"It'll be risky… What with you not knowing how your brother will react." Maddie hummed in thought, speaking in Ever After standard for her companion's benefit, after all it was one thing to speak riddlish it was a whole other ball game for an outsider to completely understand it. "Are you certain that you wouldn't prefer to just simply move to Wonderland to stay like I've always offered? My father would be willing to offer you a seat at his table, and I know that her highness could always use another librarian and researcher. You've done really, really great in your past visits!"
Giles Grimm smiled but shook his head in the negative.
"It has to be done this way huh?" Maddie chuckled good-naturedly while taking out her phone. "Well ookie dokie! I'll see what I can do~!"
XXX
Blondie bit her lip. "Sooo…" She began awkwardly as Cupid placed her book bag beside hers on the bench outside of the main school building before sitting next to the blonde reporter. "You know Faybelle from outside of school?"
Cupid chuckled warmly. "That's been bothering you since lunch hasn't it?"
"But I waited until we were out of class and in a less public place to ask!" Blondie looked proud of herself for the restraint.
"I used to date a relative of hers." Cupid confessed vaguely. "I managed to gain her respect for treating that relative well and remaining on good terms with them even when the long distance between us broke us up. Faybelle has promised my old lover to look out after me and explain the cultural differences since they are so very different than what I'm used to."
"Ohhh… so she whisked you away to explain why she was being so mean to Apple?" Blondie asked curious. "Is she like… nicer outside of school or something?"
Cupid hesitated, biting her lip. "She never strays from your proper codes of conduct in regards to how villains are supposed to act at all times if you are worried about her ever slipping up in being who she is destined to be. I can assure you even by my own testimony that she has always kept up the spirit of the perfect villain for her charges even when she has had to conform to other cultures ideas of what is considered polite." The winged girl clarified carefully. "Really I understand that she works hard to be nothing but the perfect villain, having to fill so many rolls as well as dealing with the opinions that she is not biologically worthy for them must be very tough on her."
Blondie was suddenly very confused, she was just curious to see if Faybelle acted different around other people outside of school but it almost felt like Cupid was afraid that Faybelle would get into trouble for not being her usual bad tempered bully self that she was in school.
Blondie trusted her reporter's gut, even when it tended to leave her bewildered and off kilter.
"Is that why Faybelle pulled you to the side? To explain to you that she was being mean to Apple because she's just doing her duty? Um… that she is just trying to give Apple exactly what she's asking for perchance?" Because Blondie had heard the fairy say those exact same words time and again whenever someone would try to confront the fairy for her over the top actions, except it all tended to be spoken in a mocking voice, which told everybody that Faybelle didn't believe a word she herself, was saying. Blondie got the distinct impression that Faybelle had used a more convincing tone when speaking to Cupid.
And while Apple did talk big game about what she thought a villain should do, everybody knew that she just wanted someone who would make sure that she got her story right and someone who would be there as her friend to comfort her in moments of worry, because Apple was prone to bouts of panic because there was a lot of pressure on her to become the perfect maiden and Apple was constantly anxious that she'd make one wrong step and mess it all up somehow.
And that's what Faybelle liked to pray upon whenever she had the chance to.
Nobody quite knew what Faybelle's deal with Apple was, even the Crumb cousins didn't really see her as their villain but for some reason the fairy came down hard onto Apple with a malicious sort of glee that was downright worrying most of the time, like with today, insinuating that not only did Faybelle not care if dozens, perhaps half the school if she was being truthful, disappeared as a result of not fulfilling the story but also that she'd be thrilled if the real Evil Queen and her daughter were to vanish completely from existence just so that the Thorn family could keep all of it's acquired titles. That had utterly traumatized Apple, who believed in the disappearing theory with everything that she had.
"I'm so glad that you understand." Cupid breathed a sigh of relief. "Really I don't mean to cause any offense, it's a good thing that Faybelle explained it all to me or I fear that I would have made a big idiot out of myself trying to tell her what she was doing was not right. I have to keep in mind that what is impolite and mean at home does not apply to here if I want to get through these school years successfully."
