Iosepp (Crossroads)

Когда вы боретесь, боль которую вы чувствуете разделяется между вашими товарищами. Иногда я забываю, я теряю себя среди хаоса. Я нахожу мир и спокойствие, где есть паника и смятение.

(When you struggle, the pain that you feel is divided between your companions. Sometimes I forget, I lose myself amidst chaos. I find peace and tranquility, where there is panic and confusion.)
—

Nobody
Legal information
Real Name	𓇋𓅱𓋴𓄿𓊪, יוסף يوسف Ἰώσεπ Iosepp Хосеп ヨシぷ Joseph
Aliases	Nobody
Titles	Mr. Sensei (先生) Ue (上)
Status	Alive
Born	Someday in 1197 BC, in the City of the Scepter.
Residence	Mobile
Base of Operations	Mobile
Alignment	Neutral
Marriage	It's complicated
Marital Status	Widowed
Sexual Preference	Heterosexual
Relatives	It's complicated
Species	Homo sapiens sapiens
Citizenship	Legal, American
Occupation	Embalmer, harvester, fisherman, cook, military leader, diplomat, merchant, mason, blacksmith, miner, ruler, teacher, macebearer, undertaker, reader, soldier, operative, detective, crimefighter
Physical attributes
Gender	Male
Height	201 centimeters (6'7")
Weight	71 kilograms (156 lbs)
Eyes	Brown
Hair	Black
Skin	Tanned
Voice	Low, orotund, sometimes gravelly or rough, mostly soft-spoken
Mental attributes
IQ	155
Temperament	Fluctuation between phlegmatic and melancholic
Perception	Often idealist, then realist
Hobbies	Collecting, investigating, archiving, learning, teaching, and much more
Mood	Pensive
State of Mind	Altered through meditation
Other
Handicap	Arthrosis, irrationality, chivalrous attitude
Religion	It's complicated
Dominant Hand	Right
Theme Song
Credits
Universe	Crossroads Universe
Created by	FrenchTouch
Licensed under	CC-BY-SA

Contents

1. History 1.1. Early Life 1.2. אֲדוֹנִי נָתַן 2. Characteristics 2.1. Physical Appearance 2.2. Personality 2.2.1 Romance 2.2.2 Religion 3. Paraphernalia 3.1. Powers 3.2. Abilities 3.3. Items 3.4. Transportation 4. Timeline 4.1. 12th Century BC 4.2. 11th Century BC 4.3. 5th Century AD 4.4. 6th Century AD 4.5. 7th Century AD 4.6. 8th Century AD 4.7. 9th Century AD 4.8. 10th Century AD 4.9. 11th Century AD 4.10. 12th Century AD 4.11. 13th Century AD 4.12. 14th Century AD 4.13. 15th Century AD 4.14. 16th Century AD 4.15. 17th Century AD 4.16. 18th Century AD 4.17. 19th Century AD 4.18. 20th Century AD 4.19. 21st Century AD 4.20. 22nd Century AD 4.21. 23rd Century AD 5. Appearances 6. Quotes 6.1. By 'im 6.2. To 'im 6.3. Bout 'im 7. Gallery 7.1 Drafts 7.2 Contextual References 8. Author's Note 9. Notes and References 10. Trivia 11. Feedback 12. Questions 13. Commentary

History

Early Life

A child comes to life in Waset—a large city of the vast New Kingdom of Egypt, under the ruler Seti II—of two fellow Nubians; his father a blacksmith, mastering the craft of memorabilia for the ages to come out of noble materials he mastered such as bronze or meteoric iron, but also a kind and loyal servitor of his kin; his mother a weaver, manipulating the fabric of comfort and luxury to create joy amongst her clientele; a talented musician too, skilled with the ney and kanun, that she brushed of her gentle fingers so softly as her matronage was sweet, thanks to which this family was united for as long as possible. Such has led the childhood and upbringing of this child to come into play once he'd matured.

How vastly important is it, then, for mothers to have a higher regard for their duties—[...] It is through their ministrations that the world grows worse or better.
— Timothy Shay Arthur, The Mother's Rule: Or, the Right Way and the Wrong Way^[src]

Time came for him to leave and concretize a new life: Hikuptah, capital of the kingdom, opened its arms for him, thus he joined it in rejoice, passing from an Egypt to another, a land of a thousand and one possibilities. Although far more educated than the common folk, he was raised in humility and respect, which made for a certain lack of ambition, hence his settling in the city as a simple farmer, then blacksmith, but he took upon his father's values to make a name for himself in his neighbourhood, and upon his mother's curiosity to soon become proficient in the interests and occupations of his kinfolk; when he wasn't producing and dealing in goods, he then charitably took place as an embalmer, out of both respect for the dead and fascination for the humankind. In deed, he learned much in terms of science by studying closely the bodies of the fallen but equally as much in terms of relationship by working as closely with his colleagues.

The languages, especially the dead,
The sciences, and most of all the abstruse,
The arts, at least all such as could be said
To be the most remote from common use,
In all these he was much and deeply read.
— Rt. Hon. George Gordon, Lord Byron FRS, Don Juan^[src]

His most notorious coworker would also be his closest and farthest—unlike names, lives and much else, they would exchange knowledge, experience, feeling. In not knowing much of each other, they still worked as if in symbiosis, as none prevailed between the ideas of the rookie and the technique of the expert; a priest's habitual benediction aside, the embalmers would not know any disruption in their insightful labour and discussion, the latter of which being a very flexible variable, as depending on the fluctuating humours of both partners, one could often find themself to be unrecognizable... But never misunderstood. The apprentice would carefully note and apply his colleague's wise words without much attention for any reciprocation, nor for the future, simply perfecting this occupation and interest of his.

