Once Upon A Time-[Advanced Roleplay] discussion

A small cafe that sells everything from coffee to muffins. People can come here for a quiet place to read or a place to socialize with friends.

Bramble pushed open the door of the café and was flooded with the smells of the warm food. She sauntered up to the counter and ordered some hot chocolate. Even though it wasn't to cold outside she still loved the warmth rushing throughout her body as she drank. Upon receiving her order she looked around for a seat and noticed a girl with bright red hair that she recognized from school. "Can I sit here?" she asked, Bramble thought that if she was going to be staying at the school for some time she might as well make some friends.

Bramble smiled back before sipping her warm drink, "Hi I'm Bramble, I just moved to the school." She smiled reassuringly at the girl, "And don't worry, I don't bite."

"Nice name," Bramble nodded. She had gotten many looks like the one Merida had given her, but decided to explain, "I was just trying to break the ice. You just seemed timid that's all."

Bramble pursed her lips together, she didn't talk constantly so she hated one sided conversations. She took another sip of her coco before finally saying, "So, do you like the school?" At least she would get a nod or a head shake.

"That sounds cool," Bramble said, " I've never ridden a horse before, papa won't let me." She said the last bit scowling, of the 12 girls she was the most know for not following the rules set by the king, her father, she always thought it would be no e to learn how to ride but had always been caught by the stable hand. "Any advice at how to survive school?" She asked, her elder sister had usually organized their lessons and the only other 'school mates' had been her sisters

She nodded and began to take another sip of her hot coco, only to burn her tongue. Bramble inhale sharply and jerked her hand ever so slightly so that some of the liquid sloshed out the side and onto her jeans. She immediately put down her cup carefully on the table before grabbing some napkins and started vigorously rubbing the wetness out of her jeans. "I'm such a klutz," she said shaking her head and laughing.

"No, no. I'm fine; just peachy in fact," Bramble said quickly dabbing off the dink with a a napkin. "At least i didn't drop the whole cup, then my pants would have absolutely soaked and it would have been a most memorable first day for all of the wrong reasons," she said laughing.

"Are you kidding, I would love to ride a horse!" Bramble broke out into a grin.

Anya found the Cafe quickly and got a table for two. She told Merlin she'd meet him there, so he should be there soon. She was excited to finally have a friend. It was different than she'd imagined and completely opposite of what she was used to, which was isolation and the cold. This was pleasant and involved associating with other people and somehow warm.

Merlin entered the café and slipped his jacket off, draping it over his arm. He saw Anya at a small table for two at the back and waved before waking over quickly. "Hello there." He greeted with a smile, placing his jacket over the back of the chair before taking a seat.

"Hi, you did say you hadn't seen the town yet, right?" Anya asked, taking a sip of the water in front of her. She figured if she was going to town, she might as well bring a friend along.

"I did say that. I hadn't had a reason to come until you invited me." He picked up a menu and began to scan it then peered over the top at her. "What were you thinking of getting?" He asked.

"Something with chocolate," Anya said watching a waiter walk by with a plate of something doused in chocolate. "Like that." She smiled. "And you were able to get away from that prince of yours." She turned to him and stuttered, "Not that I meant he's your prince or anything, just that, well, umm..." She felt her cheeks heating up, she'd never felt that before.

"I know what you meant." Merlin said, grinning over his menu. "And yes, I was. Seems his Saturday was booked and not by me." He said happily. "Chocolate's always good." He agreed. He was thinking of getting a cannoli. He had seen them in the display case and they looked great.

"So what do you do in all the free time you have, you know between doing homework and chores?" She asked as they waited for the waiter. She wished she could figure out his secret, but while she still had one or two, it just wouldn't be fair.

"Well I usually work on my own homework and I do a lot of reading. I'm into science." He said. It was the word he always used when trying to be discreet about his interests. The waiter showed up and he ordered a cannoli. "Oh, and two mugs of hot chocolate." He told the waiter. Merlin raised an eyebrow at her to see if she would like the idea or be offended.

Anya giggled, hot chocolate for the snow girl, a little ironic, she thought. "I'll have whatever has the most chocolate on it. Surprise me!" She told the waiter. "So, science. And you didn't think the ice would hold you?"

He smiled at her order. That was one way to get a chocolate fix, he thought. "Well just cause I like science doesn't mean I trust everything I read." Merlin smiled. That and he hadn't been to the lake before so he didn't know how long it had been frozen. Plus he had been trying to get her to talk.

