The Titan Returns (ota)

[pecked_by_birds]

He had been back in London for seventy-three hours, twenty-six minutes, and fifteen, sixteen, seventeen... Seconds. He knew that for certain, and there was no need for clocks. No, Prometheus could feel the seconds ticking inside of him.  

Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine...

Upon his return home, he'd locked himself away in his flat, pulling out his paints and canvases and filling them with dark shadows and heavy lines. This form was not like the last he'd worn. It felt wrong and right all at once-  It was all angles and odd lines, sharp bones and pale flesh, highlighted with ginger hair and pale green eyes- Eyes that weren't so different from other forms he'd worn. 

However, when he closed these eyes he could hear waves crashing, and feel the weight of the chains that had once forced him to remain still and suffer.  With his eyes shut, every moment that ticked by sent him spiralling deeper into the darkness he'd spent so long running from. 

The titan's madness had known all kinds of forms. Sometimes quiet, sometimes loud- Often angry, but sometimes... Sometimes it was like a fog. That's how it was now, it seemed. In this form it didn't bring rage, only pain, moments of confusion, and a lingering sadness that weighed him down and made him wish for the one thing he would never have.
 
Eternal rest.

He couldn't stay in the flat forever though, and today he'd finally ventured out, daring to go shopping for supplies before finally returning to the small second hand shop he called his own. With no fanfare at all, he set about opening the shutters and flipping the sign from closed to open for the first time in months.

Inside the stock was mostly unchanged, the same paintings and books, the same oddities and trinkets. Some very old, some only from a few decades back. The difference this time being the man himself, his looks, and the way he loitered in his own shop. He didn't sit behind the counter reading now, that required a stillness he was struggling with today. Instead he stood with a paintbrush in hand, and a fresh canvas before him that he slowly began to mark in time to the drab, and slightly melancholy, sound of Radiohead.

He didn't look up when he heard someone come in, but he did point his brush at them. 

"I know what you want, but do you?" he asked.

Comments

[sunsongs]

"What about you?" Coby asked, coming over to get a look at what the guy was painting. "Do you want space, or something else?"

[pecked_by_birds]

The titan was dabbling in surrealism, his current subject a small stack of books that were perched near the window, their lines exaggerated and their pages fluttering, as though a breeze had blown them open. Words oozed and slid off the pages, puddling on the floor, taking what had been a colourful sceen and making it just a bit more unsettling.

"Space? No, I don't crave space. Silence, sometimes, but not space. If I were one to want, and I'm not sure I am, I think I'd want- A clear mind, all the chemicals balanced and the grooves swept clean."

[sunsongs]

That was something Coby had wanted almost as long as he could remember – in this lifetime, and across the ones before – and with it, the guy became far more interesting than his painting. Coby studied him a moment, and then a bit more, but if there was a memory there he wasn't finding it.

"Have we met?" he asked finally. It wouldn't be the first time he'd run into someone he should know but didn't.

[pecked_by_birds]

"Maybe," the titan shrugged, honestly not sure if they had or not. His memory was sharp only when it wished to be.

"I'm Prometheus," he said, mixing a soft lilac colour with his brush. "...Who are you?"

[sunsongs]

Oh. Well, that explained it. Prometheus had said something about different bodies, different faces.

"Coby. These days. Shamsiel once upon a time." And feeling closer to that these days than he ever had, although still nowhere near. "We met a few months back." He grinned. "You still don't look Greek."

[pecked_by_birds]

The titan studied him, head tilting as his mind raked through the faces it had seen.

"No, I never seem to," he agreed. "Shamsiel."

He spoke the name as though he could taste it.

[sunsongs]

"Coby." The difference felt important, maybe more important now.

"There's not nearly enough space in here," Coby touched his temple, "for Shamsiel. That's... part of the deal."

[pecked_by_birds]

"If that's the name you chose, it's the name I'll use," the titan agreed with a nod, dragging his brush over the canvas as he spoke.

"So, Coby, why do you look like a moth trapped in a jar?"

[sunsongs]

"Do I?" Coby hadn't thought he'd look so obvious to anyone except Anael. Okay, maybe the demon. Unfortunately. But who knew what a titan could see?

"Probably because I feel a bit like one. Well, I wouldn't say I'm a moth exactly." The wings were all wrong.

[pecked_by_birds]

"Dove in a cage seemed too on the nose," the titan shrugged.

[sunsongs]

"Raven more likely." Although he finally realized Prometheus had called him 'dove' not 'guv' when he came in. "Either way, it gets us into I know why the caged bird sings, and that's... definitely too on the nose."

[pecked_by_birds]

"You're not a raven, I know ravens. ...Maybe a Rook," the titan mused.

[sunsongs]

Huh?

Oh.

Shit. Right. Prometheus. Ravens. Not going there, got it.

"Maybe," he said, rather than draw attention to something Prometheus knew and didn't need more reminders of. "Not me, either way. Or... new to me, or something.

"Do you ever, new body or whatever, feel like you don't fit in your skin? 'Cause yeah, that."

[pecked_by_birds]

"There's sometimes an adjustment period, yes. Though eventually I settle in. Are you uneasy in this form?" he asked. "Does it not suit you? Or is it simply too snug?"

[sunsongs]

"This form," Coby began, actually looking down at his body. "I grew into this, but..."

Prometheus had who knew how many centuries of been there, seen that, and there was part of Coby that wanted to tell someone other than Anael. "Wings. I woke up a month ago with wings. And they... itch."

[pecked_by_birds]

The titan nodded slightly in understanding, then tilted his head. "Did they bloom from your back? Or is it as though they were there all along? ...Is the skin damaged? If so, I may have something that could help a little. Though I've never tried it on an angel before."

[sunsongs]

"I'm not an angel. Any more. But I'm not sure I'm still entirely human either." He had been, he was sure, when the wings first showed up, but as time passed and he got more used to them, he became less convinced he wasn't changed in some way.

"I had to learn how to hide them. I'd show you, but..." he looked around the shop. "They take up a lot of space, and I'm kind of a bull in a china shop with them sometimes.

[pecked_by_birds]

"Ah, right. No, probably don't want to do that here. My breakables might break you if you upset them," the titan mused.

[sunsongs]

Coby'd broken enough things back at the apartment, he didn't want to do the same in the shop, and it took him a bit to realize that wasn't exactly what the titan had said.

"I'd prefer not being any more broken than I already am." He shrugged, then ran a hand through his hair. "My skin's too tight, too small when they're hidden, and when they're out, I feel gangly and awkward." Shit. It was like puberty all over again, inconvenient (metaphorical) boners and all.

[pecked_by_birds]

"What you need is time in the country," Prometheus mused.

[sunsongs]

The huff wasn't quite a laugh. "That sounds like something my mom would say."

[pecked_by_birds]

"Well, I'm fairly certain I'm not your mum. ...As far as I'm aware," Prometheus assured him.

[sunsongs]

"I'm fairly certain my mom's in Ojai. And entirely human," Coby offered in return. "But yeah, she'd definitely be on the 'get out of the city,' and 'reconnect with yourself' side of things."

[pecked_by_birds]

"So your mother is... Mortal?" the titan asked, wondering just how that worked. Though if supposed virgins were giving birth to the son of their lord, then he supposed there were no solid rules there.

[sunsongs]

"From what I remember - always tricky - I've had a pretty unique deal. I wanted to experience human life, so I have. I've been born, lived, when I was lucky loved, and died, one lifetime after another since the Flood." It had taken awhile to come to terms with that, this time around and probably others, assuming he'd remembered that much, and he wasn't sure he always had.

"Whatever's going on now - it's new."