9:10 AM Wake up... Brush out the cob webs from being harassed the night before...
9:30 AM Begin working on your day's agenda and goals... (Promo materials design in this case)
10:30 AM Get cleaned up and go to social services office to apply for benefits new card...
11:00 AM Get chewed on by the people trying to chip off whatever they can from you, who believe that anything that you accomplish comes from other people, so they try to steal it from you using the definitions of colours based upon the colours you wear and the colour of your eyes.
11:45 AM After fending off most of those doing so, attended to by polite office staff (some of whom have rarely had anyone stick up for the same principles). Possible risk though of having my identity swapped with that of someone else (in other words, when people ask who it was that defended those values, they'll say someone else rather than myself, probably making it into a competition fighting for the credit thereof).
12:00 PM Fight off the rest of the people (verbally though politely) who believe they've chipped off all of your good and are then trying to dump their bad onto you (most often related to crack cocaine and whatever other activities they can find to be of weight to you).
12:15 PM Get the card I applied for, once again by polite office staff. Once again perhaps the chance that the cult will swap your identity with that of someone else (its a collective who practice doing that daily and you literally might lose all of your good efforts). Its a cult that tries to take down individualists and "self serving types" or "SSTs" as they sometimes refer to them.
12:18 PM Recognize an old mainframe programmer that I knew from VLC (Videolink) years ago (long before I'd met Eugene and just when Lil and I had started going steady. They must have put him near me at the same time because yesterday, I talked about my experience in the early computer days. When I was 17/18, I was training as a programmer in the days before Windows (I actually talked about that). When I was 19, I was working as a tech. When I was 20, I was making a great cash ($20/hr). So between the ages of 17 and 23, I'd already had a full computer career in that time. That was between 1984 and 1991. The only reason that this cult do things like that is because they steal other people's lives. The details of other people's lives, they steal in teams. I've been revealing that as they do it. So if they can claim that someone else is controlling you, or that you're stealing the details of someone else's life, they can convince others to disbelieve other facts of your life. Another method of their theft of a person's life. I am not from Nova Scotia by the way. So when I saw the guy at the office, I kept quiet because in case he was someone important, I didn't want to give him away. I waited til I got a bit of a ways away to reveal that I remembered him. I have a near photographic memory when it comes to faces. The cult often puts people near you at waypoints in your life, that serve as the means to divert your accomplishments to someone else. This is part of their dualistic method of theft. They pit two people who were around each other in the same vicinity and give the good to the winner of this competition and the bad to the loser. They conduct illegal eavesdropping in order to know what there is to steal from the competitor(s) for this competition. I've been revealing their methodology every day for years since I found out they were using it to steal from me. So they keep their victim locked away (and poor usually) while stealing all of their efforts and accomplishments to fuel someone else's life using this ideology.
12:20 PM Thank the staff for the card, thank the tax payers for their investment in me (in a sort of rhetorical sense) that I pay for every day by representing our values pretty good most of the time.
Its mostly about being held hostage by "hate". Creating a debt in others by attacking one person surreptitiously until they react harshly, then turning it into a social debt that is paid back by burdening them with the load of others.
12:25 PM Ride back on my bicycle fending off people all along the way, from the side walks and even their cars who take part in this daily activity and who are fighting to trade my identity to someone else on the basis of team membership or blood, while giving me someone else's identity and reputation completely.
12:30 PM Secretly blog it in an unpublished post.
12:35 PM Plan the rest of the day's efforts and think about how to pay nearly $2000 dollars in copyright applications and publishing efforts on a $280 a month salary, while being stolen from by a cult that steals from you by swapping you identity with that of others, so that they get the credit for what you do, and you get the blame for what they do according to whoever is the "good" side and whoever is the "bad" side.
12:45 PM Marvel at the fact that you've deciphered one of their biggest secret methodologies by yourself and consider what your going to do with the rest of the day so that in the future, you don't have to rely on social service money by creating a licensable creative property that might provide your living one day.
Brian Joseph Johns
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Introducing Monique, Heylyn and Alicia
Well after a day of a lot of hate attacks from my neighbours, and after a rant (they usually attack in numbers after I release something trying to imply they were "controlling me" into creating what I'd created), after a night and afternoon of my ranting their abuse, I managed to turn the energy around and produce these:
The first group photo from left to right of Monique Defleur, Heylyn Yates (aka Ai Yuanlin Ying) and Alicia Westin all created in Daz 3D Studio. Heylyn's model is 60% ShareCG user AiMei (amy_aimei). I'd like to thank her for the use of the model in this character morph.
The Alicia design is coming along well, though the costume is going to take a bit. I was thinking something with a stylish trench coat (much like a lab coat but dark violet), a tight body suit with some relief work on it resembling hardened kevlar. Most of the colours would be dark violet and dark gray to black. Her boots would be tight sport boots, laced to just below her knees. She'd wear a mask much like Heylyn's only much smaller.
Here, I've fleshed out Monique with a few facial close ups. She's an aspiring model with super model potential, though she's her own worst enemy at the beginning of The Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly. She has a nice petite figure, that presents her client's fashions well on the fashion runway.
Monique Defleur aka Strawberry Eclipse
Heylyn of course is more present behind the scenes during the daily efforts taking place at West Meet East International. As a designer, she spends more time working on her designs and coordinating some of the shoots. She`s very beautiful and well centered (a result of her early home life and martial arts training). As such she handles stress very well.
During the late afternoon and evening she's usually off exercising (perhaps at her Karate classes) or playing tennis with Monique to break the day's stress. At night, she patrols the city as The Butterfly Dragon. One of her powers is flight, which is possible via her aura (a glowing energy surrounding her while around her back it appears as undulating butterfly wings). Her aura produces a natural field that can suppress or amplify the charged particles surrounding her, enabling her to propel herself through the air at will.
Heylyn Yates (aka Ai Yuanlin Ying)
Alicia Westin is the lab researcher who creates the SY-349 formula at the Tynan And Associates funded research lab while investigating possible treatments for muscular and tissue degenerative diseases. The treatment takes the form of a pill and a spray bottle application, which is applied to worn clothing or even jewelry. The effects of the pill and the sprayed formula imbue the wearer with abilities or depending upon how the clothing is fashioned, cure a variety of health issues (based upon the modifications to the chemistry of the pill itself as well). Alicia discovers this and tries it first on a night wear suit Heylyn gave her as a special gift. Alicia tries it and becomes Night Style, a crime fighting superhero using the formula on herself as its first test subject.
One of the first effects it has, is to modify Alicia`s physique, so when she starts to don the suit, her body slowly reduces in size (she`s a little bit heavier and slightly conscious of her weight). By the time the effect has completed its modifications, she has the body of an olympic athlete and the reflexes of a cat. The more she wears the costume, the more permanent the effect is upon her body though there`s a price as she later finds out.
Alicia Westin aka Night Style
Anyway, I`m off to fend off the last of the gremlins and then I might continue work on some more character designs, watch a movie or play a video game before calling it a night.
I hope that your weekend went well and all the best to the athletes at the Pan Am games from around the world. Thanks to Daz3D as well.
Brian Joseph Johns
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
Friday, July 24, 2015
As Promised...
This announcement in honour of the Special Olympic Games 2015 (announced on Google's search page so artistically).
I promised that when I had a published version of the first ebook ready, that I'd
make it freely available because the goal of this project initially was to promote the research and initiatives that could revolutionize health care and the fight against debilitating and degenerative diseases that affect people all over the world. You can download it right here or on the right hand side of the page.
Well that time has come and its ready to be downloaded right now onto your mobile device, PC or ebook reader in EPub format thanks to a great writer's Software called Nimble Writer which is available on Steam to all of you fellow writers out there.
I've always made the first drafts of every book available online, and this is a distribution model that I've developed and am trying to make work. In other words, make the first draft available to everyone and that way, even those that don't have the money to buy books, but who can get access to internet can still read it. A reading is a right that everyone should have. When I go through and write a second draft, there's usually a bit of new material added and often new chapters and further in depth information about the characters that really help to give a better picture of the overall story.
In the future, for such publications, I will offer them online at various book retailers, but the first draft (especially of the Butterfly Dragon series) will always be available for free here to anyone who wants to read them at no cost. In addition, the first ebook version of The Butterfly Dragon I: Heroes Of Our Own is free. That's the final draft with new material including the origin story between Alicia and Heylyn integrated into it as the first series of chapters.
When I do get around to distributing the books with an online reseller, every single book will have a percentage of its proceeds donated directly to a charity supported by this site. I guestimate that those proceeds will be half of whatever is made from them (when I decide I'll commit to a firm percentage). That point has not been come to yet, and this decision is still up in the air but I think that it is entirely fair.
The first draft policy of every book will stand on any books that I publish. They'll always have an online presence where readers of all income levels will have access to them in first draft format. The complete story without the additions of the final draft. That's my way of saying thanks to the most important element of any book and that's the reader. And everyone should be able to read and hopefully enjoy it.
In the future as well, as this develops, I'll try within my financial capabilities to make these stories available in new media formats, including comics, animations, video games and perhaps should there ever be interest, I`d definitely be welcome to the idea of seeing a Butterfly Dragon movie. Actually that would be my dream come true, but that's still a long way off.
As I grow this creative property, I'll do my best to hire talent but I'll always keep the same model and thats that the stories will always be available for free, and I'll always give at least 25% to charity (though that will most likely be 50% as this gets off the ground).
I am still very much a starving artist that's trying to make the world a bit better before he departs it, and there have been times when under the duress of the pressure from some not so nice people, that I've been a bit heavier than I am when gauged by my real character and to those who've put up with it or took the time to understand, I thank you.
To Google, Microsoft, IBM and HP I thank you for the tools to do this and to Google I thank them because they had web space for my stories as well as my various "rants" that would often result from being attacked by some not so nice people. They never really denied me or turned their back on me.
