Welcome to the Deviants Webpage
| "Helios on the Moon" announcement | "Cataclysm Catalyst" announcement | "Nuclear Dragons" announcement | "The Damnation Brigade" announcement | "Goddess Gambit" announcement | "The Thousand Days of Disbelief" announcement | Support phantacea | Order Today | Bulk of Page Contents | |
"Helios on the Moon"
Final cover for print version of Hel-Moon, the latest multi-character, full-length novel featuring Jim McPherson's Phantacea Mythos
Artwork on both the front and back covers is by Ricardo Sandoval, 2014; Jim McPherson's back cover text can also be read here and here; the sun-moon kissing on lower back cover, is a shot taken by Jim McPherson during his travels; for more on the two head-like graphics at bottom of back cover, see here; notes on panel background here |
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From Comics to Novels
Phantacea Revisited graphic novels morph into full length Phantacea Mythos mosaic novels; only the beginnings, middles and endings have changed to protect what really happened |
Rhadamanthys Revealed
The never-remembered Smiling Fiend manifests memorably over Diminished Dustmound
Full cover by Verne Andru, 1980-2013
- Double-click to enlarge - |
Internal Artwork Credits
Artwork from pH 1-7 as well as Phantacea Phase One #1; samples link from here;
Images in this row double-click here and here; notes on the Kitty Clysm specific backgrounds are here and here |
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Phantacea Seven
- Comic Book to Web-Serial -
Ian Bateson's unpublished artwork from Phantacea Seven provides the basis for the first full-length phantacea Mythos Mosaic Novel since "Goddess Gambit" .
Check out the expanded Availability Listings for places you can order or buy Phantacea Publications in person
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Look out below!
Cover art by Ian Bateson, 1980/2013
Nuclear Dragons are here!
The second full-length entry in the Launch 1980 story cycle.
Dedicated webpage is here; back cover text can be found here and here; lynx to excerpts from the book start here and ; check out material that didn't make it here and related excerpts from its scheduled follow-up, 2014's "Helios on the Moon" , here; its Auctorial Preamble is reprinted here, here and here.
Lynx to ordering the book by credit card are here. To order from the publisher, click here.
Postage is extra. Please be aware that as yet Phantacea Publications can only accept certified cheques or money orders.
Double-click on images to enlarge in a separate window
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Centauri Island
- Web-Serial to Novel -
At long last, the second entry in the Launch 1980 epic fantasy has arrived.
Ian Bateson's breathtaking wraparound cover for the novel utilizes his own dragons from pH-7. Those from the then unfinished cover for the Phantacea Phase One project can be seen here and here.
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Phantacea Revisited #1
Check out the expanded Availability Listings for places you can order or buy Phantacea Publications in person |
Guess what isn't coming soon any more?
Right now, the only way to order hard copies and PDFs of "Phantacea Revisited #1: The Damnation Brigade" by credit card is to go through Drive Thru Comics here.
To order from the publisher, click here.
Postage is extra. Please be aware that as yet Phantacea Publications can only accept certified cheques or money orders.
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The Damnation Brigade Graphic Novel
Artwork never seen before in print; almost all of pH-5 available for the first time since 1980
Images in this row double-click to enlarge here |
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Goddess Gambit
double-click on rollover to open a separate window featuring the full cover of "Goddess Gambit"; red sampler enlarges here |
Phantacea Publications is pleased to announce "Goddess Gambit" , the third and final book in 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy, is available for ordering both online and directly from the publisher
(Please note: Phantacea Publications can only accept cheques and money orders.)
With its publication, "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" , Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories', concludes and, in some respects, the 'Launch 1980' story cycle begins.
Hit here for nearly instant ordering gratification
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The Mighty Eye-Mouth in the Sky
double-click on Sedonic Eye to enlarge in a separate window; blue, 2012 ad enlarges here |
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The Thousand Days of Disbelief
Phantacea Publications is pleased to announce the three mini-novels constituting "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" , Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' , are available for ordering online by credit card.
