(open) just a plain and simple chapel

[fallingsand]

WHO: Bruno Madrigal and whoever wanders out his way.
WHERE: Barrens, an abandoned chapel amongst the ruins.
WHEN: vague hand waggle over the month
WHAT: Bruno, unable to not be some local cryptid, has taken up residence in a ruined chapel rather than living in the city like a regular person.
WARNINGS: n/a

clean-up.

[ In the first week of wandering into the chapel and deciding that may as well be where he remained for the time being, Bruno's time was split between sitting in a dusty old pew and staring blankly at the wall ahead and, then, picking up refuse scattered around the place and tossing it out the east side of the chapel, right off the edge of where the Barren's most abandoned Vestige curls downward towards the chasm that the rest of it collapsed into.

It was an easy way of getting rid of, well, a lot. The place was cluttered with broken wood and stone and overgrown with weeds and scratchy thorn bushes, not to mention vines. While the broken wood would be kept, the rest? The rest could go.

It would not be unusual to come across him trying his best to rip out a thorn bush that's grown through a window with his bare hands, with plenty of pauses to mutter and grumble or for him to cringe away when he got a particularly nasty poke from a thorn. ]

...y'know, one of those scythes would actually be useful right now...

[ Or some gloves. Gloves would work, too. ]

ruins are for looting, every adventure novel says so.

[ But once he — and perhaps a little help — have tidied the chapel up enough, it was time to find a way to make it more comfortable. Bruno hadn't gone looking for a job just yet. To be truthful, he wasn't sure how one did that, as his only job had ever been overwhelmingly unpopular oracle and that sure didn't look good on paper. That meant he would have to source his home goods from somewhere a bit more, uh, left behind.

It does mean rattling around the other abandoned ruins of buildings that litter the Barren, however, and that isn't necessarily safe, now is it?

To anyone else happening by, they'll hear a large crack of something breaking, followed by a startled yell and the telltale thud of someone landing heavily in one of the ruined, haphazardly leaning buildings nearby. ]

festive.

[ And last but not least, decorating. For the holiday, in fact. By the third week of the month, the chapel is looking... a little better? As in it doesn't have garbage and infinite overgrowth clogging up the floor and windows and Bruno's managed to dust it enough so he isn't constantly sneezing. Holes in the roof have been patched. They could use some work still, as some of the rain does leak in now and again, but hey, he can worry about that later.

What's important now is that some kind Restless lady in the city offered him her leftover decorations for Respite after he helped her put them up outside her own residence. Gleaming gold-toned ornaments that catch and reflect the moonlight, and other little baubles that give off a marigold and ginger-colored glow; they were a treat to put up back at the chapel and add a splash of color to an otherwise dreary place. Better yet, speaking of treats, he'd picked up some on the way back out of the city. It'd been a surprisingly nice day, this day, to end up with any of this at all.

So it might be the spots of bright orange light that draw the eye or the drifting scent of the little campfire within, boiling up firstdawn tea to go with the sundrop cake he managed to get his hands on, that beckons you closer to the little chapel. It's no trap. It's just Bruno, merrily humming in a rare good mood as he works on stringing up the decorations along one of the windows. ]

Comments

[fallingsand]

[ It's not as though he wouldn't do his best to explain the reason for such a long estrangement from his sisters but... Bruno similarly assumes it'd be bizarre to vent about his depressing life to some poor teenager. As he's reminded himself plenty of times already, Jonas hardly deserves that. So he'll keep it to himself. He'll just keep everything to himself, the way it should be. ]

I mean, that's kind of normal for siblings, to be honest. Even when you're close to one another, you get on each other's nerves or space or. Y'know, stuff. It's not like my sisters were never rude to me or... hm... well, mostly Pepa, I guess.

[ Bruno and Pepa had "issues" to deal with. Julieta was the truly nice and perfect one. ]

Julieta was just. Patient. A lot. [ That Sibling. Jonas may not have experience with that himself but some sibling stereotypes ring true across any world. ] I'm sure she didn't like... dislike you. Since it sounded like you at least did talk? Uh, for what it's worth, anyway. Which... isn't a lot, huh?

[ Now that they're dead. It keeps coming back to that, doesn't it? ]

[coherer]

I get the angle you're coming at this from, but I don't think it works that way with strangers. You grew up with Pepa and Julieta, and they grew up with you. You, like... you get to know each other on this weird level I've never—

Alex knew. She had a brother before me. Might've been why she was so hesitant to get another.

