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Description

HP Wormwood A1913 (and Hester Garmanson ) in the Nordanner Potions Minishow (Free category) - Special Overall Winner!

Ram, auralight and icefinger have given Wormwood a unicorn-like horn that seems to be made of golden-coloured ice. Heat, auralight and nightshade have condensed into a heavily stylised halo that seems to glow "through" his head, revealing his skull, and somehow is always seen behind him from where he is viewed. Goldenwing and auralight have given him enormous ethereal wings that aren't always there (and which have dyed marks on them), and some tail feathers that are - nightshade has given him a long tail.

Toxicate is the one the staff can't work out; it seems to be an old strain that is no longer made, so nobody can protect themselves from it by taking the available toxicate themselves. It results in dizziness and sometimes nausea in Wormwood's presence, increasing with proximity; few can stand being near him. However, in this image it has been deactivated. (See story)

Working title: "Wormpots.psd" Worms. Wormywormboy. wooorms.

Okay so my excuse was that this was always going to happen in Wormwood's timeline, but let's face it, it was going to happen in the way that all of my other plots happen: OVER FIFTY MILLION YEARS' TIME. But the potion show actually provided an absolutely ideal opportunity to ACTUALLY DO THE MAIN PLOT. It's a shame I didn't have time to show all the inbetween difficulties, but let's face it, that would have been another thirty years. I must be realistic here. xDD

Also my apologies for mildly butchering the major Abrahamic religions' lore. I've taken a few artistic liberties, but the main points are sound. xD I like mythology, okay >3>

As to the art - I AM SO GODDAMN PROUD. LOOK AT THOSE WINGS. LOOK AT THEM. THAT CAME OUT OF MY HAND????? LAZY NEZUMI IS NOW MY DEITY.

I love this horse entirely out of proportion to anything appropriate.

StoryI accidentally listened to this a lot during the last section.
(Of course not technically needed for the show, but it's what's going on (and explains the title) and I had to write it |D) (Yes, Marko's sort of Serbian.)

"What are we these days, the Appropriate Horse Names service?" Daels pressed his fingertips to his temples. "I'm starting to think we should file for a name change."

Hester looked up from her desk across at his. "What do you mean?"

Daels pulled a face. "Argo? Bellatrix? Al and Mur?" He listed them off on his fingers and then gave up with a dismissive gesture. "I swear they all Knew - and approved, at that."

Hester laughed. "Oh yeah. And Orion wouldn't be surrounded by starhorses if he weren't so good at naming them - I don't think they'd have stuck around otherwise. You forgot Wormwood, by the way."

"Well that's just it." Daels pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I don't think we've got him quite right yet."

***

Some weeks earlier

"Wormwood, huh?" The look Daels gave Marko was decidedly suspicious. "And that's a biblical thing, is it? Not the plant?"

Marko squirmed slightly under the scrutiny. "Book of Revelation, sir. Star falls to the earth, burning like a torch-"

"Mm-hmm-" It matched the appearance of the mystery horse that morning, searing through the sky so brightly that every member of staff noticed.

"And it plops down-"

"I presume you're paraphrasing here-"

"-in a river, yes sir, and poisons things."

"Which explains why nobody can go near it without throwing up." Daels cast a glance out at the pale horse where it wandered nonchalantly in the valley, blood-red sash moving in the breeze and golden horn occasionally flashing in the sunlight. None of the other horses seemed to be affected by this particularly nasty side-effect, which was a blessing because Daels was pretty sure he didn't want to deal with several dozen cases of colic at the same time - but it still didn't solve the problem.

"It seems to fit, anyway. Quieted down as soon as I called it that."

"But you still haven't been able to get near it, have you?"

Marko, still looking slightly green around the gills from earlier, shook his head. "I thought there might be more to it."

"You're asking the wrong man, I'm afraid. I had no idea Wormwood was even...a thing. And I didn't know you were religious."

"Not exactly, sir. Raised Eastern Orthodox, not practised since I joined up. But I still remember some of it. The Book of Revelation was...relatively exciting."

Daels chuckled. "Had any ideas?"

