lostcarnival | this is a robbery [closed]

Entry tags:

this is a robbery [closed]

Who: Childermass, Lambert, Cole, & Yuya.
When: Sometime later during the Harbinger invasion.
Where: The Wishmuth Museum of Art
What: The Harbinger of Fortune has his eyes set on ruining an exhibit opening for the museum's more lucrative patrons...
Warnings: Lambert's ass, Cole's TMI memory theater, and Yuya possibly wishing he'd chosen to team up with two completely different Guardians at that point in time tbh.

What would have otherwise been a quiet gathering of Wismuth's elite, to ooh and aah over the Wismuth Museum's newest additions, has ended up going a more poorly than anyone could have ever planned for. It all started with requesting to see the invitation of one man, having strolled into the reception in an indolent, uncaring manner. No one recognized him. No one was surprised when he told them he did not have one.

Surprise only came when the shadows all around them sprang to life before anyone could try and eject him.

Now the museum is surrounded by the flashing lights of cop cars and news vans, the radio and TV all announcing a strange hostage situation to add to the rest of the bizarre and dangerous events taking place in Wismuth these past few days. Not that the police can get in contact with the hostage-takers. Not that they can go into the building itself, either! The few who have vanishing just like everyone else who'd been in there before, considering their sole contact having been a short-lived emergency call from a security guard and then... nothing.

Overall, it's a mess all around the locked-down streets bordering the Wismuth Museum of Art.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's no point in a distraction that isn't, well, distracting. While Lambert isn't blowing anything up (yet), he does, in fact, simply walk in. The crow sister's expression is pinched with disdain -- Lambert doesn't have many memories to draw on, to pull together an impression of her, but at least the magic takes care of some of the heavy lifting for him.

His voice, too, is altered when it rings out through the exhibit, haughty and cold as he calls up to the birds.

"Not even a hello?" One foot reaches out to nudge a broken wineglass aside. "What a mess. Where is he?"

Cole goes by without even a glance from the shadows and he won't have to worry about getting called out, either, because the second a crow sister, of all things, steps out into sight, every crow's head turns in unison to stare. Oh, and that's a long, drawn-out stare, completely in silence before as one they take off.

Again, no sound. They're shadows, after all, carrying little to no weight in these forms, almost like they aren't even real... save for scent, which only the witcher among them would pick up. It should have been that familiar smell of snow and pine needles is all ash and burnt pine now, as if even Childermass's magic has been twisted by the Void.

But that aside, they take off and do a circuit of the area in front of the entrance before darting away in one mass of black into the exhibit hall. Within, they'll scatter again, finding new places to perch — display cases, on exhibits themselves, on the moulding along the walls — all save for one, which instead lands on the shoulder of Childermass who's in the middle of holding an intricate necklace of golden leaves up from the latest case he's gotten open. At the center of the hall is a pile of, well, treasure. Literally. Golden statues, jewelry, silver, ancient coins, all dumped on the floor alongside wallets and watches and pilfered pearl necklaces of Wismuth's elite.

For the moment, he's dressed quite normally, not at all different from what he'd been going about in Wismuth before vanishing at the concert. If anything, it makes him look like a villainous businessman, not a Harbinger. He'll tilt his head towards the crow as if listening to it, slowly turning to look towards his "sister".

"Well," he says, quirking an eyebrow but otherwise seemingly unbothered by the unexpected arrival. "Now there's a face I hadn't expected to see here. A little far from home, aren't you?"

Oh, he picks up on that scent, all right. Familiar enough to recognize, altered enough it makes his hackles rise. Whatever's happened to Childermass, that it's been enough to change his magic can't be a good sign.

Without any sign of attack, Lambert will continue advancing forward -- though it's that pile of treasure he heads for, not the Harbinger, to examine exactly what it is he's gathered up. Even as he gives it his not-entirely feigned attention, he keeps an eye on Childermass too. He has more tricks up his sleeve than Lambert does, and there's no telling what else the Void has granted him.

"Home's wherever he says it is," he shrugs, forcing himself to keep moving, skirting around the treasure to force Childermass's attention away from the entryway -- for whatever good that will do. "You know that."

So far so good, as Childermass keeps his eyes on the crow sister and not on the entrance. He'll draw his lap back in a grimace, almost like he just picked up the smell of something disgusting, but he won't make any real moves aside from leaning idly against the display case and absently weighing the gold leaves in his hand.

