Ch: 175 Space Cowboy
In a lovely hot spring pool, surrounded by a private garden, verdant foliage and a stand of whispering bamboo, a wide variety of entities were having a soak and listening to old Amicus Fawn maunder over the days of his youth.
“We became close friends… And remained close until Zygno’s passing, midsummer last.” He sighed long and slow, but not unhappily. “Over our long lives we learnt many things and shared nearly everything with each other. That is why young Gary’s instructions from Zygnos led him more or less directly to me…”
He paused, looking uncomfortable. “Zygnos was aware of the indenture system, but I don’t think he ever considered that a child might be drawn through into this world. Certainly not one as troubled and damaged as Gary…” The geezer complained.
“Clearly this was an oversight on his part, since this plot was hidden entirely from me. He no doubt considered that a rare prank.” Amicus looked a little hurt at that but carried on.
“I knew he believed he had found some forbidden secret… supposedly ‘hidden in plain sight’, though he would never even hint at what it could be.”
There was a bit of unsettled sloshing around the pool, until Amicus went on with his tale.
“Zygnos and I studied and lived together for years, furthering each other’s work in competition and cooperation… His focus was the etheric veil and the void beyond, he had a deep fascination for the creatures that dwell there.” Amicus shuddered a little. “Not demons, thankfully, our friendship could not have survived such.”
“Ah, the pantheon, as well as the gods and spirits of nearby realms and realities…” Axio muttered. “Not all who walk the void are unwholesome or malign. A few are charmingly benevolent.”
Maple hummed softly in agreement. “We, the dryads are much like outsiders… native to this world and so many others as well. I touch a number of nearby realms with my root system.”
Amicus became even more excited and scooted closer to the small woman. “The fae and their mysteries are a particular field of interest for this poor old mage, my dear… Perhaps you and I could have a long talk about matters, while these two beings converse. My story is a tale of old men and can await another day.” The kids moaned in disappointment and promised to remind the mage to finish his remembrance later.
Once he and Maple had dressed and gone off to the taproom, Amy huffed. “Old man stories are so boring.” She announced; Rio and Wilf nodded in affirmation.
“Kids, where'er Gary and Shai?” Becky asked as she ushered them to the side and into their PJs for bed.
“In the workshop, getting down.” Rio said, once he got his shirt on.
#
“It’s time to really get you started on modern jazz… Remember that other cartoon I made you and Becky watch? The one with the cute little dog you liked so much?” Gary asked with a sly grin. “Cowboy Bebop has the best soundtrack in anime, no contest.”
I think it's time we blow this scene
Get everybody and the stuff together,
Okay, three, two, one, let's jam!
The pulsing beats were somehow erratic, chaotic and erotic, while keeping to a distinct, if wandering set of time signatures. Just so, Gary’s guitar wandered the sonic landscape like an excited child at a sweets festival. Three shadow drummers sat around the dance floor, hurling themselves at their brightly painted instruments with ghostly fervor.
Shai’s violin chased her boy and his mad drummers through the shifting musical storm, always following his lead; even when she saw his intent and leapt there ahead of him. ‘Tank!’ pushed her to her limits, in both speed and percussive furiosity, demanding no less from the boy and his cadre of shadows..
Becky came downstairs, once the little ones were in bed, to check on her wayward kin. Even through his soundproofing witchcraft, enough music came through to warn her what she was in for. When she turned the landing the music blew her robe around, not with volume but with an irresistible urge to spin leap and twirl that felt like a cool wind up her skirts.
“Hey, Shai, Gary…” She waited, the music wasn’t too loud, just percussive and wild, they should have heard her… no response.
She peered closely at Shai’s face and saw a look of utter focus and concentration in her eyes. Gary had the vacant, doofy expression that said he was running dry and getting stupid. “Hey! Guys!” She bellowed, to no avail. “Gods above and below…” Becky took up her harp and joined the musical soup, tugging here and there in the tapestry of sound, calling for a solo. They obliged and made space for her, so she toasted the bridge.
Hey you goons, bedtime, before you swoon,
You got three kids and work in the morning.
Get your asses to bed, you’ll feel half dead!
“Awww, we were in a serious groove…” He complained, through slack lips and half lidded eyes.
“Ye hae nae even been smoking…” Shai muttered, as she slowed her dance and stooped to begin slapping his cheeks gently. “He hae been working hard on his insides…” She hauled him up to bed and tucked them both in under Becky’s supervision.
“You two stay in bed. If I catch you up before dawn I’m gonna…” She wracked her brain for the proper threat and came up empty. “I’ll think of something awful later.” She bustled about tucking the sleepy pair in, then kissing each on the forehead with a smile of gentle concern.
