FIRE DRILL!, Outside the Dorms, Friday Night into Saturday

[endsthegame]

It started around midnight. Big, purple globs of grape jello, raining down from the sky. Jello drenched the bricks, the emo garden up on the roof, and every window that happened to be on the wrong end of the wind.

An hour later, the dorm sirens began blaring.

By then, the lawn was already coated in a thin layer of jello, and it did not look like the weather had any intention of letting up.

[[ FIRE DRILL! open to all students! ]]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

Anders couldn't resist the urge to give Hyacinthe the blandest and most puzzled look he could manage.

"What do you mean?" he said, wrapping his arms around said bulge. "My jacket? I got it on sale."

[vrajna_kralis]

Even in spite of the falling jello and the blaring alarum, Hyacinthe couldn't resist flashing Anders a merry smile. "I am envious that you have it at all," he said. "In retrospect, I might have skipped the pants and chosen a cloak instead."

He was out here shirtless, shoeless, and clad in only very thin pants. He had no respite from the falling jello.

[not_every_mage]

"I'm sorry," Anders said, more earnest. "It'll just make the shower when you get inside feel better, I suppose."

The squirming bump meowed, which might give Hyacinthe a hint as to what it was.

[vrajna_kralis]

"I am quite looking forward to tha--oh!" He grinned again, this time directing it at the bulge in Anders' jacket. "I didn't know you had a cat! Are we allowed such in the dorms?"

That was delightful!

[not_every_mage]

"If we aren't, they haven't told me yet," Anders said, with a sly smile as he unzipped his jacket enough to let Lachlan poke his furry head out. "Lachlan, this is Hyacinthe. Hyacinthe, Lachlan."

Lachlan mrowled, which was either a greeting or a way of saying let me down.

"Are you a cat person too?"

[vrajna_kralis]

"The Cockerel had a tavern cat for as long as I can remember," Hya said, holding a finger out for Lachlan to inspect. "'Tis a pleasure, messire kittycat."

[not_every_mage]

"He's charmed, obviously," Anders laughed, as Lachlan slipped further out of his binds to investigate Hyacinthe's hand. "Is that where you grew up, a tavern?"

He sounded curious, not judgmental. Every village needed its tavern, after all.

[vrajna_kralis]

Hyacinthe would laugh if he heard Anders refer to his home as a village. He was from the City of Elua, the capital of all Terre D'Ange.

"The apartment I lived in with my mother was next to the tavern," Hyacinthe said. "But spent plenty of time there. She would tell fortunes and I would run messages for centimes, more if I kept my eyes and ears open about the way people responded when they received them."

And picked pockets and stole tarts from merchants, but details.

[not_every_mage]

"Maker, that sounds interesting," Anders sighed. "You must have good stories. I grew up in a farming village. The most exciting thing I got to do growing up was walk the sheep into the hills to graze."

Which was not particularly exciting.

[vrajna_kralis]

"I am from Rue Cupole, a neighborhood of the City of Elua called Night's Doorstep. We're located at the base of Mont Nuit, where the thirteen Houses of the Night Court reside," Hyacinthe said with a small grin. "Oh, yes, I do have stories. I was never allowed past the walls about the Night Court, but the patrons had to pass through Night's Doorstep there and back. And my best friend was raised in Cereus House and shares tales of what 'tis like growing up amongst the Servants of Naamah."

And with a hint of chagrin, he added, "I will be happy to explain what most of that means, if you like. I still forget that no one else knows aught about Terre D'Ange but me."

[not_every_mage]

"Please do. I have no idea what any of those words mean," Anders said, smiling at Hyacinthe's seeming enthusiasm. "And finding outwill pass the time better than wondering how in the world I'm going to get jello out of Lachlan's fur."

[vrajna_kralis]

"Don't cats usually bathe themselves?" Hyacinthe asked.

...Look, he'd never had a pet before.

"The Night Court is properly the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers, but you'll be laughed at if you call it that. 'Tis the group of the thirteen Houses dedicated to serving Naamah." Which probably also needed explaining, right. "They are courtesans of the highest order--as Naamah once lay with strangers for coin to feed Blessed Elua, so to do they to honor her."

Yup. Unlike Isabela's teasing description of Andraste, Terre D'Ange had an actual patron goddess of sex workers.

[not_every_mage]

"They do, but could you lick the jello out of your hair?" Anders asked, mildly affronted on Lachlan's behalf. "There's a point where they need help."

His offense was forgotten as Hyacinthe explained the rest of it. "... hang on, you've got holy prostitutes?"

That was, to use Dante's word, hot.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Not after I tasted it the first time," Hyacinthe said, wrinkling his nose. "I do not know what that flavor is, but it is not grape."

Much of the provinces of L'Agnace and Namarre were devoted to vineyards. It was a personal affront.

"Of course," Hyacinthe said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Servants of Naamah sleep with patrons for coin and even her priests and priestesses spend a year when they are forbidden to turn away any who come to them with true longing. 'Tis said that Naamah grants them a measure of her grace which turns into deep desire for each patron. Once that year is up, they are free to take on lovers as they wish, the way that any other priest or priestess might." He paused, then amended, "Save the Casseline Brotherhood, for Cassiel alone did not forsake the One God's rules about physical love."

