Closed RP: Susan is Not Happy (and when Susan ain't happy, NOBODY is happy)

[usethepoker]

((Backdated to February 10, just after Stephen's popcorn-letter))

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part 2 of 2

[charlesmacaulay]

He wrote two messages as quickly as possible.

Ryder,

I think I understand what you were talking about now. Something's happened to Susan and I don't know what, except that it looks really, really bad. Bad as in she's carrying a scythe around and she looks like she's planning on using it.

Any ideas?

Charles Macaulay

He was hoping Ryder would know what to do about this. God, was he hoping.

The other message ... well, maybe it wasn't necessary. He didn't know. He wasn't willing to take a chance.

Henry,

Take Camilla somewhere safe. I don't care where or how, just do it. Hogwarts is not a safe place to be right now and I don't want her in danger. I'll explain later if you want to hear.

This is not a joke. This is not a trick. I don't give a damn what you think about me but I need to be sure Mil Camilla is safe and I think you would agree with that much.

Charles

Once that was sent he wasn't sure what he wanted to do next, or what he ought to do next. He wasn't sure where Susan would go next, either. Maybe

[johnryder]

"I trust him enough," Ryder said, blunt as only a demon could be. "It's in everyone's self-interest that Susan come back down off this...thing...and I sure as hell don't want to have to hurt her to do it. Not least because then I'd be stuck with all her damn cats for eternity."

As if on cue, a lone kitten came in and sat on his boot. He sighed, and picked it up, ignoring the cat hairs that transferred onto his shirt. "Besides, I promised Camilla I'd look after her."

[charlesmacaulay]

Charles did not trust Wednesday. He suspected Wednesday didn't care whether Susan lived or died, ended up sane or stark raving mad, so long as Wednesday got what he needed. Maybe what Wednesday needed were corpses. He was a death god, wasn't he? A god of warriors?

There'd be blood enough if Susan were left unchecked, though. What was the worst-case scenario?

"Beggars can't be choosers," Wednesday reminded a silent and apprehensive Charles.

Charles exhaled a long harsh breath. "True enough." He believed Ryder, even if he couldn't trust Wednesday. Why did he trust Ryder? Because Ryder made sense. He said he'd made a promise to Camilla. That was logic Charles could understand.

"Don't worry," he told Ryder. "Milly's safe."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow.

[johnryder]

Ryder didn't know how the hell Charles could have gotten his sister out safe in the middle of all this, but he nodded anyway. "She's not gonna try to show up with...soup, or something?" Ryder didn't know Camilla nearly so well as Charles or Susan, but some things were easy enough to predict. "Good."

Ryder wouldn't be surprised if Wednesday didn't care what happened to Susan, so long as she was neutralized as a threat. He himself did, though, even if it was for rather dodgy reasons--aside from his promise to Camilla, Susan was entertaining in her weirdness, and Ryder didn't want his own personal TV show losing a character. They really were the wrong reasons for wanting to make sure someone came out in one piece, but they were reasons nonetheless.

"So let's find this Sansa kid--the sooner we deal with all this, the better."

[callmewednesday]

As if on cue, Sansa's reply arrived. Wednesday watched as Charles took the message neatly from the owl and dashed off his reply. So much could be read simply from the little exchange he'd just witnessed. Charles had clearly interpreted Ryder's reasoning quite differently from what had been meant, and Wednesday found that internal lexicon quite suggestive

Re: part 2 of 2

[h_m_winter]

Ordinarily, Henry wouldn't believe a word Charles said (or, in this case, wrote), but the fact that he was telling Henry to get Camilla out, rather than getting her himself, meant something had to be really, really wrong. He thought he knew damn well what it was, too--he and Camilla had gotten the popcorn letters from Stephen, too, and he'd had a feeling Susan was...not going to react well. He'd seen her as Death, but she hadn't been what one might call scary as Death--unnerving, perhaps, but from the tone of Charles's owl this was much worse.

Charles,

I'll have her out in the next fifteen minutes. Keep me updated, if you can.

-Henry.

[charlesmacaulay]

Charles received Henry's reply after Ryder's. He boggled mildly at Henry's assertion that he could get Camilla out of there in fifteen minutes. Then again, Camilla did seem to have little problem doing whatever Henry told her to do, Charles reflected. Yes, even now he could find a spare moment for bitterness.

He did write back to this one, biting his lip as he wrote.

Henry,

Good. I don't have any real updates but I'll try. It's Susan. She's gone really wrong. I don't want Camilla trying to do anything about it. Don't tell her I'm writing to you. Don't tell her anything at all.

Fifteen minutes?

You don't have a friend named Odin, do you?

Charles

[h_m_winter]

Under ordinary circumstances, there was no way in the seven hells Henry could have gotten Camilla to go anywhere in fifteen minutes, but on the (very) rare occasions he was extremely firm with her, she tended to go along with it.

Charles,

I thought as much. Believe me, I have no intent of telling Camilla anything about this--Susan is her friend, and I know Camilla would not see just how dangerous her friend really is.

Fifteen minutes. Trust me on this.

Odin? No, though it would not surprise me if the real Odin were here. God knows we have everything else.

-Henry

[charlesmacaulay]

Thank God for small favors. Henry and Camilla must indeed have gotten the same letter Susan got, which would have made Henry understand Charles wasn't just talking nonsense.

