⇨ 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

[atouts]

"From someone else, I would assume," is the answer he'll give Rita after a moment of pause, where he frowns and thinks about it. It could be he had misheard, although he still isn't even sure where he heard her name before in the first time. "Why? If I got it wrong, please, feel free to correct me."

Or don't. If it isn't the girl's true name, it's probably better she doesn't share that with anyone at all. Childermass would certainly understand that, considering his own problems currently (thanks, Strange, thanks so much).

[flashover]

Closed to Sora
[The memories were getting more and more intense. Because that’s what they were — memories. Not just weird dreams.

And now Sora was in them.

He quickly shoots his friend a text message, asking him to meet after class at a coffee shop on campus.

Rin sits at a small table with a coffee in front of him. He stirs it with one of the cheap wooden sticks, but doesn’t actually seem interested in drinking it]

Closed to Steven, the most popular boy
[WELP. Rin tried not to think much about the supernatural stuff that happened in town. He just wanted to live a life!! So he knows vaguely about the fae shit that happens in town, and their weird habit of stealing children, but that’s about it.

But now, that stuff he tried to ignore was staying in his house, so… he sort of had to think about it. After dinner the first night he got there, the kid understandably just wanted to rest. But Mom had insisted that Rin try and make the changeling boy feel as comfortable and at home as possible.

Rin takes the day off from class and leads Steven into his bedroom. Steven seemed to be so much younger than he was … what are grade-school kids into these days?]

So uh… do you like videogames?


WILDCARD
[u want sum fuk Rin??? U CAN HAV]

Till I Can Follow

[moonfang]

[Zangetsu may not have his normal powers, but he still has a sense for souls and the like. Angels were... apparently some kind of soul being as well, so whatever! It's not that different.

So he can feel something sort of tugging on his essence. Faint, sort of like a small animal yanking on your clothes... except whatever it is, it's pulling on the core of his being]

.. Reiraku? [he can't visualize spiritual pressures as the ribbons, not in this form. But it feels so similar. Curious little beastie that he is, Zangetsu takes to the air and follows the tugging]

Cat cafe

[moonfang]

Zangetsu probably has more important things to be doing. But the cat cafe is so damn fun. Cats, man. They're just so great.

The (current) angel walks in like he owns the place, waves to Lambert on his way in, and gets his new usual -- a plain coffee with ALL the flavors, something the baristas have taken to calling "Marma-Suicide".

As he is making his way to a favorite seat, Zangetsu notices someone familiar... not from the carnival, per se, but from a certain meeting with a certain nephilim.

"Oh hey. It's you! You sure left that meeting the other night in a hurry," he says, taking a sip of his disgusting concoction.

[destiny_key]

[Sora's just tired, mostly. Tired of the visions, of the memories, of the crazy shit happening around the city, all of it. But, through it all, he's still managing to drag himself to class.

This will be the second day in a row that someone has texted him to meet him after class. Normally, he'd welcome the distraction, but something tells him that his friend doesn't want to meet him just to hang out.

The thought continues to hang over him as he goes to sit down across from Rin with his own coffee in front of him.]

Hey.

[atouts]

Why does this not surprise him? It's almost as though he expected this, a moment of serious deja vu overcoming Childermass for a moment there. As such, he only stares at first, giving Strange the look he likely anticipated, like he's a lunatic, which, franky—

"Then you're already there," he finally says, "You were always a terrible man," which doesn't sound right, something making that difficult to say to the mage, "And now you're an insane one, too, and for what? You're miserable."

[kingsroads]

"That may be," Strange admits. Because there's no hiding just how miserable and how angry he was when he saw Childermass with Amanda. There's not even a point to try and argue that he's happy when it's so obvious he isn't.

"But now I have access to more knowledge and soon more power than I'd have ever dreamed of. It's worth it."

He hopes. Going mad, repeating the actions that the English magician took have certainly unlocked more memories, but nothing yet's unlocked just how the other Jonathan Strange does the magic. It's no use to remember traveling though mirrors and turning people into cats if you have no idea how to do it in the first place.

[otoko]

[For the most part, Gongenzaka has been trying not to actually be noticed-when the spell hits something that starts coming near, he books it and bolts. Except this one feels like a 'holy' thing. An angel-someone he might need to speak with...he hopes.

He can only hope that Yuugo's spoken to Prudence by now, otherwise he's a dead man (again)!

...It is comforting however, that whoever is coming hasn't simply vaporized him from afar. That, at least, tells him he might stand a chance...

And when Zangetsu reaches the spot, while he may need to contain a bit of aura, he Will see a familiar face.

...................................mostly.]

[insidescoop]

[Give her a few moments to stare, but-] ...A vision..? [Suffice to say, she didn't expect that answer at all.] As in...fortune telling??

You saw my future.?! [This feels familiar in the wrong ways, go figure.]

Works great!

[insidescoop]

[Carly stares at a number of messages for some time after she gets it, late in the evening of the day she finally realizes she can't just shut the whole world out, especially since even dying would just end in her being in a demon's claws again.

...She hesitates to reply, when one comes in after she's already given herself away to the very thing she'd done that ritual to prevent. Her blood feels cold, but eventually...]

Yes.

[And, after another moment...]

I didn't think I'd get a message from you, after that though.

[starseedling]

[Steven seemed pretty shy at first, but having been in the house for a little while seems to have him perking up a bit. At the very least, he's willing and able to carry on a conversation, which was arguable the night before.

Still, he seems pretty damn meek about his place here as he sits on Rin's bed.]

