The Journeys of the Princess in Yellow part 7

The room Carth was lead into was nothing short of mythical. It was coated in silk curtains and sheets of deep colors. The air was filled with enchanted smells and whirling smoke that filled Carth's head, making him feel a little fuzzy. Pillows were strewn around the with patrons sitting around tables with similarly garbed women and crystal balls. The patrons were not who Carth would expect, a few humans, a lycan, and some of the more unusual races. He even saw some of his own there. The woman led him to one of the table surrounded by plush cushions. She held out her hand and helped him into a comfortable position. Then with a flourish of her robes, she set herself down by the crystal, her bare legs just visible.

"Fate has brought you to me. Do you wish to see what fate has in store for you? Maybe a future of wealth and ease, or adventure and glory? Maybe," she said, her eyes drawing him in deeper, "pleasures of the flesh?"

"Em rof si taht fi wonk tond I" Carth mumbled, nervously looking away from her.

He felt her hand on his face and she turned him to look in her eyes. "You can't escape the fates. It has power beyond what we think for ourselves. Don't be afraid of the unknown. Embrace it." With that sense of finality in the air, she began to circle her hands about the crystal. Slowly, imperceptibly at first but with soon greater power, colors and light began to swirl in the prism. The curtains moved as if by a breeze.

"Now I can see. And you can see too. Stretch out your hand and find the future." She offered him her hand. Carth placed his in hers and she pressed it to the crystal.

A shock passed through his body.

Carth slumped over. His body was numb. His brain struggled, but his body wouldn't move. The woman quickly stood and drew a second set of curtains, blocking out any passersby. She reached in the back behind another curtain and pulled a cord. A soft bell rang. Then two large men in dark clothing and cloth over their faces stole into the room. The woman gestured at Carth.

"An easy one, probably worth something in labor since he's so stupid. Take him to the cages." The two nodded and gripped Carth by the arms and began to drag him. He tried to yell put only came out as a soft burbling. "Shut him up will you?" One of the brutes grunted and the last thing Carth saw was a fist very close to his face, then darkness.

~X~

Captain Gaspard mounted the gangplank to the Princess. "Come on, you're lagging behind," he said, beckoning to Lilith. She was staggering under the weight of a number of rolled maps and books that had been provided for the journey.

She stopped at the edge of the dock. "Ahem." She eyed him irritably.

"Oh right," Gaspard said, tapping his forehead.

"Absolutely not." Ms. Morganna's voice echoed across the deck. She swept down to where her captain was and descended the gangplank. "I will take these. No need for you to set foot on the ship." She didn't wait for Lilith to respond, but disarmed her of her load, turned on her heel, and returned to the ship. She gave Gaspard a knowing glare. He laughed.

"Well, since that's taken care of, you're free to leave Lilith. We don't need you aboard."

"All the better. I'd feel I would catch tetanus aboard this rust bucket of yours." She sniffed and departed.

"She's not rusting is she?" Gaspard made a quick check of the area. Satisfied he didn't see any rust, he made his way up to the wheel house for debriefing. He found Mr. Lucas, looking pleased, Ms. Dianna and Mr. Art sitting side-by-side, eyes closed, and Ms. Morganna, already digging into the material Conrad had provided. "Anything to report?" He asked, falling back easily into his worn, red captain's chair.

Mr. Lucas saluted as was his habit. "Sir, I have brought on a new set of metal work tools for further improvement of the ship. Invoice shall be left with Ms. Morganna for documentation."

Gaspard shook his head. He wondered again if Mr. Lucas would ever shake his military training. "Very good Mr. Lucas. I'm sure you found some of the best for your work."

"Indeed I did sir!" Mr. Lucas' eyes lit up. "The merchant there didn't know what he had. I got a hold of some Howard's calipers from Coal Town, you know how they are with those things. And a set of 1 1/3 - 3 3/4 metal shears fitted with oak handles that-"

"Noted, Mr. Lucas." Gaspard cut him off. If he let him, Mr. Lucas would go on about his tools for too long. "Mr. Art?"

"Little to report, Captain," Diana spoke. "Most of the machinery was tuned and cleaned, engine is still running efficiently, and the decks are being swabbed. Mr. Cozin is finishing up the lower deck."