I am very sorry for the imperfections you find in human being; but we must learn to expect but little from them; this is the only security from disappointment. We must receive from them what they are able to give us, as from trees the fruits that they bear. God bears with imperfect beings, and even when they resist his goodness. We ought to imitate this merciful patience and endurance. It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.
— Mgr François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, as attributed to by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen in Selections from the Writings of Fenelon^src

It is worthy of observation, that we are able to discern not only what we already are, but what we may become, to see in ourselves germs and promises of a growth to which no bounds can be set, to dart beyond what we have actually gained to the idea of perfection as the end of our being. [...] This is a fearful as well as glorious endowment, for it is the ground of human responsibility. We have the power not only of tracing our powers, but of guiding and impelling them; not only of watching our passions, but of controlling them; not only of seeing our faculties grow, but of applying to them means and influences to aid their growth. We can stay or change the current of thought. We can concentrate the intellect on objects which we wish to comprehend. We can fix our eyes on perfection, and make almost every thing speed towards it. This is, indeed, a noble prerogative of our nature. Possessing this, it matters little what or where we are now, for we can conquer a better lot, and even be happier for starting from the lowest point. Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important, at the present moment, is that of the self-forming power treasured up in themselves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world. It transcends in importance all our power over outward nature.
— William Ellery Channing, Self-Culture^src

This seemed to work nicely for the two, until the expert started gradually losing his touch, often engaging in fits of intense pain that would incapacitate him, leaving the apprentice to remain lonely in his practice. One day, he simply collapsed in the middle of the priest's visit, lifeless, leaving the two witnesses in shock, confused as to what to may happen in the face of this event. It didn't take long after the priest's departure for him to decide it was time to embalm his colleague. Later—upon removing the left kidney, he would find small, gravelly, sand-coloured rock-like objects inside of it, which he thought could have been the cause of his coworker's pain; inspiring his curiosity, he spent some time examining it. In his precipitation and carelessness the stone fell in the jar where used water is stored, prompting that he recovers it at the bottom. Upon extracting the unscathed material out of the jar, he stands back up to see his fully awakened colleague, looking at him straight in the eye, but soon after fainting out of the utter shock of seeing oneself be embalmed, which left some time for his cut to be carefully closed and his kidney to be dried and jarred for him to take after waking up.

He would not stick around long enough to see that; he had been called upon by higher officials to focus on his smithing activities in support of regal troops as the unrest in Canaan was looking to become a problem in the near future, which it very soon did; convoys from the capital to Syria arrived hastily and went as fast as they had comen, a constant traffic of men and weapons, barging in and out of every corner of Egypt and his own workship incessantly... Until it did stop. He had kept forging, but no one came. Seeking to accomodate his fellows out of solidarity, he simply decided to traverse the Nile and deliver the cargo by himself, using a spear as a solar dial to guide himself whilst attaching a rope to his shoulders in order to drag it all efficiently. In order to reduce the amount of effort put into hauling the cargo it was charged on a small boat of his confection to run along the Nile, with enough space left for a few provisions. At night, being still attached to his cargo, it would drag him and itself along its path for a few. Within three days of following the Nile northwards, stricken with heat and dehydratation, he arrived on a scene of merciless violence that took him aback, a shocking spectacle of sorts: two parties of human beings similar in shape and mind fighting the other with no pity, belligerently spilling blood in an unreasonably brutal fashion, only serving the escalation of tension. It truly seemed surreal from afar, but as he got closer to the scene with a rather morbid curiosity, the snapback into reality was instantaneous as both parties raced towards the weapons—his weapons—even with a palpable fatigue, he took up arms to defend almost instinctively his cargo and affiliates, efficiently using one of his own manufactures to divide and slash through the opposing flock. Although after his own had reapprovisionned, he was left behind to helplessly defend the rest of his convoy from a small contingent as all were trying to regain their formation, until he was finally pushed into the river, striking into his cargo and effectively leaving it to pour the remaining weapons and their fainting smith into the Mediterranean sea, where he saved the last bits of his remaining conciousness to regain his boat, crossing into Yam's territory, before falling asleep to the wind's gentle cradling.

I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.
— Rt. Hon. George Gordon, Lord Byron FRS, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage^[src]

אֲדוֹנִי נָתַן

He was very soon awoken by the abrupt deceleration of his boat, outside of which he curiously drove his hand, just to find out it was not through water that he treaded, but sand. Upon leaving the shore, not without longing for more rest among the crabs, he did not find the strength to drag his ship across, so, in peacefully leaving his animal companions to their diurnal siesta, he left it there by the sea that had surprisingly took good care of it for the time being. Stumbling and bumbling his way eastwards, he would encounter familiar fauna, landscapes, flora, as if he had never left home to begin with, yet it still felt so very far away. Unable to think any straight and pulled down by the pressing weight of slumber, exhaustion, and dehydratation, he decided to lay down and take resource in the surrounding calm. The entropy did not cease for long as, in what felt like the millionth of a second, his mind was startled as he felt a shadow set over him, blocking the Sun over yonder. He looked for the discrepancy, only to catch sight of a woman in the blinding light, studying him with the uncautious yet penetrating gaze of her shining hazel eyes, highlighted alongside the rest of her face as his own were accomodating to this sudden stimulation, to his senses a loving caress similar to the few beams of sunshine flowing through her river of hair, of a red fiercer than all the legions of all the nations in the world. The real, less pictural world came back to life as it seemed she was making an inquiry, but he could not understand. In answering her, he was interrupted when she kept repeating the same word: “Jw-swf, Jw-swf!” Jw-swf... For reasons unknown it felt oddly familiar, but he was not sure—not that it mattered much... Was she calling him? Anyway he did not know how to answer; nothing came out of his mouth. In fact, he was rather unresponsive. She then proceeded to try to drag him: now, it was clear that she wanted him to follow her. So he stood up, and let himself be guided towards civilization as her hand rested upon his arm, and slid over his wrist into his own, as if it melted into his palm. He held on to her as they were zooming through the maze of limestone and sand that was the city she brang him onto, and let go only when they stopped their course and entered one of the structures.

Der Sinn versteht etwas nur dadurch, daß er es als Keim in sich aufnimmt, es nährt und wachsen läßt bis zur Blüte und Frucht. Also heiligen Samen streuet in den Boden des Geistes, ohne Künstelei und müßige Ausfüllungen.
(The mind understands something only insofar as it absorbs it like a seed into itself, nurtures it, and lets it grow into blossom and fruit. Therefore scatter holy seeds into the soil of the spirit, without any affectation of added superfluities.)
— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel, Ideen, as translated by Peter Edgerly Filchow in Lucinde and the Fragments^[src][1]

It was an habitation, a modest one at that, rich not by its expensive furniture and somptuous decorations, but by the memories, the stories told by the lovingly-placed effects; it was an abode he felt comfortable in, having barely even entered. Though their sojourn would not last much—after a brief discussion between the woman and an elderly man, seemingly some sort of guardian of hers, whose look seemed to be glossing over wounds of his he had not been aware of himself, he was invited to stay for the night, and at the crack of dawn, upon leaving the domicile, found her nurturing an ibex, with various commodities set upon it. Thus, they departed eastwards, and walked without end, it seemed, not that it was unfamiliar to him, though here, being constrained to silence suddenly felt much more debilitating, so he thought about the conversation he had witnessed the day prior, the manneurisms, the tone, the delivery, everything that could help understand at least the basics of what she might have said, anything that could help him communicate. An acknowledgement, a greeting, many questions... About him, mostly. Oh, it had struck him: a greeting. “Šɜ-lamˁ,” he utters, “šɜ-lamˁ,” it rings in the wind. She turns around, radiating with surprise and gladness at this first audible word of his. With a smile on her face, she returns the greeting, before concatenating a question, which oddly enough sounded like what he had heard the night before, a farewell—he guessed she was asking about his night, to which he answered positively, yet clumsily. She seemed to understand though, for she was patient in listening, and careful in speaking.

