⇨ 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]

Strange gestures at the ground. The barrier spell forms around him in an arc, so that most of the flames crawl up the side and shoot over his head. He can feel the heat of the flames as they lick the barrier around him: Rita's more powerful than he realizes.

"With age comes experience!" Strange taunts back. He makes a hand gesture in Rita's direction and three quick yet not as powerful bolts of force shoot in her direction. "I fought in the peninsula, I can take out an overeager firebug!"

It's only later that Strange will realize he has no idea what peninsula he was talking about.

[npcarnival]

"A fae, obviously," the Beast says as if that information is already clear as day. There's a bit of a dismissive snort, as if to ask 'what else could pilot a carnival through dimensions?'

"An entertaining diversion, I'd think. Unfortunate that you somehow managed to crash into this cosmological dead zone. It's not really that much fun around here... as hilarious as the Court's halted progress has been to observe. It really was clever, cutting them off like that."

She smirks to herself, despite the fact that it has inconvenienced her quite a bit as well. There is no evidence of her drawing a connection between these two things.

[puddingemote]

Tamaki will have a life(death?)-changing revelation, basically realizing maybe death isn't so bad except oh shit it might end up being really bad if something isn't done about this earth spirit draining thing.

Tamaki will agree to help and return, then try to talk to it again later to ask when this started happening. He's basically playing telephone for Lambert and Co. right now.

[whattaprick]

Lambert doesn't know why Peridot has weird memories, all right, but he's also not about to engage in heartfelt discussions in front of an incredibly weird, incredibly capricious supernatural being. So while he'll hold Peridot a little closer, letting her hide against him as much as she wants, he frowns at the Beast.

"You mean the Circle and the Severing?" Look, Peridot, even more things your brother has apparently found out about in the past few weeks without talking to you, isn't this charming! "Doesn't that cut you off from where you come from, too? You sound like you admire them for it."

[puddingemote]

The hand reaching for him is all the invitation Tamaki needs.

Possessing a willing body is fairly easy; he's never tried possessing a body that's actively resisting him, but he imagines it's extremely hard. Lambert isn't resisting, but he's not particularly willing, either, and that makes this a bit more difficult than before with Yuya.

Tamaki does his best, though, slipping into Lambert's body like a stream of blue light, disappearing as his soul takes root alongside Lambert's own. He struggles to wrest control of Lambert's limbs, willing his legs to run toward the gate. It takes a moment, and when he finally does move his steps are jerky and erratic, but he makes it to the gate of the university.

And then pauses, head whipping back and forth. Other than going with Yuya before, he hasn't been off the campus in years, and then he'd had a clear direction in mind. He's not sure where to turn now (literally).

[pullingamiko]

Peridot, did you really expect Miko to be any good at meditation.

"How're we supposed to be more werebeast? Do we have to... I dunno, roll around in some dirt? Eat a bug? D'you think the spirit will talk to us if we eat a bug first?"

Man she hopes that's not the solution.

[puddingemote]

Tamaki appears almost instantly, coming out of the toy purely so Sans can clearly see the pout on his face.

"Lam-san didn't tell me!" he snaps, sounding every bit the petulant child. "He didn't tell me you were here!"

To leave the den of one angel only to end up in the arms of another - and this one actually wants to send him to the afterlife. He's not at all interested in any of that, especially since he started remembering some pretty odd things. Things he doesn't think happened, yet remembers clear as day.

[periphrasing]

Peridot perks up a little bit again at the mention of the circle. "Wait. What about the Circle?" Her fuzzy little brow is furrowed with concern.

[npcarnival]

God, Peridot, it's like you don't know anything about this scheme!

"It does... and I can't say I particularly enjoy it, except for the joy of having those fools trapped in here with me. But prey outsmarting, no - overpowering their predators? That I have to respect. They've put off the colonization of their world for perhaps a whole generation, at least."

Isn't it just neat?

[control_freak]

That would almost be a fair complaint, except that Peridot is working with her own sister and a man who showed up to this in a shirt that featured a tired quote about being the "lead dog" and an anatomically correct rendition of a dog's ass. If she wanted were Jack London, she probably should have looked a little harder.

"We're already in the dirt," Foster points out a bit tiredly, but Miko's 'speculation' has him thinking. It actually has him a little... angry? "Wait. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's the problem. Not that we need to start eating bugs. Or. Well. You can if you want to. But hear me out first." Peridot's words--about not being were enough--have struck a nerve. Maybe a couple of different nerves. But in particular.

