⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4 PT2

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone and everyone!
When: October 31st, 2017 HALLOWEEN!
Where: The Count of Crow's Underground Realm
What: The displaced carnival members break into the Count of Crow's underground fortress, in the hope of taking control of the ritual and maybe saving Childermass's life.
Warnings: Violence, ritual blood letting, other stuff.

DAYS OF WINTER PT2↴ The night of hallow's eve has come, and there's no more time for waiting. As Portland begins enjoying the festivities of the night, you are tasked with something darker - you must find the Count's realm within Portland's underground tunnels, and fight off those that would stop you. The ritual will be starting soon, and once it's finished the very nature of this reality will be in the Winter Court's hands... the only choice is to intervene.

Comments

[kingsroads]

Everything is not well in the slightest. Because Strange's frown deepens, turning from a confused frown to an annoyed frown as Tamaki mentions allies. Ridiculous. The ghost isn't part of the Summer Court. Nightshade would have told him if they had more allies here, Nightshade wouldn't want him to fail. Ergo, Tamaki isn't any form of ally to begin with.

"Wanting the same result doesn't automatically make two people allies," Strange simply says, remaining oddly calm and level. "Tell me. Which group do you want to take control of the ritual?"

[puddingemote]

And just like that, Strange has turned even colder, and Tamaki feels the same unease he did when he first encountered him. What does he mean, they aren't allies? Tamaki knows that the demons are also here for the pendant; maybe Strange is actually a warlock? He doesn't really sense a demonic presence from him, though...

"...I don't really care. I just want to stop the severing."

He's allied himself with the angels (even though he doesn't particularly like them) because his few friends from here did as well. But his priority is saving the earth spirit, above all else.

"You're... not with the angels?"

[kingsroads]

"I'm not," Strange remarks, with a shake of his head. "I'm--" But Strange cuts himself short as he hears voices and the rustle of feathers from down the hall. Angels. This conversation would have to wait. After all, the more he takes out now, the less they would have to worry about later.

Some of the ice creaks and moans as Strange gestures towards the icy patch on the wall, muttering under his breath. He doesn't really care if Tamaki's in the way or what he does. He's a ghost, after all, this'll go right through him. As one very lost angel appears in the doorway, Strange casts the spell, gesturing with his other hand at the angel. Spikes made of ice, ranging from a few inches to a foot long shoot out from the patch of ice towards the very confused angel (nobody told him to watch out for mages!). Most bounce off harmlessly, though a few leave cuts and scrapes and two rather large spikes pin the angel to the wall.

Strange is obviously not with the angels. He remains silent but that nasty smirk on his face tells Tamaki that he's enjoying this.

[puddingemote]

"Wha- hey!"

Tamaki rushes forward as the spikes pierce the angel, but he's not sure what he can do to help. He's still intangible, and there aren't many things in this room that he could effectively throw around that would stop Strange, who is disturbingly enjoying this. He remembers healing magic, but not how to do it. He can't save the angel, at least not directly. And Strange probably knows this.

He bristles, stopping on his way to the angel to turn back to Strange.

"...So you're a bad guy, huh? You like hurting people."

He floats closer, looking more dead, and also significantly more blue, as he approaches.

"I'm gonna make you stop!"

And then he disappears, melding into Strange's body as he tries to violently shove Strange's own consciousness aside.

[kingsroads]

As Tamaki enters Strange's body, he'll find that there's immediate resistance. While it might be easy to possess people normally, it's harder to possess someone when they're already magically brainwashed. Some other form of magic already has a grip on Strange's consciousness: a powerful force of magic, probably one of the most powerful that Tamaki's ever seen. It's definitely fae and, if he can tell these things, oddly purple.

Tamaki won't be able to possess Strange, but the battle for the magician's consciousness means that Strange at least stops moving.

The angel has no clue what's going on but hey, beggars can't be choosers, so he starts to wrench the spikes of ice out of his wings, unpinning himself from the wall. It's a bit slow going because again, pinned to the wall, but he's moving as fast as he can considering the awkward situation and the ever-growing blood loss.

