Topic: Of Art and Dreams

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2008-12-30 19:39 EST


~The Beginning~

Van Gogh once had said that he dreamed what he painted and painted what he dreamed. Such a statement was something that could easily be understood by the Dreamer. She sat before the easel, staring at that blank canvas with new eyes. Before it wasn?t so difficult to imagine what to create and paint upon that canvas? but her mind was currently as blank as the white canvas she stared at. Frown twisted her lips as fingers twisted in spidersilk and moon thread colored tendrils of hair, drawing it forward to examine even as those snow pale fingers were just as well contemplated. This flesh, this body was new to her. Memories scattered and faded.

?It will be easier soon??

Her head jerked up as if she had been slapped, looking over her shoulders swiftly with that fury that came as quick as a winter chill in the night. Cold regard was offered to the woman that leaned against the wall, fingers clasped before her.

?This is what they wanted, Christian and Morpheus required it. You should be grateful pale one, you and your sister? were chosen. You are so gifted. If only you realized.?

The woman who spoke was just as pale as the Dreamer but where the Dreamer?s eyes had been painted in shades of moon and frost, her eyes were artic blue and dangerous. It reminded the Dreamer of wolves.

?Elyiana?? The Dreamer remembered the name of this strange woman, finding her voice again? even that had changed. As delicate as a song, as tranquil as a dream? this too had changed.

?What has been done to me? Why am I here? I want to go home to be with my family? I can no longer paint. You have taken everything from me?

Defiance was a rare emotion for her to feel? she stood with the fluid grace, elegant as the most serene and lovely of creatures. It was then she noted the wings at her back. A fleeting memory of her past before she had died and then had come here, Reborn only to find that she had a twin sister that had also been reborn? one she never knew she had. All happened for a reason they said? there were things that only the sisters could do.

?Yes we have taken everything from you all that you remember but we offer you so much more, Pheus. ?

The woman stepped to the Dreamer, brushing the Dreamer?s hair away from her throat. The diamond collar was set in place, snapped in silent cry around her delicate throat. ?You belong to us now? follow me Pheus? there is something I must show you. Something that will aid you in your art? I am certain you have felt different these days, able to sense things you never sensed before. You used to dream in black in white didn?t you??

A mute nod was offered. Even in her desire to fight the Dreamer found there was no chance to injure the woman or fend off the collaring. There was no choice but to follow.

?And now, Pheus? how do you dream now??

?In color? and in? I cannot explain it. I feel so much. It is so real now.?

?Like your paintings that you dream of, and that your dreams are real??

?Yes? they have come alive??

A whisper, haunted and entranced by that change within her. The awareness that was starting to come to be? the knowledge that she could feel emotion, could see the dreams and nightmares of those around her was something that inspired her to know what else this new world had to offer her. Even trapped she would find a way to take everything she could from them and become her own Mistress.

A door was passed, a fleeting glance in as brows furrowed at the presence of a gargoyle shackled within the room seeming to be the subject of some torture and experiments. She was drawn away before she could question Elyiana their destination concluded at a covered mirror. The cloth was drawn away and Elyiana motioned Pheus towards the mirror. Snow pale hand lifted, touched upon the glass till it shimmered and moved beneath her touch. Rippling like water till the image was revealed of the woman curled at the bottom of a contraption that reminded the Dreamer of a bird cage. Blood and black feathers coated the floor around the naked form of the young woman?her features hidden by the black curtain of hair that was as dark as the night itself. It did not matter? Pheus knew the woman as easily as she knew herself.

Her twin? the sister of darkness to her light, Pheus understood then quite well that her sister was their bargaining chip. Do as they say and they?d keep her sister alive. Hatred burned coldly in her eyes before her expression was painted over in the lovely fa?ade Pheus was slowly learning how to manipulate to trick and fool those around her. It was all Smoke and Mirrors after all? and she was destined to be the Mistress of Illusion and Dreams.


?Tell me what I need to do? ?

