⇨ 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

[flashover]

Having recovered from the shock of seeing Jasper so quickly poofed, Rin frowns and crosses his arms.

"Tch... if her Highness wanted the rose so bad, she should have been the one to go get it from the Prince. We put in all the work!" He pauses, then looks at Shima. "That was the time with the brainwashing."

[atouts]

"It's all or nothing," Childermass replies, ignoring the Ringmaster for now. "Or was bringing the two Courts together here to deal with this for show?"

He turns to look at the Summer side of the room.

"Does the Count speak for you as well?"

[npcarnival]

The Rose Queen looks at Rin, furious. Clearly, she is not above responding to criticisms.

"The Rose is my birthright. It was taken from me unjustly. What could you possibly know of work, when I've toiled for longer than you've been alive?"

Then she basically snarls at Childermass, her temper rising.

"If you think I would give up my child to you again... I should kill you where you stand."

[whattaprick]

"We died for your stupid rose," Lambert snaps. "You weren't willing to do the same."

[scientificist]

Herbert starts giggling again. "I doubt we'll take the deal: tha-hat's an exchange for zero hostages." He's really talking mostly to himself at this point. Who else, when he might as well not be here to anyone here so far?

[flashover]

Rin flinches, but then looks at her like she's a little nuts. "I may not know much but I know that if someone likes something a whole lot, something that important, they wouldn't let some weird bat lion guy just run off with it. Did you ever even try to get it back?" Emboldened by Lambert, he continues. "Or did you just wait for a bunch of wild animals to do it for you?"

[atouts]

Rin gets a sharp look, Childermass breaking away from eyeing the fae for a second or two for it. He doesn't really tell him to stuff it since Lambert and Herbert sure aren't helping with that, but he's the last one to say something, so he gets the look.

"My, so attached to a mortal child," Childermass says, attention returning and narrowing in directly on the Rose Queen. She's working on getting him killed anyway, so whatever. He fears the Count, but her? Sure, there's fear, just less. "Nightshade is right to feel like you're wasting her time. I almost pity her."

[periphrasing]

"He's not your child you sanctimonious, half-cracked, dirt-eating MEGA CLOD!" Peridot snarls, chiming in with the rest of the peanut gallery. "And Lapis-- Lapis had nothing to do with that attack just now! Jasper's just an idiot but Lapis didn't do anything wrong!"

[scientificist]

Still giggling, Herbert lies down on his back, wings fully extended, staring at the dark above him.

This Is Stupid.

[npcarnival]

The Rose Queen is furious, angrier than she's been in a long while. She cannot believe she is being forced to endure this from a pack of beast-kin mortals. Her desire to put a sword through Childermass, in particular, is at a boiling point.

Her nails practically cutting into her palms, she twirls to face the Count, her irises glowing with her rage.

"Give me him," she demands, pointing her finger at Childermass. "Use your bloodbond to give me him, and I will cooperate with your plans. The bounty will be left to the Queens!"

[npcarnival]

"Very well," the Count says, and snaps his fingers. All at once, thousands of crows will emerge from the shadows forming the Elysium, dissolving the protections it contains.

[whattaprick]

"No!" Lambert lunges for Childermass pretty much instantly to grab ahold of him, panic spiking through the roof. Not again.

But if experience has proven any judge, holding on to someone isn't enough to save them from a True Fae.

[bananaspeedrider]

Time to go. Yugo revs his D-Wheel as a signal for someone that wants to risk hopping on and his getaway driving skills.

[scientificist]

Oh, are things finally happening? Alright. Like an old man (with second degree burns), Herbert groans and starts slowly pushing back up to his feet.

[npcarnival]

The Count meets Childermass's gaze, somehow against his will. At that moment, Childermass will be overwhelmed by the blood's authority over his person, and acknowledge his father's command of his body and spirit.

The Count commands him to turn into shadow and come to his feet. It's not hard to guess what will happen then.

[atouts]

Which leaves Childermass going tense in Lambert's grip, eyes drawn forcibly back to the Count.

The Rose Queen's demand had startled him but there isn't any time to worry about it, the command taking control... almost. He lingers in place for a second, staring, struggling, knowing he must go but not wanting to. How many times has the Count done this to him before, he wonders, uncertain of the answer with how distant memories of Portland are now.

[flashover]

The crows and shadow dissipate, and the ceasefire is over. Rin has his sword drawn before anyone can stop him, surrounding him in blue flames and giving him an even more draconic look, befitting a changeling of the Great Beast herself. Childermass was in trouble -- and they couldn't afford to lose him!

