#let me sit in the feild and see two sets of stars and two sets of clouds everyday until i pass

[ariiii33]

Would you still love me if i was the two headed calf

[greekbros]

"greek-Bros: The Return of an Old Enemy"

Chapter 11: A Joust Worth Remembering!

It was late afternoon, around 4 o'clock in the afternoon to our clock. Crowds gather to the center ring, ready for the evening's big event, Dionysus's joust. On opposite sides, Dionysus and Ares stood like two forces of nature. Ares prepared his chariot, now being pulled by Delphi's most capable mules, glared at Dionysus from across the ring. Dionysus, stared back not as a proud and fierce as the bulls he's compared to, but more of a scared fawn looking straight at the wolf eyeing it.

He glances at Hermes, Apollo and Ariadne whom were sitting within the crowd, feeling a little courage, he rides his chariot slowly towards to the ring, Ares following soon after, he clears his throat, "LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN AND BEYOND! I give you the joust of the millenia! Me, your humble ruler versus Ares!", he reached his arm out to show the crowd a begrudged Ares. "May the best god win!", he finished his speech, he felt a cold sweat run down his tempal. "Okie dokie, just relax-", he looked again to Hermes and Apollo, he could see them both had a glint in their eyes, "-you guys better have done a good job, I can't bare losing her.", he quietly whispered to himself.

Ares however, was revved up like an angry boar, ready to once again gouge his prey. He clenched his teeth as if he was going to go for the jugular. "I'm going to wreck your shit Dio.", he growled through his teeth. He and Dionysus both stopped a little parallel to each other, setting their positions for the joust. The two chariots were ready, the lances pointing to each other....and the chariots darted to each other as if time itself slowed to a crawl. Things were looking like they were going according to plan, but fate is a force even the gods can't predict. It was going to come on four legs, orange fur and long whiskers.

Back at the food tent, the little lycan pup was still rummaging through the cloths and pillows, now all shredded open creating a storm of down feathers. He played and leaped, knawed and ravaged the pillows as if they were rabbits. Until, he heard a mew, just outside the tent. All his attention went from enjoying himself, to finding the thing that made the noise. Sniffing the air, his nose lead to the corner of ravaged tent, again a mew was heard. He poked his head from under the tent, seeing a stray cat. The pup had no idea what a cat was, but he hated it like any self respecting canidae. He gave the most hardy growl his little body could muster and barked. The cat arched, hairs on end and it hissed. The pup matched ferocity with the cat, barking again he gave chase, determined to hunt it. The car let out a yowl and ran off, the cat and pup both have way to a cat and mouse chase throughout the feild. Several Delphians saw this oddly shaped wolf pup chasing the cat, some knowing very well this was no dog, it was definitely something of a beast. The pup chased the cat....into the jousting field.

Within the meaningless seconds, Ares felt victory was a red dye tipped lance away, "oh I can't wait to see the look on that fatass's face when I get take Delphi for myself!", he thought to himself. He could feel the warm wave of confidence run down his back and the cool breeze of the chariot's speed. His face with a manic grin, contrary to Dionysus's look of fear and worry. All Dionysus could do was hope that he wouldn't lose everything he cared for.

Ares it seemed had the joust set, until he saw a flash of orange followed by a little blurr of greyish brown. "Wait wh-", suddenly just time began to start walking instead of crawling, he heard the haunting sound of something breaking. He looked to his right and saw the wheel broke right off it's wheelhub, while at the same time, the sight of the two beasts of burdens frightened the chariot mules. The mules reared back, braying in fear of the fast moving things. The same had happened to Dionysus's mules, but he quickly reacted to the situation. He tugged at the riens as hard as he could, and tugged to his right and the whole chariot took a remarkable slide. Just narrowly avoiding hitting Ares's chariot.

It's an incredible chaos! As Ares's chariot continues to crash down to the dirt, the mules struggling with the yoke and shaft, Dionysus's mules grind to a halt and both gods seem to have lost control. The two gods, now more concerned about not dieing from an unfortunate chariot accident, where orbiting the field in a cloud of dust.

