Paladins en route
Apr. 8th, 2010 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yukieTITLE: There is a Light; or, Uphill Both Ways
CHARACTERS: Vicky and Jeremiah
SUMMARY: Paladins' Ordeals in bits and pieces.
RATING: To be on the safe side 14A since there'll be brawling and mindscrewiness later.
NOTES: Aaatypos! Also, Sir belongs to Drakon. ^^
1: NightWalk
It's early in the morning when Vicky squiggles out of bed and pads down the hall to the shower. Xavier makes a 'you're letting in cold air' noise when she moves the blankets, but doesn't wake. She accomplishes the gentle velcro-Sorceress detaching with the aid of a half-asleep Aurora, who kisses her forehead.
"You'll get it. Don't worry."
Xavier usurps Vicky's pillow and her warm spot.
For Jeremiah, he has a slightly easier time getting out of bed, as the Reiichiblanket has moved over to sprawl inexplicably sideways over there. Fabian opens one eye when Jer's weight leaves the mattress. Jer mrpts at him and Fabian smiles, then vanishes under the quilt again. Fabian's very expressive. How one bleary grin can covey 'kick the mountain's ass, Jer' so well, Jer will never guess.
Breakfast's unusually simple for them (considering how often one or both of them kitchen futzes) - hippie granola cereal and fruit and yogurt (Aurora thinks the 'lite' kind is sacrilege), orange juice, and most oddly no tea except what they pack in the thermos Vicky's going to be carrying. Vicky is beverage patrol; snack material is Jer's department for the trip.
The sun is just rising, and it's painting the sky watercolour shell-pink and lilac and Naples yellow at the eastern horizon; to the west the sky is still deep violet-blue with the stars only beginning to disappear one by one. The birds are awake, and already serenading everything. Vicky yawns, hiding her mouth with her hand to try to keep Jer from getting yawn-plagued. He does anyway.
Their ride is there already - a Grey Knight, sir, Vicky's friend. He brought decaf coffee (since caffeine's a diuretic and he doesn't want them getting dehydrated) with cream and sugar in, and he doesn't snerk too much at the drowsing birdpile in the back seat en route to the mountains.
The last few kilometres to the base of the mountain aren't the least bit driveable. Sir takes the lead, pointing out the trail markers and wayfinding hints. They're simple for Vicky and Jer to see but they don't exactly see with human eyes. The signs Fair people leave are of this type. For a human who hasn't been taught to see them, they can seem invisible. There's a reason for this - someone who just went unknowingly up the hill to the caves would probably be scared witless by their Shadow. It's better, therefore, to make the trail look unused and forbidding to your average hiker.
It looks daunting even to Jer and Vicky.
That isn't going to stop them.
2: Up
"Normally I'd be whistling Colonel Bogey March by this point but I can't bring myself to, this time." Jer's perched up on a nice flat rock. Vicky clambers up next to him and breaks out the tea. (This, too, is decaf.) "I mean, it just doesn't seem right somehow."
"Well, considering the usual subject matter of the tune..." Vicky hands Jer the thermos-lid cup. "Dark gods have only got one ball et cetera."
"I still don't know how anyone ever thought trying to cram your usual annoyance into the song meter by his proper name was smart. I've heard many people try but not a one ever manages anything better than 'wince-worthy'. I really think the original 'the Reaper is just a creeper' sums everything up very well anyway. It's not that anyone was afraid to mention the man by name, it's just that his name doesn't scan well... This conversation is dumb."
"Very." Vicky grins at Jer and sips her tea. "But it's usual for us."
"Not the dumbest I've ever heard," says Sir, amused.
The path up is steep and picky. Hard rock, loose gravel, tree roots. One-third of the way up an enormous raven lands gawkily right in front of Vicky on the path. She pauses, and stares at it.
"Are you yourself, or from someone else?" she asks.
The raven preens. That's a vague answer.
Oh, well. If the raven is a messenger from someone whom Vicky doesn't want to speak with, she doesn't have to accept the transmission as it were. She walks carefully around him. He follows her a few paces in the usual silly bird strut gait, then takes off croaking raucously to perch high at the top of a tree, in the small branches that will barely hold him. As Vicky watches, the breeze picks up, the trees sway gently...and the raven wobbles around, wings halfway spread, having the time of his life.
He's not an unwelcome messenger. And even if he were one he's more interested in playing than being a hindrance.
She hurries a bit to catch up with Sir and Jer.
