lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 3

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 3

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.

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Steven stares at him, obviously uncomprehending. The vines continue to twist and grow, though at a slower pace. Pink rose blossoms behind to bud, but none of them fully bloom.

He doesn't get it - less why Childermass is saying this to him, and more what this ruse is trying to accomplish. Is he trying to ensure that he stays here so that he can be attacked again? Is he trying to earn his trust again so that he can abuse it later?

Many thoughts tumble through Steven's mind, and all of them are suspicious and heavy with lingering betrayal. Childermass had tried to lie to him before, he'd lied to him about his dad, about what his mom wanted. He refuses to be used again, and distrust is his defensive reflex.

In the end, he just keeps staring, demanding that Childermass explain himself, even as Bud makes a small peep of confusion.

"Why?"

Edited 2017-07-21 04:45 (UTC)

It's not like he can blame Steven for not trusting him. Honestly, Childermass wouldn't be able to blame anyone at all for it, but he'll carry on regardless at the 'why'. He tilts his head slightly to one side, hands slowly falling back to his sides and then ending up clasped behind him, at the small of his back.

"Because the Rose Queen has your father," he cuts right to the chase. Trying to lighten the news isn't possible, considering the source. "And will undoubtedly use him to lure you back to her gardens."

His fists clench as Childermass speaks, going white at the knuckles. He already had reason to believe that Greg had been imprisoned. He'd really just been waiting for a confirmation, to know it wasn't a trick. For whatever reason, this is enough to push it over the edge.

And the news is still enough to drown him in a dizzying rush of anger and despair. Childermass has barely managed to finish speaking before the realization makes it all the way through Steven's brain - and suddenly, striking out is all he can think of.

"No!" he yells, and thorny vines will lash out in an attempt to grapple and bind Childermass, both a part of Steven and alien at the same time. Steven isn't thinking anymore, not about why Childermass would be telling him this, or whether or not its fair to attack him. He just does it, and his mind trails helplessly after.

"Why?!" he screams at him, clutching at his head and hair out of sheer overwhelming stress. "Why did... all of this..." He chokes. "All of this is your fault!"

And he'll find no attempt is made to avoid the vines and their sharp thorns.

Childermass does tense up as they grapple him, because, really, it's a bad situation all around, but he doesn't turn into a shadow and flee, he doesn't put up a fight. Thorns tear holes through cloth and flesh both wherever they tighten and he will grimace at that, lips pursed into a thin line as he bites back the urge to tell Steven to stop acting like a child.

Because he is just that, isn't he? A child with no control over his magic, terribly upset, which he can empathize with more than Steven may ever know. So, no, he'll just stand there and let Steven yell. He can wait it out, though his silence may be as aggravating as anything else he might have to say to that.

On the bright side, Childermass's lack of major reaction is probably going to cause Steven to burn out a lot faster than he would have otherwise. On the down side, this lack of reaction is also a complete lack of satisfaction and a complete lack of closure. Even now, this man seems so completely unaffected by anything Steven can do. He's still helpless to invoke a reaction from him, even with these frightening and deadly powers.

Steven sinks down onto his knees, wrapping his arms around himself, shuddering as manages a sob. He doesn't know what to do, and he never really has. All he does is get shoved around between people who will just end up hurting him.

"Why couldn't you just leave me with my dad?" he pleads. Everything comes back to that one event, four years ago, that changed everything about him and his life. "I didn't do anything wrong..."

Besides be born, that is. Something deep and dark suggests to him that him simply being alive is enough to cause pain.

It's the lack of actual intent behind them which leaves Childermass so unaffected. The Beast could kill him in a heartbeat. So could the Rose Queen. Even Pearl or Greg might go for a kill if they thought it absolutely necessary. Steven and his vines? Maybe someday, maybe when he's gotten a better handle on his magic and he's more inclined to plant a vine straight through his chest rather than simply around him.

Which means, yes, he continues to hold still and try not to do anything to make the thorns dig in deeper right up until Steven curls up to cry like that. It's only then that he'll finally let out a sigh and try to move, to make some small attempt to work an arm free and deal with the other vines wrapped around him.

"No, you didn't," he agrees quietly as he tries moving, gaze diverting away from Steven to eye the bothersome plants instead. "It's everyone else who did something wrong, Steven, not you, but as it stands, I cannot fix the past. What I can do, though, is go in and out of the gardens as I please..."

