Rachel & Soleil, 12/8/2002

• Soleil hangs about Rachel's room.
• Rachel_ is passing back and forth between her bedchamber and the master bathroom, preparing to take a nice long soak in some hot, scented water.
• Soleil will wait to appear, then :D
• Rachel_ is dressed at the moment, in a thick bathrobe. :^D
• Rachel_ tries not to think of the implications of Soleil's usual invisibility.
• Soleil will wait for her to get into the water.

<Rachel_> (he's so mean.) <Soleil> (afk one sec bathroom)

• Rachel_ recognizes that he probably has seen her nekkid many times already without her knowing it. Icky ancestor!
• Rachel_ lights some more candles and sets them around the spacious bathroom. It's night, and there's no electricity.
• Rachel_ slips off her robe and into the tub she goes.
• Rachel_ leans back and closes her eyes.
• Soleil waits a few more moments before embodying while she's not paying attention to his particular spot.

<Soleil> How lovely you smell tonight, poppet.

• Rachel_ sighs expansively.

<Soleil> Is there a special occasion? <Rachel_> I was hoping not to be interrupted tonight. No, no special occasion. I just feel like spoiling myself. <Rachel_> You *would* decide to show up now, wouldn't you.

• Soleil shrugs.
• Rachel_ opens her eyes and pulls a towel off of a rack near the tub and covers herself as best she can. The towel of course gets soaking wet.
• Rachel_ sits up.

<Soleil> Oh, that will be a trial to dry, now. <Soleil> And hardly necessary. <Soleil> I'm certain I'm not the first dead man to see you thus.

• Soleil says casually

<Rachel_> I don't wish to dwell on just *how* often you watch me without me knowing about it, Soleil. <Rachel_> I've never been an exhibitionist. I don't mean to start now. <Soleil> You've nothing to be ashamed of

• Soleil says, with another shrug.

<Rachel_> To what do I owe the dubious pleasure of a visit from my long dead great-great-great-great-great grandfather?

• Rachel_ chooses to change the subject. ^-^

<Rachel_> Or uncle. <Rachel_> Whatever. <Soleil> I worry for you, my pretty pet.

• Rachel_ leans on the edge of the bathtub.
• Soleil says with an expression of concern.

<Rachel_> What are you worried about?

• Rachel_ 's wings drip sparkles of gilded water in the candlelight.

<Soleil> I hear that you've sent out your dogs and ferrets... <Soleil> I fear you will find a viper's nest instead of a hare's. <Soleil> My pretty pretty would do best to call them off, lest they bring something back that might bite her pretty hand. <Rachel_> Soleil... I am too tired to puzzle through your little euphemisms tonight. Would you care to speak plainly for once?

• Rachel_ does look tired.

<Rachel_> I am looking into your background, yes. <Soleil> The preacher's son. <Soleil> People will not like that... <Soleil> I would so hate to see something unpleasant befall you.

• Soleil shakes his head sadly.

<Rachel_> Are you threatening me? <Soleil> Me, threaten you?

• Soleil responds, shocked.
• Rachel_ asks coldly.

<Rachel_> I guess not. Good. <Soleil> My dear... without you, I am nothing. <Rachel_> You seem awfully sensitive about me trying to find things out about you, though. <Soleil> And that is something I do not wish to experience. <Soleil> Our family prides itself on keeping secrets. <Soleil> I fear you may discover something they wish kept hidden... <Soleil> And then that price will be all too dear. <Soleil> (that the price) <Soleil> You know how our Countess feels about you. <Soleil> Will she trust you, out here, so far beyond her sight, with her secrets? <Soleil> I wuold step lightly. <Rachel_> Soleil, I am looking into *your* secrets, not hers. <Soleil> She has trampled greater than you. <Soleil> Mine are hers. <Rachel_> ... <Soleil> As are my father's, and my daughter's, my sisters' and brothers'; backward and forward, up and down the line <Soleil> We were all born in blood... <Soleil> And our pretty Diamond wishes to keep her hands sparkling clean. <Soleil> You will have to look through them all to find what you seek. <Soleil> You will wade through rivers. <Rachel_> Soleil, this is the crux of the matter: I still don't trust you and farther than I can throw you. <Soleil> We must all keep secrets, my pet. <Soleil> I keep mine for love of thee. <Rachel_> I was warned that some power might try to turn my heart to hatred. So far, you seem to be fitting the bill. <Soleil> Is caution hatred? Is prudence venom? <Soleil> I think not. <Rachel_> However, I am too soft to just call in the exorcists until I know for sure that you mean to harm me. Or perhaps I just see an advantage in you and wish to be sure about things before I throw it away. <Soleil> You know, even your pretty friend keeps her secrets. <Soleil> The one who looks so like Michael's sister... <Soleil> Isabel is her name? <Rachel_> Yes, Isabel.

