, we both have a few personal scars, but nothing a little love and tenderness wont fix. I'm proud of her, Alex has a lot of patience for me!

I'm really happy I am here to help Mum each day. Those small things will slowly become bigger things, but for now, it's great to be able to do “stuff” with her. That was always the plan, to be here in time, before things got really bad.

We've been posting often on our IG and FB stories, so I hope folks have seen the day to day happenings. I'm sure we'll continue with that, keeping you up to date visually.

I think I'll end these FB journals here, and switch over to Tumblr full time. The idea being that if you'd like to continue to read these long “new life” chronicles, I'll still post a link here when I do update there... Confused? Me too! ;)

Thanks everyone for your messages of support and love. We are very lucky, we have the best friends.... You guys rock! You're awesome! We love you.

Love

Josh and @dauntlesscoffee

#travelblog #australia #byron bay #whale watching #coming home #covid

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