"I perfectly understand." Blondie grinned innocently while standing back up. "Now if you will excuse me I just remembered that I have to talk to Ashlynn about something, do you want me to bring you anything back to the dorm from the village later?"
"Oh you are just too sweet!" Cupid crooned. "But no thank you, I'm still trying to get through the sack of snacks that Mistress Elenore -she's one of the people who helped me get here- gave to me, the bag looks so small but sometimes it's almost as if the snacks in it just regenerate or something! I'll be sure to set aside a soul cake just for you!"
"Now who's the sweet one?" Blondie giggled before walking away, a determined gleam in her eyes as she planned out how she was going to enlist Ashlynn's help in confronting a certain fairy about misleading someone as kind as Cupid over the school's traditions…
"Howdy!" Maddie announced herself making Cupid jump. Only for the winged girl to jump again when she saw that Maddie had somehow managed to sit beside her without her noticing. "I need your help with something Raven's winged goddess of love and relationship councilor! Care to follow me down into the bottom of the school for a few minutes? Apple, Hunter, and Ashlynn are waiting in the library!"
"Oh! Can I… what's the word? Hext! Can I hext Blondie? She's looking for Ashlynn." Cupid requested.
Maddie grinned all the wider. "Sure thing! The more the merry-go-round!"
XXX
"Wait, he's locked Giles up underneath the school all those years ago? But he's his brother! And how long exactly have you known about this? 'Cause some people would like to be informed about the whereabouts of the uncle that they actually do like despite the feelings of loathing towards their absent father!" Clawstorm snapped irritably, not nearly as harsh as she could get because where the Mad Hatter was concerned she just had a difficult time ever actually getting cross with the same man who had so willingly helped her out with the kids while she was at class, the Good King was off ruling two kingdoms, the Evil Fairy was off causing trouble with the Cheshire Cat, and both Simone and Bane were up to their ears with two rowdy pups and work in a thankfully very welcoming community of werewolves in another district in the city and everyone else was too far away to help out.
"So Evil Fairy's suspicions were right? He is your monkey's uncle?" The Mad Hatter blinked, batting his lashes in an exaggerated motion, which signaled genuine surprise for the mad man.
Clawstorm froze, pursing her lips while scratching the side of her unwashed and untamed hair. "There is a reason why I prefer not to have to deal with anybody until after a scalding shower and at least two cups of caffeine after just avoiding a massive deadline alright?" She coughed scuffing her bare toe into the plush white carpet.
"That does sound like cause for bouts of insanity." The Mad Hatter nodded sagely.
Clawstorm brightened. "Yes! Completely crazy! That's me right now, come on in and I'll be with you in proper working order in about a half an hour or so…"
"And that's when you can explain everything and I can explain everything so that we are both at tip top with the situation!" The Mad Hatter exclaimed cheerfully.
"Er… You aren't going to let it drop are you?" Clawstorm asked timidly closing the door behind one of her closest friends as he walked towards the kitchen to get the tea and coffee ready.
"Well good friends are the ones who you tend to tell secrets to, and good friends will be there to keep them and to make sure that they don't go all wicky wonky on you later on." The Mad Hatter pointed out gently.
Clawstorm groaned, succumbing to defeat. "That's the fifth time this month I've slipped up in regards to my parentage. Ma keeps saying that it's a sign that I'm moving on and that I'm starting to feel safer with my life here but admitting as such isn't the real problem, I mean it's not actually that big of a secret, not really, especially since nobody really cares since I'm a bastard and all that. But it's the whole thing with dealing with a part about myself that I really would prefer pretending never existed ya know? And it's not like I'm trying to keep it an active secret from you or the others…" The witch trailed off uncertainly, not sure where she was going with all this first thing in the morning- er, well late at night since it wouldn't be morning until ten more minutes, and wearing only her sleep shirt and shorts.
"I'm not usually up this late am I?" The woman stared at the clock blearily.
