knightsoflegend | CLOSED ♔ THIS AIN'T A FAIRYTALE

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CLOSED ♔ THIS AIN'T A FAIRYTALE

WHO || Emma Swan, some NPC bitches [closed]
WHAT || Where the fuck is Storybrooke.
WHERE || Not-Storybrooke, Middle of the Fucking Woods, Maine
WHEN || January 26th, 2013
HOW || However the fuck Arden wants

This is a story all about how the savior's life got flipped, turned upside down. And let's take a moment and just sit right here and hear about how she stumbled upon NOT FUCKING STORYBROOKE.

She'd come out of the Veil in Canada - Vancouver, to be exact. And not gracefully. She'd staggered out of the portal, compass in hand, and found herself in the middle of the city - a city she didn't remember.

A city she was fairly certain wasn't the Vancouver she'd left behind, either.

The Shadowkind references were hard to avoid, and as Emma navigated her way from bus stop to bus stop, and finally a rental car shop, it became exceedingly clear that something had changed - and she couldn't help but make the assumption that it had something to do with the fact that magic had been brought back to Storybrooke. Just who else had come back from other worlds?

It only made her more eager to get back to it and her family. Mary-Margaret was going through the portal with her, she should be there - and she should be rescuing David from his sleeping curse. But, when Emma pulled the car off the road at the part of the highway where the exit for Storybrooke was supposed to be, she found that there was no exit. She found that there was no sign for Storybrooke.

It was possible, of course, that they'd torn them down. That the magic had spread and that something had changed. She took to hoofing it, out into the woodlands of Maine, snow jacket belted tightly around her, rubber boots on over her jeans, and beanie pulled low to cover her ears. Each heavy exhale from the hike in the snowy, wooded area caused a puff of chilled air to be visible in front of her face.

Mostly, she was just hoping she'd be able to find the road.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Emma takes a moment to consider the man, sizing him up and scrutinizing him, as if examining for any signs of something other than safety by being near him, as well as the cabin he's hovering near (spot 27). She concludes it's okay to engage, and responds.

"Hey." Articulate as ever. She gives a brief cringe at that, but soldiers on. People are supposed to be what she's good at. "This your place?" She nods to the cabin.

It's interesting, indeed, that she concludes him 'safe to engage', considering that with her spot check, she's able to distinguish what looks remarkably like the edges of small, devilish looking horns buried in his nest of seventies hair. Not to mention the bulge in his jacket that betrays what definitely seems to be a weapon beneath. But his posture is nonthreatening, his eyes cautious but curious, and her appearance doesn't cause him to tense in any noticeable way.

"Yep," he says simply (bluff 29). "Sorry if you were looking to squat."

(Sense motive 18, she ain't got any idea he's lying.)

"Not exactly. You been out here a while?" She didn't wait for an answer, just glanced over her shoulder at the other boys that had tailed along and then back at this stranger. "Just trying to follow up on some reports about the area. Have you seen anything unusual? Out of the ordinary?"

He follows her gaze, and then affixes her with a probing look. "Just a bunch of people walking around with rifles in the off season."

There's a short, plastered smile that's full of annoyance with the local color. It drops quickly enough, and she gives a quick and dirty explanation.

"Just some people who live nearby. Heard some nasty news about something out here attacking people. Might be a good idea for you to keep inside until we find out if there's any weight to it."

"Seems a bit reactionary to me, if it's just rumors. Anyone actually seen a body yet? People gone missing? Photographs? What kind of something are we talking about here?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

She ignores the other questions, though she marks that he's asking them. It warrants a shifty look, but no more than that for now. But, she'll - at the very least - confirm that they don't know what it is.

"Afraid I can't help you, then. Haven't seen squat, personally. Wouldn't be surprised if somebody got worked up over nothing." A listen check of 14 or higher would catch a banging noise inside the cabin. He glances back that way, completely casual and unconcerned.

Well, since Emma's got a listen check of 25, she's glancing that way too. It's not casual or unconcerned. In fact, it's very concerned. Her brow furrows, and she turns her gaze back towards Max, scrutinizing him, all unspoken accusation.

"Haven't seen squat, huh?" She doesn't ask his permission, just steps up onto the deck of the house and moves for the front door. Emma Swan don't got time for your polite society.

Holy nat twenty reflex save, Batman. Despite his chill demeanor seconds ago, when she moves for the door, his arm abruptly lashes out and slams against it in front of her face, cigarette flying into a snowbank. His face is serious now, as he stares her down (intimidate check 34 - vs. her will save), eyes abruptly narrowed, voice hard.

"I haven't seen a warrant." There's something behind his gaze that was effectively trapped behind the blase demeanor moments before. Something inhuman, something inherently violent.

With her amazing will save of

20

she's going to let that intimidation get under her skin. It rattles her. She takes a step back, drawing her hand away from the door, but she's too damn stubborn to let it put her down entirely, and far too stubborn to show how deeply it gets to her.

"Noise like that, I don't need one. What the hell's going on in there?" Her hand goes to rest on the holster of her gun as discreetly as she can (hide 21), an instinctive defensive maneuver in the face of that look in his eyes.

