[Fiction] Pow wow: Fourth of July.

[Ghostwriter]

*I'll live,* Regan psychically whispers, allowing Franklin to help her up. The wings are half-extended behind her, looking fully capable of carrying her weight, and even now the feathers are ruffling in the slight wind.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

She takes all this in. It is a lot to absorb, and it doesn't come quickly. Her flames continue to scorch the air and sky around them as she thinks.

"Well, crap," she eventually says, "I'm going to have to apologize to ronin now."

She paces a little bit. He said he needs her. Many ways to take that. Best not to guess, since she's already assumed wrongly already. She turns to him, no condescension in her eyes.

"You still need me? Do you mean, as in need me to mate with, or in some other way?"

[Wakinyan]

She doesn't leave so he recoils from the flame. Discarding the burning bush and shaking the lingering heat from his paw.

"Of course I want to mate with you." Totem declares with utter honesty. "Nothing changes how I feel." He mutters as he begins licking the heated and tender paw. He moves away from the fire to a more comfortable distance then sits back on his haunches and peers at her. "There are other ways I need you as well." He admits as he continues to treat his burned paw with his tongue.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

Her eyes follow the little burning bush. She draws the flame into herself, as she does it leaps literally off the foliage and funnels through the air to the conflagration around her. Not even smoke remains of the flames on the bush. After all, she reasons, she might actually need to burn it again to get out. No need to waste a good escape route.

"Okay," she says to him. "But do you mean mate as in, you know, just having nookie? Or are you meaning as in having little griffins and marriage? And what about this other woman Bastian was talking about?"

[ronin]

As Sakurako enters her now private quarters, she is somewhat startled to find ronin sitting in the dome already, perched on a bed, his back against the geodesic wall, one arm resting on a raised knee, his head leaning back and eyes staring tacitly to nothing in particular above him. In an uncharacteristicly simple and unvarnished manner, her lover has apparently taken no pains or efforts to dress himself up, hide himself, or disguise his appearance in any way. All that remains of the clothes he wore are a pair of Dickies work pants, shredded to tatters in the conflagration. His body is a jigsaw of scars, decorating his masculine, vascular chest, shoulders and arms and his stern and stubbly chin.

For the first time, Endeavor realizes -- for she can now see it plainly -- that he is missing an eye, and not recently.

"No good deed goes unpunished", he says flatly.

He said it so plainly, so matter-of-fact, that he clearly was not lamenting the misunderstanding that lead to his evacuation from the scene, nor was it tinged with the ironic tones of self-depriciation that ronin sometimes joked in. No, in this case, it was as if he was stating a maxim of his existence. He didn't seek pity for it, nor scorn, nor even understanding. It was simply the way it was for him, and he accepted it as hazard of his vicissitudes.

[Wakinyan]

The large creature stops his self grooming to answer. "Nookie. If you want little ones I guess it is possible. But aren't we supposed to be sterile anyway? Does marriage work with us, can spirits be married? If you wished to be my mate then you bind yourself to me and I you. The laws of man do not judge what we would have for one another."

Dropping down and laying on his side Totem watches the woman with a steady gaze. This part wasn’t something he was prepared for but his resolve to stay honest with her remains. “Over the few months I have grown fond of you and another. Her name is Apep she comes online once in awhile. I don’t know how to explain my feelings about all this Salamander.” He sighs with frustration and bats at a rock sending it sailing into the distance. “I want you both. Just another one of my... compulsions.”

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

The name Apep causes the young girl to stiffen. Her eyes go wide, the stillness in the air now all too-consuming. Everything else he has said vanishes with that word being said aloud.

She forgets saying that she isn't yet ready to be bound to anyone, and that while she is very interested in him, it's too early for them to be discussing that. They haven't even known each other for thirty minutes for crying out loud!

She forgets all of that.

She forgets mentioning that nookie would be okay. Well, it might be okay. She really isn't sure how that would work out with him. The positioning and well, geometry of it all. You know, fitting large things into not so large openings.

She forgets all of that too.

