we_bring_hell | This is Halloween!

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This is Halloween!

The Bar loves her holidays, but she is also capable of respecting religious strictures. That's why she put a lot of thought into finding a Halloween costume for Harrow that works with her face paint and general insistence on the monochromatic.

Harrow, for her part, is baffled by the white-pinstriped black suit and the oversized bow, but the gloves are very cool, and the buckled shoes suit as well. She has no idea what's going on but she can live with this.

The Bar seems even more unusually populated than usual, and there are a lot of gourds around. Hm.

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He pulls back, and discovers in that same moment that the wings are articulated and that he has control over them, somehow.

Hastily, he raises them both straight up, high in the air overhead. It is a spectacle to be sure, but at least they are out of the way for the moment.

"--Gideon?"

"Lan Wangji, hey," she says, staring up at the wings. They are really...something.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"No."

Looking around the common room, however, shows that whatever it is, it seems to be well-known and accepted.

"Perhaps Bar-guniang would."

He glances up at the wings, trying to make sure they're not in the way, then looks at Gideon-- and blinks.

"Your attire is - colorful."

"Yeah," she says, staring down at herself. "It's pretty goddam strange."

It feels extremely wrong to wear this many colors, and that's not even starting on the blue skin and stitches. She turns this way and that, trying to get a good look, but eventually gives up and focuses back on Lan Wangji. "It's been a while," she says, "how've you been?"

"I am well," he says. "And you?"

He has a suspicion, given previous conversations with Harrow, but will not presume.

"A lot better than the last time you saw me."

That would be true anytime, pretty much, but there's definitely a new spring to her step. "Aside from taking a quick trip back to the Ninth, anyhow."

"I am glad," he says, but surprise is visible in his eyes.

"You returned? To the Ninth?"

"Believe me, it wasn't my idea."

She never wants to go back again. Not for Crux forced to grovel at her feet, not to hear Aiglamene's gruff praise. She shakes her head. "It was all Harrow and Moiraine. I don't want to see the Ninth again even if it's to watch it fall into the heart of Dominicus. I was just along for the ride."

"Moiraine," he repeats. "Ah."

Something has flattened in his tone, but there is no sign of surprise.

"I am glad you have returned, then."

Gideon eyes him, and wonders if maybe he's allowed to drink. "You don't like her, do you?" she says, finally. "Moiraine Sedai. What's up with that?"

Look, Gideon is not the Aes Sedai's biggest fan...but Harrow trusts her, and she, God help her, trusts Harrow.

"I do not like the way she has treated Wei Ying."

He says it as a matter of simple fact.

"But I will reserve judgment. Given what I am learning, and how others think of her."

Including Harrow.

She frowns at that, hard. Gideon has only met Wei Wuxian a handful of times, but if anything happened to him she would kill everyone in this room and then herself.

"Why, what did she do?"

"Refused to let him be."

He appreciates her frown. But, given Harrow's opinion of Moiraine, in order to be scrupulously fair, he adds,

"But she did not attempt any harm."

Harrow has one opinion of Moiraine. Gideon...is not sure hers is the same.

She frowns harder, but shakes her head. "She helped Harrow, on the Ninth," she says, a little reluctantly. "I don't understand whatever it is between the two of them," aside from what she assumes is just two magicians nerding out about magic and pedantry together, "but for helping Harrow, I kinda feel like I owe her one."

She's not super stoked about it, honestly.

He nods in understanding.

"We will be helping her soon, as well."

"Really? Even with –" She makes a gesture meant to convey something along the lines of all this fucking nonsense?

"How?"

He nods again.

"There is a problem, in her world. A pool, that is harming people; consuming souls and releasing spirits, demons, and the dead. She needs assistance."

"Spirit magic, huh?"

She says this with the vague understanding of someone who was too busy doing press-ups to pay attention when the smart people were talking. "Too bad there's no Fifth around. But can Wei Wuxian..."

She trails off, not sure how to ask. "You know, can he even be in a real world without going all...ghosty?"

"Spirit magic, or necromancy, or some combination. If it is the first, I can help."

He appreciates that she would ask.

"I think so. He has visited London Above. With Ingress."

She nods. "I wonder how that works?"

Seems like the kind of thing that could occupy Palamedes Sextus for the better part of a month. "Well...good luck. Is anyone else going?"

Harrow hasn't mentioned it, but if it's spirit magic, Harrow...probably wouldn't be a lot of help anyhow.

"...perhaps," he says, a little cautiously.

Harrow had been very clear about her intent to help, but that does not mean that they will be traveling, especially not after the trip to the Ninth.

And he does not know if Wei Ying has talked about this to Ingress yet, and he has not yet asked Tom if his offer to assist would extend this far.

"I do not know for certain." He hesitates, then asks,

"Would you?"

"Not without Harrow," she says, but nods. "But if she goes, so will I."

For some reason it has not occurred to her to ask Harrow whether she would go where Gideon wished, instead of the other way around. "I don't have any necromantic ability, but if there's something there that can be cut, stabbed, or hit, I'm your gal."

He nods back, then seems to consider something - or to consider her.

Perhaps both.

"Is there nothing like cultivation with the sword where you are from?"

"You mean like using necromancy with a sword for focus, or something like that?"

She shakes her head. "I realize you've only known Harrow, so I'll fill you in: necromancers of the Nine Houses probably have, like eight muscles total. And that's if you put them all together. I've only ever seen one pick up a sword, and she's...definitely not the usual necromancer type. That's the whole reason cavaliers exist."

He shakes his head in turn.

"Not necromancy. More... traditional... cultivation, with qi. But yes, with the sword. Or in other ways, but the sword is also traditional."

"Where I am from -- necromancy is ... not usual. Or common. At all."

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