Heaven talks, but not to me.

[pridefulmorningstcr-deactivated]

His head tilted just a bit out of curiosity. Now this, this was more interesting than he thought. Yes, he had been completely asinine to think she didn’t know what a phone was. But from her current expression, there had been truth in his words.  “”Beautiful, that’s not how that even works. You have to put it on your ear. Then you hear voices.”  Why was he saying these things? Just to see how far it went.  Was her fear something of a joke to poke fun at him, or was this fear something real that even he had to admit was amusing yet depressing at the same time.

[noctilucentorb-blog]

“Voices? How does that work?”

His words both calmed and confused her at the same time. At least he didn’t seem to be able to control her mind, or  so she hoped. She really didn’t like  that thought at all, and being scared was a sensation she was .. well, scared of. Did that make sense? Were humans sometimes scared of fear? Well, she was.

Atlas carefully took a step closer again, as if still unsure whether he would be able to mess with her mind or not. But she was also curious now, and she  wanted to learn more about that device in his hands. 

“Where are they coming from? The voices, I mean.”

[pridefulmorningstcr-deactivated]

♋

Send ♋ for our muses to swap bodies!

Was it just impulse or narcissistic gone nuts, but either way it went, time was of the essence. And despite the size difference, it was actually a very easy feat. “Hm– I’m not half bad.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

Would anyone like a starter?

[fraxdulenti-archive-blog]

  The stumbling was ignored, as often as it was, and waits patiently   as the other chooses. Granted, there were a lot to choose from. But   he notes how the other was wary now than she was before.    Good, he thinks, she’s learnt her lesson.

  At the sound of the voice, he merely looks at the dress. What does   she want to do with it, eat it? She needs to touch it. All before he sighs   and takes it, putting it in front of her to see if it will fit her.

       “Put it in the cart and keep moving.” He says, giving it to her         before walking away. Heaven knows what Fen and Mal have        bought while he was away.

[noctilucentorb-blog]

She almost jumps backwards when he attempted to give her the dress. His words about yellow color and how it would poison her were still stuck in her  mind, so the prospect of touching anything here ... well, concerned her, to  say the least. 

Then again she knew he wouldn’t harm her, and with a deep breath and an expression that screamed bravery she reached for the dress, lips curling into a proud smile. 

When one had never walked earth before, everything was an adventure, and everything was an accomplishment.

She quickly hurried when he left, putting the dress in the cart and appearing by his side again. 

“I don’t think I can pay for it, though. Do you know where I can get money  from?” She didn’t want him to pay for her, after all they had only met recently, and Atlas felt like allowing him to give her something wouldn’t be considered polite or even appropriate.

[fraxdulenti-archive-blog]

  It was h i l a r i o u s to see Atlas like this, she easily falls for anything,    does she? Reckons he will get a scolding from Fen or Mal later, but it   was well worth it. Besides, it was the only way he can stop her from putting   her finger inside a sharpener. 

   “Do not simply pick up things; they carry viruses within them that turn you     into something nasty.” 

  He warns her, as if a father telling a child that there was a boogeyman in   their closet.  He easily puts down the pencil and pushes the other gently    to where the clothes were. She needs proper clothes, after all.

                           “Go pick something.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

Atlas stumbled a little, not quite used to her physical form yet, so at times she would move rather clumsily. She was really thankful that Mephistolpheles  seemed so very patient with her - they barely knew each other, and yet Atlas knew better than to take his kindness for granted. 

Her eyes eagerly took in the clothes surrounding them, but she didn’t dare to touch any of them. Not after what Mephistopheles had told her about  viruses. That had sounded rather dangerous, and she didn’t want to cause any further trouble. 

“I like these”, Atlas pointed out, nodding towards a dress that was available in both dark blue and yellow. Somehow it reminded her of home. The sky was  dark blue at night, and the stars she could see from earth often appeared  yellow.

[fraxdulenti-archive-blog]

    It was difficult to deal with beings such as these; ones whom     behave like newborns instead of learning what is around them.     The Fallen has to constantly deal with the queries, ‘what is this,     what is that, what does that do, what does this do’ and if it were     not for words, they will do it themselves and put their fingers or     whatever body part—- in absolute danger and suspicion. If possible,     he will let the other jump to their death, but that will be far suspicious.