"I know what you mean. I read in a book that the sky was blue, that's just crazy, right?" She teased. She guessed that it might be hard to believe some things, especially if you never grew up where it was cold enough to freeze a lake. Where had Merlin grown up, she wondered.

"The sky doesn't have a color it just reflects color back." Merlin spouted off without thinking. He was full of science facts. The more you promoted science the less people suspected magic. He blushed a bit. "Sorry, didn't meant to sound like a textbook entry there."

"So science is your thing," Anya smiled as if she had tricked him into saying something to prove himself. "And don't worry I don't read my textbooks, so I wouldn't know." She shrugged. Science wasn't as much her thing as just nature in general.

"Science is my thing." Merlin agreed. He liked science sure but he knew that many of it's principles were wrong or could be manipulated by magic. He smirked at her. "Maybe after a hundred years of high school you'll actually start reading your books." Just then their drinks were set down.

"Oh I seriously doubt that," Anya predicted as she turned her attention to the hot chocolate. She picked it up and felt the warmth through the mug. It wasn't so much uncomfortable as unusual. She generally avoided warm things. She blew on the surface of the chocolate before she took a drink. It tasted good, but feeling the warmth travel to her stomach gave her shivers.

"So do I but I had to throw it out there as a suggestion." He smiled and wrapped his hands around his own. Mug he took a sip and relished the warmth. Then he saw her shiver. Amazing how she had the opposite reaction to warmth that the rest of the world did.

Maya walked inside with Will and she smiled at him. "Okay this looks awesome and I'm getting hungrier already," she chuckled softly, giving him a playful look. She walked with him to a booth and sat down, smiling at him. She was really having fun, and Will was so fun to be around.

"Well if you weren't hungry there wouldn't be much point in being then. Now would there?" He said with a smile as he sat down. He picked up a menu and handed one to her. "So, what are you thinking?" He asked as he opened his own.

"I'm thinking about how delicious all of this sounds," she muttered cutely, chuckling a little. She shook her head with a slight grin. "What are you thinking?" She asked him, putting her menu down. She already knew what she was going to order. She was good at making decisions.

"I'm thinking, well, nevermind that. As to the menu I think I know what I want, yes." He folded the menu up and laid it on the table. He gazed out the window. This town was so small, cozy, a place where only students seemed to come. Just like the school itself it was remote.

"So Marian is your sister... so how old are you then?" She smiled at him, leanibg back n her seat. 'I want to know more about you. I want to get to know you," she admitted. She really liked Will, and thought he was... cute. Even though she was bad with relationships. She was pretty sure that she was just... average.

"I'm eighteen. I came to this school the day after my birthday because Marian had been sent here and I didn't want her to be alone." He told her. When she said she wanted to know more about him he tried not to stiffen immediately. He wasn't so good with letting others in on his past. "What about you? Any boyfriend, here or back home?" She was very pretty.

Maya smiled at him as he talked, thinking it was sweet of him to be so protective over his sister. "That's nice of you. If I..." she trailed off, suddenly thinking about her brother, Samuel. He would've been 21 by now. She smiled ruefully and shook her head. Don't think about that right now. Don't ruin this, she thought to herself. "Oh no, no boyfriend," she muttered softly. 'I came here because my dad wanted me too, really. I do like it here though," she admitted softly.

"I couldn't let her be on her own." He said quietly. He noticed that she stopped midsentence but if she had thing she didn't want to tell he was the last person who was going to try to drag them out of her. He kept more secrets than he cared to thing about at times. "What a shame, lovely girl like you." He commented just as the waiter came. Will ordered a cup of tea and a club sandwhich with chips.

Maya blushed at his words and gazed at her hands on the table with a light smile. Even if she was confident, she never really had someone eho called her beautiful. Before she could reply, the waiter came and she ordered a chicken sandwich and hot chocolate. It didn't match at all, but she difn't care. "What about you then? Girlfriend?" She asked gently. She was quige sure that hevwould have a girl. He was amazing.

Will brought his attention back to her at the question. This was such an easy one to answer but the why was complicated. It was one of the parts of his past that he was trying to get away from. "No girlfriend. The only girl with a real place in my life has always been my sister." The only girl with a permanent place in his life. Every other relationship had just been transient.

Maya was surprised to know that Will actually didn't have a girlfriend. It made her strangely... happy. It was odd and it made her feel bad. "Oh well, it's great to have a strong bond with your sister," she said softly, feeling her mind drift off. All this talk about family made her realise how much she missed Sam. His smile, his laugh.. how he could always cheer her up... how he woul stand up for her. She sighed softly. She missed him so much.

