[EP] Temple Opening - OTA, Tag Vax or Pike

[st_abby]

It had taken many months, effort from many residents, the summons of an other-planar entity, and even trade negotiations between worlds to raise the Madonna Inn's new temple on an unassuming expanse of grass adjacent to Building 2. It felt more than a bit surreal, to finally walk the finished handmade brick hallways and peer into the room-sized curved-arch alcoves, to be able to reach out and touch the engraved names of those that had departed as mysteriously as anybody arrived in this place. The Temple loomed benignly, profoundly quiet as dawn rose over the newly completed building and brought with it the summer solstice. Vax'ildan and Pike Trickfoot sat together in the common gathering area, chins high with their heads tipped back. They watched a long while in reverent silence as the kindling sunlight began to lighten, then brighten, then beam, gradually filling up the temple with something like grace through the metal mesh and skylight that made the roof.

"It's beautiful," Vax murmured at last, when the whole of the Temple had been poured full of the ambient light. Shapes of brightness and shadow dappled the heights of the walls without causing any kind of painful glare at eye-level. He didn't quite know how Percy and Lillith had done it, but they'd managed some trick of the roof and sub-roofs at exacting angles, neatly fitted panes of black and clear and amber glass making a rather soothing kaleidoscope mosaic on the ceiling overhead. It was an effect quite like sunlight filtered through tree branches, though with an intricate and artful geometric design. Nightfall would be beautiful, too, though in the opposite way - the exterior and interior lighting would set the Temple dramatically aglow, deepening the contrasting shadows. It was a perfect place for private reflection, or to speak to the gods where they might deign to listen.

"Are we supposed to do anything else before it's... You know. Holy, or whatever? Before we can open it properly?" Vax turned to look at Pike, a hint of unease still lingering in his expression. "I'm honestly not sure when it stops being a bunch of stones and becomes a sacred place."

"It has never been just a bunch of stones. Our intent has always been known, and that's what's important. This place has been holy since the day we broke ground," Pike smiled up at him, internally applauding his sense of timing. She'd just reached the end of her spell. For twenty-four hours straight, she'd been casting Hallow to slowly imbuing the land and structure with holy protections and powers. But it wasn't a flashy spell, after the initial incantation and prepping of materials, it had mostly been meditation.

"But I could use your and the Raven Queen's help to finish this spell?" Reaching over, she took one of his hand in hers then held the other one out to her side. Nodding, she encouraged him to do the same. After a heartbeat, though nothing could be seen, she felt Sarenrae take her open hand in a warm grasp. "Ready?"

Vax didn't take her hand straightaway, mostly because he was trying to figure out if she meant for him to take both of her hands or just the one, and he had no bloody idea what she was wanting from him to finish off her spell. He looked quizzically between her palms and his, and decided that one of the hands was definitely for him to take, but the other... Pike's muscles in her far hand had a funny kind of tension to them, very much as if she was grasping something solid, though all Vax could see was a thin shaft of golden light somehow slipped from the ingenious layers above... Oh.

Brown eyes gone a touch wide, he swallowed, black-gloved fingers fitting Pike's smaller hand under his. "Yeah," he agreed with a gentle rasp. He unfolded his other, open palm, glancing at it for a moment and wondering what it was he expected to happen. Telling himself to stop thinking about it. Opening himself to letting it happen, whatever 'it' may be.

Squeezing their joined hand in an attempt to encourage him, Pike took in a deep breath and gathered the last of the energy she needed. Releasing the rush of divine magic, the space filled with a swell of bright golden light that was accompanied by deep inky shadow in equal measure.

With the spell now in full effect, she could almost feel the building vibrating with the new essence. Beaming up at Vax, she couldn't help but smirk, "That was so cool."

"That's... Wow." As the holy energies became less visible, less distinctly tangible, and began to permeate the Temple in a more subtle way, they became a part of the Hallowed halls themselves. And as Vax smiled softly back at Pike, it was with the assurance that just for a moment there, in the casting, even for not having seen any more than the display of light and shadow... He knew he'd felt a cool, strong, gentle grip of slender fingers around his empty hand. "...What's say we go open the doors? This place is meant to be shared, after all."

