quicktoanger | Third Report: Blackstone's Rifle [Action/Voice, backdated to the night of the third.]

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Third Report: Blackstone's Rifle [Action/Voice, backdated to the night of the third.]

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[He's been searching for hours. He's probably a bit drunk at this point, and more than a little put out, but he has to find them.

He knows they're here. He knows they are.

He's been going back and forth between the clothing shop and the weapons shop all day, searching. He's reasoned it out, see. Every time he leaves and comes back, he finds that whatever bloody fairy magic makes this place work has changed the contents of the shops. So if he leaves faster, comes back faster, they'll change faster. He's not seen people bringing things to and from the shops, so it must be more of whatever madness this village is full of, right?

Well. It didn't work, it turns out- if there are 'Shifts' on the shops, he can't induce them. Which is when he went out and got a drink, and now, drunk, has decided to just look for them anyway.

They have to be here.

He walks into the smithy again, silently shifting through the various weapons in their various racks. He's seen all manner of primitive weapons, even one or two that resemble guns, but he wouldn't have the least idea how to operate them. More of that advanced technology from other worlds, he supposes. It all sounds terribly farfetched to him, but what's a soul to believe when he wakes up with wings and a magic book that lets you talk to people?]

"I know you're here, damn you, stop hiding!"

[Wait. Wait, what was that? There. Far wall, near the corner... he heads over. It is. It is. A Baker rifle, battered but still in perfect working order.

He should know, he's the one who kept it that way. He reaches out and grasps the rifle, and with a series of practiced, ritualistic movements, he inspects it.

Not just any rifle. His own rifle. He knows every single scuff and scrape on the weapon's surface, remembers the battle that put each mark in its place. Never anything that would affect the weapon's performance. He was always very particular about avoiding that.

He has his rifle. He'd already had his rifleman's jacket, found a week after his arrival. Why was there nothing of the Major's property here?

Well. He couldn't very well give his jacket to Sharpe- he was far too tall and skinny for that, of course- but this? This was something he could set right.]

[Voice, locked to Richard Sharpe- the filter isn't even at 1%, he's rubbish at them.]

"Begging your pardon, Major, but I believe I've found something you may want to have a look at."

[He seems to have acquired a bit of a Cockney accent somewhere along the line.

Feel free to find him around the village, searching through the weapons earlier in the day, or, as is so terribly common, getting thoroughly drunk in Good Spirits.]

[Notes: Unlike Sharpe, Harry has his Rifleman's jacket and typically wears it into town. He's been camping with Sharpe, rather than taking an apartment in town. He's also clean-cut and clean-shaven in the military, in sharp contrast to his usual... scruff.

He's still about three miles tall, though.]

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[Handwave. Suggestion.]

You want to sit up straight and close your mouth.

"I want to-"

[No. No. He wouldn't say it. He didn't know what she was trying to do to him, but his mind was his own and it would bloody well stay that way.]

"... What do you want with me?"

A drink? Conversation? A little company, that's all Lovely.

[She's glad the suggestion didn't work. Always felt terribly dishonest, to use that. And coming from her that meant something.]

[... Well, he... supposed she wasn't bad. For a witch. Nice, and all.

And she obviously hadn't enchanted him, seeing as how he'd resisted her attempt to do so.]

"... I guess that doesn't sound too ominous, does it?"

[He moves back to the table, his posture becoming more relaxed as he refills her glass.]

Not unless you consider the very likely possibility that I will continue to attempt to win your affections by being as flirtatious as possible and terribly interested in your love of poetry ominous.

[She salutes with her glass and sips.]

"Not ominous, miss, just terribly flattering."

Then until the bottle is gone, you are going to feel terribly flattered Lovely.

"You're too kind, as always, miss."

[... Oh, dammit, he's blushing again.]

I'm not always so kind, it depends on my company more than anything else. I find you interesting, so I am kind. Though the fact that you are lovely when you blush, and that you blush so easily does help quite a bit.

[He's just going to concentrate on his drink now. Very fascinating, this drink. His speech is little better than a mumble.]

