open ♔ september castle socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, etc!
WHEN || First half of September, any time between the September squiring ceremony and the War announcement on September 18th
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of the first half of the 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. WE ARE BIG ON THREAD-JACKING HERE. 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.]

On this log:
Drax @ the desk
Kate Bishop @ the desk
Sam @ the desk
Henry @ the desk
Kate Bishop @  roof/dining hall/library/grounds/bathrooms/desk/Dragon's Hoard/etc
Abigail @ Movie theater / library /firing range / training room
Francesca & Val'drin | closed
Penelope & Sam @ the woods
Emma Frost @ the library
Spike @ rec room
Lydia, Stiles, Astrid, Adam | closed

Comments

[uncurse]

[ Emma does some quick mental math while Lila talks her through the past few months.

She’d heard about the doppelgänger, but she didn’t know to connect it to anyone named Elena. That’s new. Rose is the one who punched Faye, who is now hunting after Elena? Sure. Mass suicide. Luthir …

Her face falls. ]

The elf who did weapons qualification? [ They hadn’t exactly bonded, but it’s still a guy she knew. Not good. Mass suicide is, of course, worse, but she’ll find more out from news articles later than she will from gossip. Even gossip with Lila. Before she can further pursue the question, Lila has made

multiple copies of herself.

Emma jumps to her feet. ] Jesus.

[ Turns out her faint discomfort with magic is more considerable than anticipated. That happens when spells backfire and turn you to stone so you can get decapitated. ]

[bittersweeter]

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too.

[ her head tips to the side a moment, curious, and all the copies mimic her a moment until she flutters her eyelashes and they disperse, fading from sight so only one lila remains. ] Helen says the veil did something to me, unlocked some latent abilities I have. [ shruuuuuuuug. ] So I figured I end the "and that's what you missed on glee" with a high note instead of a funeral.

[uncurse]

Some high note.

[ At least now she knows which one to talk to. Her attention fixes back on the real Lila. ]

Helen—she’s with the Dragon’s Hoard, right?

[bittersweeter]

Yeah. She does like... Shadowkind research or whatever. Science.

[ which is why lila likes her. science is gr8.

ALSO I TOTALLY MEANT THREE MONTHS, I FORGOT A WHOLE MONTH IDEK WHEN MY OWN CHARACTER GOT MARRIED JFC. so yeah, lila said three months. ignore the two. lila is not as dumb as i am. ]

[uncurse]

[ that's ok i just totally fucked up math and thought that was two months ago. ]

What made you decide to go to her instead of someone in the Dragon's Fire wing?

[ probably that faye and emma were gone, but she's asking anyway. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ because eric made her distrustful of hasmed ten long years ago tbh :) ]

Because my dream work isn't magic. And my abilities manifested similar to what I know about psions. [ she flicks her wrist and a book flies off a shelf and into her hand. (mage hand + reflex save 25) another flick of her wrist and the door to one of the study rooms slams shut. (open/close -- she actually knows the difference now, it's super.) she seems incredibly at ease with what she can do, the same ease with which she uses her dream work. ] So I decided to go science instead of magic.

[ a beat. ] And you were gone. [ though to be fair, because emma is under gold and hasmed... she and faye still wouldn't have been lila's first choice. which is why she went to zero afterward. but she would have at least gone to emma when she came to terms with it months and months after it manifested. ]

[uncurse]

I’m sorry.

[ She doesn’t qualify it with anything—can’t bring herself to, because she’d done to Lila precisely what she’d done to Henry. Precisely what her parents had done to her. Even if it wasn’t on purpose, it was abandonment. Lila needed someone, and she wasn’t there. ]

[bittersweeter]

Don't. [ she shakes her head sharply. ] If I let you blame yourself then I'll blame you, too. And I'm sick of being angry, it's exhausting and I'm already exhausted.

[uncurse]

[ Hesitating for a moment, Emma lingers on her feet. Then she nods, a flicker of a smile making its way to her mouth. In all the crushing blow of bad news, she still manages that—after all. This is better than the note she’d left on. Slowly, she lowers herself back to her seat. ]

What happened to Luthir?

[bittersweeter]

No clue. People are surprisingly mum on it. But he was in New York with his brand new bride and Wynn was pretty... hold on. [ pulling her phone out, she rolls back through her saved messages to find the video message from wynn. it doesn't take her long because... she doesn't have a lot of messages from wynn. she holds the phone out for emma to take. ] That's what he told us.

[uncurse]

[ Emma grabs the phone. She really needs to get hers replaced. Reading now. ]

Dark forces. [ She scoffs at the vagueness. ] What the hell does that mean?

