strangetrip | [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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Steph gave him a very strange look there, for a moment. He almost asked her what was the matter, but then she'd got her tongue back, and he thought it must not have been such a...

Oh.

OHHHHHH.

"Wait, did you think I meant... Yours and mine?"

"No! No! Of course not. Maybe. For a second. Yours, at least. Um."

She found one of the braids in his hair abruptly fascinating.

"I figured it out. Uncle Vax. Obviously. Because you only teach petty crime to other people's kids."

Well, some people did.

He was really good at braiding.

"Stephanie." He reached to find one of her hands, folding his gloved fingers around it. He didn't try to make her look at him, but he was certainly looking at her. His words were quiet yet resonant in the acoustics of the place. "I...would never ask you to do that for me. I don't have expectations. Just so you know."

Her voice dropped to a near whisper. "I don't know if I even could."

Emotionally, yeah. But physically. It had almost killed her once after all.

"You'll be a great uncle." And he'd be a great dad. Just not with her.

"Yeah," he rasped gentle acknowledgment. Maybe for the former. Or the latter.

Then he leaned to kiss her forehead, sliding his free hand to steady the small of her back. "You'll be a wonderful aunt. We'll spoil them rotten and give them the most obnoxious toys right before we leave them to their parents, you and I."

Maybe it was dumb to be touched by his automatically including her in nibling shenanigans but... she was.

"Toys that make noise. Kazoos, drums, Tickle Me Elmos. Those are the ticket."

"And tons of sugar," he nuzzled her cheek. "That almost sounds like longterm planning, don't you think?"

She closed her eyes, smiling. "It does. Years of it."

And she was so glad to hear it. She'd been afraid that finishing this temple, getting his goddess hotline back, would mean losing him sooner.

He was glad if he could reassure her. He certainly didn't think any less of her at the prospect they would probably never be able to have their own little quarter-elves. And Vax didn't want her to think that whatever happened at the Temple, whatever happened with the Raven Queen, would change his feelings for her.

"I love you," he reminded. And it will be okay.

"I love you."

Someday, Steph would think before she spoke.

"Do you want to move in with me?"

Today was not that day.

He pulled back, and brown eyes widened at her. Then a smile crept across his lips, easily as thieving, before he'd even noticed. "...You want me to? It would mean you'd have to put up with me on a pretty regular basis. I keep odd hours and steal blankets and smell of musty lavender, according to some people."

She laughed, more from relief and a nervous tension that she didn't even realize she'd been holding while waiting the hundreds of milliseconds for his answer.

"I've never lived with a boyfriend before. I dress like a Bat as a truly weird hobby. And I definitely hog the bed." She shrugged, gave him a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I want you to. If you want to."

There was a tiny part of Vax that would be sad to leave his old room, with the mocking mirrored beds and the large double-sink bathing room, for what it had always seemed to represent - the place he'd made in his life that was for his sister, would always be there, should she ever need to come home. But she had another home now, with Percival, and it hurt less than it had at first.

There was a part that remembered the last time he'd shared a room with Keyleth, and how desperately they'd clung to one another in their fresh, green love. He remembered the nights she cried herself to sleep, or those he'd chosen not to come back to her, and recalled vividly he'd made his share of fuck-ups there.

Any room he would share with Stephanie... It would be precious entirely in its own way.

His eyes were bright and warm and sentimental as he studied her face. "I do want to," he told her. "You hog the bed, I'll sleep on the floor, I don't care."

There was something really comforting about the fact that they weren't going to pretend it would be perfect or that living together (holy shit) wouldn't take adjustment.

"Who knows, we may learn to share." She raised up on her toes and kissed him.

"If you want to," he echoed back at her the words she'd said before.

And then he shut up and enjoyed his kiss.

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

Re: Vax and Stephanie

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Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie

Re: Vax and Stephanie