Star Trek: Starbase 777 - village-main-church

The largest building out of multiple similar ones dotted across the whole village, though perhaps not easily identifiable as a church, depending on the expectations of the onlooker. Huh...

She was trudging through the street, leading her two followers to the structure.

He looked to his side, then, wherever Kirio was. "Do you mind smoke?"

1

"Not particularly," they chimed from behind, nearly tripping over themself in their haste to catch up with the group. "I used to, but not so much since I joined. Nanni smoked. Or— maybe it was her wife. The memories are a little fuzzy now, it's been a long time with..." They cleared their throat. "It's fine," they affirmed.

"Sure," the speed at which he got out a cigarette and lit it was... impressive, to say the least. The sigh that followed afterwards was that of the deepest satisfaction, "Oh, finally. I've been waiting for this one since the boarding..." Careful not to make Kirio smell like they were a smoked herb, Maiek cast the detective a curious glance: "How're you feeling about the place so far?"

"I think it's nice." The answer was quick, but honest. "The people are nice. It's.. nice, to supply somewhere that isn't destroyed, or..." Kirio exhaled. "Sorry. That's a little grim," they apologized to Rami, continuing, "We do it often, in Starfleet, I just don't get to go on those missions, usually."

"It's fine," she smiled, clearly back to being more or less relaxed as they walked. Nearing the church, she came to a brief stop: "I'll walk in to bring the people inside there up to date, and then come back for you, M... tr'... Mister tr'Shen?"

"Fine by me," he nodded, mouth quirked in amusement from the struggle with his name. "How about you, Lieutenant?"

"Sure thing," they answered cheerfully. "Thank you for letting me come along regardless, it makes everything a lot easier." And they avoid the glares of their superiors. Yay!

She shot them both a shy-looking double thumbs up, before disappearing behind a large door.

"Hm," he blew some of the smoke through his nose. "Anxious little thing. Something tells me this colony is not planning to join you lot anytime soon."

"That's alright. We'll come to their aid anyway, if anything happens." Kirio leaned back against the wall, crossing their arms. "I don't think we were expecting anything in that realm, anyway.. At least, I wasn't given that impression. If you're helping someone with an ulterior motive... Well, they still deserve the help, but I think it's kind of scummy." They shrugged. "I dunno."

"That's a good way to look at it," he nodded, leaning away to snuff the little piece of amber at the end of his cig. "I'm just overthinking the latter pieces of dialogue at the warehouse, that's all. From what I've read from the briefing I was given... Starfleet doesn't always invite a third party when sending an away team to this colony. Maybe they can't secure for it to be the same guy, or something else, I have no idea. They seem to really not want you poking your noses into their religious business. Which is not that odd, really, just... a thing to note, I guess?"

"I really don't wanna nose around if they don't want that, either," Kirio affirmed, standing up to glance at the church despite it— it was relatively unassuming, all things considered. "I'll keep that in mind."

Her head then poked out from the door: "tr'Shen, sir, please come in. And, uhh... the security officer will have to wait. Sorry-y-y-y-y..."

"Figures," he sighed, throwing the bud into the nearby thrash can. "You okay with lounging about for a bit?"

"Fine by me," Kirio answered cheerfully, lingering close to the door. "Have fun."

The Romulan nodded, and walked to the door of the church, eventually disappearing behind it...

And so, Kirio was left alone. What will you be up to, detective?

Waiting for him to return, mostly. A brief look around wouldn't hurt .. not full-blown investigating, but a small glance around the front of the church. Know your exits and all.

A good, sturdy, modern door. Although, it was peculiar in it's construction - there were no gaps between it and the doorframe. A perfect, shut seal...

.. hmm. A little odd. Kirio narrowed their eyes, subtly shifting their posture to easily get moving if anything alerted them.

There was no one around Kirio, besides the subtle noise from people in the town's square somewhere behind their back. It was just them, and the house of God. Gods. ... Who did these people even worship, actually? There was no concrete answer to be found in the mission brief.

A good question indeed, Narrator. Was there any iconography on the church? Something akin to statues, or stained glass windows... Anything that'd stand out.

A pattern somewhere between a wave and a cloud was intricately painted on the walls of the church, embracing all of it's walls, with no end nor beginning to it. The windows had a design similar to stained glass - though less colorful, they depicted abstract animals and humanoid figures.

... Iiinteresting. Okay. Noted. Kirio pulled their PADD, making a little doodle of the pattern (taking a photo could be rude) before returning it to their pocket.

1

No sight of Maiek still. Could go check out the central square in the meantime...

Unfortunately they're on security detail. No budging!

:(

8

As some more time passed by, Kirio could notice a plume of grey smoke escape out of the church's chimney, climbing up-up-upwards. It was followed by the gentle chimes of some bells - not the deep bellow you'd normally expect, but something far more gentler.

They raised their head, listening to the gentle chiming of the bells. That's nice. Was there any scent in the air besides the obvious fire?..

Something spicy and woody.... frankincense, a typical choice for rituals.

