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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, he better fucking run.

On any other occasion, Joker would chase after the bastard. Divine wrath never rests, and some arrows in his legs are hardly a problem when he can fly. So long as he can do that and use at least one arm, he's good to go.

Except then he looks back over his shoulders.

Seeing her pale and shaking, blood a vivid stain against such muted colors, makes his heart leap up into his throat as if it's going to eject itself from his whole body. He's an angel, he's always had a soft spot for humans, but her in particular- something about it scrapes a knife against his lungs and twists it in his stomach. Body jerking unsteadily from the pain in his legs, he lets the demon fly off and reaches out to her. Some of his form steadies, a pair of wide lavender eyes bright with worry.

"Shush, shush now, it'll be alright- c'mon, I can get ya ta a doctor, I know someone, just don't remove the arrow, it'll do more hurt ta ya than good."

So many things are running through her head now, like she's trying to have four different phone conversations at once. It's the nice man who dropped a ten into her tin-- he's apparently an angel-- he's not going to wipe her off the face of the planet-- there's still an arrow in her arm-- why did she jump in front of him if she didn't even know it was him-- Knotley--

That's the thought that shoves everything back for a moment: the idea that he's going to find her like this and attack the angel, thinking he's responsible. Nevermind that Doll is certain that if this angel wanted her dead, it would have happened almost immediately, but Knotley might not see it that way. Doll shakes her head, continuing to clutch her arm and cover the wound.

"No-- no you have t'get outta here, he's gonna smell this 'n find me here with ya, 'n then all hell'll break loose, y'have t'go!" She swallows and goes over her babbling again before clarifying. "They were lookin' for my master-- I haven' seen 'im and I don' care t'see 'im, but he won' take kindly t'seein' you with me, I know that."

That's about as close as she'll get to admitting, in front of an angel no less, that her soul belongs to a demon. Now is he going to smite her? Maybe he'll just take her advice and leave, no sense in sticking his nose into a hornet's nest when there's nothing to be gained.

"I ain't leavin' ya again!"

The words burst out of him before his mind is good and proper settled, words that don't actually make any sense- a fact he realizes the second they've left his mouth. Hissing in a breath, he holds out his hands, fingers spread out, as if he can somehow make the world and all its wild ridiculous bullshit just stop for a second as he pulls himself together. Stress. That's what this is. He's just getting stressed, and his words are tripping all over each other. Usually he's good with his words, but there's a first time for everything, right?

Belatedly, his mind puts together what she's just said, all the implications... but he doesn't care as much as he thinks he should. Even for someone who's hung around Psi a lot.

Opening his eyes, which he'd squeezed shut, Joker takes a breath. "Hell's already breakin' loose in Portland," he says slowly. "Me takin' ya ta a doctor ain't gonna make it any worse."

Yes, hell was breaking loose in Portland long before the two of them even met... but what about him? What about his safety? Screw Portland, he didn't deserve to meet that wrong end of Knotley.

But those firm and desperate words, 'I'm not leaving you again', they feel right despite making no objective sense. She doesn't want him to leave her, despite how much she wants him to be safe. She's all alone, she's hated it every moment of every day, it feels wrong how hard things are and she can only think it would be just a little easier if she had people to share the weight with. This is it, this is someone to share the weight with.

Doll swallows down her next protest, unable to get it out of her throat. So much for keeping him out of everything. She unfolds her uninjured arm and reaches out towards him. She's trying to keep it together, but the lump is escaping the further she reaches. By the time her hand is extended all the way, her face is crumpling and her eyes are swimming in tears. She needs help, she can't do this by herself anymore.

For a brief second, he doesn't know if he'll still be turned away, and he forgets to breathe in that tense period of waiting. It's only when she finally reaches back to him that he remembers.

