{"submission_id":"857364","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"60","keyword_name":"cat","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"110719"},{"keyword_id":"6701","keyword_name":"changeling","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"3032"},{"keyword_id":"3283","keyword_name":"cheshire","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"329"},{"keyword_id":"44319","keyword_name":"contemporary","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"101"},{"keyword_id":"1979","keyword_name":"fae","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"307"},{"keyword_id":"11376","keyword_name":"faerie","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"284"},{"keyword_id":"2602","keyword_name":"fairy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2015"},{"keyword_id":"2193","keyword_name":"fantasy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11602"},{"keyword_id":"123","keyword_name":"female","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"519918"},{"keyword_id":"112296","keyword_name":"garuda","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"51"},{"keyword_id":"1440","keyword_name":"human","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"46907"},{"keyword_id":"191","keyword_name":"magic","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11599"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"639918"},{"keyword_id":"3313","keyword_name":"monkey","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"4908"},{"keyword_id":"10129","keyword_name":"supernatural","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"375"},{"keyword_id":"597","keyword_name":"werewolf","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"5589"},{"keyword_id":"164","keyword_name":"wolf","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"111562"}],"hidden":"f","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"0","create_datetime":"2015-05-24 01:06:23.812627+02","create_datetime_usertime":"24 May 2015 01:06 CEST","last_file_update_datetime":"2015-05-24 01:03:12.18033+02","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"24 May 2015 01:03 CEST","username":"Simoni","user_id":"279733","user_icon_file_name":"75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","file_name":"1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","files":[{"file_id":"1165545","file_name":"1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1165/1165545_Simoni_arcadian_circus.doc","mimetype":"application/msword","submission_id":"857364","user_id":"279733","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"c776cdf2ff964eb58c009f03c1eb8cf3","full_file_md5":"c776cdf2ff964eb58c009f03c1eb8cf3","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2015-05-24 01:03:12.18033+02","create_datetime_usertime":"24 May 2015 01:03 CEST"}],"pools":[],"description":"This features one of my partners lesser used characters, but still a pretty cute one, Chloe Sanders. Outside of the story she isn't a fae, but I could see her having a pretty neat faerie backstory.\n\nThis one is pretty heavily influenced by Changeling: The Lost by White Wolf Games if that wasn't eyes-bleedingly obvious. :P\n\nMostly, this was just done for an excuse to do the next bit, a bit of exposition on Trixie's family, and so we could have the kids goof off at a circus for a bit. Given whats coming up soon they're going to need it...\n\nDUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN!","description_bbcode_parsed":"This features one of my partners lesser used characters, but still a pretty cute one, Chloe Sanders. Outside of the story she isn't a fae, but I could see her having a pretty neat faerie backstory.
This one is pretty heavily influenced by Changeling: The Lost by White Wolf Games if that wasn't eyes-bleedingly obvious. :P
Mostly, this was just done for an excuse to do the next bit, a bit of exposition on Trixie's family, and so we could have the kids goof off at a circus for a bit. Given whats coming up soon they're going to need it...
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN!","writing":"Its been a couple days since the fighting tournament and Alice's appearance, Stephy finding every excuse he could to stay around the blind woman. It seems the little fairy-turned-faerie really missed her. Currently Lupe is chewing on a rawhide bone (tenth so far this week) while Simoni, Arja, and a few of the others are watching anime on TV, Dawn lazily draped over the back of the couch. Nelen is checking in with Edwood who's currently standing guard back in India, but apparently all is quiet over there for the time being.\n\n\"So... how long are we staying Arja?\" asks Simoni, snuggling into the monkey girl's arm.\n\nArja shrugs softly, \"Should be leaving soonish, for once this is a real vacation and not a diplomatic trip so we can be a lil’ fluid with time tables and enjoying the scenery.\" Sammi grins wide as he walks in at that, as if waiting for that cue, \"Speaking of, I have just the scenery for us to enjoy today! You guys are gonna love this…\" he nods, holding what looks like a rather old parchment scroll in his hand...\n\nDawn sits up on her elbows, raising an eyebrow, \"Huh, smells like glamour to me blondie.\" she replies with a suspicious tone in her voice, Lupe sniffing at it and then huffing as she sneezes. \"Smell like old stuff.\" she shrugs, but she can't smell magic like Dawn can. \"What does it do?\" asks Simoni curiously as Nelen wanders back into the room, plopping down in the large easy chair that he more or less claimed when they arrived.\n\nSammi giggles, flopping on top of Stephy, Alice, and Nessa who were in their own little pile in the corner, unrolling the scroll. \"It's fun!\" he teases. The writing was strange, shimmering, ink that looks like a mess of scribbles, but Sammi and Stephy both recognize it as a fae language, advertising some kind of Arcadian circus that came to the mortal world, due in Tokyo tonight.\n\nStephy tilts his head at it, he never actually 'learned' to read Arcadian... it just kind of came with being a changeling now. \"Huh, y'know, I don't think I've ever been to a circus before.\" he comments. Simoni giggles a bit, \"Well, it could be fun, what do you think Arja?\" she asks as Dawn yawns and stretches out on the back of the couch.\n\nArja smiles, \"Well circuses are fun, and a fae circus could be extra neat. Let's go for it!\" she grins, giggling as Trixie raises a brow, \"Fae circus? I dunno about that, aren't they kinda known for doing shady stuff with mortals under a friendly guise?\"\n\nStephy giggles a bit, \"Well, sometimes... but you'll be okay with me and Sammi there.\" he nods. After all, if they were under the fae boy's protection then, by extension, they were under Sera's protection... and a fae queen of ice and snow is not someone you'd want angry at you. Simoni looks to Nelen, who shrugs, \"Eh, if it was trouble we'd have probably heard about it by now. What the hell.\"\n\nTrixie shrugs, \"I suppose… alright, let's see the circus.\" Alice giggles a bit at that, \"I'll stay here and hold the fort down, circuses are kinda wasted on me.\" she smirks, looking at Nessa, \"You go along though, just in case.\" she nods, the other girl grinning, \"Sure, sounds like fun!\"\n\nStephy pouts at Alice, but does make sure to give her a hug before they go. Nelen decides to hang back as he's not really the type for big crowds, but he convinces Dawn to go with them incase they need a translator. Simoni is, of course, coming and Lupe is on the fence until they mention that there'll probably be horrible circus food like hot dogs and such (after which she's asking when they leave about every five seconds or so). Natasha almost goes with them until Nelen manages to distract her long enough to point out to the others that it's an Arcadian circus and that a vampire there wouldn't be the best of ideas.\n\nEventually Stephy, Trixie, Dawn, Simoni, Arja, Sammi, Nessa, and Lupe head out together, Stephy and Sammi of course going through the wrought (cold) iron gate back to back again trying to make sure that they don't come into contact with it at all.\n\nSammi sighs when he gets past the gate, \"Man what kinda fae did your sister piss off to put that in, anyway?\" He asks as the group walks along. Arja just giggling, \"I dunno, cold iron is effective against lots though, it messes ghosts up pretty bad and some demons get burnt when they touch it, it's kinda a good security system.\" she teases as Sammi huffs, \"Yea like putting a bucket with acid in it over your front door...\"\n\nEventually the group gets to the circus, or rather, the large empty office building that the advertisement led them to. The sign out front was new looking, obviously this was an active building that closed down recently. \"Old buildings are too obvious\" Sammi grins, pushing the lobby door open \"The smart fae stick to recent abandons, kinda like hermit crabs.\"\n\nSimoni couldn't help thinking there were other things that stuck to recently abandoned buildings too... but pushed that thought out of her head as the group went inside. Dawn's eyes shined in the gloom behind her sunglasses, the cat wearing her human disguise of course, as Stephy felt an odd tingling on his neck. This was definitely a place where glamour had been used frequently and recently.\n\nSammi whistles a happy tune, the lobby was dead silent as they walked through it to the elevators, no sign of life at all. \"This'll be fun, fae events are always great... come to think of it you haven't been to any have you Stephy? Just stuck to grandma's lands?\" he asks, pushing the scroll up against the elevator, making the door glow softly before opening.\n\nStephy nods, \"Well, haven't had much reason to go anywhere else in Arcadia...\" he replies, adding silently 'and plenty of reasons -not- to'. The True Fae don't always get along, and rivalries were the stuff of legends, literally. \"So, how crazy are we expecting this to be Sammi?\" asks Simoni, raising an eyebrow as the door opens up.\n\nSammi shrugs, \"No clue. The Summer Court is holding it, they're fun but they're kinda bipolar. On one side they're all honor and nobility oldschool, and on the other they're kinda like trust fund kids on vacation, ya know?\" he replies as he walks in, the inside having only one button to press. \"So either this'll be a calm, respectful, medieval style circus and tournament, or it'll be a fucking crazy party with circus events.\"\n\nDawn grins at the mention of the latter, \"Well well, guess we'll just have to see won't we!\" she purrs, sounding like she's definitely hoping for the latter of the two. Simoni seems more eager for the former, but if only because she's got a pretty good idea of what 'fucking crazy' means for a fae. A party that was crazy by Fairie standards would make a kegger thrown by a mundane frat house look like a little girl's tea party.\n\nThe question is rather quickly answered, though, when the doors open, revealing what looks like a massive single room warehouse. The lights were dim, but there were multiple colored lights shining over the assorted stages and displays. There was music playing, low, strange music, like traditional western european classical music and house music had a baby, the phrase 'speed harp' and 'electric violin' could be used liberally. There were fae of all kinds around, totally human-ish looking Fae like Sammi, massive ogres and giant-kin, strange creatures with bodies that just don't seem physically possible, even some that looked like living dolls or robots milling around, all socializing and making liberal use of the trays of food and drinks being passed around...\n\nStanding at the doors of the elevator was a young woman, human looking, dressed as a rather traditional human clown, if not for the fact that she reeked of glamour you'd almost think she was a human raver who just got very lost... \"Hey guys!\" she says cheerfully, not seeming to care at all that the newcomers were a gaggle of children from all across the magical world. \"Welcome to the circus!\"\n\nDawn grins widely, \"Oh this is gonna be a fun night…\" she cackles, heading off into the crowd as she tugs off her sock hat and pulls her tail out of her jeans. No need to hide it here after all. Simoni feels the sudden rush of glamour herself, finding it makes her feel rather lightheaded, as if she was slightly drunk. Stephy seems unaffected, but then he's used to glamour by now and has his own defenses... but Lupe... oh dear the poor wolf has no way to block that. She's already changed back into her half-human form, rolling on the floor and grinning a dopey dog-like grin as the magical energies overwhelms her simpler mind.