The Knights Next Door

[Wyndlerunner]

James turned and watched the voidbringer leave the yard. I hope we just made the right choice he thought to himself, as he turned back to Shana. "Sure, let's go back inside." he said, with his usual smile. He began walking back towards the house, and gave Shana a discreet gesture to follow him. Rob worries me, he thought, the way he's acting is... off, somehow. The Nightwatcher sighed, but said nothing.

***

Despite her usual snarky demeanor, The Nightwatcher really did like James, and it worried her whenever he seemed troubled about his housemates. No, she corrected herself, not just his housemates, they're practically his family

Edited July 20, 2020 by Wyndlerunner

[Eluvianii]

Quote

I'm still figuring out a way to escape the Laundry Limbo.

 

[+Sorana]

14 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

I'm still figuring out a way to escape the Laundry Limbo.

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You could turn off the music and leave the laundry to its long and tedious process of drying....

 

[Lunamor]

Meanwhile, Glint zoomed up to Mahad, flashing like a disco ball. 
“Catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat!!!”
@Sorana

[Wyndlerunner]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:53 AM, Wyndlerunner said:

James turned and watched the voidbringer leave the yard. I hope we just made the right choice he thought to himself, as he turned back to Shana. "Sure, let's go back inside." he said, with his usual smile. He began walking back towards the house, and gave Shana a discreet gesture to follow him. Rob worries me, he thought, the way he's acting is... off, somehow. The Nightwatcher sighed, but said nothing.

***

Despite her usual snarky demeanor, The Nightwatcher really did like James, and it worried her whenever he seemed troubled about his housemates. No, she corrected herself, not just his housemates, they're practically his family

@Sorana

[+Sorana]

57 minutes ago, Wyndlerunner said:

@Sorana

Quote

Soooorry... completely missed it.

"Yes." Shana slowly turned around and followed him inside. "Living room?" she asked feeling tired and burnt out after the day. It was cool inside, the familiar noises of so many living together enveloping her immediatly. It was nice to be home. She swallowed at the thought that their enemies knew that they lived here, that they knew exactly when and how to attack. Maybe they should consider moving.

Or finally start installing all the surveillance instruments she and Rob had talked about.

Wordlessly she sat down on the sofa and waited for the others to join her. They would have questions, lots of questions. Better to answer them first and then get to work.

[Lunamor]

On 7/22/2020 at 11:32 PM, Lunamor said:

Meanwhile, Glint zoomed up to Mahad, flashing like a disco ball. 
“Catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcat!!!”
@Sorana

Glint poked Mahad again, whispering "Kiiitttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyy," while making a sound eerily close to purring.

-------------------------------

On 7/26/2020 at 11:20 PM, Sorana said:

"Yes." Shana slowly turned around and followed him inside. "Living room?" she asked feeling tired and burnt out after the day. It was cool inside, the familiar noises of so many living together enveloping her immediatly. It was nice to be home. She swallowed at the thought that their enemies knew that they lived here, that they knew exactly when and how to attack. Maybe they should consider moving.

Or finally start installing all the surveillance instruments she and Rob had talked about.

Wordlessly she sat down on the sofa and waited for the others to join her. They would have questions, lots of questions. Better to answer them first and then get to work.

Ben materialized out of nowhere scooted next to Shana.

"Hey. How'd it go?"

She looked worn out, kinda broken, almost. He worried that something had gone wrong with the prisoner they'd captured- had he hurt her or something? He placed his hand on hers and made sure she was ok with his healing, just in case. Shana, in all her amazing bravery and strength, wasn't too fond of revealing when she was injured. Not the best situation for a healer, but he understood. He'd probably act the same way in her shoes.

Quote

I'm gonna give him/everyone convenient amnesia about Ben being at the prisoner's release 

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by Lunamor

[+Sorana]

2 minutes ago, Lunamor said:

Glint poked Mahad again, whispering "Kiiitttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyy," while making a sound eerily close to purring.

