#abby's little fairy wings are everything to me

[murmel-malt]

An Eros & Psyche inspired Abrogon piece for the wonderful @emilykaldwen <3

This was born from a discord convo with Nat almost half a year ago. I have been working on this on and off ever since and now it is finally done! BEHOLD!

[thelordstears]

Oh look, more fuckin’ writing, who woulda thunk it????

"There's no heroes nor villains in this shattered mind of mine. Just phantoms that dance in my headspace and leave a haunting echo of what never was.” - Elijah Vanders

“ These fires creep up my skin and leave me horrified of all the burns I've endured, but alas, they are no scald marks of the body, but of the mind.” - Elijah Vanders

“ I miss everything I've lost, everything I used to be.” - Elijah Vanders

“ This world was never for the broken, because people condemn what they might never understand, they tell you it's all in your head, and that's the issue. It is all in my head, and I wish it wasn't, because I'd rather face reality baring my teeth to the sky and bleeding from the lip then face the things I do on the daily.” - Elijah Vanders

“ I could look up at the stars and ask them "Why oh why am I a broken vagabond of this shattered world?" And all they'd do is blink out.” - Darkin Vagabond

“ I must confess, I feel like a monster, and all I can do really is hide from myself.” - Darkin Vagabond

“ Here I am, yearning for a better tomorrow, but all I do is sink into my blankets and know, there is no better tomorrow if I don't fight for it. And so I sleep the night away, fearing what it is the day shalt bring.” - Darkin Vagabond

“ How can I run from all this pain if it's apart of me? How could I possibly escape myself?” - Darkin Vagabond

"We condemn what we do not understand, and thus, we can never learn. Perhaps if the village folk within Salem would've learned more if they had questioned the falsely accused instead of burn them at the stake, they would never howl answers, only pain.” - Ferdinand Lawlor

“ Perhaps we have damned ourselves, but oh well, this is a world damned to Hell, so what is a damned man in a world that's already on fire?” - Ferdinand Lawlor

“ I've learned Heaven is a right, and we've lost it.” - Ferdinand Lawlor

"The end of a rope can either be a saving grace or the thing that kills a man. I've been on both sides of the spectrum, swinging from the gallows of my own sin and pulled to shore by people who care to forgive me.” - Eduardo Villifex

“ I'm not a good man, anymore. I used to be, as most did, but my heart twisted black and pain is all I know these days. But not because I'm in it, because I cause it.” - Eduardo Villifex

"Dis is a long bloody road I walk, dere ain't no end fo' me, just my enemies. So beware me pale red truck and 'eart filled with a desire fo' vengeance, because on dis road dere's corpses litterin' da highway and ain't none'a em gon' be me.” - Randall Lancaster

“I went through da stages'a grief, but dey forgot ta mention da last fokin' one. Anger.” - Randall Lancaster

“ I'm cold as ice, but me 'eart burns wif'a flame so fierce it puts Hell ta shame.” - Randall Lancaster

"I'm on a stage, the audience claps and cheers, but only for my death. I swing from gallows made up of the pain I've faced, I'm choking on my past, kicking air beneath me in a desperate attempt to save myself from this noose. And yet here I am, sputtering up all this darkness in my history.” - Hermann Pastel

“ I am a man, I have never been Pinocchio, and I never needed Jipedo or the Blue fairy to make me a real boy. So oh Mister Kalarook, you are not the whale who swallowed me whole, you are no puppet master, you are a man, and thus you will bleed like one.” - Hermann Pastel

"In a town of wolves, crying wolf will only get you torn to pieces.” - Sav Gothenburg

“ I am no killer, and so I shalt not use this blade for sheep, but instead it shall remain clean until the wolf who tore into me is in front of me with his empty eyes and bloodstained smile.” - Sav Gothenburg

“ I know what he did in the dark, I know what he made in the dark, after all, he made his undoing.” - Sav Gothenburg

“ This world is not so fond of those who're different, I've watched as my father cut men and women down for defying his belief, and though I have escaped him, I have not escaped the memory, of him. I can still see his empty eyes and his bloodstained blade. I will never be whole, because the hauntings of him still plague me.” - Victoria Vaxwington

“ New York is a graveyard of those who committed the crime of being themselves.” - Victoria Vaxwington

“ I have learned sometimes angels must fall so devils no longer fly, sacrifices must be made so the enemy is put at a disadvantage that will lead to their demise in the future, but I do not play a game of chess, I do not put forth my pawns to become Queen's Gambit. I'd much rather call Stalemate then let someone who fights for me, die for me.” - Victor Da Ville

“ This world is full of devils who want to watch angels be torn from the sky on bloodied wings, and so I bare these teeth of mine and scowl at the sky, because in a world of devils, one must become the leviathan.” - Victor Da Ville

“ I am a man of justice, karma to those who have spilt innocent blood, I am a devil to all those who seek hellfire, and refuge for all who seek warmth.” - Victor Da Ville

"When you love someone so much, you know when you have to let them go. Even if only for a small while, it still pains you to do so. My darling Lizbeth, oh how it pained her to see me slink into the night with the stars, but when I returned to her, as the sun always does when it sinks, we danced under the rays of sunshine that slathered across our beautiful dance of shared love.” - Corrie Vendowoft

“ She's beautiful in all her broken pieces, we've both lead lives that left us shattered, but together we molded this glass into a wonderful puzzle that painted a picture of us, and us alone.” - Corrie Vendowoft

“ It is dangerous, to love someone so completely that you'd put your life on the line for them, but so long as I live in danger with her, I will always accept it.” - Corrie Vendowoft

"I could say my life is almost like a photograph, frame by frame I see the beauty through the lenses of love. Snapshots of this love I have force the pain out of my smile, all I know these days is a fiery passion for the woman I stride underneath the sun with, in her arms I feel so complete, so loved in a world that tried to make me hate.” - Lizbeth Samwick

“ I love Corrie, it's not just something I feel in my heart or my mind, but something that trickles down to my very soul and redefines who I am. I fought my desire for so long, I said to myself "She can't be yours, by God she can't." But when she smiled and ran a hand through my hair I knew, by God she's mine. “ - Lizbeth Samwick

“ I would dance underneath the stars with that woman, follow her to the ends of the Earth and charge into a burning building if it mean saving her.” - Lizbeth Samwick

"We yearn for an answer to existence, but I think it's a simple one. To exist is to simply breathe, but the meaning to life is to love the world, as it has always loved you.” - Sabu Thorn

“ Nature has never been sinful, everything in nature has a reason to be there, the cycle of kill or be killed is only relevant for predators, and we were never wolves.” - Sabu Thorn

“ This world was never cruel, we just blame it for it's naturalities, you can not blame a wolf for snatching it's prey, and you can not blame nature for its defense mechanisms.” - Sabu Thorn

"I find that condemning love will only condemn he who damns it. Something so Heavenly and divine could never be sinful, why damn something as beautiful and complex as love? How much hate must you hold in your heart to despise something that never had to do with you?” - Abby Malroodge

“ The only one who can change me, is me.” - Abby Malroodge

“ Where would you pull your strength from if you've never had to be strong? Where would you pull your bravery from if you never knew what it was to be scared? Ya can't truly know what it is to live without a little bit of struggle.” - Abby Malroodge

“ Life isn't awful, moments are, remember this, because it might save you when all seems lost.” - Abby Malroodge

“ We're stars, shimmering in the dead of night, so twinkle on my friend, twinkle on. The world was made for you, so shine." - Abby Malroodge

"I'm not strong because of my past, I'm strong because of my choices, I am not strong because people hurt me, I'm strong because I rose up despite what they did.” - Morgan Mittel

“ I'd rather trek forward than look back, the future is where I'm headed, so why dwell on the past?” - Morgan Mittel

"The only things that've kept me alive are hope, and myself.” - Obi Zenton

“ I've been through plen'y, can't really kill my spirit, because it's always ragin' with some sort of flame that fuels me. Love, hate, anger. All of these things keep me goin', I spose I'm a mix of different emotions that keep my heart beatin'.” - Obi Zenton

“ I'm not just gonna lie down and die quietly, I'm a fighter, a survivor, always have been, and nuffin's gonna change that, nuffin'.” - Obi Zenton

“ I've already faced the world, so what makes you think I can't face you?” - Obi Zenton

“ I look up to the Heavens and pray, "Lord, please save me, we're all damned these days, save me." But all I've been hearing is the dying cries of men fighting for no real purpose.” - Zelene Clifforde

“ We are not wolves, we're human, why don't we act as such?” - Zelene Clifforde

“Savages with bloodstained smiles haunt me.” - Zelene Clifforde

“ People just don't understand, get in the way of history, you become it.” - Richmond Venwokbridge

“ The hounds of Hell could chase me down and I'd face them with a bloodstained blade and sins painted the color red on my sleeve.” - Richmond Venwokbridge

“ I have blood on my name, I'm practically a death omen.” - Richmond Venwokbridge

“ You can't tear my roots from this wicked family tree, because they'll wrap around your throat and swing you from the gallows of my dynasty.” - Richmond Venwokbridge

“ I prayed to the Heavens that she'd come back, she had to be alive. But as I looked to the sky the only answer I ever got was clouds shifting and the sun baring down on me. My mother was my hero, and they say we mimic our heroes, so might I one day bleed like her?” - Ariella Soro

“ If God was real why would he shatter a believer such as I? I used to say Amen, I used to get on my knees and pray. But all that ever got me was the rubble of my crumbled faith asphyxiating me.” - Ariella Soro

"I've dragged buried truths from the dark into the light kicking and screaming, but who ever knew the truth had claws and would tear into me like a lion feasting on a gazelle? How was I to possibly fathom the truth ripping into me just as karma rips into those who've done wrong?” - Lana Peixoto

“ I've always brandished this heart of mine and a pen. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, so why does blood spill while I write of tragedy?” - Lana Peixoto

“This world has stabbed so many knives in my back, and somedays I wonder how I haven't bled out, but the blood trickling down my jacket blends in with the black leather. Because I suppose in a world where the truth is a crime, telling the truth makes you villainous.” - Lana Peixoto

“A man I knew once told me we're all strong in our own right, its what we do with the strength that matters. But how am I to be strong when all it ever got me was beaten into pavement and whipped with the scars of a thousand bloodstained lies?” - Alaina Crossbellow

“Fear the woman with everything left to lose, because she'll fight like hell to keep it that way.” - Alaina Crossbellow

"If love is a battlefield, I'll grab my rifle and go to war. After all, I'd do anything for the woman I love, I'd catch bullets or sling em, I'd kick ass or get my ass kicked, if you love someone, you fight for them, it's as simple as that, really.” - Rachel Vandemann

“ Isn't it beautiful, to be so masterfully intertwined with another that their heartbeat becomes a melody and their smile a song?” - Rachel Vandemann

“ I stare into bloodshot eyes, alvawys vondering how zese hands are my own, zey have spilt so much blood, vatched men go down in spurts of red from zis Tommy gun I sling over my shoulder.” - Sanders Krauss

“ Zis blood on my hands haunts me, zere iz trouble in my daydreams and vickedness in my nightmares.” - Sanders Krauss

“ I shook hands vith ze devil, vith his hatchet shimmering red under ze starless night sky.” - Sanders Krauss

"I'd rather be the final bullet in a chamber than the ones that were fired off in rage.” - Carlita Hellslinger

“ I'm not the best woman in the world, but at least I'm good enough to end you.” - Carlita Hellslinger

“ He holds my heart, this battered scarred heart is his, because I found in all my loneliness, in all my solitude, in all my anger, he loved me. He loved the ugliest parts of me, and he called them beautiful.” - Carlita Hellslinger

“ I've lived in the dark my whole life, what makes you think I don't know what lurks?” - Carlita Hellslinger

"Somedays all I can hear is the echo of my past. But I suppose the sirens of love are louder. I must confess, these scars bleed, and somedays they define me, by God do they define me. But then I remember, it's only a memory, and you have a future to live, girl, so live it.” - Sage Caesar

“ A woman showed me what it is to love, Rosie in all her beautiful strength, showed me that love is no game, there's no losers nor winners, only people in love.” - Sage Caesar

“ This world will tell you you're not worth it, you don't deserve the space you fill, but it tells lies, nasty, vile lies that poison your mind with falsehoods.” - Sage Caesar

“ Fight on, fighter, you're worth the struggle, I promise." - Sage Caesar

"I'm the scary story monsters tell their children to keep em in bed. Beware, beware, sinners of the witching hours, the Midnight Dove soars with bloodstained talons, and her prey cackles underneath a bloodstained blade.” - Elsa Todd

“ May those you've harmed whisper your deeds, may you meet me in the dead of night while my pistol is clean and my aim is true.” - Elsa Todd

“ No sinner deserves grace, so don't beg at my feet, it won't fucking save you.” - Elsa Todd

"I don't believe in normal, I don't believe in a concrete definition to humanity. Because we're all unique, in our own beautiful ways. It's ridiculous, to shackle humanity to a definition, we're all our own people, so how could we possibly define what it means to be yourself?” - Hannah

“ I'd rather be an outcast then someone I'm not.” - Hannah

“ Watchin' your own son fall from grace is tough, 'specially when you raised him ta be strong.” - Betsie Werdelstein

