"It is hopeless! She has the grace of a Bosk! Anubis is not going to find any of this arousing! He is going to think she is injured and have his priests pray over her!"
"Master,", Myr gently chided with a giggle. "She is learning."
I wasn't learning. Brutin was right. It was hopeless.
I had no grace. My movements were janky and discombobulated. The only thing I was going to be able to inspire in Anubis was concern.
Just like the day he met me and mooning over him, I forgot how to speak.
Now I was going to serve him Lotus wine?
There was no way this would work.
"And now she's breaking my mother's pottery! It's been in my family for ages!"
His normally deep voice hit a high note. Myr winced. So did I.
The decorative Cosian clay bowl had been on my head and I had been trying to balance it but just now it had fallen on the ground and shattered.
Brutin looked like he had sucked on a lemon. His face was all pruned.
We didn't talk about his mother.
It was a sore subject.
After he killed his father in single combat he sold his mother into slavery.
Believe it or not, that was the better of the two options he had.
Don't judge him.
What he had to do that day was something no one would have the nerve to do.
Still he had some sort of emotional attachment to that bowl.
I couldn't replace it.
He hadn't yet come round to the idea of sending me to Gor to learn how to dance.
He was considering it he said.
That had been seven months earlier.
I had asked him for permission to go.
He nearly had a stroke.
We had not discussed it since.
Myr teaching me was the compromise.
As I turned to apologize and began cleaning up the broken pottery, I saw Myr move on her belly, crawling to the drink cart.
Her movements were not rushed. They were slow and sensual. She was swimming across the floor.
When she would hand him something she would punctuate each motion with a snap of her wrist so that the bells she wore would ring.
It was notable.
I watched her in amazement.
I then looked to him.
He seemed as if in a trance.
He had forgotten all about me and I was standing not two feet from them.
He took the brandy she offered and threw it to the side. And then he captured her by the waist and brought her down into the furs he was lying on.
I quickly got out of there.
Myr would have to teach me another day.
She would have to teach me how to make Anubis react the same exact way.
I would not accept anything less.
((As played with LrdBrutin and XMyritqaX ))
I'm Thinking About Ending Things
Moderator: Staff
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
"Absolutely not!" Ashe screamed and threw his beer bottle clear across the room.
"ASHER PLEASE!" I whined.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack, because if you are, you're doing a good job of it! No!"
"It's just pretend! I just need to practice on you! Now stay still!"
"Woman, you are outside your mind! More than usual! If the boss finds out that you are on your knees, I'm as good as dead!"
"Diesel slammed the door in my face, but Nok laughed before he did the same! I can't ask anybody else! No one's here!"
"Did you ever think they ran away from YOU?!"
"That's not nice. Come on, focus."
"Have I lived a good life? Did I accomplish everything that I set out to do?"
"ASHEEEEEER"
"Fine! Hurry up! Oh man, I'm going to regret this. Why do I listen to you? Why do I let you lead me along as if on a leash? I'm the slaver here!"
"Because you love me."
"Love you! I want to kill you! You know we had a great life before you showed up! You have made everything demonstrably worse around here!"
I giggled. "You don't mean that."
"I absolutely do! Oh, don't start taking off your clothes! COME ON!"
"It has to be authentic!"
"First, the boss is going to break all the bones in my body, and then Anubis is going to wait for them to heal and break them all over again."
"He's not going to know!"
"He better not! Oh, those are nice."
"See? I knew you'd like playing pretend with me."
"I don't like any part of this. You're like my kid sister!"
"Just lay back, close your eyes, and think of England!"
"WHAT?! OH. Oh yeah. That's the ticket. Ugh."
"How is it? Good?"
"It's phenomenal! Where the hell did you learn how to do that?!"
"Myr taught me!"
"I never thought I would say this, but I want to be Anubis Karos every damn day for the rest of my life. You're telling me you did this to him and he had no reaction?!"
"I haven't done it yet."
"Oh, he's going to be pleasantly surprised. Lucky bastard."
"Do you really think so?"
"I KNOW so. Don't stop."
"It's supposed to be pretend, Asher!"
"I'm pretending. I'm pretending the HELL out of this."
"So how would you rate me? On a scale from one to ten?"
"Wait, you're DONE? I saw stars. Ten out of ten. You have GOT to teach my girl this."
"I will, I promise, although I am out of massage oil, so can you pick up some from the store tomorrow, please?"
"Yes, I'll buy their whole stock just as soon as I can start walking again. Can we pretend again tomorrow?"
I giggled, kissed him on his cheek, and left to stay at Uncle Dave's house.
I would NOT be pretending with Uncle Dave.
Nor was I going to inform him I had just massaged Ashe.
He'd kill him too.
((As played with VxAshexV - You devil. <3 * grin * ))
"ASHER PLEASE!" I whined.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack, because if you are, you're doing a good job of it! No!"
"It's just pretend! I just need to practice on you! Now stay still!"
"Woman, you are outside your mind! More than usual! If the boss finds out that you are on your knees, I'm as good as dead!"
"Diesel slammed the door in my face, but Nok laughed before he did the same! I can't ask anybody else! No one's here!"
"Did you ever think they ran away from YOU?!"
"That's not nice. Come on, focus."
"Have I lived a good life? Did I accomplish everything that I set out to do?"
"ASHEEEEEER"
"Fine! Hurry up! Oh man, I'm going to regret this. Why do I listen to you? Why do I let you lead me along as if on a leash? I'm the slaver here!"
"Because you love me."
"Love you! I want to kill you! You know we had a great life before you showed up! You have made everything demonstrably worse around here!"
I giggled. "You don't mean that."
"I absolutely do! Oh, don't start taking off your clothes! COME ON!"
"It has to be authentic!"
"First, the boss is going to break all the bones in my body, and then Anubis is going to wait for them to heal and break them all over again."
"He's not going to know!"
"He better not! Oh, those are nice."
"See? I knew you'd like playing pretend with me."
"I don't like any part of this. You're like my kid sister!"
"Just lay back, close your eyes, and think of England!"
"WHAT?! OH. Oh yeah. That's the ticket. Ugh."
"How is it? Good?"
"It's phenomenal! Where the hell did you learn how to do that?!"
"Myr taught me!"
"I never thought I would say this, but I want to be Anubis Karos every damn day for the rest of my life. You're telling me you did this to him and he had no reaction?!"
"I haven't done it yet."
"Oh, he's going to be pleasantly surprised. Lucky bastard."
"Do you really think so?"
"I KNOW so. Don't stop."
"It's supposed to be pretend, Asher!"
"I'm pretending. I'm pretending the HELL out of this."
"So how would you rate me? On a scale from one to ten?"
"Wait, you're DONE? I saw stars. Ten out of ten. You have GOT to teach my girl this."
"I will, I promise, although I am out of massage oil, so can you pick up some from the store tomorrow, please?"
"Yes, I'll buy their whole stock just as soon as I can start walking again. Can we pretend again tomorrow?"
I giggled, kissed him on his cheek, and left to stay at Uncle Dave's house.
I would NOT be pretending with Uncle Dave.
Nor was I going to inform him I had just massaged Ashe.
He'd kill him too.
((As played with VxAshexV - You devil. <3 * grin * ))
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
"There's my little angel!" Dave said and scooped me up into a hug.
I giggled and kissed him on his cheek. "Hi Uncle Dave! Can I stay with you tonight, or is Kita here?"
"Yes, you may, and she is here. She's making us tacos! Kita! Make a little more, Tara just showed up!"
Kita was Dave's first girl.
She was a good friend.
She was also a fairy like my Jewellsie.
The tacos were good. Kita was explaining how she made it, and then Uncle Dave asked me what I had been up to.
So I told him about my training.
And then he began choking on his taco.
"If I know Anubis, he is not going to like any of this, Tara."
"He has to, Uncle Dave. I've tried everything!"
"If you show up in bells and pleasure silks, he's going to lose his mind. He doesn't view you like that."
"I don't think he views me as anything. Have you seen the way he acts around me? He stares!"
"I have, many times. Anubis knows quality when he can see it. But he also knows that he can't go around grabbing at it."
"I'm not trying to be his slave. I'm trying to get his attention!"
"What you need is a good Harley."
"A what?"
"A motorcycle. You get on one, and you ride up to his palace, and you say, 'Hop on the back, Anubis! Let's go for a ride!' By the end of it he'll be in love with you, I will walk you down the aisle, and that'll be the end of this saga, once and for all."
"How is that going to make him fall in love with me?!"
"I love my Harley."
"I know you do, but... What?!"
Kita and I were laughing. Uncle Dave was a trip.
He bought me a Harley motorcycle and had it painted purple.
It said Tara on the front.
And on the back was painted THE TERROR.
Kita spoke next.
"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, Tara."
I perked up.
"How so?"
"If you want Anubis to pay attention to you, you have to cook him a good meal. You have to make it with love."
"I like making love," Uncle Dave said and began to paw at Kita.
I rolled my eyes with a giggle.
He had a one track mind.
I looked to the tacos. They were good, but this wasn't the kind of food that my Anpu was accustomed to.
I did not think he would eat them.
"Why don't you take this cookbook of mine, and when you get home you can try out a few recipes, and maybe Abubis will like them."
I thanked her.
We watched a horror movie. Three on a Meat Hook. Then I fell asleep on the couch.
The next morning, when I woke up, both Dave and Kita were gone.
There was an envelope with money in it on the coffee table.
Dave called that my allowance.
It was enough to pay a mortgage on any one of my homes.
Next to it was a key and a note.
It said:
"I was planning on giving it to you for your birthday, but since you're hell bent on all of this, I might as well give it to you now. Drive slow. Don't kill Anubis.
I love you, kiddo.
He does too. Just be patient. He'll come around.
See you soon.
Love, Uncle Dave."
Out back was the motorcycle.
Azzy had, for years, tried to teach me how to drive his Azmobile, which was a souped-up go cart. But I just kept crashing it.
Tareth said that he loved when I came around, but he did have to take blood pressure medication just to prepare. He was forced to watch Azzy teach me how to drive. Tareth said it wasn't "pretty."
Did he really have to take that medication, you think, God Simon?
I never saw him take any pills.
Azzy said I cost him more money than all of his prior girlfriends combined because every other week the Azmobile was in the shop.
Because of me.
I looked at the motorcycle with confusion.
I didn't know how to drive.
I needed a teacher for that too.
Where exactly was I going to find one of those?
((As played with OneTuffSOB and FaerieKita))
I giggled and kissed him on his cheek. "Hi Uncle Dave! Can I stay with you tonight, or is Kita here?"
"Yes, you may, and she is here. She's making us tacos! Kita! Make a little more, Tara just showed up!"
Kita was Dave's first girl.
She was a good friend.
She was also a fairy like my Jewellsie.
The tacos were good. Kita was explaining how she made it, and then Uncle Dave asked me what I had been up to.
So I told him about my training.
And then he began choking on his taco.
"If I know Anubis, he is not going to like any of this, Tara."
"He has to, Uncle Dave. I've tried everything!"
"If you show up in bells and pleasure silks, he's going to lose his mind. He doesn't view you like that."
"I don't think he views me as anything. Have you seen the way he acts around me? He stares!"
"I have, many times. Anubis knows quality when he can see it. But he also knows that he can't go around grabbing at it."
"I'm not trying to be his slave. I'm trying to get his attention!"
"What you need is a good Harley."
"A what?"
"A motorcycle. You get on one, and you ride up to his palace, and you say, 'Hop on the back, Anubis! Let's go for a ride!' By the end of it he'll be in love with you, I will walk you down the aisle, and that'll be the end of this saga, once and for all."
"How is that going to make him fall in love with me?!"
"I love my Harley."
"I know you do, but... What?!"
Kita and I were laughing. Uncle Dave was a trip.
He bought me a Harley motorcycle and had it painted purple.
It said Tara on the front.
And on the back was painted THE TERROR.
Kita spoke next.
"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, Tara."
I perked up.
"How so?"
"If you want Anubis to pay attention to you, you have to cook him a good meal. You have to make it with love."
"I like making love," Uncle Dave said and began to paw at Kita.
I rolled my eyes with a giggle.
He had a one track mind.
I looked to the tacos. They were good, but this wasn't the kind of food that my Anpu was accustomed to.
I did not think he would eat them.
"Why don't you take this cookbook of mine, and when you get home you can try out a few recipes, and maybe Abubis will like them."
I thanked her.
We watched a horror movie. Three on a Meat Hook. Then I fell asleep on the couch.
The next morning, when I woke up, both Dave and Kita were gone.
There was an envelope with money in it on the coffee table.
Dave called that my allowance.
It was enough to pay a mortgage on any one of my homes.
Next to it was a key and a note.
It said:
"I was planning on giving it to you for your birthday, but since you're hell bent on all of this, I might as well give it to you now. Drive slow. Don't kill Anubis.
I love you, kiddo.
He does too. Just be patient. He'll come around.
See you soon.
Love, Uncle Dave."
Out back was the motorcycle.
Azzy had, for years, tried to teach me how to drive his Azmobile, which was a souped-up go cart. But I just kept crashing it.
Tareth said that he loved when I came around, but he did have to take blood pressure medication just to prepare. He was forced to watch Azzy teach me how to drive. Tareth said it wasn't "pretty."
Did he really have to take that medication, you think, God Simon?
I never saw him take any pills.
Azzy said I cost him more money than all of his prior girlfriends combined because every other week the Azmobile was in the shop.
Because of me.
I looked at the motorcycle with confusion.
I didn't know how to drive.
I needed a teacher for that too.
Where exactly was I going to find one of those?
((As played with OneTuffSOB and FaerieKita))
Last edited by Tara on Sun Apr 26, 2026 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
For its entire existence room 187 at the RhyDin Insane Asylum belonged to me.
I never stayed there but Max wanted me to feel like I had a place to stay if I ever got kicked out wherever I was staying at the time. Because I got kicked out. A lot.
Mad Max.
He was the proprietor of the asylum.
He murdered the doctor who used to run it and no one ever went there to put Max back in the cell.
So Max took over.
He was my very good friend.
But he was insane.
I just pretended to be.
You have to understand God Simon, I was surrounded by lunatics.
They were raising me.
They tied people up and put them in chains.
When I first met them all I was a kid.
So this was my coping mechanism.
Being crazy.
Max really was.
He was the one who taught me how to drive the Harley-Davidson motorcycle which Dave had purchased for me.
But I couldn't drive the motorcycle in El Kab where Anpu was!
It was surrounded by sand.
It was in the desert.
So I had to practice in the insane asylum.
And unfortunately because there were a lot of inmates there I ran a good portion of them over with it.
It couldn't be helped.
They all stood in the hallways all day, moaning like ghosts.
I just knocked them all down like bowling pins.
Some of them survived.
Max thought this was hilarious.
You know I guess I didn't really think about it till now but why didn't Max leave?
He had all the keys.
Why did he stay there so long?
Maybe in a strange way Max was more comfortable there?
Maybe if he had come to the SA with me and saw the actual lunatics I worked withk, he might have felt as I did.
Out of place.
Even though I was technically their boss.
I was never one of them.
They did try to make me feel at home and for that I am grateful.
The SA is where I met my Anpu.
So that's a plus.
The chair in my office there was made for me by Max.
I lost touch with him but I never replaced that chair.
Probably still there in that pink room with all the filing cabinets , full of dust.
Like my memories.
I have so many.
I thought about asking Anpu to take me back there just to see what it looked like.
One more time.
But I don't know if I could handle it.
The girl I was then is no more.
He is not the same either.
We are changing God Simon.
And, that is the only thing which scares me now.
I never stayed there but Max wanted me to feel like I had a place to stay if I ever got kicked out wherever I was staying at the time. Because I got kicked out. A lot.
Mad Max.
He was the proprietor of the asylum.
He murdered the doctor who used to run it and no one ever went there to put Max back in the cell.
So Max took over.
He was my very good friend.
But he was insane.
I just pretended to be.
You have to understand God Simon, I was surrounded by lunatics.
They were raising me.
They tied people up and put them in chains.
When I first met them all I was a kid.
So this was my coping mechanism.
Being crazy.
Max really was.
He was the one who taught me how to drive the Harley-Davidson motorcycle which Dave had purchased for me.
But I couldn't drive the motorcycle in El Kab where Anpu was!
It was surrounded by sand.
It was in the desert.
So I had to practice in the insane asylum.
And unfortunately because there were a lot of inmates there I ran a good portion of them over with it.
It couldn't be helped.
They all stood in the hallways all day, moaning like ghosts.
I just knocked them all down like bowling pins.
Some of them survived.
Max thought this was hilarious.
You know I guess I didn't really think about it till now but why didn't Max leave?
He had all the keys.
Why did he stay there so long?
Maybe in a strange way Max was more comfortable there?
Maybe if he had come to the SA with me and saw the actual lunatics I worked withk, he might have felt as I did.
Out of place.
Even though I was technically their boss.
I was never one of them.
They did try to make me feel at home and for that I am grateful.
The SA is where I met my Anpu.
So that's a plus.
The chair in my office there was made for me by Max.
I lost touch with him but I never replaced that chair.
Probably still there in that pink room with all the filing cabinets , full of dust.
Like my memories.
I have so many.
I thought about asking Anpu to take me back there just to see what it looked like.
One more time.
But I don't know if I could handle it.
The girl I was then is no more.
He is not the same either.
We are changing God Simon.
And, that is the only thing which scares me now.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
I vacillate between wanting Tetra dead and knowing that I can never touch her because I promised him I would not do so.
Can I bring myself to think of the way he loved her?
Do I dare go there?
To that unnameable place of wanton despair?
Utter ruination is where that is.
What he might have whispered in her ear.
My jealousy is profound here.
I am so so so so angry.
I am curious about her.
What qualities she possesses that she could even begin to be my equal?
What does she have that I lack?
Where am I deficient?
Would he have married her?
I know it is unfair of me to place these burdens upon him when I ask these questions when we are alone.
He's careful not to reveal too many details because he fears what I might do.
He fears the moment in which he may not be able to defuse my power.
To be unable to quench the fires inside of me that his love and patient attention to all of my intricate details over the years, has consistently fed, and which will spill out all over his little slut the second I lay eyes on her.
Thinking of hurting her is orgastic.
I have such fantasies where she is concerned.
He has only loved two other women aside from me.
Do I have a right to take that from him?
Yet he has had to suffer the indignity of watching many men love me over the years?
With very few exceptions he has never stopped me.
If anything he has been patient.
I think it is because he knew what the inevitable outcome would be. It's just he had to wait for me to catch up.
That we would always end up together even though we spent so many years apart.
Even if my resolve wavered he always knew.
I prepare now for our wedding.
Not for the conclusion of our storied love affair.
But for its renewal.
Do you want to know why I chose New York to go to God Simon?
I could have gone anywhere.
I have been all over the universe on many planets.
I can walk in and out of Time thanks to the creature inside of me.
I have taken the face of many lascivious women over history.
Delilah
Salome
Sheeba
Even the goddess Ishtar in my seat of power: Babylon.
I have floated through the cosmos.
I have traversed not one but all of the underworlds.
In hell my throne is encased in concertina wire.
That is where I sit in my Hall of Sorrows, when I am not here, with all of you.
That is where I sit with every legion of Hell at my command.
But when he told me to come to terms with my immortality I remembered something I had been told.
About New York.
So I went there to check it out.
There is a museum there.
It is called the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Art.
Tsh.
It has my life in it. Which is not art.
Inside the museum there is an exhibition on Anubis.
The modern meat puppets seem to have realized they should honor him in some way.
Duh!
Along with the Book of the Coming Forth by Day, or in the common parlance of the puppets, The Book of the Dead, there are scrolls and papyri.
And on one papyrus there are words which I confess I had not memorized prior.
Since they do not exist anywhere else in any world, I had to go there, to read them.
Those bastard puppets dug it all up out of the sand from whence it came and put it in fucking plastic!
My love's provenance and the love of his people for him are sitting under neon lights in a museum in New York.
It's outrageous.
This is why his relationship with Tetra is so very painful to me.
Because I went there for him!
I have told him that I had a brief affair with Asmodeus in New York and it hurt him.
But it was a mistake.
I did not fall in love with Asmodeus though!
And I wasn't there for Asmodeus. He had followed me there.
I was there for Anpu.
It's just Asmodeus kept me there for so long.
For ten years.
He got me sidetracked.
But eventually I did wake up out of my spell and I went to the museum finally.
To read the words and commit them to memory so that I could say them to Anpu on our wedding day.
Because there is no one alive now who can read them and say them, save me.
Did she once bother to learn his mother tongue? NO!
She wasn't even alive then!
I fucking was!
Well, part of me, was.
And he is the only one who can hear them.
These words will reach him.
They must.
Across time and space.
They will reach him and hopefully he will accept me.
As his mate.
These words and not the Dance of the Six Thongs or any other thing that I have done to get his attention throughout all of this time will finally convince him.
He does not know this.
Please don't tell him.
I want it to be a surprise.
Can I bring myself to think of the way he loved her?
Do I dare go there?
To that unnameable place of wanton despair?
Utter ruination is where that is.