"Plenty," Marko said darkly. "All of them were useless. Orion's still in sickbay, and the others have...mysteriously disappeared after their tries. I can't honestly say I blame them."

They were silent for a moment, leaning against the fence and wearily eyeing the horse in question. Daels spoke first.

"Isn't there that thing-"

"'Thing'?"

"-you know, that one prayer thing-"

"Gonna need more information-"

"The whole 'Our Father' thing-"

"The Lord's Prayer." Marko failed to hide his amusement. Daels made a vague affirmative gesture and the lieutenant turned to regard the pale horse. "It's a good point - a sort of appeal. I hadn't considered it."

Daels nodded his head towards the valley with a slight smile. "Be my guest." It earned him a powerful glare, but after a pause that was clearly a mental-run through, Marko climbed over the fence and stepped towards Wormwood.

Oce naš, koji si na nebesima,
da se sveti ime Tvoje,
da dode carstvo Tvoje;
da bude volja tvoja,
i na zemlji kao na nebu.

Marko edged towards Wormwood as he spoke, the old, familiar words falling from his lips in a steady stream. Partway there he spared half a glance backwards, and Daels found he was holding his breath; Marko was already as close as anyone else had got, the pale horse standing stock-still watching his progress, and the telling point would be soon.

Hljeb naš nasušni daj nam danas,
i oprosti nam dugove naše,
kao što i mi opraštamo dužnicima svojim;
i ne uvedi nas u iskušenje,
no izbavi nas od zloga.

Disbelief written on his face, Marko stepped up to Wormwood's side, barely a foot from the bone-white coat. Daels hardly dared blink as he watched the lieutenant raise a shaking hand, inch by inch, up to the muscular shoulder before him. Distance shrank, shrank and then disappeared-

THUD.

Daels sighed, clambered over the fence and began the job of unceremoniously shooing Wormwood away from Marko's prone form in the grass.

***

Weeks passed. Nicholae suggested Dragomir, since he was an actually practising Orthodox Christian, but the only result was a horizontal policeman. After Daels's suggestion that they perhaps open up discussion to other religions, Orion wracked his brains for a stellar answer and put in some attempts from Islam and Rainer concentrated on toxicology and Judaism. Off-duty staff were sent on errands to the library in Sighisoara any time there was a gap, but no progress was made until Hester slapped her pen down on her desk a week after Daels brought the subject up.

"I think he's an angel," she said. Daels, who had flinched and looked up at the noise, raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Nobody can agree what 'Wormwood' in Revelations actually is," she explained. "Future event, past event, metaphor, person, meteorite...could be anything. But some reckon it's an angel falling - or coming down - from Heaven. And, I mean, he's got that damned halo, how did I not think of this before?"

The look Daels gave her implied she had grown another head. "Because...I've known you a long time and I've never known you to have a scrap of religion?" he hazarded.

"Well I don't, not exactly." Hester shrugged. "But come on, you know the planet I grew up on. Religious buildings were a decent shelter - and source of food, when we were really up the creek. You pick things up, 'specially when you've met like, all the kids in the area."

"Good point," said Daels. "So you reckon you've worked it out?"

"Might've." Hester tilted her head from side to side. "The halo and sash are pretty glaring. But as to which angel..." She frowned. "Marko got right up next to him, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but couldn't touch him."

"And then Orion and Rainer were the same."

"So they like to remind me when I ask them to do things."

"But Wormwood only happens in Christianity."

"...Um?"

Hester jumped to her feet and had him by his sleeve in a second, dragging him out of the office and down the stairs, explaining as she went.

"The Book of Revelation is in the New Testament," she said.

"Right-"

"Which is only applicable to the Christian faith."

"Okay-"

"Orion's Muslim?" she said as though it were obvious. "And Rainer's Jewish."

"So...?"

"So no New Testament. None of their supplications should have worked unless Wormwood also has an identity from the Old Testament!" They burst through the front door and legged it across the yard, past an alarmed Marko and an impassive Dreadnought.

"Sir?" Marko called after them.