“ Her smile ain't like nuthin' I've ever see, I could compare her ta the sun, or a garden'a daisies and daffodils, but she weren't never just somethin' beautiful ta look at.” - Betsie Werdelstein

“ I's seen what it is, ta be so in pain, that all ya can really do is weep and hope fo' a better tomorra', but sometimes that hope is the very bullet that lodges inta your heart.” - Betsie Werdelstein

“ I could present the truth on a silver fucking platter, and people would say, "Oh how marvelous, but we prefer the lies crammed down our throats." - Marston Calinfranz

“ I must ask the question, why do people fear the truth? Lies are often sugarcoated, but dare you follow the sugar crumbs that lead to a poisoned cube of sugar? You're ants, to the powerful, being led to a poisoned demise disguised as your salvation.” - Marston Calinfranz

"They say home is where the heart is. And so my heart resides in a pitch black forest of wolves. They snarl, they howl, but to them, I am the moon.” - Haymitch Viers

“ I sympathize for the devils of this world, everyone seeks to understand them, but must realize, it is impossible. You must become him, to understand him. Walk a a thousand miles in his shoes, and see why it was that he spilt blood as if it were commonplace.” - Haymitch Viers

”A bow and arrow only draws back in preparation to fling forward. So remember, when you’re being pushed back, soon you’ll be hurtling forward at full speed.” - Cynthia Layden

“ We're all our own, beautiful in all of our uniqueness, fuck anyone who says you shouldn't be you, they don't know your mind, or your heart, so how the fuck can they judge you?” - Cynthia Layden

“ We're all our own Queens and Kings, we rule the castle of our mind and sometimes, your thoughts, the subjects, they want to swing you from the gallows, don't let them man, don't let them.” - Cynthia Layden

"In a kill or be killed world, I will never die.” - Gilderoy Vinefroker

“I made friends with my demons, they wouldn't dare bite the hand that feeds them, but to all those around them that left them starving, they have a feast.” - Gilderoy Vinefroker

“ You can not, and will not, fucking kill me.” - Gilderoy Vinefroker

“ This world was never cruel, but I am.” - Gilderoy Vinefroker

“ In life, there are no winners, no losers, just men willing to get to the end, and those who are left on the board to rot." - Gilderoy Vinefroker

“ How am I to grieve what did happen, if I always ponder, on what didn't?” - Jill Smithens

“ This heart of mine is broken, I could glug down gallons of gin an tonic, inject this poison into me, but it'll never heal my heart.” - Jill Smithens

“ I've given so many life changing advice, as a therapist I know the signs, the warnings, and what someone should do in the circumstance their mind is working against them. But if only, I could take my own advice.” - Jill Smithens

“ Ya know, they say the past is just that, but then why is it always engraved in my mind as a hieroglyphic is in a Pharaoh of old's tomb?” - Shirley Honeybadger

“ They say, to slay a monster, you too, must become one, but I believe it wouldn't be sinful if the rabbits fought back against the coyotes.” - Solstice Moone

“ I am a warrior of the sun, bounding in the pawprints of wolves with crimson claws as to follow them to their cave of slaughter, so one day they might be slain for their wickedness.” - Solstice Moone

“ We are not a bloodstained race, but history paints us as such. We waged war to gain independence, and they call us savages.” - Solstice Moone

“ Sometimes we must raise our blades, instead of our voices.” - Solstice Moone

“ I guess life isn't always gonna be perfect, because what would we do with a perfect world but ruin it?” - June Northutt

“ I spose we're all ghosts of who we were, snapshots of younger versions of ourselves, perhaps who we were is proud of who we are.” - June Northutt

“ I took Thituna's beauty and turned it into darkness, Vialdir's gifts and turned them into curses, but hail me! Hail me! I am a stature of greatness and sinful divinity!” - Destallo Starrend

“ This wicked magic, oh how dark it is, I can see it, the black glow in my veins, the dark blood that flows when I am cut in battle. But I care not, I've been corrupted, and my intention is not to turn back.” - Destallo Starrend

“ The night sky flows through my veins and the stars no longer sparkle, for they imploded and left the nebula in my ribcage.” - Destallo Starrend

“ 'Ow am I ever to know peace, if I don't know if my son, knows peace? I'm terrified of the unknown, because I have no clue what it could hold, does it perhaps hold every single truth I need ta know? Is it where my son resides, or is he in a shallow fucking grave?” - Barbara Alastair

“ I guess all I really got are my memories and the spark of a cigarette, only warmth I feel these days, is in my damn lungs, burnin' me alive from the inside. Only light I could ever reach kills me. I'm like the moth, drawn toward the flickers of fires set to burn me, but because I'm self destructive, I follow the sparks and flickers anyhow.” - Barbara Alastair

“ We have to remember, we were given life, so why not appreciate this gift we've got, huh? I'm a fixer upper, we all are, really, workin' with what we got. Our little flaws, our little quirks that make us who we are, always wonderin' if who we are is who we oughta be. But you know what? Build a castle made of of the hurt, and embrace that you survived it man, you survived it.” - Lydia Hobkins

“ This world is cruel, hellbent on breaking this soul of mine in half, but you don't break the woman with her heart on her sleeve, you don't break me, I only learn.” - Allie Jekylhead

“ This world was never meant for cruel men, people like to think we're all beasts, vying for a throne, but we're people, trying to fucking live.” - Allie Jekylhead

“ I am no barking dog, when I bark, it's a fucking warning.” - Allie Jekylhead

"I'm paralyzed by a feelin', cause all I got these days are memories that poison my bloodstream and leave me as the aftermath of Chernobyl. How am I ta be healthy, when even my heart is got damn poisoned?” - Vector Beckenheimer

“ It's hard, fearin' for the life of the woman you love cuz her mind is ill. But I guess, all I can do is fight for her, cuz she ain't never been allowed ta fight for herself.” - Vector Beckenheimer

“ Alcohol is a poison, and I'm in chronic condition these days, sippin' on poison as if it would fucking save me.” - Vector Beckenheimer

“ I'm sorry, for feeling this way. Is it perhaps demented, to be not okay? Am I a woman sinful to the core, because I have demons in my mind?” - Friella Beckenheimer

“ Life doesn't seem to treat me right, and neither does my mind.” - Friella Beckenheimer

“ My children.. I'm sorry. But I'm a bad influence, I smoke cigarettes to choke on the smoke and down pills to spit up my remaining life span.” - Friella Beckenheimer

“ I'm not much a woman, these days. Just a lost ember in the wind, and one of these days I'll snuff out. I'm the dying spark amidst ash, the last shred of a pencil used over the years and the girl no one can save, because I can't even save myself.” - Friella Beckenheimer

“ I bleed forevermore, what a shame it is, that I hold the bloodied razor and the glossy regret." - Friella Beckenheimer

“ This world is out'a fokes, but I can't be.” - Kiley Swinton

“ I've found just how demented this world is, followin' the shadows of the pine and the regrets'a the wolves. I found a cave of sinfulness, the sirens sang and beckoned me ta the ocean side where they drowned my sense of innocence, and out rose a vengeful beast by the name'a Kiley fuckin' Swinton.” - Kiley Swinton

“ Karma is fair, Karma is just, she always pays her fuckin' dues.” - Kiley Swinton

“ The birds hum, the sun rises, just not fo' me.” - Kiley Swinton

“ I used ta rule the world, at least, my own little world I could call home. But some people don't care, they'll rip the walls asunder just to reach your heart and cut it.” - Beverly Jackins

“ I've been broken, but this tiara of rust and this throne of love will never topple. My kingdom of isolation, may one day become a kingdom of two. All I need ta build an empire is my daughter, even if it's one of pillows and blankets draped over cardboard." - Beverly Jackins

“ Broken and damned, they call me. But you'd be telling the truth if you just called me, broken.” - Warren Shanaghost

“ I am a damned man in the eyes of the public, they think I tormented two young girls I knew. I'm damned if I did, damned if I didn't I suppose.” - Warren Shanaghost

“ I saw that shadowy figure, I saw that beast dressed as nothing more than a child's fantasy. What a damned creature, drunk off the light of the moon and sinning just because.” - Warren Shanaghost

“ I've done some dumb shit, sure, but haven't we all? I mean, come on, if we ain't a little wild are we really living? The answer is no, if ya were unaware. You can't just live in the boxes they've created, you gotta burst out of that box and rip it the fuck up.” - Promise Ryder

“ The world isn't against you, honestly, the world doesn't care about any of us, it's the people on Earth that do. So look around, someone loves you, someone cares. Just hold onto the little moments, cause those are the ones that really count.” - Promise Ryder

“ I've watched angels fall from blinding heights, but I went with them on burning wings, I am a circus act, forced into the cold shadows of the night.” - Jenscella Harburkens

“ Those who are different are not loved by society, they'd tie me to a stake and burn me, if they so could.” - Jenscella Harburkens

“ Psycho! They say, psycho! But I'm just a lost girl with haunted memories, why damn me when you could damn my abuser? But no, the story of the boy who cried wolf is always told, but seldom told is the tale of Jenscella, the girl who told the truth, but was never believed.” - Jenscella Harburkens

“ I'm a fool for her, I'd dance underneath a stage collapsing, or hold her hand in a battlefield.” - Zoey Shurrick

“ Just because my memories reflect pain, does not mean that is my future.” - Zoey Shurrick

“ My sister is a superhero, in my eyes. She doesn't shoot lasers from her eyes or wear a cape. She wears a suit she hates and a smile despite her past.” - Zoey Shurrick

"Way over yonder I would'a looked at my torn wings and think, by God, how far have I fallen? But now, I sit here in the tatters of my wings and realize, not every plummet ends with death.” - Connor O’Day

“ My nightmares haunt me, my sins plague me, but my love saved me.” - Connor O’Day

“ She's a soldier, and I'd say she's mine, but I think what's beautiful about her is, she's her own.” - Connor O’Day

“ I used ta be ruled by my trigger and how fast I could pull it, but nowadays, I'm defined by love, not my past, not my future. But love.” - Connor O’Day

“ So sisters, brothers and none of the above in arms, won't you join me, on this journey home? We're all so lost, and yet found by each other. We found sanctuary in each other's hearts and home in the storms of love. We are no beasts, no sinners, no saints. Just men, women and everything in-between, lookin' for a purpose on the wind, knowin' it was always family and each other." - Connor O'Day

"Life is like a painting, it gets a little messy and mistakes are made along the way, but who ever said one wrong sway of the brush ruined the piece? We're not perfect creatures, so why pretend to be?” - Jane Van Steenburg

“ I know these days sinners play as saints, but I find once you learn to differentiate the two, the wolf's smile flickers.” - Jane Van Steenburg

“ I'm a black stallion gallopin' on a path'a cobble and thorns, follow me or don't, but this world need heroes, so lets be the heroes we deserve. I don't got no cape, just my twin revolvers and some rebellious bones.” - Granville Van Steenburg

“ I got my guns, and I got my name, and I've learned that's all it takes ta survive. That and a little bit of hope.” - Granville Van Steenburg

"The sun don't shine on da soldiers, and so we learn ta accept da moon. We twist and turn, twirlin' in da moonlight in an ungraceful dance dat burns us wif' our sins. But ey, sinnin' hurts, but so does bein' da hero.” - Winfield Coleman

“Me bones are wicked, can'tcha see? I'm a cold shadow'a the man I used ta fokin' be, ever since I stepped inta the fires'a war, I knew what it was ta die, mate. You hear the story'a the boy who went ta war whole, but came out strong. But seldom told is the tale'a da soldier who walked out wif' rage in 'is eyes and a snarl on 'is lip. War is Hell, dey say, but Hell is Hell, war is war.” - Winfield Coleman

“ We're all damned nowadays, we're all sinners, and so I took it ta the highest degree. Murder'a the conscience." - Winfield Coleman

"I suppose in a world of mystery, we too are unsolved cases, and we must find who we are and search for the clues inside our hearts.” - Carlita Lorenz

“ I'm always going to stay on this road that leads to nowhere, because with those two women, I don't need a destination, just them. I believe in myself and my loves, and I'll always be a star, shining on if only to light up the night sky, to help the moon in her lovely presence." - Carlita Lorenz

“ I'm on a highway of red lights, a path of broken glass, but why not keep this dance in my stride and pride in my smile?” - Hailey Courtney

“ She's my hero, even if she feels like nothing more than a villain. I love her, she's taught me everything, to be strong, to be me, to laugh and enjoy what I have. She doesn't have a cape, she just has a chipped smile and an old tattered sweater.” - Hailey Courtney

“ I'm always gonna face the world with a smile, because if I can face a nightmare smiling, who can stop me, really?” - Hailey Courtney

"The world's a scary place, and sadly, with me in it, it's even more so.” - Keaton Devoncross

“ I'm both the cat and the dog, chasing my tail and running up a tree in cowardice, I'm not a good man, filled with such sins that they could kill any normal man, he'd jump off a cliff side, knowing what I do.” - Keaton Devoncross

“ I worry about things I shouldn't, always been an anxious child, scared of the world and scared of myself.” - Keaton Devoncross

