[PRP] Blame it on My Burnin' Heart (Preacher & Shiloh)

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher had been told she could wander the public bits of the court and she certainly did. It seemed as though many fetches were too busy to pay her any attention and that was perfectly fine by her. And, by her definition, 'public' meant anything that was unlocked or unoccupied.

She was kind of hoping that here she would find some inspiration or someone to rope into doing something charter-y. It was eating everyone's minds right now, including hers to an extent. Sighing, Preacher shoved against a small door and...it opened. She poked her head in only to be greeted by a profusion of plants. Gross. Non-fiery. Still, she closed the door behind her and straightened her clothing (which was looking quite ragged despite being provided by the court). She might have taken a knife to most of the ridiculous bits of it.

Her foot hit a rock and it skittered across the floor of the... was this an atrium or some s**t? ******** ostentatious nobles.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Beel, when this is all over, do you think I could just like, lay my head down and sleep for a few years?"

Beel gave no response as he flipped through a booklet of sorts.

"Or be put into a like, temporary coma for a while. Like, I'd wake up eventually."

"Shiloh, you're being dramatic." His fetch sighed as he closed the book and set it down, "I understand you're stressed about the Charter, but I've told you countless times that taking a break isn't going to ruin everything. This entire casting is a group effort, isn't it?"

"Well yeah," Shiloh huffed, "But—"

"But nothing. Relax. Besides, complaining like this is entirely unfitting of your position. Do what you want outside of Court, but you're a Noble here." Beel paused and tipped his head up, "We have a visitor."

"Uh, isn't the door usually locked?"

Beel shrugged.

Shiloh had left him there, half expecting to come across some Othercreature, or maybe for some reason someone he liked. The thing was his door had no handle, nor did it have any discernible lock, but it opened for the people he wanted it to. Preacher Maria was not necessarily someone he considered to be on that list, but that's exactly who he happened across. He blinked slowly behind his veil.

"Can... I help you?" The tone was more baffled than anything.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Preacher poked at a plant. This was greener than the great outdoors and how did these things even get enough light and fresh air inside like this? She looked up when someone spoke, squinting.

"Oh, nah, I'm good." Then she looked at another plant, wondering if burnt plant bits would work. She had a lighter.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh squinted really hard, still trudging his way over. "I mean, you kind of wandered into my domain, so..."

"Oh, this is where you went. You took off so quickly." Beel whisked himself in, "Wait, I recognize her, she's the mink from the conference." He slowly made his way over as well; actually he was more or less hovering, "I worked very hard on these, do you like them?" She was watching them... sort of intently.

"You'll make Beel sad if you mess with them." Shiloh said.

Beel just made a sound, "As if I'd be so put out over something so trivial!"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Oh, I was thinkin' 'bout burnin'," she said casually to Beel. He didn't need to know she wasn't actually going to burn them, and Preacher figured mentioning it would make the fetch squirm. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out... She wondered what being all corpse-y felt like.

Then her nose wrinkled up. "Wait! Is this.... are ya... Fight Club McKickflip?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Beel looked at Preacher, then to Shiloh, then to Preacher and then to Shiloh again before laughing the sound weak and wheezy and wet like there was something permanently lodged in his throat.

Shiloh was making a face. He lifted the veil up to make his point.

"I mean, most people call me Shiloh. Or Beaumont."

"I hadn't realized people on the other side had such regal titles for you." Beel was amused, but then he stopped, "W-Wait, you can't burn my plants! I planted everything in here by hand!"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"He wouldn' do a kick flip n' there then was a fight club," she explained solemnly to Beel. "Spoil sport. I'm tryna think o' somethin' for tha whole burninatin' tha countryside part of the charter."

Then, after a moment. "Y'know... fire element."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh blinked, and then very plainly said "Oh."

