#reverend mike

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura smiles fondly and easily lets Miriam shield behind them, they were quite used to being in a protective role. “I’m more than happy to help, I am Bishop of Wisdom after all, and you were more than helpful with my myriad of questions when I visited your library,” they remind with a smile. They gesture over to the work table for Mike to sit.

Mike promptly scuttled over to the work table and gabbed the whole way over, seemingly forgetting about—or moving past—the script he was referencing in favor of learning about a different one he had noticed.

"I noticed a writing system that utilized moon phases as glyphs— that especially fascinated me! From your visit to the Glornch I remember you being particularly interested in moons, or "the moon." And based on—" he paused to find a seat to sit down. "Based on what I've observed so far in terms of decoration I can tell it holds incredible significance here."

Miriam also followed suit in making her way over to the work area, sticking close to Bishop Shamura.

[evilmadscientistwizard]

@bishop-percival

(Previous) Cas raised a reprimanding pointer finger, about to scold Professor Trismegistus on their total lack of faith in Bishop Percival. Sure, Cas would agree the bishop liked to bullshit around and maintain a certain level of control on things, but he never once impeded Cas’ research (save for not wanting to participate in it.) He was unaware of any animosity Percival may have had for Tris. But before Cas could get a word out, his mind got caught on the fact that the Glornists now had it easy with fireproof robes, and he was further distracted by the spec sheet Tris brought out. He tapped his cheek as he thought about Reverend Mike. “We could ask him… And because we’re buds I think he’d help; as long as we don’t mention this is specifically for an afterlife portal. I think he’d be too worried about us catching the attention of an angry god.” He then sighed as he sunk down into the table. “Plus, I’m not sure how much longer he has on his mission before he’ll be back. I lose track of days easily.” But then Cas perked up with an idea. “Hey, I know who we could also try asking! Specs! Er, Autumn. Mike put them in charge of the crypt while he’s away. Not only that, but after I died, they took on my late night shadow creature hunting. So she might have some ideas.”

“Righto!” Trismegistus exclaimed with a big thumbs up. “Should we text him after this?” They paused to sigh. “Too bad he has a boring side...”

Once Cas mentioned Autumn Trismegistus started pulling crystals out of their oddly spacious pockets and placing them on the table. “Sounds like a plan! Speaking of: They sold me these and I’ve been working on filling them ever since.”

Once they had brought a sizeable amount of captured shadow beasts they put their hand on their chin. “Do these things have electromagnetic properties too?”

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

Teddy received a text from Reverend Mike a few minutes after seven.

[text] Hey. Heads up that Miriam and Percival summoned a ghost last night and that he’s here to stay. His name is Cas and he used to be a deacon. I’m leaving for my mission right now but I’ll get you an anti-possession talisman when I get back. So until then try to get along with him. He can be a pretty decent guy, shouldn’t be too hard. 

[text] If you feel the need to leave tailoring duties early, please do so if it means avoiding Sam.

[text] 👍

[text] Is there anything else I should do?

[albertbutyoucancallmebert]

@stuckinuniformdevelopment

(prev) [text] Mike, don’t you remember what I did to the Blade of Dragon’s Breath? Who said I won’t? [text] I’ll send you my findings later Bert. [text] Hide the metal from me lol [text] How has your research gone?

[Bert] Ah… I haven’t found much that would be useful to us yet.

[Bert] A lot of it is just… Failed experiments.

[Bert] I wish I could say I’ve done more to help our cause, but… I’ve been quite busy. And reading through this isn’t the most fun.

[Mike] I can help read through some stuff.

[Bert] No.

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura perks at the back and forth but they’re quickly illuminated, a slightly embarrassed smile on their face. “I’m quite flattered it meant that much to you,” As they think a moment longer they perk with realization. “Ah, the script I wrote,” they blink and tilt their head. “Did you manage to translate it?”

“Y-yeah. I thought it was sweet,” Miriam replied as she rubbed her head. 

Mike perked up. “If you can translate it, I certainly can. Can I see it?”

As if she was taking refuge behind Shamura, Miriam took a step back. “I… I just don’t see what you’re bugging me for when we have a Bishop of Wisdom here who might be willing to help…”

He glanced up at Bishop Shamura with a sort of apologetic smile on his face. “I certainly would be honored! I guess I just wanted to spare them from my pestering by pestering you.”

Miriam looked unimpressed.

