lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: Any time before the start of the event.
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Once you've submitted your AU summary, you can use this post to do some CLOSED THREADING to play out some character interactions that happened before the event start. This means that memory regains will not be in play yet. Open top levels are not allowed - these threads are intended to sort out closed interactions between planned backstory connections, during the week leading up to the actual event start.
Warnings: Could be anything.

PORTLAND, AS YOU KNEW IT↴

The shift went unseen and unfelt. One moment you were one person, and the next, another. This before all that, though, in the new life that you remember living here in Portland. No memories of your true self have arisen yet, and at the time this was the only life you knew. Did these events truly happen at all? Or do they only exist in memory?

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"No, not exactly," Childermass answers along with a faint shrug. "But he should be able to join us later. I'm actually here for you, Steven. Your mother wants to meet you."

Steven stares at him, obviously uncomprehending. It takes a few moments for him to figure out what to say to that. It's pretty much the last thing he was expecting to hear.

"I... whuh...?" is all he can get out at first.

"Your mother, she wants to meet you," Childermass repeats as calm as can be. He'll give it a moment. He's sure it's a big surprise, seeing how the Rose Queen has been absent since foisting the poor kid off on Greg.

Steven looks around the room, like he's expecting something to pop out at him. Its not that he thinks that it's a joke, or that Childermass would joke about that... it's just. Weird.

He's excited at the prospect, but also extremely nervous. He's wanted to meet her for so long. To have it thrust upon him by Childermass of all people is disorientating. He'd always expected it would be his dad to talk to him about this.

He swallows, his fingers clutching at the covers on the bed.

"Shouldn't... Shouldn't we wait for dad to come back, first?" This seems like far too big of a deal to just go do it, without any fanfare. Isn't it...?

It does seem like a huge deal, Childermass knows, and it's also a question he was already anticipating.

"It would have been best if he were here for this, but that's the problem with faeries. They change their minds quickly," is how he answers, nodding back towards the open window as if meaning to nod towards the Queen, in her general direction, wherever she is. "If we wait for him to get back, she may decide you didn't want to see her after all."

Oh...

Steven looks out the window, and then stands up to walk over to it, his head spinning. Man, this is too much to take in all at once. Would she really be that fickle about it? Part of him believes it, but part of him thinks it'd be ridiculous. He has more faith in the idea of his mother, than to believe that she'd grow bored of him so quickly.

He frowns, processing everything slowly. His dad had always said that they'd go to be with her together...

He shakes a little trying to snap himself out of it. He looks back to
Childermass, and then makes a decision.

"It's okay," he says, moving back towards the bed. "I can call dad on his phone! I know he'll get back really fast if I tell him what mom said-"

Any other time, any other place, Childermass would tell him for sure that, yes, faeries really could be that fickle. He would also tell him to run, but that sadly goes directly against his own sense of survival. The Rose Queen wants her son and neither of them gets much say in it.

With that in mind, he turns and moves around to the other side of the bed, long strides taking him to where the phone sits quicker than a child. He'll put a hand down on it and look at Steven again.

"No, Steven. There really isn't time for it," he tries again. "He'll have to catch up with us later."

Steven looks up at Childermass, stricken by that. He glances down at the phone, and then back to the other Changeling - this feels weird. It's honestly starting to freak him out a little bit. Maybe he isn't ready for this. Maybe he should just...

Steven's voice squeaks nervously as he speaks, and his apprehension is obvious.

"Can't I at least tell him I'm going?"

"He'll know," Childermass answers. He could add 'don't worry' to that, but what a lie that would be. He does carry on sounding calm, though, calm and quiet, as if that might be reassuring at all. "I'm sure he and your mother will have a chat afterward, after she's had a chance to meet you."

Part of him really juts wants to go for it, but at the same time he just can't excuse this. There's no reason not to let him tell his dad he's leaving - it wouldn't take any extra time. Not any more than this conversation is taking. Part of his resistance is childish petulance, but the rest is genuine uncertainty and fear.

He reaches to try to grab the phone again, regardless of Childermass's hand being there. He doesn't know what's going on, but this isn't how his dad said it would be.

"I want to talk to my dad," he insists.

So much for trying for the easy route here. Childermass doesn't move his hand off the phone when Steven grabs for it, leaning weight down on it instead to make sure it remains exactly where it is. It's with a sigh that any attempt at seeming even a little bit kind leaves his face.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that," he says. "The Rose Queen only wants you, not your dad."

It's now that Steven's frustration and confusion finally gives way to actual fear. He looks at Childermass, his eyes widening - this isn't right. He can't be telling the truth. Why wouldn't she want his dad to come too? She loves him, doesn't she?