Along their path, he found a strange, large-leaved plant on which were set equally-large green fruits; tempted by this discovery, he approached it and snatched one of them. It seemed ripe, but the flesh of the apple was swollen and small pale spots were all over it; in applying slight pressure to one of the bumps, a viscuous sap oozed from it and started dripping: This was most probably unsafe to eat—it's unnecessary to run the risk either, as they had far enough provisions already.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed. We are indeed so often conversant with one set of objects, and tired out with so many repeated shows of the same things, that whatever is new or uncommon contributes a little to vary human life, and to divert our minds, for a while, with the strangeness of its appearance. It serves us for a kind of refreshment, and takes off from that satiety we are apt to complain of, in our usual and ordinary entertainments. It is this that bestows charms on a monster, and makes even the imperfections of nature please us.
— Joseph Addison, The Spectator n°412^[src]

Upon setting camp, they tried conversing, aiding each other in understanding one another by drawing various shapes on the ground and using some form of body language. “Jw-swf,” that was how she called him, it still resonated as familiar but he wasn't exactly sure why she called him that. Her name was “Arȝˁ-pʰa,” one that sounded natural, and graceful to him—she was also almost as aged as him, and had known a most similar upbringing; despite her young age and unwary appearance, she was a merchant, moving throughout the Philistine pentapolis to sell and retrieve various goods that she would mount on her ibex to travel across, indeed a life of travels and discovery, one quite different from his. All in all, this exchange brought them closer in the hopes that some day, they might finally know no bounds in their communication, but in the meantime, they had to rest in order to depart soon enough to reach their destination at the most optimal time.

No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk;
Then howsoe’er thou speak’st, ’mong other things
I shall digest it.
— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice^src

Later, they would finally enter their destination town, which most definitely felt strange, especially when put against the familiarity of the former city... It seemed as though people and goods flowed in large quantities and directions in a town too small to contain them all—that explained the amount of provisions she was dragging around: it was meant for other people's consumption - or was it? In fact, she was trading her foodstuffs around for items that had a higher value. He stuck with her for the day, learning from it, a day filled with the collection of various amenities, all-the-odder, and “Arȝˁ-pʰa's” verbose chants. And when night came, he piously ate and drank of the knowledge she could share, before carefully extracting, from his own mouth, the ideas that she had inserted in it.

Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.
— Robert Newton Anthony, Knowledge Nirvana^[src]

Over the course of nine days, he started taking his eases with this new life: with the tools and methods of the trade, he was slowly, but steadily forging his own comfort in this new environment—the peoples, the languages, the customs, they grew significantly more understandable, if not charming in some way, even though they seemed so weirdly familiar.

Though, the most insightful of moments weren't exactly the days, but the nights; moments they would be sharing with only one thing to do, to try. Talking to each other was already an effort in itself, but it was worth it. And so, each night became a ritual: He would set sand in a small bowl, light a lamp near it and place them so as to become the centerpiece of the living room, inviting her to have a discussion, to hopefully learn or teach something new from and to the other—and every night, this is exactly what happened. As they went, the conversations lengthened, and it was getting subsequently harder to end them as they delved deeper into the night and deeper into their minds, but, by the time they were over, it was quite mandatory, for at the issue of these days, work became more strenuous and she could clearly not, for her own sake, afford as much time, which incentivized him to make a supplementary effort in virtue of what he was taught to help her trade: for example by leasing her what he had himself produced, creating objects of higher value with the resources she brang him, or ingenuously figuring out tools and methods to organize a more effective production, allowing her to trade more luxurious goods and make more profitable exchanges. While it did allow her to stay longer, as demand for her produce was prosperous enough, she was soon met with more important offers that prompted her to make longer travels more often, unfortunately reverting previous expectations.

Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
— Robert Lee Frost, Directive^[src]

It means 'identically equal' in the mathematical sense. The human cliché. 'This hurts me worse than it does you' has a Martian flavor to it, if only a trace. The Martians seem to know instrinctively what we learned painfully from modern physics, the the observer interacts with the observed simply through the process of observation. 'Grok' means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the process being observed—to merge, to blend, to intermarry, to lose personal identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us as color means to a blind man.
— Robert Anson Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land^[src]

Three, seven, ten days, the trips were usually quite long. This left time for a new sentiment to ripen... He was starting to miss learning, from their conversations, from her—very soon settled a lasting longing to meet her again, when she would come back. “Back in 'Bꜣt-Lˁḥm',” she said; he knew that name... Yes. He did. That was a city in Syria, the region that had been lost to the sea peoples of Canaan, whom he had been warned against and even faced off. Realizing he was in an unfriendly territory, Yusuf persisted in his actions, but not without feeling a certain spike of concern in his heart. One that would be mended whichever nights saw the return of Orp-ha, her presence felt even more agreable after all this time drowning among the mass, or as she would say herself, “the lowest of people for the lowest of cities.” He had gotten better at understanding her, after all it had been a little over two months already, yet they felt like an eternity due to the constant bore and exhaustion. Unfortunately that was about to last a little longer, for after that night she would be gone for another forty days this time—a thought that seemed to haunt them both in their sleep. The following morning, before waving each other goodbye, he was naturally driven to give her a warm embrace as to wish her well on her way, holding her hand tightly—he looked unsure whether or not to let it go, but eventually she was gone in the following minutes.

So he went back to work, but his mind was occupied, busy processing what had happened over these months, it was quite unlike anything he had seen or experienced before, and he wasn't sure how to interpret that. Every day, the heat of the forge would remind him of the warmness of her embrace, the hammer melting in his hand like another hand before it, the chatter of the people would remind him of the song of her trade and the hypnotizing light of the sun would remind him of the burning oil lamp that illuminated his nights as it shone over her hands as they were flowing through the sand, drawing shapes, and spelling out ideas. He thought extensively about how it felt, how it was—in one word—lovely. That was the right word to describe it: it in fact aligned perfectly with the whole situation, as much as he did not necessarily want to hear it or to believe it... He had to tell her.

