open ♔ october socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, Andres Isle, etc!
WHEN || October
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.

Also, following the promotion and squiring parties at the beginning of the month, Wynn will be taking any willing Knights back to Andres Isle to further reconstruction efforts there.   There's plenty to be done - and an election to gear up for, to find out who will rule Andres Isle!

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:
Wynn & Section Heads @ Andres/London
Felicity @ the Desk
Damon @ the Desk
Gar and/or Kat @ Andres
Cordelia & Bambi @ Andres
Mark @ Andres castle, village, graveyard
Belle @ London castle
Amara @ London castle, Round Table room
Zero/Wheatley @ the Hoard labs
Cora @ the woods / Andres / London
Buffy @ Andres / London
David @ the Castle training room / Andres
Lydia @ England, the lab
Emma F @ London castle
Alanna @ Andres
Willow @ Andres/London library
Faye @ library
Abigail @ London castle/cleric wing/training room/library
Stiles @ Andres
Myri & Elena | Closed
Rose @ London / Andres
Han @ London/Andres
Carol @ Andres castle/ construction
Kenzi @ London armory / Andres throne room
Spike @ Andres
Killian @ Andres construction / London castle
Avaleen @ Andres
Thea @ castle firing range
Frankie @ Andres
Damon @ the castle
Malina @ London bday celebration / Fire wing / Gardens / TV room
Rocket @ London TV room
Jordan @ Andres
Alainn @ Andres
Glasya & Sam  | Closed
Nathan @ Andres / London training room
Astrid @ London
Alex @ London firing range, airfield
Finnick @ Various
Sylar @ London kitchen/library
Lissa @ Andres medical / London light wing, various
Hayley @ Rebekah | Closed
Glasya & Sam | Closed
Alice @ Andres/ London

Comments

[familybusiness]

Yeah, no offense, but you're not the only reason I stayed in town.

[One of them, but not the only one.]

I needed...time.

[astrayed]

I gave you a lot to wrap your pretty little head around. [ she takes another, even longer drink abruptly, before flashing him another little smile. ] No one's going to blame you for wanting to process it.

[familybusiness]

It's funny, Dean said the same thing. That he needed time.

[He drinks some more too, looking troubled.]

Now I'm the one that needs it.

[astrayed]

It's alright, Sam. [ she lays one hand on his thigh, reassuringly. ] Considering what he's doing to you, you've got no reason to feel guilty for stepping back.

[familybusiness]

Can you really blame him, though? If it's really just a matter of misunderstanding my intentions, to him he really was betrayed by his brother.

Given what I know now? He has every reason to doubt me. Nearly identical copies of siblings coming through the Veil isn't exactly common.

[astrayed]

I don't blame him for feeling hurt by it all, no. But he has a habit of jumping to think the worst, instead of ever digging further. It's like he can't turn off that black and white lens. Everything's right, or it's wrong with him.

[familybusiness]

I wasn't around to make him understand. Maybe I didn't want him to.

[It was to make his drop his quest, after all.]

Nothing is ever black and white. Even when it was a little clearer on my side of the Veil, there was always shades of gray. It's even stronger over here.

[astrayed]

It's just the way of the universe. Fighting it doesn't do anything except for make life miserable where it doesn't have to be.

[familybusiness]

It's not his fault. Dad's been drilling the 'see a monster, kill it' mantra into our heads since we were kids. Dean remembers the mother he lost to the first monster he ever ran into, the person Dad used to be.

I don't. It makes it easier, somehow.

[There's the tiniest thought in the back of his mind, one he tries to ignore. Or maybe it's the blood.]

[astrayed]

I get where it comes from. I still remember my mother, and if I had my way, the person responsible for it would be paying a lot more for it than they already are. [ she busies herself with pouring some more wine, shrugging. ] But I hold it against him. Not anyone else.

[familybusiness]

[And here he'd been kind of under the impression that maybe her mother had chosen that path, the way his other self had. Love made people do crazy things. LOOK WHO'S TALKING.]

Someone did that to her? [Concern is etched across his face.] Who?

[astrayed]

[ she looks up, as if sorting through what he's actually asking, frowning slightly. ] No one forced her to become a fiend, if that's what you think I mean.

Someone killed her.

[familybusiness]

A hunter?

[That answer is...probably laughable? But considering who he is, it's also his go-to.]

[astrayed]

[ she's not laughing, at least. ] An archdevil. One who was scheming to overthrow my father, actually.

He tried to seduce my mother into joining him, into betraying Lucifer. He'd been so confident that she wouldn't refuse, that when she did, he realized he'd have to kill her to keep her from revealing what he was up to.

[ she takes another long sip, shaking her head ] But nothing happens in Hell without my father finding out about it.

