Planets Align

OOC: Closing this journal

2007-10-25T14:56:15Z

Hello,

I'm closing this journal. I've transferred most of my posts over to runechronicles. Please make sure to friend that new journal as that is where future Iovis stuff will be posted. Make sure you also leave me a comment there to Friend you and place you in the appropriate filter.

Peace out,
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Iovis & Nimbus

2007-02-14T13:31:55Z

Quotable Quotes - Iovis Fatalis

2005-11-18T16:35:55Z

Pardon me as I attempt to get into Jack's headspace with various quotable quotes over the years.

"To enact one's Will on the Tapestry should not be done with the ham-fisted grace of a three-year old who's just learned how to use scissors. Just as it's intelligence and sentience that sets humankind apart from the animals, it's Will and command of the Supernal that sets Magi apart from Sleepers. That Will can be used for both good and for evil, and it's up to Magi to use that power responsibly for the good of all mankind, Magi and Sleepers alike."

"Intelligent creatures have an obligation to the Supernal stuff inside them to resolve their differences through the use of ideas, and not through the bludgeoning of egos."

"Can you not hear it? As I reach up and brush my fingertips against the great crystal spheres that encompass the Earth and display the Heavens to us, I set in motion those spheres and create pleasant harmonies. Those pleasing harmonies resonate, but Sleepers cannot hear them because they have grown accustomed to hearing these melodies since conception. Only Magi have the ability to hear the scintillating tones of the universe, and to craft those tones into a grand symphony of peace, prosperity, and the union of the soul with the Supernal."

"But why's the wine gone?"

Theoooo! No matter what.

2005-10-28T18:52:58Z

(sung in the meter of the 'Geo' commercials)

Everybody friend plutovian and help him get started. Fnord.

Fall, 1998

2005-10-23T16:20:39Z

The fancy had struck me, and the planets were right, for a seminar in the New York City area.

I've always hated New York; it's loud, dirty, obnoxious, and a harsh reminder of how far humankind has fallen from the Supernal. Surrounded by clay on all sides, they go about their business, surrounded by the Five Watchtowers no matter which way they turn, yet they cannot see them because the sky is choked out by their "triumph of civilization."

They'd see them if they only they left their narrowly defined views of skyscrapers and avenues.

Don't get me wrong; there are pockets of creativity and color scattered throughout the island of Manhattan. Each of these places - Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Little Italy - they've all got their potential. You'll find one diamond in the rough here and there, trying to see the colors and hear the music and see the Watchtowers.

But they look, and they can't see. So they go back to their lives - their kingdom of clay, trudging along and dragging their souls through the muck. Eventually, the diamond gets lost in the clay, and is forever lost.

I hate New York.

But speaking of diamonds, I met one. Jou.

For some reason, I'm so focused on the seminar, I don't notice her. I occasionally scan the audience for any glimmer of Epiphany while I'm clicking through the slides and reciting practiced oration, but I don't see any. A few students get up within the first fifteen minutes, and then another half dozen go by the middle. The crowd usually thins to about one-third by now, and it's expected - not everyone can appreciate the Music of the Spheres lecture.

I mean, the ancient Greeks must've been crazy, they're thinking. They believed that the spheres in the heavens - the planets, the sun and moon, and the constellations - were all supported by crystal spheres that encased the earth, supported by a higher progression of natural solids.

Modern science and media culture has drained the creativity and wonder out of children and adults alike. And sometimes, if your mind is open to the possibilities, the simplest explanation is usually the best one. Just because modern, empirical science dictates that solar systems are how they are, doesn't mean it's true for everyone. The moment that you perceive the solar system as planets revolving around the sun in elliptical orbits, and you accept that as unbreakable science, then you close your mind off to possibility, hope, wonder and fate.

...Where was I?

Oh, right. Jou.

So I'm packing up my laptop bag and getting ready to leave when this starry-eyed student comes walking up to the podium. At first, I thought she was humoring me with questions, since there were very little in the way of post-slide discussion. I could feel my mood souring by the moment, and I knew I'd be getting my Mars on the moment I got stuck in a packed subway car. All signs point to frustration, said my internal magic 8-ball.

Yet, this young woman seemed to have good questions. Good questions. She brought up topics I wouldn't expect out of the masses, nor out of a Sleeper. Again, it just didn't occur to me to peer at the Tapestry and see what strands her Chart was most influenced by. I think, rather than apathy from earlier in the seminar, now I was just star-struck.

