open ♔ november/december socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, Andres Isle, etc!
WHEN || November & December [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of November and December.

You are encouraged to start your own threads and tag around, and feel free to threadjack into any on-going threads that aren't specified as 'closed' in the subject lines since people can enter into rooms even in the middle of what's going on. WE ARE BIG ON THREAD-JACKING HERE. You can also specify 'single thread', meaning you want only one response for all participants, rather than multi-thread, where a number of different scenes/threads can be done as replies to the top prompt.]

On this log:
Wynn & Section Heads @ Andres/London
Cheryl @ Reception desk
Sam @ Various
Elena @ Andres/London
Drax @ Dragon's Hide Wing
Des @ Pub / Castle
Paige @ Caste Grounds
Grimrot @ the Library
Vi @ Andres
Matt @ Andres/London
Alisha @ bars in London
Cora @ Library/ Castle Grounds
Will @ Castle pond / Hoard wing/ Firing range / Castle grounds
Malina @ Dragon's Fire wing/ kitchen/ bar / castle grounds
Alainn @ Dragon's Fire library / kitchen / Andres
Jordan @ Andres/ London
Sylar @ Kitchen
Logan @ Castle Bars / London
Faith L @ London / kitchen / training room / castle grounds
Dean @ Rose's room / bars / armory / training room/ firing range / kitchen
Rose @ Andres / armory / training room / bedroom
Des & Buffy | Closed
Thea @ Training Room / Castle grounds / kitchen / TV rooms / bars
Sam & Buffy | Closed
Alex @ Firing Range / Airfield / Room / Garage
Failboat @ Breakfast
Alice @ Andres/ London
Sweets @ Dragon's Light Wing
Lydia @ Medical / Training room / etc

Comments

3 also november }

[impetere]

[Cora's been spending a fair amount of time in the library these days, just to try and learn all she can. Hales with books are not uncommon as far as Peter and Derek are concerned, but considering she spent a lot of her formative years on the run, her research skills aren't as good as most.

And without Belle or Willow around at the moment, she's just grabbing whatever books happen to seem like they're along the lines of the topic she's looking her for. When she meets Sam in the stacks, she's got a hefty stack of books as it is, though she doesn't seem to be struggling with it (strength 14, balance 21). What she's not doing, however, is looking where she's going.

This would be where she very nearly collides with Sam, books swaying as she comes to a very short stop, but she manages to keep herself, and them, from toppling over as she does (reflex save 20 total). Her head peeks out from around the stack and there's an apologetic smile to the very, very tall person she almost ran into.]

Sorry!

[familybusiness]

[Sam starts to reach out with a hand to steady her before she seems to manage it just find on her own, his head tilting to the side as she peers around the stack so that they meet eyes.]

It's alright. [A short beat.] Do you want some help with those?

[impetere]

[She shakes her head.]

No, I've got it. I just need to remember to look around them every once in a while to avoid head-on collisions.

[It's not so much a matter of strength as it is navigation.]

[familybusiness]

Come on. There's a spot at this table over here, so you don't end up carrying those any further than you have to.

[There's a light touch against her back so he can gently lead her, despite her mentioning she didn't need help.]

[impetere]

Thanks.

[And she'll let him lead her, giving her eyes the opportunity to focus on her feet so that she doesn't actually trip over everything. When they get to the table, she plunks her books down. Today is a mix of things, mostly starting with reading up more on werewolves from this side of the Veil, with some of the more helpful paladin books to compare notes.

She glances down at the spines, pausing before slotting them out according to topic before glancing up at him again.]

I'm Cora.

[So that she at least has some kind of manners involved. She vaguely remembers him from Andres, mostly because ... how can you not remember someone that tall? But names and all that? They're not coming to her (wisdom 9).]

[familybusiness]

[Apparently he remembered hers somehow (wisdom 18), but the refresher to assure him that he was right is certainly nice.

He takes a quick note of the books she's collected, out of sheer curiosity, before he looks back up to return the pleasantry.]

Sam. It's nice to meet you. In a setting that isn't a battlefield, anyway.

[He gestures with his eyes to the books.]

What are you researching?

[Indulge the nerd.]

[impetere]

[she feels like she's said this so many times, but she keeps hoping that somewhere along the way someone might know more than she does.]

Werewolves on this side of the Veil and how it interacts with paladin magic?

[familybusiness]

This is about...Lan?

[Watch him put 2 and 2 together like a boss (wisdom 18).]

What have you found so far?

[Worse comes to worse, he can help her do a little digging. It's kind of his thing, after all.]

[impetere]

[It doesn't actually bother her that Sam's figured it out because Sam was ... actually there. It saves her subterfuge and preamble.]

