Monday, September 2, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Fatal Flaw
I just had a hypothetical conversation with Vanyel. I had just asked him whether he had noticed a flaw in his plan. It went something like this:
"Of course I did. I think these things through a lot."
"Sorry. I wasn't sure if you had caught it. I don't think I would have."
"What do you mean? You just pointed it out to me."
"Yes, but I usually don't think the same way about things I've made. It's my Fatal Flaw"
"Your what?"
"Fatal Flaw. The one biggest flaw I have. You have one too."
"What is it?"
"You take everything negative somebody says to you as an insult, and you argue against it."
"What? I don't do that!"
"Not all of the time, but you did it right now, see?"
"That was-"
"Look, it's ok. I have one too, remember?"
"Now that I know my Fatal Flaw, shouldn't I just get rid of it?"
"No! If you cure your Fatal Flaw, what's the point of having a Fatal Flaw in the first place?"
"But aren't Fatal Flaws... you know... bad?"
"No. Your Fatal Flaw is there so that you can forget about it and solve your other flaws. It kinda soaks up the other flaws to become one big, looming flaw."
"And why not get rid of it, too?"
"Because the Fatal Flaw is the hardest to get rid of. It's in your bones, so to speak."
"I see. And is that all they do? Sit around getting bigger until you die?"
"No. You can also see other people more clearly after you've established their Fatal Flaw. Max's Fatal Flaw is that he depends too much on technology. Small Josh's is that he doesn't know the line between funny and annoying, the other Josh's is that he doesn't know the line between funny and insulting or painful. T-bo gets addicted too easily, Alex gets hooked on collecting things too easily, and they both want to share their interests with everybody. The list goes on."
"This conversation just took a rather dark turn."
"Well, the thing is, you can just blame most bad things they do on their Fatal Flaw and go on without feeling that they were mean to you or anything."
"So... what does that achieve?"
"It's a way to instantly forgive someone, and that is a very good skill to have."
"I see. Well, that was interesting."
"Yes, it was. Lunch is almost over."
"That's what I was about to say. Bye!"
"Bye!"
That never actually happened. I'm not brave enough to say things about my friends like that. That's why, every once in a while, I spill my guts out in my imagination. It actually helps. This is the first time I've told this to anybody else, though. Don't tell anyone.
"Of course I did. I think these things through a lot."
"Sorry. I wasn't sure if you had caught it. I don't think I would have."
"What do you mean? You just pointed it out to me."
"Yes, but I usually don't think the same way about things I've made. It's my Fatal Flaw"
"Your what?"
"Fatal Flaw. The one biggest flaw I have. You have one too."
"What is it?"
"You take everything negative somebody says to you as an insult, and you argue against it."
"What? I don't do that!"
"Not all of the time, but you did it right now, see?"
"That was-"
"Look, it's ok. I have one too, remember?"
"Now that I know my Fatal Flaw, shouldn't I just get rid of it?"
"No! If you cure your Fatal Flaw, what's the point of having a Fatal Flaw in the first place?"
"But aren't Fatal Flaws... you know... bad?"
"No. Your Fatal Flaw is there so that you can forget about it and solve your other flaws. It kinda soaks up the other flaws to become one big, looming flaw."
"And why not get rid of it, too?"
"Because the Fatal Flaw is the hardest to get rid of. It's in your bones, so to speak."
"I see. And is that all they do? Sit around getting bigger until you die?"
"No. You can also see other people more clearly after you've established their Fatal Flaw. Max's Fatal Flaw is that he depends too much on technology. Small Josh's is that he doesn't know the line between funny and annoying, the other Josh's is that he doesn't know the line between funny and insulting or painful. T-bo gets addicted too easily, Alex gets hooked on collecting things too easily, and they both want to share their interests with everybody. The list goes on."
"This conversation just took a rather dark turn."
"Well, the thing is, you can just blame most bad things they do on their Fatal Flaw and go on without feeling that they were mean to you or anything."
"So... what does that achieve?"
"It's a way to instantly forgive someone, and that is a very good skill to have."
"I see. Well, that was interesting."
"Yes, it was. Lunch is almost over."
"That's what I was about to say. Bye!"
"Bye!"
