felldenlogs | Court Gossip (Stars Only)

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Court Gossip (Stars Only)

WHO: Open to all members of the Court of Stars
WHAT: STAR FACTION MINGLE LOG! After the audience, it's time to compare notes! ~~and probably complain about the lack of straight forward answers, or something~~
WHERE: The castle, possibly the throne room, maybe in town? Play it as you like!
WHEN: Right after the Audience!
WARNINGS: S…wearing? Will update as needed?

"Magic."

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[Maybe the attendants just sense that vibe rolling off of him because none of them stray too close. Then again they also hadn't been bugging Sarah either so she imagined it was half vibes and half "it's late and I can't be bothered". She wondered briefly if this place was even supposed to be accessible in the evening but there too she'd never gotten kicked out so...

His amusement is so dry she could almost cut herself with it. She laughs a little, dry as well but softer and maybe a little more sardonic in nature.]

Queens. Upper Nyack isn't dramatic enough for a king.

[Not that one needs drama to have one but in her experience? Being dramatic seems to help. Not that the Emperor seemed dramatic or she imagined the Priestess but this was all for the sake of a joke.]

Mm, that didn't make much sense either. Claiming the Priestess just wanted to destroy our worlds was far too easy to do and yet not caring about this one but caring about ours doesn't make much sense either. They said this was a place of Gods as well, connected to our worlds through that. And I can believe that because those woods... there was something about them.

[Her voice trails off a little. They felt dark, deep and old, as if something stalked through it's trees and over it's ground and held domain there. It was the feeling that she really shouldn't be there and yet she couldn't help but be in awe of it too.]

They mentioned our worlds drew power from this one. If they simply leave this world to die... wouldn't our worlds follow eventually too?

[It's not that she cares deeply about this world. No, she wouldn't want to see it destroyed if she could help it but that's just the kind of person she is. In the grand scheme of things it's her world she wants to save and if it's connected to this one, well, it stands to reason it could be harmed too in just abandoning this place.

She muses a moment, turns her pen over in her hands as she studies it and says near the same thing she admitted to Lightning days ago. It's odd to say it out loud but hell, people here were from so many different places that she was pretty sure the danger in being looked at like she was crazy was minimal.]

I was fifteen the first time I ended up in another world. Or realm, whichever you want to call it. So that's where I met my first King.

Yeah, I'd say so. This all seems so crazy, y'know?

[Just so she can blend in with the crowd (said crowd only consisting of Sarah), Lisa picks up a random book off of one of the shelves before looking down at the title. The Tale of the Chivalrous Knight. Oh, a fairy tale? But all of this seems kind of like something out of a fairy tale so is it more like a nonfiction historical book? She shrugs before she takes herself over to the seat across from Sarah. She is quite comfortable in her little blanket tortilla. She'll wrap herself up in properly soon enough.]

I mean, not even that long ago I was confronting the darker side of myself and fighting demons. Now? I'm supposed to fight in a war!

[She places the heavy book on the table with a resounding bam before she lazily opens up to one of the pages. So many words. She is quite oblivious to how crazy her words may seem right now. Not everyday you hear...that. But she is too concerned about the current situation to care.]

Haime! They really expect someone like me to help? I may know how to punch and stuff but it's not enough to help win a war, you know?

[The bam is enough to rouse one of the sleepy library attendants whose more or less claimed a random dusty corner of the library to nap in. Sarah herself simply raises her brows a little, watching Lisa with the sort of quiet study she watches quite a few of her students with. She seems tired which is more than understandable alongside frustrated.

A corner of Sarah's lips quirk up just a little at that, her brows rising as well.]

I don't know, seems like knowing how to fight would be a bit step forward in winning a war. Or at least winning some of the fights during the war.

[If she's looking for drama, she just needs to head farther upstate where the Farm is. After this, it'll probably look like a sweet dream, a Mother Goose story with a chance to meet the real Mother Goose. Bigby's heard she's as friendly as her stories say she is, which is more rare than someone like Sarah would ever know or could ever understand. Maybe.

