lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4

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⇨ 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.)

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Peridot gladly does as instructed. The water slops onto the table a bit when placed, and Peridot grumbles and lazily mops it up with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

She holds the feather up for a brief examination-- more out of curiosity than out of a search for any additional information-- and then gingerly places it down by the bowl like she's asked, sitting on the opposite end of the couch from strange.

"I hope we can find something," she murmurs suddenly, her demeanor strangely devoid of her usual self-confidence. "I'd much rather have some good news to relay to Lambert, once he makes it back."

Pumpkin whines with concern and hops up next to her, and then leans over to try and sniff the feather. Pumpkin, don't eat that....

As he finishes scribbling down the spell, Strange turns back towards Peridot. Walking over towards the coffee table, he hands her the spell. It's amazingly hodge-podge, some sort of calling upon the elements incantation mixed with a bit of Latin mixed with a bit of a language that Strange phonetically wrote out because like heck Peridot can read cuneiform or any other not-English alphabet.

"I hope we can find something as well," he admits, with a frown. Not because it'll make Lambert happy but because Strange desperately wants to make certain that Childermass is okay. He rolls up his sleeves slightly, before moving from the couch and kneeling down in front of the table. Poor Pumpkin gets nudged away by Strange's elbow as he kneels down.

"Tell me when you're ready. We don't need to hold hands or anything, but you'll need to place at least one hand on the bowl itself."

...Well now she's almost glad she wasn't around to make fun of Lambert. However, the fact that he's gone means this is just... nerds doing nerd crap now. It's boring as hell to listen to, and she doubts watching it will be much better.

...Unless it is better. She scoots down the last few steps and tries to peer around the corner, seeing if she can make out what they're doing without being spotted herself.

Peridot takes the spell and holds it right up to her nose, scrutinizing it carefully. Reading the spell out in her head a few times over to make sure she doesn't have any questions automatically seems like a good idea, especially given Strange's rather, uh... Peculiar handwriting...

"No offense, but your penmanship is atrocious," she says blandly, lowering the paper from her face. "As your apprentice, I could assist you with improving that. You know. Between lessons."

Peridot is now really the time--

Edited 2017-08-03 04:46 (UTC)

Now is really not the time. Strange just gives Peridot a Look. Yes, his handwriting is kind of awful, but that's why people invented computers, okay?!

"As your teacher, I'll take that advice into consideration after the spell." A roundabout way of saying sure, I'll help teach you magic, but it's a way nonetheless. "If you can't read any words, point them out to me and I'll tell you what they say."

He looks up, with a frown...and sorry Miko, you're straight up busted. Strange's expression goes from confused to a bit annoyed as he makes eye contact with Miko. "I didn't know you had a sister as well as a brother," he idly says, not looking at Peridot, but staring straight at Miko as she peers around the corner.

"Nyeh--!?"

Peridot looks up sharply, her eyes narrowing as she immediately locks her sights on Miko. Honestly? She should have expected this.

"I KNEW I heard something before-- MIKO! How long have you been sitting there eavesdropping on our conversation!?!" she yelps, hopping to her feet.

CRAP.

Miko jumps to her feet and scoops Screamo up in her arms, almost scrambling up the stairs before she thinks better of it. That would just kinda prove she knew she wasn't supposed to be here, huh.

"Uuuh--! I mean, I wasn't here that long, I was just looking forrrr... some water! Yep!"

So convincing.

"The last time I checked, faucets weren't usually found in the stairwell."

Should a grown man be tag-teaming with a college student to guilt trip a teenager? Nope. Is a grown man tag-teaming with a college student to guilt trip a teenager? You betcha.

"Yeah! And there's a perfectly functional tap in the bathroom upstairs! YOU LIAR! EXPLAIN YOURSELF AT ONCE!"

YOU'RE EMBARRASSING HER IN FRONT OF GUESTS, MIKO.

Miko shoots a scowl at Strange - nobody asked you, old man - before turning back to Peridot, her free hand on her hip.

"Well I don't have a cup up there! Besides, why would I want to listen in on you guys' boring egghead stuff, anyway?"

Don't mind Strange, he's just staying quiet and watching the argument with so much interest. This is petty and kind of stupid and he straight up wants to see how it ends.

"Uh, because you're nosy!? And it's not egghead stuff, it's very serious magic that we're performing for a very serious reason, and--"

Partway through this sentence Peridot realizes that trying to stress the importance of this scrying session to her teen sister of all people is completely pointless, and she breaks off in a fit of indignant spluttering, like Miko has somehow duped her into having his argument on purpose and Peridot can't believe that she walked right into it.

"Just-- Go to the kitchen!" She flaps her hand agitatedly towards the entrance to the other room in a shooing motion. "Retrieve your water and then BEGONE FROM OUR SIGHTS!"

