Gathering Post - London Calling

[londoncallingmods]

The world at large seemed heavier this week, bad news from across the pond drifting over like a bad storm and raining down on the city. Still, stiff upper lip and all that. If London had stopped every time things had seemed bleak, it would have fallen long ago.

And so life went on, as it must. 

The skies were a bit grey and the streets slightly damp, but the Christmas lights were coming on early this year, and Harrods already had the streets lit up with wonder and sparkle. Cafes and bars followed suit, and twinkling lights were everywhere you looked, casting a much needed bit of whimsy and wonder over the stark looking faces that passed by. It was hard to stay grim when children and adults alike seemed so entranced by it all.

There were plenty of events going on as well. From the Lord Mayor's Show or the Dulwich Christmas Bazaar, to the usual concerts, festivities, and even bowling. 

London may have looked a bit foggy and miserable, but there was pleanty of joy to be found for those who went looking.

(Gathering post! Just a nice mellow post to combat those post election blues, and balance out the drama from Halloween. As always, this post will be open for at least a week, so tag in and check back often to tag others. <3)

Comments

[akatawitch]

Stiff upper lip really wasn't something England has passed along to her former colonies, though.

Sunny had moved through the past days as if in a fog. Of course she knew the possibility that the country of her birth would do something this stupid, she knew all too well the kind of racism and xenophobia that was hiding under the messages of equality and liberty and opportunity for all. But it was one thing to know it was there, and another to see it justified in the culture by electing an unstable blowhard of a manchild.

Her free time had been spent all on the phone. She'd talked to Sasha all through election coverage, and they'd ranted at each other as the votes kept piling up. They'd cried when they knew. She'd called her brothers, and even though they'd tried to do the big brother thing and assure her they'd be okay, they were worried. Because of their color. Because of their immigrant status. She'd called Aunt Chinwe, and while Aunt Chinwe had tried to be the older, more stable presence in the conversation, the truth was that Sunny was an adult now and didn't need that kind of protection. So Sunny had listened to her aunt break down over what this might mean for her sons.

By Saturday, Sunny had though she was well and truly out of tears. She was trying to go about her day, trying to enjoy her book with a cup of tea in a cafe already ready for Christmas.

As it turned out, she wasn't out of tears at all. And more out of attempt to keep the noise down than keep her outburst discreet, she put her head down in her arms on the table and sobbed.

[callmevod]

Part of Vod's life, sadly, was occurring well before bar hours. He stayed up late, certainly, but he still had awkward moments where he was awake.

However, discovering cafe's was sort of neat, considering that Vod had realized that he'd never really given coffee or tea a try. He'd liked the former and wasn't so fond of the latter, but at the very least, he'd discovered the wonderful world of pastries.

Holding a cup of black coffee in one hand and a plate bearing a pair of chocolate chip scones in the other, Vod couldn't help but notice, even with his ears beneath his knit cap, a woman's sob. He glanced sharply in that direction, and saw the lady with her head down.

All of this, he supposed, had to do with the strange, loud orange man from the country they called 'America,' who seemed, from Vod's eyes, to be a massive cunt.

"Pardon," Vod said, finding himself at her table, standing next to the chair across her table. "This seat taken?" he asked.

[akatawitch]

Sunny lifted her head. Her eyes had gone red and so had her face, cheeks streaked with tears.

She sat up quickly, suddenly ashamed of herself, and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, sniffling hard. "No, no it isn't."

[callmevod]

"Good to know," he said, gently, as he sat down, settling his plate down in between them. "Scone?" he asked, a bit awkwardly. Man, Vod was starting to realize just how long it had been since he'd actually helped someone handle feelings. He used to be an old hand at faking it, and somewhere along the way he grew a heart himself and got decent at actually dealing with it and empathizing.

And now here he was, trying to console a stranger who was sad for some reason unknown to him. Stranded on an alien world, possibly back in time.

Life was really freaking weird, sometimes.

[akatawitch]

"Um." Sunny sniffled a second time as her fuzzy brain tried to process what was actually a very simple question. "Sure, if you really don't mind sharing."

[nirav]

Nirav remembered the woman, she'd been less than pleasant when they'd met. Enough so that he nearly didn't make his way over when he could see she was beginning to sob. ...He could feel that pain though, the ache echoing inside of him. A kind of empathy he couldn't control, born from a kind of magic that was in his blood.

