What Has Tintagel Ever Done For Us (OPEN TO ALL)

[Merlin Emrys]

There had been posters showing up all over the school and some parts of the city since this morning, asking anyone who had found there way to Tintagel or Trenale to come to the common room in the recently tidied up Camelot Court that evening.
It seemed appropriate to host it in Camelot, even if it wasn't the real Camelot, and there was even a round table in the common room ... it might not be big enough for everybody, but it was a start.

Merlin knew they'd been brought back for a reason, and he had an inkling what that reason might be, he thought it would be best to gather together all the people who had returned or arrived - or, at least, those who wanted to show up - and talk about the future of the school. So he'd borrowed the common room for the evening and magically sent out his posters and was sitting in one of the more comfortable chairs waiting for people to show up.
It rather reminded him of his ill-fated Dragon Protection League. He hoped more people turned up this time.

[Giselle]

Giselle had seen the posters and she was curious about what was going on. She liked to know things and being all caught up on everything would be important. Especially as she seemed to be so much younger than everyone else who was coming back. Not that it was anyone else's fault of course. It just made her feel so peculiar being so much younger than all her classmates.

But Buttercup, her wolf friend, had taken to following Giselle around like her personal guard dog. She was smaller than most of her pack mates. So Giselle sashayed into the common room at the correct time with Buttercup at her heels. "Hello, Merlin!" she said cheerfully. "You remember Buttercup." The wolf wagged her tail and bounced over to say hello.

Giselle sank into another chair in the room, nestling down into it. Buttercup wasn't away for long, trotting back to Giselle and sit before her and lay her big head in the girl's lap.

[Judy Hopps]

Ironically Judy had seen the posters telling her about this meeting while cleaning up sections of the town. She'd been doing some basic patrolling, trying to learn the new area she found herself in, and she'd focused on getting some of the littler stuff out of the way and getting a lay of the land. As she and Bartok had guessed from what they'd seen, the place needed a lot of work. Judy didn't mind some of it, and she'd need to do something to keep her busy while they worked to see about a way home, if such a thing existed.

So she walked into the common room, dressed at least a little more casually than her Zootopia uniform (jeans and a flannel shirt to be precise). She still felt her nose twitching and wished her ears would swivel. "Oh, hey, people," she said, moving forward. "I'm Judy and I was hoping--" Judy paused midstride and mid-introduction, looking at what happened to be following the redhead around the room.

"Is that a---why is that wolf just---" she said, brow furrowing. Judy did seem to recall Bartok saying something about how most of the animals here were wild, but this one seemed to be following the redhead around rather harmlessly. Plus it wasn't lunging toward Judy with the desire to consume her flesh in its eyes, though that didn't stop Judy's heart from racing a mile a minute.

[William Fenris]

The young lad had found himself following the signs on the posters. Perhaps it was magic. Perhaps it was a wolf's intuition. Either way, William followed the steps up into a room that seemed nicer than any room he'd ever seen in his lifetime.

He tugged at the clothes, grey like his fur used to be. He's completely grey apart from the spattering of spots on his face, which were in his wolf form flecks of white.

William swallows, trying to remember exactly what he had seen humans do before, confidence, poise...

These are things he did not have. He shuffled in the room without a word looking more sullen than ever. He'd been trying to find somewhere to sit for the meeting, only he found himself staring at the wolf that was in the room before he could sit down.

He gaped at him, much like a deer in the headlights, his hands squeezing on the 'welcome to tintagel' letter in hand, still torn apart. He'd seen his own reflection before, but he'd never seen a wolf with human eyes.

No wonder people had dread the sight of his family.

"I--I'm here...for...for schooling?" he said trembling a little.

[Merlin Emrys]

Well, he was pretty sure that was already more people than the DPL, or maybe an equal number.. either way it was shaping up to be a better turn out.

He gave Buttercup an appropriately enthusiastic hello, looking up as somebody else entered the room and was apparently quite startled to see the wolf - understandable, really, most people were from places where wolves were a genuine threat, and while he'd never met this Judy person before, her reaction made sense.

Another newcomer, also apparently unnerved by the wolf, and that officially topped his DPL numbers so he was doing well.

"Don't worry about Buttercup - uh, the wolf," he told them calmly "She's a friend of Giselle and she won't hurt any of you." he motioned for Judy to come further into the room and take a seat, there were plenty of seats out of range of Buttercup, he hoped his words would reassure her.

