CATHEDRALS | entrance ritual, charm bracelet

[dovedeparture]

[div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 70%; min-height: 9px; font-family:; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; padding: 20px"]❥ [this is much longer than it should be but that's showbizz! tldr at the bottom]

Dovedeparture wasn't sure she had ever experienced disgust before, but it read plainly on her face currently. Jade eyes peered into the strange concoction that was poured before her - Jungle Juice. It smelled strange; the piquancy of the land battled with the sharp bite of the sea, but both made her stomach churn. She stared, then, at the bartender of sorts, who laughed heartily and only offered a jape for her dislike.

"Sink the damn thing, will ya?" came the voice of someone near her.

She narrowed her eyes and refused to offer them even the slightest bit of acknowledgement. However, after a few ticks, the lynx reached for the damned drink and downed it in a single swig.

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The sun's light ebbed, edging on death as she made it to Haven Island. Darkness was falling quickly despite summer still holding on to the world. Her head felt like it was swimming, and her movements were shuddered and unsure. Noises exploded to life, causing her to wince.

She could sense something creeping up on her from the shadows. "N-no," Dove croaked, voice tight, breathing ragged, "keep your head on straight." She surmised it must be the drink causing paranoia. She was fine. Wasn't she?

She staggered onward, ignoring the whispers and the beings that danced in her peripherals. The guardian continuously told herself that none of this was real, but she was beginning to doubt it. The voices were getting louder, and the figures were getting closer. True fear seized her heart.

The shadows of dusk were growing longer, their tendrils of ink reaching toward her. She tried to brush passed the darkness, but a cold hand gripped her leg with frightening strength. The hallucinogenic drink slowed her reaction time; before she could recoil, more void-like vines lurked at her. A frigid feeling washed over her being as the shadows pulled at her wings with ferocity. "No..." she managed, but not before the dark hands ripped out fistfuls of feathers. She couldn't muster the ability to scream. She attempted to speak, but only guttural, pained noises exited her maw as it ripped her septum piercing - her halo - out.

By the time the shadows relented, she had collapsed. White feathers were scattered around her, skating on pools of blood. Dovedeparture weakly reached for a feather, unaware of the tears that ran down her cheeks. She felt as though she was burning from the inside out. Her lungs begged for release, and she coughed smoke.

Night had long since begun. The moon did not shine. She knew the shadows would come for her again, but she was too weak to move. A sob escaped her.

Suddenly, light erupted in the sky and consumed the earth, consumed her.

She had shut her eyes so as not to go blind, but when they opened, she was home. A hundred thousand eyes were on her, burrowing beneath her fur to her very core. "Have I made up for my mistakes?" she whispered. "Am I able to return?" She searched their faces for some sort of answer, but their features blurred until she could make out nothing. A chorus of a million voices sprang forth, and she drown in the sound before the ground opened up underneath her.

Dovedeparture was in free fall.

Her wings and halo had been returned to her, but what use were they as the plummeted into the great warmth? Feathers were singed as she fell farther and farther into the gaping mouth of a monumental sun. Her winged appendages turned to fire, and suddenly, she was an inferno. She was the brightest she had ever been, but the heat burned. Her wings turned from fire, to ash, to smoke, and then disintegrated as the star's gravity reeled her in. Her make-shift halo melted into nothingness. She was scotched, inside and out. Tears fell but were evaporated instantly, and her screams were drowned out by the flames.

---

Dovedeparture blinked open her eyes, expecting to find fire but was instead met with foliage and morning sunlight. Her head stung, and from the way she was splayed out, she guessed she had collapsed when the hallucinations took over. She moved into a sitting position, vaguely aware of the phantom pains that plagued her body. She expected to find burnt fur, torn wings, and a missing piercing, but everything was intact.

A funny feeling bubbled up in her chest - something she had never experienced in this vessel. Was it pride? Pride that she had not succumbed to those horrible visions but had survived the night? Whatever the emotion was, she wasn't going to complain, but it still felt wrong somehow, almost dangerous. However, it masked the fear that still lingered in the pit of her stomach, so she accepted it.

Quickly, but not too quickly, she made her way off the island. If she recalled, she was to head back to Barracuda Bay, where she would write a confession and begin the new part of her life. At her pace, it didn't take long to reach her destination. She collected the materials and pondered for a moment before scribbling a confession.

'i'm worried i won't ever get home. i'm afraid of making connections because i don't want anything to tether me here. the ground is cold. always cold. but warmth scares me more than my tenure here. i feel like i'm over my head. i think this was a mistake.
feeling emotions like this - too much. this vessel is fragile, and i don't want to accidentally destroy it.
i miss my true wings. these burn and ache and fail me.
sometimes, i wish they'd rot off of me. sometimes, i wish this false halo would fall out.
i think what i'm experiencing is an identity crisis. but that is for mortals. not my kind.
i want to go home, but the thought of it tastes more bitter than i remember now.'

She didn't look over her words. She stuffed the note in a bottle and sent it adrift. As she watched her innermost thoughts set sail, she tried to force herself to feel better, lighter. Her porous bones, instead, felt leaden. For a split second, she wanted to rush into the waters, retrieve the letter, and hold it close to her heart again. But she didn't. What use was it? Those of her order would already know.

Dove turned on her heels and made for the Tavern. It was there she sat, still a bit shaken, constructing a charm bracelet of gold-colored thread. The braided strands were a tad sloppy, but she told herself it would be fine. Try as she might, the femme couldn't hide the light of disappointment in her eyes. Maybe she ought to start over. No, no. She just needed to find a few charms to place on the bracelet.

[tldr: dove saw visions of darkness ripping out all the parts of her that make her an angel. an intense light appeared, and she was returned to her true home only to be cast out again. her fall is directly into a sun; the heat is so intense it sheds her of everything and she burns brightly. when she wakes up, she writes her note and then goes to the tavern to make her charm bracelet, which turns out a little sloppy, so she's a bit frustrated with herself!]