Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 13

cucumberseed @ 2013-06-26T10:30:00

So this classics professor goes to a tailor to get his pants mended. The tailor asks: "Euripedes?" The professor replies "Yes. Eumenides?"

Jim Crow Won

I don't have the fortitude to write about this right now, so I'm just going to borrow fengi 's words.

Originally posted by fengi at Jim Crow WonGodamnit. The case was brought by states run by fucking racists who are openly trying to restrict the vote now, the fact they brought a case was evidence to uphold the law.

It doesn't matter if the list was decades old, the places on it have not changed in terms of the bigotry which informs voter suppression as a form of control. Open, brazen racism isn't the issue, the politics of discrimination are.

Fuck shit stack.

Oracle Pythea

Jupiter Gentian and Rosemary

There were a lot fewer knights than when we started.  A lot of them got killed, sequestered somewhere out of the way, found something better to do with their time, but the ones that remained were the persistent type.
He came to Rose as a platoon of skeletons in fever dream colored flames.  Gen printed her out a sword, and another and another.  We fed them hand-to-hand through the hallways to the line.  Some of us scooped up the broken blades and scurried them back to recycle.  You do what you have to in the castles on thick Jovian clouds.  Then you do it over and over again.
Gen was still a little more person than she was light, you could look at her directly, see the diamond shapes in more silvery light flicker on her shins and forearms.
Just the suggestion of rusty chain and dented plate, and a battered surcoat the color of dead winter oak leaves any place that wasn’t spotted in blood.  Sometimes he was just the tree itself, a pin oak, roots arched and prancing and ending in rust-shod hooves.  Sometimes he was astride the tree’s crotch with a banner on a pike. What did the banner look like?  What was its device? I don’t remember.
Gen, you are my starship.  The good boat under me.
Gen, we need to run.  Any star but this one.  The knight is falling on us.

The last question is how do you surprise the universe enough to make one last run?

[Dork] Monsterhearts Skin: The Reaper

It has ever been that the value of life is defined by its finite span. And to that principle, you do service.  But sometimes you need a little time away and sometimes there are some special assignments that need taking on.  Funny how both purposes so often take you to a place where everyone thinks they’ll live forever.

Introducing... The Reaper

Akane, Coy, Elijah,  Hermes, Joe, Lenore, Luz, Malik, Quinn, Tess, Thad.
A gentle name, a soft name, a quiet name, an are-you-fucking-kidding-me name.
Grim Preppy, Posh, Unassuming, Metal, Severe, Pretty – not Beautiful – Just Pretty.
Distant Eyes, Saturnine Eyes, Hard Eyes, Judging Eyes, Kind Eyes.
On a Holiday, On Assignment, Taste of Your Own Medicine, Off the Reservation.

Your Backstory:
Ignore what the others tell you an take a String on each of them.  Death doesn’t care about their secrets; it will come for them all just the same.
Someone doesn’t fear death.  They get two Strings on you.

Hot -1, Cold 1, Volatile -1, Dark 1
Reaper Moves
Get this one:
Book of Life – Just by looking at a person you know the name they were given at birth, when death is going to come by them (not necessarily for them, but by them), and under what circumstances.  You are also aware of anyone who has lived past their normal span, though not the reason.
And one of these:
None Can Excel – When you Shut Someone Down by letting them know when and how Death will next come to them, they gain the Condition Shaken, regardless of your roll.
Lending Time – When someone on whom you have a String is in danger of dying, you can spend that String to prevent it from happening.  They may suffer Harm and Conditions, but they cannot die in this Scene.  You don’t have to be present to use this move.
Baby Take My Hand – You can Turn Someone On using Dark instead of Hot.
Your Icy Hand – When you reach out with the icy hand of death to a person, roll +Cold.  On a 10+, you inflict the Chilled Condition on them (they are so cold and cannot get warm), which you can choose to heal at any time.  When you heal it, gain a String on the person, and another String if they asked you to remove it.  On a 7-9, you don’t gain any Strings from healing it, and it will pass in a few minutes, regardless.  On a miss, it’s as a 7-9 hit, but your target gets a String on you.
All Flesh is Grass – When you enter or observe a dangerous and potentially lethal situation, roll +Dark.  On a 10+ you can decide one person who will live and one person (NPC) who will die.  On a 7-9, you can choose one person to live or one person to die.  On a miss, you discover a rift in Death’s design and suffer -1 ongoing until the person who is responsible dies or is made no longer responsible.
Book of Death – You possess a copy of the Book of Death.  When you look through it for names, roll +Dark.  On a 10+ you can find the name of an NPC and place a check next to it, killing them, no questions asked.  On a 7-9, you can cause an NPC to die but someone who knew them and you gains a String on you.  On a miss, the name of the person on whom you have the most Strings comes up.  Lose all Strings on that person.  If someone else get a hold of your book, they gain 3 Strings on you and use of this Move, and you access to it until you recover the book.

