squiring ♔ who sows virtue reaps honor

[wynn]

♬ Troy - James Horner

WHO || Wynn, Abigail Hobbs, Natasha Romanoff, Lydia Martin, Hayley Marshall, Faith Lehane, Rebekah Mikaelson, The Doctor, Stiles Stilinski, Will Graham, Chris Ramirez, Leia Organa, current Knights attending the ceremony
WHAT || June Squiring Ceremony
WHERE || Knights Headquarters, the Great Hall
WHEN || June 1st, 2014, 6:00PM
HOW || Actionspam

The impressively large Great Hall of the castle could easily pass as a royal throne room, with its length and the red carpet leading up to a set of steps. However, there is no throne set at the top of them, and the Hall is wide enough to accommodate hundreds of Knights. And indeed, several hundred Knights stand in ranks on either side of the wide stretch of red, each wearing the traditional set of ceremonial armor in their possession.  

The air of the ceremony is unusually solemn this month.  Most expressions are grim in the face of the revelations that have come in the last week:  the castle's infiltration by the doppelganger who now lingers in the dungeon below, and of course, the conspicuous absence of the wide grin of Sir Thomas Bancroft at the front of the ranks, beside the other Dragon's Claw, Sir Chessing.  Jack casts a glance at the space beside him with a frown, meeting the eyes of some of the other section leaders as he does so.  It's hard for the reality of the situation to not cast a dark note over this day - that Dimitris Sarandis, one of the Knighthood's most reviled enemies for his role in the disappearance of another Dragon's Claw nearly ten years ago, has Thomas in his clutches, and his fate yet hangs in the balance of their actions in the days to come.

The newest squires are, of course, oblivious to this turmoil, and have been fitted to his armor after meeting with Wynn as always.  It's traditional for them to appear for the first time before the Knighthood wearing it and they are assured that only a very small number of the Knights make use of their armor for other circumstances.  It does, however, create an intimidating sense of unity as they stand shoulder to shoulder in rank and file to receive their newest pledges.

They enter together, with a flair of orchestral music that fills the hall with as much pomp as possible. It's a lot like that last scene in A New Hope.   Especially ironic this month.  Yeah, you thought I was going to get through an entire post being all serious, didn't you.

At the top of the steps, Wynn waits, wearing a sword on his belt that canny eyes† might recognize as familiar.

It's one hell of a long walk past all those staring, curious eyes. Luckily, it's a long musical number.

For additional dice rolling fun (optional):

† Roll or randomize a d20. Those who roll a 15 or above can spot the sword for being the exact same sword that was suspended in the statue above the Round Table, when they met with Wynn in the Prologue.
† Roll a d20 dexterity check. If your character rolls a 2 or 3, at some point during their walk they're bound to stumble. A critical fail will lead to an epic faceplant ... or worse.

Comments

The Walk

[wynn]

[Optionally play out your character's WALK OF DESTINY down the red carpet, and people in the crowd can judge them / encourage them / gawk ]

[immuno]

[ with a dex check of 20 total, lydia doesn't even kind of waiver as she approaches. granted, she'd rather be in heels and a dress than clunky armor, but she's navigating it pretty well. ]

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles is... bad at this whole walking in a suit of armor... thing (dex 5). Watch him stumble and look more like the tin man in the wizard of oz than an actual knight. He hasn't fallen down yet!! But he might accidentally bump into a few people. Including Lydia. Who he doesn't recognize right away because wow she's in a suit of armor okay?? Get off my dick.]

Sorry.

[immuno]

[ luckily her dex check means a little tripping into her isn't enough to take her off her feet. she reacts immediately. ]

Trip in someone else's direction, you—[ she reaches out and shoves the body away with a scowl, but catches sight of who it is as she does so. her jaw slackens. ] ... Stiles?! What are you doing here?! [ her voice drops a hushed, scornful whisper ... mid-ceremony. she's more or less assuming he is crashing. ]

[killingtodeath]

[That voice. Oh shit he knows that voice.]

Lydia? [Is this real life?] Fancy seeing you here. I, uh- think I'm becoming a knight.

[immuno]

I can see that.

[ then why did you ask ??? she's busy being appalled that he says 'i'm becoming a knight' like one might say 'let's get nico's for dinner' on a tuesday night. you can't just wake up one day and decide these things.

it occurs to her that this is ... kind of a scene to make in the middle of the ceremony, so she straightens, hissing out one last barb. ]

Well, maybe you should learn to watch where you're going first.

