2 - Video, public

[exnihilo]

[Open, Video]

[She got caught by the women's council, near the end. They dragged her off when she claimed to have no family to be returned to, interred her in a tiny church with other troublesome, unmarried young ladies. Most of them had had a child out of wedlock. They did laundry together, work and penance, the heavy lye soap burning their hands hour by hour. Mira could have swaggered out bloody, but she didn't - something about the mumbled prayers and the delicate stained glass windows and the blunt, human directness of it, the brusque cruelty and judgement appealed to her. Their God was hypocritical and describable; the things he required of her were concrete and impersonal. It didn't matter that she was no one, in the cloister - all of them were no one, were discards, and they showed her how to do the work and took her unhesitatingly in. She enjoyed it, in her way, listened to the other women talk about their children, taught one how to break her boyfriend's wrist the next time he came home drunk. And she stayed until the barge caught her up again.

She's in the chapel now, dull and bare by comparison, not gaudy morbid stories or old ash marks on squat brick. She rolls a candle from one hand to the other. She has kept to herself, so far, has made no announcements or introductions, done nothing to draw undue attention since the nature of this place was explained to her. She was content with that state of affairs. But she is curious, now.]

How many of us are religious?


[Spam, for Harvey Two-Face]

[Several days after the fair, Mira shows up at his door, tense and eager. She's put it off - she's nervous, if she's honest, because she doesn't know how to do this, and she can't trust her own memory. She thinks he was crazy, thinks he responded the same way she did, but what if she's wrong? What if smashing his jaw with a billiard ball was too far?

At least she has an excuse to be here. She has presents.]

Comments

[routemistress]

There's a few. Technically, I'm a priestess meself, but that's... well, that's complicated.

[exnihilo]

Priestess of what?

[They have time for complicated, after all.]

[routemistress]

Sisterhood of Karn. There weren't really actual gods involved, as such; more like the exiled remnants of a ruling class that didn't rule any more.

Same shape as religion, though. Chanting and mysticism and all that.

spam, lmk if this is cool >_>

[patheticvillain]

[He's been watching her. Almost every public appearance, definitely every network appearance, he's been watching. He's determined who she's not - which doesn't make him any more comfortable around her, but it makes it possible to be nearby, at least.]

[Which he is now, slinking into the chapel like a guilty animal and sitting a few pews back from her. He kicks his feet up onto the back of the one in front of him and stares at the ceiling, fiddling on his communicator as if he's all alone.]

[Then he sends:]

Not me.

it isssssssss it is arcticly cool

[exnihilo]

[She's noticed him watching her, when she slipped out for meals, when she lingered in a common room. Perhaps not as quickly as she should have realized, but quickly enough. She didn't say anything. She didn't understand, and it itched at her, the unprovoked attention, the ceaseless scrutiny. He reminds her of her gods.

So she did nothing, resisted the urge to shrivel into her wallflower's camouflage wrap dress and slink fortified into her room. She awaited contact. And now he has. Quietly, subtly, with the buffer of text, everything between them sifted through the tiny bottleneck of plain letters. She turned to look when she heard him enter, but she turns away again now, bows her head, as though neither of them are here for the other, and replies in kind.]

Why not?

WOW /gets a parka

[patheticvillain]

[Now he watches the back of her head - just for a second, until the ceiling draws his attention again. He sighs heavily, yawns.]

Because gods are douchebags. Fuck them. They don't deserve my belief.

[inhell]

I think... maybe there's something more.

[exnihilo]

There usually is.

[inhell]

I didn't start out that way, but I got more of it as things happened to me.

[yeahscience]

Like... religious how?

[exnihilo]

However you are. I've heard people use it to mean a lot of different things.

[darknessb4me]

I was a paladin, once. Was.

[exnihilo]

What changed?

[A man frames his tense usage like that, it's because he wants to tell a story.]

[strangehistorian]

Hm. I suppose I am, if not the way most mortals are!

[exnihilo]

What are you? If you don't mind my asking.

[architrave]

To have faith is one thing, but to be religious?

[exnihilo]

I guess you don't really need a chapel for either of those, depending on how you feel about it.

spam

[halftheman]

[ He was there, in his room, when she arrives; Harveyo opens the door, but Two-Face pushes him down and surges to the fore to invite her in. He steps aside, opens the door wider, gestures for her to come in. He's eager, yes, and wary too... but mostly eager. ]

Hello there. Wondered when I'd see you again.

[ He's been watching for her; watching and waiting. ]

spam

[exnihilo]

[She hefts the victorian satchel at her side indicatively.]

I brought you some things back. Since you didn't go to the fair.

[secretasshole]

What makes you ask?

[exnihilo]

I was taken by the women's council and sent to a church.

[Not particularly phased about this.]

I could have killed them, but it was interesting.

Video

[fireincarnate]

[Jean hesitates, as she does in most things, nowadays. When she answers, it's low and quiet.]

I know there are force in the universe that most people can't comprehend. But I wouldn't call them Gods. They're just...part of how the universe works.

Video

[exnihilo]

Is uncomprehension necessary for religion?

Some people claim to understand their gods perfectly.

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara is pensive, for a moment, fingers tapping lightly against her desk.] I know there are gods, in my world. [Her lips quirk.] I worked with an angel, once.

But I don't align myself with any of them.

[exnihilo]

[Not follow, not serve; even in the rejected hypothetical, the verb that comes to her is align.]

Why not?