"Apep?" She says in disbelief. "You mean, THE Apep?" She begins rambling. "Does she known about me, about us, about your feelings, about any of this?"

[Wakinyan]

He smells her alarm and knows fear he just isn't sure if all of her doubt is from the name of the other or of the rest of what he spoke. "Yes Apep. She is not different than us Salamander. Just more experienced in the way to be what we should be. She has things to show me about myself things she to has had to deal with. She knows I am fond of her. Two strong unique women I feel for I am not sure how else to put it."

He studies Juri. Dammit he tossed to much on her to fast. He growls in anger at his own stupidity, his tail beating the ground like a drum in anger at himself. "Don't be scared off. Please.." A bit to pleading for such a regal animal but it still sounds heart felt.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

She says only one thing in reply to him, after taking more time to consider what he has told her.

"What do you mean, what we should be?"

[Wakinyan]

"Just self realization I guess. I am kinda not entirely with it myself yet but I guess it is discovering all that you can be. For you to embrace your fire for example or I embrace my animal. She has embraced that which is her power. It may help me accept what I am now to learn from that."

She is afraid of him. Her fire still surrounds and protects her. He cannot blame her but she looks so good within her flame. He shakes it off before it starts again. He cannot let that happen, not yet. Not until she is ready.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

His words make little sense to her. Self-realization is what they should be? Riiiight. She felt that he was trying to describe something that he really hadn't grasped himself yet, but still wanted her to hear. She almost mentions something about the difference in realization for the self-erupted and the quantum accidents, but he hates that term and she doesn't want him to be cross with her.

"Listen," she says softly. "I need some time to mull all this over. It's not that I'm not interested in you, fuck, I was ready to do some serious burninating for you tonight."

She watches him carefully. He's been honest with her, the least she can do is given him the same respect.

"But Apep, I mean, Apep, wow..."

She catches herself. That's no way to speak her mind.

"I'm not scared of you. Apep on the other hand, you'd have to be nucking futs not to be scared of her. Okay, let me rephrase that. I'd have to be fucking nuts not to be scared of her now."

[Wakinyan]

Totem nods slowly. "I guess you're right. She is a force of nature and intimidating. Do as you must do Salamander. I will not think less of you for it.. If you want to stay with me tonight do so. If you wish to go then go. I make no demands."

He settles down resting his head on the earth. "Nothing changed." He grumbles as he watches her. He head still aching as it mends from the war that struck it. He curses to himself for losing her as he is sure he has now.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

It sounds an awful lot like he's making demands to her, but she doesn't want to fight with him. No reason to start further trouble. Truth is, she is thrown by the Apep admission, and is a little nervous about how the Terat girl would jump at this little revelation.

Still, Apep never seemed to kill novas purposelessly, so maybe this wasn't something the young Amerasian should get too worked up about. She supposed they'd cross that little bridge when time came to do it.

Concentrating for a moment, she pulls the great wyrm back into her body. The light and the heat of the area disappear almost instantly, sucked back to the miminal intensity of her much dimmer anima.

It's gotta be worth taking risks for if it's worth possessing at all, she tells herself. Just like her eruption.

She settles down next to the big griffin, leaning against him.

[Wakinyan]

For his rather rough demeanor what happens next is something unexpected. Like a dog settling in for a long nap. Totem coils around her. His body becoming a huge cushion to keep her from having to lay on the ground. Once he accomplishes this he drapes a wing across the girl like a blanket.

"This isn't exactly how I envisioned our first meeting. Yet here we are." His head has come to rest near her side, instinct pushes his beak beneath her right hand asking for her touch with nothing more than body language. He is still breathing her in with ever inhalation but at least now some form of control is asserted.

"Thank you for coming. Even more for staying." He states simply as the two lay in the middle of the rocky hills. Millions of stars twinkling overhead watching them and keeping their secrets.

[Sakurako Hino]

*sigh*

"This is crazy, ronin. Damned Insane! So, what, I gotta be careful when Totem gets the frugging seven year itch now? And..."

