#mcststellar

☛  free range lads & lasses

“But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road—there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

☛  ulysses & dorian moodboard

Eavesdropping inside the basement of an abandoned shop for oddments and tweaks, Theodore Sallis had learned the truth. 

He had always suspected something was off with Mr Priestly--had always known something was amiss. Arthur, golden boy and stellar student of Keystone Seconda- ry, was a mystery to him, and he would have gone on as such, had Theodore not been at the wrong place at the wrong time, learning the wrong-est piece of informa- tion that could have possible chosen to present itself to him. A part of him wished he’d never learned it at all--for as enigmatic a creature as Arthur Priestly was, Theodore had found in him a friend. He was a swell fellow, all things considered, and they un- derstood each other, in a way and a level others their age could only ever hope to a- chieve with their peers. 

Theodore refused to believe it had all been a front.

   they tell her that sewing to good to calm the mind, to tame her erratic behavior and make her a productive part of society. in reality the only thing sewing does is bore her to death ( oh boredom, the very thing that sent all this off --a warm afternoon with her sister where laziness and boredom couldn’t seem to cancel each other out ). and so, it’s no surprise when she stops making her line of uneven crooked stitches and rises from her place at the window, a wary glance at the cook bustling away in the kitchen before she slips from the side-door-----

   ----right into another in her haste to get away. alice takes a hasty step back, eyeing the boy with a sharp eye. does he live here? she doesn’t know; the girl hardly pays attention to the bodies around her, preferring to dream of the creatures people tell her aren’t real. arms cross over her chest, tone firm even as words stutter out.    “ tell the mistress i’m gone and i’ll--- i’ll---- ”