Ah, right. The incense. The incense specifically chosen for rituals. Ritual incense. Kirio hummed to themself, getting a sweep of the street while they waited, listening for any sign they were needed.

4

7

Eventually, the doors opened, and Maiek stepped out with some other people - older folk, with Rami mixed in there as well, standing near a man that she bore a strong resemblance to. Maiek was still speaking to them, all the while fixing the upper part of his robe back onto his bare shoulders, hiding the intricate body art back underneath the black. One of his fists was curled, fingers holding a small piece of cotton against his palm, tinted green. With a nod towards Kirio, he then began to approach the detective, bringing the strong smell of frankincense and something else, with him.

Kirio tilted their head in a quiet sort of curiosity, though said nothing on the matter. "All good?" they asked him quietly as they began to turn away from the group.

"Yeah," he nodded, gently dabbing the bloodied cotton swab at his palm. There was a shallow cut. "We talked a whole lot, they got curious about the church I came from, I offered them a little demonstration, everyone had a great time, if you can call it that. By the way, Arnin - that's the man over there, Rami's father I'm pretty sure?.. - told me that we should go to the town square and wait for them there. Something about a goodbye before we all leave."

The detective's brow creased in slight concern, but blood rituals weren't exactly anything to worry about, really. More the actual wound after. "We'll get you hooked up with a regenerator once we get back with the group," they affirmed, before continuing; "I noticed— just looking not snooping, just so you know— the doors created a perfect seal when they closed. I didn't see any way air could get through. I wonder if all the buildings are like that?.." Kirio mused aloud, thoughtfully (clearly subconsciously) tracing the inside of their own palm. "The art on the windows was pretty, too. Oh, and, um— cool tattoos. By the way.*

"My, how kind," despite the choice of words, he did indeed sound grateful. "I know how to take care of these, but thank you nonetheless." The report on the doors grabbed Maiek's attention. He briefly glanced backwards, as if to check, before turning around again, his own eyebrows now sporting a crease between them. "Huh. Maybe to keep out the bad weather? It would make sense that their houses have a similar system, then..." he briefly mused. "Interesting little town. Out of respect for them I can't go into details, but a lot of their religious practices center around warding and protection. Maybe it just bled into local architecture..." His expression opened up - just a little bit - at the compliment. "Why thank you, Lieutenant. They're my pride and joy, in a way... My species don't have any fun skin patterns of our own, but we do frequent in using our bodies as canvases." He turned his head away, briefly, to look at people passing them by, but there was an unmistakable grin on his face as he did so. "And these, too, go all the way down." (edited)

"Bad weather makes sense," Kirio's shoulders relaxed just barely. "I've heard of rituals like that. Warding glyphs to keep unwanted spiritual guests out of houses. But I'm not too into religion, or anything like that, so I'm not super sure.." It was still fun to know about. Maybe they'd look more into it when they—— The detective froze, brain buffering in a struggle to process before shutting down completely. Huh?? Huh???? "Oh," they squeaked out, lowering their head to make sure they weren't stepping on any cracks in the pavement and for absolutely no other reason. "Cool. That's— that's awesome." Hopefully it didn't sound sarcastic, because it was meant genuinely. Jesus Trill Christ. Oh, thank goodness, there's the town square—

5

The fog licked at the church's walls, turning the building in front of the away team into something ominous.

Groznin approached the church with the rest of the group, somewhat unsure of it all. What they would find coupled with the recent behavior of the away team all made him very weary. In and out, get the fog under control, he told himself. Then they could all leave and go back to their lives.

Time to unveil the curtain in the green city. "In caligo veritas." A made-up phrase of little cultural significance, but his ability to cobble together latin at least reassured him of his mental competency. You always knew he was doing bad if he hadn't said something latin in a few hours. "Here we are. How's Omar?" Or whatever his name was. He didn't care.

Quiet. And broody. He was making eye contact with the door of the church, yet did not try to rush into it or anything like that. Perhaps he was expecting them to just... release him?

Maiek, meanwhile, turned his head to check up on Iki.

Iki was refusing entirely to open their eyes as they walked, which they did realise was nonsensical, but for some reason it helped, at least a little bit. They were walking along simply by holding onto Maiek's sleeve, the rhythm of their footsteps and the fact that nothing new had approached them lulling them into a fragile sort of calm that they were sure would shatter the second they opened their eyes. So they kept them closed, and focussed instead on their breathing, trying to breathe deeply enough that they wouldn't make their panic worse, but not deeply enough to inhale lungfuls of fog up to twenty times a second through their mask which they had thoroughly convinced themself was faulty. They did not sense any of the eyes on them.

Well, this was better than the graveyard, at least. “What, um… anyone know what religion this one is for?” He asked quietly, “It’s pretty.”

"An odd mixture that came from the different colony people," Maiek replied. "That's what I've been told. Now it's clear that it's the fog." Lowering his voice, he then turned back to Iki: "You've not opened your eyes while we walked here. Are you scared of seeing something in the fog?"

