Camp Darkness

There is too much

Gideon stared out at the crowd of people and felt the weight of their eyes stare back. She could feel the prickle and twinge of their judgement brush past her skin and she resolutely suppressed her urge to flash her teeth at them. It was Parent's Day and all the kids who had concerned parents were here to see how they were adjusting. There was still a week left to go, but this was one of those necessary steps to reintroduce the new person that the intakee has become back to their families.

What that meant for the Councillors like Gideon was that those parents who couldn't understand that they were the problem is nearly half the cases were given a hell of a shock when they met their newly confident and more independent children. Those same shocked, mostly angry parents inevitably started to harp and harass the Councillors, telling them how the Councillors have screwed the kids up. In most cases, the parents were actually the problem, but not in all cases. The dark gloom of Trinity's betrayal still clung to the Snowflakes and the rest of the Camp, but it was being ignored through the strength and resilience of Luna herself, the real victim. If she could hold her head up, shoulders back and keep on like there wasn't a thing going to stop her (even though she is still shy), then none of the other intakees really had the right to complain now did they? The no longer a witch's parents were in with Doctor Cyr and the Councillors were instructed to take their intakes and the matching guardians to the respective Houses.

Doctor Cyr was going to speak to all the parents, with the children in turn but that was not a quick thing. Even with the parents getting their own session time with the Head Councillors, Gideon and the other frontline Councillors bore the brunt of the parental displeasure. She heard this supposedly grown, mature adults whine and piss, moan and bitch about the accomodations that their children had blathered on about when they first moved here. It amazed Gideon how often it seemed that the parents were oh so eager to drop their kids off day one, but by week five they missed their little darlings.

Virgil was a solitary, calm pool amongst the churning, frothing mess of rapids everyone else seemed to be. Gideon tried to resist the almost subconscious pull between her and the convict but now that she knew what he was, her entire being thrummed with the challenge of their strange little courtship. But now more than ever she needed to behave so when she noticed that he was circling closer to her, she smiled and stepped to keep some parents between them. Of course, he hadn't really cared for any form of authority thus far so she knew that this was a delaying tactic more than an actual game plan. That and it was fun, most girls love to be chased, just a little. Being a Fury wouldn't make Gideon all THAT different than the average female.

Gideon tensed when she saw Ankou's parents pull him farther away from the group, their bigotry and speciesism blatant and unrepentant compared to their son's more cosmopolotan approach. She'd told the dragon all about her nighttime run in with Ankou, the changes in the Punt and her belief that his parents would not take his change in heart well; his advice to her had been to watch but not interfere unless she had to. At this stage of whatever game they were playing, Gideon, the dragon and the rest of the Camp can only react and try to thwart them and part of that was keeping Gideon's heritage a secret. It's amazing how many plans she could foil simply by existing.

She had been anticipating trouble from Trinity's parents, she had been prepared for conflict with Ankou's parents. What she had overlooked was Luc's Incubus father and his very narrow world view on why his son was still a 'virgin'. Gideon was standing too close to where Luc and his father were discussing things quietly when suddenly the older Incubus whirled around and full on punched Gideon in the mouth. She felt the inside of her lip split open against the edge of her teeth, the tast of copper filling her mouth and making a growl rumble in her chest.

Everyone in the room froze at the sound, instincts stronger than ego when it came to survival. But Gideon was still far too controlled to slip up, the growl faded out as she saw the Incubus' aggression wither and die as fear took over. It was her own fault for not anticipating it; Incubi and Succubi are volatile, emotional creatures and were inevitably going to react passionately. If she hadn't gotten so cocky with this latest growth spurt, he would never have laid a hand on her. Gideon sucked in a breath and smiled a crimson grin at the Incubus before she swallowed the blood down and started to laugh.