Tuesdays are My Sleep-in-Till-Noon Days
May. 15th, 2007 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillToday is the forty-second day of the Omer, which is six weeks into the Omer.
Also, I wrote lots of stuff yesterday. And will probably write even more stuff today.
Title: On Wild Walkers
Fandom: Why do you still ask? You know I make no monies. The Bitch is the one making the monies. I (and the rest of the ASRP) are just making him throw up into a bucket.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Dan talks.
“I know this part,” snapped Dan impatiently. “You go the Shattering Maze, you fix your soul, you Walk home. Got it.”
“No,” said Eska, “Heres Tanarill, what shit have you been feeding him? Never mind. Dan, that’s only how it works about forty-eight percent of the time, just under half. The other fifty-two percent never make it to Walking–they fail early on in the Maze.”
“Fail?”
“Drop out fairly on. Drift,” said Heres Tanarill. “I’m sure I’ve explained this to you.”
Dan blinked, and then blinked again, and then said, “Go on.”
“More than half of the people who go to Maze never come back out. They allow their lesser minds to mix with Maze itself. Successive Shattering Waves–”
“Shattering what now?”
Another of those split-second, Eska-is-chewing-out-Rill moments, and then Heres Taarill replied, “Shattering Waves. If the number of soul shards in one part of the Maze is too low, they will start happening until the concentration of soul shards is above a certain minimum. I’ve never seen one from the outside of the Maze, but it equates to the Maze rearranging how it’s put together. On the inside, they look like someone is picking up huge chunks of the landscape and switching them with each other. But whoever is doing it doesn’t really care if the sections it’s switching are two miles down and molten lava or two miles up and thin air or just around ground level and there’s a city built on it. They happen every so often, except for in really well-regulated parts of the Maze where someone has put a lot of effort into making sure that the dispersion of souls shards is always just above the minimum requirement, plus whatever local commerce there is.”
It took Dan a moment to get that, but then . . . “And this doesn’t hurt people?”
“It does. But mostly it’s more annoying than actually harmful, because bodies in the Maze can do whatever you think they can do.” Heres Tanarill smiled faintly. “The demon in my heart pounded that lesson into me until I flew.”
“Yes,” broke in Eska, “you survived because of your lokan. Get over it.” There was the distinct impression of eye-rolling, which was amazing given that Eska had no eyes. “We’re not interested in the ones who succeed in the Maze, we’re interested in the ones that don’t. They drift. Get spread out, further and further, as they mix with the stuff of the Maze and Shattering Waves move them. Eventually, and this is after quite a long time, it gets to the point that they’re not even human anymore but spread out over quite a large area of the Maze.”
“…and?” asked Dan in a why-should-I-care tone.
Heres Tanarill sighed. “And, eventually, by something akin to Brownian motion, incredibly unlikely chance, a number of their soul shards end up in pretty close proximity in the part of the Maze that they permeate. The presence of enough of their soul in that small an area causes the local part of them to–coagulate is the best word. They recover bits of their lesser mind, but they have to travel a very great deal to sweep up all of it–”
“Why do you keep calling it the lesser mind?” interrupted Dan.
Heres Tanarill blinked. Eska did not. “Because it is. The greater mind is the part that sees to it that your heat beats and your lungs breathe and your body digests, the part that keeps you alive even in a coma. Although you probably don’t have the same kind of greater mind, you must have one. They are necessary for the lesser mind to exist.”
Heres Tanarill snorted derisively. “The things I could say about some people. Politicians, for example.”
“Yes, granted,” said Eska, “which is why the k’Shitame don’t have politicians.”
“But you can hardly expect a culture that fears mages to say, ‘Oh, let’s have a tenth of out population become mages, so we can cut out the politicians.’ It just isn’t going to happen. I’ll count myself successful if I get a link-based democracy and equal rights for mages.” Heres Tanarill sighed. “I go Walking, I go home, I have even more work to d–”
“Yo!” Dan called them back to attention. “What the fuck does this have to do with Wild Walkers?”