That never actually happened. I'm not brave enough to say things about my friends like that. That's why, every once in a while, I spill my guts out in my imagination. It actually helps. This is the first time I've told this to anybody else, though. Don't tell anyone.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
A Brief History of a Fictional Multiverse 1
For the past two years, my friends and I have been giving each other quests to go on and solving the quests. Eventually, we built up an entire universe of quests, overlapping and twisting together. Here is a brief summary of the universe so far:
In the beginning there nothing. Well, that wasn't strictly true. There were many gods and supreme beings, two of which were the DM (played by Vanyel) and his assistant (played by Max).Together they created the universe, starting with Earth and Mars (you might have heard of them). Vanyel populated the Earth with life, and Max started life on mars. There was also a freshly born DM (me) who had traveled there from the future and thus had the ability to travel in time.
On Earth there evolved two sentient forms of life: the Humans (guess who) and the Undead (like humans except when they died they could come back to life at sources of intense magic with Undead remains). For years they lived in peace (mostly because neither of them knew that the other existed,) but then the Humans decided they wanted more land, discovered the Undead, and bands of crusaders were "sent" to kill them or imprison them.
Among these crusaders was a crew that decided to camp out in a ruined temple to avoid the howling wind outside. In the morning, only one crusader was left (played by me) and, using his semi-existant alarm clock and his semi-existant iPhone*, he bravely made his way across the land and crashed into a canyon, where he made friends with a sea dragon, narrowly avoided being killed by the malevolent god E (played by E,) and obtained a fully-existant iPhone with non-exixtant knowledge of how to use it.
While fiddling around with the iPhone, he accidentally played Guile's theme and raised his awesomeness points to Like a Billion. He immediately gained glasses, an AK47-guitar, a fedora-bandana, and a pink-and-perrywinkle raptor that shot lasers out of it's mouth. Incidentally, the malevolent god E had trapped him in a time lock, and when he escaped* he appeared at the beginning of time as a DM. The sea dragon was taken to live on Mars along with a sea minotaur and cthulhu.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst (don't you love that word?) to the crusader, the first escape from the Zombie Prison (an asylum/prison for the Undead) in history was being accomplished. Through one thing or another, a band of five prisoners escaped with a fire glove, a golden door, and 20 mechanical rock crabs made by dwarves*. The prisoners then crossed a hazardous swamp, a town, and part of the potato-filled Void to reach a large castle. There, after one thing and another*, they invented electricity.
And so ends the first epoch of The Universe.
*Long story
In the beginning there nothing. Well, that wasn't strictly true. There were many gods and supreme beings, two of which were the DM (played by Vanyel) and his assistant (played by Max).Together they created the universe, starting with Earth and Mars (you might have heard of them). Vanyel populated the Earth with life, and Max started life on mars. There was also a freshly born DM (me) who had traveled there from the future and thus had the ability to travel in time.
On Earth there evolved two sentient forms of life: the Humans (guess who) and the Undead (like humans except when they died they could come back to life at sources of intense magic with Undead remains). For years they lived in peace (mostly because neither of them knew that the other existed,) but then the Humans decided they wanted more land, discovered the Undead, and bands of crusaders were "sent" to kill them or imprison them.
Among these crusaders was a crew that decided to camp out in a ruined temple to avoid the howling wind outside. In the morning, only one crusader was left (played by me) and, using his semi-existant alarm clock and his semi-existant iPhone*, he bravely made his way across the land and crashed into a canyon, where he made friends with a sea dragon, narrowly avoided being killed by the malevolent god E (played by E,) and obtained a fully-existant iPhone with non-exixtant knowledge of how to use it.
While fiddling around with the iPhone, he accidentally played Guile's theme and raised his awesomeness points to Like a Billion. He immediately gained glasses, an AK47-guitar, a fedora-bandana, and a pink-and-perrywinkle raptor that shot lasers out of it's mouth. Incidentally, the malevolent god E had trapped him in a time lock, and when he escaped* he appeared at the beginning of time as a DM. The sea dragon was taken to live on Mars along with a sea minotaur and cthulhu.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst (don't you love that word?) to the crusader, the first escape from the Zombie Prison (an asylum/prison for the Undead) in history was being accomplished. Through one thing or another, a band of five prisoners escaped with a fire glove, a golden door, and 20 mechanical rock crabs made by dwarves*. The prisoners then crossed a hazardous swamp, a town, and part of the potato-filled Void to reach a large castle. There, after one thing and another*, they invented electricity.
And so ends the first epoch of The Universe.
*Long story
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