literature.cafe

I'm always amazed to see how some of my friends are just able to read any book recommended to them with no hesitation at all; whereas with me, I need to research what kind of book it is, what ideas the book will be wrestling with, the author and their writing style. Like currently, I am struggling to give "Being and Time" by Martin Heidegger a try as I am more of a fan of Bertrand Russel and analytical philosophy which seems to be scientific in nature -- especially when compared to that of Heidegger, so I've heard. I feel that if I am spending my time reading something, that I should come away at the end of the book having learned something of value (to me, that's a pretty subjective statement). I think this is a good thing, as just about every book I've chosen to read has been an enlightening and somewhat euphoric experience that cannot be replaced. I wonder though, does anyone else relate?

It's been a lot of years since I wrote, so I'm trying to get back into it. This came mostly in a dream/stream of consciousness with some light editing after. Here it is....

**On the Economics of Slaying Dragons **

Some say that if you pile enough gold together, a dragon will smell it and come. Others say that dragons spawn naturally any time enough gold is together in one place. No one knew for sure.

In this mountain, long ago, a wicked king hoarded the gold he stole from his subjects. His advisors warned him of the consequences, but he was unable to listen.

Every day he became more and more afraid that someone would steal his gold. He couldn't part with even one single coin. First he had his guards count each coin nightly. Later he had other guards guard them while they counted. Finally he couldn't trust anyone else anymore, and he decided to start sleeping in the cave with the gold and count it every night.

One morning he didn't come back to the castle. Guards were dispatched. When they returned, the guards reported that the king must have been consumed by the dragon as he slept. They found only the charred remains of the previous guards before they had to run for their lives from the dragon.

The kingdom had sent it's best knights to fight the dragon, but none ever returned. Year after year the dragon demanded the king's tribute and more. The kingdom sent for knights from other realms, promising the dragon's hoard to any who could defeat this terror.

Though no one had ever conquered a dragon, one knight had fought many battles with great beasts and won. His bravery was only matched by his hunger for glory and riches. He would fight any battle to satisfy is craving, and there was no greater wealth than in this cave.

He had been observing the beast for some months, watching its habits, tracking its movements. He knew its patterns. But still, no one had ever defeated a dragon before, and never had anyone faced such a fearsome beast alone.

He collected it's scales to build armor and a shield. He had his blade blessed and tipped with the most powerful poison of the most powerful wizard in the realm. After months of watching, he chose the night of the yearly tribute to attack.

He hid among the gold, in one of the chests. The dragon sniffed each one as the workers wheeled the cart in, but the dragon didn't notice. The knight had worn gold and even eaten some to cover his scent. Perhaps the dragon had grown careless in its greed.

That night, when the dragon rested, the knight crept out. He moved silently. He had wrapped the dragon scales of his armor in soft leather to deaden the sounded as they moved against each other. He crept closer and readied his blade.

The dragon shifted, and awoke with a start. It sniffed the air, locked its eyes on the knight and out a blast of flame. The knight leapt forward into it.

The smell of burning flesh hung in the air. The knight stood again, sword plunged deep in the dragon's chest. He took off his smoldering armor then collapsed from exhaustion, knowing himself to be the first dragon slayer.

He awoke the next morning as dawn's light glinted off his glorious new treasure. The hoard seemed so much smaller than he remembered from the night before. He couldn't find the body of the dragon anywhere, but instead only a frail doll that looked just like a tiny man, impaled on a tiny sword... A sword that looked so much like a miniature of the huge blade he had crafted to slay the great beast.

A new smell filled his nostrils. He had never tried to imagine what gold would smell like, but now the scent filled his being. He felt as though his hunger had awaked something inside him that had consumed him whole.

Hey everyone,

I recently started a couple of Harry Potter communities focused on various Harry Potter Ships, they're based off of the Subreddits with the same names, and I'm looking for some potential moderators to help manage them.

