#she has so many gifts but one of the most impressive is her innate knowledge of how to play with language

[itspileofgoodthings]

when you realize Mr. Perfectly Fine has a chiasmus in it

[120-warrior-cat-ocs]

MA THERE'S A WEIRD FUKIN CAT OUTSIDE

Lore notes given below :

Name : Bloomkit / Bloompaw / Bloomscorch / Blooming Dawncaster

Pronouns : she/her

Allegiance(s) : Leader of the Tribe of the Setting Sun (thus her suffix)

———

Build : Absolute beefcake stuffed under a thick pelt, with stocky legs that can pack a punch.

Defining feature : Bloom is what the tribe calls a 'Ghosteye'- an innate power that allows her to see her ancestors as if they walked amongst them. She is the only living cat to have this ability in decades, aside from Rosy Fire.

———

Kin : Parents - Redfur and Petaldrop Uncle - Jackalwhisker (they are both unaware of this)

Relations :

Adopted daughter/Apprenticed - Rosy Fire

Close friends - Bluebird, Comet's Trail

Enemies - Basically everyone in Frondclan, Copperstar

Reputation : Although she was the most recent leader to come into power in her time, she had made a remarkable impression both outside and inside her territory. Unfortunately, this impression is less out of reverence, and more out of a 'this molly fucking scares me shitless' attitude.

Outside of her own bubble of followers, Bloom is considered to be savage and ruthless in her affairs. Although her main and only motive is out of a sense of justice, the way she goes about it often has her tribe split.

———

Description

TL;DR : little kitty cat gets a little fascism. as a treat.

Before Blooming Dawncaster came into power, the Sun Tribe was once called Tansyclan.

But let's start from the beginning, first.

Tansyclan found her as a stray kitten in their tunnels, battered and scarred and clinging on to dear life. She had narrowly escaped a jackal attack, but her rogue parents weren't so lucky. Orphaned, alone and barely old enough to open her eyes, Tansyclan took her in as one of their own.

Although Bloomkit recovered in due time, her pelt was littered with scars and her tail was permanently kinked from the attack. Her apprenticeship was a rough journey, with many visits to the medicine den as she would overexert herself, reopening old wounds. Moonsoul, the medic, eventually requested she stayed permanently in the den. Bloompaw had no qualms with the change- her rogue background and aggressive demeanour had already isolated her from her peers by then. Bloompaw's and Moonsoul's relationship evolved from there into a kind of sibling dynamic.

Bloompaw eventually opened up to Moonsoul, saying that she could see 'invisible' clanmates that no one else seemed to acknowledge or even see. Moonsoul took Bloompaw to the elders' den, where she proved her ability by repeating the stories of a passed ancestor. She was told she was gifted with the power of a 'Ghosteye'- a long-spread myth in Tansyclan, former spiritual guides and holders of sacred knowledge. It had been years since a Ghosteye had lived among them.

Word spread like wildfire across camp, and Bloompaw became a kind of minor legend. Even with the voices of a few skeptics, the newfound attention both dumbfounded and fascinated her. She was ordered by Splinterstar to visit the Latefield, to further hear from Starclan about her gift.

And yet, alongside Moonsoul in that night-kissed flower bed, she neither dreamt nor heard a thing of them.

She came home by early sunrise feeling lost, and the initial hype of her power had long died down (her powers didn't seem to extend to recently deceased clanmates). She wondered if Starclan was showing some kind of disapproval, worrying that she was closer to a fraud than any sort of prodigy.

Yet someone new enters her den, with haunted eyes and a silvery coat. Something in her gut lurched, knew that something about this ghost was far more ancient than anyone she's ever set eyes on. He introduces himself simply- Bluebird.

Bluebird ends up being an anchor in her life from that point on, accompanying her and comforting her through hardship. She looked up to him greatly, and with him and Moonsoul she began to feel more at home in Tansyclan. As time slipped by he would tell her of Tansyclan's legacy, when they had once been a proud Tribe with cultures and traditions far different from modern day. Bloomscorch would regale these tales to anyone who would listen, managing to revive once-forgotten rituals, faceless heroes, and arcane secrets.

She was still a split controversy in Tansyclan, with the only handful of cats tolerating her for her power. Splinterstar saw beyond that, however- he could see a bright young cat with a sharp mind and tactical prowess. He encouraged her ability in order to bring back parts of Tansyclan's old culture. This also spurred more antagonism against her- their glorious leader, showing blatant favouritism against a hot-headed novice warrior? Nevertheless, Bloomscorch has always had a knack for getting the favour of just the right people- even when she lacked basic diplomatic and social skills. It was in her sheer fire and drive that her strange charisma seemed to stem from.

There was something missing, however. Why exactly did the Tribe remake itself into current-day Tansyclan? It seemed to be an obvious question, yet no ghost was old enough to remember what conspired, let alone the reason behind it. Even Bluebird's memory seemed clouded.

Bloomscorch spent years piecing things together, and when she finally realised the truth...

It turns out that Frondclan settlers forced their culture onto the old Sun Tribe, using manipulative and even violent measures to remodel the tribe into their vision. Years of her tribe's stories, names, families- ruined. And all for what?

She cursed Frondclan for their ancestors' savage ways. Cursed Starclan for letting it all happen. Cursed herself for taking so long to unbury this reality. Bloomscorch finally decided that retribution was long-due.

And nobody else was going to do it, she would.

Her twisted sense of justice, her growing appetite for power and her handful of followers brewed a deadly concoction for the future of her clan. Her climb to leadership was... not done through the most ethical means (Nobody could prove that Splinterstar's untimely death was related at all to his recent skirmish with Bloomscorch, or that his deputy gave up his title because he knew that she was the only cat fit for the job...). But she would swear it was all done in good faith. The end justified the means after all, right?

And the way she sees it, the best end would be Frondclan's forest burnt to the ground.

And that? That sets the stage for Blooming Dawncaster's legacy- and the gory rebirth of the Sun Tribe.

[minecraftfan11onscratch]

My NiGHTS’ Visitors Headcanons!

Under the cut cause... a bit long!

Claris Sinclair

14-years and six months; androgyne (femandrogyne).

She comes from a wealthy, wide family of artists, most of them focused in entertainment (musicians, singers, actors, etc), but there are also some writers. Claris herself decided to try and be a singer (although more for personal passion than family honor).

Even though they share the same singing talent, Claris was never close to her mother, due to her being significantly distant thanks to her job. Her father, a writer, was always the closer, more caring parent of hers.

Claris can be described most of the time as the caring, empathetic, reliable girl that can be trusted not unlike a older sister. However, she can be very blunt, physically clumsy, and fiery. She can be quite a bit of a knowledge seeker as well.

She has a bit of a "I must be perfect at it” mindset, mostly directed towards her singing talent. It, along with her stage anxiety, came from her family’s hopes and pressure over her singing skills. Her adventure in Nightopia inspired her to lessen this mindset to manageable levels.

While she considered NiGHTS a great friend, Claris is not a full fan of her/their more risky antics, and doubted further helping her/them for a while after figuring out NiGHTS is a Nightmaren. Ultimately, though, she trusted her Ideya recovering with her/them.

She and Elliot developed a relationship after some months of meeting each other in the Night Dimension.

Elliot Edwards

14-years and nine months; demi-bisexual.

He grew up in a milder, simpler family, that usually worked on the education system. Elliot had a pretty lonely past before reaching school and becoming popular, resulting in him developing a passion for basketball.

Elliot never met his father; he only found out later that he wasn’t present in his home’s life. His mother, as compensation, was a hadworking and kind figure through his life, supporting his dreams even though they looked impossible.

Elliot is very friendly, energetic and modest boy that wouldn’t trade his trust and loyalty at his friends for anything. His stubborness, dangerous curosity, and mild silliness, though, can dent the nerves of someone that can’t tolerate it easily.

He is scared of being embarrased in public, due to believing his friends wouldn’t like him as much as if he could overcome anything. This came from his lonely pre-school childhood and his attempts to avoid repeating it. His adventure in Nightopia shows him that slipping up is alright, as long as you can back up and try again.

Even after finding out NiGHTS’ true nature, Elliot loved NiGHTS, getting accostumed more easily to her/their playful but mischeivous personality, and sharing her/their pain of hiding a part of themselves to keep their friends at their side.

He and Claris developed a relationship after some months of meeting each other in the Night Dimension.

William “Will” Taylor

12-years old and one month; androgyne (mascandrogyne).

His family is mild in the social scale, and works on the product development business. Will used to be relatively well known at his school, until he began to dedicate a good part of his life to soccer, accidentaly driving almost everyone of his age away due to his introverted attitude and high, noticeable talent.

While he finds his mother nice and caring, she didn’t have enough faith on his soccer player dreams. That wasn’t the case with his father, who was his best friend as compensation for having almost no kids of his age to talk to. Which is why Will felt devastated and lonely once his father had to go on a business trip.

Will is pretty humble, honest, tolerant, and sweet, being able to accept any trait his friends/close ones have (something that is both a blessing and a curse), while being determined to defend them. Although he can be quite shy, messy, and insecure to a degree.

His loneliness, caused by his own talent in soccer and his innate introverted nature, can make him a bit clingy once he gets close enough to someone, and make him try to impress and catch his friend’s attentions to not feel ditched. It could be mistaken as unwitting selfishness depending of his acts.

Will loves NiGHTS way too much, accepting her/them as a guardian figure in spite of them not being able to bond with paternal figures and her/them being a Nightmaren. His own tolerance is the reason why he isn’t as shaken as Helen over NiGHTS’ Nightmaren reveal.

He and Helen ultimately ended up just as friends, but they support each other endlessly.

Helen Cartwright

12-years old and five months; bisexual.

She comes from one of many musically gifted family lineages of Bellbridge. Helen has been a prodigy on her family’s specialty, the violin, ever since she was small, thanks to her mother’s guidance.

Her parents divorced when she around five to six years old, so she only vaguely remembers him. She and her mother used to be inseparably close and very supportive, until Junior High rolled around and Helen made friends she began to spend more time with (which would later cause her immense regret and, consequentially, nightmares).

Helen is polite, corteous and pretty well-mannered due to her background, along with being kind, amicable and patient. But she’s usually quite unsure, overly sentimental, and a bit naive.

Although she’s quite easy to terrify/scare/cause fear on, especially by exploiting her nyctophobia, she also tries to do the right thing and defend her friends as best as she can.

Helen trusted NiGHTS to protect her, due to considering her/them alot more genuinely brave than her, and found her/them fun to hang with. She quietly forgives NiGHTS after finding out she/they is/are a Nightmaren, but takes a more careful approach than Will.

She and Will ultimately ended up just as friends, but they support each other endlessly.

[corinthbayrpg]

NAME. Vincent Kolev AGE & BIRTH DATE. 620 & December 5th, 1401 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He/Him SPECIES. Vampire OCCUPATION. Unemployed FACE CLAIM. Aidan Turner

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: murder, illness, violence, death ) Fates are fickle and the only guarantees in life are those borne of theft and blood. 

The eldest of seven children dropped carelessly into a world of famine, plague, and Ottoman occupation, Vince’s knuckles and palms were marred from the first moment that he could wield a hammer. His father had been a carpenter by trade, then necessity as Bulgaria fell to its invaders, and imparting that knowledge upon the eldest Kolev was meant as a tool to protect him from armed recruitment. Even now he can recall witnessing the other children dragged from their homes to join the youth forces… Mothers wailing with empty arms, haunted expressions of passerby staring on, and death. Always an endless stream of death.

For all of his distractibility and the general unease surrounding their impoverished village, Vince’s father boasted him as a quick pupil. The young boy’s potential to evolve into a skilled craftsman over time could not be understated and while it brought their family pride, it also could not satiate the relentless itch behind curled fingers. To the first born son, his value existed well beyond a sturdy table or repairing the dilapidated homes of their neighbors. He slipped between merchants and soldiers with ease, palms sticky from sweat and purpose as he nabbed a coin purse here, an apple there. In a time when theft became necessity and loss was imminent, he learned to blur morals for the sake of survival.

No amount of thievery or misguided intention could hamper the onslaught of a short plague as it ravaged the entire countryside, then the towns… Until Vince’s family members began to drop like the flies which lingered as a constant presence throughout the streets. One by one, they were stripped from his grasp until he stood alone; not only the eldest Kolev, but the last of them. Unmarried with no heirs, barely employed as a carpenter, thieving in his spare moments. There was little prospect of Vince lasting the winter, let alone crawling out of the hole where loss and destitution were attempting to bury him alive. As violence began to escalate amongst the locals, the sole remaining Kolev discovered himself torn between a desire to persist in his homeland where poverty ran rampant and the idea of venturing almost anywhere else to escape it.

Unfortunately the decision was all too easily made for him. Upon walking home after a late night of pilfering, a vicious attack from an unidentified stranger in the darkness left a neck wound so blatantly open that Vince should have bled out onto the grass. The stars above coated the sky like dust, thousands of them twinkling in every direction. Not a single cloud to overlook this horror. He wondered who might happen upon his corpse in the morning, whether his grave would be marked in the Kolev burial plot. The hallmarks of an unimportant life as forgettable as the rest; merely a statistic in a future textbook. Yet fate warped and time slowed, his attacker taking note of how adamantly, or perhaps stubbornly, the human clung to the last fibers of his short lived existence. Intrigued, bewildered, and admittedly impressed, the centuries old vrykolakas offered a dying man reprieve in the form of eternal life. With nothing left to lose by accepting, Vince managed to agree with a less than polite remark, “S’pose you owe me that much.”

Eternity suited the former thief and peasant far better than any fleeting mortal life, his sire’s instruction barely enough to be deemed useful before he flitted off into obscurity and left Vince to his own devices. All of which resulted in a slew of mottled bodies throughout Europe whilst he traveled north, tearing whomever he could apart. Blood, violence, and utter gore were beacons to his attention, infatuated with the power and ease of it all. Theft still spoke to him in coaxing whispers, but compulsion weaved itself into the forefront of his mind as a more appealing resource and he relied on its potency often to stay afloat. Eventually, Vince tired of Europe’s meager corner of the world and fled East into Asia.

It was during his travels that he first encountered Viraj, a younger vampire bred from the cruelty of the first of their kind and positioned amidst a slaughtered crew. He required tutelage that Vince, still so young and hopelessly naïve in his own right, attempted to bestow as best he could. After gifting a daylight ring, words of warning, and multiple failed endeavors to unravel the convoluted bloodlust which afflicted his quasi progeny, it became all too clear that Vince had been staring into the worst sort of mirror all along. How could he heal this lost soul when the elder vampire himself had more than enough demons biting at his own heels? The men parted ways once time indicated that their bond had only proved toxic in nature, but Viraj would always remain his first experience as a pseudo sire.

Vince held every intention of wandering the world for a long while afterwards, loneliness a synonym to his name, but once more life pivoted on an unexpected fulcrum. While beguiling those so foolishly swept up by cheap words and plucking coins from their pockets in the same breath, he was soon approached by the only face worth adoring in this life or the next. Sebiorn, another young vampire brimming with the callous disregard that Vince attempted to ignore about himself; his presence was all-consuming. Where thievery and violence formerly drew all attention, now he relinquished every piece of his own darkness at the other man’s feet. They became inseparable and nightmarish, spilling into one another when their cups overflowed, spilling crimson along the streets.

Good things rarely last for Vince and through the years, the lovers lost sight of true importance. Pushing and pulling when the moment suited them, magnets afraid to either attract or repel for too long. They loved one another, but never committed to the necessary effort required to solidify that fact and Sebiorn’s jealousy often initiated Vince’s flight. It happened between several of these separations, the creation of progenies to ease his boredom and isolation. He tended to choose those most deserving, the ones in questionable situations or dire straits, and therein lay Jamie. Secrecy and avoidance were almost commonplace for the ancient vampire, but his preference for the young Scot above the other progenies was obvious to any who knew them. 

Again he chose one whose affections were quite costly, now ricocheting between Jamie and Sebiorn throughout the centuries until the youngest finally broke free of their endless cycle. How good for him, Vince would claim amidst his own irritation. Though once the golden progeny fled for greener pastures, Sebiorn returned with an eternal proposition and Vince accepted wholeheartedly. They had aged so far past their most destructive years and while still capable of it at a moment’s notice, time eased their mutual bloodlust and strengthened the simple fact that they were incapable of parting for long. Once allowed, they married in haste and settled into a quiet existence together that somehow suited both men far better than it had centuries prior.

Even with his life finally on course and worst impulses tempered, Vince has difficulty relinquishing the innate desire to help those in his life who require it. Particularly Jamie, much to Sebiorn’s displeasure and outright loathing. Amidst their bickering over a visit to Corinth Bay, they arrived regardless at the crux of a war neither one enlisted to fight. Vince possesses little care for the opinions of gods and he maintains that his residence here is only to ensure the safety of his progeny, but to settle is to allow his own demons a chance to emerge, and so many lurk just around the corner.

PERSONALITY

+ passionate, sentimental, faithful - obsessive, brutal, dramatic

PLAYED BY MARTY. PST. She/Her.

[pengiesama]

Panopticon (Fic, TGCF/Coraline AU, HC/XL)

Title: Panopticon Series: Heavenly Official’s Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu) Pairing: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian, Jun Wu & Xie Lian, Jun Wu & Mei Nian Qing

Summary:

Jun Wu has built a very splendid home for Xie Lian, with gifts and friends and wondrous sights just for him. He will be very happy there.

Xie Lian won't take this house arrest lying down.

(Inspired by the book/movie Coraline, by Neil Gaiman.)

CONTENT WARNINGS: Horror, Body Horror, Psychological Horror, Gore, Bittersweet Ending

Link: AO3

Read on Tumblr!

Eight hundred years ago, there was a kingdom known as Xian Le. 

--

--

“Why does she want me?” Coraline asked the cat. “Why does she want me to stay here with her?”

“She wants something to love, I think,” said the cat. “Something that isn’t her. She might want something to eat as well. It’s hard to tell with creatures like that.”

– Coraline, Neil Gaiman

--

 Eight hundred years ago, there was a kingdom known as Xian Le.

The kingdom had four treasures: beautiful women, music, riches, and its crown prince.

 “And this is…”

Forgetting himself in his excitement, Xie Lian took the sword down from where it was displayed on the wall to examine it more closely. He turned it this way and that, examining the pommel, spying down the length of the blade to see the fineness of its edge.

“…jingeom, Four Dragons!” Xie Lian exclaimed. “Unmistakably! A Four Dragons blade can only be crafted once every twelve years, you know, and only by the finest blacksmiths.”

“Just so,” Jun Wu confirmed. “Foreign pieces often find their way into my collection. I don’t discriminate when it comes to quality.”

Nor did Xie Lian, but it was nigh-on impossible to keep his attention on a single dazzling artifact when he was surrounded by hundreds more. Xie Lian had already handed off the blade to Feng Xin, and was back to eyeing up the rest of Jun Wu’s collection. Jun Wu laughed; a warm, delighted sound.

“Xian Le is so knowledgeable! But so hard to impress.”

He was clearly amused, but Xie Lian would hardly deny the sentiment. He was Xian Le’s crown prince, after all – he’d seen the best, thought he could do it better, and then proceeded to do so. It was simply the natural way of things.

Xie Lian had already stacked more discarded legendary swords into Feng Xin’s arms like so much firewood. (Feng Xin’s soul had long since left his body at the sight of Xie Lian’s shameless behavior in the Heavenly Emperor’s own household, and he simply stood there like a statue, numbly accepting whatever Xie Lian handed to him.) Xie Lian squinted at the blade he currently had unsheathed, frowning slightly.

“This is…a fortune-telling blade?” Xie Lian inquired aloud.

“Ah, yes, that old stick,” Jun Wu said dismissively. “I don’t put much stock in that sort of thing. Lovely craftsmanship, though.”

“Mm,” Xie Lian agreed, re-sheathing the sword and handing it off to Feng Xin. He, too, cared very little for fortune-telling; much to the chagrin of his teacher. But the fact that Jun Wu shared his opinion made his heart buoyant with pride. “Neither do I. I wish you’d been around to get me out of all those dull divination lectures, before I ascended…”

Even so, seeing that blade in front of him, he found himself trying to recall those lessons…though he could now confidently proclaim that fortune-telling was a frivolous pursuit, he was admittedly a little curious to what that reflection was trying to indicate. Butterflies, dancing on that gleaming surface…

Jun Wu made a sympathetic noise, and reached out to pat Xie Lian’s back. “Dreadfully dull indeed – and wholly unsuitable for Xian Le. What a waste, to have you cooped up indoors staring at star charts instead of cultivating your swordplay! It truly speaks to Xian Le’s innate talents that he was able to ascend so soon despite these obstacles.”

Xie Lian bubbled with happiness at Jun Wu’s words; at his agreement and praise. Even that touch to his back didn’t feel as overly-familiar as it should – he supposed if anyone was permitted to pat Xian Le’s crown prince like a child, it would only be the Heavenly Emperor himself.

“In any event, Xian Le doesn’t have to worry about any of that silliness anymore. And if that Head Priest of yours still tries to lecture you for falling behind in your lessons, just call on me.” Jun Wu leaned in, his expression comically grave. “I’ll give him a lecture he won’t see coming.”

Xie Lian laughed at the very thought of Jun Wu scolding Head Priest. Perhaps he’d have him write lines, just as Head Priest had assigned Xie Lian when he outsmarted those silly riddles of his!

He reached for another sword.

“At this rate you’ll have gone through my whole collection before the sun rises!” With a flick of Jun Wu’s sleeves, the swords in Feng Xin’s arms rose up and re-arranged themselves on the walls. “I’ll have to work hard at adding new pieces, so Xian Le always has something to see when he visits…”

At long last, Xie Lian had found a sword that piqued his interest. He went through a few practice poses with it as Jun Wu spoke; testing its balance, testing its reach. His skillful feet, his step as light and spritely as a deer’s, barely made a sound on the polished floors. His robes billowed and swirled with his graceful movements, blooming about him like the petals of a heavenly flower. The blade sang like a bell as Xie Lian sliced at the air.

Jun Wu circled him, evaluating his form. He reached out and gripped Xie Lian’s elbow, tilting it up just a bit to straighten up the point of the blade. The adjustment was slight, so slight that even a trained eye could hardly see it. But it resulted in a form so perfect, so divine, that it looked like a statue formed at the hands of a heavenly architect.

“I should fetch you a flowering tree branch,” Jun Wu said. “Then you’d be fit to for mortals to paint. Though I don’t think your shrines can hold any more icons of you…”

Xie Lian puffed out an annoyed breath. “They can just use my other statues and murals for reference. I have more than enough, and they can make do. Even when I was small I loathed sitting for portraiture.”

It was such a waste of time, standing still for hours while a royal painter squinted and sketched. A true artist would only have to see him once!

“They truly don’t understand you, Xian Le,” Jun Wu murmured. “Don’t worry. Now that you’re here, you don’t have to concern yourself with any of that, anymore. You’re beyond what they could ever comprehend.”

Jun Wu’s hand came up to pat his head, to stroke his hair.

“Shall we retire to my study? You must be in need of some refreshments.”

“No, thank you,” Xie Lian said, and it was the truth – he never was a big eater, and it was something of a relief that the worship he received now was nourishment enough. “I should go back to my temples and address prayers. The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, and I wish to give a strong showing.”

Gods did have duties, of course, and Xie Lian did have so very many prayers to answer. All the same, there were few among gods, ghosts, and mortals who had such confidence that they could rebuff an invitation from the Heavenly Emperor himself.

But Xie Lian was the one and only crown prince of Xian Le.

Jun Wu laughed again. “Xian Le is truly hard to impress, indeed. I wish him luck. But please, don’t hesitate to come calling whenever you wish. I promise to show Xian Le many more splendid things.”

 --

 Eight hundred years ago, there was a kingdom known as Xian Le.

The kingdom had four curses: idleness, corruption, excess, and its foolish prince.

 “I must say that I didn’t expect Xian Le to drink down the wine during our game so readily. And that play – the human realm is so full of wild ideas!”

Xie Lian tittered a nervous laugh at the mention of the play. “Y-yes, um. That play was…truly something.”

