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[mouse_shadow]

There is a book of rules, and a puzzled man reading it. To Paul, The Book of Peace from the Mahābhārata makes little sense. Its regulations seem arbitrary, the whims of culture and class prejudice. Lucky thing he's in a good mood again, or he might search out this Yudishthira and have a word with him

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[futures_of_ash]

[My AIM still hates you *sighs*]

There is a shell that drifts dowmn, gentle as a feather, to land near his breakfast plate. It's star shaped, and seems to shade from blood red at the tips to a pale, gentle pink in the center...

[mouse_shadow]

[OOC:better than my openning]

Even for a man born on an ocean world, this is curiously unusual. Shells normally drift only below the waves. It draws his attention up to where Rachel sits on the ceiling. Does she have an allergy to the ground?

"Rachel, my lady, what are you doing?"

[futures_of_ash]

[*pokes AIM* what version do you run?]

She glances down at him, certainly not disoriented by the fact that she looks up to do so, braid coiling down near past the rafters. She actually doesn't smile at first, her eyes are too withdrawn and distant to do so...

But, eventually, she focuses on the present, a single card left in her hand. "Paul" she indentified, or perhaps greeted.

"I'm...checking things...making sure I didn't miss anything important"

[mouse_shadow]

[i use trillian-will try aim]

Paul, in his classic devil-may-care style, climbs upon the barstool, then Bar (please don't kill him!), deftly leaps to catch on a rafter, and swings to a sitting position on another beside her. Certainly not disoriented by the fact that their chins are aimed in opposite directions.

"I would think building your cunstuction on the floor or a table would be important, but you don't seem to be having any problems with gravity."

[futures_of_ash]

Bar has certainly survived worse in her Time, and she is dormant now at any rate. Paul's feet may be no more than a moment in a passing dream for her now...

She shrugged slightly, continuing to defygravity in interesting ways "I'd get in people's way down there" she admitted softly. And perhaps the cards show things that may be disturbing to most. For a tarot deck, it seems rather focused on darkness and pain...

"I didn't bother you did I?"

[mouse_shadow]

"A welcome distraction, believe me. I take it, you've made peace with 'Bar'?"

Not having the benefit of twenty-first century Earth-style pub crawling, he doesn't know the etymology of the word, only that it refers to the entity that takes care of the patrons' requests.

[futures_of_ash]

"Bar and I get along, always have..." she noted absently "She mothers me,and feeds me broth...it was more the people in here that I worried about. There's few people about now though, so it's not hard to handle..."

Ah, look, a warm, upside down smile, oddly empty though. Mask-like perhaps.

"You're sober, head feeling alright?" she inquired with a touch of worry. She remembers morning afters, and she doesn't really know how time flows for him.

[mouse_shadow]

The drinking was some twenty-four hours ago by his clock, moreover his metabolism is keenly susceptable to suggestion. His emotions, however, aren't.

"I'm quite well. You had some hand in that, I think. It's a welcome gift, if that's true."

He notices her distance, but thinks it concentration on her task, which he finds oddly childish. Stacking cards?

[futures_of_ash]

"I help where I can" she waved it off. It's what she does...and there is always room for the darker emotions, a stolen drop in an ocean.

The cards are a tool, just like most other things. A window, a way to see a whole picture instead of drowning within the details. She's done the same with a handfdul of sand, and with seeds...

"I'm kinda glad you were in the mood to talk though, else I'd of offered to spar as stress relief, and then I'd have lost..." the tone is slightly teasing. She's seen him move...

[mouse_shadow]

"You'd have lost?" He laughs ferociously. "My lady, when I learn to fly, maybe I can win that fight."

The cards she's playing with aren't the normal variety for games. Archetypal fortune telling? The Gene Gesserit would be happy their superstitions had made it this far.

[futures_of_ash]

That comment gets her direct attention, a hint of an indignant spark in her eyes "That would have been cheating. It's no good to you if all I'm doing is flitting where you can't follow" she pointed out.

No, far from the normal type. Closer to story cards, most seeming to feature someone remarkably close to Rachel...Bar liked to be subtle sometimes. Other times, well...

[mouse_shadow]

"Cheating? There are rules in combat?" The raised brow says sarcasm.

"Tell me, what are you building?" He hasn't toyed with anything but peoples' lives in many years.

[futures_of_ash]

"If I'd offered to spar, Paul, it would have been for you. When you do something for another, you play by their rules, such as gravity..." When it comes to true combat though? She's cheated. Grossly.

"Just a picture, an image of what my mind is now...helps me see the cracks"

[mouse_shadow]

"If you sparred by the rules you think I use, that would be when you'd do me a wrong, because I need to learn, not to win. Not being held to the ground would be a great advantage, yes, but it would be instructive for both of us to find out that there were viable defenses against it, no?"

"So, the cards are a meditation tool? Should I let you concentrate?"

[futures_of_ash]

"You actually use very few rules, I can tell that just by talking t oyou...so maybe I'd give you a run for your money" she admitted. "But the sheer fact being I couldn't hold up physically yet would be the deciding factor." she'd be able to teach him a thing or two without flying, truth told, and there's really no limit on what she'd end up learning either...

"More a way of rising above the morass...company isalways welcome"

[mouse_shadow]

Morass is apt for this room. The buzz below carries with it rumors of war and romance, both.

"What do you see, then, if I may ask? Are there places inside you find it difficult to confront?" He has gazed into the Place One Must Not Go, but there are always corners that remain hidden.