and the white knight is talking backwards and the red queen's off with her head

[undealt]

WHO || Gold, Amara, and OPEN
WHAT || Gold has arrived back from dealing with refuges in Bermuda. And now he's making frands. And surely everyone wants to know who dat lady is.
WHERE || The castle library
WHEN || some indeterminate time in June
HOW || actionspaaaam
OTHER || You can also pull Gold and Amara aside for one-on-one conversations if you'd like. Just specify.

If you go into the library today, you will find an unusual sight- for one thing, Gold's back, but he must have snuck in like a ninja because it's not like he made any great announcement of it. Just swanned in, checked on his crocodile, and immediately tracked down a certain blonde homo magi. Suspicious!

Said homo magi is currently in the library with him. In fact, they're in the section with all the magic books, chatting animatedly about... something or other. (A listen check of 18 will catch what they're saying).

Comments

[reallywicked]

Well, then I guess we're even, aren't we? You bailed us out- we let you hide out in style.

[Her smile drips with insincerity. She's too confident for her own good all the time sometimes.]

[undealt]

Faye. [That is DAD voice. He didn't even know he had a dad voice. Wow. Rather than scold her and tell her to SIT DOWN, he turns to Amara, as if just resuming the conversation they were having.] Amara, that defensive spell you used during our confrontation- the one that deflected Sir Francesca's bullets. How did that work?

[Gold doesn't scold people like a normal person. He's about to lay out EXACTLY WHY Faye ought to hold her tongue.]

[besmitten]

It's a very powerful spell, that requires six of the strongest members of our order to cast. But no missile weapon can harm the one who is warded by it, for a time, and all such attacks will rebound upon the one who fired them.

[reallywicked]

So I guess you're five fries short of your happy meal.

[Sorry, Gold. Faye is not impressed- or rather she is jealous that YOU are impressed. And your dad voice just brings out her smart ass teenager.]

[undealt]

[Oh my God, Faye. You are the worst. Luckily, Gold can diffuse a situation pretty well... or he could if his diplomacy wasn't a 12, so he just kinda looks at Faye for an explanation.] Is there something you wish to get out in the open, dear?

[besmitten]

[ YEAH FAYE. OUT WITH IT. ]

[reallywicked]

[She doesn't really have a good answer there, because she's not even admitting to herself that she doesn't like sharing :|

Humph.]

I guess I'm just not really seeing what makes her so special. [Yeah there is no way to say that where she doesn't sound like a pouting brat. But she's really trying to just sound unimpressed.]

[undealt]

[Gold stares at Faye for a moment like he's debating between a lecture or going FAYE PLS, but what actually happens is he... laughs. Because he got a nat 20 sense motive.]

Well, in the strictest sense... Nothing. That's the beauty of magic. It's different, depending on the person. Amara just happens to come from a culture were magic is everything, and that's something I'm very interested in.

[Basically he only likes her for her powerful magic. God, Faye. What Dad learns here, Dad can teach you later. :|]

[reallywicked]

...What do you mean 'everything?'

[Alright, she'll bite. And step closer to actually make herself part of this conversation. SIGH.]

[besmitten]

He means it's what we are. Our kind were born to magic, and those of you who have inherited our blood carry on that tradition, although with merely a shadow of our power.

[undealt]

And why remain satisfied with the shadows?

[POWER IS ALLLL~]

[reallywicked]

[Someone said the magic word. Power. She's been hungry for it ever since she learned what she could do. Faye's expression changes completely, all the snark and attitude gone and replaced with rapt attention.]

Do you think you can... show us? Get us closer to what you have? [Yeah. Us. She's including herself in this now, which is terribly presumptuous considering she was insulting the woman a whole 2 minutes ago.]

[besmitten]

Not everyone can be trusted to wield such power. [ her sense motive check of a million says THAT INCLUDES YOU, FAYE. ]

[undealt]

It takes someone disciplined. As we've spoken of, time and again. [HE HAS FAYE UNDER CONTROL, ALL RIGHT, AMARA?]

[besmitten]

It's not merely discipline. It takes respect for the power one possesses.

[reallywicked]

[Sorry, Gold. Your lessons on discipline only go so far and when some bitch walks in and starts passive aggressively hinting that she's not good enough, Faye can't exactly stop herself. Her eyes flash dangerously (or with as much as she can muster with her seventeen year old bb sorceress self). Amara hasn't yet proven that she can actually be useful to Faye- not like Gold has.]

And you get to decide who's worthy? Is that how it works?

[undealt]

[YEAH, GOLD IS JUST GONNA... take a step back from this. He ain't got the diplomacy mods to deal with this cat fight.]

[besmitten]

[ amara fixes her with a level, unimpressed expression ] Seeing as how we possess the power and you don't?

That's precisely how it works.

[reallywicked]

[Her mouth snaps shut. Hi, this is Faye's biggest sore spot, so she will just lick her wounded pride and move to the other side of Gold, because putting him between them will help...

She's pouting but she's quiet about it. It's a great deal like her first lesson with Gold. Someday she'll figure out that if she did this first, life would be so much easier.]

[undealt]

[Gold clears his throat.] Which is why I believe Amara staying here will have a profound effect on the Dragon's Fire and how we teach our squires.

[besmitten]

Do you not teach them respect for the power they would seek?

[reallywicked]

[That causes Faye's eyes to narrow, but she's keeping her mouth shut... for now...]

[undealt]

Of course I do. You know how children are, however- their eyes are bigger than their stomachs, as it were.

[He just fucking rocks at diplomacy okay (19)]

[besmitten]

Among our people, children are taught from a very young age to respect the Art - and those who hold its secrets.

[reallywicked]

In case you haven't been given the full tour- a lot of us here came through the Veil? We're lucky to remember our own name, let alone what we were taught as children.

[Her temper is still hot, but the words come out precise and calculated.]

Imagine waking up one day and forgetting everything about yourself, then discovering by accident that you have this power inside you. And it feels right. It feels like the only thing that makes sense. You might not be as concerned with respecting someone else's rules when it comes to getting back what you know is yours.