⛧ Aʟʟᴇɴ "ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴇsᴛ" Wᴀʟᴋᴇʀ ★ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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deercountry2022-05-17 12:57 am
likethelight) wrote in deercountry2022-05-17 12:57 am
[open] Sᴀɴᴄᴛᴜᴀʀʏ - May renovations
The Sanctuary - RENOVATIONS START
MAY BEGINNINGS
Following the discovery of a guardian sapling within an abandoned and ruined monastery on the edges of Crenshaw and the sudden growth of purified plant life around it, there's a growing bustle of activity around it. Word of mouth first from the boy who first found it talking with those on the street he knew and had helped before, asking if they might help him clear some of the debris in order to reach it more easily, and then people they told, and so on and so forth. Small, relatively nonviolent and previously animal Beasts have been observed flocking there where they begin to slowly regain themselves, and so inhabitants of Trench start coming as well to see it for themselves. Those suffering corruption or despair come to sit under its boughs and let its tranquil aura help set them at ease. People start chattering on the street, marveling at it and the unprecedented greenery it's brought with it, and begin setting up small shops and carts out front to peddle wares to those who are basically pilgrims. Some are useful... some aren't. Incense is common.
Residents of the Trench and Sleepers both can be found milling back and forth, sweeping, dusting, moving debris, or taking hammer and nail to build anew, and anyone who lingers and looks for too long might be asked to help pitch in and quickly saddled with tools they may or may not know how to use. (It's fine.) Alternatively, someone might try to just slip by and explore to see what else there might be that hasn't been fully uncovered yet.
A white-haired boy in a wheelchair is there almost every day, and most inhabitants if asked "how did this place come to be" would point and say "Ser Allen" seemed to be here first and began asking people he knew to help him start to clear out the debris. Others followed and began lingering around, curious and drawn by the idea that something new might be starting, as well as feeling and marveling at the tree's tranquil aura that now blankets the grounds. If the boy is asked, he'd say it started because of Lady Amaterasu planting one of her trees here and it's something they should take care of. That it was meant to help give people hope and some comfort. "What is this place called?" Well, most people would shrug and look a bit confused as well about that at first. Before answering, finally:
"It's a Sanctuary."
Residents of the Trench and Sleepers both can be found milling back and forth, sweeping, dusting, moving debris, or taking hammer and nail to build anew, and anyone who lingers and looks for too long might be asked to help pitch in and quickly saddled with tools they may or may not know how to use. (It's fine.) Alternatively, someone might try to just slip by and explore to see what else there might be that hasn't been fully uncovered yet.
A white-haired boy in a wheelchair is there almost every day, and most inhabitants if asked "how did this place come to be" would point and say "Ser Allen" seemed to be here first and began asking people he knew to help him start to clear out the debris. Others followed and began lingering around, curious and drawn by the idea that something new might be starting, as well as feeling and marveling at the tree's tranquil aura that now blankets the grounds. If the boy is asked, he'd say it started because of Lady Amaterasu planting one of her trees here and it's something they should take care of. That it was meant to help give people hope and some comfort. "What is this place called?" Well, most people would shrug and look a bit confused as well about that at first. Before answering, finally:
"It's a Sanctuary."
WHAT
Humane beast purification efforts. Renovations begin on a ruined monastery in Crenshaw following the discovery of one of the purifying Guardian Saplings. Join in! Or not! Heckle and pry!
WHEN
Mid-late May
THINGS OF NOTE
➢ only a handful of rooms are currently cleared/accessible.
➢ the guardian sapling/sakura tree is in full bloom
➢ the primary focus is on renovating the space, protecting/cultivating the guardian sapling and cloister, and providing for/protecting those that show up for help with their corruption
➢ community/NPC involvement is heavy, especially at the beginning as more Sleepers are filtering in and taking roles
➢ actual organization around beast purification efforts starts next month
➢ permanent roster and location info HERE!
