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

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

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!

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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..."

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...

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.

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?"

Corbie spun around, more surprised than she probably should have been. Or perhaps just awkward and a little guilty that she'd gotten so emotional. "No, of course not," she said, blinking the last of her tears away and smiling brightly.

Vax smiled softly back, seeing the wetness to her eyes, but not remarking on it as he came to join her beside the pool. "How's the water?"

Corbie shook her head. "I can't believe you did this." She knew she'd said that she didn't need an alcove, or at least that she didn't want anybody to go to the trouble for her sake.

Which of course didn't directly answer his question, but everything other than her words said the surprise was pleasant and deeply appreciated.

"Pike and Percy and Lillith were more responsible for the shape of the place, really." But there was no sense denying he'd done his bit, or that he'd wanted to help make this shrine for her especially.

"I did one other thing." Vax reached into a hidden pocket in his cloak, producing a black velvet drawstring pouch he'd repurposed from some jewelry in the shop. He offered it over to Corbie.

"I'll be sure to thank them, too." Blinking, Corbie took the bag and opened the drawstring before reaching her fingers in--

And she paused when she felt the cool, smooth texture of wooden beads, a larger one followed by smaller. Carefully, slowly, like she thought she might break it, she pulled the string of beads out of the bag. It wasn't exactly like the one she'd left behind, but it still looked very like her description... "Where did you...?"

Edited 2018-06-27 05:47 (UTC)

"I tried to barter for some beads back on that station in space, but things got sidetracked in a hurry." From what Regina had said about her trading for materials, however, they might not have had wooden beads on offer anyway. "I made them, in the end." A whole lot of whittling and sanding and a bit of druidry to help the shaping along. Vax looked from Corbie to the beads and back again. "Again, they're not exactly perfect, but I hope they're close enough to count."

He was a bit uneasy that maybe he'd overstepped. Maybe it was offensive, to make her coraline the wrong way. Maybe the alcove was an embarrassment of a shrine, wrong enough not to feel right. He couldn't be sure, but he'd wanted to do what he could to make Corbie welcome in the place.

"No, no, they're..." she tried to reassure him, but the words stuck in Corbie's throat, half because of the lump she couldn't swallow and half because she couldn't find the right thing to say. It wasn't like this should be hard, but the wave of emotion that washed over her drowned out the obvious.

Instead after a moment of floundering, she clutched the coraline tight in her fist and threw her arms around his neck. A moment later, she burst into tears.

He thought for a beat with her loss of words and the emotion playing over her face, maybe all he'd accomplished was making her feel very homesick.

But then she flung herself at him, was sobbing even, and he thought it might've gone the other way instead. Vax too was struck briefly speechless, folding arms around her and giving her a gentle squeeze for as long as she seemed to need it.

Having thrown away any pretense at dignity, Corbie didn't try to reclaim it now. She let the storm of sobs happen, and like most of her crying fits it ended almost as quickly as it had begun. She sniffled loudly, swallowed to make sure her throat was done being stupid, and then finally managed a soft, raspy, "Thank you."

"You are most dearly welcome." Vax lifted a bit of his feathered cloak, the lining turning out to be surprisingly soft where he used it as a makeshift handkerchief to blot and smudge her cheeks dry. If soaking up snot and tears wrung from piety wasn't a good use of a paladin's cloak, he didn't know what would be. "It only seemed right for you to have them."

The cloak in that moment reminded Corbie more than a little of Coby's wings, except she usually felt those soft inner feathers against her skin under very different circumstances. "I've known all the prayers and how to say 'em with or without since I was a kid, but it..." She ran her thumb over some of the beads, her exhaled breath bordering on a soft sigh of relief. "It ain't the same."

"No. It wouldn't be, would it?" They weren't such big gestures, in the scheme of things. It wasn't so much to add one more alcove to the Temple. It had taken some practice (nicks on his fingers and a few new callouses) to get the beads to look truly round and less like oblong blobs, and to make the holes for the strand to connect them - but they didn't have so many demands on their time here that it had been difficult. So if she felt at all as he did, about the place feeling more like a home for having a proper place of worship... It would have been well worth a great deal more effort.

"But maybe it's just bit closer to that today."

"Yes," Corbie said, feeling the lump threaten to rise again, though this time she swallowed it down stubbornly. "It did, yes. I don't know how I can ever repay this kindness."

"It's not a debt though," he told her after a beat. Vax could've gone on to say that the whole point of this Temple was being able to worship in their own ways, to take back or make new the faiths that might be harder to observe in this alien place. But she was speaking to what he'd done for her, he thought, so he'd answer in kind. "There's nothing needs repaying. I mean, that's kindness, yeah? You do it for somebody, because you want to. And you've always been kind to the people around you, Corbie. Your heart as gold as your curls."

Edited 2018-07-02 15:21 (UTC)

Corbie knew it wasn't a debt and she opened her mouth to say so, only then she found herself blushing and feeling a little flustered. "Flatterer," she said, pushing up on her toe to kiss his cheek.

Vax just smiled at her, a touch wry and warm and definitely tender. "That doesn't mean it isn't true."

Corbie smiled back, a little shy. "Could I... have some time alone now, please? I'd like to pray."

"Oh. Yes, of course." Vax looked a bit sheepish for his own part as he turned to go, realizing he'd interrupted and then kept her occupied all this while. "Take all the time you need."

In answer, though, Corbie only grinned at him to show that she didn't mind in the slightest. "I'll find you later," she promised, And Pike and Lillith of course.

Then she turned toward the pool and crossed the water into the alcove to pray.

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

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