Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

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  • Skriph, sometimes, missed Rozburg.  As dull and stagnant as everything had been there, it had also lacked Centralia's overwhelming liveliness, and pronouns had never been dangerous back home.   People got upset when Skriph guessed wrong or forgot, and the only constant was that nobody wanted to be called "it" (even though that was a singular pronoun).  So much felt wrong and different (wonders like roads, wheels, electricity, and magic were not only not-forbidden, but were ubiquitous) that it sometimes worried that it would suddenly wake up in the swamp and realize this wonderful, scandalous, terrifying, noisy, disgusting, cheerful, thankfully-lax-in-guarding-foodstuffs, candy-decorated, city was merely a dream.

    Skriph missed its knife.  Darn that Safety Fairy.
  • edited 2022-02-10 01:24:49
    Funny how you take some things for granted.

    Dame Adorabelle's Academy* had taken it for granted that its princesses had a trickster streak and a fondness for unscheduled snacking, so nobody really noticed when the food stocks were slightly less full.

    The citizens of Pompeii had taken it for granted that Vesuvius, on very nearly all days in its history, did not erupt.

    Skriph had taken it for granted that wandering off was okay so long as you stayed within earshot and eyesight, and its family had taken it for granted that rulers of kingdoms could, but in very nearly all instances didn't, silence-the-ways-of-travel** *** **** *****.

    *And, to a lesser extent, the nearby grocery store.

    ** [NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  As bizarre as it may sound, the rulers of other nations/kingdoms/baronies cannot silence-the-ways-of-travel.  They rely on walls and armies to keep that-which-must-be-guarded in and that-which-must-be-guarded-against (such as enemies) out.  

    ***[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]:  One of the more interesting magics known to be associated with the "royal" family of our glorious swamp is the power to "silence-the-ways-of-travel", which is, essentially, the act of making it impossible to enter or exit the kingdom unless the (accursed) Konungr wills it.  This, fortunately, will not be a problem for us, as it, by its very nature, would not guard from internal threats and furthermore would serve to prevent outside interference.

    ****[FURTHER NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]:  Multi-hyphenated-word-phrases are a very common linguistic feature of these-swampy-lands-over-here.  They appear in the spoken word surprisingly often in other places, but tend-to-be-less-common in the written word of the same.  If it seems strange to you, consider where the genitive " 's daughter" appears when adding a daughter to "the king of Spain".

    *****Footnotes are fun!
  • Of course, when one uses a phrase like "nobody really noticed" what one often means is "nobody of true significance noticed" or "nobody whose noticing matters noticed".

    Barnaba, who (1) had at least one other name that wasn't "of Centralia"* **, (2) was a self-proclaimed "conspiracy theorist-except that people don't like those anymore, so maybe I'm just a theorizer who specializes in secrets, like I think that Her Royal Highwayness sneaks around everywhere dressed in a student outfit and I think she takes food from here like you evidently do not that I'm saying you're a thief or anything sorry wow people don't usually let me talk for this long are we friends now", and (3) had not had very many friends before but promised to be a good one (whatever that means), had noticed.

    Words are, in the end, a lot of what we are made of, and some people have words with weight like a stone in a small pool, while others simply don't.

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]: By order of the tripartite princettarchy***, all citizens of Centralia and the rest of the kingdom are legally able to change their names whenever they want.

    **[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]:  When the time comes, naming conventions will be reformed.  There is thus no need to explain the silly, often inconsistent naming-patterns, we have been plagued with.


    ***This is not a word, but its intended meaning can easily enough be guessed by context.
  • Barnaba:  One day, I'll photograph the Princess and send it to Coy Pony Chartreis magazine.  Then they'll all believe me.

    Skriph:  Isn't that the one I keep finding in trashcans?

    Barnaba:  Ohmigosh you read it too!

    Skriph:  No, I just look at the pictures and try to learn names in case that ever becomes useful.

    Barnaba:  Oh yeah?  Well, then...

    Barnaba -pulls out Issue #60, flips to a random page-

    Barnaba:  ...Who's this?

    Skriph:  Oh, that's lady Hors-

    Barnaba: NO!

    Skriph: ???

    Barnaba:  That was close, you almost said a super bad word, yikes, be more careful!

    Skriph:  Words can be bad... individually?

    Barnaba:  Wow.  Do they not have swearing where you're from, I mean, I guess they must not, but seriously how have you not even heard of such things?

    Skriph:  Of course they had swearing, but I don't see what promises, vows, and oaths have to do with anything.

    Barnaba:  I mean words that shouldn't be said, or at least not in public or around kids, you know, curse words.

    Skriph:  Curse words... -shudder-  ...what a horrible thought.  Thanks for saving me.

    Barnaba:  No problem, just be more careful.

    Skriph:  I need to learn them all, just to be safe.
  • edited 2022-02-10 01:27:42
    Barnaba:  What are you doi-

    Skriph:  Gaa!  Don't sneak up on people like that!

