Flint
The throbbing organ stared down at him with its single unblinking eye. Its veins or perhaps vines formed a web that streaked across the sky like an aurora. This, the domain of the god of love, was intimate and personal, with a sky so low he could almost jump up and touch it. It was small enough to be like his room at the church compound, and yet so expansive and free that it felt an insult to compare the two. It was warm and inviting, if nothing else, and it was one of the reasons he liked the god of love.
"Am I going to be alone forever?"The god of love, as usual, did not respond. Father Dominic said that this was a place for love, and for those without love, it was a place to seek guidance. How the god of love actually guided, he did not know. Father Dominic said understanding its guidance isn't something that can be taught.
He sighed, then asked the god of love a question he had asked many times before.
"Will I ever understand you?"It didn't respond, as usual. At least, not at first. Flint looked down at his hands, at the creases and folds of a short life of suffering and doing god's work, wondering if the god of love actually appreciated his efforts, or loved him like Father Dominic said it did. Shaking his head and lowering his hands, he turned his gaze back towards the sky, towards the god of love, and found it staring directly back at him. It usually looked down on its world in its totality, so it was easy to mistake its sight for its attention, but right here, right now, he could feel it. It was looking at him, and its attention held a power like that of a physical force. It didn't feel like gravity, or any push or pull, but like he was being enveloped by its attention; wrapped up and left wreathed in a force that made him feel like he was glowing.
And then he woke up.
Despite taking a Seed of Eden last night and having a dream about the god of love to show for it, he didn't feel any of the usual headaches that come with it the morning after. Perhaps he was still sleeping, given that he woke up in an unfamiliar blue room alongside complete strangers. Other followers come and go, but he didn't recognize any of them, and perhaps more telling, none of them were sharing a bed. Maybe not followers at all, then.
Although his strange surroundings were worth investigating, it had to be Father Dominic moving him to a new compound overnight without telling him or something. It's hard to wake followers while they're communing with the gods, so while this has never happened before to him specifically, it made perfect sense that it could. It seems... much bigger than their last place. In any case, there were things that are more important than understanding, such as saving these people from the evils of money. Though, as he surreptitiously did a visual check on everyone's pockets, analyzing the shapes of the bedsheets for their contents below as necessary, he found that everyone's pockets were empty. Perhaps they had already cleansed themselves, which would point to them being believers after all.
Not particularly wanting to wake the others, he decides to head over towards the metal door he could spot on one wall. He wanted to ask Father Dominic where his art supplies were moved, and also why he decided to get a place where everything was blue, but before he could make it all the way there, a loud gasp behind him gave him pause as one of the other people here woke up rather dramatically.
Radcliff
Jericho's music always made a party feel like a party. Even if his friend group weren't the type to do any dancing, it helped set the mood, which made a big difference whenever he brought his friends out on his boat because none of them liked fishing like he did. Everyone but Stephanie certainly liked the fish though. Stephanie's vegetarian. He packed tofu just for her.
Things were winding down for the night. The sun was setting, and as he felt a tug at the end of his line, he stopped mid-conversation to reel in a nice yellowtail to go with the tuna he had caught earlier. It was about time he got started on dinner, which meant prepping the fish, putting away the inedible parts, (tossing them overboard isn't good for the sharks) and cleaning up the resulting mess. After finally getting everything ready, he tossed the tofu, then fish onto David's grill, because he wanted to try barbequing on a boat, and it was going pretty well.
His friends were just complimenting the smell when a crack of thunder sounded overhead. It was odd, since the skies had been mostly clear all day, with only a few clouds. Still, looking up, instead of the orange to purple to starry black gradient of a late sunset sky, he found himself right underneath a gathering of dark clouds. It was very strange, considering the forecast had been for no rain, and there wasn't even a hint of clouds coming their way during the day, except, no, there it is. It only came down in small droplets at first, though he could see, off in the distance, more intense rain disturbing the ocean's surface a ways away, albeit creeping closer. He handed the tongs to David, telling him to make sure nothing burns as he headed to the boat's helm. It may not keep them out of the rain completely, but it should buy them time to finish barbequing the food before bringing the party below deck. Despite his best efforts, however, the rain's approach ended up being faster than the boat, and within half a dozen minutes it was pouring. Given that it was headed towards shore and he didn't want to wander off into deeper waters to maybe avoid it, he would probably have to call off the plans to stay out overnight, since it came with winds that made the water choppy. His friends had gotten their sea legs but they still didn't like sleeping on a rocking boat in a storm. He stepped away from the helm to check on everyone, finding that the fish and tofu had been saved successfully, only for the boat to experience a sudden shake, as if bumping into something. If it was a rock, it definitely wasn't on sonar a moment ago, and he almost wondered if he imagined it when the others peeked out to check if everything was okay.
A few of his friends came out to make sure part of the boat wasn't suddenly missing, with Jericho going the extra mile of checking the exterior while David simply tried to secure the grill even further with a roll of duct tape Cliff had brought on board for this specific purpose. Jericho almost fell overboard from the boat's rocking, but eventually found that the boat's propeller had been wrecked by whatever that bump was. A whale, maybe? He set his jaw and told everyone to buckle down because things would get bumpy. His boat wasn't that tiny or fragile, but it wasn't meant to sail rough waters either, and they were still miles from shore. He could maybe do temporary repairs on the propellers with a lot of duct tape or something; just enough to get it to a state where it could take them to shore without self-destructing, but the storm had picked up shockingly fast, and the waves were starting to dump water onto the ship whenever it approaches one at a bad angle. The ship would be fine, but repairing the propeller would take a bit and the water could drag him, or others, overboard. He decided it was time to send out a mayday, in case the storm just continued getting worse.
Naia didn't come out at first, but eventually followed him back to the helm to make sure things were okay while the others headed below deck. While things kind of weren't okay, he tried not to worry her. He was able to reach the coast guard and they were going to send out a tugboat, but when their own boat tilted forward at around a 60 degrees downward angle, things started to get worrying. Naia had to basically lock him in a chokehold as she held onto him while he held the helm with a white-knuckled vice grip. All in all, they had made it out of that just fine, though the wall of water to follow tipped the ship over ninety degrees up as it failed to breach the top before the boat tilted backwards. The wave crashed down over the bottom of the boat as the ship fell back into the ocean at an angle that forced it to capsize. As the top of the ship hit the water, Radcliff fell out of his chair, Naia still holding on tightly, and hit the ceiling head-first, knocking himself right out.
And then he woke up.
Radcliff's awakening was a violent thing. He gasped awake covered in a cold sweat that his disoriented mind mistook for ocean water for a second. After shaking off a sudden unexplained drowning sensation, his mind jumped to his friends, not coherent enough to slow down and analyze. Blue bed sheets? Irrelevant. Other people? Then, they should be here, right? Without even catching his breath, he called out,
"Naia? Jericho? David? Steph?" Where are they? He called out to them once more, practically yelling as he scanned the room and failed to find them, panic winning out over logic.
"Naia!? Jericho!? Da-" He cut himself off as he saw someone else who had woken up before him, standing next to a door at a far wall who was giving him a weird look. He tried to stop and format his thoughts in a coherent manner, and failed.
"Where- they were just-" He stopped to catch his breath, still breathing raggedly, before bringing a hand to his forehead in a futile effort to forestall an oncoming headache.
"Where the hell am I?""...I'd kinda like to know that too." Flint glanced at the others that were waking up from all the commotion.
"I take it it's the same for you guys?
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