RP Elsewhy

Containment

Containment

Leviathan
Staff member
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://st2.depositphotos.com/3768069/5372/i/950/depositphotos_53726629-stock-photo-bone-seamless-texture-tile.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:#030201;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.3);"][div align="center"][font color="#3A026F" size="6"]Silence, No Where[/font][/div]
[font size="3"]There was Nothing in the field, except a bone door.

She had been certain that there was Nothing, because she would not have part of Here become part of There. There was no Thing here, because there never had been, or perhaps it had once been a Here and had been rendered a Nothing upon the whim of Some Thing that was all that was here besides and beside the door.

The door must be bone for that was the nearest to which it led. It could, of course, have been flesh, but that construction would have been untidy. Doors were not meant to be made of soft meat, but rigid structure, and therefore bone was more meet. Around its frame were inscriptions that may drive some mad to read, but to which the Child’s mind was more than made to comprehend. Such same inscriptions were upon Her heart ([font color="firebrick"]his heart[/font]) and as such bound in tether the soft finity to the infinite that was about to strike out Beyond.

The door only opened inward. Such it was hinged from both Sides that could be seen if someone circled it within the Nowhere. It was of vital importance that the door do not open Outward, for that which was and had never been Here could not pass through a door that was Here and only linked to There insofar as no There became Here.

She was neither Here nor There. Or – She was not, but some echo may be. There were parts of Her Self yet undiscovered that might as yet remain to be uncovered. But the part of Her that She knew best was Curiosity, that universal center, that drew Her as gravity toward those things that should not be Known. As she prepared Her Self for the call, She filled The Silence.

[a href="[MEDIA=youtube]_7SAsNTNX9g[/MEDIA]"][font color="lightgreen"][font face="high tower text"]”If you give it a name, then it's already won. What you good for? What you good for?”[/font][/font][/a]

The Goddess hummed in a Voice that was not wholly Hers and not wholly [font color="firebrick"]his[/font] and not theirs, either, in many voices that complemented one another and complimented the Song in sincerest flattery. Her strings were strung unstrummed behind her back, and in its stead within Her hand was the Staff of the shepherdess that She too could be. It would be foolish to lead Her flock forth here, however. Other eyes watched over them now, as the guardian turned to the gate to which She was key.

She must be prepared. Within that Beyond She would merely be she, daughter of Note and Anchor, body rendered mortal although soul tethered in death to the door. The part that at Her core had always been Goddess now nervously twitched. It had been subject but never Subjected as it would be beyond the door, in the realm that housed a SHE greater than She – a First to be faced by the Last. A SELF that filled all else.

About the applewood, gentle fingers curled. Her eyes looked upon the door, and She searched Her Self for the Note that would carry Her back here, the Song that filled the Silence. And when it was Secure, She stepped forward and struck the Door with the Staff.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]Shave and-a haircut.[/font] [font color="dimgray"]Quarter rest.[/font] [font color="lightgreen"]Two-bits.[/font]

It was, of course, polite to knock. [/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][div align="center"][font size="4"][a href="[MEDIA=youtube]lNroNErjdo0[/MEDIA]"]Enter, Dragon[/a][/font][/div][font face="courier new"]

It was the dead of daylight, and the two were not one. A strange time to observe She-of-the-Infinite, but Enki would have seen this many times before. During the bright joy of what could be considered 'night,' The Goddess was alive with happiness, sadness, the apex of power, a moment of weakness, and all the emotions that made a being body and whole. But during the daytime, another Goddess entirely presented itself before Enki.

A Goddess foreign. A Goddess unknowable. A Goddess truly lacking in empathy and understanding. SHE was a beast dark and terrible. To look upon SHE was to see into void space. SHE was abyss. SHE was terror. SHE was eternal. It was like a mirror painted over with black paint. Such a mirror could reflect no light. Even Enki, whom the Goddess had mentioned reflected herself in some small fraction, would see no similarities in this monstrous SHE-

Knock
Knock
Knock

Enki would learn quickly, if she desired to avoid pain and suffering, to avoid this SHE. To avoid what the Goddess became during the day. To avoid what was left when all the reflective parts of SHE were sent away, back to the tethered realm. To avoid what SHE became, a beast terrible, a beast whose intentions could not be divined, a beast that outlived the death of stars.

[font color="8682eb"]“Enki, listen close to me-”[/font] The beast spoke, SHE would still seek out HER pupil, HER friend. SHE still knew Enki to be the closest to HER. It was why, when the separation occurred, SHE did not obliterate the little curious being. HER voice echoed through the cosmos, speaking, teaching. But trying to learn from this Beast was difficult. It was gazing into a telescope with the looking eye closed. It was examining the body of a rabid dog while wearing a blindfold. It was reaching down a dark hole that fit only the hand. It was-

[font color="8682eb"]“Enki, listen to me. Someone is at the door.”[/font]

Knock
Knock
Knock

The rapping came from a tether beyond, a link crafted to enter this terrible and dark world. Tethers and links were easy here, anyone could come at any time, but leaving is what proved impossible. The beast roared, infuriated that someone might intrude on HER peace and quiet. To enter here was to seek Annihilation. To enter here was to leap headlong into a crucible of flames. To enter here was to board a boat destined for the bottom of the ocean. To enter here was-

[font color="8682eb"]“Enki, my darling. Listen. Don't answer the door.”[/font]

The sun set low, it was nearly night. SHE would become She soon. Enki would be safe, the night would be here soon. So very soon. Minutes now, not long at all. If Enki could last, could hide, it wouldn’t be long before the one who loved her, cherished her, would return. The Goddess had revealed herself to be not a singularity or a duality, but a trinity. A she, a She, and a SHE. Child, Mother, and Beast. Perhaps in time, Enki would come to understand all of The Goddess, but until then-

Knock
Knock
Knock

[font color="8682eb"]“Do not answer the-”[/font]

Too late. SHE stood before that infernal structure of bones. A facsimile of HER handiwork. The Beast, given human shape, reached for the door. HER body was a shifting mold of scales and skin, yet it still held the recognizable shape of Goddess. Black hair, black fingernails, black eyes -And those eyes, wholly black, unreflective- formed the markings that all who had met Her would recognize. Reaching for the door, SHE opened it, then stepped back.

[font color="8682eb"]“Come in, I permit you to pass my threshold. We have tea.”[/font][/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://st2.depositphotos.com/3768069/5372/i/950/depositphotos_53726629-stock-photo-bone-seamless-texture-tile.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:#030201;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.3);"][font size="3"]A Name was spoken unto the dark beyond. It was in fact a Name, for it belonged to the VOICE that spake it, and not to the ears addressed. And, somehow, it reached the Ear of the Child that waited with trick-and-treat upon the other side of the door. Trick, for She (being [font color="firebrick"]his[/font]) would not trek upon the deeper dark without preparation, either because or despite Her lingering trepidation. Treat, because one should not knock upon the door of another without Gifts.

