Fun Times with Nightfall!

[Nightfall]

As they walked to the bookstore, Nightfall deliberately chose portions of the sidewalk that were free of people so that they could talk... and so Adin didn't run into anyone.

"OK, awesome, thank you. Ummm... I'm just shooting in the dark here, but I'm guessing you haven't heard that I've... hmmmm... left the Onyx Court and defied the ascendant Queen, have you? So... you may be hanging out with an outlaw."

[Dusan]

Juno paused and looked at him with a quizzical expression. "You left....why? Is this why you mentioned if it was all right to be with myself and Al-Adin?"

Shock. She had always figured Nightfall, while his actions really didn't say "Winter" to her in a number of ways, to be a lifer where commiting to a single Court was concerned. Not suddenly leaving as he had apparently done. He seemed to be very stable and established in his position with Winter.

"I told Alice where to get off in front of the entire Freehold, now granted it was before she took the Crown....and nothing happened when I went to the Empty Orchestra and she was present. Did she declare you an outlaw? Why?"

Her blue eyes were wider than usual, almost pleading for an answer that would make sense of this revelation.

There is, however, something underlying the tone of voice as she asked her questions. The Manticoress was unnerved; whether it was due to the immediate situation or did she see her own writing on the wall who could say?

Nightfall of all people? Who's next?

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin looks at Nightfall for a hard, long minute. The new Nightfall: Outlaw.
"Can I be Little John?" He asks.

[Dusan]

Juno...despite her concerns....first looked at Al-Adin. Then it sunk in what he had said.

She laughed then, a clear almost musical sound. It was weird coming from her, because the expression of anything outside of quiet reserve, Feline dignity, disdain towards one situation or another was something that just didn't happen very often with the Manticoress.

Her quills were still lying flat, but it looked as though she had a dark colored puffball decorating the end of her tail as the tuft had expanded in response to emotional stimulus.

[Nightfall]

"I have no idea what's going to happen... I haven't heard anything yet," Nightfall replies to Juno's second question first. If he's concerned, it doesn't show. If anything, there's the slightest undercurrent of satisfaction and happiness that comes from serendipitous fortune.

"As to why... to spare the Onyx Court," he added, becoming more serious. "Of all the Seasonss... well, I'll miss them, and they were closest." A hand touched his chest lightly. Sorrow -- not regret -- filled his eyes as he spoke of what he'd left behind.

It was erased in laughter as Adin spoke and the Fairest shook his head in laughter. "Sure, sure, unless you want to be Wyatt Earp," he offered.

Turning back to Juno he regained his seriousness. "What about you? It doesn't seem like you're understood by your Court... which shouldn't be. Agree... or disagree... we should still be welcome and understood."

Heck, he and Katrin could exchange entire conversations in single sentences.

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin shakes his head. Whoever Wyatt was, he wasn't a cool as Little John.

"But I understand her!" Al-Adin interjects at Nightfall's question to Juno. "She's the Vizier of Paragon!"

[Dusan]

"No. I don't."

She paused for a moment, then, "I spoke out against Alice because it was my choice, and I knew that the gamble would be a bad one. And yet I went through with it because, at the time and I still feel as though it was the right thing to do, somebody had to speak up. I came *this* close to leaving Spring that night, because what Alice was promoting as being Spring was not what I understood, or had been called to when I first joined the Court."

The corner of her mouth twitched.

"I wasn't one of the popular people before my Durance. In fact....I hated people like Alice -- the pretty mean girls -- and whenever I made friends, they were pressured into breaking those friendships and joining the rest of the taunting little bitches. Maybe that's why I'm so....reluctant....to socialize. Other shoe and all that. A Spring Courtier with social issues. Bloody amazing."

Another pause, then, "If it wasn't for people like you, Al, Bert and Enzo giving me a reason to...continue trying....I'm not sure how this would have played out. I have the option of being able to talk to someone when you guys are around. Right now though, about the Court itself -- I feel as though I am in mourning."

[Nightfall]

Nightfall glanced at Juno, an eyebrow raised in surprise lost in his thatch of unruly hair. He listened carefully, despite his surprise at her openness.

Then again, hadn't he done the same with Terri?

So much loneliness in the Freehold -- the shared legacy of Arcadia.

He could almost taste her words, like biting into a raw lemon. He didn't mention that he thought Alice was probably equally lonely, overwhelmed, and even scared -- there was no point, and this wasn't about Alice.

"Maybe another would suit you better?" he asked. It was a genuine question, not any knife twisting. Nightfall, for one, certainly knew about having conflicting desires with one's chosen Court; more importantly, he knew people changed.

He pointed in the distance, ahead, at the narrowing of street addresses that would become Bradley Broom's.

[Al-Adin]

Al-Adin walks over and gives Juno a hug.
He is out of words that can influence her.

[Dusan]

"I....the thought has passed my mind more than once, especially within the past few months. I admit there are times when I find myself feeling as though I have to prove my worth in making others happy. And at the same time wondering if I am, indeed, getting what I want out of my own life. Does that make sense? Part of me wants to go, and part of me wants to stick it out and see what happens; though I know in my heart that it won't be the same in some ways it's the people who I still care about. I'm always going to be the asshole who called out the Spring Sovereign during her own Court."

She pauses, then, "I also think that I've ruined my chances with other Courts here outside of perhaps Winter or going away on my own; and that's only because of my seclusion and being hurt over what I think has been lost with Spring. Too many Sovereigns saw what happened, what I did, and to be honest, if you were a Sovereign, would you want a disruptive little someone like me in your group?"

The tone is difficult to pin down as she spoke. Was it Pride or Fear of moving forward which was keeping her locked in? Maybe it was something deeper than her anger towards the failings of her Court on an individual basis...a sense of comittment to those who brought some sense to her life. If anything, it sounded as though the Manticoress was confused as to what she wanted and why....that she was beginning to enter a searching...and very possibly confusing...phase of her life.

"I know how you feel with having to look over your shoulder and wondering if, or when the next shoe will drop in terms of becoming a target for retaliation. I've become all too familiar with that...sensation....over the past couple of months."

She hugged Al-Adin in return...was she sniffing a little? If anything, it seemed as though the mask between the Manticoress' emotions and what she wanted to share was beginning to slip.

Now I feel horrible that I said anything.

"Al....you're one of the people who has kept me going over the past few months....and I'll probably never be able to repay you for that. You're the truest friend I have."