    Barnaba:  Hypocritical, but valid, but also not answering my question, what are you doing (I mean, if it's okay to ask, actually scratch that I'm asking if it's not okay because I'm getting concerned here, what are you doing)?

    Skriph:  Making a fire*.  

    Banaba:  You can't just make fires**!

    Skriph:  I know.  That's what matches are for***.

    Barnaba:  ...

    Barnaba:  Okay, why are you building a fire?

    Skriph:  Nomtime approaches.

    Barnaba:  -glances at smoke detector-

    Barnaba: -glances at "no smoking" and "no fires" signs-

    Barnaba:  -facepalms-

    Barnaba:  Gotta get you a microwave, kiddo, oh, and also the tinfoil for hats so they can't get your thoughts (and no, I don't know who "they" are yet, but I'm narrowing it down).

    Skriph:  Kiddo?  I'm a year older than you.


    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  In other lands, there exist mysterious wall-infesting things with long spiderweb-like-strands of metal.   Most of these are artificial creations, and live in a mutualistic relationship with their client room-dwelling host friends.  Some of them are parasites living off of residual electricity (a light-heat-magic energy).  The parasites, as a defense mechanism, use ear-killing noises whenever they sense danger.  Citizens in these lands are taught from childhood the quickest escape routes from most buildings in case of such auditory attacks.  Known triggers for resonance assaults include fire, certain types of poison gas, depletion of electricity, and direct physical damage.  Archaeological and historical evidence (including oral memory accounts) suggest that in previous generations, Rozburg had electricity and wall-webbers, but no living specimens remain.

    **[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]:  Fire magic, sometimes called Pyromancy, is, even more than most magic, almost exclusively associated with the family of Konungar, and most often with the Konungr itself.  The root "mancy" suggests a divination component, but as with many other forms of magic with that root, it is unclear whether communication, insight, or knowledge-attainment is involved.  For most of us in these-swampy-lands-over-here, building a cooking fire is a chore, during which stories are often shared.  This, the cooking, and the meal, is what is called Nomtime.  This egregious waste of time which could otherwise be filled with productive work, will, if all goes as plan, soon be a thing of the past.

    ***Need a light?  Ask your grocery store if they have Free Samples of Playne-Widdth (R) Charcoal-Quality Matches.  The only matches rated child-safe, they really put the PLUS in Surplus!
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Aliroz have you played the Outer Wilds? Because I beat it and the DLC recently and I think it's a very Aliroz game
  • From Barnaba's Journal:

    ??-13-????  I'm pretty sure that junk mail contains coded messages.  I can't think of a better way to convey information without an interceptor being able to tell who the intended recipient is than to send it to everyone in such a way that everyone except the intended recipients immediately discard it without thinking.  Thus, I've been saving the junk mail I get, and trying to decode it.

    ??-27-????  The Recycling Fairy is clearly an agent of powers not to be trusted.  I wonder if a cold iron box would work.  Do they even make cold iron anymore, or was that never a real thing?

    ??-29-???? Ugh, why do they teach magic at this Academy, it's not like I'm ever going to use it in real life.  What's the point of levitation if everything interesting is on the ground anyway?
  • edited 2022-04-28 01:46:28
    Skriph:  The microwave is too small, unfortunately, but it is still much appreciated.

    Barnaba:  Eeck!  I mean, oh, I totally heard you coming and just pretended to be surprised to humor you, and you can't prove otherwise.  Anyways, no, it's not too small, it's a standard-size microwave.

    Skriph:  Well, then standard is insufficient, because It's not big enough to fit in.  I assume that this is for hatchings and bab-bies*.

    Barnaba:  You don't go in the microwave, the food goes in the microwave.

    Skriph:  But it's warm in there, and I want to spin!  Also, I cannot read the instructions on the pop-corn if I'm out-side the microwave while it's in-side.

    Barnaba:  Ohmigosh you're right!  "Step One:  Put in Microwave and Close Door", but then you can't read step two... That doesn't make any sense.  There's gotta be more to this than meets the eye.

    Barnaba: ...

    Barnaba:  Stop trying to get into the microwave.

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]: Human babies are loud and unable to walk or speak coherently.  Though useless for most tasks, they are very cute and often curious.
  • edited 2022-02-27 03:40:02
    (For the record, Skriph and Barnaba are not meant to be self-inserts or author-avatars or fictional reflections of anyone.  Having characters that aren't those things opens up possibilities for worldbuilding and silliness.)

