Ritual Of The Moon diary: day 19
Marty says relax
Look, I'm very busy again today. I'm back from being on holiday and nothing is finished, and I have to stay late tonight for unrelated reasons anyway. I don't understand those people who are like, "Oh I made a lemon drizzle cake when I got home, because I had a spare hour." HOW? And, when you have a spare hour, how do you stop yourself from lying on your bed watching a TV show you have already seen?
Luckily Marty Burnham The Moon Witch has nothing but time, so I used the visit today for an extremely quick bit of attempted meditation.
Our office has a rule that you're not supposed to eat your lunch, especially hot food, at your desk. You go into the kitchen and you spend time away from your screen, dammit. Except, most days I don't do that, because video games sleep for no Alice. Don't narc on me to HR, okay? Our head of HR is called The Jiffer and he has a bollocking face.
Marty Burnham's moon pod is minimal. I can't see her bed, or anything, but you could sit on the floor to meditate. I am very bad at unguided meditation, so in her situation would end up thinking: "Oh my god what if the seals on this pod or on my suit fail, there is no one here to help." But Marty clearly has greater strength of character than I do.
There isn't a press X to meditate button, but Marty does breathe. Her shoulders rise and fall and her stomach expands and drops back. She breathes very deeply.
Watching her felt very rhythmical and soothing, so I just let her breathe for a bit. The music inside the pod is kind of hopeful, with buzzes and thumps that feel like lights humming and flashing. Then I tried to breathe in time with her, as deeply as she did, and realised she is breathing very hard. It was too fast, and I started to feel dizzy. It's like she's just finished a sprint somewhere. I do not think Marty Burnham is actually relaxed at all.
Today's ritual drawing is the cover of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I don't know why, I just found it very funny.
And, this week, a twist:
I fear all my banging on about time travel or what have you has become some kind of self fulfilling prophecy.
Ritual Of The Moon is available from Steam now.