Life In Oorah Thrassen: Bollybraa Longhouse [22 Lage 4385]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

I went to visit Ochirion and Feralan at Bollybraa, where Cluthe and her family was taking care of them. In brief, they are reasonably happy, or very happy considering the circumstances. In the last few days, they have not been killed, told they were guilty of tremendous crimes, infested with alien angels, or anything worse than losing several consecutive games of The Serpent in the Vortex.

Me: “How are you enjoying Bollybraa Longhouse, Ochirion, Feralan?”

Ochirion: “Good.”

Feralan: “It’s very strange. Nobody is traff here.”

Me: “Well, not so many people are traff anywhere really. You grew up in one of the few places where traff people go to live well.”

Feralan: “Do I have to be traff, since I grew up in Castle Wrong?”

Me: “You are allowed to, but you do not need to. It is your choice, when you are old enough to make it.”

Feralan: “I’m half an elemental though. Doesn’t that make me traff no matter what I do?”

Me: “We should get you back to two separate people soon. Saza’s got lots of good ideas.”

Feralan: “Please, please. I can’t remember how to slide on an equidistant curve anymore. I’m all stuck!”

Me: “You have my apology, and Vae’s, for what she did to both of you. I have got an excellent wizard working on it.”

Feralan: “It’s an experience adventure! A confusing sticky flat one.”

Me: “What are you called? Not Feralan, the other one.”

Locador demon: “hCevian.” [Which you may read as 'Hyperbolic cevian' if you like -bb]

Me: “I’m glad to meet you, hCevian, though I would have preferred to meet under more pleasant social circumstances.”

hCevian: “I’m starting to understand what that means. It scares me … I shouldn’t be allowed to understand things like that, should I?”

Me: “Why not? Is there a problem with understanding?”

hCevian: “If I understand someone too well, I can’t hurt them. Then I’m defenseless and have to run away.” (Which sounds like a good thing to me, I must confess. In any case, the Locador demon is getting just as infected with pleasant Rassimel boy as the pleasant Rassimel boy is with Locador demon. This appeals to my sense of symmetry. It does not appeal to my sense of taking good care of people I’m responsible for.)

Me: “We’ll do what we can, for both of you.”

We discussed the food.

Me: “What are you eating here?”

Feralan: “Meat! Lots and lots of meat!”

Ochirion: “They knew we’re Rassimel, so they got dried grapes and dried prens and dried consimmons and dried apricots and dried melon slices and dried looberties and dried pears! I got sick from eating too much dried fruit!”

Feralan: “And they like spicy sauces here. And sauces made out of roasted nuts and fishes.”

Me: “That sounds good!”

Ochirion: “It’s good and delicious and yummy and good! I got a belly ache from eating too much.”

We discussed distant friends.

Me: “Is there anything you want me to tell people on Strayway?”

Ochirion: “Tell Quendry I said hello! And I said bloop-boop poop!”

Feralan: “Tell them I’ll teleport over to visit when I get free.”

Me: “Feralan…? “

Feralan: “I think that was hCevian thinking it was me, maybe. I’m scared.”

Me: “What are you scared of?”

Feralan: “Traveling. Bad things happen when I travel, like pirates trying to rape Arfaen, or me getting killed and glued up with hCevian. Can I stay here a long time?”

Me: “You can stay here a long time.”

We discussed parental sorts of things (with Cluthe, not with the children).

Me: “Did they see their mothers?”

Cluthe: “Just once so far, though the next time is later this afternoon for an hour. I stayed with them, to keep an ear out just in case don’t you know. Feralan said something very bitter to Zascalle, and she just sat away from the children and scowled after that. The Cani read a few books with them. My books, don’t you know, nothing dangerous. Seemed pretty harmless a visit. Just two-thirds of an hour.”

We discussed Feralan.

Me: “How is Feralan doing?”

Cluthe: “Sometimes he is very strange, sometimes he is not very strange. It’s very hard to say.”

We discussed Ochirion.

Me: “How is Ochirion doing?”

Cluthe: “Sad, often, which is just as you’d expect. Not unduly sad, and he can find interest and happiness in things around him.”

We discussed Zascalle and Thiane.

Me: “What do they feel about Zascalle and Thiane?”

Cluthe: “I don’t quite know for sure. Zascalle scared them out the dabombo, wouldn’t you know it? She was getting all that strange and frantic way that Rassies sometimes get when their obsessions go all tight. Then she scared them more when you had your duel in the gazebo. Ochirion is just confused. Feralan understands what she did… I think hCevian explained it to him. He’s very angry at her.”

Me: “Pity. I was hoping to spare them that, if I could. How about Thiane?”

Cluthe: “They were glad to be with Thiane. They aren’t scared of her.”

We discussed me.

Me: “Have they talked about me, and their friends on Strayway?”

Cluthe: “They think you rescued them, more or less. Zascalle tried to tell them how horrible you were and how you’d kill them if you found them, and then you didn’t. Feralan and hCevian have all their hope in you now, you and Saza. Also they miss several people on Strayway.”

Me: “I’ll have them write, at least, if I can.”

Cluthe: “I imagine they’d take that as a kindness.”

Promise

Back to doom next time, really

Comments

[rowyn]

Wow, I'm impressed if hCevian was able to work out what Zascalle did enough to explain it to Feralan.

hCevian is rather interesting. I wonder if it'll remember what being part Rassy was like, if Saza gets them unstuck?

