frankmask

-Chapter One-
-Two Worlds-

I have two histories. One of them is the story of my life in the world, the objective reality that we all know and love. Here, I've been a really strange breed of dork my whole life. I've done some good things, I've done some bad things, and I've picked up some good stories. Life is life as usual.

The other history is the one that I've played out through videogames and various constructs of my imagination. In that history I have war stories. Hundreds of them. Things I did, things I heard about, heroes, legends, people who fought back impossible odds and did things that seem impossible. It's kind of exciting to think back on. I built a fortress in the middle of a besieged city and held it for six hours against overwhelming enemy hosts. I slew a dragon in single combat. I organized warbands and sent them into combat. A friend and I fought with such vicious skill that we sent unspeakable alien abominations fleeing from us in disarray.

The people who don't get it will never get it. The people who get it will look back and say "Well, I remember a time when I..." and have their own stories to tell.

-Chapter One-
-Arts and Crafts-

I finally fixed the hanger on my shortsword. Now the damned thing sits neatly on my hip at an angle, instead of bashing the back of my knees the whole time I'm wearing it. This is a major triumph of design for me.

-Chapter One-
-Whickety Sticks-

I took pictures of all of my whickety sticks and threw them in a folder by that name. Why do I need so many weapons? The short answer is I don't and the long answer is that I am a moderately paranoid romantic with a quixotic streak a mile wide.

-Chapter One-
-I am a tinker's son-

I'd really like to make a pair of glasses out of leather, wire, and obviously glass. For me, I have managed to make just about everything else I've ever really set my mind to. Against me, I have no idea how to grind lenses.

-Chapter One-
-Clean Drinking Water-

Neither purity nor innocence are virtues. Stay with me here, for just a moment. The old saying that there is nothing as perfectly cruel as a child holds true. According to it's meaning Innocence does not mean the abscence of Evil, it merely suggests the absence of knowledge of Evil. One who is innocent cannot tell if their actions are Good or Evil because they have no basis against which to compare them. So one cannot be truly good until one has lost one's innocence.

I wonder if that's what Original Sin is really all about, giving a human a shot at being good right off the mark.