➢ the guardian sapling/sakura tree is in full bloom
➢ the primary focus is on renovating the space, protecting/cultivating the guardian sapling and cloister, and providing for/protecting those that show up for help with their corruption
➢ community/NPC involvement is heavy, especially at the beginning as more Sleepers are filtering in and taking roles
➢ actual organization around beast purification efforts starts next month
➢ permanent roster and location info HERE!
Courtyard
The heart of the Sanctuary, one of the special guardian saplings planted by Amaterasu. The old monastery revolves around a large courtyard that is surrounded by cloisters, at the center of which is a large sakura tree in full bloom. The whole of the courtyard is covered in greenery and flowers unlike can normally be found elsewhere in the Trench aside from where there are similar such trees, and a pool of forever-pure water looks like it's just waiting for some fish. It's in full bloom this month, and some residents have started trying to make a tea from its petals. It's said to be very relaxing (and delicious, delicately floral and positively... heavenly. But don't drink in excess.)
It's the most common place for both residents of the Trench and Sleepers to be, as its tranquil aura helps soothe one's mind and ease corruption. Napping at its roots or in its branches seems quite popular, and birds and small animals can often be found there, drawn by it. Because of this, one Sleeper has started leading meditation sessions for corruption relief there.
Small and non-violent Beasts also seem drawn in, similar to how they are with the salt lake under the full moon. Twisted little fairies that are not so consumed that they don't still desire to be saved, they can be found resting there before slowly beginning to slip back to their formal selves; perhaps a dove, or maybe mice. Perhaps one could find similar such Beasts, either non-violent or easily restrained, and help bring them there in the hopes that they might also be able to be healed...?
It's the most common place for both residents of the Trench and Sleepers to be, as its tranquil aura helps soothe one's mind and ease corruption. Napping at its roots or in its branches seems quite popular, and birds and small animals can often be found there, drawn by it. Because of this, one Sleeper has started leading meditation sessions for corruption relief there.
Small and non-violent Beasts also seem drawn in, similar to how they are with the salt lake under the full moon. Twisted little fairies that are not so consumed that they don't still desire to be saved, they can be found resting there before slowly beginning to slip back to their formal selves; perhaps a dove, or maybe mice. Perhaps one could find similar such Beasts, either non-violent or easily restrained, and help bring them there in the hopes that they might also be able to be healed...?
INFIRMARY WING
Many of those who have come seeking some sort of tranquility are taxed, injured, or suffering in a way where they may need to rest within the confines of safety. One of the first spaces that has been cleared and made useable is a makeshift infirmary. There are simple beds and cots, a series of rooms for some privacy for those who simply need a clean and restorative place to stay temporarily versus those who need more medical attention. It's no Lumenarium, no place with any advanced medical treatment, but there are basic supplies for treating wounds and illness that have been donated. No one will be turned away, though violent individuals would be... dealt with in order to not be violent or cause harm, and anyone is welcome a bed for a night if it's needed. Some healers filter in and out, and most medicine practiced here is not the blood ministry common in Lumenwood but a mix of Sleeper powers from their worlds and basic aid.
A stockpile has been started for various items known to help reduce corruption or Beasthood as well, notably orbs of hope and a few precious moon drops, though most of those have been reserved for study. Anyone helping to assist, or who gets care, would be asked to just help return the favor for the ill and corrupted by donating what they can when they can.
A stockpile has been started for various items known to help reduce corruption or Beasthood as well, notably orbs of hope and a few precious moon drops, though most of those have been reserved for study. Anyone helping to assist, or who gets care, would be asked to just help return the favor for the ill and corrupted by donating what they can when they can.
KITCHEN AND DINING HALL
Where there are people and the needy there is a need for food! A ramshackle affair currently, lunch and dinner is usually provided in the dining hall for anyone who is helping with the renovations or assisting in some manner, as well as anyone who has come there for aid. All the food is brought in via either donated supplies from local merchants or farms, some Sleepers, and pot luck style.