"You're doing pretty good," says the former. "We should be about halfway by 1030 hours at this rate."
"I can live with that," Jer says.
The raven makes a deeply silly 'kreeok' noise up in his tree, then takes off, flying ahead as they walk.
Vicky wonders now if he's a messenger from the Lady.
3: Open Air
Vicky doesn't mind the damp weather or the ridiculous corkscrewing her hair is doing or the slightly soggy hems of her pants (her feet are dry - hooray for warm boots). She doesn't care about her backpack sliding annoyingly off her shoulder every so often. It's too beautiful here for her attention to be on anything but how green it is, and how still.
Jer says 'merp' as a fat water drop falls from a leaf and onto his head. Then, "Dear Lady and Lord it's like a cathedral in here."
"One I can go into," Sir says. Vicky isn't sure whether that means sacred ground annoys him or people get nervous when he's in churches. Either way -
Jer fidgets a bit on the path, looking down with rather wide eyes. "Vicky, I can feel the ley flow here even with my boots on. It's wicked."
"Oh, seriously?" Vicky pulls her attention from the coral-coloured wildflowers she can't identify. When she closes her eyes and lets her mind go still, she can feel it too. The pulse of the mountain. The ebb and flow of the stream of living mana. She feels light-headed - no, she feels light, as if she could just be borne away on that flow like a leaf on the current.
"It goes up the mountain," she murmurs. "The flow. We're going the right way."
"It's - calling," Jer says. "I really think..."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was," says Sir. "Other people've said they felt drawn but you guys have better ears for that kind of thing of only because you never got taught how to not listen."
"How far along are we?" asks Jer. "...I know how are-we-there-yet-dad that sounds but I'm just curious on account of because I think the calling is going to get louder and I want to be ready for that."
"We're about two-thirds of the way up," Sir replies. "It likely won't get louder per se but it might get more intense. If you start to have trouble I'll spot."
"It shouldn't come to that," says Jer. "But thank you either way."
Vicky fights down the urge to take her boots off and feel the mana flow with all of herself. "Two -thirds. All right."
The raven's still ahead of them.
4: Down
The cave's structure has a distinct downhill twist here.
"Katabasis," says Jer. "Dun-dun-dun."
Sir is waiting for them at the cave mouth; it's a dwindling speck of light behind them. Vicky's conjured the little 'night-light' spell and the little moon-replica orb of light's hovering over her palm. She and Jer have been alternating lantern duty so neither of them runs out of mana, but the ley flow here is so prominent that it restores itself almost as soon as it's used.
There's no sound here but their footsteps and their breath. The walls and floor are smooth, dark stone. Vicky recollects the cave under the cairn and shakes the mental image out of her head: this isn't the same place.
It's a similar sort of a feeling, though. The stillness. And, in a way, she supposes it's a little like going through where that Gate led. She and Jer are leaving something behind here.
"I keep feeling like I left some of me at the doorstep," Jer murmurs, echoing Vicky's sentiments.
Vicky hugs him with one arm. "I do, too. But it'll be all right."
"You think we can do this." it's not a question.
Vicky smiles at Jer. "I really do."
He smiles back. "Good. I do, I was just a little concerned on account of because sometimes your ego gets lost in your sock drawer ow."
Vicky baps him gently. "I know. I'm going to work on that."
"Figure that this'll help...?" Jer's voice hasn't risen above a near-whisper. "...I mean...for both of us, that fear. Being left. Not belonging. I wonder if this will...I know no one can eliminate that fear but me, and it's the same with you, and yes we can support each other and this isn't a magic wand...but...I wonder still if it might help us a little if only by making the path a bit more clear."
"It could," Vicky replies. "You never can tell after all." Then she stops short on the path and closes her hand over her light. "Jer, did you see - "
"If you're imagining it, so am I, and we are batty as one," Jr says.
They did see it, though. They can see it more clearly now that the other light has gone. Up ahead, a faint glow is visible. It shares the pulse of the mountain.
"Now I'm sure it's calling," Jer breathes.
Vicky only nods, then takes a deep steadying breath and starts toward it.
6: In the Dark
They're separated now, but each faces their own shadow. Everything they've been taught is important now, because they're facing everything in themselves they've ever feared. It's fortunate that they have the right mindset, but even so, it won't be easy. It never is.
Vicky's Shadow and Jeremiah's Shadow. Each is as agile and skilled as the twin who cast it. A dark mirror thrown up by the Light. This is the Ordeal of the Paladin: know thyself.
