Threads of the World
Nov. 30th, 2024 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeRawlin: Bob asked me to write this up, so I will.
Other people here have called me a "reality-warper" or a "super-wizard," but that's exaggeration. What I really am (for lack of a better metaphor) is a weaver.
Everyone native to this vessel, to this place, has a specialty that reflects their temperament and core aptitudes. Sneak's, for instance, is obviously generativity, in the sunlight sense; it's why ze creates objects so effortlessly, why ze has the most creative ideas, and why ze can heal. Rogan's specialty is endurance; it's why his works are so solid and why he can take so much damage (which, contrary to what the others apparently thought, he doesn't heal preternaturally fast, merely buries and numbs). Gigi's is stealth--the ability to avoid notice, get into places nobody else can, and to sedate others so they can't notice her. Butch's is... I don't know what to call it but fire. I have no idea what Miranda's specialty is, only that she most assuredly has one.
My specialty, all the things I do, are really just working with the strands and cords that this living tapestry they call "headspace" is made of. There are loose strands, which haven't been woven into anything specific yet, and fixed ones, which have. Loose threads, I can do very little with; it's why I'm a terrible creator. The act of creation--every time anyone here makes or "conjures" an object--what they're truly doing is pulling loose strands and weaving them into an object at high speed. I can see them doing it, if I'm paying close enough attention and have nothing distracting me; if I close my nictitating membranes and focus, I can see them as glowing cords of light. Banishment is unraveling those threads so they release and rejoin the gestalt.
My specialty is reading and reworking fixed strands, things already woven into substance. Banishing and recreating my gloves is hard; transforming them is easy. Opening a world door is merely parting the threads of this tapestry to open to a new one.
This whole place is alive and the defining line between object and person here is blurry, so we too are made of these threads... and yes, they too can be manipulated. The skills I am most infamous for--body puppetry, compelling--are just weaving with people, rather than items, and I'm not the only person who can do it. For example, Rogan's wings are the result of his weave being forcibly broken and reworked by one of our attackers, not that she understood what she was doing. My own body is the product of decades of reworking by the god that consumed me, which has left residual effects, most notably enduring life.
Although the examples of people-weaving I mention are cruel ones, these skills can also be used consensually for kinder purposes--I can seek out cord-knots of pain and try to undo them, for instance, or forcibly calm myself in a crisis. But due to my past history, we are all very gun-shy about it. Nobody wants Jack the Ripper to perform surgery on them.
People who aren't born to this place (Mac, Biff, Bob, and Grace) lack these specialties and aptitudes. They are operating with a handicap here, though they too can build skills based on temperament. Grace, for instance, built a very solid porch swing; that tells me she is a very patient, strong-willed, hardworking person. (Hers are the only works I've had the opportunity to witness firsthand.)
There are certain facets of Rogan's perception that have apparently baffled (and fascinated) Bob for years. I was able to explain to him why Rogan doesn't need to be looking at things to perceive them, why he has so much trouble perceiving color, and why screens like Bob's tablet come off as horrendous neon visual noise to him: Rogan doesn't navigate by sight. He navigates by sensing the cords and threads this world is made of. This gives him excellent perception of substance and motion, but fine visual detail and colors are much more difficult. Putting a video call on a screen in front of him cuts him off from that thread connection, and thus he perceives it as migraine-inducing chaos. (That he is apparently getting a little better at it, at least with Grace, is a sign that either he is extremely close to her, or that our worlds are coming more into alignment.)
This is also why the objects we create cannot cross over. The threads, to some extent, ARE us (or rather, we are it), and thus are bound to this body. Nothing can leave permanently, and that includes us. That was my biggest mistake, when I was young and hoping to escape this place; I might as well have aspired to escape my own intestines. We can't leave this place for very long, and the objects we make cannot leave at all. (Clothes or perpetual accessories like my gloves are exceptions, but they aren't true objects. They are just extensions of our self-image, and thus come with us.)
Other people here have called me a "reality-warper" or a "super-wizard," but that's exaggeration. What I really am (for lack of a better metaphor) is a weaver.
