[OPEN] Ways to Cast Blame

[dorkypantsuit]

WHO: Anyone and Psi
WHAT: Moping.
WHERE: Here and There
WHEN: After Agent-nappings
WARNINGS: None!

No matter where you see Psi that day he's far from his usual cheerful self. Whether you need help from him throughout the work day or see him after hours, he appears down and silent. The troll is normally quite talkative, usually involving himself in everyone's business, so it's strange to see him so quiet, even if you don't know him that well.

He goes about his day, handing out assignments to various people and helping with the things that unexpectedly happen now and then. The animal work goes to Ginko and Bonnie, Papyrus is cleaning the mess created by guests the previous night. He checks in on Lars, Yuugi, and Chiaki at various points throughout the day once the carnival opens, helping when he can. His mood rotates between gloomy and frustrated at various points, no doubt a strange sight to some of his newer coworkers especially. Overall he tries to stick to the sidelines, working silently whenever he's able.

Comments

[dontpokethat]

...Yeah, this is really weird, and to someone as prone to prying into other people's problems as Ginko is, just letting this go by without comment isn't an option. He knows something happened in the Matrix, and he assumes it probably has to do with that - but that's really about it.

Ginko catches sight of the Psionic working nearby just before his break, and as soon as he's able he goes to find him. "Hey. You doing alright?"

[dorkypantsuit]

Psi is basically just moving around some boxes when Ginko approaches. Prizes for the games, condiments for the snack stands, their all light things, but there's a lot of them. Whether the Psionic uses his powers to move things oe his hands is a pretty even split most days. If it's something particularly heavy or if there's a lot to move he'll probably use his psionics. Otherwise he just moves things the old fashioned way. It's not like anyone pays particular attention to the Psionic's work habits, but it might strike someone as odd to see that he's committed to moving so many things by hand.

He see's Ginko coming over and feels himself getting nervous. He pushes one box to the side as his thoughts run rampant. Nothing bad had happened between them. They hadn't even had any kind of serious conversation since that day, but that one conversation had ended so awkwardly that the Psionic couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in Ginko's presence lately. The Psionic knew Ginko hadn't meant anything he'd said to sound flirtatious. He knew that humans didn't have those kinds of relationships. That didn't mean it was any less difficult to stop thinking about. It was hard to view things from outside his own cultural framework, and that framework said that Ginko had basically come on to him. Even worse, once the idea was there the Psionic had a hard time not thinking about it.

He tried to tell himself to just forget about it. Moirallegiance with a human wasn't a possibility. Still, it would be nice to have someone to talk to around here and Ginko had offered. It wasn't like he'd be taking advantage of the human by confiding in him. Right? Either way, Ginko was one of his workers. Psi couldn't let himself keep acting so weird around the other man. He tries his best to keep it together as Ginko approaches, but then he's asking the Psionic how he's feeling and Psi has to look away to hide his embarrassed expression. He busies himself by looking through a box, apparently full of cups for the food stands as he shrugs. He thinks carefully about how he should respond. It would be rude to be dishonest...

"Not really." he finally admits, closing the box back up again and lifting it with his hands.

[dontpokethat]

Ginko leans over with a frown when Psi looks away, but only tries to see his expression for a moment before giving up and standing up straight. Maybe he's just... jumpy or something. He's acting weird enough already, worrying about one more uncharacteristic bit of body language seems like a bit of a waste of time.

"...Yeah? Sorry to hear that." He hesitates and presses his lips together in thought. "Does this... have anything to do with the, uh. The Matrix and everything?"

[dorkypantsuit]

He hesitates again, not meeting Ginko's eyes as he shifts to hold the box more comfortably. Then he nods. He sighs, he knows he shouldn't do this, but he also knows he's going to anyway. There's no sense in pretending otherwise.

"It's complicated." he finishes, finally glancing over to Ginko. He steps forward with the box. "Walk with me?"