The Girl within the Nothing that stood upon the other side was the daughter indeed of Strings, woven into something delicate. Juvenile, no longer Child, she had the graceful build of a dancer, and the long fingers of an artist. While the fingers wrapped about the knotted apple-staff, the rest of her attire was not at all of Shepherd. Her dress fell to her knees, forest green with pretty embroideries of apple-blossoms sprouting from the lower hem, and tied about her neck to leave back and arms exposed. Her golden hair was braided in intricate threads and set throughout with more of the same blooms, as well as baby’s breath and lavender in myriad shades. Her skin had the gentle tan of someone who spent Her days beneath a summer sun, down to the bare feet that rested now upon their toes upon the Nothing She had caused. The cast of Her face was not so soft upon the edges as to lose all trace of [font color="firebrick"]him[/font], least of all those Eyes, which did not avert from the maddening Reality that stood within Beyond. Blue and green as springtime, with the twinkle of genius or merely mischievous youth behind.

And yet for all the mischief She contained, She did indeed contain it as the door swung in and Goddess stood beyond, for now in all matters must Manners come first.

The invitation was offered, but a foolish bird it was indeed that accepted the immediate invitation of the serpent that invited her. Instead She curtsied, extending the long wings and crossing one foot before the other in a display of humility and grace. A basket hung from Her left elbow and barely swayed with the motion, while the staff was lifted and aligned with Her right arm. Even with the stiff strings slung over Her back She bent as a river bends, or a young tree before a pressing wind.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“A kind offer, Eldest Among the Old Ones.”[/font] She spoke no Name, for She did not have one for such as this, only Goddess. But Titles were the outpouring of smaller Selves, and recognition of those components that made great infinities. [font color="lightgreen"]“I come in peace, and offer gifts of food as nourishment for that which is bonded to the realm of physic and Song for that which is sealed in the existence of Soul. I bring to you Companionship, in exchange for our Word that we both shall abide by the letter of Hospitality.”[/font]

She had no way to be certain – as far as She could tell, no one had ever tried it – but as far as She could tell that was only something that could be bound through the threshold. One Goddess was tied to one side of the door; the other to the other; the portal itself would be the binding ground. There was no way to even tell that it would work in the loosest sense, as SHE was unknowable and had rewritten the Laws of HER world. In short, the Doorway was a Loophole between the two Selves, and as such She certainly wouldn’t blame the Goddess for slamming it shut in Her face.

Should that not occur immediately, She rose from the bow, arm bending to accommodate the basket of Her gift and righting the raised crook.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“As a sign of good-will I shall leave the godhood I have been granted behind in this realm and give my mortality to YOUR service until such time as we shall part.”[/font]

That, She hoped, would pluck within the Goddess the softest Note of Curiosity.[/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]SHE the Beast watched closely as the OtHeR-ThInG-EnkiNot! spoke, SHE was not necessarily listening very well while the other spoke. Instead, SHE looked very closely at the other's form and shape. The definitions and ruffles of dress gave shapes and definitions to HER as well. Before the other's very eyes, SHE would become much more like [a href="[URL]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e8/1c/3d/e81c3d9c2320539fa585a4635a875a37.jpg[/URL]"]She[/a], but the change was not completed yet.

The Goddess, black hair, black eyes, black fingernails, wore a simple cotton shirt of black and black cotton pants. HER long hair fell loosely about HER face and across HER back, bangs slipping in front of HER eyes. SHE was not one for fashion, such was something SHE had never learned, never been taught. Clothing was not to cover shame or showcase designs, it was to give shape and definition so that SHE might be recognizable as something other than terror. Shoes were more than unnecessary, they were strictly forbidden. The worlds of flesh and blood needed to be felt as they were moved over, skin-to-skin contact was very important for bonding with one's children.

At the door, a table was brought for them. Set on the Goddess's side of the doorway, placed by the dark hands of servants rising from the darkness around HER to attend to their Goddess, a set of chairs as well. All bone, of course, all ornately carved. At a touch, they would reveal the emotions buried and hidden within them. These were not things created of a whim, but lovingly carved gifts, tribute presented to the little she as part of appeasement. They told a story of frustration, anger, and rejection, evolving into the emotions of letting go of control, a deep sense of inner peace, and acceptance of another. These things would be sorely missed if they were damaged or altered, so SHE would take good care of them for this meeting.

Gesturing for the other to sit, the great and terrible SHE took her place at the other end of the table, on the side opposite the door. Escape left open, a silent acknowledgment of safety in response to the other leaving her power on the other side. SHE spoke once more, her voice resembling more the rumbling growls of Dragons compared to the sweet tunes of the other, [font color="8682eb"]“Hospitality, what foolish rules. Laws and codes abided by those not strong enough to oppose them once enacted. But understand I do their functions and I shall grant you this. Your words please me, and what pleases me shall have safe harbor before my presence. Sit, drink of my tea, and I shall eat of your fruits.”[/font]

Indeed, the other was correct, she had plucked a string of curiosity within the Beast.

The world beyond the threshold of the door was the same world the first little Why had found itself on, a Sphere of flesh and blood that lived and breathed. But the place the door found itself was not the great expanse of tendril forests and brutalist architecture. Rather, the table and chairs on the old side of the door were placed on a strange, black carapace floor. They were inside a dark room, illuminated by soft bioluminescent insects that crawled in esoteric patterns on the black carapace walls. If the other sat down, SHE would reach out to gently touch the back of one of the servants in the room. A kind little being of many legs and thick fur, it skittered and stretched toward the Goddess so that SHE might not be forced to reach far. At HER touch, it bobbed and fled the room.

[font color="8682eb"]“You gift your mortality to me- a strange offering. None else have done as much, the others clung so desperately to their strengths in the days of old, in the days I still had regular visitations. Their strength meant nothing, perhaps you know that, perhaps you always knew that, perhaps you know now.”[/font] How deeply HER voice rumbled and shook, even the walls reverberated with the echoing sounds of its harmonic resonance. Reaching forth both her hands, she offered a cup of tea to the other with one hand and held open her palm for a gift in the other hand. As SHE did so, SHE spoke once more, [font color="8682eb"]“A name, grant it to me, and I shall grant you one as well. Your steps have brought YOU to ME, and I presume in your arrogance that you did not engage in this path to seek Annihilation.”[/font][/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/27/30/05/360_F_327300576_dcPLJ0XNJ8DUD5lEAI2NkyArWgd3953c.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(255, 5, 188,0.1);"][font size="3"]The VOICE rumbled through the door in a deep bass, and had a beauty all its own. The Dancer felt it in both Her bones and the Bones of the stoop on which She stood, down to the Heart that had been left in the hands of her Priestess. A facsimile for survival without such necessary organ beat beneath Her breast, but to step into a world where She had not such vital core was to render Her Self powerless.

And such was as it had always been, and perhaps should remain. The Beast understood Her weakness, and She did not deny it.

Her manners, while meaningless, had pleased the Goddess – or perhaps Her manner and bearing – or the bearing of Gifts, as promised, as deserved. Guest to Host they would be tied, although it would affect only She who was to become she.

And such was as it had always been except at the Heart of Her Church.

