Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Trip to the Churchground [closed]

Illiandi listens to Ikarus and nods, saying, "Depending on a lot of things I might keep that in mind, Ikarus." Fenris' availability, the cost of it, the continued receptiveness here - such as it was. It might be worth sending a carpenter over.

"Thank you for your assstance, Toby. I'd like to talk with you tomorrow about wether we may pull supplies in from the town." Thinking he mght need to deliberate that with his sister, he doesn't push for any answer now, as he had before with 'can we do any work at all'.

"And sleep is a good idea, Haku," he agrees. Gathering up what he can, and letting Haku gater Ikarus if needed. In the guest area, Landi takes some time to inspect the bedding as he does in ANY hotel or hostel, taking care in his special way of any fleas, lice, or bedbugs if found. The cots are rearranged, so that Ikarus has two to sprawl across, and Landi and Haku share three. It was lumpy, but passable, and Landi is the last to wake in the morning, muzzlily dressing in civlian clothes and using their own spoon to share out breakfast among his party. The armored boots, however, stay on, along with the fingerless gloves.

Meeting in the morning, first with his own people, he explains, "Today I'll mostly concentrating on getting the grass up. There's some here to work with; I think that if I grow and cull a few faux seasons, I can at least build a population of grass just around the church. Should be enough for the horse's belly and to keep some water. We're going to need lime from town, for to make some whitewash. I'll need a shovel to prepare them a second outhouse. And Ikarus, I need you to check out the roof, if you can. If it's rotty and the bell is still up there, we'll have to take it down." That at least gave the three of them separate things to do, though each might need help at some point. He spares a moment to touch Haku's back gently, looking up to him as if for confirmation that this was all okay.

Toby started to answer Ikarus's question, as to whether or not he might be permitted to spend the night in the prayer room, beneath the stained glass windows. Toby was about to tell the man that neither sibling would have a problem with it, but his traveling companion, Haku, had told him otherwise before Toby could get the words out. Perhaps it was for the best anyway, who knew what guests the morning would bring, or if they would be safe.

Toby would show then to the large room that held the guest cots for them, five lay inside, already made up. They would find that the linens were clean, and the only bugs to be found, a couple of small black spiders, hanging from the rafters of the room. When the men were properly settled, Toby would take his leave to head to bed himself, skipping an evening prayer all together.

---

Both Siblings were awake early, bringing in water from the well so that their guests may drink or bathe as they wished, and lighting the candles for daily prayers should anyone come into the chapel in passing of the ghost town.

They shared a small, hard loaf of bread for breakfast, then washed and dressed for the day. Toby wore the same dirty clothes as the day before as he'd not washed his clothes the night before. Minuette wore a clean, but tattered robe, appropriate for the church staff. Both siblings inhabited the chapel for the first hours of the morning, dilligently making sure the alter was perfect, and the pews clean, even though they had no patrons to attend to.

Ikarus, again, did not sleep very well. The two beds were pushed together for him, and out of habit he still ended up only one one, likely smooshing himself against a wall if it'd been arranged in such a way. While he lay there, however, the sound of the unknown, and all the 'be careful it's dangerous' warnings flitted around, and he ended up waking every time someone got up or rolled over. He'd settled in much better near the early morning, and was almost safe asleep when he heard Haku getting up. He tried, at first, to get back to sleep until Landi or one of the siblings of the church were waking them, but with his friend not coming back soon enough, those little alarm bells were too annoying to ignore, so Ikarus got up.

Seeing the siblings cleaning the main room, and Haku standing outside beyond, Ikarus went back into the room until Landi was awake, and gave his groggy friend time to wake up before they started planning for the day.

When they did, of course, it was already starting to sound like a good day. Roof! Ikarus brightened up almost immediately, and nodded. "Okay! I can take a broom up too, make sure there isn't anything that's made a nest in the steeple that isn't supposed to." Thinking more insects than birds. "Will we be bringing down the bell regardless, or only if the roof is rotted up there? It's crooked, the tower bit, either way." While he probably should've, he didn't think about ropes or the like. He wasn't worried about falling. How he was supposed to get the bell down if he had to though, he hadn't considered. His foot, today, seemed fine, and Ikarus was walking on it normally.

