Poem: "Stillpoint of the Spinning Wheel"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem was prompted by rix_scaedu and sponsored by kelkyag.  It's a Monster House poem about grandmother-granddaughter bonding, growing up ... and what lies beyond that secret laboratory in the basement.

Comments

[kelkyag]

Amusingly, my first reaction is to be slightly indignant on behalf of the granddaughter that she'd be accepted (only) as a legacy rather than on her own merits.

This raises so many questions I won't even start on them, but just settle for saying that I hope you do more with this space.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

They have to be careful who is allowed access to that dimension. It's pretty much butterflies all the way down, in terms of how much damage could be done with a careless misstep. The legacy connection is actually the lower of the two requirements. Notice that there are other relatives who haven't been brought there. No, I don't know all the qualifications yet, but I suspect it's a great deal more that mere gadgeteering.

[kelkyag]

The legacy connection is actually the lower of the two requirements.

Yes, this is why I'm (slightly) indignant on her behalf that she's being brought in through the legacy door, when I think she will (perhaps eventually rather than now) be able to qualify without that boost.

[fayanora]

Wow. Just wow.

For some reason, I'm picturing the Addams Family moving in next door, finding out about the monster house, and being envious. (After all, in one episode of the series, Morticia said she wished she could live in a haunted house.)

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

When I was little, Morticia's line made me giggle, because of course we do have houseghosts here.

[siliconshaman]

..and now I'm wondering if this is sort of the Gallifrain advanced academy...

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

A little bit like that, though not exactly. They do focus on keeping the multiverse as safe as possible. They seem to draw from people who are born there, or from the extended families of people who settle in far-flung place. But they've got more than one species doing that.

Re: Hmm...

[kengr]

I'm suddenly reminded of the old Brit SF(?) Fantasy(?) series Sapphire and Steel. It's not to everyone's taste, but it sort of fit here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire_%26_Steel

BTW, I disagree with the wiki article regarding "old things should be abandoned". I got more of an impression that you had to be *careful* with things that might have absorbed something over the years or got tangled up in something.

Rather like magic, eh?

[aldersprig]

Beautiful... good for her.

But going back to school, to Jr. High, after that....!!

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's hard to go from one context to another, when you have more respect and authority in one place compared to the rest.

But I think she already gets that, going from a tolerant and supportive home to the mainstream world treating her as a little blind girl. She has always been endowed with a great deal more perception than average, and that's inherently alienating in a world where most people sleepwalk through their lives. Many of the previous poems about this character highlight aspects of that.

[jenny_evergreen]

Oh, wow, what a branching off of the series! Monster House becomes just backstory for our hera now...but that's okay! :)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Monster House is getting huge and now covers a substantial span of time. Depending on how things work out, it may wind up getting released in issues that feature different phases of the family life. It doesn't have a 'closed' story arc with a beginning and end the way a few other series do, so that would make it possible to release some of it without closing the series.

Re: Thoughts

[rhodielady_47]

Yay!
I like it that Monster House may never end.
:)