Wipe off that paint! I hate you.

[butterflydreaming]

For those who've seen Neon Genesis Evangelion or read Connie Willis's Bellwether but haven't read "Pippa Passes":

Sebald
I kiss you now, dear Ottima, now and now!
This way? Will you forgive me—be once more
My great queen?


Ottima
Bind it thrice about my brow;
Crown me your queen, your spirit's arbitress,
Magnificent in sin. Say that!


Sebald


I crown you
My great white queen, my spirit's arbitress,
Magnificent . . .


[From without is heard the voice of Pippa, singing—


The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in his heaven—
All's right with the world!


[Pippa passes]

Sebald
God's in his heaven! Do you hear that? Who spoke?
You, you spoke!


Ottima
Oh—that little ragged girl!
She must have rested on the step: we give them
But this one holiday the whole year round.
Did you ever see our silk-mills—their inside?
There are ten silk-mills now belong to you.
She stoops to pick my double heartsease . . . Sh!
She does not hear: call you out louder!


Sebald
Leave me!
Go, get your clothes on—dress those shoulders!


Ottima
Sebald?


Sebald
Wipe off that paint! I hate you.