Xerxes Break (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
payingfordeliverance) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deercountry2021-11-05 03:47 pm
payingfordeliverance) wrote in deercountry2021-11-05 03:47 pm
Entry tags:
House Log 002: Be our guest
Who: A pile of Pandoras and a pile of RWBYs and perhaps some assorted close attachments
What: A mingle log in which two houses alike in dignity have a slumber party for great CR kickstart justice
When: End of the first week in November, before the month becomes established as a horrifying shitshow
Where: Pandora House, which still needs a cooler name
Content Warnings: Nothing in the log prompts; mushroom monsters are present if we feel like being rude.
Somewhere around the end of September, Xerxes Break made a joke about slumber parties explicitly because he knew it would make Qrow Branwen's life difficult and that struck him as very funny. Now, he has to make good on this and throw a proper one. You'd think this would count as the joke backfiring on him but no, no, it most certainly does not -- Break and his pack of feral Victorian teenagers all thrive on a good party in their own way, and having come from an old-fashioned world they are already quite busy preparing to hunker down inside for the wintertime. Unused to being able to pass long, harsh nights with things like television and video games, they have many activities at hand to indulge in, and Break has already been hard at work stockpiling food like some sort of rabid hobbit.
The house itself is warm and pleasantly haunted and cozy in a way that only happens in homes that aren't accustomed to things like electric heat -- there are piles of quilts and blankets scattered around most rooms, free for the taking if someone wants to wrap themselves up, and all the communal rooms have fires going in their fireplaces. The heat that radiates from those spots is the kind that can thaw out frozen bones in a way that nothing else can. And the feel of the house itself is...well, despite the various struggles of its inhabitants, it just feels like the house is daring to hope that it can be happy. After all, it sat abandoned and empty for a long time, the more terrible of the ghosts that haunted it always inevitably chasing away anyone who dared try to settle down here. Those ghosts are gone as of last month, and the fact that every single person living here is now getting a second chance at simply being someone has already begun seeping into the walls themselves. Although it's still early enough in the month that the intense danger November brings with it hasn't yet become widely known, the house feels decidedly safer than the outside all the same, with a faint sense of benevolent sentience hitting as soon as one walks through the door.
That's what you get in a house full of darkbloods (and Oz).
Food: Probably it's no surprise to anyone who knows Break that the kitchen is where that sense of protectiveness is strongest; this is the room he's taken over as his personal territory. Feeling much better with last month's homesickness finally easing up, he spends the day of the party cooking enough to feed the whole crew -- he's been learning to cook mostly in restaurants, so this is no problem. Having been warned that beef in particular is about to become scarce for the season, he's gotten a hold of a good chunk of it and has put together a big cauldron of beef stew, with potatoes and leeks and many, many mushrooms and things to round it all out. This is one of exactly two proper meals that Break has mastered already, given that the basis of a stew is to chop up exactly the right things and then put them in a pot, and the house smells more and more exquisite the closer you get to the kitchen. There's fresh bread, too, and though the loaves are still a little misshapen they taste just fine, and he's recruited Lysithea to help out with her wonderful baked sweets. Break will sneak away for further baking when he's in want of a bit of quiet, too, so expect further treats all night. Of particular note, in the wee hours when the house is getting properly chilly, he produces a wonderful warm drink: A big pot of (non-alcoholic) spiced berry juice, rich and red and warmed up with cloves and cinnamon sticks and slices of the last fresh oranges he was able to snatch up at the docks floating about inside. Victorians know how to do winter food, and why wait for the snow to really get going?
Movies: This is something new and exciting for the Pandoras. Bereft of any kind of proper screen, they've been taught to pin up white bedsheets against the wall in the parlor, and someone's omni has been recruited to project things onto it. Given the recent spooky season and some of the kids learning about Halloween, many of the movies of choice tonight are themed thus, such as Hocus Pocus and The Others. But someone having figured out how to search the omni has resulted in Beauty and the Beast, too, for something a little less creepy. This whole thing is super great. Who knew you could go to the theater without having to get dressed and leave the house?
Arts and Crafts: The other thing happening in the parlor is the coffee table being taken over by art supplies. The Alices like to make things, and have been amusing themselves lately putting together decorations for the house. We have paints, fancy papers with pretty patterns on, scissors, glue, glitter, the works. The sorts of art supplies you'd expect from a couple of girls who spent the bulk of their early lives locked, in some capacity, in a tower. It's something fun to play with while the movies are running. It is possible that White Alice may be working on painting swirly bits on an animal skull of some sort. Don't worry about it, it's fine.