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  • edited 2022-03-01 17:17:43
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    HEY, AL:

  • edited 2022-03-02 00:47:01
    -In my best Speedwagon Imitation-

    Nooooo, Mr. Sanderson!  Not the Kickstarter!  It consumes creators, as black holes consume stars, trapping unstoppable forces and immovable objects into Sisyphean in-completion!
  • edited 2022-03-18 01:42:28
    Skriph thought, not for the first time and not for the last, about knowing.  Knowledge was sometimes like fire, you can give it to another without diminishing your own.  But not always.  Some things couldn't be taught, only learned, and that knowing came like a sunrise without any moment where "before" became "after" and something changed.  And, again like sunrise, that knowing might sneak up on one unwanted.  Maybe that was why the answer to all the truly interesting how or why questions had been "You wouldn't understand.  Maybe when you're older".

    Skriph had taken it so much for granted that the "Maybe-when-your-older"s in Rozburg would become clear someday, that it was unnerved when it dawned on it that it might know more of the answer to "What happened to/in/at Rozburg?" than the Aggers*, and that that meant that it knew as much as anybody.  

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]: "Agger" is a slang term for pseudosuchian-type beings from These-Swampy-Lands-Over-Here who study abroad in the rest of the world.  Possibly derived from a corruption of "Alligator" and "Mugger" (itself a slang term for a pseudosuchian-type-being), "Agger" should not be applied to those of us who have never left.  Most Aggers have no family or even extended kin (this lack of ties explains the integration into foreign communities), and thus the term has connotations of orphan-hood/orphan-ment/orphan-ity/orphan-ness which those-of-us-to-whom-such-things-do-not-apply do not like having applied to us.  The largest numerical amount of Aggers is associated with the Daim Adorabell Academy in Centralia.  In general, Aggers can be considered as having goals orthogonal to our glorious reformation, and should not be considered as assets or potential recruits.  Remember, our goal is change, not escape.  Don't be fooled by the protests they do against the (bad-smelling and no-good) Konungr Aliroz, that is simply a "student thing". 
  • NON-DIEGETIC-NOTE:  (The "NOTES FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG" are supposed to be excerpts from a book that is something of a cultural guide for Rozburgians about the rest of the world.  It is supposed to come off as precise-but-inaccurate, and perhaps a bit, well, not propagandist-ic, but a-product-of its-culture and also more concerned-with-being-aligned-with-the-official-positions than insightful-or-even-really-understanding-of-the-rest-of-the-world.  It allows for me to write amusing misunderstandings and do worldbuilding).

    NON-DIEGETIC-NOTE:  (The "NOTES FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG" are supposed to be excerpts from a book that is ostensibly something of a cultural guide for the rest of the world about Rozburg and its surrounding swamplands, but is transparently a handbook for a rebellion/revolution/"reformation" opposed to Konungr Aliroz The Confused.  This also allows for me to write amusing misunderstandings and do worldbuilding).

    NON-DIEGETIC-NOTE:  I do not write parody or satire.  I aim for absurdity-humor and punnery, perhaps-at most, a kind of dry "lol" at things that are funny only to me for reasons that make sense only to me, or are inside jokes to old HH and TvTropes lore.
  • Treasure Island is a great book, I'd give it a B+ (because in one paragraph bad things happen to a book).  For reference, Gravity Falls is one of the best things ever, and that gets a nearly-unattainable B-, and even Ax Cop and Lackadaisy got A- for their creators having opinions that were either better or worse than mine.

    Using letter grades for fiction-opinions is fun because it has that nice "petty tyrant professor" vibe of "I don't care how well you did something if I'm grading you for a different thing" mix of consistency and arbitrariness that my opinions tend towards.  
  • Barnaba:  I always hated the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.  

    Skriph:  Aack!  Oh, hello.  Boy crying wolf?  I don't know that one.

    Barnaba:  So, a boy is a shepherd, which means he takes care of sheep, so he is supposed to watch for wolves, and yell when he sees one so that everyone can come and scare away the wolf before it can scare away the sheep.

    Skriph:  Oh, so he's an informant, like you want to be!  That explains why you call people sheep all the time.

    Barnaba:  The word is "Investigative journalist"-

    Skriph:  Pretty sure that's illegal, and two words.

    Barnaba:  -and there's a differenc-wait, you think journalism's some kind of crime and being an informant's normal, that's... kind of messed up.

    Skriph:  -shrugs, makes a universal back-of-throat "I dunno" hum-

    Barnaba:  Gotta learn more about your culture one of these days, as soon as you stop being weird about talking about it and-

    Skriph:  Shut up.  

    Barnaba:  -universal front-of-throat chirp of confusedly shutting up-

    Skriph:  I don't have a culture.  The swamp didn't have a culture.  Everywhere else has a culture.

    Barnaba:  That makes no sense.

    Skriph:  Then explain Centralia's culture.

    Barnaba:  But Centralia doesn't have a cultu-oh.  Huh.
  • Skriph:  So, about the boy watching for wolves.  I think we got off-topic in the conversation*.

    Barnaba:  Oh, yeah, so, the boy gets bored, as in, mega super bored, because nothing happens and he doesn't see or hear any wolves.

