lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4

Entry tags:

⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: October 22nd - 31st, 2017
Where: In Portland, for the last time.
What: The seasons change as the Winter Court seizes a surprise victory, claiming both the Tree of Life's pendant and the blood catalyst needed to take control of the Severing Ritual. Meanwhile, interdimensional problems are about to get more weird. Check out the conflict results for the attack on the Circle as well as the Beast's attack on the Summer Court here.
Warnings: Individually marked!

DAYS OF WINTER↴

As the end of October nears, so does the grasp of winter. On the night of the 22nd, it will freeze overnight, and the temperature will drop for the following days. As the night grow long, world-wide magic slowly reaches it apex, set to reach it on the night of Halloween. With so many factors at play, knowing what to do with that moment of power may be a challenge.

► FULL CIRCLE: The Angels succeed in their planned attack on the Circle, managing to get to the living quarters of the Council members with the help of Ashleigh Mischief. The plan goes without much resistance from the mages or from the demons attempting to claim the ritual object for their own. Of course, when the fae make a surprise attack on the Angels after they flee the scene, it has the surprise result of the Winter Court ended up with the pendant in their talons. Threads for this attack can be done in this log. If you need mod direction at all, let us know, but otherwise feel free to NPC demons, angels, or random Circle members as you require.

► THE QUEEN'S GARDEN: Realizing that the Rose Queen is distracted with attempting to claim the pendant, the Beast will summon her co-conspirators to raid the Queen's gardens. The ultimate plan seems to be to get the Beast far enough into the gardens to kill the Queen, while also rescuing as many changelings as possible along the way. As it turns out, this doesn't go well. While they do manage to penetrate the gardens with Childermass's help, the Rose Queen, Ignatius, and Nightshade happen to all be there. Seriously outnumbered, even by the Beast's terms, it will take everything the group has to just make it out alive, sustaining heavy injuries as they go. In the end they will manage to rescue Greg universe and four additional changelings that were imprisoned there, but any damage done to the Summer Court itself will be negligible. Threads for this can also be played out here!

► REFLECTIONS: As the ritual draws closer, the line between this reality and the one you came from will also be becoming less clear. Regaining memories is not required, but it will naturally become easier to occur, especially if you're already started receiving them. It's a good time to start making connections, while you still have the chance.

► THE SEVERING: One way or another, the Severing is going to make an impact on both this world and the lives of those trapped inside of it. The Angels are going to be making an attempt to interrupt the Winter Court's ritual, as will the Summer Court and Anath's forces. Whoever comes up on top will be the ones to decide what to be done with it. Yet, with news that the Severing continuing could cause irreversible damage to the planet's spirit, it could feel like there are no perfect options. There will be an event header put up for this by the mods closer to the end of July.

(NOTE: canon powers will returning while the ritual is in progress, so keep that in mind for planning - both sets of powers will be active.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yuya's all ears, and when he hears the rally against him he lunges forward more quickly than before. At least he knows it's working, if he can just keep that focus on him...

But he loses his momentum as soon as he hears a familiar voice screaming his name and skids to a halt, snapping straight up as he looks around, staring in Strange's direction with wide eyes.

"M-Mr. Strange?!" Really, he shouldn't be surprised. Strange had aligned himself with the Summer Court, of course he was going to be here fighting for them when the prize was a way to break the severing. He tightens his grip on the crowbar and holds it away as Strange approaches. It's less a position of battle and more like he's just planning to play keep away if Strange attempts to remove his weapon.

"I'm helping the angels! They know how to break the severing too!" And they don't kidnap people, which was a plus in Yuya's book.

The problem with focusing all your efforts on one or two sides of the conflict is that you completely miss other sides. As such, this is Strange's first time to hear that the angels have an idea of how to break the Severing. But it only takes him a few moments to make a snap judgement about how well they might do in the first place.

"I doubt that," Strange remarks, with a bitter laugh. "Do they even have a catalyst?" However, that line of conversation's stopped as one of the angels fires a spell in their direction, targeting Strange but seemingly overlooking Yuya. Thankfully, Strange casts a quick barrier spell, strong enough that the angel's spell dissipates on impact instead of hitting them.

"Look, you need to leave."

"A catalyst?" Yuya looks piqued by that. He didn't really ask a lot of questions about the ritual, he just--well, trusted them to be a better choice than anyone else. "What kind of catalyst do they need--" he's cut short as he looks over his shoulder at the spell aimed at Strange, not him. But he still moves, reaching for Strange's sleeve as if he's going to pull him out of the way.

But it's not necessary. The barrier takes care of that quickly and Yuya settles back down. He frowns. "I'm not going to run when everyone else is putting themselves in danger to do this!" Yugo and Gon were risking themselves--Gon especially, with so much holy magic around--how can he just stay behind? "I can help too."

"And get yourself killed in the process?" he snaps, looking over at Yuya with a glare. Strange is keeping the barrier spell up, trying his hardest to keep this intact, despite the fact that spells and occasionally people keep bouncing off of it.

"Yuya, these are the fae. They won't care that you're a kid, they won't care that you aren't an angel. All they care about is that you're on the opposing side. Given the chance, they won't hesitate to cut you down."