She was pretty, after all. Not attractive-enough-to-take-home-and-never-call-afterwards pretty, and certainly not Photoshopped-airbrush-magazine-cover beautiful. Neither of those applied to her. There was something about her that I couldn't put my finger on.

Little did I know that Venus and Ouranos were hiding behind Jupiter, giggling and snickering at what was to happen. And naturally, Jupiter was all too amused, and let it happen.

Stupid planets.

Eventually, we were kicked out of the lecture hall. We must've sat there for a good half hour, with her firing questions about the material at me, and me replying with answers that just seemed to make her follow-up questions more complicated. Finally, as we were leaving the building, I did the predictable thing and asked her out for coffee. I already knew her answer, as the Tapestry was pulling towards a particular table at a street-side coffee shop in SoHo, but it brought some warmth to my chest in this cool autumn afternoon.

So we sat, and chatted. She seemed to not notice, or not care, that we just happened to walk on up to one of the busiest cafes in SoHo and managed to get a table. Normally, the girls gush at "what good luck we must have together" or at least, "wow, that's amazing!"

She sketched idly on her notepad most of the first twenty minutes. And then, when she slid her notebook towards me and showed what she was drawing, I felt Fate slowing down around me and practically shutting down as the Tapestry snapped back in my face.

She had drawn my nimbus, and wanted to know what it meant.

Mage! How could I have missed her? I flipped the notepad face down and looked around to make sure no one had noticed. No one had. I quickly ensured that she was, in fact, trained and Aware of her situation, and a few tense moments drained into my justification for my method of teaching, and hopefully starting people down the track of Awakening.

How could I have missed her? The conversation shifted towards what she was doing in NYU. Music. Theater. Finding herself, really. The more she talked about herself, the more I was drawn in to her beauty. I caught myself flirting with her when we got to the topic of singing, and that just made me mildly uncomfortable. I'd never attempted to lure in one of my students in for a romantic encounter. It just wasn't professional.

But was I the one luring? Was Fate just pushing the two of us along towards something greater? Something that neither of us could perceive at that time? She invited me to her place, and I obliged, walking with her on my arm.

We snacked on fruit, cheese, and wine. How horribly cliche is that? Here we are, professor and student, talking about the Music of the Spheres and classic Greek philosophy and mathematics cults, and we're lounging on her couch drinking 1995 Chianti and easing into a beautiful evening and morning-after of all sorts of shared pleasure.

What, you expect me to give you the gritty details? No, my friend, a gentlemen does not kiss and tell.

But I will tell you, that my relationship with Jou Ammiel did not last long, as far as Sleeper relationships go, in any case. It lasted a month, or three months, or some number of seconds in between. It was blissful when I could have her, but she was busy, and so was I. Our schedules rarely met. Other things became a sticking-point in my mind; she was completely honest and open to her mentor, Roland -- a Moros whom I work with and deal with on a semi-frequent basis -- and she could not be as open and honest with me. I think that was what killed any possibility of our Fates continuing together.

Heh, killed, death, Moros. Wow, I should be a stand-up comedian or something.

I've never felt stifled or restrained when I was with Jou, like I've felt in other relationships. Fate has always dragged me off in new directions and new possibilities, and having your soul invested in another's is often not condusive to responsibility and Magery.

Jou and I remain good friends to this day. Occasionally we fall into old habits, but we both know it's just not meant to be at this time.

Maybe, in the future.

Just maybe, our threads in the Tapestry will weave together again, instead of just crossing.

Stupid planets.

Jou's perspective

Background (unfinished)

2005-09-30T15:50:42Z

Herein lies my background-in-progress for Iovis. Everything here is mostly non-sensitive information. If you have a character tie with me, and there's something you want removed from public consumption, please let me know. Similarly, if you would like to make a connection, also let me know. :)

Name: Jack Belliston [OOC Info]
Mortal Alias: Dr. Jack Barker, Dr. Jack Q. Brigham, Dr. Jack Bollenheimer, Jack B______
Shadow Name: Iovis Fatalis (Latin for "Jupiter-fated"), or Jove for short

Background: [OOC Info]
January 31st, 1964: Jack Michael Belliston is born to Anne-Marie Walton Belliston and Michael Edward Belliston. Both parents are prominent members of the Agawam, MA community, with Michael serving on the town council and Anne-Marie being a piano teacher and organizer of Tupperware parties.

April 24th, 1970: Jack's father walks out on his mother after months of fighting. The divorce is finalized after approximately six months. Naturally, Jack associates their break-up with his own failings as a son, and withdraws some. After the divorce is final, Michael packs up what's his, and disappears cross-country.