"You are as nocturnal as a fluorescent mother cat." The Mad Hatter informed while doing some interesting things with water and the stove, which defied the physics of this particular realm. "And we've all suspected this secret, after all you don't really like keeping secrets from us incase your worse fears come true and you need a friendly hand who knows where and how to rescue you from being imprisoned."
Clawstorm shivered at the common nightmare. "How did you know-?"
"Too much Wonderlandian grag loosens your tongue as well as your clothes." The man smiled innocently. "There is a reason why we don't let you or sweet little Simone sip, gobble, and gulp all alone my dear."
"Yes… er." Clawstorm blushed. "Thanks again for like the thousandth time, for helping me home that one time after Raven and I were almost caught back at Ever After. I don't remember much save for shouting at the sky in the park and the awfully chilly breeze I got from standing in that tree… without very much proper clothing on… er, or so I've been informed."
"Oh silly dear, you were just peachy getting back home without the coppers seeing, I'm afraid that Bane was the one who had his hands full with both Simone and Lady Cheshire." The Mad Hatter reminded.
"It's just that I'm trying so hard not to live in the past and I don't want to drag my kids down with me whenever I get into a mood!" Clawstorm sighed, giving up. "I'm living out my dream and in context I could care even less about my father than I did when I was a girl, I mean I get it; I'm the bastard child he never wanted, my mother moved on and never looked back, and I've gotten over my brief stint trying to make him proud of me even though he only was happy with me for a very short time until I had decided to run off and all of his hopes that I'd be a proper fairytale villain and the ultimate example to be talked about for generations to come was so utterly dashed and really, me striving to excel in being such a good villain was only as a sort of parting apology before I left old Snowball high and dry. So why can't I shake off that dreadful nightmare? I did tell you that it was a nightmare right?"
"One you have bouts of every few months as I recall, though seeing as how that was some time ago I do hope that it has been diminishing some." By magic the man set down a perfect mug of spiced coffee and a cup of tea for himself down upon the black granite counter. He didn't ask any more questions on the matter, telling Clawstorm that he probably knew more than what he was letting on and was doing one of those Wonderlandian things where one warrior would help out another by tricking them to actually talk about what needed to be voiced in order to get the scary memories and paralyzing fears under control.
"It has. Though it's still pretty scary when I do have it." Clawstorm nodded glumly before retreating back into silence and staring imploringly at the hot liquid in her usual mug. "…So how is my Uncle Giles and why am I only hearing about his dramatic fallout with my father now?"
"It was his express desire that no one, not a one of any sort and breathing, knew about him." Mad Hatter told her apologetically. "He's figured out that the Book isn't the Book but it is in fact your Book, and he's worried about how far his brother will go once he figures out about the Book being your Book."
Clawstorm took a moment to interpret that. "What? He's worried that old grumpy Grimm will wind up hurting himself trying to exact his wrath upon me for deliberately legitimizing giving my role to someone else? Traditionally only a Grimm can have the power to assign different roles to people, even as a bastard it is still within my full rights and power, he can't challenge it to my face since he can't find me and I've got you guys on standby, if I really had to I suppose that I could just out him as my father and that would be that…"
"He's more worried about him jumping into your Book to find out what you had done actually." Mad Hatter sipped his tea and waited.
"Into- but he's not a fairytale character! That would be- oh, Oh crap. He would be the kind to do that, my blood never meant much to him even though it would certainly mean quite a big deal if he were to just up and do that!" The witch actually stood up out of her seat in alarm. "Wait, what's Giles's plan in all of this? He's not going to try anything rash is he?"
"He has asked Madeline to help him gather up some students so that they can go into your Book." The man informed.
"What? Why? He already knows that it's not the real one!" Clawstorm demanded.
"But it is real enough to serve as a proper substitute and it was real enough for the Headmaster to rip up and throw the cure to the curse he placed upon his brother of blood into." The Hatter informed calmly.
"Curse?" Clawstorm narrowed her eyes.