    Skriph:  But that means the sheep are safe and not-scared, so that's good.

    Barnaba:  Sheep are so boring, people actually count them to fall asleep.

    Skriph:  Fascinating.  Maybe sheep count people to achieve an inactive state*  **, too.  Or perhaps they calculate themselves.

    Barnaba:  Okay, Spock.  Also, wow, this story doesn't usually take this long to tell.  Anyways, the boy, since he is bored, hollers that a wolf is chasing the sheep.  Except, there is no wolf, it's a prank.  He does this at least twice.  Then, later, when a real wolf comes and scares all his sheep away, he yells but nobody comes because they think he's messing with them again.  The moral is that if you say things that are wrong, then nobody will believe you when you are right, and I hate it.  So.  Much.

    Skriph:  I don't think I understand why it bothers you so.

    Barnaba:  A coin that lands on heads twice in a row is no more likely to land heads the next time than a coin that landed on tails twice in a row, if they're both fair.  A fact doesn't become true or false because of its source.  People act like it does, so they can ignore people they don't want to listen to.  Nobody listens to me.

    Skriph:  I listen to you.

    Barnaba:  You don't know any better.  You don't count.

    Skriph:  :A****  -sad suchian noises-*****-

    Barnaba:  Haven't you ever known something that nobody else knows, and tried to tell about it, and no one believed you?  One of these days, they'll all see, I'll make them see, and everybody will have to say "Wow, Barnaba!  You were right all along, about everything!  Can you ever forgive us?", and I'll look down and whisper, "maybe".

    *It is a widely known truth that on-topic conversations are, and always were, worse than all the other ones.

    **[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  Endothermic beings typically do not bask in the sun.  They also (like most ectothermic beings-that-aren't-us) don't usually properly go dormant or inactive, but enter a fully unconscious state for eight to ten hours every night.  For comfort, they usually do this in their softest clothes and wedge themselves between blankets and pleasantly yielding surfaces called "mattress" or "bed".  This is called "sleeping", probably as a corruption of "slipping into unconsciousness".

    ***[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  We do not sleep.  We wait.

    ****: ":A" is the only emoticon other than :V which are possible for Suchians.  As a famed bard of the herpetofauna once said, 'tis difficult being green.  Or actually most commonly a dark grey with green tones, or brown, or tan, or sometimes ochre, or rarely orange, or white if albino or even if not albino, or any of a surprisingly large range of colors which vary more than is commonly realized and can change in response to environmental color conditions.

    *****:  Court stenography usually types these as "rrrrrrrgrrrrrrrrargrrrrrrrrrhhhhrrrh"
  • edited 2022-03-30 02:36:03
    Barnaba:  Haven't you ever known something was going to happen, and everybody said it wouldn't, but you knew you weren't being silly no matter how many times you were told not to be silly, and then it happened?  Didn't you want to scream "I knew it!  I knew it ALL ALONG, and you told me I was crazy!  The worst part is, I think you knew it the whole time, deep down, and just wanted me to shut up!".

    Barnaba:  Hey, where'd you go?  Buddy?

    [sound of door opening]

    Barnaba:  Thesignsaysemployeesonlyandyouownthisstore, soyou'retheemployernotanemployee, soyou'renotallowedhereandIambecauseI'memployedbytheschoolpaper andIwasn'tbeingthatloudsoyouhavenothingonmeIknowmyrightsyoufascist I'msorryI'msorrygoodstorekeepdon'tbanmeI'mgoingI'mgoing.

    [sound of door closing]

    ...

    Skriph:  I have returne-where'd you go?

    Skriph:  I brought tissues* and also string**.

    Skriph:  If you're there, say something, but not too loud, I think the storekeep is close.

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]: Tissues are a small leaf-like surface of paper-thin cloth which are not made of paper even though it is sometimes called "tissue paper".  They are used to clean faces and help when sad.  They are disposable, but since they, repeat, are not paper, it does not mean that foreigners routinely waste paper by rubbing their faces on it.

    **[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]: Despite what the children's stories say, fairies generally do not assume the guise of humans, and there is no proof of the persistent folk belief that a faery's/fairy's/faerie's/fae's questions have the power to steal souls (much less the myth that the same is true of any foreigner).  Answering strange and perplexing questions is often dangerous, but for reasons other than cautionary tales and old sayings have it, and these dangers cannot be warded off by making a bowline knot.  In the interest of full disclosure, though, it must be admitted that there is no proof that knots cannot ward against evil and trouble, and it's worth trying (we would be remiss not to add that we, the authors and editors of this guide, find ourselves tying luck-knots on average at least three times a month).  Knowing your knots may not save your soul, but it can save your life in a survival situation.
  • From Barnaba's Journal:  

    ??-2-????: I'll never keep enough junk mail for long enough to crack the messages, but I've just figured out another means to the same end:  the word searches in the newspaper!  If you keep only the letters that aren't in any of the words, I'm sure there's secrets there.

