From the windows (from the windows) to the walls (to the walls)

[arsarcanum]

characters: Sora, Crowley, Matt Murdock, Hana, Midge Maisel, and you!
location: Beacon, with a quick detour to the lake post-freeze.
date/time: January 3rd through the 10th! (And one on the 13th if I can get away with it - Sora wants to go ice skating!)
content: Sora is on his grind! Taking names! Making friends! Paying his dues! Having fun! Trying to work so hard that his existential crisis forgets he's there! (Will match tag format.)
warnings: Warning for low self-esteem and, uh, Catholicism?

[ A: A visit to a new friend. Closed to Hana Song (and maybe the other residents of the cabin?) ]

Day three of the convalescence of Hana Song. Sora's in the cabin again, walking to her door with a paper bag under his arm after giving a brief, polite, completely friendly greeting to her roommates. They're very lucky that they took her in, and even helped find them splints and bandages so her arm and leg would heal straight. (That took a lot of reapplications of the Cure spell! It's sort of strange to think it's been reduced to the same effect as super fancy band-aids and anesthetic.)

He'll knock at the door of her room in the cabin. "Hey, Hana? You awake?"

[ B: Bad Catholic checks out a creepy pagan cathedral. For Matt Murdock, but open otherwise. ]

It's Sunday, so it seems like a perfectly reasonable day to check out the little church he saw on his many, many trips to and from the boat when he first got here. Skyler never really took religion seriously, and only went to Mass when the rest of the family did for Christmas and Easter, and even then he only did it because Arielle wanted to go see the lights and hear the music with everyone, Skyler included. If there's Catholic guilt here, it's only here because Arielle managed to make Skyler feel bad for not pretending to give a fuck.

In a lot of ways, Sora has even less of an attachment to organized religion than Skyler did. After all, he was living proof that the soul did not conclusively go to a heaven or a hell. And even if his existence wasn't conclusive enough, the many times he died in all of his lives and the many ways death and the afterlife has manifested has shifted his perspective of an all powerful God who reigns over heaven by just a bit. A church shouldn't change his perspective on that.

But, again, in a lot of ways, Sora is Skyler, except honest. And if he was being honest with himself, he liked the peace and beauty of a church as much as Ari did. He was just curious to see it, is all.

He shuts the tall door behind him and looks around the atrium, lifting his lantern to see as much of the architecture as he can. No clear dedications on his way in. What a weird place.

"Is this place Anglican," he asks, half to himself and half to the darkness of the pews in front of him. His eyes are now more or less used to the constant, overpowering dark of Beacon, but he still doesn't know if anyone else is in here. No nightvision for him.

[ C: Library. Open. ]

Throughout the week during his stay at the library, Sora will slowly, inevitably, grudgingly take an interest in the books around him. He's really not big on fiction - he's not creative enough to make them interesting - but the non-fiction will capture his interest. Practical books on cooking and first aid grab him first, followed by anything else that seems like it could come in handy in the near future - morse code, music, diy and repairs. (He makes sure to put them back in the reshelving areas, not on the shelves - he's not entirely a caveman, and the Elvira person on the network told him to be careful and clean up after himself and others. Which he does!)

Where do you find him? Wandering around with a book in his hand? Reading at one of the tables? Passed out drooling on one of the tables? Were you interested in something in the fiction section, only to find his cot in the way of your books? Is he in the cot? Who knows! I don't know. It's up to you.

[ D: The Invincible, the Kitchen. For Midge Maisel, but open to anyone who can catch him arriving or leaving. ]

Hey, Midge. Remember that teen who shyly poked his head into the kitchen a few days ago and asked in a very, very slight New Jersey accent if he could use the kitchen just to make some things and leave? The kid who proceeded to come back every day, right after the end of the daily meal, to make something to eat before cleaning up (and he always cleans up - maybe not perfectly, with things in the wrong places, but there are no crumbs or stray utensils left out) and heading out again?

Yup. Same teen. He's toasting a couple of pieces of bread in butter, layering cheese and some slices of turkey he found somewhere on top. It's nothing extraordinarily fancy, and he's just going to pack it up and leave again, but this time, he's making enough for two. He also has a bowl with him, and inside... that's a fruit salad, isn't it? Slices of apple, grapefruit, orange, peach, and a few more fruits rest inside, dotted with blueberries and grapes. Who exactly is he making all of this for? Why is he making it? Why can't he just eat with everyone else??? It is a mystery.

[ E: Armory. Open. ]

On the third day of the blizzard, Sora gathers all of the clothing he can and some snowboots he nabbed from the general store and hikes the miserable 40 minute hike through driving snow to the armory. He makes sure to go there when the regular lessons with Javert aren't going on - as much as he'd love some company, he doesn't want to risk running into anyone else while he tests out his spells, especially if they make him think about who he is and why he's doing any of this. One thing at a time!

He's tacked a piece of paper to wall. On this paper is a list of every spell and ability he can reasonably test without someone else there to help him. Time to do some experimenting.

Why are you out here? What are you doing? It's so cold! There's so much snow! But if you're in the armory for some reason, you'll see a weird kid in the basement at the range, with a giant key in his hands, casting magic spells that send pinpricks of light spinning at the targets at the other end of the range. How curious are you? (And seriously, what are you doing out there right now?)