"There we go," he says gently, gathering her up in his arms as carefully as he can so that he doesn't aggravate her wound any further. "It'll all be alright soon enough, no worries. Just gotta hold tight with that good arm- yer not 'fraid of heights, so this outta be just fine, yeah?" It hurts to brace his feet against the ground, let alone push up, but he does so anyway to give his wings the lift they need.

She can't remember a time she was held so tenderly, or a time where she'd felt so safe. It could be a side-effect of being so close to an angel, she'd always reasoned that the only instance where she'd be this close to one of their kind would be if she were about to be wiped from existence. This is unexpected, but so far from a bad thing.

Doll grits her teeth as he gathers her up, trying to ignore the feeling of the arrow shifting in her arm as she orients it parallel to the angel's body. She covers the head so it won't poke him, too-- he's been injured enough already thanks to those three. Once she's as comfortable as she can be curled up in his arms with her uninjured arm wrapped behind his neck, Doll presses her face into his shoulder. It's true that she's never been afraid of heights, but as much as is possible she doesn't want him to watch her cry. She's not falling apart, she tells herself, but she is overwhelmed. Too much is going on for her to grin and bear it, if she doesn't let it out somehow it's going to hurt more.

She cries for close to five minutes before she quiets down, and then she feels both better and exhausted. The events are starting to catch up with her now that the adrenaline and emotional rigmarole have run their course. She could almost fall asleep right here, in the air, if her arm wasn't throbbing.

"Are y'okay?" she finally asks, her voice grainy from crying. "Did he get ya bad...?"

This wouldn't be the first time Joker has held a crying girl in his arms, even while flying, although usually they aren't bleeding. Not in this day and age. (Well, sometimes the other kind of bleeding, but- separate issue.) Times like this, he's learned, sometimes words are pretty useless. There's nothing they can do.

All that's available is waiting it out, and letting the emotions be dealt with in their own way.

When she finally speaks up, voice rough, he blinks down at her. "Huh? Oh, nah, nah- don't worry about it. We're sturdy things, us angels, I just gotta get 'em out and they'll heal quick on their own." Can't fight against the forces of Hell without being a certain level of sturdy, after all.

"Ha," Doll turns her face out of his shoulder and tries to rest her head against him. One of her horns gets in the way, even through her beanie, and when she feels it she sits up straighter. She hates everything that's happened to her body, and it's easy to hide until someone gets too close. Mister Angel can't get much closer than this.

"I'm jealous," she says. "I'll be nursing this for a good while. I don't think I'm meant t'be too sturdy."

"Yeah, well, that's why we're goin' ta take ya ta a doctor, ain't we?" he says, voice quietly berating but in that strange kind of fond way. It's weird. He knows he can be, on occasion, a bleeding heart- he left her money once for a performance, after all, it's an angel's lot in life- but this is stranger. It's almost like what he feels for Sora...

...But that's ridiculous. He shouldn't feel something so intensely for anyone outside his charge, especially with access to Heaven cut off.

"Right..." she says, shifting her arm up to resettle against him. She needs doctors to heal. She needs people to heal this strange hole in her life. Without them, it would just get worse and worse-- she sees that now. It took a fight in an alley for her to wake up, but that feels like one of the most right things Doll has felt in a long time. Even being carried through the air by this particular angel feels right, despite the logical notion that she should be afraid of someone who could smite her without a second thought. He's not going to hurt her, she knows that. Somehow. It's everybody else she's just the slightest bit worried about.

"So... this doctor," she starts slowly. "Are they you know, like you?" Angelic? Allied with Heaven? Unlikely to want to aid an injured, demon-aligned warlock?

At least she won't start up a fight with him while they're flying through the air. There are a lot of places you don't want to have an argument at: fancy restaurants, in front of cameras, at a movie theater, a mile or two in the air...

He blinks out of his thoughts at her question. "Me? Ah, no- although if I took ya ta the Sanctuary, they might be. This one's just..." He shrugs a little. "She knows changelings and psychics and those kinda things."

