| Logs |
2010 February 14
| When The Bough Breaks |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Bough Logs |
Fifth Movement, Fifth Duet
As sometimes happens, after the burning of the Slender Man in the forest, there is a moment of discontinuity for Mikal and Norris. This time, they find themselves on the widdershins side of Uluru. It is late afternoon, with the light from the Mirror casting a lazy orange haze to the sky, with the intense blue of the sky clearing, just enough, for the brighest of the stars above, including Polaris, to start being seen.
There is a neat little house here, a bit older but sturdy, strongy weathered but still quite solid, as if it is saying it intends to be there for a long time. Oddly, it somehow does not clash jarringly with the massive stone of Uluru behind it, rather it somehow blends in... despite being a typical, classic Caribbean home that one might find in the less well-off parts of Haiti, or New Orleans for that matter. The scent of a wood fire comes from it, a wisp of smoke rising from the chimney. There does not appear to be anyone outside, but inside they can hear someone moving about.
Mikal glances around, doing an automatic assessment of where she is and who is with her. Raphael, the gryphkits, anyone else? She glances down at herself as well, making sure she has her bow Papaios with her, then sighs softly in relief when she spots it. Cheerfully she says to the bow, "So, does a time come when I can simply call you, and you appear in my hand?" At Raphael's quizzical glance she giggles, then explains, "Just talking to Papaios here, big brother, sorry!"
Norris is here, and slightly befuddled, but takes a moment to just be...it's second nature to him, now, to merely accept sudden changes in space and time. "Does it talk back, Rabbit?" he asks after a moment, inhaling the scent of the woodfire. That helps. Normalizing. it's almost as good as the heat of the forge. Makes him feel at home.
The bow replies, [tt]"In time, perhaps. That is what my first wielder was able to do, but none since.[/tt]
Mikal nods cheerfully to Norris, "Yup! In my head, just like Raphael, it does." She nods thoughtfully to the bow as well, "All right. Well, we'll just have to work on that then!"
Curently, two of the gryphkits are frolicking some distance away in the grass behind them. It is a fairly simple game for them: Stance, pounce, tumble, repeat. They do not appear to be using their beaks or talons or hind-claws strongly, and they seem content to play happily, not using the various weapons of miniscule destruction available to them.
Norris can't helps but smile at the kits. They're far too fun. And then his head tilts. "I wonder what it means, that they're here with us." he muses.
Mikal grins delightedly, watching the kits. "That they're connected with us somehow now, would be my guess." She glances around as she adds, "I bet Iron Antlers is here somewhere too, you know?"
Mikal adds thoughtfully, "But for now, let's go see who lives here, okay?" She slings the bow with her usual meticulous care, then heads for the little house, to knock on the door and call out, "Hello? Anybody home?"
The gryphkits get into a single furball -- featherball? -- of chirping as they tumble along the ground... and bump right up against Iron Antler's hoof, who stands there pretending not to notice, though he doesn't move his large hooves while he grazes and sees them there.
Mikal giggles in spite of herself as she watches that, waiting for someone to answer the door.
Norris headtilts. "That's not usual, is it? Aren't deer and the like usually skittish? Or is he more special than that? I guess he'd have to be, since he's yours."
Mikal looks curiously at Norris, "Size-wise, Iron Antlers is more like a reindeer than a regular white-tail. Even they wouldn't likely be that alarmed by a couple of kittens." She smiles, adding, "Thanks for the lovely compliment, though."
Norris chuckles. "You're the expert at animals, annat."
From inside the house, comes a throaty, richly-accented, "Jus' a minute, chile!" There is the sound of walking footsteps on creaking wooden floor, then shortly the door is opened by a matronly, heavyset woman apparently in her late fifties, She wears a blue dress, neat but plain, decorated with pink flowers, and a broad smile beneath glittering eyes. "Well, now!" she says. "I was wonderin' when your souls would be lookin' for a way to talk to me. Come in, come in, I've got a tea an' coffee on the stove."
Mikal blinks a bit startledly at the woman, wondering how she knew to expect them... but she doesn't get any sense of danger or malice from the woman, so she smiles and says politely, "Thank you, ma'am." She grins and waves to Norris and Raphael, adding, "Come on, you guys!" before she heads on into the little house, looking around curiously.