Honestly, even if she hadn't realized it on her own, the fact that Miko has twisted her expression into a mockery of Peridot's and is currently lip-syncing clumsily along with what she's saying would probably be a good indication.

Then she literally actually stomps her foot. "Fine! Have fun with your weird nerd crap, I'll be upstairs having a life!"

She stomps into the kitchen, making a point of being as LOUD AS POSSIBLE about getting a glass of water, because if she has to do this now to maintain the illusion she set up, she's going to be annoying about it, dammit.

Only child Jonathan Strange thinks that this is all really funny. He's trying to hide that smile on his face and look like a mature, responsible adult but Miko literally stomps into the kitchen, he cracks. Strange grins, a big ol'shithead 'I find this hilarious because I'm not part of it' sort of grin.

"I don't know. If she's curious about the magic, I personally don't mind her watching as the spell's cast. Of course, it is 'weird nerd crap' in the first place."

He is causing trouble just for the sake of causing trouble.

Peridot is just mortified that she's acting this way in front of guests. In front of her potential future teacher, no less.

...Then she catches a glimpse of that grin and. Hm. Well at least he's not actively disapproving of this whole display?

"Please don't encourage her," Peridot growls at him, breaking her death glare directed towards the kitchen long enough to shoot him A Look. She's just going to tap her foot impatiently, waiting for Miko to reemerge and disappear back upstairs again so that they can get on with this spell already.

Oooh man that is good to hear. As little as the workings of magic tend to interest her, she is curious about this whole thing.

Besides, if she stays it will annoy Peridot. Always a bonus.

She trots back out of the kitchen, water in hand, grinning. "Hey, it could be less boring if I'm actually watching! And I can be quiet and stuff."

Strange is straight up encouraging Miko. Or, at least, he's deliberately being a gadfly and poking and prodding both girls just to see how far he can push this gloriously petty sibling rivalry.

"As I said, I don't mind her. But as a whole," he says, turning towards Peridot, "it's your decision. After all, you're going to be as much a part of the spell as I am. If you think Miko would be a nuisance, then we simply won't perform the magic until she leaves."

This is a room full of metaphorical children.

Well now if she tells Miko to get lost she's just going to be the bad guy! Plus, she knows if she says 'no', Miko will probably just stick around out of spite and then they'll all be in here all night. So in the interest of expediting things...

"Fine! Whatever, you can stay!" she cries with exasperation, throwing her hands up. "Let's just get this thing started already..."

Miko literally actually fist-pumps. "Sweet!"

She stoops down to scoop up her rabbit, who had followed her into the kitchen, then plops down to sit on the floor near where they're working. She's got a rabbit and a glass of water, all ready to watch magic shit she doesn't understand.

Spoiler alert, Miko: it's going to be really anti-climactic magic shit.

Still, Strange adjusts his position and rolls his neck some, getting a crick out of it, as if he's about to do some sort of physical labor and not cast a joint spell. He places one hand near the bowl of water and picks up Childermass's feather with the other hand (which is still kind of gross, sorry Lambert, stop being a creep.)

"I'm ready when you are, Miss Peridot."

Peridot shoots one last warning look at Miko, and then places her hand near the bowl as well. She lifts the spell up and squints at the little piece of paper, clearing her throat. Then she starts to read in a clear voice, pronouncing each syllable carefully.

To her credit, Miko does sit quietly as Peridot reads, watching in silence as the two mages work... even if she can't quite resist sticking her tongue out initially when Peridot gives her A Look.

As Peridot reads the spell, Strange traces various symbols and sigils over the bowl of water. He doesn't touch the water, but the outlines of the symbols glow as Strange traces them. Around halfway through the spell, he places the feather in the bowl of water, mutters a little something himself...and oddly, the feather sinks to the bottom. Near the end, he just repeats the same gesture, dividing the bowl of water into four over and over again.

Sorry Miko, the magic's boring as shit.

It's also anticlimactic as shit because as soon as they finish the spell, the water goes from clear to cloudy: it's a dark, murky, cloudy sort of water that you can't see anything in.

"Damn," Strange swears, "the same result. This only settles it: he must be in a faerie realm."

When the image settles, Peridot lets out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in an annoyed growl. She flops back against the couch, rubbing her eyes underneath her glasses.

"Great! So basically we learned absolutely nothing new." She huffs dramatically flops back against the couch, rubbing her eyes underneath her glasses. "Not even so much as a hint about where to find the entrance to the Winter Court... God." Her hands fall from her face, and she stares sullenly up at the ceiling.

"I was really hoping... that we would be able to give Lambert some good news," she says after a moment.

Well, it might not be particularly flashy, but it's still kind of cool. Miko frowns at the two mages, looking between them.

"Is there, like... anyone you could talk to who might know someone who knows? Or something like that. Someone's gotta know how to get in, right?"

⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4

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