Something missing

Now that he had his Dagger upgraded and he'd gone back to poke around the Hollowed Grounds with Maea, Tal finally had time to sort out what was weird about it.

Everyone said there used to be shrines to the old gods there, but no one knew where to find them anymore. And maybe it wasn't any of his business, and it should probably be someone else's problem but...

Hail. He just couldn't leave it alone. The old gods had done pretty good by him, and maybe this time he could give something back to them. Besides, with all the void critters wandering around, Caido could use all the help it could get.

He'd been to quite a few shrines in his travels, but there weren't many that served all the gods, so it was that the courier made his way back to the Celestine one warm and sunny Longheat afternoon. Within the gardens the gentle twilight shifted the perception of time, giving the area around the shrine with its musical water gardens and blooming flowers an otherworldly feeling that itched between Tal's shoulder blades as he cleared his throat and began setting out offerings on the altar.

A hollow three dimensional star carved of white wood, all of one piece though its arms extended in several directions was set beside a basket of fresh raspberries and two clay jars of cream and honey. Boreal carried over a small stuffed dog that Tal had outgrown years ago but kept in a cherished chest of memories and laid it gently beside the rest, grumbling encouragingly as her human took a deep breath and then reached back into his Bag. A reindeer's thigh bone that had been carved into a flute was placed above the stuffed dog. A small rock with a trilobite fossil perfectly preserved was set above the basket of raspberries alongside an egg. Finally, Tal set a jar with holes in the lid above the wooden star. Inside the jar was a twig with several flowers and a living butterfly with vibrant blue wings that fluttered slowly as it thought its strange, butterfly thoughts at its current lot in life.

Tal knelt and drew in a deep breath before starting his prayer.

"So, I'm prayin' to... to all o' you old gods today. Safrin an' th'Freys an' Ludo an' Vi an' Mort an' Rae... yeah. I wanted t'pray in th'Hollowed Grounds but I couldn't find a shrine t'any o' you there. Is that somethin' that matters t'you? I'd be willin' to..." He paused, scowled, and shook his head as he battled to keep his foot out of his mouth for once. "I mean, it'd be an honor t'help out. If that's, y'know, somethin' I can do for you?"

(Generic prayers are rolled for to see which god answers)

Warm winds gather around the courier and his companion as the air grows thick and electrically charged as if a storm was brewing directly overhead. The foliage seems to shrug and sigh, becoming suddenly dense and blocking the shrine from the eyes of anyone happening to pass by.

Appearing like the unfurling of a seed lays Frey, on their back, with fingers already plunging into the honey and then the cream. It's a messy endeavor, but not one the deity seems to mind at all. Entirely naked and with an appearance perfectly cultivated to whatever the utmost desires of the man before them happened to be, it was with a sly smile and curled toes that they lazily regarded Talyson. "You certainly came prepared." They purr, nodding toward the various offerings, noting how each herald and god was accounted for.

Raising their fingers to their mouth, they paint their lips with the honey-cream mixture before licking it slowly away.

Huh. Tal figured out pretty quick that this wasn't the aspect of Frey that he was used to praying to when the god - always sexy - was suddenly ramped up to a whoa on a scale of one to ten. The courier swallowed hard, remembering another day in the Celestine when he'd almost drowned, and this particular vision of divine loveliness had swooped down to pluck him from the waters and deposit him safely in Finn's tender care.

He should stop by and say 'hi' to Finn after this...

But first, being properly awed and distracted as the god sampled their offerings. The courier felt the back of his neck heating up and he cleared his throat carefully, trying to keep his gaze respectful on account of just who Frey resembled at the moment.

"Yeah, I figured... didn't want t'hurt anyone's feelin's, so... an' since it involves all of you..." He shrugged awkwardly as Boreal crooned a happy greeting, her usual low rumble warm and content at his side. Tal rubbed her head absently, and fanned himself with his other hand. Was it getting hot around here, or was it just Frey? "I mean, I'd heard about people buildin' shrines in th'past. Did all the old gods' shrines in th'Grounds get destroyed in th'War?"

Crossing one leg over the other at the knee, Frey began to write lurid poetry in the air with their toes whilst the other hand busied itself creating a comet of goosebumps along their navel. "As you can imagine the Voice wasn't too keen on having us at the beck and call of anyone still in the grounds, so." They reply with a shrug.

"And now it seems Dygra's children have taken up residence there. No wonder Vi has his panties in a twist." They add, before lazily reaching for the raspberries. "It was his favourite land, once upon a time."

The poetry was more than a little distracting and Tal kept darting curious glances at it while trying to focus on what the god was saying. It was easy to feel awe in the presence of (in Tal's humble opinion) divine physical perfection, but it didn't make for the easiest conversation partner. And just what was Their hand implying with all that belly-button teasing...?

Tal licked his lips, but then his face screwed up into a complicated expression as he was suddenly met with the unexpected theological conundrum of Vi's panties, twisted or otherwise, that had somehow never come up in his religious upbringing. It was the sort of mental image that momentarily derailed all other thought and for a moment Tal.exe locked up as his eyes glazed over.

Boreal sensed her human's battered and rather scruffy brain freezing over and she took matters into her own jaws, twisting her head around to take his hand in her teeth and biting down gently. Not enough to bleed, just enough to bring the courier back around in time to rejoin the conversation with his usual sparkling wit.

"Uh... really? Huh." He shook his head, prying his hand out of his dragon's jaws and surreptitiously checking to make sure he still had all his fingers. "But Dygra's not... not like th'Voice, right? She's not goin' t'try an' attack you guys an' your shrines like Ol' Sparky did?" His brow furrowed in consternation as he groped for a little reassurance in a world that had become dangerous enough under the influence of the Void without adding in a second godwar to the mix.

