18596/Couching the lance.

Couching the lance.
Date of Scene:	16 July 2024
Location:	Aria's Apartment (8A)
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Colin Wilkes, Aria Seraphine

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Colin Wilkes has posed:
Aria and Colin were on the couch, bought and paid for by Aria's secret suffering, it was now a source of comfort. Colin is a cuddlebug. He liked to make himself small and be wrapped up. Aria would be maneuvered into some form of a U or C shape so that Colin could be surrounded enough that the world would be reduced to a cone vector that was only big enough for whatever media device they were watching. Once encapsulated Colin would tolerate just about anything to stay that way. He didn't seem to have an amorous bone in his body, but was somehow more needy in subtle and unspoken ways.

Colin was a barnacle.

Sometimes when Colin laughed he snorted like a piggy.

His hair had a weird chemical smell, that wasn't unpleasant, but definitely was not shampoo. His skin often had this smell too. This smell was particularly pronounced when he was big and chunky, and seemed to be related to his hulking form.

Colin had short and particularly roundish toes. He was bandy and muscly even in his scrawny body, soft to the touch in relaxation, with no skeletal interference.

Colin was mystified by her remote control. He picked it up several times to manipulate it, and then handed it off after the UI on the TV proved too confusing.

"You pick."

Aria Seraphine has posed:
It's unclear how long they'd stayed in the shower before this.

Some historical records say it was a mere 30 minutes of holding each other. Others recount the pair of them staying under the stream of long-sense frigid water until their skin was dangerously shriveled and they nearly died of starvation.

Regardless, they'd now found their way here, dried off and approximately clothed. Colin had been given a robe -- soft and warm and cozy and comforting -- to wrap up in while they waited on their delivery of his new clothes. Aria had likewise dressed, though it was in a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top, and she seemed to have little protest with being the 'C' to his 'olin.'

They manage to find their way into a corner of the cushions, Colin settled between her legs and arms that alternate between loosely wrapping him up and stroking his hair affectionately despite the odor, little kisses planted on top of his head once he was settled into using her chest like a pillow.

Likewise, she's in no rush, and there's no groping for the remote or impatience as he messes with the remote. But once he hands it over, she smiles and works it smoothly, flipping through a few screens until one of the tiles reads simply, 'Dogma.'

The movie opens with a Disclaimer (and a definition of Disclaimer).

Though it'll go without saying ten minutes or so into these proceedings, View Askew would like to state that this firm is -- from start to finish -- a work of comedic fantasy, not to be taken seriously. To insist that any of what follows is incendiary or inflammatory is to miss our intention and pass undue judgement; and passing judgement is reserved for God and God alone (this goes for you filk critics too...just kidding).

So please -- before you think about hurting someone over this trifle of a film, remember: even God has a sense of humor.

Just look at the Platypus.

Thank you and enjoy the show.

P.S. We sincerely apologize to all Platypus enthusiasts out there who are offended by that thoughtless comment about the Platypi. We at View Askew respect the noble Platypus, and it is not our intention to slight these stupid creatures in any way.

Thank you again and enjoy the show.

All of this, followed shortly thereafter, by a man being ruthlessly beaten by a gang of roller-blading teenagers with hockey sticks, and then George Carlin (as a cardinal of the Catholic church in Red Bank, New Jersey) announcing 'Buddy Christ' as a replacement for the 'depressing' crucifix.

Colin Wilkes has posed:
"Oh I get it now." says Colin. It dawning on him that the church changes to meet the times. Wrath of God in the Old Testament to keep people afraid gave way to Hippie Jesus in the new testament to rally people against the Romans.

"Dogma." he said and nodded as he was being doted on, content to absorb every last bit of her affection.

"So what's the new book then?" he wondered, having read the bible and had it smacked into his knuckles in the Orphanage.

"Something on the internet prolly." he mused.

"Aria, will you get married one day and have kids?"

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"I don't actually know what the next widely accepted or appreciated book will be," Aria admits. "The whole notion of belief has changed a lot since the first mutants, the first superheroes, the widely accepted use of magic, Loki's invasion... Michael instigating a war on humanity."

She means the archangel who came down and challenged the entire world... two years ago?

It's that last question that gives her pause. It stills her entire body like a statue. Even her fingers pause their threading through his hair. It was such an intimate and uniquely _mortal_ question that it hadn't even occurred to her that anyone would ask, and she didn't have an explanation prepared. Not one that made sense. Not one that wasn't a lie.

So, instead of lying to a man who she valued so dearly, she decided to tell the truth.

"No," she whispers. "I won't. What about you?"

Colin Wilkes has posed:
Colin gave long consideration, during which he continued to breath slowly and let his eyes glaze over, unfocus a bit.

"No." he agreed.

"I don't think I'm gonna be around long enough for it." he glanced back to her, "It seems nice though, to think about."

"Can we have a brain baby together?" he wondered. "Boy or girl?" he asked her. "What color eyes?" he asked. "Gotta pick a name, thats the hard part."

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"A boy."

