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[sythyry]

The Road to Oorah Thrassen [5 Hispis 4385]

The following conversation has happened four times in the last two days, with four different people. The words were, of course, exactly the same every time, down to the intonations. I have transcribed them precisely, which is easy, because I have heard them so often.

Someone:"My lover, if I have one, or a companion otherwise, informs me that we're stopping at Oorah Thrassen."

Me:"Yes, for a few days."

Someone:"My child or children, if any, find this to be a terrifying prospect! I admit to considerable fear myself!"

Me:"Why?"

Someone:"I have not the slightest idea! It could not be the ancient emnity between Oorah Thrassen and our dear native city of Vheshrame, which has been the cause of a bouquet of parti-colored wars over the last several centuries."

Me:"We haven't been at war for a few years though. And not as much at all since, well, they mostly won the conflicts of the last century."

Someone:"But surely they are all taught in elementary school that the only proper treatment for Vheshrame natives such as myself is to disembowel me and use my carapace for a cradle for their children, should I happen to have a carapace, or to flay my hide off and tan it and use it for a cooking pot otherwise!"

Me:"Well, yes, I'm sure they are, but like schoolchildren everywhere they pay no attention to their lessons."

Someone else:(snickers.)

Being thus comforted on one point, they produce another one.

Someone:"Nor could it be the fearsome reputation that the Oorish wizards and the utterly alarming and murderous Gormoror Verticals-tribes who are their allies."

Me:"Nor? Oh, you're still listing things you're pretending not to be afraid of, just like the three people ahead and/or behind you."

Someone:"Well? Are you good enough a wizard to ward us from all of their spells and evil plans?"

Me:"No."

Someone:"Perhaps your tame nendrai is sufficient to the task, then?"

Me:"I'm sure she could protect herself."

Vae:"If I were present, which according to Sythyry always or never happens in these conversations (I'm not sure which), I would vehemently declare that I would protect the whole of Strayway at need."

Me:"In this situation, need is not very likely. My grandparents would get rather upset if Sazandigraa and I hurt each other."

Someone:"Relying on the terrible but incompetant wrath of Glikkonen is no great protection!"

Me:"And Yylhauntra and Verehinga and Myrihaaveinen, and Caathestaa if zie were still alive."

Someone:"Wait, all of your first-generation Zi Ri ancestors?"

Me:"Yes, in fact."

Someone:"But how can this be?"

Me:"My geneology is [(Yylhauntra & Caathestaa) & Myrihaaveinen] & [Glikkonen & Verehinga]. Sazandigraa has about the same grandparents, just arranged differently: [Yylhauntra & Glikkonen] & [Myrihaaveinen & (Verehinga & Caathestaa)]."

Someone:"So you're relatives?"

Me:"Geneologically speaking, I think we're the same person."

Someone:"But relatives make the bitterest enemies!"

Me:"Bitter like fine kathia, my friend. Bitter like fine kathia."

Being thus thoroughly and inexorably reassured on the second point, they must find a third reason to dread.

Someone:"And the central role and terrible prominence of the Temple of the Dark Trinity -- which is, after all, you observe, dedicated to their best guess of the three most fearsome of our collection of noxious and doomsome gods."

Me:"Well, it's only Gnarn, Iraz Varuun, and Accanax. If I were picking a Dark Trinity, I'd got for "Here", Flokin, and Iraz Varuun, the way they do in New Kottarnu."

Someone:"But Gnarn made the Sleeth and the nendrai!"

Vae:"If I were present, I would hiss and whisper imprecations and execrations towards my unbeloved and cruel creator goddess. And, as I may, in fact, be present: 'The wicked-enough one is Gnarn, for my taste.'"

Someone:"And Accanax made the Khtsoyis!"

Me:"And a Khtsoyis made your livery. Which I must say flatters your elegant and so-characteristic-of-your-species figure!"

Someone:"No flirting please! This is serious!"

Me:"I don't think the gods are any more or less likely to show up in person outside the Temple of the Dark Trinity than inside of it. If you avoid the main altar room, you should be as safe as you usually are."