(any garbage and debris on the shallow steps up to the stage and altar are cleared by jonas. if bruno throws something down in his dutiful cleaning, it's swept up by grasping hands and laid in their steadily growing trash pile.

it's a good distraction.)

You're—you have trouble talking sometimes, right? So you know how bad it feels to just... try to carry on a conversation you know someone's barely listening to. It's, like, one of the most unique forms of torture.

... I wish people would tell me straight up that they don't like me. You only have two options to pick from after that: you change or say your goodbyes.

[fallingsand]

[ They get you, Jonas says, but... had that ever really been true? ]

Maybe this was a bad topic to get on. [ Bruno finally admits with a sigh. He's stopped clearing off the altar and stares down at it instead, hands resting lightly on the dusty wooden surface. ] But yeah, it... it does feel pretty bad. I mean, not that I expected the rats to ever really listen to me, although the people could have been a little, I dunno, nicer about it. Sometimes?

[coherer]

(drawing slowly out of a stoop, jonas looks to the altar and bruno standing at it.)

You've got rats? Like, pet rats? (here it comes, though it's not said with disgust. on the contrary, jonas sounds envious.) That's so cool. Man, pets are great for that. They're just an unjudgemental audience, which is more than I can say about even the nicest people I've met. Everybody's got a mean streak in them.

I've been told over and over to just "try" with them, but I'm like... if they don't try, then why should I, right?

(on the tail-end of his rant, wind gone from his sails, his shoulders lift in a self-conscious shrug.)

You know... if we stuck to nice topics all the time, everyone would run out of things to talk about.

[fallingsand]

Pet rats? Oh, no, no, not. They weren't pets. [ He turns away from the altar to look at Jonas instead. ] They were just, y'know, rats. I did build some stuff for them to play with and little ramps and bridges to help them get around the place I lived but they were wild, I guess?

[ Just random wild rats, in his space, all over his things. It's fine. ]

It was nice to have the company even if they did get into all the food and slept in my cups and... [ He trails off a bit. If they stuck to nice topics, they'd run out of things to talk about, huh? ] I know we can't always talk about nice stuff but I've spent most of my life upsetting people, Jonas. I don't... want to upset you, too?

[coherer]

Oh.

(alright, a bit stranger than initially anticipated. jonas tries to keep the judgement out of his voice, but there's no preventing some from slipping in out of surprise. still, his rebound is far better.)

Bet they were something nice to focus on. Like, when you're alone and have nothing else to do, you can fixate on just about anything. I'm glad it was rats. Empathy doesn't drop off that way, you know? (for him, stuck in juvenile detention for a year, his focus was on pictures. cigarettes that got sneaked in, too, even a couple of the other teenagers. after a while he felt very little for all of it—all of them.

something alive... that would've been different.

there's nothing comparable about their situations, but thinking of them this way helps him to be kind.)

You're not gonna upset me, man. I'm not just saying that because everybody says that, either. Everyone has downs... everyone has rock bottoms. I spent my life upsetting people, too, so... I don't know. Commiserating isn't so bad, is it?

[fallingsand]

[ Fixate on just about anything, huh? Yeah, like bad luck and superstitions and telenovelas but oh, he'd never do that. Nope. Not him. Bruno does a terrible job of looking shifty when Jonas talks about fixations when alone with nothing else to do, gaze darting away, and he fidgets with his ruana awkwardly. ]

Mm, yeah, that... that sure is a thing. [ But he already knew he was a weirdo, so there's that. ] But if you really mean I won't upset you, then, alright. I'll. Try not to avoid talking about stuff, in that case.

[coherer]

All this is real.

(adamantly, jonas continues.)

You, me, the sad crap, the stupid or weird or scary crap—all of it. It's real and it's happening this second. If we ignore that... we'll just be making problems for ourselves in the future.

(flustered, not wanting to share what's on his mind, he turns from bruno and steps away from the altar.)

... I'm... I'm gonna get back to work.

[fallingsand]

[ See, that only confirms that Bruno has, once again, messed up. When people suddenly don't want to talk, it's because he messed up and they don't like him now and clearly that's what's happening here. Could some of that be his shadow talking shit to him?

Yes, yes it is, but, frankly, his shadow doesn't need all that much help to get to that point. ]

...right, yeah.

[ In any case, Bruno takes that as the end of their conversation. He turns back to his own work as well, to carry on in silence. ]