The kitchens are easy to access though, currently dominated by a stout Crenshaw woman named Abigail who is very thorough in how she wrangles any lollygaggers into chopping mushrooms or gutting fish. No one is safe from her. No one. Heaven help you if you make a mess of her kitchen. She is there almost every day, will lecture a grown man like he's her child, but has a soft spot for young people and will sneak them extra helpings even if she'd deny it. Heaven help you also if you have cooking skills or show any interest in it, because you will find her immediately recruiting you.
Her daughter often comes by bearing a huge bushel of sometimes-questionable "fish", a middle-aged fisherwoman named Joanna.
The kitchens are easy to access though, currently dominated by a stout Crenshaw woman named Abigail who is very thorough in how she wrangles any lollygaggers into chopping mushrooms or gutting fish. No one is safe from her. No one. Heaven help you if you make a mess of her kitchen. She is there almost every day, will lecture a grown man like he's her child, but has a soft spot for young people and will sneak them extra helpings even if she'd deny it. Heaven help you also if you have cooking skills or show any interest in it, because you will find her immediately recruiting you.
Her daughter often comes by bearing a huge bushel of sometimes-questionable "fish", a middle-aged fisherwoman named Joanna.
MAIN HALL
Wide open at the moment, this is used primarily as an open community space at the moment. It leads directly through to the cloisters that surround the courtyard, and so all foot traffic passes through here. At the moment, it's used as a staging grounds for all donated materials that are being used for the reconstruction effort.
Intricate carvings, statues, and faded paintings are throughout the nave and altar area -- but all have been damaged or worn in such a way where it's hard to make out what sort of shrine this was originally, or to whom. Some people will chime in and say it was to Moon Presence herself. Others to Argonaut, or perhaps The Reckoning. Maybe something else entirely, some bygone remnant of another civilization. Who's to say, there doesn't seem to be any consensus or proof yet.
Lunar flowers have begun to grow again around the monastery grounds, so perhaps there's something to be said for it.
Intricate carvings, statues, and faded paintings are throughout the nave and altar area -- but all have been damaged or worn in such a way where it's hard to make out what sort of shrine this was originally, or to whom. Some people will chime in and say it was to Moon Presence herself. Others to Argonaut, or perhaps The Reckoning. Maybe something else entirely, some bygone remnant of another civilization. Who's to say, there doesn't seem to be any consensus or proof yet.
Lunar flowers have begun to grow again around the monastery grounds, so perhaps there's something to be said for it.
What is this? The start of a long term player-based movement of characters pushing for more humane treatment and purification of Beasts using canon and blood magic abilities! Questions? More information, character sign-ups, and questions can be asked over on the location page!
howdy
That the guy is a petite little teen does not deter him; every person in this building besides maybe Viktor has better upper body strength than Palamedes, and Viktor only because he has to hold a cane and so only has one hand free.
Not the point. The point is:] I don't know what a farmhand does. A real farm?
[He's honestly not sure how a farm works... He's never seen one, at least in the traditional sense, which is what he's assuming the guy is talking about. A real farm? With plants? That's fun and novel.
But first, as he gestures down at the statue on the floor, a roughly foot-and-a-half-long thing that's shaped like it might have once been a carved bust of someone important:]
Can you help me lift this thing?
no subject
[A small statue was nothing. He wasn't extremely strong, but unless the statue was made of lead it would be easiest enough to lift. Walking around the piece to investigate it's general shape and where the heaviest parts were, Oscar elaborated.]
And, yeah. I totally worked on my Aunt's very real farm. Mostly with the chores, like feeding the chickens, checking irrigation, making sure the equipment was safe.
[He had also been fourteen at the time-- and driving around tractors before he had a license to drive a car.
Dropping to a kneel, Oscar placed his hands underneath the worn down bust and stood. If his gait was a tad uneven, it was because he hadn't carried an object quite that heavy in a little while. Still, it wasn't undoable.]
Okay. Where are we going?
no subject
Anyway, wow, chickens are real, huh...]
I grew up in a hermetically sealed tin can on a planet with no atmosphere, so you might as well be telling me you worked on your aunt's very real pink cloud boat made of candy. I've never done any of that.
