Dress has always been my strongest suit (OPEN)

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carmilla let out a weak chuckle at Gwen's casual response. Well played, she could deal with someone who liked a little dark humor that was only half of a joke. The kid clearly didn't recognize the joke, but she supposed she got that, seeing as he barely looked old enough to pronounce sarcasm, let alone recognize it. "At ease, little Prince, I won't." People expected someone as moody as her to not know how to deal with kids at all, but hey, some of those wards she seduced had little siblings, and if she was going to maintain a "friendship", she was going to have to be kind to their families. And again, it wasn't like she loathed children anymore than she loathed any other people.

...and she couldn't help but be impressed by the implication of how she handled her cousin. Most people weren't open about their bloodthirsty tendencies. Oh she knew they had them, no matter how often they tried to say they were so much better than vampires, but usually they tried to pretend they were above killing, which, please. Open a goddamn textbook sometime.

"I've gotta say, you're pretty different from the stories too, Qu..."

But before the nickname could come out, she heard a heartbeat behind her, and turned in time to see her would be attacker, dressed for battle, though the armor was a little worse for wear, with a neck tantalizingly exposed...

"...huh, guess I was wrong about the soldiers," she told Gwen before she felt the man's hand on her back and a knife at her throat. This only made her roll her eyes. "You really don't want to do that. I'd put that knife away."

She was ignored, and chances are the soldier turned to Gwen and was going to say some threat of more coming or blackmailing her using her life (joke was on him, they had LITERALLY just met, she doubted Gwen would shed many tears even if this guy could kill her) or whatever. Carmilla didn't really care.

As she exposed her fangs, she remembered herself enough to tell Gwen, "You should probably cover your boy's eyes," before she reached up and forced the soldier's wrist at a rather painful angle, forcing him to drop the knife, which made it so much easier to pull him over like a screaming rag doll so she could make a meal of him. She honestly hadn't even been that hungry, but he messed with the wrong girl, and a little indulgence is good for whatever's left of your soul. Besides, she wasn't sure when she'd get to feed again in this place, and where better than someone who thought he'd try to be Mr. Tough Guy?

She dropped the lifeless body, her mouth covered in blood, and she looked back up at her companion, panting...well. Maybe she should've stuck to the panther thing, but she hadn't really had much time to think about that. She wasn't usually in a situation where she could risk exposure to a hapless human, least of all one that she had any qualms about eating to keep her mouth shut...but as far as people went, Gwen was all right...if she decided to pull out a stake all bets were off, but she found she kind of hoped she wouldn't.

"So. That thing about being taught my powers might've been only half true."

[Guinevere]

Tristian seemed satisfied that the woman would not eat ‘his Merlin’ and went back to keeping pace with them as they walked along, lost in his own little dream world once more.

Until their little part of three was no longer alone.

When Carmilla spoke Gwen spun around, moving Tristian behind her and reaching to her side for the sword that was not there. She cursed as the soldier grabbed Carmilla, she had nothing to fight back with. It was one of the Wayron soldiers, she recognised the armour from the descriptions she had read in the reports of the war. She had never seen it herself, what with being shipped off to an island for most of it, but yes…there was the insignia on the shoulder. Gwen was about to go into Queen mode (usually the best weapon after having no weapon) to demand that the man release her, hoping his soldier instincts would take over at the tone of command when…the girl sprouted fangs.

Gwen was startled but at the woman’s command she made sure her hands were over Tristian’s eyes (who in true little boy fashion was soon trying to remove them so he could see what was happening.) and watched as the girl devoured the soldier. She had been forced to sit through enough episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to make a rather good guess on what the woman in front of her was, however, that did not take much of the shock out of actually meeting one face to face.

When the girl was done, Tristian finally managed to remove his mother’s hand and wrinkling his nose but smiling gleefully said, “ew.”

Gwen nodded at the girls words and said, “Yes, I can see that…thank you…that is…yes, thank you…”

At a loss for what else to say she replied, “My husband is going to be so excited to meet you.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Of all the possible responses to her ripping out some hapless soldier's throat, Carmilla was definitely not expecting a little boy on the verge of giggles, and his mother thanking her and saying her husband was going to love to meet her. Even with her advanced senses, she really had to give herself a moment to process their words, just to be sure that she had heard right.

"Um...seriously, that's no problem, it was mostly for me. I don't appreciate being manhandled..." Oh ain't THAT the truth..does that count as a pun when you're a lesbian? It probably does. Can't decide how I feel about that... "But...yeah, sure, you're welcome, I guess...and what exactly did you mean by 'my husband is going to be so excited to meet you', because I tend to..." She was GOING to say she tended to be very good at scaring men off. After centuries of being objectified, you got good at that, especially when you had very little care for men in general.

