The Church and Its Orbs - Why Not?
More The Church and Its Orbs experimental possibly-canon stuff. I hope you enjoy!
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“You know, I don’t see why I can’t have a drinking problem if I want,” Kai says. He doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore.
“What?” I mutter, putting a hand on my hip.
“I don’t see why I can’t drink ‘too much’ if I want. It’s not like it’s going to kill me,” he says, smiling and looking way too satisfied. “I am a god.”
“Exactly,” I huff. “You’re supposed to be better than we mortals. Why don’t you act like it and take some responsibility?”
Kai should be better than this -- I know he can be, since he helped us uncover the Church prostitution scandal. So why does he prefer drinking?
Pain flashes across Kai’s face, intense enough to scorch the air. His eyes burn with fire, unnatural bright spots in the darkness. “Don’t go there,” he says, turning those fiery eyes on me.
Most of the time, Kai looks human enough I can almost forget he’s a god, but his face holds no trace of humanity now. He wants to scare me off, so I stand my ground. “I’ll go where I need to go,” I mutter.
He glares at me, promising regret if I don’t stop talking. “You need to back off,” he says.
“I can’t do that,” I say.
“Why not?” he mutters, still glaring.
I grab my bag and stuff the empty vodka bottle into it, ignoring his glare as best I can. It’s inhuman and should be terrifying, but it doesn’t scare me. The Church warns us of the wrath of the gods, but Kai’s sudden wrath just saddens me..
“Because I care, is why,” I mutter.
“So your version of caring is to dig into my past failures?” he says, the fire flaring up in his eyes.
Past failures? I didn’t say anything about past failures. What is Kai talking about?
“Leave it alone,” he says, turning away from me. “And we really should get out of here.” He sags against the tree, all the rage leaving him, and I almost want to give him a hug.
“I’m heading back to Wren’s house,” I murmur.
Kai pushes himself off the tree, though he struggles to carry his own weight, swaying on his feet. “I’ll come with you,” he says.
“Alright,” I say.
“I can make it so nobody looks at us -- we won’t get stopped by any Morality Police,” Kai says. “Performance is my speciality, after all.”
Kai took his Orb Test and ended up a purple orb. When gods take the test, they often register as purple orbs, unless they deliberately manipulate the test to show something else. The test detects magical potential, and gods have more of it than any mortal. The purple glow indicates the highest level of magic a human can have. Red means you have some magical potential but not that much.
Since Kai masquerades as a mortal purple orb, the Church sees him as an adult. As a no soul, I qualify as an adult, though society sees me as nothing. No souls aren’t citizens. Since Kai and I are of opposite genders, law forbids us to spend time together without a qualified chaperone. My lack of citizenship doesn’t matter -- I’m adult enough for prison, or worse. Being caught after sundown would make any encounters with the Morality Police even more dangerous. While I’m sure my friend could escape the law without much difficulty, I couldn’t, and my parents won’t help me.
We head out onto the dark street, lit by few streetlights. In the nice neighborhood where my former school’s located, we don’t see anybody else. Churchly Tevarenese citizens don’t stay out much past sundown on weeknights, though dangerous no soul neighborhoods remain awake at all hours.
The trees cast shadows on the narrow sidewalk. Everything’s wrapped in those shadows. During the day, the area’s lush greenery reflects Churchly goodness, or so I’m told. At night, though, I see little goodness.
“Are you sure nobody’s going to see us?” I mutter.
“I’m sure,” Kai says.
He turns out to be right because nobody does see us. As we walk, the houses get bigger, fancier, and more intimidating until we arrive at Wren’s place. Like many residences in this area, the house itself hides behind a wrought iron gate. It ends in spikes pointing towards the sky and reminds me of an angry old-fashioned prison door. The spikes warn potential intruders against trying to enter, if the security cameras on either side didn’t do that already.
I press the intercom on the side of the gate. “Hello? Wren?” I murmur.
Wren’s face blinks onto the video screen as the intercom crackles to life. Her hair’s a mess, sticking out in various directions. I try not to think about why that might be. “Hey, Gemma,” she says.
