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 The destroyed decor had been replaced by a collection of mood masks from the Museum of Martian Colonization.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)