            “Mal has pencils and sharpeners at home. We may use those.”

    There was a frown on his face as the other wraps their hand around     the pencil. Do they twist it? Is it hard? What a fantastic question.

             “No, actually, this is as soft as a marshmallow. The reason               why it is yellow and hard is because it got infected with hepatitis.               Along with its’ fellow pencils. They are normally blue or green or               black, you see. Now, move, unless you wish to turn yellow like them sad buggers.”   

[noctilucentorb-blog]

That sounded unlikely, but then again Atlas didn’t know much about anything, and Mephistopheles seemed like a rather intelligent human. Who was she to doubt anything he had to say?

Atlas hadn’t really tried to comment on the surface of the pencil in the first  place, but the difficulty of sharpening it. Oh - oh, that was the word. Difficult.  Not hard. She would have to remember that to refrain from making a fool out of herself again. 

“No, no, I don’t want that”, she said quickly, letting go of the pencil and subtly trying to clean her hands on the fabric of her trousers. Was that possible? To  touch one thing and turn yellow, or whatever color the thing was painted in?

“Put it down, okay? I don’t want you to turn yellow either.” 

[fraxdulenti-archive-blog]

   It was grocery-slash-shopping day for the two, with the     latest addition of the third one, introduced to him by no    one else but the scout of the lost beings. Fen.  Giving in    to her wishes ( something that seldomly happens ), Mephistopheles    reluctantly accepts the Fallen Star. Fallen, all the same.    And of course, infinitely stupid. 

   A sigh escapes his lips as he walks briskly to where the being was,    slapping her hand away from the sharpener and glaring at her.

           “This,” he says, taking another sharpener from the racks, “Is a pencil sharpener.              Sharp-ener. Sharp. It has a fucking blade in it.” Taking a pencil from beside the              sharpeners, he lets the other take a good look at it, “This,” he says, waving the               yellow piece of wood in front of Atlas, “Is a pencil. Fingers do not go there. Am I clear?”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

She was supposed to be scared, wasn’t she? It sounded dangerous, and yet the only thing she was able to feel was fascination. It looked amazing, and Atlas wanted to see how the whole thing worked. 

“Can you put it into the shar-- sharpener? I want to see it. Please.” 

Atlas didn’t wait for an answer, though, but reached for the pencil in Mephistopheles’ hands instead. Of course she wouldn’t just pull it out of his hands, that would be  impolite, but her fingers at least wrapped around the wooden surface, ready to take it as soon as he would release it..

“Let me try it.  Is it hard? Do I just twist it?” 

[noctilucentorb-blog]

                                                   Starter for fraxdulenti

“What does this thing do?”

Atlas reached for the sharpener on the table full of art supplies, the tip of her finger disappearing where the pencil was supposed to go.

[blindhim-a-blog]

Cos glanced at her, he kept his expression carefully blank and unreadable but there was something about the way she spoke that didn’t sound right. Instantly, he felt like some judgmental grammar snob for thinking it, there was nothing about her that made him uncomfortable, if anything he found himself most comfortable with her. Usually he couldn’t stand being around people, but she just made him feel at ease.

“You’ll get the hang of things.” Cos found himself encouraging awkwardly, he stopped at one of the shelves, gaze flicking from one title to the next, “Well, yeah. Ten years ago we were just getting into using the internet but now if there’s anything you want to learn about you just type it up on a computer and bam, all the information’s at the tip of your fingers.”

Cos grabbed out the first book on the Cosmos and handed it to her after a brief moment of hesitation, “Considering ten years ago we were about eight years old, yeah. I’d say it’s a long time.” He frowned, “Where are you from?”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

Atlas tilted her head when Cosmo handed her the book, eyes eagerly taking in the title, the author, before pushing it open and reading the first lines. It was easy for her to get lost inbetween all those new impressions, especially when interested in something. She didn’t even pick up on the way he seemed to feel a little awkward, or maybe confused in general. She couldn’t tell.

