knightsoflegend | glastonbury ♔ they came snapping at your heels

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glastonbury ♔ they came snapping at your heels

WHO || Faye, Lila, Gold? [closed]
WHAT || Faye finally has a clue to Gold's location, and goes to confront him about his absence
WHERE || Glastonbury, England
WHEN || After this
HOW || Actionspam

[ Gold's been gone now for long enough to leave most people assuming that he isn't going to come back. Driven off by confirmation that he was, in fact, the Dark One from the Enchanted Forest by Gaston and Emma, the only indication that he's even alive came in a dream delivered to Belle, where he admitted that he was looking to understand more about this Dark One, perhaps seeking a way to refute the claims of the others. Plenty of people are worried, however, about what direction his search might take him. Others, however, are just plain pissed that he would abandon them without a word - and it's that anger that drove Faye to ally with GLADOS to discover that he was in Glastonbury, and with Lila's help enlist Zero to pinpoint his exact last known whereabouts, at a shitty motel. Together, the girls take a car and head out, hoping to find him once and for all.

There's only one car in the lot when they pull in, the VACANCY sign flashing forlornly above the office door. No lights are visible in any of the rooms, but a COKE machine provides some illumination, along with the lone pair of streetlamps that dully lighten the parking lot. ]

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You don't know.

[he stares at them, still positioned in frpnt of the well as if he's shielding the girls from it or just unwilling to move forward.]

Emma told Belle that I was... something called the Dark One. And I imagine it never fazed her much until I met the man she was... [a disgusted pause] married to on the other side of the Veil. The moment he met me, he accused me of corrupting Belle's mind... Said that I'd kidnapped her before I came here. I couldn't prove I didn't do any of that and Belle... She now had Emma's word and his.

I couldn't go back to the castle... I couldn't stand before Wynn and claim my word meant more than Emma's, when I know I am not what one might call a good man. I could very well be this... Dark One.

Until I knew for certain... I had to leave. And it was better I not be followed, in case....

And of course you couldn't just, I don't know, talk to Wynn about it like a rational adult. [ jfc why is she always the rational adult, she is only twenty, this is fucked up. talk to wynn, this is the fucking key to so much! talk to wynn. but this context finally snaps her conversation with cora into place. the timeline fits with when gold left and belle vanished from the library to hide in her room. ] Belle thought you enchanted her, a love curse as it were. Considering there are three victims, two former, of love curses in the castle, I'm fairly certain that theory was sufficiently quashed. [ jsyk. ] But don't worry! You still made yourself look ridiculously guilty and criminal. Not sure that's going to help you clear your name, but whatever. You do you.

[ fucking peasant. ]

Edited 2015-11-07 03:25 (UTC)

[Lila makes some great points, which is great because Faye is too hot headed to think of them when all she wants to do is throw something at him for not telling her that he was leaving.]

We-- [Well, no. She's not dragging Lila into all of this.] I could have helped you. I would have- [She cuts herself off, shaking her head violently, as if she can shake off the hurt and the anger.]

What is it your looking for out here? If you wanted to keep from going dark, I think you've taken a really wrong turn.

And risk taking you down with me? Absolutely not, Faye. It would have pitted you against Emma. [and he knows faye well enough to know how much that bond means to her (wis.... nat 20 aw).]

And as far as guilt is concerned, I was guilty-perhaps not of that but of enough that could paint a rather vile portrait. I'm not above using magic to get what I want. I couldn't even trust myself enough not to kill Gaston myself if left to my own devices.

[he looks behind him.] This isn't about not going dark. This is about proving whether or not I, myself, am just as tainted as this well.

[ lila snorts at the emma comment, bitter and derisive, stifling it behind her hand before gesturing like no, do go on. ]

[At the same time that Lila snorts, Faye's eyes close briefly at the mention of Emma. The conversation she had with the woman still bothered her, still ran through her mind over and over. And while he's right that the relationship is important to her, it's not as though she's doing much better, even without his influence.]

How are you going to prove that? I swear to god if you say you're climbing in... [She will just haul your limping ass out of here right now, frankly.]

[well, he wasn't, but then you both started berating him and maybe climbing into the well and living there is a preferable option than dealing with his shame. #cowardlogic.]

You feel it, don't you? That presence all around here.

[He tears his eyes away from the well.] There's nothing comparable to the Dark One on this side of the Veil, but in all my research, one common thread stuck out- anything that involves that much dark magic? Becomes tainted. So I sought out a place like this, assuming if I could see what that felt like, I'd know for certain I wasn't. That if there really was something horrible in my past I can't remember, then clearly I've bested it somehow, and I'm truly not the monster they've spoke of.

[and considering no one has to make a will save to be within ten feet of him, he's pretty well convinced he's fiiiiine.]

[Okay, fuck this. Faye moves forward, closing the distance between the two of them, despite having no desire to be near this creepy as well at all. The things she does for her not!father...]

Do you know what might actually prove you're not that... Dark One or whatever? By being a god damn knight and not running away when ...people needed you. [People being Faye. But she's not about to say that. All the shit that's gone down, all the stuff with Jordan and with Emma, she just wanted some guidance. And she gets plenty of help and advice from Lila, but Gold was the one who helped her get control of her magic, helped her learn to become as good as she is now. It's just... different.]

Evil isn't... just a state. [ you fuckturd. the amount of condescension rolling off of her is like a tidal wave, but she attempts to rein it in for faye's benefit. it is not an entirely successful attempt, but faye wants him to come home with them so whatever, lila will put her silver tongue to good use. ] Evil is in actions. Tieflings are corrupted with evil, born with it, but if they choose not to act on it, choose to make good choices, they're not evil.

