⇨ 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

[kingsroads]

Somewhere, poor Nightshade is just shaking her head at her terrible choice in lackeys.

"I don't want to take you in the first place!" Strange yells back, before he...straight up tries to chase after Steven, taking care to step over the vines, trying not to get tripped up. This means that Steven's getting a pretty good head start, though Strange is trying his hardest to at least keep the kid in eye sight.

"I just thought you'd want to actually know what's going on!" Because why wouldn't he?

Childermass

[atouts]

Neutral for the ritual (unless something abruptly changes and the Winter Court gets their hands on him). He is on Team Beast aka Team Mess Up the Summer Court currently.

[fragileandsoft]

Greg hoists up Steven into his arms, out of reach of Ginko's grasping hands. The sight of the parasitic bloom bursting from his eye makes Greg reel back, and the pollen only helps him put more space between them. He tugs his scarf up over his face to protect from the spores.

Even as the horror of what's been done to this poor changeling sinks in, Steven's begging him to do something. Already his son's been put in danger--can he help this man while keeping him safe?

Before he can come to a conclusion, another party comes barreling in to change the situation. Greg balks. Who--that guy. He knows that guy. What his name, Falkner? Forester? Foster. Where did he come from, and what's he doing here?

Greg keeps backing up, holding Steven close. Whatever's going on here, what matters most is keeping Steven out of it.

[fragileandsoft]

Her touch makes Greg quiver, her face so close makes him positively ache, and her voice speaking his name overwhelms him. A great, longing sadness swells inside him, desperate and lonely. Holding her gaze, all he wants is to go back, to have her again, to return to when things were the way he remembered. When they're so close it feels so possible, more real than it has in so long.

"Rose..."

He has to close his eyes to pull himself out of the moment, to remind himself of what she's done to Steven, to Sans, even to Ginko. Those actions are more than what they had before. Once he opens his eyes again the moment has passed, but his deceitful heart still hammers away.

"You know I'm a lousy liar. I'm just... here to serve you.

[fortuneglass]

[The demon rolls his eyes.] At this point, I have a feeling the mages hardly count in all of this... [Buttttt...Hmmmm.]

...Very well...I have no doubt we'll be approached by demonic sorts sooner or later vying for whatever part of this is still open. If you intend to keep your end of the deal, you'll have eyes on their efforts. If, [he warns, the shadow briefly seeming to smoke,] I suspect otherwise however...

[Well he can't do anything so this is just pigeon fluffing right now. But it's an Attempt at a threat, right?]

[otoko]

Auh-some games? ...I would love that! Perhaps duel monsters, or some sort of other game..?

[thefuckisduelmonstersgon]

[dontpokethat]

Okay, that he didn't expect.

Between Ginko's surprise and the fact that he was pretty off-balance to begin with, Foster's tackle is enough to bowl him over entirely, and he hits the ground with a pained grunt. He rolls onto his back, trying frantically to shove his attacker away, and-- wait what the fuck.

"--Foster?! What are you doing, get-- get off of me!"

[hippocarnival]

Yeah! [Yuya won't realize until he leaves that he had no idea where to find 'duel monsters'. But it sounds familiar.] I'll find something. It's pretty boring being stuck in bed, so I'll bring a bunch.

[kingsroads]

I said I'm a mage, not that I'm part of the Circle. I've made an alliance with the Summer Court.

[ He is 100% the Summer Court's lackey, though Strange has yet to actually connect the dots with this. ]

And trust me. I plan on keeping my eyes on all aspects of the playing field, demons included.

[ says the man who has no idea the angels are also trying to cause shit. ]

[periphrasing]

Peridot feels a bit put on the spot with them both staring at her expectantly like that. Peridot... is going to hunker down into Lambert's arms a little bit, with her ears held flat.

It's not just the stares that have her anxious. It's the information that she just blurted out without thinking twice about it, like it's a topic that she lectures other people about all the time. She's spent ages, it feels like, trying to contextualize the fragmented flashes of memories she's been experiencing, but now that it feels like she's on the cusp of understanding them, she's terrified of what she might find.

