Sparkindarkness # 66 Passing the Rift
Jul. 2nd, 2005 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessIs it just me, or is this taking a looooooooooong time? Less words more action needed! And less snarking at each other *thwaps muses* can't you stay focused for minute? It's like herding cats here!
As ever, previous intsallments are in memories the link for which is... um... somewhere?
And I do wish they'd stop being funny all over the serious depressing bits - Ghost! You're ruining the angst!
We passed into the rift, leaving Rhiannon and Katherine behind to guard our re-emergence, or perhaps because their current conditions would not be helpful in the spirit world.. The transition was very easy - well, easy for me I suppose. I imagine to coast Nikolai no small amount of effort and energy. It felt wrong, almost. After all, if we’re crossing over to the alien lands of the spirit worlds, surely the journey should be strange and surreal? Surely our stomachs should roil, or skin crawl and our very minds cry out in awe and wonder? Entering the realm of the dead was never so smooth and easy. You certainly weren’t oblivious to the transfer…
My hackles rose. I wondered how much else was happening all around me without my noticing or sensing it? Suddenly my paranoid attack on Nikolai seemed not only to be sensible, but actually seemed to be a fairly flimsy protection.
You’ve arrived then? Took you long enough, what did you do, get lost walking three feet forwards?
He was suddenly there. I didn’t jump. It took every ounce of will in my body to avoid it, but I didn’t jump. I have seen ghost materialise in human form on our Realm, but it had taken him time, slowly coalescing as he gathered his energy together. This was entirely different. One moment there was nothing (or, I assume, the invisible and intangible presence of the irritating spirit), the next a person smirking at us.
But not just a person… I blinked and concentrated harder, trying to force him into focus. I wasn’t a shaman, my mind and magic wasn’t ready to accept what I was seeing as real. My eyes were showing me what my mind insisted must be there, rather than what was actually there. I stripped aside my preconceptions and forced myself to see true. Or as true as I could manage in the circumstances. Ghost wasn’t just a young man - he was several young men, all at once. I recognised them vaguely as stars and musicians of the day (I can’t say I really kept up with them. At least, not the ones Rick ever had playing on his IPOD. Really, that was quite lapse of me. How else was I going to be able to hunt them down for the good of humanity if I couldn’t recognise them?) Each young man - or woman, I saw now, seemed to gain strength and come more into focus randomly - in response to his moods? Energy? Thoughts? Something I haven’t even considered. Overlying it all seemed to be circuits and bright white light flowing into each other. Not so much real electricity (though arcs of it outlined him and danced around him like a character in a film with a greater special effects budget than it had writer‘s talent) but the idea of electricity and wires and circuits. It was as if someone had taken the base concepts, the underlying ideals and symbolism of all that is modern electronics and computers and then woven them into clothing or shone them in an aura around him. I could hear something in the background, like muzak, not quite loud enough to stop you hearing anything but loud enough to be annoying. It was a hundred songs mixed together (then remixed with extra synthesisers and obnoxious drum beat), it was modem noise fighting against the constant rattle of rapid typing all over the low hum of electricity itself, the slight whine of a computer left on and the hissing of a CD drive whirling.
My eyes began watering. Worse still, all these images should have been layered over each other, distorting each other. The sounds should have dulled each other out. But they were all equally clear at once.. They just happened to be in the same place at the same time.
I shook my head and let my reasoning mind take over. I could see the forces of death and the true face of the terrors of the Realm of the Dead that most people’s reminds screamed away from, but this… this deep insight of concepts and meanings in every glance was beyond me.
The landscape was easier on the eyes, but not by much. It was foggy… but I could still see a long way. I had an impression of great distance but at the same time everything being concealed from me. Threads wove their way through the clouds, shining strands, or coloured strands, or metallic strands or strands of darkness. Some strands were made of substances I could recognise, others were utterly alien and almost as hard to look at as Ghost. They were of every size, some fine threads like cotton, others larger than an eight lane motorway. If you let your eyes rest too long on any of the clouds images seemed to form, or smells, or strange thoughts rose up. You couldn’t allow your eyes to stay still before your mind swooped away on sensory overload and alien thoughts. Donald confidently wove his way through the strange landscape, studying the clouds and lines without hesitation or discomfort
“How does Rick go through life seeing things like this? How can he see things so deeply, so purely, so completely and still be vapid, shallow and hedonistic?” I grumbled, irritated, ignoring Liam’s chuckle.
Because he’s Rick. He could have a personal divine visit from the Most High all shining, golden and terrible and he’d STILL grin like a moron and ask him to dance. Just imagine what he‘d be like without his sight
“No-one can be that shallow.”
“He is Californian, Darren.” Liam pointed out, reasonably.
