[PQ] when prayer is not enough

that's the thing about pain // it demands to be felt

"Loren." The alchemist replied in a dry and wounded voice. Remi hadn't missed the fact that his tasks were solo ones (until now), and decidedly away from the summoner. Before he could say more, one of the book shelves began to tip. The decision between reaching out with his magic, or reaching out for his friend was an easy one. With arms extending instantly and wings suddenly around them like a shield, Remi flinched as he tried to wrap himself around the midwife to protect her from the initial and subsequent falling shelves as well as the debris.

As everything clunked and eventually settled, Remi released his hold and turned around with his lips parted. The alchemist wasn't one to swear, but he did mutter something under his breath as he gave Phoebe an apologetic wince. "Are you alright?" He asked, his wings disappearing back from whence they came. "Could have been worse, I suppose. Weren't you just saying you wanted to reorder the books?" He asked, trying to light the mood with a low laugh.

Strong as he was, Remi's energy would fade whereas his magic wouldn't. Righting the shelves with his telekinesis, he set about fixing the splintered and broken shelves and bookcases with bits of transmutation and creation magic, humming musically as he did so.

THE

ALCHEMIST

Table coding by Sky

OLIVER

It felt nice to be working towards a common goal. While Oliver did know there was some problems going on between Loren and Remi, he tried not to think about it. Rather, he chose to focus on the task at hand and what they were preparing for. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be good. The fact that they needed to prevent light from escaping and sound proof it was worrisome. Oliver had planned mentally to ask Loren for more information whenever they finished.

For now, he chose to continue his work on the floor boards. Through the windows, he could see Loren working away with...something? Oliver had no idea what on earth it was, but the two were making work with the windows. Hopefully soon he wouldn't be as alone, but he was fine with this for now. It wasn't really all that hard of work, really. At some point he had removed his shoes, deciding that walking barefoot would make it easier for him to hear the creaking of the floorboards.

His socked feet would march around an area of floorboard. As he walked, he looked down and listened intently for any sounds. An outsider may look at him and assume he were putting on a dance, but really he was testing for each small sound that wasn't quite right. When he heard one, he'd squat down and quickly fill in any gaps or spaces before testing again for creaks. The process would continue and he would try his very best to make sure that no floor boards made any creaks.

Eventually he even started humming to himself. What song? He had no idea, but it was quiet enough for him to still hear any sounds coming from the floor.

Hopefully when he finished he would either receive new tasks or he could possibly go and help out with covering up the windows.

Oliver continues to work on using snow moss on the creaky floorboards!

a disaster!

a massive mess

trying to not die

so is there any treason in the tricky little price I pay?

i can't open up to you

Alright. So maybe he is a small amount stupid, though the man would never admit it. He’d grown some confidence by the time he reaches the third entrance, and whether it’s the nails or the boards, or the way he’s tried to fortify it, it doesn’t work the way he expects it to. And immediately, the top board creaked, snapped and fell with the rest of them. Unluckily for Sunjata, an arm happened to be there, taking the brunt of it all.

“Ah fok, wonderlik.” A grumble in his native tongue, before he shakes his head and reaches to pick up the boards, and the nails that had fallen, with his other hand while the one arm throbs and lines of red from welts form. It’ll be a nice bruise, but no skin had broken, and he considers himself fairly content it was his arm and not his face. Gods knew, Sunjata had endured many broken noses in his years, and he hadn’t planned to keep up with it here in Caido.

Bruises on arms, he could handle.

So with a light hiss, he pushes through it and replaces the broken boards and gets slightly longer nails to hammer them into it, pausing after each layer to ensure it stays. And he hopes, silently praying to Safrin that it’ll stay and not come down again.

---

Sunjata replaces the broken boards and tries again on the third door!