Thanks to the ASMR crew on youtube, being Heather Feather, Fairy Char and ASMR Requests as you helped me many times to keep my sanity. Thanks to the other supporters out there, and to the real heroes and researchers who make all of that stuff reality. Thanks to the Government programs that make publishing and copyright management a lot less complicated and time consuming than it used to be. Thanks to Canada, my home country and my home city of Toronto where the stories take place, though very inclusive and a part of the world stage. Thanks to Marvel, DC, Yaya, Kelly Hu and Miranda Kwok (some of the real life inspirations for Heylyn, just read Miranda's WGOAW Bio). Thanks to my family and friends and inspirations. Thanks most to my readers.
Enjoy.
Brian Joseph Johns.
I promised that when I had a published version of the first ebook ready, that I'd
make it freely available because the goal of this project initially was to promote the research and initiatives that could revolutionize health care and the fight against debilitating and degenerative diseases that affect people all over the world. You can download it right here or on the right hand side of the page.
Well that time has come and its ready to be downloaded right now onto your mobile device, PC or ebook reader in EPub format thanks to a great writer's Software called Nimble Writer which is available on Steam to all of you fellow writers out there.
I've always made the first drafts of every book available online, and this is a distribution model that I've developed and am trying to make work. In other words, make the first draft available to everyone and that way, even those that don't have the money to buy books, but who can get access to internet can still read it. A reading is a right that everyone should have. When I go through and write a second draft, there's usually a bit of new material added and often new chapters and further in depth information about the characters that really help to give a better picture of the overall story.
In the future, for such publications, I will offer them online at various book retailers, but the first draft (especially of the Butterfly Dragon series) will always be available for free here to anyone who wants to read them at no cost. In addition, the first ebook version of The Butterfly Dragon I: Heroes Of Our Own is free. That's the final draft with new material including the origin story between Alicia and Heylyn integrated into it as the first series of chapters.
When I do get around to distributing the books with an online reseller, every single book will have a percentage of its proceeds donated directly to a charity supported by this site. I guestimate that those proceeds will be half of whatever is made from them (when I decide I'll commit to a firm percentage). That point has not been come to yet, and this decision is still up in the air but I think that it is entirely fair.
The first draft policy of every book will stand on any books that I publish. They'll always have an online presence where readers of all income levels will have access to them in first draft format. The complete story without the additions of the final draft. That's my way of saying thanks to the most important element of any book and that's the reader. And everyone should be able to read and hopefully enjoy it.
In the future as well, as this develops, I'll try within my financial capabilities to make these stories available in new media formats, including comics, animations, video games and perhaps should there ever be interest, I`d definitely be welcome to the idea of seeing a Butterfly Dragon movie. Actually that would be my dream come true, but that's still a long way off.
As I grow this creative property, I'll do my best to hire talent but I'll always keep the same model and thats that the stories will always be available for free, and I'll always give at least 25% to charity (though that will most likely be 50% as this gets off the ground).
I am still very much a starving artist that's trying to make the world a bit better before he departs it, and there have been times when under the duress of the pressure from some not so nice people, that I've been a bit heavier than I am when gauged by my real character and to those who've put up with it or took the time to understand, I thank you.
To Google, Microsoft, IBM and HP I thank you for the tools to do this and to Google I thank them because they had web space for my stories as well as my various "rants" that would often result from being attacked by some not so nice people. They never really denied me or turned their back on me.
Thanks to the ASMR crew on youtube, being Heather Feather, Fairy Char and ASMR Requests as you helped me many times to keep my sanity. Thanks to the other supporters out there, and to the real heroes and researchers who make all of that stuff reality. Thanks to the Government programs that make publishing and copyright management a lot less complicated and time consuming than it used to be. Thanks to Canada, my home country and my home city of Toronto where the stories take place, though very inclusive and a part of the world stage. Thanks to Marvel, DC, Yaya, Kelly Hu and Miranda Kwok (some of the real life inspirations for Heylyn, just read Miranda's WGOAW Bio). Thanks to my family and friends and inspirations. Thanks most to my readers.
Enjoy.
Brian Joseph Johns.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Let's Do Some Damage Control...
I've recently been receiving a lot of abuse from some people with regard to faith and beliefs and the link between such beliefs and the Butterfly Dragon. This has been a serious hurdle for the writing process of the latest book as it was for A Lady's Prerogative I and II, and it certainly has been for writing the latest installment of the Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly.
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First of all, there are some abusive people around me whom try to twist the meaning of the story to malign with the Dragon of the New Testament being synonymous with the Dragon(s) of my story. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I am going to get into the link between beliefs and some interpretations of this story and the efforts of some people to dirty the repute of the story (and perhaps the symbolism of the Butterfly Dragon). If you want to avoid a religious discussion, then don't read beyond this point and I will not hold that against you.
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This whole idea stems from an ignorance that is unfortunately founded around the idea of China being considered as the Dragon, by some of that faith, and that symbolically they will be the progenitors of Armageddon. A sort of racist interpretation if you will that pits the Far East as the bad and the Far West as the good.
There had always been a lot of resistance to my revelation of one of the main characters from the story being a Mandarin Chinese immigrant to Canada (though she's inspired by several Women ranging from Thailand, Vietnam, Korean, Hong Kong <Cantonese>, Hawaii and Japan). From the point that I'd revealed that, there had been a backlash of similar proportions to the Wytch hunt from A Lady's Prerogative.
The reason for it is once again connected to the ideas of this interpretation being related to the Dragon of the New Testament and the Mandarin Chinese community being pit as the Dragon of that Bible. Naturally the abusers locally try to use that to their advantage locally to paint my book as being satanic or anti-Christian. The cult that do this even try to paint me that way, in order to prop someone else up as the "Christ-like" person by comparison. Usually much abuse ensues and the people involved use that to create a contrast in behavior between myself and someone else in that regard.
My harassers did that with regard to A Lady's Prerogative II: Wounded Earth as well, trying to turn it around to imply it was a retelling of the Knight's Templar round up of the 1300s (which it is not). The story of A Lady's Prerogative II: Wounded Aerth more represents the Sanctum as being closer to the Catholic Church and the United Nations in terms of its goals and ideals. The Librum Universalis Codex would be similar to the Akashic record or even the Guff. The burden the members of the Sanctum carried in terms of history would equate to the conception of what Rosicrucianism (in relation to the Catholic Church) really represents and that is, the burden carried by others that is a measure of the balance of the world in terms of its present and past injustices and the weight thereof. When enough inequity arises and is part of the burden carried by the Roses, this weight manifests itself through their actions and reality, risking war or conflict that reality imposes as part of the balancing mechanisms presented by the Akashic record and the "Guff".
All the cultures of the world cooperate in the Sanctum and take part in this effort, each bringing to the fold their means of maintaining this balance and maintaining it to preserve the peace. The Culdar Rath and the Power lords represent a very direct threat to this balance and the story is driven around this conflict which could be related to real world allegory such as what I've mentioned. In the Sanctum though, there is no mention made of adherence to any specific belief system except a very obvious belief in human rights and the rights of other living creatures (as Nelony of the old and the new would most certainly take their stance).
In that book, every culture, including the Mandarin Chinese take part in that maintenance of balance in the world and none are singled out as being the "bad guys" (or girls) despite the fact that it does have link to mystic interpretation. The Sanctum is the inclusive and unifying force rather than the isolating.
The Butterfly Dragon has different roots and follows a story line with similar implications yet is more a voyage of those Women to find themselves and their stance in society while under extreme pressure and the threat of annihilation (which gets much bigger in implication in the future of the story).
In The Butterfly Dragon, Heylyn Yates' fashion company, West Meet East International, which takes takes on a much bigger role in the second book, is the "Sanctum" of the Butterfly Dragon. Her company (which has its fictitious headquarters in Toronto, Canada) though small in comparison to many other real fashion companies, is representation of the Toronto that I grew up in and the Toronto of present. A center for art and culture, which has had some growing pains in the last two decades. It acts as the place where she and Alicia (through Tynan And Associates) are able to take on the immense responsibility they'd stepped into through the events of the first book. The current book, Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly focuses more on Heylyn Yates and the folklore revolving around her alter ego, the Butterfly Dragon. She reunites with her roots in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam while finding her place and role in Canada, Toronto and North America while her company and several other fashion companies through a world wide tour have an impact upon world events.
Heylyn Yates (Ai Yuanlin Ying) was never meant to represent the Dragon of the New Testament just as the Chinese culture is not such a beast. That is a short sighted misinterpretation that is skewed by ignorance though the evidence for that does not appear all at once. In one recent story of the Butterfly Dragon, I turned the symbolic representation on its head with the use of the characters Warai and Weltherwithsp who is a mystical Dragon and in possession of atemporal awareness. Weltherwithsp can perceive all times at once and can remember the future much the same as it can remember the past.
In The Butterfly Dragon, Heylyn Yates' fashion company, West Meet East International, which takes takes on a much bigger role in the second book, is the "Sanctum" of the Butterfly Dragon. Her company (which has its fictitious headquarters in Toronto, Canada) though small in comparison to many other real fashion companies, is representation of the Toronto that I grew up in and the Toronto of present. A center for art and culture, which has had some growing pains in the last two decades. It acts as the place where she and Alicia (through Tynan And Associates) are able to take on the immense responsibility they'd stepped into through the events of the first book. The current book, Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly focuses more on Heylyn Yates and the folklore revolving around her alter ego, the Butterfly Dragon. She reunites with her roots in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam while finding her place and role in Canada, Toronto and North America while her company and several other fashion companies through a world wide tour have an impact upon world events.
Heylyn Yates (Ai Yuanlin Ying) was never meant to represent the Dragon of the New Testament just as the Chinese culture is not such a beast. That is a short sighted misinterpretation that is skewed by ignorance though the evidence for that does not appear all at once. In one recent story of the Butterfly Dragon, I turned the symbolic representation on its head with the use of the characters Warai and Weltherwithsp who is a mystical Dragon and in possession of atemporal awareness. Weltherwithsp can perceive all times at once and can remember the future much the same as it can remember the past.