Before she could, however, a realization hit her, and her eyes widened.

"Oh God, please tell me he's not a Twilight fan, because I am nothing like that sparkling twerp! I avoid the sun because it's bad for me, not because I'd look like a bad craft project!"

There was a certain irony in what she said, given the blood still on her mouth could possibly still be mistaken for paint, though not for much longer as it dried....oh. She started to try and lick it off of her. She never did care much for looking dignified, after all...and then she remembered where the blood came from. "Oh creeping hell, I'll bet the guy has friends. I can take them on myself, but your whole "being armed" plan might be wise..."

...and creeping hell, am I really trying to help them? Why can't I just not care? Is that too much to ask?

[Guinevere]

“Oh I can understand that,” said Guinevere when Carmilla mentioned she did not enjoy being manhandled, “no, you did an excellent job, thank you.”

Her nerves had started to calm down a little however the tension had not gone from her muscles yet. The girl might have chosen to defend them rather than ‘prey’ on them, however she had seen enough things with Vampires to know that could change at any moment. She appreciated what the girl had done though, and it had been impressive.

She laughed when she brought up Twilight and said, “Actually, yes, he did go through that phase, however his favourite was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

A thought occurred to her and she added, “not that he has a love of slaying vampires, just he liked that show best, and his favourite character was spike…or was it willow? I forget, but he is not Anti-Vampire…very pro-vampire.”

When she mentioned they should arm themselves she nodded and said, “There was a place here back when it wasn’t covered in this stuff. If we go there we’re likely to get something appropriate.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carmilla cringed when Gwen confirmed that her husband had liked Twilight. She had really hoped the stereotype of men not liking that would hold true here, but come on, statistically speaking, men helped bring that crap into the public eye, even if not as much as repressed little girls and their deeply troubled mothers...but she supposed she was grateful that this wasn't as relevant now...and she had to admit, despite her distaste for most vampire pop culture, Buffy was probably the least infuriating, if only because it didn't stray from the dark side, didn't try so goddamn hard to romanticize...except with Angel. Angel was the absolute worst.

She didn't really need her husband's approval, but she supposed she preferred to not break his wrist while he tried to get all stake happy...again, side effect of maybe sorta caring. "Noted. I have no desire to deal with any Buffy wannabes...and fantastic. I'm sure you'll be able to go all warrior queen on those guys in no time..."

She checked over her shoulder just in case, but so far, no others. "Gotta wonder what the hell kind of magic they're working with that they lasted this long but I was still able to tear him up..."

[Guinevere]

Guinevere started heading off in the direction of the ‘build a sword’ with the Vampire in tow. That was still a little strange to think of but not the strangest thing that had ever happened to her here in Tintagel. Tristian pulled at her hand a bit, he wanted to let go and go exploring around them, but unfortunately for him Gwen was all too aware of the dangers around them. She had never come face to face with the soldiers of Wayron personally, but she had heard enough about their conduct to know that they would not stay their hand even when confronted with a little boy as sweet as Tristian.

“He’s never dressed up as Buffy so I’m sure you have nothing to worry about,” said Gwen as they walked along, “although he did dress up as Edward Cullen once. I think poor Merlin was finding glitter in everything for a year after that.”

She was on red alert now as she made conversation with the young female vampire, hoping that she would do the same, she smiled a little at the ‘Warrior Queen’, “Looking forward, not had a good swing of the sword since I reclaimed my throne.”

When she mentioned the magic Gwen said, “I know that they had some sort of magical source when they came here, or at least that’s what the reports said, however…there’s a good chance that it was this place that has kept the intact…it’s…sort of like that.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carmilla almost stopped in her tracks when Gwen revealed that her husband...who was probably King Arthur now that she thought of it, Jesus Christ, King Arthur dressed up as Edward Cullen, didn't he? "The scholars would have a field day," she muttered. "One of the great heroes of literature cosplayed as Edward Cullen. I knew most mythical figures were overrated, I just knew it..." It was a little funny, though, that Guinevere was the one about ready to come in, guns blazing...or swords slashing, she supposed would be the better term. She might have actually taken more of an interest in Arthurian Legend if more of the stories had gone that way.

"I guess not, I imagine you'd have to deal with a lot more politics after that, and they tend to frown on actually fighting battles, least of all with someone capable...and great. Just what we need. A place that practically breeds immortals..." She scoffed and shook her head. "Bad enough Maman got me a little brother back in the 30s, now this..."

[Guinevere]

“Oh trust me, those scholars got quite a bit wrong,” said Guinevere as they walked along, “at least in our world they did, Arthur and I’s lives are…very different from how they play out in the stories and the songs that we learned of when we were here. I mean you don’t even exist at all, do you?”