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2008-12-30 19:41 EST


~The Art of Dreams~


Years had passed since Pheus had first been claimed as the new ?pet? and Prodigy Child to the Incarnation of Dreams and his own employer that she knew only as Christian. At first the Dreamer believed that her likeness was meant to be after the Incarnation of Dreams but then in fleeting glimpse of Christian, she knew well enough that it was in his image her new appearance had been cast. It was eerie how they almost made her appear to look like his child? a daughter to this strange man. The notion made her uneasy.

At the moment that cold temperament of the Dreamer was under control as a finely honed weapon. It was one of the few times she was honored enough to be set with her sister for the pair of them to work together. Pheus and Solah were told that they were just working on honing the craft of their abilities? but Pheus knew well enough what was really going on. Christian was the Judge and Jury? and the pair were the Executioners.

The Dreamer watched her sister as she became the Death Raven, darkness devouring her ever haunted eyes of midnight blue. Madness screamed in the mind of the Dreamer even as her visage kept ever serene. Indifferent to the situation set before her as she approached the man shackled to the table.

?Trust me? this will not hurt at all. You won?t even remember a thing. Quick and Painless.? Lies poured off her tongue as sweet seduction, tranquil comfort that would give the world the warm fuzzy feeling of reassurance. Pheus knew that day by day the Incarnations were breaking her twin? destroying her mind till the Raven had become a fragile, broken thing. It was because the Raven had resisted? and Pheus played along. Played the game better then the Master of the very game they were obligated to play.

When the Dreamer was first trained she had needed a touch, a contact of flesh to flesh in order to awaken the Empath awareness that gave her an edge, an easier access to their thoughts? and more so her victim?s dreams. Tonight though? there were no dreams, only nightmares.

She saw easily the life and thoughts of the man as she plunged into his mind, played around in his thoughts till she found the perfect paint for that canvas of dreams and nightmares. A tortured landscape the fear in his mind was? her lips curled into a smile as she withdrew the nightmare, plucked it out of his mind and whispered it into a will of life? to become reality for the man rather then fantasy.

Projected through her talents, all of them got a lovely sneak peek into the mind of their recent prisoner as it painted the room in the colors and shades of a horrible vision. All but an illusion to all but the man who saw it as so very real? the Dreamer knew very well that Fear itself could break and even kill a man.

A touch was offered to her sister?s shoulder. A fleeting brush of cold fingers against the black darkness of wings? ?Put him out of his misery, sister of mine.?

She turned as his screams turned into the terrified pleading sounds that ever would crawl around in her memories before it was silenced by a far more guttural and vicious sound. The Death Rattle again. The colors faded to nothing but the dull glow of a Soul taken and tucked away into a box? another soul handed off to the hands of the Incarnations? just another victim for the experiments that the Death Raven and the Dreamer had overcome.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-01-02 13:32 EST


~The Dream Landscape- Present Day~

The Dream Landscape had been torn away from, a shower taken after the comforting words from her sister. She was pleased that at least the Raven had her freedom and that their dues had been paid. Still she couldn?t shake the unnerving feeling that Christian and Morpheus were not quite done with her. Even without wearing their collar or being under their control she still felt their summoning and the hidden push for her spirit to answer the call.

Blood in dreams was nothing more then crimson paint that she washed away from her body. Clean of the horror of it and her mind blocking the emotions she had tapped into from the serial killer that had become the most recent experiment of the Incarnations she was tranquil again, smoke and mirror eyes touched with worry as she opened the window and sat upon the sill to stare out at the wintery sky and the night itself.

The cold soothed her even as she brushed out the tangles from her hair. She figured well enough that the Nightmare that had become a Masterpiece in her mind from touching the mind of a killer would leave its taint upon her spirit. Truth be told Christian seemed pleased with her recent ?work? the newest piece of art? but Pheus was finding more that she appreciated the kohl smudges of art that her own hands created rather then her minds and her own subtle ?talents?.