Drarry:

https://literature.cafe/c/drarry

HarryandGinny:

https://literature.cafe/c/harry_and_ginny

Hpharmony:

https://literature.cafe/c/hp_harmony

(More to come.)

If you're interested in joining the respective community mod team and helping foster a welcoming space for fans of these pairings, please post in the community that you wish to be a Mod of, explaining why you feel like you would be a good fit for Moderator of that community.

Thx in advance.

Over time, the atmosphere of Puissantia became too dense, saturated with something. The cylindrifers, naturally, did not know what that certain je-ne-sais-quoi was, not like the neurifers, in any case. Not that they needed to know it in such mode. The cylindrifers, then, lengthened, elevated themselves, for they needed to reach new heights of their spirit to continue their respiritating.

Some millennia ago, a tribe of neurifers, the anthropoids, had installed atmogenic domes here, as part of the preparations prior to the great rain of the Megametéōron. This was an antemycelial event [...]

A threshold-dweller introduces himself asymptotically towards the interior of the ample exterior. He walks on a bioluminescent plain, considering the ultralimen of his perception of the retinal horizon. Over there occurs a cyclic purple terminus, orboid and orbital. Orbismic, he thinks of coining, for it to sound similar to orphismic. Although without extranatural assumptions in an immanent becoming. In any case, as he remembers an ancient one saying, “such knowledge would be as useless as it would be to know the chemical composition of the solar wind for the navigator in danger of [...]

Under the sanctuary of curative art flows an igniferous mantle, breathing more anciently than the thermal waters.

It urges for us to be careful with the movement of incandescent wellsprings, for the ducts are stony but the emanations entail danger. There exists an unacceptable risk that certain rivulets, with the potential to engender clones of the Erinyes, may splatter the galvanizing plants that grow in the sanctuary, in symbiosis with the axiologists, and whose vines climb up the columns, igneous the latter. Of vigorous and gentle kokoro, the sweet flowers generate currents, salutary [...]

I was hoping to possibly share a few Questions that I had, regarding the PJO Universe.

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Question One:

1. What would happen if a Demigod switched religions?

For example, what if a Greek/Roman/Norse/etc. Demigod refused the Gods of their birth religion, including their godly parent, and started believing in another religion, or decided to become an Egyptian Magician, or whatever, what would happen?

Would the Demigod's godly parent just switch over to whatever the equivalent would be for that new religion?

Or would they just be a Greek/Roman/Norse Demigod/Magician/etc. who happened to end up going to another afterlife when they die?

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Question Two:

2. Another question that I have is: **What would happen if a Demigod tried to access "Mythology Specific" zones of other Pantheons? **

For example, a Greek/Roman Demigod, or an Egyptian Magician, or etc., attempting to climb the world tree, or a Norse/Greek/Roman attempting to enter the Duat, or Alfheim, or Helheim, or etc.?

Ave, fellow demigods.

I've been pondering the extent of Nico di Angelo's abilities, particularly around his unique connection with the dead.

As we know, Nico, being a son of Hades, has a profound link with the Underworld and possesses several powers related to death and the dead.

However, I've been curious about two specific potential abilities and would love to hear your thoughts or any insights you might have.

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1. Sensing How Someone Died Through "Death Energy"

Firstly, do you think Nico could "Sense" how someone died?

The idea here is that the more recent the death, the more "Death Energy" exists, and Nico could use this energy to envision the victim(s)' final moments.

Kind of like Psychometry, but with a unique Underworld twist.

This concept isn't explicitly mentioned in the Percy Jackson series, but given Nico's deep connection with death, it seems like a possibility.

Could this be an extension of his powers we haven't seen, or perhaps something that could develop?

2. Temporary Revival à la Jonah Hex

Secondly, drawing inspiration from the 2010 movie Jonah Hex

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Hex_(film))

where the protagonist can temporarily bring the dead back to life for a limited time just by touching them, as well as force the ghost to speak truthfully, do you think Nico could potentially have a similar ability?

