Ras/Dee/Ravi - drinky drinky

[soulawakened]

Who: Rasmus, Dee, Ravi
When: The Coil
Where: The Fest
Rating & Warnings: PG I guess?

this is why you do not leave group logs to green to code

This year's Fest of the Green wasn't quite in full swing yet, but it was always better before it got rowdy. Ravi could relax for a couple days. By the third or fourth day he'd start working full shifts and giving the less experienced guardsmen a break, but for the first couple days he could kick back with his bros and drink and tell stories.

He loved telling stories. He was so good at it, and he knew so many that nobody else had heard before. Nobody in Tyrol knew a thing about Hindu legends. It made him feel like the resident expert, and that was a pretty great feeling for somebody who's constantly worried about how he comes off to people.

He was between stories right now, letting someone else talk while he enjoyed the summerwine. It was a known fact that Ravindra didn't drink much, but he felt comfortable enough among the Guard--people he saw as his surrogate family--that he didn't care about drinking in front of them. Right now he'd had just enough to overcome his anxiety and turn him chatty, but not yet enough to start making very bad decisions.

Well, maybe not entirely true. After a glance over the circle of off-duty guardsmen, he elbowed Rasmus and leaned in to ask, "Where is Cosimo? She should be here. We should find her."

Rasmus was fond of stories. Something the old man had instilled in him, he supposed. He was well versed in Greek myth, but Ravi's stuff was most definitely of a different world, much as Balfour's had been when first he arrived. He'd been listening intently, urging Ravi on with exclamations and disbelief ("how can you see a universe within a person's mouth, if you are in the universe yourself??? No, no, I cannot accept").

And while he'd been listening, he'd been drinking. He'd been drinking since before Ravi had arrived, knowing he would spend much of the middle portion of the Fete sober and on-duty. Yes, he was still concerned about Myron, but the man was dead and there was a party going on. And he was certainly not on duty now.

"Ah? Cosimo? Cosimo, Cosimo." He stood suddenly, nearly pushing his chair over. He peered over every head, and not seeing her right away bellowed, "COSIMO!" as though that might help.

He looked back down to Ravi and shrugged.

She definitely heard that.

Dee put a hand through her hair, trying not to talk herself into going home. Socialising was good for people! And if she turned right around now, it sounded from the shouting like they'd hunt her down and drag her out anyway.

She ran a hand through her hair again and began to slip through the tavern crowds towards the general area the shouting had come from. She elbowed someone out of the way when they didn't react to her saying "excuse me" five times and when they turned to her it was with an uncomprehending blink, then a shrug. These people must be deep in their drink already if even her bony elbows could be shrugged off.

Spotting Rasmus and Ravi she dragged a chair over and sat near them. "Hey there, you two."

The shrug was answered with a facepalm. Not what he'd meant, Ras.

He was half-way out of his chair to go drag Ras off to look for her manually when he spotted her. He slid back down and waved her over. "Good of you to join us, Cosimo," he answered. "I see Rasmus got your attention." His accent was coming through a bit thicker than normal. Enough to give his words a slightly different rhythm than usual.

He looked vaguely confused at Ravi's facepalm, glancing about as though to see what it was that had caused it. Instead he caught sight of Cosimo and he grinned, sitting back down himself. "Cosimo! Good of you to join us." It was amazing the two understood each othet- Rasmus' English was good, but stiff. Now it was like that but with An emphasis on how Greek he sounded, the words sharper anf increasingly mispronounced.

"You look- you look..." he trailed, pausing to think. She did not take well to compliments, moreso than most women. If he said it, she'd hurt him. Well, his feelings, mostly, but those were important too. "You look sober," he said then proudly. "Sergeant Ravindra was just telling a story. Tell her about the monkey. The monkey, the monkey!"

"Sober," she repeated, jaw dropped and eyebrows raised. Oh well, it was better than some terrible compliment. "That's because I am. Sober, I mean."

