And No One Forces Down Our Eyes (Mage)

Over half-burnt, half-raw cheese biscuits and poisonously strong coffee the next morning, Phenex studies Median closely. They've known each other since they were kids in Pine Heights in Austin, and he recognizes that look of barely-controlled manic glee. It's the same look he had the night Phenex Awakened, even though at the time he had no idea what the hell Median was grinning about, considering Phenex had just had the shit beaten out of him by a couple of homophobic redneck assholes. Of course, after he saw the state said assholes were in, he felt a little better. And after last night, he's inclined to agree that it's a matter of days, if that, before Rosemary Awakens.

Her aura's already started sparking with the earliest warning signs of psychic nova. He's tried to keep his observations fairly surreptitious - he doesn't want her to catch him staring at her, especially when she doesn't know what he's looking for. She's been watching him cautiously, in that way that white suburbanite kids always seem to watch guys like him. Still, she hasn't been overtly hostile, and considering her relatively narrow reality tunnel to date, she's been handling the whole Burning Man experience pretty well. He's still hoping that Median and Inri find something to distract her this afternoon. Even a lot of the regulars find the Sundance a little grisly.

* * * * * * * *

On the third morning, I went with Inri to a big open space where a crowd of people were doing Tai Ch'i. I found it a little hard at first, mainly because it was so slow and I kept losing my balance, but once I figured out where exactly to put my feet it was a lot easier. Even though it was really slow, it still made my arms and legs ache. After that, we went to the sunshowers - it was real nice to have a cool shower, although I had to trade my favorite pair of earrings. Afterwards, she said she was going to go for a walk. I was already hot again, so I went back to the camp, but Phenex was gone and Median was busy fiddling around with a bunch of computer parts and kept grunting whenever I tried to talk to him. I decided that not moving was making me hotter than walking was, so I wandered off to see if I could find Inri.

I was starting to find it a little easier to get around the place, because there were a lot of really big sculptures or tent complexes that you could use as landmarks, and of course the Man stood right in the middle of it all, so if you could remember which way he was facing from the place you needed to be, all you had to do was walk in a straight line. After a while, I decided to pick a direction and just see how much stuff there was before you ran out of camp and got into the bare desert again.

The people on the outside parts seemed to be a little less sociable than the ones in the middle. They didn't tell me to go away or anything, but they made it pretty clear they weren't really into talking. And then, just before it looked like there wasn't anything else to see, I spotted a tall pole just past a low ridge. I almost missed it with the air all wavy, but I thought I'd have a look see anyway.

It was about the size of a telephone pole and it had a bunch of ropes coming down from the top. There were a bunch of guys dancing around it, holding onto a couple of ropes apiece. A few other guys were pounding on drums and doing this high, wailing chant. They mainly looked like Indians, although they weren't wearing traditional costumes. Matter of fact, they weren't wearing much period.

I saw Phenex about the same time that I realized the guys weren't holding onto the ropes - the ropes were tied to sticks that were stuck right into their chests, and they were all bleeding and still dancing around the pole. Every once in a while, one of them would pull just a little too hard and the sticks would come out and the other guys would all cheer and pour water over the cuts and then rub in some sort of black paste before putting bandages over top. All most of them seemed to want to do afterwards was just lie on the ground - going by the amount of blood all around the pole and all over the dancers, they looked like they'd been going for a while.

I didn't know what to think of that, so I slowly started wandering back to camp. Inri was still gone, and Median was sleeping, so I just sat there doodling in the dirt with a stick. Phenex came back about half an hour after I did, all bandaged up and sweaty.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

He looked down at his chest and then looked at me.

"'Course it hurts. That's why we do it."