Roleplaying
2004 Archive
2005 Archive
Seminars
| When: | 9 May 2005 |
| Who: | Damien, Noah |
| What: | Damien gives Noah Sandra's journal. |
Austin Museum of Art
Geared more towards the broad, more generalized tastes of a smaller urban area located in Texas. Flanked by an art college, the bright colors of the museum logo wraps around the outer edge of the building. Focusing on twentieth-century and contemporary art, from time to time, rarer exhibits will appear, drawing people from all across the state. The galleries are flooded with light, and decorated with a light walnut finish to accentuate the white panelled wall, allowing the displayed items to do the talking. A few side rooms away from the main galleries provide hands on programs for schoolchildren to explore their interests in art. The museum store offers a tasteful selection of jewelry.
Noah walks quietly through the museum. At this time of day patrons consist of children on school outings, the eldery and art lovers. Not fitting into any of these categories, Noah stands in front of a painting and simply stares at it for a while and then moves on to the next work.
Damien is sitting on a bench, not far away from Noah, reading through a large, heavy, leather-bound journal-like book. He's absorbed enough to not notice Noah immediately.
Noah just looks for a while. It's hard to tell if anything is really impressing him or not as he just stares, walks and choosing a new piece and stares some more. Yay art!
Damien notices something or someone out of the corner of his eye walk by whom he kind of sort of recognizes. So he looks all the way up, and blinks, and stage whispers, "Noah! Hey, Noah!"
Noah goes deer-in-headlights. He visibly freezes as he hears his name whispered. He thinks of all the possibilities. Ghosts, crazy blood-thirsty demons out to finish him off for knowing too much, and the like. After a few seconds his mind places the voice and he loosens up enough to turn around and spot Damien. A look of visible relief can be seen as he smiles "D," he says quietly. He walks over to Damien and looks around "Hi."
Damien, who technically is a blood-thirsty demon, looks up at Noah from where he sits on the bench and says, "Hi."
Noah gives a little half wave and then slides onto the bench next to Damien. He leans forward and turns a little to the side to face Damien "How are you doing, D" he says quietly.
"I don't know anymore," Damien admits. He closes the leather bound journal that he was reading, and passes it over to Noah. "Sandra gave me this as a gift this morning. It has a big collection of her poetry and stories and little bits of dreams and hopes in it."
Noah stares at the book and puts his hand over it as if to keep it closed "Wow..that's very...intimate. What does that mean," he asks, a look of concern on his face.
"She wanted me to have it," Damien says. "To help me quit my job. She... I... I love her very much, Noah."
Noah nods once. He looks tired still but a bit more expressive than he has been in recent days "I understand...that has to be hard. How are...things. You said there was some things that had to be taken care of? I guess making it official and all?" he says, not grasping the gravity of what is required to 'switch sides.'
Damien looks around, just to make sure there's no one around or listening. "I have an appointment," Damien says, "hopefully sometime this week. The other party is very busy and scheduling is very difficult, and he probably thinks I'm insane."
Noah nods, chewing on his lip a little "An angel," he asks, curious.
"An Archangel, to be precise," Damien says. "And maybe he'll fix me and maybe he won't, or maybe we'll try to fix me and I'll die."
Noah looks a bit awe struck "You mean like Michael or Gabrel!?" he asks in a hushed tone. And just as the surprise in his voice wears off, a look crosses his face, a look of sorrow perhaps. Noah tightens his lips and looks as if he's trying to hold back emotion.
Damien sighs and says, "I'm so sorry, Noah. I don't want to hurt you."
Noah leaves his lips tight as he inhales and then exhales audibly through his nostrils. He shakes his head weakly and then shrugs "It's okay, D," he says quietly. "So you have to meet this Archangel and then they decide if you can come back. But it's dangerous?"
Damien nods slowly. "That's right. I'll have a sit down with him and we'll talk for a while and either he'll just kill me as an enemy, dismiss me, decide I'm sincere and not ready, or decide I'm sincere and hope I live through the process."
Noah nods, again chewing on his lower lip "Is...Is there anything I can do, D?" With that he begins to speak more rapidly in a very old-school Noah fashion "Maybe if you have someone vouch for you. I mean I really don't know anything about these things but I know you and maybe if you had a few people in your corner to tell them what kind of person you are..." he stops and thinks on the word 'person' before concluding "You know what I mean."
Damien takes a deep breath, lets it out, and says, "This is something I must do alone, Noah. But your heart is definitely in the right place."
