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Who: IT'S A GAME MINGLE GET IN THE VAN
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: All of it!
When: Second half of the month.

[hey everyone! how's it been going? how's medieval-fun-time-world treating you? anyone pillaged and burned anything yet? got kicked out of the castle? been planning expeditions? registered for jousting? busy angsting for the last two weeks on your ship?

this is a mingle for everybody, whether they're hiding in the volcano, out and about in the city, or up on one of those random random stations where you can get quirky souvenirs.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Manolo has been trained to use swords since he was nine, the slender double estocadas of his profession. He got good at wielding them, his father made sure he had no choice in the matter. He's never especially liked them, though. They were too much a symbol of killing for him. He's a little glad to be relived of them for the time being.

Still, occasionally he'll wander to the training yard to watch the others work, and is glad to recognise Tay there. He gives her a little wave, and goes to lean on a post to watch her train. ]

[ Tay finishes a bout and sees Manolo waving, and in a rush of endorphins, actually grins at him and waves back.

Clearly the way to get her to lighten up is to let her fight people. ]

Yo, Zorro! You wanna give it a go?

Manolo.

And no, I don't use swords unless I absolute have to. Life or death. Your form is good, though.

[ One day she'll use your actual name. She's well aware of what it is, after all.

But today is apparently not that day. ]

Fair 'nuff, though you're gonna get outta practice if you do that.

[ She sheathes her sword, accepts a ladle of water from somebody with a bucket, then trots off the yard over to Manolo. She doesn't respond to the compliment directly, but... let's be real, it pleases her to hear, and she's not as good at hiding that as she'd like to think. ]

Swordwork isn't really my strong suit, but I probably should try to stay in practice, y'know? Never know when I might need it.

You enjoyin' the town?

[That will be a good day!]

I'll just have to take that chance.

[He nods, excited. ]

It's amazing! I've never seen anything like it. As a first trip away from home, it's pretty amazing. [Hsi smile drops, a fraction. ] I just wish we could help them, the people here, I mean. Being made to believe the world is something it isn't and being exploited for it.

Yeah.

[ Tay looks... not exactly upset or uncomfortable, but like something she doesn't quite like occurred to her. In some ways, she feels like her family is kind of the same way. She's just not sure if anyone is left doing the exploiting at this point.

She doesn't say anything, though, just rolls her shoulders a bit. ]

Hey, you want to get out of here? Out of the city, I mean. There's some nice views and shit, and a lot less noise, and you can't smell horse shit everywhere.

[He brightens at the suggestion. He's always felt jealous, that María and Joaquín could go travelling, see what they wanted to see, while he was trapped in the one place. The chance to see these worlds now, is too good to miss. ]

Sure, the only place I've been outside the city so far is the tomb. Everything else is brand new.

[ Tay grins a little and heads towards the nearest gate, trying to make sure she doesn't walk too fast - even for a guy Manolo's size, her long legs make her pretty damn hard to keep up with sometimes. ]

How was it, any interesting ghosts or monsters?

[He settles into an easy walk beside her. At least he's used to keeping up with stupidly tall Joaquín. He shakes his head, disappointed.]

It's all fake. There's no real ghosts or monsters there.

Aw, really? That sucks, I was hoping I'd get to go monster hunting or something.

[ She sighs deeply, then glances at him out of the corner of her eye ]

Soooo, what you wanted to see ghosts? Or were just hoping to see something cool and supernatural?

If I could find some actual dead people, I might have been able to get a message to someone back home.

[He gives a shrug.]

She is a death god. It might not have worked, I don't know how far her reach goes, but it would have been nice to be able to give it a shot.

Oh. That sucks.

[ Wait, hold up ]

You're friends with a death god?

[ her estimation of how badass you are just like ROCKETED up, Manolo. ]

[He wishes it was that cool. Unfortunately it's made his life a misery. No one wants gods meddling in their lives, death or otherwise. They screw everything up. ]

Her name is La Muerte. She and her husband decided to have a bet involving me and my best friends. It ended up being a big mess, but I was the one she chose to represent her in the bargain.

[He'd say he felt like a pawn, but La Muerte isn't like that. She seemed to genuinely care for his plight in a way Xibalba never did. Xibalba sees humanity as pawns, La Muerte...she at least tries to be different. ]

Yeah, well I mean, super old super powerful magical beings can be shitheads like that. I've had faeries out for me before, they're complete pricks most of the time. All "ooo, we're better than you" and fucking with your brain. Blech.

[ They reach the gate and Tay speeds up a little to trot through - she likes this planet because she fits in relatively well, but she always does like having space to stretch - both figuratively and literally ]

Okay, let's see, it was... this way, I think!

