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 Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:11 am
Procyon nodded, also curious as to the whereabouts of 'Phiti and Pteryx. "Perhaps they are in their chambers..." she pondered wondering which direction to go first. "Hey Dee, do you have any idea where the other Fey reside? We probably shouldn't to bursting through people's doors...It seems a bit rude." She giggled, picturing the scene in her mind. Procyon would pick the lock, and it wouldn't budge. So she'd throw her weight up against it, with Dee helping her out. As the door fell open, she could only see the pair falling into a heap on the ground. It was a funny thought, but she would rather not proceed like that.
"Where have you heard the voices coming from? Maybe we can track them down that way? I'd really like to meet some of the older Fey. Maybe they can give us some history of the Court. I would like to get as much information as possible...Being informed is a good thing."
The pair continued down the hall, Procyon's eyes darting back and forth, scanning the path and doorways for any signs of life. The castle was dark and dim, and it didn't seem like anyone lived here.
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Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:26 am
"I think we are going the correct way. Most of the voices came from this direction, though some were further away than others. You have such a good sense of direction, Procyon! I think Phiti's chambers were this way... I wonder how she's doing?" After a moment, she also thought of someone she'd like to meet - Mistress Nox. Her Kithain told her the story of her reawakening, and Mistress Nox was there to release her. Dionaea wondered where her chambers must be.
She took a few steps forward and asked Procyon as well. "Do you remember a woman named Nox, Procyon?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:19 am
"Good, well, then I suppose we'll keep going this way until you hear something. I'd have to say that my hearing isn't nearly as good as yours...I'm practically deaf compared to you!" Her voice echoed down the hallway, and she couldn't help but wonder if there were others around listening to them talk. Why didn't anyone come out and greet them? Were those of the Moon Court secretive? Were they unfriendly? Dee was certainly friendly, as well as 'Phiti. And Pteryx was nice too...She couldn't help but wonder what the others were like...
Nox. Why did that name ring a bell in her head? She couldn't quite recall the woman's face, but she could remember her long black hair. She was only a baby when she had met Nox, and Procyon sometimes felt it was difficult to remember her childhood. "Well, the name certainly is familiar. I believe my kithain also met the Majestrix when I was released from the window. The only thing I remember about her was her beautiful hair..." Procyon tried harder to put a face with the hair, but she couldn't. She imagined that the woman was very beautiful though, as she was the leader of the Moon Court from what Procyon understood.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:00 pm
Dionaea smiled. "I may hear better, but you have much better eyes, Procyon." The flytrap fey continued to follow Procyon down the corridor. She was listening, but nothing save for echoes came to her ears. Where was everyone? The silence was all but unnerving...
Dionaea had to be honest. "Procyon... do you sometimes wonder if... if we are alone in the castle? If what I have been hearing have been nothing but hallucinations?" She sometimes sat alone in her room, wondering if she was only hearing things.
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Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:45 am
Procyon smiled at Dee. "Yeah, I suppose you're right on that regard. I think it'd be nice to be able to hear better though. Maybe one day you can teach me your secrets." She giggled a bit, and continued down the stone hallway, hearing only the sound of their feet plodding along the ground.
"Hallucinations?" she asked, curious if this was really what Dee believed. "Do you really think we're here all alone? Surely Pteryx is around. I mean, we did meet her before. And of course 'Phiti has to be here somewhere. It's not like we imagined meeting them..." She thought about the potential of this for a minute, but shook her head. Procyon was a realist, and most of the time, she believed what she saw. The people she'd met seemed real enough. "Nah, I think they're real. It's just a matter of finding them."
They came to the end of the corridor, and it turned left, so Procyon decided to follow the path. After all, it was good to get out of her chambers. She had been curious about the castle, and this was as good a chance as any to explore the grounds. "Do you think we'll see any of the older Fey?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:08 pm
"I hope we can meet older Fey. I have so many questions. Why are we here? What is our purpose? I know I heard older Fey somewhere in the castle, but it seems like they might be hiding from us or something..."