Imagine if, by touching someone deceased, Nico could bring them back to life but ONLY for a couple of minutes, and ONLY as long as he maintains physical contact.

Once he stops, they would return to being deceased.

Another character who has a similar ability, but with hearts instead of touch, is Enoch O'Connor, from the series Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

https://thepeculiarchildren.fandom.com/wiki/Enoch_O%27Connor

This ability would certainly have its limitations but could be incredibly useful for gathering information, or for saying final goodbyes.

Both of these potential abilities raise interesting questions about the limits of Nico's powers and how they could evolve.

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What do you think?

Are these abilities too far-fetched, or do they align with the potential growth of his character and powers?

Could there be instances or hints in the series that suggest these abilities are possible?

Looking forward to hearing your theories, insights, and any information you might have on this topic.

Here are some Obsidian plugins that some of you might like

Obsidian is free software that I use quite often, and you can customise it with plugins. The plugins are easiest to install in the plugin section of the settings, but I thought I would share some that might be useful.

Writing:

• Obsidian Writing Goals: Adds a sidebar with wordcount progress bars
• Editing Toolbar: Adds a toolbar simular to MS word
• Floating TOC: If you use headings in a note, this will create a table-of-contents which shows up when you hover over the icon, so you can easily jump to different sections.
• Task Progress Bar: Creates a to-do list with a progress bar
• Obsidian Writing Plugin: I haven't used this one myself yet, but it formats your book for ebook, and shows a preview of how it will look as an ebook. You can also set writing goals.

World Building:

• Calendarium: create a fantasy calendar where you can even customize moon cycles
• Timelines
• Mind Map
• Obsidian Tabs : creates tabs within a note, so you can easily jump between subjects
• Obsidian Avatar: adds a image on one side, with text on the other.
• multi-column-markdown

Misc:

• Local Backup
• Iconize
• Clear Unused Images
• Beautitab
• MakeMD

I am a bit of a resource cataloger even if I don't use them myself, so I hope this list helps someone out there!

• 🆓yWriter: It is not the most sleek looking program, but it works.
• 🆓Google Docs
• 🆓Slugline
• 🆓Highland
• 🆓 Wavemaker
• 🆓 Joplin: The cloud hosting does cost money. Open source alternative to Evernote.

CaptObvious: A workaround to sync Joplin across devices and keep a cloud backup at no cost: Create a NextCloud account (Webo and Tab.Digital have good free accounts) or self-host your storage. Move Joplin’s folder to the NextCloud directory for sync to all devices. Enable E2EE on Joplin and it should be good to go.

• 🆓 Only Office: This one is good for people who want a private cloud-hosted alternative to Google Docs. It is open-source.
• 🆓️ LibreOffice: Open-source alternative to Google Docs or MS Word. (Suggested By: CaptObvious)
• 🆓 Obsidian: I have started using this for world building, but many authors use it for writing. Within it, you can create your own wiki, and view connections in a cool graph. It is open source, and has many plug-ins you can add.
• 🆓Anytype: The program is free and private, but for the cloud, you have 1GB of storage, then you’ll need a plan for more.
• 🆓 Manuskript: Looks similar to yWriter, but with some different features
• 🆓 Bibisco: A writing and note organizer program with timelines, mind-maps, and more.
• 🆓 Reedsy Book Editor: It is online(not self-hosted/a program download)
• 🆓 SmartEdit: a MSWord alternative for writers that is supposed to have several helpful editing features.
• 🆓 Quoll Writer: Open-source, and has several unique features, such as “warm up session.”
• 🆓 Trillium: Self-hosted and open-source.
• Plot Factory
• 4thewords: It turns writing into a game, where you send your game character on a monster-fighting quest by writing.
• NovelPad
• Plottr
• Living Writer
• Squibler
• Notion: Free limited version
• Scrivener
• Atticus