[P] The Praise of Thunder

[Eik]

In the gentle morning light, Eik is drawn to Calliope completely against his will-- given he even has one anymore(- or am I just floating from place to place, drinking up thoughts and dreams, and floating away, a hapless leaf in the wind). He is not sure, sometimes. So much has been lost over the years- parts of himself included.

But Calliope... where he is empty, she is overflowing. She reminds him of what he once was, but so much more. And as he approaches he feels a sense of nostalgia for a sensation long crumbled to ashes-- that, and something akin to oil-slick fear. If she is the war, he is what comes after. He is the burned and bloodied battlefield, the people and places that are broken and discarded and eventually forgotten to the passing of time. He has seen firsthand the way history, too, is a weapon, twisted and painted pretty to hide the filth of all our yesterdays. And he knows (without really knowing, you see?) all those lies don't just sit there in antiquity, they spread and rot and as the past is tainted the future becomes poisoned, too. 

(and we still clap our hands as the curtain falls, believing ourselves the audience and not the actors even as we feel the heat of the stage lights drawing sweat from our brow, even as we hear ourselves clapping before us, and-- the great wheel keeps turning, no matter which color we paint it)

Here is the truth he learned in all that blood and fire, the truth we try so desperately to protect our children and ourselves from:  there is no honor in war. There is no glory in death, nor killing. There is only ruin. But Eik never learned how to be anything but a soldier, and if there is no war to fight... well, then he'll wage one against himself. He can see no end to the cycle, even though he is desperate for it. What else can a ghost do but haunt and be haunted?

But as we were saying: Eik is drawn to Calliope completely against his will. The funny thing is that he doesn't need to go out of his way, she's standing between himself and the festival he feels obligated to attend. He would not call it an act of divine intervention, nor fate, nor anything to do with rhyme or reason. These things just happen, sometimes, for better or worse. He crests the hill she stands on and stops beside her. Before them is the festival, and from here the sound of the stage reaches him- a soft, sad melody resonates from some unrecognized instrument, large and almost like a bow but with many strings. It suits the sleepy morning, lulling to sleep the party goers who had stayed up late enough to see the dawn.

Eik turns his attention to the stranger to his left, maybe a length away. He can sense without looking at her that Calliope is awake. "There's a storm coming." He murmurs quietly, almost to himself, keeping his eyes to the darkening horizon but his awareness, sharp and precise, on the mare beside him.

-     -     -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood

@Calliope I'm sorry this is such a long starter post -_- I imagined this taking place before the storm hits in this thread <3