WHO: Mary Magdalene & Huitzilopochtli WHEN: Tuesday (2011-03-10) WHERE: Arizona (The city of Page, Horseshoe Bend, and along the Colorado River) WHAT: The beginning of the Aztec and the Christian taking their show on the road. WARNINGS: None.
The flight they caught was early - no problem for an Aztec who didn't sleep but more annoying for a Christian who enjoyed hers. But Mary knew that it was best to have an early start on these things. She showed up at Huitzilopochtli's place with her hiking bag on her back and a smile on her face and from there the two made their way to the airport and caught the flights that would take them to the tiny airport in Page, Arizona. From there the journey would be on foot.
At the airport Mary had paused, turning as she listened to the prayer that had come into her head. It was so close, coming from the woman standing outside the airport doors looking heart-broken. Mary didn't know what she was doing when she excused herself from Huitzilopochtli, but when she reached the praying woman she ended up drawing that broken girl into her arms and holding her. Maybe the mortal didn't know who Mary was, but she accepted this comfort, understanding something more than herself. "All of yours sins," Mary had whispered into her hair, "are already forgiven."
Mary wasn't a Saint and refused to play along with that sort of thing, but sometimes it was too hard to hear their suffering and do nothing. She hated the invasion of it, but nothing stopped it.
The wilderness quietened it though. Leaving the cities and people far behind put a distance between it that meant she could truly relax and just be herself. These walks were the closest she could find to being just a normal woman again and that was a gift. Once she and Huitzilopochtli were outside the city limits of Page, Mary couldn't keep the smile from her face. This was freedom and it had been too long since she'd indulged.
Two hours out of Page they stopped at the Horseshoe Bend and then followed the trail that could lead them to the Grand Canyon. (The trip should take them about three days, factoring in Mary's need to sleep and rest, but she'd never done it before so that was little more than an estimate.)
Not until the waxing crescent of the moon was high above and the stars were unveiled in the dimming light did Mary stop them, leading them far enough off the track to be unseen so they could set up their bed rolls for the night. Her body was tired from a day of walking but her mind was still awake as she gazed up at the stars contently.
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 12:37 am UTC (link) Track This He had not liked the planeride. Being confined in such a small area, so close to what had once been his and endless miles over the earth had made him nervous.
Once he'd gotten on solid ground he was much happier. He'd ensured he'd have plenty of supplies, he doubted Mary would appreciate him going hunting, and had just followed her. He enjoyed the beauty of his surroundings, now without fear of death or capture. There was no Cortez biting at his heels.
At nighttime though, he got all the more jittery and nervous. After so long in the city he'd forgotten how bright the stars were, and the image of his sister mocked him all the clearer. And while his body protested at the sudden influx of exercise, he could not sit still. While Mary looked, he paced, constantly worried the stars would come down, along with his sister, and try and hurt them both again.
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 12:40 am UTC (link) Track This It hadn't taken Mary long to notice her Aztec's discomfort and she watched him quietly for a while before speaking, her voice quiet. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 12:53 am UTC (link) Track This He motioned up to the stars, "I'd forgotten how bright they were here." Even he realized it sounded odd, "they are my siblings. Together with my sister," he pointed to the moon, "they killed my mother. I was born in her blood and took vengeance. I made my sister's head the moon."
He glanced back up, "night after night, for generations, I'd fight her minions. I had to fight to be able to be sun in the morning. Now, well I am here and can not fight them. Perhaps it is foolish to think they still want to kill me. Old habits, I suppose."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 12:59 am UTC (link) Track This "Oh," Mary said, looking up at the impossibly beautiful night sky. Finally she reached out her hands to him from where she sat on the ground. "Come here," she whispered.
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 01:16 am UTC (link) Track This He glanced to her and took her hands, settling down beside her but keeping his eyes on the sky. He'd learn to relax in a night or two, but right now he felt on edge.
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 01:25 am UTC (link) Track This To tell him that it wasn't real was both rude and not quite true. It all was real if his people believed it, just as all she had was true as well. Mary reached out to put her hand on his cheek. "Hey," she said quietly, "we're safe. These stars won't move and that moon is staying in the sky. This sky is part of a different story." She looked up at them. "One of the Native American tribes that lived here before said that there used to be no stars and all the animals couldn't see and would keep bumping into each other. So their god told them to collect piles of shiny stones and carry them into the sky, but it was hard work and they all got so tired doing it, so they asked Coyote to do it and he flung them all up into the sky and lit it up so all the animals could see."