“ Oh how wicked we are, with our claws of iron and rows of needles that prod our gums.” - Keaton Devoncross

“ We made a mockery of these commandments, thou shalt not kill, so instead we killed the mind. Thou shalt not steal, so instead we stole memories and joy. We are thieves of happiness, we stole the stars and let them blink out.” - Keaton Devoncross

“ We have destroyed the meaning of humanity, because these days we're monsters, tearing into whatever's left.” - Keaton Devoncross

"Step into the ring! You'll find here we all share one very similar trait! We wear sins on our sleeves and scars on our hearts! And here, the only way to find purpose, is to fight for it. You might die in the process, but it is a price you must be willing to pay! You are gladiators and gladiatrix's, fight, fight! Fight or die! Kill or be killed!” - Jorovany Ringmaster

“ I am Jorovany Ringmaster! Sinner of the highest degree! I wear both horns and halos, because too trick the saint, I must act like him.” - Jorovany Ringmaster

“ Blood stains the walls, ghosts fill the halls, and a mad man runs the show! You can not escape the arena, for it's always in your memory.” - Jorovany Ringmaster

“ Always was I born to be a beast of bloodied fang and crimson talon, but my heart does beat for someone, but it does not beat for the fool who dares trample the wolf. Adraina makes me feel such curious things, she protects me and says my damning acts are not so damning. She calls me fallen angel, but damned I am, and if she is by my side, damned is she.” - Maya Van Hunters

“ I do not regret what I have done, it doesn't seem to be in my bloodstream, my family tree is made up of rotten bark and branches with gallows our enemies swing from.” - Maya Van Hunters

“ Living is such a damning act, we were born so cold, so bloody. So it seems I never escaped the cycle of cruelty, and I suppose I never shall.” - Maya Van Hunters

“ As I have seen it, this bloodline ends with me, because I bare no child to continue our sinful ways. The wicked roots of my history shall fester and rot, the world will remember the Van Hunters name as a wicked one filled with sinful desires and love for a singular woman.” - Maya Van Hunters

“ I've hit rock bottom a thousand times, but I suppose all it takes to find the top is to climb.” - Rayford Gold

“ My brothers are good men, Robert and Crawford, stuck by me in my darkest times, it's hard to find people like them, who you can laugh and cry with. Some people love you only when it's light, but the ones who're true, love you even in the night. I have found so much, in this world. Money doesn't buy happiness, only friendship and love can do such a thing.” - Rayford Gold

“ I am not a bad man, just one who's made some bad choices.” - Rayford Gold

“ She saved Crawford's life, but her smile saved mine.” - Rayford Gold

“ Don't you dare damn me without knowin' my broken and hellbent past, vengeance is the only thing that drives me nowadays, I'm a broken creature of broken tusk and dented armor.” - Julie Forkroad

“ I got bullets with their names on it, Tilda, Maya, you best watch out, the monster you created is chargin', and her horns will skewer you, choke you on the blood you've spilt.” - Julie Forkroad

“ This future of mine is bloodstained, because my past is bloodstained. I can't escape all this pain because those ghostly women haunt me, their memory is damning, their existence is frightening. But I suppose, on this damned path, I became a reflection of them.” - Julie Forkroad

“ All I have left is my gun and a few empty prayers.” - Julie Forkroad

"It ain't the hatred spread that's remembered, I've learned. Yes, wicked deeds lay on the pages of history, but it's the actions that rid us of the dark, that lay in our hearts.” - Joyce Huffelsburg

“ I have saved so many little boys and girls from a life of trauma and the high risk of finding them swinging from the end of a rope for the sins of their mothers and fathers.” - Joyce Huffelsburg

“ Help people and put other's above yourself, and people will remember you as a hero, but that was never the point. It was always just to do the right thing, wasn't it?" - Joyce Hufflesburg

“ We're all fighting our own battles, whether they be physical or mental, and we gotta attain victory, or we'll never make it.” - Levanna Scorchton

“ I could make an explosion with a single match and an ocean with a single drop of water. That's just how deeply I love, if I couldn't love, I think I'd be driven to hate.” - Levanna Scorchton

"All the money in the world doesn't make one rich, but love? It'll make you the richest person in the world.” - Moriah Castelonia

“ Words can teach so much, but seldom do people speak them in meaningful ways.” - Moriah Castelonia

“ She was just another homeless woman to the world, but when I saw her, shivering on that street, flecks of snow in her golden hair, I knew I had to do something. Everyone passed her by, but if I had, I never would've been found in such a beautiful dance. She's my golden star, wise and lovely. She's taught me so much, we lived in separate worlds, I grew up with silver platters and everything I thought I needed to be happy, while she grew up with nothing but her hope and grit to carry through. Our worlds collided, and now they're so beautifully intertwined.” - Moriah Castelonia

"The question must be asked, is a church steeple dripping with the blood of the fallen still a holy scene? Or has it been scorched by the devil's flame?” - Father Goriah Thorell

“ If we're all sinful, is it such a stretch to say none of us are forgiven? Either God is forgiving and loving, or he's hateful and unforgiving.” - Father Goriah Thorell

“ There's blood on my Bible and sins sitting on the pew.” - Father Goriah Thorell

“ Such damned, and unholy things we are. Sinning with cause, and without it.” - Father Goriah Thorell

"Super heroes only exist in comics and action movies, the real heroes wear cowboy hats, flannels and are no different from you and me. Anyone can be a hero, all it takes is a little bit of will power.” - Mike Pennington

“ I never expected fatherhood to be pushed on me, so suddenly. But.. when my sister left this world.. I had to take care of her daughter, I had to take care of little Dalia. She's a smart kid, made me really proud, ya know? Some people only want her because she's smart, but I love her because she's goofy and fun, full of spirit and wisdom ain't no one ever see coming. She'll blow you away, man, she really will. With all her snark and love, she's a cute kid, and might I one day find her again.” - Mike Pennington

“ I'm no superhero, just a man who's willing to fight.” - Mike Pennington

"To a rich man, the heart is of little value, but to a poor one, it's all he has.” - Dornstecker

“ I've found New York is rampant with corruption and a darkness so smothering I sputter up the air I breathe.” - Dornstecker

“ You can send your thoughts and prayers to those who died, but it won't change a damn thing, all we can truly do is raise our voices and fight against this injustice. Staying silent to such evil only tolerates it, and I won't stand for it. I am a simple goblin, I clock into the bank at seven thirty, I do my job and hope no poor sod comes in with a gun, I clock out and feed my cat and sleep at nine o'clock sharp.” - Dornstecker

“ I have learned we're all paying the Devil's price and he is no pitch forked wielding entity, he's our politicians and our leaders hiding the blood behind their teeth with a pearly white smile. Despicable wolves, every last one of them. Hiding behind their suits and ties, with their large fancy estates.” - Dornstecker

“ We are many, and so why do we stay silent in the midst of horror? Are we to gobsmacked to do anything? Get over the shock of the situation and do something for God's sake.” - Dornstecker

"I think I need to raise my rifle ta fate and say screw you, you've been an asshole, I'm taking matters inta my own hands. Yeah, shoot fate in the heart, it ain't never been very fond of me anyway." - Church Godsel

"My misery overpowers my joy, these days." - Dale Markus

"I play with fire, but it is not I who burns." - Javier Cross

"I used ta say God is always watching, he's by you, he's by you! But now I sit and ponder, where was he when his son bled?" - Nestor Bevelricks

"We will fight until we are dead and buried, and when we are buried we will be remembered by the one's we call family, because family never forgets, friend." - Titus Hawley

"My regret is deafening, I imagine it's the only thing keeping me from hearing the cries of those I've wronged." - Simon Drogace

"He's a fool to trust me, and his family will pay dearly for his mistake."- Quentin Satchel

"If the truth is a sin, call me holy." - Quentin Satchel

"In a world with men like me peace can't exist." - Elton Seaderfault

"My sins crash on me and bury me underneath the wicked soil of my history." - Sean Gale

"So come on, call me a bad man, call me crazy, but I think, you're the crazy one, because you just pissed off Saul mother fucking Northutt, and your life span, has abruptly been cut short."  - Saul Northutt

"I battled my demons, they wore plastic grins, and wielded empty promises." - Saul Northutt

"I'm a bad, bad man, walking through the fires of hell, runnin' through these pages wonderin', when the fuck do I run out of pages to tear the fuck out mercilessly?" - Saul Northutt

"We've taken five hundred steps back in this harsh dance with the darkness." - Alonzo Graves

"You trust a man with your life and you've dug your own grave." - Clayton W. Scarrberry

"Don't mistake your scars for weakness, they built you. Be proud of the strength it took to bare them without turning them on other's." - Rando Ballsy

"If my regret caught up to me vengeance would never be an option." - Dallas Lightsworth

"I see my grave error, I became a monster when my people, and most importantly my daughter needed a man they could look up too." - Bardzimi Talos

"Bob fucking Weathers, well I think that'll look real nice etched onto a tombstone." - Alastair Riseman

"How can God judge me for my sins when his sins can't be fucking counted?" - Roxane Vanderburg

"Do not speak of death as if it has seeped through your rotten skin." - Fandelhimer Bewitchasphere

"The world's filled with killers and vagabonds of Hell, guess I gotta make due with what I got and keep my pistol close." - Espifanio Vanderhoof

"These sins are heavy for those that trust me." - Michael Blomquist

"If I am ta be damned, may I burn Jasper with my fury." - Lileen Nallmorker

"The worst place I've ever resided is my memories." - Lucretia Covington

"Mother, father, forgive me. I never wanted to become a ghost haunting your memory." - Lucretia Covington

"My heart is buried in the pitch black forests in a pinewood box." - Belle Nalroma

"My troubled mind seldom brings me peace. Spose it's a wayfarin' stranger on a desolate road." - Gary Heartlock

"No one sympathizes for the devil it would seem." - Ruby Vollstale

"Revenge is a no man wins game, so here I am, losing." - Cole Milwood

"These sins at my back tell the tale of a lawful man forced to break it." - Aristead Solace

"The world has never favored the man who fights, have you ever noticed it's easier to give up than raise your fists? Easier to stay silent, than speak your mind?" - Timotheus Naziger

"The world cares not for the girl with her ferocious bark and fierce bite. And so the dog learns to become cold just as those who shied away from it." - Abaddon Whilsteila

"Fear never got me anywhere, being feared however did." - Abaddon Whilsteila

"You can not trust the wolf not to devour the lamb. So why put me in a field of peacemakers and expect me to come out without bloodstained hands?" - Caldwell Ramirez

"The world was never in your favor, ask the stars a question and you'll get howls." - Caldwell Ramirez

"The world is bathed in a wicked desire for no other reason than to dominate and conquer. These days we're repeating history and expecting a different result." - Nial Morranann

"Devils ain't wearin' no horns, brother, they got pearly white smiles and share your qualities." - Simon Rossburg

"Cold world we live in, spose all the flowers were kilt and all we're left with is the withered daffodils." - Morton Strawbellow

"Here I am, in a Hell of my own making, cause all I do is hurt myself, and Hell is repeated pain, so here I am, making my life Hell." - Ash Caesar

"People listen to words written on paper as if they were truth, they do not need to see to believe, and so all they'll ever do is ignore the truths that are spoken from the tongues of the people. You can not know truth, if all you breathe in is a lie." - Romanez Callowitz

"My mind is a prison of memories, I've lost hope to see my sunshine again, I begged the world not to take her away, she was my one and only. The star in a night sky that felt dark, but she blinked out, and all I'm left with is a photo album that depicts the memories before my daughter became a snapshot of a memory." - Darlita Romilez

"Chivalry dies when it finds war." - Joe Paquil

"I'm cursed with this never ending affliction to burn for my sins. But I spose a father's duty is to keep on fightin', if only to see his kids grow." - Marrows Redshaw

"Ain't the hate, that made me. But the love and the heart." - Samuel Bones

"I've been chasin' down my dreams since I could walk. Does Justice really think he can twist em into nightmares?" - Rodrick Taywillow

Carry on, they say, carry on. But this storm is not so merciful." - Ebenezer Vanderholt

[pasdedeux-archive]

𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌? 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍? — Thank you everyone who has applied !! You’re all amazing writers and quite honestly I had no less than three mental breakdowns during the deliberation period.

 To those who were not chosen, please know that this is not a mark against your writing or your characters. I loved them dearly and I would be such an honor if you wanted to join with a different muse. However, I know applications take a very long time and a lot of heart so I completely understand if you do not wish to do so.

With that said, congratulations to those who were accepted. Please make sure you look at the checklist, and send in your character account within 24 hours. I will be sending out discord invitation links tomorrow after I clean up the server a bit (aka making a guide on how we will be using discord to roll and such).

K playing Elizabeth Augusta Sinclair, the luminary; violinist for the Bolshoi Ballet

"It is summer, and the countryside is alive with birdsong and bloom, rays of golden light cascading, warm breeze dusting the ground with the caress of a lover. You are eight, stumbling through the knee high fields of flowers, laughter light and joyful, Aestas come down to Earth."

