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"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.

Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I am Gabriel," he said, letting his name and tone speak volumes. He would not be cowed by this...being, whatever he was. Demons feared him. (Lucy was the exception, as she so often was.) "Archangel. You are not demonic, but you are...dark. What kind of darkness?"

Somebody thought he was more important than he was. Or at least better known. Jack went on grinning at him, like a cat who knows something. "Just darkness. Night and cool and fading bird calls, the heightening of senses besides that of sight. Sleep. Sex. All of those dark-type things."

Well, it was a reasonable question.

That grin set Gabriel on edge. Everything about him set him on edge, like nothing he'd ever encountered before. Lucy was irritating, but this wasn't irritation. This was slicker. More insidious. More appealing, in a dangerous way.

"You're not trustworthy," he said at last, eyeing him closely.

"Not at all," Jack said. "Never claimed to be. Unless you're one of my sisters, which you manifestly are not."

Or, well, Nicholas and Pip could trust him too, and his parents. But no one else. And definitely not his grandmother.

"Anyway, you didn't answer my question. That's rude." He shook a lazy finger in Gabriel's direction. "Tsk, tsk."

"I answered your question," he said, primly. "It's your own fault if you weren't paying attention."

"You answered it," Jack corrected, still grinning, "in the most concise and inexplanatory manner ever. I know what an angel is but I'm not sure which god you claim to serve. It's been many years since I was Sunside, cut me a break."

"I do not claim to serve any God," Gabriel said, bristling. "I do serve Him, and His Will, whatever that may bring."

Even if He did make baffling decisions regarding Lucy.

"All right," Jack said, loading his tone with patience. "You serve God. Which God? There's a lot."

Yeah, okay, he was winding Gabriel up.

Couldn't help it if it was fun, now, could he?

"The only God there is!"

This, at least, he could be sure about. Other rules might be broken. This one never would be.

OOC: Gabriel is like this far away from a full-blown existential crisis. It's going to be amazing.

Edited (html failure) 2013-05-19 06:22 (UTC)

Okay, that had sounded a touch... hysterical. Jack let the grin drop and blinked at him.

"Er, actually, I can think of at least three other gods with angels, off the top of my head. Human gods, at any rate."

ooc: awwwwwwwesome. He can go have a meltdown and then Summer will make him feel better. If you like. :D

"Yes, of course the humans worship other gods," Gabriel said, briskly, dismissively. "They're humans. It's to be expected. It doesn't mean they all exist."

God had not shared His Plan with Gabriel, and that was fine. He might not be allowed to know some things, but there were certainties. There were.

"Well," Jack said, and shrugged. "Some of them are quite active, as far as I can tell. The Hindi gods in particular."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe you. You're not trustworthy," he said.

Beings of darkness were not to be taken seriously, especially unknown beings of darkness.

"Never claimed to be trustworthy," Jack said, "but I'm not a liar either." He shrugged. "But believe as you wish; far be it from me to shake someone's worldview." Unless it was funny, but that guy looked as if he would break, and there was too much of Charlotte in him to go any further.

"Also," he added, "point of interest, the dark is not always bad."

"You're wrong," Gabriel said, because he had to be wrong. There were rules. Some rules might be broken, but others could never be.

"The dark is where you lose yourself," Gabriel said, stiffly. "It's chaos and temptation and against the rules. Perhaps it isn't objectively bad, but I prefer to avoid any kind of mess I can."

Ah. Here now he was on steady ground, and comfortable ground.

"Ah, is it so? Then tell me this: without the dark, where is the rest? Where is the calm for the grieving and the soothing of aching muscles? What comfort can any of us draw when there is no darkness to shelter us?" He tilted his head, studied the man. "With rules, with endless light, there's nowhere to hide or rest and relax. Things shrivel."

Edited 2013-05-19 07:17 (UTC)

"I didn't say the darkness didn't serve a purpose," Gabriel said, more haughtily. This put him, too, back on familiar ground. "Temptation may exist. That's no reason to give into it."

Jack eyed him, then shrugged. "All right," he said. "If you say so. But it is what I am, through and through. Temptation-- doesn't enter into it. Nor does it mean we are bad."

RP Time? You betcha!

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness

Re: Jack, Spirit of Darkness