Can you [feel] the very thing you covet... And secretly fear?
— David Brin, Heaven's Reach^[src]

Now, one couldn't just come up to her and confess all of these thoughts, that would be uncalled for—he wouldn't even know where to look for her—and who knows? Maybe it is rude, perhaps too bold, why not even scary? As a matter of fact, it could very well be a mistake. Oh well. Yusuf then sought in his most loving memories the answers he needed, reminding himself of the person who had loved him most: his mother. The tingling and crashing of metal against metal amidst his innocent daydreams, led him to find a way, an inspiration of sorts. For a time, he revived the artistic spirit of his genitrix by tuning her memorable singing to his own abilities, thence accompanying his wait with long recollections of sweetness. Very soon, these would come to be problematic. Although his music attracted jolly attention around him—and it would soon become ritual for the neighbouring populace to hear it all the way from his residence to his workplace—it gave away his fluency in the Egyptian tongue to some of the more reactionary personalities in the region.

Thankfully, it seemed Orp-ha was back already. Well, Yusuf wouldn't notice that at first, still busy with his routine, but he was soon overtaken with joyful surprise as he felt her hand against his shoulder again. In the moment, he forgot all he thought and worried about. As he turned around though, he was stricken with worry again, although a different kind: as he looked past her, horsebound harassers were incoming, as to prosecute their persecution against the Benjamites. It was kind of usual at some point, but this time he felt targeted. He was targeted. His Egyptianness unveiled to their eyes, he was not welcome among the people of Israel, but more dreadful even, they considered Orp-ha to be plain complicit of a supposed machination, to be “in bed with the demon.” So without any more ado, the two were abducted and taken away to the edge of the Judean land.

Yusuf was stripped from his untold love as to be taken to the nearest waters. Clearly, that wasn't the coast, but those waters were unlike any river or lake, and he would discover that the hard way, as his head was forcefully driven into them, burning his eyes and inflicting great pain upon the tortured's scarred face. Thus, the shock, the tremor, the apprehension of losing everything shifted away from his attention, as his mind becaming obnubilated with the thought of the torments on his pained body being then committed upon Orp-ha. Recklessly seeking to put an end to this whole situation before the unforgivable could happen, Yusuf then latched on to the nearest individual to choke him in those here waters in a literal blind rage, prompting his other executioner to try and break up that fight. A terrible idea, for Yusuf automatically bit whatever came closest to him in his blindness, which happened to be the sob's fingers; his screams giving away his exact position, giving Yusuf an opportunity to take his hands away from his unconscious assailant to the next one's head, pressing his fingers into his eyes as hard as he could while Orp-ha seemingly seized a similar chance to fight off their leader. Though that would not last for long as another contingent of horsemen would plow through the scene, smacking her with great force and charging into the remaining struggle, the sheer force of impact dislocating Yusuf's shoulder and claiming the life of their already quite maimed comrade.

Waking up wasn't pleasant. Not at all in fact: his body was being hurtfully dragged in the sand by the latest horse in the squadron, and upon its back was laid a loosely closed bag containing some of the cohabitants' valuables. Thankfully, Yusuf was able to gather enough force to catch some of the following objects so they could be thrown at the horseman. Out of the bag also came his prized khopesh, which he promptly used to cut the rope binding his feet to the now-uncontrollable horse. Orp-ha, seeing once again an opening in their formation, took a dagger from her captor and punctured a hole through which she ripped into the barrel of the head horse, who came crashing down, taking the latest horse in his fall while the second one managed to evade it. The situation was confusing and stressful but Yusuf knew this, he had to lay it all down first before doing anything: two horses down and one dead. Two horsemen, one badly injured, and... The final horse coming back? That was another charge, but his experience of Egyptian warfare was a net advantage: he locked his weapon onto the horse's pastern, effectively severing its footing and causing yet another fall and grave injury for the delinquent mounting the animal. Seeing them incapable to fight, he turned to Orp-ha, who had taken her dagger to their leader's throat. The fight was over but, rushing on towards each other, the two could not help but expunge their pain in tears, holding one another tight as they had comen so close to never being able to again.

He had never been much of a warrior in the first place, but all of this blood... That was the first time for her, her first experience even hurting another being. This selflessness in putting herself in danger and going against her fundamental nature out of solidarity only consolidated the respect he had for her. He was sad in having even the smallest part in this emotionally distressful happening for her, but also immensely proud of what she accomplished. He felt not like looking for words in the face of what had just transpired, although instinctively the feelings he felt for her came out of his mouth anyway. It's never that bad once it's out. It's never bad at all when the other feels the same. Rather than to think about the consequences so soon, they spent the night in the desert, with the few amenities left to them, and for the first in a long time, together.

Characteristics

Physical Appearance

Arguably the first thing to note about Iosepp is his size; indeed, in spite of his weak structure and slender form, his tallness and straight posture can be enough to turn many away from his equally uncomforting face of which the mildly dark colour contours the rugged surface upon which are placed remarkable features, such as a high-bridged curvaceous yet strong nose connecting with deep almond brown eyes of which the faint gaze conveys myths of its own when not described and counted with his large mouth through which echoed screams of pain and through which were heeded creeds, deeds, and myriads of warnings as numerous and olden as the arm-long hair swaying all the way to his chest, where it meets with his equally voluminous beard.

Your face, my thane, is a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time.
— William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth^[src]

Even though not especially beefy, Iosepp does have a rather wide thorax and shoulders upon which rest long arms with especially notable veins and discoloured spots, punctuated with hands scraped and damaged by their usage, and equally discoloured fingertips and short nails, much unlike his legs, tried and fined by walking over distances of Biblical proportion.

Our bodies often do not fit us, but caricature and satirize us. Thus short legs which constrain a man to short mincing steps, are a perpetual insult and contumely to him. In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs, the trunk is carried along almost motionless. Only the face is well alive, amongst our people: the trunk and limbs have an inferior and subsidiary life, as if only supporters of the head. The head is finished, the body only blocked. In Kentucky, in Carolina, we often see a body which is also alive.
— Ralph Waldo Emersone, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1847-1848^src

His vestimentary customs are, comparatively, timely: he adapts to the technology of the epoch without really following any trends other than his own traditional choice—his clothing is generally very rudimentary apart from unique pieces and memorabilia that hold significant importance or that convey a specific idea, thus developing his own idiomatic subculture rather than agregating others together.