“Off to sleep, see you soon.”
#
Gary and Shai went down into the main room and found a chaotic scene. Confetti in huge drifts clogged the floor, a partially consumed cake and several trays of lightly mauled cupcakes were scattered on tables all around. A terrifying display of brightly colored streamers and balloons dangled from the ceiling, slowly dissolving away.
It was all gradually vanishing from his home, as his will reasserted itself. “That shouldn’t have been possible…” He muttered softly. “It felt like some irresistible outside force reached through my Contract with Joy and made this party happen…”
“Are ye well? Be there summat creepin inside?” Shai asked in alarm.
“Noo… I think I opened the door and some friends are making themselves at home. Let’s go out in the garden and say hi.”
Marduk and Eponna were in the pool together chatting it up, surrounded by her herd. A small number of bright colored ponies with adorable icons stamped on their butts clustered around their deity, basking in her aura. Some had wings or horns, at least one had both and one was simply a bright colored magical pony with flowing gossamer starlight for hair.
“Oh! Marvelous!” Marduk chimed, as they emerged from the house, looking around at the herd grazing in the garden or bathing. “Eponna, these are our hosts, Gary and Shai… Mortals if you believe it!” He turned back to the pair. “I sent the children off to normal sleep, I thought you and Becky should meet her first… And the herd.”
“The herd is a surprise, but a welcome one. They feel nice… I see where Annie gets her class and elegance.” Gary said with a sigh. “Welcome to our little corner of beyond…” He slipped an arm around Shai, who was staring in shock at the beautiful goddess dressed in a shimmering starfield of her own hair.
“Hello, yerbeautifulness…” Shai gasped, trying to bow, curtsey and genuflect at the same time.
“Girls and horses…” Gary complained happily.
It was going to take Shai a few minutes to get herself back together, so Gary took her on a stroll in the garden, among the frolicking ponies.
They wandered out to the edge of his tanglewoods and around past Bridgid’s forge. Morrigan’s temple stood low on the horizon, the shattered dome of a ruined cathedral still lingering on his outskirts. It felt patient and brooding, as opposed to the fiery warmth of Bridgid’s domain.
The standing stones hove into view, in the broad plain of grasses and wildflowers. A mature forest spread out beyond, whispering and rustling softly in excitement.
“Wait, boy, where be that river of tar an the flip, turnt upsy downsies feelin?” Shai asked, more lucid now that they were out of her horsieness’ range.
“Ah, you finally noticed… we’ve gone globe, baby! No more flat earth floating island for us… the tension between my parts was keeping me from taking the proper shape. Being a sphere is the natural state of matter in my world, so here that’s the natural shape of me. Thirp can explain it better than me, but now, I’m a small planet… I feel like the little prince. I’d better not be a dick to Maple, Becky will be pissed. Now I wanna meet Baobab the dryad.”
Shai completely failed to grasp anything he was saying and that warmed her heart and took her breath away.
“Because I’m a sphere now, my living Animus surrounds the place and makes it much more resilient. I can let entities enter and move more freely now… Morrigan has been flying around, spying for some of the gods for a few days now, cloaked in part of my shadow.”
“Fie, is that what she were on about?” Shai muttered grimly.
“My Contract with Morrigan is different from a divine Contract. We both agreed that our deal would be limited in scope and duration, but there’s two things I forgot… First, there’s three of her and I only Contracted with one. Second, there’s three of me and those two made their own deals.”
Shai paled a little but kept listening. “Fortunately, they are both still me, so they didn’t do anything too stupid.” He grinned at her in that way and she melted a little.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Asshole me, Gray, wanted the power to manipulate and drain life force from the living. He wanted to make me slowly turn into some kind of parasitic vampire, with the full undead deal. Not happening” He seemed confident so she let him keep going.
“I did a little direct cultivation and shoved that back into the closet. Now it’s going to become a mana and stamina sharing effect, once I figure out how to make it work. That guy is going nowhere.” He grinned wolfishly back over at the rough slab box among the standing stones.
“Angry me, Ragy, he wants to die. Morrigan granted his wish and gave me the power to make mortality sticky. You can’t wield that power without being mortal, it’s the rules.”
Shai stared blankly for a moment. “Be that why Skrigg did shoot thee wi a crossbow, rather than blasting ye wi some arcane might? I hae seen yer legends of hurling fireballs an lightnings at foes. Surely Skrigg hae such arts.”
