#fables and reflections

[mayapapaya33]

I admire the way Neil Gaiman managed to subtly circumnavigate and subvert the preexisting structure he was operating in when writing Sandman. Many people (including myself occasionally) always say, ugh it's so Judeo-Christian heavy, why are they so important and powerful and correct compared to the other Gods? (other than Sandman being a part of a preexisting DC universe and therefore being stuck with it). Well, They are and they aren't, not totally anyway. At least according to Sandman 40. It is HEAVILY implied and outright stated that all the biblical figures we come across aren't what we think they are on the face of it. And actual religious people would, I think, not find any of this very Judeo-Christian at all.

Cain and Abel aren't just the first "human" Victim and Murderer. They're literally just the first Victim and the first Murderer period. Who knows what species they were, what culture on what planet they came from, what they actually sacrificed, what they actually fought over? What their real names are? It's a translation of a translation of a translation of a basic primal story. Whoever or Whatever the All Highest Creator is, they have reinvented themselves time and time again, these are just the faces and names they're wearing right now, the ones that fit. It was different before and it'll be different in the future.

And it's like a fun, weird, confusing Chicken and the Egg situation, since according to the DC database that I just checked for The Presence:

The Presence said it was shaped by external forces which author Mike Carey clarified as the collective dreams, stories, and beliefs of humanity that change reality backward and forward and create the gods they worship.[45] This concept was first introduced in The Sandman: A Dream of a Thousand Cats, where it is said that cats were originally the dominant species on Earth, giant beasts that hunted humans. However, mankind's collective dream of a world where humans ruled over cats altered reality from its very beginning, making it so that humans were always larger than cats.

So Humanity dreamed up an omnipotent being (or influenced a preexisting omnipotent being that was previously Dreamed up by others?) And it wibbly wobbly timeily wimeily has always been so solely because of the power of belief and Dreams. (There's an interesting story right there, what was the DC universe like BEFORE that collective Dream?!) We've done it before and We can do it again. There are other versions of the Universe where other Gods reign supreme but they've been "Dream of a Thousand Cat'sd" This is just the one we have access to a glimpse of.

Does this make sense or do I need to go Visit Dream's realm in order to escape Delirium's?

[ferritin4]

I would give @neil-gaiman fifty thousand dollars to make the one-off bonus episode for season two ("season two") be 'Ramadan' in the full style of P Craig Russell... though I am well aware that it would cost a lot more than fifty grand to put that together.

How boss would Tom Sturridge look, though. Cooler than he ever has.

[glassisland]

When a quote from a comic book changes how you see the world...

“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”

— Neil Gaiman, Fables & Reflections

[constantineinhell]

[cuties-in-codices]

"the dog and its reflection"

in an illustrated collection of fables, swabia, ca. 1480

source: Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 680 (olim 1389), fol. 20v

[mouse-drawings]

Bugtober day 12 - Doppelganger

Something about dying and coming back wrong. Something about reflection. Something about true selves. Something about mimics. Something. Something...

[tohakumaru]

Soup

in a different time, there was a famous gourmand who went in search for the most decious food in the world. having come from a small fishing village off the coast of a hitherto unknown land, he was very proud that his pallate had elevated his position in society, and put the name of his country on the map.

that it did: his name was well-known and his reputation alone afforded him the opportunity to travel the world over to seek out the best, most exotic food imaginable. as he journeyed accross foreign lands and seas, his knowledge expanded and matured his taste. at the peak of his career, it was said that kings and queens sought to dine with him, and would replace their cooks should they fail to illicit his praise. getting the gourmand's approval was a proof of their royal superiority; and oh, how he delighted them with his speech! of food and wine, he articulated with a passion that charmed everyone in his audience. he convinced them, and perhaps himself, that food was a sophistication of life, a virtue, if they would have it - and they did.

it was not only the rich and mighty that was enchanted with the gourmand either. as his name travelled before him, whichever countries he arrived at, the people welcomed him with open arms. even when they did not share a common tongue, it seemed that all wished to show him their best foods, all vyed for his approval, to be the country, the village, the man - with the most delicious dishes. from the coasts and rivers, the best fishermen would go out to fetch him the freshest fish; in the mountains, the skilled hunters tirelessly looked for wild games of choicest meats; herbalists and horticulturalists sent him stranges spices, fruits and flowers; distilleries and brewers graced him with casks of their best wines, ales and so on.

