Take Me To Church (Costin, Dusty)

[Luc DuLac]

"Oh, I didn't know that?" Luc turned to Costin with interest. It seemed like getting details out of the other boy was a bit like pulling teeth sometimes, but every now and again he volunteered these little tidbits of information and Luc was slowly putting together a picture of his roommate. It was just a pity that picture was about ninety percent lies. "What kind of things do you like to cook?"

"That sounds familiar," he added in regards to the hymn "I mean, not specifically, but it sounds like a lot of the hymns my mother's church used to sing. Some of them were okay," he said, not wanting Costin to think he was disagreeing with his choice of song, however much he'd talked down his mother's church when they first met "I'd like to hear it sometime, if you're up for it."

He turned his attention to Dusty "Costin and I were talking the other day and I told him about the hymn-swap, I don't know if you've ever been?" it was one of the more popular evening gatherings at the church, everybody sharing hymns from their own worlds, but he couldn't recall for certain if he'd ever seen Dusty there.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty leaned forward a bit to hear Costin's answer. Cooking. She wouldn't have guessed that. She would have thought maybe literature or space or something. "He can cook pasta. It's really good. He cooked it for me when I told him I'd never had it before," she told Luc. "We ain't got any Italians back home, so I'd never had pasta before."

Dusty had to press her lips together when Costin started going on about the hymns. She wanted so desperately to giggle but that would give Costin away and she couldn't do that. She pretended to be picking at a loose thread on the cuff of her blouse. She didn't know how Luc was buying all of Costin's lies.

Her head shot up when Luc directly addressed her again. "Oh?" she asked, because she hadn't expected the question. "Hymn sharing?" She was sure that she had heard of that. "I think I usually have to work during those times." She glanced quickly at Costin. "But if you're both going, then maybe I'll try and switch my shift."

[Costin Dracula]

Dusty backed him up on the cooking thing, just as he'd hoped she would, and Costin relaxed ever so slightly. Maybe he could pull this off, after all. He ran one finger over the notes on the page, wishing desperately that he had paid more attention during the piano lessons he'd taken as a child. Ballroom dance, that he had done well in, but reading sheet music...

"I've never been good at reading music," he warned them both, truthfully. "I took lessons, but I never had much of a knack for it." He looked from Dusty to Luc and back again, then back down at the book in front of him. "But if I can sit and listen for a bit, I'm sure I'll pick up on some of the hymns." That was definitely not going to be the problem. The problem was going to be providing hymns of his own for the others to sing. Maybe he could invent an alien language, pretend like...no, that was no good. He wouldn't be able to remember all the alien words.

He was going to have to enlist Dusty's help, he decided. He'd have to explain to her what was going on here anyway, so he might as well ask her for help with hymns along the way. Maybe she would know some spare ones that she could let him have, lend him a couple of wild west hymns that he could adapt to be about space-Jesus.

[Luc DuLac]

"Oh really?" Luc asked with interest "that does sound nice. Pasta is good, it's one of those nice, filling things that you can have with all sorts of extras, and it's usually an easy enough meal to make a vegetarian option for."

"Oh, don't worry too much about reading the music," he waved off Costin's worries "The tunes are usually quite simple, because a lot of them are older songs from back when nobody could really read music, so they'll be easy enough to pick up and join in with, but feel free to just listen until you're comfortable," the last thing he wanted to do was pressure Costin into feeling like he had to try and join in.

"That would be nice," his attention switched back to Dusty again "If it's not too much trouble for you to swap, it would be good to see you there."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty nodded at Luc. He was right. Pasta was nice and filling and tasty. Costin had only made one kind of pasta so far, but she was excited to try more. It was fun. "What's a vegetarian?" she asked. She'd heard that word before, but she didn't quite know what it meant and Luc seemed like he would explain.

Dusty couldn't read music either, but she was familiar enough with the hymns that they sang that she only looked at the words anyhow. The melodies were pretty simple and all. "They ain't difficult. At least not usually," she added, trying to be helpful.

She nodded, wondering if there was any other wait staff at the diner besides her and Seamus. She wondered who waited tables while she was at school. "Well, I'll ask. Cain't promise nothing though."

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was not about to try to explain vegetarianism to Dusty, because she would probably tell him that was a good way to get scurvy or something. Or maybe that was what you got when you didn't have enough vegetables...either way, Luc had opened that can of worms, he could deal with that.

He was slightly reassured to find that he wasn't going to be expected to read the music out of these books. This little charade was a minimal inconvenience so far; Luc wasn't the most irritating person he'd ever had to spend time with, and the payoff was going to be magnificent when his fathers were told that he and Luc had bonded so closely. He just had to stick with it, that was all.

"If Dusty can't make it to the hymn swap, we could always do one just the three of us instead, later." There was a little voice in the back of Costin's mind screaming at him to stop volunteering these things, but he actually had a reason this time. He'd decided he was glad Dusty was here, it gave Luc someone else to focus his attention on, and gave Costin brief pauses to consider his surroundings and his next responses. He wasn't sure he wouldn't have already failed at the whole thing if she hadn't been here, despite his initial dismay at seeing her.

[Luc DuLac]

Luc was quite happy to explain vegetarianism, it wouldn't be the first time and he doubted it would be the last, and it wasn't exactly a complicated concept to explain, at least to his mind.
"A vegetarian is a person who doesn't eat any meat," he explained "I'm a vegetarian." it was something that usually surprised people to hear, his image didn't exactly lend itself to assuming vegetarian, but it also didn't seem to lend itself to assuming regular church goer either, so he'd long ago given up on caring what other people thought.