\n\nSammi just smirks, reaching into his pocket, \"Here guys.\" he says, passing out what looks like small pale blue plastic wristbands. \"This’ll keep you guys from getting scooped up.\" he explains, helping Lupe get her’s on, \"I'll know if something weird happens, so will Stephy, and it should dampen any teleportation or the like.\" he teases. Arja seemed to be resisting well, though she was grinning a bit more, shifting into her monkey hybrid form. Trixie, oddly, seemed perfectly fine as she slid her wristband on...\n\n\"So, first time here I take it?\" the clown girl smiles to the group.\n\nSimoni shivers a bit as her wristband goes on, but nods, \"Yeah... bit of a rush the first time isn't it?\" she asks. She can't change forms with the wristband on... but her movements do seem to have a bit more of a birdlike nature to them as her magical half becomes more dominant from all the glamour. She finds that she cocks her head a bit more often, and has an urge to groom her feathers... which at the moment she doesn't have. Lupe on the other hand is still acting rather doglike, panting and wagging her tail as she sniffs at everything.\n\nThe clown nods, \"Mhm, it can be, just keep calm and everything should be fine.\" she says happily, \"I'm Chloe, I can show you guys around the place if you like?\"\n\nSimoni nods to that, Stephy sticking close to Sammi as Lupe just kinda stumbles along behind them, still all punch drunk. They occasionally see Dawn as the clown fae guides them around, the girl teleporting around and just soaking up the atmosphere. Such a hectic and high-magic party must almost feel like being in Wonderland, and Simoni idly wonders if its possible to get homesick for a place you'd never actually been to.\n\nChloe giggles as she leads the group past a pair of two headed fae doing body shots off each other... \"Well glad you came, tonight's the last night so all the big headlines are here. What are you in the mood for? Freak show? Stunts? Acrobatics? Or something a little wilder?\"\n\nSimoni shrugs, \"I doubt a freak show, even a fae one, would be weirder than anything we normally see.\" she replies, \"What do you guys think?\" she asks, turning to Arja and the others.\n\nSammi grins, \"Yea 'freak shows' for Fae are less 'look at this deformed person' and more 'check out this really weird or creepy talent.'\" he teases, Chloe nodding as Arja giggles, \"Acrobatics sounds like a fun start, kinda universal right?\"\n\nSimoni nods, though she wonders if they'd be able to outdo Arja in that one. She'd seen the girl pull off some stunts that even a fully animal monkey would be hard pressed to perform... though she wouldn't say -where- she'd seen those stunts. Still, it explained where the Karma Sutra came from. \"Sounds good.\" she replies, giggling a bit at the idea as they follow Chloe over to the acrobatics show.\n\nChloe nods, leading the group over to a larger center stage where a quintet of identical women were standing around a long pole sticking out of the middle of the stage. All of them were dressed in snug black and red diamond leotards. They had pale skin, and jet black eyes... six of them in fact, with long black hair tied into ponytails. Their limbs were long and spindly, looking very unnatural on their normal sized bodies. With a wide smile on all of their faces they bow to the crowd before climbing up the pole in a line, quickly.\n\nSimoni leans into Arja, watching the show as Stephy tilts his head, \"Huh, kinda reminds me of these things I saw in a game store once...\" he murmurs, then shrugs it off and watches with the group. Lupe flops across Sammi's feet, still all derpy from the glamour herself as the show continues. As they watch Dawn wanders back over, licking off her claws which have a rather disturbingly familiar silvery sheen to them. \"Hey guys, some spring court something or other got a bit too touchy feely.\"\n\nChloe just smirks a bit as the women start to leap off the pole, each firing a strand of shimmering golden thread from their hand, like spider silk, their free hand grabbing one of the other girls as they began to swing and dance around the pole, flipping and ducking and diving as they shoot their webs, eventually forming an elaborate round spider web using the pole as its core and the stage and roof above as the base...\n\nSimoni shivers a bit at the sight. She's never been one hundred percent sure how she felt about spiders... and spider fae just confused matters even more. Dawn seems impressed, though she also seems to be trying not to look too closely at the spider web infront of her. A cat and thread tends to have only one outcome and despite her love of chaos she doesn't want to get the group thrown out just yet.\n\nSammi grins, looking back to the group, \"Beastfolk.\" he says, \"Everything from big tough minotaurs to interesting creatures like this.\" he says before a green light suddenly turns on in an adjacent stage, revealing a tall, red headed, woman with eyes that were entirely bright green. She raises her hands up, the arms and hands soon shifting into sharp looking mantis blades. \"Or that…\" he adds, raising a brow at the sight.\n\nSimoni would have almost mistook her for one of her own relatives at first... though once the girl reveals her arms Simoni is behind Arja so quickly you'd think Dawn teleported her there. Spiders she's not sure about but mantis? Yes, those she's very sure about where she stands... and she stands behind someone who can use fire. \"Meep.\"\n\nChloe smiles to Simoni, \"Don't worry sweetie, these are performers first and foremost, they'd never try to hurt anyone in the crowd.\" she nods as the mantis woman, without a word, sprouts a pair of long, transparent, bug wings from her spine and leaps at the web, making an elegant slashing motion and severing multiple strands at once, making a hole for her to jump through as the spider girls quickly go to work fixing their web.\n\nDawn's eye twitches at that, the cat seeming to have quite a bit of difficulty now as the show continues. The mantis woman showing off how sharp her blades are as the spiders quickly repair and rebuild wherever she hits. \"I know, just... meep.\" she replies. Simoni sees a lot of strange things, but sometimes a girl is just going to be uncomfortable around bugs.\n\nChloe nods, patting Simoni's head as Arja giggles, clearly enjoying the show herself as she wraps an arm around Simoni's waist. The mantis makes another leap, this time she's intercepted by one of the spiders, spraying her web over the other woman and yanking her into the web, her sisters quickly descending on her, opening their mouths to reveal the multiple rows of sharp looking teeth...\n\nDawn barely notices, still staring at the shiny golden threads... glistening and twitching even more as the mantis woman struggles... Simoni is too transfixed to notice her reactions until... well... \"MINEMINEMINE!\" yowls the cat as she suddenly pounces on a lose hanging thread, grabbing it in her teeth and claws as her tail swishes frantically. She may be able to think like a human, but a cat is a cat and certain reactions are just built in.\n\nChloe giggles, the crowd breaking into laughter as the spiders and mantis both look down, more amused than annoyed. Luckily Dawn pulls one of the mostly severed threads, the web remains just fine as the cat gets a mouthful of sticky golden spider silk that's absolutely pumped to the brim with glamour... It seems audience participation is not exactly unheard of here, as long as the act itself isn't messed up the bouncers don't seem to care, a couple other feline fae taking Dawn's cue and leaping for their own web strands to play with, apparently just as pent up as her in those desires as the girls on the web begin rather elaborate stage fighting, really more doing flips and twists using the web strands than anything obviously.\n\nDawn dangles in midair for a bit, growling and pulling on the thread before falling with a sudden yelp as it snaps landing in a heap on the ground as she snaps out of her sudden burst of feline behavior. She looks at the spider silk in her mouth, then pulls it out and spits a few times before vanishing from the stage and reappearing on Arja's shoulders in her fully animal form, looking surly. \"Not. One. Word. Any of you.\" she grumbles, folding her ears.\n\nSammi giggles softly, patting Dawn, \"No, never.\" he teases as the spiders finally 'catch' the mantis, one shoving her against the web firmly, grinning wickedly as her sisters begin binding her in place, spread eagle on the web...\n\nStephy blushes a bit, he can see where this is going. Seems some members of the Spring Court may have made more than a few suggestions about how this next act should go. \"Oh jeez, we might have to try that sometime Trixie...\" he giggles, then blinks as he looks around, \"... Trixie?\" he says, \"Um, guys? Where'd Trixie go?\"\n\nSammi giggles at the show, licking his lips a bit \"It's fine, her bracelet didn't go off.\" he says before looking over, blinking a bit as he looks at his wrist, seeing that it now had a bracelet on it, he never put one on himself or gave one to his brother, being fae themselves they didn't need one, \"Uh... ok... problem...\" he mutters.\n\nSimoni blinks, pulling herself away from the sort of sight one might find on the more weird parts of the internet around three in the morning after several shots of something. \"What?\" she asks, Lupe even sitting up a bit and looking at him curiously, though still pretty buzzed from the glamour.\n\nSammi looks around, but there's no sign of Trixie anywhere in the group around them, \"Fuck, ok fan out maybe she just got distracted by another stage...\" he says, Arja frowning, \"Not like her to just wander off though...\"\n\nStephy nods, looking worried. He knew someone like Sera wouldn't hurt her, but there were a -lot- of fae besides Sera, and many of them not only would harm her, but would see absolutely nothing wrong with it. Some of the True Fae were indeed like the old 'good fairy' or 'fairy godmother' types... but there were still the ones that inspired the bad kinds of stories. Violent redcaps, man-eating ogres, and haughty fae lords and ladies who delighted in the kind of acts that would make Paale reach for the chill pills. To them, humans were a commodity, a plaything, and... more than anything else... disposable.\n\nChloe blinks, \"Did you lose someone?\" she asks, looking at the group and doing a quick count, \"Oh yes, you're short one... alright well naturally we're happy to help look.\" she says before suddenly shouting out, \"LOCKDOWN!\" \n\nThe performers suddenly coming to a stop, the elevator the group came in from seeming to vanish into the wall, the bouncers, fae in what looks like very real shiny silver chainmail with swords and clubs on their belts, start walking through the crowds to the group...\n\nStephy relaxes a bit at that. These were changelings of course and, while he and his brother were on good terms with one of the True Fae, many of them are escaped slaves. They had their revels and their parties but they all knew that there was the chance that one of their 'keepers' could come looking for them, and they took their security and their freedom very seriously. \"Yeah, blonde haired girl, kinda tomboyish. Blue eyes, American... she answers to Trixie or Tex.\" he replies, careful not to say her full true name aloud. After all, no telling who could be listening in.\n\nChloe nods, \"We'll sweep the area, see what we find.\" she says, leading the bouncers through the crowd. The Summer Court was free and expressive, but they were also the bulk of the fae 'military' as it were. When fae walked the hedge to guide newly free Changelings away from their keeper it was usually a Summer Court crest behind them, the last thing even the most libertine member would accept would be someone vanishing from one of their events...\n\nSimoni nods and slips her wristband off, transferring it to her ankle as she changes forms, Stephy doing so with her as both take to the air, scanning the room for her. The problem is that it was like trying to spot someone at a Halloween Party... at Times Square New York. The trick wasn't looking for someone who stood out, but trying to find the one person amongst all the people who looked like elves, knockers, pookahs, piskies, boggans, and other fae who looked normal! Not the easiest of tasks even with a literal bird's eye view.