What he might have whispered in her ear.
My jealousy is profound here.
I am so so so so angry.
I am curious about her.
What qualities she possesses that she could even begin to be my equal?
What does she have that I lack?
Where am I deficient?
Would he have married her?
I know it is unfair of me to place these burdens upon him when I ask these questions when we are alone.
He's careful not to reveal too many details because he fears what I might do.
He fears the moment in which he may not be able to defuse my power.
To be unable to quench the fires inside of me that his love and patient attention to all of my intricate details over the years, has consistently fed, and which will spill out all over his little slut the second I lay eyes on her.
Thinking of hurting her is orgastic.
I have such fantasies where she is concerned.
He has only loved two other women aside from me.
Do I have a right to take that from him?
Yet he has had to suffer the indignity of watching many men love me over the years?
With very few exceptions he has never stopped me.
If anything he has been patient.
I think it is because he knew what the inevitable outcome would be. It's just he had to wait for me to catch up.
That we would always end up together even though we spent so many years apart.
Even if my resolve wavered he always knew.
I prepare now for our wedding.
Not for the conclusion of our storied love affair.
But for its renewal.
Do you want to know why I chose New York to go to God Simon?
I could have gone anywhere.
I have been all over the universe on many planets.
I can walk in and out of Time thanks to the creature inside of me.
I have taken the face of many lascivious women over history.
Delilah
Salome
Sheeba
Even the goddess Ishtar in my seat of power: Babylon.
I have floated through the cosmos.
I have traversed not one but all of the underworlds.
In hell my throne is encased in concertina wire.
That is where I sit in my Hall of Sorrows, when I am not here, with all of you.
That is where I sit with every legion of Hell at my command.
But when he told me to come to terms with my immortality I remembered something I had been told.
About New York.
So I went there to check it out.
There is a museum there.
It is called the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Art.
Tsh.
It has my life in it. Which is not art.
Inside the museum there is an exhibition on Anubis.
The modern meat puppets seem to have realized they should honor him in some way.
Duh!
Along with the Book of the Coming Forth by Day, or in the common parlance of the puppets, The Book of the Dead, there are scrolls and papyri.
And on one papyrus there are words which I confess I had not memorized prior.
Since they do not exist anywhere else in any world, I had to go there, to read them.
Those bastard puppets dug it all up out of the sand from whence it came and put it in fucking plastic!
My love's provenance and the love of his people for him are sitting under neon lights in a museum in New York.
It's outrageous.
This is why his relationship with Tetra is so very painful to me.
Because I went there for him!
I have told him that I had a brief affair with Asmodeus in New York and it hurt him.
But it was a mistake.
I did not fall in love with Asmodeus though!
And I wasn't there for Asmodeus. He had followed me there.
I was there for Anpu.
It's just Asmodeus kept me there for so long.
For ten years.
He got me sidetracked.
But eventually I did wake up out of my spell and I went to the museum finally.
To read the words and commit them to memory so that I could say them to Anpu on our wedding day.
Because there is no one alive now who can read them and say them, save me.
CAN TETRA READ ANCIENT HIERATIC?!
Did she once bother to learn his mother tongue? NO!
She wasn't even alive then!
I fucking was!
Well, part of me, was.
And he is the only one who can hear them.
These words will reach him.
They must.
Across time and space.
They will reach him and hopefully he will accept me.
As his mate.
These words and not the Dance of the Six Thongs or any other thing that I have done to get his attention throughout all of this time will finally convince him.
He does not know this.
Please don't tell him.
I want it to be a surprise.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
"Teach me that thing you do with yer wrist, please," I said, smiling at Myr.
She smiled in return and reached for my hand. "May I, Mistress?" she asked, tentatively.
"Myr, you know you do not have to call me that. I asked Boss, told him, I do not like it. He gave you permission to call me by name."
She nodded. "I am sorry, Tara."
"And, you don't need permission to touch me either," I said, frowning.
I loved her as much as Brutin did. I trusted her, implicitly. We spent the most time together at the SA. The idea that she had to crawl about on the floor, like an animal, was upsetting to me.
Brutin and I had had a huge fight over it.
I threatened to quit.
We were screaming so loud Nok ran to come get me and take me away.
In the end, he relented.
Myr could act "normal" around me, but ONLY me and ONLY in private.
He's probably still pissed at me to this day over that.
Too bad.
You can't tell me I get to run your kingdom and then micromanage or critique the way I run it.
If you didn't trust me, you shouldn't have let Sonya step down.
And put me in her place.
So there.
"Hold your wrist like so," Myr said and showed me by placing her hand over mine. "You're too tense. Relax. He will sense you are tense and will become guarded with his emotions," she said.
I stared at her in astonishment. "What? What did you jus' say?"
"I said he will," she started to say but I cut her off.
"He is VERY guarded with his emotions!"
"Master Karos is not like the other Masters, Tara. He expresses himself differently than other men," she said and straightened my wrist.
"Myr, are you saying that because I'm tense, I could be causing some of the way he behaves towards me?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying, Tara. You can only see how he reacts to you but you cannot see what HE sees when he looks at you."
"You have seen us together. What do YOU see?"
"You're a nervous wreck around him. He may think his presence is causing you to be this way. He might think he is doing something wrong. Or, that you do not want him anywhere near you. You do NOT act the same way with other men and he also sees that. Also, the way you greet him needs some work," she winced with a shrug.
"How do I greet him?!" I was horrified at what I was hearing.
"You...are not warm. Very business-like. 'Lord Karos'. But then you write him love letters or try to flirt with him. Do you see where this might be confusing to him?"
"That is how I greet him!"
"Yes, and, how does he greet you in return?"
"He says my full name, Lady Rynieyn."
"He mirrors the way you greet him. Why not call him Anubis?"
"Because that's not his name," I said and shook my head.
"What do you mean?"
"That's what the Greeks call him. His name is Anpu," I said, proud I had done my research.
She smiled. "Then THAT is what you call him from now on. I think you'll be surprised."
"I can't jus' go up to him and kiss him, right? I don't think he'd like that."
"No, but you can be a little more relaxed and flirty. Stop TELLING him how you feel and start SHOWING him and maybe he might just kiss you instead?"
She was a genius.
But I began to cry.
Because by the time this happened, this business of Anpu and I not knowing how to communicate had been going on for a number of years.
It got a little better when I went to live with him and his father but his jealousy increased tenfold.
I was on guard the entire time I was there.
But that night, I was still living at the SA and Anpu didn't seem like he wanted to spend a lot of time around me.
He would always show up though?
Thinking back, I know, for a fact, Myr was right.
It's just at the time I couldn't see past my own stupidity.
She helped me.
She taught me the wrist-snap so that the liquid in the glass didn't spill a drop.
She taught me how to communicate with my eyes.
She taught me that floor-swimming thing she did that drove Brutin wild.
She taught me how to refine my movements so that they were exotic and sensual.
She taught me how to apply my makeup.
How to choose the right perfume.
What to wear to attract him, not anger him.
For two years, she taught me.
Almost every day.
It was torture waiting to try it out on my target but I knew if I didn't spend the time then, I never would.
Two years came and went like lead.
It was rough but I got through it.
I thanked her profusely.
Because I seemed happy, Brutin was happy that I was happy as were all of the boys. I had been making them miserable.
Then came the night that I would finally get to do the things she had shown me.
A letter arrived at the SA from Anpu.
He was inviting me to a play and dinner.
I waited until the day before the play to have a courier deliver my response to his manor.
Myr had said I needed to not drop everything and be with him. I had to create "healthy" tension. Suspense. Intrigue. Get him curious. Would I say yes or no?
The day of the play, I would not come out of my room. Brutin was screaming at me from behind the door.
"Get in that bath, get dressed and get your ass out here! You are GOING!"
"I can't do this, Boss! You go!"
"I am not going with Anubis to a play and dinner! You are making all of us insane with this! GET IN THAT BATH RIGHT NOW! You have one hour, Sweet Thang, or I'm taking this door off its hinges!"
I got in the bath.
The slaves helped me get dressed.
I was going out of my mind with fear!
The Boss, the boys, the rest of the slaves were all waiting in his office for me when I had finished getting ready.
When I walked in, Brutin came to a stand first.
The rest of them did too, save the slaves. They were on the floor. Like animals.
Ridiculous.
"Sweet Thang," he said and I heard him gasp.
"You are biased," I said and rolled my eyes.
Nok whistled first.
Then Ashe.
Then Diesel.
Then Gunner.
Then Azzy.
I forget who else was in his office that night. I was on auto-pilot.
Dave came in a few minutes later, jerking his thumb behind him. "Anubis is waiting in the hallway. Looks like he's going to vomit. Poor boy."
My eyes opened wide.
Dave held me by the shoulders. Kissed me on my forehead. That's what all of them did. It was infuriating.
"You're going to be fine, Angel. You're going to knock his socks off. Just go and have a good time. Be yourself. You are MY niece, remember," he said and gently shoved me towards the door.
I looked to Myr.
She winked.
I winked back.
Then I looked to Brutin. I thought he looked like he might cry.
"Go," he said, hoarsely. "Don't come back without a marriage proposal or I'm going to kill you both."
I giggled and walked out into the hallway.
I saw him at the far end.
Even from this distance, he did look nervous, but he also looked smoking hot.
Myr's voice was in my head as I walked. "Walk with purpose, but slow it down. Make him believe your hips sway for him. That he is your only destination."
And, that is how I walked to him.
I saw his face change.
He almost had the same look Brutin had the night I broke his mother's clay bowl.
When I got to him, he held his arm out. "You look...ravishing," he said.
My cheeks burned!
Ravishing!
The most I ever got out of him was a second look, never that word!
Myr's voice again. "Don't speak over him. Don't overpower the conversation. Remember, he needs to convince you he is worthy. Make him work for it. Subtle is your game. Keep him coming back for more."
I took his arm, wordlessly.
His face changed again. Surprise. I was never NOT talking to him. "I purchased an opera box for us," he said and helped me into the limo.
The ride there, I didn't say a word.
I listened to what he said.
The play was lovely. I did enjoy myself. But I was hungry.
At dinner, I did speak more and he seemed to relax more every time I did.
When dinner concluded, he asked if I would join him back at his manor.
My heart almost exploded.
Now Brutin's words rang in my mind.
Come back with a marriage proposal or I'm going to kill you both.
"I would like that, yes," I said softly.
He smiled.
I did not. I looked at him for a few seconds and then looked out the window.
Subtle.
When we got back to the manor, we sat by the fire.
I forget what we were drinking.
Two big chairs, side by side.
I don't know why I couldn't sense it but as I was sitting in the chair and he was doing the same, he gently pulled me by the waist into his lap.
I chirped in surprise.
Tensed.
Myr's words again. If he senses tension, he will react accordingly. You want to be with him, don't you? Show him. Don't tell him.
I instantly relaxed and smiled at him.
"Was the play and dinner to yer satisfaction?" he asked and was kissing my fingers.
"Yes, they were, thank you, Anpu," I said. I was dying. It wasn't the kiss on the lips, I wanted, but it was close enough.
His lips were frozen on my hand.
His eyes found mine. They softened. He had liked that I had said his name!
He hadn't moved.
My eyes were flickering.
Oh boy.
"I am glad, my Beautiful One," he said, and then he kissed me at the corner of my lips.
He did this for years.
It was mental.
I didn't faint this time though.
And, I got the pet name he has called me ever since, that night.
No marriage proposal.
But we were officially dating.
One goal down.
Plenty more to go.
All hail, Myritqa!!!!
She smiled in return and reached for my hand. "May I, Mistress?" she asked, tentatively.
"Myr, you know you do not have to call me that. I asked Boss, told him, I do not like it. He gave you permission to call me by name."
She nodded. "I am sorry, Tara."
"And, you don't need permission to touch me either," I said, frowning.
I loved her as much as Brutin did. I trusted her, implicitly. We spent the most time together at the SA. The idea that she had to crawl about on the floor, like an animal, was upsetting to me.
Brutin and I had had a huge fight over it.
I threatened to quit.
We were screaming so loud Nok ran to come get me and take me away.
In the end, he relented.
Myr could act "normal" around me, but ONLY me and ONLY in private.
He's probably still pissed at me to this day over that.
Too bad.
You can't tell me I get to run your kingdom and then micromanage or critique the way I run it.
If you didn't trust me, you shouldn't have let Sonya step down.
And put me in her place.
So there.
"Hold your wrist like so," Myr said and showed me by placing her hand over mine. "You're too tense. Relax. He will sense you are tense and will become guarded with his emotions," she said.
I stared at her in astonishment. "What? What did you jus' say?"
"I said he will," she started to say but I cut her off.
"He is VERY guarded with his emotions!"
"Master Karos is not like the other Masters, Tara. He expresses himself differently than other men," she said and straightened my wrist.
"Myr, are you saying that because I'm tense, I could be causing some of the way he behaves towards me?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying, Tara. You can only see how he reacts to you but you cannot see what HE sees when he looks at you."
"You have seen us together. What do YOU see?"
"You're a nervous wreck around him. He may think his presence is causing you to be this way. He might think he is doing something wrong. Or, that you do not want him anywhere near you. You do NOT act the same way with other men and he also sees that. Also, the way you greet him needs some work," she winced with a shrug.
"How do I greet him?!" I was horrified at what I was hearing.
"You...are not warm. Very business-like. 'Lord Karos'. But then you write him love letters or try to flirt with him. Do you see where this might be confusing to him?"
"That is how I greet him!"
"Yes, and, how does he greet you in return?"
"He says my full name, Lady Rynieyn."
"He mirrors the way you greet him. Why not call him Anubis?"
"Because that's not his name," I said and shook my head.
"What do you mean?"
"That's what the Greeks call him. His name is Anpu," I said, proud I had done my research.
She smiled. "Then THAT is what you call him from now on. I think you'll be surprised."
"I can't jus' go up to him and kiss him, right? I don't think he'd like that."
"No, but you can be a little more relaxed and flirty. Stop TELLING him how you feel and start SHOWING him and maybe he might just kiss you instead?"
She was a genius.
But I began to cry.
Because by the time this happened, this business of Anpu and I not knowing how to communicate had been going on for a number of years.
It got a little better when I went to live with him and his father but his jealousy increased tenfold.
I was on guard the entire time I was there.
But that night, I was still living at the SA and Anpu didn't seem like he wanted to spend a lot of time around me.
He would always show up though?
Thinking back, I know, for a fact, Myr was right.
It's just at the time I couldn't see past my own stupidity.
She helped me.
She taught me the wrist-snap so that the liquid in the glass didn't spill a drop.
She taught me how to communicate with my eyes.
She taught me that floor-swimming thing she did that drove Brutin wild.
She taught me how to refine my movements so that they were exotic and sensual.
She taught me how to apply my makeup.
How to choose the right perfume.
What to wear to attract him, not anger him.
For two years, she taught me.
Almost every day.
It was torture waiting to try it out on my target but I knew if I didn't spend the time then, I never would.
Two years came and went like lead.
It was rough but I got through it.
I thanked her profusely.
Because I seemed happy, Brutin was happy that I was happy as were all of the boys. I had been making them miserable.
Then came the night that I would finally get to do the things she had shown me.
A letter arrived at the SA from Anpu.
He was inviting me to a play and dinner.
I waited until the day before the play to have a courier deliver my response to his manor.
Myr had said I needed to not drop everything and be with him. I had to create "healthy" tension. Suspense. Intrigue. Get him curious. Would I say yes or no?
The day of the play, I would not come out of my room. Brutin was screaming at me from behind the door.
"Get in that bath, get dressed and get your ass out here! You are GOING!"
"I can't do this, Boss! You go!"
"I am not going with Anubis to a play and dinner! You are making all of us insane with this! GET IN THAT BATH RIGHT NOW! You have one hour, Sweet Thang, or I'm taking this door off its hinges!"
I got in the bath.
The slaves helped me get dressed.
I was going out of my mind with fear!
The Boss, the boys, the rest of the slaves were all waiting in his office for me when I had finished getting ready.
When I walked in, Brutin came to a stand first.
The rest of them did too, save the slaves. They were on the floor. Like animals.
Ridiculous.
"Sweet Thang," he said and I heard him gasp.
"You are biased," I said and rolled my eyes.
Nok whistled first.
Then Ashe.
Then Diesel.
Then Gunner.
Then Azzy.
I forget who else was in his office that night. I was on auto-pilot.
Dave came in a few minutes later, jerking his thumb behind him. "Anubis is waiting in the hallway. Looks like he's going to vomit. Poor boy."
My eyes opened wide.
Dave held me by the shoulders. Kissed me on my forehead. That's what all of them did. It was infuriating.
"You're going to be fine, Angel. You're going to knock his socks off. Just go and have a good time. Be yourself. You are MY niece, remember," he said and gently shoved me towards the door.
I looked to Myr.
She winked.
I winked back.
Then I looked to Brutin. I thought he looked like he might cry.
"Go," he said, hoarsely. "Don't come back without a marriage proposal or I'm going to kill you both."
I giggled and walked out into the hallway.
I saw him at the far end.
Even from this distance, he did look nervous, but he also looked smoking hot.
Myr's voice was in my head as I walked. "Walk with purpose, but slow it down. Make him believe your hips sway for him. That he is your only destination."
And, that is how I walked to him.
I saw his face change.
He almost had the same look Brutin had the night I broke his mother's clay bowl.
When I got to him, he held his arm out. "You look...ravishing," he said.
My cheeks burned!
Ravishing!
The most I ever got out of him was a second look, never that word!
Myr's voice again. "Don't speak over him. Don't overpower the conversation. Remember, he needs to convince you he is worthy. Make him work for it. Subtle is your game. Keep him coming back for more."
I took his arm, wordlessly.
His face changed again. Surprise. I was never NOT talking to him. "I purchased an opera box for us," he said and helped me into the limo.
The ride there, I didn't say a word.
I listened to what he said.
The play was lovely. I did enjoy myself. But I was hungry.
At dinner, I did speak more and he seemed to relax more every time I did.
When dinner concluded, he asked if I would join him back at his manor.
My heart almost exploded.
Now Brutin's words rang in my mind.
Come back with a marriage proposal or I'm going to kill you both.
"I would like that, yes," I said softly.
He smiled.
I did not. I looked at him for a few seconds and then looked out the window.
Subtle.
When we got back to the manor, we sat by the fire.
I forget what we were drinking.
Two big chairs, side by side.
I don't know why I couldn't sense it but as I was sitting in the chair and he was doing the same, he gently pulled me by the waist into his lap.
I chirped in surprise.
Tensed.
Myr's words again. If he senses tension, he will react accordingly. You want to be with him, don't you? Show him. Don't tell him.
I instantly relaxed and smiled at him.
"Was the play and dinner to yer satisfaction?" he asked and was kissing my fingers.
"Yes, they were, thank you, Anpu," I said. I was dying. It wasn't the kiss on the lips, I wanted, but it was close enough.
His lips were frozen on my hand.
His eyes found mine. They softened. He had liked that I had said his name!
He hadn't moved.
My eyes were flickering.
Oh boy.
"I am glad, my Beautiful One," he said, and then he kissed me at the corner of my lips.
He did this for years.
It was mental.
I didn't faint this time though.
And, I got the pet name he has called me ever since, that night.
No marriage proposal.
But we were officially dating.
One goal down.
Plenty more to go.
All hail, Myritqa!!!!
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
We were at the Red Dragon Inn.
I forget why but our friends were with us. Some festival or something. They were having a great time. We were NOT.
This was right before we got engaged.
Our social schedule was still full in those days. I couldn't keep up.
I was in my throne. Third seat from the right at the bar. That was mine. Sit in it at your peril.
Panther one night called it that, said it looked like I was "holding court" when I sat in it.
The name stuck.
Anpu sat in a chair he situated across from me. He dragged it loudly across the floor, lifted it and then set it down hard on the floor.
Oh, so the Game was on again?
He did not look pleased. I knew what he wanted but I was not going to give it to him.
We had had a fight earlier in the evening and I was still stewing over it. The things he said to me at home were replaying in my mind.
I wanted him to feel as I now felt. Wounded.
Everyone else was partying around us but the real fireworks were about to start.
He sat and kept staring at me over the rim of his goblet. I wasn't saying anything.
While my silence in the early days made him feel more comfortable opening up to me because I wasn't talking over him, many years had passed since and now my silence pissed him off.
He'd pause, bring the goblet to his lips, watching me. It always amazed me and does, still, how he can keep so calm?
He had called me a child at home. He said other things, too.
I called him an ass.
Since we had to go out we put the fight on pause. We would resume it later. I couldn't WAIT. Neither could he as evidenced by the looks he was giving me.
I reached for my wine, rolling my eyes at him.
He gripped the armrest of the chair.
I saw this and rolled my eyes a second time.
"Why are you not in my lap right now?" he asked softly, glaring at me. This was the first test. See if I would bite. If not, it would escalate from there. He does not give me inch, he will usually give me a mile before his loses it.
I can make him just so crazy, you wouldn't believe it, God Simon.
"Because I do not want to be near you right now," I said, glaring right back at him.
This was how I punished him. By withholding affection.