"Welcome all of you, I'm Merlin, we're just gathering to discuss the state and future of the school, I'm going to wait a little longer for some more people to show up and then we can get started." he glanced over at the two newcomers "For those of you haven't been to Tintagel before, things have...changed a little since a lot of us were last here."

[Della Miller]

You'd think that Della aged another five years since their group parted from the look on her face. It seemed that her joy for having found her home again had worn off, at least for the day, out of pure frustration. To be honest, this probably would have made her less angry if she had genuinely thought this had to do with Panic not wanting her anymore. But it was so clearly not that. No. He was just trying to pull a first Spiderman/fucking New Moon/the weakest of the Harry Potter books on her, and she did not appreciate that. Had she NOT just said that they could do this thing together? And where did he get off trying to protect her from him after all this time anyway? Bit late for that, didn't he think? And even worse, she couldn't even really be mad at him for it because she was positive there was some greater, darker force causing him to behave this way, and she had no way of figuring out what it was, or how to defeat it, because Panic felt like he couldn't talk to her about it.

Was it any wonder why her black flask claiming she was drinking Polyjuice Potion (ohhhh, was she ever not) was being put to good use as she walked into the doorway? So much good use, in fact, that it was like she was coming up for air after almost drowning when she finally swallowed and glanced around the room. There was Merlin, not surprising, Giselle, also not surprising, a couple of new confused people, annnnnd....

"...there is a wolf. Of course there is. Neato." She pointed her flask towards Giselle. "I get the feeling you had something to do with this. That's pretty awesome, like, genuinely. I always figured I had a good connection with animals, but you certainly take the cake." And then to the newcomers she said, "Get used to this sort of thing, you two, this shit's normal in comparison to about half the stuff that goes on in this place."

She then took a seat, resting her chin on her hands. "Hey Merlin, either I'm already drunk or you look like you have a plan."

[Hermes]

Hermes was taking a hug risk in coming to this meeting, but he loved the thrill of it. He may not want to be in charge anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't want to put his two cents in when it came to making decisions. Alright so it was more like he was putting in two hundred dollars, but his opinion mattered more than most so that was acceptable.

After very nearly escaping his brother, Hermes had hardly done much exploring before he noticed the posters. He thought about who might be there and ti was both frightening and exciting. He could be found out, but then again, he was the master of trickery and his disguise was worthy of the highest praise. He might as well go and make sure they don't decide to blow the place up or something terribly drastic. Hermes are you certain this is wise... Martha hiss in his head. Yes. This was a good choice, no doubt about it.

Hermes marched up to the common room door and wound up his arms to push it open with too much vigor, making certain everyone in the room would notice him, but then he remembered his character. He was an ordinary student. Ugh he knew why he had to play such a plain person, but it was really messing with his style. So, instead, Hermes cracked open the door and peeked half his body through. He adjusted his glasses and took in the room. Two people he had never had the pleasure to meet, a girl he'd seen before somewhere with a wolf, Merlin and....Della, with a flask. Hermes fought back a grin. This was going to be fun.

"I hope I'm in the right place," Hermes spoke up, moving into the room. "It's been a while" he chuckled sheepishly. That was part of the bit, he had been an unassuming student before. He didn't want to play it like he didn't know anything, that was too much effort. Not to mention, he'd have to listen to everyone explain things to him that he already knew. He chose his seat carefully, near Merlin. Hermes assumed he was in charge, he was giving off that sort of aura. He changed a glance at Della, he knew he'd better not sit too close to her, she was a very smart girl.

[Judy Hopps]

"I think we're all here to find out a bit," said Judy, smiling at the nervous guy. She was almost tempted to go over and give him a squeeze on the hand or something along those lines. Maybe it was just because she wanted to ignore the wolf sitting not too far away... Buttercup, her name apparently was, and she was friends with... Giselle? That must be the redhead's name.

Judy focused on Merlin as he spoke, unconsciously locking to attention for a few seconds. She nodded as he looked at her, raising a hand. "I'm definitely up for helping," she volunteered. "And Bartok said that things had changed quite a bit." Judy would've continued, but more people, including at least one that clearly knew Merlin. Judy watched both carefully, studying postures. She could feel her nose twitch with the urge to start smelling, and her ears were practically shivering.