She breathed once with deliberate slowness, felt a familiar fearful sting as She stared into the Void that was not at all void but alive. She looked down at Her feet, the nothing on which She stood, and determined this was not the time for doubt.

The little Why crossed the threshold, woman and child suspended for but a moment before the Form determined itself in deed adult. Adult of flesh and blood and mere mortality, which breathed and felt with such sudden grounded unknowing that She took a moment to pause, one foot within and one without, not from any sense of doubt but from the momentary marvel of Humanity.

Beneath her (her!) bare sole, the floor was smooth and cold and hard as tile or stone or looking-glass. The air felt heavy in the lungs that were now mostly [font color="firebrick"]him[/font], although not truly, only facsimile as so much else was. Sound seemed now softer, even the rumble of Goddess’ word, not felt in any way throughout but transmitted in the span of time and comprehended by comprehensible mind. She breathed and her heart beat and her skin felt cold and her ears heard sounds, her tongue and nose tasted and smelled and her eyes – now only somewhat his eyes – saw the flashes of light in all their minute brilliance. It was even more overwhelming than the first moment of ReBirth when he first called her back to earth.

A call. She lifted her head abruptly, suddenly flush, aware she had not fully heard all the Goddess had to say to her. Mortal brain of flesh and nerve took longer than it would have as Hers to remember what was said without asking the Goddess to repeat herself.

[font color="lightgreen"]“I’ve grown accustomed to my own smallness,”[/font] she said, and it was all she could do not to allow herself to revel in the well and true sound of her own voice – not-his-voice, but all her own; [font color="lightsteelblue"]“if anything, such weakness is my truest self. It is an honor for me to be able to share it with You.”[/font]

That, and more. She felt the applewood under her fingers as she flexed them, and on the other arm was the weight of the basket. She stepped and felt the pad of her foot peel off the carapace, leaving warmth in her wake as she found the cold again. Rather than remove anything from the basket, however, she set the latched package upon HER hand. The woven wood was gift as well, but not as sweet as that which was within. Generosity was in Her Nature – her nature? – after all the pain it had suffered. She tended to give perhaps too much, yet it never would feel like quite enough.

Should the Goddess unlatch the basket, or bid the child or a servant to do so on HER behalf, SHE would find – apples.

Nine. It was a sacred number, an echo of that which-where She had been brought after Her belated birth. One deep red with golden patches; one pale green; one pink with yellow speckles, and a red likewise; a yellow one, topped in pink; a red one with patches of green like grass upon an ancient battlefield; another yellow, flushed with red, and still one more, pure gold but speckled; and last one with deep red skin. Each a memory, each a facet of the matryoshka that Made – her. One for each feeling shared in fullness throughout her growth. She had not known the Beast’s preference for the sweetness of emotion; no, such indeed was her nature, to feel so deeply as to share with those who surrounded her. A truest Giving of Self.

But was it so much as giving a Name? She had so many, perhaps she could spare – risk a binding to this world, this plane. But this part was the truest daughter of him, the part that was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and heart fully of his heart and mind, unfortunately, of his mind. She would give Her Self, but she would not let HER bind.

[font color="lightgreen"]“If it pleases the Goddess, I am but a Curiosity.”[/font]

SHE might not be affected by the phrasing, nor would SHE know this was the innermost Self, but Curiosity did and his tongue tied her against mistakes by simple habit. Should the Goddess demand –

But only should the Goddess demand, for she would be unable to resist, nor bind any name given in return.

Even the one that might not be a name at all, but was spoken as though it very much could be. But she kept the question upon her tongue, the urge to ask no longer uncontrollable. She would let the Goddess do what SHE would with the Gifts, first, and then ask her questions when given leave. [/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]The Goddess did not move or speak as the other, now defined as Curiosity explained herself. Instead, SHE simply watched every movement of Curiosity with intense 'curiosity' of HER own. The way her chest rose and fall with each breath, and breath she could inside this place. The way her feet touched the floor, the way she sat in the chair, the way she held then set down the basket of fruits, everything captivated the great SHE. After all, it had been this aspect's decision to craft the world in such a way that the Infinite-Goddess might ground HERSELF-Herself-herself to the small.

As the final words were said, the Goddess [font size="3"]Breathed[/font] deeply and slowly, a not-so-subtle reminder of the air and the gentle smells in the room. The room was scented with a faint wafting of lavender and citrus. Reaching forth, the Goddess unlatched the basket of fruits and withdrew one at random, a red little thing with patches of green. HER black fingernails shone beneath the gentle green bioluminescence as SHE held the fruit up to HER face, those unreflecting eyes examining every inch of the thing. Then, without fear or hesitation, SHE bit deep into its flesh and withdrew from the memories embedded within. A smile spread gently across those terrible and beautiful features at that moment, shame without guilt flooding the Goddess's being. SHE felt all at once terribly aware of every insect eye on HER, of the effort it took to bring forth the being before HER into life, and the vague questioning of 'WHY.'

It was delightful.

Consuming the entire fruit, seeds, stem, and all, the Goddess nodded gently in pleasure. At that moment, SHE would offer forth the tea once more. It was a dark liquid, but most certainly water steeped in some combination of leaves and dried SoMeThInG. Unlike the Red of the Sphere, this drink did not consist of intense and powerful emotions. It was a palette cleanser, of a sort, providing only a sense of calm and refreshment alongside a slightly sweet taste. Finally, SHE spoke, [font color="8682eb"]"Curiosity, that was quite enjoyable. Did you know of the currency of my home before you arrived, or was this simply a gift shared from the heart? Ah, don't answer, I won't like the wrong answer. A gift from the heart, crafted in ignorance and presented in purity, this is how I shall accept it."[/font]

Suddenly, the floor began to shift beneath the pair's feet. It was not as though the floor itself was moving exactly, but it was a feeling wholly unlike anything that could have rightfully been experienced anywhere else. They were inside something, and it was moving. All at once the walls, floor, and ceiling itself began to light up with bioluminescence of a deep blue hue. Glowing blood pumped through large insectoid veins, and SHE continued to smile. With the influx of light, the shapes and designs of the room could be seen and truly appreciated.

It was a bedroom. An immense bedroom, to be sure, but still a bedroom. Toward the back of the room was a massive pile of cushions and pillows upon which a Goddess-sized indent had been made. All about the room were mirrors, painted black, half-crafted creatures of flesh, bone, and carapace, and thousands upon thousands of hand-drawn pictures on skin paper. This was not the only set of tables and chairs in the room, but it was by far the nicest. Lining the walls, a dozen furry, multi-legged, sightless servants waited on the Goddess for her every beck and call.

HER smile fading, the Goddess spoke once more. HER voice was a little kinder, a little softer, a little more one-of-us now. The sun was setting, the merge beginning, it would be safer soon.

