Tell me your weird make-believe vision

[Ataraxia]

So... I got really lazy and bad for a few weeks, like others during the holidays, and it's time to get back on the wagon... but I feel like I need a vision.  Some crazy fantasy of myself in another dimension now suiting up to fight against some bizarre challenge.

 

What's your crazy imaginary vision of your current life phase? 

[Ataraxia]

I posted a vision of my state-of-mind in this challenge:

 

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/76896-wounded-monk-limps-back-to-camp/

[Mourgause]

Sigh. My AU me has been lifting for six months and has just about the most amazing triceps....

[Anita]

A wake/funeral filled with fellow heroes whom I had the honor and privilege to share globe trotting adventures with. Memories of laughter and comradery flickering on digital frames depicting reaching the summit and pinnacles of mountains and cliffs with sweeping vistas in the background... and serene sunsets as we share a meal and celebrate a life well lived.

 

And for all the naysayers and those whom we call family simply because of blood, to walk away with a twinge of loss for the life they wasted in derisive dismissal and mocking tones to those whom would dare to dream of a happy fulfilling life... and want to change their path and obtain happiness of their own. 

[Ataraxia]

Huzzah!  Don't let those naysayers get you down.

[PaladinShoshannah]

The paladin opened the door of her study. Her sword lay in repose upon the wall, but a thin layer of dust coated it and dulled its gleam. Sunlight shimmered on the fine cobweb strands that stretched across the holy tomes, nestled in their shelves, unmoving and untouched. 

 

She had been gone for several months, locked in solitary contemplation. She had requested it, and her comrades had permitted it - some willingly, some not believing her; some angry and bitter, making the request personal, as thought it was their company in particular that she reviled. But that was the way of the people; it is always about them.  And her life had always been about them. Her heart stirred with pity many times in her solitude, although not enough to rouse her from it. Of course they were confused and hurt. Their hero had abandoned them, retreated and withdrawn. The others who didn't mind - she did not blame them. What use to anyone was a faith-weary paladin? 

 

And wasn't that the word? She had found herself tired of it, tired of being the one to bring the Light to the dark places. Tired of unending compassion for those who did wrong without thought and without regret; tired of it being taken for granted that she would always be there, "Lawful Good," stalwart and strong. 

 

They didn't understand. She had faced death before, right? Faced it, shrugged it aside, and carried on. But this death - this one man's death - was one too many. It had undone her. And they didn't understand that. She could not blame them. She didn't understand it, either. 

 

But as St. John wrote, the darkness had proven to be the paladin's friend, "more loving than the sun". For when the sun was bright and the Light was easy to find, then faith had been easy, the fight good, and nothing could have deterred her in her convictions. Darkness had cut her away from that easy source of Light; it had forced her inward, forced her to spend time with the Light of her own being. Ah, little lamp; long neglected, the oil long depleted in the flurry of adventure. Such a small lamp was impossible to see by daylight, for the sun was blinding and distracting. It was only here in the darkness that she could tend to it. 

 

"I can't imagine you being afraid of anything," the Master of her Order had said to her, when she finally left the confines of her self-imposed solitude and confessed all that had driven her to it. She hadn't known her superiors thought of her that way, but it was all anyone had to say. How brave she was. How courageous. How strong. 

 

Was that true? Was she brave enough then, to re-take the blade? Was she strong enough to re-join the fight? 

 

Shoshannah walked into her study decisively, and brushed the cobwebs away from her books. A spider scuttled to safety; she captured it, and moved it to the windowsill, so that it would not risk getting crushed by the movement of those heavy tomes. She pulled down the Canon of her faith, gold letters shining against the white lamb-skin binding.

 

Back to basics, then. 

 

In the beginning... 

 

---

 

(I love how so many Rebels roleplay in their quests and challenges... <3 I realized after writing this that this is the "re-spawn" point, so as a total forum n00b I probably shouldn't have started here, but it was good to write down square one.) 

[Ataraxia]

The Leyline Monk nodded at Shoshannah when she passed a nearby campfire.  "I see you have been carrying a burden and have needed rest.  Such is the way of the world.  Would you never bear a weight again, having grown tired from hauling an overburdening pack?  Certainly not --you are indeed strong.  These other people -- they do not ply you with empty words.  Life is heavy, and in bearing this heaviness one becomes strong.  Once we have rested and the weight is lifted, our feet seem so light... and we are drawn to pick up our burdens once again.  We are still alive, after all! This is how one lives."