Her eyes searched the night even as her mind touched on thoughts of tendrils of torment and men that were circled like caged animals. Her sister, herself, the shade and the beast they were not simple visions of a carnival sideshow and the fact that some of them were treated as such was infuriating to her. At least for now the Death Raven had been freed. Even the Dreamer was freed from collar? but still she did not feel so freed from obligations and duties. There was still torments to soothe, and beasts to still the madness within.

Not so easy tasks? but then the Dreamer had been destined to walk amongst far deeper emotions, far crueler paths. Emotions were not art? but emotions for the Dreamer well these? were just fragile things? that just made her all the more breakable.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-01-07 17:22 EST
The Dreamer heard the music even before she had opened the door to enter into her room. A haunting melody that was as beautiful as it was tragic. She was far too familiar with the melody and it tore at the fabric of her spirit and near brought tears to her eyes. Pale hand touched upon the aged wood of the door to her room before she brought it open and stepped within silently.

As expected as Darkness in evening hours there was the Raven at the piano the Dreamer kept in her room especially for the Raven. Pheus once knew better then any of the inner torments that the Raven dealt with and was haunted by in those dark hours, but anymore all Pheus could sense from her Twin was the making of inner tranquility. That more then anything was probably due to the companionship of Darkmere and her bond to the Fallen One, which kept Pheus with an eternal debt of gratitude towards the pair? truth be told they offered her quite a relief of weight from her shoulders as mentor and family to her in her own right.

Still the Dreamer knew well that the Raven would always be the Death Raven deep down. One could forgive the past but not forget it. However tonight, the Raven played that melody for the Dreamer. A quiet sigh and her arms encircled her sister in a way to not disturb her playing, burying her nose into Orchid and Ember smell of the Raven?s hair. If anything the Dreamer felt soul weary, carrying the imprint of emotions from a stranger after a kiss from the unknown man? then that revelation of affection from the Shade? all to spiral back to Elias and his own tormented nightmares.

?Thank you, sister.?

A whisper exhaled as the song ended and the Dreamer released the embrace of the Raven to sit in a chair across from the piano stool. That typical Avian tilt of head and ink blot intensity of the Raven?s eyes set upon her Twin as the pair regarded each other in silent communication. Sister Light and Sister Dark. Pheus did so envy her sister?s happiness and comfort. Solah had loved and lost and yearned and wished, where the Dreamer was nothing more then inner torment and painted facades. The Dreamer had brought death within Nightmares, the Death Raven was innocent? had no blood on her hands? because the souls she took? were of those already dying, destined to die.

Silent communication, the bond of twins to share all that was going on with the Dreamer and the Raven smiled somberly, quiet and considerate of the Dreamer?s solitude and privacy. Even some parts of the Dreamer were closed off to the Raven. Solah knew well that the Dreamer took it all upon her as duties and obligations, a desire to heal and save in hopes that doing so for others may heal and save her from that dark despair and torture that burrowed a dark splatter at soul and heart.

What the Dreamer didn?t understood is what the Raven saw so clearly. Perhaps it was because she could move between spirit world and the living world like a shadow. Solah understood that the Dreamer had woven that unconscious bond to the Shade and the Beast because the pain and torment of the Shade was a mimicry of Pheus? own suffering? that the ways of the Beast caused the Dreamer to be drawn for he reminded her so very much of the Raven.

Darkmere a mentor, Kraven as family? even the stranger and Elias were starting to leave imprints upon the Dreamer that only Solah could see for the Raven easily saw her sister?s Spirit was blind to her own, just as the Dreamer could read the Raven?s emotions but could not discern her own. The Raven bent down and left a kiss upon the older Twin?s brow, a pluck of a feather from her sister?s wing even as the Dreamer shot a look of surprise at the Raven before the Raven did similar.

A solitaire braid wove through glistening silver mane, a black feather a kiss of twilight to the moon. The Raven then did the same to her own? light within the darkness of her hair was that silver and grey feather. She left her sister then without a word more, but the Dreamer understood. The Dreamer would ever be in the Raven?s heart and with her despite what may pass.