Norris blinks at the middle-aged woman, and inclines his head respectfully. He's about to gather up the kits, and the decides that they'll do less damage out there. "Iron Antlers, you keep an eye on the kids now, hear?" he suggests to the grazing stag, befor following Mikal in.
If an ungulate could arch it's brow at someone, Iron Antlers would be doing it right now. Nevertheless, he is holding his hooves motionless as the gryphkits begin to stalk each other in between them.
Inside, the house is warm and close, the hallways almost inordinately narrow, the cielings a little on the low side. Nevertheless, it is distinctly homey, and the scent of some unidentified, pungent aroma fills the place. The furniture is plain but comfortable and servicable. A few cats meander about the place as if it were their own as well. There isn't a great deal of light, though what ample light there is streams in from the Mirrorward windows of the house. There are few decorations, mostly brightly-colored flowers and landscape paintings, though prominenty above the crackling fire is one that looks like an ikon of some kind, with gold paint and a dark-skinned madonna and child.
Norris is used to animals looking at him strange. Matter of fact, everyone looking at him strange.
Mikal looks around in startlement, whispering to her companions, "Whoa... it's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside!" She steps in slowly and cautiously, looking rather like a cat herself for a bit. She stares, entranced, at the black madonna for a few moments -- at least until she spots one of the cats wandering by. That causes her to brighten and crouch down to gently rub the kitty under the chin and around the ears, murmuring softly, "Well hello there, handsome puss!"
The cat meows at her, before deigning to let herself be petted and rubs her head against the hand. The lady comes back into the room, carrying the tray of coffee and tea pots with seeming ease, and chuckles softly. "I'm takin' care of the little kitties for a dear old friend -- promised her I would, seein' as we had so much in common. That one's Nepherankhet, she's somethin' of a princess."
Norris stares in wonder at the giant painting, and the intense gaze of the Black Madonna. He smiles, though when Mikal is distracted by cats. This part of her, clearly, is all Mikal. He seriously doubted Inanna oohed and ahhed over animals, even if she did have some few as her familiars. He looks sharply at the old woman, and comes over to help, as he is used to doing, like he did for his mother. "May we have the pleasure of your name, Missus?"
Mikal smiles up at the older woman, still scritching the graceful cat's ears, and says, "They're lovely healthy looking cats. Who're you watching them for? Will she be back soon?"
Meanwhile the scent of coffee and tea, mingled together in the dry breeze that wafts through the house, carries its way through the living room as the lady ushers them in. "I 'pologize for not introducin' myself," she says, beaming. "but ya do unnerstand, it's not exactly covered in Emily Post as to how to introduce yourself to people who you know are comin' but who don't know you! My name is Erzuli Freda. Sorta distantly related to th' Ghede's you've already met.
She sets herself heavilly down in one of the seats, leaning forward to make the fixings for the coffee and tea. "Oh, they were the best o' her bunch. Not hers hers, mind you, but she adopted 'em. Their missus was Bastet, but I'm afraid she's not goin' to be comin' back for them."
Mikal straightens after one final, slow stroke down the cat's entire back and tail, and pads over silently to the table. She rests her hands on the back of one chair, watching the woman intently. "The Ghedes? Yes, Wolf and I have met two of them, although I think Bear has only met one. How did you all survive, if I may ask?"
Norris's own bushy eyebrows raised at mention of the cat goddess...he instinctively suspected as much, learning the name of one of the felines, that she was the original caretaker. "It is good to meet you, Missus Freda." he murmurs respectfully. He inhales the deep scent...coffee. He remembers coffee. Not from his life in Stanton...but Norris, the craftsman that met Oppenheimer, yes, he loved his coffee.
She makes a quiet sound. "We loas, we always had one foot in th' Wakin' an' one foot in the Dreamin'. When the Godswar happened, we went to ground, we hid, we ran. Tried to make our way here, where we knew th' Architect didn't have the balls to come after us. Even so, lots of us were caught by th' Archangels. Baron Samedi was the one th' Ghede felt most keenly, but there were others: Damballa, Agwe, Papa Legba....