Dee turned to Ravi, looking bemused. "What monkey? Is this something that happened on a patrol?" If it was something criminal that'd happened in the city, she was definitely going to need a drink. Catching the eye of one of the barmaids, she signalled and a few seconds later was receiving a glass of summer wine. She frowned at it. Too much wine would be bad. She'd just have to make sure she just drank one glass.

He gave Ras a look, and then a shove--not a light one, but only because Ras was a fucking giant and he wouldn't have felt a light shove. "Hanuman is not a monkey," he corrected, "he is a vanara."

Turning to Cosimo, he said, "No. A Hindu story. But you were not here for it and so you have missed out. You should have been here sooner. Apparently--" a shrug and a sidelong glance at Ras "--it was exciting."

Ras swayed slightly with the shove, not seeming to notice it. "Vanara," he repeated, looking a little annoyed, as though to ask 'what does it matter?' He was a monkey-man. That was easier to say. He took another drink and put the mug back down. He was far too large for the little table, made Ravi and Dee look like children, or moreso than they usually looked.

"Well, you were the one telling it, Sergeant," he said somberly, "so it was quite good, you see. I did not expect you would disagree."

"I have already told it. I do not feel like telling it again, because Rasmus will only interrupt to ask questions about how everything is possible." He shot a glare at Rasmus. "It is possible because I say it is."

He paused to pick up his glass, glanced at Dee, did a double-take, and gave her an admonishing stare. "Drink, Cosimo!"

Rasmus was starting to feel nervous with how much the other two were looking around, and with Ravi glaring it him he didn't feel much better about it. He also took another look around, taking another drink, though if he were supposed to be looking at anything, he couldn't tell what it was. Frustrating!

"I only want to understand," Rasmus mumbled. It seemed he didn't quite understand a number of things, most of them socially related. Normally this wasn't a huge issue, just an odd quirk of the many the guardsmen had. Sometimes it had potential for causing greater problems. "I cannot help it if the things you say do not make sense."

He looked to Cosimo as well. "Are you on duty today?" he asked, surprised.

She frowned, but drunk up when she was ordered to. Eugh, hopefully she wouldn't end up as badly as some of the other folk here. At least the summer wine was surprisingly delicious....she took another sip, this time slower, appreciating the flavour.

"Not on duty, no," she was just always like this. Watchful. Prepared. A stick in the mud. "My dog's outside. He'd be here right next to me if I was on duty."

Dee glanced up at Ravi. "If you're not going to talk about monkeys or whatever, what are you going to tell us about? You're the old man compared to me and Rasmus, you must have a nice story for a summer night." Hopefully, he'd drunk enough already that they could brush off her insubordination.

"Fine, fine," he sighed, leaning back in his chair. "But if you call me an old man again, Cosimo, extra duty for a week." (He didn't mean it. Maybe.)

He went quiet, draining his glass as he considered what to tell. Something different, something he hadn't told yet. Didn't feel like telling something from the Vedas... Maybe an anecdote, something Ras couldn't pick apart because it was actually true. No, he couldn't think of any good anecdotes. What other legends hadn't he told yet?

"Mm!" He thought of something. Set the empty glass down, swallowed, and started in. "Alright. When I was young--when I was young, I met a Buddhist in Mangalore, on our way to Belur. My father, he hated Buddhists, he felt like they were only looking for excuses to live above their caste. So he made me talk to him, you know, because I am so good at selling things to people. It did not take the Buddhist very long to realize I could not sell water to a man dying of thirst, and so he began to ask about my faith, instead. But he kept asking why--why do you think that, why can a person not escape Maya in this lifetime, why would you be born into the merchant caste if you are no good at it? So finally he says, let me tell you a story."

By this time, the rest of the table had gone quiet and was listening in, having realized that Sergeant Naran was telling another story. But Ravi paused, looking at his empty glass, and pointed to the lowest ranking Guard present. "Why are there empty glasses here? Go, fix it."

