Oh Death why

[kingtycoon]

& In Strange Aeons Even Death May Die!

I live right by the big cemetery, the one with the dead president - Garfield. Did I mention this before? Have I mentioned this before? It's big and by my house. There's a dam there. It's one of the many locations identifiable in the 2nd Captain America movie that I go to often. The Cemetery - it's peaceful is all, and monumental, and, again, big- there's much walking to do and it's a satisfactory place to go and experience absence, departure, removal. There's no-one that goes looking for you at the cemetery, if you decide to hang out there all day. Not if you're alive anyhow, they don't go looking. If you're dead they might try to find you - but for their own peculiar reasons.


Rockefeller's buried there. I thought a lot about whether it's his wicked ghost that goes out in the night seeking spare change on the ground, or if perhaps paying his undead shade is the means by which the lich-king Rockefeller is kept in his fitful slumber. Probably it's a thing of luck and chances - just another lottery ticket. But also, it's handy to know about if you're ever shy on bus-fare or laundry quarters. I reveal my secrets, secret knowledge concerning the grave of the plutocrat.

And there's the perennial favorite- Vampire Hunting. Here's a game you can play, it's getting to be fall, sweaters and ghosts & the persistent threat of Halloween tricks & treats - it's all in the woodsmoke smell that lingers in air at the edge of dusk. Something persuasively spooky, Bradburian. So here's how you play - go and look for the people who aren't dead but probably aught to be. The ones with the date of birth long in the past and no date of death recorded - this is how you know they're a vampire. Or some other type of immortal, but probably a vampire.

Is Viola 112? Or is Viola a vampire? You can take down names and search through records - if you're really so inclined. It's a satisfactory diversion. And if there are immortals, you'll be the one to figure it out, so smart thinking, doing your proper research.

But all of this is diversion and evasion, incidental to the project of expiration, of death. We talked about it at the Salon. I think it must have been a joke - choosing death - so light-heated for the group discussion. I took it to a darker place than any intended. Is death in the brain, the heart, the pulse? Why is it that when a person dies you see a force depart from out of them - not at all like when you see another kind of animal die. The charlatans & religious leaders didn't like it at all when I asked them if this difference could possibly be the nascence of religious feeling. If the soul is intuited by the appearance of its departure - well then - the disposition of the soul becomes a matter of speculation. In the end the Mormons explained that they have an ongoing revelation - that the shape and map of the afterword is of primary interest to them. But I think in terms of planes & dimensions, of impossible maps of imaginary places- what is the map of heaven or hell? Is it a ride by ship into the west, past Colossi demanding answers? I like to imagine a dreamworld of fateful calculations established in the end by people, hopeful people who've seen the change of a person's face, as the life leaves it and then there is death instead of a person.


I should really write an adventure set in the graveyard. Little Kid asks me how to be the DM - says she's interested. Teach her the family trade maybe. We'll go and start to mapping, start to planning. The tomb of the plutocrat, the grave of the satirist, the vampire's headstone, the president's tomb. These are good locations for adventure.

Comments

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

It is certainly a rich vein of creativity :-)

[forsakengirl.livejournal.com]

I love going to the cemetery.

Lovely pictures :)
I have a nice collection myself.

[handstil.livejournal.com]

Vampire hunting, yes! I love it.

[kromelizard.livejournal.com]

They can't be vampires. Vampires have burials, then return from the grave, like Jesus. So the ones with no date would have to be a taoist immortal or something. To find the vampires you're going to have to start inspecting the contents.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

I just knew some motherfucker with too many dice would have to call this out! I know, I know - Immortal Hunter is fine, some kind of Highlander thing. But you're at the graveyard so Vampires.

Anyway - wouldn't it be weird to be a vampire buried in your family plot only to resurrect? That's like Lasombra or something right?

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

It's a fun game to play.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

Have you ever vampire-hunted? It's a good time. Who's famous that's buried in Detroit?

[rasa.livejournal.com]

I like the vampires idea, but that would mean I have vampires in my family and that's a) scary and b) unlikely. When my aunt died of breast cancer at 39, my grandparents bought a family plot for the two of them, my aunt, her husband, and my two parents. They gave the option of engraving everyone's date of birth on the stone at the time it was erected to save money, and both of my parents went FUCK NO THAT'S CREEPY and my grandparents went OF COURSE, PUT OURS ON THERE AND SAVE A BUCK. The gravestone people messed up and put everyone's DOB on it, so there's a stone out there (we don't visit it, we're not grave visiting types) with my parents date of birth and a - just waiting for them.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the trick about Vampire Hunting - see, there's plenty of tombs that say B. 1935, or B. 1952 - it's probable that such a person is still around, and good for those old-timers. It's when you get the B. 1867 (in my old neighborhood there was such a monument - Irish guy, vampire)- then you know for sure that the undead are present. It's just lucky that thrifty people like your grandparents planned ahead to help us all find the nosferatu in our midst.

[forsakengirl.livejournal.com]

I have not. Though, I will next time I go to a cemetery! I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I didn't think of this idea

I have no clue who famous is buried here. I'm not very amused with famous people. Dead or alive. I'm pretty sure Rosa Parks is (I remember her funeral years ago. It was at the church one of my co worker attends) and I think there is a cemetery not too far from my house which has some famous people in it. I can look it up if you're really interested.

I like this catholic cemetey I found, though. It's big and I often see deer there. And many of the graves are in a different language. I have pictures, if you want to see.