KA Byrnes – Enneagram and Encaustic

Summer Hiatus, revisited

I’m reminded of a post from just over a year ago.

I told you I would be working on an Encaustic/Enneagram book. The above photo is of a wall in my studio. These are the pieces I so enthusiastically anticipated finishing. I hung them so that I could look at them every day and continue to think about how to make them better. They’ve sat like this for many months now.

Frankly, I don’t think I’m a good enough artist to bring these pieces to fruition at this time. Even the ones that are close to finished don’t tell me how they can be made better. I don’t have 10,000 hours of encaustic time, and it shows.

I wanted to be honest. The process is as important as the product to me. I’m still excited for the project, though. I like the idea, and some day I will continue. Meanwhile, this wall of incompletion waits for me.

The Beginning

Episode 8, the finale, of the Fallout TV series . . .

ONE

Maximus rides in a vertibird crossing the Wasteland. Two Knights in full battle armor stare at him with their inscrutable helmets.

He remembers his pleasant goodbye from Lucy. His hand rests on the mangled fake head.

They approach Filly, where an airship hovers above the town. The vertibird lands and Maximus exits, escorted by the Knights. The Brotherhood flag flies. The town has been taken over. Every member of the BoS lines the square; the Elder Cleric waits for Maximus.

Maximus kneels and presents the head. His old friend Dane takes it from him. Admitting that his Knight is dead, Maximus is chastised by the Elder. We’re reminded that Dane also was injured and that some blamed Maximus for it. An assistant verifies that the fake head holds no artifact.

Knights prepare to execute Maximus on the spot. Clerics recite prayers and sprinkle him with hyssop branches. Desperate, Maximus admits he can lead them to the real head. Dane, becoming more upset, kneels and claims that the razor in their boot was self-inflicted. Allowed to rise and live, Maximus again has a thousand thoughts cross his face as he looks at the Cleric and Dane.

The Radio

Episode Seven of the Fallout TV series . . .

ONE

The Wasteland. Someone uses a metal detector, looking for shell casings.

It’s a father and son who live in a little shack made from recycled scrap. (YAY!) Inside, though, instead of daughter Sandra, they find Coop. He eats a chicken dinner and watches them. These people obviously know and distrust each other. Coop wants information: the location of that “madwoman in the hills”, Moldaver. Son Tommy resists while his father begs him to tell Coop. Finally he admits that she’s at the Observatory. The boy draws a gun on Coop, who shoots him first. Walking away through the Wasteland, Coop takes a hit on his inhaler.

Transition to pre-apocalypse Coop at the communists’ meeting in the funeral home chapel. Moldaver (who isn’t yet known as Moldaver) speaks to the group. Coop, flushing with anger at her speech, stands up to leave. She stops him. They have the expected confrontation, and then Moldaver goes low, saying she knows Coop’s wife. The two speak privately in the hallway.

Moldaver’s company developed cold fusion, a process subsequently acquired by Vault-Tec. In the middle of a world resource war, infinite energy could bring peace. She gives him a listening device and asks him to spy on his wife.

Roll title.

(There is no TWO or THREE.)

The Trap

Episode Six of the Fallout TV series . . .

ONE

A black-and-white pre-apocalypse advertisement from Vault-Tec featuring Coop. Smoking a cigarette on camera, Coop shows off Vault 4. (A sign, unremarked, over a door says: Test Subjects.) Rad-proof (and Red-proof, wink) the vault will house 200 people. Here is the Hawthorne family, part of a community of scientists who are living a five year trial in the vault. Coop encourages the audience to reserve a vault spot today, and then the director calls, “Cut.”

Shift to color as the camera pulls back. It’s a wrap. The Hawthornes, who aren’t actors, ask if they were alright. Coop exits the apartment. His wife is in the residence hallway. Bud Askins, a slimy fellow, corners him. While working for a defense contractor, Bud designed the T-45 power armor, something Coop already knows. Bud tries to palm off the T-45’s flaws, but Coop, who wore the armor in the Battle of Anchorage, won’t let him slide.

As Coop longingly watches his wife walk away from her conversation, Bud keeps him from leaving. He wants to talk about “time”, the ultimate weapon.

Escaping, Coop hugs his wife from behind, suggesting they clock out early. Barb is uncomfortable, possibly because his cuddling makes her look unprofessional. (Either that, or she doesn’t want her husband to touch her.) She tells him, sorry, but the wrap party is at their house. Coop takes the news with good humor. Cut to their home.

The Past

Episode Five of the Fallout TV series . . .

ONE

Over a brazier, Thaddeus recounts their fight with the gulper. Inside the power armor helmet Maximus laughs, enjoying himself. It’s a friendly moment of camaraderie.

Inspired, Thaddeus asks for Knight Titus to brand him. Maximus is horrified but agrees. He heats his gauntlet in the fire.

Thaddeus screams as he’s branded. Maximus says, “Told you. It hurts.”