Game Room: The house does have an actual dining room, nice and long and with high ceilings. Given that the kitchen with its huge wooden table is plenty big enough to eat in, they haven't bothered to use it as such. Instead, there's a table set up off to the side for board games and jigsaw puzzles -- and, more importantly, the bulk of the room is totally clear for things like indoor badminton and a ball made for kicking about. Possibly this is because Break spent all of September trying to convince himself it was silly to worry that the Alices had been eaten by something only to have them turn up in October and tell him of having been eaten by a giant fish, and he freaked out and decided he doesn't want the kids playing outside where the beasts are unless they have to. He is not telling.
Training: That said, weapons training simply needs to happen outside, and it's entirely possible that sooner or later it will come up that this slumber party is full of weapons enthusiasts and at least four of them, inexplicably, are scythe users. If that happens, there's a clear space outside in the backyard that Break has been using for his own drills, grass already trampled flat and a few nice sturdy posts that a blade has clearly been whacking away at. There's a nice stone wall around the property that will keep a great many of the unsavory creatures out, as some of the back used to be a garden which has long since grown wild, and Break has taken a hint from Gaze and set up several tall incense burners, too. If anyone is feeling in want of a midnight spar for some reason, this is where they can go -- but keep in mind that the wall won't keep the poisonous floating mushroom creatures out, and given that said garden has proven to be a mushroom oasis, the horrible little shuffling ones that induce hellscape hallucinations may be about, too.
What: A mingle log in which two houses alike in dignity have a slumber party for great CR kickstart justice
When: End of the first week in November, before the month becomes established as a horrifying shitshow
Where: Pandora House, which still needs a cooler name
Content Warnings: Nothing in the log prompts; mushroom monsters are present if we feel like being rude.
Somewhere around the end of September, Xerxes Break made a joke about slumber parties explicitly because he knew it would make Qrow Branwen's life difficult and that struck him as very funny. Now, he has to make good on this and throw a proper one. You'd think this would count as the joke backfiring on him but no, no, it most certainly does not -- Break and his pack of feral Victorian teenagers all thrive on a good party in their own way, and having come from an old-fashioned world they are already quite busy preparing to hunker down inside for the wintertime. Unused to being able to pass long, harsh nights with things like television and video games, they have many activities at hand to indulge in, and Break has already been hard at work stockpiling food like some sort of rabid hobbit.
The house itself is warm and pleasantly haunted and cozy in a way that only happens in homes that aren't accustomed to things like electric heat -- there are piles of quilts and blankets scattered around most rooms, free for the taking if someone wants to wrap themselves up, and all the communal rooms have fires going in their fireplaces. The heat that radiates from those spots is the kind that can thaw out frozen bones in a way that nothing else can. And the feel of the house itself is...well, despite the various struggles of its inhabitants, it just feels like the house is daring to hope that it can be happy. After all, it sat abandoned and empty for a long time, the more terrible of the ghosts that haunted it always inevitably chasing away anyone who dared try to settle down here. Those ghosts are gone as of last month, and the fact that every single person living here is now getting a second chance at simply being someone has already begun seeping into the walls themselves. Although it's still early enough in the month that the intense danger November brings with it hasn't yet become widely known, the house feels decidedly safer than the outside all the same, with a faint sense of benevolent sentience hitting as soon as one walks through the door.
That's what you get in a house full of darkbloods (and Oz).
Food: Probably it's no surprise to anyone who knows Break that the kitchen is where that sense of protectiveness is strongest; this is the room he's taken over as his personal territory. Feeling much better with last month's homesickness finally easing up, he spends the day of the party cooking enough to feed the whole crew -- he's been learning to cook mostly in restaurants, so this is no problem. Having been warned that beef in particular is about to become scarce for the season, he's gotten a hold of a good chunk of it and has put together a big cauldron of beef stew, with potatoes and leeks and many, many mushrooms and things to round it all out. This is one of exactly two proper meals that Break has mastered already, given that the basis of a stew is to chop up exactly the right things and then put them in a pot, and the house smells more and more exquisite the closer you get to the kitchen. There's fresh bread, too, and though the loaves are still a little misshapen they taste just fine, and he's recruited Lysithea to help out with her wonderful baked sweets. Break will sneak away for further baking when he's in want of a bit of quiet, too, so expect further treats all night. Of particular note, in the wee hours when the house is getting properly chilly, he produces a wonderful warm drink: A big pot of (non-alcoholic) spiced berry juice, rich and red and warmed up with cloves and cinnamon sticks and slices of the last fresh oranges he was able to snatch up at the docks floating about inside. Victorians know how to do winter food, and why wait for the snow to really get going?
