It's not fully winter yet, is it? I think most spiders go dormant, head indoors, or die in the winter.
I know she's focusing on meditation before getting into serious martial arts, but maybe Dee can knock some sense into Mac regarding the usefulness of weapons proficiency sooner rather than later? Mac has less conflicted feelings about her advice than Amaranth's most of the time. I was rereading the introduction chapter and had completely forgotten that Dee's a martial weapons major.
... and the shocking fun-sized display of violence that had followed when I heard Two’s horribly unmistakable humming out in the hallway.
When I read this, my first thought was "What did I miss? When did we read about Two's humming followed by some fun-sized (or was it full-sized?) display of violence?" So I checked back through several previous chapters, and couldn't find it. Was it left out or deleted?
After a while, it occurred me that maybe there was a comma missing. If it reads "... display of violence that had followed, when I heard Two’s horribly unmistakable humming out in the hallway", then I'd have read those as two different phrases that described separate events happening right now.
The English language can be horribly ambiguous at times. Maybe this is a case where punctuation can help make it more clear. That's assuming that the sentence was intended to describe Two's current humming, not humming that had earlier preceded some display of violence. If not, I'm still puzzled about having apparently missed a violent event (that was perhaps triggered by Two's humming).
"breath is the nearest physical thing to intersection of spirit and body, the least tangible nourishment you take in from the tangible world. When you have control over your breathing, you have control over yourself, body and soul. It is a useful technique for controlling anger, for centering your energy, and for resisting outside compulsions."
This is beautiful and makes me smile... I may at some time Hi-jack this as an opening for meditations. I'll cite you when they wake up, K?
Okay, we need more "Two moments" like that one! Mack was right, it has been a while.
And it looks like Mack has been thinking more about the pitchfork, even if it didn't get "recorded"...
And in light of Dee's recent talk with Teddi, I have to think that she gets some enjoyment from leading Mack and Two in meditation - it's not just a favor that she's doing them, but something that helps her as well. Provides some comfort, I would imagine.
I think it's that she was the last owner. I mean, if you picked up a random baseball or something, lent it to someone else, and they lost it, you'd still think of it as "your" baseball, right? I think this is doubly true for Mack given that the university basically said "Yeah, you're the owner of the pitchfork."
Yes but 'your' baseball didn't cause you to set in motion events that would lead to the death of one person and almost lead to the death of your best friend and yourself.
This is 'The Pitchfork' people! Scary Demony Posessifying Shit Here! But Mack's all, "You found MY Pitchfork? Yay!"
I'm putting this together.... 1. Mack is unsure whether she's coming up on feeding time. 2. As Mack gets closer to feeding time she grows more aggressive and predatory (in a word, Demonic) 3. Pitchy opens up the demon side perhaps even more. 4. Mack is now openly wanting to get 'her pitchfork' back in her hands.
All in all, it pretty much makes sense to me.
What I find even more strange is the fact that after about half a decade of dealing with her feeding cycle and its effects you'd think she would know these things inside and out. But then she wouldn't be Mackenzie.
I don't think she ever did have to deal with the effects of missing a feeding before coming to MU and being on her own - except perhaps when her demon side first awoke. She was given blood from her cousins, regularly, and told to drink it, so she never had to worry about whether it was past time for feeding.
Personal responsibility: Mackenzie has never held any over her feeding, nor does she plan on doing so in any foreseeable future, rather relying on her stupidly, irresponsibly optimistic friends to see to it for her. Hence, she's not on the ball in the matter. The pitchfork? Sure, when someone shoves the issue in her face, Mackenzie will act like she's been thinking about it a lot. Has she however done anything? No. Would she have done anything, given time? No. Is Mackenzie basically willing to inconvenience herself to avoid loss of innocent lives? No. Of course she wants the pitchfork back. From her perspective, nothing bad has come of it. She got herself a nice meal of long pork, and other people took care of any negative minutiae such as the cost.
She's not so much "Yay MY Pitchy!" It sounds more like "Yay, we know where Pitchy is and we can stop it." As for the my, there's probly also a feeling of responsibility included with the ownership.
Sorry, I was referring to this chapter specifically. But in general, I think it's an innocent sort of "mine," one that simply denotes ownership because she was the last to own it. I really don't think she's thinking anything like "A demonic pitchfork to go with my demonic nature and allow me to take over the world."
Exactly, she ISN'T Thinking. This is super-scary Daemonic Mojo in Pitchfork form. I know if I had a cute and cuddly teddy-bear that was mine all mine and was infested with a demonic entity that made it Eat my neighbor's face off I'd be reluctant to claim it when it turned-up in lost-and-found, promises of it being 'well and truely purged of all demonicness, really!' notwithstanding.
I think she's about as worried as I would be, and am delightfully ambiguous on whether it's "my pitchfork" because of Evil Magics or because Mack's taking responsibility for the thing...although I tend toward the former.
I really do hope that these meditation sessions continue as a regular thing - whether or not we get to see them written out every time, they're really very fun to read when we do get them.
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March 2 2009, 18:40:01 UTC 3 years ago
It's not fully winter yet, is it? I think most spiders go dormant, head indoors, or die in the winter.