"What'll y'all take in your coffee or tea, childes?" Erzulie asks pleasantly.
Norris blinks at the idea of the Architect not having 'the balls' to do anything. Especially considering he was winning, for a long time. "black coffee with sugar, please." he rumbles, looking at the black liquid eagerly. "Why Uluru? Why not, say, Babylon?"
Mikal stands silently for a few seconds, absorbing the story. She can tell the simple words veil multiple worlds of pain and anguish, as people fought and died and grieved over the lost... her hands unwittingly tighten on the back of the chair until her knuckles are white, and her stare is intensely focused but very, very far away, as if she could pierce through the ages and see into the Burning Time. Raphael makes a quiet whuffling sound, leaning against Mikal's hip and tilting his broad, heavy head up to lick her chin reassuringly. That causes her to blink and look at him, the promise of thunderstorms slowly fading from her flickering-lightning gaze... then she takes a slow, deep breath and forces a smile. [Thanks, big brother.] She brings her gaze around to the woman again and slips into the chair, murmuring softly, "Tea with cream and honey, please, if you have it, Mama Erzuli?"
Erzuli nods, smiling to the two as she makes the tea and coffee. "Babylon ain't no place for loas, chile," she says conversationally. "Too much of a city, the City of Cities, you know? Loas, we're not for that sorta life." She gives a bawdy laugh. "Though Baron Samedi, if'n he were to be in Babylon, ev'ry night he'd be partyin' to make Brigitte ft to smack 'im with a fryin' pan! 'Course she never did anyway. The Ghedes, they all knew what was asked of him, an' made allowances....
"But I'm sure Papa Ghede told you 'bout that already." She hands Mikal her tea, peering over the edge of it worriedly. "An' you went to speak wi' Baron Kriminel, aye? Hope he at least had a polite tongue in his mouth, chile. He can be an unpleasant one."
Mikal smiles silent thanks as she accepts the tea... and says nothing. She won't lie to the pleasant old loa, and she won't cover for Kriminel's lashing out in half-mad grief... although she can understand it.
Erzuli makes a quiet sound, studying Mikal. "Ah," she says with a bit of a sigh. "Well, he always did have a chip on 'is shoulder." She begins to make Norris's coffee. "So tell me, if'n I can ask... been hearin' things 'bout how you chiles clipped Uriel a good one! Know you don't know me an' got even less reason to trust me, but I've been thinkin' and I'm thinkin' I've got ideas as to what might be goin' on here... but don't feel you need to tell me jus' to humor me!"
Norris does not respond to that...he doesn't know enough of the loas to understand why it makes a difference, city or no. But when he's given his coffee, he murmurs a grateful noise, and sips at it. It's no godly nectar, but it is a familair, simple pleasure.
Mikal blows air gently over her tea, then sighs and closes her eyes in pleasure as she inhales the milk-sweet scent. The steam wreathes lazily upwards from the cup and Mikal grins shyly up through her bangs, over the mug, at the older woman. "If you want to tell us your thoughts, we're happy to listen, Mama Erzuli." She takes a slow slurp of tea, still watching the loa with interest.
Norris says, "The credit all goes to our Rabbit, Missus. She's the best of us, and the one with the most reason to take the mighty archangel down a peg."
Mikal smiles wryly at Norris, murmuring quietly, "Best of us? Surely not."
Norris meets Mikal's gaze. "When it comes to fighting, I'd say so." he asserts. "Still, you're right that it's good to be clear." He glances at Erzuli. "Mostly, I'm curious why you'd be expecting us, Missus."
Erzuli laughs heartily. "Ah, th' true sign o' a hero an' heroine: Humility. Can't say how many times seen pride goeth before a long, long, hard fall." She makes her own coffee, sitting back in her chair, stirring the dark liquid. "Mostly was because I'm rememberin' somethin' from long ago, about four gods standin' in Polaris, an' a crazy idea this mongrel of a fire-god had. An' I was hearin' some most impressive things happenin' way way off on Mount Meru, where the tiger-demons are makin' their stand 'gainst the whitewings. Remarkable things, the kinda things that make one hope.
