Scene Archives

kneels by the side of the path–which he’s been wandering fairly aimlessly–and studies the bubbling patch, head tilted. He wishes, not for the first time, that he had Archie or Salme’s gift for gnosis analysis.

reaches out his hand, fingers spread, fingertips just over the surface of the bubbling mud…hums a bit of one of those songs, almost in the way one might coax a child. “Rise up, riiiise up,” he sings softly.

pads up to the side of the Obsidian Road and sits on his haunches with Wolf, observing the mud with him. Mercifully, he does not attempt to roll around in it.

tilts his head towards the sound–then sees the Dog coming out of the void-gloom and smiles a little. “Was that you, hm?” He reaches out to scruffle the Dog’s neck, then holds his hand back out over the mud. He’s not so much trying to make it into something as he is…inviting it to become something. He hums what might be an extension of that phrase, a direction it could go…

quirks his head up at Wolf like, are you implying that dogs can sing, that would be preposterous, and wags his tail really hard, and grins out of the side of his mouth the way dogs do, when they’ve gotten away with something, which is frequently. ⁂

watches in wonder and awe as it forms out of seemingly nothing…laughs, shaking his head, sitting back on his heels. “Well.” His smile takes on a wry cant. “Would that I thought that shelter would not be needed.” Wolf sighs, and lets his head fall forward, shaggy hair screening his face from view. “I must cast out sorrow,” he says, to no one in particular. “I must cast out regret.”

barks, very softly, and looks over his own shoulder towards the ziggurat – towards Salme – and gently nuzzles Wolf’s side.

lifts his head, reaching out to rub shaggy fur gently. He doesn’t look behind him, but speaks to behind him. “Another home for our refugees, eh?”

doesn’t hear what Wolf says, but recognizes his body language—she’s only seen it a couple times, but those times have been enough. She slows her steps—she had been picking up her pace to reach him, to reach out to him, but instead she stops to observe the building properly. “Yes.” And then she steps up beside him. “You’re troubled.”

does look up and back at her, at that–looks like there’s almost a quip there, but it doesn’t quite make it out of his mouth. Instead: “It’s becoming more real. That we won’t be able to stop it.”

: “Yes,” she says simply. “Do you want to talk about it?” She reaches down to scritch the Disreputable Dog between the ears, almost absently.

lets out another soft bark, and leans into both of their scritches, tail thudding very softly.

shrugs, sits down fully, legs stretched out, almost to the edge of the path. “It’s not that I’m not grateful, for what we will be able to save. But I had hoped that we could find a way to stop it before…” He lets the sentence trail off, then grits his teeth and picks it back up. “I don’t want to watch our world die, Salme. Even if we can salvage something from it.”

pads over to Wolf, and flops down next to him, sits heavily against his side, with his head almost in Wolf’s lap, if he can get away with it.

will let the Dog get away with it, and the Dog very well knows it.

sits down next to him on his other side, close enough that she’s pressed up against him. She draws her knees up to her chest, and rests her head on her knees, looking at him sideways. She doesn’t say anything, not yet. She’s considering.

looks up into the black, blank sky, fingers finding that one spot behind the Dog’s ears and scritching idly. “It’s such a waste,” he says, softly. “So many lives. So much suffering. And for what? We still don’t know.” He laughs, quietly…tiredly. “I keep looking for answers. Keep looking for why. And I’ve found myself thinking…what if there isn’t a why? What if this isn’t a-purpose, what if there’s no one to fight…no one to blame?” Wolf drags in a long, slow breath, and lets it out in a quiet sigh. “Maybe all of this is just…blind.”

whines with the contentment of a Dog who has both gotten away with it, and also, is getting scritched in that one spot behind the ears, and also there’s something deeper to it, as well, and he presses his head insistently against Wolf’s hands as he talks. His eyes shine softly in the dark of the Obsidian Road.

unfurls and reaches out her arm, wrapping it around Wolf’s shoulders and resting her head against his arm. “Does it matter? If there’s no one to fight or blame? Of course it matters—it’s crueler that way, isn’t it? But we still have to find a way through, regardless.”

: “Aye.” He leans in to the touch, taking a deep breath that exhales rather raggedly. “I won’t have to watch Izaak die, knowing I’ve failed him. At least there’s that.”

looks up at Wolf, soulfully.

looks down at the Dog, and manages a small smile. “And you’re a gift unlooked for, aye? Though I could have sworn the first time I saw you, you had less hair.“

laughs, a little. “To be fair, you’ve gotten a bit shaggy yourself.”

whines, and thuds his tail, and one of his unnecessarily large paws shimmies free to playfully trap one of Wolf’s hands under it, and one of his ears flops comedically to one side.

, then, looks for all the world like he’s got something to offer.

chuckles softly, and pushes his hair off his face with his free hand. “Well, it’s not as if we’ve had much time or space to think of cutting it.” He gives Salme something that’s a reasonable approximation of his usual dry looks. “I think it makes me look ruggedly dashing.” Wolf blinks down at the Dog. “I’d say you look like the cat who ate the canary, but I suspect that might be an insult, instead.”

is not the Crepuscular Cat, he is the Disreputable Dog, thank you very much, although any such reference would be its own strange form of praise, it’d be simply impossible to interpret it any other way. Bap on the nose notwithstanding. In any event, he lets out the world’s softest bark, and then he closes his eyes halfway, and then. ⁂

’s tail thuds, in time with the song.

startles, then laughs–and then the meaning sinks in, and he curls into himself over the Dog, fingers tight in the shaggy fur, hair screening his face again. And if the Dog’s fur gets a little wet with droplets from above, well…he needed a bath anyway.

nestles up against Wolf, as monstrous and shaggy and solid and present as the situation requires, would require, was always going to require; his tail hasn’t stopped gently thudding.

rubs her hand on Wolf’s back in small circles.

lets his shoulders shake, just a little; lets a hand come up to cover his face. “What did I do,” he says, after a long moment, his voice rather ragged and wet, “To deserve such unlooked for gifts?”

looks at the Dog, quirking an eyebrow, as if asking, ‘Do you want to answer that questions or shall I?’

is a dog, and can only answer questions in a few, Doglike ways, and he is very very good at answering questions in those ways, and he is doing his utmost with the resources available to him. His paw in Wolf’s hand, tangled up in a pile with him, warm and solid. Salme can handle the rest.

shifts her gaze to Wolf. “You were yourself, as you only ever had to be. And then the people who needed you and wanted to be with you, the people you fit with, they found you. Or you found them. Or we found each other, several times, maybe over the course of multiple lives.” Then, more softly, she adds, “You’re always telling me to grant myself grace; to include myself within the context of the world, but you don’t always grant yourself the same grace, I don’t think? Sometimes it’s not about deserving. Sometimes, we just love who we love, for who they are.”

laughs, quietly, unsteadily. “Aye, I…I suppose I’m in need of some of my own medicine.” He huffs a very dog-like laugh. “Can’t say I always love the taste, but…”

: “It must be awful,” she says, completely deadpan, “to have people tell you how much you mean to them, and how you don’t always have to be the strong one.”

barks very softly.

ruffles Wolf’s shaggy hair of debatable ruggedly dashing-ness.

gives Salme a very dry look from under the fall of his hair…which is very impressive, because his face is actually quite wet. “Yes, well…”

: “Do you know much it matters to me that you’d tell me your fears and hurts? That you’d let me see this and share this with you?”

huffs out a breath, nods a little. “I am…grateful to be able to.” He sighs and relaxes back against Salme again. “It has never been as hard to step back onto the Long Road as it was this time,” he says, after a long moment of companionable silence. “For the first time since I accepted my path, I didn’t want to go. And then there was that song…” Wolf shudders, a bit.

nestles a little closer against Wolf again.

: “How could it not be hard? I saw you with Ravhi, the way something in both of you relaxed and got to be … young, in a way I’m not quite sure either of you ever were young. And as for the song …” she’s quiet for a moment, as she thinks. “I do not know him as you do, and I don’t have the relationship with music that you do. I still think our songs aren’t our destinies. But even if they do communicate some truth about ourselves, would it outweigh who Ravhi has proven himself to be? Even lyrically, the song—it more about the burden he’s placed upon himself. Which is upsetting in its own way, but.” She shrugs. “I am not saying your reaction was wrong; Light knows I’ve been bothered by lesser things. I just.” She squeezes his shoulders, “I just don’t think what you fear could possibly be true from what I know? And I acknowledge I might be wrong but … I don’t think I am.”

sighs, nods. “And I came very quickly to realize that…” His smile turns a little distant and shy. “I linked with him, before we left. He let me hear the voice of God, giving him his task. And you know how that state is, there can be no…hiding, in methexis. If there was evil in him, I would have known, I think. But for that one terrible moment, there was the fear that I had given my heart to…” He flushes, realizing the words that have slipped past his guard. “…it would have been a terrible thing to try and take back, is all.”

: “Wolf, if we can’t talk about the people we love with each other, then we’re shitty antistrophes. You’ve given your heart to him. That’s something to be celebrated and treasured. And it’s also terrifying, isn’t it? That you’ve given away something you might not ever be able to take back. That in the giving, you’ve already been changed by that person, and they will forever be a part of you, by either their presence or their absence.” She presses her free hand to her chest, like she’s reaching for something that isn’t yet there. “I’ve never had to hold that precise fear, but I’ve. It’s not an easy thing. It’s a worthy thing, but not an easy one.”

: “Aye.” He laughs quietly. “I know it must seem strange–me, who is always talking about feelings, being so shy about what I myself feel. But it is…in many ways, a strange and new thing to me. Even as a younger man, I never really felt the yearnings, the needing that so many others did.” He looks back up at the black sky and smiles with warmth and wonder. “I wonder if my heart knew, even then, that he was out there, waiting for me.”

: “I don’t think it’s strange. You’d implied as much, once. It … suits you, with what I know about you.” She smiles seeing him smile. “Would you like to tell me about him? Not about the big things, not about his secrets, but the small things you love about him?”

flushes, deeply, then laughs. “I don’t know if I can,” he says, with just a bit of a sly smile. “Because that’s the wonder if it, there are no…small details. They’re all apiece, and they all shine like stars in the sky, because they’re his.” Wolf’s smile warms, and he looks out at the tall, City-inspired shelter before them. “But…there’s a look he gets, when he’s done something clever and knows it. The way his scales darken, when he’s shy about something. The way his face relaxed, beneath the Tree, and he looked so much younger in the space between one breath and another…”