Immediately rebounding, Thaddeus exults about their success in finding the target and how popular they’ll be back at base. There, on a board behind him, sits Wilzig’s head, just another companion around the campfire. Maximus, feeling guilty or worried, prepares to confess that he isn’t Titus. As a squire, Thaddeus is ready to hear any secret, he says.

Zuzu’s Petals

The Ghouls

Episode Four of the Fallout TV series . . .

The title suggests that the Rules of the Magic concerning Fallout ghouls will be explained. In the game, feral ghouls are humans who were radiated into madness; civilized ghouls are humans who were radiated into immortality. The level of exposure is the difference between them. And the post-apocalypse generations mostly distrust ghouls, either because of their looks or their feral cousins. However, if you’re a ghoul, that’s it. The radiation levels set your identity and now you continue with normal life: love, commerce, and survival.

In the show, the Rules for ghouls are different. Let’s see how detailed their explanation gets.

This is a dark episode. Some gruesome details are going to be necessary for this breakdown.

The Head

Episode Three of the Fallout TV series begins . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Title card: THE BEGINNING

Pre-apocalypse Cooper, wearing a fringed cowboy shirt, holds a gun on a cringing villain. After a beat, Cooper looks at the camera and says, “Do I really have to kill him?” Pull out to reveal a film set.

The director comes over. Cooper plays a sheriff who normally just arrests people. Director Emil explains that now they want a good man to wrestle with evil. A new kind of western. Where’s Bob, the old writer? Fired, for being a communist.

Outside of the set, Coop flirts with a stylish woman, Barb, who is his wife. Janey the daughter joins them. Barb is there in a professional capacity, though. She’s arranged a photo shoot for Coop during his lunch break. He carries the costume box as the family strolls down the studio street.

ONE

Hard cut to a bloody, headless torso. Ghoul Coop, puzzled, examines it. Coughing, he opens a little case from his pack and loads a vial into an inhaler, taking a hit. Relief. Looking around past the derelict Slocum Joe’s, he sees foot prints in the sand headed to the city on the horizon. He and Four, the dog, set off walking.

Roll title.

The Target

Episode Two of the Fallout TV series begins . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Small puppies in a laboratory. A sign on the wall says, “Incinerate newborns less than 10 ounces.” We see one rat-sized pup tossed into the fire. A doctor — wearing round glasses and looking like our bingo man — furtively weighs a pup who is just under the limit. He records a fake weight and brands the pup’s belly with a number, CX404. (For some reason the pups are born blackened as if they’ve been soaked in tar.)

Iris-fade to a proper puppy being weighed. Our Glasses Doctor picks it up, petting it, and carries it out of Behavioral Engineering. He takes it through a security checkpoint and past grown dogs being identically trained. In his office (his name, Dr. Wilzig is on the door) he encourages the puppy with treats and a stuffed teddy bear. (YAY! Dogmeat in game will randomly toss about a teddy.)

Transition to a bigger puppy, and then a dog. Wilzig continues to gently train CX. Behind his office chalkboard is a hole in the wall where CX has her bed. He’s developing something: A blue glowing chip in a glass jar. Taking a swig for the pain, Wilzig injects the chip behind his own ear, then cauterizes the site. CX watches as he writhes. Behind his ear and under the skin we can see the glow of blue from the chip.

He’s just putting CX back in her cubby when another doctor walks in and begins arguing with him. They struggle, and Wilzig is pushed down. Out comes CX, charging and attacking. Blood.

Wilzig leads CX out of the facility, escaping. Just as they get clear, a machine gun turret (YAY!) pops up. He and CX run away. In the background are high, snowy mountains and dim light. (Anchorage?)

Roll title card.

The End (Part Three)

Episode One of the Fallout TV series concludes . . .

We’ve ignored Goggins long enough. Let’s look at that opening scene with Cooper Howard.

ONE

Wearing a flashy cowboy outfit, he sits on a horse, performing lasso tricks. Nat King Cole plays, over, which is wonderfully Fallout. So far, so good. Cooper is entertaining poolside at a suburban child’s birthday party. In a matching outfit, a girl smiles and applauds. (We assume, rightly, that this is his daughter.)

Briefly insert a radio, broadcasting tense international news. Indoors, adults watch a TV reporting on trouble in Anchorage, Alaska (easter egg from Fallout 3) and the threat of nuclear war. Birthday Mom shuts off both devices.

A beautiful, Technicolor-dream shot of the yard gives a semi-futuristic view of the city skyline. (It feels like this is California, one of the classic Fallout New Vegas locations.) Cooper finishes his rodeo trick and invites birthday boy for a picture on the horse. Two fathers gossip about Cooper doing party side gigs to meet his alimony payments. As they snap pictures, they ask Cooper to do his “thumbs up”. Cooper demures, even though he’s “famous for it”. Birthday Mom pays him, the fathers look on with snide faces, and Cooper leads his horse and his daughter away from them.

The fathers refer to Cooper as a “Pinko”. (The nuclear enemy in Fallout are stereotyped Chinese communists.)