Personality

Iosepp is an innate strategist: his calm nature as always helped him keep composure and stay relaxed, often keeping his true feelings within—his strong neuroticism make him a very apt and intellectual listener, confident and speaker, but also a meticulous planner, diplomat and even manipulator. Throughout his life though, he has rather left his mental potential aside, focusing on a more modest lifestyle, a humble way of thinking, sometimes dreading that his intellect would ostracize him from his own surroundings and make him more of a villain than much else.

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
— William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Third^[src]

This hidden potential and villany of his turned sour with reject, trial, characteristics that have only increased ever since his loss of mortality, making him repressively calculating, cruel, and domineering—features of which he is aware and conciously fights back, though making other uses out of it, such as protectiveness, neutrality and prevoiance. His self-consciousness, driven by a thirst of knowledge and achievement, is not only his greatest asset but also his most terrible companion: indeed in being aware of even his most hidden traits, he developed a growing psychoticism, an interior enemy that needed to be contained as effortfully as possible, relegating its intrusiveness to only his psyche rather than his actual course of actions.

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.

A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought evolved being, for such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect he ceases to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.
— James Allen, As a Man Thinketh^[src]

Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
— King Solomon of Israel, Book of Proverbs, as translated in the King James Version of the Bible.^[src]

In rejecting his own nature, Iosepp fed an extraverted facade of sympathy and comprehensiveness which allowed him to integrate himself into the ever-changing society even given his already quite extraordinary self. Interiorizing his deepmost character made him feel quite oblivious though, oblivious to much of what makes humanity; indeed even being plagued by a low self-esteem and a socially perfectionist drive, he values faults and imperfection as utmost important defining traits of the living being, hence voluntarily disinhibiting some of his impulses and submitting to a more akratic behaviour.

Sir: There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.
— George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman^[src]

A great loss of this constant internal struggle is his sentiments, succumbing to alexithymia, a sort of immutability, of stoicism of the mind, rendering him impermeable to much moodiness. Later on in his life, it provoked a very prominent and overwhelming desire of a higher-order, the need for volition, the appetite for the expression of primal feelings of envy, anger, love, among others, one that has rapidly gnawed at the back of one's mind enough to induce the sharing of this primal instinct with his repressed “evilness”—condemning Iosepp to seek in relationships only the most emotionally, socially and intellectually resilient of colleagues, friends, and lovers, the stronger the relationship, the more resistant one had to be to the pain he knew he could and most certainly would inflict upon them.

I made him swear he'd always tell me nothing but the truth.
I promised him I never would resent it.
No matter how unbearable, how harsh, how cruel. How come
He thought I meant it?
— Judith Viorst, How Did I Get To Be 40 & Other Atrocities^[src]

This leads to the growth of his longing for freedom, pushing all limits as to make even the most irrational of choices just for the sake of being free to do so. This impredictability and inlaid madness of his make for him to be perceived in a myriad of different ways ranging from fear to admiration, though they are rooted in more than meets the eye, namely, a moral dilemma, for his need to be free impedes on his interaction with society, and, being aware that he can never be fully responsible of himself as long as there is an interaction to be conducted, he chose to violate his own liberty for the sake of others. Indeed, he needs to care about other people in order to control himself, as not to unleash his long-neglected demons upon a world he knows hostile to them.

We may distinguish both true and false needs. "False" are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the ability (his own and others) to recognize the disease of the whole and grasp the chances of curing the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness. Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs.

Such needs have a societal content and function which are determined by external powers over which the individual has no control; the development and satisfaction of these needs is heteronomous. No matter how much such needs may have become the individual's own, reproduced and fortified by the conditions of his existence; no matter how much he identifies himself with them and finds himself in their satisfaction, they continue to be what they were from the beginning-products of a society whose dominant interest demands repression.
— Herbert Macruse, One-Dimensional Man^[src]

Now will I shew myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is, more knave than fool.
— Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta^[src]

For when he does indeed, no man would ever be able to even hope to contain them with as much success as he used to, and no man could endure such a sudden burst of such bitter rawness, not even Iosepp himself, in fact.

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere^[src]

All in all, none of that mattered anyway, for his eternity doom him to forever know nothing but loss. The loss of company, the loss of friendship, the loss of growing old with someone, that would be the main constituent of his life, and he's aware of that, which pushes even further his lack of care for sophistication, hence his often impolite, sometimes so-called disrespectful attitude. He has all the time in the universe and the next to build strong relations, and others don't—those are only formalities, and are effectively useless. All that lasts throughout his life are objects, memorabilia of a begone time that he cherishes as it reminds him of moments he had had already given much importance to.

Mens regnum bona possidet.
(An honest mind possesses a kingdom.)
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Paraphernalia

Powers

Immortality

The most sacred gift and curse of the Holy Grail, eternal life; which guarantees that any of its beneficiaries won't die in their bed, it greatly impacts Iosepp's personality as he is now bound to experience everyone he will ever know begone and everything that he will ever live will keep repeating until the end of time, but he can be freed of it by dying of an unnatural death or by having someone take it from him by drinking from the chalice instead.

Self-Sustenance

From the Holy Grail's ability stems a completion of one's physiological needs, in other words, none may then need to ever eat, drink, sleep or breath again whilst under the effect of the cup's essence, nevertheless they may do so, but there would be no rhyme or reason to it. Since the Grail's water essentially takes on the role of blood, a beneficiary of it could virtually be bled dry and theoretically live, though organs, nerves and muscles would still be as fragile as a regular person's.

Disease Immunity

By definition, the Grail thus allows for one's immune system to be strong enough to be free of any diseases—there are no known limits to the extent of this immunity, but it has no effect on poisons or toxins.

Alternate Form

The aforementioned abilities make for a superhuman level of concentration, which, over centuries of meditation, left Iosepp lost in his own mind, where he has personnificated his own soul, filled with the remorse, the suffering, the anger of his tortured existence, that feeds off all memories, happenings and possibilities of torment from his psyche. To refrain it from suddenly bursting and assuming control over him, Iosepp must relax, meditate, or, sometimes, collaborate with it. It may appear as an intangible, black, humanoid smoke and only in rapid successions, it is not a separate being but an extension of Iosepp himself, it may also trick opponents into seeing Iosepp where he is not. It may also briefly manifest physical activity such as attacks or mecanical movements, hereby delivering consequent force itself.

