[OPEN] Inner Glow

[graveling]

Who: Angel and Y'all
What: Springtime shenanigans
When:Anytime between mid-March and the April Event
Where: Various
Warning(s): Mention of minor non-specific injury in first prompt.

1. Got to fill your cup and find the way out of your own maze [Temple]
Whatever one's reason for stopping by the Temple of Sacred Roots, there's a decent chance to find Angel there. Right now, he's doing a lot of cleaning that Degas hasn't had the energy or strength for--dusting high shelves and cabinets, taking down curtains to be washed, doing windows. After all, his beehives are mostly getting situated right now, so he has some extra time to turn to the physical space of the temple.

If you hear singing from where he's working, well. Yes, you absolutely do, but he'll pretend otherwise if called on it.

And perhaps you come on a day where Angel's sustained some minor injury, and there's an unmistakable golden glow as a cut or bruise heals. He does not bleed blood, but on sanctified ground, he bleeds light.


2. Now there's a category for every song [Flowers?]
Angel thought he knew what he planted on the farm, in terms of flowers. But something's popping up, especially near the beehives, that's unfamiliar. Pointed clusters of teal-blue flowers that seem eerily, perfectly bee-sized. It concerns him a little, which is going to lead to Research.

Perhaps you find him in the library, trawling through books about plants. Or if you're known to be a scientist or druidic sort, you're likely to be approached by Angel with a sample in hand. Either way, he's got some funky plants he doesn't yet understand.


3. Don't keep your aching, celebrating, wonder-making heart alone [Wildcard]
Find me on Discord to plot or just throw anything at me!

Comments

flowers

[theydrewfirstblood]

Getting the ranch set up is an ongoing thing. John has everything he needs, but not everything he wants--and he's finding a great deal of comfort in realizing how much of this he remembers.

Simpler times, simpler worries...his only regret is that he doesn't have Sam and Lou around as constantly as he used to in order to enjoy it.

He's heading into town on horseback (he has the carriage but fuck it) when he spots Angel. Pulling up alongside him, John dismounts and wanders over to offer him his hand.

"Hey, man--want a ride? Danforth here's chill as they come." he offers--then spots the cluster of startling blue-green flowers in his hand.

"What's those?"

[graveling]

Calm or not, Danforth can tell there's something Fucking Wrong about Angel, resisting John's instructions to come closer, ears flicking back. He stomps, he huffs. He does not wanna be by this guy.

Angel, for his part, isn't surprised.

"Don't force him into it, that won't end well."

[theydrewfirstblood]

John tugs the reins to try and get Danforth to stop, but he just steps back and snorts again, refusing to go any closer and edging back when John tries to urge him forward.

Huffing, John shrugs and moves closer, reaching up for his head.

"Fine then, ya big baby..."

It's said with fondness as he removes the bridle, keeping a hand on his neck for a second before patting it briskly with a click of his tongue.

"G'won. Scoot."

Seemingly happy to be released from The Horrors, Danforth turns and takes off at a gallop down the road. Turning back to Angel, John gathers up the bridle in hand with a grin and shrugs.

"He knows what he wants and does it. Little fucker likes to escape his stall, too--figured out the latch and goes for walks 'till he's good and ready to come back, so I leave his stall open."

[graveling]

"He seems like a good horse. Don't be mad at him for a bad reaction to me. Animals don't like me." Bobbin had the same issue, the first time John and Angel had met, he might recall. It's just a thing. Angel is used to it, by now.

"You can still walk me into town if you'd like, but it's a pretty solid walk. You don't have to. I'll be okay."

[theydrewfirstblood]

"Ah, I'm not mad at him--I've always liked the willful ones." John admits, shuffling forward a couple of steps to make it clear that he's going precisely nowhere save for on a walk with Angel.

"One of my favorite stallions as a kid was this big sucker--Tall Paul. Bought him a couple years before I graduated high school, Dad couldn't break him. I was makin' some headway before I got drafted. Not sure what happened to him after that."

John falls silent a moment, because he does, in fact, remember Bobbin's refusal to make nice with Angel the day they met. Bobbin is...well, Bobbin, but if this is the way things are for him all the time...

"Must be rough livin' on a farm, if all animals are skittish around you 'cause of the being dead thing." he muses quietly. "Is it all animals? I get prey animals, sorta, but...I'd think predators might be a little too interested in you. Like maybe cats 'n some other birds could get close enough to befriend."

temple, early April, juust before the rains start

[pineapplesalmon]

César visits the temple on his day off. He's quiet and contemplative, and he can hear Angel (?) singing as he walks up to the statue of Mortanne. Yes, that's definitely Angel.

It's nice.

Eventually, he has a break in thought and Angel seems to be switching tasks, and he smiles at him. "Hey, Angel."

[graveling]

"Heya. Here on business, or...?"

Angel cannot blush at the thought that perhaps his singing was heard, but his grip on the broom he's holding and the set of his shoulders communicates defensiveness.

[pineapplesalmon]

"Neither business nor pleasure. Just... taking some time to work through some emotions." César notes the defensiveness, and his smile softens. "Your singing helped."

[graveling]

"Oh. Good, then, I guess. I, uh. Wasn't expecting anyone to be listening right then."

Angel leans on the broom in a way that isn't quite casual, but is trying hard to seem to be.

"Emotions?"

2

[decohere]

Guess who is at the library, curiously flipping through a book about bees in a section nearby?

"But how do you get the honey out..." spoken softly to herself.

[graveling]

"You remove the frames from the honey supers entirely, remove the wax caps on the honey cells, and use a honey extractor to spin the frames until the honey flies out of them into the extractor and can be collected."

