I Resist the Muses

What is the difference between a hero and a villain?

Perspective.

If I were to point out to you a woman who lured a man away from another woman who loved him, you would think she was the villain of the story. However, were I to expand the tale and tell you how she was his wife and had managed to rekindle the man's interest in her, making him leave his mistress, suddenly she is the heroine of the tale.

Do not try and say that this differs on the larger stages of life's arena. It does not. One man's hero will always be another man's villain.

But good and evil, you might protest...

They have nothing to do with heroes and villains. Villains can do great good, even if it is unintentional. Heroes can do great evil, as well, even though their intent is pure.

The better question might be, what makes someone more human, or inhumane?

You're alone. You hear your name whispered. Who is it and what do they want to tell you?

Normally, I can hear the voices of my loved ones and personal spirit slaves most clearly in my ears. Granted I can hear the voices of the weaker spirits who clamour for attention, but they are not strong and are easy to dismiss.

This evening, however, I have put them all from my mind and am concentrating on one voice. It is weak, but soon the dybbuk will become clear in my mirror and I shall seek him out. There is a task I have for one such as him, and I will be awaiting the words, 'it is finished.'

OOC: Or at least a satisfactory night. *grin*
Caveat - discussion of plague and death if you follow the link.

The make-shift tent city was hardly anything like the mouldering huts of Haiti where the Samedi rotted happily in the eternal night, but the smell... Isabel lowered the bundle of fragrant herbs and spices that she was carrying and sniffed the air... the smell here was comparable.

Isabel is a very deadly enemy to have.

If she's not in a feeding frenzy, which are rare as she does have a strong sense of self-control, Isabel has and will kill to protect herself, her own interests, and for those she loves. In the course of doing her familial duty, she will also have people killed to underline a point, as death doesn't defeat the purpose of that when the wayward soul is chained into servitude as a wraith.

How would it happen? Isabel's preferred method is poison, although she is not adverse to using swords or guns if called to. Oh, and we can't forget exsanguination. She also will use trusted ghouls to eliminate those who need to be eliminated, generally whilst she has an iron-clad alibi at her disposal.

Isabel turned her face from his and began to walk away from her brother.

Link leads to post with adult themes. Click at your discretion.

I've many long years and many memories to examine, and many of them have been happy. The funny thing about asking about one happy moment is that they are generally tied to other moments. Much like a gentle rain fall that produces a beautiful showing of flowers afterward.

And then there are those happy moments that arrive on the wings of a tempest. In the midst of death and destruction, of reality twisting and raining fire, I found the rarest blossom of all. Forgiveness. [It is still a concept that is foreign and unfamiliar to me, but I am learning.] When Abel appeared before Caine and spoke the words 'I forgive you' I thought that he was speaking solely to his brother. Another, smarter, maybe humbler part of me grasped that Abel was speaking to Caine and all of his dark get. That smarter part of me grasped for and clung to that slender thread as the world snapped around me. I thought that I was going to die, finally die, and I knew regret as I've never tasted it before.

To say that the moment I opened my eyes and discovered my heart beating again after it had been stilled for over three centuries was one of the happiest in my life... that is just a bit of an understatement.

For 24 Hours, you're given the chance to step in and take over a company, the presidency, or something else of your choosing. What do you do with that 24 hours?

Carte blanche for 24 hours? It would be nothing earth-shattering.

( Private )

There are people I would take a bullet for and people I would like to put a bullet in.

The trouble with these sort of questions is that there is always someone, somewhere, that would use my words against me. Believe me, there is neither paranoia nor ego involved with this point of view. I do have my share of rivals and adversaries, as does anyone in a position of power and authority. It comes with the territory.

Now to answer the question set before me Yes, there are/have been a select few that I will/would have taken a bullet for over the centuries. It is a short list, but that is part of its charm.

The list of those I'd like to put a bullet in is, unsurprisingly, much longer. Although, to be perfectly honest, it would more likely be poison that I would use and not a bullet. It's neater, cleaner... and not quite so obvious.

Subtlety is the key to continued success.

It isn't what I've done, it's what I didn't do. I should have known better and acted as an elder and not as if I was watching a laboratory rat navigating a maze.

