Court of the Fallen
To humbly ask. - Printable Version

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To humbly ask. - Are - 03-25-2019

The sparse canopy of leafless and needled branches had become a place of silent contemplation to the cobbler. Somewhere to go both for needful things and thoughts. A place where he wouldn't be reminded of the broken life he lead but could turn his attention fully to the task at hand. Letting each snare and deadfall claim his whole mind for the moments they took to set was almost meditative, but the long wait in between clearing and re-setting felt like small eternities. No amount of gutting, skinning and scraping by a crackling fire could drive away the worries for long. There came a moment when there wasn't a single scrap of fat or flesh left, all the hides had been framed and only the soft noise of the wind and the crackling fire remained to keep him company.

He had seen it before, at the crack of dawn when the sun barely kissed the sky. The soft glow could be seen between the gray trunks, only just though. So weak that Are at first thought his tired eyes had deceived him. Marsh lights to lead him astray he thought at first, but no, it felt different. Much to warm and inviting. He couldn't take his mind of it this day, and as it grew later and later he found himself dawdling. Almost hoping darkness would catch up to him as he packed up and left the embers of his camp behind with the day's catch in tow. Not impressive, but enough to keep him alive and busy for a few days.

There it was again, but much more noticeable now that dusk had settled over the woods. Curiosity killed the cat as the saying goes, but one convinced he was already dead seemed to have nothing to lose. Mouth agape, he let his pack slide off his shoulder and approached the great tree, softly glowing in the waning light. For a moment or two Are just stood in its presence. Greedily drinking the sight. He found himself in a curious state of solemnity, much like when visiting the shrine in the temple. It reminded him of offerings left to Skade to ask for good fortune while hunting.

Somehow it felt right. At the base of the tree, Are placed a rabbit on the soft bed of moss. Kneeling before the great tree he let his eyes close for a moment, allowing the calming aura to soothe his mind. He knew he should say something. "Gods of this world. Take my simple offering, a token of my gratitude. A lost man wandering the dark woods, he asks not for mercy, but the strength to not need it."


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 03-25-2019

Warm blue electric light bloomed from within the tree. Radiant coils spiraled up the old bark that suddenly looked anything but organic. The leaves gave a silent tremble as the Voice appeared. Leaning against the bark—no, that wasn't quite right as she was merely a projection—she smiled warmly at the newcomer.

Her body and face were youthful, her eyes like static points of blue radiation. [say]"Hello Are Jormsson. You find yourself so far from home...I hope you are finding your place within this new world."[/say]


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 03-25-2019

He wanted to run, to scream, to close his eyes and wish it was all just a feverish dream brought upon by a few too many pints of mead. No, there was no such luck to be had. All if it had been used up arriving in one piece and with his thoughts mostly intact.

What is a man to a god? A dead man at that. Are thanked whatever had pushed him to kneel for the small ceremony, as he could feel every muscle in his body straining to remain upright in the face of the being before him. As the light abated somewhat, he could feel the crackling discharge slowly let go of his spine, followed by a shiver and a heavy exhale. A few greedy breaths wiped the stars from his vision and Are looked up. Meeting the piercing gaze and instantly feeling as if his whole soul was laid bare for the radiant visage.

”You… you know who I am? was the first thing that reached his tongue. A simple question delivered with slack jawed awe to a being born of thunder. A moment later his mind caught up, with a bit more dignity he bowed where he sat and with steadier voice refined his lackluster greeting. ”Heill og sæl, forgive me, I am not used to having my prayers heard, let alone answered.”


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 03-30-2019

The Voice laughed at his question. Her posture was playful and neutral, her smile youthful but knowing as she nodded. [say] "Yes. I know much."[/say] She replied with a sly wink. As he bowed, she waited for his eyes to raise once more before making a circular motion with her hands to indicate that he ought to rise, or at least make himself more comfortable.

[say]"I may be like the gods you once knew in scope and power...but certainly not in ceremony. You need not bow before me Open One. I do not pander to whimsy or offerings. I appear because I wish to, and I am more than happy to speak with you."[/say]

Her features would blur if he looked too hard, pinpoints of radiation and electricity bleeding off into the air, but she was real enough. In a sense. [say]"I sense that you have many questions. Let me start by answering a few: no, this is not Hel. Nor is it any sort of afterlife. You are indeed quite alive, though I will leave the judgement of whether or not you were the same as before to you. Such things are far too philosophical for me."[/say] She added with a bright laugh.


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 03-31-2019

Caught off guard by the unceremonious air of the way the figure spoke to him, Are fumbled and stood up. Far more uncomfortable than he had been had she addressed him like the insignificant nobody he felt like. A feeling deep in his gut got ahold of his spine and the crushing sensation of wrongness sent tiny bolts of panic up his back. He could not shake it, the feeling of knowing what the being standing before him was.