******

Vax and Pike will each have a top-level. Come have your characters engage them as they explore the new space, find an alcove of particular interest, or just snark cynically at the whole thing if they're so inclined. Feel free to use the Temple as a staging ground for any scenes you like later!

Comments

Vax - OTA

[st_abby]

Vax'ildan couldn't help but feel a bit like a nervous groom on the day of his wedding, dressed in his rune-etched black armor and raven-feather cloak rather than formalwear. Not that he knew what that felt like. Or that he ever would. Or that he wanted to think about Kashaw's marriage to a different 'death deity.' ...Maybe it was a lousy analogy, alright, but he was certainly equal parts excited and anxious. The paths he walked along the open alcoves, around the gathering chamber with the memorial plaques, or outside for a fresh look at the place inevitably led him back to the threshold of the alcove dedicated to the Raven Queen. The deep pit - for what else was a pool when it was dry? - made safe with a large black cover inset seemed to yawn deeper beneath his feet every time he thought about it. But that was for the 'wedding night,' he'd decided, late enough that everybody else would be gone.

Pike had crafted him a stone statue of the Raven Queen, and she presided over the shrine with an uncanny, slightly unsettling presence. It was as if the dark, hollow eyes beneath the porcelain mask of her eerily lovely face were always looking directly at the person in the room no matter where they stood. Her form was that of a tall and slender woman in dramatic robes made of seamless black feathers, with long, flowing black hair. Her face and empty, open hands were all that broke the blackness, and a strand of red silken thread was loosely wound in a line hung between her reaching hands. Her lips were shaped in a neutral, archaic near-smile.

Vax nearly startled himself every time someone walked by, turning on his heel sharply to smile and greet them as if he hadn't just been caught entirely preoccupied. "Oh - hi! So tell me, what d'you think of it all? The Temple?"

Vax & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie by now recognized the Raven Queen from conversations she and Vax had had about their respective faiths, but it was not that lady who drew Corbie's attention.

Her Lady, quite possibly the same goddess as the White-Eyed Lady of Kekropian cults, had aspects of a death deity herself, though one didn't make images of her directly. She was also a goddess of the sea, governing the waves and winds and tides that gave and took away from a sea-faring people. The Lady was bleached and still, never a warm presence, though always a calm one, for better or for worse.

She who dwelled beneath the waves. She who waited behind all things.

Corbie had not been involved in the temple's construction, knowing nothing and less about how to help. So finding the Lady's pale alcove with its labyrinthine and marine imagery surprised her so much that her mouth fell open. "Oh..."

Re: Vax & Corbie

[st_abby]

Vax had taken a certain amount of comfort in the alcove dedicated to the Lady Corbie had spoken of, though it obviously wasn't for him any more than the Raven Queen's shrine was for Corbie. It was... Calm. Soothing. Abiding. He'd done the best he could to make it out to be what Corbie had described in their conversations, though it was bound to be Different to whatever she might expect. He just hoped he hadn't fucked it up so badly as to offend either Corbie or her goddess.

When he saw the bob of those familiar blonde curls headed down the hall to where she was bound to come across the place, he moved to trail stealthily after Corbie until she discovered the alcove with a gasp. That she recognized something in it at all was a good sign.

Vax stilled his breath against the wall, judging the angle right to keep himself entirely out of sight. He wanted to give her a moment to herself before he bounded in and interrupted. Though he was practically dying to ask what she'd make of the ankle-deep pool at the center of the alcove, the mosaic visible at the bottom of the clear, cool water...

Re: Vax & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie slipped out of her shoes and stepped in, curling her toes around the edge of the pool as she looked down at the mosaic under the water.

This was beautiful, and in a way it was hers since there were no other believers in this place. It was not, of course, the same as being in a church or cathedral at home, but she felt a kind of peace inside her that she hadn't felt in a very long time. She had never stopped praying, of course, but it had been so long since she'd really felt her Lady could hear her and was still listening.