[Wack. It's the kind of mundanity that piques his curiosity, though, all things considered; ever since Anna told him about original Earth, and here and there just living day to day in Trench, the 'ordinary' things people do have been very exciting.
So, irrigating! Fun! He nods down a corridor and gestures for the guy to follow him, turning to walk backwards with one hand dragging along the wall as he goes. He knows where he's going, this is fine - and lugging that thing isn't a speedy journey regardless.]
I'm making my own repository, before someone throws away all these artifacts. Habit. I'm Palamedes, by the way.
no subject
Hefting the statue in his arms, Oscar followed the guy-- Palamedes-- through the corridor and listened to the chatter with obvious amusement.]
We did have candy, though. To send to the nearby dairy farms for the cows. [He chuckled as he recalled the bags of candy his Aunt would give him to bring to their neighbors.] A little ribbon candy can actually be good for them!
I'm Oscar, [he added brightly.] The way you talk sounds like you're an archivist in some kinda weird sci-fi book. How did you get on a planet without atmosphere? How did that even work??
no subject
Or: Palamedes thinks that sounds kind of wrong, but he doesn't know enough about cows (or candy, for that matter) to dispute it. He says,]
Huh! [and then,] Sure, if you say so. I've never seen a cow in my life. Honestly, I'm not sure they're still around.
[How could any farm-raised animal live on half the planets in the Empire, after all, except in very strict lab conditions? Palamedes has never bothered to find out, but if he learned tomorrow that all Imperial food never contained a single cell of real meat, he wouldn't be surprised.
You know, speaking of things that make him sound like he's walked out of a sci-fi novel, a concept that makes him laugh.]
I am an archivist, what else would I care about preserving these things for? [A gesture, at the statue. He'll have to learn about stone and marble preservation real quick, huh...] And I imagine they had constructs put the structure down first and pumped the breathable air in afterwards. I don't know; I was born a couple millennia after the founding. Don't you know what a spaceship is?
[This last part he throws in for the sci-fi novel factor, a little hook... he's been to space, wowie...]
no subject
[Likely because it involved the M-Word. Magic. Not that Oscar was doing y to say this to a stranger on their first meeting. ]
People have tried and failed going to space-- so, it's kinda cool for me?
Anyway. I've got a cow at my place if you wanna meet her. Horses and chickens, too. You can write up notes if you want to... Because you've probably got a lot if you're an actual Archivist.
no subject
It's dark. Space. Once you've seen it from one angle, it's the same from the rest. And the ships are cramped.
[But then, he's Tall, which makes plenty of normal-height spaces kind of cramped. He looks over his shoulder, turns a corner, nodding at an open threshold up ahead, a room with no door, to indicate that's where they're going.
Anyway—] Do you meet many pretend Archivists?
no subject
[Laughter was in his words as he dropped a little taste of teenage sass. Plodding after him, Oscar followed the visual instructions towards the room and awaited more guidance once they were inside. Growing up in the countryside hadn't availed him to many experiences with large libraries within the walled cities-- but, he could imagine and dream.
As far as experience living up to fantasy, this wasn't so bad.]
Space is just... dark? With all the stars out there, you'd think there would be more to see. That's kind of a shame to hear.
no subject
[Haha, his private little necromancy joke. Fun stuff. But, alright-]
I suppose if I feel the urge to meet a cow, I'll stop by. Where, exactly? And put that over here, by the shelves.
[Multitask, as they've arrived in what Palamedes has claimed as his own office, such that a somewhat narrow, high-ceilinged room with no door can be an office. The room is mostly swept by now; dust seems to gather around the edges no matter what, which he has a personal vendetta against for the contents of this room if not for himself (terminally dusty as he appears to be, all the time). There's a large wooden desk at the far end that faces the open doorway, a chair behind it, and two more slightly rumpled and old armchairs in front of it, plush - if faded.
