(LS) Becoming Sanctified
27240
THREADID
19
POSTS
11 - 19
DISPLAYED
|
Albert bowed as he received the Sister's blessing and rose when she finished, smiling honestly and standing a bit taller. "Thank you. It felt good to have been able to do that again. But I suppose we aren't yet finished." He looked to the grave and the second shroud, waiting for the Sister to lead the way, allowing her to set the pace for the next activity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Behind closed eyes and under earth, Minnie simply ponders. Not that she had any shortage of pondering, of course, but in this moment of isolation she stops scheming a moment, stops playing out every deed several steps in advance, stops assessing anything and everything and all the selfish faces and simply... ponders the earth. The press of soil was calming, really, to be so relieved of power for one brief moment.
She may as well enjoy this intimacy with herself while she could.
Well, apart from that bitter stranger who pressed upon her mind to reject this confinement. Or was seeing such dark impulse utterly devoid of opportunity the best part?
Or perhaps she was simply delaying gratification of her next reward, that it would be all the sweeter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Haunt's face grew even more solemn and sombre as she led Albert to the open grave. The other Sanctified were still filling in the first grave as they passed - a rich, loamy, scent rising from the tossed earth. Erica muttered darkly under her breath. Sister Mercedes stopped at the lip of the remaining grave, staring down into it as if she could draw up wisdom from the very earth. Don Matteo appeared at Albert's side, struggling slightly with the voluminous wrappings of the shroud.
"You have lived and you have died. Remember it. You are chained to a terrible demon. Know it. Confront it." The Daeva spoke with practiced ease, enveloping Albert in the shroud like it was a womb or a caul. The last thing Albert saw as Don Matteo's face as he tugged the shroud down over the other's face. For an absurd moment, Albert caught the scent of soap.
"Just a few steps..." the Deacon said soothingly as he guided Albert into the grave.
Albert remained still to let the shroud get wrapped around him until he was wrapped completely in the cloth. The focused on the words, grasping on them firmly with his soul. Confronting the Beast, the embodiment of sin within Man. Meeting and conquering it completely, it was what was required of him as a Kindred. As a servant of God!
"Wait, few steps?" He realised what was happening a moment too late as his foot found no ground below him and brought the rest of his body down with him. He twisted in the air so that he hit the bottom of the grave on his back. "Ow.. Dear me." He is thankful for the shroud covering his vision, he had no desire to see what impression his little trip left on the others.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Albert soon feels the subtle presence and pressure of grave soil, building and building till he can neither speak nor move. Sound itself fades away leaving him to face his thoughts and his demon alone. This is no torporous slumber - this is living entombment, with only the Beast whispering for company.
@Moonfang if you wish to narrate Albert's time in the earth do so now. I'll move on in a couple of days when the Sanctified gather to welcome the new members of their Covenant
Intombment in the truest sense of the word. Earth buried to the point that he couldn't move a limb. Hebrew texts describe Hell just like what Albert was experiencing. An Eternity in a grave without the touch of God. Though this was different.
He wasn't alone.
He could feel it. His Beast. Many others described theirs as a wolf or beast. Some event chose snakes or serpents. For Albert, all he saw was a living personification of sin. One that takes whatever form it needs to tempt and sway the fragile mind of a mortal man.
What are you doing here? Putting your trust in strangers and letting them keep you away from food for so long? They are out to kill you and take what you have!
Fear of the unknown is natural, it is what kept us from swallowing poisons as youths. Albert was not one to go down without a fight however. He rose against his beast and fought it. But we can not always stay within our homes, scared of every corner like a child afraid of the shadows beneath it's bed. Just as we have Faith in God, we must have Faith in the Good in others. It was nothing that would be spoken of like Jacob wrestling with the Angel or Jesus' debate with Satan, but he held firm.
Why continue this charade of following God? Your entire existence contradicts with the Holy Text! This organization is just a sham made by fools to find exuses to follow a fake God! You are a scientist, think rationally! Fear and Doubt, this is as much a tool of the Beast as it is the tool of the Devil.
But Albert did not shake. I am thinking rationally, and rationally I can not dare to say that I know anything about anything. What was 'True' one thousand years ago is no longer true. Every moon rise is a new experience waiting to change what we knew in the past, the same as it was when I meet the sunrise. Just like how God did not describe the universe in minute detail within the Word does not mean the poetic writings like 'Lanterns in the Sky' prove it's fiction, just like how it not speaking of the Americas doesn't prove it's invalidity. So too does it not speaking of the Kindred nature mean that I should abandon it. He could feel the Beast waver, weaken, and he smiled.
But the final strike was the hardest. So then, you subjugate yourself to them? You leave the position of prestige you once held in mortal life and in your time in Europe as the Traveling Monk and become 'Simple Albert Albertson'. You know what they will make you now. An errand boy! A simple page when you have a thousand years of wisdom and experience that makes you their better! You should not be below here, you should be above them! In a tower of your own, feeding yourself the pleasures you deserve, commanding them as you should! You are not Simple, you are no page.. You are a Prince in the making! A King! A GOD!
