Monday, Oct. 16: Joseph was learning Rite of Unfettered Dreaming from Deepsprings, and while talking OOC,
Joseph and I suddenly found ourselves playing out the following dream, of Sepdet and her newfound brother in their sequestered hiding place deep under the city. (Kithyra is Sep's alt elseMUSH; InleRah is Joseph Blackrabbit's).
Lady Kithyra puts a room into Joseph's mind. It is utterly alien. Huge, vast, and straight lines, concrete and metal doors. But in this bunker-like coffin, there is a cheerful array of beds all pushed together, comic books, clothes, cans of food, pillows, and assorted random objects.
You say, "It is heavy down here. The whole city leans on it. Nothing gets down this low, however."
You say "It feels like a madman's kiva. A weaver version of it. And yet it is clean, and the wyrm doesn't reach it. It's more forgotten, than anything else. And people who want to be forgotten have made it into a living place somehow in spite of itself. There is kindness, hiding here in this unlikely burrow."
You say "But Sepdet's in the corner of the whole huge room, in a dark corner trying to hold someone when she herself looks like she doesn't know what to do with her hands. You see the bear, lying beside her, and the boy's head pressed against her shoulder, shaking. She is holding him and holding both of them, looking out at the big empty room wearily, with a bit of anger in her face. She is holding him, but she is really looking out through the walls, looking for someone to throw her anger at for what has happened. She's injured--she's not wearing a shirt, and the new scars on her side are red and dark. But she isn't noticing that. She's focussed on the boy, and on the enemy."
InleRah frowns, and nods.
Lady Kithyra breaks off. "It's happening in real time, I think. I don't know where it goes. It's a dream. Joseph can step into his dreams, perhaps.
InleRah can.
Inlerah asks, "What would Joseph say to Sepdet if he saw this? What would Sep say if she heard him?"
Sepdet doesn't know. You put Joseph into it, and we'll see.
You say "It's a dream. He can go through walls."
Joseph sees her, shadowed by the dark corner of the Weaver-building. Its sharp lines formal, and regulated. so unlike the wyld. The natural. Unlike us.
Joseph sees the boy, and the mood. The anger. He sees her fear. and he says her name, the way Joseph always speaks it when he fears as well, for her.
Lady Kithyra thinks she doesn't hear for a moment. Or rather she's on too different a wavelength, and it takes a moment for the word from her world to seep in. She holds Sebek tighter, shifting her body to block his view of anything else, pressing his face against her shoulder. "Sen 'n ka'i?" She looks around with a start. ~Heya. I must have fallen asleep. What was I saying?~
Joseph becomes more substantial in the diffused light of the bunker's corner. He shakes his head, crouching beside her, his voice trying again to be soothing. "Just a call."
Lady Kithyra hears Sepdet's voice echo in the room, though as often she speaks little more than a whisper. She shifts her weight slightly to lean back against her friend, looking down at the boy's hands pressed against her breast. She seems to be intending to ask something else, but this comes out: ~He's so small. Am I so?~
Joseph's eyes migrate with with hers, and interest makes him scrutinize the tiny boy's features. There is a wonder in his expression as he takes in the features, not daring to touch, though a hand rises in a small mimic of one. He nods in answer.
Sepdet bites her lip, scowling again. ~He says he has so much anger it scares the spirits away. But not now. Not now. They took it from him. Maybe they gave it to me.~ She stares out at the walls of this underground chamber, sight ending sharply on concrete. ~I want to kill them with my hands. I want to kill them with my teeth and spit out their brains.~ Then she looks down, face mournful. ~This isn't right. I'm glad I'm not hunting. The twins shouldn't hunt in hate; they are not Garou.~
Joseph is not sure what to say. Pain edges the dark irises of his eyes at her tone, and anger fills what's left, amplified in the shadows. He speaks softly, trying to be reassuring. "Hate for the Wyrm is never wrong. Hunting these in hate cannot be. I will hunt them, and they will fall. By my blood they will."
Lady Kithyra watches Sepdet shudder. ~Not by blood...never by blood. Hate is the enemy's best tool, next to despair. It rides in a chariot, and the dogs that pull it are Garou and humans killing each other, and the blood that drips behind the wheels is called Vengeance. There is a Wheel that turns now, that trembles with every step and blow of hate struck within it. Thirteen are bound together by a stone. The stone is not very heavy, but they are a burden on each other.~
InleRah sees him struggle, the words a truth he cannot ignore, though his blood sings carry out just such a vengeance. To do it by blood. Is it not the nature of the garou? does it not burn in him? When he looks on you, and remembers the night by Toxic's grave. When he looks on the boy, a living memory of that image, it burns with a fire that connot be drowned but in the blood of the Wyrm.
Sepdet curls her head against Sebek's. ~I know. It is our way. I understand it better now, with his anger touching me. I... I would say I do not rage, but I have raged for a friend before. I have felt the blood sing once in battle. I rage now. But now I smell of Wyrm. I am alone with myself, alone here with him, and not all of the taint I smell is the traces of the ravages on and in his body. Some of it is my anger. Some of it is my hate. Remember? Did you not feel it, the night I saw that leech? Did you not see me change before your eyes? I will do it again, when we hunt her. I will be half Wyrm, if I kill her. Because I will cut her down with the strength of hate. I will do it, though. It is what we are.~
InleRah watches a dichotomy strike Joseph. He gives his head a half shake. "No. No, we are /not/ like them. ..We.. We cant be like them."