Laughing without happiness, Are could not take his eyes off the figure even though he should've known better than to stare. In the gloom of the quickly growing night the soft light was both mesmerizing and chilling. An instinct warning him that approaching was nothing done lightly. So Are stood fast. "Alive or dead, having a vættr appear to answer one's prayers seems to have taken my tongue." he said, filling the air with empty statements in an attempt to nervously stall for time. Time for his mind to settle and formulate some kind of plan.

Nothing.

"I will spare you my musings, I come with questions. Of them only one I turn to... you, to have answered." he swallowed with a heavy gulp, his throat suddenly dry and tight. "Now I hesitate though. What does one like you want with one like me, a simple cobbler?"


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 04-01-2019

Her laugh is like static during a thunderstorm and her eyes radiant amusement and mirth.

[say]"A simple cobbler?"[/say] She repeats, shaking her head with a youthful brilliance as she folds her hands neatly together. [say]"No Are, you are so much more than that, and I do not mean simply the skill of your hands. Your soul here is untouched. Pure."[/say] She looks upon him almost adoringly despite the vast difference in power and scope between them. [say]"You are unfettered potential. Like a vast swath of leather, pristine and ready to be molded...that is how I see you. I could make you bright. You would be like the stories of the heroes you were told as a boy, only that power and ability would not simply be rhetoric. It would be within your grasp. I could give you the power to make all your creations last without fail. To cobble and create unlike any before you. Why, you could make shoes which would embolden the wearer with untold speed. "[/say]

With a laugh, the Voice stopped, shaking her head gently as if she had been carried away.

[say]"So to answer you Are, you are so much more than that. How could I not be interested in you?"[/say]


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 04-01-2019

The way she talked about him, mused about the nature of his being and the true order of things, it made his skin tingle. It could also be the latent energies humming in the air, but Are knew to trust his gut on this one. Yet he couldn't stop himself from reluctantly following along the thread she carefully wove. Carried away by the otherworldly soothsayer and her promises of ability he'd only heard about in stories and poems, Are nodded and stroked his chin. Contemplating the full potential of what she was offering, well, what it sounded like she was offering. A craftsman even the dvergr would be jealous of, truly a dream come true for any cobbler worth his salt.

The boy could barely contain his glee, but the man knew better than to trust mere words. Even if they came from a god. Especially if they came from a god. Stories made themselves know, memories of how Roar told of divine tricksters fooling men into giving up their very souls in exchange for what their hearts desired. Are bit the inside of his lip at the realisation. A bargain could be struck, and now that he thought himself knowing the seller he only needed to know the price.

"Beautiful words, thank you, I am flattered." he said, smiling wryly in his best impression of a certain mischievous thief. "Yet I can't shake the feeling there's more to it. Forgive my brashness-" Are bowed slightly, partly out of respect and partly out of fear for retaliation. He allowed a few moments to pass, mustering every ounce of his limited vocabulary as to make his company justice and not offend. "I am a craftsman first and a salesman second, but I know when I am being talked up. Please, do not waste such beautiful words on a brute, it's a shame to have them fall on such a blunt mind. You have told me what you're selling, and I am equal parts impressed and afraid to ask..." truly a flowery passage he was proud of and one he would brag about to every storyteller and skald he could. If only he'd wrap it up as nicely. "Name your price!" he finally blurted out, as if he'd forgotten he wasn't talking to a pig farmer from the next village over. As the realization set in the color left his face.


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 04-03-2019

The Voice appeared to be anything but offended; her smile was still genuine and wide, her electric eyes playful and patient. [say]"It is as I said Are. I am not like the gods of your former world. I speak only the truth. "[/say] She said with a gentle shrug.

As he asked for her price, the deity only laughed and shook her head. [say]"My price is simply to make your bright. To ascend your body and soul past the limits of what mortality would otherwise offer you. To nudge you towards perfection."[/say]


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 04-03-2019

Her ways where as foreign as Are felt to Caido, lacking any and all of the solemn poise the stories had told him about. Cracks of lightning and her appearance aside, it could've been any old trickster standing before him. Yet there was that calm assurance in her voice. A tempting tone that made him feel like there was no use questioning the words.

Another shiver.

His gut knew better than his mind. A cold sting of rushing blood urge the body to respond. Fight or flight. He stood frozen in place by her gaze. Unmoving, like a hare before the fox, just waiting for the call to action. A single errant twitch enough to unleash the tension, a lockbow on a hair trigger.

