to be always longing {Gwyn}

[Gwyn Locksley]

Oh, great, so they were back to that again, were they? Just when the guy seemed like he wasn’t all selfish and brooding and might even have a bit of fun in him somewhere he just had to start whining again. Gwyn’s smile instantly fell and she let out a deep sigh. She simply didn’t have the patience or temperament to coddle petulant children, especially those who were obviously older than her.

“Oh, grow up,” she suddenly exclaimed, rolling her eyes at him. “If your parents had tried to put you in dresses you would have much bigger problems now than you already seem to think you have.”

Crossing her arms over her chest again, she regained her defensive stance and looked him over once more. Visibly, he certainly had nothing to cry about. “You appear to be quite well dressed, so obviously your parents provide well for you, and I assume you at least got some of your fashion sense from them so they must have cared at one point what you wore unless you’ve always purchased your own clothes. I think they do care, but you’re just too angry to see it.”

[Costin Dracula]

No, Costin was not much good at fun. He was honestly surprised that he'd been able to manage the slightly-amusing attempt at humour that he'd just survived. He was also sort of expecting Gwyn to try to cheer him up. Not that it would have worked, but it was occasionally nice to know that someone was bothering to try.

Her no-nonsense approach, though, was probably a lot more helpful than Costin realized or would have admitted even if he had. For the most part, she was right. At least one of his parents did care. The other one...well, Costin had grown up fully convinced that Dracula tolerated him at best. He provided things Costin needed, things that vampires wouldn't have had to worry about if they were only taking care of themselves, but beyond that, very little fatherly affection had ever existed. Tulio, Costin thought, cared, he just didn't care enough.

"Maybe," he said, dubiously. "You've never met them. I assure you, my father couldn't care much less whether I wandered off into the woods and never came home. I do believe he'd be rather pleased about it, actually. I'm not saying that because I'm angry, I'm saying it because it's true."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Alright, now came the part where he got angry. Gwyn knew how this went, she’d been involved with it countless times. Someone whined about something she found stupid or trivial to the point that it just got annoying so she told it like it was and they would get angry with her, start yelling at her and screaming about how she just didn’t understand.

On occasion they would even cry. Needless to say, apart from those she had grown up with and who knew her well, Gwyn simply was not very popular.

Tilting her chin just a little higher she prepared herself for him to lash out at her. What she was not prepared for, though, was for him to agree. It seemed this entire conversation was just full of surprises for both of them. Just when she thought she had him figured out he would open up, or crack a joke, or not get angry. Maybe she didn’t have him figured out at all.

Once again Gwyn was left dumbfounded and unsure how to reply. He was almost as straight forward with his explanations as she, and that certainly didn’t happen very often.

“What about your mother?” she asked, her expression softening slightly as she watched him curiously. “Someone raised you and took the trouble to send you here, certainly she must care?”

[Costin Dracula]

It seemed neither of them could quite peg the other one. Costin had assumed she was a whiney pushover sort of girl, and he had apparently been wrong on that count. He had assumed she'd cater to his whining - he had been wrong about that too.

And it went both ways - now she was assuming he had a mother who cared about him, which he certainly didn't. He supposed he had had a mother at some point in his life, but he couldn't remember her. And it wasn't as if he thought of Tulio as his mother...he just happened to have two people raising him who were both fathers.

"I don't have a mother," he replied, then he began the process of considering whether he ought to explain the situation. He could just let her think his mother had abandoned the family or been killed, or he could explain his upbringing. That could be more than a little awkward in certain medieval circles. Where Costin came from, nobody thought twice about it - and if they had, they definitely wouldn't have said anything to his vampire fathers about it. You just didn't play the prejudice game with vampires who could kill you faster than you could come up with a derogatory term.

"I think I was sent here because one father wanted to be rid of me and the other father didn't want to displease him." Costin's opinion was, as usual, of questionable accuracy, but that was the best he could come up with. In all honesty, he couldn't fathom why Tulio had agreed to have him sent here. It didn't seem at all like the kind of thing you'd do if you cared about someone.

