Mystic Syn

“When you don’t have to do all the paperwork, yes.” As soon as he said that, Haro walked in with a small stack of papers. She placed it on his desk. “Here’s the papers you wanted,” she said. “Also, your contacts are ready whenever you are.” Khusa nodded his thanks, gesturing a dismissal. Haro complied, closing the door softly behind her. Khusa looked through the papers. “Hm, family murdered when you were about eleven,” he muttered to himself, leafing through some more. “Seems you want to find the murderer and bring justice for their deaths as seen with your apprenticeship with The Shadow in… Valor? Hm, interesting. After that apprenticeship, you are trying to plant your feet here, which is something I can respect. Having some trouble with the law enforcement as well as your friend, whom I assume is your own apprentice. Let’s just hope they got lucky in terms of escaping the law.” Khusa looked up from the papers. “Is this information correct, Velen Ipara?”

“It shouldn’t, no,” Khusa replied, sitting behind his desk while clasping his hands together, searching Velen’s eyes with a serious gaze after what they had said. “Haro is good on keeping everything organized and on time. What you should hope for is that my contacts not being too busy on trying to catch you so I can talk to them. I talk to them, they do their job, you’re off the hook, and we never have to see each other again.”

All of them. They’re all my favorite non-mod Sharder.

Ji nodded, leaning back as he watched the others and the door. Everything within him yelled at him to not trust them, no matter what they had done together or how nice they were; everyone on the streets was out to trick you. He still watched over them, because it was just the least he could do. They hadn’t wronged him… yet. It was just best to return the favor before they did betray him. It was best to be alone. Everyone fought about something within a group, then they broke off. That’s what every attempt of a rebellion had turned out in the past, and Ji had the sneaking suspicion that the same will happen again. He still hoped, though, that there would be some people that filled the void of where his family should be. Those hopes weren’t high, but still sparkling softly amidst the darkness of the void. It would just be smother as soon as they betrayed him, and Ji was anticipating that exact moment.

After closing the door, Khusa led them up the stairs and to his office. He passed by his secretary and gave her his coat and a wink. She looked exasperated while glancing at the newcomer for a second, then back at Khusa with a raised eyebrow. “Found ‘em on my walk and wanted to talk business,” he explained, grasping her hand. “Go and fetch me those papers while I talk with them. Oh, and sometime while doing that, try and get some of my contacts in the authorities so I can sort some things out with them.” She smirked smugly, taking her hand away from his. “Yes, sir,” she said, going to do as he asked. Khusa then gestured towards his office, opening the door for Velen.

