(no subject)

[camwyn]

Show of hands, folks:

How many people here think that it is Not a Good Sign when you finally finish the bad-guy-in-your-head letter and post it to his journal, and it comes up with the following URL?

http://4letterfather.livejournal.com/666.html

… I only wish I was kidding.



(For those of you who have no idea what I'm on about, the Christian bible is generally held to terminate in the Book of Revelations, aka the Apocalypse of John. At one point the narrator of said Book has a vision of the Beast, which is to say the Antichrist on Earth. He says that the number of the Beast (the numeric value of the letters that make up his name) is 666- at least, that's how it is in the most common translation; it's more likely that the original number was either 606 or 616, but 666 is the popularly accepted value now. So. . . OH LOOK MOM IT'S THE ANTICHRIST.)

Comments

[quintus.livejournal.com]

Very cool indeed.

[camwyn]

I suppose. It's not entirely the sort of thing you want to see at 3 in the morning after having completed a Bad Guy Braindump.

I might note that my playing of Father for the Milliways plot that provoked that letter has resulted in a request that I never, ever turn evil, because Father's voice is apparently entirely too scary.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

I can see how it would play with ones brain :-)

You've always displayed the potential to be a proper evil overlord in my book :-)

[camwyn]

A really proper evil overlord needs to keep just two things in mind, I think:

1. Everything you do in the course of your rule- everything- should be deliberate. Do not let rage get the better of you, or prejudice, or petty desires for self-gratification and OH GOD THE BRITVOICES HAVE INVADED EVEN MY EVIL OVERLORDING. You may be momentarily satisfied, but every time you indulge in something private and personal, you can be sure you've cheesed off someone else. Keep a long-term view of things if you want to avoid trouble. You'll be happier in the end.

2. You wouldn't be an evil overlord if, ultimately, you didn't want people to obey you. People are more likely to obey someone who only oppresses them a little bit, and who offers them rewards- real ones. As Pterry said in The Last Hero, a god ought to offer his people more than an absence of thunderbolts.

All the rest of the evil overlord list is either elaboration on these two themes, or basic safety precautions that any government ought to undertake (see all instructions re: five year old children).

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Were you channeling Satan?

[camwyn]

Alas, no. Just Sean Pertwee as a postapocalyptic quasi-Orwellian emotionless dictator.

Which would not be so bad, but, y'know, I always sort of thought that if I went evil I'd wind up Sweeney Todding it.

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

My husband has told me that if I ever murder him just don't end up in the "Tempo" section of the paper. That's the advice and comics section. Crimes in there are generally sensational with a surprise perp. I imagine selling his niblets as victuals would qualify as Tempo worthy.

[camwyn]

I agree. Crime should really have a more glamourous twist to it. It's so rarely glamourous nowadays. If you ever murder him, try and make it a long-running mystery- say, something with a three state search for the body. Make them work for that headline.

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

Extradition from tropical climes is always spicier.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

*snerks*

Methinks the universe is playing with you, Cam. :)

[camwyn]

*makes rude gesture in the Universe's direction* Cantaromancy was bad enough. Dammit, if I'm going to have the capacity to make computers reflect what's in my head, could the Virtual Adepts at least show up first?

[blackswanevent.livejournal.com]

Not only was that highly in character, and highly creepy-but it's left both John Preston and Robbie kind of flaily. Well Robbie's kind of flaily-Preston is just very-VERY confused.

[camwyn]

What, the letter or the URL? The URL's just a coincidence. The letter… urrrgh. There were so many things he didn't have time to mention in that letter, so many elements of what he saw and planned that he just desperately wanted to explain but didn't have time for. He had plans to get rid of the religious imagery when the time came- all the Tetragrammaton stuff was going to have to go, all the allowances for feeling in the higher ranks- but I don't think he had time when he wrote that letter, and it wasn't the sort of thing he could put in the Manifesto.

I am sorely tempted to have the son of a bitch show up in Milliways after his death once- just once- so that he can explain things properly to Preston, or at least answer Preston's questions. The impression that I get is that he's spent his entire life trying to explain, and no one's ever truly understood. Also, the very last emotion that he has, the one he was never entirely able to get rid of, is a faint sort of annoyance. People do not comprehend, damn them, no matter how bright they supposedly are. He would have given a lot to have even one person genuinely understand- but he never got it.

[batyatoon]

Someone might point out to him: if even the most intelligent people around you don't understand what you're trying to say, it's just possible you're actually not making sense.

Of course, it's also possible that everyone's wrong but you.

[camwyn]

And this, ladies and gentlemints, is why one should never put a tenured academic in a position of political power. They automatically assume it's the second of the two.

[camwyn]

What's truly disturbing is that I had to stop and force myself to answer you in my mode. Every time I come out of writing for Father (or reading what I've already written for him) it takes me a good fifteen minutes to revert to normal thought-patterns and acknowledge that the dude was wrong. I keep catching myself to justify his decisions or explain for him... it's really bloody creepy.

I think I may have liked it better when Carcer was the creepiest bastard in my head. I had to consciously think about his actions- he wasn't part of me. Father? Too damn easy. He flows out of what was there to begin with.

[batyatoon]

Allow me to once again second (or possibly fourth or fifth by this time) the request: please don't ever go evil.

[camwyn]

... I was gonna answer that, but one of the Equilibrium mp3 tracks just came up on my iPod.

Er.

Yeah.

[drharper.livejournal.com]

*blink*

*blink*

*blink*

Are we going to have to perform an exorcism? Or, failing that, invoke your inner Constantine?

*grins*

I'd LOVE to see Con-Job face off against the Father.

[not-croaker.livejournal.com]

Random coincidence: Last week I stopped at Taco Bell to grab a quick meal and my bill came to $6.66. The teller refused to take my money because she didn't want to deal with that number.

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

Pardon me for saying so, but: That. Was. Damned. Scary.

You didn't write him as a psychopath; you wrote him as a fanatic, utterly convinced of his own rightness.

That, in my book, is twice as scary as a Random Nutjob.

*Please* keep writing. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff.

[camwyn]

That's the thing, isn't it? They're never wrong. Not inside their own heads. That's why Father was so damned dangerous- he believed that what he was doing was for everybody's own good. He was an ascetic evil overlord, rather than an indulgent one. Father had priorities.

And he lives in my head, the bastard.

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

... EEeeeeEEEEEEE.

And I was about to go to bed, too. ARGH.

[ymfaery]

Looks like you're having an interesting... week? Month? ;D