[Gwyn Locksley]

“Oh,” Gwyn replied to his statement, though she refrained from asking the obvious question, instead waiting for him to continue. He had been speaking about his parents, plural, so she had just assumed he meant a mother and a father, but apparently Camelot wasn’t the only place with unusual families from what she was used to in her own home.

To many other people, the discovery that this boy actually had two fathers might have come as quite a shock, something they didn’t understand, but Gwyn took it in stride. Since her own parents had been such good friends those of Gaston Jr. and Meredith and Tristian and all the others, once she had gotten to know the twists and knots in that family tree there was really no family ties now that could shock her. Every family probably seemed normal compared to those in Camelot.

“Well, if that’s the case then it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care,” she stated. “If all they wanted was to be rid of you they could have told you it was time to make your own way in the world and forced you out, or sent you off to do some grueling job somewhere. The fact that you’re here at a comfortable, educational and esteemed place like Tintagel, and that your father writes you at all... I think that speaks for itself.”

[Costin Dracula]

Costin wasn't going to pretend to be offended that she'd assumed he had a mother. Most people did, after all. He probably could have raised a fuss over it, but truth be told, he was finding this whole conversation a little refreshing. It was...well, he wouldn't say nice, but it was good to have someone not be exactly what he expected them to be for once.

She proved that once again not a moment later - apparently his two-fathers revelation didn't bother her in the slightest. She took it in stride and just went right ahead with her argument, and Costin decided he'd better focus his attention on said argument as well, lest he miss some point he'd have to refute later.

"They only write me to tell me they won't give me the things I need," he explained, and while there was more than a trace of bitterness in his tone, it was directed at the subject of the sentence and not the girl he was addressing. "And...no, that wouldn't quite work, either. You see, the one father who does care about me isn't so wonderful at standing up to the one who doesn't, but the one who doesn't cares too much about him to utterly do away with me altogether. I do believe he's thought about it on occasion, though. I know he's not pleased with me."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Well, this was certainly... unusual, at least two Gwyn. She just couldn’t fathom the idea that a parent could ever want to be rid of their child, let alone go so far as to dispose of them himself. It sounded so cruel, so heartless, and so illogical. Why go through the trouble of raising a kid if you felt nothing but loathing for them? Why not find someone to raise them who could give them the love they need, and save yourself the trouble? But then he had explained that too, for love of his mate. It was still hard to believe, though, and she was pretty sure that he was just being a little melodramatic.

“There is a big jump from being displeased with someone and wanting to dispose of them completely,” she replied, still in that same matter-of-fact tone, though the hint of disbelief was obvious. Thinking over his previous words, her brow creased again as she looked off at some faraway point over his left shoulder.

“Maybe it’s a test,” she finally said, bringing her eyes back to his. “If they refuse to give you what you need, maybe it is because they want to see if you will let it drag you down, like you are doing, or if you will figure out a way to get these things yourself, without their help.”

[Costin Dracula]

Her words were far more logical than Costin wanted to admit. They weren't what he wanted to hear, weren't what he wanted to believe...didn't lend any credence to his world view at all.

But they made perfect sense. He pressed his lips together, reached up and rubbed at his forehead just above his left eyebrow, trying to come up with something he could say that wouldn't sound like he was agreeing with her. What he wanted to say was 'Do you really think so?' in hopes that she would elaborate on her inconveniently logical train of thought.

"That's stupid," was what he actually said. "They don't care about those sorts of things. I can't see how they'd be in any position to judge anything I choose to do or become, anyway. They've both done far worse things than I could ever hope to do in this body with this limited set of skills, they don't have any right to test me." As far as Costin was concerned, neither Dracula nor Tulio could possibly test him with any objectivity until he was a vampire the same as them. "I suppose you get on famously with your parents, then."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Gwyn bristled when he called her suggestion stupid. It was no more stupid than him thinking one of his fathers wanted him dead, or him wandering out here to wax poetic and throw letters of balconies. She thought he was being far more stupid than her by a long shot.