[ she's given this peptalk/defense before, but when it came to sylar and elena and faye (or workers back home) she was actually invested on their behalf. with gold it's more like reciting by rote because the investment isn't there. ]

You're only a monster if you do monstrous things. You're an adult, act like it. Be accountable for your own actions, don't run away from them like a coward. [ yeah. she said it, but with diplomacy 58 it's obviously not as pointed an insult as it could be. also a 58 for lila means she rolled a 2. that's how invested she is, y'all. ] If you don't want to be that man, that Dark One, then don't be him.

Well, you can certainly inform Emma of that when you see her next. [Because, really, even if he can't blame her for all of it, she did stick her nose where it wasn't wanted and warn Belle about something that might never happen. She put doubts in her head and when things turned sour, what did he have?

Perhaps more than he thought, but gods, he wasn't going to be able to bear anyone else looking at him the way Belle did that day. He really might have snapped and broken Emma's next and showed them the sort of monster he was.

But he's agitated that Lila's right and that he's being scolded by a girl over half his age, and he feels horrible for leaving Faye for reasons that seem far too intense for the situation. He was trying to protect her- or thought he was.] So that settles that, then. I wasted a year being a coward. [that part is directed at Lila- to Faye, he adds:] I am truly sorry, Faye. I know it doesn't mean much. And I know you might not be able to forgive me, but... You should know I was only trying to keep you from faltering. You've grown so much, and I know how easy it is for me to fall to temptation. That's one lesson I don't wish to impart to you.

as he speaks, the forest around them seems to fill up with inaudible whispering, so slowly that they can't say how long it's been going on. time for some will saves again. ]

[Another 21 for Faye]

Can we just get out of here? You can apologize to me somewhere less horrifically creepy.

[ lila will be informing emma of nothing, thank you very much. she was already sure that emma didn't want to see her, not coming to her wedding just cemented that surety. ]

I have a feeling it's not going to let us leave. [ nothing is ever that simple. she can be unaffected by fear (will save 35) and still recognize something is probably going to go down. ]

[(will save 26) he's good. this is fine. Gold steps foreward.]

Stay behind me.

[that's not protectiveness. well it is a little but seriously you don't want to be in the way of some of his spells.]

[Faye doesn't budge to be honest. She's not about to stand back and risk losing him after all of this. She already lost Emma.]

Whatever it is, we'll take care of it together. That's how this works.

[Says Faye who is def the lowest level person here but what she lacks in xp, she makes up in being stubborn as fuck.]

[ lila doesn't move either, but if gold wants to be in the line of fire, whatever, that's his death wish. she's already drawn her gun. ]

[or all that. that could happen. gold gives both girls a look before he begins moving back the direction they came. HE NEVER SAID HE WAS GONNA STAND AND WAIT THERE OKAY. just... that he might have to set so many thing on fire.]

Come on, then.

[is he saying that to them or the evil dead. idk he's been on his own for a year. he's probably crazy.]

[ yeah as soon as gold begins walking that way, there's a disturbing sound as if the trees are groaning around them... and they begin to bend across the path until they've created a barrier, the branches intertwining like fingers.

darkness begins to spread out from the well, until the entire clearing is cloaked in it - magical darkness that not even darkvision can pierce. ]

[ this is what you get for running away like a coward, gold. geez, she literally just gave a speech about how you're supposed to face your gd problems and he walked away. sigh. ]

A light spell would be handy right now. [ she's 100% sure her flashlight won't work on that creeping darkness. (spellcraft 37) or dispel magic, but she's going to wait to see if a. gold casts that first or b. either he or faye has an appropriate light spell. maybe she'll start carrying a daylight oil around with her, the number of times she's wound up in dark, dank places. ]

A light spell won't work in this.

[he will try to dispel magic though because his... caster level is higher annnd it's a 26. So maybe??]

[ that is... exactly enough x( which is a little freaky, since that should have been powerful enough magic to dispel it no problem. as the darkness fades, they'd see a creature hovering over the well. cloaked by ragged wings of darkness, the horrific, skeletal thing appears to burn from within, and has two sets of white slitted eyes, black horns, and a mouth full of hideous fangs. they hear whispers in their mind again, that they would realize are... the closest thing it has to speech.

telling the girls it'd be a great idea to throw gold down the well and feed him to the darkness before he can cause any more problems. and telling gold that he can't leave these girls alive, that they'll never understand. you know, great things like that. one last will save plz. ]

[ lila can feel something pressing at her mind, but she probably shakes it off. (will save 38) her eyes flicker briefly to faye -- she doesn't want to knock her best friend out to cancel out whatever this creature is trying to achieve, but she will if she has to -- before sliding to gold, fingers tightening around her gun, jaw clenching. ]

[Gold's just like why does this feel so familiar. why do i always get these feelings around shit like this and Peter Pan statues. What was my life before Veilnesia???

Anyway, he got a 24, but whether he's considering it or not is really covered up by the peculiar look he's giving the fucking thing.]

[The very idea of tossing Gold into that well is the exact fucking opposite thing that she came here to do, which is probably why her stubbornness doubles down once those whispers reach her mind (will 27). She's got exactly zero time for this shit, so she's going to hurl a fireball at this thing, but idk if she can get that off before init happens. If so, it's 28 damage reflex 18 for half.]

Fuck off!

[ it easily hovers upwards out of the range of most of the blast (reflex 29), and abruptly all around them rise up two more identical creatures, so that they're surrounded.

at the same time, the creature raises a hand and casts a black ray at her (ranged touch 24) that leaves her exhausted. ]

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