Just a vampire 2012-12-20

[lake_wrangler]

But, well, You know? Brandi, imho is an Aspi, and Aspi's have a habit of talking in their own way, blurting stuff out, not realizing that everybody around them just went gobsmacked, or wet their pants. (Takes one to know one )

Would that be the Advanced SCSI Programming Interface, or the Australian Strategic Policy Institute?


Yeah, yeah, I know... you probably meant it as short for Asperger's syndrome...

[Aleister Crow]

In that last frame, if you didn't know the characters, you could almost swear Pratt was Brandi's kid sister.

[TheDOCTOR]

You know I could get all Theological and compare the phrase : "I'm just a Vampire" with "I'm just a Fisherman", in the New Testament - but I won't - even if it is the Christmas season.
But what I will ask is , Is it just me, or could Brandi pass for Lily's (Agent Pratts) Mom? Just askin'.

[Haylo]

I live in a city full of hills, where they used to mine a mineral that forms crystals of crude semiconductor (it was still used for very sensitive diodes when I was just learning electronics). Bad reception still happens, even now with towers on every horizon; and when cell phones and even pagers were new they just didn't work here (and what was worse, the phone companies would sell them for use here and often collect full price for zero service until you cancelled). Dead areas aren't just historical artifacts.

[Yamara]

We interrupt this program about the Mapimí Silent Zone for this shouting from our sponsor...


T MINUS 1.

12.19.19.17.19 3 KAWAK 2 KANKIN

THIS IS THE DAY THE THIRD CREATION ENDED.
THIS IS THE DAY THE FOURTH CREATION ENDS.

THE ROUND HAS PASSED THE CIRCLE STANDS COMPLETE AND HE SHALL RETURN AND

HE SHALL RULE ONCE AGAIN

NO LONGER WILL HIS BROTHER HOLD THE WHEEL OF THE SKY
NO LONGER WILL THE GLACIER HOLD BACK THE TORRENT
ALL WILL MELT AND ALL WILL BOIL
AND HIS BROTHER SHALL BE CAST OUT INTO THE DARKNESS
AS HE RULES ATOP THE SUN

HIS FLOCK AND HIS KIND COME IN HIS TRAIN, TO DANCE AND MOCK AS THE PUPPETS MADE OF CORN WITHER BENEATH THEM

THEIR SONG REACHES WITHIN TO BOIL AND SHRIVE THE MIND

THEY SING ALL PRAISE TO HIM AND NONE CAN STAY HIS HOUR

HEAR HIM

HEAR HIM NOW AS HIS THROAT OPENS UPON THE BURNING THRONE

[chibichibi01]

An explanation that launches me out of the confusion corner and back into reality.

Woot!


Also a little late but...

NOON OF THE FINAL DAY
12 HOURS REMAIN.

[Atomic]

NOON OF THE FINAL DAY
12 HOURS REMAIN.

Well then! I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!

[kingklash]

Brandi apparently feels that she is such a superb manipulative "chessmaster" that she could deliberately manipulate a person into a situation where that person would voluntarily do great harm to him/herself.

I don't think we've ever actually seen Brandi do that... but we don't know if she has actually done anything like it in the past. She may be speculating, or giving a warning based on cold hard knowledge and memory.

As to selecting Lily and Suzi, I wonder if Brandi set things in motion that created them in the first place so she could use them later? Heck, she could have manipulated things such that they were born (correct genetic mix?) and their eventual transformation.

As to the skinning comment. She either likes to rattle people with talk like that (it's not the first time she said something like that after all) or, as has been suggested, is recalling a past incident. It may be not all her plans went quite right and someone paid a high price for her failure. Worse still, it did go right! Yuck! Interesting, perhaps even titillating, but yuck!

Paul has never stated this directly, to my knowledge, but insofar as they have weaknesses susceptible to demonic elements, Bud and Brandi's Chimeric aspects seem to favor surrendering to, respectively, Rage and Despair. Bud has a lot of stubborn common sense from her core personality to handle her explosive Ragey side, but by Brandi's own admission, Despair is a much deadlier burden. It's the imagining of everything that could wrong and giving into it.

Brandi's leonine aspect is the very image of Despair. And in Spenser's Faerie Queene, the personification of Despair nearly makes short work of the heroes, by nearly convincing them to kill themselves:

XXXIX
Who travels by the wearie wandring way,
To come unto his wished home in haste,
And meetes a flood, that doth his passage stay,
Is not great grace to helpe him over past,
Or free his feet that in the myre sticke fast?
Most envious man, that grieves at neighbours good,
And fond, that joyest in the woe thou hast,
Why wilt not let him passe, that long hath stood
Upon the banke, yet wilt thy selfe not passe the flood?