Since no one is stopping me and I need to decompress a bit, I’m going to gush about one scene in the often forgotten masterpiece: The Prince of Egypt, by Dreamworks. Some of you might not have heard of it, may have watched it a long time ago, or watched it for religious reasons. I mean, I am a religious person and my dad loves the movie, which is how I saw it; however, I’m not just going to be looking through that perspective, but through my writer’s glasses. And trust me when I say that I could make an hour long––even more––video essay about the individual parts of the movie (animation, voice work, the frickn’ score, etc.), but I’m just going to rein that in and just gush about this one scene that stands out to me the most: The scene where Moses talks to God through the burning bush. If y’all don’t know which scene I’m talking about or need a refresher it’s pitched lower than in the actual movie, so be wary: https://youtu.be/6ds9y3lJGig The first thing I notice about this scene is the score, probably because there are little to no words spoken through the first part of the scene. Now, if you haven’t listened to the score of The Prince of Egypt, you are missing out on some beautiful score music. The person who composed the music is a little known composer by the name of Hans Zimmer. I would say he’s rather unknown, because he worked on the scores of and I dunno if you’ve heard of these movies The Lion King, Interstellar, Kung Fu Panda, and more recently Dune; again, rather unknown. Anyways, the score at the beginning is light, showing curiosity and mystery. But as we go though the scene, it builds as Moses hears and listens to God. It swells when God begins to scold Moses, but grows soft and wondrous again. It doesn’t shy away from being loud and overbearing when God scolds Moses, but it also doesn’t shy away from being soft enough to put someone to sleep. Putting on my religious cap for a second: I love how that is like God in real life, who can––but doesn’t usually––scold us outright, but can also give us peace. Another thing I notice was when Moses asked who was speaking to him and God answered that He was… well, God, Moses immediately believes. He doesn’t have a second thought, because if you were led to a burning bush that started to talk to you, either you’re high off of something or God is talking to you; I’m guessing the latter. Anyways, Moses drops his staff in shock as you do and basically rips his shoes off. He doesn’t need to speak, as the animation does it for him. Those micro expressions speak so much as to the shock, even fear of what he’s experiencing right then. If you were to look at the animation, even with the sound off, you can easily see and pick out those expressions and just know what Moses is feeling. Another thing about that: When God says, “I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt, and have heard their cry,” which Moses flinches, then comes into realization as he recalls when he had saved one of those people years ago when he was a prince of Egypt. You don’t need to be told that he still feels guilty for accidentally murdering the man that had been whipping the slave to death. You can see the regret of what he’d done, of why he ran from Egypt and away from the home and family he’d ever known. He looks away from the burning bush, or away from God, because he hasn’t forgiven himself for what had happened. Moses does not think that he should be in the presence of God because of that, so he looks away. Till God says that He’s going to send him to convince the Pharaoh to let the people go. You see and hear him say that he is not the person for the job, but that he was the son of the man who had slaughtered their children and had run away when he was facing the consequences of his actions. Only then did God begin to yell at him, which He never does unless it’s a dire circumstance. And Moses, and anyone else would do, huddles away in the corner and away from the Being yelling at him. I mean, imagine for a second: A God who created literally everything and has the power to kill you right then and there is yelling at you. I don’t think you would be standing boldly against him, but you would also be on the ground, trying to make yourself as small as possible. But after yelling at him, God––like any parent after yelling at their child, hopefully––carefully picks Moses up and comforts him, telling him that He will be with him, even though Pharaoh would not listen to them. And after God leaves Moses, you can see a tear roll down Moses’ cheek. Again, no words are spoken, but the music speaks for them. It’s telling the extravagant experience that Moses went through when he was relating it to his wife. I mean, after that kind of joyful thing happens to you, I’m sure you would want to tell friends and family what you had just experienced. The whole scene is nothing short of majestic, from the score to the animation to the voice work. You can see the care that was put into this masterpiece, and it makes me sad how far Dreamworks has fallen in term of these kinds of movies; I mean, how do you go from his absolute masterpiece that everyone forgets about to… The Boss Baby? Tell me. But that aside, from a religious perspective, this scene speaks volumes about who God is and what He can do for each and every one of us; from a writer’s perspective, this is a beautifully told story of a man who is called by God, or a mentor, to go and free people from unjust slavery. What this scene tells us, or me, is that no matter what you have done that is weighing you down, you can always rise up and strive and become a better person. That doesn’t mean that everything will always turn out great for us, but we need to work on it; help will always be there, whether in the form of friends and family or even from the Internet. Forgiving yourself is never an easy process, especially if that experience is the one that’s keeping you back from being the amazing and beautiful person I know you can be, but I believe that after you have forgiven yourself, things will go a whole lot easier than before. That doesn’t mean there won’t be hardships, but it will be a crap ton easier. This movie is a masterpiece, and you don’t have to be religious to enjoy it. If you haven’t watched it or haven’t watched it in a long time, please go do so. You will not regret every moment of it.

Hey, y’all. There’s gonna be three drawings this time, ‘cause I’ve been avoiding the Shard because I’ve been overwhelmed every time I come on. So.. ya getting some drawing right now so I can hide before being overwhelmed again.

“Ji,” he grunted, nodding towards her.

“Hmph, that’s right… whatever your name is.”

“Trust me,” he said, “when you’ve been on the streets for as long as I have, you hear everything about what happened, down to the little whispers, especially when you make this place one of your safe houses.” Ji leaned back. “The Pacis doesn’t like it when people know about this, so the people who live near the government buildings and are rich don’t hear anything. They don’t even know that this place even exists.”