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura chuckles and hums. “He won’t get very far,” they whisper jokingly, leaning down to Miriam. “I don’t believe he’ll be able to decipher any of the books without at least something of a starting point.” Mike finds the books are all incredibly organized, but as he looks about it is apparent that the books are in an unknown writing system, in fact there’s a few different ones, one made entirely of phases of the moon, and two others using different symbols. Miriam spots three of Shamura’s cultists, the one doing paperwork is the first she’s spotted in the lands so far with their hood down, revealing a pinkish-purple spider who could be mistaken for an axolotl under the right circumstances, the feelers at the sides of their head more like pointed purple legs, they looked similar enough in proportion to how Shamura had when they were younger, though not remarkably so, and they only had one set of eyes where Shamura had two.

The various languages of the books only intensified Mike's fascination. 

Miriam grinned back at Shamura until she realized Mike did know of a starting point for at least one of the languages. And sure enough, her brother soon came bounding back over.

“Hey Mir, can I see that—”

“No,” she swiftly interrupted, her voice low. 

“...I’ll give it back, I just want to—”

“No. M-maybe later or something.”

Mike’s shoulders slouched in resignation. Then he grinned as he looked up at Shamura and pointed at Miriam with his thumb. “Not sure if you remember it, but she still has a little drawing you made for her. Keeps it in her wallet.” 

Miriam sighed and crossed her arms.

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura snickers and nods, recalling how he had used it to remove the chocolate milk mess all those years ago, they give a small hum, thinking they should organize for them to have chocolate milk later. “Then we shall,” they confirm. Soon they arrive at the library, a grand room, wall to wall with countless books, shelves up at least nine feet high with rolling ladders to reach them. There’s a small sitting area and a desk with a big reading chair for Shamura and several small cushions, the floor covered in a maroon carpet with patterns of the phases of the moon. A few more of Shamura’s high ranking cultists mill about, reading books, organizing them or or doing paperwork.

“Wooow,” Mike whispered as he looked around the library, a sparkle in his eye. Then he scampered off to explore. Miriam was about to call out after him, finding it rude for him to just immediately leave the group when they were on a tour, but didn’t want to raise her voice in the library. 

Instead, she stuck close to Bishop Shamura and quietly took in the sights, in particular observing the cultists go about their tasks. 

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Given the way things had gone so far, and their connection to Shamura, it was likely they would also be considered VIPs throughout the stay! Shamura nods. “A bit, we use the crowns to travel through a vast network of ichor throughout the lands, it’s closer to portalling in that sense.” They clarify. “I could show you later if you wish,” Shamura offers.

“Ohhh, fascinating,” Mike chimed. “We’d love to see how that works,” he said as Miriam nodded in agreement.

“While I’m sure it’s different, it reminds me of how Bishop Percival uses his robe as a portal to move around,” she added.

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura nods. “My library it is then,” they say, leading the pair out of the garden. As Shamura passes through the halls they receive the reverence one would expect towards a God, each cultist they pass taking a moment to give a reverent bow before carrying on. Shamura gives a slight chuckle. “They’re not used to seeing me, typically I travel instantly around, but it would be quite rude to do so and make you both walk without me,” they comment.

The siblings were a bit amused by all of the reverent bowing. They knew they were for Shamura but they also felt like such VIPs. 

Mike looked up at them with interest. “What, like teleporting? Oooh cool…”

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura smiles. “We’ll see to it that you do then.” They say to Miriam. They nod and give a chuckle to Mike. “I’m glad you enjoyed them, they’re local delicacies, made with some of the staple ingredients around here in Silk Cradle,” they say. “Now, is there anywhere you’d like to start the tour, or anything specific you’d like to know?” They ask, rising from their own chair.

Mike excitedly clasped his hands together. “I would love to know where the library is. But other than that, just show us anywhere you think we should know, or anywhere interesting or noteworthy.” 

He looked at his sister to see if she had any input, but she shook her head, fine to be shown whatever. 

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura hums, taking note of Miriam’s mood. “Certainly, though you’re both welcome to do as you please, nothing saying we can’t split up.” they suggest.

Miriam smiled with appreciation. “Good to know, thank you. I’d still like to be shown around, but I will almost certainly be returning here.”

Mike grabbed a cookie for on the go before he started climbing down from his chair. “And thank you for tea and treats, Bishop Shamura. They were refreshing.”

