(LS) Becoming Sanctified

[Yumyumcrow]

The appointed time had come. The arrangements had been made. Under cover of darkness the Sanctified claimed the little cemetery and prepared it. The graves had been dug during the day but the ritual accoutrements still needed to be laid out: the funerary shrouds; the garlands of flowers; the thick candles to be held by the congregation. The cemetery was tiny: once it had been a family plot, but the family hadn't lasted that long; astute listeners to the city's bureaucracy had already heard of rumours to close the cemetery and move the occupants elsewhere.

Here, in a place set aside for the dead, that itself existed on borrowed time, new Sanctified would be raised. The cycle of renewal-in-death would continue.

The gathered company was slightly smaller this time. Catalina had not turned up; Don Matteo shrugged and Sister Mercedes had sighed, mumbling about "lost children" and had complained bitterly about her attraction to the spawn of babylon - meaning the Ventrue, Flood - while Don Matteo had nodded and said nothing. Perhaps the Daeva was aspiring to Sanctified Sainthood - he certainly had the patience to put up with the Priests whining. Erica and Salvador were by now used to this interplay and had screened it out while they played out their own silent power struggle - a rivalry demonstrated in their efforts to assist laying out the theatre of initiation.

All of this was silenced when those to be initiated arrived.

Moonfang Princess

[Moonfang]

"Oh my, how grim." Albert couldn't keep his words to himself once he saw the sight. His smile wide as he looks around at the procession, "My my, it feels like I'm at Mass again. Everything feels of ritual and that little bit of mysticism that always surrounded God's ways." It was hard for Albert to hide his excitement, even as he tried to get a look into the graves out of curiosity. He fiddled with his cane, one moment tracing the lines on the head and the next twirling it softly in his fingers. His attire tonight spoke differently than prior. When then he wore what was considered 'Sunday Best', he now wore something that born from a different time.

His clothes were simple, a light brown shirt and pants with a simple belt. Aside from the cane he bore no accent on his person. Even his shoes were built more for comfort than appearances. Though his hair and beard were perfectly cleaned and trimmed, he had all the appearances that he was about to kick back and read a book at home. Yet, if he did feel that he might be underdressed, he made no attempt to show it. He kept a smile even as he looked to his friend. Or one he considered at least. "Are you excited as well?"

[Princess]

Minerva arrived, precisely open the agreed upon moment, dressed in her sunday best - a muted, precise, careful outfit ever so slightly dated in simple whites and greys. It would have been the height of understated fashion several years prior - which made it simply understated on this night, the novelty gone. She could've been invisible, if she hadn't purposefully wanted to be ever so slightly noticed.

"Good evening to you all. I do hope the evening treats you well?" she asks, her crisp drawal lingering in the air while she subtly looks about for who might respond first.

To Albert, she offers, "I do indeed look forward to our matters tonight."

[Yumyumcrow]

"All is well," Erica made a smile and something a welcoming gesture.

"How can it not be. We wait to welcome more Sanctified to the cause," Salvador added. "See the shrouds are ready and the graves prepared. Rebirth in the Lord's purpose awaits!"

"We gather to anoint the Dead with new Purpose in the Plan Devine," Sister Mercedes jumped in as Don Matteo opened his mouth. "Cleansed through trial you will rise again on the morrow with new strength in the Lord's embrace, as holy Sanctified. For those who wish it, the soul can be further unburdened through the sacrament of confession." By the light in her eyes, the Haunt was enjoying the theatrics.

Don Matteo shut his mouth and busied himself with one of the shrouds - a voluminous thing littered with subtle Catholic and Masonic references. "We are the Dead. The unliving. To truly appreciate what we are, must we not return to the Earth. We are of dust and ashes, you see - our Bishop says so, at least. You'll face yourselves - your Beast for a day and a night. Tomorrow, we raise you as hunters with Devine sanction." He cast his gaze over at Minnie, as Albert had moved behind him to where the graves had been dug.

From his vantage point, Albert could tell the graves were professionally dug - not shallow, but not deep by any means. No coffins - perhaps the Sanctified resources didn't stretch quite that far; perhaps they were meant to literally lie within the earth.

[Princess]

"Let us begin, then," Minnie states coolly, proceeding to the apparent hole in the ground in which she should wait.

She'd been buried twice before. It really wasn't a big deal.

[Moonfang]

Albert softly chuckles to himself once the announcements were made. It all felt completely like he was back in Mass and it left him feeling more and more giddy. When mention of a shroud was made, he walked over to them and gave them an examination. "Well now, this reminds me of the one in Turin. I wonder if we will be able to recreate the image," Albert mostly muttered to himself the last bit as he looked over the markings on the cloth. "Now, you said Confession," Albert looked to the Sister curiously, "are we to speak of the sins as written in the Bible or the ones mentioned in the Testament? I"m rather curious of your opinions on the matter, if we are to still follow the Covenant given to Man?"

   one success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-04-04 22:20:24		Albert rolls 5 to study the Shroud. (10 Again)		9, 3, 6, 2, 4		1 success

[Yumyumcrow]

Sister Mercedes watched as Minnie made her choice. The Haunt passed a slight nod to Don Matteo and then turned her attention to Albert.

The shrouds are simple affairs with basic, if lovingly worked, symbols woven into them. There was a masonic style skull, a chi rho, an equilateral cross and a few choice gospel references expressed as book: chapter: verse. The general effect looked somewhat amateurish, but whoever had attended to the needlework had done so with love and reverence.

"That choice I leave to you. What Sins do you carry that you feel must be unburdened before you are reborn with Divine Purpose?" She responded simply, a glimmer of interest sparking in her eyes. She had been in the process of taking up one of the shrouds but paused now, her head inclining delicately to a private spot away from the others.

At the priest's urging, Don Matteo took up the other shroud and began to wrap Minnie in it. "You have lived and you have died. Remember it. You are chained to a terrible demon. Know it. Confront it," he intoned. He gestured for Minnie to take one of the graves; with another, he indicated that Erica and Salvador were to begin refilling it.

[Moonfang]

Albert stroked his beard in thought at the Sister's question, taking serious consideration for the first time in a long time. He looked to Minnie who was preparing to be buried. "Do excuse me," he said before he walked over to the private location. When he arrived there, he took a seat on the first thing he found and waited until the Sister joined him, making full use of the moments to collect his thoughts.

"I suppose," he started, pausing as he tried to find the words, "I suppose I should start with my shortcomings." Lowering his head and setting it against the joining of his two hands, he solemnly said, "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned." All at once, he could feel his mind flashing though the countless prior times in his lifetime that he had said that, and found an unbearable chasm between now and the last time he had allowed himself to utter the words. He spilled open, hoping to fill in the space between now and then.

"It has been far too long between now and the last time I visited the House of God with intention of being with Him. I keep the Holy Word with me but rarely do I open it except as a reference material. I have sentenced myself to a life of isolation, keeping away all personal connections." Albert seemed to stop speaking to Sister Mercedes and now spoke to Heaven itself. "Failing to spread knowledge of Your existence. Failing to offer my knowledge, experience and skills for their betterment. I did worse than not teaching them to fish. I failed to even feed them when I could have had the chance. I allowed sin and debauchery to take hold and did nothing to hinder it in the slightest."

He was quiet for a moment as realization dawned on him, "And worse yet.. I lied with Your name. I came here, saying to everyone and myself that I was going to heal the plague in Your name, but in truth, it was my pride that I was fulfilling. Father.. Can I be forgiven?"

[Princess]

Fascinating.

It rather summed up the entirety of her response to Albert's apparent "grave confession" seeming rather, well, bland. Not his intent of course - his sincere passion seemed so at odds with the vague confession. Tactics? A carefully constructed ruse for the benefit of some as yet secret goal? Because the alternative is that a dead man who drank blood actually felt sincere regret for every little error he'd ever made, and just admitted to it. And that was hard to fathom.

Of course, Minnie knew the opposite side of the matter was hers to deal with - a thousand horrors and she couldn't muster the notion to actually say a word. I watched my sister's home burn down. It smelled like pork.

But this ritual grave wasn't going to fill itself, now was it? She had important matters to attend to and self reflection always spun in circles when the best results came from straight lines. So with great calm, Minnie turned her face to Don Matteo in careful consideration and offered him simply, "Thank you, sir," before she laid herself down in the hole, and slowly closed her eyes.

[Yumyumcrow]

Sister Mercedes drifted behind the Daeva; head bowed, saying nothing. She moved to one side when Albert found a place to sit. There was only silence when he finished his lamentations. The Haunt broke the silence with:

"By the Grace of God and the example of Longinus, I absolve you of your sins," she intoned, her right hand raised in benediction. She made the sign of the cross over him, and continued: "Tonight you experience the long night of the soul. You will be purged and raised to new purpose. You know your sins. They are washed away. But do not forget them. Remember the Word is not a book for it is written on your soul and in your blood and in your deeds; you allowed debauchery and sin to sprout like a weed - I tell you that from when your ministry begins, you shall be as a gardener unto the kine. You shall clear the weeds away."

Erica and Salvador were insipid workers; the grave filled around Minnie with a painful slowness. If she had been kine, the experience would no doubt have been of long, drawn out terror; the Mekhet actually found it somewhat pleasant. The clods of earth teased her and the shroud wrapped around her gave off a faint aromatic scent. Even the disturbed earth carried a scent. The weight of the soil slowly bore down upon her, locking her in place. The sounds of the surface faded away into indistinct muffles and then silence.

Suspended in time and space, Minnie was left alone with her thoughts... And the shadowy thing that had stalked her ever since her Embrace so long ago. Minnie found that her repose was surprisingly comfortable - it would not take much more for her sleep back into the sweet arms of the Long Sleep, should she have wished it.