\n\nOn the ground, and after some rather forceful pushing from Dawn, Lupe managed to shake off the glamour-drunkenness enough to sniff around, trying to pick up Trixie's scent.\n\nTrixie's scent wasn't anywhere to be found, the area around the stage smelled like her, where she followed the group, but then it just... vanishes. The bouncers are still searching, stopping basically any human looking blond to check if they matched.\n\nLupe sniffs all around the area where it disappears, then she barks several times in a row. Its the signal she worked out with Nelen and Natasha that basically means 'Lupe found something, get over here!'.\n\n Simoni and Stephy glide down to where she is as Dawn appears nearby, Lupe rrfing as she sniffs at the floor. \"Boy-girl smell here... but then stop.\" she nods, rubbing at her nose a bit, \"Smell... something fairy too... but dunno what.\" she whines, folding her ears. The whole damn building smelled like fae, it'd be hard for even her nose to pick out a specific one.\n\nSammi frowns, but rubs Lupe's ears \"Good work Lupe\" he says, looking around as, nearby, one of the bouncers is whispering into Chloe's ear...\n\nDawn looks over at the fae clown, raising her eyebrow, \"Something happened didn't it?\" she asks... though she doesn't really need to. She heard most of what the bouncer said, big sensitive cat ears and all. \"What did you find out?\"\n\nChloe was frowning at the bouncer, \"Are you fucking kidding me?\" she whispers back, her cheery voice gone as she sighs angrily, walking to the group, \"Well, good news, she's perfectly safe... mostly... at the very least no one dangerous grabbed her... that dangerous...\"\n\nStephy frowns, \"Dangerous is a really relative term with us...\" he replies, frost starting to form on his hair and eyelashes. It shows just how nervous he's getting. He's been practicing a lot to learn to control his fae aspect, and if he's slipping like this then he's really getting anxious. \"Where is she? Who took her?\" he says, his breath coming out in an icy cloud.\n\nSammi rubs the boy's shoulders softly, trying to calm him down before he started an ice storm in the building. \"Well,\" replies Chloe, \"She's with the summer court, so we know she's safe but she's with... kinda a splinter group. Apparently one of their agents grabbed her. They're not VIOLENT or anything but they're kinda... radicals? She's safe but... we should probably get her back, it's just bad for everyone if they get to pretend they're genuine by having a high profile 'hostage', that just means the court has to pretend they're meaningful and family or not she's still a bargaining chip and... oop...\"\n\nStephy blinks, tilting his head, \"Wait... radicals? You mean like those bridge burning lunatics who torch the trods into the hedge or those suicidal guys who want to storm Arcadia?\" he asks, Sammi suddenly finding his own hands coating in frost as Stephy gets more worked up, \"Why would they grab her!? She's human, not a fae or a changling!\" he demands, his eyes flashing from blue to a dark battleship gray, the same gray as the clouds right before a blizzard.\n\nChloe holds her hands out defensively, \"Easy, easy! Technically yes, TECHNICALLY but really the Iron Spike is like, a tiny group, they're hardly out blowing up hedge walls or anything, really it's just one family...\" she pauses when he says she's human, \"You... you do know she has fae blood in her family, right? This is her family. Well a step removed, the side who stayed in England...\"\n\nStephy's hair has almost turned pure white by the time she mentions the Iron Spike, the name definitely not sounding friendly to any fae like himself, but then he freezes at what comes after, his icy mein faltering, \"Wait... what?\" he blinks, almost shocked back to normal for a moment. \"She... she's part fae?\" he asks, Lupe blinking and looking rather surprised herself. As far as her nose could tell Trixie was as human as human got. Even Dawn looks surprised by this, \"Huh... her dreams were always pretty vivid... but I just assumed she had a big imagination or something.\" she mutters.\n\nChloe explains, \"I mean, in the sense that like... a human is 'part monkey', you know? There are two branches of her family that split off long ago, they both came from a changeling line but only one wanted to keep the traditions, she's, obviously, from the side who wanted to go their own way. Her fae blood is VERY faint, it's practically not there.\" \n\nSammi blinks a bit, but nods \"Ooooh, that explains why she was so quick to learn magic... Yea a lot of magicians have SOME kinda strange ancestor buried in the family tree, the blood just needs some kinda 'spark' to really tap into things... Huh, neat.\" he comments, sounding much calmer now as he rubs Stephy's shoulders, \"Stephy, sweetie, if she's with family she's safe, right?\"\n\nStephy takes a few breaths, then frowns, \"Sammi, what was my last name before I joined your family?\" he retorts, a hint of ice in his voice. Given his human father and grandfather he knows better than to assume that family meant safe. He turns back to Chloe and folds his arms over his chest, his eyes still flashing blue and his skin cool to the touch, \"Well, tell me about this 'Iron Spike' then.\" he demands.\n\nChloe sighs softly, \"The Iron Spike is a radical faction of the Summer Court, they believe we should be fighting the true Fae more aggressively, revenge on the keepers, violent liberation, all that. They also think we should forge alliances with mortals and others who are able to use iron weapons, basically a nuclear option of sending in a bunch of mortals with cold iron knives to hack through the hedge and get to the true fae lords. It's... not a popular movement for many reasons. Like I said it's mainly one family, and even then I'm giving them WAY too much credit making them sound like some fairy IRA...\"\n\nStephy nods, \"Sounds like they kinda are some fairy IRA.\" he replies, \"Besides, I doubt a bunch of humans armed with iron daggers would do much in Arcadia.\" he snorts, \"Right. Where are they then? I've got some allies of my own who can use iron and one who'd probably love an excuse to have a nice -bloody- fight with some fae.\" he grins wickedy, frost forming on him again. Dawn steps back a bit as Lupe even lets out a low whimper. Stephy may be the cute friendly boy most of the time, but if someone tries to take or hurt someone he cares about now... well... now he can do something about it, and nothing like being powerless against people like that for years to give one a really nasty streak towards those who pull stunts like this.\n\nChloe blinks as Sammi kisses Stephy's cheek, \"Hey, shhhh, it's ok, this doesn't need to be a big war, we can just get her back.\" he says in a soft tone, petting the boy's head as Chloe nods a bit, \"They're in England, their territory is a few miles out from Dorset lines. I can send a messenger ahead to tell them you're coming if you want.\"\n\nAt that Simoni looks a bit nervous, \"England?\" she winces. That was a bit too close to, say, someone who really wanted to do horrible things to them right now... however at a sudden, and both figuratively and literally icy, glare from Stephy she quickly amends it with, \"W-well, guess we'd better get Arja's plane ready to fly! Can't leave Trixie at the hands of some crazy fae militia!\" she nods quickly with a nervous giggle.\n\nChloe nods, motioning at one of the bouncers, \"Send word to the Iron Spike that the girl's lover is coming with is friends and brother to negotiate release.\" she says, the man bowing at that before Sammi speaks up, \"And we're coming as representatives of our grandmother, Sera of the frozen sky, queen of winter's bite and one of the heads of the winter court, that should keep them from doing anything stupid... plus it will piss grandma off that we're using her official titles for something like this.\" he grins a bit.\n\nDawn gives a sidelong glance at Stephy, \"Yes, 'negotiate'. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of 'negotiating' going on.\" she mutters, thinking that the only negotiation would be 'I can make your entire body cold enough to freeze oxygen. Let my friend go or I turn you into the world's most realistic ice sculpture'. Stephy didn't grin back at his fae brother, rather the young transvestite looked every inch the furious fae princess right now.\n\nArja sighs, but nods, \"Ok, let's be careful though, we're going right into Franklin's back yard, I'd like it if you didn't draw his attention by being on the fae warpath, ok Stephy?\" she says in a soft voice, not trying to sound angry but putting enough firmness to make it clear that wasn't exactly a request, \"Sammi invoked your family, nothing's going to happen to her unless they want to start a war between courts.\" Chloe nods there, \"And I assure you the Summer Court would eagerly take the chance to cut them lose and let them get crushed in that case.\"\n\nDawn nods, then thinks, \"Hum... about that 'drawing attention' bit...\" she taps her chin, then pulls out Simoni's smartphone from her own jean's pocket as she begins to put her pants back on, getting ready to disguise herself before the group heads back out among the mundanes. Simoni blinks, then pats down her pockets as Dawn grins, pressing Nelen's button, \"Heya Wizzo, look we got a situation here, I'll give you the full details when we get back but... you remember that one guy, the one we got out of that Cheron Group lab back in San Antonio who hopped the first boat to Japan? Didn't he set up shop near here?\" she asks, listening to Nelen's response with a grin, \"Goooooood. He still owes us for busting him out right? I think we're gonna pay him a visit.\" she nods, then tosses the phone to Simoni, who frowns at her before tucking it into her own pocket.\n\nSammi raises a brow as he walks with the group, \"And what was that about?\"\n\nDawn just grins, \"Oh, a while back Nelen and I helped out someone who'd gotten caught by the Cheron Group, yanno that big corporation that does all that stuff with medicine and such. Turns out a good chunk of their 'medical miracles' are harvested from supernatural sources. Nelen and I were doing a bit of corporate espionage... well, more smash, grab, and run before the guards show up, and we wound up helping one of their lab guys/test subjects escape. He owes us now.\" she smirks, heading out of the building as she looks around. \"Lets see... last he'd heard he was operating fairly close to here... Might need to hop a train though.\" she nods, heading towards the train station.\n\nArja nods, \"Well whatever gets us there quick and easy\" she says, Sammi nodding as well \"Yea, Stephy's about an hour away from nuclear winter I think...\" she says, Nessa sighing softly and getting her phone \"Should I call Alice to meet us somewhere?\"\n\nDawn shakes her head, \"Nah, this guy isn't dangerous... but he is pretty wei-...\" she pauses, looking back at the group, then shrugs, \"Well, he's not what we're used to anyways.\" she nods, \"We should be fine on our own for this one, just gotta make sure he keeps up his end of the deal we made for releasing him.\" she smirks as they board one of the trains heading downtown. \n\n\"He was in charge of their tech sector, worked on machines that would help medical patients but, well, also help Cheron's boys in the field whenever they needed to, say, hunt down a pack of werewolves to harvest whatever makes them heal so damn fast.\" she nods as Lupe, now disguised as a human again, lets out a low growl at the idea of being 'harvested'.\n\nSammi nods, \"Huh, weird, well glad you got him out, that's pretty fucked up even for hunters... no offence for Stephy's friend of course.\"\n\nDawn smirks, \"Well we didn't do it for free. Thats how mercenaries work, you want something you gotta pay for it... either in cash or in favors.\" she nods, getting out of the train once it gets to it's stop... \"Oh, and before we get too close...\" she smacks Stephy upside the head, \"KNOCK IT OFF!\" she hisses, \"This guy can't sense magic, but he has machines that can detect it and if you keep up the 'dark fae queen of winter' bullshit he'll see us coming and run for the hills.