Angels and Demons
06/11/2009 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeina
Izzie's finally gotten into the Nano Zone after struggling over a steaming keyboard over the last few days
Confirmed beyond all possible doubt that plotting and scheming is best done on trains, under oak trees and in pretty gardens and never ever while staring at the screen while the demons of procrastination whisper sweet tomorrows in the serpent skull
Managed to get more words in this day than the last 3 combined but more importantly had lots of fun while writing them. The score would have been much higher if not for having to lurk and linger downstairs for a couple of hours while waiting for the pesky plumber
(the laptop battery is now a zombie with no juice at all)
The magic moment was picking four tarot cards to tell the story of a visit to a very spooky underground cavern. Got to find out what Dearest Dolores would be doing while down there
She thinks she can outwit the devil and get something for nothing.
If you don't believe that souls exist then selling yours in return for some diabolical favour could seem like a good idea. And so it was until the Jam Jar turned up. It's got a little gold base that's really a scales so the devil can use it to weigh a potential soul to see if he's getting value for money or not.
He has now put her on a program for capital gains for her soul - a sort of exercise regime and it is a rather nasty one indeed. A fussy old fellow is Phistomel ;)
It's funny - first peek at the Dark Grimoire deck - was a sense of mystery about the story on every card - they make you just want to wonder what is going to happen next and where to find the bodies
So using them for that very purpose is just perfect. As creepy Cthulhu has got distant relatives in other magical and fantasy worlds, it's easy to tweek a bit.
And so many of the cards have got books in them which makes it just perfect for this serpents' purposes
They are uncannily similar to the characters in the world of the gorgeous picture book "The Arrival" by Sean Tan - mind you - calling it a picture book is a bit like calling a Vermeer or Rembrandt a painting. There's all the grey and sepia faded colours, late 1890s kind of settings and of course - lots of creeping curly tentacles
There's not really a plan emerging yet. A mystery murder in macabre circumstances has taken a sudden twist. Did not know who the perpetrator was going to be until today and now we can kill a bunch of birds with one stone and have one hell of a gold paved Road to Damascus moment
Here's hoping that it's going to get easier now after the first week rather than harder.
It is one seriously strange adventure indeed
But the most fascinating thing of all apart from watching the twists and turns of the tale take on a life of their own is to dish out four cards for each chapter and see just how often you can link them one after the other to make a reasonable story line
After all there's only so much time that can be sent on description and background details before things actually have to start happening
no subject
Date: 2009-11-08 05:17 pm (UTC)The Book of Lies
Date: 2009-11-09 05:03 am (UTC)It will be fun to do the post mortems in December and catch up on all the gossip
Will be going to a concert later today so the Cat will not be getting any serpent morsels today
But the snatched ritual that served as a catalyst in the original has now transformed into something that would most likely NOT meet M a's approval.
Somehow cannot see the Unsealing of the Soul ritual ever being adopted by the SCC ;)
And Izzie is wondering about just who her muse may be. There's rather more fire, scars and suffering in this story than we ever imagined when starting it
Yessss - it's acceptable because Dolores is on the receiving end of most of it
So far....
Oh and a new title and provisional first line
"Someone has been telling lies about Dolores X...."
Oh and we likes Trash Stone and their nasty horrid hateful music. Sabotage is always fun
But which muggle group is appearing in a Cthulhu incarnation?
Been reading a Lovecraft anthology. While the writing at times is a bit old fashioned and verbose - Izzie loves his wicked world and has already adopted one of his rats as a pet for Dolores (we have called him Riemann Jenkin)
After all - snatching from one source is plagiarism - snatching from many is research ;)
We likes how he so often uses the device of the logical and rational white coated narrator who dismisses all thoughts of other worldliness but soon has to face a few cold creepy facts
And how many Cthulhu original stories are there out there? Seems to be an awful lot of fan fic out there to be possibly based on just one tale
Re: The Book of Lies
Date: 2009-11-09 05:05 am (UTC)It should have been of course
Thanksssss. Sorry for NOT squiggling much lately online with the Cat but you are in the same boat too.
Re: The Book of Lies
Date: 2009-11-09 10:10 am (UTC)Wh00t, I already approve of the ritual :D I hope that everything remains manageable :) After all, this had also started as fiction ;)
Cthulhu=Tiamat, because both of them are dark deities, and Cthulhu is considered a patron deity of geeks and sysadmins (in contemporary Russian folklore, anyway :) I suppose the other band name is pretty obvious.
Actually, I'm not a fan of Lovecraft, I've tried to read some stories but the writing style is too difficult to get into. I love the modern adaptations though, such as the IF-game "Anchorhead".
Enjoy the concert! (even if it's your favourite doom&gloom style :)
Re: The Book of Lies
Date: 2009-11-10 08:17 pm (UTC)Oh yesss - it's spooky where a story can take you and of course the eternal dilemma of wondering where imagination ends and external reality begins
As for the rituals and things - the serpent's excuse is that the devil made her do it!
Isn't it scary just how much the magical, geek and writing worlds have in common
That's another reason to love Andrieh Vitimus' book - the only thing that matters is that an entity exists in one or more minds - baving a physical incarnation is merely an optional extra
He sees invoking Spock as a totally logical and natural thing to do and not a sign that you meed a one way ticket to the funny farm
Oh and Izzie hates google docs with a passion - not sure if it is them or firefox but constantly having the stupid screen freezing and beachballs spinning after typing only five words or so is most definitely not conducive to creativity
Most miffed indeed - was on a roll and in the zone and was constrained not by lack of words to write but by the constant waiting
Agrees about Mr C. Must be his writing style or something - very archaic
Wondering since he seems to be such a cult figure in Russian circles - have you folks got more modern translations?
But the whole idea of otherworldly creatures living amongst us in different dimensions and speaking through dreams is really spooky and cool
Dolores keeps insisting that her meetings with the devil are dreams, nightmares or bad hangovers in spite of certain inconvenient artifacts that are just a bit difficult to explain away
You'll find out about this mysterious object in chapter 4
You'll find out just what
Re: The Book of Lies
Date: 2009-11-14 08:22 am (UTC)pottering around cafes with the eenie meemie pc
Even evil Pistomel would not inllict the unberable torture of typing 50,000 words on this infernal keboard
seriously painful