#289 words

[asheewrites]

MerMay 5 “I’m just looking”

Mister Loew... hobbled. In front of the basin. It was a little bit on the strange side. He hobbled and fretted, staring at a distinct point of the aquarium. And then back at the mermaid. I looked at this for maybe half an hour, while checking the water composition for the 500th time, before I left my office and tapped him on the shoulder. "I'M just- ... looking," he said, blinking. I patted his shoulder a few times and looked a little bit concerned: "Are you okay?" He glanced back at the aquarium: "... I'm worried for the octopus" "Eh... I'm sorry to break it to you, but... octopi are... disposable. It was part of the menu this lunch?" Here he had the mind to look appalled for three seconds. "Yes, but... we put him in there," he said. As dignified as that sentence could possibly be spoken. "... but you actually wanted to make a terrarium, didn't you?" I said, because we wanted to actually do something else. "I wanted to see how it goes before I try," he said. "... as you can see, she mostly watched the the critter. Because it acted kind of silly. Maybe missed to terrify things. Or... she actually watched you bobbing in front of the basin, which looks entirely ridiculous," I huffed, because it was true. "The octopus is safe, at the very least," he nodded, weirdly proud, it seemed. What a strange man. But alright. "You know, if you distract her with a terrarium, it might be even safer" He tilted his head slightly, encouragement seemed to work, he did walk off for a bit. ... he seemed to not work with living beings most of the time, I supposed.

[asheewrites]

Azariest ventures pt 2

A demon. It was a real, actual demon.

At least by the looks of it?

Tail, horns, wings, teeth, wings, claws – on hand and feet – and weird-looking eyes.

He was also smirking, in the middle of his circle.

And stood perfectly still. Unnaturally so.

And didn’t breathe. Not visibly.

At least he wore clothes. Leather-things, they didn’t catch in his… pointy bits, at least.

He also wore a hat.

A bloody hat.

At least I thought it was a he. Had a beard and wasn’t very curvy.

I scrambled a little on the floor. And stared.

I had summoned a DEMON.

It actually worked!

Somewhat surreal, really.

“Sooooo, boy. What did you want from me? Mh? That you actually got those age old books dusted off?”, he said, and he had breathed for speaking, so… he at least followed physics. Physics worked for demons!

“I command you, de-“

“AHAHAHA… ah… no”, he.. laughed. That much for being easy. 

So I frowned and said: “Excuse me? I’ve summoned you, you are trapped in this circle”, and that was what was the proper way of going about things.

“Mmmmh, I suppose it’s one way to see this. But… yeah, commanding me will be haaard”, he said and stepped out of that circle. Just a few centimeters. And sat down, tail swishing.

…. I was quite certain this was not supposed to go that way.

But he had asked me what I wanted and... probably: “… … I wish to learn from you”

“Mh. First lesson, don’t summon demons, lil’ priest, ‘s bad for your karma. And you need that with me around”

I looked at him. He looked back at me.

This was going to be a long night.

[lauras-rpv-blog]

Art as a Response to Conflict

The exhibition held by the UQ Art Museum, Conflict: Contemporary responses to war, is a challenging exploration of the theme of conflict following the events of September 11. Each artwork offers new insights into an aspect of conflict, whether it is the effect on people, on present and past generations, and on communities, or the role of technology.

One artwork did not stand out to me immediately, but left the most lasting impact on me. Lucy Griggs’ Special Forces 2 is painted directly onto a white wall, and is a very large, yet simple, rendering of a soldier with a gun hiding in reeds in what appears to be a field. This artwork initially seemed like just yet another image of war, and fitted in seamlessly with the surrounding works that contained sometimes graphic and confronting material. When I read the painting description, however, I was shocked to discover that this artwork was actually taken from a children’s colouring book from Kazakhstan, on the Southern border of Russia. Kazakhstan is known for being the birthplace of the AK-47 machine gun. I was shocked that an image like this, that fitted in and blended with the confronting images around me, could be found in a child’s colouring book. The romantic image of childhood innocence, a familiar childhood activity of colouring in, set against the realities of war, was confronting. Griggs commented on how such images are being normalised, “allowing them to infiltrate children’s thoughts through play”. These images also encourage acceptance of conflict and violence as commonplace encounters. This artwork is both compelling and confronting; it resonated with me, especially in light of news reports of children’s involvement and exposure to such violent content.