House Mercaiges

Another video from our last trip before Lockdown 2020

A private social and academic establishment catering to discerning gentlepersons of like mind and philosophy, The Grand Cross free company opens their doors at The Stellium in less than a fortnight to one and all for an evening of spoken poetry.  Join us in performing, and encourage and cultivate the art of poetry in our very own club, gathering with unknown talents spanning Eorzea and beyond!

During your visit, feel free to explore the club, upstairs and down, inside and out.  Various rooms are available for your enjoyment, including but not limited to Le Salon De The teahouse, The Stranger’s Room lounge, and a large reference library.  Anyone wearing a “Looking To Meld” icon above their head belongs to The Grand Cross and can be queried for further information.

Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, are provided free of charge this night by the owners of The Stellium.  NPC bartenders will be available for your own personal brand of roleplaying enjoyment.

This is an adult event; however for the sake of propriety, please refrain from any excess, overtly gratuitous language or themes.  R-rated is appropriate, X-rated is decidedly not.  Remember to give your fellow performers the same level of respect and quiet you would require for yourself.  Hecklers and rabble-rousers will be duly ejected.

Sign-ups for performances begin in-game 30 minutes prior to start time, just inside the club.  Doors also open at this time.  Earlier sign-ups can be done by contacting Charlemont Mercaiges, Raven Alderscorn, or Corwynn Grey in game, or by messaging Char#6733 on Discord.

Should you have any questions about the event, please reply to this post or get in touch using one of the above methods.  Please tell all your friends, and we look forward to seeing you at The Grand Cross at The Stellium!

(This story picks up from where Prompt #3, Bargain, left off)

Raven and Artoirel left the Proving Grounds and walked uphill along the gilded path. The main throughways of The Pillars wound among the spired buildings and passed vast manors, sanctums, and academies. Both beautiful and formidable, the Holy See intimidates just as much as it inspires, though only outsiders would allow themselves to seem impressed. The denizens of the neighborhoods through which they passed glide along with noses in the air and eyes cast downward.

“Those were four of my finest that you trounced,” Artoirel said with a grin. Raven had bested the knights after being coerced into an impromptu sparring match. Lord Fortemps knew of Raven’s reputation and had learned much from his conversation with Ser Aymeric regarding his skill, though it was quite a thing to see it with his own eyes. “Younger by a decade, warmed up, and fresh. While you…”

“…are old, rusty, and hungover,” finished Raven.

(This story is about my house knight Charlemont (Julien), who resides at @house-mercaiges.  For the ease of organization for @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast, however, I will be posting this here to my main blog and simply reblogging it to Char’s, where it belongs.)

There is nothing to forgive, she whispered, petal-pale lips brushing ghostly and chill over my warm skin.  Oh, if only it were true.  Such a thing, such a lie, if there were only a sliver of truth inside it I would lose myself, cling to the shard of hope that somehow, some way, perhaps I was not guilty.

Lightning flashed outside, silent and blinding.  For half a heartbeat the room went white and frozen.  A sulfur and tin still life snapshot.  Flowers wilted, dust gathered, and my voice died on my lips.

You could not have known, she insisted, and the world sank back into saturnine darkness.  The lift of the light come crumbling into ash.  I did know, you see, long had I overheard the secrets of the woods, hummed along to the warning hymn I knew from childhood.

Thunder bubbled up from malms away, low and hungry, and swelled into a devouring, starving thing. Yes, devour me, I thought, me and all around me.  This house, its very foundation, the woods themselves.  As if I could invoke such power.  As if thunder had such strength.  It is in silence, rather, the gentle quietude of the star-dark and glowing beams of the sun, that power lies.  In the whisper of her voice.

I love you, Julien.

Oh, that voice.  Reader, know that even in death, even in phantasm, her voice was honeyed wine, sweet and quickening to my very soul.  It haunted and inflamed me; the ache in my bones, the ache in my blood, the ache in my heart and between my legs drew me all at once in a rush back to her face.  Diaphanous and pale.  Spectral.  Beautiful.

The sultry haze of the greenhouse was brightened by the desert sun beyond, giving the moist air and dancing motes a dreamy quality. Magalie sighed heavily, going through the motions of tending to her plants. The task usually had a calming effect on her and, being especially vexed this morning, she was in need of calming.

“Conniving little shit,” she said. “Weaselly, interfering bastard.” Angry little snips of her shears punctuated each insult, sending the unwanted leaves of the plant fluttering to the table. Careful not to puncture any of the tiny fruits that had begun to mature into a deep violet, she continued to prune and complain to her companion.

“What’s one to do, Cat?” Magalie’s siamese, who’d found a lovely patch of sun, glanced up. Its pupils had all but disappeared in the sunlight, revealing eyes of ice blue.

“Prt?” Replied Cat.

A private social and academic establishment catering to discerning gentlepersons of like mind and philosophy, The Grand Cross free company opens their doors at The Stellium in less than a fortnight to one and all for an evening of spoken poetry.  Join us in performing, and encourage and cultivate the art of poetry in our very own club, gathering with unknown talents spanning Eorzea and beyond!

During your visit, feel free to explore the club, upstairs and down, inside and out.  Various rooms are available for your enjoyment, including but not limited to Le Salon De The teahouse, The Stranger’s Room lounge, and a large reference library.  Anyone wearing a “Looking To Meld” icon above their head belongs to The Grand Cross and can be queried for further information.

Refreshments, both alcoholic and otherwise, are provided free of charge this night by the owners of The Stellium.  NPC bartenders will be available for your own personal brand of roleplaying enjoyment.

This is an adult event; however for the sake of propriety, please refrain from any excess, overtly gratuitous language or themes.  R-rated is appropriate, X-rated is decidedly not.  Remember to give your fellow performers the same level of respect and quiet you would require for yourself.  Hecklers and rabble-rousers will be duly ejected.

Sign-ups for performances begin in-game 30 minutes prior to start time, just inside the club.  Doors also open at this time.  Earlier sign-ups can be done by contacting Charlemont Mercaiges, Raven Alderscorn, or Corwynn Grey in game, or by messaging Char#6733 on Discord.

Should you have any questions about the event, please reply to this post or get in touch using one of the above methods.  Please tell all your friends, and we look forward to seeing you at The Grand Cross at The Stellium!