No Rest for the Wicked [Nathalia]

[Kari Muffin]

It was hard not to notice that he was being stared at. Considering George was the only other person in the room who he was addressing, and considering they were actually facing each other. He ignored it for the time being. Right now he couldn't play around with explanations, if they got caught... he didn't want to think about it.

The question was a good question, even if he hadn't honestly expected it. Conway bit his tongue on the idea of explaining who exactly they were going to see. That wasn't exactly something he wanted to share with anyone. Having a child with some sort of horrible monster just because it would probably be the last chance ever of ever having children. Conway shifted awkwardly and nodded. "Yeah, I can trust them."

He slipped outside of the door when he was directed. He didn't bother to look in either direction for someone, he wasn't going to waste time being overly cautious. If someone randomly came down the hallway at this time of night he could probably pretend to be that wonderfully whorish washer woman or something.

Walking as fast as he could without running, Conway came to their destination fairly quickly. He slipped his hand on the doorknob, leaning his ear against the wood to check for any sounds of people. He didn't want to walk in while Apocalypse or Xiven were paying a late night visit or something. After a few moments he opened the door slowly.

A dim light filtered out of the room, apparently Conall wasn't even pretending to be asleep tonight. It was all the better for Conway, but he did feel bad for the poor boy. He never really did sleep well. With a faint frown he knocked on the door twice to get the boy's attention before opening it.



Conall jumped, his head snapping around with wide terrified eyes when he heard the knock. He was supposed to be sleeping, and generally adults didn't like it when he didn't listen. However, the knock at this time of night was the indicator that it was probably Mom. He relaxed a bit when the door opened. The faint light illuminated the figure, however strange it was, the scar across the face was impossible to miss. And who else would come to visit him at night besides Mom? The little boy's ears went back when he saw the other figure.

Conway motioned George to get into the room so he could close the door. If he didn't move fast enough Conway would tug on the man's sleeve. Once he was inside he slid the door shut quietly before turning to his son. He crossed the room quickly, lightly tapping the collar around his neck when he reached out to brush a bit of the boy's mane out of his face.

The boy reached up struggling a bit to remove the collar, but Conway was ultimately released after a minute or two. The man in a woman's body gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you Conall,"he said with a smile.

"Mommy? Who's that?"

Of course. Of course it had to be that awkward. "Ah, a friend of mine. Can you do me a favor sweetie and not tell anyone one you saw me with my friend? I don't want us to get in trouble, and I really really don't want Miss Xiven or Daddy to be upset with you. Can you just say that I asked you to take the collar off for me?"

The little boy nodded emphatically.

Conway refrained from sighing before giving the boy a light kiss on the nose. He pulled away rather quickly turning the George with a rather pained expression, pointing to the door.

The boy waved at George while his Mother's back was turned.

(( OOC: Sorry this is MASSIVE ))

[Nathalia]

George nodded briefly to Conway's assertion that the person could be trusted, scuttling out of the way and plastering himself to the walls of the palace, scooting in shadows and staying along the very edges of the palace as he followed his friend down the hall.

The situation was bizarre.
It made George wonder briefly if he had curled up in Mr. Whip's old office and gone to sleep...though a stubbed toe a few seconds later informed him that was a lie.
Good.
Good, actually, he preferred finding Conway to accidentally falling asleep in the Hearts palace.
Still...that, that right there?
That woman?
Yes, that was Conway.
He skirted a large, decorative vase on a dias and followed up the stairs as quietly as possible, keeping low and in the background.

Conway stopped abruptly, causing George to grip a nearby wall and hold his breath.
There was a light under the door, and Conway knocked gently.
George moved a little closer as Conway slipped in, hesitated, and had his shirt cuff grabbed.
The Club allowed himself to be tugged in and promptly, hugged that wall again.
Then glanced around.

Then froze.

There was a Card in the room.
A little one, with colors he'd never seen on anyone's hide before, the air was slightly rank and the little thing got up at once when Conway tapped on the collar, trotted over, and began to fiddle with it.
George couldn't help the look of utter bewilderment.
What was the thing?
What was sticking out of its back?