At the mention of the woods, Bigby's face darkens. That definitely has his attention, but he stays silent, almost as if drawn in on himself. If she's talking about the woods he thinks she is, he can imagine why that would be the case. There isn't merely something about them; there's something in them. Something darker and older than her, most likely him, probably everyone and thing in this world. If it really is the home of gods, there's only one place a Great Power that models itself after a wolf would want to live in. Predictably (comfortingly?) enough, it matches up with his own personal pick.

Bigby stays silent throughout the rest of Sarah's spiel, turning her question over in his head, and his lack of a reply should be one in itself. Logically, yes; that's exactly what would happen. You can see that acknowledgment in his eyes when they drift up to meet Sarah's, the subject changing once more to something a little less dire, a little more comfortable.]

... I don't know what would happen. [Because as tempting as it would be to go straight to the next topic, this one's a little too important to put off, and he can't suppress this kind of opinion for very long.] Great Powers — gods, whatever you wanna call them — don't have to draw power from any specific source like a battery, especially an entire world. At least, that's what I always thought. I'm not so sure now.

[Bigby turns the pack over in his hand, mirroring what Sarah's doing with her pen. He's met gods before. He doesn't know everything about every single world that makes up the Homelands, but he knows enough about the important ones. Shouldn't Fellden be one of them? He's trying so hard to think back on everything he's read in the Business Office in his free time, all the records and tomes and books documenting their lost worlds, but nothing's coming to mind. Zilch, zero.

A sigh finally breaks the short silence that's settled over them. Tilting the pack on its side, Bigby collects the cigarette that falls out right as he says, suddenly:]

Asshole or tyrant? [Like he's offering her a choice between peanut butter and chocolate, both things he hates with a passion. It's a very sudden, abrupt question with no context, seemingly forgotten in the moment or deemed unimportant, assumed that she'll figure out what he means.]

Edited 2019-09-07 04:30 (UTC)

[After the audience, Aqua needs just a little space. There is much to think about now, and much that she can't linger on too much right now… like the meaning of the tattoo hiding right beneath the seam of her glove.

She finds herself standing right at the same balcony she had spent the very first night at, staring down into the courtyard. There are so many questions still left, and well… some of them she might get answered when she meets with Lightning tomorrow, she hopes…

But for now, the most important thing… she stares down at the palm of her hand, her lips pressing together. The spark of magic that is Master's Defender feels so very far and yet. She can't just wait for it to recover on its own; she needs her Keyblade if she is to find and seal the Heart of Fellden.

Taking a deep breath, she stretches out her hand and tenses, teeth grinding together as she focuses… and surely, white sparkling lights start to swirl around her right hand, slowly taking shape as she hisses:]

Come on!

[And indeed, seconds later, a light noise rings over the balcony as Master Keeper falls into her palm. Aqua can't help but smile to herself as her tension drains from her shoulders and she swings her Keyblade around.

…Though, maybe she isn't as careful as she should be. After all, who knows who might suddenly appear behind her?]

[It's a good moment for silence, so she thinks. The topic is heavy and it's evident both of them have their own thoughts about it even as they share some back and forth. Particularly on the Woods. His look is dark and withdrawn and while she wants to ask what's on his mind in the moment it's much like her conversation with the drunken woman whose name she still hasn't gotten somehow.
There's little reason to pry though she does tuck it all away for the future if needed.

Besides the silence is ... nice. Comfortable. She doesn't mind it in the least anyhow and she seems perfectly willing to let it hang around for a little bit until she can stumble across something else.

In the end it's his sigh that dusts away said silence, the dry rustle of that package of cigarettes punctuating it. Then he drops his question like they've been discussing sandwich choices here and for a moment her brows perk upward in question, confused for a second. And then she snorts unabashedly, smile bright for once this evening.]

A little bit of both. [She's says the next like it pretty much explains that reply.] I think he's a fae. Or at least partly.

[Maybe? Honestly she hadn't known as a teenager what he was beyond the Goblin King and as an adult after fixing his own mess she was simply done with him and didn't bother to think on him more than needed so.]

[Space isn't the only thing Bigby needs, but it's the only thing that's easily attainable right now. And with the way he looks as he stalks through the castle, nobody seems to be in any hurry to deprive him — especially the servants, who try their hardest to not make eye contact with him as he brushes past them, clenching his hands open and closed, the gesture too deliberate and consistent to be unconscious.