Warai and this Dragon appear in the dream of a disabled lady, who has religious reservations about the symbolism of seeing a Dragon (the Biblical serpent?) in her dream and as a result of this interpretation she, misses out on an opportunity. She has the same dream many times over until one night before she goes to bed, she reads a medical center brochure which of course has a logo (the logo of the Canadian Medical Association which looks like the Dragon she dreamt about). It is also the logo of Tynan And Associates drawing from the double helix of DNA for its Dragon. She takes this new interpretation with her into her dream and when Warai pleads with her to take her hand, she gets over her stigmatic fear of the Dragon instead replacing it with the image from the brochure that she read. She overcomes her fear based upon an interpretive stigma and accepts the offer from Warai in the dream. Warai tells her to speak to her Doctor about the Tynan And Associates SY-369 program (the new treatment designed by Alicia's team). She does and within a year she's on her feet and walking. All because she overcame a stigmatic fear that told her to associate the Dragon she saw in her dream with the Biblical serpent and automatically distrust on that basis. Upon seeing another context that she did not realize, she then loses her fear and accepts Warai's hand. I am not trying to push forward any specific religion whatsoever, but there are dangers to avoiding the subject of stigmas related to interpretation and especially not talking about them. Sometimes just by being made aware of such stigmas, it is enough to open doors that the perceiver is able to make of their own volition (based upon their beliefs). Not to say that their beliefs are wrong, but to say: here's another way of looking at this.
That is the best allegory I can give to answer the abusive ignorance of those trying to cite the Mandarin Chinese character Heylyn Yates as being the Dragon of the New Testament and the Book of Revelations. Much like Weltherwithsp and the lady's dream, people can interpret the Dragon as being the serpent that tricked Eve into convincing Adam that it was alright to eat the apple (maybe a test to see if Adam was worthy of Eve because if Adam really loved her, then he'd not let her take the blame for the biggest mistake humans made according to that book).
Kind of like the test that one's parents might present a suitable partner for their daughter to measure a guy's merit and how much he'd protect their daughter or whether he'd abandon her? I'd go with that interpretation rather than putting the entire blame for the downfall of human kind on the first lady, so women could be used as garbage bags for guys for the rest of history? I don't think of women in any such way, so I'd go with the other interpretation, that it was a parental test by Eve's parents to see if Adam was the right guy for their daughter or Adam's parents to see if he would really protect Eve and inherit the "Garden". It doesn't say anything about what I believe because that's personal (I might not even believe in any religion at all, but ignorance thereof certainly means that when a group of people I care about come under attack from another group of people based upon their ideas and interpretations of their beliefs, by not knowing or maintaining my own ignorance, I'd be very incapable of defending those people). The truth is that I care about Heylyn Yates, as I do care about the cultures of the Far East and especially about any of them being cast in the role of the Beast of Apocalypse by any religion by any means of interpretation.
Kind of like the test that one's parents might present a suitable partner for their daughter to measure a guy's merit and how much he'd protect their daughter or whether he'd abandon her? I'd go with that interpretation rather than putting the entire blame for the downfall of human kind on the first lady, so women could be used as garbage bags for guys for the rest of history? I don't think of women in any such way, so I'd go with the other interpretation, that it was a parental test by Eve's parents to see if Adam was the right guy for their daughter or Adam's parents to see if he would really protect Eve and inherit the "Garden". It doesn't say anything about what I believe because that's personal (I might not even believe in any religion at all, but ignorance thereof certainly means that when a group of people I care about come under attack from another group of people based upon their ideas and interpretations of their beliefs, by not knowing or maintaining my own ignorance, I'd be very incapable of defending those people). The truth is that I care about Heylyn Yates, as I do care about the cultures of the Far East and especially about any of them being cast in the role of the Beast of Apocalypse by any religion by any means of interpretation.
The difference in interpretation can make a world of difference for someone in that story, because it frees Women as the carriers of the burden for that event and opens new doors while the benevolent progenitor of events in the beginning retains their status and dignity (without making the believer or the believed the bad). Much like the disabled lady in her dream overcoming her fear based upon interpretation and accepting Warai's hand, which ultimately leads to that Woman's healing.
So the main character in a story about superheroes in North America being the daughter of a Mandarin Chinese family who immigrated here from China is far from being a hidden story to sneak the devil into the minds of people around the world.
Heylyn Yates is not the devil, nor are the Women who inspired her as a character in this and the prior book. This will become more clear in the future of the story, and all I have to say is that if you are doubting that on the grounds of religious ignorance with regard to Chinese culture or any culture of the Far East of Asia, I'd suggest that you don't accept Warai's hand and just read another story elsewhere because I don't want you around because just like Adam, you might try to make Women carry that load and I think that Women deserve a lot more and that.
Heylyn Yates is not the devil, nor are the Women who inspired her as a character in this and the prior book. This will become more clear in the future of the story, and all I have to say is that if you are doubting that on the grounds of religious ignorance with regard to Chinese culture or any culture of the Far East of Asia, I'd suggest that you don't accept Warai's hand and just read another story elsewhere because I don't want you around because just like Adam, you might try to make Women carry that load and I think that Women deserve a lot more and that.
There's more to come in the story and it will really take on these issues, but for now I'm going to lay low for a bit until the beatings stop. I defend my choice of culture for Heylyn's character just as I do for Warai and just as I do Alicia's initial weight sensitivity, just as I do Monique's harder start in life and Valerie's ability to overcome the mess that Torman made for her.
What I don't support is illegal eavesdropping upon my computer while I write these stories by my neighbours, hence presenting them with the opportunity to censor my work preemptively (often by harassment) because they know in advance what I'm typing before I post it. That's pretty bad if that kind of thing is going on in Toronto, Canada as that is supposed to be illegal and I'm hardly a criminal or terrorist risk or a risk of child exploitation. So there's no justification for anyone having such leeway upon myself as a writer and publisher. I file my taxes and I vote and believe in Government, infrastructure, having hospitals, schools, emergency medical protection, law enforcement and paved roads and most importantly human rights and not specifically in that order. I don't believe that civilians should have that right to spy on other civilians for the purposes of preemptive censorship or even theft of what one creates.
By the way, the first girl that I ever kissed was Jewish as was my first serious relationship. I've been told I am a good kisser, so she must have been a great teacher just in case you mistake me for being racist or misinterpret anything I've written here. I have a great love and respect for Germany as well (two of the greatest loves in my life came from there). My current love interest originates from the Far East and I stand by that without fail as well.
In addition, I stand by each and every one of the characters in my books and their stories and allegories.
What I don't support is illegal eavesdropping upon my computer while I write these stories by my neighbours, hence presenting them with the opportunity to censor my work preemptively (often by harassment) because they know in advance what I'm typing before I post it. That's pretty bad if that kind of thing is going on in Toronto, Canada as that is supposed to be illegal and I'm hardly a criminal or terrorist risk or a risk of child exploitation. So there's no justification for anyone having such leeway upon myself as a writer and publisher. I file my taxes and I vote and believe in Government, infrastructure, having hospitals, schools, emergency medical protection, law enforcement and paved roads and most importantly human rights and not specifically in that order. I don't believe that civilians should have that right to spy on other civilians for the purposes of preemptive censorship or even theft of what one creates.
By the way, the first girl that I ever kissed was Jewish as was my first serious relationship. I've been told I am a good kisser, so she must have been a great teacher just in case you mistake me for being racist or misinterpret anything I've written here. I have a great love and respect for Germany as well (two of the greatest loves in my life came from there). My current love interest originates from the Far East and I stand by that without fail as well.
In addition, I stand by each and every one of the characters in my books and their stories and allegories.
Brian Joseph Johns
Monday, July 20, 2015
New Ebook version available
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| Weltherwithsp early concept drawing taken from the description in the children's story. |
I just published the ebook version of The Field, The Butterflies And The Dragon which is freely available for download so you can read it on your tablet, phone or ebook reader.
That story is intended for a young audience, or as a bedtime story for a toddler or child though you might want to read it over first just to be sure it passes your discretion as an adult and parent.
It is the book that is written by Heylyn based upon the story her Mother and her Grandmother used to tell her as a little girl.
It will always be made freely available in support of Universal Children's Day.
Also, I started working on Alicia's concept visual (which will cover both her incarnations as Night Style and as the lab researcher for Tynan And Associates). It should be ready within the week. Alicia will be showing up a bit more in future chapters of The Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly.
That leaves one more after that (Valerie aka Valkyra) to round out the heroic foursome from the first book.
Enjoy!
Brian Joseph Johns
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| Me as an 11 year old kid |
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Introducing Heylyn Yates aka Ai Yuanlin Ying aka The Butterfly Dragon
I'd like to take a moment to introduce the first concept design for Heylyn Yates aka Ai Yuanlin Ying aka The Butterfly Dragon.
Again, the image was created with a variety of tools, including the dazzling Daz 3D Studio, and the amazing Adobe Photoshop, and the great Gimp 2. I'd also like to thank ShareCG and specifically the users amy_aimei (ironic that her name bears a similar resemblance), Kimber and AnIronButterfly who have a variety of work there as well (though I only used Amy's AiMei).
The amy_aimei's morph set makes up 70% of the facial appearance of this concept for Heylyn is from Amy's morph set available on http://www.sharecg.com. Thank you very much for your sharing your talent and your art. Most of the image was created in 3D with the Butterfly Dragon's aura being composed in Photoshop and Gimp 2 in this version. The final character will not have physical wings as part of her costume. Her body is encompassed by an aura as a side effect of the SY-349 formula. This concept picture is actually just before her first encounter with the Dragon Butterfly in the abandoned warehouse. Heylyn's casual and work attire is generally a mixture of comfort and expression, with a little bit of her playful side too (as she is quite attractive).
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| Heylyn Yates aka Ai Yuanlin Ying aka The Butterfly Dragon (click for larger image) |
Next for design concept: Alicia Westen and then possibly Warai, Valerie or Norler.
