Rise of the Forgotten (Closed to New Members)

Fern stayed quiet as she took this all in. She had known about the transfers, but still hadn't been sure of what to do. She didn't trust them - couldn't trust them - but she didn't want to be all out aggressive towards them. That wasn't her style. She couldn't imagine being these kids. Ripped from their own cushy and protective lives to be sent to an island of villains. Like Del had brought up, they could be marching right towards a death sentence.

"First off, we need to keep the adults away from them," she said. She had a feeling Collie and Ian were also making arrangements to keep the transfers separated from the adults of Tortuga and Southwark. "Then i also want to make sure that the four of us make contact with any transfers before the rest of the coven." She knew they wouldn't be able to beat the mafia or crew to meeting the transfers, but she certainly wanted her leadership team to be able to assess the situation before letting the... unknown have free rein around her city.

"Del, do you want to take the lead on this one?" she asked. Recently, she'd been letting her second in command take more responsibility and leadership opportunity. She loved what she did, but an incident not too long ago had reminded Fern that she wouldn't always be around for the coven. And as the next in line to lead, she wanted Del to get experience so she could be confident stepping up as a leader instead of terrified because she hadn't been prepared. "I'll be by your side and I'll do introductions, but you can take the lead on actually feeling them out and figuring out what's up?" she asked. She looked at Mori and Tait. They were just as important to this coven as she and Del were. "Mori, you can take the lead on giving them a tour around Buchanan? And Tait can be a little welcoming committee once we determine whether we want to take them in or not?"

Fern was completely capable on doing stuff like that on her own and she enjoyed it, but it was important for Del to get the experience, and Tait and Mori could be trusted with more responsibility as well. It was... hard for Fern to give up the reins to her children, but she wanted them all well prepared for whatever events might happen in the future, whether it was Fern being in a position where she could no longer lead her coven or any one of them ending up with their own group to lead.  

The lion hadn't stuck around to hear the other's comments. He didn't really care what they had to say either. There was no respect for the other boys, at least, not from him. He wasn't going to put his trust in people that didn't deserve it. Shaka and Mico were both idiots, Shamakani was really the only one with any brains out of the group. Himself included. 

Watching Shiloh made Lekan sad, really. The human didn't fit in here. He didn't have a place and he would never have a place, no matter what Jace said. He was alone in a pack full of wild animals. Prey next to a horde of predators. The kid didn't stand a chance, and Jace was just allowing this to happen. Lekan could probably stop it, if he wanted to, but where would be the fun in that?

Plus, the kid was talking to plants. There was no way Lekan could let it go on. 

"Of course he survived, he has protectors." The part of the Ferals who allowed the humans to roam, of course. Some of the outsiders who came back and forth, like the De Vil triplets and the dark fae. Not that Lekan would fight either of them. That was just asking for death, honestly. No one could touch a De Vil on the Isle, and he wouldn't dare go up against Dallie's wings. "But they're not here right now."

At the thought, Cliff shuttered. "I hope not. I mean, possibly, because didn't some of the princesses have talking pets?" He didn't pay much attention to any stories, but he felt like that could be possible. "Plus, the lions could talk." He knew that, from Ian, since most of the lion kids had started off in Tortuga before running away to the Outlands. Not that Cliff blamed any of them. Ian knew how to be scary. "Or do lions have their own cat language?" Chester wasn't a lion, but he was still a big cat, Cliff would know if his brother new another language, wouldn't he? Right? 

Collie had completely taken his mind off the whole hearing-stuff-that-possibly-wasn't-there thing. Cliff knew that, objectively, but his worry had dissipated. At least, about Collie hearing things. His worry about talking cats had spiked considerably. It wasn't something he would usually worry about, but now he felt like he had to. It was a fairly important topic. If he wasn't trying to keep Cheri and Collie away from each other, he would ask their little sisters if there was such a thing as dog language as well. 

With Collie's compromise on the table, Cliff had to think it through. Objectively, both were good options to make sure Collie got some energy. Food would make her less sleepy, but so would actually resting her body. She couldn't move too much while eating, though. That would let her rest as well. Still, Cliff needed a way to get Collie to do both. He could see the tension and weakness growing, even if Collie acted like it wasn't. 