He waved a dismissive hand. "And they're dour and joyless and married to their duty, which just goes to show what chastity does to a person."

And this before he met Joscelin.

[not_every_mage]

Anders wrinkled his nose. "I don't think I've ever known a nice person who was totally celibate," he said thoughtfully. "No, but I think I like your god. Ours doesn't want people to have sex for Him, but He isn't as obsessed with people not having sex as the one they believe in here seems to be."

Two years before, Anders might have been more surprised by the notion of a god who asked his followers to sell their bodies. But Fandom had inured him to strange and different beliefs.

[vrajna_kralis]

Well, it was more that they did it in her honor? There was a lot of mythological backstory he was eliding over.

"When you force a man to celibacy, it does weird things to his temper," was Hyacinthe's oh-so-worldly response. "The One God of the Yeshuites and the Habiru is against sex. 'Tis why Cassiel remained chaste. But Elua was formed of blood and tears and Mother Earth and his law is but one, Love as thou wilt."

[not_every_mage]

Anders tilted his head, taking in that idea. (And letting more jello hit Lachlan in the process.)

"I like the way you sound when you talk about your faith," he said finally, since he wasn't in a position to critique the theology. "It's like poetry, or something out of the Chant. Are you religious yourself?"

[vrajna_kralis]

Poor kitty. He could have just stayed inside, too.

"I?" Hyacinthe laughed. "Not particularly. I've no desire to join the priesthood for Elua or any of his Companions, though my best friend Phedre is in training to become a Servant of Naamah." And one day she would be the Queen of Courtesans to his Prince of Travellers and it was going to be glorious. "I grew up in the City of Elua, though, so 'tis hard to escape the teachings. I learned to read and write and do complex sums at a temple of Shemhazai in Night's Doorstep."

He paused, trying to find a way to word it, exactly. "I believe in them, because they were once real and to be born of a D'Angeline in to be stamped in their image." Unconsciously, he rubbed the bridge of his nose, a gift from his unknown father, a D'Angeline lordling with a desire to try a Tsingani woman. "But I am Didikani, a half-breed. The Tsingani turned Elua away during his travels and he cursed us for it. Their faith is not mine."

....Exactly. Look, it was complicated.

[not_every_mage]

"I know how that goes," Anders said, with a small smile. "If everyone in your world believes certain things, you end up knowing them the way you know the alphabet. How you feel about them doesn't matter, exactly."

He shrugged, bundling Lachlan back inside his jacket as he did. "You can't escape the Chantry where I come from, either. At least not if you're human."

[vrajna_kralis]

"You have those who are not human where you are from?" Hyacinthe asked, intrigued. "Other than angels, we have none such and the last angels to walk the Earth were Elua and his Companions."

Well, Rahab was bound beneath the waves, but a) Hyacinthe did not know that yet, and b) Rahab wasn't doing a whole lot of walking, either.

"Are you not from this Earth, then?" he asked. "I admit, I am starting to lose track the differences between aliens and those from different worlds and dimensions and all of that."

[not_every_mage]

"Elves, dwarves and Qunari," Anders explained, looking around to see if he could spot a few classmates to use as visual aids. "Merrill's an elf, and Thorin's a dwarf -- he's not from my world, but he looks about the same as the ones who are. Qunari are supposed to be seven feet tall with gray skin and horns, but I've never met one. And for what it's worth, I'd call where I'm from a different world. Thedas doesn't line up with the maps of Earth at all."

He raised a sticky eyebrow at Hyacinthe. He'd seen pictures of angels and gotten the vague idea they were a type of benevolent spirit in legends, but knew little else. "You had angels? I didn't know those were real."

[vrajna_kralis]

"Merrill, I have met, but briefly, and Thorin I have not yet spoken to," Hyacinthe said, following Anders' gestures towards their classmates. "I hadn't known they were not considered human."

They didn't look like the humans Hyacinthe had known, Merrill especially, but nor did they look as completely alien as, say, Ahsoka.

"Whereas my world looks the same as this, though we have different words and names for things," he said, turning his attention back to Anders. "And yes, though the last were seen over a thousand years ago. Elua's Companions were eight angels of the One God who abandoned heaven when they saw he was in peril and the One God would not heed."

[not_every_mage]

"They wouldn't be in my world, at least," Anders said. "Not that it makes much difference here."

He gave one last glance to Merrill, wondering what he would have thought of her if her elfiness wasn't so clear to him. It was an intriguing idea; he'd have to think about it more later.

"Do you know what the companions looked like?" he asked. "I've only seen drawings of angels, with the wings and the circles over their heads."

[vrajna_kralis]

"Oh yes, all the temples have statues of them," Hyacinthe said, nodding. "And art survives from the era. No wings, at least not on Earth. Their beauty was haunting and unearthly and even after threescore years, they appeared youthful and unaging. Perhaps they have wings in the Terre D'Ange That-Lies-Beyond? The Yeshuites say they wore them in the One God's heaven, but who is to say?"

Hyacinthe was content to let the Yeshuite scholars argue about such things. One debate he overheard was about the number of angels that could dance on the head of a pin. Who argued about that?

[not_every_mage]

"Not me," Anders said with a shrug and a little laugh. "We don't have them at home, whatever they look like. And I've seen enough to know that almost anything is possible."