[Sodium_noir] Club Harlequin, where the lights dim

[eagandigh]

The Harlequin, Columbine, Maurice
Ravnoses, Serpent
Their own private piece of the bar at Club Harlequin

"Weig!" She said thoughtfully, placing a hand on Maurice's arm and
leading himtowards the end of the bar. Away from her husband and the
newcomer. Cleatly she wanted the chance to talk unobserved. "Just a word
we picked up on our travels from the perfumed lands to the shores. Weig,
it is possibility in its purest state. The very essence of existence.
Transient objects can be filled with weig in one instant and empty the
next, for the essence of the universe flows unhindered from one state to
the the next. Weig creates and destroys, empowers and warps without
control or context. My pretty friend back there, Babe, she would say it
was the waters of Nun or the seamen of Ptah. Catch her on another day
and she'd be quoting that handsome English guy in Star Wars. The stuff
about holding the universe together and all that. Kiss refers to this
essence as the Wyld or Flux. I have elders call it the vortex, or simply
blessed chaos."
 
Maurice let himself be drawn to the quieter area. He listened to
Columbine's answer. But a part of him was preoccupied. He still tried to
take a glance to the strange newcomer now and then.
 
Most mythologies have at least a basic understanding of this essence.
The metaphors are the same though. Whether by the will of a god,
sometimes a spider, or through its own desire, weig takes on a form for
a time. As the witches teach us, a thought is a thing and that is what
all matter is born from, the thought forms of the weig. But the natural
state of the universe is chaos, temporary things that last as long as is
neccesary and no more. Such was existence until the Shimulo!
 
His attention turned more towards the lady in front of him. Some of the
ideas she voiced were familiar to him. She described the state of the
world before it was chained into its current order. So the weig was the
fabric of existance. Had he been at the center of all, at the source,
when he had met the Serpent, Damballah itself?
He mused about the word shilmulo. A term of theirs for the Aeons?
 
A number of beings, some say twelve .. " She shrugs. "... others say
much more, were invested with a massive amount of weig,  and then chose
to resist the pull of change when it was time for the Weig to move on.
They refused to cease thier form and thier existence and they clung to
the Weig to give them a semblance of life. These are the creatures some
call the Antedeluvians, the Clan founders. When the Weig struggled to be
free, they imbued it into others to create the Clans and the
generations. Each letting a degree of their Weig out to create more like
themselves. In doing so they trapped reality in the same static chains,
the world of lies we now see around us."
Her dark eyes lit up as she spoke, watching Maurice's reactions from
beneath her long lashes. 
 
Ah, now he understood. The shilmulo were the vampires. And the Clan
founders. But what shortsightedness she was telling him! The Ravnos had
it nearly right, but they fell just short of the real thing. The real
truth. They took the puppets to be the puppeteers! How insidious their
Founder had been. And still, maybe he had crafted a tool for those that
saw the truth. Maybe even in their half-aware state the Ravnos were the
allies they needed.
Maurice looked at her. His face was expressionless. Who knew, by
watching the serpent, what it will do next?
 
"Sso, sse Clan founderss brought sse sstate sse world iss in upon uss?"
He betrayed his exitement by his tongue flicking across his lips. "I
ssink you give sse firsst of our kind to much credit. You misstake sse
sservantss wiss sse massterss. Yess, ssey were or are a forss of sse
enemy. Ass sseir children are, unwitting or not. But ssat doess not make
ssem sse root of sse problem. To our knowledge, sse forsses ssat keep
sse world chained are beingss much older and much sstronger ssan sse
Antediluvianss. Ssey are not of ssiss world, sso to sspeak. By chaining
exisstanss and making ssiss prisson, ssey kept ssemsselvess out. Sso to
influenss eventss insside sse prisson, ssey ssent sservantss to act out
sseir will. Ssesse sservantss are sse Antediluvianss and ssey created
sse Clanss to sserve sseir agenda, sse agenda of sseir massterss better.
Ssey ssay ssat ssere were 12 of ssem ssend 'ere, one for each ssign of
sse Zodiac. But a ssirteenss one sslipped in, too. 'e brought
Damballah'ss knowledge wiss 'im. And 'e taught ssiss knowledge to my
ancesstorss in Wesst Africa. 'e iss sse founder of my Clan. And we are
'iss toolss in bringing about sse end of sse Aeonss."
He paused, waiting for Columbine's reply. He knew he had accused her of
being one of the twelve, just as she had accused him of being one of the
twelve. But her words had marked the Ravnos as half-blind, which made
him thinking that those of the serpent's blood were indeed the 13th
Clan, the one outside the chains.
 
  
"And as to your second question, how do we fight it?" She grinning
malicioulsy. "How does one fight stasis and order? With change and Chaos
of course! By destroying the objects and creatures with the most weig in
them, the shackles the chains are attached to. By releasing as much weif
back into creation as one can, through destroying magical items full of
the power or the creatures made to hold the Antedeluvians bleed off."
 
Maurice nodded. "You are trying to erode sse order of ssingss by
flooding it wiss unchained... weig." He mouthed the unfamiliar word
carefully, like savouring a rare wine. "Our game iss different. Our aim
iss to free sse mosst powerful forss in ssiss world. Sse ssoulss. If all
sse ssoulss in exisstanss know, sse power of sse chainerss will crumble.
If ssey sse sse truss, ssen sse rulerss will diminish and loosse sseir
might. Ssen, sse world will be free again."
 
He saw, out of the corner of his eyes, the strange guy in the leather
coat leaving. Something still bugged Maurice about him. He had to ask
the Harlequin about this new Lasombra.
 
[And, at last, a TAG]
 
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