So, Cliff decided to pull an Ian and be manipulative. He leaned forward, head down, and spoke softly, "I get that you don't trust me with important mafia business, Collie, but I didn't think you couldn't trust me enough to wake you up when Red got here." It wasn't the best thing to do, but it was a way to get her to sleep. Plus, it was a solid plan. He wasn't a useless body without a brain. Sure, Collie was smarter, but even if she didn't get up for Red, Cliff had a good memory, and at the very least could write something down. Honestly, Cliff was slightly miffed about Collie acting like she was the only one who could receive a message, but this was Collie who rarely liked to give up control so he wasn't surprised. 

TZ took much more after his father in appearances than his mother. He was tall and lanky, and always seemed to move with the awkwardness of someone that didn't know how to use his long limbs. His hair was messy - often more because he didn't care to keep it neat than any other reason. It was surprising to most to find out that his mother was Maleficent when he looked like some stereotypical high school nerd.

Despite his preferred nickname being TZ, he didn't have any issues with Dallie calling him by his full name. It was family, and sometimes family did stuff like that, but TZ knew for her grateful for family like Dallie. Not everyone on the Isle Gad someone like her. His dad too. He was by far one of the better Isle parents, and he'd made it clear to TZ to let Dallie and Madora know that they were always welcome at his place.

TZ stuck his hands in his pockets and looked over at his sister. "Do you wanna do something? I got frustrated with one of my projects and needed a break," he explained, feeling better now that he was outside and not cooped up in his little lab. It was very rare that he was the one pulling himself away from his projects - especially when he was frustrated with one - so he was proud of himself.

And he didn't have many friends. Maybe that was part of the reason why he was grateful to have Dallie around. Still, he was gonna try to put effort into having a relationship with his sister. They were family, yeah, but relationships of any kind still required effort and TZ kinda... sucked at that. But hey he was working on it and that's what was important, wasn't it? Working on yourself as much as you can?

His mind began to wander for a moment before he snapped back to reality and the topic at hand. He had a bad case of a wandering mind when his body wasn't occupied, but - again - it was something he was trying to work on.

"And do you have a nemesis, Dallie? Cause I was thinking lately about my dad's stories about Perry and I think it would be fun. I mean, I don't wanna hurt someone or make it my goal to like kill them or anything, but someone that I can have a good natured love-hate relationship with." Off topic, but not too off topic, TZ figured. 

No need to fear the younger people on the Isle. That was a wild suggestion coming from one of those said people. Though, she supposed he wouldn’t have reason to hurt them. Because Fausto had essentially just said that the kids here weren’t stupid enough to attack the Auradon transfers. That wasn’t the best view of character overall, from a technical stance. It showed they were smart, intelligent enough to not do something that could hurt them, but does not hurting someone, because you know it’s in your interests not to, show that they could be redeemed?

She supposed there was the benefit that it showed they’d be willing to not attack people. But that was about it. It was a more reasonable, self-benefiting play overall. It wasn’t out of a genuine goodness of their heart to not hurt them, from what Billy could gather.

Still, in some ways, she supposed having some amount of the Isle not against them was better than the entire Isle. She wasn’t quite willing to say the villain kids were with the transfers, but if they were willing to keep a peace for the now, they weren’t entirely against the transfers. It was difficult not to look at Shimmy with a slight glare as she thought, and as long as we don’t do anything to provoke them to turn against us.

She didn’t want to have any issues with the other transfers she was supposed to be leading here. But this was already off to a bad start. She wasn’t close with anyone but her younger brother here. The people she talked to included two second-in-commands that she believed either didn’t like her or were slightly afraid of her. There were two adults in the group that were technically under her command- her, a not-quite-18-but-getting-there girl who was only in the position because of the king of auradon. She wasn’t really close with the two other people she’s actually interacted with otherwise, other than an inward irritation at one for not helping with more information and the other for an outward anger at the other for getting angry for no needed reason! This was far, far, far leaning on a negative to her and it was- it was only the first day.

This- that could be resolved later, when they didn’t have peering eyes watching. Maybe she could try to make some kind of amends with Shimmy, some kind of better understanding. But that was just another thing that had to wait for now. There was different business to focus on.

