callmeemily | OPEN to all - robin hood comes home to roost

OPEN to all - robin hood comes home to roost

"Hey! Stop!"

Raleigh's walking Oscar - it's a long walk today, even though it's definitely making her leg regret it - and she doesn't even pause when she hears somebody behind her yell. It's the beginning of tourist season, and the sidewalk's full of people she doesn't know, and she's so worn out from the last week that she doesn't really have the energy.

"I said stop! I know you!"

Huffing out a breath, she keeps going; she hates it when people yell in public. She's got that Southern mentality, the one that keeps disputes behind closed doors where it's between the two of you and everyone else listening at cracks to figure out the gossip.

The last thing she expects is the rough hand on her arm that yanks her around. Stumbling, she catches herself on the parking meter that's next to her as the guy - mid forties, handsome in that New-England-Polo-Shirt-and-Sperrys kind of way - stares at her.

"It's you! It is!" Oscar's exploded into a barking, growling, half-grown dog between them, and the guy steps back as he raises his voice. "You know what I'm doing? I'm calling the cops. This is the girl who shot me! Back when we were medieval or whatever? She shot me and took all my money! She's a thief!" The tourists had backed up into a circle around them, with Raleigh, Oscar, and the guy in the middle. "She could have killed me!" He's pulling out his phone even as Raleigh protests and tries to explain as the people who're just staring at her shake their heads, and a phone, then another gets pulled out to film the whole thing.

"It's not- I'm not- I'm not a thief, I- It wasn't me--"

OOC: Raleigh's Fairy-tale shenanigans have come home to roost! Open to anybody. :D

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"Look, I'm not in a very generous mood lately, so I'll give you one more chance to back off," Joel says and when he holds his hand up toward the guy his fingers spark. It's meaningless, it's a reaction his magic has whenever he gets emotional, but it's completely harmless since the demon has been banished. He's tried to use it the same way he did with the woman in the park who was rude to Spencer, the same way he did with Eli Jasper and Mark Fuller, but it just doesn't work that way anymore. All it is now is a release of emotion, but it looks threatening and sometimes that's the only thing Joel needs.

The guy nearly stumbles back and he looks to the crowd for help again, but Joel and Raleigh together are a sympathetic figure. She's small and sweet and kind to everyone who knows her, which is probably a good number of the people in this crowd given how popular her bakery is. And Joel's just spent four days frantically searching for his missing husband. No one is looking to support someone giving either of them a hard time.

"Did you... how can... I'll remember this," he promises, waving a finger at Joel, but his hand is shaking and Joel is fairly certian they've seen the last of time.

"So will I," Joel answers as he takes a step away, returning to Raleigh's side. He turns his back on the man, an indication that this conversation is clearly over.

Raleigh's staring at Joel, at his hand, and the spark on his fingers. Her eyes skip to the guy, but he's already backing away, and it seems like the crowd's suddenly decided that it's a non-issue anymore, since they've started going on their seperate ways -- minus the tourists who are gawking at their cellphones and the video they caught of it, but even they are heading off.

"I- I didn't think that was going to happen," Raleigh breathed, finally looking back at Joel. "I'm sorry, I should have... figured out what to do, I guess?" Handled it? Something? She's got no idea, but Joel coming to her rescue isn't something she'd been counting on. "Or just left, and let him just... be.... like that. I don't know." She winces as she shifts off the parking meter, and Oscar's winding around her feet, rubbing against her good leg after that surprisingly big show of bravery.

"Good boy. Good boy, Oscar. You're a good boy." She bends to rub his ears, then she looks back up at Joel again. "... What do I do now?" She doesn't know if he'll have an answer, but he might-- something Raleigh dearly could use some advice about.

"How are you supposed to know what to do in a situation like that?" he asks, shaking his head. It doesn't surprise him that she hadn't known what to do, he thinks most people probably wouldn't when it happens to them. Watching it happen to someone else is different, it's always stirred something in Joel, a need to help, to stand up and fight back, but whenever someone has been rude to him, he's always turned away, unsure of what to do next.

"I don't know," he says. "What's his problem anyway? Stuff that happened when the entire town was under Nerium's spell? He should get in line to go see her in that case." There's a good number of people who are pissed off about what happened, but Joel knows now that speaking to her won't do any good.

"Just forget about him," he decides. "If he comes back, call the police. Or me. I don't think he likes me very much."