Noah nods a few times "I understand. But you'll let me know either way? Assuming you can...I know you said there are rules against this kind of thing. I don't want to get you in trouble."
"I think," Damien says, "I have passed the line of trouble right now and into the dubious area that, if I get caught, I'm in more trouble than you can imagine. So a little more trouble is no big thing anymore."
Noah asks simply but sincerely "Does praying help?"
Damien answers just as simply. "Praying helps." He looks at the leather bound journal. "Sandra asked me to write in it, in the empty pages at the end. But maybe you need it more than I do, Noah. Inside that book is Sandra's version of God, the God of hopes and dreams and a brighter tomorrow."
Noah inhales and exhales deeply and exhales through his nose again as Damien finishes. He cover his mouth with his thumb and forefinger, squeezing it a little as his eyes begin to tear up. Noah goes to look down at the book and a tear falls onto its cover. He quickly wipes at it with his finger so as to not ruin it "Do...Do you think she'd mind," he asks, obviously touched by the gesture.
Damien sits up and wraps his arms around Noah's shoulders in a hug. He says quietly, "I need it badly, but I think you need it more, Noah."
Noah nods a few times, sucking back the emotion with another deep inhale. He leans forward and looks at the book, staring more like. He sits there, wandering what he might find in its pages, wondering if it'll answer questions or only offer more.
Damien looks very sadly at the cover of the journal. "Rem used to have journals like this," Damien says quietly, his voice tinged with some deep sadness and regret. "A long time ago, she ran all over the world searching out forgotten books and rescuing them, bringing them back to the library in Fair Toledo, long before the Spaniards came and when the rule of the Ummayyads over Al Andalus felt like a summer that would last forever."
Noah coughs into his hand and then begins to chuckle lightly, his shoulders shaking with the laugh "I...I have no idea when or what that is. Sorry. I know that was really personal. It's just...It sounded like you were talking about something that wasn't real. If you know what I mean."
"A thousand years ago," Damien says. "Raimetheryn and I lived under the Ummayyads of Spain in Cordoba and, later, fair Toledo, for three hundred years."
Noah's laughter dies down. He asks in a soft quiet voice "How old *are* you, D?"
Damien says, seriously, "I told you. I _think_ I'm about twenty two hundred years old."
Noah just shrugs "Wow...I guess you did. There's just a lot in my head right now, I guess. I can't imagine living that long, seeing that much. It has to really change the way you look at things, I guess. Then again, I only remember almost four years of stuff right now." He frowns a little at the end.
"Sandra reminds me alot of Rem," Damien says, "In ways. They're nothing a like in others. Sometimes, being with Sandra is a great joy, and sometimes it brings me great pain. It's just a relief to be able to love, truly love, someone again."
Noah nods. Both hands over the cover of the book he leans forward comfortably "I understand. I'm just happy for you...Like really happy. I don't know what kind of friend I could have been if I knew you before you met her. Back when you did God knows what for your job."
Damien sighs and pulls away from Noah. "I'm not going to say it wasn't pleasurable, Noah. That I didn't have fun. That I wasn't so very angry that I just wanted to, I dunno, kick puppies. That a universe without Rem in it was a pointless and useless one. It's just changed."
Noah nods again "I'm just glad you're okay *now*. I hope this thing goes well for you." He just shakes his head "Now I'm talking about it like its a job interview."
Damien taps the book. "I think you should take the book, and read it, and find hope, Noah."
Noah wraps his fingers around to the back cover and holds it in his lap "I will...I just hope Sandra doesn't mind. I know it's personal stuff."
"I think," Damien says, "if you use what you learn from it to instill hope in others while you help them at the hospital, Sandra will not mind."
Noah nods yet again "Thank you, D. Really...What about you? Did you want to write something in it first?"
"I did, actually," Damien says. "Some things. Perhaps after you finish reading it, I will."
Noah smiles a little. He stands, slipping the book into a comfortable position under one arm "Do you mind...If I go home and read a little? I'll see you around?" he says, gesturing with a tilt of his head towards the exit.
"No, I don't mind," Damien says. "I don't mind at all."
Noah smiles a little more brightly "Thank you, Damien. Really...thank you very much. And, well...I'll be praying for you. I'm sure you'll do fine," he says in a warm tone.
Damien says, "Hopefully, I'll run into you tomorrow somewhere, Noah."
Noah smiles "You better," he says with a slight chuckle. And with that, Noah begins to head for the exit.
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