Just as happily, "The Death's Head Hellion" and "Contagion Collectors" are available everywhere at $10.00 each. Being longer than its predecessors, "Janna Fangfingers" still goes for the highly reasonable price of $12.00 CAD and USD. |
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"Feeling Theocidal -- Thrygragon, Year of the Dome 4376" (Book One of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy), "The War of the Apocalyptics" (the first full-length entry in the Launch 1980 story cycle), the three mini-novels making up "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" (Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' ), "Goddess Gambit" (Book Three of the trilogy and in some respects the second – unless it's the third – entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence) and "Nuclear Dragons" (the second, full-length entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence) should be available at neighbourhood bookstores and public libraries all over the world.
"Janna Fangfingers" , the third and final mini-novel comprising 1000-Daze, rather cleverly doubles as a prequel to both Gambit and the Launch 1980 story cycle. In its turn, Endgame-Gambit picks up from where War-Pox leaves off. Part Three of "Nuclear Dragons" connects to both War-Pox and Gambit. Parts One, Two and Four of Nuke also nicely sets up "Helios on the Moon" , the last scheduled sequence in the Launch 1980 story cycle.
E-versions of Feel Theo, Hellion, Contagion,Fangers, War-Pox and Gambit are available on the Kindle format exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and some of amazon's other European and Asian affiliates.
Kindle e-books can be downloaded for I-Pads and I-Phones as well as a number of other devices. Many have text-to-voice capacity for the visually challenged.
Phantacea Publications e-books are also available in a variety of other formats. Please check your favourite online bookstore to download Phantacea Publications e-books to the device of your choice.
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Hit here to initiate orders directly from amazon.com and some its affiliates. Books from Phantacea Publications currently available include "Forever & 40 Days — The Genesis of PHANTACEA" , "Feeling Theocidal" , "The War of the Apocalyptics" the three mini-novels constituting "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" (namely "The Death's Head Hellion" , "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" ), "Goddess Gambit" and "Nuclear Dragons" .
Kindle versions of "Feeling Theocidal" , "The Death's Head Hellion" , "Contagion Collectors" , "Janna Fangfingers" , "The War of the Apocalyptics" and "Goddess Gambit" can be ordered exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and four of amazon's European affiliates. Check your favourite online sites to order Phantacea Publications e-books in a variety of other formats.
Libraries, bookstores and bookseller collectives can place bulk
orders through Ingram Books, Ingram International, Coutts Information (and Library) Services, Baker & Taylor, and a large network of other distributors worldwide.
Some of the Phantacea comics and graphic novels can be ordered through Drive Thru Comics.
Or, if you prefer to order directly from the publisher, email or send your order(s) via surface mail. No matter where you live or what currency you prefer to use, I'll figure out a way to fill your order(s) myself.
Please add an additional 12% to cover Canadian and provincial taxes as well as Canada Post rates for shipping. At present Phantacea Publications can only accept certified cheques or money orders.
BookFinder.com lists both of the original versions of the mosaic novels: "Feeling Theocidal" and "The War of the Apocalyptics" . Also listed therein are most of the other PHANTACEA Mythos print publications.
Another interesting option for the curious is Chegg, which has a rent-a-book program. Thus far its search engine shows no results for phantacea (any style or permutation thereof) but it does recognize Jim McPherson (a variety of them) and the titles of the novels.
As for the Whole Earth (other than the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head, at least as far as I can say), this page contains a list of a few other websites where you can probably order the novels in a variety of currencies and with credit cards.
