I’m having trouble writing this…
The original version, which I wrote with the original Circular Object, was easy. But, this version, is much, much harder. I’ve started and stopped many, many times, and, now, I fear, I may never finish it. Since I may not finish it, I felt it was probably best to put it out here as a sketch, an unfinished work still in progress. There are two versions, with two completely different beginnings, and, the last part of the second version is from the original version of The Circular Object, never having been rewritten at all… it is, if nothing else, an interesting insight into the way this author’s mind works… Enjoy!
Gregg G Guydish
--- --- ---
The Circular Object MARK II
\xA9 2001, 2002 Gregg G Guydish
Part IV
Playground of the Mind
Thinking outside the box is fun.
The following events take place outside of time as you know it…
"Uh," is the eloquent remark uttered by Ferrex as the Party unwinds after their day of travel in pursuit of Alexi's "Quest." "So, was that story about Amber, Sabrina or Zig Zag? Or somebody else all together?" He asks no one in particular after he takes a moment to let his thoughts coalesce. Alexi leans back and stretches his legs, wiggling his toes as he relaxes, his ears perked to the quiet whinnying of the horses out amongst the tress. "All of them. None of them. It was about everyone, and no one." Ferrex snorts loudly. "Ask a philosopher a stupid question, get a stupid answer from a stupid philosopher."
09-28-01/rewrite
--- --- ---
The Circular Object MARK II
\xA9 2001, 2002 Gregg G Guydish
Special Edition
Part IV
The Unexpected Event
Thinking outside the box is fun.
The following events take place outside of time as you know it…
"So," Ferrex asks, squinting across the fire as the Party winds down from its long day of travel to Fernsbane, "all that for a romance?" Alexander Cotan looked at his lover, Wrotyen, then back at the young swordsmale and opened his muzzle. "That's what it seemed like to me." Alexi shook his head, stretching his legs out on either side of the firepit, taking advantage of its warmth against the chill of altitude. "No, no, not at all." Everyone but Mary, his mate, looked round at him, she busy taking care of all the 'little details' that males so often forget, like feeding themselves, as she prepares the evening meal. "It was about the interconnectedness of life, and the random chance event." Ferrex tilts his head to the side, his brows furrowing. "Huh? Interconnectedness of life? What's that supposed to mean?" Wrotyen grins, and snorts faintly, drawing Alexi's eye to the large panda. "Opinion, my friend?" The bear looks at his longtime friend, and soulmate. "Must everything orbit around your religion, Alexi?" "Not religion," the Dark Ferret replies tolerantly. "I keep telling you: philosophy." Ferrex's head rolls back on his shoulders. "Not Vin Y Kari, again!" Mary looks up from her task. "What's wrong with Vin Y Kari, young male? It's gotten us this far." She playfully nudges her mate, the ferret looking back at her with a grin. Cotan looks around the small group, then settles his gaze on Ferrex. "I want to know," he shifts his attention to the Twilight Master, "tell me, Alexi, what do you mean?"
Alexi wiggles his toes, then draws his legs back up under him, and takes a moment to settle his thick cloak around his feet before orating his take on the matter for the military feline. "The Vin Y Kari is about understanding oneself in the context of the Vin Kari. It's about seeing oneself and how one is connected to all things. That's the cycle of living." "Cycle of living?" Cotan responds, and Alexi nods his head. "The interconnectedness of all things, Captain. We do not travel through life disconnected from time and space. We dwell in a material world, where our interactions with things and events lead to other connections in other people's lives. That's the cycle of living. The condition of being alive." Ferrex shakes his head. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there, Alexi," he interrupts, "how am I connected to anything besides you guys?" Alexi smiles back at his young friend. "As we move through time, we touch peoples lives with every moment of our existence." "I don't buy it." The young mustelid says with a palpable negative note in his voice. "How can I affect the lives of people I haven't even met?" "By having influence on people and events, Ferrex," Alexi patiently explains. "You are not a solitary object, you exist in a world full of shifting and changing currents. That's what the story was about."
Mary looks up from her work. "I have to agree with Alexi," Alex Cotan gives the vixen a sharp look as she continued, "the Vin Kari is a circular object. We come from the Vin Kari, and we return to the Vin Kari. One must only search one's place within the Vin Kari to find enlightenment." She picks up the grundi by the scruff of its broken neck and sets to work gutting it. Cindy turns away from the gruesome sight and buries her head in Clarence's chest, the skunks' arms coming up protectively around her, and he turns them both away from the evisceration, as the fox femme gets on with skinning the small animal. "Cindy is a perfect example." Alexi says to Ferrex, indicating her and Clarence with a wave of his paw. "Do you think Cindy was unaffected by the events in the story? Just because she wasn't in the story doesn't mean that the events surrounding it didn't have an effect on her." "W-w-what do y-you mean?" Asks Clarence, surprised to be included in the conversation. The Dark Ferret turns to him. "Marvin put you in charge of locating copies of Indecency 666 with control of an unlimited budget. Don't tell me that didn't have an effect on you." Clarence shakes his head. "N-no, he just did that 'cause I know c-computers and s-stuff." "No," states the burly badger, on a conference call from his office, "I did that because I know you can be trusted with the responsibility. You're a good kid, Clarence, it's time we gave you additional responsibilities around here." Clarence swallows nervously as Cindy looks up at him, running one paw lightly over his chest. "You have seemed different, Clar\xE8." She looks thoughtful for a moment, then continues. "What's Indecency 666?" Clar\xE8 stammers for a response as the conversation turns back to its original topic.