The whole joust had become the world's most heavenly mess. Hermes looked at Apollo, mildly glaring at him, all Apollo could do is gawk like everyone in the crowd. He looked at Hermes to see if he was enjoying the sight as much as he was but it was clear Hermes was more mildly upset. "What did YOU do?", Hermes asked. Even he wanted to know what did Apollo do to help sabotage Ares, because even Hermes himself wouldn't have thought of something as simple as messing with the chariot.

Apollo blushed a little with childish shame, "oh nothing much.....I just loosened a thing...or two.", he explained that he loosened the wheelhub to make sure it was guaranteed the wheel would fly off.", Hermes was dumbfounded yet actually impressed at the simplicity of it all.

Next to Apollo, Ariadne was worried about Dionysus, hoping he didn't hurt himself too much. "Oh no my dearest Dionysus! Please let him be alright.", she worried out loud. Apollo gave her a friendly pay on her shoulder.

"There there, he's been through worse.", Apollo assured her. He noticed a few people shouting and asking about the joust's results. Did Ares win? Or Did Dionysus win? As the dust cleared, both chariots, both pair of mules and both gods, in a pile of a kerfuffle. Ares rubbed his hurting head, all he could remember was something whizzing through the jousting feild and BOOM, now he was laying on the side of his own chariot...belly down. His thoughts started to collect and he than quickly remembered the wheel, now fuming with anger.

Dionysus, still reeling from his epic drift, was seeing stars for a few seconds. His thoughts ran as fast as the stars did and he felt a pit in his stomach and sinking in his heart. He shook his head, as he noticed a bright, green mark on Ares's left thigh. His gaping mouth quickly transformed into a smile, he had won by luck itself. Before Ares could turn around to strangle Dionysus, a satyr shouts "LORD DIONYSUS IS THE WINNER!". The crowd roared with cheer and merriment for their patron god had won as expected. Ariadne leaps up and cheered, she hastily went to Dionysus to hug the big fool. "You could have gotten yourself hurt!", Ariadne gave him a slap on the face, but just as quickly she was furious, she hugged him again. Relieved that he's alright. Dionysus picked her up, embracing her, he was relieved that she wasn't going to be trinketed away to his war mongering brother.

Ares was confused, he looked all over his body and found that bright green paint on his thigh, it stuck out like a sore thumb, evidence of his defeat. He looked at the cheering crowd and saw Apollo and Hermes both giggling, it was clear what had happened. Those two had sabotaged him, all this because his "whiny brother was a sore loser and couldn't stand loosing in front of his adoring followers" his thoughts roared. He stood there, stewing in his own anger. He growl, snarled, and baired his teeth but he took a deep breath, knowing well that if all of this calamity happened, it was obvious it wasn't written in the stars. He huffed and snorted like a bull, he wasn't going to dignify Dionysus with a congratulations. He stormed off, to find his horses and someone to fix his chariot.

About an hour later, after Dionysus's decree of curfew had to be upheld as promised, Ares was still at the stables, waiting for his chariot to be fixed by a supposed reputable repair nymph. He sat down on a stool, brooding his loss of the perfect training ground for an army he would have to wait another century. "Bastard drunk asshole, I swear if that golden twink and thieving gnat Hermes didn't fuck up my chances...hmf. I would have won.....I want a rema-" suddenly, he heard the sniffling and whinnying of a dog. He turned his head to the sound, and slowly followed it to a pile of empty barrels. He looked inside some of the barrels, he moved some aside, he couldn't seem to find the sound. Than, he finally found the source, it was the little pup.

It had seemed that shortly after he and the cat zoomed across the field, their chase ensued. He and the cat had a tussle, they 'battled' it out but towards the end, the pup lost to the cat's claws. A scratch across his little snout, few on his body and arms, tears running down his face, poor thing had its first taste of defeat with a little side of pain. Ares watched on, just wondering who would put this poor misshapen dog in tattered clothes. "To make my day even worse, these drunken fools decided to defile an innocent dog. Well... No use having two souls suffer...", he leaned down and saw the pitiful little, "hey buddy.", he spoke softly.

The lycan pup looked up, perked his ears in shock and let out a little snarl. To the pup, Ares was a towering opponent, he was going to do everything to defend himself. Ares however, was actually curious about the pup, it was definitely a funny looking dog with oddly long arms, legs and paws. He gently picks the pup by the scruff of his tattered chiton, as he does so, the pup grabs on to his forearm and knaws on the bareskin. The pup tried to dig in deep but even his little sharp teeth couldn't break Ares's skin.

