* [semi-closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan is still struggling, but she's established a little routine, specific to Dark: every morning, she goes to her favorite room - the one with all the rugs - and retrieves several bottles of alcohol. These, she ferries down to the cafe and arranges them on a corner table, where she sits for the next hour or so, passing bottles to anyone who needs a full one, and measures from the bottles to anyone who would prefer just a drink or two. By now, she's got a sense of the regulars, their preferences (though she cannot always accommodate these - it really is the queerest assortment of libations), and how much they require, but she always brings an extra bottle or two just in case.

Today, she's tireder than normal, and moving slowly. Her tea was running low, and so she's rationing it. She's even on the verge of capitulating and getting a cup of coffee to tide herself over.


[Primarily intended for Dionysus and Lan Wangji, but if anyone wants to play out the awkwardness of the daily alcohol retrieval I'm all in!]

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad hasn't actually made the connection between Claudius' irritability, his tremors and headaches, and the lack of alcohol -- he doesn't have the information for that. But he knows how much Claudius likes to drink a glass of wine with dinner, or share cocktails with his friends; he's listened to Claudius talk with extraordinary fondness about choosing the contents of the liquor cabinet for Crowley, and wax rhapsodic about the wine Dionysus conjured for him.

Galahad is still feeling empty in the wake of Easter, but it's easier to pay attention to the world around him now. He remembers the flyer that was slipped under their door a week or two ago.

He shows up to Susan's table in the café -- appearing, as he often does, a little like a ghost manifesting, albeit a ghost is corduroy overalls embroidered with flowers.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Galahad is almost certainly not here for a drink, so Susan's assumption is that Lancelot has made his apology for not summoning Galahad to Magnus's side after his injury, and he's here with follow-up questions. "Good morning," she says, warmly, gesturing at the empty chair in case he should like to sit.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Good morning." He alights in the chair, and asks politely, "How are you?" because this is a familiar script.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, as well as can be expected," says Susan, because it's impolite to gripe. And then she says, "This season is rather grating, no?" because it is, and she's not actually doing altogether well, and then she asks, "And you? That's a cheery outfit you've got."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I hate it," Galahad says, because Susan is someone he has decided it's fine to hate things with. Susan hates Camelot and Heaven. She won't find the idea of him hating things unpleasant. "Magnus chose it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's lovely," she says, about the overalls, and then she sighs. "I thought - I arrived here in autumn, but it was spring in London at the time, so I suppose I might just be off-tempo, but I did rather think that winter ought to be over by now."

[onthewillowsthere]

"The calendar is different," simply. "Magnus said there are winter blues, and I think there are more of them because winter is so long."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Between you and me, I'm not a fan," Susan admits.

[onthewillowsthere]

He shakes his head. "I can keep fasting until it's over. But I don't like it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Do you fast the entirety of winter?" she asks, surprised.

[onthewillowsthere]

"No. Just during Lent. But there's not as much food, and other people need it."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Has it been Easter already?!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yesterday." He rubs at his watchband.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh." She's quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry to have missed it." Perhaps it's for the best, though. Her first Easter without her family occurred days before she arrived, and it was miserable.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'm sorry."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan shakes her head - it's not his fault. "You needn't continue fasting," she says, instead. "If I've calculated it correctly, there ought to be food enough from the tower alone. It mightn't be tremendous food, but it ought to be enough to sustain us all for some good few weeks."

[onthewillowsthere]

He trusts her, so he nods. "Thank you." And then, "I found soap. In the tower."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan laughs, incredulous. That explains the box of it, then. "Soap, truly?" She shakes her head. "I mean, that's massively useful, but it does seem rather unexpected. ...though I suppose much here is."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you think the tower is done? Should we look again?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She blinks. "Do you know," she says, "I hadn't considered that. I just assumed that when the closets and kitchens stopped producing new items, the tower would, too, but I've no true basis for that conclusion. Good idea. I rather think we should."

[onthewillowsthere]

It's a good small purpose for the day, something besides the wine to keep him from going back to bed and staying there.

"Now?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

All of Susan's regulars have come and gone, so she nods. "Yes," she says. She does a quick mental assessment - she hasn't seen Galahad drinking at any of the group events she's been to, so it's likely fine if he knows where she keeps the stores. "Help me carry these back first?" She'll leave out a bottle or two of wine just in case anyone new comes looking.

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods. "May I have a bottle of wine afterward?" as he gets to his feet.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

...or perhaps Susan just hasn't noticed him drinking. "Of course," she says. "Have you got a favorite variety?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"No. It's for Claudius."