Um... Yeah. I played them a lot when I still lived with my dad.

[So, you know, before the kidnapping and torture part.]

[periphrasing]

Peridot opens her mouth with the intention of saying something like, how could you forget something like that, but. She realizes as she does, that she doesn't remember any of that either.

"It's not just the carnival that I remember," she says, hastily steering away from that awkward subject. "There's other things too... A different Earth... Something about a barn...?" She wraps her arms around herself, shivering. "My whole life I've had these memories that I've never been able to place logically along the timeline of my existence. And I think I'm starting to understand why..."

[anti_nonsense]

"Hmph... Whatever. Be careful you don't regret it," Rita replies dryly, though for some reason, she finds herself hoping they do get that opportunity. If the idiot doesn't manage to get himself killed before they meet again, that is...

She turns and walks in the opposite direction, deeper into the Sanctuary, leaving the mess of broken glass and scorched floors for someone else to deal with.

[whattaprick]

[ The response is frank and blunt as can be expected: ]

If I can help it, I never want to see you again.

[ Probably not the most compelling thing to lead with. Yet, immediately after: ]

But you're also one of the only people around who seem to have a clue. Talking to you could help both of us.

[whattaprick]

"Your whole life?" Awkward subject or not, Lambert's just going to hone in on that, brows furrowing. "You've never said anything about that before."

If she expects him to be any use on the subject though, she'll have to live with the disappointment: Lambert can't contribute jack shit there.

[fortuneglass]

[Well, that's certainly telling her plenty. To be fair, she supposes, right now she's surrounded by demons and potentially having tea with one in particular.

But...

...She steels herself.] ...Don't be a hypocrite. If you don't want to see me, you don't want to help me, I'm sure.

[whattaprick]

[ Certainly, he never thought he'd be talking to her again, but ... he doesn't have the moral high ground right now. After all, he's already killed someone himself. In self-defense, perhaps, but these are the times they live in, now... ]

No, but I'm interested in helping myself. I'm proposing a trade of information. That's all.

[insidescoop]

[She certainly doesn't have the high ground either, she feels, and talking to him merely makes her feel that more and more.]

You first then.

[She's not going to spill all that she knows when she's being approached like 'this'.]

[periphrasing]

"Of course I never said anything, how in the world would you have expected me to explain that!?" Peridot snaps. She immediately looks rather guilty for going off on him like that, though, and sighs, glancing away once more.

"It was already weird enough that I turned out to be part bat. I wasn't going to complicate matters further by bringing up something so... I don't know. Abstract? Inexplicable?"

[anti_nonsense]

"It's just Rita. I don't have any other names." Maybe she'd have a family name if she ever had a family, but she doesn't. She has a fake name for her fake driver's license, but it isn't Mordio.

So why does it sound so familiar? Wait... could it be related to those memories? But how the hell would Childermass of all people know something like that?

Rita sighs. "...Forget it. Just go." They don't have time to attempt to solve this mystery here and now, and finding the Beast needs to be her main priority. Rita has no choice but to leave Childermass to his own devices and hope for the best. If it turns out he is screwing with her, she'll just have to get him back for it later.

[pullingamiko]

Miko perks up, her tail starting to wag at the indication that she may, in fact, have had a good idea.

"Yeah! Gotta get into the mindset 'n all that. ...Though I actually don't want to eat a bug, so! What else did you have in mind?"

[pullingamiko]

Miko considers that, then... shrugs. Sounds legit! She does, however, wander closer to this random guy, as if to get a better look at how gross he looks. Not too close, though; she'd really rather not catch it.

So instead, she's just kind of... yelling at him from a few feet away.

"Is it contagious? I haven't heard anything's goin' around."

[kingsroads]

"It's not. It's just from something I ate." Which is technically true even if practically he's missing a few details.

Now that Miko's a bit closer though, Strange can't help but look her over with a frown. She looks familiar, which is odd because why would he know a teenager in the first place. It's a crapshoot whether this is one of those odd memory things or just Strange's natural forgetfulness, but he's certainly looking at Miko with a critical frown. "Have we met?"

[starseedling]

It's that sound of pain, that small break in Childermass's almost unerring aura of calm, that draws Steven out of his furious hysteria. It humanizes, ever so slightly - and Steven was never really a hard sell, that way. It reminds him that Childermass is a person, and not just the personification of all the cruelty in his life.

And it reminds him that this, in fact, pain he's inflicting on another person. His determination wavers.

The vines stop tightening, and Steven shudders, looking up at Childermass again. Is he really understanding that right? Again, he's not sure if the man is threatening, or if he was going to offer in the first place. Steven sniffs, whipping his nose.

He's keeps the vines in place because he's scared Childermass will leave, but they loosen enough that it won't be as immediately painful. Right. Maybe... ask some questions, now that the initial violent reaction is starting to pass a little.

"Why would you help him?" he asks, slowly. "Did... Did you see him?"

[npcarnival]

Magic that will no longer work, because as of this moment, Greg is outside of her favor. It will take time for him to learn... That's the trouble with warlocks, isn't it? With servants that have been raised free. They never truly understand the value of obeying her commands.

"I am the same as I have always been," she says, coldly. "It was you that was forced upon me... forced into my memories... my thoughts..." There is still that look of betrayal in her eyes, of violation. Fae or not, she is still shaken by having something unwillingly done to her mind. "It must have been my feelings for you that kept me from seeing it, for so long..."

The vines will latch onto his legs, with nothing left to defend him.