[font color="8682eb"]"I have been given many names, none worth remembering save one. That one you may not know, not while the one whose heart to whom you belong still breathes in the multiverse. Understand my reasoning and question it not-"[/font] A command, issued with the same gravitas as 'disobey and perish.' [font color="8682eb"]"But I will give you another name, one I have not been called since before the bones of this Sphere were grown and molded to shape. Amalek. You may also call me Goddess. But know if you say that word as you are now, you may never wish to leave. Speak to me-"[/font] Another command, [font color="8682eb"]"Curiosity, why are you here? Surely not simply to please me?"[/font]

There were so many things hidden in Amalek's words, and many things blatantly not hidden. But these were actions and courses taken not out of any desire to trick the little Curiosity before HER, but purely out of unconscious habits. But what was not hidden, neither in words nor in the shape of Amalek's face, was her complete and utter confusion. To willingly give up power, to submit to an unknowable among the unknowable with no true guarantee of safety. These actions had [font size="3"]NEVER[/font] been taken before. So why, in the infinite of time and space, were they happening now? What was the message of this play unfolding before Amalek?

And what was the Heartless man's role?[/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/27/30/05/360_F_327300576_dcPLJ0XNJ8DUD5lEAI2NkyArWgd3953c.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(255, 5, 188,0.1);"][font size="3"]The little she watched HER devour the gift with gusto, and there was satisfaction shared with HERs within her. It was, indeed, a gift of the heart – her heart, now, even if it was a replica of his. But like him she’d never been able to bring herself to do anything half-heartedly. Both parts went into all she did, when she was She.

There was no more time to dwell on that as the room began to glow, and she realized with a great deal of embarrassment – perhaps, in a sense, shame without guilt – that she had intruded upon the Goddess’s own rooms in crafting Her door. She herself had no chamber, no bed to dwell upon. On the rare occasion when She rested, She would do so in the Garden, or under the stars, as She had been born. Never within Her Temple, for She never wished for them to know She grew tired lest they think She grew tired of them.

And yet mixed with those thoughts was that fresh sensation of sight without Sight, pure enjoyment of waves of light, of seeing rather than experiencing the room itself, the immense bed, the half-completed projects. She earnestly desired to ask after them, but they weren’t – relevant, as someone might say – and without her Self she once more found herself able to withhold questions until they were important.

The Goddess did not demand, at least not a new name. It was an infinitely generous act, to keep the Curiosity from binding her self to HERSELF by accident. But that was not what caught up the girl immediately from the statement.

Amalek. Such Names had meaning, but oh! Not to know it, not to recall it by a million strings that tied back and between knowledge the flesh could not contain, and so remained hidden Elsewhere in Her Heart. But she didn’t question Amalek, not because of HER warning also granted in what she had to interpret in her fully conceived mortal mind, but because something else SHE spoke and there was a discord in the little mortal body before HER.

[font color="8682eb"]Not while the one whose heart to whom you belong still breathes–[/font]

[font color="dimgray"]He was gone. Didn’t SHE know that?[/font]

The feeling was not nearly as overwhelmingly full as it had been when girl was Goddess herself; it did not wash out of her and through Her and fill the room and overwhelm all else to render her once more to infant, helpless without understanding. Now it was just the gentlest pang, far down in her heart where it might have held an echo of Hal Note. A blessing, in finity.

[font color="8682eb"]–in the multiverse.[/font] The silent question answered itself. She had thought of the multiverse; of course [font color="firebrick"]he[/font] existed Elsewhere, but he would not be hers, and to take him from an echo of Her would be the gravest grief She could commit in any world, graver even than defying her Self.

Although that comment alone began to clarify a few things.

Amalek had finished speaking, and the Curiosity saw something in HER face, dark beauty that it was: a reflection of HerSelf, when she was such, and mixed with it the confusion of one who did not understand, even if SHE could know. There was no way for her to know what the cause of the confusion was.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“It is in part because I haven’t often visited with those who are – like I can be. New experiences have an irresistible appeal, when I am whole.”[/font] She took up the tea offered – food exchanged, not accepted freely, that was the rule and as guest she would be rude not to take it. Such were the intricacies she’d decided to bind herself to, as long as she remained. She found it good, but it didn’t quell her unease as she approached the true subject, and rearranged her words so as not to make them a question. [font color="lightgreen"]“If you want the truth, Amalek, I… thought there might be part of me left behind here, after I lost him. But if there’s another Curiosity born of – [font color=”dimgray”]him[/font], as I am, then it is best we don’t cross paths. She’ll have to learn her own way.”[/font]

That was wisdom beyond her apparent years, and her actual ones, but not divine wisdom. The pieces of her life fitting together where they belonged, the outcome of lessons learned. The parts that bound her to children and apples, rather than Knowledge and Ignorance. The part of her that was not him, and was not Her, and was not Her MOTHER; borrowed, in part, from another there upon Her rebirth, but only as a model, not truly hers.

[font color="lightgreen"]“I have learned what I wished to in my coming, and I am grateful for your help. And so if it please— You, Amalek,”[/font] she finished, catching herself before she picked up the tether again, [font color="lightsteelblue"]“our company is enough to satisfy my reasons. If you desire that I leave, then leave I shall.”[/font]

But there were more apples, there was more tea, and she hadn’t yet given a promised song. And, she was sure with an instinct that might be all that remained of Her, in her, that there might be more questions.

It would be a nice change. Almost like being home. [/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]The room shifted once more, the whole structure that sat the pair within seemed to gently twist and turn with them inside. SHE stood up suddenly and servants moved instantly to attend HER. A wave, and they dispersed back to the walls. The unspoken words between them could not be heard, but they could be felt as the emotions rode upon the air. An essence of patience, calmness, and dismissive approval radiated from the great SHE as Amalek made HER way toward the cushions.

A gesture and two servants moved to flank Curiosity. They did not attack, rather, they began to radiate calm and an intense desire of movement toward the new woman. Gently, their furry bodies leaned into Curiosity, attempting to get her to follow the Goddess toward the back wall. Amalek climbed into the cushions, they almost seemed to make the Goddess appear small if her presence was not so large. Beckoning Curiosity to join HER, Amalek spoke.

[font color="8682eb"]"I enjoy watching the sky dance when I wake up, come here." [/font]

Curiosity would find, upon obeying the COMMAND, that the cushions were incredibly soft and spongey to the touch. Climbing onto them would prove difficult, and it would be impossible not to roll onto the Goddess into a pile of warmth. If Curiosity touched the Goddess, she would find HER incredibly warm. Like a great furnace burned within her heart, hot to the touch and comforting to a full embrace. Laying on the cushions, SHE watched the wall as little beasts began to crawl and writhe upon its surface.

Before their eyes, the black carapace wall began to unfold in layers upon layers. A [a href="[MEDIA=youtube]DUXNorZWQiI[/MEDIA]"]gentle music[/a] echoed from the pieces that shifted and folded out of the way in the wall, as if their very movement played a dozen instruments for the Goddess's pleasure. Amalek spoke, but the growl of the Beast was slowly fading from her voice. It would be audibly perceptible, the change from SHE to She, but Amalek spoke as if there was no difference at all.

