Turn 3: Summer 1983
- Location
- At the computer
Birds of a feather and all that. On another side, the rolls for the 'summer invasion' got out of hand, so sorry I couldn't post yesterday, I had a hard time spinning it in a passable way. Geeze, this was supposed to be the lighthearted playthrough because of Dace's flippant view on life and (grand) daughteru's... (grand) daughteru-ness.
Summer 1983 : Three words: Puppies, Revelations, Hell.
"I see, you worked really hard, didn't you?" Dace declared to the young woman in front of him. They were on the bed of a guest bedroom, talking, fully clothed no funny business here thank you very much and Dace wasn't a valid target for your affections sorry Lily, the redhead having had a good cry over everything that happened to her. There were empty pots of vanilla ice cream laying on the ground, casualties of the war, and Lily was currently in her spring roll form, covers forming a protective cocoon around her. The Lily-roll was also sitting, her arms going through strategically placed holes in the covers, and she was hesitantly petting a wolf puppy, who was obviously enjoying the attention, its tiny, fuzzy tail whipping through the air like a windmill, yipping, and trying to alternatively catch her fingers, his tail, and failing at both which often made it fall on its butt.
Dace selected the nicest, goofiest, least threatening puppy of the bunch to make sure she understood wolves and werewolves were nothing alike. Besides, if it worked with Dace's phobia of cats, it had to have some impact here, right? So far it seemed to work better than his chances with McGonagall. Though, it may have been the aromantic aspect that weird-ed her out, him running away almost screaming in terror when she turned into a cat probably didn't help.
"Thanks, it means a lot to me." Lily gave him a watery smile, before rubbing her eyes. "I'm sorry I made a fool of myself back there, you had to jump in to save me again huh."
"It's fine, I was in the area anyways." He waved her apologies aside, swatting away the excited baby animal's sneak attack on him, making it fall back onto the bed, bouncing away back to Lily. It then proceeded to play dead, four paws in the air and whining, causing Lily to tentatively scratch his belly, laughing a bit.
"You're not scary at all, are you? You silly dog."
She may, however, have acquired the same difficulty to separate dog and wolf that Dace developed along the way. Though, to be fair, their behavior towards the humans of the mansion was the same as a dog's so it could be excused. In any case, Lily seemed stable enough for Dace to do his job as an educator without risking her exploding at him. Still, obtaining the lady's consent was the gentlemanly thing to do.
"Lily, do you feel ready to look over what you did wrong?" He asked her gently, passing her yet another pot of ice cream. He was mildly surprised she could eat that much, it was the fifth in two hours, yet again, potioneers were cheaters, her stomach was likely a lot more acidic than normal.
Lily looked up at him, biting her lip, before nodding wordlessly, hugging the puppy who busied itself with licking her chin.
"Good. The first problem was that you were too impatient. You should have waited that the noise around the place died after people investigated it. As it were, you pretty much broadcasted your location and intentions to all of the other factions, which allowed them to find you and nip the threat you represent in the bud."
Lily flinched at him pointing out her biggest character flaw but hummed her understanding.
"Next is an affinity problem. I gather you had difficulties using Order spells?"
Another nod.
"Order spells need to be cast with a tranquil state of mind, and if there's one thing I know about you, it's that you're easily riled up. You're a very passionate woman, if we were to be objective, the models that corresponded the most to you would be Chaos and Life. However, those two are out for obvious reasons. Your third mistake was trusting Dumbledore."
That earned him a raised eyebrow despite her red rimmed eyes, and Dace raised his hands in surrender.
"I despise the man, everybody knows about that, however, I acknowledge both his intentions and ability. "Even if it stung." The problem is the people he surrounds himself with. As far as my network knows, he spends most of his time putting out fires in the ministry, keeping the Underworld in check, and bailing his followers out of trouble. That leaves too distracted to bother checking where their loyalties lie, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've got several spies among them. That's probably why they knew Dumbledore was on the move, and made their own to sabotage the chances of an alliance. Then there is Aife and her clique, but one thing I count on is that any plot she comes with fails in a rather spectacular way. It would be entertaining if it wasn't so embarrassing."