Also, I really like hearing about the aftermath of the latest excitement. Many stories in my world nowadays end almost immediately after the climax: the villain is defeated, the protagonists rejoice for a minute or two, The End. It's an unsatisfying sort of way to tell a story. I like hearing about all the bits that don't resolve neatly in the big finale.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Locador demons are instinctive masters in the arts of cruelty and battle, I think.

I imagine hCevian will remember being Rassimel, unless the separation does so much violence to it that we rip out most of its mind. I rather hope not, if only because it would probably do the same to Feralan. Which would probably be an improvement -- one life as a drooling idiot, then back to normal -- but I hope we can do better.

Well, this is not a story, really, though I try to write it with a certain amount of drama and interest. It's simply my life, and the lives of my friends and enemies. There's not so much a Big Finale as a day when a lot happens, but it will be followed by more days, on when -- I very much hope -- less happens.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Saza's a Mentador mage isn't zie? (I haven't read all of your journal yet but I saw someone mention blackmailing zir so I scrolled back and back and back and back to find out more. I won't tell anyone though I promise!) But that'll be useful in trying to make sure their minds don't unravel when you unknot their spirits! I think even Mentador can be not entirely awful *sometimes* though not very often it is Birkozen's sphere brrrrr!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Saza's a broadly-skilled mage -- as am I. I am very glad zie's working on this with me!

[redbird]

Even with that, we have people who believe "that's all the story in my life, the rest isn't worth telling" with "that" being something like a tale of courtship, or a specific adventure.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

regrettably, I lack such modesty.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Of course hCevian could explain it! Embezelling is Math, and if there is something that elemental can do well, it is Math. :D

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Aha! I knew Differential Equations were evil!

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

It sounds like Feralan and hCevian are achieving a certain amount of mental separation and awareness, which is better than it sounded during the "duel". I'm glad hCevian has explained things to Feralan -- he always sounded like the most mature of the children, and if any of them could cope with understanding, he could.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It comes and goes, but I think it's a good sign. Or perhaps a bad sign. Or perhaps irrelevant. I've read a lot about this problem lately, and there are opinions everywhere from here to the Silver Moon.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

There is plenty of doom, or at least potential doom, in just such matters as this - not all of us will be disappointed if you don't have to deal with branch-shaking terrors, really!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I am fine with there not being any branch-shaking terrors anywhere for zir to deal with! And I don't just say write that because zie's on the same branch as me right now either.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The next doom is, indeed, more of a me-shaking matter than a branch-shaking one.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

She was getting all that strange and frantic way that Rassies sometimes get when their obsessions go all tight.

That's an interesting statement. Had Zascalle's crime become her obsession, rather than a practical (albeit immoral) means to an end? Is her current behaviour the result of having that obsession thwarted, or perhaps of an obsession with her perceived victimhood? Are there established methods to divert Rassimel who've developed self-destructive obsessions?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Sustenoc Mentador can create an obsession... maybe Destroc Mentador could remove one? Or Mutoc to change it into something else.

But now we're into mind-controlling criminals instead of executing them, which I'm led to believe is a worse punishment. So perhaps the established method is to kill them and hope they get better in the next life. v.v

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I think maybe he was looking for a treatment that wasn't COMPLETELY EVIL.

You can try to change a Prime's behavior without using Mentador it's just slower. Just like how they locked Zascalle in a closet for a day to calm her down.

I've heard of trying to get a Rassimel to switch to a from one obsession to another by picking a different field and then trying to show them connections between the old undesirable one and the new desirable one and then giving the Rassy lots of information on the new one. I don't know if it actually works though.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

It's much easier to make someone worse when you use nonmagical means to attempt to control their behavior than it is to make them better. That doesn't mean that it can't be done, but... I think I'd rather have someone use evil magic on me that they knew would work because the effects are immediate and dramatic, than use nonmagical means where the results are always muddied and gradual and often completely hallucinatory.

OTOH there are a few time-tested things, like time-out for bad behavior. 18 hours is completely insane, though -- you stop getting any extra benefit after something like five *minutes*. And solitary confinement starts causing permanent damage in a matter of days.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It seems to be her obsession, and yes to the second question too. Beheading, maybe, for the third; at least that lets someone else destroy them.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Why is hCevian a Locador demon anyway, and not a Locador angel? Typically angels work for gods, and Here is a god, versus demons working for 'infernal powers'.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Really, shouldn't it be a Locador angle?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Fair point! ^_^

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

We don't have infernal powers ... for which I am quite grateful; our gods are bad enough. The word "demon" is based on typical behavior, which, in the case of the lesser powers of Locador, is generally quite bad (in prime terms).

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

In retrospect, I guess you could consider Floki an 'infernal power' in the sense that 'infernal' can refer to intense fieriness - but anyway, I see your point! };)

[bloofox.livejournal.com]

The poor hyperbolic-Cevian/Feralan compound entity is awfully cute.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Poor Hyperbolic cevian. I hope zie comes out all right in the end.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

I have bad news Sythyry...

If hCevian was blended into a prime less obssessed with their fannish interests, you might be able to separate the two, but with a Rassamiel you're out of luck. Monster mathematicians have already shown that hyperbolic planes cannot be freed when embedded in hyperbolic groupies:

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, Volume 133, Number 9, Pages 2491–2494

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that's an exaggeration, since you're talking about hyperbole.