She notices the missing eye...

"My god, man, how long have..."

ronin played his cards to the chest very well. Either that or her being so in love with him, and embarassed to express it, that she hadn't allowed herself to measure him up.

She cuts herself off though. Trying not to press on something that could be a sore spot.

"Ronin, You did what you thought was right tonight. I was going in to help, but I have my suspicions someone stopped me."

Her head still throbs from whoever put the leash on her.

"At first I thought it was me freezing up again, but it was from outside."

She looks down at the floor, thumping a wrinkle with her right foot.

"You think some people allowed this to happen?"

If ronin could see her eyes, they're displaying a mix of emotions. Anger, confusion, guilt. She feels she should have tried to help. But she didn't. Even if someone pulled a Jedi mind trick on her she should have been stronger.

[DigiGeist]

After observing things calm down, Digi just sits in the water flustered.

"Bloody hell, it's like babysitting a bunch of psychopaths up in here..."

He falls back and does a dead-mans float, looking up at the stars.

"Damnit. Maybe we are aliens."

[ronin]

ronin waves his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it", he says. "It's best that you didn't get involved. It was a mistake on Codex and Singularity's part that they did. They were very fortunate that Totem was too tied up attacking me to turn his attention to either of them. Neither one of them would have survived Totem like that. And it would have meant lots of dead baselines."

She saw clearly that it wasn't just a matter of saving Juri, whom, despite Sakurako not liking very well at all, she had no desire to see ravaged by a lust-mad Totem. ronin had leapt into the fray as he had because he was arguably the only person in the area that could survive Totem in a full-frontal assault.

For a man so used to seeing people die and understandably numb to the horrors of warfare, ronin was uncharacteristically sensitive to the danger posed by various threats and seemed to go to great pains to avoid needless damage.

Craning his head forward, he gazed over at Sakurako laconically. "Totem, a monstrous nova with no control over himself, went bugfuck crazy in the middle of a crowd of people and surrounded by no fewer than a dozen novas, and not only were there no casualties, the only injuries were Totem, myself and whatever trauma Codex put herself through. I'd call that a goddamned miracle."

[Bastian]

"What... happened?"

Bastian cocks his head like a dog's when Singularity finally speaks to him. After a moment, he straightens up and nods. Before he starts speaking, though, Franklin notices something different about Bastian. The shadows that have criss-crossed his body forming random patterns have solidified and now they are showing Franklin's deepest desires and needs. The moving shadow-images continue to play along Bastian's physique as he talks.

"Okay. Codex tried something that only a skilled empath should have attempted, and only then in extremous."

Bastian gives Codex a 'tut-tut' look, half way between scolding and admiration.

"She took on The Lo ... Totem's emotional storm and swallowed it into her psyche. For now, she has repressed a great deal of it, but I fear she will have ... aftershocks ... for some time. Very brave and crazy, kind of like something I would have done ... if I had thought of it first."

Bastian gives the two Utopians a michevious grin.

"Singularity, there are a handful of things ... memories, or emotional connections, that are strong enough for someone in Codex's state to hang onto. You were one of the few anchors that survived in her mind. This is the only reason I am telling you this, by the way."

Bastian's grin turns into one of defience toward Singularity, probably confirming the reports that Bastian is both insane and/or powerful.

"Betray her trust in you, and you will answer to me ... if she leaves anything of you for me to find, that is."

Turning to face Codex, Bastian bows in the Indian fashion (subcontinent, not Amerind) and says,

{in Hindi}

"Sister, be well," with great solemnity.

Then, he adds with a wink and raised eyebrows,

"Now, I need to find some unattached men and woment for a bit of post-crisis frolicing!"

[Singularity]

The hissing finally stops as the silver torrent falls away from Singularity's open hand, "Rest assured I am the last person she will ever need to fear. And I extend the same warning to you: harm her and there will be nowhere in this existance or the next for you to hide from me." His brow finally relaxes but the intensity in the silver eyes remain, "But... thank you for the information and especially for assisting her. I cannot express my gratitude to you for helping her come back."