Heres Tanarill looked at him, and said, slowly, the way she would explain something to a particularly slow child, “That’s what they are. People who drifted for so long that they lost all sense of self, don’t know where they are supposed to Walk to after leaving the Maze. They have no direction, and no particular urge to go home in any case. They have gone through the Shattering Maze and have healed souls and they do Walk so they must be Walkers. But they are wild–in a lot of ways, bindings don’t take to them for example–so we call them Wild Walkers.”
“And this is a problem why?”
“Imagine someone with all the power of a Walker, but with none of the responsibility,” said Eska, “and you’ll be about halfway there. Wild Walkers can also do some things that Walkers like Heres could never do, although they could try to.”
Dan thought about that. Here Tanarill has explained early on that in terms of sheer power, there was no possible way for her to beat him. In terms of applied power, however, she’ claimed that he could not win. He wasn’t sure if he believed it or not. But he did trust Heres Tanarill not to panic unless there was something worth panicking about.
“So how do you fight it?”
“I don’t know! Normally the Powers That Be pull us before the Wild Walkers get to us–before we’d even notice them coming. There are just too few of us to waste. But if I’m still here, it has to mean that there’s some way to win. I just don’t know what it is!”
“ . . . I’m here,” said Dan.
Heres Tanarill looked at him. He felt Eska focus on him. And then both of them–one out loud, one in his head–burst out laughing.
You may have picked up on an important facet of Eska's relationship with Heres Tanarill. Kudos if you did.
Soonish, Eska had got to sucker punch Dan, kick him while he's down for a bit, and then rifle through his wallet for spare change. Metaphorically speaking, of course. And then go off on a "Shopping for Mages" spree. Because she's k'Shitame and sheva'Shen, and knows the value of good mages in a fight. Oh Lan-cer . . . >:3
In other news, I would very much appreciate it if I could talk to you, Nai.
I love you, Emmy <3
Also, I wrote lots of stuff yesterday. And will probably write even more stuff today.
Title: On Wild Walkers
Fandom: Why do you still ask? You know I make no monies. The Bitch is the one making the monies. I (and the rest of the ASRP) are just making him throw up into a bucket.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Dan talks.
“I know this part,” snapped Dan impatiently. “You go the Shattering Maze, you fix your soul, you Walk home. Got it.”
“No,” said Eska, “Heres Tanarill, what shit have you been feeding him? Never mind. Dan, that’s only how it works about forty-eight percent of the time, just under half. The other fifty-two percent never make it to Walking–they fail early on in the Maze.”
“Fail?”
“Drop out fairly on. Drift,” said Heres Tanarill. “I’m sure I’ve explained this to you.”
Dan blinked, and then blinked again, and then said, “Go on.”
“More than half of the people who go to Maze never come back out. They allow their lesser minds to mix with Maze itself. Successive Shattering Waves–”
“Shattering what now?”
Another of those split-second, Eska-is-chewing-out-Rill moments, and then Heres Taarill replied, “Shattering Waves. If the number of soul shards in one part of the Maze is too low, they will start happening until the concentration of soul shards is above a certain minimum. I’ve never seen one from the outside of the Maze, but it equates to the Maze rearranging how it’s put together. On the inside, they look like someone is picking up huge chunks of the landscape and switching them with each other. But whoever is doing it doesn’t really care if the sections it’s switching are two miles down and molten lava or two miles up and thin air or just around ground level and there’s a city built on it. They happen every so often, except for in really well-regulated parts of the Maze where someone has put a lot of effort into making sure that the dispersion of souls shards is always just above the minimum requirement, plus whatever local commerce there is.”
It took Dan a moment to get that, but then . . . “And this doesn’t hurt people?”
“It does. But mostly it’s more annoying than actually harmful, because bodies in the Maze can do whatever you think they can do.” Heres Tanarill smiled faintly. “The demon in my heart pounded that lesson into me until I flew.”