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Deviants in Phantacea
This webpage contains a collection of character-suggestive images and excerpts from Feel Theo , its immediate sequel 'The 1000 Days of Disbelief' and/or War-Pox . All are specific to so-called 'deviants', the mortal offspring of 1st, 2nd or 3rd generational devil-gods and the mortals they were possessing when the resultant individuals were conceived
- double-click to open a new window with an enlarged image -
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Taurus Chrysaor Attis
- recurring at least until Thrygragon;
- aka the Universal Soldier or, less commonly, the Golden Brown Warrior;
- devic half-parents are Thrygragos Varuna Mithras, possessing the Male Entity, and Kore-Eris (Strife or Discord), possessing the Female Entity
Attis appears primarily in "Feeling Theocidal" but is also mentioned in both War-Pox and 1000 Daze; the main lynx re the Attis are here and here; there's also a decent image suggestive of him here whereas another enlargement of the above collage can be found here;
Pusan Wanderlust
- Chrysaor Attis's recurring deviant daughter, born sometime during the Mad Goddess's Middle Sea Matriarchy of approximately 2000 to 1500 BC on the Outer Earth (2000 to 2500 YD on Sedon's Head);
- her devic half-mother is Amal-Althea, Lazareme's female healer, even though she carries a pedum or shepherd's crook more commonly associated with Goatfish, one of Unmoving Byron's Winter Zodiacals, his Capricorn;
- aka the Traveller or the Between-Space Trailblazer as well as, in 4376 YD, Yeast Tethys's barley bin;
Pusan appears in Feel Theo but, as per main link on this page, plays larger roles in the first two sections of 1000-Daze; there's something of a spoiler note on her here;
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Jordan 'Quill' Tethys
- evidently recurring well into the Dome's Sixtieth Century;
- also known as the Legendarian, the 30-Year Man and/or, almost as commonly, 30-Beers (on account of the maximum he could drink in one day without going howsoever momentarily crazy);
- reputed devic half-parents are Rumour of Lazareme, whose Brainrock quill follows him from lifetime to lifetime, and Wisdom of Lazareme (Metisophia), who is quoted here;
Jordy is a major character in both Feel Theo and 1000 Daze, which are set many centuries apart; the quotations on this page re him (and her) are mostly from the latter; there is much more on Jordy over in the original PHANTACEA Mythos Online website; the three main lynx are here, here and here
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Raven's Head
- described in "The War of the Apocalyptics" as below;
- possibly a demon or daemon more so than a deviant;
- possibly both; possibly neither;
- apparent origin of the species (a combination of a conceivably magical unicorn and a pair of mutated ravens) is detailed in the graphic novel, as per here;
- along with Xuthros Hor (the Biblical Noah) appears on the cover of pH 4-Ever & 40 (the image here should be double-clicked for maximum effect)
Appears primarily in War-Pox; however, ravendeer are mentioned in Feel Theo, wherein a deviated creature known as Hinny the Hippy plays an important role throughout; a Raven's Head, could the very first (unless the beast is immortal and Sundown rides the same one Hor did), appears in "Forever
& 40 Days - The Genesis of PHANTACEA"
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The War of Apocalyptics
A Mosaic Novel featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos
Nine months after the Simultaneous Summonings of 1920 ended around Easter of that year, dozens of exceptional individuals were born. These were the Summoning Children. A great many of them became supranormals (‘supras’). So did some of their parents, siblings, eventual children, other relations, friends and acquaintances. It was as if the gods and goddesses, the demons and monsters, of antique mythologies everywhere were attempting to make a comeback.
From the late Thirties until the mid Fifties hundreds of self-aware supras were identified. Remarkably, the world as a whole never did learn of their existence. By December 1955 only 12 remained active. Then there were eleven, ten, one and, finally, none. By Boxing Day the world was effectively free of supranormals.
On November 30, 1980 New Century Enterprises launched the Cosmic Express from Centauri Island, a 3-peaked but otherwise largely man-joined set of once volcanic islets off Maui, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. With its 6 detachable cosmicars, its central hub-vessel and its overall command ship, over 60 individuals were on the Express.
Intercepted by a Kamikaze craft mere seconds after its launch, it never made it to Outer Space. Instead, in what appeared to be a devastating explosion, it was thrust elsewhere. Whereupon it broke apart!
One of the cosmicars crashed on Damnation Isle in the Aleutians. On Christmas Day 1955, the last battle of the Secret War of Supranormals was fought there. Devil Wind, a 3-eyed, blue-skinned, conceivable deity riding a whirlwind conjured from his lower body, came out of the sky to investigate the downed space vehicle.
Not just Demon Land awaited him.
Thus begins “The War of the Apocalyptics”, a fantasy novel written by Jim McPherson and published under the PHANTACEA imprint.
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- double-click to open a new window with an enlarged image -
The other, mostly earthbound returnees behind him, Wildman Dervish Furie was the first one there. He lifted the smoldering corpse up by its still-glowing topknot. "Doesn't seem to be much left for us lowly types."
"That's twisted, Dervish," the Diver upbraided him. "Even for you that's twisted. Johnny just killed a sentient being. Call us what you will but, Damnation Brigade or no, we don't kill."
... from War-Pox 2: "Advent of the Apocalyptics"
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Gloriella D'Angelo Dark
The Goliath golem blew apart. Maelstrom smiled in grim satisfaction. Even
though he was perplexed as to where Demon Land acquired his shell if the cosmicar
was as empty as it had seemed to be, his work was done.