October 8th, 1972: Jack's mother remarries to Frank Seston, an owner of multiple car dealerships in the Springfield area. Frank tries desperately to be Jack's friend; Jack wants nothing to do with this man, despite quality of life increasing dramatically for the family.

September 5th, 1973: Jack's half-sister Catherine Anne is born. Initially, Jack's bitterness towards his step-father gets transferred to the baby, but after a while Jack warms up to his sister and accepts her as a member of the family. Frank, however, is still out of luck.

1975: Jack discovers astronomy as a hobby, and for the duration of his childhood turns to the skies for escape. Frank attempts one last time in 1979 to reach his step-son by buying him a fancy amateur telescope; the telescope is relegated to being a coat-rack in Jack's room.

1977: Jack joins up with the school's junior varsity track & field team. Somewhat broad in the shoulders and not built entirely for running, Jack finds that he excels in the "field" part of track & field with javelining, shot-put and hammer-throw. He also joins the wrestling team, although often misses out on wrestling competitions due to being classed out of the medium weight group.

1979: Jack founds an astronomy club at his high school, and is president for one semester.

Spring, 1981: Jack graduates Agawam High School in the lackluster middle percentile of his graduating class.

Fall, 1981: Jack enrolls into UMass-Amherst with a major in astronomy. Through an arrangement with his step-father, moves in with his "uncle" James, who is only Jack's senior by fifteen years. At first, Jack is appalled at "uncle" Francis' lifestyle which involves a considerable amount of marijuana and LSD. Since Francis lets him come and go as he pleases, keeps the refrigerator stocked and has his room house kept once a week, he really doesn't make an issue of it.

Summer, 1983: During the summer, Jack takes humanities elective to get it out of the way, and winds up attending a program in Connecticut. Jack meets Dr. Elijah Karma (amnesia_addict). Dr. Karma teaches an Ancient Greek Mythology class, and Jack has his first Epiphany during one class [yet to be determined]. Sensing the potential in this young man, Elijah takes Jack under his wing. Over the course of the summer, Elijah introduces Jack to many historical concepts, including the Pythagoreans and mathematekoi, as well as several mind-opening drug experiences. Jack becomes mesmerized with the classical Greek model of the universe, and during one stargazing expedition, Jack has his second Epiphany. Without realizing it, Elijah guided Jack towards an early Awakening, since he was already something of a dreamer and a sky-gazer. Both student and mentor correspond up until 1986 when Elijah "disappears" after Jack awakens. Inquiries into Elijah's disappearance go unheard.

1985, spring: Jack graduates with honors from UMass-Amherst with a Bachelor of Arts in Astronomy, and immediately enrolls into MIT for graduate work.

1986, January: Jack visits NASA in Cape Kennedy as part of a class trip. During this trip, the class has front-row observatory seats to watch the Challenger shuttle lift-off. Seventy seconds after lift-off, the shuttle explodes, triggering Jack's Awakening in the form of a Shadow Play, which involves Jack trying to reach Mount Olympus (the shuttle pad). The result of that Shadow Play is that Jack Awakens, but lands in the hospital for a couple of days, for stitches and "mental health observation due to the Challenger tragedy." He is released after five days.

After Jack returns home, he finds an expulsion letter from MIT on the grounds that, "his mental health should be a priority, and the rigors of his doctorate may push him too hard." In other words, MIT was clearing themselves of all responsibility should Jack lose his shit again.

With a brief period of finding himself in his new awareness, Jack strives to "change his Fate." After experimentation over the course of a few weeks, he finds a new letter in his home mailbox about his doctorate project's reinstatement, and a welcome back to MIT.

1986, February: Jack uses mundane resources and Fate to try and track down what happened to his biological father, who disappeared across country after the divorce. Over the course of several months of research, Jack finds that his father met a rather grisly end in 1980, found fleeced of his valuables and stone-cold dead behind a South Dakota truck stop. Stray strands of Fate in the Tapestry lead Jack to believe that there is a generational oath going back through his ancestors to western Europe, and reinforces his Awakening imagery of faeries "collecting his blood" to satisfy a blood-price. This becomes one of many topics that Jack studies over the next two decades.

1994, February 2nd: At age 20, Catherine gets married to high school sweetheart Dan Avingway. With Fortune smiling upon their relationship and the planets in a pleasing configuration, Jack forges his first Oath, bringing the Supernal down to witness the happy couple's vows.

