Chapter 22
In which a once in a lifetime opportunity presents itself
TAMASHII
I was listening to a music video a few years ago, never realizing that I'd be part of such adventures as this. At the time, I'd been at home goofing off, reading books and listening to music. Right now, as we had just explored an island that most people didn't know existed, a song came to mind.
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
And you may ask yourself, “How do I work this?”
And you may ask yourself, “Where is that large automobile?”
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful house”
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful wife”
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean
Water dissolving and water removing
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
You may ask yourself, “What is that beautiful house?”
You may ask yourself, “Where does that highway go to?”
And you may ask yourself, “Am I right? Am I wrong?”
And you may say to yourself, “My God! What have I done?”
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was and look where my hand was
Time isn't holding up, time isn't after us
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Letting the days go by, same as it ever was
Here a twister comes, here comes the twister
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was (Letting the days go by)
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was (Letting the days go by)
Once in a lifetime (Let the water hold me down)
Letting the days go by (Water flowing underground)
Into the blue again
I strongly suspect that the entire song was about a midlife crisis. The idea of working for stuff, and then finding you have to keep working your whole life. Right now though, I was intimately aware that there is water at the bottom of the ocean. And I was most certainly wanting to remove the water!
LUCY
So anyway, we left Eden, and tried to sail straight back to the Eastern Continent where Tamashii's other mom awaited. But of course, it was never that simple. I saw the telltale signs: strong wind, heavy clouds, and a darkened sky. I knew what was coming, even before the storm arrived. Torrential rain poured down upon our heads, gusts of wind whipped at us, and I saw thunder off in the distance. But then, I noticed the telltale swirling winds as my hair flapped in midair like a sail, and I knew we were in hurricane. "Oh shit," I said.
I went through the checklist of surviving a hurricane. (1) Have plenty of ballast. Check. In addition to plenty of barrels and jars of preserved food, we'd loaded our Preserver with several pounds of meat and vegetables, and what couldn't fit was either cooked and dried until it was jerky, or salted, cured, and hung from the rafters. (2) Look for a port in the storm, preferably one with high cliffs or mountains to protect from winds. Uhhhh, pass. Not only were we in the middle of the ocean by the time the storm came up, but it was the middle of the night and a bit of fog had come up. I was careful to stay away from anything, since what I thought might be an island could instead be a group of rocks. (3) If all else fails and you face the hurricane, you try to steer for the area of the ocean that is going to see the shallowest waves and the lowest winds. The "clean" side of the storm is usually the side counterclockwise from its leading edge.
And yes, were tried to do that. But then, the winds whipped about, and part of the mast swiveled and whacked me. It wasn't a major concussion, more of a glancing blow, but as I started to lose consciousness, I saw Nevras standing nearby working the wheel and giving orders, "Tamashii heal her, Portia trim the sails, Sastra I need you to..." I didn't hear the rest.
The next day, the ship was completely sideways on the sand with the mast broken a thousand pieces, with only the sail cloth intact. I was on a mat with blankets near me and Nevras was in the middle of talking again when I opened my eyes, "...And the shipwright in town says it'll take a few days to put together a new one. Oh, it looks like she's up. How do do you feel, Lucy?"
I got up slowly, "Like I was hit by Lilith when she charges." In Kushiyama, some part of me imagined Lilith giving a small cute sneeze as we talked about her. "Well, anyway, it looks like we're stuck here," he said. "Where exactly is 'here', anyway?" I asked him. Tamashii pulled out the map. When we first set out, because we hadn't any good navigators, Yazim Jianne gave us a copy of our world map, only this one had a black arrow pointing to our current location. We had not used it before, as we were keeping it safe in case of emergency. Well, now it was an emergency. She read the location where the arrow was pointing, «Hinata.» Well, at least it didn't point us to some random place like Gruumi. Hinata was quaint, but there were people there that could help us. Sastra lifted the boat moved it over to the dock, dropping anchor. It had no mast, but there were plenty of supplies, and it wouldn't go anywhere. And then we entered town.