( Private )

14 February, 1889
London, England

"It will have to be returned, of course," Isabel looked at the monstrosity she held in her gloved hand.

"Why ever for?" Porzia asked her. "He seemed a perfectly nice young gentleman. It cannot hurt to accept the token."

( Isabel looked at the Valentine that her ghoul Porzia had delivered after she had awakened for the night. Only this society could take the martyrdom of a holy man and twist it into overly-sugared sentiment stripped of all human passion. )

"If your number one goal is to make sure that everyone likes and approves of you, then you risk sacrificing your uniqueness and,therefore, your excellence."

There is only one that I need make sure likes me, and that is me. If I like me, then all is well.

That said, I do strive for the approval of my elders. To displease them is akin to suicide and I have no desire to end my unlife just at the moment. The best way to keep the elders pleased? Avoid drawing their attention to you. No, really. Succeed in the tasks that they give you, accept what scant praise is bestowed and otherwise keep yourself 'off the radar' as the modern saying goes.

Be reliable, no matter how many mortals or ghouls you must sacrifice what. That is always certain to earn their approval, and they are more like to give the impossible unpleasant tasks to others that are in disfavour.

( Private )

"Any man who has the guts to sell his soul for love has the power to change the world." From Ghost Rider


That is a steep price to pay to effect change in a world where such things will eventually be forgotten.

Everything fades in its own due time. The universe moves forward, night following night, in endless procession, stretching into eternity itself. Even the stars, which seem fixed and unyielding in the vault of the heavens, move over the passage of many mortal lifetimes.

Of what value a soul, if one sells it so cheaply...

It still surprised Isabel that people thought that it didn't snow in Italy, and she listened in mild annoyance to the young American tourists as they gawked at the first flurries of the night. Of course, snow was now a huge tourist draw for the Alpine towns, bringing in life and money during the dark winter nights instead of isolation and death. It's also uglier now for all that it has lost its sinister edge, at least in the cities where it turns black from the vehicle exhaust. Black like the long grip of death in winters centuries ago when the wolves roamed the hills driven by starvation to the small lights of the villages to snatch what life they could, when fire was life for the small lives of the Children of Seth, and when travel was for armies or fools.

( A gaggle of children ran by pelting each other with snow balls... )

Comments here, please.

Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, what do you expect to find when you get there?

I suppose that I should have to believe, not that it matters, for I am here whether or not my beliefs have aught to do with it. I used to believe that the afterlife was what the Holy Mother Church taught us. After my eighth birthday celebration, I knew better. The spiriti spoke often to me, and my own mother was a sorceress, and the rest of the family... they were well schooled in the world beyond the veil.

There are three worlds beyond. There may be more, but none have yet returned to explain them. I am curious, but in no great haste to lose myself in the expedition. Eternity waits... eternity waits.

"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you."
- Maya Angelou


Oh yes there is.

Try reliving them.


Open for comments here.

An indulgence, if you will, for I prefer the sentiments that these 'lyrics' are trying to express in the following quotation:

"I believe that it may be right to love and serve one person above all others, according to merit and worth, but never to trust so much in this tempting trap of friendship as to have cause to repent of it later on."

Credit for such more aptly (and elegantly) expressed thoughts should go to Signore Baldassare Castiglione (1478 - 1529), grazie.

In any case, I have already expressed my sentiments on love and do not wish to further reflect upon them.


Linked post = NSFW

Comments welcomed here.

To give you the pauper's answer, in my time of need, it is myself that I turn to.

( Lest you think that I wish to beg off this question or that I am insufferably arrogant (which I am not, for many have told me that I am merely sufferably arrogant), I will expand on my answer. )


Comments welcomed here.

If the glowing orange light on the dashboard being shaped like a coffee pot wasn't enough of a clue, then sitting next to Ash Williams was.

Warnings: None

You wish to know of my most embarrassing moment.

( In hindsight, if I had stayed at home, listening quietly, I would have spared myself a lasting scar and an evening's embarrassment. )

Warnings: None

Comments welcomed here.

Funnily enough, the best advice that I have ever received, looking back upon it, was also the worst advice I ever received. It is just the nature of the family, I suppose.

( This advice, this wisdom of the Giovanni, as well as our folly, can be summed up in one sentence. )


warnings: none

Comments welcomed here.