In the background, the soft, melodic, earthy sounds of an acoustic guitar could be heard from somewhere beyond the light of their fire, setting a pleasant accompaniment to their abstract conversation. "That's just one example, of course." States Alexi as he looks back at the others. "Okay, but Clarence wasn't even a major character." Ferrex replies. "That's the point, Ferrex." Mary says as she positions the skewered grundi over the fire to cook. "It's the random interconnectedness of things that makes life interesting." "Yeah, yeah, I get it," he says as she goes back to work on the second grundi her mate caught. "And the Vin Y Kari can see this interconnectedness." Alexi shrugs. "We try to, it's our mission."
"Speaking of minor characters," Commander Cotan says, "what about this
"Besides giving Clarence a convenient place to hide
from Wanda," "Ooooh," he's suddenly interrupted by a soft, feminine
voice, "Clarence…" the statuesque vixen looked around for the
impossibly shy male, "is he around here?"
Everyone gathered around the fire exchanged glances for a long moment, then Alexi continued in a more hushed tone. "Besides providing a bolt hole," "Bolt Hole?" Maxx Blackrabbit's long, dark ears perk up from his drawing table, and Alexi scowls at him. "Not that kind of bolt hole…" he says, causing the rabbits ears to droop, his eyes falling from the Dark Ferret. "Oh, never mind." Alexi shakes his head, then looks back at his friends as he resumes the thread of conversation. "Besides serving as a foxhole" "Hmmm?" utters Eric, distracted, "I didn't give permission for Tammy or Sheila." Alexi brings his paws up and covers his eyes, sighing loudly. He bites his tongue and tries again through gritted teeth. "Besides serving as a refuge" he drops his paws and looks around the campfire significantly, his ears fully perked and his fur bristling unbecomingly. "Hmp!" He snorts after a minute, then continues "for Clarence, he also brought the never before seen Editing Section of ZZ Studios into the story, and introduced us to Mike, who was not only important to the second half of the story, but will also play a key role in the sequel."
It was quiet when he was done then, until the music abruptly stopped, and Kate spoke up from the darkness surrounding them. "I get it." They turn as one to regard the diminutive kit fox vixen, bathed in the spotlight up on the stage. "It's like six degrees of separation." Alexi nods his head in recognition of her input. "Yes, exactly. That's a good example. Although," he looks back at his friends, "I, personally, don't much care for that analogy, it assumes too much." "It's not a Vin Y Kari thing." Mary says, bumping her mate with her shoulder, and causing Alexi look down on her and smile. Ferrex takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "What, are you talking about? Six degrees of who?" Alexi looks over at him, but it is Cotan who answers. "I've heard of it, it assumes that there are no more than six degrees that separate any person or event in the world." He looked at Wrotyen. "The soldiers would sometimes play the game during their watches." Alexi clarifies. "Six degrees is an example of interconnectedness. But it's a very simple take on the concept, and really not in line with the philosophy of the Vin Kari." "It's the cycle that's important." Mary says, positioning the second grundi over the fire and repositioning the first one so it cooks evenly, the odor from the cooking meat causing the road weary parties collective palate to salivate.
Alexi nods his head. "The cycle is important, but it's the interconnectedness that you must see. Random elements of chance that bump and grind along times line and cause unexpected changes in ones life. Things in the past affecting things in the future in unpredictable ways." "Like me becoming a web model." Said the black jaguarundi as he emerged from the cloak of night surrounding them, and stood over the small group, barely distinguishable from the blackness outside the ring of light. "Yes," the Dark Ferret says as he looks up at the tall feline, "Zig planted the idea in your head, and then harvested its grain when your storyline came full circle. You completed the cycle Mike. It also led to some strange connections of its own. If it weren't for Mike here," he holds a paw out to indicate him, "we wouldn't know that the one inch machines were called George and Gracie, or that Zig Zag hates Starducks." "Really hates Starducks." Zig states from where she sits in James' embrace on their couch. "Lousy faceless multi-national conglomerate. I can't stand that grinning mallard logo of theirs, either." The other's grin for her attitude on the subject. "Wasn't the ending a little, truncated?" Asks James. Alexi nods his head. "It was. But the purpose of the story was to bring the events of Zig's past full circle. We weren't concerned with what happened beyond that point. The only thing we needed to show was that Zig let you inside her defenses, and that you didn't fail her trust in you. What happened after that was not germane to the story."
Chris> I have a
bone to pick. Chris types from his
home in
"Yes." States the Twilight Master. "All of life is a process of learning. With each passing day we learn and apply new skills. We participate in life to live it, to understand it, and to understand our place in it. Life itself is a circular object. It begins and ends in the same place, just from different directions. In the beginning it's life from nothing, at the end it's life to nothing. But the middle, people," he looks around at all of them. His lover, Mary, huddled close to his side. Wrotyen, his oldest friend sitting next to the love of his life, Alexander Cotan. Ferrex, his young friend and protégé. And all the others whose lives he's touched with his very existence, whether they know it or not, "the middle is where we live. It is where we stand and it is where we are counted." He raises his arms as if to encompass them all, everyone waiting on him with baited breath, Sabrina staring at her glowing monitor screen in this odd chat room, waiting for a response from him…
Dark_Ferret> This is where we exist. The greatest possible moment of our existence is now, because we are here. We are all here, together. We are all related. We are all. We are. We. .
>
>
>
>
Dark_Ferret has logged off this channel.