"I... I don't know, I just- I mean, I can't- I guess I didn't scream, so that's a plus." She's not thinking of what to do with it in general, just-- just that she doesn't do a good job with people grabbing her from behind, and she'd told Joel about it a long time ago. "I mean, like, it probably could have gotten really bad, if I did that, when he was just... yelling."

She's noticably freaked out; she can't keep her hands still, running the back of her neck, shoving back her hair, twisting Oscar's leash around her fingers. "His problem is that I did that," she says after a long second, her eyes flicking away, to the ground for a second. "I mean, I did that to a lot... of people," she said before her eyes found Joel's again, not really sure what she'd see there. "He wasn't wrong."

There's the worry about that guy - which is totally there, totally true-- but there's a larger worry, too. It's a lot bigger, it's that anyone she passes - they could think the same thing.

"Raleigh, come on. Spencer was a merman," Joel says, shaking his head. He doesn't touch her, but he offers his hand if she wants to take it. They should get out of here, he wants to just get her home and away from this, but he only wants her to go if that's what she wants, too. "Coop was... I'm not even sure what he was. An evil sorcerer. We weren't ourselves, none of us were. You're not going around stealing money from people now, are you?"

He knows she isn't. She looks so guilty about having done it in the fairytale land that he knows she can't possibly be doing the same thing here. Whatever that man thinks she's capable of, whatever wrongs he thinks she's done to him, they're over. Everything had been strange and complicated for those two weeks and this is just one more reason he thinks Nerium really screwed this up. She can weave whatever magic words she wants to about her pretty forest, but she'd messed with lives and people are still dealing with the consequences.

"If he wants to be mad at anyone, he should be mad at Nerium," he says again. "You didn't do that to yourself.'

There's no hesitation as she takes his hand, her brows furrowed together. "No, I mean-- of course I'm not going to go and steal money from people, I mean that-- the people I did steal it from, the people I shot-- they know it was me, Joel. Like, they looked at me, and it was me, and they know that? And I mean--" She runs her hand down her face, but she hates that she just... did that. She did do it, she's got all the memories of it.

"Robin Hood," she says finally. "Sylvie and I did the Robin Hood thing, with bows and arrows. When I ran into you on the beach, it was getting money from our stash, that's why I was so weirded out about your guards coming for you." Looking over at Joel, she's frowning, because it's-- it's so hard for her to separate who she is from who she was, and how much Nerium did or didn't have to do with it. "It had to come from somewhere, right? I mean, I was still me, sort of."

"Did it?" he asks, looking at her. "Think about it long and hard. Look at yourself and your life and the choices you've made and really think about whether or not it had to come from somewhere inside you, because I don't think it did." By her logic, Coop really is capable of doing the things he'd done to Spencer, of saying the cruel, hurtful things he's said to Joel and he simply doesn't believe that. The Coop who had been his enemy in that world isn't the same man he's friend with here, because the Coop who hated Prince Joel would never have helped him the way he had this past week.

He had sat on the floor of Coop's bedroom, holding his hand and crying over his missing husband. And Coop had done nothing but be there for him and help him in every single way he possibly could. There's nothing of the man who hurt Spencer in his friend, he knows that, and so he doesn't believe for a second that Nerium's spell has just made them into other versions of themselves.

"It was a spell and it screwed with all of us," Joel says and it's clear he's still angry. "And yeah, maybe you'll have to deal with more people like that and that won't be fun. But don't let that make you think you deserve to listen to their crap."

"I don't know!" She pulls in a deep breath and she hates that her eyes are shiny, and she's not looking at him. "I mean, I've been going over it since it happened, the whole thing, and I just- I don't know, you know? I mean-" Her brow furrows as she hesitates, because she just caught up with what he said. "Coop was evil? But he's not evil. I mean, he's the most unevil person I know, Joel."

It matters, because that would mean she's not the only one who was someone bad when they weren't bad at all. "I did those things, I remember doing them, but it's- I mean, I don't think I'd go and rob somebody, I just--"

She hesitated again before she finally just took a deep breath, her voice both quiet and strangled as Oscar wound between both their legs, finally somewhat calm. "He grabbed me, and I didn't- I thought that it was the siren guy from a year ago, and I just-- If you hadn't been there, I don't even know, you know?"