\" she frowns at him, Stephy adjusting his glasses and glaring back, but managing to force his fae nature back down, at least for now.\n\nSammi nods, wrapping his arms around his brother as they walk, \"It'll be ok, don't worry, you showing up all stressed and angry would just make it worse. Fae have a very delicate way of doing things for this, if you storm in all blizzardy you could make things go south.\"\n\nStephy sighs as he leans into his brother and nods, \"Yeah... I know... Just worried about her...\" he mutters as Dawn rolls her eyes at the pair of them.\n\nShe leads the group off through the streets until they come to... well, what looks like a video game store for the hardcore otaku crowd. Lots of game systems in the windows, lots of classic items on display, and so on. \"Here we go, this is the place.\" she nods, walking inside and heading up to the counter. Standing there is a smiling young woman who is the spitting image of Sakura from the Street Fighter games. She says something in Japanese to which Dawn replies, \"Yeah yeah, go tell your boss that the guys who helped him out in San Antonio are calling in their favor.\" she smirks.\n\nThe woman looks confused at this, trying to say something else, until Dawn sighs, \"Look. He knows we're here, he knows who I am, and he knows who my partner is even if he's not here himself. Now go get the little horny bastard or I'll stand outside and eyeball everyone who comes past until he's got a riot on his front porch.\"\n\nArja raises a brow as she looks around the store, \"Neat place.\" she comments, looking at a display of vintage Street Fighter machines through the eras, \"Wonder how much it'd cost to ship this…\" she mumbles as she looks at the turbo edition machine. She seems fairly calm for the situation as Sammi keeps rubbing his brother's sides, whispering softly to him in French to soothe him.\n\nThe woman hesitates for a moment before the back door opens and... nobody comes out. However, a rather gruff sounding voice can be heard. \"Alright alright! Freaking catgirl I hear ya!\" it snaps. There's a sound of something moving behind the counter and then a scraping noise as a wooden stool is dragged across the floor. A few grunts are heard and, after a moment, a small brown paw appears over the edge of the counter as a strange creature climbs up onto the countertop.\n\nIt looks to all the world like a two foot tall bipedal rabbit with brown fur, a longer and much shaggier patch covering it's muzzle almost akin to a beard, and huge floppy ears that are longer than it is tall, dragging behind it as it moves. It has beady black eyes and is wearing a small toolbelt around it's waist, along with a pair of goggles currently hanging loose around it's neck. A long-stemmed pipe is stuck in it's mouth as well, the scent coming from it seeming to be a richer sort of tobacco... but the most interesting feature for this already bizarre creature is coming out of it's forehead. A long, spiraling, slightly curved horn that shines a pale blue in the light of the store. \"Right, knew you'd come ta collect someday. Where's that human who ya was taggin' along with?\" he asks, surveying the room, \"He start up some sorta daycare service?\"\n\nArja blinks a bit as she sees the rabbit, \"Well...d idn't expect that\" she says as she looks to Sammi, who shrugs \"Some kinda fae or something?\" he says, eyeing the strange horn from the rabbit's head before explaining the situation to him. \"And for the record, if anything I started the daycare.\" Arja huffs.\n\nDawn grins at her, \"Nope. This is what happens when a Charon scientist either gets bored or loses a bet.\" she replies as the creature frowns at her. \"Guys, this is the U N One L Zero P. He was the test subject for full body transfers, putting someone's brain in somebody else's body. He says he used to be one of their top scientists who wound up in a car accident or something and, well, they had this Al-Miraj in their lab already... so they gave it a shot. He wanted out when he realized he was probably worth more to them on the dissection table then alive.\"\n\nThe creature huffs at her, \"Sure sure, tell everyone why don'tcha?\" he snaps, \"Alright, look. You guys are here for a reason and I'm guessin' its not because you're lookin' fer a Sega Saturn so out with it. I get twitchy when I'm not in my backroom and last I heard Cheron is looking fer Kitsune tails so there's probably a few operatives in the area. I don't want none of 'em finding me.\"\n\nArja frowns, \"Remind me to make sure any Cheron branch in India gets burned down.\" she mumbles to Simoni before Sammi speaks up, \"Dawn says you're good at moving people under radars long distances?\"\n\nHe smirks, \"I'm still here ain't I?\" he replies, \"Depends on how many and where ya tryin ta get to... um, hang on.\" he reaches into his toolbelt and pulls out a remote, pressing a few buttons. A sound like a mario coin comes from the girl behind the register as she moves out from behind it, locks the front door, and puts up the closed sign. \"Thats better.\" he nods, \"Anyways, yeah. What exactly you lookin' for? Something ta cancel out yer magical signature, complete stealth and concealment, or just something to make a really big distraction somewhere else?\" he asks, pressing another button. The girl makes a noise like a windows operating system shutting down, then slumps down to the floor.\n\nSammi nods, \"First one, we need to get to England, Dorset, without Clan Fullmoon taking notice... kinda some bad blood there but we're pressed for time, have a very important meeting to get to ASAP and all. We need to get in quick and quiet.\"\n\nThe creature takes a long draw on it's pipe, \"Hmm... so ya just need to stay off their radar... well, Clan Fullmoon ain't the magic detectin' types, but ya probably don't wanna set anyone else off who might squeal to 'em either...\" he mutters, \"Got somethin' that might help.\" he nods, climbing back down off of the counter and waddling back into the backroom, then coming out with several objects that look like anti-static wristbands, the kind one might use to work on a computer, but with odd markings on the bands and a line of what looks like some sort of silver along the inside. \"Here, made these a bit ago, hides a magical signature completely...\" he nods, tossing one to Arja.\n\nArja nods before jerking her head to Lupe, \"That gonna be ok for her? Werewolf, we wanna be stealthy but I'd rather Lupe keep her hands.\" she says as she slips hers on.\n\nDawn looks at it, then frowns at the rabbit as he glances away and puffs more on his pipe, \"Well, there is a tiiiiiiiiiiiny catch... See, the magical hidin' thing is only a side effect.\" he says as Arja suddenly feels a chill running through her entire body. \"Technically they're magic SEALIN' bracelets. So long as ya wear one, yer mundane. Stops as soon as ya take it off tho'.\" he nods, \"Look, its what I got. This'll trick Clan Fullmoon inta ignoring ya if they got anyone watchin' the airports 'n such. I made 'em for these guys who were huntin' down some rogue pack of yokai but... well... they got tired of waitin' and went after 'em without the stuff.\" he nods.\n\nDawn nods, \"That was dumb.\" she mutters as the rabbit-creature lets out a low chuckle, \"Yeah, had a lovely funeral service from what I heard.\"\n\nArja shudders as she suddenly feels mortal again, feeling that same void the mundane blade left behind \"Yea... not a fan of this at all... let's move fast.\"\n\nSimoni nods, eyeing it suspiciously as Stephy holds his between his thumb and forefinger like how a woman in an old sitcom might hold a dead rat. The rabbit notices him and laughs, \"Oh calm the hell down fairyboy. Its silver, not iron.\" he taunts as Dawn twirls her's on a fingertip. \"Guess Nelen and I are gonna sit this one out then. Sealing our magic tends to be fatal.\" she nods, tossing the wristband she had over to Simoni. \"Though, if it's silver then that means Lupe is stuck too.\" she nods, glancing at the werewolf who was hiding behind Sammi, peering out at the wristbands with folded ears and a low whine.\n\nNessa nods, \"Same here, not exactly fatal but blood magic keeps my hands moving after all those scars, I lose that and I'm helpless. So Lupe, kitty, Nelen, and I will be staying behind I suppose.\" \n\nSammi nods at that, \"To be perfectly honest the smaller the group the better, if we show up with a big army behind us they could get the wrong message, no offence.\"\n\nDawn shrugs, \"Oh no. The cat will have to stay home and nap instead of go stare down the wicked fae militia. However will she cope.\" she smirks as Lupe frowns, but decides that someone should stay behind and protect her 'alpha-bat'... or at least thats what she settles on in her head. \"Right, well, guess these'll do.\" she nods, standing up and dusting her jeans off, \"We're done here then.\" she nods as the rabbit takes the remote out and turns his helper girl back on.\n\n\"Good, great, grand, get out.\" he huffs, \"Oh, and watch yer asses if you run into Cheron you two.\" he says, gesturing to Stephy and Sammi, \"Fairy blood is about the most potent painkiller they ever found. They'd be on you worse than a whole coterie of vamps.\" he grins around his pipe, then has the girl unlock the door long enough for the group to leave before she firmly locks it up again.\n\nAs they leave Simoni mutters under her breath, \"Ewe enn one...\" she mutters, then frowns, \"Unilop?\" she asks as Dawn shrugs, \"Hey, if the shoe fits...\"\n\nArja chuckles softly, shaking her head, \"Lovely guy.\" she says as she looks around, fiddling with the bracelet uncomfortably, \"We good to go?\"\n\nSimoni nods, still having yet to put her's on. \"I guess so... um... we can probably wait to actually use them until we're getting close to England Arja.\" she nods, Stephy still hesitant to try on his own as well as Dawn raises her eyebrow at him, whispering to Arja. \"Jeez, he's really freaking out about Trixie getting nabbed. I mean we were just confronted by a talking unicorn-rabbit hybrid and not even so much as a squee from him...\"\n\nArja nods, pulling hers off, \"Well, I'd be climbing the walls if Simoni got nabbed, even if it was by other garuda.\" she whispers as Sammi rubs Stephy's back softly.\n\nSimoni gives Arja's hand a squeeze, \"Yeah, well... the other garuda wouldn't necessarily want me for... bad reasons. I mean the 'Iron Spike' doesn't exactly sound fae-friendly and... well... if they know that Trixie is with someone who's friendly to one of the True Fae...\" she gestures to Stephy, \"Yeah...\"\n\nArja nods, \"Let's move fast, then.\" she says, squeezing back as Sammi nods \"How are we getting there? I could just open an Arcadia gate if we're moving in a small group.\"\n\nSimoni thinks, \"Might not be a bad idea. Lets head back and get together everyone who's going to head on there, then the rest of us can take the plane to England and meet up. Hopefully we won't have to fight these guys to get Trixie back... I mean, if they are family then there's nothing saying they're as crazy-dysfunctional as Clan Fullmoon...\" she nods, to which Dawn says, \"Except that they're escaped changeling slaves and are probably more than a bit crazy by default from that.\"\n\nSimoni sighs and nods, rolling her eyes, \"Well, yeah... there's that...\"\n\nSammi nods, \"Alright, let's roll fast then. Winter and Summer don't interact a bunch so I don't know them proper but groups like them tend to be more bark than bite. Still, more time means more simmering emotions...\"\n\nStephy nods firmly at that, \"Yeah. Lets get going.\" he says, idly toying with the wristband. Almost a year ago Trixie had saved him from a gang of bullies at his school when he still believed himself to be a powerless mundane runt of Clan Fullmoon. Now it's time for him to return the favor...\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"Its been a couple days since the fighting tournament and Alice's appearance, Stephy finding every excuse he could to stay around the blind woman. It seems the little fairy-turned-faerie really missed her. Currently Lupe is chewing on a rawhide bone (tenth so far this week) while Simoni, Arja, and a few of the others are watching anime on TV, Dawn lazily draped over the back of the couch. Nelen is checking in with Edwood who's currently standing guard back in India, but apparently all is quiet over there for the time being.