Movies: This is something new and exciting for the Pandoras. Bereft of any kind of proper screen, they've been taught to pin up white bedsheets against the wall in the parlor, and someone's omni has been recruited to project things onto it. Given the recent spooky season and some of the kids learning about Halloween, many of the movies of choice tonight are themed thus, such as Hocus Pocus and The Others. But someone having figured out how to search the omni has resulted in Beauty and the Beast, too, for something a little less creepy. This whole thing is super great. Who knew you could go to the theater without having to get dressed and leave the house?
Arts and Crafts: The other thing happening in the parlor is the coffee table being taken over by art supplies. The Alices like to make things, and have been amusing themselves lately putting together decorations for the house. We have paints, fancy papers with pretty patterns on, scissors, glue, glitter, the works. The sorts of art supplies you'd expect from a couple of girls who spent the bulk of their early lives locked, in some capacity, in a tower. It's something fun to play with while the movies are running. It is possible that White Alice may be working on painting swirly bits on an animal skull of some sort. Don't worry about it, it's fine.
Game Room: The house does have an actual dining room, nice and long and with high ceilings. Given that the kitchen with its huge wooden table is plenty big enough to eat in, they haven't bothered to use it as such. Instead, there's a table set up off to the side for board games and jigsaw puzzles -- and, more importantly, the bulk of the room is totally clear for things like indoor badminton and a ball made for kicking about. Possibly this is because Break spent all of September trying to convince himself it was silly to worry that the Alices had been eaten by something only to have them turn up in October and tell him of having been eaten by a giant fish, and he freaked out and decided he doesn't want the kids playing outside where the beasts are unless they have to. He is not telling.
Training: That said, weapons training simply needs to happen outside, and it's entirely possible that sooner or later it will come up that this slumber party is full of weapons enthusiasts and at least four of them, inexplicably, are scythe users. If that happens, there's a clear space outside in the backyard that Break has been using for his own drills, grass already trampled flat and a few nice sturdy posts that a blade has clearly been whacking away at. There's a nice stone wall around the property that will keep a great many of the unsavory creatures out, as some of the back used to be a garden which has long since grown wild, and Break has taken a hint from Gaze and set up several tall incense burners, too. If anyone is feeling in want of a midnight spar for some reason, this is where they can go -- but keep in mind that the wall won't keep the poisonous floating mushroom creatures out, and given that said garden has proven to be a mushroom oasis, the horrible little shuffling ones that induce hellscape hallucinations may be about, too.
no subject
Lysithea's summary sounds like it could very well have come out of his own world. Although, nobody of his personal acquaintance has a penchant for fireballs.
"Stunning, how easily just one person can make a mess of things for everyone." He, too, takes a cookie. This is the sort of conversation where you just have to crunch on something. "Then, I take it this Edelgard's 'vision' is either not an improvement in the slightest, or something she'll sacrifice as many innocent lives as she likes for, claiming it's for the best?"
no subject
"To be generous to Edelgard... it is transparent to most who care to take a look that the structures serving as the foundations of our society are rotten. Fódlan truly creates needless suffering."
A few distressingly harsh chomps of the cookie follow.
"But war is war. Thousands have already died in the name of progress and revolution. And to what end? We are currently at a stalemate. All of us have too much to lose to not fight - only the powerful care for lofty ideals. The rest of us only care about our families - our friends. But truth be told..." She allows this phrase to hang for a few moments as she seeks the right words. "This will end in total conquest, one way or the other. There has been four years of all-out war. Either Edelgard succeeds - or the Holy Kingdom crushes her and annexes us, installing the might of the Church of Seiros for decades to come, or... we... somehow, miraculously win."
She laughs incredulously.
"I don't even know what we're after. We don't go much in for emperors or kings. The Alliance represents something difficult to find on Fódlan: an attempt at communication and understanding across different peoples. Not that we aren't deeply flawed in many regards."
no subject
Break is intensely unimpressed by these kinds of people. It's his own servant nature, probably. Deeply devoted to those he follows if and only if he has deemed them worth following, just the barest description of Edelgard's life choices here has him half convinced he'd be out with some resistance or other, engaged in obnoxious guerrilla warfare.
no subject
Lysithea does not comment immediately, choosing instead to pensively polish off the cookie. She is reaching for a third when she decides that she is probably going to give herself some sort of disorder if she eats this much sugar in one go.
"I've thought about it a great deal, of course. I think I can understand how she feels. You see, we both suffer from the same... ailment." This portion is difficult to explain without growing maudlin, but Lysithea had always spoken honestly of her condition in the past. There is no reason to hide it now, after it has been resolved. "Edelgard is going to die very young. So she wants to... revolutionize the world while she still has time. It's the sort of stupid, foolhardy thing one thinks of in those circumstances."
