Sharing a hotel room in Rome... just like the Barcelona story. First day... out in the rain... with my monsters...
by night fall we all learned to cage the monsters in the 7 hills hotel. so the next morning we let the city unfold its show.
shy...
postcars from Italy... to Beirut.
and later in the weekend.. it got more contrast... more color... wind of windows window to window
by this time.. we decided to make new friends and start tasting the good wines and the food. Here they go... strangers and friends and mostly good times. I wish my mind would have been more where my body was.
No sugar please... thank you. I took off the scarf and placed it next to me - i loved how it matched my dress. How come he was late ? In fact, while i was glad to be here on time and able to act pretentious about punctuality i was somehow intrigued about him not being here already. Most of vampires were late on dates.. i never met any but i knew that much. Having all the immortality on their side made time such an fancy notion. He was different. My hi-school best friend, Amara died in his arms - so in love i got scared then. Also my great aunt died in his arms, i found her journal... and in fact that's where i got to know him so well... as it seemed it was one of the few times he has almost lost his head for a girl. So i knew he was always on time. I knew he never lied - always telling the truth. If you asked him the right question he would have told you the real thing - it was a pact he made with himself... and that makes him so vulnerable to me. Lucky enough... knowing so much about him made my talks rather plesant - as i avoided so many questions that i felt he was expecting. I've seen him a bit torn apart by the fact that he could not really show his inner secrets.
The tea was slowly steaming my hands as i was playing imaginary piano above my cup. I had a large ring on my left hand with a ruby that was waiting for the tea to match its color. Before going out i didn't had too much choice of perfume - i have so many and i pick them by their names but the dress asked for "Mirage" by Mirror and i lift the fragrance and my neck up.. on my red high heels boots. That's when he came around and i wasn't sure if the perfume was messing with my mind or he really shaved and cut his hair and was wearing elegant clothes. It was totally against his type. - I'm sorry i was late... the traffic. - Don't worry... i entertained myself exchanging glances with the kids from across the room, i said. He didn't seemed to hear me. What will you have? i asked, knowing that he takes a Bloody Red Bull - his medicine as he calls it. I knew from a letter sent to Amara that he found a race of Lamas who's blood had the taste so similar to humans, and so close to her blood perfume that he bought a whole farm.He was carrying some fresh blood with him, every day, using a "designer made" thermo bottle, so he can mix with his drink... usually Red Bull. - What are you having? Smells great. Is it tea? I'll have some... - Oh... i said, genuinely surprised. Are you a tea drinker? - Well... i love warm drinks, he said, and i have the feeling that i have been missing the tea flavors, i was too rough in my youth to have the capacity to detect and enjoy the delicate construction of tea. - Ha ha, i faked a laugh, tell me about your youth then. And i was really worried about the answer since it was the first time i asked him about his past. - Well, i'm so old i have already forgotten it. - Come on... you're not, only few years older than me - i pinched his guts again, hating the fact that he was avoiding my questions. - Well... a girl told me once, as she looked inside my eyes that... i have a very old soul - and i was 14 at the time. I knew very well the story... it was my great aunt, and no... he was not 14, only his body was that age at the time. The immortality to the half vampires was a process of transition, as they could be born and die yet pass into the next shell usually their own children. Their aging was different -much slower than humans and unless they had a violent death, they could transfer all their lifes into their kids as they were dieing. Cancer produced a lot of these kids with very old souls, and a series of long lives transfered into them. So he was looking 14 for my great aunt, 22 for Amara and 30 something for me. The tea arrived on the table and was taking it's time for the infusion. I realized that the process was dragging us into the tea cup - our mids were finally getting the right watering, the right temperature, and the right intentions so our feelings open up like tea leaves spreading silence and tension in our hearts. But i intended to face him, to confront him straight to his core - i was quite happy on how i was mastering my feelings as of late and i knew exactly who i was dealing with this time. Yet he was different today. Our last talks were so... him... what could have happened? We had great time, as friends, long talks about nothing. I was really intending to break this boundary, to tell him that i know everything about him, all about being a vampire, all about how girls fall for him and he never falls in love, all about his thirst and... uh.. I've seen his eyes looking at me, his nose sniffing from across the room the flow of my blood. I had so many man falling in love for me the last years, all i got was trouble and depression, a feeling of loneliness as nobody could make me snap my heart again and here i was, ready to jump into yet another extreme thing and he was denying my entry. - sugar? i asked. - I don't know... yes ? - Maybe not.. if you're into tea.. like seriously.. you don't add sugar. It dirties the flavor. And there it was... my answer. I saw his weakness for a split of a second. The weakness i have been seeing so much lately... that hesitation of the answer.. that proof that feelings have messed his mind already. DAMN - i wanted the strong guy i knew... not this act. I wanted my vampire, my truth, my confrontation, i wanted the guy who could speak of love and death and blood like a doctor does. I will confront him, and my words will cut like knifes and i'll butcher his soul for being weak in front of me. Why do i always get to ruin the men i could like? I take the tea cup with my most elegant gesture, straighten my back, take a sip... a second sip... long pause, gather all my venom under my tongue, prepare the question about vampires, and blood and Amara and my aunt and... the tea is infusing trough my mouth, the leaves are falling at the bottom of my heart, the mind knows that there is no more need to shine... you can lie now, you can pretend, you can shut up your inner seeds, and you can deny yourself all the truth, all this man stands for, you can ignore all the reality... since finally... a feeling is real.