He rolled his eyes and turned towards the others, clasping his hands together. “This place used to be a hospital, believe it or not, years ago,” Ji said, staring at the ground, his voice growing soft. “One of the best in the whole city, if not Province. Lifegivers from everywhere would come to this place in particular to learn before going to Medela further in the city. Harmonies kept the order, helping where they could. There were also Recallers, helping those with memory loss to remember who they were, as long as they were willing. It was a place of peace, a place where all people came to be healed, a place where you could forget about the world. That changed… “One day, a man came in with his daughter. His daughter was really, really sick, to the point where she couldn’t even walk anymore. The man came in, saying how the Medela was too far away and he was afraid to lose her just by taking the journey there. He then begged the Lifegivers that they would heal her, to which they agreed, carefully taking the daughter to another room from watching eyes. They allowed the man in the room as they worked, giving everything they could physically while also working on her with their powers. Minutes, which slipped into hours went by. The Lifegivers worked tirelessly, trying to save her life… but they were too late. She passed into the Spiritual Realm after the third hour of working. The father was distraught, clutching the poor child in his arms, trying to give life, but with no success. He was forced to leave his daughter’s body for the Lifegivers to purify, letting himself mourn as he went back home. “Months later, the same father came in, this time with his son. The boy was no older than three, but he had fallen ill like his sister. The man went up to the Lifegivers, saying, ‘I know you weren’t able to save my daughter, but please try to save him.’ The Lifegivers agreed, taking the boy into the same room as his sister. They worked on him like they did his sister, except trying harder to bring him back, knowing that they didn’t want another life to slip through their fingers… but his did. After the second hour, the boy’s spirit faded. The man was more distraught this time than the last, for who knows what reason, but he eventually left to go home after being forced away from his son’s body. “Not even a few days later, the man came in, deranged this time. What little did people know was that he was a Deathgranter, and he had come for revenge. Thin, but sharp ribbons of some sort came and instantly killed whoever it touched, no matter if they were Mystic, Nihil, or even in a patient. The man yelled incomprehensible nonsense, screaming for the people who let his children die. It didn’t take long for them to die too. He was on a rampage, killing everyone in sight. The Pacis was called moments later after hearing a commotion in the hospital. They tried talking to the man to come with them, multiple times, but it only ended with Pacis members dead, with the man screamed, ‘You can’t take me like you did with my family!’ They tried again to calm him down, but he only said after that, ‘I’m going to burn this place to the ground, as well as your government!’ With no other choice, the Pacis gunned him down, with his dying words being a curse on the place, that no one will ever be healed on this ground again. “The Pacis didn’t believe him, but oh, everyone else did. They quickly left this place in fear of that curse that he left, though no one knows if it’s true or not. No matter how hard they scrubbed the bloodstains always came through, of the massacre of what that man did. Even today, you can see those stains and the anguish of a man who was broken and left without a family.” Silence hung for a moment, before Ji looked up and seemed to have the smallest bit of reverence in his eyes.

Ji glanced at the man in the cot. “Load of sunshine, he is.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, “when you don’t know why people avoid this place.”

Ji led them through highways, avoiding people’s gazes while still looking onward. People made room, shying away from the others as well. Ji looked at the buildings, counting them him his head before settling on one that looked more run down than the others. He marched forward, past the people standing outside who didn’t give him or the people with him another glance. Opening a door with a grunt, it led to a large, but dark room with high ceilings filled all assorted items. There were a few cots here and there, but none of them looked like they’ve been used in a while. Food wrappers laid on the ground, mostly pushed into a pile that was meant to be a trash can. Tattered clothes hung from strings, looking mostly clean, all things considered. There were a few devices, even a television in the corner, but the real question was if they worked or not. The whole place looked like it had once been something, but was now long abandoned. Ji sat himself on one of the cots, gesturing to the place. “Make yourselves at home,” he muttered, his voice echoing.

