• Member Since 28th Aug, 2011
  • offline last seen Saturday

Cold in Gardez


Stories about ponies are stories about people.

More Blog Posts186

  • 1 week
    A town for the fearful dead

    What is that Gardez up to? Still toiling away at his tabletop world. Presented, for those with interest, the town of Cnoc an Fhomhair.

    Cnoc an Fhomhair (Town)

    Population: Varies – between two and five thousand.
    Industry: Trade.
    Fae Presence: None.

    Read More

    5 comments · 218 views
  • 12 weeks
    The Dragon Game

    You know the one.


    A sheaf of papers, prefaced with a short letter, all written in a sturdy, simple hand.

    Abbot Stillwater,

    Read More

    7 comments · 536 views
  • 31 weeks
    EFN Book Nook!

    Hey folks! I should've done this days ago, apparently, but the awesome Twilight's Book Nook at Everfree Northwest has copies of Completely Safe Stories!

    Read More

    9 comments · 565 views
  • 34 weeks
    A new project, and an explanation!

    Hey folks,

    Alternate title for this blog post: I'm Doing a Thing (and I'm looking for help)

    I don't think anyone is surprised that my pony writing has been on a bit of a hiatus for a while, and my presence on this site is mostly to lurk-and-read rather than finish my long-delayed stories. What you might not know, though, is what I've been doing instead of pony writing.

    Read More

    26 comments · 991 views
  • 79 weeks
    Short Story: The Sculpture

    This is not a story about ponies. No ponies here! Go elsewhere for ponies.

    But this is a story for a D&D adventure I am writing. And I suppose it's also a story about what it means to have purpose, where we get that purpose form, and what happens when that purpose vanishes. People things, in other words.


    The flower turns its face to the sun.

    Read More

    10 comments · 792 views
Apr
4th
2014

Chasing Wars · 3:12pm Apr 4th, 2014

It always amazed me that people would chase around wars, like a surfer who lives in a tent on the beach just so he can chase after the biggest waves as the morning tide rolls in.

There are people like this. The Saudi and Arab jihadis who came to Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation sometimes became so devoted to the cause that they followed the war wherever it took them, from Afghanistan back to Africa or the Middle East; wherever there was blood. The other joys of life, the ones we take for granted like clean water, warm food, soft beds -- these meant less to them than chasing down the war and living through it again.

I noticed the other day, while I was walking down a muddy, graveled path on our FOB, that the plain, ramshackle geometries of our homes here seemed as true and real to me as the memories of the apartment I left in Missouri, the one that now, only a month in my past, recedes away like a boat in the mists. Never, in my four past tours, has the penury of our circumstances here so quickly become my new normal.

I do not mean to disparage the people of Afghanistan, for whom this is the best life they have. I am not cold or starving or burying my family, killed by some senseless and inconceivable act that is only another day of news, as many of them are. I am fulfilled here.

But in that moment, on that muddy path surrounded by cement barriers and coils of concertina wire, I realized why those jihadis, who 25 years before launched rockets at the very spot where I now stand, felt so eager to follow their war as it spilled across borders to other sad, broken parts of the world. They did not miss hot food or soft beds because those memories had receded from them like a boat in the mists, borne away by time and currents until only the soiled, miserable life of the Afghan countryside was real to them anymore.

I miss the comforts of home. I worry that someday I won't anymore.



Salvation

There's a new chapter of Salvation up: Reciprocity. It was typed in my barracks, offline, when everyone else was a sleep -- in other words, the editing may not be quite up to my normal standards. I hope you will forgive that and enjoy it anyway.

The next chapter, by the way, is going to be an absolute blast. I haven't been so excited for a chapter in quite some time.

Poor Rarity.

Report Cold in Gardez · 1,043 views · Story: Salvation ·
Comments ( 24 )

This career, this life you've chosen - is it your destination, or a step on your journey?

I miss the comforts of home. I worry that someday I won't anymore.

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
- Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter 4, Aphorism 146

I wish I could upvote blogposts.

Ouch. That hurts that the bleak destruction around you can become "normal". I guess humans are just that adaptable. It explains a lot.

Try to stay safe. I'm glad you can get out of there, one day. I wish you hadn't gone. It was a lie that led you and many others there, and the futility of it all disheartens me.

How far through the whole story are you? This one intrigues me, but I try not to read incomplete works.

a good example of soldiers almost needing war would be the movie The Hurt Locker

Another fantastic chapter, Cold. Stay safe, as always.

I miss the comforts of home. I worry that someday I won't anymore.

I believe this is one of those cases where as long as you're still worrying about it happening to you, it is not happening to you.

