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Anyone who has posted at least once in the battle ORP is invited to post here so long as they were anti-Negaverse! You may also assume that your character was present for the gratitudes. Scylla and Scholomance are available for questions.
Infinities
Making plans for this little get-together had been the opposite of easy. Scylla had spent days trying to determine how she wanted to ensure thank yous got out to everyone, hand-writing pretty thank-you notes to everyone that she had remembered, or identified out of various databases. The notes were all almost identical, but damn it all, their existence counted for something. She wasn’t sure what else she could do apart from write them; gift baskets were right out, and apart from attaching a gift card to the thank you notes, most other ideas seemed trite or downright silly, and giving a gift card just felt like paying them for their effort. Which wouldn’t go amiss, as far as thank yous went.
The gathering would be outside the city proper, after dark, and there would be no fancy catering or the like, but there would be warm beverages (thermos’ of coffee and cocoa) for any attendees. There wouldn’t be a dance floor, but there was a small boom box. And optimistically everyone would, for a few minutes, be able to breathe, mingle, and enjoy their mostly useless Thank You cards, which in its wording offered one favor from Scylla, to be redeemed at the time of the owner’s choice. It wouldn’t be a very long get-together, for fear of Negaverse retribution, but it had been determined a quick meeting might be easiest regardless of the risk, rather than tracking down person after person as a duo.
Scylla couldn’t forget how it had felt to have allies at her back again. The security and the safety that came with knowing that there was someone at least trying to think of her safety along with the overarching goal. She had felt back in her own skin for the first time since Ares had stepped out, and created the Dark Moon Court. She had almost remembered who Scylla was, and why she had once loved to henshin up. She had been rejecting the idea of joining back up with another Court, after the loss of the Blood Moon, but maybe… it would be time to consider that decision.
Comfortably, at last, Scylla stood at the front of the small clearing, and turned her head to take in the Knight near her, her hands full of the hand-written and hand-signed cards that she had so carefully made. “Anyone who doesn’t come, I’ll find and deliver myself,” she reassured Scholomance with a wry smile. “Do you want to talk first? You’re rather the guest of honor here, gorgeous, and you know I can talk for hours if someone doesn’t keep me in check.”
The gathering would be outside the city proper, after dark, and there would be no fancy catering or the like, but there would be warm beverages (thermos’ of coffee and cocoa) for any attendees. There wouldn’t be a dance floor, but there was a small boom box. And optimistically everyone would, for a few minutes, be able to breathe, mingle, and enjoy their mostly useless Thank You cards, which in its wording offered one favor from Scylla, to be redeemed at the time of the owner’s choice. It wouldn’t be a very long get-together, for fear of Negaverse retribution, but it had been determined a quick meeting might be easiest regardless of the risk, rather than tracking down person after person as a duo.
Scylla couldn’t forget how it had felt to have allies at her back again. The security and the safety that came with knowing that there was someone at least trying to think of her safety along with the overarching goal. She had felt back in her own skin for the first time since Ares had stepped out, and created the Dark Moon Court. She had almost remembered who Scylla was, and why she had once loved to henshin up. She had been rejecting the idea of joining back up with another Court, after the loss of the Blood Moon, but maybe… it would be time to consider that decision.
Comfortably, at last, Scylla stood at the front of the small clearing, and turned her head to take in the Knight near her, her hands full of the hand-written and hand-signed cards that she had so carefully made. “Anyone who doesn’t come, I’ll find and deliver myself,” she reassured Scholomance with a wry smile. “Do you want to talk first? You’re rather the guest of honor here, gorgeous, and you know I can talk for hours if someone doesn’t keep me in check.”
Here Scholomance stood, at the head of a bizarre gathering, to offer thanks to an assortment of strangers - strangers that risked their lives to save his own, and risked corruption at the hands of the ever-greedy Negaverse. These strangers then answered Scylla's second call for reasons of their own, and now stood before them again. Waiting, yes. Expectant, maybe.
Giving thanks always proved tricky for the knight. Thanking someone required a certain level of personal connection, acknowledgement for actions done, personalization in the delivery, and acknowledgement of the weight of the outcome. If done well, both parties leave satisfied. If done poorly, the thanks feels trite or the recipient still feels expectant or the thanking party looks ungrateful. Here, he had dozens of people to which to offer thanks. Scylla tallied the cards to a number over forty. Scholomance hadn't known that so many people even existed in the war, and the lot of them turned out to face an unknown SOS call in the burgeoning night. They turned out to help fight for him.
He gave Scylla a short nod, a gesture somewhat wanting for all the work that she had done, and stepped forward. When he spoke, he broke the buffer of silence provided by the surrounding snowfall. "Some of you will already know this, but I am Scholomance - the knight you helped save from the Negaverse back on the ninth. Some of you will also know that public speaking is not my forte. If I run long-winded on this, I apologize.
"There was a lot of gravity to what happened that may not have been readily apparent. I won't go into the whole story or we'll be here for centuries, but suffice it to say, the Negaverse had me pinned in a position where I was to be inevitably killed or corrupted. I was stuck working for them until I made a last desperate stand of it with Scylla, and everyone present formed the balance that overturned an impossible situation. We would not have succeeded on our own. We would not have succeeded if I had called in everyone I know. And, as you can imagine, the stakes would be losing my entire life and everything I am to the Negaverse either in murder or in corruption. Scylla stood to lose just as much - more, even, though it's not my place to say why. Now, I can keep my job, and I can keep coming home to my overly friendly cat, and I can keep all the memories I made over twenty-seven years of questionable life decisions. And this is all thanks to every single one of you." He sniffed, the looked to Scylla, then the dozens of gratitude cards, then back at the assortment of senshi and knights.
