[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 7: Depth

Well, hello there ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the most recent installment of The Bamboo Labyrinth - the short I've been working on for quite a while now. The core memory, that the text is all about, has finally been discovered, though the meaning of the title still remains somewhat hidden, only hinted upon up until now.
In today's slightly shorter excerpt we will delve into the core of it once again, uncovering a bit more of what lies beyond the curtain of the chosen mind. What shall we discover? Find out below!

For first-time readers, as always - I advise you to start reading from the very beginning.

[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 1: Introduction


Enjoy!


*~*

The silence around us seemed to hold everything in place, pristine and clean we found ourselves prepared to overcome eons of time. But it quickly became clear to me again how my mind was only fooling with at the time. Though the real reason why I snapped out of this mesmerized state was her doing.

It sounds so clumsy that it’s stupid, but that is just reality unfolds before you.
She lost her balance. 
Threatening to just keel over on the spot, I hurried over to her, hardly managing to catch her or even break her fall. Luckily she wasn’t hurt at all, stammered something about being used to hitting the ground all of a sudden. And so this moment became also the first one I can remember, when I felt like a complete full-blown idiot. How could I imagine that she actually was speaking the truth? It didn’t dawn on me till a little bit later that I heard her speak. How she, without any hesitation, broke apart the picture in my mind of her being just a beautiful, yet completely silent and thus cold statue.
In any way, for that moment, I would have sworn that she was trying to be sarcastic, but as it turns out there was a little bit more behind this, for her abundant, sentence.
It’s hard to understand if you look at it from a perfectly healthy point of view, but those things you see as normal aren’t for everybody. A somewhat sad and harsh truth life holds behind curtains of lead. But don’t try to waste any of your precious time thinking about it too much, for just as it seems that the number of these curtains is to be growing to an endless amount, so you will see that there are even far more people standing behind those. The rabbit hole is infinite and just like that it overwhelms you.

A few things in her body just didn’t work out that well she put a simple truth in simple words, her balance being one of the more troublesome. How dangerous this would be for her life was something she didn’t want to think about and I didn’t question her on that. Eventually everybody goes, so why cut the time we have until then with pointlessly thinking about the moment when it’s all too late?

*~*


As a heads up for all readers, this little series will be continuing for maybe one or two more weeks before it finally comes to a close. You will know  when this happens. ("Geez man, it's finally over, man...")


For a few more bloggish parts of today's post:
I'm actively starting to re-edit and polish my semy-old fanfiction "Blood-stained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul" as well as "Sleeptalking".
Yes you read it right, Sleeptalking... I'm not only talking about it, I'm doing it. And yes... again...
I'm still not fully happy with it.
Concerning my fanfict. The most common question should probably be the "why" looming around almost any corner in the artificial labyrinth that is the human mind. Well... it just felt right to do so(and I've got a plan *hint hint*). Aside from that, I've been meaning to clean out a lot of the more ... well... idiotic mistakes that sneak into such a manuscript despite all the correcting.
Best example, also labelling me as illiterate -- throne and thrown. Yes you hear the difference when speaking them out loud, but no you don't really hear it when only saying it in your mind. And I only recently (with Loner's Peak and Sleeptalking edit n°X) I've converted to reading everything out loud; much to the entertainment of my surrounding... hearing the same sentence 3 to 4 times, only one word changing per reading.
And whatever you just thought - it's actually is kinda fun.

As always, thanks for reading. Check back on Sunday for yet another pointless update on the weekend. I really need to get some content for that.
Marc, re-re-re-re-re-editing more stuff

P.S.: Kittehs finally going up - two pictures of Mauzi III, heir to a legacy.

[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 6: A shadow in the Light

Hey hey... yes I know it is the first Friday of the new year and as I promised to you - here is the next part of The Bamboo Labyrinth for all of you to read and hopefully enjoy.
I know there will be at least a few people who didn't think I'd actually pick this back up again and to those people I only have one thing to say: "Shun the non-believers!"

As per usual if you are new to this little story of mine I'd advise you to start off right at the beginning so you can fully enjoy the experience. I won't be putting up links for each part anymore though, as I was aiming at restructuring these posts a bit anyways. Too many pointless links only clutter up the site..
But as I was saying - link to part 1, coming right up.

The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 1: Introduction


And now for the actual update - enjoy.


*~*

The rustling, or whatever sound it was that presented itself to me was quickly discarded as the sound all great old houses would utter during the day or night. Yet the feeling that arose alongside it was something more like knowing when two eyes rest upon you far from your own sight. A suspicion transcending every normal form of perception and directly correlates to something more vile and primitive as instincts. Though, one should not make the mistake to take this ‘primitive’ as a negative statement. In this, our world one side of a coin always needs the other. They depend on their opposite. As light needs the shadow to exist and have a meaning, so does our intelligence rely on our once primal foundation. The day we shalt lose all our instincts will most likely be the day our race dies out. But enough of this diversion my mind send us along so happily.