"An' I'd be lyin' if I wasn't playin' my emotions close to my chest, chile, simply 'cause that's the sort of thing stirs up hope. But it's also the sorta thing you don't want bandied about." She takes a sip of the coffee, and says gently. "Chile, we loas commune wit' our mortal worshippers by ridin' them. It's what we do. An' if you've been ridin' as long as I have, you can start ta see when someone -- when someones -- might be showin' signs of bein' gods-touched in their acts and deeds.
"Chiles, I'm thinkin' that there be some mighty old gods ridin' you now an' again. If'n there's anythin' I can do ta help you bring 'em out, I'll do it. 'Cause I'm thinkin' its time that El-Amon-Re get kicked in his righteous ass, an' things go back to how they were when there was peace of sorts between th' gods."
Mikal reaches out and loops an arm companionably about Raphael's neck, holding the mug so he can have a few slurps as well. She smiles thoughtfully, watching her half-brother rather than Erzuli as she murmurs, "A mongrel of a fire-god? Mmm... but maybe hybrid vigor is precisely what was needed then, Mama, no?"
Norris is listening to this extended monologue with interest, and he turns to look at Mikal to read her expression when he sees her feeding Raph tea. Does Raph like tea? Wouldn't it burn his tongue? He doesn't give voice to these thoughts, though, as they sound awfully silly, even in the silence of his mind. "Do you think that that is wise, Missus? Wouldn't bringing them out forewarn the Architect? And besides that...if 'ass-kicking' was all that was needed to defeat him and his minions, surely the Godswar would have gone far more differently, when there were many gods left, instead of just four."
Mikal looks up at Norris and grins mischievously, her eyes alight, "But Bear, I think Mama Erzuli might be just who you need! Don't you?"
Norris blinks at Mikal. "I don't...what?" He has this confused, tilt-headed expression, that makes him more like dog instead of bear.
Erzuli laughs softly. "Well, by 'mongrel' I'm not meanin' any disrespect. 'E was a wild one, as I 'member. Part god, part giant, half-brother to another god...." Her voice softens and becomes a touch warmer as she looks at Raphael, "An' unhesitatin'ly gave himself to be th' brother to another goddess."
She smiles to Norris as she sips her coffee. "Well, chile, that's why I'm leavin' it to you. But bein' ridden by a god, s'not the same as becomin' the god, see? When I ride a mortal, she's not got all of a goddess's power -- else I'm thinkin' would be a sight the likes o' which none've seen before," she adds mischievously. "But it's a sort of... co-minglin'. I'm her, an' she's me. Parts of us are together, in one... sort of, syncretic whole.
"An' I'm sorry, chile, I meant 'ass-kickin'' in a metaphorical sense. I know you jus' can't up and storm th' gates of Zion. Thor an' Marduk tried that, an' it... di'n't work all that well."
Mikal's wicked grin fades into a gentle smile as she realizes she's confused her poor packmate. "Bear, you understand what the loa do, yes? They're spirits who are invited by mortal worshippers into the worshipper's body, so the spirits can be manifest in this world. I believe Mama Erzuli Freda is offering to help you learn how to work together better with your, er... spiritual rider." She glances inquiringly at the older woman, "Yes?"
Erzuli Freda nods, looking sober. "Aye, chile, that's my hope."
Mikal nods to the woman, then looks back at Norris, adding softly, "Do you understand now, Bear?"
Norris opens his mouth, and closes it, his brow knitting. "Ah. Hmm." He's clearly not jumping up and down with joy at this prospect, though he nods his comprehension.
Mikal goes back to sipping her tea when Raphael gives her a gentle nudge to let her know he's had enough. The two entities both silently and unblinkingly watch Norris; silver-gray eyes and fiery-gold.
Norris is clearly discomfited with all this attention. "Look, I'm just saying...I know how to be me. Being the god is...it feels like that's where more problems stem from, in all my recent ups and downs." He looks Erzuli. "What exactly would this experience entail?"
Erzuli smiles, setting down her cup. "Well, is different for every mortal an' every god. I'm thinkin' bein' ridden by me is gonna be different from bein' ridden by Hephaestus. Why is it you feel he's been at the heart o' yer problems?"
