#There are and have been other demons with even stranger biology than mine.

[ask-kokushibo1]

genuine question, could it be possible for one of your pairs of eyes to need glasses but not the others? Or are they all the same and if one pair needed glasses they all would

The short answer to this niche hypothetical is that I wouldn't need glasses at all. I have six of them for a reason. If they get damaged, they can regenerate.

[medjaichieftain]

5 7 8 and 20

5: How has your musegrown since you first started playing them?

Athis core, he hasn’t. I have really tried to stay true to the original character, sincehe’s not mine. But as far as things I have expanded upon that were neveraddressed or mentioned in the movies, I would say the biggest area of growthfor Ardeth has been actually paying attention to his own life, heh. That soundskinda silly, but the movie gives you the impression that being a Medjai isArdeth’s whole life and he doesn’t really do anything else. He doesn’t ever haveany downtime, there’s nothing said about his family, there’s no talk about whathe wants for himself in his own life, it’s made to sound like he just works allthe time. Well that’s because he does, haha. So one thing that I’ve been ableto do with him is explore his own wants and needs a bit through threads withships or ones that include downtime. As dedicated as Ardeth is to his veryimportant job, there is more to life than that, and it is perfectly okay forhim to have a balance between work and personal life. That’s one of the thingsI want him to learn as I write him, so as I do, he transitions from a workaholicyoung person mindset to a more mature and well-rounded person. He still has alot to learn, though, as he still overworks himself and is kindof one-track-mindedwith regard to the Medjai.

6: What motivates yourmuse to get up in the morning?

Thethought that if he doesn’t get up and get his ass in gear fast and efficiently,someone somewhere might be seriously injured or even die. He cannot justifyslacking off or sleeping late when there are literally things ready to destroythe world, heh.

On ahappier note, in threads with ships and when he is with his family, Ardeth ismotivated to get up in the morning in order to spent time with his loveinterest or wife or children. Once he has a family of any kind, he becomes asdedicated to them as he is to his work and treasures the time he is able tospend with them.

7: Name a time whenyou really wanted to punch your muse.

Inthe canon, it was when he was on the bus and he just lost his shit and screamedat the mummy in his face haha. Like totally scared like a Chihuahua, arms up inthe air, doofy look on his face, screaming. And I’m just like Ardy, sweetheart,you face things that can kill you on an almost daily basis, what are you evendoing right now? (sigh)

Asfar as things I’ve written for him, I sorta want to punch him in his threadwith @runawayagent because Charlotte hasgracefully accepted the fact that she has had past lives and is someone ofgreat importance, but Ardeth is completely resisting accepting the same. And thefact that he told Rick the exact same things in The Mummy Returns, that he needed to embrace the missing piece ofhis soul and if he does he can do anything, just makes it worse. Eventually hewill accept it, but right now as he’s dismissing the signs of it as coincidence– just like Rick did! – I kinda wanna punch him, haha.

20: Name a headcanonabout your muse you haven’t said yet on this blog.

Since the events of The Mummy Returns, Ardeth has sufferedfrom sleep paralysis. Let me explain a littleabout what sleep paralysis is for those who aren’t familiar with it.

It’s asymptom of both anxiety and stress. Basically what sleep paralysis is, is whenthe brain is overactive during sleep and believes that it is awake when it isactually asleep. So the person is completely asleep, but the brain believesthat the person is awake, and therefore that they should be able to move,speak, see, and hear as normal. People with sleep paralysis often mistake the auditoryand visual hallucinations they experience for ghosts, demons, shadow people,aliens, astral projection, or near-death experiences. Really, though, all thatis happening is that, while asleep, your brain is interpreting what your sensesare responding to in a very primal way.

Common sleep paralysis experiencesinclude waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to move orspeak. Sometimes people feel like they are being choked or that something issitting on their chest. Usually a humanoid figure will be perceived as sittingon the person’s chest (this has happened to me) and/or chocking them, but alsoa common myth about cats (that they steal your breath at night) can beexplained by this. Other experiences include seeing a black shadow person inthe room, seeing a black dog or wolf, and hearing it growl (all of these havehappened to me). In actually, this can all be explained by human prey fears andprimal instincts as well as the biology of what occurs during sleep.

When weare asleep, our breathing becomes slower and shallower, so we don’t takedeep breaths. We also don’t move voluntarily, so we can’t choose to move orspeak. The brain, which thinks it’s awake, becomes alarmed by the fact thathey, we can’t move or cry for help right now. That panic response will thenresult in the brain trying to explain why this might be. Why can’t we move orspeak? Oh, because someone is trying to choke us or is sitting on top of us andweighing us down. Why are we so afraid right now? Oh, because there’s astranger in the room that wants to hurt us, or because there is an animal thatwants to eat us. The wolf is a very common predator fear for humans, and red isthe color of alarm. If we’re seeing a lot of red, it might be because there’s alot of blood, so red brings about some amount of alarm in our subconsciousminds. It’s why red is considered such a bold color in art or fashion, becausewe as humans key in on it very much.

So no, there aren’t any demons or shadowpeople or shadow wolves in the room with glowing red eyes, it’s just your braintrying to explain why it can’t do all the things it feels it should do becauseit’s actually asleep. Sometimes people will also claim that the shadow visitorswill moan and the wolves will growl. What that actually is, is you hearingyourself breathing or snoring in your sleep, and your brain interpreting it tobe a noise from something else.

Very religious peoplemight interpret these experiences as being visited and/or attacked by demons.Sci-fi nuts might think aliens visited them. And people who are verysuperstitious or who live in cultures where various types of predatory ghostsor nature spirits are considered to be real and common, they may think that’swhat is visiting them. Really, all it is that you are overtired, overworked,worried about something, really stressed out, really upset, etc., and yourbrain is unable to completely rest during sleep. (For example, two out of thethree times it happened to me was in the months leading up to my Ph.D. defense.I was nervous out of my mind, haha, overworked, and not sleeping well to begin with, so itmakes sense.)

Sleep paralysis is notactually dangerous. Although you may feel like you’re dying, you aren’t, andeven the visions and sensations you have of being crushed or choked are notreal, it’s just that you can’t breathe as deeply as your brain thinks youshould be able to because you’re sleeping. Where sleep paralysis can become aproblem is if the person is very afraid of what is happening to the point wherethey will actually avoid sleep to keep it from happening. Or if it’s soterrifying that they jolt awake and then don’t want to go back to sleep. Thatcan cause sleep deprivation if it occurs often enough. Most people that have itonly experience it once or a couple times maybe, but there are a few unluckypeople who have it very often, or some people may have it almost every nightuntil they can reduce the stress in their lives. And that is really the only “cure”for sleep paralysis is to relax and reduce stress.

Now as far as what Ardethis experiencing, he has felt the crushing/choking sensation and he sees ashadow person either in his tent or near where he’s sleeping or actually on himtrying to kill him. He does not experience sleep paralysis every night, but itis maybe 2-4 times a week in the weeks after the events of The Mummy Returns. He has not told anyone about it, but he fears itmay either be something evil trying to influence him when he is vulnerable or aprophetic experience trying to warn him of a rising threat in the future.

In the case of sleepingbeside a ship, what she would see is maybe that he would twitch a little, hisbreathing might become irregular, and he might manage to mumble a bit, butotherwise, he would just look like he’s sleeping or maybe having a vivid dream.Of course, if he were to suddenly wake up with a start - and he does this often– that might wake her up, heh.