For all she knew Cosmo was being exceptionally patient, and that was one thing she really appreciated.

“I think I prefer books. Computer are fun, but books make more sense.”

She glanced up when Cosmo asked about her origin, heart skipping some beats.

“Ah, you probably don’t know it. Really small town. Different country. Most people have never heard of it.” A small, careful smile, hoping he would buy the poor lie. 

[blindhim-a-blog]

“Probably not.” Cos shrugged apathetically, though he was aware of how massive the universe was, he had a hard enough time coping with the things that existed on his own planet, he didn’t have the brain capacity to wonder about what existed on other planets or in outer space. “Had to be fun though.”

Cos made an embarrassed sound at her next question, another shrug of his shoulders as he turned down another aisle of books. “Yeah. I like knowing things. I like learning about things. I don’t like being ignorant.” He explained, it had always been something he had an inclining towards, wanting to know things, how things worked or how they ticked. Things were typically easier than people after all.

“Nowadays everything’s really easy to get access too so, learning about stuff is a lot easier than it was like, ten years ago.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

“I like knowing, too! Most things don’t seem to make a lot of sense, though, everything is really confusing. I was hoping that reading could help me understand.”

She followed Cosmo through the library, eyes eagerly taking everything in, trying to pick up on some of the titles of the books they crossed. Many words she had never heard before, even more authors she tried to memorize and yet knew she’d probably forget again before she could possibly write them down. 

“Have things been very different ten years ago? Is that a long time?”

Atlas was so interested in everything Cosmo had to say that she barely noticed how suspicious her words might sound. She figured, if push came to shove, she could still pretend that she was from some foreign country without internet or television. Yeah, that should work. 

[stillonfiire-blog]

“Don’t know. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Maybe what’s special about it is that my ass has been gracing it for all these years. I might’ve left some mojo behind. Only ONE way to find out.”

“Of course, you can also take the fatalist’s way out and convince yourself of some whiney baby bullshit. A chair’s just a chair, life itself is devoid of meaning, there is no God and blah blah blah. Or you could go out on a limb and BELIEVE in something, your call.”

“So, do you have a name? Because I can just call you chair snatcher, if that’s easier. Up to you.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

The man confused her, even more than usual. People never made a  lot of sense, but this one seemed particularly complicated in the ways he expressed. Normally humans didn’t talk like that, or at least Atlas hadn’t encountered anyone similar yet. 

“-- Ciel. My name’s Ciel.”

She was a little proud of herself, really - for the first time she had actually used her host’s name, rather than accidently telling her own. She was  improving, and she couldn’t keep her lips from curling into a probably inappropriate smile.

“What is a fatalist? Explain it to me, please.”

[blindhim-a-blog]

“Well – because medicines evolved, people don’t believe in it anymore. Back in the day it was important, now it’s just…records. A way of looking back and going wow look how far we’ve come.” Cos explained with a shrug of his shoulders, though it was slowly becoming apparent that the girl wasn’t …entirely aware of some things that most thought were common knowledge. Maybe she was Amish or something.

Cos lead the way down the aisle and tried to pull forward all of his knowledge on Carl Sagan, it had been a while since he had read his book, or anything about astronomy, he had been a kid back then, fascinated by the stars and everything that was out of reach. “Well, besides being one of the guys who knew most of the stuff about outer space, he was responsible for assembling the first physical messages sent into outer space that’s supposed to be able to communicate with anything else that’s out there.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

“That didn’t work, did it?”

Atlas almost mentioned how no such message had ever reached her, but for once managed to keep her mouth shut and remind herself that no such message was supposed to reach her in the first place. She wasn’t supposed to live in outer space - and even then, as a star, the message wouldn’t have been directed at her. 

Stars could die but weren’t ever alive in the conventional way, and maybe that was what made waking up in a human form most confusing, most frightening. Suddenly there was a beating heart underneath her skin, she was questioning things, feeling things. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

“Why do you know so much about everything? Do you read a lot?”