Deep in thoughts and in solitude again when the door closed her fingers trembled setting to work?not at painting this eve?but the weaver of dreams created again something that would help ease away the nightmares for the Inspector weaving a design on a skein like a spiderweb even as her own feathers were bound to it? everything put into it?if only to distract her? make her forget? lone tear was ice clinging to lashes, never to fall.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-01-16 22:21 EST
Wingless. Freed. It was not expected. From Angel to Snow Maiden. Released from the cage by the Beast. Never was that to be expected.

Curled up on the bed, fingers curled in black mane of hair. It soothed her. Likely to soothe the Beast.

The Empath touch had shared that madness. Something about that night had altered her, awakened the Leopard of Snow from cage. Brought the feline to prowl in shadows and cinder remains.

Feline and Ice. Snow and Maiden. These were her destiny awakened. The madness drawn. The Beast beckoned and called to the Feline of Snow forged path.

Now bound. The Beast himself had changed. Altered. Fascinated. Drawn. Claimed.

Beauty of the Beast. His now.

The Dreamer found she did not miss the wings. More to take place. Forge new path. Now bound to another...

Strange but still... Secure. Safe in Sanctuary.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-08-08 11:55 EST
The Beast seemed forever gone. The Dreamer was there as ever like a moonlit shadow as the rain poured down in the marketplace. Under a kiosk, safe from the soaking kiss of water.

Those pale eyes were spirit drenched and ghost havens. Haunted. Even on a humid day she would feel cold.

Winter kisssed her spirit, keeping her locked away and unobtainable. Had even the spirit left her? Pheus had never found a niche, a sanctuary and now the world was a spiral around her. Twisting and cording.

Dreams and Reality mated, melted. Till one began and the other ended she didn't know which came forth and which would unravel.

No longer would she walk that path. Solitaire. Solitude. Freedom on the lonely path.

Never would it matter.

She stepped away from shelter, welcomed the kiss of rain.

The Dreamer there again, awakened and aware. Head tilted back and eyes closed. The rain never felt so good. The way it washed the pain away.

Secret Burdens kept so well hidden

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-10-06 06:30 EST
The Wild returned. Like a haunting promise. Had time passed to leave everything forgotten and twisting. The Beast had returned. Tangled in that embrace with him within the thick dark of the woods she had lost herself. Found herself all over again.

She belonged to him as he belonged to her. The Beast had told her that he had been taken against his will, that he had no choice. That night she unleashed the wild part of her soul, the leopard of snow knowing itself once more in her spirit as she ran with him through the woods.

Became truly part of the madness, of the wild. Exhausted she finally collapsed beside him, finding his embrace again as she closed her eyes. The matched and bonded pair.

The Maiden had met Valucia and known how the woman's eyes of pearled darkness had watched the Beast and now her. How she had taken away the silver from his flesh and brought him back to himself.

She knew not why she had such a gift to call back Zedi to who he was, only that her affections ran deep for the Beast.

Arms locked an embrace around the Beast. The inn promised to be too much of a cage... she promised she would run with him and thrive in the wilds to withhold his comfort.

The Shade had left them leaving only the Beast and the Maiden now to be joined in that complex unity, still Pheus had to wonder if the place of the shade was being taken over by the King.

Pheus had no choice, she was where she belonged, and that drawing pull and possession the Beast had on her heart, spirit, body was something even she could not deny.

Giving herself to the dark nest of her dreams, coveted in the wild madness and wicked desire that came with Zedi's presence she would sleep, knowing well that she would make sense of it all... figure it all given a bit of time.

The Beast had returned and the Maiden again was his.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-10-14 06:19 EST
Sleeping Beauty with a Beast in her embrace. Days and nights had been kept without him at her side and she learned the suffering of that separation. Melancholy had become a tragedy for her, a serene discord that rested under the surface of her flesh.

Her body, her arms held him close as if to move from him would mean he would disappear and the illusion of his presence would shatter. The roar of pain and anguish from the Beast at his return had impaled her with shards of ice, thick blades of torture. His pain was her pain. His anguish ever hers.

From the first day she had been drawn to him. He nearly had killed Kinoriv in that first passing hour and she had stepped in between. How he had raged when there came the threaten of her in harm. Had she loved him then? Right at that moment?

Never could be Pheus be certain. She had been crafted and designed by Morpheus to be as he wanted her to be. A weaver of dreams perhaps could clutter their own mind with fanciful notions of what she could only watch on and paint in the dream world for others. Love.

This she did not question. She did not dream because she never slept. Until these moments in his arms, lost in that near magic enforced slumber would she sleep.

A weaver could not be sleeping when the rest of the world did, else they lost hold of dreams. Still she would not dream.

Fleeting thoughts, shattered images though. The Aes Sedai, Draco of the Dark Steel, the King, the Shade, the Phoenix Hawk... and finally her Beast.

Ever would her thoughts come to him. In those moments she would know peace.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-10-16 21:27 EST
Remorse. Melancholy. The Darkness would draw to her and yet the Shade's return had left her haunted. Uncapable of being touched now she had no opportunity to greet him properly. To Embrace him, to touch him. The reality of it tore into her. His distance was as great as the distance of the Beast to her at times.

There was sadness in those hours, a wistful resignation as she trespassed through the threshold of life and into dreams. Canvas stretched on the well oiled skein as her fingers touched to its surface. The colors, the hues spilled from her fingertips as if her touch was the paintbrush upon that canvas.

Silvered depths colored with the vision of those dreams before the colors darkened. Savage. Cruel. Violent design of destruction and torment.

"Not so pretty anymore is it, Maiden"

The visions bled into darkness as Pheus turned around swiftly to face the woman that spoke.

"Elyiana."

The name was ice on her tongue.

"We miss you, Pheus. Come back to us."
"I have paid my burdens... I gained my freedom."

Elyiana smiled in a way that made the Maiden recoil. Hesitate. There was a strange wild violence in the associate and business partner of the Dream King. Oh she held other names but those the Maiden would never speak.

The woman was behind her then. Savage beauty. A whisper.

"You have not paid in blood."
"Blood?"

There was no time to question or inquire as the sharp silver of the knife cut into her stomach. In her mind there was darkness and the scream of the Death Raven awakening miles away at her sister's pain.

Blood stained a violent color to the white of her dress. Hand covered the wound and she slumped as the world became nothing but sweet empty darkness to the Maiden.

Morpheus Kiss

Date: 2009-11-01 22:03 EST
Death was rapping at her door. The Death Raven didn't need doors to open for her entrance. Thresholds needed not for crossing and the Raven was there knelt before her sister.

"Pheus. Awaken."

The cemetary grave voice, the hushed haunting of the Raven's caressing words stirred in the Maiden's spirit. Cold flesh felt a warm touch. Autumn before the leaves had begun to die.

Silvered blues fluttered open and she gasped out a breath of agony and pain as she saw Solah crouched over her. Wings arching. Black as night.

Solah was not the Raven at that moment but the Death Dealer. The Death Raven. The carrier of souls. The realization had the Dream Maiden's heart in a wild racking torment of fluttering, caged beats.

Pheus had...

"Almost."

A crooning word. Insanity bred with the beauty of the macabre. Tragedy refined.

Muted not of acceptance as the Maiden rose and the Raven eased back.

"Where is the Fallen?"
"Gone."
"I..."
"It matters not. Not everything is like us. Constant."

Solah's words left the Maiden quiet but hardly comforted. She knew well that she had been at the moment where Solah easily could gather and claim her soul. Instead her sister had saved her.

Just as once Pheus had saved her sister.

They rose together to stand. Contrasts. Sister Light and Sister Dark. Standing by a window and staring out into a night that seemed to hold the weight of everything lost and all that remained on ever constant souls and spirits.