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

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

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. ]

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[He looks at the door, then back at her, then at the frame which is now empty.]

I'm gonna go with yeah.

Edited 2017-10-20 17:07 (UTC)

[Yeah, she... knew that was the answer but still.

She's just gonna. Let her shoulders slump and pretty much, drop the door on the floor beside her with an unceremonial thwack as it hits the ground.]

Well if anyone asks we can just say I was mad because Hasmed is a fuckwit. [Raising her voice a little at the end there.

What?! She's leaving. She gives literally no fucks if people know she hates that old fool.]

It'd be weird if I didn't break something because I was pissed off.

[I mean.... yes.]

[Sam shrugs his shoulders at that.]

I mean, you said it. Not me.

[For the record.]

Do you...want me to try and fix it? Or...?

[She looks at the door on the floor, thinks about it for two seconds and then just.]

Nope.

[If you look off in the distance you may see her last fuck disappearing in the air.]

Not like I have anything worth stealing anyway.

[She'd packed her things and the room didn't look all that different. There were some perks to being... like Rose.]

And if Helen decides to come back for round two it might put an end to our dinner plans.

[AKA their cover, because Rose will likely be spending the night in the dungeon.]

[Good bye last fuck. It was nice knowing you.]

What happened with Helen, anyway? She checked in with me while you guys were on your way back, but I didn't think anything of it at the time.

[He didn't realize that NO ONE COULD BE TRUSTED. Helen was in his sect, Dean's mentor, Rose's friend.]

[Rose's whole face darkens, like a switch being flipped, her hands curling into fists and with a whopping Two on her Will Save.... maybe Sam should say something quick before Rose really does go and get herself thrown in a dungeon.]

That fucking bitch. [Rose stepping forward like she'd like to get past Sam but at least... nailed her Will Save to not go through him. (WS 30).]

You may want to move, Sam. [Very matter of fact, like excuse me but could you please move so I can go beat somebody within an inch of their life?! I'm sure it's fine.]

[Oh shit, abort abort.]

Hey, relax. Rose, stop.

[He reaches out, placing calm hands on either shoulder, willing him to look at her.]

We need to keep a low profile. Starting something with her is only gonna make things worse. [He waits for that to sink in before adding. for her benefit:] If we need to deal with it, we will. But not right now. They're probably dying for an excuse to prove they're right about benching you.

[Diplomacy 26]

Edited 2017-10-20 18:52 (UTC)

[There are few people left that could physically touch Rose when she was ready to tear somebody limb from limb, and live to talk about it.

Sam, luckily, just happened to be one of them.

It might take a great effort, but he'd see his words sinking in, her need for their plan to work outweighing her need to make Helen pay for her betrayals. Plus it helps that she realises he's stopping her, not for Helen's sake, but for her own. (Will Save 24, Sense Motive 30).]

She just... You know I don't even know if she ever gave a damn about me at all or if this whole time it's been about Hell. You know she tried to tell me to stay away from Dean when we first got involved.

[She'd never even told Dean that, hadn't wanted him to know that the woman she thought of like a mother was against their relationship.]

[There are reasons why getting involved with him or his brother was probably not a good idea. That said, it's not a thing he can broach in this context. He didn't know why Helen couldn't be trusted, other than a really vague attachment to Hell, but it didn't matter anymore.

Vague or no, it existed, and it was big enough that Rose looked like she might murder someone.]

Believe me, Rose. I get it.

[He releases her, seeing that she isn't going to run off in the name of violence.]

She'll get what's coming to her, alright? But we've gotta be smart about this. I know you know that.

[She doesn't understand exactly what he's eluding to, which perhaps under the circumstances, is safer. As much as she's found a way to accept that Sam was screwed over and lied to like the rest of them, there's still the fact that he trusted the Daughter of Lucifer in the first place.]

Will she? [This is hardly the first time that Rose has had a ringside seat to a betrayal and yet not seen there be any consequences. Maybe this time it would be different on all counts, but she wasn't entirely convinced.

It's why she'd been itching for a fight anytime the subject of Des & Elena came up. The last time Elena had betrayed the Knights, everyone made excuses for Elena and called Rose a monster for daring to try and bring her back. It was hard not to expect a repeat performance.]

Sometimes it feels like people can do whatever they want and never have to suffer any consequences.

They can't, and you know why?

[He lifts his eyebrows at her expectantly before proceeding to answer his own question.]

Because we're not gonna let them. If they're not going to deal with it, then we will.

[Rose and Dean had dealt with this shit on their own long enough. He hadn't been able to see it because he'd been hoodwinked too, but that was done.

He was done.]

That's assuming they don't get bitten in the ass before we have a chance.

[It's hard not to feel like she's nineteen again. Hard to remember that she's not that same little girl who didn't yet know that she didn't have to let something stand. She'd grown so much in the last few years and yet the last two days, she'd found herself falling back into the habit of thinking like that younger, more naive version of herself.

This was not the same, because she was not the same.]

I don't know about it biting Helen in the ass... but she should have a nice hand print across her face for the next few days.

[That probably doesn't fall in line with the whole, keeping a low profile thing.]

She was an obnoxious bitch. I backhanded her.

I'm sure she had it coming.