“I found Kai,” I say. He stands out of the way of the intercom, though Wren’s security system can probably see him anyway. Still, I shove him in front of the video screen. He stumbles but manages to wave at Wren.
“Hey,” he murmurs. “Can you let us in?”
“Sure,” she says.
The intercom blinks off. Moments later, the gate swings open without a sound. Kai and I enter, and the gate swings closed behind us once we’re in. We walk along the cobblestone path to Wren’s front doors. An artist carved elaborate swirls into the wooden doors -- a popular design choice for the wealthy in this town.
Five wide, curving stone steps lead up Wren’s house. Once we climb them, I ring the doorbell. It plays the tune of a common Church hymn. All doorbells in Tevaren must play Church approved tones.
When Wren opens the doors, Brandon stands next to her. I don’t see why he bothered.
Wren narrows her eyes at Kai. “Where were you? You just freaking vanished. I get...distracted for a couple moments, and you’re gone,” she mutters.
“Around,” Kai says as his eyes shift back and forth. He can’t lie very well, can he?
Brandon raises an eyebrow but says nothing to Kai’s non-answer. The four of us head up to Wren’s bedroom in silence. In all honesty, I don’t know how to best reveal Kai’s little relapse. It needs to come out, but revealing it will be quite awkward.
Everyone settles into Wren’s room. Wren and Brandon end up sitting on her bed -- of course. Kai sits down on her couch, and I take the armchair after dropping my bag on the floor.
“Seriously, where were you?” Wren mutters.
Kai lies down on the couch and rests his feet on the end of it. “I told you -- around. Does it really matter where I was?” he says. He glances at me, as if to ask me to remain silent.
“I found him at school,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
Wren looks at me, her eyes wide. “You went to our school? After everything?” she breathes.
“What else was I supposed to do? It was one of the easier places to look for Kai, honestly,” I mutter. In truth, my plan to search for the wayward god wasn’t so well thought-out.
She shakes her head. “Why’d you disappear, anyway?” she says, turning her attention to Kai. “You said you wanted to stay here while my parents were out, and then you shout ‘I have to be somewhere’ and just leave?”
“You didn’t have to come look for me, you know,” Kai mutters. He crosses his own arms. “Seems unnecessary. I can take care of myself. Why bother searching? It’s not like you even had a reason to send Gemma or anything.”
“Kai can’t take care of himself,” I say. His insistence that he can makes me clench my jaw. I open my bag and pull out the empty bottle of vodka -- this may be awkward, but I don’t care anymore.
Kai’s jaw drops. “You’ve started drinking?” he breathes.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you want me to hit you over the head with this?” I say. “It’s yours, and you know it.” Guilt flashes across Kai’s face -- he knows he’s been caught.
I look at Wren and Brandon. “I found him drinking this in the school’s Purity Garden. He was drunk.”
“You can’t prove that,” Kai mutters. “And it’s not like Gemma doesn’t have a history of drinking.”
“I got drunk once and never wanted to do it again after what happened,” I mutter, putting the bottle down. “If I had developed a drinking problem, do you think I would show off a bottle at all?”
“You’re gonna try and blame Gemma? Are you stupid?” Wren snorts. “That’s almost funny.” Her expression quickly changes to one of disappointment.
“That vodka’s from the brand you said you like,” Brandon murmurs. I notice his hair is ruffled, too -- why would I even care right now?
“I’m not stupid,” Kai says, pouting.
“Why?” Wren whispers. The room falls silent, and I almost regret showing off the bottle now. Is Kai going to tell them what he saw?
“None of your business,” he says.
Wren raises an eyebrow. “None of my business? You broke the broke the deal, and for what?” she says.
“Because I’m just a screwup, okay?” Kai says, his eyes shining. He looks at Brandon with such longing, but the other god doesn’t seem to notice. Wren furrows her brow, though I can’t tell if she notices the look Kai’s giving or if his statement just confuses her.
Kai teeters on the edge of a confession -- I can feel it. I look over at Wren, trying to figure out just what she sees in Brandon. Maybe she kissed him by accident?