- I love cinnamon in my tea... - Me too... said the vampire.
Just before everything goes under the snow i thought i'd dig some shots of summer. This is south of France... Bayonne... all red and white... all party... and around...
His mind was a field of flowers… or a field of eggs. By fall they all got rotten and… it stinks. Winter is coming… all will be frozen. Winter is coming…
“Who needs their fossil fuels? The planet surely won’t complain when half of the world will stop using them. We have electric cars, busses and all. Whatever we don’t have yet, we’ll build – we have made destroyers and submarines on nuclear power and our satellites don’t need gas to run- I'd say we're ahead already. We’ll be much better in the end “ – United States Fool
It was a slow process and somehow the mastermind behind it made sure that everyone joined the race with all their guts on the table. Prices grew, economists debated, politicians took the opportunity and soon half of the world was marching into technology upgrade. They were to make the man the ruler of the universe by embracing it’s rules, respecting the planet. They were “the Pure”. In this part of the earth people become so hateful of the fossil fuels that they didn’t even made campfires anymore. It was the new step for the modern man, a place where humankind was forging its destiny with its hands. The globalization process got stuck and managed only to coagulate the world in two, each part considering itself fortunate.
On the other side, people were already destined for greatness as the gods and the planet favored them with the power of fire, the one that made the difference from the beginning of time. Russia sealed their pipes and made a pact with the Middle East – all the resources were traded only within this group called “the selected”. When the group got China’s money and processing power they knew that the balance tumbled on their side. There was no horizon anymore. They were to bring faith, into the world.
Europe, US, Japan and the others were already on the path of alternative sources as the “pure governments” initiated upgrade programs for each industry and money found a new path to flow. The future seemed noble, septic clean and bright and all the sacrifices seemed reasonable.
Yet as the separation grew stronger so did the truth came out to hurt all sides.
One side was depending to the earth juices and grew greedier and obsessed with its precious fuel.
The other got itself suspended while trying to detach from the old ways a bit too fast. Things were moving but far too slow… everything was just surviving and some were not pleased with only that.
Saboteurs and dealers, secret transports and huge money were in the new underground market for fuel and clean tech alike swinging the sides and anyone who wanted more was deep in the game. Soon, the more money, the more greed and the more the conflict the bigger the weapons.
Success formulas were tested all over the planet – it was nothing illegal, it was just hard to get – and it didn’t surprise anyone when some strong men decided to get what they could from the weak.
And since history provided enough tools and scenarios for supremacy it all came down to the right weapons.
…
That’s where we came in – there are no better weapons in a war than what we fly - and these birds burn fuel – now... how ironic is that ?
This story wouldn’t be as interesting if it wasn’t like this. Get ready to see a lot of flames and to have your hands smell of kerosene. It’s the last song of fire on this planet and it dances from the sky, like in the bible.
It’s the last act of planetary suicide, the last drop of oil, the last flight of the jet fighters and you’d better be curious to see how it ends, because it sounds like a thundering epilogue.
Darwing made for UNICA magazine. Model:Lavinia Sima (MRA). Clothes by Raluca Damian.
It was a strange house... somehow everyone was there if she would put her mind to it. She knew that if she wanted to see anyone, especially any of her friends, she will just make that person be in one of those rooms... all she needed was to really look. She felt good having friends, close to her. But she wasn't looking to see anyone right now ... she was at peace just knowing they were all there. She moved to the next door, she knew that the next room will be empty and the next one too, arranging themselves for her in a strange way, since she felt good being alone right now.
