In a town
10 Summes, 333
Slavina
The afternoon following Daina and Slavina's spirit journey
Slavina tucks the last stray bits of hair up beneath her scarf as she approaches the holy place. She spent the remainder of the morning (after the distressing conversation with Janin and subsequent meditation to compose herself) making preparations: cleansing and decorating herself with fragrant flowers, acquiring the necessary materials, preparing her offerings and requests.
She pauses to center herself, smooth away the last ripples of fear and anger, then approaches the golden oak beams of the shrine's entrance. A low hum of bees rises around her. She kneels, bows, and places two large bowls of syrup on the altar, on on each side. She strips her upper half down to the bare skin and dips her fingers in the syrup, tracing it down the lines of her tattoos.
A bee lands on the bowl's lip. The hum is more present now.
Slavina yanks the stopper out of the bottle of honey-liquor and pours a splash into each bowl. The remainder she drinks (although it's hard - her throat burns from it). More bees have come to visit her offerings now - they've heard the news form their sisters. Quickly, before she's hit with the full effects of the alcohol, she rises. She backs away from the shrine into the open feilds surrounding it (and its hives), and begins to dance. The pollen in her gourds clouds around her, indistinguishable from the clouds of bees swirling through the air.
Their hum sooths her, lifts her, carries her Between....
Fate
Around her, a hum, a song, a note held between all like a shared thought, a shared heart. It's magnified a thousandfold, with each tiny wingbeat, strengthened to suffuse the world.
And then the honey pumps through her veins, seeping in slow and thick.
And then Slavina understands.
There is a language in her dance (wasn't there always?), every line she traces with her movement a letter, a word. And the eyes are watching, reading every wiggle and shimmy, every pattern that arises from her steps.
Slavina
An audience? Good... she has always been her best in front of an audience. Slavina drinks in the knowledge they offer. With dips and spins and wobbling lines she dances her respect, her humility, her question (the first question, the most critical question):
May I remain in your presence, honored one?
She grows still and sways with the hum, waiting for her answer.
Fate
Here, along the arm, there, beside the jaw, the delicate eyelash-brush of wing and leg and hair flicker over her skin.
And then one lights on her hand, on the knuckle, where a thumb might rest from the greeting grip of a gentlefolk. It rests there, waiting.
Slavina
Slavina bows her head and raises her hand slowly to her lips - a kiss, of sorts. When the bee has flown she ripples her back and shoulders to tell the others they should fly (don't stay, you might be harmed) so she can dance again.
Step-twist-step-dip-shimmy-spin. Her gourds are her wings, their powdery trails her pheremones:
Evil stalks my family. (A coming together of many hives, a patchwork quilt of loneliness that is still better than the cold) I come to beg you for help.
Fate
A stillness follows, waiting, save the constant hum which vibrates her bones.
Slavina
I beg this of you: Hide us in your mantle, honored one. Make us like yours. She dances into a frenzied whirl until she scatters into ten-thousand pieces and flies ten-thousand different paths. Only the empty, still pool of her heart remains, waiting to show what she could give in return. (Anything. She will give anything).
would an influence roll be appropriate here?
Fate
Yeah. Just wait for scion-bot to log on...
Slavina
can I channel Duty for this, since she jumped into this because it's her job as a wayfinder?
Fate
Isn't she much more motivated by fear, though?
Slavina
Hm. Hmmm. Yeah, I guess.
Do I at least get to apply my liudzi life skills knack? :P
Fate
Yes. :P
Slavina
Yay! 11
Fate
Another stillness, another waiting.
Suddenly, one bee flies from its perch alongside another; and the landed bee is still, silent.
(A though occurs to Slavina, tranquil, matter-of-fact, but striking in the way droplet strikes a pond: To defend her hive a bee willingly leaves a piece of herself behind.)