He's a bit further into his research on the matter than she is.

"The beeswax from the frames can then be cut off and rendered, before you return them to the honey super and then put those back on the hive."

[decohere]

Oh, she hadn't expected anyone to actually answer, glancing over curiously at the man. "This seems more complicated than I anticipated..." Ava admits, understanding maybe half those terms and even less so in context.

"You got some of your own?"

[graveling]

"Yeah, just got the hives set up. If you see a book by Leomund Donder, that's the one that really made sense of the process for me."

The man is pale. Like, corpse pale. And he's not breathing or blinking. But he seems friendly!

"And if you want to look at my set-up sometime, I'm at Kasprak Farm."

Temple

[iamthepyre]

Dabi hadn't really thought about wandering around town and he definitely hadn't expected to find himself meandering into a church of all places, but here he was. It's peaceful, something Dabi isn't used to but it's nice. Sure there had been plenty of temples back home, he could even remember going to them with his family during new years and various other holidays. But this is different.

With everything he sees what really catches his attention is the singing. It's just another thing that sort of makes this place feel...nice? Look, he doesn't have the right words for shit.

Ducking around to find the source, Dabi purposefully clears his throat. Hey, he remembers you. You're the interesting guy. Instead of saying anything he just gives Angel a small wave when and if the man looks at him.

[graveling]

"Dabi!" Angel doesn't quite startle when Dabi clears his throat, but there is something of a look, a sheepishness at having been heart. "How long have you been there?"

[iamthepyre]

The look doesn't fully go ignored, Dabi's used to people who cover most if not all of their reactions with something else so the hint of sheepishness just gets a smirk in return.

"Not too long, maybe five minutes?" He'll go easy on the guy for now.

[graveling]

"Oh. Sorry I didn't notice. Do you, um. Need anything or have any questions or anything?" He is here to work, after all. To help guide others, and what-not.

Flowers/Library

[batteryacid]

Eddie carries over a few books with little bits of scrap-paper bookmarking several pages. He sets them down on the table that Angel is working at, and says softly, "I found a couple more candidates. Nothing is quite exactly like the flowers that've popped up, but they're similar? Any luck with your books?"

Maybe when Bart comes by for a round of mold collecting, Eddie can enlist him to make a drawing? Might be easier to use as a reference... and less likely to get the librarians scowling. (Real plants, with possible dirt or water on them, held up to illustrated pages? Horrors.)

[graveling]

"Nothing. Which is weird. I mean, maybe it's a seed that somehow came from the cave thing place, but. I'm just worried about what it might do to the honey." Angel pouts. "I'm pretty sure it's not demonic or abyssal in nature, though. For whatever that's worth."

[batteryacid]

"I'd hope that anything demonic or abyssal would get burned up by your healing," Eddie comments. If Angel heals in sacred places, then the light must be sacred, right? "Maybe Mortanne and Celestine put in a good word for us with their sister? Serranai gave First Aid his moss and flowers..."

But First Aid's moss and flowers are identifiable. Which is different from the comfortably bee-proportioned teal flowers that have sprung up at their farm!

"I mean, it couldn't have come along with the newest set of newcomers... they said nothing grew where they were before..."

[graveling]

"I didn't ask Serannai for this. But if she did it, then we know the flowers are good. Right? Right. They'd have to be." But Angel still sounds nervous.

3...

[dynamiteabs]

          It seemed every day Jamison found something new on the island during his patrols, and today was no exception. He wondered why his noble steed was pulling to the left. ❝ Ya' can't have a flat, ❞ he said in annoyance as he attempted to get her back on course. Soon, he saw what she was heading toward—one of the biggest farms he'd seen so far! It was quite the sight.

          Once she got up to the edge of it, Junkrat really put on the brakes. ❝ Listen, ya' can't just go inta' someone's garden like this... ❞ his voice lowered, ❝ when it's still light out. Gonna' get us in trouble. ❞ But she seemed dead set on one of the delicious-looking veggies. So much so that he finally had to hop off the saddle and walk her back to keep her from eating one of them. ❝ Alroight, I'll buy ya' some fresh veg. Hold your... horses, hehe! ❞ Since he couldn't trust her to leave her standing there on her own, he turned toward the house and called out, ❝ ...'ello? Dunno what ya' put in your fertilizer, but your farm is like catnip to me horse. ❞

[graveling]

"Might be she wants to visit our horses, Missy and Cady."

The voice comes from a dude who's checking on a boxy beehive with none of the traditional beekeeper gear. He's keeping a polite distance, though, because a lot of animals don't exactly like Angel, and he's not about to spook a lady while she's being ridden. That's how someone ends up bucked off a horse's back.

"Or it might be our shoots, or the flowers. I'm not feeding her those blue-green flowers, I'm still not sure they're safe for consumption yet."

[dynamiteabs]

          Seeing as Jamison couldn't read his horse very well just yet, it could have been any of those things he mentioned. Those thoughts were interrupted as he noticed this guy wasn't in a beekeeper outfit. It was tame compared to what he'd already witnessed on the island, though, and he nodded in consideration of his suggestions. ❝ Wot's say we let them visit each other while I pay ya' for a little buffet of treats for her? Name's Jamison, by the way... This is a pretty nice farm ya' got here. ❞ At noticing the blue-green flowers, he made a mental to keep away from those.

[graveling]

Angel lets out a sharp whistle, and a dapple gray mare approaches to lead Jamison's horse off to social hour.

"How's she feel about peppers? I've also got some carrots."