#song he sings is the queen's rebuke by the decemberists

[cloudbattrolls]

Make Of Me

Thrixe Varzim | Present Night | The Ruins of An Unnamed Forest

Thrixe beheld the ashy ruins of what had once been a forest, blackened stumps and scorched piles of leaves, exposed rocks dusted with ash. He was the only troll - person - for a mile, he was pretty sure; he couldn’t sense anyone else. 

Archimedes hid behind his legs, hissing.

Though in most respects a normal gryphon, the pet he’d made shared his sensitivity to the state of growth in the world around them. They could both feel that this forest hadn’t been destroyed by any natural blaze; it confirmed what he had heard.

That someone called the Torch had razed it. 

Some forests did need fire to grow. Yarrow loved burned earth; some seeds only germinated after a fire, and sometimes dead growth needed to be cleared so new life could thrive.

This forest, however, had been young. Not ready to feed an inferno yet.

Torch, he thought with slightly morbid amusement. You ruined this place. But I guess I should thank you. Overgrowing an existing ecosystem is bad for everyone. This, though…

Thrixe walked into the first space between the stumps, and he began to sing.

“I’m…made of bones of the branches the boughs and the bough beating light..”

First; the soil. Nothing could grow without a strong base, nutrients and insects to make a living system again. He reached deep into the earth with his power, feeling out the survivors, tempting them back to the dirt near the surface. 

Bacteria and insects thrived again, buried eggs hatching, crawling and wriggling through the earth, and he nudged the nitrogen to begin replenishing.

Then the air itself. It still had traces of smoke; he had altered his lungs slightly to cope with it better, growing a temporary skin-shield over his gills.

He sprouted tendrils weaving into the air, absorbing the toxins and fostering the oxygen, cilia sprouting to filter it and catch particulates dangerous to life. He grew more out of the few remaining microorganisms in the air, using their life as a base for his own, clearing away the acrid smell and tainted gases. 

Eyes glowing a bright violet-white, he took a breath.

“Well my feet are the trunks…”

He reached for the roots, shriveled and starved of nutrients - the ones that were still alive - and he regenerated them, encouraging new growth. Not too much - he didn’t want the restored trees to crowd each other out, to have no room to grow further. 

He was setting the place back on its course, not allowing it to rapidly choke out again.

Tendrils extended from his legs into the earth, tilling it, taking dead plant and animal matter and turning it to rich compost that he fed directly to the new roots he made. He extended several feet underground and into the air now with his gleaming pink and violet network, further using the existing life to spread himself.

He smiled a wide, slightly jagged smile in giddy in anticipation.

From the mouths of his many extensions he continued:

“And my head is the canopy high!”

The trees burst back into growth with a creaking and crackling of wood and sap, a thunderous cacophony as they went from withered to blooming, shedding their ashy skin for fresh bark and flowers. Stumps became fertile, springing up with mosses and lichens. Small plants pushed through the ground.

As the trees settled, their new wood hot from the change that had sprung it into being, they blinked with scattered violet eyes, woven through with veins of grayish pink. Starfish tendrils rippled among the soil, spines dotting the leaves of the underbrush. 

“And my fingers extend to the leaves in the eaves, and the -“

Thrixe as the forest breathed, felt the moons on himself, rustled in the breeze…and with a choir of content sighs, took himself out of the plants, let them fade fully back to their natural selves. His extensions faded to nothing, and he had only one body again. 

A bit sad, just the one. It was fine! He had nothing against it, it was the one everyone knew him by. The one he always had to appear in for everyone but Zanzul.

Or Vallis, but Vallis hardly counted as company, he thought with a roll of his eyes.

Archimedes had already taken off, no doubt hunting some small animal. He hadn’t raised anything from the dead…but it had been tempting. He was a bit tired, though. It wouldn’t be good to push himself.

Thrixe flopped on his back, lying on the newly grassy ground.

“Brightest shine, it’s my shine…” he finished the verse softly, looking at some ivy and marigolds that still glowed faintly pale violet. 

He couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about it. Didn’t he sign his works as a painter? It didn’t hurt to leave a small trace of himself behind, not enough to interfere with the forest life. 

No one would ever know it was him, that’s what mattered. No troll he loved would ever know what he could be like, as long as he let it out safely and away from their sight.

A bug crawled on his left fin and it flicked involuntarily, tickled by the tiny feet. The skin-shield over his gills had since dissolved, and they shone violet, rippling slightly.

Yes, he could show small parts of himself, if trolls were all right with it. But he had to ask first, had to be careful. 

He looked at his black-tipped claws, which had been that way for a while, and he was fairly certain extra fins were coming in on his arms and legs as well. No, he wasn’t the only seadweller with such things, but he wondered how much else he had to grow.

Uryali had had tendrils in his fins, and permanent extra eyes…he definitely didn’t want those. Maybe there was a way to at least choose which traits he got, since the process was probably impossible to stop entirely.

He got up, shaking dirt out of his curly braid, and looked back at his work. This place should thrive now, he hoped.

Archimedes flew back to Thrixe, and he hugged his furry, feathery pet before letting him go to fly alongside him.

He walked away, leaving the forest to flourish once more.

[fey-and-sudden-and-unholy]

Surveything

Do you have any pets? What kind? My roomies have a 1-year-old German Shepherd.  

What are their names? That is… if you have any? His name is Donovan, and he is a sweetheart.