    ??-3-????:  Okay, I was certain that newspapers weren't recycled, but now everybody acts as though they are.  Will every trace I find just be cleaned away by this Meredith-darned Recycling Fairy?

    Also ??-3-????:  S. almost had a heart attack when I explained that paper* is recycled to make new paper**.  Honestly, I don't really get why, but I think it's because a book made of recycled paper is essentially made of other books, which is kind of creepy in a Frankenstein's Monster kind of way.  I know I'd cry if all my journals were taken and made into something else.


    ??-4-????: I bet I can lure at least one of the three Princesses by putting stickers on a sign and waiting for Her Royal Highwayness to un-deface it.  I mean, stickers and signs are on the official "best things" list, so this should work like a charm.

    ??-5-????:  Botherations and frustrations!  The automatic camera caught nothing but a lens cap, and the sticker I spent a week's allowance on is now covered up with another sticker.

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  Languages other than Marish have at least two separate words for hrgrrlurrghrhhgrrragruugrha.  In English, this is "paper" and "soul".  How they fail to make the connection between those which bear words, which hold meaning and life beyond life, that most precious to be preserved above all, is astounding.  To be fair, though, written mentions in other people's writing to "scripture" as something both sacred and paper-based, and to "illumination", imply that on some level, this understanding is or was once shared, if perhaps unconsciously.

    *[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]: Perhaps Konungr Aliroz The Confused's greatest enormities were the disassembly of the printing presses and the scattering of their components.  We cannot repair what is undamaged, we cannot replace what isn't destroyed, and we have been prevented in our attempts in finding and restoring these wonders.  Our own meager attempts at re-creation are echoes, shadows, lesser reflections of something not entirely understood, last grasps at a fading memory.
  • edited 2022-03-23 03:16:46
    30 Rozpoints to whoever first gives feedback on (what is, I suppose, now officially named) the Skriph Saga.

    I mean, come on, you pretty much can't get Rozpoints anymore, I think the last time I gave them out was last decade.

    (Man, I wonder if Imipoints are still a thing).
  • Skriph had, in time, learned that it was the easiest of things to pretend to be someone you weren't.  Act like you belonged, and people would generally assume that you were supposed to be wherever you were.  Nobody seemed to verify identities very much, and nobody asked Skriph to recite a kin-list even once.  This was convenient, as Skriph had never been the most proficient memorizer of such, but it was also a little sad because without needing to remember its kin, Skriph had forgotten some of the more distant generations and furthest cousins--what if I forget it all, thought Skriph, then I won't know who or whose I am...was?  Perhaps it doesn't matter anymore.  Of Centralia doesn't even know him wait no his wait no her wait no hers wait no she he theirs grandparents' names.*  

    People were, however, quick to notice when the acronyms were wrong, and there were so many acronyms.  Some of them even used to be different acronyms, so you had to be careful about that.

    *Skriph, having assumed that all students were orphans, had been very surprised to learn that Barnaba had parents.  Why someone would send their own offspring to a boarding school was a mystery which no amount of eavesdropping seemed to explain.  And if the students outnumbered the staff so much, why didn't they gang up on them and change the rules to abolish the dreaded studying?
  • edited 2022-04-01 03:22:42
    NON-DIAGETIC NOTE:  There's a trope I think about a lot, Unintentionally Unsympathetic, and I also think about its twin, Unintentionally Sympathetic.  Audience sympathy is such a powerful thing, it practically determines the morality of fiction, and that morality often determines the course of events.  There isn't really a trope for "character who is unsympathetic despite said character intending to be sympathetic" as opposed to "character who is unsympathetic despite the author intending said character to be sympathetic", but if there was, I would say that that trope applies to Barnaba and Skriph, who are intended to be unsympathetic for reasons they don't truly comprehend.

    NON-DIAGETIC-NOTE, CONTINUATION:  Conspiracy theories have been responsible for a stunning portion of the real-life suffering in recent years.  Being a crocodile-type being and using that nearly 3,000 pounds-per-square-inch bite force on stolen marshmellows instead of ambushing your own food is not just lamesauce, but lamesauce concentrate.  A Suchian, like a bear, has no need of such blue tactics.  To my mind, a near-universal part of being on the autistic spectrum is being Unintentionally Unsympathetic in the way-I-just-described-which-isn't-a-trope for reasons you don't understand.  Not that characters I create are necessarily meant to be on such, mind you, but given that when you write characters every thought they think is a thought you came up with, there's a degree to which the resonances of your own mind are echoed in what you write.
  • Skriph:  Supplies!  Here's tissues.

    SFX:  TissuesHittingConspiracyTheorist.wav

    Barnaba:  Aak!-Bwuh?  Hey, get out of there before you fall and hurt yourself.

