yayoi december catchall

[nightwild]

Who: Yayoi, open
When: December, various
Where: The various boutiques, the Primavain fountain, other
What: Various prompts and ideas as I have them! Toplevels will be inside the post.

Warnings: Internalized transphobia, gender issues, etc.

Comments

[gal_paladin]

Pipes are probably frozen solid too. Can’t get water through them with the ice in the way. But with the ice in the way gone…

[It’s the woman from the festival. The one who talked about the food being “vaguely european…” and who healed Yayoi, or rather Night Wild, with an invocation to a goddess even as she heard her out about the Grand Brawl.]

I think I want to try a stupid magic trick. Elementalism of a sort. Think I should give it a shot?

[nightwild]

Oh, you're...

[The computer game lady. Right.

She stares at her, then looks down.]

... I could hit the pipes with the hammer, too?

[gal_paladin]

[not entirely wrong.]

A light tap to break up the ice might help.

The thought was most of my magic is sunlight oriented, so I could put a broad patch over it to melt things instead of the weaponized form.

[nightwild]

Uh, right. Sure? If you want to try.

[She just sort of. Hops off the fountain and gestures.]

[gal_paladin]

[After a nod of acknowledgement, one had goes to her solar cross, and the other reaches out, stiffened palm pointing down at the still-frozen pipe.]

Aurora, Mother of Dawn, heed my call and mark well my vow. The waterways of these innocents are blocked by ice, frozen in the cold; I would call upon the warmth of thy light to melt the ice and bring water back to this fountain. Grant me this and I will honor you with a bonfire or else no less than ten candles in the darkness of winter for the coming Yulehearth day, may it be so.

[she opens her eyes and winks at Yayoi.]

Gotta be real specific when you ask a goddess for favors. She knows I’m good for it.

[And then a beam of sunlight springs from her palm, downward along her fingers, as if reflected from a mirror hidden in her palm and onto the pipe.]

[nightwild]

[Yayoi stares, squinting. She watches this whole thing, completely ignoring the wink, just... watching.]

... Hey, you're from Earth, right? You know about computers and stuff.

[gal_paladin]

[That earns a bitter, bitter laugh.]

"From," originally, yes.

[At least there is a small trickle of water coming from the pipe, as well as a long thin tube of ice.]

Break that off with the hammer once in a while, while I work?

[nightwild]

[She nods, then just. Taps the ice to knock off the icicles as it comes out.]

Then why do you talk like that?

[gal_paladin]

Learned how from where I was when I got the letter from Callie. Notice I don't usually talk like that.

I was very, very far from home.

[nightwild]

And now you're praying to gods that aren't here?

[gal_paladin]

Ones who I owe big time back there. I wear her token still.

[She... winces at that, honestly. There's something to it.]

...probably don't need the whole ceremony to it, for working with power she gave me and isn't taking back. My 'can I call a friend' spells won't work here because time is frozen back home.

But I'm used to using the template for bigger favors. And Yulehearth is just Mundane Christmas anyway, and I've gotten real good at using candles instead of electric lights on the tree. She'll get her lights for the holidays. I owe her that much for helping out someone lost and scared in helping others even more lost and more scared.

[nightwild]

[She shakes her head. This is still weird.]

I don't get it. Why are you doing big prayers and making those weird promises so loudly if it's for someone who can't even hear? Just shoot the sun laser.

[gal_paladin]

...Habit, at this point. Maybe a bad one.

[The water, and ice chunks, are flowing faster. Her trick is working.]

Didn't even grow up an Auroran. I'm supposed to be a Christian, a Baptist. Maybe she was filling in for the Holy Spirit on Mundus, but why should that matter here?

[This is actually, sincerely troubling her, it seems.]

Except...

[nightwild]

Except?

[Nope, she doesn't get it. Isn't Christian that thing that's hurting Venus so much?]

[gal_paladin]

[And they shouldn't have and she is so fucking pissed on Venus' behalf about fellow Christians prioritizing faith over love.]

...except She always answered my prayers when She had the ability to hear them. Not always in the way I wanted. But always, and to my benefit.

And that's why I keep making prayers to Aurora, even here where She can't hear them, I guess.

[nightwild]

... Gods have a range of activity, you know. There's no point in praying. We had to expand our goddess' range before. Or tried.

Here, if you want to pray, you should ask the Everbloom.

[She has. No idea how Christianity works. sorry.]

[gal_paladin]

[There is a long, long moment of silence where Alesha just.

Looks at Yayoi.

The girl who unselfconsicously spoke candidly about being a middle school dropout who went through major food security issues, talking about actively working to 'expand her Goddesses range.'

Perhaps somewhat hypocritically, her first thought is 'cult.']

...you didn't mention you were religious before. Not in my earshot, anyway.

[nightwild]

I'm not. Not anymore, anyway.

I helped kill our Goddess, after all.

[She continues to tap at the ice like she didn't just say one of the weirdest things imaginable.]

[gal_paladin]

[...you know, strangely, that makes Alesha feel a lot better about Yayoi's situation, fresh from a world where incredible violence is an accepted solution to the problem of evil as she is.]

Ah. One of those kinds of Gods, then.

[She so wants to mention Venus, but that's Venus' story to tell.]

Too many folk here who've been burned by something supposed to be sacred, but I'm glad you got out of that scene, at least.

[nightwild]

... Not really. I dunno what you mean by 'those kinds', but...

[Burned? The fire she was burned in helped her.]

It was more complicated than that.

[gal_paladin]

...You're right. I don't understand. But if you ever want to tell that story I'm willing to hear you out.

[nightwild]

[How does she even begin to explain?

Tap, tap, crash. The ice falls, Yayoi breaks it, repeat. It's easier to think while moving like this.]

... She was suffering. She couldn't fulfill her role.

[gal_paladin]

Lot of that going around, too. Here and at home and on Mundus.

[...Jasmine's not her story to tell. But others in her party aren't so shy about others knowing.]

Remind me to tell you about a boy named Hikaru and a girl named Deedee sometime.

[There's more water than ice, by now. They aren't done, but they're getting there.

The warmth of the Sun from Alesha's hands spills out, nice and steady. This little pneuma to maintain a bit of ledgerdemain is nothing compared to a Dawn Lance.]

You can go on if you like.

[nightwild]

[Tap, tap, crash. Tap, tap, crash. Tap, tap, crash. A steady rhythm. Almost hypnotic. It's so much easier to just talk than to think.]

Enough people prayed because they were in despair that it made a god. She tried to save people from despair. But because she wasn't human, she never understood how to save anyone. She granted wishes, not understanding that what people wish for isn't always what they need.

[gal_paladin]

Christ preserve. Ain't that the truth.

[Oh God. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. She knows full well the power of an ill-thought out wish. 'Oh God please let me be the son my Mama wants of me' first and foremost in her mind.]

And she had the power to grant those poorly considered prayers. And did. May God forgive those who know not what they-

I'm sorry. It's a reflex at this point. Go on.