"How many people are we expecting?" Judy asked, mostly addressing the group. She looked around. "I don't even know how many people are at this place..."

[Merlin Emrys]

"...Della why are you drunk?" Merlin asked slowly. Things had changed for all of them, and this sudden pull back to the school was stressful, he wished he'd had a chance to catch up with his friend and find out if she was particularly worried about anything. He hoped she'd just been having a good evening and then seen one of the posters, but he also wanted to make sure it wasn't something more serious on her mind.

He gave Hermes a curious look as he entered, he spoke like somebody returning but Merlin didn't recognise him, which made him feel kind of bad, he'd known a lot of people back in the old days and he hadn't expected to see a returning person he didn't recognise. Maybe he'd been at the school when Merlin wasn't, or Merlin just.. hadn't seen him. Which was rare, but not unthinkable.

"I'm not actually sure," he turned his attention to Judy "The actual numbers of students and teachers here have varied quite a lot, and I don't know how many of them have been pulled back, or how many of those will come to this meeting. There seems to be quite a few though."

[Giselle]

Giselle scratched behind Buttercup's ears. She was such a nice wolf and a very good listener. Though she had her moments of mischief of course. Especially if she didn't appreciate what Giselle had to say on a particular subject. She was basically a big goofball. Giselle gave the new comers a friendly smile. She didn't know them, but she figured that friends would be made soon enough. "She's quite friendly," Giselle told them. "She won't hurt you, I promise." The wolf thumped her tail at the new people.

Giselle beamed up at Della. That was sweet of her to say. "Oh I do love animals. I guess they love me back." She scratched Buttercup's ears again.

Giselle looked up at the mention of Bartok. Her friend Bartok was here? "Did you say Bartok?" she asked. "He is alright? It's been a few months since I've seen him. But it might be longer for him. Oh goodness. I hope he's alright. Does he look very old now? He's my very very best friend in the whole world."

[Della Miller]

“Oh I should’ve been clearer, I’m not drunk yet.” Della shook her head. “Nonono, I’d be way worse right now if I was. Maybe a bit tipsy, and that was indeed the goal, and the reasons are…really not ones I’d like to discuss among people I barely know. With you, and maybe some of our other friends? Sure, I’m down for that. But why not focus on the problem at hand? What we’re gonna do with this place? That’s what this meeting’s about, right?” Right now I’m not sure I would mind burning it to the ground but that might be the vodka and stress talking.

One of the newcomers seemed really eager to help, which, yeah, that was nice and all. She supposed cleaning things up would help get her mind off of things…probably not. But she could dream, right? She arched an eyebrow and asked, “We gotta figure out what to volunteer for though…and it might be a good idea if we…y’know, figure out everyone’s story with this place? Not like gritty details, just…I dunno. Make sure everyone’s on the same page…as much as we can be…”

Her eyes wandered towards Giselle scratching the wolf’s ears, and she couldn’t help but remember a number of nights, both here and back in Chicago, where she had done that with her own dog. With a sigh she mumbled, “…I miss Rook…” Honestly, it was around the time they had to put Rook down at the ripe old age of thirteen (what a cosmic joke, that man’s best friend would almost certainly be outlived by man by several decades) that she started to wonder if she should just give up. Something about it had felt so symbolic…was that why everything was such a mess right now? Because she couldn’t make it back before he died?

She didn’t even really process Giselle’s ramblings, though it sounded like one of the newcomers knew her friend? Well that was nice. Here was hoping said friend wasn’t brainwashed or being controlled for Giselle’s sake. Della couldn’t quite imagine Giselle handling that well…or Buttercup for that matter. You don’t mess with a dog or wolf’s friends…and in spite of herself, she couldn’t help but think of her last encounter with a wolf…gods. What the hell kind of a welcome was this anyway?

[William Fenris]

Will just shuffled into a seat as quickly as he can. The bearded one, Merlin. He seemed to be the leader of the pack, and as more people arrived, they too seemed to greet him in that way. The woman who had always been afraid of the wolf wasn't far away, but Buttercup, whomever she was, seemed pretty docile, there was no greeting, no recognition, just a thump of her tail.

She seemed more like a dog to this person, and Will bristled, To his pack, to be tame to a human was almost as bad as not wanting to be a wolf at all. It made him remembered the growling and howling in his ears as his father told him his worth, over and over again.

"--Ok--okay, I....well...if there's anything I can do....to help...I would like to?"