He hesitated, then took his coffee and moved to stand beside her. He wanted to touch her, to reassure her that whatever was wrong could be righted- But instead he quietly sat down across from her.

"You look pained," he said gently.

[akatawitch]

Sunny was usually very good at detecting people in her space. It was part of self-preservation. She had to know when people who might hurt her were close by, and had had to know since she was very small. But now, either she was so distracted or he had so quiet a presence that she didn't know he was there until he'd spoken.

Her head snapped up, her eyes and face red and her nose running. It was not in the slightest a dignified look. She tried to wipe her face with her hand, ashamed that she'd let herself go so far.

[nirav]

"I didn't mean to startle you," he said, reaching into his pocket and producing a half empty pack of tissues.

"Here," he said gently, holding the pack out in offering.

[akatawitch]

Sunny hesitated a moment before taking the offered tissues and croaking a quiet "thank you." She wiped her face and dabbed her eyes, hoping she wouldn't have to blow her nose as well.

[whispersoflove]

Anael was walking by when the flavour of love laced through the panic and despair halted him in his steps, and he looked over to find a familiar someone burying her tears in her arms inside the café. He had made no conscious decision to go to her that he was already inside, walking up to her table, and he pulled a chair beside her and took a seat, gently saying her name, "Sunny?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny started, not registering until she spoke that anyone had approached her at all. She turned her face up--red and puffy-eyed--to look at Anael before sniffling loudly and trying to wipe her face with the back of one hand. "Hi," she croaked.

[whispersoflove]

"Would you like a hug?" Anael offered, nothing but concern painted on his features.

[akatawitch]

Sunny's chin wobbled as she nodded her answer, not quite able to trust her voice enough to reply in words.

[harrowgate]

Felix was actually somewhat obligated to attend the Lord Mayor's procession, due to his place on the Curia, the governing council of the Cabaline order. The pageantry was not merely a celebration of the city's new mayor, nor a mere panem et circenses for the public. Oaths of office were being sworn, amid a carefully-orchestrated mechanism of people, streets, and waterways. Of course the Mirador was involved. The Mirador had invented this.

The wizards of the Mirador had an excellent view of the procession, of course, though Felix made excuses to forego a riverside seat in favor of observing the street procession from a heated window near the Royal Courts.

Afterward, still dressed impeccably in his blue and gray suit with violet details, and his full set of silver and moonstone rings, Felix had a more important duty to perform. His place in the yearly ritual this year was at the corner of a park, where he would invoke the sealing magic, along with other strategically-placed members of his order, that they renewed every year. Perhaps it did not protect London from every possible magic incursion, but for 800 years, the city had not been devoured by bloodthirsty warlocks or creatures even more terrible and inexplicable, so clearly they were doing something right.

For the three years he'd been doing this, Felix remained relieved that Cabaline magic simply looked like loitering, and perhaps praying, to the casual observer -- even though most casual observers were fooled by the subtle don't-look-here spell that he cast before he began his part in the ritual.

Relieved of duty at last in the early afternoon, Felix broke away from the Mirador's staff that had been discreetly trailing him, and headed out into the streets for a refreshing walk, and perhaps a bracing cup of tea.

((OOC: Find Felix either doing his magic thing in the park, or wandering the city afterward. The magic-sensitive are sure to notice something afoot!))

[hollow_moon]

Val had only returned to London that morning, and he was looking a bit rough around the edges. His hair was on end, and his eyes looked slightly wild as he wove through the crowd.

He was nearly out of the thick of the celebration when the wolf started to growl. There was something near, something magic, something it wanted. He'd spent the last few weeks allowing it to do as it pleased, roaming wild in the woods of Germany. Hunting, prowling, fighting. So it was far too easy to surrender to its curiosity and sniff out the source of the power.

Eyes fixed on the red haired Wizard, Val lingered nearby, watching.

[harrowgate]

The magic that the Cabal undertook today did not require a great length of time, only privacy and concentration. The former was provided by the look-away spell cast on the area, but the latter had to come from Felix himself. While he was feeding his power into the pattern that long-dead Cabalines had established hundreds of years ago, Felix had very little awareness of the world around him.