Sepdet sighs. ~Once there were Three. The Wyrm helped cut away and cull that which was rotted, old, and needing to be cleared. It forgot the /why/ of what it was doing, went mad, and started undermining living roots as well, striking at random, striking with anger, then with malice. The one rot it never cut, after it went mad, was that eating its own heart. And now it's horrible. Now we are the ones with the knives, who must cut away what is rotten. We must take care. Burns-bright, he had the right of that.~ She smiles then. ~Just think on it. I think that is part of Sebek's road, to remind us of our path, as you reminded me of mine. I hope he can stay with us, when he is whole and well. I want him for the Wheel too.~
Joseph watches the boy with unquestioning eyes. The tiny details of his face and the eerily familiar nuance of feature. Hi eyes lift to his friend, and even in the dark shadow they reflect perfectly his honest love. "I walk in dreams tonight, and seek the answers of all my questions. I may not find them, tonight, but I have found one." After a pause, he says, "Agents of a task, for what is, is what must be."
Lady Kithyra sees Sepdet shut her eyes. ~We are very small, and I thank my foolish father there's enough strength in the two of us that we /may/ just get through this, with your help. But I will tell you. I am very afraid. I am hiding, Joseph, and Sepdet doesn't hide beneath the ground, which was once her enemy. She hasn't seen her Star in a handful of nights. I am hiding from a dream that makes me run to ground.~
Joseph blinks, as the words settle on him like a blanket of cold. A tiny shudder runs through him as his eyes search hers for the dream she speaks of. He sifts in the crouch, wanting nothing more than to shield her from need of fear and he shakes his head, "What, Star?"
Sepdet speaks breathlessly, like one gasping for air, although her face is calm now. ~I dreamed of my father's moon knife--which once I carried--raised up over the sky like a rainbow at night, like the spirit-Nile as it flows across the sky, like a great first sliver of crescent moon. The twins were stumbling up it. I think. They were only ants. But two scarabs were also fighting in the desert, and when one fell, a bird of prey took the dead one--or the live one. I do not know who the scarabs are.~ She looks down at Sebek. ~He dreams too. He told me, or rather, was afraid to tell me. He said...he dreamed the Dancers caught up with us two. And that they had me, and were going to make me theirs. But he stopped them. I got away. And he was left behind. And they took him and hurt him as they did before.~
Sepdet's's face is pain. ~I cannot let them take me, because the Wheel needs me. And I /will/ not leave him behind. So I must hide us both, and let secrets be our shield.~
Joseph's sigh is a bare whisper. "Lean on us. I promise you one thing, my Little Star, you will not be alone. If there is a way under Gaia's works, I will be there, and there will be no need for choosing."
Sepdet slips her hand out away from Sebek, grasping Joseph's and drawing it down over her twin's. ~I trust you to keep yourself safe. If you had not been here, I would be up there now, having to hunt the Dancers myself, and guard my brother too. It is all I can do to keep myself out of this, and wait, and heal him, and hope. Of course--that's what I am always supposed to do, but I have Garou blood twice over, and I /still/ want to fight. I trust you to do the work this time, find our enemies, and keep my caern safe and well until I can get back to mind my trees again. I leave it to you, and Father, and the others. Be careful. If you win, I will come back to you, and you will meet this Sebek, this my brother.~
Joseph's hand trembles at the touch, just faintly. He reassures as his hand's touch firms. "Trust in me. Leave it to us this once, and soon you and I will watch the hope star rise agian, and sing grandfather awake."
Sepdet's face brightens. ~Thank you, kola, Sen. We three, on a winter's day. I will wait in the hope of it.~ Her eyes crinkle, echoing that other dawn.
Joseph sees it and is warmed, cheered. There's a plea in his eyes for you to rest, and lay the burdens you carry aside if you can, just for a time. He knows the futility of such a desire, but cannot wipe it from his face.
Sepdet leans back against the wall. ~I will,~ she promises. ~As soon as Hazmat gets back to look after him for me. She'll be back soon.~ The softness in her voice is like the sound of the first bird singing at dawn. Evidently Hazmat has helped much.
Joseph says honestly, "I never thought to say their tribe was much use. But I owe that one much, I think."
Sepdet chuckles. "We live and learn. Go sleep, kola, now. I need you strong and keen, my hunter on the wind.~
Joseph for a moment seemed lost in thought, and comes back at the sound of the word kola. He gives her a soft smile before standing again. He suddenly seems pleased with something and glances at the confining walls. "Not even a secret could keep me out." looking back at her, he says. "Remember Little Star. Always.. right here."
InleRah drifts into the mists and shadows of the walls.
Lady Kithyra comes back out. "Washte," she smiles. "I didn't know where that was going, but I knew it was a good time to do it." She grins across the grass at Inle, savoring it for a moment.
InleRah sits as well, a little bemused. He nods. Very well.
