#alphaeus

I made an animation

Another draw the squad. This time it's the kids/youngest generation of characters.

Shirofuido, Zatael, Nanek, Sellus, Taraphilia, Aurderyn, and Alphaeus.

Aurderyn and Alphaeus are new to this group. Deryn is based on another character of mine that's unrelated to Paragon, and Alph is a humanoid version of a character tangentially related that I decided could fill a niche. Neither are going to be particularly important players to the plot (I have a few of those, actually). But they filled out the extra places nicely.

Prompt 1: Foster September 1st, 2021

Tiles clinked all round them, the murmur of voices at the other tables blurring together. Alphaeus plucked a tile from the row, squinting at it. “What’s this one again?”

“Guess,” the woman said, leaning back in her chair. A smirk creased her laugh lines.

“Wind.”

“No shit, Dr. Genius. Which one?”

Alphaeus sat in contemplative silence, turning the tile about in his fingers. “It’s not the straight-stick one. That one’s East. This one’s boxy.”

“‘Boxy’ ain’t a tile name, dumbshit.”

“North.”

“You bloody idiot.”

The Alphaeus — Chapter 9

*

TEL. Please, Socrates, continue, and I am very much with you now.

(As Socrates is preparing to speak, a woman appears as if from nowhere. She is tall but bent, and at the dawn of old age; she wears her ragged dress with dignity, her feet are bare, and she is carrying a basket on her back containing many bundles of twigs and herbs. When she smiles in greeting, her blue eyes sparkle and her face appears old and yet young.)

WOMAN Good morning, gentlemen, and I apologise for interrupting your conversation, but I need to rest for a few moments beneath this fine tree, and to share your shade if you will allow. I shall be gone from you very shortly.

TEL. Please, lady, join us and let me help you with the burden that you bear.

WOMAN It is no burden, young man, merely some necessities of life; but thank you, and I shall sit for just a little time.

TEL. You are welcome.

WOMAN This is a beautiful place to rest and to contemplate the power of that temple. Is that where you have been this day?

TEL. No, lady, it is not. My friend here and I met by accident, as I was walking to the court of Alampis.

WOMAN (laughing) I do not think that anyone meets your friend by accident, and it is sure that he must have come to this place for some good reason or other.

TEL. You speak as if one who knows him.

WOMAN I do not know him personally, yet I do know his name, as do many who walk invisible through this city.

TEL. What can you mean by that, to walk invisible through this city?

WOMAN Good Socrates, if I may address you so, have you ever seen me before this day?

SOC. Welcome, lady, but I do not think that I have.

WOMAN And yet I have seen you many times as you walk the streets of Athena’s city, and I have heard you, and have even stood close by to you on not a few occasions. This is what it is to be invisible.

SOC. And would you say, good woman, that you have seen me and heard me talk, and even stood close to me however many times, by accident or was it by design?

WOMAN I must admit that it was and is by my design.

SOC. What, then, is your purpose behind such a design?

WOMAN To listen to you, and to hear you, as well as those with whom you converse.

SOC. Then you will be aware of some of my conversations, and how well or otherwise they have been received.

WOMAN I am aware, Socrates.

SOC. So what think you of them, lady?

WOMAN I think they are the conversations of a good man, however well or ill they are received.

SOC. I pray that is the truth; but do you wish to know what it was that my friend Telamon here and I, and one other who lately departed, were discussing?

WOMAN I do, as I saw that other as I approached, and there was hardly a pebble across his path that did not receive from him a most vehement kick.

TEL. He is a passionate man.

WOMAN Aye, he is and he looked deeply troubled.

SOC. And it is a passionate subject to many, for we were enquiring as to whether it is possible to be truly happy in this life.

WOMAN Your departing friend seemed not to be so.

TEL. Please, be not quick with your judgment, for he was angry and short of time.

WOMAN I do not judge him, sir, I only report what I saw, and those pebbles had done him no harm.

TEL. (laughing) Yes, he did not seem too happy with our talk.

SOC. Good lady, what would be your answer to that same simple question; do you think that it is possible to be truly happy in this life?

WOMAN I can only answer that, Socrates, from the experience of my life, and it will much depend upon how such happiness is defined.

TEL. It is certain, Socrates, that this lady has heard you often, as now she now questions just like you. But come, good woman, would you say that you are happy?

WOMAN I am.

TEL. And has your happiness been achieved from the fulfillment of your desires?

WOMAN What know you of my desires, young man?

TEL. Please, I shall express my question another way. Would you say that your desires for wealth, health, power, reputation and good family have been fulfilled?

WOMAN (laughing) No, good fellow, they have not.

TEL. And yet you say that you are happy?

WOMAN I do.

TEL. Yet, according to my friend, the fulfillment of those desires is what happiness truly is, and therefore, by that mark, you cannot then be happy.

WOMAN It will not be your friend Socrates here who has said these things, so it must have been that other angry one; and he has made two towering assumptions, which are always a cause of error.

TEL. What assumptions are they, good lady?

WOMAN The first is that I even possess those named desires for such objects.

TEL. But do you not?

WOMAN I do not, and hence they will not be fulfilled.

TEL. And what was the second assumption that has caused or has lead to some error?

WOMAN It is that happiness may be measured and defined by such fulfillment of those same desires.

TEL. But, do you say that these desires are not common to all men and women?

WOMAN The desires may well be common but their objects, I think, are not.

TEL. Please, lady, explain your meaning to us.

WOMAN Have you not observed the attraction young children suffer for bright and sparkling things?

TEL. I have.

WOMAN And at times that attraction is so potent as to cause a crawling tot to lift itself up, or a walking tot to climb, as being focused solely upon the object of its desire, no risk or difficulty preventing. Have you observed this too, young man?

TEL. This, too, I have seen.

WOMAN And when that sparkling object is finally grasped, and held close to and examined, is the child then happy and fulfilled?

TEL. For a time it so appears.

WOMAN But what, then, if a brighter and more glittering object attracts the attention of that little person, is not the first put aside and the desire for it replaced?

TEL. It is.

WOMAN What say you of this form of happiness, good man, is it true?

TEL. I can only think that it is true for so long as it lasts.

WOMAN But when the happiness has departed what then happens to its truth?

TEL. It must surely depart along with it.

WOMAN Then the sparkling object itself was not sufficient to a permanent happiness.

TEL. It was not.

WOMAN Why so, young man; is that not now the question you should answer?

TEL. (Quietly, after a long silent pause) Because it was itself impermanent, and whether cast aside, lost, or when perished through time, it would depart and cease to be an object of desire.

WOMAN (Standing up) For that very reason I am not happy from such fulfillment of the desires your friend announced, as it is as temporary as it is true, and, likewise, the form of happiness it promotes. But my time here is now over and there is another I must attend to, so farewell, good Telamon, and you dear Socrates; until another time when we may meet. And use such time well, both of you, as this life may be so very short.

TEL. Thank you, fair lady.

SOC. Woman, you are a blessing.

(The woman departs, and is soon hidden among the ripening olive groves.)

TEL. What kind of a woman was that, Socrates, and do you know who she is?

(To be continued)

Gospel Mk 2:13-17

some doodles of baby alphaeus with his adoptive grandpa (his mentor’s mentor) ft. his mentor

bonus

The warlock whirled the moment he was released from Alphaeus’ ‘scruff of the robe’ drag. Had the taller elf not pulled him away, a messy and explosive fight in the middle of the street was an inevitability. That fact did not stop Duroxas from swinging an emphatic punch at his friend at his first opportunity.  His fit hit only air, his target having partially dispersed into shadows in response. 

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