⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 3

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: October 15st - 22th, 2017
Where: Still in Portland
What: As all sides of the struggle gradually become informed, and the awareness of outsiders begins to spread, Portland faces a critical question - what should be done with them? And who gets to decide?
Warnings: Individually marked!

THE WOLVES AMONG US↴ ► WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS: It's fairly common knowledge that October is a special month - Halloween has always been an excitable time in the supernatural community, because its during this month that the magical energies of Earth seem to disproportionately swell in power. This peeks on the 31st, and has every year for as long as anyone can remember. The holiday of Halloween is a byproduct of this, because the magical phenomenon has gone on for ages past. It's also a pretty common time for wizards to attempt bullshit shenanigans, and also when the Severing first came into effect. ► TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL: Towards the end of the week, Prudence Jaeger will be asking her angelic contacts for a pretty huge favour - she wants them to help her and some of her associates break into the Circle stronghold that the visiting Council members are staying at. It seems that they have some kind of macguffin item that will be needed to crack the barrier cutting off the Earth from the cosmos - and, to that end, allow the angels and mysterious outsiders to return to wherever they call home. ► THE PATH TO HELL: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Team Heaven isn't the only group to clue into the fact that the Circle has what they need. On the same night that the angels go in, so will Anath's army, as the arch demon finally arrives in the city just in time to join the party. Whether the angels and demons fight each other all the way or cooperate to achieve a mutual goal is up to them. ► WITH GOOD INTENTIONS: The Circle and Torchlight aren't all bad, okay? It's entirely possible that they are just acting in the best interest of humanity - unfortunately, that has resulted in them being pretty massive pricks recently, and now the payback for that is arriving on their doorstep. If you're a member of the Circle, you may or may not realize that anything is coming in time for you to prepare. (That will depend on your threads up to the end of the week.) However, once the fight starts, you'll be charge with defending the Councillors whether you like it or not, and Torchlight is getting pulled in as an unexpected ally to ensure their safety as well. Are you going to heed their call? Or is it time to split from the pack? ► BLOOD OF ICE AND FIRE: It's been made no secret that the Rose Queen isn't the only fae trying to pull back her lost changelings - now the Winter Court appears to be doing it, as well. More than a handful of changelings have gone missing over the last couple weeks, lost to both the thorns and agents of the Count. Whatever they're doing, it's also in competition with each other - Winter and Summer will be biting at each other's heels far more than normal, to the degree that it becomes clear they must have some competing objective in mind. Unfortunately for everyone else, that objective happens to conflict with the desires of just about everyone else. Fae are, by nature, opportunists. - ✪ - These are the major conflicts that will be coming to a head towards the end of Week 3. In the meantime, your actions will decide how certain elements are set up, and what the likelihood of success is for each group. Dice rolling handily won the opinion poll where we asked for the preferred method of conflict resolution, so that will be coming into effect a bit later on to determine who actually wins and loses, with advantages based on the choices made.

Comments

[whattaprick]

Lambert and Peridot are going to spending the early part of the week searching for the Beast. Realistically, they have no idea how to find the Beast in the first place, so they're basically just going to head out to where the Animal Fair was held (in the daytime, first, then come back in the night time if they don't see anything).

If successful at finding her, Lambert's questions basically boil down to what the hell is going on? and if she has any insight into why the other Fae seem really aggressive recently.

[ringleaders]

The Beast turns out to be really easy for Lambert to find now, and Peridot too. Instead of getting chased around by feelings of imminent death, if they wander into that part of the forest, the Beast will eventually mischievously reveal herself.

...Unfortunately, she also seems a bit clueless, because her response to that question is "obviously they are scared of me." Which... doesn't necessarily line up. It seems like the information they have may actually be news to her.

[whattaprick]

Lambert straight up shoots that down like "that doesn't make sense at all!" and then goes into a wild gesticulating ramble about how it's not just a fae problem! There are demons straight up creeping on people, mages shaking down random establishments and supernatural beings for no apparent reason, and also, also he keeps having strange dreams where he keeps killing things and there's this whole dumb shit about having a strange soul??? He's super tired of all this supernatural bullshit!

After about fifteen minutes, provided he's uninterrupted, he'll also realize he's just babbled about a whole lot of things he hasn't told his little sister about, shut up, and mutter something like "I didn't know what I expected anyway!!!" and just turn to leave. :')

[ringleaders]

The Beast will listen to him ramble all the way through, but before he can storm off, she'll stop him. She seems curious. She honestly had no idea most of this stuff was happening, she's been mostly involved in her own business.

She'll say that she can look at his soul, if he wants. :)

[whattaprick]

For some reason, Lambert feels a brief twinge of concern that she's only interested in seeing his soul so she can eat it

But sure, why the fuck not.

[periphrasing]

OH MY GOD

[ringleaders]

Sorry Peridot, Lambert said yes so that's all the Beast cares about right now. She is going to stride over to Lambert, put her arms around his shoulders, and then SUCK FACE.

As in, sort of kissing him, sort of trying to eat his head, ostensibly? The result is that she inhales the tiniest bit of his essence, before releasing him, and then pulls back that like that wasn't super weird, licking her lips like she's tasting something.

