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

[ambitionist]

yeah, yeah, i'll bring her shit. she'd be happy eating anything anyway. shoelaces, paper, plastic bags. cats are fucking weird.

[panaceum]

this isn't going to be easy to hide you know. how long are you planning this being for?

[ambitionist]

i don't know. i don't have any idea what i'm doing right now but i'm going crazy here. maybe a day or two?

[panaceum]

ok. twenty minutes.

[ambitionist]

got it, cool

[panaceum]

i'll send you a message. [ and then she goes radio silent for awhile, before he gets the IM for an instant connectivity spell ]

[ambitionist]

[he accepts, making sure to hold onto oreo in a cat carrier and a gym bag with his and oreo's stuff when he does. WHEEE.]

[panaceum]

[ her place here in London just doesn't feel the same, not as lived in, not as claimed yet as her own. but there are still stamps of her on it, the biggest of which is that she has her computer station set up and full of stickers of bands and shit. ] Well, hi there.

[ambitionist]

Hey. [he takes a quick look around before making himself comfortable, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.]

Is she good to roam around, or...?

[panaceum]

As long as she's not gonna eat all my cords.

[ambitionist]

Nah. If you've got a hair tie or something, though, that'll keep her busy for a few hours. [he reaches down to set oreo free, who climbs out and begins eagerly sniffing around. this is fine. cats are great distractions.]

[panaceum]

We couldn't have pets at the Academy. [ she holds out a hand and waits patiently for the cat to sniff its way around to her ]

So.

[ambitionist]

[oreo makes her way over to piffy, sniffing at her hand and then rubbing her little face into it. meanwhile, this dumbass:]

I never really had pets growing up, my dad was allergic to—

Oh. You meant, "so, how about this shit," probably.

[panaceum]

You're sharp. [ /sarcasm ] What's going on?

[ambitionist]

[now that he's not on the drakenet which is probably being spied on, he feels like he can speak a little more freely. not that it really stopped him before tho tbh. but whatever.]

Some of our people were out in the shit that happened in LA. Including Wynn. I think the other section heads are treating him like a lost cause. And because everything is on fire in the most fuckin' literal sense, the other section heads put all of us on lockdown like we're naughty kids at summer camp and called in Hellsing. You know anything about those guys?

[panaceum]

Only that Dad likes to steer clear of them.

[ambitionist]

Yeah, I don't know that much either. But I know enough to know that this isn't what I signed up for. It's just ... it's hard, right? I feel like I've built a good thing for myself, so I don't want to throw it away. But if Wynn is really gone, then ... I don't know.

[panaceum]

These other people running the show... who are they?

[ambitionist]

The remaining section heads, sounds like. But, okay. One of them gave this whole State of the Union address about the whole thing after LA, where they basically threw everyone involved, including Wynn under the bus. And then they called in Hellsing to... I don't fucking know, put us through apocalypse boot camp. But, you know what it feels like to me? Cleaning house. Very, "if you don't like it, leave and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

[panaceum]

The end of the world doesn't feel like a great time to start being picky about your allies.

[ambitionist]

No shit. I guess there were some double agents or something, though, so now they don't want to treat all of us like liabilities. Which, you know, punishing everyone because of a few fuck-ups is a great policy.

[panaceum]

Do they think there's probably more? Double agents or whatever?

[ambitionist]

I guess? They were part of the group that was in LA, so everyone else on that team is being treated like maybe they could be, too. Which ... well. That's a whole different bag of cats. But I really love the "if you don't do exactly what we say, you're a traitor and not welcome here anymore" vibe. You can't build an organization of 90 percent loose cannons and then expect them to just fall in line like that. They're really reading the target audience wrong.

[panaceum]

When leadership changes, sometimes organizations change too. It sounds like you're right - the place is never gonna be the same.

It doesn't really sound up your alley either.

[ambitionist]

[oreo dramatically flops on the ground and rolls around because no one has paid attention to her for minutes. minutes, y'all.]

It's like when parents do psychopath shit and act like it's okay because it's in your best interest. [he sighs.] Whatever. I haven't decided what I'm doing yet. But I'll be okay.