She felt tears well up in her eyes and scrubbed them away with the back of her hand.

Re: Vax & Corbie

[st_abby]

A few beats later, apparently done hiding, Vax stood himself in the open doorway of the alcove. "Hullo, Corbie. Would you mind if I came in?"

Vax & Jag

[st_artandstoke]

Jag had never been terribly religious. He believed, yes, but in Romanipen more than with actual faith. He wouldn't walk by a shrine to Sara-la-Kali without making a prayer, touching her dress, and possibly leaving something, but it never truly registered as faith to him. It was tradition, and it was a part of his life. It wasn't as if he'd ever gone to mass, and he'd rarely prayed at all during his time in London.

So he'd been a little surprised by how interested he was in the idea of a temple here, and specifically of setting up a shrine to Sara. It wasn't as if anyone but him would attend it, as far as he knew. But he'd still set to the task, helping with the general construction, and then focusing more particularly on the alcove dedicated to the patron saint of Roma. Em had agreed to paint an icon of Sara for him, and so he'd gone and found her a nice piece of dead, but solid wood, paired it down to a decent size - a bit bigger than A4, he reckoned - and polished it so it would offer her a nice, smooth canvas. Sara cut a colorful figure, dressed in typical Roma clothes, her skin as black as her name. She was on the sea shore, the sand golden beneath her bare feet, a light wind playing with the scarf she wore over her hair. Jag could nearly imagine the slight jingle of the golden coins decorating the scarf.

The icon was perfect, really. He'd set it up on a smooth wooden altar, and placed three candles at the front and to either side of the altar. He lit them now with a thought, and kissed his fingertips before touching them to the hem of the painted figure's dress. He didn't have much for Sara, but he'd brought her a bright pink handkerchief he'd grabbed from the hotel's boutique, along with a Californian poppy he'd plucked on the grounds, laying the two offerings beside her icon. He murmured a short prayer, thought of the people he loved, of the people he missed, and then walked out of the alcove, killing the candles' flames with a thought. The idea wasn't to accidentally burn down the shrine.

He found Vax right outside the temple and gave him a nod and a small smile of greeting. "Tell me you haven't been standing here all day," he said, amused, as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

Re: Vax & Jag

[st_abby]

"What? No, of course not. Some of the time I've been sitting, or walking, lurking or loitering." Admittedly, Vax didn't much know Jag yet, other than him being the dark-haired scruffy fellow Emma seemed to like. (And if anything rang familiar about a suspect dark-haired fellow mooning over a gorgeous redhead, he'd long since told himself to Stop Noticing.) But he'd been keen to build his own shrine in the Temple space from early on, and since then Vax had been terribly interested in who this Yag-with-a-J person was and about the lady he prayed to. But they'd all of them been busy with their own pieces/parts of the Temple, and he hadn't wanted to make it out like he would judge or pry what could very well be sensitive as well as sacred to someone living here. But he was damned curious.

Vax quirked his eyebrows at the cigarette - Mac used to smoke them, so he knew exactly what it was. "And you've brought incense as well," he quipped lightly. "You really went all-out for your patron."

Re: Vax & Jag

[st_artandstoke]

Jag huffed out a chuckle, and wordlessly offered the open pack out to Vax, in case he wanted to help himself to one. In the meantime, he lit the cigarette he'd placed between his lips with a thought, and took a drag, holding the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds, and offering it to Sara (just in case!), before blowing it out to the side.

"Not sure how she feels about cigarettes, honestly," Jag answered with a small smile. "But now I'm thinking maybe I should've left her one."

Re: Vax & Jag

[st_abby]

Vax held up the flat of his hand in the cross-cultural hand sign for thanks, no thanks at the offer of a cigarette - it seemed like a waste on him, when he'd never bothered to develop a taste for it.

"I noticed you took some things in with you already. Are you supposed to make particular kinds of offerings to her?"

Vax & Peter

[st_arkintern]

Peter had come more out of curiosity than anything. His parents were never religious, and neither were May or Ben, so by proxy, he wasn't either. That didn't stop him from venturing into the building when it was complete, though.