Everybody be talking about their favorite poems or sharing poems they wrote which I could never do, so I have mad respect for y’all, but I’m going to share a scene in a movie I’ve been thinking about recently and has been especially hitting home for me. What am I talking about? I’m talking about that scene in Pixar’s Soul where Joe was at the piano and reminiscing about the time 22 had spent in his body he considered to be “regular old living” if y’all need a refresher: https://youtu.be/npMVQr8gdaQ I’m someone that loves music: I play the piano, write and let myself be guided by it, I sometimes sing it too, but it something that’s always been a part of my life. When this had first come out, I was intrigued by the music, but didn’t watch it again after it had dropped on Disney+ last year till about a week or two ago. And I dunno if you guys noticed, but when you’re watching the scene, there are no words. Pixar could’ve easily added in some dialogue explaining what Joe was going through and thinking about right then, but they didn’t. They allow the watcher to develop their own feelings about the scene and let them connect it to their life; they are playing music properly named “Epiphany,” which is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. You can see those feelings being expressed in Joe’s eyes, without being told about what’s going on. Now let’s back up a bit to set the scene of what Joe’s mind: He thinks that his life is boring, that absolutely nothing has happened over the course of his life and he was finally getting his big break when he got the gig he’s been dreaming about. Joe is on a high when he plays with the Dorothea, but after when he talks with her about what will happen next and what she tells him this: “I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, ‘I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.’ ‘The ocean?’ says the older fish, ‘that’s what you’re in right now.’ ‘This?’ says the young fish, ‘this is water. What I want is the ocean’” (Soul, 2020). After that, he goes home and he reflects on what he does have. He didn’t start living when he got the gig with Dorothea, but he’s been living this whole time and has just not been noticing it. Joe thought that his purpose was to find his big break, but he never fully realized how much he’s been doing and living already, what he already has, and what he will gain. I mentioned that I hadn’t watched Soul since it came out, until a few weeks ago, and it has become one of my favorite movies; not just because of all the music and how much of a sucker I am for it, but what it tells me in general. I’ve always been a person that enjoys complex concepts that leave me room to imagine, to wonder, to think about on a more personal level I mean, another favorite Pixar movie of mine is Inside Out, but I avoid that nowadays ‘cause I know I will cry hard. Anyways, this movie––I feel like––doesn’t get the credit it deserves, because it’s a beautiful movie, more than you originally think. When I had first watched it, the first thing I noticed was the animation and how stunning and breathtaking it was; when I watched it again a few weeks back, I noticed this scene in particular and the music. Soul literally said without using words: It’s okay to take a step back, and it’s definitely okay to pursue your passions, but do not lose yourself in what you think your purpose is. Simply live. Breathe life in its entirety, even if you think it’s mundane. Do not get caught up in your expectations of what your life should be. Find joy in the smallest things, because those things often bring the most joy than what you believe will bring you happiness. You do have a purpose and you might not know it at this point in time, but please let yourself live your life. When I had watched this a few weeks ago, I was going through a rough time: What I’m guessing is anxiety and depression were at one of the highest points, and I was not doing well; I was hurting myself mentally, physically, and verbally. I was dealing with thoughts that involved me ending what life I had/have, because I believed/kinda believe that I had no purpose and no one would care if I were to just disappear; to some, that might be a surprise, but I honestly don’t like talking about this part of me, but that’s another topic for another day. Anyways, after watching this movie, I had never cried so much, mostly internally though. It spoke more to me now than it did when it had first come out, because it was telling me that life is more beautiful than what the darkness of my mind was making it out to be. The simple things that I was living then; the people that were caring for me, even though they had no clue what was going on, started to mean more; the pictures I’ve taken of the Earth’s beauty; the moments I’ve had with close friends and family, where there have been laughs made and tears shed; and most importantly, what I mean in it all. Of course, I wasn’t healed immediately, but it was the light I needed to grasp and bring myself more out of the darkness than what I let myself be taken over for. Your life is worth living, even if it’s mostly “boring” or just not going the way you want it to. You are the one that has to break away from the idea of that your life hasn’t begun when everything goes your way, but it already has and that you are the one that makes the most of it. Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. I’m sorry for this lengthy post.

If there are Elements of Friendship in My Little Pony (Laughter, Honesty, etc.), then would Sunset Shimmer be the Element of Forgiveness?

Ji grunted, stuffing his hands in the hoodie pocket and walking off in a direction away from the Pacis bodies.

Mmm, I just woke up, so I’ll probably do something about this later when I’m not drowning in math.

“Search him,” Ji grunted, folding his arms. “Just in case.”

“That better not be your friend,” Khusa hissed, bobbing and weaving through people. He reached the front door to his office building, then gestured for him to go in.

Ji shrugged, indifferent. “Then you can lie here and die,” Ji put simply. “Maybe Ko’ad will bless me by letting the Pacis take you and putting you out of your misery.”

“Yes, ‘we.’ Light, it’s like talking to a brick wall.”