Hey party people: This segment is a "commercial" that isn't going to be in the book.
I made it to freak my stupid criminal neighbors out; they are constantly hassling me (about my books, among other things) and every time I publish something here in my blog, they totally freak. It's still going on hours later after I posted this. (The Seinfeld Freak-Out, I call it.)
Yeah this little bit of story here really upset them. Heh. (That's why I call the series "just to piss you off." 😀😹 - I'll probably give the saga a new name one of these days, if I live long enough.)
11 January 2026 - 18 January 2026
From JTPYO – King Of The Land Of The Dead [2] / the living dead (escape from Viragos – a pro-life commercial)
The company of Naxosos, Naemas, Korsis, Zyanonchoulain (Two-Swords), and the sorcerer Joliel is seen at the beginning of the episode "escape from Viragos" – the entire company walks to the point of escape as one, including the huge fighter, who doesn't try to hide and even walks down the street with his hand on his weapon. (Note: Two-Swords is over seven feet tall.)
The avenue is high-sided, unevenly-cobbled, and nasty; they're going to the ____ wine shop with its forum that extends onto the quay (this is the upper quay of Viragos that is way north up the beach from Morativela; see previous post "house of Moratis"). It's an area of mostly poor people on the move who can't pay to travel the nicer roads going through town and/or disreputable businesses.
Naxosos is garbed as a servant with his cloak wrapped around him and his head hanging down – he has in fact been defeated by the Meriezirim Honey and now must flee (in slow, deliberate steps) for his life; the company has been at Galareh's house (Galareh is Two-Swords's longtime girlfriend) and they are now trying to escape the city however they can; fortunately the fisher Paranis is going to rescue them on this friendly (Pavrani-Quarter) shore; the time isn't certain, but probably early afternoon; they're hustling to get to the forum, where they can wait for a time until Paranis brings his boat around. It's early afternoon, with the sun blazing down and the light-colored paving stones hot enough to burn one's unshod feet.
Naemas is at Naxosos's left shoulder and Two-Swords is on the right, between Naxosos and the buildings; Naxosos slumps and drags his foot as though he is a crippled servant, and for further disguise he carries some burdens. Korsis, acting as Naxosos's double, walks a little ahead of the group, in carriage like a rich person, trying to save money perhaps, taking the shortest route to the docks and on foot – this in case anyone has to show an ID. Like the others, Korsis is a bit hungover/disillusioned, as their group has been defeated and now being driven out of Viragos by the Meriezirim Honey and her gang, and they are running (at a measured pace) for their lives – in spite of this he is playing his role immaculately. (Naemas is in an obvious ill humor; like Two-Swords, he walks with a hand on the hilt of his long knife – he glances all around: at the oncoming traffic, at the high walls with their mostly tiny, featureless windows, at the sky and angle of the light, and so on.)
The sorcerer Joliel hangs at the back of the sortie. In the previous chapter he has demonstrated himself to be a thoroughgoing cad and no one, including Naxosos, is happy with him.
A young woman (with some difficulty carrying a wriggly girl baby who has a little rag doll in her grasp) passes the company going in the opposite direction. The woman is frazzled and perhaps without funds, carrying multiple items, and she has to take the poor people's lane today with all its stink and danger – and now her fussy child is attracting attention.
The sorcerer Joliel notices this. As mother and daughter pass, he turns with a faint grin on his disgustingly white face. As he glances back, the little girl begins to shriek.
No one else in the company pays attention to this – we see the sorcerer Joliel turning to take a speculative look.
Scene shifts to that of the young mom, struggling down this disreputable avenue with a baby who is making a fuss. (NOTE: There's no dialog in this commercial, just background noises: gulls, street hawkers, harbor-noises, cart-wheels in muddy gravel, drovers yelling at each other and their animals, and other random, everyday sounds of a town.)
