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Sunlight signified the start of a new day for many, but not for the water territory's Priest, Olivine. Lighting a candle before dawn was his first activity of the day, followed by a brief prayer and preparing breakfast. He usually had eggs with a decent amount of caffeine to get him through his busy days, but today there was no need for an energy boost. A glance at his to-do list gave him enough adrenaline for days.
Mentioned in the middle of his agenda, in delicate handwriting, was the meeting.
The dreaded meeting was held bi-monthly after the escalation of beasts attacking the temple. It had become too serious to ignore, so knight chiefs and the temple's management thought it was best to put their heads together in an attempt to keep the situation under control. It didn't matter how many meetings he would attend, a deep-seated twist always found its way into Olivine's stomach in the days leading up to the meeting. As anxious and as guilt-ridden he felt, he knew pondering over his rash actions would amount to nothing. Yes, it was stupid of him to tamper with the altar, and yes even after all the trouble he caused everyone his selfish desires weren't fulfilled, but at this moment none of that mattered. The temple still needed maintenance, the kids at the temple still needed to be tended to, and his daily activities needed to be done. He asked God for strength and prepared himself for the day ahead.
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A bad habit of Olivine's was accidentally omitting half of the actual chores from his to-do list, so while the first item on his to-do list was preparing the temple for visitors, he made sure to check on the children first. Volunteers and staff children remained at the temple and somebody had to take care of them. Luckily, Olivine loved children and they loved him back as well. It was also a bit therapeutic to see the kids' peaceful sleeping faces right before they woke up and wreaked havoc.
Willy was the first to wake up, he was the lightest sleeper among the kids, the curtain's shuffling was enough to wake him up and he always had the most adorable smile upon seeing Olivine first thing in the morning. Next was Jenna, huddled up against Willy even though she had her bed.
Waking up Sophie, Henry, Elijah, and Mia next was enough to get everyone to their feet and running. The children's favorite thing to do was a group hug right before getting ready, and listening to confessions in the past prepared Olivine to give an intent ear to the children who had a lot to say even though they woke up a few minutes ago. The usual drama would start a little after breakfast when they were energized and ready to terrorize the city.
Today's drama was a love triangle. Lily, Ava, and Luke were the lead cast. Apparently, Lily picked up one-sided feelings toward Ava which weren't reciprocated. To make matters worse, a little birdy might have told her that Ava had feelings for Luke, whom Lily despised. As much as he wanted for things to settle and for the three kids to get along, the Priest couldn't stop himself from getting hooked on this juicy drama, and he made sure to remember every detail to recount it later in his letters to his siblings. Meanwhile, he busied himself with styling Jenna's hair, as Lily was so inconsolable that she refused any attempts to style her hair.
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After the bustling of children, Olivine was heading back to the temple with his little journal in hand. The way back was quite short, almost a brisk walk. The path looked heavenly with tall cherry trees on both sides of the limestone walkway. It was summertime and cherries had already sprung into fruition. But Olivine didn't pay his surroundings any attention, he amused himself by writing daily entries and jotting down any story ideas that passed his mind, partially to save any interesting events for his next letter to his siblings.
It has been relatively difficult lately to think of new story ideas, part of him started to believe his creative juices were drying up and another thought this sudden creative block was only a symptom of his gloomy thoughts. He couldn't stop thinking about how his days were wasting away with the same daily routine, the same faces, and the same feelings of dissatisfaction eating away at him. Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from writing down how his morning had gone so far,
Dear Diary,
The children were very active today, as they are every day by the blessing of His Almighty. Lily has been unusually fussy today, I suggested trying out a new hairstyle as she holds a deep fondness for her looks but even that didn't work out. I suspect she has feelings for Ava and all this fussiness is because she came upon a letter from Ava addressed to Luke, more specifically a letter where she declares her undying love for him and asks for his hand in marriage. This is quite funny considering Luke has already rejected her twice and said he only had feelings for-
"Father! Oh I'm so glad I caught you, I can never see you these days"
Another admiring visitor came to see him. For the past few days, the line of admirers had increased and the knights wouldn't allow everyone in. A crowd proposed a hazard in case a beast decided to attack out of the blue. Knowing this, it lightened up Olivine's heart to know people were eager to visit the temple and pray under such dangerous circumstances -if praying meant ogling at his handsome figure and praising God's skill in sculpture- though he had wished they'd take more care of themselves.
The Priest's obliviousness towards people's feelings for him and his idol-esque status in the water territory was fascinating, and more often than not it was a heated topic of discussion for the knights, especially the ones who had just glimpsed twenty-five minutes of the admirer's concealed praise for Olivine.
"Man, I would love to have as many devoted worshipers as Father Olivine does,"
"Do you think he even realizes everyone is here to see him? He genuinely believes they're here to pray even though more than half the population are atheists,"
"Oh come on, why would he be in such a good mood all the time otherwise? He knows just how popular and good-looking he is, and honestly, I would be too if I were in his shoes-"
"Zip it, here he comes"
Olivine was finally back to start preparing the temple for visitors. He knew, as well as the rest of the temple's staff that no one would be coming to pray. Even with that knowledge, continuing activities as usual and keeping everything in tip-top shape would help staff and any rare visitors feel grounded and keep morale up. What kind of feelings would a dusty, dirty, and unorganized House of God invoke in its devout believers?
However, deep down, he was attempting to dust away his own doubts and his own fears. It was irrational, but wiping down chairs felt like wiping away at his own heart, and that made him feel a little lighter.
