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scholastic-madcap · 6 years

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What is your full name?

“Ah, Albeon Fulke, my good sir. Pleasure to make your acquaintance! Oh- is that tea? A cup if you would?—yes! Thank you.” What do your friends call you?

"Al, Alby, the occasional full Albeon. Perhaps Fulke here and there in east Othard.”

What is your favorite animal?

“Like animal in general such as a genus? Or do you mean a particular specimen, like a pet? Both--? Oh well, I’ve a great fondness for Deepeyes—oh yes I’m quite aware they’re voidsent ol’ boy, but not everything from the void need be spurned!

Not really an animal you say? Well very well then, I do find bandersnatches to be quite impressive. I saw some tamed ones in Radz-At-Han, and speaking of my dear fellow Zeeg came from there, a rather foul-mouthed Calibri who speaks only thavnarian and whom I consider my favorite particular animal.”

Where were you born?

"On the main island of Sharlayan, in the capital city. Beautiful place, should you ever be allowed in I recommend seeing the steps of the Forum!”

Do you have children?

"oh! I have a godson of reputable and wonderful breeding, dashing little bloke, toddling age. But of my own blood? None that I know of.” He smiles a little nervously.

Is there a person/people you love?

“Miss ah—right--, Miss Mandalina is my dearest and closest confidant, my editor so to speak. A childhood friend I share the most affection for, and of course I love my mother and father with great respect though I haven’t seen them in many a year but we write! Oh—you want to know romantically?”

He pauses and smiles, tapping fingers to his lips.

“I’ve had many loves in many places and they’ve all be wonderful and beautiful people.”

What is your favorite color?

"I’m partial to nice creams and sturdy browns, warm and useful objects are often these colors, don’t you agree?”

What is your full occupation?

“Well! I’m technically a writer of some repute, I pen travelogues you see, but truthfully I consider myself a scholar and explorer more so!”

Are you good at physical fighting?

“I certainly would hope to think I am! I enjoy a good scrum anytime and my entire scholarly focus is on the art of combat, so I best be able to put gil where my mouth is, don’t you think? Ah ha ha ha!”

Which form are you best at?

"My swordplay is what I’ve certainly put the most work into, but I do my best not to let other skills fall too far behind! I certainly enjoy a good round of fisticuffs as well.”

What about magic?

"Ah yes, my first calling, my true heritage. My mum and father are both reputable spellcasters of considerable talents and I was tutored and trained in my youth by a red mage ex-patriot from Eorzea, fascinating stuff really! I would consider myself a red mage, I’ve certainly got a soul stone to prove it! Hopefully I impart as much knowledge on it as it’s last owner.”

Which type are you best at?

"Magic, it’s in my blood I confess and it comes so much easier to me than physical technique. Not that that stops me from trying my hardest to master both!

Wait—oh you mean what type of magic? Oh haha, goodness my apologies. It’s hard to say, I practice red magic, which is a marriage of white and black though channeled through one’s body and focus very differently. But if I were to pick up a traditional staff I think the thaumaturgic arts might come more easily?” He rubs at his neck, clearly unsure.

Craftsmanship?

“Ah—penmanship? Ahaha—does that even count? I’m a decent sketcher given enough time and I’ve a fairly decent grasp of cartography! Things I need to know for documenting my travels...”

Any other skills?

"Say! I’m a fair hand at cooking! In fact I always have a few recipes jotted down in my travelogues, you should try a few out if you pick one of them up! Ah..volume 4 has some really fantastic curries in it I learned while in the near east!”

He winks a bit, flustered, clearly not very used to ‘plugging’ his books.

Are you an only child?

“Aye, my parents barely had enough time to raise me, busy as they are! My father’s a regular re-elect to the Forum and my mother has a seat on the council of the College of Conjury!

Hm—poor childhood? Oh no not at all! They were great parents, they couldn’t always make time for me but they certainly tried!”

Where do you see yourself in five years?

“Ah, well, plodding around Eorzea I suppose! It took me ten years to get across the empire entirely and Aldenard is about half that size, so haha half the years!

Why not use aetherites you ask? Well you certainly skip a lot of the scenery and I wouldn’t have met or learned from nearly as many people! Goodness and of course you have to attune to them first! Though it certainly makes going back to other places easier! N-not that I go back to places often.”

He finishes that last line looking a tad guilty.

Have you ever almost died?

"oh yes! Dozens of times! In fact, at least once or twice a month! That’s the nature of studying rare and exclusive martial techniques and traveling the world to do it! Actually, just last week while crossing Mor Dohna I have an amazing encounter with a tribe of Gigas and their rival tribe…”

He proceeds to tell a rather dire story that has the interviewer wincing more than once at the close calls though never once does he seemed concerned about how dangerous it was.

