chapter five ♔ it'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down

[eldritchweaver]

the blues - switchfoot

WHO || The Knights
WHAT || Failboat returns from the disaster in LA as the Knighthood goes on lockdown
WHERE || The castle, London
WHEN || Directly after this, Fall 2017
HOW || Actionspam

Hasmed's announcement does not brook any rebuttal: all Knights are recalled to the Castle, where they must remain until the Section Heads and Jack Chessing have spoken about the events in Los Angeles that have left the Knighthood without their usual leader.  

The entire Los Angeles area is now covered with a dark miasma that has interfered with any signals that might be sent out from phones, etc., leaving the whole world wondering what exactly is happening down there.  Final images showed horrendous monsters, a panic of citizens, looting and violence from humans and Shadowkind alike.  

Hasmed has warned of extra magical wards on the castle, and anyone arriving will immediately take notice of one very prominent one: above the entire roof of the excessively large building hovers a black and red sigil in the air, a pentagram in a circle surrounded by runes or words in an unknown language, stretching for miles.  

[ This is the social log for post-LA lockdown.  Failboat must complete the top log before being allowed to tag outside of it. ]

Comments

[daredtobelieve]

You don't mean that. [Or at least that's her intense wishful thinking.]

I know this is a lot. And I know you're angry with me, but... [Oh there's the shitty will save. Her voice cracks as the lump in her throat gives way to tears.]

After France, I didn't know how to explain. You stood by me when you had no reason to. I knew this would be too much. I never meant to hurt you by not telling you. I didnt know how to without it leading us here.

[bagsthem]

Not choosing them over literally everything else would have been a good start.

[In contrast, her will save was an 18 just on the die, so she's sturdy now, solid in the idea that she's in the right here.]

It is too much and no matter what you meant to do, it fucking hurts. I got why you didn't tell me about my father, even if you should have. I even tried to understand the whole France thing, but this? The entire castle is under lockdown and as far as I can tell it's because of you and this person you risked you're entire life for and that's scary. It's scary that you were so worried about losing him that you risked losing everyone else.

[Des isn't a knight, so it's not him that the knighthood can't trust.]

You love him so much? Fine. But he sounds like a pretty shitty friend if you had to lie to everyone else just to keep hanging out with him.

[daredtobelieve]

Perhaps you're right. Perhaps my judgment has been clouded and I saw what I wanted to see. [She isn't completely sold on the idea. She believes in Des, morally gray as he may be. But her priorities are shifting back to where they should have been from the start.]

But no matter what I've felt, he's not worth losing you. No one is worth that. I think... I think maybe I've been afraid to get too close since you arrived here. And that isn't fair, I know. And all it's done is cause me to push you away. I'm so sorry.

[bagsthem]

[It doesn't matter to her if Des isn't evil or whatever. She knows that not everything is what it seems all the time. She's seen it in action more times than she can count.

It's the fact that she's been put in this position too many times, of not being considered worth giving the truth to until it was too late. Her mother is the one keeping things from her but she's the one that's untrustworthy?

She's done with it.

Her sense motive was a six, so she doesn't even remotely know what to believe.]

Prove it. [She folds her arms over her chest.] You stay and you do whatever it takes to make it right, if that's even possible. Until then, I can't trust anything you say.

[For all she knows, they did mess with her head or something. Mind control and suggestion isn't exactly an impossibility from abnormals in this world. But after that was ruled out in France, Ashley isn't counting on it.]

[daredtobelieve]

[She wonders if there's anything she can really do to make any of it right. She knows very little about the whole Hell situation. They only told her enough for it to be a secret worth keeping. But she'll cling to any hope that she can regain her daughter's trust.]

I'll do everything I can. And hopefully that will be enough.

[bagsthem]

I guess we'll see.

[She's still raging, though, and she really wants to go hit something repeatedly but she also doesn't want to put holes in her wall.]

I'd like it if you'd get out of my doorway, now. I want to be alone.

[daredtobelieve]

Of course. [She knows that staying any longer and she'd undoubtedly ruin whatever ground she's gained.]

If you need me... for anything, I'll be close by.

[And with that, she steps back and turns to leave.]