Which is relevant, but please allow him to dramatically trail off first for a moment there.

Because more drama is really what we needed here, obviously.

Steven can't quite turn off what's started here so easily, but Childermass's words do get his attention - albeit in a suspicious and paranoid kind of way. Steven had been letting the vines slip a little in his moment of despair, but Childermass trailing off so mysteriously results in them stubbornly tightening around his arms, as if demanding him to stay there and finish.

Don't look away from him. Don't act like you don't see him. He's so tired of feeling small, and feeling helpless, and people looking through him like he doesn't matter. Like he's too inconvenient to think about.

Of course, Childermass doesn't actually seem to have much difficulty keeping Steven on his mind, but the younger changeling has yet to put that together. Part of him has always assumed that Childermass just casually ruined his life, and then went on with things as if it had been nothing.

"Bring him back," Steven demands, too scrambled to realize that it was literally what Childermass was just implying he would do. Instead, he's anticipating some kind of attempt at a deal, or some attempt to manipulate him. Instead, he's going to make demands. "You have to get him back!" Steven pushes himself into a crouch, voice growing louder as he pleads and threatens.

Another couple vines will latch onto Childermass's legs, which is more of a painful inconvenience at this point.

Here in urban fantasy Portland, we brew only the finest, most organic of magical drama, that's why.

In any case, the vines tightening brings him short of pulling one off his other arm and the ones grabbing ahold of his legs actually get a cringe, teeth clenched against the pain. Good god, it's like death by a thousand obnoxious pinpricks. He looks up from the vines, back to Steven.

"That's something I won't be able to do if you end up crippling me before I can try," Childermass answers through his teeth, finally sounding strained over outright calm. Even his patience has a limit, even if he suspects it'll still hold out longer than Steven can carry on lashing out like this.

Edited 2017-07-21 22:59 (UTC)

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?"

With the vines relaxing their grip, the thorns not digging in any longer (or, at the very least, not actively), some of the tension bleeds out of Childermass. He does still hold as still as he can, putting trying to pry the vines off his arm on hold for a moment as considers the question.

Why indeed. There's so much he could say in reply, but enough of it borders upon sounding pitiful and that's one thing he refuses to be if he can help it. His sob story isn't relevant here, which means, after he's taken that time to think on it, the answer he gives is simply, "Because I can. I am letting something into the gardens to try and deal with the Queen already. If he's on the way, why shouldn't I?"

So basically, it's convenient. It isn't the whole reason, but it'll do.

"And yes, I did. In one of her cages."

"You can get in..." Steven mumbles to himself, drooping back down onto the floor, exhausted by this flood of emotions and days of anxiety. He still feels like Childermass must be lying to him, somehow... that there must be some ulterior motive. Yet, his dad isn't back yet. And Pearl had said the same thing.

There's no other options. Steven wraps his arms around himself, staring into space, until finally he lifts his gaze to meet with Childermass's again.

"I want to go with you," he says, and it's impossible to imagine how he could have come to the point of asking Childermass to take him back to his mother's realm. Somehow it is sure, though, that at times all you can do if hope, and extend that hope to others. "I... I know where the cages are. I want to get him back."

It's said more boldly than anything else Steven has said before. It isn't out of panic or fear... it's just sheer will and determination that is leading him to this decision. Somehow, that feels right.

Childermass supposes he should have anticipated that much. He wants to go with. Of course, because what good child wouldn't want to save their father? Even so, he'll have to push back, saying as gently — and that alone is a very sudden and strange shit in demeanor and tone, one he isn't prone to showing — as possible, "No, Steven. Your father would want you to stay here, where you're safe. If we fail, then all your future will be is living in a cage again, right next to him."

If he's lucky. The Rose Queen may keep them apart indefinitely, for all they know. That sort of cruelty isn't something he would put beyond her.

That gentleness doesn't fail to make an impression, but somehow all it does is make this situation more real, and more desperate. If it really is Childermass offering to do this for him... he thinks that his decision here probably matters more. Slowly, he begins to shake his head, pleading, even as the other changeling speaks.

"No," he says, his voice tight again with need. "I don't want to be here. I'm not safe. I'm never going to be safe." He sucks in a breath, trying to hold back a sob.

"Another man came here and told me... that... that she needed me to break the spell keeping the fae here. That she would let everyone go if I gave myself up. If I can't get my dad back, then... then that's what I'm going to do."

