Post by indi on Jun 15, 2020 19:33:09 GMT -5
Hey buds!
Whew, we’ve been on a bit of an adventure lately, haven’t we? I know a lot of you have been writing me and were a little worried about how me and the others were surviving out on the road during all this madness. It just warms my Space Princess heart that so many of you care about the future of this world!
Rest assured the Family and I are taking good care of ourselves and all care packages have been greatly received!
Now, whoever keeps sending me those rude letters needs to stop!! You’re losing way too much blood for how often you write me and you get HH all riled up cause he can smell you coming. I don’t even know Hera.
It’s time for a new adventure buds, this is a personal fave of mine and I hop you guys enjoy it too, this is the story of The Coachman and his con. Will the starring heroine make it out alive or will she be turned over like so many others? Tune in and find out!
Peace, love and BlueFairy Dust friends!
Xoxo Indi
Give a bad boy enough rope, and he'll soon make a jackass of himself.
The soft glow of candle light amplified by the little glass lanterns was the only illumination for tired eyes as the starry haired wonder sat up front alongside another,The Coachman at the helm. If it were anyone else this would maybe be an odd sight to see. But the Galactic Princess has a way of making even the most obtuse surroundings comfortable. The young boy sat beside her has the kind of wide, glassy eyes that reflect the light and his innocence in one blink.
"How far?" he queried, calling out to the man who wore a wide brimmed hat atop his head, the arch of a nose, too long to truly be a nose, poking out into the shadows before them. He didn't reply and no one seemed to notice. They had gathered, one and all, into the small wagon on the promise of a Wonderland, a safe haven for their kind. Where it was all bright lights and a warm embrace, they could talk and tumble to their hearts content and all at no cost at all!
What a heavenly offer indeed.
Before the crooked, perhaps dirty in appearance and rather smelly boy who joined her up front could ask any questions. The coach ground to a halt. It was odd, it was strange. Only a mile or so back he had been so bright eyed and full of promise. Now he was mangy and tired, like a dog that had been kicked til his hind legs gave out. The Coachman showed no interest in him now. He still followed The Coachman down that barely lit road, not knowing he had already been used up along the way.
As the others ran off to enjoy the veritable playground that The Coachman had led them too, our Galactic Adventure hung back, she watched them spend themselves up until they were all but a slave to this place. They didn’t notice the flickers, the glitches. They didn’t see The Coachman rounding them up into one spot, they were hypnotized by his words and his promises. He had brought them all here to save them, he claimed. They would all be thankful for his rescue. They crowed and applauded.
"What was that?" Indi tried to tug at the sleeve of a boy dressed like a butcher, a bloody apron tied around his middle as he chased the shadows, a large cleaver in hand and his voice all but hoarse from screaming. He seemed to dance with what no longer was; he didn’t see the way the edges of this world seemed to be closing in on them all. "Look! See that?! Look at it!" Indi all but pleaded to them, but they didn’t listen. Transfixed on The Coachman and the promises that he had made.
One by one they were siphoned off, it seemed as though the more they played along. The stronger he became until they were all on the ground beneath his feet. His stature growing taller and that nose spreading and reaching, pushing out far beyond the realm that any nose could go. It was then that she saw it;
The head of a Rooster nestled on the shoulders of The Coachman.
"Stop, come back… Please. Don’t go with him. It’s not safe, it’s a lie… It was all a lie!" Indi called out, her hands grasping for anyone she could possibly reach, but her fingertips only grazed the ashes and soot of what they once were. Fuel to his fire, they fed the lie and with each adoration, he continued to grow.
"Open your eyes."
But they couldn’t see. She felt the tremble in her fingers at first, she had wanted this; she wanted to be real. No strings, no acts for another. She had come here to stand strong on her feet and instead she had followed him here; to this desolate land built up on the broken dreams of the ones he had promised to save.
"You did this!" She ran to the Coachman and knocked the hat from his head, the rubber of the mask gleaned in the low candlelight and still, the others couldn’t see. Lost in their dreams, awash in what had been promised as a Wonderland… "You said that you would save them. You said that this would be our Paradise. But you lied, you lied and you swindled. You’re not The Coachman, you’re no hero. You’re a FRAUD and a conman. I followed you, I had wanted to believe that your promise of a better future was real. But this was all for you, wasn’t it? You used them and you used me, you had me pull all hope from that boy when he stood by me. You… wanted me to become what you are, a monster.