XL
He there does now enjoy eternall rest
And happy ease, which thou dost want and crave,
And further from it daily wanderest:
What if some little paine the passage have,
That makes fraile flesh to feare the bitter wave?
Is not short paine well borne, that brings long ease,
And layes the soule to sleepe in quiet grave?
Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please.

To be able to come back from being an infamous manipulator, though? That's the work of a few lifetimes. Brandi can't even suggest buying an ice cream without rousing suspicions.

See? Now you're wondering what's in that latte popsicle...

But Pratt needs to see things in another way entirely. If Brandi wanted Despair to sweep the world, it would be child's play for her. She wants to oppose that force: and inspire Confidence. In the Calendar ritual, she was sounding like a clueless hippie talking about it. But in fact it is one of the most difficult and vital things in the universe to attain.

I tell people there is a lot of merit in that whole "Taking stand against a sea of Troubles. And by Opposing, end them." business.

[jwhouk]

To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub.

[Dave]

Brandi's comment seems to confirm that the Βιβλιοθήκη itself is sentient, rather than just being some sort of robotic mechanism under the control of a sentient being or beings. Not too surprising, but I think it's the first direct statement we've seen to that effect.

We know that something or someone spoke to Phix and Nudge and Monica, and then Nudge addressed the Βιβλιοθήκη directly and it retrieved Nudge from the pool-o'-lava, but this seems to be the first time that all the dots and lines have been connected together.

I wonder what "class" of being it is, and how tightly tied its presence and sentience are to the material aspects of the Library (shelves, books, buildings, self-rebuilding walls, self-mopping floors, and the like)? Is it its own interior decorator, or does it "hire out"?

[MerchManDan]

Funny thing noone referenced this strip http://wapsisquare.com/comic/what-was-that/ yesterday. Makes so much sense now.

Brandi thought someone found a Vimana Cell & knocked out the World Grid? That would be pretty upsetting, considering the trouble she went through to set it up.

[Julie]

But Pratt needs to see things in another way entirely. If Brandi wanted Despair to sweep the world, it would be child's play for her. She wants to oppose that force: and inspire Confidence. In the Calendar ritual, she was sounding like a clueless hippie talking about it. But in fact it is one of the most difficult and vital things in the universe to attain.

Ooo...thanks for linking that page. I'd nearly forgotten that it was my favorite Jin image.

[bmonk]

Brandi's comment seems to confirm that the Βιβλιοθήκη itself is sentient, rather than just being some sort of robotic mechanism under the control of a sentient being or beings. Not too surprising, but I think it's the first direct statement we've seen to that effect.

We know that something or someone spoke to Phix and Nudge and Monica, and then Nudge addressed the Βιβλιοθήκη directly and it retrieved Nudge from the pool-o'-lava, but this seems to be the first time that all the dots and lines have been connected together.

I wonder what "class" of being it is, and how tightly tied its presence and sentience are to the material aspects of the Library (shelves, books, buildings, self-rebuilding walls, self-mopping floors, and the like)? Is it its own interior decorator, or does it "hire out"?

It also seems able to judge intention, and to intervene to rescue its chief librarians--again, that does not require intelligence, but it seems plausible and advantageous.

[lake_wrangler]

"...set events in motion that could end with a woman skinning herself..."?

Hello?

Am i forgetting something, or is that just there to creep us out?

You dáre talk about "creeping us out" with an avatar like You currently have????? *shudder* (never mind what that smile did to that poor dentist)

But, well, You know? Brandi, imho is an Aspi, and Aspi's have a habit of talking in their own way, blurting stuff out, not realizing that everybody around them just went gobsmacked, or wet their pants. (Takes one to know one )

*Catching up on archives*


So, Fairportfan, how do you like your smile?

[illiad]

An explanation that launches me out of the confusion corner and back into reality.

Woot!


Also a little late but...

NOON OF THE FINAL DAY
12 HOURS REMAIN.

hmmmmmm, STILL here then??????
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20712815

[illiad]

I wonder what "class" of being it is, and how tightly tied its presence and sentience are to the material aspects of the Library (shelves, books, buildings, self-rebuilding walls, self-mopping floors, and the like)? Is it its own interior decorator, or does it "hire out"?

I think the main view, is that the massive quantity of books add up to its consciousness.. there must be a lot of books on house repair, cleaning, filing, mixed in with various magic books, that make light of the many tasks needed....