multiversallogs | closed :: don't you wonder when the earth will go

Who: Sebastian LeMat and a cast of thousands.
What: A whole lot of meeting up over coffee, tea, lunch, etc.
Where: All around town - Sobek Croix and Howl Barrow, mainly.
When: At various points throughout the week.
Notes: Organization plurk is here and a Podder mix is here.

For Martha:

As promised, Sebastian and Velcro are waiting outside the Italian tavern on Damgate and both look happy, enjoying the cold air and a spot of people watching. Now that his identity is a little more open and Martha seems to have heard something of his past from the Professor, he's unsure how well this lunch will go, but he doesn't want it to be said that he didn't put forth a minimum of effort to be civil and welcoming.

For Tonks and Hermione:

Rationally, Sebastian knew that keeping his involvement with Shada's cult as a private matter wouldn't suit Tonks and certainly wouldn't be enough to appease Hermione. He was afraid that no matter what his assurances were, they'd take a dim view of the way in which he'd sought to resort his magic and while they may not be exactly the people he once knew, their approval mattered to him.

While those concerns remain in the back of his mind as a problem to be dealt with in the future, he is currently more interested in finding the pie shop that he'd promised to meet Hermione and Tonks at. One of the other staff at Hellsing suggested The Pie In The Sky -- two story bakery and café located in the heart of Howl Barrow, just beyond Royal Jewels, but if you've hit the weird health food shop, you've gone too far.

For Jones:

It had been weighing on him for a time -- would it be wiser to explain the full terms of his arrangement to Jones before or after he confessed his interest in her. In the end, he was selfish and choose to tell her about his feelings first, making sure that she cared enough in return to hear him out. Wisely, or perhaps too cautiously, he hasn't yet mentioned their relationship to his friends in the even that she decides to now reject him.

To that end, Sebastian has invited her over to his flat for dinner and warned her that he's a poor cook, but can manage a few, simple things - omelets among them.

For Princess Nuala:

If you are feeling up to some company, I would like to speak you to, your Highness.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, eggs would be perfectly lovely," she says. Really, she wouldn't mind anything he cooked, but that's something she'll keep to herself, thank you very much. That, and she's often not had the luxury of being picky about food.

Out of curiosity, she switches on her magical senses; the warding, as she sees it, is pretty impressive. It's still difficult for her to imagine why someone as pleasant as Sebastian might even need that level of protection, but all sorts of people have enemies—sometimes especially good people. "Do you need any help in the kitchen at all?"

"Company, please? I've got something I want to run by you." Whether or not he needs the wards is debatable, but he's been a target for far too long to be comfortable in an apartment that lacks a robust ward system.

Assuming she follows him, there's a seat for her that will let them easily talk while he cuts up some vegetables and gets the pan ready. "You know that I'm working to get my magic back and that I've a series of tasks to complete."

"Sure." She follows him; if he lets her, she'll help him cut vegetables, but otherwise she'll just sit. "And yes, you did mention that, I think when we were at the cafe just after the winter holidays..."

He never did tell her exactly what it entailed; she didn't want to pry, since it seemed kind of personal, although she's certainly curious—even more so because he seems like he's avoiding the subject.

"I've finished the first, caring for a young creature, and the second is going to involve blood letting," he says casually and untroubled. If anything, he sounds more unnerved by having to care for another being than ritualized blood-letting.

"Then there's a third, that I want -- that I'd like your opinion on."

Both of what he described are not particularly strange-sounding or objectionable, but it's his hesitation at the last one that troubles her. "It's not something dangerous, is it?"

"No." He looks over what he's been cooking, sweeping vegetable scraps into a little bin for compost before rinsing off his hands and turning to face her.

"Not dangerous in the usual sense. She's a fertility goddess and there's some expectation, but not necessity, that I participate this spring."