Then something completely
unexpected happened. The stones, pebbles, and dust that had been the Thanatoid
coalesced into another being entirely. He caught the unconscious female in his
arms before she could fall any farther.
Evidently in her early twenties and dressed in a sheer satin gown, she was
beautiful by human standards.
Had white skin, two eyes, and remarkably long,
remarkably silver-coloured hair.
Which was what gave her away. Had to be Castella-Day,
didn’t it?
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
Gloriel as Radiant Rider appears on the wraparound cover of pH-4; the top image is a combination of a Fuseli figure and a photo I took in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, circa 2003; it's of a woman looking at a distant rainbow; the bottom collage is of a rainbow angel; I took it Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in January 2010; more lynx re Gloriel can be found here; |
Cerebrus David Ryne
No, one wasn't standing. His feet weren't on the ground; he was levitating.
It was this one, a hooded man in a monk’s coarse raiment, who spoke. Spoke
straight into his mind.
"Greetings, Vayu Maelstrom, Devil Wind. I am Cerebrus
David Ryne. In honour of both you, devil that you proclaim yourself and devil
that you undeniably are, and where we find ourselves, thanks to you wholly ourselves
again after a quarter century in Limbo, you may call us:
“THE DAMNATION BRIGADE!”
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
The hooded monk was floating in front of him. He lowered his cowl. The
man was not entirely human either. He had a metal plate instead of hair or scalp
wired into his skull. A cyborg, a cybernetic organism, possibly a Mantel, this
Ryne-son, this latter day Golden Age Horrite as he now realized, was smiling
cherubically, unhealthily proud of himself.
The throwback had learned the secret of both Centauri Island and Sedon's Head.
And he had done it by playing Maelstrom for a fool.
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
The lower image of Cerebrus is from pH-4, artwork by Ian Bateson, 1979; the double click is Verne Andru's opening drawing for pH-3, 1978; the upper image and some more lynx re Cerebrus are from the Serendipity pages, as per here and here |
Wildman Dervish Furie
Dervish Furie was akin to a werewolf: hairy, bearded, with a slight snout and
pointy ears. Action, danger and doing something about it, empowered him. It
also made him very dangerous.
As his codename suggested he was a whirling dervish
who, when he worked himself into a fury, became a virtually unstoppable juggernaut
of barely under control ferocity.
A hybrid creature, he and his gentlemanly
side, Jervis Murray, a black African born to a pair of Godling Guild members
nine months after the Guild-specific Summoning of 1920, were not so much mutually
exclusive as mutually antagonistic.
Murray always went about in the most expensive clothing he could afford. And
the Crimefighters' paymaster, Loxus Abraham Ryne, Cerebrus’s born-with-the-century
father, paid very well indeed. Furie took untoward delight in shredding those
fancy duds every time he burst into motion.
Like the rest of them he was wearing
what he had been when they were thrust into Limbo a quarter century ago. Which
explained why he was dressed in the tatters of a tuxedo, a pair of oxfords,
-- both of which were now minus soles --, and a crumpled top hat.
... from War-Pox 2: "Advent of the Apocalyptics"
The Furie-like masks are of fauns; they're built over actual goat skulls; the only place I've ever seen them is Guatemala Antigua, which is where I bought mine; there's link re them here; its double-click features some more masks and bottles along the same lines; the original shot of them is here; the double clicks in this column are of even more faun masks shot in the same place, albeit more than a year later in 2003;
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Blind Sundown
Riding her was an Irache, a red-skinned warrior whose eyes were covered by
some kind of bandanna.
He had a spear that glowed not just with Brainrock-Gypsium
but with the power of the setting sun itself. He fired. Devil Wind ignited;
burned; plummeted downwards.
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
The above image is of Nachi Cocom, a Mayan hero of the Conquest; the painting is by Fernando Castro Pacheco; it hangs upstairs in Merida's Governor's Palace, across the street from the main square or plaza, kitty corner to the cathedral.
The double-click is of a statue I photographed behind Leighton House in London, England a number of years ago now; stacks of lynx re this enduring character can be found starting here; |
Old Man Power
Obadiah Melvin Power (or, as they usually referred to him, Old Man
Power, OMP) stepped forward. Power was a near-giant, six foot six and almost
as broad as he was wide.