[kingsroads]

The problem with some people being kidnapped is one of those people is Childermass. And Jonathan Strange has gotten into the unfortunate habit of bothering Childermass with regards to pretty much everything. So, when he suddenly grew claws one morning, the natural thing was to go ask Childermass if this was normal and, if so, would they vanish when he returned home and filled his contract.

Unfortunately, Childermass wasn't really anywhere to be found. And attempting to spy on him via magic wasn't helping out either (though, Strange had to admit, that spell was a little imprecise to begin with). So the only option left was actually, physically looking for the man so he could continue to bug him and again, ask about the claws.

Though hey there, Psionic (who the only thing Strange knows about is that he's a supervisor) can at least answer one question. Walking up to him, the wide-eyed wild-haired magician gives the troll a little nod. "Can you spare a moment of your time?"

[dorkypantsuit]

He is busy, but he likes meeting to and talking to the carnival's newcomers. Well, he likes talking to them most of the time anyway. Right now he isn't feeling particularly helpful, but he'd rather not show that to a newbie. Doing his best to act normal he forces a smile, looking over the apparent human in front of him.

"Ah, what for?"

[kingsroads]

With a little frown, Strange shows Psionic his claws. They're relatively short, about an inch long, but long enough to be annoying. The nails on every finger of the hand stop at a point.

"I have two questions. The first are about these." He moves his hand around a bit, so Psionic can see the claws from each angle. They sure are claws! "Are the claws permanent? When I return home, back to my world, will these come with me?"

Because if so, man does he have to figure out how to do a glamor spell pretty damn quickly.

[dorkytracksuit]

Confused, Psi looks over at Strange's hands, but they seem totally normal to him. But then as he keeps moving them around Psi realizes, claws aren't normal for humans to have. He nods, not in answer to the question, but to show that he does understand the question and the reason for it.

"No, when you go home you should look the same as you used to. Something to do with time streams or something I think."

[kingsroads]

Oh, Strange just looks so relieved about that. Thank heavens for that. "Good," he simply remarks, with a little smile. "If I change any further, I doubt my wife would appreciate it."

Because that's what matters the most: freaky changes aren't a problem, he can deal with that, but considering that his deal is the knowledge of how to bring his wife back from the dead? Let's not go from 'surprise Arabella, you're alive' to 'oh by the way, I now have claws and probably other weird fairy body parts.'

Now for the second question. "My second question is about the Matrix."

[dontpokethat]

He nods and falls into step beside the Psionic, tucking his hands into his pockets. He'll wait quietly for Psi to start talking, not wanting to interrupt him or anything.

[dorkypantsuit]

Wife, a female matesprit. He had a wife? Almost no one who worked here was in that kind of a relationship. Why would he have left her behind? Questions to ponder for another time.

"Shoot."

[kingsroads]

"I've been trying to cast a certain spell that lets you see what another person is doing--not for any nefarious purpose, of course, just to see where this person is." Aka to be nosy. He won't admit it of course, but this is entirely nosiness.

"Oddly enough, it hasn't been working. I know this spell works perfectly fine in the Carnival. Do you know if there's any sort of...I don't know, interference that the carnival might have to prevent one person from looking into the realms of another?"

His discomfort and annoyance are pretty obvious. Magic isn't doing what he wants it to do = reason enough for Strange to get a bit grumpy.

[dorkypantsuit]

The problem is, he didn't actually think about what he would say. He'd sort of assumed Ginko would ask him something, but as the silence drags on it becomes clear that isn't going to happen. He's starting to get nervous again, the silence is terrible and he has to say something to break it. Really, anything, just say something!

"I guess you... Heard about what happened?"

PERFECT.

Day 30

[waitingforplayer2]

Chiaki's working the entire Circle herself today. So that's a bit strange, probably. But when she sees Psii approaching, she drops the bucket of small prizes she's holding (rings, candy, the occasional invaluable artifact) and jogs over to him - somewhat hampered by the fact that she's grown even shorter since she saw him last.

"Psii!" She looks around to see if anyone else is around, and lowers her voice. "Have you seen Carly-san?"

[dontpokethat]

"Yeah. Seems like just about everyone has by now, or at least the basics of it."