It's a soft, sad, wistful sound. A sound filled with the pain of being a woman that was constantly attacked by men -- constantly at their mercy. All the way back to Seraphiel. All the way back to He Who Is, perhaps.

Men hold the power. The leash. The phallus.

"One blue. One green."

She pauses, then hmmmmmms...

After a long few seconds, a smile tugs across her lips.

"Gabe."

Then she tilts her head a little to look at Colin, a bit of mirth playing in her eyes.

"What about you? Would you have a girl, instead?"

Colin Wilkes has posed:
Colin smirked, "Slow down Momma, Gabe will get a sister in a hot minute." he glanced back to catch the look on her face that accompanied the wistful sound, capture it in his mind forever. "Gabe's got your hair color, your lips. He laughs a lot, he's a happy baby. He sleeps good too." he glanced back at the screen, there is an angel on a murder spree; it doesnt really make sense to Colin so he ignores it.

"We call her Milly but her name is Millicent. She has a birthmark on her foot like Achilles because she's immortal, you see one night she gets stolen from her crib and dipped in the river Styx and then returned. Shes got pretty green eyes, shes not a happy baby like Gabe, but shes not sad. She watches people and judges them, because shes basically a better person...or she will be."

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"_Two_ brain babies? What are we, a brain baby mill?"

Aria had been quiet for the whole thing, simply listening to him talk about their imaginary children with a serene little smile on her lips. But when she finally spoke, her voice was colored with gentle playfulness that touched her eyes, and she leaned once, brushing at his hair and placing a kiss against his temple.

"It sounds like we have some pretty special children, though. If you ask me, I think you should make a point to be around for them..."

Once more, her fingers brush across his hair, smoothing it back from where she'd ruffled it, before.

"You'd be a good father."

Not that she had any personal experience to base that on, but she'd watched over plenty of the exceptionally good and exceptionally bad in her time as an angel of mercy.

Colin Wilkes has posed:
Colin explained matter of factly, "You can probably have brain babies in heaven. In fact, I'm guessing your not allowed to make babies in heaven. They seemed pretty uptight about doing it on earth. Most people are at any rate, which is why...me personally? I opted out."

"But, I could adopt. And yeah if I did...if I did, I would be a good father. If you ask me I don't get why anyone would wanna be a bad one. Explain that to me. Or don't."

He swallowed quietly, "Yeah don't." because he had some creeping feeling like she could explain it well enough to kill some part of him. He borrowed her hand and made a ring with his thumb and index finger, then he slid it onto her finger. The wrong finger first, and then "Woops." and backed it off, then put it on the correct finger. "Probably should have married you before Gabe and Milly, but if we delay the announcement, probably keep your reputation intact."

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"Souls are only created in the mortal realm."

The words slip out, soft and warm, before Aria even really has a chance to think about them. And the fact that she said them out loud? Well, that has her stilling for just a moment before she goes back to brushing her fingers through his hair.

"I mean... that would only make sense."

Smooooooth.

The "Yeah don't" from him earns a soft little laugh, though, and she was about to answer his comment about being a 'good father' when he slipped that 'ring' on her finger.

And that shut her up. It brought heat up into her cheeks, her blue eyes watching him with a kind of warm fascination, amusement at his antic of picking the wrong finger, and then settling it on the right one. It's all so... child-like. As if the two of them could just pretend forever like children, playing house, pretending to be husband and wife with their two imaginary kids...

"Good thinking," she muses, still watching him rather than the movie, though her voice is full of playful mirth. "You know how much my reputation means to me. I mean, what would the girls at the club think?"

Colin Wilkes has posed:
"So..." said Colin, trying to start something. "...that guy I mangled up." guilt threaded between his words, holding them together.

He couldn't say killed, didn't want to say it.

"Do you know what a projeenator is? Well I didn't." he said softly, "I got wrapped up in this thing, and now I'm dirty with it." his hands where clean, but bloody in his mind. "He came from somewhere, someone. Someone made him the way that he was. There's others like him. Men that kill for fun."

He started again, "He makes men that kill for fun, but I don't know why or how. I did see him once though, the prahjeenaytir. I saw him giving lessons or something, and then he left and he watched from a roost nearby, he watched through the window. I saw him go in, and then I saw him leave before I went in. I wanted to get him too, but he let out. I followed him on my trike."

"Long time. Out of the city, up into the hills. Lost him in this old town that no one lives in anymore."

"When I got into this thing, I thought street crime would look real normal you know? Like purse snatchers, or maybe some mobsters beatin up a guy for money. Its not though. If you're out there in it, its like a playground for the darkest stuff. There's monsters out there, real live monsters. I don't understand why the most vulnerable people get the worst kind of monsters, but thats all I see out there when I go in to try and do something."

He leaned up and kissed her on the cheek, and then he settled back into place. "I'm sorry for what I did, but...I dunno, I am sorry. But." he was conflicted, he wanted to say the monster deserved to die, because he felt it.

Intuitively though, somehow, he knew that was a slippery slope.