Mahad jerked up, ripped out of his writer's forgetfullness. "Krahh?" he answered, trying to imitate a bird, but failing. Imitating sounds definitely wasn't his strength. "Wanna play?" he asked and touched his nose to Glints form.

============

"I'm fine." Shana smiled at him gratefully and closed her fingers around his. "Just tired, trying to digest the day." She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'll tell you once James is here. Then we can discuss it all together."

Bitting on her lower lip she nearly immediatly moved again turned to be able to look at him. "Do you think it was wrong to let him go?"

 

[Lunamor]

On 7/26/2020 at 11:41 PM, Sorana said:

Mahad jerked up, ripped out of his writer's forgetfullness. "Krahh?" he answered, trying to imitate a bird, but failing. Imitating sounds definitely wasn't his strength. "Wanna play?" he asked and touched his nose to Glints form.

============

"I'm fine." Shana smiled at him gratefully and closed her fingers around his. "Just tired, trying to digest the day." She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'll tell you once James is here. Then we can discuss it all together."

Bitting on her lower lip she nearly immediatly moved again turned to be able to look at him. "Do you think it was wrong to let him go?"

 

"I wanna cat. I saw one playing with Rob earlier. I wanna ride it around and become a dragon rider, but with cats. I'm gonna call it 'Feliciaiana the Heartless and Incredibly Ruthless Destroyer of Smudgy Pencil Erasers'. Fred for short." Glint pulsed excitedly. "You can be my co-captain!"

---------------------------------

Ben stared at her hand in his for a moment.

"No. No, it wasn't wrong. I-" he shivered, remembering memories that he'd rather be able to forget. Prom night. Shadows in the dark. His blood on the ground. They'd only been captured for, what, an hour or so? But he almost died. He almost got Shana killed because he was just so useless.

"I don't want us to become like them. When they captured us, what they made us go through... I never want to do that to somebody, Voidbringer or not. If we were to hurt him, or even just hold him here, we would do exactly what we're fighting to prevent. Once we repeat their actions, we're basically on their side."

He stopped, worried that if he were to talk more, his voice would crack. He didn't think that was what Shana needed right now. She needed support, someone strong. He wasn't exactly too strong right now, but he could try his best.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Lunamor
Started vs stared is my greatest enemy

[AonEne]

Quote

Leona’s still in here, right? 

Cassie followed them into the house, then - noticing that Shana and Ben were holding hands on the couch - headed into the kitchen. @Bookish Ocelot 

[+Sorana]

On 27.7.2020 at 8:56 AM, Lunamor said:

"I wanna cat. I saw one playing with Rob earlier. I wanna ride it around and become a dragon rider, but with cats. I'm gonna call it 'Feliciaiana the Heartless and Incredibly Ruthless Destroyer of Smudgy Pencil Erasers'. Fred for short." Glint pulsed excitedly. "You can be my co-captain!"

Maha flew in a tight circle and then nodded. "I saw it too." he agreed and shaped his body like a cat's. "Let's go and take a look, it has to be somewhere." Withouth waiting for a reply he flew off, moving the legs to appear running through the air.

=========

Shana nodded, her grip around his fingers tightening. "That was exactly what I'd thought." she agreed and gently brushed her thumb over the skin of his hand. "He as an individual hasn't hurt us, so I saw no sense to -" she fell silent didn't finish her sentence loudly. Ben would know what she had been about to say. "Journey before destination." she said instead and smiled at him, moving close. "I am fine to do things I never thought I ever would, if it means protecting, if I can take that burden instead of someone else taking up on it. I am fine to be our first line of defense, to move in quickly, with fire and fury around me. But -" she hesitated again, tried to come up with the right words, "It has to be just in some way? It has to be the right way to go and I felt, I just felt as if mercy would be better than simply going on."

Closing her eyes for a moment she sighed. "And here I am trying to argue for a decision you already told me you support. And I'm glad you do." swallowing her voice grew quieter. "James and Rob, the way they looked at me, as if I was a Voidbringer myself, just for letting him go. As if I singlehandely started killing off our own people."

