EXT - Seiiki Tea Ceremony Pavilion; day
Dorian had donned traditional Japanese attire, hakama and kimono, and was barefoot kneeling on a cushion, with an eye on the all of the preparations at hand, greedily learning how the coal fires were stoked, how the tea was stirred, how at times sleeves were held. He had rented out the tea house in the meadow, called his sister to an afternoon engagement. By the time he arrived the matcha had been whisked and poured from its original container into a pair of cups. There were also three sets of two treats each laid out on a small platter. One was a tiny pair of chestnut cakes, one a set of zunda mochi (sweetened smashed soya beans over a glutinous rice cake), and the third a pair of tofu-wrapped rice cakes drenched in sweet soya.
Dorian had scarce been out of the mermaid's company long enough to mention once more, before finding words for any of the glories they had to behold before them, "Minnow said she saw something large and ancient move, it has to be one of the old ones, does it not? Her voice was unlike anything I had ever heard, it had a latent music. " He had waited until the people preparing the things had left them in view of the meadow, plonking away at a shamisen just outside of view or whisper range.
Dinah was happy to take a spot near to the tea stove, resting on the zabuton though she gave a lazy, indulgent smile to her brother at his mention of the large and ancient thing that the mermaid who inched closer to calamity had spoken of.
" there are many strange things under the sea, dear heart. There are things that are in the sea that are alien to life atop the waves" she spoke as she filled the kiseru, lighting it with a taper from the hearth.
"..not sure how much I approve of her 'latent music' being used on you, darling. Maybe I ought to have words. Or tip a bucket of sodium into her pool" she murmured, amusement on her face. She took a pull on the kiseru before offering it out towards him too. "The thought of it being one of the ancients is surely something to hope about though. I can dream"
Dorian listened and deeply to what his twin said, to the gravity behind her words. To the superior knowledge he could only bow to. Kowtow to. Assimilate as his own. He'd spend a moment thinking, and offer with a quiet murmur, "I had not thought it was her magic, her siren's call which made her voice so.... her need so..."
He shook his head as he considered he'd been spellbound, and felt sheepish upon the realization of that fact. He could only conclude, "Your dreams... they are... are they troubled? Can I...." He stumbled over speaking any more. But he had spent some recent nights with dreams he could not comprehend. Dreams in yellow and bent past the angles of time and space too far to speak to with his limited capacity. Dinah and the smells of good worldly things grounded him, alongside the view of the flowers, manicured trees and mountains stretching out beyond in the distance. All coloured with the fantastic shapes and shades of the aetheric leylines.
Dinah smiled as she reached for her tea, taking a sip. She shrugged her shoulder. "It might well be her magic." she agreed. "it would definitely be better if it were, though the idea of you having been magically influenced is... distressing" she gave him a warm, reassuring smile though. For now, she'd not go and tip a vat of chemicals into the pool to flash fry his new little friend.
"my dreams are often troubled, to an extent. It's that they are very... vivid. and often very symbolic" she shuffled herself closer to him with a reaching hand out towards him. "Why do you ask, dear heart?
Dorian looked down into the cloudy swirling green cup of matcha, and answered her after a few long moments, "I have had dreams. Strange ones. A sky with twin suns. A dark one and one bright. Yellow it was. And... it all seemed strange, like, rather unlike... past bounds of things I could put words to." After having a troubling time, he'd tentatively push the feelings, disquieting things from past the solar system and time as he comprehended them. Barely. He'd show her a glowing yellow eyed creature, lurking, hunting, whose shape he could not manage to piece together past shadowy imaginings. And beyond that he silently asked her if those were the types of unsettling things she knew.
Dinah listened to his words, and she brightened, giggling, she pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Darling Dorian. you have seen the yellow sign" she gushed. "What you saw.. it was Carcosa. The lost city" she nodded, taking a drink. "the city I spoke of to the fortune teller.. Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa" she sang the odd, lilting little tune, dipping her fingers onto the tea and drawing the symbol onto the wood of the countertop. "was this what you saw?"
Dorian knew with the tune, before the content of the words hit him that his sister knew. Of course she did. His recollections of near impossible to understand images would come forth as she spoke the lines. As she concluded he'd put down his cup and moved over to lay a hand upon her arm, her forearm, nodding. He could not even voice words, because none of them made more sense than the action he undertook. He had no words for understanding her gods, their gods speaking to him. Only wide eyes, set unmovingly from her face, searching.
