Boys and Girls of Every Age

[namedforthesky]

Characters: namedforthesky and anyone who attends
Date: October 31
Summary: Sora's throwing a Halloween party and everyone is invited!
Warnings: None as of yet!

Comments

[onvelvetpaws]

Minerva made her way to the party, wearing a voluminous black robe, pointed black shoes, a tall black pointed hat, and a wry smile. No one need know that the outfit was merely among the wardrobe that had been brought to the Gardens along with her. She had always enjoyed Halloween partly for that reason.

And of course, if she really was to be stuck here for an indeterminate time, a party seemed as good an opportunity as any to get acquainted with the Gardens' other residents.

[pluckmygstring]

Upon making her rounds, Austria noticed someone here that she didn't recognize. A newcomer? Clearly. She would have to make acquaintance, she decided. She approached, a hint of a polite smile on her face that showed off her fake vampire fangs.

"Guten Abend. I don't believe we've met, have we? My name is Austria, it's a pleasure to meet you."

[onvelvetpaws]

"Oh, danke. Und Sie auch." She smiled back. "Apologies if my German is a bit rusty. I'm Minerva McGonagall, and likewise."

[pluckmygstring]

"How long have you been here now? I assume you've only arrived recently."

[onvelvetpaws]

"It's been a week now, just. Though it was May when I was called away. Time does fly, doesn't it?"

[pluckmygstring]

"Oh, only a week? It hasn't been long at all for you, then. How are you settling in?"

[onvelvetpaws]

"Well, it could certainly be worse, I suppose. The garden itself is rather lovely. I don't think I'd mind staying for a visit, if it were my own volition."

[pluckmygstring]

Austria nodded. "Indeed, the garden is certainly not the worst scenery I could imagine being thrown into like this. That said, I would prefer to return home to my duties and my peers."

She hesitates to use the word "friends"; very few of the other nations are ones that she could consider to be such.

[onvelvetpaws]

"And I as well," Minerva agreed with a nod. "I've heard time passes differently here, but that scarcely relieves the feeling that I ought to be getting things done."

[pluckmygstring]

"Precisely. I have many duties, and I shudder to think of the paperwork alone that I shall be returning to."

There will be a lot of paperwork regardless of the passage of time working differently; besides, it possibly isn't even something favorable, that time passing differently thing. Canada was gone for a week and returned claiming forty years had passed, after all. All that said, though, Austria was pleased to be making the acquaintance of someone sensible.

[onvelvetpaws]

"Do you work in the government then?" she asked, curiously. "What are the regular duties of a country? The care and keeping of yourself?"

[pluckmygstring]

"Indeed I do. As the government is meant to serve me and all of my citizens, it is my duty to keep watch over it. That doesn't mean that decisions I or my people as a whole disapprove of, however, of course. That said, I do hold an honorary position and must do my best to oversee things."

The way it works is all rather strange, truthfully.

[onvelvetpaws]

"Fascinating. Yes, I suppose it should only make sense that you have a hand in that sort of thing. And if you should disapprove?"

[pluckmygstring]

"It depends. If the disapproval is only personal, I am usually ignored and business continues as usual. If the disapproval is because most of my people disapprove as well, chances are I am ignored, but sooner or later some sort of uprising causes the leaders responsible to either change their minds or lose their position. I am a republic, now, after all, and even when I was an empire or otherwise ruled by a monarch, there was always the fear of uprisings. More was gotten away with in those days, but even then it could only go so far."

[onvelvetpaws]

"I must admit my knowledge of foreign politics is rather rusty, but you must have been rather shaken up by the war."

[pluckmygstring]

Austria blinks, pausing for a moment.

"...Which war do you mean? The Great War, or the Second Great War?"