Ares gave a hardy chuckle, "You have a lot fire in you, ugh buddy? I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what kinda dog you are....Fuck it, you'll make a fine addition to my pack little one...I think I'll name you.....Ajax.", he scratched the pup behind his ear with his free hand. The pup suddenly relaxed as he felt the pleasant starching of a persistent itch had gone, his tail wagged with glee and even relaxed his grip on Ares's forearm, letting Ares carry him like a small child. Delighted, Ares carried him to his chariot to bring back to Olypmus.

Back at Dionysus's veranda, the boys were enjoying a late afternoon cup of wup. Apollo was playing his lyre while Hermes, Ariadne and Dionysus relaxed after helping the citizens put away the maritals from the games. Dionysus with Ariadne in one arm and a kylix in the other hand, "man, that was great...did you see that sweet drift, I knew Ares was going to do something weird so I ha-?", he drunkenly went on.

"Dionysus love, you know very well you didn't plan anything.", Ariadne included. She was playing with his curly, thick locks. Dionysus blushed a little on top of his rosey glow of wine, laid the side of his head on to her, "yes darling.", he responded, "shame Ares couldn't stay for our little celebration.", he said with an air of irony. Apollo looked at Dionysus and shook his head, he knew he was just mostly relieved about Ares losing.

Hermes was swirling around his kylix, he started to ponder about the event and how did it go so wrong. He knew he and Apollo had sufficiently sabotaged Ares and his chariot yet the beginning of the joust just felt odd, he felt something was going and that a perfectly simple day wasn't going to end on a high note somehow. "Say....did anyone actually see what that THING that ran in between you guys were?", he asked taking a sip of the wine.

The rest of them all started to ponder as well, Dionysus clicked his tounge, ".....maybe it was just a dog chasing a cat or something.....", he bluntly put it. "Wait....do we have dogs in Delphi?", he asked Ariadne.

"Of course we have dogs in Delphi, Dionysus. Many of our farmers have herding dogs to protect the livestock.", she responded.

Apollo chimed in, "hmm.....yes it could....but didn't the dog look off too? It looked a little lanky....and...also....did anyone knoticed the dog.....wearing a tunic?". He hopeed someone around knew what he had seen.

This comment sent shivers down Hermes's spine, he suddenly remembered his encounter with the wolf creature. "Ugh.....you guys don't think it was-", he was interrupted by the sound of Kale.

Kale strutted towards the gods, "My Lord Dionysus, the citizens would like to express their gratitude and appreciation for your entertaining performance this evening....buuuut there was a small complaint.", he eloquently noted.

Dionysus was a little surprised about this news, "what complaint?", he asked. To his knowledge the whole thing was a success regardless of the terrible bet that had taken place behind closed curtains.

Kale, with little to no hesitation, "Well the main food tent was absolutely FuCkInG destroyed, someone ate all the roasted goat, most of the breads and ugh absolutely RUINED the furnishings I worked so hard placing. I am just floored, my Lord.", he let out a depressed sigh.

Dionysus was confused, did someone break in the food tent or was this just evidence of an animal attack? He cleared his throat, "ugh, I am so sorry about that, Kale, I saw it earlier in the morning it looked really nice. Did anyone see anything?", he asked, he just hoped it wasn't what he thought it was.

Kale composes himself a little with a deep light breath, "well it looked like animal was in there...but it could have been some kid in a wolf costume or something just making mischief.", he deducted. However, Delphians weren't known for pulling such pranks, even for misbehaving youths, this would be considered to be in poor taste considering the farming population.

Ariadne slowly looked to Dionysus, suspecting he knew about something. "An animal you say?", she asked. The hair on the back of Dionysus's neck stand on end, his MAN senses were tingling, and his wife was in on it. He chuckled nervously, "maaaaybe it was just a stray dog?", his reassuring comment wasn't going to be enough.

However, Kale wasn't helping. "Well....a few people did see what came out of the tent, they saw it chase a cat all over the event field. It looked a tiny baby wolf in a chiton? I mean what kind of depraved jerk would put clothes on a wolf?". This was the final nail in the coffin, at least for Dionysus's chances of sleeping in the same villa as Ariadne.