[font color="8682eb"]"I am incredibly powerful, vain, and prideful. I can read the minds of all that is flesh and all that is not. In an instant, I could consume you, and know all there is about you. But I do not, do you know why-?"[/font] Amalek reached over, HER voice becoming Her voice and her voice, and stroked Curiosity's face. With the growl of the beast disappearing, replaced by the twin voices of child and woman, She continued, [font color="8682eb"]"It is not out of some sense of what is right or what is wrong, there is no right or wrong in eternity, it is eternity. All rights I will do, all wrongs I will do, and I will rewrite the definition of both and do it all again. But I learned, from time beyond time beyond time, that to take things, to grasp them immediately, is a great death. A death greater than the infinite nothing beyond the veil for one such as me, for ones such as we."[/font]

Amalek reached out once more, pulling Curiosity into her body, holding her almost like a mother might a precious child. [font color="8682eb"]"So much better to experience everything in its own time, piece by piece. To play by the rules and desires of others, to engage on these alien terms to encounter something new. There is nothing more valuable than new experiences, nothing. For we will see all, we need only wait. If we cannot wait, why live at all? Oh- look! This is my favorite part~"[/font] She held the other woman a little tighter, fingers running through her golden hair to pull her face close. To hold her and see the same sights, She grasped firmly and gently.

And the wall folded away to reveal a sky shining with the sight of a thousand shooting stars. They streaked and screamed across the darkness with brightness and loveliness that could only be expressed through dance and song. They heralded the awakening of their Goddess, and She appreciated their every effort. With a sigh and a smile, She settled into the cushions and woke up. The Beast had left, gone to sleep, replaced by the woman and the child. They three were the same, yet they three were different.

And yet, they were the same.[/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/03/27/30/05/360_F_327300576_dcPLJ0XNJ8DUD5lEAI2NkyArWgd3953c.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(255, 5, 188,0.1);"][font size="3"]Even before the servants came, Curiosity rose with her host. She’d been made with manners, after all, or after a manner, after his manner. Under the rules to which she was bound no guest sat while host stood without invitation. The creatures that served Amalek flanked the human Girl, their softness pressed and pressure against her. And yet she moved at the slightest touch, so irresistible was the BEAST’s beckoning. Not that she would be possessed to resist without such insistence.

To clamber up them was a feat, but not one unfamiliar to the dancer’s feet, for long had she climbed up the faces of trees with far less direction than the intense gravity of the G– Amalek. And she succumbed to that pull without pulling back; fell upon HER immensity and warmth. And a distant memory long forgotten and never belonging to the girl but the Goddess wrapped about her mind like tendrils of a creature of the deep; of being fully enveloped, lost in Mother, so long ago and yet a flash in her own history –

– to be within him, in heart, in mind, to peer through that Eye that was not eye –

To be held upon her birth, and then set aside, and then never touched again.

Was this how Her Children felt, when brought into the garden? When held tight against Her bosom, or even just brushing against Her hand? Or was the Orphan Goddess – Orphan Girl – so deprived of touch from one so much more than she that this response was simply human emotion overwhelming her, not HER-Her-her influence?

Could she ever even Know? Would she Know, should she return on the steps toward her own Self, Her own Heart? Left in the hands of… her Rose, her Gardener, her Shepherd.

Safe. She was safe, the children were safe. And she could rest, not in the collapse of a child in blind trust nor of the mother overweary from her burdens, but of humanity, of womanhood, of night and beauty and stars.

And as the GODDESS-Goddess-goddess spoke, echoing down and through, She who was Mother and Daughter and Shepherd and Gardener and Knowledge and Ignorance and Tree and Stone and Life Experienced and Taken and Regiven and Experienced Again For The First – She was gone. Such was merely girl – no. Woman, trapped no more between Daughter and Mother (not simply Woman or Child, but Defined Divine). A young woman with a face once as his, now softened in surrender, student only, listening. Who would have surrendered her Self for consumption if asked in that moment of comfort beyond any she knew She would ever be honored to experience again. For She (SHE no more) was so much as she was, experience and existence surpassing all sense of superior power, the novelty of the universe so infinite that they made even the greatest feel finite and even fragile, like a girl of nineteen curled up against a Goddess. As Amalek found Her coda, she turned her eyes to the sky.

Her smile curled as she saw the beauty, but down the corner of one eye, through the crook of her nose and around her cheek opposite Amelek’s cheek, and then so gently gracing the Goddess’s fingers, was a single crystal tear. Every emotion crashing at once together in a wave, in a harmony, as an orchestra touching their tuning note, brought to break as witness of beauty perilous and precarious and precious.

Her mind and mouth moved in soft melody, idle as her body yet sweet in its softness; for there had never been godhood in his Song, which she had inherited from him.

[font color="lightgreen"]“Believe me, darling, the stars were made for falling...”[/font]

It didn’t quite fit the hymn hummed by the wall, but fitting and belonging and having and being and Seeing were far from her now, in a heart in a box a world away.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“...like melting obelisks as tall as another realm...”[/font][/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]Amalek waited patiently as Curiosity sung beside her, listening and smiling. Curiosity would feel it full force now, whatever she had been speaking to before had gone. SHE slipped away, replaced by the ever so joyous She and indignant little she. Hopping forth from the cushions, twin voices of woman and child leaped toward the newly unveiled balcony with a yelp. Red gas streaked across a dark, sunless sky, illuminating the ground as though it were still graced by the light of its dead star.

Twirling on the balcony, black Foundation clothes gently blowing in an invisible breeze, She exclaimed in her twin voices, [font color="8682eb"]"How wonderful! The joyous sky celebrates my arrive! And I am not alone, never alone! New friend~" [/font]Turning to Curiosity, a wild look in those black eyes, She continued, [font color="8682eb"]"You simply must encounter Enki! Enki and you! How fascinating! How exciting! Oh exhilaration! Oh- my goodness, chastisement abounds within me. I am behaving so Un-Goddess-like, but I cannot resist myself! Hold back no whims, experience everything! Go to the balcony, wait for me~"[/font]

At that, She bounded back into the room and over to the table. Grasping up the pure gold, but speckled, apple, She consumed it in a single bite. Her mouth did not seem to change shape, yet the apple fit easily nonetheless. Was She always large enough to do that? She was always small enough to not. But it was done, and the emotions flooded Her with memories and experiences once more.

While She experienced new experiences, Curiosity would have ample opportunity to fully understand the manner in which they two traveled. Outside, the world moved beneath the hundreds of thousands of feet of a super-massive insect. A truly enormous, mind-bogglingly large beetle beast. It dwarfed the largest mountains on most worlds, and it moved with slow, deliberate power. Instead of its back being the smooth carapace of a beetle, it was molded and shaped into a colossal castle. Their room was the apex of the highest turret, allowing for a free view of the flesh world below.

Beneath them, the world writhed and lived. There was no dead rock of flesh and blood beneath them, rather, a conglomerate of tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of living beings both large and small moved across the surface as a twisted litter and parade. The Goddess would not move unheralded. Then, as quiet as a whisper but utterly unignorable, She called for Her.

