Losing My Religion - Printable Version +- 'Souls IPB Archive (November 2007–October 2012) (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb) +-- Forum: Dead IC (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=110) +--- Forum: Dead Topics (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=21) +--- Thread: Losing My Religion (/showthread.php?tid=29311) |
- Colibri Haki - 07-08-2012 [html] tl;dr: Coli converts to Norse religion and gets a "tattoo".
She slept on and off that night and the next day, remaining with Lilin. She hated to handicap her younger sister this way, knowing how much the Soulstorm female would worry, but she wasn't ready to return to her empty house just yet. She felt unsettled, ill at ease. She knew she was safe now, but something was still bothering her. Something was wrong internally. Her dreams were an empty void, but she always awoke with an icy fear coiling in her stomach, so intense she would immediately retch from the nausea. Her chest kept throbbing beneath its bandage, and she frequently clutched at it, so sure that it was still bleeding even though the gauze remained pure white. She was starting to feel trapped within her own frail body. Her mind was playing tricks on her.
Colibri found herself holding her breath, awed by the sight of the towering white walnut tree illuminated by moonlight. She had purposely not visited the Sacred Grove at all since the pack's foundation. Religion, and their Godja spiritual leader Miskunn, made her uncomfortable in a way she could not easily describe. She had been born into a religious pack, one that preached of a heaven and a hell after death, angels and demons, things meant to scare her away from a path of wickedness and the sin she was born from. She could not honestly say she believed any of it anymore, because no matter what she did or how hard she tried, misfortune always found her. She clutched at the wound on her chest, convinced it had reopened despite the pristine bandages. Her twisted soul could not be saved after the evil it had endured. This place was too holy for her. Her presence would only taint it.
Miskunn's unflinching gaze flicked to Coli's bandage, the way she was clenching it with white-knuckled fingers. "It is a shallow wound, Colibri. Does it pain you this greatly?" Coli huffed, furrowing her brow. It felt as though her assailant's red-hot claws were still buried in her flesh, digging into her to elicit her pained cries. Her voice left her as the sick memory resurfaced, and she merely gave a curt nod. "You have given it power over you. It will curse you. You must reclaim your body as your own." Miskunn seemed to float away as she stepped lightly into the night. Coli remained rooted in place. She did not want to enter the grove. It would reject her, she was just a vessel for darkness now. She could not change herself, or overcome the weakness consuming her. "M... Miskunn, wait. I don't... I'm not a part of this," she tried to protest, her voice faint. She was trying to say that the Godja could not help her because she did not believe in the gods. She wore Thor's Hammer around her neck because she was proud to have a home, not because she believed in the Æsir pantheon like the Stormbringer clan did.
She sank to her knees, feeling too drained to stand on her feeble legs any longer. It was bad enough she was a wolf with no tail, but for that dog to add insult on top of injury, it had broken her spirit. Miskunn nodded gravely, accepting her breakdown without batting an eye. "No one can remove the scar, for no one can change what happened to you. But... If you will accept my help, I can change your fortune." She gestured to the symbol she had drawn on the ground. Coli drew a shuddering breath, staring at the letter without comprehending what she meant. Then it dawned on her. The rune had a similar shape to the mark branded into her skin. She could not remove it, but...
"Just focus on my voice."
"This is the rune Thurisaz. It is associated with the giants of lore, thorns, and the god Thor whose hammer Mjölnir is around your throat." Her chest was rising and falling with her rapid breaths, legs quaking uncontrollably. The dagger was driven down again, cutting into her as Miskunn spoke calmly over her muffled cries. "It portends many things when used in fortunetelling. Reactive force, directed force of destruction and defense, conflict, instinctual will, vital eroticism, regenerative catalyst, tendency toward change, catharsis, purging, cleansing fire... male sexuality and fertilization."
Panting heavily, Coli pressed her palms against the bloody mark, feeling her pulse against her fingertips. She wrenched her teeth free from the scabbard they sank into, pulling herself into a hunched seated position as she trembled. Without another word, the Godja vanished back into the night from whence she came, leaving Coli alone with her thoughts. Colibri Haki sat there all night, watching the sun rise over the branches of the sacred tree. The dull pain from the cuts faded as the bleeding ebbed, drying on her fingers and chest fur. She could finally ignore it. Something wrought a change in her that night. She was already more devoted to this pack than any other, but it was something more... She wanted to share in the culture, to be a part of something greater than herself. Her gaze was drawn again to the great white tree, no longer feeling it resist her presence here in the grove. She finally had a place where she belonged. She would proudly bear its mark in her hide for the rest of her life. .coli001 b {font-weight:bold; color:#74b09f; letter-spacing:1px; } .coli001ooc {font-style:italic; padding:0px; font-family:Georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#716d76; text-align:left;} .coli001 p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 10px; margin:0px;} .coli001 {margin:0 auto; width:358px; background-color:#fdfcf6; background-image:url(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/ ... oli001.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #fdfcf6; padding: 170px 0px 0px 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#716d76; line-height:12px; letter-spacing:.5px; text-align:justify;} </style> Table by Alli!
|