#c'kala

[ivy-rose-walker]

I-Ivy? I'm back...

-Chime

@crystal-chimes

Ivy isn't here right now, Chime dear. What happened? Are you ok?

[ivy-rose-walker]

"So where are you from, anyway? I know it's, like, Eastern Africa but I don't know what country."

"Where are we from, child. Your ancestors are my people."

"Oh, well, yeah, 'course. But I'm from the East End."

"You are from London as much as this El-Ay. Your ancestral home is beautiful, rolling hills where gnu and zebra graze and the people run their goats; pasture keeps and bustling towns, and in the middle, three rivers meet at a massive waterfall, hidden deep in a valley where none but those with the blood of the land in their veins can find it. That is where our snakes live, in the pools beneath the waterfall. That is where you, and all my children come from. Even if you don't remember, the land remembers you."

"That sounds really lovely. I'd like to visit one day. What county is it in, though?"

"It has held many different names over the millennia, but the humans who live there now call it Wakanda."

[ivy-rose-walker]

Why are you?

Hmm.

C'kala considers the question.

Why does the sun shine and the moon glow? I am me because people need me, child.

[ivy-rose-walker]

There is a shimmer in the air, and the fabric of reality zips open. Through it steps a woman, then the rift closes again with a tinkle of gold dust and scales falling to the ground at her feet.

She carries herself high and regal, rather than the relaxed slouch Ivy usually wears on this frame. Though she is reserved, she commands deference. She's draped in a vibrant black and red pattern, lines and symbols that span millennia dancing in the ruffles and folds. The gold at her wrists and neck match the scales that crust the edges of her dark, buttery skin and climb up to coat the two large horns curling back into her green dreadlocks. Her gaze, as is flicks around the street, glows golden and hot, the bright sun of her homeland burning through the slits of her lids.

C'kala* steps onto the pavement outside Lux, breathing deep and smiling at the sunny warmth of LA. She's here because Ivy isn't. Because, after the time away, their past caught up with them on their most recent trip back to London. Old hurts and fears came unburried, old rivals came out of the woodwork, and it was too painful to face the broken, jagged pieces of their old life.

So C'kala did what she does, and took over. She protected them, her daughter, her kin. She and her snakes did what needed to be done, but it was too much for Ivy, this time.

Rest now, child. I'll keep you safe. Stay inside. Stay protected. I'll get you home.

C'kala protects. She holds what is hers close: her kin, her people. And if anyone tries to hurt her people, she breaks them. Simple as that.

Since Ivy is not ready to come out yet, C'kala will check in on Ivy's people, here, in her new home across the water.

*Pronounced "click-kah-lah"

Divider from @saradika-graphics

//open RP, feel free to interact here or send an ask. Ivy will be answering as C'kala for the time being.

C'kala is a made-up east-African diety based on an amalgamation of ideas. She is not meant to represent a real cultural tradition, but I have attempted to avoid negative and racist tropes in her creation. If you see any representation problems please call them out and help me learn.