"Rock him off" and "Cash him in" are both phrases used to describe murder, or at least acts likely to lead to death, in demonic idiom. The one that most fits — or so I was told through the grapevine — is, “They popped a cork on you.” Regardless, murder by any other name is murder all the same, the only difference among them being the circumstance, occasion or intent…
Although I have all-but-abandoned the blog in favor of other ventures, which aim to be far more substantial (read, tangible), I still find keeping a journal of significant life experiences sound practice. Even still, my preference for keeping my thoughts to myself are sometimes supplanted by the magnanimity of a given circumstance. So, instead, I share — for better or for worse.
One such circumstance (or, “an affair to remember,” as demons say) is the subject of this post. Before I get into the particulars, let me describe in a word the threshold a circumstance must exceed in order to become share-worthy: my murder. But, why share, even though? You tell me. I know why that helped in the past, but I can’t say for sure whether it will help in the future. Only those with whom I share can say with any specificity why sharing was an availing counter-maneuver to a deadly situation.
That’s not to say I have no control over the outcome in its entirety. Sharing can make a mess out of a soup sandwich, as my dead grandfather would likely still say all the time were he as talkative as he used to be. There are nuances between narrative and audience that make it a good choice or a bad one, and the line between them is very fine. There is also the weight of a particular narrative in proportion to the sum of all of your life’s narratives to consider.
Consider just a few of the questions one must carefully evaluate to this end: Will anyone care? Is there anyone capable of acting, even if they cared? Would I exacerbate the problem I now face by exposing the attempt (I mean, what if I ‘must’ve been bad in their eyes?’) Could saying anything about it expose me to derision, in that would I make myself look like someone people want to kill?
Although not an exhaustive list of considerations, the point is well-made: the aftermath of survival is tough and tricky, fickle and disappointing, distracting and exhausting...
Knowing, then, that it behooves one to take great care in the sharing of their life narrative, and knowing just how hard it is to leverage the benefits of sharing for continued survival, I sought as much advice and guidance as I can muster in the process. It is the proper foundation for success. The Bible says:
Without counsel purposes are disappointed: But in the multitude of counsellors they are established. [Proverbs 15:22 KJV]
Unfortunately, daredevils and death-defying volunteers are now at a premium just as mich as they were a decade ago when I started this blog, so I was forced to conscript ChatGPT (specifically, using the Creative Writing Coach assistant template) to explore ways to present to you the story of my would-be murder:
The results were about as much of a failure and the attempt was desperate — or, were they? You decide. Here is the wisdom of its counsel, which I filtered through the idiomatic description provided by a witness-I-can’t-speak-of, which was nothing more than this: “They popped a cork on you.”
NOTE | I maintain an evolving collection of idiom (or, “tongue of design,” as demons say) of demons and their human counterparts [see Demonic Idiom; see also Factoids].