[Lunamor]

Glint raced off after him, doing his best impression of a very round cat. “I bet he’s looking for birds too!”

———————

Ben bristled on the inside at the last thing she said. So that was why she seemed broken. He wanted to be angry, but they probably hadn’t meant to hurt her. They were just concerned for the well-being of everyone.
“James and Rob have good intentions. They are good people. But they don’t know what it’s like to be held captive. To have your life bleed out of you like motes of dust your hands just can’t grasp, to watch someone you love with a knife pressed to their throat and praying it doesn’t draw blood, to know that there is nothing you can do but try to futilely hold onto a hope that dissolves in your hands, to feel utterly and completely helpless...”

He stopped himself, taking a deep breath and wrapping his arm around Shana. They were both still here, still ok.

”Having mercy is the opposite of bringing death. It’s what makes us the good guys. We can’t lose that. Life before death. It doesn’t matter who the life belongs to.”

His voice was almost a whisper, laced with a quiet intensity.

@Sorana

Quote

I’ve decided to give Ben more trauma over prom night because

A. Dude almost died

B. Angst  

 

[+Sorana]

"Do you think so?" Mahad didn't stop. "Stupid cat, it will never learn how to fly." he flew in a happy circle and then hovered in the hallway in the first floor. There it was. The cat, rubbing it's cheeck against a wall. "What now?" he whispered to Glint as he observed the cat.

========

Wordlessly Shana turned, wrapped her arms around him. "I'm here." she whispered and looked into his eyes. "They didn't hurt me." she tightened her grip around him. "I was so afraid." she added her voice raw. "I feared they would take you somewhere, I could never reach you again, never find you again."

Falling silent she then shook her head. "Rob knows." her voice was still low, her words meant for him and not for anybody else. "I've seen it. He knows." Robs face, the father in front of him. How he'd screamed and screamed, the tears, the fire. "He knows." she repeated trying to push the picture away, "That's why I don't understand. He changed, is different than before. Angrier, or maybe scared. But he would never admit it, he's Rob." she forced a smile on her face.

@Lunamor

[Lunamor]

“We must do as he does in order to gain his trust.” Glint then proceeded to do his best impression of a very round cat repeatedly head-butting the wall. “Purr. Purr.”

============

Ben closed his eyes for a moment, focusing on Shana’s arms around him, his arm around her. She was here, she was safe. But she wasn’t right that they hadn’t hurt her. Her voice wouldn’t be filled with so much pain, they wouldn’t be having this conversation if she hadn’t been hurt. She’d been hurt on the inside, and that terrified him. That was something he couldn’t heal.

Distractedly, he focused on the rest of what she’d said. 
“Yeah. Yeah, he’s Rob. Probably just scared. I can’t blame him.” He looked her in the eyes and tried to think of some way to fix the still-bleeding wounds he saw inside them. But all he saw was the distant, blurry reflection of the gashes in his mind, tinged with green. “We all are.”

@Sorana

[Wyndlerunner]

James walked into the kitchen, overhearing the end of Ben and Shana's conversation. "I don't know." He said, with a concerned look. "It seems, different than usual." he said, "There's a hardness, and anger to Rob right now that I haven't seen in him before. He's normally so mellow." James turned and looked at Shana, "You know him best out of all of us I think." he sighed "I hate to ask anything of you, but do you think you could talk to him? Rob trusts you, and whatever he's dealing with, he doesn't have to do it alone."

@Sorana 

[Channelknight Fadran]

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It has been seventeen days since anyone posted here. Now, seeing as how I've only posted in here about three times, I'm going to do something!

Fadran goes downstairs.

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Yeah! Such excitement! Intrigue! Going downstairs! Mwahahahahaha!!!

 

[+Sorana]

Quote

uhhhh we were waiting for me.... sorry for taking that long...

Wyn, with Itiah inactive, I'm not quite sure what to do now. Of course Shana will talk to Rob, but I can't do it, as Itiah isn't around... Do you have an idea why Shana can postpone that a little? I'm stuck to be honest?

Or anybody got an idea?