His other arm, mindful of her new limbs, unconsciously pulls Codex in a brief half-hug, *He's right, you know. That was crazy but incredibly brave of you to do. Let's find a place for you to sit. We've got a lot to talk about, but that can wait 'til later.*

[DigiGeist]

..."Naah, we couldn't be aliens..."

"I mean, if we were aliens, we wouldn't have been born here..."

He looks into the heavens, starting to observe the detail of the night. A lone shooting star streaks acros the night sky.

"Are we even human anymore?"

[Sakurako Hino]

"I would have just been another casualty then..."

She sits in a well-cushioned computer chair.

"...I would have been no help at all. Whatever was going on was something only Totem could work out."

She thinks about the situation, knowing full well that Totem is changing.

"I would assume then, that Totem is becoming more of an animal than a person inside an animal's body?"

It's upon that realization, that fear creeps into Sakurako's mind.

"We are safe now, aren't we?"

[Bastian]

Bastian smiles back over his shoulder.

"Singularity, you are a Utopian, and I am poison to the likes of you, and your shiny 'New Tomorrow'. Follow your fate and I will follow mine. I help you because you are a novas, my brothers and sisters, and no other reason. I know that when we leave here, we will be enemies again. If you believe in what they want you to believe in, there can be no other way. You must try to stop me ... kill me if you must."

For a moment, a terrible wave of sadness eminates from Bastian. He cheers up again, quickly enough.

"Still, today we worked together and did good things. Today is a good day."

Bastian heads off into the crowd, moving around some people and through others until he is out of sight.

[Ghostwriter]

*Thank you for your help, Bastian,* Codex sends telepathically as the telempath takes himself off into the crowd. *I... cannot condone all of what you believe in and do, but know it was in part you who set me on the path that led me here... Even if it was the path you and Ashnod were not hoping I'd take.*

She leans against Singularity's arm. "Let's go speak to Sakurako. I have a feeling I'm going to need a new knee-brace."

*Sakurako-chan, may I speak with you a moment?* she asks telepathically. *I think I owe you and ronin an explanation of what's gone on... And I think I'm going to need another knee-brace, please. My centre of balance... has shifted. You'll see what I mean soon.*

[Singularity]

Singularity nods and begins to help the newly feathered Codex towards Sakurako's dome, "Possibly. Hopefully she will be able to modify your existing brace."

They cross through the crowd, garnering several looks of surprise and whispered comments. Singularity ignores the crowd's reactions, focusing on Codex's well-being, "I am simultaneously frustrated you did something so dangerous and immensely proud of you for doing something so brave and selfless. And as much fear and worry you put into me with giving me a final farewell, I know it was your choice to make and I do not want you to think I am holding it against you or lecturing you. I know you would not berate me if I fought Tank or Very Bad because I thought it was the right thing to do."

They reached the sealed dome with the sign and Singularity stops the pair before the door. He gives her a gentle hug with the arm supporting her and cracks his first smile since Totem took to the air, "And do not think we are done talking because we have reached Sakurako. You opened a can of worms earlier and I am not going to let be."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako's look of disgust can be easily seen.

"I have one moment with myself and someone I... *sigh*"

"Codex I... Hrm... This sounds important. And if you need to see Ronin... I really don't know if it's a good time but... Alright."

She opens the airlock doors, from the dome lighting leaking into the night of the fairgrounds, she sees Codex. She has... Feathers?

"Sorry for the interruption, Ronin, but we have some important visitors that need to speak with us."

[Ghostwriter]

"Don't worry, this will be quick," Codex says as she enters, wings still half-extended and leaning on Singularity's arm.

"To be short and blunt about it, I mind-blasted Totem because I didn't know what to do, then absorbed all of his mental turmoil into myself, then got help from Bastian, then sprouted these wings because of the quantum flows." Her voice is wearily but still strong. "I felt you two were owed an explanation, and I'd like to please trade you for a new knee-brace later, Sakurako. That's all I wanted to say."