Do you have a secret, not just a secret, but like a really big secret hardly anyone knows?

"I’ve learned many important and private things from masters of dying arts. Sometimes knowledge like that isn’t meant to be shared except with the exact right person. I’ll know them when I find them, I won’t let these important techniques die out with me, but I won’t share all of them with the entire world either.”

He says this all with surprising seriously, his bright exuberance toning down for a moment to drive home that this is important.

Salty or sweet?

"A black pretzel pressed in salt and drizzled with caramel, both salty and sweet and a fantastic snack for the road!”

Do you like yourself?

"Well of course I do! But there’s always room for improvement and there’s of course no end to the knowledge one acquires. Never stop learning!”

Do you believe in the Twelve?

"In a purely scientific way such as in the study of primals and eikons and aetheric convalescence? Absolutely. But do I pray to them you mean? Ahaha, only in a joking way admittedly.”

Are you religious?

"Mm. While I respect all religions and cultures, I find it difficult to be as such myself with all the different communities and societies I’ve seen. Also Sharlayans aren’t naturally predisposed to such beliefs! Question everything!”

Do you carry prejudice with you?

“Absolutely none, it would invalidate my life’s work to judge knowledge and people unfairly. I walk into every community with a fresh outlook and to my gosh darn best not to have my judgement color my learning. Of course this isn’t always flawless, I did cause a little bit of trouble in the empire. But I confess I’m a man of action!”

He says little, but it’s unlikely that’s an accurate measurement.

What do you consider entertainment?

“A clear sky above me, a fresh road below me, and a new place on the horizon! I can think of absolutely nothing more invigorating and exciting!!”

Favorite drink?

“Do I really have to pick? –yes? Okay well I can narrow it down to two. An excellently brewed cup of tea with a hint of honey, or the cheapest palest ale I can find made as cold as I can possibly drink it! Both are preposterously refreshing!”

Tagged by: Nobody, but I saw it floating around!

Tagging: @heretics-blood

#madcaprp #ff14 rp

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glimpseofbeing-blog · 7 years

Text

A Letter to a Friend...

Copied below is a a letter written to a friend in prison on October 10, 2017. The body, beauty, art, ect., are reflections of the world. I think this writing is to. A representation of my processing of recent and ongoing events. Hopelessly bleak and still somewhat hopeful. A bit of Steppinwolf I suppose.

Hi Mike,

Been a bit, per usual-apologies for the delay. Honestly, I'm not even sure where the time goes. I make to do lists almost daily with "write Mike" always on there. It's strange: I haven't had a job in a year but I'm always busy, though I'm not sure with what. The little things in life I suppose. Maybe difficult to understand from your position, maybe not.

The world is wild. I'm writing this letter, or at least this portion, on my phone. I'll eventually email it, then print using a tiny memory stick at Kinko’s in town. And I'll pay for the print with my credit card, of course, so I can get a frequent flyer mile. After 12,000 of those I get a free flight. Ridiculous!

But the world is wild in many not so great ways too. I'm sure by now you've heard of the mass shooting in Las Vegas? I'd really love to hear your thoughts on gun violence and what you feel America can do? Only if you're comfortable and willing, of course. No pressure.

I have another sensitive question, only if you're willing as well: do you ever get depressed in there? If so, how have you learned to cope?

I'm newly seeing a therapist for my first time. Pretty excited though it took a minute to get started. The first one I tried was horrible but I've now connected with a woman who is intriguing in having previously worked on the stock market in New York before becoming a counselor. I like that she is into analytical business while holding a high value for emotional communication.

She shared that she knew 50 people who lost their lives in the world trade attacks on 9/11. After losing my friends in the fire this year I find comfort in speaking vulnerably with a person who also knows what grief comes when people disappear unexpectedly due to traumatic events.

My major motivators in seeking therapy are 3 fold. The first is dealing with ongoing grief from the passing of my friends. The second is improving my interpersonal communication approaches. I have patterns in intimate ongoing relationships where I tend to get frustrated and lash out at those closest to me. I've always done this with girlfriends and have lost a few great ones from my lack of self management. Never physical abuse, just saying things in anger that don't really communicate my interests. Likewise, I've struggled in work situations. After cooking in loud kitchens forever, I sometimes am too much for professional colleagues. I care a lot about work and invest a lot of energy in being successful. I try to communicate clearly but the high expectations of my drive to achieve have left some thinking of me as condescending. I can see what they mean though I certainly don't intend this to be. So hopefully I can find some new paths.

Thirdly, I find myself depressed here and there. Even with my job search: some days it's hard to stay positive, especially as political conditions and economic systems appear increasingly dismal. All in all, my life is great and I'm mostly a happy person. But some days things are cloudy.