Super Reflexes

The extended awareness of his environment permits for an almost precognitive reaction to his surroundings—a pedestrian's steps, a driver's blinks, an enemy's blows, these and much more may be perceived almost instantly and procurate a deeper insight on the outcome of what may happen next - only through deduction.

Empowerment

Through meditation or trial, Iosepp may embrace and channel a number of fluctuating feelings in order to bestow more power unto himself. It allows him to overcome himself constantly; the energies that define him are the following:

Patience

Concentration being the main pillar here, time must not be a concern, in order to focus only on what matters, this also make his trials more spiritual than physical or psychological—it can render him notably weak if confusion steeps in or if he becomes disinterested in his current action, this is why even with his supernatural capacities, he can be outmatched.

Anger

The most primitive and overwhelming sentiment that's taken place over the years, that he uses to feed his unsatiable alter ego, whom he may come to arms with to unleash a rarely-seen wrath, and an extremely dangerous one at that, for when he is wroth, there is no friend or fiend, but only underbringing or demise: hence, the best way to evade his ire is to stop fighting and hope not to meet with a painful doom.

Combat

An experience, a trial on all scales, a perfect manifestation of all that really constitutes Iosepp, whose chivalrous attitude brings him to it more than often; it pushes him to a state of trance that allows for the spiritual process to take place much faster, but the polyvalence of this ordeal makes it so that learning is hard and mistakes are hardly ever permitted, making it all the harder to evolve from.

Age

Throughout the years, as he acknowledges his power, his self-comprehension increases, allowing him to reconcile slightly more with his psyche, and providing less of an inner turmoil to take up his focus.

Regeneration

The continuously flowing water of the Holy Grail in his body helps him recover from most wounds, though he may not regain a lost limb or survive a wound that is too grave, his healing factor is slightly enhanced but it is not derisory either.

Geriatric Perfection

The blessing of the Holy Grail and constant training allow for Iosepp to not be affected by his own age, and to not be damaged in any way by the passing of time, which pauses his aging where he drank from the cup.

Abilities

Enhanced Durability

Iosepp fought for almost as long as he exists, and given his aforementioned powers, it is only logical that his training and experience allow for a much higher resistance to any obstacle.

Climatic Adaptation

From the deceitfully hot and dry weather of the Sahara to the cripplingly cold and harsh winters of Siberia, Iosepp has seen it all and is capable of handling such climates. Though, if placed underwater or out of the atmosphere, he will probably die (because of the pressure, or lack thereof;) for he is not impermeable to all environmental risk—likewise, the Grail's water can freeze and boil at certain extreme temperatures, though by that time his organs will most probably have failed anyway.

Investigation

Iosepp's always had the reputation to be silent and observant, and it's no lie—he is capable of examining his surroundings like very few others can, but his major flaw is that he collects a lot of crime evidence, which can greatly obstruct connex legal affairs for he generally takes the most interesting pieces of evidences as tokens of oddity and/or for further investigation.

Tracking

His experience also makes him able to track any person or beast without the use of forensics, just by using deduction and previously found evidence, though he does know when to make usage of forensic and informatic knowledge when needed as well.

Intimidation

His important stature by itself plays a lot in the art of intimidation, but over the years, Iosepp has amassed some of the widest understanding of humanity in its own history, meaning he can rather tactfully manage his assets to engage in psychological warfare against anyone who bars his road—some of which include the ambient environment, traps, carefully-measured lighting, invasion of living space and his spiritual manifestation.

Meditation

Iosepp is also capable of concentrating to achieve a state of trance; meditation takes a long time to master, but having all the time in the world and the next at his disposal, that is not a problem. It allowed him to embrace every single one of his powers and abilities and increase his capacity in all fields.

Tactical Analysis

As such, he is able to enter a state of fast critical thinking in order to examinate any type of situation, threatening or not, it notably allows him to predict a next move or to use his environment at will, it essentially renders his adversaries' combat speed either void or vital.

Gymnastics

Speedy maneuvers being within his range, as even though his stature could persuade otherwise, his flexibility is quite an important parameter, allowing him to conquer most obstacles and move more freely—and unlike most free runners, his knowledge of the actual terrain and obstacles comes into place, giving him a notable advantage even against a better trained opponent.

Fighting

Iosepp is a very proficient martial artist, capable of fighting in a wide array of situations; resourceful and cunning, he knows where and how to swiftly shift the odds in his favour—even though his maneuvers are mostly spontaneous, he has synthesized his own proper fighting style, named “Dòuken,” to serve as a firm basis for regular encounters, it is divided in multiple forms.

Jan

Jan is a form focused on hand-to-hand melee, timed delivery and distance—it's most conventional yet as is is rather efficient and hard to counter due to its comprising of numerous feints (cancel, tinnitu, blink, shift) and switching maneuvers, passing from one mode to another. The modes are as follow:

• Ji

Influenced by and similar to Savate, Taekkyon, Chángquán, Bāfǎquán, 52 Blocks, Hēihǔquán and Systema. Ji is generally the starting mode; it is mostly defensive and engages in all three distances (closed, mid, open) though which it rapidly switches using swift slides and switches through different modes for a brief amount of time or stances, some of which are very modulable and work in conjunction with setups for techniques based on dissuading the offender through abrupt attacks on pressure points and weak body parts in order to destabilize the enemy and inflict them with a moderate amount of pain. Its most notable characteristic is immutability: essentially, when a technique or a combo is executed, the body stays fixed in the end position in wait of receiving the next blow in order to intercept it and unmatch enemy expectations.

• Shuan

Influenced by and similar to Muay Thai, Boxing, Chitō-ryū, Yǒngchūn, Kajukenbo, Duǎnquán and Tiěshān. Shuan is another mode generally used when starting, that is, given the right circumstances; most of the time it is set into motion through a switch from Ji, it serves as a more violent and straightforward alternative used to either dissuade or subdue fully the enemy, this is the ataractic method. It is only used at mid and closed distance; though the goal of mid techniques are to restrain the distance as much as possible, through setup strikes, stances or parries in order to achieve the creation of an open cavity in enemy defense, which means to break it in such a way as to be able to rush freely and land as many strikes as possible, and induce maximum pain. Its most notable characteristics are echo and rhythm: essentially, echo is the idea of making the most noise as possible, making the hits sound very blunt and focusing on making the adversary scream, in order to possibly drive away any other offenders tempted to take part in the conflict—which can work conjointly with rhythm, which is quite strictly the usage of rhythmic sequences in the fight, notably to deceive the enemy by feinting (shift, blink) or to enlarge the psychologic power of echo.