Someone:"Well, of course I thought of all these explanations of why I should not fear this leg of the voyage already. They can't have anything to do with it at all. I expect it's the weather. Those clouds look as if they might fall on the skyboat and break it at any minute, or they would, if they were made of brick. "

Me:"Fortunately, they are puffy moist foggy things, almost alarmingly identical to every other cloud on the World Tree."

Someone:"That is comforting, Sythyry. Indeed, I am so comforted that I am going to indulge in a large chalice full of our most recreational brandy, strewn about with calming herbs and sprinkled with lavender perfume."

Me:"A pleasure to be of service to you."

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Geneologically speaking, I think we're the same person..

Thank you for the laugh! (I think the word is 'cousins'.)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard would like a special word for "all the same grandparents, none of the same parents."]

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Does this happen often, for Zi Ri? O.o

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't know any other Zi Ri with that arrangement. It's reasonably common among Cani, though.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Why isn't Birkozon in the dark trinity? Is he too terrifying to worship even for the dark trinity folks? Did he mind control anyone who tried into picking someone else?

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

... Is Myrihaaveinen repulsive or something? Why doesn't zie get hooked up? Is zie just the reject of the brood?

I am starting to feel sorry for Myri, now... and I'm not sure if I should.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well, if you were secretly trying to take over the world, would you want to be viewed as a Dark Diety, or just not viewed as evil at all?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Zie did get hooked up! Twice! To different people! Maybe zie likes chasing after younger zi ri?

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

If I wrote up the chart right.... and I don't know HOW this works.... Y & C get hooked up, and M is related, and G &U get hooked up, and that makes Sythry (And this really adds to my confusion as to why they seem to have more complicated sex lives then Hythroy, and maybe that's why Sythry is Traff...)

And then Y&G get hooked and, and M is related, and U&C get hooked up, and they all have the 'relation'...

... I just am really confused why it takes two different couples to have one kid. I can see why Zi-Ri tend to be rare.

[ruscumag.livejournal.com]

Given that most World Tree wars seem to be over practical matters - borders, trade, and control of intervening areas - anywhere that a city has fought lots of times is generally close enough for trade, for people to move back and forth on occasion, and so on. Hopefully poor Sythyry will be able to find someone aboard who's actually looking forward to the visit happily, and delegate whoever-it-is to debate the topic of their immanent doom with everyone.

At least, that's what I'd probably try to do.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

I realise Zi Ri reproduction is rare, so "normal" is a relative term, but do Zi Ri normally breed only within their own generation? Or is that first-gen/second-gen pairing I see in Sythyry's family tree more common?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Y and C had a child T. T and M had a child D. G and V had a child E. D and E had a child S: Sythyry.

In a different arrangement, the same five first-generation Zi Ri produced the other S, too.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Intra-generation breeding is hardly required. My ~father~ Dzeriaunet is the child of Myrihaavinen (1st gen) and Tnirvakuovvka (2nd gen).

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Birkozon shows up in the Dark Trinity pretty often. But we've got way more than three gods who belong there, so it's kind of crowded.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Myrihaaveinen has gotten hooked up -- not just for body-play, but for the distinctly non-fun of producing offspring. I am sure of this, since I am the grandchild of one such union.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe it would be less confusing to use reverse polish notation!

YC+M+GV++
vs
YG+MVC+++

...or not.

[otter3.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. And your thoughts exactly too.

[terrana.livejournal.com]

[Question for Bard: Also, how do you manage to come up with so many names? Coming up with a single name usually takes me as long as the whole rest of the character creation process, whether it's for an RPG, a piece of writing or anything else.]

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Um ... I've been practicing for a long time. There was a chapter on naming in a Lin Carter book about fantasy, which I devoured when I was in high school, and worked really hard on after that.

