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Masks

Started by Nephew Twiddleton, October 17, 2012, 05:30:00 AM

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tyrannosaurus vex

- - - - - THIS POST IS AN APOLOGY FOR MY PART IN TURNING THIS INTRIGUING THREAD INTO A TOOLBOX - - - - -
Evil and Unfeeling Arse-Flenser From The City of the Damned.

Nephew Twiddleton

I knew youd get the ref thats why i figured it was the best response to not having something to say. Anyway providing that im not wiped out when i get home ill revisit the past couple of pages
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Nephew Twiddleton

No worries uncle vex. A nephew tends to be tolerant of a little bit of thread drift.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Don Coyote

Did I accidentally kill thread? :oops:

Nephew Twiddleton

No- i said that i would continue it but i started working on the short story relate to it instead. Then my brain juices were gone.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Q. G. Pennyworth

Once upon a time in a city on the river there lived Humble Lady Ermine and the young Queen Gogira.  Queen Gogira Pennyworth, Dweller in the Sinking Lands, had come to the city from the swamplands to the west, and there she learned the ways of the Goddess: of Jailbreaking and of Barstools, of Grids and Keeping Your Mouth Shut. These things she shared with Humble Lady Ermine, who was in her own lazy way a conduit for strangeness, and a protectress of the slimy things.

And so it was for many months that they lived together in the house of Lady Ermine, and Queen Gogira said unto her hostess "do you even notice the masks you wear?"
"I wear no mask," insisted Lady Ermine.
"Now come on," scolded Queen Gogira. "Don't be an idiot. Listen to yourself when you speak with Doctor Hand, and listen again when you speak with the Baron. You are not the same person. Even when you're here speaking with me, you are wearing a mask."
Lady Ermine reflected on this wisdom. "I suppose you could be right," she admitted. "But what should I do about it?"
"Fucked if I know!" Queen Gogira snorted.
It was a short conversation, and a boring one at that as no one caught fire or anything, but it weighed on Lady Ermine, and she resolved to get to the bottom of her masks and see what they were hiding.

The first mask she found was the Mask of Submission, which she wore among those monkeys that believed they were more powerful than she. It was the mask that spoke in low tones, that apologized for non-offenses, that scraped and groveled and toed the lines. She had never submitted her will to anyone else's, but she had worn the mask to get things done. She cataloged this mask, and put it away.

The second mask she found was the Mask of Authority, which she wore among those monkeys that believed she was more learned than they. It was the mask that explained, that condescended and smirked. It was a smug bastard of a thing, even though she was not. She wore the mask to make others listen to her, and to make herself feel big. She cataloged this mask, and put it away.

The third mask she found was the Mask of Amiability, which she wore among the monkeys that thought she was their friend. It was the mask that laughed and made small talk, that hosted gatherings and smiled broadly. She was often tired, and grumpy, and hungry, and bored, but the mask kept her in their good graces. She cataloged this mask, and put it away.

And so it was that she spent many months, naming and scraping away the things that separated her from the world. And she became difficult to deal with - moody and unpredictable - and so others came to shun her home. But she realized that the Mask of Brooding was another affectation, an archetype she had absorbed from the narratives of others, and so she named and shelved that one as well. She found the Mask of Immaturity, the Mask of Worldliness, the Mask of Indifference and the Mask of the Victim. These things, too, she put away, until at last one night in her house she found the final mask, the Mask of Identity.

"All this time, I have been trying to separate myself from the masks I show others," she said to no one in particular, because though she had already abandoned the Mask of the Mad Genius some habits are really hard to break. "I knew all along that these masks also affect how I see myself, but now I see that even the idea of an identity is itself a mask. The narrative of who I am cakes on my face and hides me as well as any masquerade ball prop. The world is but a masquerade."

She took off the final mask, proud of her enlightenment. She looked in the mirror to learn what she was, and nothing looked back.



They say Humble Lady Ermine lies dreaming, still.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Perfect, QG. So perfect.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Q. G. Pennyworth

Feels good to get it out :)

Nephew Twiddleton

I feel like this should be the theme of an Intermittens if it hasn't been done.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Which brings me back to what ever happened to the "My Face Cracked" or whatever it was called series????
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Man Green on October 19, 2012, 04:13:36 AM
Which brings me back to what ever happened to the "My Face Cracked" or whatever it was called series????

Both you and Teh Grimey mentioned it. I may have missed it, or read it while drunk. I don't recall seeing it.

Can someone bump if they know where it is?


Intermittens has had too much intermission. Matter of fact, I don't recall one being put out, aside from Yatto's aborted attempt, since I joined. Dimo's too, but that's a little more understandable.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Don Coyote

OH SHIT!!!!

I THINK I FEEL THE WOMP BUILDING UP!!!!!!!!!

and now my brain is on fire

Don Coyote

How does this fit in with not confusing the map for the territory?

Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: American Jackal on October 19, 2012, 05:14:21 AM
How does this fit in with not confusing the map for the territory?

The idea is still amorphous, as far as I'm concerned, but as I see it the idea that the projection of persona is not necessarily identical to the personality.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 19, 2012, 05:18:50 AM
Quote from: American Jackal on October 19, 2012, 05:14:21 AM
How does this fit in with not confusing the map for the territory?

The idea is still amorphous, as far as I'm concerned, but as I see it the idea that the projection of persona is not necessarily identical to the personality.

Or further, while you can have a pretty damn accurate map, you cannot have a mask that is not distorted in some way. Every mask, regardless of how many different masks can be made of the same person, will be a caricature, some grotesque, some idealized. But all of them have an inversion. The idealized masks have the blueprint for a grotesque counterpart on the concave side (for the narcissistic) and the grotesque masks have the blueprint for the idealized on the concave (for the perpetually self loathing).


Hmmm...

I hadn't thought of that before, but I like it.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS