The fact your sewing machine is a far better seamstress than you.
Your mother always called you a child of the night, you came into this world just before midnight and burn in the sun. The burning might be because of your Celtic roots.
It is a natural process; your waking hours shift and shift until you’ve forgotten what the campus looks like without the eternally full moon shining down on you.
There is a reason you chose the name Selene.
You remember that your star sign, which is another thing you believe in, is ruled by the moon.
And so, you serve.
Elsewhere was not at all the first place you encountered the good neighbours, but it was the place where you felt more like you were the neighbour and they the true owners of the land.
You harbour no ill to your neighbours but consider them with caution. Honey-laced words may conceal a fatal poison to the foolish.
You have always loved fools.
You protect what you love, so a Knight in the night you shall be.
You’ve dragged this thing from country to country and though no witch on campus can find anything on it you know your $99 sewing machine you got for Christmas is possessed by a legendary seamstress or something.
It never needs repairs, even though it’s legally able to vote and drive by age.
You always find the thread in the bobbin is the correct colour for whatever project your fickle mind strays to, even though you never change it.
You’ve never once had to adjust the tension, even when it needed to change! It just. Did it itself.
i bring a secondhand story i got told 3 years ago. my geography teacher grew up in ireland and she told us of when one day when she was walking home from school after Typical British Rain. the blood and bone the farm on the other side of the road were using to fertilise had rehydrated or smth and was running onto the road. now this is all good until Of Course a vehicle (cant remember but Big) zooms and she gets covered in blood. thank u tiny country roads.
THIS IS THE MOST METAL THING I’VE EVER READ WITH THESE TWO EYES.
Thank you for sharing a delightful gross farm story! <3
i had an architecture class with a student of the forbidden major and man did they have concepts. like sure that would never work without bending the laws even further than we already do but it was so cool.
the australian brings a bag of red soil and the american gentry are confused. then are burned by the iron oxide. it only worked once and the australian went very mysteriously missing soon after but her words echo:
You claim places, people and things as ‘yours’ and never let them go.
A Place.
It begins as your home, you never moved in the 18 or so years before you left forever, and you can still feel the cool slate tiles beneath your feet.
You add the arts centre where you danced for 15 of those years. You know the twists and turns of the kiss stained walls and remember the rough limestone on your lips.
Schools are different, you moved more than once and never quite claimed them. You got lost until the day you graduated and can’t feel the tug of familiarity.
Elsewhere is your newest home, and even though you always get lost on the way you’ve never not gotten where you were headed.
A Person.
It does not begin with the children your parents presented to you. Stiff and unsuited, they were never yours.
It begins for real with two girls made of sun and starlight. You painted their images and sealed your fate. You once heard about a curse on sweaters made for unmarried partners and wondered if paintings applied.
The girl made of earth picks up the burned and shattered pieces of you but fades into the ground as time passes.
You close your heart and decide none will enter.
You are wrong.
A girl with hair and heart of fire burns you warm again but fire is quick and soon you are cold once more.
Elsewhere brings you three girls of water, air and earth. They are yours truly and you will never let them slip away.
A Thing.
Things don’t leave.
Things can be kept anywhere.
You find passions where you can amass both industrial and artisan made goods.
You never grew past when you were small, so you keep clothes from times long passed.
You collect trinkets of iron and things you believe will keep you safe at Elsewhere. Piercings, necklaces, rings, brooches, anything goes.
