And the power of the people shall come to believe they do rule

[mickey-cops.livejournal.com]

((Continuing from this post.))

In the passageways beneath the park, where a group had gathered to break down a long-closed door, a laser beam was widening, and a broad circle began to blacken the surface of the wood, the locks melting and streaming down in shining rivulets, to puddle at the doorstep. The room was getting hot, now.

Outside, all at once, the rides all stopped. Animatronic figures jolted still; boats bumped each other confusedly; rollercoasters fell to the bottom of their tracks and did not continue up. The lights inside the buildings flickered off; the perpetual background noise of music and soundeffects went silent.

Below, the hole in the door began to crackle and spark around the edges, and for just a moment all the eyes trained on the door could see through it a fathomless darkness. An odd, organic silence filled the air; everyone's breathing and small movements were audible, but so too was a new absence of sound, as though the walls were all holding their breath.

And then the air around the door began to shimmer.

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[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Meeting his eyes steadily, she nodded at his explanation.

Then he touched her face, signaling readiness, and for a moment, it was as it had been the first time they met, when he touched her wings. Whispers of the thoughts of all of those around them came into his hearing, and of those above, a little more distant. And then it was all subsumed beneath a wave of sympathy, kindness, and...longing --

--And he was standing on the bare side of a low mountain, with the chill of autumn night all around, and the stars of Earth hanging above, brilliant as diamonds. In the distance were the low, flickering lights of a small village; nearby was a homely, grubbed-together campfire. Standing before him, Psyche smiled: a young human girl, her face and body marked with the ugly remnants of cuts and bone-deep bruises, her belly swollen with pregnancy, wearing the same travel-worn cloak she'd been wearing just a moment ago. Even so, her face was lit with hope, longing, and something that looked rather like bloody-minded stubbornness.

"Not so far to go, now," she said. "And take heart: here's always a chance things will go better than you could have expected. Here," she said. And held out her hand to him.--

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

He didn't need to, of course, but at the sounds of those whispers he closed his eyes, head tilting back slightly. The feelings that followed stung behind his eyelids.

--He knew her story; had read it, heard it told in hundreds of languages, thousands of times in every Time, so the image didn't shock him. If anything, it was strangely comforting. Which was probably what she intended, in her own way.

"I think one of my biggest mistakes here was not to get to know you better," he remarked, stepping toward her. "You scared me, you know. That first time. And I suppose I've become rather overprotective of him in this place."

A smile for her encouragement. "Thank you. And I hope someone rubs your back for you when this is all over." And he took her hand.--

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

--"I wanted to help," she said, a bit plaintively. "He invoked one of my dark faces, but I thought I did make things a little quieter for him."

She squeezed the Doctor's hand. "I know you, you know. Through other eyes. You were their friend, so I'm yours. And you can always call on me."

She went on tiptoe to press a brief kiss on his forehead--

And then was there before him, goddess again, with the same smile in the grim industrial light of the underground tunnel. She was a warm presence in the back of his mind.

Good luck, she told him.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

--"I know," he murmured soothingly, reaching up to her forehead to brush away a strand of hair. "And you probably did him more good back then than I did. I just didn't understand." He squeezed back, and in that moment his mind was plenty open enough for her to see everything that gesture has meant to him over the years. Her kiss burned like Rose's.--

He opened his eyes. Thanks. And you too. And then he turned and left the room, with a nothing more than a look to John and an encouraging touch to the man's shoulder, like the passing of a baton.