She was there, together with me in the same room. I didn’t see her, as she kept herself hidden away like a scared little puppy but I already knew it. It wasn’t fear, yet I could almost feel how nervous she was just from me finding out about this room.

The pointless tension in the air was ever rising, up until the point that I boldly decided to make an end to it. I called into the small room like a daft old man or stupid young child. The words leave my mouth without a sound. I dare say I’m unable to remember any of them, though in all honesty, they can’t be too hard to guess. The game is over, would fit the scene. Or ‘no need to hide from me, I won’t bite.’ Yet in any of those lucid creations the mind of an adult already swings along, ripping apart the fine pristine words of the youth.

The moment that follows is one of those I cherish. It has its own place in my heart when I watch closely how one of the walls is pulled to the side, revealing another small room directly adjacent to this one. A girl is standing in the newly opened doorway, her hands slightly shaking. She even tries to still hide behind a part of this loose piece of wall.

She seemed so frail, to vulnerable and on a completely different note almost longing. But what it was, that she appeared to be seeking so desperately is something I never really found out, at least not directly.

At first it proved hard to believe how she should a member of the family housing us as guests, the way how she was shaking, looking afraid like that. But something else quickly took over in my eyes when looking at her.

The gloom she radiated seemed to cease and instead something entirely different emerged.  I wanted to take her in, keep watch over her, just from this sight. I wanted to grab her hand and never let go of it again.

It feels like everything happened on a mere whim of mine, it was all so sudden I hardly understood my own thoughts. And how can you in such a moment?

Her hair was blond, golden for me even. Her eyes of light blue like the afternoon sky on a sunny day and her skin would surely feel as soft as a freshly put down pillow. Her body was nicely developed, though she wasn’t as slim as my first sight tried to convince me of. As I stood there she seemed to be everything I ever wished for or could ever think of wanting. Yet now, it also somehow strikes me how ordinary this memory looks.

But it’s not about the picture you paint, but the feeling it evokes.

Hardly more than a minute had passed and I had already lived through three to four possible lives with her at my side, ending in various drama and romance and even comedy. A feeling only the worst romantics amongst us will ever understand. It’s something I’m not too proud of, but everything has its advantages as well as most likely its own disadvantages. And all this time, she was standing there only shacking as four lives had passed meanwhile and several generations had been born and raised into greatness. She was so frail, she needed protection, it screamed at me. And soon enough I would find out why.

*~*

*click here to keep on reading with part 7*

There you go, next part coming right up next Friday. Same place - 'bout the same time. I admit lengthwise I got a bit carried away with this one, but I hope it won't matter too much.

Anyways, as always thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll feel the need to drop by next week again.
Marc, disgustingly light side oriented hobby-Sith

P.S.: I'll be on the lookout for some new kittehs, promise and I'll upload the picture of Mauzi III during the upcoming week, once I get around to scanning it.

[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 4: Treacherous Darkness

Hello once again to all of you, my dear readers. It's already Friday again and therefore time for yet another part of my short 'The Bamboo Labyrinth'.

For those who are new to the site and haven't already checked out the previous parts, it's only natural for me to recommend starting right at the beginning. Just follow the links below and delve right into it! And trust me, it'll all make more sense if you get to see the whole picture.

The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 1: Introduction
The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 2: Delving Deeper
The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 3: A Memory's Embrace


So without further ado, I present to you part four! Enjoy!


*~*

You see... within in the walls of this truly majestic building, something was lying in wait for me, something which I had still to discover until those days. Dangerous, yet strangely magnificent in its ways, how wisely it kept itself hidden away, but I was still too young and by all means too daft and curious to be fooled into giving up on finding it so easily. I was still on the hunt for all the sweet treasures life had to offer for me, despite of not even being aware of what they might turn out to be.

I can still recall a situation after entering this unknown realm in which I found myself hastily turning around upon hearing the faintest of noises coming from somewhere in the far back of one of the many hallways haply scattered out around me. Yet neither my parents nor my brother noticed it at that point in time. They were all by far too caught up by their own nonsensical means.  

The sound itself now is presented to me distorted by the ages, torn apart and quickly sewn back together again without any form of care tended to it, as I came to search for it once more. Calling it a shriek should probably serve as most fitting.

The darkness lingering in the hallway beyond, that I was staring at so eagerly, is in this picture still as smothering as it had been in that very moment. The shade dances in front of me with a certain vile lust for freshly spilled blood. But it appears that this is something I never really took notice of at such a young age. And coming back to the scene like this, I now fully realize how it all had been for the better.

As the minutes continue to creep past and my parents still rest caught up on exchanging their shallow welcomings with these unknown entities, I on the other hand started to grow uneasy. And no matter how hard I tried my eyes were unable to catch even only a glimpse of whatever it was that I had managed to hear in this one second of utmost importance.