Albert could see it. Standing at the top of the tower, a glass of fresh blood in his hand as he is donned in robes that would make the Pope green with envy. Hordes of subjects below him, cheering his name and offering themselves freely. Money, power, pleasures of the flesh. It was all there, so close he could taste it. So close, he could feel their adoration washing over him. Then a whisper of a question...
Who am I?
A God-
NO! Albert threw the glass of blood against the reflection in the window before him, shattering it all and leaving him alone with his Beast. I am Simple. For I have been allowed to be tempted. To be swayed by the offer of godhood. To thinking that I know better. "Woe to the clay that questions the potter." Who am I to question my place. Is this not a chance to learn how to be one who is a leader by first learning what it is like to be lead? Did Jesus not spend His time first as a simple babe before He was a Teacher? Was Peter not a simple fisherman before he was a fisher OF Men? So too must I spend my time Simple before I receive my place in time. In GOD'S Time.
You prattle on about God-
I prattle on because I know the Truth. I know God is Objectively Good, Justice, Truth. I know this because I look upon you and I can objectively see everything He is not. Albert was no longer looking face to face at the Beast, but now down at it. Whether within the expance of this space he had grown larger or the Beast had shrunk did not matter, for now he looked at the Beast and felt only pity for it. Know your place, Beast. You will serve Man. And Man will serve God. There is no other Truth for you to know, but this.
With that, the Beast subjected. But Albert knew that it would only be temporary. It would wait for a moment of weakness before it strikes again. But the season for that is in the future. For now, Albert had only the faint sounds of shifting dirt to think on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh, memories. What it must be like for those whom she overheard speak proudly of fond things, to reminisce of pleasure and joy. Minnie was having a hard time remembering what that felt like at the moment.
They always said I was never good enough. And yet they came to me, wishing for this and that. No, they commanded, but I bent to listen, scurried to obey. I was fueling their corruption with my toil, with my deeds. For mine was the sin of Sloth, allowing the sinful to spread their evil. Watching the meek toil for naught. Watching the wicked rule. Watching fires set, hearing a thousand screams...
Minnie rested in the darkness, let the fury flood through her thoughts unimpeded, as the crackling fires so long ago lingered in her memory. And she remembered those she'd seen again so recently. So much terror, and yet so much fascination, had she felt in the afterglow of burning empires.
"Oh people, know that you have committed great sins... if you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me..."
And the wicked shall burn, she thought, and in the dark, warm embrace of earth, she smiled. It had been a little while since she had.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Entombed in the earth, time had no meaning. A day? A year? An Eternity? All passed in lightless constriction, until the sounds came again: the chomp of shovel and the rake of cleared dirt. Darkness became... less darkness. No - starlight muddled by the weak light of lanterns. Hands assisted the great gouging work of shovels; hands that groped for them and pulled them forth.
The Lancea Sanctum had gathered in the cemetery once more, their ranks bolstered from witnesses come from across the bay. After a basic dusting off, the pair were left standing before the company. They all wore stoles (some beautiful and artistic, others simple, quaint and homely). In the silence that followed, Sister Mercedes shuffled to the front; Don Matteo, dressed in a priest-like black himself, flanked her. He carried a box of polished wood.
The lengthening pause died as the remaining Sanctified took up lanterns and marched in a stately procession, once, around the pair.
"Those who have walked in darkness have seen a great light," intoned the Haunt, Sister Mercedes, without any sense of irony. Fumbling for a pocket, she withdrew a small jar and stepped forward, dabbing a smear of ointment on their foreheads. "Now you are anointed to serve your purpose in the Plan Divine."
Don Matteo stepped forward with box while the Sister hid the jar upon her person once more. Gently lifting the lid, she drew a freshly pressed stole from box and placed it around Albert's neck; moving along, she did the same for Minnie. They were simple objects in pastoral green and gold with the Chi Rho wonderfully embroidered at each end.
"Accept these here gifts as symbols of your Authority. You have been called to serve as witnesses; as Wolves who prey upon the flock. The flock are the elect but they can only reach this state through trial and tribulation. And so you have been called to act as Dark Angels, fully cognisant of your estate, so that through you others might rise to Heaven."
There was another long pause.
"And now the sign of peace, to welcome you home." Don Matteo, arms wide, moved forward to embrace Minnie. "Welcome, sister!"
The rest of the company followed suit, swallowing Albert and Minnie in a swirl of bodies. Salvador and Erica both got the hop of Sister Mercedes as they all moved quickly toward. In their eagerness to show up the other, they missed their chance to be the first to reach the Daeva. A swarthy skinned woman whom he did not recognise embraced him instead.
The general merriment continued as the company - Minnie, Albert, and all - moved to a secured house nearby for a celebratory feast.
Minnie and Albert have joined the Lancea Sanctum.
If you wish to continue the scene into the feating and make contacts with the NPCs, now is the time to do so
It took Albert a few moments to be able to move his joints again, the time still making his joins stiff. He takes a few steps forward from the grave before stopping and raising his hands. "Hineni." That singular word he spoke to the heavens, offering himself up with it to the Lord On High. After the ointment and announcements, he couldn't help but be sweapt up into the excitement from the crowd around them. Literally so when the waman embrased him suddenly. "Oh my, hello dear."
Draft this Post
