Jackalope Mask

Another fine jackalope mask designed by Alice Aroumbeyski, a mask that Yost presented as one of her self-portraits. In the “The Ringer in the Substratum”, Alice has a conversation with her childhood friend Kamlyn about the suitability of wearing this mask to the wedding of a cousin who is essentially a stranger. (Alice had not spoken to her cousin for 16 years.) The two women decide that Alice should save the mask for her own wedding to Jack Loki.

Kamlyn was actually named Alice when they first met, when the girls were four years old. They did not become boon companions instantly, but because “a lamentable conspiracy beyond our control” (Alice’s words) kept throwing them together, they agreed to an alliance. The two girls decided that having the same name was “tiresome and traumatic” (Kamlyn’s words), so one Alice became Gwynne and the other Alice became Kamlyn. After a few years, Gwynne decide to become Alice again, but Kamlyn kept her name into adulthood.

There is a mug ornamented with this mask, available for purchase at my shop:

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We are bringing back the Wow Signal link as a kind of signature to my posts here at Vraicking.

Demonizing That Which Does Not Belong

Hello! Long time no see, but here I am, with my first post in an endeavor to put my unsocial media back on track.

I took time off to make a serious effort at sorting out my personal philosophy–just the usual stuff: what’s the meaning of life, why am I here, staring into the abyss, mystified by death, birth and freedom, all that jazz. I ended up with a mindscape that is as messy as it ever was, but I now feel like this blog could be a somewhat new adventure. Although it will probably look very much like the old adventure to you.

So, onward.

Today’s comic appeared in the Official Geranium Lake Properties Calendar for 2022, for the month of March (for no particular reason). It is, of course, a jackalope mask, one of the many masks devised by Jack Loki for his various roles in his harum-scarum escapades. Yost based this image on a pictorial design common to the To-inen-wa clan of Jackalopian historical lore. I am not really clear on how the To-inen-wa (a name that was translated by a scholarly yet presumably fictitious authority as “Other People”) fit into the traditions of the Inultaru. In the GLP universe, the dominant Jackalopian culture is that of the Inultaru, to the point where the name Inultaru is practically synonymous with jackalope. However, the people of the To-inen-wa have (had?) their own nation or tribe of jackalopes.

Also, what about the people of the Second House, known as the Otilem Kejik?

The Masks of Jack Loki

My idea for this year’s Halloween post occurred to me late. I intended to observe the holiday with the last post about the Poe series, yesterday’s Poppy Garden post, and an upcoming marigold-themed panel for the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. The realization that I could make a retrospective of the many masquerades of Jack Loki, professional gallywagger, crackerjack bryologist, and erstwhile protagonist of Geranium Lake Properties, came to me last night. This also gives me a chance to share the above GLP comic, something I meant to do way back in June, for Hood and Mitre Day. Which is a day that gives you the opportunity for the recherché joy of donning your best hood or wimple, putting on your most ornamental mitre, and pretending you are the Pope of the Sacrum Romanum Imperium.

And then for Halloween, you can be the Antipope, and you won’t need to get yourself a new costume.