Portrait of the Mind

Writing in progress - 9/28/2024 Updated again on - 2/2/2025 Characters so far Past -Cideuos the main character who one day paints the portrait and breaks his bargain with the gods -Ardeseus the cult leader covered in dirty white robes, later he will reveal himself to be a broker of demise and meaning or Courtier de disparition et de sens Present -Saper the Harvard professor of Theology and Philosophy, his study is the meaning of meaning, though when his student challenges him after class he goes down a rabit hole and tries to uncover a mysterous painting that no one can describe but promises answers to his calling -The soon the be named student, who starts the cascade of events leading to this madness Running ideas the first chapter will be Cideous learning to paint in this Roman cult. He will unknowingly make a deal with the Gods and break his end of the bargain. The punishment will be that the artwork will be cursed and anyone who views it will lose their mind. Cideous will be the best artist on earth that no one will ever know about. The next chapter brings us to the dark ages, where a group of French knights are commissioned by the Church to hunt down the painting and bring it back. This where the name of Courier de disparition et de dens comes from. The knights are driven to madness and bring the covered canvas to an old french monestary in the country side. Armies come to find the canvas and deliver on the broken promise that continues to plague everyone surrounding the painting. Still, no one has laid eyes or uncovered the canvas. The silk tarp still draped in dirt. The professor in the "modern" timeline, will be a pessimistic professor whose studies focus in philosophy and theology. A student in his class will push him to challenge his own thesis on meaning. Soon he will find a hidden archive in the Harvard library that discusses an ancient painting that holds the answers. He cannot find any indication of where the artwork may be. He spends his career trying to find this painting so he can discover what the true meaning of the world is. He will eventually uncover the original cult and soon his quest towards madness will lead him to the decrepit temple that Cideous learned to draw the infernal painting. He will convince his student who cast the dye of this journey to go into the temple. The student will not return and Saper will go in looking for him. Standing in the room will be an emaculate and ornate room filled with marble and ominous red stained glass illuminating the gold accents throughout the room. Figures in white robes covered in dirt will be standing around a canvas covered in silk tarp. The student will be on sitting on a stool in front of the canvas, making no movement or sound as though he is frozen in time. Saper will approach his student ignoring the robed figures, and grab his shoulder. Then the figures ask Saper to uncover the canvas and peer into meaning. Saper will be overcome with his desire for curiousity and meaning, pushing his student aside, and as he uncovers the canvas, the story will go blank with a dark page. The writing so far:

Chapter Past

In Ancient Rome “do ut des” echoed through the halls of every temple. The saying was simple, I give so that you might give. This was not just any saying though, but instead the life blood of an ancient religion that predates spirits and gods themselves. Artists would pray to whichever entity that would give them an ear, hoping to bring fortune and name to their family. Cideuos was a young man in the capital, his family held no name and no honors. His brothers were deemed to weak to be legionaries, and his sisters were married off into foreign farms to toil their life away. His parents, short and thin of stature, worked in ammonium baths cleaning the woven silks of the senate. Cideuos, crafty in his thought, would steal silver doubloons from his parents’ task master. Using all of his new found allowance, he bought his way into a local art class hosted at the decrepit temple on the far side of the capital. His journey that first morning was arduous, his worn out slippers barely cushioned his stride through the cobblestone streets. As he approached the temple, the light seemed to strike the west facing wall in a dancing array, as if the sun could not decide how to illuminate. The stone work, falling apart at the seems, was done in a haphazard manner. Even the stained glass portraying what once illustrated the spirits of the temple, was washed out and shattered. Walking through the threshold, a gust of icy wind crept up Cideuos’s neck, elevating each follicle. A ragtag group of young men sat on wooden stools with frames wrapped in goat skin strewn throughout the temple. A man in dirt covered robes towered over the seated men. “Welcome” he spoke with bravado, “this is the art of the mind, and here you will explore the depths of your machinations.” An outstretched hand graced Cideuos as he paused before grabbing the man just before the elbow. The Roman handshake the legionaries would call it. “I’m excited to start the class” Cideuos timidly exclaimed, “I’ve always had a passion for painting and want to learn from the best.” “We start small here, and learn the basics.” The man paused, “Soon we will dive into divine art, as all my students before you have. By the way, my name is Ardeseus, I have seemed to get ahead of myself.” The man turned as though his body was apart under his robe, and Cideuos knew to follow not far behind. Guided by the man, Cideuos found his way to a stool that looked as though it had not felt a warm soul since the dawn of time. "This is where you will delve" Ardeseus spoke in a commanding tone. Cideuos lowered himself onto the stool and scanned over the entire white canvas in front of him. The canvas glisened in dancing light that grasped onto his inner being like tha of an icy claw.

Chapter The Courier

Chapter Present

Meaning in our world is a loaded word. If we dissect the word we realize how hard it is to truly conceptualize what meaning means, and especially the absence of meaning. Dr. Aiden Saper, a young professor of philosophy and theology at Harvard University has spent much of his life trying to define where the concept of meaning came from. The year is 1993, a flurry of shimmering white snow blows through the quad outside Dr. Saper’s lecture hall. Dr. Saper stares out the window as the hour hand strikes twelve, the droves of young intellectuals stand in unison to scurry to their next classes. Just as Dr. Saper began drifting into thought, a young man approached the front desk. “Dr. Saper, I have a question about the topic we discussed in lecture.” said the young man Saper looked up at the young man, his dress coat sagged over his tall frame. “My name is Jonathan, we’ve never officially met as I’ve always sat near the back of the lecture hall. Though, I was wondering what you mean when you don’t understand the meaning of meaning?” the young man nervously sputtered out. Dr. Saper’s shoulder’s began drifting downward as a sigh slowly let out. His gaze drifted back towards the window before wandering back to Jonathan. “Ok” said Dr. Saper, “where do we begin with this question.” The answer seemed so obvious with his years of research and background knowledge.