At least his attention was piqued, and not in the 'a*****e what are you doing in my house' way. "I guess I kinda assumed everyone had those under control." He let the veil fall back into his face, but after a moment of consideration he removed the hat entirely and passed it off to Beel. Beel, rather than putting the hat away, rectified the problem by wearing the hat himself. "Jamie and I did something like that a little while ago, but it was uh... one of the water ones."

He was silent for a moment, "We're really close to the deadline. Lemme help."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"If they was all under control, they'da be done. N' they ain't. I already did a water thingum too, with my r-" Roommate sounded weird, like they shared a room, but they didn't. "Chester." She sighed.

"Figure if I'mma part o' the burn coalition, I can get some kinda purification thing goin'. Was debatin' sneaking into asslord firecheek's rooms and gettin' somethin' fiery, but I don' think that'd fit that purification bill." She scuffed her good foot on the floor. "******** I'll take any old help, y'know? But I ain't got a whole lot of ideas. 'Less you wanna enchant a zippo."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Oh, you room with Chester?" Shiloh had only met him once, "He seems like a nice guy." Even if their first conversation comprised of music boxes and him being brutally murdered in a past life. "If you're talking about Ezra, I dunno if we could sneak into his domain very easily. ******** it, I've never been there even." Then again, maybe one of his tithes could, but would he want to throw Rabbit or Jeremiah under the bus like that?

Then again, it wasn't as if Jeremiah could like, die that bad. He'd been shot in the chest and walked away with a bruise for ******** sake.

"I mean, Jamie and I made a magic conch shell." He sniffed, "I wonder if you could do like—what's the saying? Fire 'n brimstone? Like literal brimstone—"

"Shiloh," Beel spoke up, "I have news for you. Brimstone is just sulfur."

"Oh... well whatever." He huffed, "There's gotta be something. "I wonder if we could potentially like, light something but have it burn forever?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yeah, he's chill. Washed m'hair once." She gave Shiloh a thumbs up. "I mean, if ya got other ideas aside from Firepoop's s**t, I'm for it. I like th'idea of somethin' eternally burnin'." She yanked the end of her braid around and twirled it in her fingers.

"What would we light? Special oil, wood, a sage stick?" She grinned suddenly. "Magic can do what tha ******** ever we want, so gettin' it ta burn forever would be peasy."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I mean, Jamie and I put the ocean into a conch shell, so I'm sure we could make something burn forever. It just comes down to like... what we'd want it to be burning." He looked to Beel hopefully.

"Christ, I helped you with the last one, you still want me to hold your hand?" His fetch, who had no eyes or eyebrows, still someone managed to master the subtle motions of the eye roll. "If you're wanting oil, then myrrh might be suitable. It's an ancient resin with a multitude of magical properties. Heartwood is a rare, but magical material as well, if you could locate some."

"Heartwood?" Shiloh tilted his head.

"Some of the desks in the Madame's court was made from it. The sap reacts to heat." Beel made a vague motion with his hand, "It reddens at the touch, like blood pooling to the surface. Honestly though, these are just suggestions."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Oh my god," Preacher breathed, a sort of strange excitement infusing her voice. "Let's go steal a desk." She looked from Shiloh to Beel and back again, nodding.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Beel blanched, or at least blanched as well as his wrinkly corpse a** could. "We are not stealing Silk's desk."

"She had three chairs too..." Shiloh said thoughtfully.

"No! Absolutely not! Are you ******** crazy?" Beel huffed, "Don't give her any more reasons to hate you! You've finally started to get on her good side, do you know how difficult that is?" His arms were folded, "I forbid it. If you want that specific wood, you have to look somewhere else."

The Semblance of Unity

beel is a killjoy...

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Wow. He's a stick in tha mud, huh." Shiloh was at least willing to consider things. "So like... we find wood that ain't belong ta Silk. There used ta be more nobles than what is sooooooo. It's like dumpster divin'." She crossed her arms awkwardly.

"Sure as s**t Silk can't be tha only one with a rad desk."

melancholies