Conquer the ones within,
and you'll find...Courage...
It's somewhat startling - though Vicky and Jer are not prone to turning from the truth about themselves even when it hurts, there are dark corners of their hearts they didn't know, fragmented memories and malices that they'd forgotten until now. Resentment. Sorrow. Anger. Every wound and every scar they've borne, the resultant negative emotion is made clear by the Shadows here.
Some they knew.
Many they didn't.
It's frightening, and the Shadows whisper to them.
But the whispering from the Shadows is not like the voice that vexed Vicky's sleep to nightmare. No - these are the voices of doubt.
Greatest among these: doubting oneself.
Can we matter to others as much as they do to us? Are we really loved? Will we be left behind again? Will our nightmares start bleeding into reality and leave us unable to to a thing to staunch the flow? Can we ever be enough for everyone who needs us...? Are we really worthy? Have we got it in us to make it through
Hearing the voice aloud and outside oneself is terrifying.
But it's also oddly comforting.
Nothing is left unknown, now.
And since these are Shadows, and one can overcome them -
- Then so can the fears they whisper about be overcome.
7: Eventually
The end is abrupt. The last attack Vicky's Shadow slung at her rebounds off Vicky's warding and strikes the shadow-fae full-on. Vicky's dark echo goes sprawling - and Vicky's first impulse is to hurry over and see if her opponent is all right. Vicky KNOWS how hard she can hit, and if her Shadow hits just as hard...
She's offered a hand before she realizes she had.
Her Shadow takes her hand, and on the face of the tenebrous fae-shape is a very knowing grin.
The Shadow bows.
Vicky does likewise, and she's startled when she tears up.
"Did - I - "
Her Shadow is smiling.
Yes.
In the other room, Jer's voice is barely audible: "...Knock you on your head...you...right there...?"
Silence.
"...Oh. WELL then--"
The rest of Jer's sentence is lost in elated laughter and Vicky immediately runs in that direction. At the boundary of the room she pauses again, bowing once more to the fading Shadow.
"Thank you."
The Shadow, still smiling, closes her eyes and walks back into the Light.
Jeremiah gets a sudden armful of Vicky. He buries his face in the hood of her jacket to make his giggling less LOUD.
We did it, he says.
Vicky purrs so hard she rattles a bit. We did it.
Both have the sneaking suspicion that everyone but THEY knew they would succeed.
8: Inside Us All Along
The trip down the mountain is much faster than the trip up. Vicky and Jer are both exhausted and ecstatic, and the winding trail down is full of distratctions. Cathedral trees, the leys, the flowers, that raven - he's still there.
"Who are you anyway dammit," says Vicky.
Jer pffts. "I think that bird is nyah-nyah-ing you, Vicky..."
Sir's truck warms up fast and Vicky kind of thinks she wants to nap in the backseat on the way home, but she can't manage. She didn't feel much different at first, but now what's come to pass is starting to become clear.
It isn't that the Light somehow enters them in the Shadow's wake.
No.
What the trial does is this: it makes you very aware of the Shadow in you, and thus makes you aware of the Light in turn.
In the dark, you can see a candle for miles, and in the dark you can lose familiar constellations in a sea of stars. In the dark, the moon makes a luminous road on the water.
Turn out the lamp, and you can see the celestial river.
"I suspect we're going to get powerglomped," Jer says to Vicky. "By Aurora at LEAST.."
"Maybe." Sir has this knowing look. Vicky and Jer aren't sure what it means, but each has a few guesses.
When they get home, Aurora leads them out into the backyard, and they find out what the smile was about. Everyone is here. Everyone is proud of them.
Can we belong?
Yes.
---
"...and so I don't buy into that old idea of there being one saint up on a pedestal whom we can never equal...
...
...the energy within us is so powerful. The spirit has so much to teach us if we just learn to look inside ourselves...
...
...we were all chosen. The chosen one is all of us."
-a bird
-end-
***
That - yes.
I dunno what to say besides eeee. This made me teary to write, and happy.
The birdquote is from An Untitled Story, and the chapter titles are all taken from songs on the soundtrack. The last is somewhat truncated. Its full title is 'God Was Inside Us All Along'.
Which is what Byrd learns, and what the Ordeal teaches.
Yee.
CHARACTERS: Vicky and Jeremiah
SUMMARY: Paladins' Ordeals in bits and pieces.