Translation:
Ah fok, wonderlik -- Ah fuck, great.

me and my friends are lonely

i always figured i'd be the one to die alone

SUNJATA

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet Phoebe’s brows furrowed as Remi revealed whose orders he was acting on. ”Really? That butt should get his over here instead considering he is actually a student.” she huffed, crossing her arms. ”I’m gonna make him scrub floors once LongNight is over.” she said, smiling just a bit. She hoped that perhaps being jokingly cross at the summoner might lift Remi’s spirits even a bit. But there wasn’t long to consider that. In the blink of an eye everything came crashing down – literally. She let out a small shriek of alarm, ducking her head as Remi pulled her in. His wings protected her from the force of the books and splintered wood thankfully. ”Yes, I’m fine, are you?” she said, a bit worried since she thought he took the brunt of the blow. She looked over the scattered books and broken bookcase, sighing slightly. ’Yes, I did, but this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Phoebe said, kneeling down to do just that, reorder the books and prepare to put them back in the fixed shelf.

LOREN

When the golem finished its second attempt to simply put up a black cloth up, Loren stepped forward to inspect his handiwork. However, when he got close enough he realized that—perhaps from the initial collapse—there were small tears in the fabric. Sighing, he trudged over to the pile of supplies and picked up a needle and thread. Then he had the golem hoist him up and used his telekinesis to start stitching them closed. This was going to be a long day.

In the other main area of the Temple, Sunjata and Oliver were still hard at work on their respective tasks. However, they would both soon encounter difficulties of their own. Sunjata, perhaps a little frustrated at how difficult this was proving, or perhaps not knowing his own strength, would swing just a bit too hard, and the head of the hammer would break off entirely. Elsewhere in the Temple, perhaps because he was not entirely focused on his task, Oliver would stumble upon a particularly creaky floorboard, which would break underneath him.

Meanwhile, efforts in the College would be similarly hampered. Thankfully, most of Remi’s repair work would succeed. However, perhaps because there were so many to repair and he was rushing a bit or perhaps because he’d simply missed a crack on the bookshelf Phoebe was using, when she stacked all those books on it, the shelf would break in the middle and spill all the carefully placed volumes onto the floor again. And they still hadn't done anything about the door.

-----

Loren discovered tears in the black cloth he was putting up.
Remi's repair job mostly worked, except for the shelf Phoebe was stacking books on.
The moss didn’t seem to want to stay in the crack Oliver was working on.
Sunjata’s hammer broke before he could completely seal the third door.
Phoebe tried to put too many books on a weakened shelf and it broke.

Please post what your character does this round at the bottom of your next reply.

But don’t be weary if it’s broken

Families are like that—

they’re split up and always torn.

so is there any treason in the tricky little price I pay?

i can't open up to you

For a moment he thinks the repair is going well. The next moment he realizes that perhaps he had gotten the best of his strength, and as soon as the hammer hits the nail, the end snaps off. A huff of laughter leaves him in somewhat disbelief. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. He’s sure of it. “Of course.” He notes, to nobody in particular despite the very red bruise forming on his forearm. Shaking his head he disregards that hammer and goes in search of another.

Luckily Loren came prepared, and it doesn’t take him long to find another. He still manages to slip by the space where Oliver has his own small catastrophe, and gives the other man a small nod, moving back to his board and hopefully reinforcing it fully, before he slips back over to Oliver with a new piece of wood to replace the floorboard that had broken. “Let’s rip this one up and put in a new one.” He hums to the pale haired man, pausing to run a hand through his hair and push it back from his eyes.

Then, whenever Oliver is ready, Sunjata’s prepared to help fix the floorboard.

---

Sunjata gets a new hammer and tries to reinforce the third door, before moving over to Oliver with a new board to help him replace it.

me and my friends are lonely

i always figured i'd be the one to die alone

SUNJATA

OLIVER

Things had been going great. He was enjoying himself walking around the floorboards, almost forgetting that he was preparing for a very serious thing. It was a bit relaxing of a task, really. Monotonous, yes, but he liked it. It felt nice to have something super simple and familiar to do, rather than boarding up walls or going down to collapse tunnels.

Well, it WAS nice until all of a sudden the floorboard snapped underneath his weight. Letting out a yelp, he almost completely lost his sense of balance before he was able to steady himself. It was a big true that he was distracted, very distracted. A deep, dark red blush appeared on his face as he stumbled out of the small hole. Quickly looking at Sunjata with wide eyes he tried to act like he hadn't just made a massive fool of himself.