"Mhmmm." Frey humed, and as they did so, Tal would feel the buzzing sensation on his own lips as well. "The Grounds was his favourite before it all went," turning slyly, Frey looks suggestively at the courier as their hands roam up their body. "-tits up." Against his chest the courier would be treated to the phantom traces of the deity's fingertips ghosting along his skin beneath his clothes.

"She's definitely no Voice, no. But who am I to say what Dygra will or won't do? You know what they say about those who assume." A smile tugs at the herald's words. Shrugging their shoulders, Frey turns their attention back to the offerings and plops another raspberry into their mouth.

A shiver ran right down Tal's spine, from skull to tailbone as ghostly fingers slid pleasant trails beneath his Vest. "Uh..." He wasn't used to shrine visits going like that, that was for sure! And the sensations Frey was... sharing? with him weren't bad, just... kind of weird. Took some getting used to.

Though the courier couldn't stop the grin that flashed, boyish and unrepentant across his face at the deity's choice of phrasing.

The grin faded a little as Frey offered honesty but little comfort, and the courier's slightly constipated expression of deep thought returned, as though he was wrestling an idea into submission. He wasn't quite sure if that last little bit was meant to make fun of him or not, but hail, if a god wanted to get a good chuckle at his expense, he wasn't dumb enough to protest.

And if Frey was just making dirty jokes, well, the courier was at least taking subconscious mental notes.

"So, uh... I guess I don't really... understand?" Chewing his lip, Tal tried to keep his attention focused on his prayer and his attempted quest, and off the delightful shape of Frey's nose. "Do gods even care about shrines? Or I guess... gods other'n Vi an' Safrin?" Was he just barking up the wrong tree, trying to meddle in something way bigger than himself?

Languidly, Frey shrugs their shoulders. "What use is a shrine in a region where there is no one to use it? The Grounds have gone to the Ancients." For the most part, anyway. "You would be better off asking my more self-admiring counterparts. Much as I like the opportunity for you all to come to me,  I'm not bothered if a lack of shrines makes it hard. There's something to be said for a little effort, no?" Letting their eyes slide back towards Tal, they offer him a feline grin for his confusion.

"You don't live in the Grounds either, so why do you care about what shrines bear witness to whose bended knee?" Raising a brow, they exhale slowly. "There also isn't a shrine for me in your new home. Or to Ludo and Mort, as it happens. And yet you focus your attentions north."

Tal's expression fell, turning more and more glum at what he interpreted as Frey's lack of interest. Not even the unsubtle innuendo - usually the kind of humor that was right up the courier's alley - could crack more than a weak smile from him. He reached up to rub the back of his neck, eyes falling down to the altar as the deity posed their questions, and all he could offer was an awkward shrug.

"I mean, as for me, I travel a lot, y'know? Yeah, King's End is home now, but it's just... it matters, havin' some place t'say a prayer when I'm makin' deliveries in th'Grounds, same as here or Torchline or Halo." He swallowed hard, and Boreal pushed her head up under his hand. He began to scratch at the base of her horns automatically. "But I dunno if I'm th'only one..." Noah aside, there were other non-Ancients who came to the Grounds for business or curiosity or just to meddle pass through... weren't there? Though maybe it didn't matter to them about having a shrine to visit while they were in the area? Frey's questions preyed upon the courier's self-confidence, and his shoulders slumped.

"Look, I think Sunjata's workin' on a shrine t'you in King's End, an' I'm hopin' he'll let me help with it but..." But maybe not, since Sunjata was sworn to sex Frey and Tal was more of a nature Frey kind of guy. Though they were both technically 'Frey' so... was it the same shrine in the end?

Trying to parse out the dual nature of the deity gave Tal a headache at the best of times, and at the moment he was under too much pressure to sort out that particular theological quandary.

"... But I'm kinda afraid o'stepping on th'Archon's toes. Meddlin' in a demigod's business feels, uh, real dumb." Even for him. And he really didn't want to have to move again so soon!

Yawning, the deity could only shrug before reaching for the honey pot and drizzling the remainder onto the raspberries. "Well if that's the case, maybe you should go speak to Noah about your concerns. He's the one meant to be babysitting the Grounds, isn't he?" If toes were the courier's prime concern, there were almost no lands wherein some demi or other didn't have a vested interest.

Still, that Frey didn't care didn't mean it wasn't within their ability to give the courier what he wanted, and sometimes even if that came without pleasure, Frey was more than happy to let those who bowed their heads before them to learn from their own mistakes.

"Speak to everyone in the Hollowed Grounds. If they all say yes to a shrine, you know how important consent is to me, then build the alter as you see fit. Only once you have christened the shrine in a manner that I would find appropriate, then call my name."

Rising, the full aura of their sexual magnificence heightened, they moved towards the courier. That arousal came in all shapes and scenarios was not something the god was ignorant of nor even displeased about, but the deity had split into two different interfaces that those of Caido might be able to worship where they felt most comfortable. That such an important prayer had been left to fate was not something this iteration of Frey appreciated.

"Think carefully, courier, before you find yourself on your knees calling out to anyone who will listen." Frey whispered standing close to Tal now. "Selecting the best partner for the things you want is a crucial step in finding yourself pleased at the end of it, mm?" So saying, the deity disappeared in what sounded like the slap of leather followed by the scent of a candle blown out.


~FIN

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Talyson has been given a quest to build a shrine in the HG! He must

1. Speak with every resident and have them agree to the shrine
2. Build the shrine (PQ)
3. Christen the shrine in a manner befitting (sex) Frey.