Poem: "Sinews"
Apr. 18th, 2015 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is the freebie for the April 2015 Crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from technoshaman. It also fills the "sensual pleasures" square in my 3-16-15 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
genprompt_bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Sinews"
Sendoff has always loved her body,
the strength and the stealth of it,
supple muscles and nimble fingers
and the elegant architecture of bones.
She has always wondered about the parts
and how they work together, since she was
old enough to read and ask what "thews" were.
She has always been fascinated by things
that bend and stretch and spring,
the sinews of the body and of the bow,
a silver coil shink-shinking itself down a staircase.
The whispers follow her -- "unnatural"
and "impossible" -- but in truth,
her skill is neither.
It is a thing which she has made.
People ask her how she has the patience
to practice so much, but for her,
it isn't a matter of discipline.
It is devotion. Adoration.
Passion.
It is the sensual pleasure
of bending yew until it
hums underhand,
letting the shaft
whistle away
to whack into the bullseye.
It is twirling a bola with her toes,
passing it from foot to foot
to hand to hand
without ever missing a catch.
It is flinging a boomerang out
to flirt with the wind and then return,
smack! into her hand
while blindfolded.
It is holding weights at arm's length
for hours until the endorphins
flood her with ecstasy
and all of it, all, makes her stronger.
She bends her body like a bow
and her mind follows, sinews holding
everything in place
ready and
eager.
* * *
Notes:
Sendoff (Hazel Armstrong) -- She has fair skin, golden-brown eyes, and very curly strawberry blonde hair. When loose, her hair falls just past her shoulders, but she usually pulls it back in a bun. Hazel collects figurines of favorite characters, originally just archers but now any kind. She often buys one as a souvenir after a mission.
Sendoff excels at all types of ranged weaponry. Her favorites include compound bow, recurve bow, longbow, bola, slingshot, boomarang, shuriken, atlatl, blowgun, lasso, and throwing knives. She is skilled with both rifle and handgun, but dislikes them as being less versatile than some of her other weapons. She likes bows because they can fire arrows designed to do many different things. She appreciates grenades because they come in so many types. She can handle tank guns and other heavy artillery; she loves the versatility of a hex cannon. Separately she owns bolt pistols for sleep and force plus beam rifles for gravity and shrink. She does not use her superpower for aiming, but rather for things like shooting around corners or tying rope knots from a distance.
Sendoff is equally comfortable working alone or with a team, choosing her weaponry to suit the mission at hand, so SPOON assigns her as needed. She prefers not to kill and only does so as a last resort. Most of the time she uses her weapons to knock loose an opponent's weapon, pin someone in place, disable an opponent, place equipment, or destroy property.
Origin: Hazel always excelled at sports and took up archery in grade school. When she was twelve, someone tried to kidnap her best friend Alyssa. Hazel used a hair tie to fire a paperclip into his right eye, blinding him permanently and allowing Alyssa to escape. After graduating from high school, she developed the persona of Sendoff and started volunteering at SPOON.
Uniform: She has no permanent uniform, most often wearing street clothes or camouflage to suit the local environment.
Qualities: Master (+6) Aim, Master (+6) Ranged Weapons, Expert (+4) Patience, Expert (+4) Stealth, Expert (+4) Strength, Good (+2) Collecting Figurines, Good (+2) De-escalation Skills, Good (+2) Math, Good (+2) Survival Skills, Good (+2) Teamwork
Powers: Average (0) Telekinesis
Motivation: To hit the targets that nobody else can see.
* * *
Sendoff does have the superpower of Telekinesis, but she doesn't actually use it much. Instead she relies on intense training to give her enhanced skills in combat and marksmanship. So even though she's a superhera, she fights more like a supernary. Understand how to improve your aim, be physically and mentally strong, and love your body.
Thews are well-developed muscles that give strength.
A longbow was traditionally made from yew. This is how a typically skilled archer looks. This is someone at Sendoff's level. By the way, I've watched the Lars video several times and this is the first time I noticed the bit about putting the arrow on the right side of the bow. Apparently modern people put it on the left when drawing with the right hand. WTF. I guess my farmemory is showing and no wonder it's easier for me to hit a target even if I can barely draw the damn bow.
A bola is a throwing weapon made of cords and weights. There are several ways to throw it. Among those is NOT the helicopter motion often shown in movies.
A boomerang is a tumbling stick which may be designed to return to the thrower.
Endorphins can turn exercise into an intensely pleasant experience for some people. There are plenty of ways to release endorphins.
technoshaman. It also fills the "sensual pleasures" square in my 3-16-15 card for the genprompt_bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."Sinews"
Sendoff has always loved her body,
the strength and the stealth of it,
supple muscles and nimble fingers
and the elegant architecture of bones.
She has always wondered about the parts
and how they work together, since she was
old enough to read and ask what "thews" were.
