(no subject)

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James and Sirius, for today an accountant and a dentist, respectively, put the finishing touches on the Haunted Mansion (they had started the night before, and upon finding that in the morning their changes were still there, they had been quite pleased and finished up). Now that the room where the ceiling rose was magicked so that everyone would fit in it and still have plenty of space to move. On top of that, they had magically rewired the loudspeakers to the room, put up some spooky decorations, and even completed it with fake, scary looking ghosts (they had both been quite disappointed in the morning to discover that some of their ruder decorations, including hot, naked ghosts, were removed).

Then, James began to write the letters, and started some music.



Crowley,

We're throwing a party at the Haunted Mansion. Do you think you could provide refreshments? Feel free to come as well.

- James Potter and Sirius Black

Then, identical letters were sent out to everyone in the park.

Hey,

There will be a Halloween party at the Haunted Mansion in New Orlean's Square. Come around and have a great time. Also, if you have drinks or food that you want to bring to share, feel free.

- James Potter and Sirius Black

On the bottom of the paper, there's a witch flying on a broom, actually moving around on the paper.

Comments

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Well," she said thoughtfully, "you might call it one of humanity's 'asking questions will get you into trouble' stories. I'm sure you've come across the pattern - perfect happiness is granted with only one condition, one forbidden mystery. And of course curiosity gets the better of the silly heroine, who has to spend the rest of the story trying to make things right."

"I didn't know, you see, who or what my husband was. I was told I was to be sacrificed - the Oracle had told my parents I was to be given as bride to a winged monster who neither god nor man could withstand. Finding myself scooped up by the wind and taken to a palace full of invisible servants was certainly better than being devoured by a dragon or any of the other horrible fates I was anticipating, but it was still...disconcerting."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

There were so many pear-shaped things about this story that Skaffen-Amtiskaw didn't even know where to begin. In a way, it was almost charming, the story so old and full of fairy-tale tropes. It could have been understood in metaphorical terms as well, or as one of those mythifications of actual historical events (see also Amaterasu, role in origin of Japanese royal family, among many other examples across the galaxy). But here this person (admittedly a person with butterfly wings and a biological scan that made no known sense) was talking about this as if it had actually happened to her --

If the drone had a head, it'd be hurting a lot now.

"I see," it said out loud. "And where does fear enter into it?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Fear was there all along," she said sadly. "I'd been sure something terrible was coming, even before I'd been told I had to be sacrificed. And then my husband came to me, but only at night. And he told me he loved me, and laid with me all night, every night, and I was...so happy, but so terrified. Because he told me I must never try to see him in the light."

She'd set the tub of apples down at her feet a minute ago, but she picked one up now and rolled it between her hands. "That was the condition. And I broke it. My sisters are always cast as the villains for telling me I had to see, for giving me the lamp and telling me he was a monster, that neither I nor the child I carried would be safe until I knew, but...I cannot imagine I could have gone on forever being blissful in ignorance."


"I suppose," she added ruefully, looking up at Skaffen-Amtiskaw, "you would call that a very badly handled example of contact."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

The drone's aura flashed pink, ever so briefly. It was the equivalent of an appreciative snerk.

The archetype and story structure was familiar, of course: the condition which is then broken, and then the heroine has to prove herself, et cetera ad infinitum and oh so primitive (and more than a bit patriarchal). But that just wasn't logical, even if the girl's reactions were entirely psychologically credible, at least in her telling. So Skaffen-Amtiskaw tried to treat it in those terms. It was the easiest way to keep from apoplexy, or the drone equivalent thereof.

"Badly handled indeed," it agreed. "Arbitrary conditions are always asking for trouble, of course. Surely your husband must have realised this...?"

((I fail so hard. >.< Sorry for letting this fall through the cracks.))

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Well...it's sometimes hard, even for me, even after all this time, to understand the way he thinks. But he did say that it was because he preferred me to love him as an equal, not adore him as a god. (Er, he left off that the latter part at the time, of course.) And you know, there really is something in all those stories about mortals not being able to look on the true face of a god without being destroyed. Some people find me frightening."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"Gods", the drone knew, were quite often highly advanced beings who thought it would be fun to mess around with primitive civilisations -- do a few tricks, corner the market on whatever valuable resources were available, and then move along as soon as they'd gotten bored. There'd been at least one case of a renegade Mind that had done that, centuries upon centuries ago, when Contact was still developing its protocols. That had gotten messy before it was all over.

If the drone could have convinced itself that this girl was such a being, along with the other "gods" of which she spoke, it would have felt marginally better about her. Except that didn't completely square with the narrative, did it? Nor with the incredibly aberrant readings it had picked up from her, nor with her apparently unshakeable conviction of her own reality and experience.

The whole business really pissed Skaffen-Amtiskaw off, frankly.

