<div class="floatleft">(https://imgur.com/PIE4NqI.jpg)</div><strong>Character Name:</strong><em>Karina Hampton</em><br/><strong>Wearing:</strong><em>This</em>(https://img.ltwebstatic.com/images3_pi/2021/11/08/1636348259f52018dd870d57bef13c7ef70cf71d43_thumbnail_600x.webp)<br/><strong>Time:</strong><em>June 9th, 8pm</em><br/><strong>Location:</strong><em>Castle Tree</em><br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong><em>Faith, Closed |</em><br/><hr/>This was going to be the last year she’d come to Runamuk - and Karina was heavily invested in making the best of it. Oh there were so many things that she wanted to do. So many people she wanted to stay in contact with. One, in particular, despite the distance that had grown between them in the most recent years. She’d allowed space to grow - and she wrestled if that had been the right thing to do the whole time. Regardless, this year was going to be different. Space and time had been allowed, it was time to find resolution - this year, hell or high water, she was going to rescue her princess from the isolated tower she had been resolved to occupy for so long.<br/><br/>The concert was a camp tradition, and though the whole thing in no way played to Karina’s strengths, she enjoyed it every year nonetheless. It was the nights where stories needed to be told that she shined the brightest - but standing among the magic created by others was, for her, every bit as enjoyable and making it herself. And really, at the end of the day, what is magic if not the ability to move the hearts, minds, and experiences of others. In their own way every day is magic, and reality is what you make of it.<br/><br/>She had not been unaware of Faith’s attendance - from a distance, Karina had picked Faith out of the crowd on day one. But she had remained distant. Quiet. She had hoped that another year apart would see the beautiful soul she knew existed return and come running once more to her side. She had hoped that same hope every year for the last several camps. When it didn’t happen this time she wasn’t discouraged, it just meant she had to enact Operation: Your Princess Is In Another Castle. Which was just fine by her. She had been biding her time, waiting for the right opportunity. She didn’t want to bombard Faith - actually that’s<em>exactly</em>what she wanted, but it’d have been futile and she knew it. It just so happened that, among the song and dance, she had been watching the scowling maiden in the distance - and when Faith broke away, Karina saw the doorway to success as though it were outlined in bright white light. She’d broken away from her dance-group and meandered slowly after Faith.<br/><br/>When she found herself walking a familiar path, one she had walked with Faith a hundred times before, she couldn’t help but smile. This really was magic, there could be no better location for this. Being behind as she was, Karina misses most of the conversation - but she catches the tailend of it. And for a moment her heart freezes as if clutched by Faith’s<em>actual</em>magic. Her dad had died?<em>Oh, Fay…</em><br/><br/>Without context, Faith’s words mean something very different to Karina. There she is talking to Coral again, saying she has magic! That’s not the Faith she’s known in recent years, always busy with her glam-group, but it is very reminiscent of Fay the Fairy Princess. Wrapping her sleeved arms around herself, Karina quietly steps forward and replies where Coral does not, “<strong>It was still with you, you know.</strong>” She steps into view with those words, and stops. Her head lulls to the side and the heavy braid of her hair dangles in the air, brushing her shoulder. “<strong>It’s not a joke, there’s just some things that even magic can’t make right.</strong>” She sucks both her lips in briefly and smiles, “<strong>That’s what makes the Dragon Queen’s plots so wicked, remember?</strong>”<br/><br/>Karina straights and steps forward a few paces, but stops shy again, “<strong>Hi Fay. Haven’t seen you here since we defeated Coral’s onyx giant. Remember that?</strong>” She laughs, smiling ear to ear. Her gaze sweeps the area - somewhere, she’s sure there is still a pile of rocks that had once been the evil giant who defended the castle. But the joy of the memory melts away, and Karina furrows her brow, “<strong>I’m sorry Fay. About… Your dad? I… I didn’t know.</strong>” She says quietly, in little more a whisper, and sways in place. Her heart breaks for Faith - she really can’t even imagine. “<strong>But if,</strong>” She rakes her teeth over her lower lip and steps forward again, “<strong>If you’re here to settle the score with the Dragon Queen, I’m here for you, you know that right? You’ve got my sword. Always.</strong>”