{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/339", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 339, "subject": "The Light & Murk", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1997-06-11T00:47:00+00:00", "last": "1997-06-11T00:47:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-06-11T00:47:00+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) The Light & Murk", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #9645979 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET03#\n\nRostum,\n\nThe \"light outside\" is LAKE ch. 10, last page.\n\n\"Craning his neck to look behind him, he saw a thin crescent of\nblinding light at the utmost reach of the plain. At that moment\nit seemed to him that the Outsideer had grasped the entire whorl\nas a man might grasp a stick--grasped it in a hand immensly greater,\nof which no more than the tip of the nail on a single finger had\nappeared.\"\n\nPlease grasp a cylinder--a pencil will do, or a soupcan. No thrusting,\njust rotate it along its axis so that the crescents of your fingernails\nslowly appear over the top. Or, more accurately: look at the can,\nthen grasp it so that just your fingernails appear (i.e., no\nrotation--just grasping). That is how I interpret the passage.\n\nYou write:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "possession grants the possessed person abilities far beyond what\nthe original digitized person was capable of. Are we to believe\nthat Kypris the concubine could throw a knife as Chenille does?\nOr that Typhon the tyrant was able to understand and repair any\nmechanical device as Auk does?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "But your analogy is a bit mix 'n' match: because \"Kypris\" is a minor\ngoddess (of Love and prostitutes, but not specifically \"dagger\nthrowing\") based upon Typhon's un-named mistress, a mortal we know\nnearly nothing about (she's blonde, twenty-three years old, seems put\noff by mass executions, likes parties); Pas is a major god who has\n\"pan mechanical\" power as his job description as creator of the whorl\nbut is based upon Typhon (whom we know has mind control powers, but\nwe don't know if Typhon has supreme engineering skills).\n\nIMHO it isn't \"possession\" so much as it is digital deification\nthat makes the =gods= have possibly different skills than their\nmortal models had; or possibly cross pollination between the gods as\nthey fight and play; but possession would appear to grant powers from\na specific god or goddess rather than open access to a third \"warehouse of\nskills and powers\" party.\n\nFurthermore, I'm sure we can agree that it is one thing to throw a knife\nwell (Kypris in Chenille) and another thing to lead armies (Kypris in\nMint). We might well imagine a prostitute learning the former as defense\nagainst rough customers and criminals; the latter skill, while clearly\nwithin the category of \"martial arts,\" is contextually so far removed from\nthe world of the prostitute that we are at a loss to explain how she would\nlearn it--and we imagine, don't we, that it would be considerably more\nstudy involved than that for knife throwing.\n\nMost of the possessions are murky. Mint is possessed by Kypris, very\nclear and straightforward, but it is a botched operation in that a\nfragment is left behind. How is this different from \"normal\"\npossession? Or am I misremembering it--maybe it was a normal\ntheophany which botched into a possession?\n\n(Then again, a possible vector for the third party \"warehouse of\nskills\" could be the worshippers during a theophany. If the god or\ngoddess really goes into their minds, looks around, and comes back\nout with information, this would offer the god a chance to pick up\nfree new skills. Is there a general in the house during a\ntheophany?)\n\n(Oh ye Gods! Who were all those fellows tumbling with =Hyacinth=?!)\n\n(heh, heh, heh.)\n\n\n\n{Russario: Well, the good news is that mantis continues to find himself\namusing.}\n\nIn any event, Mint didn't parade around as the Goddess Incarnate,\nwhich is how Chenille was while possessed by Scylla. (This could\nwell be just a personal choice on the part of the respective\ngoddesses--Scylla would be that way, after all; and hunted Kypris\nwould be quiet as a churchmouse. ) And the military genius didn't\nbloom until Mint refused to look Echidna in the eye. Before a big\nbattle, Mint sees in her mind's eye \"a naked woman with yellow\nhair--a wild eyed fury . . . wielding a scourge\" (CALDE ch. 5).\n\n\"Yellow hair\" matches Kypris; \"naked woman\" matches Kypris; but \"wild\neyed fury\"? \"Wielding a scourge\"? (\"Ah, yeth--that would be a\nlether known manifethtation--Kyprith the kinky dominatrix.\")\n\nAnd where =is= Sphigx, anyway (whom Silk calls a tawny virago--which\nis a nice way of saying \"yellow haired dominatrix\")? And why hasn't\nanybody seen her since the rebellion, hmm? (I remain curious as\nto this constellation of factoids.)\n\nRe: Hyacinth as a nasty fighter when she needs to be. Fact is, she's\njust plain nasty whenever Silk isn't looking!\n\nRe: Mint the warrior inspired by Kypris as a paragon of either\nsensual pleasures or Christian Love \"exemplified by one who endures\nsuffering for his beloved\"? I'm afraid you've lost me there. The one\nwho endures suffering would be Silk, clearly. Mint is out there meting\nout pain--promoting suffering for her beloved!\n\n=mantis=" } ] } ] }