“Exactly. No Outsider can wield any magic, but that of this world. He could have blasted me with something, if he’d learned how in this world. His otherworld stuff wouldn’t function in this magical ecology.” He nodded and grinned at his beloved.
“Just so, the power of mortality belongs only to mortals and can only be granted to those touched by death. She granted their wishes… without fucking me over, I gotta appreciate that.” He looked a little thoughtful… not too much, just a little.
“I don’t vibe with Morrie, much… and the part of me that does get her, is super pissed off that she won’t take him yet. I gotta admit, she’s been straight with me, aside from that whole molesting me thing… I don’t remember any of it, but the looks Ducky and Thirp kept giving me said it was pretty inappropriate.”
They strolled, hand in hand through the garden and found Becky hanging out on a lounge near the pool. “No more islands… It’s weird. The kids and I have our little gardens over by the orchards and the lake, but it’s all kinda just one place now.”
“Yeah, how’s Maple? I didn’t think to check on her.” He asked, pulling up a couch from nowhere and sitting in it with Shai curled close.
“She’s in the dryad forest, she moved in there while I was awake. I guess they can move here, but only if nobody is watching.” Becky whispered. There’s so many growing there, it’s a little scary.”
“We aren’t rooted here, sweet Becky. We are simply tangling our limbs and roots through and around him…” Plumeria said, as she stepped from the shrubbery in her insect form. “That makes it sound worse I suppose…”
“This place is a metaphor, a grand illusion created by your collective Minds and Wills, in order to protect your minds from the nature of things…” Marduk said in a lecturing tone. “Imagine that… Bear with me on this, it will be a struggle.” He smiled fondly at the young mortals.
“Imagine that you are a group of naughty children, peeping through a hole in the fence and through a hedge at the baths… Attempting to see what you should not… This construct is here to protect you all from the essence of the void and its effect on mortal minds.”
The goddess of horsies gave a soft whinnying laugh. “So clever, you naughty boy!”
Marduk eased himself closer to Eponna and smiled at her indulgently. “Previously, Gary’s mind and soul saw this as a small piece of himself, sticking out into the void… so he formed an island fortress of whimsey to protect himself.” Marduk waved his arms to encompass the small planet drifting through the eternal everything.
“Now he has come to understand that it is quite the opposite. He is a native of this place and is slowly pulling himself back together… it’s astounding really…”
“You said he’s a ‘native of this place’ Ducky, what do you mean by that?” Angie asked, slipping into the sofa beside Shai.
“Just what I said, this is the place where he belongs, now. All mortal souls pass through the veil and enter the void when the mortal body dies, this is the nature and purpose of mortals, in the grand workings of the multiverse. You are the blood in the ether’s veins, as it were. Vast, cosmic entities like the Devourer and a few others are the organs in this terrible metaphor, while the etheric veil is the ether’s ‘skin’...” He fell silent for a moment.
“There really isn’t an analogy for the process that is adequate. You simply aren’t equipped to understand, by your mortal nature. Let’s just say that this little ‘planet’ is Gary’s personal universe now, though it’s more like a screen porch added on to your existing universe…” Marduk stopped himself mid architectural simile.
"I'm doing it again… terrible analogies are habit forming.”
“If I may, my friend…” Thirp interrupted gently. “The crux of the matter is this. Now, in a stable and much more resilient form, you will find that entering this place is much easier. Hostile and unknown entities will be unable to ‘sneak in’, because there are no more entry points standing open. Gary’s Animus and Will are encapsulating this ‘space’ and making it a part of your collective realm.” She bobbed and pivoted in pleasure, as she addressed the group.
“Now it is time for you all to go off to natural sleep, we have work to do while you are elsewhere.” With a wave, she brushed them all away and back into their beds.
“This is an encouraging development, he’s no longer eroding away… but how? This should not be, yet here we are.”
“Yes, here we are.” Eponna said with a stamp of her foot on the lawn. “It seems solid enough. Why are you fretting? Mortals are… mortal. They grow, reproduce and do odd things. This is odder than most, but in a few fleeting moments as we reckon them, it will be gone.”
“True enough, lady Eponna.” Plumeria said softly. “He has pulled so many of us into his circle, yet we must remember that he is not one of us.”
“I can solve that problem…” Gray appeared in a darkling shimmer, speaking even as he formed. “I can be eternal… if you help me take over.” He whispered to the gathered deities.
“Yes, yes, you are very spooky and ominous.” Eponna nickered at the fellow. “Now toddle along, child. No one will help you make him a crypt thing or whatever wretched form you have in mind. I do approve of the costume, however. Sequined shorts and white platform boots are a bold look.”