Peter is still taking in the sight of it all when Vax approaches him. Peter offers him a smile.

"It's nice -- It's really nice," Peter says, because it is. "You guys did a really great job with it."

Re: Vax & Peter

[st_abby]

"It's nothing too grand," Vax suggested, turning to greet Peter with a quirk of his lips in kind. In Tal'Dorei, enormous, flashy temples were a way of showing off without looking snobbish and of getting respect if one could afford it. Pious cities tended to pride themselves on them.

But their relatively modest, communal worship space didn't bother Vax - he was really very proud. It was a huge improvement on the wardrobe in his room for the Raven Queen for one, and it seemed fitting given how they were all tossed in together at the Inn. "But it was a labor of love, you know? It mattered to people enough to pitch in and get it built all by ourselves, a bunch of people who hardly knew which end of a trowel to use, and for what. Even non-believers. I'd say that's something special." No, he hadn't forgotten that Peter had helped, and his knowing look said as much. Not in the least. "We did a great job here."

Re: Vax & Peter

[st_arkintern]

"Just because it's grand doesn't mean it's not great," Peter says. He really thinks that. Plenty of simple things were great. Their simplicity was part of what made them great.

Peter is still looking around when he opens his mouth again.

"I've never really been in a church or a temple before. There's just -- " Peter redirects his attention back to Vax. "-- there's a lot. I mean, I saw them on TV and movies, but it's different when you're actually standing in one."

Which leads Peter to a question.

"What god do you worship?"

Vax/Scanlan

[st_illsinging]

"I mean, some of the staff is pretty fantastic, but there's this one paladin...." Scanlan slid his gaze to Vax teasingly, then grinned. "It's no Greyskull Keep, but it's nice."

His eyes momentarily move to the Raven Queen area and for a moment there's a complex expression, something of guilt and hate, but also reverence nonetheless. Then he turned back to Vax. "Glad it's done now?"

Re: Vax/Scanlan

[st_abby]

"I would have taken you for a cleric kind of man," Vax suggested in return, though he waggled his eyebrows playfully back.

There was something weird, though, in the way Scanlan's eyes moved to make out the shrine to the Raven Queen beyond him. Not just looking, but more intense, almost... Squinting? Glaring? Swallowing a frog? Vax couldn't quite tell what it was, but he knew he'd missed something by the time Scanlan looked back at him. "Hey, is everything...okay, with you? You just got the queerest look on your face." Not that he thought Scanlan would tell him necessarily, if something was amiss.

Re: Vax/Scanlan

[st_illsinging]

You're going to die and I can't save you.

"Do you think your Queen can see and hear you in this realm? Can you feel her?" Which didn't answer Vax's question at all. Sorry Vax.

Vax and Stephanie

[st_upidgravity]

Stephanie stood with her hands clasped in front of her, looking up at the statue of the Raven Queen. "This is incredible, Vax. It really is."

She had lit a candle when she came in, taken a moment to remember the people she'd left behind. She'd never been religious, still wasn't. But it had felt right.

Re: Vax and Stephanie

[st_abby]

Vax studied her profile for some moments, stealing a glance as she observed the statue. "It all came together eventually," he agreed, though he still looked at her.

Then he moved behind Steph, to fold arms around her waist and rest his chin on her shoulder. Maybe as a reminder that he might be in the Raven Queen's service, but that was a long way from being a celibate monk. He also glanced up at the statue. "Though I know this isn't your scene really." She'd come all the same, both to help and to see it finished. Stay a while, his arms asked her, even for understanding the reasons she probably wouldn't visit the Temple very often.

Re: Vax and Stephanie

[st_upidgravity]

She tilted her head, kissed his cheek, and relaxed back into his embrace. "It's not," she agreed, but nothing about her suggested that she was uncomfortable. He was here. He belonged here. That was reason enough to figure out how to fit. This was hardly the first time she'd been wildly out of place in a boyfriend's world.

