They say you should always start by writing the end of your story first.
Anyone here ever heard of A Silver Mt. Zion? Very very indy group up in Canada. I can't really do them justice - you have to listen to them yourselves. I highly recommend you start with their first two albums.
The reason why i bring them up is because I recently listened to their fourth album, Horses In The Sky, and the last few minutes of the first track (starting at the eight minute mark) has this round going:
When the world is sick
Can no one be well?
But I dreamt we were so beautiful and strong.
And so I have this scene in my head of a possible, final fight with Salem...
"So. Here we are once again. I never thought I would have someone be an even greater thorn in my side than Oz, but you have never ceased to surprise me, Benjamin."
"You honestly think I'm about to kick the bucket already?" said Benjamin through clenched teeth as he slowly levered himself up.
"Do you honestly think you have much more to give?"
"Salem, you should know by now how capable I am of dissociating. You'll need to burn me to ashes first. And your pet fire maiden ain't around this time."
"Hmph. I can do that just fine on my own."
"Actually, you can't," said Ben with a grin. "Because we're both Writers here. The most powerful ones, in fact. Which means we're pretty evenly matched. But there's a critical difference between you and me."
"Oh? And what's that, praytell."
"Haven't you ever noticed how many red strings of fate I got coming off my fingers? You love no one. You use people up and discard them. But every connection I make? That is something precious to me. I never abandoned any friend that didn't betray me. And in return? They will come running when I call them."
"Your 'friends' are all busy with other things. I made sure of that this time."
"Then you don't know me very well, Salem. I've said it once and I'll say it before: Ganesha ain't got shit on me. I don't just remove obstacles, I fucking obliterate them with extreme prejudice."
"You can't be everywhere at once!"
"No, maybe I can't. But I'm also more diabolical than you can ever be, even on a good day. It's not the one 'Me' you should worry about. Instead, it's the infinite number of 'Me' from all the possibilities to ever exist."
"...no. That's not possible! This universe is completely self-contained!"
"Heh-heh-heh. Like I said. I'm more diabolical than you can ever be. And when someone tells me something isn't possible? That just means that they haven't figured out the cheat that makes it possible. And I'm all about the cheating."
And then from just about anywhere and everywhere, they start arriving. His wives. His children. His grandchildren. His brothers and sisters. His friends. All of them sent by Benjamins that came from other universes. The weak ones. The strong ones. The dumb ones. The smart ones. Each of them was a solution to a particular obstacle that Salem had placed.
And in the mean time, Benjamin is putting out the most powerful anti-magic field he's ever mustered up, burning himself out in order to pull it off, just so that Salem can't launch a preemptive attack on the new arrivals or make an escape.
And the entire time he's doing that, he's singing that round. And as they all gather, all of them readying their most powerful attacks, they're joining him in the round.
"When the world is sick, can no one be well? But I dreamt that we were so beautiful and strong."
It's a bit like that line from another one of my favorite songs, "Defend Atlantis" by the Flobots: "Survival, we unified to focus on. And the voices were many, but we spoke as one."
Salem is defeated. But a compromise is proposed: a counter-universe to act as a yang to their universe's ying. Darkness and Light have their own places, though a small bit of contamination (the dots in the ying-yang) is allowed to keep both from stagnating.
In this, true balance is achieved. Most people in both universes can live good lives. And there is still need for "Heroes" on both sides.
Whatcha think?
Anyone here ever heard of A Silver Mt. Zion? Very very indy group up in Canada. I can't really do them justice - you have to listen to them yourselves. I highly recommend you start with their first two albums.
The reason why i bring them up is because I recently listened to their fourth album, Horses In The Sky, and the last few minutes of the first track (starting at the eight minute mark) has this round going:
When the world is sick
Can no one be well?
But I dreamt we were so beautiful and strong.
And so I have this scene in my head of a possible, final fight with Salem...
"So. Here we are once again. I never thought I would have someone be an even greater thorn in my side than Oz, but you have never ceased to surprise me, Benjamin."
"You honestly think I'm about to kick the bucket already?" said Benjamin through clenched teeth as he slowly levered himself up.
"Do you honestly think you have much more to give?"
"Salem, you should know by now how capable I am of dissociating. You'll need to burn me to ashes first. And your pet fire maiden ain't around this time."
"Hmph. I can do that just fine on my own."
"Actually, you can't," said Ben with a grin. "Because we're both Writers here. The most powerful ones, in fact. Which means we're pretty evenly matched. But there's a critical difference between you and me."
"Oh? And what's that, praytell."
"Haven't you ever noticed how many red strings of fate I got coming off my fingers? You love no one. You use people up and discard them. But every connection I make? That is something precious to me. I never abandoned any friend that didn't betray me. And in return? They will come running when I call them."
"Your 'friends' are all busy with other things. I made sure of that this time."
"Then you don't know me very well, Salem. I've said it once and I'll say it before: Ganesha ain't got shit on me. I don't just remove obstacles, I fucking obliterate them with extreme prejudice."
"You can't be everywhere at once!"
"No, maybe I can't. But I'm also more diabolical than you can ever be, even on a good day. It's not the one 'Me' you should worry about. Instead, it's the infinite number of 'Me' from all the possibilities to ever exist."
"...no. That's not possible! This universe is completely self-contained!"
"Heh-heh-heh. Like I said. I'm more diabolical than you can ever be. And when someone tells me something isn't possible? That just means that they haven't figured out the cheat that makes it possible. And I'm all about the cheating."
And then from just about anywhere and everywhere, they start arriving. His wives. His children. His grandchildren. His brothers and sisters. His friends. All of them sent by Benjamins that came from other universes. The weak ones. The strong ones. The dumb ones. The smart ones. Each of them was a solution to a particular obstacle that Salem had placed.
And in the mean time, Benjamin is putting out the most powerful anti-magic field he's ever mustered up, burning himself out in order to pull it off, just so that Salem can't launch a preemptive attack on the new arrivals or make an escape.
And the entire time he's doing that, he's singing that round. And as they all gather, all of them readying their most powerful attacks, they're joining him in the round.
"When the world is sick, can no one be well? But I dreamt that we were so beautiful and strong."
It's a bit like that line from another one of my favorite songs, "Defend Atlantis" by the Flobots: "Survival, we unified to focus on. And the voices were many, but we spoke as one."
Salem is defeated. But a compromise is proposed: a counter-universe to act as a yang to their universe's ying. Darkness and Light have their own places, though a small bit of contamination (the dots in the ying-yang) is allowed to keep both from stagnating.
In this, true balance is achieved. Most people in both universes can live good lives. And there is still need for "Heroes" on both sides.
Whatcha think?