    Skriph:  Explain.

    Barnaba:  No U, I mean, you explain.

    Skriph:  I don't know why you made a request for me to fall and hurt myself.

    Barnaba:  I didn't!  What I mean is, if you don't get out of there, that's what'll happen.

    Skriph:  You don't know that.  Maybe this ceiling is my new home, all cozy and snug-like.

    Barnaba:  Oh.

    Barnaba:  Realization.sdds

    Barnaba:  You're stuck up there.

    Skriph:  Truly, your efforts at this learn-fort have met great success, and you've mastered the art of clairvoyance.

    Barnaba:  Ha ha, no.  You're not the first to figure out about the loose part of the ceiling there, beneath the supply cabinet.  I don't even think that I was, though I was the last, at least, until you.

    Skriph:  Oh, so THAT'S why it's flame-sealed and eternally bound.

    Barnaba:  Yeah, I was stuck there for, I don't know, a kajillion minutes*, so they welded the supply cabinet shut and moved the shelves to stop this exact situation from ever happening again.  

    Skriph:  I suppose that's why "B was heer here" is scratched into the-

    Barnaba:  Nope, surprisingly, that one was there before my time.  Pretty sure Kilroy's scratches were there even before that.  I'll get a ladder.

    SFX:  HorrifyingWailOfADyingUniverse.mp3**

    SFX:  ClatterClatterRunRunOof.raw

    Skriph:  Thank you, friend.  

    Barnaba:  Footsteps, yo!  Cheese it, the fuzz!*** I'll cover for you.

    Skriph:  -nods, vamooses-

    Barnaba:  Youcan'thidealltheladdersforeverIwillfindallthesecrethidingplacesinthisacademyandyoucan'tstopmeyoufascistsyoumightweldadoorbutyoucan'tweldshutthevoiceofthetruth.

    *Unlikely.  There are sixty minutes in an hour, sixty seconds in a minute, and twenty-four hours in a day, for a total of 86,400 seconds in a day.  This number can be more easily remembered as "One hundred and eight, times one hundred, times eight".  Since 108 is divisible by 27, being 27 times four, this number is also 27 times four times 800 or 27 times 3200.  This means that this number divides well into powers of three, 10, and two.  Math is so fun, this footnote doesn't need a real purpose.

    **Anybody who has moved a ladder across a floor knows that these two sound effects are identical.

    ***[NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]:  Despite mammalians being fuzzy, "the fuzz" is most often used as a reference to authorities or enforcers of law or rules of any kind in any context.  This has lead many to believe that authorities and enforcers can be identified by their increased fuzziness.  This is not the case.
  • This post made in commemoration of my hatchday
  • Wondering if this little writing-thing should have its own thread, so this can go back to being the thread where I post my random thoughts.
  • edited 2022-04-23 21:04:53
     
  • edited 2022-04-28 02:53:52
    Skriph pondered, not for the first time and not for the last time, on magic.  False-lights shone with no heat, lifeless eyes turned and watched from the walls, echoing voices chanted from no mouth, and none of this was "magic" to the people.  More food than a feast lay unsecured and ever-replenished in great halls where the winds never blew and the smells didn't change with the hours, and none of this was "magic" to them.  Towering doors opened and closed at their own volition, and that wasn't "magic" either.

    Though never the most attentive listener to fairy tales, Skriph had known enough to not heed the words of the ghost-voices, to stay out of sight of wall-eyes, and most importantly to not eat the food or drink the water if you ever wanted to return home.  Unfortunately, the young (even those who don't have fewer brains than stomachs) are rarely gifted with patience for the pangs of hunger and thirst.  Even more unfortunately, youth's aptitude for learning carries with it a tendency to learn the wrong lessons, and "ambushing* your own food is a waste of time when you can just sneaky-get** it" is certainly a wrong lesson.



    * [NOTE FOR PEOPLE-NOT-FROM-ROZBURG]: There is a word in Marish, which cannot be adequately phonemicized but is often described as, "'Ghuyraaaorrr', but surging from the back of the throat to the fore, then back, while baring 66 teeth, with shades of malice"+, which is all too frequently translated as, "ambush"; it refers to the deadly lunging strike of a Suchian as it bursts from the water after laying motionless for hours or days.  "Ambush" is a word which retains the possibility that it may be faced head-on and overcome.  What we are talking about is the blow which may be evaded but cannot be endured.

    + It is also phonemicized as "'Ghaaaaarrrrh!', but with the terror that comes from the sound of your own bones snapping beneath teeth, said with the last of the air in your lungs", but that's the wrong viewpoint of the subject entirely.

    [NOTE FOR PEOPLE-FROM-ROZBURG]: Despite what tyro correction-enthusiasts will tell you, words like sneakaget and walkathrough are just as legitimate as sneaky-get and walk-through, all being regional turns of phrase not typically written that way in foreign lands.  Furthermore, only in recent centuries has the idea that prepositions are not for ending sentences with caught on.

