thessidy

[thessidy]

Look I love unconditional devotion love stories as much as the next person, but there's really something so deliciously raw about conditional devotion.

I have served you and I have loved you for decades, but I will not give up my principles for you. You cut out part of my heart and took it with you down that path that you insist on walking, but you walk it alone. Even when the bleeding, gaping hole you left in my chest kills me, I will not follow you.

[thessidy]

The longer I go without writing, the more it crushes my soul. Like a log rotting from within on the dense, wet floor, morbid grubs writhing within, if I keep going like this I will soon be nothing.

[thessidy]

So first off, sorry it’s been so long since I last sent an ask! Second, who is Jata and are they a “Hunter”? This is the first time either have been mentioned! AND it’s the first time a “Saito” has been mentioned!

I have to assume based on the (Japanese sounding) name that Saito is also connected to the slavemonks of Hachiman, or something similar?

And sorry for the lack of asks these past few weeks; school has been hell…

Thanks for asking !!!! And no worries ever !!!

So glad you noticed that. Yes, Jata is a Hunter — one of a pair, probably the most feared and praised couple in the Nine. They are essentially bardic assassins, combining elements of IRL Aztec ritual warfare and West-African griot traditions. If you have any reason to believe they’ve been sent after you, you’re already screwed. But on the bright side, you know you’ll get a good show before you fight one-on-one to the death!

Saito-go Sanemori is one of the four main characters of the novel. You’re right to point out Saito’s Kyon name, but he’s not a slavemonk. I can’t spoil things too much, but by the time we meet him, Saito is a translator and cavalry officer for the Sassan contingent aiding Yoshinaka Kiso’s rebellion. Though a native Kyon, he was captured, enslaved, and renamed as a child and raised in Sassan as a slave and then gladiator for the Egibi clan of New Babylon. This will be explained in more detail in Apposition 10 “Telefuture” (one of the short stories in the “Enneadic Appositions” collection).

Saito’s “new” Kyon name (in fact his original and the name of his father) is an important plotpoint, so I’m glad you noticed!

[thessidy]

In Defiance of Death

[thessidy]

Do you know how difficult this is, how heavy this weighs on my heart? I can’t tell you, and still each day I relish your presence — you, my friend, whom I must betray. I don’t expect you to understand. I know you will be hurt. But I can only hope you will survive the fall, the burning citadel, perhaps the little skirmish afterward. I can only hope the Anshan’s will capture you alive, such a fine prize you are, Wardu Abdabel. I will free you, whether you choose to stay or go.

But my family, my clan comes first. And you knew what you were doing, signing that contract of freedom. Were you still ours, I could protect you better. But I must respect your decision, as I hope you will someday respect mine.

[thessidy]

How awkward of me, to see you and not approach. But then again, how could I? Last we saw each other, all those years ago… but yes, we were different people. People who wanted to kill each other. Revenge, hatred, all of it. I never… I’m sorry. I know an apology is stupid, too little too late, but I hope you’re satisfied with the fact that I know I was in the wrong. And that I feel horrible for it.

Gladly. And you? Well I can’t complain, she keeps me out of such things. Jata is the real problem. No matter how many times I ask, she just can’t stop singing about my supposed exploits.

[thessidy]

From the Wikipedia page on loons

[thessidy]

Ways of Remembering

Writing a history

Composing your song: An epic; An encomium; A love song

Performing the tragedy

Performing the comedy

Making a shrine

Drinking from their favorite mug

Visiting their grave

Maintaining their artifacts

Toasting to their memory

Honoring their wishes (if you so wish)

Telling their story: To family; To friends; To all who will listen

[thessidy]

The former Defense cut across the valley, crumbling, crumbled, its shadow greater than its height.

“Tell me,” Lord Kiso said, “which of these stones is most important?”

“The largest,” the girl answered too quickly, “around whom others build.”

But the great leader shook his head. So, “the keystone,” the girl pointed to a stone, the size of her calloused fist, “without whom those above would fall apart.”

The great leader said, “No. It is these,” he swept his hand along the top, scattering easily the countless pebbles bouncing, cracking against the gravel ground below, returning to their brethren. “These hold us down under their weight, these fill in each crack and cranny, these serve as mortar when expertly placed, yet unlike foolish Eutopian marble, they jostle and flex and hold under the mightiest earthquake. These, Kai, are who we must prioritize, without whom you and I and all true heroes would be boulders toppling down the crags.”

[thessidy]

Anyone have advice for dealing w a rebellious protagonist? I’ve tried to wrangle her, explain to her that she needs to betray her friends, needs to go down that dark path, etc etc to serve the themes of the book. She just doesn’t get it. She insists it’s not in her character, insists she would be more logical or think things through a bit better. But at this point I’m too far in; I can’t just rewrite the entire 3rd act. What do I do?

[thessidy]

To all those who bloom in fall: do you know how important you are to me? You pink camellias when all else is cold and only grow colder, you winter azaleas when the dead litter every path. I had lost all hope, and yet here you are.

[thessidy]

more dinosaurs :)

[thessidy]

KING OF THIEVES

Dinovember day 4: Argentavis

not happy with this one but anyway

[thessidy]

[thessidy]

In the far tenebrous of Maurya, where the light of the portals never graces the night skies, a true mammoth gazed up at falling stars — a rare sight on Maurya, whose larger twin Sassan receives the brunt of such interplanetary offerings.

Dinovember day 6: Dreadnoughtus

[thessidy]

autumn morning in the forest

[thessidy]

The girl’s room was far from empty. Sure, the soldier thought it was empty; sure, her mentor believed it lacking. But that room was rife with a hundred memories, inundating her now: falling asleep as a toddler, alone, when she had only just been saved, the moonlit robins waking her from nightmares. The empty floor where once she and Ario, the only children of the temple, played in secret, stifling giggles at their mentor’s expense. The empty alcove which once held her scriptures, where she recited morning and evening their sacred meters, until finally she no longer required their aid. The window through which the birdmaster, when picking the sala fruits, would offer her the first of the season.

How many memories could she list? From toddlerhood, from childhood, from her first forays into feminants and self discovery. From her fear at her own changing body.

And yet now, all, empty. The dead moonlight once wedged through the window now shone unabated, unholy onto the collapse roof tiles strewn about it her former room. Vines and moths, wind and rain ate away at her bed, her floor, her alcove, and yet standing in this space with the walls torn and tattered, still the wanderer remembered.