"Yamantaka, I need your flames!" he addresses the spirit hovering around Shima's staff directly, his pupils flaring bright red and his irises burning like brilliant blue suns. As soon as he feels Yamantaka's energy, he unleashes a coiling blast of bright blue flame from his sword, not toward the Queen or the Count, but at Childermass. A boost for a certain black, incapacitating flame.

[whattaprick]

The Count's command immediately has Lambert turning to Childermass, hand already raised as his fingers flick through the motion of his spell.

"STOP!" Panic and fury lend his voice volume and he puts as much force behind it as he can. The last time he tried to use this to overcome a Fae's influence, it didn't make much of a difference, and he has no idea how strong the Count's hold on him is, but he has to try.

[worldlyafflictions]

Shima had been readying his spear, but Yamantaka's flame swirls up from where he'd been lurking, looming now around Shima as he takes Shima's intention and answers Rin's command, his fire feeding into Rin's blast.

"--When the heck did ya learn ta do that?!"

[atouts]

A second's hesitation is enough, even without Lambert's panicked spell casting, though he may want to step back to avoid what's coming. Blue and black flame, striking Childermass in the back and going straight through, not entirely unlike a lance, though that it will leave the faint smell of singed cloth and feathers is unavoidable. No singed flesh, however, which... is probably good?

Regardless, it has him giving a pained jerk in the witcher's grasp, a gasp, and both Lambert's magic and the Count's command falling apart against his mind because, well, basically everything just goes dark. Unconsciousness is a blessing right now, just try not to let him hit the floor.

[bananaspeedrider]

Meanwhile since no one else seems to be moving for the guy that's been visibly injured and snarking now and then, it's just now in this hurried second that Yugo thinks that maybe he should be the one to help if no one else is.

The teen speeds his D-Wheel over to Herbert and expertly drifts to a reckless-looking stop next to him. "Oi you...! Get on!"

Hurry up, hurry up. Right up onto the tail of the bike. And hold on tight.

[whattaprick]

The burst of flame is something Lambert's seen before, though not in this particular blue and black combination, and not for a while -- not since the Celebration, where it felled vampires and left them inert. Childermass doesn't hit the floor because Lambert shifts his grip to catch him, but there's no time to check Childermass's vital signs. He's not moving and that means he's not going to the Count. That's enough, for now.

That doesn't fix the problem that without Elysium, there really isn't anything holding the other fae at bay anymore. There may be an order forthcoming from the Ringmaster, but Lambert, at least, knows exactly what the fuck he thinks they need to do.

"RUN!" While his bellow echoes through whatever part of the library they're in, he's swift to follow it with a more personal call, urgent and harried, for the other person here that he cares for the most-- "Peridot!"

[scientificist]

Oh thank fuck. Herbert was honestly wondering if he was going to manage to get out of this, what with Jasper gone and everyone scattering.

He doesn't say thank you, but he looks grateful in an exhausted sort of way as he carefully leans on the bike and swings his least injured leg over it. And then.....puts his feet on....Yugo's legs? And holds onto his shoulders because honestly this is a confusing bike and he's never been on a motorcycle before.

[bananaspeedrider]

As long as it doesn't get too much in the way of Yugo's driving, Herbert is allowed to do whatever it takes for a grown man to awkwardly stay on this bike. Which includes hanging on to any part of the teen's jacket or his crystals for dear life.

*VROOM~!* Goes the D-Wheel to try and get as far away from the enemy Fae as possible.

[periphrasing]

From the moment Elysium disbanded, Peridot has mostly been letting the chaos unfold around her. She only has eyes for one thing: The fae on the other side of the room who is clutching two gems.

For a moment she thinks maybe-- just maybe-- she can do this. Just turn into a bat, take advantage of the hell breaking loose to snatch those rocks right out of that fairy's wretched little hands. For all she knows, this might be her only chance at it. Now or never.

Lambert brings her back to her senses. She turns at the sound of her name, sees him standing there holding up Childermass's unconscious form. One last desperate glance is cast back at the fae, and right then and there she swears she's going to get them back somehow. Both of them. Because not even Jasper deserves to get used as some sort of bauble for some stuck-up fae.

Growling, she turns around and, once again, takes on her dragon form. She goes to grab Childermass around the middle with her jaws, assuming that Lambert will catch on quickly enough and let her take him. Makes more sense for her to carry him like this than for Lambert to try to run away while holding up the other man's dead weight.