The fae had told Amethyst that she (and presumably Foster) weren't real werebeasts.

He's clambering up to his feet, teeth bared, eyes suddenly brighter--too bright, maybe.

"We're were animals. The animal thing is what matters. We need to actually think more like animals. Feel like actual animals... we're not mages, we're beasts."

[whattaprick]

"I'll explain later. I promise," he adds. Right now, though, the Beast is successfully confusing Lambert more than enlightening him, but that's just typical fae for you.

"Colonization? What are you talking about?" he frowns. That sounds more like a science fiction plot than anything else.

[periphrasing]

Peridot lifts her face back out of the leaf litter, only to give Foster a kind of dubious look. "That... Actually does make sense," she admits reluctantly, "but you propose we achieve this how, exactly?"

[npcarnival]

"Oh," she says, and then blinks at him. "Is that something that was supposed to be a secret? I'm never sure..."

Infuriatingly, she doesn't elaborate unprompted.

[periphrasing]

Peridot stares at her in silence, expecting her to go on... And then she doesn't, and the bat says loudly:

"An explanation, maybe? PLEASE?"

[whattaprick]

"Preferably in the smallest words possible," Lambert suggests, dryly.

[npcarnival]

"...Well, they were going to annex this entire universe, eventually. What else would they have come here, for?" the Beast says, a little bit dismissively. Isn't they obvious? They were fae.

"I mean, they certainly didn't show up for the scenery... not someone like the Rose Queen and her ilk."

[periphrasing]

"...WHAT!?"

That's Peridot's super helpful contribution. She's even more loud this time, her voice echoing off of the surrounding trees. She has about a million follow-up questions, but she can't articulate any of them until she gets over her initial shock.

[whattaprick]

Yet Lambert has a question of his own, that suddenly feels a lot more urgent in the light of this new information.

"So what does that imply for the Severing?" he asks abruptly, cutting in after Peridot's question without giving the Beast a chance to respond. "If someone undid that, would they just pick up where they left off?"

[npcarnival]

The Beast just shrugs, both because she doesn't know and also because she's sort of indifferent. Does she look like she's part of the Courts? Actually, maybe she does, she's not sure.

"I suppose they'd get back to it sooner or later..." she says. "Everyone in Arcadia has probably forgotten about this place at the moment. I just figured it would be a laugh to take some of them out while they couldn't call for backup... the Courts really do seem to enjoy swarming things."

[mylastchance]

[He stops short at the question, realizing he doesn't have any clue how to explain all this. Talking isn't really his strong point in the first place, but without Susan around he really didn't have any choice. He decides to just not think about it and simply say whatever comes to mind first. You know, the way normal people do.]

I know you, from another plane. Kind of. Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not trying to hurt you or anything so just let me explain, okay?

[whattaprick]

There's a bit of a pause as Lambert digests that.

"That," he says eventually, "Was the vaguest answer I've heard in a while." He tips his head, narrowing his eyes at Sans.

[periphrasing]

"Alright, hold on just a damn second," Peridot interrupts. She's squirming out of Lambert's arms while she talks, in order to clamber up onto his shoulder; it's a little bit more dignified (at least in her mind), and it puts her at, uh... well, at least slightly closer to eye-level with The Beast?

"You said annex. The whole universe? How? To what end, for what purpose? And where exactly does that place you in this whole picture? You're fae too, aren't you? And what the hell is Arcadia?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert is just kind of going to suffer through being used as a glorified bat-tree, because Peridot's questions are more or less the same as his own. Anyway, at least he's used to this.

[npcarnival]

"To consume and repurpose it for the glory of Arcadia of course," she says, though she rolls her eyes a little, like she personally isn't that into the idea. "You are familiar with changelings, aren't you? Imagine a fae making a changeling... but the changeling is a galaxy and everything in it."

She gestures vaguely up at the sky.

"Universes like this are always filled to the brim with empty space and dead weight. Most of it would probably be discarded or destroyed in the process. Like refining wheat into flour to make something more ambitious..."

She shrugs.

"The Wyld Fae have never had much interest in this kind of thing."

[atouts]

Well, no confirmation is really needed, in any case. Tied to ice in a dark place points to the Count of Crows no matter what, as far as Childermass is concerned. He breathes out a sigh and leans back in his chair, the wood creaking as old library chairs often do.

"But near future or far? Do these visions always come to pass?"