[mydesigns]

[will CRIT FAILS and walks smack dab into their pretty much making out on the runway. SAVE IT FOR THE AFTERPARTY KIDS >:( THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.]

[killingtodeath]

I was watching. But this armor isn't exaAHH [Mid word, Will collides with Stiles and falls to the ground in all Will's crit failing glory. Clang clang. This is a clusterfuck already.]

I'm flattered, man- really. But maybe buy me dinner first? [He glances up.] Little help? Anyone?

[theminotaur]

[ yank. abigail tugs him back (reflex nat 20) before will can make this weird reunion into a pig pile on the floor. she's not helping stiles tho. ]

[immuno]

[ surrounded by peasants. she seeks commiseration in the form of a long-suffering look in abigail's direction, and then glowers down at stiles. ]

Would you get up?

[mydesigns]

[bye felicia stiles. look abigail, you wanted will to be your dad. he's just doing the dad thing and embarrassing you at your party. a+.]

[killingtodeath]

[He is on the struggle bus right now, because armor is heavy and awkward :( ]

Trying!

[He is full on turtle-ing right now. Okay he rolls over to get on hands and knees, which is s-so graceful. Then awkwardly brings himself up to standing.]

So uh, wanna get knighted? [squired. whatever. lets do this.]

[immuno]

Squired.

[ she corrects him primly, turning to stalk the rest of the way down the carpet to reach wynn. ]

[killingtodeath]

Squired. Right. [He says to.... pretty much no one now that he's probably last. Oh well. Off he goes towards Wynn.]

[easily]

[Apparently the whole vampire grace thing translates well enough to this world because she manages to walk without any kind of trouble. (dex 20)]

Re: The Walk

[alwaysfaithful]

As Chris walked down the carpet, he quickly was easily able to spot the sword and recognize it being the same one that was at the round table when he talked to Wynn before. [Wisdom 13+3=16]

He had virtually little to no difficulty walking, right now he was quiet. [Dexterity score: 16+4=20.]

The Ceremony

[wynn]

[ When they have arrived at the far end of the carpet and stand before him beside each other, Wynn addresses both would-be squires solemnly by name. ]

Abigail Hobbs. Natasha Romanoff. Lydia Martin. Hayley Marshall. Faith Lehane. Rebekah Mikaelson. John Smith. Stiles Stilinski. Will Graham. Chris Ramirez. Leia Organa.

Kneel. And repeat this oath.

The Pledge

[wynn]

[Each line is spoken separately as a call and respond.]

"I swear to defend the Knighthood."

"I swear that I shall protect all weaknesses and shall constitute myself the defender of them."

"I shall not recoil before mine Enemy."

"I shall make war against injustice, without cessation and without mercy."

"I shall never lie, and shall remain faithful to my pledged word."

"I shall be generous, and listen to and respect all."

[And finally, in ringing tones:]

"I shall be everywhere and always the champion of the right and the good against injustice and evil."

[optional rolling; roll a D20 Wisdom check in order to see if your Knight can remember the phrases properly or not so much. Remember that a 10 is an average person's capacity to do so. :) ]

[immuno]

[ lydia's not paying full attention (wis 10); she's busy trying to study everything she can about the set-up of the ceremony. it's easy to identify jack and the section heads as being particularly powerful within this organization, and she's trying to remember where she can remember his sword from (spot 13).

still, she manages to recite the words as they're directed, with only brief pauses around 'without cessation' and 'the good against injustice' for hasty recollection. ]

[killingtodeath]

[So Stiles has ADD. And things like prescriptions don't really transfer across the Veil. He should look into that soon. But, uh- for now... he's just going to fumble his way through this.]

I swear to... uphold the Knighthood. [Check okay. Got that one.]

I swear that I shall protect the weaknesses and will defend them. [Eh]

I shall not coil around my enemy. [wat]

I shall make war- Wait, really? Okay, right... I shall make war against injustice without... mercy. [He gave up.]

I shall not lie and shall remain faithful to my word.

I shall be generous, and listen to and respect all.

I shall be everywhere and always the champion of the night [lol] and... [Oh shit he got distracted by being batman] ... liberty and justice for all.