"Bright? Ascend?" he finally said with a voice weak and confused, sounding far smaller than the man and a quarter he was. He couldn't understand their meaning, but felt the weight behind the words. Tantalizing as it was to just throw oneself off the cliff into the raging seas it was not the way of the worrying cobbler.

"Forgive my slowness but I d-" it was obvious, it had been just in front of him all this time. It had just taken his mind the better part of a few minutes to catch up. He swallowed hard as he realized what the being he stood for was.

"I- I- heh..." stammering and stuttering he started to slowly back away, stepping softly as if each step would spur the god to attack. That would at least been what he would've done had he not been locked in place by fear. Not the small man challenging the divine trickster as the tall tales had told of. "You're the one locked in. The reason the wall is. God risen from mortals." Are babbled, pale faced and barely able to breathe.

Finally he managed to compose himself enough to speak clearly again. "Your gifts are venom, like the blood and gold of the serpent." his face turned a defiant grimace, as defiant as one could be before power itself. "Now a lonely little man is poisoned by its fang, gold the bane of mankind." he recited, mustering up what little courage remained in his chest. "I know your tricks, Loke!"


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 04-03-2019

As he identified her as being the one locked in, she merely nodded in confirmation. [say]"I am."[/say] She agreed sadly, head tilted slightly to the side as if this fact was somehow irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

[say]"No, Are, they are not. They are given freely. To bestow what I have learned over the eons to those whose souls can bare them. Like you. As a cobbler are you not drawn to unfettered and varnished hides? Do you not see all the possibilities and wish make the raw materials into what your mind knows that they can be?"[/say]

His scuttling and declension back into the lore and histories of his former world only make her sigh.


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 04-04-2019

Useless was the hand shielding his face from the wrath Are was prepared for, but what he got was almost worse. Disappointment. Rage, fire and fury were all things he'd rather face than a sigh, pursed lips, and that look he knew far too well. In the blink of an eye he saw her in the gods stead, hands on hips and just shaking her head at whatever the cobbler had gotten himself into.

Trembling hands brushed imagined dirt off of his tunic, tugging at his belt and hose in a weak attempt at restoring what little dignity was left after his outburst.

"I see your point." he sighed and almost whispered, defeated in the face of much greater composure. "Though, I am afraid there's no grand chestpiece to be made of these hides, only a few purses and a patched shoe." Are said and sat down on the ground where he stood, the man laid bare and stripped of all his defense by his own futile thrashing in the face of eternal patience.


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 04-04-2019

As Are sat, so too did the Voice. She appeared even more childlike now, hunched and willowy as she watched him with enigmatic eyes.

[say]"And are those things not wonderful? Can they not be masterpieces in their own right?"[/say] She asked with a smile. [say]"You do yourself a disservice Are, thinking that you are worth so little. Your potential is so clear to see. I could make you so bright, and in that brightness you too could see yourself. You could transform the meager leather into something wonderous, just as I would transform you."[/say]

Extending her hand towards the cobbler gently, she held it palm-up. [say]"Will you accept this gift? Will you become bright?"[/say]


RE: To humbly ask. - Are - 04-04-2019

There it was again, the gut feeling. The way she spoke of it all, of him, had his intestines jostling like snakes in a pit and his stomach doing little flips in anticipation and fear. A storm in his mind, a war waged between mind and heart leaving few surviving thoughts but the great question she finally asked.

To do what one can with what one have and leave the rest to the gods.

The rest in this case dressed up in flowery words and offered to him by the very gods themselves. Standing before him, offering him the tools to craft his own greatness. It was after all what he had asked for, but for a moment he hesitated.

Was he the cobbler or the leather?

The soul knew what the man did not, it had already decided the stubborn little man's destiny before he himself even had realized Caido was his new home. His hand hovered but an inch above salvation and ruination. Muscles tightened as he looked into the sparkling eyes and made his choice. A single tear loosened from a mottled eye and rolled down the stubbly cheek. No words, just a hand returned to where it could help push Are back on his feet again.

No words as he swallowed his greed and shook his head. No words from the cobbler who was offered the world and turned it down, why he couldn't answer.

"I remain as dim as ever, as stubborn as ever." the cobbler whispered to the god.


RE: To humbly ask. - the VOICE - 04-04-2019

Sympathetically the Voice watches as the hand moves towards hers .... and then away again. She could have grabbed it easily, could imprint her masterpiece on the soul of the cobbler in an instant. But she does not. Instead she remains seated as he stands, gazing up at him with a patient adoration.

[say]"Perhaps for now. But the option will always be open to you Are. I seek only to give. To make bright those things that cannot even understand their own darkness."[/say]

So saying, she smiled at him for a moment before her holographic form rippled slightly, and then disappeared.