"Hester reckons she's worked Wormwood out!" Daels called back over his shoulder, and heard rather than saw the lieutenant tell the huge horse to "stay" before following them. "So Old Testament, right?"

"There's only one archangel acknowledged without fail in each of those faiths," Hester went on. The fence hoved into view as they barrelled onwards. "Raphael and Gabriel are sometimes described as just angels, or not even named, but MICHAEL-" here her voice rose to an artillery officer's bellow, and Daels lurched away from her as they crashed up against the fence "-MICHAEL." Hester raised her hand to point at the white stallion staring at them from a little distance. "YOU - YOU'RE IN ALL OF THEM."

Daels looked at her in mild disbelief as she clambered over the fence and started to advance on the stallion. At once, the bright white wings erupted from his back and he launched himself into the air, gold horn and marks flashing in the sun as he circled the dark-uniformed woman on the ground.

Hester, meanwhile, continued to yell. "YOU'RE THE ONE ARCHANGEL THEY COULD AGREE ON. MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL OF PROTECTION AND WAR. YOU CAME DOWN TO SCORCH THE EARTH AS WORMWOOD BEFORE YOU DEFEATED THE DRAGON."

Marko arrived at the fence. "...Is she speaking in tongues?"

Daels didn't take his eyes off the white stallion as it dipped down towards the captain. "Michael, apparently."

Marko paused for a moment before nodding carefully, then more freely. "Oh, yeah, okay. Michael. It's obvious once you know, damn."

"God, is it?" Daels shook his head. "I'm still in the dark, here."

Out in the valley, Hester spread her arm as she turned to follow the circling horse, face fierce. "Unity," she was saying. "Unity in adversity. That's us. I can kneel to that."

As she dropped to one knee the stallion wheeled in, great wings spread against the sun and halo aglow, and touched down silently on the grass. And when he lowered his golden horn to her, her touch was not repelled.

"Michael," said Marko.

"This would have to happen after we register his name, wouldn't it," said Daels.

Image © me (KanaScott )
For HARPG's benefit: No refs used for the horse; many different eagle wing reference images checked for structure and feather shape (no specific one).

Description

HP Wormwood A1913 (and Hester Garmanson ) in the Nordanner Potions Minishow (Free category) - Special Overall Winner!

Ram, auralight and icefinger have given Wormwood a unicorn-like horn that seems to be made of golden-coloured ice. Heat, auralight and nightshade have condensed into a heavily stylised halo that seems to glow "through" his head, revealing his skull, and somehow is always seen behind him from where he is viewed. Goldenwing and auralight have given him enormous ethereal wings that aren't always there (and which have dyed marks on them), and some tail feathers that are - nightshade has given him a long tail.

Toxicate is the one the staff can't work out; it seems to be an old strain that is no longer made, so nobody can protect themselves from it by taking the available toxicate themselves. It results in dizziness and sometimes nausea in Wormwood's presence, increasing with proximity; few can stand being near him. However, in this image it has been deactivated. (See story)

Working title: "Wormpots.psd" Worms. Wormywormboy. wooorms.

Okay so my excuse was that this was always going to happen in Wormwood's timeline, but let's face it, it was going to happen in the way that all of my other plots happen: OVER FIFTY MILLION YEARS' TIME. But the potion show actually provided an absolutely ideal opportunity to ACTUALLY DO THE MAIN PLOT. It's a shame I didn't have time to show all the inbetween difficulties, but let's face it, that would have been another thirty years. I must be realistic here. xDD

Also my apologies for mildly butchering the major Abrahamic religions' lore. I've taken a few artistic liberties, but the main points are sound. xD I like mythology, okay >3>

As to the art - I AM SO GODDAMN PROUD. LOOK AT THOSE WINGS. LOOK AT THEM. THAT CAME OUT OF MY HAND????? LAZY NEZUMI IS NOW MY DEITY.

I love this horse entirely out of proportion to anything appropriate.

StoryI accidentally listened to this a lot during the last section.
(Of course not technically needed for the show, but it's what's going on (and explains the title) and I had to write it |D) (Yes, Marko's sort of Serbian.)