"A-Are you sure you didn't?! Because... Why do I feel like you did then!?" Peridot fidgets uncomfortably, straining to remember. Some other things are coming back to her now; not clear moments of her past, or specific memories, or anything like that... Just. Vague bits of information, relevant facts that she 100%, without a doubt, knows are true, without really knowing why.

"The Carnival... it has something to do with the multiverse. It travels from place to place, or... It's a pocket dimension?" She scrunches her snout up a bit. "I can't remember why or what forces of magic move it, though."

WERE BEAST

[mylastchance]

Shit. That's pretty scary.

ANGELS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dorkypantsuit]

But he can't fight and doesn't really intend on being at the battle. Still he will help with whatever like weapon/item/information gathering that he can.

ANGELS

[manycharms]

Marinette and her Patron will be supporting team Angel.

Near the Sanctuary

[mylastchance]

[After two weeks of searching for info he still has nothing. Others in the Pack he spoke with looked at him like he was crazy. Sanctuary was still recovering from the fae attack and of no help. Mages tried to interrogate him. He wasn't getting help or information from anyone, and while he knew a lot of things we're going on none of it was anything that had to do with the carnival.

The earth spirit was weak. Fae were increasing their activity all over the city. The Circle was under investigation or investigating something. Demons and angels were on the move. But all he was looking for was one specific fae, or just anyone he knew from his memories. Someone who could tell him if the carnival was ever actually real or if it was simply some shared delusion between him and his brother.

When he see's Carly he actually doesn't recognize her at first. Her features are different. There's no red mark on her face, and none of her other carnival related changes are present. Still, she looks familiar and so he spends a moment studying her features. Only then does he realize who he's looking at, and once he does he's suddenly running across the street to catch her.]

Carly!! Carly!

[He doesn't know if she'll even recognize him, but it's his first lead in days and he isn't going to let her slip away.]

[osteothropy]

Sans privately enjoys creeping people out, especially people like Lambert. So there's a bit of an actual chuckle, at that aversion of eyes.

"Remembering being from somewhere else, mostly," he says, with a bland kind of despair. "Some place way worse."

Which might actually be a real, so, that sucks.

[osteothropy]

Sans sighs, and glances towards the window. He wishes he had something to distract himself with right now, but that's also not really the point. Greg just doesn't really understand what he's saying.

"I already choose to do nothing," he says. It's not in his nature to try to change the world. Psychopomps deal in the aftermath of death, not in saving lives or dishing out justice. "Plenty of times."

Like every time he escorts a soul that he could have saved. It's just not the way of things to intervene, but with heaven away, he's always known deep down that he could.

[osteothropy]

Sans stays where he is for a good long while, occasionally glancing at the ghost toy with a couple of his eyes. After leaving it for what is probably a painfully long time, eventually he will finally speak up, to the air, in a moment where there aren't many other customers around.

"I'm off duty, kid. You can relax," he says, with a drawn out sigh.

[anti_nonsense]

A counterattack? Rita wasn't expecting that. With how sick he looked, she thought he'd be down for the count already.

She braces herself for the blast, but the force is more than she expects, and it knocks her upward and back... but she smoothly maneuvers her body around in a near-perfect backflip, landing on her feet. For a moment, even she's surprised. Rita's never done that before, has she? But it was like she was moving through muscle memory, like she's done this dozens of times before...

Well, if it worked, it worked. She decides to take advantage of the surprise recovery and moves to attack right away, throwing a simple, fast-moving fireball at Strange.

[whattaprick]

Lambert's seen some shit, recently, give him a break. Uncharacteristically for his time working at the cafe, he's wearing a hoodie, moving his left arm a bit more stiffly than the right.

"Apparently my subconscious is convinced that I used to be some kind of serial killer," Lambert answers, dryly. Serial monster killer is more accurate, but less catchy. He wouldn't normally be this straightforward, but it's been just that kind of week, and what the fuck, Sans is an angel of death or whatever. He's seen way worse than whatever Lambert can dream up.