1998, October 15th: Iovis, under his mortal alias, visits New York City and Fates his way into New York University where he teaches a seminar on Pythagoras, the mathematekoi, and the Music of the Spheres. Here he meets Jou Ammiel (sorjourner) and the two strike up a discussion after class. Over coffee at a corner store in SoHo, it becomes glaringly obvious that both are Mages with something in common. A fast romance occurs.

1999, winter: Iovis and Zah'ra break off their romantic relationship due to conflicting schedules, distance, and other external influences. [Unconfirmed] Roland (_dark_tower_), a Moros from the Salem, MA area has a good deal of influence on their separation, with him being Zah'ra's mentor at the time.

2001: Parsing through da Vinci code, as well as his usual method of delving into the harmonies of the celestial bodies surrounding Earth, Iovis determines that something horrible is going to happen in New York City later in the year involving the Twin Towers, but he is unable to read the Tapestry in such a manner that makes the prediction accurate.

2001, September 11th: 9-11 tragedy. Iovis uses a combination of Fate and Time in order to anonymously warn the government about the already-happened tragedy in hopes that the Tapestry will sort itself out. Even with his warning, naval fighter jets arrive seconds too late. Unfortunately, due to extremely muddled threads in the Tapestry (including buried Sleeper evidence that indicates several suspicious facts surrounding the crash on the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania), Iovis decides that something greater was at work, and any further tampering could invoke Supernal horrors for everyone involved, and as such he resigns himself to failure.

Shortly after 9-11, Mr. Black (simon_black) confronts Iovis about his meddling with Sleeper fate on such a grand scale. This builds into an adversarial relationship between the two Magi until the apex of their disagreement in 2003.

2003, January 31st: While monitoring the Columbia shuttle mission at the Haystack Observatory, Iovis discovers horrible fate-threads in the Tapestry that doom Columbia's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Mr. Black intercepts Iovis before he has a chance to warn NASA. After a brief exchange, Mr. Black shoots Iovis, incapacitating him, and calls 911. While Iovis is in surgery, on the morning of February 1st, Columbia is lost during re-entry.

2003, February on: On the behalf of the Awakened community, Iovis ensures that the mysterious break-in and assault on his mortal alias is forever mired in hopeless clues and becomes an unsolvable case. This also allows Iovis to return to the Haystack Observatory and resume his studies now that mundane authorities are no longer crawling through it.

2004, June 8th: "Men in Black" government agents visit Dr. Jack Barker at Haystack Observatory. They have various benign questions about a certain woman, who's name they give, and then clarify with her current name, Jou Ammiel. Replying with similarly benign answers about their relationship in '98 and their current friendship, Iovis eventually sends them off, but first gets their business card. As Iovis dials the other Consilium members, he places a hex on the agents through sympathetic connections and causes them to have a breakdown on the highway. Through the efforts of Iovis, Mr. Black, Mr. White, and others, the association of Jou Ammiel with the terrorist watch-list is dissolved.

Iovis forges an Oath for himself that reinforces his determination to never reveal Jou's true name to anyone. Unbeknownst to Iovis, the name given by the Men in Black was not Jou's true name. She had another name before she was adopted by a United States family.

PCs Mentioned in this Document:
Roland (Scott Coutcher) _dark_tower_
Mr. Black (Chris Burns) simon_black
Mr. White (Ben whateverhisnameis from CT)
Jou Ammiel (aka Zah'ra Ammiel, Janeka Rector from GA) sorjourner

OOC: Order status

2005-09-29T23:26:55Z

I just found out that you can have Status in multiple Orders, but only if the total dots is 3 or less. And, you can gain the benefits of being members of all Orders you have dots in.

Nifty. Something to consider, then.

Awakening fiction in progress - unfinished

2005-09-22T04:08:31Z

Jack struggled to remain standing; his knees were wobbling and his head rolled drunkenly from shoulder to shoulder. The meal he had eaten was having a peculiar effect on his body, much like drunkenness, but feeling the effects in the very core of his soul.

He managed to drag his eyes away from the flitting nymphs and playful satyrs (oh, how he wanted to be lost in their fun), and looked towards the horizon. There, his gaze alighted upon a mountain wreathed in light the color of the ambrosia he had eaten. It was beautiful... more beautiful than anything he had seen, even the nymph that he laid with. "That is where I must go," he declared, and with every ounce of his Will, his feet began to propel him forward, one drunken step after another. "To Mount Olympus!"

