lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 2

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 2

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: October 7st - 14th, 2017
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: The week begins as the time of the Animal Fair finally arrives! Meanwhile, the truth of this reality starts to be revealed, and forces both human and celestial alike attempt to take advantage of a rare opportunity.
Warnings: Individually marked!

BY ANY OTHER NAME↴

Tensions thicken as various supernaturally forces react to the events of the previous week. Something critical is afoot, and it's only a matter of time before things start coming to a head. It's time to find out more about what's happened to this world, and what will happen in its future.

► A NIGHT AT THE FAIR: From the night of the 7th to the morning of the 8th, the Animal Fair is officially in town. There is a top level down below with more information, though you can also RP content from this elsewhere if you wish. The host, who is very likely something called a Wyld Fae (if you discovered that ICly), will be present, but they will only be appearing to you of their own accord and attempting to track them down by force will be ineffective. Just kick back and relax! Fairs are supposed to be fun.

► THORNS IN YOUR SIDE: Culminating in a full fledged attack against the Sanctuary, it would seem that The Rose Queen is declaring war on the changeling population of Portland. Though the vicious attack of thorns against the safe house was eventually stopped, it wasn't without damage, and the black roses that caused it are still popping up around the city and threatening the places where homeless and lost changelings would be likely to congregate. It's obvious now that this is a serious threat - will it ever stop without an intervention?

► HELL ON EARTH: As Anath's march draws near, the first waves of her demons will be entering the city. Primarily acting as scouts and foot soldiers, these demons will be attempting to secure loyalty from the local demon populace, as well as taking out any angels they can manage to catch. It's a level of aggressiveness against heaven's forces that hasn't been seen for years, and it's a foreboding hint of things to come. These demons can be NPCed by anyone, and will mostly be thugs or manipulators who don't know much about Anath's plans but do know that you need to join their side. They are also rowdier than most of the demons in Portland, and are a threat to the innocent mortal populace as well, if they decide to try to get their kicks here.

► THE WIZARD POLICE: The Enlightenment Council seems to have demanded control of the local Circle chapter, and now backup has arrived. These mages are being sent out into the city as if they are a police force, and will be attempting to demand control of various common supernatural areas, as well as questioning community members that they run into. Whatever is going on, it seems to have resulted in the Council instituting what is essentially martial law... of course, not everyone sees any need to heed their demands. If you are a demon, warlock, or other rogue element, expect to be harassed or even attacked by them. These character can be NPCed, and if you need additional information you can ask the mods.

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There are actually a fair amount of muscly guys in Portland, as it turns out -- it is, after all, a city that actively encourages alternative transport -- but only one of them has his face scarred like Sora might recall from his dreams. Perhaps, surprisingly, he'll find said face a lot closer to him than he realizes: more specifically, it's in the university library.

Scowling at him from between the book stacks, as he blocks the exit from a particular set of shelves.

Lambert's patience never was the best even in easier times, and it's even shorter now. It's what keeps his tone clipped and short as he looks at the student lingering in his way, frowning. "Can I help you find something?"

Well, if he were expecting to find someone from his list today, the library wasn't really the place he was thinking of. Sora only came here to use the computers, since he doesn't have his own. Who knew that he'd get approached by the scarred, muscly man from his memory?

Too bad he doesn't look too happy to see him. Sora swallows and hopes this won't end with him getting punched.

"Um, well..." Sora pauses. How do you even explain this sort of thing? He's never been good at that.

"Um, you... wouldn't, uh, happen to know me, would you?"

That gets a slow, confused blink from the man, and a suspicious scowl.

"I've seen you around the library." Beat. "Did someone put you up to this?" A prank is, after all, the only reasonable explanation here. He's even checking behind Sora to see if there are any other snickering students around the bookshelves.

"N-no! It's just, I saw, you, and I wondered..."

How does one approach a guy and just say, hey I saw you in this weird memory-vision I had last week? He's gotten picked on in the past for this kind of thing, and he's not keen to repeat the experience. Suddenly, Sora feel very nervous, and wonders if this whole thing was a bad idea.

