OOM: The Raid

[dovelike]

There is a forest outside Eirene's door, one that stretches up the side of a mountain. The trees aren't anything like Midwestern America - most of them are smaller and bear fruit. Some even bear olives. She finishes moving forward to give Clark enough room to escape the small hut they are exiting from.

"Up there, behind the clouds, is my home." She points at the distance top of the mountain, currently shrouded in low-lying nimbus clouds.

Comments

[eirenikos]

"I look relatively similar to this guise." She glances down at the ground nervously. "I, uh, we ... there were mortals driven crazy. But I suppose you don't exactly have to worry about that."

She lets out a breathe and steps back a foot or two, letting go his hand in the process. It's a relatively easy process to remove what she calls the veil; one moment she is a simple, blonde woman, and the next she ... isn't.

While her physical stature doesn't seem to change, there are echoes behind her, translucent shadows of herself flickering several feet above her - like a ghost's imprint of what humans term their soul. Layers on layers of these shadows, stretching so far into the sky that titanic would not be an inappropriate term.

Of course, with Clark viewing, the effects may be muted to alien eyes.

[hero_farmboy]

There's a good chance Clark's perception isn't all that much different. He steps back a step or two and his eyes widen again, moreso than they did when they first stepped out of the hut.

There's nothing he can say to this. He's never seen anything like it, and he's speechless.

[eirenikos]

Her expression tightens, eyes averting themselves from his reaction. Again, it takes just one or two heartbeats for the veil to descend, leaving Eirene as she looked the night she met him. And now she's probably terrified him.

"I didn't meant to-- I'm sorry."

[hero_farmboy]

"No," he says a little shakily after a moment. "It's okay."

And then there's the brief hint of a smile. "You were beautiful."

Beat.

"I mean, you still are but you were then, too."

[eirenikos]

"I would rather appear plain to your eyes, and not have you afraid of me." Eirene wraps her arms around herself for a minute to prevent herself from shivering, dropping them back to her sides only when she's managed to tamp down on her emotions.

"Thank you, though. For the compliment."

Her own smile is slower in arriving, but it does appear.

[hero_farmboy]

Oh, this won't do.

Clark walks over to her and raises her face up with a hand under her chin. "Hey. I'm not afraid of you." Serious face, Eirene. "And you're anything but plain, although I think that's kind of secondary here."

[eirenikos]

"Oh, I know I'm not plain. I meant that--" There's a thoughtful pause. "You're not afraid? Truly?" She'd like to believe him, but Eirene also remembers the few mortals whose minds broke on viewing her and her sisters in front of those gates.

She can't sense any sort of lie behind his eyes, however, no matter how long she looks into them.

Softly: "That means more to me that you'll ever know, Clark."

[hero_farmboy]

His thumb strokes along her lower lip.

"You don't scare me, Thallo Eirene."

[eirenikos]

She has no other way to thank him but a beaming smile. There may be tears as well, but Eirene will just have to ignore them.

[hero_farmboy]

She gets a similar smile in return and Clark takes his hand back.

"So, do I get the grand tour?"

[eirenikos]

"Uh, yes. Sorry. This is the entrance, as you've probably figured out. Uhm. Through the archway is the sacred altar of Hestia, where her flame burned from almost the beginning until she extinguished it."

And Clark ...well, he's going to get a quick kiss, because he didn't faint or go mad.

[hero_farmboy]

A quick kiss he can handle, and it's returned softly.

And then he'll get his attention back on the area around them. "Why didn't she just leave it burning?"

[eirenikos]

Yeah, it's those long ones you've got watch out for. The narration will plead the fifth on them.

"Because we all left." Eirene shrugs lightly and moves towards, and then through, the archway.

On the other side is a series of interconnected temples that Hollywood would sell their own mother to see. Even abandoned, it's impressive.

[hero_farmboy]

That makes sense, he supposes, though he has a nagging thought that the flame was never supposed to go out, no matter what. But who is he to argue with someone who was there?

As usual, he follows her lead, glancing up at the archway as he passes underneath and then taking in the temples before them.

"I should stop being surprised that you went all out, shouldn't I?"

[eirenikos]

Well... Eirene wasn't there at the time. She was only informed after the fact by her mother, who was.

She stands there, hearing the long ago shouts and the laughter, seeing transparent images of a holy city bustling with her family and their servants.

"I haven't been back here since before they left," the murmur is more to herself than Clark.

Slowly: "Went all out?"

[hero_farmboy]

That's good enough.

"Went all out. Spared no expense. Did everything to extreme. That sort of thing." He hopes that explanation's good enough.

Then, quieter, "What made you want to come back now?"

[eirenikos]

"Ah." Her grin is fleeting. "We've a reputation to maintain, I suppose. There's a vain side to everything, I think, and that becomes doubly so when you live forever."

The second question is a little harder to answer. She'll duck her head and blush while answering.

"Intuition? An overriding sense that I should bring you here to see where I once lived."

[hero_farmboy]

"Oh." Because that's, well, special. "I'm honoured you'd want to share this with me."

[eirenikos]

"No, no, Clark. You honor me by agreeing to come here." Eirene turns to look towards the pinnacle of the mountain again. "We should head up there. The view from the top has to be seen to be believed."

Beat.

"And then I'll take you back."

[hero_farmboy]

He's argue, but he has a feeling neither one of them would ever let up and it would go on forever. So he just nods in agreement and then stares up further.

"Okay, then. Let's go."

[eirenikos]

Hey, just add in some music, a script and it might turn into a romantic comedy. But the narration digresses.

The walk to the highest temple is pleasant. Faint floral scents sweep by on the breeze, a fragrance left over from those few plants and flowerbeds still in bloom. Even with the sacred fire gone, there is still life on Olympus. Eirene points out a home or two along the way; the second belonged to her mother - a sedate building set back from the byway near the top.

"We tended to many of the younger gods; Aphrodite, Dionysus, Kore, when they were children." She leads the way up the last set of stairs to an imposing courtyard, beyond which sits an equally imposing home.

After kneeling down and pressing her forehead to the ground in homage to her father's temple, Eirene straightens up and turns to look the way they came. Beyond them, past the temples and other buildings that make up this abandoned paradise, is a panoramic view of the Western world - almost like someone built a perfect replica of a flattened globe.

"This is what I wanted you to see, Clark. That, out there, is Gaea."

[hero_farmboy]

It's a lot different when you're looking down on the world from this height standing still. So Clark does just that - stands still, taking in the view for a good few minutes before he even thinks about saying anything.

"It's looks awfully big from up here," he finally says, voice soft.

[eirenikos]

"It is an awfully big world. And there are so many people out there with problems and hopes and dreams that they manage to cram into a century of living. Fantastic, isn't it?"

This is probably the first time she's used 'people' instead of 'mortals' or 'them'.

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah, there are. A lot of people." He's not exactly frowning, but there's no smile, either. "Sort of makes you feel kind of small, being just one person in all that."

[eirenikos]

"It's a fabric, made up of lots of life threads, and each one is important." Her voice is quiet. Maybe even awed. "Makes me feel less alone."