Tuesday 15 April 2014

X: At the Ballet

The following night sees Brindleton, Kitson, Claspington, Foxworth and Hodgkiss turn up at a small, boutique theatre in Covent Garden, to watch Kshesinskaya's performance in La Sylphide. Those of you who know anything about ballet think it's a decent production. To those of you who don't know anything about ballet, it seems to involve a fairy, witches, and lots of prancing around.

Afterwards, as arranged, you gather at the performers' entrance to the rear of the building, down a cobbled alley. One of Kshesinskaya's men - a huge ox of man, built like a brick shit-house - who you recognise from the party meets you, and nods you inside. He leads you down a narrow corridor (ballerinas scampering by) and to Kshesinskaya's changing room.

The prima donna is sitting by her makeup table smoking a cigarillo. "Gentlemen," she says, her face as expressionlessly beautiful as ever. "Let us not waste time. You have an interest in Defernex. Tell me more."

15 comments:

  1. "The work has a passion…._beneath_ the passion. Not unlike your performance, madame. It is…an enthrallment which threatens to push me beyond what I have known in the embrace of any of the increasingly flat and unsatisfying contrivances men call Art."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Her eyes light up. "Yes. Flat and unsatisfying contrivances. You put it so well. Defernex sees beneath it. Then again, when one has been on this earth so long... It is unusual for you to have noticed it, for one so young."

      Delete
  2. Speaking out of character for a moment, I would like to very briefly go back in time to the point before the performance and do a bit of witch-docterty in the bowels of my steamer to help me understand and predict the situation, can I do this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. By all means. Describe what it is that you want to do and I'll roll the bones.

      Delete
    2. I wish to summon and consult an egwugwu called 'whose-face-is-tears'

      To do this I have a space in the coal-hold of the steamer. A kind of igloo, or cave of coal is hollowed out from the coal-pile. The gap to enter it is only large enough for a man on his belly to worm in. Inside it is utterly black and only has enough space for a man sitting cross-legged, and of course, the egwugwu.

      I close the coal-bay doors, strip naked, perform the dance and crawl into the sacred place.

      As sacrifice I offer the blood of a chicken and I break one of my rifles that has served me well.

      When the Egwugwu appears I ask


      "I go to see the woman Kshesinskaya, who may serve and powerful Thakathi who is called Defernex. He makes his curses through an image. Is death there waiting for me? How will death find me there?"

      Delete
    3. The Egwugwu replies in a voice that is like a grown man sobbing. He says, "Death is not waiting there for you." He pauses for a long moment, weeping. "Death waits for the dancing woman. Death has waited long for the dancing woman. Yet....with the eons, even death itself may die."

      Delete
    4. I make my respects and end the ritual, crawl out of the coal store, clean myself and make ready for the ballet.

      Delete
  3. Hodgkiss makes an appropriate salutation to the dancer, and as the others start to talk he casts his eyes about the room. What is it like? What does it tell him about the lady sat before them?

    Are there any obvious occultish things that stand out? More importantly, is there anything in the room that could signify a threat to the group? (a wall that could be a recess with someone behind, or anything which could be used as a means to listen on the group's conversation)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The room is very opulently decorated even for a dressing room. It would tell you that this is a woman who likes fancy and expensive things. Possibly who thinks of herself as being within that category of being fancy and expensive also.

      There is a large, circular metal plate with strange lettering on in one corner. Now that you think about it, the lettering looks similar to those which are etched into a thick bracelet the prima donna is wearing.

      Scanning the room, you're not sure that anything is particularly suspicious in any other respect. Kshesinskaya notices you looking around and says, "Is there something amiss?"

      Delete
  4. Madame, it is simple. Defernex's images seem to have a power that goes beyond the placement of paint on a canvas, as your performance goes beyond the moving of feet or arms or... witches. He is speaking to us, but I feel we cannot know what he is really saying unless we put his pictures together. Would you consent to show us?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Brindleton is oblivious to the ballerina's odd thing about age, and he doesn't seem able to tear his eyes away from her person)

      Delete
    2. Kshesinskaya looks at Brindleton and nods. "You have an understanding. Or something of an understanding. I can feel it. Come to my apartment at midnight. I will show you."

      [Assuming you want to go, I'll do a new post for that.]

      Delete
    3. To the apartment! It takes both hands to stop Brindleton's eyebrows waggling wildly and ruining the whole thing.

      Delete
  5. Whats the oldest thing I can see in the room? Anything exceptionally old? Roman? Older?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would say the metal plate thing. You have no way of knowing for sure but it looks hundreds of years old at least - maybe thousands. The type of thing you could imagine emerging from an archaeological dig.

      Delete