"Really," he says, definitely unconvinced. He knows who this is. He knows dead is dead. He can't recall if the Count could do what the Ringmaster could, though, which leaves just enough doubt, only— "Though... you three always did look so much alike to me, my dear sister." Yeah, it sounds like she's anything but dear. "Which one are you again?"

The obvious problem there, of course, is that Lambert has no fucking clue what the answer to that is, but it's not as if that's enough to make him give it up just yet. He knows he can't fool him for long, doesn't need to convince Childermass who he is -- he only needs to buy time.

"Forgot already? I suppose not all of us can be special," he says, in lieu of a real answer, still moving, until he comes around the pile of treasure and finally stops too look at him. "The Summer Court's here too, you know. I wonder if they'll find what they're looking for."

Edited 2018-02-21 03:45 (UTC)

"And? Is that all you're here to tell me?" Childermass scoffs. The Summer Court is here? So? Should he be afraid? "What they do doesn't matter, Mackenzie, so feel free to buzz off."

He takes a step away from the display after saying that, giving the necklace in his hand one last heft, then pulling it back to toss over towards the crow sister. Here, catch. It's honestly just gold, no real iron hidden in it.

"Here. Why not use this to buy your way back into hell? We both know that's where you belong, seeing as a wimpy little human managed to put a knife through your scrawny little chicken neck."

"I just thought you might miss them. You spent so long hiding in those gardens, after all."

Lambert catches it out of the air reflexively, probably quicker than a changeling should be able to, but the illusion doesn't dispel, holding up under the motion. With all his attention on Childermass, and how effectively Cole's hidden himself, he can't quite tell where the other two are. He hopes one of them realizes they should attack, because he's running out of improvisation material here.

"That was lucky." It isn't at all hard to call up an ugly sneer at 'wimpy little human,' if only because that's how he feels about the Portland version of himself most days. Lambert spins the gold necklace lazily around a finger, the metal catching and reflecting what little light there is here. "And it certainly wasn't permanent."

"Oh, you're just cranky because your father would never miss you if you ran off instead," Childermass retorts and holds his hands up. Empty, for now, but then he holds a palm out and waves his other hand over it, revealing that same sleek black and silver deck of cards Strange had been warning about on the radio earlier.

A magic trick. How quaint.

Following that, he grips the lower end of the deck with a thumb and fans them out before offering them towards the so-called crow sister.

"Here. Pick a card, any card."

They didn't really make a solid plan, so Yuya's largely uncertain where he's supposed to step in--or what he's supposed to do. Can he trap Childermass? Maybe if he made a big enough bubble, but that seems really obvious. Lambert is a monster hunter, and Yuya trusts he's not trying to irrevocably hurt Childermass... but he might have a better option for dealing with it.

An idea strikes him, though, something he can at least give Lambert an edge (he hopes). After a series of carded people, the last thing he wants is for any one of them to get stuck--so when Childermass offers his deck, Yuya waves the wand and pushes forward normal-sized colorful bubbles from his spot in the entryway.

Deceptively normal, because as they get close to Childermass--or if they're popped before then, they explode into a tiny firework. One that makes a big sound, like someone blew up a full sized one then and there. It's going to be loud, and Yuya braces himself for it.

Yuya reacts to Childermass offering his deck, Cole reacts to Lambert's brief spike of worry. As Childermass offers the deck and Yuya sends out his bubbles, Cole makes himself visible. He's moved so that he's standing behind Childermass, arm outstretched. However, he's not pointing at Childermass: he's pointing at Lambert.

Happy memories are few and far between for Childermass, especially when he's like this. But Lambert? He's got nothing but happy memories with regards to Childermass. Perhaps if he can show Childermass those happy memories, it will help him remember.

The memories are projected in the air between Lambert and Childermass, as if there's a flat screen set up. The memories are also visible to everyone in the room. They start off fairly general, lingering for two or three seconds before flipping to a new one: Lambert in the hot spring while Childermass watches. Lambert, Childermass, and Strange getting drunk on the moon.