Walking along being Procyon, she wondered. Were they hiding? And where was the Mistress Nox? She was sure they were around here someplace. Even if they didn't find the older Fey soon, there was always the library. Or the outdoors, too. So there was something for the both of them to do...
"Where do you suppose everyone has gotten to?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 6:16 pm
((Sorry Lu! I completely forgot about this...My bad. Totally! gonk ))
"I dunno Dee," Procyon replied, glancing down the hallway where they'd come from, wanting to see if they were being followed at all, or if there was some sign of life behind them. "It seems no one is interested in coming out at least. Maybe they're all recluse?"
Continuing to think about her desire to meet the older Fey, she scanned the dark halls for any sign of movement. Nothing. The halls were empty, and there were few adornments on the walls. "Maybe we should head outside and explore the grounds," she suggested, hoping Dee would be willing to go. "I've not been outside the castle walls at all. I think it would be good for my training to at least get a good idea of the lay of the land." Nodding her head resolutely, she headed for the staircase at the end of the hallway. "Are you coming with?" she asked as they reached the top of the stairs.
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:14 am
(( Reserved for the wrap-up of the RP. XD ))
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:25 am
I am afriad things have grown quiet here in the castle, and it disturbs me greatly. My Kithain comes through the ring every once in a while to bring news and books for me, but I have not seen anyone aside from Procyon in a great deal of time. I do not know why.
But I have immersed myself in books, and they have occupied most of my time lately, that and writing. I believe there are others here, but in this castle, solitude is abundant. I do wish to meet some of them, but they are too quiet for me to track. I wonder, do they want to be found?
Dionaea
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Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:01 pm
Reserved for solo RP. (to take up space, since I had the temp character sheet here... )
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:54 pm
The Songbird
(Compilation by Karma_K. Taken from her journal with permission. <3) Quote: The black voids of the hallways seemed to stretch forever in every direction as Melidora attempted to navigate Castellum Umbra's labyrinth of corridors and passages, half-heartedly seeking familiar faces and places.
Where WAS everyone? He seemed to remember much more bustle and activity before the curse had befallen him and now there was nobody at all. Maybe Astra had scared them all off with her primadonna tantrums when no one cared to pause long enough to hear her sing.
Or maybe she had left with their parents after he had been trapped in that blasted window. Well, what was done was done. It didn't matter and Melidora wasn't particularly one to dwell on things that couldn't be changed. He just liked to better understand HOW things had changed, that was all.
As he passed one of the arched windows, he paused to examine its sill in curiosity. Amid the dust and cobwebs was the huddled corpse of a small mouse that had, perhaps, died in the night's chilled draft.
He extended a finger and gingerly turned the tiny beast over, examining it more closely with the same sort of rapt attention a young boy might read a good book. He noted the lack of luster in its eyes, and the way its limbs had stiffened, frantically committing all he saw to memory.
His fingers itched to write and he was suddenly very annoyed at himself for not having pen and paper handy. There was nothing quite so inspiring, he found, as tragedy and death. Or both. It had been the subject of nearly all of his songs, scribbles, and poems from the time he'd been old enough to write.
Unbidden, he hummed faintly as he continued to study the dead mouse. The song was in a minor key, somewhat sporadic in beat, but without any lyrics, his youthful voice made it hold a certain sweetness.
Dionaea sighed, the deafening silence of Castellum Umbra's dead hallways only compounding her depression. Everything was so still, everything so dead and quiet. She was wandering the halls, hoping to happen upon something alive to make her feel anything but useless, but so far nothing helped her mood. She finally gave up and turned her back to the wall, pressing herself up against its cold, unforgiving surface and let herself slide down until she touched the floor.