"Babysitting my brother's kids," he says, tone harsh still, but only an edge more than that of someone having his privacy violated, rather than the disturbing countenance presented seconds ago. "They're probably knocking some stuff over. Last thing they need is to see some weapons and get freaked."

"No weapons." She moves her hand from her gun, holding both hands up in a gesture of surrender. But, she doesn't back down. Instead, she steps closer to him. Emma watches him, eyes flickering from his face to the door. It's not hard to tell that he's lying (sense motive 24), but it is hard to figure out how to best persuade him. "There's something you should know about me. I'm pretty hard to lie to. Now, I don't know what's in that house, but I know it's not your brothers' kids, and I'd like for you to let me find out. I'm here to help." (diplomacy 22.)

His eyes search her face for a long moment, as he seems to weigh how much he believes her or not. He seems to come to some kind of resolution but shrugs in the direction of the two guys back down the hill.

"Yeah, maybe you are. But are they?"

She glanced behind her, over her shoulder at the two down the hill. Then, she looked back at the stranger in front of her.

"They're not coming with."

She didn't care to explain that she'd picked them up along the way and learned about it from them, but taken her own interest. Nor did she care to explain the ease with which she could cut them loose. Her family and the safety of the people in this area were both more important than sentiment or these guys getting some monster head to stuff and mount.

"You're talking to me, not them."

His lip pulled askew as he considered, but then he nodded, as if against his better judgment, wiping a hand against his mouth. "Fine," he said testily, but then pointed to her with a warning finger. "But just you." With that, he moved to the handle of the door, and started to pull, when one of the men shouted out: "Hey! Where you going?"

Emma's shoulder hunched as the men behind her shouted, and she ground her teeth, refusing to glance over at them. Irritation was clear for Max to see in her expression, and she wasn't thrilled with the notion of showing that to the source of the frustration.

"Police business," her shout was dismissive, and she nodded for them to continue into the house. Her voice lowered, and she agreed. "Just me."

After all, that was how it'd always been.

Max shot them another suspicious look, but then cranked the handle open and held it for Emma, gesturing for her to go on in.

"Yeah, alright," he said, obviously still on edge. Within, there were all the trappings of a small cabin living room: wood walls, an old musty rug, a crappy old TV on a bent up metal stand on wheels in one corner, open bags of chips on a musty sofa, and the smell of lingering smoke in the air.

Emma stepped into the cabin, dropping her hands to her sides, and began to scope it out (spot 14). She noted the minimal, standard cabin furnishings, and the smell of smoke, and listened for what had caused the ruckus they'd heard from outside (listen 25).

Once she reached the center of the room, she stopped, and turned to look at Max.

"I thought you were babysitting," her tone was wry, indicating the layers of her question. It was obvious he hadn't actually been, but she wanted to know the truth of what was going on here (diplomacy 13).

While not much seems out of the ordinary in glancing around, she'd hear another noise from the adjoining room: the sound of something large moving around. In fact, she practically feel the wooden floors creaking underneath her feet.

"About that." As she's turning towards him, there's the sound of a soft scrape of metal on leather, and she finds herself facing the business end of a handgun. He speaks quickly, as if to get the words out before she tries to go all ninja on him or something. "No sudden moves, and take it from me that screaming would be a really bad call. I just need to explain some things, alright? And then I can send you on your merry way." He gestures with the gun towards the ratty couch. "Have a seat."

The breath sucked out of her as she caught sight of the gun, and Emma's hands immediately raised in a motion of surrender. She watched Max carefully, trying to measure whether or not he was trying to get control or actually planned to shoot her, as well as whether or not she could believe him (sense motive 27).

"Explain what things?" Her tone was placating as she lowered herself to the couch without taking her eyes off of him. Her movements were measured and slow. In hindsight, this hadn't been her best plan, coming into his place without any form of back-up, but Emma hadn't had enough time to get used to the luxury of having it ever.

"The thing they're claiming is terrorizing the neighborhood's not a monster. It might look like one, and sound like one, but he's a thinking creature and an innocent one. He just got stuck in the wrong place, wrong time." It's clear from the way he's holding the gun now that he's more interested in getting Emma to believe him than terrifying her into it.

A wisdom check of 14+ also detects a sudden strong scent of ham wafting in from that next room. Tinged with a bit of violets.

Emma didn't smell shit (wis 9), but she did lower her hands slowly, realizing that Max didn't mean any particular harm. She eased up.

"What kind of creature?" She felt a prickle in the back of her neck, an eagerness to look around for what Max might be hiding, but she didn't dare whip her head around and take her eyes off the gun. No sudden movements.

The look in his eyes made it clear that he wasn't sure how to word this one without sounding crazy. "Don't suppose you've ever heard of saurials."

She shook her head (knowledge 11). Granted, she hadn't heard of much short of the standard monster movie fare that she was beginning to suspect was also real, and dragons and ogres. And Ruby being a werewolf, of course.

"I have a feeling I'm about to. What are they?"

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