Thanks for reading the stories and there's some more twists and turns ahead. Thanks especially to the Women who inspired these characters.
Enjoy!
Brian Joseph Johns
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Introducing Strawberry Ecclipse... First version design concept
To help you get a better picture of the characters as I think they appear, here's Monique Defleur aka The Strawberry Ecclipse. Her information and background can be found on the Characters And Info page. This image and her design was created with the great visualization and rendering package Daz 3D, the legendary Adobe Photoshop under Microsoft Windows 7 (64 bit), though Monique being a little bit technical herself is both a PC and a Mac user. It was quickly rendered with an HP Minitower.
You can expect some future concepts as I acquire more assets to create the design elements. A lot of work is needed to fill out her costume. I pictured it being sleek, to show off her amazing figure and allow her to move quickly, an aspect of her character. The costume is actually part of a Heylyn Yates design, that is supposed to come with a shawl for a night out on the town or even on the fashion runway. It was what she'd chosen as her "power costume" when Alicia allowed her to use the SY-349 formula on Treadwater Island during the takedown of Mr. Zek. Her name comes from her love of strawberries and being a night person much like Heylyn. You can expect Heylyn and Alicia concepts pretty soon too as the next scheduled for similar visuals. Then Valerie, followed by the Dragon Butterfly. They are considered reference material for real artists to get an idea of the character beyond what was written for those characters.
Enjoy!
Brian Joseph Johns
PS: You might notice a lot of long winded posts coming from my http://poetryandfiction.blogspot.ca blog. As I've related in posts before, I am quite frequently stalked and abused by a local cult, who attempt to steal the good aspects of my books, while dumping the bad aspects of those cult members onto me only to abuse me for them (24/7). I am sorry, but that`s a truth of what is happening to me whenever I write new chapters for the books.
While I wrote all of A Lady`s Prerogative II: Wounded Aerth, I went through that kind of abuse 24 hours a day 7 days a week for about a year and a half. It was the cult "milking" the good of what I was doing for their own credit, while trying to dump their bad onto me in order to hit my love interest and my readers. I am sure that many other people experience the same sort of thing.
I don't apologize for what I've revealed about this abusive cult in my Toronto community who overstep many boundaries in order to achieve their goals (including illegal surveillance by civilians and electronic harassment), of which I am both ashamed as a Canadian and embarrassed for as a Torontonian.
I hope that such exposition of this cult does not affect people's notions of Canada or Toronto because for one author who chose to showcase his home city, this is not what Canada is about. This is a group who've learned that they can take from the efforts of one person for the betterment of others while giving back their bad. In other words, an organized attempt at stealing from someone based upon the idea that if you react negatively, you lose your good and inherit their bad. In no way, do the colours of Strawberry Ecclipse represent such a paradigm, as she is not a Nazi nor does she represent Nazi ideals. I do have a great love and respect for German culture and people. Nor does she engage in the theft of others' good while dumping her bad.
Instead she has a minor troubled past which she'd rather keep to herself, while progressing to a better and brighter future that spawned from the opportunities that an immigrant from the Far East of Asia named Heylyn Yates (aka Ai Yuanlin Ying aka The Butterfly Dragon) brought to her by hiring her as a model for her company West Meet East International.
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
The Butterfly And The Dragon
Heylyn landed rolling to break her downward momentum converting it to horizontal force. She emerged from the roll leg first leveling the side of her foot blade style directly into the abdomen of the Dragon Butterfly. She flew against the far wall of the alley and impacted the wall full force then fell to the pavement.
Three of the gang members who'd pulled their hand guns in defense against the Dragon Butterfly quickly turned their attention to the Butterfly Dragon. She wasted no time and quickly dodged the first gunshot, which narrowly flew by her cheek as she ducked launching herself into an aerial strike downward upon the gunman. The force of her trained fist impacting his cheek threw him to the ground unconscious as the others opened fire. She quickly spun cartwheeling onto her hands extending both of her legs in a spinning scissor kick. Both remaining gunmen took the brunt of force of her extended heels sending them to the concrete unconscious.
"I'm impressed. I didn't think you had it in you." the Dragon had gotten to her feet, brushing herself off.
"They need to answer for their crimes before a court, not you." the Butterfly said after she'd pushed herself back onto her feet.
"I imagine they'll earn quite a name for themselves in jail. Having faced down against us and lived? You do realize that you just made them heroes amongst their own?" the Dragon approached the Butterfly.
"They'll tell lies to their peers to elevate their status in the group. A group that operates on the power of might. Might though, does not mean right." the Butterfly spoke.
"Very good. Literate too I see. E. B. White I believe? Now I suppose that you are The Once And Future Queen? Regardless, they'll be looked up to by the rest of those... social scraps. Table droppings. And that will unify them. Unified, they have power. Might is it not? The power of numbers is undeniable. Even us with our training, abilities and the spirit of our ancestors could not match the power of numbers. Might is right. The more you are, the more right you are." the Dragon challenged her.
"Theirs is just a dance before an audience of those who chase the next immediate gratification without the hope of a long term dream or goal or making this world a little bit better each day. Their survival will only ensure them pop status for a short time in jail until someone else challenges it. Then that person will be the figure head around which they rally. No reason to kill them. That makes us no better than them." the Butterfly spoke.
"Ahhhh. But you don't realize that we too do the same dance before the same kind of people. We're just a flavour of the month to others. We too have an audience who rally around us and if we fail to appease that beast, well then... you're starting to realize that. They have no loyalty because their virtues are founded of the same lust for immediate gratification. They're just on one side of the legal fence. So I'm euthanizing the others before they can threaten that. You could call it a... community service." the Dragon reasoned.
"They don't know now, but you're making them complicit in your acts of murder. When the balance has to be paid for your crimes, you'll be long gone and they'll be left with the bill. Then they'll know the true price of their complicity with your means." the Butterfly countered the Dragon.
"I'm very impressed, Butterfly. You're not just a vain beauty with a few splatters of make up and some tight clothing designed to garner you some cat calls. You're actually quite the philosopher. Who's that? Your Mother speaking? Your Grandmother? Wait, your quiet and hard working Father? Where did you earn that trait from? You're not still believing that children's tale about the Butterfly Dragon are you? That's nonsense concocted by a bunch of aging farmers who got sick of paying their due to the local land owners you know." the Dragon forced her knowledge of ancient history upon the Butterfly.
"They weren't land owners. They were murderous nomads. No land ownership because they called no land their own. Never having worked the land a day in their life. They'd never planted something to work it, nurture it, watch it grow and ultimately feed the people. They only showed up when they ran out of food to slash and burn the farming villages and steal their crops. Their homes that were built upon their work growing rice in the paddies. They learned to defend themselves against those murderers, who'd murder the village artists and philosophers first, in attempt to gain the support of the hard working farmers. Pit them against one another in attempt to make it easier the next time they needed food." the Butterfly stood her ground.
"You still don't get it." the Dragon spoke walking around the Butterfly.
"There's people here who don't want you here either. Do you think that this is your land? Our land? Look at our tradition here, the two of us fighting a battle beyond most people's concept of time. Before even this land existed. They don't want us here. You fight to defend a land in which you are not even welcomed by the local population. You know the type. The ones whose ancestors only a few generations ago came here and conquered the indigenous people, segregating them to a small piece of land and giving them their table scraps as you say. All of the sudden they're lurching around on their fat laurels like they somehow nurtured the fertile land this country is built upon. Half of them steal the deeds of others to get by. Like the... nomads as you called them where our ancestors hail from? So now the Butterfly has emerged from her cocoon of our traditions to protect the virtues of the farmers of old, upon whose hard work the first artisans and philosophers were able to emerge. Now you come here and protect another group of nomads with a different name and background, who stole it all away from another group of people to build this land? The funny part is that there are many amongst those people who just inherited this land from those who took it. So you protect the descendants of the nomads now and not the farmers upon whose back the land is built?" the Dragon posed.
The Butterfly wavered for a moment, perhaps a butterfly in flight might veer from its course from the force of a strong wind.
"This land has had its growing pains and injustices. Ancestors from my family on my Mother's side came here eight generations ago and helped build the national rail line. Chinese immigrants in a country which had just been born. In their memoirs they recounted working along side Irish immigrants who'd fled the potato famine. A man from Kenya whose ancestors had been liberated from slavery in the south just a three generations before. A Japanese immigrant who'd fled a struggling economy back in Japan just before the emergence of the first western industrialization in Japan, to seek work here. A couple of men from India who'd come here for the same reasons. Two Natives, one a Sioux national and the other Cree, who had lost family as a result of fighting against the expansion of the Commonwealth. A slew of Scottish and British hard backs as they called them, who reveled in hard work and a few stout French men, who'd been working as porters for a cartographer prior to the construction project. There they worked together laying every rail from Alberta to British Columbia for five years of back breaking labour. When they got to British Columbia, they had to start blasting which was very risky work. The men without wives or families to provide for would draw straws whenever a blasting charge would need to be set to remove obstructing rock. On one of those draws, the Cree Native came up with a short straw. As the story goes, one of the Irish men broke his straw to make it shorter so the Cree man wouldn't have to take the risk. The Kenyan man, who was without wife then broke his straw so the Irish man wouldn't have to do the task. One of the Brits broke his straw so the Kenyan wouldn't take the risk. Then the Japanese man broke his straw to protect the Brit. The Japanese man was about to grab the satchel with the explosives, when one of my ancestors, showed his straw, which was shorter than all of the others. He said to them I guess I win. He took the satchel and while setting the charge, the explosives which were far more volatile at that time, accidentally went off. He lost his life and his brother went on to take his compensation and married here. My immediate family came here generations later just after I was born. All of those railway men were friends and considered each other family even until this day, their families still work together in the interests of labour and safety in this country. This country which grew as fast as it did as a result of the construction of that railway. Much like a farm, whose fertility supported artists and philosophers to celebrate the beauty of life. I do not protect the thieving nomads who steal the hard work of the farmers. I still protect the farmers and the people here as my ancestors did in the land of our ancestors' beginnings. But this is my home and I will protect it. From them. From you." the Butterfly said taking her defensive stance.
