open post.

[tinylittleonion]

*sitting on the porch beside a lilac bush, legs hanging over the edge and face in the sunlight, Alyosha patiently ties a prayer rope; each step of each knot contains the shape of the cross, and though the work is painstakingly complicated (and his hair has gotten curly and thick since he cut it last, falling too often into his eyes), it puts him at

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[tomboy_22]

You can always count on Anita to show up where there's an Alyosha.

She'll just pad silently and sit by him, laying her furry head under her front legs, purring.

[tinylittleonion]

Alyosha will reach to touch her head and stroke her ears with a hand not tangled up in string, and pass her a soft, contented smile before returning to his work.

[tomboy_22]

She'll be content to give him silent companionship for a bit, purring excepted, but she'll eventually break the silence.

"How are you, Alex? It's good to see you."

[tinylittleonion]

"Thankful," he says, honest and laughing, "and it's good to see you, too, of course ... how are you?"

[dionysos_evios]

Dionysos will kneel beside Alyosha and brush his hair back, the better to look into his eyes. "What are you making?" he asks, all innocent wonder (for all his smile is knowing).

[tinylittleonion]

"A chokti," he answers with a smile, as though it is no trouble to answer him, as though they have been talking like this all the while. "It will be loop of knots like these, joined together in a cross ... perhaps there will be a fine tassel, too, and beautiful beads. We use the chokti in our secret prayers, and also as a reminder, that we might pray unceasingly ..."

[dionysos_evios]

"Your god sees you making it, and knows that you make it from love. He blesses you for it." He kisses Alyosha's brow, then sprawls on the grass. The bare parts of his skin are goose-pimpled with the slight chill in the air.

[tinylittleonion]

"He does -- He does." He can't help but laugh, delicately pulling a loop through his fingers. "You are so wise. It's a wonderful wisdom ... not just in your mind, but even in your limbs ... is it strange to say it like that? That you are wise even in your limbs."

[fair_hero]

Hero is out with her baby again, during some free time off from waiting on Morgause. She has discerned, through special Hero powers that allow her to know what a baby as taciturn as Leonato is thinking, that he likes it outside at the time of day, when there's some warm piece of sunshine to sit in. The porch is the perfect place.

[tinylittleonion]

Alyosha finishes a knot with a prayer of thanks, and looks up, parting the hair from his eyes -- he sees Hero and Leonato, and he smiles. He recognizes that quiet, serious child, and he recognizes her, too, from her manner. "I know you -- you lent a white dress to me."

[fair_hero]

She smiles back, brightening with pleasure. "O, my lord! Wast you?"

[tinylittleonion]

He laughs happily. "It was, it was. Of course I must look quite different now."

[john_ofdarkness]

*stands older him, arms folded* Making a friendship bracelet, are you?

[tinylittleonion]

*the typist will take a moment to appreciate what can only be a freudian slip; Alyosha looks up and laughs with fondness* A chotki. Come, sit with me.

[john_ofdarkness]

*... heee. typistfail!* Chotki, hmm? Indian, isn't it? *he is thinking, in fact, of chakras--but he does sit with Alyosha, a decent distance away, arms around his knees*

[tinylittleonion]

It's Russian -- our monks are given them, when they become monks, with a blessing and the injunction to "pray without ceasing" ... and of course, there are devout men who aren't monks who have them, too. The knots are used to count prayers and to focus on them, when we are at any time moved to pray. *is in the middle of a knot, now, with an impressive amount of string wrapped around and crossed between his fingers*