You said that you had to do the things that helped us to the coach, as you sucked the life and soul from boy after boy, you promised us all that it would get us here, that we would be safe and sound. But you led us only to YOUR Wonderland. You never cared for them, you never wanted this to be a Wonderland."
The Coachman said nothing, his large hand lifting as though to strike her down. But he could not, as his arm moved to dispose of her, he faltered. He wanted to be the hero and the monster, he wanted to let the mask take him. Because it wasn’t just them he didn’t want to see.
"How do you make sure you never find something?" She asked the question and watched, she witnessed as the glitch pulled at the mask. A terrifying blend of man melting into rubber, thrashing between soul and soulless. Screaming with a silent, gaping mouth that slammed back into a beak.
"You lose it." she said.
**[...]**glitch***[..]**
It began to melt away, the paradise island, the promises and the mask. Little puddles around her feet and as she looked down into the murky depths of the lies that had led them here. Indi understood. It wasn’t him, no hero or fraud, no conman or master artist. He had lost him.
BRYANWILLIAMSThe CoachmanTHECHICKENMANThe CoachmanCHAMPIONLiar.Fraud.
Just a little boy. That’s all he was, a little boy in the boots of a man struggling under the weight he had loaded upon his own shoulders. As the world began to break and fragment around them, Indi reached for his hand. He had stood beside her once, he had made her feel real. He had cut the strings, she didn’t want to destroy this world, it was for all of them.
"OPEN YOUR EYES." her voice from his lips. And she did.
Foulfellow : So, Coachman, what's your proposition?
The Coachman : How would you blokes like to make some real money?
Foulfellow : [his eyes widen] Well! And who do we have to...
The Coachman : No, no, no... nothing like that. You see...
The Coachman : I'm collecting stupid little boys.
Foulfellow : Stupid little boys?
The Coachman : You know... the disobedient ones that are playing hooky from school.
Foulfellow : Oh...
The Coachman : So you see...
[leans in and whispers into Foulfellow's ear indistinctly for a while, his sidekick listens in through his opposite ear, then cleans it out with his finger so he can hear it better]
The Coachman : ... and I takes them to Pleasure Island.
Foulfellow : Ah. Pleasure Island...
Foulfellow : Pleasure Island? But the law! Suppose they...
The Coachman : No, no, no, there's no risk. They never come back... as BOYS!
The Coachman : Now, I've got a coach leaving the crossroads by midnight, see me there. And no double crossing!
Foulfellow : No sir...
The Coachman : Any prospects you find, bring them to me.
Foulfellow : Yes sir.
The Coachman : I'll pay you well, I've got plenty of gold.
”There was once a man, dark and tall. Who travelled many miles to stay in the same place. He knew nothing of the journey he would make until it was made. His feet were sore and his legs barely able to carry the body attached to them. But still he walked, until one day he fell at the feet of another. Take my hand, said the man and I will carry you home.
So tired was the man, he saw not the sickle or the scythe. It was only when the warmth in his feet became the boiling blisters of Hades flame he came to realise. The man was no savior at all; he was merely a traveller.. Trading another's soul for his own.”
The family sat around the campfire as the story was told, her voice carried on the wind. It was the rustle of the leaves in the trees, the crackle of the flames against the dry wood. The chirp of the creatures that made the grass their home and the sparkle of the stars in the sky.
"That’s what you did, who you are; Bryan Williams.
When this all began, it was with a promise, an assurance. We needed you, thats what you proclaimed, It was only you who could save the company from the treacherous butcher. A vile excuse for a man who would surely run us into the dirt. But then, then they put us together. They had us stand side by side and you sucked me into your world. You put on a great show and smiled on the other side of your face. You played nice for a night and that meant you could rest your weary head when it was done.
When the mask is stripped away and you lie your head upon your pillow, you can rest easy because you are the most dangerous of all fools. A fraud whop believes his own falsehoods. You take and you take from all around you, using their work and sweat to lift yourself to not break one of your own. Worming your way in, like a worm.
There you burrow and you bite and infect the brain with your poisonous thoughts, wriggling away at each synapse until the only message is that we need you. Hail the Chickenman, the brain says. He will save us from the clutches of the butcher, his filth ridden nails will not sink into the flesh of our company so long as he is around.
But who, Bryan, who is there to save them from you? Who among the ranks will stand tall and say no more, who will not clap when you clap? Who was always destined to bring the company to their knees only so she could help them back to their feet in earnest?"
