open ♔ august castle socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, etc!
WHEN || Any time during August [back and forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of this month.  Because not everyone is into parties, ok.  

You are encouraged to start your own threads and tag around, and feel free to threadjack into any on-going threads that aren't specified as 'closed' in the subject lines since people can enter into rooms even in the middle of what's going on. You can also specify 'single thread', meaning you want only one response for all participants, rather than multi-thread, where a number of different scenes/threads can be done as replies to the top prompt. ]

Comments

[uncurse]

Do you like hot cocoa?

[bittersweeter]

[The subject change throws her for a second and she flounders a little, struggling to grasp it.] Uh, yeah, I guess...?

[uncurse]

Come on. [ she nods toward the door, then holds out her hand. ] And give me that thing. [ the gun. because she's approached this all wrong. ]

[bittersweeter]

[Her small hand twists to hold the barrel, before she hands it over.] Did you get any use out of it on your mission?

[uncurse]

No.

[ and as she takes the gun back, she doesn't sound remotely happy about that. she'd felt useless and unprepared on the mission, something she hadn't added onto her mission briefing to gold. in a world full of magic and facing a brainwashed army, there hadn't been anything she could do. ]

One of my teammates tried, and got all the bullets deflected back at her for her trouble.

[bittersweeter]

[For a split second concern races across her face and then it's back to her default apathetic expression.]

That sucks. [And with that utter lack of comforting platitudes -- Lila is always available for blunt honesty -- she nudges the subject along. Her own mission was so far lame and pretty boring aside from the bright spot of one clever investigator, but it was not worth the vomit inducing claustrophobia of the flight. Maybe she wants to live vicariously through Emma.] What was your mission?

[uncurse]

[ she begins to lead the way out of the firing range, taking a casual walk through the halls of the castle on a course set for the kitchen. ]

Some ally of the knights, Zatanna, she got a distress message via some kind of telepathy that her mother was in danger. Our job was to find her. Except when we did, it ... it wasn't just her, and the danger she was in was a lot more than we'd expected. We reunited them, but her mother was already dying.

[bittersweeter]

So it was a rescue mission for a dead woman? [She makes a face. That just seems pointless.]

[uncurse]

More or less. Zatanna and her father seemed happy to at least put the body to rest, but ... [ emma shakes her head. the family's still broken. ] We got an alliance with the Magi as a consolation prize.

[bittersweeter]

[It's pretty clear Lila doesn't understand the whole family thing, but she's never understood the idea of funerals bringing closure either.

She takes after her dad.]

What the hell is a Magi?

[uncurse]

Blonde and about yea-high. [ she raises a hand to indicate. ] Crazy powerful in terms of magic.

[bittersweeter]

Oh, that woman in the library? [She asks like maybe Emma was there, but obviously... she sure wasn't. (wis 21 to put that together.)] There was a lady in the library with Sir Gold, taking about magic, asking about my purpose. [Insert flawlessly executed teenage eyeroll here.]

[uncurse]

I'm surprised Gold managed to pry her away from my father long enough to try and milk her for magic knowledge. [ if she sounds bitter it's probably because she is. ] Yeah, that's her. What the hell does she mean by your "purpose"? [ beat. ] And why were you with Gold?

[bittersweeter]

I wasn't with him. He was just in the library at the same time as me and I happened to run into him. [On purpose.] I don't know I was defending something or other and I said bad shit could be good if set to the right purpose, what do you mean your dad, your dad is a knight?

[She actually stops and puts a gloved hand to Emma's arm.] Okay, I am going to need the unabridged version of this, the cliffnotes aren't doing it justice.

[uncurse]

It's gonna sound crazy. [ she sighs, stopping. ] We're knight living in a freaking castle and it's still gonna sound crazy. [ but, deep breath, and - ] David ... Charming is my father. There was a curse, a - a time-loop, it's complicated. [ and it sucks to remember david charming instead of david nolan or prince charming wow. ] While we were in the Bermuda Triangle looking for Zatanna's mother, the Magi ... fell under a love spell. And now she's all over him. [ her hands find their way into her pockets once her gun's back in its holster, and she shrugs her shoulders, feeling uncomfortable and surprisingly juvenile. ]

[bittersweeter]

A love spell.

[Normally Lila would be all over the Emma what the fuck is your life train, except she is completely derailed by the love spell. And she looks simultaneously like she is going to be sick or she is going to systematically work everyone in the castle. Its hard to tell which is more likely.

