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(no subject)

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

[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?

[ "Panic" is a genteel and probably kind way of describing her little meltdown. "pissed and cussing up a storm" is what she'd've gone with. ]

I. Hate. The universe. It finds ways to fuck with me no matter where I am! Get my wings in, end up being the exact wrong kinda angel for my stupid fucked up family, get dragged here, and NOW my stupid fucking calling decides to kick in?

[ She shoves herself to her feet with a wordless sort of rage-scream, and kicks the nearest tree.

With her heel, so she won't break any toes. The tree survives, but only because it is a large tree. ]

FUCK!

[ Okay. Breathe. Her wings are mantled and puffed up and she looks like she wants to punch something, which is what Tay does instead of crying when she's frustrated and scared and upset.

Breathe.

Manolo doesn't understand what she's talking about. ]

Sorry. [ she doesn't sound very sorry, but to be fair, she's forcing herself to calm down. ] I just-- You're fine. Everything's fucking fine.

[He stands, really worried now. Kicking a tree is never a good sign, and nothing about this is ok. Something is very, very wrong, and he really doesn't understand what she's talking about at all. ]

I hate to break it to you, but you don't look fine.

[ Tay huffs and crosses her arms ]

I'm a Guardian, right? We all have a calling, it's this magic... compulsion thingy to do certain types of things. Some angels hunt monsters, some heal, some collect information and knowledge.

Guardians guard one person. They like... bond to them, and then they're bound to that person pretty much until that person dies, and they can feel where they are and if the person's in danger and shit.

Only it's supposed to happen the first time you see someone, not fucking now.

[ She punctuates the last word with another kick at the tree.

Sorry, tree. ]

So you're a guardian angel, and you're...angry about that?

[His life might have got considerably weirder lately, but for the most part it has been pretty mundane. He has no way of preparing for anything like this. After a moment, he catches on, and his eyes widen. ]

Wait. Me?

[ And then, because she is 17 and sometimes overly melodramatic, Tay turns and flumps face-first onto the grass, her wings just kind of... sprawled awkwardly out. That is a lot of wing ]

[ muffled by ground ] I hate. Everything.

Edited 2015-03-23 22:57 (UTC)

[Manolo's not much older, but he's never really been given the chance to do the usual teenage moody thing, so it's not on his list of usual reactions. What he is concerned about is how much this is distressing her. ]

Well, is there anything I can do to make it go away for you?