Open ♔ Blackbirds sing sad harmonies lost to the humming wires that feed

[attollores]

WHO || Alainn O'Rourke and Thomas Bancroft
WHAT || A night of drinking together, bro-ship style
WHERE || Wherever the bottles lead them
WHEN || Sunday, March 8th when the Russia mission returns
HOW || Prose or Actionspam, whatever you prefer

♫ This Hollow World by Johnny Hollow

Alainn knew that Thomas was probably well ahead of her in the amount he'd had to drink, though she was certain he wouldn't be inebriated as of yet. The phone call he'd had to make was terrible, the whole thing was terrible. He had shown a face to the Knights rarely seen by any, the side of him that was like the far side of the moon, where usually he was so luminescent. They shared a lot of the same qualities, the both of them, and she was glad he would accept her company for the night. They both needed this, mutual support in a terrible time, and no one there to judge them in how they chose to express their grief. With a shit-ton of alcohol.

She arrives at the door to his room, balancing an obscene amount of liquor bottles in her arms, even more clanging in the pockets of her trench coat. Having no free hands she takes the toe of her boot and gives it a few insistent kicks. Hopefully he would be there, otherwise she was going to plant herself in front of his door and start without him.

"Thomas! Are ye in there?"

Comments

[attollores]

She rolls her eyes at his obvious deflection, determined to get the answers to her questions.

"Yer dancing around the questions, Bancroft," she growls out jokingly, waggling a finger under his nose.

[bancroft]

"You should see me tango," he blithely parries, eyes following her finger with wicked amusement. "But maybe that's what this is, as I sense you might also be dancing around a question.. Spit it out now, love, don't be shy when drink is flowing."

[attollores]

She swings her legs around a bit wobbily until she is sitting cross-legged and faces him, one hand on the bed behind her for support, the other clutching her bottle of liquor tightly.

"Alrighty, no more dancing then. What exactly are you, I mean what is your lineage?" Her question doesn't come out as harsh as it sounds, just very drunkenly innocent. And hey, she's not all human either, so she doesn't feel like a jerk for asking outright.

[bancroft]

His mouth spreads open wide into that characteristically toothy grin - very toothy in his case, with those pointed canines. "Do you know much about Lord Firemane?"

[attollores]

[Wis check of 17!]

She's heard of him, or run across mention of him, but doesn't know too much detail other than he sounds like a super awesome animal deity. She nods her head slightly, eyes lighting up at the mention of Lord Firemane.

"I know a wee bit about him, but you can probably fill in the blanks."

[bancroft]

Thomas stands and stretches a little, before sitting on the corner of the bed and taking a long drink.

"The original Lion King, that one," he says with a wink. "All good beasts with a mind to do so worship him, but he also rules over royalty. He's an animal, and that part of his nature makes him a survivalist, but not a ruthless one. He's a noble god, and he believes in the power of strong leaders to bring order to the cycle of life."

[attollores]

"Really?" She bursts out, eyes following Thomas as he stands, her head swaying a bit. She re-adjusts her position, grabbing both pillows they had been using and tossing them behind her, flopping back so she was propped on them comfortably with her arms behind her head.

"That befits you quite well, actually. I can see why you were drawn to the Knights. You said your mother remembered nearly everything from before she crossed the Veil, except for your father. Is she the descendant from Lord Firemane, then?"

[bancroft]

"Ay, that she was," he confirms, leaning back on one hand. "A really lioness of a woman, too. Lived up to the name."

[attollores]

"She sounds like a woman a girl could look up to." She smiles up at him, trying to picture him as a small boy, making her giggle softly. "Tell me about her."

[bancroft]

His eyes scan the ceiling, seeming to trace the patterns there, as he gets lost somewhere in thought and the warmth of drink flowing through him. "She put up with me. That should tell you everything you need to know."

[attollores]

"A strong woman indeed, to have raised a rascal such as you," she says lightly, her eyes taking a second to focus on his face.

"So, we've pried into your past, digging up the rapscallion that you were before you became the shining example of Knighthood that you are now. Are ye ready to have some of the heat taken from you?" She allows her head to loll back onto the pillow behind her. "We did have a quid pro quo deal going, didn't we? A story for a story?"

[bancroft]

He turns his gaze back to her, curious and more grounded now. "Ay, that we did. So what's your story, dear?"

[attollores]

"Want the quick and dirty version? Or the long and heartfelt one? I'm not from this world, that much ye already know. What I bet you didn't know is my feather-brained friend came over with me." She chuckles a that, eyes flashing gold for a moment as she checks in on said bird.

[bancroft]

"Well, you know me, O'Rourke. When given a free choice, I always opt for quick and dirty." His more somber mood dissolves instantly with a wink, that... she might not even catch since she's spying on Fede.

[attollores]

She may not have seen the wink, but a loud gauff pops out anyway. "Quick and dirty it us then."

"I came through in Ireland, Galway to be exact. I was taken in by a family there...They actually have a sort of Shadowkind underground railroad up from there in this old family castle they refurbished. The Anti-Shadowkind feelings in Ireland are pretty strong still. I didn't understand just how lucky I was to have been found by them..."

She trails off without a moment, eyes taking on a different kind of faraway look.

[bancroft]

"I take it the learning didn't come easy." His tone is sympathetic, but there's no hint of pity. Just a hard understanding.

[attollores]

"Aye, you're right that it didn't. Like I said, the anti-shadowkind feelings in Ireland were very strong when I crossed the veil, and still are. My being there was dangerous, not only for me, but for the family as well. But they loved me as one of their own, another daughter. All but their son Sean, that is." Her eyes retain their faraway look, though whether from the memories, or the sheer amount of alcohol she had consumed was up for debate.

"I didn't understand for the longest time why Sean couldn't stand me, why he practically loathed me. It wasn't until I ran from Ireland and we actually began talking that he told me."

[bancroft]

Thomas' expression hardens a bit, a deep understanding of the sort of thing she's talking about clearly running through his thoughts, but he looks worried about what's going to come next in the story.

"And?"

[attollores]

"Sean hated me, all shadowkind, because of the threat we... I... posed to his family. Seamus and Patty have been helping those of us who have come from across the veil since before Sean and Colleen were born. They were poor, but the best kind of people, and shared or gave away all they had in order to help others. Sean couldn't stand that he and Colleen never had anything, including their parents, to themselves.

Even his daughter Reena loved the rag-tag bunch of us around the castle. She was the one who convinced me to stay, and Sean couldn't stand that." She blows out a deep breath, giving her head a bit of a shake. "Anyway, Sean's best friend was a boy from the next road up, Callum Blake, and his sister Katie was friends with Colleen. The three of us became inseparable, like sisters.

The thing is, Callum and Katie never knew about the O'Rourke's shadowkind connections, and we never told them about me. Their grandfather Cillian Blake was a very rich man with a lot of government connections, and had been known to have lead anti-shadowkind lynchings before they were declared illegal in the 1970's. Of course, the Blake family was always on the up and up so far as the law was concerned, but there was no way we could take the risk of confiding in them. Neither Katie nor Callum ever came out and spoke openly against shadowkind, but there were a few comments made by each that would...I guess qualify them as being speciest."

She swigs a bit more from her bottle, grimacing when it empties much too soon for her liking. It clinks sharply on the floor next to her as she fumbles for another bottle, resting it on her abdomen.

"They were both speciest alright. I found that out the hard way."

[bancroft]

He listens intently, his entire body tight as he cradles the bottle in his hand but refrains from taking another sip. When she pauses, he says gently: "Well? Let it out, love. If we keep these things inside, they eat us from the wrong side out."