this is a robbery [closed]

[atouts]

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.

Comments

[hippocarnival]

"I won't tell anyone." That includes Strange--it's not the first bit of privacy he's kept from him, even if he'd be interested. Not out of lack of trust, but respect.

He lowers the towel from his face, expression crinkling a moment from the lingering sting. "It still looks pretty close. But that's a good thing, right?"

He thinks he can understand how hurt Lambert is right now, if someone he loved turned against him, called him pathetic... "He makes you happy?"

But it would help, maybe, to remember why it's not true.

[whattaprick]

"Does it matter?" In answer, Lambert scowls. He doesn't like being put on the spot like this, and it shows.

"Why don't you just ask Cole?" he asks tartly, his attention still on his stitches. He's flushing, all the same.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya frowns a little. "You wouldn't want me asking Cole about you, would you?"

Yuya doesn't really need a confirmation, given the way Lambert blew up at him. And it's not like Yuya doesn't agree, it's invasive. If you want to understand someone... you have to take to them directly.

So he leans over in the air, still regarding Lambert. "It does matter. It's different when you're really close to someone, being around them and... being afraid of losing them."

He tilts his head and smiles. "If being together makes you happy, I'm glad. Because it's just nice to have someone there like that, isn't it?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert just looks increasingly flustered and put upon with every word that comes out of Yuya's mouth, instinctively leaning back as he leans in, except there isn't actually that far he can actually go. And when he catches himself retreating, he scowls again.

"Anyone ever tell you you're too nosy for your own good?"

[hippocarnival]

"No." Surprisingly. An idiot for reaching out to certain people, sure, but he hasn't regretted it so far. It's not always easy being open, but he likes it better than when he kept himself closed off from everyone.

He's briefly amused at the way Lambert is lagging back, but it does stop him from leaning closer. Though it doesn't put him very close to begin with.

"I have friends like that, too. It'd hurt a lot if I had to face them like Childermass."

He leans back in his seat again. Lambert doesn't have to verbally confirm anything, his reaction is answer enough. "I want to believe we can still reach them, no matter what the Void made them believe. If it's true, I think you'll reach him, too."

[whattaprick]

Lambert grimaces but doesn't do more than grunt in response to the first part. No need to encourage Yuya, that's for sure. As to the second, though...

"Or we could just beat CY-Ren," he points out. In case there was ever any doubt what team he's on... "As far as I know, none of us got any healing powers, and we already saw how trying to--" His expression sours further. "Appeal to his heart worked out."

[hippocarnival]

"Well, it wasn't a very good way of doing it." Yuya props his chin on his hand. Lambert's uncomfortable just talking about it, and if Childermass feels similarly... That was probably less reassuring, more embarrassing.

"If you want to reach someone, you have to understand them first. And you have to be open yourself. Cole just... sees pieces, but not everything."

And he's pushy, but Yuya doesn't voice that part. "I don't know what she did to them, but... they're not like themselves now. Can't we remind them who they really are?"

[whattaprick]

"That'd mean knowing who they really are in the first place."

How well does he know Childermass, at the end of the day? A man who says so little about himself even at his most open, with his own soul outside his body?

"Apparently that Guardian said Harbingers get their power from their Sparks, like us -- just messed up. That you should be able to purify them ... not that she knew how." He scowls. "But I know we can't just run into that concert like last time."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya doesn't know. He doesn't know Yugo or Steven as well as Yuzu knows him, but he doesn't want to believe they're doomed to fail as they are. There has to be a way.

But the rest of that catches his attention and he snaps up quickly. "Purify..."

Their sparks are part of their soul, that's right. Souls can be purified.

He stares at Lambert, almost looking though him as his mind runs rapidly though the possibilities. He's almost excited, sitting up, but he's also nervous how to explain why he believes it so much.

He lets out a breath. "Part of Zarc was purified. It's them that's been changed, right?" He puts his hand on his chest for emphasis. "They can be brought back. It has to be possible."

Does Yuya know where he's going with this? Absolutely not. But it's more concrete than just hoping. He stands up suddenly. "Where's Noa?"

It is probably way too late for Yuya to chase after her tonight, but he is ready.

[whattaprick]

Lambert has no idea what it is about what he's said that makes Yuya react so abruptly, but he frowns as he stands up. Like hell he knows what happened with Zarc, Yuya, though if it works anything like it does with curses, he supposes he can understand the principle at hand. That doesn't mean he's any less skeptical of it.

"No idea. I haven't seen her since the concert."

[hippocarnival]

"Uh--" Dang it. "Is there some way Guardians find each other? Phone number? Address?"

He doesn't like the sound of 'not since the concert'. That was almost a week ago. There's no way she just... ditched them, right? Right??

[whattaprick]

Yuya's barking up completely the wrong tree, unfortunately, since Lambert's expression is patently unhelpful here.