She let out a huff, crossed her arms and crossed her legs. "What is going on Dionysus,I thought I told you not to go on with this whole thing if you KNEW if there were those beasts out there.", she was stern and her eyes could be comparable to Hera's stare of marital disappointment.

Dionysus, tried to avoid the conversation and sipped his kylix. He looked off to the side like a child who did something wrong. Hermes entered into the conversation, "Ugh to be fair, it was a BABY...and..ugh...there was just one...so...ugh...I guess it didn't do anything.", Inspite of this argument, he knew this meant that there was definitely more if these wolf creatures. "Ugh...you didn't see where it went...did you?", he asked Kale.

Scratching his meticulously groomed goatee, Kale nodded 'yes', 'I believe some of the attendees saw it run off into the field or "something" of that direction.", he replied.

Dionysus leaped up, "than it's gone! Good, let's all just hit the hay and get some sleep!", he spoke in a happy voice of a man who knew he was in deep trouble. He felt Ariadne gently pull his ear, his body flowed to the direction of Ariadne.

She gave that small smile that deceptively masked her frustration, "Dio... sweetie......you're sleeping with the leopards....not for a wekk....but for a month.", she gently whispered in his ear, patted him on his face. Regardless if she was angry with Dionysus, it seemed by the end of the day no one actually got hurt. She turn around to walk back home, "Goodnight, gentlemen.", she left right back.

The four gentlemen were all standing by themselves watching Ariadne leave, Apollo sighed and turned to Dionysus. "So....where do the leopards sleep?", he asked Dionysus.

Dionysus stared at Ariadne with loving relief. "Well, they sleep....that way.", he pointed towards the dimly lit forested yard were many of his leopards roamed freely. He scratched his chin, satisfied with the whole situation, it could have been worse yet it could have been better. Now his only priority, is to find a soft place to sleep. Before he did so, he turned to Kale and his brothers. "Kale, tell NO ONE of this weird dog shit, deny EVERYTHING and ugh....tell anyone who asked it was leopard. Hermes, Apollo, tommorow....we go and talk to dad about this. Now...I'm going to get serious.", as he said this, tripped on a raised rug and fell over on a pile of lounge pillow. "I'm ok... actually this is pretty comfy....", he muffled.

Apollo and Hermes looked down at Dionysus, wondering if they should help, but there's a likely chance he probably has already dosed off.

[thewidowstanton]

Archive feature from 2012: Lynne Essex – The Lana Sisters

One of the UK's greatest-ever singing stars, Dusty Springfield, (pictured left) was born on this day – 16 April – in 1939. To mark the occasion we are posting one of our favourite archive features, which came about after a friend met Lynne Essex, née Abrams, (right)… in a swimming pool of all places. Lynne had been a member of the Lana Sisters – a "girl harmony act" founded by Iris Long (later known as Riss Chantelle) – who gave Dusty her first professional job.

By Liz Arratoon

It is common knowledge that a 1994 advertisement in The Stage launched the Spice Girls’ careers, but more than 35 years earlier another girl group, the Lana Sisters, placed an ad in that newspaper that gave a much greater star her entry into showbusiness. In 1958, roughly 30 girls applied for the vacant position with the close-harmony trio. From their shortlist, Lynne Abrams and Iris Long chose 19-year-old Mary O’Brien, who would later become Dusty Springfield – the White Queen of Soul. But in those early days, as Abrams – now Lynne Essex – remembers, she was their last resort: “I loved her dearly; she was lovely but I have to say she certainly wasn’t glamorous and was very awkward then.”

Long had started the Lana Sisters, and Essex explains: “I was the first girl Iris took after she saw me singing in a little cabaret at a holiday camp. She’d originally worked with Ivy Benson, who led an all-female swing band, and learnt the business side of things from her. We were the Iris Long Trio for about a year, then established ourselves as the Lana Sisters and were very successful. We’d done all the donkey work, the touring and summer seasons up in the top of Scotland to iron our edges out. We had lots of work and a recording contract with Fontana Records.”

But with the departure of another girl they turned to “their bible” The Stage. The ad said [something like] ‘Well-established female singing trio, the Lana Sisters, require another member. Please apply by letter, enclosing a photograph’. A photo was vital, as Essex points out: “You can’t look like the back of a bus in this business and we didn’t have all the facelifts and things then.”