The nod was enough to help him feel a small bit better? He had hopes that Sunjata would come to his rescue and indeed, once Sunjata finished up with the door, he made his way over to Oliver's little accident. "Uh yea...that'd be great." His face was still a beet red color as he fumbles to gather up the broken pieces. "We should make sure that it wont break again...and that it wont make any noise." Loren had made a point about soundproofing and boy would he hate to have the floorboards break in the middle of LongNight.

"I'm almost done with the creaky floorboards...I think. Once you finish you could help me out? If Loren doesn't have any more tasks for us..." Oliver was a bit worried now that he had missed some spots or that he would suddenly break another floorboard. "Lets just fix this up so we can get back to work. Hopefully we can finish it all up before Remi gets back." And so that he could eat soon. Man, Oliver was starving as heck.


Oliver cleans up the remains from the broken floorboard, but not without being startled. He then offers Sunjata to help him finish up the task.

a disaster!

a massive mess

trying to not die

that's the thing about pain // it demands to be felt

"Or maybe during LongNight." The alchemist countered with a grin. Though with how things were about to unravel, it was unlikely Loren would be listening to much of anything Phoebe had to say, during or after LongNight.

"Mmmm, fine." The alchemist agreed with an unsteady breath. As the pair worked to restore the room, Remi heard once again the telltale creaking of wood about to give entirely. Reaching across to try and infuse the shelf with sturdier wood before it could break, Remi found himself tripping over a bit of rubble and instead crashing into the side of the bookshelf instead of steadying it. Rubbing his head and shooting his friend a crooked smile, the alchemist shrugged and sighed wearily.

"If I did not know better I would say someone has sabotaged your shelves." Still, with a smile as boyish and unbothered as ever, Remi repaired this new break and reinforced the remainder of the bookshelves as well with stone at the bottom for support and additional wood within for strength, before reshelving the fallen books.

THE

ALCHEMIST

Table coding by Sky

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet "Oh no, he is cleaning the toilet during LongNight. Have fun scrubbing that in the dark." she huffed as she set the books back on a shelf. But that proved the wrong move too. She startled and jumped back put of the way of the falling books as they clattered to the floor. She groaned and began picking them back up again. "No they are just crappy. I thought I fixed them all up but apparently I did a really bad job." she said, waiting for him to fully fix the shelf before trying to put any of the tomes back in their spots.

LOREN

Miracle of miracles, the rips in the cloth got sewn properly and the cloth itself stayed up this time, and Loren breathed a sigh of relief. After the string of disasters he’d had, he was getting a bit worried that his efforts today might be as cursed as he was. However, at least for now his makeshift handiwork was holding up. It might not stay that way for long, but seeing Remi had rattled the summoner, and he wanted to get this job done as quickly as possible, then escort Oliver to the manor before the alchemist had a chance to return from the College.

Which meant the Launceleyn should probably enlist some help: he made his way over to Sunjata, who had managed to cover the door just fine, and Oliver. Their efforts to repair the floorboard had similarly been quite successful. If they’d continued to explore the Temple, they’d find very few creaky floorboards or holes left to stuff—plus they were almost out of moss—which made Loren’s arrival quite opportune. As the summoner approached, he saw Sunjata’s injury and frowned. ”Here, let me heal that.” Assuming the other man didn’t do anything to stop the Launceleyn, he’d lay a softly glowing hand on the red marks.

”We have to cover the rest of the windows. If one of you can finish the side I started, and the other can finish the entrances, I can take the other side.” Loren had his golem and the rest of his magic so he figured he could work more quickly than the other two men, but hopefully the summoner wasn't giving them too much work. Regardless of what they did, the Launceleyn would head back to start shoring up and putting up black cloths over the rest of the windows.

Remi and Phoebe would be pleased to discover that this time, there were no breaks or crashes or cracks left, and the books and bookshelves would stay where they belonged. However they still had the back door to deal with, as well as whatever else the healer had missed in her frantic rush to get prepared for LongNight.

--

Loren was successful in putting up the black cloths.
Sunjata repaired the door and the floorboard.
Oliver repaired the floorboard.
Remi repaired the bookshelf.
Phoebe replaced the books.

No post order! Please post what your character does this round at the bottom of your next reply.

