Prayer Box

[fromthefog]

This is a place to send your prayers to the Fog god. She may not always respond, or she may respond in ways you don’t expect, but she is always listening.

Speak, she hears you.

OOC note: As of April 2020, threads with the gods will be capped at three NPC replies! Please keep this in mind when writing god prayers to make sure you get everything you need out of the thread. It’s also possible to handwave prayers by titling your comment HANDWAVED PRAYER. Handwaved prayers lack our usual flourish, but you can expect a faster response!

As of February 2024, god prayers will be handwaved only. Please only submit a prayer if you have a question for either god which needs answering in order to progress your character's arc within Ryslig. If this is something you need to tier up within the god boon system, or just to set up a player plot in general, please don't hesitate to submit a prayer about it! You may shorten it down to an OOC summary of what your character is asking. This will allow any of our helper mods to reply much faster, without having to dig into the specifics of either god's personality/writing quirks. Should this limitation be lifted again in the future, this note will be removed.

Comments

[devilsproof]

[Strand's Watch is a place of significance to her, even more so than any body of water would be. Her voice is still gone, so she makes do: on her hands and knees in the sand, she draws a magic circle with her fingertip. She does it immaculately. The writing is Hebrew but, as all language is, it's translated here. What god is so great as our God?]

[As she draws, she sends her thoughts to the Fog.]

In all of my thousand years, no one ever solved my truth. All of my puzzles were solvable, but it was only in my final dying moments that someone began to see me. I have been endlessly circling Purgatory for all of my days. I was never capable of living like a Human. None of us were.

When you brought me here, I felt nothing. I had welcomed death. There was nothing for me on either side. You took my magic and gave me this new body, and I was glad for it, but still I felt nothing. It was not my home.

But now you've done it. You've reached into one of millions of Fragments and plucked out a miracle, a paradox, a creature that could never live alongside me. We are diametrically opposed, yet seeing them makes my life mean something. Even though you fought the world trying to break your rules on your game board, you brought Ushiromiya Lion back to me.

Why? Why would you do this for us? Why would you save us from loneliness in this way?

[fromthefog]

[The magic circle lights up--a dim, flickering glow, but it illuminates the sand nevertheless. With Beatrice's thoughts come an echo of an ancient, powerful voice of unspecified gender. There is an implicit knowledge that the entity that speaks is the Fog, and that Beatrice is being scrutinized under her gaze.

She is tired--that much is apparent from the way her voice wavers like the ebb and flow of the tide. But she musters what she can to give her child a response.]

I cannot always control the resources available to me--this is something that I have been denied by the false god. But if the opportunity presents itself, why should I not attempt to allow my children some form of happiness? To give them a chance that they were unable to fulfill in their previous life?

[She pauses. The circle continues to flicker like a dying flame in the ashes of a campfire.]

This is the truth of this world, my pet. I bring you and the others here to give them a new life, new opportunities--to change and grow beyond what confined them in their original forms. It is a transformation that extends far beyond your physical body--something that many of my children have yet to understand.

[devilsproof]

[As she stares down at her circle — their circle, the one she has created and the Fog has brought alight — she reaches down with her hand hovering over it, not quite touching, not wanting to destroy. But to be close. That's all she wants.]

[Witches are solitary, independent, defiant, contrary creatures. This hasn't changed about Beatrice just because Lion is here now. She feels the love, but in some ways still cannot trust it, simply because love is wired into her in a way that hurts. But she's trying. That's the difference between who she was last month and who she is now — she's willing to try for the being that did this.]

I believe you. I believe that you want that. And I want freedom for myself and for them. We have both been chained down for so long, even if no one else saw our chains.

Tell me what I can do for you. To make you stronger, or to thank you, or to serve you. I don't serve well, but I want to try. I want to repay this endless debt.

[fromthefog]

[A small chuckle bubbles up, slowly becoming a breathy, slightly weary laugh.]

All I ask, my pet, is for you to live freely, as you were always intended to live. This is enough for me. I do not ask my monsters of much, although, if you so wish to express your gratitude, who am I to turn down a gift from one of my children? And if you so choose to express your gratitude, it will not be ignored. I shall grant you newfound strength and power.

[There's another pause. Beatrice can feel the Fog's gaze upon her, as if considering the monster before her, analyzing her to the best of her ability in this weakened state.]

If I had but a small amount of my power granted back to me, well--it would allow me to extend my reach further. The false god's meddling is why I suffer as I do now. Had it not been for his interference, the rift would have been sealed effectively, and I would not have given up as much of my energy to do so.