eachdraidh | hermionenet / seelie locked

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hermionenet / seelie locked

HERMIONENET / COMPASSES

To anyone that owns a device that can read this notice:

Please return your device to me for additional protection and charms. This won't come with any charge, but it is something that needs to be done. It will make it so that no one but you can use your device and, should it be stolen, it will turn into a harmless little lump of fool's gold, with a promise of a replacement from me if you need it.

If you can't come to me personally for any reason then, please, let me know. I'll do my best to either visit you or send you information on the runes for you to perform yourself. Thank you.

SEELIE LOCKED

[ The video feed shows a harried, tired looking Hermione sitting behind her desk, head held high as she smiles, leaning forward. ]

As always, if anyone is in need of potions or charmed, protective cloaks for the upcoming battles, let me know. Artefacta will be happy to provide them, and we can enchant items you already own as well. Just let me know through your lockets and I'll arrange it all.

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... How do you know him, then? [Bobby asks, not jumping to the "crush" conclusion. He doesn't have a crush on his professor, so he absolutely agrees with the thesis statement here: Charles Xavier is a great guy because he is. Bobby is young, but he definitely gets why he dedicated his life to Xavier's dream. That's not one of the weird things about his older self.]

He's my second in command at the Citadel, and he's been a good friend of mine for months now. [ Hermione smiles, fond and tender as she talks about him. ] Very supportive, and always there when you need him, even if he sometimes thinks he ought to be elsewhere.

I didn't realize that he's in any position of command. [There's a level of discomfort here that Bobby is barely hiding. It has nothing to do with Xavier, but the war itself. It hadn't occurred to him that this might be the case.]

How do you get into ... command positions? [Maybe he's leaping to conclusions!]

He's an advisor more than anything - he helps with keeping things under control, giving me suggestions and help when I need it. I know he spends most of his time in his watch tower, but he's always there for me. [ But, still...

Hermione breathes out. ] I became Marchioness when my predecessor, June May, left the Drabwurld a year or so ago.

[Bobby processes that pretty much immediately. One, someone is allowed to leave. And two, if this woman leaves, then the professor would be expected to take her position. He would be a leader in this war. That's right, isn't it? That's what it means.]

Do you like being marchioness?

[It's not the question he wanted to go with, but it's the question he blurts out.]

I didn't at first.

[ What reason does she have to lie? This is her position, her title, and she can accept that easily enough, even if she does have to breathe out. ]

But I realised that I can use being a Marchioness to help people. I can give things out, ask for aid for places and people, nudge things around when there's a necessity, and people listen to me when I have plans or ideas. There's a foundation for trust, which makes protecting people far easier.

That makes sense. That's what we do back home. I don't know if he's started yet because he's really, really, really young, but he trained us to be heroes, so that's sort of our ... thing. [There's a beat.] But it doesn't sound like there's a lot of room for that here, and that's not ... that's not right. It sounds like it can only be one way or the other way or the natives are upset with us, but what if I want to help them and everyone else? I don't want to be some Marchioness to be able to help, and besides, I'd suck at that anyway, so ...

[Bobby breathes out.]

Does anyone mind that you help when we're kinda sorta the guys who want all of this to end? Apparently. [That's what Dick said.]

Well, he's certainly very heroic here. I could imagine him going on to help others follow that example. [ She might be bigging Charles up, somewhat, but he means a lot to her - as a friend as someone she calls family, even if it's only in the back of her mind, tucked away where he can't scoop it out and embarrass her.

When it comes to the natives, though... She sighs, shaking her head, looking... Sad. ]

People tend to forget that this war has been going on for generations - thousands of years. For the people born here, that aren't brought here for their shard and their power? It's their entire life. Everything they know is the war between Seelie and Unseelie, and everything they know points towards the hope that soon one side will win and it'll all be over. Understanding that this is something that they've waited centuries for makes it a little easier to understand their frustration.

