Hazel Tasker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
turningcolors) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nexus_crossings2018-11-01 08:16 am
turningcolors) wrote in nexus_crossings2018-11-01 08:16 am
Age Old Advice (Seasonal Post)
A mist has settled over the Nexus this morning.
The fog billows and wisps, keeping destinations hidden from view. Muffling the noise of the plaza, stifling everything into a feeling of bleak isolation. Those who persevere will find a warm orange glow drawing them near. At either end of the Plaza--one near the sprawling parks close to the Wilds and the other closer to the beginnings of the urban sprawl--are two oasis from the creeping cold and mists. Hazel has taken the flame from the bonfire she lit at the Equinox that has burned steadily ever since and spread it out among several torches making up the perimeter of these areas now. The bonfire is long gone, but these two areas remain. When she came into the season she was a roaring blaze. So much to prove. With her place cemented here, she has gotten down to her actual work.
The Autumn spirit is seated on a bench in one of the torch lit circles holding a conversation with a person that's difficult to make out. IN fact, when someone approaches, they will find it's a spirit she is cavorting with. After only a few seconds the figure dissolves into the selfsame mist people have sought out these places to escape from. Hazel turns to her new audience.
"If you could talk to a lost loved one just once more, who would you want to see? What advice would you ask from a loved one deigning to cross the veil to see you?"
((Anyone who chooses to participate may choose to either speak to Hazel in general about the question she's posing or if the player is so inclined Hazel will conjure up the spirit of a lost loved one to speak to your character. Please DM me in DW or discord if you choose to have a loved one appear so we can hash out what you want to do. Curses and Blessings are still available as well. Happy Day of the Dead, folks ;) ))
The fog billows and wisps, keeping destinations hidden from view. Muffling the noise of the plaza, stifling everything into a feeling of bleak isolation. Those who persevere will find a warm orange glow drawing them near. At either end of the Plaza--one near the sprawling parks close to the Wilds and the other closer to the beginnings of the urban sprawl--are two oasis from the creeping cold and mists. Hazel has taken the flame from the bonfire she lit at the Equinox that has burned steadily ever since and spread it out among several torches making up the perimeter of these areas now. The bonfire is long gone, but these two areas remain. When she came into the season she was a roaring blaze. So much to prove. With her place cemented here, she has gotten down to her actual work.
The Autumn spirit is seated on a bench in one of the torch lit circles holding a conversation with a person that's difficult to make out. IN fact, when someone approaches, they will find it's a spirit she is cavorting with. After only a few seconds the figure dissolves into the selfsame mist people have sought out these places to escape from. Hazel turns to her new audience.
"If you could talk to a lost loved one just once more, who would you want to see? What advice would you ask from a loved one deigning to cross the veil to see you?"
((Anyone who chooses to participate may choose to either speak to Hazel in general about the question she's posing or if the player is so inclined Hazel will conjure up the spirit of a lost loved one to speak to your character. Please DM me in DW or discord if you choose to have a loved one appear so we can hash out what you want to do. Curses and Blessings are still available as well. Happy Day of the Dead, folks ;) ))
no subject
With the curse still firmly in place, robbing him of a good satisfying meal, why shouldn't he have taken advantage of the Midgardian holiday? Endless candy and sweets offered freely to those in costume, no matter how tacky or cheap, and his pirate guise had netted him more treats than even he could eat in a night. But he did try. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically. And oh, what a mistake that was.
The god of thunder is a few shades paler than he normally is, nursing both a headache and an unsettled stomach, so he doesn't notice Hazel until he gets too close for her to miss his presence, her question pulling his attention away from his self-indulgent misery. He hasn't given himself an opportunity to see if the curse is still in place, or if he's learned whatever lesson she intended this teach him, but he sure hopes it's the latter because he's definitely learned that even Asgardians have limits when it comes to Halloween candy.
Should he respond? Risk her wrath again, and get cursed worse this time around? Just walk away and pretend he never saw her? Which would be least insulting, he wonders.
He sighs, and rubs at his forehead. Screw it. "I'd ask my father for more lessons in diplomacy. I don't think I paid enough attention the first time."
no subject
The spirit Hazel had been speaking to disappears back into the swirling dampness and for a moment the Autumn spirit sits with an air of unamusement upon seeing the King of Asgard once more. Yet his demeanor is more civil this time. More subdued. He is not trying to wrest the weather away from her ritual or disrupt her affairs.
