#laurel phillips

The marvelous, miraculous and remarkable leader of many soul expeditions, Laurel Phillips, recently sent me Nelson Mandela's favorite poem "Invictus" written by William Ernest Henley. I had not read it. I have now, and will again.

If you have read it before, I hope you read it again. And if it is your first time, I hope it showers you with the rain of a billion cleansing clouds.

"Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

Finally sat down and read the new chapter of Dominion: Revelations. alipeeps pointed out most of the key stuff already, but just going to dash out some random thoughts.

1. So Mallory leaders usually choose the next leader after them! When the named successor dies, though, then it’s left for someone to volunteer in their place, which is what Laurel and Mona Cole (Harper’s mom) ended up doing.

2. Oh my god, Ali sounds really cute. He called Laurel Philly! He signed his letter ‘over & out’!

And Ali/Laurel seems intriguing as well as a lot of the things here about Laurel in general, and woww, if any of this stuff had been onscreen, my interest in Laurel as a character would have shot up way higher. Seriously, canon, this shit is the kind of stuff that gives backstory and explains why she does and says the things she does - for example, her reaction to Harper’s death. And I think it was Ali’s grave she lingered over when she was talking to Michael about the previous leaders of Mallory and singing, service, sacrifice….

I just…I love woobie characters, and Laurel is exactly that when you think about it. She’s lived through at least two eight ball invasions into Mallory. She lost her father and her best friend’s mother and her boyfriend(?) Ali because they were leaders, and despite that, she becomes a leader herself. It seems like a purposefully suicidal move on her part, but she really does want to do this for the people of Mallory.

3. Outsiders occasionally do come to Mallory - looks like I was slightly off there - but on the whole, I was not wrong at all at pegging the atmosphere to be an unhealthy one. Ali called it a ‘vacuum’ and Mona called Mallory a ‘family of monsters.’ Even Laurel notes: ‘This new world of ours can drive even the most poised person to the edge of their own sanity.’