we see a thousand rooms to rest

[lest_ye_become]

The station hasn't had so many dead all at once in a long time. There have been equipment failures, scuffles, incidents-but not on this scale. Trying to handle it all through the station's democratic systems has been a mess-committees and subcommittees deciding conflicting thing, and all of it having to happen quick, while the recovered bodies are

Comments

greeting the dead

[lest_ye_become]

Roxie's wearing a little white robe, barefoot, her hair let down. The gauzy silk is uncharacteristically near the direction of being immodest for her, but it doesn't seem to bother her. A starburst radiates out from her forehead in psychadelic colors of paint, shapes locking together in geometrically precise patterns. Her arms and legs, too, or at least what's exposed of them, have been covered in intricate multicolored designs, sometimes abstract, sometimes with entire scenes woven into the lines and shapes.

She starts by spending some time in contemplation of each body, pulling back the sheet to watch the face in silence. With her fingers and little pots of paint she draws careful glyphs on those faces, and murmurs strange prayers in an ancient language.

Re: greeting the dead

[livvimahelt]

Livvi had heard the announcement of the ceremony, and it seemed only right that she should attend. She was a part of this community now, however tenuously, and paying respect to the dead was important.

She wasn't sure what to expect. There couldn't possibly be a church like she would recognize here. She supposed she would know it when she saw it.h. All rites for the dead had that same transitional quality.

Livvi slipped into the room and, not knowing what else to do, knelt at some distance from the covered bodies. For a moment she wasn't not sure if the painted girl in white was actually, physically there. Something about a girl her own age acting the death-crone, midwife into the afterlife, is troubling to Livvi, but not in a way she can pinpoint.

Politely, silently, she watched, and offered up her own prayers for the departed.

[lest_ye_become]

Roxie pauses once she's done with one of the bodies. Instead of moving straight to the next, she watches Livvi for a long moment. She's holding up one hand slightly: a black-scaled dragon in the paint is twined around her fingers, with shock-red eyes on the palm. She doesn't say anything.

[livvimahelt]

At first, Livvi doesn't seem to be aware of the scrutiny, but then she looks back at Roxie, meeting her gaze and holding it. She can't tell if the girl's ritual is something out of the distant past or the distant future, unfamiliar as it is.

The image of a turning wheel rises in her mind, and Livvi decides that it doesn't matter. There's nothing to indicate that this girl is even from the Earth-cluster she's heard about, much less from when.

Livvi watches the girl-priestess a moment longer and then inclines her head, acknowledgemwnt and respect to both the ceremony and its celebrant.

meeting the dead

[lest_ye_become]

Once all the bodies have been addressed and anointed, Roxie returns to her materials-where she lights the flames of a brass censer hung on thin silver chains. The smoke that drifts from it as she moves up and down the aisles, chanting softly, is sweet and strange, and it lingers in thin clouds.

She's put a sign up, too. APPROACH AT YOUR OWN RISK, it says. PSYCHOTROPIC EFFECTS PRESENT.

[Those who linger in the areas of the smoke will find themselves experiencing hallucinations and other psychoactive effects... even if they don't breathe any of it in. (It's maaagic.) Exactly what they experience can vary, but Roxie will always be able to have some influence in it-let me know in your tag if you'd like me to come up with something.]

Re: meeting the dead

[2sexy4myuplift]

Sah'ot scoffs at the sign. He doesn't have a nose that can even inhale smoke, and besides if it can't harm a little girl it's not gonna have much effect on him. Why, everything is a nice, blinding shade of white and the air bubbles suddenly popping and going out with raucuous squeals are a nice touch.

[lest_ye_become]

Roxie sighs, barely, as she sees Sah'ot wander into the smoke. Wisps of darkness circle around her, occasionally showing the wings and sharp eyes of carrion crows.

sheeting the dead

[lest_ye_become]

With the long, languorous ceremony completed, Roxie methodically covers the faces again, and she returns to the head of the room. She settles into a sitting position, plucking sad melodies on an old acoustic guitar and singing in a soft but carrying voice in that same ancient language.

She pauses occasionally, for a few minutes at a time, but she doesn't seem to intend to finish anytime soon.