[stillonfiire-blog]

“Well, don’t get up now. Now you’re here. Now you’re invested. Do you always back down from a fight so easy? It’s not like I pulled a KNIFE on you. Then you’d be scared.” His eyes never left her as he moved around the table and sat down on the opposite side. It felt wrong, and he felt it right away. He was a creature of habit and one stubborn son of a bitch, but he stomached the change. He would, just this once. And why?

Why not? “Go on.” He gestured to the chair, his chair, and began unwrapping his utensils casually, as if they were old friends. “Today, it’s your seat. You can order the Jucy Lucy. Maybe there’s something about sitting in that seat that makes it extra special. Go on, try.”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

She was confused, really. Hadn’t he just asked her to get up because it was his seat? She really didn’t want to take what was someone else’s, after all  she didn’t belong here in the first place. For a moment Atlas hesitated, as if expecting the man to change his mind again and chase her away like a wild animal. He didn’t look that threatening, though, so slowly she sank back down onto the chair, eyes still resting on his face.

The mention of a special seat made her sit up and take notice again. Was that possible? Could seats be special? It looked like any other seat in the room, but what did she know?

Silence for a moment as she just looked at the man and tried to focus on the seat she was sitting on. Nothing. It didn’t feel special at all. 

“What is special about it?”, she dared to ask, her voice almost a little devoutly, as if she had just questioned a sacred thing. 

[blindhim-a-blog]

It was hard not to smile at her, the twitch of his lips making itself known despite how much he tried not to, he had to look away from her again to hide it and even then when he looked back at her that same small smile remained.

“Yeah, they’ve got’em. I’ll show you where they are, save you the trouble of asking if you want.” Cos offered casually, he shrugged at her enthusiasm when he mentioned what books he was there for and tried to brush it off as unimportant.

“I like it, I mean – it’s interesting but doesn’t really have any practical use you know?” not that he knew yet anyway. “It’s okay, and this place has a lot more on it than most others so it’s pretty easy to write about.” Cos claimed, another white lie but the less he seemed interested in the subject matter perhaps the less she or anyone might suspect that it was important.

“Anyway, about Carl Sagan.” Cos gestured down the aisle with raised brows, a wordless suggestion that they start moving.

[noctilucentorb-blog]

“But why wouldn’t there be any practical use? If someone wrote it down there has to be some possibility, or not? Do people often write things down that don’t make sense?”

Okay, maybe she wasn’t too great at being subtle when it came to her lack of  humanity, but everything was so incredibly interesting, luring her, that it was   sometimes hard to remember not to be too enthusiastic. Or well - naive. Right now everything was new to her and equally likely to be completely normal for  humans. 

Atlas quickly dropped the topic as soon as Cosmo mentioned Carl Sagan again. She still wanted to know more about those .. cultural rituals? Cosmo had  mentioned, but she above all wanted to learn more about starts.

So instead of asking again, she instead started moving. 

“Who is Carl Sagan? Can you tell me more about him?”

[stillonfiire-blog]

noctilucentorb liked for a starter

“Alright, look, hey, I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but see, this is my regular table, and that’s my regular seat. This is where my regular server comes, and where I get my regular Jucy Lucy, regularly. I’m not looking for a fight, just thought you should know, that you’re, y’know, in MY seat. Get the picture?”

[noctilucentorb-blog]

Cooking was exhausting, especially when every attempt ended in some  kind of fire that could easily burn down the flat that, at the end of the day, wasn’t even her own. So Atlas had attempted to find some place to eat  that didn’t require her own poor cooking skills, and this was what she  had stumbled upon. 

The moment the man approached her, however, she looked up from the cart, confusion written all over her face, quickly replaced by something  close to guilt.

“I’m sorry, Sir. I wasn’t aware people have regular seats.” She didn’t even doubt his words - after all she was the one who didn’t belong on earth, and if someone who looked as human as he did said that she was sitting on his seat she couldn’t possibly suspect a lie or exaggeration. 

Immediately she got to her feet, reaching for her bag. 

“I’m really sorry.” 

[notamailmanarchive]

"Uncle Jibs? Can we go watch the stars tonight?"

noctilucentorb

“OF COURSE we can. Butyou have to promise me toeat your vegetables for din-ner tonight, yes?”

[noctilucentorb-blog]