venice/chicago ♔ i need a summer like a winter in my heart

[romanticidal]

♬ Winter In My Heart - VAST

WHO || Rafael Giovanni, Buffy, Myri, Dumage, Kat, Gar [closed]
WHAT || The Knights regroup and then go their separate ways
WHERE || Knight's hotel room in Venice > Flight to Chicago
WHEN || July 7th
HOW || Actionspam

And back to the hotel go the ladies, ready to say their goodbyes, with Myri & Buffy heading to Chicago to reunite Rafael with Jade, and Kat & Gar meeting the rest of the team back at the castle to try to convince Wynn to let them remain on their mission...

[ooc; see subthreads!]

Comments

[romanticidal]

[ he sits up a little straighter ] Another plane? [ his eyes narrow a bit as he seems to scrutinize her features ] Divine?

[witchwoman]

Perhaps? I honestly don't know. It was the only world I knew before coming here.

[She's used to the scrutiny, honestly. Her over angular facial features, elongated fingers, and the violet tint to her veins... These were all things that people pointed out as evidence that she was a demon.]

[romanticidal]

What was it like?

[witchwoman]

[Oh, now that's complicated.]

Wonderful. Terrifying. Exciting. Ever changing.

[She pauses and smiles at him]

It was not so different from this place.

[romanticidal]

I suppose it is very difficult to label an entire world much of anything.

You remember it, then. How long ago did you come here?

[witchwoman]

[She nods]

A half year's time. I remember more than the others. I would say I remember everything, but who could know if that is true?

[romanticidal]

My father felt much the same way. He could remember so much that it was easier for him to believe that there were not gaps at all.

[witchwoman]

What was he like? Your father?

[Sometimes these questions happen when you are talking to a girl who cannot remember her own parents :x]

[romanticidal]

A man with very deep convictions. Something I did not much appreciate while he was alive. [ there's clear regret there, a sort of lingering sadness ] He was very proud, as well, of who and what he was. When I was young, I thought him foolish for it.

[witchwoman]

[He brow furrows slightly.]

And what was that, exactly. Forgive me if I'm too forward, but I don't know much about the Shadow World.

[romanticidal]

Are you familiar at all with elvenkind?

[witchwoman]

Only that my name is reminiscent of their language. [She laughs through a shrug.]

I do not think we have such a race in my world.

[romanticidal]

Elves are a long lived people, with close ties to the natural world. My father arrived in the midst of one of the largest cities in America. You can imagine how difficult it was for him.

[witchwoman]

[She nods] Oh yes- I still find the cities here to be quite daunting. Life was much... simpler where I come from.

[romanticidal]

For them as well. He found others of his kind, and they banded together, but when the Great Depression occurred and they found themselves surrounded by despair of the worst kind: hunger, grief, desolation, they thought they might perish from the very sadness of it all.

They thought there might be an Elvish homeland, somewhere in this world, and took off in search of it. They found Italia.

[witchwoman]

[She sits up a little straighter because... well, she's been wandering in search of... something for most of her life. It's difficult to explain the Voice that guided her- or how empty she felt now that she could not longer hear it.]

Your father sounds incredibly brave. To walk away from the only familiarity you have in a strange world and seek out a better life.

[romanticidal]

It was, particularly in those times. They took a boat to Europe, and found nothing but difficulty, war and doubt everywhere. It was in Tuscany that they finally felt they had found a home. A land of song and natural beauty, with people who loved wine and food and song, whose language tripped off the tongue as readily as theirs did and who loved song more than speaking... There were many reasons they chose to make their home here.

[witchwoman]

But something must have changed. Shadowkind are not welcome there any longer.

[romanticidal]

Word traveled. More and more Shadowkind came to settle, and the influx made the locals nervous. There were several cases of very dangerous groups or monsters appearing... it all added together to drive things into a very desperate state.

[witchwoman]

[Nervous locals. Myri gulps visibly, clearly dealing with her own PTSD right now. Give her a minute. She'll be cool in 2.5]

But your father chose to stay despite this. And he obviously made a life of it. Raised a family.

[romanticidal]

He fell in love with Italia. And with an Italian.

My mother's parents were devastated that she married an elf. They more or less disowned her. I never even met them. I do not even know their names.

[witchwoman]

Fear drives people to do terrible things. I'm sorry your family was not able to see past their prejudices.

[romanticidal]

I know well what fear can do to a person, so it is difficult to blame them for it. When I was young, I cautioned my father over and over to hide his heritage, to stop speaking out for elven rights, to stop putting himself in the line of fire. I wanted a normal life.

[witchwoman]

[How many times had Myri wished for the exact same thing? How often had she dreamed of a life with a mother and a father and no more running?]

But you stayed. Even now, you stay where Shadowkind are hunted. You could have gone anywhere else.

i thought it was really ironic when you brought this song up since... it was coming up!

[romanticidal]

[ Free - VAST ]

I was nothing if not rebellious: for them to tell me I should not stay was enough to convince me to fight for it. Things escalated quickly in my lifetime, because while in my father's life, the Veil had closed for a time and new Shadow ceased arriving, when I was only four, it had begun anew, bringing fresh waves of prejudice along. Everything changed quickly... [ he stares down at amaranth, lost in thought ]

We fought so many times, when he began protesting locally to have a temple to the elven god Corellon built within the city. In the end, he was killed for it.

His murderers were never caught. Never stopped. Never punished. It was then that the Resistance found me, while investigating the massacre. I had no longer any interest in school: I could only see now what I had turned a blind eye to before. Shadowkind being bullied, threatened, held back from all they wanted to do for who they were. My mother had no idea why I was suddenly engaged in fights at school, or what I was doing in the many hours I simply did not go.