His horned helmet, with its demonic visage, what he
called his Warmask, was strapped to his waistband such that his great Santa
Claus beard hung down over his chest. For once not braided, his shaggy salt
and pepper hair flowed freely to his shoulder blades.
It was impossible to tell how old he really was and, despite his pinkish skin
colouration, impossible to tell where he came from as well. The first time the
Society of Saints met him was on August the Sixth, 1945. He and his then mate,
Crimson Corona, had just walked out of the A-Bomb blast that levelled Hiroshima
but left them unscathed.
Wasting no time he swung his Homeworld Sceptre full-force into the devil. The
resultant explosion was titanic. Maelstrom was vaporized on the spot.
"I
...," OMP sucked air, "I never hit anyone so hideous-hard. Never dared.
Somehow something just came over me. I willed him daredevil-dead."
The
other thing about Power was he tended to fay-say: speak in alliterations and
sometimes nonsensical rhymes.
... from War-Pox 2: "Advent of the Apocalyptics"
Wilderwitch and OMP appear in the background on the front cover of pH-5
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Raven's Head
Something came out of the sky. It was the horse-thing with a bird's head, the
wings of Mercury on the upper parts of its hooves, and a vestigial horn growing
out of its head.
Had to be a ravendeer, he finally appreciated. But one immediately
recognizable as superior to the dwindling herds of the once majestic specie
that were still found in the lower Cattail Peninsula.
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
Given, as per here, what happened to Raven's Head on D-Isle in November 1980, I couldn't resist taking this shot in Halifax, Nova Scotia when I was there in late August 2009.
A ravenhead, though probably not D-Brig's Raven's Head, appears on the front cover of the graphic novel; ravendeer are mentioned in Feel Theo, wherein a deviated creature known as Hinny the Hippy (a psychopomp that is part ravendeer and part Pegasus) plays an important role throughout.
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Wilderwitch
Altogether solid now, Maelstrom snapped his neck and head into normal alignment.
"I am Byronic Nucleoid. I am whirlwind.
I am devil. I cannot be killed!"
"Unless you know how." Once again it was Wilderwitch who spoke.
An actual witch, a member of the Antediluvian Sisterhood of Flowery Anthea,
there was nothing Halloween Witchie about her. A master illusionist like most
Antheans, she could appear to be virtually anyone she pleased.
Right now she
pleased to appear as she usually did, an exceedingly attractive gypsy type in
her late twenties with a mass of unkempt dark hair that could have been home
to any number of bugs and bitty beasties.
Indifferent to the climate, she was wearing a fur, belly-baring chemise and
a hide skirt, with moccasins on her feet and a leather pouch strapped by a thong
to her belt.
Ordinarily this lack of clothing would make her even more attractive
to any male lucky enough to be in the vicinity. In quieter times she was, in
fact, Murray’s, though never Furie’s, lover.
Now, though, was not
a quieter time. The whirling devil was decidedly unlucky to be in her vicinity.
She materialized a bow and glowing arrow out of her pouch, her bottomless bag.
"I may be a life-loving Anthean by both nature and nurture. My flowery
sisterhood may have coexisted with your unkind kind since before the Genesea.
But, be assured, I’m as much an Athenan War Witch as I am an Ant. I can
kill devazurs!"
... from War-Pox 2: "Advent of the Apocalyptics"
Wilderwitch and OMP appear in the background on the front cover of pH-5 |
The Untouchable Diver
Yehudi Cohen, to use his given name, was one of five Summoning Children in
their number; that is to say, like the wildman, Blind Sundown and the Elemental
Twins, he was one of those born some nine months after the Summoning of 1920
ended on that year’s Easter Sunday.
He had been with KOC, the King's Own
Crimefighters, -- which is what most of them were calling themselves prior to
Cerebrus arbitrarily deciding to change their name to the Damnation Brigade
about five minutes ago --, and its predecessor group, SOS, the Society of Saints,
on and off since shortly after supranormals, or supras, as they commonly thought
of themselves, first became active during an Alliance of Man’s Assembly
of Man in Rome, Italy, back in January 1938.