The being looked down at his rave festival attire and groaned. With a visible force of will, he replaced his dark, fitted suit and ribbon tie. “That guy, is fucking clownshoes.” Gray complained to the deities. “He’s doomed to flame out before long, I will be there, waiting. Then we’ll see who’s in the driver’s seat.”
“Gary never learned to drive…” Thirp replied helpfully. “Perhaps say instead, ‘Then we’ll see who’s in the saddle’.”
“Dammit, you’re a giant spider, you don’t get to bust my chops!” He grumbled at the arachnid.
“Oh, well I shouldn’t point out that you look good in rainbow snakeskin bootyshorts, in that case.” She replied calmly, while admiring his new look. He was wearing a loose crop top that read ‘I’m With The Band’ and very skimpy, low rise shorts of rainbow patterned serpent skin, cheeky and iridescent in the moonlight.
He vanished into a swarming cloud of unguessable somethings and evaporated with a sigh.
#
Tawny finally crawled into her soft, lace draped bed in her chambers. A moment later the connecting door to Liam’s small cell opened and he slipped under the covers beside her with an exhausted sigh.
“Long day.” He whispered in her ear, so softly that she felt his breath, more than heard the words. Tawny didn’t reply, she just curled up in his arms and fell asleep, lost in his scent and warmth.
The young lovers ran barefoot through the whispering woods, chasing and being chased by the small, colorful ponies that wandered there. The scampered into the meadow, laughing and running alongside the diminutive creatures around and among the standing stones and wildflowers.
They collapsed onto the turf and watched the vast sky of bubbles and ribbons form constellations and disperse in a mysterious display of… something.
“We keep dreaming of this place…” Tawny whispered, speaking here for the first time.
“Oh! You can speak! I’d begun to wonder!” A blue pony with feathered wings and a single horn said with a whinny of delight. “I’m Evening Twinkle… for copyright purposes…” She paused for a moment and shook out her mane. “I don’t know why I said that… Anyway! Hello humans! Welcome to Eponna’s herd!”
Her cheerful voice and small stature made a blue talking horse easier to deal with somehow. It was only a dream in any case.
“Oh, you are so charming!” Tawny cooed and chirped while Liam rolled his eyes behind her.
“Girls and ponies…” He grumbled gently. “We’re dreaming, love, please don’t talk to the blue horsie.”
“Dreaming, yes, but not simply dreaming.” Twinkle replied, shooting him a slightly dirty look. “Lady Eponna has business elsewhere at the moment, she asked me to watch over you.”
“Watch over us?” Liam asked with a smile. “Is there some danger you are protecting us from?”
“No, I’m supposed to keep you from ‘freaking out’ when you realize where you are. Though, I must confess, I’d like to see what that looks like.” She answered with a sassy toss of her mane that made Liam admit, she was adorable.
“Where are we then? You should tell us in that case…” Tawny said with a smile at the creature.
“Let me explain.” A familiar voice said from behind them.
“Maple?” The pair asked in harmony, while turning around. Here, Maple was a stick insect of human proportions, standing taller than either of the two and towering over Twinkle.
“Yes, children I am here, or rather we are here together. Come, walk with me. Miss Twinkle, you may accompany or not, as you wish.” She began a smooth, gliding stride in the direction of the standing stones. “In this place little is as it seems and those things that are, turn out to be allegory and metaphor.”
She waved her thin forelimb at the whispering forest in the distance. “That is not a forest, it is an invitation, unconscious and instinctive, but no less a welcome mat, rolled out for my kind.” She took double steps, tapping the ground with each leg once before stepping onto it, the gesture came across as amused, insectile laughter.
“Maple, are we in some part of the land of dreams?” Tawny asked as the standing stones loomed larger, glinting and shining in the moonlight.
“Very good, you begin to see, now you will see more.” Maple said, as they crossed the circle of stones, a tall thin man in black rose ominously from a stone slab box in the center of the ring…
“Gary?” Liam asked, looking at the man who was NOT Gary. “Who is this, Maple?”
“I am Gary!” He roared and raged in a way their friend never would or could.
“No, you aren’t… and why are your clothes changing?” Liam asked in irritation. “Do you know this moron?” He asked Twinkle.
“Oh, that’s Gray. This is the broody, moody, sullen part, whom he hides so carefully, this is his taint of undeath.” Tawny said smoothly, while fixing the being with a hard look. “He said you were attempting to change him into a lich or vampire of some kind… That is very poor form.”
