don't wait for a knight in shinin' armor, your savior's reflected in the mirror

[perpend]

[That sure was a fucking thing. That execution was a fucking thing. Those secrets are a fucking thing.

Cabanela retreats to his room, but not for all that long. Everyone will get a note eventually, written in very neat handwriting

I do not plan on bowing down to threats and intimidation. If you did not act, it means you were, like me, aware of the risk, but decided against it. Your reasons are entirely your own.

Join me in the dining room if you agree enough is enough, and that you won't acquiesce to threats. I don't plan to let this stop me, and neither should you.

-C

In the dining room itself, Cabanela has set up coffee and tea for those who want it-- there's no food, because to be honest, he doesn't know how to cook. Two more candles have been lit-- he wasn't really sure what to do about the whole... parasite thing... so Fern's candle will have to make due.]

Comments

[zomgboom]

Don't get pissy, Tiny Grandma. I get it, you're a whole different race from humans like I am and not the result of magic or whatever. You probably even got run off for, like, a similar reason.

I mean, the options are what? [She starts listing off things on her fingers.] "Different is bad ." "Different will definitely kill us." "Different needs to be eradicated, reason unspecified." "Different is superior so we're going to kill them all to make ourselves feel better."

Any of those ringing a bell?

[matchbreaker]

... All of the above, but throw their God into the mix too.

[ In spite of herself, maybe because of the absurdity with which Tabby says anything though, she laughs. ]

cw: child abuse

[zomgboom]

That was my dad's favorite. [Her accent gets way more southern.] "The power of the Devil lives within ya and there ain't no thang to do about it but beat it out, Tabitha."

. . . Sometimes I regret, like, making up with him.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . She didn't want to hear that. She didn't want to hear that and sympathize more with the girl. She exhales through her teeth, correcting herself, but ... ultimately she considers reaching out to touch Tabby and thinking better of it, her hand falling back to herself. ]

... I would too, honestly. That's something no one should suffer.

[zomgboom]

It happened a long time ago. [She sounds a lot less flippant than she normally does. Tabby doesn't think about the past much for a wild cornucopia of reasons.] I'm not, like, torn up about it or anything - hope dad's proud I grew up to be a terrorist.

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda nods, somewhat solemnly. She... considers saying more, but thinks better of it with a soft exhale. ]

... That's the long and short of mine. Two hundred years ago, the church finally got the locations of most of the vampire manors in Europe, and we were forced to flee across the sea - those of us who survived. I've never seen my homeland since.

I can answer whatever else you'd know.

[zomgboom]

I mean. I feel like I should answer a question before I ask you anything else. You probably don't give a , but it's only fair and stuff - it doesn't have to be about that [She gestures at the wall without looking at it.] if that's not what you wanna talk about. I'll answer whatever.

[matchbreaker]

... What even is a mutant. You know, other than your people.

[zomgboom]

We're, like, a mutated off-shoot of humanity that has this extra gene or whatever called the X-Gene and it, like, manifests differently in everyone. I got explodey powers, but some of my friends have, like, wings or laser eyes.

[And some of them have dubiously-defined superpowers like "I dunno, it's chaos magic."]

. . . Basically we're humans who have, like, biological superpowers instead of getting them from aliens or radiation or whatever.

[matchbreaker]

... Like full on transforming hero stuff, just natural?

[ what. Err- her cheeks color and then she looks sheepish. ]

Wait, sorry, that's insulting for your people.