The relentless request to fulfill a commission at Mayfair was cast aside at length, the request was deemed to be so monumental that our team spent a considerable amount of time carefully deciding whether or not we would or even COULD grant to such a jousted request of a heaving side pain.
The commission demanded a classic renovation to reflect a 21st Century delivery to Illuminate the 1st Triniadic period, further admonishingly requesting rapid start of a masterpiece as timeless in comparison to the scale of Buonarroti’s sacrificial dedication to perfect Creationism on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (deep breath)
How would an artist begin such a feat? What could possibly uphold to the image of Creation of man by the finger of God?! Our painter Raphael prayed upon the challenge and recommended the panels would breathe life by inserting segments of bits to slowly create a Cubist injection to a style that is a form of Existentialist Moderna; a sort of Western-Greco Picasso developed by divine Apostolic visual blessings, complete with Marian Apparatuses and messages received by prayer - all over what he quoted as ”delivered by God.“
”Raphael?! Have you gone mad?” as the administrating lead of BLACK I was not only concerned by his confidence but as well as the reception of such Religious visual statements unofficially approved by the Vatican. “They will slay you man, you cannot move forth with tampering of the stories of Jesus and God”. Raphael had been muttering in our parlor sessions for years about a Divination of Roman Catholic evolvement with all other modern day spiritualisms he called the Triniadic Rite. We enjoyed creative exchanges of the potentials of future technology but Raphael was the only one Toros headed to consistently shift the conversation to Holy Roman Catholicism, practically a zealot at the subject matter; the lot of us often cursed him for such outlandish claims and bigotry. Raphael indeed was artistically and imaginatively gifted therefore he earned a seating with the Impressum, but he flew the coat buttons off Maleficis one day when he triumphantly entered one evening with his hands up exclaiming, “I am here! In 4.5 billion years I am declared as the next Messiah!!” We all watched in shock faced horror as he paraded around this way as if mentally absent in some dismal state, a far gone grin stretched across his face. Licensed physicians and those trained in psychological studies on our team cautioned to place a close eye on him, and perhaps even forbade him from participation of conjectures involving transcriptions of our imaginative exchange.
I took notes as I watched Maleficis scorning silently in his chair one night when we all met to decide upon continuation in BLACK Impressum at a meeting, there were many elders that were adamant upon retaining him any longer for fear of our collective reputation at stake. “He’s loose” one advised, “His stability cannot be trusted” and one after another they assumed swiftly booting him out of his place, there was refutes on their behalf as well, “His work is absolutely beautiful; harmonic...” and “his libros are so forward, yet they are so captivating!”
As neutral, I was not allowed to partake in contributing my personal thoughts or opinions about Raphael, my apprenticism soled on mediation and scribing with integrity to the best perceived collective truth. I remember looking upon Maleficis for what felt like hours to eternity, but it was only minutes as my pen hand froze waiting for his next spoken word. Mal lounged back in deep furrow gnawing on the skin of his thumb with one leg stretched aside. I had never seen our Head Sorcerer with such a discernment hampered upon his state, the moment was picturesque - even at the time I knew I would be posting the moment here one day. His decision upon Raphael’s fate was a hallmark to our procurement of where we all are today. Maleficis Artibus the Black himself spoke the words that raised the Church to the hierarchy in judiciary to intelligent entities for the betterment of all mankind.
Maleficis took his right hand out of his mouth and finally muttered as he set it back down on his arm rest, “Let him stay”.
I was assigned to consult Raphael privately to help him form cohesive thoughts into translation, the further he sunk into his “divinations” the more his speech began to babble, we understood this process to be a curse of Babylonian tongues - Maleficis refused to keep up with my weekly reports in a fully retentive way, he often dismissed much by interrupting, “Don’t let him taint me”. This was more of a sign of Artibus, intellectual enough to not allow spiral from his own sourced ways, one of the many reasons he is the head.
”Raphael“ I gently placed my hand upon his back as he was rocking and muttering curse words at God Himself one session, tears streamed from his face... it took every ounce of my earned degree to not fall with him as I had to maintain my own place as well as hold him steady, “Raphael do you remember your Confirmation?” somehow my culturalism was able to think of something to say to help sway his thoughts into a more coherent and appeasing place. He looked up at me as if slapped, then his gaze trailed to that familiar distant way he often escaped to, often misdiagnosed by Psychology today as Disassociation. “Nicodemus” he whispered up at the ceiling... “Nicodemus at Saint John’s“ he spoke again.
Raphael stood up from his fallen position, looked me in the eyes and caustically proclaimed, “Nicodemus is my Saint name”.
Ever since that day Raphael easily manifested panels, he seamlessly married Alchemy into the interpretations by those Divinations he self-proclaimed. Maleficis of course never expressed that he was moved by Raphael, “I said let him stay” was all that he would acknowledge in regards to the art.
We preserved the outline of his first panel for last, now Mayfair simply awaits for the commission bidding to finalize so our kindred Raphael can paint. Mayfair is now joked by all of us as the “Manor of Mayhem“ it is either truly Divine or just a haunted place - the world may never know!
I am not a fan of soccer but I like watching it sometime.