Mikal's eyebrows shoot up at that comment -- how did she know that?
Norris grimaces. "He's not exactly...stable, you know? Been saddled with all this extra emotional baggage ever since he started to come out. I feel things he would feel, does feel, as he awakens in me. He's mercurial, and unpredictable. Problem is, I'm not sure he know how he should feel, either." He looks at Mikal. "Am I alone in this? You always seem so confident when She's in you."
Mikal gives Norris a quiet smile, "Are you sure you know yourself? He is part of you, you know. If you see unpredictability in him, aren't you also seeing it in yourself?"
Erzulli remains quiet through this, to let the two packmates discuss this, until she is asked to speak.
Norris shakes his head. "Maybe? I, in my head, in my heart, know that it's pointless to hate the Architect's minions. They're just extensions of his will. Me...I mean, have you ever known me to hate anyone? But him, inside..." he pokes his own head. "There's times, he very strongly wants his pound of flesh for family lost. Maybe everything wasn't always neat and tidy in my own head. But Hephaestus...his problems are different from my problems."
Mikal raises an eyebrow at that... but says nothing, letting Norris work it out himself.
Norris purses his lips. "If anything's clear to me, it's that every life on the wheel was different. Maybe the god was at the heart of it, but they all chose their own directions, chose different things that mattered to them. And it worries me, that he's so much more a part of me now, and influencing me. But coming down to it, I suppose it's needful to get down to brass tacks, hey? Maybe in bringing him out, I deal with the matter more evenhandedly, than having him whispering in my head.
Mikal murmurs quietly, "Are you sure his problems are not yours? -that you have no family lost?"
Norris smiles. "You're my family, Rabbit. You and Cat and Raph, and the kits and all. Maybe I've left my mother behind in Stanton, but by all account, she wasn't ever my mother...likely just memory echo of Hepahestus's dam.
Mikal's expression darkens, and she enunciates with careful anger, "I cannot speak for anyone else... but I do not care to be so deceived. I lay directly on El-Amon-Ra... the responsibility for depriving us all of our families and homes in Staunton!"
Norris stares at this sudden vehemence. "Uh...maybe I'm just a dim bulb, but I don't think that was the Architect's fault. I mean, not directly. From what I remember, we were reborn in those dreamworlds as a result of the Aqal's incursion."
Mikal looks directly at Norris, her eyes sparking with anger, "It would be easy to push off my problems onto Inanna -- to say it's her that gets angry, not me! It's her that feels pain at all the loss of innocence, that grieves at all the pointless deaths, that would gladly ride the thunderstorm itself to reach that vicious, lying, murderous bastard who shattered hope, who tore down all temples but his own, who rebuilt our dreams and loves and lives -- all to suit his twisted, enslaved, will-less version of worship!" She's on her feet now, fierce with anger, and she shouts, "Will you just stand by as the mortals' hopes, dreams, inspirations, efforts, are all destroyed on the altar of his ego?! Is that to be your reasoning? -that it's not your problem?!"
The cats have all fled the room, and Raphael sits up on his hind legs, putting one paw-hand on Mikal's shoulder. He makes that gentle whurfling noise again, his gaze worried as she stands there, breathing hard and glaring. She flicks her furious gaze to him and he licks the end of her nose. She blinks, one hand flashing up -- then catches herself and looks embarrassed. "I'm sorry, big brother. You're right... that was uncalled for." She looks at Erzuli, giving a small bow, "Forgive me, please," then turns to Norris and adds, "I'm sorry, Bear. I can't help you on this one. It's too close to my heart." To both of them she adds, "I'll be back in a moment. I need to clear my head." She turns and darts swiftly out of the room. Raphael glances over his shoulder at the other two, then grins and shakes his head. He trots out after Mikal, his strides relaxed.
Norris was standing up, then...his face contorted in an anger that looks alien on gentle Norris's face. How dare she accuse him of not taking responsibility? He did what was asked of him, by Loki and his mother both, who insisted that she follow Inanna back onto the wheel of rebirth, that it was the only way to save them all. He did it, for love, for duty, for guilt, that he spent so much time wrapped up in his own work, and not doing anything before it came to that. And what did it get him? Anyone who ever loved him, wiped out. Filled with a godly ego that overwhelms him, he's about to give as good as he got, his face burning like the forge he loves...but when Mikal shrinks back into herself, the anger flees, and he looks at Erzulli, bemused and flustered, and wholely Norris again.