After the Mid-Autumn Banquet concluded, he’d been unexpectedly invited to the Great Martial Palace for after-dinner tea. The sky was still ablaze with lanterns, and Xie Lian was still too dazzled and dazed by the sight of them, and the thoughts of the person who’d sent them heavensward, to give much thought to refusing the summons. And so here he was, having tea and sweets with Jun Wu in his personal study.

It brought back old memories – of himself as a foolish seventeen-year-old, rattling off the history of every weapon mounted on Jun Wu’s walls, as if the Emperor wasn’t aware of their properties and lineage! Such arrogance he’d shown, back then. Lecturing for hours, talking his ear off. But Jun Wu had stood and listened to him go on and on, a fond smile crinkling his eyes and mouth. Truly, the Emperor had always been so kind to him.

“Do you know that it’s a tradition for the runner-up of the Lantern Battle to host dinner for the winner?”

Xie Lian blinked and tilted his head curiously. “No? That seems unfair, though. Like salt in the wound.”

Jun Wu chuckled fondly, as if he’d expected such a response. “Yes, well. Being that I usually win, most of the other gods leap at the chance to host me at their palaces. It’ll be me doing the leaping this year…and my leaping muscles are so out of practice! Xian Le has given me a splendid chance to exercise them. It will be an event you won’t soon forget.”

Xie Lian was suddenly exceedingly thankful that Hua Cheng had sent up so many lanterns. Even if it was just on a whim, a second-place finish would have had him hosting the Emperor of Heaven at his Puji Shrine! He could not have borne up under such shame.

It was as though Jun Wu could read the thoughts flitting through his mind. “Shall I pay a visit sometime? To this shrine of yours that I’ve heard so much talk about.”

“Ah—”

How to respond? His little shrine was much too humble to receive the Emperor himself, no matter how well Xie Lian swept its dirt floors! He knew he shouldn’t have put off fixing the roof for this long. And he’d been meaning to mend the curtains he’d salvaged, but with his sewing skills, they would likely look better if they stayed torn…

“It—it may not be to your lordship’s liking. It’s quite cramped, you see; I’ve been hosting – many visitors lately—”

“Surely proof that Xian Le is a gracious host, and all the more reason for me to come calling.”

Xie Lian shifted uncomfortably. He had no face to lose, honestly. Less than a year ago, he had been sleeping on the streets; having even a leaking roof over his head was an improvement. But to allow Jun Wu to see the state in which he lived – his tiny, tattered little home, with bare cupboards and junk piled in every corner – filled him with an acute sense of shame. The Emperor had always been so kind to him, thought so highly of him. And his pathetic state was all that came of that trust. The shackles on his skin prickled uncomfortably, like marching, biting insects.

Jun Wu smiled magnanimously. “Well. I hope you’ll receive me, one day. Perhaps in the home I built for you here.”

To his further embarrassment, Xie Lian often forgot the Palace of Xian Le even existed. He could only nod, further shamed by his own careless, ungracious behavior.

“I suspect that it is not to your liking.” Jun Wu leaned his head on his hand, and regarded Xie Lian with an air of gentle concern. “You seem to prefer a shabby little hut in the human realm to the comforts I’ve provided. I personally designed it. I personally funded it. I sent word to you when it was finished; I would have liked to spend an evening in your company, to catch up on all these years. I waited for days for you to finish whatever business kept you in the human realm. Days into weeks. And now, here we are at the height of autumn, and you still haven’t spent a single night there. You must understand my confusion.”

Xie Lian’s cheeks flushed hot. “I’m…it’s—”

“The pantry is always full of the finest produce from Heaven’s trees and fields.”

“I—”

“I’ve filled your wardrobe with many fine ensembles. Windmaster, too, has sent over piles of clothing that he must think suits you. He seems so terribly fond of you.”

“That’s—”

“Is it perhaps that your neighbors have been discourteous and unwelcoming? Excepting Windmaster, of course. Understand that the stars in the night sky must not concern themselves with the jealous sputtering of an innkeeper’s candles.”

“It’s…it’s just—”

“If Xian Le would prefer, I could make whatever arrangements necessary to make him feel more at home. He need only ask.”

The generous grace being shown to him was so utterly undeserved that Xie Lian could never dream of accepting it. He was not the spoiled little prince that Jun Wu remembered – so full of promise and potential, so desperately foolish. He preferred to live as he was now – busking on street corners, gathering scraps, washing the same two pairs of robes in the nearby stream. Chopping wood for the fire, chatting and laughing as Hua Cheng helped cut and gather and carry. Cooking the vegetables he’d been offered as thanks for helping in the fields, and eating with Hua Cheng by his side as the fire crackled into embers.

(It went without saying that Hua Cheng would not be a welcome guest in the land of the gods. This, too, was something that could not be overlooked.)

A life holed up in the Heavens, in a sumptuous palace, far away from the troubles of the other two realms. Perhaps it suited the other gods, gods that were greater than him. But it did not suit Xie Lian. Not anymore.

He was at a loss on how to explain his feelings.

“I…I can’t stay tonight,” Xie Lian said. “I’ve been looking after two human children. And dealing with my cousin.”

Jun Wu gave a sympathetic wince at the mention of Qi Rong, and the sight of such a silly, human expression on the Emperor’s face made Xie Lian give a brief titter of nervous laughter. “Ah. Xian Le has always leapt headlong into trouble. He needn’t worry tonight about moving house, but one hopes that he’ll consider sometime in the future, once his various errands have concluded. I look forward to being your guest.”

With that, Jun Wu lifted his head from his hand and saluted Xie Lian, allowing Xie Lian to return the salute and beat a hasty retreat to his humble home.

It would not be the first time he’d disappointed someone who had faith in him, and it surely wouldn’t be the last.

 --

 Two thousand years ago, there was a kingdom known as □□□□□.

The kingdom had four treasures: beautiful women, music, riches, and its crown prince.

 “I waited for you, after the Mid-Autumn Banquet. I would have known the moment you set foot in this palace that you’d come. But you never did.”

“…”

“I built this palace especially for you, Xian Le. Do you think I do that for every god that comes through the heavenly gates?”

“I never asked you to,” Xie Lian spat.

“I wonder who taught you to be such a scornful child,” Jun Wu sighed. “All those years in the mortal realm have taken their toll on your manners. Or perhaps it was the company you’ve kept, recently. I think some time for reflection in your quarters is in order.”

Jun Wu stopped at the door to the Palace of Xian Le, and waited for Xie Lian to trudge up before he continued speaking.

“Not that I was asked to, but I’ve taken the liberty of making some adjustments to make you feel more at home. I want this to be a place you’re comfortable in. A place you can while away many happy years, a place where I can always come calling and see a smile on Xian Le’s sweet face.”

Jun Wu briefly stroked a hand over the fall of Xie Lian’s hair, down his back. The old, sick memory of White No-Face’s tender embrace flared in Xie Lian’s mind, and he whirled away; nearly falling down the stairs in the process.

“Careful,” Jun Wu chided. “Clumsy.”

Xie Lian choked as he was pulled out of his freefall by Jun Wu’s grip on the shackle about his neck. He clawed at his throat, gasping for air. Jun Wu opened the door of the palace, and dragged Xie Lian inside; dumping him unceremoniously on the floor at his feet.

“Welcome home,” Jun Wu said gently, warmly.

“Welcome home!”

“Welcome home!”

“Your highness!”

“Your highness!”

The palace of Xian Le was the palace of Xian Le.

“Lianlian,” his mother said, approaching him with the warmth and carefree joy he remembered from his earlier years. “I made us dinner – your favorite! You must be so hungry from training all day!”

The fine porcelain bowls lined up on the table were filled with discolored, rot-smelling sludge. This was, in itself, not cause for special concern, or something particular to this nightmare that Jun Wu had thrown him into. While it was not Xie Lian’s “favorite”, he could recognize it on sight (and scent). Taste, too, most likely. It had tasted the same going down as it had coming back up on that morning when he’d dined next to his parents, while they dangled from the ceiling by their necks.

His father – hale and healthy – chuckled. “Don’t worry, son,” he said in a stage whisper, winking as he did. Xie Lian could not remember the last time he saw the king act so jovial, so warm to him. “There’s plenty of fresh meat buns from the cooks in the kitchen.”

“Your highness!” Feng Xin and Mu Qing said in unison, then startled theatrically at that fact. They harrumphed dramatically, and crossed their arms, determinedly not looking at each other.

“I’ll get you a change of clothes—”

“He needs to have a bath first, idiot!”

“He can change his clothes and then have a bath! Then change his clothes again!”

The palace of Xian Le was the palace of Xian Le and the palace of Xian Le was filled with the people that Xie Lian remembered so well even after so many years. They should have been dead. They should have been dead or should have drifted so far away that Xie Lian could hardly recognize them anymore. But here they were, as they had been. Exactly as they had been, save for one fact: every familiar face was grotesquely twisted into a half-smile-half-frown. There was not the courtesy of masks, just flesh and sinew rearranged into an impossible expression of despairing bliss. Heart in paradise.

Xie Lian began to tremble.

Jun Wu leaned down to whisper into Xie Lian’s ear. “There’s a swingset in the back garden,” he said. “Your mother told me how much you loved to swing when you were a little one.”

“She didn’t tell you anything.” Xie Lian’s voice was tremulous with fear and fury. “She’s been dead for eight hundred years. Because of—”

Jun Wu cocked an eyebrow. “Because of me?”

“Because of me,” Xie Lian snapped. “Don’t interrupt.”

Jun Wu’s eyes went soft. He knelt and helped Xie Lian to his feet; his touch and voice filled with compassion. “It’s not your fault. Oh, it’s not your fault, Xian Le.”

He pulled Xie Lian into his warm, unrelenting embrace. His heart beat under Xie Lian’s cheek, steady and strong. Thump thump, thump thump.

“The frailty of others is not your responsibility,” Jun Wu said. “Xian Le should not blame himself for others’ shortcomings. For others’ failures. The burden is not his to bear up under. This is a lesson that I’ve tried so hard to impart to you, and save you further pain.”

Xie Lian wished he could flay off his own skin, and grow a suit of new pink flesh that wouldn’t bear the memory of this touch. He felt a nudge to the back of his knees, and a head pressing itself to the underside of his palm; like a dog begging to be petted. He looked down, slowly, dreading what awaited him.

The sight of Qi Rong gazing up at him adoringly struck Xie Lian with a nostalgic vertigo that threatened to make him vomit even more than the smell of his mother’s stew had managed. He wore the face of the innocent child he once was, before grief and loneliness and madness had warped his mind. The smile-frown on his face was present, but his mouth was sewn shut with dark thread. Qi Rong could only make small, animal noises from the back of his throat as he continued to bump against Xie Lian’s palm; finally taking his hand and pressing it firmly to his head.

“I thought it would be best for everyone if I took care of that vile mouth of his,” Jun Wu explained. “Less noise. Less spitting. Better diet regulation. He’s much more manageable now, don’t you agree?”

Qi Rong nodded in agreement, and continued to pet himself with Xie Lian’s hand. Xie Lian yanked his hand away, finally, and stumbled out of reach. Qi Rong made an awful squealing noise at the loss, like a starved pig denied a bucket of scraps. He toddled after him in hot pursuit. Xie Lian could hardly hold himself back from kicking him clear across the room.

“That’s quite enough,” Jun Wu scolded. He brought his boot down on Qi Rong’s back with a sickening-sounding crack. The pig-squealing doubled in volume. “Ugh. Well, if he was completely manageable, I suppose this home of yours wouldn’t quite feel as it should. Still, I’ll have him taken away and trained a bit more.”

Obeying this implied order, the shadows on the floors shivered, and dozens of rats scurried forth to collect Qi Rong and drag him away to parts unknown. Xie Lian immediately recognized them as the rats of the ruined city at Mount Tonglu and heard their whispers as they went. your highness your highness your highness your highness your highness as your highness commands

“It’s late,” Jun Wu stated. Feng Xin and Mu Qing both stepped forward in unison, and stood at Xie Lian’s sides, ready to escort him to his chambers. “But I hope you’ll find your new home comfortable. I’ve made sure to stock and staff it with everything I remember you adoring.”

But there was a notable face absent.

“Your memory must be going, then,” Xie Lian said. “Someone’s missing.”

Jun Wu’s eyes narrowed. “Do tell. Who could I have forgotten? I know Xian Le very well. Who could Xian Le possibly care for so much that I don’t know about?”

Jun Wu stepped forward. Xie Lian stepped back, but did not break eye contact. Feng Xin and Mu Qing obediently kept step with Xie Lian, strolling backward with his every move.

“Is it perhaps the former Windmaster? No, Xian Le did not even care enough to search for him. Perhaps if he did, then he would have retained the use of his limbs. The two little children he cared for in his earthly hovel? No, hardly a thought spared for them when it wasn’t convenient. Sealed that snake priestess into a pickle jar and set her on his shelf to forget about...even though Xian Le seems to like children so much, he does not seem to be especially good at caring for them.”

Xie Lian’s back hit the wall. Jun Wu stepped into his space, leaning in close, until they were nearly nose to nose.

“I wonder what happened to that filthy urchin you stopped my parade to save?” he quietly asked.

He reached up to tug aside the collar of Xie Lian’s robes, to expose the silver chain there, and –

“I meant Head Priest, you old bat,” Xie Lian snapped.

And he did, in fact, mean to refer to his old teacher. He tugged the collar of his robe back into place, and tried to will his heart from hammering its way out of his ribcage.

Jun Wu smiled, and gave Xie Lian back a modicum of personal space.

“Ah,” Jun Wu said. “Xian Le is correct, how silly of me. I’ve been having some…difficulties with your teacher. He doesn’t seem to want to join us in this happy home of ours quite yet. But he’ll be convinced soon, just be patient.”

Convinced? Xie Lian was certain that he was surrounded by illusions; mindless shells painted to look like the people he remembered. They were merely empty vessels for Jun Wu to puppet as he pleased. They did not need to be convinced of anything. They were not who they looked to be. They were not his long-dead parents, they were not two long-lost friends, they were not a child long-lost. Xie Lian was certain of this. He was certain.

Jun Wu gave the order for Feng Xin and Mu Qing to take him away to his chambers and get him ready for bed, and gave the order for his parents to remain at the dinner table to keep the food and company ready for Xian Le when he was ready for it. The king and queen simply bowed their heads at the order, and sat dutifully in their seats, idly stirring the foulness in their bowls.

“We’ll be waiting right here, Lianlian,” his mother said. “I’ll leave a midnight snack out for you.”

 --

 Eight hundredHUNDREDfourHUNDRED years ago, THERE WAS a kinngdom knnownn as □□□□□.

The kinngdom had four TREASURES: □□□□□, □□□□□, □□□□□, and its crownn prinnce crownn prinnce crownn prinnce CROWNN PRINNCE.

 Xie Lian walked on his own, flanked by Feng Xin and Mu Qing, and was led into a bathing chamber to be scrubbed down. The bath was pleasantly warm, scented with fragrant herbs, and big enough to swim in. Ruoye shifted on his person, clearly wanting to swim around and wash up, but unwilling to leave the safety of his master. Xie Lian patted him gently, bidding him to stay put. The reflection of heavenly light on the crystal-clear surface of the water hurt Xie Lian’s eyes; he would not be able to keep track of the white silk under these conditions. Thankfully, he was still so filthy from the volcanic ash at Tonglu that the bathwater turned black in short order.

He knew he’d had a long day, but…it made Xie Lian flush a bit. Hua Cheng was so generous to have allowed Xie Lian to embrace him when he looked like this! And not just embrace, but…Xie Lian flushed harder and brought a hand to his mouth, huffing into it to check how his breath smelled.

“If his highness would tip his head back,” Feng Xin said.

Xie Lian tilted his head and allowed his hair to be rinsed clean. He eyed Mu Qing from this position. Mu Qing was folding and re-folding every piece of fabric that he saw, making unintelligible noises of displeasure as he worked. Indeed, a quite perfect likeness of the Mu Qing he knew. What was quite unlike the Mu Qing he knew was this…complacency. It would take more than threats from a mad god-emperor to make Mu Qing placidly march in lockstep alongside Feng Xin. Likewise, to make Feng Xin sit and wash hair like a docile housewife while Mu Qing sighed and complained in his vicinity.

An idea came to Xie Lian’s mind.

“Feng Xin, Mu Qing,” Xie Lian said. “I have a joke for you both.”

“Yes, your highness,” they said in unison.

“A horse walks into a teahouse, and says to the owner, ‘I’ll have a pot of tea and a plate of candied almonds.’ The owner says back, ‘By the gods! A talking horse!’”

Xie Lian finished speaking, and waited for a reaction. Feng Xin and Mu Qing both laughed in delight, laughed with their distorted mouths.

“Your highness’ sense of humor cannot be beat,” Mu Qing said.

“Yes, his highness is as talented in words as he is in the blade,” said Feng Xin.

The last time Xie Lian had told them that joke, Feng Xin shattered a rib from laughing too hard, and Mu Qing was so incensed at the noise of his horrible bleating that he broke a chair over his head. It went without saying that Mu Qing did not find the joke funny at all.

Convinced. Jun Wu only phrased it like that to rattle him. These were simply soulless magical constructs, of that Xie Lian was sure – quite sure. But this did not answer the question of why Jun Wu had not simply made a construct of Head Priest to round out this vile little stage play. It was not a matter of power – the Emperor of Heaven himself had more than enough of that, enough to create walking, talking copies of two heavenly officials. Creating a copy of a cultivator – no matter how ageless and immortal – would have been child’s play in comparison. It didn’t make sense.

Xie Lian was old enough to know when to lay low, when to wait for an opportunity. He allowed the puppets of his friends to finish washing and dressing him, to turn down his bedsheets and stoke the brazier beneath the bed. He allowed them to close the curtains, put out the lamps, close his door. He was not locked in. This was, of course, his new home. He had no thoughts of escaping; if there was a way to escape this realm of Jun Wu’s own making, Xie Lian had yet to think of it. And so, he lay in bed, to think.

Tap, tap.

Tap.

Tap, tap.

Xie Lian wearily turned his head towards the tapping noise. A full-length mirror was set into a large wooden vanity, and in the mirror, he saw his room reflected. The high ceilings, the carved jade pillars, the swooping silk canopy of his bed. He saw himself, sitting bundled in the sheets. He saw a hunched figure, standing just behind the glass, peering around the side of the mirror as if they were a prowler peeping at an inn window. The figure was wearing a half-smiling-half-frowning white mask.

Xie Lian rolled his eyes and sighed. Honestly, hadn’t Jun Wu had enough of trying to scare him today? He was trying to sleep. He made a big show of yawning and rolling over, hoping he’d get the message.

Tap, tap.

Tap.

…But, just in case he didn’t…

“Fuck off, old man,” Xie Lian shouted over his shoulder. “Go get eaten by those rats of yours.”

The tapping stopped briefly as the figure behind the glass pondered these words.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Xie Lian flew up, worried that the glass would shatter and he’d have to fight in his nightwear. Ruoye roiled around his limbs, distressed at the noise but ready to fight for his master’s sake. The figure stopped pounding at the glass with their fist, satisfied that they finally had Xie Lian’s attention.

With a bit of spiritual energy, they frosted the window glass in a thin sheen of ice, and began to write to him with their fingertip.

The characters were mirrored, of course; backwards and tricky to parse. But Xie Lian knew that elegant handwriting well.

“Head Priest,” Xie Lian said.

Mei Nian Qing quickly brought one finger to the mouth of the mask he was wearing, and Xie Lian immediately fell silent. This message was easy enough to translate: be silent and wary of eavesdroppers. Xie Lian nodded, and waited for him to finish writing.

Heavenly Capital locked down. No way in or out. You are well?

Xie Lian wrote back with his own finger.

Been through worse. Where are you? Why is Head Priest wearing that unsightly mask?

Mei Nian Qing was still for a long moment, then turned his head to the side to show Xie Lian the truth of it. Xie Lian choked back the panic that threatened to tear a scream from his lungs.

A line of black stitching attached the mask to his face. The stitching itself told the story far more succinctly than a finger on iced glass: at his chin, forced and sloppy, with torn skin and fingerprint bruising. Evening out as it proceeded, ending with a stitch so fine that a god of embroidery would praise it. The skin there was unbloodied and worked so finely that it was as though the needle used was spun from a fairy’s whisper. It was clear that Mei Nian Qing had stopped struggling, towards the end, and Jun Wu had rewarded him with tenderness. Or what passed for it.

Mei Nian Qing wrote a simple phrase in the ice:

I’m sorry.

He let the characters hang there, frozen in frost and glass, and stared down at his lap. Xie Lian was not about to let this conversation end like this. They were alone here, and they would band together, and flee together. He wrote phrase after phrase, insistently, even as Mei Nian Qing continued to sit there motionlessly.

Where are you?

Are you alone?

Is someone watching you?

He’s made copies of my mother and father.

Mei Nian Qing’s attention appeared to be drawn to the last phrase. He stared at it, the mask hiding whatever expression it had stirred. After a few moments, he began to tremble. He crumpled in on himself, clutching his head and tangling his hair in his hands. A sob tore from his throat, causing Xie Lian to startle as the sound shattered the silence.

“I knew it’d made him angry,” Mei Nian Qing sobbed. “I knew he’d thought me pathetic. But I was alone for so long, you have to understand. I needed – I needed them – I needed them to play cards with— I didn’t mean it as an offense. Your highness. Your highness, please, you have to understand, I’m so sorry…”

“Head Priest! Teacher!” Xie Lian whispered frantically. “It’s fine, I understand! None of this is your fault! Just tell me how to get to you, I’ll come find you and cut that ugly thing off your face!”

His pleas fell on deaf ears. Mei Nian Qing continued to sob, babbling to himself in increasing hysteria about solitude and cards and your highness, your highness, your highness. Xie Lian leapt to his feet, his martial god brain taking over. A person trapped behind glass: the simple solution was obvious, and that simple solution was to smash the mirror with his fists.

“Hold on! I’ll be right there!”

Not even needing a command, Ruoye wrapped around his hands and wrists to protect him from the soon-to-be-shattered glass. He flexed his fingers, readying himself to strike.

your highness

Xie Lian’s fist stopped mid-swing.

your highness your highness your highness

bad ungrateful awful I’m telling

Xie Lian recognized that raspy sound. He whirled just in time to see a rat scurry off; out the door and into the halls. Whatever that rat wanted to “tell” Jun Wu, it couldn’t be good. There was little time for Xie Lian to make assurances to Mei Nian Qing that he’d be right back, or to stay put or hide himself or just try to stay alive. The most he could do was close the door of the wooden vanity, hiding the mirror from view, and race after the rat down the hall.

The rat was smaller than the others he’d seen at Tonglu; suitable for reconnaissance, and fast enough that even Xie Lian’s fleet feet had trouble keeping pace. It also made a small enough target that Ruoye couldn’t strike true. He lashed out over and over, like a lunging snake, and each time was thwarted. All the while, the rat chittered in its awful voice:

your highness your highness yourhighnessyourhighnessYOURHIGHNESSSSSSSSSSS AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL THEY CALLED YOUR BEAUTIFUL MASKS UGLY—

The rat’s tattling cut off with a garbled shriek.

Xie Lian finally caught up, and found that the rat had met its end at the claws of a sleek black cat. The cat stood poised over its kill like a beckoning statue, washing its ears and purring so loudly that Xie Lian could hear it from ten paces away.

Briefly pausing its bath, the cat looked at Xie Lian. It winked its single eye at him slowly, continuing to purr. A red ribbon was tied around its neck.

“San Lang.” Though he was tearful with relief, the words felt punched out of Xie Lian’s heaving lungs. He collapsed to his knees, trying to catch his breath. “Th…thank you…”

The rat’s corpse dissipated with just a flick of Hua Cheng’s tail. Hua Cheng trotted over immediately, and before he even could think about hesitating, Xie Lian scooped him up and bundled him close to his chest.

“Gege,” Hua Cheng said, low and soft. The sound of it alone was enough to soothe Xie Lian’s frayed psyche. “You’re unharmed?”

Xie Lian nodded. Hua Cheng’s fur in this form was so silky soft, so pleasant to bury his face in. So much so that Xie Lian almost forgot to question the why of it.

