By Their Powers Combined...

Aug 20th, 2016 12:08 AM

"Yeah: One Figure, Three Shadows," Ava agreed softly, wistfulness in her eyes. The memory of their shadows reaching for each other, stretching that last little bit to touch, was bittersweet. "If you dealt with one of us, you were answering to all of us. I think if we want a guiding metaphor, it should do with bonds and relationships: something about all of us together, not what happens when we're separate.

"Mm!" A thought occurred to her at the exact moment she took a drink, a brief moment taken to swallow; or, mostly to make sure she didn't spit beer on anyone. "All of our mantles have an element of scent: metal, flowers, water... or, decay might be more accurate. But smell is an incredible trigger for memory. I think... oh christ, nevermind. I honestly cannot think of a single way to work that in that doesn't sound forced." Mouth twisted in disappointment, Ava shrugged and let the idea go.

She was relieved Oneiromancy had come back into the Pledge, though she hadn't wanted to push it. It was one thing to offer and have it accepted, and another to push and press for access into someone else's mind. Listening to Coco's rewrite of the pledge with pursed lips, Ava nodded slowly. "I'm not so sure about the perfection, but it's such a loose idea I don't see it backfiring in a concrete way." The Wyrd could always surprise them, though.

**InvertedMonkey** · Aug 21st, 2016 12:24 AM

Her eyes narrow slightly at that inclusion by the Wasp, "Yeah, swearing to reach for perfection... that feels a little uncomfortable," she agrees with Ava, and shrugs, loosening her shoulders. "And I can't think of a good name either. Not one that doesn't sound like a sports team or something from a corny TV show." She sets down her carton of food, "Though I think that can wait. We've mostly settled on what we want to say, right? We can swear our pledge, then eat and drink and talk, and maybe a name'll come to us sometime later."

**Coco** · Aug 21st, 2016 04:57 PM

"Aren't we all trying to achieve some modicum of perfection, though?" the Wasp objected, turning towards the profusion of beverages on the counter, picking up the bottle of champagne, then putting it down for a bottle of vodka.

"I mean, I know that you both don't share my views on the viability of perfection, but we're all trying to improve ourselves, aren't we? We're all trying to become better, better at what we do, better at being the best version of ourselves, better at everything, no? That's all I was trying to say. But if perfection makes you two so wary than we can change that line to: 'For a year and a day we will guard and support one another, keep confidence and give counsel, in flesh and in dream, and through knowledge of the others we will find new talents' or something."

She negligently waved the hand that held the bottle cap as she poured a healthy serving of alcohol into a cup and then adroitly screwed the cap back on and took up a small bottle of rum.

Aug 22nd, 2016 12:41 AM

"Works for me," Ava said with a small shrug. She understood what Coco was getting at, but since Ramona hadn't been comfortable with it either she was glad the word had been removed. Setting her beer down, it seemed inauspicious to made such an important pledge with it in hand, she cleared her throat.

"Bound by choice, we, as a family, shall be the stone beneath each other's feet, the air in each other's lungs, and a bulwark against the storm. For a year and a day we will guard and support one another, keep confidence and give counsel, in flesh and in dream, and our bodies and minds will grow stronger together. Should our intentions turn sour, and should we try to inflict harm upon the others, then let all our luck desert us, just as our family will." A few words moved, more from an inability to parrot back exactly what Coco had said a few minutes before in its entireity than design, but Ava knew she had most of it.

"I so swear."

Unless anyone wants a last minute change, Ava will spend the Willpower to get things started

**InvertedMonkey** · Aug 22nd, 2016 02:58 PM

Reaching for perfection is what's been hurting you so much. It's so tempted to give voice to that thought, as Ramona silently watches the Wasp for a moment. And perhaps Coco has lived a life where the struggle for perfection is a central conflict of her life. For a moment, the ogre wonders if the fairest has ever had to compromise that. She and Ava had spoken often of survival, of what they would sacrifice in the name of it. Has Coco ever had to even think about that? Struggling for perfection... it just seems so much less important to Ramona. There are other, more immediate concerns. Safety. Health. Secrecy. Vengeance. Perfection is, as much as Ramona hates the term, for the privileged.

Expression contemplative, she turns back to Ava, heeding the phrasing of the pledge and smiling at it's poetry. There's something Coco wanted there, a little aspect of each of them in the phrasing. Ramona's stone, Coco's breath, and Ava's autumn storm. "I also swear, and pledge myself to this motley."

**Coco** · Aug 23rd, 2016 01:23 PM

Coco finished making her drink, adding juice and twist of lime, before she turned to the others and raised her glass as though in a toast.

"Bound by choice, we, as a family, shall be the stone beneath each other's feet, the air in each other's lungs, and a bulwark against the storm. For a year and a day we will guard and support one another, keep confidence and give counsel, in flesh and in dream, and our bodies and minds will grow stronger together. Should our intentions turn sour, and should we try to inflict harm upon the others, then let all our luck desert us, just as our family will," Coco proclaimed, her tongue alighting upon the words as though it were poetry.

"I so swear," she finished, and then brought the drink to her lips and took a long swallow before she lowered it and regarded her new motley. She'd been waiting for what felt like forever for this day to come. In fact, she likely had, even before she'd been Taken, though her bewitched mortal mind might have never understood what it was that she had truly been yearning for. And yet, as she stared at the two women across from her, two friends that had just bound themselves to the promise of being even more, Coco couldn't help but feel as though she were on unsteady ground. For, though they had all just made that promise, now they were bound to uphold it, and there was still so much distance between them. A gulf to cross. A river to bridge.

"Since we're officially a family of choice now," she began again, "I think I'll share my news with you two! About the Law Firm. I got hired by one," Coco she proclaimed, sneaking a quick drink before continuing on.

"Well, not officially. I will be, though. And not as a lawyer, by the way, that would be silly. No, I'm going to be a consultant. A very well paid one, actually. Apparently, it's worth quite a bit of money when you can read a jury, or ensure that they reach the right decision."

If one of you would be amazing and log this in the Pledge thread that would be magnifilous! If not, lemme know and I'll do it.

Aug 25th, 2016 01:08 AM

Stuffing the scrap of paper back into her pocket, Ava sighed softly as the pledge settled into place. It would be different, quite different, from her first motley. But if she kept comparing the two groups they were already on shaky ground, and it had barely even formed. There was her own goal, she supposed: to cherish them as much as she had Jack, and Mal, and endeavor not to let another 'family' break apart.

She smiled down at her own drink, a mixture of apprehension and excitement vying for supremacy. Drowning the former with a long sip from her drink, the Nix's eyebrows rose appreciatively at Coco's news. And then, furrowed slightly. "Ensure that they reach the right decision? Is it going to be risky at all, for you?" Mundane justice wasn't really the top of her priorities, but things could get hairy fast. "Either way, congratulations! Should leave you with a lot of interesting stories to regale us with."

Finally reunited with the box of takeout she had been about to dig into before the talk of pledges took the forefront, Ava stabbed her utensil in, and paused. Eyes slowly tracked from the beef, to her motley. "Seems worth noting that you both already know about my previous eating... habits. And, Daniel knows. So if you feel the need to discuss it, for whatever reason, I'd prefer if it stayed between us, and him."

I'm putting together the pledge stuff to post, just working out the boons first!