[ Shaking her head, she offers a weak smile. ]

I trust the Seelie more than the Unseelie, any day, it's true. But helping them doesn't have anything to do with being a Seelie. If I was shardless, if I was Unseelie? I'd do the same thing, and I think they know that. It's just happens to be that I'm in this Court.

[Fifteen years is nothing like thousands of years, but he can understand the generational gap and differences. What the future X-Men know is extremely scary, but it doesn't make their experiences any less significant. They just freak him out, and while he's mad he never finds anything out ever, he's afraid of what he'll learn. It's a Catch-22, and he doesn't like it.]

Can I ask what you plan to do with all the fighting, then? How are you gonna ... help there? I've been trying to figure it out, but it just seems like a bad idea. All I want to do is walk around waving my hands asking people to stop fighting.

I just know it won't work. ... And maybe it's unfair to ask, too.

[ There is only so much Hermione can tell him, and she hesitates for a moment before she breathes out. Her back goes straight and she sits up, keeping her face as set as determined as she can manage. ]

I don't look at it as fighting. I used to hate the idea of being a warrior or a soldier, but there are some things we can't avoid, especially here in the Drabwurld - you can't lay down your arms and pretend that you aren't going to have to fight. But... I don't go out and do my best to hurt people. I defend my friends, rise up to protect them. If I'm attacked, if my friends are attacked? I'm not going to just lie down and let them get hurt.

[ She shakes her head, closing her eyes. ]

We can hope for peace, and we can try our best to make it happen, but there is always going to be battles. We can't just close our eyes and pretend that isn't happening.

As a hero—a superhero. It sounds like you don't have those? [She hadn't caught his meaning.] But it means we dress up and go out and fight a lot. We're not pacifists, but we don't fight wars, either. [It's possible that the old school Brotherhood of Evil Mutants saw their cause as a war. Bobby thinks that sounds likely, but he doesn't see it that way. They go out to help people and to stop people from getting hurt. They help mutants. It doesn't ... translate to this world at all.

And having recently been out in space where an entire planet just got destroyed, and nearly followed by another one? He doesn't like this?

He also doesn't really ... buy into her answer wholesale. The moment it begins to be about going out there to fight for your friends, it gets messy. It's everyone fighting for a cause that doesn't seem like a good one. Bobby hates these thoughts, and he realizes that they're probably better shared with Scott than a complete stranger.]

So—um—I fight, but not like this. Guess that'll have to change. [There's a pause.]

Thanks for answering.

We don't have superheroes, no. We just have people, witches and wizards, that want to protect their friends and family. In my world there was a wizard that wanted to destroy all traces of people he didn't see as pure or worthy, all people without magic, and we fought against him because it was the right thing to do - to protect the people we loved. I would have died to make sure that he came to an end, and I almost did, more than once. [ Hermione closes her eyes, swallowing, emotion welling up inside of her.

She aches, she really does, a thick feeling inside of her that makes her feel weighted down. She will have this conversation a thousand times and it will never feel right, she's sure of it. Nothing is going to make this war better - war is never good, never easy, and fighting to protect people is better than fighting for nothing.

Head tilting up, Hermione fights her own emotions. ]

If I don't choose to fight for my friends then I'm fighting to hurt people. I can't do that - I can't. Three years in this world won't change that about me because if it does then I won't be myself anymore.

[ She never wanted to kill anyone, but she had been drawn too thin. ]

[Bobby spots the emotion and immediately notes that he's bad at this. He swallows because he doesn't know the right things to say. It's even worse because no one's actually told him that the Unseelie are the bad guys, but that's what it sounds like. They're the bad guys, right? That's how it has to be, but with her being emotional, he realizes that maybe ... just maybe ... he should stop asking.]

Fight for your friends, even if you don't ... even if things change and you don't see the same people anymore. [That sounds good in his head. That's what he's been doing since all of this future business.

Truthfully, it's pretty much only the sound of someone trying to keep herself from crying that keeps him from saying something stupid. Aaaaaand he's pretty sure he can't keep it up, so he adds:]

I'm gonna let you go now. Thanks for answering my questions.

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