A Knight for Drinking {open}

[Lancelot du Lac]

a fully armored and geared knight stood in front of a bar. The sentence read like it should be setting up some sort of junk, like a horrible quip missing the punchline. But it just happened to be describing reality instead, Lancelot's current reality. He stood before Adam's Bar and Grill, not immediately recognizing it. The knight wore his full kit, with a beat up leather satchel containing other supplies, primarily some writing utensils and a full healer's kit.

Lance stared up at the building. He stood in silence for some time, just looking. He looked left, staring down the long, untended street. He looked right. Then Lance spat a vile curse, rubbing at his face. "Here? Again?" he asked, as if questioning the world or maybe the cruel hand of Fate. He really should've figured. Magic always dragged them here. Which put Gwen right back in contact with everyone else... and Lance knew he shouldn't be feeling a stab of anger at that.

Then again, anger had become a much more constant companion for the knight. Knight consort, knight errant, but always a knight on the side, a knight living in sin even as he dedicated his life. Fate and life were always beating the crap out of him, and Lance was losing his patience with it, with magic. He just wanted to punch something. Or maybe swing a sword.

Smiling, Lance drew his sword and made quick work of the vines at the door. He followed by violently kicking, knocking it loose. It took a few kicks, but soon he had entrance into the building. "Let's see what survived," he said, moving closer and looking around. He'd get an idea here, then he'd start looking for them. For Gwen, for the others... Arthur and Merlin were likely here. Who else...

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin had come into the town to see if there was anybody else around, and to see if it was suffering the same fate as the school - so far it seemed to be, everything was just as abandoned and run down as the school had been, with no signs of life. Well, that wasn't strictly accurate, no signs of human life, apart from that there was life in abundance.
He was about to give it up since there was little hope of finding anything in such a sprawling, overgrown place, and most people would know to make their way to the school, where they would find things at least beginning to clear, but then he saw something new - an open door.

He moved over to the bar slowly, close enough to see that the vines around the door had been broken, hacked even, possibly with a sword or something similar, and the door was open. Somebody must be inside. He didn't want to startle anybody, or get himself accidentally hurt, so he stopped outside the door, not standing in such a place where he was silhouetted against the light from outside, and called out "Hello? Is anybody in there?"

Friend? Foe? Stranger? Who knew in this place, he'd seen plenty of both so far, there didn't seem to be any pattern to who was being brought here, maybe it was just a case of right place, right time... or wrong time, depending on your perspective of this place. Still, he had a curious nature, he wasn't about to just leave a suspiciously open door.

[Lancelot du Lac]

Lance heard the movement, and he froze for a moment. Given where he was, it was likely either an animal, one of his fellow "students", or one of the residents of Trenale. Given that Lance hadn't seen literally anyone since his arrival, he was leaning more toward the first of the choices.

Then he heard a voice, one that sounded fairly familiar. Lance sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "It's me, Merlin," he called back. "Sir Lancelot du Lac of the Summer Country," because of course the first person Lance would meet upon coming back to this accursed place would be Merlin Emrys. God knows that happened literally every time he arrived.

"I definitely need that drink," he mumbled, moving further inward, cutting aside plants, figuring that Merlin would catch up.

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin was actually quite relieved when he heard a familiar voice call back, though it did make him wonder how many of Albion's denizens had returned here. Or rather, Albion's and the Summer Country's, Gwen would scold him if he didn't bring her kingdom into it.
He hoped there were at least enough sensible people left in both kingdoms to keep things running until they could get back and sort things out.

"Portal dragged you here too?" he asked as he stepped into the gloom, summoning a floating ball of light to give him some better visibility inside the vine-wrapped building. It wasn't overly large, so he caught up with Lancelot quickly enough, following the trail of broken plant life.

"Or did you come after someone?" that was always a possibility, if Gwen had been brought through as well it would make sense that Lancelot would follow her through.

[Lancelot du Lac]

Oh look, light and magic. Lance didn't even have to turn to know where it had come from or what was going on. IT actually made his searching a little easier, so he decided not to comment upon it. He just moved along, still clanking slightly in his armor. "The second one," he offered, nearly grunting. He moved around the bar now, hacking at bits of plant and looking around.