He was codenamed the Untouchable Diver not just because its initials sounded
like Yehudi. It was also because that was what he could do: alter his bodily
constituents such that he could become untouchable and dive into the earth as
easily as he could water. Whereupon he could soil-swim as easily as he could
dot-ditto. Could also become supra-dense and similarly alter the constituency
of anyone with whom he was in direct contact.
From head to toe, except for scarlet goggles and the tar he smeared on his
bared facial skin and arms, he wore a wetsuit. Story was if he ever removed
it he would atomize on the spot. It was just a story, though. After his encounter
with a boulder of Brainrock beneath Hamburg Harbour soon after he returned from
Rome, still a Norman Normalman as far as he knew, he had never found a way to
remove it.
... from War-Pox 2: "Advent of the Apocalyptics"
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The Elemental Twins
'Look at them,' he [Devil Wind] mentally transmitted
to their apparent leader.
'
'So startled by their own good fortune. He, the beautiful
Adonis with his cloud-white hair, proud jaw, determined stare.'
The devil was referring to Airealist, Aires D’Angelo, who wore the same
circus outfit he was wearing when he was thrust into Limbo by Saul “Psycho”
Ryne all those years ago.
It consisted of a skin-tight, sky-blue acrobat's outfit,
folded-flap leather boots, ostentatious gold belt and an even more ostentatious
white cape.
'Who does he think he is, my brother in Byron Damon Goldenrod or, as outsiders
called him, Phoebus Apollo?
'And she, this obvious twin of his, every bit his
watery counterpart.
'With her sea shells instead of eyebrows, her braided, foam-white
hair, her garlands of seaweeds, her jellyfish membrane of a dress, so brazen
in her near-nudity.
'Don't you realize their skin is almost as blue as the sea,
as blue as the sky, as blue as mine?'
... from War-Pox 1: "The Damnation Brigade"
As per the double-click on the first image, Sea Goddess appears on the back cover of pH-3; an enlargement of the bottom image in this column can be found by double-clicking the same image here; |
Trebly Troubled Tethys
The Legendarian in three different timelines
(as taken primarily from "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" )
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4824: 30-Beers doesn't make it to 30 years yet again
Awakening to the sound of a door opening and closing, he scratched his stubble. Manfully ignoring the almighty itching of the, to some, telltale scar in the lower part of his forehead as he did so, he stretched languorously. Propping himself up he looked toward the bathroom doorway tent-pole-expectantly.
He envisioned Morgan ‘Q for Aquatic’ Abyss sloshing into their lately shared bedroom atop Cabalarkon City’s ages-old Masters Palace. Being partially an amphibious Melusine, a form of Piscine, who hailed from the southern Head, she’d be fresh from her morning immersion. At the hopefully bare minimum, she’d be naked.
He’d looked toward the wrong doorway.
By the time he’d readjusted his sight lines it was too late to conjure his quill, eject its splotch pad, and thence dot-draw himself to safety. This was entirely due to the fact that, much to his terminally abbreviated shock and ever-after-abiding shakes, instead of his maybe daughter, the then-current Master of the Weirdom of Cabalarkon, he beheld his likely great-grandfather, arguably the Devil Himself, striding towards him third eye already flaring angrily.
At least Dark Sedon, as always bloody red-skinned, hadn’t manifested his preposterous pitchfork. That would have made for a truly holey as well as unholy death.
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5456: The Pre-Quill Quidnunc
Jordan Q Tethys was a half-black who looked all black. These days that might mean he had Utopian relatives. Just as likely it might not. In contrast to his ever-wayward father, who wasn’t the black forbearer, he did not have a scar in the lower part of his forehead. Nor did his middle initial stand for ‘Quill’. If the woman who was his black forbearer could be believed, it stood for ‘Quidnunc’.
‘That’s your father’s idea of a joke,’ she often told him while he was growing up in southwestern Marutia, Sedon’s Cheek Land.
A quidnunc was a busybody. Then again in Marutia a jordan, small case, was a chamber pot. While it might be argued that one was no better than the other, there were hundreds of Jordans, upper and lower case, in Sedon’s Cheek. By comparison, as far as he’d heard anyhow, he was the only Quidnunc, capitalized. Since neither name appealed to him, he came to prefer Quid.
5456: Quill meets a Quit-Quill
“It’s about time you came to, Quill,” said the Jordan sitting beside the bed in Kanin City’s ancient, yet kept sparkling clean, hospital.