"So... how long are we staying Arja?" asks Simoni, snuggling into the monkey girl's arm.
Arja shrugs softly, "Should be leaving soonish, for once this is a real vacation and not a diplomatic trip so we can be a lil’ fluid with time tables and enjoying the scenery." Sammi grins wide as he walks in at that, as if waiting for that cue, "Speaking of, I have just the scenery for us to enjoy today! You guys are gonna love this…" he nods, holding what looks like a rather old parchment scroll in his hand...
Dawn sits up on her elbows, raising an eyebrow, "Huh, smells like glamour to me blondie." she replies with a suspicious tone in her voice, Lupe sniffing at it and then huffing as she sneezes. "Smell like old stuff." she shrugs, but she can't smell magic like Dawn can. "What does it do?" asks Simoni curiously as Nelen wanders back into the room, plopping down in the large easy chair that he more or less claimed when they arrived.
Sammi giggles, flopping on top of Stephy, Alice, and Nessa who were in their own little pile in the corner, unrolling the scroll. "It's fun!" he teases. The writing was strange, shimmering, ink that looks like a mess of scribbles, but Sammi and Stephy both recognize it as a fae language, advertising some kind of Arcadian circus that came to the mortal world, due in Tokyo tonight.
Stephy tilts his head at it, he never actually 'learned' to read Arcadian... it just kind of came with being a changeling now. "Huh, y'know, I don't think I've ever been to a circus before." he comments. Simoni giggles a bit, "Well, it could be fun, what do you think Arja?" she asks as Dawn yawns and stretches out on the back of the couch.
Arja smiles, "Well circuses are fun, and a fae circus could be extra neat. Let's go for it!" she grins, giggling as Trixie raises a brow, "Fae circus? I dunno about that, aren't they kinda known for doing shady stuff with mortals under a friendly guise?"
Stephy giggles a bit, "Well, sometimes... but you'll be okay with me and Sammi there." he nods. After all, if they were under the fae boy's protection then, by extension, they were under Sera's protection... and a fae queen of ice and snow is not someone you'd want angry at you. Simoni looks to Nelen, who shrugs, "Eh, if it was trouble we'd have probably heard about it by now. What the hell."
Trixie shrugs, "I suppose… alright, let's see the circus." Alice giggles a bit at that, "I'll stay here and hold the fort down, circuses are kinda wasted on me." she smirks, looking at Nessa, "You go along though, just in case." she nods, the other girl grinning, "Sure, sounds like fun!"
Stephy pouts at Alice, but does make sure to give her a hug before they go. Nelen decides to hang back as he's not really the type for big crowds, but he convinces Dawn to go with them incase they need a translator. Simoni is, of course, coming and Lupe is on the fence until they mention that there'll probably be horrible circus food like hot dogs and such (after which she's asking when they leave about every five seconds or so). Natasha almost goes with them until Nelen manages to distract her long enough to point out to the others that it's an Arcadian circus and that a vampire there wouldn't be the best of ideas.
Eventually Stephy, Trixie, Dawn, Simoni, Arja, Sammi, Nessa, and Lupe head out together, Stephy and Sammi of course going through the wrought (cold) iron gate back to back again trying to make sure that they don't come into contact with it at all.
Sammi sighs when he gets past the gate, "Man what kinda fae did your sister piss off to put that in, anyway?" He asks as the group walks along. Arja just giggling, "I dunno, cold iron is effective against lots though, it messes ghosts up pretty bad and some demons get burnt when they touch it, it's kinda a good security system." she teases as Sammi huffs, "Yea like putting a bucket with acid in it over your front door..."
Eventually the group gets to the circus, or rather, the large empty office building that the advertisement led them to. The sign out front was new looking, obviously this was an active building that closed down recently. "Old buildings are too obvious" Sammi grins, pushing the lobby door open "The smart fae stick to recent abandons, kinda like hermit crabs."
Simoni couldn't help thinking there were other things that stuck to recently abandoned buildings too... but pushed that thought out of her head as the group went inside. Dawn's eyes shined in the gloom behind her sunglasses, the cat wearing her human disguise of course, as Stephy felt an odd tingling on his neck. This was definitely a place where glamour had been used frequently and recently.
Sammi whistles a happy tune, the lobby was dead silent as they walked through it to the elevators, no sign of life at all. "This'll be fun, fae events are always great... come to think of it you haven't been to any have you Stephy? Just stuck to grandma's lands?" he asks, pushing the scroll up against the elevator, making the door glow softly before opening.
Stephy nods, "Well, haven't had much reason to go anywhere else in Arcadia..." he replies, adding silently 'and plenty of reasons -not- to'. The True Fae don't always get along, and rivalries were the stuff of legends, literally. "So, how crazy are we expecting this to be Sammi?" asks Simoni, raising an eyebrow as the door opens up.
Sammi shrugs, "No clue. The Summer Court is holding it, they're fun but they're kinda bipolar. On one side they're all honor and nobility oldschool, and on the other they're kinda like trust fund kids on vacation, ya know?" he replies as he walks in, the inside having only one button to press. "So either this'll be a calm, respectful, medieval style circus and tournament, or it'll be a fucking crazy party with circus events."
Dawn grins at the mention of the latter, "Well well, guess we'll just have to see won't we!" she purrs, sounding like she's definitely hoping for the latter of the two. Simoni seems more eager for the former, but if only because she's got a pretty good idea of what 'fucking crazy' means for a fae. A party that was crazy by Fairie standards would make a kegger thrown by a mundane frat house look like a little girl's tea party.
The question is rather quickly answered, though, when the doors open, revealing what looks like a massive single room warehouse. The lights were dim, but there were multiple colored lights shining over the assorted stages and displays. There was music playing, low, strange music, like traditional western european classical music and house music had a baby, the phrase 'speed harp' and 'electric violin' could be used liberally. There were fae of all kinds around, totally human-ish looking Fae like Sammi, massive ogres and giant-kin, strange creatures with bodies that just don't seem physically possible, even some that looked like living dolls or robots milling around, all socializing and making liberal use of the trays of food and drinks being passed around...
Standing at the doors of the elevator was a young woman, human looking, dressed as a rather traditional human clown, if not for the fact that she reeked of glamour you'd almost think she was a human raver who just got very lost... "Hey guys!" she says cheerfully, not seeming to care at all that the newcomers were a gaggle of children from all across the magical world. "Welcome to the circus!"
Dawn grins widely, "Oh this is gonna be a fun night…" she cackles, heading off into the crowd as she tugs off her sock hat and pulls her tail out of her jeans. No need to hide it here after all. Simoni feels the sudden rush of glamour herself, finding it makes her feel rather lightheaded, as if she was slightly drunk. Stephy seems unaffected, but then he's used to glamour by now and has his own defenses... but Lupe... oh dear the poor wolf has no way to block that. She's already changed back into her half-human form, rolling on the floor and grinning a dopey dog-like grin as the magical energies overwhelms her simpler mind.
Sammi just smirks, reaching into his pocket, "Here guys." he says, passing out what looks like small pale blue plastic wristbands. "This’ll keep you guys from getting scooped up." he explains, helping Lupe get her’s on, "I'll know if something weird happens, so will Stephy, and it should dampen any teleportation or the like." he teases. Arja seemed to be resisting well, though she was grinning a bit more, shifting into her monkey hybrid form. Trixie, oddly, seemed perfectly fine as she slid her wristband on...