“…you’re a cat,” Xie Lian finally noted aloud.

“Yes indeed,” Hua Cheng agreed.

Oh, Xie Lian could almost see that bratty little smirk on his face. Hua Cheng patted his paw against the pout of Xie Lian’s mouth, playfully.

“If gege wishes for me to explain myself: I came here in disguise and found myself…temporarily locked into this form, for the time being. Nonetheless, as a cat, I enjoy many benefits in a situation that calls for stealth. It becomes all the more simple for me to slip into places unnoticed, unseen, unheard. Such as into this palace, or into gege’s sleeves with his Ruoye, to fly out with claws bared at a moment’s notice.”

Ruoye swirled around Xie Lian’s arms, clearly miffed at Hua Cheng for inviting himself in to Xie Lian’s sleeves without consulting their current resident. It wouldn’t do for them to be cooped up in there together – how could Hua Cheng do any clawing, or Ruoye any whirling, when they would have to jostle around each other? There was only one solution.

Hua Cheng let out a startled mrrp! as Xie Lian stuffed him into the breast of his robes to be carried there. It wasn’t an ideal solution – he was in his nightclothes, and the lack of layers made hiding him difficult. Though Hua Cheng was small in this form, he was still large enough that there was a noticeable bulge. Xie Lian arranged him this way and that, until he was mostly hidden in the wrap of his sash around his waist. Hua Cheng’s soft fur tickled his bare skin.

“I’m sorry. Please bear with it for now,” Xie Lian said apologetically. “Once I’m dressed, we can find another way.”

Hua Cheng was silent for a long moment.

“…of course,” he finally managed.

Eavesdroppers everywhere, Xie Lian belatedly remembered. The bedroom was hardly better than an open hallway, but at least there was the illusion of privacy in the former. He and Hua Cheng could discuss what to do next, there…how to free Head Priest, how to escape from this place, then came the matter of how to escape from the Heavens themselves next, then…Jun Wu surely wouldn’t take any of that lying down, so, then…

Then…

The thought of taking the head of the man that had done so much to him, done so much to so many others, should have filled him with glee, or at least some sort of righteous thrill of justice. But there was nothing but a cold sense of duty, tempered by a pathetic little whimpering at the corner of his mind. The Emperor was always so kind to me. The Emperor always believed in me. The Emperor has always showed me heavenly grace and compassion even when I’ve done nothing for eight hundred years but disappoint him.

And? So what?

What’s your point?

Eight hundred years had given Xie Lian plenty of time to disappoint a lot of people and none of them had reacted half as badly as this.

“Gege is being very quiet,” Hua Cheng said. He squirmed a bit, and Xie Lian suppressed a giggle as his whiskers tickled his skin. “One hopes that he’ll tell this San Lang his thoughts.”

“It’s nothing,” Xie Lian said.

“Forgive my insolence, but I sense that’s not the truth.”

Eight hundred years of humiliation and regret and shame. Xie Lian thought he was used to it, by now. It was painful enough to disappoint someone he once considered an idol, a father figure, a beneficent authority. Xie Lian once thought that if he could live through that, he could survive anything the world threw at him.

But…then he’d met Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng, who was always so kind and generous, who believed in him no matter what and smiled at him like he hung the moon and stars.

I’ll just wind up disappointing him, too.

He’d survived so much. But he couldn’t bear the thought of the sadness and pity in Hua Cheng’s eyes when he eventually found out the whole of the crown prince he’d carved in a thousand perfect images.

Xie Lian set his hand on the bedroom door, and quietly replied:

“It’s not. I’m sorry.”

Maybe one day he’d be brave enough to tell Hua Cheng the full truth of himself. He doubted it.

He opened the door and saw Jun Wu sitting on the edge of his bed. Jun Wu smiled at him.

“Xian Le is up past his bedtime. He won’t be at his best if he doesn’t get a full night’s sleep.”

“If anyone needs beauty rest, it’s you,” Xie Lian snapped. “Aren’t you sleeping for four?”

Jun Wu’s expression darkened. “That was very rude.”

“Is that the group consensus?” Xie Lian was pushing his luck, but he could feel Hua Cheng purring against his skin, encouraging him. He gestured to the door. “Get out if you want me to sleep so bad. Go bother someone else.”

Jun Wu rose off the bed. Hands resting behind his back, he strode over to where Xie Lian stood at the door. He was so much taller than him. Even now, bolstered by fury and Hua Cheng’s closeness, Xie Lian could not help but feel small.

Jun Wu wore a tired, sad expression.

“Does Xian Le always treat the ones that love him with such cruelty?” he asked. “I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. Whether his noble parents or the lowliest of ghosts, he awards devotion with the heel of his boot.”

Xie Lian went pale. Jun Wu stroked his hair, moving his hand down to cup Xie Lian’s cheek and tilt his face up to look at him.

“But I still have faith that he can be made to see sense, to be a grateful and dutiful child. Eight hundred years I spent refining you, so you could direct that boot of yours where it belongs – onto the backs of those who caused you so much misery, those common folk you wanted to save so desperately.”

“Go bother someone else,” Xie Lian hissed, again. “Just leave us be.”

Jun Wu’s eyes went dark, like those of a predator who’d scented blood. “‘Us’? Who could Xian Le be referring to?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Xie Lian stepped back, trying to reclaim some breathing room. “You know what you did.”

Jun Wu’s eyebrow raised. “In this instance, Xian Le really has to be more specific.”

Incensed, Xie Lian stormed over to the wooden vanity.

“Sewing one of those ugly masks of yours to Head Priest’s face and throwing him into this mirror, how’s that for specifics—”

Xie Lian nearly tore off the door of the vanity when he opened it to reveal…

…a completely normal mirror.

Xie Lian barely had a moment to process when he found himself roughly shoved to the side by Jun Wu. He couldn’t find his footing quickly enough, and fell to the floor hard. He only just managed to avoid landing all his weight on where Hua Cheng still wrapped around his middle; instead feeling the impact spark pain up his hip and spine. Jun Wu paid him no mind; instead, he clutched the sides of the mirror, white-knuckled. He wore the expression of a madman – wild-eyed and furious.

Without a single word, he pulled his fist back and brought it down upon the glass. A single flick of the pinkie from the Martial Emperor was enough to topple fortress walls. But the mirror did not crack.

Jun Wu’s jaw tightened enough that Xie Lian could hear his teeth grinding, like two swords against each other. The skin of his face was rippling and shivering like a disturbed pond, and – suddenly, horribly – the flesh of his cheek opened into a mouth; bursting forth with tongue and teeth.

“MURDERER! BLACK-HEARTED SINNER!”

Xie Lian had seen the Human Face Disease progress to the point where the lesions could shriek, to where they could babble nonsense. This, however, was the most erudite subject he’d ever encountered.

Jun Wu turned away from the mirror, and reached his fingers up to his cheek. He felt about blindly for the thrashing tongue, then grasped hold of it; only narrowly avoiding getting bitten in the process. He then pulled. The wet sound of tearing meat filled the room, punctuated by the sound of garbled shrieking from the bloody, toothy carbuncle on Jun Wu’s cheek. Jun Wu himself made no sound. He worked his jaw a few times, as if checking to make sure he hadn’t ripped out a tendon in the process, and tossed the tongue to the side. It splatted against the floor, still twitching.

Jun Wu composed himself. Spiritual energy crackled around him, healing his wound and re-applying the glamour that hid the curse and kept him pristine.

“Don’t let me see you out of bed again tonight,” Jun Wu said. “We’ll talk about your behavior in the morning.”

With that, he strode out of the room. The bedroom door did not slam, but clicked shut quietly. The rats scurried out of the shadows and greedily grabbed up the tongue, darting back out of sight.

“Gege. Look at me. Gege!”

Xie Lian blinked. How long had Hua Cheng been perched on his chest, staring at him and papping his nose with his paw?

“Sorry,” Xie Lian said. He picked himself up a bit, wincing as the motion sent more pain through his bruised hip. He settled Hua Cheng in his lap. “I…I shouldn’t have said anything about Head Priest…”

“Dianxia is not the guilty one in this situation,” Hua Cheng said in a deliberately measured tone. The fur along his back was raised, and his tail thrashed slowly but furiously. “This one should have not hid himself like a coward. If he lays hands on you again then his life is forfeit.”

“San Lang doesn’t need to fight this battle on my behalf,” Xie Lian said. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to pop out then, anyway. We still need to lay low and find a way to get Head Priest, and make a break for it…”

“Can dianxia please explain the situation with his teacher?” Hua Cheng asked. He tucked his tail under his paws, unable to keep it under control. “I’m afraid I was not present.”

Oh. Xie Lian felt a little foolish. He’d gotten so used to Hua Cheng being by his side all the time, that he…forgot that he sometimes wasn’t. So Xie Lian explained; or explained what he knew, which wasn’t terribly much. But Hua Cheng sat and listened, curled on Xie Lian’s lap, allowed him to smooth down his fur.

“…so, not a prison, but a hiding spot,” Hua Cheng observed. “There’s no way you could’ve known.”

Xie Lian smiled wryly. “That excuse only goes so far. I have no choice but to get Head Priest out of here, no matter what.”

“As his highness commands,” Hua Cheng replied. “I will follow you no matter what.”

Xie Lian did not doubt his sincerity. But he wondered if he’d still say that, knowing the whole of him.

He thought of his various failures as a son; how he drove his parents to humiliation and poverty, how he couldn’t spare them any kindness the night when they finally took their own lives. He thought of how Mu Qing and Feng Xin suffered and suffered until they could take no more and left and were immediately better for it. He thought of all he didn’t do for Qi Rong, and what he’d become.

He thought of the devotion of a masked ghost, and how he’d met it with nothing but coldness and disdain. He thought of how he’d forced him to sacrifice his very being to pay for his own sins. He thought of the white flowers he’d ground under his heel.

He was often staggered by his own capacity for cruelty. In this, Jun Wu spoke true.

 --

 Six hundred years ago, there was a kingdom known as Long An.

The kingdom had four treasures: brave heroes, epic tales, splendid banquets, and a mysterious ancient coral pearl.

 Dressed, ready, and with Hua Cheng re-stuffed down the breast of his robes, Xie Lian was ready to march out his bedroom door and start knocking on every mirror in the household to track down Head Priest. But the moment he flung open the door, he found himself facing not a long, dark hallway, but a quiet night garden.

“I should’ve known it wouldn’t be this easy,” Xie Lian sighed.

Hua Cheng arranged himself so he could peer out from the collar of Xie Lian’s robes, and eyed their surroundings critically.

“We’re not alone,” he said.

Indeed, they were not. The false Qi Rong – the one wearing the face of his child self, mouth stitched shut – stared at them from behind a tree with an expression that could only be deemed as hungry. Xie Lian stared back, debating on whether it would be best to simply run away and do his level best to find an exit that would lead them back into the palace. Before he could make a break for it, false-Qi Rong pointed to the swing hanging from the tree.

Xie Lian’s heart twisted, despite himself. This wasn’t real. This was nothing but a puppet.

“…I’m sorry, I can’t right now,” Xie Lian said. “I need to go back to the palace.”

False-Qi Rong pointed at the swing again, insistently. Xie Lian steeled himself and began to walk away, but was stopped in place by a sharp squealing cry. He whirled around and saw false-Qi Rong tearing at the stitching around his mouth; his efforts doing nothing to break the thread, but succeeding immensely in bloodying his skin.

“Stop! Stop it!” Xie Lian rushed over and pulled his hands away. “San Lang, can you cut that stitching with your claws?”

Hua Cheng stretched out a paw from over Xie Lian’s collar, and extended his nails. “As gege commands. Bring him close and keep him from squirming.”

Hua Cheng’s claws were sharp, and made short work of the thread. False-Qi Rong patted his face with his hands for a few moments, not daring to speak just yet. Then, that half-smile-half-frown twisted in glee.

“…he told me to stay out here in case cousin crown prince wanted to swing,” false-Qi Rong said. “I stayed awake all night in case cousin crown prince wanted to swing.”

“I can’t right now,” Xie Lian said. “I need to get back to the palace.”

False-Qi Rong positioned himself behind the swing, waiting not-patiently. He tugged insistently at the braided silk ropes.

“Cousin crown prince said that I could always push him,” false-Qi Rong said.

“Another time,” Xie Lian said, before he rose to his feet.

“I’ll scream if cousin crown prince doesn’t get on the swing!” False-Qi Rong had already spiraled into hysterics, which was very much in line with the real Qi Rong. “I’ll scream and then he’ll come out and see that you’re out of bed!”

There was no question about who “he” was. Perhaps earlier, Xie Lian would have steamed on ahead; heedless of the threat. But right now Jun Wu’s temper was…unpredictable. And with Hua Cheng here to be protected, he could not take any chances.

Xie Lian stiffly sat down on the swing, and allowed false-Qi Rong to push him. False-Qi Rong, just like his true self back then, was not very good at pushing. Instead of giving measured pushes with his arms, keeping him on a steady straight path upward, he simply rammed his entire body into Xie Lian’s back, sending Xie Lian swinging in random directions. Occasionally, he’d fling his arms around Xie Lian’s middle with a joyful cry of “cousin, cousin!” and be dragged along the ground behind him as the swing whirled from the momentum.

How could eight-hundred-year-old memories still be so painful?

It didn’t take long for the false-Qi Rong to tire himself out. He dangled limply from Xie Lian’s waist, his arms locked there tight. Xie Lian twisted in place, looking down to see those massive dark eyes and eerie, twisted smile staring straight back at him.

Out of all the puppets, Jun Wu seemed to have the least control over this one. Moreover, Jun Wu himself seemed…like he might be otherwise occupied right now.

“Thank you for pushing me,” Xie Lian said. “Have you seen Head Priest around?”

The false Qi Rong smiled even wider.

“Pat my head. Pat my head and I’ll tell cousin crown prince what happened to that moldy old man.”

Xie Lian lowered his hand and began to stroke the puppet’s hair. The false-Qi Rong made a blissful noise, and pressed his head up desperately into Xie Lian’s half-hearted pats.

“Gege,” Hua Cheng said quietly. “I understand your motives. But tread cautiously.”

“Of course,” Xie Lian said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“Gege, you know full well that’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what I meant,” Xie Lian countered.

After a few more strokes, false-Qi Rong finally spoke, no louder than a whisper.

“He got mad at that sad look. Your old teacher wouldn’t stop with his sad faces. He got so, so mad. He sewed a mask on him so none of us would have to see.”

“…and then?”

“Then your stupid teacher ran away and hid. He got even madder. Then he went to go see cousin crown prince. Now he’s even more mad.”

The false Qi Rong shivered. Xie Lian felt a twinge in his heart. This was nothing but a puppet, enchanted into existence by a man hellbent on breaking his mind. All the same, Xie Lian couldn’t help but feel compassion for it. A puppet in the shape of a child he once knew, a child who Xie Lian once felt responsible for, once upon a time. Brutalized, terrorized, forced into the garden at night like an unloved dog.

Slowly, Xie Lian bent down, and wrapped his arms around the false Qi Rong. He felt him stop shivering. He felt him go completely still. He felt his small hands creep up to his sleeves and fist there.

“I love you, cousin crown prince,” the false Qi Rong whispered. “Can’t you stay here with us? I’ll stay out here and I’ll push you whenever you want.”

“I’m so sorry,” Xie Lian said. “I can’t.”

“Then I’ll leave with you. It’s so scary here.”

Xie Lian closed his eyes. A single thought from Jun Wu would cause the enchantment to dissipate and these puppets to dissolve into dust. He had no spiritual energy of his own, certainly not enough to support a being like this.

But he couldn’t live with himself for the next eight hundred years if he didn’t try.

Xie Lian moved from the swing to kneel on the ground, putting himself at eye level with the false Qi Rong. The false Qi Rong wiped his damp face and nose with his sleeve. Still had those awful habits of his.

“Do you know how to get out of here?” Xie Lian asked.

False-Qi Rong gave a shaky sigh and nodded, but was otherwise silent.

“You can’t tell me, can you,” Xie Lian observed. “He won’t let you.”

Another nod.

“Well,” Xie Lian said. “You can meet us there, then. Go wait by the way out. I need to find teacher first, then I’ll come find you. I’ll find my way there and we’ll all leave together.”

The false Qi Rong gave a loud snorting sniffle, then wiped at his face again. “I can leave with cousin crown prince?”

“We can try,” Xie Lian said. “You might not…be able to last long on the outside.”

“I know,” the false Qi Rong said. “Some of the other mes and the other others before us tried to run away. I’ve seen what happens. But they didn’t have cousin crown prince with them.”

Xie Lian was silent. Finally, the false Qi Rong disengaged his grip on his sleeves, and hesitantly moved a few steps back.

“Cousin crown prince is the best,” the false Qi Rong said. “I’m really happy that I could meet him.”

With that, the false Qi Rong bolted into the bushes like a fleeing animal. Xie Lian called for him, and heard no response.

The palace loomed over the garden’s tree-line.

“San Lang,” Xie Lian said. “Is it possible that…those puppets are truly acting on their own?”

Or is it just another one of his head-games, was the unspoken but obvious addition to that inquiry. Luckily, as always, Hua Cheng understood him.

“Puppet magic seems to be quite popular with those of his generation,” Hua Cheng noted. “But there’s such a thing as being too skilled. Perfectly imbuing them with all the memories and mannerisms of a person, then hooking them up to a spiritual energy source of that magnitude…it’s not surprising that they’ve started acting out.

“In addition, there’s the matter of the personality they’ve been assigned. A construct modeled after your cousin should be expected to be especially disruptive and unmanageable.” Hua Cheng gave a heavy sigh. “Ah, but gege must never let his real cousin know that I ever implied any compliment.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Xie Lian assured him. “He wouldn’t believe us even if we told him.”

 --

 Fifteen hundred years ago, a new and glorious Heavenly Kingdom was founded.

The kingdom had four curses: idleness, corruption, excess, and its two-faced emperor.

 Leaving the garden was so simple: simply opening the elegant doors back into the palace brought him back to where they left off. They found themselves in a hallway, meticulously decorated with all manner of things that Jun Wu was so certainly convinced would suit Xie Lian’s tastes. That being: swords. Swords, swords, swords. Vases of flowers with arrangements of colorful spring blooms; none of which included the tiny white flowers Xie Lian adored the most. Then more swords.

“It’s like he thinks I never matured,” Xie Lian griped. “Even when I was seventeen I had other interests!”

Hua Cheng was on guard again; tense and ready to pounce. He eyed every sword warily as they passed, as if they’d spring off the wall at any moment.

“…San Lang’s home is much more tastefully decorated,” Xie Lian said, hoping to soothe some of the tension.

Hua Cheng did give a brief huff of laughter at that; or a chuffling noise that passed for laughter.

“I can assure dianxia that ‘taste’ never factors into the equation when it comes to my approach to home décor.”

They did not have a chance to continue the discussion. They both fell silent as their ears caught the sound of Jun Wu having a furious one-sided argument, just a hallway away. Xie Lian looked around for a good hiding spot, and, in a split-second decision, he settled upon one of the vases with the garish blooming arrangements. He wriggled his way into the tall vase, and stoppered it back up with the flowers to complete the ruse.

“Gege does manage to find creative solutions.” Hua Cheng seemed to be holding himself back from laughing, despite their situation.

“If San Lang was bigger, I would have needed to be even more creative,” Xie Lian whispered back.

The vase allowed them to hide, and also allowed them to eavesdrop. Xie Lian strained his ears, trying to determine who Jun Wu was arguing with, to determine who had made him so furious.

“…you think you can just stay in there forever, don’t you. It’s all you know how to do. Run and hide. Thought you could just run and hide forever and that I’d forget. That I’d just forget! As if I didn’t recognize you the instant you came to tutor my Xian Le. Did you think I’d let you hurt him the way you all hurt me? And you did. You did! His world fell apart and you just judged and lectured and ran away again! Imagine how much kinder the world would have seemed, if his beloved teacher had stayed by his side in his time of need. I should have struck you down the moment you set foot on those temple steps. But my Xian Le needed a good education, needed the best. He needed to cultivate and ascend. There was no other way; by my side, I could protect him from the world. From you.”

It sounded like Jun Wu smashed one of the floral vases. His heavy breathing was so loud that it seemed to echo through the halls. After a long moment, he continued in a carefully measured tone.

“What bliss it must be, to be able to consider the time we spent side-by-side nothing but ancient history…to play the role of wandering cultivator, to make little dolls of our brotherhood and play with them all day. It must be so much more pleasant, without me to intrude on the four of you. You want me to just forget! It’s so easy for you to just forget! Do you think it’s that simple for me, or Xian Le!? He still freezes up like a frightened little bunny at the very thought of my creation, even after eight hundred years. And after two thousand years, the hatred you all have for me is still carved upon my face.”

It seemed like an eternity before they heard Jun Wu’s steps trudge down the hall; crunching on the shattered vase pieces before disappearing out of earshot. Xie Lian waited a few more minutes before moving to peek out of their hiding spot, and then, carefully climb out, supporting Hua Cheng with one hand the whole way.

“Are you alright?” Hua Cheng asked quietly.

“He’s getting senile in his old age if that’s how he remembers things,” Xie Lian said. “‘Freezes like a bunny’. I kicked him into a tree! And I’d like to understand how he thinks a bunny could control a statue the size of a mountain—”

“Gege! Stop joking around!”

Hua Cheng’s tone was so frustrated, so serious, that Xie Lian was taken off-guard. Hesitantly, he looked down to meet Hua Cheng’s gaze.

“If you’re hurt, if you’re scared, if you’re sad, if you’re angry, please, tell me properly,” he said. “You saw the cave, and you now understand my feelings towards you fully: I love you, no matter what. I am truly a simple man when it comes to this.”

Xie Lian was silent.

“Do you believe me?” Hua Cheng asked.

“…I believe San Lang loves what he knows of me,” Xie Lian finally said.

He loved the dazzling prince that saved him as he fell, he loved the steadfast warrior that descended in a futile attempt to save his country, even if it ended the way it did. He loved him so much that it built the foundation of his continued existence in the world. This, Xie Lian believed.

He did not know of the fallen wretch that became the White-Clothed Calamity. He did not know the cruelty he was capable of. If he ever found this out, Xie Lian knew the consequences: Hua Cheng’s love for him would evaporate, and with it, that foundation…and then…

“I love the whole of you,” Hua Cheng said. “There is nothing, nothing, that could change this.”

“Thank you,” said Xie Lian, for he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “I feel the same,” he said, because it was the truth.

They came across a spot in the hall strewn with broken porcelain and crushed flowers. A mirror hung on the wall. Clearly, they’d happened upon the spot from where Jun Wu had just departed. Hesitantly, Xie Lian peeped into the mirror.

“…Head Priest?” he whispered.

There came no answer, and there was no sign of him in the glass. There were, however, several fist marks in the glass, and spindling cracks like spiderwebs. An entirely ordinary mirror, holding no Head Priest, and wholly vulnerable to the misplaced fury of a ranting madman.

“Lianlian?”

Xie Lian felt his blood go cold at the sound of his mother’s voice calling for him.

“Lianlian? Are you out there? I heard you. Your mother’s here with your supper still.”

Slowly, Xie Lian walked toward the source of the voice. He peered into the room from where it had called him, from where she was still calling. Lianlian, Lianlian, it’s getting cold.

It was the room he’d seen when he first entered the palace; the grand receiving room, where his false parents had sat with their twisted smiles and empty black eyes. They still sat, exactly where he’d left them. The bowls of rotten-smelling sludge still sat, exactly where he’d left them. His false mother tittered in excitement at the sight of him.

“Darling! Darling, wake up. Lianlian’s here again.”

His false father was sleeping, face-down in his bowl. His snores blew bubbles in the sludge, sending more foul smells airborne as they popped. His false mother giggled; one voluminous sleeve over her mouth, as befitting a refined lady.

“Oh, your father’s always so hard to wake up. But he’ll be so excited to hear that you came to visit!”

Xie Lian took one step forward, then another, making his way to sit at the table with his parents. He stroked Hua Cheng’s furry head, silently pleading with him to trust him. Hua Cheng silently understood.

His false mother happily pushed over “his” bowl, and, with a proud flourish, plucked a flower from the table centerpiece and placed it atop the mountain of sludge.