As part of beginning therapy I have reached out to my sisters and asked them to share any relevant diagnosis and resulting medication choices. I've known since childhood that mental health was an almost ubiquitous challenge for the whole of my family. And I saw therapists fail with my mother time and again while witnessing both my sisters enter various kinds of treatments with mixed results.

Still, I was shocked to read the depth of medication and diagnosis that my sisters have recently shared with me. My middle sister also helped refresh my memory of my mom’s conditions, medications and family history. I had forgotten that her father, although adopted, had been labeled schizophrenic. Obviously there is no genetic connection but as my sister appropriately noted that being raised in a household with these types of conditions can also affect one's adult development.

So here I am. Reasonably happy but aware that I suffer from situational depression as well as limited anger and frustration. Feeling pretty damn lucky in light of the struggles those most closely related to me have continued to face since our childhood.

I admit it is pretty wild each time I look back. The more I study the legacy of global capitalism and the role of American imperialism, the more I become aware of the privilege I received growing up as an American male of middle class status. For a long time, I wrote off any sadness or feelings of emotional trauma as overly dramatic and unfounded due to my privileged upbringing. But now more than ever, I have creeping memories of family events that I seem to have suppressed in convincing myself that I had no right to feeling emotionally challenged from my childhood.

Please understand that I am far from asserting I was abused in any traditional sense. I hesitate to place myself any where near such a label as I feel that would devalue the significance of experience so many others have had to endure in this truly messed up world.

It's fleet week here. I stepped out to get a coffee and saw the blue angels flying fighter jets in formation over the city. I remember running a food vending station at an air show years ago. My location was right next to the crowd stands and so I got to watch all these amazing jets and planes race by all day long. I've also been on an aircraft carrier once in South Carolina.

These are the creations of man, or better stated in a non-gendered expression, the result of human ingenuity. To say the least, we are impressive creatures posing powerful intellectual potentials. But I'm left wondering what it says about our species when we acknowledge that many of our most monumental feats are focused about death, destruction and oppression.

The world, or at least the human experience of it, appears to be dying and at an increasing rate. I have limited knowledge of how limited your knowledge is as a result of your incarceration. I think the briefest statement is to say things look bleak from most any perspective. The Cold War is in full effect again, poverty and the division between wealthy and poor is widening, and climate-related emergencies are increasing at a rapid rate whether our government chooses to acknowledge it or not.

The catch is that all these considerations are largely the result of human action and interaction, and in my view particularly the outcome of social systems that lack compassion born from respect for equality of being. Yourself and the many others imprisoned in our nation and across the world come to mind as I struggle with these thoughts. Malcom X wrote in his biography that the most cruel thing a society can do to an individual is to place them in a cage.

I recognize from your writings that some good has come from the programs you have engaged in during your sentence. I'm glad for that at least. I do hear some sense of achievement and hope as I read of your accomplishments and ongoing betterment activities. Likewise, I am aware that your crime, regardless of your remorse, which I believe is sincerely genuine, was a heinous act requiring some societal response.

Yet Malcom X's words continue to ring in my head, especially as the house I'm in shakes from the jets flying closely above in demonstration of the destructive power of our nation's political might. Something is very not right here. Maybe you weren't a child at 17, but after all our letters and the time spent as boys I struggle to accept that you as a person are simply an animal so threatening to the world that you should be caged. Or that caging an individual is actually for that person's benefit.

And in the same regard, I struggle to accept the prison system as fair and just while being aware of the disproportionate incarceration of minority groups and people of color. We have a nation that more strictly regulates a woman's reproductive rights than an adult's access to technologies solely focused on the termination of life. That is not just, fair or respectable.

I am glad you've found success in your living condition and that you've embraced the opportunity to both help others and prepare for re-entry. But I'd be lying if I said I believed in the system's expressed intent to rehabilitate and support convicted individuals for success upon release. It's hard enough for the average individual to get a job and I know that a felony record only exasperates this universal struggle.

I am optimistic for you though. I know you to be kind, well mannered and focused on positively supporting those around you. I think that orientation goes a long way in a world where success is significantly impacted by both an individual's sheer will and their connection to gatekeepers who hold access to limited resources such as employment opportunities. And so, I like to imagine that you have impressed many who you've worked with to a point where you'll have the opportunity to pursue your dreams upon their social connections when released.

I suppose this letter is far too heavy and long winded. Best to wrap it up. My apologies for not being more up beat. Please accept my vulnerability in sharing the rather dismal view that currently dominates my outlook. I hope you're well and continuing to find peace in working forward toward the next stages.

Best regards,

#me

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