Jones has at least memorized the names of the Twelve Point Divinity, although she's kept them at arm's length otherwise. While they might be the Powers that Be around here, she is still a little uncomfortable with polytheism, so... she chooses not to deal with it unless she absolutely has to. As such, their ways—and by extension their rituals—are not particularly well-known to her. She's not quite sure where this is going, but she has a sort of feeling that she should be fretting about this.

...then again she has that feeling about a lot of things. Maybe it's just her?

"I'm not... well, I'm not really well-versed in the sort of festival days the Twelve Point Divinity do...?"

"I could try and couch this in gentle terms, but I'm rubbish when it comes to finding the right words." It may have been selfish, but Sebastian had hoped that Jones had done a little looking into the cult of Shada and would already know what he was talking about. "We're coming up on spring and, and I've been invited to participate. I was given the choice to do repairs for the temples to show devotion, but that seemed to me to stick to the letter of the law and not the intent."

"Whatever your thoughts on the matter are, I'll accept it."

"Yes, that..." Jones has caught the gist of it; she's had enough pagan friends to extrapolate to the logical conclusion, as much as her face is studiedly blank. There's just a lot of her head noting that it would really be easier not to deal with it at this moment in time. But, then again, when is it ever going to get easier?

And she really does like Sebastian. She owes it to him to consider it thoughtfully, doesn't she?

"I..." Jones takes a deep breath. "I think I'll... I'm going to need a little bit of time to think about this, honestly." She runs a hand through her hair, a million thoughts tossed back and forth in her mind.

(Does she wish he'd told her about this first? Yes. Would she have been more hesitant about seeing him officially if he had? ...probably. If she lost her magic, would she do this to get it back? —this and more, probably. So can she judge?)

She twirls a finger through a stray lock of hair, looking down at her feet. "It's a lot, I guess, to think about. And, um... it's not just you, some of it, I think, is me. There's been a lot of changes to process since I've gotten here, coming from what amounts to about sixty or seventy years in the past, and the world's so different." Her hands twist nervously in her lap.

"It is a lot and I, I wasn't sure that it was what I needed to do until recently." He'd spent a long time thinking about whether or not he should just give his time to the temple and do some repairs instead. "...and, whatever you decide, it's your choice. Even so, I don't think that much has changed. This is an unusual situation for anyone; fidelity is expected."

"Because of the type of rite, they're pretty sure there'll be a child at the end of it, but I'll never meet her."

It's a lot to think about. She's not sure, even, if she can do it right here and right now. She is not prepared, and how would she have been?

Okay. Let's lay this out. One one hand, she really likes him, and would really like to continue to be, well, with him. Whatever that means. She can also sympathize with wanting to do whatever it takes to get lost magic back. And it's not like the woman (women?), whoever they are, in the service of Shada, will be interested in a relationship, from the way he's described it.

On the other hand... well, it's unexpected and she's out of her depth and she's always sort of abstractly believed that sex was a thing that was supposed to happen only between married people, or very committed people, at least. Then again, she's never really put much stock in the barring of women from the ministry, and it seems that views regarding sex have gotten considerably less strict in the next seventy years.

"I... I think I'm going to need some time to think about this." The words spill out in a halting sort of way, in fits and spurts. "Sebastian... I like you quite a bit. It's just... I think I need to work some things out, in my head, before I can, well..."

She sighs, shakes her head. "Oh, gosh, I've ruined dinner."

"You haven't ruined anything. I'd..." There's a pause as he reorders his thoughts and fusses with some of the cut vegetables on the counter. "How many eggs should I crack?"

Which is to say, will she be staying for dinner or should he just cook for himself?

After a moment, Jones says, "Four."

And follows it up with: "...er, assuming it's two eggs to an omelet, anyway. After all, if... well, other things aside, we are friends."

This is going to take a lot of thinking. But it's true: even if they'll only be friends after she's thought it through long and hard, she can't imagine them ever being anything less than friends.

So there's that, anyway.

closed :: don't you wonder when the earth will go

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long tag is long

...alas, this one is short.

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