Erzulli takes a quiet sip of coffee as Mikal steps out. "That," she says softly, "is the anger of a goddess. An' lest I'm mistaken, that's at least some o' th' anger of a god, too." She tilts her head to the side. "What're you thinkin', chille?"
Norris shakes his head. "I think there's an imbalance, Missus, in both of us...and it needs to be addressed." There's more to it, of course. He realizes that he has more alike with Hephaestus than he realized. He does miss the town, his mother, more than he realized. But he pushed it aside, long ago, when he realized there was nothing he could do about it, that they needed to fix the larger problem. And somehow, that became a denial that the Smith God would understand all too well.
Erzuli smiles kindly, and leans forward a little. "Let me tell you a secret, then...." She says in a stage-whisper, "Even gods aren't perfect!" She leans back again. "Hells... if'n all gods were perfect, we'd not have that white dog on the throne in Zion, eh?"
Norris shakes his head. "None of us are." he whispers. He finishes his coffee. "if you can help, Missus, I think we should accept."
Erzulli smiles quietly, and sets her cup down. "You're already almost there, actually, Bear. Did you feel it, jus' now, when you stood up when Rabbit spoke with the voice of her goddess? Have you felt it, when workin' in the forge? 'E just comes to you, an' you jus' let it happen?
"There's a trick to it, see, chile. For the loas -- an' I don' know if'n it's th' same for th' Olympians, but for the loas, at least... you start it by consciously becomin' the loa you want to invite into you. An' it ain't all quiet-time meditatin' either. What speaks to the god in you? What calls to him? What pleases him, an' makes him feel strong?"
She's quiet for a moment. "I'm thinkin' that there might be some talkin' you need to be doin' with your god-self, too, chile. That I can tell ya... ain't gonna be easy. That sort of facin' of yourself in the dark o' ya mind... most of us don't ever have had to do that."
Norris rubs his forehead. "Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. He stood up for me, there, defended me when I was left vulnerable to Rabbit...but his way of doing things wasn't necessarily any better. Plus he took it personal."
Erzulli says, "Seems to me it was both of you there, Bear. It jus' takes that one moment of correspondence, and suddenly you an' the god are one an' th' same."
Norris's lips twitch. "So it's not just that I am scared of him. It's that I'm scared of myself, too, hmm?"
Norris shakes his head. "Part of me wishes I was still simple. But I think I kept myself that way. Didn't want to grow up. Afraid." he murmurs, more to himself than to the Ghede. "I'd better go get her. Don't want her to think I'm mad." he finally says.
Erzulli says, not without sympathy, "Fear is so much a part of mortal lives, chile. From th' moment they's born, they's bombarded with fear. 'Fear this!' 'Fear that!' 'Fear me!' 'Fear God!' A big parta becomin' who we are inside, is facin' fear, castin' it aside. You're gonna be afraid, chile, that's a given. E'en gods are afraid. But becomin' not only a god, but youself... now that takes facin' fear."
Mikal is slipping quietly into the room again, not wanting to interrupt; Raphael pads behind her, his demeanor almost one of resignedly amused affection. The young woman overhears the loa's comment and nods firmly in agreement, then seats herself and reaches to pour another cup of tea.
Norris, who noticed her coming in, has the teapot in his hand first, and pours it for Mikal. And after putting the pot down, squeezes her shoulder. All is well with the world.
Mikal smiles at Norris, then liberally doctors her tea with milk and honey. To Erzuli she says quietly, "If you can help my pack-brother better and more smoothly communicate with his, um... rider-deity, I would very much appreciate it, Mama Erzuli."
Norris nods. "Yeah. I think it's needful, at this juncture."
Mikal grins in relief at Norris, then settles back in her chair and sips her tea.
Erzuli smiles warmly, then, and reaches for the coffee pot. "I'll be glad to help, chiles."
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