thehometree | But my life is more than a vision--

Entry tags:

But my life is more than a vision--

| characters | Archer, Shirou, Rin, and whoever wants to join them in their endeavor. Feel free to tag multiple headers and jump threads within them!
| date/time | Monday, May 4th, onwards through the rest of the week.
| location | Outside the tree, near the mists.
| rating | PG for now, who knows later.
| summary | A complicated series of domestic scenes unfold as Archer, Shirou, and Rin set to work building a miniature kitchen out where they can have real fire, only to be interrupted by a storm.

It's been almost three weeks since Archer and Rin arrived in the center of the tree and gained their wings, only to be met by Shirou and Saber as well. That's just about enough time for it to dawn on those who might be concerned with the domestic details of day-to-day life that they have such a thing here, in between the confusion, the struggle to organize, and the fears of more giant spiders.

Archer's highest priority might be the salvation of all the souls around him, as much as he hates it, but bit by bit a new concern creeps up on him, almost unconsciously. Every time he serves Rin a subpar, barely-cooked meal, it pains him a little deep inside where he thought he was only hollow.

He decides to act.

Threaded | Flat

[ By the food altar, he corners the young man with the orange hair who stirs so many feelings of disgust and loathing in him. Archer keeps his expression neutral, which he hopes means it's a bit intimidating. He's not sure it'll work, though, knowing all the things this version of Shirou has seen. The thought only makes him feel more wretched. He keeps that under wraps, too. ]

Well, we have a truce already, but as loath as I am to suggest it, it seems we need more, Shirou Emiya. An alliance will be required for a greater purpose.

[ It's a simple enough thing to start the project. Somehow, amazingly, Archer is not trying to kill Shirou, and so the two of them have begun gathering materials. Pebbles are the size of anything from large bricks to small boulders, but still the two of them settle in to begin making a pile of them far away from the tree, near the mists. Here and there, Rin can be seen helping, when she isn't bickering with one or both of them; sometimes her activities are more arcane than that, as she studies the ground beneath her feet near the mist and direly mutters short, staccato spell words that might once have been in German. The men around her seem to take such antics as a matter of course rather than a sign of her insanity. They continue to bring pebbles, twigs, and fallen leaves over to their chosen building site by the mist.

But nature has a gang aft agley in store for them, as it's wont to do, and before they can accomplish more than a few piles of materials, great drops of rain begin to fall. The stubborn builders keep working for a while, all the same, as the roar of the storm above intensifies and the winds pick up dramatically. This may be a cause for concern... ]

[ Over the bitter years of his life and everything that came after, Archer made some headway in learning when to give up on certain tasks. That's why, when the storm intensifies beyond toleration, he finally returns to the tree. He dries off, there, and he spends a while with his latest project: experimenting with the plants he's found around the tree in an attempt to make a meager herbal tea for Rin.

But eventually, he realizes that Rin isn't returning to have and complain about her latest cup of not-really-tea. The terrible truth dawns on him, then: Rin, still reluctant to accept her new limits as a small and fragile creature, is still out there in the storm.

There isn't the slightest question of what he should do. His feet and his wings carry him rapidly back out into the roaring cold and wet. There he fights his way back to the site of the would-be kitchen, struggling fiercely against the winds all the way, helplessly seeking out the sight of a small, vulnerable human frame in the dark... ]

[ In the wet morning after the storm finally fades, the dripping quiet abruptly shatters with a bang.

A sleek arrow-like shape blazes from a slender branch of the tree all the way down to a spot by the mist, where it buries itself in the ground and explodes with furious magic. The energy of it blasts a great crater in the muddy ground, splashing damp earth and small bits of rock and undergrowth all around. And in case anyone thinks it's over after that, another explosive magical arrow follows, deepening the wide hole.

With no further ado, the team of kitchen-builders return to the scene of the crime, once again bringing pebbles, twigs, and leaves. Archer and Shirou set about digging the crater deeper to form a small room, the walls of which they shore up with their materials. If they trade insults in the meanwhile, no one need pay too much attention to that. Rin can once again be seen pacing around the edges of the hole, tracing magical runes into the earth so that bits of it in structurally important places surge upwards to form larger walls.

They work tirelessly through the day, or at least until Saber shows up to make them stop for meals. ]

[ The building takes shape progressively over the following days—

By the end of Friday the sunken walls are intact and work has begun on a roof made of leaves and twigs reinforced with magecraft to a strength that can withstand storms--or at least, so they hope.

By the time Saturday is over, items have been hauled out of apparently nowhere into the new little building. A large grill set over a newly-made firepit and some simple shelves and racks with a handful of pots and pans stored in them appear to start with. After that, Shirou and Archer spend most of the rest of the day putting together a strange person-sized contraption; they'd probably finish sooner if Archer didn't keep needling Shirou with verbal barbs.

Sunday, at last, is a quieter affair, as Rin mercifully takes over the operation, busying herself setting up strange magical runes about the little kitchen: spells of automation and protection.

In the end, all they need, at last, is food. ]

Threaded | Flat

⚒ MONDAY, MAY 4 ⚒ closed to Shirou

⚒ TUESDAY, MAY 5 ⚒ open

⚒ TUESDAY, MAY 5, NIGHT ⚒ closed to Rin