"There aren't equivalences for what you did. No amount of gift cards or favors or compensations really account for the gravity of preserving our lives. But they are gifts, not repayments - and they're one of the many clever ways in which Scylla chose to express her gratitude. My gift is perhaps not as overtly or widely useful, but…
"I've always considered myself neutral in this war, and even preferred somewhat to make deals with the Negaverse over making deals with the White Moon or Knights. Structure promised power, you see, and Order formed a collection of unrelated individuals to me with no integral power hierarchy. Those decisions led me to where you found me - mangled and desperate. Now I've chosen to side with the White Moon and Knighthood that stand against the Negaverse. That is my choice of gift: an ally." Scholomance stepped back, and gestured for Scylla to take his place.
Infinities
He stepped forward and she stepped back easily, yielding the floor to the person who had been saved in more ways than just the obvious one. Scholomance’s story was a complicated one, but he parsed it down to what this whole meeting was for. He slimmed it down to why they had gotten that emergency alarm, and what it meant. The betrayal and the cruelty of the Negaverse, and that the kindness of people who were strangers in protecting his life had bought him as an ally. That was no small thing any of them had done.
He stepped back, yielding the floor, and Scylla sucked in a breath, moving forward to take his place. ”I’ve been part of this fight for a long time,” she said at last, and called on what training she had in her civilian life to try and make sure her words were clear, tone precise. ”Seven years, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of bullshit and betrayal. I’ve seen the weakness of Order when it is fractured, and I’ve seen what power it can hold when it stands together.” Scylla looked down, considering her hands. She hadn’t called it the White Moon for a reason. Her hands had been stained with the Blood Moon, and yet some of those tenets held true for her.
”You came, to help someone you didn’t know, because they needed help. Scholomance called upon allies who were willing to fight and risk themselves to leave a message, but in the end, it would have been a poor fight indeed if you hadn’t responded. It was all of you who came and told them ‘No’ that kept... “ she paused, laughed. We all have a star in our hearts. ”There is a quote. Yes, Schol, I’m going BrainyQuotes here, stop judging me. Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom.” Her eyes drifted to Eleusis, in particular.
”You all came, you all said ‘Not Today’ and kept a prize from them that they sought. You did not cringe, but showed them what defiance is supposed to look like. They wanted one final humiliation, one last agony. You showed the best of us, and I am very confident at least a few of them got the point.
“But I don’t want to ignore the fact we had some unexpected allies help us, either. People from the Dark Mirror Court came, and fought with us.” That in itself was something she thought important. The alliances Scholomance had made that crossed faction and brought them to his side- ”What that means?” she gave a shrug. People made their own choices. And the Dark Mirror was still Chaos. It was still a war going on. ”It means we can still make allies of them, though. Work together.”
She shifted, waving her hands with a soft laugh. ”Enough of my preaching. You’re here so Scholomance and I can try to offer you at least this small thank you for what you did. I’ve got… little things for you. I wanted to take you all on a long vacation, but someone told me it was a bad idea. Instead you all get a small token of the massive debt we owe you- I hope everyone likes Visa. I can’t offer you the knowledge that you changed my place in the war, but I can promise you- Scholomance’s problem had told me that I could no longer be a passive player in this, but your response reminded me of why I had been proud to be on this side of it, no matter how dark the future may go.”
He stepped back, yielding the floor, and Scylla sucked in a breath, moving forward to take his place. ”I’ve been part of this fight for a long time,” she said at last, and called on what training she had in her civilian life to try and make sure her words were clear, tone precise. ”Seven years, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of bullshit and betrayal. I’ve seen the weakness of Order when it is fractured, and I’ve seen what power it can hold when it stands together.” Scylla looked down, considering her hands. She hadn’t called it the White Moon for a reason. Her hands had been stained with the Blood Moon, and yet some of those tenets held true for her.
”You came, to help someone you didn’t know, because they needed help. Scholomance called upon allies who were willing to fight and risk themselves to leave a message, but in the end, it would have been a poor fight indeed if you hadn’t responded. It was all of you who came and told them ‘No’ that kept... “ she paused, laughed. We all have a star in our hearts. ”There is a quote. Yes, Schol, I’m going BrainyQuotes here, stop judging me. Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom.” Her eyes drifted to Eleusis, in particular.
”You all came, you all said ‘Not Today’ and kept a prize from them that they sought. You did not cringe, but showed them what defiance is supposed to look like. They wanted one final humiliation, one last agony. You showed the best of us, and I am very confident at least a few of them got the point.
“But I don’t want to ignore the fact we had some unexpected allies help us, either. People from the Dark Mirror Court came, and fought with us.” That in itself was something she thought important. The alliances Scholomance had made that crossed faction and brought them to his side- ”What that means?” she gave a shrug. People made their own choices. And the Dark Mirror was still Chaos. It was still a war going on. ”It means we can still make allies of them, though. Work together.”
She shifted, waving her hands with a soft laugh. ”Enough of my preaching. You’re here so Scholomance and I can try to offer you at least this small thank you for what you did. I’ve got… little things for you. I wanted to take you all on a long vacation, but someone told me it was a bad idea. Instead you all get a small token of the massive debt we owe you- I hope everyone likes Visa. I can’t offer you the knowledge that you changed my place in the war, but I can promise you- Scholomance’s problem had told me that I could no longer be a passive player in this, but your response reminded me of why I had been proud to be on this side of it, no matter how dark the future may go.”
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