⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone out in the library.
When: Day 59
Where: The Athenaeum
What: Towards the end of the visit, we are visited by a series of worrisome NPCs, who may or may not be illusions. There will be at least 5 NPC toplevels posted overall, all happening in a similar time period ICly (in rough chronological order), so not everyone needs to be in every thread.
Warnings: Possibility of very real danger to anyone who participates. Remember that Sans has told everyone to travel in groups, so if you aren't, you'll probably get a scolding later.

TURNING THE PAGE↴ As the carnival continues to explore the Athenaeum in the pursuit of more information about the legendary Miracles, the tension is thick with the knowledge that the Summer Court could be in pursuit any day now. On Day 59, a series of threatening encounters will begin manifesting - but are they real, or an illusion?

Comments

[moonfang]

And there's Rita, busting in with all the tact of a pissed off rhinoceros. Oops, there's also fire now. And now both Strange AND Yuzu are thinking of doing something very stupid. And then Jasper, too!

Zangetsu is starting to wish he hadn't learned to be cautious. ... Time to just let his instincts tell him what to do.

"You can't take him alone," he says, standing next to Jasper, sword brought to bear.

[scientificist]

"This is all very open ended!" Herbert is surrounded by fire and absolutely freaking out but doing a fairly good job not showing it due to his overall flat irritation. "What do you intend to DO with the one in your service --what do you mean by, sacrifice--"

And then Jasper and Zan step forward and Herbert immediately starts trying to work out how thick the fire is, if he'd survive a run through it. This can't end well for him otherwise.

[stompadour]

If Jasper was less disciplined and single-minded, that would have distracted her: him? How do all of these people tell?

[anti_nonsense]

Hearing the way Ignatius addresses her, Rita feels a chill. Even though it wasn’t her, she remember that tone, that look... and through the haze of distant memories that aren’t fully hers, she remembers a lot of worse things.

She can’t believe these idiots are considering something so stupid...

So when Strange opens his mouth and actually volunteers, he's answered promptly by Rita, throwing a punch at his jaw. "I object, you braindead moron! How can you even think about agreeing!? You of all people should know what this means!" After everything with Nightshade...

"Fighting's our best option," she insists, knowing well how unlikely their chances really are. But it has to be better than that.

[kingsroads]

And then Strange gets punched in the face.

He stumbles back a bit, rubbing his jaw, as he starts to yell at Rita in return. "And you of all people should know what happens if you tried to fight! The fae are more powerful than you can imagine." And he looks over towards Jasper as he says this, glaring at here, "and if any of you try to attack directly, you'll lose!"

This situation's getting more and more tense, so Strange just turns to Ignatius and yells, "Just take me already before these idiots do something stupid!"

[npcarnival]

Ignatius nods respectfully as Strange steps forward, paying more attention to that than the rest of the bickering. He isn't going to provide any stipulations, especially if he has offers without them being demanded.

Yet, it would seem that his old ward is the one fighting back the hardest. It's to be expected, he supposes. It's the type of spirit he would foster.

"Think carefully, little one," she says, coming forward and kneeling in front of Rita so that they are closer to eye level. "If you choose to fight and lose, their deaths will be on your hands. Are you prepared?"

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

This is... no, no, no... this is nuts! She has to do something and fast!

"WAIT! I'll go! No stipulations!" Yuzu shouted out. "This isn't a fight anyone's going to win and, besides, the only thing I have is my life! I'm just a normal girl and, frankly, I'd probably be more of a hindrance here."

Yuya and Gongenzaka's gonna kill her.

[stompadour]

Jasper bristles. Clearly these two have some kind of Thing going on, the specifics of which are doubtless very sordid and complex and which Jasper doesn't give a quarry about, but she absolutely cannot stand for Ignatius talking about this as if, were Rita defeated, there'd be nothing else to stand in his ('his') (????) way.

Eyes narrowed, she summons her helmet and steps forward, pointedly looming.

"If I'm destroyed it's on no one but me," she growls.

[moonfang]

Even with everything else going on -- Strange and Rita and Yuzu and Hebert trying to sneak away like an asshole -- it's Jasper's weapon that gets his attention.

"... Yer weapon is a damn yakuza punk-hair helmet?!"

[stompadour]

"A what?" snaps Jasper, supremely irritated at the distraction. Hair??? Punk?????

[moonfang]

"Like a... a... a pompadour, that's it! It's a hairstyle! That asshole yakuza gang guys wear to look tough! But it looks stupid!"

A pause.

"Not that YOURS looks stupid...!"

[stompadour]

Jasper glares at him.

The camera zooms in on her face.