• Rachel_ says distractedly.

<Rachel_> Don't try to change the subject.

• Soleil shrugs.

<Rachel_> My point is that I feel compelled to learn what I can about you. As things are, I find my uncertainty about you intolerable. <Rachel_> You cannot ask me to just go on blind faith. <Rachel_> i am a Gwydaine, after all. <Soleil> Ha! <Soleil> Yes, I suppose that's what they would call you.

• Soleil seems amused.

<Rachel_> It is my surname, through paternal lines, which is the tradition now, even if it weren't before. <Soleil> A human custom... <Rachel_> (weren't = was not)

• Soleil muses.

<Rachel_> We are all part human now. <Soleil> Such a shame... <Rachel_> I don't think so. <Soleil> Shame, indeed, is one of their gifts to us. <Soleil> "... and they realized that they were naked, and they were ashamed..." <Soleil> something like that. <Soleil> Isn't that how it goes? I've been reading.

• Rachel_ glances down at her towel.

<Rachel_> I don't see you walking around naked, either. <Soleil> Would you like to? <Rachel_> No! <Soleil> That is why I do not.

• Soleil says with a shrug./

<BalthCat> (bibles Bibles BLAHBLAHBLAH!) <Soleil> Also, I think I look rather fine in white.

• Soleil tugs on one of his sleeves.

<Rachel_> It does suit us.

• Rachel_ smirks.

<Rachel_> Clothes are nice... they leave things up to one's imagination. And they are fun to have taken off of you by the person you love. I feel sorry for you if you never had clothes before. <Soleil> Oh, I never said that.

• Rachel_ smiles and lies back down in the tub, thinking of Nikolai. ^-^

<Rachel_> Oh, well, that's good. <Soleil> But I wouldn't be ashamed to be seen without them. <Rachel_> I am not ashamed, really. <Rachel_> Never, in front of Nik. <Rachel_> I cover myself up mostly because everyone else does, and because people would have a much harder time talking to me if I did wear no clothes. <Rachel_> I cover myself in front of you because you said I remind you of your *sister.* <Soleil> You've never seen your siblings naked? <Rachel_> Not since we were little. <Soleil> Never? <Soleil> Hm!

• Soleil raises his eyebrows.

<Rachel_> ...

• Soleil shrugs again.

<Rachel_> They're my *brothers*! <Rachel_> Oh, the very idea is disturbing.

• Rachel_ shudders.

<Soleil> .. Why? <Soleil> It's only a body. <Rachel_> Because... they are my *brothers*... my father doesn't see me naked, either. No one does save Nikolai and now, I suppose, you. <Soleil> You should be able to appreciate such things... <Soleil> The gift of shame again. <Soleil> Luna used to paint me, often...

• Soleil says nostalgically.
• Rachel_ covers her face with her hands.
• Soleil sits on the little chair my the tub.

<Rachel_> Soleil... I really don't want to hear about your kinky sex life with your sister. <Rachel_> ...

• Soleil laughs.

<Rachel_> Who was the father of her child?

• Rachel_ peeks out from between some fingers.

<Soleil> I don't know what you do with Nikolai, but I always found paint a trifle messy <Rachel_> Please please please say it was not you. <Soleil> Her husband, of course. <Rachel_> And what was his name? <Soleil> Oh, let's see if I can recall. <Soleil> His name was Anathene, of course... <Rachel_> ... <Rachel_> The Countess' father? Or another one? <Soleil> It was a common name <Soleil> I had a grandfather who was called that, as well... <Soleil> Or was he an uncle...

• Rachel_ uncovers her face, relieved.
• Soleil scratches his head.

<Rachel_> I'm *so* glad we didn't practice "keeping it all in the family" like Isis and Osiris, and the Polynesian big men. <Soleil> Oh? <Soleil> And what of it? <Rachel_> ... <Rachel_> Well... come to think of it, I don't suppose we had anything resembling DNA. <Rachel_> So maybe it's not important. <Soleil> The taboos and problems you imagine are a weakness of *mortal* blood. <Soleil> And if I loved my Luna, who would judge me wrong?

• Soleil shrugs nonchalantly.

<Rachel_> ... <Soleil> She *was* lovely. <Rachel_> Siblings love one another. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But there's love and then there's lust. <Soleil> Love is love. <Soleil> Humans are too squeamish,. <Rachel_> I am not a human.

• Rachel_ says, a bit indignantly perhaps.

<Soleil> If I prick you, do you not bleed? <Soleil> I've been reading quite a lot!

• Soleil says proudly.
• Rachel_ smiles.