"Looks like a festival is going on," I noted. It did indeed.
NEVRAS
While Lucy had been unconscious, the time on the boat had been no picnic. Tamashii and Lucy moved below deck, so they were insulated from the worst of it. All the same, had we hit something and gone under, they would be the worst to drown. Thank God. That didn't happen. What we did have were fierce winds that threatened to blow the ship on its side, rains that beat hard at us and partially blinded us while soaking our clothing, swirling waters that threatened to create a whirlpool and suck us all in or, and currents that slapped our ship to also put it at risk of being pitched over. Sastra had an important job, and that was keeping the ship from capsizing. To this end, stripped off her clothes and tossed them below deck then shut the hatch. I was worried that I'd have to endure a stark naked prematurely developed child, but she had a swimsuit underneath her clothes and she dove overboard for the long haul. Unlike her mother, who was a classic demon with dark hair, pale skin, wings, horns, and tail, Sastraneth had blond hair and elf ears, none of those things, except claws and teeth. She might even have been mistaken for an elf, but for a feral look, and the difference showed whenever she smiled. Her strength however was something entirely different. While the ship pitched, she swam over each time and righted it again. We had a rough time of it, but the boat was mostly okay. That is, until a freak wave came and sandblasted me, knocking me out. I dunno how we survived either. Probably a miracle happened, or maybe Sastra hauled the entire boat by the chain that held its anchor.
As for the festival, it was Matsuri. Now you may not know this, but Matsuri was a bit of a moveable feast in Japan. Different places would have it during different times. But after the New Earth, only one location had Japanese festivals, maybe two if you count Goji (but they only celebrated festivals related to ghosts). This meant Matsuri was instead always related to the coming of spring. Over thousands of years, it became loosely synchronized to within a week or two Easter, which in turn stopped relying on lunar phases and always fell on the Holy Day (what people in the 20th century know as Sunday) on the same week as Passover. The current date was the 3rd of Pig (April), with Easter on the 9th. I hoped we could make it back to her by then.
I bought a yukata for everyone, even though the festival had already started. We weren't that late though. We saw a bunch of people carry a mikoshi shrine, and processing down the street, which is how we thought to ask what was going on in the first place. Our group wasn't polytheist for the most part (having actually seen God, and stuff like that) so we didn't offer thanks to the gods or kami spirits, but we did thank God for bringing us safely on this trip. We thanked Sastra and Portia for their help.
The younger girls got some help from Lucy properly binding their yukata, while I set myself up in the other room. As I was born a boy, it would be improper to peep on them, and besides which, as I had gotten into crossdressing, that meant I had to do an awful lot of things that they probably didn't want to see either. I took off my blue leather armor, and stripped down. Then I put on a bra and some panties. I always carried some breast forms with me, so this part was a regular thing for this process. As I didn't have to shave much, the bulk of the process was figuring out how to tie the yukata. I had managed the makeup, and had tied my normally spiky hair back into a cute ponytail, but try as I might, the yukata wasn't coming together. "Here, let me help," said Lucy, sneaking behind me. First, she held the right side part of the yukata at my left side near the hip line, then she likewise moved the left side over top my right hip. She fastened a cloth belt around my waist, and tied it tightly in a bow to give me a feminine figure. "Why Nevras," Lucy said, "You look beautiful!" Everyone had floral designs on their yukata. I wore a magnolia yukata, Portia's was a sunflower, Sastraneth had a red spider lily, Tamashii had poppies, and Lucy was decked out in a yukata with black irises. The dark bearded iris was backed against a white coloring, and its fuzzy "bearded" portions matched her hair color.
LUCY
It turned out we weren't late after all. Like many other parades, it was possible to have multiple attractions from secular to religious stuff. Some of these were more like wagons which were dragged by groups of people with ropes, others had to be carried with poles, and still others were floats with depictions of Shinto heroes, gods, or villains. Matsuri began with a the idea of carrying an object that was consider holy around, but quickly descended into partying and revelry.