[puddingemote]

The moment Tamaki encounters Strange's soul, he knows something is very, very wrong.

Lambert had resisted him when he'd possessed the man before, out of reflex, but Tamaki had known it was Lambert's soul doing the resisting. It had felt every bit like the native soul of the body pushing back against his intrusion in self defense.

This, though, is something else. Tamaki can feel Strange's soul, but it's obscured by something much more powerful. It's as though it's controlling Strange from the inside.

Tamaki's soul is rebuffed, just as the angel is managing to free himself from his unfortunate pinning. He stares at Strange, wide eyed, unsure of what to do. Does Strange even realize he's being controlled? What is the extent of the brainwashing?

Finally, he ventures a tentative question.

"Who has control of you?"

[kingsroads]

Strange isn't making a move to attack either ghost or angel just yet. This entire experience felt so...odd that he can't help but pause a little, though with a spell at the ready, as he tries to figure out just what exactly the ghost was doing and tries to reestablish that no, he's fine, he's still in one piece.

"Nobody controls me," he answers, more confused than tentative. "I serve someone, but that isn't control."

It's a bit of semantics. After all, there's not much difference between serving someone and being under their control. There's a pause, while Strange weighs his options before he asks, "Did you see something?"

[puddingemote]

Tamaki backs away a bit, watching Strange warily. If that magic presence in Strange's mind is this hostile, he could attack Tamaki next, and he's not keen to learn if mage magic can affect a ghost.

"There's... something else in there. Besides your soul." He narrows his eyes, like maybe he can somehow see the magic radiating off of Strange. "Some kind of magic."

If it is fae magic, they're even more powerful than Tamaki thought. Though that seems consistent with his returning memories of the Carnival; maybe the fae running that place is just as strong.

[kingsroads]

"I am a magician," Strange calmly responds, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Surely that must be what Tamaki felt when he touched his soul: the power of English magic (or Portland magic. Perhaps both.) Satisfied that this must be the answer, he turns back to look at the angel...who by now has straight up scarpered off to go warn the others.

"Damn," he simply says, without much thought or emotion behind it. He can't stay here for long. The angel would come back with others. So that just left Tamaki...Strange looked the ghost over, with a calculating frown. Could he even kill a ghost to begin with? It's already dead. Wouldn't he need, he didn't know, an exorcism or something like that? But then again, Tamaki was supposed to be alive so maybe that would change things.

"Let's see if I can't shut you up instead," he calmly states. As he gestures back to the wall, threatening looking ice spikes start growing from the ice there, while Strange mentally debates if it's even worth it to try and kill a ghosts.

[puddingemote]

Strange is a magician... but that doesn't seem right. It's true that he's never tried to possess a mage before, so maybe they really do feel differently from the soul of a normal human, but that presence felt like it was foreign to Strange's soul entirely. Like it was part of a spell cast on Strange.

But he doesn't have any time to argue before suddenly there are spikes growing on the walls. It's definitely threatening enough that it makes Tamaki flinch and float away a few steps, but then he remembers the obvious problem with this scenario.

"Y-you can't kill me," he says, though he doesn't sound too sure himself. "I'm already dead."

[kingsroads]

"But you're not supposed to be," Strange simply explains. "Perhaps that makes a difference?" Whatever spell brought them here was odd. People who were supposed to be human were part fae, people who were supposed to be alive were dead. Perhaps the fact that Tamaki was supposed to be alive would make the ghost easier to kill.

It does not make a difference in the slightest. With a gesture of his hand, the spikes shoot towards Tamaki...and pass harmlessly through him, breaking against the other wall and clattering to the floor. Hmm. Damn. Strange just kind of looks at the broken ice spikes on the floor before looking back up at Tamaki with a frown.

He has absolutely no clue what to do now and it shows.

[puddingemote]

They could start playing the Benny Hill theme.

But instead, as Tamaki watches the spikes pass through his chest (harmlessly, but still disturbingly), he decides that it's time for him to take off. The angel has left, so he doesn't have anyone else to save from Strange - at least, not immediately.

So he does the only sensible thing a ghost can do: say, "Later," and then disappear through the stone wall.