The rooms were big and empty, with great walls, some paintings here and there... art... that she never took too much interest in, and now she was sort of looking since the light was coming in abundantly from the wall full of big windows, making the big paintings seem... important. She stopped in this huge room, for no reason. The light was nice, in was quiet and the spring outside was making its way into this cold house. Dust was dancing in the light, she watched that, and when she was about to leave, a huge sliding door captured her eye. It was a nice dressing. It felt private. It was one of the biggest she has ever seen, yet the clothes seemed crowded inside. She didn't wanted to intrude, feeling like it was not her place, but before closing the door back, she indulged herself, as she was doing in her shopping days, to let her hand touch the hanged clothes, feeling the materials. She loved clothes so much... shopping too.
And right there, her mind locked into a simple blouse. How magic... it was exactly like her first favorite piece of clothing from high school. Nothing special about it, not too elegant, a simple blouse that was making her newly grown breast visible for the first time. The past flooded her with a rush of memories. She wasn't seing.. she was actualy remembering how it felt when she got it, when she wore it the first time, a bit embarrassed yet loving how everyone was discovering her... at last. Oh, how it made her feel more like a woman than a child, and she had this blouse at the start of that summer romance, the love of her school days. Suddenly she felt the hands of her lover going under that blouse, her right hand made a jerking move like she was fighting his hand and loving to fight his hand... she was surprised to see her hand moving and she stopped. That was freaky, but a beautiful memory. A big smile covered her face and she let her hand move over, leaving the blouse behind with a certain melancholy. But the next piece on the hanger was another cloth she used to have. She couldn't believe it... it was one that she totally forgot about. She was already proposed and she has given her "yes" for few weeks already, her wedding was in only 2 months and she was shopping frenetically, trying this very dress when this young man came and complimented her. A small bird started to fly within her heart at that moment and while the world was at her feet and her future was calling, she felt caged that day. She spent the whole day with him, he bought her the dress, he made her feel so young and free. That man, she had to let go, too soon and too abruptly . It was her lover until the wedding day, she only told him afterwards, she didn't had the heart to face him, she wore that dress in on her wedding day, to clean her heart. Ah, and there it was, the jacket she had when she ran away. Synthetic leather, light green, with small purple lines. She hated that jacket as it was the only thing she managed to take with her. She reached the left pocket... and a crumbled pack of cigaretes, and a stack of papers with phone numbers... oh my God.. still there... and the notice from that motel, and the letter from her daughter, asking mommy why she doesn't love her anymore. Something was too strange... she remembered that soon after that day... she burned the jacket, on a back alley, in a remote town. Something was off. The rest of the clothes were covered with a light material.. that seemed like snake skin, white, dead snake skin. She opened another door to bring more light into the dressing... ripping the snake skin she found a pack of clothes that never belonged to her. Beautiful clothes, she wondered who they were belonging to. And than it came to her as she remembered one of them, and soon the rest... clothes she bought, she loved, but never got to wear them... she sold some of them on the internet back in her days. She tried to touch one but while it looked like blue velvet, it felt made of snake skin too. Somehow everything was turning into a a huge dead snake skin. It moved dammit! Umm.. no.. it was only her imagination.
She moved on, opening more doors from this dressing that seemed to come all the way around the room, and the snake was there, engulfing all this clothes, and she was uncovering it from tail to head. As she was walking around the room, opening doors, it seemed that the head was going to be where the tail was ending, if not, like that classic statue, this snake was also eating his tail: Ouroboros. There were few more doors to be opened. Somehow the windows have moved and she was inside this circle, all her live on the hanger, protected by snake skin. She stopped, wondering what kind of head this snake was having. She had to peak but she was afraid to open the rest of the doors. She looked inside from the one she was standing to... and .. yes... some light was comming in from the other open doors and... yes... that snake was no ordinary one. It seemed to have a human head... it felt it was hers.... but now she was way to scared to see. ... They say, one who save his soul shall lose it. She never tried to save her soul too much, she was never into soul saving business, but she knew that if she had to face her snake, she will die. And just like the days when she was out shopping and she had no money, when she decided something was too expensive and she had to leave the store without getting that beautiful cloth, convincing herself that .. it was not worthy, convincing herself she doesn't want it, she doesn't need it... just like that, she left the room, looking for a next one, like she was always looking for a next shop.
Somehow, the whole house was empty now... she was sure of it... she'll find no one, no matter how hard she'd try.
where are the stories when you need them ? there's a huge gap of time...every day. i'm too busy for my own good. these were also waiting for attention - still lots to go. I have about 4 big photo sessions left for processing - i feel if i take one more picture i'll explode. Enjoy.
