Celebrant in the Darkest Night

[roodbearer]

Before the sacrifice-child was born to the Light and his priests sought to eradicate the power of the Solstice -- before all the tiny candles burned frantically in denial of the Dark itself -- long before all of the Light's attempts at denial, mankind remembered the power of my Goddess on this darkest night of the year

Comments

[lady_caterina]

On the contrary, we do not fear the dark. We merely choose to serve the light, and life. I had a choice, once, a choice you were never truly given: light or dark, the hope of what could be, or the reality of what was.

[roodbearer]

I am not certain that you are qualified to speak for all of the Light-sworn in such matters, my lady.

I fully believe that you do not fear the Dark.

Of course, I also fully believe that you lack enough sense of self-preservation to fear anything.

For the more ordinary mortals out there, however...

[lady_caterina]

I beg to differ. I do fear some things. Well, one, actually.

Believe me, that fear is real enough.

But feeling fear and giving in to it are two very different things, indeed.

[roodbearer]

Yes, but your greatest fear is not for yourself. That alone makes you unlike the vast majority of mankind. And your only fear of death comes from how it would affect him; most others are much more personal and visceral in their fear of my Goddess' final gift of peace.

Why did you never think to ask me? Granted, my veins are a bit more difficult to reach without arms, but there's a nice juicy one in the throat that I'm sure he would have found quite tasty.

And if I died of it, no harm done; no one would be too greatly troubled by it. My Goddess would send me back in the space of a few heartbeats, and there are no immortal and fragile weapons who depend on my continued existence as their talisman for sanity in the world.

[i_hierophant]

Aren't you a special snowflake.

[roodbearer]

Oh, hardly. I'd never have survived Father sacrificing me to Her the first time if I'd been that fragile.

I do understand your distaste for the Dark, Father Vincent. It's a shame that your Otherworld had become so unbalanced, so unstable; but I also feel pity for your gatekeeper, because I doubt anyone had ever prepared her for the burden she would be asked to bear.

[ooc: sorry if I'm getting the implications wrong here -- Sydney would do a better job than this of making comments he shouldn't be able to make; he's a telepath and a prophet, whereas I'm a mun who's never played Silent Hill and is leaning heavily on Wikipedia for survival. XD]

[i_hierophant]

Hey, I love the dark! There's so many sleazy women, and drinks, and gambling to be had.

[roodbearer]

I suppose you are congenitally incapable of giving a straight answer, at that. Ashley would have said that that makes a pair of us...

I wish you pleasure in your vices as well as your virtues, Father.

[psy_chaos_tic]

Another who claims to be a prophet of the Gods?
Gods who do not exist...?

[roodbearer]

I am truly sorry for your grief and your desperation, young one. I do understand what it is to long so desperately for rest, for release from this endless cycle. But your angry despair harms yourself as much as it harms those around you.

Perhaps in your world, the Gods had been severed from intervention. In my world, and in this world as well, the Gods are quite real. In fact, there are a pair of them walking the streets at this very moment.

[psy_chaos_tic]

Spare me the false tales, prophet.
This is not Ivalice and your Gods do not walk these streets.

From what I hear from the voice of another, the Gods have long lost their control over the lands you hail from. The Age of Man...is continuing there.

This city is bare; filled with the stench of the blood thirsty cowards that you willingly serve.
My anger is just in this painful deceit that even in Death, I can not escape the condeeming thoughts of those who look down at me in disgust.

I would have liked nothingness compared to this!
It was pleasant...

You, you know her....?
That woman...

Yes, her. The Duchess...

[ooc: Mantis already dove into Caterina's mind and figured out everything about her and a lil about her would-be friends...]

[roodbearer]

I grant that my Goddess is not separate from me in this world. My Lady works Her will through my flesh, and I am the vessel of Her power; She sees no need to walk the earth herself when She can use me to serve Her own ends.

But there are other Gods here who have become flesh and blood of their own will, and they move freely among the people to their hearts' content.

[Amaterasu and Kabegami are in Sydney's thoughts here, shining with the light he flinches away from, but he recognizes purity and holiness when he sees it.]

Yes, your anger is just. So is your weariness, and your despair. But none of it helps you here. None of my weariness and none of my despair helps me, either. And eventually, one does become sick and tired even of being sick and tired.

It is a filthy travesty that the world's balance has been set so far askew that even those who most desperately long for the grave's peace can never receive it here; if I understood how this place's Wellspring had been forced so far from a natural alignment, be assured that I would

[roodbearer]

It comes with the priesthood, really. I'm not ordinarily so pompous. ...well. Maybe I'm not. Perhaps you should ask Riku or Demyx for an unbiased opinion there.

And you are...? --oh.

--Oh.

It's a pleasure to meet you, Nny. I quite agree with you on the unpleasantness of dying; I've done it far too many times myself, and I'd like to be done with it. One side or the other, I really don't care which by now...

...death, and bagels? How fascinating.

I've never had a bagel before. It sounds as though this is an oversight which should be corrected. Do you recommend any particular bakers?

[roodbearer]

[Private to Nny]

Really...? But he has an utterly fascinating soul. I suspect that you and he might have a great deal more in common than you might expect, if he were ever to lower that mask of civility.

Of course, the quality of his baked goods is an additional benefit...

Perhaps it requires a certain familiarity with the filth of living in order to craft a truly noteworthy bagel in contrast. Since I have no skill with handcrafts, I can't be certain, but the hypothesis does present itself...

[god_controller]

A man of God must always remain more wise than those around him.

[god_controller]

Be off hermit.

[roodbearer]

I suppose it depends upon which god you are in the habit of conversing with. I would fully believe the God of the Light is a raving imbecile, given the number of his saints who consider death amid martyrdom the highest form of benediction.

It ought to be obvious to anyone with half a brain that survival is the highest form of benediction, but ah well -- sooner or later the Church must exterminate themselves for us, between the rush to martyrdom and the refusal to breed.