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[raliel]

Masquerade

The clown entered his dressing room and slumped in front of the old and speckled mirror, the aged bulbs surrounding it casting a flickering and feeble glow. He took up a tissue and slowly removed the caked on waxiness of his make-up, and the thin layers of sweat and tears that it had hidden for so long. With trembling hands, he continued, revealing his own coarse and mottled flesh, the years of pretending showing all too clearly upon his tired visage. Even as the last vestiges of the stage face were  obliterated and discarded upon a cascade of begrimed tissues.

He continued to scrub, removing deeper and deeper,  shedding all that had been him.

All the secret masks and public faces, the ones that lied loudly and the ones that cried with truth.

He scrubbed and cleaned, harder and deeper, removing masque after masque until all that remained were the stained and tattered threads of his comedic vesture upon the filthy dressing room floor.

[raliel]

Dead Flower

I remember raising my face to the warmth and brightness of golden sunlight, of being surrounded by my family, surrounded by meadows and trees, the gentle caress of Spring rains. And then, hands clutching, a knife cutting, and I was carried into darkness.

Hung as my life drained from me, and yet even in death, not truly dying. My murderers caring hands ensuring that my beauty remains forever, though dried and dead I feel. I still carry the memory of the scents of Summers lost.

An eternity trapped in a dark and shadowed prison never feeling the warmth of the sun again lest it make me fade and shrivel for the last time, a final death to this perpetuality.

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My friend told me a story he hadn’t told anyone for years. When he used to tell it years ago people would laugh and say, ‘Who’d believe that? How can that be true? That’s daft.’ So he didn’t tell it again for ages. But for some reason, last night, he knew it would be just the kind of story I would love.   When he was a kid, he said, they didn’t use the word autism, they just said ‘shy’, or ‘isn’t very good at being around strangers or lots of people.’ But that’s what he was, and is, and he doesn’t mind telling anyone. It’s just a matter of fact with him, and sometimes it makes him sound a little and act different, but that’s okay.   Anyway, when he was a kid it was the middle of the 1980s and they were still saying ‘shy’ or ‘withdrawn’ rather than ‘autistic’. He went to London with his mother to see a special screening of a new film he really loved. He must have won a competition or something, I think. Some of the details he can’t quite remember, but he thinks it must have been London they went to, and the film…! Well, the film is one of my all-time favourites, too. It’s a dark, mysterious fantasy movie. Every single frame is crammed with puppets and goblins. There are silly songs and a goblin king who wears clingy silver tights and who kidnaps a baby and this is what kickstarts the whole adventure.   It was ‘Labyrinth’, of course, and the star was David Bowie, and he was there to meet the children who had come to see this special screening.   ‘I met David Bowie once,’ was the thing that my friend said, that caught my attention.   ‘You did? When was this?’ I was amazed, and surprised, too, at the casual way he brought this revelation out. Almost anyone else I know would have told the tale a million times already.   He seemed surprised I would want to know, and he told me the whole thing, all out of order, and I eked the details out of him.   He told the story as if it was he’d been on an adventure back then, and he wasn’t quite allowed to tell the story. Like there was a pact, or a magic spell surrounding it. As if something profound and peculiar would occur if he broke the confidence.   It was thirty years ago and all us kids who’d loved Labyrinth then, and who still love it now, are all middle-aged. Saddest of all, the Goblin King is dead. Does the magic still exist?   I asked him what happened on his adventure.   ‘I was withdrawn, more withdrawn than the other kids. We all got a signed poster. Because I was so shy, they put me in a separate room, to one side, and so I got to meet him alone. He’d heard I was shy and it was his idea. He spent thirty minutes with me.   ‘He gave me this mask. This one. Look.   ‘He said: ‘This is an invisible mask, you see?   ‘He took it off his own face and looked around like he was scared and uncomfortable all of a sudden. He passed me his invisible mask. ‘Put it on,’ he told me. ‘It’s magic.’   ‘And so I did.   ‘Then he told me, ‘I always feel afraid, just the same as you. But I wear this mask every single day. And it doesn’t take the fear away, but it makes it feel a bit better. I feel brave enough then to face the whole world and all the people. And now you will, too.   ‘I sat there in his magic mask, looking through the eyes at David Bowie and it was true, I did feel better.   ‘Then I watched as he made another magic mask. He spun it out of thin air, out of nothing at all. He finished it and smiled and then he put it on. And he looked so relieved and pleased. He smiled at me.   ‘'Now we’ve both got invisible masks. We can both see through them perfectly well and no one would know we’re even wearing them,’ he said.   ‘So, I felt incredibly comfortable. It was the first time I felt safe in my whole life.   ‘It was magic. He was a wizard. He was a goblin king, grinning at me.   ‘I still keep the mask, of course. This is it, now. Look.’   I kept asking my friend questions, amazed by his story. I loved it and wanted all the details. How many other kids? Did they have puppets from the film there, as well? What was David Bowie wearing? I imagined him in his lilac suit from Live Aid. Or maybe he was dressed as the Goblin King in lacy ruffles and cobwebs and glitter.   What was the last thing he said to you, when you had to say goodbye?   ‘David Bowie said, ‘I’m always afraid as well. But this is how you can feel brave in the world.’ And then it was over. I’ve never forgotten it. And years later I cried when I heard he had passed.’   My friend was surprised I was delighted by this tale.   ‘The normal reaction is: that’s just a stupid story. Fancy believing in an invisible mask.’   But I do. I really believe in it.   And it’s the best story I’ve heard all year.

