#rp: dev

NEEDS — people to rub shoulders with in any which way (above the board and otherwise). other queens natives who cross the street when they see that one grumpy asian dude stomp by. anyone else tapped into the antiquities / art trade market by way of bright dead things.

AESTHETIC — neatly folded stacks of newspapers • gray skies over grayer cities • the clink of china in quiet tearooms • a signet ring, heavy on the hand • the collar of a raincoat turned upwards, obscuring the face • blue velvet • quiet power plays conducted over shared cigars • benevolent handshakes

AESTHETIC — silk ribbons • plum sauce, viscous and tart • a laugh like a crystal glass: delicate, sparkling, clear • sunlight that streams in through gauzy curtains • fresh-cut roses • a house in the country • floating en pointe, on toes bleeding and raw • applause, endless and roaring applause

AESTHETIC — dog-eared paperbacks, stacked in haphazard columns • lukewarm cups of chai • pages faintly smudged with black ink - perhaps from a writer's hand, racing across the page too quickly • cigarette stubs, guiltily extinguished • the tang of oranges • candle smoke • the faint amber remnants of mehndi, lingering on wrists and fingertips • smudged eyeliner

AESTHETIC — strands of high-polished jade, heirlooms from Baghdad • gunpowder • rituals, etiquette, and doing things for the sake of tradition • inky-black curls, smoothed and coiffed to perfection • stained-glass windows • antique gold • adhan: the Muslim call to prayer • the way blood clings to the crevices between well-polished nails • a thousand stars glittering against the black night