ph_logs | The Temple of Sacred Roots

The Temple of Sacred Roots

In Reverence of the Goddesses

Tucked into a once-verdant park near the heart of the village is the Temple of the Sacred Roots of Our Four Earthly Mothers. The wooden building is cobbled together, seemingly added onto over the years in an organic way as additional stories were added on. Its walls are of dark wood, with steep steepled roofs and large stained glass windows. Most of the windows are vibrant bits of stained glass, often depicting symbols of nature related to each of the Four Mothers.

There are smaller rooms for individual worship or a quiet spot to meditate and even a small library, but the main hall is a circular open room where worshippers come to hear the good word together. They sit in a mishmash of chairs or pillows laid on the floor, or even a large root or stone, all circled around a pulpit and a singular chair in the center, although the pulpit appears to be a bit dusty from disuse. The tree that forms the heart of this building only grows within the confines of its walls, intertwined into the interior’s architecture. The only other room of note is the large kitchen just behind this hall. There many meals have been cooked to share among the faithful. Even if these meals are meager now, the villagers scrape together what they can in an effort to make sure no one goes hungry.

Services are held on Saturday evenings, Sunday mornings, and Wednesday evenings for the down-to-earth faithful. Attendance is highly encouraged - meals are often served! - and the bonds of fellowship must be kindled on a regular basis. However, Degas is often at the Temple either studying for his next sermon or reading one of the many books found in the library.

Use this post to RP threads that take place at or in relation to the Temple of Sacred Roots! More details on the organization and its workings can be found under the drop-downs.

Membership

Point of Contact
Reverend Degas Clayton

Joining
There is no initiation process when you first arrive. You are invited to attend service at any time and the moment you enter the building you become family. However, should you stray from the path of the Mothers, returning to the fold will require some atonement in the form of offerings and prayer.

Benefits
Most of the flock are welcoming, providing you show some effort in helping others as you have been helped. They are the friendliest bunch and often have simple meals prepared for evening services, as well as offering support and compassion to those afflicted by the evils that batter the village.

Drawbacks
The group as a whole seem content to wait for some mysterious event in the future that will surely save their village from ultimate destruction, and are stuck in their ways. Change comes rarely, if at all, nor do they take kindly to their beliefs being called into question. Being ostracized by this group means a cold shoulder from most of the village long afterwards.

Sermons

Degas likes to keep these more down to earth than the previous preacher, especially since he’s not especially trained in such matters. He will share news of a fellow villager’s death so that the others can keep a lookout for them upon their return. He organizes community projects to try and bolster flagging morale and to continue the teachings of the Temples through these simple deeds. Otherwise he just tries to offer words of comfort and encourage fellow Tempe go-ers to keep the faith. They just have to hold out for a sign that the tides will turn in their favor once more.

The arrival of newcomers is met with equal amounts of relief and wariness, unsure if this is a sign or a test. While Degas offers to help new arrivals and invites them to Temple functions openly he won’t take kindly to anyone trying to question held beliefs. Not enough to run them out of town like Elsie and her mother, but a socially cold shoulder on a tiny island isn’t ideal either. That would be about the extent of anything malicious on Degas’s part. He’s not into scheming, just hoping that change finally comes and their salvation is finally brought to fruition.

There is no tithing in the temple. The building was built by the community over the years and they tend to it, donating their time to its upkeep. Prayer or meditation is a part of the sermons as well, worshippers often lay a hand on the person closest to them, forming an interconnected web of touch that mimics tree branches or roots. Or they lift a hand up, palm facing upwards, as a new sprouted plant might push its way out of the dirt. Prayers are muttered, never shouted, creating a wind-like sound as the murmurs are offered up to the Goddesses. There’s songs sung, often accompanied by rhythmic clapping or stomping, or additional voices adding to the cacophony. Instruments are of the handheld variety (hurdy gurdy, fiddle, pan flute), there’s no pianos or organs to be found in the Temple.

Philosophy & Teachings

The Temple espouses the bonds of fellowship above all else, save for the reverence paid to the Four Mothers. It's beliefs are steeped in the hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who first came to the island, weaving together the fabric of this new society from nothing more than a precious seedling. While its traditions are humble those who hold them dear also hold them close..

It is generally considered sacrilege to depict the goddesses in art with their faces showing, and most art of them will tactfully cover their faces with things like Serannai's mask, Kora's hat, a cloud in front of Celestine's face, or a mourning veil for Mortanne. As it is believed to be disrespectful to presume their facial features.