Despite his answer basically being "of course", there's nothing judgmental in his tone. It seems to him like a perfectly acceptable way to lead into the conversation.

"Some workers were attacked in the Matrix, right? And a few..."

He hesitates mid-step, but picks it back up again. "...are they still in there?"

...Look, there's only so much he can do to pretend that he's not kind of nervous, himself.

[trustme]

The Doctor has been absent for about a month, keeping to his research and experiments in his trailer-lab and at the edge of the forest at the back of the carnival grounds. When he passes by Psi and sees the typically cheerful fellow in a literal slump he gets straight to the point. At the moment he's too tired for small talk.

"Is something the matter Psi?" Asks the fellow who doesn't even know half the newbies yet.

[dorkypantsuit]

He glances to Ginko, his own nerves fading in the face of Ginko's obvious concern. He wishes he could answer differently, but he can't. He nods.

"Yeah. We haven't recovered them all yet." Things were in the works, but right now everything was uncertain. Honestly, he knows it isn't even remotely his fault, but still, he feels like he could have done something.

"Some of them were helping me when I was searching for the rebels."

It goes without saying that he's worried.

[dontpokethat]

Ginko nods, slowly. It's not as if it's unheard of for workers to run into trouble in the worlds they visit, but that doesn't really make it less stressful.

"D'you know if there's been any luck with locating them, at least?"

[wild_magic]

The day after his attempted kidnapping, Susan was still feeling a bit off, but he wasn't going to let it get to him if he could help it. His brother wanted to keep him close by so he could be safe (and honestly Susan wanted Lauren close by, too, so he didn't object), but by the time the afternoon arrives he's a bit tired of just sitting around.

But he doesn't have to, does he? He does have his radio, after all, and now that he thought about it, he did have some important information to relay...

And so sometime in the afternoon the day after the kidnappings, the Psionic's radio goes off with a message on his personal channel.

"Hi... This is the Psionic right? Are you busy?" Susan doesn't sound quite as chipper as usual, but he doesn't sound as upset as one might expect after what happened either.

[dorkypantsuit]

Psi glances down at his radio, but his hands are full at the moment, so he telekinetically brings it to his mouth as he finishes his work.

"Sure am!" He answers cheerfully. "What do you need?"

[dorkypantsuit]

Some kind of location spell then. Although Strange says it's not for anything nefarious Psi could see that kind of spell easily being misused. Not that he cared either way. He didn't let people tell him how to use his powers, as long as Strange didn't hurt anyone Psii wouldn't tell Strange how to use his either.

His brows furrow in thought as he considers the question.

"Like what, are you trying to see something back home?"

[wild_magic]

"I found the resistance!" The way he did it of course wasn't really how he wanted it to go down, but he's still kind of proud of himself for it.

[kingsroads]

"I'm trying to see something in the Matrix," said with a little frown. "An...acquaintance of mine seems to be avoiding me."

He can't really call Childermass a friend. The two of them weren't anything close to friends before they found themselves in this new world together. Why, they've talked more in the past few days than they had in their years of knowing each other back home. Still, the two of them were from the same world and thrust into the same situation, of course Strange was going to keep an eye on him.

"I wish to know where he is."

Okay, so it's a little bit creepy.

[dorkypantsuit]

He just laughs. What a weirdo this guy is!

"Well, has it been working on people in the matrix while you're here before now? If it's not made to work between dimensions that could be the problem."

Magic isn't his forte really, but it's the best he can suggest without any other information.

"Who are you looking for anyway?"

[dorkypantsuit]

He shakes his head. He hates sharing bad news, but he wasn't going to lie.

"There are a couple people working on locating them. I'm sure they'll find them soon."

It just might not be soon enough. So many bad things could happen in the span of a single day. It hadn't been long yet, but for some of them it could already be too late. He'd know. His entire life had changed in the span of a day on at least three different occasions. He didn't want to assume the worst, but he'd seen so many psionics on Alternia who were captured and sold. When it came to kidnapping that was the first thing he thought of, even if it wasn't realistic in this case.