<P> Rituals and Rites (Ankou/Isidore)

[midnight_medea]

"This way." Isidore leaned forwards as he 'dragged' his dad by the hand towards his latest discovery. "I founded it with Kios." It clearly had not crossed his mind that his father might have been there before. Oh no, this was -his- discovery.

They were headed towards the newer part of the cemetary, he hadn't had time to explore that far and it intrigued him. It was by no means uniform at all. There were many different graves of different styles that reflected the many cultures that had settled around the pantheon. Perhaps they all had different funerals. That was an exciting thought.
"It's a cemi-terarary"  

[A Wandering Esper]

It was a funny scene, if anyone was around to witness it. The 'dragging' was questionable at best, through Ankou had no reason to not let his son do as he wished. When Isidore had come up to him, telling him about the special place that he had found, he had not expected it to be so far away.

Through Kios had been with him, so he figured that was alright. He certainly had no idea that the two of them had reached out this far.

"Cemetery." Ankou correctly without truly noticing he had. A cemetery he was familiar with, at that, but he had a feeling that he ought to keep that detail for himself. It looked like no one had come to tend to this place for a long time. "So I see. A really big one, too... Did you find it ?"

He wondered what had brought his son here, how he felt standing here in this space. Questions that would come soon enough.  

[midnight_medea]

Isi looked back at his dad's question. Dur, of course he found it, how would he know how to get back if he hadn't found it.
"Yeaaah, I found a ... " He paused and tried to think of the word. "Church, then we found here. Look!" He yanked on his dad's hand and bounced over to a grave stone. "That's a name and those are numbers like mama. Um ... dates!" He grinned proudly because he was remembering all the new words he had learnt. Cemetaries were supposed to be sombre, but he could feel an energy there that made him ... well feel rather energised.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Ankou's balance was wobbly to begin with - thanks to leaning forward enough so that his son had been able to hold his hand - and Isidore's excited yanks would be enough to toss him off-balance completely should he not be careful. That was saying something about his son's excitement right there.

"I see, I see... Do you know what the dates mean ?" Ankou tiled his head a bit as he crouched down to take a better look at the headstone. This one was pretty new... Still prior to Gehenna. They were unlkely to find anyone who died during Gehenna buried here, unless they were very lucky. Mass graves had been more common back then.  

[midnight_medea]

Good question, he remembered talking about them with Kios, the numbers.
"Yes, I fink so. This one is when they are born and this one is when they died." He said reaching out to touch the numbers.
"No gods tho." He looked around the graveyard and wandered away from the grave. "When people die, what happens?" He was very curious about these processes. He knew a funeral was like a celebration and lament and grief helped people to cope with death, but what was death really?  

[A Wandering Esper]

"I see..." He smiled a bit, not minding playing dumb for his son in the least. This was his discovery, after all. Isidore was perfectly allowed to get the most out of it.

That was a very good question that his son asked here. A good question, and Ankou found himself mulling a good answer to it. Something Isidore could understand. They could always get into the more complicated aspects once he was a little older.

"Well. A living being-" He did not say mortal, for gods had souls as well, he believed. Souls he could not easily touch, but souls nonetheless. He was certain that none of the reborn would be here, if it was not the case. Not the same type of soul as a mortal, perhaps, but a spark of life, nonetheless. "-is made of two things. A body, and a soul. A body is what you can see, what you can touch. The soul lives inside the body, and is the person's self, thoughts and emotions."

"When someone is born, the body and the soul are connected. As long as one half exists, the other will return to it if they are separated." He did not bother to stand, instead brushing the tips of his fingers against the markings in the stone.

"The soul is an infinite thing, for the most part. But without a body, a soul cannot be seen and interact with others of the living, save for a special few. The body of a mortal, however, is not infinite. The body grows, lives, is constantly in flux. It can grow sick and tired, weak and brittle. If the body's operations are hindered too drastically - be it from old age or outside interference-" He saw no need to sugar-coat anything. His son was Funeral. He would understand, better than his sisters might ever understand. "-The body dies. The soul then has nothing to cling to, no other half to live in, and is released."

"The body remains a tangible thing, but it no longer works. The heart no longer beats, the spark of life is gone. A soul cannot live there." Not truly, at least. "So the body is honored by the other mortals. Having something concrete to hold onto help them ease their own pain, as do the rites and beliefs that they have developed over the ages."

The next bit was a little more complicated. He could explain what the cycle of rebirth used to be, or the cycle he had made, with Nergal gone. He decided to stay quiet first, to see if his son had questions for him. He figured matters of the body might interest him most.  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore nodded. He knew that, though he wasn't really sure how, but when he met people or aoide he knew that there were two parts to them. Body and Soul. So it was his job to bridge the human gap between life and death. His father would guide the soul and he would guide the body ... in a way. A connection for mortals.
"We are a team?" he asked, looking up at his father. "Kios too? and Uncle ... i can't remember his name." He knew there were others, Kios had a sister and a brother.  

[A Wandering Esper]

A team ? The thought made him smile. It was a rare thing in itself, through not as rare as it could have been. Isidore would have no way to know that, of course. He and his siblings had never seen him as anything other than what he was now. They had never seen the wavering, the confusions, and the self-doubts.