"Exactly," he says when she points out that Coop is hardly an evil person on a regular day. While their friendship might have been mostly confusing and uncomfortable for Joel in a lot of ways before he'd met Spencer, they've developed something that's become really important to him. As he's come to understand Coop's humour, he's learned how to better understand his own reactions to it. And Coop is a good person, there's absolutely no doubt in his mind about that. The things that he'd done under the spell aren't things he would have ever otherwise done.

"But I was there," he said, his voice gentle. "Have you thought... I mean, have you considered maybe talking to someone about what happened? Someone professional." It had been something Spencer had considered after everything that had happened at the lighthouse and Joel has been thinking about it again, about maybe asking him if he might wants to consider it now. It isn't for everyone and he doesn't know if he'd be able to do it himself, but it might help her.

"No, I know, I do, I know you were there, you just weren't in the beginning, and I-" She stops, and closes her eyes for a second as she takes a deep breath, before-- well. Before Joel asks her if she's seen a therapist, and Raleigh looks away.

"I went when the stuff happened to my leg, and a lot of it I just sort of... re-used when that all went down, and I'm mostly okay now. I just-- I mean, it's finding someone who'd believe me, and I think I'm mostly okay? But I guess-- I guess maybe. Maybe, especially if- if people just keep getting... grabbed." She doesn't mean to bring up Spencer and Davin. With both of them, and Joel as well, she's trying act like things are mostly normal, since that seemed to be what Spencer and Davin both wanted.

"But I know you were there, thank you for being there, I'm just a little rattled because it's just as possible that you wouldn't have been walking down the street, you know? So. Yeah." She smiles just a little, and looks down at Oscar, because she gets why Joel asked if she's talked to someone, she knows he's trying to help, but now she's wondering even if she's doing mostly okay. She thinks she is; she's got far more good days than bad, she doesn't have nightmares hardly ever any longer, she can be alone without being terrified, but she's worried that it's just her trying to convince herself, maybe.

Joel's flinches when she talks about people getting grabbed, just the slightest bit, and it surprises him just how much he doesn't want to talk about what happened to Spencer and Davin. It isn't the first time someone has tried to hurt his husband and he's terrified it won't be the last, but the whole time they were gone he could barely say two words about it with anyone. The police had questioned him over and over again, and when it had come time to talk about it with other people he just hadn't had the words or the energy. Talking about it more seemed so difficult, like the worst possible thing they could ask of him.

Some of it had come out with Coop, but he knows that's due to having been in the dream with him. Coop had seen Spencer's refuge, the place he'd gone in his unconscious to find some peace, and it had been almost impossible not to let some of it out there.

But he can't talk about it now. Instead he does his best to focus on what Raleigh is saying about being rattled and he nods, but he's also never been on to dwell in possibilities and what ifs. Yes, it's possible he might not have been walking down the street, but it's equally as possible the demon might have killed him and it hadn't. He knows not everyone works that way, though.

"Well, if he comes back, I want you to call me," he says. "At least he doesn't much seem to like me."

She didn't really try and bring them up, it's just that it happened, it happened and she's acutely aware how the whole grabbing people in broad daylight goes, and it scares the shit out of her - but she won't talk about it obliquely with Joel; he's not the one for that, she knows that, and that's one of the reasons that she tries so hard not to bring it up.

"I will," she promises. It's an easy promise, because Raleigh trusts Joel more than almost any other person in this town. "I promise, I'll call you." She's trying not to think about the last time, when she'd tried to get ahold of someone--

This isn't like that. This is just a guy who wants to call the cops on her, it's not anything violent or kidnapping. She knows that, and she takes a deep breath. "Thank you," she says again. "I know-- I mean, hopefully it doesn't even come up again, and he's figured out that he's being an idiot." Even though, that voice that she tries to ignore provides, You did do it. She did, she had, but she's got to wrap her brain around that thing, that person that she was-- it's not a part of her.

"He is," Joel says firmly. "He's being an idiot. Please don't doubt that for a second." Raleigh is one of the best people he knows. She tries so hard for everyone, so much harder than he ever has for anyone except Spencer, and she works so hard. If anyone gives her a hard time, Joel is more than willing to put them in their place, because he knows there's nothing Raleigh wouldn't do for most people. She doesn't deserve that, no matter what happened during that spell.

And he's still so angry with Nerium. He wishes he didn't have to be, but there's really nothing he can do about that. The spell was cruel and he's angry and he's hurt.

And he doesn't know what to do with any of it.