The Outland kids. Billy wasn’t really prepared for the information given to them. It was startling and not what she expected out of that. How did- How did people function out here with no clothes? The thing was, Fausto obviously was not a fan of the people there, so it wasn’t even that Billy was just talking out of an Auradon-based perspective. It seemed to be agreed upon everywhere but the outlands then and that was a weird thought.

Did they still attempt to bring them to Auradon- what would that really do to help them since nudity was a frowned upon thing under the eyes of Beast. Oh. Oh god. Scar lived in the Outlands too and though it didn’t sound as though he lead the majority of the people who lived out there as well, did that mean he too preferred to go without clothes? That was an image Billy didn’t want around at all.

Maybe he didn’t though, given the fact other villains seemed to respect him. It sounded difficult to respect someone who wore no clothes when everyone else did. Billy hoped the other villains wore clothes too.

Four areas of the Isle though. Thematically, she was beginning to consider. Given, what she assumed was the fourth area despite lacking a mentioned school, the Outlands seemed to be all out animals. From the idea that the Outlands was a former lion-area pre-Auradon to the fact that the people there chose to forsake clothing in preference to some birthday suits, it seemed well suited to assume that. Tortuga, the place they were currently in, seemed to be led by a captain of a crew of pirates. Given Tortuga was named after a place formerly known for piracy to its extremes, it made a fair amount of sense. She supposed one could connect Serpent Prep to either based off of the connection to reptiles- serpents, or snakes, and tortuga, a turtle. That was two out of four with a theme, and Billy was willing to bet it continued. Buchannan, if Billy was intelligent enough to guess, was magic based. It may also be very likely she was assuming this based off of the Witch School that was placed there. And then Southwark, based off of a district in London. Now, Billy wasn’t actually sure what sort of groups were associated with London of all places, and Dragon Hall didn’t help her figure that out.

She did some studying beforehand one a general what to expect potentially from the different places that were listed and mentioned as being on the Isle, but she didn’t actually think they would commit to these different aesthetics as much as they did.

She was going to finally make a decision regarding Scar until Raf spoke up, with a question regarding the other leaders. That was honestly a good question to ask in advance to making a decision and BIlly was full intent on listening. Of course, they could have done without Shimmy’s fairly off topic question regarding video game kids. Which had no relevance to the conversation at hand. Much less the fact Fausto rolled with that and answered ever so shortly. Was it too late to turn back on her previous statement of wanting to make amends with the kid? Though, she supposed it was better than large threats.

Ian, they heard about from Fausto just previous to the questions. Captain of a crew in Tortuga.

Then there was Fern- covens, Billy called a magic-based area there. But, it also seemed like a sore point to Fausto over the idea of anyone messing with that place, which Billy could understand. It actually sounded like the best place to be around thus far, even if Billy was hesitant on being anywhere near some place so in tune with magic. But it wasn’t like they had magic here. So she shouldn’t really have anything to fear there.

Unfortunately her question as to what group Southwark people called themselves went unanswered. Still, the fact food was there was a good thought, however the question as to how they pay for things here was up for debate completely. The de Vils being in charge also made sense though, given the connection Cruella de Vil had to London.

And back to the Outlands. That a was a little worrying over the idea that the leader there changed regularly- was it a scheduled change? She wasn’t willing to ask yet as she figured there was less of a chance they’d meet them then.

She couldn’t entirely believe her decision. But she glanced amongst her group and took a deep breath in as she made it fully, “Then we’re going to skip on meeting Scar.” If meeting him was only to appease Beast, someone who wouldn’t even hear of it or could do anything about it in person, it wasn’t worth going. By all accounts, it didn’t seem like they’d meet him without seeking him out. But these other leaders? These were the people they’d be seeing daily. It was something more important than ignoring orders.

“So, who would you suggest we meet first?”

TZ spent most of his time in Southwark. At least, when he was on his own he did. It's where he lived, went to school, and where most of his friends were. Plus he did a lot of work with Isabeau so it just made sense for him to stick around there. He very rarely went to the other parts of the Isle, with Buchannan being a bit of an exception. He had family there, so he figured that was a good excuse to go. He didn't want people telling him he didn't belong somewhere, which was why he avoided other parts of the Isle. But nobody would bother him if he was with Dallie, right?