    Word of the day:  Tyro:  A beginner in learning, a novice.  See AMATEUR.
  • I'm rather sure that I have inverse ASMR.  The things that tend to give other people ASMR make the hairs on the back of my head stand up and make me incredibly uncomfortable.
  • Advice to aspiring animators:  Don't.

    This also goes for aspiring musicians, writers, comedians/comediennes, video game programmers, and other would-be creators of such things.

    More has been made than can be experienced in one lifetime, there is no lack.

    Well, it's not like they were going to follow my advice anyway.
  • I like to imagine that there are aliens who would be impressed by things like nuclear weapons, and would say that humanity is too hard on itself about such things.  I also like to imagine that humanity would feel the same way about the equivalent self-threats that those had made on their home planet.  The line in such friendships between getting-the-other-one-to-not-be-so-self-loathing and convincing-the-other-one-that-it's-okay-to-do-terrible-things is one I think about a lot, and the way that Science Fiction can allow the author to treat-entire-civilizations-and-species-as-coherent-entities and explore-their interactions-in-a-way-usually-reserved-for-individual-characters, while often leading to a pernicious essentialism, is very interesting to me.
  • Fun fact:  "inactivate" is a word.
  • edited 2022-06-27 01:16:55
    Spoiler:
    So, about the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

    I never wanted any of you to feel this.  The utter shock of your world cracking, of knowing that the next generations won't know what it was like to have those basic fundamental things.  The part of your brain telling you that you should have seen it coming, that this was inevitable.  The feeling that nothing will ever be okay again unless and until things go back to the way they were.  The knowledge that you might not live to see it.  Waking up every day and remembering that this is the way the world is now, the way it has been made.  Knowing that this is what has been chosen, that people worked for decades to make this happen.  That moment when the solid ground you felt so sure on, the moment it turns to water and you drown, drown, drown.

    I'd like to warn you all that the feeling does not go away.  Years later, it will still hurt to think about it directly, like looking at the sun.  The best I can say is that some days are easier than others, and while you never get used to it, it does become familiar.  It is not more than you can endure.  You are not alone.

    Spoiler-ed for extreme emotion and to avoid tonal whiplash in what was originally meant to be a lighthearted thread.   Not that anyone ever replies to what I say here, but replies to this probably ought to be spoiler-ed as well.
  • edited 2022-06-27 01:39:29
    Spoiler:
    And, you know what?  There are millions of people whose hearts are broken by this.  People with the ability to persuade and win arguments and write newspaper pieces.  You have been spared the crippling loneliness of knowing that you are the only person who cares about the-thing-that-is-withering-pieces-of-your-soul the way you do.  You have been spared the crushing awareness that nobody will ever write the words that will make what is in your heart sound sane and reasonable.  You have been spared the harrowing knowledge-in-surety that what has happened is irreversible and from now until the apocalypse nothing will ever make this right.

  • edited 2022-06-27 01:39:28
    Spoiler:
     
    Things my loved ones have told me when I felt this way:

    "It wouldn't hurt like this if you didn't care so much, and this is a choice you are making, to make yourself miserable."
    "There's nothing you can do about it.  It's not healthy to do this to yourself over something you can't change."
    "You're still perseverating on that?  After all this time?!"
    "Look, it bothers me, too, stop acting like I'm against you on this."
    "If you get like this every time this subject comes up, this subject is going to have to be banned from conversation."
  • edited 2022-06-27 01:31:15
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Spoiler:

    The thing that angers me the most is that these policies don’t even have popular support. A majority of the American public believes that abortion should be legal, but a far-right minority has, through political “tricks” like gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the Electoral College, put themselves in power and imposed their will on the rest of us. Five of the nine justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote.

    That’s why it’s so immensely frustrating when liberals’ only “solution” is to pester people to vote: In a functioning democracy, that might be enough to see real change, but the US, in its current state, is not a functioning democracy.

  • edited 2022-06-27 01:57:31
    Spoiler:
    It's not a majority, no, but it is still many millions of people.  Many of those are the people who felt this hopelessness on the day Roe v. Wade was passed and the culture wars in their modern form began.  Those people are still feeling a lot of it because they know that this too may be overturned.  They won't feel peace until it is an amendment.  One last "Thing my loved ones told me":  "Try to feel empathy and have grace for the other side".

    ...

    Sorry, sorry, I'm just envious of you all.  Envious of the fact that you can say things like that, can truthfully say it wasn't a majority, and especially wasn't a majority of your own.  Imagine if this was put to a vote of all the people, and it happened by a 52% to 54% majority.  Imagine if it was the people you trusted, the ones who had always been stalwart on this, the ones you didn't think of as "allies" but as "us".  Imagine knowing that that 48% to 46% was declining every month, every year.  The way I see it, voting is, or at least was, enough to see real change, enough to break my heart.  I envy your knowledge that this thing which cannot be accepted was only accomplished through trickery.
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Spoiler:

    While I don’t expect to change your mind on the topic of abortion, I do have some questions I want you to consider. You don’t have to answer them here, but I’d like you to at least think about what your answers would be.