[moonfang]

And then there was an oversized anime sweat-drop and associated sound effect.

This has been a Dumb Interlude(tm) with Jasper and Zan.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita shudders as she stares into the fae's eyes, but she refuses to look away.

Jasper and Zangetsu, at least, seem prepared to fight. The others... not so much. Fighting could very well lead to all of them dying, as Ignatius says. But letting someone sacrifice themselves... that's just... it's unacceptable!

"I'm not your little one," she spits at him. "And you're not taking anyone!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rita notices Herbert inching close to the wall of fire. Rita's fire powers are similar, if not in some form derived from Ignatius'. Maybe she can...

While Jasper and Zan carry on in a way that's hopefully distracting, Rita opens a hand and then clenches it, focusing her magic on one spot in the curtain of fire, closest to Herbert, trying to peel the flames away to create an opening for him to escape through.

[scientificist]

Meanwhile, Herbert shrugs his shoulder to work out the Jasper induced stiffness in it, clutching it with his left hand. Doing actually a startlingly good job at being subtle (years of stealing medical supplies) he shifts the volume of his radio all the way down and switches it on to broadcast. There's not really much else he can contribute at this point.

[npcarnival]

Ignatius stares at her for a few moments later, and then rolls his shoulders in a shrug and stands up. Saying you'll fight is one thing. Actually throwing a punch against him, that'd be another.

So, for now, he turns to Strange and Yuzu. He was going to let them fight between themselves to sort it out, but with Rita here... he'd rather just get a move on. Hm.

"Last chance," he says, looking at Strange. He was the first to offer, after all. He extends his hand, as if to shake. "Do you offer yourself?"

Meanwhile, the veil of fire flickers as Rita focuses on it - but not enough to make it clear whether or not jumping through it would result in being set aflame. The real question is if Herbert will pick up on that and chance it anyway.

[kingsroads]

Strange takes off his messenger bag before offering it to the nearest person to him: which turns out to be Zangetsu. "Drop this off in my trailer, please."

He pauses for a moment, almost held in place by some supernatural force, as he thinks things over. But it only takes a moment to think before Strange decides that nope, the good of everybody else takes precedence over him. And then, turning to Ignatius, Strange swallows his fear, offers a mental apology to Lambert and Childermass, and reaches over to take the faerie's hand. "I do. I offer myself."

He's a mercenary, after all, he's supposed to protect those in the carnival. He just didn't expect it to be this way.

[stompadour]

"You idiot," says Jasper -- although she doesn't really sound worried for Strange's wellbeing so much as just outright derisive. She's absolutely certain she could have fought this guy.

[moonfang]

"E.... eh?" Zangetsu looks at the bag, then at Strange. He frowns and puts it over his shoulder. "... I hope you know what you're doin', Strange."

We'll get you back.

[anti_nonsense]

That idiot.

That completely moronic smoke-for-brains idiot!

The moment Strange reaches out for the handshake, Rita snaps.

"NO!" she screams. An intricate magic circle, drawn in blue light, appears at her feet as she gathers magic power for a spell to attack, to stop this.

[scientificist]

Ok, well, things appear to be going south pretty fast, what with how little he trusts this fae and Rita trying to attack him and potentially aggravating him further, so Herbert honestly doesn't see another option at this point.

He takes a deep breath, puts an arm across his eyes, and attempts to run out through the wall of flame.

RIP Herb.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

“Rita, THAT’S ENOUGH!” Yuzu shouted, frustrated to high heaven and breaking out the large paper fan to smash her across the face.

“You’ve done nothing to help except make the situation worse!”

[npcarnival]

Regardless of what everyone else is doing, Ignatius's hand is clasping firmly around Strange's, his skin hot like sand in a desert. His nods his head once in understanding.

"You have my respect, wizard," he says. Only a moment later, Strange will spontaneously combust into ash.

For the moment, that ash wafts up and is collected in Ignatius's palm, disappearing. He remains where he is, contemplative, curious if Rita will actually strike him.

Meanwhile, Herbert successfully leaps through the gap, but definitely catches on fire as he does.

[stompadour]

Jasper watches critically, eyes narrowed, as Strange is reduced to cinders in Ignatius's hand. From what was said this shouldn't mean he's dead, but... well, Jasper doesn't really know much about what happens when a human dies. She's just going to assume he's fine.

"... So now what," she says, "now you just leave?"

She does not sound like she really believes that is likely.

[moonfang]

And with that, the contract was sealed. Rita was acting rashly, and Zangetsu grabs her arm, digging his nails into her skin, even as she gets thwapped in the face with a fan.

"Stop. Let them go."