"A touching tale but the real test will be in the hands of the people. Butterfly. You brought the fight to me while I was trying to clean up a festering problem in this city. I intend to bring the fight to you right in your back yard." the Dragon spoke and as her rage climaxed she charged.
She swung her arm wide and high first as Heylyn blocked, leaving her abdomen open. The Dragon spun quickly bringing her other fist around into her stomach. Heylyn flew back rolling over and back onto her feet just as the Dragon continued her onslaught. The Dragon threw five quick jabs in succession, Heylyn blocking each easily. When the Dragon spun for a spinning back handed punch, Heylyn ducked arcing her feet into a foot sweep once again catching the Dragon off guard. She collapsed to the concrete quickly rolling back up and onto her feet. The Dragon backed off.
"Very impressive. You bested me in the first round. I you in the second. Now you bested me in the third. I can hardly wait for the fourth... But that will have to wait, Butterfly. Ta ta for now." the Dragon leapt at a fire escape scaling it quickly towards the roof of the low rise building.
The Butterfly Dragon flew towards the roof only to impact a wall of flying blackness that emerged from nowhere. She suddenly found herself alone with something dark and furious stalking her. She backed up unable to see the walls of the alley way, tripping over one of the bodies of the gang members the Dragon Butterfly had murdered. It rose from its place on the ground reaching for her. She screamed backing away from it, suddenly feeling a sense of looming terror. One by one the dead gang members rose from their concrete graves and stalked towards her. She cowered away into the alley wall unable to move, petrified with fear.
She was a little girl again. She was in the corner of her bedroom at home crying and scared. She'd just seen monsters in a nightmare, much like the one she was facing now as a Woman. She shook as she remembered and as the dead gang members approached her slowly staggering towards her. She closed her eyes and cried. When she thought the monsters might get her, she felt someone stroking her hair. She turned and saw her Mother's face.
"It is alright, little one with a big heart. You are safe. You have to believe in yourself. I won't always be around to help you overcome your fears." her Mother said to her.
"But they're monsters. They're going to get me and eat me." little Heylyn said.
"Monsters might be scary, but they're the ones who are really afraid. That's why they need to attack you in numbers. You just have to face them and they'll back down." her Mother said.
"But I'm scared..." she cried again curling up into a ball.
"Don't be. You know why? Because you're the Butterfly. The Butterfly Dragon. Just like the story." her Mother said to her.
"...really?" she asked meekly.
"...you have to believe." her Mother whispered to her.
She sat thinking about it for a moment before fighting off that last urge to hide again, and then she stood as the monsters approached, taking a defensive stance like the one she'd learned in her first katas of the third kyu.
"I'm not running monsters! I am not afraid of you. You aren't going to hurt anyone anymore!" she yelled confidently.
She stood her ground and as the gang members approached her closing their distance, she began to doubt her confidence. She felt afraid, but she stood her ground anyway.
They progressed a little further before they began to shudder and then fell back to the concrete where they remained. dead as they had once been.
She turned to her Mother, who'd now taken another familiar form. That of Weltherwithsp.
"You see. There are Dragons not so vile as the one who'd death beguile on a whim the game begins where it ended last..." Weltherwithsp spoke to her.
"But you led me to a trap Weltherwithsp!" young Heylyn exclaimed.
"I did no such thing nor brought you suffr'ing. Monsters too there did you face, a different kind and without waste. You tried to reason, tried to save but while they left you, they found their grave." Weltherwithsp told her.
Heylyn thought about what had happened in the abandoned parking lot that had become home to disowned cars and scrap. It was true, she'd come there to take those men to justice, while the Dragon Lady had shown up to take them to their grave. She'd faced them both, another manipulation of the Dragon Butterfly.
"The battles you face aren't always fought with physical prowess, the fists you've wrought. Sometimes a battle is fought in word, a punching fist cannot be heard. Therefore it speaks to only one, you must reach many before this will be undone." Weltherwithsp said to her.
Heylyn thought about Weltherwithsp's statement and once again found herself as a mature Woman, standing in an alley. She looked around, seeing the three that she had knocked unconscious were coming around. She quickly secured the three of them together and then to the fire escape. She then pulled her cellular phone and dialed 9-1-1.
"Hello? Yes I need Police and paramedics to an alley just off Yonge Street and Temperance Street. I heard gun fire and I think the tattoo lady may be involved!" she said into the phone.
"Stay away from the conflict and try to get to safety. Police and paramedics will arrive shortly Ma'am. Just stay on the phone..." the operator assured Heylyn as Heylyn hung up.
She pocketed the phone and then took to the air and found her way back to her Queen's Quay condo, landing on the roof and dropping down the one floor to the penthouse. It was well after midnight and Monique had fallen asleep on the couch, while Warai was in bed asleep.
"She's in bed." Monique said to Heylyn, not really looking at her.
"I know." Heylyn responded.
"I'm going home, chief. I'll see you tomorrow for coffee. G'nite." Monique stumbled to the door and found her way out.
"Thanks Monique. Look I know you..." Heylyn started before Monique cut her off.
"You don't know. You didn't grow up like I did and you don't know what its like living that kind of life or with those kind of people. You're on the wrong side of this whole thing. They need to pay for what they do. I don't want to hear it. I'm going to bed." Monique closed the door behind her.
What Heylyn had made in progress against the Dragon Butterfly she'd lost in gaining the support of Monique. The Strawberry Ecclipse.
Warai too was having nightmares of her own. With monsters much like those Heylyn had faced. Only this time it was the Dragon Butterfly that saved her.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
Three of the gang members who'd pulled their hand guns in defense against the Dragon Butterfly quickly turned their attention to the Butterfly Dragon. She wasted no time and quickly dodged the first gunshot, which narrowly flew by her cheek as she ducked launching herself into an aerial strike downward upon the gunman. The force of her trained fist impacting his cheek threw him to the ground unconscious as the others opened fire. She quickly spun cartwheeling onto her hands extending both of her legs in a spinning scissor kick. Both remaining gunmen took the brunt of force of her extended heels sending them to the concrete unconscious.
"I'm impressed. I didn't think you had it in you." the Dragon had gotten to her feet, brushing herself off.
"They need to answer for their crimes before a court, not you." the Butterfly said after she'd pushed herself back onto her feet.
"I imagine they'll earn quite a name for themselves in jail. Having faced down against us and lived? You do realize that you just made them heroes amongst their own?" the Dragon approached the Butterfly.
"They'll tell lies to their peers to elevate their status in the group. A group that operates on the power of might. Might though, does not mean right." the Butterfly spoke.
"Very good. Literate too I see. E. B. White I believe? Now I suppose that you are The Once And Future Queen? Regardless, they'll be looked up to by the rest of those... social scraps. Table droppings. And that will unify them. Unified, they have power. Might is it not? The power of numbers is undeniable. Even us with our training, abilities and the spirit of our ancestors could not match the power of numbers. Might is right. The more you are, the more right you are." the Dragon challenged her.
"Theirs is just a dance before an audience of those who chase the next immediate gratification without the hope of a long term dream or goal or making this world a little bit better each day. Their survival will only ensure them pop status for a short time in jail until someone else challenges it. Then that person will be the figure head around which they rally. No reason to kill them. That makes us no better than them." the Butterfly spoke.
"Ahhhh. But you don't realize that we too do the same dance before the same kind of people. We're just a flavour of the month to others. We too have an audience who rally around us and if we fail to appease that beast, well then... you're starting to realize that. They have no loyalty because their virtues are founded of the same lust for immediate gratification. They're just on one side of the legal fence. So I'm euthanizing the others before they can threaten that. You could call it a... community service." the Dragon reasoned.
"They don't know now, but you're making them complicit in your acts of murder. When the balance has to be paid for your crimes, you'll be long gone and they'll be left with the bill. Then they'll know the true price of their complicity with your means." the Butterfly countered the Dragon.
"I'm very impressed, Butterfly. You're not just a vain beauty with a few splatters of make up and some tight clothing designed to garner you some cat calls. You're actually quite the philosopher. Who's that? Your Mother speaking? Your Grandmother? Wait, your quiet and hard working Father? Where did you earn that trait from? You're not still believing that children's tale about the Butterfly Dragon are you? That's nonsense concocted by a bunch of aging farmers who got sick of paying their due to the local land owners you know." the Dragon forced her knowledge of ancient history upon the Butterfly.
"They weren't land owners. They were murderous nomads. No land ownership because they called no land their own. Never having worked the land a day in their life. They'd never planted something to work it, nurture it, watch it grow and ultimately feed the people. They only showed up when they ran out of food to slash and burn the farming villages and steal their crops. Their homes that were built upon their work growing rice in the paddies. They learned to defend themselves against those murderers, who'd murder the village artists and philosophers first, in attempt to gain the support of the hard working farmers. Pit them against one another in attempt to make it easier the next time they needed food." the Butterfly stood her ground.
"You still don't get it." the Dragon spoke walking around the Butterfly.
"There's people here who don't want you here either. Do you think that this is your land? Our land? Look at our tradition here, the two of us fighting a battle beyond most people's concept of time. Before even this land existed. They don't want us here. You fight to defend a land in which you are not even welcomed by the local population. You know the type. The ones whose ancestors only a few generations ago came here and conquered the indigenous people, segregating them to a small piece of land and giving them their table scraps as you say. All of the sudden they're lurching around on their fat laurels like they somehow nurtured the fertile land this country is built upon. Half of them steal the deeds of others to get by. Like the... nomads as you called them where our ancestors hail from? So now the Butterfly has emerged from her cocoon of our traditions to protect the virtues of the farmers of old, upon whose hard work the first artisans and philosophers were able to emerge. Now you come here and protect another group of nomads with a different name and background, who stole it all away from another group of people to build this land? The funny part is that there are many amongst those people who just inherited this land from those who took it. So you protect the descendants of the nomads now and not the farmers upon whose back the land is built?" the Dragon posed.
