Melancholy the Valequine

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MELANCHOLY

i almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days
with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.

that's an excerpt from a letter written by john keats addressed to fanny brawne. though
they never did unite due to his untimely death by tuberculosis, there was a great deal
of magic and devotion in the letters they exchanged. sometimes, requited love feels so
very unromantic with predictable endings. the real romance seems to be in the devotion
of one's life solely to themselves, their craft and their art. might just be me, though.

i do not remember how much this name cost, but it was definitely up there with the rest.
my excuses for buying pricy names are beginning to sound vaguely punishable by law, but
in the case you do have anything you wouldn't mind letting go of, you know the person for it.

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WHAT

human, hopefully, but you’re not entirely confident.

if you look the opposite way you came, you’ll find a workspace, the likes of which belong
on the covers of unsolved crime podcasts and grimy mystery novellas. compared to the
rest of the space, this post-apocalyptic area really deserves a round of applause.

held down by a paperweight of a small stone owl taking flight, there is a list of line after line
of printed nonsensical words. it takes a second glance before you realise that it’s a shopping
list for arkian fauna. some of the entries appear a little illegal, but you would have been left
disappointed if that weren’t the case.

as is the standard for lists of this nature, some of the lines have been crossed out with what
you assume to be donors listed beside them. as for the current locations of said beasts, someone
of your own caliber need only to spare a few minutes of thinking to find the various menageries
attached to this place- perhaps they might even be pinned up on the investigation board.

the stone owl has another item caught beneath its claws,
an unsealed envelope with an unsigned letter.
curiosity has no mortal restraints so you investigate the item thoroughly.

now, look up. above is a precariously swinging chandelier of magnificent proportions and
unfortunate handicraft. in consideration for your own safety, it would do you well to step back.
in doing so, you collide with a bookshelf, which, unlike everything else here, is in fairly good shape.
if it weren’t for the size, you might have considered… adopting the large woodwork.

as an upright citizen of ark, you have had no thoughts whatsoever of pawning off any contraband
found here to the darkest corners of leila, none at all. it is clear nothing here will ever change hands,
but there happens to be another location on your radar.

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