[P] it was a pure creature [party]

[Adonai]

A D O N A I

I

tilt my head back and drain the swirling green-and-silver drink I'd gotten from Pilate's bar—green, of course, for absinthe; I'd made sure he saw me choose it, before I'd tugged my lips into an echoic smile and greeted him warmly in front of his guests—and suppress a gag as the liquor goes down like a mouthful of lemons.

Irony? Hardly.

I am about to place the emptied goblet on a passing server's tray when my lungs contract in a fit of coughs. Swiftly, anticipating it, I jerk my head to my shoulder and Father’s fur cloak muffles it all to silence. I lift my head and chuckle lightly; tears blur my vision into streaks of vibrant color.

There is another advantage to wearing this cloak besides the look of it: the wolf-fur ruff is so thick that I can easily smother my coughs in its plush grey depths.

“Don't—look so frightened,” I murmur hoarsely to the aghast server, who looks barely old enough to be handling drinks. From the back, I merely appear like I am conversing with him. As for the boy himself, I wave off his anxious inquiries and, when I am able to speak in more than fragments again, instruct for him to leave the goblet very gently with the soiled silverware in the kitchens, as it was apart of a set of imported Denoctian crystal made-to-order for House Ieshan.

Not that Pilate would care.

Somehow, though I do not really remember how, I make it back to the hall of statues. Pilate's cocktail is starting to affect me, I think, though I am still not certain exactly how. I am resting in the shadow of a particularly massive sculpt—a rearing stallion in a typical hero's stance, yet the hair, I suppose, is rendered finely enough—when I see him.

Vercingtorix.

I barely suppress my grin. He is gold all over, a brighter, bolder shade than mine, and the reflecting mirrors in the room only make him more so. The black gazelle horns that crown his head like sabers shine darkly; pale spots gleam down his sides, the inverse of Corradh's; his hair is done in the style I had first seen him in, though maybe it is neater, or maybe I am projecting. 

The point is that he is striking in all the ways I am not. 

If the rearing stallion's sculptor had used Torix as his model, the resulting creation would surely have become his magnum opus. At the very least, it would've given me something to admire at my leisure, instead of in cool feints of barely-there glances.

I had wondered if he would show. Abaddon had flown directly back to the aviary out of hawkish spite, and I had not gone over to check if he had brought back a reply. One meeting is not nearly enough, even for an Ieshan, to guarantee a second; or perhaps I am merely less Ieshan than the rest of them.

That is always a possibility.

Yet, before I can properly indulge in what I allow myself to think of as a small victory, a guest finds me behind the statue and I have no choice but to field his questions. My smile grows increasingly waxen when the questions grow into a droll attempt at conversation.

“My Prince, you have quite an impressive… hawk.” Until Vercingtorix makes his second grand entry, that is. 

“Excuse me.” I bow once, tersely, before brushing past the harrowed man. My shock is worn more subtly than his, yet my jaw aches as I clench down a snicker. It is infinitely more funny because I am now warming to the idea that I am drunk, or at least halfway there. There is something else to my brother's drink, too. A trap laid at the edge, for me to fall blithely into.

Vercingtorix's breath blows lightly against my ear, before he draws away. Sly fox. “I regret very little, Vercingtorix, and certainly not you,” I drawl to his looming shadow. I do not yet turn to face him. I wait patiently until the man in red has sulked his way out of the room, leaving the hall near empty, save for a couple meandering through the displays fanned out at the far end.

“Though—this hawk of mine. Did he bite?” 





Too many white lies and white lines
Super rich kids with nothing but loose ends
Super rich kids with nothing but fake friends

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@Vercingtorix & @Pilate for drink effects c;