"I know she was at the Carnival. One of the nightrunners spoke with her." Lambert frowns. "My guess is she's out in the city like the rest of us."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's shoulders sink. He's just going to have to run all over Wismuth to find her, isn't he. Or hope she comes back, but... do they really have time for that?

He sighs and flops back into his chair. "We really should have all been working together from the start..."

Instead of running around like headless chickens. Like the concert. It's like they just don't learn. Even the Lancers were more coordinated than this. Not by much, though.

[whattaprick]

Lambert shrugs. "Hard to help someone who doesn't know what they want help with," is what he opines, finishing off the last of the stitches and tying it off.

"Doesn't really seem like she had much of a clue, does it?"

[hippocarnival]

"No..." Yuya admits slowly. No, which in any other circumstance should be suspicious--but she did have the Ringmaster's verification, even if the Ringmaster didn't agree with helping. He wonders how she's doing right now. Is she worried about the people who were taken?

He sighs to himself. "I guess it's just the kind of thing that even if you don't know what to do, you have to do something. If no one even tried, CY-Ren would probably do a lot worse."

[whattaprick]

"Or it might not have worked at all," Lambert points out. "As far as I can tell, no one from Wismuth got turned into a Harbinger -- just ours. Maybe if we'd never been there, it would have turned out fine."

He cuts the thread and begins to wind bandages over the wound. Second time he's been injured in as many days ... the cuts on one arm from when Solas had to slice him open to get the seeds out and the gouges when he caught the crow sister's claws on the other. Maybe his legs will eventually end up as marked up, too, at this rate.

"Still, it's pointless wondering about it. Walking away now isn't a choice."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya had been so worried about the carnival members, he didn't even realize that none of the rest of the audience was taken. He looks obviously surprised at the revelation. "It was really only us?"

[whattaprick]

“It really was,” Lambert confirms.

“The only Harbingers I’ve heard of people running into were all from the Carnival. And even if people couldn’t remember what happened exactly, missing people are prettt obvious. I haven’t seen any sign of people searching for any.”

[hippocarnival]

It's true, especially in a modern world with so many ways to get the news out there and realize something's wrong. Yuya pulls one of the tarot cards from his pocket and looks at it, face pinching in barely restrained emotion. There's about to be a whole lot of missing people soon.

"Why just us?" It's not a question he thinks Lambert has an answer to, really. But it is on his mind.

[whattaprick]

Lambert, at the very least, has a theory.

"It's not like she was turning people for fun. She wanted to use them -- otherwise, why would she be making them fall all over her?" he smiles humorlessly. The other Harbingers he's encountered haven't been too different, in that regard.

"Think about it -- who would make a more useful Harbinger? Some music fan who's never seen any magic in their life? Or someone who already knows there's more than just their world out there?"

[hippocarnival]

"You think she picked us out on purpose?" He looks up at Lambert at that. It'd make sense, sure. And the carnival members weren't exactly subtle when it came to it--their sabotage had been pretty obvious.

And then he remembers something and drops his face in his hand with a groan. "Noa even said she could influence people's minds."

This all shouldn't have even been a surprise. They just waltzed in horribly unprepared and paid the consequence for it.

[whattaprick]

As Yuya drops his face into his hands, Lambert frowns.

"Could have been something like 'find anyone who'd make a strong Harbinger.' Or who'd be easy to turn." Childermass should never have been there, considering his track record.

"She made it sound like CY-Ren hadn't done anything like this before, or to as many people. Guess we should've known better."

[hippocarnival]

"Maybe she's never been this successful before." He wonders if that's what is was, susceptibility to that grief. Yuya has heard it, initially, but he shook it off. He didn't anticipate Yugo to be someone so secretly troubled, though...

His gaze drifts back to the card in his hand, then to Lambert's leg. "That's going to heal, right?"

He's a little unsure how deep their weakness to iron goes. But it's erased any doubts in his mind that they aren't all changelings now, to be made just as sick by it.

[whattaprick]

"Eventually." Lambert doesn't seem all that concerned, and at least stitched and bandaged up the wound does seem less threatening ... though he doesn't seem keen to start walking again either.

"Worst iron poisoning I've ever seen since I got here was when all the supervisors got kidnapped to Hell." Literally Hell the place, in case Yuya had any doubt. "That was about two weeks after I got here, so ... kind of a shock, considering what I thought I signed up for."

[hippocarnival]

He's heard a little bit about hell from Strange. Like the Ringmaster basically eating Morningstar, and that people were hurt and it was about as traumatizing as a lot of other events in the carnival. But he didn't know about the iron poisoning, and his gaze locks on Lambert's wound as a new round of sickness rolls through his stomach.

It's strange, having what feels like a rather sudden, intrinsic fear of it. He was human enough in Portland, and since then he's had little reason to think about it.

"But they've all cured from it now, right?" Just how bad does it get?