Dinah hummed as he rested his hand on her and she scuttled close, reaching for a dango. she didn't eat it yet though, nodding as she smiled. "Carcosa was destroyed, though we don't know by what. it is *strongly* implied that it was at the hands of the King in Yellow... Hastur" she said quietly, eyes gleaming. "If you are having the dreams, dear one, you might have been Seen by him. He is the great prince of the old ones, and he is the mark of power, of ambition. Hastur is the reason why all of my Queen cards from the tarot reader are always *gold*" she said softly.
Dorian looked at her speaking nothing yet, past a small gasp, and laying his golden head upon her own. Snuggling close. Perhaps he was not to be left behind and set aside. Perhaps despite their bifurcation of duties thus far, the gods had not seen fit to leave them separate creatures. He'd murmur, "Oh." It was both question and realization at once. And he'd set aside bodily appetites for food in aid of finding spiritual nourishment in her. He did, however, offer her a cup of frothily whipped tea, to wash down the treat she'd taken.
Dinah reached her fingertips up beneath his chin, scuffing against him lightly. "You are Seen, darling. Hastur is one of my patrons too. And the fortune teller." she cuddled herself close to him, taking the tea to take a sip, and another draw from the kiseru.
"I wonder, sometimes, if this island is Carcosa anew. Doomed to destruction but.. It's a curious thing" she said softly. though she looked up towards his face with a warm smile. "...I wonder if you beating Roesler had you noticed? that was a lot of blood you spilled in the name of one of His followers.."
Dorian clarified ably as he could, which was not much, though better than his thoughts had allowed him words for until a moment after exhaling some of her kiseru's smoke, in an low uncertain voice, "I felt I was there, dwelling in that mingled light, as well as beholding the place from some distance. It was so strange. So curious." He'd put the cup down and did not indulge his hungers or thirsts beyond those for settling himself in near her, and gazing at her up close, vista beyond be damned. He'd reach to close his arms loosely around her waist and just... enjoy the fellowship there. The unraveling of knotted lack of understanding as she explained what she did with such ease.
Dinah made a soft noise in her throat "you might have been" she admitted "When someone becomes more used to handling the outer planes, there are methods of projecting yourself from your body. Like a diver without a diving bell. The body is our diving bell" she trailed her fingers over the back of his hand, offering him the Kiseru pipe.
"When I travel for the Ritual, I am bodily stepping into the outer planes. that is why I need drystan to hold onto me. If I lost my footing, then I would be stuck there. Astrally projecting is much the same, except instead of being able to travel in one direction, you can travel in any you please" she dipped her finger in the tea.
"Think of our world as... a circle. When you start to explore the hidden secrets of the world you come to understand it more like a bubble. Most humans are trapped on the ground. Then there are those of us who learn otherwise. and we can go up into the air, down into the sea." she sipped her tea again "beyond restriction"
Dorian took the pipe from her hand and nuzzled her hair behind her ear before he'd draw from it. When the sweet smoke hit his lungs he'd purr a quiet sound and settle in beside her as though they were horizontal, despite anyone being able to see them. Despite sitting up and holding her, as if clinging to a buoy against a tide of understanding. Or the beginnings thereof, anyway. He inquired, "Then, what you said, I am... like you? Upon the path as well?"
Dinah giggled and tilted her head, shifting herself to nuzzle at his shoulder. She drew a deep breath and she smiled happily, nodding again.
"Sweet love, we are all on the path. There are just those who *know* they are on it. Some don't. those who walk the path blindly, or worse, without consideration for what they walk into. Like hunting in an unfamiliar forest" she murmured, reclining herself against his lap
"but you are different. Most have to go and find the first path themselves. you have the added benefit of knowing whose forest you walk into"
Dorian: "Of knowing you, you mean. My goddess. You are she who makes me divine." He'd leave off eating or drinking for the sating of his appetite for her. Being so near her in the light and music of day. He'd tap out the kiseru's ending glow amidst the ashes the water for the tea had boiled upon, and then lay the pipe aside on the table's surface. This freed one hand to take up a little cake with chomp it, and think as he did. Or rather not think once he'd done eating it and could devote himself to feeling each breath she took once more. To letting her words find a home in his psyche.