This is my currency with him.
In normal human males, this is mildly upsetting. They get over it.
But, as I've described what his lap and my proximity to it represents, it is especially painful for him.
He does not get over it.
He hurled the goblet across the room, suddenly.
It is no different from the thousands of goblets he has thrown over the years.
But, I was the child?
It hit an old woman in the head.
"Nice," I said, another roll of my eyes. "Why don't you set the whole place on fire? Really get yer point across? Show them how uncivil you can be when I deny you. For someone who wouldn't touch me for a hundred years, you sure get upset about it when you cannot touch me now. I think you should wait a hundred years now."
Some people sitting by her rushed to help her.
The party-goers were quite loud so not many noticed what he did.
"I do not wait. Come here. I will not ask again," he said, tapping his fingers now on the armrest.
Anubis is not a man to cross or tease. Do not play at his affections. He is not me.
Brutin's words.
In my head.
I kept my eyes on him. I was starting to cry.
"No," I said. "You are not touching me."
He upended the table nearest us.
"Hey, hey, let's take it easy, you two," some complete moron interjected.
Take it easy. Tsh. This was "easy".
I didn't think the moron would want to see what Anpu and I thought of as "hard".
"Mind your own business," Anpu said to them and looked back to me.
"An' you mind yers," I said and sipped my wine.
He reached for me.
I slapped his hand away.
He frowned. "Do you love me or are you infatuated with me?"
My lip began to tremble. Infatuation, please. When I was mortal, perhaps. This was a near sickness now. He was a contagion for which there was no cure nor would I seek one were there to ever be.
"Infatuation would make you want to hurt me, love would make you abhor the idea."
"I might ask you the same question, slaver," I spat at him. I only called him that when really angry.
"We both know the answer to that question," he said, softening slightly. He still had that authorative tone. The one I challenge every chance I get.
"Men who love their girlfriends ask them to marry them. What's the rule for Gods and goddesses? How many millenia must pass before a proposal is given, hmm?" I said with a sneer.
And, that did it. I had spent all my currency. His patience was now exhausted.
"Get in my fucking lap! NOW."
Everyone had heard that.
It got quiet.
Real quiet.
No one had ever heard him raise his voice and definitely never to me.
They also had never heard him use any sort of swear word.
They should live with us. They'd get an earful.
Our fights are epic.
We know every swear word in every known language.
I didn't look at them, I couldn't.
He had won.
Again.
I rose, smoothed my dress down and sat in his lap. My true throne.
"You always win, do you not?" I asked as I settled against him, seething, with my arms crossed.
I looked around the Inn. People were still staring. I waved them off.
He brought his lips to my ear, kissing me there. "You will forgive me before the night is over."
"I said you are not touching me," I turned my cheek but he kept kissing me.
"We will see about that," he said with a chuckle. He was pleased with himself.
"If I give in, do I get my ring then or must I wait another seven millenia?"
"You will give in," he crooned, his tongue tracing my ear now.
"It had better cost you a fucking fortune," I whispered as I leaned into his embrace, my eyes closing.
"I can afford it," he continued his kisses and caresses.
"I want you destitute," I moaned.
"I am sure you do," he replied. In my ear. In my head. It echoed in my SOUL.
I was dying all over again.
He commands all of me.
But I got my ring two weeks later.
It had cost a fortune.
The diamond, a black diamond, is worth more than this miserable town, a hundred times over.
It was found in a slave mine in Sierra Leone.
He went there to fetch it himself.
That was eleven years ago, God Simon.
A drop in the bucket.
His word as I said to you earlier, is Law.
He does not lose.
And, he was right.
I forgave him all night.
I forget why but our friends were with us. Some festival or something. They were having a great time. We were NOT.
This was right before we got engaged.
Our social schedule was still full in those days. I couldn't keep up.
I was in my throne. Third seat from the right at the bar. That was mine. Sit in it at your peril.
Panther one night called it that, said it looked like I was "holding court" when I sat in it.
The name stuck.
Anpu sat in a chair he situated across from me. He dragged it loudly across the floor, lifted it and then set it down hard on the floor.
Oh, so the Game was on again?
He did not look pleased. I knew what he wanted but I was not going to give it to him.
We had had a fight earlier in the evening and I was still stewing over it. The things he said to me at home were replaying in my mind.
I wanted him to feel as I now felt. Wounded.
Everyone else was partying around us but the real fireworks were about to start.
He sat and kept staring at me over the rim of his goblet. I wasn't saying anything.
While my silence in the early days made him feel more comfortable opening up to me because I wasn't talking over him, many years had passed since and now my silence pissed him off.
He'd pause, bring the goblet to his lips, watching me. It always amazed me and does, still, how he can keep so calm?
He had called me a child at home. He said other things, too.
I called him an ass.
Since we had to go out we put the fight on pause. We would resume it later. I couldn't WAIT. Neither could he as evidenced by the looks he was giving me.
I reached for my wine, rolling my eyes at him.
He gripped the armrest of the chair.
I saw this and rolled my eyes a second time.
"Why are you not in my lap right now?" he asked softly, glaring at me. This was the first test. See if I would bite. If not, it would escalate from there. He does not give me inch, he will usually give me a mile before his loses it.
I can make him just so crazy, you wouldn't believe it, God Simon.
"Because I do not want to be near you right now," I said, glaring right back at him.
This was how I punished him. By withholding affection.
This is my currency with him.
In normal human males, this is mildly upsetting. They get over it.
But, as I've described what his lap and my proximity to it represents, it is especially painful for him.
He does not get over it.
He hurled the goblet across the room, suddenly.
It is no different from the thousands of goblets he has thrown over the years.
But, I was the child?
It hit an old woman in the head.
"Nice," I said, another roll of my eyes. "Why don't you set the whole place on fire? Really get yer point across? Show them how uncivil you can be when I deny you. For someone who wouldn't touch me for a hundred years, you sure get upset about it when you cannot touch me now. I think you should wait a hundred years now."
Some people sitting by her rushed to help her.
The party-goers were quite loud so not many noticed what he did.
"I do not wait. Come here. I will not ask again," he said, tapping his fingers now on the armrest.
Anubis is not a man to cross or tease. Do not play at his affections. He is not me.
Brutin's words.
In my head.
I kept my eyes on him. I was starting to cry.
"No," I said. "You are not touching me."
He upended the table nearest us.
"Hey, hey, let's take it easy, you two," some complete moron interjected.
Take it easy. Tsh. This was "easy".
I didn't think the moron would want to see what Anpu and I thought of as "hard".
"Mind your own business," Anpu said to them and looked back to me.
"An' you mind yers," I said and sipped my wine.
He reached for me.
I slapped his hand away.
He frowned. "Do you love me or are you infatuated with me?"
My lip began to tremble. Infatuation, please. When I was mortal, perhaps. This was a near sickness now. He was a contagion for which there was no cure nor would I seek one were there to ever be.
"Infatuation would make you want to hurt me, love would make you abhor the idea."
"I might ask you the same question, slaver," I spat at him. I only called him that when really angry.
"We both know the answer to that question," he said, softening slightly. He still had that authorative tone. The one I challenge every chance I get.
"Men who love their girlfriends ask them to marry them. What's the rule for Gods and goddesses? How many millenia must pass before a proposal is given, hmm?" I said with a sneer.
And, that did it. I had spent all my currency. His patience was now exhausted.
"Get in my fucking lap! NOW."
Everyone had heard that.
It got quiet.
Real quiet.
No one had ever heard him raise his voice and definitely never to me.
They also had never heard him use any sort of swear word.
They should live with us. They'd get an earful.
Our fights are epic.
We know every swear word in every known language.
I didn't look at them, I couldn't.
He had won.
Again.
I rose, smoothed my dress down and sat in his lap. My true throne.
"You always win, do you not?" I asked as I settled against him, seething, with my arms crossed.
I looked around the Inn. People were still staring. I waved them off.
He brought his lips to my ear, kissing me there. "You will forgive me before the night is over."
"I said you are not touching me," I turned my cheek but he kept kissing me.
"We will see about that," he said with a chuckle. He was pleased with himself.
"If I give in, do I get my ring then or must I wait another seven millenia?"
"You will give in," he crooned, his tongue tracing my ear now.
"It had better cost you a fucking fortune," I whispered as I leaned into his embrace, my eyes closing.
"I can afford it," he continued his kisses and caresses.
"I want you destitute," I moaned.
"I am sure you do," he replied. In my ear. In my head. It echoed in my SOUL.
I was dying all over again.
He commands all of me.
But I got my ring two weeks later.
It had cost a fortune.
The diamond, a black diamond, is worth more than this miserable town, a hundred times over.
It was found in a slave mine in Sierra Leone.
He went there to fetch it himself.
That was eleven years ago, God Simon.
A drop in the bucket.
His word as I said to you earlier, is Law.
He does not lose.
And, he was right.
I forgave him all night.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
The slaver was stretched out on pillows in his private pleasure gardens being fussed over by his slave girls.
I was instantly hit with the strong smell of myrrh. There was incense everywhere. I could barely see him from the entranceway, but as I marched forward, his visage became clearer.
I wanted to strangle him where he lay, but I could not. This man, this being, was, aside from my Anpu, the most powerful entity I had encountered in my life.
He would, in a moment, be overjoyed to see me. I did not feel the same.
And, this was a blessing in disguise.
I shudder to think what he may have done to me if we were adversaries.
In another life, he had been a Satrap in Darius the Great's service. He saw Artemesia with his waking eyes. I envied him. He had seen things that, at the time, I had never seen nor really known about.
The only thing I liked about him was the stories he would tell me.
He filled my head with such wonders!
I cannot tell you how we met. He has erased my memories of that encounter, but I remember all of the others which followed. He made sure of that.
As the story goes, one day he met a man who had sold him a sealed vessel.
Not knowing it was a cursed relic, he polished it and mistakenly released the horror within.
The Djinn inside was awakened and later tricked him into trading places with him.
He was then transformed into a Djinn himself and trapped inside the vessel.
Some imbecile, I know not who, had released him.
And now he was a walking plague.
His current name at the time I met him, like Anpu's father, was Set. I do not know what his real name was. He never told me. Or, if he did, I do not remember.
But the two Sets were nothing alike.
This Set was absolutely obsessed with me.
He knew from the very beginning that I belonged to Anpu.
He didn't care.
He wasn't afraid of him.
He was going to have me for his own.
He told anyone that would listen, and many who wouldn't, including myself.
For three years, he stalked me.
Like a pernicious nightmare.
He was so brazen as to actually enter my dreams!
Filling my mind with visions of splendor.
Of riches beyond my imagination.
Tonight was the final straw.
"Kitten!" he said when he saw me marching toward him.
I tossed an expensive dress he had purchased for me onto his lap.
"Set, we must speak about the gifts," I said with a sigh. "I can no longer hide them from Anpu, and he is beginning to get suspicious because my most recent husband is now deceased. He will want to know where they are coming from."
"Yes, tripped down some stairs and broke his neck, I believe, was the cause of death? It is simply astounding that all of your husbands, thus far, seem to find a horrific demise. You are the queen of coincidence, are you not? Allow me to comfort you in your grief, Kitten. Come here. I will hold you, and you will be my Queen, forever."
"Please forget I exist! I beg thee! You have depleted the entire supply of rubies in all of Rhy'Din! I don't have any more room for them!"
"If you would just allow me to transport you inside a ruby, you would no longer have this problem, my love."
"I am not yer love! I am not going to belong to you ever! Get this through your thick, idiotic skull!"
"Did you receive my missives?"
"Yes, and the flowers and the candies and everything else you have bought for me. Every day there are deliveries!"
"I will speak with Anubis. I will remunerate him for his significant loss. He cannot care for you as I can. Rumor has it he has not visited your bed in months since your latest row. You must be starved for affection, Kitten. Set, not Anubis, shall redress the balance."
I scowled.
That he knew our private business was unsettling.
"You have a disease in yer brain. It's from all those centuries being trapped in that vessel! Woe betide the imbecile who freed you! If I ever find them, I will make an example out of them for the ages!"
"Oh, but were I trapped in there with you, I would never have had a reason to leave! Come, let us dispense with these petty squabbles. I cannot bear the thought that I have displeased you in any way."
"You displease me every day! That hasn't stopped you once!"
"Those lips, when you frown like that, it drives me wild!"
He lunged at me.
It wasn't the first time he had done so.
I slapped him.
Twice.
He recoiled, laughing.
"My sweet little whirling dervish! How could Anubis be parted from you for longer than a minute? SEVEN MONTHS, is it now? Has he been wandering the desert? Driven mad by grief that you rebuffed him again by marrying the Duke? Who could blame him? But for your refusal, I could be the same wretch, dying of thirst in those blistering hot sands, all my mind twisted on thoughts of your exquisite countenance! I almost pity him!"
Just then, I looked down at myself. I was no longer wearing the black dress I had walked in with and was now covered from head to toe in gold and diamonds.
Not an outfit made from gold and diamonds, just the gold and diamonds.
They were pasted to my skin, covering my nakedness.
The headdress alone weighed ten pounds.
I thought it might break my neck.
I wanted to break his!
"Reverse this at once, you fiend!"
"Look at you! You are a vision! Anubis suffers from some mental malady or blindness. It must be so."
I hugged myself, making a face.
I was helpless and could not change myself back.
I was mortal at the time.
Sometimes I wish I had met him now.
NOW? I could level him with just a glance.
And, he was wrong.
It was only six months, and we had made up the night prior.
Anpu would be picking me up at my mansion in just a few hours.
If he saw me like this, he would break Set's neck!
I was in a right pickle.
There was no talking to this Djinn.
He was pig headed.
Very powerful.
He could not be swayed like most men.
Because he wasn't a man at all.
Leastways, not anymore.
He was relentless in his pursuit.
And, he was deadly serious about having me.
I took him at his word.
I had no choice.
"I propose a compromise," I said haltingly, keeping in mind that I needed to watch what I said and be precise.
He perked up. "Yes, my sweet?"
"In exchange for you turning me back into the way I was prior to walking in here, I will visit with you once a month. But you will not touch me! You will not alter me in any fashion as you have done tonight! If I am to be your Queen, you must... win me over, impress me."
I knew it was dangerous to try and treat with a Djinn, but I thought I had been careful not to make an actual wish.
I told myself that I would find a way to put him back in that vessel.
Only trouble was, I didn't know how I was going to do that.
Set smiled, and as I looked down again at myself, I was back in my dress. None the worse for wear.
"As you wiiiiiiiish," he whispered, with smoke pouring forth out of his mouth, and it was not from the incense.
It enveloped me, completely.
I fell into a deep sleep.
When I awakened, I was on the throne room floor of Darius the Great's court.
I was going to miss my dinner with Anpu for certain.
As two Persian Immortals approached, I began to scream.
But I was impressed, God Simon.
I feel like I should be honest here.
(( As played with SSSerpent - 1996-99 ))
I was instantly hit with the strong smell of myrrh. There was incense everywhere. I could barely see him from the entranceway, but as I marched forward, his visage became clearer.
I wanted to strangle him where he lay, but I could not. This man, this being, was, aside from my Anpu, the most powerful entity I had encountered in my life.
He would, in a moment, be overjoyed to see me. I did not feel the same.
And, this was a blessing in disguise.
I shudder to think what he may have done to me if we were adversaries.
In another life, he had been a Satrap in Darius the Great's service. He saw Artemesia with his waking eyes. I envied him. He had seen things that, at the time, I had never seen nor really known about.
The only thing I liked about him was the stories he would tell me.
He filled my head with such wonders!
I cannot tell you how we met. He has erased my memories of that encounter, but I remember all of the others which followed. He made sure of that.
As the story goes, one day he met a man who had sold him a sealed vessel.
Not knowing it was a cursed relic, he polished it and mistakenly released the horror within.
The Djinn inside was awakened and later tricked him into trading places with him.
He was then transformed into a Djinn himself and trapped inside the vessel.
Some imbecile, I know not who, had released him.
And now he was a walking plague.
His current name at the time I met him, like Anpu's father, was Set. I do not know what his real name was. He never told me. Or, if he did, I do not remember.
But the two Sets were nothing alike.
This Set was absolutely obsessed with me.
He knew from the very beginning that I belonged to Anpu.
He didn't care.
He wasn't afraid of him.
He was going to have me for his own.
He told anyone that would listen, and many who wouldn't, including myself.
For three years, he stalked me.
Like a pernicious nightmare.
He was so brazen as to actually enter my dreams!
Filling my mind with visions of splendor.
Of riches beyond my imagination.
Tonight was the final straw.
"Kitten!" he said when he saw me marching toward him.
I tossed an expensive dress he had purchased for me onto his lap.
"Set, we must speak about the gifts," I said with a sigh. "I can no longer hide them from Anpu, and he is beginning to get suspicious because my most recent husband is now deceased. He will want to know where they are coming from."
"Yes, tripped down some stairs and broke his neck, I believe, was the cause of death? It is simply astounding that all of your husbands, thus far, seem to find a horrific demise. You are the queen of coincidence, are you not? Allow me to comfort you in your grief, Kitten. Come here. I will hold you, and you will be my Queen, forever."
"Please forget I exist! I beg thee! You have depleted the entire supply of rubies in all of Rhy'Din! I don't have any more room for them!"
"If you would just allow me to transport you inside a ruby, you would no longer have this problem, my love."
"I am not yer love! I am not going to belong to you ever! Get this through your thick, idiotic skull!"
"Did you receive my missives?"
"Yes, and the flowers and the candies and everything else you have bought for me. Every day there are deliveries!"
"I will speak with Anubis. I will remunerate him for his significant loss. He cannot care for you as I can. Rumor has it he has not visited your bed in months since your latest row. You must be starved for affection, Kitten. Set, not Anubis, shall redress the balance."
I scowled.
That he knew our private business was unsettling.
"You have a disease in yer brain. It's from all those centuries being trapped in that vessel! Woe betide the imbecile who freed you! If I ever find them, I will make an example out of them for the ages!"
"Oh, but were I trapped in there with you, I would never have had a reason to leave! Come, let us dispense with these petty squabbles. I cannot bear the thought that I have displeased you in any way."
"You displease me every day! That hasn't stopped you once!"
"Those lips, when you frown like that, it drives me wild!"
He lunged at me.
It wasn't the first time he had done so.
I slapped him.
Twice.
He recoiled, laughing.
"My sweet little whirling dervish! How could Anubis be parted from you for longer than a minute? SEVEN MONTHS, is it now? Has he been wandering the desert? Driven mad by grief that you rebuffed him again by marrying the Duke? Who could blame him? But for your refusal, I could be the same wretch, dying of thirst in those blistering hot sands, all my mind twisted on thoughts of your exquisite countenance! I almost pity him!"
Just then, I looked down at myself. I was no longer wearing the black dress I had walked in with and was now covered from head to toe in gold and diamonds.
Not an outfit made from gold and diamonds, just the gold and diamonds.
They were pasted to my skin, covering my nakedness.
The headdress alone weighed ten pounds.
I thought it might break my neck.
I wanted to break his!
"Reverse this at once, you fiend!"
"Look at you! You are a vision! Anubis suffers from some mental malady or blindness. It must be so."
I hugged myself, making a face.
I was helpless and could not change myself back.
I was mortal at the time.
Sometimes I wish I had met him now.
NOW? I could level him with just a glance.
And, he was wrong.
It was only six months, and we had made up the night prior.
Anpu would be picking me up at my mansion in just a few hours.
If he saw me like this, he would break Set's neck!
I was in a right pickle.
There was no talking to this Djinn.
He was pig headed.
Very powerful.
He could not be swayed like most men.
Because he wasn't a man at all.
Leastways, not anymore.
He was relentless in his pursuit.
And, he was deadly serious about having me.
I took him at his word.
I had no choice.
"I propose a compromise," I said haltingly, keeping in mind that I needed to watch what I said and be precise.
He perked up. "Yes, my sweet?"
"In exchange for you turning me back into the way I was prior to walking in here, I will visit with you once a month. But you will not touch me! You will not alter me in any fashion as you have done tonight! If I am to be your Queen, you must... win me over, impress me."
I knew it was dangerous to try and treat with a Djinn, but I thought I had been careful not to make an actual wish.
I told myself that I would find a way to put him back in that vessel.
Only trouble was, I didn't know how I was going to do that.
Set smiled, and as I looked down again at myself, I was back in my dress. None the worse for wear.
"As you wiiiiiiiish," he whispered, with smoke pouring forth out of his mouth, and it was not from the incense.
It enveloped me, completely.
I fell into a deep sleep.
When I awakened, I was on the throne room floor of Darius the Great's court.
I was going to miss my dinner with Anpu for certain.
As two Persian Immortals approached, I began to scream.
But I was impressed, God Simon.
I feel like I should be honest here.
(( As played with SSSerpent - 1996-99 ))
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
The Desert Palace in El Kab
Anubis's chambers
Three decades ago
I could hear the slave girl screaming before I could see her. The doors to his chamber opened and out she flew, running so fast she spun me. This was followed by something being hurled against a wall behind the doors and shattering.
It was a jar, I thought. I winced.