[Though, for Srineia, I did write an emacs lisp random word generator that knows something about Srineian phonetics. It comes up with a long list, like: acbavworo et lpaicce shluzupl
ad etempokyu lufunorio shoryquot
aesikyario evv lyppmewi shwejh
aetel ezeppupu lyyliky slabb
aihuc faes memmi slmajhath
aijsmo fan mesele slucckhustrur
asah ficdaro miorpom sogrymp


Then I pick from the few words there actually sound good. The names I get there aren't quite as nice as ones I make up, but they do have a consistent phonetic style to them. I did this for one novel, where it worked nicely I think. I don't know that I'll stick with it for the whole of Sythyry's Vacation.]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

>The Road to Oorah Thrassen

So which one is playing Sythyry? Bob Hope or Bing Crosby?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard looks blank. "I was actually thinking 'The Road to Oz'"]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Road to...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Ah! I am vaguely enlightened. But not very much.

[rowyn]

And what are you looking forward to on your visit to Oorah Thrassen?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Visiting with friendly colleagues and a charming relative, touring a very interesting city and temple, and showing off my yacht and my pet nendrai.

[redbird]

Does the nendrai know you're referring to her as your pet?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Ask her yourself!

[And yes, feel free to correspond with other characters here. -bb]

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oohhh! I can respond to the other character! I have some stuff for Vae!

As a non prime who has a brain that doesn't exactly work the way I want it to, I find you a person I can relate to very much, Vae! And I'm glad that I can talk to you. I have a few questions, though! As a member of a world where the medical understanding of the mind seems to be several centuries past where it is in the World Tree (and we dont even have Mentador! We have to use non magical ways to do things to the mind! Its how we got creative in the topic), I was wondering if you think it would be fruitful to try some, to use a term that I will need to explain, "Mind Hacks". The term meaning, little tricks that you do to get your brain and mind, which tend to not do what you WANT them to do, to behave and play nice, as it were. When I mentioned the topic to sythyry a while back (a few months my time, over a hundred years zir time), zie made some excuse about not wanting to make your creator god angry. As near as I can tell, you seem to be perfectly happy telling your creator god to go fuck zirself, so I was thinking you might want to experiment some. The earmuffs are an example of something like this, but I am saying you should try exploring and learning more, and find more ways to subvert the negatives about how you work, so better to be the PERSON you want to be. Thoughts?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

And what has the blue one been saying of me? Not truly does zie always speak!

The cruel and inventive creator goddess have I. The instrument of hers am I, truly. The sufficiency fills that already! The further plaything of hers would I not be.

And what is it you recommend?

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

and we dont even have Mentador! We have to use non magical ways to do things to the mind! Its how we got creative in the topic

We also have the advantage that our kennoc God is infinitely more diligent to their duties than Pararenenzu.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, the idea is, in a controlled setting with a consenting prime, try and explore the exact nature of each of your compulsions, sort of acting out scenarios, and then talk about what happened afterward. Then, see if you or them can do something to bypass the compulsion -- it might be the prime changing hte language around you, it might be you creating a little fiction in your mind to make it seem like the prime isnt doing a triggering action. Also, hypnosis might help you to trick your brain into acting the way you want. Also, the helpful prime could maybe try changing the way he talks in a way that doesnt trigger your compulsions, or if it DOES, helps you actually be helpful in what you do? Stuff like that. Really, its just being creative, trying to understand how your brain and mind works, and figuring clever ways around it.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The very brave prime is the prime I need for this!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I am sure you could find a Gormorror who would say okay to such a test? The idea being that the gormorror did what it took to make a nendrai *less monstrous*, with the definition of monstrous in this case being "prone to behaviors that are made to challenge primes that her mischievous creator god put in her mind". I mean, really, you could say it as something that would create a REALLY unique and special song, eh? What do you think?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

think of it... assuming you and they win, and you get some control, they would be able to boast, "I did battle for weeks with the dark corner's of a nendrai's mind, and won!"

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I disagree... I dont think we even HAVE kennoc, but things in GENERAL are more reliable -- I mean they follow more rules that can't be broken, and there arent thigs like fire elementals changing how fire works, or whatever...

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

I meant in the sense that if we set up an experiment, there's not a five percent chance it will produce a result that violates the laws of physics, and that once that happens it will do that same wrong thing whenever it is repeated.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, that doesn't happen here either! That only happens if we try to sneak a peek at the actual reality without doing the experiment.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, i didn't realize experimental science existed in your universe. Figured an experiment would analogue to some sort of kennoc ritual.