The Emperor said that the only way he'd be able to get an audience with the traveler deities is if he proved himself to them in some way, and given the form they seem to be predisposed to, it's not hard to imagine what that may entail. They might not take him seriously in this shape, but if he were to approach them in a different one, one they could identify with—

Well, the odds are better then, aren't they?

Bigby raises his right hand, opens his palm as he turns it over. The bruises from his losing fight with the tree from a few days ago haven't just healed — it's like they were never there to begin with. There are faint lines in the skin around the knuckles where he'd cut himself on the bark that weren't there yesterday, and the area itself looks lightly red from all his clenching and unclenching but not swollen or discolored. He discovered this in the morning after waking up, and up until the Emperor had spoken to him, it had been the only confirmation he could get that there was still magic in him, slowly working its way back to the surface.

Slowly isn't good enough. It's not like he has time to just sit around and wait.

Taking a deep, controlled breath, Bigby closes his hand again, clenching it into a tight ball as he concentrates. What he's trying to force should come to him as smoothly and as effortlessly as flicking a switch, but it doesn't. He draws deep, trying to funnel every vestige of strength he can grasp onto into his palm, into each digit and muscle.

And, slowly but surely, it starts working. His nails tingle as they darken and lengthen into points, the hair on his palms and arms thickening. He can feel the change in his mouth as it takes root in his teeth, and he can taste it just as strongly: pine trees in the winter, warm fur, hot blood splashed over new snow. After having gone without it even for a couple of days, it's almost overwhelming to feel it again like this.

Just as he's about to take it a step further, a flash of white light shines out from the open balcony door across from him. Focus broken, hold relinquished, Bigby turns in its direction. What he sees is both expected and unexpected.

Expected because... well, isn't this the same balcony he met her at the other night? It sure looks like it. Unexpected because Aqua, for as unique a first impression as she had made, hadn't seemed quite this magical when he first met her. (Then again, neither did he.)]

Aqua?

[He's definitely staring, not in shock or disbelief, just simple surprise and a lack of knowing what to say. If he knew what he really looked like right now, he wouldn't look so mild about it.

Bigby's eyes, once a dark shade of brown, are now a bright, glowing yellow.]

Edited 2019-09-07 15:14 (UTC)

[ His gaze lifts to her ears. Is this a cat girl.

This is a cat girl. ]

It is... what do you call it...? [ A pause. ] Silver lining.

[ Silver, like her cat-ears. ]

[ It shouldn't be surprising to him that those of other worlds are gifted in the magical or arcane arts, but seeing the woman demonstrate the summoning of a-- is that a key?-- weapon right into her hand causes him to immediately step onto the balcony. ]

Ehh, that's amazing....!

[ He claps his hands together a few times, the soft sound rhythmic and seemingly carrying more than the applaud of just a single person. ] What a beautiful weapon, as well... I've never seen anything like it.

He's a right ruddy bastard, that's who he is.

[They...probably shouldn't be talking about their mutual patron like this, but that's the last thing that Crowley really cares about. He has to call it like it is, after all, and it's good that someone agrees!]

If that was supposed to give us some answers or faith in this whole stupid war thing, I think it's done the exact opposite for most people there. Not really a great way to rally your supposed troops, I mean.

If she realizes he's quiet a moment because he's observing her and her ears, then she certainly doesn't show it. The cant of her head has more to do with what he says, a thoughtful lean as she considers his words. "There is freedom in being honest with your intentions and goals, and to know where you shall not tread. My hope is only that the Emperor has no need to ask you to cross such a line." And where war is concerned, she doubts he will be spared from at least a request from the Emperor when the time comes, whatever that line may be.

But there is a strange amount of comfort in what he says next. Neria is silent and it is all too clear that the gears are turning over and over in her head.

"...Do you truly think people can change their lives around? Make one decision to put themselves back on the proper path?"

I don't believe there is a right answer, not right now, not in this moment. And at this point, I don't think a white flag will matter any more than you throwing yourself in the dirt and asking clemency. You heard the Emperor. Too many atrocities have been committed.

