[OPEN] We'll Take A Cup of Kindness Yet

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[The morning of December 31st, all residents will receive a handwritten invitation slipped under their door.]



You are cordially invited to attend a party
celebrating the New Year

Wonderland Ballroom
8 pm - 1 am

Semi-Formal Attire
Buffet & Bar
No RSVP Required

All Ages Welcome

For inquiries, contact E. O'Connell

[Punctuality in planning is important: the ballroom itself will only be ready for guests at exactly 8 o'clock, bedecked in glittering golds and the red-green of Christmas' vestiges, still clinging to the old year. Dining tables surround a central dance floor, bars and buffets dot the edges of the room and both holly and mistletoe are expressed liberally through the interior.

Mingle, dance, eat and be merry! The New Year will come in at midnight - the band will play and the drinks will flow for long after.]

Comments

[easily]

[once rebekah has confirmation that freya is stopping things she zooms ahead into the right direction. panic pumps through her blood and veins and all she can think of is how her brother suffered back home, how she was powerless as marcel punished him. she feels that powerlessness now and it angers her. it makes her afraid in a way she hasn't been in a long time.

she stops when she gets to the ballroom and ignores every one else before she gets to klaus' side. she wraps her arms around him to hoist him out of there before lucifer can have the chance to recover.

(this is not the first time she has helped klaus when he was beaten, though it's been many centuries since then)

it is not until they are to the safety of their common room that she stops, setting her brother down in one of the chairs long enough to bite into her own wrist, offering it to him to help him recover. at least in this way she is not powerless.

this time she can help him.]

[poppycock]

Freya, [ is the only word he gets past his blood-stained lips, his sister's name gruff and thick. his hand reaches to still rebekah's wrist, his fingers grasping the delicate curve of her forearm below its seeping bite marks. let alone the fiery and reactive indignation he feels at being so easily and without consideration tucked and quartered to their rooms, his only thought is for the sister he believes is left behind. ]

[easily]

She's safe. She used a spell. She's here.

[klaus' annoyance in turn annoys her slightly but it doesn't matter. he's safe. their sister is safe. their family is safe, however limited that safety might actually be here.

it isn't much

but it's enough.]

[poppycock]

[ they are both helpless. they are all helpless to the fate that awaits them: he, rebekah, and freya. he looks in rebekah's eyes, certain and assuring and shadowed with that same fear. the same fear that took him thinking for a split moment that freya could be alone and abandoned. the same terror and despair he sees in the depths of his sister's gaze:

the panic.

he holds that stare, his lashes fluttering, his grip on her arm turning from urgency to clinging firmness. (they are afraid, but they are safe. they are here, and that is more and less and the same as what they had the moment before they arrived.)

with a sighed exhale, klaus wordlessly leans forward to open his lips over rebekah's offered wrist. he drinks and cradles that drink to his mouth. ]

[therapize]

[There is much Cami has to take on assumption, or perhaps faith: Freya doesn't move except to grab her talisman, and when Rebekah goes it is far faster than Cami's human eyes can see. But this family stands strongest when they stand together, and a second stirring of wind within the corridor tells Cami the deed is done.

Or so it seems to be; Freya still stands in the hall, Cami reluctant to leave her. Yet she stands firm, steady, and Klaus had decidedly not been when Cami tore her eyes away to run from the ballroom.

Hoping nothing would disturb her friend outside, Cami turns towards the door now standing open. She walks inside, just in time to see Klaus drinking from Rebekah's wrist. She reminds herself of the healing power of that blood, and that Klaus has resilience far beyond what should be possible.

She has to; Cami doesn't think she's ever seen Klaus this beaten, even when he had white oak protruding from his chest.]

Klaus-- [Is he okay? Is Rebekah's blood enough? She looks between the two siblings, willing to offer her own if it turns out to be necessary. At present, however, she forces herself to wait until he can answer the countless questions that are sure to come.]

[easily]

[Rebekah places her other hand on the small of her brother's back, steadying him as he feeds from her. the connection is tactile and intimate, an action shared few and far between them in the centuries they have been alive. It should be enough at least to help spurn on the healing process. Although this looks back Klaus has survived worse. Rebekah still remembers seeing his corpse burst into flames when Alaric tried to kill him. She remembers mourning him. She remembers a bridge and the desire to take back control.

That itch still gets under her skin now .But what can she do against the Devil himself?

She is so caught up in her thoughts she doesn't noticed the sound of Cami entering the room, but soon enough she speaks and Rebekah lifts her head to reply.]

He will be okay.

[who she means to comfort with these words, herself or Cami or even Klaus himself -- it's up to debate.]

[poppycock]

[ he has suffered worse. he is suffering much worse, at the hands of someone just as vicious and angry as he or the devil, and that fact does not escape him. their (his) weakness does not escape him, nor does their (his) vulnerability against a new enemy he should not have made. (an enemy he knows with renewed and reminded logic he was always destined to have. lucifer would have known. he would have found out and pursued him somehow. it was written in their fates.

he must know this, to go on.

to weather the consequences—)

he only requires a few mouthfuls of rebekah's blood. he knows, pale but steady, that he wants more but he does not need it. there is no time for it, surrounded by those he loves in front of an open door with one who would do him—and now, them—harm.

he cannot, does not, look either rebekah or cami in the eye as he ceases drinking, nor as he stands with agile abruptness. ] I'll be fine. [ klaus only walks out the door to face freya, to pick her up, an arm around her shoulders and one under her knees. he carries her inside and shuts the door; moves to lay her carefully and gently onto the couch.

his fingers reach to brush the hair away at her temple.

all he wants is for her eyes to open; that itch plagues him as it plagues his sister. he wants to act.