However, the memories soon shift to something a smidge more intimate. The two to three second span means that it's easy to overlook an individual memory or two, but hard to overlook the entire effect: there's plenty of memories where Childermass made Lambert happy. Lambert gazing at Childermass over Chinese food when he thinks the other man isn't looking, the two of them sharing a bed, the two of them close to each other, exploring a museum side by side, playing video games in a dilapidated basement somewhere, Lambert's lips brushing against Childermass's, the shock as Lambert discovers Childermass's daemon doesn't hurt him, stolen moments, small looks, the two of them dancing together at the Prince's ball.

Cole's got his hand held out and will keep doing the creepy memory theater until someone chucks something at him or tells him otherwise. Come on, Childermass. Remember.

Okay, so, a lot happens at once. There's no real suave way to react to a series of firework bubbles going off, though they don't quite reach him. The crows still lingering around the room spot them first and, acting on their own, dive. Bubbles pop, there are loud sounds, the shadows burst along with them, not having been all that solid to begin with.

Childermass jumps, cards startled right out of his hands. They won't hit the floor, though. They only look like cards, but they're still his Spark. They don't scatter across the ground, they rise up, floating, picking up some sort of orbit around their master and then--

They're all gone, just like that, in the blink of an eye. Thankfully not for good, since he's only stepped into the shadow the display case behind him casts. He reappears out of a shadow by a Grecian statue, standing on the pedestal space in front of it. It puts him slightly above the rest and gives him a front row seat to the images flashing across the air.

"That's..." A lot of things he never wanted other people seeing, actually, thanks Cole. His attention snaps to the crow sister (who isn't one at all, he already suspected), then to Yuya, and finally to Cole.

Yeah. That's got to be Cole. Rather than dwell on what's being shown, he'll scowl and pull a card out of the air, immediately flinging it at the spirit. Not a major arcana and therefore carrying no spell, but a minor one and those? Those are sharp.

Good job startling Childermass, Yuya, bad job Cole startling Lambert as well -- who the hell uses the power of sneaking up an enemy to show off someone else's memories?! The expression of chagrin and humiliation that stabs through Lambert is wildlly out of character on the crow sister's face, ugly flush coloring her cheeks, and the few moments of surprise that Yuya bought are for nothing since all Lambert can do is gape.

And then it's too late to grab Childermass, and Lambert snarls, still wearing the changeling's guise. There isn't even time to shout at Cole for being a fucking idiot before Childermass attacks, and then the response is completely instinctive: Lambert steps to shield Cole, disguise falling away as he raises the familiar witcher spell to block the card, though he isn't certain witcher magic will be enough to block it.

In the meantime? Childermass will suddenly find himself illuminated by headlights as a fucking motorbike comes at him out of nowhere, engine roaring and echoing around the room as Pig charges right at the pedestal he's standing on to try and knock it out from under him.

Edited 2018-02-21 06:05 (UTC)

Yuya stumbles out of the entry way, equally startled as his rushing out is met not with action from Lambert, but... more of Cole's home video. He knows Cole can do this, and later he'll realize he shouldn't be surprised this was what he attempted--but Yuya still comes to a halt and stares, gaping in disbelief as the memories play.

It's at the memory of them in bed together that Yuya realizes this is really rude and he should really not be looking at this, so he quickly jerks his attention away as his cheeks flush and he shifts awkwardly on his feet.

At least the violence getting initiated is a suitable distraction, and while Lambert's protecting Cole and Pig rides for Childermass, Yuya shakes the bubble wand to start another flurry heading towards Childermass. These are a little larger, and don't quite do anything, but there's so much more of them and the color makes them harder to see through.

Maybe he can obcsure Childermass's vision so he can't throw another card.

Well, that didn't work. And oh great, Lambert's pissed at him again. Cole's already attempting to step out of the card's way before Lambert comes in with his shield. If the card does break through the shield, then it'll slice Cole on the shoulder. If not, there'll be plenty of other opportunities for everyone to wonder just how a spirit can bleed in the first place.

"Guardian Memory!" Nigella shrieks as she just FLIES right towards Cole. Once she approaches him, she turns into a beam of green light, which separates and magically forms two daggers. Cole grabs each dagger, shifting into a combat-ready stance.

"I thought he could remember but his thoughts are all for her!" Cole points out, as if this somehow serves as an explanation for what he did. The problem with daggers is that they're melee as hell. Yuya's bubbles and the sudden motorcycle (okay???) are providing decent cover though, so he makes an attempt to dart away from Lambert, trying to find a spot that's closer in the fight but not currently occupied by a goddamn motorcycle.

