311: As Above So Below
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please check your spam folders if you haven’t received this update via email by now.
You are seeing the abridged version of this post. SUBSCRIBE NOW at the DISCIPLE tier or higher to receive the full uncensored content through the Newsletter/Mailing List. As members, if you haven’t received the newsletter via email, (applicable to many Subscribestar members) please send me a message on those platforms to activate your account and be added to the mailing list. Hiccears users may also purchase each Newsletter instead of a Subscription at USD$12 or 12 H-coin per Carte du Jour Update.
For those new to my works subscribe at the introductory ACOLYTE tier for limited access and if you like what you see, you may upgrade at any time. For those who’d like to support me at the higher tier and receive extra perks, join at the APOSTLE, TETRARCH or DIARCH tiers and I will contact you as long as you have a way for me to reach you.
If you have any questions, CONTACT ME for more details.
For members who purchase via Hiccears, due to the “pay-per-view” nature of that platform and that I’m unable to enable a subscription based approach there, all updates there are now sold piece-meal as a set for 12 H-Coins each (which is approximately USD12 per Newsletter/Update. The link can be found here: https://www.hiccears.com/contents/34bfbcc1-04ea-4a3d-a870-413631085b6a
Dear Patrons,
Here comes another story vignette on the UNHOLY SEE: CLAUSI CUM CLAVE project thread. This was a little late in coming. A new American pope and all and the 4th of July coming up. The next coming days will have an American slant, featuring stories from the PAINTED BIRD OF LOST CARCOSA & this current project. I will also post progress updates from the DOOMED RAIDER & HALL OF FAME project and perhaps, some other new surprises.
Stay tuned and bon appétit!
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
I. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
The chef stood at the Piazza della Signoria marveling at the famous dark stone monument before him.The statue of Perseus slaying the Medusa, the dead bitch’s head held aloft. He had a momentary flash of déjà vu of the day of his initiation in the secret kitchens of the Occulti Vaticani. Didn’t he hold her head up in the same way during a weekend of crazed state of fugue and debauchery? It had all been a blur, like memories recovered from a drug-addled binge but he sincerely remembered the emotion he felt where humanity had finally left him. The moment when he crossed over and became a monster.
Now his head is clear enough to receive all the regrets and guilt that comes from the morning after. How could he have gone through with this ultimate sin? A demon took over his body, possessed by someone who craved sexual ecstasy and carnal pleasure and drowned himself in all the hungers of the flesh. They made him do it, didn’t they? The Occulti Vaticani? Wasn’t he blessed by the Lord of the Unblessed himself and absolved from all sins by the Antipope when all was said and done?
Back to the world above standing shoulder to shoulder amongst the unwitting crowd, he took in these smiling faces of excited travelers relishing the art of Renaissance Italy, of blissfully ignorant families savoring local pasta and bruschetta, and good natured locals with their usual pleasant and sophisticated Tuscan charm, a little less brash than the Napoletano or Genovese, but no less winsome. Being here amongst the throng of humanity reminded him of his former life and his eyes grew moist with the thought of what he lost and for a brief moment, he had forgotten what he had helped done the previous week.
But the imposing clarity of this gruesome 16th century monument of Cellini’s design interrupted his brush with innocence. Those vivid weekend memories came flooding back as the blood red of the girl’s blood gushing from her neck after he bled her with a sticking knife, like a pig hung for slaughter. He looked away from the monument with a tinge of regret and eyes flashed to the crowd around him. He buried his hands deep into his pockets, ashamed… for what they did.
Did these heedless sheep know that they were prey for the Hidden? He kept seeing her face everywhere he went. Every girl who passed by with a dark chestnut brown hair reminded him of…
…her.
Image 1: (1 complete artwork in color)
That face, friendly. Pretty. Pleading. Crying. It was a girl you’ll have a crush on in school. The girl next door. A face that could pass of as American, British, Italian, Croatian, French or Spanish. A face that’s ubiquitously pleasant. It was a face of an actress on TV, one of those dumb crime drama series of a young upstart detective, or one that would convince you to switch to T-Mobile, or the vibrant young lady in spinning around with arms wide in a commercial encouraging you to ask your doctor if this drug is right for you. She walks everywhere, around him. The young lady with the sundress and straw hat accompanied by her skinny-jeans clad boyfriend with a neatly trimmed beard, both lured by the oversaturated colors of inferior tourist-trap gelati. A waitress serving morning coffee and lampredotto to a flat-capped elderly man at a local cafeteria. A purposeful woman walking briskly past him as if in a hurry wearing large sunglasses and an attire that means business. They all looked like her. And all he could think of was how she tasted. And how he has seen her inside and out, that one day in the kitchen, when he allowed himself the most abominable sin to let himself go with helplessness as his excuse, like a day in Vegas where men tell no tales, to have his way with her in the most unimaginable way for one whole day.
He saw her transformed by his own hands, from a beautiful, wailing, trembling naked young woman into chops, cuts and entrées for the Occulti Vaticani’s delight.
Image 2: (1 complete artwork in color)
After that day, she was not the only one transformed. The chef himself was a different man. He was one of the Hidden now and the maggiordomo was correct. For all his reluctance before the deed, in the end, morals will be damned. All his inhibitions would go out the door. His reluctance would transform into consent, accepting gross and wanton debauchery. He would embrace complete superiority over his fellow species. A wolf walking amongst sheep.