Paul Magrs (via yourfluffiestnightmare)

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Doctor Who inspired digital image, made in Bryce

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A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO JAPANESE PAPER FOLDING (A short story)

Jerry was not a bright kid, he never did well in classes, not badly, not enough to set him back, but never more than a scrape by. He was, by inclination, a scruffy child and his hair always looked like the last time it was brushed was a day earlier than it should have been. And he was bullied constantly. instead of going to the playground during break time, he would sneak off to the library, not to read, as that always felt too much like effort for jerry, but to hid from the other kids and to daydream. Often he would pick a random book, so that Ms Cawll, the librarian, would not boot him back out to the tauntings and the sly kicks and punches that awaited outside. One day, the book Jerry chose, was a little square book with a bright cover, entitled; "Origami, A beginner's Guide to Japanese Paper Folding". Inside the book were lots of diagrams and photo's of how to fold simple squares of paper into all sorts of magical shapes, like swans and frogs of little boxes to keep things hidden in, at the back of the book was a sort of envelope with several square sheets of luxurious multi coloured paper tucked into it. Jerry liked the pictures and thought that the animals and geometric shapes were fascinating, and without even realising he had taken a sheet of the paper and started folding it into a small crane almost exactly like the one on page eleven of the book. Amazed at his success, jerry folded several more of the sheets into an assortment of perfect little paper animals. He had a knack. In the weeks that followed, Jerry had perfected every single origami shape in the little book from the library, he wanted more and harder challenges and sought out the most complex and interesting origami forms available online and from books (he had started walking to the big public library down town, after school) And he found that he could do them all and make up new ones with no effort. Jerry even managed, in a few minutes and by hand, to make a perfect replica of a tarantula he had seen online, despite the original being done by computer.... he just felt the paper and instinctively knew where to fold and how hard to press, his fingers dancing lightly over the small squares of paper he had collected from magazines and newspapers.... any paper left within his reach would within moments be transformed into a dragonfly or a pagoda, or a hummingbird..... And then Jerry realised he could fold more than paper. It was really an accident that he found out, he was at home, forced yet again by his terrible mother, to do the washing up, when he realised that he had folded one of his mum's best blue and white plates into a beetle, a perfect little origami beetle made of glossy white china with blue willows mosaicing it's surface. Very carefully he unfolded it and stared at the undamaged plate in his hands, and with a smile folded it again, into a Minton Wear Elephant, a swallow dancing across it's forehead. any thing could be folded, wood, glass, metal, Jerry folded his bedsheets into a giant swan, he folded his pillow into a frog, then he folded his bedside lamp until it was a butterfly, the light from it's bulb spilling out between the folds in it's wings. He experimented with flowers and with a chair, he folded the old wheelbarrow into a swimming carp, his hands finding the angles and lines to trick the metal and rubber into obeying his will. Jerry had found he could change the world. Everything could dance under his fingers into geometric fancies, he need not sit in class and hide, the bullies would touch him no more because he KNEW that he could do things like no other person in the world! ....But, always there is a but. Jerry found that he did not want to let anyone else know what he knew, he would keep it a secret until he could find the confidence to show the world how special he truly was, so he took himself down the the woods at the edge of the school, where he could hide and fold broken bottles and soggy magazines and rusty bicycle frames into a secret garden of fantastic geometries..... Until Martin came crashing into his secret world. Martin was not the biggest or meanest bully in the school, indeed to many he was considered a quite nice boy....but to Jerry, he had become a personal tormentor. Martin would steal his books, stamp on his sandwiches, make mall comments to the girls when Jerry walked past, comments that made the girls snigger and point, Martin would kick his chair and cough loudly in his ear at class. There was nothing martin would not do to torment and humiliate Jerry and when he found jerry sitting in his little clearing, surrounded by strange and dazzling ornaments he could not help himself but to smash everything he could lay his hands and fists on, and when he had lain waste to every magical thing that Jerry had created, he reach out for Jerry, but Jerry, instead of cowering or crying or trying to run, simply grasped Martin by the arm and started folding...... And in almost no time at all, there, sitting in the middle of the secret glade, was a huge and magnificent, many petalled, ruby red lotusflower glistening in the sunlight.