"Good to hear," Gaspard nodded. "The decks haven't had a right cleaning since we ran into that Polyp Squid. Now, if we're mostly set, Ms. Morganna will be drawing up a course for us. We're set for a right wild chase with this one, but there's a chance to make history with it. now if we can-"

"Captain!" Mr. Cozin's voice called as he banged on the door. "Bad news, sir."

"Enter," Gaspard barked. He didn't like that tone.

Mr. Cozin entered and gave a sloppy salute, tipping his ratty straw hat back. "Cap'n, Carth ain't aboard the ship nowhere."

"What?" Gaspard dropped his feet off the desk and leaned forward.

"Aye sir. Usually I can rely on him ta hang about as I'm cleaning, but he weren't nowhere to be seen. I went all through the ship but didn't see him."

"Carth..." Gaspard growled, standing. "Right, Mr. Art, Mrs. Dianna, I want the engines warmed and ready to go at a moments notice, Mr. Lucas, get the crew on stand-by. Once I get back I want us to be able to ditch port with haste. Ms. Morganna, you-"

"Are coming with you." She said. Gaspard recognized that finality in her voice.

"Are going to change your shoes. If things go bad, those won't help you."

"I'll meet you on the gang, Captain."

When the sky fell

The oldest creature in existence had fallen. It took some time for the Rikir and the Cazamots to really understand what had happened. The whale had fallen, the city left in ruins, and demons laughing at the pain. They had come together, almost as one living, breathing unit, and destroyed that mountain and those they found on it. Then, like it had never happened, they were home, minus whatever casualties they had left behind.

That year, the Festival of Unity, the two week celebration of the meeting of the two races, was held in the fallen city. It had been unanimously decided and it was something that the people of the whale city and those all over the world needed.

For those that could make it, it was like a funeral. Amid all the laughing, the reuniting with old friends, the fellowship and love, their was a sadness to it all. The moments of quiet between the jokes and stories all had the weight of loss behind it.

Still, there was joy, there was hope. The Cool Water Healers were in the city, assisting all that needed them at their tents set up across the city. At the first day, the great bid was seen high above them, crossing to the other sea. And if by magic, more from the bird city, the city of Frior, were suddenly among the festivities, like magic.

The city that survived was surrounded by the stone like remains of the whale. It hadn't died like a creature of the earth, with rotting muscles and spilled blood. It had seemingly turned to stone, petrified like a new mountain in the crater. The people finally settled on a name, calling it Skau, the city of loss and hope.

What would come next for Skau, it's people, and all of the Rikir/Cazamot Union, only the gods knew.

A conversation that will never happen and never should.

Why did you unfriend me?

Does it matter?

I want to know.

You always want to know.

So why shouldn't I now?

Maybe somethings don't need to be shared.

It's about me though.

But it doesn't affect you.

It kinda does.

Has my presence there ever been a matter of importance to you?

Not often, no.

So it's not really effecting you.

I still want to know.

And you won't let it drop will you.

No.

Fine. It's because I can't stand to see you happy.

What?

It's your big day soon and it angers me to see you happy.

Why?

Because you don't deserve it.

I don't understand.

I didn't think you would. You don't see it. But I do. I've watched, hell I've been a part of it. I've seen how you treat people. How you lead them along. How hallow you're laugh and your smile is. I can't think you don't know what you do. How it gets to people. You use it for your own advantage. Sure, it's never anything malicious. You're morally upstanding. But at the base of it all, it's still willful manipulation and when you feel satisfied, you make a lame excuse and cut from them entirely. When someone calls you on your bull, you cry and argue saying how it's a lie. But I know better. I know and you know and to watch someone who doesn't seem to know get caught up in it all makes me angry. To see you happy after all you've done is unfair. After leafing so many of us in the cold, why should you be happy? I know it's wrong of me to be angry. I know God would tell me to forgive, and I have. But that doesn't change the fact that seeing you smile is now watching you grin like the Cheshire Cat. You've gotten away with it, and you don't need to care what happened in your wake.

