Valentine's Day }{ Open post

[asap]

WHO || Characters in the log [open or closed]
WHAT || VALENTINE'S DAY
WHERE || ALL AROUND THE CASTLE
WHEN || 2/14
HOW || DO WHAT YOU WANT

It's Valentine's Day! All around people are happily snuggling up with their loved one or drowning their feelings in booze and/or ice cream. Give out cards or chocolate or commiserate with other single people! Whoo Valentine's Day!

Comments

[nepotism]

Oh yeah? [ he grins ] Now is that because they're not actually here or--

[uncurse]

Not my type. [ she chuckles, shaking her head. ] But, I'll take that to mean the person you'd rather be spending today with is away. Did you call her?

[nepotism]

[ he shrugs, taking a swig of his beer ] Naw. She wouldn't answer, anyway. [ he sounds almost resignedly cheerful about the statement, but his eyes are tight, betraying that it does, in fact, bother him. ]

[uncurse]

[ yeah emma's 31 sense motive absolutely observes that. ]

Busy, or just hates Valentine's Day? [ she leaves out the 'doesn't feel the same' option because she doesn't want to plant a seed that might not be there, or worsen one that is. he'll admit it if that's factually the case, either way, she figures. ]

[nepotism]

She's on a long term mission, for one. But she's also very... anti... romance. And kind of in a constant state of pissed at me, which probably doesn't help much either. [ he takes a thoughtful swig ] She's not very big on opening up. And one time she did, when she didn't intend to. So now I guess I just remind her of that, every time she sees me.

[uncurse]

[ yeah guess who regrets asking? THIS GUY.

no really emma is visibly uncomfortable with this turn of conversation because she can't help but hear each word as a stab at her own exact position and goddamn if she were ever in the same room with this woman, the world would probably explode from the combined force of their issues, so it's a damn good thing she's on a long term mission wow.

which, of course, makes her exactly the last person fred should have spoken to if he was looking for any sort of reassurance on how to actually grow closer to her. because, instead, emma is on team kat inherently. ]

So, you're backing off. Giving her space. A ... considerable distance, and indefinite kind of space. [ she's very subtle like lol maybe you should just give up then, son. let her have her issues ok stop pushing. ] Good.

[nepotism]

[ you can't run from your issues even when you're avoiding hook on valentine's day, swan. whoops. ]

Space, sure. But she's not happy either, the way she is. Her own words, not mine, by the way. She just has no idea how to be any other way, I guess.

I mean I don't blame her. She's been through some crap.

[uncurse]

[ STOP TALKING. STOP. that gets her to finish off her glass of wine, blinking hard as she sets it on the coffee table like ok this is really happening. time to examine ... how fucked up she is and consider what the right answer would be. she's spent plenty of time criticizing how hook's approaches are all the wrong answers, but just about zero time trying to figure out how she can change. maybe because she's afraid to. maybe this woman is too. once you get stuck a certain way for so long, it's hard to imagine anything else. ]

She probably just ... needs a reason to believe there's something other than crap. [ it sounds so easy when she puts it like that, so she shakes her head and soldiers onward. ] Not like a ... one-off heads-up. When someone gets screwed over enough, it's hard not to assume that's all that's out there. You wait for the shoe to drop. [ and then when you screw it up yourself because you're too damaged to accept happiness, you still get the bitter 'i told you so' about it not working out. really, it's a great method. ]

[nepotism]

Makes sense, at least. I'm just not sure how to help her find one without shoving her further away. Hell, if I didn't have good reason to believe she's actually interested, I'd just back off completely so I wouldn't make it worse.

But I do, and so I can't. [ he shrugs, with an empty smirk ] And so I'm drinking alone on Valentine's Day. Cheers.

[uncurse]

Well, for what it's worth ... I'm sure the fact that you haven't backed off hasn't gone unnoticed. [ and if she does actually want him there, but simply doesn't know how to accept it, that's a good thing. she gives a wry smile. it's fairly minimal comfort, but it's something. ]

It's probably safe to call her later this weekend, as long as you don't dress it up like a Valentine's thing, anyway. Check how her mission's going. [ she shrugs. ] I think that'd be okay. Maybe a text, lower pressure. [ she pours herself more wine as she tries to hobble through figuring out an answer to his conflict: how can someone help her find a reason to believe things are better without being overbearing and pushing her away? without setting off alarms and throwing those walls up? ]

[nepotism]

Can't hurt, I guess. Seems as good a time as any, since the trial they're all wrapped up in should be hitting a verdict soon anyway. They might even be heading back within a month.