For kids and teenagers, there were booths selling fish that were caught with rice paper, there were toys, games to play, and various festival foods (okonomiyaki, ramune, takoyaki, yakitori, shaved ice or kakigori, and candied fruits).
For adults though, the highlight was drinking. Ambrosia liked to stay stone cold sober, and I fully got it. It was no fun waking up saying, "Well, how did I get here?" But Nevras got caught up in the festival spirit, and forgot to pace himself. Pretty soon, he was so drunk, that he was starting to have trouble seeing and remembering things, and when he looked at me, he said, "Ambrosia, you look so hot tonight. I would do anything to make you happy." I realized that if I had corrected him, or probably even spoken and revealed my voice, I would never get what I really wanted. How do I work this? Yes, it was wrong of me to cheat, but all I could think of what that my other half got to experience this, but I only got to watch indirectly through her eyes. I pretended to cough. Nevras nodded, "I get it, all that fried food probably bothered your throat. Just show me where to go, and what you want." I made a come hither gesture with my index finger, then pointed to a dark alley where people weren't really paying attention. When he asked what I wanted, I made an obscene insertion gesture. "Ahhhhh, I got it. You're feeling horny tonight, Ambrosia?" It was difficult for him to tell the difference between blue and purple hair in the evening. The other three were more than happy to maintain silence and leave us alone for awhile, after they got bribed some money to good off for awhile. When I was satisfied that we were in a sufficiently dark area, I peeled of his clothes, leaving on his bra and breast forms, while removing his panties. I wanted the impression of having sex with a submissive futanari. I pushed him to the ground, being careful not to mess up his hair. With both hands, I stroked at his shaft until it stood upright. But before he could come, I tightened my fingers around his shaft, cutting off the flow. "Ahhh..." he gasped. I slid on top of his erect member and felt as his warm sperm uncorked inside of me. I rode him up and down until I bled. My first time, and it felt wonderful, yet horrible for what I had done, and yet, "Aaaaaaaaaahhh!!! Yesssss! So gooood~~~!!!" I quieted down, after realizing that we could be heard from the street. But more importantly, Nevras sat up and took a closer look at my face. Uh oh.
NEVRAS
This is not my beautiful wife! "Lucy?!? Is that your voice I hear?" I asked. She blushed, though it was dark enough that I could be sure I saw it. Then she made an attempt to impersonate Ambrosias voice but I already remembered now that Ambrosia was back across the sea. "No it's not Lucy... Okay, you got me. It's me. I'm sorry, I just... It felt like Ambrosia got you all to her herself, and well, I'm a part of you, but I knew you'd never cheat." I asked, "Would you like to continue?" This time I could see her eyes blink, "Huh?!?" I explained, "You're right, it's not fair to you. You need some relief from all of this. Just this one time, I'll agree to it." She sighed, then nodded, "But call me Ambrosia. It turns me on." And so for the next half-hour, we role-played. Well, sorta. Any onlooker who had seen Ambrosia have sex wouldn't think Lucy behaved anything like her. "Oh, Ambrosia," I said, "You're so forward tonight." I did my best impersonation of her voice, "Nevras, take me now~~~!" He got on top of me, and thrust inside. "Oh no, you don't! I want a piece of this. *cough* I mean... Oh no, you don't! I want a piece of this." I rolled him over and proceeded to dominate him sexually, touching his breast forms, and calling him a sissy, while I told him that he needed "permission" to come. We both knew this was a bluff, and after awhile, I let him touch my breasts, kiss me, and everything else. I just wanted to do some femdom play. The roleplay stuff was arousing to me, but eventually we realized hours had passed, and we had no idea where our kids were. I helped Nevras get cleaned back up for the festival, and re-fastened both of our yukatas. We walked back out to the street like nothing happened. My God, what have I done?
