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[tragic_mask]

Arriving at the Visitor's Center, Melpomene takes a look around.

"Well, this is it. In all its touristic glory. "

Comments

[mechanicalswans]

"It wouldn't be in Minnesota," he says. "I don't know if it would be in my old homeland. But... it would be worth a look, possibly."

He chuckles quietly, humorlessly. "I've spent this long on a quest for something that cannot be found--what's another?"

[tragic_mask]

"Yes, you're certainly quite..."

She passes over the word obsessive, goes with: "driven. You don't think the sword can be found? I suppose you're the one who would know."

[mechanicalswans]

"It would have to be easier to find, so that means it would be possible. I may as well, I suppose."

[tragic_mask]

"You have the time," she says wryly. "I could look with you. Though I'd just have the same ideas of where to look, since all I'd know about the sword is from your mind."

[mechanicalswans]

"You'd have a perspective on it that I wouldn't," he says, "being so close to the situation. Would you want to look with me, though?"

[tragic_mask]

"Yes," she says simply, "I would."

[mechanicalswans]

He watches her expression curiously for a moment, before he pulls her closer again as they walk along.

"Then I should be honored to have you along."

[tragic_mask]

The expression is essentially unreadable-- well, it's Melpomene, so you can't expect otherwise.

"Good," she murmurs. "I feel we're setting out on quite a heroic quest."

[mechanicalswans]

"It will be exciting," he says softly. "Probably dangerous, but... what worth having came without risk?"

[tragic_mask]

"Wise words," she says, with a small smile.

[mechanicalswans]

"It couldn't kill me, that I know for certain," he says. "How certain are you, if it turns out that someone is strong enough to wield it?"

[tragic_mask]

"I don't know its full strength," she says, steely. "But I do know that I, and my kind, have survived death blows. We have survived with livers and bones and hearts torn from our bodies. Still," she adds, "I could be underestimating the power of the sword."

[mechanicalswans]

"I have never seen it used against a god from another world, a properly immortal one," he says, "and I hope never to see it used that way. But not knowing where it is now... there is always the risk."

[tragic_mask]

"Still, as you said, nothing worth having comes without risk," she says, almost too brightly.

[mechanicalswans]

"What would you be getting from it, though?" he asks softly. "Not the weapon, surely."

[tragic_mask]

"A chance to see new places, meet new people," she says, on guard again. "I've been in New York for quite a long time. Probably too long."

[mechanicalswans]

"And I am tired of Minnesota."

He may take trips to other places, but they are still just side trips. He always goes home again.

[tragic_mask]

"So, that's a perfect reason," she says with a smile. "Things need to be shaken up, sometimes. And a quest for a sword is a good a reason as any."

[mechanicalswans]

"It will be epic," he says, "and hopefully--meaning no offense, of course--not too much of a tragedy."

[tragic_mask]

She shoots him a look.

"Yes, hopefully not."

[mechanicalswans]

"We'll just have to go home again before it can become one," he says. "Any story is, if you follow it long enough. Or, on the other hand... we can have it be one, but not for us."

[tragic_mask]

"I don't think that's necessary," she says. "But you're right. Give it time, and every story is a tragedy. That's why fairy tales end with 'happily ever after,' because they don't want to follow the story that far."

[mechanicalswans]

"So the muse and the smith go on their quest to find the sword of legend, and then... they find it, and return home," he says with a small smile. "It sounds wonderful."

[tragic_mask]

"You make it sound like the back cover of one of those fantasy novels with girls in bikini armor on the front," she grumbles. "I'm hoping it doesn't turn out like that."

[mechanicalswans]

"Though I could make you something like that if you really wanted to--I do those commissions now and then, you know--no, that will not be our idiom."