The air tightens around us as I wait for Kai to speak. Whatever happens, I hope the four of us can get through this.
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“You know, I don’t see why I can’t have a drinking problem if I want,” Kai says. He doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore.
“What?” I mutter, putting a hand on my hip.
“I don’t see why I can’t drink ‘too much’ if I want. It’s not like it’s going to kill me,” he says, smiling and looking way too satisfied. “I am a god.”
“Exactly,” I huff. “You’re supposed to be better than we mortals. Why don’t you act like it and take some responsibility?”
Kai should be better than this -- I know he can be, since he helped us uncover the Church prostitution scandal. So why does he prefer drinking?
Pain flashes across Kai’s face, intense enough to scorch the air. His eyes burn with fire, unnatural bright spots in the darkness. “Don’t go there,” he says, turning those fiery eyes on me.
Most of the time, Kai looks human enough I can almost forget he’s a god, but his face holds no trace of humanity now. He wants to scare me off, so I stand my ground. “I’ll go where I need to go,” I mutter.
He glares at me, promising regret if I don’t stop talking. “You need to back off,” he says.
“I can’t do that,” I say.
“Why not?” he mutters, still glaring.
I grab my bag and stuff the empty vodka bottle into it, ignoring his glare as best I can. It’s inhuman and should be terrifying, but it doesn’t scare me. The Church warns us of the wrath of the gods, but Kai’s sudden wrath just saddens me..
“Because I care, is why,” I mutter.
“So your version of caring is to dig into my past failures?” he says, the fire flaring up in his eyes.
Past failures? I didn’t say anything about past failures. What is Kai talking about?
“Leave it alone,” he says, turning away from me. “And we really should get out of here.” He sags against the tree, all the rage leaving him, and I almost want to give him a hug.
“I’m heading back to Wren’s house,” I murmur.
Kai pushes himself off the tree, though he struggles to carry his own weight, swaying on his feet. “I’ll come with you,” he says.
“Alright,” I say.
“I can make it so nobody looks at us -- we won’t get stopped by any Morality Police,” Kai says. “Performance is my speciality, after all.”
Kai took his Orb Test and ended up a purple orb. When gods take the test, they often register as purple orbs, unless they deliberately manipulate the test to show something else. The test detects magical potential, and gods have more of it than any mortal. The purple glow indicates the highest level of magic a human can have. Red means you have some magical potential but not that much.
Since Kai masquerades as a mortal purple orb, the Church sees him as an adult. As a no soul, I qualify as an adult, though society sees me as nothing. No souls aren’t citizens. Since Kai and I are of opposite genders, law forbids us to spend time together without a qualified chaperone. My lack of citizenship doesn’t matter -- I’m adult enough for prison, or worse. Being caught after sundown would make any encounters with the Morality Police even more dangerous. While I’m sure my friend could escape the law without much difficulty, I couldn’t, and my parents won’t help me.
We head out onto the dark street, lit by few streetlights. In the nice neighborhood where my former school’s located, we don’t see anybody else. Churchly Tevarenese citizens don’t stay out much past sundown on weeknights, though dangerous no soul neighborhoods remain awake at all hours.
The trees cast shadows on the narrow sidewalk. Everything’s wrapped in those shadows. During the day, the area’s lush greenery reflects Churchly goodness, or so I’m told. At night, though, I see little goodness.
“Are you sure nobody’s going to see us?” I mutter.
“I’m sure,” Kai says.
He turns out to be right because nobody does see us. As we walk, the houses get bigger, fancier, and more intimidating until we arrive at Wren’s place. Like many residences in this area, the house itself hides behind a wrought iron gate. It ends in spikes pointing towards the sky and reminds me of an angry old-fashioned prison door. The spikes warn potential intruders against trying to enter, if the security cameras on either side didn’t do that already.
I press the intercom on the side of the gate. “Hello? Wren?” I murmur.
Wren’s face blinks onto the video screen as the intercom crackles to life. Her hair’s a mess, sticking out in various directions. I try not to think about why that might be. “Hey, Gemma,” she says.
