capeandcowllogs | The weary world rejoices

WHO: OPEN
WHERE: The Church
WHEN: From today and onto the New Year!
WARNINGS: Kirei.....
SUMMARY: Rejoice, Cityzens! The Church is hosting an event for the holiday season: accepting donations and offering dinner for all those in need during this harsh December! Donate yourself or take part in some free food. You don't have to worship to take part, but you may get a priest breathing down your neck about that.
FORMAT: Whatever you please!

Even in this day and age, certain tired methods of communication remain. A Church flyer is a old tradition and the City has had several passed by hand, or stapled onto walls. They are all advertising open invitations not just for worship but for food on behalf of the City's generous inhabitants -- regardless of beliefs or credo. On top of that, there is a certain tagline which appeals to the City's imPorts:

Be a Hero to one less fortunate than you this holiday season.

It's a sticky, blatant piece of baiting; hamfisted and obvious. Of course, no Church has ever really excelled at subtlety. Guilt is a powerful motivator, especially this time of year. That shows in the turn out: there is quite a few natives already participating, which leads to generous spread.

The Church is welcoming all without distinction -- however, you'll only get to taste wine if you're one of the faithful.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ she prefers it-- his plain words. she finds humans so difficult to decode at times, how their actions and their words so rarely align. she despises their deception. how often had a human being hurt her because they had lied to her? it left her bitter towards them, wanting their acceptance yet distrusting their intentions.

but kirei, for all his vices, is honest with her now. that means something. there is a sentiment under their shared darkness that she values. and besides that, he fascinates her. ]

I have come to learn the many ways that one can be cruel. Some are less obvious than others. Pain can be cruel. And punishment. But love can be more cruel than both. [ she articulates her thoughts aloud before looking at him again, asking almost curiously: ] Is it not dissatisfying, to lead such a pious life when cruelty is what you desire?

Before, yes -- the way you once knew me; before I accepted my nature.

I have found ways to seek my satisfaction since.

[ Of anyone, she has likely seen the most of him out of anyone, and she has witnessed the extents of his damage. He trusts her with it, and he is learning how he was right to do so; she shows more and more to him each day, that simply proves to him how similar they are.

It is no chance meeting. There could be no coincidence that led her to the church that night. There was no one else in the City like her -- like them -- and was that why Lachesis called him here?

When she speaks of love, he pauses. He has never thought precisely in that term, although he knows how easily emotion can be twisted and abused. She says love itself is cruel, not that abuse of love is. That catches his attention. ]

You speak of the man you loved; the one who left you?

[ madison jeffries continues to occupy a place in her mind that no one else ever can. what a broken man he'd been, tormented and confused by his own desires. how earnest he'd been at times-- and cruel, yes. he had loved her and hurt her more than anyone she'd ever known. she'd watched him do the same to his lonely wife. the man was not a sadist-- but misery loves company, and misery knew madison jeffries well.

sometimes she would look at lillian crawley and wonder if she too would become like that-- angry, damaged, lost-- if she had loved madison as long as that woman had. ]

Yes. [ danger responds at length, quiet and a little distant. ] He taught me how another's love could be cruel. And how my own love could be cruel as well. Loving another being is to welcome them to hurt you. It is an agreement that you will endure the pain they will inevitably cause you.

[ He had never thought of love that way.

Perhaps he was too wrapped up in the meaning of love that is so often preached: the romance and devotion between two human beings, that he missed this. That brand of love was something he could never feel, ever emulate, no matter how hard he tried or how understanding his wife was.

But by Danger's words, he was wrong: if love can also be cruelty... if love is cruelty, perhaps it is within his grasp.

He smiles again, wider now, and he squeezes Danger's hand. ]

You continue to teach me more and more, Danger.

[ the way his grip tightened briefly on her hand called her attention again, drawing those white eyes towards him. it's meaningful, what he says to her-- the idea that he is willing to learn from her. so often, what she is seems to only be met with fear and resistance.

but this is different. kirei is different. that has become an obvious and oddly comforting truth. ]

And I am learning from you.

[ she pauses a moment, before asking: ]

Has love never been cruel to you? Your wife seems to have been a gentle woman.

[ It's odd to him, to speak about his wife. There was no one left to remind him of her, with his father dead and their daughter very far away. Claudia seems far away from him, her face blurry and her voice unfamiliar. ]

She was saintly.

[ He considers for a moment, looking at their joined hands. ]

Any cruelty in our marriage was of my own creation. I berated myself for my own failings. It was never her; it was never love.

[ she can't help a small swell of something like resentment-- more directed at figures from her past than anything in the moment. love unrequited is cruel in its own way. she has seen it, felt it.

it makes her dwell on the faceless image of the one called claudia, and her voice is a little distant when she responds at length: ]

I find that women often love men that do not love them in return. I cannot account for the logic behind it. I can only continue to equate love and pain.

[ Kirei wonders what Claudia found in him worth loving. She did not lie to herself about what he was, she acknowledged all his darkness; somehow, she just expected him to strive above it... and she had been wrong. ]

Would you attempt to love again, Danger? Or does the promise of pain dissuade you?

I am not dissuaded by pain.

[ she responds with a quiet sort of certainty, her eye contact steady when she looks at him. ]

But I cannot promise that I will not give as much as I take. My love is as cruel as anyone else's. I am like humans, in that sense.

Neither am I.

[ He is a man who chose pain, abuse of his own body, in search for penance and some sort of answer to his plight; he does not flinch from threats of pain.

Danger's reply does not surprise him and he nods his head. ]

Thank you, Danger, for enlightening me.

The weary world rejoices

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject