🎃 One thousand hands that pull from the underworld

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen interpreted by Loreena McKennitt. I listen to it all year long.

It was about darn time! Us Qallunaat, as the Inuit call us, of the south can never get nice things.

In all seriousness, autumn was abnormally warm and we didn't get snow in October (a random 1-2cm that falls and never stays for long is to be expected) in my area. It was worrisome. I don't know how long this snow will stay on the ground (there are a few weeks left until the real wintery deal falls on us). For now, I'm simply going to enjoy the whiteness everywhere (streets, yards, trees, rooftops...).

The foghorn, however, won't shut up. It's just like a whale ripping massive farts after a colonoscopy. How charming.

Baraye - metal version

Ifa is a streamer from Germany. I discovered this gem two days ago when I saw Mahafsoun's cover of 'Baraye' on my instagram feed, which prompted me to check her story, and there Ifa's cover was. 'Baraye' is a song by Shervin Hadipour, the current (unofficial) anthem of the actual uprising in Iran. Many made covers, including Azam Ali, and Coldplay with Golshifteh Farahani performed it during their live in Buenos Aires.

Being a metalhead, the metal version naturally stroke a chord. I'm annoying my friends and family with it (I'm enthusiastic when it comes to share music I like). My favourite moment of the video is when at 2:02, she sings 'life' (well, in Farsi, but that's what the English subtitles say), it zooms on the pendant of her necklace, which represents the Faravahar. The Faravahar is a symbol of Zoroastrianism, a 4,000 years old religion from what is today Iran. It showed for only a second, yet it was to me the most powerful moment of the video.

I hope to see and hear more of Ifa on the metal scene.

Draconian: last live with Heike (Hellfest 2022)

I don't keep track of anything. I'm out of the loop with bands, releases, and whatnot. Yesterday, this was in my youtube recs:

Both Heike Langhans and Lisa Johansson singing together? Wow, that got to be good. It was good until I scrolled through the comments, then did a quick Google search, and much to my dismay, learnt that Draconian announced Heike's departure. I was bummed out, I must admit. I've known Draconian for years but never paid the band much attention until 2021. Something I can't explain why. As a teen, I was a fan of Tristania (more specifically, Widow's Weeds and Beyond the Veil), yet didn't share the same enthusiasm for Draconian. I did enjoy a few of their songs, nothing more. Then, years later, I gave some more of their songs a try, and instantly fell for Under a Godless Veil. Heike grew on me, even more so after listening to Hallatar's My Mistake (anything that has a connection to Aleah gets my attention, and devotion). There's something with her voice that is hollow yet prophetic.

No tragedy à la Nightwish with Heike's departure. She will continue to work on her personal musical projects, and Lisa comes back with Draconian. Looking forward to the band's next album.

Duh, he married Celebrían.

Celebrían aside, Elrond is related to Galadriel. They have Finwë and Indis in common.

Now, on Celeborn's side: if we go by the theory that Celeborn is Galadhon's son and not Teleporno-the-Teler, Celeborn is Elmo's grandson. Elmo (unfortunately not Sesame Street's Elmo) is Thingol's brother. Thingol is Elrond's great-great-grand-father.

Celeborn and Galadriel are related as well: Thingol is both their great-uncle (Olwë, Thingol's Water-Brother, being Galadriel's grand-father; Elmo, Thingol's Who-Knows-What-Happened-With-Him brother, is Celeborn's grand-father).

Now enter Beren and Tuor in the portrait, and of course, Eros and his descendants. The Houses of Men and all of that. Don't forget Melian the Maia. Would that make Elrond related to Gandalf, Sauron and Morgoth?

Sweet. Elrond is related to EVERYONE. Even the long lost Entwives! Amazing. Perhaps Elrond is Tom Bombadil. (<- I'm jesting)

I hate having such revelations when I'm using the washroom.