“I found Kai,” I say. He stands out of the way of the intercom, though Wren’s security system can probably see him anyway. Still, I shove him in front of the video screen. He stumbles but manages to wave at Wren.
“Hey,” he murmurs. “Can you let us in?”
“Sure,” she says.
The intercom blinks off. Moments later, the gate swings open without a sound. Kai and I enter, and the gate swings closed behind us once we’re in. We walk along the cobblestone path to Wren’s front doors. An artist carved elaborate swirls into the wooden doors -- a popular design choice for the wealthy in this town.
Five wide, curving stone steps lead up Wren’s house. Once we climb them, I ring the doorbell. It plays the tune of a common Church hymn. All doorbells in Tevaren must play Church approved tones.
When Wren opens the doors, Brandon stands next to her. I don’t see why he bothered.
Wren narrows her eyes at Kai. “Where were you? You just freaking vanished. I get...distracted for a couple moments, and you’re gone,” she mutters.
“Around,” Kai says as his eyes shift back and forth. He can’t lie very well, can he?
Brandon raises an eyebrow but says nothing to Kai’s non-answer. The four of us head up to Wren’s bedroom in silence. In all honesty, I don’t know how to best reveal Kai’s little relapse. It needs to come out, but revealing it will be quite awkward.
Everyone settles into Wren’s room. Wren and Brandon end up sitting on her bed -- of course. Kai sits down on her couch, and I take the armchair after dropping my bag on the floor.
“Seriously, where were you?” Wren mutters.
Kai lies down on the couch and rests his feet on the end of it. “I told you -- around. Does it really matter where I was?” he says. He glances at me, as if to ask me to remain silent.
“I found him at school,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
Wren looks at me, her eyes wide. “You went to our school? After everything?” she breathes.
“What else was I supposed to do? It was one of the easier places to look for Kai, honestly,” I mutter. In truth, my plan to search for the wayward god wasn’t so well thought-out.
She shakes her head. “Why’d you disappear, anyway?” she says, turning her attention to Kai. “You said you wanted to stay here while my parents were out, and then you shout ‘I have to be somewhere’ and just leave?”
“You didn’t have to come look for me, you know,” Kai mutters. He crosses his own arms. “Seems unnecessary. I can take care of myself. Why bother searching? It’s not like you even had a reason to send Gemma or anything.”
“Kai can’t take care of himself,” I say. His insistence that he can makes me clench my jaw. I open my bag and pull out the empty bottle of vodka -- this may be awkward, but I don’t care anymore.
Kai’s jaw drops. “You’ve started drinking?” he breathes.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Do you want me to hit you over the head with this?” I say. “It’s yours, and you know it.” Guilt flashes across Kai’s face -- he knows he’s been caught.
I look at Wren and Brandon. “I found him drinking this in the school’s Purity Garden. He was drunk.”
“You can’t prove that,” Kai mutters. “And it’s not like Gemma doesn’t have a history of drinking.”
“I got drunk once and never wanted to do it again after what happened,” I mutter, putting the bottle down. “If I had developed a drinking problem, do you think I would show off a bottle at all?”
“You’re gonna try and blame Gemma? Are you stupid?” Wren snorts. “That’s almost funny.” Her expression quickly changes to one of disappointment.
“That vodka’s from the brand you said you like,” Brandon murmurs. I notice his hair is ruffled, too -- why would I even care right now?
“I’m not stupid,” Kai says, pouting.
“Why?” Wren whispers. The room falls silent, and I almost regret showing off the bottle now. Is Kai going to tell them what he saw?
“None of your business,” he says.
Wren raises an eyebrow. “None of my business? You broke the broke the deal, and for what?” she says.
“Because I’m just a screwup, okay?” Kai says, his eyes shining. He looks at Brandon with such longing, but the other god doesn’t seem to notice. Wren furrows her brow, though I can’t tell if she notices the look Kai’s giving or if his statement just confuses her.
Kai teeters on the edge of a confession -- I can feel it. I look over at Wren, trying to figure out just what she sees in Brandon. Maybe she kissed him by accident?
The air tightens around us as I wait for Kai to speak. Whatever happens, I hope the four of us can get through this.