That...
George cast a wary eye over the child and just nodded when it glanced at him.
The collar fell away after a minute or so of fiddling, and George getting a good look at the tiny, ugly monstrosity.

Then it spoke.

Mommy?

George's jaw went slack for a full three seconds before he noticed it and snapped it shut.
Mommy?
Really? Did Conway have a girl, then? "Daddy?"
Why weren't they getting her too? Was she trapped somewhere?
Then Conway pointed to the door.

Hold on.

"Uh, h-hello." George muttered, trying a small smile at the boy. "Conway, aren't we taking him? We might not even-" He managed to cut himself off. "And what about your mate? Shouldn't we get her too? D-don't get me wrong, I want out too, but...I can spare some..."

He glanced down as he reached around and pulled a small silver watch from one of his pockets.
"Some time, Conway."

[Kari Muffin]

Conway looked a George for a long moment. The man in the woman's body almost looked as if he was going to burst into tears any minute. The idea of having a mate was something that he could only dream of. Having a real family. He glanced back at Conall, who seemed to be suddenly distracted. He watched the boy scurry over to his nightstand before answering George.

"I don't have a mate," he said in a sigh. "He... he's the result of what the King of Hearts did to me. A small part of what he did to me. I would love to bring Conall along, but they--the King and Queen--would hunt me down. At the very least Her Majesty would to prove a point. He's safer her. "

Conway shook his head, running his fingers through the long feminine hair. He couldn't take Conall along. Even though he was family. They couldn't be together. The little boy was better off here anyway. He just had to tell himself that, and everything would be fine. If he left Conall now... then the boy would at least be able to pretend that he had had a happy relationship with Apocalypse.

Conway almost jumped when he felt the boy tug on his skirt. His eyes widened slightly when he saw what the boy was offering him. He took it carefully from him and ruffled his rather messy mane. "Thank you, I imagine June would be upset if I left this behind." This was just getting harder and harder the longer they stayed here. He slipped the band that was tied to the end of June's tail to a loop in the belt that he was wearing.

The boy watched his parent curiously before eying the Torquehelm. Why was his Mommy with this person? And why didn't Mommy want him to tell Daddy and Miss Xiven the truth? This all seemed terribly strange. Was Mommy going to be back soon? He always came back when he went on those trips...

"George, please... let's go."

[Nathalia]

George balked slightly as the expression on Conway’s face fell...drastically.
It looked as though the wolf was about to...to um...be very upset.
Was his mate dea-....oh.
”Conway...I’m really sorry, I-“ He took a quick second look at the boy, nervously chewing at his lip. ”If...if you’re sure. Then I guess he should stay.”
Oh...Oh, he didn’t like this. A result of what the King of Hearts did to him?
Shit.
This was...not something he should ever really bring up again, was it?
He fiddled with the silver-backed watch uncomfortably as Conway was gifted something by his son, he felt miserably for his friend... Wished he could do something, but it seemed like the only thing he could really do to help Conway now would be to remove him from the situation.
At Conway’s plea, George straightened subconsciously and gave the room one last glance, finally making eye contact with the boy.
”Ok, ok just...t-two seconds.”
He moved over to the boy and crouched down, giving him a small smile. Gads, the poor thing was ugly! The King of Hearts must have changed from the one he remembered, this new one must be a hideous monster. He shuddered slightly, though to Conall it probably appeared more as a twitch.
”We’re going to go away for a while, alright? B-but I want you to take this.” He reached into a back pocket, pulled out a small bunch of varied watches and time keepers. After fiddling with the tangled chains for a few seconds, he withdrew a small, dented brass watch. The face was slightly cracked and its brass was flaking on the gilt edges. It quite obviously had no hands and couldn’t possibly be working.
”You’ll know what t-to do if you’re in trouble...and I want you to promise Conway that you’ll only use it if the trouble’s real, ok?”
He gingerly pressed the item into the boy’s hand, stepping back and hoping Conway wouldn’t rebuke him... But, he couldn’t steal the boy’s protection from the Hearts and leave him with nothing...even if the child was one.