When she passed me, she immediately dropped to her knees, hysterical.
"Greetings Mistress," she said, crying on the floor.
"What has happened, little one?" I asked, alarmed at her behavior.
His slaves were just as governed with their emotions as he was. He would not tolerate anything less.
"Master is so furious!" she cried, bending forward at the waist to show me her back.
My eyes widened. I could see her back was bleeding, the whip marks clear on her otherwise pristine flesh.
Before I could inquire as to why he was furious, what she had done to make him so angry, the doors to his chambers opened a second time.
There were enormous these doors, heavy, and painted with a miraculous cobra with its fangs open and dripping with diamonded venom. The two droplets of venom were fashioned out of thousands of brilliant, glorious diamonds. It was a wonder to behold. They glittered now in the dim light of the candles in the hallway.
The very same cobra, albeit much smaller, is upon my finger , God Simon.
That is his engagement ring.
His promise to me.
From a certain vantage point it appears as if it is swallowing my finger. The two fangs have a diamond each on the slope of them but the tips are sharp. They sometimes glance across my flesh, drawing blood, if I am not careful.
This ring is a reminder of that night, of the understanding which was forged there between us in that room.
A reminder of our communion.
I looked and saw him there, leaning back in his chair. The room was a mess. There were broken jars everywhere. His research, his writings, his work, all the papyrii were strewn about the floor.
As was his whip.
"Leave her and come to me!" he yelled at me from within.
I approached the door with measured steps. One foot over the other. My approach was not sensual as his fury was palpable even out here in the hallway. It would infuriate him more if I were so brazen.
I was barefoot and was naked save for a bejewelled webbing which served as a sort of covering, I suppose. It barely did.
He had a jeweler make it for me and was presently enamored with my wearing it for him. Every night, for weeks, I wore it. For mere seconds as it was not on me for very long each night. Still, he loved it and I loved him so I wanted to please him.
Gods are fickle. This you know, being one yourself. They get an idea in their heads and run with it until they grow bored of it. He was going on eighteen days and not growing bored, in the slightest.
When you liberate my homes from the college children squatting in them, should you lose your nerve and not drown them, one by one, in the lake as I have asked you to, you can please also find this outfit of mine in one of them. I would like to wear it for him again on our wedding night, assuming, of course, he doesn't tear it off me with his teeth, first.
It has both good and bad memories for us associated with it.
This, right here, is one of the middle ground ones.
I hope he does not.
It has rubies in it.
Emeralds, saphires, diamonds, too but as I have told you, rubies are my favorite.
Where was I?
Ahh, yes, the matter of our understanding.
Let us speak again about the nature of power. Of its unyielding nature at times, its intoxicating, corrupting influence.
Its...delicate...balance.
As I crossed the threshold and the doors began to close behind me, I caught a glimpse of the eye of the cobra. An emerald. Ever watchful, like my love. I felt as if the doors were swallowing me whole, moving through them.
Eventually, I came to stand before him. He was angry but still majestic. I almost swooned were it not for his temper.
His chest was glistening with sweat. His eyes were wild but I could see he had also been crying.
I gasped and averted my eyes.
For him to show such emotion, outwardly, even to me, meant whatever it was, was quite grave.
"Have I not given you everything you desire?" he asked, his hands opening on the armrests. He sounded as if he were struggling not to scream at me again.
"Yes, my lord," I kept my eyes low. I think if I had looked into his, the situation would have become untenable.
"Do I not cater to your every whim, every fancy? Your happiness is mine. Have I not given you fucking....EVERYTHING?!"
Another jar was sent whipping into the far wall. I had not even seen him holding one.
I jumped and backed away from him.
He caught me with his foot behind my calf and pulled me towards him.
I gasped again.
I began to tremble all over. I did not think he would ever hurt me but in that moment I was not as sure as I am right now, writing this to you, and knowing he never has.
My heart was triphammering in my chest.
"All of you, belongs to me, does it not?" he asked.
"Yes, my lord, without question," I whispered.
"Without question?" A chuckle. "I have questions," he said quietly but there was an undertone of malice.
"Without question," I repeated, shaking.
"Am I? Am I your Lord? I do not yet know. You say these words but do you believe them in your heart?"
He stood then and was now half walking, half carrying me to the bed.
When we got there, he laid me down carefully and crawled over me.
I immediately shut my eyes. I was not thinking of England, God Simon.
I was well and truly terrified of him in that moment.
When he speaks to me it is with grace, with respect for my station, my place within his dominion.
This was anything but that. This was a terrible warning.
I was thinking of what he had been told or seen that was causing him to act this way, say these things. Did he know of Sa Bast?! Good Gods!
I could feel his lips first on my inner thigh where three weeks earlier Sa Bast had been drizzling honey and lapped it up off my skin like the dog he was.
Then he moved to my navel, to between my breasts, to my neck. Every where he kissed me stung.
His hands were everywhere, kneading my flesh however he pleased.
His touch was not gentle, it was possessive, absolute.
It was also incredible but I would not tell him this.
I thought perhaps encouragement at that moment would be most unwise.
While my hands were busy bunching up the sheets into my fists, he leaned over my face, menacingly.
It was all I could do. I was helpless. Terrified. Thrilled beyond understanding.
"Look at me," he growled.
I opened my eyes as they filled with tears.
"You are so beautiful to me," he whispered, kissing me on the lips then. "The idea that I might ever be forced to share you with another is not something I am prepared to ever do or abide. I could never do this, could never part with you."
"Anpu..." I whimpered.
Now he took hold of my chin, speaking through his gritted teeth at me.
"You are a little viper, though, are you not? You strike repeatedly without warning. There is no antidote for you. By the time one realizes they've been bitten by you, the sweet embrace of death is nigh."
I reached to touch his face, to try to calm him but he pushed my hand down to the bed and held it there.
He was immensely powerful. I could not move him if I tried. I was not about to try.
With the other hand, he was undoing the clasp on the jeweled webbing and was peeling it off me slowly.
I have never felt so naked, so vulnerable.
He was looking me over with what I could only describe as being a new appreciation.
"What a mercy that would be, yes? To die from ever having loved you? Oh, but were it that simple? I envy such a man were he ever to exist. "
"I love you, with all of me," I cried.
He lifted my leg and placed it on his shoulder.
I couldn't breathe. My mind was wheeling.
He was kissing, then biting my inner thigh and chuckling as I squirmed beneath him.
He undid his kilt, tossed it to the floor.
"Show your Lord then how much you love him, convince him of your devotion, if you can."
He had made his point.
Abundantly clear.
No one was to touch me.
Anubis's chambers
Three decades ago
I could hear the slave girl screaming before I could see her. The doors to his chamber opened and out she flew, running so fast she spun me. This was followed by something being hurled against a wall behind the doors and shattering.
It was a jar, I thought. I winced.
When she passed me, she immediately dropped to her knees, hysterical.
"Greetings Mistress," she said, crying on the floor.
"What has happened, little one?" I asked, alarmed at her behavior.
His slaves were just as governed with their emotions as he was. He would not tolerate anything less.
"Master is so furious!" she cried, bending forward at the waist to show me her back.
My eyes widened. I could see her back was bleeding, the whip marks clear on her otherwise pristine flesh.
Before I could inquire as to why he was furious, what she had done to make him so angry, the doors to his chambers opened a second time.
There were enormous these doors, heavy, and painted with a miraculous cobra with its fangs open and dripping with diamonded venom. The two droplets of venom were fashioned out of thousands of brilliant, glorious diamonds. It was a wonder to behold. They glittered now in the dim light of the candles in the hallway.
The very same cobra, albeit much smaller, is upon my finger , God Simon.
That is his engagement ring.
His promise to me.
From a certain vantage point it appears as if it is swallowing my finger. The two fangs have a diamond each on the slope of them but the tips are sharp. They sometimes glance across my flesh, drawing blood, if I am not careful.
This ring is a reminder of that night, of the understanding which was forged there between us in that room.
A reminder of our communion.
I looked and saw him there, leaning back in his chair. The room was a mess. There were broken jars everywhere. His research, his writings, his work, all the papyrii were strewn about the floor.
As was his whip.
"Leave her and come to me!" he yelled at me from within.
I approached the door with measured steps. One foot over the other. My approach was not sensual as his fury was palpable even out here in the hallway. It would infuriate him more if I were so brazen.
I was barefoot and was naked save for a bejewelled webbing which served as a sort of covering, I suppose. It barely did.
He had a jeweler make it for me and was presently enamored with my wearing it for him. Every night, for weeks, I wore it. For mere seconds as it was not on me for very long each night. Still, he loved it and I loved him so I wanted to please him.
Gods are fickle. This you know, being one yourself. They get an idea in their heads and run with it until they grow bored of it. He was going on eighteen days and not growing bored, in the slightest.
When you liberate my homes from the college children squatting in them, should you lose your nerve and not drown them, one by one, in the lake as I have asked you to, you can please also find this outfit of mine in one of them. I would like to wear it for him again on our wedding night, assuming, of course, he doesn't tear it off me with his teeth, first.
It has both good and bad memories for us associated with it.
This, right here, is one of the middle ground ones.
I hope he does not.
It has rubies in it.
Emeralds, saphires, diamonds, too but as I have told you, rubies are my favorite.
Where was I?
Ahh, yes, the matter of our understanding.
Let us speak again about the nature of power. Of its unyielding nature at times, its intoxicating, corrupting influence.
Its...delicate...balance.
As I crossed the threshold and the doors began to close behind me, I caught a glimpse of the eye of the cobra. An emerald. Ever watchful, like my love. I felt as if the doors were swallowing me whole, moving through them.
Eventually, I came to stand before him. He was angry but still majestic. I almost swooned were it not for his temper.
His chest was glistening with sweat. His eyes were wild but I could see he had also been crying.
I gasped and averted my eyes.
For him to show such emotion, outwardly, even to me, meant whatever it was, was quite grave.
"Have I not given you everything you desire?" he asked, his hands opening on the armrests. He sounded as if he were struggling not to scream at me again.
"Yes, my lord," I kept my eyes low. I think if I had looked into his, the situation would have become untenable.
"Do I not cater to your every whim, every fancy? Your happiness is mine. Have I not given you fucking....EVERYTHING?!"
Another jar was sent whipping into the far wall. I had not even seen him holding one.
I jumped and backed away from him.
He caught me with his foot behind my calf and pulled me towards him.
I gasped again.
I began to tremble all over. I did not think he would ever hurt me but in that moment I was not as sure as I am right now, writing this to you, and knowing he never has.
My heart was triphammering in my chest.
"All of you, belongs to me, does it not?" he asked.
"Yes, my lord, without question," I whispered.
"Without question?" A chuckle. "I have questions," he said quietly but there was an undertone of malice.
"Without question," I repeated, shaking.
"Am I? Am I your Lord? I do not yet know. You say these words but do you believe them in your heart?"
He stood then and was now half walking, half carrying me to the bed.
When we got there, he laid me down carefully and crawled over me.
I immediately shut my eyes. I was not thinking of England, God Simon.
I was well and truly terrified of him in that moment.
When he speaks to me it is with grace, with respect for my station, my place within his dominion.
This was anything but that. This was a terrible warning.
I was thinking of what he had been told or seen that was causing him to act this way, say these things. Did he know of Sa Bast?! Good Gods!
I could feel his lips first on my inner thigh where three weeks earlier Sa Bast had been drizzling honey and lapped it up off my skin like the dog he was.
Then he moved to my navel, to between my breasts, to my neck. Every where he kissed me stung.
His hands were everywhere, kneading my flesh however he pleased.
His touch was not gentle, it was possessive, absolute.
It was also incredible but I would not tell him this.
I thought perhaps encouragement at that moment would be most unwise.
While my hands were busy bunching up the sheets into my fists, he leaned over my face, menacingly.
It was all I could do. I was helpless. Terrified. Thrilled beyond understanding.
"Look at me," he growled.
I opened my eyes as they filled with tears.
"You are so beautiful to me," he whispered, kissing me on the lips then. "The idea that I might ever be forced to share you with another is not something I am prepared to ever do or abide. I could never do this, could never part with you."
"Anpu..." I whimpered.
Now he took hold of my chin, speaking through his gritted teeth at me.
"You are a little viper, though, are you not? You strike repeatedly without warning. There is no antidote for you. By the time one realizes they've been bitten by you, the sweet embrace of death is nigh."
I reached to touch his face, to try to calm him but he pushed my hand down to the bed and held it there.
He was immensely powerful. I could not move him if I tried. I was not about to try.
With the other hand, he was undoing the clasp on the jeweled webbing and was peeling it off me slowly.
I have never felt so naked, so vulnerable.
He was looking me over with what I could only describe as being a new appreciation.
"What a mercy that would be, yes? To die from ever having loved you? Oh, but were it that simple? I envy such a man were he ever to exist. "
"I love you, with all of me," I cried.
He lifted my leg and placed it on his shoulder.
I couldn't breathe. My mind was wheeling.
He was kissing, then biting my inner thigh and chuckling as I squirmed beneath him.
He undid his kilt, tossed it to the floor.
"Show your Lord then how much you love him, convince him of your devotion, if you can."
He had made his point.
Abundantly clear.
No one was to touch me.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
Blackvale Tower
The Here and Now
---------------------------------------
"Wow! Look! That's Tara Rynieyn!"
"Who is Tara Rynieyn?"
"Are you kidding me, bro? She's famous!"
"Never heard of her."
Of course you haven't, simpleton. You were not even a zygote in your mother's womb when I was here last.
"She's also the Boss's wife,"
Fiancé, but I prefer promised mate.
"Anubis has a wife? Since WHEN? I thought he was with that chick Tetra?"
"No, that was his side piece. THIS is the woman he's head over heels for."
Naturally.
"How do you know this?"
"Because it's Rhy'Din legend, bro. Everyone knows about Anubis and Tara."
Everyone except you, little Meat Puppet.
"I didn't know about Anubis and Tara. I also didn't know about Anubis and Tetra."
Stop saying her name like she is real. She does not exist, damn you!
"He seems to like women whose names begin with T, huh?"
He *did* seem to like women whose names began with "T" now didn't he?
"I don't know if I care either. What happened to Tetra?"
Hopefully she had been swallowed by the sea.
And, it had been an excruciating death as she first aspirated, then tried to *breathe* water.
"She left. Tara is the one he's been with for a long time. Like, forever, really. She was gone for a while, too, but now, apparently, she's back. This is going to be awesome!"
Forever, yes, that is an accurate accounting of how long we have been together and will be together.
"Tell me why I should care about this?"
"Bro, he's been miserable without her! If she's back, we may actually get a raise this year!"
"Ohhhhh THAT Tara Rynieyn! Yeah, yeah, wow! I can't believe she's back! Yay!"
I smirked.
NOW you remember me.
Side piece.
If only his business with that spectacular little social-climbing slut were that simple.
I had been listening to them as well as listening to the floor.
When I had walked in through the front entranceway, I had heard it immediately.
I can multitask, you know.
I was more interested in what was happening beneath our feet which is why I was laying on the floor with my ear pressed to it. To get a better understanding before I investigated.
I rose now and regarded the two boys with resigned acceptance to the fact that I would need them to serve my purposes for my entire visit to this place I now, apparently, owned forty five percent of, but knew absolutely nothing about.
Anpu had shown me the tower on our date after I returned but he had not taken me there as of yet.
I was curious about it.
What was he hiding?
If it was to be partly mine and it pleased him, I would learn it to its very foundations.
So after he kissed me goodbye this morning and left for work, I decided it was time to pay the tower a visit.
"I wish to go down," I said, adopting my future husband's imperious tone.
He was rubbing off on me, lately. Figuratively and literally.
It is to be expected. I am told that couples who are together for a long time begin to not only look alike, but sound similar.
I did not look like Anpu. I am petite, slender and curvy. He is tall, muscular and well-defined.
The boys looked at me in confusion. "Down?" one of them asked.
I pointed to the floor. "I wish to see what is below. I hear the bells. They are calls to the moment. There are rituals in progress I wish to partake in. They summon me."
"Uhh, rituals?"
I was done trying to meet them where they were, converse with them in a manner they could understand.
Yes, I was *back*.
You bet your ASS I am famous.
Because I made you remember my name with the things I did but also because I managed to get Anubis Karos to fall in love with me.
A feat only one other woman had accomplished: Dawn.
I am not counting the idolatress, Tetra.
And they, along with everyone else in this miserable town, was going to meet ME where I was.
They would learn my language.
They would learn how to amuse me.
How to anticipate my needs and desires.
They would do every little thing I wished for them to do or have to deal with Anpu's wrath.
It was, that simple, God Simon.
"I own forty-five percent of you peasants. You will appease me. Cease yer babbling an' follow me," I said and walked forward, not really knowing where I was going.
"Own us?" Boy A asked with wide eyes.
"Whatever, bro, just don't argue with her. I need that raise," Boy B said and tugged him along.
I saw stairs up ahead.
Moving stairs.
When I got to them, I tilted my head.
"What is she doing?" Boy A whispered to Boy B.
"She appears to be examining the escalator," Boy B said.
"Why?" Boy A said.
"She doesn't look like she knows what it is? Umm, Tara?"
I glanced at Boy B. "Yes, peasant?"
"Are you wondering how to...use the escalator?"
I nodded.
Es-kee-lay-tor.
What a funny little word.
"Okay so what you want to do here is step, see, step with your foot onto the moving part here, in the middle? And, then you stop moving because it will move you down on its own."
I watched him tap dancing on the moving stair.
Tap-tap-tap of his foot.
I was not going to do what he was doing.
He looked ridiculous.
I do not tap dance.
I dance to inspire passion in Anpu. To delight him.
So that he may take me in his arms and allow me to honor him as only I can.
Not that little slut of his.
She cannot dance as I can.
She was not trained in Port Kar by the finest dancing slaves to have ever existed.
I was.
She had not spent two years learning how to excite and arouse him as I had.
She was a momentary distraction for him to ease his suffering from being parted from me.
I wondered, had he taken her here? To this place?
Had she used this escalator?
I would not step where she had.
I refused.
If she did not drown in the sea as I hoped she had and ever returned, she would be worshipping at my feet, begging my favor, fearing my fury.
As it was I had been replacing everything in the manor that I thought she had touched, since my return.
Anything that looked or smelled remotely feminine was tossed into the bonfire I had started out back the manor.
Anpu stares at it, at night, with great concern, as it blazes higher and higher, with whatever belongings of his I confiscated that day burning inside of it.
I am building a wicker effigy of his little amusement, next.
I'm going to burn that for a year at least.
I had told him that night in the Arena when we had our fight that everything she touched was going to be GONE.
Including the bed.
That was tossed into the fire, too.
We've been staying at the Golden Perch Inn when we are feeling romantic because we do not have a bed now, God Simon.
I have yet to replace it.
It had been OUR bed.
Which he had defiled by inviting that wretched woman into.
I would not lay my beautiful head anywhere he had coitus with her.
Everything she had touched would be erased from his mind and existence.
I would make it so that she never existed.
But this latest dalliance of his would cost him just as any other time he has upset me, has cost him.
He does not like for me to upset.
He will spend months now trying to make up for it.
My happiness is his, after all.
I saw there was a banister on either side of the moving stairs.
I would use that to get down to the rituals.
I did not think the usurper had used the escalator in this fashion.
But even if she had, there could be no further delay.
I would need to get down there and speak with the cult priests and priestesses **immediately** to see what votive offerings they were making to my Anpu and make offerings and sacrifices of my own.
"Oh! Oh! okay, umm, she's using it as a slide. Now what do we do?"
"We slide down too! Come on"
When I slid off the banister at the bottom, I smoothed down my dress.
I then looked around.
And, blinked.
"Okay, now she looks lost. What do we do?" Boy B asked.
"Bruh, I don't know! Ask her?"
"Umm, Tara?"
I regarded him with annoyance now. "Yes, lizard?"
"I thought we were peasants?"
"We're lizards now, just go with it. You really don't want to make her angry. She has a notorious bad temper. She's worse than Anubis!"
"That cannot be possible. He's the scariest person I have ever met."
"I don't think he's a person, man. They say he's kinda like a God? If that's the case, why would the woman he is going to marry be any LESS scary than he is?"
"Good point. Tara?"
"Yes, lizard?" I repeated.
"You look confused again. How can we help?"
"What are all these bright lights? Where are the candles? The altar? The virgins?"
"Virgins?" Boy B blinked.
"The sacrificial blade," I crooned.
"Oh no, I think she thinks there are ACTUAL rituals going on. She doesn't seem to understand modern technology or anything?" Boy B said to Boy A.
"Apparently she's like thousands of years old. We are going to need to handhold her through all of this. Just great. I was going to go on break in a few minutes." Boy A said.
"Is she a God, too?"
"Nay, lizard, I am goddess-adjacent," I said and walked to a slot machine with its bright, blinking lights and whimsy music.
I had found the source of the bells I had heard.
They were not what I had expected.
I sighed as I looked around.
Why would Anpu want to own such a place?
We have lived in luxury our entire lives.
In palaces, the universe over, being waited on, hand and foot by servants and slaves.
We have walked through Time itself, together and separately.
