open ♔ june/july castle socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, etc!
WHEN || Any time after June 7th  
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of these few months. Because not everyone is into parties, ok.   

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:

Rafael, Buffy, Des & Wynn | Closed
Frankie & Lis'sa | Closed
Taradiddle @ the desk
Lydia @ the desk
Abigail @ the desk 
Adam @ the desk
Bambi @ the desk
Rebekah @ the desk
Dawn @ the desk
Adi @ the desk 
Stiles @ the desk
Felicity @ the desk
Will @ the desk
Han @ the garage
Ric @ the bars.  all of them.  also dragon's hoard lab.
Team NYC | Closed
Lila @ the kitchen/castle grounds
Kate B. @ castle grounds / training room
Aedan @ training / woods / common areas
Frankie @ front desk / garage / various
Maxwell @  rec room / training room / castle bar / forest
Will @ firing range / pond / castle grounds
Sven @ the woods
Adam @ library / firing range / London
Jaime @ castle tavern / training room / stables
Hook @ castle grounds / bar
Jack & Christos @ the training room
Damon @ the castle bar / castle grounds / woods / London / library
Sean @ castle ground / jumping out a window
Des @ the woods
Kate @ training / shooting range / castle grounds
Vi @ her room / bathrooms / pantry / dragon's light wing / firing range
Francesca @ training room / bar
Francesca & Val'drin | Closed
Kenzi @ training room
Lila & Bambi | Closed
Spike @ training room
Lissa @ foyer / Dragon's light wing / garden
Andrew @ his birthday!
Buffy @ Rafael's room / firing range / training room / dining hall
Francesca, Will, & Max | Closed
Faith @ Kitchen / London bars
Abigail & Will | Closed
Des | Dragon's Light wing
Jackson | Train station / training room / garage
Klaus | Bar / garden

Comments

[slay]

[ it’s 2 am and buffy’s on her way back in from a patrol of london. she drops the keys at the desk and spots vi heading out with her bow—it’s the first time she’s seen her since she got back, and that’s … well, she’s not surprised, to say the least. that kind of loss seems like the kind of thing that could easily level a person’s whole world.

for a moment, she thinks of letting her slip past. it’s not any of buffy’s business.

but that’s how she’d tried to handle things with myri after returning, and even if it had been a doppelgänger, it had made some very good points about how wrong that approach really was. more than anything, what vi needs right now? is to know that she has people there for her.

buffy catches up to lock step beside her. ]

So, when it’s 2 am, is that an early start or a late night?

[graveflowers]

Maybe both? I dunno I got up at, like, six. At night. So it's sort of... afternoon-ish? [ of course in all that time she simply rolled around in bed and cried and then took a nap because all the crying gave her a headache, so she didn't actually get up at six. but she shrugs because that part isn't exceptionally important. ] Luthir used to take me to the firing range when I couldn't sleep. 'cause it calms me down. Now it's just habit.

[slay]

[ the sympathy is impossible to miss, but buffy can’t shake the feeling that vi must be sick of seeing only that in people’s eyes when they look at her by now. she drops her head until she can offer something more—even if that’s only a sad smile. ]

Mind if I tag along? I could use the company. [ maybe if she couches it as what she needs instead of what she thinks vi needs, the other will be more receptive. also, not technically a lie. patrol leaves her simultaneously wired and exhausted. ]

[graveflowers]

Sure. [ she's gotten used to the looks. it's easier from people she knows, there is a difference between sympathy and pity. she can deal with sympathy, it's the pity she can't stand. but she would have said yes anyway, she's just as used to people wanting to keep her company in case she decides to swan dive from the top of the tower bridge. ] Make anything that goes bump in the night cry?

[slay]

Bleed, as it happens.

[ she glances pointedly down at her feet, where odd-colored demon blood splashed on her boots and the edges of her jeans. ]

It's no big. I'm basically a clothes-ruining expert these days. They're pretty gutsy to crawl around London with Hellsing so close, though. [ mostly, though, it's about keeping herself busy. she sets out towards the firing range, keeping step with vi. ]

[graveflowers]

Cold water. [ this is the key to getting blood out. ] Never use hot water. [ she doesn't seem otherwise fazed by the killing of demons but that's never really bothered her in the first place, it's like their heritage and demons are just another name for monsters. ]

And woolite. [ is that the point though? ] Maybe they're just dumb. No one expects the Buffy inquisition or something?

[slay]

It's not just me, though. Hellsing's pet vampire is out there like some kinda demon-killing machine, too. It just seems like a whole lotta zero self preservation. [ Her shoulders hunch a little. Well. Doesn't matter much, anyway. ] Maybe they're hoping we have bigger fish to fry. [ because they do. ]

[graveflowers]

Well, they're already demons. They must not have much to lose. [ also idiots. she's pretty sure they're all idiots. that seems to be the only explanation. ] Do you always go out alone?

[slay]

Mostly. Des tries to come sometimes, but he's ... I don't know what it is about demons plus bullets equals bad that just doesn't click with him. And Spike, but ... You know. Things have been weird.

