All You Do 2015-02-04

[Atomic]

For all the deep thinking about Thymbris and Tsillah, and their influence(s) on mythology, theology, and the ascent of civilization, has anybody simply considered "Comedy Relief?"

Abbot and Costello, maybe?

[meisdadoo]

I see what you did there Library...

Just... ouch.

The Library has just been accused of:
1. using people, not for their talents,
2. using people not to better themselves,
3. Using people for their weaknesses; and for letting them trip and fall for its own ends.
4. never trusting people to work with the library--keeping secrets.

The accuser is in for a rude awakening. The library (much like a certain phonebooth) is not limited by time or space, and it is aware of everything written (or to be written).
It always uses people that have the talents necessary for the task, to do otherwise would not work. So point one is moot.
The people it uses generally end up being better persons from the experience. The strongest steel goes through the hottest fire. So much for point 2.
Everyone has weaknesses, but by tripping and falling those weaknesses can become our greatest strengths--point 3 is debunked.
If anyone had told Shelly that she would have to stab her best friend in the head she would not have listened to another word. If Katherine had known the mental anguish Atsali would experience by having the entire Lanthian consciousness pass through her mind would she have ever taken her out of the library?
While the library does tend to keep secrets, it pretty much has to--even if it didn't, would you want to know the ending before you started. Nadette doesn't seem to enjoy it much. So much for point number 4.

Last, but not least, you have just insulted your mother and hurt her feelings. Methinks this will have a lasting effect on your relationship.

'nuff said.

[Catawampus]

The Wrath of Tsillah has been awakened. I wonder what she is storming off to do now. Beware, Library!

It is funny how long it take Thymbris to realize what her daughter said.

Or perhaps she was just stunned and didn't know how to respond to her daughter's comment.

Takes one to know one, Tsillah.

I don't think she sees it, though...

I get the feeling that she has no idea that people see her as bubble-headed... but she had no difficulty seeing it in her mom...

Hmmm. I dunno, I see some rather distinct differences among the three of them.

Tsillah can actually be organised and efficient and focused, even if she does tend to see everything as a fun adventure. She wants everybody to have fun and be happy and tries to help them be that way, not quite comprehending that trying to push others into how she thinks that they ought to be might cause resentment.

Thymbris seems to have a difficult time even focusing on what's going on around her. She might not be able to concentrate long enough to manipulate somebody. It's too early yet to say much about what she's like.

The Library is somewhat enigmatic in its plans and goals. It tries to actively collect and safeguard all knowledge; whether this is its end goal or merely a step towards some other goal hasn't been made clear. It's also questionable whether or not it really has the well-being of those who it manipulates as a priority. It apparently is aware of the thoughts and feelings of others, but doesn't seem to care about that.

She told Tina she didn't want to spend time with Georgette, because she didn't like seeing in Jet her own shortcomings and having her nose rubbed in it (can't find the link, looked long enough, no time to search)

February 8th 2010. My connection is slow, so I don't feel like going into the archives to find the url.

I wonder how her Daddy handled the things Thymbris would do on a day-to-day basis?

Apparently well enough to produce Tsillah and possibly Nudge.

Uhh... I'm thinking fade to black here. Most likely she asked the question too softly.

Considering Tsillah's ears, I don't know if there is such a thing as something being said too softly.

For all the deep thinking about Thymbris and Tsillah, and their influence(s) on mythology, theology, and the ascent of civilization, has anybody simply considered "Comedy Relief?"

They're certainly that, but just because somebody is comic relief doesn't mean that there's no depth or other purpose to their character.

[AnotherFairportfan]

If Katherine had known the mental anguish Atsali would experience by having the entire Lanthian consciousness pass through her mind would she have ever taken her out of the library?

Minor nitpick - Atsali took Katherine out of the Library, before she could protest effectively.

[AnotherFairportfan]

February 8th 2010. My connection is slow, so I don't feel like going into the archives to find the url.

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/something-in-myself/

[illiad]

hmmm, do paranormals suffer from the bad effects of extreme old age??? bad memory, loss of basic mental agility, low attention span, total compulsiveness...

[zachariah]

hmmm, do paranormals suffer from the bad effects of extreme old age??? bad memory, loss of basic mental agility, low attention span, total compulsiveness...

No. They are immortal and if they suffered from senility the who Parthenon would by now be wandering around asking "Who are you?". Or Zues throwing a lighting bolt and then wonders why did he do that. I suspect that if they did start forgetting they would cease to exist as they could not maintain their form or power.

Indications are that some have been around for over 100,000 years at a minimum. Probably longer as we really have no idea how they actually came into existence. Mostly likely they were aspects of the universe that gained awareness somehow and took on form and intelligence. Once humans showed up they wanted to play with the new toys and took on human forms. A lot of the paras below Titan level seem to come from greek mythos mostly with some going back further. We do know that Lantan predates Greek by a fair amount of time. From a comment from Phix Nudge may predate the Titans. Nudge angered the elder gods who imprisoned Nudge in the Library.

[Gyrrakavian]

Her job is likely managing the purgatory clerks and filing system. Souls end up waiting for the paperwork to be completed. that way her skills become an asset!

Hmmm. I wonder what the chances would be of her committing some sort of Misfile.

Thankfully she'd be in charge of the dead, not the living.

[Gyrrakavian]

hmmm, do paranormals suffer from the bad effects of extreme old age??? bad memory, loss of basic mental agility, low attention span, total compulsiveness...

No. They are immortal and if they suffered from senility the who Parthenon would by now be wandering around asking "Who are you?". Or Zues throwing a lighting bolt and then wonders why did he do that. I suspect that if they did start forgetting they would cease to exist as they could not maintain their form or power.

