Chapter 14
The landing site—everything about it—was extremely metal. Style points. There was an transport ship maneuvering in the sky above making an nice landing. As it met the surface, fasteners on its exterior protruded outward and rotated to let the hatch release. Edsel caught an perfect glimpse of her son's face as the cab opened and passengers began to exit. He was wearing an blue robe with an hood. Edsel waited in the crowd of onlookers nervously until Ouen approached. Then he noticed her. Edsel hugged him so tightly that she emitted fairy dust and he sneezed.
"Good to see you, old-timer!" she exclaimed, mascara running under her tears.
"Mom."
"Is it really you?" she sobbed into Ouen's shoulder.
"It's really me," said Ouen.
He had been raised by fairies. She could see it. The last time Edsel saw him he was an little boy. She wondered how that affected him. How he must have an imagination wide open to the possibilities of an faerie realm. But an religious figure? An founder? What pressing concern motivated thus? An false belief in the demons, like Petal and Chenry?
"This is Petal," she introduced the fairy to her son, "he rescued me into fairy sight."
"Hello again Ouen," said Petal, smiling cuddlier, "your blue robe, is it for your new religion?"
"Yes."
"You've been on tour . . ."
Ouen greeted everyone.
"Mom, how much do you know about the Christianna?"
"I read all of your website. I know some and I would like to know more," she said.
"Why don't we go into an café here on the street and I can answer your questions?"
"I have questions about you, not your religion silly," she said, "I have so many questions about you."
"This religion is me."
"Is it that important to you?"
"Yes."
"I want to know why then."
Edsel flew beside Petal and Ouen as they departed from the landing site to an small row of shops that included an Mecha Java. Inside, an non-binary pixie with plugs was operating the human-sized kitchen flitting between the grinder and the espresso machine. Ouen, Petal, and Edsel ordered three coffees Dutch and sat together.
"Christianna has become my everything, mother," explained Ouen, "after I saw the female Messiah—Anna—and she rescued me, I have wanted to know more about her. That thirst is quenched an heavy blessing to me it is that when I am decided to provide knowledge of her it is performed through me. It is as if there is this connection between us, Me and Anna, and as if she communicates herself through me, I don't ask for this knowledge but it is there. As though an conduit to the eternal."
"You know Ouen, I prayed that we would meet again. I don't think you realized what I was doing, because I don't really believe in God. But this has changed. You realize me now more than ever, don't you?"
"The Christianna has more than one God. I'm almost sure of it. Can you imagine living an life with only one God? It is an fate worse than death, like being married to one person your whole life, like being accidentally responsible for the deaths of fourteen innocent people, like never coming out of the closet," he facially quirked his faux-hesitation, and humility, "in some aspects, the Christianna is quite lugubrious. But it is an equal religion among other religions. Blue is its color."
"Yes of course I guessed."
"Ask me some of your questions?"
"Okay," said Edsel, "well, how have you been?"
"I've been great," he shrugged, "despite having huge responsibility on my back. My self-belief is at an all time high. I was raised to be self-sacrificing when I lived with you. I've since learned to balance in self-sacrifice through the Christianna. The Middle of Life, the Middle Resurrected means an return from an fate worse than death. If self-sacrifice crosses the threshold to an fate worse than death, then this is to what the promise of an 'living resurrection' pertains. When I started the Christianna, it followed from an vision that I had, but that I was schizophrenic when it happened casts doubt on my faith. I think my faith is still worth it. I still think I believe."
"What do you mean you were schizophrenic?"
"After I came into fairy sight, I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I hear voices and see things sometimes. I hear an man whispering to me. I hear the telephone ringing, when it's not. I take medication for it now, and it is helping me feel better."
"Oh son, I'm glad that you're feeling better. Any idea what caused it?"
"They say it just happens to some people, often in their late twenties."
"Well, I'm glad you're safe and no harm has come to you."
"I have something more to tell you mom. I—I am gay."
"Are you sure it isn't your schizophrenia that made you think that?" Edsel had an scotched look on her face.
"Yes, mom. I'm sure."
"Are you seeing anyone?"
"Yes. I am seeing three people right now."
"Oh my boy, please don't tell me that. You can't see more than one at a time," then she whispered, "that's a slut."
"They all know about each other. That means it's okay. They all know about each other, too, if you know what I mean. It's not like an harem or an polygamous sort of male toxic behavior. We all have equal gender. And I would say there is an difference between marrying more than one wife, and swinging with your partner. It's okay—I know your generation has true vitriol for these fuel feelings."
