Living Between Worlds?

[a_family_secret]

Ariana's still a little uncertain about being by the Sign. Even though she's actually been here for a long time, it's the first time she's dared to ask a question. Her friend Edain isn't too far away... she still never goes out in public alone.

Her fingers play with the necklace she wears - a simple crystal on a thin chain, though close observation might reveal it seems to be glowing very slightly - as she asks, "Are there any others who live here, in this place, instead of the other worlds it touches?"

Comments

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

*There is a robed and hooded figure nearby who is attempting to pet a cat and failing miserably--it's not a very friendly cat, to say the least. When he hears the question he abandons his attempts in favor of replying.*

I have considered it. This place is much better for my mental health than the Neath, and yet the Neath holds all I care about. It is a most furious dilemma.

[a_family_secret]

There's a nod and an understanding smile from the girl that's both gentle and sad. "I left everything, too. My home, and my brothers. But they wanted me to be something I didn't want, and people here help me make it go away instead. It's safer with me here. I can go outside. And they can do what they want."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

I don't think I can ever go outside again. The sun is not a friend to me, and the stars stare balefully. I'd not trust the suns of other worlds to be better.

[a_family_secret]

"This place can be inside and outside both... sometimes at the same time. But I think it's too unreal a place for the sun to be real. Most of the time it doesn't look like there's one at all. Sometimes it's better when some things aren't real. Some things shouldn't have to be real if you don't want them to be."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

In my reality the stars are gods, and not kind ones. Even unreal starlight is a fearful thing.

Damn them all, all the starry Judgements. If not for their pettiness and cruelty the Bazaar would never have hid below and all the pain and betrayal that followed would have never been.

[a_family_secret]

Someone being cruel, and someone else forced to hide because of it. It's not the same, but it's familiar enough to remind her. But those boys, she doesn't think they were petty or cruel, not really. They'd been afraid. And they'd been right to be afraid, because it was a bad wrong thing, and they'd known it. That's why they'd attacked her. And that's why, she believes, her family kept her locked away. Because they knew she shouldn't ever do magic, even though they kept saying the opposite. As if there wasn't enough proof it was bad when it would get away from her...

"This is a nice place. Maybe it won't even make fake stars when you're here. I don't think I'd like to see those stars either... nothing good comes of things like that."

I think I know who she is now :D

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

That would be appreciated. *He would smile if only he could.* Would you like to take me somewhere outside-ish?

[a_family_secret]

She thinks about it and glances over to her chaperone before nodding. She knows Edain will follow. She starts to make her way from the Sign area, occasionally looking to see if she's followed. On the way, she starts singing a tune she heard out of one of the portals once, "In the house of upside-down... cellar's top floor, attic's ground..."

The walls, floor, and ceiling become patchy, some pieces just hanging in the air. She stops in an open clearing with grass. The sky is currently a mess of sunrise, or maybe sunset, colors... but no sun or stars can be seen. Just swirls of color, as if painted up there by someone prone to hallucinations or on some kind of illicit narcotics. Bits of brilliant blue are starting to poke through all the colors.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Oh, this is lovely. Thank you, delicious friend. *Then his robe is gone, revealing an inhuman skeleton. Boney wings with scraps of mummified membranes spread wide and Mr. Eaten takes to the air.* Oh, how I have missed this.

[a_family_secret]

There's no horror from Ariana at being called delicious, or at the sudden revelation of some kind of bat-bird-dragon skeleton creature. Just a quiet "You're welcome," as she rocks on her feet and watches him fly. In this instance, it might help that she's not exactly sane.

Edain is a little more startled, hand starting to go to the hilt of the sword he wears before he restrains himself. Whatever that thing was, it hadn't been hostile - and it's wise in this or any other place not to judge by appearances. The Nexus didn't usually allow harm anyway.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

*It's a very good thing indeed that no harm is allowed here: Mr. Eaten can't help the damage he would be doing otherwise. His nature is something most disturbing, a being killed so hard that it came back to life from the wrong side. Without the protection innate to this place, all kinds of things might result of being this close.

