Sprint Event 9: Nine in Culture

Mothers:

"Al, I need to tell you something, and I need you to be chill, okay?" Zeldine grabs me by the shoulder as she returns.

"Uhh, is this about you screaming in the bathroom?" I ask, worried that the neighbors may have heard too.

"Noo... yees? Ugh okay. Just... I think I might be pregnant!" Zeldine looks at me with a nervous grin.

"Why do you think you might be pregnant?" I ask uncertainly.

"I... took a test, okay? There was some signs and... that doesn't matter. But it's just one test, right? That doesn't say anything, right?" Zeldine starts speaking faster than I can follow.

"Woah, stop - STOP! You took a test and it was possitive?!" Okay, now she has my attention. "You're with fucking child, Zel!"

"No, I can't be! I'm not ready to be a mom!" she starts fidgeting with her fingers. "It has to be faulty, right?"

"I mean, by all means, take another test, but you said so yourself - there were signs, and then a possitive test on top of that..."

"No, no, nonono! This is not how it's supposed to happen!" Zeldine stands up and heads into my bedroom, where she plops down on the bed.

"Not how it happens? You fuck all the time, Zel - guess where babies come from!" I say, following her. "Oh my god, who's the father?"

"I don't know okay? This is something that happens to happy couples in villas with cars and jobs and... hedges. I don't have any of those things, Al!"

"Well better stop trimming the bush then," I joke.

Inspiration:

"Oh my God, you made this yourself?" I ask impressed?

"Yeah, I mean gothic shit is expensive, but with enough scraps and cloth, I can just make shit myself," Kass smiles. "I know you don't really wear much black, but I thought you'd look good in it."

"Good? I'm gonna look amazing!"

"Go on, try it on then! It may need some small adjustments, but I have to see you in it to know."

"Right now? Yeah, sure!" I say, and start disrobing, "I'm really grateful, Kass."

"Let's just see it on first," she laughs warmly.

"Is this right?" I say turning around, looking down at myself. "Man, you've gotten really good at sewing."

"Thanks! I mean, I should be at this point, right?" Kass smiles before looking me up and down with a thoughtful look. "Your thighs are getting to muscular... Looks a bit roomy on top."

"Yeah, Zeldine thinks I should get implants, but I really down care that much."

Attaining Knowledge:

"So, I've actually been pretty busy at Evergreen. I'm trying to learn sejd," Kass explains.

"Really? That's pretty cool, I guess. I mean, I guess I don't really know applicable it is... or what you can actually do with it, but something, right?" I start rambling.

"Yeah, I mean, I kinda started in hope that I could get some... glimpses of the future or whatever."

"What, like lottery numbers?"

"That'd be practical," she laughs dryly. "No, I just need to know... about myself mostly."

"I-is this still about her?" I ask carefully, watching her.

"Yeah, I mean - why wouldn't it be? Everything is about her," Kass sighs and pull up her legs to hold them in her arms. "Whenever I shower, that water feels so good - too good, but she comes flashing back. I just- I need to be certain I won't change... become like her."

"Well, I mean, how would you? You'd have to actively do the sigrsblót ritual."

"I know that," she snaps. "I- I'm sorry... I know that, but... Look, I'm not saying it's rational or anything, I just have to do more to put my mind at ease, okay?

Rebirth/Nine Lives:

"Where are we at on the whole afterlife thing nowadays - rebirth?"

"I dunno. I mean many heavens have been debunked, so who's to say, really," I say, passing the joint. "I guess rebirth is as good an idea as any."

"Maybe I would be a boy next time around - can you imagine?"

"You'd be the biggest fuckboy in history, Zel," I laugh. "I honestly don't think the world could handle it."

"Oh shit, I totally would - like, if anything carries over," she joins in.

"Well, I mean, something has to, right? Else it's not really reincarnation - then all you are is just the body, and the soul is just the battery or whatever."

"Woah, that's deep..." Zel mutters, blazed out of her mind. "Am I just the body... Then I wanna keep the body, like, forever - stay young like the Asir. I have to find out how..."

"Well, they have that magic fruit or something, right? That's the legend at least."

Hell:

I stand in a field of reeds. Alone. I take a step, and as soon as the foot lands, I get a flash.

Step one - I'm holding Zeldine in my arms. Froth is gathering around her mouth as she's convulsing. There's nothing I can do as she becomes limp in my arms. Not enough time to save her. I scream to the heavens.

Step two - Kass, but she is no longer the Kass I know - she has become what she always feared. I'm standing above her, smashing her head in with a rock, while she pleads for me to stop behind thos jagged teeth. She only stops pleading long after her face has become a mess of blood and bone.

Step three - I'm no longer in a field, but on a silent battlefield. I arrived too late to stop it. I walk between corpses of feyfolk and humans, dead by each others' hands. Brynja's body lies heavy in the mud, her stomach full of gunholes - her eyes empty.

Step four - I know that uniform. I run over and turn the body of Falk. His chest caved in from a heavy hit with a hammer - the hammer. Mjolnir.

Step five - Another set of bodies. Thor's children. Modi. Magni. Thrud. Cut down and apart with a sword. My sword. Magni's head rolls to my feet. I lift it up. His eyes turn to me, and his mouth speaks: "You did this - You did this."

The others' voices join in - Lív, Mia, Oliver, Leo - everyone I have ever met come closer, repeating it: "You did this - you did this - YOU did THIS!"

"NOOOOOo!" I scream as I sit up in my bed. A dream. A nightmare.

Worlds:

"So, is this part of Otherworld too? Or are there, like, other worlds?" I ask him.

"Who really knows? Otherworld is known as a vast world, right? Like are the places we hear about in Otherworld even connected by land or are all of them their own world? Maybe 'Otherworld' just an umbrella term for a lot of smaller places," he answers.

"Woah, that's... I dunno how to even grasp that idea." I think he just blew my mind. "But you are... from here, right?"

"I'm from a fey grove too, actually. Not Evergreen... I came here looking for my 'human' family, and then I just... found my way down here," he says with a soft smile and kind eyes.

"To be... a courtesan?" I ask, feeling bad about prying, but I have to know what this thing is about. "The Queen's welcoming committee?"

"I was asked to come here and offer myself to you only in the capacity you want me to be."

Dragons:

"Is it just me or is Noodle looking smaller?" I ask Zeldine as I get my little bundle of love out of his terrarium.

"I guess so? He didn't just shed his skin or anything?" Zeldine asks, studying him up close.

"No, and that's, like, to become bigger - not smaller," I say concerned. "I mean, should I take him to a vet or something?"

"What? No, just look at his happy little head - he's perfectly fine, even if he does change size a little!" Zeldine dismisses and starts talking to him in a baby voice: "You are just fine, aren't you, Noodle?"

"Ugh, okay. It's not like I'm gonna find out he's not a normal lizard, right Zel?" I ask, as I start wondering.

"What? Noo, not little Noodle here - I mean, look at him - he looks like a perfectly normal iguanna boy," she continues.

"...because he is, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't he be? I mean, you'd have noticed if he was not an iguanna, right?"

"Like changing size?"

"Well, maybe that's uhm..." I can literally see the cogs turning behind those yellow eyes. "Maybe it's something in his environment? Maybe he just makes sure to fit in his terrarium?"

"That is not how that works! Ugh, okay, I'll let it go for now, but if he gets any smaller, I know you're somehow at fault!"