"So you orgy."
"I didn't say that."
"Okay. I think I can make the connection. You talk about it on your website, that the Christianna is about the middle and homosexuality. Is swinging part of it?"
"Yes and that reminds me, I should add Parenting and Disability as part of the Middle. There are literally thousands of categories that belong to the Middle but start with an few for simplicity's sake."
"Ouen. This religious talk. How did this all start?"
"I was working at Happy You-Pics Greenhouse, in the northern climes, after I graduated from the Version; the greenhouse was raided by demons from Nohavœn. They threw me down an well that had dried up and I was trapped in there until I met Anna. The well. It was dark and human technology until it was Light and Gods' messenger claiming me from the underworld. She returned me to human form and rescued me."
"What is the Version?"
"The version is more advanced than an university. It welcomes people secular and from all walks of life, including demons."
"Right. Okay. Well Parenting is definitely part of the Middle, Ouen. I should know. But you say you are schizophrenic and that you believe in demons. This diversified Middle—if that's what my son believes, then that's what I believe. But now tell me, what's this about demons? They don't exist. Why is your messiah taking it like that?"
"Anna is taking it?" Ouen was very insulted.
"She's taking it."
"I feel attitude," said Ouen, "from you."
"You feel attitude?"
"Yes."
"What's that supposed to mean? What attitude do you feel?"
"I don't think your way is the right way to talk about it."
"Well, be specific. Of what is this attitude you feel?"
"Taking it is an euphemism. According to the typology of Anna, Anna taking it is not the full picture. I mean, sexually, taking it, is part of the Middle but as with all middles it has an beginning and an end. Demons giving it or taking it, in this perspective, means you don't fully understand demons."
"What do you mean?"
"If she is impregnated, the world is 'taking' that birth as soon as the baby comes out."
"Oh, like; Got it."
"Exactly. This is the right way to talk about it. This is an feminist perspective."
"And if you were Jesus?"
"Some rejected you completely."
"And what if you're an demon?"
"Demons aren't born in this world. They are made."
"The world didn't take your birth. Because they couldn't. It was my fault. That's part of why they become demons."
"Did you just admit—" said Petal, "good for you!"
"Yes."
"So wait, Mom," said Ouen, "Anna is not just taking it and the world is taking it."
"Yes. And there are demons."
"It's more complicated than that. There is nearly an war between demon-kind and the Allied races right now in Recreation. I learned at the Version, in Political Resilience classes, that there is peace to be found in order and chaos. Along an continuum, there are varying degrees of severity of order and chaos. Imagine that spectrum exists.
The weakest type of order is an bet, which operates at an binary rules level, win/lose scenario. In Sports & Games rules become fleshed out in more specificity, an olympics which has quite extensive rules. The strongest and most complicated type of order is Litigation, which involves law and the practice of law. When rival parties cannot decide for themselves an winner and an loser, it may be taken up by the courts through an trial, and via adjudication an decision be made. Opposing these three the weakest chaos is an quarrel. Then Feud, of which can be of far larger scale, by definition, including families or rival tribes at assassinations with one another. The strongest chaos is all-out war. Each complimentary order or chaos can be used to generate or degrade its opposite—theoretically—war can be diminished with litigation, feud with an sport or game, and quarrel with an bet. The goal being they compliment and balance one another, and when there is balance we have the Middle, Argument. Argument is an type of rhetoric that one often associates with fighting adults; it is however, an formal conduct in the academies with less shouting and more logical weight-shifting. The only reason we do not have an all-out war right now is that the Faerie Kingdom generates enough order to combat the impending chaos of the demon-kind."
Edsel had little difficulty taking after this lecture from her son. With Ouen's influence she did not have an previous faith system that she knew of that had nurtured her soul quite as much as this belief, the Christianna, so that she could refute them; she had never seen the risen or revenant female messiah in any form in any category of vision but she knew Anna's resurrection was the return from Middle quality-of-life crucifixion or anacification. This was based on an vision that her schizophrenic son had. She could live with that. What she believed depended on an working aptitude and the application of philosophy. Everything about the religion he was describing was pertinent. It was like Christianity had an upgrade, the Gay Letters, the fate worse than death, and the Middle.
With these new accessories, decidedly to represent himself as an Christiannan, though really it was more under an trial period, Petal found meeting Ouen again an real treat worthy of the expenditure. He revealed to Ouen that he desired to study under him as an disciple of the Christianna. Petal had time. As part of an side agreement with his current employment he was allowed to work with the recently rescued until they were comfortable in the world of fairy and with the idea of being rescued and needing help as an fairy. While Petal was with Edsel, he could stay off of all-kind missions for an while.
