⇨ 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

[starseedling]

[Steven has to puzzle over that one for a minute, trying to remember a time before being in faerie. He considers, and then nods.]

I think I had a... Nintendo Cube. It was purple and square. [He gestures vaguely.] What's a Nintendo Switch?

[flashover]

Oh! A gamecube!! [Rin smiles brightly, remembering the system fondly] That was a great era, man. A switch is their newest console! So... like, first was the Nintendo, the the Super Nintendo, and then the N64... then the gamecube! After that, there was a system called the Wii, then the Wii U, and now, the Switch! [he pauses to grab the gamepad from the cradle and looks up, thoughtfully] Man, has it really been that long...? Anyway! This is a switch!

[Rin hands the whole system to Steven, consisting of a tablet-sized screen with buttons and joysticks on either side] Isn't it rad? You can play games on that screen, or you can play it on the TV!

[starseedling]

[Steven takes it in his hands, looking it over in bemusement. Wait, where is the rest of it? He peers at the back side of it like he's convinced he must be doing it wrong.]

What do you mean? This is the whole thing?

[Technology is amazing.]

[flashover]

Hehe, yeah!! This is the whole thing! Amazing, right? [Rin turns it on and brings up the menu, then selects the Mario Kart of the era] You've played Mario Kart, right?

[starseedling]

[Who even knows what Mario Kart it it these days. Steven sure doesn't. He watches, transfixed, and for the first time since coming to the house, he seems to be brightening up a little. Like something familiar like this can pull out from inside himself.]

Yeah!

[He smiles a little.]

I used to play this one a lot... but it looks kind of different, now. Though... I guess a lot of stuff kind of does.

[flashover]

It just looks better is all. And there's more characters and stuff... but the game is the same, you know? Banana peels are still useless and blue shells are still the worst.

[Rin carefully takes the console from Steven and places it back into the cradle, and the game appears on the big screen of the TV instead. He offers the controller to him] So, wanna do a race or two?

[starseedling]

[Count that as the only thing that looks better after his imprisonment, then. Steven's smile falters a little, and then returns, thinking about it. He takes the controller. This part is familiar enough.]

Sure.

[He sits up, looking over the controls.]

I don't think bananas are useless, though.

[flashover]

[Nintendo. Nintendo never changes.

Rin goes about setting up the race (grand prix mode!) and then looks at Steven with a put-upon frown]

Whaaaat? They're just like... the poor man's fake item box! Maaaah... [he looks up, thinking] I guess they're ok as a shield.

[starseedling]

And sometimes I can throw them in front of people!

[He grins a little bit, remembering that detail. It's pleasant when he can remember the details of stuff that happened before.]

[flashover]

Oh, that's tricky! I don't know man. They've got such a small hitbox, too.

[DISCOURSE. Rin loads up the character select screen]

I wanna be Yoshi.