I loved your portrayal of Elizabeth. Half ghost half girl, there is something incredibly provocative in the way in which she tries to become all that she thinks she can be. I was listening to Swan Lake Act II. No. 10. during your muse sample and it ended just as I finished reading it. Coincidence? I think not. Elizabeth will make a wonderful addition to the group, and I cannot wait to see how her story plays out. I've been thinking about potential subplots for her and wowie my brains a racing.

Amy playing Yelena Andreyevna Kusnetsova, tbd.

“In years past, she’d been able to push down the worry that she was missing out in some way. That true freedom of expression had eluded her, for reasons that had nothing to do with how hard she worked. Often, she’d even convinced herself that she didn’t need freedom at all.”

Yelena has such a presence about her that I can't help but be enamored with her. There is a wistfulness in everything she does, but it does not slow her down. In fact, I would argue it makes her all the more present. She reminds me of a deer, ephemeral but wise and always on the lookout for potential danger. For a person such as herself, I see the workings of a woman afraid to die and afraid of the life she has already been living. Yelena will be such a treat to see develop and I cannot wait to see what kind of shenanigans occur during the story!

Nayab playing Hana Volkova, the veiled; soloist at the bolshoi theater

“It is to no music her wings spread, and she is commanded to fly. In a single, suspended moment in time, Volkov leeches from the depths of her, everything the art once meant to her. Its purity is tainted, and if her heart had not already lost all faith, the sicles Volkov aims to her heart and pierces her with surely bleed her dry of the blood of love.”

When Hana was given a buffet in front of her as threat toward her compliance that pierced me like a knife. Her demotion to soloist as punishment for stepping out of line I think is a beautiful analogy for how girls like her aren't meant to last long: they're meant to be sacrificial pawns so that others may endure and to think that one can be anything other than that is a mistake. Loss which permeates all of one's being is meant to hurt, and Hana has demonstrated one way of being resilient.

Esme playing Marilyn Campbell, the maelstrom; corpse de ballet at NYCB

“You once told a story to your brother, told him that if the sea claims you, it drags you so far away from the shore that you turn into a deadly fish, a fish that could devour the entire world.”

Marilyn is the perfect storm, ready to consume all that which does not heed her. I love how you portrayed her resignation to what she is, and perhaps what she thinks is all that she will ever be, but even her doubts are thwarted by her want, her consuming desire, to become someone else. Much like the Bermuda Triangle, she may be a touch auspicious, but people cannot help but want to be pulled into her destruction. I love the ideas you have for her plot development and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

Georgia playing Fred Baker, the insurgent; head of security at the NYCB

“The brothers bought a radio before they did a bed.”

First of all, holy shit I loved your memes they were. Oh my god, so funny. When I go over apps the first thing I do is look at the meme section, and let me tell you — just that little bit you gave me enticed me to want to know more about Fred. When I finally began to read him my heart SWOONED. Do you hear me? Swooned. He's such an interesting character, filled to the brim with animosity and hurt — he deals with his past the best way he can. I also cannot wait until Fred introduces everyone to the soul of America with his love for jazz.

Taryn playing  Zinaida Petrovna Sabitova, the sacred; principal dancer at the bolsoi theater

“Still, there are some evenings when her mother looks over from her place at the vanity, still all-over aside from the wafts of smoke burning from her cigarette, and seems to be studying her own child. Looking for something. Wondering.”

You wrote in your application is Zinaida good or evil, Odette or Odile — and while I do not have an answer for you right now, I do know that I would love to explore that with you. She's a beautiful girl whose life is tragic in the way only fairy tales can be. The perfect Jewel of Moscow (I did like that name), who while controlled by those above her wishes for her own happy ending despite knowing that her end will be nothing less than fatalistic. Her aversion toward things which reminds her of her own mortality hits home, omg, yes, why must I have this human body. Why must I suffer having lived.

Anna playing Yelena Yuryevna Min, the dream; corpse de ballet at the bolshoi theater

“What Yelena didn’t remember was the hushed arguments her parents would have every other night before he left – how he would say with so much conviction even as her mother begged him not to, “things will be better for us if the state knows we’ll die for her.”

AHHH, that broke me, that line right there broke me. I can so ardently feel the love and happiness her family gave her, their precious daughter, and how they would do anything to give her the world she deserves. Then you went on to talk about her apprehension to go to Vagnova, and my world turned upside down. Her disposition really speaks to me, and her family ties as well. She's also a breath of fresh air, like a sunflower in a meadow that had recently rained. Her optimism and kind disposition really shines through in your app and in your memes.

Claudia playing Eva Miro, the swan; principal dancer at the NYCB

“but lena understood sacrifice, she saw it every day when her mother would come home exhausted, weathered hands cracked and aching so she wouldn’t go hungry. to love something meant giving everything you had, everything you were or could ever be, to feed that love.”

Gonna start my little tangent with wow, your mood-board :cheff kiss: absolute perfection. I don't use extras as a basis for my decision making, merely something I admire from afar, but damn — if I did yours would no doubt be at the front of the line. There were two parts of your application that I wanted to highlight, and the other was half your application lmao. Your muse sample really expanded your character and showed me how much of a Swan Eva can be. I called the Swan skeleton a starling at the beginning, a bird which choses their survival above all else. A transformation of a girl into a star, Eva is a force which cannot be tamed unless you destroy her.

V playing Alina Vasilieva Filippova, the tbd; ballet master-repetiteur at the bolshoi theater

“She remembers thinking: ‘this will not be the end’.”

All ballet dancers in this RP live and breathe ballet, but Alina is in a realm of her own. I loved how you wrote her to be a ballet master, someone who would put aside their pride of being a "former prima ballerina" to now teaching a group of dancers because ballet is all that she is. Your muse sample really showed me the intense power of a woman who knows what she wants, and who she is — even if all she believes herself to be is something irrevocably intertwined with ballet. I'm very excited to see the relationship she forms with her dancers and with those who are from out of the Union. I'm particularly interested in her second plot development point and would love to explore that in game.

Abby playing Viktor Antonievich Vasylenko; the raconteur, pianist for the bolshoi ballet

No, Viktor had fashioned the resentment into an albatross of his own, hanging limp and heavy from his neck.

What can I say about Viktor other than I'm a fan. He's so gentle and yet so resilient, a mess of cacophonous sounds that melds into a beautiful sonata. There's pain in him, a ghost which lingers from his past, and while resigned to perhaps eternal disappointment he continues. I loved the way in which you developed his reason / background for being in the Bolshoi Theater when he himself could have been a star — still strives to be actually: but more resigned this time in his ambition. I loveee Viktor and I can't wait to see how he develops.  

     — 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘

Principal Dancer: Zinadia, Eva, Soloist: Hana, Yelena (tbd)* Corpse de Ballet: Yelena (dream) , Marilyn Violinist: Elizabeth Bodyguard: Fred Ballet Master: Alina Pianist: Viktor * still talking to writer about a few details.

[notdepressedjusttired]

Can you??? Answer??? All the Soft Asks??????

This is gonna take a while ;;;;;

🌸Blankets: Have you been in love?

Yes.

🌸Stuffies: How did you meet your best friend?

I have 3 of them??

My oldest friendship dates back to Kindergarten. His name is Joshua, he gave me a flower, and told me I was pretty. I still talk to and hang out with him. I tease him a lot because I’m older than him by 7 months but he’s like;;; 6’ tall? I love him with all my heart though. We’ve been through a lot of shit together.

My current IRL best friend I met my freshman year; her sophomore year of high school. We actually only passed by eachother during passing period, but we both had the same nerdy Doctor Who bag. I had said I like her backpack and she was about to say thanks, but she burst into laughter after she saw we had the same bag. A few weeks later we were both cast in our school’s first musical of the year and she hasn’t been able to get rid of me since. We’ve gone through almost too much together if I’m being honest…

My BEST FRIEND BEST FRIEND is @thighkyuu We met on here over a year ago after one of us was having a bad night; I can’t remember which, but we must have talked til like 4 AM. We bonded over Mysme, anime, music, our philosophies about life, our depression and anxiety ((fucked up as that may sound it’s true)), just all kinds of things. We’ve both been through our separate traumas over the course of that year, but we were there for eachother. She’s been my only constant over this year and I would do anything for her.

🌸Fluffy Pillows: What happened in your most recent dream?

Jesus, here comes my voltron obsessed ass.

Okay. So. Everyone knows that I love Keith, I’d do anything for him, so naturally we’re partners. “There is no way you two aren’t twins.” If I remember, I think Lance said that.

Anyway, in the dream, this was before they left Earth. Keith and I were in the shack going over our cork board filled with papers/files stolen from the Garrison, photographs of the strange markings on the cave wall, the rock formations in the desert, and all of this string; we’re covering the board trying to figure out what the hell pulled us out in the middle of the desert. All the sudden there was a flash of light and a huge BOOM. Naturally we both ran outside and saw an alien space craft entering the atmosphere. My first thought of course “I’m taking my hoverbike and explosives from the back.” “I’m taking mine to see what the fuck is in that ship.”

I set off the explosives and get the fuck out of there. It all goes as canon but I’m riding next to Keith on my hoverbike while he has 4 other people on his bike. Im dying from laughter and Keith just looks pissed but then we get to the cliff and we’re both ecstatic about it while 3 of the 5 on his bike scream in terror. The rest goes as canon but I’m tagging along and adding in my 2 cents in every now and again.

When we go to look for Red, Keith can’t get a clear feel for him. Keith knows the general area he’s going to be in but can not figure out which hangar Red is in. Suddenly theres like this ping in my head and I grab his upper arm and start pulling him to the hangar Red is in. We’re both relieved as fuck and Keith goes up to him and asks for entry and Red denies, I look over and see all the soldiers running toward us and start backing the fuck up. “RED OPEN THE FUCK UP!” still no entry, Keith opens the hangar door sucking everything out into space. We’re both freaking the fuck out cause what the hell do we do?! Red comes in. Keith is in the pilot’s seat; I’m standing next to him cause what else am I supposed to do??

Then I woke up.

🌸Scented Candles: How do you relax?

I watch voltron. Sketch Keith. Listen to music. Go on tumblr. You know anti-social fun stuff.

🌸Gem Stones: What’s your birthstone/favourite stone?

My birthstone is Garnet. It is also my favourite stone.

🌸Pyjamas: Describe your favourite pyjamas!

I dont wear pyjamas… I’m usually fully dressed or completely naked when I go to bed.

🌸Fuzzy Socks: What’s your favourite movie?

V for Vendetta. No competition.

🌸Kittens & Puppies: Name of your pet or your ideal pet?

Zarina Karina McBeana The Third. My bichon. She’s turning 11 this year *sniffles* they grow up so fast.

🌸Laughter: What’s the funniest joke you’ve heard?

My ex-boyfriend saying he’s sorry for everything he’s done to me and then asking for me back. I was clutching my fucking sides I was laughing so hard.

🌸Mittens: Do you like the snow?

❄I❄❄L❄O❄V❄E❄❄S❄N❄O❄W❄

🌸Hot Coco: What’s your favourite Starbucks drink?

Chai anything. I’m easy to please.

🌸Soft Kisses: Describe your OTP

We been makin shades of purple out of Red and Blue.

🌸Rainy Days: What do you do on a rainy day?

Sleep. Go on tumblr. Sleep more.

🌸Flower Petals: What’s your favourite flower?

Orchids because I too die if not given the proper attention.

🌸Cotton Candy: What’s your favourite candy?

Albanese Gummi Bears. It has to be Albanese or I will not eat them.

🌸Bubble Baths: Your favourite memory?

Turning around and seeing Sam’s face for the first time IRL at Kamicon a couple weeks ago.

🌸Wooly Scarfs: What song do you think relates the most to you?

Sick of losing soulmates by Dodie Clark. There are many kinds of soulmates. Friend soulmates, romatic soulmates, mentoring soulmates. And I’ve lost too many soulmates in my short life. I dont think I can handle losing any more…

🌸Roasted Marshmallows: Your camping with friends! Describe the forest you’re pitching your tent in.

We found a clearing in the thick of green woods next to a stream. The friendly scent of pine needles reminds me of home. Joshua is pitching tents. Mary Grace is chatting away with Abby and Tina about the mountain we’ve just climbed down. Sam and I find ourselves in the middle of the forest enjoying the smell of the dew drops in the grass as we collect kindle wood. Cosmo is tuning her ukulele when we finish the fire and set up camp. The evening begins creeping in as the sun starts to fade from view. We all stay in a comfortable silence as we look up at the stars and swirling nebula; listen to the sound of the gentle breeze and Cosmo lazily strumming “I can’t help falling in love with you” by Elvis Presley. The air is chilled but everything feels warm.

🌸Bird Songs: Name 5 things you love

Keith Kogane, friends/family, music, theater, sharp objects.

🌸Old Books: Do you read? If so, what’s your favourite book series?

I do read. My favourite book series continues to be the hunger games. My favourite solo book is The fault in our stars.

🌸Warm Hugs: Who would you love a hug from right now?

My choreographer Kristina Lewis… She took her own life 2 years ago… I’d do anything to bring her back and tell her how much I love her…

🌸Clouds: What’s the best shaped cloud you’ve seen?

It was the shape of a hippo! I was so excited.

