Just so we're aware, there is currently no staff aside from Athena as the owner (you'll probably never see her) and myself as the Webmaster. Please be easy on me.

Marie follows the path until it took her to a mysterious shop. She stops in front of it and takes a deep breath in and out. A woman of curiosity and questions, now faces with a possibility of endless answers. She looks both ways, the streets are completely silent and empty. Another cold chill.

“It will be fine… it’s now or never, Marie…”
She murmurs to herself for strength

Placing her hand on the door, Marie gently pushes it open. It’s a exoteric, dark occult and magical shop. She had seen some when she passed by and perused the streets, but never entered any of them. The fear, that little part of her that was taught these are just scammers and dangerous people. The demonization of it all.

She walks in very slowly, her eyes hit immediately with what is inside. With every step she takes, she stops to study every single thing, object, trinket and statue bedore her. She held her hands tightly, making sure to not touch nothing as she is not allowed too, respecting deeply, strangely being drawn to it, and fearing it, all at the same time.

When the waiter refills the cup with the sweet mix brew of spirits and spices, Marie goes to sips on it.

The moment she does, something happens that made her whole body shivers with a cold chill!  Her eyes go wide open when her lips touch the ceramic cup exactly where his lips sipped before. She felt the residual powerful energy of the patron of this cup connect to her. It felt like her natural eyesight adjusted to a new reality, like her eyes had scales that started to peel off for the mundane to allow the supernatural to be seen!

Marie saw it now. Arcane dark magic, a small glimpse of the raw powers this person held. Before was a trail the shadow essence left in the ground, which diverted into two paths.

Marie stood up from her sit, paid for her drink and left extra cash on tip, and followed the paths they painted in a  slowly and cautiously manner, but also drawn to do it. She needed to follow it, it was calling out to her, and she couldn’t resist it. Let’s be honest, she didn’t want to resist it.

Following the path of the party first, this one quickly disappeared, fizzling in the crowd that consumed it. The other path had a slighty stronger essence, as the shadows blended with the quiet of the night.

Following this way, Marie walks this path.

Marie eventually got off the floor and took a deep breath as the crowd continued dancing and walking down the road.

Around her was a sea of bead necklaces, left behind on the floor and on her lap, from the dancing moment she just experienced. They were beautiful! She is definitely enjoying her first Mardi Gras festival party, and being given beads of offerings for her moves. She giggles softly, as she thinks how crazy musical and magical this city is! This city is alive indeed!

Grabbing all the necklaces around her, she starts walking on beat to the new song. Suddenly, she feels an invisible pull to go to the cafeteria just in front of her across the street. The place caugh her attention as she saw an apron flying in the air and the woman who it belonged to, a waitress of the establishment, ran to the crowd to dance in the buzzing streets of New Orleans!

Seeing a empty table with one chair in it, perfectly positioned to be a center stage to the festival, Marie goes to it. Something inside of her made her sit in it, and she followed that pull. As soon as she did, the first thing she noticed was the warmth. Actually, it was slightly hot. Her body shivers at the sensation of this heat emanating from it, and Marie, internal and externally, sits in this feeling.

A cup. An empty cup in front of her, and her hand instinctively reaches out for it. Now on her hands is this cup. She looks inside it with an internal curiosity that she has never felt, observing the remaining dark liquid inside. She stares at it for a while. Like there was a message there? But her natural eyes were only able to see dark stains and a little bit of liquid at the bottom of it, but inside of her there is a feeling that there was much more but she can’t see yet. Her eyes have not opened to her full capacity, yet.

The shedding of her regular ordinary humanity has not happened yet, her force is still dormant but an awakening is already happening.

Another waiter comes, and ask to allow to clean the table and remove the items used by the previous customer.

She shakes her head signaling no before saying.
“Could you please refill this cup with what it had?”

Maybe in another place this request will feel weird, strange, unsanitary and freak like, a place like her home. But New Orleans is a place of fantasy, magic and music. This sort of requests were not as strange at all.

The waiter leave to goes to fetch more of the mysterious dark liquid that was in it. Marie holds he cup tightly as she continues watching it.

This is the rhythm of the night, and her body channeled it’s magic!

As she was passed down from hand to hand, arm to arm, body to body, dancer to dancer, she felt them. Not just their moves, but so much more. What was this? It was like before her body connected to them, these men - women - and in between were having needs inside their souls. Why there was so much hopelessness and powerlessness? A sea of people looking for more, such as she did. But there was a difference between them and her. She not even aware at the magic she carried as all her life she was told she didn’t have it. What a lie. Here she is, unknowingly sharing her essence like it was a lit small candle light of hope? A tiny flame of joy? A flicker light of possibility? Regardless of what it was, she made herself be present in each person she met, she reached out to them in a subconscious way as they pulled on her themselves. She allowed them to be sparked for just a little bit before the next one came in contact with her.

The crowd of bodies moved slower, until it stopped moving forward, staying put in from the cafes of that area. The song being played demanded attention, and for her to have her solo. Like a beautiful dancer on a box, mesmerizing and captivating, she did so. The sea of people surrounded her were like waves of arms tossing her from side to side, until all stopped. And eyes watched as she moved on her own. Until the crescendo of the last notes were played, and the magical moment ended.

A new song, a new rhythm, a new energy. And just like a flock of people directed by the forces of their needs, they continues moving forward once again, continuing their own path.

As the crowd moved, it revealed what they left behind. A tired dancer that felt drained of her energy by the multitude. Sited in the floor, Marie was recovering her breath and strength.