I was obviously pregnant with his child. I dunno how I knew, but I just knew. But for all we knew, while we were out having fun, the others might have been kidnapped! A psychic, a Seraphim, and an incredibly strong demon getting kidnapped? It could happen, I tell you! We walked around, fully expecting to search for them for hours. The mikoshi were being carried back at night, this time carrying paper lanterns, and with musicians warning of its presence with various instruments playing. Instead of spending hours looking, we found her only two blocks away playing jan ken po for some sort of prize. "Hey there! So how was the sex?" she asked. Ambrosia really needed to do something about her troubling unchildlike personality. Kids just didn't ask such things! "It was..." I blushed.
JESUS
I was in the desert in the beginning of my ministry, and tempted by things like throwing myself off a high ledge, or worshiping Satan for money or "power" over the world. But one of the more difficult temptations in my early ministry was simply to try to turn bread into stones. Oh wait no, it was stones into bread. The idea being that I use my powers for personal gratification. But some people ask why when I resisted this temptation, I turned around and gave food to four or five thousand people.
So let me explain. That day, I was trying to teach the people the secrets of thaumaturgy, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds! Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. And do not be concerned about what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The crowd looked at me blankly, "What do you mean?" I explained, "Suppose I wanted to bring rain to this dry mountain. I would only need to ask, God, open the skies to us, and let there be rain." Immediately, a steady rain soaked everyone thoroughly. "Okay, Jesus, we get it! Make it stop!" I nodded, "Let the noise stop! Water is no longer needed here." Actually, there were a number of ways that I could have stopped the rain. I taught them that it wasn't the specific words that were important, but the intention behind them, "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Pray simply, for I tell you, God hears you even if you shut yourself up inside a room and are heard by no man." I showed them an example of how simple a prayer could be, "Snow." And immediately, a freak snow storm came up. Seeing their discomfort, I showed that even making an X or other gesture of dismissal was enough to ask for the dismissal of something prayed for, that words weren't even needed for a prayer. When thaumaturgy later corrupted into magic and sorcery, this teaching about nonverbal communication was not lost. In fact, even after all supernatural power was forgotten by the human race, they continued to use body language descended from these very teachings.
Magic and sorcery, unlike thaumaturgy, could not create real food. And this was their thinking even while I had just said not to worry about what to eat, because God will provide. It was one thing to see weather effects, flashes of light, or the like. But crowd did not really believe that this thaumaturgy thing was anything other than a magic show. They weren't convinced they could do this, they thought I was able to just by being a special person. No, I could pray directly as God can, doing miracles by virtue of being God. But anyone can do these prayers. And more importantly, they had the impression that it was a nice magic show, but they were getting hungry and it was time to get home. "How many of you are hungry?" I asked, immediately seeing about four or five thousand hands shoot up. "Do we have any food?" I probed. A child showed me food in a basket , but it was only five loaves and two fish. Now the fish species that were commercially important in Roman times mostly species of the family Scombridae, such sturgeon, mullet, mullet, hake, bream, and moray. In the sea of Galilee were also barbels, catfish, carps, and what is known as St. Peter's Fish (a type of tilapia). But this was Pangaea, and the fish were a decent size. Leedsichthys was the big fish of the time, and it could get up to 16 yards or so. Another fish, the lobe-finned Rhizodus, was about 6 yards. But if you think a child caught a fully grown fish this big and heavy, you're delusional. These were lungfish. They were pretty cute in a goofy sort of way, but there was no way these were feeding five thousand people, not on their own. They had already been roasted over the fire, so there was no need to cook. So I told my disciples to divide the bread and fish into twelve baskets, one for each of them and go around distributing them. Unlike government, that pretends to help, but most of its resources are wasted in bureaucracy, taxes, and dependence, they simply did as I asked, fully dubious that there a way this would happen. They had seen me do miracles before, but this was just too many. The crowd thought there were too many of them too. I thought better. Had not I given enough rain and snow for all of them to feel wet or cold? How was food any different? And so, both my disciples and the crowd were astonished when the basket opened filled with scraps of fish and pieces of bread. But surely, it wasn't enough for everyone to be full. Only there was.
It wasn't about being "unselfish." Communist groups tried to force people to share what they had, but there wasn't enough production. Instead of wealth for everyone, their mindset was about poverty. They had a zero sum game where what is taken or given is limited and transferable, never visualizing the ability to make more. In fact, their system was set up to hinder this exact ability, paying unproductive and productive equally, so there is no incentive to work harder.