When I was a child, I felt damned when I realised I was bound by the needs of the flesh, and everyday would be a never-ending repetition of excretion, food, water and sleep. I had no knowledge of loops one can experience under a psychedelic badtrip, yet it looked like one to my eyes (yes, I was an intense child (I'm on the dumb side nowadays). No wonder I developed an early taste for ancient civilisations, mythologies and astronomy, I was under the impression they held hidden knowledge about the universe. Good for me I have parents with shared interests who didn't tell me I should have other interests, like playing with car toys or whatever. I had the conspiracy life was a game played by aliens and I was a crypted character. I was fed up with life early on, asked aliens to game over and take me out of the game, but nooo, cretin aliens had to continue playing. Wonderful! Yes, imagine a mentally pissed off 7 year old at imaginary aliens. That was wee me).

As I told mum some days ago, all is maddening, save for dreams themselves. I'm looking forward to dream every night (the advantage of dreams is the instant ego-death, which is what allows me to roll with whatever presents itself in front of me, and lucid dream when I have the wits to. Psychedelics are scarier because of the conscious experience of the ego-death, but that's another topic for another day). Here is why:

I have an online friend from Hong Kong. Let's call him J. (It's real) I dreamt I went to Hong Kong to meet J. He and I took a plane to fly to Montréal and we had school work to do. There weren't enough seats on the plane, we had to hold onto hangers (just like in public transportation). It annoyed us because it meant we couldn't work on our assignments. The pilot forgot where Montréal was on the planet, so we landed in China. This China was communist under Stalin's rule. Its main economy came from its KPop industry. I called mum to tell her we weren't coming home.

J and I visited a few historical and patriotic monuments. It was like Tiananmen Square surrounded by skyscrapers, Soviet architecture and lotus-shaped neons. Most of China had Soviet architecture (though in my dream, I was in a major urban centre that I assumed was the entirety of the country). After a while, we found a classroom where we could study. Luck was so on our side we couldn't concentrate at all, as the room was occupied by Girls' Generation. They were practicing for their next liveshow, and they were training TWICE as well. The supervisor was Kim Jong Un.

I want to participate to tolkienshortfanworks 's monthly challenge, but...

I don't know why I bother to thoroughly study the line of Elros in the Unfinished Tales, do a sloppy google research on Númenórean colonies, and check the year the Rings of power were forged, when I will inevitably disregard the timeline and call it a day. It's fanfiction, I do what I want. I still have a choice to make between Tar-Ciryatan, Tar-Atanamir the Great and Tar-Calmacil. Or I could pick Tar-Ardamin/Ar-Abattârik, make something up about Tar-Calmacil for background purposes, and decide that Sauron forged Rings at some point during Tar-Calmacil's life. I only have 500-1000 words to write, it's not like I have to spread out a millennium of historical data.

The problem is that I have 1,000 words maximum. The story includes an unnamed OC that has no personality because he exists for the sole purpose of the main action. That makes it acceptable for the word limitation. The issue with him is that he's Haradrim, the story takes place in Harad, and I have crafted some sort of pseudo-Haradrim history with its various peoples and relationship with Khand. (I don't know why I don't start writing my own fantasy novel since what's going on in my head takes part of the Legendarium only by name. But I don't want to write my own fiction, so there's that. AUs on steroids all the way, mesays.)

I can narrow it down to 'Disrespect of canon timeline - an AU'; 'happens during the Second Age, and Sauron happened as well'; 'Harad is cool, yo'. I'll find a name for that darn OC, eventually. Will pick one from an Akkadian name list, easy peasy.

As promised to allegoriesinmediasres

Rubicon As Sin, also available on AO3. It's bad. From the first degree to the three-hundred-sixtieth-congratulations-that's-a-full-angle degree of the word.

Celegorm, Curufin, Maedhros, Maglor, Caranthir and Finrod meet at Caranthir's on Maedhros' order because Finrod owns Celegorm and Curufin, and Maedhros is angry about it!! Finrod doesn't want to give Tyelko and Curvo away for free, that's stupid, he demands payment. Moryo has tons of money. Finrod desires more. SUSPENSE!!

Read the fic to know what happens!!!

( Read the badfic here )

I miss dreaming about Tolkien characters. My dreams range from epic and apocalyptic (I once dreamt it was the end of the world, literally: Melkor broke the sky in two as he and Manwë fought. It was so loud I felt my insides tear apart. I didn't wake up in pain or anything. I tend to have vivid dreams) to the very stupid (that time I dreamt I was a dog and Celegorm looked at me disdainfully). Most of my dreams happen on the stupid side of the scale.