She smoothed out Tristian’s hair again and he gently and playfully batted her hand away, running his own hand through it and spiking it up again. She sighed and shook her head, she saw a lot of arguments in the future about that lovely red hair of his.

“Oh I still join in for the odd battle here and there,” said Guinevere with a shrug, “but I have quite the talent for influencing the people my husband needs influenced in a certain way. it’s the wives you see, in my husband’s lands they are so easily overlooked by the men that are in charge and do not realise how much they are influenced by them. Get to the wife and you have the husband.”

She laughed at the ‘immortals’ comments and said, “You better believe it, I have known a few gods to have come here in the past. Artemis was especially good fun although her brother was a bit of an arsehole.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carmilla shrugged. "You got a point there...not that I paid too much attention, but there probably weren't many mentions of you two having kids..." Although Gwen's question had her thinking about herself, because now that she thought of it...it probably stood to reason that there were other people around here from supposed stories. As a lifelong philosophy student (and art student, and astronomy student...look, three hundred years gives you a lot of time to study things, why do you think she learned Ancient Sumerian? You don't exactly do that if you don't have a lot of time on your hands), the possibility that perhaps existence was just an illusion was an old idea, but this was the first time it occurred to her that supposed fictions could be real. Strange, considering her own circumstances, but she supposed you just get used to the idea that vampires exist when you are one...God, was there some story about her out there? Creeping hell, she didn't want to think about that too hard.

As for influencing husbands through the wives, Carmilla almost laughed at the notion. Oh she knew that was more than true, it had been an old method, one that her birth mother encouraged her to use as well. You're such a lovely girl Mircalla, use it! That is our power! was one of the few things she remembered the elder countess ever saying to her, when she wasn't shooing her off to governesses...she supposed she wasn't terribly different from her new mother. Both wanted to put her looks and charm to their own use. "Whatever works." But her personally? When she got the wife she kind of didn't care what happened to the husband...oh she was many an unhappy wife's secret in her days...

However, her memories were interrupted by the mention of gods. She might have guessed those existed too...she wasn't entirely sure how to felt about that, and when something was uncomfortable, she covered it with snark. "I guess there goes my atheism," she noted with a smirk. "And I imagine most gods would be assholes. I mean, have you seen the world? Besides, I know from experience it's a side effect of the whole immortal thing."

[Guinevere]

“Oh I don’t know, you don’t seem so bad,” said Gwen with a smile and a wink to the probably not all that young girl, “although I can see why immortality might do that to a person.”

She could feel herself slipping back into her old ways, the easy speech of Tintagel, not having to care about the airs and graces she had to put on back home. The regal tone was diminishing with every beat in the conversation and she found that she didn’t care. It was good to just be her again, and whilst she was here she could be. She always felt much freer in the Summer Country, the society there was much better than it was in Camelot, who still saw her as that ‘Strange Queen from that Strange matriarch society’. They called her worse things than that, knowing the Summer Queen tradition of picking champions on a yearly basis who did not just fight for the queen but often shared her bed.

She didn’t expect them to understand her ways, after all, hadn’t Arthur one that championship for the past 10 years? Weren’t they content yet? Camelot was stifling but both her and Arthur were slowly changing minds, Merlin too. People were less afraid of magic now, that was certainly a good thing, although it had taken some time and there were still a few slip ups here and there. So maybe one day she could change peoples minds about the Summer Country…but certainly not any time soon. She figured it was a religion thing, in Camelot they worshiped the God and the Goddess, some of them only worshiped the one god in that new religion that was spreading, however in the Summer Country worship was mostly in regards to the Goddess, or the Mother as most of the Priestesses referred to her. She had trained with them for some time, she had loved it so much that she had almost joined them in her youth, thinking her mother would have another child that could rule the Summer Country…no such luck. They used to tell her that the Queens of old were descended from the first High Priestess, that through their blood ran the same power as her…Gwen had never believed it though, she certainly had never been capable of any magic.

However she was pleased to be back in Tintagel where she could slip back into the old ‘Gwen’ who approached most situations in the same way regardless of who she was speaking with, charm and flirting and gossiping.

“I’m sure you will be able to find another like yourself, an immortal or…a vampire, I think there used to be one that came here,” she said as she walked along, “although I would be careful, pretty young thing like you, you’ll have them crawling over themselves to get your attention."