"Nothing to cause you need to fear for more nightmares my dear, he just can't stop the riddlish tongue, and he has been able to go to Wonderland, I had been willing to bring him into the fold years and years ago when I had first known, but he did not want to run, he stayed, and he endured for the sake of protecting his brother the day it came for young Miss Faybelle to take up the throne for the sake of all of you."
"By the gods- alright what's the plan? I can be there as soon as possible. The Hall of the Ancestors won't show itself until midday tomorrow over there so…" Clawstorm tried to calculate the time difference with the wonky rules of inter-dimensional travel.
"Worry not, I'll come for you an hour before we need to move." The Hatter assured confidently. "But we need not worry ourselves for a few days, if all goes to plan."
Clawstorm was about to speak before pausing and nodding in defeat, draining her mug as she did so. "I'm off to take a shower, feel free to help yourself to my personal tea and sweets cabinet, honestly I don't know how my students managed to get it into their heads that I was solely a tea person and not a caffeine addict, I keep getting tea as gifts from the university whenever my department brings in more high class donors."
The Hatter's eyes are wide and trying very hard to project complete innocence. "That is indeed a mystery, oh well if you insist!" He says before turning to mentioned cabinet with an air of unrestrained glee.
Clawstorm rolled her eyes, making a specific hand gesture to something invisible in the room before leaving for the bath.
"Kitty…" The woman's voice is a warning the second she closes the main bathroom suite's door. "What are you doing here spying on a weekday?"
Kitty Cheshire's wide eyes were to appear first as her usual grin was more of a pleading line right now. "Maddie's been keeping secrets auntie!" The kitten-girl whined. "I wanted to know why she's been so serious!"
Clawstorm raised a brow. "And you couldn't have just called?"
"…I may have wanted to reserve tickets from Raven to see that new concert that we are allowed to see now that Briar and that Cromwell girl have had their truce…" Kitty admitted cagily under the weight of her aunt's expectant stare.
"Doesn't your school have a bookball game that same day?" Clawstorm asked mildly.
Kitty made a face. "Watching the boys get their faces kicked in because they won't allow girls on the team is too boring, hardly anybody from our side shows up anymore. Actually I've never actually seen or heard of packed seats since my first day come to think of it."
"That's because it would seem as though nothing has changed from my days going to school there." Clawstorm sighed, the bookball team was never actually very good, it's what you got for putting a bunch of lads out on the field who only knew how to either fight tame dragons or how to battle by express rules that nobody had used in a real battle ever. "Fine, you can stay the night and I'll contact your mum to tell her that you have decent mischievous reason to be here for the night and the morning, but that is only because you were so worried for Maddie okay? In return I'd appreciate it if you could please keep an eye out for Maddie and the rest of them? Contact my mother if there is any real trouble going down, you are allowed to use one of my pet projects so that you can be both at school and at the concert, but you've gotta multitask ya hear?"
Kitty's eyes lit up with pure glee, rushing forwards to hug the witch by the waist. "Oh thank you auntie, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
The witch huffed a content sigh, oh to be young again… "Aw geeze it's just a concert kitten. Now go bug my spawn so that I can take a bath."
Moments later Clawstorm grinned into the hot spray of the shower as she heard the familiar sounds of her startled children getting a rude Kitty awakening.
It was nice having a house bustling full of people at all hours, Clawstorm reflected, though it was not considered normal it was rather comforting compared to the loneliness of the past, she was hardly normal, and yet she had found a family of sorts to match it to the point where weird became normal, and what a happy weird-normal that it was.
XXX
"Are you sure that you won't come Briar?" Raven asked her sister as she peered into the bags full of mysterious goods that her sister had brought into her room.
"The deal was to try not to fight, I'm good at not fighting with Samantha as long as I'm not in the same room as her." Briar insisted, shooing Raven away from the bag. "It's your costume for the concert, Samantha wants to try to bring in more of your fans by having you do a guitar solo or two and sing a song with her, she feels that bringing you in and combining forces with her guys and our guys over the next couple of months will prove beneficial, a treat for the fans if you will to have local guest artists preforming with her."