Haku heard the uggetions of what neeed to be done to get things done. He could do the wood. Haku nodded, and set to work wandering the town, and if something looked like it was salvageable, Haku bent down to pull on it, breaking it if it was protruding and decayed, or picking up stray pieces, and bringing them to the top of the stairs and then heading back down It probably wasnt' teh most effecient way to haul in woods but the decrepit buildings were beginning to weigh on him. anything with rotting stairs.. Haku avoided like the plaugue Not going in THOSE buildings. Nope. Haku eventually worked until HE had worked up an appetite, which because he skipped breakfast was early as he stretched his back, rolled his shoulders a bit and then gave a sharp whistle to try and get others' attentions "We go wen have foods ya!" if he was within hearing range. Haku started for the church..

Hoping to have spread out jobs to the folks most qualified to do both, Landi is glad for Ikarus' enthusiasm, and says, "that's a good idea. You should ask the girl about that, the Miss Minuette."

Sneaking in a hug to Haku before the man heads down into town, with a quietly whispered word of love in his ear, Landi respectfully, but in a workman's manner, peruses the grounds. "Toby, please?" he asks, if he can catch the boy's attention. "Could you help me find a shovel, and with any luck, a hoe as well? And when you get a chance, I'd love to hear about the garden here. What kind of plants you've managed to get to take, and what kind of trees?" His voice is patient and kind, but a little distracted as again he ties his eyes behind that black silk, hiding a portion of his expression away as he slowly moves around the grounds.

Those sensitive to magical energies - particularly those to do with Life energies or "earth" work, would notice that as he walks, he's connecting down, merging tiny threads of his own life energy, and thus his attention, down with the sparse and struggling yard. He's not pushing or pulling on anything yet, and walks as lightly as a spider over its own web. He's listening to it. Weighing it.

Toby willingly separated from his task, leaving Minuette to finish up in the prayer room, to help Landi, by finding him a shovel, and taking him on a tour of the garden.

It took him only a few moments to find both a shovel and a hoe, and bring them back. Both were dented and well used, but sturdy enough for most purposes. He handed them over. "Do you want me to show you the garden now?" The enthusiasm behind the question might suggest that he was excited to show off the garden, obviously it was his pet project.

Minuette finished up what she was doing and then ventured out to see what she could do to help.

Ikarus now had a job to do, and by the gods Ikarus was going to do that job! (If not mostly because he had a feeling he could sneak a nap up there in the hot sun after a little while. Mmm. That'd be nice.) With Haku heading out, Ikarus nodded to finding Minuette. The winged man moved to find where the elder sibling had gotten off to, and as he came into the main body of the church, he was admittedly caught up by the stained glass again. Only a minute though, he swore! Only just a moment, and then he was looking around.

Spotting Minuette, Ikarus smiled and lifted his hand with a wave. "Oh- Miss Minuette!" He'd move into a more respectable talking distance, still looking enthused and happy to be awake. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to borrow a broom if you have one to sweep off the roof?" Catching her up on plans he pointed towards the door where the others had gone before. "Illiandi will be helping with the garden, and Haku will be helping to get salvaged things from the town. I've been asked to inspect your roof, and I'd like to clean it up a bit while I'm up there if it's not rotten. Is there an attic or something to get up there- oh!" Yes, he's excited, excuse him, "Oh. If there's a bell still up there, we're wondering if you'd like it taken down, as your tower is crooked?"

Illiandi, feeling secure in Haku's safety (since the body guard assigned to each of them is never far, unless both gentlemen are together), at least doesn't have to worry about his husband, who will be working clean until noon. ((The player Iokua will rejoin this thread once we've caught up to 'noon'))

"Thank you," Illiandi says to Toby, and shoulders the shovel and hoe as he continues to walk. His steps are still measured, even as the eager and work-proud boy shows some enthusiasm. "I'd love to go see your garden now. I may be able to help you grow it even better, though anything you've managed in all this is going to be impressive," he says reassuringly. On the way over, he keeps an eye out for the outhouse, mentally eye-spotting its distance from the well to make sure that was sound. "I've brought you a couple of sacks of good soil from where we live," he shares with the boy. "Also a sack of manure from my sheep. I may be using the latter, though, and whatever is in your outhouse, to help the grass grow here. Do you happen to like porridge, by the way?" he asks, still with that slightly distracted tone. For as long as he was channeling, he'd not be able to keep up with too much.