Doll is too tired to fight a bit of a gently patronizing tone. She's hurt, she's experiencing a heavy adrenaline crash, she's definitely hungry now-- sniping at the guy flying her a mile or two above the ground doesn't fall high on her list of things she'd like to do now.

"Sounds alright, then," she swallows with a little nod. "You'd best not take me t'the Sanctuary, the both of us might have t'deal with more than we'd like."

There's no way he's missed the fact that she's connected to a demon, right? He must smell it on her like asphalt in August. God, what he might be thinking of her now... That she bit off more than she could chew? That she was some dumb kid who messed with things she shouldn't have? The idea that he could have a low opinion of her hurts more than it should-- and it becomes a physical need to explain herself before he could potentially invent any other terrible tales about her.

"I didn' want this, y'know," she says quietly. "I was dyin', I jus' didn' want t'die, and he said he'd save me. I didn' know all this would happen."

But maybe she should have known that no one worked for free, and everything had a cost.

"Well, the Sanctuary is a bleedin' mess anyway," he says, voice almost managing casual glib. "Rubbish, it is, don't got the time ta deal with all their problems and my own."

And his problems apparently include not only looking after his psychic future-seeing charge who keeps running around for visions that don't fit the regular, but carting around a homeless girl to the nearest doctor when he has no idea how he's going to pay or what he's going to do about the "warlock" thing. Bugger him. Bugger him straight to the moon, frankly. What is he going to do about all of this?

Her words click through his tired and strained thoughts, and, for some reason, it makes something acidic twist in his stomach. Like it could eat right through him, a familiar and horrible pain. He's been stabbed before, but this feels worse. It feels personal, in a way he can't quite say.

"Demons do that," he says quietly. "Always somethin' underneath the deal they offer ya. Nobody deserves what they sell." Gently, his fingers squeeze into her. "Don't worry, alright?"

"I jus'... don' want ya t'think I wanted powers or... somethin'. I was scared, tha's all. People get scared." It's like she's told herself that a million times, over and over whenever she feels like she should have been braver and just died. People get scared, dozens of people would have done the same to save their lives.

She burrows herself further against the angel's chest. "I don' know why, but f'r some reason, I feel like if you turned up your nose at me I'd... I don' know what I'd do. I'd be empty."

If it weren't for the blood getting all over his clothes, he'd be tempted to just- stop, and hold her tight. He's heard a lot of things throughout his years of living, a lot of which have tugged at his heart, but this confession.... It makes him feel sick to his stomach. Like he's failed somehow.

All he can do until she's fixed up, however, is cradle her against his chest. "Ssshh," he says quietly, as if he's hushing Sora down from a nightmare or vision. "Ain't no judgment from me. Don't worry. I said I wouldn't leave ya, and I won't. It's the truth."

He wouldn't lie to her, not about this-- that's the first feeling Doll has and she sticks to it. "I won't neither," she replies absently, like it's the automatic thing to say. Her brain catches up and she blushes, embarrassed.

"I mean-- 'm not sayin' I'm gonna follow y'ev'rywhere." She would, though. He feels like love and protection, two things she hasn't had... maybe ever? "That'd get right on your last nerve, I'm sure," she says with a nervous laugh. "I mean, y'know, 'm not gonna... run off once y'set me down."

Yeah. That's exactly what she meant. She definitely needs to reassure him that she's not going to run off with an arrow in her arm.

He half wants to say she could stay, if she wanted, because a dorm won't mind one more kid wandering its halls and they already deal with Tamaki being a brat, so why not a lost warlock? But Joker bites his tongue, wondering at his own impulses.

Or maybe he's only wondering because the alternative is confronting them.

When he's sure he won't say anything dumb, he huffs out a laugh. "With how yer bleedin', it'd be easy ta find ya, anyway, wouldn't it? Assumin' ya didn't faint halfway through yer great escape."