[raliel]

Collage stuff

[raliel]

The Key is Lost...

valentine painting,acrylic on card, antique frame. 10cm x 15 cm

[raliel]

Valentine

Acrylic on board.... have a good one all of you whether you are alone or  with the one  ( or many) you love or a random stranger....

[raliel]

National Storytelling Week Fridays Tale (delayed sorry)

"Professor Eldritch presents the one and only universal Biopet! It can take any form and be trained to do all sorts of fun tasks! Come complete with a wild array of preset animals but can also take it's shape straight from your imagination! No need to feed! To ensure your Biopet remains in tip top condition,just give it a small dose of our special formula just once a week!" Accompanying the ad was a small video of an incredibly cute little ball of fluff that swiftly morphed into a butterfly winged elephant and then into a tiny unicorn.....It was the perfect gift for Emily's birthday, no mess like a real animal and apparently it would never die, unlike the goldfish they bought last year, Emily was inconsolable for weeks after that disaster. Apparently all one had to do was apply online and your Biopet would be sent special delivery.... Emily did indeed love her new Biopet, she called it Squiggles. In the first week she had taught Squiggles all sorts of wonderful new trick and n amazing repertoire of fantastical forms. As for Squiggles itself, it seemed completely happy. Then the formula ran out, they tried ordering more online, but the the Professor Eldritch BioPet Company seemed to have disappeared. They hoped it would be fine and indeed Squiggles did seem to be getting on just fine with it's formula. A tad larger perhaps and more prone to changing shape without being told, but still a happy and devoted pet. Then next door's cat disappeared, then more cats and then dogs started disappearing and Squiggles was getting alarmingly fat. Emily still loved it, and seemed as devoted to her as ever and it certainly had shown no signs of being ill or aggressive. Then, Emily came home from school one day. All that was left of her father was a sock shrouded foot and Squiggles, enormous and bloated, a mass of tentacles and seething bubbling flesh, rushed to embrace her.......