Standing again shakily, he allowed pause for Conway to say something, then gingerly tugged at the Wolf’s sleeve and poked his head out into the hallway.
”Come on, we’ll go as far as we can until we’re either caught, or we get far enough away. Then, I can use one of these.” He gestured to the watches.

Moving off down the hallway, hugging the walls tightly, George kept his eyes on his friend and hoped against all hope that they wouldn’t run into anyone.


Small Brass Watch: This tiny watch doesn’t seem to be in very good condition...but it does feel rather obviously magical so...I suppose one could keep it. Once ever, it can be used to pause time for up to three minutes for the owner of the watch. Everything and everyone will be frozen except for them and the owner of the watch will be able to go wherever he wants with no time passing. He can do things to inanimate objects during this time, but living things become insubstantial to him. This item can only be used once.

[Kari Muffin]

(( OOC: So Conway gets /craptastic rolls/ apparently. I rolled a 9 on my d20 for the escape. ))

Conway wasn't particular sure how he was supposed to handle any of this. He was just doing his best to try and calm himself down. If he burst into tears right now it would just be... bad. So ultimately he ended up leaning against the wall, his one hand fiddling with his sister's tail. He watched quietly as George moved over to his son. What was he planning to do?

Conall titled his head to one side as he watched his the man crouch down before him. He smiled back with a curious expression. What was this friend of Mommy doing? Why did he twitch like that? The boy frowned when he spoke. "Okay..." he said in a small voice. He knew that Mommy was going away but... for how long? And what was this friend of Mommy giving him?

His eyes widened when he saw the collection of various tiny timekeeping implements. That was a lot of shiny things for one person to have. Why did he need so many? The boy made a surprised sound at the statement that came next. Wait, this strange friend of Mommy's was giving him a gift? Something that could protect him if he was in real danger. He swallowed hard as the item was pressed into his hands. "I promise."

Conway could feel something knot up in his stomach. He wished that it was because he had skipped meals that day, but knew better. He was leaving his only living family member behind. Even if Conall was going to be safer here.... it didn't make it hurt any less. "Be good. And don't forget anything I taught you."

The tug on his sleeve was enough to prevent him from bursting onto tears. He was leaving the palace. He was getting away from this nightmare. It was a reality. Though that brought up a rather curious... question. How was George going to use watches to...?

He'd ask later. Conway slipped out behind him, silent as ever. He ran his hand along the wall as they went. It was fairly silent out, and from the looks of it they could get out of the palace undetected.

It seemed very likely. That was until Conway felt someone grab his hair from behind. He let out a sharp yelp of surprise, covering his mouth frantically. Hopefully the yell wouldn't alert anyone else.

"You and your boyfriend going out for a little stroll there Con-wa-doodle?"

Shit. Emeraude. How long had she been there? They were almost out and just... really? At lest it wasn't the King or Queen of Hearts. Of course he didn't know how to handle this at all.

"How exactly did he get in the palace? Who are you sir?" She asked as she pulled Conway back to look at the man.

[Nathalia]

George felt his insides twist as he edged down the wall, watching Conway's...oddly feminine back sway down the hall.

That had been...traumatic.
Poor, poor Conway.
He tried to shake the boy's voice out of his head, he hadn't meant to cause something like...
Still, if Conway was leaving the boy, it had to be for good reason.
This place must be absolutely hellish to push that kind of desperation...and Conway looked as though Hell had run him over...
It had to be for the best.

His distraction cost him.
He didn't notice the girl until she had flounced over, albeit entirely without sound, and grabbed Conway's hair.
The look of her alone was enough to terrify him. If she was here, she was a Heart, and if she was grabbing Conway's hair and speaking derogatorily...then they were in trouble.
He gave the girl a wide-eyed, blank look as she shot a question at him, his hand shooting to his pockets and digging out two watches.