We have watched kingdoms rise, fall, rise again.
Kingdoms were built IN OUR NAMES.
While this tower of his was impressive in size, it was nothing like the palace in El Kab, nothing like our home.
So much has changed since I had left.
That scheming little minx just had to be responsible for this.
She had taken advantage of his unrelenting sadness over me, snaked her way into his mind, convinced him, somehow, to build this strange monolith.
I am the viper, God Simon, not her.
He said so himself.
I literally have vipers in my hair.
Only I may snake into his mind.
She is a poor replacement for me.
Nay.
She is a poor pretender of me.
Wretch.
Had he built it for her? I was now wondering.
I looked to the lizards.
"What is the purpose for these ritual boxes?" I asked, very confused.
"Oh, those are slot machines. You put money in them, hit the button and if the symbols match, it gives you money back," Boy A said, proud he could teach me this.
I glanced to the...slot...machine.
What happened when the symbols did not match?
Just as I was about to ask him to show me how it worked in practice, a fat older woman came running over and flopped into the chair in front of me.
She smelled like those cheese curls I had tried at the Arena one night.
I hated them.
I hated the fat woman, too, even though I didn't know her.
She was here in this new "palace" my love had built.
Enjoying the fruits of his labors and I could not even begin to understand any of them.
I was only gone ten years.
How could he have changed so much in that time?
Was he forgetting his origins?
Where we had both come from?
What we had done?
What possible reason could he have for wanting any of this?
These Meat Puppets were not worshipping him. They were not prostrating themselves before him.
They were not anointing themselves with perfumes and oils as I do to incite riot in his senses and cause him to chase me down into chambers, dark and terrible, where he eventually captures me, and takes me to new heights, upon any altars he might find there.
I am his sacrifice.
Just then the slot...machine was screaming.
I blinked in surprise.
"JACKPOT!" it had said.
Jack.
Pot.
What strange words.
The fat woman began to bounce in place, jiggling, laughing and shrieking like a harpy.
I considered summoning one forth to consume her where she sat but I thought Anpu might not appreciate that.
"Hey, bro, I'm starving. I gotta go on break," Boy A said.
"Okay, I will go after you," Boy B said.
I looked to them, wincing as the fat woman called out to her fat husband "We're having lobster tonight, Lenny!"
Lenny.
What a stupid name.
How is it that my Anpu could surround himself with puppets called "Lenny"?
He had lost his ancient, labyrinthian mind.
It must be.
Lobster?
Not a stupid name.
I knew that word.
That is what I wanted for dinner tonight, I decided.
I would tell Anpu. He would get it for me and cook it upon the bonfire.
Then, as I prepare myself for him in my rose bath, he will feed it to me with his fingers while begging me for my forgiveness over the business with the Slut Tetra.
"What is this break?" I asked the lizards.
"It is a pausing of our work so we may eat," Boy B said and I noted that he was beginning to understand how to converse with me now.
Progress.
He would get his raise, whatever that was.
I would tell Anpu to see it done.
"Eat? There is food here? “ I asked, perking up.
I was hungry.
I was always hungry.
"Yeah we have a great food court. Do you want to see it, Tara?" Boy A asked.
Food.
Court.
Another strange word.
I would need to speak with its King though.
Since you were not there to complain to, God Simon, I had no other option available to me.
"Take me to the ruler of the Food Court," I said to the lizards, lifting my chin.
They looked at each other, shrugged and showed me the way.
The Here and Now
---------------------------------------
"Wow! Look! That's Tara Rynieyn!"
"Who is Tara Rynieyn?"
"Are you kidding me, bro? She's famous!"
"Never heard of her."
Of course you haven't, simpleton. You were not even a zygote in your mother's womb when I was here last.
"She's also the Boss's wife,"
Fiancé, but I prefer promised mate.
"Anubis has a wife? Since WHEN? I thought he was with that chick Tetra?"
"No, that was his side piece. THIS is the woman he's head over heels for."
Naturally.
"How do you know this?"
"Because it's Rhy'Din legend, bro. Everyone knows about Anubis and Tara."
Everyone except you, little Meat Puppet.
"I didn't know about Anubis and Tara. I also didn't know about Anubis and Tetra."
Stop saying her name like she is real. She does not exist, damn you!
"He seems to like women whose names begin with T, huh?"
He *did* seem to like women whose names began with "T" now didn't he?
"I don't know if I care either. What happened to Tetra?"
Hopefully she had been swallowed by the sea.
And, it had been an excruciating death as she first aspirated, then tried to *breathe* water.
"She left. Tara is the one he's been with for a long time. Like, forever, really. She was gone for a while, too, but now, apparently, she's back. This is going to be awesome!"
Forever, yes, that is an accurate accounting of how long we have been together and will be together.
"Tell me why I should care about this?"
"Bro, he's been miserable without her! If she's back, we may actually get a raise this year!"
"Ohhhhh THAT Tara Rynieyn! Yeah, yeah, wow! I can't believe she's back! Yay!"
I smirked.
NOW you remember me.
Side piece.
If only his business with that spectacular little social-climbing slut were that simple.
I had been listening to them as well as listening to the floor.
When I had walked in through the front entranceway, I had heard it immediately.
I can multitask, you know.
I was more interested in what was happening beneath our feet which is why I was laying on the floor with my ear pressed to it. To get a better understanding before I investigated.
I rose now and regarded the two boys with resigned acceptance to the fact that I would need them to serve my purposes for my entire visit to this place I now, apparently, owned forty five percent of, but knew absolutely nothing about.
Anpu had shown me the tower on our date after I returned but he had not taken me there as of yet.
I was curious about it.
What was he hiding?
If it was to be partly mine and it pleased him, I would learn it to its very foundations.
So after he kissed me goodbye this morning and left for work, I decided it was time to pay the tower a visit.
"I wish to go down," I said, adopting my future husband's imperious tone.
He was rubbing off on me, lately. Figuratively and literally.
It is to be expected. I am told that couples who are together for a long time begin to not only look alike, but sound similar.
I did not look like Anpu. I am petite, slender and curvy. He is tall, muscular and well-defined.
The boys looked at me in confusion. "Down?" one of them asked.
I pointed to the floor. "I wish to see what is below. I hear the bells. They are calls to the moment. There are rituals in progress I wish to partake in. They summon me."
"Uhh, rituals?"
I was done trying to meet them where they were, converse with them in a manner they could understand.
Yes, I was *back*.
You bet your ASS I am famous.
Because I made you remember my name with the things I did but also because I managed to get Anubis Karos to fall in love with me.
A feat only one other woman had accomplished: Dawn.
I am not counting the idolatress, Tetra.
And they, along with everyone else in this miserable town, was going to meet ME where I was.
They would learn my language.
They would learn how to amuse me.
How to anticipate my needs and desires.
They would do every little thing I wished for them to do or have to deal with Anpu's wrath.
It was, that simple, God Simon.
"I own forty-five percent of you peasants. You will appease me. Cease yer babbling an' follow me," I said and walked forward, not really knowing where I was going.
"Own us?" Boy A asked with wide eyes.
"Whatever, bro, just don't argue with her. I need that raise," Boy B said and tugged him along.
I saw stairs up ahead.
Moving stairs.
When I got to them, I tilted my head.
"What is she doing?" Boy A whispered to Boy B.
"She appears to be examining the escalator," Boy B said.
"Why?" Boy A said.
"She doesn't look like she knows what it is? Umm, Tara?"
I glanced at Boy B. "Yes, peasant?"
"Are you wondering how to...use the escalator?"
I nodded.
Es-kee-lay-tor.
What a funny little word.
"Okay so what you want to do here is step, see, step with your foot onto the moving part here, in the middle? And, then you stop moving because it will move you down on its own."
I watched him tap dancing on the moving stair.
Tap-tap-tap of his foot.
I was not going to do what he was doing.
He looked ridiculous.
I do not tap dance.
I dance to inspire passion in Anpu. To delight him.
So that he may take me in his arms and allow me to honor him as only I can.
Not that little slut of his.
She cannot dance as I can.
She was not trained in Port Kar by the finest dancing slaves to have ever existed.
I was.
She had not spent two years learning how to excite and arouse him as I had.
She was a momentary distraction for him to ease his suffering from being parted from me.
I wondered, had he taken her here? To this place?
Had she used this escalator?
I would not step where she had.
I refused.
If she did not drown in the sea as I hoped she had and ever returned, she would be worshipping at my feet, begging my favor, fearing my fury.
As it was I had been replacing everything in the manor that I thought she had touched, since my return.
Anything that looked or smelled remotely feminine was tossed into the bonfire I had started out back the manor.
Anpu stares at it, at night, with great concern, as it blazes higher and higher, with whatever belongings of his I confiscated that day burning inside of it.
I am building a wicker effigy of his little amusement, next.
I'm going to burn that for a year at least.
I had told him that night in the Arena when we had our fight that everything she touched was going to be GONE.
Including the bed.
That was tossed into the fire, too.
We've been staying at the Golden Perch Inn when we are feeling romantic because we do not have a bed now, God Simon.
I have yet to replace it.
It had been OUR bed.
Which he had defiled by inviting that wretched woman into.
I would not lay my beautiful head anywhere he had coitus with her.
Everything she had touched would be erased from his mind and existence.
I would make it so that she never existed.
But this latest dalliance of his would cost him just as any other time he has upset me, has cost him.
He does not like for me to upset.
He will spend months now trying to make up for it.
My happiness is his, after all.
I saw there was a banister on either side of the moving stairs.
I would use that to get down to the rituals.
I did not think the usurper had used the escalator in this fashion.
But even if she had, there could be no further delay.
I would need to get down there and speak with the cult priests and priestesses **immediately** to see what votive offerings they were making to my Anpu and make offerings and sacrifices of my own.
"Oh! Oh! okay, umm, she's using it as a slide. Now what do we do?"
"We slide down too! Come on"
When I slid off the banister at the bottom, I smoothed down my dress.
I then looked around.
And, blinked.
"Okay, now she looks lost. What do we do?" Boy B asked.
"Bruh, I don't know! Ask her?"
"Umm, Tara?"
I regarded him with annoyance now. "Yes, lizard?"
"I thought we were peasants?"
"We're lizards now, just go with it. You really don't want to make her angry. She has a notorious bad temper. She's worse than Anubis!"
"That cannot be possible. He's the scariest person I have ever met."
"I don't think he's a person, man. They say he's kinda like a God? If that's the case, why would the woman he is going to marry be any LESS scary than he is?"
"Good point. Tara?"
"Yes, lizard?" I repeated.
"You look confused again. How can we help?"
"What are all these bright lights? Where are the candles? The altar? The virgins?"
"Virgins?" Boy B blinked.
"The sacrificial blade," I crooned.
"Oh no, I think she thinks there are ACTUAL rituals going on. She doesn't seem to understand modern technology or anything?" Boy B said to Boy A.
"Apparently she's like thousands of years old. We are going to need to handhold her through all of this. Just great. I was going to go on break in a few minutes." Boy A said.
"Is she a God, too?"
"Nay, lizard, I am goddess-adjacent," I said and walked to a slot machine with its bright, blinking lights and whimsy music.
I had found the source of the bells I had heard.
They were not what I had expected.
I sighed as I looked around.
Why would Anpu want to own such a place?
We have lived in luxury our entire lives.
In palaces, the universe over, being waited on, hand and foot by servants and slaves.
We have walked through Time itself, together and separately.
We have watched kingdoms rise, fall, rise again.
Kingdoms were built IN OUR NAMES.
While this tower of his was impressive in size, it was nothing like the palace in El Kab, nothing like our home.
So much has changed since I had left.
That scheming little minx just had to be responsible for this.
She had taken advantage of his unrelenting sadness over me, snaked her way into his mind, convinced him, somehow, to build this strange monolith.
I am the viper, God Simon, not her.
He said so himself.
I literally have vipers in my hair.
Only I may snake into his mind.
She is a poor replacement for me.
Nay.
She is a poor pretender of me.
Wretch.
Had he built it for her? I was now wondering.
I looked to the lizards.
"What is the purpose for these ritual boxes?" I asked, very confused.
"Oh, those are slot machines. You put money in them, hit the button and if the symbols match, it gives you money back," Boy A said, proud he could teach me this.
I glanced to the...slot...machine.
What happened when the symbols did not match?
Just as I was about to ask him to show me how it worked in practice, a fat older woman came running over and flopped into the chair in front of me.
She smelled like those cheese curls I had tried at the Arena one night.
I hated them.
I hated the fat woman, too, even though I didn't know her.
She was here in this new "palace" my love had built.
Enjoying the fruits of his labors and I could not even begin to understand any of them.
I was only gone ten years.
How could he have changed so much in that time?
Was he forgetting his origins?
Where we had both come from?
What we had done?
What possible reason could he have for wanting any of this?
These Meat Puppets were not worshipping him. They were not prostrating themselves before him.
They were not anointing themselves with perfumes and oils as I do to incite riot in his senses and cause him to chase me down into chambers, dark and terrible, where he eventually captures me, and takes me to new heights, upon any altars he might find there.
I am his sacrifice.
Just then the slot...machine was screaming.
I blinked in surprise.
"JACKPOT!" it had said.
Jack.
Pot.
What strange words.
The fat woman began to bounce in place, jiggling, laughing and shrieking like a harpy.
I considered summoning one forth to consume her where she sat but I thought Anpu might not appreciate that.
"Hey, bro, I'm starving. I gotta go on break," Boy A said.
"Okay, I will go after you," Boy B said.
I looked to them, wincing as the fat woman called out to her fat husband "We're having lobster tonight, Lenny!"
Lenny.
What a stupid name.
How is it that my Anpu could surround himself with puppets called "Lenny"?
He had lost his ancient, labyrinthian mind.
It must be.
Lobster?
Not a stupid name.
I knew that word.
That is what I wanted for dinner tonight, I decided.
I would tell Anpu. He would get it for me and cook it upon the bonfire.
Then, as I prepare myself for him in my rose bath, he will feed it to me with his fingers while begging me for my forgiveness over the business with the Slut Tetra.
"What is this break?" I asked the lizards.
"It is a pausing of our work so we may eat," Boy B said and I noted that he was beginning to understand how to converse with me now.
Progress.
He would get his raise, whatever that was.
I would tell Anpu to see it done.
"Eat? There is food here? “ I asked, perking up.
I was hungry.
I was always hungry.
"Yeah we have a great food court. Do you want to see it, Tara?" Boy A asked.
Food.
Court.
Another strange word.
I would need to speak with its King though.
Since you were not there to complain to, God Simon, I had no other option available to me.
"Take me to the ruler of the Food Court," I said to the lizards, lifting my chin.
They looked at each other, shrugged and showed me the way.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
Blackvale Tower
Food Court - Blackvale Pizza -n- Wings
The Here and Now
The lizards inform me that the balding middle-aged man with the red stain on his vest I was now standing in front of, was none other than the King of the Food Court.
He was inept to the very depths of him.
Although they assigned him a different title of "Manager".
Whatever that meant.
His name, as impossibly dumb as it may be to say it out loud, is Aaron.
Reminded me of another Aaron from many years ago. Who was just as annoying as this one. Hung around with another annoying fellow named Moses. They liked to carry big sticks around and mix river water around in Egypt so that the silt upon the bottom would rise up and cause it to become red in color.
Called them miracles.
I'll show them a miracle.
"Lady, I am not a King, ok? I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I'm just a guy running a pizza parlor," he said, growing impatient with me.
I did not appreciate his tone.
He should be whipped for it and he still might be, if I tell Anpu of this outrage.
"Aaron, bro, she is Anubis's W I F E," Boy A said with wide eyes.
"Chill, Aaron. She doesn't understand what pizza is. You have to break down words and phrases into parts she can relate to. Visualize it for her. She's ancient." Boy B added.
"Like heiroglyphs?" Boy A inquired.
"Yes, exactly. This is how you have to communicate with her if you weren't born ten thousand years ago. Watch. Tara?"
"Yes, lizard?" I asked as I took Aaron's hand and examined it closely.
"What is this insane woman doing?" Aaron asked in alarm.
"I am seeing how supple yer flesh is to ascertain where best to have you flogged so the pain will be intensified," I replied, pressing his hand with my delicate fingers.
"WHAT?!" Aaron shrieked and tried to pull away from me but I was stronger than him, God Simon.
I am stronger than ALL of them.
I despise weak men.
"Tara," Boy B said, attempting to distract me, "pizza is round, saucy baked dough with meat on top."
I dropped Aaron's hand, having grown bored of it.
He will be whipped, regardless of the elasticity or lack thereof, of his skin.
"Saucy dough?" I was intrigued. I had liked Salty Dough.
"With meat on top, yes," Boy B said with a grin, pleased he had my attention and I was, at last, understanding his stupid little words. "Would you like to try some?"
I did.
I motioned for him to bring me some.
They had.
Two large circles of Saucy Dough.
They had some female Meat Puppet cut me pieces of it to try.
She was efficient and quick about it.
I assessed her briefly to see if she would be a serviceable pet for Anpu.
But when I pinched her rear, she screamed and ran away from me.
I do not understand why, God Simon.
To be collared by Anpu is a privilege.
"Umm, you said this chick is ancient? Does she have any money to pay for her 'Saucy Dough'?" Aaron said with a sneer.
I ignored him.
This was my Saucy Dough.
Forty-five percent of it, at least.
So, too, was he, forty-five percent mine. I would make him pay for his insolence, later.
"She owns the place, Aaron," Boy A said, shaking his head.
"What are you two talking about, owns the place? Anubis owns the place! In fact, I am going to get in touch with him right now, tell him about her so we can make sure she is put on some threat assessment list, keep her out of here. "
Threat assessment list.
Hmmph.
It would not have been the first time.
This is how I learned that Aaron cannot spell, God Simon.
He is completely useless in every regard.
Boy A had spelled out the word "wife" to him and he didn't understand.
Boy A tried again, saying it out loud now. "She is his wife, Aaron!"
Aaron looked physically ill then. Turned to me. Smiled sheepishly. "Uhh, wife? Wow. Hooo. Okay. Ancient, you say? Hello little lady," he said and wriggled his fingers at me as if I were a child.
I scowled at him.
"Umm, she looks pissed, Aaron," Boy A said.
"Real pissed," Boy B said.
Aaron swallowed hard. "Do you guys think she has any weird powers? Like, how is she even alive?"
"She totally has weird powers. She listens through floors," Boy A said.
That was not the only thing I could do.
"Tara? Do you possess any powers or anything?" Boy B asked.
I was demurely chewing on my Saucy Dough.
These lizards were beginning to irritate me.
There were no musicians to accompany my meal, I noticed.
No one to fan me.
Brush my hair.
Listening to them flap their jaws was grating my nerves.
I would need to speak to Anpu about this.
"What is she doing now?" Aaron asked, blinking.
"She's eating, dumbass, what does it look like she's doing?" Boy A said with a roll of his eyes.
If I decided to respond to them, it would be at the time appointed by me. No sooner.
Just then a voice from On High was booming overhead causing me to jump and almost spill my Saucy Dough on my beautiful dress Anpu bought me.
I chirped in surprise.
"GOING ON NOW! MATTRESS AND BED SET SALE! AT BLACKVALE TOWER DISCOUNT FURNITURE!" the disembodied voice had promised.
I heard "bed", tossed my Saucy Dough on the table the lizards had set for me and stalked towards a new destination.
"Wait! Tara!"
"Where is she going?!" Aaron asked behind me. "She left her Saucy Dough!"
You like my word parts now, do you not, subcreature?
"I don't know!" Boy A said with a shrug and ran after me.
"Tara, where are we going?" Boy B asked, catching up to me.
"To obtain a suitable bed for Anpu and I to have congress in," I replied.
"Congress?" Boy A.
"She means sex, bro," Boy B said with a smirk.
Food Court - Blackvale Pizza -n- Wings
The Here and Now
The lizards inform me that the balding middle-aged man with the red stain on his vest I was now standing in front of, was none other than the King of the Food Court.
He was inept to the very depths of him.
Although they assigned him a different title of "Manager".
Whatever that meant.
His name, as impossibly dumb as it may be to say it out loud, is Aaron.
Reminded me of another Aaron from many years ago. Who was just as annoying as this one. Hung around with another annoying fellow named Moses. They liked to carry big sticks around and mix river water around in Egypt so that the silt upon the bottom would rise up and cause it to become red in color.
Called them miracles.
I'll show them a miracle.
"Lady, I am not a King, ok? I don't know how many times I have to tell you. I'm just a guy running a pizza parlor," he said, growing impatient with me.
I did not appreciate his tone.
He should be whipped for it and he still might be, if I tell Anpu of this outrage.
"Aaron, bro, she is Anubis's W I F E," Boy A said with wide eyes.
"Chill, Aaron. She doesn't understand what pizza is. You have to break down words and phrases into parts she can relate to. Visualize it for her. She's ancient." Boy B added.
"Like heiroglyphs?" Boy A inquired.
"Yes, exactly. This is how you have to communicate with her if you weren't born ten thousand years ago. Watch. Tara?"
"Yes, lizard?" I asked as I took Aaron's hand and examined it closely.