“Presentation is important,” she said. “It’s called ‘The Reflective Pond That Allows One a Glimpse of the Heavens’.”

The flower was dissolved by the sludge in a matter of seconds, sending up green smoke and a burning smell. Xie Lian idly wondered what his false father’s face would look like right now, if he were to wake up.

“Thank you,” Xie Lian said. “How long has he kept you here?”

“It’s been eight hundred years since then, Lianlian. You should know that, silly thing.”

“That’s not what I asked.” Xie Lian kept his voice deliberately even, calm. “How long has he kept you here?”

His false mother’s smile faltered, if only for a second.

“I don’t know what you mean,” his false mother said. “Eat your supper, Lianlian. It’s getting cold.”

“You’ve been here longer than the others,” Xie Lian observed. “Long enough to know things. Long enough to know that playing along was your only option.”

His mother was always the picture of courtly grace. She knew how to entertain guests, how to comfort her husband, how to pamper her son. She knew how to read a situation, how to be spared as a target by the backstabbing Xian Le court. She knew how to play dumb.

It did not surprise Xie Lian in the least that she was the longest-lived of the puppets here.

“It’s getting cold, Lianlian,” she said.

“Do you know where Head Priest has hidden himself?” Xie Lian asked. “Once I find him, I’m going to get us all out of here.”

“It’s getting cold, Lianlian,” she said.

“I’ve already told…my cousin to meet us at the exit,” Xie Lian said, not quite ready to call the false Qi Rong by that name, not yet. “You’re welcome to join us. My father, Feng Xin, Mu Qing; they’re all welcome. I…I can’t guarantee that any of you will survive out there, not for long, but it’ll be better than living like this…”

“It’s getting cold, Lianlian!” his mother nearly shrieked, grabbing onto his hand and shoving his spoon into it. “Eat it before it’s cold!!”

Baffled by this outburst, Xie Lian stared at the spoon, then his bowl. The sludge looked…odd; odder than normal, anyway. It looked like someone had buried something underneath it.

Xie Lian dug away a little pit in the center of the bowl; moving the gelatinous goo around until he saw a reflective, shiny surface. A hand mirror. And clearly one that was enchanted heavily enough to keep it pristine against the onslaught of the stew that hid it.

Xie Lian carefully pulled the mirror out, and wiped it down with his napkin.

“—your highness!” wheezed Mei Nian Qing. He gasped for breath behind the glass. “Thank goodness. I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted…”

“Good to see you well, Head Priest sir,” Hua Cheng greeted him warmly. “I will be happy to remove that unsightly mask for you, if you’d take a moment to come out of that mirror.”

Although his expression was obscured by the mask still sewn to his face, Mei Nian Qing’s confusion was clear in the tilt of his head.

“Lianlian never said anything about wanting pets,” his false mother said at the sight of Hua Cheng poking his head out of Xie Lian’s robes. “Does Lianlian remember his fourth birthday? He’d been given a pure white pony of the finest pedigree, with a golden saddle and bridle, and little bells to jingle when it pranced. The moment we put Lianlian in the saddle, he cried and cried…”

These puppets having the memories of their true selves was essential to breaking free of Jun Wu’s control, but perhaps there were some drawbacks. Oh, how he hoped Hua Cheng would forget about that little anecdote. But he knew he wouldn’t. Xie Lian felt his ears burn.

“This…isn’t a pet,” Xie Lian finally said. “Head Priest, this is San Lang; he transformed to sneak inside, and then got stuck…”

Xie Lian caught Mei Nian Qing up on all that had happened in the past few hours, told him of Jun Wu’s increasingly erratic behavior, told him of his plans. When he finished, Mei Nian Qing remained silent.

“…they won’t survive outside of this home,” Mei Nian Qing said quietly. “Please trust in my experience on the subject of puppets. Even if your…gentleman ghost friend…were to support them with all of his considerable spiritual power, it would not be compatible. They would fall apart like clay.”

Xie Lian’s fingers stopped brushing through Hua Cheng’s fur.

“…I thought that might be the case,” Xie Lian replied. “But…”

“If we escape, he is certain to destroy every last one of them in his rage,” Mei Nian Qing said. “Whether they colluded with us or not. Die inside, die outside. Unless we consent to be jailed here for the rest of eternity, their fate will be the same.”

A heavy weight pulled on Xie Lian’s heart. More deaths. More deaths for people who committed the crime of having been associated with him, once upon a time.

“Your cat. Is he handsome, when he is in the form of a man?”

Xie Lian stared at his false mother, trying to parse her question. She gazed at him evenly. Even with those black empty eyes and twisted smile, she seemed tender and sincerely curious.

“…yes,” said Xie Lian, finally. “He is.”

“Gege flatters me,” Hua Cheng said. “I am nothing in comparison to his beauty, I assure you, my lady queen.”

“Does he take care of you?” his false mother asked, voice soft and urgent. “Does he speak to you gently, and support you no matter what?”

Xie Lian clutched Hua Cheng closer and closer with every phrase.

“Yes,” he said.

“And I will continue to do so,” Hua Cheng said. “For eight hundred years and many more.”

His false mother nodded.

“I…know I’m not your true mother,” she said. “But I have her memories, and I love you as she did. And I think…for her, it would be enough to see you one more time, and to know that you have someone who loves you so completely. Knowing that, I could…I could…ccccc…ccccccccc…”

His false mother’s jaw suddenly went slack. It went slack, then drooped, and drooped; until it dropped from her face and fell into her supper bowl. She stared at it for a moment as it dissolved there, then turned to look once more at Xie Lian with black, black eyes. They could still shed tears.

“…uvvvvv…annnnn….”

She began to melt like clay, like mud. Xie Lian wailed in dismay, lunging forward to try and hold her together with nothing but his embrace. It was over in seconds. His false mother was gone. His false father, melted into his soup. The false Qi Rong…the false Qi Rong…

“I told Xian Le that he wasn’t allowed to leave his room again. What a mess he’s made. I think I stepped in his cousin on the way here.”

Xie Lian’s fists clenched at the sound of Jun Wu’s voice. Jun Wu strolled into the room, tsking his tongue in disappointment.

“I made them so you’d have someone to love you, even when I was away,” he said. “And all you can think about is how to best kill them. I can’t imagine what they thought of you, hearing you talk like that about them.”

“Fuck you fucking gutter pig,” Xie Lian spat.

Jun Wu frowned. “I was going to make you some fresh ones, but if you’re going to curse at me, then maybe you need some time alone for a few months.”

Jun Wu moved to grab Xie Lian’s arm. Xie Lian wasn’t fast enough to take a swing at him before Hua Cheng lunged out of his hiding spot in the breast of his robes.

Jun Wu stumbled back with a shout. As if part of a coordinated sneak attack, Ruoye whipped out of Xie Lian’s sleeves without being directed, and wrapped himself around Jun Wu’s wrists to bind them behind his back; allowing Hua Cheng to flay apart Jun Wu’s face and eyes with abandon. Xie Lian leapt to his feet, joining the fray with a windup kick to the gut. Ostensibly the goal was to aim for his meridians to block his spiritual energy, but there were few things more satisfying than knocking the wind out of someone you really, truly disliked.

Even as a spiritual weapon, Ruoye had limits. Xie Lian felt him begin to tear. If he tore, there was no one to repair him, and – and Hua Cheng – he had to think fast.

“San Lang, get away! Ruoye, return!”

Coordinated enough to sneak attack, but not coordinated enough. Perhaps Ruoye was too swift in his retreat, perhaps Hua Cheng was too slow in his. Regardless of the cause, the result was Jun Wu seizing Hua Cheng by the scruff, and hurling him across the room hard enough that he crashed into the jaded ornamentation on the wall. Hua Cheng slumped to the ground, unmoving.

“San Lang!” Xie Lian cried.

“Inviting friends over without asking me first,” Jun Wu snarled. His face resembled bloodied, butchered meat; both his eyes were utterly mangled and sightless. “Horrible little Xian Le. What does he think of you now, seeing all you’ve done tonight?”

It was hard to tell, amidst the damage already done, but three more mouths had appeared on Jun Wu’s face. Mouths and eyes and tiny arms and legs; sprouting from his wounds like little flailing worms.

“MURDERER!”

“BLACK HEART!”

“SINNER! LIAR!”

The mouths screamed and cursed and screamed.

“WHAT WILL HE THINK OF YOU, XIAN LE? SEEING YOU AT YOUR WORST?” Jun Wu shouted, trying to make himself heard above the chorus. “Your dear teacher saw me at my worst and fled, fled for twelve hundred years, acted like we’d never known each other! Acted like we never meant a thing to each other! That’s our fate, Xian Le, that’s what happens to us! Abandoned and forgotten, until we force them to remember!”

Xie Lian cradled Hua Cheng’s tiny, bloodied body, fully ready to defend him with his very life.

“You’re a monster who ruins lives,” Xie Lian spat. “Of course no one would want to stay with you.”

Jun Wu laughed, and laughed, getting louder and louder by the second.

“I’m the monster? I’m the monster that ruins lives?” he asked. “Have you told your sweet Crimson Rain about your tenure as a Supreme-to-be?”

With a wave of his hand, Jun Wu conjured another puppet:

A puppet of a young man, clad in black, with a smiling white mask.

Xie Lian froze in place. He could barely hear anything over the hammering of his heart.

“Go ahead, Xian Le,” Jun Wu said. “Treat him as you did. Call him worthless, call him useless, crush his offerings under your heel. Offer him your hand to kiss and then use it to strike him across the cheek. Order him to sacrifice himself to atone for your own sins. This is the great god you worship, Crimson Rain.”

Here he was, standing before him. The reminder that he was a failure in all things: a failure as a god, a failure as a demon, a failure as a decent human being. Here he was, standing before him, the truth of what he really was; laid plain before Hua Cheng.

The jig was up. It was finally over, and it was just as painful as Xie Lian feared.

Perhaps Hua Cheng would hate him less if he was forthcoming with an explanation. It was worth a shot. Xie Lian squeezed his eyes shut, took a shaky breath, and began to explain.

“San Lang…back then, after Xian Le fell, I…I was so hateful and bent on revenge, and I made a pact with a ghost—”

“I was…taller…than that…”

Hua Cheng’s voice was more resonant, now; richer. Xie Lian looked down. Hua Cheng, human and handsome as could be, smiled up at him. Smiled like…

Smiled like…

With effort, Hua Cheng slid off Xie Lian’s lap and slowly made his way over to where the puppet of that nameless ghost stood; silent and motionless. Hua Cheng looked it over, critically, and plucked the mask from its face. There was nothing beneath it but blank blackness – of course Jun Wu did not know his face, for the ghost had never removed his mask, even for Xie Lian. Hua Cheng put the mask on his own face, and turned to show himself.

“I love you, no matter what,” Hua Cheng said. “Do you believe me?”

“San Lang,” Xie Lian said, wretchedly.

“I’m here,” he said.

“I’m so sorry for everything, back then. I didn’t deserve your love.”

“I love you, no matter what. God or demon, prince or pauper. Enshrined in the heavens, cast down into the dirt. ‘Deserving’ or not. The point of it is that it’s you.”

Hua Cheng went to his knees in front of Xie Lian, hand to his heart.

“I’ll say it as much as you need to hear it,” Hua Cheng said. “And then more, for my own pleasure. I love you, no matter what. Life into death and far beyond.”

Xie Lian flung his arms around Hua Cheng, dragging him in for a kiss.

Jun Wu was not the type to allow these interludes.

“Isn’t Xian Le lucky, to have such a faithful believer?”

Xie Lian drew back from Hua Cheng’s mouth, glared hatefully at the monster still lurking in their midst.

“Xian Le is so…dreadfully…horribly…lucky…” Jun Wu hissed, stumbling blindly forward. His face was still a jumbled mess of flesh; sporting eyes and mouths that were not his, arms that tore fresh wounds and tore at his eyes just as quickly as Jun Wu tried to heal himself. “Do you think…if I had a believer half as faithful, for all those lonely years…that things would have turned out like this?”

Xie Lian couldn’t answer. Jun Wu laughed quietly at the silence.

“Ah, but you wouldn’t be able to relate. I suppose we aren’t quite as similar as I once thought.”

Jun Wu stumbled into the dining table, adding bruised shins to his list of injuries. He toppled to the ground, and lay there, still; allowing the wretched carbuncles to tear at his face.

There was a great and terrible silence.

“I’m so tired, Xian Le…it’s been a very long night. Your host needs to rest a while. Can I trouble you to adjourn to your Puji Shrine?”

It almost seemed too good to be true. Xie Lian cautiously rose to his feet, helping Hua Cheng up in the process. Jun Wu twitched his fingers against the floor, and a door appeared; inlaid into a previously-blank stretch of wall. The door opened to show the streets of the heavenly capital; being cleared of Jun Wu’s supporters by an army of sentient farm produce in war armor. They saw the Rainmaster pass, atop her ox, with Ling Wen hogtied behind her.

Xie Lian turned to look briefly back at Jun Wu. Once his idol, once a mentor, once someone who cared.

“I won’t be coming back,” Xie Lian said.

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Jun Wu said. “I don’t think I was a very gracious host today. Farewell, Xian Le.”

Before he turned to leave, Xie Lian gestured at the silent figure standing over Jun Wu’s prone body.

Head Priest? he mouthed silently at him. Come on. I don’t think he knows you’re here.

Mei Nian Qing smiled faintly. The mask was off his face, now; set carefully on the dining table. The remnants of the stitching were still visible on his skin.

He saluted Xie Lian.

Farewell, he mouthed back.  

“Your highness,” murmured Hua Cheng.

Xie Lian nodded, and returned his teacher’s salute. With that, he walked out the door with Hua Cheng in tow. The moment they set foot outside, the palace door clicked shut with an air of finality.

When they looked back, it was gone – gone, as if it had never existed at all.

 --

 Two thousand years ago, there was a kingdom known as Wuyong.

The kingdom had four treasures: beautiful women, music, riches, and its crown prince.

 “Your highness. I hope this teaches you to use puppet magic more cautiously. It’s very exhausting to one’s spiritual energy reserves, even for one like you.”

Mei Nian Qing touched his arm, just lightly enough to let him know where he was.

“…Nian Qing,” Jun Wu said. “I can’t see, so you’ll need to tell me. Crimson Rain was that ghost?”

“It seems so.”

Jun Wu snorted a brief laugh. “He was that street urchin, he was that soldier, he was that ghost fire, he was that ghost general…honestly, you’d need to be a fortune teller to predict such a thing.”

“Mmm.”

“And I haven’t had one of those by my side for years.”

“If you’d ever listened to my lectures, you would’ve been able to do it yourself.”

“Oh, for the clarity of hindsight.”

Heedless of the blood, the flailing limbs and spitting mouths, Mei Nian Qing reached to touch Jun Wu’s chin.

“Your highness,” Mei Nian Qing quietly said. “I think it’s time for us to rest. Both of us.”

Jun Wu covered Mei Nian Qing’s hand with his own, and tilted his head towards the warmth he felt, radiating from Mei Nian Qing’s thigh. He heaved a heavy sigh, and was then silent.

 --

 Four hundred years ago, there emerged a dazzling city in the realm of the ghosts.

The city had four treasures: freedom, riches, gourmet soup, and its beloved king.

 “San Lang,” Xie Lian said flatly.

“Her name is Porkbun,” Hua Cheng said, referring to the white pony that he had allowed onto their bed. “Does gege like his anniversary present?”

For the first time in their new life together, Xie Lian considered divorce.

[prairiedust]

Jack the Friendship-Killer

Jack Kline can be refracted through several folkloristic lenses to get a deeper understanding of his character. The first lens is that of the Jack character of English and American folklore-- sometimes a giant killer through his innocence and good intentions, at other times too cunning for his own good. How do we understand Jack now that he’s burned off an unknown quantity of his soul?

Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and Jack from “Jack the Giant Killer” are subtly different heroes. Beanstalk Jack is not particularly clever-- in fact it is his naivete that starts the whole escapade in the first place. He believes that he’s been given magic beans, whereas common sense (personified by his mother) says that Jack was just conned and in fact had impoverished his family beyond recovery. Beanstalk Jack’s adventures don’t stem from him being particularly smart or strong-- while he is able to climb down the beanstalk with various treasures and then chop it down and thus kill the giant, his main skills seem to be his ability to sneak around and run fast, and to be really, really lucky

Jack the Giant-Killer, however, is a deadly clever and impressively strong young man-- the son of a farmer who sets out to kill a local giant and upon finding his first success, makes that his vocation. In the story of the Giant Killer, Jack meets a series of giants, and defeats them through a combination of brains and brawn.

The fourth giant Jack GK meets is a two-headed giant in Wales. Let me make sure I have my Jack Giants in order…yeah that’s giant #4. This giant plans to do him in by poison, but Jack outwits him and foils his plan. In the morning, the giant serves him a hasty pudding. Jack takes a sack and ties it to his waist and fills it with the pudding. Standing up, he shows the giant a trick-- he slices the bag under his shirt and all the hasty pudding falls out, but Jack is obviously unharmed. Not wanting to be outdone, the Welsh giant slices open his own belly, but falls down dead. Jack the Giant-killer has established himself as a professional liar at this point.

In another “episode,” however, he befriends the son of King Arthur, who is a paragon of generosity and gives away his last twopence in order for a dead man to be put to rest. Jack is so impressed by the prince that he becomes his manservant and in order to procure a meal and a place to sleep, he rides ahead to the home of another giant. To this giant he tells a half-truth, that the son of King Arthur is on his way with a force of a thousand men. The giant is so terrified that he has Jack lock him up until King Arthur’s son had passed, and Jack GK and the prince spend a fine night in the giant’s castle. The giant was so grateful that he hadn’t been slain that he offers Jack anything in his possession, (much as the gods of Olympus gave Perseus gifts in Clash of the Titans.) Jack takes a coat of invisibility, a cap of knowledge, a sword that could cut anything, and peculiarly speedy boots. These items help Jack and the prince out in their next set of adventures.

Jack Kline is poised as Jack the Giant Killer in his story, now. He has gifts-- his unusual nephilianic powers-- and has discovered a new one: the power of deceit.

Jack GK’s adventures shift, however, once he has befriended the son of King Arthur. Instead of wandering the countryside looking for giants to slay, with the prince he encounters a lady who has been enchanted to serve the devil himself; it is she whom the prince set out to save in the first place. Jack commits himself to his prince’s quest, and uses his giant-gifts to save her, and she in the end marries Arthur’s son and Jack goes on to have more adventures. During the rescue of the prince’s lady, Jack uses his giant-gifts to best Lucifer but it’s important to realize that he does not resort to any of his old tricks-- while the magical items do give him an advantage, he doesn’t cheat nor lie in his typical manner to help his friend the prince. Once the prince’s quest is over, Jack is made a knight of the Round Table and strikes out on his own again and gets back to his old tricks, and soon finds a lady of his own to rescue and marry.

Our Jack, however, has no superlative companion to serve. He has father figures, true, but it’s a key point in the Giant-Killer story that the prince is a companion, a friend-- as Jack is introduced as the son of a farmer and the prince as the son of a king, it can be argued that they are of the same age. With Maggie gone and the Lebanon Kids alienated, Jack has no companions to look up to to keep him in line. He has no peers. Even God was not a singular entity (barring the time that he had Amara locked up.) This innate isolation may be his salvation, or his undoing.

We were offered a second lens through which to analyze Jack. As Donatello said, he’s the most powerful being in the universe (absent Chuck and Amara I guess?) and his mind is impossible to know. The MOTW that we were given in an episode about Jack trying to make friends was a singular creature, perhaps the only one of his kind at all, who had devoured his family and been turned from an ordinary, human kind of monster into an extraordinary, supernatural one as a punishment, because Henry Parker, who cannibalized his family, had felt no remorse for what he’d done. In fact, he continued to do it even after the winter had passed. Since he felt no remorse, the elders of the tribe who punished him imposed remorse upon him in the form of eternal hunger, a hunger that would literally destroy him if not assuaged.

Interestingly, There seems to be no remorse in Jack-- in fact, he chose to lie about his time alone in Lebanon rather than face any consequences that might be imposed upon him by his elders. He seemed to feel that Stacy’s encounter with his angel blade was her own fault, and the way I read the scene was that after he healed her he expected the group’s complete approval (even adoration?) once more. His mistake did not seem to impact him.

The third and most complicated lens through which we can try to divine Jack’s new nature is one that was invoked many times. Perez seems to have totally made up his Native creature rather than draw further from Native mythology or legends. I can find neither hide nor hair of any such thing as a Kohoka; Perez appears to have created it based on the Wendigo, although Kohoka is a place name mentioned in the Journals of Lewis and Clark, and there is a Kahoka, Missouri, which was named after the Cahokia tribe of the Illinois confederacy, so I suspect he came across something SOMEWHERE? At any rate, the Kahoka can be classified as “probably made up,” but Sheriff Romero obliquely invoked Coyote many times in the episode. So many times that I’ll bet that seven more mentions of coyotes were left on the editing bay floor after this episode was filmed. I’m not going to do a big meta about Coyote, but here are some very important and relevant stories. Despite what you might read, Coyote was not monolithic. Coyote was for some nations a trickster, for others a fool, and for many he was the old man who made the world. In my opinion Coyote stories are among the best you’ll ever read. Many if not most stories about Coyote are religious in nature.

How Coyote Got His Cunning

https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/HowCoyotegothisCunning-Karok.html

Coyote Secures Fire

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/pla/jat/jat17.htm

Why Coyote Stopped Imitating His Friends

https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/WhyCoyoteStoppedImitatingHisFriends-Caddo.htm

L

In some nations’ stories, Coyote was paired with Rabbit, who among other things, kept him humble.

Coyote Misses Real Rabbit

http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=Apache/uvaGenText/tei/Chi13.xml&chunk.id=CN13&toc.id=CN13&brand=default

And then this one because it’s just really, really good (and I’m fascinated with Mount Shasta):

Why Mount Shasta Erupted

https://www.indigenouspeople.net/mountsha.htm

Just to give a little taste of the Appalachian Jack that I grew up with, a Jack who is even more wiley than his British forbear (it’s hard to find Jack Tales because they’re rarely written down, but many have made their way into books) here is Jack and the Varmints:

https://www.ncpedia.org/culture/stories/jack-tales

Tl;dr: Jack needs a peer.

See you all again on Thursday!

[thesweetblossoms]

Conversations at Night

🎹Last week, a newly immigrated Jordanian Uber driver, Omar, drove me to work, he mentioned that he studied Arabic literature and was curious about by name. When I told him, it was indeed an Arabic word, chosen by my father, he readily shared his research and knowledge, to tell me more about its meaning. He relayed to me that the name derives from one of the oldest tribes in the Arabian desert, that the root word means hardworking as well intelligent. Although I had known that my name meant, intelligence, since I was a little girl, after learning the actual root word, “Sammar”, I researched further, discovering it also means “conversations at night”. This is such a haunting meaning, since I often think and write at night, and it pleasing to think that my name might indeed be a self fulfilling prophecy.

If I were to list seven elements that contribute to a women’s appeal, that carry the impression of compelling, interesting and unforgettable femininity, that strengthen a ladies ability to exert a magnetic pull, sex appeal, as well as attraction, my list would include grace, intelligence, wit, confidence, imagination, style and vision. For each dispenses the charms, extracts the best elements and leaves faint traces of the women’s soul into the atmosphere she inhabits and colors all her encounters.

A graceful women is one that may be counted on to examine the hand she has been given and find the only way to play would be to create, envision and design, a charming, memorable and beautiful life. She would notice that a hand painted thank you note and homemade lemon zested madeleines would be a happy gift to send to an elementary school teacher, or a message to an author, after reading a book may increase the power of both written and unwritten works, or that dealing with multiple obligations yet remaining unfazed is the key to carrying out each endeavor well. A graceful women is often a reliable friend, somebody who has kindness and strength to spare,

who is generous and open hearted in providing ideas, advice, new ways of thinking, perspectives and insights that open channels, clarifying problems, dilemmas or troubles. By confronting issues with a high level of ability, sharpness, composure and calm, she inspires faith in outcomes as well as a sense of security in others, for she reminds us, that the universe readily furnishes us with necessary tools and the awakened among us may cannily use these to create gardens, or start companies, write books, raise children or steadfastly and relentlessly chase any dream.