"P-please...I'm going to ask you once. Leave us alone."
He whispered, eyes darting all around their current trapped location, searching for others who might have been alerted.
Like Hell if he was going to give her his name...he was in enough trouble that she'd seen him.

George pulled himself back into the shadows, keeping his face down and pulling his shirt to as best he could to try to hide his Suit and Rank. If the girl made any move against them...then he would have to act, side effects be damned.

[Kari Muffin]

Conway felt the grip on his hair grow tighter as Emeraude drew him closer. He took a deep breath when he watched George react to her. This wasn't good. None of this was good. Couldn't they have just managed to sneak out? Maybe if he asked nicely the woman would just let them leave? She hated him right? Wouldn't she want to get him out of her hair?

Emeraude was biting her bottom limp as she watched the Torquehelm's hands dive into his pockets. She was expecting him to pull out knives, or some other sort of weapon, but when he pulled out the watches her eyebrows arched upwards in surprise. So he was threatening her with... watches.

Oh, and he was asking nicely at that.

It took all of her strength not to burst into hysterical laughter. This was some good entertainment. What had she managed to find? A boy threatening her with watches and the jumpy little Joker were planning to run away together. She loosened her grip on Conway's hair a bit. The boy, whoever he was, tried to hide his rank--or at least it looked like that. He seemed a little... dim... perhaps he was a Club? That would make quite a bit of sense.

"You really are a silly boy, whoever you are," she said after a moment of awkward silence. The smirk on her face was about a mile wide as she took her other hand and squeezed Conway around the chest. "You can have your little Connie Boo all to yourself. He's a bad influence on my Xiven. And you know, if you took the King with you I'd pay you 100 gold, but I wouldn't want to upset you little lovebirds."

She let go of Conway, nudging him forward. Xiven was going to be furious, but she would eventually get over it. And Conway would probably be back. He had that little problem with the King... unless he had solved it. That would have been splendid.

Conway made a rather concerned whimper when he felt the woman compress his chest. He was prepared for the worst. And then... she let him go. The words registered seconds later as he turned to stare at her with wide, terrified eyes. Was this really happening or had he hit his head?

Em waved a hand. "Come back if you make pretty babies."

He was just going to pretend he didn't hear that. "Let's go before she changes her mind," Conway said in almost one breath as he walked as fast as he possibly could.

[Nathalia]

George gave the woman a dark look and wasn't quite able to stop the low growl from rumbling out.
Barely audible, but quite threatening, from a Canine standpoint, at any rate.

Silly boy?
She wouldn't think so in half an hour, he though, delicately winding one of the watches and then clearly placing the pair back into his pockets with a stiff nod.

He remained hyper aware for any attack or lies, her presence was unnerving him...due to her clothing, he couldn't tell what she was, but he was certain she was a Heart...he just didn't know what rank.
Was this another King?
Maybe an assisting Queen?
His blood nearly froze at the thought as he picked up on smells emanating from Conway and the woman that he wouldn't normally be able to touch.

Mild amusement and mistrust.

They smelled bad.
Like burnt toast and jam that had gone off.

She squeezed Conway around the chest, pausing before she nudged him forward, casing George to half jerk forward in an aborted lunge, eyes darting and pupils dilated to ridiculous levels in his near panic.

Her speech confused him as Conway moved away from the woman.
They could...go? Because she was...what? Jealous of Conway, maybe?
He didn't want to know.

"If we took the...King?"
He asked, blankly, what one earth did she mean? Was there a King of another Suit trapped here? He'd be happy to take them...and 100 gold...
Conway didn't seem concerned though, maybe it was nothing?
He didn't seem to have time to find out. If the woman really was fickle enough to change her mind, and quickly, then they would need to be well away by the time she got around to sending the guards after them.

The Green-haired woman's parting shot confused him momentarily, and then made his lip curl...though he could see why she'd make the assumption.
Seeing what the escape could look like...it sounded a bit like some of the tales Ellen would read about star-crossed lovers.
Blah.

