29th step: Touching spring

[favorthebold]

[It's a rainy day at Adstringendum, but as the feed clicks on, the heavy fog that has been shrouding the Northwestern riverside appears to have lifted. Saul is just outside his house, kneeling at his Mehregan altar. Though both it and his outfit are far less fancy and decorated than last year, he is just as intent on his prayer, perhaps even more.

It's clear - and not just to the discerning onlooker - that he still is not properly recovered from his run-in with the Kyuubi - still bandaged in places, still stiff and even a little shaky. Not an unexpected fate for someone who heals at a normal human rate and hasn't sought the help of any healer. His hair hasn't been cut in a while and the rain turns it into a damp mane, more brown than golden, falling over his face.

As he finishes his prayer, though, and softly sings his holiday song, there's a subtle change in the weather: a parting of the clouds, and the view is briefly washed in shimmering sunlight. Sail opens one eye, then the other, and smiles. More likely it's just good luck, rather than divine providence; but Saul is a great believer in luck.]

Comments

[assuming video]

[saintedsinner]

... You planning on pneumonia on top of all that?

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

For a small boy, you're really quite determined to be someone's mother.

[video]

[saintedsinner]

I'M NOT SMALL!

And for some bad guy, you're really hell bent on offing yourself.

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

I will not die so easily.

[video]

[saintedsinner]

So you just enjoy tempting fate?

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

More than anything.

[video]

[saintedsinner]

'Spose that's as decent an answer than anything else around here.

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Now, you won't tell me that you don't enjoy the same.

[video]

[saintedsinner]

I prefer my self loathing to not involve threatening my mortality.

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Self-loathing is wretched business for wretched men.

[video]

[saintedsinner]

But it fills up the time, hmm? -=completely ignoring the insinuation=-

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Some have better uses for their time.

[Video]

[2ndlt-jeanhavoc.livejournal.com]

[Yeaahhh he's never been one for religion and tries not to think about it after all the atrocity in his home world (to a culture that revolved around it) by his people. But that's a really relaxing sight to have seen on the PCD, more so than he would have thought.]

Looks like y'may have had your prayers answered.

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[Their experience with religion probably has more in common than Jean suspects, but Saul loves his god too well to care what people do in his name.]

This too is fortune's favor.

[Video]

[2ndlt-jeanhavoc.livejournal.com]

[Ahuh that totally went over his head, fortune what now? Okay he knows the word fortune in that part, but a favour to fortune? Never heard of it.]

Ah yeah? Well.. can use all th'fortune we can get our hands on here in Adstring, that's for sure.

Re: [Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[All things considered it's probably better that way. Saul grins slightly.]

We need it wherever we are, dome.

[Video]

[2ndlt-jeanhavoc.livejournal.com]

[..And another pause. What the living hell was dome? Yet another language he probably didn't get or something. Do what your momma taught you Jeanie. Smile and nod, but do so politely.]

Y'got that right, can't ever have too much good luck around a place like this one. If ya don't mind my askin' ..which's your deity?

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[He looks mildly surprised at the question, or rather at being asked at all. Chit-chat or honest curiosity? Well, no harm in either.]

I revere Mithra, the Unconquered Sun. He exists in more worlds than my own, or so I've been told.

[Voice]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

[Her tone is civil at best, but it's not outright angry.]

And this is called?

[Voice]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[A tense pause before he answers, she's lucky it's a good day.]

This is Mehregan, the spring festival.

[Voice]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

And spring is connected to sunlight? Or is it simply a response to the weather itself?

[Her normal curiosity sounds a bit flat.]

[Voice]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

If winter is the death of the sun, then spring is its revival. I have sacrificed to the Risen Son; now I celebrate his return.

[Voice]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

[There is a very long pause. Carmen's voice isn't as detached when she speaks again.]

How does the song translate?

[Voice]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[The pause doesn't go unnoticed. He keeps his own voice flat. Even speaking of nothing much isn't necessarily easy.]

It is only a folk song. Nothing holy about it.

[Voice]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

So you would have me believe there is no reason for your choice of song? That it is simply a song, no meaning attached?

[Voice]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

...

[And amazingly enough, he does sing. He's neither particularly good nor gratingly bad, but there's feeling in it.]

Oh soon shall I see them;
Oh see them oh see them.
Soon shall I see them the
mist covered mountains of home.

There shall I visit the place of my birth
And they'll give me a welcome the warmest on earth
All so loving and kind full of music and mirth,
In the sweet sounding language of home.



((OOC: Yes an actual folk song, no not actually Italian, alas.))

[Voice]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

...I see. Very... wistful.

[Voice]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

You have asked and I have answered.

[bunny_flower]

Are you quite sure you do not want any help with your injuries, Saul-san ?

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

We have run this round before, haven't we, doma?

[bunny_flower]

Does that somehow prevent me from offering again ?

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Evidently not. You do not fear that I will turn on you again?

[bunny_flower]

I know that it could happen again, Saul-san, but I do not fear it.

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

I will do it, you know. Sooner or later. I know that you are not a goddess. Your kind can hurt and sicken, and surely they can die.

[bunny_flower]

Of course we can. But it will take a whole lot more than what you threw at me before, Saul-san.

And I admit that I was careless last time. I should have expected it.

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

As was I, doma. We live and learn.

[bunny_flower]

That we do, Saul-san.

[Video]

[dreams-are-mine.livejournal.com]

What are you celebrating?

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Mehregan. The vernal equinox.

[Video]

[dreams-are-mine.livejournal.com]

A custom, in your world?

Re: [Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

A world is a big place, domeina. It is a holy day of my faith, in those lands where it is practiced.

[Video]

[dreams-are-mine.livejournal.com]

Most faiths in my world have a festival around this time, whatever they claim to celebrate.

But will your god notice you observing your holy day in a place like this?

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

As in mine. Spring comes everywhere.

Hah. He is a god, you know.

[Video]

[dreams-are-mine.livejournal.com]

You're very faithful?

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

I do my best to be. This is the faith of my homeland, and the men of Ilyiga keep true.