"What is this insane woman doing?" Aaron asked in alarm.
"I am seeing how supple yer flesh is to ascertain where best to have you flogged so the pain will be intensified," I replied, pressing his hand with my delicate fingers.
"WHAT?!" Aaron shrieked and tried to pull away from me but I was stronger than him, God Simon.
I am stronger than ALL of them.
I despise weak men.
"Tara," Boy B said, attempting to distract me, "pizza is round, saucy baked dough with meat on top."
I dropped Aaron's hand, having grown bored of it.
He will be whipped, regardless of the elasticity or lack thereof, of his skin.
"Saucy dough?" I was intrigued. I had liked Salty Dough.
"With meat on top, yes," Boy B said with a grin, pleased he had my attention and I was, at last, understanding his stupid little words. "Would you like to try some?"
I did.
I motioned for him to bring me some.
They had.
Two large circles of Saucy Dough.
They had some female Meat Puppet cut me pieces of it to try.
She was efficient and quick about it.
I assessed her briefly to see if she would be a serviceable pet for Anpu.
But when I pinched her rear, she screamed and ran away from me.
I do not understand why, God Simon.
To be collared by Anpu is a privilege.
"Umm, you said this chick is ancient? Does she have any money to pay for her 'Saucy Dough'?" Aaron said with a sneer.
I ignored him.
This was my Saucy Dough.
Forty-five percent of it, at least.
So, too, was he, forty-five percent mine. I would make him pay for his insolence, later.
"She owns the place, Aaron," Boy A said, shaking his head.
"What are you two talking about, owns the place? Anubis owns the place! In fact, I am going to get in touch with him right now, tell him about her so we can make sure she is put on some threat assessment list, keep her out of here. "
Threat assessment list.
Hmmph.
It would not have been the first time.
This is how I learned that Aaron cannot spell, God Simon.
He is completely useless in every regard.
Boy A had spelled out the word "wife" to him and he didn't understand.
Boy A tried again, saying it out loud now. "She is his wife, Aaron!"
Aaron looked physically ill then. Turned to me. Smiled sheepishly. "Uhh, wife? Wow. Hooo. Okay. Ancient, you say? Hello little lady," he said and wriggled his fingers at me as if I were a child.
I scowled at him.
"Umm, she looks pissed, Aaron," Boy A said.
"Real pissed," Boy B said.
Aaron swallowed hard. "Do you guys think she has any weird powers? Like, how is she even alive?"
"She totally has weird powers. She listens through floors," Boy A said.
That was not the only thing I could do.
"Tara? Do you possess any powers or anything?" Boy B asked.
I was demurely chewing on my Saucy Dough.
These lizards were beginning to irritate me.
There were no musicians to accompany my meal, I noticed.
No one to fan me.
Brush my hair.
Listening to them flap their jaws was grating my nerves.
I would need to speak to Anpu about this.
"What is she doing now?" Aaron asked, blinking.
"She's eating, dumbass, what does it look like she's doing?" Boy A said with a roll of his eyes.
If I decided to respond to them, it would be at the time appointed by me. No sooner.
Just then a voice from On High was booming overhead causing me to jump and almost spill my Saucy Dough on my beautiful dress Anpu bought me.
I chirped in surprise.
"GOING ON NOW! MATTRESS AND BED SET SALE! AT BLACKVALE TOWER DISCOUNT FURNITURE!" the disembodied voice had promised.
I heard "bed", tossed my Saucy Dough on the table the lizards had set for me and stalked towards a new destination.
"Wait! Tara!"
"Where is she going?!" Aaron asked behind me. "She left her Saucy Dough!"
You like my word parts now, do you not, subcreature?
"I don't know!" Boy A said with a shrug and ran after me.
"Tara, where are we going?" Boy B asked, catching up to me.
"To obtain a suitable bed for Anpu and I to have congress in," I replied.
"Congress?" Boy A.
"She means sex, bro," Boy B said with a smirk.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
"She's so pretty. Like a doll."
"I love the color of her hair."
I could hear the breeders compliments in the background as they admired me. I had been on my way to get Anpu and I a bed but was detoured when I saw what the lizards inform me is called a "spa".
I was laying on a long white table with round green vegetable slices they had placed on my eyes.
I was now wearing vegetation for some strange reason.
Even my priests and priestesses weren't so bold as to try to cover me with plants!
Although, they had built me a beautiful garden.
It was a wonder of the world.
The Harlot Tetra was responsible for this somehow, I just knew it.
She had to be.
Oh! Why was I not permitted to place a millstone about her stupid neck and cast her into the sea myself?!
I see how this all came about.
Anpu, ensorcelled and suffering from the bewitching effects of whatever brew the Jezebel Tetra had plied him with, took her here, into the weird monolith and here, in secret, she created these strange rites I was now very much a victim of.
For what purpose, I know not, but I shall discover its hidden meaning just as I will discover what Anpu is hiding in this black spire!
Cu...cum...ber.
That is what they said the plant was that they decorated my face with.
The language of the Meat Puppets was difficult for me, God Simon. I must confess.
Boy A: "So now what do we do?"
Boy B: "I think we need to understand more about her, what she actually is, so we can bridge these gaps in our understanding. Did anyone write about her?"
Boy A: "I don't know! I just heard stories. My parents said she was a big deal back in the day. That she was a social butterfly, vivacious, always having fun. People loved her."
Boy B: "We seem to have gotten a slightly different version of her."
Boy A: "Yeah, why?"
Boy B: "Let's find out. Tara?"
"Yes, mollusk?"
Boy A: "OK what the hell is a mollusk?"
Boy B: "I think it's a snail."
Boy A: "Great, we went from peasants to lizards to now snails. Lovely."
Boy B: "Tara?"
"Yes, mollusk?"
Boy B: "If we wanted to learn more about you, how might we do that?"
"If you were truly faithful you would already know this! Bow your heads in shame! I shall humiliate you thusly!"
Boy B: "Yeah, okay I don't want to be thusly humiliated please. What I mean is like, read about you. Umm, find out some other things about you we obviously are too stupid to know?"
"Read?"
Boy A: "We're not getting anywhere. In her time, what were authors called?"
Boy B: "I don't know. Google it."
Boy A: "Scribes!"
Boy B: "Tara, were there any scribes who were enamored with your beauty and may have talked about it on...what's the name of paper back then?"
"Scrolls."
Boy B: "Scrolls? Did any scribes write about your beauty on scrolls?"
"The Christians, although I disagree with their interpretation of me."
Boy A: "Bible. The Christian Bible."
Boy B: "OK umm what did the scribes of the Bible call you? Did they have a name for you?"
"Mystery."
Boy B: "That's not specific enough."
Boy A: "Did you have a title?"
"Mystery, BABYLON THE GREAT. Whore."
Boy A: "Oh boy. Is she saying SHE is the Whore of Babylon?! We are so screwed if we piss her off! She can bring about the apocalypse!"
Boy B: "Let's not piss her off then. Tara, do you want us to call you Mystery?"
"Nay."
Boy A: "OK, then. And, uhh, is there anywhere else scribes may have written about you?"
"Upon that tawdry tablet concerning Gilgamesh."
Boy A: "I'm searching Babylon and Gilgamesh. Keep her busy."
Boy B: "Tell me about him."
"He murdered my sacred bull!”
I began to cry in remembrance.
Boy A: “She’s crying now. Great. We’re gonna end up in a pit in Hell.”
Boy B: “Let’s just try to distract her. Keep searching the Internet.”
Boy A: "Ishtar! She's the goddess ISHTAR. The name of the gate of the ancient city of Babylon is known as the Ishtar Gate! She was their highest-ranking female goddess! Ishtar...tar.....TARA! Holy shit! It was right there in front of us the entire time!"
Boy B: "No, it wasn't. Ten minutes ago we couldn't even get her to go down an escalator. We're not suddenly experts on her, at ALL. We have no idea what we're dealing with here!"
Boy A: "Hold on a minute. How can she be BOTH the goddess Ishtar AND the Whore of Babylon? That doesn't make any sense. They're two entirely separate things."
Boy B: "Well maybe that's it, right, like, she might be a blend of those things? She also said she's goddess adjacent so she can't fully be Ishtar otherwise she would say she was a goddess. She's very literal. Maybe Tara Rynieyn was the...foundation, the base upon which this entity built several personalities? Maybe sometimes she IS the goddess Ishtar but not all the time? And then sometimes she's the Whore of Babylon?"
Boy A: "She's not the same from the stories I was told. Something's not adding up here. Tara Rynieyn was mortal when she came to Rhy'Din. I don't know how she became immortal but my parents never mentioned The Whore of Babylon when they were telling me about her. I think I would remember that."
Boy B: "How do you know she was mortal? Maybe she wasn't?"
Boy A: "Because some dude Soulights, who was also a big deal back in the day, nearly killed her. He cut her stomach open with his sword."
Boy B: "Wow, that's umm, crazy."
Boy A: "Yeah it is."
Boy B: "She's been dating Anubis for ten thousand years, maybe the fact that he's a God changed her into this thing in some way?"
Boy A: "How? He's Egyptian. She's Babylonian. They're nothing alike. Two entirely different cultures, religions, basically everything. And now there's Christianity mixed into this, too. Anubis isn't Christian."
Boy B: "They say opposites attract? I don’t know! How the hell is it that we both work for an Egyptian GOD and his sometimes girlfriend goddess-adjacent soon-to-be-wife is ALSO, a creature capable of bringing about the END OF THE WORLD?!"
Boy A: "Good point, okay, but how is her dating him changing her?"
Boy B: "Well try to imagine what those two types of beings might be like if they ever met, fell in love, right? They both had entire civilizations worshipping them. Like actual CULTS of millions of people. That's why she's acting like she owns the place, because in her worldview, she owned it all. Temples were built in her name, an entire religion, a way of life. Anubis, too. He was a HUGE deal in Ancient Egypt. Consider that every morning, millions of people woke up and said prayers to not only Tara but also Anubis. Can you imagine what that might do to their egos?
Now imagine these two beings with enormous egos, the adoration of a million voices in their head, imagine if they were in love, would they NOT want to make the other happy, right? Anubis would want to give her EVERYTHING. He would elevate her above all others. She'd also be extremely attached to him, in return. Like how my girlfriend wears my sweatpants except in Tara’s case, she’d want to BE the sweatpants and Anubis would want to wear them so she was close to him. They wouldn't want to be separated. That would probably make them both very angry and sad. So, maybe Tara started to change into something that would make them not being separated, a reality? You said she was gone for a bit. You also said Anubis didn't take it very well. Maybe this is some middle ground we're unaware of, between them?"
Boy A: "I don't think Anubis even owns sweatpants. And, she does kinda own the place as his wife. And, he's real bossy. But this sounds suffocating."
Boy B: "Not to her, it isn't. Not to him, either, probably. But she would act this way even if she wasn't marrying Anubis. She'd feel...entitled. Like it was owed to her. That's why she talks the way she does. In her mind, we should be kissing her feet. What is Anubis the God of?"
Boy A: "I have no idea. I just heard them say he's a God."
Boy B: "Okay well if she's the goddess or has aspects of the Goddess of Love, War, Prostitution, and Fertility in the ancient Babylonian pantheon. If I'm right, and she's also blending aspects of the Whore of Babylon, she would be..."
Boy A: "Be what?"
Boy B: "Well, this, what you see here. The Whore of Babylon is related to the Christian interpretation of Hell. She'd have characteristics related to Hell, as well?"
Boy A: "The Seven Deadly Sins! That's why she's hungry so much! Gluttony!"
Boy B: "And why she's so sexual. Lust."
Boy A: "And, why she gets so nasty! Wrath. Damn we're geniuses."
Boy B: "Ish...Tara?"
"I wish to take my afternoon repose. Be silent, mollusks. Spend this time atoning for yer transgressions so that I might thrash you for them, later."
Boy B: "Yes, in a moment, I promise. We want to learn more about you so that we can..."
Boy A: "WORSHIP YOU."
"Hmmph. You are inferior to my supplicants, mollusk."
Boy A: "OK Wikipedia says that the goddess Ishtar wanted Gilgamesh to be her consort but he blew her off."
Boy B: "Anubis can't be the aspect of this Gilgamesh character, because he's marrying her."
Boy A: "I don't know. I'm just winging this like you are. It says The Epic of Gilgamesh is a stone tablet written about this story between him and the goddess Ishtar."
Boy B: "That's why she said it was tawdry. He was a hard pass on her."
Boy A: "I can't imagine she's forgiven him.
Boy B: "OK let's go do some research and try to figure this out while she takes her afternoon repose."
Boy A: "What even is that?"
Boy B: "She wants to sleep. Goddesses sleep a lot."
Boy B: "I feel so bad for Anubis now."
Boy A: "Why?"
Boy B: "Can you imagine the sheer force of will, the incredible patience, the monumental EFFORT it must take to make a creature such as her...happy? To keep her from getting bored?"
Boy A: "It can't be all that bad, they're getting married, right?"
Boy B: "Right, but what did he have to do to get THIS far with her? Imagine an eternity of this. What compromises did he have to make?"
"I love the color of her hair."
I could hear the breeders compliments in the background as they admired me. I had been on my way to get Anpu and I a bed but was detoured when I saw what the lizards inform me is called a "spa".
I was laying on a long white table with round green vegetable slices they had placed on my eyes.
I was now wearing vegetation for some strange reason.
Even my priests and priestesses weren't so bold as to try to cover me with plants!
Although, they had built me a beautiful garden.
It was a wonder of the world.
The Harlot Tetra was responsible for this somehow, I just knew it.
She had to be.
Oh! Why was I not permitted to place a millstone about her stupid neck and cast her into the sea myself?!
I see how this all came about.
Anpu, ensorcelled and suffering from the bewitching effects of whatever brew the Jezebel Tetra had plied him with, took her here, into the weird monolith and here, in secret, she created these strange rites I was now very much a victim of.
For what purpose, I know not, but I shall discover its hidden meaning just as I will discover what Anpu is hiding in this black spire!
Cu...cum...ber.
That is what they said the plant was that they decorated my face with.
The language of the Meat Puppets was difficult for me, God Simon. I must confess.
Boy A: "So now what do we do?"
Boy B: "I think we need to understand more about her, what she actually is, so we can bridge these gaps in our understanding. Did anyone write about her?"
Boy A: "I don't know! I just heard stories. My parents said she was a big deal back in the day. That she was a social butterfly, vivacious, always having fun. People loved her."
Boy B: "We seem to have gotten a slightly different version of her."
Boy A: "Yeah, why?"
Boy B: "Let's find out. Tara?"
"Yes, mollusk?"
Boy A: "OK what the hell is a mollusk?"
Boy B: "I think it's a snail."
Boy A: "Great, we went from peasants to lizards to now snails. Lovely."
Boy B: "Tara?"
"Yes, mollusk?"
Boy B: "If we wanted to learn more about you, how might we do that?"
"If you were truly faithful you would already know this! Bow your heads in shame! I shall humiliate you thusly!"
Boy B: "Yeah, okay I don't want to be thusly humiliated please. What I mean is like, read about you. Umm, find out some other things about you we obviously are too stupid to know?"
"Read?"
Boy A: "We're not getting anywhere. In her time, what were authors called?"
Boy B: "I don't know. Google it."
Boy A: "Scribes!"
Boy B: "Tara, were there any scribes who were enamored with your beauty and may have talked about it on...what's the name of paper back then?"
"Scrolls."
Boy B: "Scrolls? Did any scribes write about your beauty on scrolls?"
"The Christians, although I disagree with their interpretation of me."
Boy A: "Bible. The Christian Bible."
Boy B: "OK umm what did the scribes of the Bible call you? Did they have a name for you?"
"Mystery."
Boy B: "That's not specific enough."
Boy A: "Did you have a title?"
"Mystery, BABYLON THE GREAT. Whore."
Boy A: "Oh boy. Is she saying SHE is the Whore of Babylon?! We are so screwed if we piss her off! She can bring about the apocalypse!"
Boy B: "Let's not piss her off then. Tara, do you want us to call you Mystery?"
"Nay."
Boy A: "OK, then. And, uhh, is there anywhere else scribes may have written about you?"
"Upon that tawdry tablet concerning Gilgamesh."
Boy A: "I'm searching Babylon and Gilgamesh. Keep her busy."
Boy B: "Tell me about him."
"He murdered my sacred bull!”
I began to cry in remembrance.
Boy A: “She’s crying now. Great. We’re gonna end up in a pit in Hell.”
Boy B: “Let’s just try to distract her. Keep searching the Internet.”
Boy A: "Ishtar! She's the goddess ISHTAR. The name of the gate of the ancient city of Babylon is known as the Ishtar Gate! She was their highest-ranking female goddess! Ishtar...tar.....TARA! Holy shit! It was right there in front of us the entire time!"
Boy B: "No, it wasn't. Ten minutes ago we couldn't even get her to go down an escalator. We're not suddenly experts on her, at ALL. We have no idea what we're dealing with here!"
Boy A: "Hold on a minute. How can she be BOTH the goddess Ishtar AND the Whore of Babylon? That doesn't make any sense. They're two entirely separate things."
Boy B: "Well maybe that's it, right, like, she might be a blend of those things? She also said she's goddess adjacent so she can't fully be Ishtar otherwise she would say she was a goddess. She's very literal. Maybe Tara Rynieyn was the...foundation, the base upon which this entity built several personalities? Maybe sometimes she IS the goddess Ishtar but not all the time? And then sometimes she's the Whore of Babylon?"
Boy A: "She's not the same from the stories I was told. Something's not adding up here. Tara Rynieyn was mortal when she came to Rhy'Din. I don't know how she became immortal but my parents never mentioned The Whore of Babylon when they were telling me about her. I think I would remember that."
Boy B: "How do you know she was mortal? Maybe she wasn't?"
Boy A: "Because some dude Soulights, who was also a big deal back in the day, nearly killed her. He cut her stomach open with his sword."
Boy B: "Wow, that's umm, crazy."
Boy A: "Yeah it is."
Boy B: "She's been dating Anubis for ten thousand years, maybe the fact that he's a God changed her into this thing in some way?"
Boy A: "How? He's Egyptian. She's Babylonian. They're nothing alike. Two entirely different cultures, religions, basically everything. And now there's Christianity mixed into this, too. Anubis isn't Christian."
Boy B: "They say opposites attract? I don’t know! How the hell is it that we both work for an Egyptian GOD and his sometimes girlfriend goddess-adjacent soon-to-be-wife is ALSO, a creature capable of bringing about the END OF THE WORLD?!"
Boy A: "Good point, okay, but how is her dating him changing her?"
Boy B: "Well try to imagine what those two types of beings might be like if they ever met, fell in love, right? They both had entire civilizations worshipping them. Like actual CULTS of millions of people. That's why she's acting like she owns the place, because in her worldview, she owned it all. Temples were built in her name, an entire religion, a way of life. Anubis, too. He was a HUGE deal in Ancient Egypt. Consider that every morning, millions of people woke up and said prayers to not only Tara but also Anubis. Can you imagine what that might do to their egos?
Now imagine these two beings with enormous egos, the adoration of a million voices in their head, imagine if they were in love, would they NOT want to make the other happy, right? Anubis would want to give her EVERYTHING. He would elevate her above all others. She'd also be extremely attached to him, in return. Like how my girlfriend wears my sweatpants except in Tara’s case, she’d want to BE the sweatpants and Anubis would want to wear them so she was close to him. They wouldn't want to be separated. That would probably make them both very angry and sad. So, maybe Tara started to change into something that would make them not being separated, a reality? You said she was gone for a bit. You also said Anubis didn't take it very well. Maybe this is some middle ground we're unaware of, between them?"
Boy A: "I don't think Anubis even owns sweatpants. And, she does kinda own the place as his wife. And, he's real bossy. But this sounds suffocating."
Boy B: "Not to her, it isn't. Not to him, either, probably. But she would act this way even if she wasn't marrying Anubis. She'd feel...entitled. Like it was owed to her. That's why she talks the way she does. In her mind, we should be kissing her feet. What is Anubis the God of?"
Boy A: "I have no idea. I just heard them say he's a God."
Boy B: "Okay well if she's the goddess or has aspects of the Goddess of Love, War, Prostitution, and Fertility in the ancient Babylonian pantheon. If I'm right, and she's also blending aspects of the Whore of Babylon, she would be..."
Boy A: "Be what?"
Boy B: "Well, this, what you see here. The Whore of Babylon is related to the Christian interpretation of Hell. She'd have characteristics related to Hell, as well?"
Boy A: "The Seven Deadly Sins! That's why she's hungry so much! Gluttony!"
Boy B: "And why she's so sexual. Lust."
Boy A: "And, why she gets so nasty! Wrath. Damn we're geniuses."
Boy B: "Ish...Tara?"
"I wish to take my afternoon repose. Be silent, mollusks. Spend this time atoning for yer transgressions so that I might thrash you for them, later."
Boy B: "Yes, in a moment, I promise. We want to learn more about you so that we can..."
Boy A: "WORSHIP YOU."
"Hmmph. You are inferior to my supplicants, mollusk."
Boy A: "OK Wikipedia says that the goddess Ishtar wanted Gilgamesh to be her consort but he blew her off."
Boy B: "Anubis can't be the aspect of this Gilgamesh character, because he's marrying her."
Boy A: "I don't know. I'm just winging this like you are. It says The Epic of Gilgamesh is a stone tablet written about this story between him and the goddess Ishtar."
Boy B: "That's why she said it was tawdry. He was a hard pass on her."
Boy A: "I can't imagine she's forgiven him.
Boy B: "OK let's go do some research and try to figure this out while she takes her afternoon repose."
Boy A: "What even is that?"
Boy B: "She wants to sleep. Goddesses sleep a lot."
Boy B: "I feel so bad for Anubis now."
Boy A: "Why?"
Boy B: "Can you imagine the sheer force of will, the incredible patience, the monumental EFFORT it must take to make a creature such as her...happy? To keep her from getting bored?"
Boy A: "It can't be all that bad, they're getting married, right?"
Boy B: "Right, but what did he have to do to get THIS far with her? Imagine an eternity of this. What compromises did he have to make?"
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 10:33 PM
Fading embers of daylight chequered the lawn, lacquering the terrain in the ethereal hues of the incoming twilight. The King bled a crimson boulevard across the crest of the horizon, a final act of royal asperity that now ebbed before a chilled aquamarine. Sparse trees chattered at the diktat of the breeze, gnarled limbs bearing verdant seeds like cheap rings on a pimp's fingers.
In short, the adolescent spring still bore the scars of winter, and so the Egyptian yearned for the rustic warmth of the Inn.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 10:44 PM
Matted hemp perfectly mirrored the lake of chartreuse around him, cobbles worn to nubs by the winter's kiss crowding into a serpentine path. Cocaine-white linen quietly rippled like a flag in a gale, a pristine but mortal material striving in vain to match his snake-slither gait.
A silent whisper issued from his mind's eye, ancient hinges shedding their crimson residue as they yielded to the unspoken command. Anubis strode through the aperture thus gained, an eye for the world into the firelit womb of the Inn.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 10:47 PM
Instead of arriving via the hearth as she had thousands of times in the distant past, she entered now through the front door. And, she had company. An entourage of his employees, around thirty of them, give or take (and still on the clock, racking up that OT now, too) all their arms laden with packages she had purchased at his mall. With his credit cards. Because, college kids had set up frat houses in her homes and the bank she had her money at before she left, was just no longer there. She had no access to her prior wealth. This would be rectified, in time. In the interim, this was the situation at hand.
She was in the black catsuit which meant something had happened which had upset her but as she directed the staff where to place the packages she seemed to be in reasonably good spirits. "There, an' there, please," she said and sighed.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 10:50 PM
Then she looked around at the Inn. There was no recognition of any kind in her expression. Nor did she gravitate towards the third chair on the right, her throne, as it were, because it just was no longer there. Whatever chair was in its place, wasn't it, never would be it. Her throne had been one of a kind. If she noticed, she gave no impression of this. This would have been notable in the past but not now. She almost seemed like she were in any tavern and not the place she had spent most of her nights in for much of her life. Like this place held no significance of any kind.
But she saw him, her Adjacent Husband and she walked over to him. And, she looked irritated.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 10:58 PM
The vaulted span of a brow strained towards the grille of ancient rafters above, a conspiracy of hearths and candles painting their latticed silhouette across the walls. Although the Egyptian himself remained immobile, his gaze sidled towards the diminutive femme that he would soon bind/be bound to in wedlock, pupils dilating from the sienna light that now bathed them. "Is something amiss, Pretty Dove?"
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:01 PM
Pretty Dove
The echoed whisper spun up round him like a phantom and lingered as she began to circle him now, hips asway, violet eyes cascading down his form, as if she were assessing him for sale. There was zero hesitation but some degree of doubt. "My word, you are visually pleasing, at least. A small mercy, perhaps, " she murmured, her fingertips brushing against his ribs. "Such definition, strength even," they moved to his back, his shoulder blades, his bicep, as she came full circle to stand before him.
"Still, as I sat with my thoughts today, I wondered, have I chosen, well? Or, was that choice, premature?"
A defiant lift of the chin from his red-haired goddess with the bee-stung lips pursing as they now were.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:16 PM
For him, the Inn had never been the sanctum of hedonistic memories that it was for the alabaster sylph who taunted him; it was a hunting ground, a place of business, an option for exquisite charcuterie and deliciously torrid whiskey. But there were a thousand venues in the Rhydinian labyrinth for all that.
Yet, he had always been intrigued by this cathedral of the Nexus, a hive for beings of all races, aeons, magical authority, physical authority, financial authority, etc....to genuflect at the altar of the toxic ambrosia whose malty aroma taunted his nostrils, and to discover that undeniable thread which bound all clans, species, and ages of history together: They all had some miserable scumbags among their number.
But back to reality. Anubis's arrogant ruminations were shattered by the sight of Tara flitting about him, assessing him as if he were cattle. His expression grew dour as he regarded the coquettish voice taunting him, a storm framed like a portrait in ebon irises.
"If you feel that way, you can always feel free to leave."
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:23 PM
She laughed at that. "You would never allow it, not in a million years an' we have both had several orders of those haven't we? " She leaned forth at the hip. Now her tone matched his with a stygian glare to follow. "How much do you want to wager this time, slaver? I am in the process of purchasing our new bed to replace the one you soiled with yer little jezebel. How much are you willing to part with that you will never let me leave 'gain, hmm? I believe the last time it was ten thousand, yes?"
A delicate finger with a very sharp fingernail was thrusted in the air then as she had had a new thought she wished to share with him. "A soiled bed I am at present burning in our back yard along with every other thing you let her touch. I am not nearly finished. I may never be."
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:39 PM
Pristine lids flitted over his gaze for an eternal moment, russet skin casting his baleful glare into a purdah as he collected his thoughts.
And then a sinuous limb shot forward like a viper scrying a fieldmouse that just blundered to its deathbed, a palm refined from a patrician eternity snaking around the very finger which cut the air in judgement. The sinew which aligned his forearm could be seen to grow rigid, Anubis reeling Tara in like a fish on a hook. Violet disdain held a silent rendezvous with noir fury, verdant hemp inching across the flooring to loom over her willowy frame.
"You're right. I won't. Unless I want to. I will not be cursed to wile away eternity with a harridan OR a manipulator. I know your mind like I know my own, so dispense with the games. What. Do. You. Want." His fist sealed across the diminutive finger in its power, constricting like a hangman's noose around the neck of the guilty.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:50 PM
She gasped and fell forward towards him. Violets swung to where his fist was holding her finger and then back up to his eyes. "Unhand me. Now. Lest you wish to see the entire manor burn down next but not 'fore you answer for this outrage. Right here. I still have one hand free, mind you."
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:57 PM
"The bluster doesn't work with me. You know that." He also knew it wasn't entirely bluster, but primordial instincts silently implored him to roll the proverbial dice. So her finger would remain incarcerated in the coppery maw of his hand.
"Such venom from such a pretty face. But will you really bite? Our love is too great. But even if it was not, you have no allies that can defeat me. I don't know if you EVER did, but you certainly don't now. So what do you want so badly that you will risk wounding our love?"
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:06 AM
"I am not the one wounding it. It seems to me that my exalted mate has gotten soft, complacent even, when once he might thrill me with his passion an' fury. These puppets think him benign, when he was once as malignant as I am. Where is the man I fell in love with? The man who won my heart by being the opposite of what he is now? To this disappointment, is what I have returned home to, sadly. Yer indiscretion, aside. Utter absurdity. " She frowned as she still had not convinced him to let her go. That pretty face was screwing up now.
Then, because, it was bothering her. "I do not like slot...machines." She didn't like saying these strange words she was taught today. Her nose wrinkled further.
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:14 AM
"Would you rather love a man who is malignant but stupid? One who does not set the chessboard before he strikes? I know you would not." Nimble fingers cast themselves into the ale-rank aether, releasing her protruding digit as he languorously descended into the lap of an oaken chair.
Piercing irises once again sought her own, incipient anger waning away. Yet his gaze was still surly and earnest, much akin to the gloom in the sky after a storm. "Has it ever occurred to you that something may be in motion?"
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:21 AM
"Nay, I would not an' I do not love such a man, now." She brought her finger to her lips, brows furrowing, as he had not exactly been gentle there. She was nursing it with a kiss now. She looked away from him with a sigh. "Much has occurred to me, Anpu. None of it, sits well."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:30 AM
"The crocodile is a patient beast. It lay in the mire of the River, scales painted in the black muck, broiling in a more merciless sun than almost anyone in this realm will ever know, flies biting at its testicles. Do you think it enjoys such company?" Anubis's baritones were swathed in an exasperated timbre, his open hand casting a grandiloquent gesture across the width of his chair.
As the final word was cast into the candlelight, he could not help but allow his gaze to oscillate across the scant gathering. A congregation of duelists who ranged from indifferent to dear friends, yet this was the first time he even acknowledged any of them.
"It waits for its prey. And to the outside world, it looks like garbage in the River. Nothing to be concerned about. Part of the scenery. But eventually..."
His jawline rapidly sealed shut, gaunt lips peeled back to reveal the facsimile of a crocodilian bite. "You need to trust me."
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:35 AM
She listened and leaned against a table, crossing one leg over the other. He had scuffed her heels by pulling her towards him. This was bothering her, too, for some reason. "I want to go home, back to the palace in El Kab. I do not recognize this place anymore. Trust you," she repeated with another sigh.
"Pretty Dove? Who even ARE you? They have changed you. I should never have left. I will regret it forever."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:49 AM
"No one's changed me. I've adapted to the hunting ground. People will do so after a decade." A mercurial venom laced through each syllable, as usual accentuated by the tonal rhapsody of an accent long since consigned to the shadows. A ghost of a sigh tickled his grimace as he settled back against exquisitely hewn oak.
A tongue of flame writhed across the summit of a candle, casting the sinuous bough of his forearm into shadow as it once more advanced. But this time, it did so with an empathetic gentility. When his palm fell across hers again, it was more akin to a kiss than a capturing.
"As have you, Beautiful One. As you said, much has occurred and much has changed. But I am constant. And I will constantly be by your side."
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:52 AM
"Twenty minutes ago, you were casting me into the river with the crocodile," she said with a smirk and looked down to his hand to make sure that, at least, still looked the same. It did.
"Let us go home please. I bought all of those packages over there an' I don't even want them. I jus' want to lay in yer arms an' forget this day ever happened. I have a lot of things I need to speak with you about privately."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:58 AM
"As I you." The Egyptian came to a stand, lacquered fingernails nonchalantly trailing across some scar incised into the wood by some long-forgotten patron. Who probably knew them both.
"Come, Beautiful One." An arm casually slipped beneath the alabaster expanse of her thigh, in crisp unison with draping an arm across the breadth of his neck. Hoisting her upwards, he cast a few cants of the head to the others as he moved towards the door, once more parted by a silent imperative. They were soon swallowed by the night.
04/30/2026 10:33 PM
Fading embers of daylight chequered the lawn, lacquering the terrain in the ethereal hues of the incoming twilight. The King bled a crimson boulevard across the crest of the horizon, a final act of royal asperity that now ebbed before a chilled aquamarine. Sparse trees chattered at the diktat of the breeze, gnarled limbs bearing verdant seeds like cheap rings on a pimp's fingers.
In short, the adolescent spring still bore the scars of winter, and so the Egyptian yearned for the rustic warmth of the Inn.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 10:44 PM
Matted hemp perfectly mirrored the lake of chartreuse around him, cobbles worn to nubs by the winter's kiss crowding into a serpentine path. Cocaine-white linen quietly rippled like a flag in a gale, a pristine but mortal material striving in vain to match his snake-slither gait.
A silent whisper issued from his mind's eye, ancient hinges shedding their crimson residue as they yielded to the unspoken command. Anubis strode through the aperture thus gained, an eye for the world into the firelit womb of the Inn.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 10:47 PM
Instead of arriving via the hearth as she had thousands of times in the distant past, she entered now through the front door. And, she had company. An entourage of his employees, around thirty of them, give or take (and still on the clock, racking up that OT now, too) all their arms laden with packages she had purchased at his mall. With his credit cards. Because, college kids had set up frat houses in her homes and the bank she had her money at before she left, was just no longer there. She had no access to her prior wealth. This would be rectified, in time. In the interim, this was the situation at hand.
She was in the black catsuit which meant something had happened which had upset her but as she directed the staff where to place the packages she seemed to be in reasonably good spirits. "There, an' there, please," she said and sighed.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 10:50 PM
Then she looked around at the Inn. There was no recognition of any kind in her expression. Nor did she gravitate towards the third chair on the right, her throne, as it were, because it just was no longer there. Whatever chair was in its place, wasn't it, never would be it. Her throne had been one of a kind. If she noticed, she gave no impression of this. This would have been notable in the past but not now. She almost seemed like she were in any tavern and not the place she had spent most of her nights in for much of her life. Like this place held no significance of any kind.
But she saw him, her Adjacent Husband and she walked over to him. And, she looked irritated.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 10:58 PM
The vaulted span of a brow strained towards the grille of ancient rafters above, a conspiracy of hearths and candles painting their latticed silhouette across the walls. Although the Egyptian himself remained immobile, his gaze sidled towards the diminutive femme that he would soon bind/be bound to in wedlock, pupils dilating from the sienna light that now bathed them. "Is something amiss, Pretty Dove?"
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:01 PM
Pretty Dove
The echoed whisper spun up round him like a phantom and lingered as she began to circle him now, hips asway, violet eyes cascading down his form, as if she were assessing him for sale. There was zero hesitation but some degree of doubt. "My word, you are visually pleasing, at least. A small mercy, perhaps, " she murmured, her fingertips brushing against his ribs. "Such definition, strength even," they moved to his back, his shoulder blades, his bicep, as she came full circle to stand before him.
"Still, as I sat with my thoughts today, I wondered, have I chosen, well? Or, was that choice, premature?"
A defiant lift of the chin from his red-haired goddess with the bee-stung lips pursing as they now were.
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:16 PM
For him, the Inn had never been the sanctum of hedonistic memories that it was for the alabaster sylph who taunted him; it was a hunting ground, a place of business, an option for exquisite charcuterie and deliciously torrid whiskey. But there were a thousand venues in the Rhydinian labyrinth for all that.
Yet, he had always been intrigued by this cathedral of the Nexus, a hive for beings of all races, aeons, magical authority, physical authority, financial authority, etc....to genuflect at the altar of the toxic ambrosia whose malty aroma taunted his nostrils, and to discover that undeniable thread which bound all clans, species, and ages of history together: They all had some miserable scumbags among their number.
But back to reality. Anubis's arrogant ruminations were shattered by the sight of Tara flitting about him, assessing him as if he were cattle. His expression grew dour as he regarded the coquettish voice taunting him, a storm framed like a portrait in ebon irises.
"If you feel that way, you can always feel free to leave."
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:23 PM
She laughed at that. "You would never allow it, not in a million years an' we have both had several orders of those haven't we? " She leaned forth at the hip. Now her tone matched his with a stygian glare to follow. "How much do you want to wager this time, slaver? I am in the process of purchasing our new bed to replace the one you soiled with yer little jezebel. How much are you willing to part with that you will never let me leave 'gain, hmm? I believe the last time it was ten thousand, yes?"
A delicate finger with a very sharp fingernail was thrusted in the air then as she had had a new thought she wished to share with him. "A soiled bed I am at present burning in our back yard along with every other thing you let her touch. I am not nearly finished. I may never be."
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:39 PM
Pristine lids flitted over his gaze for an eternal moment, russet skin casting his baleful glare into a purdah as he collected his thoughts.
And then a sinuous limb shot forward like a viper scrying a fieldmouse that just blundered to its deathbed, a palm refined from a patrician eternity snaking around the very finger which cut the air in judgement. The sinew which aligned his forearm could be seen to grow rigid, Anubis reeling Tara in like a fish on a hook. Violet disdain held a silent rendezvous with noir fury, verdant hemp inching across the flooring to loom over her willowy frame.
"You're right. I won't. Unless I want to. I will not be cursed to wile away eternity with a harridan OR a manipulator. I know your mind like I know my own, so dispense with the games. What. Do. You. Want." His fist sealed across the diminutive finger in its power, constricting like a hangman's noose around the neck of the guilty.
Tara Rynieyn
04/30/2026 11:50 PM
She gasped and fell forward towards him. Violets swung to where his fist was holding her finger and then back up to his eyes. "Unhand me. Now. Lest you wish to see the entire manor burn down next but not 'fore you answer for this outrage. Right here. I still have one hand free, mind you."
Anubis Karos
04/30/2026 11:57 PM
"The bluster doesn't work with me. You know that." He also knew it wasn't entirely bluster, but primordial instincts silently implored him to roll the proverbial dice. So her finger would remain incarcerated in the coppery maw of his hand.
"Such venom from such a pretty face. But will you really bite? Our love is too great. But even if it was not, you have no allies that can defeat me. I don't know if you EVER did, but you certainly don't now. So what do you want so badly that you will risk wounding our love?"
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:06 AM
"I am not the one wounding it. It seems to me that my exalted mate has gotten soft, complacent even, when once he might thrill me with his passion an' fury. These puppets think him benign, when he was once as malignant as I am. Where is the man I fell in love with? The man who won my heart by being the opposite of what he is now? To this disappointment, is what I have returned home to, sadly. Yer indiscretion, aside. Utter absurdity. " She frowned as she still had not convinced him to let her go. That pretty face was screwing up now.
Then, because, it was bothering her. "I do not like slot...machines." She didn't like saying these strange words she was taught today. Her nose wrinkled further.
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:14 AM
"Would you rather love a man who is malignant but stupid? One who does not set the chessboard before he strikes? I know you would not." Nimble fingers cast themselves into the ale-rank aether, releasing her protruding digit as he languorously descended into the lap of an oaken chair.
Piercing irises once again sought her own, incipient anger waning away. Yet his gaze was still surly and earnest, much akin to the gloom in the sky after a storm. "Has it ever occurred to you that something may be in motion?"
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:21 AM
"Nay, I would not an' I do not love such a man, now." She brought her finger to her lips, brows furrowing, as he had not exactly been gentle there. She was nursing it with a kiss now. She looked away from him with a sigh. "Much has occurred to me, Anpu. None of it, sits well."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:30 AM
"The crocodile is a patient beast. It lay in the mire of the River, scales painted in the black muck, broiling in a more merciless sun than almost anyone in this realm will ever know, flies biting at its testicles. Do you think it enjoys such company?" Anubis's baritones were swathed in an exasperated timbre, his open hand casting a grandiloquent gesture across the width of his chair.
As the final word was cast into the candlelight, he could not help but allow his gaze to oscillate across the scant gathering. A congregation of duelists who ranged from indifferent to dear friends, yet this was the first time he even acknowledged any of them.
"It waits for its prey. And to the outside world, it looks like garbage in the River. Nothing to be concerned about. Part of the scenery. But eventually..."
His jawline rapidly sealed shut, gaunt lips peeled back to reveal the facsimile of a crocodilian bite. "You need to trust me."
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:35 AM
She listened and leaned against a table, crossing one leg over the other. He had scuffed her heels by pulling her towards him. This was bothering her, too, for some reason. "I want to go home, back to the palace in El Kab. I do not recognize this place anymore. Trust you," she repeated with another sigh.
"Pretty Dove? Who even ARE you? They have changed you. I should never have left. I will regret it forever."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:49 AM
"No one's changed me. I've adapted to the hunting ground. People will do so after a decade." A mercurial venom laced through each syllable, as usual accentuated by the tonal rhapsody of an accent long since consigned to the shadows. A ghost of a sigh tickled his grimace as he settled back against exquisitely hewn oak.
A tongue of flame writhed across the summit of a candle, casting the sinuous bough of his forearm into shadow as it once more advanced. But this time, it did so with an empathetic gentility. When his palm fell across hers again, it was more akin to a kiss than a capturing.
"As have you, Beautiful One. As you said, much has occurred and much has changed. But I am constant. And I will constantly be by your side."
Tara Rynieyn
05/01/2026 12:52 AM
"Twenty minutes ago, you were casting me into the river with the crocodile," she said with a smirk and looked down to his hand to make sure that, at least, still looked the same. It did.
"Let us go home please. I bought all of those packages over there an' I don't even want them. I jus' want to lay in yer arms an' forget this day ever happened. I have a lot of things I need to speak with you about privately."
Anubis Karos
05/01/2026 12:58 AM
"As I you." The Egyptian came to a stand, lacquered fingernails nonchalantly trailing across some scar incised into the wood by some long-forgotten patron. Who probably knew them both.
"Come, Beautiful One." An arm casually slipped beneath the alabaster expanse of her thigh, in crisp unison with draping an arm across the breadth of his neck. Hoisting her upwards, he cast a few cants of the head to the others as he moved towards the door, once more parted by a silent imperative. They were soon swallowed by the night.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
The Desert Palace in El Kab
The Den of the Bejeweled Saw-Scaled Viper (Tara's Chambers)
Three decades ago
Compromise, God Simon, is for mortals.