How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa? I don’t recall ever believing in him.  For a while I pretended, though, just to make the adults happy.

Dragons or unicorns? Why can’t I have both?

Do you wish vampires existed? Only if I can be one.

What is your favorite book of all time? There are too many that I love.  I can’t pick just one.

At the moment what is your favorite song? The Wanting Comes in Waves, and The Queen’s Rebuke, from The Decemberists’ Hazards of Love.  (See?  Never just one.  But holy shit, the Queen’s voice would turn me gay even if I weren’t halfway there already!)

Do you ever click on those lame adversisments? Nah.

Have you ever been pantsed? No, and heaven help anyone who tried.

Do you sing in front of people you don’t know very well? How about dance? Not generally.  I’ve done both before, but the singing is particularly difficult.  I’d kind of like to get to the point that I could, being as I can carry a tune rather well, when I don’t feel like the bottom’s dropped out of me.

Have you ever sang/spoke/preformed in front of people on a stage? I was in a class play, a couple of times.

What do you think about the old Micheal Jackson? What do you think about him now? He was both talented and troubled.  

Do you keep up with pop culture? Not especially, but I have enough friends who do to still have a general idea of what’s going on.

What is your favorite magazine? I don’t have one.

Would you rather slit your wrists than read Cosmo? This is a stupid question. 

Did you ever like barbies? Do you currently like barbies? I had a few, and I did play with them a lot.  Tropical Miko was my favorite.  Currently indifferent to them, though I’ll confess to having bought three or four of those Monster High dolls, in recent years, just because I know I would’ve LOVED getting to play with them as a kid.

What is your biggest pet peeve? Willful ignorance, people who use social justice as an excuse to bully others, and authority figures who don’t use their power right.

What turns you off in the opposite sex? The ways our society conditions them to be.

What kind of gum do you chew most often? Your favorite flavor? I don’t often enough to really have a favorite flavor.

Do you keep everything in the universe in your bag/purse? Quite a bit, actually, yeah, for it not being a very big purse.

What’s one word that you have to say about miss Britney Spears? vo_ov

What’s your favorite hit song right now? I don’t know what’s a hit and what’s not.  I just know what I like.  I guess I Feel it Still is a hit?  I like that one.

What was the last thing you ate? A turkey sammich.

How is your self esteem? Could be better, could be worse.

Do you ever ask random questions to see people’s reactions? Once in a great while, if I’m really bored.

Do you like to people watch? Sure.

Are you a very patient type of person? Patient... ish?  It seems like the older I am, the less patient I get.

What’s your favorite element? (fire, water, air) Always been a watery sort, not that that would surprise anyone who’d been paying attention.

Do you have a Zwinky? IMVU? I don’t even know what the fuck those are...

When you were younger didn’t you just love Pokemon? Nah, that was a little after my time.  I played one of the games, once, and it was fun enough, but I’m nowhere near as into it as a lot of people are.

Have you ever been to a wild party? My step-sister’s latest birthday was the wildest one I’ve been to.  But there were fireworks, drinking, naked dancing, and I learned how to throw a hatchet (and that I’m better at it while tipsy), so overall I think it still counts.

Are you cold or hot right now? Kind of in the middle.

Do you wish you were albino? P...robably not, given the medical issues that tend to come with it, irl, but I’ll admit they can be pretty to look at, and I may or may not have a weird little crush on the albino twins in The Greatest Showman... >_>

Have you ever met anyone who was albino? No.

How many friends do you have on Myspace? Nobody is on Myspace, any more, my sweet.  Go back to bed, you had a bad dream.

Do you like long car rides? They can be relaxing, especially if I’m not driving.

Are you one of those people who get car sick? No, I used to read in the car all the time.

Have you ever gotten sea sick? No, I’ve only really been out in the open water like, once.  I would like to try a cruse, sometime, though.

Would you ever join the military? Noooope.

What is your dream job? World-traveling writer and ambassador to Faerie.

Do you ever want to get married? Have kids? If so how many kids do you want? Been married, didn’t like it, but not against trying again if I ran across the right person for it.  Never ever ever want kids.

What age is the right age to get married? And have kids? Enh, it’s probably different for different people, since maturity and age are not mutually exclusive.  However, I feel like it’s probably inadvisable in a general kind of way to do it before 25.  I feel like, in a lot of ways, your life doesn’t really become your own until after you leave school, and  I feel like everyone should have at least a little bit of that, before throwing themselves into anything else that’s going to eat up more years and years of their lives.

Do you think pot should be legalized? Yes.  I don’t smoke it, myself.  It’d probably wreak havoc with my sinuses, if I did.  But, I know a lot of people who do, and it helps them with things like depression and chronic pain and such.

Since so many people do it, is pot even cool anymore? I never particularly thought of it as cool.

Are you an organized person? A clean person? Clean, but not organized.

What kind of bodywash do you use? Lavender honey creme.

Do you put on a robe when it’s cold? Sure.  I have a fuzzy one for after the shower, and a kimono I picked up at Epcot for when I feel like Lounging Dramatically.

How about slippers? Big monster-feet slippers, and smol fox footie-slippers.

What is your favorite thing to sleep in? The nude.

Are you in love? Have you ever been in love before? No, and I wouldn’t say so.  There were a couple of times, when I was younger, where I thought I was, but no...

Can you multi-task? Sorta-kinda.

How fast does butt hair grow? Oh, now you’re just reaching... 

Are your parents still together? They divorced when I was about five.