Yes. [Is that a touch of irritation in his voice? ] Her husband is a sore loser. He's the one that made it the mess it became.

[Seriously. Fuck you, Xibalba. He nods, following. ]

Fucked up, man. At least while you're here you can have a break from it, though, right?

[ They pass through some trees and get to the top of a hill that's out of sight of the walls, that has a pretty nice view of the land. Tay flops all but bonelessly to the grass, letting out a small sigh of relief ]

Hail Mary, full of grace, for places that don't smell like shit and pigs.

True, but I'd rather be home, keeping my friends safe.

[He'll chuckle sitting down. ]

You can say that again.

Point. My sister--

[ Tay cuts herself off. No, she's not ready to tell anyone here about Nate after all. Even if they're always disagreeing and Tay is nothing like her... Well, deep down, she loves having a sister. Not a cousin, not someone who helped raise her, not someone who was a good perfect Barnam, but a sister who was a family fuck-up like she is, albeit in different ways.

Buuuut actually admitting to that? Not quite ready yet. ]

Anyway. It's nice out here. [ she hesitates for a second, then adds ] Hey, uh... I'm gonna do something, but you're not allowed to freak out about it, okay? I mean, if you're inclined to freak out. About stuff.

[He's about to ask abut her sister, but the rest of that is...a little concerning. What the heck is she even going to do. He chuckles, albeit a little nervously, shrugging. ]

I don't freak out about much any more. It takes a lot, recently.

[What with the DEATH GODS and BULL GHOSTS and everything. ]

Heh, fair enough.

[ She rolls her shoulders again, and doesn't move. If he weren't watching, he might not even notice anything was happening at first.

But as it is, he probably is watching, as large feathered wings seem to unfold out of nowhere. They don't rip her clothes, since the ratty stuff she's wearing is holographic and the tank top she's wearing was meant to accommodate them, but they couldn't possibly have been hiding underneath anything as they seem, as she stretches them out, to span at least 20 feet from tip to tip.

Once they're spread and stretched, Tay sighs a little, because letting them out feels so good, and pointedly doesn't check on how Manolo's reacting. ]

Fuck, I hate keeping those hidden for too long.

[He watches, a mixture of curiosity and cautiousness. The last person he saw with a giant wingspan kind of ruined everything for him, but she clearly isn't Xiblabla. His eyes widen, a fraction. ]

...Are you an angel?

[She's not a death god, so that's the next obvious conclusion for the little Catholic boy. ]

Yeah.

[ Okay it's probably not the right answer but TECHNICALLY the Church and the Pope dubbed them Angels so long ago that only one surviving angel remembers those days. So it's accurate. Sort of. ]

Not like. Sent from God or anything though. I was born in Boston.

[Well. That's...yep. He's not sure how to react to this, so he settles for what he's sure Father Domingo would have expected of him, and carefully crosses himself. ]

I wasn't aware they were making you over the border.

[Ahha, trying to joke. ]

[ Oh, fuck, she's already screwed up explaining this, hasn't she? She laughs a little, eyes still closed. ]

Nah, it's not like that, it's just what people call us. 'Cause of the wings, mostly, I think.

It's more--

[ And this is when she makes the mistake of actually looking at him.

The thing is, her family? All Archangels. What that get with that package is the compulsion to hunt and kill monsters and (particularly) demons. She? She might act like an archangel more often than she doesn't, but she's not. She's a Guardian, and what that means is...

Well.

She protects someone. She thought she'd be okay - the augment would fuck with it, or it had to be in her universe, or even "there's not enough people on the fleet there's NO WAY one of them would be right". And it couldn't be anyone she's already met, because it's supposed to happen right when you meet them. And anyway, most Guardians don't bond with anyone for at least a couple decades after their wings come in. It hasn't even been two years for her. She was off scott free, for the time being.

Except the minute she looks over and meets Manolo's eyes, it's like an electric jolt through her brain, and she just knows. She knows that he's the one, and she can already feel him on the edges of senses she never knew she had, and it is so unfair because of course the augment would fuck with whatever magic made Guardians tick, but only until her wings came out and upped the magic running through her.

The slightly stunned and horrified expression on her face, and the sudden silence while this all processes, is probably not the most comforting thing in the world. Whoops? ]

Fuck. Fuuuuuck fuck fuck, NO. I refuse. No.

[This is a rather sudden sudden turn for her, and the worry is instantly there. He glances around him, trying to find what could possibly be making her so panicked. ]

Tay? What's wrong?

in town

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