The image of Indi Rhyder flickers onto the screen, yet its not truly her. Just the suggestion, the memory of her. Dotted between the stars, where she lies in wait. Planets shimmering like curls in her long blonde hair as she slips and slides between her own words.
An ethereal visage of the woman herself, starry eyed and galactic hair. You can feel at peace, the warmth that soothes away the unknown is like a trance. If you are lost, then you belong. If you are looking, then you have found her.
"You are the challenge, there is no biggest or most important. Because you are THE challenge, favor weighted on your side by the Championship that has remained a constant in your grasp. This is not something I view as an easy feat Bryan, but it is something I know must be done. Somewhere, in the depths of your heart where you have hidden the man behind the mask, you know what I say is true.
Just as you once felt only you could save Union, it is now me… Who must save it from you. The success and the power that has come hand in hand with that name of Champion, it has corrupted the good soul who wanted to wave away our strings. I have seen it for myself, the hesitation, the uncertainty in where the mask ends and you begin.
It is not just them that I seek to save Bryan, but you. Buried beneath wicked acts and cutting words is a man who only wanted to fight. A man who cared not for the bloodshed but for the elevation of what is already a coveted prize. But somewhere on the road, you sipped your own broth. You rubbed the snake on your skin and let the oil you peddled us seep in.
Tired to your very bones, you have taken to using the strength of others in place of your own. Do you see me now, Bryan? Not the chicken, the rooster, the coachman, the liar… But you, Bryan. Do you see me? Have you finally opened your eyes?"
Soft and blue, her eyes melt into the vast expanse. Thick l;ashes move like shooting stars across the canvas painted by the night sky of a thousand universes. A never ending horizon beyond where any eye could see and yet, she opens up the possibility of seeing the drop that comes at the end. The gift of vision, of sight.
"Open them, Bryan.
Because I have and clear as day is day and night is night, there is only one thing I see. Me, a destiny fulfilled and you, able to sleep again, at last."
**[...]**glitch***[..]**
"You can still talk?!" Roared the little boy, who stood in the boots of The Coachman.
"Please." begged the broken boy who had lost the fire in his eyes. "I don’t want to be a donkey."
"Quiet now." came the whisper of the stars. "You’ve had your fun, now it’s time to pay the price."
Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time
Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine.
Whew, we’ve been on a bit of an adventure lately, haven’t we? I know a lot of you have been writing me and were a little worried about how me and the others were surviving out on the road during all this madness. It just warms my Space Princess heart that so many of you care about the future of this world!
Rest assured the Family and I are taking good care of ourselves and all care packages have been greatly received!
Now, whoever keeps sending me those rude letters needs to stop!! You’re losing way too much blood for how often you write me and you get HH all riled up cause he can smell you coming. I don’t even know Hera.
It’s time for a new adventure buds, this is a personal fave of mine and I hop you guys enjoy it too, this is the story of The Coachman and his con. Will the starring heroine make it out alive or will she be turned over like so many others? Tune in and find out!
Peace, love and BlueFairy Dust friends!
Xoxo Indi
Give a bad boy enough rope, and he'll soon make a jackass of himself.
The soft glow of candle light amplified by the little glass lanterns was the only illumination for tired eyes as the starry haired wonder sat up front alongside another,The Coachman at the helm. If it were anyone else this would maybe be an odd sight to see. But the Galactic Princess has a way of making even the most obtuse surroundings comfortable. The young boy sat beside her has the kind of wide, glassy eyes that reflect the light and his innocence in one blink.
"How far?" he queried, calling out to the man who wore a wide brimmed hat atop his head, the arch of a nose, too long to truly be a nose, poking out into the shadows before them. He didn't reply and no one seemed to notice. They had gathered, one and all, into the small wagon on the promise of a Wonderland, a safe haven for their kind. Where it was all bright lights and a warm embrace, they could talk and tumble to their hearts content and all at no cost at all!
What a heavenly offer indeed.
Before the crooked, perhaps dirty in appearance and rather smelly boy who joined her up front could ask any questions. The coach ground to a halt. It was odd, it was strange. Only a mile or so back he had been so bright eyed and full of promise. Now he was mangy and tired, like a dog that had been kicked til his hind legs gave out. The Coachman showed no interest in him now. He still followed The Coachman down that barely lit road, not knowing he had already been used up along the way.
