Gathering Post

[londoncallingmods]

The best thing about London was that there was always something to do, no matter what your interests were. This weekend there was a jazz festival in Bloomsbury, an ale festival that would take you through a drunken train tour of the city, an African culture festival near Covent Garden, and several movie screenings, parties, and other pockets of fun.

Tourists were flooding in from all over, and many Londoners were slipping off to, or coming back from, their latest trips to Barcelona, Paris, or Ibiza. The weather was warm, and it had been fairly dry and sunny lately- Really, it was the perfect place to be right now. ...At least that's what anyone who wasn't heading off to some tropical wonderland would tell you at least.

As day faded into evening, bars came alive and shop windows lit up, inviting in tourists and locals alike. The city buzzed well into the night, calming only briefly in the morning, before bursting back into life again.

(Have your pup be anywhere in the city you like. This GP is intended to take place over the course of Sat and Sun, but will be open all week long! Remember to add your pup's tag after you tag in!)

Comments

[akatawitch]

Sunny snorted. "I get weird looks just for having clear memories of nearly dying of malaria when I was two, I don't think my parents could take that kind of shock."

Actually, she knew they couldn't. She picked up the pastry and bit into it.

[hollow_moon]

"Most couldn't, to be honest, my father thought perhaps I should be sent away at first- He came around though, eventually. He doesn't like to talk about it, but when the wolf was just a pup, he'd sometimes stay with it all through the night," Val smiled.

[akatawitch]

The gut-punch was swift and entirely unexpected, which only made it worse.

Sunny meant it when she said she could remember that childhood illness. She remembered her mother standing over her, crying. Always crying. She remembered her brothers, too young to understand at the time, and how they had patted her cheeks and given her kisses.

Her father, though.

She knew she was just going to choke if she tried to swallow, so she put the half-eaten sweet back down.

[hollow_moon]

"Are you alright?" Val asked, his brow creasing in concern as he gestured for the waiter to bring over some water. "I'm sorry, their pastries are usually lovely."

[akatawitch]

She shook her head while she waited for the lump to at least become manageable. "No, it's very nice," Sunny assured him with a hint of an apologetic smile. "That's not it."

[hollow_moon]

The waiter brought over a bottle of sparkling water, and filled each of their glasses before leaving again.

"What is it then?" Val pressed.

[akatawitch]

Sunny took a breath, grinned, and forced her usual cavalier attitude on the subject. But her heart wasn't in it. "Oh, nothing. My dad hates me."

[hollow_moon]

"I'm sure that isn't true," Val said gently. "For what it's worth, my father- Kind as he was when I was younger- Hardly speaks to me now. I don't doubt his love though. He just doesn't know what to do with me. I'm his only child, but I'm also something he doesn't want to understand..."

He trailed off, realizing he was being unfair. Just because he felt certain his father loved him, didn't make it the same for Sunny.It was arrogant to assume he had any idea what her relationship with her father must be like, and he silenced himself quickly.

"What of your mother then? Do you get on well?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny had been hearing variations of I'm sure that isn't true pretty much all her life, and she knew people meant well when they said it. And it was true in the sense that her father wasn't the archvillain of her life or anything. Just any care he had for her was directly related to how it affected his wife, who he did love very much.

"Mama?" And just that particular title for her mother, let alone the way Sunny said it probably answered that question. "Yes. I'm her only girl." She added, gently wry to explain her earlier nagging, "She's a doctor."

Mama had been the first person to come out and tell her, 'Your father didn't want a daughter.' Sunny only loved her more for the honesty.

[hollow_moon]

"Ah, I see," Val laughed, pushing his hair back out of his face as he smiled. The gesture only served to make the short dark strands stand on end while he sipped his fizzy water. "Does she hope you'll follow in her footsteps?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny nodded, and with her lump back under control, she picked the pastry up to finish it. "She does, but she also knows that realistically she's going to have to pin that on one of my brothers. I've been on the trajectory to get a literature degree since... forever, really."

