- username: nadenade
name: kalliope
gender: female
they love the harp the most.
I found comfort in the butterflies - for I was like them. Fragile, six-legged... Yet I had no wings with which to fly away. I was exalted, in a different sense, thrown into a spire which was built of spite, of fear for a ‘freak’... An anomaly which my town was not ready to accept as they did that beautiful butterfly - for he was not a freak.
The days were long, oh how I wished I could fly away with those sacred little butterflies, to join them on a journey I knew not of. Often, I laid in the meadows with them... Chasing them for hours past curfew, miles from my confines, cupping them in soft, steady paws which trembled not with excitement but a certain sorrow, a tinge of bittersweet admiration... Before they took flight once more before I vowed to join them in the skies one day. My spire was lonely, but life was not so cruel...
I had always dreamed of making a difference- of releasing myself from a spire built upon fear... To build myself like a butterfly- to visit overhead and spread hope. To be more than the ‘sum of my parts’... To grow wings and be one with the butterflies - the sky.
I spent years tinkering of my own design, to build up my own skies. Then the war came... the drafts soon followed. I was scared, and still I turned to the butterflies. I was a tinkerer by origin- a fighter by force. I was drafted into engineering- at first. The fight continued to get worse... the casualties much too high to bear. Again I was moved, yet this time I was freed, cast into the skies.
I persisted as such a pilot- wracking up victories, positions, targets, losses. Yet still I carried some semblance of hope- finally joining those lovely butterflies in the sky. I had been given my wings- my honor. Everywhere I went I was recognized as a new beginning for those forlorn, grieving, and wraithed by a defeat which had preceded them... A fate which alone they could not undo. Yet I became the key to a new beginning, a change in key of the song fate strung.
Yet all good must end. We were playing a game of fate and even butterflies must falter. My wings once again were so violently ripped from me- a midnight attack on our squadron which still ghosts me on quiet nights- my wings were never to be returned, instead showing themselves not in physicality but in spirit.
In that time- I hated the butterflies. I hated that they were free while I was bedbound, devoid of everything they symbolized to me. Some days I truthfully wished that I would not recover, that I may perish along with the hope and freedom that had left me- the wings which had been ripped from me. I hated those fragile butterflies because I was one of them, transisting in a life whose fate was not up to I, but to some greater unknown- some war which I should have no place in.
I could no longer see those butterflies, it was to me as if they had disappeared when I needed them most... I began to look to the nurses instead, watching as their wings began to bud, as they restored the hope unto others.
I wanted to be a butterfly again, to see the butterflies again.. for the first time in months I wanted to recover... seeing the work of the medics made me realize, butterflies are not always in the sky. It’s alright to crawl... I may never return to the sky, but I can walk, I can still bring hope and life to those I meet, no matter how fragile I may be.
Again I sought the touch of a butterfly, now as a medic. Having spent so much time in the infirmary as a victim, I quickly began to pick up the quirks and mannerisms of a medic, first aiding in simple injuries and wounds, working up to treating cohorts and peers at the end of the day... I developed a certain passion for aiding others, I may not have been on the field, floating above, but I was instilling hope in a life not yet ended- a life that could persist at my hand. I began to advance, to take even the most dire cases as my own, I would never give in to the hand fate had dealt me, never lose another to such a cruel mistress.
To this day I live as a butterfly, though I may not be in active duty I still travel, still look to save those who can no longer save themselves. I realize the weight us butterflies carry... We are not careless but caring, loving those who do not love themselves, delivering hope where hope is lost.
Whenever I am called, I will be there. However frail I may be, I am still a butterfly, I am still me. When I was a child I loved butterflies- as I do now. They are fragile, but they are free. I wish still to fly with them, to lay with them, to bring into myself and unto others all that they embody. Everything I do and everything I have done has been inspired by those dear butterflies; for I love them so.
Gale / Junk| They/them | Adult | PA student
I love D&D, Pokemon, and yapping about my chars!
Prone to experiencing mental illness, please be nice.
I am often busy or forgetful, it's ok to check in or send reminders if I owe you anything!
Art credits linked to images!
Kals
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