And while prayer in temples is perfectly fine, it's believed that it is more effective to go to the goddesses where they live--- the forest for Serannai, the beach for Kora, mountains or hearths for Celestine, and graveyards or anywhere snowy for Mortanne. However recent events makes this extremely difficult.

There’s a rock, the tree roots, a bowl of sand, and an old gravestone in the temple for substitutes, although they are poor ones.

The Goddesses

Serranai is the goddess of Spring and the Earth. She is depicted as a satyr who wears a deer skull mask and firey red hair. She can be somewhat mischievous and playful, but can also be a fierce warrior if needed, and is an exceptional archer. She also views the Earth as her canvas and flowers her paints, and any particularly beautiful nature scenes or flower beds are often described as "Serranai's art."

Kora is the goddess of Summer and the Sea. She is depicted as a pirate queen of sorts, a sailor and adventurer with a golden cutlass, olive skin, and long raven hair. She is often seen wearing jewelry made from fish bones, sea glass, and sapphires. It is sometimes believed that sailors who get lost at sea have joined Kora's crew.

Celestine is the goddess of Autumn and the Sky. She is depicted with very very dark skin and cloud-like coily hair that is pale golden like morning sunlight and iridescent. Her dark black eyes are said to be full of stars and she wears an intricate silver gown with a delicately embroidered starmap. She keeps rain, sunshine, snow, and wind in glass bottles on her shelves and will sprinkle them down onto the earth from her home in the clouds.

Mortanne is the goddess of Winter and the Beyond. She is depicted as very pale with long white hair who always appears as the same age or just slightly older than the person she is speaking to at the time of their death. She drives a black funeral carriage drawn by white ghostly horses, and will drive the spirits of the dead to their afterlife while talking to her passenger, asking them questions about their life and prompting them to reflect and take one last opportunity to learn and grow. It is said that the moment you fully understand what kind of life you have lived and what sort of afterlife you have earned is when the carriage will arrive at its destination.

The Building

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Bart's fingers curl back somewhat at the contact, though privately he marvels once more at how warm the man is even in that brief touch. His brow furrows at the comment, quietly replying, "but Touya isn't dead. Or...maybe he is in that one, but here, you're alive. For whatever it might be worth, you are."

It's easier for him to say that, than to think about how he should answer Dabi's question. "It's a bit complicated...multiple factors, multiple people. The only common denominator is me."

"Hn, sometimes it's hard to convince myself of that." He brushes it aside in favor for listening to Bart and his brows furrow. He frowns this time.

"Just because you are the common denominator doesn't always mean you are the one at fault." He has to bite back the flare of anger in his gut. It reminds him of the League, reminds him of Magne and Twice and Toga, how they were treated at the hands of others just because of who they were or how their powers worked. He doesn't even notice when he starts to heat up, but a small yip from Natsu has him brought back into the moment and he breathes.

"sometimes life hands us a shitty hand and all we can do is fight it. In our own ways."

Bart winces at the heat radiating off of Dabi next to him, knowing anger when he hears it, and marveling privately at being able to literally physically feel it too. Natsu's response to it has him lowering his hands, in case he should need to go back to his owner instead.

"I'm not much of a fighter, unfortunately. I adapt and overcome, go along to get along..." He's a doormat.

"Have you ever said no to someone in your entire life?" Dabi sort of marvels at how even with the wince, Bart doesn't pull away or try distance himself from Dabi.

Touya.

Bart doesn't see him as Dabi, probably doesn't even really know that name. He knows him as Touya. Some weird combination of his past and present self. It's easier to be more like his old self with Bart. Weirdly enough.

"That has to be frustrating, don't you ever just get tired of it?"

"Yes, but...well. I never expect to be listened to, especially these days," he admits. "People will take me seriously or they won't, the only thing that really matters to me is that one way or another I can still help them. I don't need much more than knowing that I did the right thing."

Bart is very aware of the arm still settled behind his shoulders, Dabi's presence so close to him a little bit overwhelming, but not necessarily in a bad way. He's a lot, the way that some of his peers were a lot, before he was removed from group education settings.

Bart's lip pulls in between his teeth briefly, and he nods almost imperceptibly. "I am. I'm tired of being blown off, or used, or betrayed. I just want to work in peace. I want to be able to have friends and trust people."

Even Dabi was guilty of it, not listening to Bart when he should have, but he did now. Limited himself after the incident in the forest. Still this felt different, Bart is smart why wouldn't people take him seriously? Because of his age? Probably, Dabi had seen it enough growing up.