Minuette was intercepted on her way out to see what she could do, by the man she believed to be an angel. Due to her willingness to help, as well as her deep religious fervor, she was of course, eager to help him with what he needed. She bowed her head politely in greeting him. "Of course. Here, this way. " She'd lead him to the small hovel the siblings called a kitchen. In the corner a straw broom sat, along with a couple of wooden buckets that had seen better days.

On the topic of bringing the bell down she chewed her lip. Of course it would be much safer to have the bell come down, as the tower was hazardous, but still, it seemed a sad thing. A church without a bell. She could see the reason in it though, and so she nodded hesitantly. "I suppose yes, it must come down. I can show you the hatch.

If he chose to follow then, she would take him up the stairs, past her room to the hatch in the ceiling. When puled down, a rope ladder would fall for a person to climb, to the roof as well as the bells.

---

Toby straightened his shoulders with pride as he brought the man to the garden. The well sat in the middle of it. Only the potatoes seemed to be strong plants, the rest were weak and sickly looking. In the garden Toby had been able to get squash, raspberries, a small variety of herbs, and carrots to grow. "It's much better this year then last. I ground up a fish carcass and mixed it into the dirt at the beginning of the year... I'd not thought of using waste to grow with." He made a face at the mention of porridge, a typically picky kid. "It's not my favorite, but when you are hungry enough..." He trailed off.

As for the latrine, it lay a good way off from the garden, nearer to the back of the church, then the side, where the garden lay.

Loving to get into high places, Ikarus is quick on Minuette's heels, and following her into the kitchen to take up the broom. Noting its condition, Ikarus wonders if Landi will have enough of that grown grass to make for another one, but Ikarus- again- is a bit spoiled by the prosperity of his home island. Could go get straw just about any time, or those thin twigs which also made for nice, stiff brooms. Either way, it's hooked over his shoulders, and carried between his back and his wings, following Minuette up the stairs.

He keeps looking up, up and up until the lady pulls down the ladder, and then moves, if he can, to look up to the sky beyond. Like freedom calling or something, Ikarus went to try and go up, only realizing when he thunked that he'd have to take the broom off his shoulders. In doing so, he put it above on the roof, and paused to look down to the girl. "Ah. I should like to invite you up onto the roof with me, Miss Minuette, but I worry if there are weak points you'd find them before me." As in, yes, it was better ultimately for Ikarus to fall through, rather than the sickly woman. "But. Mm. Perhaps if it might be okay for me to ask if you could get lunch ready? I- I shouldn't like to impose or anything, but no one here would be upset about eating last nights stew." He lingered on the ladder until her answer came, and then was quick to head up, pulling the door up and shut behind him, and getting to work with the broom, using it to measure his pace as he walked around the roof.

Illiandi is, so far, more impressed with the industry and honesty of the boy who was forthright with them about the dangers and conditions of things here, and he is equally impressed with the garden, carved out crap soil with plants that could probably do well with coaxing. "Human waste can be tricky. You have to use a lot more heat to compost it before it's any good, and even then it can still carry diseases. That's not how I'll be using it, though," he says with a wan smile. "I like what you've done here. It's good to see the carrots, especially. They grow all year." Wagging an approving finger to it, Landi looks, too, to the fruit trees. "If Haku finds some lime, we can make white wash to paint the trunk with. It helps keep the bugs off."

In his preferred life, Illiandi was a rancher -specifically sheep - but he had extremely basic experience with home gardens, and he reaches down to pluck up a couple of weeds trying to encroach on the healthier soil the boy had forced into being. "As for porridge, we've brought with us something special. It's a spoon that a lady named Miss Hannah Green enchanted for me. When you dip it into a bowl, it makes a porridge inside. It's...not got a very nice texture, and the taste is a bit like sucking on paper, but - if you're hungry enough, it gives you everything you need to keep going. I'm going to leave it here. Sell it if you think the money's better - out here you can get about four gold for it at the very least. But I think you'll have better luck keeping it as miracle food. It'll feed four a day."

Unshouldering the hoe, he grins over to the boy and says, "All right. We've got more carrots, some cabbage, and some wheat to put in. Where do you want me to dig?" Letting the boy call the shots, the next hour or so Landi would be at his beck and call, hoeing up the scrabble and pulling the rocks out.