*As it is, however, they simply get to watch as a broken thing enjoys the gift of flight once more. No side effects, no pain, just flying.* So beautiful.

[a_family_secret]

Ariana hums snatches of tunes to herself as she watches, and thinks about how she might try to draw some of this later. She doesn't find Mr. Eaten's appearance scary, but does think it sad he looks so tattered and chewed on. And the soapbubble swirls of the sky at current are beautiful.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

*Eventually he returns to earth, satisfied for now.* My thanks for showing me this place. It will not be forgotten.

Perhaps someday the gift will be returned.

[a_family_secret]

"You're welcome," Ariana says, and curtsys like Edain taught her. "I like to think this is a good place, and it likes people to be happy."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Better than the Bazaar, then, certainly. Better than anywhere near my home, in fact. The Neath is . . . very much less than kind, for all that it can be beautiful.

[a_family_secret]

"That's sad. I think places should try to be nice to their people. Otherwise people won't like being there, and then no one is happy."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

The Bazaar is far too wrapped up in its own troubles to be of help to anyone. Rather the opposite, really.

Not that I'm much better, by most people's standards, but a reckoning will not be postponed indefinitely. I will find them all, all the betrayers and the liars and the ones who deny me, and they will die. I will bring them low, I swear it.

[a_family_secret]

And Ariana nods. She understands that far better than she wishes she did. "No, it won't. Sooner or later, things get loose and bad things happen..." She trails off for a moment, thinking back.

Mother had been determined that if she wouldn't be a witch, she'd couldn't ever be anything else either... she had to be hidden and shut away because she was 'not well'. Ariana had seen the resentment Kendra pretended not to have - blaming her because Father had left. Because he'd hurt those Muggle boys. It's not like she wanted him to do that. She knew they were right to be afraid. After all, if there wasn't anything to be afraid of, her mother wouldn't have ended up dead. If she weren't a monster, they wouldn't have kept her confined like one. It's only in this place that she has a chance to be anything else. It's her magic that's bad and wrong, and here she can be rid of it.

"They kept me locked away at home, because they knew it was bad... even when they lied to me and said it wasn't. And after Mother died..." That Gellert boy wanted Albus to come with him and wanted to just bring her... take her everywhere... she didn't like being locked away, but exposing even more people to the monster was even worse. And Albus's looks at her because he felt it was her fault he couldn't go... that he had to stay and keep her locked up. And everyone was yelling, and she'd just had enough... "I came here. Because I don't want to be a monster. And I don't want to be a witch. And here they can't make me. Here it can all go away..."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

I look forward to it. Bad things have already happened to me, after all. For I hungered and they gave me the pelts of trees; for I was thirsty and they gave me only ink. I was drowning and they added knives, I was stabbed and they added drowning. I died so terribly that I came out the other side of death and now I can never die.

[a_family_secret]

"They shouldn't have done that," Ariana says, almost looking like she'd give Mr. Eaten a pat on the... beak?... if she weren't too shy for that. "Bad things balance out."

Father hurt those boys, so he was taken away... because he didn't know it already balanced out. That they'd only done what they did because they knew a Bad Thing when they saw it. Mother tried to lock her away, tried to force her to use the Bad Thing her magic was, and, well... that hadn't gone well for her. And Albus resented her like she was a millstone holding him down and keeping him from running away with that boy, and Abe needed to go back to school... so she left.

"Bad things make more bad things until they're all even. But... when they are, then this is a safe place for after. Because if you never die, there will be an after."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

There will be a reckoning. After that I hope that I may sleep. It's been so long, and I am tired.

But if I can't, this seems like a good place to rest.

[a_family_secret]

"Forever would make anyone tired. I hope you can rest, when everything is balanced. Maybe this place will let you, even if you can where you came from. It lets me not be a witch. Maybe someday I'll leave here and go to where Edain came from, but it's still gone for now. They won't try to make me do that there either."

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

Kind of you, my girl. Thank you.

[a_family_secret]

"You're welcome." And if there's nothing else to say, she might wander off after a few moments.

[thelightontheedgeofsleep]

*He doesn't want to disturb her, one way or another, so he lets her go. He would be smiling were he capable.*