"Gwen went in first," he said, looking up and meeting Merlin's eyes. "Otherwise there's no way in hell I'd be back here. But if she's here, I'm here," he grunted and pulled another bunch of plant out, doing so quite roughly, nearly pulling apart the bar. "Place looks like it's been abandoned for years," he dropped the plant, looking around. "I take it everyone's just come back? Some sort of portaling event?" That would explain a lot. Maybe it even targeted people who had been here before, leftover magic. Magic did seem to want to screw with them particularly, after all.

[Merlin Emrys]

"Gwen is here?" Merlin asked, surprised. He hadn't run into her yet "What about Tristian?" The thought of him at home with neither of his parents was not a pleasant one, and if that was the case he knew Arthur would want to get back immediately. Equally, if Arthur knew Tristian was here, he'd be out looking for him. They'd be sure to run into them sooner or later, the town was big but it wasn't that big, but still, it would be better to know they were here.

"Something like that," he agreed "A few people seemed to have been pulled back, a mix of us that have been here before and a few new people too. Seems like time's been passing a bit differently for everyone as well, Giselle was only gone a week... and judging by the state of the place, we've all been gone a lot longer than we think." some of it was probably stuff Lancelot could likely figure out for himself, but Merlin had got into the habit of sharing as much information as possible. They'd all spent too long hiding things from each other and it only ended up with drama or worse, oversharing was better than leaving gaps.

[Lancelot du Lac]

Lance nodded as Merlin doublechecked his information. "I'm assuming so, since I am and I went through a portal after her," though Lance didn't want to think too hard about that. It would be far, far worse if he was stuck here and Gwen was somewhere else. Particularly with: "I'm fairly certain she's got Tristian with her," his face hardened a bit further with that. He loved Tristian, almost as if the boy were his own, and he'd had some hand in raising him along with most of the Camelot/Summer crew, after all.

Lance took his frustration out on the plants blocking the alcohol. He grunted with some effort as he soon yanked and then dropped armfuls of plants around him. Giselle... who was that? A few others, and a few new people. "So the school's decided it wants people again?" Lance asked, looking at Merlin. He kicked the bar again, looking down. He could crouch, or he could see if there was alcohol somewhere else. He turned to look at the standing bar behind him.

"You, Arthur... anyone else I know?" he asked, looking back to Merlin. "Anyone I should be... aware of?"

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief even as Lancelot's expression turned displeased, having Tristian here wasn't exactly ideal of course, but it was a lot better than the alternative. Arthur would probably go crazy if he thought Tristian was home without either of his parents, and they hadn't confirmed whether or not the return portals were working yet.

"Looks like," he agreed, wondering what Lance apeared to be so desperately searching for. Booze, by the looks of it... ah. Yes. Another magical portal mishap, of course he probably wanted a drink. Merlin could understand that, even if in his case he took all this sort of thing in his stride, but in fairness to Lancelot he'd been messed around by it far worse than Merlin had.

"Gaston's here," Merlin frowned slightly "I imagine that's something you'd want to know about. Otherwise I don't think so..."

[Lancelot du Lac]

Lance grunted, finally pulling back some vines, staring at the liquor cabinet. Dusty bottles lined the shelves, mostly protected, though a few had plants growing inside. Lance tapped his knuckles against the pane, hearing them rattle. Merlin's continued discussion had him looking over his shoulder toward his companion.

"Gaston?" he repeated. Lance nodded, looked at the glass cabinet. Then in a flash, he smashed it with his gauntleted fist. Glass fell in a tinkling pile around him, and Lance simply knocked it aside and away, working his guarded hand inside. He snagged a bottle and pulled back.

When Lance turned, he had an almost haunted look that he shared with Merlin. He walked up to the bar and set the bottle on the counter, some dust and plants falling off around it. He gave it another dust, before reaching up and wrenching the top off.

"Damn magic," Lance cursed, taking a swig of the alcohol and setting it back down. He locked eyes with Merlin. "Nothing personal. I'm just done with it screwing with our lives."

[Merlin Emrys]

Ah. Merlin thought as Lancelot smashed his fist through the glass well, guess that's he thinks of Gaston. He's hardly surprised, Gwen's nature was... somewhat wandering, was probably the best way to put it, she had a lot of love to give and she didn't always feel the need to focus it on one person at a time. Not in a bad way, she was very communicative with those she loved, as far as Merlin was aware, but Lancelot always struck him as the jealous type. Admittedly, Merlin would probably be the same if the other person in question was Gaston, because, well, ew.