I know she's focusing on meditation before getting into serious martial arts, but maybe Dee can knock some sense into Mac regarding the usefulness of weapons proficiency sooner rather than later? Mac has less conflicted feelings about her advice than Amaranth's most of the time. I was rereading the introduction chapter and had completely forgotten that Dee's a martial weapons major.
March 2 2009, 19:21:13 UTC 3 years ago
Hee
“That’s called superstition,” Two said, nodding knowledgably. “Which is when something is stupid but you do it anyway.”I giggled.
“That’s a pretty good definition of superstition,” I said. “Did your friend Hazel tell you that?”
“No, I figured it out for myself and my friend Hazel told me I was right,” Two said.
“That’s pretty clever,” I said.
“I think you and Amaranth must have a lot of superstitions,” Two said. “And Steff, too.”
-
I love Two's whole attitude to things. :D And Mack stepped right into that one.
March 2 2009, 19:59:54 UTC 3 years ago
confusing sentence?
... and the shocking fun-sized display of violence that had followed when I heard Two’s horribly unmistakable humming out in the hallway.When I read this, my first thought was "What did I miss? When did we read about Two's humming followed by some fun-sized (or was it full-sized?) display of violence?" So I checked back through several previous chapters, and couldn't find it. Was it left out or deleted?
After a while, it occurred me that maybe there was a comma missing. If it reads "... display of violence that had followed, when I heard Two’s horribly unmistakable humming out in the hallway", then I'd have read those as two different phrases that described separate events happening right now.
The English language can be horribly ambiguous at times. Maybe this is a case where punctuation can help make it more clear. That's assuming that the sentence was intended to describe Two's current humming, not humming that had earlier preceded some display of violence. If not, I'm still puzzled about having apparently missed a violent event (that was perhaps triggered by Two's humming).
March 2 2009, 20:09:07 UTC 3 years ago
Re: confusing sentence?
I think she was thinking of Hazel's attack on Sara and Tara, and the sentence is just ambiguous.March 2 2009, 20:21:47 UTC 3 years ago
This is beautiful and makes me smile... I may at some time Hi-jack this as an opening for meditations. I'll cite you when they wake up, K?
March 2 2009, 21:47:48 UTC 3 years ago
March 2 2009, 22:11:08 UTC 3 years ago
March 2 2009, 22:01:58 UTC 3 years ago
To relieve an otherwise
Humdrum existence
Even when Dee finds
The pitchfork she won't be out
Of the woods just yet
When you read the signs
Some very superstitious
Writing's on the wall
March 3 2009, 05:56:20 UTC 3 years ago
Last haiku...
Bad Zathras, bad!;)
March 2 2009, 22:04:04 UTC 3 years ago
And it looks like Mack has been thinking more about the pitchfork, even if it didn't get "recorded"...
And in light of Dee's recent talk with Teddi, I have to think that she gets some enjoyment from leading Mack and Two in meditation - it's not just a favor that she's doing them, but something that helps her as well. Provides some comfort, I would imagine.
March 3 2009, 00:26:27 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 01:43:46 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 03:01:42 UTC 3 years ago
This is 'The Pitchfork' people! Scary Demony Posessifying Shit Here! But Mack's all, "You found MY Pitchfork? Yay!"
March 3 2009, 04:39:27 UTC 3 years ago
1. Mack is unsure whether she's coming up on feeding time.
2. As Mack gets closer to feeding time she grows more aggressive and predatory (in a word, Demonic)
3. Pitchy opens up the demon side perhaps even more.
4. Mack is now openly wanting to get 'her pitchfork' back in her hands.
All in all, it pretty much makes sense to me.
What I find even more strange is the fact that after about half a decade of dealing with her feeding cycle and its effects you'd think she would know these things inside and out. But then she wouldn't be Mackenzie.
March 3 2009, 05:58:37 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 07:10:24 UTC 3 years ago
Hence, she's not on the ball in the matter.
The pitchfork? Sure, when someone shoves the issue in her face, Mackenzie will act like she's been thinking about it a lot. Has she however done anything? No. Would she have done anything, given time? No. Is Mackenzie basically willing to inconvenience herself to avoid loss of innocent lives? No.
Of course she wants the pitchfork back. From her perspective, nothing bad has come of it. She got herself a nice meal of long pork, and other people took care of any negative minutiae such as the cost.
March 3 2009, 05:51:07 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 20:02:33 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 22:25:33 UTC 3 years ago
March 4 2009, 03:55:47 UTC 3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
March 3 2009, 02:14:18 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 01:47:58 UTC 3 years ago
March 3 2009, 04:35:23 UTC 3 years ago
Oh Snap...
“Perhaps you should repeat that sentence aloud a few times,” Dee said, her lip twitching towards a smile.She's just showing all kinds of emotion other thar Apologetic recently. Ragen contempt, and now friendly jibes...I wub my Dee!!
March 3 2009, 04:49:55 UTC 3 years ago
Re: Oh Snap...
Yes, that line made me laugh out loud.March 3 2009, 17:39:44 UTC 3 years ago
TYPO Time
The second paragraph ends with "thedoor." This seems to be missing a space.