Then she'll be like, "Mmm, no, that's not very regular at all."

[periphrasing]

Peridot flips the fuck out. She's like, in bat-monster form already by the time the Beast backs off of Lambert, and then she just kinda gapes agog at this weird fae lady.

SHE'S TOTALLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE SITUATION. SSH.

[ringleaders]

Get ready Peridot, now that Lambert is done, she's coming for you, whether you asked for this or not. She's pretty much going to try to smell Peridot all over, like a dog. Except, spiritually. Or something. She will wrestle her, if necessary.

[periphrasing]

screams

Peridot tolerates about 2 seconds of that sniffing, and then turns into a bat.

She would like everyone to think this is a clever maneuver to fly away and avoid meeting the same fate as her brother, but really she's just so flustered by the situation that it triggers an involuntary transformation. Good job Peri.

[ringleaders]

That probably won't work get well, because it's just going to result in the Beast grabbing hold of her smaller bat form and just cuddling her like a stuffed animal, while also sniffing her. Though she will start laughing because of how funny that was.

"It's even more obvious with you!" she'll say.

[whattaprick]

Anddd that's Lambert's cue to snap out of it, hands lifting like he wants to snatch her fluffy bat-butt up away from creepy fae sniffing and looking as indignant as he can, but not actually like ... grabbing for her because god knows he doesn't wanna squish her.

"Stop that! What are you even talking about?!"

[ringleaders]

"She only has one soul," the Beast will say, letting Peridot go at that point. So cute, though. "She should have two."

[periphrasing]

Peridot is too stunned to get her wings under her in time, so she drops to the ground like a squeak toy when released. Honk. It's comical.

"That's what that other fae told Amethyst!" is what she says next. "But what the heck does that MEAN?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert's just gonna step in and pick 'er up, but he's interested in the answer too and ALSO PERIDOT YOU DIDN'T TELL HIM SHIT.

[ringleaders]

"Werebeasts are supposed to have two souls. The soul of a human and the soul of an animal... joined together like twins. You don't. It seems as if you just have one soul, split into two parts. It's a relevant distinction!"

[periphrasing]

WOW OK LAMBERT AT LEAST THE STUFF SHE DIDN'T TELL YOU WERE JUST THINGS SHE HEARD SECOND HAND! INSTEAD OF DANGERS SHE GOT HERSELF IN!

"Okay but what are the IMPLICATIONS of that?" Peridot will demand to know, while looking incredibly dignified getting picked up by her brother.

[ringleaders]

BIG SHRUG.

"You're not really a werebeast, I suppose! Or at least not the common definition of one."

If the Beast knew more about what was going on she could extrapolate that for you, but she can't right now.

[whattaprick]

"What about mine?" Lambert'll pipe up at this point. "You said it wasn't regular either."

He's obviously not a werebeast though so what else could it be???

[ringleaders]

"You..." she says, pointing at Lambert, "have magic in your soul that isn't from this world. It would be have been impossible for you to gain that essence without having been elsewhere in the multiverse. Or having been in contact with something that was. In which case..."

It only just now seems to occur to her that this is probably a relevant line of thought?

"Where the hell did you oddballs come from?"

[whattaprick]

Seattle, duh. Lambert answers with automatic snark, before glancing down at Peridot with evident Concern and beginning to wonder if getting out of here might be a good idea right about now. He doesn't remember anything like that ... does he?

"People I've never met before knew my name," he'll admit, after a moment. "Does the word 'Nightrider' mean anything to you?"

[periphrasing]

The multiverse definitely means something to Peridot, and it's obvious in the way her eyes widen. She's studied the concept off and on for a while now in connection with her fractured memories. More recently, she's studied it more aggressively than usual, in connection with the strange vision she had at the start of the week.

The idea that she may have been touched by the multiverse somehow, that she may be connected to it, and that there's harder evidence to back that idea up? That is incredibly exciting to her, the sort of validation that she's been looking for her entire perceived life in this realm.

Apparently 'Nightrider' means something to her too, because when Lambert asks that question, shakes her head and glances up at him. "Nightrider? That's easy. That's one of the supervisor positions at the carnival."

It's just kind of out of her mouth before she really thinks about it? She doesn't even know where that information came from, it just slips out, and after she says it she looks incredibly baffled and scratches her head with one of her little bat thumbs, perplexed.

[whattaprick]

Yeah no Peridot can take over the questions because that just thoroughly BSOD'd Lambert and he's just going to stand there like a slightly drool-covered nerd with glasses askew looking mildly shell-shocked. Give him a few minutes to reboot.

[periphrasing]

Okay first of all, Peridot says "what the fuck" at LITERALLY EVERYTHING that Lambert divulges. Like, he was giving her shit for getting into trouble, and now this stuff comes out? Jesus Christ! He never told her any of this, she's mad!

Then she's going to look back at the Beast and literally just throw her hands up in the air and shout/ask: "WHAT IS UP WITH YOU FAIRIES AND SOULS!?" As if she also didn't get the sense of some similarly weird fixations from the werebeasts and mages. It's a direct question, she wants to know what the Beast's answer is.

[ringleaders]

If Peridot still cares, the Beast will wipe her mouth and turn to her next, and say:

"It's the only part of your kind that matters."