InsaneJournal

[Video//Action | Open]
[The convergence of the week's events had her already contemplating this, but it was Neil's injuries the other day that had Lacus refusing to quit until it was done. The church would reopen tonight.]

[The whole day's work had near everything done, the blood long scrubbed away and emptied into a sink that was also scrubbed, and then scrubbed again. Everything except the spot where the Father had hung.]

[Lacus stands in the chancel, contemplating that wall. That she had painted it over, a soothing mix of pastels, didn't make it complete. Everything she had seen here, and since learned of this war from a distant world, made her need that spot to be something more, even if it would change nothing. She had once sang her song of peace to an empty hall, knowing none would hear it, because it needed to be sung. This spot was no different.]

[And she will sing, light this hall with life again, but not yet. Not until it's finished.]

[She can feel it, every bit as clearly as she can hear a quarter million of her countrymen crying out at once as they were struck down by a weapon shot in hate. All those souls, called back by grief and then made to harm those they'd loved in live. How it must distort them, how they must suffer. They deserve every tear she's been holding back, and they'll have them once she's done. Like her father, she will honor them with her actions first and her tears second.]

[Turning once, in place, Lacus takes in the church. The colored walls lit by enough candles to make near-daylight, the smell of fresh paint and melting wax. This is what she believes in, not the bloody horror that the Noah tried to create in this church. Such light and warmth in the air, that she had barely let reach her for days. Now, she lets it all in.]

[Lacus hadn't realized her eyes shut until they snap open, the light striking her with such strength that she nearly staggers. Heart pounding, she strides up to the unfinished wall, picking up paint cans and tossing the lids aside. The world is a blur, her hand moving on its own. Two brushes at a time, sometimes three, move across the wall in dramatic sweeps. For the first time in all these days, she feels not the despair of the souls that occupy her thoughts, but their hope. Only when she has conveyed that does Lacus step back, brushes plunking into their empty paint cans.]

[Her mind is whirling with more than paint fumes. Lacus marches across the small nave to throw open the double doors of the church, the entry that's been shut for days, snapping the thick tape she'd used to barricade it.]

[It's cold. Wearing only a cotton tank top and skirt, the cold is wonderful against her overwarm skin. She stands in the doorway, arms out and face tilted toward the sky, her stars smiling down on her and she back at them.]

[Video: Open]
[At first, all the video shows are the stars, shining in the night sky. The camera turns to show the inside of the church from the entry -- it looks entirely different than before. Where there was once plain wood and candlelight there is now light and color everywhere. Not only the stained glass in the windows, but the walls painted in vivid, abstract murals, the altar and pews stained a rich cherry.]

[And on the wall where had once hung a crucifix, and a man from it, a vibrantly colored portrait, of sorts.]

It's finished. [Lacus finally appears on the feed, but not as you might expect. Her expression is stern and her eyes flat and grey, as though the light can't reach them.] We mustn't allow acts of terror to weaken us. That is the truest war any of us will fight.

[She blinks, once, her seriousness giving way.] I hope... [Her eyelids flutter and her eyes return to normal, reflecting the light once more. But they close again, her balance faltering.]

[The feed cuts off as she hits the floor. If anyone tries to call for her, she doesn't respond.]


((OOC: Action is totally open to any and all! Network replies will be answered after an IC time delay. No need to read what's behind the cut to respond, and I'm sorry for the tl;dr... /)_(\ ))