"Soon, I'll be doing some magic. The yard is going to start to move around a bit, but everything will be safe. I know where your garden is and where the outhouse and the well and the church are. The grass is going to grow, spread, and die, many times in a row, all right?" he asks of the kid, wondering if he'll be nervous or eager.

Minuette nodded eagerly at mention of setting out food for everyone, it was more her speed anyway, then crawling up onto the roof. She had a terrible fear of heights, not that she had a habit of mentioning that fact. "Yes, there is still plenty of stew, I will heat it over the fire."

She paused, about to tell him to be careful, as she would her brother, but held it back. The man had wings, how silly to worry. She moved off, back down the stairs to her kitchen hovel, to reheat the stew.

---

The fruit trees were mostly dead, the ones that weren't had small, sickly apples on them. "I Know there isn't any Lime in our Garden, but I admit, anything could be growing in the village.. I don't like it there... It's spooky. I stay well away." Toby mentioned.

He raised an eyebrow at the idea of a magical spoon. "really? four people a day?! Why would anyone sell something like that?!" The idea of that seemed absolutely ridiculous. Still, he accepted the idea of said magical spoon very easily. Even more, he doesn't seem all that concerned or surprised in hearing that Landi meant to use magic in the garden. "Alright then, I'd like to see that!"

He had to think a moment on where he'd like him to dig, but would eventually give him direction on how he thought it might best be laid out. Toby who was a very novice gardener however, would easily be persuaded to do things differently if it made sense.

In seeing that the girl was happy enough for the new task, Ikarus felt better. Once shut up on the roof he got to work, first taking a slow, careful walk around the edges to see below where everyone was, and in finding their places, he began to sweep away from there. Throwing sticks off to the side where no one was, if there were any, Ikarus was happy. So high up he could take sweeping looks of the area, and even see Haku every once in a while start up with his gathering of wood. He could hear the voices of Toby and Landi floating upwards, making out their plan when he was closer to their side.

If he found any soft spots on the roof, or anywhere that looked like it might be in danger of collapsing, Ikarus would take out a bright teal feather from the top of his wing, and wedge it into the place so that the obvious color would remind him to be careful. Using his wings to pull up over his head for shade as the day got hotter, Ikarus started working on taking the bell down. First he'd circle around the crooked steeple, looking up to how it was attached, and testing any ropes or chains used to keep it there- so as to be sure those were still strong enough.

Once satisfied with his constructed plan, Ikarus began to unhook the bindings of the bell, and use the attached rope or chain to lower it down enough that he could get it out of the steeple, and lowered down onto the main body of the roof. Pulling out the rest of the bindings, Ikarus moved towards the edge of the front of the church, looking down to Haku's growing pile of wood. If the bell wasn't too heavy, Ikarus would pick it up to move it over to the edge, but if it was too heavy, he would use the rim of the bell and slowly waddle-turn the thing over. Either way, once there, Ikarus left the bell standing on the edge, and went up to loop around the steeple and give an initial pull to tip the bell onto its side, and then start sliding it off the roof. Slow. And. Steady. His wings spread out just in case, and both hands holding fast around the bindings, looping them over his right arm for better support.

Hearing Haku's call for lunch, Ikarus turned so his voice was directed over the edge of the building. "Haku! How far to the ground is it?" Since he couldn't actually see how low he'd gotten the bell, and only knew the rope was getting shorter.

Illiandi chuckles, saying, "Lime as in slaked lime. It's a kind of cooked mineral. It'd be very, very fine white powder, or odd chalky rock. It would dissolve in water. When you paint things with it they turn white in the sun."

Occasionally glancing up to Ikarus and his progress and pointing it out to Toby - since how often are you going to see a multi-colour pidgeon-man on your roof? - he allows Toby to decide where the new rows go.

When that was done, however, he says, "You might want to help with the bell," to the boy. "If Haku finds enough wood we'll make a stand for it in the yard so it can still ring, see if you can pass that idea along. I'll get started on the grass." Settling down near the well, after a long drink, Landi seems to be prepared to rest in what scrabby shade there was. It would be a few minutes more, after he's fallen quiet, that anything odd seems to happen.