"Um, sorry, nevermind," Sora backpedals quickly, moving away. "It's nothing."

Lambert frowns at that, the dismissal only making him more curious, though it only makes his frown deepen, which probably isn't helping Sora's nerves at all. Of course he wants to understand what's going on.

"Hold on," he snaps, stepping forward. "What's this about? Wondered what?" Looming intimidatingly with book in hand, he's not exactly at his most approachable here.

Sora's torn between telling the guy everything, and hoping he is who he thinks he is, or just running away. There's an equal chance of getting punched either way, probably, but he knows he'll regret it if he just runs away now. It's worth the shot of fessing up, anyway.

Still, his nerves are still getting the better of him.

"Uh, I'm, uh, I'mSoraandI'mapsychicandIsawyouinavisionsoIwaslookingforyoubutIdon'tknowifit'syouso... um..." he babbles out.

Lambert understood like one word out of three there, so he's just going to hold up a hand and cut Sora off right there, bringing the other one up to rub at a temple.

"Take a breath and slow down," he says, speaking slowly himself, like that's going to set an example for Sora to follow.

"You said you saw me in a vision?" Well, he's not laughing him out of the library, at least.

"Um, yeah," Sora replies sheepishly. "I'm, um, kinda psychic. And I've been having weird visions lately. And there were a bunch of people in them, so I wanted to see if maybe I could find them."

Lambert's just going to have to take a moment to process that. A week ago, he would have scoffed in Sora's face and left, but while he doesn't recognize him per say, things have just gotten strange enough that Lambert won't dismiss him out of hand.

And Strange had said there were strange omens pointing to disaster. Lambert swallows.

"Define 'weird.' Is that good or bad?"

Sora hesitates. "Um, I dunno that they're good or bad," he tries to explain. "They just... are. But they're weird 'cause they're different from my other visions. 'Cause they're not the future. They're the past."

That... might not make any sense. Sora hopes it makes sense.

Visions of the past? Sounds a little fake, and Lambert's dubious expression might kind of reflect that. A little more than a week ago, he would have straight up laughed in Sora's face.

But he's seen a faerie, and magic is real and in his face, and sometimes he can feel trouble before it happens. So, taking a breath, he decides fuck it, if he's going to get a kid talking about crazy things to him, he's going to share some crazy right back.

"I don't get visions, but I get ... feelings sometimes. When something bad's about to happen." Ugh, that doesn't sound any less ridiculous out loud than it does in his head. "And sometimes I can see things that aren't human." Which reminds him of something, and he blinks. "Hang on, did you say your name was Sora?"

Edited 2017-07-10 00:21 (UTC)

Sora had just opened his mouth to answer when Lambert asked him his name. Quickly, he snaps it shut and nods.

"Yeah, I'm Sora. Sora Pu'uwai." He pauses. "I can see supernatural stuff, too."

"Lambert Wolfe," he says, in turn, but he won't offer Sora his hand. Instead, he's looking him over, hesitantly, like he's trying to decide if he should say what he was going to or not.

"You have a ghost haunting your room, right?" Nailed it.

Sora's... not quite sure how to answer that. He gapes at Lambert slightly.

"How did you know?" he asks, eyes wide. "Yeah, I do. He hasn't been doing anything weird, has he?"

"He tried to knock food out of my hand," Lambert says, dryly. "Seems like a pretty bored ghost." He also ran into him at the Fair possessing someone (willingly, apparently?) but if Sora's not aware of that, he's not going to be the one to fill him in.

The sound of someone talking loudly by the shelves on either side of them reminds Lambert they're not exactly somewhere private and his shoulders stiffen. Glancing left and right, he clears his throat, letting his voice drop a little lower although it was quiet to begin with.

"This vision stuff ... how often do you get it? And how can you tell it's different?"

"Yeah, that sounds like Tamaki," Sora sighs. "He's pretty bored, yeah. I don't think he likes being cooped up in the dorm room."

