squiring ♔ free will is the power of choosing between good and evil

[wynn]

♬ Troy - James Horner

WHO || Wynn, Jade Godfrey, Finn, Rory Williams, Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Cassandra Palmer, Kiance Masters, current Knights attending the ceremony
WHAT || July Squiring Ceremony
WHERE || Knights Headquarters, the Great Hall
WHEN || July 1st, 2016, 6:00PM [backdated]
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 newest squires 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. There's an air of something unsettling in the air - this is, after all, the first ceremony to be held here since the attack on the castle, and while the room maintains its usual air of majesty, it's hard to ignore that the atmosphere has changed for many Knights who once considered this place unassailable.

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 which seems more appropriate than ever. 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. Mark has, after all, brought it back with him from Andres - the famed sword, Excalibur.

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 ]

[militarized]

[He looks pretty uncomfortable as he walks down the carpet, even if he isn't actually being too clumsy about it (dex 10).

Let's just say it probably took a decent amount of convincing for him to put it on at all.]

[mr_manners]

[It's okay, Finn. Rory's actually worn armor before and he's going to be a walking disaster (dexterity crit fail). He sets off on his walk and promptly trips over absolutely nothing and pitches forward to the ground.

Fortunately, he's the kind of guy who falls a lot, so he recovers quickly, but yep. This ceremony is already off to a fantastic start.]

[inacup]

[Jade feels out of place. And awkward. And she's nervous, so she's not paying attention and slams right into Rory from behind just as he stands back up again (dex 4....)

This hot mess of a squiring group, y'all..]

Sorry! I was just-- [she huffs]

[mabeljuice]

[Mabel barely manages to not trip over all of this hot mess herself (dex 10), so she ends up sidestepping and moving along to let them collect themselves.] Hang in there, guys!

[lowvi]

[Dipper is close behind her, only stumbling a little (dex 9) as he looks around wide-eyed.] Mabel, I think that's the sword that was used in that big coup that happened in Andres a while back! [Knowledge current events: 23.] Remember I was telling you about it? Man, everything makes so much sense now!

[ghostmagnet]

[ Standing pretty and surprisingly stable...ish (dex 12), Cassie's just gonna watch and listen with avid curiosity and stick to being almost to the back of the line because she doesn't trust that she's not gonna completely biff it in a minute. Just because she's doing well now, history has proven otherwise when it comes to consistency.

Although her gaze is definitely gonna fixate on the sword for a hot sec because what? ]

[mr_manners]

[Rory just squints at Dipper over his shoulder as he continues to make his way forward again, mostly trying to focus on the task at hand. Okay them.]

[does_not_sparkle]

[Kiance was at the back of the group walking in, trying not to make himself stand out at the moment. He wasn't all that comfortable in the armor, but at least he could walk in it (dex 15).

He's just going to sigh and waits for them all to get themselves organized again before following them on]

the ceremony and pledge

[wynn]

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

Jade Godfrey. Finn. Rory Williams. Mabel Pines. Dipper Pines. Cassandra Palmer. Kiance Masters.

Kneel. And repeat this oath.

[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. :) ]

[mr_manners]

[This, Rory actually does a lot better with (wisdom 14). He's not spot on perfect, but he covers all of the basics and only really flubs an article here and there.

Nice recovery, Rory. You did it.]

[mabeljuice]

[Mabel is the least enthused about this part. probably because it's a lot of fancy words with no real oomph, but she recites it without any sort of embellishments or forgetting too much. she just says it flatly, like a kid reciting the pledge of allegiance. (wis 11) SHE UNDERSTANDS ALL THIS. GOSH.]

[lowvi]

[Dipper starts out okay, but then he starts overthinking things because they're making a lot of very strong vows and how strongly exactly are they supposed to stick to them? His brain keeps him from catching every single word and he stutters a lot, though he gets more or less the general gist (wis 6).]

[ghostmagnet]

[ Good thing memory's never really been an issue for her (wis 18) and this was so much easier to do in this get-up than actually moving. It reminds her of home in a weird way, the way certain bonds are made from what she can remember. Hell, she'd been on her way to deal with some form of coronation. Who knows?

Cassie'll just go along with this, though, rather than letting her thoughts continue to drift away to other places. ]

[inacup]

[Her little bump in the road while walking doesn't seem to have shaken Jade up too bad. In fact, she manages to not only repeat back the lines, but do it with conviction (wis 18).

Phew. That's over, at least.]

[does_not_sparkle]

[he's totally distracted by one of the knights in the audience. She is very hot. Very, very hot. So he's really not hearing the oath at all and when he realizes he's supposed to repeat it... well ... (wis 5)]

I'm sorry, what was that again?

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 Jade Godfrey. Sir Finn. Sir Rory Williams. Sir Mabel Pines. Sir Dipper Pines. Sir Cassandra Palmer. Sir Kiance Masters.

[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.

[mr_manners]

[YAY HE'S PART OF THE TEAM NOW. Rory has got a pleased smile on his face as he makes his way down off the stage, much more smoothly than he got there in the first place (dexterity 15). Apparently he knows how to walk when the pressure is off. Who knew?]

[inacup]

[It's not until the crowd starts to applaud that Jade remembers that they were here at all. Oh... right. There are a lot of people in this organization. She's used to her more close knit witch family and an occasional supernatural encounter. This is... a lot of people.

But she turns to the crowd and offers a killer smirk of a smile (cha 21). First impressions are important, okay.]

peanut gallery

[wynn]

[ ONLOOKERS/GAWKERS/WHATNOT]

[keptbiting]

[ loudly from the back, as rory takes a dive: ] Oh, well done, Williams!