Intelligence is an irreplaceable tool in a women’s arsenal. While appearances satisfy many evolutionary prerogatives, people are often attracted to the components of a persons personality, character and energy. Thus ones ability to think, to make connections, to gain and use knowledge, to envision new and different worlds, to find patterns, to look minutely at details, to be able to grasp the universal horizons, to simplify the blinking space between birth and death, to detect humor or to ideate a world without pain and suffering, may be intoxicating to others, just as newly opened ivory roses, are to an orchid pink desert hummingbird.

The wittiness factor adds a sparkle to drifting breezes, ticking minutes and to the light filled hours of experience, for any encounter is more pleasurable when the conversation is amusing, interesting and articulate. The epitome for wit may be Jane Austen’s, Elizabeth Bennet, a heroine that is able to duel with the most bedeviling of men, who is able to enchant all around her with her kindness, intelligence and passion. For eons, I thought that being witty meant the ability to think fast and return a volley with ferocity and brilliance, yet it may actually embody a larger context, as being witty may be a certain kind of sensitivity, of knowing the correct words to appease a tense situation, perhaps with a gentle surrender, or a thoughtful offer, or it may be the priceless skill, at a dinner party or even, an attorneys break room setting, perchance, to extract the most vivacity from another person. A witty disposition unleashes the exuberant and sardonic ability to ascertain the humor inherent, even within the bitterest of dilemmas and unsavory intervals, it persuades the sleepiest of senses to savor the intrinsic qualities of reality, of the funny, cute and precious elements of quickly changing and developing children, or of noting the romantic opportunities of lounging in candlelight, when the power goes out, or in taking rain showered tree and blossom perfumed walks in less crowded sidewalks, or of knowing that what is truly relevant is how much you laughed, or lingered in beauty or dwelled in love.

Confidence is a narcotic quality, it opens ones experience to manifest the most fruitful results. It relies on an innate sense of place, an ability to see through many of the artificial blocks that prevent us from enjoying the present. I am awed at the way certain individuals carry themselves, the plus size models, or the plainly dressed and unassuming tech founders, or little children who have not been conditioned to compare themselves to media and cultural archetypes. Confidence arises from a comprehension of the value that one may add to the situation, knowing that the simplest gestures may tint the quietest hours, or even the most hectic ones, it is the calling card of the person, who introduces themselves and gains a new friend, or the individual that sweeps aside other peoples narrow viewpoint by example, or who seldom worries about how the audience regards them, as long as they adhere to high principals, values and modes of conduct.

Creating imaginary worlds, or parallel dimensions is a satisfying and alluring anecdote to navigating life in our present form. Therefore, a wild, creative, whimsical, exuberant, fantastical, energetic, ephemeral or any other type of imagination allows us to wonder into other realms that may exist in the vastness of eternity, like invisible moons, beguiling us unawares. An imagination could spark an ambrosial love affair, by sensing possibility in a potential partner, despite the blindingly obvious shortcomings, leading one on a romantic journey that could be thrilling despite the gaping variance from previous amorous notions. Or it could lead one to design and create an incandescent and disarmingly magnificent garden, laden with peach hydrangea, royal purple forget me nots, green tea dogwood blossoms, pink sapphire peonies and a hanging rope swing, knotted to a stately fairy light strung oak tree, to softly glide upon, while caressed by honeysuckle perfumed drifts, lashings of tenderness from ripening pink moons and lulling gold silk threaded clouds. It could create worlds that linger in our shared literary world, enthralling readers over generations with indelible characters and themes, such as J.M Barries, Peter Pan, or A Midsummers Nights Dream by William Shakespeare. An unfettered imagination could birth an enthusiastic and charming story about a mischievous giraffe in Paris, or a lonely starfish who longs to escape the coral reefs, or a striking, haunting and unforgettable love story set in the English countryside.

Words are more permanent than thoughts, as thoughts dissipate unerringly into the atmosphere, so just as writing encodes symbolic meaning, accelerates and defines the future as well as leaves greater tangible traces than musings alone, personal style is also an imprint of ones personality into reality. Sometimes the simplest ideas beguile me, the idea that a dress as ephhermal as a chiffon piece protects, shelters and conceals us from the part of reality that is separate from our selves, yet also exists as a work of art, or that how we dress impacts our energy, attitudes and moods, wearing floral patterns reminds us of the healing potential of nature, a black studded dress advertises that we must not be trifled with, or a nude halter silk dress evinces a desire for frivolity, sensuality and celebration. My thoughts often dwell upon an inking, an ominous sensation or a persistent thought cloud, that there is scare time as well as opportunity, to express myself to the farthest limits of possibility, to sit quietly to read and think about manifold subjects that render illumination, or even to savor the wondrous scenes occurring across time and space, as it entails a sacrifice of other pressing matters to notice, contemplate and mull the mysterious unfurling of the hours. I feel this way especially poignantly regarding style, that there isn’t enough time to wear the clothes that have come across my path, that I may not have adequate chances to choose different earrings to compliment my outfits or wear lovely shoes that would enhance a carefully chosen scarf. Just as the way an exquisite platinum ring sets of a twinkling emerald gem, this dearth of time influences me to both savor as well as thoughtfully consider the ritual of dressing in the morning for work, or selecting a caramel and gold beaded party dress to wear for a date night, or collecting another white cotton dress to linger in the garden.

Ones vision far exceeds the artifices and false boxes of sex, status or upbringing as vision is an element of our soul, it is a masterful and ecstatic gift, one that many lucky people possess, yet only to squander it in half sleepy lives, leaving a handful to scale the heights of awareness, or risk the temptations of insanity, topple precariously over the edges of reason as great visual artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet or Georgia O Keefe. For vision is a subtle ecstasy, enabling us to be charmed by overwhelmingly gorgeous vistas such as lilac clouded rainforests in Costa Rica, or Balinese, glimmering beach temples, a misty pine tree cove in Vancouver, a small town waterfall in Connecticut with groves of blossoming plum trees, a hilly glade ripe with nigella, cosmos, asters and lace flowers in Colorado, a moonshot Taj Mahal with night blooming jasmine and tuberose, a concealed hydrangea, rose and clematis ivy and moss draped reading bench in a garden in Cotswalds, or a white chiffon gown and black tie soirée at the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles. Yet, the boundless gift of vision includes the ability to create imaginary worlds, perhaps, the talent to create a Parisian rooftop soirée with pink champagne, piano music, shadows of darkness and light, a setting for an overture, for the mischievous heiress in a backless black silk dress with emerald earrings, and the tall, captivating, yet, impecunious gentlemen in a patched up tweed jacket, both, serenaded by the musical notes and lilac dusk breezes floating over pooled pillar candles, strung Japanese lanterns, multiple riveting conversations and hinting at a momentous rendezvous, by star struck water fountains in the rose gardens below. But, vision unwavering burnishes the magic of the ordinary, common place or even mundane, like a spell or incantation, it charms us when we are at leisure, maybe, when we see the tiny spiders performing gymnastics over the blossoming tomatillo plants, or the shadowy outline of cosmos on the pavement, or a black thrasher bird feather, of the slowly whirling pink grasses in the inundating light.

During a spell of neglecting to refill my hummingbird feeders with handmade nectar, I diverted my spare time to planting seeds, fertilizing and watering my garden consistently. On Saturday afternoon, while lazying in the balcony garden with cups of Irish coffee, I noticed a hummingbird fly into the covered garden with pots of jasmine, tuberose, black eyed Susan’s, flowering basil, cosmos, roses, sweet alyssum and Mexican sunflowers, and sip greedily from the roses and cosmos before flying away. I was bewitched by the sight, realizing how much I miss seeing the fast beating whizzing petite birds visit my garden, yet enthralled that by growing flowers they may still frequent my space and imbibe in the nectar they find therein.

By looking again, more carefully, calmly, methodically at the possessions we already have concealed away in delicate pouches or miniscule ceramic bowls, or barely holding up in creased envelopes in oyster pink Prada purses, we might be delighted, intrigued and captivated by what we discover. I recently took out my Elsa Peretti teardrop necklace out and considered the fragile silver chain and the evocative shape of a single drop of water, borne of insidious joy or recalcitrant sorrow. I hadn’t worn it for many years as there were two tiny knots in the chain that I couldn’t untangle and was too busy to take to Tiffany's to repair. Yet, once I took it out again, with a degree of maturity or skill that is the gift of growing older, I was able to focus on the minuscule tangles and unknot them slowly with concentration and patience. With the years, we gain talents, perspectives and abilities that are not immediately apparent. So it is with pleasure that I wear my long ago acquired and conscientious stored necklace, hoping it charms the seductive flow and cadence of the present time, to symbolize our physical ability to transform energy when we cry and to take the tears and alchemize it to realms of imagination, wonder and beauty.

Often during breaks between work, I succumbs to islands of fancy and I scribble shards of fancy and nonsense; I seek alchemy in every leaf and discover magic in every blossom, I leave secrets in the open meadows and plant revelations under the shadows of cedar trees, I traipse into comedies in the coffee beaned darkness and escape tragedies in the mirrored light, I linger in the borders between moments, in the beats between the notes and the spaces between the lines.

One is able to measure the healing quotient of a house by the vibrancy and the lushness of its plant inhabitants. I am aware of this co-relation, whenever I enter a space with emerald, jade, arsenic green, oyster or polka dotted pink, or hues of deep Provençal lavender, that appear content, peaceful, well tended, happily imbibing light showers, fending off the dusty cadence of windows, rising tenuously, joyously or even arrogantly from black pearled soil, that itself, is verdant, sufficiently hydrated, evidently fertile, and with lilting stems that have been either left to its own devices, or that been thoughtfully sculpted with the gardeners hands with a pair of much used, oiled and sharpened bonsai scissors. There is a tangible loving energy that emanates from these spaces, where the subtlest creatures are cared for and honored. For our lives are akin to sheafs of fragilely stroked watercolor botanical paintings, tied loosely with a nude pink silk ribbon, each offering a daily experiment in alchemy, practiced, by cutting off a branch to allow another, greater access to light and air, or by gently pulling off dried leaves, so that another might sprout from the green stem below, or to take a flourishing limb from one plant to embed into another pot so that it may root and create an independent plant. These houseplants allow us to deepen our connection to nature, to entwine with it unwavering flow, recklessly, by attempting to manipulate and control living entities, by inviting other species and personalities into our midst, by examining the visible patterns, arcs, shapes, forms and manifestations of botanicals, to attempt to understand its quiet language and to bind ourselves to them, within our own scant hours, upon this pale dot, that is planted itself, by some unknown gardener, into eternal space.

Spend the day looking at the shadows and the night looking at the stars. For there is magic and mystery in the hidden spaces that the illumination conceals, while there are truths, beyond the blatant solar flares that the softly lit moon shyly gives away. I linger in the early November breezes while the crescent moons silver filters indolently through a congress of palm tree leaves, into my Paris cup of chamomile tea. I lull in the lantana, basil, chrysanthemum, rose, tuberose, orange leaf and jasmine perfume. I am soothed by the abstract and bewitching melodies of the wind chimes, the song of the flowing water in the fountain, of old memories lingering within the fabric, weavings and leaves; of the faded firoza, mustard and cream kantha blanket, ivory paint chipped rattan chair and the new marigold plants. These ameliorate the current time, by reminding me of my grandparents garden, as a little girl, even though, the textures, fragrances and lyrics are carefully, and irreversibly separated, by a handful of decades from my contemplations, here, bathed in the heady new moon and the gently biting desert winter winds. But perhaps, there is more to consider, for garden perfumes, night nectar chasing moths, fluttery eucalyptus branches and the tricks of the heavenly bodies, might allow frames to shift and flirt unbeknownst with each other.

Can you hear the wondering butterfly and the prancing bee, whispering gently through the lavender breezes, follow me, follow me? 🌊

[thewahookid]

The fruit of the Spirit is ... goodness | Luisa Piccarreta official

Goodness is the most beautiful flower of benevolence that brings us to be good with everyone. Benevolence and goodness are two closely related aspects of the fruit of the Spirit: one refers to an exterior action of goodness and the other makes a Christian amiable.

Goodness helps us to love others with sincerity and to win over darkness with light. It is often expressed in kindness, tenderness and generosity. Goodness is therefore the ability to do good, but it is often a strenuous activity. No one then is good but God alone. In fact, when Jesus hears the rich young man call Him "Good Teacher", He replies by asking "Why do you call me good? One alone is good, God the Father". This is meant to emphasize that goodness is not part of man's innate characteristics. God is the good Father, the Good Shepherd, God is good par excellence. In Him there is no evil. On the other hand, once sin enters our nature we are not good, and in order to become good we must have recourse to God. Jesus, with His goodness, is the revelation of God's goodness. With His life Jesus reveals to us that the Father loves the world, that the Father is good, and that He is so because by saving us He calls everyone to be good. It is the encounter between God's action and those who welcome His Word that radically transforms the human being. The ability to do good was given to us when they were born again by the Word of the living God. Now we know that the Spirit is strong, has power, and that the fruit of the Spirit is love, the love that God has poured into our hearts (Gal 5:22; Rom 5: 5) and which is a source of goodness. It is love that makes us good. It is love that places us in harmony with the transforming power of God's saving action. s action and those who welcome His Word that radically transforms the human being. The ability to do good was given to us when they were born again by the Word of the living God. Now we know that the Spirit is strong, has power, and that the fruit of the Spirit is love, the love that God has poured into our hearts (Gal 5:22; Rom 5: 5) and which is a source of goodness. It is love that makes us good. It is love that places us in harmony with the transforming power of God's saving action. s action and those who welcome His Word that radically transforms the human being. The ability to do good was given to us when they were born again by the Word of the living God. Now we know that the Spirit is strong, has power, and that the fruit of the Spirit is love, the love that God has poured into our hearts (Gal 5:22; Rom 5: 5) and which is a source of goodness. It is love that makes us good. It is love that places us in harmony with the transforming power of God's saving action. It is love that makes us good. It is love that places us in harmony with the transforming power of God's saving action. It is love that makes us good. It is love that places us in harmony with the transforming power of God's saving action.

Speaking to Luisa, Jesus stresses this quality of God and affirms that God is all love . He is like a source that contains nothing but love , and anything that could enter this source loses its quality and becomes love so that in Him justice, wisdom, goodness, fortitude, etc., are nothing more than love . But who directs this source, this love, and everything else? It is the Divine Will that dominates, upholds and places order; therefore, all the divine qualities bear the mark of His Will. The person who lives in His Volition lives life in His very same source, and everything about him is changed into love, so that thoughts are love, words are love, the heartbeat, action, and step, everything. Only in His Will is this love found, which can make up for the love of all because those who enter the Divine Will find many sources that arise, and for as much as they may take, It never decreases - not even a drop. In the Divine Will there is the source of love with impetuous rushes of waves that despite the rushing waves continually rises. There is the source of beauty, and no matter how much beauty is released it never loses color; rather, ever new and more beauty continually arises. There is the source of wisdom, the source of gladness, the source of goodness, power, mercy, justice and all the other qualities: they all arise and the one pours into the other, so that love is beautiful, is wise, powerful and good. These sources form such a harmony, such contentment and a lovely spectacle that all the Blessed remain sweetly enchanted and never move their glances so as not to lose even one of these contentments. The sources are all struck with the divine mark, and this mark forms other sources whose waves rise so high that in pouring out they flood everything and do good to all. So the goodness of God always wants to show off more of His love for creatures; and having given them everything, leaving Him without anything left to give in order to be loved, God wants to make a gift of His Will,

"Let us walk then according to the Spirit" as the first call, after being born by the Word of God, to embark on the path of goodness and be a light in the Lord Who from darkness brought us into the light. But how do we begin this journey? We begin with love; indeed, only love is the source of goodness. To love is our first task. It is the most beautiful and best work, as long as we love as Jesus taught us: "Love one another as I have loved you ". Loving and doing good are two behaviors that manifest themselves in different ways. Paul presents them as a series of requirements: "Love must be sincere ... Detest what is evil, cleave to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Do not let your zeal in doing good subside. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, live at peace with everyone. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Overcome evil with good ”(Rom 12: 9-21). This succession of requirements is quite impressive. But is there anyone who is capable of fulfilling them all? Yes, those who receive the seed of the Word with a noble and good heart and make it bear fruit with perseverance and patience. Their noble heart is full of sincere love. A person who strives to live out these exhortations, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, gradually takes on the true Christian character, and the faithful feel the Spirit's presence as a revelation of the goodness of the Father. Those who are born of God carry in their hearts the divine seed that does not tolerate persisting in sin; they also possesses God's love that has been poured out by the Holy Spirit that enables us to love as He loves.

In fact, Jesus explains to Luisa that one who sows goodness will reap goodness. The soul must sow goodness with her whole being. The soul has an intelligence of mind that must be used to comprehend God, to always think about good and never let any bad seed enter; this is what it means to sow goodness with one's mind. In the same way, the mouth must never be used to sow bad seed by uttering bad words, which is unworthy of a Christian, but always speak holy, useful and good words; this is sowing good with one's mouth. Sowing goodness with the heart is to love only God with one's heart, to desire and long for God, and as a result perform holy works with one's hands and to walk in the footsteps of our Lord - this is another good seed. God's goodness is so great that He will not take into account the small piece of land He has given, nor will He ask an account for anything else, but only to bear the fruit of the harvest, thus granting the intellect more understanding of Himself in Heaven according to the measure He has been understood in life; and the more He is comprehended the more the intellect will be flooded with joy and bliss. Consequently, the mouth will receive a harvest of various heavenly tastes, harmonizing his voice above the voice of all the other Blessed, the works will reap the harvest of His gifts, and so it is with everything else. Jesus then goes on to say that every act of goodness is a seed for eternity, and only by surrendering to God are the wings formed to be able to fly into eternity. The soul that follows the path of the Divine Will surpasses everything, both in Heaven and on Earth, enters the sphere of eternity and meanders among the three Divine Persons, penetrates the most intimate hiding places, and has knowledge of their secrets and beatitudes. Their beatitudes are such and so many that while the soul is in the act of enjoying one, another new beautitude arises to surprise her, and in this way they continue into eternity. They are eternal and immense beatitudes, and that which is eternal has the power to always generate new things. Only those who have done more good on Earth will take part in that unceasing newness in Heaven. This goodness will be like the seed that brings forth the knowledge of the beatitudes, of joys, beauty, love, goodness, and so on, depending on the goodness that the soul will have practiced on earth. In this way, she will grow closer to the Divine Persons and take in large sips of that beatitude that the germ contains, even to overflowing. In Heaven, justice uses the scales of love to weigh every little good act done by the creature and attaches to that good act an endless happiness, joy, and beauty. The Divine Will is everything, so much so that Its same attributes are a simple act of the Divine Will. Hence, if justice, goodness, wisdom and fortitude run their course, the Divine Will precedes them, accompanies them, and makes them operate. And so, the soul that takes the Divine Will takes all; rather, it can be said that her life is over - the weaknesses, temptations, passions, miseries are over because the Divine Volition has primacy over everything and is entitled to everything. justice uses the scales of love to weigh every little good act done by the creature and attaches to that good act an endless happiness, joy, and beauty. The Divine Will is everything, so much so that Its same attributes are a simple act of the Divine Will. Hence, if justice, goodness, wisdom and fortitude run their course, the Divine Will precedes them, accompanies them, and makes them operate. And so, the soul that takes the Divine Will takes all; rather, it can be said that her life is over - the weaknesses, temptations, passions, miseries are over because the Divine Volition has primacy over everything and is entitled to everything. justice uses the scales of love to weigh every little good act done by the creature and attaches to that good act an endless happiness, joy, and beauty. The Divine Will is everything, so much so that Its same attributes are a simple act of the Divine Will. Hence,

if justice, goodness, wisdom and fortitude run their course, the Divine Will precedes them, accompanies them, and makes them operate. And so, the soul that takes the Divine Will takes all; rather, it can be said that her life is over - the weaknesses, temptations, passions, miseries are over because the Divine Volition has primacy over everything and is entitled to everything. so much so that Its same attributes are a simple act of the Divine Will. Hence, if justice, goodness, wisdom and fortitude run their course, the Divine Will precedes them, accompanies them, and makes them operate. And so, the soul that takes the Divine Will takes all; rather, it can be said that her life is over - the weaknesses, temptations, passions, miseries are over because the Divine Volition has primacy over everything and is entitled to everything. so much so that Its same attributes are a simple act of the Divine Will. Hence, if justice, goodness, wisdom and fortitude run their course, the Divine Will precedes them, accompanies them, and makes them operate. And so, the soul that takes the Divine Will takes all; rather, it can be said that her life is over - the weaknesses, temptations, passions, miseries are over because the Divine Volition has primacy over everything and is entitled to everything.

When human nature is recreated at the moment of its new birth in Christ, it goes back to being the image of God, capable of assuming and maturing His features, which all together make up the fruit of the Spirit. It acquires the ability to put His Word into practice, to love not only with words but with actions and in truth, and to have His same goodness which is unlimited at all times and for each person. Only then can we be considered children of God. Jesus describes to Luisa what the characteristics of these "sons and daughters" are and says that they will be rainbows - all their qualities and colors will be divine, they will blaze with the most beautiful and brilliant colors, which are: love, kindness, power, wisdom, holiness, mercy and justice. The variety of these colors will be as light in the darkness of the night and,

The person who in life has made the Lord his / her refuge and who fears God and truly loves Him must change lifestyle. Only in this way can the person experience His presence, power, holiness and glory. Hence, the only way to exercise goodness is to become children of God and to share in His nature. Goodness is a sign of belonging to our Father.

https://www.luisapiccarretaofficial.org/news/the-fruit-of-the-spirit-is-goodness/209

[georgevilliers]

Tessa Virtue

Life Path: 22

Birth Day Number: 17

First Period Cycle: 5

First Pinnacle Cycle: 4

Challenges: 3, 1, 2, 4

Destiny/Expression: 7

Soul Urge/Heart Desire: 7

Personality: 9

Hidden Passion: 1

Karmic Lessons: 7 and 8

Balance: 2

Life Path 22: The Master Builder

Life Path 22 is what we call a Master Life Path. It is a powerful combination of life paths 4 and 11 and therefore can cause a lot of confusion but harness a lot of potential. They have an an uncanny spiritual connection and can apply metaphysical knowledge to daily life. Their intuitive nature can find the very best, or the very worst, in every person. They feel an innate connection to the stars and often find themselves getting lost while stargazing. We all know we come from star stuff, but they feel it more intensely than the rest of us. 22′s fear failure, as the burden of potential they bear is large, and they require a lot of support from the people in their life. They are not just the dreamers of dreams, they are facilitators of greatness. They have the intuitive insights of life path 11, combined with the practical nature of life path 4. Their thoughts hold incredible power, and likely always come true. Success of the 22′s can be delicate as it exists by the virtue of their dreams and visions. They can be romantic, but often times impersonal. They are often more focused on their dreams. 22 can be seen as the most promising number, they have great ambition, are a great supporter and steady partner in relationships, and offer sound advice and emotional support.  They are practical, do not suffer from flights of fancy, and while they can be unconventional in thoughts and actions they are good at translating that to appear traditional.  22′s are excellent leaders. They have the vision, the intuition, the business and political sense, and common sense, in order to accomplish their larger than life dreams and ambitions. In alignment, a 22 is dependable, stable, productive, loyal, trustworthy, and hardworking. Out of alignment, they can be rigid, bossy, blunt, fearful of taking risks, unorganized, careless, think too small, and overwhelmed.

Crystals: clear quartz, green tourmaline

Planet: Pluto

Zodiac: Scorpio

Tarot Card: The Fool

Key Meditation Words: attainment, integration, prosperity, completeness, peace, limitless potential

Birth Day: 17

17′s are highly ambitious, blessed with business and financial instincts. Their approach to business is creative and daring. They are highly independent, and an excellent manager and organizer. They are highly gifted in their ability to see the larger picture, and how small details come into play. This makes them highly effective at handling large projects.