• Liu

Influenced by and similar to Bāguàzhǎng, Yīngzhǎopài, Tàijíquán, and Zuìbāxiānquán. Liu is a much calmer approach, generally used when Iosepp manages to understand the patterns of the ongoing fight, hence later on—it's based mostly on wide, fluid movements made to destabilize and disorient concurrence, notably using shoulders and hips in order to control all centers of gravity involved, which makes it a game of equilibrium, whilst are landed whips, slaps and kisses alike. That constitutes the first phase, alienation; once it is completed, the enemy will act in according opposite manner to the calm temper of this mode, which then strays in two ways, two methods: displacement and discontinuation, which consist respectively of either embracing the momentum of the raging marauder as to grab a limb, bone, muscle, or nerve and then violently displace it, hence incapacitating the opponent, or instead meeting this momentum with unexpected and sudden brutal force in order to turn any burst of adrenaline on its head.

Wafan

Wafan is a form focused on weapon usage, modulability and diversity—It sees weapons as an extension, an attachment to one's body more than a separate thing; it thus prescribes precision and offers a basis for most weapons; that is, knuckles and hidden blades are taken into account by Jan whereas firearms are seen as separate from this martial system altogether.

• Hake

Hake is a mode thought for the khopesh, in conjunction with another khopesh, a shield or nothing; it is to be used notably on the head, traps and shoulders, the other-hand paraphernalia taking care of what concerns defense from the other parts of the body—even though it is now a subset of the system, and one that would seem quite incomplete at that, it is important to keep in mind that it is the most ancestral form of all, even preceding the most primitive styles of his. Its ancient focus is to be compared with Duellem's swift death mechanic, prompting vital damage in the least amount of effort, which it still uses but this time as part of its most important characteristic, hostage: the point of it is to submit the victim to Iosepp's will, as to bargain for information, reddition (especially in the case of a fight involving multiple parties) or other various things, which can be done by enclosing them in a mortal lock (a lock that can't be escaped without a risk of certain death,) breaking them psychologically, or, in respect to the manners of old, physically, hereby causing a mortal wound making him the only person who could possibly sustain the victim, yet for a still limited amount of time. Aside from that though, Hake uses the convenient shape of the khopesh to grab opponents and their limbs, granting protection against punches or kicks, and using modernized olden techniques in order to deal a massive amount of damage, notably in tearing the muscles. Its main technique also serves any bladed weapon.

• Klinge

Influenced by and similar to the Codex Wallerstein, Tàijíjiàn and Fior di Battaglia. Klinge is a duel-based mode, founded on confrontation and disarming more than any other style; it relies mostly on stick weapons such as staves, swords or maces, the latter are less used because they are less propice for this specific mode. Keeping an open (though wider than it giving it uses larger range) distance is key here, as it allows to prepare a correct defensive maneuver or even a counter-attack using halfswording techniques or turns. It works in conjunction with the next mode, which is more likely to be switched towards from this one.

• Swert

Influenced by the German school of swordsmanship, la Verdadera Destreza, Wǔdāngdāo, El Matrag and Hankumdo. Swert, usually taking place after Kline, stands on its own as a mode similar to Shuan, yet efficient in its own right; even though the stick weapons constitute a sizeable focus of the art, the focus is placed on the variability of its usage hence taking into account all melee weapons. Its goal is to incapacitate and hurt as much and as swiftly as possible, hence exploiting to its maximum extent any open cavity. Its base resides on Hake's primal principles, and Germanic war techniques, making it intrinsically different from its akin mode.

Duellem (full-blown aggression)

• Crudam (brutalization)
• Voluntatem (mercy)
• Animam (no-return)

Weapon Improvisation

Iosepp can use his surroundings as a weapon remarkably well; his analysis makes him able to render any element in his fighting ground lethal, and as long as there's a ground to fight on, there's still something to be scared of.

Weapon Proficiency

Even though common objects might be funny to use, real weapons still are necessary yet they require a certain amount of skill to use, which Iosepp has: Firearms, blades, artillery, there is none to can't be used against an enemy.

Polyglottism

From having gained first-hand experience by living throughout numerous countries during numerous epochs and having been given the time to study deeply, he has amassed extensive knowledge of the following official languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Ge'ez, Berber, Sardinian, Corsican, Greek language, Latin, Provençal, Francoprovençal, Catalan, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Upper and Lower Sorbian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, Mongolian, Mandarin, Cantonese Korean, Japanese, Ainu, Hawaiian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Scots, Caribbean creoles, and Xhosa.

Timeline

12th Century BC

• c. 1197 BC: Iosepp is born.
• c. 1197-1182 BC: Iosepp's upbringing.
• c. 1182 BC: Iosepp moves to Memphis, capital of the New Kingdom.
• c. 1182-1177 BC: Iosepp's life on Memphis.
• c. 1177 BC: Iosepp is involved in the Battle of the Delta, resulting in an Egyptian victory, and Iosepp leaving the New Kingdom, with his boat named “Iosep,” which later wrecked upon the shores of Philistia, where he meets Orpah, who accompanies him to Ashdod, then the City of David, where he will then live.
• c. 1174 BC: Iosepp declares his love for Orpah, is accused of witchcraft, tortured as such and escapes, killing his offenders and fleeing with his wife, through the Sinai peninsula, to Ethiopia.
• c. 1173 BC: Orpah dies delivering their son, Iosepp finds the Holy Grail, gains its powers, names his son Yered, and swears to make a good man out of him, after embalming and burying the child's mother.
• c. 1173-1143 BC: Iosepp raises Yered, and builds a temple dedicated to his blood legacy.
• c. 1143 BC: Iosepp leaves Axum, walks to the Mediterranean shores.
• c. 1111 BC: Iosepp waits.

5th Century AD

• c. 476/481: Iosepp emerges, moves to Nicæa.

Gallery

Contextual References

The woman who inspired Orpah, Elizabeth Siddal

The painting that inspired Orpah, The Damsel of the Sanct Græl

The inscriptions found on Saint Philomena's grave

The painting that inspired the arms' hauling on the Nile: Towing on the Nile by Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Author's Note

Finally, I'm resurrecting this project which I held very dearly for a long time—my hommage to the team of Comic Crossroads, and with it my work of autofiction; it will be hard for me not to following the traces of my past work, but I shall try my best to get to a result I like. I don't want to disappoint anyone, but many points in the story of the first Iosepp will probably be reused here as well - speaking of which, I'm very happy to be able to use ideas I had previously scrapped, they ended up being very useful to the development of my character, and I hope my passion will be the same, if not greater. I would also like to restore my word on the older version as well, so, for those who haven't seen the first version, here's what you need to know of it.