Do not mock the Californians. There are few people in the world with that much resolve and dedication as them. Why else would they live on a giant fault line and pay massive property prices for the privilege?
“Rick left.” I cut in. “Does that make him too flaky even for California?” I kept half an eye on Nikolai as he lead us further in. I trusted him to know his way around this alien place and to lead us correctly. Well, I trusted him not to want to die a horrible, painful death.
Rick left because of his parents. Enduring earthquakes, the unnatural San Francisco fog and Arnold Schwareneggar is one thing, facing Mr and Mrs. Tightarse is a whole new level of tolerance
“I do so look forward to meeting them. It should be… amusing.” Ahrimadan purred in agreement with me. “How he managed to come from such a family, I’ll never know.”
You’d think the guy who can’t attend a family reunion without being murdered wouldn’t dis other people’s parents. And turn left here tree hugger.
Nikolai growled and rounded on the spirit. “I am a Shaman of Clan Camaalis, do not presume to instruct me, spirit.”
Whatever, Treehugger. You’re going the wrong way.
“I seek an Oracle to guide me.”
Really? Well, here I am. What were your other 2 wishes?
“Then guide, spirit, and cease plaguing us with your jabbering.”
Awww, has de liddle death spell made Treehugger all grumpy den?
Nikolai aggressively pointed a long gnarled wand at the spirit. “Guide.” The word echoed strangely in cloying mist.
Ja, mein Fuher! At vonce! Ghost jammed one arm out in salute before goose stepping off through the alien landscape, Nikolai growling along behind him.
“You would have thought a modern spirit would be more politically correct than that.” Liam observed, amused by the furious flush in Nikolai’s face.
“It helps to remember that he is a computer spirit. Therefore, his first and most essential duty is always to make the lives of humans as difficult, annoying and intolerable as possible.”
“Hold it there, gents, I’d like a word, if I could?”
We stopped to face the first of Rick’s defences. His first Guardian…
As ever, previous intsallments are in memories the link for which is... um... somewhere?
And I do wish they'd stop being funny all over the serious depressing bits - Ghost! You're ruining the angst!
We passed into the rift, leaving Rhiannon and Katherine behind to guard our re-emergence, or perhaps because their current conditions would not be helpful in the spirit world.. The transition was very easy - well, easy for me I suppose. I imagine to coast Nikolai no small amount of effort and energy. It felt wrong, almost. After all, if we’re crossing over to the alien lands of the spirit worlds, surely the journey should be strange and surreal? Surely our stomachs should roil, or skin crawl and our very minds cry out in awe and wonder? Entering the realm of the dead was never so smooth and easy. You certainly weren’t oblivious to the transfer…
My hackles rose. I wondered how much else was happening all around me without my noticing or sensing it? Suddenly my paranoid attack on Nikolai seemed not only to be sensible, but actually seemed to be a fairly flimsy protection.
You’ve arrived then? Took you long enough, what did you do, get lost walking three feet forwards?
He was suddenly there. I didn’t jump. It took every ounce of will in my body to avoid it, but I didn’t jump. I have seen ghost materialise in human form on our Realm, but it had taken him time, slowly coalescing as he gathered his energy together. This was entirely different. One moment there was nothing (or, I assume, the invisible and intangible presence of the irritating spirit), the next a person smirking at us.
But not just a person… I blinked and concentrated harder, trying to force him into focus. I wasn’t a shaman, my mind and magic wasn’t ready to accept what I was seeing as real. My eyes were showing me what my mind insisted must be there, rather than what was actually there. I stripped aside my preconceptions and forced myself to see true. Or as true as I could manage in the circumstances. Ghost wasn’t just a young man - he was several young men, all at once. I recognised them vaguely as stars and musicians of the day (I can’t say I really kept up with them. At least, not the ones Rick ever had playing on his IPOD. Really, that was quite lapse of me. How else was I going to be able to hunt them down for the good of humanity if I couldn’t recognise them?) Each young man - or woman, I saw now, seemed to gain strength and come more into focus randomly - in response to his moods? Energy? Thoughts? Something I haven’t even considered. Overlying it all seemed to be circuits and bright white light flowing into each other. Not so much real electricity (though arcs of it outlined him and danced around him like a character in a film with a greater special effects budget than it had writer‘s talent) but the idea of electricity and wires and circuits. It was as if someone had taken the base concepts, the underlying ideals and symbolism of all that is modern electronics and computers and then woven them into clothing or shone them in an aura around him. I could hear something in the background, like muzak, not quite loud enough to stop you hearing anything but loud enough to be annoying. It was a hundred songs mixed together (then remixed with extra synthesisers and obnoxious drum beat), it was modem noise fighting against the constant rattle of rapid typing all over the low hum of electricity itself, the slight whine of a computer left on and the hissing of a CD drive whirling.