[ She shrugs. She'd hoped they would go back to normal, but then ... thousands of people plus luthir died. They haven't really done the catching up thing since. ]

[graveflowers]

I'd offer. [ she wriggles her bow like look at these not bullets i use. ] But I'm not ready for the come to Jesus talk that would cause. Plus I already... [ told wynn that she basically retired. whatever, she shrugs dismissively. ] Anyway, the shadow god was my last kill and it's probably going to stay that way. I have enough to do making sure Des doesn't kill all my trees.

[slay]

[ Buffy quiets somewhat, glancing askance at Vi. It's hard for Buffy to get a real read on her because she wasn't there through it, and Vi's been so isolated since. Not everyone handles grief the same. Jade had proven that. ]

What if he's not dead? The god, I mean. I know—I mean, I heard you got him out of your head, but ... All of those Shadowkind in New York ... [ She shakes her head. ] And anyone else he wants to make a deal with.

[graveflowers]

Oh no, he's not dead. [ she doesn't seem too bothered by it, as if it's a fact of life that she knew was true at the start of it. she was never killing malaak'a, she was just destroying the hold he had over her. ] It was a shadow manifestation. I don't think you can even kill a god, especially an evil one, their essences are so rooted in humanity, it's impossible. Evil is always there. Just not in my nightmares anymore. [ she turns into the training roof, pushing the door open with her hip and holding it for buffy but not looking at her. she knows that means luthir died for essentially nothing, they didn't save anything. just vi. to her, in the grand scheme of things, luthir died for something incredibly insignificant. ]

[slay]

[ Buffy lingers in the doorway, not going in immediately and waiting for Vi to look at her, but she never does. Still, she doesn’t budge as she stubbornly points out: ] But in someone else’s. You could help them.

[graveflowers]

How? [ she looks up slowly, the expression on her face not the apathetic depression she's carried around for the past year, but a devastated brokenness. she got her soul back from malaak'a and he ripped away her heart instead. she didn't win, he did. ]

[slay]

[ She steps forward, resting a hand on Vi’s shoulder in an act that feels incredibly brave on her end, because she’s not quite sure what (if anything) might just shatter the delicate pieces of Vi into a million tiny pieces. ]

By being you. Vi, you’ve done what no one else could. You fought him. You won. I know that it’s hard to see it now, and don’t think for a second that I think that it didn’t have its price, but you are a rockstar. Luthir would be so proud of you.

[graveflowers]

[ except he is dead. so. not proud. but she manages to not say that out loud, mouth twisting into a bitter, resigned frown. ] Blade said it would end in blood and it did. And that was before the deal. I know people want to help Nadia, but I can't do anything. He's not in her nightmares, he's in her head, all the time. I can't fight that.

[slay]

No. But if it's true, then you can help her fight it—just like you did.

[ She didn't come into this with an agenda, I swear. Motivational speaker Buffy just happens. ]

[graveflowers]

I can't. [ she shakes her head, face crumbling like she's going to cry, but no tears come and she bites down on her lip to keep it that way. it looks like she wants to say more and she just shakes her head again to stop herself. ]

[slay]

I don't believe that.

[ She's soft but insistent. ]

If there's anything I know about you, Violet Reedhym, it's that you are capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for.

[graveflowers]

[ she violently flinches at her full name, slipping out of her grasp (escape artist 29). ] No, Buffy, I physically can't.

[slay]

[ she falters, blinking and dropping her hands with apparent confusion. she makes no effort to hold vi at all. ]

... What? What are you talking about?

[graveflowers]

[ covering her face with her hands, she pushes them back into her hair, bow sliding over her wrist and dangling from her elbow. she doesn't want anyone to know because she doesn't want that sympathy to turn to pity. especially if it ends badly. but she also knows buffy can be determined, which is a good quality, just not one she likes right now.

probably why the words come bit out between her teeth in a low, quiet hiss of discomfort. ] I'm pregnant. [ and with a whirl of her long hair, she stalks off into the firing range, imagining buffy will just follow her. ]

[slay]

[ fade to commercial.

well shit.

buffy sure as fuck pursues after that because this is not the greatest news ??? like she wants to be happy for her but she's having a very hard time doing that because she's pregnant with the child of THE HUSBAND SHE JUST LOST. no wonder she's fucking miserable. ]

Did you have Solace check you out?

[graveflowers]

No. I don't want anyone to know. [ she sets herself up at a station because she is stubbornly still going to shoot shit now that she's in a mood, but her tone gives away the helplessness she is just overflowing with. ] Des' fucking unicorn friend found it. Apparently he's the mystical E.P.T.

[slay]

[ That's okay, Buffy's pretty sure that the shooting is going to keep her sane and she fully supports it. In fact, Buffy grabs a crossbow from the rack and starts fitting a bolt into it. ]

You ... found out from a unicorn? [ God that's weird. Okay. Overcoming the weird. Slowly. Her face looks particularly unsettled for a long moment until she finally fights through it. ] Okay, but someone has to know, Vi. Someone who can make sure that you're okay, that the baby's okay.