Its aura colour went a deeper grey and took on a slightly metallic sheen. "You, frightening? Can't imagine why. Seems like you've designed yourself to have exactly the opposite effect."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Designed...? Oh, this is just how I looked when I was human. Well, with the addition of the wings, of course, but those just sort of...happened."

((Whoops, accidental delete, there.))

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"Really." Oh, grief, what was it with all this impossible shite? "Not your choice? Or did someone else decide that when they ... changed you?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

She shook her head ruefully. "I think they're best explained as a sort of metaphor made flesh. (Well, sort of flesh, anyway.) I don't think Zeus had anything in particular in mind when he gave me my divinity...well, he said he didn't at the time, and looked rather surprised, though of course now he claims he knew exactly what my Office and Aspect would be. But you might say it's a pun on my name. In Greek, you know, psyche means 'soul' and 'butterfly.'"

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"It fascinates me that your kind are fond of silly puns and wordplay. How very human, really."

It wasn't touching the "metaphor made flesh" thing with a fifty-foot pole.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Well, the two facts are not unconnected. I mean, we are at least in some sense inspired by human understanding."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

Really very much despite itself, the drone was curious about this logic.

"Is it an 'if you didn't exist, humanity would have to invent you' sort of thing? An extremely elaborate chicken-and-egg problem?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Something like that. It's been suggested, in fact, that we're formed and powered by belief. I know of at least one other universe where it does work that way. Which does lead interesting directions in regard to the world's creation. At least, I think they're interesting. Most of the rest of the pantheon just shrugs, although Hermes humors me a little now and then."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

If the drone had a nose and fingers, it'd be pinching the bridge of said nose and wincing hard. The metallic sheen of its aura grew even more marked.

"Do you have any idea," it said wearily, "of just how little logical sense all of this makes?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I don't know that logic has much to say to it either way," she said cheerfully. "Science, now: based on what you've mentioned of your Culture's technology, you're well ahead of any science I'm familiar with...and admittedly, when I'm only using my own head, I'm not too well-versed in science and higher math. The consequences of forming habits of thought before such things were invented. But we did have logic when I was young. And I never thought it intrinsically incompatible with mystery."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"Oh, there's certainly mystery inherent in science," the drone replied. "Even the most determinedly rational Culture citizen will concede that -- science can only go so far to explain the vagaries of sentient thought, emotion, and what have you. However," and here it closed a bit of distance between itself and Psyche, "even the mystery of science doesn't allow for what you are."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche looked mild as the drone pulled closer. "Well, I'm afraid I'm not terribly likely to stop existing simply to oblige your ideas about the universe. Isn't the scientific method about changing theory to square with facts?"

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"I said nothing about anyone ceasing to exist," the drone said, sounding a little miffed. "And you are correct about the scientific method, of course, but the method has its limits in dealing with such blatantly unscientific things as this place. And I do so resent having to file entire classrles of phenomena under the heading of 'it's magic'. I expect you will consider that a character flaw."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Oh - not really," she said. "You know, you needn't call it 'magic.' It's a useful word for some of us, but inexact. What does seem a...I wouldn't say character flaw, but perhaps a mistake? ...is resenting those of us who have inexplicable traits. It seems a misattribution of blame, and unlikely to be helpful to you in the long run."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

Skaffen-Amtiskaw was starting to feel really annoyed now, not least because the girl had a point.

It really didn't want to like her. It really didn't, not one bit.

"Have you always been such a voice of sweet reason?" Snarky choice of words notwithstanding, its tone was about 30% sarcasm and 70% sincere. "Or was that something that happened when you ... changed?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche laughed, surprised but amused. "Nearly always. Not, I assume, when I was very young, as toddlers, for example, are seldom reasonable. But early enough that I can remember it frequently annoying my family. My sisters especially. There was," she added in fond reminiscence, "a fair amount of hair-pulling that went on."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

"That's good to hear," the drone replied. "Because I was beginning to wonder what I found more unsettling: what you are, or your self-possession."

Was that quite possibly a joke? Might the drone's aura have lost some of its steeliness?

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche would like to think so. She smiled, and said, "Oh, that. Well, I let people think that's the result of great age and experience, but if you want the truth, it's mostly self-defense. And I'm not always above using it offensively, either; my parents did rather get the rough edge of my tongue when they were weeping and wailing about me having to be sacrificed."

[skaffenamtiskaw]

The drone tilted slightly. "You seem remarkably disingenuous, sometimes, for a millennia-old goddess. And do you know, I'm beginning to think that's not really an act either."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"It's hard even for me sometimes to say how much of it's an act," was the wry response. "I try to remain the same person I was, which does seem to require a high standard of self-awareness. But that's part of the nature of humanity, isn't it, the way growing up means fashioning raw potential into a persona one feels comfortable regarding as oneself? It's just a little more conscious, in my case."