as time goes by, however, the gourmand grew tired. before he knew it, he had become a cynic. his reputation as an avant-garde, a revolutionary lover of food was reduced to stormy tempers and uncultured-disgruntledness. from being a most prominent voice in food, he withdrew himself from the world. he was consumed by boredom, and for a long time it seemed food has all but lost their flavours to him.

strangely enough, as the food around him grew stale to his taste, he became more and more fixated on his life-long search for the most delicious thing, as if this alone would satiate him. incognito, with no fanfare, the gourmand continued his search, now into territories unknown. alone he made his ways into the most alien lands that normal men never dreamed of. days and nights he searched, through uncanny valleys, on impossible islands, in the nooks and crannies of invisible cities. until at last, he came to a village so obscured and isolated, they had yet to invent a written language.

mustering all his ingenuity, the gourmand pantomimed to the villagers the purpose of his search. they looked at him, then each other, wide eyed, as if in disbelief. he waited at their silence, unsure if he had made himself understood. they whispered amongst themselves for a long while, before their chieftan came forward. the man gestured him towards the mountaintop high above the village, droused in clouds and shadowed by a dense forest.

the gourmand thanked them and walked onwards, alone. by noon, he reached a rocky pass, and with much difficulties, was able to enter the forest before night fall. little did he know, the forest was home to a fierce tigress and her three cubs, who had by now gone hungry for all the winter months. on the scent of his sweat, the tigress and her cubs sprang after him. before he could make head or tail of where he stood, their claws and fangs had sunken deep into his flesh. they tore him apart without so much as a scream. their red tongues and snow-white snouts pulling layers of skin and meat, lapping up the fat, all bloody and nice.

without any need for spices or cooking, in that moment, the gourmand was the most delicious thing under the sun.

[ixtaek]

The fact Legend’s literal dream girl is noted to “resemble [his] Princess Zelda” is frankly way under utilized.

[jareddweiss]

Ἡ Ἀντανάκλασις (The Reflection), 2023

An animated short film adaption of Aesop's fable, "The Dog and Its Reflection", designed to be aesthetically and audibly period-appropriate for 6th Century BCE Greece, when and where the story was first written.

Originally created for Loose Fables.

Full information here.

Flash, After Effects

[constantineinhell]

[vexedallay]

Icarus being worried abt how much of them is actually them

Me adopting the traits of the people I surround myself with

[dontdieonmeyet]

today's fable, forgiveness is:

forgiveness is not about being angry

forgiveness is about showing up with positive energy

despite others' negative actions

[mouse-drawings]

What is holding you back?

[3gremlins]

i do have questions about these secret powers the grey wardens are supposed to have like do weisshaupt grey wardens have a better ritual than "drink this mysterious juice and wait to see if you live or not"? XD

also do they get better powers than "can sense darkspawn and also will turn into one in ~10-15 years"? like functionally/gameplay-wise this time? do you get more exp or do more damage against darkspawn (i think they mentioned that certain factions will have damage buffs against certain enemies so that would track)?

but also i would like more weirder powers for grey wardens, like you have weird blight magic or the inverse, cleansing magic (but it'd have to be a brief cleanse since wardens are willingly tainted by the blight, so blight powers would make more narrative sense. and also be more fun)

tangent #1: but i'd like to see older grey wardens take on aspects of their respective race's darkspawn like warden elves get rangier and their ears get longer like the shrieks, dwarves get genlock-y, qunari get ogre-y etc. And maybe they get to use their new blighty darkspawn powers for a brief window before they have to go into the deep roads for their final battle tangent #2: do we think we'll ever see the "thinking" darkspawn like the architect again (the ones who are slightly separate from the hive mind)? I'd like to see that explored more but i kinda feel like the story has moved away from them a bit (maybe it'll circle around)

[bobauthorman]

The Missing Moral

This is something I wanna talk about. It’s been bugging me for a great deal for a while now. I’m not sure if it has been brought up, but if it has, I’ve never seen that discussion. Okay, here we go.