[Sakurako Hino]

"Hrm, then who held me back?"

Sakurako's thoughts trail for a moment.

"This really isn't my business between you and Ronin. But I will help with a new brace. It is all a friend like I can do."

She thinks looking at her fabrication equipment.

"It should be ready in a couple days."

[Great Monster C]

Leonard Hoffman continued his circuit around the group of children and adults he had gathered up during the fracas. "It's okay now. The noisy people have stopped rough-housing and it's time to just have fun again." His calming presence was hammering away at his audience with and invisible but undeniable force. "Remember everyone, if you get mad, don't yell, don't scream, just count to ten and talk out your problems."

[ronin]

ronin passively views Codex and Singularity out of his one good eye. "That was exceptionally brave and exceedingly foolish, both of you. You handled yourselves very well." It is neither praise nor scorn, the way he says it. ronin knows battle, and he says these things as though they are simple truths, which is how he in fact perceives them. "For your own sake and mine, please don't interfere like that again. I'm impressed by your impact on Totem, but you have caused yourself a great deal of strain in so doing, and it is strain that could have been avoided if you simply left the situation in my hands." Already realizing the potential for misinterpretation of his words in the way of egocentricity, he adds, somewhat quieter than before, "That isn't hubris. Combat is what I am, and I know it better than you. Still, for your part, I thank you. Both of you. You exhibited exemplary grace under pressure."

He cracks his knuckles absently, clearly distraut about something.

[Bastian]

**Sister, it is our nature that one will be darker, so that the other is closer to the light. I love our disagreements, even though I fear they will end up in blood. We must grow, and sometimes that means violence. Our differences don't make us any less siblings, but more so.**

[Ghostwriter]

Codex nods to ronin. "Blame the T2M training," she says with a weary, rueful half-laugh. She then glances at Sakurako. "Thanks. Got anything that will need de-aging?" she asks. "I don't think I'll be able to manage it in the next few days, but I should be fine in a month or so."

[Jager]

Snow Owl waited quietly as the hunters began driving the deer before them. She, and four other Ogala, had joined Pale Wolf on this hunt for Mule Deer. He had even convinced them to forgo their Compound bows and firearms for primitive weapons they had personally constructed.

Snow Owl’s grip on her birch shaft tightened, but she remained otherwise unmoving. Beside her, Marcia … Still Elk, waited in equal silence. She felt instead of heard Pale Wolf arrive beside her. The man was truly unnatural in his silence. It was as if the land and air parted to let him pass. She didn’t turn to look at him, but remained focus on the way ahead, like he had taught her. Pale Wolf pointed to a gap in the foliage, and then shifted his hand to hold up two fingers. The fingers shifted again, first showing one, then two. He wanted them to go after the second deer.

As she finished that thought, she realized he was gone. Eerie, but now the noise of several somethings moving through the trees seized the total of her attention. Some of the noises would pass off to her left, beyond Still Elk. She ignored those and stayed focused on the trail that separated her from her partner. Suddenly, two deer came into view, moving at a steady gate, but far from panicked. They bounded toward the two girls, oblivious of their presence. The first one, a young adult female perhaps, raced between her and Marcia. The second one, and older female, came up behind her, slightly more winded.

Like a flash, Snow Owl caught Still Elk’s flinch as she started her lunge up toward the deer. Snow Owl was already stabbing up with her spear as well. The old deer tried a last minute leap to rise above her sudden attackers, but it was too late. Snow Owl felt her flint tip pierce the deer’s side and blood splatter onto her face and neck. The deer’s momentum stole the spear from her grasp, but she caught Still Elk keep hold of hers and spin with the deer as it fell. Instantly, Snow Owl drew her knife and fell upon the stumbling deer’s back. She grabbed hold of the ears, twisted the head, and brought the knife down into the deer’s neck. More blood flowed and the animal fell.

In that moment, Snow Owl could feel the deer’s spirit passing through her, with all its strength and natural wisdom. She found herself instinctively howling up at the sky and brandishing the bloody knife over her head. The other Ogala took up the howl as they came running up. Marcia was still looking down at the deer they had killed, her eyes wide in wonderment. This was the first death of any kind she had witnessed.

