[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."

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.

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."

[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."

[decohere]

There is something uncanny about the man as she studies and sizes him up, but nothing she decides is particularly concerning.

"Ah," Ava shuts the book with a flicker, drifting back to the shelf. The motion is blurred, a composite of herself repeating the action in just slightly a different way, the smallest hesitation before finding that correct spot to put it back. Fingers scanning the spines, one version of her searching left while the other moving down a shelf, looking for the author he found so helpful.

"With the chicks?" she asks, pulling out the book with considerable effort. She's back to one singular instance. Still. But noticeably faded.

[graveling]

"With the chicks. And with Eddie. Do you need help with that? You're...uh." He doesn't have proper words for what she is or isn't right now, honestly. Except, he's quietly pretty sure she isn't dead.

[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?"

[decohere]

Not dead yet, but getting that way. She doesn't want to spend the time she has left moping around about it. She's died enough times now that all there is to do is keep going until she can't.

"No, no. It's fine," she insists, holding onto the book rather tightly so her grip won't slip. "The chicks are quite cute, getting so big. And Eddie was rather nice to show me how to pet them. Are you two...?"

[graveling]

"Are we what?" Angel has the most innocent face a dead man has ever levied at Ava, like he doesn't actually know how that sentence ends.

(Honestly, though, the end of the sentence does matter.)

[pineapplesalmon]

"I did come in pretty quiet." César takes a casual lean against the wall himself. "Quite a few. March sure kept the old mind and heart busy."

[graveling]

"Okay, you're going to need to give me more cues here. Did you come here to stew alone under the watchful eyes of the goddesses or to talk about it with a staff member of the temple?"

...he's very good at the holy part of being a priest, it's the everything else he's still working on, as seen here.

[pineapplesalmon]

César rubs the back of his neck, giving an embarrassed laugh. "I honestly don't know what I want or need. You're not missing any cues, because I don't have a clue myself. It's the first time I've navigated grief."

[decohere]

Ava looks slightly embarrassed! But. Presses two of her fingertips from opposite hands together and makes a tiny little smoochy sound.

[graveling]

"Grief." Angel repeats the word quietly. "Okay. I don't know the 'right' answer, but I have an answer. C'mon, we're visiting Mortanne's altar."

Though he takes a longer route, that allows for him to grab a box of matches and a couple candlesticks and holders.

[graveling]

Angel's smile builds slow and doesn't linger, like his face is too heavy to hold it long.

"Yeah, that, we are."

[pineapplesalmon]

Candles. It's been forever since he's lit one himself. "... Any answer is a start."

He follows quietly, then adds. "Love, too. ... It's why I can even step into the temple."

[decohere]

Ava's a shameless shipper, and if there's one thing she knows about these sorts of interdimensional realm kidnapping situations, it's that people really love to hook up.

"That's sweet. You meet here?" Her fingers brush over the edges of the pages, trying to ease her typical meetingnewpeople nervousness a bit.

[graveling]

“Love is a pretty intense feeling, too. Big. It can make you feel like you’re falling and flying at the same time. But let’s talk about grief, first. See, Mother Mortanne isn’t just the goddess of death, she’s also the goddess of mourning, the comfort to the widow and the orphan.”

Angel sets up the candles, and then hands César the box of matches.

“Because it’s okay to grieve, it’s as holy as it is to live and to die and to grow.”

[graveling]

"We did. It's...yeah. Sort of the first relationship I've been in?" There's a shy sheepishness there, a lack of experience and confidence.

[pineapplesalmon]

César takes the box of matches. He knows what to do with them. Knowing what to do with grief is harder. After what seems like an eternity when it's only a handful of seconds, César opens up the box and pulls out a match, sliding the box back closed.

"It feels like it'll strangle me, sometimes. But only feels. I'm not alone here like I was back home." César says quietly as he strikes the match. "I keep asking myself: can you be an orphan at 28?"

He gently puts down the box and uses his now freed hand to protect the flame as he goes to light the first candle, and then he smiles sadly. "... grief is holy. It's too bad the rest of the multiverse doesn't understand that."