The Butterfly wavered for a moment, perhaps a butterfly in flight might veer from its course from the force of a strong wind.
"This land has had its growing pains and injustices. Ancestors from my family on my Mother's side came here eight generations ago and helped build the national rail line. Chinese immigrants in a country which had just been born. In their memoirs they recounted working along side Irish immigrants who'd fled the potato famine. A man from Kenya whose ancestors had been liberated from slavery in the south just a three generations before. A Japanese immigrant who'd fled a struggling economy back in Japan just before the emergence of the first western industrialization in Japan, to seek work here. A couple of men from India who'd come here for the same reasons. Two Natives, one a Sioux national and the other Cree, who had lost family as a result of fighting against the expansion of the Commonwealth. A slew of Scottish and British hard backs as they called them, who reveled in hard work and a few stout French men, who'd been working as porters for a cartographer prior to the construction project. There they worked together laying every rail from Alberta to British Columbia for five years of back breaking labour. When they got to British Columbia, they had to start blasting which was very risky work. The men without wives or families to provide for would draw straws whenever a blasting charge would need to be set to remove obstructing rock. On one of those draws, the Cree Native came up with a short straw. As the story goes, one of the Irish men broke his straw to make it shorter so the Cree man wouldn't have to take the risk. The Kenyan man, who was without wife then broke his straw so the Irish man wouldn't have to do the task. One of the Brits broke his straw so the Kenyan wouldn't take the risk. Then the Japanese man broke his straw to protect the Brit. The Japanese man was about to grab the satchel with the explosives, when one of my ancestors, showed his straw, which was shorter than all of the others. He said to them I guess I win. He took the satchel and while setting the charge, the explosives which were far more volatile at that time, accidentally went off. He lost his life and his brother went on to take his compensation and married here. My immediate family came here generations later just after I was born. All of those railway men were friends and considered each other family even until this day, their families still work together in the interests of labour and safety in this country. This country which grew as fast as it did as a result of the construction of that railway. Much like a farm, whose fertility supported artists and philosophers to celebrate the beauty of life. I do not protect the thieving nomads who steal the hard work of the farmers. I still protect the farmers and the people here as my ancestors did in the land of our ancestors' beginnings. But this is my home and I will protect it. From them. From you." the Butterfly said taking her defensive stance.
"A touching tale but the real test will be in the hands of the people. Butterfly. You brought the fight to me while I was trying to clean up a festering problem in this city. I intend to bring the fight to you right in your back yard." the Dragon spoke and as her rage climaxed she charged.
She swung her arm wide and high first as Heylyn blocked, leaving her abdomen open. The Dragon spun quickly bringing her other fist around into her stomach. Heylyn flew back rolling over and back onto her feet just as the Dragon continued her onslaught. The Dragon threw five quick jabs in succession, Heylyn blocking each easily. When the Dragon spun for a spinning back handed punch, Heylyn ducked arcing her feet into a foot sweep once again catching the Dragon off guard. She collapsed to the concrete quickly rolling back up and onto her feet. The Dragon backed off.
"Very impressive. You bested me in the first round. I you in the second. Now you bested me in the third. I can hardly wait for the fourth... But that will have to wait, Butterfly. Ta ta for now." the Dragon leapt at a fire escape scaling it quickly towards the roof of the low rise building.
The Butterfly Dragon flew towards the roof only to impact a wall of flying blackness that emerged from nowhere. She suddenly found herself alone with something dark and furious stalking her. She backed up unable to see the walls of the alley way, tripping over one of the bodies of the gang members the Dragon Butterfly had murdered. It rose from its place on the ground reaching for her. She screamed backing away from it, suddenly feeling a sense of looming terror. One by one the dead gang members rose from their concrete graves and stalked towards her. She cowered away into the alley wall unable to move, petrified with fear.
She was a little girl again. She was in the corner of her bedroom at home crying and scared. She'd just seen monsters in a nightmare, much like the one she was facing now as a Woman. She shook as she remembered and as the dead gang members approached her slowly staggering towards her. She closed her eyes and cried. When she thought the monsters might get her, she felt someone stroking her hair. She turned and saw her Mother's face.
"It is alright, little one with a big heart. You are safe. You have to believe in yourself. I won't always be around to help you overcome your fears." her Mother said to her.
"But they're monsters. They're going to get me and eat me." little Heylyn said.
"Monsters might be scary, but they're the ones who are really afraid. That's why they need to attack you in numbers. You just have to face them and they'll back down." her Mother said.
"But I'm scared..." she cried again curling up into a ball.
"Don't be. You know why? Because you're the Butterfly. The Butterfly Dragon. Just like the story." her Mother said to her.
"...really?" she asked meekly.
"...you have to believe." her Mother whispered to her.
She sat thinking about it for a moment before fighting off that last urge to hide again, and then she stood as the monsters approached, taking a defensive stance like the one she'd learned in her first katas of the third kyu.
"I'm not running monsters! I am not afraid of you. You aren't going to hurt anyone anymore!" she yelled confidently.
She stood her ground and as the gang members approached her closing their distance, she began to doubt her confidence. She felt afraid, but she stood her ground anyway.
They progressed a little further before they began to shudder and then fell back to the concrete where they remained. dead as they had once been.
She turned to her Mother, who'd now taken another familiar form. That of Weltherwithsp.
"You see. There are Dragons not so vile as the one who'd death beguile on a whim the game begins where it ended last..." Weltherwithsp spoke to her.
"But you led me to a trap Weltherwithsp!" young Heylyn exclaimed.
"I did no such thing nor brought you suffr'ing. Monsters too there did you face, a different kind and without waste. You tried to reason, tried to save but while they left you, they found their grave." Weltherwithsp told her.
Heylyn thought about what had happened in the abandoned parking lot that had become home to disowned cars and scrap. It was true, she'd come there to take those men to justice, while the Dragon Lady had shown up to take them to their grave. She'd faced them both, another manipulation of the Dragon Butterfly.
"The battles you face aren't always fought with physical prowess, the fists you've wrought. Sometimes a battle is fought in word, a punching fist cannot be heard. Therefore it speaks to only one, you must reach many before this will be undone." Weltherwithsp said to her.
Heylyn thought about Weltherwithsp's statement and once again found herself as a mature Woman, standing in an alley. She looked around, seeing the three that she had knocked unconscious were coming around. She quickly secured the three of them together and then to the fire escape. She then pulled her cellular phone and dialed 9-1-1.
"Hello? Yes I need Police and paramedics to an alley just off Yonge Street and Temperance Street. I heard gun fire and I think the tattoo lady may be involved!" she said into the phone.
"Stay away from the conflict and try to get to safety. Police and paramedics will arrive shortly Ma'am. Just stay on the phone..." the operator assured Heylyn as Heylyn hung up.
She pocketed the phone and then took to the air and found her way back to her Queen's Quay condo, landing on the roof and dropping down the one floor to the penthouse. It was well after midnight and Monique had fallen asleep on the couch, while Warai was in bed asleep.
"She's in bed." Monique said to Heylyn, not really looking at her.
"I know." Heylyn responded.
"I'm going home, chief. I'll see you tomorrow for coffee. G'nite." Monique stumbled to the door and found her way out.
"Thanks Monique. Look I know you..." Heylyn started before Monique cut her off.
"You don't know. You didn't grow up like I did and you don't know what its like living that kind of life or with those kind of people. You're on the wrong side of this whole thing. They need to pay for what they do. I don't want to hear it. I'm going to bed." Monique closed the door behind her.
What Heylyn had made in progress against the Dragon Butterfly she'd lost in gaining the support of Monique. The Strawberry Ecclipse.
Warai too was having nightmares of her own. With monsters much like those Heylyn had faced. Only this time it was the Dragon Butterfly that saved her.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
The Two Minds
These two new chapters will be integrated into Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly.
The Mind Of The Butterfly
She looked across the city from her perch high atop the First Canadian Place tower. She'd often come here in the midst of a patrol, just to collect herself.
Below was a city that sometimes didn't need her. Didn't want her as the Butterfly. But she still gave what she could because what drove her was beyond what other people thought of her.
She'd never been a people pleaser in the sense that she'd do anything for approval. She'd do something and if others liked it, that was just her good fortune (and their good taste she'd joke). Her designs and fashions had been much the same. Never trying to do exactly what people wanted, but to challenge it mildly as her competitors had noted of her.
She'd been used to from a young age. Her parents had taught her that the road paved by the multitude of minds, often meandered without direction. Their Chinese wisdom that had found home in one of North America's capital markets. A city of prosperity, tradition and new beginnings. If you could find your way through the meandering path set out by the multitude. She'd learned that by staying away from what she thought people wanted, and what she'd set out to do, that the path was often very direct. North American common sense meets the wisdom of the Far East. Sometimes they'd clash. Sometimes they'd meet and make love.
From this height there were many whom would have a hard time seeing the city below, but her eyes were more than just what she saw. Weltherwithsp had taught her about the shared sight. To see though to what everyone saw at that moment. Not to be there but still to see.
She looked into the night and saw the echoes of their sight below. No sign of her. The one who'd put this great weight upon her shoulders and though she was capable of carrying much, it still pained her to be known as the protector of that which she sought to liberate her city from. The other one. Her enemy. Mortal enemy like none she'd ever known. Even Zek was mild though slightly cantankerous by comparison. She was just as deft in manipulation as she was in combat. An expert martial artist of the likes she'd not seen on this mortal earth. Was she even mortal or was she of the spirit legends of which her Mother and Grandmother would tell her stories. Like a risen goddess here to claim the world by her ways.
The press had been cruel to her since the mysterious Dragon Lady had arrived. The most recent encounter had pit her against the Dragon in verbal combat. There, Heylyn had learned that she was most agile and deceitful. She'd even manipulated her prey to side with her. Together they'd fought the Butterfly in a battle of wits rather than fists.