As the others ran off to enjoy the veritable playground that The Coachman had led them too, our Galactic Adventure hung back, she watched them spend themselves up until they were all but a slave to this place. They didn’t notice the flickers, the glitches. They didn’t see The Coachman rounding them up into one spot, they were hypnotized by his words and his promises. He had brought them all here to save them, he claimed. They would all be thankful for his rescue. They crowed and applauded.
"What was that?" Indi tried to tug at the sleeve of a boy dressed like a butcher, a bloody apron tied around his middle as he chased the shadows, a large cleaver in hand and his voice all but hoarse from screaming. He seemed to dance with what no longer was; he didn’t see the way the edges of this world seemed to be closing in on them all. "Look! See that?! Look at it!" Indi all but pleaded to them, but they didn’t listen. Transfixed on The Coachman and the promises that he had made.
One by one they were siphoned off, it seemed as though the more they played along. The stronger he became until they were all on the ground beneath his feet. His stature growing taller and that nose spreading and reaching, pushing out far beyond the realm that any nose could go. It was then that she saw it;
The head of a Rooster nestled on the shoulders of The Coachman.
"Stop, come back… Please. Don’t go with him. It’s not safe, it’s a lie… It was all a lie!" Indi called out, her hands grasping for anyone she could possibly reach, but her fingertips only grazed the ashes and soot of what they once were. Fuel to his fire, they fed the lie and with each adoration, he continued to grow.
"Open your eyes."
But they couldn’t see. She felt the tremble in her fingers at first, she had wanted this; she wanted to be real. No strings, no acts for another. She had come here to stand strong on her feet and instead she had followed him here; to this desolate land built up on the broken dreams of the ones he had promised to save.
"You did this!" She ran to the Coachman and knocked the hat from his head, the rubber of the mask gleaned in the low candlelight and still, the others couldn’t see. Lost in their dreams, awash in what had been promised as a Wonderland… "You said that you would save them. You said that this would be our Paradise. But you lied, you lied and you swindled. You’re not The Coachman, you’re no hero. You’re a FRAUD and a conman. I followed you, I had wanted to believe that your promise of a better future was real. But this was all for you, wasn’t it? You used them and you used me, you had me pull all hope from that boy when he stood by me. You… wanted me to become what you are, a monster.
You said that you had to do the things that helped us to the coach, as you sucked the life and soul from boy after boy, you promised us all that it would get us here, that we would be safe and sound. But you led us only to YOUR Wonderland. You never cared for them, you never wanted this to be a Wonderland."
The Coachman said nothing, his large hand lifting as though to strike her down. But he could not, as his arm moved to dispose of her, he faltered. He wanted to be the hero and the monster, he wanted to let the mask take him. Because it wasn’t just them he didn’t want to see.
"How do you make sure you never find something?" She asked the question and watched, she witnessed as the glitch pulled at the mask. A terrifying blend of man melting into rubber, thrashing between soul and soulless. Screaming with a silent, gaping mouth that slammed back into a beak.
"You lose it." she said.
**[...]**glitch***[..]**
It began to melt away, the paradise island, the promises and the mask. Little puddles around her feet and as she looked down into the murky depths of the lies that had led them here. Indi understood. It wasn’t him, no hero or fraud, no conman or master artist. He had lost him.
BRYANWILLIAMSThe CoachmanTHECHICKENMANThe CoachmanCHAMPIONLiar.Fraud.
Just a little boy. That’s all he was, a little boy in the boots of a man struggling under the weight he had loaded upon his own shoulders. As the world began to break and fragment around them, Indi reached for his hand. He had stood beside her once, he had made her feel real. He had cut the strings, she didn’t want to destroy this world, it was for all of them.
"OPEN YOUR EYES." her voice from his lips. And she did.
Foulfellow : So, Coachman, what's your proposition?
The Coachman : How would you blokes like to make some real money?
Foulfellow : [his eyes widen] Well! And who do we have to...
The Coachman : No, no, no... nothing like that. You see...
The Coachman : I'm collecting stupid little boys.
Foulfellow : Stupid little boys?
The Coachman : You know... the disobedient ones that are playing hooky from school.
Foulfellow : Oh...
The Coachman : So you see...
[leans in and whispers into Foulfellow's ear indistinctly for a while, his sidekick listens in through his opposite ear, then cleans it out with his finger so he can hear it better]
The Coachman : ... and I takes them to Pleasure Island.
Foulfellow : Ah. Pleasure Island...
Foulfellow : Pleasure Island? But the law! Suppose they...