She has always been fascinated by things
that bend and stretch and spring,
the sinews of the body and of the bow,
a silver coil shink-shinking itself down a staircase.
The whispers follow her -- "unnatural"
and "impossible" -- but in truth,
her skill is neither.
It is a thing which she has made.
People ask her how she has the patience
to practice so much, but for her,
it isn't a matter of discipline.
It is devotion. Adoration.
Passion.
It is the sensual pleasure
of bending yew until it
hums underhand,
letting the shaft
whistle away
to whack into the bullseye.
It is twirling a bola with her toes,
passing it from foot to foot
to hand to hand
without ever missing a catch.
It is flinging a boomerang out
to flirt with the wind and then return,
smack! into her hand
while blindfolded.
It is holding weights at arm's length
for hours until the endorphins
flood her with ecstasy
and all of it, all, makes her stronger.
She bends her body like a bow
and her mind follows, sinews holding
everything in place
ready and
eager.
* * *
Notes:
Sendoff (Hazel Armstrong) -- She has fair skin, golden-brown eyes, and very curly strawberry blonde hair. When loose, her hair falls just past her shoulders, but she usually pulls it back in a bun. Hazel collects figurines of favorite characters, originally just archers but now any kind. She often buys one as a souvenir after a mission.
Sendoff excels at all types of ranged weaponry. Her favorites include compound bow, recurve bow, longbow, bola, slingshot, boomarang, shuriken, atlatl, blowgun, lasso, and throwing knives. She is skilled with both rifle and handgun, but dislikes them as being less versatile than some of her other weapons. She likes bows because they can fire arrows designed to do many different things. She appreciates grenades because they come in so many types. She can handle tank guns and other heavy artillery; she loves the versatility of a hex cannon. Separately she owns bolt pistols for sleep and force plus beam rifles for gravity and shrink. She does not use her superpower for aiming, but rather for things like shooting around corners or tying rope knots from a distance.
Sendoff is equally comfortable working alone or with a team, choosing her weaponry to suit the mission at hand, so SPOON assigns her as needed. She prefers not to kill and only does so as a last resort. Most of the time she uses her weapons to knock loose an opponent's weapon, pin someone in place, disable an opponent, place equipment, or destroy property.
Origin: Hazel always excelled at sports and took up archery in grade school. When she was twelve, someone tried to kidnap her best friend Alyssa. Hazel used a hair tie to fire a paperclip into his right eye, blinding him permanently and allowing Alyssa to escape. After graduating from high school, she developed the persona of Sendoff and started volunteering at SPOON.
Uniform: She has no permanent uniform, most often wearing street clothes or camouflage to suit the local environment.
Qualities: Master (+6) Aim, Master (+6) Ranged Weapons, Expert (+4) Patience, Expert (+4) Stealth, Expert (+4) Strength, Good (+2) Collecting Figurines, Good (+2) De-escalation Skills, Good (+2) Math, Good (+2) Survival Skills, Good (+2) Teamwork
Powers: Average (0) Telekinesis
Motivation: To hit the targets that nobody else can see.
* * *
Sendoff does have the superpower of Telekinesis, but she doesn't actually use it much. Instead she relies on intense training to give her enhanced skills in combat and marksmanship. So even though she's a superhera, she fights more like a supernary. Understand how to improve your aim, be physically and mentally strong, and love your body.
Thews are well-developed muscles that give strength.
A longbow was traditionally made from yew. This is how a typically skilled archer looks. This is someone at Sendoff's level. By the way, I've watched the Lars video several times and this is the first time I noticed the bit about putting the arrow on the right side of the bow. Apparently modern people put it on the left when drawing with the right hand. WTF. I guess my farmemory is showing and no wonder it's easier for me to hit a target even if I can barely draw the damn bow.
A bola is a throwing weapon made of cords and weights. There are several ways to throw it. Among those is NOT the helicopter motion often shown in movies.
A boomerang is a tumbling stick which may be designed to return to the thrower.
Endorphins can turn exercise into an intensely pleasant experience for some people. There are plenty of ways to release endorphins.
LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 12:06 pm (UTC)Thanks for posting this one!
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 06:27 pm (UTC)I even have a "fridge moment averted" crossroads in there, now that I'm looking closer. Her friend's kidnapping could have ended very badly. Instead, Hazel was able to stop it by using a physical skill she had already developed. The kidnapping didn't inspire her to take up archery or be athletic. It just gave her a taste of how satisfying it is to be able to save the day, and that became a significant inspiration for her volunteering with SPOON later.