Charles experienced the uncomfortably contradictory sensation of feeling at once bitter and grateful about the same thing. Under the present circumstances it was a damn good thing Henry could get Camilla to do what he said and be quick about it; all the same, Charles hated knowing it.

It wasn't fair that Henry saw precisely what Charles saw: Camilla would not see just how dangerous her friend really is, Henry had written, and that just drove the pain of it home to Charles. Camilla didn't see how dangerous Henry was, did she? She never had. But right now that was an asset. Henry was dangerous and Henry could keep Camilla safe.

Charles wrote back:

Camilla doesn't see anything she doesn't want to see. Doesn't matter if no one can die here, Susan's got a huge scythe and I don't think she'd hesitate to lop off heads. The last thing she's going to

[h_m_winter]

No, Henry didn't think Susan would hesitate, either. He'd never seen her with her temper up, but in some ways she was rather like him--he had a feeling she could be incredibly ruthless, if she chose, and if she were really so far from humanity, she'd have no reason not to be. She most certainly would not need Camilla pulling something out of one of Julian's old lectures, however well-meaning Camilla might be.

As much as he really, really disliked Charles, he had to throw the man some kind of bone--after all, Charles was trying to deal with whatever creature Susan had become, which even Henry had to (grudgingly) admit took some guts.

Charles,

I'll let you know when we've arrived wherever we're going. I'm not taking her to London--my guess is that some major city like that will be Susan's first destination, if Odin can't actually stop her before she leaves the grounds.

He paused. For Camilla's sake, he ought to provide Charles with a warning, despite the fact that Charles getting his head chopped off would be a boon to Henry.

Also

[charlesmacaulay]

Charles muttered a few choice words. Henry was probably right, damn him. The scythe might well be capable of working on Hogwarts grounds. All the more reason why Camilla, with her utter lack of anything resembling self-preservation, should be kept well away.

Henry had also thought a step ahead of Charles as usual. A major city ... yes, Susan could do far more damage there, if doing damage was what she wanted. This just made Charles wonder where Henry would hide Camilla, then. In Hogsmeade? Some little hole-in-the-wall? It's the Albemarle all over again, he thought, dully, irrationally. Henry off with Camilla somewhere very quiet and hidden, while Charles dealt with the world falling apart

[h_m_winter]

For once in their lives, Henry and Charles agreed on something. Keeping Camilla from doing anything Camilla-like was paramount, especially since Camilla almost certainly would honestly see no danger in the situation at all.

Charles,

Believe me, I won't. I don't intend for her to find out any details at all, if it may be avoided. And I want to know about Susan's auxiliary weaponry because, should Odin fail to contain her, it might turn out to be necessary.

-Henry.

Yes, it was cold. Yes, it really was terrible. And yes, this was also Henry Winter, a man who had quite literally shoved his former best friend off a cliff.

[charlesmacaulay]

... Right. Well, what could Charles expect? This was Henry Winter. He'd kill anyone. He'd tried to kill Charles. He'd probably try to kill Charles again, if he got his hands on a scythe like that, once he'd finished with Susan. Camilla would be out of danger and Henry would be Charles's rival again, their brief unlikely alliance dissolving, and Henry would want Charles dead.

Actually, Henry probably still wanted Charles dead. Charles couldn't say he didn't want Henry dead right this very moment, either. The only reason it suited him for Henry to be alive at the moment was because no one else could keep Camilla out of Susan's way.

Gritting his teeth, he wrote back:

Henry,

I can't say I much like that idea. Anyway you and Milly are going to be far away from here.

Charles

He thought about the sword under Susan's bed. He thought he might have to go and get it himself. He sure as hell wasn't going to tell Henry about it

[h_m_winter]

Henry, had he known about the sword, would have had some serious doubts about Charles's ability to actually use it--not in a technical sense, but in his willingness (or lack of it) to actually kill someone. Not just someone, even, but Susan, human or not at the moment--Charles hadn't really wanted to kill Bunny, despite the blatant need for it. Left to his own devices, he never could have shoved Bunny off that cliff, and Henry was certain he wouldn't be able to use Susan's own theoretical spare weapon against her. He'd get cut down like so much ripe wheat.

Later, Henry would be very, very annoyed by that accidental slip, by Charles using his pet name for Camilla, but right now he was too busy trying to get everything the hell out of there to really even give it any cursory thought.

Charles,

Just a thought. We'll be heading out in a moment.

-Henry

[charlesmacaulay]

It really was a truly accidental slip. Charles didn't let himself use that name much in front of other people at all, unless he was too drunk to notice what he was saying. He was so agitated now, and so beside himself, that he simply had written what was in his mind, and that was how he was thinking of her. He was thinking of her by that name.

All he wrote was:

Good luck.

Unsigned, no salutation, a quick scribble. He wondered how on earth Henry was getting her to go anywhere at all without stalling or asking questions. He wondered where they'd end up, and when he'd see them again.

He'd go get the sword as soon as he'd talked to Ryder.

[h_m_winter]

Henry folded all the letters up, shoving them into his briefcase. They didn't really have time to pack much of anything, unfortunately--not with how quickly they had to move.

"Camilla," he said, pulling out a suitcase. "We have to leave, and please don't ask questions. Just get whatever you can carry into this." He pulled some spare clothes--socks, underwear, fresh shirts--out of his half of the dresser, laying it neatly in the suitcase despite his hurry. Henry was a tidy man, and even the threat of a vengeful incarnation of Death wasn't enough to break that instinct.