He doesn't know what else he can do besides try.

"Another man..." Childermass trails off, that brief moment of gentleness gone as he frowns, thinking. Some of that thinking will be out loud, so Steven isn't kept entirely in the dark. "He would have meant the Severing. Steven, what did this man look like?"

They can come back around to whether or not Steven is going in a moment, but he has a sudden and incredibly uncomfortable notion about who else that may have been. Someone who wants to break the spell, someone who was there on the Rose Queen's behalf. There's only one man he can think of.

Steven pauses, looking uncertain. The man had told him his name, but he honestly hadn't really been listening at the time, because it didn't mean anything to him. He did remember what he looked like, though. At least a little bit.

"He had light skin... um... and curly brown hair... and sort of a mustache?" But not really a mustache. Only a little bit of a mustache. He's not sure why this is relevant, but he's willing to hear Childermass out - even as he's still just standing there, tangled in rose vines.

"I... I think his name was... St- Strange?" He suggests the name tentatively, because it is the sort of name that sticks in your mind, but it seems oddly convenient, too. "Bud bit him."

Still floating up above them, the orchid sprite chirps and nods in confirmation, sounding rather proud of herself.

"So it was him," Childermass can barely keep the snarl from twisting across his face. That idiot. So his alliance extends to trying to hunt down missing changelings now, does it? "That man is a mage working for the Summer Court. He's obsessed with them. Have care with believing anything he's told you."

It's hypocrisy, he knows. As far as Steven is concerned, he's just another agent of the Rose Queen. What he says may be lies, as well, same as Strange.

"Even if you did turn yourself in, the Queen will not make a deal with you. Those creatures only see us as objects to own, not to reason with."

Steven picks up on the irony of that statement too, but he doesn't really care to focus on it too much. All of this is too confusing. He really doesn't have reason to believe anyone about anything anymore, but he can't just... not. He doesn't know anything on his own.

Steven is quiet for a few moments longer, letting that sink in. He knows that Childermass is right. He hadn't really believed Strange in the first place. There just didn't seem to be any alternative...

"You... know what he meant?" he asks, after a moment. Childermass had said something about the Severing, which sounds like a familiar word. "Would I actually be able to stop it? He said it would let a bunch of people go home..."

"I know some of it," Childermass answers with a sigh. Which is true enough. He has bits and pieces of what's going on, but not the whole picture. "The Severing cut off this world from any other realms that had access to it, including the fae. Whether it would stop it or not, I can't tell you. I don't know. What I can tell you is I don't believe it has to be you."

Because if, as Strange said, the Rose Queen is seeking Steven to end the Severing, then it's not that big of a step to assume it's what his own father is hunting him for. Does it have to be a changeling, though? He doesn't know. He can only make guesses for now.

"The Winter Court has been chasing me just as much as the Summer Court has you in the past week or so. It might be bigger than either of us know."

Steven's gaze returns to Childermass for a few moments, silently looking him over. Eventually, his searching ends, and he looks back to the floor, still seated tiredly.

With a conscious effort, the vines binding Childermass uncoil from their prey, pulling back into themselves and allowing the man to move with no further tearing. Steven's ears fold back, like something about this is painful to process.

And it is, because him and Childermass have so much in common, even if they've acted on it in different ways. He knows that so much of what Childermass has done must have been out of the same fear he's feeling right now.

"I still want to come with you," he says, his voice quiet. "If someone could have saved me... when I was there..." His eyes become watery again, thinking of it, but he wipes it away. "It's my fault that she's capturing people now... I have to try to get them back."

With the vines gone, he's free to relax entirely, shoulders slouching some. Childermass rarely shows it, but it is a tiring discussion to have, especially when it ends with him endangering a child yet again. He should just leave, abandon Steven with out telling him where the way into the gardens will be, and hope against hope he doesn't try to break back in on his own.

Only, he can't help but include to himself, resigned even in his own thoughts, that's exactly what he would do, isn't it? If it were Childermass's own mother, well, he would leave her there to rot. Greg isn't anything like her, though, Summer Court dealings aside. Losing someone who actually cares...

"Very well," he says this time, even if he doesn't sound at all enthusiastic about it. "You may want to get some practice in with your vines before, though. You're going to need all the help you can get."

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⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 3

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