The Picnic Feast of the Cross
#1
Oh, my. Goodness.

The meal before him — some sort of pizza featuring fig and goat cheese and arugula — smelled utterly heavenly. The priest was dressed in his collar, having come out on a break between masses to dine. He was a bit tired of the whole thing, honestly. He wanted a chance away.

And he often wondered, what was it all for, anyway?

The world provided meals with or without the grace of God. No, today he exalted the man who'd made this delectable platter.

Very, very good. He had with him a little plastic wine glass of, of course, wine. Well, the altar swill would hardly be enough! Maybe if he had enough of these, then by the time he returned he would be a faithful priest again. For now, he was largely sober.

But brightening!
#2

Looks+outfit



Amira liked this place, it had a lot of random food and she loved the options. She opted for this thing called a steak wet burrito with a side of fries and a coffee bubble tea. The young woman would look around for a table to sit at but once again most were taken up or had large occupants of people- that is until she saw an older gentleman.

She would then walk over with her food tray in hand, "May I sit with you please?" she would ask, a sweet smile on her face as she looked at the man with the strange thing around his neck.
#3
Oh, he was used to being approached by young and lonesome women. He didn't spend much time wondering about what brought them his way. The collar had a way of drawing them in, he supposed.

"Naturally," he waved with a small smile, half expecting to hear a confession by the end of lunch.
#4
A sweet smile left her as she would slide in, pulling out a fork and knife as she wasn't a messy eater- at least not in this form, the tiger was messy not her.

"Thank you, " she told him with a smile, her head tilting a little to the side and pointing to his neck, "Does that mean something? " she asked curiously as she took a bite of her fries while she let the burrito cool a bit as she was not looking to burn her mouth.
#5
"This?" he pointed to his collar, a little surprised. Had christianity been so eclipsed... nonsense. Perhaps she was just foreign. She did look it.

"It is a priest's collar. I'm on a lunch break between masses," he chuckled, nodding somewhere in the distance where the church would be. Not that it was visible from here, though.
#6
Amira nodded some as she then cut a piece off of her burrito and ate it as he explained what it was to her. Nope, she hadn't the foggiest idea.

"A priests collar? what religion? " she asked him curiously as she took another bite. She knew of others and mostly didn't practice much outside of her own home, her parents allowing her that freedom to chose what she felt swayed to and not what they grew up with- turns out she liked both their religions a bit and respected both sides of the family during certain holidays and that made her feel well and good.
#7
"Catholicism," he answered. Maybe a decade ago he would have been annoyed with the question — there was only one true religion, blah, blah, blah.

Nowadays he wasn't so sure what he believed in, but it took more and more convincing to be closer to God.
#8
Amira went quiet thinking, taking another bite as she wracked her young brain for what that was.

"Is that the one with the fancy necklace and confessional area? " she asked him, her tone nothing but curious about it and whether or not if she was on the right brain track or not. She would lift her bubble drink up and take a satisfying drink, wiggling a little at the little pearls in her mouth.
#9
Fancy necklace? Depended on which she was speaking of. "Ah, do you mean... the crucifix?" he asked.

The confessional was correct, though.
#10
She nodded, "Yes, with the beads, " she told him.

She would take another bite, wiping her mouth politely as she worked on keeping up her manners so as to not be rude.
#11
"Oh, no. Alright. That in particular is the rosary, though you wear it about your palms when you are praying on it, not as a necklace. Each bead represents a separate prayer."

He moved to take his own pizza slice himself, a leaf or two of arugula fluttering down to his plate in the process. But still. What was a lunch break without eating!

It was very odd to meet someone who was not familiar with a rosary, and he was too old and old-fashioned not to think so.
#12
"Oh! Alright, I wasn't sure, I'd only ever seen one of those once before, " she explained to him as she would take another bite.

The pizza he was eating look very strange, her tiger sniffing and shaking her head a little before settling. Amira took another bite again, enjoying her lunch and different company.

"What got you into being a priest? " she asked a little curiously, her young mind wondering a bit on what would all a person to try and teach others their religion and gain more followers for their faith. Not that she had a problem with it but the curious tiger was curious!
#13
What a very curious question. He gave something of a sigh, but not for annoyance. More just preparing what he wished to tell of it.

A man did not always reveal his tragedies.

"Sometimes, you find the life you lead is not the life you need," he said. "I would imagine somewhere around when you were born, I was finding myself called to Him."
#14
Amira wasn't sure if he was irked or not by her curiosity but since he didn't snap or huff at her, she took it as it was ok.

She would take another bite, her head tilting to the side some. Almost on reflex, she wanted to ask how old she thought her but quickly bit her tongue on that one. He smelt human and humans wouldn't understand, no they wouldn't and so she would give a small nod.

"Oh...was it a calling in a dream or something else? I've...never truly gotten what 'a calling' from a diety was really, " she told him a little sheepishly as she reached for her cup and took another sip.
#15
"A feeling in the soul," he said, hand pressed to his solar plexus as if that was where it resided. Perhaps. Mind, heart, soul; all supposedly different things.

He was falling into sermon and chuckled for it. Easy to believe what he said when he talked. It was the moments of silence that challenged him.
#16
"Oh...that makes more sense than a dream, huh? " she asked a little smile on her face from that.

It did make her pause some though and think about it. Did she actually feel that type of calling when she prayed? She did it with her mother to be closer to her but it was harder with her gone. Maybe right now she was confused still from the loss of her.

"You're a very kind pastor for answering all my questions though, thank you, " she told him, wanting to thank him for being so nice and not getting irked at her oddball questions- at least oddball to her to ask.
#17
She was a dear. "It's no trouble," he chuckled.

But that said, he did not push for more conversation on his own. Philip was a listener, first and foremost. And this was still his lunch break, so he sought to enjoy his pizza and sip on his wine as long as he could stretch it for.
#18
Amira smiled at that, "Thank you again, " she told him, just feeling the need to.

With that, she would just happily take to sitting in quiet with the gentleman and enjoying lunch with him in peace. It was her first time around a human and it went well, least in her mind. She didn't do anything too odd and he didn't call her odd, instead, she learned something and would probably bug her family for some info later on because that was how she was.

When lunch was finished, she would clean up and take away the trash and wave goodbye to him, making a mental note to pop over to check out his church some time.
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