“Yes,” broke in Eska, “you survived because of your lokan. Get over it.” There was the distinct impression of eye-rolling, which was amazing given that Eska had no eyes. “We’re not interested in the ones who succeed in the Maze, we’re interested in the ones that don’t. They drift. Get spread out, further and further, as they mix with the stuff of the Maze and Shattering Waves move them. Eventually, and this is after quite a long time, it gets to the point that they’re not even human anymore but spread out over quite a large area of the Maze.”
“…and?” asked Dan in a why-should-I-care tone.
Heres Tanarill sighed. “And, eventually, by something akin to Brownian motion, incredibly unlikely chance, a number of their soul shards end up in pretty close proximity in the part of the Maze that they permeate. The presence of enough of their soul in that small an area causes the local part of them to–coagulate is the best word. They recover bits of their lesser mind, but they have to travel a very great deal to sweep up all of it–”
“Why do you keep calling it the lesser mind?” interrupted Dan.
Heres Tanarill blinked. Eska did not. “Because it is. The greater mind is the part that sees to it that your heat beats and your lungs breathe and your body digests, the part that keeps you alive even in a coma. Although you probably don’t have the same kind of greater mind, you must have one. They are necessary for the lesser mind to exist.”
Heres Tanarill snorted derisively. “The things I could say about some people. Politicians, for example.”
“Yes, granted,” said Eska, “which is why the k’Shitame don’t have politicians.”
“But you can hardly expect a culture that fears mages to say, ‘Oh, let’s have a tenth of out population become mages, so we can cut out the politicians.’ It just isn’t going to happen. I’ll count myself successful if I get a link-based democracy and equal rights for mages.” Heres Tanarill sighed. “I go Walking, I go home, I have even more work to d–”
“Yo!” Dan called them back to attention. “What the fuck does this have to do with Wild Walkers?”
Heres Tanarill looked at him, and said, slowly, the way she would explain something to a particularly slow child, “That’s what they are. People who drifted for so long that they lost all sense of self, don’t know where they are supposed to Walk to after leaving the Maze. They have no direction, and no particular urge to go home in any case. They have gone through the Shattering Maze and have healed souls and they do Walk so they must be Walkers. But they are wild–in a lot of ways, bindings don’t take to them for example–so we call them Wild Walkers.”
“And this is a problem why?”
“Imagine someone with all the power of a Walker, but with none of the responsibility,” said Eska, “and you’ll be about halfway there. Wild Walkers can also do some things that Walkers like Heres could never do, although they could try to.”
Dan thought about that. Here Tanarill has explained early on that in terms of sheer power, there was no possible way for her to beat him. In terms of applied power, however, she’ claimed that he could not win. He wasn’t sure if he believed it or not. But he did trust Heres Tanarill not to panic unless there was something worth panicking about.
“So how do you fight it?”
“I don’t know! Normally the Powers That Be pull us before the Wild Walkers get to us–before we’d even notice them coming. There are just too few of us to waste. But if I’m still here, it has to mean that there’s some way to win. I just don’t know what it is!”
“ . . . I’m here,” said Dan.
Heres Tanarill looked at him. He felt Eska focus on him. And then both of them–one out loud, one in his head–burst out laughing.
You may have picked up on an important facet of Eska's relationship with Heres Tanarill. Kudos if you did.
Soonish, Eska had got to sucker punch Dan, kick him while he's down for a bit, and then rifle through his wallet for spare change. Metaphorically speaking, of course. And then go off on a "Shopping for Mages" spree. Because she's k'Shitame and sheva'Shen, and knows the value of good mages in a fight. Oh Lan-cer . . . >:3
In other news, I would very much appreciate it if I could talk to you, Nai.
I love you, Emmy <3
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-15 05:40 pm (UTC)Oooo, so that is what is going on! Sorta. Huh. Neat!
Unless Rill and Eska being badass ealier and sucking up someone's soul power thing is what stops the Wild Walker, I'm getting the feeling Dan is going to knock them off their high horses.