Hannibal's house, Thursday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had stayed up late last night, and only gotten to bed in the early morning. He was woken only a few hours later by the sudden cessation of all the little noises a house's appliances made. He made a quick mental check of things, listened to the weather, and was ready to go back to sleep when he found himself blinking in the light of a fireplace that hadn't been there a moment before.

He frowned at it and got up to look it over. It seemed normal in every respect except for the fact that it shouldn't be there.

Beethoven jumped down off the bed, came over to sniff and poke at the thing, then jumped up on the hearth, turned around, curled up, and went back to sleep.

Hannibal sighed and went down to make breakfast. "I have gas heating, you know," he told the air.


[OOC: Open post if anyone wants to drop by! Come on, somebody had to have gas heat!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course," Hannibal agreed, deadpan. "Well, with any luck, she will grow out of it. This island seems to be a very good place for that."

[glacial_queen]

"If nothing else, it throws trauma at you until you're emotionally numb and trying to cope," Karla sighed. "Although maybe that was just my friends. I haven't heard much on the radio that suggests the students are running around anywhere near as half-cocked as we used to do."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't heard of any orgies needing virgin sacrifices lately, at any rate," Hannibal said. "Whether that means it's calmed or not is debatable."

[glacial_queen]

"It's a good sign, if nothing else." Karla said with a small chuckle. "No one wants an orgy-sacrifice. It's just too gauche."

Seriously, backwoods Louisiana. Seriously.

"But I do think the island's calmed down some since I was a student there. They don't even have the Reserves anymore--for a little while, we had a kind of mini-standing army on campus."

[sharp_as_knives]

"That seems like it might be a smart thing some days." Hannibal checked the omelettes and started cutting and plating them. "Currently we have no organization when something invades us."

[glacial_queen]

"And that's why Arthur started the Reserves," Karla agreed. "Because it was chaos, otherwise, with kids running off and getting themselves in trouble. So Arthur started the martial reserves, Merlin started the magic reserves, and I don't remember who started the support, but they coordinated researchers, healers, and stuff like that."

They'd been very organized for awhile!

[sharp_as_knives]

"That sounds very useful and organized," Hannibal noted. "Maybe we should suggest something of the sort now."

He finished Karla's plate and slid it in front of her. "Orange juice?"

[glacial_queen]

"Only if the students are interested. The Reserves started dying my senior year. We seem to be getting fewer mages and fighters among the students these days.

The plate Hannibal set in front of Karla looked divine, the omelettes bright and fluffy with fragrant steam wafting up. "Oooh, please," she said, picking up her fork. "And once again, my compliments to the chef for whipping these up with no electricity."

She took a bite of the savory one and made a noise more appropriate for later that weekend, once the pollen took affect. Look, Karla really liked food, okay?

[sharp_as_knives]

"We seem to have a few more now," Hannibal pointed out as he poured the juice. He started making himself a plate as he enjoyed watching her eat. "Thank you. Although you did bring the light. Apart from that, I only need to not leave the refrigerator open for too long." If it kept up this cold, he'd just stick everything in the basement and open the outside door.

He waved toward his coffee pot and stove. "One of the benefits of cooking with fire."

[glacial_queen]

"Well, no one ever yells at you for trying to," Karla teased. "Me, on the other hand..."

No one ever let her do anything.

"But that's not a bad idea. Perhaps I'll mention it to Cassandra next time I see her. It'll give her something to funnel all that latent mage-prejudice into."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Because my fire stays where it's supposed to," Hannibal pointed out.

"You could mention it to Anders and Celia as well. Maybe having a group of them working towards protecting others would help with that prejudice, too."

Or not, but Hannibal hadn't ever been to Thedas.

[glacial_queen]

"They restart the mages and possibly the support, Cassandra for the martial...It could work," Karla mused. "I'm not sure how many other students would be interested though."

[sharp_as_knives]

"We won't know until we ask," Hannibal pointed out. He poured himself juice and more coffee and sat by Karla. "But perhaps we should wait until we're not in the middle of a blizzard."

[glacial_queen]

"With an attitude like that, you'll never make it in Glacia," Karla teased. "Though with these thin-blooded children, you're probably right."

Said the woman who walked through the door because she was too impatient and cold to wait for Hannibal to answer his door.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't seen weather like this in Glacia yet," Hannibal said. "But yes, it's less a question of that, and more a question of getting enough people to attend a meeting."

[glacial_queen]

"In the north, it starts snowing in late August and doesn't stop until May," Karla said, having another bite of omelet. "We've actually had a very mild winter, in that we didn't get snowed in up to the second floor, even down in Sidra."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal raised his eyebrows at that. "Do you tunnel through it to the doors, or exit through the balconies?"

[glacial_queen]

"Exit through the balconies, usually. Though, in the past, I've sent my Fifth and Sixth Circles to go out and vanish the snow from the city. They either call it back in over the River Sid, or out past city limits."

Because Craft was amazing for all sorts of things.

[sharp_as_knives]

"That sounds much more efficient than snow plows," Hannibal said, smiling. "Why call it back in - couldn't they leave it vanished?"

[glacial_queen]

"Vanishing things go into a kind of storage," Karla explained. "The more that you've vanished away, the less room that you have and the more it drains your Jewel. Someone with a White Jewel might have as little as a closet, I have...vast ballrooms. And I don't even notice the Craft I lose carting all of that around, but someone with the White might not be able to do more than carry that closet when it's full."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Do you conceptualize it as a space? Do you see it in your mind's eye, everything laid out?" He thought of his own mind palace and Jono's space with moving thoughts.

[glacial_queen]

Karla shook her head. "No, it's more like...almost like I've tagged everything and I can just summon forth whatever I need at will."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "And you know how full that space is based on the strain and concentration needed?"

[glacial_queen]

"Presumably?" Karla smiled. "I've never vanished enough to feel the strain, not even with the Sapphire. As far as we can figure, the difference between one rank and the next is roughly logarithmic? I mean, that doesn't take into account the variations within Jewel ranks as well. I was a very powerful Sapphire and now I'm a fair-to-middling Ebon-gray. Lucivar's Ebon-gray is stronger than mine is, for example, and I'm not sure where I rank against Andulvar."

The three of them were only wearers of the Ebon-gray that still walked the Realms, living or (demon) dead.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I don't believe I've met Andulvar, have I?" Hannibal asked.