The shot is from just ahead of the gal struggling with her kid – you can see the company walking away into the background; the sorcerer who is at the back of the group turns as he notices her and her baby. The lady is very upset about her kid being difficult and noisy all of a sudden – they're in a bad part of town as mentioned.
So, the kid's face is contorted and she's writhing all around and screaming to beat the band. Her mom desperately tries to hang onto her and looks this way and that, finally darts ahead a few dozen yards to an apparent alleyway.
At this, the sorcerer – who stands in the background looking on with interest – grins and starts to follow. (Scene shifts to the upper left side of the company traveling down the lane – the sunlight is also from the upper left – it's just after midday in Viragos and the shadows are sharp. Naxosos feels Joliel leaving the company and glances back, but – staying in character – this is only for a second and then he is eyes-front again, shambling on.)
The young mom, meanwhile, is seen navigating an ill alleyway between two complexes, each more than a story high, with tiny windows. The alley is full of slops and debris, and dark. The mom, all the while, has increasing trouble with her kid, who is still screaming, struggling, etc. You can tell Mom is very worried about attracting attention. She gets to an old barrel and sits the fussing child on it – in the semi-twilight of the noisome alleyway.
Now the viewer – back on the street – sees the sorcerer Joliel creeping in the direction of this action, first down the somewhat-crowded lane (which isn't much nicer than the alleyway) and then (from just past the mom's point of view, so we are facing her and the kid's back – as the baby screams, struggles, and cries – is toward us) from a distance – as he peers into the alley and grins when he spots the luckless, haggard, tired, belabored young mom and the little girl who is facing toward him, reaching her arms out and crying piteously.
Now we see from a side view the mom, with her kid temporarily placed upon a barrel in this gross alleyway – she checks the kid's nappy and frowns upon seeing that's not the reason for her daughter's fit. She then takes a second to rest – she is exhausted, perhaps fleeing toward rescue from a bad situation.
A couple of seconds pass while this poor gal wipes the sweat from her brow and adjusts her belt-pouch, head-covering, etc. – the baby continues to fuss and fume, but then falls silent, with a peculiar expression, which finally, when noticed, causes her mother to turn.
The sorcerer Joliel is directly behind her, leering with a nasty, toothy grin as though he's going to dismember and eat her right then and there. The young women crouches down in fear, and even covers her eyes – she is, she thinks, doomed, and her child; she didn't want to be here in the first place, and it seemed like a very ill time to do anything at all, but she had to do something. Let God's will be done, she thinks. In the meantime, the child gazes at the sorcerer with an empty expression.
In a sudden movement, like Wile E Coyote, Joliel holds up the rag doll, which the little girl dropped in the street – the reason for her screaming fit. (Note: The rag doll's simplistic expression and posture change in the commercial from despair and anger to joy upon seeing her "Mommy.")
The child ecstatically embraces her "baby" whose stitched features show happiness at being rescued from the street to be with her again. The young mother looks into the features of the sorcerer Joliel, who continues to gaze appreciatively at her for another second or two, and then in a blink flits back to the daylight end of the alleyway, blows her a kiss, and disappears.
The caption: Choose Life.
* * *
Note: The joke here is that Joliel is, as of this scene in the saga, the most prolific dad of all the company – except perhaps for Naemas, though this one officially lays claim to no offspring. At the beginning of "dream" in JTPYO (King of the Fishers [2] dream) we find out that Joliel and Nirith, for example, have a daughter age 13 who lives in one of Korsis Zarodi's dad's houses.
Note2: Joliel however only gets women pregnant – he does not become involved in his children's lives, but on the other hand he doesn't kill or scheme against them, or sell them as chattel, which is what his own mother did to him. Additionally, the sorcerer is not allowed to kill even game, or interfere with humans' lives, without permission – sort of like a "prime directive," to make a long story short. So this factor (that he can't do any harm to the tempting defenseless woman and her baby, even if he wants to) creates additional humor. At least for me.
(Sunday ☉ 2026 01 18)