Subject: Re: IC: Wolves Glen Pub From: Jeff Huo In article <20010715121547.02349.00000917@nso-ca.aol.com>, kylinn@aol.com says... > Jeff Huo writes: > >kylinn@aol.com says... > > >> "So pleased to meet you, most beautious > >> maiden." Toby takes her hand and bows > >> over it. > > > >"And a pleasure to meet you too, > >good and noble Sir," she smiles > >sincerely. > > > >She grins mischeviously. "'Beautious > >maiden?' Does that mean you really > >think I'm a hag?" she laughs, clearly > >not offended at all by that idea. > > He blinks in evident confusion. > > >Alex takes the hand with a smile. > >"So...you're a Pooka, right?" > > "Pardon? Do I look like a waterhorse to > you?" He glances behind him at his tail. > "I don't look like one to me. Perhaps > you need new glasses. Or old ones." Alex nods. "Apologies --I really need to drop all my preconceptions and just take things one step at a time," she says sincerely. "No insult meant." > "Someone's been telling you stories," > Toby laughs unmaliciously. "Life isn't > really like fiction, you know. And if > you ever do meet a real pooka, you'd > better beware of your assumptions." Alex smiles and nods her head in graceful acknowedgement of the gentle rebuke. "Point heard and accepted gratefully, good Sir." "Someone's been telling me stories for a long, *long* time," she laughs, "and sometimes I used to wonder where the stories ended and the reality began..." "...that used to be easy. There was no such thing as magick, no such thing as trolls or elves or anything else of fantasy." "Now..." she says, happily, "things are *much* more interesting." "If you don't mind, a bit of a story?" she asks, and assuming that Toby does not: "In my world, back in 1993, the groundbreaking SANDMAN comic book series by Neil Gaiman came to an end --the legendary collection of stories that vaulted comics into a serious art form, many, including myself, believe. DC Comics followed this up immediately with another series called GLORIA MUNDI...." "GLORIA MUNDI went on for nearly seven years, and achieved the same level of acclaim that SANDMAN did --some might argue, more, much more. GLORIA MUNDI --short for 'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi', or 'Thus passes the glory of the world', was, at its most basic, a fleshing out of the legend of Atlantis and the death of magick in my world..." Alex catches herself. "Sorry --a bit more background. There are many Celtic stories and legends of the ancient days before civilization, stories that include dragons and fairies, blood-sucking vampires and shape-shifting beasts, a time when magick was very, very much alive in our world. A time that climaxed in the Tessarakonta, the great war between the Tuaatha De Daan and the Formori, light and dark, a war that blackened the sky and shattered the earth... where the Formori were imprisoned for all time and the Tuaatha left our world... and took all magick with them." " It seems that most --if not all-- cultures in my world, from the Iroquois Nations to the Indian subcontinent-- have myths and legends like that -- of a time when there was magick, and then the day that magick died, leaving behind only men and their Gods; no more middle ground, so to speak. Several manuscripts salvaged by Hypatia from the Library of Alexandria before it was burned speak of Atlantis, the legendary center of magick upon our world (at least in the Greek tradition) that Fell, from it's own pride. Some conspiracy kooks and occultists claim that all of these stories are in fact the same story --that there once was a time where magick *was* real, and that it all fell one day, thousands of years before Christ. A day when the age of magick died and the age of Man began. " "Which is all a load of poppycock, of course," Alex notes as a fact. "The science simply isn't there to support a bit of it. The True Believers of course claim that the violent blast of magick would *leave* no trace, but that just seems far too conveient, no? I may be a fangirl, but I still am also a scientist. In my world at least, I have an idea what is real and what is not. The fall of the Dinosaurs is real. The fall of the High Lords of Arcadia is not." "But suppose it were?" Alex smiles. "That was the basic arc of GLORIA MUNDI-- an exploration of the fall of the Age of Magick. It's premise was that, for millenia before, the Awakened creatures made humanity their plaything, their herd, lorded over and terrorized the primative men and women who feared and worshiped them...Sidhe and Methsulahs and mighty half-wolf/half-man Theurges who made war with each other --and among themselves-- and used all humanity as their tools and pawns..." "...until a few humans Awakened themselves. Until humanity itself began to strike back. Until the first Hunters began to unleash lightning in their hands and the first Mages began to bend reality to their will. Men and woman with no loyalty, no connection, to the Elder Awakened who came before them... men and women free to forge their own destinies and stories." "GLORIA MUNDI was about that war --how various humans choose to use those powers --to free their compatriots, to enter the power games as equals, as the servants of powers Celestial or Infernal, and how it all ended in the destruction of everything...a cast of literally hundreds of characters over a hundred frentic years." "GLORIA MUNDI was a spectacular piece of fiction because in it's course it created a world almost totally from thin air --the World of Darkness, that preceeded the modern age. In it's pages tribes of shape-shifters clashed, clans of Vampires schemed, Houses of Fae made war, and the newly Awakened men themselves organized into a magickal societies every bit as complex as their elders. Revenge, romance, plots within plots, a vast, deep tapestry of differing philosophies that cooked, bubbled, and then exploded... it was, really, as DC Comics advertised it, the next step up from the SANDMAN. The next *big* step up...one of the most amazing fictional stories ever told, *period*. " Alex smiles sheepishly. "So, like a fangirl, I thought you looked like a Pooka, the fictional trickster, perpetual liar Pooka from GLORIA MUNDI, so you might be one. My sincere apologies." "If you don't mind my asking...what *do* you call yourself? What is your society like? Where do you call home? Please feel free to tell me to stuff my curiosity into a ashcan, if I am being too rude or forward," she says quickly. > >"But I babble too much --I'm very > >sorry, I'm just very, very excited > >to meet you. A pleasure, a pleasure!" > > > >"And you are *soo* cute!" she > >exclaims, excitedly. > > He grins charmingly at her. Yes, he > is adorably cute. "At least you have > good taste." > > [OOC: And if we were on a.dbs, the cuton > levels would be rising dangerously.] Alex is unable to help herself, and giggles. "I really can't tell you how much I'd like to hug you, if that were appropriate," she smiles, embarrassed. > >> "So where do you teach?" > > > >"Oh, I'm retired now," Alex explains > >with a smile. "Just hanging out, doing > >this and that, having fun." > > > >"And you, sir? Where are you from?" > > "Out of the everywhere. East of the sun > and west of the moon, beyond the farthest > rainbow and closer than a child's cry." Alex nods in appreciation. > Toby gestures expansively and spins in a > circle. "You'll never see my home, for > if you did you'd be struck blind by its > glory. Perhaps occasionally one of you > will see the veriest glimpse of our lands > like delicate spun cobswebs that melt away > under the harsh, clumsy touch of mortal > hands. Or catch faint echoes of our music > singing in your hearts. Beware if you do, > for those who see us as we are always go > mad. Mortal minds are not made to compass > such as we." Alex smiles. "Touche, touche. You have the toungue of a poet and the soul of a bard." "As to thy warning...I accept it fully." "But...in the twilight of my years, neither madness nor Death scare me as much as they might have once, for I have so little of either time or life left to lose... It is as brave Emeth from CS Lewis' The_Last_Battle said it well, of the Lion Aslan whom he feared: 'Surely this is the hour of death... Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him.' " > >-Alex > > -Toby, otter pooka -Alex -- Jeff Huo | jeff@spundreams.net.nospam (remove nospam) U. Michigan Med | http://www.spundreams.net/~jeff New to the group? Welcome! Please visit http://www.pepin.demon.co.uk/wolves/ IC Character sheets at http://www.spundreams.net/~jeff/wgpatum.html