Most of the room is shelves, and most of the shelves are empty. A closer look shows how worn they are, a few bowed in the middle from clearly having kept quite a few books and sundry years and years ago, but since emptied and left waiting. Some of the shelves have new things on them, books of Palamedes' own, a- a doll, possibly haunted- and one shelf in particular that's been especially cleaned and dusted holds nothing but a fountain pen and an inkwell, which doesn't actually seem to be full. One side of the room also features a loft overhead, looking recently-repaired, and there are even more shelves up there. Possibly also a couch or something? It's not clear from this angle.
Palamedes has reserved the space behind the desk for larger objects he means to preserve in storage later on; currently a painting leans against the wall there, under an offwhite sheet, and a few large and variously cracked vases flank it. This is where he gestures for Oscar to put the bust.]
The actual archival process is, well, a process; my personal project isn't exactly the priority of this place. [Shrug! He's only not manically studying art preservation because people keep coming in bleeding out of places they shouldn't, and he's needed elsewhere. Anyway.]
As for space... yes; it's dark. Besides the stars themselves. Granted, I've never been outside the system I'm from.
no subject
Do archivists often sleep in their archive?
[He asked, finding himself becoming somewhat worried. Although. Palamedes was an adult, Oscar recognized the particular type of human that he was. That being: someone whose projects took precedence over everything, including a decent meal.]
I've got the cow, a couple horses, and some chickens at the big green mansion in Gaze. My mentor has... Particular tastes, but he let me convert an old structure into something like a stable.
Just tell whomever answers the door that I invited you. You .. Uh, wouldn't be the first weird adult I've had over for less.
[Then, because he would kick himself if he didn't mention it: ]
I live with Ruby Rose, one of the people running the safehouses and supply caches in town. If you need a place to stay, we can hook you up with something so you don't need to sleep where you work.
no subject
And he has to stop and look up at the loft, brow furrowed, because he didn't think it looked like a bedroom from down here, and he wasn't going to comment on that odd question about archivists and their archives, but...]
I don't live here.
[This room doesn't have a door, he wouldn't be that desperate even if he did need a place to stay. Anyway.]
Do you always call your guests weird? Is it because I've never met a cow before?
[Ha ha, jokes. Really though, is it the cow thing.]
no subject
[Oops. He had meant to make a joke, not be insulting!!]
The coolest people are all a little weird! [He chirped, confident that he had saved the conversation. ]
I just meant I've invited druids who could talk to cows and turn into fire over for strawberry milk. He probably seemed weird to some people, but he's one of the wisest people I've met.
no subject
Relax. You've known me for ten minutes, I doubt I can make that strong an impression in either direction that quickly.
[Maybe don't call people weird though? Someone less chill than Palamedes might actually be offended, who can say. As if to prove he isn't mad he moves over to touch his various art pieces behind the desk, shifting the painting's sheet a little, not really... accomplishing anything, but just checking in on the stuff to make sure no one's wandered through and damaged them more than they already are.
Then, back to the open doorway, gesturing.]
I've got another, if you're interested. And wait 'til you see what I can do with a marker and some blood, then you can decide how weird I am.
no subject
I dunno. You don't seem the type who would write a soap opera starring the chickens in your yard-- if you had chickens.
[He chuckled. Ruby's escapades with the chickens were always something he looked forward to watching and hearing about. They were little fluffy helpers in the yard, they were wise counselors for bad days, they were bizarre little pets that were moody and loud...
They were also family.]
We'll get to the marker thing when we get there.
...I've got time right now, though. Let's go get the other one.
no subject
[Or what counts as a yard when one lives in a bunker under a field? Is the field the yard? That doesn't matter.
He leads the way back out of the office and towards the front rooms of the Sanctuary, where the art has been clustered to wait for someone (so, himself) to do something with it.]
But again: you've known me for ten minutes. I don't seem the type to do anything at this point, except I suppose be weird.
[haha.]
no subject
[It was a legit question. He was living in a green eyesore of a mansion that was overrun with flowering vines and featured a burned out tower. Sometimes, it felt like he was living in his own personal haunted house]
Squid are weird, and we're all squid. That means we're all weird!
[He grinned, cheeky.]
Just tell me what else you need lifted and I'll help.