[hollow_moon]

"And what do you hope to do with that degree?" Val asked. "Do you want to teach, perhaps?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny took a moment to swallow the last bite and wipe her fingers before answering that. "Eventually," she said, "I know I want to write books. About other things I study." It was one thing to call herself a witch in a club where people were loud and drunk, but here? Only carefully.

"I'm pretty unusual, you see. My parents don't have any talent. I got it from my grandmother, but it's still a distant enough connection that I get labeled a free agent. There's only one book for kids like me. And it's discouragingly bigoted."

She shrugged. "More immediately after graduation? Don't really know yet."

[hollow_moon]

"I'd very much like to read anything you wrote. I imagine it would be terribly interesting," Val said sincerely.

[akatawitch]

"If you ever got your hands on a copy of Fast Facts for Free Agents," Sunny repled wryly, "You'd care less about interesting and more that that hateful woman shouldn't be anyone's introduction to magic, esteemed scholar or not."

[hollow_moon]

"Are you calling yourself hateful?" Val asked, looking genuinely surprised.

[akatawitch]

"Not me." Sunny shook her head, then took a glance around before clarifying. "Most Leopard People--that's how we designate ourselves in Nigeria--are born to two Leopard parents. My grandmother married a Lamb--someone without magic. Had three Lamb children. She couldn't tell any of them, and she never did. It's a safety thing, for both sides. My mother married a Lamb, had my brothers, and then I came along, and I was... different. They didn't know how exactly--" and really if Sunny thought about it that was probably really what fueled her father's dislike of her--"and they still don't, but there's something weird about me that they can't identify. It took a couple of kids in the neighborhood to finally pinpoint what I was."

She paused a moment, taking a swallow of water before continuing. "A Leopard born to Lamb parents is called a free agent. And we're kind of the scum of West African magic. They pretend we're not, but the community at large really does not care. Case in point, the only book for children in my position is one Fast Facts for Free Agents by renowned scholar Isong Abong Effiong Isong. I do need to note that the woman was well-learned and quite brilliant. But aside from the fact that after studying abroad she'd developed the notion that truly civilized ideas were being practiced in the US and Europe, she hated free agents and African Americans, of which I am definitely the first and arguably the second. But her book was all I had, because no one else has bothered writing a primer on all the things I missed not growing up with magical parents. I needed that book as much as I despised it, and if it weren't for excellent teachers and very supportive friends, I don't know if I wouldn't have just shoved the whole mess away and stopped thinking about magic altogether. The book is condescending, misleading, and honestly, it's hateful."

She shrugged. "Nobody's introduction to anything should be from someone who hates them when they haven't done anything to earn it other than be born to the wrong people. So... someday, I'm going to write a better one."

[hollow_moon]

"I think that's amazing," Val said honestly, leaning back in his seat and studying her with a faint smile. "I hope you really do it, Sunny. Truly."

[akatawitch]

Sunny smiled. "It's years away from now, though. No one would listen to what I have to say now."

[hollow_moon]

"The fact that you want to do it at all is impressive," he assured her. "Too many people fear leaving their mark on the world."

[akatawitch]

"It's a big responsibility, leaving a mark."

Sunny glanced at her phone, mouth quirking as she saw the time. "I should get going."

[hollow_moon]

"Of course, I'm sorry for keeping you so long," Val apologized, rising to say goodbye properly as he offered his hand.

He was unsteady, and in the sunlight he looked pale. However, his smile was bright and genuine.

[akatawitch]

Sunny smiled as she stood up and took his hand. She leaned in close and said in a low voice, "I don't care how big and bad you think you are, I could blow you down right now."

[hollow_moon]

"Winded, not weakened, my fair witch," he assured her, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek.

"Come see me when I'm well, hmm? I think I've something in my collection that might be more at home with you," he noted, looking thoughtful as he pulled his card from his pocket and held it out in offering.

[akatawitch]

It was stupid, but Sunny found herself turning pink at that little kiss.

She tried to look dubiously at the card, but the blush probably ruined it. "Okaaaay..."