Astral Faces

Armen Gasparian 

Puck had an uneasy feeling leaving Eve and Jupiter in the little Heaven, but in some instances he knew he could only work well on his own, and this time, time was not on their side for him to to do otherwise. The two now had Goober with them, and he trusted that between the three they could take care of the mumbling satanic four. All of the witches had conveyed their bleak biographies, but disappointingly no-one had really seemed to recall or know any important information, namely: how Romulus could be located.

And so Puck’s first port-of-call-portal was going back to Eve’s apartment house where he intended to search through Violet, Peter, Leticia and Bryan’s belongings for clues about the fiend Romulus.

* * *

Back in the real world, he had found that his golden Mercedes had been keyed - every panel was scratched with either a random occult symbol or a phallus deeply engraved in the sparkling enamel. The cartoons were the kind you see on subway walls drawn with a simplistic ball and stick design. Not wanting to attract attention to himself Puck glamoured the car to hide the damage - a short-term solution as this veil of cover would only last a few hours at best.

When he arrived he found Needles sitting out the front by the entrance, waiting for Eve’s return.

“Have you got five minutes Buddy?” said Puck gently to the forlorn Fae, who seemed to be in-absentia once again.

Pine-Needles adored Puck, and the endearment was becoming mutual. He stood up and instantly the small dwarf’s aura brightened.

“Lets take a look inside” said Puck … “we’ve got some exploring to do … and perhaps you could fill me in on what has happened here?”

Pine-Needles looked centuries younger in an instant. It had been a very long time since he had a friend that spoke kindly to him.

As they entered the building Puck could see a thousand faces or more of the demonic Romulus plastered here, there, and everywhere, up and down the entry walls. Astral signatures - similar to the medallions of old were fastened to the ceiling and floors and fixtures - and, all of these faces appeared ‘alive’, which seemed to imply there was a consciousness staring out from them - each and every one of them. Their eyes followed Puck and Needles, their noses twitched when they passed by.

The small dwarf did not seem to notice, and being an etheric soul it was quite likely that he could not perceive them at all.

“Lady Eve was with you when the white bear came through the door, and then you all disappeared.” He stopped talking, and a tear dropped from his eye. “Is she now dead?” he asked pathetically.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Cosmic Transit Lounge

Eve found herself surrounded by little children who had been waiting in a cosmic transit lounge to connect with their family members.

“Where do they go to?” she asked Goober turning to him to see him gazing above them intently.

Eve looked up too and saw high above her in the violet sky there were two ribbons of light orbiting one another. Their lines would entwine and intersect - and silvery sparks trailed from each, until a perfect and uniform helix formed, when all at once poof ! Fine points of light showered down to the horizon like the most exquisite fireworks.

“What was that?” she asked, quite amazed at the beauty of it all.

Puck did not like to say - but it was actually he and Jupiter thinking together: it's known as the dance of the lights where spirited minds come together culminating in a uni-sonic embrace so perfectly that this meeting energetically expires bright fragments all around.

“Just part of the landscape” said Puck humbly.

Jupiter looked over to him, still freshly invigorated by their meeting of minds. They both knew now what next was to be done.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Pick a Wife

Émile Vernet-Lecomte

It took less than a day for Zithia to leave the company of Tindle. He had been so hopeful about the two of them together, that he had read her all wrong: surmising that she would be amenable to his bed and care - and that as a heathen, she would welcome the protection and shelter and occupation he could offer.

However, in truth, she was terrified of him. Zithia’s mutism had become aggravated by the waves of nervousness that now possessed her - this panic poisoned her blood - and yet, amidst this confusion, she assayed just enough strength to dismount whilst they stalled at a busy feeding station.

This had not at all gone the way that Nathanius Tindle had imagined. He was too practical to see around any corners of possibility - seeing only ever what he wanted to see.

Rather than despairing, the would-be husband very quickly cut his losses, waited for the Lord’s day, and then went to the Cathedral to pick a wife from there. Three weeks later he was married and transporting his voluptuous woman back to the Fish and Chippery of Dearth and Dingle without a casual thought for the heathen he had left behind, who had nothing, and no one to protect her.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Just Peachy

“It goes like this: a peach is a peach, when it is a peach. But when its flesh has broken down and no longer cleaves to its kernel, it becomes something else.”

“So far I follow”: said Eve.

Jupiter nodded, the Goat said ‘Aye’ and Goober remained silent.

He continued: “It may smell like a peach, even though it no longer is a peach. And, at this point, its spirit has left it.”

Eve glanced left and right at her companions, looking for some conformation that the peach had a soul, or a spirit, or whatever.

