2 - Video, public

[exnihilo]

[Open, Video]

[She got caught by the women's council, near the end. They dragged her off when she claimed to have no family to be returned to, interred her in a tiny church with other troublesome, unmarried young ladies. Most of them had had a child out of wedlock. They did laundry together, work and penance, the heavy lye soap burning their hands hour by hour. Mira could have swaggered out bloody, but she didn't - something about the mumbled prayers and the delicate stained glass windows and the blunt, human directness of it, the brusque cruelty and judgement appealed to her. Their God was hypocritical and describable; the things he required of her were concrete and impersonal. It didn't matter that she was no one, in the cloister - all of them were no one, were discards, and they showed her how to do the work and took her unhesitatingly in. She enjoyed it, in her way, listened to the other women talk about their children, taught one how to break her boyfriend's wrist the next time he came home drunk. And she stayed until the barge caught her up again.

She's in the chapel now, dull and bare by comparison, not gaudy morbid stories or old ash marks on squat brick. She rolls a candle from one hand to the other. She has kept to herself, so far, has made no announcements or introductions, done nothing to draw undue attention since the nature of this place was explained to her. She was content with that state of affairs. But she is curious, now.]

How many of us are religious?


[Spam, for Harvey Two-Face]

[Several days after the fair, Mira shows up at his door, tense and eager. She's put it off - she's nervous, if she's honest, because she doesn't know how to do this, and she can't trust her own memory. She thinks he was crazy, thinks he responded the same way she did, but what if she's wrong? What if smashing his jaw with a billiard ball was too far?

At least she has an excuse to be here. She has presents.]

Comments

[exnihilo]

I guess you don't really need a chapel for either of those, depending on how you feel about it.

[architrave]

No, not really. Religion is more the rules set forth, but most could be kept to a personal space, couldn't they?

I am not religious. I have faith, but it is faith in a people, not ...anything else.

[exnihilo]

Your people?

[architrave]

If they were to have me, yes. If not, I am still one of them.

Are you of a particular, faith?

[exnihilo]

[Yes.]

No. I was - sort of pressganged by a church group, in the port. It was strange, and cruel, and...welcoming. And then this place looked so drab and empty, but it's here for us just the same. So I wondered.

[architrave]

It's probably meant more to be a place for any faith. A canvas, empty, waiting for someone to assign whatever importance they need.

[ Door will not be going to find out on her own. ]

The Women's Council, or something, wasn't it? Funny. No matter when you go, there's always someone looking to tell others how to behave when they're hurting no one.

I'm Door.

[exnihilo]

I wouldn't know.

[Everywhere she goes, she hurts someone.]

I'm Mira.

[architrave]

Have you been here very long?

[exnihilo]

Almost a month.

[architrave]

I do hope you were able to enjoy some of the Fair, even though you were kidnapped away, it seems. It was quite a lot of fun.

[exnihilo]

Yes.

And I liked the kidnapping too, really. It was interesting.

[architrave]

You must be very confident to find being kidnapped interesting. [ Door thinks it's admirable. ]

[exnihilo]

Maybe I'm just not afraid.

[Which she considers a different a different thing.]

[architrave]

No, I imagine not.

Wonder what they thought when you vanished.

[exnihilo]

That I ran away, probably. Some of the girls did.

[architrave]

[ Good, she thinks. ]

Why didn't you?

[exnihilo]

And go where?

Besides. I liked the other girls.

[architrave]

Does it matter? For some, freedom is enough.

[ Possibly not for this woman, however. ]

[exnihilo]

Was I not free, if I chose to stay?

[The question sounds rhetorical. It's not: Mira has never been free, and she doesn't know what it entails, or what it would feel like.]

[architrave]

I'm not sure it works that way.

[exnihilo]

And even if I left, I'd still have been dragged back here.

[The prisons that hold her have never had walls.]

[architrave]

Eventually, yes. Just like any other circumstance; no one ever really escapes them.

[exnihilo]

No?

[architrave]

Experiences follow us like shadows and circumstances are the much the same.

[exnihilo]

[Not her. Memories fade and flit away; she bleeds them out in the sand and waves wash them away.]

That's nonsense.

Just because circumstances always have to be something doesn't mean people don't move through completely different ones.