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Ceramic DM -- Fall '06 ** yangnome wins! **
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<blockquote data-quote="GuardianLurker" data-source="post: 3106264" data-attributes="member: 786"><p>Well, let's see if I can satisfy that curiousity.</p><p></p><p>The key picture for me was the man with a sword and the marble slab. Despite the "No visions" thing for CDM, it was too abstract for me to think of it in any other way. The other complicator was the penguin. As I said in the story, penguins don't belong on beaches with people in shorts. Together, the two meant it wasn't going to be a straight-forward tale. Strangely enough, it was the dye vats that gave me the most trouble.</p><p></p><p>The story is set in some form of afterlife. The initial setup is Melissa's subconscious mind providing a rationalization for what would otherwise be a strange situation. As too what kind of afterlife, that's intentionally ambiguous - I myself don't know really. Inspiration was drawn heavily from the movie Jacob's Ladder and Connie Willis' book Passages.</p><p></p><p>Originally, the man was an Angel, the marble slab a door in the cliff, and it was a story about a woman's transition from life to the afterlife (heaven), with the penguin being a spirit guide. But that was predicated on the "angel" being last in the sequence (penguin, vats, slide, angel). Originally, the slide was going to send Melissa through the door, where she'd meet the angel on the other side. But when I wrote the story, the angel ended up being a vision engendered by the exploding penguin. Which changed it around dramatically.</p><p></p><p>It's still a story of a transition. It's still set in a afterlife. There's still a metric load of symbology in there. The pacing is actually kind of intentional - from the moment the penguin explodes Melissa's running for her life, without time to think, and with no clues why. I also wanted to keep it ambiguous. So every time I thought I had settled on something definite, I made myself flip it to the other side. Is the penguin helpful, or a homocidal traitor? Are the men in black angels or devils? Is Melissa tricked into fleeing heaven, or are we just seeing the thoughts of a dying mind? I don't know, and I very carefully kept myself from knowing.</p><p></p><p>The only real answers I can provide is that in version two the ledge is illusory. It's not really there. And the thick fluid that Melissa wipes from her forehead (and never looks at) is blood.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GuardianLurker, post: 3106264, member: 786"] Well, let's see if I can satisfy that curiousity. The key picture for me was the man with a sword and the marble slab. Despite the "No visions" thing for CDM, it was too abstract for me to think of it in any other way. The other complicator was the penguin. As I said in the story, penguins don't belong on beaches with people in shorts. Together, the two meant it wasn't going to be a straight-forward tale. Strangely enough, it was the dye vats that gave me the most trouble. The story is set in some form of afterlife. The initial setup is Melissa's subconscious mind providing a rationalization for what would otherwise be a strange situation. As too what kind of afterlife, that's intentionally ambiguous - I myself don't know really. Inspiration was drawn heavily from the movie Jacob's Ladder and Connie Willis' book Passages. Originally, the man was an Angel, the marble slab a door in the cliff, and it was a story about a woman's transition from life to the afterlife (heaven), with the penguin being a spirit guide. But that was predicated on the "angel" being last in the sequence (penguin, vats, slide, angel). Originally, the slide was going to send Melissa through the door, where she'd meet the angel on the other side. But when I wrote the story, the angel ended up being a vision engendered by the exploding penguin. Which changed it around dramatically. It's still a story of a transition. It's still set in a afterlife. There's still a metric load of symbology in there. The pacing is actually kind of intentional - from the moment the penguin explodes Melissa's running for her life, without time to think, and with no clues why. I also wanted to keep it ambiguous. So every time I thought I had settled on something definite, I made myself flip it to the other side. Is the penguin helpful, or a homocidal traitor? Are the men in black angels or devils? Is Melissa tricked into fleeing heaven, or are we just seeing the thoughts of a dying mind? I don't know, and I very carefully kept myself from knowing. The only real answers I can provide is that in version two the ledge is illusory. It's not really there. And the thick fluid that Melissa wipes from her forehead (and never looks at) is blood. [/QUOTE]
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