RATING: To be on the safe side 14A since there'll be brawling and mindscrewiness later.
NOTES: Aaatypos! Also, Sir belongs to Drakon. ^^
1: NightWalk
It's early in the morning when Vicky squiggles out of bed and pads down the hall to the shower. Xavier makes a 'you're letting in cold air' noise when she moves the blankets, but doesn't wake. She accomplishes the gentle velcro-Sorceress detaching with the aid of a half-asleep Aurora, who kisses her forehead.
"You'll get it. Don't worry."
Xavier usurps Vicky's pillow and her warm spot.
For Jeremiah, he has a slightly easier time getting out of bed, as the Reiichiblanket has moved over to sprawl inexplicably sideways over there. Fabian opens one eye when Jer's weight leaves the mattress. Jer mrpts at him and Fabian smiles, then vanishes under the quilt again. Fabian's very expressive. How one bleary grin can covey 'kick the mountain's ass, Jer' so well, Jer will never guess.
Breakfast's unusually simple for them (considering how often one or both of them kitchen futzes) - hippie granola cereal and fruit and yogurt (Aurora thinks the 'lite' kind is sacrilege), orange juice, and most oddly no tea except what they pack in the thermos Vicky's going to be carrying. Vicky is beverage patrol; snack material is Jer's department for the trip.
The sun is just rising, and it's painting the sky watercolour shell-pink and lilac and Naples yellow at the eastern horizon; to the west the sky is still deep violet-blue with the stars only beginning to disappear one by one. The birds are awake, and already serenading everything. Vicky yawns, hiding her mouth with her hand to try to keep Jer from getting yawn-plagued. He does anyway.
Their ride is there already - a Grey Knight, sir, Vicky's friend. He brought decaf coffee (since caffeine's a diuretic and he doesn't want them getting dehydrated) with cream and sugar in, and he doesn't snerk too much at the drowsing birdpile in the back seat en route to the mountains.
The last few kilometres to the base of the mountain aren't the least bit driveable. Sir takes the lead, pointing out the trail markers and wayfinding hints. They're simple for Vicky and Jer to see but they don't exactly see with human eyes. The signs Fair people leave are of this type. For a human who hasn't been taught to see them, they can seem invisible. There's a reason for this - someone who just went unknowingly up the hill to the caves would probably be scared witless by their Shadow. It's better, therefore, to make the trail look unused and forbidding to your average hiker.
It looks daunting even to Jer and Vicky.
That isn't going to stop them.
2: Up
"Normally I'd be whistling Colonel Bogey March by this point but I can't bring myself to, this time." Jer's perched up on a nice flat rock. Vicky clambers up next to him and breaks out the tea. (This, too, is decaf.) "I mean, it just doesn't seem right somehow."
"Well, considering the usual subject matter of the tune..." Vicky hands Jer the thermos-lid cup. "Dark gods have only got one ball et cetera."
"I still don't know how anyone ever thought trying to cram your usual annoyance into the song meter by his proper name was smart. I've heard many people try but not a one ever manages anything better than 'wince-worthy'. I really think the original 'the Reaper is just a creeper' sums everything up very well anyway. It's not that anyone was afraid to mention the man by name, it's just that his name doesn't scan well... This conversation is dumb."
"Very." Vicky grins at Jer and sips her tea. "But it's usual for us."
"Not the dumbest I've ever heard," says Sir, amused.
The path up is steep and picky. Hard rock, loose gravel, tree roots. One-third of the way up an enormous raven lands gawkily right in front of Vicky on the path. She pauses, and stares at it.
"Are you yourself, or from someone else?" she asks.
The raven preens. That's a vague answer.
Oh, well. If the raven is a messenger from someone whom Vicky doesn't want to speak with, she doesn't have to accept the transmission as it were. She walks carefully around him. He follows her a few paces in the usual silly bird strut gait, then takes off croaking raucously to perch high at the top of a tree, in the small branches that will barely hold him. As Vicky watches, the breeze picks up, the trees sway gently...and the raven wobbles around, wings halfway spread, having the time of his life.
He's not an unwelcome messenger. And even if he were one he's more interested in playing than being a hindrance.
She hurries a bit to catch up with Sir and Jer.
"You're doing pretty good," says the former. "We should be about halfway by 1030 hours at this rate."
"I can live with that," Jer says.
The raven makes a deeply silly 'kreeok' noise up in his tree, then takes off, flying ahead as they walk.