Iki just nodded. Speaking would waste air, which meant they'd have to breathe more in, which- yeah, no, they were not doing that. But they also knew approximately zero sign languages that they'd be confident in the Romulan understanding, so they were kind of just stuck on nodding or shaking their head at this point.

"Nothing has manifested so far, besides what we saw in the cemetery. And that was left behind," he tried to reassure them. "You can try looking at me to check. Or down at your shoes. If you want to, of course."

"... You should unhand me now and let me go into the church," Orum tried for a matter-of-factly tone and failed. "So I can, you know... help us all? That's what you lot want, right?"

Iki just shook their head. They weren't going to risk it.

"Alright..." he then looked at Orum, his tone now much less kind. "And let you run off? Please. We're all going in with you, and watching you enter that god-forsaken cave."

"Hm? We're not going in the cavern with him?" He asked Maiek.

“Is sending him alone a good idea?” Ed chimed in, “Especially since you don’t trust him.”

Omur puffed up like a startled dove, "You-re no--" (edited)

"We are," he responded, eyes squinted, "I just didn't want to break the news to him, not yet. But he's going in first, and we're following."

"Those grounds are sacred!" Omur did not give up, "We can't let strangers go to the place of worship!" (edited)

"The thing you're worshipping is currently actively hurting your colony, you fucking caveman!" the Romulan snapped in return, the slightly raspy voice surprisingly strong as it rose to a shout. "Pretty sure that's the important part of this story! It'll be fine, it's clearly adaptable! We are not!"

At this point, the amount of distrust she held for this guy and all of the danger they had already been collectively subjected to because of these traditions were enough to weight much more heavy than any sense of respect she had regarding the faith of others around her. “There is no way we can trust you, I’m sorry. Sacred or not sacred, we are in this mess together, like it or not mister! I doubt the spirits will get even MORE ANGRY than they already are!”

"I'd also have liked if the fog coming from your church respected the sanctity of my psyche, but we can't always get what we want." That had been worse than it trying to kill him.

1

Omur huffed, and puffed, but had nothing else to say. This would be the perfect time for everyone to ~~ambush~~ begin to move inside...

He was on the move. He wanted to see what was inside that cavern neow.

Diahjir was still worried, of course, the mysteries making him more than a little anxious, but he went inside all the same.

She made sure to stick close to Maiek while keeping an eye for her fellow engies. Since Kirio was currently busy with their detained elder, Maiek was probably the closest thing to security ~~she had seen that knife~~. And she was not a great fighter, plus her supply of spanners was limited.

3

Kirio followed close behind, giving Omur a subtle nudge with the flat end of their phaser. "Let's go," they said ever so politely, though their expression was tight with a mix of annoyance and exhaustion.

1

And so... They entered the church. They passed the double-doors, and walked into a large, angular hall. It was dimly lit by a myriad of candles, situated around small altars in front of large religious paintings - icons. The flickering lights danced ominously across the depicted faces, who all had... something dark and viscous, emanating out of the canvas and running down their faces, right out of their eyes, as if they all were crying. At the opposite end of this hall, a statue - one similar to the largest formation of the fountain back at the town square. Except this one was moved to the side, exposing a large hole in the wall. There were stairs leading down, down, down...

He'd seen something like this twice before: once in the paintings of Francis Bacon, and once as the product of his own failing mind. Religious figures, anguished and wailing, as though their own faith had turned to tar inside their bodies, which had proven to be too meagre of a vessel to contain such divine corruption. If he were in a worse state of mind, he would count those as prophetic visions. Right now, looking at these, he just wanted to throw up. "Let's keep moving."

Groznin entered the church and looked at the faces in a state of vague disgust. He certainly hoped that they were the result of the hallucinogenic fog and not what these people typically prayed to. Groznin approached the the stairs. “Yes, keep moving.”

"They weren't like this when I was here," Maiek added, looking up at the faces as they walked past. "And, well. The giant hole in the wall was also absent." (edited)

”Someone ought to clean those paintings…” She mumbled to herself as she followed along.

"It's nothing but a product of this cursed miasma." Hopefully. It would be pretty hard to restore paintings in as terrible shape as that.

Eventually, they would end up at the hole. It was dark inside, the stone staircase disappearing in it's maw. Omur was silent throughout it all.

He let Kirio and Omar go down first, though followed close behind. Into the maw they go...

It was such an arsehole move but… “Well, you know the steps better, right?” She looked at Omur.

"I do..." came a reply, as the man looked down into the very uninviting-looking passage.

"Try something funny and I'll stop being civil," Maiek hissed out with vitriol. Then, in a much gentler tone, he spoke to Iki: "There will be stairs here. I'll guide you down, but be careful."

Iki nodded at Maiek's words. They knew they were in the church now, about to head down into the cavern. Was there no fog there? Would they be safe? They weren't sure, and they weren't wasting their breath to ask, so they kept their eyes closed and let the priest lead them.

And with another nudge, the descent into the depths began...