Sex Move – When you have sex with someone you can rewrite the circumstances and time of their next brush with death.  If you tell them about it, you gain a String on them and they gain a String on you.

Darkest Self – They’ve forgotten the value of life and the power of death.  You have to show them what it means to be mortal by taking the life of someone important to as many as you can, a dramatic end so that they remember.  You escape your darkest self when your target dies or someone convinces you to spare them

Advancement
Take another Reaper move.
Take another Reaper move.
Take a move from another Skin.
Take a move from another Skin.
You are attended by psychopomps.
Add 1 to Hot (max 3).
Add 1 to Cold (max 3).
Add 1 to Volatile (max 3).
Add 1 to Dark (max 3).

Playing the Reaper
Cruel to be kind, always judging, observing and balancing, the reaper might be away from their appointed position, but they always bring their work with them.  Reapers bring the Apocalypse World principle of looking through crosshairs at NPCs to the fore.  When the reaper comes to town, the predictable, the inevitable always follows.  MCs who are striving for a low body count will need to think very carefully before allowing this Skin.
Book of Death and All Flesh is Grass, in particular, kill.  Beware that, with the latter, the Reaper is declaring a situation dangerous and potentially deadly.  That said, the move can protect someone in a situation that everyone has already decided is dangerous and potentially lethal.  As for the former, having a Book of Death is asking to have it stolen at least once.
Reapers can also protect others, particularly through their Sex Move or through Lending Time.  Make sure to let people know you saved them and they will be lining up to get with you and give you Strings.
Reapers have some powerful cold options, handing out conditions and shaking them down for Strings.

[DORK] Monsterhearts: Introducing the Corbin

People don't understand the value of the things they've been given. Everything is disposable; food, items, people, and that's good for you. You have sharp eyes and a keen sense of smell, and you know that everything is just a little better when it's begun to decay. You've come from the edge of extinction to the edge of poverty, nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Introducing... The Corbin

Ane, Bram, Corey, Crosby, Eric, Karin, Plikt, Rook, Yu.

An alliterative name, a grim name, an avian name, a punning name.

Trouble, Disheveled, Shabby-Chic, Vagabond, Thrown-together.

Acquisitive Eyes, Too-Bright Eyes, Mocking Eyes, Lying Eyes, Mischievous Eyes.

Raven Form: Sardonic, Laconic, Shiny, Saturnine, Grim.

Trickster Tricked, Stolen Body, Mad Science, Youngest of the Rookery.

Your Backstory:

You stole something from someone and they caught you. They can take 1 String on you and take the thing back or 2 Strings and you keep the thing. They also get to say what the thing is and how valuable it is.

You stole something from someone that they do not miss or value, but gave you insight into them. Gain 1 String on them, say what the thing is.

Take another Corbin move.
Take a move from another Skin.
Take a move from another Skin.
You are part of a Rookery.
Add 1 to Hot (max 3).
Add 1 to Cold (max 3).
Add 1 to Volatile (max 3).
Add 1 to Dark (max 3).

Playing the Corbin

Troublesome, Larcenous, Materialistic, the Corbin is all about taking things that are not theirs. Their two bodies allow them swift and covert mobility, but one is almost always vulnerable to something with sufficient supernatural wherewithal. Corbins are tougher than they appear.

Goddamn Magpies has a lot in common with the Apocalypse World Chopper move Fucking Thieves, and combines really well with Finder/Keeper, if you want to generate Strings quickly.

Tangles in the Nest is another good one for collecting Strings, and highlights the spying nature of the Corbin, though the risks are, well, fun.

It's up to the MC or the player of the character whether a character feels rejected for purposes of Scavengers Never Starve, though, in most cases, this should be pretty clear-cut.

When you use Don't Look! to take both bodies into the Abyss, you sure as hell peer into it.

Note that the Corbin Sex Move says “you take” not “you can take.”

Warren on the Solstice

It seems like a fine day to go, doesn't it?  Not traditional, but I suppose that's how Amundsens do.  My grandfather passed away a couple of hours ago, in his home in Center Tuftonboro, after a long battle with kind of all the cardiopulmonary things.  Ever on.

Kickstarter Apologizes as Well as Can

They didn't stop the project (and claim they couldn't), but they are prohibiting anything like it from being funded and taking action to show that they mean to not repeat the performance. 