He's still holding the letter, magical in nature. "It says here I have a scholarship....what does that mean exactly?"

[Hermes]

Hermes was careful to not seem too amused by the happenings. He glanced around at everyone. No on seemed overly interested in his presence which was both the point and rather annoying. She he wanted to go unnoticed, but he didn't particularity love the feeling. Merlin had eye'd him when he came in and Hermes felt a rush of adrenaline, did he see through his disguise? No, of course not. It was just as thrilling to watch him turn his attention away and accept that Hermes was just someone he'd never seen before. Ok, good. Yes. This is what he wanted. He couldn't be found out. There were at least a few people in this room that might be miffed about the whole 'bailing on the war' bit. Ugh, still. Was it really worth it to be so dismissed. Deep breath Hermes, all in good time.

It was hard to hide the spark in his eye when Merlin asked it Della was drunk. His head swiveled a little too fast to look at her. He bit his lip to hide a smile when she responded. Wow, had Della gotten a lot more fun over the years? Hermes could tell by glancing around the room that everyone had been gone different times, if they had been her previously at all. Also, if everyone had been gone 100 years like he had, all these mortals would probably be dead. They had a nasty tenancy to last a century at most. Della was not dead, nor was Merlin. However, both seemed like they may be older. Once they grew to adulthood Hermes was bad at mortal ages. It was so hard to keep track. All he knew was they looked a little different, but they still looked good to Hermes. Every fiber in his being wanted to flirt with tipsy Della. What utter fun.

"Right." Hermes said, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Della and focusing on Merlin. "Well we might as well get started, don't you think?" He said, showing off his handsome grin. "We could fill in anyone new that comes along." He tried hard to keep eyeing Merlin for approval, so he didn't seem like he was taking charge, although it was hard not to. Hermes eye'd the nervous man talking about a scholarship. He glanced at the paper. A scholarship? Was that something they did here? Hermes felt unsure. This school was almost as found of tricks as he was.

[Merlin Emrys]

"Right..." Merlin said slowly to Della "We are going to talk about this later." he promised her, and he meant it, whatever was going on with her he wanted to know about it, and possibly help.

"You have a point," he nodded at the young man who had suggested they get started, "OKay everyone, welcome, thank you all for coming. I think what we really just need to decide at this point is whether our focus is going to be getting everybody back home, or getting the place back up and running."

He glanced over at Will, frowning slightly at the mention of a scholarship. Who could possibly have sent that?

"Something tells me the school wants the latter..." he said slowly, looking at the letter "I think a lot of us have suspected Tintagel kind of has a mind of its own, and it feels like it might have brought us here for a reason. I, for one, would like to know what that reason is. And for people like yourself," he nodded towards Will "it would be good to have a place for you to come to school, just like we all had," he waves a hand to indicate the returning students.

"We'll try and get people home where we can, but personally I think our best bet is to try and clean the place up and re-establish the school, what does everyone think?"

[Judy Hopps]

The way the redhead handled the wolf made Judy more than a little nervous. There was something there that struck her very much like witchcraft or mind control, and the fact that part of Judy just wanted to relax around the friendly woman wasn't making matters that much easier for her. Nor was the jumping on Bartok: that almost had Judy physically retreating.

"Um, he's here?" she offered. "And he's fine..." as for the rest, there wasn't much Judy could offer. Part of her did wonder about the whole best friend bit, since Bartok hadn't exactly mentioned Giselle; in fact, he'd seemed rather nervous about being back here. Maybe if he found out he had a friend he'd be less nervous? Judy made a mental note to seek him out sometime and ask him about it.

The slightly drunk one volunteered next, and Judy looked at her. "Didn't we all come here via portal?" she asked, brow crinkling. Every story she'd heard so far had matched up with that, and everyone seemed to take it. Her eyes flicked to the other nervous guy, who'd also apparently gotten a piece of paper from somewhere. That would have been nice, and it had Judy wondering if hers had gotten lost in the post.

"It's pulling in new students and teachers and those of us who could help," agreed Judy. "But really," she raised her paws, "why couldn't we try and do both? We're going to have to fix up the place somewhat to even get to the portals, right? So we could fix it up, and help anyone who wants to get home get home, and everyone else could stay here and... I guess go to school or something?"

It all made sense to Judy, but then again, she was brand new; what did she know?