"Hey I can hide real smart-like!" she says defensively, though she's not seriously arguing with him over whether or not she could successfully run and hide with a substantial injury. It's... the principle of the thing? Proving to him that she's capable? Something like that. But, on second thought, it wouldn't be so bad if he could find her easily no matter how hard she hid.

The rest of the trip passes quickly enough, Doll realizing that the angel had distracted her from most of the pain and panic very successfully. There's only a few more dramatic moments when the head half of the arrow is clipped off and pulled out, it takes three technicians to remove the parts and squeeze her arm with gauze to get the bleeding to a manageable level. Doll refuses to go through any of it without her new friend, and grips his hand hard and buries her face in his shoulder, stomach, whatever she can reach so she doesn't have to look. The stitches are the worst part, but she's brave through all of it and cooperates with whatever the doctors ask her to do for them. At the end of it, they wrap her arm in plastic and offer her a shower and a cot to rest on for a few hours. Her clothes are taken away in plastic bags and she initially objects, but the fact is they're covered in blood. She'll have to buy something new, and that worry clouds her tired face. But it's something to think about after just a bit of rest.

Once she's safely tucked in amongst several clinic blankets, one of the nurses waves Joker over. 'It was good of you to bring her in. Apparently she's been missing for weeks, ran away from home. Teenagers, right?' he chuckles and leads Joker to the waiting room. 'Her brother's here to pick her up, she'll be looked after.'

He opens the door and gestures Joker through into the waiting room. There's a man in a nice suit there, in the process of handing over a credit card. 'I'd rather not deal with my insurance company, they drag everything out, it's sheer--'

Knotley stops mid-sentence the second he smells Doll's blood. It had been a faint presence before, but it's all over this-- being. He narrows his eyes suspiciously at Joker, the receptionist getting visibly nervous.

'Oh, yes, this is um, this is the man who brought your sister to us. A lucky thing too, if you think she's not the type to go home even after this kind of injury.'

He's listening, but not making any indication that he actually heard the receptionist. Or even acknowledging she's still there. All of his focus is directly on Joker, sizing him up, trying to decide if he was at all involved with this or just trying to be some kind of hero. Ultimately, he rationalizes that keeping this as civil as possible is for the best, and he sets the card on the counter and approaches Joker.

'I suppose I should thank you then. She's stubborn, and I'm not sure I would have found her if you hadn't.' He holds out his hand with a little forced smile, very reminiscent of someone who is dragging themselves kicking and screaming through the motions of being polite.

A he sits with her, letting her press as close as she wants to, Joker can't help the small blossom of pride that starts to well up in his chest. Just like when he first saw her in that bloody miserable situation, it's an emotion that doesn't make any logical sense. He reserves such feelings for Sora, or the many others that he has watched over throughout the centuries. Yet he feels it now, humming softly to her as she stays strong through it all. He'd been worried, there's no doubt about it, but... As she's taken away to be tucked quiet into lots of blankets, he allows himself to feel relief.

She'll be okay. Hospital beds aren't the comfiest, but they're better than being on the street. The arrows out and the wounds are treated, so now all that's needed is to keep an eye on the progress. And no one had asked, either, what kind of loon was shooting arrows in Portland. Thank god this place is the kind where you can brush it off as just being part of the culture... It makes it easier for the regular humans to willingly close their eyes and cover their ears to the supernatural.

So relieved, he lets himself be guided along by a nurse, smiling absently and faking it- it feels natural to do so while he internally catches a breath. So it takes him a second to realize what the nurse has said, about a brother....

...And then he's standing very stiff and awkwardly in the waiting room.

At least he can still fake it, angel or whatever else he might be. Joker manages a smile, although his eyes are sharp even as he reaches over to accept the hand gesture. "Wouldn't be much of a decent person if I just left someone bleedin' out, huh?" he asks, voice seemingly relaxed. Don't mind if he just drags this handshake out for as long as possible.

Ow.