🌸Fae: Describe yourself as a fairy

Little shit. Sets things on fire all the time. Makes people’s lives a living hell. Wears red and black clothes only. Definitely one of those fairys that have dragon kind of wings.

🌸Holding Hands: What was the name of your first love?

Daniel.

🌸Cupcakes: Favourite cupcake flavour?

Vanilla bean. I’m a very plan person.

🌸Tealights: Describe a romantic date perfect for you

At home, Pizza and candy boxes everywhere, blanket pile, lights off, movie marathon, cuddling, forehead kisses, raspberries being blown into the neck and cheek, smiles, giggling, flustered faces.

🌸Gardens: What’s the sweetest gift you’ve received

My tech teacher bought me these beautiful detail brushes ((for those of you who dont know I was head painter at my old school)). They’re my most treasured possessions.

[aurelliocheek]

The Making of A Juggler’s Tale

The development story of a student game project that won several awards.

When we started working on the idea of A Juggler’s Tale in Spring 2017, we never planned that this game would accompany us for over three years. Started as a student prototype that we created within a few weeks, we are currently founding our own game development company around it, are working together with a publisher and look forward to a release of the game on both PC and all the major consoles.

A Juggler‘s Tale is an atmospheric puzzle platformer centred around a puppet ­theatre play and the connection between string puppets and their puppet master. The player experiences the story of little Abby, an imprisoned circus artiste. She escapes the circus and gets to explore a fairytale world. After a brief moment of freedom, Abby finds herself dragged into the dangers the world has to offer: She has to cross raging rivers, bandit camps and traps, always ­accompanied by the lyrical rhymes of the narrator and puppet master.

The narrator plays a big part in the game because he gives all the puppets their voice and because he is responsible for the story the audience and player gets to experience. He talks about Abby‘s fears and helps her in difficult situations – while holding the strings of his puppet firmly in his ever-helpful hands. But things are getting more complicated when the player starts to interfere with the narrator‘s story. The player has to solve small, story-based riddles centered around the mystical puppet theatre setting. The puppet strings are not only a visual representation of the strong connection between narrator and puppet, but they are also our main gameplay mechanic, creating lots of unique puzzle moments. We wanted to link modern digital gaming culture with traditional, established t­heatre and poetry culture. Germany, our home country, can look back on centuries of fairy tales, poetry and drama. We grew up between these tales, legends and worlds – and combining these narratives with our love for story-driven games was our motivation to develop a game with this setting and story.

A Juggler’s Tale has a more modern, stylized artstyle.

Development Story We are all students of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, an internationally renowned university for film, animation and interactive media. Instead of having regular classes, our courses are centered around the projects many small student groups are currently developing, with lecturers being invited on demand. In one of these project phases (4 months) during our second year, we started developing the idea for ­A ­Juggler’s Tale – a game with five theatrical chapters, dozens of locations and puzzles. After realizing that we would never be able to create the game that we were aiming for within such a small project phase, we put all our energy into creating a vertical slice of one chapter, already including all the elements that we would like to have in the final game: the interactive narration, a few story-based puzzles, NPCs and great, stylized visuals. We were quite happy with the result – and after a year of other university projects, we had the opportunity to take a break year to get some working experience.

We decided to use this year to do a test run for a studio experience in this group with the help of our former lecturer Sven Bergmann. We were lucky enough to receive funding from the Digital Content Fund from Baden-Württemberg for this project, so we could rent an office in our hometown. During this one year, we gained a lot of team working experience and made big progress on the ­development of the game. At the end of the year, the game was in a state that we could confidently submit to a few festivals and award shows. And surprisingly we could not only win Germany’s main game award Deutscher Computerspielpreis as “Best Newcomer Prototype” but also six out of twelve possible awards at Game Connection Europe 2019 (Grand Award, Best Art, Best Narrative, Best PC, Best Upcoming, Best Casual). And we are nominated as “Best Student Game” at IGF Awards in San Francisco.

This took us by surprise and made us believe in the game even more – we are now finishing the production during our final year of university as a co-production between our company and the university and with the additional help of a publisher. Looking back at the past few years, we are just really happy how everything turned out and that we now are not only confident working together but also have the opportunity actually to bring this game to the market.

The camera limitations of a sidescroller made designing the final images of the game easier.

Working in a tiny team We worked on A Juggler’s Tale in a very small group, mainly consisting of only three students. Steffen was responsible for the story and narration design as well as the 3D Art, Enzio for core programming, shading and lighting and Dominik for gameplay design and programming as well as level art. But when you work in such a small team, it is quite natural that everyone is constantly changing roles. On the one hand, this creates a lot of creative variety. On the other hand, it is sometimes tough to focus on one important task, because there are so many things depending on various other things you need to do. For the final months of the project, Elias will join our team and help us with programming and art – and we also already got and will get a lot of external help from other fellow students, for example in the fields of music & sound, concept art, motion design and animation.

Finding a visual style Without a concept artist in our core team, finding a visual style was tough. We got inspired by various artists online and knew that we’d like to have a more modern, stylized look – but we also didn’t want to neglect the physical background of the string puppets. As the game is divided into several chapters, we had the idea to have a more realistic puppet theatre with wooden backdrops at the beginning and the end of each chapter. Once the player enters the chapter, the backdrops change into the stylized artwork – the player dives into the world of the puppet theatre, forgetting everything around it. Only the puppet strings remain there to remind the player of the connection between all the characters and the narrator. Although our theatre play takes place in medieval times, we didn’t want to go for the typical medieval look but fell in love with a much more colourful, modern style – sometimes, our sky is green or red, the grass purple, etc. Our environments should reflect the mood of the story and don’t follow any real-world rules.

We use our textures to save object types and color ­variations instead of the actual colors.

With our team’s more technical background, our art and level-art workflow has a more technical approach than usual. Instead of texturing, we decided to generate colour ID textures for all our assets with information saved in the meshes vertex ­colours as well as in every colour channel of the texture. After bringing all the saved information together in our shaders, we were able to create a system that we internally call colour volumes: Every asset uses the same colour collection that we can modify with placeable volumes in the engine. Similar to the Unreal Engine post-process volumes we can place colour volumes in our levels that gradually change the colour of the environment based on the player position. To bring an example, we can always use the same tree, but change its leaf colour based on the location of the main character in the level, enabling us to tell great looking ­atmospheric changes and giving us the flexibility to change the whole look of a level at the very end of the design process. Apart from the assets colour, our colour volumes also control the fog, light, wind, etc. of the environment, making it easy to do visual changes quickly and thereby enabling an ­iterative design workflow.

Animation workarounds Another problem we had to solve because of our team constellation was the animations of the game. Without a team member capable of doing proper animation, we had to find some creative solutions to get to our animations. We were lucky enough to be able to do professional mocap animation recording at our university, but most of our standard animations are actually from the online motion capture database Mixamo from Adobe. But instead of using a single animation, we often stitched multiple ­animations together with Blender to create the exact animation we need. This felt very clumsy at first, but over the course of the project, we became experts in finding and misusing parts of animations for our needs. Of course, this does not always work (and you can’t mocap everything), for specific animations we still had to do a lot of animations by hand, but we could reduce the animation work quite a lot. Apart from that, we use a lot of the Unreal Engines physical animation functionality to create a more string-puppet like movement. Usually, only 80% of the movement is driven by animation data and 20% is being simulated in ­real-time. This creates a very cute physical animation style, for example, when our main character Abby jumps, her arms and legs wiggle around in the air, and every jump looks and feels quite different.

The assets are being colorized within the engine, with our so called “Color Volumes”.

Our Narration Workflow The narrator tells a theatrical story and therefore uses poetic language to describe the environment, to give puzzle hints and to speak for all the characters: “Little Abby takes a pause and stops with a shiver / If you want to be free, you’ll have to cross the river! / If worse comes to worst, you can count on me / Those strings on your hands are wings, you see!” We wanted to have both English and German narration, so we had to find a way to this kind of poetry in both languages. We created a huge spreadsheet with detailed descriptions, dummy sentences and estimates of the length of the sentences. After that, a German writer (Manuel Ostwald) wrote our German narration with our feedback on the overall tone and style of the poetry. We were lucky enough also to know an English writer (David Maas) who lived in Germany for the last couple of years – he transcribed the German narration into beautiful English poetry. Of course, not all the sentences say the same thing in both languages, but with our description and the German text, David could create poetry that transported the same message or atmosphere as in the German version. The narrator in A Juggler’s Tale is omnipresent because of the interaction between the string puppets and narrator, so we put a lot of work into finding a narration style that is interesting to listen to but not annoying ­after a short time.

Most of the story and design work was done the oldschool way, on the walls of our office.

Finding a unique gameplay element We found out about our true “unique gameplay” when we were already pretty far in development, while programming and designing puzzles for chapter 4. It’s a chapter where the role of the player changes from passively running away to actively interacting with and challenging other string puppets. Because of the puppet strings, there is a lot of physical movement restriction in these kinds of puzzles – string puppets can’t hide under objects or can get stuck and the strings entangled. All these game mechanics sounded interesting, but we had to change the way our puppet strings work so that they actually could do these things. We programmed our version of a Cable Component in Unreal Engine that could do things like being ripped or being attached to multiple points. Suddenly, we saw a lot of new possibilities for puzzles in the earlier chapters, so we had and still have to iterate over these chapters again. Where we used to try to build the levels in a way that the character never walks beneath objects, we now plan to add more of these objects, using this physical restriction for a interesting story and puzzle moments. With our new puppet strings, we can also add a lot of nice little details like them getting entangled in the branches of a tree when the player walks beneath it, for example.

Our puppet strings can be attached to multiple actors in the scene.

The Future & Conclusion In the upcoming months, we will finish the level and puzzle design for the game and then concentrate on visual and gameplay polishing. The art for some chapters is still missing, the narration has to be rewritten at some points, and we still want to add a lot of details for attentive players to spot. There is a lot of work to be done, but with over a year of university left we are quite confident that we can bring the game to a level of quality that we are proud of. We can only encourage everyone in a similar situation as we were to believe in your project and team. For us, being able to find this team and working together at university – a place where you can experiment and try something out in a more controlled environment – was the biggest win we could have hoped for. We often overestimated our working capacity, and it took us quite a long time to find the right working structure and task distribution. But we are very happy we had these setbacks and failures, as we are only getting better in these things. We are excited about the future projects our small team will create and of course about the actual player feedback we will receive for our launch title – but until then, there is still a long – but fun and creative – way to go!

Dominik Schön Game Designer

Dominik started developing games when he was still in school. After being a game and level design intern in two major German studios (King Art, Mimimi Games) he started studying Interactive Media at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. In January 2020 he and his study friends founded the development studio kaleidoscube.

The post The Making of A Juggler’s Tale appeared first on Making Games.

The Making of A Juggler’s Tale published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[ignitingwriting]

Igniting Writing Fairy Tale Contest 2020, Submission by Lucy Wright

The Princess with the Dragons

 Once upon a time a young French princess was born and her name was Daniella. Her life was perfect in every way, but then her parents caught the plague. They had less than a year to live and now she would have to be queen. Yet the villagers were angry – she was only 12! They told her she was irresponsible and young and didn’t deserve to be queen.

When the monarchs died, they didn’t admit their mistake and she was mistreated. A sorceress named Abigail Lightheart came and saw what they were doing and cast a spell that when the princess reached the age of 17, she would stay 17 forever until the villagers learned to accept her and she ruled over their village.

But they didn’t learn and her seventeenth birthday came and went. The village was breaking down with no competent leader. Then one day the princess vanished; she was locked in a tower guarded by two dragons. The villagers realised their mistake and that she was their rightful ruler. They couldn’t get past the dragons, so she stayed locked up.

This tale was a favourite of the village, as they could see the top of the tower over the hill. Many people tried to get to her, but they all came back with nothing. Then, hundreds of years later, another prince decided to try his luck at getting to her. And that is where we begin.

To say Prince Pierre Mont-Clair of France’s Outskirts was hated was an understatement. He was detested and his subjects dread the day he’d become king. He rode into town on his horse, Victory, and made no time in making sure everyone knew of his presence.

“Where is the leader of this little hovel?” he asked a young woman, barely 19, who was buying some bread.

“I don’t know,” the woman replied. “I live in the woods. I’m just buying myself some food. Ask Oscar.”

He left her and asked around for ‘Oscar’ and eventually found him. He was the priest.

“Hello Oscar,” smirked Pierre. “I understand you know everything that goes on around here?”

“Oh yes,” Oscar smiled. “Come on in.”

Pierre looked; it was a church. Churches were awful in his eye; they were the root of evil.

“I would rather not,” he said, his voice dripping with disgust.

“Why not?” asked Oscar.

“Churches are awful places – they are made of stone and are so old and filled with stupid old men like you.”

He slowly became aware of the many people watching their conversation, most of the village were staring in horror.

“Who are you?” someone called out.

“Prince Pierre Mont-Clair of France’s Outskirts.”

The crowd murmured – they’d all heard of him but for all the wrong reasons.

“I am here to save Princess Daniella from her imprisonment. Which none of you could do, obviously. I guess you’re just weak.”

The villagers looked at him, their faces all offended. “That is offensive and rude. Normally we’d give people like you weapons and maps to save Daniella. But now…” someone yelled.