"What are we these days, the Appropriate Horse Names service?" Daels pressed his fingertips to his temples. "I'm starting to think we should file for a name change."

Hester looked up from her desk across at his. "What do you mean?"

Daels pulled a face. "Argo? Bellatrix? Al and Mur?" He listed them off on his fingers and then gave up with a dismissive gesture. "I swear they all Knew - and approved, at that."

Hester laughed. "Oh yeah. And Orion wouldn't be surrounded by starhorses if he weren't so good at naming them - I don't think they'd have stuck around otherwise. You forgot Wormwood, by the way."

"Well that's just it." Daels pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I don't think we've got him quite right yet."

***

Some weeks earlier

"Wormwood, huh?" The look Daels gave Marko was decidedly suspicious. "And that's a biblical thing, is it? Not the plant?"

Marko squirmed slightly under the scrutiny. "Book of Revelation, sir. Star falls to the earth, burning like a torch-"

"Mm-hmm-" It matched the appearance of the mystery horse that morning, searing through the sky so brightly that every member of staff noticed.

"And it plops down-"

"I presume you're paraphrasing here-"

"-in a river, yes sir, and poisons things."

"Which explains why nobody can go near it without throwing up." Daels cast a glance out at the pale horse where it wandered nonchalantly in the valley, blood-red sash moving in the breeze and golden horn occasionally flashing in the sunlight. None of the other horses seemed to be affected by this particularly nasty side-effect, which was a blessing because Daels was pretty sure he didn't want to deal with several dozen cases of colic at the same time - but it still didn't solve the problem.

"It seems to fit, anyway. Quieted down as soon as I called it that."

"But you still haven't been able to get near it, have you?"

Marko, still looking slightly green around the gills from earlier, shook his head. "I thought there might be more to it."

"You're asking the wrong man, I'm afraid. I had no idea Wormwood was even...a thing. And I didn't know you were religious."

"Not exactly, sir. Raised Eastern Orthodox, not practised since I joined up. But I still remember some of it. The Book of Revelation was...relatively exciting."

Daels chuckled. "Had any ideas?"

"Plenty," Marko said darkly. "All of them were useless. Orion's still in sickbay, and the others have...mysteriously disappeared after their tries. I can't honestly say I blame them."

They were silent for a moment, leaning against the fence and wearily eyeing the horse in question. Daels spoke first.

"Isn't there that thing-"

"'Thing'?"

"-you know, that one prayer thing-"

"Gonna need more information-"

"The whole 'Our Father' thing-"

"The Lord's Prayer." Marko failed to hide his amusement. Daels made a vague affirmative gesture and the lieutenant turned to regard the pale horse. "It's a good point - a sort of appeal. I hadn't considered it."

Daels nodded his head towards the valley with a slight smile. "Be my guest." It earned him a powerful glare, but after a pause that was clearly a mental-run through, Marko climbed over the fence and stepped towards Wormwood.

Oce naš, koji si na nebesima,
da se sveti ime Tvoje,
da dode carstvo Tvoje;
da bude volja tvoja,
i na zemlji kao na nebu.

Marko edged towards Wormwood as he spoke, the old, familiar words falling from his lips in a steady stream. Partway there he spared half a glance backwards, and Daels found he was holding his breath; Marko was already as close as anyone else had got, the pale horse standing stock-still watching his progress, and the telling point would be soon.

Hljeb naš nasušni daj nam danas,
i oprosti nam dugove naše,
kao što i mi opraštamo dužnicima svojim;
i ne uvedi nas u iskušenje,
no izbavi nas od zloga.

Disbelief written on his face, Marko stepped up to Wormwood's side, barely a foot from the bone-white coat. Daels hardly dared blink as he watched the lieutenant raise a shaking hand, inch by inch, up to the muscular shoulder before him. Distance shrank, shrank and then disappeared-

THUD.

Daels sighed, clambered over the fence and began the job of unceremoniously shooing Wormwood away from Marko's prone form in the grass.