"Yeah, there's no one in the world I care about more." Will admitted. In fact he was terrified that he was going to lose Marian now that she was with Robin. Their drinks arrived and he spooned sugar into his tea and began stirring it absently. "Anyone you're especially attached to in your family?" He asked in an attempt to get the talk off of Marian. But with Will most paths led back to his sister anyway he realized with a sigh.

Maya smiled slightly at him and took a sip from her chocolate. She was always that kind of girl that smiled but felt horrible underneath. At his question, she stuttered in her movements, but gently placed the mug back on the table. "Oh I.." she began unsurely. "I do.. well, um... I had," those last words were barely a whisper. Even after a year, it was still difficult to talk about.

Will stopped stirring his tea and gave her a quizzical but sympathetic look. "It's okay. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." He laid a hand over hers to assure her it was fine. She sounded a bit like Marian when asked about her twin sister that had died. Marian swore she had forgotten her name but Will remembered it. Megan.

Maya shook her head wildly, feeling her heart ache less as he touchef her hand. "No .. no, it's fine," she said softly, trying to get the lump out of her throat. 'Sam. Well, Samuel... he was my older brother, only brother..." she trailed off softly. "He.. he died last year.. car accident," she breathed out sofy. She could remember it clearly, she had been there.

Will gave her hand a squeeze and nodded his head as if he understood, which in a way he did. He could relate to that feeling of loss. "That's horrible. I'm sure you still think about him every day." Will didn't believe in saying sorry when someone passed because he knew nothing healed the wounds but having someone feel 'sorry' for you made it even worse.

Maya nodded her head slightly with a rueful smile. "I do," she said softly. She did think about him almost every day, and the feeling off loss was sometines a huge pain. "I miss him, a lot. I was... I was there, sitting in the car with him. We were fooling around," she gulped. "And he... we crashed into a truck and he died and I survived. It feels horrible," she bit her lip hard.

"Survivors guilt." Will muttered. It was exactly what Marina went through for a long time after she learned the truth. "My sister went through the same thing." He told her. "It hurts to know that you were left behind and they were taken." And it applied to so many more situations. He thought soberly to himself.

Maya nodded her head slightly an gazed at her hands for a moment. "I know," she said softly, looking back up and meeting his gaze. "She did?" She sounded surprised, she hadn't heard or known that about Marian. "I does hurt... and sometimes I just want to switch places," she admitted weakly "But what happened to Marian.. and to you?"

Will thought about whether or not he should say but it was his story as well as Marian's and he didn't see why he couldn't tell Maya. "When Marian was first born she had a twin sister. Megan." Will told her. "But Megan died on hers and Marian's first birthday. Marian was too young to remember but when she found out years later she was devastated. She had been the stronger twin and I don't think she's ever stopped feeling guilty for that." Will sighed.

"Oh, that's awful," she said softly, looking at him with sad eyes. "I don't understand how life can take the persons we care about the most," she said softly, looking at him still. She hated the fact that her brother was dead due to a stupid car accident. "Everything is just so... confusing. My feelings mostly. I cant imagine how you and Marian feel."

"It was a hard blow to the family. And because of it Marian isn't the most accepted daughter. Our mother hates her because she isn't more like our youngest sister and our father loves her but isn't sure how to manage her." Will sighed. "I think Marian decided that she was always going to be stronger and she's done that but at a cost."

Maya nodded at his words, biting her lip. Marian obviously had a hard life, and she felt sorry that she had. It was awful that her twin had died, and that her mother hated her... "But what about you, Will?" she asked him gently, feeling like he was removing himself from the story. "How do you feel?" she asked softly, gently reaching over the table and taking his hand.

Will forced himself not to flinch at the touch. It was exactly what he had done for her and it was meant to be comforting. "Me? I've always been the backup. I'm the oldest and the only son which makes me favored by both parents. I protected Marian and anyone else from my mother's wrath. I protected and took care of Marian." Right up until Marian was also protecting me, from myself. Will thought sadly.

Maya looked into his eyes, hers a little sad. "The backup doesn't sound that good," she aid gently. "Will, it's great that you want and have to protect her and all, but you need to think about yourself too," she said softly, gazing into his eyes. She didn't want him to feel as if he was a backup. Her dad had sent her off because... well, he had been drowning in his own grief. Now her mom and her brother were both dead, and she couldn't do anything about it.