Vicky wonders now if he's a messenger from the Lady.
3: Open Air
Vicky doesn't mind the damp weather or the ridiculous corkscrewing her hair is doing or the slightly soggy hems of her pants (her feet are dry - hooray for warm boots). She doesn't care about her backpack sliding annoyingly off her shoulder every so often. It's too beautiful here for her attention to be on anything but how green it is, and how still.
Jer says 'merp' as a fat water drop falls from a leaf and onto his head. Then, "Dear Lady and Lord it's like a cathedral in here."
"One I can go into," Sir says. Vicky isn't sure whether that means sacred ground annoys him or people get nervous when he's in churches. Either way -
Jer fidgets a bit on the path, looking down with rather wide eyes. "Vicky, I can feel the ley flow here even with my boots on. It's wicked."
"Oh, seriously?" Vicky pulls her attention from the coral-coloured wildflowers she can't identify. When she closes her eyes and lets her mind go still, she can feel it too. The pulse of the mountain. The ebb and flow of the stream of living mana. She feels light-headed - no, she feels light, as if she could just be borne away on that flow like a leaf on the current.
"It goes up the mountain," she murmurs. "The flow. We're going the right way."
"It's - calling," Jer says. "I really think..."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was," says Sir. "Other people've said they felt drawn but you guys have better ears for that kind of thing of only because you never got taught how to not listen."
"How far along are we?" asks Jer. "...I know how are-we-there-yet-dad that sounds but I'm just curious on account of because I think the calling is going to get louder and I want to be ready for that."
"We're about two-thirds of the way up," Sir replies. "It likely won't get louder per se but it might get more intense. If you start to have trouble I'll spot."
"It shouldn't come to that," says Jer. "But thank you either way."
Vicky fights down the urge to take her boots off and feel the mana flow with all of herself. "Two -thirds. All right."
The raven's still ahead of them.
4: Down
The cave's structure has a distinct downhill twist here.
"Katabasis," says Jer. "Dun-dun-dun."
Sir is waiting for them at the cave mouth; it's a dwindling speck of light behind them. Vicky's conjured the little 'night-light' spell and the little moon-replica orb of light's hovering over her palm. She and Jer have been alternating lantern duty so neither of them runs out of mana, but the ley flow here is so prominent that it restores itself almost as soon as it's used.
There's no sound here but their footsteps and their breath. The walls and floor are smooth, dark stone. Vicky recollects the cave under the cairn and shakes the mental image out of her head: this isn't the same place.
It's a similar sort of a feeling, though. The stillness. And, in a way, she supposes it's a little like going through where that Gate led. She and Jer are leaving something behind here.
"I keep feeling like I left some of me at the doorstep," Jer murmurs, echoing Vicky's sentiments.
Vicky hugs him with one arm. "I do, too. But it'll be all right."
"You think we can do this." it's not a question.
Vicky smiles at Jer. "I really do."
He smiles back. "Good. I do, I was just a little concerned on account of because sometimes your ego gets lost in your sock drawer ow."
Vicky baps him gently. "I know. I'm going to work on that."
"Figure that this'll help...?" Jer's voice hasn't risen above a near-whisper. "...I mean...for both of us, that fear. Being left. Not belonging. I wonder if this will...I know no one can eliminate that fear but me, and it's the same with you, and yes we can support each other and this isn't a magic wand...but...I wonder still if it might help us a little if only by making the path a bit more clear."
"It could," Vicky replies. "You never can tell after all." Then she stops short on the path and closes her hand over her light. "Jer, did you see - "
"If you're imagining it, so am I, and we are batty as one," Jr says.
They did see it, though. They can see it more clearly now that the other light has gone. Up ahead, a faint glow is visible. It shares the pulse of the mountain.
"Now I'm sure it's calling," Jer breathes.
Vicky only nods, then takes a deep steadying breath and starts toward it.
6: In the Dark
They're separated now, but each faces their own shadow. Everything they've been taught is important now, because they're facing everything in themselves they've ever feared. It's fortunate that they have the right mindset, but even so, it won't be easy. It never is.
Vicky's Shadow and Jeremiah's Shadow. Each is as agile and skilled as the twin who cast it. A dark mirror thrown up by the Light. This is the Ordeal of the Paladin: know thyself.
Conquer the ones within,
and you'll find...Courage...