[raliel]

National Storytelling Week Thursdays Tale

Princess Blossom had a problem. She was by far the most beautiful girl in all the seven kingdoms, her father the wealthiest king, her subjects the happiest and best fed.....but she wanted love. every week new suitors would travel from far and wide, all rich and brave and handsome, brilliant dancers, astounding singers, but she loathed each and every one of them.  After a particularly astound but, to her, rather tiresome display of sword juggling by prince Olaf the Great, she sighed and turned to her father and said, " i really have no time at all for all these bothersome princes, i am sure they are all handsome and wonderful in their own ways, but none of them are for me. I will go out into the world and find my own true love in whatever form that may take!" So without delay, she packed a bag with the essential things a girl must take, slung her father's sharpest war sword on her back ( after all he never used it, there being a reign of peace in the kingdom that had lasted since the great goblin wars of over one hundred years ago) and left the castle to search the world for her true love. many days passed and she travelled further and further away from her kingdom until she came to the edge of the Dark and Loathsome Forest, a name that was entirely unjust really as they were quite pretty, especially in spring, and she sat upon a fallen tree to eat her lunch. The spring air was pleasant and the trees in full bloom and birdsong twittered all around and princess blossom was ready to set forth once more, when a terrible roaring and growling came from the forest.... She unslung her fathers sword with a swish and ran into the forest to see what all the commotion was about and there she saw a truly handsome prince in shining armour battling a huge and fearsome beast, all shaggy hair and sharp teeth and terrible horns upon it's brow.... the prince was repeatedly battering the beast with a bejewelled mace and slashing with a small but lethal looking dagger, and the beast seemed to be tiring.....  As princess Blossom approached the foray, the beast turned and roared at her "Please have mercy and call your warrior off! I have not hurt him or any human in my life!" and to the princess it did indeed seem that the eyes of the beast were kind and it did indeed appear to be merely fending off the prince, so she called out, " Prince! why do you harry this beast so?" and the prince replied, " I have sworn to rid the land of all monsters and seek to make this foul creature's heart a gift for princess Blossom, who is reported to be as beautiful as this fiend is ugly!"  "i would think the princess would rather keep the beast's heart wear it belongs in it's chest!" "fair maid tis not for you to say" shouted the prince and stepped forward to slash at the creature again...... with a sigh the princess leapt forward and with one sweep of her sword, she took the prince's head clean off. "thankyou!" growled the bedraggled beast, "what can I do to repay you?" the princess thought for a moment and said " I am princess Blossom, and I would quite like your heart, but in return you can have mine for I see that you are a noble and gracious beast and i think i love you......um if I kiss you, you won't turn into a prince or anything? I have read about such things and it all seems so...disappointing"  with a chuckle that sounded like the cracking of a dozen oak trees, the beast replied "Dear princess, i can assure you that i am truly what you see and have never been cursed by witches or evil queens or even goblins and I would gladly give you my heart" and with that the kissed and truly they did live happily ever after.

[raliel]

National Storytelling Week...... Wednesday's Tale.

"MUMMY! there are fairies living in our garden!" Daisy ran into the kitchen, leaving a thick trail of mud and dead leaves on the newly cleaned floor. Her mother simply smiled and said "that's lovely dear, go back out and play"  Daisy poked out he tongue and scampered back out into the garden to play.... the sounds of childish glee and the tinkling of the windchime that hung from the old Apple tree drifted in through the kitchen door. Daisy rushed back in all out of breath and grabbed her mother's skirt in her small and grubby fingers.... "mummy, I think the fairies are hungry, what do fairies eat?" "I don't know dear, perhaps they like fruit?" "I DON'T think so mummy.... I think they want meat" "don't be silly daisy, I am pretty sure fairies eat fruit and flowers and things like that, you can take them a banana from the fruitbowl if you must" with a grump, Daisy grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl, and stomped back outside....  From the garden came a hideous scream and the gentle tinkling became a mad cacophony of tiny bells....and then....silence. Daisy's mother ran outside, frantic with worry for her daughter and she saw what was left of a small red dress and understood exactly what fairies like to eat.