These boxes of books sure are heavy...

[frameacloud]

Theri There from 2005-11-21

Notes: A learning experience with mental shifting. (Readers have pointed out a flaw in this exercise in weird physics: the person should have fallen forward instead. But then we wouldn’t have seen xir sorry face at the end.)

Transcript:
A person struggles to carry cardboard boxes from a moving van, thinking, “These boxes of books sure are heavy. I’ll visualize my dragon form, and focus on its qualities of strength and balance!” The shining silhouette of a dragon astral form appears around xir.
The dragon picks up a box with xir forelimbs, extending xir wings and tail. Caption: “When a quadrupedal dragon rears up bipedally to carry a heavy object, xe instinctively counterbalances the burden by unfurling xir wings behind xir.” This is illustrated with a old-fashioned balancing scales, sitting level.
Caption: “Phantom wings (weighing nothing) are an ineffective counterweight to lean against.” The weight vanishes from one side of the scales, and they collapse to the other. The dragon otherkin falls over, spilling the box.
Under a pile of textbooks such as “Physics 101” and “Qi Gong,” the dragon kin says, “I shouldn’t try a mental shift like that if I’m ever on a tightrope,” and then mutters, “Balance indeed!”

[Edit 2017-04-03: Updated link.]

Comments

[roycalbeck.livejournal.com]

Never thought of myself as a theri (and I still don't), but I have no problem imagining various limbs, tail, wings, etc, and most commonly make "use" of them with my musical daydreaming.

By that, I don't mean I whistle or hum or anything. For me, visualization keys very directly to solid music. I have, for example, a number of "interactive cartoons" that I engage myself in mentally when listening to the soundtrack from "Heavy Metal". Sammy Hagar's title track is exceptionally conducive to a sequence moving from a "power-up" style of transformation into a highly acrobatic battle scene. "True Companion" is for relaxed, languid gliding. With "The Mob Rules", I lead a citizen's revolt of theris against a corrupt government. Don Felder's "Taking a Ride" is a draconic romance theme. And so on.

In all of this, I can feel every movement...the wind shrieking across my wingbones, the length of steel in my hand, the curling of tail around a pole to arrest forward motion. Hooves moving so fast only the leading tips touch the floorboards.

I listen to music a lot. -:)