Everyone native to this vessel, to this place, has a specialty that reflects their temperament and core aptitudes. Sneak's, for instance, is obviously generativity, in the sunlight sense; it's why ze creates objects so effortlessly, why ze has the most creative ideas, and why ze can heal. Rogan's specialty is endurance; it's why his works are so solid and why he can take so much damage (which, contrary to what the others apparently thought, he doesn't heal preternaturally fast, merely buries and numbs). Gigi's is stealth--the ability to avoid notice, get into places nobody else can, and to sedate others so they can't notice her. Butch's is... I don't know what to call it but fire. I have no idea what Miranda's specialty is, only that she most assuredly has one.
My specialty, all the things I do, are really just working with the strands and cords that this living tapestry they call "headspace" is made of. There are loose strands, which haven't been woven into anything specific yet, and fixed ones, which have. Loose threads, I can do very little with; it's why I'm a terrible creator. The act of creation--every time anyone here makes or "conjures" an object--what they're truly doing is pulling loose strands and weaving them into an object at high speed. I can see them doing it, if I'm paying close enough attention and have nothing distracting me; if I close my nictitating membranes and focus, I can see them as glowing cords of light. Banishment is unraveling those threads so they release and rejoin the gestalt.
My specialty is reading and reworking fixed strands, things already woven into substance. Banishing and recreating my gloves is hard; transforming them is easy. Opening a world door is merely parting the threads of this tapestry to open to a new one.
This whole place is alive and the defining line between object and person here is blurry, so we too are made of these threads... and yes, they too can be manipulated. The skills I am most infamous for--body puppetry, compelling--are just weaving with people, rather than items, and I'm not the only person who can do it. For example, Rogan's wings are the result of his weave being forcibly broken and reworked by one of our attackers, not that she understood what she was doing. My own body is the product of decades of reworking by the god that consumed me, which has left residual effects, most notably enduring life.
Although the examples of people-weaving I mention are cruel ones, these skills can also be used consensually for kinder purposes--I can seek out cord-knots of pain and try to undo them, for instance, or forcibly calm myself in a crisis. But due to my past history, we are all very gun-shy about it. Nobody wants Jack the Ripper to perform surgery on them.
People who aren't born to this place (Mac, Biff, Bob, and Grace) lack these specialties and aptitudes. They are operating with a handicap here, though they too can build skills based on temperament. Grace, for instance, built a very solid porch swing; that tells me she is a very patient, strong-willed, hardworking person. (Hers are the only works I've had the opportunity to witness firsthand.)
There are certain facets of Rogan's perception that have apparently baffled (and fascinated) Bob for years. I was able to explain to him why Rogan doesn't need to be looking at things to perceive them, why he has so much trouble perceiving color, and why screens like Bob's tablet come off as horrendous neon visual noise to him: Rogan doesn't navigate by sight. He navigates by sensing the cords and threads this world is made of. This gives him excellent perception of substance and motion, but fine visual detail and colors are much more difficult. Putting a video call on a screen in front of him cuts him off from that thread connection, and thus he perceives it as migraine-inducing chaos. (That he is apparently getting a little better at it, at least with Grace, is a sign that either he is extremely close to her, or that our worlds are coming more into alignment.)
This is also why the objects we create cannot cross over. The threads, to some extent, ARE us (or rather, we are it), and thus are bound to this body. Nothing can leave permanently, and that includes us. That was my biggest mistake, when I was young and hoping to escape this place; I might as well have aspired to escape my own intestines. We can't leave this place for very long, and the objects we make cannot leave at all. (Clothes or perpetual accessories like my gloves are exceptions, but they aren't true objects. They are just extensions of our self-image, and thus come with us.)
no subject
Date: 2024-11-30 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-30 10:05 pm (UTC)Makes me wonder if what we have going on with our selves functions similarly to threads in your headspace- taking loose pieces of what's already there and weaving them together into something larger, letting it unravel once the "tapestry" isn't needed. Under that metaphor, I think our headspace is our loose strands or at least adjacent to them, which is interesting. Water is our go-to metaphor, not threads, but similar idea. Might have to think about this more.
Also: you have nictitating membranes?
no subject
Date: 2024-11-30 11:42 pm (UTC)And yes, do. They're dark, so they're only useful when it's too bright or I need to block out extraneous visuals. I don't have much cause to need them.
no subject
Date: 2024-12-01 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-01 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-09 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-09 05:27 am (UTC)