This is open to interpretation on purpose. If Slavina would leave behind an offering of her own flesh/blood/something then that's fine. Alternatively, if you're thinking something more spiritual, we can represent that loss at a dot in a skill which seems thematically appropriate.
Note that the offering hasn't been accepted yet. It would be safe to assume a bigger/more meaningful offering, e.g., a dot from a highly-rated skill, will be more likely to be accepted.
She can also try negotiating.
Slavina
Hm gotcha. I think she'd try and negotiate, but also this type of offering seems really appropriate. In stead of straight-up negotiating can she try and... like... upsell an offering? Like, try and influence the gods to give what she does offer more impact?
Fate
Sure!
Slavina
The pool fills with venom: lifesaving and lethal. She tastes it, testing its potency.
I would like to roll insight+wayfinding to know if the god will respond to a bigger offering with proportionally bigger aid
Fate
Go for it.
Slavina
9
Fate
Well, given that it's bees she's appealing to, it's A) safe to assume that the bees think their way of life and their values are noble and B) a bee protecting her home—i.e., stinging a threat—leaves not just a piece of herself but enough to die. Since this seems to be a magnanimous god, probably dying won't be necessary, but that's the scale of the potential standard that Slavina's working with here.
Slavina
alrighty
Slavina
Steam rises from the pools, a reminder (or a warning?): Slavina's life is not hers to give. What is?
Bozydar is.
She cups the venom in her hands and raises them, above her heart, above her head. As droplets fall they land like jewels on her crown. They shine with remembered glory - a voice that painted the union-hall murals, that made grieving mothers laugh and made gods weep. A single poem worth his weight in silver. Then how worthy is the spring from which such poems sprung?
She drinks, in his memory.
I would like to make an influence-wayfinding roll to make the offering "bigger"
Fate
Alrighty! Go for it!
Slavina
9 again!
Slavina
((er just for clarity, "the offering" is her sixth dot of poetry and some painful/bloody but ultimately harmless tongue/mouth/throat injury)
Fate
Venom runs thick down her throat...
honeyed alcohol pumps thick through her veins...
her tongue grows thick in her mouth...
A gossamer wing catches Saule's light, flashes it briefly towards Slavina, not unpleasantly. For a long, slow moment, its gossamer beauty is revealed to her.
It is a divine mantle indeed which will be laid over her and hers, if her offering is accepted, her request granted. But it is a delicate one, too. Rarer, more beautiful finery has seldom been seen. Would not even the coldest heart ache at the sight of it shorn, at the sight of flight being stolen from the sweet dancers of spring?
(If Slavina could offer assurance of a replacement or assurance of the unlikelihood of such an event coming to pass or give another offering atop the one just given, perhaps that would tip towards her favor...)
Slavina
She weeps at the sight. At the beauty. And...
...and at the knowledge that wells up into her mouth. She lets it drip free, thick and slow as the slaver of those that follow. Safety is no guarantee should their teeth meet this delicate cloth. But...
...but the hum around them crests in the many-voiced symphony of a fledgling god. It rises on the dancing wingbeats of swans and the howl of wolves, and sows seeds that will break apart mountains and cloak the earth with blossoms when their season arrives. They are only seeds today, but they will be the flowers of tomorrow. When spring comes again, one way or another, her dancers will have their flight.
Slavina is assuring the god that although she thinks damaging the mantle is likely, they will replace it and have the means to back that up. Do you want a roll for that?
Fate
Yes. Charisma + Influence is my first thought.
Slavina
10!
Fate
Daaaayum girl
Again, that light brush of lashes against the skin. This time, all over, as if swept along by a gentle spring breeze. The mantle opens, ready to accept.
Slavina
Slavina drapes herself (her family, all of them) in it, and spills her thanks onto the ground.
Fate
The mantle closes over, glossy and translucent, shading them all from the revealing light.
It's a while later when the headiness of Between lifts from Slavina. When it does, she finds herself lying on the soft, loamy ground, gently covered in bees which rise drowsily from her at her movements.