I Resist the Muses

A superstition is defined as the belief that events are influenced by specific behaviour without having a direct causal effect.

So, no.

All the bad luck I've had in my life has been entirely caused by my own foolish actions. Cause and effect is as plain as can be. Ignoring a direct warning from ones own gods; "Hey guys, you better stop this or it's going to get REALLY bad," is not generally a good idea.

Character: Maedhros
Fandom: Silmarillion

I found it interesting that my brother opened his answer to this question with a dictionary definition of superstition, being the belief that a certain action will cause a certain event without an actual direct cause and effect link.

But then again, this word was invented, and its definition was written, by people of a culture whose belief in magic is nil, and whose belief in religion is minimal. So perhaps it is not surprising that such things are dismissed as being superstitions.

But, look at it from another angle. What if magic is real? What if the Gods are real? Who is to say "there is no direct causal link" between a certain action and a certain result. The Valar can ALWAYS be the link, they may intervene at any time, and if they suddenly decide that the number 13 is unlucky, and anyone who answers a prompt in a certain community bearing the number 13 will have eternal bad luck, then so be it.

Yesterday my brother and I received an email (now if anything is evidence of a missing link between cause and effect then anything to do with computers is certain to be just that), which threatened that if we did not pass on the email to ten friends then we would die, just as some poor woman did who failed to do the same. Maitimo merely laughed and pressed the "delete" button, and reminded me that the threat of death only works on mortals.

My point though, is that magic, and superstition, and anything of that nature, is really nothing more than a science which is not yet understood. A computer in Valinor would have been called Magic. A gun would have been called the work of Morgoth. Here, in the Seventh age of Arda, they are merely scientific tools of one sort or another, and no-one regards either of them as magic.

Character: Maglor
Fandom: Silmarillion

Mostly, I dream about I time when I can be myself without harm to anyone around me.

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Being married and having a lover is not how I imagined my life going. I need each person for who they are. I'm not cheating to hurt anyone, but I can't help thinking that is the way it's going.
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I want to make a difference in the universe. I want to be the one who has a major art in stopping this senseless war. The universe is big enough for every specie to live in it peacefully.

I want to be the best at what I do. I have to be.



Comments/RP welcome.

What do you dream about?

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Apps will be processed this evening; sorry for the delay.

The Jedi Order is a religious one, and like all other religious orders we have our superstitions, our Code to live by. I would simply prefer to believe that our Code is rooted in logic. I have read something of Earth customs--avoiding walking under ladders, throwing salt over one's shoulder after you have accidentally spilled it--and they seem rather like nonsense to me. However, were I to be stationed on Earth for any length of time I would try to mimic the earthlings' behaviors as best I could, if only to placate the natives. I have always found diplomacy so much easier when one tries to fit in. Indeed, my most difficult missions have always been those where the superstitions of a culture conflict with the Code I have dedicated my life to following.

136 words, and if you can get role-play out of this I applaud you.

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I do not, by nature, remember my dreams.

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I choose not to do so.

If I wake with the stink of smoke in my nostrils, I choose to believe that Anakin has burnt breakfast again. It is not the smell of a lightsaber sliding through my Master's flesh. It is not the smell of the funeral pyre. It is simply a clue that it would be better to choose grains over eggs on that particular morning.

If I wake with the bitterness of copper heavy on my tongue, I choose to believe that I have accidentally bitten my cheek in the night, even if I cannot find the place inside my mouth where teeth scored flesh. It is not the lingering after-taste of the blood I coughed up in Ventress' presence. It is not the scarlet I shed on Jabiim. It is simply a matter of having pressed my face into the pillow at the wrong angle.

If I wake too hot, my hands still clenched as if locked on broad, sweat-slick shoulders, I choose to believe that what the body cries out for the heart does not necessarily need. It is not a proof of any feeling. It is not one more time I've turned my back on the Code. It is simply an indication that a cold shower is in order and nothing more.

And if I wake gasping, unable to breathe because the sight of that masked, durasteel monster fills the entirety of my mind's eye, I choose to believe the image is only a dream and not a vision. It is not a prophecy. It is not a sign of something that is coming, something that I cannot avoid, something that will take from me all that I know. It is simply...

It is simply the reason I choose not to remember my dreams.

310 words, RP away if you can find a hook.

So many fears to choose from, yet one stands apart from them all.

My greatest fear is the rise of another dark wizard. It is not a matter of if this will happen, but when. I pray I am not alive to see that day.

My mother and father want me to marry and produce an heir. They once had a selection of pureblood girls picked out for me to choose from. Of course, those girls wouldn’t touch me with a barge pole now. I’m tainted. That suits me just fine, though. They all had horse faces. I'm not joking, one of them actually had hooves.

I am the last of the Malfoy line. I intend it to stay that way. No child or grandchild or great-grandchild of mine will ever have to know the horror that I have.