"So, first time here I take it?" the clown girl smiles to the group.
Simoni shivers a bit as her wristband goes on, but nods, "Yeah... bit of a rush the first time isn't it?" she asks. She can't change forms with the wristband on... but her movements do seem to have a bit more of a birdlike nature to them as her magical half becomes more dominant from all the glamour. She finds that she cocks her head a bit more often, and has an urge to groom her feathers... which at the moment she doesn't have. Lupe on the other hand is still acting rather doglike, panting and wagging her tail as she sniffs at everything.
The clown nods, "Mhm, it can be, just keep calm and everything should be fine." she says happily, "I'm Chloe, I can show you guys around the place if you like?"
Simoni nods to that, Stephy sticking close to Sammi as Lupe just kinda stumbles along behind them, still all punch drunk. They occasionally see Dawn as the clown fae guides them around, the girl teleporting around and just soaking up the atmosphere. Such a hectic and high-magic party must almost feel like being in Wonderland, and Simoni idly wonders if its possible to get homesick for a place you'd never actually been to.
Chloe giggles as she leads the group past a pair of two headed fae doing body shots off each other... "Well glad you came, tonight's the last night so all the big headlines are here. What are you in the mood for? Freak show? Stunts? Acrobatics? Or something a little wilder?"
Simoni shrugs, "I doubt a freak show, even a fae one, would be weirder than anything we normally see." she replies, "What do you guys think?" she asks, turning to Arja and the others.
Sammi grins, "Yea 'freak shows' for Fae are less 'look at this deformed person' and more 'check out this really weird or creepy talent.'" he teases, Chloe nodding as Arja giggles, "Acrobatics sounds like a fun start, kinda universal right?"
Simoni nods, though she wonders if they'd be able to outdo Arja in that one. She'd seen the girl pull off some stunts that even a fully animal monkey would be hard pressed to perform... though she wouldn't say -where- she'd seen those stunts. Still, it explained where the Karma Sutra came from. "Sounds good." she replies, giggling a bit at the idea as they follow Chloe over to the acrobatics show.
Chloe nods, leading the group over to a larger center stage where a quintet of identical women were standing around a long pole sticking out of the middle of the stage. All of them were dressed in snug black and red diamond leotards. They had pale skin, and jet black eyes... six of them in fact, with long black hair tied into ponytails. Their limbs were long and spindly, looking very unnatural on their normal sized bodies. With a wide smile on all of their faces they bow to the crowd before climbing up the pole in a line, quickly.
Simoni leans into Arja, watching the show as Stephy tilts his head, "Huh, kinda reminds me of these things I saw in a game store once..." he murmurs, then shrugs it off and watches with the group. Lupe flops across Sammi's feet, still all derpy from the glamour herself as the show continues. As they watch Dawn wanders back over, licking off her claws which have a rather disturbingly familiar silvery sheen to them. "Hey guys, some spring court something or other got a bit too touchy feely."
Chloe just smirks a bit as the women start to leap off the pole, each firing a strand of shimmering golden thread from their hand, like spider silk, their free hand grabbing one of the other girls as they began to swing and dance around the pole, flipping and ducking and diving as they shoot their webs, eventually forming an elaborate round spider web using the pole as its core and the stage and roof above as the base...
Simoni shivers a bit at the sight. She's never been one hundred percent sure how she felt about spiders... and spider fae just confused matters even more. Dawn seems impressed, though she also seems to be trying not to look too closely at the spider web infront of her. A cat and thread tends to have only one outcome and despite her love of chaos she doesn't want to get the group thrown out just yet.
Sammi grins, looking back to the group, "Beastfolk." he says, "Everything from big tough minotaurs to interesting creatures like this." he says before a green light suddenly turns on in an adjacent stage, revealing a tall, red headed, woman with eyes that were entirely bright green. She raises her hands up, the arms and hands soon shifting into sharp looking mantis blades. "Or that…" he adds, raising a brow at the sight.
Simoni would have almost mistook her for one of her own relatives at first... though once the girl reveals her arms Simoni is behind Arja so quickly you'd think Dawn teleported her there. Spiders she's not sure about but mantis? Yes, those she's very sure about where she stands... and she stands behind someone who can use fire. "Meep."
Chloe smiles to Simoni, "Don't worry sweetie, these are performers first and foremost, they'd never try to hurt anyone in the crowd." she nods as the mantis woman, without a word, sprouts a pair of long, transparent, bug wings from her spine and leaps at the web, making an elegant slashing motion and severing multiple strands at once, making a hole for her to jump through as the spider girls quickly go to work fixing their web.
Dawn's eye twitches at that, the cat seeming to have quite a bit of difficulty now as the show continues. The mantis woman showing off how sharp her blades are as the spiders quickly repair and rebuild wherever she hits. "I know, just... meep." she replies. Simoni sees a lot of strange things, but sometimes a girl is just going to be uncomfortable around bugs.
Chloe nods, patting Simoni's head as Arja giggles, clearly enjoying the show herself as she wraps an arm around Simoni's waist. The mantis makes another leap, this time she's intercepted by one of the spiders, spraying her web over the other woman and yanking her into the web, her sisters quickly descending on her, opening their mouths to reveal the multiple rows of sharp looking teeth...
Dawn barely notices, still staring at the shiny golden threads... glistening and twitching even more as the mantis woman struggles... Simoni is too transfixed to notice her reactions until... well... "MINEMINEMINE!" yowls the cat as she suddenly pounces on a lose hanging thread, grabbing it in her teeth and claws as her tail swishes frantically. She may be able to think like a human, but a cat is a cat and certain reactions are just built in.
Chloe giggles, the crowd breaking into laughter as the spiders and mantis both look down, more amused than annoyed. Luckily Dawn pulls one of the mostly severed threads, the web remains just fine as the cat gets a mouthful of sticky golden spider silk that's absolutely pumped to the brim with glamour... It seems audience participation is not exactly unheard of here, as long as the act itself isn't messed up the bouncers don't seem to care, a couple other feline fae taking Dawn's cue and leaping for their own web strands to play with, apparently just as pent up as her in those desires as the girls on the web begin rather elaborate stage fighting, really more doing flips and twists using the web strands than anything obviously.
Dawn dangles in midair for a bit, growling and pulling on the thread before falling with a sudden yelp as it snaps landing in a heap on the ground as she snaps out of her sudden burst of feline behavior. She looks at the spider silk in her mouth, then pulls it out and spits a few times before vanishing from the stage and reappearing on Arja's shoulders in her fully animal form, looking surly. "Not. One. Word. Any of you." she grumbles, folding her ears.
Sammi giggles softly, patting Dawn, "No, never." he teases as the spiders finally 'catch' the mantis, one shoving her against the web firmly, grinning wickedly as her sisters begin binding her in place, spread eagle on the web...
Stephy blushes a bit, he can see where this is going. Seems some members of the Spring Court may have made more than a few suggestions about how this next act should go. "Oh jeez, we might have to try that sometime Trixie..." he giggles, then blinks as he looks around, "... Trixie?" he says, "Um, guys? Where'd Trixie go?"
Sammi giggles at the show, licking his lips a bit "It's fine, her bracelet didn't go off." he says before looking over, blinking a bit as he looks at his wrist, seeing that it now had a bracelet on it, he never put one on himself or gave one to his brother, being fae themselves they didn't need one, "Uh... ok... problem..." he mutters.
Simoni blinks, pulling herself away from the sort of sight one might find on the more weird parts of the internet around three in the morning after several shots of something. "What?" she asks, Lupe even sitting up a bit and looking at him curiously, though still pretty buzzed from the glamour.
Sammi looks around, but there's no sign of Trixie anywhere in the group around them, "Fuck, ok fan out maybe she just got distracted by another stage..." he says, Arja frowning, "Not like her to just wander off though..."
Stephy nods, looking worried. He knew someone like Sera wouldn't hurt her, but there were a -lot- of fae besides Sera, and many of them not only would harm her, but would see absolutely nothing wrong with it. Some of the True Fae were indeed like the old 'good fairy' or 'fairy godmother' types... but there were still the ones that inspired the bad kinds of stories. Violent redcaps, man-eating ogres, and haughty fae lords and ladies who delighted in the kind of acts that would make Paale reach for the chill pills. To them, humans were a commodity, a plaything, and... more than anything else... disposable.
Chloe blinks, "Did you lose someone?" she asks, looking at the group and doing a quick count, "Oh yes, you're short one... alright well naturally we're happy to help look." she says before suddenly shouting out, "LOCKDOWN!"
The performers suddenly coming to a stop, the elevator the group came in from seeming to vanish into the wall, the bouncers, fae in what looks like very real shiny silver chainmail with swords and clubs on their belts, start walking through the crowds to the group...
Stephy relaxes a bit at that. These were changelings of course and, while he and his brother were on good terms with one of the True Fae, many of them are escaped slaves. They had their revels and their parties but they all knew that there was the chance that one of their 'keepers' could come looking for them, and they took their security and their freedom very seriously. "Yeah, blonde haired girl, kinda tomboyish. Blue eyes, American... she answers to Trixie or Tex." he replies, careful not to say her full true name aloud. After all, no telling who could be listening in.
Chloe nods, "We'll sweep the area, see what we find." she says, leading the bouncers through the crowd. The Summer Court was free and expressive, but they were also the bulk of the fae 'military' as it were. When fae walked the hedge to guide newly free Changelings away from their keeper it was usually a Summer Court crest behind them, the last thing even the most libertine member would accept would be someone vanishing from one of their events...
Simoni nods and slips her wristband off, transferring it to her ankle as she changes forms, Stephy doing so with her as both take to the air, scanning the room for her. The problem is that it was like trying to spot someone at a Halloween Party... at Times Square New York. The trick wasn't looking for someone who stood out, but trying to find the one person amongst all the people who looked like elves, knockers, pookahs, piskies, boggans, and other fae who looked normal! Not the easiest of tasks even with a literal bird's eye view.
On the ground, and after some rather forceful pushing from Dawn, Lupe managed to shake off the glamour-drunkenness enough to sniff around, trying to pick up Trixie's scent.
Trixie's scent wasn't anywhere to be found, the area around the stage smelled like her, where she followed the group, but then it just... vanishes. The bouncers are still searching, stopping basically any human looking blond to check if they matched.
