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 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..."

[hollow_moon]

"I'm serious," Val said, chuckling a bit and wincing as he lowered himself back into his seat. "That's not a pickup line- Well, not unless you want it to be," he teased.

[akatawitch]

"... No." No, Sunny did not.

"But I'll be in touch. Get some rest, you idiot." And with that, she put her purse back over her shoulder and left.