***

Weeks passed. Nicholae suggested Dragomir, since he was an actually practising Orthodox Christian, but the only result was a horizontal policeman. After Daels's suggestion that they perhaps open up discussion to other religions, Orion wracked his brains for a stellar answer and put in some attempts from Islam and Rainer concentrated on toxicology and Judaism. Off-duty staff were sent on errands to the library in Sighisoara any time there was a gap, but no progress was made until Hester slapped her pen down on her desk a week after Daels brought the subject up.

"I think he's an angel," she said. Daels, who had flinched and looked up at the noise, raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Nobody can agree what 'Wormwood' in Revelations actually is," she explained. "Future event, past event, metaphor, person, meteorite...could be anything. But some reckon it's an angel falling - or coming down - from Heaven. And, I mean, he's got that damned halo, how did I not think of this before?"

The look Daels gave her implied she had grown another head. "Because...I've known you a long time and I've never known you to have a scrap of religion?" he hazarded.

"Well I don't, not exactly." Hester shrugged. "But come on, you know the planet I grew up on. Religious buildings were a decent shelter - and source of food, when we were really up the creek. You pick things up, 'specially when you've met like, all the kids in the area."

"Good point," said Daels. "So you reckon you've worked it out?"

"Might've." Hester tilted her head from side to side. "The halo and sash are pretty glaring. But as to which angel..." She frowned. "Marko got right up next to him, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but couldn't touch him."

"And then Orion and Rainer were the same."

"So they like to remind me when I ask them to do things."

"But Wormwood only happens in Christianity."

"...Um?"

Hester jumped to her feet and had him by his sleeve in a second, dragging him out of the office and down the stairs, explaining as she went.

"The Book of Revelation is in the New Testament," she said.

"Right-"

"Which is only applicable to the Christian faith."

"Okay-"

"Orion's Muslim?" she said as though it were obvious. "And Rainer's Jewish."

"So...?"

"So no New Testament. None of their supplications should have worked unless Wormwood also has an identity from the Old Testament!" They burst through the front door and legged it across the yard, past an alarmed Marko and an impassive Dreadnought.

"Sir?" Marko called after them.

"Hester reckons she's worked Wormwood out!" Daels called back over his shoulder, and heard rather than saw the lieutenant tell the huge horse to "stay" before following them. "So Old Testament, right?"

"There's only one archangel acknowledged without fail in each of those faiths," Hester went on. The fence hoved into view as they barrelled onwards. "Raphael and Gabriel are sometimes described as just angels, or not even named, but MICHAEL-" here her voice rose to an artillery officer's bellow, and Daels lurched away from her as they crashed up against the fence "-MICHAEL." Hester raised her hand to point at the white stallion staring at them from a little distance. "YOU - YOU'RE IN ALL OF THEM."

Daels looked at her in mild disbelief as she clambered over the fence and started to advance on the stallion. At once, the bright white wings erupted from his back and he launched himself into the air, gold horn and marks flashing in the sun as he circled the dark-uniformed woman on the ground.

Hester, meanwhile, continued to yell. "YOU'RE THE ONE ARCHANGEL THEY COULD AGREE ON. MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL OF PROTECTION AND WAR. YOU CAME DOWN TO SCORCH THE EARTH AS WORMWOOD BEFORE YOU DEFEATED THE DRAGON."

Marko arrived at the fence. "...Is she speaking in tongues?"

Daels didn't take his eyes off the white stallion as it dipped down towards the captain. "Michael, apparently."

Marko paused for a moment before nodding carefully, then more freely. "Oh, yeah, okay. Michael. It's obvious once you know, damn."

"God, is it?" Daels shook his head. "I'm still in the dark, here."

Out in the valley, Hester spread her arm as she turned to follow the circling horse, face fierce. "Unity," she was saying. "Unity in adversity. That's us. I can kneel to that."

As she dropped to one knee the stallion wheeled in, great wings spread against the sun and halo aglow, and touched down silently on the grass. And when he lowered his golden horn to her, her touch was not repelled.

"Michael," said Marko.

"This would have to happen after we register his name, wouldn't it," said Daels.

Image © me (KanaScott )
For HARPG's benefit: No refs used for the horse; many different eagle wing reference images checked for structure and feather shape (no specific one).