@Wyndlerunner

[Lunamor]

10 hours ago, Sorana said:

@Wyndlerunner

Quote

Maybe she can want to talk to James first? She said that she wanted to talk about the Voidbringer incident with him earlier.

 

[Wyndlerunner]

4 hours ago, Lunamor said:

 

Maybe she can want to talk to James first? She said that she wanted to talk about the Voidbringer incident with him earlier.

Quote

That could work I suppose. Yeah, I'm not sure what to do about the whole Itiah being inactive at the moment thing. So yeah.

@Sorana @Lunamor

[+Sorana]

Quote

So Itiah left me a message a couple of hours ago, that he thinks he should be able to rp the whole Rob/ Shana part with me that we've planned. So I'll leave it to him to start it as Rob's still standing outside (iirc, it's been a while) and once he's back to posting here, I'll do that.

For now, great idea Luna! I'm not entirely sure what Shana wanted to talk about, but - I think I can vaguely remember.

@I think I am here.

================

"I will." Shana nodded, worry rising within her chest. She'd suspected that something was wrong with Rob, but for James to announcing it that openly suddenly changed the whole situation. If James noticed, then it had to be more than just a mood. Or maybe not. The last few days had been hard for all of them.

"Just, something else first." she looked down at her hands, then at Ben standing next to her, feeling selfish for postponing something like that. If Rob needed help, he needed it now and not when she felt like it. "The Voidbringer." She began instead mentally stomping on her guilt and pushing it deep deep down into some small corner. Rob needed help because she had -

"It's, I -" she started distracted by her own thoughts and balling her hands she took a deep breath. "Okay, so the Voidbringer. He claimed that we attack them. That we hunt them down, their innocent ones, those of them that only want to live in peace." It still sounded wrong, strange. "I know we never did that, but maybe, maybe someone else did? So far we only reacted when we were attacked, but what if he's right? What if there are some actively hunting them down, forcing them to look for our weak ones, like us, only to survive?"

@Lunamor @Wyndlerunner

[I think I am here.]

Quote

Hi! Glad to back (sorry for the absence...)

Rob stayed outside when the others went back into the house, his body still turned towards the yard, his eyes still trained on the Voidbringer’s back as the creature left. He felt chained, bound not by his oaths but by the house. By his friends. By the rules they all made for each other. Rules of engagement, whether to attack an unarmed Voidbringer or not. Because that had worked so well all the last couple hundred times the Voidbringers had attacked.

But what could you do, except let it happen? He wouldn’t fight his friends.

Why not?

Because they were his friends. And that was a part of friendship, he decided. To live with their choices, even if you didn’t agree with them, even if you despised what course of action they’d taken. To live with it, make peace and let go. Easier said than done.

The Voidbringer will kill more people, and the blood will be on your hands.

Rob knew that. He knew that, and he shoved the thoughts deep within himself to some abandoned, dark place and turned without a sound to go back into the house. The Voidbringer was leaving, that was something he couldn’t change. Idly, as he entered back into the house and the cool air-conditioning, he found himself nostalgic of when things had been simpler, when you could have a friendly spar and then eat meatballs an hour later, then talk about prom and make a shopping checklist. Simple things, human things, and yet, he relished them. It made him feel human, feel like a normal teenager, and he found that precious.

Looking around, and seeing everyone discuss things on the couch, he tried to not let emotions cloud his thought and went to fill up a glass of water in the kitchen, listening to Shana talk. She was smart, he realised. Not maths-smart, maybe, but smart nonetheless.

Edited August 21, 2020 by I think I am here.

[Wyndlerunner]

6 hours ago, Sorana said:

@I think I am here.

================

"I will." Shana nodded, worry rising within her chest. She'd suspected that something was wrong with Rob, but for James to announcing it that openly suddenly changed the whole situation. If James noticed, then it had to be more than just a mood. Or maybe not. The last few days had been hard for all of them.