When Bart agrees that he's frustrated it gives Dabi an idea.

"That makes sense, who wouldn't be." He nods a bit and shifts how he's sitting so that he's facing Bart, moving his arm away but not completely out of Bart's bubble. "Have you ever tried screaming your frustrations out? It's pretty helpful. You could go out to the woods where no one can hear you, and just scream as much as you want. Scream, yell, curse. What ever you want."

Bart wouldn't say anything about Touya not listening to him or taking his advice seriously. Obviously he wouldn't be the first or the last, and Bart is tired. He's so tired. The admission on his part was just that, just a tacit admission that he knew it was a thing that was happening to him. He wasn't that socially inept.

That's why it actively throws him off when Touya is understanding, and more than that, that he wants to help him in a more tangible way than just offering comforting words and reassurances that won't amount to much beyond that. Even so, Bart is hesitant. "No...screaming doesn't seem like a particularly comforting thing to do. I can see where there would be catharsis in it for some but...but I don't know. Besides, there are things out there in the forest that wouldn't particularly appreciate someone going out there and screaming anyway." It might attract the wrong attention.

He might get killed again.

At least Dabi has seemed to learn his lesson. He's not going to be out doing anything like that any more. Small fires, little things if he needs them at all or at least to let off some of the heat. Nothing as bombastic as in the past and certainly no "stamina" training until he's got most of the scarring under control. And maybe figures out a way to counter act the heat...that isn't the fox around his shoulders that could get hurt.

"Hm...yeah I guess you're right." Frustrating, because unlike Bart that was one of his more preferred ways of releasing frustrations when he couldn't just burn down shit.

"Okay then, what do you do to relax? Maybe you should just take time to yourself. Tell them you need an...I don't know...leave of absence? Sort of like what Cesar had to deal with. Come hang out on his farm, you can meet Torisashi and the gang." Yes, Bart, he named the chicken that. "I think he's got some cows too...and you can talk to him about that project you mentioned."

He's trying.

Dabi is more apt to communicate with him and come to physically keep his company, he's noticed. The only people he sees more often outside of work are Anzu and his partner, and even then they still have full lives of their own and not much time for him and his dalliances. The same is true of everyone, and he wouldn't begrudge them that. He's just lonely. That's all he can tell himself.

"Erm...I write, and create diagrams. Sometimes I tinker. I've tried to put down everything that I can remember about the natural environments that I've encountered over my life. It's harder, without the neural weave helping me retain it all, but it's been an interesting exercise to get it all down on paper.

"It... doesn't sound particularly relaxing, putting it like that, but I promise that it's relaxing to me!"

"I mean whatever is relaxing to you who cares if others don't think it is. I find lighting shit on fire relaxing," He leans in with a mock whisper and a bit of a grin. "Most just call that arson though."

He's mostly joking, mostly.

"But I'm serious. Take time to yourself, go out and do more of your research or animal watching or whatever. Write your papers. Fuck everyone else, it's not like you're the only one working at that clinic right? Let them take the load for now." It's just a testimate to his own life how easily Dabi thinks that telling people to fuck off can be. That being said, the people he cares about...that would be harder and for the most part he doesn't think he could. Not with how lonely he has been.

Bart can't help a laugh at that. He really wasn't ready for Touya to be charming and yet, here they are...

"I wish I could go," he admits quietly, his smile softening and fading away once more. "I don't have the equipment here that I might have used to keep myself out of harm's way, the technology just doesn't exist... Taking others out there with me defeats the purpose of going on these excursions alone and has proven to be rather hazardous, as well. I don't know what to do. I'm not much of a fighter, and I wouldn't dare try to hurt any of the wildlife just to keep them from behaving naturally. It's more complicated than just telling someone to leave me to it."

"Hey if it's relaxing to you that's what matters. Like I said I sometimes like lighting stuff up...I was only half kidding about that." He chuckled a bit before shaking his head. Fire was fascinating to some extent and his own blue flames didn't remind him too much of his fathers or his brothers, though sometimes it did remind him of a certain night on a mountain. Something he tried to ignore.

Though he doesn't have much time to dwell on that because something Bart says catches his attention as he frowns, confused. "What's a neural weave?"

The way Touya speaks about his fire, Bart almost lifts a hand to make him extinguish it before he even thinks about lighting his hand up. No frivolous use of his power until they've gotten the damage under control, he would insist. But thankfully, it doesn't seem necessary as Touya catches on to his other comment. He looks a touch ashamed.