Pierre didn’t care; he was rich and so had the weapons he needed. He didn’t need these stupid slobs to help him. This village was awful and he didn’t want to stay there any longer. He needed to go, save Princess Daniella, marry her so he’d be married to a beautiful princess and rule over France.

He left Victory in a stable, grabbed his trusty sword and satchel full of food and walked away. He passed the woman from earlier again, it looked like she was the only one who hadn’t watched his conversation. She was buying books and gave him a tiny smile as he marched into the woods.

The trees were thick. Everywhere he turned was a canopy of green. It enveloped him and made him feel he was trapped in a green bubble. Birds fluttered around him, the only colour besides the green. He walked for many hours and slept for many more until, eventually, he reached a clearing. Everything inside this clearing had been burnt – the grass was burned away, the small flowers were burned away and even the branches that would’ve spread into it were burned away. Dragons.

Pierre could see the tower up ahead. It was close, but the dragon was closer. He saw it, a large mound of red with spikes encrusted down its spine like diamonds, its long tail curling round one of its paws, a worryingly large spike protruding out of its end. Its eyes were luminous; the yellow was enough to scare the bravest of men, yet it was sleeping. He slipped behind the dragon, reaching his sword high in the air, and he killed it with one swing of his sword.

That was when he noticed the second dragon, the sun reflected in its identically red skin. It was an identical twin of the first one, but awake. Clouds of fire puffed from its nostrils as it advanced slowly, closer and closer. It wasn’t trying to kill him, just ward him off so that he wouldn’t head to the tower.

Running backwards, Pierre hid himself in the trees. The dragon would be too big to follow him and it didn’t seem to want to kill him, just scare him off. That was when the dragon noticed the other body – it flared up, every diamond spike down its back bursting into flame. This dragon was angry and it certainly wanted to kill him now.

It burned down the trees, thumping its way over to him. So he ran, but made sure that he didn’t go too far from the castle. Then he heard something, the sound of water – a stream! He ran towards it, thinking that at least it would be protection from the fire. He dived in, keeping a firm grip on his sword, ready for the rampaging dragon.

It charged across the wood towards him, he reached up his sword and…it slipped and fell out of his hands, wedging itself between two rocks downstream. The dragon took its opportunity and let out a raging fire storm. Pierre dunked himself underwater and swam to where the sword was, he grabbed it but it was stuck! Soon he would have to come up for air, so he tugged and tugged. The dragon was practically above him; it would be now or never. Pierre wrenched the sword from the stone’s firm grip and thrust it upward. The dragon let out a roar of anguish and sunk to the floor, dead.

Pierre climbed out of the river and dried himself off with a flame which was still going. He then took off towards the tower with no obstacles in his way. He looked up at the tower – it was strangely beautiful, with flowers and ivy growing up the sides and a little door at the bottom with a sign reading ‘Home Sweet Home’. He pushed the door open carefully and entered. There was a cleverly constructed pulley-system which acted as a lift for him. When he reached the top, he found himself in a friendly looking kitchen. The princess stood at the other end, cooking something.

“Hey Abby,” she said, not turning, “I thought you were going to get back this evening.”

“I’m not Abby…” Pierre replied cautiously

The princess turned – she looked confused. “Oh… how did you get in?”

“The front door,” Pierre said.

She looked at him inquisitively and gestured to a seat and sat on the one opposite.

“You do not seem upset…” Pierre asked, carefully sitting down. He’d expected a maiden throwing herself at him rather than this cool and collected girl, who seemed to be wearing trousers.

“Why’d I be upset?”

“You’ve been imprisoned in this tower,” Pierre said.

“Who told you that?”

Pierre repeated the whole story to her and was surprised when she laughed at the end.

“You… believed… that?” she laughed hysterically, “I disappeared 342 years ago, stories change! Abby and I were best friends; we were the only red-heads in the village! I asked for the spell to be put on me to teach everyone a lesson. Abby goes out every weekend to get supplies for us.”

Pierre thought back and remembered the young girl who had told her about Oscar, that was Abby. It was becoming clear now, but not in a good way. It was like un-fogging your car’s windscreen to find that you’re driving off a cliff.

“And the tower with the dragons…” Pierre murmured.

“All me,” she grinned, “I asked Abby to do it. Also, that legend is wrong; my name isn’t Daniella. It’s Dan, short for Daniella, but never call me that.”

“Tell me all about it.”

Dan smiled, “My life wasn’t great, my parents died of the plague and everyone hated me for being young. I wanted to teach them a lesson, so I asked my friend Abby to cast a spell that I would never be old enough to rule, knowing she could reverse it at any time. But they were too stubborn – I grew to enjoy being 17, but I couldn’t live with their torture. Then I read two books, called Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel, one about a French princess and the other about a tower. So I asked for another favour, Abby made a tower with two friendly dragons and I’ve lived here for 314 years. People have tried to break me out, but Ruby and Scarlett ward them off.”

Pierre nodded nervously; he wished he’d never listened to the legend.

“I’ve never asked what you’re doing here,” Dan realised. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve… come to save you.” Pierre said, instantly regretting it.

Dan flared up immediately. “WHAT!” she screamed. “Why on earth did Ruby and Scarlett let you through?”

She ran to the open window and screamed into the day; “RUBY! SCARLETT! COME RIGHT NOW, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU! GET THIS STUPID PERSON OUT OF HERE!”

There was no beat of wings, or snort of even a rustle. She leaned out and saw the two hulking bodies, lying in the woods. She turned; Pierre had never seen this sort of rage before. Dan was deadly.

“You are so lucky that Abby’s at the market,” she hissed, grabbing a large book, “because now I’ve got to kill you the old-fashioned way.”

She hurled the book across the room. He ducked and ran to the door. As he jumped into the lift, lots of potato peelings rained down on him. He then ran out of the door and Dan swiftly followed, clutching the biggest frying pan he’d ever seen. She chased him through the woods and out into the village. Every time Dan got close, she would whack him with her pan. The villagers came out and watched them. They seemed to be mocking him, so Pierre ran and never looked back.

So, what happened to everyone?

Well, Dan became queen and learned that opinions do change. She lived a long and happy life.

The two dragons, Ruby and Scarlett, were resurrected by Abby and protected the village from all of the invaders that would come in the next years.

Pierre, much to everyone’s disappointment, became King of France’s Outskirts. Although three years later he would be overthrown and his worthy brother, Diego, would be crowned.

As for Abby, she settled down and became a writer, but her favourite was a history book she’d written. She named it ‘The Princess with the Dragons’ and she knew exactly how to start it. Once upon a time, a young French princess was born, and her name was Daniella. She hopes you enjoyed it!

[katherinenoble]

Hello!

I’ve skipped a couple weeks to last week – Abby has arrived and we’re in Texas. She flew into San Antonio (so did I- I flew with Southwest and there was a cracking crew they were a laugh and I actually enjoyed (!) a flight). We stayed in a really cute Airbnb and then headed out for some food – I had a burger and Abby a salad (!!!!). Guess who’s was nicer… I have got to say though I honestly have never eaten as many burgers in my LIFE as I have had in the US. I’m not even really a fan of them at home, it’s the brainwashing happening again! San Antonio has a really really cute riverwalk that tracks miles and miles of the river that runs right the way through the city. We started walking by the river for a while and then after 5 minutes realised we were MUCH too hot but had to keep going… FINALLY reached the point we were aiming for – lots of cute bridges and bars and LOADS of tourists and drank about 4 pints of water at a cute table by the river.

So next day we got a bus down to the missions a little further down the river (not due to the heat – this was actually very far!!!). San Antonio has a bunch of these missions which were set up by the Spanish to convert Native Americans into Catholics and change their name, practices, customs… It’s a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. The churches are still in great condition and a couple are even still used. We walked down the river to the second (literally learning nothing apparently…) and arrived a couple of sweaty messes. It’s very beautiful and reminded me a lot of European old churches. We bussed it back up to downtown and had a look around some more, grabbed some pizza and checked out the market. It was basically a Latino market with a singer, loads of stalls, lots of South American food and the kind of stuff for sale I’ve seen in Mexico etc.

  Making it to civilisation along the river

  Mission #1

Misson #2 (hiding her exhaustion)

Market

We ended our last day in San Antonio at this very very cool bar/restaurant on the river that was basically made up of two storage containers where you order food or beer and then a couple of sheets of corrugated iron that sort of gave it a bit of a roof and some framing. There were big swings overlooking the river and picnic benches and fairy lights everywhere. It was extremely popular and the food was incredibly good. A strong end.

The next stop: Austin! I’ve been excited about going to Austin for months and months- literally everyone I’ve spoken to about has said that it’s one of their favourite cities in the world. We stayed at a hostel that was right in the centre of downtown (the main bit!). Half a block away was 6th street – totally full of bars and restaurants that at night literally all have live music in. Also a weird thing about Austin is that there are food trucks absolutely everywhere selling all types of food. We got a burger and walked over the river and then through a lovely lovely park in the sun. It was a Sunday so everyone in Austin was walking their dog and goodness me Austin has some cute dogs. Abby seems to have realised she’s big into dogs so what with the sweatiness of us both and the need to point out every single dog in the park it took a large chunk of the day to eventually arrive at Barton Springs. It’s an area where everyone can swim/hire kayaks/paddle boards so it was very busy this hot Sunday afternoon. Abby and I found refuge in a nearby restaurant that sells purple ‘Ritas’ that contain Everclear – a spirit so strong it’s banned in a bunch of states — the place has a warning saying you’re only allowed 2..! We didn’t actually have one – I think we were worried we’ll fall asleep and not make it back to actually check into our hostel.

Anyway – we actually managed it and had a rest up before checking out some of the bars nearby. There really was live music in every single one- and it was a Sunday night..! Pretty cool.

Your favourite travellers ever so slightly glammed up

View from the park looking across to Downtown Austin

The heat was getting to us (ps go heels!)

What a poser

A place to swim!! But nothing to swim in…

Next day we had a tour of the Capitol – Austin is the capital of Texas so we had a tour around the building – it’s red! – and could see where the senators get together. After we walked (!) up to the campus for the University of Texas. It’s so beautiful. We snuck into the stadium too to have a look and wow it was large. Obviously UT orange has got nothing on Carolina blue but it was impressive all the same. We also had a look around the Lyndon Johnson library/museum which was genuinely super interesting. I didn’t know anything about LBJ really – except from what Dad has told me from his RIDICULOUSLY long books on the man – so it was a great exhibit to actually know what he did. He did seem like a particularly scary kind of man though. There was literally a place where you could take a photo with a cardboard cut out of LBJ being all intimidating. Although we LOVED Ladybird Johnson’s office and basically everything she wore.

The Capitol

Abby + LBJ (I)

The LBJ library – all the documents – they go on forever

Abby + LBJ (II)

Katie + LBJ

Texas Longhorns (go heels!)

That evening we went to the coolest cinema I have literally ever been to. You get a seat in these really comfy chairs and there’s a menu and you can order basically anything you want and they bring it out to you. I had a very strong g&t and Abby a milkshake – but we could have had cocktails, wine, WINGS, mac & cheese, salads, a whole variety of popcorn flavours – so much stuff! Even whilst the movie is on you can write down what you want and pop it up in front of you and someone comes along and takes it. We saw Wonder Woman which I really enjoyed (maybe it was the gin) but they do other theme nights – like the night before had been a Dirty Dancing SING-A-LONG NIGHT like literally they were doing themed drinks (watermelon obv) and encouraged everyone to sing along or speak along with it… Literally amazing.

We spent the next couple of days looking around Austin – walking about in ridiculously hot sun – seeing some really cool neighbourhoods- there was one street that was just a bunch of amazing bars that all looked like someone’s house and you sit in their garden! We also went with the hostel one night to Blues on the Green. It’s a free music festival held once a month during the summer in the evening. You can bring beer and sit on the grass. There were literally thousands and thousands of people there, it was amazing.

Exploring

Continued

Realising we’d taken a long sunny route

Oh dear

Found the ice tea and cupcakes though

Sunset rooftop pool

Austin at night

Next stop was a fleeting visit through Houston. Not a whole lot to report- we went to a lovely cocktail bar, stayed in a lovely hostel in a great area (literally a beautiful residential neighbourhood) and found my FAVOURITE supermarket in the US. I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting but honestly, supermarkets out here are literally appalling. They either have zero fresh anything and just sell cans or snacks or they are a fancy pancy vegan paleo gluten free extreme ridiculousness market that sells ONLY organic stuff at extortionate prices – so I was fairly excited by a regular supermarket where we could buy NORMAL THINGS! – including Marmite and Ribena, that I sadly resisted. Also our trip was my first Megabus experience in a while – I had taken a Megabus from DC back to Chapel Hill a while back and it was FULLY HORRIBLE but they made it up this time, just. Although I genuinely think Greyhound is way better… they get such a bad rep!