[ Too much has happened. Too many mistakes, too much bloodshed.

Neria watches his fist clench, watches him look as if he might jump out of his skin. Very carefully, she reaches out to touch his shoulder. ]

This is not the be-all and end-all. In this moment, we have not been asked to decide anything.

Hmm...

[ He considers this, touching his chin. ]

I think if I were going to lie about something, I'd come up with a better story.

So, what, you buy everything you've been told?

[ There's not exactly judgement in his tone, at least. ]

[The surprise that flits across Bigby's face isn't exactly pleasant, but it does chase some of the darkness away. His expression is more fitting to someone who's just been told a particularly embarrassing work story by a friend.]

So he's half asshole. Got it.

[He puts the cigarette up to his lips, scoops his lighter up and hits the wheel with his thumb. Click. The flame that bursts to life is brighter than many of the other lights around them, the candles inside almost burned down to nubs. The library is dim and shadowy, but not gloomy. It's the kind of atmosphere one could fall asleep in, though the flickering, fierce that sparks into existence might startle anyone nearby back into consciousness, and if that doesn't, the smell of cheap, bitter smoke certainly will.

Bigby drops his lighter back on the table, sits back and appraises Sarah as he takes a steady pull off his cigarette.]

Fae are all take and no give, [is what he finally says, musing and contemplative.] They don't think and feel the same way humans do; it's a completely different perspective. And the more powerful they are — and the higher their social standing is — the worse they get.

[He pauses significantly, leaning back.]

You're lucky you made it out. [He's quiet when he says that very simple sentence, but the sincerity in his voice weighs heavy.]

Edited (dialogue correction) 2019-09-08 02:21 (UTC)

[The light of the flame is more than enough to draw her glance and appropriately the look of at least one sleepy library attendant, given the stark contrast between it and the candles burned to near nubs around them. She's something of a mousy-looking woman, appropriately at home in a library but not quite so at home with playing bouncer should the need arise, and had just rounded a bookshelf when the flame sparked to life.

For a moment she looks torn between confronting the pair or just walking off. As Sarah flicks a glance over in her direction wondering what the woman might do, she ends up just sort of... walking away very quickly? Sarah wonders if this was like the other day when the thief in the street knew instantly she was a member of the Court. Maybe the attendant was just a little wary of the Otherworlders?

In the end Sarah wrinkles her nose just a little at the smell of the smoke but that's about all she does as the man himself leans back and appraises her. Sarah's decides to bear the weight of said appraisal by momentarily meeting his gaze and then letting go of a dry little chuckle in the end as he delivers his final assessment.

"You're lucky you made it out." A part of me never did. She doesn't venture down that road just yet though. He had accepted the briefest bit of the story without issue (unsurprisingly, given what bits she had heard of his talk with the Emperor) and even commiserated in a way. It figured that here in a world of magic and people from all kinds of worlds, she wouldn't have to be so tight-lipped about herself.

She leans forward to scratch a few more lines of writing on her paper as her lips curve into a faint smile. She doesn't need her reading glasses for writing thankfully and needs something to occupy her hands as much as ever while she speaks.]

Yeah, I really was. I wouldn't have if I hadn't had help. Or if I hadn't known the right words.

Edited 2019-09-08 02:42 (UTC)

[Bigby notices Sarah's eyes sliding over to the attendant before he sees her himself. His reaction is, all considered, pretty muted and polite — if you could call not making faces or glaring the height of good manners. It takes him all of three seconds to realize what the problem is, and when he does, his eyes flick down to his cigarette... before he takes another drag from it.

The way he exhales, though? Taking deliberate care to blow smoke away from the books? That actually is him being polite.

Sadly, it either doesn't count or make a big enough difference to change the woman's mind. She hurries away like someone's lit a fire under her feet, the same as every attendant Bigby has met in this castle. He's not going to pretend he doesn't understand why, but he won't pretend it's not getting discouraging either. At first, it had been convenient. Now, it just reminds him how disassociated he really is from everyone and everything here, natives and Otherworlders alike.

The silence Sarah and him fall into doesn't seem quite as comfortable anymore. Just heavy and long. It's broken by the sound of Sarah's pen scratching into her paper, drawing Bigby's attention back down to it where it holds, even as she finally speaks up.]