Done with the statue of Perseus and the Medusa, the chef walked from the piazza into a narrow alleyway of shops selling arts and crafts, when he noticed someone had left a newspaper on a bench with the front page facing up. There was that face again. Her face. She was smiling and waving at him at him, as if to say, “Hello. Remember me?” Indeed, he had been seeing things, he knew that he might be going a little crazy, but he paused, took a breath, and realized this time… it was not his guilt-ridden imagination at work.
Donna Americana Scomparsa.
And there she was, with a green string bracelet around her wrist on the hand waving at the camera. He picked up the newspaper to read the news article and he could finally put a name to the carcass he helped rendered into chops and cuts. Then, he could not bear to ask. Would a butcher give a name to a sow he is about to slaughter? It was easier now the deed was done, and curiosity got a hold of him.
[redacted] was her name.
Costine al mosto cotta della [redacted]. Ribs made from [redacted]’s carcass.
Why did they have to use that photograph? He’d seen it before, one that’s clearer and revealed more of the background that he knew to be the Trevi Fountain in Rome. It had been handed around to the dining guests at the Dark Conclave. At the front page of La Gazzetta, even though it was cropped, it still revealed a little too much leg and a tempting view of what lies between them and under her skirt. Wasn’t this a little too inappropriate for a missing persons photo? A slight disrespect reserved only for the Americans? Or was it an editorial decision to sell more papers and clicks? If so, it was subtly tasteless.
Despite the low-resolution image, he could still map out that slight skin blemishes on her leg like the stars in a constellation and that served as a confirmation that [redacted] had indeed been the girl who had been reduced to chops, cuts and hams.
No, dear readers of La Gazzetta. sadly, [redacted] will never be discovered lest one discovers her recipe journal immortalized in one of the pages of the Arcanum Gastronomica. But to the world above, she will be part of local lore of a mystery forever unsolved, due to make the rounds in True Crime podcasts for years to come.
Image 3: (1 complete artwork in color)
He lingered on the string around her wrist, the same she still had on, the only article of clothing she had on when she was presented to him stark naked in the abattoir, indicating to him that this must have been a very recent photograph taken on the same day she was abducted for he remembered the words of the maggiordomo.
—
The world above serves our world below. Our secrets are locked with a key. Clausi Cum Clave. Unwitting pawns who serve as distractions while we below conduct our matters discreetly. Uninhibited.
Those above worship the Son of God. “Take. Eat. For this is my body.” Metaphorical.
We below, worship the Daughters of Eve. “Take. Eat. For this is her body.” Gruesomely literal.
As The Lord Above Giveth. The Lord Below Taketh Away.
It is a balance. The world above regards woman as the bringer of life. The world below consumes her corporeal body as sustenance for the human female provides nourishment for these three hungers. Divinity. Beauty. Esculence. It is all written for those who dare to look. And the Occulti Vaticaniprovides and nurtures our sins, for sin begets servitude. It is the lay of the land, how the powerful controls the meek, and you will soon come to accept your role as a servant of the Circle.
Your sacrificial lamb will be an American girl. It is to commemorate the proceedings of recent events. As above. So below. A green string had been set around her wrist, marked as the chosen one by an immigrant street hustler of our employ. She is young, pretty and healthy. She has kind eyes, a gentle soul, and many who love her who will be affected by her passing. I think you will be fond of her but do not be tempted to befriend her lest you will rue mourning her absence and what could have been. You, as our honored chef initiate, will be invited to prepare our meal and possibly to partake in the flesh, if the Antipapa honors you with his blessing.
The effort to find her will be furious and valiant, but in the end, they will not find her for the Unholy See has claimed her for our banquet. In the end, as her story diminishes into a footnote of history amongst a sea of many other missing women, the world will keep spinning as it should be. More victims shall grace your table and you shall prepare their exquisite carcass for our delight.
Ignorance is bliss for these horrors are too dark for those above to fathom. And that is just quite where we like things to be.
—
Then it dawned on him. Who took the picture and how did La Gazzetta or the Occulti Vaticani come about this photograph?
— the end? —
Image 4: (1 complete artwork in color)
II. CLAUSI CUM CLAVE (WORKS IN PROGRESS)
The following are works in progress related to the UNHOLY SEE: CLAUSI CUM CLAVE project, ie. the above story. The following pair are works in progress of the mysterious character known as the Antipope, raising the object of his worship.
Image 5-6: (2 works in progress, shaded & semi-colored work in progress)
The Midi Cut being prepared to be cut in half.
Image 7: (1 black & white sketch)
What happens to the lower half once the CAPELET CUT has been harvested?
Image 8: (1 black & white sketch)
Another sketch concept scene from the preparation of the CAPELET CUT.
Image 9: (1 black & white sketch)
The CAPELET CUT hung on a meat hook before being prepared for the Occulti Vaticani.
Image 10: (1 black & white sketch)
For those who are curious to my work process, here’s a work-in-progress of the cooked CAPELET CUT posted above.
Image 11: (1 colored work in progress from a similar scene)
III. BONUS WORKS IN PROGRESS
Touched up work in progress of the celebrity trophy story project, HALL OF FAME.
Image 12: (1 colored sketch, pre-shading)
The thigh from the PAINTED BIRD OF LOST CARCOSA storyline with and without netting.
Image 13-14: (2 sketches of multiple versions of a similar scene)