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makinglies2025-09-27 05:54 pm
lysoke) wrote in makinglies2025-09-27 05:54 pm
Entry tags:
Respite
Respite
The lake is dark and calm with a small breeze by the time they arrive at its shores. The stars above reflect perfectly in the still waters before them, and a small copse of trees lines one side, starting on their side of the river and jumping along the other side.
Chris takes a moment to re-prepare the spell he hadn't been able to cast in five years and gestures vaguely to the area around them as a suggestion for what the others can do. Gathering in the forest, sitting on a nearby over-turned log, it didn't matter to him. What he needed was an hour without interruption.
He settles down on the ground and presses his hands together as he closes his eyes to focus on the image in his mind. Within minutes, the white, shimmering outline of a large building forms in thin air. The gentle glow of its light barely spreads from the growing structure.
As promised, it takes the full hour before the slowly filling-in form is complete and finishes with a jaunty, echoing click.
Chris takes a breath, now sitting in front of the stoop that looks annoyingly like the one he'd passed earlier in the night, and gets back onto stiff legs as the glow fades away, leaving smooth, but otherwise unremarkable, white stone behind.
"Here we are. Home for the next however long we need. I'll start working on food and water next." Once they're inside, anyway, which is why he takes back his things from where he'd left them and leads them into the temple, marked only with the carving of ravens on the black wood of the double doors.
Inside is something just shy of opulence. The same polished white stone makes the walls, though black and gold veins course through the marble. The floor is the inverse, a black stone with white, shimmering speckles like a night sky if looked at for long enough. A single window faced East high up on the wall. The temple was alight with sconces at regular intervals along the walls, illuminating an open area that held all the offerings of comfort Chris could think of.
A large hot-springs-like bath, complete with a miniature waterfall, took up the left side of the room and ran into a smaller, similar bath at dog-height. Next to it, covered by a retractable screen, was a shower. Along the back wall, a raven's head emblazoned the white wall in black and watched out over a set of tables, chairs, and a couple of sofas. The majority of the center was clear for walking, but the right edge and right side of the room held a deeply inset pit of pillows, cushions, and blankets in various soft (black and purple) fabrics.
Finally, in the middle of the right-hand wall, there were two closed doors that, when inspected, revealed one room with a large, soft chair and rug, while the other room was made of nothing but stone with jars, pitchers, and plates on shelves along two walls and a cork wall perfect for catching daggers on the other side.
"I hope it works for everyone. I didn't...I didn't make separate bedrooms this time. I didn't figure we would need them tonight."
Chris takes a moment to re-prepare the spell he hadn't been able to cast in five years and gestures vaguely to the area around them as a suggestion for what the others can do. Gathering in the forest, sitting on a nearby over-turned log, it didn't matter to him. What he needed was an hour without interruption.
He settles down on the ground and presses his hands together as he closes his eyes to focus on the image in his mind. Within minutes, the white, shimmering outline of a large building forms in thin air. The gentle glow of its light barely spreads from the growing structure.
As promised, it takes the full hour before the slowly filling-in form is complete and finishes with a jaunty, echoing click.
Chris takes a breath, now sitting in front of the stoop that looks annoyingly like the one he'd passed earlier in the night, and gets back onto stiff legs as the glow fades away, leaving smooth, but otherwise unremarkable, white stone behind.
"Here we are. Home for the next however long we need. I'll start working on food and water next." Once they're inside, anyway, which is why he takes back his things from where he'd left them and leads them into the temple, marked only with the carving of ravens on the black wood of the double doors.
Inside is something just shy of opulence. The same polished white stone makes the walls, though black and gold veins course through the marble. The floor is the inverse, a black stone with white, shimmering speckles like a night sky if looked at for long enough. A single window faced East high up on the wall. The temple was alight with sconces at regular intervals along the walls, illuminating an open area that held all the offerings of comfort Chris could think of.
A large hot-springs-like bath, complete with a miniature waterfall, took up the left side of the room and ran into a smaller, similar bath at dog-height. Next to it, covered by a retractable screen, was a shower. Along the back wall, a raven's head emblazoned the white wall in black and watched out over a set of tables, chairs, and a couple of sofas. The majority of the center was clear for walking, but the right edge and right side of the room held a deeply inset pit of pillows, cushions, and blankets in various soft (black and purple) fabrics.
Finally, in the middle of the right-hand wall, there were two closed doors that, when inspected, revealed one room with a large, soft chair and rug, while the other room was made of nothing but stone with jars, pitchers, and plates on shelves along two walls and a cork wall perfect for catching daggers on the other side.