She starts walking again. The one thing Lila cannot handle in the world is love spells.]

[uncurse]

Uh ... yeah. Why - [ WHOOPS FOLLOWING. ] What?

[bittersweeter]

You need to keep them apart. [She is really, painfully serious.] Far apart.

[uncurse]

Yeah, the thought occurred to me. But maybe you missed the part about crazy powerful Magi. No one's keeping her away from David if she doesn't want them to. David's been keeping her at arm's length, it's fine, we just ... need to figure out how to break it without her losing it - and Gold's the most powerful person in this castle, whether he knows it or not, but he doesn't have any interest in trying lest he lose his chance at her magic.

[bittersweeter]

And if your dad's dick decides to start running the show? Then he's a rapist. That's a story to tell the grandkids about! [Her tone seems to imply try harder.] Fuck her magic, fuck Gold, someone needs to protect her.

[uncurse]

Hey! [ ok no more walking. emma grabs her arm and forces her to stop and look back at her, because now she's just pissed. ] That is not gonna happen. He knows as well as the rest of us what's going on here, and he would never take advantage of that. You don't know him. I do. [ at least ... she hopes she does. there's conflict in her expression, because whoever david charming is, he's not david nolan, and she'd never gotten the time to get to know her real father before coming here. david nolan might have done it tbh. she takes a deep breath, because snapping at a kid isn't the answer, and she drops her hand. ] We find another member of the Dragon's Fire, figure out if they've got something to - to defuse something like that. But, I don't know any of them.

[bittersweeter]

No, Emma, you don't get it. It's not like some drunk party girl you know is fucked up. It's subtle but it's still like a magical roofie and she is going to keep trying, because she thinks she loves him right? That's the curse, he is only thing that matters now and she won't stop until she wears him down and he gives in to her rationalizing it and the sheer power of someone loving you that much. [She jerks her arm back, ignoring the latter half because Emma needs to understand first.] I know. Because I experienced it.

[uncurse]

[ she experienced it.

whether it was the love spell with people there to protect her and break it or if it had been too late to, it doesn't really matter because in the end it's just as horrible.

it hasn't escaped emma how horrible this is for amara, which is why she hasn't stopped coming up firmly on the side of love spell bad since they got back. but, she's also been faced with teammates who think she's overreacting, who think it's manageable - it's not. but she's outnumbered and she's also being told to let it go by the one person she'd be going to for a fix. it's been a hopeless situation, one that she's felt powerless to change.

but this isn't about emma and how powerless she feels to intervene or to protect her family anymore, it's about lila. it's about a kid who's had to go through that and knows better than any of them how wrong it is to let it keep going on. and devastation hits her like a ton of bricks as she stares at lila, grappling for words and losing them.

she raises a hand to reach out in her speechlessness, wondering what she can do, how she can make it better or be there for her or support her but she can't because it already happened and the damage is done, and lila is about as receptive to physical contact as emma herself. so her hand drops and the look of anguish stays on her face. ]

Lila ... [ k no she tried. she presses her lips tighter together, at a loss for words, and reaches out to squeeze her shoulder - this time not a rough grab, but a motion of offered support. the gesture welcomes a hug, but doesn't demand one. she knows how hard it is to even confess these things, talk about moments when you felt weak and helpless, because emma herself refuses to talk about them, but she needs to make some motion to show lila that she's there for her in it, as much as she can be. ]

So, we'll protect her. Someone in the Dragon's fire has to know a spell. They could help, or - or I have magic, maybe I can - [ maybe is all she has to offer. she takes a deep breath, committing. ] I can try. Let's just head down there, and see who's home that knows something.

[bittersweeter]

[Lila lets Emma's hand rest there for a couple seconds before she steps back, arms coming up to cross her chest, fingers digging in roughly against her arms. She doesn't say it's okay, because it isn't, it wasn't. Cassel hadn't gone that far (and he was just so proud of himself because of it) but that feeling was something she didn't get to forget. Her head shakes briefly.]

Zero. He owes me like fifteen favors anyway. [And if she has to ever tell this story again it sure as shit isn't going to be to someone she doesn't trust. She doesn't know if he could do anything, she still doesn't understand technomagic (or magic in general) but it's magic so. That's enough right now.]

[uncurse]

Okay. If Zero doesn't know, I can try talking to Hasmed. [ she's careful to state that she can try rather than both of them because she doesn't want lila to feel obligated to have to share why they're so determined about it. ] He trained Gold, he should be just as capable, if less self-serving.