"Just, something else first." she looked down at her hands, then at Ben standing next to her, feeling selfish for postponing something like that. If Rob needed help, he needed it now and not when she felt like it. "The Voidbringer." She began instead mentally stomping on her guilt and pushing it deep deep down into some small corner. Rob needed help because she had -

"It's, I -" she started distracted by her own thoughts and balling her hands she took a deep breath. "Okay, so the Voidbringer. He claimed that we attack them. That we hunt them down, their innocent ones, those of them that only want to live in peace." It still sounded wrong, strange. "I know we never did that, but maybe, maybe someone else did? So far we only reacted when we were attacked, but what if he's right? What if there are some actively hunting them down, forcing them to look for our weak ones, like us, only to survive?"

@Lunamor @Wyndlerunner

James listened intently to what Shana had to say, pausing for a moment to process the ideas. "I suppose it is a possibility." He said, thoughtfully, "I mean, it's impossible that we're the only Knights Radiant in the world, and you're right- so far we've only reacted to their attacks on us, not initiated." He moved his finger across his chin as he continued to speak. "However, it is entirely possible that other factions of Radiants do exist who have taken a more active stance against the Voidbringers than we have." He sank down onto a kitchen stool, sighing. "I suppose I could ask Doc if he knows anything about other enclaves of Radiants?"

 

[AonEne]

On 8/21/2020 at 8:18 AM, I think I am here. said:

...went to fill up a glass of water in the kitchen... 

Cassie glanced up and pushed off the counter where she’d been leaning. “Hey, Rob. You okay?” Wow, that is not a very subtle way of seeing if he’s all right, she chided herself. But they’d been worried, and she wanted to know. 

Quote

Alternatively if Itiah doesn’t feel active enough to RP this, Cassie looked up and said nothing. 

 

[I think I am here.]

1 hour ago, AonEne said:

Cassie glanced up and pushed off the counter where she’d been leaning. “Hey, Rob. You okay?” Wow, that is not a very subtle way of seeing if he’s all right, she chided herself. But they’d been worried, and she wanted to know.

Rob looked to Cassie for a moment when she spoke, then turned towards her, the glass of water in his right hand. It wasn’t everyday somebody asked if you were doing fine, and slowly, softly, he let some of his frustration go, let his expression slightly soften as he took a sip of water.

“Yeah,” he said, figuring she must have been referring to how he was outside. He almost made an excuse about how chaotic life was being, how everything recent from the flames to the dream battle to prom to picking up that black sphere had changed his world upside down. But that be admitting too much weakness. And if is father had taught him one thing, it was to not be weak.

“Just... things have been hectic. So I’m trying to push through that.” Tellingly, he glanced for a moment outside, where the Voidbringer would have already escaped, then brought his attention back to Cassie.

“You? Getting through life alright?”

[Lunamor]

Quote

*softly chanting* Best highly problematic friends, best highly problematic friends, best highly problematic friends...

“I...”

Ben shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. He knew that Shana was onto something, that was for sure. It wouldn’t really serve the Voidbringer to lie about that stuff- why did he need to justify his evil deeds to his enemies? But that wasn’t what was making him uneasy. It was that the idea of telling someone else about their suspicions seemed off. He trusted Doc, he definitely did. But he didn’t know his friends, his colleagues. They were those who would be the greatest suspects for this kind of stuff. They were also how he got his information. If they told Doc, he’d have to let slip at least a few hints to glean information. If they caught a whiff that someone was onto them, they’d hide themselves even deeper, or worse.

”I really want to tell Doc about this. Shana’s theory makes too much sense to ignore. But-“ he sighed, rubbing his forehead. Why did everything have to be so complicated? [Because your writer loves angst mwahahahaha] “But I don’t want this information to spread to too many people. I trust Doc with it, but we don’t know his associates, and I’m pretty sure at least a few of them would be involved in something like this. You’d need a sizable amount of power and influence to survive multiple direct attacks on the Voidbringers. We barely even make it through defending ourselves. And I really don’t want to anger people who are that aggressive. For Doc to help get information, he’d probably try to find it using his contacts. If we told him about this, we’d have to make sure we find our info in different ways than usual.”

@Sorana

@Wyndlerunner