mapsedge: Me at Stone Bridge Coffee House (Default)
mapsedge ([personal profile] mapsedge) wrote2006-04-03 03:01 pm
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For the first time in a long, long time...

From behind the fence, the stones were restless.

Little bits of dust, undisturbed in nearly ten years by either animal or man, shook loose and fell to the mossy ground about the graves. The names, carefully carved into some of the soft, sandstone faces, shifted a little in the dim light from the window in the sexton's hovel.

The stones were restless. The light hadn't been there a few minutes before.

From inside the hovel came the sound of muttering, an indistinct sleepy sound. The light grew brighter as its source moved or was moved closer to the window. The glazing over the opening was imperfect, the glass itself was dimmed by the smoke of years of cheap candles and fat lamps, and small glimmers slipped out around the edges to caress and soothe the stones' collective distress. The sound resolved to a voice, and the muttering grew a little louder, a splenetic irritability creeping in. The light moved away.

The door to the hovel opened outward, the hinges of the door protesting their stiffness and waking nearby birds from their avian dreams. The light spilled in a rush over the stones, and what little warmth had been inside escaped with relief out of the claustrophobic little shack. The figure in the doorway held a candle in one hand, and something indistinctly spherical in the other. Setting the candle down on the closest stone, he raised the object, pulled a cork from it's apex and held it above his face, turning his open mouth up to drink of the water that poured out of what the moon silhouetted and revealed as a human skull. He closed his mouth and swallowed, turning his head downward and letting the water pour over his head. He lowered the skull, his father's he would have said to anyone who asked (though, oddly, no one ever did), and replaced the cork. He drew his sleeved arm over his face and shook the water out of what remained of his hair.

"Where the shaggin' 'ell," Solace said in a thin Welsh, diluted by long years away from his native home, "did I put that bloody shovel..?"

[identity profile] sablessam.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nice to hear that Solace voice again! He has been dearly missed and welcomed back with open arms... cje

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I doubt you'll ever see him at KCRF, unless it's as a guest performer. The list of reasons for that is long, and better left for their own post. Smaller faires? Well, we'll see. We'll try him at White Hart and see.

[identity profile] iarraidh.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Just remember to move your cup and mind the roots before doing a full-body grovel.

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, thanks for THAT happy memory. I don't do a lot of grovelling anymore - the ol' joints just don't put up with it much.

[identity profile] starwyse.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, this is wonderful! Will there be more?

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. This little bit is actually a sort of left-handed announcement that Solace may very well be seeing the light of day again - the first time since...1998-ish. The only prop I'm missing to play the character is my wooden handled shovel, a one of a kind piece with a flat blade - very period looking - and an iron mend on the wooden handle near the blade. I've ordered a new skull - that's an LJ entry on it's own right there - so I'll have something to drink out of.

Where? White Hart (http://www.historic-arts.com/white_hart_renaissance_faire/), largely due to [livejournal.com profile] rowangolightly, who told me about it and planted the seed, and [livejournal.com profile] mljm who talked me into it.

[identity profile] starwyse.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
That sounds like fun! I would love an opportunity to see you in action!

[identity profile] fantomas71.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Good! More!

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. I'm very glad you like it!

[identity profile] eacole72.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I was really hoping this would mean that we'd get to see Solace at White Hart (since I don't think I ever met him at KCRF).

If you can't find the shovel, would you like for me to see if Ray's dad can make one? He's got a full woodshop in his garage that he's always looking for an excuse to use.

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't remember that you've ever met the character, but he's not far away from my own personality (which makes the character easy to maintain).

I went looking for my shovel last night on the off-chance that I might not have thrown it away in the last round of house cleaning, and it's nowhere to be seen. If Ray's dad could make a shovel per spec, that would just be...well, I'd be really grateful.

[identity profile] eacole72.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 02:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you have a picture of the shovel for him to work off of? Or a diagram of some kind that shows how it should be built?

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Replied off-list.

AY! 'Ere 'e iz!

[identity profile] purpledumbass.livejournal.com 2006-04-03 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course ya know ye'd be missed in Canterbury as well. You know that if you just brought him out for a day or two, it'd be fun all over again... Ah well, who am I to talk, after giving up most of my garbed fun out there?

I'm interested in hearing the skull story too. I always figured your own skull had too many holes in it to hold water though. :-P

Re: AY! 'Ere 'e iz!

[identity profile] billthetailor.livejournal.com 2006-04-04 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
You know that if you just brought him out for a day or two

I'd thought about doing that last year, and never made the time for it, though I may yet do it.

Now comes the whirlwind of prop making and slimming down to fit into the old costumes. The last time I played Solace I was thirty or forty pounds lighter.