When people talk about the fight between Team RWBY and the Ace-Ops in “With Friends Like These”, a common topic is how the Ops lose because they ‘ignored the moral of their stories’

For those who are not familiar, characters in RWBY are inspired or themed around figures in popular or obscure myths, folklore, or fiction. The Ace-Ops, as you can guess by their names, are themed on the Aesop Fables, short stories designed to teach a lesson. For example, Marrow Amin is based on the Dog who loses his bone because he thinks his reflection in a pond is another dog with a bone and wants ‘the other dog’s’ bone as well. The moral here is that you shouldn’t be greedy.

Harrier Bree is based on the Hare from that classic bit, the Tortoise and the Hare. In that story, the Hare agrees to race against the Tortoise, but is so confident that he’ll win that he takes a nap once he’s far enough ahead. The Hare sleeps so soundly that the Tortoise is able to pass and win the race.

In the show, Harrier quickly zeroes in on Ruby Rose as her opponent (Given that she’s already asserted to be faster and in response to a taunt Ruby made at the beginning of the fight.). During the fight, Harrier is completely unyielding, refusing to give up even when her hands are bound. This actually plays a big part in why she ends up losing. Her hyperfocus on beating Ruby prevents her from supporting her teammates, and she becomes so fixated that she fails to see Weiss materializing a wall of ice and knocks herself out.

My point is, the Hare didn’t take the Tortoise seriously as an opponent and loses, while Harrier became so invested in beating Ruby that she ends up defeating herself. 

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

[fantasyfantasygames]

In Through the Airlock

In Through the Airlock, David Starkins, 1981

In Through the Airlock (ITtA) was one of the earliest avant-garde RPGs. Writing and playtesting started about a year after Traveller was released, but it wasn't until 1980 that things really took off. That was the year Led Zeppelin's album In Through The Out Door was released, and it was a major influence. Starkins said he listened to the album almost exclusively when writing the game's major revision and its companion setting book. The album is widely considered one of Zeppelin's worst, partly because it doesn't fit with the rest of their work. Lots of synth, a straight-up country song in the middle of it, different instruments at the forefront.

The few years before this game came out were a prolific time for new sci-fi. Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back were obviously the biggest deal, but Mad Max, Alien, Star Trek: the Motion Picture, The Black Hole, installments of both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Battlestar Galactica, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and even the utter nonsense that was Moonraker all came out within three years of each other. ITtA was spoiled for choice when it came to inspiration. Of that set, the major influences were definitely Alien, BSG, and Flash Gordon. ITtA blends them, the ten-years-earlier 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the mechanics of early Traveller into a military sci-fi game with a distinctly oddball feel.

In ITtA your characters are tasked with taking over capital starships with the least amount of damage possible to the structure. (Why sink a ship when you can take it over instead?) They cut through the airlock, re-seal it with some specialized gear, cut through the inside, and commando their way through the halls with stunners and nets. As the game goes on they're supposed to learn more about a (never detailed) threat coming from interplanetary space and galvanize people to fight against it. Starkins cited this particular stanza from Carouselambra as a major inspiration for the setting:

How keen the storied hunter's eye prevails upon the land To seek the unsuspecting and the weak And powerless the fabled sat, too smug to lift a hand Toward the foe that threatened from the deep Who cares to dry the cheeks of those who saddened stand Adrift upon a sea of futile speech? And to fall to fate and make the 'status plan' But no one there had heaven within their reach

It's definitely on the harder side of sci-fi, at least for what was known in 1981 (before the personal computer). For example, the game emphasizes repeatedly that there's no sound in space - that your characters will be floating through the void, hearing only radio static and navigation beacons from the moment they leave their ship to when they enter. The art (b/w line drawings) shows people floating rather than standing. The game ran more or less like Classic Traveler, but stripped down to just what you would need for this particular premise.

I mentioned "avant-garde" earlier. Production quality was very high for a game of its time. ITtA was three paperbacks (character + rules, ships + gear, GM book), but it shipped in a multi-album record box with a black cover and the name inlaid with "holographic" paper. It even came with a cassette tape (irony) containing a somewhat amateurish audio drama, attempting to set the mood for the game. It spoils a little of the reveal of the impending big bad, but that might not be a bad thing. Starkins gets an A for effort.

Unfortunately, as with a lot of art-project games, the cost became the problem. Even in bulk production this game might not have made its money back. At $40 in 1981, and frequently miscategorized into the record section, it didn't sell many copies. If you don't want to spend an unreasonable amount on auction sites, check a used record store.