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It was time for the meeting. He could feel his heart beating in his ears, unable to face everyone and act all holy when it was all his fault, but now he didn't know what to do except brace himself and attend the dreadful meeting.
A creaking sound greeted him as he opened the door to the meeting room, he started thinking about how the door's joints needed oiling badly. Multiple pairs of eyes darted at him, waiting for him to start the meeting as head of the temple.
"In His Holy name, God of Klein, we commence this meeting"
A brief recap of any meeting about the beasts would go as follows: pleasantries, formalities, half the meeting is spent wallowing about the country's miserable condition, the other half is for the knight chiefs' self-fulfilling desires, quarreling among themselves, using any opportunity they can find to boast about their sector and subtly trash-talk the rest, perhaps the last ten minutes one of them agrees to send more knights to aid the temple and throughout all this Olivine has to hold himself from seeming like he is over himself and over this temple's situation and over every single decision he had made that got him to where he is at right now.
He sits through the meeting with a yellow smile plastered over his face, he might intervene now and then to stop the participants from slicing each other's heads off clean. And the meeting ends with more pleasantries and wishes and prayers.
The irony is, that although the reoccurring meeting takes up a lot of Olivinie's time, mental, and emotional space, all it gets in his journal is a mere three words.
The usual meeting
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And off he goes to the confessional. For a strange reason, it brings him great solace to pray there instead of the prayer room or his own room.
He chuckled at the irony when a rare visitor would come to confess their sins and it was his turn on confession duty. He wondered how they would feel if they knew the Priest they were confessing to was just as sullied with sins as they were. Would it bring them comfort to know nobody's perfect? Or would they despair knowing even the holiest people weren't capable of controlling their worldly selves? Such thoughts amused him.
Olivine had this habit of putting his emotions to the side and never realizing how much emotional buildup he had until it was prayer time.
Aside from praying, some things in the confessional that brought him comfort were the color of rich, dark, orange wood used for building the confessional. Studying the color evoked in him a sense of peacefulness, and so did touching the grainy texture of the walls, especially little dents and scratch marks scattered here and there. He wondered many times why this was the only room made of wood when the rest of the temple was made of cool hues of white and blue ceramics and clear glass. Was it because wood absorbed emotions, unlike glass? Perhaps a confessional made out of pure ceramic would reject humans' impurities though glass would be fitting. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
Bringing his hands to his chest, he started praying.
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Purple and orange hues bounced off of the windows of the office room, which was almost empty save for a desk, a chair, and a shelf. The lamp's light was growing stronger as the sun was setting, Olivine was crouching over the wooden desk proofreading his latest children's book.
A few ideas in his brain were about re-decorating his office, it was a bit dull and didn't exactly incite any will in him to work. He gazed around in an almost meditative state, cheek in hand, already imagining some improvements, picturing and sizing up every corner of the room. A sheer, creamy curtain would do nicely with the beige walls, he thought to himself. Maybe some flowers would lighten up the office's mood. He did enjoy gardening in his spare time but never got the time or energy to get around to it.
Realistically speaking, an entire change of scenery is what he needs, something along the lines of leaving the Water Territory behind, visiting the capital, and traveling across the continent. Though the best he could muster was bringing in a plant. Even painting walls was out of the question, donations were tight and such frivolous desires should be kept at bay. Especially considering where following his desires has led him to.
"Okay back to work!"
Lately, he's been getting into the habit of building a writing process instead of rushing to write down the story's plot and fleshing out characters. He would outline and make a messy draft of both the writing and illustrations. That meant it would take him longer than usual to finish a story, but he found this way was easier to avoid creative block and made for a smooth and less frustrating writing process.
To compensate for the lack of new stories, he introduced a new activity to the kids where he would give them a prompt and they could draw to their heart's content—this way he had them occupied and it gave him inspiration on what to draw for said story.
His latest stories were self-inserts, or self-projections to be exact. One story was about a brave knight who slayed all the monsters threatening his town, another was about a traveling merchant who got to indulge in all sorts of different cultures, tasting exotic cuisines and befriending various personalities. The main character of this last story was supposed to be a traveling monk, but in fear of seeming like a fictional autobiography, he changed it to a merchant.
The story he was working on today was inspired by one of the children's illustrations. The story follows a group of friends who continuously rebel against their elders thinking that defying the rules makes them revolutionary. They're always up to no good, and mostly they find a way around the consequences of their actions, as a result, they think they're invincible. One day they're wreaking havoc as usual at some random nobleman's garden. A nobleman known amongst their elders as a merciless force of power with strong ties to the royal court. But what happens when they inflict irreparable damage to his favorite fountain statue and he catches them red-handed?
Olivine was eager to write this cautionary tale because some of the children were trying to act all rogue with the beasts roaming around the temple, to the point where one of the knights on guard had to interfere. Strangely enough, this writing session went incredibly smoothly, not as usual. He hadn't realized it yet, but his only outlet for the stress of his living situation was when he sat down at his desk, allowing his imagination to take him far away, far from all his demons, whether they were human or figments produced by his mind.
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Another habit of Olivine's was going over all the chores he performed over the day in the shower. Perhaps it was his way to wash away all his burdens at once, be it mental or physical. The warm water worked its way over his tense muscles, lulling his body into a state of relaxation while the chanting of daily activities gave his mind a much-needed release.
The last object to see Olivine off to bed was his loyal journal, jotting down any events that he forgot or was too busy to write earlier, and of course a new, fresh to-do list for tomorrow. And on that note, he put away all his writing stationery, blew off an almost burnt-out candle, and tucked himself into bed.