The pattern the Cabal fed ran city-wide, but Felix's place in it was central. He could expend more power without undue effect than any of the rest of the Curia. While he was working, the magic lit up his little corner of the park like fireworks.

After fifteen minutes or so, Felix opened his eyes, and the outflow of magic settled and quieted into a low hum. The first thing he saw when he returned to reality were intense dark eyes in a gorgeous, wolf-like face that he knew he recognized.

"... Valentine?"

[hollow_moon]

"Felix," Val replied as he moved closer, voice low with a hint of a rumble to it. "You seem... Busy."

[jannikarr_mahliah]

Mahliah stood on the sidewalk shivering, with her nose practically pressed to the glass door of the chippy. Despite the woolen hat pulled down over her ears and the randomly chosen layers of Vod's dirty laundry she was wearing, the Terran climate was getting to her badly. Right now, though, she hardly noticed; rather, the delectable scent of food was holding her in place and rumbling her empty stomach.

For the first time since arriving in the past, Mahliah had woken to find Vod gone. Shortly thereafter she had found out that there was no food in the house, unless you counted whiskey. Considering herself a smart and capable woman, she had set out in search of food.

First she had found a purveyor of bread, but he had shouted her out of his shop when she tried to pay with her credit chit--nothing helpful, either, just some disparaging remarks speculating that Mahliah didn't have a home and a suggestion she go back to something called a science fiction convention.

This time, she was studying the humans carefully first. One by one they took their turn at the counter. Some of them presented a rectangle to a person behind said counter, and some of them handed him some small items of paper and metal. In exchange, each seemed to receive a bag of food.

[pixiesweat]

Manuel was walking past, but the lady practically glued to the shop door caught his eye and he stopped. He had a flat now, thanks to the local faerie prince, but he'd spent years living penniless on the streets and had an inkling of what might be the problem.

"Uh," he said, to get her attention. "Ma'am?"

[jannikarr_mahliah]

Mahliah turned slowly toward the speaker. She had felt so alone in this city of aliens that it hadn't occured to her that someone would notice her less than dignified display. "Yes?" she answered. "I am a ma'am." Unsure of herself, she took a stony tone hoping to come of as neutrally and politely answering the question. Her accent was not familiar.

[pixiesweat]

"Do you need money?" he asked. Her odd behaviour already had him suspecting she wasn't human, though he was thinking some sort of supernatural creature. As far as he knew, aliens didn't exist.

OTA

[leloupnoir]

The week had not been an easy one for Akeem. There had been the news from America, and then each day that brought him closer to the super moon made the wolf side of him reckless. He had gone for a run in the countryside every other night, but it only seemed to ease the restlessness in him for a few hours before it came back, gnawing at him. Keeping a hold on his temper was difficult, but he made it a point to.

He closed up early that Saturday, unable to face any more customers, but started uncharacteristically swearing when the lock out front refused to behave. "Bloody stupid lock, would you just - bugger!" He pulled the key out, took a few seconds to breathe in and out, then gave it another, much calmer try, and finally managed to lock up.

He turned to step away, a little sharply, and collided into someone. "Will you watch where you're bloody -" he started to say, aggressively, but cut himself off and took a breath. "I'm sorry. It was my fault."

Re: OTA

[jannikarr_mahliah]

By instinct, Mahtiah fell back in to an aggressive stance. Being unused to ancient Terran culture, she wasn't aware that she was dressed like a bag lady. She had simply put on as much clothing as she could to combat the cruel frigid climate of Terra prime.

[leloupnoir]

Akeem might do his best at anaesthesising his sense of smell by smoking, but some things were impossible not to notice for him, even like that. Like the fact that this apparently homeless lady wasn't human. In fact, she smelled a lot like cat, only... not. The wolf in him grew immediately wary, especially given her stance, but Akeem forced himself to tamp down those instincts and repeat, as placating as he could, "It was my fault."

[jannikarr_mahliah]

"It was," she agreed in a warm but unplacable accent. She was very cautious in her tone. Mahliah felt like every moment on Terra was like walking on the edge of a knife. There was no telling what might give offense, or what an offended Terran might do. She'd had little enough contact with them in her own time. These primitives were completely unpredictable. This one smelled different from the others, but that didn't alarm her. There could be whole continents of Terran who smelled a bit canid.