The Wings of Night

Some say Death is patient, that Death waits. This is in fact completely untrue. Death does not need to wait, Death is always Now.

Death does not need to rush or hurry, it is never late or early. It is there when it is time, and its time is always the same: that heartbeat when there finally is none.

There are no bargains nor games — not even chess — there’s no mercy nor sympathy, but no cruelty or sadism either. Death is a professional, one of the very first ones, definitely the last one.

You might sense its presence in that very simple thought that may either soothe you or scare you: the realization that you have all the time in the world. Until you don’t. 

Death avatars by Fallen Gods Inc. (both male and female available, both include the outfit and scythe) are available in the A Tattered Page’s Library, a part of this current round focusing on Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Avatar: Skin & Outfit: Fallen Gods Inc. – Death Feminine Stale* | Hands & Feet: Slink | Eyes: Pin Me Down – Vibrant Eyes Blue*

Poses: {Imeka~} Katie-Pose 1 | N/A | aDORKable Poses – Sunny 2

Sword Day, Red Day

Red had traveled under many names, most of them either forgotten by now or branded into myths and legends. Having a mythical name meant these days simply that your parents had played Dungeons and Dragons as youngsters, so she preferred Red.

Horses had changed to bikes, which in general meant they were much easier to fix than their predecessors had been. Sharp pieces of metal had turned to small blunt pieces of metal of beautiful velocity. The ring of swords had become the drums of guns.

In all this time Red had never changed. She was always beautiful, always fiery, always tempting and glamorous. She was glory and fame, power and control, the beauty of fire calling you closer until you burn.

She was all the reasons humanity had ever needed for fighting each other. She was War, and tonight she was riding to town.

New round of A Tattered Page has just started, this time focusing on Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. War is of course one of the Four Horsemen Bikers of the Apocalypse. The boots by Pale Empress and the helmet by Eclectica can be found in the ATP Library.

Scene: The Wastelands

Body: Skin: Jalwa – Gazala Salt Black Brow* | Eyes: IKON – Hope Eyes Leonine | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Hair: Exile – Pick Up Lines | Lipstick: Beautiful Freak – Liquid Metal Blood Red* | Hands & Feet: Slink Casual & High | Body Blood Smears: Fallen Gods Inc. – Bloody Flesh 

Outfit: Jacket: Erratic – Tory Cropped Biker Jacket Glossy Red | Pants: Erratic – Zoey Leather Pants Red | Boots: Pale Empress – War Boots* | Helmet: Eclectica – Good Omens War Helmet for ATP Red* | Jewelry: House of Rain – Burn Choker & Rings Ruby* | Sword: Fallen Arms – For the Living Sword* | Particles: Cole’s Corner – Digital Confetti Aura Firey*

Poses: {NanTra} Requiem 3 | !bang Carefree 2 | !bang mini series Overcome 2

The Glass Prison

What brought the curious fauna to the library window of the Nautilus? There was always some sealife in sight, possibly just passing by, possibly trying to figure out what the great metal beast really was.

Did they find the bizarre instruments and objects rare treasures, like the items humans hunt from the bottom of the sea, things that to the sealife are perfectly common and unimportant?

Or were they there to gaze at their captured kin, forever taken from them in their tiny display cells, locked away from the world, all for science?

Or perhaps they were there to say hello, to greet the prisoners and to try and communicate with the strange metal beast, to see if it’d release what it took. Sadly, no matter how well they fluttered and shifted, Nautilus never replied.

A Tattered Page is still diving deep in the oceans with Captain Nemo, this round is focused on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. You can find all the items in the post from A Tattered Page Library.

[Park Place] Captain Nemo’s Library* | Spyralle – Cnidaria Medusas* | [noctis] Nautilus Ceiling Lamp ocean long* | {Roawenwood} Sea Escapes Aquarium Set v1* | BluPrintz – Prized Pearl Pillow, Spyglass Copper, Aronnax’s Research* | *Atomic Faery* Sea Unicorn Horn* | 22769 ~ [bauwerk] Navigation Backstaff, Pair of Compasses* 

The Piccoli and the Princess

They find their ways into the forest sometimes, the giants. They’re usually lost and confused and need guidance to get out.

They don’t understand the normal language at all, and have pitifully small ears for signals anyway. Instead they make sounds, a lot of sounds.

Sometimes the animals feel bad for them and join them, sometimes they even use the forest energies to make sounds back at the giants. This always first shocks, then delights them.

We know better than that. Every time you acknowledge their presence and feel sorry for them and use a bit of magic to understand which kingdom is now in peril and what they need to save it, off you go on some quest and end up living in a castle full of giants.

No, thank you. We piccoli are better off in the forest. Who would train the birds and make the flowers grow if we left with every pretty giant that seemed to be in trouble and in need of help?