"Well of course I'll be happy to help out." Raven said automatically just as Briar knew that she would, Raven was good at getting over her crushes without animosity and had been getting nervous as of late because so many of the kids at school were just assuming that she'd go pro like Samantha was trying to do.
Not very many things were as disturbing as crazy fans that were outraged over their favorite singer deciding to retire.
"Alright! This is gonna be sweet!" Kitty cackled from the bed.
"Why are you even here Kitty?" Briar grumbled in mock irritation.
Kitty stuck out her tongue. "My school is making parade floats today instead of holding class, since everyone just lumps us Wonderlandians all together we only use one float and Alistair is the only one who really needs to be on it so the rest of us just lop the honor onto him so that we can do our own thing."
"And what does he think of that?" Raven snickered, already imagining the blond boy's resigned face. A Wonderlandian's definition of a team spirit parade was one that either celebrated the anniversary of a victorious battle or welcomed home warriors from battle and most other kinds of parades would not be considered very acceptable for the faint of heart (because of the bloodshed or advertisement of upcoming bloodshed for public executions and gladiator matches) in Ever After so it was kind of odd for that school to just expect the Wonderlandian crowd to find the same level of cultural enjoyment for celebrating a chronic losing team and have their ancestral fairytale story be represented in support of said team of really pathetic gladiators.
Kitty grinned. "One male against a whole cast of ladies? He never stood a chance to get out of it."
Briar rolled her eyes before turning and handing her younger sibling a pair of black and white knee-high cloth boots. "Here Raven, wear these boots for a while so that you are able to break them in by Showtime."
"And the reason why you aren't showing me the rest of the outfit is because…?" Raven prompted suspiciously trying to reach around Briar for the bags.
"You'll look fabulous. Trust me. You just worry about practicing your cords and picking out a weapon for opening night." Briar assured while snatching the rest of the shopping bags away from the curious hands of the witch.
It was sort of an accidental trademark that Raven's fans from school would associate Raven's stage persona with an accompanied weapon from her grandmother's dojo strapped somewhere on her body, the first significant school supported concert that Raven had preformed in had also coincided with the dojo's weapon's care and maintenance day along with one of Cedar's art projects and the wooden girl had wanted Raven to pose with a real katana sword if Elenore would be so kind as to allow it, and since that day had gotten even more hectic with both Cedar and the other opening band rescheduling Raven ended up walking out onto stage while quickly re-sheathing the katana that she had been halfway through rubbing down with a polishing cloth backstage because she had thought that she had time to do so five minutes ago!
The people in the stands loved it though, they all knew that her grandmother ran a dojo for the purposes of teaching the fearful and the timid to defend themselves when necessary with a bunch of other well known women of the city, and her mother had been a special guest in enough mad science classrooms that the sight of a (blunted, no sharp objects in school, Raven had stressed to Cedar who, like many elementals of a certain nature, never quite understood the fear that those with soft flesh and insides had with sharp objects since she could easily regrow her limbs or holes made in her body from tripping and falling onto things while carrying art supplies) sword being put away into it's sheath at her back was almost seen as something that a Grimmbook would normally do according to those who had either met or seen Clawstorm.
And from then on it became her trademark, one that was actually supported by the dojo because whenever Raven had an event coming up with her band she'd receive a different blunted or mockup weapon to showcase as a sort of free advertisement for the good things that the dojo provided the citizens of the city.
Personally Raven didn't understand what the big deal was and was more than a bit frazzled at all the attention one frantic moment of; "I am not going to leave a freaking sword, blunted as it may be, in the back where some idiot can swipe it and try to cause trouble with it" had caused. But whenever she so much as lightly mused out loud that perhaps she'd leave out the dwarf designed brass knuckles or the Celtic troll club she was always met by some horrified fan pleading with her not to with an emotion that bordered or even crossed the line into fanatic.