Things the Beast Fears

The beast fears rape culture.  And also fears that it's going to be looking for funding on Indiegogo, if ever it goes looking, because, really, I'll just let Casey Malone speak for me on this one:

"This isn’t harmless. People come to these boards because they are scared of being humiliated, and they are saying to the world, “Tell me what to do, because I don’t know what to do.” And this guy has chosen to tell them, 'You should be a rapist.'"
A man who writes a manual for sexual assault kind of needs to die in that which the beast was originally said to fear.  And Kickstarter is, of course, free to continue to allow the project to go on, but I am also free not to use or support anything on Kickstarter, and that kind of sucks, but there it is.
Other folks have had more cogent things to say about it than I do.


The beast fears Jon C. Wright.  Actually, the beast could care less about him, funny little man he is, old-man-yelling-at-clouds, the beast fears him not one whit.  That said, finally catching up with this piece of his six months on, I've been struck with an interesting notions about the funny little man and that propelled me into a thought.  First the notion: Jon C. Wright thinks he's Edmund Pevensie facing down an army of Eustace Scrubbs.  Mostly straw Eustaces, but whatever.

I can go on my tumblies any day of the week (not during working hours, mind, it is tumblr, after all) and I am all but guaranteed to see at least one gif of Brienne of Tarth being swordly, being in a bear pit, hanging out with Jaime Lannister, something.  Every day, someone, different people, mind, is posting pictures of this woman.

According to Jon C Wright, no one likes Brienne, no one *can* like her.  She's inherently incapable, by her nature of being a character that strikes a chord, elicits any enjoyment or excitement or genuine interest from anyone.  It's impossible, and anyone who claims to like her, or any character like Brienne, is only doing so because of the dictates of feminism, or of Satan, the apparent author of feminism, or something.

The devil made me do it.  Like Eustace and his vegetarianism, his interest in nonficiton and farm equipment (or something).  No one can like those things, except out of perverse stubbornness and rejection of received truth.  Not only does God have opinions about how you need to behave, but also that you need to think that farm equipment is boring, bacon is tasty, and warrior women always and absolutely break suspension of disbelief.  I'm watching Fringe, right now, because the devil.  Normally, this doesn't gall me, not when there are so many better targets in an essay that includes this line: "That stubbornness is a hallmark both of noble savages and of oriental decadence." No really.  But tonight it does, the notion that we cannot take pleasure in the things Wright thinks we shouldn't any more than we can truly ignore the fact that that Christ is the sole ruler of the universe - we're all just pretending, for the joy of being dicks, I suppose.  Or because we're really stupid.  You see, this old man is yelling at clouds because he knows our minds better than we do.

So I read the comments, because I like things that are inherently unlikable, and was reminded that the funny little man was a comparatively recent convert to Christianity (Catholicism, to be more precise), having once been an athiest.  I've flirted with atheism in the past, and by flirted, I mean gone home with and made sweet, sweet love, but these days, I haven't been feeling much beyond 2nd base, and guys like Wright are one of the reasons why.  It's been a thing on the internet recently that some folk are coming to believe that the worst thing about atheism is atheists, and I have trouble disagreeing.  There certainly is a kind of atheist that I see a little too often, one with a very full invisible knapsack, for whom atheism seems to stem from an inability to conceive of a smarter or more powerful consciousness than his own.  And I have been at least partly guilty of that, which makes me increasingly uncomfortable.  If there is a God that will make me behave like a little less of that kind of a dick, I think I am willing to listen to what that God has to say.


The beast fears when SFWA lets its white supremacists out of the linen closet.  Where Wright is kind of fun to poke, because I am unregenerate and cruel dwarf and he thinks we live together in Narnia, Beale is a poisonous shit that scars the pipe, disgraces the sewer and shuts the treatment plant down in shame and despair for weeks on end.


The beast fears a lot of other things, things about which the prevailing bestial feeling is hopelessness and rage, and it is not for nothing that the thing about which I can write most is the least relevant to anyone's existence.  It is because I know too little and feel too much despair to talk about things of real substance.

Spring 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!

Originally posted by tithenai at Spring 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!It's been a whirlwind few days weeks months sort of season, but here, after the cold and the heat and the mud and the dry, at last, finally, presently, the Spring 2013 issue is here.

Behold its moist magnificence.





Featuring poems by Nita Sembrowich, Shweta Narayan, Kristin Gulotta, C.S.E. Cooney, Kate Chadbourne, Penny Stirling, Adriana Tosun, Jane Yolen, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Yumi Dineen Shiroma, and Michele Bannister, as well as art by the inimitable Galen Dara, this issue is full of stars and snakes and slipperyness, rivers and witches and hooligans, feathers and ferrymen.

It is a wild and a wondrous drowning to which you are invited.

Enjoy.

Swords Replace Feelings

2700 words down on the second draft.