"It feels welcoming." The temple did anyway. She wasn't sure that the Raven Queen herself would. How did a goddess of death feel about someone who had cheated it? "Will you spend a lot of time here?"

Re: Vax - OTA

[st_ubby]

Vex had dithered longer than usual getting ready for the temple opening. People had worked so hard on the temple. Her brother, she knew, had always been more comfortable in the shadows, and would probably gladly leave the spotlight to Pike and Sarenrae, but Vex wasn't going to forget how important building the temple was to him, all the work he had done. In the end, she decided to wear the white Vorugal armor, contrast to the Deathwalker's Ward he'd earned saving her life and devoting his to the Raven Queen.

Once in the temple itself, she'd watched her brother as much as she'd explored the finished space, glimpsing at altar and alcoves devoted to gods, both familiar and not. So far she'd skirted only one, an alcove where the carefully placed glass caught the sunlight, directing it onto a brazier decorated with a sun of polished metals, gold, brass, and copper. She tried not to think of it, and her brother's voice, coming too quick, covered his distraction and her own.

She slipped an arm around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. "You've done a wonderful job, brother."

Re: Vax - OTA

[st_abby]

"I have no skills as a planner or builder or a shepherd of any faith," Vax reminded her, smiling a bit even so. "What I'm good at is feeling strongly about something and then diving into it head first." That was his real contribution, more than anything - infecting others with enthusiasm for the project and refusing to let go of the idea until it was done.

"...You can go inside, you know," he reminded her when he saw which alcove it was she'd been staring into.

Vax & Vex

[st_ubby]

"Go inside, have a little chat with your Raven Queen?" she asked, deliberately misunderstanding him. It hadn't escaped her notice that Pelor's space was directly opposite the Raven Queen's, or that her brother had been hovering at the threshold of that alcove every bit as obviously as she'd been shying from Pelor's.

"This place wouldn't exist without you. None of it. It's good. And as far as diving in head first, building a temple was far less dangerous than some of the ideas you've felt strongly about." Standing up on tip toe, she kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

Pike - OTA

[st_ealthless]

Not only were they opening the temple, but the summer solstice was also Pike Trickfoot's absolute favorite day. It was the closest thing the followers of Sarenrae had to a holy day but it wasn't marked by celebrations or feasts in her name, no parades through the streets or tournaments. Those were for Pelor's followers, who also honored the longest day of the year. No, for the devout of the Everlight, the solstice was most often spent honor their lady is more subtle (but no less profound) ways. This year, that happened to mean helping open a temple for everyone.

Sarenrae's alcove was filled with rays of sunlight that danced through colored panes of glass and over the large stone statue at it's center. Warmth radiated from her beautiful bronze-skinned face, her wings outstretched and flowing golden hair composed of flame. One of her outstretched hands appeared to glow with a holy light, while the other held a scimitar emblazoned with radiant fire.

After being awake for 24 hours casting the Hallow spell, the only thing Pike Trickfoot should want to do was sleep...but nothing was farther from the truth. She was practically bouncing with energy. She'd stationed herself just outside of the Sarenrae alcove but was ready to talk to anyone who might have questions. "Hello and welcome! Let me know if you're looking for something in particular."

Pike/Scanlan

[st_illsinging]

"I was looking for you, does that count?" He smiled to her as he looked around. "This looks amazing. You did a good." He had seen the end of its construction, sure, but seeing it truly completed and with Pike inside looking tired, but radiant nonetheless was breath-taking.

Re: Pike/Scanlan

[st_ealthless]

"Well, you found me," she laughed, looking down to cover the touch of a blush she could feel rising to her cheeks. "Thank you, but Vax really took the lead on the whole project. It's nice to have a space that honors so many different faiths."

"Speaking of, come with me..." Taking his hand, she pulled him to the next alcove over which was lined with bookshelves. The Inn had started filling the shelves, but they were still only half full. There was even a stack of blank sheet music on one. "I think this is for you."

Re: Pike/Scanlan

[st_illsinging]

He looked at it, then looked at her. "What do you mean?"