“Foolish humans! You will abase yourselves before my glory when…” At that point he realized he was wearing a scant ‘garment’ that Gary called a ‘Banana Hammock’ for obvious reasons and a layer of shining oil.
“Damn him…” The creature hissed venomously. “I will find a way…”
Maple took a menacing step forward. “I can call the angry one here, to discuss this if you wish.” He vanished without another word, in a dark and smoky explosion of scrawny, pale, well oiled limbs and sequined turquoise posing pouch.
When they were alone Maple turned to the two humans and the spirit pony. “Please, recline on the lawn here inside the circle and gaze into the sky, children. All will be made clear in a moment.”
They made themselves comfortable leaning back against the warm and surprisingly comfy pony for a bit of ‘stargazing’.
The complex and dazzling array of bubbles and ribbons that were orbiting seemingly at random began to spread out, letting stars and the night sky become visible. In the vast blackness of night one body gleaned brighter than the moon, shining blue, green brown and dazzling white.
Like a marvelous and intricate jewel it spun so slowly it seemed still, gliding across the sky in stately grandeur.
“Now you see and understand…” Twinkle whispered to her new friends.
“Yes, it’s beautiful, what does it mean?” Liam asked in awed wonder, gazing up nearly breathless with shock at the vista.
“That is your world, you primitive apes! Have you never even…” Twinkle sputtered in shock of her own, at the uncomprehending pair.
“No, they have not.” Maple whispered to the agitated equine. “Their kind have forgotten all of this so long ago, only the faintest race memories remain.”
She settled on her many legs, snuggling up to Liam with a sigh. “Look more closely, my children and search your feelings. This is your home, where you and all your kith and kin dwell.” She said softly. “This is your world, drifting in its starry void, all you have ever known but not all you have yet to see.”
“Our world? But it’s so tiny…” Liam whispered.
“Beyond tiny, infinitesimal, a mere speck in a vast sea…” Tawny gasped, shaken and trembling against her boy and new friends.
“Now you know this terrible secret, you see the world a little more like Gary does. He has always known this aspect of your world and his own former home. Now he has seen that everything you can glimpse from here, this planet, its star and the other planets, those distant stars and so much more, are but a speck drifting in the ether.”
While she spoke, a small line appeared at the horizon, where a cracked and broken cathedral lurked. Slowly it grew, like dawn breaking over the world, but in abstract, beautiful and horrifying half seen patterns of swirling darkness and light in every color of all the spectrums of reality and madness. The manifestation stopped, just a thumbnail’s width over the far horizon, but it shook the pair deeply.
“Those who come into this knowledge unguided and unprepared are often shocked and damaged by the revelations of fundamental truths. Such was our friend Gary; shoved face first into the bosom of the ether, he was forced to make his own adjustments.”
She sighed sadly and drooped a little. “If he had a competent guide, he might have managed to remain whole, even broken and damaged as he was before dying again. Unfortunately, Marduk was and remains woefully incomplete, as a result he fractured along fault lines already carved into his soul, creating this remarkable place between everything and nothing.”
“So this is Gary’s dream world… I imagined it as an island.” Tawny said, looking around in renewed wonder.
“Until recently it was. He has begun the process of integrating his disparate parts back into himself. He literally broke himself into an effectively infinite and recursive army of himselves, to disperse the mental strain of what he’s doing. This comes across as madness rather than a desperate attempt to direct and manage a terrible influx of energies.” Maple said gently.
“This knowledge, which mortals are never supposed to gain, has driven him farther down the path you have begun, allowing him to glimpse what you now have just begun to see a faint reflection of. His Animus and Will continue to shelter this realm from what he knows, deep inside, but cannot face, with mortal senses and sensibilities.”
“Are we inside Gary?” Liam asked Tawny with a frightened look in his eyes.
“Yes, lover, I’m afraid we are.” She answered gently, stroking his spiky hair soothingly.
“Are we on the moon? Is Gary the moon, Maple?” Liam asked helplessly.
“No, sweet boy, he is a shadow of the moon, invisible to all mortals save those few like him… and a few others. He saw it in the sky and mentioned it, did he not?” The dryad soothed them, speaking slowly and quietly.
“He has no idea that it was his own underside that he saw, floating through the night sky. When next he stargazes, he will see his changes and realize… I dearly hope I am there to watch.”
She giggled with the sound of rustling leaves. “Off to sleep you two. Your minds need rest after so many new things learnt in a short span. We will discuss our business here another night.”
Evening Twinkle watched with interest as the mortals faded away. “They took that rather well… considering.”
“Humans are very adaptable. That is why they make such good pets.” Maple said with a smile.
#