[uncurse]

A trial? I thought Wynn had lawyers to take care of that kind of thing. What's a whole team of knights doing at a trial?

[nepotism]

I'm sure you heard about that concert fiasco. It's all the news was talking about for awhile there. The guy was a ... friend of theirs, I guess, and they were all mixed up in that whole mess.

[uncurse]

Oh yeah, some musician. Shot his girlfriend, right? [ she shakes her head, cringing. ] Not the kind of friend I'd wanna have.

[nepotism]

Apparently, it was some kinda set up. They're determined to make sure he winds up not doing time for it, so it's put a hold up on their big mission. I guess the Dragon's Claws sorta took over most of it. Must be pretty important.

[uncurse]

Huh. - Wait. The trial's not the mission? That guy's been on the news for ... months now. How long term is it?

[nepotism]

Right now? They've been at it almost two years.

You didn't hear this from me, but they're mission is pretty high priority stuff, from Wynn himself.

[uncurse]

Well, I'd hope so, if it's taking two years. Does that happen a lot? That long of a mission?

[nepotism]

Not at all. But this is a big one. Apparently it spans across not only some kind of secret anti-Shadowkind church, but it also involves our biggest rival, the Prime Minister of Andres Isle, and some kind of powerful magical artifact. Maybe even the gods themselves.

[uncurse]

The ... Gods. [ beat. ] Right. Those are a ... thing, here. [ 'real' is implied there. look emma never really put much stock or thought into the whole religion bit in her own world but here it's kind of less religion and more ... fact. weird. ] I'm just not gonna worry about the connection there and take your word for it. [ hahaa knowledge 7 she probably has no idea where andres isle is even. ] I didn't realize Wynn had a nemesis.

[nepotism]

I don't know if I'd call him Wynn's specifically, so much as the whole Knighthood's. He's been a thorn in our side for like ten years now. The last Dragon's Claw, Tia Ellison's dad, went MIA on Andres trying to figure out what Sarandis was up to. Since Dimitris knew who we were after that, we assume the worst. It'd take a lot to make a Dragon's Claw talk. Dimitris' sent direct messages to Wynn since, that if any Knights show up on the island, they'll be killed on sight as agents of a 'terrorist cell'. Wynn's been working on some kind of plan to deal with him for years.

[uncurse]

Terrorist cell -- what the hell is he doing to have the knights crawling so far up his ass in the first place?

[nepotism]

Wynn took an interest back when he first took over the country because of the circumstances, I guess. He worked as an Advisor to the King, but apparently wanted the throne for himself, and tried to seduce the Queen. She wasn't interested, and he killed her for it and framed her son, then convinced the King to try to smuggle the kid out of the country - but when he did, Dimitris was waiting with the guards to accuse the King of treason. They killed the Prince on the spot, and the King was beheaded before the populace, and guess who started to call for a change in government? It seemed Sarandis already had all the nobles in his pocket, and he became "Prime Minister" of the place, with a Parliament full of people who thought just like him. It wasn't very long before all the Shadowkind in the country were forced out of the rich districts one way or another. And then some of them started disappearing. [ he shakes his head ] I heard they've figured out some of what he has to have been doing with them all this time. Really terrible experiments, nightmare fuel stuff. I guess he's a high ranking member of some cult that thinks Shadowkind should be mindless slaves to the master race of humans. Real psycho.

[uncurse]

All right, but we've seen this before. Some authoritarian leader goes all Final Solution - where the hell's the U.N.? [ emma stop applying real world logic to magic. just let it go. ]

[nepotism]

That's the problem with cults and conspiracies - it can be really difficult to link things back to one individual member. Dimitris' smart and he makes it hard to prove any of this stuff was on his say so. Hell, all the labs Kat's team found were in America. There's some kind of bizarre record label front for it all.