Steven tries his best to pull the phone from Childermass's hand, but when he can't manage it after a moment or two, he pulls back warily. He slowly starts retreating back, keeping his eyes on the other changeling.

"Then... Then I'm not coming, either," he says, trying to be defiant, but his voice hitches anyway.

Once Steven backs away, the phone gets shoved further aside and only then does he finally take his hand off of it. He gives his head a sad shake at the attempt at defiance, but obviously, he's not about to give him the choice of not going and he says as much.

"I'm afraid you don't have that option. Changelings very rarely do, something your father apparently failed to warn you about."

So while Steven retreats, Childermass moves to circle back around towards his side of the room. Looks like this will have to happen the hard way after all.

Steven finds himself speechless, the panic in him beginning to rise as the man approaches. What is he going to do? Is he seriously going to attack him? Can he get away? What's going on?!

Tears budding in his eyes, Steven gasps and makes a break for the door of the apartment - if he gets there, he's going to be throwing it open and making a break for it.

"DAD!" he calls, pleading.

And that would be the cue for resorting to magic. Childermass doesn't move through the shadows, per se, but more like he becomes one that darts flat across the floor, only to allow him to spring up again as suddenly as he'd vanished. To the plain eye, it's almost like teleportation, almost.

It also puts him directly in Steven's path, standing right in the open door, between him and escape.

"He can't hear you, Steven," Childermass continues on sounding terribly calm, like this isn't outright horrible or out of the ordinary whatsoever. "He's not here."

His tears start pouring more freely as he becomes more desperate. He moves forward anyway, and will physically try to push Childermass away from the door. He's only got the strength of a regular ten year old, unfortunately, so that will be an uphill battle.

"Let me go!" he cries, only getting louder. "Dad!"

Steven gets him to take, at most, a step back, but after that, he just makes a grab for the kid's arm. The last thing he needs is having to go chasing the younger changeling up and down and all throughout an apartment building. As it is, he can only imagine someone's put in a call to the cops just from Steven's yelling along.

"Should have known," he mutters under his breath. "No one ever takes the easy way of doing this."

Childermass manages to grab him, if only because Steven was already mid grapple with him, attempting to get to the door. Now that that hasn't worked, however, Steven is struggling as hard as he can to get back to the phone that Childermass had shoved aside earlier. Part of him already know this isn't working.

But what else can he do?

"Help!" he continues to scream. "Dad!"

"Enough," Childermass snaps, a momentary crack in his otherwise calm demeanor. As Steven struggles, Childermass will close the apartment's door again with his free hand and, something that might be a surprise to Steven, actually does let him go.

It is too good to be true, however, since Childermass is only freeing both hands to make a gesture in the air and quickly throw together a more complicated bit of magic. Rather than becoming a shadow himself this time, he gestures at Steven's own shadow before he has a chance to get out of immediate range. The shadow itself will freeze in place on the ground, which, in turn, should stop Steven from moving further away.

As soon as he's been let go, Steven is making a dash for the best - but the spell catches him before he can make it there. His shadow freezes, and at the same time Steven's body is frozen to match. He strains against it as hard as he can, but all that comes of it is him making desperate sounds of fear and exertion, his body suddenly becoming its own form of a prison.

The spell doesn't stop him from continuing to cry, of course. He gasps in utter terror, the tears continuing to roll regardless. He can still see the cellphone laying across the room from him, but he can't move, he can't do anything - he's helpless.

Once Steven's trapped in place, Childermass closes the space between them again with a few slow steps. He points a finger at the frozen shadow and gestures upward, bidding it to do the next part of his little spell. With that, the shadow spread out across the floor begins to shrink, because it's moving up to ensnare Steven instead, akin to bundling an animal in a blanket only this is far from warm or cozy. It's a trick from the Winter Court, meaning it's cold, winter in one's bones cold and not just the sort of chill one gets from standing in the shade.

He won't say anything more. There's no point in it since Steven can't even answer anything he might bother saying at this point. An apology for this would be insincere just as an explanation as to why he would do this in the first place wouldn't make up for anything.

All he does at this point is wait for the shadow to finish creeping up, checking back outside the window briefly before returning to take ahold of Steven's shoulder. Another reason for using the shadow becomes apparent (or would be if Steven knew anything about magic, anyway). It's easy to turn a shadow into more shadow, right?

That's how they'll leave the apartment, falling into shadow the same way Childermass had before and darting away, back out the same way that Steven had let him in.

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: PROLOGUE

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