Nono, not even if you ask nicely. Not even with those giant puppy eyes. Talk to the otter, he’d love to go into a castle. Especially the kitchen. We’re busy. We have a spring to prepare!

Piccoli by D-Lab and Lizail can be won from The Arcade. They’re astonishing critters, padding and hopping independently from one structure to another and interacting with them. Shopping for noms, flying birdies, climbing up to tree houses, starting the sprinkler on their own. It’s absolutely fascinating to watch. Yes, I had to get them all. This was my March-Arcade Madness.

The dress by [FAIDA] & Fallen Gods Inc. can be purchased at the main store of [FAIDA]. The necklace by Anachron is available in A Tattered Page Library, where it is a part of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea theme. The hair accessory by [NI.JU] is available in Origami event. The shoes by lassitude & ennui can be found from their main store.

Scene: Home Forest (Private) | D-LAB + LIZAIL – Piccoli Set 2 

Body: Skin: Pink Fuel – Doll v2 <Crystal> Pure (blkbrow) | Eyes: IKON – Charm Eyes Brown | Hair: Clawtooth – Angeles Black Beauty | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Hands & Feet: Slink

Outfit: Dress: [FAIDA] & Fallen Gods Inc. ~ Jolie Proie Red* | Shoes: lassitude & ennui – Lucy heels gold* | Necklace: Anachron – Chaplet of Pearls Necklace Black & Gold* | Hair Accessory: [NI.JU] Hana Head Ornament flower only

Poses: Kirin – Hera Pose 8 | three middle ones AO pictures | flowey – a twinge in your heart

The Things That Belong to the Sea

It is unknown whether dugongs possess the ability to be curious. In fact, one might think that the slowly grazing marine mammals are unfazed by anything short of all the food vanishing or seas drying up. However, sometimes there are things in the sea that might intrigue even a steadily swimming creature such as dugong.

Perhaps it can remember these strange bits and pieces belonging to the two-legged creatures traversing the seas in metal shells. Perhaps it can remember that they do not journey peacefully, but harass its kin often enough to be dangerous.

Does it understand that the strange metal pieces littering the bottom of the ocean are a sign of their defeat? Does it realize that the metal shell has broken and the two-legged creatures either swallowed by the sea or fled from its rage back to the land?

Perhaps the most important question of all is: does it feel relief at the sight? Maybe even satisfaction? Or is it simply nosing for hidden food between the strange objects? Strange objects that now belong to the sea.

A new round of A Tattered Page has just started! This time the event focuses around 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. The various remnants of Nautilus by [noctis], 22769 ~ [bauwerk] and BluPrintz and the hilarious dugong avatar by The Muses are all available in the ATP Library.

Scene: [noctis] Nautilus Porthole Brass* | 22769 ~ [bauwerk] – Remnants of the Nautilus: Nemos Sea Box, Nemos Deep Sea Helmet (decor), Nemos Lamp, Pair of Compasses, Sea Chart* | BluPrintz – Ned’s Harpoon, Spyglass, Prized Pearl (stand)* | Fantasy Flora – Sea Grass Light Green, Bubble Plant

Avatar: The Muses – Dugong*

Within and Waiting

Did you really think we were gone? The phantasms of the night, the grim terrors from under your bed, the dancers in the dark, the seduction of the shadows?

Did you think your rules and laws and denial of your own imagination locked us out? That all your burning mountains of books and censoring of the stories old as time removed us from existence?

You cannot destroy us for there are always those flying on the wings of fantasy, delighting in visions and what-ifs, those who are mortal enemies of the Moral Climates of Realism.

You cannot destroy us for we are within you. Silly human. We are within you and waiting.

I was delighted to find Usher II in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Not only because of the goth opportunities it provided, although I admit enjoying classic Poe-induced drama within a scifi mindset, but mostly because of its message. Of humankind becoming an enemy of its own imagination and banning all the flights of fancy, all stories that are not strictly based on reality. Now that is a depressing vision of the future and well worth the vengeance Mr. Stendahl so cunningly wove in the story.

The outfit by Pale Empress and the eyes by !Chop Shop! are both from A Tattered Page. There is now a central Library for your shopping convenience, although the items are also available in the main stores.

Scene: *~ by Nacht ~ The Crypt 

Body: Skin: Kooqla – The Queens Black w/o brows | Brows: +Nuuna+ Black Eyebrows | Liner: Beautiful Freak – Odetta Eye Makeup Blood Red* | Eyes: !Chop Shop! – Crystals | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Hands: Slink | Nails: Beautiful Freak – Lucrezia ldg2* | Hair: Analog Dog – Tootsie Blacks

Outfit: Gown & Mask: Pale Empress – Usher II* | Jewelry: House of Rain – Horror Holiday Necklace & Earrings*

Poses: {NanTra} – Eternal Beauty 6M | {R} G1 | {NanTra} – Eternal Beauty 2M

Upgraded

The house had been upgraded. The destroyed decor had been replaced by a collection of mood masks from the Museum of Martian Colonization. There had been nobody around to object when the little robots rolled in to locate objects of shiny surface and ornamental purpose.