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carmilla laughed, her smirk broadening into a wicked grin. "Oh you have no idea..." In all honesty, she wasn't the least bit proud of what the years had turned her into, and she also wasn't proud of the fact she cared so much about that. It was a constant paradox, living inside her head, as though the vampire, and whatever was left of a girl with a soft heart, duked it out for the reigns of her behavior. It didn't help that she had seen far too much to truly believe that being good would ever do her any good, and yet the urge never quite left, even if it went against her very nature...or the nature that Maman had planted into her after centuries of influence. Sometimes she wondered...but what was the point? This was the closest she had been to free in centuries, and she knew better than to think this could last forever. Maman would find her eventually, and she'd be a minion once more.

She raised her eyebrow at Gwen's odd comment about finding another like herself. What interesting timing there..."What, you think I need others like me around? This is the first time I've ever been able to be open about it, let alone know there were others besides my immediate family. And I'm fairly used to being fought and fawned over...I've used it too. When it suited me." She tilted her head and then added, "I do appreciate the compliment, though. You're quite lovely yourself."

[Guinevere]

“Thank you,” she said smiling warmly at the young vampire when she offered up the compliment, “although you should have seen me when I first came to this place. I spent my first year here dressed as a boy pretending to be my husband’s squire.”

She rolled her eyes at the memory, that was a long time ago now, how far she had come since those days.

Gwen considered the young girl in front of her, and tilting her head slightly to the side regarded her thoughtfully, “No, I don’t imagine you do need your own kind around you; you seem fairly self-sufficient on your own. However, it never hurts to have a few people around you that can understand you a little better. I know I would have killed to have someone else from the Summer Country here. Apparently there are far too many domains out there where the patriarchy has dominance.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Carm threw back her head and laughed at Gwen's story about dressing up as a man. "Nice. Never had to go that far, but I've known a fair number of ladies doing that in order to get a job or see the world...or even just because they felt more comfortable that way. I never really wanted to, but I suppose I always could sympathize, especially when I was younger..."

She grew a little less comfortable when Gwen suggested that it never hurt to not be alone. Sure, she knew that was the case, but...needing or caring about others never really got her anywhere, at least not in the long run. Instead of addressing that, as this was a pleasant conversation so far and she wasn't in any mood to ruin it, she latched onto the last part of her statement.

"To be honest your queendom sounds like a paradise I would've loved as a girl. I was little more than a nuisance, and then chattle to trade as far as my parents were concerned. Seems like that sort of thing wouldn't fly in Summer. Nor would all of those girls I mentioned have needed to dress as a boy...although that does beg the question, how DID you end up doing that?"

[Guinevere]

Gwen grinned and said, “It was sort of by accident. My usual dresses were somewhat cumbersome and wouldn’t do for all the things I wanted to do. After all my father had sent me here to learn after my mother passed away, so learn I would. Learn how to fight and to rule and come back and take my Queendom. It was rather foolish of him really, to send me here, I think he and my cousin hoped that I would never return or at least learn the superiority of the patriarchy. Unfortunately for them I came back with a husband, an alliance and an army.”

It had been a good day, she had been sad to see her father so easily manipulated by her cousin, cowering under her gaze. Whilst the man might have given her life he had never really been a father to her, that role was filled by Lord Luccan, her mother’s Champion at the time, and oh how she had been so happy to be reunited with him. Her cousin Malgaunt on the other hand…

She smiled, “however in my state of dress I happened across a childhood friend of mine, Wart, or as you will know him, Arthur. However the oblivious idiot didn’t remember me and actually thought me a boy, so, I decided to keep up the pretence. Poor Arthur…that did keep happening to him. He ended up accidentally falling in love and taking Merlin to ball because he was disguised as a girl called ‘Meredith’.”

[Carmilla Karnstein]

"So essentially a bunch of men trying to prove they were better wound up biting them in the ass...sounds pretty typical to me," Carmilla quipped. If Gwen was exhausted by the men in her life trying to seem superior, Carmilla had lost every ounce of patience that she was taught through eighteen years as chattle in the form of a girl. After literal centuries of men trying to cage her, including Vordenberg hiding her corpse away for his own disgusting purposes, most who tried didn't live to see the light of day again. Vordenberg had learned that the hard way, and the memory of her first taste of blood still left her with a sense of pride no amount of subtle manipulation of men could have ever done. "And from my experience, fathers are rarely useful in actually helping their daughters. Mine certainly couldn't stop my murder, could he?"

She said that rather casually. Of all the things that happened to her after her eighteenth birthday, her murder was one of the least traumatic to her these days...and besides, despite her suffering, her death had given her so much more than her life ever could. How could she be upset about something that freed her in so many ways? Still, one had to wonder what the point of having parents at all was if they couldn't even stop that from happening in such a public ball.

She scoffed as she explained the issue with Arthur. "I maintain he doesn't sound too bright...and I can only imagine how he responded to the last part once he knew the truth."