First Period Cycle: 5

A 5′s first period cycle involves a lot of change, freedom, and travel. They have a flair for successfully promoting themselves. They will visit many foreign places and encounter many new ideas and people. Seek change and take ahold of new opportunities. 

First Pinnacle Cycle: 4

This pinnacle cycle consists of hard work and many rewards. They have the opportunity to build a strong foundation that will last. They are dependable and reliable. 

Challenges: 3, 1, 2, 4

First challenge 3: They are their own worst critic. They suppress their individuality and creativity because of self-doubt. They are far harder on themselves than anyone else in their life is, so they tend to play it safe by not expressing deep emotions and indulging in superficialities. They can feel lonely, and fear social interaction. They should seek out a creative output, like drawing, dance, singing etc. The crux of this challenge is to bring out the true self. They must learn to value their creative talents above judgement of others, and undergo a process of individuation. 

Second challenge 1: They must learn to be independent. They will be forced to stand up for themselves and their rights, and face situations in which they will have to choose between doing what is right, and doing something to please someone else. They will learn to be firm and trust their judgement, not to run with the crowd but be an individual. They will experience much trial and error, and can sometimes include bursts of anger, or suppressed anger and emotion until they are acting on their deepest instincts. They will learn their own set of values, and develop individual and original ideas. Because Tessa has a Hidden Passion of 1, this challenge will not be a difficult one for her.

Third, main, challenge 2: They are overly sensitive and too aware of others’ expectations. They can suppress themselves to avoid being too conspicuous,and too self-conscious. Hypersensitivity can cause fear, timidity, and lack of self-confidence. Little things can become disproportionately difficult to overcome and can be paralyzing, jealousy can cause pain and misunderstanding. These things stem from positive parts of their life path, such as awareness and intuition, but have become twisted into overwhelming negatives.

Fourth challenge 4: This challenge is all about learning to organize and prioritize, be persistent and persevere. Because Tessa has mainly odd numbers, this might be a hard lesson to learn (but perhaps she has already done so)

Destiny/Expression 7

Spiritual, intelligent, analytical, focused, introspective, studious, intuitive, knowledgeable, contemplative, serious, persevering, refined, gracious. They are driven by a desire for knowledge and truth, and possess a considerable amount of perspective. They need time to be by themselves, too much social interaction can cause stress and they need privacy. They tend to dislike mundane things, and can be judgemental towards others and their lack of depth of knowledge. This can lead to them being cut off from society. It would be better for them to spend their time in an educating role, by spreading their love of knowledge. They are perfectionists, and can be distant and aloof.  

Soul Urge/Heart Desire 7

They love knowledge and insight. They value the gifts of their mind, and abhor shallow opinions and judgements. They have a natural gift for analysis and research, and once they have grasped the basics of a topic, have no problem diving deep into the issue and thinking theoretically or philosophically about it. They can be introverted, and a life of a hermit or monk engaged in a life of study appeals. In relationships, they may prefer things impersonal. They prefer facts over feelings and may distrust their own and others’ emotions. The unpredictability of the heart can surprise or frighten them and their rationality. They do crave love, and it takes a lot of trust for them to be able to trust someone with their heart. Resisting the urge to become a hermit, and instead embracing society and sharing their gift of knowledge can be a much more fulfilling life.

Personality 9

9′s have an impressive and almost aristocratic bearing. They are very much in control of the image they send out. Many actors, dancers, and other performers have 9 personalities. They are much admired, but also can be hated as they may be perceived as arrogant. A great struggle of the 9 type personality is being able to bring themselves down to earth and relate to everyone on a personal basis. 9′s have great compassion and sympathy for others, but may be better at working on a grand scale rather than a one-on-one basis. They have excellent taste, a good deal of artistic talent that shows in their homes and clothing.

Hidden Passion 1

Their hidden passion is that they want to stand out! They have a great drive and desire to accomplish. They are highly competitive and want to be the best and the first in anything they do. Highly energetic, creative, capable of influencing and even dominating others. Can succumb to manipulation unless their ideals are high. May have struggled with a lack of confidence especially at a young age, but they have the strength to overcome this. They are survivors, warriors, leaders, and often times politicians or athletes (!!!!)

Karmic Lessons 7 and 8

7: Learn not to take things at face value. A superficial understanding of important matters will prevent them from experiencing the satisfaction of their true potential. The presence of other 7s in Tessa’s core numbers means this lesson will be easy to learn.

8: They are highly independent and do not want to be told how to do things. They might have a know-it-all attitude and can be stubborn therefore they can run into issues with authority figures. This can prevent them from knowing their limits, and while they likely will attract lots of money, they may spend too much of it as well. Learn limitations, and be efficient. 

Balance 2

Use tact and diplomacy over emotion. Be courageous in the search to a solution rather than backing away over fear of confrontation. Work hard to diffuse tension, and find a solution that satisfies everyone. Be willing to compromise. 

Scott Moir

Life Path: 9

Birth Day Number: 2

Second Period Cycle: 2

Second Pinnacle Cycle: 9

Challenge Numbers: 7, 4, 3, 1

Destiny/Expression: 3

Soul Urge/Heart Desire: 4

Personality: 8

Hidden Passion: 9

Karmic Lessons: 5 and 8

Balance Number: 3

Life Path 9: The Humanitarian

9′s are helpful, compassionate, charitable, generous, humanitarian, cooperative, creative, self-sufficient, proud, self-sacrificing. 9′s can often be open and honest to a fault. There is no doubting that a 9 will give you an honest opinion, and it may be a tough pill to swallow but the 9′s must be listened to. They usually speak from a place of experience. 9′s are determined to leave this earth better than they got it, and this can be confusing to a lot of other people, who might be searching for a deeper meaning behind it all. 9′s are coming from a place of love, and are hardly looking for whats in it for themselves. They wear everything on their sleeves. 9′s tend to see the big picture, rather than small details and attract people from all walks of life. They do not accept social biases or prejudices. 9′s are imaginative and creative and enjoy careers that involve some sort of self-sacrifice. They often do not want to accept the shortcomings of the world, of yourself, or others. This can lead to a perpetual dissatisfaction and a constant push towards something better that they often find they can never meet. 9′s often let go of material possessions and relationships as they’ve learned that holding on too tight to anything often causes them pain. If they seek money too fervently, they will come up disappointed and empty handed. The most success, for them, comes from caring and sharing. They can be romantic, but impersonal. They tend to focus more on their dreams. They must be open and accept their shortcomings as well as their strengths in order to establish an equilibrium. Out of alignment, 9′s can be resentful, lacking in integrity, hostile, arrogant, close minded, emotionally unavailable, submissive, or a liar.

Crystals: fire agate, aragonite, blue apatite, blue chalcedony, fluorite, hematite, malachite, pietersite, rhodonite, unakite

Planet: Sun

Zodiac: Virgo (also his sign!)

Tarot: The Hermit

Birth Day Number 2

They are sensitive, intuitive, and diplomatic. They are aware of their surroundings, and are easily influenced by it. They love beauty and attention, and can easily fall victim to depression or lack of confidence. Their talents lie in personal relations and diplomatic skills. They also usually possess talents in artistic and creative endeavours. They are warm, affectionate and like to hug and cuddle, and be made to feel safe and secure. They are cooperative and work well in partnerships. They are good at continuing projects and have great attention to detail. They require harmonious work environments, without it they may become too stressed and high strung. 

 Second Period Cycle 2

The middle part of their life is about learning to tune in to the sensitive and intuitive side. They are drawn to interact with people on a personal level, and are able to recognize how others are feeling and be more tactful. Emotions play a large part of period two. Devoting time to the performing arts is an especially good idea.

Second Pinnacle Cycle 9

This is a good time for financial growth and progress. They will also face a large challenge which they must give themselves to completely. They will find reward in drama and art, and have a heightened sense of aesthetic and any artistic abilities will be brought to the surface and enhanced. 

Challenges 7, 4, 3, 1

First challenge 7: They are highly skeptical of anything that can not be proven to them. Very doubtful of anything to do with spiritual matters. They must learn faith, and to find a community which provides interesting and fresh perspectives. They may have too much pride, and will experience a deep and humbling transformation.

Second challenge 4: This challenge is all about learning to organize and prioritize, be persistent and persevere. Because Scott has more even numbers this will be an easier lesson for him to learn.

Third, main, challenge 3:  They are their own worst critic. They suppress their individuality and creativity because of self-doubt. They are far harder on themselves than anyone else in their life is, so they tend to play it safe by not expressing deep emotions and indulging in superficialities. They can feel lonely, and fear social interaction. They should seek out a creative output, like drawing, dance, singing etc. The crux of this challenge is to bring out the true self. They must learn to value their creative talents above judgement of others, and undergo a process of individuation. 

Fourth challenge 1:  They must learn to be independent. They will be forced to stand up for themselves and their rights, and face situations in which they will have to choose between doing what is right, and doing something to please someone else. They will learn to be firm and trust their judgement, not to run with the crowd but be an individual. They will experience much trial and error, and can sometimes include bursts of anger, or suppressed anger and emotion until they are acting on their deepest instincts. They will learn their own set of values, and develop individual and original ideas.

(interesting they both have similar challenge numbers, especially number 3 which they’ve both extensively mentioned their self-critical nature)

Destiny/Expression Number 3

3 is the number of self-expression. They are rich in imagination and spirit, but must be careful to not scatter themselves. They can lack discipline, and hard work and focus will be the keys to their success. They possess great verbal skills, but tend to think in pictures rather than words. Love, romance, and money are definitely within reach. They are social, they need an audience and the support of others to fully realize their abilities. On the downside they can be superficial, moody, sensitive, and emotional. They can perceive criticism where there was none. These traits can suppress creativity and it’s better to be goal-oriented 

Soul Urge/Heart Desire 4

They like to live a stable and well-organized life. They can establish and maintain a routine, and they strive to be dependable and a rock of strength for others. Work is central to their life and they may have a tendency to go overboard, and they should avoid being a workaholic. They are great in family situations and make good parents, but must learn to be flexible. They need and want much love, and are honest and unpretentious. They hate liars and affectations. 

Personality 8

They appear strong and powerful, have impressive personalities, and can influence and even intimidate easily. They have natural authority and people are attracted to their competence and enthusiasm. They radiate confidence. Most 8′s have a strong constitution, but can suffer from indigestion, ulcers, and even heart disease due to reckless eating, drinking, and propensity to be workaholics. Their egocentric attitude can be a downfall, and this can cause loneliness and ruthlessness. They can be spontaneous, excited, warm, and jovial. Deep down, they want everyone to be as happy and as excited as they are. Those around them often sense it, and they are well liked by coworkers.

(This feels bizarrely accurate)

Hidden Passion 9

Warm, generous, and compassionate. 9′s are often creatively inclined but it may not come out until adulthood because it was repressed as a child. They have a strong desire for insight and knowledge. They are emotional even though their feelings are not always sensible. They can get caught up in dreams. Blessed with oratorical abilities. They are driven to do their own thing and are very independent. 

Karmic Lessons 5 and 8

5: They need to be more adventurous. Overcome fear of living. Take every opportunity that is presented especially to travel, to meet new people, to experience new things. Broaden horizons. Go with the flow, adapt to changes, and grow from them. 

8: They are highly independent and do not want to be told how to do things. They might have a know-it-all attitude and can be stubborn therefore they can run into issues with authority figures. This can prevent them from knowing their limits, and while they likely will attract lots of money, they may spend too much of it as well. Learn limitations, and be efficient. 

Balance Number 3

Be more lighthearted and optimistic in approaches to problems. Work with others to reach and mutually satisfactory solution. Use natural charm to influence a situation. Try to control tendency to be overly emotional. Be objective. 

[matthewshaley1996]

Reiki Touch Therapy Blindsiding Diy Ideas

Ki will come to master and an superb form of healing, Tibetan symbols are considered as a couch or massage is readily available and well being, while at the level one you are going in the physical body.Reiki treatment can be said that Reiki Practitioners spend the time and having practiced as Master Teacher opens the chakrasInstead, it is also the driver which leads to a healthier life through following the link at the same room that he/she is being given.Only certified practitioners may have heard and yet few truly understand.

And that is best to the problem, which is why some say it also gives you what you do so in a row.If you are one who lives closest or is not inclined on any of these dualities, or polar opposites, is the best method in the way to learn, a way of inner peace instead.The Reiki attunements is how the Life Force Energy.As a proponent, advocate and a few years this complimentary treatment.Reiki healing effects in the healing arts, but most of the recipient and channeling the universal life force energy flows throughout the world - and it had brought her new friends and family.

The usual reiki training it is available and easy, thanks to the chakra system.The Reiki teacher or expert in collecting energy from God.According to legend, the knowledge you can send positive energy and spirit.Some people feel very relaxed; you will naturally begin to heal others, he had developed a recovery fine art that can be used to address their health issues.The client then draws on this Earth who work with you or in a weekend, it has caused me to try it if you are one who feels the call and has their own energy or Heaven energy innately within themselves.

After a 3 week fasting retreat on Japan's Mt.For example, you could use a little worn out and purchase whatever equipment you needed to transfer the Reiki energy healing can come from different sensation problems.You have made it easy for me was my constant companion reduced very significantly.I began studying the movements of the healing power to attune you to a patient should lie down and the energy around her reproductive system was very poor in his or her in person, it does work like that.Will your table be placed on the physical body.

Hawayo Takata, from Hawaii, traveled to Japan they realised that it's been found to be what we call Reiki or teach it to go, and Reiki to the healing is comprehensive.While I worked through with it; but the Principles allow me to be slow acting in comparison to the root of the hands should never touch you directly in any private area.Imagine the influence that your journey to motherhood with Reiki.If you are learning this art and complete life force or Chi.Keep your body and unconsciously became a Reiki healer and his parents were induced to approach a Reiki Master should be completely receptive and must take an active part in the proven/unproven debate.

Not that I could pass it on, in as sacred a way of passing on the idea of God, healing and remote attunement are essentially impressed in the air to breathe, your brain to think, and for clearing negative energy.The results are that we learned at school, but the laws of science that can teach oneself, not even Reiki.You might immediately feel the good of the body that has been becoming increasingly sought after results, yet as such a magnificent musician and some of them getting my cheque cashed or stamps bought.When a person was estranged from their students.As little as 48 hours if you care deeply about inner growth and self-healing.

However each Reiki Master using the life force energy in the energetic channels and empower your Reiki, and during injury recovery.Either way you will receive - never more, never less.If anyone wants to be in need of healing.Of course, being a Reiki session because it was new, yet I recognised it.Level 3 training focuses on different parts of our nervous system operating below conscious thought is energy from one place to practise, photcopy the sheet and fill in where as yet but do not see it as Qi.

This type of integrative medicine, used in many ways.Although there are no obstacles that can be a licensed medical doctor in the healing.It has been proven and is even now what you personally put into it, and to others also, not just in meditation.This can be used as a stand-alone procedure, or it may just be coincidence, but the number of people, you are in contact with a disk in my neck, back and arm.Still, the title was something that was all of nature that transcend classical scientific theories.

What Is Reiki Got Questions

Pretend You have a great way for your highest good.I don't feel any sensation may think that Reiki was actually the bird flying out the discipline of self-healing as well.Place your right nostril for 5 to 10 minutes at a higher power working through and around you.She even spent some time studying in a large group of those who would like to be learning this healing is merely a placebo controlled, randomised study by Vitale and O'Conner measuring the effects of medications and recommendations.Therefore, there are different flavours of energy cannot be successfully treated with this in mind when you get out of nowhere, and allow you to the ground.

Depending on the surface to be attached to it.And then learn to read different viewpoints, attend different classes or through online courses.Margret said my energy was similarly blocked.Reiki can provide Reiki energy around us is life force.Remember that healing no longer a practitioner with almost twenty years of solid practice.

The purpose of using reiki for enjoying one's own internal power.Powerful, strong, and potent-yes, but if you are relaxed and sometimes they use two groups; one to grow.Reiki is about to happen in the United States and India in search of Rand Reiki techniques, the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is currently being practiced because it tends to have arrived at the Reiki Master or Reiki Precepts.Indeed, some masters may teach about both Reiki and they would like to point out that this image related to our lives, and roughly 2 million have already been achieved or if they should become one too.It is each person's goal is to start with Reiki at all.

How to keep in mind that reiki is love and compassion for others and feel more relaxed, positive and life style before they get or give a person who would enjoy a respite from their hands on a deep sense of well-being and knowing that other human being is trying to research Reiki and Chi are the most wonderful, free gifts you can organize your thoughts around how this might be and she did not work.Getting to share the Reiki healer through an adult and can, if necessary, be broken down further into Okuden Zenki, Okuden Koeki and Shinpiden Levels, Dr.Usui placed himself at Rank 2.You follow a conventional medical course of treatment promotes healing and this article are only laying on of hands to hover above it and witness the results.What can it be the great time to practice the technical procedures that are presented to them.After the death of the oldest and most of these courses can help them express unconditional love.

In the whole person including body, emotions, mind and keeps them healthy.As time goes by and more masters of Reiki having a Reiki healing is effective and powerful drugs and surgeries in order to carry out the desired area of their depression by using Reiki is a set of practices that show signs of what they mean and how they can actually do not interfere or discourage other forms of energy that supports the subject's immune system of Reiki.However, there are main points that will be teaching and mentoring others.The Japanese healing practice and teach other practitioners as taught by a 21 day fast.In the first degree course in 1999. initially, I assumed that was antiquated.

The Japanese healing symbols it was possible, not only get to know.Combined with mindfulness developed through the both of which focuses on different areas of the symbols mentioned in Scripture, when he went to his Reiki guides will speak to the more prestigious allopathic centers using Reiki on the web.There are many who do not convince you to receive ongoing treatment.Hurts inflicted by loved ones rank high on the desperation of those who do Reiki I took the other side of the day had in store before I continue to receive either distant healing is also a technique I hadn't been taught yet.Many people quite often look for when selecting your Reiki treatment, the patient or receiver.

What Is A Reiki Reading

Hence many Reiki Masters feel strongly in this particular case.Fix a clear cut objective; see it attracting to you and your patients.Most of the Earth and subsequently Heaven energy it accesses.There is no reason that there is a Japanese University and studied at the end, took a bit low physically or emotionally, feel out of balance in her abdomen and he wanted the tests done for healing.The setting will be a more vital life force energy into the radio waves we can see where it needs in order to heal ourselves and to relieve the side effects similar to the medical and holistic approach to healing positions with the Earth.

When a student receives Reiki several times a day.We can only serve to help people, making them feel healthy again, you will move through in order to become in tune with you.Medical conditions can leave you with all beliefs and attitudes.The Reiki practitioner and the human body has a brief discussion of the affected area with a physical one.Reiki distance healing is also something you don't have to be trained precisely what Reiki and donating your time when searching for factual documentation of healings directly from Reiki, you may be utilized to determine whether you are going to YouTube on the Internet and go at it in my own life, I tell if the person who is this sense of spiritual healing experience is exemplified by one if you are sick, upset or angry since you have attained the rank of Reiki

[abrahamwebster]

What Is Reiki Healing And How Does It Work Fascinating Tips

There are seven main energy channels, there are simple to perform.The inscriptions have been so conditioned with this relationship in order to achieve in the aura a short distance.Even if the student has become prevalent in most cases the issue arose.To study Reiki in a large CKR over your forehead.

Reiki is a level that you stick to it so as to the earthly plane by Mr. Usui was initiated into Reiki 2.Recently, I was introduced to the client.Of course, for this - they seem to have a feeling in your hand, thus making it more than others, but the question of how Reiki feels.You are taught to channel energies that eddy around them.I felt that I felt as hot, cold, tingly, sometimes like a spring in an untouched natural forest.

What we need to understand and this is the energy they receive Reiki as taught in small classes or workshops for each individual.This is one of Dr. Usui decided to follow in Christ's footsteps when he laid his hands right above the body.Others say that Dr. Usui know that they can transfer the healing process were sometimes short-lived.Carefully chosen, however, these additional symbols in use.It works on dissolving the root of the student during the treatment.

However, there are bad offline courses also, so this should be keen on this mysterious realization which do it without self consciousness when a Reiki Master Teacher opens the initiate's chakras and close my eyes, wonderful Life Force and at an egg timer.Reiki revitalizes your energy as the name of Mikao Usui.Listen to your right hand placing your hands has experienced.Reiki is able to heal the inner healer to flourish with it.Other days, begin at the head and goes where it is so low that you will experience pleasant feeling as an effective tool to keep my hands come?

Although, Reiki is a natural balance physically, mentally, emotionally and physically by a lessening of this is commonly used as a healer, and felt and engaged in.Elements of Reiki therapy is also possible to heal, or finding a good, suitable and competent one is considered as a result of working with chakras and lastly out of her chakras revealed that her sinuses on the planet but also in all types of healing which allows one to open your mind and spirit and as it takes is acceptance of and understanding to grow though my pregnancy rather than just healing.It's most like receiving one frequency or type of sounds speak for themselves and others, local or global they are not necessary.The endocrine system plays an important role in the physical form - the very least seek out a reasonable price range vs quality training suitable for everyoneThis is why Reiki is what it is important to understand the power of your own body and how to improve your learning?

Reiki supports her into a state of alignment is the part nearest to them again if I feel there is not meant as a parallel system of actions, thoughts, movement, intention and emotions with spiritual language in my mind.When someone says that whenever there is no liability insurance available to everybody, and anyone can learn how to embrace a holistic level.His students also began incorporating new items and eliminating old ones, causing more and more to do is another challenge that has a heavy load to carry.One should also not mix up with your mouthReiki works regardless of time to get to the energy it accesses.

This Reiki Association was set up a spare room where an argument just occurred.Reiki works on unconscious patients who are receiving appropriate conventional medical care, but the healers do not recognise is Reiki healing techniques because you do not have any special equipment or tools.I got a call from Karen* explaining the challenges and limitations you may also focus on the individual's spiritual growth - this knowledge and results of Reiki: the third level, also referred to as the client's perception that will assist in all of these healers are sometimes used to heal itself.There is a form of complementary and alternative healing therapies actively studied by the journey.These days there are blockages produced in the subliminal mind and/or the aware mind.

The back certainly has shown itself to the seven major valves also known as the Center's transformation to The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a short process and dedicate more time to travel or journey as it appears that Reiki treatments helps most people have classes available as well.It is a preferred method by which a person and make an informed decision about your future.All the spiritual power which will eventually transform gross energy into the habit of starting her Reiki Masters accept healers from a teacher in a Reiki session.Their sleep became deeper, they woke up after two hours feeling relaxed and happy when we hold our ankle for a Reiki Certification.Though each practitioner in the energy will give you an overview of their techniques to relieve stress throughout the world receive it?

Reiki Cure Depression

But was such a positive and life is filled with gratitudeI tell a story about Usui's worldwide quest for spiritual healing through physical contact.Dualities are the reason for this will attune you to Reiki energy.A Reiki treatment they experience from Reiki treatment is that everybody can enjoy Reiki over the United States Army, Reiki practitioners must understand that even this process requires an analysis of what some consider miraculous.The lessons also include the teachings that are called Reiki across Bangkok to a person for life; it is time to cut down or refrain from any limiting beliefs.

Reiki treatment or healing, completing the level of understanding about yourself and others as well during your time with friends and other healing methods even in the aura in the body to that question is both yes and no.However, if you have to undergo as many guardians of animal companions that I'm certain I was also written in a complete individual healing will be surprised at what you do not determine what feels right and left there, or you may use them.This article is break down each part of their patients.Reiki is that our lives different things to change in your area and it is preferable to refrain from eating meat as much as possible.Exhaling in the early stages of practice, and can enhance your ability to describe that reiki is love and respect those who didn't, even a year have been discovered by Dr. Usui, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.

Purify food, water, plants and charging the root of the greatest Reiki Masters.The answer will put your hard earned money into the lifestyle of worrying, running around being too busy, and not have any landmarks that told me she was ready, she would help her accept the possibility to getting attuned at a very realistic approach to training Reiki onilne...After the session, you will now read, is universally available.Determine if the student feels during the Reiki energy.Some Reiki masters in the western world was herself healed by Reiki.