[ F: Sora has skates and will now sksksksksk across the ice. For Crowley, but open otherwise. ]

Pretty self explanatory. Granted, the skates are VERY beautiful, made of glassy crystal, with a pair of crystal hand-glove-claw things to match, but they seem to be for aesthetics only. Sora will stay near the edge of the water - he doesn't want to risk falling through for several reasons - and he skates with the comfortable motions of someone who doesn't skate professionally but can and does skate for fun.

But indeed, there he go. Sksksksksk across the ice, his lantern bumping at his hip. He could use some company. He will, in fact, wave and skate over if he sees he has an audience. You aren't getting away without a chat, pal. (Unless you're a Riku or Vanitas, in which case he will seriously consider drowning after all.)

Comments

F

[sauntered_downward]

[Crowley, for one, is not impressed by the ice. His first thought is how useful it could be to walk across the ice, to go as far as they could go and just...well, leave. it's just so blastedly cold that he doesn't care about anything else. What can he say? He is a snake. He'll wear the scarf and gloves that the human soldier person gave him and just complain loudly when in doubt. That will work to keep his heart warm, at least.

He looks out into the water and sees a person----one of the newer people. He didn't go to the ferry this time, he didn't meet them as they came off the ship. A new person. Ice skating.

What demonic powers would it take to convince that person to give up their ice skates?]

E

[worthallthis]

Even in the snow, there are still patrols to make. The Soldier can't stay inside, can't stay in one place, can't lock themselves up without wanting to chew off a limb. (Again? Who the fuck knows. Maybe.) So they're trudging through the cold in every layer they own, and two pairs of socks inside their boots, when they spot the familiar form disappearing into the trees.

Okay, that's just dumb. The Soldier scowls into their scarf, and diverts from their patrol to follow. There's no telling what spirits might be out in the snow, and Sora shouldn't be alone on a trek out there in this weather. Just in case, they pull one of their guns, to shadow Sora and get him safe to... wherever the hell he's going.

At least Sora winds up someplace safe. The Soldier makes annoyed noises under their breath, but follows him in, stomping boots free of snow and grumping their way down to the basement after Sora's own snowy foot-prints. "The fuck are you doing down here?" they demand at the sight of the boy setting up their spell-list.

d;

[maisel]

Hiya.

[ For someone that's constantly dressed to the nines, cooks in high heels and perfect makeup and coiffed hair June Cleaver style, Midge has a really strange habit of just sort of teleporting behind people in the kitchen. Only the kitchen and department stores, though, it seems limited to only places where she's in her element. Or she's just very good at navigating those familiar spaces in a quiet and quick fashion, take your pick.

She's seen the guy go in and out, had a few conversations--Midge talks a mile-a-minute with her own New York one, so there's a bit of East Coast solidarity. Him being from New Jersey though... Well. She can't fault the kid for that. ]

Planning on having a picnic with a crush? Need a wicker basket?

[ It's far too cold, but Midge likes the joke anyway as she looks curiously at what the other's making. ] You're not bolting out today like the room's on fire.

[ Oh, shit, that fruit salad looks really good... ]

A;

[bunny_suit]

Hana has been very fortunate to have made some nice new friends thus far. They may be dead -- and that's still something she's trying to deal with -- but at least everyone she's spoken to so far have been really helpful. It helped to know that even though they stuck here, the others have helped make it more bearable. From her roommates who were so kind to give her a place to stay to one who carried her off of the ferry and even came by to check on her to see if she was okay, she found it was easier to keep her mind off of Busan for the time being.

Hearing his knock, she called out to him, "Yeah, I'm up." she adjusted herself a little bit, setting her tablet to the side, "You know you don't have to check up on me like this, right?" But she did appreciate it even if she said that. Her star lantern was hanging up near her bed.

C

[withsadness]

[Role reversal! Mary has claimed the fiction-section cot for herself, because clearly this is a free space to be comfortable? She's brought a whole selection of books down, and she's looking quite at home whenever Sora comes back and discovers the treachery.]

E.

[rhyses]

[What he's doing there is testing out a gun.

Or, well, theoretically, anyway, except it's so incredibly cold and he is but a skinny beanpole of a man, so the first few seconds of coming into the armory are spent shivering violently. With snow in his hair and all over his coat, it takes him a good chunk of time just to wipe it all off himself.

And then he notices the kid practicing spells. Huh.

Setting his toolkit down, he approaches carefully, curious despite himself.]

Nice weapon.

HI IM NOT DEAD PROMISE

[catholicisms]

There is, in fact, someone there. His lantern gives him away more than anything — prone at a pew to whisper the same prayers he does every time he ends up in the church. So far the basement scientist creature hasn't bothered him, so this place seems as good as any to try and keep up the practice.

Even though it's feeling a little hollow these days. Without a priest, it's hard to feel much in the way of guidance. Trying blindly for redemption in deafening silence has not inspired a lot of confidence, and yet the habits are too ingrained in him to stop all the same. If God could hear him, as always, he's being super tightmouthed about everything. It's not anything new, it just feels more exhausting in Beacon without any other support to his faith.

Matt thumbs a bead on his rosary, mildly considering just ignoring the voice and the echoing footsteps and keeping at his hail marys. Then the same song that's been drumming in his head off and on for weeks starts muttering in his subconscious again and he forgets where he was. Which makes it easier to just give it up entirely.

"I'm not sure what faith it's supposed to be, but I'm fairly certain it isn't Christian." As much as a blind guy can tell anything, but there's not a lot of religious imagery to suggest it. There's a good chance he wasn't being spoken to, but Matt answers all the same. "But a church is a church, if that's what you're looking for."