[mydesigns]

[at least he manages to redeem his crit fail on the runway by .... not fucking up the pledge. (wis 16)]

[theminotaur]

[ her pledge is mostly mumbled and definitely not all correct (wis 9) but she doesn't care, she'd just like it to be over thanks, bye. ]

[bowtimeandspace]

[So the Doctor might not be getting this whole "I shall never lie' thing down quite how he ought to. His name isn't John for a start, but then details details, right?

That said, with a bluff +38 he's getting through them pretty easily. But then of course he's used to lying. Some things are simply like riding a bike.]

[krasnayapautina]

[Well, this is pretty easy. So far so good. (wis 17)]

[easily]

[Rebekah seems to manage the pledge without any real issue. (wis 15)]

[useagoodkiss]

[ Unfortunately, Leia ends up stumbling through the recitation (wis 2), and does her best to make up for her failure by maintaing a calm, collected, and respectful composure. She means the words; or rather, the idea behind the words, since she's apparently incapable of something which should be so simple. ]

[alwaysfaithful]

After the walk Chris listened to, (or at least tried to listen) the speech and quickly was in a panic as the only thing he could really remember to memorize was 'I shall never lie and remain faithful to my pledged word.' as well as the last one: 'I shall be everywhere and always the champion of the right and the good against injustice and evil.'

[Wisdom score is a total of 6.]

Dubbing

[wynn]

[With a beautiful sching noise, Wynn draws the oh so shiny sword from its sheath. One by one he lays the flat of the blade upon the squires' right shoulder, then raises it gently above their head to place it upon their left. When he is finished with each of them in turn, he returns to his place at the top of the steps, and announces:]

You may rise: Sir Abigail Hobbs. Sir Natasha Romanoff. Sir Lydia Martin. Sir Hayley Marshall. Sir Faith Lehane. Sir Rebekah Mikaelson. Sir John Smith. Sir Stiles Stilinski. Sir Will Graham. Sir Chris Ramirez. Sir Leia Organa.

[The moment the squires begin to rise, the entire hall bursts into a frenzy of cheers, applause, hoots and hollering that's practically deafening. It quiets a bit when Wynn speaks again.]

We ask you to join us tonight in celebration of our newest members in the ballroom.

[immuno]

Ugh, thank god.

[ lydia straightens after they’ve all been dubbed with the sword on either shoulder, pulling at her breastplate. ]

Just tell me we’re not expected to lug forty pounds of metal around with us the whole party.

[theminotaur]

[ by some miracle, abigail manages not to violently flinch away from the sword near her neck. idk man, jesus took the wheel. (will save 17) but she does look a little tremblepaley as she stands, reflexively adjusting her scarf and answering lydia's question quietly, even though she can't tell if it's an actual question or just something to break the ceremonial ice. ] They have clothes for us to change into, in the dressing rooms.

[immuno]

Well, I hope Wynn has a personal shopper.

[ because she doesn't really wanna be rocking his style, know what i'm sayin? she looks over at abigail as if considering her for the first time. ]

It's Abigail, right?

[theminotaur]

Yeah. [ wynn did just say that. first. jsyk. because she's the best. or, you know, she's been here, specifically, the longest. probably that one. ] You're Lydia.

[immuno]

[ LOOK THERE ARE LIKE TEN PEOPLE HERE, lydia's just confirming she remembered the right one with the right name. she doesn't really care about most of them, but abigail managed the clusterfuck of will's critfail. ]

Good catch. [ she reaches out to touch abigail's scarf. ] I didn't know we were allowed to accessorize. It's cute.

[theminotaur]

[ oh there is that flinch. she smiles tightly, though. ] Thanks. No one told me to take it off, so. [ a beat. ] Not that I would have.

[immuno]

[ wow rebellious. that makes lydia smile. ]

Good attitude. [ she flips her hair as she turns. ] Come on. We can talk more while we get changed.

[theminotaur]

Okay. [ oh... will... help. nope? okay, following lydia then. ]

[mydesigns]

[HE'S NOT GOING TO FOLLOW YOU TO THE LADIES ROOM WTF. go be a teenage girl abidoodle. make friends with ppl your own age.]

onlookers

[wynn]

[ general peanut gallery commentary from those attending the ceremony/ gossiping about newbies / what's been going down lately ]