“The way you tell it they don’t seem to care about anything,” she snarked, lifting her chin up just that little bit higher. It helped that he was quite a bit taller than her so she didn’t look like a snooty idiot for doing so. Despite her annoyance with him, though, she couldn’t help her growing curiosity. He said such strange things at times, and though she hadn’t asked about them yet it was getting harder for her to refrain from doing so. Growing up with people like Eddie and Gaston Jr., she wasn’t used to people talking cryptically. Most people she knew just said what they thought, and she saw no point to do otherwise. If it was all about being mysterious and interesting then he was the one being stupid. Again.

“I do, actually. My parents are lovely,” Gwyn spoke, hoping to rub that fact in just a little. “And don’t try to blame your lack of skills on your body, you look pretty fit to me. Not everyone can be naturally skilled,” she continued with no lack of smugness. Gwyn just happened to be one of those people that seemed to be a natural at every physical task she attempted. “Most people have to work for it, but they would rather sit around whining because it’s too hard.”

Of course there were people like her brother, who just couldn’t do anything, no matter how hard he tried, but she had to believe that he was an exception, just like her only the opposite.

[Costin Dracula]

Well, she hadn't really grasped his meaning there at all. But then, he could hardly fault her (logically, anyhow) for that, given that she had no idea he'd been raised by vampires. She probably thought he was just bemoaning his physical stature...which, if he had to remain human, he supposed he was pretty satisfied with.

"That wasn't what I meant," he began, but decided not to bother explaining. Accepting his non-traditional home life had been one thing - it seemed like he might be pressing his luck if he tried to get her to be all right with said fathers being vampires, too.

"I'm perfectly healthy," he assured her, as if he'd made a point in spite of the fact that she had essentially just told him the same thing. "Believe me, I've had plenty of time to work for it." Just because he had no physical hope of outrunning his fathers or keeping up to them didn't mean he hadn't tried, and when he'd failed, he had kept running, if only to let out the rage he felt at being left behind while they hunted.

He was a little miffed, too, at her "lovely" parents, just for being so lovely and warranting that kind of smug satisfaction from their offspring. Costin certainly felt no such appreciation towards Dracula, and while he did have an emotional attachment to Tulio, he couldn't truthfully say that he was proud of that father, either.

[eddie]

Eddie hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but as he was walking across the courtyard he heard a familiar voice, and couldn't help but listen to what it was saying, and immediately felt paranoid that she was talking about him. He didn't sit around whining, did he? He was always trying! Not hard enough, if his father was to be believed, but he tried! That was another point as well.

"Mum's lovely." he corrected without thinking, picking up his pace to join Gwyn and the boy she was talking to "Dad's.... dad."
He displayed uncharacteristic smarts in stopping himself saying anything bad about their father in front of her, it was alright for her, she was good at everything.

He immediately turned a protective, big-brotherly eye on the boy. He could actually look quite intimidating when he pulled himself up to his full height and did his best glare - the illusion wouldn't last long, of course, but it was there for the moment.
"Who's this?" He asked, suspiciously.

[Gwyn Locksley]

He wasn’t making any sense. Why couldn’t he just say what he meant instead of being all cryptic, then telling her it wasn’t what he meant, yet not bothering to explain what he really did mean? It was terribly annoying, and her curiosity was really starting to get to her. As much as he was getting on her nerves, she didn’t actually want to end the conversation and walk away. It was really quite the predicament.

“Well, why don’t you tell me what you do mean?” Gwyn finally blurted out. This was obviously not the conversation to be worried about manners and proper etiquette. He was already making more excuses, though, for his failings.

“It’s not all about being healthy. Plenty of people are perfectly healthy but are still terrible at things. Just because you’ve had the time to work at things doesn’t mean you’ve really put your mind to them.”

She wouldn’t be surprised if he was one of those spoiled rich kids who had had everything handed to them their entire lives, so that when their parents finally decide it’s time they make it on their own, suddenly they are horrible people who don’t care. Maybe she should have felt guilty about rubbing it in about her wonderful family, but she didn’t. And speaking of that wonderful family...