Thirty were whittled down to a dozen. “One particular girl seemed OK but we didn’t like the look of her photograph… and that was Dusty, or Shan, as she liked to be called. We’d auditioned the others and for whatever reason, they were useless. They couldn’t sing the harmonies, they couldn’t hold the notes; they were maybe very pretty but not up to it. In desperation really, I said to Iris, ‘Well, we’ll just have to have a look at this Mary O’Brien. She plays guitar and can sing. We’ll have to phone her.”

A rehearsal studio was booked in Leicester Square for 5pm and on a chilly day the girls waited. Five o’clock came, five past came, ten past, quarter past, with still no sign of her. “We thought, ‘She’s going to be useless; she can’t even keep time’. But as we walked down into the street we saw this little bundle of fake-fur coat coming towards us.” Full of apologies, Dusty, who was living in Ealing with her parents, explained she’d been delayed on the Underground.

Essex and Long returned to the studio to see what she could do. “We gave her an idea of the sort of songs we sang and, of course, when she started to sing she could do the harmonies off the top of her head. I could tell she had a very good voice, a unique voice. I said to Iris, ‘It doesn’t matter what she looks like, we can do something about that, and her stage presence’, which was pretty ghastly.” The Lanas were playing the Metropolitan Theatre in London’s Edgware Road, and decided to rehearse her running on and off stage. She managed that “without falling over” and they took her.

Dusty had only previously played tiny clubs in the West End with her brother, Dion. They played Latin American music and she would sing in Spanish. Her first professional appearance was with the Lanas at a show in Lincoln. Essex recalls: “All the big names of the day were there. We used to dress in lamé trousers and high heels, which were quite raunchy for those days. We weren’t twee like the Beverley Sisters. We had three minutes to get onstage down some pretty nasty concrete stairs. Dusty tripped, of course, fell, and tore the front of her lovely blue lamé trousers.”

After that inauspicious start, things went well. “She definitely improved our sound but it was a terrible shame that Iris wouldn’t let anyone sing the solos. We’d sing in unison. Dusty was only allowed to sing the bottom harmony, Iris sang the melodies and I sang top harmony, but to have a girl in the act with such a tremendous voice, it was criminal. They all have individual mics today but we had one central mic. You couldn’t wander off and sing on your own.” Long also wanted them to look similar and they had their hair dyed blonde just at the front by Raymond, Mr Teasie-Weasie.

The Lanas may not have matched the dizzy heights of Dusty’s later success but they were right up there with the likes of their “arch rivals” the Kaye Sisters. They did big summer seasons and their famous records include (Seven Little Girls) Sitting in the Back Seat and My Mother’s Eyes. They were the only supporting act for Nat King Cole’s London date at what is now the Apollo Victoria Theatre. “We did an awful lot; a whole series of Six-Five Special and a series of Ready Steady Go! on TV. And we’d play the American air force bases at home and in Europe.”

Dusty stayed with the group for two years but when the end came it was sudden. “We were always together and it was very strange. We were playing Taunton in Somerset and Dusty kept disappearing. At the end of the week she said, ‘I’m sorry girls but I’m leaving’. She set up the Springfields with her brother, now Tom Springfield, and Tim Feild. We couldn’t believe it. It was just before a big summer season with Adam Faith, John Barry and Emile Ford. They’d been rehearsing in a field and it was springtime. To this day I don’t know if that influenced the name. She’d gained an awful lot of experience with us and had all the grounding. Quite rightly she decided she should be singing the solos. It didn’t take long before they became very famous. That’s when she changed her image.”

But Essex says they had nothing to do with Dusty’s trademark blonde wig and heavy black eye make-up, and reveals: “She didn’t like her hair colour, which was red, and she didn’t like her looks. She thought she looked like Peter Ustinov.”

Six months later Essex met Arthur, her husband to be, got married, left the Lanas and had two children, Amanda and Michael. Iris changed her name to Riss Chantelle, found two new girls and started the Chantelles. Dusty and Essex, as close as real sisters – she was Amanda's godmother – stayed in touch until Dusty left for America. “Even today I have to pinch myself to think that I actually did take this young lady on. When I hear one of her records it just amazes me that that little bundle of fur that ran across the road, looking like Peter Ustinov, turned out to be such a huge, huge star. I’m so chuffed. I can’t believe I was part of it.”

