⇨ 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

[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."

[scientificist]

Herbert is honestly really lucky that his clothing was all made here by Carly due to Prince shenanigans, because his clothing is definitely synthetic fabric at home, and he'd be a lot worse off right now. He pats at his head furiously first, the moment he emerges from the fire, making a strangled, panicked noise.

As he drops down to attempt to smother the more intense flames on his front, he has enough reagent-driven motivation and foresight to yank his radio out of his pocket and toss it to the side to continue picking up what it can rather than just the noise of Herbert attempting to not burn to death.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita takes the fan to the face with a grimace, but doesn't let it stop her casting.

"Me!?" she squawks, indignant. "What about you!? Trying to sacrifice yourself like an idiot... like that'll solve anything!" While screaming back in Yuzu's face, she makes sure to yell loud enough to be sure that Strange gets the message, too.

It's no use. He disappears... but Ignatius remains. She has a chance to strike him.

Zangetsu tries to stop her, which only makes him the next target of her shouting. "And you! How can you let this go!? He's right there! We can still... I can still...!"

For a moment, she meets the faerie's eyes once again, hers blazing with rage. She thrusts out her free arm, unleashes the spell, and the circle at her feet vanishes with a flash, its power instead manifesting as a raging tidal wave that forces its way between the bookshelves and shoots toward Ignatius with great force.

Any allies in its path (between Rita and the faerie) will be mysteriously unaffected by the pressure and force of the wave, but will be left soaking wet regardless.

[fusionactuallysuitsher]

Yuzu sputters As she’s doused in water, but it doesn’t temper her anger.

“I know my limits and if I have to sacrifice myself for my friends I will!” She shouted back.

[npcarnival]

Ignatius is watching for when it happens, but when it does, he doesn't actually raise a hand to defend himself. Instead, he lets Rita hit him with the full force of her spell - he disappears with the water as it crests down the hall, gradually dying out as it travels around a corner.

Ignatius is gone with it, but... You know by now he almost certainly isn't actually gone. He looked like he was smirking as the tidal wave came upon him.

On the bright side, Herbert and the floor are no longer on fire.

[scientificist]

Oh...good. Things are suddenly significantly less hot and painy. Still somewhat hot and painy due to the second degree burns but he's pretty good at ignoring that kind of thing. He staggers up and over to his radio and turns the volume up again.

[stompadour]

Jasper stands there sputtering for a couple of seconds, drenched and massively indignant --

Then she rounds on Rita in anger, turning with such force that some of the water that just soaked her spatters onto the floor from her hair.

"What was that?" she snarls.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita just deflates. The energy seems to drain out of her, the fight in her eyes fading into a tired, empty look.

In the end, she couldn't do anything. Strange was taken and she couldn't stop it. She finally got the nerve to fight, but accomplished nothing.

Faced with Jasper's question, she offers a simple, unenthusiastic answer. "It's magic." What else would it be?