"I won't doubt it," she says finally, with one last nod. She won't. It is what it is, she knows that, and even though the guy's not wrong, that... probably doesn't mean that he's got the right to be mad at her about it. Nerium, apparently, but Raleigh? No.

"Why did she do it?" Raleigh looks up at Joel, her brows furrowed together. "Why did Nerium-- I mean. Les said that only super powerful people could do that sort of thing. Is she?" She's asking more than one question at once, but she's got a hundred more bouncing around in her head.

"I don't know," Joel says and he can't hide the hurt or disappointment in his voice. He really had thought they were becoming friends and having that conversation with her in the forest that day had felt a bit like a knife twisting in his ribs. Somehow he'd found himself caring for her and she doesn't understand friendship. She only understands magic.

"She said she wanted to bring wild magic back to Siren Cove," he says. "And when I tried to explain to her that she can't speak for all magic users, that she can't alter memories or violate people in such a way, she just... she doesn't understand." Which doesn't excuse it at all, it just makes it frustrating to try and communicate, but he wants to. He still wants to talk to her, he wants her to be able to understand why he'd been so hurt. "I don't know. Nerium has never really had the sort of life either of us have had. Even with all the awful things we've been through, at least we've been relatively normal and she's never had that. I'm not excusing what she did, I'm just... I'm trying to understand why she doesn't understand."

"What? But that's not-- I mean. What about the tourists? Or like, people coming into town? What about--" She has to stop herself, because she hates talking about people who don't have magic with people who do. Even Joel, Les, and Coop - men she trusts with her literal, honest-to-god life... they just don't get it. They just have zero frame of reference for completely having no powers. It's understandable, but that doesn't make it easy.

All three of them, when she'd admitted that she was afraid, because she was powerless - had said some form of You don't need to worry, there are people who have magic who'll look out for you. Mira'd said that she'd sort of gotten the same thing, and it completely makes sense, and it did put Raleigh at ease some, but it's just a disconnect that she can't really think about right now - and she doesn't ever want to really push, because they really do want the best for her and it's just a fundamental difference between those who have magic and those who don't.

"I mean, you don't have answers," Raleigh said after a second, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand as she looked away. "Is she the most powerful witch around here? Could somebody else do that again?" That's the thing that Raleigh's the most concerned with. It's not the speaking for all magic users or Nerium understanding that bothers her, it's that she'd had the sheer ability to do what she had and it seemed like nobody'd known.

"I don't know," Joel says again. "It was wrong. This town isn't run by witches, it shouldn't be run by witches and it shouldn't be run with only witches in mind. Is she the most powerful witch here? No, probably not." Certainly not anymore, not with her powers diminished by the breaking of the spell. But people can't be forced to come out about their powers if they're uncomfortable with it.

"Could somebody else do something like that again? Very likely," he continues, rubbing his hand over his beard. "But that's not unique to Siren Cove. People like Nerium exist all over the world."

"It's not run by them, but the people who don't have--" She hadn't really wanted to go into it - she's freaked out enough, and she doesn't actually realise that the conversation with Joel wouldn't necessarily go the way the talks with Les had gone. But then he says that Nerium's not the most powerful. She'd done all of that, but she's not the most powerful, and it makes Raleigh blanch, the color just fading from her face-- And then?

Raleigh yelps as Oscar lunges forward, and she grabs Joel's arm to stop herself from falling forward off the bench with sort of choked sound on her part and he's barking his head off.

A squirrel, some twenty feet away, chitters at him as it turns an acorn in it's tiny paws. "Oh, my god," Raleigh wraps Oscar's leash around her wrist. "Oscar! Stop it." He's losing his tiny mind, and while Raleigh's let go of Joel, she can only manage to brace herself with one leg, because the other one - after all of it, it's not really anywhere near functional.

"She's not?" And then he says that somebody could just do it again, and Raleigh's shoulders just sort of droop, and she sucks in a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second.

"Not like they do here," she finally says, faintly. "They don't exist in other places the way they do here. I mean. Exist like-- it's not so open. You know? It's not.... God. Uh." She hates that it scares her, that it scares the shit out of her, because she's both been inches from being sacrificed for a spell, and with what Les told her... "This- we don't need to talk about this," she finally says abruptly, her brows furrowed together.

Edited (SQUIRREL.) 2015-06-11 15:24 (UTC)

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OPEN to all - robin hood comes home to roost

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