"Obliged, ma'am."

[You'd better stop it. He's fast approaching totally nonverbal again.]

You never did tell me more of Paradise Lost.

[Adele sips her whiskey and waits, head tilted slightly to the side.]

I think you were distracted by my being a 'bloody witch'.

[... The comment shames him a bit. Clearly being a witch had done nothing to diminish this woman's temperament, and she didn't deserve that sort of behavior.

They were half in a fairy story anyway.]

"... Well. In order to understand it, you'd have to know the context. Are you at all familiar with the story of Genesis?"

I'm afraid not. It's the beginning of something, but the details are lost to me.

"It is the first story of the Bible, and it tells of how God created man."

[He pauses a moment, because the next step is one of the rambling things that tend to get him yelled at.]

Ah, religion! [She nodes to herself and sips her whiskey.] Always a fascinating subject. When you jump from planet to planet there are so many to keep track of but this is a creationist monotheistic story, yes? Prior to crafting man he created an imperfect life form as a practice run? Oh! Is there a messiah later?

[Blink.]

"... It is monotheistic. Don't believe there was any imperfect life form, miss."

[Anyway, there was a Messiah later, but we're not talking about him.]

"Over the course of six days, God created all that is. The light and dark, the water and earth and sky, the birds and beasts and things that crawl, and finally on the sixth day he created man in his own image."

Patriarchal religion, hm? That ups the ratio a bit. Let me guess: wives should honor their husbands, think not for themselves, and live as silent servants to God, their father? And should there be a messiah, he was a son. Hm.

"No, ma'am. Not wives. Everybody."

[He grins.]

"Also, the Catholics revere Mary as much as Jesus. Uh, she's the mother of that messiah you'd be referring to."

[... Okay, maybe he's not a terribly religious fellow himself.]

Of course. If you fail to rise and please the deity there is...oblivion? A swarm of parasites? Fire raining down from the sky? Or is this one of the 'eternal damnation' religions?

"Not eternal damnation, miss. Purgatory. Dante talks about it in the Divine Comedy, which is sort of a spiritual successor to the Milton work. Damnation is reserved for those who do genuine evil. Murderers and rapists and adulterers and betrayers."

The darker side of human nature. Or. Sentient nature? Since not all are human. Hm. [Adele shakes her head and fills both of their glasses.]

I've got a rough idea now. What does this have to do with Paradise Lost, and The Divine Comedy?

[And she's just going to. Nudge one of Harry's ankles with a toe.]

[And the foot just... draws back a bit, the flush returning to his face, his eyes going down to his drink again.]

"Ah. Th-the, ah. The Divine Comedy is a telling of the poet's journey through the afterlife, encountering those in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory- the three acts that make up the piece. It was largely political, which I didn't care for."

[Aw, that was adorable. Maybe she'll do it again later.]

Paradise, damnation, and the interim. And most works that are political in nature tend to get rather dry rather quickly, I'll have to agree.

"Perhaps less dry than insincere. Voltaire is dry as a bone, though, dunno how Harris can stand him."

[Ahem. Composure. Regain.]

"But Paradise Lost, now, that's a tale with some poetry. You see, the first sin, told in Genesis, was that Adam and Eve were told, by God, that they might eat anything in the Garden of Eden, the paradise they lived in, save the tree that bore the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. However, Satan, disguised as a serpent, tempted Eve, who in turn tempted Adam, and both ate the fruit anyway, and were cast out from Eden, having given themselves the burden of sin."

[A shrug]

"Milton's work tells the same story, but it provides more emphasis on the lot of the first people and of Satan. Lucifer, he was once known. The first, brightest, and most beautiful of the Angels- servants of God- who became jealous of God's love for man and led a rebellion of several angels. The rebellion was put down, and Lucifer was cast down from God's sight- his lost paradise. Then, when he in turn takes the guise of a serpent, Adam and Eve are both tricked and open themselves to sin, and lose the perfection of Eden, and so lose their paradise. Hence the double-meaning of the title."

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