"Go, go," Rasmus said irritibly to the guard, who looked reluctant to leave, less so when Rasmus waved a hand at him. He had a sort of idea about the caste system the Sergeant was speaking of, enough to let it slide. The idea of him trying to sell anything was actually rather funny.

"That is a good point," he pointed out instead. "A very good point. Many people are appointed to positions they are not worthy of, but usually such does not reflect upon the person's afterlife." He sat looming over the table, not on purpose, his arms crossed and resting on the table. His expression was drunkenly thoughtful, and he went to take another drink, confused to see it was empty.

Dee took another gulp of wine, watching them both. What was a Buddhist? Where was Mangalore? To keep herself from looking stupid by opening her mouth and asking questions, she decided to keep as quiet as possible, though her eyebrows still knit together in confusion when she was confronted by unfamiliar words.

"Meanwhile, all we can do is hope those people who're unworthy get taken out of their positions." Or at least realise they were unsuitable and swap with someone else.

He sighed. "You are interrupting." Never mind he'd interrupted himself in the first place. "And it does not reflect upon your afterlife, there is no afterlife, there is only the next life and the one after that and on and on." He waved in some vague gesture to indicate the vast eternity of an infinite number of rebirths.

"Cosimo." He cocked his head toward her, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "The only way the unworthy get taken out of their positions in this city is by being promoted up to where they will do less damage. Why do you think I am not a lieutenant yet? I am not bad enough at being a sergeant."

Luckily for the guardsmen sent to refill their drinks, Ras and Cosimo had managed to distract Ravi from his telling long enough for him to leave and return with a bottle of summerwine without missing any of the story.

Rasmus made another motion himself. "Afterlife, rebirth, does it make a difference? It is what comes after this one and it is affected by what you do. Bah!" he said, letting the conversation drop so that Ravi could continue. He didn't know where half the places he mentioned were, either, but that was hardly a point of contention for him. Ravi could have said the moon and Rasmus would have ignored it in favour of some other point.

"That doesn't seem right to me." Even if it was a joke! She looked down into her wine, shocked to find it half finished. She took another sip. "People only being promoted when they're terrible." Though it explained why some families were given lordships. Families that might begin with 'M'.

She didn't understand his next life stuff, so instead made an impatient hand gesture. "Go on with the story!"

"Yes, yes, anyway." He settled back into the storytelling rhythm as the junior guard started refilling drinks. "The Buddhist says, let me tell you a story.

"Once, there was a man who could charm dragons, and he used his power to prevent them from bringing floods and storms--in India, rain is brought by dragons and naga," he explained as an aside. "So because of him, the valley does not flood every year, and people are able to farm there. In gratitude, they bring him a part of their harvest every year, so that he will keep them protected. But after a time, the people forget that the valley was ever plauged by floods or storms, and they begin to take it for granted that they will always be able to farm there safely, and they begin to forget to bring their offerings. Angry, the man prays to become a dragon himself, and he is reborn as a naga named Apalala, living at the source of the Suvastu River. Spiteful, he brings violent storms and floods, and he destroys the people's crops year after year.

"Sakyamuni Buddha came one day to the valley and he was struck with compassion for the plight of the people. He went to the mountain where Apalala lived and taught him the ways of Buddha. And so Apalala, finding happiness in Buddha's teachings, came to know peace and let the people of the valley live and farm there once more.

"The Buddhist, finished with the story, looks at me and asks, 'So what do you think?' So I think about it for a moment, and finally I say to him, 'You have convinced me of the failings of the Hindu caste system, because I think that before you became a Buddhist, you must have been a brahmin--a priest, the brahmins are the priest caste--before you became a Buddhist, you must have been a priest, because you are as bad at selling your religion as I am at selling goods."

Rasmus listened intently. When it seemed he would interrupt, he didn't. Other guards waited, seeing moments where he could interject, but he only drew another pull from his tankard. When one finally thought to interject, Rasmus, without looking, took the man by the head and shoved his face into the table. Oh, not very hard, just enough to keep him quiet while Ravi spoke.