But don’t be weary if it’s broken

Families are like that—

they’re split up and always torn.

that's the thing about pain // it demands to be felt

Remi chuckled warmly and merely shrugged. "It is not as if you have been busy or anything." He said of the hasty repair job. That, and it wasn't really in Phoebe's repertoire of skills as far as he knew. But what else were friends for.

"Alright. This door. If you are alright with having it sealed shut.." Her last chance to chance her mind, but if not, the alchemist would go about using a multitude of magics to make the door as impenetrable as he could, without making it magical itself. The core of the door was turned into stone while the hinges were strengthened with metal far sturdier than the original. The doorknob was removed from the outside, and the alchemist added stone supports that braced against the interior of the door to help it withstand any shoving from the outside.

THE

ALCHEMIST

Table coding by Sky

OLIVER

The fixing of the hole went pretty fast with the help of Sunjata. Boy was Oliver glad that he had come to his rescue, as well he was pretty glad that he had left the incident unscathed. Very easily he could've twisted his ankle or something.

When Loren arrived to help heal Sunjata, Oliver watched with intensity and wonder. So that's how healing magic worked...incredible. He was fascinated and every part of him wanted to learn more, ask questions, but Oliver knew they had many tasks at hand. Loren continued to speak, directing the two of them to help out with covering up the windows. With a nod, Oliver spoke up. "I can finish the side you were on. I'll just work on the snow moss after that. Speaking of that, I am running a bit low on snow moss." It seemed better to fix the things outside first, allowing him to escape back to the warmth for a small bit.

Walking over to his boots, Oliver slipped them back on before continuing to put on his coat. "I'm almost done with the floorboards anyways. As soon as I'm done with the windows, I'll finish that up." With a nod he walked outside and gathered up the materials to finish off the windows.

Luckily, he had seen which side Loren started on and thus, he made his way over to the next window that needed to be worked on. But first, he took a glance at how Loren had done the previous one before attempting to replicate it on the next window. He made sure to be careful not to accidentally hit his hand with the hammer.


Oliver began work on covering up one of the windows! If it went well, he would continue on to the next one.

a disaster!

a massive mess

trying to not die

so is there any treason in the tricky little price I pay?

i can't open up to you

It’s an agreement that’s easy for Sunjata to make, helping Oliver reinforce the flooring and finding it successful in the end. He focuses then, on helping with the rest of the snow moss, stuffing it into spaces that might freak, that might make something aware of the people dwelling within.

When Loren arrives and offers his help with healing the bright red bruise forming on his forearm, he has no real need to deny it. And he nods his head in answer, letting the summoner apply his glowing hand to the bruise until nothing of the accident is left. “Thanks, Loren.” He rumbles, giving the other man a bright smile, before moving off to work on the other task Loren gives him and Oliver.

It’s easy and quick, for the most part. With no boards involved this time. And he manages to grab the fabric to go toward the entrances. And he begins to work toward covering them with the cloth to ensure no light gets through, that even more sound is muffled beneath the fabric, hoping this task goes well, too.

---

Sunjata goes to cover the entrances!

me and my friends are lonely

i always figured i'd be the one to die alone

SUNJATA

WESSEX

The Queen would be remiss if she didn't come and check in on the preparations for each place; it isn't a lack of faith in the men who lead the efforts, but a way to show that she, too, is working to repair and black out and make sure it all goes according to plan.

Striding through the main door with both energy and purpose, she takes a moment to quietly observe Loren, Sunjata, Remi, Phoebe, and Olliver at their tasks before heading over to the newest stranger and offering him a helping hand with the cloth. Maybe she holds it up while he nails, or she holds the nail itself, as she is unable to feel the pain of a missed strike. Either way, the blonde woman assists in that task and then turns to see what else is going on. "Thank you for helping with LongNight preparations."

There are others who weigh more than she, while can test the snow moss in the floor boards, so she heads to the door Phoebe and Remi are working on. "What's going on over here?" she asks the pair in a curious, non-accusatory tone, quickly trying to note the changes in the Temple - just in case any of them need to be different than they are now.

---------------
Wessex had come to see what yall are up to! If someone could kindly explain the major changes to the Temple, that would be great!

No, I’ll be the stone
I’ll be the hunter, a tower that casts the shade
I lie awake and watch it all