Almost as though he's learned his lesson.
And lo, the answer he gives! It is almost enough to make her smirk in satisfaction. Almost, but not quite. Today is not a day to be spent dwelling on the petty squabblings of the living. Her attention today is toward the dead.
"Leaders asking their predecessors for one last lesson...yes. I suppose this is a common enough request. What sort of man was your father? A God King like yourself, was he kind with his words and actions?"
no subject
Whether it's the candy hangover or that he's actually trying to get along, Thor's not trying to throw his power or name around this time. And look, she even responded without changing the subject, or getting worked up about who he is. Almost as if these two things were related, hmm.
"A god king, yes," he answers, though not to boast, this time around. "He was a lover of peace, in my lifetime. Weary of war and conquest. He chose to hide certain truths in the interests of keeping that peace, though I wonder now if he was right to do that." Loki, Hela... not to mention the bloody campaigns that plundered the gold which lined the halls of the palace, if Hela is to be believed. It's taken Thor centuries to question his father's motives, to see him as more than the wizened and wise king Odin appeared to be, and even now he struggles to reconcile the father he idolized with the history he's learned since. What more doesn't he know?
"He could be harsh, at times. When he needed to be. He often knew the best thing to say, whether to soothe wounded pride or to push back against youthful arrogance."
no subject
Hazel lowers her gaze in respect for this dead King. Listens as the mists swirl and carry on the soft breeze just beyond her perimeter of torchlight.
"No one is born a brilliant leader, Thor, King of Asgard. The only way to learn is through experience. Whether Odin learned by making grave mistakes or because he was the one being manipulated through those same harsh lessons or soothing guidance he learned because he lived it. You are no child--you must have learned much through what you've experienced. What Odin taught you in life. Think on his lessons now. On the last lesson he ever tried to give you. Perhaps it will bring you clarity."
She looks out at the mists beyond them and smiles ever so slightly.
"I am confident your willingness to learn will please his spirit. Your respect will reach him."
no subject
Especially those of his last days.
Not on that cliffside in Norway, overlooking the sea, as Odin spoke of Hela. There's no more to be learned from that brief handful of moments, with Hela and Asgard destroyed in the fires of Ragnarok. But that wasn't the last time Thor saw Odin, was it?
He reaches up to touch his eyepatch for a moment, a reminder of more than just Hela's sword. Did Odin have a similar realization once, Thor has to wonder. There's a reason why the tales say the Allfather traded an eye for wisdom, after all. Maybe Thor can be so lucky as to gain the same. "He encouraged me to look beyond what I see," he says after a long moment. "That my way of looking at the world was only half the picture, even when I had both eyes still. That there were things I thought I knew, only because I never bothered to question my assumptions about their importance."
no subject
Today is for Odin's memory.
For Odin is among the sea of souls collected just beyond the torchlight, swirling in the mists.
"You need not understand the true meaning behind those lessons in its entirety right now. Such a thing would be impossible. What you owe your kin is to not forget the lesson. To hold it close to your heart with all care for which it was given to you."
no subject
With the stomachache a reminder of his foolishness, Thor takes a breath and says, "I must apologize to you, spirit. My behavior was unbecoming of a king." Ouch, that hurt to say. Humble pie is even worse than the candy.
no subject
"All lessons have a purpose. I'm pleased you've learned yours." It won't do anything for his candy hangover but at least once he's recovered form that Thor may find solace in real food and drink once more. And a place among his people again. Whether or not Thor will feel the magic vanish is uncertain but trained sorcerers like his brother certainly will be able to tell it's been lifted.
"Your father would be proud, I think, to see his son thinking of your people before anything else. Should you stay here a while and meditate on him and his lessons I am certain those feelings will reach him on this day."
no subject
He's prayed for Odin before, in the cramped deteriorating prison of the Grandmaster's slave pens, with no hope of knowing if it made any difference. If Odin can hear him now, he'd be a fool to waste the chance to pay his respects.
He's not going to thank her, exactly, after what she did to him. But it's an olive branch nonetheless, one she didn't have to offer, and that's... well, it's something. "I will."