"This old town is real weird. Its all shut down. No one lives there. But that's where the monster went, I kinda feel like to regroup, or to hide or something. I feel like I gotta go back there and face him, he's not just some loose end, he's the beginning of stories that haven't happened yet. Bad ones, where people get cut up and put into dryers. He calls himself the Prajinayter. I asked the guy at the public library what it means, he told me it means the thing that things come from. So he's the beginning of bad things."

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"I'll go with you."

Said the eighteen year old girl -- the recovering heroin addict -- with no super powers to the boy who could turn into a hulk and heal himself. She still hadn't really explained anything about her situation. Not really. Some assumptions could be made, of course, but they might involve thoughts like willpower, saving, rehab, and counseling. Not a single one of those were true.

Or maybe it wasn't even that she was clean. Maybe she just wasn't high _right now_. She didn't have any track marks on her arms, though. So, that meant it had been a while, right?

She'd smiled at the kiss of her cheek and slipped a hand own over his shoulder to settle on his bare chest, just under the hem of the robe. Her hand is soft and cool against his warm skin, but it's also small and delicate with slender, bird-like bones.

"After what I saw tonight, I can't let you go alone, Colin. It's too dangerous. I don't want _you_ getting cut up and put into a dyer, either."

There's conviction in her voice, because this beautiful wisp of a girl seemed to think she had any chance at all of stopping that from happening.

"I'm not about to send the father of my children out into a ghost town by himself to face down someone named the Progenitor."

Colin Wilkes has posed:
"I wouldn't mind so long as my dryer is next to your dryer." he said fondly. Nothing says love like 'Hey girl, lets get murdered together'. He snorted like a piggy, Zoomer humor.

"Gabe and Milly will be super proud to have such brave parents, once they get old enough to stop hating us for not letting them go to the Edging Party at the gun range. In their one piece PeeVeeCee spaghetti string bodices. With their clear heel platforms." he was trying to make a stack, "And assless chaps."

"Brain kids these days, man. Remember when we were kids Ari?"

Aria Seraphine has posed:
"Awwww.. that's the sweetest way I've _ever_ been threatened with dismemberment," Aria croons sweetly. "You really _do_ love me."

Remember, kids, for those playing at home... these two have known each other for exactly two days (and those two days had a month's separation between them). This kind of connection? It _must_ be true love.

Or unconditional acceptance of each other's trauma.

Which is almost the same thing.

"I would have been fine with them going if it was just the clear platforms, especially Gabe. Girls _and_ boys _love_ tall boys. But the assless chaps were a step too far."

She laughs softly. It's more of a huff of air, almost mirthless, but she seems relaxed. She turns and sets her cheek down on the top of his head, letting her hair fall down over one of his shoulders (not the one that would block the TV).

"No," she answers quietly. "I don't. But since you're still a kid, I bet you were just as adorable as you are now."

Colin Wilkes has posed:
"Hey, I'm not a kid." he argued, rising off the couch to saunter away in her robe.

"Its about to get complicated up in here, Aria." he pointed to her, "Your a woman, and I'm a man. That can mean only one thing. I'm tired of beatin' round the bush with you. So my advice to you is to just sit back and let this happen."

He left the living room. Assorted shuffling noises, sounds of minor messes being made.

Colin returned, still wearing the bath robe but the lapel on it was flipped up and the front was open enough to show a rakish amount of chest. He was wearing a pair of Kleenex boxes on his feet for shoes, a pot from the kitchen stove on his head. He'd violated the sanctity of the Bluetooth network on the soundbar under the TV with his phone, and 70's R&B Soul was already piping in.

Colin threw his palm out to one side slowly, gyrating his hips, with the other hand he lifted something that could have easily been a curling iron his lips and with his head tipped soulfully back he to begin mouth the lyrics. The sound bar was maxed out, flooding the apartment with bass and lazy trumpet fanfare.

"o/I guess you wonder where I been? o/"

"o/I searched to find a love within. o/" (edited)

The dulcet tones of Bobby Caldwell, Prince of White Rhythm and Blues complimented by a secondary drum track as the neighbors complain loudly by pounding on the adjoining wall. Now Colin was wagging his hips in counter to his shoulders, some side to side dance move that hadn't been seen in living rooms in forty years.

"o/I came back to let you knoooow.o/"

"o/Got a thing for you, and I can't let go. o/"

Colin is making such a thorough ass of himself that its almost flipping the counter back into positives, he's spinning the dial, its hard to know what's bad and what's good anymore. His commitment is complete, for better or worse he is owning the moment. He might be an eighteen year old virgin with serious mental challenges and a stack of trauma, but by the gods can this kid lip sync.

"o/Some people go around the world for love o/"

"o/But they may never find what they dream of o/"

Colin had his eyes closed, he was moving his hips in a way that's completely unearned, doing slow circles across her carpet shuffling the tissue boxes until they finally slip out and he falls over onto the carpet. Unperturbed he raised his hands up into the air and grooved to the remaining, lengthy instrumental portion of the song.