“A Quit-Quill,” marvelled the Jordan lying in the bed. A young, extremely fit-looking fellow, he had a scar – which he never had before – in the lower part of his forehead, about where his eyebrows would have met if they'd kept growing.
“Congratulations,” he said to the other Jordan, the one in the chair. “Um, … grandson, wasn’t it?”
“Grandson it was, granddad, though my notes indicate we aren't that rare.” Bodily nearing sixty, but looking older, the speaker was so flushed, podgy and thoroughly out of shape a casual observer might have wondered why he wasn’t in the bed.
“Notes? Oh, right. I’ve all your memories.”
“Only those of your pre-me incarnations. I can recall most of mine, and that includes pre- and post-you. Still a bit fuzzy, I see.”
5476: Third Time Dead (but still Drinking)
“Regardless of his or her name, every Legendarian eventually has to die twice. The first time he or she dies, he or she acquires our Jordy, who’s almost always one of their progenitors from within a generation or two. Their second death, if he or she hasn't outlived his or her thirty years of having him, he or she loses our Jordy forevermore on account of he or she’s dead forevermore.
“The purest puzzlement is how someone can kill a Jordy psychically, yet not physically? Readily resolved, eh?”
“He or she’s not dead in the sense of not moving about anymore. I was wondering why you brought up Sangs.”
“Wonder no longer. When Sangazurs reanimate the drearily departed they preserve an individual’s persona. Evidently when a Sang reanimates a Jordy, after the body’s second death, they in effect reactivate the body’s original personality.”
“So the trap being laid is for his killer.”
... Pusan Wanderlust speaking with Lightning Lord Yajur, from "The 1000 Days of Disbelief"
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5980: Tethys Telling Tales Still (Unless he's reading them off tee-tee tails of course)
"Lousy weather, Alpha?" segued Tethys. "You should have been around five hundred years ago. That wasn't just lousy weather. That was lousy life! Great time to be dead, though."
A hardened man evidently, if not actually, not even bodily, in his forties, the Legendarian wore a scruffy, checked jacket, an oft-repaired, though seldom cleaned and therefore not-quite-white-anymore, woollen sweater with an open-necked tee-shirt underneath it, blue jeans, socks and sandals. On his head was a peaked, tweed cap pin-cushioned with feathers. His face was lined, particularly around the mouth, the eyes and his forehead. He was Caucasian but his skin was richly tanned, like old parchment.
Tethys was a street person. He liked it out there; slept under cardboard boxes and, indeed, spent most of his time outdoors. He had a scar, which he never talked about, in the lower part of his forehead, just about where his eyebrows would have met if they'd kept growing. It looked more like an incision whose scab had never quite healed over than anything else.
Multicoloured strands reminiscent of knotted rat-tails wormed out from underneath his cap. As Centauri knew, they were the severed tails of tee-tees, a rodent with daemonic antecedents that was indigenous to the subcontinent of Godbad and far to its north, up and down the coast of Fearsome Fobbiat, the Headworld’s western ocean. Tethys could read their Braille-like nodes, ridges, gaps and depressions; could weave tales out of tee-tee tails.
Although, even if he was so inclined, Centauri was in no position to make an issue out of it, Jordan Tethys may indeed once have been a devil. No one ever mentioned this around him because he would just deny it and point to his forehead as proof. He had no third eye. Of course, considering devils were shape-shifters, that was hardly conclusive proof he wasn’t one.
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Pusan Wanderlust
The Trailblazing Fauna throughout the Ages
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Mithramas Eve, Tantalar 4376
Lackland Lazareme, Thrygragos Everyman, entered as a tall, almost elfin, blue-skinned, golden-haired faerie fart. Quite the coterie accompanied him. Significantly, the lone non-devil with them was the remarkably recurring fauna, Pusan Wanderlust, Attis’s similarly deviated half-daughter by just as goatish Amal-Althea, Lazareme’s polyamorous as well as polyandrous, female healer.
As per usual when she was in the vicinity, an approaching irresistible urge to experiment with not only your own reproductive organs overrode the inhibitions of nearly everyone there. Before long Abe Chaos was in Steg-mode while his brother Unity, Lord Order, instead of the Rajput type he’d been appearing as lately, was in satyr-mode.