He was secretly glad for that... But if they needed to know, he would tell them. Ankou would tell his children all of it if it was what they needed to learn.

"Certainly." He nodded, finally raising to his feet again. "We do different things, but we work together. The mortals need care and guidance, and I am ill-equipped to deal with that." Both in power and personality. The Spirit Guide knew that he was not the most approachable of gods - had never been, and likely would never be.

"And Kios and your Uncle Nergal, yes." His brother's silence was upsetting - he had tried, times and times again, to rouse Underworld, but to no success so far. Surely something had happened.... But he could not figure it out.  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore grinned when he saw his father smile at his suggestion. That made him happy, not that he wasn't happy 105% of the time. He wasn't sure why his father couldn't help mortals too. Maybe because he was so busy all the time, busy and he had noticed that some of the mortals around the pantheon were a little wary. Not that Isi could see why, his dad was the nicest funnest dad ever.

"Okay." He replied, grabbing his father's hand. Yes, they were off again. Isi tugged his father towards the newer area of the old cemetary. It might once have been a recreational area beyond the hallowed grounds of the church. Since Gehenna the mortals that had flocked to the Pantheon had claimed it for themselves. The plots were not set out with any order in mind. They were large, small, in clusters and some alone. Few had markers but Isi could tell where each set of remains was. Some had flowers and some had no remains, they were merely a memorial to those lost.

The disorder troubled him a little.
"Did something bad happen?" He asked, looking up at his father. "It feels strange here."  

[A Wandering Esper]

Ankou followed as he was led to another part of the cemetery, one that was a little more familiar. So this was the place they had taken during Gehenna... He had not been sure, exactly, where it was. Had not sought it out, either, as he and the other gods had focused on ending it before it became too late.

Isidore seemed to know - not about Gehenna, of course, but that something happened. Inquisive blue eyes looked up at him and he pondered how to explain this correctly. "Yes, something happened." He looked at the markers - some with flowers, and some without. Some graves holding bodies, and some empty memorials. "Something terrible. Many mortals died, and many more of them were simply lost, their whereabouts and state unknown." It seemed so long ago now. When Gehenna had started, he had been nothing more than a stone stick in the back of an unhappy mortal's flesh. But he knew better than to think the Grigori would stop there. Surely they were gathering their strength just as the gods were.

Was he better equipped to deal with them now ? He had no idea. Did they even have souls he could control ? That was even more uncertain. He had never seen a grigori, but he knew of what Echo had seen - the twisted and unnaturally broken body of a woman, whose touch burned flesh.

"After a time the survivors were forced to accept the inevitable - that their loved ones were more than likely dead, rather than simply missing. They might not have bodies to bury, but they wanted for remembrance nonetheless." He trailed off for a moment, again. "When the plague broke out, they had no other option but to either burn the dead or bury them in mass graves, less they fall to the sickness themselves. They had to do what they could to survive, even if they did not like it."  

[midnight_medea]

Isi frowned as his father told him what had happened. Very, very bad. Newly born he and his sisters knew only the limited world of the Pantheon, their parents and their friends. An innocent existance.

His large blue eyes took in the cemetary again, there was a certain unease about it. A mortal might describe the feeling as the restless souls of the dead, but he knew that was not the case. More the restless souls, or minds of the mortals. Their frustration, sorrow and panic was reflected in the disorder. No funerals, just disposal.

The tiny boy took a deep breath. Perhaps now things would be better, people had the time now, the resources and he had been born.
"Did you and mama get hurt?" He asked, he hoped not, if this ... whatever it was had been terrible for mortals then it must have been bad for gods too.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Isidore's discomfort was evident, and he picked him off the ground, carefully running fingers through the boy's hair as he steadied him against himself. He did not regret saying what he had said - it was something Isidore had needed to know, and he would have known eventually. Better to hear it right there and then.

The sooner the children learned that the world was not all sunshines and roses, the sooner they could equip themselves to deal with it. His nephews and niece had a good dose of reality thanks to Gehenna, and even then, Ankou could not help but think Akakios was likely still getting a large dose of reality on Aejiss.

"We were affected, but we were not hurt too badly." He remembered it, the strain, the endless calls of the dying... He had thought it had been bad then, but he had learned later that it had only been the tip of the iceberg.  

[midnight_medea]

Isi wrapped his arm around his father's neck as he was picked up and gave him a hug.
"Good." he smiled, he didn't like the thought of his family being hurt at all. Clinging to his father he glanced around. He was up higher now and he could see everything clearly. He rested his chin on Ankou's shoulder and looked off across the haphazard memorials, something wasn't quite right.
"Papa, go that way." He stuck his hand out, pointing in the direction he wanted to go.  

[A Wandering Esper]

He was getting used to hugs from small children - slowly but surely. Isidore was mostly gentle - Caelia seemed to have made up a game of how hard she could tackle-hug daddy as soon as he looked like he was not paying attention.

"What is it, Isi ?" Something seemed to have his son's attention. He shifted his own position a bit as his son moved in his grasp, and started to head toward the direction the young Funeral had pointed toward.

"Did you see something ?"  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore shook his head, no, it wasn't seeing ...
"I feel something." Though there was no way he could put into words just what he felt. An unease, maybe something more. He frowned and kept staring ahead.
"By that tree over there."