He frowned at the end of it, thinking as hard as he could. It didn't seem thinking was his strong point, but he tried, the poor dear. It simply seemed it was that he couldn't think of what question to ask to sort out his confusion. Finally, face clearing, he said, "why did he not simply stop playing his flute?"

Dee rubbed the shoulder of the man Ras had pushed into the table, making sure he hadn't hurt his nose and topping up his drink so he wouldn't attempt to get his own back. This was done silently; she was still half-listening to the story. Rasmus had brought up a good point though. Yet more proof that people in positions of power would abuse them. That guy had had the power to protect people and rained down destruction viciously simply because people had forgotten to give him some harvest.

"Or just sent them a friendly reminder?"

Ravi raised an eyebrow at Ras. He hadn't mentioned any flute, so he had no idea what Ras was getting at. Rasmus asking confusing questions, however, made perfect sense.

When Cosimo chimed in, he answered with a shrug. "I don't know. You will have to ask the Buddhist."

Look Ravi, charmers need flutes. That's just the stereotype in your culture and don't try to tell Ras or his player otherwise, gosh!

"Well, I cannot say that much was different for us," he considered. "Though usually it was gods who were angered, and they turned into animals themselves." He was quiet, thoughtful for a long moment. "But it had no bearing on the soul. Well, not that I know of. People could always climb out of Hades with good enough bargaining skills. That's what they were useful for."

So many different stories of culture and religion. It made Dee feel almost self-conscious to be a native Balfourian. They'd have heard all of the stories of Cita already. She finished her wine, then stared into the glass, perplexed. How had it gone down so quickly? She poured herself a little more - she'd have to be careful not to overdo it, she reminded herself again. "Religious stories are boring though," she acted brash to hide her insecurity. If they asked her, then she'd surely bore them. "Have you guys seen..."

She paused, unable to come up with a subject changer. "The...flowers? There are a lot of them outside the Citadel."

Wait, shit! That was terrible! "The Fest is really great, isn't it?" That was worse. Okay, she'd just shut her mouth and try not to cringe.

His response was an exasperated, "It is not boring Cosimo. Even the Citadel's stories are not boring. You only know them too well."

He felt sorry for her conversational fumbling. Shades of his childhood. "If you can think of nothing to say," he advised, "say nothing. It is less embarrassing this way." He wasn't trying to be mean, it was genuine advice from a lesson he'd learned young, but calling it out in the middle of a group of fellow guards was an aspect of it that he was too drunk to consider.

"Ah, but I think those are good things to say," countered Rasmus. "Because if you think them boring, perhaps they only need be told in a new way!" He nodded, agreeing with himself quite emphatically. "I have heard stories of the Epistles from the street corner and it is much better than the speaking inside the Citadel. It is only where you hear it, Cosimo," he said, thumping her on the back.

Flowers? "I have never seen so many before," he confessed. "i am much more familiar with vineyards. The wine is good too. It is very sweet though, hey?"

Rude, Ravi!

But her glare at him was cut off by the thump to the back which sent her forward into the table, spilling her wine. Dee winced as she sat back up, rubbing the spot the giant had hit. She reached across the table to grab some wine, glad of the subject change. "It's good when it's not on the table, yeah. Better than I was expecting."

Ah, but he wasn't called out on it being rude, and so it was let to slide. As per his own advice, he had nothing to say and so he would say nothing. He set an elbow on the table, chin in hand, and watched from the sideline as the two of them discussed the wine. His own glass was half-empty again, but he was thinking he wouldn't fill it up again after this. He didn't want to have to be carried home, too embarrassing.

"Well you could let Simon have some, I suppose," he said, his voice a low mumble at this point. "It would save the girls from having to clean off the table when we're done." It sounded like a good idea, not embarrassing at all or strange. He glanced about- where was Simon, anyway? He shrugged and took up the pitcher, poured for himself, looking at the bit left over. He then poured that into Ravi's cup. He seemed more keen on drinking it than Cosimo.