Yes, that's what he'd thought, and it's terribly annoying. Doll has apparently gotten herself picked up by something holy. And he supposes that this angel is going to object to him taking his little soul collector back, making this even more of a hassle. Knotley is displeased, but how was Doll to know?

His smile, in contrast, goes a little tight and he extracts his fingers as soon as he can. 'Simply inhuman. Well, if there's nothing else, I'm going to take her home now.'

Knotley sweeps through the door that leads back into the exam and procedure rooms, ignoring the receptionist's sputtering over how he can't go in there. He can do what he likes, as far as he's concerned, and one angel and some medical professionals can hardly stop him.

In contrast to the receptionist's sputtering or any other humans that might object, Joker simply plays the gentleman as he immediately steps outside...

...And goes invisible with wings extended to fly up to the room he knows Doll is in.

It doesn't take much to get the window open, and sneaking through the room quiet-like so that she doesn't waken is a little more troublesome, but it's fine. By the time Knotley gets up there, Joker is right in place leaning against the door with his hands laced behind his head. Turning his head a little, he winks. Angels probably shouldn't look this smug, but what God doesn't know can't hurt Him.

"Surprise, mate. I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

Knotley may have the most direct path, but he doesn't have the home team advantage-- he doesn't know exactly where Doll is and the halls are unfamiliar. But it doesn't take long for him to sniff out Doll's blood and turn the corner to find this angel in his path again. He stops and narrows his eyes.

'No, something told me you'd be this irritating,' he says, keeping his distance for the moment and sneering. 'Seems to be an angel thing. Listen-- if you brought her in, you know she's not yours. She can't even potentially be yours. She's mine, she contracted with me. You don't have a leg to stand on here.'

Aw, he's losing his touch. But ah well- he knows one thing he hasn't lost his touch in, even with all the utter ridiculous nonsense that's gone on in the past month. Joker stays right where he is, refusing to budge, and doesn't look away.

"Thought contracts with minors weren't legally binding," he quips, because that helps quell the boiling anger in the bottom of his throat that could make enough venom for him to spit. "Anyway... I think that's assumin' we're goin' with the old rules." Something in his gaze turns sharp, even while he keeps smiling. "But I haven't heard His voice in a bleedin' long while, and I think we both know that an awful lot is changin' around Portland. Maybe yer contract doesn't matter as much as ya think it does... Especially if the girl never wanted it in the first place."

'Some of us still behave civilly without Daddy whispering in our ears.' He's a fan of the old ways-- it made things a lot simpler, before people started talking about 'shades of grey' and 'reclamation of morality'. The good old days of being damned without hope of redemption are the days he really longs for. Especially right now.

'It matters more than you think it does,' he says, then gestures up and down at Joker. 'Look at you. You look like you pawned your harp for a doorway to sleep in. I make sure she doesn't starve, I make sure she's warm. Oh she doesn't know it--' he says, pointing at the door. '--She likes to think that she's doing just fine on her own, but we both know better. She's a seventeen year old girl, and she's still feeding herself doing cartwheels on the sidewalk. You think that's how it works?

'You think that's how it'll work if you take over? What bank are you going to rob to make sure she's taken care of? To make sure she doesn't start selling pieces of herself to feed the both of you?'

"I've worked with worse," is the almost glib answer, although it's betrayed by how the bright red of his hair starts to burn slightly at the edges, a holy light that's ten seconds away from warping his deceptively human form into something white hot and divine. There's an ache in his back, wings that want to unfurl, but he keeps that held back.

"In fact, I know folks in the exact kind of position as her, but without any of your lot around, a deal with a devil she never got a chance ta refute, they turn out just fine. Rough and strugglin', but better than ya would ever care ta think." Which reminds him to have a talk with Ginko at some point, in fact, but Joker shoves that thought to the side for now. Instead, eyes burning...

"I'll manage. We'll manage. So ya got a chance ta let the contract go and take off before a certain someone comes around for recruitment, or I can take care of all yer worries there permanently."

⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 2

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