The Flytrap pulled her knees inward, resting her head upon it. It mattered not to her if someone saw her in such an undignified position. Her depression was an ache deep in her bones. She was about to close her eyes and sink into another one of her frightful dreams, something sweet and beautiful pricked her ears. It was familiar, yet not. A sweet sensation not felt in far too long. She bolted to her feet to investigate.
The music pulled her along like a sheep to her shepard, her eyes hardly focused. It was her ears that guided her. A smile crept to her once sorrowful face as she rounded corner after corner, the sweet music becoming louder. Finally, she reached the last corner before she would find the source. Dionaea weighed the options - peek around the corner and potentially frighten the singer, or stand back and listen.
She couldn't take it.
Dionaea took a small step around the corner and swallowed her confusion at seeing a small child kneeling. A small boy was singing something so sweet? How odd. She did not want to interupt his song, and instead stood as a quiet audience, eyes closed, swaying slightly to the melody.
Melidora continued humming, completely unaware of Dionaea's presense as he tweezed the tail of the mouse between his thumb and forefinger, lifting the small body into the air to look at it from that angle as well.
To an onlooker, it might have seemed incredibly disturbing, but that was the way Meli was built -- death, to him, was one of the most beautiful puzzles offered. It was something that no one ever truly understood until it came upon them, and then they could never share their comprehension with anyone else because they would never return from it.
Meli himself did not understand death very well due to his young age, but he knew that it was powerful. And in its power, was beautiful.
Gingerly, he laid the mouse back where he'd found it, trying to adjust it so that it was in precisely the same position and location.
As though the encounter had elated him, the humming swelled into full-fledged song as he turned from the sill to continue on his way.
"And the reaper passes through the gate
To his appointed place
A realm created through bitter hate
Behind an empty face...."
...But that was an -old- song, he needed badly to write a new one.
Dionaea nodded in time with the lyrics, as if she completely agreed. Her purple hair swayed behind her. Her eyes fluttered open at the end of the first stanza to watch the small boy swell into song. Although he was moving, his song seemed to permiate every nook and cranny of the corridor. As he moved further along his course, Dionaea kept her distance, but still followed.
The music was the water of life to her, the air she needed to breathe, and there would be hell to pay if something were to take that life away from her. She crept quietly along, but remained silent, as polite as she could be. The lyrics intruiged her. He must've been a new member of the Court. Had to be. It saddened her to think that she hadn't seen anyone in a great span of time.
Like her totem, she wouldn't this one go.
Suddenly and without warning, Melidora stopped in his tracks and changed his direction back the way he'd come, the words tapering off to humming once more. He'd already been this way, he was sure. It was easy to lose your barings in a place like this, after all.
His china blue eyes were drawn to the sill once more as he passed it, but then, out of the tail of his vision, there was something else. Something that contrasted against the black and flecks of starry white of the castle.
Something rouge. He turned his head reflexively to bring whatever or whoever it was into his field of vision.
Dionaea stepped back, giving him a wide berth. She had a vast amount of respect for him, despite not even knowing his name. She backed up and leaned against the far wall, leaving herself open for inspection. That was something she rarely did, but she didn't mind his not knowing the significance of such a gesture.
The Flytrap hazarded to speak, but the last thing she wanted was a frightened young boy. It grew quiet when he stopped singing, and it pained her more than she wanted to admit. But his eyes seemed to plead for an explaination, and she would give one to him.
Her voice seemed primitive and ungainly in light of his performance. "I do hope you don't mind an audience. I couldn't help but follow you when I heard you sing. I am Dionaea. Who might you be?"
His brows shot upward as he both saw and heard the stranger nearby. There WERE others! His delight at this remained inward, though, betrayed only by a smile as he inclined his head slightly.
"I'm Melidora." he told her, following it with a gaudy sort of bow that only a performer would be capable of. While his mother had taught him the finer points of singing, his father had been the one to teach him about stage presense...and that you should always conclude a performance, no matter how bad, with a bow.
"I was starting to think there wasn't anyone else." he admitted, righting himself again. "Its as quiet as--" the grave, he nearly said "--midnight here."