    First, are there any circumstances in which you believe abortion is morally justified? Medical complications? Pregnancy resulting from rape? Anything.

    If your answer to the first question was yes, and you believe abortion should be permitted in specific cases, I have a second question for you to think about: Do you trust the government to gatekeep which abortions are OK and which are not? Keep in mind, any law restricting abortions, even with exceptions, necessarily puts the state in the position of having to judge what is and isn’t a valid reason to go through the procedure. Will they get it right every time? What happens if they get it wrong?

    Spoiler:
  • edited 2022-06-27 02:40:43
    Spoiler:
    I have considered those questions, often and deeply.  I believe that there are specific cases when it ought to be permitted.  I don't think the State will always get it right, and it is an infinite moral horror when something like this is gotten wrong.  I know of no mortal institution which could truly be trusted with the responsibility of judging such things, and I have no solutions to these issues.  This is why, though I found Roe v. Wade horrifying and abominable, I would not have supported any action to overturn it (I would also not have supported any action to preserve it, because I have internalized inhibitions about my own moral judgments and whether they are worth anything at all, much less influencing decisions which affect the lives of millions), in what is true cowardice.

    My heartbreak had nothing to do with abortion. The 52%-54% I mentioned was the percentage of Utahns who voted to legalize medicinal marijuana.  I felt then, and still do, about marijuana, what millions are feeling now about abortion.  I know I will never change anyone's opinion on marijuana, and I cannot even coherently explain why I feel what I feel.
  • Spoiler:
    I know it abolishes all sympathy for me, and I know it's wrong to use something like this to perseverate on my own "soapbox issues".

    I want you all to know that these feelings are endurable, and you are not alone.  I hope you all can take some comfort in that.
    </div>
  • One of the best points King of Dragon Pass made is that people who are amusing should not be allowed power because they will ruin everything.

    Our whole politics is basically run by Eurmali these days.
  • edited 2022-08-10 02:51:30
    G
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Ali_Roz said:

    One of the best points King of Dragon Pass made is that people who are amusing should not be allowed power because they will ruin everything.


    Our whole politics is basically run by Eurmali these days.
    Yes
  • edited 2022-08-10 23:40:50
    Another good point the Glorantha Universe has made is that Eurmali are to be routinely beaten when they step out of line, which is just about always.
  • I'm of the opinion that all political debates in this nation are failed attempts at the Lincoln-Douglas Heroquest, and we should either stop doing them so frequently because doing heroquests that frequently is bad luck, or we should stop trying that one at all because (unless we simply suck at it) our lore-knowledge is insufficient.
  • I wonder when the last time was that someone tried the Nixon Goes To China heroquest.
  • Steve Jobs's hatred of the stylus has dragged down the experience of using a smart phone or iPod.

    Oh wow, let's have the aperture through which you view the content be the interface that you touch with your people-hands and get all smeared, greasy, and oily, and let's pretend that people have transparent hands, and let's pretend hygiene doesn't matter.

    Ugh.  Steve Jobs has been dead for years, can we PLEASE stop being hobbled by his insane delusions of what good design is like?

    I remember when phones had an ON and OFF switch or dial, rather than a button, and that switch of dial did nothing other than turn the device on and off.  I remember when volume could be controlled easily by a dial for gradual fine-tuning instead of this "press the volume up button or the volume down button" baloney.  I remember nice little headphone jacks at the top instead of the bottom so you could put the thing in your pocket and not have to turn it upside down or bend the wire.  I remember actual keyboards that you could type with, instead of these evil onscreen keyboard crap that doesn't work and just encourages people to use speech-to-text.

    We had infinitely better design for small computer-phones when I was a kid.  Now, there are three buttons, each of which is context sensitive and does at least two things.
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    you know, I don't disagree
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]

    There are a few things I miss about old mobile phones, like being able to assign “speed dial” numbers to the physical numeric keypad. I could hold down the 1 key to dial home, hold down the 2 key to dial Dad’s cell phone, etc.

    But truthfully, even when it comes to modern smartphones, I feel like the actual innovation kind of peaked in the mid-to-late ’10s.

    Ever since the iPhone X came out in 2017, the new “features” of new phones have been less about improving the user experience and more about change for the sake of change. I’m talking things like making the screen take up the entire front of the phone except for an ugly cutout for the selfie camera, adding multiple cameras that most people will never actually use, etc.

  • My mom has a phone that comes with a stylus, and just this evening she finally discovered that when she used her stylus she had much better success rate with the handwriting input recognizing what she wrote, compared to writing by hand.
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