Lupe sniffs all around the area where it disappears, then she barks several times in a row. Its the signal she worked out with Nelen and Natasha that basically means 'Lupe found something, get over here!'.
Simoni and Stephy glide down to where she is as Dawn appears nearby, Lupe rrfing as she sniffs at the floor. "Boy-girl smell here... but then stop." she nods, rubbing at her nose a bit, "Smell... something fairy too... but dunno what." she whines, folding her ears. The whole damn building smelled like fae, it'd be hard for even her nose to pick out a specific one.
Sammi frowns, but rubs Lupe's ears "Good work Lupe" he says, looking around as, nearby, one of the bouncers is whispering into Chloe's ear...
Dawn looks over at the fae clown, raising her eyebrow, "Something happened didn't it?" she asks... though she doesn't really need to. She heard most of what the bouncer said, big sensitive cat ears and all. "What did you find out?"
Chloe was frowning at the bouncer, "Are you fucking kidding me?" she whispers back, her cheery voice gone as she sighs angrily, walking to the group, "Well, good news, she's perfectly safe... mostly... at the very least no one dangerous grabbed her... that dangerous..."
Stephy frowns, "Dangerous is a really relative term with us..." he replies, frost starting to form on his hair and eyelashes. It shows just how nervous he's getting. He's been practicing a lot to learn to control his fae aspect, and if he's slipping like this then he's really getting anxious. "Where is she? Who took her?" he says, his breath coming out in an icy cloud.
Sammi rubs the boy's shoulders softly, trying to calm him down before he started an ice storm in the building. "Well," replies Chloe, "She's with the summer court, so we know she's safe but she's with... kinda a splinter group. Apparently one of their agents grabbed her. They're not VIOLENT or anything but they're kinda... radicals? She's safe but... we should probably get her back, it's just bad for everyone if they get to pretend they're genuine by having a high profile 'hostage', that just means the court has to pretend they're meaningful and family or not she's still a bargaining chip and... oop..."
Stephy blinks, tilting his head, "Wait... radicals? You mean like those bridge burning lunatics who torch the trods into the hedge or those suicidal guys who want to storm Arcadia?" he asks, Sammi suddenly finding his own hands coating in frost as Stephy gets more worked up, "Why would they grab her!? She's human, not a fae or a changling!" he demands, his eyes flashing from blue to a dark battleship gray, the same gray as the clouds right before a blizzard.
Chloe holds her hands out defensively, "Easy, easy! Technically yes, TECHNICALLY but really the Iron Spike is like, a tiny group, they're hardly out blowing up hedge walls or anything, really it's just one family..." she pauses when he says she's human, "You... you do know she has fae blood in her family, right? This is her family. Well a step removed, the side who stayed in England..."
Stephy's hair has almost turned pure white by the time she mentions the Iron Spike, the name definitely not sounding friendly to any fae like himself, but then he freezes at what comes after, his icy mein faltering, "Wait... what?" he blinks, almost shocked back to normal for a moment. "She... she's part fae?" he asks, Lupe blinking and looking rather surprised herself. As far as her nose could tell Trixie was as human as human got. Even Dawn looks surprised by this, "Huh... her dreams were always pretty vivid... but I just assumed she had a big imagination or something." she mutters.
Chloe explains, "I mean, in the sense that like... a human is 'part monkey', you know? There are two branches of her family that split off long ago, they both came from a changeling line but only one wanted to keep the traditions, she's, obviously, from the side who wanted to go their own way. Her fae blood is VERY faint, it's practically not there."
Sammi blinks a bit, but nods "Ooooh, that explains why she was so quick to learn magic... Yea a lot of magicians have SOME kinda strange ancestor buried in the family tree, the blood just needs some kinda 'spark' to really tap into things... Huh, neat." he comments, sounding much calmer now as he rubs Stephy's shoulders, "Stephy, sweetie, if she's with family she's safe, right?"
Stephy takes a few breaths, then frowns, "Sammi, what was my last name before I joined your family?" he retorts, a hint of ice in his voice. Given his human father and grandfather he knows better than to assume that family meant safe. He turns back to Chloe and folds his arms over his chest, his eyes still flashing blue and his skin cool to the touch, "Well, tell me about this 'Iron Spike' then." he demands.
Chloe sighs softly, "The Iron Spike is a radical faction of the Summer Court, they believe we should be fighting the true Fae more aggressively, revenge on the keepers, violent liberation, all that. They also think we should forge alliances with mortals and others who are able to use iron weapons, basically a nuclear option of sending in a bunch of mortals with cold iron knives to hack through the hedge and get to the true fae lords. It's... not a popular movement for many reasons. Like I said it's mainly one family, and even then I'm giving them WAY too much credit making them sound like some fairy IRA..."
Stephy nods, "Sounds like they kinda are some fairy IRA." he replies, "Besides, I doubt a bunch of humans armed with iron daggers would do much in Arcadia." he snorts, "Right. Where are they then? I've got some allies of my own who can use iron and one who'd probably love an excuse to have a nice -bloody- fight with some fae." he grins wickedy, frost forming on him again. Dawn steps back a bit as Lupe even lets out a low whimper. Stephy may be the cute friendly boy most of the time, but if someone tries to take or hurt someone he cares about now... well... now he can do something about it, and nothing like being powerless against people like that for years to give one a really nasty streak towards those who pull stunts like this.
Chloe blinks as Sammi kisses Stephy's cheek, "Hey, shhhh, it's ok, this doesn't need to be a big war, we can just get her back." he says in a soft tone, petting the boy's head as Chloe nods a bit, "They're in England, their territory is a few miles out from Dorset lines. I can send a messenger ahead to tell them you're coming if you want."
At that Simoni looks a bit nervous, "England?" she winces. That was a bit too close to, say, someone who really wanted to do horrible things to them right now... however at a sudden, and both figuratively and literally icy, glare from Stephy she quickly amends it with, "W-well, guess we'd better get Arja's plane ready to fly! Can't leave Trixie at the hands of some crazy fae militia!" she nods quickly with a nervous giggle.
Chloe nods, motioning at one of the bouncers, "Send word to the Iron Spike that the girl's lover is coming with is friends and brother to negotiate release." she says, the man bowing at that before Sammi speaks up, "And we're coming as representatives of our grandmother, Sera of the frozen sky, queen of winter's bite and one of the heads of the winter court, that should keep them from doing anything stupid... plus it will piss grandma off that we're using her official titles for something like this." he grins a bit.
Dawn gives a sidelong glance at Stephy, "Yes, 'negotiate'. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of 'negotiating' going on." she mutters, thinking that the only negotiation would be 'I can make your entire body cold enough to freeze oxygen. Let my friend go or I turn you into the world's most realistic ice sculpture'. Stephy didn't grin back at his fae brother, rather the young transvestite looked every inch the furious fae princess right now.
Arja sighs, but nods, "Ok, let's be careful though, we're going right into Franklin's back yard, I'd like it if you didn't draw his attention by being on the fae warpath, ok Stephy?" she says in a soft voice, not trying to sound angry but putting enough firmness to make it clear that wasn't exactly a request, "Sammi invoked your family, nothing's going to happen to her unless they want to start a war between courts." Chloe nods there, "And I assure you the Summer Court would eagerly take the chance to cut them lose and let them get crushed in that case."
Dawn nods, then thinks, "Hum... about that 'drawing attention' bit..." she taps her chin, then pulls out Simoni's smartphone from her own jean's pocket as she begins to put her pants back on, getting ready to disguise herself before the group heads back out among the mundanes. Simoni blinks, then pats down her pockets as Dawn grins, pressing Nelen's button, "Heya Wizzo, look we got a situation here, I'll give you the full details when we get back but... you remember that one guy, the one we got out of that Cheron Group lab back in San Antonio who hopped the first boat to Japan? Didn't he set up shop near here?" she asks, listening to Nelen's response with a grin, "Goooooood. He still owes us for busting him out right? I think we're gonna pay him a visit." she nods, then tosses the phone to Simoni, who frowns at her before tucking it into her own pocket.
Sammi raises a brow as he walks with the group, "And what was that about?"
Dawn just grins, "Oh, a while back Nelen and I helped out someone who'd gotten caught by the Cheron Group, yanno that big corporation that does all that stuff with medicine and such. Turns out a good chunk of their 'medical miracles' are harvested from supernatural sources. Nelen and I were doing a bit of corporate espionage... well, more smash, grab, and run before the guards show up, and we wound up helping one of their lab guys/test subjects escape. He owes us now." she smirks, heading out of the building as she looks around. "Lets see... last he'd heard he was operating fairly close to here... Might need to hop a train though." she nods, heading towards the train station.
Arja nods, "Well whatever gets us there quick and easy" she says, Sammi nodding as well "Yea, Stephy's about an hour away from nuclear winter I think..." she says, Nessa sighing softly and getting her phone "Should I call Alice to meet us somewhere?"
Dawn shakes her head, "Nah, this guy isn't dangerous... but he is pretty wei-..." she pauses, looking back at the group, then shrugs, "Well, he's not what we're used to anyways." she nods, "We should be fine on our own for this one, just gotta make sure he keeps up his end of the deal we made for releasing him." she smirks as they board one of the trains heading downtown.
"He was in charge of their tech sector, worked on machines that would help medical patients but, well, also help Cheron's boys in the field whenever they needed to, say, hunt down a pack of werewolves to harvest whatever makes them heal so damn fast." she nods as Lupe, now disguised as a human again, lets out a low growl at the idea of being 'harvested'.
Sammi nods, "Huh, weird, well glad you got him out, that's pretty fucked up even for hunters... no offence for Stephy's friend of course."
Dawn smirks, "Well we didn't do it for free. Thats how mercenaries work, you want something you gotta pay for it... either in cash or in favors." she nods, getting out of the train once it gets to it's stop... "Oh, and before we get too close..." she smacks Stephy upside the head, "KNOCK IT OFF!" she hisses, "This guy can't sense magic, but he has machines that can detect it and if you keep up the 'dark fae queen of winter' bullshit he'll see us coming and run for the hills." she frowns at him, Stephy adjusting his glasses and glaring back, but managing to force his fae nature back down, at least for now.
