Wiping the floor with our faces

[Nixon]

Hartighan pats Victor on the shoulder, and takes the offered seat next to Sally.
"It was a pretty lean weekend, that is true." Hartighan reaches for any offers of beer.
Hartighan nods to Alex and Leslie respectfully, then looks back to the group... "If I get a vote... no reprisals on our own people. Dawn, Dusk, whatever. Truth is, we were so wiped out from all the other shite, plus ninjas... I don't know that we had enough in my tank to put up the same fight twice. Crying about loosing to the Fae is like shaking your fist at the weather, Sally. We can rant and rail... but next time we'll bring an raincoat."
Hartighan takes a drink and gives a look to the assembly.
He then leans over to Sally. "Ain't so bad. Loosing. Not a habit I want to get into. Book Club came through though." Hartighan smiles at Gabriel. Nodding to Sally "Any you're not in jail."
He then cranes his head around to young Victor "and I made some new friends."
And turns back around with a big smile for Alice. "Not so bad."

"Nile just let me know that we are back here in three weeks. We are heading to her place until then to... recuperate. So, you all behave. We'll be back in a few."
Hartighan rubs his forhead where his horns used to be... like the area is sore or something.

Hartighan 'kicks back' to drink his beer and interact for a bit, until Nile comes to pick him up.

[vVv]

victor's face flickers like a strobelight - like gathering thunder! summoning her darkest and most sullen glare for sally as she snatches the cookie and begins to gobble it down like a feral animal - flash! a bright, wide grin at hartighan's staunch defense (wow what a cool weekend.. i never even really had much friends before, nevermind super badass ones with scary eyes who stand up for me!) - *twitch* another shake of the head and a frown as she raises the offended hand to wiggle it tentatively in front of her own face, with a scientific and serious eye - her observations seem to slow down the strobe to a quiet, solemn throb as she turns her smudged face back to ness and pronounces, "yeh, i'm okay."

rounding back on sally with another dark look, "whatever the hell that was, leave it in the fire. we all knew already i was allergic but THAT METAL SUCKED WORSE THAN ANY METAL EVER!!!"

vic turns back to the rest of the room, her eyes trained angrily on the tips of her big black boots, "and you guys can stop talkin' about the fey like we're all some kinda big jerks or whatever ok?? maybe everybody just is what they are, and the world works how it works, and just like every other stupid thing in life we just gotta deal with it and figure out how to have the best time we can out of it, and not worry about how to control it all the time or make it exactly how we want.. you know what that scout guy said to me, the gloamy one who came by before the king showed up?? he was kinda a jerk i mean, and i don't agree with everything he said but.. i think he says what he means, at least. can't say that about a lot of humans. he said to me, 'i dunno, sometimes i wonder.. if the seasons change because we battle, or if we battle 'cause the seasons change?' maybe you just talk to people a little bit, you find nobody's the bad guy, you know? and like, if you guys all stop the fey doing their thing, who's to say you don't ruin EVERYTHING and we have no seasons left at all? THAT WOULD BE SO BORING. maybe we just gotta deal with things we don't like sometimes, is all.."

out of breath, a little astonished and confused by her own speech, eyes still trained studiously on her own boots, vic stomps back over to her original place at the hearth, curls up in a fetal position with her back to the room, arms up over her head. she is NOT crying.

[Eden Jones]

Eden raises an eyebrow at Vic's outburst. She starts to say something, stops and reminds herself that the kid is only 13, and reconsiders her phrasing.

"No one is saying every single Fae is irredeemably horrible, Vic, and I'm sorry you felt personally attacked. Hopefully you've noticed that you're pretty well-liked here. I haven't seen anyone blame you or any of the folks roped in against their will. If you want to talk to them, there's nothing wrong with that.

"Having said that, I stand by my opinion that the Courts, particularly their leaders, are arrogant assholes. I have no problem with you feeling a different way, but it would take a lot for me to change my mind. The world may work a certain way, but I don't feel that's a reason to endure someone's bad behavior, however powerful they might be. If anyone wants to engage with them, good on you. I'm too filled with disgust to play along anymore."

She gives Hartighan a sidelong look, "Refusing to be a punching bag is hardly the same thing as crying. You can bring a raincoat, I'll stay indoors. I have plenty of other things to do than assuage some Fae King's ego."

[Nick Sleet]

Nick finishes wiping his knives and makes them disappear again into his coat. He looks over at Victor and says "I've had some experience with being judged as part of a larger group, and it always sucks, especially when you had nothing to do with any of the crappy stuff. We definitely don't think of you in those terms, 'cause you're awesome. I agree with Eden; the problem's in the upper hierarchy, and that's a pretty universal condition. I can think of a few corporations here with the same issue."