Heylyn the next day had read the headlines that their bodies had been found by Police. Each of them murdered and left as a trophy display for the city to see. Even signed by the Dragon herself in an indelible marker on the shirts of each of the victims:
Butterfly = nothing. Dragon = results.
Like she was running for office. If you vote for me, I'll clean the city of every rapist, abuser and crack cocaine dealer that ever was. The Buttefly? She'll just protect them from me? Who do you want?
Heylyn had managed to hide it. Her feelings about this character attack upon the Butterfly Dragon but it still left scars without breaking skin. Some of those scars were sometimes deeper than any that could be rendered by weapon or fist.
Monique had began to feel nothing but contempt for Heylyn since that night. Warai had even been spending more time with Monique. It was like she was losing bits and pieces of her. Heylyn had tried to make it up to Warai, pulling out the photographs and videos she'd taken in Japan before the stage play they'd attended together just outside of the Emporer's Palace. Warai on the stage hiding behind one of the characters of the play, laughing and giggling. Warai had seemed to lose interest though and found it more in Monique and this had hurt Heylyn deeply though she never let it show. Warai was free and Heylyn respected that more than anyone but she also had a bit more life experience than Monique. Monique would never admit that.
Monique had learned a much different truth than Heylyn would even understand. Not that Heylyn wouldn't comprehend it, but it was a pride that those who'd grown up in much more earthy circumstances might delude themselves with. A shield against the privileged. A prejudice much the same as the privileged might hold against those who weren't. A wall built of bricks provided by the ignorance of each side. Never realizing they were looking at a mirror at each other. Though as a result instead they were looking at a wall. The same wall that separated Monique and Heylyn. Upon which Warai was poised as each side pleaded their case.
Warai's little mind could see far beyond what they'd imagined though she'd often purposely limit that potential for her own sake. When things got too scary, like when the big people would stop being themselves and get all mean and not understand. Her protection. Weltherwithsp might have said that no matter the age no matter the size, few of us do realize. What we know is built of sand. It might seem solid but does not stand. We make this pile, there is no doubt. Don't put in what you can't take out. Warai understood Weltherwithsp's words. Whimsical but sensible. Not like the adult people sometimes spoke. Like Monique. Like Heylyn. Like she was a trophy they were competing over. Two friends made enemies. By the Dragon.
Warai had no concept though of the Dragon Lady and could not distinguish her as being the killer of her parents. Instead to Warai, she'd become a symbol much like Welly. A symbol that grownups did not understand like Welly. She was doing something. Monique maybe knew. Maybe she didn't. But something was changing and Welly knew. She trusted Welly so Welly had to be right. Welly likes Monique and Monique must be right too.
Below on the street below, something shifted. The mood had gone and the night had become imperiled. People panicking somewhere and she struggled to see. The Butterfly looked and saw panic.
She leapt off the building spinning mid air into a dive into the source of the fray. Her aetherial wings opened leaving a sparkling trail behind her and she stormed down upon the unseen turmoil.
The Dragon's Mind
She walked, and her heels clicked. Marking the pavement with each step. Even if the pavement did not yield to her step, she'd make it. It would notice. They would notice. Her mark upon the world was her step, each in turn. Like a path. Each step placed indicated a future step at some point. One by one they painted a path that the Dragon would take and each for this Dragon Lady.
She'd hidden her tattoos, for they were ancient and none had known. More ancient than time could be measured. Like the constellations in the sky. Would any dare decry the stars themselves? How they spoke volumes of the future? The many farmer's she'd felled over two thousand years ago didn't. It was like screaming at the wind. The clouds were and the tattoos upon the earth. In motion and telling a story to the stars, who'd cry their interpretation back to us. The rain will come. The sky will fall. Women will be fertile. No seeds sewn. Death and famine.
Her tattoos would whisper to her for they were ancient enough to have voices. Every single one of them spoke to her, Protected her. Each a Talisman beyond the understanding of these Western ideas. It was merely ink to them. Tainted skin. Like a bruise. A mark that had been rendered in pain. Their ignorance of ideas they could never comprehend. Like pictures in a book, the pages could be torn from their bindings. Gone. Like their ideas from generation to generation. They had no concept of time and agelessness of the skies. Like her tattoos. They were real.
Not like the falsities of stories of the West. Movies. Books. Fake realities made to fuel and need in the soul that few could understand and never quench. The real performance was before the Gods of all. To risk it all before the glory of the spirits as herself. Might they be amused?
With every kill she'd accumulated she'd heard them. Sometimes silence. Laughter. Crying. Oration. Swearing in the ancient tongue? She'd never know who or what. Just that they would notice and they would respond. They would never steer her path, for perhaps they were beholden to bear witness to hers. A prison. An audience. The show at a dinner feast? Like watching dogs fight over scraps of food? Spirits were odd, and though she might be considered as such by mortals, she was far from. Heylyn had been right when she'd determine that she was more like a force of nature. Though a force of nature with a mind and ego all the same. Beyond understanding. Just the click of heels for now. A flower? There in a planter the city had made. Trapped in a cement container. All these things were made. By the city. A God of sorts. A spirit of its own. And like spirits and Gods, it needed protection. Protection was a word few understood. Complicated by laws. Rights. Freedom. Compassion. Like a meandering path woven through everyone else's misgivings. They were all guilty. Some more than others. Her tattoos told her. Those on her breasts spoke much of the time, for they represented those of carnal sin. Those who'd lust after her with desires she'd seen often. Men. Women. It was natural. When she'd become a symbol to them, it had increased a thousand fold.
Then there were those who'd lust after death. Theirs. Someone else's. Sometimes they'd plot murder. Their own. Someone else's. And it would be done. Sometimes failed. Sometimes not. Hey tattoos would laugh. The spirits would cry. But blood was spilled. It was the way. But not her path.
It spoke to her. The pain of those who the Butterfly had missed. Somehow that mysterious beauty had made a mistake. Did (the) spirits really make mistakes?. She'd secretly ask (Warai). Welly would reassure. She wouldn't say anything. Her tattoos would just smile and watch. The Butterfly.
Butterfly.
Butterfly.
In the night.
In the sky.
You missed another.
Now tell me why?
This Butterfly spirit. A mess. The city (spirit) needed (protection). She thought.
Her tattoos laughed. Dead.
Who?
You'll see. You will really see.
Bruises. On her face. How?
Them. That one. You see? A mark on his Aura? There. They all do. A mark. You'll know it.
They should?
You prod them enough. They will. The bruises and their place upon their rendering.
This mark? Upon all who...?
A mark. Not the same mark. But yes. Like a stain upon the soul. An etching of their deeds upon their unseen nature except by the likes of your tattoos. And (ancient) you. Dead (they'll be). All (of them).
One.
By.
One.
Hahaha!
When I feel that mark. It hurts. Not because I feel it. But because I know the myriad creatures will feel. A push.
Then I'll pull. Understand?
Maybe. Aren't you?
No. Know. Can't you feel the timing? The tempo?
You speak mysteries spirits. I do not understand.
You will. Like the wave in a pond. Your prey does. So will you them.
Her tattoos laugh. Then they cry and scream.
That should be them she thinks.
Exactly!
Then speak spirits. You have your audience. Though my heels etch a path that is my own.
Your path is already set. They lie in your path for all is happening at once. Can you not see the wave is everywhere and nowhere?
I see them cheering my name. Then they cry.
Her tattoos cry and then they laugh. Then they tell her that they're lying.
This is madness. You make no sense. She says.
Then you must. They must die.
I knew that. Not because you said as such. But because I knew by the path of my heels and the voice of my tattoos. Dead. And they will like it. All of them. Like the waves in the pond. They will fall low, and I will crest high.
Like the rhythm?
Like my own tempo, but still like the rhythm.
Ripples have direction too.
They only have one direction. Outward ever expanding.
Then so should you.
Like the path of my heels upon this artificial stone they've made.
She remembered the same ancient conversation she'd had thousands of years ago just as she walked into the alley.
"Who in the heck are you? You better going unless you want some of this..." the man who'd been in the middle of a deal pulled a small metallic piece from his belt.
"Maybe you want some of me instead of this child's play your selling to?" she spoke stealing the show.
"Who are you calling children b#tch." one of the purchasers asked her voice waivering as if she spoke in unfamiliar territory.
The Dragon Lady did not hear. Her tattoos swooned.
Just as the girl had spoken, a group of nine males entered the alley.
"Hey! That's that b#tch from the news!" one of them spoke in revelation.
"Now so many needlessly have to die." the Dragon Lady said as the dance began.
From a building blocks away, the Butterfly saw.
The Dragon's tattoos screamed: She comes! Hurry! Take them all!
As two had advanced upon her their guns drawn, the flying black snake dug into their soul.
They tried to (scream) but they could not (scream).
Then the Dragon's fists and legs flew as did their bullets. Death like their bullets always comes in numbers.
They were not fast enough and the Butterfly approached while the Dragon killed (them) each.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
The Mind Of The Butterfly
She looked across the city from her perch high atop the First Canadian Place tower. She'd often come here in the midst of a patrol, just to collect herself.
Below was a city that sometimes didn't need her. Didn't want her as the Butterfly. But she still gave what she could because what drove her was beyond what other people thought of her.
She'd never been a people pleaser in the sense that she'd do anything for approval. She'd do something and if others liked it, that was just her good fortune (and their good taste she'd joke). Her designs and fashions had been much the same. Never trying to do exactly what people wanted, but to challenge it mildly as her competitors had noted of her.
She'd been used to from a young age. Her parents had taught her that the road paved by the multitude of minds, often meandered without direction. Their Chinese wisdom that had found home in one of North America's capital markets. A city of prosperity, tradition and new beginnings. If you could find your way through the meandering path set out by the multitude. She'd learned that by staying away from what she thought people wanted, and what she'd set out to do, that the path was often very direct. North American common sense meets the wisdom of the Far East. Sometimes they'd clash. Sometimes they'd meet and make love.