Motorcycle? Motorcycle. Childermass is going to focus on the motorcycle speeding its way across the exhibit room to hit him first. That one seems important to focus on! The card he threw won't do much beyond bounce off the witcher's shield and then vanish in a blip of blue light, so Lambert and Cole are relatively safe for the moment, especially with Yuya's bubbles getting between him and his line of sight of the two.

But back to the motorcycle. It connects with the pedestal, which means it connects with the statue, which means the whole thing is about to fall over and shatter. What it doesn't connect with is Childermass himself, because he jumps up right before impact and then there's stone shattering and all the masonry dust that kicks up filling the room under him, all under him, since when he jumped up he had no intentions of landing again.

He pulls another card out of the air around him.

"Enough!"

The word is followed by him holding the card up — the Fool — followed by a veritable windstorm kicking up around him. It picks up the dust from the statue, kicks around loose jewelry, broken glass, and, ultimately, slams outward towards the walls of the exhibit hall. It's like a wall of wind hitting them, shattering display cases as it goes and his own attempt to push all of them further away from him, motorcycle and all. In the midst of this, the shadow crow that had remained on his shoulder collapses into formless black and creeps across the magician's form, covering his clothing and transforming into something entirely new — all black and silver with pale blue highlights, the same color as the glowing fae marks barely visible on what part of his chest can be seen through that.

"Of course my thoughts are all of her! Did you honestly think I would waste them on someone as pathetic as him?" He raises his voice over the howl of the wind. "Don't make me laugh!"

Edited 2018-02-21 16:05 (UTC)

The card might miss its mark, but Childermass's words find theirs, cutting through the shriek of the card's breeze and the cacophony of loose debris hitting the shield.

Pathetic.

It doesn't matter that his rational mind knows this isn't Childermass right now, that the Void or CY-Ren or whatever else has twisted him around. It's still his face, his mouth giving voice to every doubt he's ever had about whatever this is between them, every fear he's ever had that the magician might wake up and realize he was wasting his time. With the way that Wismuth heightens emotion, the word's a lance that cracks straight through the armor he'd built up to protect himself, around the fragile hopes he'd kept so carefully hidden away even from his own mind. It hurts.

Of course, he only lets himself feel the full brunt of that for a moment, because Lambert reacts to heartbreak the same way he reacts to anything else: by getting pissed off. At Childermass, at CY-Ren, at Creation, at everything that's led to this stupid fucking mess.

"Pig!" He screams over the gale. Pig's engine roars, glowing gold as his Spark responds to his will.

Fine -- Childermass wants to blow them away? He'll blow that damn peacock out of the sky. Pig rears and slams her front wheel into the ground, and columns of solid rock shoot out of the ground around her, some aiming to slam up into Childermass from beneath or the side and others forming shelter against the wind.

Edited 2018-02-21 16:51 (UTC)

Yuya is, of course, knocked back by the wind, almost backward somersaulting as the force wins out over his scrawny limbs. His back hits the wall, and he covers his head and projects his own shield dome to cover himself from the debris, and grant him a little recovery from the wind.

He rolls forward to his knees, looking up at Childermass. And then to Cole and Lambert, a little more worried about how they're faring.

Edited 2018-02-21 17:02 (UTC)

Having zero defensive capabilities but being just as scrawny as Yuya, Cole fares just as badly as Yuya. The spirit's knocked back and slams into one of the walls of the exhibit hall. He manages to get back to his feet, though he's battered with debris all the while and he's holding up his arm to try and protect his face.

Cole doesn't really know what to do. He was hoping that Childermass would remember, that the memories would reach past the Void and they'd at least get a moment where they could talk to the real Childermass. But that didn't work, did it. His thoughts are too occupied with CY-Ren.

Well, no matter what, Cole knows he can't really do anything against a ranged target except 'toss and stab'. And that can't do much against a windstorm to begin with. Cole leaps behind one of Lambert's pillars, using it as a barrier while he continues the world's most ineffective pep talk.

"You don't mean that! You were happy before her and you can be happy again!"

