Snapshots
In a Romanian village, cut off from the world, Donna Beneviento puts on a puppet show for the children of lycans-to-be. The Four Lords dance around like Punch and Judy. It's a promise, a hollow one, that there is nothing to fear. Her doll, Angie, energetically tells the tales, while Donna's smile is hidden behind a dark veil. There is nothing to fear in the Village of Shadows In a small city outside Seyruun, Naga the Serpent...fearsome mercenary for hire and noted 'dark sorceress' entertains the outside the pub, sharing songs and dances from across the Red World and telling tales of magic and adventure to the local children. She holds in her hands crackling fireworks and glimmering illusion. Makoto Niijima stares out the window at the snow falling, and melting upon the pavement outside her boyfriend's attic apartment. It's been a long year. A hard year. A year of changes. She smiles to herself. She's finally become who she always needed to be. The smell of coffee and curry is heavy in the air. There's still the final battle ahead...but here in this moment she shuts her eyes, and allows herself to relax. Everything will be okay. Atop the monastery at Garrag Mach, Edelgard Von Hresvelg sips tea while sitting upon the Archbishop's balcony, looking out over a land she one day hopes will be free of the tyranny of crests. Far below, she sees the ruin of the monastery walls...the damage her war has done. She sees the place she lost her professor...the dining hall where she celebrated their victories...and now, right here and now, she sees people she went to school with mere years ago clashing in the training yard. She knows they'll be ready...They'll survive. In a quiet town far from the front lines, an android watches an old comrade cast her fishing line into the water. She wonders...why does her friend fish, when she cannot eat? Why does she sit there for hours when there's the threat of war? She sees her old comrade carry the fish to the humans of the small village. The way they smile is strange to her. They treat Androids as peers. Her comrade is a provider, loved. She wonders if one day people will see her the same way. Mystique sits alone in the X-factor office. Her fingers curled around the handle of a coffee mug bearing 'X-Factor: Mutant Acquisition Department' as she raises it to her lips. She hates it here. She hates seeing the smug looks on the fed's faces when they remind her that they've implanted a failsafe in her brain. She hates Kyle's irritating voice. And then there's Sabretooth....and then..there's Sabretooth. Her fingers tighten around the coffee cup with a soft intake of breath, and she finally sips. In the dying Town of Gorkhon, Aglaya Lilich looks into the sky and sees the faces of children staring down at her. She knows them as gods. As the arbiters of everyone's fate. She hates them with all her heart. She averts her gaze instead to her grim duty. The Guilty have been presented for her judgement. The time of the God's judgement would come. And she already found them wanting. Snapshots. Not of every life, or every moment. But of parts of lives lived and experiences held long ago. Thoughts I've had flit through my mind that were worth writing down.