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 Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:09 pm
...:: 9.11.06 ::...
That statue haunted Raven’s thoughts. Two figures entwined as if clinging to each other for dear life or devouring each other whole. What was it? What did it mean? Did it carry the connotations of good or bad, of love or hate? Of trust or lack thereof? Or was it both? It meant so much and yet Raven couldn’t decipher the details.
If she were to be honest, Raven would admit that she couldn’t handle things she couldn’t figure out. The little statue bothered her because it carried a mystery, but also because the mystery meant something more than what it appeared to mean. The mystery of the statue meant something because it remained indecipherable.
Twins. A pair of beings, a soul split into two perfect halves, each one unique and different from the other. This was the sort of thing Raven didn’t deal with on a daily basis. She didn’t know much about twins, about souls. She dealt in other matters, matters different than these, matters, which meant other issues rather than this one. She needed assistance, but even the sisters didn’t deal with these.
She needed backup. But who?
Who among her friends would be able to assist her-- oh. That’s who.
The only person who thought about these things. The geeky, wonderful, strange BFL.
Raven had to go off and find Jan.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:28 am
I Know Where You Inhabit
draconianraven It was raining. God friggin' damnit, it hadn't been raining when she'd left the Nest after calling in the reinforcement of Winter's assistance in looking after the kids! Raven hated the rain. Actually, that wasn't the best word for it. She absolutely detested, loathed, and felt enormous amounts of animosity towards the mere semblance of the idea of getting wet against her will. And yet, here she was, getting wet, knocking at the door to the store.
God friggin' damnit.
"Jan! Jan, open the door! I'm getting wet!" Raven snarled, glaring at the unopening door. She was wet and unhappy about it. If she'd only thought to bring her key with her... she had one still, didn't she? Damnit, why hadn't she thought about that? "JAN!"
Where was that girl?!
Jan the Verse True to form, Jan was up to something she probably shouldn't be up to unless she thoroughly enjoyed the idea of being lectured. Which she didn't. And hell, who was going to lecture her in her own home? No one! That was bloody well right.
So she could spend all day just sitting here, staring at the ro--relic, alternately tapping or pushing it with her pencil until--oh. Okay. That shouting? Outside? Through the din of the pouring rain? Sounded almost like someone was shouting for her. But she hadn't opened the shop today, hadn't given anyone who purchased from her shop her address (though given that she lived directly above it, she really had no right to be surprised if disgruntled customers managed to find her), and was fairly certain nothing other than severe anger would motivate anyone to brave weather like the current disaster outside.
...Enh. Maybe someone really needed a hand.
Shuffling to the window overlooking the street, Jan pressed her nose against the misting pane and looked cross-eyed down at the slowly becoming thoroughly sopped figure below. Hm. Relatively tiny, black haired, huge, piercing voi--cripes. She hastily threw up the window and stuck her head along with half of her body out over the street and into the torrent. "RAVEN!" she shouted down, "WE'RE NOT OPEN TODAY." draconianraven Oh, she was going to get it. "I KNOW THAT!" Raven snapped up at her friend. "I'm WET. Let me IN, Jan!!" she shouted, more than a touch frustrated at this point. Being covered in moisture did not do wonders for Raven's personality, truth be told. "I've got something I need to talk to you about," she muttered more quietly.
It was... embarassing to have come to the conclusion that she needed to enlist Jan's help in deciphering the secrets of this rock. Statue. Relic. Thing. but Jan was more used to these sorts of things, being who she was and all that. So here Raven was, looking for assistance from someone who WOULDN'T OPEN THE DOOR, DAMNIT.
Come to think of it, Jan was probably just goofing off again, ignoring what she was supposed to be doing. This happened when Raven or someone wasn't around to keep tabs on the other girl, wasn't there to keep her on task. So it was probably a good thing Raven had shown up today. "I FORGOT MY KEY!" she called up, in hopes that Jan would actually come downstairs so they could talk. Or something.
Jan the Verse Chewing on her tongue thoughtfully, Jan nodded to herself wetly - yup, forgetting a key would usually cancel out one's ability to get into someplace locked. "In a minute~" the girl sang, letting the window fall shut with a thunk before skittering to the backstairs with a hop-skip-jump sort of jumbled up pace. Her relic remained on the precarious brink of her desk, tottering somewhere between the (relatively few yet still neglected) forms required for her more serious job and the much more numerous files for her other endeavors. She wasn't worried about it falling and breaking or anything. She'd already been through that part.
Once reaching the door to the shop (though first stumbling through it in the dark, not bothering to turn on the light for fear of the impatience wet tended to induce in her friend) Jan fumbled it open and scooted to the side to allow raven entrance as opposed to her customary tendency to block a doorway with arms outstretched in greeting. Something told her that 'hug' was not a word raven was liable to understand at the precise moment. "Hi, what's up?" she asked, flipping her own soaking hair over a shoulder. Her tone was the sort of fluid greeting one friend drops to another, not necessarily a real question, just the beginning of whatever endeavor shall unfold. draconianraven Being out of the continuing wet improved Raven's mood exponentially and then some. "I need your help. I have a... thing. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it." Unlike the wand, there hadn't really been anyone to explain exactly what this little thing was supposed to be, what Raven was supposed to do with it.
"...and I need a towel."
Jan the Verse "I don't sell towels," Jan quipped, already heading back up the stairs to indicate the levity of the comment.
Something that Raven couldn't deal with? Could hardly be domestic, in that case. 'Cause hey, this was Raven, you know? Raven I-deal-with-all-of-Jan's-problems-because-she-forgets-how-to-tie-her-
shoelaces-and-then-she-forgets-to-wash-her-socks Raven. Whoo boy. What made her friend think she was best equipped to deal with a problem? Probably the job description. Ew. She hoped it had nothing to do with zombies - no offense to her predecessor of course, but that kind of situation never seemed to end well for those in her office.
"I've also got a toxic waste disposal set up next to the compost heap," she announced, rummaging through the bathroom for something remotely fluffy. She failed to indicate both where she would have a compost heap and why exactly it would exist in the first place, living in a second story flat as she did. Re-emerging from the bathroom, "This... 'thing'," insert hand quotations, "The kinda thing that can be so dealt with?" draconianraven "It's a rock. Or a statue. Or a relic-thing. I'm not actually sure," Raven grimaced slightly. How to describe it? "Two figures. Winged... creatures. Holding each other." One lighter than the other, both with strange types of wings, unlike those Raven was used to thinking of. "And I don't know what it is, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I was hoping you might have some idea, given that you're a little more on the up-and-up than I am with these kids of things."
A little was an understatement. A little was a big understatement. Jan knew things because of who she was, what she did. Which meant she had to have some clue, right? Because if Jan didn't know, Raven would be utterly and completely lost in this case. Which didn't sit well with the girl. "Oh. And I have a wand too."
Jan the Verse Balking for a bare moment - a moment she knew Raven would catch, so she wasn't going to bother to hide - Jan thrust the towel out to the other girl before walking decisively over to the desk and rummaging through the piles of paper that had managed to fall over and conceal her rock since the brief soujourn downstairs. "You tried to sell either of 'em?" she asked off-handedly, "If someone bids a lot on eBay, it's usually a sign in favor of keeping."
Ah, there. Hefting her glorified paperweight out of the mess and belatedly stepping between Raven and the desk (perhaps in a half-hearted attempt to conceal her procrastination), Jan held it out in front of her with a flick and flourish of wrist. "This the kind of rock we're talking about?" draconianraven The hesitation well noted, Raven rolled her eyes. "The wand I get. It's a long story. No, I haven't tried to sell them on eBay-- that would require actually knowing what it is. But yes, that kind of rock." Somehow, the girl wasn't surprised to find that Jan had one too-- in fact, that supposition that Jan would was what had brought her (in part) to Jan's doorstep so quickly. Otherwise, Raven would've gone zombie-hunting first in an attempt to not let Jan know that she couldn't figure the puzzle out on her own.
Fishing the statue out from her purse, Raven held it up. "What are they, then? Since you obviously know something, Jannie."
Jan the Verse Sticking her tongue out at the nickname - it always made her feel so childish! (for a moment pretend that you are Jan looking out at the world rather than the world looking at the rather obvious tendencies of Jan) - she rolled her shoulders and sort of half sat down upon the desk, tossing the rock in the air once, catching it - and barely - with a mind not to do that again, thank you very much. Right. That thing about lack of hand-eye coordination. Had to keep that in mind or she'd break another toe.
"They're called 'Aduthule'," she said offhandedly in the manner of the expert bullshitter. "It means 'twin souls' in some elvish dialect." draconianraven "And?" Raven prompted. There had to be more than that. If that was all there was, Raven might as well have not gotten wet. The towel was comforting though, something warm(ish) and dry(ish as of now). Towels were useful. Good to have around.
Twin souls. That made sense, that fit. Because the pair-- both pairs-- did seem to have that connection, that matching, those differences. Twins. Twins who were the same and yet different, two souls-- or perhaps one soul split in two...
Jan the Verse Something in the back of her mind began to kick, scream and tear at her hair at increasingly steady intervals. Ah, right, host manners. Jan flipped a blanket off the back of a nearby chair and tossed it to her slightly less sopping friend. "They're sorta... physical representations of opposing concepts," she went on in, sounding far more confident in the idea than she actually was - it was still toying about like mad in her head. "Not sure if they're part and parcel of the concepts themselves made manifest or whether they've just been assigned certain roles to play by some bigger power-that-be out there."
A pause, c**k of the head, purse of the lips, "Where'd you get it from, anyway? FedEx?" draconianraven BLANKET. Blanket was GOOD. Raven liked the blanket. "Where'd you get yours?" she shrugged. "And... hm. Physical representations..." That was intriguing. Not a fleshed out idea, but... intriguing. "Do go on." Raven wanted-- no, needed to find out more. Because without more information, Raven knew she couldn't succeed in possibly taking care of the little rock. Relic. Thing. Things? Plural. Twins. Right. That's how it went.
Not that it seemed Jan could tell her much more-- the other girl probably was as confused as Raven herself was. After all, it wasn't as if anything were particularly clear about these... things. Things. Relics. Souls. Whatever. >>;
Jan the Verse Grrr. Fine. If she was going to be ambiguous, Jan had every right to return the favor - and she being the one who obviously knew more (even if it wasn't all that much more) than she not only had the reins, she had the option of lying through her teeth. But heck, this was Raven. And Jan wasn't malicious. Just a little crotchety.
"Filched it from a museum," not entirely the truth but close enough, with only a little bit of an exaggeration tossed in. She hadn't taken it without consent, after all... "Apparently there's not a whole lot known about the little buggers," she brought the rock back towards her chest, tapping it against her chin rhythmically, "Origin, purpose, nothing besides the polar opposites thing has been so far established. Beats me as to why they're tossing these things out to the public, but from what I hear-tell it's got something to do with... enh, the higher powers again. Random ordinance. Not so much with the human selection as the divine - or whatever you want to call it." draconianraven "Why are they giving these away, that's the real question," Raven muttered. After all, it didn't seem prudent if these things carried some sort of power. Who knew what others could or might do with them? At least Jan was somewhat good at taking care of things-- probably due to the fact that she enjoyed playing with the cute cuddlies. Some people though, were absolutely unfit to carry out the duties of taking care of another being.
And yet, if it really was the work of the higher powers or whatever you wished to call them... then perhaps there was a method to this madness, although Raven became increasingly certain with every passing day that there really was no reason to the strangeness that happened. Ah well. Either way it didn't matter, right? Everything worked out...
"So... what are you supposed to do with them?"
Jan the Verse On the subject of why higher powers would be flinging about possibly powerful objects, Jan had a few theories - the primary of which involved said higher powers being bored out of their minds. Being omnipotent didn't exactly mean being boundlessly creative, after all. Everyone got a little listless after eternity, so she'd heard.
"Plant 'em," she shrugged at the question, "Put 'em in the freezer, a bowl of water to watch 'em grow, under your bed - I dunno!" the exclamation followed by a put-out sort of snort, "Probably send 'em to school to boot - sheez, and I thought it was bad being the be-glassed geek. How much playground horror will they get from having tails, do you think?" draconianraven "Jan, I've got a little girl with blue skin. I've got a little boy who's got six arms. I've met kids who look more animal than human. I don't think they'll have that much of a problem," Raven shrugged. "Though... sending a rock to school might have odd consequences. I'm not sure about how the teachers would deal with it."
Logic. Something. Great. Couldn't there be easier things to say about little rocks that were being handed out like candy on Halloween? "...I'm worried. I don't like this whole 'souls trapped in inanimate objects' thing that's going around. It feels... weird. Like there's something larger going on."
Jan the Verse The sound Jan made to echo and emphasize Raven's final comment was accompanied by a momentary drop of shoulders and a dark, contemplative look. But it was over in the next moment as she threw up her hands in exasperation, flailing the relic over her head, "It's standard fare, far as Gaia goes," she pronounced with a touch of whine in her voice. "This place is all wonked out to hell and back, Rav - I wouldn't go worry about kiddies."
Though... yeah. The whole souls in physical objects thing... She hadn't quite gone there yet as far as thinking about philosophical implications, having been rather obsessed with the fact that dual-personas meant a definition of duality and the reality of opposites, rather than mere cognitive conception. So... oof. Souls in rocks. That wasn't a fun thing. draconianraven This was Jan. Raven could talk to Jan, confide in Jan. "...look, Jannie... I've got this wand, right? There's supposed to be a soul in there who was killed in a wronged fashion-- a vampire soul." Pulling out Yui's wand from her purse where it'd been hiding from the rain, the little red wisp sulking somewhat, Raven presented it to Jan. "And now there's a rock with twin souls stuck inside? It's not..."
Not what? Not right? It felt... wrong. Right to save souls, but to put them into things that weren't alive? To make them... trapped? It felt... vicious. Like playing God, only perhaps it was the higher powers who did at least some of it-- it didn't make sense. Why would these things be happening? What was going on?
...it hurt Raven's brain to think about it.
Jan the Verse .......oh, fine. They couldn't 'just let it drop'. Not something like... ugh. She hated the ones with big ol' moral implications. It was grand fun to think about something complicated and all, but to have to deal with it? It really was kinda easier to be on the sidelines, scooping up the mess.... This was different.
...and not that unfamiliar, unfortunately.
Setting her rock back on the paper-swamped desk, Jan peered with a frown at the red wispy thing fluttering off the end of the wand. She pushed the non-lensed glasses back up her nose, cocked her head to the side, pursed lips - "Entirely kosher," Jan finished Raven's sentence with her own vocabulary. Then, taking it in a more mundane direction, "If there's one thing I know to piss someone off, it's to deny 'em revenge by sticking them in a... stick." draconianraven Grimacing slightly, Raven considered things. This wasn't the way things were supposed to work, right? There had to be more. "At least with the wand someone was there to tell me what I was supposed to do," she muttered. "Take care of it. Make it feel welcome-- her, I mean," Raven glanced warily at the wand. "But... I'm lost with the rock."
Really lost. Lost enough to admit defeat-- a huge blow to her pride, really. Putting Yui gently back into her purse, Raven considered her own rock again, the little pair holding each other so tightly. "I wonder what they did..."
Jan the Verse Ui. Now there was a thought. That the little tykes now petrified on her desk weren't just manifestations of the world's principles but.... previously living souls. But who knew? Maybe it was an entirely different idea, maybe they really were just in an 'egg' stage, and had never known life before. Because putting something already conscious in a material object? Ew. Not so nice.
"Actually, they were calling them 'relics'," Jan mentioned at a mumble, brow creased in thought as she tapped fingers on the wooden edge. "If this is some sort of redemption arc," she added after a moment, "Do you think we as guardians are supposed to be guides or challenges?" draconianraven Guides or challenges? Guides sat better with Raven, simply because it meant that she could help the little things, rather than try to change what they were going through to make it more difficult. However, with her luck with fate... "I'm not sure. I hope we're the guides. Guardians are supposed to care for things, right? Hopefully... look out for them."
Why was it so complicated? Maybe it wasn't, and Raven simply made it more complicated by the need to have it explicable in her mind, logical and following a set group of laws. At the same time... "Maybe I'm wrong about the whole thing though. I don't... get it. But maybe we're not supposed to? Nothing's particularly well organized about how these things have been tossed around..."
Jan the Verse Jan breathed out through her nose and directed a rueful smile at her friend. Organized? Cute. Since when had life as we know it been anything like alphabetized? Or even chronological, in some cases? The world was pretty screwed for want of order. A shame it insisted on using the big, fancy ingredients like 'politics', 'magic' and 'morality' to bake it's double-layer cake.
"There's only so much you can figure by hearsay and thinking," she said after a pause, "Just play it by ear - maybe things'll get clearer when they've finally hatched." Big ol' maybe right there. They both knew it. But what else was she supposed to say? Empty reassurances when dead against her moral opinions. draconianraven "Yeah, I can hope," Raven grimaced. "You're ok with all of this then?" If Jan was, that would set something right in Raven's mind. After all, Raven carried something of an alarmist tendency. Thus if Jan was ok with it, it would all be fine again...
Well, no. Not fine. But easier. Right. Easier.
Jan the Verse "Well I can't just throw it away," Jan snorted, picking 'it' up again and, instead of waving it about as she'd intended, pausing for a moment and holding it closer to her chest before interrupting that momentary tenderness with a shrug and slight grin that slowly faded into a neutral expression.
It wasn't that she was necessarily okay with anything about it, really - but hell if she could do anything about it, right? The powers that be say 'jump', you ask 'how far, how high?' and you keep jumping until they say stop. Just made things easier. And it wasn't like the rock was doing her any harm, exactly. Besides occasional migraines. Or fear of dropping it on her toes. Again.
"There are worse things," she concluded with what she considered a helpful gin. draconianraven Well... that was good enough for her then. "'kay. So... rocks. Relics. And souls. And... shouldn't you be doing something productive?" Raven queried, giving Jan a speculative look before glancing at the papers strewn about the room. "You have a job. Multiple jobs on occasion."
Jan the Verse Oh goody, didn't it always come back to that? Jan made a face and crossed her arms emphatically, "It's rainy," she said bluntly, "No one works when it's raining." An outright and ridiculous lie, but if she had no better explanation (and she didn't, not really) then she might as well go with what came to mind first.
Still... the idea of a job, in connection to this rock-thing. Hunh. Would've been weirder and freakier if she were the only one she knew with one of the things, but as she very clearly wasn't she wasn't going to try and associate the weirdness of her new parental position with the weirdness of her job. draconianraven "Rain doesn't absolve you of responsibility, Jan," Raven shook her head, resisting the urge to smile. "C'mon, you should at least pretend to get stuff done. Besides, if you aren't doing anything, you know that no one else is going to get anything done for your tabloid-- and if you work on that, I won't push you to work on other things."
Unspoken, of course, was the 'yet'.
Jan the Verse Hands flew half-way up in sudden realization. Oh right! Between neglecting to obtain a second lease for Henchmen and neglecting to write a response memo on why exactly she'd failed to dispose of anything big and important enough to justify her stay on Gaia, she'd entirely forgotten to neglect scrounging up enough articles for the next issue of the World Weekly. And that was all besides the regular practice of neglecting to 'call' home.
"This is why I have you," Jan moaned melodramatically, palm smacking forehead, "Think I can warp that wand-stick thing you've got into a story on haunted chopsticks?" At which point we digress... Continued...
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:57 pm
Hamlet and Laertes proved to be handfuls, even for Raven. Perhaps it was their constant competition with each other. Perhaps it was the way they seemed to know each other so well, even though they didn't understand each other at all. Perhaps it was the way they reminded her of herself and her sisters in that they were part of one another while being two wholly separate beings.
All in all, it provoked questions in Raven she didn't feel that she could easily answer.
And yet, at the same time, did she need an answer? These were her children. She loved them. Was that enough?
"Are you just going to sit there reading all day?" Laertes taunted his twin, his tail flicking over the pages of the book Hamlet appeared to be lost inside.
"At least I'm doing something," Hamlet retorted back, pulling his book further from his brother.
"You're not doing 'something', you're trying to read. You haven't flipped a single page all day," Laertes rolled his eyes, "and you've been sitting there for three hours. What's wrong, can't decide if you agree with the sentence or not?"
Flushing angrily, Hamlet slammed the book shut, looking for a brief moment as if he'd strike his twin.
But Laertes just watched Hamlet knowingly, smirking slightly at Hamlet as if to say, 'you don't have the balls for it'. He knew far too well that his brother would never move to strike him-- not really. Hamlet was too busy weighing the possible consequences in his head at the moment, too caught by those mental tangles to actually do anything. That was his problem.
"That's enough, boyos," Raven sighed, crossing over to put herself between her fighting twins. "I don't want you two getting into a fight-- not today, all right?" She'd been so tired lately, between trying to take care of her other kids and everything being so… crazy.
Gali made a frustrated noise in agreement with Raven, nesting in her hair. The little tone didn't usually get so riled, but Raven's mood was affecting him in a rather adverse way, so... he didn't like it. Didn't know how to respond to it.
"I'm sorry," Laertes apologized first, always the first to do anything of the twins. "Looks like we've gotten Gali all upset too," he gave the little iPersona a pet on the head, ignoring the tone's attempt to bite him. "Sorry, kiddo~"
His brother's absolute insincerity was really what pushed Hamlet to murmur an apology as well before holding the book closer and muttering out something about going off and to study with Mekt. At least with Mekt he'd get some peace and quiet, since he held enough authority by right of being the first one in this house to tell almost everyone to leave him alone.
Sighing softly, Raven nodded. "Go on then, Hamlet. Laertes, why don't you go spend some time with Renjyo?" she suggested, knowing how well the two kids got along. "I'm sure she'd love to go out and play with you."
Watching his brother leave, Laertes shrugged. "Sure." He liked Renjyo-- more than any of his other sisters at least. She had a head on her shoulders, and she didn't think as much as any of the other girls in the household. Maybe it was that she was younger, but Laertes didn't really care. Ah well. He'd spend time with her, they'd do something, and then he'd forget about his queer twin.
Watching her boys slip off, Raven sighed and pulled Gali close. "They're a handful, aren't they?" she commented with a wry smile. "Sometimes I wonder if they're ever going to get along-- it wouldn't be that surprising if they didn't, I guess. I mean... they're very different, aren't they?"
Gali made a sound which might've been affirmation of his agreement before snuggling up to Raven again. He didn't care that much, but... he didn't like seeing Raven so upset. It made the whole house out of joints…
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