(no subject)

[tragic_mask]

Melpomene slept deeply without dreaming, and only woke up when the light between the curtains fell across her eyes.

It was a nice way to wake up. So now, as she opens her eyes, she stirs only slightly, and then settles back into a comfortable position.

Comments

[mechanicalswans]

"Picking up old fights right where they left off?" he asks. "Do the rest of them still talk to each other, or have they all decided to go their separate ways?"

[tragic_mask]

"Oh, I don't really know," she says, with a too-casual shrug.

[mechanicalswans]

"You know that if anyone ever bothers you, you only need to say the word and I will take care of it for you," he murmurs, only partly joking. "Family included."

[tragic_mask]

"It's okay," she says. "They've just erased me from their lives. And I prefer it that way."

[mechanicalswans]

"Well, at least we are in similar boats, if not the same one," he says. "No family. Except, in my case, for the occasional descendant."

[tragic_mask]

"Yes, well. If you count those, I also have family." She smiles, wryly.

[mechanicalswans]

"One or another of them will show up every few years to make life more interesting. But they're like strangers; they're not the same as real, close family."

[tragic_mask]

"Sounds about right."

[mechanicalswans]

"Do you ever wonder what would've happened, if things had turned out differently?" he asks. "Anything, any small decision you made a long time ago that played out in ways not entirely to your liking."

[tragic_mask]

"Sometimes," she says, slowly. "But... I try not to."

[mechanicalswans]

"Because it can't be changed?" he asks, idly stirring his coffee.

"I'm building a time machine, you know."

[tragic_mask]

"Really?" she says, managing to raise her eyebrow only a little. "That sounds exciting."

[mechanicalswans]

"It is," he agrees. "The best thing about the bar--aside from meeting such charming troublemakers as yourself--is access to supplies that I wouldn't be able to find or make for myself back home. Supplies which will make it possible."

[tragic_mask]

"What sort of supplies are those?"

[mechanicalswans]

"Souls from purgatory," he says quietly, after a quick and nervous glance around. "Specifically, the souls of the innocent who were killed very young by the wickedness of the world. They are pure potential--and the belief system of my world does not allow for that, so I could never have gotten them there."

[tragic_mask]

She tilts her head.

"Wow. That's... something."

[mechanicalswans]

"Do you disapprove?" he asks. "I didn't kill them, and they were forgotten by the world, even by the ones who should have loved them; but in my work, they are cherished. There's a strange beauty in it."

[tragic_mask]

"I just... find it strange. Unexpected."

She picks at the remainder of her bacon.

[mechanicalswans]

"I've had to justify it to other people," he says, "and I prefer it when I don't have to. It wouldn't be everyone's ideal line of study, but I enjoy it."

[tragic_mask]

"Well, I'd like to understand it more... it sounds quite poetic."

[mechanicalswans]

"Would you like me to teach you what I know?" he asks. "Not all of it, of course, but you could join me in the forge, watch me work, learn the basics..."

[tragic_mask]

"I'd love to, actually," she says.

[mechanicalswans]

"I don't usually let people watch me, besides customers--and not often then," he says. "But I would make an exception for you."

[tragic_mask]

"Well, I'm honored. I promise to be a good student."

[mechanicalswans]

"Do you... do other kinds of crafting?" he asks. "Make anything with your hands? You wouldn't just need to do metalwork, to be a student of mine."