TZ's eyes widened slightly at the multiple questions she threw his way. There weren't many questions, but still more than he expected so he answered them one at a time. "Uh, I did not eat." He'd been locked away and working too much to focus on actually eating, but it was fine. Limited food anyway. He probably wouldn't have gotten much even if he had exited his lab to eat. "Mmmmm. I'd like to be inside, but I was just inside for a long time so outside would probably be better." Yeah, they didn't exactly have the fresh air and sunlight that was supposed to be good for people, but being outside still had to have some benefits, right? Otherwise, why would people ever go outside? It's safe and quiet in your own house. "And something active for sure. I've been cooped up." Despite looking like the type to prefer sedentary activities, TZ was actually quite active.

TZ frowned. "I just want a nemesis because my dad really did like Perry and said they had a great relationship, except for the whole him getting beat up by a platypus thing. But all of the platypi and heroes are on Auradon, so I'm kinda out of luck right now," he said. He also wanted a nemesis that wasn't, like, unfairly strong. Someone that he could beat if he wanted to. He knew the whole fairytale thing was that the hero always won, but was TZ not a hero? Was he forced to be considered a villain forever just because his father was mildly curious about taking over a city? Anyone that knew him would see that Heinz Doofenshmirtz was harmless - sometimes because he just wasn't successful enough to be successful. 

“Oh no! Not Jace,” Mico started, eyes growing wide with a mocked gasp to follow, ”It’s not as though she’s tried to warn us off from hurting her pity project, not as though she couldn’t do anything based off of the rules established in the little society, right?” He said it with a blink of his widened eyes and shake of his head in a sad little pout before abruptly grinning with fangs once more. “Oh, right. She has and she couldn’t.”

Mico had only been out here a little longer than the human, but he obviously picked up on the society out here better. Shiloh seemed to keep thinking that Jace or Nanji could protect him. Somehow, the lesson didn’t seem to be sticing that this was a place for the strong to rule the weak. That Shiloh was weak.

Now, Mico wasn’t saying he himself was very strong. Perhaps if born on Auradon in the same feral circumstance, he’d find himself above his current company. Magic had a habit of crushing those without it after all, yet that wasn’t the case.

Mico learned where to put himself in the pecking order.

He learned to listen to those who had ideas to grow stronger. To listen to those who didn’t believe they currently held all the power. Those that were trying to gain the power and in doing so were most likely to topple a society. He wasn’t in this group with these lions because he held some deep attachment to Shamakani and wanted to see her as the ruler of the Ferals. Sure, he was willing to support her in her endeavours, but he couldn’t deny the large part of him that was in this to overturn a leader who thought they had everything under control.

If it started with teaching said leader that they can’t protect those they want to? Who was Mico to deny that?

"Trading negotiations? Populace control? All of the transfers are secretly prisoners like Tana?" Aria could continue, but she decided to shut up. She had made her point. trying to guess what they wanted was futile. They could think up hundreds of possibilities, but none of them would ever be confirmed unless they asked the kids. That only worked if the kids even knew why they were here, which Aria didn't put it past the King not to tell them. They were just kids, after all. How could they be trusted to do anything they were told. All adults were the same, really. Predictable.  

Aria couldn't say that she knew what Beast would do, but she was raised by a God. Someone who knew how to rule over others. Hades would hide whatever he had to, just to get his way. If it meant that he ended up getting what he wanted, well the means justify the ends. Not that the ends were moral either. Still, she knew that he wouldn't put her in any danger. 

The young Goddess couldn't say the same thing about Beast with his own children. 

"One thing is for certain: Something bad will happen." She usually liked to stay positive, especially when it came to something so important and stressful. Aria was sure that Montana was growing grey hairs back in the kitchen. She couldn't help her pessimism, though. Something was wrong. It was a feeling in her gut, like she got when the dead were talking in omens. 

It was a bad sign, one she wouldn't dare tell any of them. Instead, she plastered a smile on her face and asked, "Even if they're here to destroy us, we can try go be their friends. I don't trust them, but if they trust us, it works out." She wasn't sure if she could ever trust someone from Auradon. The country took her mother away for six months, never letting her child step foot on the land that should be her home too. Persephone had fought to bring her daughter, but the Goddess herself was only allowed due to her necessity. Aria did not have necessity.