She looked back at the Aztec. "See," she said, "these aren't your sister's stars. These belong to another story and we're safe under them." (A story she had only half-remembered and that may not have even belonged to the people who'd lived around here, but a story nonetheless.)
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 01:33 am UTC (link) Track This He smiled at her as she told her story and kissed the palm of her hand, "I should ask Coyote about that." He sighed and glanced back up to the sky. "I know this isn't my sky. I know that perhaps, I was never in the sky. But I remember it all. I remember being born and seeing my mothers corpse. I remember my sister with her bloodied hands and weapons, her minions all behind her. I remember killing them."
He closed his eyes, "logic tells me we are safe, that there is no need to worry. If my sister was here, she'd no longer be the moon. Just as I am no longer the sun. But instinct and logic often war, and I would not like to see you hurt." He took a deep breath to relax. "I will be better in a few nights. It just took me by surprise. I've grown too used to city lights."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 01:38 am UTC (link) Track This The idea that he knew the Coyote she'd just been telling a story about seemed strange to Mary, but it made more sense for those Gods to be around than for her to be here.
"I get the remembering things that may or may not be true," Mary promised him with a nod. "I'm not a god, but I'm made the same way. We're both caught in stories." She leaned in and kissed him gently, lips lingering against his. "I can't promise I'll stay awake all night with you, but when I do sleep I'll be right here beside you and you can wake me if you need to."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 01:47 am UTC (link) Track This Smiling he kissed her, glad for her company. "I will not wake you unless it is truly needed. I'm not cruel enough to keep you from the rest you need, just to soothe my silly fears." At least he knew his fears could be silly at times. "I am thankful enough for your company. It helps a lot."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 02:32 am UTC (link) Track This "It's lucky you're thankful for my company," Mary teased him with a smile. "Since you're pretty much stuck with me for a while."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 02:37 am UTC (link) Track This "I could think of worse things." He smirked at her before settling his arms around her, "do the stars mean anything to your faith?"
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 02:43 am UTC (link) Track This Mary looked up at them and sighed thoughtfully. "Nothing is alive as the Christians see it," Mary told him. "God made the world and it's nothing but a place for His people to live. A sort of depressing and dead view of something so beautiful."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 02:54 am UTC (link) Track This He frowned to that, "seems harsh. We may be a violent breed, me and my kin, but at least we had the world for more then just mortals to run around in. It sounds like nothing more then a glorified playpark to me."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 02:56 am UTC (link) Track This Mary frowned at the sky. "I'd much rather your way, with everything alive and woven together. The Christian God made the world in seven days and left man to be its caretaker." She shrugged and shook her head. "It's a stupid idea."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 03:08 am UTC (link) Track This He frowned, trying to think of how it had been. "We allowed mortal man it's dominion, as long as they sacrificed to us to keep them safe from the things that would be their doom." He chuckled then, "seven? Funny, thats how many times Quetzalcoatl and his rival kept destroying the damned place before they finally managed to stop throwing fits at one another."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 03:11 am UTC (link) Track This "What was it like in the beginning for you?" Mary asked him, curling closer to him, absorbing his heat in the desert night. "It was only two thousand years ago that I was born and already mankind was everywhere and the world was made."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 03:16 am UTC (link) Track This He settled both his arms around her, to offer her as much warmth as possible in this cold desert. "Confusing, I was both there and not. When I was born, man was already there, because I led them to their new home. Yet on the other end, I remember walking the forests of the new world and making my birds, being sun."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 03:23 am UTC (link) Track This Mary watched him and when he finished speaking she kissed him gently. "Confusing," Mary agreed, curling herself into the curve of his neck with a smile. "Sometimes it seems easier just being a normal person. Although," Mary said, lifting her head to look up at him with a smile, "I don't think I would have enjoyed being one of your people. I like my heart where it is."
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 03:44 am UTC (link) Track This He chuckled to that, "Your heart is perfectly safe I assure you. Not everyone was killed you know. None of us wanted to rule a graveyard." Smiling he kissed her skin, "I do not know if I would wish to be normal. I enjoy being a God."
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[info]gospel_of_mary 2011-03-10 03:47 am UTC (link) Track This "You wouldn't be keeping me so warm at night if you weren't a God," she reminded him, kissing his throat. "And apparently Gods are my type." she smirked at him in the moonlight.
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[info]bluehummingbird 2011-03-10 05:10 am UTC (link) Track This He grinned to that, "it would seem so, and you seem to enjoy my ability to keep you warm. It does cut out the need for fire." With a sigh he relaxed and closed his eyes, allowing himself to take in her nearness.