“As you might already have noticed, this page means a lot to me, it's evident. First, it is a work of autofiction, which I have never tried, but you can easily understand how easy it is to get inspired when you talk about yourself, in a way. Secondly, Crossroads is a project I've been working on for a long time, actually, way before the Weekly Frenchy Talk, which is a fucking disaster, by the way. And I think what blows my mind about it is that I like to share knowledge with people, I just find that the best experience I can possibly have, and this is basically years of personal research, and thousands of years of human history that populates this page, and I don't think there's any way for me to be more proud of this concept. So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, or are at least satisfied, I sadly can't write as good as I'd like to. You may also see some references to pages that do not exist yet. That is also normal, years of planning also mean loads of writing.”

What I like about this character is that allows me to express thoughts I've had for years, and to share something, share my understanding of culture and history, in a way, and because it makes me more able to speak freely and personally without delving too far either. I didn't want to write autofiction to boost myself, or to tell my uninteresting life, I'm trying to create something out of a real sentiment and out of a real passion for what I'm doing. Obviously, I may not do the better choices, and my execution probably won't change much from the older version, but know that even though it may seem a little redundant, or unsatisfying, I'm at least trying my best to not repeat myself. So, to whomever sees this; I hope I can share my feelings with you. — FrenchTouch

If any of you have any questions about what I'm going to do this time, feel free to ask them, I will answer those here.

Notes and References

Trivia

• Iosepp is a work of autofiction, meaning it is referential to its own author, in this case, FrenchTouch.
  • The idea of making autofiction was inspired by RoninTheMasterless' first Knight Owl.

Feedback

This keeps getting better and better.
— Draft227

Questions

• Why a new version of Iosepp?

The first version of Iosepp relied too much on the fanfiction in which the entire Crossroads series was anchored, and I've deleted it hot-headedly and thus, without thinking much about it, but as I look back at it, I can see how I could have potentially ported it to an original universe, but I decided to re-do it entirely, and I frankly don't regret it - to be fair, I already view this version as much superior than any other work of mine here.

• It sucks shit.

That's not a question. you unpolite snotwad

• What is quantum philosophy?

I have to admit my rambling about it in the references' section isn't very great, so here's a more concise definition: Quantum philosophy is a branch of philosophy involving “impossible” debates, dilemmas, and other principles that can be submitted, transmitted, and discussed without directly confronting it, it's concretely the study of philosophical elements otherwise inexplicable or forever-ongoing in common philosophy. The reason why I call it quantum philosophy is because it's basically the same principle as quantum mechanics. Note that it's something I've made up and that has not been recognized by anyone in the thinking community, so it holds no technical weight, but it's the best way I can describe it.

• Isn't making such a character very pretentious?

I can understand the possible complaint about that—after all, Iosepp is pretty invincible and there are arguments going against autofiction as a whole, so I do imagine that it might not be for everyone to read about a character like that. Personally though, I think that being inspired by yourself leads to pretty interesting outcomes, for example, I don't think I could have ever come up with half the shit in his History if I didn't have a link with these fields before. Not to mention I'm also inspired by what I am not, a thing that Iosepp represents as well, indeed, I'm trying to write him as I would write anybody else, and I think I'm doing a commendable job at it, of course, if you know me a little, you're gonna recognize the similarities between him and I, but he also has similarities with a lot of people, and is even inspired by a lot of people, legends, and other various shit, but since the base of the character is based on myself, it can be a little disorientating, I recognize that. So, to answer concretely to the question, I don't really know, but I'm trying my best to please my public.

• Wasn't the Ancient Egypt idea scrapped?

Yeah, it was.

• Why the Holy Grail?

I read way too much Templar history. Also played way too much Indiana Jones on DOS. Aside from that, I thought it would be a very interesting thing to implement in a story—the idea came to me while I was studying the historical and religious patrimony in the Alpes-Maritimes.

• Why Joseph?

It's one of the most popular names and has the most variants. I couldn't find any name that was original but still made sense, so I went with that, which makes sense from an historical point of view, which is nice.

• Why so many external references?

There are two answers to this questions—one completes the other, so here goes it: These references are there to give supplementary information to be understood in order to fully appreciate what I'm writing, for example if you don't know how social classes are like in Ancient Egypt you're gonna have as bad a time to understand as I will to write something you can understand, so instead of excessively focusing on these details, I'm leaving the facts out there to be read up on, whilst on a comic book format you can always show with images, but here I can't so I have to make sure that what you imagine, even if proper to you, follows at least the skeleton of the story. All in all I feel that a good paraphrase would be that these references do not only complete the character but also construct your own perception of him, I would see that physically work out as a light beam, a timeline, a quill's sway, a seemingly endless one at that, shining through a prism, the story, which breaks the light down and refracts it into other prisms, all of these prisms, these characters, these events, happenings, bits of reality, they all refract this signal differently and in all directions, but they would be positioned in such a way that the point where all of these prisms' effects join is Iosepp, a spherical mirror inside of which resides a bleeding heart, the reflection that is only a part of him is what you will see more about him, him and every other human, actually, your brain is hard-wired to think that way, yet it's only so few of what he is—but it is still him.

Commentary

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THE END

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Crossroads Universe
Crossroads Cast
Carlos Kinard • Dante Winsor • David Miranda • Drake Gibson • Eiji Watanabe • Ian Maya • Iosepp • Jack Aaij • Jacques Worther • Jasmine Rosejoy • Mandy Waller • Mario Barrios • Nick Rixon • Oliver Barnes • Rafael Belinda • Ronnie Allen • Simon Mason • Tadarius Terrence • Ted Sala • Wiliam Lawton • Yan Galán
Other Stories	Collaborators	Related
El Paquete Quemando • One-Shots • Para Rehe Onáva • Rapunkel • Untitled Drama Series	Bluehunter16* • Draft227* • FrenchTouch* • RoninTheMasterless* • Techno Bacon*	Comics • Movies • Series • Video Games Locations • Residents • Backstage
Other Realities
BH-Multiverse* • Earth-2702* • Earth-5888* • Earth-619* • Earth-Better • Masterless Multiverse*
This article has been written by FrenchTouch, and licensed under CC-BY-SA.
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