multiversallogs | OPEN :: A golden bird was singing

Who: Everyone!
What: St Kelley's evening
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Veerdi evening.
Notes:
(1) The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread.
(2) All mementos will appear overnight in some part of your character's apartment.
(3) Dance!

St Kelley's is one of the more sedate occasions in Baedal, at least as holidays go. It passes more or less unnoticed by the majority of the population as many of them feel it doesn't concern them. It's not their holiday; it's for the others. Those with severed ties and broken hearts. The temple and church preach that it's a time for reflection or for glorifying the generosity of the gods. It's one of the few days on which no one looks askance at first generation Citizens mourning their missing loved ones publicly.

As night rolls around and floating lanterns are set to sea, the Apache in Mog Hill prepares to accept guests from the newer cohorts. It's something that happens every year, making it a practical tradition. The alcohol will be cheaper for first timers, and the music will be kept at a reasonable level.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"How do they know?" Shrieky asked, "whether or not he's dead, I mean? Was there some kind of cataclysmic event which might have killed him?" He finds the way Wolfgang talks about his religion fascinating. From the description given, he envisions it more like an obscure cult to an immense, possibly necrotic deity who consumed all other gods and then receded to the furthest climbs of existence than anything more benign and personal. Still, at least it sounded like he worshiped a proper god like God.

This was going fairly well, really. It wasn't that he'd expected Wolfgang to take the news particularly badly, he just... well, he still wasn't quite used to it not being obvious about him, "No, I don't change. I mean, I can't change. This is just what I'm going to look like from now on. Which is a good thing, really, because not being able to walk was quite terrible."

"Oh, well, it's metaphorical. Mostly. I mean, literally it might be true, it's not like we'd have any way of knowing -- generally people from my world who claim to have literally heard the voice of God, they aren't taken so seriously -- but it's this school of thought, theothanatology," he starts gesturing broadly and vaguely, a habit of his; at least it keeps him from fidgeting so much, "it goes back to Nietzsche. If there's no cosmic order, then the universal and absolute moral laws prescribed by Abrahamic religions are outdated and ought to be rejected. Rubenstein argued that the Holocaust broke God's covenant with Abraham... and in the Kabbalistic understanding, God died while creating the world anyway." Well, that's thoroughly morbid! And thoroughly nerdy!

He goes on to consider this information about him, trying to imagine what it must be like to have one's body so radically altered -- to be the same species, but in a body that doesn't align with that. Actually, maybe that's not such a hard concept to grasp. "Yes, I can see how legs would be pretty useful... do you miss it at all? -- I'm sorry, that's a stupid question."

Shrieky follows this explanation with interest. The broad gesturing adds a useful amount of emphasis, in his opinion. Eventually, he lifts his hand to interrupt with his questions: "I'm sorry, who was Abraham, and what covenant did he have with God? And what Holocaust did he undergo?"

There is a horrible, dark conversation to be had here. No one would judge Wolfgang for squirming out of it.

He frowns at the question, glancing down into his beer, as if the answer might be contained therein, "No, it's not a stupid question. I... I don't always know If I miss it or not. Everything is a lot harder than I expected it to be. Like getting dressed, and walking, and finding my way around. But on the other hand, I used to really hate my life, and now I don't."

"Abraham was descended from Noah, who was the man God chose to live and repopulate the world after He flooded it, um... there is a lot of context there that's missing, it's... a lot of history. Anyway, God promised Abraham land, descendents, and blessings for him and his offspring. Abraham fathered a bunch of tribes, so -- he's considered the patriarch of three major religions, but especially the Jews -- that's us. I mean, that's me. Very important man. The point is that God's covenant with Abraham was supposed to give the exiled Israelites hope for the future, that God had a plan for them, you know... um, a lot of bad stuff happened to us between then and now. The Holocaust..." He hesitates obviously. "It was a very dark time that was very, very recent in our history."

And that's as far as he's going to get into that right now. Squirm out of it he does.

"Well, you're doing awfully well," he says as he finishes his drink and digs around in his pocket for his cigarettes. "I never would have guessed." Well, okay. He guessed something was a little off, but I've never worn pants before, no.

Shrieky touches two fingers to his lips, listening intently to all of this. There's something about the idea that the necrotic distant God had once been prone to personal intervention, only to lose interest that makes Wolfgang's cult... well, sort of depressing sounding, "You said, earlier, that he was very distant? Do you ever feel as though the covenant is broken? I mean, do you still have hope for the future?"

Shrieky isn't trying to undermine his's faith here, he suspects that this is a question that Wolfgang has to have been over in his mind enough times to have some kind of answer to it.

In response to the compliment, his expression melts into a thrilled smile, "Thank you! I have been attempting to integrate myself here as seamlessly as I'm able."

Wolfgang is quiet for a long time, looking intensely at his hands -- empty beer glass in one, nicotine in the other, the brand still itching on his left hand where it's burned on there. He can't think back to a time in his life when that's been an easy question to answer, and when he goes back far enough, there's nothing at all -- just a wall in his memory. "I don't know," he says at last. "I still pray, so I must, I guess." It's an inadequate answer and he knows it. With a little shrug, he stirs finally. "Or maybe it's fairer to say that I don't, but I'd like to be wrong. Do you mind?" He gestures with his cigarette; if he smokes, he means.

(That's not just tobacco in there, but nobody in Baedal much cares, he's found.)

His smile is much more fatigued, but it's there. "Well, it shows."

The long period of silence makes Shrieky a little uncomfortable. It does make sense that you would struggle to be strong in faith if the deity you believed in had allowed many terrible things to befall you, he just... strangely, he expected there to be some kind of personal guarantee which Wolfgang had discovered somehow, confirming his beliefs. He tilts his head slightly, watching Wolfgang closely now, "I think... It shows great courage to continue worshiping your own God, despite all of these conditions, when there are other gods constantly trying to interact with you and give you things and who perhaps it would be easier for you to believe in."

"Oh, please do? I really enjoy watching people burn those!" He watched Fish smoke, then he watched Megan smoke, now he shall watch Wolfgang smoke. Shrieky props his elbow on the table, drops his cheek against his hand, and smiles attentively.

Not creepy at all, right?

"That's a nice way of looking at it, thank you," he says, which -- no, that's not sarcastic, but it is a little light. He would like to think of it as such, but clinging to beliefs he's not even sure are his anymore seems more like cowardice to him. Anyway -- the rapturous attention to his lighting his cigarette is, yes, creepy, and also completely awkward, and Wolfgang laughs self-consciously as if he's not used to being stared at that way. (Which would be disingenuous.) "Don't start," he says, already aware of the futility of being such a massive hypocrite. ('Do as I say, not as I do,' says the guy who, now that he has money again, is burning through like a pack a day.)

A life underwater offers few close encounters with flame, and the way that cigarette smoke looks, almost blue in colour, as fine and intricate as lace the way it moves through the air? It's still strange and beautiful to him, and he just watches in fascination as Wolfgang lights up. He eventually tears his gaze away from Wolfgang's cigarette to actually look at Wolfgang again, "Don't start what?" Don't start questioning the smoking? Don't start staring at him? (It's certainly too late for that second one. Sorry Wolfgang.)

His eyes slowly creep back to the cigarette, "Why do you do it?"

OPEN :: A golden bird was singing

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