#todd macguffin

[chroniclerofthecatacombs]

For centuries, Meridian citizens—Merids—had settled in the lands that would become the Federation. For some, it was the opportunity for trade, for others, it was abject poverty. Still others flee persecution for holding values and ideas considered anathema to the Meridian state. Many of us left on much harsher terms than even that. But that’s not what we are here to talk about. We are here to talk about the confraternity of our nations. We found new something we never expected here in the south when we left our homeland. The Federation didn’t just provide us with refuge. They gave us a place where could express our ideas and aspirations without fear of persecution. We also found a diverse assortment of people who not only made us feel welcome but believed in many of our ideas as much as we did. The ideals of diligence, merit, and democracy are here held as things to aspire to. We found allies. Compatriots. Brother and sisters. Countrymen.  More importantly, we can the arbiters of our fate, never again to be at the mercy of chance or the happenstance of our birth. Its people did not respond to failure or loss with cruelty. We can rise from the ashes—as many times as we can and then some. People criticize the Federation Dream, and our nations and cultures have not always gotten along, but we’ve gotten this far despite our follies; it’s nothing we can’t eventually move past. I raise a glass to continuing friendship of the Meridian community and the other peoples of the United Federation.

An excerpt from a presentation by Todd MacGuffin, Advisor to Meridian Cultural Affairs for the United Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the Meridian Cultural Conference at the Museum of Arts and Cultures.

[chroniclerofthecatacombs]

Preachers in the Underground

One of the many peculiarities I remember in all my years living in these tunnels is the sheer number of recruiters from new religious movements here and there. There’s at least one or two of them in some corner of every station (major converging stations can have up to 15). The first time I encountered them was traveling with my friends Aurelia and Todd about six years ago, who at the time lived in the same capsule hotel as I did.  Aurelia told me to dodge them, as she finds them exceptionally bothersome. They usually were in loose communion with the Order of Sigismund, a council of polytheistic sects.

Aurelia is Pascalese and Todd is a Meridian, practicing their own religions that they feel very strongly about.  Aurelia is an ardent follower of Pascalese monotheism, a religion heavily tied to the Pascalese cultural identity; she doesn’t take too kindly to new religious movements, claiming them to be cult-like, but that may also be because it jibes against her monotheistic sensibilities.

Todd tends to avoid talking to them as much as he can; he is a Mapotherian, lapsed when he first came here but gradually became more observant as time went on. Mapotherians and members of the Order of Sigismund are not known to get along all that well due to a colourful history of discrimination and persecution between the two that gets flipped depending on who was the minority at the time and place. Outside major cities like the Galt metropole, Mapotherian discrimination is even stronger due to anti-Meridian sentiment; Mapotherianism is the state religion of the Meridian Empire.

I personally don’t have that much to say about the recruiters themselves, only that I tend to avoid them for convenience’s sake. Admittedly, I only ever paid lip service to my own religion so I’m not really the one to judge others, nor do I show too much interest.

[chroniclerofthecatacombs]

Museum Talks

My friend and colleague Darville and I attended a series of talks today on the longstanding cultural relationship between the Federation and the Meridian Empire in celebration of both the Meridian Empire’s Foundation Day and Meridian Cultural Day.  They were held at the Galt Museum of Arts and Cultures just a few blocks away from where I live. 

The museum had its own station, so I managed to avoid the traffic fermenting due to a protest organized by members of Galt’s Pequodese community, venting their frustrations on the actions of the Imperial government in their homeland. The archipelago of Pequod had been a Meridian protectorate for nearly a century.

Members of other immigrant communities from Meridian colonies and even Meridian communities themselves had pledged to join the demonstrations and several others like it. In the stations, a young Pequodese man shared propaganda defacing the Meridian king and demanding that the Federation government intervene.

Darville and I met at the Museum’s Tumblin’ Torus topside.  As she gorged on a large glazed doughnut, we made jokes about how we could possibly have “cultural rapport” with the Meridians when the cultures within the Federation could hardly get along. We arrived early, so had to time before the talks by wandering the museum’s exhibits.  Darville was especially fond of the artefacts led by the Levelers, a technologically sophisticated culture whose relics were especially admired by her religion.

The first speaker we listened to was Doctor Rosamund Croft. She looked exactly like the kind of upper-class frump you’d expect a pure-blooded, full Meridian citizen to look like. She talked about the longstanding historic ties between Meridian and cantons like Pascal, historically one of their allies, and how she admired of other cantons like South Jejima who ‘preserved their traditions.’

Darville spent most of her time “secretly” snarking at Dr. Croft.

“The moral of the story here is ‘be feudal,’” snarked Darville. She was Jiman, after all, well aware of the rather painful history her “traditions” brought upon her people.

The other speaker was Todd MacGuffin, an old friend of mine from my bach degree years. A first-generation Meridian immigrant, he’s since moved east to Amorsolo City in South Jejima, but recently got a job in the Foreign Ministry as an advisor on Meridian cultural affairs.

Like Dr. Croft, he was a full Meridian citizen, but he seemed more eager to talk about how cultures like the Meridian overseas community quickly assimilated to Federation culture and were proud of its ideals of democracy and diversity. He also dressed in an outfit that most definitely wasn’t traditional Meridian formalwear.

We managed to catch up with Todd later that evening and made plans for a day about town for the weekend to take him on a trip down memory lane. Meanwhile, Darville and I would try to make transcripts of the talk for our thesis.

I was in charge of recording and she offered to write everything down.

[chroniclerofthecatacombs]

Summer and Winter

Back when he was still relatively fresh off the boat, Todd took up a number of odd jobs in between classes since he could never quite get enough scholarship money to get ahead. One of those was working as a cheap model for stock photo companies and photography students, which was one of the most “normal” jobs he had. The first photo was from one of Aurelia’s photo projects, which involved summer wear.

Nearly seven years later, Todd works as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has a bach degree, and most amazingly, has officially reconciled with his mum after years of estrangement.

Early Winter in Galt isn’t nearly as cold as it is in either Northern Meridian or Campbell, so Todd, who’s used to much colder weather, had always worn largely autumn clothes until the height of winter.

He’s wearing the same T-shirt in both pictures. Darville and I actually gave him that shirt.  He calls it his “lucky shirt”; we gave it to him around the time he received several bonuses for clients and established contact with a lost relative.