Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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From A to Z in the InCryptid Alphabet: M.

M is for MICE.

Oh, the mice.

Aeslin mice are highly religious. They want to believe. They need to believe. Their mental health depends on it. So they find something they can believe in, and they believe in it with all their might, for as long as that thing endures. Sometimes it's an object, or a place. Other times, as with the colony that currently lives with the Price family, it's a bloodline. To the Aeslin mice, the women of the Price family are priestesses, and the men? The men are Gods.

The Catechism of the Mice begins with Caroline, the Compassionate Priestess, and continues through the generations to the present day. They have celebrated every birth and mourned every death. They have given their lives in the name of the family. They have given their hearts in the honor of the family. They have given everything they are, and in return, the family has cared for and protected them, and has sworn to continue doing so for as long as family, and colony, endure.

Aeslin mice never forget anything. If they have heard it, or seen it, they recall it. There are divisions within the central family colony, each dedicated to preserving the teachings of their specific Priestesses to future generations. While the colony that lives today will learn the present en masse, in the future, Evelyn, Verity, and Antimony will be remembered by their own branches of the Aeslin priesthood. Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever left behind.

All Prices are remembered forever, in the rituals of the mice. No one ever leaves for good. As long as there is a family, the colony will endure.
Tags: cheese and cake, discount armageddon, incryptid
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  • 51 comments
Hail!

I would read these books just for the mice, much as I love what we've seen of the humans. So excited!
Yes. These are AWESOME mice.

celticdragonfly

5 years ago

coloursofdusk

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

I do not have the words to express how much I am looking forward to _Discount Armageddon_, and how much am I enjoying this leadup.
I am so glad.
These mice sound awesome.
I adore them.

Deleted comment

That's what CDs are for!
I bet they're cute as heck, too, and probably don't leave little trails of mouse poop in places we'd prefer they not be. This kind of mice, I could live with.
They're pretty much awesome, it's true.
This is simultaneously beautiful and frightening.

It's beautiful because the Aeslin mice are utterly cute.

It's frightening, because I can't imagine how hard it must be to know that you'll be remembered like this, from the highest of highs to the moments in your life that you wish you could forget.

Now I really want to see the book, because I imagine that if a Price leaves Buckley Township, the mice will send an observer, so nothing will be forgotten.

(I'm also inclined to think that nobody with any sense will attack a Price at home. They may only be mice, but I'd put my bets on two hundred intelligent mice with sharpened forks and pieces of broken glass above an intruder.)
There is a quote from a game that goes, "You can't Dodge your underwear." I have a feeling that 200 intelligent mice would have... similar advantages.

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

Oh the mice! Dear God, how I love the mice! They just have to appear and I start giggling. The first mention of them in Flower of Arizona made me laugh very loudly in a crowded food court. One day there has to be a book just about the mice. CHEESE AND CAKE!!!
I don't think the mice could carry a whole book, but I'd love to see a mouse-centric children's book.

yellowblackhaze

5 years ago

lysystratae

5 years ago

wendyzski

5 years ago

professor

February 20 2012, 21:18:33 UTC 5 years ago Edited:  February 20 2012, 21:21:04 UTC

To the Aeslin mice, the women of the Price family are priestesses, and the men? The men are Gods.

This has always bugged the CRAP out of me. Why not priests and priestesses, or Gods and Goddesses? Why priestesses and Gods? I don't know if the Aeslin mice are sexist, but they certainly seem sexist, with this. Why do they assign the women a lesser designation? I would even be okay with a mix of priests and priestesses, Gods and Goddesses -- the nicer, more approachable humans are clergy, and the more distant humans who don't talk to the Aeslin directly are Gods and Goddesses. Why does it HAVE to devolve along gender lines?

Also, how would the Aeslin classify someone who is genderqueer?
In a demonmouse advocate side... Well, they are mice. Eidetic mice. If they imprinted on Gender Roles, then that could affect them -- and they do tend to have pheromonally mediated gender roles, if Teh Intarwebs are accurate...

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=all-that-separates-male-from-female-is-smell)

I do look forward to seeing how that plays out, mind.

kengr

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

idancewithlife

5 years ago

kengr

5 years ago

Now I want to know how the mice reckon membership of the Price family -- as all descendents from a single ancestor, or patrilineally (or matrilineally).

I'm also curious why the men are deified and the women exalted -- I presume it dates back to Caroline, when the colony's ancestors needed something to believe in.

Yes, I'm interested in cryptid mouse anthropology/history.
*high fives you for having the same basic question as me but writing it much more concisely and clearly*

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

beccastareyes

5 years ago

Like others, I love the mice to bits. A series of children's books about them would be amazing.
Hee.
I think I am now in love with the mice.
I know I am.
All Hail the Mice!
Yay!
I need The Catechism of the Aeslin Mice. Seriously. I would buy that all on its own.

And I am absolutely tickled by your above explanation of why the Price women are Priestesses, and the men are Gods.

I want this book to arrive pretty much NOW, Universe...
It's coming!

faecat

5 years ago

The high-pitched noise I made upon seeing this frightened my cats. EEEEEE!

CHEESE! AND! CAKE!
Hee!
I love the mice so much. And I got the giggles for a good five minutes at "Hail the Priestess of Unexpected Violence" in The Flower of Arizona.

Bandwidth wise I know it's not likely to happen anytime soon but the Catechism idea is brilliant all the same :-)
It'd be fun! I'd just need an artist who draws mice really well.

archangelbeth

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

archangelbeth

5 years ago

janetmiles

5 years ago

In a poor attempt to be original I shall say "Wee!" instead of "Yay!"

Wee!

Aeslin Mice associated merchandise would be nifty.