What were they? "Fuck you"? [His chair creaks softly as he shifts in it, the noise louder than the snorting sound he makes.] You can't get more right than that.

[Not even being sarcastic here.]

What's that?

["That" being her paper, and you know what, he's not even going to wait for a response — or maybe he doesn't know how to. Either way, he reaches for the paper to pull it over to his end of the table.]

Edited 2019-09-08 03:37 (UTC)

[She doesn't look up at the question. Instead her smile sort of grows.]

In a way. "You have no power over me." That really does sound like a fancy 'fuck you' if you think about it.

[There she stops a moment, musing a little both to him and herself:]

Then again that might have been more formality than anything. I beat his game so maybe that was all I needed to do. Huh.

[She hadn't thought on it really, given how she had pretty much forgotten the whole thing for a decade. And these last few months had been a mishmash of getting her life semi-together.

During that momentary pause of thought is when Bigby doesn't even wait for a reply to his question. He reaches for the paper, she sees movement out of the periphery of her vision and she does what she would do to anyone out of sheer base instinct -- she drops one of her hands on top of his unless he's quick about moving it of course.

It's a thoughtless gesture and once she flicks her eyes up to him with all the "what do you think you're doing?" teacher sternness, she then blinks a time or two as she rouses herself from a moment of sheer reaction. She pulls her hand away from wherever it landed, over his or on the table or just wherever and the little laugh that rises out of her is entirely, desperately sheepish.]

Sorry about that. You have a toddler around you once, you get pretty used warding off attacks.

[That's not a complete lie either, Toby loved snitching her books when she was a teenager. Either way she passes off the paper completely willingly and he'll find it's probably nothing that shocking. It's a recount of all the questions asked and all the Emperor's answers -- all paraphrased, of course. She is writing them down from memory and she's doesn't have a photographic one.]

Edited (how about we make this sound *decent* for a change? thanks, me.) 2019-09-08 04:00 (UTC)

[Bigby's reflexes are fast, but that doesn't mean they're perfect — especially when he underestimates who he's up against. He's not thinking at all when he reaches out to grab the paper, it's instinct and impulse rolled into one, which pretty much makes it a perfect match for Sarah's own thoughtless gesture. Her hand drops over his, surprisingly heavy for being so petite, and it startles Bigby into stillness. His wrist tenses as his hand freezes, laid prone against the paper, and his eyes dart up to Sarah's, looking more than a little dumbfounded as he stares down a woman who, in this light, looks a little like an angry barn owl.

And then it's over, just as quickly as it started. Sarah blinks away her displeasure and offers the most uncomfortable laugh Bigby's heard in a long time, and he's left sitting there with his lips pressed together and his ears heating up, the lines in his forehead creasing as he wonders what the hell just happened.

Now he really understands why kids hate school.

» That was weird.
» I'm not a toddler, damnit.
» Strong grip.
» ...]

Do I look like a toddler to you? [Huffy as hell with a frown to match.] It's a good thing you didn't pick up the pen, shit.

[It's okay, he's working it out of his system like a dog shakes out water from their fur. Bigby takes the paper when it's finally offered to him, more curious than ever to see what's on it, discovering that the truth isn't nearly as interesting as he thought — but still, worth looking over regardless.

When he comes to the paraphrased version of the woman named Ryne's question, he scoffs, a sharp little exhale of air that nonetheless manages to sound derisive.]

This one was such a load of shit. [He taps the sentence Sarah has written with his thumb to show her what he means: "Bring your friends to our side — I'll guarantee their safety. It's the Emperor's answer.] They're telling us everything we want to hear, anything to get us on their side, and people are falling for it.

[There's an edge creeping back into his voice, unheard since the mugging in the marketplace. He looks and sounds disgusted.]

[One would think once Sarah has let go of an uncomfortable laugh she might like any rational or normal person and be even more uncomfortable thanks to Bigby's huffy reaction, complimented by his frown. That would make sense, yes?

