lyonofsaintmark

[lyonofsaintmark]

sun-drenched mornings in a Louisiana bayou

[lyonofsaintmark]

Bartolomeo Bochi - The Archangel Raphael with Tobias. 1450  

[lyonofsaintmark]

[lyonofsaintmark]

Myrtle Beach shop front at night.

[lyonofsaintmark]

Word on the Street

[lyonofsaintmark]

He is exhausted, and yet how full of energy; his eyes do not seem to have shed, but to have drunk, many tears, and yet they flame with a fire that could consume the whole world, but not a splinter of sorrow in his own breast; he is bowed down, and yet his youth portends a long life; his lips smile at the world, which does not understand him.

— Søren Kierkegaard

[lyonofsaintmark]

Anyone else absolutely captivated with how birds of prey move? I could watch Crunch Wrap do this all day! The way raptors survey and focus on their surroundings just screams curiosity and intelligence. I can see the echo of the dinosaurs right here in her sharp, appraising eyes.

[lyonofsaintmark]

The Archangel Saint Raphael in the Church of Nuestra Senora del Socorro

[lyonofsaintmark]

Mistaken Identity (Leo+Lyon+Ari, RE: Ignis, HER!!!)

You got into a rhythm with these sorts of things, or at least you tried to. Events like someone dropping dead in the middle of a courtroom aside, there was a procedure to be followed and a certain level of predictability.

So they weren’t sure what to think when Jean Chastel un-Jeaned, even as she gave her name. Conomerus. They’d heard of her name, even before they came here. What they didn’t expect to meet her face-to-face.

“We don’t want to be playing detective, you can blame that one…”

They motioned towards Nam.

“…For this particular setup.”

And true to character they started talking before they thought too much.

“Forgive us if we misunderstand what you are saying, but we have a number of questions.”

The lack of sincerity they were feeling was not communicated through their tone of voice.

“Terrestrial matters are not within our area of expertise, and so these sorts of magic and contracts are not a subject we know much on, but how long have you been here and how did you get here?”

“If he has no corporeal form, is he a soul without a body? A ghost? Not on this plane of existence? You insinuate the damage to the vessel is what caused him to un-corporeate, and you took the rest of the vessel, so…you don’t know what happened to it, we gather.”

“…In that case, if you could walk through what you have seen since, we would appreciate it.”

And now for something completely different.

“…As for Pom, we can back up the matter of her supernatural bane that would have made using an axe…ill-advised– or rather, we know someone who can definitively, Shigeri should be able to confirm that much, and from what we know of her abilities we would be inclined to agree she would not take well to the cold.”

[lyonofsaintmark]

Special Message (Leo+Lyon+Ari, RE: Jean)

They perked up less at the mention of the color and more the potential meaning.

“Red. They were red. It’s used to represent passionate love, though an especially dark red can represent mourning– however, the presentation also matters, dried roses carry a more sinister meaning, while rosebuds mean innocence or youth. Scattered petals…well, those don’t really fit in a bouquet so they don’t have a translation in flower language, we aren’t sure what to read into that.”

A small sigh.

“…Neither here nor there, however, unless we truly want to pursue the line of thought the culprit was somehow trying to make a statement about him.”

“That said, while we won’t leave out the possibility that the petals could have come from someone’s personal effects as we don’t make it a habit to dig around in anyone’s room, but it would make a good deal more sense if they were magically generated, as Ignis said.”

“Our abilities are quite singular in nature and all of you are now familiar with it. The number of people capable of plant related manipulation is a narrow field indeed, even if it includes more than one person.”

They closed their eyes for a few moments, weighed their options, and finally spoke.

“…Before anyone makes any immediate conclusions, we should note that a witness near the farm reported that she saw a woman fleeing the general area, this, we are not sure what to make of.”

[lyonofsaintmark]

Extispicy (Leo+Lyon+Ari body rxn, RE: Ignis)

Cold they could manage. Granted, it’d been some time since they’d been in the Appalachians but the necessary precautions stuck in their mind, a holdover from times when it wasn’t fractured into three parts.

Well, four now, thanks to Nam.

So, they hadn’t been bothered at first. The times before that they’d spend rushing about, handing about blankets and warmer clothes from their extensive wardrobe, glad they’d put some minimal effort into their flimsy cover story about coming here for a photoshoot since it did mean they’d brought most of their outfits with them along with some supplies to make more. They hadn’t imagined it’d actually be useful.

It didn’t stop getting colder, however. Around the time it got dangerously close to subarctic temperatures they began to abandon hope there was any getting around this. When was the last time they’d succeeded at working around any of the motives, anyway? The first one, for all the good it’d done.

And Nam speaking to them meant only one thing. Off they went into the chill of midwinter. What they saw took some time to sink in.

The Raven.

Human cultures the world over were fascinated by birds, but the raven often held a special place. Tricksters, healers, death omens, they ran the gamut of archetypes. In the gospels of saints, ravens would bring food to those lost in the desert. In the stories of the Tlingit people, Raven stole the sun to give to humankind. The Raven taught Cain to bury Abel, and with that, the war goddess Morrigan would sometimes take the form of a raven or crow, and so on and so on.

Complex stories for a complex person. Someone who they couldn’t quite make sense of even in death. Only one thing was clear: they’d witnessed the end of eternity, someone who was, even by the standards of their Celestial side, quite old. Someone who’d watched empires rise and fall. And just like that, he was gone.

But they were still here. And there was still work to be done.

[……]

Leo didn’t even give the new person at the seat of the Magician a second glance. In fact, they seemed entirely unfazed by the new companion, not that they ever seemed much of anything.

“We have reason to suspect that…dagger-like object may have been a sort of supernatural bane, as silver to a werewolf, in which case it would have been the true murder weapon.”

“We should explain. We found two things, an axe embedded within the roof of a nearby farmhouse, and the…we will refer to it as a knife for simplicity, but rather that black…thing that was in his heart. The axe was bloody and it would certainly seem that it injured someone, we would assume him, but, given the entire area felt like it might’ve been under the effect of a curse, we thought it might have been something the curios shop owner would’ve had knowledge of– or perhaps, that it was something he might have even sold to someone, as he deals in those sorts of things– but it wasn’t his, nor could he be absolutely certain as to its origins but it was likely some sort of bane…or a ‘manifestation,’ whatever that means.”

A pause.

“…Certainly, he agreed, it was cursed, however.”

They let out a small ‘ahem.’

“At any rate, both were used, we would say, given the state of the surrounding area. It would seem there was quite a struggle, and a chase, and we think he must have shapeshifted at some point given, among other things, the black feathers scattered about leading from the clothing factory.”

“…We hope that gives you something of an answer.”

[lyonofsaintmark]

this leucistic turkey vulture was spotted and photographed in ontario, canada. its unusual piebald appareance is due to a genetic mutation causing a lack of pigmentation. since melanin aids in feather development, this bird’s white feathers are likely weaker and more likely to grow worn faster.

[lyonofsaintmark]

Oh, judge, your damn laws: the good people don’t need them and the bad people don’t follow them so what good are they?

Ammon Hennacy (via becauseithinktoomuch-blog)

[lyonofsaintmark]

but you’ll make the same old mistakes

[lyonofsaintmark]

Saint Raphael by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

[lyonofsaintmark]

Comfy and number of toes are inversely correlated

[lyonofsaintmark]

You live in a dream. You are waiting to begin to live…

Simone Weil, from First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge (via luthienne)