Obama wall

Sun setting in Houston

We flew out of Houston very early (VERY EARLY) the next morning to New Orleans. Another Southwest flight, which I love. We got to New Orleans at maybe 8:30am and took a couple of long buses into the centre – we were staying in a hostel in the French Quarter. The outskirts of New Orleans looked like literally every other town in the US – lots and lots of chains and big roads and not much else. But the French Quarter is beautiful – narrow streets and lots of lovely balconies and steel railings and music literally everywhere. We got breakfast in the Music Legends Park – there was a small square with a cafe and a live band – at 10am on a Saturday morning! We spent the day looking around the French Quarter- went to the French Market which sold things like alligator on a stick and catfish to voodoo dolls, jalapeno pineapple jam, gumbo and pecan praline – a New Orleans special which tastes like really sugary fudge with a bunch of pecans in.

That evening we headed out to Bourbon St, which is this fairly gross street with lots of bars on that always smells totally rank (all day every day apparently). We tried the New Orleans special – the hurricane which is made up of rum and its totally and utterly disgusting, it’s so sweet and tastes like maraschino cherries pureed and poured over half a bottle of rum before heading across the street to the DUELING PIANO BAR which I thoroughly enjoyed – 80’s hits and classics all requested songs that the pianists JUST KNEW how to play. It was pretty cool.

At this point Abby is going to write about what she thought of New Orleans which is super exciting (not just because it means I can write less teehee). I’m going to figure out how to make her bit look different HOLD ON HERE…….

So we arrived in New Orleans at about 8am after getting up to catch the flight from Houston at 4am, it was pretty early for us. After dropping off our bags we decided to wander a little, look about, and we stumbled across this really sweet little courtyard with a cafe, bar and outdoor tables. Despite being only about 10am at this point, there was a little jazz band playing – it felt very ‘New Orleans’.

After that our day generally consisted of the same, pottering about French quarter. New Orleans is so incredibly cool. We spend hours, tiredly walking about and still managed to love it. The little streets were full of art galleries, antique shops and bits and bobs and one street was even closed off so that artists could come set up shop and play in the afternoon. 

The building and the streets are gorgeous, they all looked just as they did in the films and television, just how New Orleans should – we couldn’t take enough photos of balconies and hanging ferns. In Jackson Square we stumbled upon a great Jazz band bustling, complete with Tuba – the atmosphere was incredible!

The next day we got up for our walking tour. It was very hot, very humid, vaguely unmanageable but manage we did and we even got there early. This walking tour was great, our guide told us so much fascinating history like, for example, that due to the education provided to women by nuns in the city, in the 1830s, free women of colour made up the largest class which owned their own business! Our guide called the city one of the few matriarchal places in the country at that time as this education was provided for men so only the rich few could afford that, whereas the women thrived – it all sounds very exciting. Anyway, so we pottered about some more, learning about the different developments of architecture from the French and Spanish colonisers, it was a very interesting tour.

Later on, we had a look at the Hurricane exhibit in one of the main museums. It had a big section on Katrina of course, which was incredibly interesting but also obviously very sobering, I couldn’t get over the fact that it was so recent and had such an impact. There was a large section on how the communities came together to rebuild their homes and retain their culture, very moving.

Sticking to the tourist activities we headed to Cafe du Monde later on and got some beignets – tasty but far too much icing sugar! (Katie told me off for trying to brush some off). Also pottered along the river and saw the holocaust memorial which is basically a bunch of panels with some patterns on that all look different from different angles, representing different aspects of the Holocaust I believe.

Later still we headed to Frenchmen’s Street which is famous for live bands. We settled into one place after struggling to choose for a while (too much choice New Orleans!) and watched this great band do sort of synthy funk (I’m 100% guessing here), complete with keyboard and trumpet solos. It was very enjoyable, the band leader kept finished each song saying ‘yes indeed, yes indeed’ in a proper Louisiana accent which was great – I even had a little dance and we bought their CD. Everyone who we saw performing seemed to be from New Orleans which was very cool also, supporting local artists and such.

The next day we set off to the WWII Museum which is boasted best in New Orleans and 4th best in the country! It was a very impressive museum to be fair to them, the time flew by. Alongside all the in-depth exhibits which were particularly interesting as from a US perspective so not one we were so used to, they gave us each an interactive card which was our ‘dogtag’. With that we were linked up the story of one particular person and through the exhibits we could check in on machines to see where they were and what they were up to at the time – we could even keep the cards and look back on the website when we got home! Whole new level of museum if you ask me.

After that we pottered on to the Garden District which was basically founded I think by rich Europeans coming over after French Quarter was taken over by Americans after the independence. The Garden District has some of the most incredible houses I’ve ever seen, all verandas and balconies and such – entirely gorgeous.

Overall, I absolutely LOVED New Orleans. I think this may be because, in a sort of European way, it’s set up (at least in the Centre) so that everything’s near each other will just small streets between, unlike the usual massively spread out cities I’d seen in Texas. The atmosphere is so great, you can hear different live music about every 10 metres. Despite being a proper party city with people carrying about huge plastic cups and bowls of cocktails from about 11am, and smelling *questionable* to say the least in some areas, it wasn’t rowdy and unpleasant, it was really lovely to walk around. I think I’m a bit obsessed, I won’t lie to you, and this is even without being old enough to do the classic Saturday night drinking on Bourbon Street!

Bourbon St

Muffuletta – a New Orleans speciality – basically a VERY stuffed sandwich

Abby + beignet

Warehouse District

Garden District

Abby in the Garden (District)

Streetcar from Garden District to French Quarter!

Beignets!!

MEMPHIS! After another 4 hour train journey – less relaxing this time BUT we did discover there are FOOT RESTS you can pull up so it was intensely comfortable (I think we were just more bored) – we arrived into our penultimate city. The hostel we’re staying at is a church, sort of. It’s run by the church and we’re in the building next to it. But it seems really great so far – they leave out pancake mix for you to make your own pancakes in the morning and that’s a big win from me.

Today Abby and I explored Memphis. We went on a sweaty bus ride – it’s really not that hot but it’s still so humid, I was wearing jeans and unexpectedly warm… Our first stop was Sun Studio – the studio where Elvis was first recorded by Sam Phillips. It’s only about 3 rooms but they do tours and our tour guide was great- super informative and funny. I didn’t know a whole lot about Sun Studio or Elvis for that matter so it was really interesting. It’s also the place that Johnny Cash recorded for the first time and where Jerry Lee Lewis recorded Great Balls of Fire (which then Abby and I had stuck in our head for the rest of the day). They even had one microphone left which Elvis had used – one of the old school silver ones – it doesn’t work anymore though sadly, although the recording studio itself is still in use.

Before a quick Cuban lunch we popped into the Peabody Hotel. So back in March the Final Four for the basketball was held in Memphis and there was a video we all saw of Roy Williams, the head basketball coach at UNC, herding some ducks down a red carpet. It was pretty random at the time but apparently it’s almost a century-long tradition at the Peabody Hotel after a couple of ducks were taken from the hunt and put in the fountain in the middle of the hotel. Nowadays at 11am and 5pm the ducks are still marched down a red carpet… and they live in the water fountain during the day and go home to a nearby farm at night. It’s incredibly random. Anyway…

After lunch we walked down a (very quiet) Main St towards the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is in the actual building that once was the Lorraine motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was killed. There were fascinating photos capturing the civil rights movements in the 60’s and then lots of amazing exhibits documenting African American history – from slavery to the Civil War, to Martin Luther King Jr to the African influences in American culture today. It was very sad but incredibly interesting – especially as they have set up the motel room where MLK stayed so it looks exactly how it looked when he died. It makes you realise just how recent all of this was – segregation was only ruled as unconstitutional in 1953 – but segregation continued across the south for a couple of decades after that.

As we left the museum the tropical storm arrived. I had my trusty UNC raincoat – Abby got wet. Teehee. We headed to the Bass Pro Pyramid, an utterly RIDICULOUS place – it’s basically a shopping centre for outdoors-y stuff, so, guns, fishing stuff, hunting stuff, clothing, BOATS. But the whole place has been turned into this weird themed place – there are stuffed animals everywhere and ponds and weird fake trees just about everywhere you look. Fake trees! You can even get in the weird neon lift and see the view from the top of the pyramid (we didn’t – it was really grim rain at this point!). We headed back to our hostel & went for some incredibly tasty pizza and watched a bit of the NBA draft – which I really didn’t understand at the beginning but now I have some strong thoughts on the Sacramento team.

Ducks in the Peabody hotel fountain!

Lorraine motel – how it looked when MLK was shot on that 2nd floor balcony

Soggy

Paradise……….

Our ‘historically hip’ neighbourhood

Anyway! This has been INCREDIBLY long, congratulations for making it until the end. I only have a week left in the US now. It’ll be lovely to get home but I’m going to miss it an awful lot.

Lots of love!

Katie (& Abby!) xxx

  Texas to Louisiana to Mississippi to Tennesee (feat. Abby!) Hello! I've skipped a couple weeks to last week - Abby has arrived and we're in Texas.

[agosnesrerose]

A St. Patrick’s Day Trip to Ireland!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day I asked my good friend and photographer Sarah Winchester to write about her recent trip to Ireland.  She and her family had the exquisite honor of staying at one of the most incredible properties in Ireland and her pictures are too good not to share with you all! – Erin (Go Braugh!)

  Last summer my family and I had a true fairy tale vacation…we went to Ireland and stayed in a castle! A real life castle- Ashford Castle. This place is all your Downton Abby fantasies come to life…on steroids. The medieval castle dates back to 1228, but there is nothing archaic about this place. The Wikipedia page on the history of the castle is here  but let me tell you about our trip in my own words.

Two years ago the entire castle underwent a major renovation. Every inch of the place was meticulous restored, renovated and furnished; marble bathrooms, historic oil paintings, gorgeous antique furniture and decor, and silk wall coverings in every guest room (my two-year old may or may not have put a milk stain on one…) The property covers 350 acres with multiple gardens, woods, a clay pigeon shooting course, stables and a falconry school. Yes, a falconry school!

Front entrance complete with refurbished Land Rover fit for the queen and the friendly doorman Patrick, who also recommend a great restaurant in Dublin owned by is cousin of course.

Irish wolf hound statues guard the front. While real wolfhounds, Cronan and Garvan lounge in the great hall each morning after their walk, because what is an Irish castle without an Irish Wolfhound or two.

THE INTERIORS

As I said, the entire castle underwent a major renovation and restoration 2 years ago and no detailed was spared. They even have a line of wellies in every size at the front door…because this is Ireland after all.

The great hall and corridors are complete with a chess set fit for a Lord (my little Lord) and formal oil paintings of your dogs…as one does. Not to mention a gorgeous billiards room, bar, wine cellar, spa and movie theater. The place literally had EVERYTHING!

My parents room was located in the original Gothic wing of the castle and had the most amazing decorative pieces. Malachite obelisks and fish eye eagle mirror for the win!

Our room, was in the newest wing because we needed an adjoining door to the kids room, but it was no less spectacular. Silk wall coverings with matching canopy bed, antique caned bench and a painting of Lord Fancypants to watch over it all.

THE GARDENS AND WOODS

We spent our days wandering the grounds, exploring the gardens, playing in the old ruins and “hunting for dragons” in the woods. The kids just ran wild. It was wonderful. (Warning, upon arrival, awaiting each child on their bed was a robe, slippers, cookies and plastic sword. Giving a 2 and 4 year old a sword in a castle filled with antiques and Waterford Crystal gave me a slight hear attack so we tried to regulate sword usage to outside only. Let just say we helped chop many a boxwood.)

ACTIVITIES

We were there for 5 days which gave us plenty of time to soak in all that beauty and try a few activities as well.

The stables were just a short walk away and filled with sweet ponies. Ridding on an Irish estate really completes the castle dream, no? I fear I have ruined my daughter for life. This place is like Disneyland but for real. “Not every trip is going to be like this honey.”

Not to miss out on other Downton Abby type activities, we tried out hand at clay pigeon shooting. My sister and I did our best to play the part…lets just say, she is the Mary and I am the Sybil And our instructor, Tim, was wonderful and looked everybit the part in his wool and tweed.

Also on the property is Ireland’s School of Falconry! Yes, basically real life Hogwarts. We didn’t do the private hawk walk but we did pop in and visit the birds. Hawks, falcons, owls, you name it. I kinds of wish we had done it, but as spoiled as we are we literally couldn’t do everything.

VILLAGE OF CONG

Not to be forgotten is the darling Village of Cong. A short walk from the castle there are some pubs, a few book stores, shops and some old Abby ruins. The1952 movie The Quiet Man staring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, was filmed there. With the addition of a gas station or two, not much has changed. There isn’t even an ATM. My sister and I loved getting up early to take a walk through the woods to town and then back to the castle for breakfast. Again… living out our Downton Abby fantasies.

Hope y’all enjoyed my trip to Ireland. I know we sure did. Slainte and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all.

-Sarah Winchester All photos ©Sarah M Winchester

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Planar Chaos: Chapter Thirteen

 Preparations

After Odom left for his appointment with Niv Mizzet, it was time for Ashleigh to feed little Abby.

"I'm curious," Sverre said, peering over Ashleigh's shoulder at the abomination, "what does it eat?"

"At the moment, we're feeding it a concoction similar to what Maelstrom Wanderer eats. It seems to like it." She placed a glowing syringe next to the creature's beak. The shimmering liquid was squeezed into its mouth, then the syringe was refilled from a large beaker several more times before the creature refused any more.