Sammi nods, wrapping his arms around his brother as they walk, "It'll be ok, don't worry, you showing up all stressed and angry would just make it worse. Fae have a very delicate way of doing things for this, if you storm in all blizzardy you could make things go south."
Stephy sighs as he leans into his brother and nods, "Yeah... I know... Just worried about her..." he mutters as Dawn rolls her eyes at the pair of them.
She leads the group off through the streets until they come to... well, what looks like a video game store for the hardcore otaku crowd. Lots of game systems in the windows, lots of classic items on display, and so on. "Here we go, this is the place." she nods, walking inside and heading up to the counter. Standing there is a smiling young woman who is the spitting image of Sakura from the Street Fighter games. She says something in Japanese to which Dawn replies, "Yeah yeah, go tell your boss that the guys who helped him out in San Antonio are calling in their favor." she smirks.
The woman looks confused at this, trying to say something else, until Dawn sighs, "Look. He knows we're here, he knows who I am, and he knows who my partner is even if he's not here himself. Now go get the little horny bastard or I'll stand outside and eyeball everyone who comes past until he's got a riot on his front porch."
Arja raises a brow as she looks around the store, "Neat place." she comments, looking at a display of vintage Street Fighter machines through the eras, "Wonder how much it'd cost to ship this…" she mumbles as she looks at the turbo edition machine. She seems fairly calm for the situation as Sammi keeps rubbing his brother's sides, whispering softly to him in French to soothe him.
The woman hesitates for a moment before the back door opens and... nobody comes out. However, a rather gruff sounding voice can be heard. "Alright alright! Freaking catgirl I hear ya!" it snaps. There's a sound of something moving behind the counter and then a scraping noise as a wooden stool is dragged across the floor. A few grunts are heard and, after a moment, a small brown paw appears over the edge of the counter as a strange creature climbs up onto the countertop.
It looks to all the world like a two foot tall bipedal rabbit with brown fur, a longer and much shaggier patch covering it's muzzle almost akin to a beard, and huge floppy ears that are longer than it is tall, dragging behind it as it moves. It has beady black eyes and is wearing a small toolbelt around it's waist, along with a pair of goggles currently hanging loose around it's neck. A long-stemmed pipe is stuck in it's mouth as well, the scent coming from it seeming to be a richer sort of tobacco... but the most interesting feature for this already bizarre creature is coming out of it's forehead. A long, spiraling, slightly curved horn that shines a pale blue in the light of the store. "Right, knew you'd come ta collect someday. Where's that human who ya was taggin' along with?" he asks, surveying the room, "He start up some sorta daycare service?"
Arja blinks a bit as she sees the rabbit, "Well...d idn't expect that" she says as she looks to Sammi, who shrugs "Some kinda fae or something?" he says, eyeing the strange horn from the rabbit's head before explaining the situation to him. "And for the record, if anything I started the daycare." Arja huffs.
Dawn grins at her, "Nope. This is what happens when a Charon scientist either gets bored or loses a bet." she replies as the creature frowns at her. "Guys, this is the U N One L Zero P. He was the test subject for full body transfers, putting someone's brain in somebody else's body. He says he used to be one of their top scientists who wound up in a car accident or something and, well, they had this Al-Miraj in their lab already... so they gave it a shot. He wanted out when he realized he was probably worth more to them on the dissection table then alive."
The creature huffs at her, "Sure sure, tell everyone why don'tcha?" he snaps, "Alright, look. You guys are here for a reason and I'm guessin' its not because you're lookin' fer a Sega Saturn so out with it. I get twitchy when I'm not in my backroom and last I heard Cheron is looking fer Kitsune tails so there's probably a few operatives in the area. I don't want none of 'em finding me."
Arja frowns, "Remind me to make sure any Cheron branch in India gets burned down." she mumbles to Simoni before Sammi speaks up, "Dawn says you're good at moving people under radars long distances?"
He smirks, "I'm still here ain't I?" he replies, "Depends on how many and where ya tryin ta get to... um, hang on." he reaches into his toolbelt and pulls out a remote, pressing a few buttons. A sound like a mario coin comes from the girl behind the register as she moves out from behind it, locks the front door, and puts up the closed sign. "Thats better." he nods, "Anyways, yeah. What exactly you lookin' for? Something ta cancel out yer magical signature, complete stealth and concealment, or just something to make a really big distraction somewhere else?" he asks, pressing another button. The girl makes a noise like a windows operating system shutting down, then slumps down to the floor.
Sammi nods, "First one, we need to get to England, Dorset, without Clan Fullmoon taking notice... kinda some bad blood there but we're pressed for time, have a very important meeting to get to ASAP and all. We need to get in quick and quiet."
The creature takes a long draw on it's pipe, "Hmm... so ya just need to stay off their radar... well, Clan Fullmoon ain't the magic detectin' types, but ya probably don't wanna set anyone else off who might squeal to 'em either..." he mutters, "Got somethin' that might help." he nods, climbing back down off of the counter and waddling back into the backroom, then coming out with several objects that look like anti-static wristbands, the kind one might use to work on a computer, but with odd markings on the bands and a line of what looks like some sort of silver along the inside. "Here, made these a bit ago, hides a magical signature completely..." he nods, tossing one to Arja.
Arja nods before jerking her head to Lupe, "That gonna be ok for her? Werewolf, we wanna be stealthy but I'd rather Lupe keep her hands." she says as she slips hers on.
Dawn looks at it, then frowns at the rabbit as he glances away and puffs more on his pipe, "Well, there is a tiiiiiiiiiiiny catch... See, the magical hidin' thing is only a side effect." he says as Arja suddenly feels a chill running through her entire body. "Technically they're magic SEALIN' bracelets. So long as ya wear one, yer mundane. Stops as soon as ya take it off tho'." he nods, "Look, its what I got. This'll trick Clan Fullmoon inta ignoring ya if they got anyone watchin' the airports 'n such. I made 'em for these guys who were huntin' down some rogue pack of yokai but... well... they got tired of waitin' and went after 'em without the stuff." he nods.
Dawn nods, "That was dumb." she mutters as the rabbit-creature lets out a low chuckle, "Yeah, had a lovely funeral service from what I heard."
Arja shudders as she suddenly feels mortal again, feeling that same void the mundane blade left behind "Yea... not a fan of this at all... let's move fast."
Simoni nods, eyeing it suspiciously as Stephy holds his between his thumb and forefinger like how a woman in an old sitcom might hold a dead rat. The rabbit notices him and laughs, "Oh calm the hell down fairyboy. Its silver, not iron." he taunts as Dawn twirls her's on a fingertip. "Guess Nelen and I are gonna sit this one out then. Sealing our magic tends to be fatal." she nods, tossing the wristband she had over to Simoni. "Though, if it's silver then that means Lupe is stuck too." she nods, glancing at the werewolf who was hiding behind Sammi, peering out at the wristbands with folded ears and a low whine.
Nessa nods, "Same here, not exactly fatal but blood magic keeps my hands moving after all those scars, I lose that and I'm helpless. So Lupe, kitty, Nelen, and I will be staying behind I suppose."
Sammi nods at that, "To be perfectly honest the smaller the group the better, if we show up with a big army behind us they could get the wrong message, no offence."
Dawn shrugs, "Oh no. The cat will have to stay home and nap instead of go stare down the wicked fae militia. However will she cope." she smirks as Lupe frowns, but decides that someone should stay behind and protect her 'alpha-bat'... or at least thats what she settles on in her head. "Right, well, guess these'll do." she nods, standing up and dusting her jeans off, "We're done here then." she nods as the rabbit takes the remote out and turns his helper girl back on.
"Good, great, grand, get out." he huffs, "Oh, and watch yer asses if you run into Cheron you two." he says, gesturing to Stephy and Sammi, "Fairy blood is about the most potent painkiller they ever found. They'd be on you worse than a whole coterie of vamps." he grins around his pipe, then has the girl unlock the door long enough for the group to leave before she firmly locks it up again.
As they leave Simoni mutters under her breath, "Ewe enn one..." she mutters, then frowns, "Unilop?" she asks as Dawn shrugs, "Hey, if the shoe fits..."
Arja chuckles softly, shaking her head, "Lovely guy." she says as she looks around, fiddling with the bracelet uncomfortably, "We good to go?"
Simoni nods, still having yet to put her's on. "I guess so... um... we can probably wait to actually use them until we're getting close to England Arja." she nods, Stephy still hesitant to try on his own as well as Dawn raises her eyebrow at him, whispering to Arja. "Jeez, he's really freaking out about Trixie getting nabbed. I mean we were just confronted by a talking unicorn-rabbit hybrid and not even so much as a squee from him..."
Arja nods, pulling hers off, "Well, I'd be climbing the walls if Simoni got nabbed, even if it was by other garuda." she whispers as Sammi rubs Stephy's back softly.
Simoni gives Arja's hand a squeeze, "Yeah, well... the other garuda wouldn't necessarily want me for... bad reasons. I mean the 'Iron Spike' doesn't exactly sound fae-friendly and... well... if they know that Trixie is with someone who's friendly to one of the True Fae..." she gestures to Stephy, "Yeah..."
Arja nods, "Let's move fast, then." she says, squeezing back as Sammi nods "How are we getting there? I could just open an Arcadia gate if we're moving in a small group."
Simoni thinks, "Might not be a bad idea. Lets head back and get together everyone who's going to head on there, then the rest of us can take the plane to England and meet up. Hopefully we won't have to fight these guys to get Trixie back... I mean, if they are family then there's nothing saying they're as crazy-dysfunctional as Clan Fullmoon..." she nods, to which Dawn says, "Except that they're escaped changeling slaves and are probably more than a bit crazy by default from that."
Simoni sighs and nods, rolling her eyes, "Well, yeah... there's that..."
Sammi nods, "Alright, let's roll fast then. Winter and Summer don't interact a bunch so I don't know them proper but groups like them tend to be more bark than bite. Still, more time means more simmering emotions..."
Stephy nods firmly at that, "Yeah. Lets get going." he says, idly toying with the wristband. Almost a year ago Trixie had saved him from a gang of bullies at his school when he still believed himself to be a powerless mundane runt of Clan Fullmoon. Now it's time for him to return the favor...
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