And...well, Strange doesn't want that to happen. The kid's the closest thing to a friend Strange has in this place. He's not letting Yuya die.

"I know! But even if you say that..." His friends were already here, fighting. How can he just abandon them? Maybe he could fall back to the angels side--but he's startled from trying to think of a compromise when someone hits the barrier again.

He scrutinizes the barrier spell, looking between it and Strange. Even with the spell they're being really obvious sitting ducks to both sides. "This isn't really the best place to convince me! Can't you just trust me?"

The barrier spell creaks ominously as yet another spell hits it. Thankfully, Strange realizes their situation at the same time Yuya does: this really isn't a good time or place. It was too late to convince Yuya to do anything different--he's already here. So really, annoying as it is, accepting Yuya's decision is the only choice he's got.

"Fine!" Strange grumpily yells, as he reinforces the barrier spell with a few hand gestures, eyes scanning the room to try and find whatever angel tried to take him out in the first place. "If you're still alive after all of this is over, meet up with me then!"

Yuya leans back as the barrier comes down, looking around quickly for which direction to bolt. The left has a path he can cut through to disappear into the crowd again.

"I will! So you have to make it out too!" He insists. Even if Strange is technically his enemy now, Yuya just can't see him that way. Misguided, maybe, but in the end they were working for the same goal with different people.

He bounces back to motion and darts off, weaving between angels and Fae alike to put distance between them again. It's a couple minutes before the shun hitting resumes, but this time he has an angel running with him--far clumsier than Yuya but a great defense again any Fae or wandering magic.

It's just nobody expects it to end because a bunch of crows fly in and steal the pendant from the angels.

Birds are the absolute worst. After the fight is over and people have started to leave, Strange sticks around, waiting for Yuya...and also just waiting in general because he's got a black eye and nosebleed, let's at least hang around and wait for the latter to slow down or stop happening before venturing back to his apartment.

Yuya might have been able to dodge a lot of attacks and weave out of the way, but Strange looks like he got hit by almost every attack that went his way. Nothing's broken, but he's dirty and beat up to hell. Spotting Yuya, Strange walks over, his words a bit muffled due to the fact that he's pinching his nose to stop the bleeding.

"I think we can safely say none of us were expecting that." He's pretty damn pissed off.

Yuya's nursing a bruise on his cheek as Strange approaches, likely from some sort of blunt force. But he's unharmed aside from dirt, so at least his new angel friend kept his back safe. Mostly he's just... confused. The pendant is just gone, what were they supposed to do now?

He knits his brow at he looks Strange over. The angels didn't really bring first aid, so he hopes Strange thought ahead more than he did.

"That wasn't one of the Summer Court?" He has a hard time believing it was some random flock of birds, but if Strange was angry it couldn't be to their favor either. "What were those birds?"

"Ravens, maybe?" Fun fact: Strange doesn't know anything about birds. They were black, they were flying, they were ravens. It doesn't matter what they were in the grand scheme of things, just that they flew off with the pendant (and they were fighting over a pendant to begin with? What a silly ritual component.)

Unfortunately, Strange also did not think ahead and does not have anything regarding first aid. Good job humans, you've thought this through splendidly.

"But no, they weren't Summer Court. Summer Court's all...flowers and trees and things like that. Birds are favored by Winter Court." At least for Strange, this is an annoyance over a major problem. After all, the ritual required two parts.

As long as Strange is standing, Yuya will worry about his injuries later. He has some pressing questions.

"The Winter... oh." He'd near forgotten about the other Court with how dramatic the rose queen has been in Portland. That must be the Court John and Allen come from, then.

Yuya doesn't look pleased to hear that'd who took the pendant, though--not knowing their position meant he couldn't trust them not to be as bad as their summer cousins.

"You said the ritual needed a catalyst, right? What's the catalyst? Do you think they have it?"

"Hell if I know," Strange answers, with a frown. He'll figure out the catalyst later, once he's sitting down and actually thinking straight, but right now? Strange is a bit too rattled and a bit too knocked about to put together the points which lead right towards Childermass.

"It's a person, though. And someone like us, someone who's not from here."

Experimentally, he unpinches his nose. The bleeding's stopped but Strange has dried blood all over his nostrils and upper lip.

Yuya sighs. Well, he'd have to ask Pru then, after they've had a moment to recover. He has more faith in the angels than Strange does.

The sight of the blood makes him frown, though. What a mess. "I guess the circle isn't going to let you stay and recover." Now that he's betrayed them. "Is your house nearby or do you need emergency care?"

Worst comes to worse, he can convince the housemaid to look the other way while he brings a bleeding, scruffy man home. He probably shouldn't take Strange to the Sanctuary.

"My apartment's on the other side of town," Strange remarks, with a sigh. Because really, it's been that sort of a day, might as well have it continue to be that sort of day. "And the fae teleported us here so my car's also on the other side of town. I've got my wallet though, so I've enough for the bus."

He experimentally prods at his black eye and winces slightly as he does so. "I don't think I need emergency care, though. I can walk it off. Besides, Lord knows worse looking people have probably shown up on the bus before."