The deer had been butchered and carried back to camp. The hunters had all rehashed the hunt several times and gone over their roles in it, and even discussed what other roles they wanted in the next hunt. Snow Owl caught Pale Wolf watching it all in silence. He smiled, but kept the source of his happiness to himself. Snow Owl decided to see if she could find out more about this stranger-than-strange white man.

“Why didn’t you join in?” she asked.

“This was for you, Owl, not me. What did you think about killing at such close quarters?”

“It was different. I’m used to shooting deer with my .30-.30, but this felt … I don’t know … more real. More like what my ancestors must have felt like.”

Pale Wolf nodded. “Though, they did it to survive, much like you do ever day. I don’t doubt that if they had had the option of guns instead of spears, they would have opted for the guns. Anything else?”

Snow Owl paused for a second then jumped in, “I felt as if the deer’s spirit moved through me at the moment of its death. I’ve never felt like that before, either. Normally, its like going to the grocery story. It’s all about getting the food. It’s a chore. This was something I haven’t felt before.”

Pale Wolf nodded, but said nothing.

“Also, it was … I dunno … odd and nice to be working with others. To think that we all had to do our job and cooperate to get the hunt done, made me feel more like a tribe than anything else I’ve done. I had to rely on others for the hunt to work.”

Again, Pale Wolf nodded.

“So,” Owl continued, “what were you doing while we did all the work?”

The words carried not recriminations in them, only the question.

“I watched. All I did was accomplished before the hunt began.”

“Nova stuff?”

“Something like that. I helped you feel closer to your tribesfolk, as they felt closer to you. The rest was all you.”

“Did you make me feel the deer dying?”

“Nope. That was all you as well. Certainly I feel there is something special about the hunt. Something spiritual, if you look for it. I’m glad you had that moment, though.”

Snow Owl stared at him for several seconds. She realized that he didn’t meet her gaze. Still, he was so heartbreaking in his beauty. The longer she stared at him, the more she penetrated the mask he wore around himself like a shroud.

“I like you,” she said.

“I know.”

“We could go and do something.”

“Thanks, but I shouldn’t.”

“Is it because I’m only human?”

“Ha … no. I’m seeing someone else right now, and I wouldn’t want to hurt her.”

She felt the hurt deep down inside her.

“Truthfully?”

Now, he looked at her. He looked deep into her eyes, and she felt the depth of his gaze. To her, it was the cross between a nuclear inferno and an endless expanse of ice, all rolled up into one impossible entity. She felt very cold, and suddenly afraid.

Pale Wolf reached out and stroked her arm and smiled. She felt fire race through her. She also felt an endless confidence pour out of him and into her. Not a sense of invulnerability, but one of importance and self-worth, as if she really mattered in the affairs that moved the universe.

“Why … why are you here? Among us? I …”

“We are all important, Snow Owl. Most people never realize how special they are. They are too caught up in measuring themselves by someone else’s life, they forget the importance of their own.

That bit at her. Not because it was something new, but because she really felt as if he meant every word he said. As if he was not only being honest with her, but he was being honest with the whole world. She wanted to ask him other things. Dozens of thought began whirling in her mind. She moved to speak, but suddenly noticed him spiraling up in a fluid motion and then head off, unnoticed by everyone but her, into the darkness.

“But …”

“Because the most important answers are your own,” the darkness answered back.

[Sakurako Hino]

"...It's on the house, this time."

Sakurako smooths out a wrinkle in the hinopolymer floor.

"Just don't have your wings grow larger..." Sakurako chuckles.

[DigiGeist]

As DigiGeist finally climbs out from the lake, he hears GMC's little speech.

"Oh brother. That's right, the furry blue one is here. The Cookie Monster wannabe..." He mutters under his breath. More pissed at looking like a drowned elvish goth than anything.

He sloshes over towards... whatever catches his attention.