He pulls out one of his notebooks, turning back to the table and beginning to scribble.

[Nixon]

[Eden Jones]

Eden's mouth quirks with amusement, "Thank you for schooling me in the ways of the world, Hartighan, I'm not sure how I made it this far without such profound understanding as you have bestowed. Obviously, I'm sure there is some way in which I could somehow be coerced into dealing with Fae Court crap; the universe is a big place full of infinite wonder and possibility.

"I am, however, very clear on the fact that I have no intention of getting involved in that mess, no desire to have anything to do with those magical megalomaniacs, and no plans to come along for the ride when you and other folks go riding off to attend to the changing of the seasons.

"I'm sure y'all can manage just fine without me, you are big, brave and terribly strong."

[Sally]

As a man prone to ranting, a chord i struck for Sally when Victor's top blows,

"You is what you is, and you do what you do!" he says, calling out loudly, "At this point, I ain't done with Fae 'r Blackstone 'r Hippies 'r nothing like that," he says, equally as boisterous, "I'm done with a bunch a snot-nosed Assholes that wanna swing they fist 'fore they run they mouth. An' if they just so happen to be any of the shit I done listed, then, all the better."

Looking between Eden & Hartighan, Sally says, "I dunno 'bout no rain coats 'r stayin' in side- I mean, you talkin' to a guy who's first pet was a snappin' turtle that did this to me all summa long-" he yanks off his left glove with his teeth and waggles his fingers and thumb- each knocked with scars in a vaguely beak-like shape, all while still keeping that arm looped 'round Alice,

"So I don't learn too quick. But, what I do know is, yer both right, jus' like Kelse' an' Nick and Lt. Walker is. We gotta have some folks drawin' lines in the sand, some folk's drawin' up paperwork, some folks req-uis-itionin' dragons,-" he looks over to Bobby Grey, "-an' even some folks on the Inside, sortin' out wassup. Tha' more we sort out solid ideas on shit, the more we can give our own terms and contracts an' shit, even if that is a big middle finger an' a slam of a door in they face."

Sally nods some, and says just to Hartighan, "An' if you gon' be scamperin' off wit' chu C-O, you'd best take a coupla bottles 'a water an' a raincoat or two," he laughs, snorting some, and calls out to Victor, "Ya little bugaboo, quitcher poutin' an' come get you another cookie 'for you burn up like an aut-umn leaf by that there fire. If you ain't never been in a fight like that, then you ain't know that you gonna be out on yer feet 'fore too long, an' a fire ain't no place fer that."

Looking to Alice, he says, "Your do... your boy don't, by chance, wanna go see if Mason's okay?" he frowns, thinking of what happened to Fell out there.

[kimp]

:: without moving her body, still focused on Leslie with the intensity of a predator, Liberty shifts her gaze towards Hartighan ::
Mike. You know...
:: she interrupts herself to add ::
Army Guy
:: before continuing the thought ::
Was the Voice. He sort of was made so by default as he was there. He said he'd do it until someone better came along. But he didn't say what was better or give it up
:: a shrug and then she shifts back to her quiet focus on Leslie ::

[Owle Isohos]

"Sally and Nick went and took the words out of my mouth," Kelsey said to Victor. "I think I talked to that same guy - Slicewick? He got himself a promotion on the battlefield, and he seems like a decent sort, though I get the feeling he probably likes maiming and murdering as much as the next Dusk Court fae." She glanced around the table, smiled, and shrugged. "But I don't have a problem with anyone liking maiming and murdering, long as they don't do it to us.

"You're awesome, Vic. And the fae I talked with personally seemed pretty cool, too. But the Dusk King and the Dawn King? They acted like jerks. I don't like the thought of us getting treated that way by anybody. But I don't blame the people who were forced into following them for it."

She nodded to Liberty. "Mike was the only one there who stepped up." To Hartigan, she added, "You could've done it yourself, if you stepped forward. Way I saw it, Mike was the only one there willing to do the job."

[Sally]

"All right, a'right, this fella's been torn up enough in the last coupla hours!" Sally says, waving off Kelsey & Eden, "He was out there duelin' Knights and draggin' my sorry as out from unda they Knightly swords. He ain't in no pos-it-ion to fend of you Valk-y-ries none!"

Sally raises a hand up, "An' I ain't neither, fer that matter. Golldarn King Bright Bulb smacked the shit outta me, man o' man, but I ain't gonna tempt nona ya'll to try 'n do him one better," his wide smile returns, and he goes for another cookie.