<Rachel_> Chimera bleed when you stab them with chimerical weapons. Are they human? <Soleil> If you stab a human, they do not... <Soleil> That's interesting... <Soleil> Perhaps I shall have to compose a clever sonnet on the topic. <Soleil> Or somesuch frippery. <Rachel_> Well... a human would bleed if attacked by a chimerical weapon while enchanted... <Rachel_> One must chose one's weapon for the occasion. <Soleil> Always wise...

• Soleil toys with the claw on his thumb and looks off into space for a moment.

<Rachel_> Don't go killing humans, please. Unless they're about to kill me. <Soleil> Hm? <Soleil> Oh, I'm sorry. <Soleil> I was somewhere else. <Soleil> Luna made a lovely bride. <Soleil> 'La Luna,' the smallfolk called her... <Rachel_> ... <Soleil> They loved her so. <Rachel_> . o O (Does he mean Commoners?) <Rachel_> . o O (Probably...)

• Rachel_ frowns slightly about the derogatory term.

<Rachel_> Did she love her husband? Or was it a marriage of convenience? <Soleil> Oh, she loved him very much. <Soleil> They were inseparable. <Rachel_> Well, it sounds like she was happy then. <Soleil> She was...

• Soleil says sadly.

<Rachel_> Well... I'm glad. <Rachel_> It would have been much sadder if all she'd experienced was a life of misery. <Soleil> She wanted so badly to have a child of her own... <Soleil> I told her it was foolishness... <Rachel_> Why? <Soleil> Everyone knew what was like to happen. <Soleil> SHe could have taken on a ward... <Rachel_> ... <Soleil> Or some child orphaned by a duel... <Soleil> It would have been just as good.

• Soleil says darkly.
• Rachel_ looks down at herself and hopes she won't die in childbirth if she ever decides to have a child.

<Rachel_> I don't know... <Rachel_> I'm not interested in children myself, for the moment. It's just about the last thing on my "to do" list. <Soleil> Better that it stay there.

• Soleil says bitterly.

<Rachel_> But, Soleil...

• Rachel_ says gently.

<Rachel_> I think I'd want to have a child of my own... if I were to have it with the man I love. <Soleil> Would you leave him alone with the child that killed you?

• Soleil opens and closes his clawed hand.

<Rachel_> Well... he'd have to really want the child, too. And then maybe it wouldn't matter as much. <Soleil> She tricked me... <Rachel_> ... <Rachel_> What happened to her husband? Surely he raised the child, not you. <Soleil> Fool of a girl. <Soleil> You hear but you do not listen... <Soleil> I was her husband. <BalthCat> (Jodie's a wanker and doesn't want to come out to play... but I can "come get my money")

• Rachel_ is shocked speechless.
• Rachel_ scoots as far back against the far side of the bathtub from Soleil as possible.

<Soleil> (afk one sec bathroom :D)

• Rachel_ tries to think of everything he said... didn't he say he *wasn't* her husband...
• Rachel_ 's mind is too fatigued to deal with this at the moment and all of a sudden she feels very icky. ^-^

<Soleil> (back) <Soleil> What, you cringe from me now? <Soleil> Is it my grief that you fear?

• Soleil stands over her.

<Rachel_> I'm tired... and you didn't say you weren't her husband, did you.

• Rachel_ says bitterly.

<Rachel_> I just realized. <Rachel_> I am not afraid of your grief. I have lived with my father's all my life. I am afraid of your love. <Soleil> Everything I've told you is true. <Soleil> Do you think I might harm you? Do you think I harmed my Luna?

• Rachel_ stands up, wrapping the wet towel around her.

<Rachel_> I don't know. I don't know what to think, Anathene, Soleil, whatever your name is.

• Rachel_ says, quite tired-sounding.

<Soleil> Or do you think perhaps that I forced her?

• Rachel_ bends over and drains the tub.
• Soleil calms himself...

<Soleil> ...

• Rachel_ stands up straight again.

<Rachel_> I don't know. You certainly forced your way into my life, didn't you. <Soleil> It was something of a custom to marry within the family, at the time. Things were done differently in those days. The line bred true...

• Rachel_ sounds sad.

<Soleil> But I never hurt Luna. <Rachel_> How old *are* you Soleil? <Rachel_> When did you come into existence? <Soleil> In truth... I don't know anymore <Rachel_> Were you there at the beginning? <Soleil> No. <Rachel_> Because... all the Tuatha de Danaan were siblings, I suppose... <Rachel_> All right. <Rachel_> You're old but not that old. <Rachel_> How many generations are there between you and me? <Rachel_> Surely you can answer that, since you've watched them all. <Soleil> Not all... <Soleil> And this is the first time I've ever spoken to a living soul, in the living world, since the time of my death.

• Rachel_ nods.

<Rachel_> Just... what are your plans for me? I only remind you of your sister a little bit, right?

• Rachel_ sounds like she hopes the answer is yes.

<Rachel_> Just a shadow, nothing more.

• Logging #changeling to 'logs\#changeling.log'