[font color="8682eb"]"Ennnkiii~ Come out~ Be not shy. We have guests."[/font][/font]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]" style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/1941957.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(255, 5, 188,0.1);"][font size="3"]Her eyes knew the color of the cloth from which the Goddess cut Her clothes, the Foundation black of darkened Knowledge, the same Foundation on which she had been built. Curiosity – no more unbearable but still a siren-song – came over her once again, but once again before question came courtesy. She slid after the She-she who rose with the splendid Sphere, and followed Her-her direction toward the balcony, as beckoned.

And she saw the splendor of a world that served its Goddess in its very breath, in its very hatred, in its very Song and Self and the lives that danced upon its surface. This was the world that She had created; it was, she knew, Her right to demand its homage. And it was given as a gift, more precious than gold, and yet She set Her Self so far above those whom She had made – did She, in Her Trinity, ever truly feel Alone?

[font color="#FDD097"]Few expected Loneliness to be soft and sweet, or something to be sought after like so much treasure, for it came easily enough unbidden.

Loneliness is a desire to be alone no more – isolation an ignorance that was filled with the knowledge of Self, but wished for the knowledge of another, to share and yet unable to touch those who could be shared with. There is a unique aloneness in sitting above a teeming mass of life and being aware that you will never [font color="a0522d"]belong[/font] among the ants below. The city lights sparkled, the same gold speckles of apple-skin, of Her hair – at last no more his hair, at least not until the loneliness made way for grief once again. But here there was only the Self, She who was not like any other after Her and had no intention of becoming Became as those who came before, Blights and Gods alike. She was Goddess, daughter of Goddess, and always would be, but Her Desire was not as those who had left her to creation.

She sat above the Thousand-City and its city-thousands, the body of humanity that did not understand its place as cells of its own greater consciousness. Such was something that would never include Her; she was not as humanity was, even if in body she seemed like one of their own children, a teenage girl. But the girl was second to the Goddess, and the vacancy in the rooms of Her heart ([font color="firebrick"]his heart[/font] no more for [font color="firebrick"]he[/font] was [font color="dimgray"]gone[/font]) was filled instead with Her, halls to be wandered without thought of him to hear Her own Songs instead.

There is a moment, after which a bird is pushed to try her wings, in which she hangs in dark suspension between the safety and shock, and the first beat of flight to the tune she will follow for the rest of her life. It is a silent moment when the fear is gone and the instinct begins. Perched upon the parapet of some skyscraper, She sat suspended above the city, tuned only to Her Self. Pushed from Him, not yet Her Self, the Quiet filled Her and She, Alone, filled it.

It helped divinity become divination, discovery of the Self in soft silence. Loss had become Lost had become Lone had become Lonely, and when left without some [font color="firebrick"]one[/font] else there was only one’s self, not to become, but to be realized.[/font]

And as She realized that with the Sphere Her Goddess had once more became the Light in the dark of Her Ignorance and was no more the Predator that waited for the poor soul in the dark of the day, Enki Became within the bedroom at Amalek’s side. It would not do to keep the Goddess waiting. She smiled the not-his-smile that had once perhaps been but now could not be ever again; and yet as She parted Her lips to speak there was a moment when Her Senses were distracted by nothing more complex than Curiosity.

For the girl upon the balcony turned as Selves that were not twin and were not One filled the self-same space, and gasped beneath her breath. The Girl was in soft silvery-grey – not the white she had once worn within the belly of his location before that unbecame, but unmistakable, Foundational. Human and Goddess, Child and Daughter, met with eyes that were not mirrors of one another but identical in their Curiosity, their Motherhood, the Loss, the Longing to Learn; the only bridge between them in the unwoven strings – and in fulfillment, realization, becoming that became Her or her or unbecame altogether.

Yet each recognized some part of her Self in the stranger she saw;

[div align="center"][font color="lightsteelblue"]One was a threshold[/font] [font color="firebrick"]–[/font] [font color="lightgreen"]the Other had crossed.[/font][/div]
And Twin Voices, almost Goddess, almost Child, touched upon each other as Hers-hers had, harmonized as only a self can be, unity in unexpected association.

[font color="lightgreen"]“You look ju[/font][font color="lightsteelblue"]st like him.”[/font]

Then the Child turned away Her Eyes – nevermore His Eyes, she knew then, for even without her Self she knew that to this Girl he was [font color="dimgray"]gone[/font] – and she, subjected to Amalek, swept aside her sadness with the skill of long experience. A smile touched her face, and she stepped bare-foot from the balcony, and once more with grace she dipped into gracious curtsey –

If only to hide the second tear that rolled down her cheek. [/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]She and she stood together in unison, one body two minds, feeling and experiencing the emotions conveyed in the memories of this fruit. It was a sensation relatively new to them both in the sense that anything could be relative or new. The feelings of loneliness, of not being whole, and the memories of this fruit forced through their memories to find the origin of their own loneliness. An instant turned into a second into a minute into ten, standing there in complete stillness and complete silence whilst Curiosity and Enki experienced each other.

Then, as if nothing happened at all, She and she smiled and spoke aloud, [font color="8682eb"]"Enki! Come with me! I have many things I wish to show you today, to teach you! We shall bend the fabric of life and twist it into something new, for I have the greatest desire now to create something new! You shall accompany me, little love, and we shall enjoy our time together~" [/font]

And she smiled and She spoke and she and She did not seem to notice or care as a great black [font size="4"]THING[/font] pulled itself free from herHer body. Shaped the same, but bigger, than the Goddess, it took the form of a million black lines flowing and amalgamating into the rough form of the Goddess. Like a shadow cast from a candlelight in a dark hallway, it moved and shifted and groaned its way toward Curiosity. The other would not notice it, refused to see it, as they drew Enki toward herselfHerself and left out a carapace door.

And it, unmistakably the BEAST, unmistakably Amalek, moved toward Curiosity. SHE stood over the little mortal, then bent down so that HER twin eyes of black, so dark that they pulled light from the swirling lines of black and could be seen only by their outline, met Curiosity's own eyes of color. And, once more, SHE [a href="[MEDIA=youtube]_U4FQmeYXwc[/MEDIA]"]spoke[/a].

[font color="8682eb"]"Do you understand the outlines of eternity?
Do you speak and the shape of reality bends?

Tell me, little one, can you see the separation of one into one into one?
Can you empathize trauma and BREAKAGE beyond understanding?

Ancient pains that ached and cracked before the stars were born?
Dreams that died before FORMLESS ANCIENTS knew consciousness?

I tell you this, I have known loneliness unmatched,
A part torn away that infinity itself cannot replace.

And I would have you answer me,
Have you ever loved before?"[/font]

It was a question that demanded an answer. As if to punctuate HER words, SHE grasped Curiosity's face. HER hands, dark and terrible and soft and warm, cupped those cheeks no more than half the size of HER palms with gentle ferocity. Love and destruction, as if they were one and the same. [/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/22/95/3422959ac5d1d577dba7282d5d28b914.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"][font size="3"]Curiosity’s humility was met solely by Silence, and the Siren raised her eyes to find the Goddess was still. The second Curiosity, Greater and Smaller, had turned to Her for perhaps forgiveness, yet found Her the same. And the part of her that was Her would have turned to the daughter that was no more his daughter to fill in while the Greatest among them found Her Self; but ah, this part had not Her to balance him. The itch of mischief that idled as She acted as Mother or came crawling after Curiosity’s scraps now flowed freely within her, the greater her, the woman.