(this is his fault.) ]

[deathlessness]

[It doesn't take long for her to return, as it took far less time and magical effort on her part to talk Lucifer down from his crusade - at least less than she assumed it would. It's only a few moments after he places her down that she opens her eyes with a deep breath.

It's not as sharp as returning to life, but almost like the kind of sigh that comes with a deep sleep, and not long after that, her eyes open to light on Klaus, sitting up with ease.]

Lucifer is talked down for the moment, but I don't know how long it will last. I think it's best for the time being that we avoid Lux.

[Which is probably more for her than it is for them. And makes her sadder than she'd care to admit. But once that's said, she turns her question to Klaus directly.]

Are you alright?

[poppycock]

[ whatever her awakening is, klaus is only filled with gripping relief at the sight of it. his hand grasps her shoulder as she sits; he stays before her, the fear flickering in his eyes unmistakable: lucifer is cowed, but not necessarily for long. and then?

(he is all right. however distressing his bodily debility is, it will pass. his true distress lies in the future. it exists for his sister, and them all: he could ask the same of her.

and not only because lucifer is formidable, but because he is—was—a friend.)

klaus' jaw sets. he takes freya's hand with reassuring strength and stands despite the unsettling wooziness that he knows will pass, and faces them all. ] We'll be all right. Lucifer isn't unreasonable. I can talk to him. [ he can find a way, even if not through his own words. ]

[therapize]

[With the relative safety offered by distance combined with spoken reassurances, the panic that had driven Cami's steps fades in favor of what must happen now. She watches Rebekah, willfully steady as Klaus feeds from her. Klaus, unable to do anything more than stare at the ground even as he goes after Freya. Freya, far too still until she returns, a warning on her lips.

Cami takes it all in in silence, until Klaus offers to be the one to approach the devil.]

You can talk to him? [It's ironic that Cami would be the one wary of the idea, but how can she not be after what she's seen?] Look, normally I am the first one to advocate trying to reason things out, but do you really think he'll let you get a word in edgewise before he goes after you again?

[He's the Devil; blame the Catholic in her, but Cami's instinct doesn't fall in Satan's favor.]

Why did he attack you in the first place?

[poppycock]

Well, it's certainly not going to be any of you. [ his eyes have focused on camille now, the edge in his voice forceful and unquestionable: an order and a decision made, shaken only by the fear in his eyes and strain in his tone. as weak as he is compared to lucifer, each of them is all the more vulnerable: her especially.

(this is his fault. it is his responsibility to fix it. it is as he promised elijah, as he vowed to them all when he walked into that den of his enemies—they are his responsibility. all of this is.)

with a steadying breath he paces across the room, wide eyes cast to the floor. ] Lucifer is dangerous, but he is still a man, and he was our friend. [ he stops; he pauses, and turns back to them. ] No matter what sins he has learned.

[easily]

Sometimes friends turn into enemies and there's no fixing that, Nik, you know that better than any of us.

[Although she's speaking of Lucifer specifically here she can't help but think of Marcel as well. Would he ever forgive any of them for what happened to Davina? She doesn't think so. Sometimes bridges are burned and you cannot rebuild.

It's tragic, but it's a hard truth.

She is irrationally afraid of losing her brother, of all her siblings, even if she knows the first deaths in Wonderland are not permanent. What if Lucifer just kept going after him until it was?]

Freya is right, we're best off giving him space.

[deathlessness]

[Freya is also feeling the loss, and having faced Lucifer - the real Lucifer - head on herself, she knows what her brother is reeling from, just as much as she is.]

While you are right, and he is not unreasonable, I think it is best that you let that reasoning come from an intermediary.

[Which she knows is very much not Klaus' style, and will conflict greatly with his need to control the situation, no matter how much he trusts those involved. But Lucifer has also made it clear that he can do a great deal of damage to an Original, and Klaus has already triggered his wrath once. There's no telling how easily he'll be able to do it again.]

I've already discussed some of it with him, and hopefully getting him to see reason will involve much less violence - but mostly, it will have to involve time and patience on our part.

[therapize]

[Thankfully Freya and Rebekah alike are able to see the still present danger too. Klaus would have a much harder time arguing with all three women in the room, each of whom can be particularly stubborn on her own. It puts Cami into a position to listen once more, to think about who that “intermediary” might be. Given the way Klaus had fixed his gaze on her specifically, however, Cami thinks it might be better not to point out that Lucifer’s already asked her to be his therapist.

Nothing’s come of it so far anyway, so maybe nothing still will.]

Freya is right. [All of them, Klaus included, need to hold off. He’s not the only one who can lay eyes on a person, and Cami deliberately turns towards him as she goes on.] Whether there’s a chance to repair what’s happened or not, everyone needs a chance to recover from what just happened.

[Not physically; Klaus’ wounds are probably already healed thanks to his powers and Rebekah’s blood. Yet it won’t be able to touch his fear or his panic, the certainty of knowing there is a force within this world stronger than him, able to tear into him so easily. Cami can remember the look on his face when she unknowingly handed over white oak to him.

What Lucifer has done is almost worse.]