The trouble with Monster Hunter's mid game

Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises in gaming. I started with it on the PSP and have put over a hundred hours into every iteration following that one. The games are always fresh and interesting to me, and I dive headlong into the hunt. But I find that I usually have a falling off with them. I play for a good long time, then stop playing, usually until the next in the series comes out. With this new one, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, I think I've figured out why. The mid game is very weak.

Like most media, a lot of games can be broken into three act. Monster Hunter is much the same, though the mid section is significantly larger. The first act is the initial hunting. This usually takes the layer from the first one star quests up to their first end boss. This usually happens before high ranking quests unlock. Then, we have six star quests up to the beginning of G rank quests, with G rank being the end game. The beginning quests give you a taste of the hunt. Each quest offers something new, whether that is new monsters, maps, or weapons. And they most heavily focus the story in the first act. The G rank end game is where the toughest and most diverse quests and monsters appear. Some of the crazy colossal monsters straight out of a nightmare are able to be fought. However, in the mid section, it's kind of a rut.

The high rank quests are an odd bunch. They are often just more difficult versions of the quests from the previous level. It starts with the same rotation of monsters, with some of the less threatening monsters newly powered up, and again building to the intimidating ones. The thing is, however, that this is less interesting. The monsters you face are usually much the same, with variations in sub-species (aka colors) and a few new moves. The armor you gain access to is more powerful versions of the ones you already have. Monsters mostly just take more hits to kill. One or two might have a new move in their arsenal, but there isn't a lot of variety.

This is what makes me put these games down. The mid game feels like a grind. There isn't enough new and exciting happenings to really keep my attention. I've had my fill of fighting these monsters, and now they aren't more difficult, they just hit harder and take more hits. They don't come across as new challenges, just unfairly slanted to favor the monsters. Monster Hunter 4U does help a bit with this now that the online is integrated so well into it. I've been playing with others in the higher rank quests. That is where the fun is. Taking a team of four to try and break down some of the really challenging monsters is a lot of fun. The single player feels like it was supposed to be played with more people, making these higher rank challenges more tedious than exciting. Still, at least I can take the rare material I got from hunting online into single player. That means I get some pretty powerful items to blow through some of the less exciting monsters on my way to G rank.

Why do people hate the damsel in distress trope so much?

A recent fad in criticism seems to be just pointing out that a trope is present in a work, then letting all the past critiques and points made about that specific trope pile onto the current work. It's really lazy. It seems to suggest that everything that was said about this small aspect of a story should then be applied to the story as a whole.

Tropes are simply a writers short hand. They aren't some evil theme or message in writing. They are simply situations that are common. For instance, while the damsel in distress might be a trope, so is the hero gets a weapon, and the villain attacks unexpectedly. They are all just things that happen. We get tropes the same way we get motifs. There are only so many situations that you can put a character in. Despite how it might be skinned, there are a limited number of puzzle pieces to put together a story with. After all, we are taught that there are only those nine story types, the man vs etc. So while situations might be even broader a number, there is still a limited number of them when you boil it down.

Anyone that writes off a work simply because of a trope is not investing in the work. They can't even criticize it properly. Take Star Wars for instance. The first movie has Luke and Han rescuing a princess. Perfect damsel in distress trope right there. However, the princess is not just some helpless dame that is carried to the goal. She fights, facilitates events, and has her own strong and meaningful character. If someone wanted to write Leia off as just a damsel, they would be laughed at as they totally missed her character growth and importance.

The same can be said of some of the most common examples of the damsel in distress. Princess Zelda from the Legends of Zelda gets captured in some way in most of the games, but that doesn't take away from her personality or importance. She is present in Ocarina of Time as Sheik and and only is captured at the very end. In that instance, it is to make the player feel like they are finally doing something on their own, without Sheik watching their backs. In Twilight Princess, Zelda is prominent in the final battle, riding with you and using the light arrows to stop Ganandorf. And don't get me started on Wind Waker. The character of Tetra is incredibly vibrant, and even when she becomes the princess, she is still important, again helping in the final battle. While it is less easy to show Princess Peach's qualities in the games, since most Mario games lack any real characterization, we shouldn't forget that Peach had her own game where she was the star. She was the warrior in the game saving Mario and Luigi.