"That sounds like a good idea," Luc agreed to Costin's suggestion "What do you think, Dusty? We could meet at a time that's more convenient to you? If you'd like to," he didn't want to put any pressure on her, she seemed like a sweet girl and he didn't want her to feel obligated to spend time with either of them.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty nodded at the explanation. A vegetarian must eat mostly vegetables. That sounded very strange. "Why are you a vegetarian?" she asked. "Do you not like meat or something? Or is there a different reason?" Maybe he just really really liked vegetables. That sounded fair. Vegetables were mighty tasty.

Dusty gave Costin a wide eyed look when he suggested that the three of them meet separately to do a hymn swap. Did he not understand what kind of hole he was digging himself into? She had to take a deep breath before she could answer Luc. She wanted to giggle so desperately but she didn't want to give Costin away. She wasn't sure what kind of game he was playing. "I suppose I could do that if I can't switch my shift," she agreed.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin suppressed a slight smile. He was strangely growing accustomed to Dusty's inquisitive nature, the way she seemed to have twelve questions about each word of each sentence he spoke to her. But it was pretty delightful to see someone else on the receiving end of that. He closed his hymnbook and set it aside, looking around at the interior of the church instead.

Dusty looked at him like she thought he'd lost his mind, which maybe he had, and then she looked like she might start laughing, which he definitely didn't want. Once he explained all of this to her he was sure she'd understand; she had been so concerned about his fathers' treatment of him that surely she would go along with his plan to get them back for their terrible ideas. "Hopefully you can switch your shift, though," he said, "I would very much prefer to not go without you."

[Luc DuLac]

"For me it's an ethics thing," Luc explained, he didn't like to get into it too much in case people thought he was preaching, but she had asked after all "I don't want to eat any living creatures when I can survive perfectly well on a plant-based diet. Plus I haven't eaten meat in so long it would probably make me sick if I tried to now," he added with a slight chuckle.

"It's a plan then," Luc nodded, though he couldn't help but shoot Costin a sly smile when he mentioned that he wouldn't want to go without Dusty, either he was being sweeter than Luc had given him credit for, or he had a soft spot for the girl "If you can swap your shift, we'll come along to a hymn swap, and if not we'll arrange a time we're all free to do our own."

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty didn't really understand why someone would give up meat for ethical reasons. Humans had been eating meat for as long as there had been humans. She didn't understand why they would stop. But she didn't want to ask a million questions and offend Luc either. Maybe she would ask Costin about it later. “Oh. Well I guess it's important to have conviction when you're doing things.”

Dusty very nearly giggled at Costin. Sure, he wanted to use her as a cover or something. Instead she gave him a goofy grin. “I'll ask tomorrow when I go in and then I can let you both know.”

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was getting a little anxious. How long did it even take before they actually started the churching in a church? Was this more of a social occasion than he'd anticipated? Wasn't a preacher or a priest or something supposed to be standing up and delivering a lecture by now? And when did the singing start? He had a lot of questions, none of which he could ask without blowing his cover.

"Did I give you my phone number?" he asked Dusty, directing the topic to something he might be a little less lost in. "So you can let me know, of course, whether you can come, and I can tell Luc, since we have- since we are joyously partnered in cohabitation." There, that sounded like he wasn't miserable about it, right?

[Luc DuLac]

"I think so," Luc agreed with a smile, he could see she wasn't entirely convinced but that didn't really bother him, he wasn't here to convert anybody else and he didn't need them to understand his reasons, but she seemed willing enough to accept his choices and that was all he really cared about (at least, when it came to remaining friends with someone, and she did seem very nice)

"Joyously partnered in cohabitation?" Luc agreed with a raised eyebrow, trying to stifle a laugh "You make it sound like we're dating or something, which we're not, by the way," he reassured Dusty, more for Costin's sake than his own, he still wasn't sure if there was anything going on between him and Dusty but he didn't want to get in the way of anybody else's happiness, not when he was so certain he'd never have his own.

Things were starting to settle down and Father Michael was at the front of the room, organising things at the pulpet while the remaining people found their seats, so it was clear things were due to begin soon.

[Dusty Fae]

Dusty was going to answer Costin's question, but then she quickly dissolved into giggles. She quickly pressed her hand over her mouth to struggle the giggles. They were in church after all. It sounded so silly. Partnered in cohabitation. Luc was right. That did sound like they were dating.

"Shhhh," she said, stifling her own giggles. "We can figure it out later." She gestured towards the front. "I think things are getting started."

[Costin Dracula]

Costin had been trying to sound not-miserable about the roommate situation but apparently he had managed to make it sound like he and Luc were dating instead. At least Luc had cleared that up. As if Costin didn't have enough trouble with people assuming he only dated men without feeding the rumors saying things about joyous cohabitation. He was trying to appear happy about the roommate thing, sure, but not creepily so.

He quieted down, shooting an anxious glance over at giggling Dusty, and directed his attention up to the front of the room, where it seemed like the whole...ceremony thing was starting to happen...

Something like an hour later, Costin felt like he needed to lie down. That had been...an experience, for sure. He wasn't sure he'd ever heard anything like that, in fact. And he was honestly very confused...he had expected there to be at least a couple mentions of how evil vampires were and how they needed to all be killed? There hadn't even been one mention of a vampire at all. He looked over at Dusty and Luc.

"I thought there would be more talk of the darker things in the universe," he said. "The demons and darkness and damnation and whatnot."