Dionaea bowed her head, completely agreeing. The silence was what threw her into the black void of depression she'd been toiling in for weeks. Procyon and Pteryx were nowhere to be found, and she had all but given up hope. But this new child was polite and talented. His singing could make up for the loneliness running rampant within the castle walls.
"Indeed. It's been far too quiet for my tastes. It's been still, but never so dead. It begs me to wonder if something happened to everyone. I hear whisperings, but never see a soul anymore." she trailed off, thinking instead of the companionship she found briefly with this child.
She cocked her head a moment, smiling. "When did you arrive, Melidora?"
"Today." he answered immediately. "....or maybe it was yesterday." a hand strayed upward to scratch idly at his tawny feather-like hair. He couldn't remember. Sleep did a good job of making one lose track of time.
"Dionaea..." he murmured, trying the name out. And then, switching tracks... "You haven't seen anyone named Vates or Fidicina, have you? Or Astra?" He knew the answer would likely be no, but it was better to be disappointed than to be left wondering. If his family was still in existance, surely -someone- would have heard of them. The castle couldn't be THAT big.
If not, then he would carry on on his own. There wasn't much of a choice when you came down to it.
Dionaea shifted her weight to the other foot, hand coming up beneath her jaw line to think. None of the names sounded familiar, and she had only met a select few members of the Moon Court. But still. She remembered a voice. She always remembered a voice.
"I remember a song. Someone, a female, would sing sometimes in the night. I would stay up and listen to her, but her song was much different than yours. I don't know if that's any assistance to you, Melidora. I've only met a few of our allies."
His brow furrowed a bit as he realized that this didn't help him at all. Hm. Oh well. Perhaps he'd run across the source of said songs as he continued his wandering. Even if it wasn't one of his family, it would be interesting to meet someone with like interests.
And an open mind would be nice too. Those were hard to come by if his previous experience with his poetry readings and song performances had been an indication.
Speaking of which...
"I have other songs," he said, changing the subject once again. He didn't seem to like to linger on any one topic too terribly long. "Poems as well. If you would like, that is." A captive audience was hard to come by (even moreso if he and Dionaea were the only ones in the castle) and the attention-monger in him made itself known by the twinkle in one blue eye.
If only he had a lute, he would feel right at home. For now, he had only his voice and it would have to do.
She nodded, intruiged by his proposition. Listening to someone else, instead of her own thoughts, was a very pleasant change. Perhaps his voice could bring everyone else out of hiding too. She'd never heard poetry before, and her Kithain was never too keen on the arts. At least, none verbal. She flashed an almost childish grin. If she weren't so self-conscious in the presence of one so young, she might've jumped up and down with glee.
But no. One's elders must set an example.
"I would love to hear your poetry, Melidora. If you do not mind an audience, that is." Dionaea replied as tactifully as she could. "Are your chambers nearby? Or do you prefer to perform in hallways?"
His gold-and-blue membranous wings fluttered a bit on his shoulders at her willingness to hear. He was already pulling to mind some of his favorites that he had thought were some of his best work and that his mother had called 'brilliant', even if they HAD indirectly been the cause of two members of one of his recitals attacking one another.
As long as he could remember, his writing had had that sort of effect on people -- if they didn't shy away from it entirely, it seemed to stir feelings of anger and hatred.
But he would recite for her, yes.
"There is no wrong place to perform." he chirped. "That's what Father used to say."
Dionaea cocked her head in surprise. The curse struck when she was but a year old. She remembered next to nothing of her parents, but Melidora was one of the lucky few. Lucky, or unlucky, depending. Memory was a double-edged sword.
But she had to ask about it.
"You remember your parents? I only know my parents' names. I was far too young when we became trapped to know who they were. Were they great performers like you?"