[bittersweeter]

No clue. But from my copious eavesdropping, word is that the creepy Church of the Lord's Humanity might have had something to do with the mass suicide. They were at the Shadowkind conference we went to and there was some skeevy shit going on. [ she was kind of disappointed they hadn't gone to that specific talk, but she would have missed her spanish harlem angel so... oh well. it does mean, however, that her knowledge is regrettably second hand and paltry. ] If you can't tell by the name, they aren't exactly fans of Shadowkind. Any of them. Including us, though we may get a pass for being passably human.

[uncurse]

Passably.

[ When, in history, has it ever been acceptable to just ‘pass’ as something? Emma practically cringes at the phrasing alone. ]

Any word on who Wynn’s got after them?

[bittersweeter]

No. Not a lot of missions have really been out. There were you guys. There's a team that went to New Zealand and one... that went to Australia? Belle and Kate went out and brought back a puppy... well, a werepuppy. Her name is Cora. But that was like a one day thing. Night. [ she shrugs. ] I mean, people still go out and there has to be a ton of other missions I don't know about. Secret knighthood and all, breeds secrets. [ she only has so much knowledge and it bugs her that it's not enough to really catch emma up. she only has so many ranks in gather information! she is not gossip girl! that is what alex is for! but, basically, she knows nothing. ]

[uncurse]

Don't sweat it. I'll see what I can dig up.

[ Boots to the ground, after all, is Emma's specialty. She's great with information gathering. ]

And how have you been?

[bittersweeter]

[ having the focus back on her is not at all what lila wanted, but she knows better than to think emma is going to let is slide. ]

Can't sleep. [ she doesn't qualify it with "well" or "much", just leaves it flatly there. she can't sleep. that's really all she can think of that may be newsworthy anyway. ] I'm nineteen, now.

[uncurse]

I owe you a cake, then.

[ A little levity in a situation that’s not all that light. ]

After Faye gets back. We’ll go out, the three of us.

[ Like a fambly. And with that bit of levity out of the way, she waits a beat before questioning further: ]

Is it because we were gone, or is your dreamwork getting harder to deal with somehow?

[bittersweeter]

Probably stress. [ only alex and zero get to know about the adverse effects of her lack of sleep. sylar because he knows everything. lila flat out refuses to worry emma and lila about it. hell, eric doesn't even get to know that. ] It always fucks up my sleep. So... three months of stress.

[uncurse]

Not to point out the obvious or anything, but the Dragon's Light folks probably have some kind of magic Nyquil.

[bittersweeter]

They don't. Gar was trying to figure out how to make me a sleeping pill to counteract my blowback, but... no one can figure out my brain. [ she glances down, expression falling to an utter, disheartened helplessness. use it, don't use it, it didn't matter, lila wouldn't be able to sleep and in the grand scheme of things her sleep or lack thereof is not really important since she can basically function fine without it. she's learned how to live with her blowback. with a swish of her wooly curls, she shakes her head, the defeat fading from her expression and being replaced with resignation. ] I'll be able to sleep tomorrow.

[uncurse]

I'll stay up with you.

[ Truthfully, she's exhausted. Despite having slept at the Enrichment Center, and being an unconscious statue, Emma feels worn to the bones. But this is about Lila. She offers a thin smile. ]

Research on curses with some Netflix background noise. It'll be fun.

[bittersweeter]

Don't be ridiculous. You just came back from a mission, you've had serious shock and trauma, you need to sleep. [ she gives emma a firm look. ] And if you try to stay up with me, I will put you to sleep, so really it's best you just go to bed of your own free will.

[ she's not against knocking a bitch out for her health, especially if emma is taking crazy. lila knows what it's like to go without sleep, she can't comprehend why anyone would do that willingly. and even though so she knows why emma is offering (wis 17), it's not an offer she is willing to take. ]

[uncurse]

[ From the inside of her shirt, Emma pulls out the charm against worker magic that Lila had given her on the way to Scotland, still unbroken. ]

I thought that’s what you gave me this for.

[ Not that she’s going to push beyond Lila declining her offer, but she does feel compelled to make the point now. And, well, thank god she was stone when her head came off so she didn't lose her sentimental jewelry. ]

[bittersweeter]

It only works once. [ her lips lift in a cheerful smile, like "so there", but really it's simply being incredibly pleased that emma... kept it. and wears it. wears it enough that it's instinctive to pull it out and use as proof. she didn't gave to think about it. ] I can just curse you twice.

[uncurse]

Isn’t there some kind of refractory period for that stuff?

[ Said like someone who has no fucking idea what she’s talking about and doesn’t pretend to. In fact, she says it akin to a child, like she’s gearing to say it’s unfair for it not to have some kind of fatigue period. ]