From then on I only wanted to be set free.

I wanted to investigate.

And never being a friend of these pointless rituals, I had to urge myself, almost forcing my feet into resting in this one place and not blindly follow my instincts into this obscure chasm opening an arm length before me. Without doubt, no matter when the moment would come that they would call my name and summon me, only to tell me I was allowed to roam around this place freely, it would have been too late for my past self.

My left hand started slightly twitching, a quirk I had picked up as a teenager, as my ears continued to block out everything else around me which I thought of as insignificant. I had to be able to hear it clearly again, should the sound reemerge, not disturbed by any unimportant chattering.

It has become rather difficult to say what I really thought in such a moment. I was clearly ridden by tension, driven by curiosity and held back solely by obligation. Also, the thoughts rushing through my mind are long gone, erased and overwritten now telling strange stories of their own. They spew out random facts about Newton or Nietzsche as they are loitering in the far back of my head giving their personal tribute to my intellect as well as my insanity.

To my own disappointment I didn’t hear it again. At least not this early and..., not on this day... I dearly hoped for it to come back maybe even to show itself, but now, by all means, I came to know better.

Bestowed with the knowledge of experience and years I can now safely tell you... It won’t be returning so easily.

But this is when we encounter another rip in the fabric that is my mind. The scene skips forwards into a bleak and dark room governed by silence. It might not be complete, but surely it is close. Faint breathing being the only thing breaking it up as the moon now slowly wanders along the heavens.

Why I came back to this exact place in time?

In all honesty..., I cannot tell you for I do not know either. Memories often seem somewhat random and incontrollable. A judgment more than rightfully passed.

Yet what I know is the place and the time. It took place in the room appointed to me and my brother. I had just managed to talk him into finally being able to sleep. The afternoon took his toll on him, but he kept it sealed away until we were alone. A moment of weakness as pristine as it might be utterly unimaginable, it was sometime more than simply strange to witness. 

And of course it again came down to me to swallow my own urge to talk about a few things I was confronted with today so I could sooth somebody else’s savage soul. He never really thanked me for that either...

*~*

*click here to keep on reading with part 5*

Ominous sounds, washed out memories, inner conflincts... but yet we still move on a clear path through the apparitions of a sole mind, as we continue to venture towards the secrets that lie burried within the past.

As always thanks for reading, enjoy the upcoming weekend and by all means... feel free to comment, subscribe to the blog and/or send me messages telling me to get the hell off the interwebz.
Marc, in-search-for-a-suitable-sword

[ST] - The Bamboo Labyrinth - Part 1: Introduction

Once again it is Friday, the end of yet another week upon us. And this week you are in for a special treat. As already announced during the last week(s), today I will upload the first part of my short story "The Bamboo Labyrinth" onto the site.
Only the first part you ask? Why yes. I won't be uploading all of it at once as it would probably only serve to be somewhat of an overkill (and to be quite honest with you... it's not entirely done yet). But why do I do it like this? Well... let me give you a heads up on what I'm currently planning on doing.
First of all... "The Bamboo Labyrinth" is a short story, not a piece of flash fiction, meaning it is considerably longer - which also gives me more time and more importantly more words to elaborate on certain aspects of the story, unlike to the sometimes crude and unfinished seeming style flash fiction tends to bear.
Or well..., I'm just bad at the whole FLASH! AH-A stuff...
In any way or case for now it will continue like this: Each Friday I will upload a new part of "The Bamboo Labyrinth". The size of these portions of text will most likely vary a bit, but it shouldn't be too excessively - maybe +/- 50 words. For this week said piece of text will also be a bit longer than those to come, hopefully setting up the right mood for the actual story.
Today it's merely one part of the introduction... should be a bit less than 800 words.
But enough with the ramblings... delve right into the text below and I dearly hope you'll enjoy it!