She gave out a strangled laugh and squeezed more, causing the puppy to wriggle and free himself, before going back to frolicking under the bed. She looked at it mournfully, putting a spoonful of Ice cream in her mouth while Dace snorted and patted her back. And that's when things basically went to hell.
The wall exploded, revealing Aife and some unknown persons, and a stag with blood covered antlers. It took him a second to realize it was an animagus, time that was used to morph and reveal James Potter, while wands were raised against Dace. Well. That was annoying. Aife threw a glance at Lily and spoke at her, smiling reassuringly, part of the wall fell, revealing the full moon outside.
"I'm sure things are confusing right now, but you need to come with us, that man is bad news, don't worry, we'll protect you."
"Pro...tect." Lily's face was white and her eyes glazed over, turning towards James. "A stag." She continued dazedly.
Dace put his arm in front of her, wandless, and spoke out almost conversationally.
"Somehow, I do not think Dumbledore knows of it." Some of them looked guilty, but Aife just scowled even deeper, glaring at his arm.
"Albus isn't the only member of the order. We're here to save Lily from you!" She sniped, making the older man laugh drily.
"Like you were here for her all of there years? When her friends were killed? When her apprenticeship fell through due to her status? When you left her alone to fend for herself against Riddle and his army of darkness?"
"Voldemort is dead, he was vanquished on Halloween by the prophecy child. You're just one of the Necromancer's followers trying to capitalize on the fear he invoked to further your agenda!"
Upon hearing that, Dace sneered, looking down at her in a definitely unpleasant expression.
"So that's your current theory to try to keep things as close as you canonical point of view. How cute. However, you forgot a small, unimportant detail... Harry Potter was never born."
That apparently got to her as surprise was plain to see. But Dace continued, deciding that as a father, it was his duty to deal with his (ex) daughter's delusions.
"Lily and James never married, and why would they? You beloved mutt killed her best friend Severus in front of her after all, even if she didn't know about that back then. Did you think she'd ever date successfully that man, Severus' biggest bully, after seeing her best friend die confessing his feelings of love to her?" Dace tilted his head like a bird, a cruel light in his eyes. "Did you think this is the only thing your interference ruined? Oh no, no no no, you don't get out of it that easily my dear."
"Shut up!" James shouted at him, brown light going out of his wand and catching Dace in the chest, sending him into the wall. There was a meaty thud and he fell, wheezing. The smile on the elder Gwallawg's face, however, was only one step short of demonic.
"It's fine... live your life as you want it... After all... Your daughter is here to... Pick up the slack."
"I don't have a daughter." Aife affirmed, uncertainly, doubt visible on her face, which made Dace cackle and hack, secretly glad today was a day where his granddaughter was sleeping at Narcissa's.
"Ever wondered what s it that you forgot after you poisoned me?" The dawning horror on her face was hilarious.
Moonlight was streaming on the room by now, but before Dace could finish breaking the impertinent chit, an odd strangling noise on his left had him looking at Lily. She looked even worse, eyes fixated on the moon. The full moon.
Oh dear. Was all the man thought, before falling, stomach flat on the ground, activating a secret passage and crawling to safety, terrified puppy under an arm.
"The stag... Under the full moon... You were here but why.. Sev' said... But then... The wolf... Mooney... The marauders? But then... Prongs." Her right hand began scratching at her temple, the other holding an indigo cube that seemed to be the Order anchor. "Prongs was here... Moony was here...Sev' said-Catspaw-yourfault-youwerehere!" Her speech became more and more erratic as she began shouting, her hand falling back to her side. Dace couldn't see her face, but he hade a nice view of James' tentative of denial and Aife's panic of having the situation fly out of her control. When Lily spoke out again, it was with death in her voice. "This is all your fault. Your fault. Your fault, your fault yourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyOurfAUltyourfFAUltyourFAUltYOURFAULT!"
She screamed so loudly and shrilly that Dace had to cover his ears, the scream a lot more stronger than it should be, with an odd echo to it.
Then, the cube in her hand broke, and everything became red.