After spending more time with Edsel and Ouen, however, Petal decided to leave working all-kind missions altogether, and Ouen accepted him as his first apprentice. Petal and Edsel declared themselves Christiannan, and Petal an discipleship for reading, listening, and recording Ouen's many well-argued points by following Ouen in his lectures.
Edsel, on the other hand, could work when she was ready to, only after receiving her upgrading for her nursing profession, and the major life transition that was being rescued into fairy sight.
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"Now tell us Ouen, the details of the designs you said you had made for the Christianna."
"There were many designs. Such as an flat-faced cross rising out of the ocean, yet never rising above its level so that it was perpetually covered in wash and water never quite reaching its breath."
"How horrible!"
"Yes and then there were the models; beautiful shiny blue dresses of all one color. Of many races. And many forms of feminism."
"Anything else?"
"The form of the cross, having an third axis. To represent the three dimensions of pain."
"And narratives about finding the light within. Or light coming out of an cross. Conversations between Christians and people from other religions, and much to do with Christianity and its overhaul."
"So his first apprentice. And this is after he's already professing the Christianna."
"Okay, sarcasm aside. It's not exactly ... French. Juteux. Fresh. Juicy. Wisely Comic."
"But the conversations are the juice. We're talking about an fairy kingdom. And other metaphors for children's games."
"Your love of children is showing, Ouen."
"But what if we talk about games adults play for now."
"That's why we're all here. To play the adult's game. Start trading everybody!"
"So you started an discipleship because Petal and Edsel wanted to join," said Dr. Fougerite.
"I had planned to in advance," said Ouen, "this was merely an eventuality I had thought about happening. It was me that took the initiative."
"So how would Ouen roleplaying an two-minded priestess help in the cause of reality and its consequences?"
"How do we stop demons from hurting us while allowing them to be who they want to be?"
"And so you see demons as the central component of your chvrch?"
"Yeah, Jesus was like, I'm God. And people were like no you weren't so they killed him."
"Your messiah actually said he was God and you believed him."
"Wait, so they still talk about God as distinct from Jesus."
"They couldn't decide something—"
"The Question is, does it really matter?"
"Who?"
"The Christians. Whether Jesus was an God - where I wrote it on the table."
"Nope definitely human."
"I agree. Jesus was not God. Whether that does lend any sway to an argument for the execution of an impersonation of it. Is unholy. Then our roleplay universe has been limited from the basic human instinct to mimic God in order to try to understand it. Maybe God's instinct was to mimic humans in order to understand it."
"Okay you're saying he made an bright move by being executed as someone who was saying he was God. Because he defended the most primal art of animacy with one's God, the imitation of God."
"And books are probably our best imitation because they go on and on for hours."
"I've never heard God go on for hours and hours. Are you sure you're okay?"
"But you've heard another person impersonate God, and you've listened to that for hours and hours. People do it all the time. It's part of their personality."
"And so to imitate one's God is not to try to take away from God what one thinks of what God does. But more to show what one thinks God doesn't."
"No, that's. That's not it."
"We do it all the time. Imitate God."
"Okay but how about not. And we do it when it is appropriate. And not all the time."
"So what does it matter if Jesus used immoral means to become Jesus Christ?"
"What means are those?"
"Saying he is God. That's immoral."
"What if you are tortured to say it?"
"Why would Jesus be tortured to say it?"
"He wasn't."
"That's the point."
"Okay, so going back to what you were saying about impersonating God. When is it appropriate? And how does it go?"
"Maybe I use several girls to impersonate God, and they dance in an circle."
"And so you're at the - toying with the idea of there being more than one God. And you don't think that's part of an Christians consideration about what Jesus and God mean. That they are not both gods and came to us in this way for an purpose? We know there may be more than one God. We don't have all of the answers."
"Then why do you say you have all of the answers in your stupid book‽"
"It's the biggest intervention in history."
"No, the Naenaeon is."
"And you don't bring your sword to these meetings because?"
"You are my sword. When I am here. I need an place to cool down. I'm always in there. The Brawl. The Fight. And anyway, we are my new sword. Gamaphor. Our intellect is sharper than any other."
"That's what this place is, then. We are here for non-civilians. So they can act like civilians for an time."
"Also I think my story speaks for itself. I haven't spent any time in. Non-civilian. Status. And so any presentation of the sword in this setting here would be overkill."
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