We do not make compromises.
We make pacts.
And, if they are ever broken, we get even.
My chambers, were remarkably different from those of my love. They were so vast they could have been a palace in their own right. They were in their own wing of the palace and extended, jutting out over the sands below. This he spent a fortune on as well. Building this gilded cage for me just like the one he found me in the day we first met. Not to imprison me, to adore, to cherish. To worship.
This, I believe, is what turned Set's heart against me because he saw how far his son had fallen over me and feared he was losing his grip over him. I do not begrudge a father's love for his son and wanting the best for him. I just wished he would have accepted me as a daughter, rather than do all he could to separate us. No one has loved his son more than I. No one. And, no one, ever will.
There were twelve doors to pass through before you reached the inner sanctum.
Twelve gates.
Twelve vipers, one for each door, etched across resplendent gold.
The outer door was similar to that of the sealed chamber in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in India on Earth. It is colloquially known as Vault B. They say if the door is ever opened, it will bring a doom upon mankind.
Which is just laughable. I am sitting right here. What possible other doom could there ever be?
Aside from how expensive this set up was, its most attractive feature, were columns on either side of it with stone vipers strangling them like vines of ivy. It was a visual deterrent with a very clear message to any who might venture near it.
My chambers proper was a circle, open on all sides, as was the ceiling open to the sky. It was wondrous to sleep in, under the stars. The desert is most beautiful at night. It was a microcosm you understand. A fish bowl. Though it never rained. Not one drop.
My bath was off to the side. An enormous bed was in the center of the circle, but in direct line with all the gates so that when you walked in you were looking directly at it. There were freestanding columns which stretched to the heavens leading to and around the bed with sheer curtains attached to them. Walking through them you almost felt like it were a gauntlet.
The Djinn had promised me splendor but Anpu had delivered it, in spades.
Set had been holding a grand banquet for foreign dignitaries he wished to sell his chattel to and Anpu and I were expected to attend. We just were not seated together. Anpu was with his mistress. I forget her name. She is dead now, of course. She was smitten with him and for that I could not blame her. She was shamelessly pawing at him under the table while he brooded in my general direction.
I ignored him, as best I could, but I knew that later on, there would be a confrontation. I could see him winding up in that chair, curling his fists, working his jaw, turning over in that ancient mind of his what he was going to do to the pirate if he had even dared get an inch closer to me than he already was.
He was glaring because I was seated with one of Set's newest employees, a slaver and pirate by the name of Arrithon Anarion. His ship was named The Erogean. He had only been living at the palace a week when the banquet was held and I felt it was my obligation to help get him acclimated to his new environment.
I had drank too much wine. I was laughing. Arrithon was funny. Anpu could hear me laughing. Anpu did not think Arrithon was funny and he wanted to know why I thought he was.
Arrithon did not know Anpu and I were together and honestly, how could he? Anpu was with another woman as far as he could tell. I do not blame the man for what he did.
After two hours of playing hostess and the wine going to my head, I excused myself to go back to my chambers to lay down. On the way, Anpu caught my wrist and stopped me. The look he gave me was of actual concern.
"Are you unwell, Princess?" he asked and I could feel his thumb rubbing against my wrist.
He was not going to use my pet name in front of his father so he deferred to my proper royal title.
I actually was a princess, once. But that was another life.
"If I may be excused, yer Royal Highness, I would like to retire," I said, trying not to smirk, and used his proper royal title in return. He has hundreds of titles but that is the one I picked in that moment. I pulled my wrist away. "Enjoy the rest of yer meal," I said with a frown as his mistress began to pull his face towards her.
Look, I get that he is easy on the eyes. I understand he's attractive to broken women who want the Bad Boy archetype but he's MY Bad Boy. You can borrow him, if he'll let you, kiss him all you like, just don't throw it up in my face and do it in front of me.
I do not appreciate that. And, neither does he. He famously screamed at me one night for making out with some guy in a booth in front of him.
I was glad to see he didn't let her. At least he was still showing me respect in that moment. He kept his eyes on me as I left the banquet and what he did with her after I left, is his business. I truly didn't care.
I returned to my chambers to find that Anpu had hired more guards. They lined the hallway and foyer like an army. This was his response to my fling with Sa Bast.
I rolled my eyes again and sighed, waiting for the doors to open. He was becoming cumbersome, nay, careless, with his jealousies. Nothing I could ever do would allay his fears and anxieties, I thought. Set was already pissed about this construction project of his, he would not appreciate him having an emotional reaction to someone sitting next to me. Both of us were expected to be on our best behavior in public and govern our emotions, accordingly.
Once I was permitted entry to my own bedroom, I removed the gown I had been wearing and wrapped myself in the most luxurious gossamer silk fabric I had purchased at the market earlier in the week. I was in love with it. It was so soft and beautiful. A lavender color, if I recall. I was planning to turn it into a dress but had yet to have the seamstresses do just that.
As I walked to my bed, I stopped, abruptly.
Something was glinting on the bed in the moonlight.
It was gold.
I took a cautious step forward.
It was a gold necklace.
And it had not come from Anpu. He would never just buy me a gold necklace. That would be too pedestrian. It would be covered in gems, mostly rubies. This had come from someone else. This was someone else's gift to me. Who could be so stupid and so bold? And, to leave it in my bedchamber of all places!
But how had it gotten here? My chambers were a fortress. Only Anpu, slaves, and my attendants could open the twelve gates. Someone had made it past though. Past whatever mechanisms Anpu had made sure were in place so there would be no visits from anyone but him. Past the army of guards, too.
Whomever it was, was talented. I would give them that. Even I didn't know how to work the gates and Anpu refused to tell me. He didn't trust me. They just would open when I approached.
I sat on the bed and examined it. It was thin gold and felt almost like a snake in my hands as it slipped through my fingers. I appreciated that it took into consideration one of my qualities even if the man who purchased it for me didn't know that much about me at the time.
But the wine really had gone to my head and so I laid down and soon was falling into a deep sleep. I could not have been asleep more than twenty minutes when I heard the gates opening again.
Anpu.
I rose as he strode to my bed, sat beside me and began to feel my forehead. He was still annoyed but worried. He can be so tender when he wants to be.
" Are you truly unwell?" he said with a frown.
"Nay," I said softly, "jus' tired. I drank too much," I said with a shrug.
"You did." He sighed and pulled his hand away. "Do you think me, blind, woman?"
"Of what are you accusing me?" I said with a frown.
"I saw the pirate getting cozy with you at dinner again. Do you do this to incite me? Why must you play these games?"
"He is a guest of yer father. I was merely being hospitable. Please, Anpu, I do not want to fight."
"We are not fighting, Tara."
He was using my name. We definitely were fighting because he only uses my name when we are.
"I feel as if we're about to. Do not do anything rash, Anpu, please stay calm."
"Calm? I am calm. You will discourage any further problematic behavior so there can be no confusion on his part," he said and then he noticed what I was wearing. His eyes glazed over. He was now well and truly distracted. I knew the look well. "Are you still tired?" he asked, gathering up the material in his hand.
"I can be persuaded to stay up a little longer," I said, doe-eyed.
And, without warning, he pulled it off me.
"Anpu," I whispered and reached for him. He had not been in the mood for my fawning, however. When he gets jealous he can be very myopic. This time was no different. Still, I loved him completely and I would comfort him and ease his mind because that is my job. I have had many jobs in my life but this was the only one which mattered.
And, I knew that he loved me even if he was being unreasonable about Arrithon. He would get over it.
He turned me over in one fluid motion and I collapsed onto the bed in anguish. As I did, I saw the gold necklace, inches from my face. My eyes went wide. My heart was in my throat. I had forgotten all about it! I could not explain its existence if he saw it and asked. I was grateful for the darkness and that clouds had passed over the moon high above us, casting my chamber into shadow.
Before I could reach for it, to push it off the bed so he would not see it, I felt his hands on my hips and he drew me back toward him. I gasped into the darkness. I heard the sound of distant drums then. The banquet was still going strong. It wasn't the only thing.
He moved in time to the cadence of those glorious drums. I breathed in tempo with the pulsing of those glorious drums. The stars raced overhead, with the Gods watching, in rhythm with the deafening beat of those unceasing, glorious drums.
Then I heard his latest edict echo declaratively in the dark. It would brook no debate.
"You will not be his next Port of Call."
Perhaps it was the wine I had drank earlier or the incense in the braziers making me dizzy, but it was a few moments before I realized Anpu was no longer there. He had left me there, alone. I was glad for it. I wanted to be alone.
Exhausted, I collapsed again on the bed and closed my eyes, forgetting all about the necklace, the pirate and even Anpu. Just as sleep was taking me again I heard a man's voice in the dark. My eyes flew open. I hurried to cover myself.
Arrithon stepped from the shadows. I could not believe my eyes.
"Does he always just come in here and rip your clothes off like that, whenever he wants?"
"What are you doing in my chambers?! How did you even get in here?! Were you watching us just now?!" I was breathless and angry at this stranger just took it upon himself to waltz right into my room and had apparently been hiding in it!
"How could I not? You are magnificent. I can easily see why he would be jealous of anyone talking to you. What are you to him?"
"I belong to him, utterly. You are insane! Answer me!"
"What does that mean? He called you princess. Are you his wife?"
"I will be one day."
"Well then we both have a very big problem now don't we?"
I gave him a strange look. "What sort of problem is it that you think we both have?"
"Not you and I, him and I," he said with a grin.
"Again, what problem is it that you think you and Anubis have?"
"Isn't it obvious? You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. I cannot allow you to marry Anubis, when I will have you for my own."
"Oh I beg thee! Abandon me, here, now! Perhaps I was too familiar! I have somehow given you the wrong impression! He will murder you over the course of an AGE!"
But, Arrithon, like most men I have given similar warnings to, who later regretted not heeding my warnings, didn't want to listen to what I had to say. His mind was set.
Laughing, he said, "You have done no such thing, Beautiful. Enjoy the necklace. I plan on buying you many more in its place. You will bear me many children."
I would not bear him many children. Two, children, twins. They were unplanned and not, many.
But I didn't know that yet.
He seemed to have a better read of the future than me, though.
Satisfied he laid out the itinerary for me as he planned to execute it, he strode through all twelve gates just as Anpu had moments prior. I hoped they didn't meet in the hallway.
And then I was utterly alone.
The Den of the Bejeweled Saw-Scaled Viper (Tara's Chambers)
Three decades ago
Compromise, God Simon, is for mortals.
We do not make compromises.
We make pacts.
And, if they are ever broken, we get even.
My chambers, were remarkably different from those of my love. They were so vast they could have been a palace in their own right. They were in their own wing of the palace and extended, jutting out over the sands below. This he spent a fortune on as well. Building this gilded cage for me just like the one he found me in the day we first met. Not to imprison me, to adore, to cherish. To worship.
This, I believe, is what turned Set's heart against me because he saw how far his son had fallen over me and feared he was losing his grip over him. I do not begrudge a father's love for his son and wanting the best for him. I just wished he would have accepted me as a daughter, rather than do all he could to separate us. No one has loved his son more than I. No one. And, no one, ever will.
There were twelve doors to pass through before you reached the inner sanctum.
Twelve gates.
Twelve vipers, one for each door, etched across resplendent gold.
The outer door was similar to that of the sealed chamber in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in India on Earth. It is colloquially known as Vault B. They say if the door is ever opened, it will bring a doom upon mankind.
Which is just laughable. I am sitting right here. What possible other doom could there ever be?
Aside from how expensive this set up was, its most attractive feature, were columns on either side of it with stone vipers strangling them like vines of ivy. It was a visual deterrent with a very clear message to any who might venture near it.
You, pilgrim, are most assuredly not welcome here. Turn back before it is too late.
My chambers proper was a circle, open on all sides, as was the ceiling open to the sky. It was wondrous to sleep in, under the stars. The desert is most beautiful at night. It was a microcosm you understand. A fish bowl. Though it never rained. Not one drop.
My bath was off to the side. An enormous bed was in the center of the circle, but in direct line with all the gates so that when you walked in you were looking directly at it. There were freestanding columns which stretched to the heavens leading to and around the bed with sheer curtains attached to them. Walking through them you almost felt like it were a gauntlet.
The Djinn had promised me splendor but Anpu had delivered it, in spades.
Set had been holding a grand banquet for foreign dignitaries he wished to sell his chattel to and Anpu and I were expected to attend. We just were not seated together. Anpu was with his mistress. I forget her name. She is dead now, of course. She was smitten with him and for that I could not blame her. She was shamelessly pawing at him under the table while he brooded in my general direction.
I ignored him, as best I could, but I knew that later on, there would be a confrontation. I could see him winding up in that chair, curling his fists, working his jaw, turning over in that ancient mind of his what he was going to do to the pirate if he had even dared get an inch closer to me than he already was.
He was glaring because I was seated with one of Set's newest employees, a slaver and pirate by the name of Arrithon Anarion. His ship was named The Erogean. He had only been living at the palace a week when the banquet was held and I felt it was my obligation to help get him acclimated to his new environment.
I had drank too much wine. I was laughing. Arrithon was funny. Anpu could hear me laughing. Anpu did not think Arrithon was funny and he wanted to know why I thought he was.
Arrithon did not know Anpu and I were together and honestly, how could he? Anpu was with another woman as far as he could tell. I do not blame the man for what he did.
After two hours of playing hostess and the wine going to my head, I excused myself to go back to my chambers to lay down. On the way, Anpu caught my wrist and stopped me. The look he gave me was of actual concern.
"Are you unwell, Princess?" he asked and I could feel his thumb rubbing against my wrist.
He was not going to use my pet name in front of his father so he deferred to my proper royal title.
I actually was a princess, once. But that was another life.
"If I may be excused, yer Royal Highness, I would like to retire," I said, trying not to smirk, and used his proper royal title in return. He has hundreds of titles but that is the one I picked in that moment. I pulled my wrist away. "Enjoy the rest of yer meal," I said with a frown as his mistress began to pull his face towards her.
Look, I get that he is easy on the eyes. I understand he's attractive to broken women who want the Bad Boy archetype but he's MY Bad Boy. You can borrow him, if he'll let you, kiss him all you like, just don't throw it up in my face and do it in front of me.
I do not appreciate that. And, neither does he. He famously screamed at me one night for making out with some guy in a booth in front of him.
I was glad to see he didn't let her. At least he was still showing me respect in that moment. He kept his eyes on me as I left the banquet and what he did with her after I left, is his business. I truly didn't care.
I returned to my chambers to find that Anpu had hired more guards. They lined the hallway and foyer like an army. This was his response to my fling with Sa Bast.
I rolled my eyes again and sighed, waiting for the doors to open. He was becoming cumbersome, nay, careless, with his jealousies. Nothing I could ever do would allay his fears and anxieties, I thought. Set was already pissed about this construction project of his, he would not appreciate him having an emotional reaction to someone sitting next to me. Both of us were expected to be on our best behavior in public and govern our emotions, accordingly.
Once I was permitted entry to my own bedroom, I removed the gown I had been wearing and wrapped myself in the most luxurious gossamer silk fabric I had purchased at the market earlier in the week. I was in love with it. It was so soft and beautiful. A lavender color, if I recall. I was planning to turn it into a dress but had yet to have the seamstresses do just that.
As I walked to my bed, I stopped, abruptly.
Something was glinting on the bed in the moonlight.
It was gold.
I took a cautious step forward.
It was a gold necklace.
And it had not come from Anpu. He would never just buy me a gold necklace. That would be too pedestrian. It would be covered in gems, mostly rubies. This had come from someone else. This was someone else's gift to me. Who could be so stupid and so bold? And, to leave it in my bedchamber of all places!
But how had it gotten here? My chambers were a fortress. Only Anpu, slaves, and my attendants could open the twelve gates. Someone had made it past though. Past whatever mechanisms Anpu had made sure were in place so there would be no visits from anyone but him. Past the army of guards, too.
Whomever it was, was talented. I would give them that. Even I didn't know how to work the gates and Anpu refused to tell me. He didn't trust me. They just would open when I approached.
I sat on the bed and examined it. It was thin gold and felt almost like a snake in my hands as it slipped through my fingers. I appreciated that it took into consideration one of my qualities even if the man who purchased it for me didn't know that much about me at the time.
But the wine really had gone to my head and so I laid down and soon was falling into a deep sleep. I could not have been asleep more than twenty minutes when I heard the gates opening again.
Anpu.
I rose as he strode to my bed, sat beside me and began to feel my forehead. He was still annoyed but worried. He can be so tender when he wants to be.
" Are you truly unwell?" he said with a frown.
"Nay," I said softly, "jus' tired. I drank too much," I said with a shrug.
"You did." He sighed and pulled his hand away. "Do you think me, blind, woman?"
"Of what are you accusing me?" I said with a frown.
"I saw the pirate getting cozy with you at dinner again. Do you do this to incite me? Why must you play these games?"
"He is a guest of yer father. I was merely being hospitable. Please, Anpu, I do not want to fight."
"We are not fighting, Tara."
He was using my name. We definitely were fighting because he only uses my name when we are.
"I feel as if we're about to. Do not do anything rash, Anpu, please stay calm."
"Calm? I am calm. You will discourage any further problematic behavior so there can be no confusion on his part," he said and then he noticed what I was wearing. His eyes glazed over. He was now well and truly distracted. I knew the look well. "Are you still tired?" he asked, gathering up the material in his hand.
"I can be persuaded to stay up a little longer," I said, doe-eyed.
And, without warning, he pulled it off me.
"Anpu," I whispered and reached for him. He had not been in the mood for my fawning, however. When he gets jealous he can be very myopic. This time was no different. Still, I loved him completely and I would comfort him and ease his mind because that is my job. I have had many jobs in my life but this was the only one which mattered.
And, I knew that he loved me even if he was being unreasonable about Arrithon. He would get over it.
He turned me over in one fluid motion and I collapsed onto the bed in anguish. As I did, I saw the gold necklace, inches from my face. My eyes went wide. My heart was in my throat. I had forgotten all about it! I could not explain its existence if he saw it and asked. I was grateful for the darkness and that clouds had passed over the moon high above us, casting my chamber into shadow.
Before I could reach for it, to push it off the bed so he would not see it, I felt his hands on my hips and he drew me back toward him. I gasped into the darkness. I heard the sound of distant drums then. The banquet was still going strong. It wasn't the only thing.
He moved in time to the cadence of those glorious drums. I breathed in tempo with the pulsing of those glorious drums. The stars raced overhead, with the Gods watching, in rhythm with the deafening beat of those unceasing, glorious drums.
Then I heard his latest edict echo declaratively in the dark. It would brook no debate.
"You will not be his next Port of Call."
Perhaps it was the wine I had drank earlier or the incense in the braziers making me dizzy, but it was a few moments before I realized Anpu was no longer there. He had left me there, alone. I was glad for it. I wanted to be alone.
Exhausted, I collapsed again on the bed and closed my eyes, forgetting all about the necklace, the pirate and even Anpu. Just as sleep was taking me again I heard a man's voice in the dark. My eyes flew open. I hurried to cover myself.
Arrithon stepped from the shadows. I could not believe my eyes.
"Does he always just come in here and rip your clothes off like that, whenever he wants?"
"What are you doing in my chambers?! How did you even get in here?! Were you watching us just now?!" I was breathless and angry at this stranger just took it upon himself to waltz right into my room and had apparently been hiding in it!
"How could I not? You are magnificent. I can easily see why he would be jealous of anyone talking to you. What are you to him?"
"I belong to him, utterly. You are insane! Answer me!"
"What does that mean? He called you princess. Are you his wife?"
"I will be one day."
"Well then we both have a very big problem now don't we?"
I gave him a strange look. "What sort of problem is it that you think we both have?"
"Not you and I, him and I," he said with a grin.
"Again, what problem is it that you think you and Anubis have?"
"Isn't it obvious? You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. I cannot allow you to marry Anubis, when I will have you for my own."
"Oh I beg thee! Abandon me, here, now! Perhaps I was too familiar! I have somehow given you the wrong impression! He will murder you over the course of an AGE!"
But, Arrithon, like most men I have given similar warnings to, who later regretted not heeding my warnings, didn't want to listen to what I had to say. His mind was set.
Laughing, he said, "You have done no such thing, Beautiful. Enjoy the necklace. I plan on buying you many more in its place. You will bear me many children."
I would not bear him many children. Two, children, twins. They were unplanned and not, many.
But I didn't know that yet.
He seemed to have a better read of the future than me, though.
Satisfied he laid out the itinerary for me as he planned to execute it, he strode through all twelve gates just as Anpu had moments prior. I hoped they didn't meet in the hallway.
And then I was utterly alone.
Re: I'm Thinking About Ending Things
Who Wants to Live Forever
Queen
There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Oh ooo oh
There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Ooh
Who dares to love forever
Oh oo woh, when love must die
But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Forever is our today
Who waits forever anyway?
Queen
There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Oh ooo oh
There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Ooh
Who dares to love forever
Oh oo woh, when love must die
But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Forever is our today
Who waits forever anyway?
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