Naturally that's not Sarah though. She seems momentarily surprised all over again by his question, brows rising a bit -- and then she snorts. She looks off to one side quickly, bringing her formerly offending hand up to her mouth to cover the entertained grin that rises up. And maybe to stifle back the response she really does want to give to that question. Oh Sarah, that would not be a good idea right now. Goddamn it's tempting though.

Once he taps on the paper though Sarah looks back and directs her gaze down to the paper, hand still up to her mouth for a moment more. She does lower it after a moment though, having drank in those words when she heard them and now doing so again. Her expression mulls and her own tone is matter of fact.]

They are, unfortunately. You can't blame a lot of them though. If they came here like a lot of us did, thinking it was all to help their world.

[There's a touch of sadness on that last part. She can really feel for those people because... well, even she felt somewhat sad for the Emperor during their talk. Even if she equally felt hoodwinked by her well-meaning intentions delivered to a wolf and not royalty.]

Then again, there is that saying about the path to hell being paved with good intentions.

Edited 2019-09-08 05:08 (UTC)

[Aqua knows she should sleep – she hasn't done much of that in the nights since their arrival in this world. There are too many thoughts in her head, too many things that she know she must do – back home and now here.

So, she finds herself seeking out the magic section of the library yet once more; drawing out a tome on the very basics of fire magic before she steps up to one of the tables, where another night owl sits.

She nods at Sarah's note on the history; she hasn't looked into the history herself, but…]

I heard as much already… there seems to be something that they are hiding from us.

[But well, best not to linger on that for now. Especially when she can't help being curious…]

If you don't mind answering… what else have you found?

[2/10, probably – Aqua might have seen a few worse as far as the bad decision bingo goes, but well… she can't help but overhear now…]

You mean the Priestess?

[It's mostly a rhetorical question, but well, it's always best to be sure.]

Seeking her out would mean to walk right into her stronghold. I don't think that any of us are suited to take such a risk right now.

[Especially since they don't know what might await them once they enter the Moon Temple's territory.]

"We can hope that they'll see reason, but you can't rely on it. Both sides now have a fresh influx of potential soldiers. We have to be prepared for things to start up again."

He can see where the old man is coming from, and he's limited too by the Jedi Code, but everyone else isn't and he wishes they can do what might be necessary to end this if it came to it.

"The Separatists built a droid army while the Senate tried to reason with them. If we had an army from the beginning, they might have thought twice before starting a war."

[Rarely does anyone ever seem to speak with their foot out of their mouth around Bigby. At this point, he's used to it — the weird looks, the snide comments, the I'm-totally-going-to-do-this-thing-you-hate-even-though-you're-right-there gestures, everything. Still doesn't mean he likes it, though. He sneaks another blunt look at Sarah, that frown pressed so hard you'd think he was trying to will her mouth to do the same, but it passes pretty quickly when they move on to the matter at hand.

That's another thing about Bigby: his anger burns bright and simmers low, but it's pretty quick to pass unless it's really warranted.]

And then there's the one about wishing in one hand, shitting in the other, and seeing which one fills up first. [Which is just... gross, the light grimace on his face states, but that doesn't make it any less true.] Even if the Emperor isn't lying, they're going to have a hard time making good on all their promises.

[Hell, he'd be surprised if they even fulfilled one. Despite appearances, they're not all-powerful. That revelation about the wolves (if you could even call it that) proved that much.

Speaking of—

Bigby's eyes go up the list, and when they find the small paragraph designating his own questions, they stop and pensively settle for a moment. His thumb skims along the paper, over the words "war" — "What makes yours so important?" — and "home" — "So why don't you find them a different home? That's what my people did when our worlds fell." — smudging the ink as it goes.]

You heard all that, huh?

[Rhetorical question, but still.]

Not much worth note.

[It's an honest answer if a disappointing one. She casts her glance to the stacked bookshelves now, pausing in her writing to do so.]

The basic magic tomes are nice, even if it's all a little difficult to practice on your own. Otherwise though it's a lot of fairy tales and fables and books in languages I can't even begin to comprehend.

[She pauses a moment, purses her lips and gives a tiny shrug before she smiles in faint sardonic amusement.]

It's really been scrubbed clean of almost anything historical. Even the fairy tales.

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Page 3 of 7

Court Gossip (Stars Only)

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That one balcony of the castle

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