Reverend Reverend please come quick 'cause I got something to admit

[unpocoloco]

Who: Ernesto OR Héctor + TWO Mingle spaces
What: TOUR AND A MOVIE PART TWO; STARING YOU? + NECROMANCY; HONEST EFFORTS (a.k.a, Héctor's failed revival this month is a truth spell.)
When: April, late in the month
Where: A filming location in Soliel, Daybreak Academy
Warning: N/A
Notes: People affected by Héctor's accidental truth spell can also bring this into the movie mingle. Have you ever lied without actually lying? Now's the time to learn!

TOUR AND A MOVIE

Filming is ramping up.

Just as before, Higher Daybreak faculty are encouraging participants to see this as a way of learning to use their magical skills in a way that is discrete and ensures the protection of the Veil. It's spoken of as a chance for students to better learn how to hide their abilities while still putting them to use, disguising them as various other talents. In turn, they'll be credited in the film's production once it's complete, as well as receive extra credits in related courses. And of course, besides the great publicity, what better way to make a hit movie than adding a magical touch to it?

While work around the set continues to be welcomed and encouraged, this month filmmakers are particularly keen on finding those who can fill a newly opened role for an extra! Daybreak students are being to the very rare and special opportunity to audition in, without even going through the gruelling ordeal of terse agents, discouraging phone calls, and dull waiting areas! Just line right up and give it your best!

The following roles are open:

-Kindly and Adoring Town's Person Number Five

-Irritable Officer Number Two

-Overdramatic Restaurant Employee (or Customer, adjusted to match ages)

On top of this extraordinary opportunity, the winning student will be treated to a day on the town with De La Cruz himself.