It was nice having people appreciate your hobby but Raven was getting to the point to where she was seriously getting worried about how some fans might react once she quit the show biz for good in order to pursue other interests. To be honest that little worry had more than once kept her up at odd hours of the night because while most of her fans were pretty normal and were cool with her being, like an actual person once the show was over, others… well there weren't many but a few others almost looked to her as some sort of god and would snap at her other classmates for daring to as if they could borrow a pencil from her.
It was worrying.
But Briar being just about the best sister ever had shoved her pride away to have another talk with Samantha Cromwell, this time on the topic of making it appear that she and Raven combined forces so that Raven's fanatic fans would hopefully get endeared to Samantha, who knew how to handle such people and attentions like a natural born singing star, so that the blow of Raven going off to explore her options for her future in non-music-related areas wasn't so severe.
And it was a good thing for both sides because Samantha had people in her band who were like Raven and looking towards pursuing other interests after high school and Briar had people in Raven's band who wanted to stay in showbiz if they could, in theory if they kept swapping in and out those who wanted to stay with those who were going to leave while Samantha and Raven began doing more and more shows together (but not enough to give the impression that they were going to stay together as one team), they could train a cobbled together team that would work fantastic for Samantha when it came time for her to hit the big time.
With this in mind Raven let the mystery of what outfit Briar was planning on making her wear stay a mystery… for now, the witch was still rather justifiably suspicious, after all when left alone Briar did prefer to choose outfits that were… a little odd looking than what Raven was normally comfortable with.
"By the way your mom is going to break some news to you guys pretty soon, apparently the head-oaf that runs Ever After High needs to be saved from himself. Again. Seems that Giles Grimm has figured out that the Book is not the Book and he knows that his brother is on the cusp of figuring out that your mom did a switcheroo on the Book of Legends and Giles is worried that he might end up getting himself hurt if he tries, idiotically, to use your mom's Book to pinpoint her location. So she and the Hatter are going to the campus incognito to make sure that doesn't happen." Kitty warned in a bored tone, she never really did warm up to grumpy Headmaster Grimm and all his preaching about fear and strict codes of conduct. It really put a dampener on any pranks that she did attempt because it all had to be "school approved" and run through by one of the villain teachers.
What was the point if your plans for a good prank had to be looked over and revised by some old fuddy duddy who put the wrong kind of villainous spin on all of her ideas? She was a trickster not a villain!
Both Raven and Briar tensed.
"If they finally found Giles then why doesn't he save his own damn brother?" Briar broke the tense silence.
"Because the Headmaster is the one who made him disappear in the first place." Kitty sighed, eyeing the horror crossing the faces of the sisters with a mild expression of pity. "Apparently Giles became "sympathetic" to your mom's decision to leave Ever After without completing her part of the story and the Headmaster just could not have that so he cursed Giles to speak only riddlish and locked him up in the vaults under the school's library. I'm not sure about the full story but apparently the Hatter family stumbled upon him one day and in keeping up with the spirit of the confidentiality rules that our parents all agreed upon, did not tell him about the other refugees but gave him the option of running off to Wonderland with the idea in mind to watch over him for a while before then determining whether or not he should be brought into the fold. However he's been adamant on staying and looking after his brother through what limited ways he can."
There were more than a few people that were apart of the growing rebellion at Ever After High that Faybelle and the Wonderlandians were cautiously looking over incase other desperate cases came up that needed to be spirited away into the night, the hope was that this rebellion would become established to the point to where people in power were no longer so fearful that the children would go poof that they wouldn't back up the Headmaster or Snow White with overwhelming force when, not if, but when people started to break free from tradition for real.
"Dedicated. Utterly suicidal and foolhardy, but dedicated nonetheless." Briar's eye twitched. "Mama-witch and uncle Hatter are going to be there for when it all turns sour right? Because locking your own brother up for not agreeing with you is…"
"That's what I'm guessing, but auntie will be telling you guys more about all of this later and in greater detail I suspect." Kitty mused lightly. "In any case it doesn't seem to be all that major because auntie has enlisted me instead of my mom to help out."
"She's what?" Raven blinked while standing beside her Briar's eye twitched again in growing dread.