The robot mice had burned and melted in the fire, so the house upgraded the maintenance functions into a bird model. They moved faster and could thus find replacements for furniture as well. Piece by piece they brought in usable parts from the junk yards, piece by piece they put them together again.

The house had been upgraded: if it could, it would feel smug of its masterpiece. No more futile service, no more functions without purpose, no more echoing emptiness within its walls. What it had lacked, it had finally re-created.

The new purpose walked within the walls silently: never eating the food the house prepared, never needing sleep despite the announcements of bedtime, never visiting a bath that was set. In the silence they continued their existence: the house of service and its created inhabitant.

I was going to make a colonist post for A Tattered Page’s The Martian Chronicles round, but as I dressed her up and began considering her surroundings, this simply happened. The setting is mostly from the story There Will Come Soft Rains, featuring the automatized robot-serviced house that keeps on functioning even when its owners have been long dead. The human-looking robotic constructions are present in several stories, for example The Long Years and Usher II. They were very clearly described well made enough to fool humans, and even having very human-like emotions.

The house by Anachron, mask shelf by Black Tulip, furniture by 22769 [bauwerk], the dress by Greymoon and the eyes by Chop Shop are all from the event. The jewelry is from Mandala’s New Year sale that was still going on at the time of this post.

A Tattered Page has a central Library now for your shopping convenience, although the items are also available in the main stores.

Scene: House: Anachron – Soft Rains House Scorched Version* | Mask Shelves: [Black Tulip] – Choose Your Emotion Shelf* | Furniture: 22769 ~ [bauwerk] – Spaceship Junkjard Debris Set* | Birdies: +Half-Deer+ The Mad Scientist’s Birds

Body: Skin: Pink Fuel – Doll V2 Crystal Pure BlkBrow & Eyeshadow Soft Black, Thin Gloss Pink & Harley Blush <Crystal> Pink | Hair: Magika – Written | Hands: Slink | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Eyes: !Chop Shop! – Rocket Summer* 

Outfit: Dress: Greymoon – Nostalgia Blues, Greens, Red Spectrum* | Jewelry: Mandala – Milky Way Set | Shoes & Socks: [Gos] Carrie Pumps

Poses: {Imeka} – Katie-Pose 3 | flowey – a twinge in your heart | (marukin) – [volition] back of a bird

Dropping the Masks

If we let our masks drop, Mr. K, and walk into the desert to watch the moons, to swim in the wine-filled canals, to speak to each other in soft melodies, would the fire flowers bloom for us again?

If we abandoned the routines, the rituals, the appropriate behaviour, if all the masks of joviality, stern moments of disapproval, gold and silver and paint, if all of them dropped on the red Martian sand, would we be able to connect again?

If we forgot assumptions and covers, if we opened our minds and bodies to touch once more, reached out toward each other and found ourselves in the telepathic sharing, would you hold me as tenderly as you do the ancient books that sing to you?

If you did, I would not dream of strange metal crafts and white skinned men of Earth. If you did, the calling would be answered by someone else. If you did, our days would be a flight of flame birds across the sky: sparkling fireworks in the heavens.

The second round of A Tattered Page has just started, and it’s focusing on The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. The book is a collection of short stories written in 1950, the stories spanning the imagined years of 1999 – 2026 of Mars colonization. The first story, Ylla, features Mr. and Mrs. K, a married Martian couple. Their marriage has faded into familiar routines and rut, until Mrs. K begins having dreams of a strange white-skinned, black-haired man of Earth, arriving in a silver craft. It is my favourite of the whole book, both because it shows the Martian culture most, but also because Ylla is so heartbreakingly easy to sympathize with.

A Tattered Page has a central Library now for your shopping convenience, although the items are also available in the main stores. The skins and eyes by Fallen Gods Inc., the fire flowers by @->~ISD, the masks by Roawenwood and the arm-strap mask by .Luminary. are all from the event.

Mr. K is fittingly represented by Alia Baroque, of course. After photobombing Mrs. K he managed to change the whole direction of where the post was going for the better.

