open.

[luaithre]

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: Late night evacuation drill
WHEN: Early Harvestmere, don't think about it too hard
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: See OOC note below.

Lashes of rain batter at unyielding fortress walls. It is dark, quiet, and peaceful save for all the rolling thunder summoned from over the sea. It is a good evening to be warm in bed.

Until it isn't a couple of those things.

Wherever you are sleeping (or working) late at night in the Gallows, you will hear it: an incessant and noisy bell ringing, handheld, clanging and clanging loud and obnoxious from the top of each tower and downwards, lingering in the key residential halls until there is sign of people emerging from their rooms. Gwenaëlle has been assigned to harass the Central Tower, while Abby takes the Mage Tower and Matthias is assigned the Templar Tower. Even if you happen not to be in either of these places, the muffled cacophony of bells is liable to still reach you.

It may take a second to realise what's happening, and how real this emergency is, but in the past week, all will have received some suspiciously timed updates as to evacuation procedures, including the protocols surrounding what to do when the instruction is to shelter in place (because they do, after all, live in a fortress).

The first step is moving without hesitation when the warning bells ring out loud. The next is to descend the towers, down dim stairwells lit by lyrium glow, in as orderly a fashion as possible. From there, it's a matter off finding the correct subterranean chamber (tonight, indicated with lamplight) and waiting it out.

At least, this route does not take them outside.

In the basement chamber will be Edgard and Marcus, the former equipped with a medieval clipboard and the latter marking the time in his head as people enter, while semi-supervising the other man's work and guarding the exit. The space is large enough to comfortably fit the whole company, although it is also cold, dripping, and musty. There are places to sit, chairs and tables both, and a few blankets if you find yourself underdressed.

And if you attempt to leave too early, you'll be bid to wait it out a little longer to accommodate and cause no disruption or confusion to late comers.

To encourage this, there are a few bottles of wine set aside along with some lukewarm tea. Stay a while.

[ ooc ; feel free to top level at any part of this interaction! I will handwave the cooperation of anyone who doesn't tag in or assume they are out of the Gallows, so don't feel like you have to, but there is also a comment below for anyone who deliberately wants to be on the naughty list of no-shows. ]

Comments

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Jude noses the crutch at him.

The tongue-out panting that shows off every one of Jude's absurdly huge teeth is canine laughter, Viktor will come to realize if they spend more time together.

Between the two of them they get Viktor standing again, and Jude leans just slightly against his legs. Not enough to push him over but enough to steady them both. To stand with him until he doesn't feel so shaky.

The alarms are still going off, though more distantly now, and Jude looks down the stairs, looks back up the way they came, and flicks his ears back, then forward at Viktor. Tilts his head to one side.

[grindset]

That's a plain enough question. Viktor mimics it without thinking, casts glances down, then up, as he considers. The alarm, the stairs they've cleared, what awaits at the bottom. The room full of people with eyes on the door, waiting to see who shows up next—maybe not all, but some, and at least one doing so intentionally. The trouble Marcus went through to arrange this, unprompted. The gesture behind it. The way it tangles even now, even in the middle of this very exercise, when he thinks of it.

"Down," he decides. "We've come this far. I just... need a moment." He's rolling his hand by his torso as he says this, which also ought to be plain enough: either he needs to catch his breath, or he's perilously close to puking. Possibly both. (It's both.)

After one long breath that seems more restorative than those previous, he adds, quietly, "Thank you."

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Jude nods; it's a distinctly human gesture wrapped up in the enormous body, but it shows how much effort he's putting into being understood. It is perhaps undermined by the light lick he gives the back of Viktor's hand.

(It's meant to be both an acknowledgement and a reassurance, but maybe it's just gross.)

For his part, though- despite the alarm, he shows not the least shred of impatience. If Viktor wants to stay here until morning, he's committed to doing it.

There's been a priority shift here, the kind that Jude knows is not very like a soldier, and not entirely like a wolf either. He's not worried about his orders.