The trajectory of "refuse the call" is usually opposite: the protagonist starts out ordinary and a key event forces him to become The Hero, even though he doesn't want to and tries to refuse. I'm not a fan of railroading or other violations of agency. It's not just offensive. It's also boring and predictable -- literally to the point of guidebooks talking about THE Hero's Journey as if only one path is available -- and it's unheroic. I mean, what's the point of a hero who isn't even in charge of his own life? That's not a hero's journey, it's a victim's journey. 0_o
So if you look at how I write heroes in general, or superheroes in particular, it is far more common for them to do one of two proactive things: use an ability they already have to cope with a challenge, or face a challenge directly and try to figure out what they need to do in order to surmount it. Dr. Doohickey had to invent the antchair so he could continue superheroing after losing his legs. Muscle Girl was in a zetetic accident and didn't develop superpowers. So she said "fuck it" and decided to become a supernary hera anyway. Jaya became Durganta because when her village was attacked, she didn't refuse to do anything about it, she prayed for help -- and got a magic tiger and superpowers.
Supervillains, now, they often have a trajectory like that. Shit happens! Superpowers manifest! What to do, what to do? Hit back at everyone in range.
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 06:38 pm (UTC)That's not an accident.
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 06:54 pm (UTC)Eastern heroes, of course, are completely different, and when you mix them with a western plot it gets very messy. Star Wars is a mess of eastern and western motifs. Entertaining, sure, but a mess.
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 06:59 pm (UTC)Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 07:05 pm (UTC)Another is simply that George Lucas started producing movies decades before the technology would support what he envisioned. People got attached to that version. Then later the technology caught up, and he wanted to show people what it was "supposed" to be like, and they hated it because it didn't match what they remembered. The tembre was already set. I feel sorry for him. That could very easily have been me, and I'd be miserable in that situation. But I feel the same way as the rest of the fans; the prequels simply didn't fit.
People are going nuts over the new trailer though. I am slightly more intrigued by it than that earlier glimpses.
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-18 07:19 pm (UTC)Inevitably.
What I'm not certain of is whether the few seconds of Han and Chewie are worth the remaining two hours of film. Right now, though... I'm intrigued, and willing to give Disney the benefit of the doubt. (Lucas burned that completely to the GROUND with Phantom Menace.)
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-04-19 04:06 am (UTC)Amidala was *fine* in the first movie, and Annakin was okay too... but I think George must've got hold of whatever bad frop stash Stephanie Meyer ran across later, because both characters grew up to be whiny gits... reminds me a lot of Edward and Bella, now that I think of it... the *only* redeeming factor in the last two prequels was digi-Yoda popping a can of whoop-ass on Count Von Count there... that was just good giggly fun... but even Samuel L. M. F. Jackson couldn't save the rest of it... (He almost sounds respectable when you do it that way, like one of those three-initial professors, don't he? :) )
I dunno. We'll see. What I'm liable to do is let my favourite reviewer, who is a completely *rabid* SWTOABHSFD fan, go see it first...
Re: LOVELY
Date: 2015-05-03 11:17 pm (UTC)I agree.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-18 10:50 pm (UTC)Seconding the love of intense training done as an act of passion and joy - IME, that's mainly the kind of intense training that gets intense results.
Yay!
Date: 2015-04-18 10:52 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked this so much.
>> Seconding the love of intense training done as an act of passion and joy - IME, that's mainly the kind of intense training that gets intense results. <<
Very astute observation. *ponder* And true for more than purely physical pursuits too.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-19 03:29 am (UTC)•bola, slingshot, boomarang, shuriken
→ boomerang
•The tembre was already set. (1A1A1A)
→ timbre
(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-19 04:11 am (UTC)I've said many times I like Bats, because Bats is willing to bend the rules when the law is being an arse... but Bats is also, well, bats... he's *driven*. Like Rocky Balboa. Neither of them *enjoys* all the practice.
Sendoff? Does.... and may well turn out to be the better character for it.
Hmmmm. Plot bunny. Physical therapy post-injury to get back to the form she's used to is ... not pleasant. There's at least two stories here, and one's got a happy ending.
Poem
Date: 2015-04-19 08:29 pm (UTC)Thank you!
>>I've said many times I like Bats, because Bats is willing to bend the rules when the law is being an arse... but Bats is also, well, bats... he's *driven*. Like Rocky Balboa. Neither of them *enjoys* all the practice. <<
True. There is actually a lot of that in Terramagne, following the spirit of the law over the letter, or even just the background premise of maintaining safety and order. If that means ignoring the pint-sized supervillain buying ice cream, it's what a sensible person will do.
>> Sendoff? Does.... and may well turn out to be the better character for it. <<
:D
>> Hmmmm. Plot bunny. Physical therapy post-injury to get back to the form she's used to is ... not pleasant. There's at least two stories here, and one's got a happy ending. <<
This contributed to the free-verse poem "Unkind Cuts." So this is why Sendoff and Bankshot hate each other.
68 lines, Buy It Now = $34