*** Madame Rose is one of the characters in the Oracle's Verse. You can learn more about it here.
The Oracle's Verse is the first ever collaborative “Crypto-Novel '' and it follows the stories of 6 characters which travel through the minds of their owners, collecting unique journeys that evolve their stories, infinitely. You can learn more about it here.
Madame Rose moves like water through the backstage glitter and dirt, tinny trumpets and raucous cheers crashing against her ears from out front. She lights a cigarette with the nonchalance of a cat and waits in the wings, watching the act before her own with glinting, malachite eyes.
Rose is at home in the dirt and dark of the theatre. She was raised in dirt, but even as a child she moved like water and sang like a siren, and her malachite eyes had clung to the travelling showman passing through her slum with an elegant, iron grip. Now she’s a household name, but she still remembers the dirt under her nails and the wedding ring forced onto her thirteen-year-old finger. Now she glances at the silken gloves hiding her scars and smiles with grim satisfaction. The cost of freedom was dear but the rewards are endless.
The act finishes and Rose stubs out her cigarette. She steps like water onto the stage and the crowd erupt. In the wings a single feather floats dreamily in the half light where she stood as the voice of a siren fills the house. A fist closes around it, gold band flashing dully on the fourth finger.
Rose had always been a rebel, an outsider. She never fit in with the mainstream crowd and she didn't want to. Although she loved the dirt and grime of the theatre and the smell of smoke, she had a huge secret, one that she kept hidden from everyone. She was a hacker. Rose had always been fascinated by technology and she had taught herself how to code when she was still a teenager. Over the years, she had become a master of the dark web, using her skills to uncover secrets and bring down corrupt organisations. It was her way of fighting back against the system that had forced her into a life of poverty and abuse. She knew that she could take down the systems that ran the world with a few lines of code. But she couldn't risk it. Not yet.
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