[font color="firebrick"]“Now, a lot can happen behind closed doors; that's for sure, sister, that's a fact.”[/font] The Girl blinked, and Note winked an eye – the green one. A smile crept over her face – [font color="firebrick"]his[/font] smile, well and truly and really and full of mischief and magic, for the first time in too long. [font color="firebrick"]“But a lot can happen on the factory floor, when the foreman turns Her back.”[/font]

It wasn’t one of his songs – it was one borrowed from another time, another tragedy, and yet it was still drawn perfectly from memory. And even through the sadness, even through the grief, she saw that distant twinkle of Curiosity in those eyes that matched her own. Of course, she had no band to accompany, but as the Goddess showed – three’s lonesome, two’s company. Besides, being without a band might save her [font color="409b4b"]Time[/font].

[a href="[MEDIA=youtube]RH3tSA3xFHA[/MEDIA]"][font color="firebrick"][font face="high tower text"]“If you’re like me, been hangin’ around, this old manhole is a bringin’ ya down. Six feet under gettin’ under your skin? Cabin fever is-a, settin’ in?”[/font][/font][/a]

She grinned, beamed, even, and started to move. She didn’t know how long the Goddess would be alone with HerSELVes, and she had already determined to tell the second-She nothing that would influence Her path. But she wouldn’t be a Note if she didn’t think to put her music to a little malice. A little song-and-dance wouldn’t be no sin.

Enki finally opened Her mouth, to ask that unanswerable Question: [font color="lightgreen"]“Who are you?”[/font]

And here Tyke C. Note Grinned, reached up as though to doff his hat, and bowed.

[font color="firebrick"]“Allow me to introduce myself–
Sister, what's my name?
My name is–”[/font] A gracious sweep of Her arms –
[font color="firebrick"]“Our Lady of the Underground!
Sister, what's my name?”[/font] A perfect pirouette, a gesture to the Door, a hand swept over the table –
[font color="firebrick"]“Our Lady of Ways!
Our Lady of Means!
Sister, what's my name?
My name is–”[/font] And here she tumbled, catching herself on her hands, and at last the little Girl laughed, the student slipping for the Child to Be,
[font color="firebrick"]“Our Lady of the Upside Down!
Sister, what's my name?
I'll tell you, my Name–”[/font]

She fell back to her feet, and landed in a crouch, not the kneel of someone seeking servitude but the knee of someone with a secret. She waved for the girl to come closer, and tapped her forehead, and when She touched she hummed back, [font color="firebrick"]“Persephone.”[/font]

It was not, of course, Her Name, or her Name, or any Name that could be hers, but as she did so she produced something from her nonexistent sleeve. Another fruit; a tenth apple.

This one was not like the others. Red and smooth and soft as candy, this one held no memory. She’d chosen it in case some part of her was left stranded within another realm, not to reunite in modeled memory but soothe with simple Song. She had not intended to lend it to the Godling god-thing she had discovered, as her and yet having no part of her despite Her resemblance to him. The hand that took the apple bore scars between the forefinger and thumb, the dig of beastie teeth and the usual point at which the points of his-teeth had carved out rituals for years. It only confirmed that he was gone, and she could only assume She had none of His Song. And so here his last gift to her would be her only present to Her – as the apple was taken and Persephone pulled away without the fruit of knowledge, she struck up again the same simple smooth tune as before, until the Goddess came to and took the second, became two and began to Question.

And as the stranger sang her solitary song, Enki looked upon the apple, and then the Goddess, and then Persephone again. From the touch She understood the legend – of Persephone, of Orpheus, and She Herself understood the Song in the context of its Story. But She knew too that to take too much of the fruit may prove dangerous, and so within the folds of Her the apple vanished, and She took advantage of the next minutes before Her beloved Goddess returned to Her Self, and stole Her away from the scene.

As Amalek became again, the Curiosity would be seen flushed and puffing, having clearly dedicated herself to the act of entertainment. At some point the accursed instrument that had been over her shoulder had found her way into her hands, and now she slid it back again, as the shapeless BEAST chose a shape that would not make her fashioned mortal mind to break.

It was poetry, of course. The silence of the room did not allow it to be song. And the daughter of Strings let the silence truly fill her – she did not give it a name, only listened, only looked upon those EYES without fear or malice, or even Curiosity; only Listened.

And when she spoke her voice was once more her voice, softer, if a little hoarse, and gentle, and humble as befit Hospitality.

[div align="center"][font color="lightgreen"]“I have brushed the edges of eternity, [/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"]I run my fingers through existence, and it alters its flow.[/font]

[font color="lightsteelblue"]I have been Mother, I have been Daughter, [/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]I have been Shepherd and Lamb, [/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]Hound and Wolf, [/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"]Goddess and Child. [/font]

[font color="lightsteelblue"]I am youth beyond youth. Nothing of old is mine.[/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]And even in my youth I have come to know suffering, [/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"]To be rent apart at the seams I have been lent, [/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]To grapple with grief I had not the experience to comprehend.[/font]

[font color="lightsteelblue"]Every moment I suffer I am reborn.[/font]
[font color="firebrick"]I have been Him, hated. [/font]
[font color="dimgray"]I have been HER, ancient and unknown, [/font]
[font color="a0522d"]And her, ever-belonging.[/font]

[font color="lightgreen"]And they are [font color="dimgray"]gone[/font], and I remain.[/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"]Every one of my loves has been doomed to die. [/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"]Even now, my heart immortal is in mortal hands,[/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]My mortal heart is at YOUR mercy.”[/font][/div]
She paused, as though considering the option to strike out into a much longer poem, one that did not linger as the speakeasy singer had in her limited mortal memory. She could Know it, as Her Self, and Had, but now it was gone, like so much else, except the end, like everything. So she sighed, not with the rustle of leaves, but the brevity of a breath. Then she took the words of Tennyson, as she tilted her head into the tenebrae talons that touched her mortality:

[font color="lightgreen"]“I hold it true, whate'er befall;[/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"] I feel it, when I sorrow most;[/font]
[font color="lightsteelblue"] 'Tis better to have loved and lost[/font]
[font color="lightgreen"]Than never to have loved at all.”[/font][/font][/div][/div]
 
[div style="background-color:deepskyblue;border-top:darkred 4px outset;border-left:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-right:darkred 4px outset;border-bottom:deepskyblue 4px inset;"][div style="border-top:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-left:darkred 4px outset;border-right:deepskyblue 4px inset;border-bottom:darkred 4px outset;"][div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:15px;"][font face="courier new"]SHE watched with twin eyes of black as the little thing before her spoke in the cadence SHE understood best. SHE held and beheld as the words poured forth like the sweetest wine into a cup that could never be filled. No emotions, no expressions, and no reactions could be SEEN in the neverending darkness of that formless void, but they could be FELT. Riding upon the air like dandelion seeds looking for a new home, the emotions of Amalek, of The BEAST, poured forth.