"I hope it works for everyone. I didn't...I didn't make separate bedrooms this time. I didn't figure we would need them tonight."
no subject
He looks at what Wolfe is writing and takes another page to start on his own list. 'Please' and 'Thank You' go first. His grandmother taught him manners, if nothing else, and it's polite. His eyes catch on some of the web motifs around the room and he adds 'Spider' to his list.
no subject
He pinches the bridge of his nose, shakes his head, then flips through the dictionary. He adds a few words in pairs; 'bad' and 'good', 'wrong' and 'right', 'yes' and 'no'.
"For being able to hear her fears, you could at least use the knowledge to try and understand her."
no subject
His list adds in 'moth' and 'raven,' then 'hand' and 'book' as his attention wanders the room for ideas.
"I can hear her fears, and that just tells me what's wrong while she's spiraling. They're not reasonable fears. Not- They're nothing I can do anything about, anyway." He trails off as he realizes it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black there, but his unreasonable fears are different. At least he's already had his existential crisis. "They're things she needs to figure out answers for herself. She's not going to listen to me if I tell her I've been there. She doesn't like me enough for that."
no subject
With a sigh, Wolfe starts shredding his list into papers with one word on them each. "I know you're trying, but she is too, no matter how much it might seem to each of you that the other isn't. I do appreciate your abilities to still be civil with each other, at least."
He finishes up and rummages around for some sort of container to hold the papers. He manages to come up with some kind of decorative bowl that has a spiderweb motif fitted with raven skulls at intervals. "How... unique."
no subject
His eyes light on the bowl that Wolfe finds, and Jon can't help frowning. "I really don't care for the motifs he's got in the temple today. I keep thinking we're going to see spiders hiding up in the corners of the room. There's a spider god here, as well, that I read about in one of those books. Lolth."
no subject
It doesn't escape his notice that there is one common denominator here, though. He's glad when Jon changes the subject.
"I don't care for them either, but that's what we get for distracting him while he casts. I doubt any other god has power here, though. It is meant to be a temple to the Raven Queen, even if we're using it as a sort of... hotel," he winces a bit at that, glancing around as if the Matron is going to come out of somewhere and scold them. That would be ridiculous. She clearly knows what they've been doing, she sent Topher.
"All I know about Lolth is she's the Spider Queen and evil. Do you think she lords over manipulation, like your Web?"
no subject
He finishes ripping up his strips and drops them into the bowl. "All right. There are the ones I have for you. How are we going to do this? Alternate picking from the bowl and just... go from there?"
no subject
"I suppose? I hadn't really thought that far." Seeing as most of the words are ones they'd gone over earlier in the day, Wolfe just adds his to the bowl and settles back onto a sofa. "You can pull one for me first, if you like. Better mix them around a bit though."
no subject
[Intelligence Checks Jon:
21 - 21 - 8
Intelligence Checks Wolfe:
11 - 1 - 20]
Jon's far better in the early part of the game as he has a run of luck with words he'd chosen himself. Wolfe, by contrast... struggles. There's one point where he misses 3 in a row, and the Archivist takes some amount of pleasure in positioning himself on the mage's back as he does a few push-ups as his punishment. "We really need you exercising your mind more than your body."
His haughty teasing is rewarded by immediately tripping over two different words and narrowly missing making it a third. "I- Well... Amelia. She's... she has nice hair? And... she's a competent teacher for knives."
no subject
He does try not to be smug when he manages to remember a few words Jon doesn't. He's gracious in a very obvious way, though, needling passively without saying anything about it at all.
"Really? Nice hair and competent teacher? Is that the best you can do? Though I guess from you being a competent teacher is a high enough compliment. Try again for the first."
no subject
None of that is particularly important, though, and they've reached the end of the bowl. "In any case, they've had more than enough time to talk. Or fight. Or do whatever they're going to do. I think it's safe to step out again. I really do need to talk to Amelia." He gives Wolfe a look. "And I'm not complimenting her. I didn't miss three in a row."
no subject
Stretching, Wolfe hauls himself up from the floor where he'd ended up, not nothing to get up again after the last time he'd missed a word. "Doesn't it mean more to you if I tell you earnestly you're an intelligent man with a distinguished eye for details instead of that your voice is pleasantly deep? Even if both things are true. The thing about the embroidery is good though, she's put effort into that."
With a nod to the rest of it, Wolfe heads for the door. "There was no yelling or thunking of knives into walls so I have to assume it went well. Just approach her with grace, alright? She's trying her best but this has hit her very hard. Other than in Duplicity, I don't think she's had to rethink her entire identity or life before now. Not like we have."