Pictures of the Lana Sisters and the one above courtesy of Lynne Essex

A version of this feature first appeared in The Stage

[thewritingstar]

Gruvia Week 2019

Day 3: Devotion

I had a lot of fun with this one so I hope you enjoy! It’s kind of an Au inspired thing!

Warning this is rushed and written late at night because I am sleepy, hooked up on medicine and can’t see two feet in front of me so I hope you enjoy and the ending is weak I know!

—-

The God of Ice laughed as the God of Fire cracked a joke. Sitting in the heavens and looking over Earth, that was were they kept.

Gray didn’t have to perform godly duties often, very few to say the least. His village he used as his worship had frozen over and it had been eons since some one had prayed or offered him a sacrifice.

But he didn’t care. His heart was cold and he didn’t need a pesky and weak human to bow down before a makeshift temple just for the chance that Gray would make something nice happen for them.

He practically forgot about his village. No one had been there for a long time, as said, but a voice whispered in his ear as the conversation was put on pause.

“Is someone there?” The flame god Natsu asked. He pointed and Gray turned lazily, drinking the last drop of his wine as he walked towards the mirror like surface where he could see who was at the temple.

He looked confused when a young woman was smiling as she cleared the overgrown vines from the small well used as worship. Gray took a swig from a new bottle of wine, it was bitter and stale, maybe she would leave a new one for him.

“Just a woman. She’ll leave soon, nothing to worry about.” He shrugged and went back to the table he sat at.

—-

Weeks had past and Gray stared dumbfounded as the woman sang near the well, the ice crusted around the ground had melted and peaks of green grass had formed like the cold hadn’t frosted it over for thousands of years.

He watched as she went to her small cottage, one that was abandoned long ago but looked cozy and fresh.

She danced as she hung her laundry, the only person to ever stay as long as she did and his interest in her increased.

—-

It had been a solid six months and she was still there. He had learned her name is Juvia from the immense amount of third person speaking.

His days were spent hunched over the seeing glass watching her day go on. She had grown into a routine.

Wake up, get fresh water and tend to her garden. Collect items needed for crafting, sewing and other needs, do laundry and straighten up her home and later other small shops. She would then spending the evening cooking and bringing a plate to his place for worship and even talk to him, then the stars would arise and she would drift off to sleep as he wondered why she would stay.

—-

Another month or so had gone by and he grew angry. Why wouldn’t she leave? What was keeping her to stay in this dreaded and cold place that left her skin shiver?

So Gray did the only thing he knew, and transformed into a mortal being, one to fool the woman into spilling her secrets.

He conjured himself into an old man with a limp and fell into her city of one. Clamping a hand on his back, he wailed as he knocked on the door and as soon as she saw him, he was sat at her table with a warm cup of tea and baked treat in his hand.

“So everyday you devote your time to the God of Ice?” He asked and she nodded before joining him on the other side of the table. “Why?” He persisted and he watched as she gulped down her muffin and let out a small smile.

“When I was younger, not by much, my village was becoming overgrown and we all had become subjects to a cruel family. Juvia almost lost her life but as a knife tightened in her grip, the boy became frozen, like ice.”

He nodded and remembered that day clearly.

“The Ice god had saved my life and even brought peace to my family. And since losing everyone close to Juvia, she had found where people eons Avon had come to worship him, and I shall devote some of my life to the man or god who gave Juvia a second chance.” She smiled and looked up at the man.

Not in an eon had someone made the bitter and cold heart god smile and feel warmth. He nodded and excused himself as he disappeared into the sun set.

Soon the feilds of Ice became rich with wild flowers and the frozen steam now carried rich water supply and a lot of fish. He began to make life similar for her.

—

It was evening now and Juvia has slumped to her knees to ice her daily pleas but this time it was different.

“Juvia asks you to hear her pray. She hopes that one day you will see all that seedoes and whether you are real of not. My imagination doesn’t fool me. Juvia devotes her time to you as repayment, one that is unrefundable.” She planted a kiss to the stone with his name engraved and Gray swore he could feel the heat coming from those soft lips.

At the end of the year they had both realized that they were hopelessly devoted to one another.