Stone columns shoot up all around, pinning Childermass between them and momentarily blocking him from view as they do. The wind immediately dies off, as if the brand new tomb of stone has worked. Admittedly, that had hurt, but giant stone pillars? Those cast a whole lot of shadow when all clustered up like this. A few heartbeats after the wind dies, the stone trembles and begins to heat up. A few more and the columns are smashed apart by the arrival of a craggy fire elemental, armored in molten rock. It shoves one of the columns off towards Pig the Motorcycle first and foremost.

But where's Childermass?

Well, if he's going to fight three at once, he's going to start with who he perceives to be the weakest link. That would be Kid Bubbles over by the wall there, so, hey Yuya, guess who's lunging out of yet another shadow and slashing forth with a razor-edged card? That's right, it's that guy, the one with all the feathers.

A fire elemental isn't what she normally deals with, but Pig won't make such an easy target, considering she has wheels and a blatant disregard for the laws of physics, and she nimbly zips out of falling rock. She won't stop there, either, driving around the columns blocking Lambert's line of sight. He swears, when he realizes his own fuck-up, but with a nimble and needlessly flashy move, he flips onto Pig's back.

He doesn't know how well Yuya's shield will stand up to a slash from a card, but he doesn't intend to wait and find out, sending Pig screeching forward and ignoring the fire elemental for now in favor of trying to attack the Harbinger again. With a bike. Look, sometimes a good wheel to the face is all you need to make your point.

"We need light!" he bellows. Without shadows in easy access, Childermass can't flit around as easily, and it'll be easier to pin him down.

Unfortunately, the shield isn't even up when Childermass bursts through the shadows. Yuya drops it as soon as the wind dies down to regain his mobility. He doesn't expect Childermass to come for him, and he moves a little too late. The card strikes across his face as he dives downward. It stings, and his face feels wet, but Yuya doesn't even think about the pain. He needs to move, so he does, launching himself nimbly around Childermass's side and then he's just running.

Light, light, he can do light. He doesn't stop running but he does hold the bubble wand up, and the bubbles that roll out from behind him are bright like little suns. They're just as delicate as normal bubbles, but at least he can keep making more and more of them.

Edited 2018-02-21 19:28 (UTC)

Stabbing elementals and rage demons works in Dragon Age. As such, Cole's going to try and take that elemental out. Besides, his daggers are a little bit magic thanks to that 'made from his familiar' thing, maybe magic stab damage could help against fire.

Besides, Yuya and Lambert are focusing on Childermass. If nobody pays attention to this thing, it'll set everyone on fire. He lunges forward, daggers in hand, as he attempts to stab and slash at any gaps among the molten rock coating of that fire elemental.

Lucky for Cole, stabbing elementals will work here, too. He won't make short work of it, but magical stabbing does pass through rock and flame and leave the creature leaking quickly cooling dribbles of lava. There'll be a mess on the floor but, well, it was a mess already. It roars (more like fumes, really) and swings its big ol' fiery arms after the spirit.

Meanwhile, Yuya manages to put space between himself and Childermass, the bright bubbles of light forcing him to stagger back and throw an arm up over his eyes. Those are bright and one ended being shot close enough to call it in his face. With the extra light, the layout of the shadows in the room changes dramatically, so he's left briefly without a way to escape quickly like before.

Overall? That makes it pretty damn easy to hit him with that bike this time around.

And hit him solidly that bike will, but rather than aiming to ram into him physically again she'll jump, suspended far too high in the air for half a heartbeat Lambert kicks her into a forward spin.

"Freedom Barrage," Pig intones, solemn as ever even as she recites ridiculous attack names. In front of her, a cluster of four-pointed stars that resemble Lambert's costume decorations forms out of glowing light ... and with a twist of the handlebars, they'll slam right into Childermass in all their sharp, pointy glory, aiming to hit hard enough to knock him down. If some of them can pin him to the ground by that stupid costume and keep him from drawing another card, so much the better.

In the meantime, Cole (and Yuya, if he decides to help him) are left to deal with the fire elemental on their own, for the moment.

Yuya turns to look over his shoulder as he hears the engine, cringing a bit. He has to have some faith that Lambert won't hurt Childermass badly. He obviously cared a lot about him.

He whips his attention around the room, assuming the biggest threats are Childermass and the elemental. Lambert seems to have things covered, but Cole is fighting fire with a knife. So Yuya rushes for them, throwing forward very large bubbles that float up and up, trying to go over the elemental's head--where they burst, exploding in a heavier, soapy sprinkle in an attempt to dampen it.

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