Yuya doesn't look remotely convinced that Strange is going to make it across town on the bus covered in dirt and blood and injuries.

"I live a lot closer. You can come and clean up and... bandage yourself. It's not a problem." Instead of riding the bus like a beat up hobo. "I don't want you finding out it was an emergency later."

Thankfully for both of them, Strange finds and verbalizes the obvious problem right away. "Yuya, I'm around twice your age. If your parents are home..."

He trails off, with a frown. If his parents are home, then how exactly is Yuya going to explain all of this in the first place? Oh, hi mom, don't worry about this beat up middle aged man I'm bringing back home, everything's fine.

"I don't live with them. Not here anyway." He shrugs. It stings a little to say that, but... He's been remembering parents who there, parents who didn't give him up. It doesn't hurt like it did.

"Bob is always out late tonight, so I just have to talk to Mary. She's our maid. She's really nice, though, she'll understand!" Yuya is probably underestimating how alarming this is going to look, but he sure seems confident he's got this handled.

"In that case, lead on. I won't say no to painkillers, after all. Though I'm still not so sure about this." God help us all when Strange is the practical one. He still thinks that this whole situation is going to play out a bit more alarming and a bit more worrying than Yuya realizes...but this might give him enough time to bullshit up a cover story.

But hey, when Yuya heads out, Strange will gladly (if warily) follow in whatever direction he's walking.

"Does Mary know about your abilities?" Because that might be a good enough cover story.

Strange will have plenty of time to come up with a bullshit cover story that Yuya will just agree with. Yuya stuffs his hands in his pockets to lead Strange out of the Circle's headquarters and to his house. It's definitely closer, but it's still a few blocks away. He's not bothered about being out at night, though.

He nods. "Everyone around the house does. It's why he got custody of me... but I don't remember the details that well anymore." Because those other memories are butting against them, taking up the forefront of his mind again. It seems like a little happier of a family, though, with friends who had his back through anything. How could he not want that again?

"Uh, I haven't been telling them anything about the severing or my memories or the animal fair, so don't mention that!" Or, really, anything that's happened the past month.

"Good Lord, you went to the animal fair as well?" Strange feels a profound sense of exasperation as Yuya mentions that. Why couldn't this kid keep his nose out of things for just a moment? A little part of Strange's self-reflection points out that this is probably how Norrell and Childermass feel when he goes off to do something stupid, but then he remembers he's got no idea who this Norrell fellow is.

"But no, I'll keep your secrets safe. I doubt they would understand anyway--most normal people don't."

He went to the animal possessed by a ghost, but he won't mention that part. Instead, Yuya just laughs at Strange's exasperation. "Yeah, thanks. I don't think she..." he trails off as his phone buzzes very animated. He pulls it out of his pocket and starts scrolling through his texts.

Then he starts typing quickly with a more severe expression. "They'd only be confused and worried anyway."

To Strange's credit, he doesn't look over Yuya's shoulder as he starts texting, though he is immensely curious as to who the boy's texting and what's going on.

"Look, if you need to be somewhere, I can fix myself up back at mine," said with a gesture to Yuya's phone. Obviously whatever this is, it's important.

Yuya looks up, holding his phone a little closer on reflex. He doesn't want to leave Strange like this, but... they only had so much time, and he had to re-acquire his crowbar, or something else made of iron.

"Sorry... I don't want to ditch you." But maybe the long ride home will keep Strange away from the Summer Court for the rest of the night. That's for the best, when he doesn't want to have to fight Strange.

And because he's sure nobody else going on the raid would spare him.

"Wait--here." He clicks off his phone screen and starts digging into his pockets. He offers Strange his own bus pass. "So I know you don't get stranded, okay? You definitely need to make it home tonight."

Fun fact: when you're an absolute garbage fire of a person, other people usually aren't nice to you. As such, Strange has no idea what to do when Yuya offers him his bus pass. That's...sweet. And kind. And a whole host of other things that Strange has no idea what to do with because he hasn't encountered this sort of kindness in literal years.

"Thank you," Strange says, in a tone of voice that's grateful, but still a little bit confused. There's no reason for Yuya to do this. So why's he doing it in the first place? He manages to recover some form of composure as he pockets the bus pass. "You do have my number, right? I'll call you later to return this."

Edited 2017-07-26 02:20 (UTC)

Yuya grins as Strange takes the bus pass. "Yeah! Don't worry, I didn't delete it," He laughs, scratching his nose. "It's a monthly pass, so use it as much as you need. We can figure out returning it later."

They'll find each other again somehow. Yuya just really doesn't want it to be in the Rose Queen's realm. As much as he's deferred to Strange over the past month, this is one thing he's going to try and keep a secret.

He steps back in much brighter spirits than before. Things will work out. "Good night Mr. Strange, make it home safe!"

He turns on his heels to bounce off, back the direction they came. There's a bit of time before they're set to invade, while the Summer Court's forces are recovering in Portland--but he has to find Lambert first, so he knows his time is short and he needs to get moving now.

(no subject)

kingsroads - 2017-07-26 13:34 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only