Indications are that some have been around for over 100,000 years at a minimum. Probably longer as we really have no idea how they actually came into existence. Mostly likely they were aspects of the universe that gained awareness somehow and took on form and intelligence. Once humans showed up they wanted to play with the new toys and took on human forms. A lot of the paras below Titan level seem to come from greek mythos mostly with some going back further. We do know that Lantan predates Greek by a fair amount of time. From a comment from Phix Nudge may predate the Titans. Nudge angered the elder gods who imprisoned Nudge in the Library.

Depends on the source.
Bernadette (the grim reaper) in Death Vigil has forgotten A LOT of things.

[illiad]

I am thinking it is Thymbris who has a bit of that... a bit like this old guy
http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/comic/gws-1982/

[ShirouZhiwu]

Somehow I would expect people over a century old that don't suffer from old age would behave something like Thymbris much of the time as you don't have to be all serious all the time to accomplish awesomeness. I wouldn't be surprised if Thymbris was looking for a way to strand the two of them at the library because she understood the need for the two girls to go it on their own. The Library just provided the means.

[Atomic]

... because (Thymbris) understood the need for the two girls to go it on their own. The Library just provided the means.

Everybody needs a victory of some kind, if only to look back upon and remember a good day. Thymbris may be much more cunning than she appears!

[lake_wrangler]

... because (Thymbris) understood the need for the two girls to go it on their own. The Library just provided the means.

Everybody needs a victory of some kind, if only to look back upon and remember a good day. Thymbris may be much more cunning than she appears!

It clearly wouldn't take much...

[zachariah]

In order for a being to be immortal, or appearing to be immortal, means their physical body must be either incapable of injury, or degrading; or capable of maintaining itself perpetually. The Golem girls are example of indestructible, Phix is an example of self healing. If an APO was indestructible then they could not kill and eat each other. Monica is an exception due to her form or immortal self heals but at time of death rather than continually and is not typical of immortals.
For either type of immortal the wearing out of the brain old age forgetfulness cannot happen as it will mean they are not immortal. Monica can suffer from old age as her immortality depends on dieing and then being renewed. So Thymbris is not suffering from old age. It's just that her mental abilities were quiet limited when she was created, or born. It is also likely that this is natural to nymphs as well. After all Nymphs are basic nature spirits who take the characteristics of the nature element they sprang from. A tree nymph would take her abilities based upon the tree. I suspect Thymbris is a water Nymph. She flows easily, is very changeable, it's hard to keep her out of places. If so then she probably has the smarts of water and what little she had has run down the drain by now. So being left up the creek by Thymbris has to be a very common occurrence.

[shadowinthelight]

I suspect Thymbris is a water Nymph.

Curious person: "So why did you hook up with Thymbris if you think she is so dumb?"
Charon: "Someone told me she was a nymph and I thought they said something slightly different."

[Catawampus]

In order for a being to be immortal, or appearing to be immortal, means their physical body must be either incapable of injury, or degrading; or capable of maintaining itself perpetually. The Golem girls are example of indestructible, Phix is an example of self healing. If an APO was indestructible then they could not kill and eat each other. Monica is an exception due to her form or immortal self heals but at time of death rather than continually and is not typical of immortals.
For either type of immortal the wearing out of the brain old age forgetfulness cannot happen as it will mean they are not immortal. Monica can suffer from old age as her immortality depends on dieing and then being renewed.

There is a difference between “immortal” and “long-lived”, even if both can seem the same from an observer's practical standpoint. To a hamster, its human owner might appear to be immortal: the human was apparently always around, has been essentially unchanging as far as the hamster can tell during its three whole years of life, and still continues on after the hamster dies.

The golems are apparently indestructible. Phix (and perhaps Nudge now?) is also apparently indestructible so long as she remains in the Library. Monica is destructible, but reloads* back to her stored condition. So those individuals and a few others can, as far as we can tell, be around relatively unchanging forever (though doing that could get unpleasant in Monica's case). Everybody else might just have very, very long lifespans and haven't reached the end of them yet. Shelly, Tsillah, Charon, Bia, Euryale, Thymbris. . .give them another hundred thousand years and they might die of old age. To human history in our relatively brief time seeing them, their bodies/substance may seem unchanging and perfectly maintained, just as a hamster might not see much change in you over the course of its entire hamstery existence of a couple of years. But from your own perspective looking back over your life, you can see that you've changed and that you might not be as fit as you used to be.

We've seen that for at least some of the naturally-occurring long-lived paranormals, they have childhoods and grow up. This would require their bodies and brains to be changeable. And if their minds weren't changeable, then they'd be unable to learn anything new. There's no particular reason to think that at some point their body becomes immutably locked into an incorruptible form, or that their mind can't lose some of what it has gained. We've only been introduced to a very tiny fraction of the potentially immortal ancient mythological beings that we could have seen; perhaps Set or Mercury is sitting in some paranormal retirement home, staring blankly at the wall and muttering to himself and needing his diapers changed.

Even if the physical self was eternal and the mind functioning as perfectly as ever, that doesn't mean that something superficially similar to senility can't happen. The brain only has a limited amount of physical space and material in it. Who knows what happens when thousands of years' worth of memories have filled it up? Do earlier memories get dropped to make room for newer ones? Do newer memories just have a harder time being formed, having to cross some threshold of memorableness? And just imagine the sheer difficulty of trying to process such a large collection of stored information.

* I had a sudden thought of a new Wachowski-produced film trilogy: The Monica, The Monica Reloaded, and then The Monica Revolutions. Perhaps the latter could be about the time loops. Or about the dangers of pirouettes when not wearing a bra.