“You do not have to take my word for it,” Puck interrupted himself - “How do you think it forms itself as a peach in the first place?”

“The ancients used to divide Life into two classes: animate and non-animate. That which is animated, moving, and that which is stationary, not moving - but you see that really didn’t mean much because even the non-anime have been known to have a life of their own.

“The real measure became: does the life have a soul or not? If a soul is present, there is to some extent, consciousness - there is a life within the life that is so divine that goes from the bottom to the top as it were, with an unbroken link to the cosmos - and seen or unseen, it is present in what you have before you. The soul makes all the difference as to the authenticity of that something you find before you - whether it be an object or a person, an animal or a fae - it is all about the soul - if there is no soul, it is nothing more than a ghoulish representation of what was, or what could have been.

“It could also be said that one does not desire to consume the soul of the peach, and so it is quite fitting that once you have eaten of the peach fruit for the soul to have already gone is not a bad thing that you have something a little different.

“Now added to this is something called corruption. Corruption is when the body of that thing has broken down, it becomes no more - it is dissipating, it is dissolving, because the soul is no longer there to keep the plan, the blueprint, going.

“The form has no intention of holding together as before, and although it can take a long or a little while, with corruption, it is the outer forces that enable the decay. The forces which in and of themselves are not in any way malevolent.

“The answer we are looking for is before us, within this lake - you see, this is the problem as I see it: this lake (which has been the very portal to the other worlds), has lost its soul. The soul has gone, and she, or what is left of her, is dying right before us.”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Dino Flaw

Harry Theaker

He stumbled, and then fell flat on his face - some of the dirt caught him in his eye, and his nose wept blood beneath him.

A dragon had severely cuffed the boy from the side, catching him by surprise and causing him to fall. There had been too many of these creatures multiplying: swarming both land and air, overtaking the World with their raucous hostilities and overbearing behaviours.

* * *

Everyone lied about the dinosaurs in the museums: to date they have misled us, or possibly they just do not know … but there you will find, in the corridors, or with loose bones collected - or assembled - remnants of dragons.

Yes, many of them breathed fire and flew the skies, dragons were everywhere, and now, hidden in plain sight: those which we now call dinosaurs.

Fossils, reptiles, serpents, exotic configurations, archived, displayed: a tangle of spine without the dressing, and, without the truth.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Well Well Well

“There’s a goat coming towards us … hard to tell under that sewer sludge, but I think it’s a goat.”

His curly hair was slathered in slick. He spat and stomped, and blinked rapidly.

“No luck then?” said Goober addressing the animal directly.

“Nup boss, couldn’t get him to go down the pipe - guess he’ll be stuck in Faerie then til you can get him out yurself.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Co operation, Coercion & the Unexpected

There was a universal reason for mistakes ever occurring

- for mishaps and malady, for every time a piece to the puzzle went missing - or a face went unrecognised

- when there was not enough salt, or not enough sweet

- not enough matching numbers for the lottery sweep …

yes, there was a universal reason for all things disappointing, and, that very reason befuddled all but the ants: for the ants had a propriety, giving no time for mistake or misstep, a veritable army with a singular mind … one great group of determination, currently, hurriedly, pursuing their employment, to the exclusion of all else…

“I think I should stay here forever” Tu said, patting the head of a curly haired goat that had ambled his way up beside him. “Oh but you cannot stay here forever” replied the goat matter-of-factly. “You seem like a reasonable mortal, and so surely you can see that this place is not real.”

Tu had been watching the ants as they made their way up the path upon which he sat, in a uniform line of organised precision.

“Why don’t you take a drink from the well, you look so thirsty” offered the goat quite bluntly.

“Oh no my little friend, I have done this once before and I’m not partial to the water from this well.”

The goat began to dance a little jig, jumping into the air one foot here, and one foot there. “You are a merry little thing” said Tu quite convinced there was mischief in this folly.

“Why don’t you just look into the water and see what you might see?” persisted the goat with another unwanted suggestion.

“And have you trounce me from behind? I think not” said Tu politely but firmly.

“Very well” said the goat with a half tone of anger and authority.

“I have heard though” Goat added further “that there is gold at the bottom of that well.”

“Your gold does not interest me at all” said Tu quite honestly - as it was not treasures that could tempt him in any part of the universe, let alone fairy gold, which is said to dissolve in your pocket unexpectedly and be completely unreliable.

“Perhaps if I gnaw at your feet you might think differently” said the goat quite obstinately.

Tu thought that the goat wanted the gold for himself and could persuade him to get it for him. And with that said Tu briskly picked the creature up, and dumped him into the well head first.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series