Turning to her brother when he arrived, Gwyn’s whole demeanour didn’t soften in the least. “Dad is perfectly lovely,” she insisted, everything from her tone and expression to her stance just daring him to refute it. She loved her mother, of course... she just loved her father more. Eddie was still Eddie, though, and he could go from being unhappy with her to being protective in an instant. Truthfully, she was the same way in regards to him.

“Eddie, this is...” she began the introduction before trailing off. Somewhere in all the heated words and interesting discussion, introductions had been completely forgotten.

[Costin Dracula]

Why didn't he tell her what he did mean...That wasn't a difficult question to answer, but the answer was probably more than she wanted to know, and much more than he felt like sharing at this point. He wasn't going to explain the entire situation to her right now; he'd only just met her, and the bitterness of being refused the one thing he wanted more than anything else was deeply personal. He didn't just go around telling anyone....frankly, he was slightly surprised that she'd managed to get the reference to it out of him that she had. Not that she was trying, obviously, but still. It was the sort of thing he normally would have kept to himself.

He didn't know who the boy was who walked up, but at the newcomer's arrival, he felt a strange, seemingly impossible mix of relief and annoyance. He had been having a conversation with this girl...a conversation that he had somehow been almost enjoying. He was irked that it had been interrupted, but at the same time, he was somewhat relieved that the tension between them had been interrupted too.

It didn't take him long to discern that this was obviously her brother. Costin considered a slew of insults he could have thrown at the boy - who immediately struck him as "not too bright" (although to be fair, Costin made that judgment about a lot of people and it was only occasionally accurate). But the conversation that had just been intruded upon had been one surprisingly not based in insult and mutual hatred, and Costin knew that people generally tended to frown upon their siblings being insulted. He elected to take a more mature path.

"Costin," he said, looking at Gwyn and deliberately avoiding the brother, who seemed to be doing the intimidation thing. "I'm Costin." Did he care what her name was? Yes, he decided, he did. She had entertained him. In this place, people who could hold Costin's interest were few and far between. "And you two are?"

[eddie]

"Huh." Was all Eddie said, sullenly, to the assertation that their father was perfectly lovely. He certainly didn't think so, but apart from the fact that it was unwise to argue it, he also wasn't inclined to while he was busy staring down Costin - who apparently was completely unfazed.

He relaxed just the tiniest bit when it turned out she didn't even know his name, so that probably meant his brotherly posturing wasn't needed just yet, and maybe his presence would keep there from being any need of it later - his brain didn't put that quite so eloquently, of course.

"Eddie Locksley," he introduced himself bluntly - there were, of course, social niceties of their time that probably should be observed even in this strange place, but Eddie was never one to remember them anyway "This is Gwyn, my little sister."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Costin. It sounded foreign, but Gwyn couldn’t place it, not that she really tried very hard. In a place like Tintagel, it was pretty much impossible to try to figure out anyone’s origins based on name, looks or accents. She had even heard that there were people here from other ‘universes’, whatever that meant. It sounded ridiculous at any rate.

Opening her mouth to reply, since Costin had been addressing her, she quickly snapped it shut when Eddie jumped in, not only introducing himself but her as well. She threw him a quick, withering glance that he probably wouldn’t even notice. She hated when he called her his ‘little sister’, even if it was true in both age and stature. It just made her sound so young! She was sixteen now; she wasn’t the little girl whose pigtails he used to tug... before she punched him in the stomach. She had matured!

Resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at her brother, Gwyn instead turned and smiled at Costin.

“Right. Gwyn,” she said, unnecessarily, extending her hand towards her new acquaintance. She knew it would be more proper to demurely lower her eyes and curtsy, but at Tintagel there was no need for such customs. She had always preferred a good, strong handshake. Hopefully Costin wasn’t a weakling. She would hate to give him something else to brood about by hurting his hand.