"Back in my own country, gods involve themselves in things all of the time. and if a human tries to take their glory, they become quite upset. Something like this charmer would not have happened. Giving sacrifices to someone who is not a god is a sure way to make one angry," he said knowledgeably.

"Oh no," oh Cita, her dog drunk would be horrifying. She'd find him passed out on someone's roof the next day. "Nooo, definitely not!" Besides, he was outside! Or he'd wandered back to hang out with her brother. He always liked him better...

"No wine for the dog!" She reiterated, just in case her two previous 'no's hadn't been clear. Then she finished her wine. Two glasses down - two and a half? How many had she finished before Ras had spilt her previous glass? Her stomach felt warm.

Ravi's eyes narrowed at Rasmus, his eyebrows lowering just slightly. Why couldn't you read minds, Ras? Now he was obligated to drink that, you jerk.

He straightened, folding his arms over the table, (shooting a glare at the refilled wineglass,) and said, "Gods are different where you are from, yes? Tell me about them. Your gods. What are they like?"

What? What was the problem?? Cosimo looked horrified about something, and Ravindra looked angry. He took another drink to ignore it. "Can a dog get drunk?" he asked Cosimo, frowning in curiousity.

At Ravi's question, his brow lightened some. It had been a long time since he'd thought on the old gods. "Very selfish," he said. "And vengeful. They do not think much on their actions. Most of them," he said after another moment. "Some are very benevolent. But again, when they feel like it. Even to each other they are not very kind. Poor Hephaestus got the worst of it. His mother kicked him from Mount Olympus for being so ugly. And his wife, Aphrodite, very beautiful, always cheating on him with their brother, Ares. But very good at smithing. They had many children with mortals, such as Heracles... sometimes caused humans to fall in love with animals to create demihumans." He sat back, rubbing his chin, lost in thought, or maybe in memory. Already there was stubble where he rubbed, for all his efforts in shaving every morning. "Hmm... it is probably best the old gods are no longer worshipped as they were..."

She reached for the bottle again - she had to keep up with them! And her head felt kind of loose. She'd ignore that. "Dogs can get drunk. It usually involves them falling over," she grumbled.

Dee listened to his story with mounting confusion as she tried to keep track of each of the players. "That's a lot of incest and bestiality for one set of gods."

Ravi listened intently. He knew a little, some of the names were familiar: Mount Olympus was the gods' home, Aphrodite was the goddess of love, Ares was the god of war, Heracles was a man famous for his strength. Hephaestus, though, that name was completely new.

He picked up his glass and drank while Ras spoke, then set it down on the side Ras wasn't sitting on. (If he refilled it again--!) "Tell me about Hephaestus," he said. "What is his story?"

"They are gods," he said with a frown. "What do they care? A human must be exceptional for a god to pay them favour. If you consider it such," he added thoughtfully. "But you may do very little to earn their wrath... strange how things change, is it not? To live in such a way, as though every move pleased or displeased a god. And some of them were not gods that committed beastiality," he added, for Cosimo's benefit.

At Ravi's request, he thought a moment. "Hephaestus... he was considered ugly. His mother, Hera, queen of the gods, threw him from Mount Olympus, and it is said the fall made him lame. There are many stories as to where he landed, but even lame and ugly, he had quite a few children." He grinned. "He was a smith, and it is said he made a beautiful golden throne for Hera, which imprisoned her once she sat in it. He claimed he had no mother when the gods begged him to release her and it took the god of wine to get him sufficiently drunk to return and undo his handiwork. From then on he was the smith of the gods... husband to Aphrodite, who was disgusted by him, and started her affair with Ares, the god of war." He nodded a little, thoughtful. "He managed to capture them while they were entangled and brought them before all the other gods to see. They all found it quite funny."