"What about you?"

fff you edited right before I clicked reply

[osteothropy]

Ha ha, except, Sans takes him seriously, and the difference between those two things is very relevant. His gaze is settled on Lambert heavily and analytically, for the moment.

"That so?" he prompts. Given that he has reason to believe that strange memories may actually be accurate in this scenario... it's not really a threat, but it isn't totally not a threat, either.

He's not going to make any moves based on someone's possible former life, but he's probably judging you.

"Well... it wasn't that."

i've been so edit-happy with my tags this week SORRY

[whattaprick]

Lambert doesn't meet Sans' eyes. He's an angel of death, isn't he? He wonders if he can tell that Lambert's already killed, and not all that long ago at that, right in the alley behind the damn cafe while the angel was otherwise occupied, somehow ... yet when he'd finally summoned the courage to even look back there, not a trace of John's sister remained.

It would all so easy to dismiss that as a dream, too, if it weren't for the wounds under his hoodie sleeves.

"What was it, then?"

[kingsroads]

Strange wasn't expecting that near-perfect backflip either. He looks over at Rita with a surprised look on his face, about to ask how she did that, when Rita tosses a fireball right at him. Strange quickly puts his hands up in front of his face as he starts to mutter a counterspell, but the barrier only gets halfway up: the fireball smacks straight into him and knocks him right over as he lands on the ground with a thump.

As he's already a bit winded thanks to the illness, Strange just lies on the ground for a moment. A few tiny flames lick his shirt sleeve but Strange quickly pats them out, not really caring that he's doing so with his bare hands. It's only a few seconds before he slowly staggers back to his feet. "That was unexpected."

He's got a cantrip at the ready to call up a barrier spell if needed...though it's hilariously obvious who's going to win the fight if Rita wants to continue (hint: not Strange).

Ginko | Oct. 15-16

[dontpokethat]

Around Portland - OTA (Oct. 15th-16th)

He’s got to find Steven.

That’s the main thought on his mind as he makes his way around the city. But, at the moment, he’s got no leads and no idea how to get any. So his best bet for the time may be to just keep an eye and an ear out and see what he can pick up on.

Of course, normally the tea shop would be a great place to listen and see what he can hear, but, uh. He guesses it shouldn’t be too surprising that, upon walking in for the first time in several days, he’s quickly informed that he no longer works here.

Which… he’s not gonna lie, that kind of sucks, and more stress is the last thing he needs right now.

All the same, he keeps coming back to the park by that shop - maybe it’s just out of habit, but, as he wanders through the city with Miu, his route seems to keep taking him there. So, each time, he’ll stop and rest on a bench for a few minutes, scooping his guinea pig into his lap as he watches the people around him in silence.

Is This Dating - closed to Psi

It’s been a good ten years - maybe more - since Ginko has actually lived indoors. It feels strange to accept Psi’s offer, but… in a good way. Especially considering what else they talked about when Psi first suggested that Ginko stay with him.

So, not long after it becomes clear that staying at the Sanctuary won’t get him anywhere, Ginko heads back to Psi’s apartment.

Wildcard

((OOC: Let me know if there’s something else you want to do! Ginko will be acting a little odd in the days leading up to the 17th and I’m definitely up for threads addressing that, though the actual conclusion is already planned.))

[osteothropy]

Actually, he sort of can. Of course, with only one death it's something he has to actually look for... but now that he's been given prompting, he can sense the essence of a recent death still staining someone's soul. That isn't always because of murder, but it means you were close to a soul passing on.

He sinks his hands into his pockets, leaning back against his chair, affecting a sort of detachment from the subject.

"Hell, probably," he says. He doesn't know how else to describe it. "On the receiving end."

Snake and Axel

[small_reservations]

Axel will be (unwillingly) siding with the summer court, at least until his mind control is ended and he's filled in.

Snake will be siding with the demons. If Knotley's killed by an angel, however, and his soul freed, he will side with the earth spirit.