Robert opened one of the doors of the exchange house, marveling at how simple it was for her to bridge a gap in space like this, in this one specific instance - or was it stepping outside of normal space altogether? She really didn't know. Hell's Kitchen didn't have any windows, so it was impossible to say whether it actually was "anywhere." But she decided to stop pondering the question before she got too lost in it. She did think it was a bit unusual to be able to just open a given door and find it, given that before she'd had to track it down, but she supposed Lucas could have it be the right door, even if she couldn't actually get there by opening it.
They stepped through into the little coatroom/entryway that the place had - the smells of grilling meat and adult beverages wafted in through the crack between the slightly-battered inner doors. Robert shut the door behind them; she wasn't sure if Lucas's "plot" continued to have niceties like an atmosphere while the angel-girl was away.
Lucas, meanwhile, was looking around, a bit confused, seeing only three of the four in the entryway. She was about to tell Robert not to shut the door yet when Selene spoke.
"Venus, dear, you can't exactly see things from a human perspective like that," she said. Lucas and Robert stared, surprised, at the empty space she seemed to be talking to. Gradually they became aware of a different light in the room than what was cast by the aged, flickering fluorescent bulb that should've lit the entryway. It was a warm, golden glow, emanating from the space directly in front of Selene. Lucas could just faintly make out something like a column of slightly greater intensity at the center of it.
"She hasn't had an incarnate human self for a long time," the moon-goddess said, apologetically. "She's hardly even appeared to mortals in a like form for a few millennia. So, you see, she's a little out of practice at this."
"Not all of us associate as closely with humans as you and Hermes," said Venus's voice, seeming a bit...well, "reedier" would have implied a difference in tone, Lucas thought - this was different, more as if she was hearing the goddess's voice rendered without the aid of flesh-and-blood vocal apparatus. That was odd, she thought, if Venus hadn't had a human self to begin with...at least, not in apparently a very long time. (A long time by human standards, or by gods' standards? She didn't know.) The angel-girl thought back to what they'd learned about the role perception played, with the gods...had her own mind shaped what she'd heard from Venus? But why not now, then?
"I don't get it," she said. "Why's this make a difference now, and not two minutes ago? Is it because we're on Earth? But...we aren't, are we?"
"That is a bit difficult to explain to your way of thinking," Venus said. "Suffice to say that, whether here or on Earth proper, we are within the Tellurian sphere of influence."
"Huh." Lucas frowned. "But...why is the perception thing no longer in effect? Or is it?" She glanced at Selene and noticed that she was Celine Andrews, at the moment.
"Appearing through individual perception is...not always the best choice," Celine said. "I am happy to appear to you as Neruite, and to others as something else. But if we're going to be visiting in a crowded place, it's better to have one shape that everybody can consistently see. Otherwise it could be confusing for people to each see something different, if they try to compare notes. For me, that's my incarnate form, but of course that's not an option for most of us at present."
"As she says," Venus continued, "I do not have a human self as she does. And when I come to your world normally, I prefer to work subtly; it is a habit with me. A girl who is on the verge of blossoming into womanhood has enough to think about without receiving a direct, obvious visitation from the Woman, I feel. But if Selene insists...let's see if this is better for the purpose."
It was difficult to pinpoint when the transition happened, but suddenly they were looking at a human figure - or something near to a human figure. Lucas found that it was difficult to focus on one point for long when looking at it; it seemed sort of fuzzy around the edges, and it always seemed to be receding at a breathtaking speed even though it stayed fixed in place relative to their surroundings. There were also flickers of more alien features across its surface. Lucas was reminded very strongly of things she'd seen in her glimpse upwards, and felt dizzy at the memory; Robert, who'd never experienced anything like this before, had to steady herself against the rack of coathangers.
"No, no, that won't do at all," Celine said. "You'll put them off their feed. Come on, now, keep it simple. You can't have gotten that out of practice."
"More than you did," Venus replied, Her voice now having a more human tone to it. "But...let me try again."
This time there was the figure of a woman, perfectly human in form, without any of the stranger aspects - though there was something about her that suggested some kind of otherworldly nature, moreso than Celine displayed at the moment. She was on the taller side, with long golden-brown hair - overall, not unlike the famous Botticelli painting, though more gently muscled than softly curved. She was very beautiful, but Lucas found it impossible to feel anything like jealousy - rather, she felt better about her own looks in the presence of this beauty.
To Lucas's surprise, She was also wearing a dark red dress - not over-modest, but not too revealing, either - and matching shoes. She elected not to say anything, not sure whether the fact that she'd seen the goddess naked up till now was only reflective of her perception, but Venus turned to her with a wry smile.
"You weren't wrong," She said. "But all the same, decoration is not a purely human invention."
Lucas nodded. "Sure." She was getting a bit tired of standing in the entryway, smelling food and not eating, and she was still pretty upset over the whole thing with Jeff. More than anything, she wanted to get in and tear into something. "Shall we?" she asked.
Celine nodded. "Let's."
Morgan sat in her room, her back against the closed door. The FBI was after her? No, maybe they weren't after her, yet...they just knew about her. Knew about her and Becca...Becca probably thought they meant well, but they were representatives of the existing order - the occupying force of this society. Once they found out she wanted to change things...they wouldn't like it. They wouldn't like it, and then they'd come for her, they'd come down on the temple with their swords and their shields and their tight formations against disorganized crowds of individual warriors and it would be a bloodba-
Huh? Where had that thought come from? She blinked in surprise. Was she getting mixed up with something she'd read, in her agitation? But she couldn't think what it would be.
She shivered and huddled a little tighter; then she got up and went into the bedroom, where her parents were sleeping. They frustrated her sometimes, with their insistence that the dry, boring things she was taught in school were important, with the way they wanted her to fit into this dormant, docile society, but right now...she climbed into bed with them and lay between them, just glad they were there.