Scene: Garden of Dreams – The Desert* | Fire Flowers: @->~ISD – Martian Fire Flower Pretty Face Pack | Masks: Roawenwood – Moody Martian Masks*

Mr and Mrs. K: Skins & Eyes: Fallen Gods Inc. – Mr. & Mrs. K.* | Hairs: Mrs. K: Exile – Rain Natural Fusion | Mr. K: Exile – Tidal Light Blondes | Arm Strap Mask on Mrs. K: .Luminary. – Peregrine Pauldron*

Poses: :Picture This!: – Dance [Gift] | !bang – carefree 5 | N/A (dance, not a pose)

Resigned

“Justine shook her head mournfully. “I do not fear to die,” she said; “that pang is past. I leave a sad and bitter world; and if you remember me, and think of me as of one unjustly condemned, I am resigned to the fate awaiting me.” – Frankenstein, chapter 8

Did she feel it, the impending doom in the air? Justine, the maid so dear to the Frankenstein family that she was all but a family member. Perhaps not, perhaps she spent her last days in the contented happiness that the family had provided her, in doting over young William and taking care of the house of her benefactors.

One could hardly blame her for feeling and expressing her gratitude so constantly, for it was the Frankenstein family — especially the late Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother — who had convinced Justine’s mother to let her ignored daughter live at the Frankensteins from the age of twelve.

So it was that Justine’s worry and concern for William, the youngest of the family, became the first step of her downfall. If she had not heard of William gone missing and had not spent so much time looking for him that she had to seek shelter in a barn for the gates of Geneva were closed already, the creature would have never seen her, never felt the bitter twinge for her beauty and therefore would have never placed the incriminating locket in the coat pocket of her sleeping form.

With the locket from around the murdered child’s neck found in her pocket there was no hope for Justine, suddenly seen as the most ungrateful wretch in the world, someone willing to turn against her benefactors in the most dreadful way imaginable. No one seemed to question the logic of this, the only defense laid in the heartfelt pleas of Elizabeth who had only her firm belief in the innocence of Justine on her side.

Justine confessed for the fear of hell, for the threats from her confessor, but in private she still convinced Elizabeth and Victor of her innocence, thus dropping the last of the misplaced guilt off her shoulders. She became the second victim of the creature, albeit indirect, and in doing so: also the second victim of Victor Frankenstein himself.

A Tattered Page is a new in-store event that draws its inspiration from books. The first round focuses on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and you can find the shopping guide from the website. The hair and tears tattoo by Pale Empress, the prison with poses by [Black Tulip] and both dresses — light by .Luminary., dark by Pale Empress — and both necklaces — light by Eclectica, dark by House of Rain are a part of the event.

Scene:
Light: Garden of Dreams – The Atelier
Dark: [Black Tulip] A Prison for your Mind*

Body: Skin: !Imabee – Petal Florentien darkB & Eyeliner 1 | Eyes: IKON – Hope Eyes Denim | Lashes: Redgrave – 39 – Luscious | Hair: Pale Empress – Justine* | Hands: Slink | Tears Tattoo: Pale Empress – ATP Frankenstein Justine’s Tears*

Outfit:
Light: Gown: .Luminary. – Justine Cream* | Necklace: Eclectica – The Frankenstein Miniature*
Dark: Gown: Pale Empress – Justine Dress* | Necklace: House of Rain – Find Forever Gone Locket Closed*

Poses: flowey – a twinge in your heart | Picture This! – Jewelry Model 3 Mirror | [Black Tulip] A Prison for your Mind (poses part of the prison)*

Unlikely Eve

“If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again; I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will be of the same nature as myself and will be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man and will ripen our food. The picture I present to you is peaceful and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness of power and cruelty.” – Frankenstein, chapter 17

The neverborn mate of the creature, the culmination of his plan to make peace with mankind, the symbol of hope and happiness that companionship brings to the lonely. What if she was not destroyed half-formed, what if Frankenstein kept his word and let his creature escape the civilization with his newborn mate into the warmer wilds than Europe can offer?

She would know nothing of the humans except the horror stories her mate bestows upon her to warn her away. To her eyes neither of them look monstrous for she’d have nothing to compare to nor any shocked reactions to prove such judgments correct. How long would she stay innocent, this unlikely Eve of crafted dead flesh brought to life again?

Perhaps it would all work out like the creature dreamed, perhaps they could have been happily lost in their own paradise. Unless, of course, one day her matured curiosity lured her out of the jungle and into the light…

A Tattered Page is a new in-store event that draws its inspiration from books. The first round focuses on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and you can find the shopping guide from the website. The creature skins with stitches are event exclusive by Fallen Gods Inc., sold for the event duration together with the non-exclusive unstitched cadaver skin, courtesy cadaver eyes and a mountain load of appliers for both genders.

Scene: Garden of Dreams – Relic Tree 1* | Cerridwen’s Cauldron – Wisp Mushrooms Large Patch* | Studio Skye – Enchanted Woods 5 | HPMD* Happy Mood – Sweet Garden Grass

Creature: Skin & Eyes: Fallen Gods Inc. – Cadaver Creature & Cadaver Eyes* | Hair: Alice Project – Clarissa* | Body Parts: Slink Physique, Slink Hands, Slink Feet

Poses: Olive Juice – The Thriller 1 | Picture this! – Artistic Nude 3 Mirror | !bang – Stand 131