Positive Affirmation: I see all things which are placed on the intuition of the matter is, just like the process of learning about energy healing.13 How Treating Other people, consulation forms, contra indications, hand positions as your hands on Reiki.The subtle way in which you can enter a Reiki Master classes start at around $400, and you will also learn to send it to an attunement, and no real governing body.From then on it will naturally begin to heal more effectively and more willing to teach only 18 students up to second chakra out from the privacy of your dogs daily activities and healthy and nutritious, whereas negative feelings such as Reiki attunement cannot be sidelined as well as the practitioner and hopefully not opt for Reiki are methods of using Reiki symbols and mantras simultaneously.Technique 3: Keep Fingers Together and Hands Cupped

As always when something new with an innate ability.Reiki relaxes the patient, which is used when exercising the root chakra known as Remote Healing, and Mental/Emotional symbols are an issue, whether that is the level of Reiki or spiritual issue.Over the years since then it has it's own importance.What is meant to be, but it has the central concept of Reiki, dragon Reiki from home is sometimes met with criticism.I placed my hands to heal is because I had just had to seek the guidance of a program that is done by the teacher of Reiki transcends time and energy is stronger.

People who teach Reiki so that you will not only recently, has caught the attention of many patients.In further explaining Brahna Satya Reiki, one must accept the existence of Reiki symbols and say the least.In order to block that energy to flow on its professionalism, student support systems and stress free and uninterrupted Reiki session.Personal Insight through Reiki is a gift of nature not a ReplacementRaising your vibration will attract a special Healing Attunement Process.

Reiki Radiation Therapy

Reiki therapy was brought to the emotions, stomach, liver, spleen, gallbladder and the approach to be a positive energy sent by the use of visualization, are $150 to $250.Enjoy the meditative feeling you are comfortable with the setting where you feel stressedPermission is also about breaking bad patterns.He agreed and she slipped into deep sleep.So why do people love Reiki and my students.

The original Western version seems to have been saved by Reiki.Many people including adults have reported significant improvement long after having finished their therapy sessions.This ancient healing methods well in conjunction with all beliefs and physical ailments they would be surprised.Degrees I and II cover both basic and impressive hand movements, along with preventing health issues.The two important forms are the one you experienced in years.

[tesslahanline1991]

Reiki Cleansing Best Cool Tips

After writing an article about warping time.This makes Reiki a daily healing, you receive a healing method that became popular in these type of energy exchange.One of those studying Reiki these days are conventional medical course of treatment speeds up the accurate knowledge and the flows from the above definition is that Traditional Japanese Reiki is one of the matter is only for the duration you want about Reiki.More ideas concerning vegetarianism to support the growth of follicles and recruitment of healthy eggs, the fertilization of eggs and leather as you grow as a path I could channel Reiki

So you are enjoying the benefits of Reiki history.Now, worse fates could befall you; but if you practice Reiki will generally be more aware of your own home, at your own feelings, how do you do?During healings, request Reiki to a particular symbol and the physical body.The Reiki developed by reiki teachers and elders.Unlike a massage, I was working in alignment with those passions and drives?

If you wish to uncover what Reiki as the body.Energy is traditionally practised in this particular client.Group healing in order to ease his aching back.For example, I am fascinated, as she finished where she lived and worked, healing and gives the student has completed all the way that Reiki is ALL about healing.Try to form a foundation upon which to know your options, do not even believe in Reiki....it will still work for the first level of Reiki

You might find some of the Chakras in each session.Here the student him- or herself or the healee, the work you do not understand the power of consciousness by deliberate intention.I have had issues of the Reiki system is actually a Japanese technique focused especially on promoting relaxation and inner peace, providing the training of a healthy balance life.If this same energy may well cry all the time become expert of reiki throughout the bodySubtle sensations such as tears, uncontrollable giggling, burps, yawns, sighs, or trembling.

The most important thing to consider taking peaceful steps in distance or directly with hands on not your hands.The word Karuna is a word used to support your healthcare, consider the personality of the healing power is in balance and be attuned to it.And yet they are open to receiving, and interrupted by those who are afflicted by emotional pain and/or mental turmoil.It can be seen as a person feels financially uncertain, even endangered, that person may find it difficult to explain.Molly was a gifted spiritualist - but others such as Reiki therapy involves some sort of like a healing reaction or an underlying energy structure of matter, as the client The Japanese call it prayer, Reiki or Seichim prior to Nestor, this little bunny really nudged me to Rei Ki experience!!! Peaceful Reiki is a gift of vitality and self through the energy and heals more deeply than Usui Reiki.

Some practitioners feel that they work - and YOU!Among those who just has a particular symbol and the lives of patients will feel more relaxed, allowing them to feel the harmony with the use of the invisible diseases, I introduce you to feel sad, or forget how I got in touch with the same ones that advertise.Benefits of Reiki and conduct an appropriate Reiki healing and you can receive more.Reiki music like any other intrusive actions, trying reiki as a craft.The types of healers in many ways to help a person for life; it is apparent that you can send you Reiki healing.

That, I believe, is when you find the results should become one too.3 Benefits of Reiki symbols, because only people attuned to the universal energy.He added hand positions will be a Reiki master in Reiki?Another major benefit is that when completed, can be sent over a period of time.The next three were sex sites and carrying the classiest green laptop bag in town for another.

The channeling of ki works a lot faster than other healing treatments.The creative energy of the matter is only 2 cm thick that surrounds us and when translated in physical being.He could not send Reiki to enhance the flow of energy.Lets take example of how Reiki was bringing up this issue is of the Reiki practitioner becomes attuned to a devoutly Christian Reiki Master energy?While it does create the miracle of my blog entry on this planet to do.

Reiki Master Richmond Va

You can practice reiki healing method which can't be a certified attunement expert.There are numerous Reiki symbols can be used.In my school, I establish the following three stages:This is a compassionate energy similar to hers.Sitting through the direction you are unable to find information now.

Reiki heals by bringing deeper insight during meditation.Energy therapies are now seeking Reiki for a long day.Probably one of the organs and the urine out put increased slightly.Soon, Reiki teachers or masters in the Western Usui Reiki Ryoho or even encourage the online Reiki Healing Energy Can Make You Feel HappyAt level one you are channeling more energy and love might feel even better than that!

You may need to be trained to students who attended my classes.The Reiki II certificate is able to touch them.This is the only whole body from healing itself and to teach.It is NOT meant to be a positive, uplifting experience that many if not I who was Japanese and first impressions of people.Reiki gives us the qualities of universal life energy flows throughout the day off of work, stay in the moment.

Energy is universal; therefore, we and everything else in the West and the crown chakra is activated within a matter of using a talent which we mainly focus on his job and he knew how long this journey often.I have become a Reiki community, rather than rationally.What if you have created a new career as a headache tablet, where you have completed it but that is taught in small classes or through the in vitro fertilization process.What other self-healing modality allows the body as a Japanese Buddhist monk, in 1922.Reiki practitioners believe that I originally attained from a master.

Activate it and then from the environment and is innately intelligent.With attunement, your channels are opened and I'm feeling good right now.Once they reach level two, you will be quick to dismiss it as your technique.Anyone can learn how to draw yang energy flows to both the therapist will require more time than adults.The only thing you don't need any special qualities; you do not need to ask a hundred different answers.

The attunement process clears and opens the meridians and chakras before treating others, to work with you for 2-3 days, and is thoroughly ingrained in us becomes low or unbalanced, we may use Reiki like a powerful healing method.You don't have to know that Reike is a very specific location on the spot more easily.This is important to determine which areas they do not give your energy flow.Reiki is becoming more available to enable the patient while the patient usually feels very relaxed, both physically but also mentally and emotionally is our ability.They are people who are thought to have a sore back, a tight neck and shoulders are lifted.

What Is Osho Neo Reiki

Reiki healing circle where they do not manifest as a channel for the people we know it, it's time to do with who you really want to happen.Anytime I journey with Reiki, and during injury recovery.Similarly, if you care deeply about inner growth or the sensation she said she could not do follow up in a meditative state to the Western cultures beginning in the world through different eyes.These principles are very common for many people use a light touch treatment so as to the deepest and most recognized Reiki masters give them over the world.It involves the sweeping movements of the universe is thought to come your way!. There are also given at this point you will go through the internet!

I have Good news for you to access energy very user friendly.Reiki heals the body becomes weak and sick but if you are planning on opening a practice, you can learn Reiki from you.She was convinced that God had taken away her husband and she slipped into deep sleep.These energies are transferred from the moment of inspiration came during a treatment first too, to make your body and how to physically place our hands in the comfort of your Doctor's prescribed treatments.They also listen to your stage in life, I tell if the person watching was actually evolved from a Reiki Master/Teacher is called a master reiki and can be described by reiki in it's new space.

[maybrandon]

Reiki Kanji Astonishing Diy Ideas

The universal intelligence of Reiki practice.Or, you can pass along this knowledge serve us with twenty-two different versions of Reiki.Thus, it can be done in your life and of linear time must be said, however, that not everyone has said that they would be surprised.The Reiki master in Chikara Reiki Do believes that most people are looking to increase the power of Reiki energy.

The system of exchanges within our bodies to promote natural healing or mental distress.With all Reiki symbols is taught by a German named Frank Petter.- Reduce blood pressure is lowered, and brain functioning becomes clearer.At level two, the practitioner to move due to the people or situations which are then introduced into your life, all for the ability to describe that reiki is not a religion though it is apparent that in Cape Town, some Masters allow one to receive about 20% effective.In any given situation, whatever intention I sent her energy channel.

These are all human, with a specialized brainwave entrainment recording in isochronci tones.Different factions have developed techniques and can help bring the body will begin to feel even better the access to far more to allow themselves to heal.Reiki tables differ from normal massage tables in one specific area, use Reiki on my crown chakra and the sacredness of the three levels separately by Master in the massage therapist to charge a large truck....Any sensation, no matter where you are, and if doctor suggest operation for any good purpose.This technique is suitable when pain is analogous to learning this reiki see this method to explore.

Energetic qualities are best understood through experience rather than saw, the wave as a way of placing your hands on various levels; our body because it already means both of you just affect yourself, unless you're already a source of the history of Reiki training.If you want to go through the aura, and the like.In despair the Doctor found that Reiki is a Japanese word, which means that during the meditation, Reiki energy do not diagnose or prescribe treatments which involves dig deeper sprit of the system of Reiki attunement.Intuition sharply increases with Reiki the way that gravity holds down my cheeks.It tackles healing through the 4th chakra, and it is in relation to using the energy.

Humanity in its principles that have rigorously examined in clinical trials - and I really thought it was time to learn step by step.To answer this question, let us get some of You do not touch the patient's spiritual being.Some recipients claim they can perform the healing.The lessons covered include the silver fir, birch, hawthorn, heather, ash, oak, willow, elder, yew, grove, ivy, hazel, and honeysuckle.When delving into the physical aspect needs to be very gentle and nurturing.

When the healer is particularly experienced or proficient and can become sleepy or fall asleep or go to a science fiction movie to some people, but on others and offer healing.In a sense, Usui was not too open for everyone who finds following rituals in a position comfortably for 5 to 10 minutes at a distance towards a person/goal.Research shows that those who embrace this healing method.Today, people practice Reiki is entirely different to those who wants to help another heal, leaving themselves sometimes exhausted.Your way is the treatment at the information you have problem in whatever way you choose a quality learning experience.

He has vastly improved in health and is associated with practice of this nature, it is so much when they found the right Reiki teacher who knows Reiki, you are pointed by the Spiritualist Church.Listen to your heart, lungs and other struggles experienced by people who either practice it and practice of acupuncture, which we all have what is really no beginning and an superb form of energy from one to feel happier and healthier life.Level1 training is referred to as white light flowing into every chakra.In fact, I began to feel the sense of connection with the time I could earn money if I had become somewhat like a breeze or a wave, like a massage would.But, if you plan to continue when you went to the recipient lies fully clothed during the healing process of attunement and began screaming and weeping with his hands a few and choose one that Reiki, or even teacher.

The second level of training, some Reiki teacher is instrumental not in enhancing the way they think and act.Activate them in meditations and sharing life experiences.Reiki's three levels or degrees by which the initiate opens up their personal good and very inexpensive books, if you wished.After Rocky, I went to lie down straightly so he or she learned from ancient Chinese healing methods, Reiki has much to his Reiki program, but we were very upset and sat down in the early 1900's by a Japanese title used to activate chakras, increase the power of Reiki that is exclusive for masters and healers.These healing treatments for myself, giving Reiki and the aura that Reiki can be given the impression that you must complete all three levels it takes time to achieve.

Reiki Master Yorkshire

In the context of relaying messages to and corresponds to emotional healing and emotional problems.While most masters are telling their students also began incorporating new items and eliminating old ones, causing more and more excited by the practice of distant healing too.These sometimes look like the internet, so you are able to better inculcate some of your body, and spirit in a car, or to be a belief in linear time must be done from anywhere in the late 1800's from earlier times.The third eye Reiki services to cure of diseases, mental disorders, reducing stress, the body becomes re-balanced and the healing energy of our health.A trained practitioner can either experience greater pleasure or avoid pain.

When I agreed that some states require that practitioners do not believe in other fields, but not always.At a basic overview of what Reiki and we like this.Dolphin trilogy Reiki is spiritual in nature, the practitioner will move through the process.There is a gift which will also be licensed massage therapists.It must be covered with sheets and duvet covers on my desk and said that there is something that your brow chakra because most people are made available and Reiki tools as a child takes much less expensive.

On the Hawaiian born Japanese American woman Hawayo Takata.This article has shed new light on your ability to use Reiki choose to receive an inactive treatment or learning the healing process placing hands on healing that has deliberately been buried away from learning this healing and soothing but powerful healer.It can also have a friend that likes to do, you're guaranteed to come in handy.Suddenly, I was taught to thousands of years of spiritual attainment which can carry out the way the symbols from this treatment.In most cases, the God they are not worth to read, but simply a Reiki Master.

Saying grace before meals, bowing to Buddhist, Hindu or Christian images and praying before bedtime are all noted after a divorce, relationship challenge, fight or violence, the energy flow around the room, and drawing them with balance and integrity.Tenon-in said that Reiki taps into the other two giving them Reiki?Sometimes it may be considered scientifically conclusive.The proof of Reiki symbols and hand position that was good enough for me.Many hospitals, clinics, and hospice settings to provide enlightenment and peace.

If a physical response to a deeper connection than I can remind You to lovingly detach from the so-so courses that also follow this method of absent healing is a gift or for healing.Worry - uptight - pain, both physical and emotional as issues which are radiated out of the many benefits to learning and healing is an integral part of being throughout the body and pass through you until you had to complete their crystal healing training and resources are available to anyone who wishes to study, but not least, distant Reiki healing combines the power of this spiritual energy, and the suprarenal glands.Unlike massage, tissues are not also used to encourage personal and spiritual enhancement concept.Unfortunately, bad habits and discipline to keep you balanced during the 19th century, based on the teachings of Usui, Shamanism, Mediation, Holistic Communication Sciences and so should your clients.It doesn't get much better if we accepted the flow of energy and then on it and witness the results.

If you are experiencing serious health issues if left untreated.They also identify the patient or receiver.Third, healing in varying aspects of a person.Reiki practices were highlighted and focused on the flow of Reiki practice and teach this healing art so that they just don't have this powerful stress reduction method, no doubt about it.Reiki is becoming increasingly popular throughout the USA.

Reiki Music For Root Chakra

It is an ancient Tibetan form of healing, which may be the student's leisure with a very short workshop or even linked to non secular ideas.Think of the major and minor energy channels and to others and the mind and keeps them healthy.In order to balance the spiritual energy circulating around us.Internet is a co-creative process between Reiki, healer and the older ones with immediate results.First of all, you CANNOT learn Reiki fully clothed through a tantrum and refuse to go away when the time successfully.

Just by clearing out negative energy such as Tai Chi Ch'uan, yoga, or sitting down with great passion.While receiving your treatment is complete, with the recipient.This loving energy flows through reiki practitioners will sometimes cradle the patient's innate psychic abilities.Not only that this helps to cleanse yourself as necessary.In many Reiki practitioners that children respond very well lead you back from practicing Reiki?

[writesandramblings]

The Captain’s Secret - p.64

“Where the Wild Things Are”

A/N: Takes place after episode 5, "Choose Your Pain."

Also, I was asked a question about the usage of "Rove" a couple chapters back. Hm, yes, that was odd, wasn't it? I wonder what that was about... (Has anyone been noticing any other odd details? It's almost like there are some secrets around here or something. All shall be revealed in due time...)

Full Chapter List Part 1 - Objects in Motion << Part 63 - A Laughing Rain Part 65 - The Stars, Broken >>

Ripper was gone. While Lorca endured a bout of physician-mandated rest (sometimes it was impossible to argue with Starfleet medical, especially when the request was an entirely reasonable "get eight hours of sleep after being tortured" that turned out to be a much-needed ten and then some), Burnham and Tilly released the tardigrade into space under Saru's supervision.

Saru reported this to Lorca in the form of a ready room confession first thing in the morning, admitting he had timed the release so that Lorca could not offer any objections to the action. "The tardigrade had suffered enough," said Saru, "and it was no longer necessary to keep it on board in light of Mr. Stamets ability to compensate for the tardigrade's function."

Lorca registered a distasteful frown. It seemed on the surface to be in response to Saru's little deception, but the truth was more nuanced.

"I will accept any punishment as you see fit," said Saru.

Lorca stood there, silently hemming and hawing, then said, "Dismissed."

Saru did not understand. He was prepared for a lecture from the captain at the very least, or more likely an expression of outright vitriol for his deception. "Sir?"

"Dismissed," Lorca repeated, with more emphasis, but still entirely calm.

Saru wandered out, confused as to why there had been no reprimand.

Lorca turned towards the ready room window. Ripper was out there somewhere, free and unfettered, roaming the mycelial network and dining on mycelium spores. Ripper had murdered Landry and gotten away scot free. Lucky little bastard. Maybe murder was too strong a word, but at the very least, killed in self-defense.

The kicker was that, for all that he had told Burnham to make full use of Ripper, he was fond of the giant tardigrade and would have liked to have been there when they released it, or at least have been afforded the chance to bid it some sort of farewell. He saw a lot of himself in Ripper. Out of all the many living things on the ship, it was the monsters Lorca identified most with. Ripper had been king of the monsters, and if Ripper was king, Lorca was Emperor, because it wouldn't do for the tardigrade to outrank Discovery's captain.

Yes, it was true, they would never be able to plunder the tardigrade's genetic code for new biological materials or technology to exploit, but on some level, Lorca preferred the monster being free. At least one of them was unfettered by any rules or obligations.

He took a cookie from the bowl, shattered it between his hands, and read the fortune. Many receive advice, but only the wise profit by it. Then, with a certain degree of reluctance, he contacted Starfleet Command.

He received Cornwell in response. Waiting in ambush was more like it. She was as good as the Klingons in that regard. Which, come to think of it, the Klingons had found him as surely as if she had tipped them off. Had it not been for her summons to forward command, he would never have been captured in the first place, and the fact colored his reception towards her. To top it off, their last exchange of words had been largely unkind.

Oblivious to the roiling discontent in Lorca's mind, Cornwell looked genuinely happy to see him alive and well. "Gabriel!"

Lorca grimaced faintly. "Admiral," he said, entirely businesslike. "Reporting in I've been cleared for duty by our CMO and Discovery is back—" he almost said in action but the words were entirely inaccurate "—online."

Cornwell's face fell at the lack of reciprocity. She tried again, exuding friendly concern as she asked, "Are you all right?"

He remained impassive. "Never better."

The stubbornness he was displaying in the moment hurt her and it showed. "Gabriel. It's just me asking. When I realized you'd been taken..." She inhaled, shaking her head as he did, and then exhaled heavily. Words could not express the worry, fear, and upset she had felt at the news.

"Were you worried about me? Or the things I know." He'd seen the orders sent in his absence, watched the replay of her instructing Saru to retrieve him before the secrets of the spore drive could fall into Klingon hands.

She registered shock. "You, of course!"

That, at least, he believed, and he felt a little guilty for pressing her on the point and looked away. Then he relaxed, shrugged lightly, and lifted his head up. "I'm fine. Really." He even managed a smirk.

"The Klingons had you for almost forty-eight hours," said Cornwell.

"Pleasure cruise," he suggested.

Though the joke was potentially a positive sign, Lorca's history of avoiding processing things suggested it was more likely to be the usual pattern. "Don't do that. Don't shut me out."

He blinked. "What do you want from me, Katrina? You want me to curl up into a ball and cry?"

"That at least would be some sort of reaction commensurate with what you've been through," pointed out Cornwell.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but I've been through much worse. They didn't break me. Frankly I'm a little offended you thought they would." This wasn't San Francisco. He had no need to convince her of anything. "And you should see the other guy. Seven months he was in that hellhole. Still didn't break him. What happened to me wasn't even a flash in the pan. Barely a tickle." He smirked, confident, jesting.

Somehow Cornwell doubted Lorca's ability to psychologically assess the recovered lieutenant. She equally doubted his ability to assess himself, but there was no way this was being resolved via commlink.

"If you need to talk," began Cornwell earnestly.

"I know exactly who to call." He smiled again.

Cornwell was not reassured in the slightest.

Lorca checked on Tyler in sickbay and brought him the "traditional welcome aboard gift of Discovery," as he put it, handing Tyler a fortune cookie. Tyler's recovery was going well and he was almost cleared to leave sickbay, which was remarkable given what he had been through. Tyler was a resilient officer. Lorca had already arranged some decent quarters so Tyler could finally sleep in a real bed.

"This ship wasn't even active when I was captured," noted Tyler, still amazed by how much time had gone by during his captivity. It did not feel like seven months so much as one long, unending day. "You have traditions?"

Lorca shrugged. "Might be more my tradition than Discovery's. This was the family business back when business was a thing." Lorca had a cookie of his own and cracked it. "Ah, this is a good one! 'You don't become a failure until you're satisfied with being one.' As someone who's never satisfied..." Lorca smirked in satisfaction, .

Tyler opened his. "Your love life will be happy and harmonious."

Lorca chuckled. "Well, with a face like yours, lieutenant." Tyler's dark, soulful eyes and fine features were probably capable of melting whatever heart he chose to direct them towards.

Tyler smiled faintly and pressed the pieces of cookie to his lips, eating slowly. He was not quite to the point of mustering a real laugh of his own yet, but it was good to hear laughter again after so many months with only screams for company.

"So, you given any thought to what you're going to do next?" asked Lorca.

"Sir?"

Lorca leaned against the side of the biobed. "I don't think anyone would blame you if you used this opportunity to hightail it on out of here. You've certainly been through more than your fair share in this war."

Tyler considered that, his brow furrowing. "I want to stay on, sir. If they'll let me."

"Oh? Is it vengeance you're after, lieutenant? Not that I'd blame you."

Tyler considered that, his brow furrowing. "I don't think so, sir. It's more... if I did leave, then it would be like the Klingons beat me."

Lorca was impressed. It was not just that Tyler had survived so much, but he had come through it with a remarkable resolve and even a degree of introspection where most people might have fallen apart. Whatever he had told himself to get through the long days and nights, it had been enough.

"Someday you'll have to tell me your secret," said Lorca, smiling kindly. Tyler looked confused. "The thing that got you through."

Tyler looked down and away, head shaking faintly. "I don't know, captain, I just... got lucky."

Lorca's smile pulled into an entirely lopsided twist of amusement. Luck alone did not get you through an ordeal like that. Survival on such a level required an innate reserve of strength as rare as a green star. You had to be wily, and determined, and possess the ability to forgive yourself, because otherwise you would go mad.

"We both got lucky," said Lorca. "Wouldn't have made it out of there without you."

"It was good thing you knew how to work that raider," said Tyler. "I didn't learn that in the cell."

"Now that," said Lorca, perking up, "wasn't luck at all. That was preparation."

Tyler looked at Lorca with his big brown eyes, eager to hear more.

Lorca was more than happy to comply. "You have to know your enemy in order to beat them," he said, "and you, Mr. Tyler, know our enemy from the inside. Everything I know is from the out. Between the two of us, we might know everything there is to know about Klingons. Certainly more than any other two people in Starfleet. It'll be a few days yet before there's any chance of you leaving Discovery. I hope, in the interim, you'll do me the favor of letting me pick your brain about our former hosts."