His work, magically speaking, is always subtle at first, never showing off with pretty lights or ominous sounds. To watch him work is literally to watch the grass grow, and soon around him the well is stricken first. To give life, he has to take it away from somewhere else, so the little algaes and newts that made their little dwellings in the water are reaped. Traveling his attention down to the outhouse, he aggravates the bacteria in that next. An allmighty stench erupts from it; offensive and swampy, as he allows the bacteria there to grow wildly and dissolve the years of matter inside. Once fat and happy and on the verge of being out of control, those colonies too, are culled. The stench settles, and soon, the weeds begin to grow. Just the weeds first, the plants already able to grow here. They reach up high, they flower, and they die, right around where the others are stepping and working, with tufts of their seeds falling free of their plants and into other places of the yard. The life force of their parents is reaped as well, and sent into the seeds, which grow. The process rolls on and on, and it is slow, but gradually he's able to work grass in among the weeds, as the soil becomes more and more rich with rotting plant matter. It, too, begins to stink even as the grass grows high.

After perhaps three hours, skipping lunch to keep working if he can, several generations of grass have passed underneath the footfalls of his friends and his hosts. Dandelions have been permitted to remain the one weed still growing in the yard, since they are edible, and down the way the scent of grass has sent the horse to braying demands. The trees in the orchard, however, and the garden itself, remain untouched by these efforts. In the future, the ground here will retain water better and the outhouse will last a bit longer, but he doesn't interfere with the newly planted imported goods.

Toby was more then happy to help the winged man with the bell, heading straight over to the side where he was lowering the bell down to see what he could do to aid in his process. He was often distracted by the happenings around him, as the land changed before his eyes over the course of a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, inside Minuette had the stew boiling over a warm fire, heating it up, to make another meal of it, unaware of what was going on outside.

She would set out food for anyone who chose to eat lunch, though she would not eat herself at this meal. Something was off, something wasn't right in her being, and it was making her feel unwell. She wouldn't know what it was until she went outside, intending to see what she could do to help in the garden.

She was unprepared for the changes that had been made over the last couple of hours, nor the magic she sensed very keenly. How very odd... was her last coherent thought, before things got a whole lot weirder.

Her legs folded underneath her quite suddenly, as if she were about to swoon, and indeed it would seem like this at first as she toppled to the ground. She slumped over herself, but unconsciousness never came, instead an alarming swell of magical activity in the area, and an eerie mumbled chant rising out of her, in a voice not her own, in a language not determinable as anything commonly spoken.

Unable to see to the ground close to the church from where Ikarus had positioned himself to lower the bell, he'd be relying on someone calling up to him, and if Toby did, Ikarus was more than happy to use the (hopefully) two on the ground to help position the bell safely. Though as he was getting closer to the end of the rope, with so much weight pulling so low on him, Ikarus was having to flap those wings of his as well as stand at a deep angle to add extra tension to himself, not wanting to lose the large thing at the very end. He needed the people on the ground to help with the weight a bit, as well as make sure the bell was landing in a safe spot- preferably on the new grass rather than uneven rocks or some such.

Working like this, of course, prevented him from seeing Minuette come out from the church. It also hadn't really occurred to Ikarus as a possible problem. He knew that Landi was sensitive with uncovered eyes to certain kinds of magic (to this day he was not entirely clear on what the differences between magics really was, just that there was one)- but Landi was also cautious about it if it could be helped. Being able to sense magic if he tried, Ikarus usually assumed that other people could do the same, or not feel anything at all. He couldn't see Minuette fall, and wouldn't know it was her chanting, but there rose the potential for a bell disaster if all of his ground-support left!

Haku had given a whistle to let others know he was done. Being that he didn't have any.. way to really get a huge bundle home, and there wan't much grasses to make rope with, Haku did what he could, and had set piles around along hte road so that he could carry them closer to the other piles as he made his way home. He couldn't relly find any tools, but what a rock did in place of a hammer well... Haku knew how to use the land for his advantage sometimes. So his pants were laden with random things, rocks of all sizes and shapes, broken wood piles scattered along the road and Haku headed back to the church. He didn't see Landi, but could feel the connection between him.
He spotted Minuette leaving the church as he got closer, and frowned as she seemed to fall as she rounded to the back of it. He didn't know where Ikarus was, nor Toby, and dropping the wood pile at the top of the stairs to the side, Haku followed the girl. "Miss?" He tried, feeling uneasyy as he neared her, now hearing the chanting. Haku hissed, and backed up, "Kapu... Illiandi!" He called, his tone warning, and sharp. He couldn't understand her as he circled to be in front of Minuette. "Store energy, Illiandi, we might need it." He called out. "Where's Ikarus, and Toby?" He glanced around, but he was focused on the girl and her odd chanting...

