#faraway places

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

For we exist only through what we possess, and we possess only what is actually present, since so many of our memories, moods and ideas leave us and travel to faraway places, where we lose sight of them! Then we can no longer enter them into the accounting system whose sum is our whole being. But they find secret ways of returning within us.

from In Search of Lost Time, Book 6: The Fugitive by Marcel Proust

[landscapesscenerypeopleplaces]

Indonesia 🇮🇩 Nepal Van Java Village on the Slope of Mt Sumbing.

[monster-gut]

The bright sessions cast part 1

I absolutely love this podcast❤️

[notwithd]

Suptober Day 9: Starlight

We took a gamble with this love

Like sailing to the storm

With the waves rushing over to take us

We were battling against the tide

You were my beacon of salvation

I was your starlight.

[thebrightsessions]

Ok, I haven’t read SFP yet, but I’ve consumed just about every other Damian content I can get my hands on, and I have to know.. Does Damian ever get a happy ending? I mean, happy is not a word I think he’ll get to associate with in his life, but will he ever get to have some sort of calmness and overall be less of a terrible human being ( if he can be counted as that)?

Great question! Putting my answer below the cut so that folks who don't want spoilers can easily avoid:

In short, my answer is yes, Damien does get a happy ending in that way that you describe. Some Faraway Place is the conclusion to his story as much as it is the conclusion to Rose's (it extends beyond the events of Season 4, which is when we last hear from Damien (if you don't count hearing his voice in TCT, which I don't for these purposes, because it is a flashback).

His friendship with Rose and everything he goes through in Season 4 does change him. Does it mean that he's totally fixed and going to live a perfectly happy life? No. Does it fix what he destroyed with Mark and Joan? No. But does it leave him in a place where he's starting to change? Where he's starting to see that he can change? I think so.

A while back, I shared one of my favorite excerpts from SFP that I think shows his growth pretty well - it isn't the last letter we read in that book from him, but I think it's telling.

If you do read the book, I hope you enjoy it! I struggled a lot with Damien's story, because it never felt right to have any of the people who he so terribly wronged be the ones responsible for him becoming a better person. But it didn't feel right to leave him in a place where he felt unredeemable, because I think anyone can be redeemed. I tried to strike a balance with that in tying up his story and I'm pretty happy with where I landed.

[thelaurenshippen]

in honor of Damien Gorham's 35th birthday (yep, you heard me, I'm not only celebrating a fictional character's birthday, but the birthday of my own character), I wanted to share my favorite Damien-related excerpt from Some Faraway Place.

it wasn't a conscious choice when I was first sketching out the three Bright Universe novels, but Damien is the only character from the podcast who appears in every book. he's a character I have such complicated feelings about (a feeling I think a lot of listeners/readers share), but with SFP being the last time we hear from him in the universe, I wanted to make sure we left him in a place where he finally was growing.

you don't always get the forgiveness you want from the people you hurt. but that doesn't mean you don't deserve forgiveness at all, or that you can't do better in the future. it's been six years since Damien sent this letter and, while I imagine he's still got a lot of work left to do, I like to think he's out there somewhere, doing better, letting himself love.

[moderncryptid]

Damien at the end of Some Faraway Place:

[hell-heron]

It's a bit hard to reconstruct the backstory of how Mina Lucy and Jonathan met...

- Mina and Lucy have known each other "since they were children"

- Lucy talks about Mina's pupils as something pretty close to peers and Mina does seem to sometimes lump her with them as someone she's being an example for...

- Mina knew Jonathan for several years and since "before she went to school". This is widely interpreted as being before she went to school in their early childhood, but could also be before she went to school as a teacher. However would those periods really be distinct in the Victorian era, or would Mina just pass directly from student to schoolmistress upon "graduation"?

- Lucy does not know Jonathan, canonically. I know, its terrible. Totally destroying OT3 dreams. But Mina writes in a letter "the quiet dignity I told you was in his face"

How did this happen???

[lilacsongs]

when  she  woke  up  to  the  message  from  him,  she  couldn’t  believe  her  own  eyes.  it  is  with  the  same  mix  of  excitement  and  nervousness  that  she  greets  him,  her  features  lit  up  immediately  as  emotions  dizzy  her.  he  looks  so  familiar  yet  different  all  at  once,  but  the  effect  he  has  on  her  remains  all  the  same.  “  —  hi.”  what  is  she  supposed  to  say?  “thanks  for  meeting  me  here.”  / @artisn

[rimouskis]

I interrupt sidgenopalooza to inform you that my postcard list is mighty

[kafi-farigh-yusra]

You return like autumn and I fall every time. 🍁

[noisytenant]

i wouldnt put it as a public facing label but kinda vibe with "post-transmasc" as part of the gender experience.

i feel like im at a point where i may be performing the definitional motions of trans masculinity, but my daily experience of gender feels unrelated to both masculinity and transition-as-an-act. i'm still de facto trans and transmasc, but it simply doesn't feel relevant to identify as such.

at the same time, i'm only able to be agnostic about my gender because i was and am transmasc. my present gender experience is only accessible through my transmasculinity. so, post-transmasc.

[landscapesscenerypeopleplaces]

Explosive Sunset Over Rammang-Rammang Village, Indonesia

[monster-gut]

❗️Spoilers for the bright sessions (safe house part 1)❗️

Been obsessed with this podcast for awhile now, literally can't get enough of it

[reluctantlyryn]

Hi this book ruined me and I’ve nearly memorized this page

Love u as always Lauren Shippen

[cr1ms0nesp3ra-ac3]

Welp, I thought of deciding that I should draw lots of my Yukinomori AU.

Please have this doodle of Cyrus' evolution, and also had some lore going on which I will mention later.. :)

( I do not know how to draw a baby pacifier so ignore that- )