"Are any of its abilities emerging?" Sverre asked.

"We'll know more as it grows and gets larger. I think it's going to be able to fly. Abby's got vestigial wings, but they might grow to be big enough to support it." Ashleigh flipped the creature onto its belly and extended one leathery wing. The beginnings of a crest of feathers could be seen on its skull, snaking their way along its spine to the tail. The seven tentacles twitched and writhed, trying to find purchase on Ashleigh's lap.

"I certainly hope it grows fast," Sverre said. "We might need a trump card if we're going to access that research before the others get there."

"I think you have a trump card already, dear," Oona said, crawling from her hiding place inside Sverre's hood. As soon as the arguing started, she'd taken refuge inside her king's cloak, not daring to come out until some semblance of a tranquil atmosphere had been achieved. She sat elegantly on Sverre's shoulder, looking into the eyes of her former champion as she did so.

Ashleigh almost dropped the abomination in her lap. Her jaw dropped so far that it would have, if it were capable of doing so, hit the floor.

"Oo-Oona?" she stammered. The Queen of the Fae just smiled politely.

"But," Ashleigh's mind was reeling more than usual. The combination of the ever present voices and the shock was too much. When she spoke, she looked at the creature in her lap, not at Oona. "You died. I saw... and Maralen, she... Lorwyn is... How?" Her face turned dark. She looked up at Sverre accusingly. "You!"

"Not me." Sverre held up his hands in a non-threatening gesture. "Well, kind of me. But no resurrection at all. We made a clone, secreted Oona away. She's been living with me on Helheim ever since as my queen."

"You didn't think to tell me?" Ashleigh narrowed her eyes.

"To be fair, I'm not exactly welcome on Innistrad, and you did a pretty good job of holing yourself up there."

"Not exactly welcome? The whole place is filled with Ghoulcallers and Stitchers. You'd fit right in."

"Sorin would have it a different way," Sverre said sheepishly.

"What could you have possibly done to make the lord of Innistrad that angry at you?"

"I may or may not have tried to resurrect a dark angel at some point. Avacyn got angry and dragged Sorin into the conflict."

"Well it's a good thing you never tested your luck. The angels have gone mad. Everyone is a target for their purification now. My house is testament to that." Ashleigh sighed. "But how is Oona our trump card?"

"As Queen of the Fae, I've found that I command the respect and obedience of every fairy on every plane I've visited with Sverre so far. My influence stretches farther than our enemies could imagine. We can easily pick their plans from their dreams as well." Oona fluttered over to Ashleigh, placing a tiny hand on the woman's cheek. "You were so young when we parted, but it makes me happy to see you've made a new family for yourself."

"I was alone for a while, you know," Ashleigh said grimly. "I had to be. Maralen, she did something to me. I don't know what it was."

"May I?" Oona asked. When Ashleigh nodded hesitantly the Queen of the Fae slipped inside her mind, searching through her dreams for a cause.

"I can't be sure that Maralen didn't have powers I couldn't control. This torment might be her doing, but it might be a natural response to the changes on Lorwyn. With the daily cycle reinstated, the denizens could very well have daily fluctuations in their mannerisms. You are not of Lorwyn, but lived there long enough to be bound to its magics." Oona drew her hand away. "Unfortunately there is nothing I can do."

"It's fine, Oona," Ashleigh looked back down at the gray abomination in her lap. It returned her adoring gaze. "Abby does enough."

0000

"You guys go back to wherever you're going to be, I'll catch up." Sa'Raah broke from her group and headed in the direction she thought the main Izzet laboratory complex would be. Her comrades knew of her plans to speak to the Firemind, to bring him to her cause, and they were more than a little skeptical.

"Good luck, Sa'Raah," Kyari said, still keeping a firm grasp on Brock's wrist. They watched as the dragon girl faded into the crowded Ravnica streets.

"I don't understand why you're going to let them keep that thing," Brock said. The vein in his forehead still throbbed with frustration.

"And I don't understand what your obsession with destroying it is. It's an innocent creature, and a completely new life form. Aren't you the least bit curious?" Kyari said.

"No, I'm not. And that thing is not innocent. It was born from evil and will be raised by evil. I told Marthel her influence over Odom worried me, and now he'll see why."

"I'll see what?" Marthel ghosted up beside them in his white cloak.

"You'll understand exactly why the Voidcaller and that thing have to be destroyed for good, for the protection of the entire multiverse. You'll see why we can't let anyone else have that research because they'll misuse it," Brock said emphatically.

"So you want to hide the truth from people?" Marthel asked. "For the greater good? Isn't that what your master did? Isn't that why Narset got thrown out of the Ojutai, because she sought knowledge and wanted to share it?"

"I'm all for peace and the greater good, I just can't see why you have a vendetta against someone that hasn't done anything yet. You need patience, Brock, maybe then you'll understand your enemy and have the means to turn her into an ally." Kyari switched from a vise grip on Brock's wrist to calmly holding his hand.

"I don't want to ally myself with someone that mentally unstable," Brock retorted. "And you sound just like the Soratami, Kyari. I'm sorry. I'm human. I won't live as long as an elf, so I can't exactly have your level of patience. If there is a threat, I have to take it out immediately and they're all threats now, Sverre, Odom, and the Voidcaller."

"How many times have I ever heard you refer to her by name?" Marthel asked. "Because I think I can count them on one hand."

"What does it matter? You of all people should understand what her magic can do, Mathel. You saw what happened to Bant when the Conflux happened. You can't tell me she's any different from the creatures of Grixis that spilled over and defiled your home." Brock threw his hands up, breaking Kyari's grasp.

"I do understand," Marthel said darkly. "Nobody understands more than I do, Brock. When I said the multiverse is my home, I meant it. I've been just about everywhere there is to go, studied everything I could, and learned what I could from every creature I've encountered. You might say that corrupted me, made me selfish and gave me a bit of a temper, but I think it's made me a well rounded person. I understand people. I can help you understand her, if you so desire. If you don't, then we might have a problem in the future. I'm not taking sides in this conflict of yours. I don't want to see my friends tear each other apart over something that might not even be as important and world-shifting as we think it could be. You and Kyari and Sa'Raah can try to get there first, but unless you can work like a team, the kind of team Sverre, Ashleigh, and Odom have, where you're united by your goal, then you won't get very far."

"What exactly does that mean?" Brock asked defiantly. "Kyari agrees with me, we need to keep the research out of the hands of people who would misuse it."

"Brock," Kyari said, "it's not just that goal. I want to amass knowledge, to understand the world and how it grows and changes over time. I could have joined the gatewatch if I wanted to. I could have fought the eldrazi, but fighting them doesn't lead to understanding. That understanding is for the greater good, but I did something you saw as unequivocally bad. Does that make sense?"

Brock opened his mouth to speak, but Kyari cut him off. "I wasn't finished. Sa'Raah's entire worldview is centered around dragons being the superior life form. Whether or not she's right, I can't say. I haven't studied enough dragons yet. But I can tell that you don't think so. You want everyone to be free to determine their own paths, but at the same time you would prevent people you think are 'evil' from doing so. Is Sa'Raah evil because she believes her path to be the Envoy of Dragonfire? We know her. We can agree that she's incredibly kind, one of the nicest walkers I've ever met, but your obsession with preserving the current order skews your ability to accept change. The multiverse is like an ecosystem. Planes have life cycles. They're born, they grow, they die. How are we to decide what is natural and unnatural?"

"We're not." Marthel answered for Brock. "That's the problem we keep running into."

"But," Brock began.

"No buts. There's something you need to see." Marthel grabbed Kyari and Brock by the hand and planeswalked with them to the very first plane he visited upon hatching this plan.

They went to Innistrad.

"Be quiet. Don't make any sudden movements. And whatever you do, don't pray," Marthel instructed.

They were hiding in a bush on the outskirts of a town. Brock felt a strange buzzing in his mind, but ignored it in favor of what was going on in front of him.

Angels, with bloodstained wings, were descending on the township and destroying everyone they saw, from elder to child, even the crying infants in their mother's arms who couldn't understand why those pretty women with wings who decorated the walls of their homes were suddenly so terrifying. Blasts of light rained down from a dark haired angel with a staff. Another one with flaming red hair gutted people on the ground with her twin swords. Other angels followed their lead, corralling the townsfolk and murdering them with twisted expressions of rage and glee.

"Impure!" the lead angels cried in unison. "In the name of Avacyn, we destroy you! Innistrad will be cleansed. Cleansed!"

The other angels followed suit with indecipherable shrieks that occasionally morphed into the words "Impure! Tainted! All men must die!"

"What is going on here?" Brock breathed in horror. "What did this town do to deserve its fate?"

"Absolutely nothing," Marthel responded softly. "The angels have been corrupted by their purpose. They've taken it to the extreme. Without humans, there would be no Ghoulcallers, Stitchers, demon cultists, vampires, werewolves, or any other evil force on Innistrad. So if the seeds of men are tainted, you destroy the seeds before they take root. Do you understand now what we've been trying to tell you?"

"They aren't wrong, though," Brock said. His voice took on a dreamlike quality. The buzzing in his mind grew louder. "They're being proactive about a threat, which is what I'm trying to do."

"Destroying innocent lives isn't something either of us can condone, Brock, you know that," Marthel placed a calming hand on Brock's arm and stared deep inside of Brock with his dark eyes. "I know what you're feeling right now, and you have to fight it. Fight it or you'll end up like them, twisted monsters, a shadow of what they once were."

"Please, Brock," Kyari shifted to kneel in front of him, embracing him and burying her face in his chest. "You need to see."

Brock instinctively wrapped his arms around Kyari, subconsciously protecting her from the corrupted angels. Part of him knew something was wrong with the image, but he couldn't figure out what. The cool touch of Kyari's hands on his temples brought him back to himself. He saw the carnage in front of him for what it was. Senseless slaughter of innocent lives by beings that were supposed to protect them from the evils present on Innistrad. They were the light that had now fallen into shadow. Brock felt as though he was going to be sick.

"We need to leave," Marthel said. "They spotted us." All warmth had drained from his dark face, leaving it ashen.

They planeswalked, back to Ravnica where Sa'Raah would certainly be waiting.

0000

"So what's our plan," Vilhelm asked Rinok and Rhyne as they wandered the streets of Ravnica. "How are we going to go about getting this research and using it to wage eternal war or whatever?" The act was getting difficult to keep up. Vilhelm didn't see himself as a team player, but he now had at his disposal the two most destructive planeswalkers he had ever met. The vampire couldn't help but smile slightly. If anyone was capable of destroying every other walker in existence, including each other, it had to be these two.

"Simple. We get to the maze and murder everyone in our path," Rhyne said, picking at his nails. "It shouldn't really be that hard. Rinok has an army."

"Unfortunately they are current indisposed elsewhere," Rinok said. "I can amass another quite easily, though, as the herald of war."

"I bet the gods of Theros just love you," Rhyne rolled his eyes.

"Mogis and Iroas, certainly," Rinok agreed. "To a certain extent Erebos, Athreos, and possibly Phenax. That last one gets a lot of souls for people bargaining their way out of death."

"You're really excited about this, aren't you?" Vilhelm asked. There had been something in Rinok's voice that made the vampire think the warrior was hiding something.

"I'm just going to enjoy tearing that dragon girl to shreds and sending her body to her precious Sarkhan piece by piece." Rinok's face twisted into a sadistic smile, one mirrored by Rhyne.

"Can I help? Please? If there's anything I know how to do, it's a good dismembering."

Vilhelm wasn't so sure. A dragon army could be useful in his plans of not so hostile takeover. "Why not corrupt her instead? You've both had dealings with her in the past, correct?"

The wild man spoke before the warrior. "I ran into her once. I know it's still in there, that wildness she can't shake. She's tried, but I know one day if we try hard enough she could go feral and revert to her true self."

"I could turn her into a warmonger if I wanted, use her as an eternal combatant, but she did something that can't be forgiven and for that she has to die. She tamed Sarkhan, one of the greatest warriors the Mardu ever knew. He sacrificed hundreds of warriors and achieved his spark ignition in the process. War is a part of him, and now he advocates for peace? I almost preferred him when he was mad." Rinok sighed. "No, the dragon girl has to die. I need to see his warrior spirit again. It's the only way to keep him from fading into shadow, away from the light of glory. It's our place as Mardu warriors!" He thrust a fist into the sky.

Vilhelm himself wasn't listening. He was lost in thought. If they were leaving the plane, how would he break it to Teysa? The great puppet of souls was now himself tethered to the Envoy of Ghosts, at the mercy of her craving for the exquisite sensation of his feeding. Vilhelm had thought a few times of draining her dry and being done with it all, or taking things to their next logical conclusion and making her a vampire to finally be rid of her demands. On more than one occasion he'd been so caught up in feeding that he'd almost bedded her. That hadn't been on his mind since before the Falkenrath had chosen him to join their family. Vilhelm had more important things to think about then, and had more important things to think about now. Those plans meant he needed the Orzhov, at least until the true nature of this research could be ascertained.

Yes, Vilhelm was satisfied with his pawns and how the pieces had fallen on the chessboard. The game would soon begin.