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura chuckles and nods in agreement, taking a sip of their tea. “I think I’ll invite my siblings over tomorrow if that’s alright? That way you have today to get your bearings here without all that on top of it,” they suggest.

The two perked up. “Yeah, that sounds good,” Mike said. He gulped down the rest of his tea. “Speaking of getting my bearings around here, I’ve been itching to explore more of your temple, if you’d be so kind to show us around!”

Miriam deflated a little bit. She was enjoying this garden. But she supposed she could come back to it eventually.

[evilmadscientistwizard]

@bishop-percival

(Previous) Cas twiddled his thumbs. “Ah… I guess you’re right… Besides, I need to be able to serve as a guide for Cyrus when they search around on the other side. And you, because no doubt you want to explore there too.” He thought about their question for a moment. “Bishop Percival may’ve not wanted to use his magic to help me n’ Cyrus with this, but maybe at the very least he’d loan us a couple of trapped souls from his collection… The guy has a ton.” Cas rubbed his chin as he considered Percival’s hallmark selfishness. “But if not, y’know… We have been kicking around ideas on how to make ghosts.” He gave Tris a mischievous grin. “So why not cut out the “summoning them back from the dead” part and see if we can’t harvest them straight from the living!” The idea made him giddy with laughter and he kicked his feet. “Heheh! Hahaha!”

Trismegistus sighed. They also doubted that Bishop Percival would help them. Especially since they had an inkling that he hated them. (Although not nearly to the same extent as Reverend Miriam.)

Then Tris returned Cas’ mischievous grin when he brought up the experiment they previously discussed in varying levels of seriousness. “Kukuku..,” they sinisterly chuckled as they held their hand in front of their mouth. “Surely it’d be easy to pick off some lonesome losers...”

They laughed a little longer before sighing and glancing up at Cas. “Perhaps we should skip asking Bishop Percival... He may just shut our project down to keep us dependent on his power, or to screw with us or whatever,” they said with dismissive wave.

“Like how he was cross with Doctor Walters because he outfitted the Glornch with fireproof robes.” A single rant had gotten a month’s worth of words out of him. It was a shame that it was hard to find the small cracks in his otherwise cool demeanor.

Tris pulled the spec sheet for their latest portal out while pondering how they would store enough power. Would they have to keep a tank of ghosts to drain? There had to be an easier way, right? Maybe they crystalize their essence?

“We should ask Reverend Mike instead.” Tris put their hand on their chin. “I wouldn’t count on him for souls either... Yet his knowledge of artifacts may be directly applicable to our fusion of magic and technology.”

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura nods and smiles too. “Precisely.” At Mike’s comment they perk curiously, and then with growing interest at the back and forth. “Fascinating,” they give a soft chuckle. “For as at odds as you both act I think that also says something lovely about your own bond.” they say, smiling fondly.

The two looked at each other and sneered, even though at heart they knew there was validity to Shamura’s statement. 

“Well,” Mike shrugged, “like you and your siblings, we’ve been through the wringer together too I suppose.”

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) “Good, when you meet her I’m sure you can ask if you wanted a closer look.” Shamura smiles, then chuckles at Miriam’s comment before they pause slightly at that, shaking it off a moment after. “I adopted them, they were each orphaned from a young age,” they explain solemnly.

“And now you all rule parts of the Lands. I find that sweet,” Miriam replied with a smile.

Mike leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Fun fact; we have other siblings. Six to be exact, half-siblings to be technical.”

Miriam mirrored him, leaning back and folding her arms. “We hate them. Haven’t seen them in over a decade. At least I haven't.” She looked at her brother. “Have you heard from any of them?”

Shaking his head, Mike replied, “Hell no. They could be dead for all I care. And if they aren’t, they probably think we’re dead.”

Miriam snickered at that.

[bishop-percival]

@candbrp

(prev) Shamura nods. “Also fine, I shall review it as well to ensure nothing private is captured.” they hum softly and their feelers twitch. “Speaking of, Allocer likely told you but be mindful of the guest rooms, they have my siblings’ personal items from when they spend the night.”

The two nodded and Mike said, “Yep, they told us. I must admit Bishop Heket has some interesting things… But of course I’ll only look!”

Miriam sighed and leaned her head into her hand. “Maybe we should swap rooms so you won’t have anything to mess around with.”

He briefly gave her an uninterested look before returning his attention to Shamura and smiling. “So uh, where’d your siblings come from?”