⇨ 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

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.

[osteothropy]

Just seeing Marmaroth turned Zangetsu is enough to give Sans a good little shudder, but he tries to hide it. He goes tense at his usual table, watching the 'angel' uncertainly. Still, though, he makes a gesture that implies the offer of the seat across from him.

"It kinda took me out of my comfort zone, I guess," he says. "But I've had some time to think about it. Some news just kinda hits a bit too close to home, you know?"

[moonfang]

Zangetsu notes the body language, but also takes the seat. This is how much he cares about making people uncomfortable, Sans.

(It's not much).

"I suppose that was kind of the point. Imagine how I feel. It's all invasion of the body snatchers up in here, except the body snatchers never asked for this."

[osteothropy]

Sans just kind of chuckles permissively at that. It's hard to imagine that this guy is being for real right now, and that this is actually a thing that's happening, but he supposes this conversation will only progress if he allows that to be the assumption for now.

And hey, if the Hand of God is willing to buy it...

"Have you recognized anybody else from your... it was a carnival, right?"

[moonfang]

"Just one. Of course, he was the only guy I really interacted with before everything went to hell."

It sure did make things hard. He was good with faces! But that didn't help if he hadn't SEEN any faces!

There's a bit of a pause, then Zangetsu gives Sans a half-smirk.

"You think I've just totally lost my mind, don't you?"

[osteothropy]

"Got no reason to think that," Sans says easily, shrugging a shoulder. In fact, he has reason to think the opposite, but he'd not going to get into it. "I doubt Marmaroth ever could have been this good of an actor. He didn't exactly have a mind for subtlety."

More to do with moral grey areas than anything else, but close enough.

"Shame that the one person who remembers it clearly is the one who doesn't know anything, though."

[moonfang]

"Oh, you know the guy? I read his journals. He seemed like a stick-up-his-ass kind of guy. Not my style. Not well-liked either. Makes my job easy."

Then, thinking of something, Zangetsu laughs to himself. "He's gonna be pissed if he gets back into his body and finds a whole month of time missing! Heehahaha!!"

Zangetsu shakes his head and picks up a black cat that has wandered over and places it into his lap. Cats are the best.

"Ain't THAT shit ironic? I'm the newest of the new, so I had MAYBE two, three days? I don't know shit. I don't know anyone! Perfect."