"But they were all incestuous?" Dee raised an eyebrows, continuing to sip her wine. There wasn't much else she could say. She was woefully undereducated when it came to other religions. Even when it came to her own she lacked the knowledge of others. She would never be a nun.

Rasmus might not be the best storyteller, but Ravi was fascinated nonetheless. The Greek gods seemed like an especially vindictive bunch. Where the Hindu gods were worshiped out of necessity and Cita was worshiped out of love, it sounded like the Greeks worshiped their gods out of fear.

Maybe he'd ask Ras for details later, when they were both less drunk. Or maybe he'd try to look it up on his own. Amelia could get him access to the Hour's library, he was sure.

"It is different for gods, Cosimo," he told Dee. "They do not have dowries to worry about, you know. There is one faith, ah, what was it? Christians, they believe all humans come from one pair put on earth by their god. Those two, they populated the whole world. Think about that for a minute."

Rasmus shrugged a little to Dee's question. "I suppose yes. They are all said to come from the head of their father. Ah, his actual head," he said, tapping his forehead near to one of the bumps, barely hidden by his hair. "His head was split open after he ate his children and they all climbed out... it is bizarre at least. But not as bizarre as the whole universe in a child's mouth," he said, sending Ravi a suspicious look.

"They're all a little weird." Dee frowned again, taking another sip of wine. Maybe she should just put her head on the table. It felt like it belonged there.

"The incest is still disgusting, whichever way you cut it."

Rasmus's words got immediate indignation out of Ravi. "The universe is in all things! It makes perfect sense! There is no difference between looking into a child's mouth and looking into the universe, you only think there is. But for children to be born from their father's head, that makes more sense to you? Rasmus, you are crazy." FACT.

To Dee, he said, "You will find it in every religion, though. I challenge you to find me one with none."

Rasmus straightened up a little. "Uncalled for!" he said, indignant as well. "They were already alive, they simply needed to be freed!" Gosh did he not know anything! "How can everything be inside something, including the something the everything is in!" He made a gesture that meant something, he was sure, but he would let Ravi try and figure it out.

He looked down to the table. "Cosimo, do you hear something?" Why was she putting her ear to the table?

Cita, when would they stop talking about religion? The only subject more boring was paint drying. And this dick measuring contest about which religion was stranger? Dee waved her hand. "I'm going to just go to sleep, I think. The two of you are being reeeaaally boring."

Boring? Why he never--! He leaned around Rasmus to glare at her. "It is not boring, Cosimo!"

"You are boring," Rasmus muttered sullenly, drinking from his mug.

"Cita, you're both going on and on about which religion is better. Don't you have anything better to talk about? It's really fucking boring!" Dee finished her third cup of wine with irritation and poured herself another. The drinking was going well at least.

UM OBVIOUSLY HIS RELIGION WAS BETTER. Gosh what else was there even to TALK about?

He exchanged a glance with Rasmus. "I think she has had too much to drink."

WHATEVER RAVI. Not that he actually treated it like his religion since it died out like a thousand years ago even if he is the product of it somehow WHATEVER.

"Sh," he said to Ravi, refilling his own mug and taking another drink. "I wish for her to remember this." In the form of a really, really bad hangover.

"I'm getting out of here," Dee stood, looking towards the door. All of her joints felt as though there was water in them; they were way too loose. "You guys can sit here and talk about which god banged which or why there's a universe in a donkey's mouth all night, but I am way too bored to keep up."

"Krishna's mouth! Not a--ugh." He gave up. "Fine. Go, then, Cosimo. Can you make it on your own?"

Awww, boo. "She will be fine. She is close enough to the ground, she will not hurt herself much if she falls over. Good night, Cosimo!" he called out, taking another drink. Noting his mug was empty now, he glanced over to hers. Emptry as well. Sigh.

Rasmus, you a dick. Dee would probably be fine, but still, you a dick. Ravi would've replied to the short joke, but he couldn't think of anything sufficiently funny. Instead, he just sighed, setting his chin in his hand again, and slid his half-full mug over to Rasmus.