Illiandi, unaware that Ikarus has not yet gotten help with the church bell from any of the people sent or called to, doesn't help with the poor winged man either. After all, he sent someone, yes?

Largely wiped-out and tapped-out from the expenditure of effort and concentration, Haku's unease and alarm gets him staggering up to his feet, with the aid of the well. Moving slowly across the knee-high grass, with the horse still braying, Ikarus still struggling, and the girl dropped, he arrives to see the fallen girl. If she's using arcane magic, the rest of the day ends abruptly for Illiandi, but anything else he can withstand, and he shakes his head. "Got nothing to, nothing to store," he mumbles. "Toby? Ssent him to help you and Ikarus... Toby?" Calling out with a paternal tone, though he leans over to touch Haku's arm. Not ABOUT to be so foolish to touch someone in a magical fugue, he and Illiandi both will soon find that they're looking at her through a sort of shimmer; their bodyguards are both in front of them, invisible as waves off a hot road. "Missminnoo-ette?" he asks muzzily.

Toby hadn't noticed Ikarus's distress, nor his sister falling, as he'd been well engrossed in watching the garden magic, and thus, neglecting his duties, something he would no doubt be ashamed of later. He would turn though in response to Landi calling his name. His face paling noticably as he took in both the poor man struggling on the roof with the bell, and then his sister, slumped over on the ground. He cursed twice, loudly, words befitting of a young boy.

As he runs forward, he stops first in front of his sister, reaching out as if he wants to grab her, but pulling his arms away before hand, obviously not willing to touch her either. He looked nervously at the two men on the ground before he remembered that the man above was still struggling with the bell. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The ground is only about six feet down." He called up. On tip toes with arms outstretched, he might be able to ease the weight a bit.

As for Minuette the magic was indeed not arcane, but Celestial, furthermore it didn't appear to be doing anything, quite simply, just hanging in the air around her. In response to her name, her head sort of lulled. The chanting stopped and the odd voice, crackled from her throat "...The vessel is not with you.." What ever it was that was inhabiting her, it seemed to be trying to raise her head, but it was having issues, as if it was not used to the physical body.

Ikarus continues to hold the bell, the first notes of panic touching him when no one calls up or seems to come to his aid. "Hello?-" He's only just half way through the first call for help before Toby is answering from below, and while Ikarus wanted to say he sighed in relief- there wasn't much time for it. Just a quiet lifting of over-worry taken off his shoulders to know there was someone below.

"Okay! Watch out! Coming down!" Because there wasn't a whole lot of weight to Ikarus, and he was already short on the rope. One large step. Two large step. Three large step. Guestimating that he was about three feet off the ground now, Ikarus gives one last hard flap and then sits himself down sideways so he can put his feet against the steeple, and crouch to lower the bell the rest of the way. He knows his job is done when the first slack in the rope shows, and Ikarus sighs, letting go and just resting a moment. Covered in sweat with red welts rising up on his arm from where he'd wrapped the rope around first, Ikarus wipes his hands over his face. Now finally able to stand up again, he goes to the very edge of the church and looks down to where he hears voices.

Seeing Minuette on the ground, he pops back over and waves to Toby. "Your sister, quick!" And, because he's Ikarus and it's shorter than going around, he jumps off the roof. Spreading his wings to glide, it becomes apparent that he can't actually fly. His body doesn't lift properly, and he's dropping in a way that's more akin to a man with a parachute than a bird that is descending. Taking an arc around the building to make a running landing by the well, Ikarus turns back around and comes up behind Haku and Landi (and consequently their guards). Still panting from the bell, his forehead dewy with sweat, Ikarus looks around Landi's shoulder to Minuette. "Miss Minuette? What is happening?" He looks to the other three faces in case they knew.

Quietly, sitting forgotten on the roof, is the broom. Ikarus will have to go back for it later, it seemed.