Taking Conway by the hand, and feeling a desperate chill when he realized he'd grabbed the paw, he rushed out the way he'd come. As silently as possible, ducking through hedges and taking deer trails.

After about half an hour of hurried escape, he would stop and turn to the Wolf.
"I'll need you to hold onto me, and don't try to get away, even if it feels weird...that would do bad things to the spell. S-sorry."

Once the Hisstor had agreed, he would pull a small, tarnished gold watch that looked in need of repair from his breast pocket, and wind it.

"It takes a second, hang on."

The sound of rushing wind descended on them as the sky seemed to bend to swallow them.


Brass Watch Winding Effect: Half an hour to an hour after being wound, this watch will effect anyone the caster desires within 50 feet at the time of the winding to suffer from inexplicable and horrific headaches for a full week. They will lessen in magnitude as the week goes on, the first day incapacitating them almost completely and the second making it difficult to do little more than eat and sleep.
Casting this spell, however, will cause the owner of the watch to begin, 3 hours after the spell has been cast, to fall ill.
They will suffer from fever fits and extreme lower back pain for a full 5 hours after the 3 hours since the spell has been cast.

[Kari Muffin]

Emeraude watched as they receded from view. She wasn't going to bother to tell anyone about the incident until Xiven woke up. Perhaps she should follow them for a bit more? But now they were on to her.

And that silly boy seemed terribly high strung. Enough that she might regret following them. Suits only knew what he had under his sleeves. No weapons, clearly, but magic could be just as dangerous. She'd let the guards sort things out, assuming any of them got a clue. She would, at least keep her distance, and follow the trail later to cover her ass if worse came to worst.

Conway would have been terribly offended at the last parting comment, but he was too busy trying not to panic. There were so many things that Emeraude could do to make this escape impossible and miserable. He almost jumped when George took him by the hand. He opened his mouth to protest, but snapped it shut. No point in protesting when they were trying to get out of here as quickly as possible.

When they finally stopped Conway felt like he was almost out of breath. When exactly was the last time he had had proper rest? Or managed to eat something without being forced? Why hadn't he tried to take better care of himself?

An eyebrow quirked at George's comment. "All right," he said with a nod. They were friends, he trusted him, and they had gotten this far. There was no point in doubting him now.

So he held on George with his good hand, waiting for whatever it was to happen. The sound made him tighten his grip. No wonder he had made the comment about not to get away. This was a small shade of terrifying.

(( OOC: and who is the spell being cast on? ))

[Nathalia]

((OOC: The spell was cast on Em, as she was the only one around. ))

George had no clue that they were being followed.
He was far too intent on the fear of being pursued by a large group of someones to be bothered with actually trying to sniff anyone out.
He expected it.

At this point, he was just glad that Conway was following without protest.
Last thing he needed at this point was for Conway to tie the situation up.

As soon as he felt the fingers encircle his wrist and grip, he set the spell off.
The roaring of the wind around them whipped everything flat, the two men feeling as though they were being slammed into the earth before they vanished completely.
The wind itself was enough to knock everything for half a mile flat, kicking up clouds of thick dust and debris.

George had the breath sucked out of him, and clung to Conway's wrist as tightly as he could, if either of them let go...he had no idea where the wolf would end up.

Three grueling minutes later and they were dumped unceremoniously on the hard ground in front of a cluster of tall trees in a dark wood.
The wind slowly dissipated, still whipping at their hair and making George squint as he hauled his friend upright.
"Quick! Conway, come on. We c-can't let anyone see."

Pulling roughly, he heaved the Wolf after him over to a small hillock near the cluster of trees, a few seconds of hurried fiddling and he managed to open what looked like a circular door in the hill... One that would be oddly familiar to Conway.

The hallway inside hadn't changed much either, still lined with soft, wine-colored carpet and the walls with simple portraits.

George stayed back and shut the door quickly, locking it and dropping a large metal bar across its length.
"Come on...I'll need to tell Master that he has a g-guest."