And she was filled with rage.

Rage and pain,
Sorrow and sadness.

Regret and Longing,
Loss and Emptiness.

Loneliness and anguish,
Indescribable loneliness.

Even as SHE appeared to physically step back from Tyke, HER form filled the room until all light extinguished. That great anguish forced through The BEAST in a heartwrenching cry. The door, that original door, opened up once more behind Tyke. Without warning, it flung open and The BEAST threw Tyke across the threshold. With HER guest safely out of reach, The BEAST tore HER room to shreds. Carapace and biofluid were torn from the walls as if they were naught but paper and water. The shapes and forms of the walls rent themselves apart at the seams of reality only to be thrown violently back together.

It was no tantrum or reaction of emotion based on some offense Tyke inflicted, rather, it was a forceful ejection of feelings that had welled up inside for untold eons. With no one to bring them forth and no one with whom to share them, The BEAST held onto them without any outlet. Now, this Goddess became mortal who offered up her heart with nothing but love unconditional had, unintentionally, toren out The BEAST's own heart with her words. After what could have been an eternity or what could have been only a few seconds, SHE finally felt the greatness of calm rest over her.

A calm unfelt in millennia, so great that Tyke would need to exert force from her own side to prevent it from leaking through the door. Stepping toward the door, SHE rested her formless hands on the frame and whispered,

[font color="8682eb"]"Fullfil your promise to me,
Sing your song bonded in soul.

After, leave me for today,
Travel far away, then, return.

Because forever is too long,
And I would hear your voice again."[/font][/font][/div][/div][/div]
 
[div][attr="style","position:absolute;"]
[div][attr="style","position:relative;left:-181px;top:11px;width:150px;text-align:center;border-radius:15px;background-color:#FDD097;background-size:cover;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:#3A026F;padding:5px;font-family:high tower text;"]Tyche
[img style="width:150px;border-radius:15px;" src="[URL]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426247770299432962/1132472663458205706/1f2d41cef9dcd41e47508456f49c6f5d.jpg[/URL]"]
The Eldritch Siren[/div][/div][div style="margin-top:11px;padding-top:90px;padding-bottom:90px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;background-image:url([URL]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/22/95/3422959ac5d1d577dba7282d5d28b914.jpg);background-attachment:fixed;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;padding-left:4px;padding-right:4px;[/URL]"][div style="border:5px groove #3A026F;font-family:high tower text;padding:10px;color:ghostwhite;background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"][font size="3"]Curiosity was opened to the emotions of infinity – the endless aloneness, the miserable rage. Such were feeling She had Herself encountered, that She had been], for there were times when there was emotion alone. Such was the intensity that she was nearly numb when the Goddess unfurled and cast her out, thrown with such force that she broke through the barrier of worlds.

Yet Amalek had respected the Law. Despite the silent crash as Curiosity was cast through the Door, no harm was done to to Her – Her Self once more, whole, as She was returned to Her reality. She had fallen to one side, but was sitting again, then standing without stain as She felt the pressure build against the door-frame. Her own emotions were at once forgot as She willed peace upon the doorway, and then when it ebbed did She bind Her feelings into the very bones, until once more it was no more calm, but still.

And then Amalek filled the door that opened inward, that opened to HER, and invoked the bound deal that had been struck under the common-law. And She did not object, did not hesitate, except to contemplate the nature of the request; for there was much music bound to Her Soul, if it could be called such, and She needed a moment in Her renewed unity to sift through all the music he had left and She had found.

[a href="[MEDIA=youtube]X_NYNuAdIv0[/MEDIA]"][font color="ghostwhite"][font face="high tower text"]And so She chose the song, not that She’d been born to[/font][/font][/a] – for to draw Her Father’s eye, invoke HIS Name would be ill advised – but to which She had died. Perhaps it was not a polite song to render to the goddess who had acted so graciously as her-Her host, but by binding Hospitality the guest who was a girl and at once now Godling too, she abode by Amalek’s precise request: the dirge he had sung, when She died.

[a href="[MEDIA=youtube]Sd5zBcJFELI[/MEDIA]"][font color="firebrick"][font face="high tower text"]“What did I ever do to you, that you should treat me this way? Is it really such a crime for an angel to speak his mind, in time I’ll try to shed some light…”[/font][/font][/a]

She sang from the soul, and such was far more than mere effort of will that lashed out against the Goddess’s calm. She was not addressing it to the Goddess – Amalek had done her no wrong. But still the feelings roiled out of Her, growing more intense with every Note that was struck against the Strings, as Tyche poured Her own emotions out in unclean yet rhythmic waves. And slowly the singing was no more his song but Hers, the voice broken but steady as She reached the denouement.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“Don’t touch me, oh, I couldn’t bear the thought of it, now. Don’t touch me, oh! I couldn’t bear the, strain.”[/font] There may have been another tear on her cheek – dozens of emotions all crashing together in a single droplet that fell and was gone even as she finished her rest. [font color="lightgreen"]“Touch me! Touch me! Touch me. Don't–touch me, touch me, touch me.”[/font]

Her Eyes – his eyes – would reopen, and with the emotion filling that great and vast silence Her Voice that was no more his voice was no more needed to press back against the great and terrible CALM that came from Amalek.

Then, without deliberation, She bowed, not the grateful bow of the guest, but the celebratory sweep of the showman upon Her own stage.

[font color="lightsteelblue"]“If YOU wish, Eldest of Elsewhere, this Door may remain. Should YOU desire My presence, YOU may knock and I will hear; and the only creatures that would come between Me and THEE are those who are dependent upon Me. If they need Me not, I shall be YOURs again.”[/font] [/font][/div][/div]
 
There was no motion from beyond the doorway. That terrible shapeless mass of darkness had stayed so perfectly still throughout the song that SHE could almost be mistaken for having left. But even a cursory glance from an eye keen to the forces beyond could see that SHE was there, SHE was watching, SHE was listening.

The music washed over HER being, filled HER, and made HER feel whole again. SHE was almost as SHE were before, in the times when SHE was not alone and had never been alone. This was no nostalgic hit nor any temporary derangement, this was a once in a millennia's millennia moment of pure acceptance from the one who knew not change. But the end of the song heralded the end of the moment. Though SHE would take this memory and replay it for more time than the lifespan of galaxies, it was still no more than a single microscopic point in the soul of The BEAST.

But, it was still a point in HER soul.

Tyke had influenced HER, even if only microcosmically. But that moment was gone now, replaced with an emotionless monster that created SENTIENT LIFE for the sole purpose of hiding from HER own true thoughts. A confrontational beast that would carve out a universe in flesh and blood before ever taking a single self-reflective glance at HERSELF. An enigma cloaked in hypocrisy who was as powerful as SHE was utterly selfish and terrible. And certainly, HER selfishness could not be measured even in the annuls of every galaxy that existed, had existed, or ever will exist.

So, selfishly, SHE reached for the door. Selfishly, SHE began to close it. Selfishly, SHE said.

"I will call upon you again,
Listen for me. Forget me not."

At that, the door shut. But it did not disappear.
 
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