[familybusiness]

I'm...so sorry.

[It feels like both the right and the wrong thing to say. He wonders how many people really would feel anything but supposed justice over the death of something like a fiend. Dean sure as hell wouldn't.

But even in Hell, it seems like everyone matters to someone.

He picks up the wine bottle, filling hers again before he does the same for his.]

What did Lucifer do? Can you even kill something like an archdevil?

[Because clearly killing in vengeance is what everyone does.]

[astrayed]

My father could. He's the most powerful being in Hell.

But being able to, and wanting to are two different things. There are only so many angels who fell with him, Sam. No matter what each one became, they're all he has to work with. Losing any one of them would be a severe blow to our side. They all have their little alliances and motives, and the whole thing is a diplomatic nightmare in the first place.

This was the first direct transgression that had ever happened against him. He had to respond in a way that would make it clear what the consequences were, without setting the others into a conspiracy to depose him.

So he had Azrael put the archdevil in question on ice. Literally. He's frozen in a glacier, for eons now, in the heart of his layer, until Dad's satisfied.

[ another beautiful frown cuts across her features, and her bitterness is not really well masked. ] I still say the risk was worth killing him over.

[familybusiness]

Your side. You mean against the angels?

[This is part of where he gets conflicted. They're supposed to be angels, and even though there are stories of archangels and their ruthlessness, it's still supposed to be good versus evil.

Things aren't turning out that way at all, Dbut when had they ever, really? If everything in Hell was 'pure' evil, then he was already screwed. Every version of himself already belonged there.

So he chose to believe differently.]

I have to admit, I'm a little confused. I found the names of all the archdevils. Even Lucifer's name doesn't match, though I assume he and the one known as Asmodeus are essentially the same? Azrael is one of them as well?

[Moving on, though, after that.]

So, Azrael froze his layer of Hell? Which one was it?

[astrayed]

[ so many questions, sammy. ] Against heaven. Against God's philosophy, specifically. But that's a little too complex to get into over a bottle of wine on a Friday night.

As for the names: Lucifer and Azrael are their angelic names. Asmodeus and Mephistopheles are diabolic. Some archdevils prefer one to the other, and they all have reasons for maintaining more than one. Appearances are important, and so are names. [ she can be breezy about those topics but she becomes more serious again when she goes back to talking about her mother's killer ]

Azrael froze Stygia over. The fifth layer. [ a beat ] Sammael's. [ the name has a particularly acrid sound on her tongue. ]

Sammael still rules from the heart of the glacier, because he can communicate telepathically with his servants. But he can't leave. Can't move.

He's imprisoned now, in his own home.

[familybusiness]

Another time, then.

[Yeah, one thing at a time. His mind may be a sponge, but this shit is so real right now.]

Makes sense.

[In so much as any of this does. So far, though, he seems to be keeping up pretty well.]

Sammael is...Levistus, then? [He seems to nod to himself, taking another sip of his wine.] That's some pretty intense house arrest. A giant body-encompassing glacier is a little more brutal than an ankle monitor. [A beat.] Not that he doesn't deserve it, of course.

[astrayed]

[ glasya nods at sam's identification, dangling her wine glass between two fingers ] It made an effective statement, at least. No one's been so bold since.

[familybusiness]

Which certainly says something, considering the apparent time difference.

[astrayed]

It takes a lot for things to change much in Hell. Immortals don't tend towards rash, sudden actions.

A lot of times, things are the same, day in, day out, for thousands of years.

[familybusiness]

[A beat, because he's not sure he wants to know.]

So what is it like down there? I mean, it's painted as this place full of misery, suffering and torture. You make it sound...almost boring.

[astrayed]

I'm not really sure your language has apt words to describe it, Sam.

All that's there. Kind of an essential staple of every layer. But there's also plenty of us who live there. Every circle of Hell is unique, molded to fit the personality of the archdevil who rules it. And the atmosphere varies, just the same. Some are basically straight out of the darkest nightmares of your kind's subconscious fears. And some are beautiful. Darkly so, but beautiful all the same.

It can be boring, I guess, but our attention spans are different than a human's. And you have to understand that while there's plenty going on in Hell that needs attending to, everybody there is also always partly focused on what's happening here. And Earth is always changing. Always interesting.

[familybusiness]

[There is...a lot in there that is just a whole bunch of not okay. Essential staple, for one. He doesn't for a second think that most of the things down there are good, so he's not particularly surprised to hear it, but the whole inclusion of it in such an afterthought way is...jarring.

It's hard to remind himself that it's her home. That even though she's half-human...she's also very much not.

He wonders briefly if he's making a mistake, and to distract himself, he focuses on something else. Something that's probably...more painful.

Good plan, Sammy. Good plan.]

Dean was there, right? Where did he go?