...Why is she defending Edelgard? Stupid, really. It's almost as if she needs this war to have meaning - for it to be more than just the megalomaniacal desires of a foolish young woman that has destroyed so many lives already.
"Not that I approve of what she's doing in the slightest. You can never really understand somebody, in the end."
no subject
That explains a few things about Lysithea, too, and Break logs this tidbit away to chew on more thoroughly later. It's also...hm, hm. It's one of those situations where this -- young woman's motive may be understandable, but it just makes him all the more determined not to excuse her.
"It was an ailment that took yours truly out as well, more or less," Break says candidly. "I suppose we should all be grateful I didn't develop it until the last year or so of my life. I was impossibly stupid all the way up until twenty-five or so."
And so it is that Break considers a young empress attempting to leave her mark on the world and thinks "well, I am much too old for this shit in paritcular." He is ascending in this moment.
no subject
Lysithea's words are gentle, though she does not waste anyone's time with empty reassurances. That had generally been her least favorite part of being chronically ill. She pauses before glancing at his sightless eyes. "Is it related to your vision at all?"
In the end, she had been transported to Trench before she could succumb to her own fate. It didn't make much difference, though - she had, perhaps, a scant five years remaining, and it was surely possible that her doom would have taken her before the war even resolved. Trench was her home now. There was no other option to consider.
"It is all impossibly stupid, isn't it? And yet the world dances at the impossibly stupid whims of the powerful. That is the irony in what Edelgard desires - a world where no one can do exactly what she has done."
Perhaps it was a sort of hypocrisy, too.
"Well. Does that satisfy your curiosity about my world, Mr. Xerxes Break?"
no subject
As usual, Break isn't actually telling the whole truth here. He was deeply wounded in the end, and died right after his last fight. It's entirely possible that injury in particular would have killed him even if he had been in fine health. Given the circumstances, though, he feels a lot better granting the kill to something he himself chose rather than a grand idiot not much better than he himself was.
"It does, it does. You have my thanks for indulging me, Miss Lysithea."
no subject
That made sense. If he had a new body, then naturally the illness would not have carried over and any degeneracy suffered by his previous body was no longer applicable. But she frowns, suddenly - she has realized something.
"But you're still blind..."
Perhaps it wasn't worth investigating. Break was still blind, and she... she was still silver-haired and rosy-eyed and frail and frequently short of breath. Somehow, it felt as if there were a contradiction here.
"Well, no thanks needed. It's nice to talk about the past sometimes - even if you know that's where it must stay. There are some things I miss about my world. Some things I'll always miss."
no subject
There's only so much healing you can do from something like this, or so he thinks. Honestly, he's grateful to feel as well as he does, even if he is very much past his prime. But Lysithea's words will plant a seed of doubt later, when one of the weeper mushrooms restores his sight for a few days. That won't make any sense at all, once Break settles down to think about it.
"...mm. That's true anytime one moves from one phase of life to the next, I think. If we're permitted to grow old here, no doubt we'll be reminiscing about how different the Boardwalk was in 'the old days', and this or that particular October festival, and little shops come and gone."
no subject
If these are truly newly synthesized bodies (and she has seen the squids - they certainly are), then they must find their shape through the memories or expectations of the mind. That being the case... Deprived of her Crests and of the foul magic that had stunted her life, there was no reason other than her own expectations that her hair and eyes remain depigmented.
She will reflect on it further at a later date.
"Very philosophical. We should probably learn how to actually live in this town before we start growing nostalgic for it." She pauses. "On the subject of little shops, though..."
She genuinely does need to do some prep work for tomorrow's orders.
"Thank you for inviting me over, Xerxes. It was a pleasure to meet some of your friends."
no subject
He means that, and the smile he summons up for her is an honest and gentle one. Break has no reason to have her over for his own sake when he's at her place several times a week. But Lysithea is closer to his kids in age than she is to him, and he'd been hoping they might get on well. Learning that the pale Alice in particular is talking freely with strangers is all it takes to make him feel justified in that wish.
"You're certain you need to leave?" he asks, knowing full well that she does and why, but manners are manners. "We've guest rooms, if you'd rather."
no subject
Lysithea smiles as well, and though these occasions are more frequent than they were in Deerington, they are still rare enough to be a surprising sight. She had enjoyed herself here more than she had expected.
Making friends was not one of her talents, but... there was perhaps room to practice.
"Thanks for the offer, though. Perhaps another time. Have a good rest of the night - you have a lot of lively companions."
And with that, Lysithea takes her leave.