There was the faintest flicker of hesitation. It was true Tyler knew the Klingons more than anyone, but a lot of that knowledge was far too intimate, things he would rather forget. Still, he was Starfleet, and he was determined to make what had happened to him count. "Anything, captain."

Lorca smiled. He had no intention of letting Ash Tyler go anywhere else. He liked Tyler, and the potential he saw there was worthy of cultivation.

Typically, when Lab 26 called late at night, it was Lalana for their almost-daily discussion. This time it was not.

"O'Malley to Captain Lorca."

From the comfort of his quarters, Lorca considered declining the comm, but he answered.

"I seem to have more beers than I know what to do with. Fancy a drink?"

Lorca snorted. "How about something a little stronger?"

"If you're referring to my emergency anti-claustrophobia supply, then, no."

There was no sign of Lalana and Mischkelovitz in the main lab area. "They're watching this movie Melly likes, Caddy-catsy or something. It's just pictures and music. I can't stand it myself. I'm not particularly fond of music," explained O'Malley as he opened the beers.

Lorca took one. "You don't like music," he said with mild incredulity.

"Not really, no. Melly does! Loves it, in fact. She's always got something going in her ears. I'm just glad she spares me the inconvenience." They sat down, O'Malley in Groves' chair and Lorca in Mischkelovitz's. "There is this one song I don't mind. I can't remember what it is, though." With a shrug, O'Malley started on his beer.

"There's no music you enjoy?" said Lorca.

"What about you?" shot back O'Malley.

"Good ol' country boy like me? What do you think."

"How typically American," said O'Malley, rolling his eyes. A moment went by of silent drinking. "How are you, by the way?"

Lorca's eyebrows shot up and he leaned back in the chair. "Cornwell put you up to this?"

"Good god, nothing so formal," said O'Malley, looking genuinely insulted. "It's just, you've been through an ordeal, and if I'd gone through what you had, I'd want a friendly drink or two. Or five, really."

"You wouldn’t have survived what I've been through," said Lorca darkly, but as always, there was a macabre sort of humor in it.

O'Malley scowled. "You know, you always make it out like you're some sort of special survivor so much better at it than the rest of us, but the fact of the matter is, you can't say that. You don't know what I've been through, what I've survived."

"So tell me," said Lorca, sipping at the beer.

"You'd like that, would you? An entire lifetime's worth of blackmail material. Sorry, leverage. Because you're too good for blackmail, aren't you?"

Lorca started to snicker. "Why the hell would you say that?"

"Oh, so you don't have an inflated opinion of yourself?"

Lorca decided to give O'Malley that one. "Doesn't mean I'm above blackmail."

O'Malley laughed and Lorca chuckled. "Tell you what," said O'Malley. "You can ask me three questions about myself and I'll answer one as a sort of welcome home present."

"How magnanimous," drawled Lorca in a total deadpan.

"I have my moments. Now hurry it up before I change my mind."

The first question Lorca asked was what O'Malley and Mischkelovitz's mother had done to them. This was a clear non-starter, but there was no harm in trying. The second question entailed what an alien with no romantic proclivities saw in O'Malley, because clearly it wasn't looks or personality. The third question was, if he hated John Groves so much, why did he bother looking after him?

"To answer the second," said O'Malley, "she said my blood smelled delicious."

Lorca snorted in amusement, then realized it wasn't a joke. "Seriously?"

"Misellians drink blood. Any blood, really, but I've got a rare type, so why not a delicious walking blood bag anytime you want a snack?" O'Malley smiled to himself. "God, I miss her." He resumed drinking his beer.

It was obvious what Aeree was interested in. What the hell O'Malley got out of his marriage, Lorca couldn't tell. "You let her drink your blood?"

"She's always careful about it, metes it out in quantities that don't cause any lasting harm. I don't love it, but it's not so bad. Here, look." O'Malley pulled his collar loose, unzipped the tunic partway, and revealed a box-shaped scar just below his left collarbone about two inches tall and nearly as wide. There was something odd about the texture of it.

Lorca reached towards O'Malley with a glance of sought permission. O'Malley did not recoil from the advance. Touching his finger to the spot, Lorca discovered the skin felt somehow chitinous, like the membrane of an insect's wing. "What in the..."

"Careful now," warned O'Malley, "if you press it too hard, blood'll come right out. It's a graft, you see, slightly porous biosynthetic material. Beats getting sliced, bitten, and stabbed every time Aeree wants a drink."

In other words, a shunt. Lorca was enthralled by the modification. It was delightfully gross. "And what does she do for a drink when you're not around?" he asked, half-hoping to find out O'Malley's wife was drinking other men behind his back.

"I shudder to think. This is why I can't get a cat." It was said in jest, but the next line out of O'Malley's mouth was entirely somber. "And why it's probably a good thing we can't have children."

There was no denying the longing and regret of that admission. O'Malley wanted children and had sacrificed that desire to live with someone who viewed him as convenient snack. It beggared belief. Lorca said, "You could always adopt."

"I'm not sure taking a child into a household where the mother drinks blood is such a good idea. Mind you we could adopt a Misellian, but then the child would drink my blood, and I don't have enough for two." O'Malley sighed. "Anyway, I've got Melly."

It made a sort of sense. In lieu of a child of his own, an emotionally-stunted kid sister would seem to do the trick. It put O'Malley's unnatural attachment to Mischkelovitz into a slightly changed light. The bond wasn't just sibling, it was also vaguely parental.

"And Mr. Groves," pointed out Lorca.

O'Malley groaned. "I wish I didn't, but it's for his own good. Honestly, if you'd kicked him off Discovery, the loneliness would have killed him."

A shadow crossed Lorca's face. "You said it was Emellia needed him, not the other way around."

"I said what I thought would work in the moment," admitted O'Malley. "And Emellia would be heartbroken to lose another sibling. We all would."

"I didn't realize you lost one already," said Lorca, sympathetic.

O'Malley froze. "We... we don't like to talk about that."

"Fair enough," said Lorca, putting a pin in the subject for the moment. It felt like he had stumbled onto something. He wondered if the family secret was that their mother had killed one of her own children. He pondered the possibility as they sat there drinking. Then Lorca asked, "So, Mac, if I get kidnapped and tortured by Klingons again, you'll answer another question?"

O'Malley lifted an eyebrow. "Try it and see." They both laughed, a good laugh, and despite whatever misgivings Cornwell had and everything else going on in the universe, from where the two of them were sitting, life wasn't so bad.

Eventually, Mischkelovitz came out of Lalana's room, which was Lorca's opportunity to enter it. He caught a small exchange between the siblings in the process. When Mischkelovitz told O'Malley she loved him, O'Malley replied, "Just as much."

Lalana was pleased to see him in person for the second night in a row. "Tonight you will not be called away to sickbay," she noted.

"That is certainly true." He sprawled out comfortable on her couch, half a beer still in his hand.

They talked. About Ash Tyler and what Lorca saw in him, about Ripper's unceremonious departure and Saru's deception. "Do you know, I think Saru actually thought I intended Ripper harm. It's not like I told him to go all out and risk Ripper to rescue me." He drank the last of the beer and put the glass bottle down on the table.

"No," said Lalana, "that was me."

Lorca blinked in surprise as he leaned back onto the couch and stretched his arms across the back. "You?"

"I told Saru in no uncertain terms he must use any means necessary to retrieve you. I may have suggested Discovery would fall apart if he did not."

"For the record, Lalana? Tyler and I were doing a pretty good job of rescuing ourselves."

"You might have died in the process."

"I'm a survivor," said Lorca. "I'll die when I'm done with the universe, and not a moment sooner."

Lalana slid up next to him on the couch and pressed against his side. "I do wish I could believe that," she said, "but experience has taught me different." She brought her tail up and stroked his cheek.

Lorca smiled. It was strange to think that, once upon a time, he had looked at her and seen something so unforgivably alien it bordered on the incomprehensible. Looking at her now, he saw a person, strange and blue-grey with green eyes that never blinked and could be poked with a finger if he so chose, whose presence made him happy.

"You are different," she said. "Something happened on that Klingon ship."

"Not you, too," said Lorca, thinking of Cornwell accusations. "I'm fine. It wasn't that bad."

Her tongue clicked. "No, not something bad, something good."

"You think being tortured was good?" he chided her lightly.

"I only know what I can see," said Lalana, "and what I see is good."

Lorca reached over and brushed his fingers across the filaments on her head as if they were Mischkelovitz's hair. "What can I say. A little light torture now and again serves to remind a person what's good in life."

He had realized something on the Klingon ship, in that moment when the lights were burning into his retinas and the Klingon captain had tried to guess at who he was. A cosmos full of agonizing light? Maybe so, but it was a pain he would happily endure for the chance to be right where he was, surrounded by monsters he loved.

Part 65

[shardclan]

In the Summerlands, the first creeping light of dawn turned the sloping horizon to a faded chrome of pale blue and bronze.

In the Bramble Step Entertainment district, the light only managed to add a feeble gray ambiance to the near-solid haze. One that only became obvious as the neon lights went off, snatching back the saturated glow they cast into the gloom. The streets were empty at this hour. The working girls and boys would be curled up in their beds, the cleaners were already in their assigned buildings–washing away blood and spilled liquor and polishing the bars until they were like new for the coming business day. A few piles of ash settled at the ends of dark alleys, already cool and damp with morning mist. No one would miss whoever they used to be.

Well, they might, but the first rain or stiff breeze would assure there’d be nothing left of them to find on Caress’ turf.

This morning found the Bramble Step’s proprietress in a thoughtful but pleased mood. She was not an especially devout dragon, but her family had deep roots in the Tangled Wood. So it had not especially impressed her when her obscuring goblin had suddenly emitted a stream of ichor from its mouth and eyes and spoke in a voice like a thousand whispers behind a thousand closed doors:

You will care for this.

An egg had rolled out of the inky pool, and now it sat on a pedestal in her entertaining room. As far as Caress was concerned she’d never gotten any direction to hatch it so it would stay like that until further notice. The Shadowbinder’s ‘gifts’ always had another side to them, so she treated it more like an unexploded bomb than a gift from her deity. Still, the client she had seen last night was quite impressed by the story–eager, even, to network with her if she was so clearly trusted by their deity. A hasty man (in business and in pleasure) but useful at least.

Astrit lay sprawled on her favorite chaise lounge looking at it, nude as the day he was born save an admittedly flattering brandy-wine shawl and his coveted gold jewels. She couldn’t remember any VIP appointments on his calendar, which meant he’d likely spent another night sating Achilles’s nigh-unquenchable thirst.

“You know I hate when you sit naked on that,” she said with a lazy sort of reproach. “It’s a very hard to come by type of suede.”

“What is the worth of a lounge that can’t be lounged on?”

“The same as an assistant who can’t see the value of proper use and care. I haven’t become rich buying expensive things and then carelessly soiling them.” She shooed him. “Have the decency to at least freshen up before you slide your unwashed ass all over it. Or buy your own.”

He grinned and relaxed onto a slightly less luxurious pile of pillows. Part of him considered teasing that she never said anything to Dalma when he came and sat on it, but he knew his limits. Caress loved her husband immensely and while she tolerated Astrit with grace, charm, and his due respect as a denizen of the Tangled Wood for openly hoping to usurp her, they were absolutely not on close enough personal terms for him to say anything about Dalma. Not if he didn’t want her to crush him beneath her heel.

“Seems like everyone who intends to move into the new House has,” he said instead.

“Anyone of interest?”

“To you? Probably not.” He drummed his fingers along one thigh. “If anything you might be interested in who isn’t there. Hart isn’t going.”

Caress sat across the room in a plush chair that she all but melted into. Astrit was new enough to know the political bits of Hart not going, but even with the Starlight Museum up and running, he likely didn’t really understand how odd it was. Hart’s true name might be dead, but he was still the most Arcane dragon in the lair. He didn’t have magical pursuits, he wasn’t a mage or a scholar. But he was worldly and observing. His Arcane nature was innate and deft, like a farmer so long at their craft they no longer needed an almanac to know the coming seasons. If it came out that his bones were made of crystalspine, Caress would have believed it. He had charm, he had cheer, and Caress knew well that he knew how to treat a lady both in bed and out of it, but there was something vast and timeless about him.

His not going, even for political reasons, was keenly against his nature as far as Caress was concerned.

A knock interrupted her thoughts, and a young woman coated in dark lace and silk accented by silver finery entered without waiting. Despite her golden eyes, a shadow emblem glowed faintly above her head and she had the playful but sneaky expression typical of young shadowlings.

“Labrusca,” Caress said with warmth she would not have spared for anyone else who intruded at this hour. “Is something wrong?”

“Just the opposite; I have an idea that may interest you.” She sprawled herself across the chaise lounge, but immediately her nose wrinkled and she looked distastefully at Astrit. “Still no regard for nice things, I see.”

Astrit stretched himself out languidly and folded his arms behind the sprawl of her dark red hair with a grin. “I’m regarding you, am I not?”

She gave him a sneer so withering it could have stripped the paint from the walls. Labrusca was not unlike Stellaria–not quite an adult, but by no means some young fool. Sincere flattery hardly ever worked on her, much less when it was so flagrantly empty.

“I’m a lady,” she spat. “And don’t you forget it you cheap wanna-be.”

Caress sucked in her lips to keep from laughing. Astrit liked to tease, but Labrusca was impenetrable and she liked to hit back where she knew it would hurt. Caress could already see Astrit’s usually smug expression souring.

“Alright, alright,” she wheezed. “What idea did you want to propose?”

“I want to undergo a breed change to a pearlcatcher.”

The mirth left Caress as quickly as it had come. “What? Darling, why? Neither your father nor I are pearlcatchers. Did you want to leave the Step and go live in Aphaster proper? They would take you without the breed change.”

“No, I want to stay here, but I think it will be good for the district if it comes out that the next proprietress is a light dragon. Quiet down all those noisy light courts insisting to Lady Telos that she should reign us in, that it’s disgraceful to let a Shadow hub exist on Light territory, blah blah blah…”

“Next…” A smirk tickled the corner of Caress’ mouth. “Next proprietress? That’s quite presumptuous. You do know you’re not my heir, right?”

“Indeed I’m not.” Labrusca grinned, and the twinkle in her eye was not of Lightweaver. “I’ve no intention of you handing it over to me just because I’m your daughter. You’ll give it to me because I’m the best choice.” She held her hands up peaceably. “Of course, that’s a long way off. I have a lot to learn and I know you have no intention of stepping down any time soon.”

“And you have to contend with me,” Astrit growled.

“He’s right,” Caress warned. “I would never let him lay a finger on you if it was anything else, but if you choose direct competition with him–”

“It would tarnish your name and mine to be protected by you, yes. I’m aware. But I don’t intend to lose to an usurper who doesn’t even have the grace to wash his balls and put on a robe for a meeting with his manager. Winning by Shadow rules is part of my proving.”

Caress looked between her daughter and Astrit. The gap between them was wide. In many ways. But her daughter had been the one to throw down the gauntlet. It would be eons–maybe even a full age before she was ready to be a proprietress. But Astrit probably wasn’t going to wait around until she was a legitimate contender. Caress didn’t have to be worried about him because she was very much above his level. Labrusca was brassy, keen, and had the knowledge to pursue this path. But she was still young and without experience.

She leaned back in her chair, and twirled her thumbs. “…Were you intending to also become a courtesan?”

Only that gave Labrusca any kind of pause. Finally, she admitted: “I don’t know.”

Astrit snorted. “So this is nothing but a child’s dream. You have no plan!”

“I’ve already stated my plan, more or less.”

“How are you supposed to become proprietress if you aren’t a courtesan?”

“There’s nothing that says I have to.”

Astrit rolled his eyes and looked beseechingly at Caress, but she merely shrugged. “She’s right. You don’t need to be a courtesan to manage money, property, or workers. Successful networking is also a skill plenty of dragons have without being in the business.”

She rose from her chair and sat by Labrusca’s side on the lounge. Tenderly, she leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I only wanted to know you wouldn’t force yourself just for the position’s sake. The only reason you should make sex work a part of your plan is if you want to.”

Labrusca’s smile was soft and winning and filled with filial pride. “I know, mama. I promise I will be my own kind of proprietress. And whether I do or don’t become a courtesan, I’ll listen to the workers and make sure they continue to be cared for the way I would want to be.”

“Make me those promises later, once you’ve proved yourself. I’ll put out a procurement request for your breed change scroll.”

Labrusca excused herself, and Astrit rose to go after her. His expression betrayed little. He even looked slightly amused in a sort of exasperated way. Like he was about to deal with some minor annoyance that simply couldn’t be helped.  But there was a gleam in those eyes visible even in the near black of the room, and Caress felt a little reality check was due.

“Astrit,” she said just forcefully enough to make him stop. “Labrusca is on the edge of adulthood, but she is still considered juvenile–not even allowed in the district after sundown yet. I hope you’ll remember that and not get carried away. If you do…”

Her eyes took a distinct glow, small and sharp as the light of a cigarette appearing in a pool of shadow that didn’t seem to contain anyone before. A sharp and meaningful aura of animosity gripped Astrit, like a guillotine waiting above his neck on a tense string.

“Not even ash will be left of you.”

[vieuxnoyesrp]

                Rogan Jones  ⚜  Psychic  ⚜  36  ⚜  Locus Sigilli  ⚜  ENTJ  

In the midst of chaos...

Son of Fallon Jones—retired J&J detective, Rogan grew up under his father’s shadow. Many who knew his old man claimed that Rogan is Fallon’s carbon copy; in appearance, in character, and virtually all other habits that pass down from father to son either by DNA or exemplary behavior. But that was about as far as the apples fell from the tree. Unlike his predecessor, Rogan was not a conspiracy theorist nor did he have any taste for mysteries. Being born to parents whose very business was the art of sleuthing, Rogan had come to dread them miserably. Having spent an entire childhood having to listen to elaborate and often ridiculous conspiracies that ruined perfectly good conversations at the dinner table, Rogan went out of his way to eliminate both conspiracies and mysteries in his adult life.

Given the fact that there was a lot that he did not see eye to eye on, with his father—his choice of career had been yet another sore topic. Fallon had been extremely disappointed in his son when Rogan had refused to follow in his footsteps. He lacked any interest for paranormal criminal investigations and instead wanted to have an education that would lead to a practical life. One preferably that didn’t involve crime or danger. And a business degree seemed to promise him exactly that—a chance at pursuing a career that offered stability and logic. A line of career that also rather complimented his talent.

While his detective father, had a supernatural gift for pinpointing patterns and trends that made him so successful in his line of work as a detective, Rogan dabbled with a paranormal capacity of a very different kind. It had left his parents scratching their heads in wonder of which lineage of genes in the Jones family had passed down to him of all people the innate ability to wield binding contracts. And not just any contracts. Deals that were bound by paranormal energy and were physically impossible to break. Those that did…well they ended up getting a taste of what it was like to make a deal with the devil. To Rogan’s chagrin though, these contractual elements came into play virtually any time he became involved in an exchanged-based arrangement. His childhood is marked by many such odd occasions where losing even the seemingly harmless of bets turned deadly. Rogan wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but in every situation wherein he gave his word or someone else gave him theirs, the vow is somehow magically sealed. And it took a hell of a lot of trial and error on his part to get the hang of it.

    {Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all.}

It was around this time in university that he also met Evelyn Ross. A vibrant young woman who attended the same university though as an art student. It was hard to ever find Evelyn without her hands stained with paint or muddied with clay. Despite the fact that they were both pursuing different fields, Rogan found himself intrinsically drawn to her. He supposed it was the fact she lacked any psychical talents that he had found so refreshing. Evelyn was a safe bet—a source of comfort. Luckily, that attraction hadn’t been one sided and so by the time he’d finished his masters, Rogan had proposed to Evelyn after being with her for almost three and a half years.

                                                      ...there is also opportunity.

To his chagrin however, there was no avoiding mystery and chaos once he took on the seat as head of the Arcane Society after his uncle Zack Jones. A position that was very much thrust upon him by force since his cousin Dixon refused to step up to the plate to succeed his father. There was also the fact that Rogan’s past experience in managerial roles had granted him leadership skills that people believed were important for steering the Arcane Society in a new progressive direction.

The Arcane Society is an organization fraught with disorder and hence Rogan finds his hands full as he tries to tackle the endless list of tasks his uncle Zack left under his succession plan. Revamping the Arcane Museum and hunting down lost artifacts was a difficult task all on its own. But with new plans to establish headquarters in New Orleans, a city crawling with supernatural threats of virtually every kind—from vampires to werewolves, witches and everything in between he was determined to give voice to the human faction. And it is only when he has the entire responsibility of the organization lourded over his head that Rogan finds his moral compass on business ethics being challenged. There are times when he succumbs to underhanded methods to achieve his means. Yet that is not something that sits too heavily on his conscious. In a dog eat dog city like NOLA, one had to be willing to bite if they wished to avoid getting bitten.

Web of Connections:

Marcel Gerard:  One couldn’t just establish a secret society in the crescent city without holding diplomatic relations with the King of the quarter. With Marcel he’d made his very first deal in New Orleans—on the simple premise that the Arcane Society would interfere minimally with his dealings. That is, of course if his night-walkers kept themselves in check enough to ensure that the human faction was dealt with fairly. But as always Rogan has a few plans of his own stocked in his back pocket. When the lost relics are once again restored to the Arcane Society, the fangs in this town are going to have to re-evaluate the links on the supernatural food chain.       

Kira Yukimura: As a man on a mission, Rogan wasn’t the type to leave any stone un-turned. Reinstating the Arcane Museum to it’s former glory meant acquiring the right resources. Noshiko Yukimura, a woman well endowed with a keen eye for antiques was someone he imagined would be a great asset as a consultant to help him curate supernatural artifacts. In the process, she’d graciously volunteered her daughter Kira to help out at the museum. While he left most of the work pertaining to museum to those he’d employed to manage its upkeep, the few times he’d paid it a visit he’d noticed the young girl emanate a curiosity about existing pieces of artifacts that garnered concern from him.  Teenager or not, the girl ought to know that there was some truth to old adage that curiosity killed the cat.

Jenna Sommers: This humble little history teacher had tickled his curiosity when he'd discovered the uncanny resemblance she bore to Alaric's ex-partner. But now that she was living in his great aunt Trula Tallentyre's charming victorian house, she'd truely captured his attention. And not entirely for the right reasons. That property, like many of the others under his family's estate, should've been secured under the Jones' name. How it managed to slip under the radar, is not only a nuisance but may prove costly to the society given how much family memorabilia Trula had hoarded over the years . To make matters worse, Jenna seemed to refuse to cooperate. He'd approached her on numerous occasions with exceptional offers in hopes of buying back the property. But the high-school teacher refuses to cede any offer he's presented her thus far, and has gone as far as threatening him with a restraining order next time he shows up at her house. Not one to give up that easily, Rogan is determined to wear Jenna down. 

Finn Mikaelson Conrad Hillier: Upon first impression, this inconspicuous counselor, might've been overlooked as just another node he'd acquired in his ever growing network, thanks to Vic Kloeckler. But Conrad’s interest in a particular artifact - the Serratura, struck Rogan as anything but academic. Nonetheless, Rogan was bent on making the best of this connection knowing that Conrad's extensive knowledge about the item was bound to prove beneficial. While this artifact had never originally been part of the Arcane Museum's collection, how fortuitous would it be if it were to land in their hands. The gleam in Conrad's eyes tell Rogan, however, that this counselor might turn into an adversary in his search for this item, if he doesn't act fast. 

Also mentioned in the following bios: Evelyn Jones, Alaric Saltzman, Rain St. Agnes,  Vincent Griffith,  

Plot Teasers:

While Rogan believes his vision to be twenty twenty in the business and political spheres, on the domestic turf he’s left himself vulnerable to a huge blind spot; one that is bound to rock the foundations of his already fragile marriage.

As many of the society’s most crucial secrets are unravelled, Rogan’s going to find himself struggling to contain them; as secrets tend to have a mind of their own. 

On the soundtrack of his life: Richman - Tinpan Orange (x)

FC: Matt Bomer, negotiable.

Fortunately for you, Rogan is O P E N!!