Why aren't you God by now?

I've said it before, but it's always amazing to me that you find the time to write with everything else going on around you. You're a great writer, and your dedication is amazing.

Oh, and uh... don't get PTSD. Normal society will be here when you're done, okay? We miss you.

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.

- Ernest Hemingway

You talk on a heavy subject, and one that touches on many many matters of the human condition.

For now I will simply say that in such a situation as their's, I think there is no force on Earth which could turn their hearts to think on good things. It is a pity, and painful to observe, knowing the facts of the matter, but the question remains of what to do about it.

When I was deployed to Iraq, I remember being astonished to find it a desolate wasteland. Why, I thought, would so many generations of people fight each other to the death over this place? There's nothing here but sand and history.

I still don't understand it, but your post has added a puzzle piece I was missing before.

I don't think you'll ever become like that. Warm food and a soft bed are only two of the comforts of home.

It was typed in my barracks, offline, when everyone else was a sleep...

You also miss writing.

The next chapter, by the way, is going to be an absolute blast. I haven't been so excited for a chapter in quite some time.

People do adapt well to changes in environment, but there are some thing we'll never get over. I'm sorry to say it, but you're hopeless addicted to writing, and you're hopelessly addicted to us. Moreover, you're only halfway there to understanding those devoted to war, and you'll never get the other half.

You understand how people can get detached from "home", and that may be enough to understand how people can live with themselves while constantly chasing wars. But that's not enough to make people chase. You still can't feel their drive, and as far as I can tell, you don't even know where to begin with that one.

Site note: I was looking through your favorites, and I thought I was looking through mine. I'm going to start taking your recommendations more seriously.

oo
oo #13 · Apr 4th, 2014 · · ·

1981495 Skirts has the right idea.

Omg omg omg omg next chapter will literally be the apex of the story!!!!! Omg omg omg my heart is literally pending out of my chest!!!!! :heart::pinkiecrazy:

What kind of people are chasing the wars? Civilians?

Feels a bit like slipping on an old shoe, huh? But really, aren't the comforts of home ultimately pointless without loved ones around to share them with? In your shoes I'd feel worse or more uncertain than you do, but I feel like as long you don't forget or stop missing the people you care about, you'll be okay. You're a far cry from those who chase wars like that.

1982215 Some of them are jihadis inspired by religious conviction that they're defending Islam and the Muslim community against "the infidel". Some of them are just professional soldiers or mercenaries who've been fighting long enough that it's basically their skill in life and how they get paid. They've grown comfortable enough with the lifestyle and probably wouldn't find alternate employment that suits them as well if they gave it up and quit.

They're not generally considered civilians, although it's sort of a grey area depending on who you ask and which lawyer's opinions about the Geneva Convention, etc., you decide to listen to.

I'm a little lit, but

Afghanistan. It's history is always this. Conrad chose the Congo but the real heart of darkness is there. Alexander said fuck it and basically gave up. These are an unconquerable people and the land is desolate and it strikes me how alien it seems because I'm just a southerner and I know grass and wheat and cotton and pipe tobacco.

The Persians gave up. Sogdians--have you read any on the region in antiquity it's remained exactly the same

Well. People are good at adapting, but it's for good and ill. On one hand, it'll let you handle situations like what you're in without freaking out, on the other, your home away from home will start to feel like just home...

1981368

In a way:

The story is already finished. The original completed novella version still sits quietly in its place the way it has for nearly two years now, and while this longer version is much to be preferred, I've found it quite interesting to "compare and contrast" the two. But then I've always been a sucker for that sort of thing... :twilightblush:

Mike

1984982 It's been a long time since I read a long pony story that didn't disappoint. I'm hoping this one will do it.

Many days after reading this post, I realized that it reminds me of something. There's a character in The Five People You Meet In Heaven who's like this. The main character meets five people who shaped his life in one way or another, all of whom are waiting in a place of their choosing to talk to people just like the character as they pass through.

Turns out one of those people is one of his superiors in the army, and his chosen afterlife is a terrible battlefield right out of some WWII movie. He says at the end of their time together that Vietnam was what gave meaning to his life.

As many others have already said, best wishes out there.

This reminds me painfully of The Hurt Locker. :[

If you do something stupid out there I'm never going to be able to pick up your book from an airport newstand and devour it voraciously over the course of the next few hours.

That's an injustice the world cannot and should not stand, the senseless loss of such a brilliant, uniquely talented and fantastic mind.

I'm not saying "Don't do this." Just that, one day, when and if you're ready, you can come back as the hero you rightly are and become more of a hero to many in a different way.

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