Staggering along, Jack realized he was following a path that seemed to wind up the mountain towards the shining white caps of Mount Olympus, except that, the further he staggered, the thicker the brambles got that seemed to make this path their home. Vines and outcroppings, thorned and thistled, bearing the occasional flower as red as blood. Looking behind him, he saw no trace of the festival, or the satyrs or nymphs or other beautiful creatures he had seen before. Looking up, he noticed the sky was darkening with thunderclouds, and already he could see flashes of light deep in their bellies.

He had gone from ecstatic to terrified in a matter of moments... or at least it seemed like moments. It could've been hours, or even days. It was all blurring together.

"This dream is starting to suck," Jack said to himself.

He resigned himself to moving onward, as there was no other place to go. The thunder began to roar in the heavens above, with flashes of lightning striking the ground precariously close to the winding thistle path that he was tearing himself through. His trousers were shredded, and his skin scraped with blood trickling down his calves and ankles. Frightening little gnomes lept out from behind the bushes, shouted at him in what he believed to be some manner of Greek, and produced gnome-sized buckets to catch the drops of blood he was shedding behind him on his desperate ascention.

His legs were happy to supply their sinister collection, as they had been bared to the mid-thigh, shreds of his pants no doubt left caught on the greedy thistles. The overgrowth became so thick, he could not see the path any more, yet somehow he still found the path of least resistance. All the while the gnome-things were chanting and singing something about blood shed for an Oath. What Oath? Waitaminute, I don't speak Ancient Greek!

Pythagoras. Plato. Aristotle. Postulation based on rational thought and what the gods had made evident; they made do with what the world presented to them. Men who were driven by what they understood to be true; they could hear the celestial harmonies that we have grown ignorant to simply by being born and could enunciate that brilliance to those who were learned in the natural solids. "Let no one unversed in geometry enter here," said the arch above the Academy, and so, it must be true.

Ptolemy. Apollonius. Copernicus. Brahe. Their names are all here. They were masters of their field, so very close to their Renaissance enlightenment, and yet held back by the increasing frequency of common science, facts taken for granted simply because they were discovered and published by another.

Cassini. Kepler. Sustermans. Galilei. Newton. They heralded the gradual implosion of the classical perception of the universe in favor of creating a relation between Earth and the celestial bodies that was easier for the Sleepers to perceive and accept, applying such cold and crude concepts as parallax in order to cheapen the importance of lovely Venus, wrathful Mars, kind Jupiter, ancient Saturn, and wise Ouranos so that they might be understood without wonder... acknowledged without admitting their pull on your soul.

Taking up the chisel amd hammer, Jack Beliston made his mark upon the column. But Jack Beliston he was no more: Iovis Fatalis, fated by Jupiter, Pythagorean academic, and Therugist of the Spheres.

OOC: Fascinating website on the "music of the spheres"

2005-09-21T21:39:04Z

Check it out.

http://www.myastrologybook.com/Pythagoras-music-of-the-spheres.htm

Shadow Name

2005-09-18T20:05:42Z

Pending some offical Latinizing from Dr. Parks-

Shadow Name: Iovis Fatalis, or Jove for short.

Placeholder for Soundtrack

2005-09-16T21:00:02Z

Besides the obvious The Planets by Gustav Holst:

Spacegrass, Clutch
Atlantis, Donovan

And so the cycle continues

2005-09-16T20:14:04Z

As I lie on my back in the field of green grass in this late Summer month, I stare up at the night sky. I Will it so that the harsh greenish glow of civilization is deflected away, and I can witness the multitude of twinkling lights above. I can even see great Mars, turning his baleful red eye towards all who would challenge the ultimacy of his wrath. I drink in the majesty of the Heavens, excited for all of the possibilities and Fates yet to be realized.

I witness as the great spheres move across the Tapestry, causing strands to resonate in their wake. The sound is pleasing to me. It is a symphony of Fate - the universe is my orchestra, and the Sleepers my chorus.

I trace an astrological symbol before me, and utter Atlantean words forever lost to Old Father Saturn's shadow. Above, the Great Chart shifts ever so subtly, causing the planets to roll slightly askance, in turn causing different threads in the Tapestry to become taught with the rapture of the music of the spheres.

I am the composer of this grand symphony. The Finale has yet to be written, but I can see it so clearly on my mind's canvas.

The Awakened will rule again.

OOC: This journal will go Friends-only shortly. All are welcome as long as they are members of the Camarilla and are planning, at some point, to play in the Awakening chronicle.