The Church, Thursday Morning

[bitchprince]

After that disturbing spell in the stables that morning, Arthur felt more than a little off-balance. The befuddling preacher - the angel, he claimed to be - from last week wasn't there, but the church was a church, and as such offered some semblance of comfort for his state of utter confusion.

The preacher wasn't there, but Arthur wasn't alone, thankfully-- he slipped into a seat quickly, leaning forward across the bench in front of him, and weaved his fingers together.

He wasn't sure what, if anything, to pray for.

[[ thread with arthur for particular people, but open if you wanna use the church ]]

Comments

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin was... slightly uncomfortable takign a seat next to Arthur, looking around at all the interesting bits in the building. What? It wasn't as though he even knew about this religion beyond the most basic parts that were mixed with old wives tales.

[thatsamilkshake]

She'd promised her mother, and so she was here, on the day when the sign out front said they were now having services... so of course there was nobody here. Of c--. Oh.

Well. That was... Francine stood in the entrance, unsure whether to come in or not. It wasn't the awkward; it was... She didn't know what it was.

It was loud, when the door slammed shut behind her, that's what it was. "Crap!" Great, she'd said crap in a church.

[bitchprince]

Arthur's head turned towards the source of the noise rather suddenly. "...Francine."

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Wha--" Merlin turned to where the focus of the room was going and. Oh. "Hello, Francine."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine caught both their gazes for a moment, then looked down. "Sorry to interrupt. I can come back later."

[bitchprince]

"The church is open to anyone, Francine," Arthur shot back, turning his head back towards the front of it.

He wasn't brooding, exactly.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Right.

"Come sit down?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Shooting Merlin an uncertain but grateful smile, Francine made her way down the aisle towards them and slid into the pew beside Merlin. "Hi," she said softly.

[bitchprince]

Arthur exhaled once, then glanced at the both of them sideways.

Then back at his hands.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Hello," Merlin repeated, looking up at the... rather disturbing crucifix.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine glanced up and made a bit of a wince, because honestly it kind of was. "We don't usually have those in my church. Just a cross." She kept her voice down, half not wanting to disturb Arthur, half...well, it was a church.

[bitchprince]

"It seems appropriate," Arthur had to add.

Shut up, Arthur.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"...human sacrifice?"

So maybe Merlin's grasp on Christianity wasn't the best.

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine stared at him. Then glanced back up at the crucifix. "Um. Kind of? But it's supposed to have been self-sacrifice."

It looked voluntary. Really.

[bitchprince]

Arthur was going to roll his eyes, and grit out a, "He gave up his life to wash us clean of our sins. Does that explain it?"

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Oh." There went Merlin's ideas for conversation.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Not really," Francine admitted. "I never understood why we're supposed to be so worried about them now, if that happened then."

[bitchprince]

Arthur shrugged lightly. "Ask the angel when he gets back." He was not exactly a Bible scholar.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

Merlin took a breath, looking from his left to his right out of the corners of his eyes. This was... yeah.

"Do you both come here often?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Somewhere, though not on the crucifix, God facepalmed.

Mostly because not a single. person. in the room. got the joke.

"I um. There wasn't a pastor here before," Francine said. Which excuse her mom had bought, so clearly it was a good one, right?

[bitchprince]

"Sometimes," Arthur said, slanting a look back at Merlin. "Then the angel showed up. He had very-- strange-- ideas about sin."

Involving handcuffs. Um.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"Angel." UM.

[thatsamilkshake]

That got Francine's attention, you betcha. "Like a real angel? With wings?"

There were days when she wasn't sure there was a real God -- who wasn't the crazy evil Greek kind -- even while she felt guilty about doing or not doing something he was supposed to want from her. Real angels would mean... who knew. Something.

[bitchprince]

"I don't know," Arthur muttered, "It's what the squirrels said. I'm not going to rule it out."

[thatsamilkshake]

"The squirrels lie a lot," Francine pointed out with a bit of a dark look towards wherever the nearest one might hiding.