When I gave, though, there was enough for everyone to be full. There was no shortage, only people who schemed with promises of equality and equity to make society that everyone but the top was equally pour. But when you love others as yourself, nobody is starving, nobody suffers, because you share what you make, not what you are trying to save. This was the essence of thaumaturgy, using your own energy to ask God. And so, what I showed them wasn't a magic trick, it wasn't some empty promise, it was God's love in action spread like rain through an entire crowd. It was like a festival, where as many people as came were able to get what they wanted. The festival was the product of the harvest, a way to use excess. In the same way, what God produces is enough to feed everyone in the world several times over, if only people could get out of their own way.
RENA
I wasn't able to get out of my own way. I was fixated on the idea that if Jesus helped some, he couldn't help others. That his time and energy were limited. One day, I made a big fuss about how some lady used expensive perfumed oil and how this could have been used to feed the poor. Later accounts of this incident tell that I said this because I was a thief and was in charge of the treasury and used to skim some off the top. Ummmm, rude? Actually, like many people in Jesus's group, I was concerned that he was wasting his time and money on little people, on little problems, rather than conserving all of that for the big ticket items like the overthrow of the current system, and a new system of equality. But as I learned gradually over time, that was never his goal. What he was really getting rid of was the idea of zero sum game, that people couldn't make things in order to share, instead of giving from limited commodity. That forgiveness might in turn be enough to go around, not just conserved for the wealthy or those called "worthy."
But over time things changed. The Atlanteans stopped coveting the wealth of other countries, and started finding underwater deposits of gold. The Jews of this time returned to their Hebrew ways of seeing God as personal, even if they didn't believe in Jesus. The lizard people and the hybrids now had powers of their own. The lizard people stopped bothering the mortal world, because they had laboratories to clone their own food source, the flesh of a man named Lazarus (they named him this because like Lazarus of Christian lore, he kept coming back again and again through cloning). And over time, small productive rural towns cropped up, where everyone was able to ask for God and he gave it.
That is how things went down in the real death and resurrection of Jesus. People got it, and he did indeed bring about worldwide peace for a time. The temple did indeed fall as Jesus predicted, but nobody seemed to care. There were no dire end times prophecies, no bemoaning the loss of Jews. In this version of events, his death and resurrection were accepted. And it seemed to me that with that gone, there were no more problems. Daniel's prediction of a kingdom that would never be overthrown had been fulfilled, and we were set.
But there troubles lurking below the surface. I, Marina, Autumntwig, Arboria, and Aellisa all settled in a small quaint town called Winter. I expected a long and peaceful existence. I met Alethea (who we called Alicia because her name was cumbersome to say), a girl that seemed to have powerful hidden abilities. And indeed, she later turned out to be the Oracle of Tao, and more importantly someone that I really cared for. But as idyllic is this town appeared, someone wasn't happy about all this peace and harmony. You see, every town filled with people who could use thaumaturgy was like a city on a hill, a beacon of light to shine on other areas. They too learned that with God, there is enough. But more importantly, all of that light was... kind of painful to the likes of demons. They had no town of their own that was protection from this energy. They got sicker and sicker as more and more towns cropped up, even if the people there only used minor abilities, as the effect was cumulative. And so, one night under the guidance of an archdemon Belial, they attacked. They destroyed town after town, including our own. The people who remained over the next few generations lost their way. Gradually, their thaumaturgy became simple magic, and from there the demons tempted them with the lure of sorcery. From there, it was an easy matter to convince them to nuke each other until the last person was gone.
What about God's kingdom that would never fall? God's Kingdom is not of this world. It can never be attacked, because it is the spirit of God in the people. Even if all people are destroyed, God can create again.
As for Alicia, I sent her to be reborn in the future. My friends and I spent our effort trying to survive and escape. But we never stopped hoping that Alicia would return, and rescue us, in the same way God sent Moses and Jesus.