She was prepared to follow him, should he chose a different stage. It mattered not to her. The conversation alone was her sanity's saving grace. Sometimes she wished she could be a performer, but in a way, she was. A performer in the shadows, a dancer no one could see.
The twinkle in his eye at being called a great performer gave way to a slightly wistful look as he brought the memory of Vates and Fidicina to mind.
"Mother liked to take her harp into the woods, write about what she saw and then come back and play them in the tower. Father would walk the castle and sometimes go on journeys looking for new people to perform for."
Of the two, his father had most definitely been the performer and where Melidora had picked up much of his presense from. His mother, while she took great pride in her talent for the harp, was less concerned with audiences and more concerned with perfecting her songs to her own ideals, whether it was in the presense of listeners or by herself.
"They were going to teach me and my sister, Astra, everything they knew, but..." he shrugged. He didn't need to tell her about the curse as obviously she'd gone through it herself.
Dionaea smiled inwardly. It seemed to do Melidora and his sister good to learn from their parents. She idly wondered what she would be like, had she known her parents at all. Would she have been a better spy? She smoothed her hair behind her.
"My mother was a spy and was always away from my father, but somehow they still managed to concieve." She shrugged. Really mattered not to her how she came to be, just that she was.
The flytrap Fey took a small step forward. "What sorts of songs did you learn to make from your parents?" She was truly curious. She'd heard the song of the female echoing through the walls of the castle sometimes, late at night, but she couldn't always decifer the lyrics.
Melidora's pointed ears seemed to p***k slightly with intrigue. A spy? That sounded like an interesting life. It was something he would never pursue, of course, since he had far too great of a need to let everyone in the room know that he had arrived. But it was interesting, none the less.
"My father taught me to play the lute." he explained. "Mother tried to teach me the harp, but it hurt my fingers too much. Astra learned, though. And the lute. And others, I'm sure..."
Astra had always been much more determined in her craft than he had. He sang, performed, and wrote because it pleased him. She sang, performed, and wrote because she thrived on the attention it elicted.
"Everyone loved Astra's songs," he went on. "She sang about the night, the stars, the moon, the nightingale, heroes, and everyone always wanted more."
He paused then, quirking the corner of his mouth up in a half-smile "Nobody ever wanted to hear mine. They made people angry." He then gave a shrug, as if to say What can you do? He did not give any indication of being jealous of his sister's success as a performer and his own failure, because success was in the eye of the beholder.
And if his carefully-measured words and notes alone could provoke two perfectly reasonable adults into flying at one another with their claws out, he deemed himself a success.
Dionaea raised an eyebrow. This small child had the power to evoke anger with a mere song? Such a powerful ability for one so small! But then again, each one of them had been freed of their curse being adept in something or other. But she'd never heard of such an ability. Both intruiging and frightening.
"Your songs cause anger? Does this happen with anyone who hears them, or just certain people?" She simply had to know. If mere words evoked such a response, Melidora would be quite useful in the court.
She would have to look into this Astra person. Maybe she was the one who sometimes sang in the night? She never did find the songstress. Perhaps Procyon or Mephiti would have met her.
Instead of giving Dionaea a proper answer, Melidora broke into song once more, suddenly and uninvited. It DID seem the most effective way to answer her question, after all.
He sang to her of war, of pestillence, of those who travelled by shadow, cloaked in black with their hand on a knife meant for someone's throat, of the inky ravens that would arrive to pluck the last meat from one's bones, of the silvery whites of innocent eyes still frozen wide in fright though the last breath had been stolen from their body.
All of this was delivered in a hauntingly-minor key, offset chillingly by his young voice.
A sinister smile crept to the flytrap Fey's lips. His song was chilling, chilling ot the bone. But it wasn't a fearful chill. More of a winter's cold ache, and that impressed her. Only the Moon Court bards could make death and killing sound so breathtakingly beautiful. She would always remember Melidora, his voice and his talent. He had to have met the Majestrix. If not, she would love to hear of this new development.