Sora also flinches slightly at the loud voices in the other aisles, and leans closer to Lambert to be able to hear him.

"Um... It happens, like, once or twice a week, usually," Sora whispers. "It's pretty random, though. And it's different because, like... I don't know how to describe it. It just... feels different."

That's a pretty lame explanation.

'Just feels different' really isn't the kind of answer Lambert was hoping to hear, because if it can't be pinned down to something specific that can be scrutinized, well, what good is it? It's definitely a lame explanation.

In any case, he'll brush off talk of the ghost for now to focus on this. "You said you saw 'a bunch of people' in your visions. Have you met anyone else, besides me?"

"Um, kinda? Some of them were people I already know, like my roommate." And his guardian angel, but lets not go there.

"And I met a guy who said he knew one of the people? But he wouldn't tell me who they were. Here, I have a list."

Sora holds out the list for Lambert to take, a scribbled on piece of notebook paper that's been folded in fourths.

Lambert takes the list automatically, skimming it over. None of these descriptions mean anything to him, really, though his lips quirk a little as he moves down it. By process of elimination, he can more or less assume 'muscly guy' refers to him. The others...

"These descriptions are pretty vague, you know." Of course, criticism out of the way, he'll go on. "I've seen a guy with red spikey hair at the cafe," on fire, he adds mentally, but he won't be in a hurry to tell him so in case Sora has no idea he might be looking for a changeling. "And I've met a girl with a face tattoo, but I don't know about the sewing."

... Does he? It's hard to say. After a moment's pause, he'll end up taking a picture of the list, then handing it back to Sora. "Why are you looking for these people, anyway?"

Edited (i forgot he actually knew axel he's distinct enough oops LAST EDIT I PROMISE) 2017-07-16 01:08 (UTC)

"Because I saw them in my visions," Sora answers eagerly. "Everyone I saw has gotta be connected, right? I wanna get to the bottom of this, and I... don't really know how else to do it. This is the best place to start, I think."

Right now, it feels like he doesn't know anything. He's spent so long being passive, but now it feels like something's changed. He wants to know, more than anything, like a burning desire to know why so many things don't add up in his life.

"You said you might know them?"

"Could be dangerous," he points out. "You don't really know what kind of people they are." Lambert doesn't really know much about visions or how they ought to be interpreted, so his only response is a cautious nod. It makes sense, in a way. He supposes it make about as much sense as saying he gets a stomachache when he's supposed to try and save someone.

"I don't know them very well," he explains, frowning. "I've just seen people who match those descriptions around." He suspects he's not supposed to, but ... he digs his phone out, flipping through his contacts before he finds what he's looking for.

"She called herself Carly Carmine ... paranormal reporter."

"I mean, I guess," he says sheepishly. "But I'll be okay."

A pause as he waits for Lambert to dig out his phone, then;

"Carly! That was it, yeah!" he exclaims, then claps a hand over his mouth because oops, they're still in the library.

... Yeah, they're definitely still in the library, which means Sora's getting a few hissed shhhs! from irritable library patrons. And Lambert's getting reminded this isn't really private.

"I don't know where she is, but if she's a reporter she's probably dealt with people like you before. Maybe she can tell you more about your visions if you get in touch with her."

"Alright. I'll see if I can track her down," Sora replies, much quieter this time. "And... you haven't had anything happen like this, have you? 'Cause I don't think it's effecting only seers."

"I can give you her number so you can look her up," Lambert offers. Normally he'd have more reservations about just giving someone's number to someone else, but they're both relative strangers and she must be used to being contacted out of the blue.

As for the question of it affecting him, though... he has to pause, thinking about that.

"Not really," he says, after a moment. He has bad dreams, these days, but it's nothing concrete, and while giving away a number is one thing, sharing what goes on in his head... that's something else. "We could exchange numbers, though. Let each other know if we see anything else else going on, or if I see anyone else from your list around."

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destiny_key - 2017-07-21 22:50 (UTC) - Expand

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