On top of all this, with the improving weather, more scenes are being shot outside and in the heart of Soliel. It's quite possible to wander on set entirely by accident! Just remember that maintaining the laws of the Veil during this important project is still of utmost importance.



~~~~~~



HONEST EFFORTS

Nothing happened. He took precautions, he followed the spell, he did everything right. He double-checked the runes and then triple checked the cage he'd set himself up in. There was light, there was energy, a whole burst of it shooting up around him and then darting out past the walls (and over the campus). And then nothing. He was still just as dead as before. He wasn't even a different kind of dead like his usual screw-ups led to. He made a flashy light show and nothing more. In a fit of frustration, he scraped the whole circle, packed up, and settled in to go back to work the next night.

But, with that morning, students and faculty alike around Daybreak may find themselves afflicted with a sudden need to be a little more candid than usual. Maybe a lot more candid.

The urge for honesty may manifest in being suddenly unable to lie-- either directly or at all. It might mean talking way too much. Maybe it means confessing things you've been bottling up, or simply showing who you are inside when you'd normally be inclined to hide it. It might just be something small and simple going throughout the day. Or, it could build into something so overwhelming it becomes impossible to bear until the truth is out. It varies from person to person and does, eventually, go away.

But it also may be intensified in those who might be just a bit too close to a certain someone...

Comments

[hawkwardness]

< Yes. Yes, I understand what you want me to do, but I can't. >

His voice is enough like sound to make it seem like he's whispering, pained. Wanting to cry. Impossible, for a hawk, and that's for the best. Tears would make things worse.

< Don't ask me to do that before you're gone. I can't. And you shouldn't have to be alone when... when it's time, missing her. That's what I don't understand. Why wouldn't she want to be there for you...? Did you ask her to leave? >

Please say no, he thinks. Please.

[unpocoloco]

"Why would I ask her to leave? I'm not selfless enough for that." He's not. He's really, really not. He keeps saying it over and over but maybe now he'll be believed.

He shakes his head, miserably.

"I don't know when the time is, neither of us knows. But, Tobias, if I can't talk to you about this before I'm gone, when can I? If this doesn't work, there is no after. I need you to promise me. Promise you will not make me an excuse to stop living. There are people here who care. If you need help, ask for it."

[hawkwardness]

< Okay. > he says, no louder than before. < I promise to try. >

No lying tonight, he can't promise he will. Maybe he'll fail. Maybe he can't be helped, maybe he's broken beyond repair. And the apocalypse won't wait for him to get his shit together.

< That's the best I can do. Try. >

[unpocoloco]

He slumps down where he is. The energy he barely had to start with goes out of him.

"Okay," He says. He runs a hand through his hair. "Okay."

He guesses that's the most he can ask for.

"I'm sorry."

[hawkwardness]

< This isn't your fault. >

He steps forward slowly. Cautiously? He's a hawk, he's hard to read. < None of this. Especially not... me. You didn't do anything wrong. >

[unpocoloco]

"The truth curse thingie's kind of my fault," He points out.

He probably should have left. Maybe it would have saved Tobias this trouble.

[hawkwardness]

< You tried a tricky spell to save your life and it didn't work out. > Weary with a hint of impatience. It makes him somewhat of a hypocrite and he doesn't even care. That may be the truth spell too, come to think of it. Emotional honesty. < You didn't do it on purpose, and you're the one having to hear awful things. Not me. >

[unpocoloco]

"You're feeling the awful things. And I can't say the right things to you because I can only say what I'm feeling."

He waves his hands.

"We're going back and forth. I don't know if sitting still here's really helping."

[hawkwardness]

< I don't want to hear things you don't mean, dude. >

Two hot, tired messes alone in a room. Yeah. Not doing them any good.

< ...Maybe we both need to accept we can't help each other. Not tonight. Do you want me to leave you alone a while? > It's Tobias. 'A while' could mean up to a few days.

[unpocoloco]

"I'm not saying that, I just mean not speaking my kneejerk reactions." Because those aren't more accurate either.

He scrubs his face.

"I just need to walk, I think. You don't need to avoid me. I'm not mad at you. I just..."

He's stressed and tired and doesn't know what to do.

cw vague torture ref

[hawkwardness]

< Just until this wears off. Or I miraculously learn to control myself. >

The night of the Hunt. The Galra ordeal. The morphing allergy. When will he be able to resist magical compulsions and... persuasion better? He flutters to the window. Open, of course, he doesn't like to leave them closed anymore.

< I'll see you tomorrow night. Hopefully. >

[unpocoloco]

"There's only so much you can or even should hold back. You're only human, Tobias," He sighs then. A beat passes, then a wry laugh. "Well. Sort of. You know what I mean."

Human underneath it all. A feathery body but still a boy in his head.

He lifts a hand, waving it.

"See you tomorrow night, mijo."

[hawkwardness]

Neither of them can stop talking. He digs talons into the windowsill, wanting to fly into the dark and to be with someone who will listen at the same time, because everything the man says makes him want to respond. And Héctor needs not to spend the night worrying about anyone but himself, doesn't he?

< I'll talk. I'll talk to someone else. Seems like I won't be able to stop myself tomorrow. > The pressure is building up inside again. It's almost like being sick--it comes in waves. < It doesn't have to be you all the time. I never wanted you to, I don't know, snap your fingers and fix me. I just wanted... I wished someone would love me. >

[unpocoloco]

His shoulders sag. This has been... a rough conversation. A rough meeting, for both of them. But that? That just about breaks his heart.

"Ay, mijo," He sighs then. "What made you think I didn't?"

[hawkwardness]

< Oh. >

Damn, damn, damn. He sinks down against the windowsill, covering his feet. < I wasn't thinking that. I meant... that's good. That's what I wanted. > A pause. < But it's nice to hear. No one's ever said it. >

[unpocoloco]

"It's not an easy thing to say, to a child who's not yous. Even when you want to. Even when they want you to. These are things you have t be careful with. Not just blurt them out."

He'd know. He was, after all, nobody's child.

"But you have to know you're worth something. Even if no one is telling you so."

[hawkwardness]

He's asking for too much. Far too much. He is, after all, not Héctor's child... and he's just spent the last hour tormenting the man. A great yawning ache grows inside him, too big for his hawk body...

< You've helped. You've done it, you've made things better for a long time. > A beat. < I didn't phrase that right. I know you care, I mean it. Don't think I'm ungrateful, okay? >

[unpocoloco]

He looks at the door, then looks back at the boy. He walks to him and reaches out his hand, just a brush of his fingers against those feathers.

"I don't. Promise."

[hawkwardness]

< Good. > He nudges his beak against those fingers and steels himself. Got to fly off before he's carried away again. Stop talking, finally leave. He doesn't want to, not at all, and he knows that's probably part of the compulsion. So...

Off he goes into the night.