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Post by missemj88 on Mar 10, 2013 22:48:02 GMT -5
"Be happy for your sister, Phoebus. Love is a mystery. We embrace it where we can. Mostly we do not choose who we love. It just happens. A voice speaks to us, in a way the ear cannot hear. We recognise a beauty that the eye does not see. We experience a change in out hearts that no voice can describe. There is no evil in love." Swinging her head she gazed at the river. "I have always loved the sea - especially at the Bay of Herakles." From the high, cliff top gardens she was able to look down on the Great Green, and merely by turning her head to the right cast her gaze across the shining river to the high golden walls of her fathers kingdom in the distance. "When I was young my nursemaid killed herself," the girl said suddenly. "The stupid woman told me she was the goddess Aphrodite, and that she was going to fly back to Olympus. Then she leapt from the cliff. I saw her and tried to follow, but my brother grabbed me. I refused to believe she was insane. So he took me to the body, and I saw the ruins of her beauty, broken bones jutting from her flesh." She turned her back to him and began tracing pictures in the sand with the tip of her forefinger. "In what way are you abnormal?" she asked, referring to his earlier comment.
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Post by UltraJKatt on Mar 11, 2013 19:58:55 GMT -5
Phoebus gave a half-smile. "That is an ideal way to look at it, but it wasn't quite so poetic. Rose sought love out. She admired the fairytales and sweet promises of romance. When you look for love, you don't find it. It just happens, as you said. That is why her elopement was such a scandal. She left with a man who no one knew. She left with an idea ... an infatuation." He shrugged his shoulders. "But despite her feminity, she was a strong girl. Someone you would never want to cross. I think she could have given my colonel a good run for his money in the intimidation department." Phoebus couldn't help but be amused by how easily Ai could shift from one topic of conversation to another. He listened to her speak of an insane nursemaid, but when she said her brother showed her the body, Phoebus frowned. "He showed you?" That was a scarring image for a child, seeing ripped bone and skin, rivers of crimson trickling from the cracks. He shook his head wearily and looked to her in surprise at her question. "Oh ... well, what I was speaking of earlier is I sort of broke out of my mould. I was one of those naive young men who thirsted for excitement and saw the military as a means of patriotism and adventure. So many men actually believe that nonsense, and the military does its best to keep that image up. Damn propoganda. So like many other men, I was taken in for my personality and then hardened up into a soldier. A man who was only useful for following orders." He chuckled, but it was a dry, humourless sound. "I'm abnormal, because for whatever reason, something clicked inside me that had never clicked in me before. I became more aware of things. It was like I was snapped out of a trance. I was ordered to kill a family for alleged treason against the government. There are two types of fear. The fear of the guilty and the fear of the innocent. This was the fear of the innocent, but the minister could not see it. I had killed in the past, I had followed orders all the time, but this was one I did not execute." Phoebus closed his eyes. "That is why I am abnormal. I don't fit in anywhere. Once you break from the mould, you are permanently out of the mould. The black sheep. The treacherous soldier."
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Post by missemj88 on Mar 12, 2013 7:02:11 GMT -5
As she drew in the sand she listened quietly until his story was complete. Then she said, "Do you know the story of Osiris and Set? They are Egyptian gods at war with one another." The girl said, with absolutely no expression in her voice. "Osiris is the hero god, the Lord of Light. Set is his brother, a creature vile and depraved. They are in a constant war to the death. A priestess if Egypt once told me of them when I was young. She said that we carry Osiris and Set struggling within us. All of us are capable of great compassion and love, or hatred and horror. Sadly we can take joy from both." She looked over her shoulder, and raised her big red eyes to his honestly. For a moment there was silence between them. Then she turned away and continued on with her drawing. "The priestess would say that when you killed those families Set was dominant in your soul. It is Osiris who feels the shame. That is why you refused to execute that innocent family, Phoebus. Such power would have brought Set closer to total control. And you feared the man you would become if ever the Osiris in you was slain." She patted her hands on her thighs ridding herself of sand, and stood her back to the soldier admiring her work. In the sand she had drawn herself. Her young body broken, her dead eyes staring up at her, seeing nothing. It was the look her nursemaid had worn after throwing herself over the edge of the the rock-face; her neck broken, and spine in two places. Her ribs pierced a lung in the fall. Her arms bent at wrong angles, dislocated; her leg ripped from the torso, and entrails spilled from the open stomach cavity. "I look pretty," she decided. The girl's tone was light, almost disinterested. She ran her hands through her thick, dark hair, contemplatively. "I need to walk," she said, swinging back to face Phoebus. She leaned in close, her fingers lightly brushed the blond hair back from his brow "You should rest," she told him. Then left him alone and walked along the shore, holding a conversation with herself.
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Post by UltraJKatt on Mar 12, 2013 16:31:45 GMT -5
Phoebus mentally took in Ai's explanation of Set and Osiris and translated it to a simple "good side versus evil side" idea. Phoebus was perfectly aware of his darker side. It had started off as a seed in childhood and then his resentment of his aristocratic family and noble status helped it blossom. It led to him joining the military and it shot into a downward spiral from there. The bitter feelings flooded out of him like a fallen pot of hot water. He knew for a fact that the so-called Set side of himself was definitely more dominant than Osiris. Irritation was common for him, and when most were happy, he was content. When Ai commented on the drawing of herself being pretty, Phoebus glanced over and then grimaced in disgust. Silent horror washed over him. She looked pretty when she was dead? What was wrong with this girl? She was tightrope walking on the line between genius and insane. It was a thin line that constantly wobbled. One moment she was astoundingly brilliant for the hormonal mush that preteens usually were, and the next moment she was drawing gruesome pictures of herself. She brushed his hair away, and he looked at her cautiously. "Perhaps," he frowned in response to her words. That seemed like something his bossy sister would have said. Ai went off to walk on her own, and Phoebus was tempted for a moment to follow her. He decided that, like his sister, she could take care of herself. Ai was grounded even though she was flightly, and those captivating red eyes, while lonely, suggested a natural aura of independence. Phoebus wondered how assertive she could have been with the proper training. If he had trained her how to fight, how strong would that aura become? He shook the thoughts off, deeming them silly ideas, and then stood up to leave. Before he went, he walked over to her drawing in the sand and brushed it with his foot until it was gone. He liked Ai better when she was alive.
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