[God Quest] What a difference a day makes

COLT

She waits until the shadows are nearly all gone, marking the highest point of the sun in the day. It's as far from seeing starlight as she can get, which seems her best bet for staying whole if she's going to call down the woman comprised of them. Not that time of day has even kept the gods from bending something to their will, but worth a shot.

Angling her hat brim like a shield she could use as backup, she takes one last swig of the liquid courage before stuffing it away, wiping the back of her hand against the burn of it on her lips. "Might as well get it over with," she tells Beans, as if he's got a separate opinion on the matter and they've been arguing about it the whole ride over her. Pulling a few things from her saddlebags, she departs from his side with a firm pat to his shoulder.

Leaving her horse to graze, she cuts across the mud-slick field towards the stone dias that awaits. Sighing before it, she leans over and dusts away the bits of rainwater and mud that have collected over time. On its clean surface, she deposits the bottle of tequila filled with sand from Aumakua, and beside it a fresh bottle of gold-flecked gin. Reaching into her pocket, she also withdraws an ornate hair pin—a circlet of silver with embedded opal gems and decorative pearl socketed on one edge, looking like the moon and stars, while the silver rod meant to slide in and seal the hair in the device bears a black pearl on the handle.

None of her movements right now are quick. Much as she doesn't want to be here, she draws out each small task, shifting with the methodical awareness of someone nursing a wound that could open too easily if it's forgotten for haste. Even when she's placed her things, she dips her chin, standing motionless for a moment against the ripple of wind that stirs the hillsides. It's less for thought than the quiet gathering of strength to face someone that's bound to bring a bout of fresh hurt. "I've done as you've asked, Safrin," she says simply, and waits. 

---

Colt is requesting a shiny belt buckle that will cause disadvantage when used.

Quest received here Shrine bright like a belt buckle

1. Capture some starlight! (interpretation up to you)
I don't know why it's called a good bye gathered starlit sand from Aumakua

2. Capture some sunlight! (interpretation up to you, must be different than in 1)
Hard days are a light rain coming down around my head tanned for a bit

3. Use light to blind/distract someone
From strangers and nameless to damn you got dangerous reflected light off metal belt buckle to make a shiny spot on the ground that catsper chased after

4. Complete a training thread where her goal is to give her own disadvantage per round (kicking dust, being distracting, etc)
[Training] Call me a teddy bear the way he stuffs me distracted with a feint attack, temporarily deafened w/ loud noise, pushed off balance, temporarily blocked vision w/ hair

Go and fix your makeup girl, it's just a breakup
Run and hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady
Gotta keep it together, even when you fall apart

Mist thins first, not dispersing so much as remembering itself, the veil loosening where divinity presses close enough to bruise the world. Safrin does not arrive as a body stepping into place, but as an inevitability with light bending, sound withdrawing, the Barrows holding their breath as though the dead themselves recognise her.

The shrine warms beneath Safrin's attention, stone drinking starlight it was never meant to hold, and she resolves herself from the brightness with languid precision. Silk-dark hair spills over one shoulder, threaded with constellations that should not be visible beneath a merciless sun, before her eyes immediately catch on what has been laid down in offering. Safrin’s gaze lingers there longest, appreciation soft and private. How careful Colt is. How deliberate. How wounded. Safrin does not comment on that.

Instead, she lifts her eyes at last, meeting the woman standing below with a smile that could be kindness, could be warning, could be both depending on how closely one looks. There is a wink—brief, conspiratorial, devastating in its ease—and when Safrin speaks, her voice carries the hush of tombs and the distant hum of stars grinding patiently against eternity. "You have interpreted my tasks so cleverly." There's no mention of tangled hearts or divine sons or the small, human mess of desire and consequence.

Her hand lifts, fingers tracing a lazy arc through the air as though she is brushing dust from the sky itself, and with the motion comes creation: A belt buckle settles beside the offerings, metal cool and perfect, its surface alive with contained starlight that pulses like a captured heartbeat.

---

Colt has completed her quest and received

Starlit Belt Buckle | A shiny belt buckle containing the light from the stars that causes disadavantage to all who see it within a 5ft radius.

COLT

Safrin is more merciful than she'd have given her credit for. It's the third time now she's met the goddess and found all that she's braced herself for had been unnecessary, and though she doesn't mean to lose her edge, it eases the rigidity in her spine enough to make breathing come smoother again. Her gaze lifts by degrees, rising from the safe spot she'd trained it to on the ground. Safrin's presence fills the space with unexpected patience and calm, and to that, Colt responds as if it's the greatest blessing she could receive today.

The smile the goddess wears, and the wink that follows with all the speed of a shooting star, leave Colt sucking in a deep breath. She holds it, ribs tightening around the containment, and then looses it slow and silent. Worry goes with it, and while it won't last, it simplifies this.

Safrin's praise lands as awkwardly as any tends to for Colt, but her lips twitch into a mild smile, appreciative of the compliment even if it feels like a light she'd rather not be under. Much more content to follow the rise of the finger and watch the formation of her prize, a truer gratitude slips into place. It gleams with a breathtaking quality, dazzlingly beautiful and glinting with a quality that aches inside her. She misses them, the stars that Safrin has done her best to capture inside here, but like fireflies in a bottle, the true magic of them isn't fully present.

It's all that lets her gaze skim over the metal as she steps in to claim it. It's cool and smooth in her hands, and her thumb traces the border with a certain fondness she tucks away, same as the item into her pocket. "Thank you. I'll ensure someone worthy earns this," she murmurs, nodding towards the goddess before bidding her farewell and moving back towards Beans. She might have the prize, but there's more work yet to be done for this year's rodeo.

[FIN]

Go and fix your makeup girl, it's just a breakup
Run and hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady
Gotta keep it together, even when you fall apart