From this height there were many whom would have a hard time seeing the city below, but her eyes were more than just what she saw. Weltherwithsp had taught her about the shared sight. To see though to what everyone saw at that moment. Not to be there but still to see.
She looked into the night and saw the echoes of their sight below. No sign of her. The one who'd put this great weight upon her shoulders and though she was capable of carrying much, it still pained her to be known as the protector of that which she sought to liberate her city from. The other one. Her enemy. Mortal enemy like none she'd ever known. Even Zek was mild though slightly cantankerous by comparison. She was just as deft in manipulation as she was in combat. An expert martial artist of the likes she'd not seen on this mortal earth. Was she even mortal or was she of the spirit legends of which her Mother and Grandmother would tell her stories. Like a risen goddess here to claim the world by her ways.
The press had been cruel to her since the mysterious Dragon Lady had arrived. The most recent encounter had pit her against the Dragon in verbal combat. There, Heylyn had learned that she was most agile and deceitful. She'd even manipulated her prey to side with her. Together they'd fought the Butterfly in a battle of wits rather than fists.
Heylyn the next day had read the headlines that their bodies had been found by Police. Each of them murdered and left as a trophy display for the city to see. Even signed by the Dragon herself in an indelible marker on the shirts of each of the victims:
Butterfly = nothing. Dragon = results.
Like she was running for office. If you vote for me, I'll clean the city of every rapist, abuser and crack cocaine dealer that ever was. The Buttefly? She'll just protect them from me? Who do you want?
Heylyn had managed to hide it. Her feelings about this character attack upon the Butterfly Dragon but it still left scars without breaking skin. Some of those scars were sometimes deeper than any that could be rendered by weapon or fist.
Monique had began to feel nothing but contempt for Heylyn since that night. Warai had even been spending more time with Monique. It was like she was losing bits and pieces of her. Heylyn had tried to make it up to Warai, pulling out the photographs and videos she'd taken in Japan before the stage play they'd attended together just outside of the Emporer's Palace. Warai on the stage hiding behind one of the characters of the play, laughing and giggling. Warai had seemed to lose interest though and found it more in Monique and this had hurt Heylyn deeply though she never let it show. Warai was free and Heylyn respected that more than anyone but she also had a bit more life experience than Monique. Monique would never admit that.
Monique had learned a much different truth than Heylyn would even understand. Not that Heylyn wouldn't comprehend it, but it was a pride that those who'd grown up in much more earthy circumstances might delude themselves with. A shield against the privileged. A prejudice much the same as the privileged might hold against those who weren't. A wall built of bricks provided by the ignorance of each side. Never realizing they were looking at a mirror at each other. Though as a result instead they were looking at a wall. The same wall that separated Monique and Heylyn. Upon which Warai was poised as each side pleaded their case.
Warai's little mind could see far beyond what they'd imagined though she'd often purposely limit that potential for her own sake. When things got too scary, like when the big people would stop being themselves and get all mean and not understand. Her protection. Weltherwithsp might have said that no matter the age no matter the size, few of us do realize. What we know is built of sand. It might seem solid but does not stand. We make this pile, there is no doubt. Don't put in what you can't take out. Warai understood Weltherwithsp's words. Whimsical but sensible. Not like the adult people sometimes spoke. Like Monique. Like Heylyn. Like she was a trophy they were competing over. Two friends made enemies. By the Dragon.
Warai had no concept though of the Dragon Lady and could not distinguish her as being the killer of her parents. Instead to Warai, she'd become a symbol much like Welly. A symbol that grownups did not understand like Welly. She was doing something. Monique maybe knew. Maybe she didn't. But something was changing and Welly knew. She trusted Welly so Welly had to be right. Welly likes Monique and Monique must be right too.
Below on the street below, something shifted. The mood had gone and the night had become imperiled. People panicking somewhere and she struggled to see. The Butterfly looked and saw panic.
She leapt off the building spinning mid air into a dive into the source of the fray. Her aetherial wings opened leaving a sparkling trail behind her and she stormed down upon the unseen turmoil.
The Dragon's Mind
She walked, and her heels clicked. Marking the pavement with each step. Even if the pavement did not yield to her step, she'd make it. It would notice. They would notice. Her mark upon the world was her step, each in turn. Like a path. Each step placed indicated a future step at some point. One by one they painted a path that the Dragon would take and each for this Dragon Lady.
She'd hidden her tattoos, for they were ancient and none had known. More ancient than time could be measured. Like the constellations in the sky. Would any dare decry the stars themselves? How they spoke volumes of the future? The many farmer's she'd felled over two thousand years ago didn't. It was like screaming at the wind. The clouds were and the tattoos upon the earth. In motion and telling a story to the stars, who'd cry their interpretation back to us. The rain will come. The sky will fall. Women will be fertile. No seeds sewn. Death and famine.
Her tattoos would whisper to her for they were ancient enough to have voices. Every single one of them spoke to her, Protected her. Each a Talisman beyond the understanding of these Western ideas. It was merely ink to them. Tainted skin. Like a bruise. A mark that had been rendered in pain. Their ignorance of ideas they could never comprehend. Like pictures in a book, the pages could be torn from their bindings. Gone. Like their ideas from generation to generation. They had no concept of time and agelessness of the skies. Like her tattoos. They were real.
Not like the falsities of stories of the West. Movies. Books. Fake realities made to fuel and need in the soul that few could understand and never quench. The real performance was before the Gods of all. To risk it all before the glory of the spirits as herself. Might they be amused?
With every kill she'd accumulated she'd heard them. Sometimes silence. Laughter. Crying. Oration. Swearing in the ancient tongue? She'd never know who or what. Just that they would notice and they would respond. They would never steer her path, for perhaps they were beholden to bear witness to hers. A prison. An audience. The show at a dinner feast? Like watching dogs fight over scraps of food? Spirits were odd, and though she might be considered as such by mortals, she was far from. Heylyn had been right when she'd determine that she was more like a force of nature. Though a force of nature with a mind and ego all the same. Beyond understanding. Just the click of heels for now. A flower? There in a planter the city had made. Trapped in a cement container. All these things were made. By the city. A God of sorts. A spirit of its own. And like spirits and Gods, it needed protection. Protection was a word few understood. Complicated by laws. Rights. Freedom. Compassion. Like a meandering path woven through everyone else's misgivings. They were all guilty. Some more than others. Her tattoos told her. Those on her breasts spoke much of the time, for they represented those of carnal sin. Those who'd lust after her with desires she'd seen often. Men. Women. It was natural. When she'd become a symbol to them, it had increased a thousand fold.
Then there were those who'd lust after death. Theirs. Someone else's. Sometimes they'd plot murder. Their own. Someone else's. And it would be done. Sometimes failed. Sometimes not. Hey tattoos would laugh. The spirits would cry. But blood was spilled. It was the way. But not her path.
It spoke to her. The pain of those who the Butterfly had missed. Somehow that mysterious beauty had made a mistake. Did (the) spirits really make mistakes?. She'd secretly ask (Warai). Welly would reassure. She wouldn't say anything. Her tattoos would just smile and watch. The Butterfly.
Butterfly.
Butterfly.
In the night.
In the sky.
You missed another.
Now tell me why?
This Butterfly spirit. A mess. The city (spirit) needed (protection). She thought.
Her tattoos laughed. Dead.
Who?
You'll see. You will really see.
Bruises. On her face. How?
Them. That one. You see? A mark on his Aura? There. They all do. A mark. You'll know it.
They should?
You prod them enough. They will. The bruises and their place upon their rendering.
This mark? Upon all who...?
A mark. Not the same mark. But yes. Like a stain upon the soul. An etching of their deeds upon their unseen nature except by the likes of your tattoos. And (ancient) you. Dead (they'll be). All (of them).
One.
By.
One.
Hahaha!
When I feel that mark. It hurts. Not because I feel it. But because I know the myriad creatures will feel. A push.
Then I'll pull. Understand?
Maybe. Aren't you?
No. Know. Can't you feel the timing? The tempo?
You speak mysteries spirits. I do not understand.
You will. Like the wave in a pond. Your prey does. So will you them.
Her tattoos laugh. Then they cry and scream.
That should be them she thinks.
Exactly!
Then speak spirits. You have your audience. Though my heels etch a path that is my own.
Your path is already set. They lie in your path for all is happening at once. Can you not see the wave is everywhere and nowhere?
I see them cheering my name. Then they cry.
Her tattoos cry and then they laugh. Then they tell her that they're lying.
This is madness. You make no sense. She says.
Then you must. They must die.
I knew that. Not because you said as such. But because I knew by the path of my heels and the voice of my tattoos. Dead. And they will like it. All of them. Like the waves in the pond. They will fall low, and I will crest high.
Like the rhythm?
Like my own tempo, but still like the rhythm.
Ripples have direction too.
They only have one direction. Outward ever expanding.
Then so should you.
Like the path of my heels upon this artificial stone they've made.
She remembered the same ancient conversation she'd had thousands of years ago just as she walked into the alley.
"Who in the heck are you? You better going unless you want some of this..." the man who'd been in the middle of a deal pulled a small metallic piece from his belt.
"Maybe you want some of me instead of this child's play your selling to?" she spoke stealing the show.
"Who are you calling children b#tch." one of the purchasers asked her voice waivering as if she spoke in unfamiliar territory.
The Dragon Lady did not hear. Her tattoos swooned.
Just as the girl had spoken, a group of nine males entered the alley.
"Hey! That's that b#tch from the news!" one of them spoke in revelation.
"Now so many needlessly have to die." the Dragon Lady said as the dance began.
From a building blocks away, the Butterfly saw.
The Dragon's tattoos screamed: She comes! Hurry! Take them all!
As two had advanced upon her their guns drawn, the flying black snake dug into their soul.
They tried to (scream) but they could not (scream).
Then the Dragon's fists and legs flew as did their bullets. Death like their bullets always comes in numbers.
They were not fast enough and the Butterfly approached while the Dragon killed (them) each.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2015 Brian Joseph Johns
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