paris ♔ so you'll keep the world at bay | keep your secrets and your scars.

[silvermaid]

♬ The Storm - Boy & Bear

WHO || Anastacia, Christos, Faye, Aedan, Felicity, Taenya Farstorm
WHAT || The Knights travel to Paris, get some sight seeing in, and meet with the councilwoman.
WHERE || Paris, France
WHEN || August 26th IGNORE WHAT WYNN SAID ABOUT A COUPLE OF WEEKS, I DO WHAT I WANT
HOW || Actionspam

[ this post covers all events from the flight to paris through the initial meeting to get things rolling on the mission. there will be three relevant threads below, please wait for them to be posted to comment ♥ ]

Comments

[bittersweeter]

I'm fine. [She really hopes Emma is asking because she looks like an ill cat and not because she thinks Lila is some fragile emotional flower now. But the answer would be the same.]

[Taking a sip of her sprite, she looks up from her phone.] I don't like flying. [Half true -- it isn't the flying aspect that bothers her, its the inabilty to escape. She'd do fine with sky diving because she would have a way out.]

[uncurse]

[ definitely the first one, lila, dw. ]

I don't think you're alone in that among the knights. Plenty of 'em come from places that never had planes. It's a wonder Wynn relies on jets so much to begin with.

[bittersweeter]

Because you are literally 5000% more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash? [That isn't even an exaggeration.] It's faster, it's cheaper, it's a hell of a lot more economical. The guy probably has more frequent flyer miles than most pilots.

[And no one wants Lila on a boat sailing from England to America. Someone would die. Now imagine her in the Chunnel.

Death.

She'll take the plane over that.]

[uncurse]

More economical for seven people to get to France? I don't think so.

[bittersweeter]

Do you really think the Knights don't have major stock in airlines all over the world? If Wynn doesn't have the Karthur Institute incorporated so he can write these trips off as tax deductable then he's a moron. Sweetie, we get paid salary, we get health benefits and I'm sure if it wasn't a not-for-profit we'd actually have to pay taxes. [Her tone gets a touch patronizing at the end, but she can't help it. She is the child of organized crime... this is exactly what she was going to be doing when she took over for her dad. (Knowledge: business 21)] Hell, Wynn probably has a hundred or so shell companies just for stuff like this.

[uncurse]

I didn't realize you had such insight into business.

[bittersweeter]

I was going to take over for my dad.

[uncurse]

So, he started you on business that early. [ well. crime bosses didn't exactly life long, healthy lives that often. those were the lucky ones, the really good ones. a little insurance was a good plan - except in this case, it meant depriving lila of a few other things. ] Is your dad here? In this world.

[bittersweeter]

Huh? No, no, he's still back home. [Not that she would really know since she doesn't know his name. For all she knows Daddy Zacharov could be making a killing in Monte Carlo or Las Vegas. He could be dead, though she doubts that.]

[uncurse]

Where was home for you? Was it like this world, or something else?

[bittersweeter]

Manhattan. New York. It was pretty much the same except people like me, we, you know, existed. And not in some secret underground -- everyone knows about workers. Don't like us, but we've been around since the dawn of humanity.

[uncurse]

You mean even moreso than the people in this world all knowing about magic? [ because where she's from it's like super closet compared to your world then gurl. ]

[bittersweeter]

It's not magic. [She holds up a gloved hand, gives it a sharp wave as she makes that correction before trundling on.] I guess it's pretty similar to here though. Everyone wears gloves, regardless of whether you're a worker or not. People were pushing for legislation against us. If you were a worker in the Middle East or Africa you were basically fucked.

[uncurse]

And what did ... workers do exactly? I thought you were taking over for your dad, not ... doing other work.

[bittersweeter]

It's just what we're called -- there's other names but that's the common one. There's -- are you sure you want this history less you're never gonna use? Even the cliffnotes version is pretty long. [She doesn't mind explaining, at least not to Emma, but it's a little in depth.]

[uncurse]

Not the full history lesson, just ... just tell me what you do as a "worker" and why you're one of them when you had an empire to inherit. [ a beat. she tacks on as an afterthought; ] If you don't mind. [ they've been pretty good with understanding each other and connecting tho so she has a feeling a little more sharing won't be too much to ask. ]

[bittersweeter]

They're tied into each other. In the late twenties and early thirties, workers were put into "relocation camps". In America, mind you, a decade or so before World War II. Anyway, in the camps a couple of guys started looking out for the rest of the workers, making sure they got enough to eat, paying off guards to protect the people that couldn't protect themselves. My great-grandfather was one of those men. That's how the families got started -- you protect your own. Anyway the camps broke up round the time Hitler started his rise when America realized they didn't want to be hypocritical assholes. [She peels her gloves off to wipe her palms on her jeans.] The families just never really went away. We still protect our own.

Workers are people that can do certain things that normal people can't because of something in our brain chemistry. There's seven different kinds: luck workers, physical workers, emotion workers, dream workers, memory workers, transformation workers and death workers.

[She pauses to start putting her gloves back on.] I'm a dream worker.

[uncurse]

So, that means you - you work with dreams? Do some kind of magic, or is it science?

[bittersweeter]

I manipulate them. The subconscious, really, I can put people to sleep, make them sleep walk. It's pretty basic suggestion. [And it's not magic jfc, that bugs her so much that she doesn't address it again.] I don't now the mechanics of it, not the science behind it, I'm not a doctor. But it's tactile. [Her voice lowers slightly because she knows some people think it's any kind of skin contact and... it's not.] Hand to skin contact. Hence the gloves.

[uncurse]

So, anytime you touch someone, you run the risk of ... making them pass out? Turning them into sleepwalking zombies?

[bittersweeter]

[She snorts out a little laugh.] No, I can completely control it. I have to actively work someone for that to happen.

[uncurse]

So, why be all Rogue about it if you're not gonna accidentally drop anyone?

[bittersweeter]

Eighteen years of habit and some people don't exactly trust me? Like, I'm pretty sure Eric and Zero are the only people who wouldn't give a shit. And Zero has a charm against me, so.

[uncurse]

They think you're gonna do it on purpose and they won't know. [ yeah emma had ... not considered that at all. maybe this is why she continuously gets screwed by people ... ] Shouldn't the Knights, more than anybody, be willing to cut you some slack and trust you on that?

[bittersweeter]

Probably. Though it might hurt that that's exactly what I do. [She shrugs.] Ask Faye.

[At least she is honest, right?]