It's somewhat startling - though Vicky and Jer are not prone to turning from the truth about themselves even when it hurts, there are dark corners of their hearts they didn't know, fragmented memories and malices that they'd forgotten until now. Resentment. Sorrow. Anger. Every wound and every scar they've borne, the resultant negative emotion is made clear by the Shadows here.
Some they knew.
Many they didn't.
It's frightening, and the Shadows whisper to them.
But the whispering from the Shadows is not like the voice that vexed Vicky's sleep to nightmare. No - these are the voices of doubt.
Greatest among these: doubting oneself.
Can we matter to others as much as they do to us? Are we really loved? Will we be left behind again? Will our nightmares start bleeding into reality and leave us unable to to a thing to staunch the flow? Can we ever be enough for everyone who needs us...? Are we really worthy? Have we got it in us to make it through
Hearing the voice aloud and outside oneself is terrifying.
But it's also oddly comforting.
Nothing is left unknown, now.
And since these are Shadows, and one can overcome them -
- Then so can the fears they whisper about be overcome.
7: Eventually
The end is abrupt. The last attack Vicky's Shadow slung at her rebounds off Vicky's warding and strikes the shadow-fae full-on. Vicky's dark echo goes sprawling - and Vicky's first impulse is to hurry over and see if her opponent is all right. Vicky KNOWS how hard she can hit, and if her Shadow hits just as hard...
She's offered a hand before she realizes she had.
Her Shadow takes her hand, and on the face of the tenebrous fae-shape is a very knowing grin.
The Shadow bows.
Vicky does likewise, and she's startled when she tears up.
"Did - I - "
Her Shadow is smiling.
Yes.
In the other room, Jer's voice is barely audible: "...Knock you on your head...you...right there...?"
Silence.
"...Oh. WELL then--"
The rest of Jer's sentence is lost in elated laughter and Vicky immediately runs in that direction. At the boundary of the room she pauses again, bowing once more to the fading Shadow.
"Thank you."
The Shadow, still smiling, closes her eyes and walks back into the Light.
Jeremiah gets a sudden armful of Vicky. He buries his face in the hood of her jacket to make his giggling less LOUD.
We did it, he says.
Vicky purrs so hard she rattles a bit. We did it.
Both have the sneaking suspicion that everyone but THEY knew they would succeed.
8: Inside Us All Along
The trip down the mountain is much faster than the trip up. Vicky and Jer are both exhausted and ecstatic, and the winding trail down is full of distratctions. Cathedral trees, the leys, the flowers, that raven - he's still there.
"Who are you anyway dammit," says Vicky.
Jer pffts. "I think that bird is nyah-nyah-ing you, Vicky..."
Sir's truck warms up fast and Vicky kind of thinks she wants to nap in the backseat on the way home, but she can't manage. She didn't feel much different at first, but now what's come to pass is starting to become clear.
It isn't that the Light somehow enters them in the Shadow's wake.
No.
What the trial does is this: it makes you very aware of the Shadow in you, and thus makes you aware of the Light in turn.
In the dark, you can see a candle for miles, and in the dark you can lose familiar constellations in a sea of stars. In the dark, the moon makes a luminous road on the water.
Turn out the lamp, and you can see the celestial river.
"I suspect we're going to get powerglomped," Jer says to Vicky. "By Aurora at LEAST.."
"Maybe." Sir has this knowing look. Vicky and Jer aren't sure what it means, but each has a few guesses.
When they get home, Aurora leads them out into the backyard, and they find out what the smile was about. Everyone is here. Everyone is proud of them.
Can we belong?
Yes.
---
"...and so I don't buy into that old idea of there being one saint up on a pedestal whom we can never equal...
...
...the energy within us is so powerful. The spirit has so much to teach us if we just learn to look inside ourselves...
...
...we were all chosen. The chosen one is all of us."
-a bird
-end-
***
That - yes.
I dunno what to say besides eeee. This made me teary to write, and happy.
The birdquote is from An Untitled Story, and the chapter titles are all taken from songs on the soundtrack. The last is somewhat truncated. Its full title is 'God Was Inside Us All Along'.
Which is what Byrd learns, and what the Ordeal teaches.
Yee.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 10:17 pm (UTC)My second reaction was "YAY GO VICKY"
I still love your settings. They are really alive and vibrant and make me feel like I'm next to the characters.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 11:29 pm (UTC)I love him. XD so do Vicky and Jer.
And I am so happy that worked. Your comments make me want to dance in joy.