fandomtownies | Our Lady of Fandom, Wednesday all day

Karal trotted into the church, for once not bringing anything with him. He'd been all right yesterday, spending it quietly in study and prayer, but this morning he'd woken up worried.

Which would be why he called, "Gabriel?" a little bit anxiously as he looked around.

Altra was with him, grudgingly, but Karal had asked him, and the 'cat couldn't really say no, much as he might have liked to.

Gabriel was sitting on the backrest of one of the pews, caught up in the book. When he heard Karal he looked over his shoulder at him, and surpriningly enough, he was smiling. It wasn't the warmest of smiles, but still. "Karal! Survived the weekend?"

"I did!" He beamed back and hurried over, relief settling his worry as he was warmed by the smile. "I came looking for you, to ask you the same. You took no hurt from the dinosaurs?"

Altra sauntered behind him and jumped up onto one of the pews, looking at Gabriel thoughtfully.

Gabriel threw a glance at Altra, but decided to ignore tha cat as long as it behaved itself.

"There was one in here, but I scared it away." It had been tiny but vicious. "Didn't like trumpets."

"You frightened it away by playing a trumpet?" he asked, surprised, and trying to think of a polite way to ask, 'was it bad playing', because he was having difficulty imagining those beasts being scared away by pleasant music. "I did not know you played the trumpet."

"Old habit," Gabriel replied, pointing at the instrument lying on another pew. "Have been carrying it around for ages." He put his book down, noting that Karal wasn't carrying something this time. "No one got badly injured?" Not that he cared that much, but it seemed like a good topic of conversation.

"There were injuries, but nothing critical, nothing permanent, as far I know. My roommate has a broken leg, and her, umm, Seely was injured as well," he added, stumbling a bit over what to call Seely. Apart from He Who Chooses The Clothes Of Evil. "They tried to eat Trenor, but Molly saved him."

Altra yawned and stretched out on the pew, and Karal sat next to him.

"Ah, yes, Molly! She seems to be strong enough to look after herself." Gabriel noted the struggle for a choice of words, but didn't know the cause. "Broken leg? That's... bad. Don't know who Seely is." He threw another glance at Altra. The cat looked suspiciously relaxed. "I was invited to a dinner yesterday. Lady named Emma Frost and some of her friends."

Altra glanced back, ears twitching, then looked away. "She is," Karal agreed. "And that is good! Did you enjoy yourself?'

"Good company," Gabriel replied, keeping his eyes on Altra. "A bit too much wine. Oh, I found the bookshop the other day. Good selection. But tell me about your week?" He reminded himself not to forget to get Karal to tell him about what was going on. Perhaps not everything reached the radio.

"My week?" he asked, surprised, then smiled again. "The last one was uneventful until the weekend. I spent it mostly caring for Trenor, and studying. And then there were dinosaurs, and then I spent the weekend in the library, and with Molly." He frowned. "On Monday I was given a pet to care for, and I spent yesterday in study and meditation." He never felt comfortable using that word; it made him sound so pompous.

"You were given a pet? Don't you have enough of them already?" He'd always thought it odd the way humans chose to surround themselves with animals. Perhaps they felt an affinity for them.

Altra lifted his head and glared at Gabriel. "Altra is not a pet," Karal said quickly. "And Trenor is, well, I guess he is a pet, of sorts. The class is on caring for creatures, and the teacher gave us all a pet. Mine is a chinchilla, it looks sort of like a rabbit. It needs a name, and I am having trouble finding it one."

Gabriel ignored Altra. "Ah, not pets. Yes. And names. People like picking names from the Bible." Perhaps not for their pets, but they were all animals, so Gabriel couldn't see why it would matter.

"Do they?" he asked, turning the idea over in his head. "Is there a name you would suggest?"

Gabriel picked up a bible lying on the floor and opened in on a random page. He shrugged. "Esther?"

"Esther, Esther." He tired to picture the chinchilla, trying to fit it into the name Esther. "That might work. I think it is a girl."

"Well, it's not going to object if it's not," Gabriel replied. "Esther saved her people. Good girl." He looked at Karal to see if he was happy with the name.

He was and he smiled. "Esther is her name, then, thank you. I am sure she will be happy with it. For a small creature, she seems quite brave."

Gabriel actually felt something vaguely resembling a feeling of being pleased with himself for finding a name for Karal's pet. It was disturbing. "You're welcome," he managed, looking a little confused.

Karal saw the confusion, and had no idea as to its cause. "I could bring her by, if you would like to see her," he offered.

Gabriel was unsure what a chinchilla was, but he wasn't overly fond of rabbits. But for some reason he just blinked and said: "Why not!"

[Bedtime soon. If I disappear that's why.]

Beaming, Karal nodded. "Next week, then, before my workshop," he said. "Are you well, Gabriel? Does your back no longer hurt?"

[sleep well!]

He shook his head. "All I needed was a good bed."

Having to utter that sentence was really disturbing too.

[Right. Sleep. Now]

It was vaguely disturbing to Karal as well, tough he wasn't sure why. "That is good," he said, and ducked his head. "Is there anything else you need?"

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