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Mithramas Morning, Tantalar 4376
Diddling done for the nonce, he [Yeast Tethys] strolled into [Mother] Hopi’s 90% empty booze-tent arm-in-arm with his barley bin, as she’d referred to herself more than a few times during the multiparty, polyamorous orgy she instigated after last night’s bash. She was a fauna, a female faun or satyr. She loved doing what fauns did best; namely loving.
Her name was Pusan Wanderlust. If it weren't for the existence of the Attis [her non-devic half-father] and the Legendarian she’d be the most famous deviant still around.
Stegs had wicked, piton-spiked tails. Saudi Tethys swatted Yeast Tethys with hers big-time, endgame-time. Pusan had a Tvasitar Talisman of her own, a shepherd’s crooked staff. She was also known as the Trailblazer. Trails weren't all she blazed. Saudi, on her Terror Donna, fled between-space. Both were blazing.
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The Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern, Antheal 5476
Next to the legendary 30-Year Man, Pusan was the most renowned and, in reality, only other, still extant deviant known to recur with any regularity. Like Jordy, she came back in her own offspring, or their offspring, just as they were expiring or just after they’d expired. Also like 30-Beers, she always came back with a devic power focus. Hers wasn’t a quill, though; it was a shepherd’s pedum, crook or crosier.
Very much unlike him, however, she invariably came back as a woman as well as a fauna, a female faun. Since she couldn’t shift shapes – besides visually, like most witches and almost any moderately gifted illusionist could – it was in that form, he as a male faun or satyr, that Sparky and her came together as lovers physically.
As the saying went, particularly with respect to her, Pusan was more bare than barely dressed. All she had on was a thin, delicately woven slip of lamb’s wool that, while it did cover everything modesty generally recommended covering, including her protrusive breasts, goat’s tail and hind legs, from the looks of it the garment didn’t cover anything very warmly.
For a woman – and she was every bit a woman – she was awfully hairy. However, other than on her head, from whence it flowed long and fiery freely, it was more akin to pinkish silk or ginger gossamer than even faintly furry. Her slender goatee was only perceptible up close and her horns were stunted, even dainty. There was nothing of the barnyard about her scent. There was a great deal of the bordello about it. She positively oozed pheromones. Sinistral Lust’s lesser-born lackeys smelled like her. Enticing, thy name be Pusan.
In terms iconographic her pedum of a power focus suggested guardianship, à la the fairy godmother of not just rustic superstitions the world over. Evidently she was a big fan of iconography since she often took protective tasks upon herself as a form of perceived obligation. At times she did it so zealously she contributed to her own endgame for that recurrence.
Fauns were no more daemonic or fairy types than garudas, centaurs or elves. None of them could shift shapes naturally but, like the Legendarian, who could draw himself into different sexes, sizes, shapes and even species, most had learned an assortment of sometimes wildly diverse techniques that made it seem as if they were capable of metamorphism. They probably were products of Old Eden’s cruel, millennium and a half pre-Flood-discredited, scientific experiments into the bits and bricks of life, though.
When they weren't calling her ‘Goat’ – because she was decidedly goatish – most of those who knew her called her the ‘Trailblazer’. They did so because one of her more useful, non-knackering talents was trailing, tracking or just plain following folks through the Weird, the dark grey, universal substance of Samsara.
That made her a self-psychopomp, the same as many another exotic species, skyborn or Cathonic devils being only one of them. While that no more made her an earthborn or chthonic creature than it did a devic suicide – one who nevertheless retained their subtle matter, daemonic bodies until they were destroyed – her crook originally must have belonged to a devic deity.
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The Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern, Antheal 5476
“And who might he be?” Sparky demanded.
“You call me ‘Goat’. Goats are ruminants, on that we can regurgitate confluence if not flatulence. That said, after you bake the poser, but before you start to chew the confounded, you’ll probably want to salt and pepper the perplexity. I did. Then I spewed and chewed on it some more. That’s what makes us ruminants. We ruminate; we re-chew anew our spew.
“Finally I swallowed it, whereupon I burped and farted both. Methane thus dispensed, what also came out so resembled palpable I’m disgusted it hadn’t occurred to me already.”
“It being – besides revolting – what?”
... a sample of dialogue between Sparky and Pusan Wanderlust, from "The 1000 Days of Disbelief"
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