Only issue is that my brain refuses to give me the proper tragic love affair with Lúthien I daydream about. Rather, it puts me in an undignified position with many other Elves. I suppose my subconscious plays the sexism game and refuses to acknowledge there are female Tolkien characters. Guess what? I'm stuck rejecting people such as Glorfindel, Fingon and Legolas because no, I am not interested. None of this would happen if my dreams matched me with Lúthien.

Well, ok, might have lacked willpower to reject people that time Finrod was in my dream. In my defence, I was a spy for an Orc (most likely an Uruk), I had to collect secret information from Fingolfin, pull a Sauron out of myself and seduce him. Finrod was in the way. We were cousins, apparently. The 'apparently' is important because I was human and Finrod wasn't. I even made a comic of the scene. Finrod was expressive and dramatic. What we did was wrong, according to him, which he realised in the aftermath of the action. Somehow it was my fault. How to win an argument against him: mention Turgon.
Later, I had to go see my boss (the Uruk) who requested a report of my mission. The headquarters were on a street near mine, with modern buildings, cars and all. Fingolfin and Finrod weren't too modern though, as Elves in this dream were maladjusted to the 21st century.

Tried to google him, but Arondir is one letter off the word « arrondir », which translates to 'to round something'. I'm inevitably facing maths.

Proof :


Edit: no idea why the image is this small, but if you click on it, you can see it full size. Another dreamwidth mystery. Maybe I should play with the coding a bit.

I have many ideas in mind, much on my plate, all the time of the world, but a lot of talent for procrastination. Anyways, I don't mind waiting until my 60s to write those stories. (There's a gentleman in his 60s who writes Jane Austen fanfiction on ffn.net. I forgot what his name was. I thought I wanted to be like him when I grow up.)

My Requiem: My Immortal (not the song by Evanescence, the infamous Harry Potter fanfic) but Galadriel is the protagonist. A sort of autobiography. I would like to mention I have thought of this idea for over a year, so screw you Amazon, you read my mind and stole my Mary Sue!Galadriel. It's a conspiracy, I swear.

Fingolfin & Hador: A story heavily inspired by the show Vikings (more specifically the first three seasons, I have watched until 4B and I'm not sure if I'll continue. Maybe for Ivar because he's nuts and bloodthirsty). The House of Fingolfin and the people of Marach must ally against Fëanorian expansion. Hador is offered as a gift to Fingolfin. Obviously, Hador has greater plans: to build a trade road on the coast of Beleriand and reach Alqualondë, and establish dominance over Ñoldorin invaders. Political blabla, lots of fights and blood, unresolved homoerotic tension because what else would a wifeless Fingolfin do with a slave! (In this worldbuilding, in the Marachian culture, slaves are prized as consorts, and the giftgiving of slaves is the equivalent of signing a treaty. That will clash with Ñoldorin cultural take on slavery and servants.)

I can't write action scenes. That'll be fun. Au secours.

Arjuna & Krishna: Arjuna refuses Krishna as God and the ultimate power. Master and student/friends to enemies dynamic. Arjuna will oppose Krishna, and will rise in power. His ascent will mirror Indra's, his father. Parallels will be drawn to the Rig Veda (as I first wanted to write a fic on Indra and Varuna).

I have to study the Mahabharata more thoroughly and remember all the names. Argh!

Ramesses II & Moses: Same baseline as my Arjuna & Krishna idea. I don't want to re-write the Exodus word by word, that's boring/not the point of a fanfiction (I can read it on my own like a grownup. That's what I planned to do this summer, but I got distracted by the Book of Samuel), so I'll add my own touch, and that will be that Moses wishes to walk on the path of his idols, Hatshepsut and Akhenaten (Amunhotep IV). I have a few books to read on ancient Egyptian religion, and a Ramesses II biography. Ironically, I never watched The Prince of Egypt (heard it was good).

As you can see, the themes are all about power and religion. I tend to be boring and repetitive.