Dinah laughed gently and she shook her head "maybe one day i will become divine. but now, I am just the same as you." she murmured happily, looking up towards him from his lap.
"It's why I walk the path i do, you know. When the old ones come to walk the world again, and they *Will*... those who are ignorant and unprepared will suffer the worst. those of us who know... who make themselves a part of their world.. we shall thrive" she murmured, pleased.
Dorian: || Some of what his sister said, she'd said before, and he'd heard it. Words heard without understanding took on new light in the present, and he'd find himself once more aghast at her, as he loosed a quiet, "Blimey... Dinah... you... have known all of this so long. And you... did not get terrified... no... instead you... If not a goddess you are at least a prophet." When he once more kissed her hair near an ear that he'd cuddled close to, he'd append, "No, goddess. I am certain. Otherwise heaven would not be in your company." That was easy to say, and a break from trying to comprehend vast theological and cosmological topics. But no less truly the foundation of his beliefs.
Dinah giggled and she shook her head, smiling up towards him "oh, don't mistake me, dear heart. when I was younger, it DID terrify me. It scared me so badly...but I chose to acknowledge that there are certain..inevitabilities in the world. Horrible fates to the end of the world notwithstanding" she reached up to trail her fingers through his hair "mn. you're a flatterer. we will see, though." she trailed off, looking up towards his face with a somewhat more subdued expression "you've taken the first few steps, dear heart. it is a dark path, and horrifying sometimes. But remember that no matter what happens. what gods might come for the world...We are together."
Dorian moved to curl himself more fully around her, and to reach for her chin as she had his lengthening hair, and he'd speak the truth of the sort he was sure of, no matter what time held in store, "No matter what comes, there's nothing I would not do to be able to stay with you. Until the end of time. Together... it is everything. What is the rest of it, by comparison?" He sighed as he held her and looked at long last from her to the trees and meadow beyond, speaking to her in silence, [Nothing].
Dinah smiled up towards his face and she nodded, giggling. "I think you've got the right of it, sweetling" she said gently, but she sighed happily and nodded, pulling herself to sit up with a huff and a sigh, cuddling into his side so she too could watch the meadow.
"and in the interim, whilst waiting for things to explode... I think we're in quite a good spot." she agreed, reaching for the teacup again. "I will be far happier when you and Stan learn more. Lilah too, but I think she has no stomach for the Faith"
Dorian knew he had to learn just a little bit more and this pressing question came tumbling from his lips, and without hesitation, "But how? How do I learn, beloved? I am not..." He was not bookish, he was not versed in magical things. He could not imagine swimming to the sea floor until his lungs gave out.
Dinah reached her fingers to his hair again, curling them around his ear first then up to his scalp.
"you don't need to *read* to *See*, Dorian darling. I can show you. I can tell you... I can teach you" she gave another smile and she rested her cheek on his shoulder. "We just need to find the way that helps you best. like with the reading."
Dorian had learned from her, without her lecturing, that he could take to the air, that he was more than a man beyond the reaches of time. He was sure she'd find a way, and he had ideas about that that came to the fore immediately, "I think it might be... sharing your bed, dreaming beside you... that is how this started. We should find a way to take a.... active approach. Gods know I could listen to you, lay with you until the end of time." He'd keep asking questions, keep pressing past the bounds of what had been allowed toward what felt right as she'd instructed. Starting with laying a kiss upon her where her neck and shoulders met, where the gold chain of her necklace hung.
The music joined with the low crackling hiss of charcoal and burbling of brook nearby, as well as the wind whispering through leaves and petals. It was, to him, a perfect moment.
Dinah grinned and she nodded, chuckling softly. "You abandoned living as a human by human society when we chose to share our bed. Societies frown on that, these days.. but you chose to anyway" She agreed. "you ate a part of my heart, and then.. you grew wings. there will be a lovely way of handling this. I know there will" she agreed, closing her eyes and she smiled.
"I will show you. We will walk the astral planes, perhaps" she purred with amusement, tilting her head to his kisses. "We shall just have to pick where to go."