Cabal Angels Ritual, Activate!

[Star]

He smelled soapy clean. He'd never managed to take a shower quite as good as the showers in the Circle of Creation, which confounded him. Honestly? He was curious if the Circle had some sort of cleanliness resonance.

He'd needed to, after clearing out a space in one of the unused theaters. Two rows of seats had been removed, creating a relatively clear space at the front of it. They were piled in a corner, unceremoniously, like a garish set of steel and cushioned corpses.

Why? Because Hearthmaster. Well. Someone had to do it. And he felt guilty. Not a lot guilty, but a little guilty. Lightbulbs, yo. And he sure as heck wasn't doing everyone's laundry. Nope.

So he'd made a ritual room.

Once he'd finished, dressed, and applied over a dozen band-aids to nicks and cuts from pulling out, okay, mostly the moving of, chairs, he padded down to Asp's theater, and knocked.

And turned away.

Because you never knew how someone was going to answer the door.

[Star]

"Oh, uh, you know. Same old."

His head slowly swiveled around, using his peripheral vision to make sure everything was as it should be before turning to face her.

"I wasn't, you know, doing anything today, and was thinking about doing My Thing. So I was seeing if you were? Because if you weren't, maybe we could do it."

That... didn't sound right.

"Do the thing. The ritual. A ritual. A ritualized spell casting." There we go. "Like we kind of talked about?"

He pointed two fingers at his eyes, and waved them up and down himself.

"I mean, no bigs. If you're busy. I was just gonna try and do my gogs and stuff for, like, a while. Get off the daily."

[Star]

"Oh. Right -- I cleaned out a spot, in one of the empty rooms. Not, like, super big, but it should work."

He wasn't totally sure what she did for her ritual schtick.

"As long as, you know, you don't, like, jog laps or something. I mean, because you run a lot. I don't know. I've only seen a couple, but they were, like, totally different."

One of them? Might not have even been a ritual. Whoah. Don't. Go. There.

He did a head bob and started walking.

"And, you know, I got a bottle of wine. Which I never really got? Wine, prime, maybe the whole angel biblical wine thing? Not that I'm complaining, or anything. Just, you know. Well. Maybe you don't? Some people pour it, but I just drink it."

Why waste it, yo?

Yeah, it was entirely possible they were going to get trashed and fling Supernal around.

"Oh. But. Like, you're not a, whatever it's called. Wine pro. Because, uh, I just got a bottle from the super market. It's not, like, fancy."

Because sugar daddy.

[Star]

One eye squinted as he gave her the You're An Alien look, and he shook his head with a laugh. Cold. Steak. Gross, yo. Because cold cuts. Sandwich meat -- it's a thing.

"Uh. Wine glasses?"

Someone's getting spoiled.

"If by 'wine glasses' you mean clear plastic cups? Like at festivals? Then I totally have wine glasses," he grinned.

He meandered them into his theater. Most of the seats had been pulled out, and were piled along one side. A. Very. Big. Pile. Leveling of the floor had begun, and was nearly a quarter finished. He grabbed his backpack, and fished out a bottle, offering it to her.

"Hmmmm. Red. Is that okay?"

Because trip to the grocery store if not.

[Star]

He glanced at the pile of metal, felt, and cushions and shrugged.

"I'm, hmmmm, not sure. Like, for plans? But it seems like a lot of good metal. Right?" Maybe furniture. Or ladders. Or stairs. He had some crazy ideas, and that was a lot of raw material.

"But, uh, thanks. For the offer. I'm just still, kinda," he made a tumbling gesture with his hand. Hamster wheeling, yo.

He slid sideways and took a step towards the door. "Oh. Number Seven. The one straight across? I cleared a row. It already had some space, you know? So there's some room."

Theater numbers for rooms in the Sanctum? Too cool.

Sure, there was space in his, but. But. Spending hours in his room splitting a bottle of wine didn't seem like a good idea. Because wrong ideas. Pop Quiz: How do you explain drunk yoga pants stumbling out of your room half lit? Fail, yo. Because trick question.

"This is kind of cool, though, you know? The overlap? So we can do stuff like this."