"I know how you feel," Merlin nodded slightly "It's caused you... a lot of problems, I can see how this is maybe just another in a long line of stressful situations. It's pretty useful to me, but I can't deny it's been the route of a fair number of difficulties."

[Lancelot du Lac]

"Better than most," agreed Lance, keeping his voice level. He sort of understood what was going on there. He didn't pretend to understand it, and he didn't particularly like it, but he also knew better than to interfere. Besides, he was hardly in a position to argue: love had long since made a fool out of him, and it didn't appear to be stopping or even slowing down its control any time soon.

"It didn't wipe your identity out a few times," he pointed out. "Or keep you away from the person you love for over a year," he took another swig, almost angrily putting down the bottle. Lance reached up, running his fingers through his hair. "Too late to complain about it now," he looked behind him, seeming to just realize what he'd started to do to the place. He kept staring for a few moments, seeming to realize that this place, everything that lay here, was already doing things to him.

[Merlin Emrys]

"It didn't," Merlin agreed. It had done a lot to him, especially here at the school, where crazy events seemed to happen every other week, and the worryingly high number of evil or chaotic neutral teachers seemed inclined to wreak havoc on the student body, but none of it quite so long lasting as what had happened to Lancelot, and it had all turned out fairly well in the end.

"All we can really do it move forward with what we have," Merlin agreed "But that doesn't mean we can't regret the past, just as long as we don't dwell on it." not that he was suggesting that was what Lance was doing... not entirely, anyway, the drinking probably wasn't helpful but as long as he didn't make a habit of it. Not that Merlin was going to say that to him, Lance didn't really seem in the frame of mind for anything that might be construed as a lecture.

"Why don't we head back to the school, see if we can find Gwen?"

[Lancelot du Lac]

Lance could tell that Merlin was trying, bless him. It made the knight take another swig of the drink. The spirits had kick, far more than they should. Lance held the bottle up, studying it now. He again looked back at the mirror. Another deep breath raised his shoulders, released them gently, almost as if it took control of him, doing the inflating instead of himself.

"I'm not dwelling," he said, walking around the bar, at least leaving the bottle. "And it's less the past and more the present," he gestured. Then he paused as he was on the other side of this bar. "This place... it's magic... I'm not going to just stand by and let it screw up a new batch of kids' lives," he locked eyes with Merlin, then walked toward the door. "Gwen will make her way to the school if she's here. She'll try to find someone to watch Tristian, and she'll probably end up Headmaster by the time we get there."

He paused for a moment, looking over his shoulder. "Unless you've decided that you're finally going to take that job? God knows we could use someone competent."

[Merlin Emrys]

Merlin couldn't help but laugh, although he could sense the seriousness of what Lance was saying, he also know he didn't have much of a response to it - the comment about Gwen though, was true.

"It wouldn't surprise me," he nodded, starting to follow Lance out the bar. At the question, he stopped, looking momentarily startled. It wasn't something he'd actually thought about. While he wielded a fair amount of power (both political and magical) at home, he was still working under Arthur (pun not intended, but privately snickered at anyway), and Gwen was queen, if anyone was going to take the top job here he would automatically assume it should be either of them... but they both had kingdoms to run, kingdoms that they would need to go back to at the first opportunity. Whereas he was more able to split his time, and if he helped get the school back on its feet maybe he could make some changes, keep the place from doing quite so much damage...

"You know, that's not the worst idea..." he said slowly "in fact, that might even be quite a good idea."

[Lancelot du Lac]

Back on the street, the dead, deserted street. No, not quite dead. Lance could tell just by looking around that things lived here: the animals had moved in. Cleaning up this area would take time, so much time, and lots of it if they were just using what they had here and what remained in working condition. Then again, if magic had sealed this place, they might do better.

He looked back to Merlin. "I'd back you," he said bluntly. "I'm willing to bet Gwen would too. I don't know who else is back, but I'd wager that most of us would rather put one of our own in charge, and let's face it: you know more than most. You've got more respect than most of us." Lance nodded again, the confidence never fading from his voice or his posture. "Arthur would protest, but even he knows you'd be better suited it here than you. Avoids the whining several people would do if we put a royal in charge. That just leaves Gaston."

Lance turned, walking down the street, toward the school. "And no one should care what Gaston thinks."