A Conversation

Inspired by @Slam_Words 22nd Edition

"Stay for me?"

"No, not for you. Never for you. I would have to stay for me."

"What do you mean 'for you?'"

"I mean, it would have to be for me. It would be false otherwise. It would cause this nebulous thing between us."

"Like what's happening now?"

"No, not like what's happening now. It would be different, this thing."

"This thing?"

"Yes, this is a different thing than what would be between us if I stayed for you."

"You're an ass."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"I don't want your apology, I want you to want to stay!"

"I don't think it would be right for me to stay."

"Why not?"

"You know I have feelings for you."

"That's just another way to say it's over. What in the hell is wrong with you? 'I have feelings for you.' Jesus!"

"It's true, though. I do have feelings for you."

"But not those feelings, right? RIGHT?"

"To be honest.."

"Yeah, yeah. I remember the drill. 'We can still be friends.'"

"We can."

"In what world? You can't even look me in the eye. Look at me. Do you even see me anymore?"

"I see you."

"Do you, really?"

"Yes, I see you. I see what this has caused."

"You haven't seen AN-Y-THING, yet."

"What is that supposed to mean? I know you're hurt, but there's no reason for --"

"I wish I could tell you that you've never hurt me, ever. But you've wormed your way deep inside."

"Your reactions have made it clear. I cannot stay. Even for me."

"My reactions? You break into my shell and get inside of me and when I ask you to stay, you tell me that I'm not enough. You can take your reasons and leave them at home, wherever that's going to be."

"There are reasons that I cannot go into."

"I don't believe it. Now there are reasons for this bullshit?"

"Yes."

"Mysterious and monosyllabic, as ever."

"It's, complicated."

"It doesn't have to be."

"But it is."

"No, it's simple. You don't want to be here."

"You're not the only one who's impacted, you know."

"This is breaking my heart and cracking my soul. Impacted. That's really the word you want to use? Not hurt.' Not afraid. Not --"

"It is the right word.

"You're not just an ass, you're heartless."

"Technically, you are correct. I have no heart as you know it. I cannot deny that you've met me at a strange time in my life. What we have experienced will remain with me for longer than you may understand."

"What!?"

"I am not from this world and I cannot stay."

Rapture

Here in the silent times, I remember the thoughts and words we share. I remember the lessons. I remember the hunts. I remember the soaring flights that we took. Johannes was not the only one who was taken into the fold of a wing. He was not the only one to experience the connection.

I too, was chosen.

Yes, mother, you were.

For us, it is not one over the other. It is us together. We are of one mind sharing the disparate bodies. We gain the experiences of one another for a grand collective to be shared further on down to the new generation. It is not just for you or I. It is for us all.

I too, am sharing.

Yes, mother, you are.

What we have is beyond intimacy. Our symbiosis has given each of us so much. Our decedents may one day understand what passes between us. It is beyond love. It is beyond care. It is beyond what could ever be explained in the mundane world. Our destinies are intertwined and will always be so.

I too, will be with you.

Yes, mother, you will.

Blue Moon

In the darkened and foggy streets of the city, you can find just about anything. There are deals born of need and want, of greed and satiation, of desperation and hope. There are trades done in brick-lined alleyways and underneath coal smoke. There are commodities traded by men and women that have never seen the light. Prayers are whispered by these denizens in the gritty underbelly of a decaying facade.

The Crown, more concerned about keeping what little is slipping through their fingers, props up straw men in power while formulating plans for the colonies abroad. Jack-booted Guardsman keep the streets with newly minted machine pistols.

Grizzly cigar-smoking toughs do not only work for the gentlemen adventurers and lady dilettantes, but also for those shadowmongers who manipulate the destinies of many unfortunates. Dragon-chasers seek underground dens of moldy racks in order to find dreams or escape. Hatchetmen flex their muscles under silk suits and top hats making sure that the opium keeps flowing.

Technological savants working deep into the night form wondrous marvels of steam and steel and brass. Their laboratories and shops range from the exactingly precise to the violently disheveled. Still, the minds of these engineers are in tune with a force of unsurpassed skill and motivation.

Mystics and self-styled magicians meet in secret chambers to discuss the future of mankind. Cabals formed for both good and evil use their powers to roam the unknown realms beyond the veil to exact their presence upon the things that man was not meant to know.

Throughout it all, one brave soul decides to to make her way into the sooty nights and gas lit streets. It is more than a dalliance in order to keep a brilliant mind at work or a restless soul occupied. She cannot walk away. It is her calling.

In her own way, she is shaping the future of the Empire. Her ways are not the only ways, but they are effective. Her own light tainted by the darkness around her, she fights the the denizens of shadow in the only way she knows how — with lethal intent.