My eyes began watering. Worse still, all these images should have been layered over each other, distorting each other. The sounds should have dulled each other out. But they were all equally clear at once.. They just happened to be in the same place at the same time.
I shook my head and let my reasoning mind take over. I could see the forces of death and the true face of the terrors of the Realm of the Dead that most people’s reminds screamed away from, but this… this deep insight of concepts and meanings in every glance was beyond me.
The landscape was easier on the eyes, but not by much. It was foggy… but I could still see a long way. I had an impression of great distance but at the same time everything being concealed from me. Threads wove their way through the clouds, shining strands, or coloured strands, or metallic strands or strands of darkness. Some strands were made of substances I could recognise, others were utterly alien and almost as hard to look at as Ghost. They were of every size, some fine threads like cotton, others larger than an eight lane motorway. If you let your eyes rest too long on any of the clouds images seemed to form, or smells, or strange thoughts rose up. You couldn’t allow your eyes to stay still before your mind swooped away on sensory overload and alien thoughts. Donald confidently wove his way through the strange landscape, studying the clouds and lines without hesitation or discomfort
“How does Rick go through life seeing things like this? How can he see things so deeply, so purely, so completely and still be vapid, shallow and hedonistic?” I grumbled, irritated, ignoring Liam’s chuckle.
Because he’s Rick. He could have a personal divine visit from the Most High all shining, golden and terrible and he’d STILL grin like a moron and ask him to dance. Just imagine what he‘d be like without his sight
“No-one can be that shallow.”
“He is Californian, Darren.” Liam pointed out, reasonably.
Do not mock the Californians. There are few people in the world with that much resolve and dedication as them. Why else would they live on a giant fault line and pay massive property prices for the privilege?
“Rick left.” I cut in. “Does that make him too flaky even for California?” I kept half an eye on Nikolai as he lead us further in. I trusted him to know his way around this alien place and to lead us correctly. Well, I trusted him not to want to die a horrible, painful death.
Rick left because of his parents. Enduring earthquakes, the unnatural San Francisco fog and Arnold Schwareneggar is one thing, facing Mr and Mrs. Tightarse is a whole new level of tolerance
“I do so look forward to meeting them. It should be… amusing.” Ahrimadan purred in agreement with me. “How he managed to come from such a family, I’ll never know.”
You’d think the guy who can’t attend a family reunion without being murdered wouldn’t dis other people’s parents. And turn left here tree hugger.
Nikolai growled and rounded on the spirit. “I am a Shaman of Clan Camaalis, do not presume to instruct me, spirit.”
Whatever, Treehugger. You’re going the wrong way.
“I seek an Oracle to guide me.”
Really? Well, here I am. What were your other 2 wishes?
“Then guide, spirit, and cease plaguing us with your jabbering.”
Awww, has de liddle death spell made Treehugger all grumpy den?
Nikolai aggressively pointed a long gnarled wand at the spirit. “Guide.” The word echoed strangely in cloying mist.
Ja, mein Fuher! At vonce! Ghost jammed one arm out in salute before goose stepping off through the alien landscape, Nikolai growling along behind him.
“You would have thought a modern spirit would be more politically correct than that.” Liam observed, amused by the furious flush in Nikolai’s face.
“It helps to remember that he is a computer spirit. Therefore, his first and most essential duty is always to make the lives of humans as difficult, annoying and intolerable as possible.”
“Hold it there, gents, I’d like a word, if I could?”
We stopped to face the first of Rick’s defences. His first Guardian…
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-02 08:37 pm (UTC)eh? did i catch this one before an edit?
it'scut offandsays donald which could be nikolai. just checking.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-02 11:12 pm (UTC)The cut off it because of how I write, I will write several paragraphs at once, doubling back and running forwards, often leaving bits unfinished to be filled in later.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-03 12:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-13 01:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-04 04:57 am (UTC)MUAHAHAAAA! *preens*
for this i shall not hurt you for calling me a valley person.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-06 08:33 pm (UTC)Preen happily, oh Valley Boy/Girl/It.
It? Oh dear, I have mental images of Cousin It form the Addams family now as the Valley It. This is very bad.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-13 01:39 pm (UTC)and oh, is he evil. bad, naughty ghost. *grins* granted, they all do take themselves terribly seriously, so i can't imagine him being able to resist poking them and making them flail and scream for amusement's sake.
he's as bad in his own way as the cat, yeah? probably worse, because we all KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that ahrimadan's evil.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-13 05:27 pm (UTC)Ghost is bad. Very bad *snerk* a perfect court jester to let down some egos and generally amuse everyone. He is worse than the cat, everyone ignore the cat because they're afraid to respond to his needling - because the cat is EVIL. Ghost is annoying, you must correct him - letting him lead you on more.
Heh, the sidekicks are just EVIL.