The Coachman : No, no, no, there's no risk. They never come back... as BOYS!
The Coachman : Now, I've got a coach leaving the crossroads by midnight, see me there. And no double crossing!
Foulfellow : No sir...
The Coachman : Any prospects you find, bring them to me.
Foulfellow : Yes sir.
The Coachman : I'll pay you well, I've got plenty of gold.
”There was once a man, dark and tall. Who travelled many miles to stay in the same place. He knew nothing of the journey he would make until it was made. His feet were sore and his legs barely able to carry the body attached to them. But still he walked, until one day he fell at the feet of another. Take my hand, said the man and I will carry you home.
So tired was the man, he saw not the sickle or the scythe. It was only when the warmth in his feet became the boiling blisters of Hades flame he came to realise. The man was no savior at all; he was merely a traveller.. Trading another's soul for his own.”
The family sat around the campfire as the story was told, her voice carried on the wind. It was the rustle of the leaves in the trees, the crackle of the flames against the dry wood. The chirp of the creatures that made the grass their home and the sparkle of the stars in the sky.
"That’s what you did, who you are; Bryan Williams.
When this all began, it was with a promise, an assurance. We needed you, thats what you proclaimed, It was only you who could save the company from the treacherous butcher. A vile excuse for a man who would surely run us into the dirt. But then, then they put us together. They had us stand side by side and you sucked me into your world. You put on a great show and smiled on the other side of your face. You played nice for a night and that meant you could rest your weary head when it was done.
When the mask is stripped away and you lie your head upon your pillow, you can rest easy because you are the most dangerous of all fools. A fraud whop believes his own falsehoods. You take and you take from all around you, using their work and sweat to lift yourself to not break one of your own. Worming your way in, like a worm.
There you burrow and you bite and infect the brain with your poisonous thoughts, wriggling away at each synapse until the only message is that we need you. Hail the Chickenman, the brain says. He will save us from the clutches of the butcher, his filth ridden nails will not sink into the flesh of our company so long as he is around.
But who, Bryan, who is there to save them from you? Who among the ranks will stand tall and say no more, who will not clap when you clap? Who was always destined to bring the company to their knees only so she could help them back to their feet in earnest?"
The image of Indi Rhyder flickers onto the screen, yet its not truly her. Just the suggestion, the memory of her. Dotted between the stars, where she lies in wait. Planets shimmering like curls in her long blonde hair as she slips and slides between her own words.
An ethereal visage of the woman herself, starry eyed and galactic hair. You can feel at peace, the warmth that soothes away the unknown is like a trance. If you are lost, then you belong. If you are looking, then you have found her.
"You are the challenge, there is no biggest or most important. Because you are THE challenge, favor weighted on your side by the Championship that has remained a constant in your grasp. This is not something I view as an easy feat Bryan, but it is something I know must be done. Somewhere, in the depths of your heart where you have hidden the man behind the mask, you know what I say is true.
Just as you once felt only you could save Union, it is now me… Who must save it from you. The success and the power that has come hand in hand with that name of Champion, it has corrupted the good soul who wanted to wave away our strings. I have seen it for myself, the hesitation, the uncertainty in where the mask ends and you begin.
It is not just them that I seek to save Bryan, but you. Buried beneath wicked acts and cutting words is a man who only wanted to fight. A man who cared not for the bloodshed but for the elevation of what is already a coveted prize. But somewhere on the road, you sipped your own broth. You rubbed the snake on your skin and let the oil you peddled us seep in.
Tired to your very bones, you have taken to using the strength of others in place of your own. Do you see me now, Bryan? Not the chicken, the rooster, the coachman, the liar… But you, Bryan. Do you see me? Have you finally opened your eyes?"
Soft and blue, her eyes melt into the vast expanse. Thick l;ashes move like shooting stars across the canvas painted by the night sky of a thousand universes. A never ending horizon beyond where any eye could see and yet, she opens up the possibility of seeing the drop that comes at the end. The gift of vision, of sight.
"Open them, Bryan.
Because I have and clear as day is day and night is night, there is only one thing I see. Me, a destiny fulfilled and you, able to sleep again, at last."
**[...]**glitch***[..]**
"You can still talk?!" Roared the little boy, who stood in the boots of The Coachman.
"Please." begged the broken boy who had lost the fire in his eyes. "I don’t want to be a donkey."
"Quiet now." came the whisper of the stars. "You’ve had your fun, now it’s time to pay the price."
Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time
Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine.