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 Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 12:44 pm
"Wassat?" Isidore asked his cousin, pointing a very pale finger across the old town square towards a rather dilapidated building that had once been a church. His other hand was firmly in Akakios', his mother had expressly told him that he was not allowed to walk away from his cousin and he would not, because mum was scary when she was angry.
He had liked exploring the forest with Glyph and swimming with Xun and now they had gone even further, through a little village of tents and shacks, through a market to what had once been a flourishing town.
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:13 pm
 This whole cousin business was strange... Well, this whole being looked up to was strange. Add to that the fact that Isidore looked more likely to be related to his own sister than he was...
Which of course only served to remind him that he had not even seen Crys in so long. The more time passed, the more those he cared for either slipped through his fingers or plan ran away from him. It made it hard to look like everything was fine when it seemed his whole family was breaking apart in front of his eyes.
But well... That certainly was not Isidore's fault.
He was pushed out of his thoughts when his cousin stopped unexpectingly, head tilting to the side, following the direction the younger boy was pointing. "That is a church." He answered. "Or well... once had been, at least. This one looks like it had seen better days, hm ?"
A church to who, through ? He had no idea.
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:24 pm
Isi studied the building. There was something about it, something that intrigued him, in the same way that his sisters were drawn to birds, he called out to him. Not that he could express that. Even if he were as big as Kios he doubted he could have expressed it.
Instead he tugged on his cousin's hand.
"Can see?" He asked, looking up to Akakios. "Please?" Manners were important as his mother kept telling him.
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:49 pm
"We can." Akakios nodded. Why not ? No one had likely been there for years... And well, they were gods. They could certainly explore a broken down building if they wanted to.
Lament led the way, careful to avoid the bigger holes in the concrete that Isidore might have tripped in. This whole town - well, what remained of it - had fallen into disuse as people had clustered closer to the pantheon, with vines and various plants having already started to reclaim the area. He liked coming here - it was nice when he felt he needed some time alone, and it was... inspiring, in a way.
Akakios carefully pushed the door open - which thankfully happened without anything breaking down or apart. "We need to be careful in here. No one had been in here for a long time... Things are fragile."
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:06 pm
Isidore walked carefully with Kios, he was getting more and more steady on his feet as the days went on, still some of the cracks and bumps in the concrete and stone were large.
He looked up to his cousin and nodded at his words. The whole world was still fragile it seemed.
"Glyph magic." He said, gesturing to the plants and vines. He had seen the forrest god's magic and any green he saw he associated with him.
The church felt nice. Again he wasn't sure he could explain why. He stepped carefully over the floor stopping on an inscription on a slab of stone in the floor. Names and dates.
"Look." He pointed at it and looked up at his cousin.
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 8:00 pm
"Glyph magic ?" He asked, looking at the greenery. Well... Maybe. He did not know much about Glyph, aside the fact that his mother knew him, and he had held the party at the marketplace a few months ago. "You might be on something there, Isi." He smiled.
Ah, of course. This was not only a church... This was also a cemetary. That would explain why Isidore had wanted to come here. The young boy must have felt drawn to it, perhaps, following the call of his own domain. This was something Akakios was only starting to truly understand, himself. "There are headstones." He crouched in front of one, wiping the dust away so that the inscriptions could be more easily read. "When mortal die, their bodies are taken care off according to the beliefs their race hold. Some bury their dead, some send them at sea. Some burn the remains and scatter their ashes as if to set their souls free." He had not known what he had been right away. Being Lament was something he had learned, and likewise, Isidore would need to learn about how to be Funeral, just as his sisters would need to learn how to be themselves.
He was more fitted to help this one cousin, really. "They hold funerals for them. That's you." He poked at Isidore's tiny nose with an amused smile. "Then they mourn. That's me and your cousin Lacrymosa. And your daddy brings the souls to my daddy so they can be reborn."
At least, that was how it was supposed to be.
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:11 am
Isidore crouched next to the grave and looked up at his cousin thoughtfully as he listened to him. He mostly understood what he was talking about, even if he could not express it.
"Funeral." He reapeated, reaching out to touch the cold stone. He would not have known exactly what a funeral was, though he felt something as Akakios explained a celebration, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad. Rememberance.
He looked around, there were other stones like the one they were stood next to, all people. Notable people perhaps.
"What are you?" He asked, looking up at his cousin. "What Lament?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:32 pm
"A lament is a poem, a song, or a story, relating to loss." Not always for the dead, he had learned. Loss did not always involve death, but it often did involve endings.
"So, a lament serves as an outlet for grief and sadness. It is sad, but it can help people feel better in the end." If they allowed themselves to feel better, that is. He was quickly learning that one could not be forced to stop mourning. Well, they could... but the feeling would return, and what was the point ?
No, the real healing could only happen when someone was ready.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:51 am
Isidore looked up at his cousin and listened to him carefully. He was sure that everything had to say would be useful. They were similar after all, or so everyone kept saying.
He wondered if funeral, whatever that really was, could help people feel better too. Isi chewed on his lip thoughtfully and stood up straight.
"Me too?" He asked. "People better?" He hoped his cousin would understand what he meant. He knew what he wanted to say, though expressing that was still hard.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:39 pm
"You too." Akakios seemed to understand what his cousin meant just fine. Of course, it helped that he remembered being Isidore's age, and what he had usually meant when he had said certain words. That knowledge certainly helped out right now.
Akakios stood again, moving toward another gravestone to clear it out. "Mortals find comfort in what is familiar to them. Death, and what happens to them after it, is not something they are widely aware of, and not something they can easily understand. It is hard for them to understand that while they may cease to be one specific individual, they will eventually live on as another person once they are reborn."
He looked back at Isidore again. "So the mortals did what they could to tame their fears... Rituals and art forms to assure the deceased's safe passage through the afterlife, safety against what trials they may or may not face. And so, we were born."
Well, not really. The deities that had once held their titles had been born. But like all save Harmodius, they had perished... And now it was they who stood in the place of those deities. He was not sure if Isidore would understand - he certainly had not understood, when he had been as new as his cousin now was. The more complicated explanation would come later.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 1:49 pm
Isidore did not fully understand everything his cousin had said. Though he did know that theywere a bridge of a kind. Between the world of the living and the dead. It was important, for people to grieve, to still feel cloe to those who had passed on. Funeral and Lament were all part of acceptance.
"Thank you." he replied, standing and looking thoughtfully around the beautiful old building. Hopefully the people would rebuild it and return it to its purpose as a place of worship.
He smiled at his cousin and wandered to where one of the walls had crumbled.
"This way, he declared, heading to the open that would lead to the graveyard."
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:21 pm
"No problem. If you have more question, we can see if I have the answer, hm ?"
Oh, it was easy enough to figure out what laid down this particular path. In fact, he could see one of the headstones through the partly broken door... But he let Isidore lead him, let the young boy revel in his discovery until they arrived at said door.
"Careful." He cleared out the broken wood the best he could before letting Funeral step through the door frame leading to the graveyard itself.
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:58 am
Isidore looked up at his cousin with nothing short of adoration as Kios cleared the way. He was very clever and knew lots about everything. At least everything he had asked about so far. He had lots and lots of questions, though it was impossible to express them.
He wandered down the path to the graveyard, taking in the overgrown grass to the sides of the path and the weeds popping up between the flagstones. It needed tending, maybe he could find someone to help him do that.
"Look." Isi wandered up to the first gravestone and crouched before it. He looked at the writing and tilted his head to the side. Of course he had started learning his letters. His mother had been teaching them things since the moment they had hatched but putting the letters together ... that was harder.
"A - R - C - H ... ummmm I - E." pale fingers reached out to touch the moss covered engraving. "Name?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 11:32 am
Isidore did remind him a lot of himself when he had been younger - but Lament could only hope that his adoration would not be as wasted on him as his own had ended up being. It was strange to be looked up to like this, he had to admit.
"That does look like a name, yes." He reached out to clear some of the overgrowth off the tombstone so that they could both take a better look. "Look at this." He pointed out at the date. "Looks like the oldest graves come first..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 11:42 am
Ohhh yes.
Isi grinned as he saw the numbers.
"Mama." He declared reaching his little fingers out to touch them. They were really old some of them, then they stretched out beyond the walls to where the newest graves were. He was part of it, he could tell, feel an energy." A question came to him, a rather complicated one. All he had to do was put it into words.
"Do we die?" He asked. "Gods?"
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