When Dace came back to consciousness, the first thing he felt was heat, but he smelled no smoke. He opened one eye, then two, and saw something really unexpected. Lily apparently underwent some sort of growth spurt, her hair bright red and surrounded by an aura of fire, and was currently straddling Aife, holding her head and bashing it to the floor, while a pillar of not-fire rose to the sky, keeping any spell from going through. The manor was totaled, it seemed. On the side, back against a half destroyed wall, James was holding the cauterized stump that was his left arm. Too bad it was also his dominant arm huh. Meanwhile, Aife managed to kick Lily in the sternum, sending her flying. However, Lily fell on her fours and pounced again, nails turned into bright red claws digging into her abdomen, causing a rain of scarlet to gush out.
Now that he really concentrated on it, the howl suspiciously looked like 'die die die'...
It really looked like Lily was going to kill Aife, as her teeth were digging into his daughter's shoulder, hands raking through her torso in the non-fun-likely-extremely-painful way, when a voice resounded through the chaos, booming like thunder.
In a flash of light, Dumbledore had arrived.
However, This Dumbledore didn't look happy at all. In fact, he looked positively furious in the first time since ever. Taller than usual, blue eyes showing none of their usual mirth, his face black and beard almost clapping with electricity.
"ENOUGH." He said simply, the aura of power around him deforming it until it sounded like a giant's war cry. Lily looked at him and hissed, before launching herself in his direction. He looked at her with pity in his eyes, before raising his hand, covered with what seemed to be a golden armor and caught her face. A bright flash of light came from his palm, making her screech as if her very soul was attacked. Then, after a while, she stopped struggling, her body turning limp. Dumbledore let her fall gently onto what remained of the bed and stared at Dace, who scowled, raised his arms in an 'I'm the victim here!' way expressing his indignation at being suspected and then shamelessly pointed his fingers at the wayward vigilante club members.
Following the pointed digits, Dumbledore's expression turned thunderous again as he walked towards his followers. With one last apologetic glance at Dace that also promised that they wouldn't be getting out of it scott free, he drew his wand and everyone dissipated in smoke, leaving Dace alone in his house's ruins with Lily sobbing, prostrated on the ground.
The small animal, having realized danger was over, padded towards her and began licking at her face.
"P-Pu-ppy...Pu-uppy..." The young woman was babbling incoherently, clearly out of her mind.
Well, Dace thought, this was just great.
Dumbledore just ran out of patience, And Dace makes for a(n un) surprisingly good villain. You'll get the numbers and all tomorrow. Lots of votes to make, since it's the planning phase, therefore enjoy your chapter without any responsibilities
I hope Lily's speech showed how much her mental state degraded in an emotional way? I'm not that good with emotional writing, which is why Dace looks like a sociopath.
( Dace's true feelings regarding his daughter, finally revealed!)
The Aife-Negaverse is currently on fire due to the revelation of Dace having known about canon all along and the fact he revealed just how much she messed up. Pissed Grandpa isn't a nice grandpa. Then, there's that thing about Lily utterly wrecking them while berserk. that's 42 martial an 59 mysticism for you
Orderquest Status : sobbing in a corner and begging for mercy.
Lifequest: Ready to show who exactly kicked Grindelwand's butt so hard he's still sobbing about it in his tower.
Deathquest/Chaosquest : Wondering what's happening right now
Guess who rolled a Nat 1 (result after modifiers : -21) on her composure roll, immediately followed by a 94 (result after modifiers : 114) Amplitude roll... and a 84 on an attention roll. Lily goes boom indeed. So, don't hold your breath on her becoming the learning adviser right now, now you need to bring her back to the sane side of Nature. You may PM to ask about some rolls for this chapter if you're curious, but it's a bit spoilery.
Part of Aife's attitude with her father maaaay have been unconscious jealousy over his paternal treatment of Lily. Hey, you guys are the one who took the 'sword that slayed the king' perk, you should have expected some amounts of 'chichiueeeee!'.
Now though, since everyone and their mother messed up in some way, I need to release information about Dace's failures, otherwise, I'd risk people calling me out on him being too competent
.In any case, Lily's gonna need massive amounts of puppy therapy. I hope you guys don't dislike the doge, because you'll see lots of 'em.
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