That's the thing with critics that only focus on tropes: they don't give nuance to situations or characters. They simply claim that, since this is represented in the media, it is therefore bad. That shortsighted and dishonest commentary keeps their criticism from having any real weight. they become petty instead of meaningful.

I probably can't write comedy.

I've had this idea for a play for a while now. It would be a pun off of the Chekhov's gun theory of writing. While I know how I want it to end, I feel like I'll never actually get around to writing it. Mostly because, for it to work as I want it to, it would have to be a comedy. And for the most part, I'm not funny.

I don't mean that I don't have a sense of humor or that I can't crack jokes. It's more in my writing. I don't know how to write comedy. Comedy is about timing, clever word play, and the absurd. And I have no idea how to realistically apply those in writing. When I make a crack or joke, it usually comes from someone else giving me a good set up and being able to capitalize on their words. My comedy is reactionary. In that case, there is little way to put it into writing. I can't have someone write part of it and then just insert witty comments into their sentences. I need to know how to put together the whole thing, how to work the pacing and keep scenes believable while still silly.

A part of it seems to be that my writing tends to be serious. And I don't mean that in the doom and gloom thing, though I am trying to work on a gothic story now. I mean more that I take my subject matter seriously. I don't insert a lot of levity into my works because I want to express something specific, usually a feeling I am familiar with. The same goes for my nonfiction works. any articles I put out usually take their subject as an analysis and teaching tool. It usually tries to be interesting more in the information it is presenting than in the tone of the piece.

I just don't know where to inject comedy. I've watched comedic plays and listened to stand up comedy for a long time. I'm familiar with it as a theoretical principal, but I don't know how to turn it into practical written words. Comedy is also, probably, the hardest genre to write. I've heard about comedy writers who still, after many years of writing comedy, still find it difficult to come up with gags and jokes. Which makes me wonder how do I even get into that genre when veterans still have major trouble with it.

I'm going to try, however. I've always felt like backing down from a challenge before. I think that I can teach myself how to do this, how to think in terms of set up and punchline. And I'll read books on it as I have to. There's a way to learn this, but it's such a subjective and personal kind of experience that to write it requires people to read it, which is not something people do a lot of with my writing. And I don't encourage them to either. So it'll be something that I might be learning for my own sake, rather than for any audience.

I wonder if I'll homeschool my kids...

It was a running gag to poke fun at some of the homeschoolers in my dorm. It was just an easy thing to blame any of their foul ups on. Usually we let it drop after a while, though for some of those who kept reacting to it, it was a fun thing to needle them with. But I have nothing against homeschooling. I went through both private and public school, and I have to say that as I've gotten older, I do see some of the benefits to it. Now that I'm out of college and into the "real world" I am beginning to wonder if I might want to homeschool my own children, should I ever have any.

While doing Bros Before Shows, my old radio show, it seemed like every other week we were covering a story of overreacting school administrators and teachers. Kids were suspended for biting a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, wearing a My Little Pony backpack, getting a hair cut with a basketball team logo, burping too loudly, and shaving their head to support a friend with cancer. Schools these days seem so jump and afraid of any kind of conflict that they will crack down on even the stupidest of reasons. I worry about what it would be like for my kid. If they're anything like me, they'll be pretty good but have some distinctly unique personality quirks. I don't want them getting into trouble for simply being themselves.

Then there is the matter of what is taught. I know that where I send them to school will be limited to where I live. If my choices are between a Roman Catholic private school complete with nuns, or the hood public school funded by the government, I would say my options are pretty limited. I want to have a hand in what my children learn. I don't trust many of the institution of learning that exist these days to be fair in how they teach ideas. For instance, I remember one school that forced all the boys to wear skirts to make the point that gender is a learned thing. That's stupid and wrong to me, and I don't want to have my children force fed that idea just because one teacher has their own notions about life.

Finally, I think it depends on where my career takes me. If I end up married to a woman who is a business owner or a professor or something like that, then I might end up as solely freelance. I might not have to have a full-time job. In that case, I would like to homeschool to really be a part of my children's education. Though if I end up working full-time it might no be an option for me to interact with my kids as a teacher. On the whole, I think that there are a lot of reasons to consider being a homeschool family. Though in reality, I won't have any choice in the matter until I actually have a wife, which is probably still a long ways away.