At the End of the Masquerade [IC]

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He raised his eyes and looked at the group. "Lunch.. coffee.. sounds good." Seems like that had 'shown up' just in time. Everyone seemed like they always were, he was the only one who had lost sleep. Did this mean he was the only normal one here? He suddenly felt like crawling back home and into bed to lie there for the rest of the week in a dull stupor.

"But before we go, I'd like to know how many hid themselves away from the rest of us." he realized his question could be taken as offensive but he felt like he had a rite to know. His eyes went to Ann and hovered for a moment, the black rings around his eyes making it hard to read the expression on his face. His hand though placed itself over Zoey's that was on his arm, out of everyone here she was the one closest to him, and she had shown genuine fear today, an emotion that right now he felt he could relate a lot to.
 
Zoey tightened her grip on him and pulled herself so their sides were touching as he asked his question. She understood his tone and just hoped everyone else would.

She realized the way Darius had asked suggested something about her but she decided to keep quiet for that moment. Zoey would tell everyone of course, it wasn't an issue, she just wanted to see where this conversation was going.
 
Ann looked into Darius' eyes. What else he wanted wasn't completely clear, but by his words he wanted honesty, the truth. That she could give him. "Well...like I just finished telling them, I'm a werewolf. I can't really explain why I haven't told any of you before, other than...it's just what's always been done, and I was taught to hide for the sake of safety. I'm not really supposed to be telling anyone now, even..but you guys are my friends." She paused a couple of seconds, thinking, and then added something she hadn't told the first two yet: "What I did last night was magic. I have a little talent with it, but I haven't really learned much more than how to keep myself from doing it by reflex or when I'm emotional. I really could have not done it, but..."

She didn't manage to get the rest of the sentence out. The missing words were, someone could have died. Instead she changed the subject. She kept her voice down; nobody was close enough to listen in, but the park wasn't completely empty. "I'm not any different from how I was before. I guess it seems like it to you guys, but I didn't become what I am overnight, I've been a werewolf since I was born. You know those family reunions I go to every couple of years or so? Do you remember a single full moon I wasn't busy doing something?" Her speech had been steadily gaining momentum, but here she stopped, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. "I really don't know what I'm trying to say..but, I'm sorry...for.." She trailed off, uncertain of exactly what.
 
The blunt and somewhat snotty tone Darius had taken really irked Maru. No matter how hard he tried, the excuses he thought up for his friend acting like that just weren't enough to ease his mind. It felt like a splinter stuck in his skin and each time he attempted to dig it out it would only embed itself further. It was insulting how Darius had made that line out to be a demand even if the sentence had been structured as a question. Disapproval showed on Maru's face for a few seconds before he was able to smother it again with a neutral expression.

But then Ann took the question in stride, even relaying some of the things he'd said to her, and of course that changed his mood for the better. "No," he said, cutting into the conversation. "You don't have to apologize for anything, Ann, because everyone is entitled to keeping secrets." Turning his gaze on Darius, Maru gave his usual friendly smile, though perhaps the friends that knew him well enough would notice that he was definitely forcing it. "A true friend accepts that secrets are kept for a reason. It may not be a good reason in that friend's opinion, but how about the one keeping it?" he asked, gaze sliding over to Zoey's face. He couldn't be sure... Darius was tough to convince so she must have said something to him.

"But anyway~ Magical creatures or not, none of you have changed in my eyes," Maru added in his usual upbeat, expressive tone. "Well, 'cept Darius," he teased, making a face at the mentioned friend. "He's, like, PMSing or something."
 
Zoey nodded her head softly at Ann and looked her right in the eyes. "I understand." She said in a tone that truly suggested she really could relate. She did her best to keep from looking at Darius for a reaction because once Maru spoke she knew she wanted to come clean to all of them too. Seeing Darius upset or angry might distract her, and though she wanted to be there for him right then she knew she had to come out with what she had been hiding for so long...for the second time in one day.

"Darius was just asking because I told him about myself." She started, once Maru had finished. She had nothing to say in defence of Darius at that moment because her brain was so focused on aligning words in the correct order to form sentences. "I've had my own share of secrets, I never told because I didn't know how you would all react. I was scared and I was told I should be scared because...well...I don't really know why...I was just always told to be scared of the honest truth. It's so hard to be scared of the people you love so much." She looked down for a moment just to collect the next few words into proper sentences, then looked back up at the group to continue talking. "I'm part bird." She spat out clumsily. "I can turn into a crow, I also have wings that I can retract. I can even turn into a half bird." Her voice sped up and her eyes darted around a bit. "I showed Darius already...I knew he wasn't ok with last night so I had to." She kept her hold of his arm and looked at him. "You took it so well." She smiled weakly up at him. "I just needed to comfort him and cut out the lies." She squeezed his arm.

With that she went silent. She didn't have any wonderful conclusion, nothing poetic and beautiful about friendship and all being the same people. She just stood, clinging to Darius, looking over her friends, hoping things could stay relatively normal.
 
Darius looked at the circle of friends, so Maru was.. human and none of this seemed to bother him, that their entire world had been a carefully constructed lie to keep the knowledge that magic existed from those who didn't have it. And with with that revelation society was bound to change forever. He tried to keep the tension in his mind out of his body, knowing as close as Zoey was she'd feel it. Nothing was the same anymore.

"SO you didn't know about each other either." it wasn't a question, made evident an he nodded, his eyes looking at the path beneath his feel as he processed this new infomation. That fact alone made it easier to understand, turned them into isolated groups instead of a panglobal secret society. The thought made him laugh softly. He was paranoid, that much even he could see, paranoid and perhaps xenophobic, but who wouldn't be in his situation? Maru apparently. Why was this affecting him and just him.

He took a deep breath. "So, lunch is on me."

A gesture, an olive branch, perhaps. Not enough to force the feelings he was having down but maybe enough to show he wasn't going to shout humanist slurs and pull out an assault rifle. Another nervous laugh at the thought before he stopped himself realizing he had to seem on edge and laughing for no reason.
 
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