oh, for fox's sake | Glowfic Constellation

Post office is closed for the day.

Well, actually no, they're still doing high-priority things, but as the guards explain, Sunday is a 'day of rest' and hardly anyone works.

Huh, okay.

...do other people interpret 'day of rest' as 'day of pubs?' This seems worth investigating.

Apparently, yes! All the pubs are positively bustling.

Wahey!

(Time to go get drunk in a pub!)

The pubs are very lively - one could while away the whole day like that.

Late in the day, one of her chosen pubs contains a metallurgist having a bowl of soup and a cup of tea in a corner, looking rather exhausted, but also - fidgety? Subtly excited, perhaps.

She walks over to him. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Ah. Yes, fancy that. I figure there must be at least forty pubs in a city this size. So is it coincidence, a pub spree, or have you sought me out for curiosity's sake?"

"Honestly, it was the nearest pub. I didn't expect to find you here. ...not that I'm against finding you here, it just wasn't planned."

"Coincidence, then."

He sips tea.

"Don't mind me. Long day. Complicated work."

"But it's Sunday?"

"The Lord may declare days of rest all he likes. If I can get something new and useful to soldiers out a day sooner by working Sunday, I'm sure he will accept my penance. Plus the Jews think Saturday is the day of rest and I got a little rest in yesterday. 'S good enough."

"Still, all the more reason to take the oppurtunities to relax that you can, eh?"

"Yes, yes, relaxing is good. Even if the war effort is rather pressing at times, burning out is bad. I've heard this talk before."

"And you're applying the advice!"

"Indeed. They're doing things they don't need me specifically for right now, anyway."

He looks at his tea, then stands up and heads for the bar.

"If I'm done working for the day, I may as well go order some real booze. I don't suppose you've had any interesting adventures today? Oh, I heard most of the story from Henderson. His point of view may be biased, of course."

"You say that like my side wasn't wildly biased.

I haven't done much today, other than finding religion. Literally. I now have a better idea what a church is."

He orders a beer. "So you've grown up under some other belief system? I have an anthropologist friend who'd throttle me if I didn't ask at least a few basic questions. Heh."

"I've grown up under two, actually, I'm a convert to the second one." This is maybe skirting a bit closer to the truth than she'd like, but it's not like this place is going to spontaneously develop the Immaculate Order, and it's already reasonably exalt friendly, so--

"Interesting. Feel free to decline to answer any of these, of course." He digs up a notepad from somewhere. "One god, many, or do numbers not apply? ...Some people are spiritual without believing in the divine. How did you decide to convert, what kind of rite or process was it? How formal is everything? Anything that springs to mind about the primary teachings? Who is allowed to believe in each one? Are there formal roles and ranks, like our priests, bishops, and the Pope?"

"That is... a lot of questions. Your friend is very prepared. Let's see-- Many gods (too many, really), though I only worship one, Luna. I didn't decide to convert, so much as Luna chose me. It was... an experience. Not particularly formal, you're expected to find your own way. A lot of the focus on adapting and surviving, you have to do those things, and where you can, help others do them as well."

Notes, notes. "Well, that's academics for you."

He takes a big gulp of his beer.

"Figure I've about done my diligence for him, he's kind of annoying, anyway. Last one. What's the, mm, political and social situation where you're from? Developed, as in mostly peaceful with lots of farmland and cities? Or not?"

"Tell me about it. As soon as I get back home I am getting grilled.

Let's put the level development down as variable. We've got cities, we've also got untamed jungles no man has ever set foot in. Oh, and a civil war. Lots of civil war."

"Civil war, sounds lovely. Jungles? Where is this anyway, Fuso's hinterlands? South Liberia?"

"There's been some, hmm, clashes, between the maps we have and the maps you have round here, so I have no idea, honestly. I got here by accident, and geography was never my strong suit."