She bowed her head in time with the lyrics, appreciating the way his voice reverberated across the walls of stone. Her hair swung behind her with the movement of her head, barely and audible swish beneath the haunting melody.
After a few moments of polite silence, she could not help but mouth her appreciation. "Beautiful. Simply beautiful."
He reached the song's end, holding the last note out a bit longer than necessary before ceasing entirely. His chest swelled with pride at her compliment and he felt simple satisfaction. This Dionaea was a rare one...he was accustomed to people leaving in the midst of a performance or squirming uncomfortably until his poem or song had finished before telling him that it was very nice before quickly remembering someplace else that they had to be.
But this was the first time that anyone save his mother and father had told him that his music was beautiful.
"Once I find my lute, I'll start writing new songs again." he promised. "Maybe I'll have something new to show you next time we meet." He didn't doubt that would be the case. Writing songs, when he was properly inspired, only took a matter of hours. Sometimes minutes if the muse was strong enough.
"I would like that very much. I might have a thing or two for you as well, next time we meet." While she didn't have the ability to craft or recieve any sort of musical instrument (or anything remotely musical, for that matter) she could procure some writing impliments. That would be good enough, she thought, for writing poetry and song lyrics.
Dionaea flicked a piece of hair back absently. No one beyond Procyon was this friendly, that she could remember. And at least she could find him, if she so wished. His voice would give him away indefinately. Tapping her chin idly, she wondered if she could locate a lute for him. Perhaps.
"I'm sure you're acquainted with at least some of the castle? My chambers aren't too far down this hallway." Dionaea gestured to the corridor from which she came. It was one of the far doors, but relatively easy to find. "If you ever wish to have an audience, I'm always willing."
He made mental note of this, as a ready and willing audience was never something he would say no to.
"Then hopefully, I'll be able to find this hallway again." he told her, his smile broadening a notch. "I wasn't allowed to go wandering by myself when Mother and Father were here, and I'm still learning my way around. So is the one that freed me...but I think she's left now." As though to make sure of this, he cast an idle look over his shoulder and, unsurprisingly, did not see the masked foxwoman anywhere.
He wondered if she planned to return, or if she'd gone back to wherever it was she hailed from for good. He supposed it didn't matter either way as her being here would only have been the blind leading the blind anyway.
He made another flourishing bow, not of respect, but of the true flounce and flamboyancy of a bard. All he'd needed was a wide-brimmed hat with a ridiculously-large feather in it and the illusion would have been complete.
"I will sing for you again, Dionaea." he assured her. "But for now, I need to go. I have a feeling there is still a lot of walking ahead of me."
And there was no telling what there was to be found in the other windowsills either...
"If you have trouble, I can always find you. I hear most everything that goes on within the walls of this castle. I'm sure I could locate you again. Your singing would be easy to track." she explained, and chuckled slightly. She might have to try and find this Astra girl, if Melidora so desired.
She nodded in response to his bow, not wanting to imitate it for fear of embarassing herself. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Melidora." She turned slightly and stood, lingering a moment. She then began the walk back to her chambers to plot and gather up some items that may prove useful to the new Moon Court bard.
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:57 pm
Journal,
I have sent word to my Lithain to locate some gifts for the newest member of the Moon Court, Melidora. I do not know what totem he stems from, but he is birdlike in appearance and has a sister among us, Astra. I found him in my depressed wandering about the castle. I have not seen a soul in such a long time, and his voice came like a breath of fresh air.
He is not a small child, being of eight or nine years, I'd say. His voice is haunting and beautiful, and I wish to give him gifts in exchange for lifting my spirits. I hope Luciel can find me something good enough. I requested a new journal and any writing impliments she can find.
Melidora says his songs evoke anger in his audience. He sang for me, but I was unaffected. But this talent would be something the Majestrix would like to know of, if she does not know already. In the war against the Sun Court, Melidora may be a very important player.
And I think I may have found another friend.
Dionaea
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Reply