Nothing concrete. Everyone I've talked to seems to say the same thing. Being a paladin comes down to who you are, not what you are, so it stands to reason that if Lan learns to control his wolf and actually accepts it as part of himself, nothing would change beyond the fact that he can keep his head better during a fight.

But it's all ... theory, none of it is actually on paper.

[familybusiness]

I wish I could help, but I don't know much about paladins, honestly.

[He rolled...the shittiest knowledge check.]

If you want some help, I could see what I can dig up, though?

[impetere]

Yeah, that'd be great. Research is ... not really my forte.

[She sort of missed those super important years in school. Yay for being on the run and everyone you know thinking you're dead.]

[familybusiness]

[He nods.]

Alright, give me a day or two and I'll let you know what I find.

[impetere]

Great.

[Then, there's a beat.]

Thank you.

[Because while she's enlisted more than a few research monkeys to help her, she still can't help but feel like she's playing catch up - even with the werewolf end of things.]

Werewolves here do not work the same way as where I'm from.

[familybusiness]

Don't worry about it.

[He looks sympathetic.]

Yeah, same here. We're talking not even close to the same, so I don't want to give you the wrong information if I've got my wires crossed.

[He actually seems a little affected by the topic, actually.]

[impetere]

[Yeah, she notices that (wisdom 19). She debates for a moment if she wants to push it before deciding she might as well know.]

Did you work with wolves a lot back home?

[familybusiness]

I, uh, no. Not exactly.

[His discomfort increases, though he'll...try to explain.]

When I say werewolves were different at home, I mean really different. They, um, live off of hearts. Human hearts, specifically. When they turn, they lose control, and the urge to feed results in a lot of innocent people dying.

[Do you see where this is going, Cora?]

[impetere]

[Oh yeah. She's totally picking that up (wisdom 18). Her body language shuts down almost instantly and while she's listening to what he's saying and understanding that his wolves are very dangerous and nothing like her own, she can't help the visceral reaction to the fact that ... ]

You're a hunter.

[familybusiness]

Yeah.

[He doesn't seem particularly proud of it, either.]

I don't know if the word applies to me so much anymore, though.

[impetere]

[Cora seems like she might maybe believe it, but she's still a little dubious (sense motive 17). It's the hunter thing. And the fact that a group of them, you know, slaughtered her completely innocent family once.

Those things stick with a kid.]

What do you mean?

[familybusiness]

[He sighs, knowing that this story might potentially make in uncomfortable for her, but he settles into his chair and tries to briefly explain without giving her a sob story.]

My Dad became a Hunter after my Mom was killed. He dragged us around the country, taught us how to shoot, how to kill, but I never really wanted to be a part of it. I always wanted to be, I don't know, a normal kid, but my Dad acted more like our drill sergeant. I ran away a couple times, left him and my brother behind to go to college, but I always got dragged back in.

Then I ended up here and everything's different. There's more grey area, it's more about who you are and less about what you are. I can stay here and research and still do good things for people without having to just...find the monster and kill it.

Besides, if I were back home, at this point the Hunters would be hunting me, too.

[impetere]

[She listens. And the look on her face is still dubious, but something about what he says catches her attention. The idea that it being more about who you are being something new for him.]

So you're saying that where you're from hunters don't hide behind some kind of "code" to make themselves look better?

[Because that is news to her.]

[familybusiness]

A code?

[He looks confused and shakes his head.]

We didn't kill things on principle. [Or at least...he didn't.] We'd drift around, catch headlines of mysterious deaths that police couldn't solve and try to put a stop to them. We were just trying to save people.

[impetere]

[She purses her lips.]

The hunters where I'm from had a code. "We hunt those who hunt us." But they were just words - an excuse they gave themselves to kill whatever wasn't human. It wasn't like they waited for proof that we were actually hurting anyone.

[And one of the ones that didn't burned her peaceful, innocent family to the ground - oddly enough, in the aftermath apparently they mostly just got the humans an innocent children.]

[familybusiness]

I'm not saying that there weren't hunters like that back home. There were. But the instances of peaceful creatures among the ones we hunted were extremely few and far between.

[A beat.]

But they existed. [Storytime again.] We ran into a nest of vampires that fed off animal blood. The murders that led us to them were a hunter against the nest. We eventually helped them escape.

[It makes him feel a tiny bit better about the ones they couldn't save. Like Madison.

It doesn't help very much, though.]

[impetere]

[Okay. That makes her feel a little better. The immediate defensiveness goes down a bit, and she knows Wynn well enough to know that at this point he wouldn't let anyone into the knighthood who shouldn't be there.

She's still wary, but he's at least slightly more trustworthy now.]

So you like here better than home?