"It's... complicated. Let me preface by saying, I wasn't exactly made like a lot of people are. With normal biological processes, I mean. My erm. My creation was hand-tailored. Father...he wanted a satisfactory heir. He gave up going through the...ehm. Usual channels. Instead he picked my genes, and then my education, and then implants that would allow me to excel in my education. That included a chip and an anchoring weave for it in my brain. When I got here it...I don't know. It went inert. I can't remember nearly as much anymore. It's why I write down everything I learn, so that I won't forget it now that I can."

Throughout the explanation, Bart has been looking down at his hands as his fingers slowly knit together, reddened knuckles twisting around each other. He has no idea how horrific this is going to be to the man beside him.

"Huh, something I can understand in a way. I'm just one of the cast offs. If my old man had access to that tech..." He didn't even want to think about what the kid would be like. Other than Shoto...but probably different. But then, here Bart was, a product of that very process and...he wasn't so bad.

Still he decides for now not to dwell on that and instead choses to tease the other man a little, playfully. "Welcome to a common mans brain. Just be glad it's not as bad as some peoples. I have -had- a friend who had a hard time remembering things...he also had a..." Touya isn't sure how to describe Twice without it sounding bad. "A split sense of self I guess? It's hard to explain. When you'd ask him a question he'd answer with two totally different responses. Or he'd tell you you're lookin' good in teh same breath as telling you you look like shit."

There's a warm laugh, a fond sort of sound thinking about Twice. Jin had been one of the best of them, someone who hadn't deserved the death he had been dealt. Glancing over he sees the way Bart is gripping his own hands and reaches out with one overly warm hand of his own to place over them. "Hey, you okay?"

It hurts to hear that Touya is on the other side of the same awful situation. He can only imagine how his own half-siblings must feel. How they almost certainly resent him.

The joke about having a "common man's brain" does at least prompt a soft smile, though a bit uncomfortable. He doesn't know how "common" it could be considered, thanks to the meddling in his creation, but he would take it for what it is.

Touya's good at prodding him out of those kinds of anxious spirals, he's finding. He looks back up at the hand coming to lay over his, then at the man it belongs to. His eyes focus on Touya's face then, and he offers a small nod, though his brows knit at the information about Twice.

"Oh, goodness, that sounds like severe Bipolar and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Even if he did have medication available to him to help control it, I think having the support of your group would have done wonders for helping to keep him from a self-destructive spiral," he muses. Slowly, carefully, he draws one hand out from under the too-warm one and rests his own lightly over the back of it, fingers resting light against his knuckles. "I...don't know yet. But I'm trying."

"Yeah it...it was caused by some trauma in his past." Touya shrugged. "It was better for him when he was with Toga and he had his mask."

Looking down at their hands Touya can't help but marvel at someone who wasn't Magne or even his family, willingly touching him so gently. He was sure the man would have pulled away from him but Bart's hands are cool against his own and there's a small smile that threatens to pull at Touya's lips before he has to shake his head.

"Well I guess that's all anyone can ask, right? That you're trying I mean."

"Such things do often trigger some underlying mental illness into becoming full blown psychoses," Bart replies with a soft frown. "I can imagine that having someone reliable and a physical comfort object helped him immensely.

His hands are quickly warming up under Touya's, the heat he radiates readily absorbed.

"I suppose so. I just hope that I don't run out of energy to keep trying..."

"It did," Nodding Touya moved to remove his hand, know that the heat could be uncomfortable for most. "I just wish things had gone differently for him."

"As for your energy, just let me know when you're getting low. I'll give you some of mine." It's more teasing than anything. "I sure as fuck have extra now that I'm not allowed to use my quirk."

That's...that's not how that works but it's useful to tease like that if nothing else.

"It seems to me like all of you really deserved better," Bart sighs, letting Touya take his hands back and folding his own in his lap once more. He pulls a face at Touya's joke.

"You're on thin ice, sir. Though I'm sure you could just evaporate your way out of it and get away scott free," he quips in return. "Don't worry, I'll try to find a way to help mitigate the burning. Something to help you regulate your internal temperature a bit better. It'll take time without my old equipment and facilities, but I am nothing if not very resourceful."

Touya just grins back, laughing at the exchange of witt.

"Hey, I've been behaving more recently. Natsu's been helping a lot so...there's that." To think had he been helped when he was younger who knows what sort of support items could have been made for him. After all, Enji had a lot of money and at the time he was the number 2 pro hero.

But no.

Touya had been too stubborn.

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The Temple of Sacred Roots

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