[He doesn't know that for sure, but anger like that doesn't come from just anywhere and, well, Hell.

He glances over her shoulder, gesturing with a flick of his chin.]

You have everything you need?

[Rose looks at Sam, letting him see just how much she means these next words. Words made scarier by her lack of smirk to suggest she might be joking.]

She's still breathing. [A beat.] She got off lightly.

[Sam has seen first hand what Rose can do in a fight. Hell... he just saw first hand what she can do to a door and she wasn't even trying.

Looking back towards the room she's called her home for the last few years, she lets out a soft sigh, the framed napkin she holds in her hand the only thing she's bothering to grab.]

Yeah... none of this was ever mine to begin with. [Sound familiar, Sam?] It was just a place to sleep.

[Sometimes, Sam gets unsettled by how intense Dean can be in these situations. Rose just made him feel the exact same thing.

He doesn't let it get to him, though. He just nods and takes a step back into the hallway.

The comment about this place only being a place to sleep hits him hard, though. He'd stopped thinking of it as just that. In a way, this place had become home, something he'd never had before.

Now it was just another place to leave in the dust.]

Come on. Let's go find Dean.

[Whereas Rose had spent enough time with these secrets for the Castle to stop feeling like home. Where there was one spider, there ended up being many and now, without Wynn around...

It really was just a bed in a room.

She really should just explain to Sam why she's so mad at Helen. Maybe then he'd be less unsettled... and less likely to hold her back.]

Yeah... [Staring to move.] Probably a good thing Helen caught me here. [A beat.] Dean has the bigger room.

[He starts walking beside her, taking slower strides with his long legs.]

Anyone else I should worry about in the next 8 hours?

[Not that he's not gonna keep everything on the down-low anyway, but, you know.

Spiders everywhere and all that.]

[She just looks. Grim.]

I wouldn't be having any long conversations with Ana anytime soon...

[Yes. Ana as in the mother of one of Rose's best friends. This is why she trusts fucking nobody.]

I don't know... I've learned to just... expect the worst.

[Fortunately, he doesn't really know her, so that's an easy one to avoid.]

So everyone. Just assume everyone.

[Goody.]

[She really does wish she had a different answer, a better one, but she can count on one hand the number of people she trusts completely... and she'd made almost all of them drink holy water at one stage or another.

She walks with him in silence as she allows that to sit with him, only too aware that it's a lot to take in. He's playing catch up on this whole mess, she could hardly expect him to adjust right away.

But in some ways, she needed him to and its that thought that see her footsteps slow to a stop.]

Sam... [There wouldn't be many opportunities for them to have this conversation, not for a long time she expected, and it was one they needed to have.]

You know it can't happen again, right? [It's not that she actually believes he was going to go running to Glasya at the first sign of trouble, but the words needed to be spoken and she needed to hear him agree.]

Not ever. Dean... sucks at saying it, but he needs you. Don't... give him any reason to feel like he can't.

[His slow as hers does, and come to a complete stop as he says her name. He turns to look at her, expression quizzical but open.

He knows what she's asking. She has every right to ask them, but the fact that she thinks she needs to bothers him in a way he can't explain.

He gets it, though. They have enough enemies. They don't want to have to look over their shoulder at one of the people closest to them. His answer is simple, his voice almost hard in its sincerity, the anger brewing behind it made clear.]

Yeah, I know.

[It's not anger directed at her.]

I can promise you this. If I ever see her again? [He pauses, collects himself, voice deadly cool.] I'll kill her myself.

[It's the kind of answer that should gratify her in light of everything else, but the way her insides twist at his words, sees her being the one to try and meet his gaze, to try and pull him back from the edge this time.]

No. You won't. [She doesn't scold him, because oh how she gets it, but she does speak in a way that suggests this is important.]

We're going to be a team now, Sam. The three of us. I don't want to go over every mistake we ever made, all the things we could or should have done better... it's in the past and it can't be changed, but from here on out? Everything we do? We do together.

[Any anger on Sam's face seems to dissolve with each new word that comes out of Rose's mouth. He's knows all about making mistakes, things he shouldn't have done, but they were just things to fill a void that wouldn't ever go away.

Dean might need him, but he needed Dean too, and Sam didn't know if he'd really ever had him on his side until right now.

And then on top of that, Rose had his back too, in all the ways that mattered. If he fucked up, she'd notice where his brother couldn't. She wanted his help.

It's really the only thing he's ever wanted, even when he couldn't see it.

His eyes sting, they start to water, and he gives her a nod.]

Yeah, you're right. Together.

[It was, unfortunately, too easy for Rose to only ever see things from Dean's point of view, but she was the one who woke up with him on the particularly bad nights, the one who counted the number of drinks he had to gauge how bad his headspace was. She saw the world through his eyes because she lived with him every day, and because she had some measure of shared understanding in what it feels like to be betrayed by the very people you would have died for.

Sometimes she was just so singularly focused on Dean and how he was, that she forgot that none of this had ever been easy for Sam. It was hard enough being in the Shadow of an older brother. What must it be like to live in the Shadow of another version of yourself as well?]

She'll get what's coming to her. [Her hand awkwardly reaching to give his arm a gentle squeeze.] They all will.

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

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