*~*


The Bamboo Labyrinth


Over the course of his life the human being starts to cherish many different things. They vary of course, mostly due to the age and character of a person, using them to form our, his or her individual comfort zone, resulting in a vast diversity of hidden treasures. Amongst them are many simple trinkets, but sometimes even up to the most valuable trumpery. Yet only the least of those are able to withstand the final test of time.
It is only a selected few that wander through the ages and get passed from generation to generation until they are eventually discarded either as they were found meritless by its holder or for the exact opposite: because of their blind value they have attained.
Looking at this cycle, observing how it keeps on turning with each moon that passes and each sun that rises anew, one can only imagine how grim the fate of the world actually lies.
Things are meant to be used, as tools perhaps but nothing more, and people are those meant to be loved. Unfortunately, yet not only because of this dreadful loop in cultural appraisal, it is ever so often confused and to be turned around, creating one of the worst relationships that have been bred so far over the course of our history.
Luckily for us, as we are, I assume you who are listening right now too, hopefully, mostly part of the more sensible part of humanity, we can, not necessarily completely, but find good riddance from these claws that continued to bind us for centuries already. It is, in fact, an easy thing to achieve, far too simple to be taken light headedly as it will also bear the tokens of our success in a rather quick fashion. Sadly these results appear merely for us in our individual progress, thus they seldom will be noticed in a larger community.
The thing I am so constantly referring to is, again, simple treasuring.
Holding dear the important things.
The intelligent man will now ask, and it is full right to do so, what makes up the difference between 'us' and the rest of the world, especially as I have readily devoted so many words into keeping us apart already before.
The wise man on the other hand will already have understood and remain silent, wary on not sharing it with the wrong kind of people.
Both parties have their rights to do so, just as they acted, to follow their instincts, their common senses... but both of them also remain to be wrong nevertheless.
The intelligent man did not stop and think far enough on his own. And the wise man turned out to be reacting too arrogantly to help spread the secret because he feared the tainted hearts buried in the chests of so many.
But please... hear me. Give me the chance. Let me try to do better or to do otherwise at least. For I am neither wise, nor intelligent. I am just a normal man with a passion, an ordinary being of creation by what means whatsoever. And the answer I bear is about as simple as the question itself...
I chose to cherish the things that are not to decay because of time, those could be remade anyhow, but because of essence... because of personality and its development.
The answer to this riddle I hereby posed so light-heartedly lies so simple: Memories.
They are our lifeblood. Defining who we are, what we experienced, what we learned and how we have suffered. And yet they can be eradicated within the sole blink of an eye. Now..., even though we all know of their frail nature, we still keep on pushing them away from us. We sometimes start wishing them away on a mere whim... and only begin to realize how foolish we've been after it is already too late to retrieve the things lost for all eternity. The things that were ultimately forgotten.
So..., but why do we forget in the first place if we still cling to believing we knew any better?
Because we want to? Not always.
Because of too much information trickling slowly into our heads? Probably.
Because of disease? Unfortunately.
Because of time? No..., not really.
It is the human mind and body that crumble as the years go past, not the memory itself. It will always stay pristine at its core. Yet it is the confusion we create ourselves that rips out its once so colourful details one by one and replaces them with other scraps of our already forlorn childish imagination as it acts up, fighting its own demise.
It is the denial we face in every day to come.
[..]

To be continued

*~*

[Continue reading here *click*]
 


There you go, another Friday's worth of diverting entertainment. It has a serious topic standing behind it, yes I know. But it will lighten up as we delve deeper. As we get closer to the actual... Bamboo Labyrinth!

But for right now... I'll enjoy my choco-cappucino with a sip of whisky and a piece of chocolate dissolving in it. That's what you call "living healthy"..., right?

As always thanks for reading - have a great weekend!
Marc, the Not-as-gloomy-as-you-might-have-thought


P.S.: New kitteh going up soon too!
Edt.: Stop screwing with me blogger! Changing fontsizes and the flow of the text as I post it...

[RBS] - Crimson Bamboo Hearts

So, yeah... I almost missed out on todays update, sleeping away the day. November always makes me feel so sleepy. It's currently 17:30 as I'm writing this and it's already dark outside...
I really don't like this part of the year. It'll get a bit better when Christmas draws closer and people start decorating the windows with a few lights or when the first snow has fallen, lightening everything up a fair bit... but this time right now? It's just meh.

Anyways, as bitching about won't change a thing (unless somebody's so annoyed he/she buys me a house in Australia where I can live during the wintertime) I used a few of the brighter hours of the day for writing down the introduction for the bamboo and the shenanigans I'm planning for you.
On a less thoughtful note, yesterday I had the chance to watch 'The Crimson Rivers' and its sequel on TV with friends at their place. I've seen them before a couple of years ago, but both of them are fairly well made and heck... Jean Reno is the leading actor. Though personally I like the first one more, it seems ... a little bit more credible in my opinion. The story's at least a little bit better thought-out as a whole.

I think I'll already cut it off here for today... My head's somewhat indecisive whether to just fall asleep from one second to the other or keep on working on the short story. Either way, I'll prepare a nice little preview of that story, or at least an excerpt, for Tuesday. With a bit of luck it might even be already done till then.

Oh, there it goes again... have you ever wondered about the storyline behind something like the classical Super Mario Games published by Nintendo? How completely bizarre everything is and how it became even 'worse' over the years and funnily enough nobody really questions it anymore. It's like the feverdream of a junky come to life, but people just tend to accept it by now. But never mind.. this doens't really lead to any conclusion so... yeah.

As always, thanks for reading - feel free to check out the pages to my latest project 'Loner's Peak' or any of the previous Storytimes, if you haven't already.
Marc, the Mushroom