Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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From A to Z in the InCryptid Alphabet: R.

R is for REALITY.

Reality is a lot more flexible than most people want to believe. No one wants monsters under their bed or lurking in their closet; they want to say "it's all safe here," close the doors, and know that they've seen the end of the nightmares, the last of the danger. No one wants the things in the shadows to be real. It's a pity that the things in the shadows don't agree.

Part of the challenge of protecting a world that isn't quite ready to admit than monsters might be real is keeping those monsters from forcing the issue. After all, there's no magic to keep people from noticing, no special set of rules that keeps the fight on a different plane of existence. There's just the fight, over and over, until somebody wins. And that may never happen.

Reality is a shifting target. When you make your throw, it's hard to know just what you're going to hit.
Tags: discount armageddon, incryptid
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  • 15 comments
No one wants the things in the shadows to be real. It's a pity that the things in the shadows don't agree.

Beautiful scary phrases like this are part of the reason why you are awesome.
Yay!
Hey, if they introduce themselves politely...perhaps an e-mail or an oldstyle letter?

Or even a good old, "Good (time of day), if I might trouble you for a moment..?" They can be as real as they need and like, so long as we can agree on what constitutes good manners.
Hee.
Reality is several shifting targets.

For some reason, now I remember telling my children that the reason we kept cats was so that they could take care of the monsters under the beds. Now I'm wondering whether I should try asking one of the cats in question whether they were keeping my children safe from the monsters, or the monsters safe from my children... or whether, in fact, cats are the monsters under the bed.
I'd believe any of these things.
The response is either, "If I told you it wouldn't work anymore," or, "Pet me."
I want this one on a poster, or somesuch. Because my walls just need to wear this entry. I am reminded, once again, how much I adore your writing.
I'm reminded of the bit from Pratchett which went something along the lines of "It doesn't matter that you don't believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation believes in you."
Exactly.
I reject my Reality, and substitute your own.

Happy Monday, if such a thing is possible. ;)
And to you!
"Reality is what you wake up in. Realty is what you wake up on." "Realty is what you're going to wake up under if you don't stop mouthing off." -- two characters in a short story by Markus Roberts

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick
Word.