GP - Wild Magic 2: Chaotic Evil Boogaloo

[londoncallingmods]

London was a magic epicenter of sorts. Between doors to The Otherside, dormant and active portals, and an active wizarding community, it was a hub of energy, more so now than it had been for quite some time. The city was experiencing a magical renaissance of sorts- Which sounded lovely and made it a prime place to be for those exploring and studying magical energies, but wasn't so wonderful for London's more 'normal' sorts.

Magic didn't care if you were a dark lord or a banker, if it liked you, it liked you- And it was impossible to guess who it would like.

Today magic energy was at an all time high. Another blip in the usually somewhat steady stream of power that flowed through the streets. As a result, odd things were afoot- From mischievous inconveniences, to darker disruptions. Unlike the portals, these bothers were a touch more subtle, creeping up unseen on the unsuspecting.

Last time around the magic had seemed lighthearted and playful- And some of it still was, but... There was an intensity to some of it this time, harking back to the troubles that seemed to roll around every Halloween now. Something wicked was caught in the current, and while it wasn't out to harm everyone, it did seem keen to target a few.

(OTA. Just like the last time, the magic can affect your pup however you see fit. Unlike last time, however, some of the magic has taken a darker turn. It doesn't have to do something wicked to your pup, of course, but the option is there now. This post will be open from 7/18-7/28 or longer if needed. Tag in, tag others, and check back often.)

Comments

[akatawitch]

Sunny's lower lip disappeared into her mouth so she could worry it with her teeth while she composed her thoughts.

"It could be that the Milesian really were--are--behind it. When I talked to Willy about it" because yes, she could be adult enough to talk to Willy without trying to kill him, "he said he didn't know how exactly London came to be infested with fairy zombies. So while this wave was stopped, it could be that whatever circumstances allowed them here haven't been dealt with."

[harrowgate]

"The last time I saw Prince Silver, he was incoherent and screaming at me because Finlay had disappeared again and I wasn't helping to find him hard enough," Felix snorted. "I'm not prepared to call him our best source of information."

[akatawitch]

"Don't get me started on how completely done I am with their nonsense," Sunny said flatly. "But when it comes to fairy history, magic, and politics... yeah, I do trust Willy to know what he's talking about."

[harrowgate]

Felix was more interested in Sunny's opinion than Will's, either way, so he elected to leave behind the subject of the Prince. "Given that, do you think it's likely this is all those Milesian creatures?"

[akatawitch]

"I think someone or something is holding the door open for them," Sunny said without hesitation. "Whether they were trying to let the Milesian through exactly, I have no idea."

[harrowgate]

"Holding the door open," Felix said slowly, and then his fingers began to grow more animated as he warmed to the idea. "That... that may be a very apt metaphor. Before the Milesian, there were portals. Those portals led to other worlds. I was caught in that, myself, and I..."

Felix did that thing he did, where he caught himself talking about something around four words too late, stopped, and tried to pretend like he'd been about to say something else. "I never learned why or how that happened. Could it have been a trial run for opening a different door?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny was quiet just long enough to make the point that yes, she'd heard him, but she was going to let it go. "I don't know. But I do know that when you're trying to allow something through that's really big and really bad, it takes work. Otherwise, we'd be living in the world of Pacific Rim already. And in the meantime, relatively little pests can creep in."

[harrowgate]

Luckily, Felix had actually seen that movie, though he had to blink once or twice to recall the significance. Slowly, he nodded. "Perhaps we should be considering each of these incidents as symptoms, rather than separate, er, diseases. Returning to Remus for a moment, he told me about a rather disturbing artifact that their sort has care of, which has disturbingly similar implications to this discussion."

He frowned, both in thought and with distaste. "I warn you, this is deeply troubling. Remus told me of an artifact called the Veil that they keep in one of their old structures. He says it resembles a doorway with a curtain hanging over it. When a wizard dies, he says, the curtain flutters. Remus made it very clear that this is a veil between life and death." Felix looked faintly ill just talking about it; Cabalines were so vehemently anti-necromancy that it was no wonder the other type of British wizards had hidden this thing away.

"He said lately, it's been fluttering more and more often."

[akatawitch]

Sunny already had little color, but even so, she went pale. She rubbed a hand over her face, pushing the idea back. "There are a lot of dangerous entities on the other side of the veil," she said, trying to allow for it to be literally anything other than what she was afraid of.

[harrowgate]

Felix had heard the capital in Veil when Remus said it. Sunny didn't inflect it quite the same, and though he didn't fully understand, he at least knew she didn't mean the actual tattered curtain buried somewhere beneath a building in London.

His brow furrowed. "I had a difficult enough time trying to convince the Curia that we needed to strengthen defenses against a visitation from another plane of existence. If I try to say that it's coming from beyond death..." Felix shook his head, once, sharply. "It won't be possible."

[akatawitch]

Sunny laughed at that, and the amusement had an edge to it. "Sha, so that's why I never saw any Cabalines at the Obi Library. I've met British wizards. I've met wizards from many places, but none of yours until I came here. Death is woven into our tradition. If I want to reach the highest levels of mastery, I will have to venture there one day."

[harrowgate]

Despite his professional affiliation, Felix did try not to judge other schools of magic unless they were actually harming their own practitioners. "While I'm itching to ask you how that's accomplished, I think it might be better if I didn't know."

[akatawitch]

That made her grin at him. "Just as well, since I haven't worked out the whole truth of it yet." But she did have ideas. "But in any case, it might explain why everyone's equally confused by this magic and why things like the Milesian managed to come through despite having no known way out. Not all spirits are malicious, but some are. And then you have things that are basically Cthulu. I'm more or less afraid that someone's trying to get involved with one of those."

[harrowgate]

"Elder gods," Felix clarified, carefully eliminating the question mark from the end of the statement. Generally he chose to keep an open mind and accept people at face value, but accepting this was something beyond his usual capacity. "Those stories always left me wondering why any human being could imagine something that powerful and terrible should want anything to do with us."

[akatawitch]

"I don't know," Sunny said with a light shake of the head. "But I do know people do it. There was a man in Nigeria who became consumed with summoning Ekwensu. Otokoto Ginny kidnapped nineteen children, taking pieces of their bodies for his rituals. Thirteen died. The rest... I remember one of them came home without his eyes. He was seven years old."

Sunny took a deep breath and released it, forcing herself to remain calm. "Only two children got away unscathed. Otokoto slit his own throat to finish his work."

[harrowgate]

Felix grew steadily more horrified during the telling. He had seen his own horrors, but this was brutality on a wholly different level. His eyes felt clouded with shadows despite the sunny summer day.

"... did he?" Felix managed to ask. "Finish it?"

[akatawitch]

Sunny couldn't say the word, so she only nodded, looking pale and sick. She could still see the way Black Hat Otokoto had grinned as he turned his knife on himself.

[harrowgate]

Felix's jaw tightened, and he nodded briefly in return. There was little one could say in response to that.

He took a deep breath, and finally said, "Then we know what to watch for, on that account."

[akatawitch]

Making herself breathe, Sunny only nodded again. She felt a little pathetic, but it was a relief to have said it, to have acknowledged the possibility, without becoming hysterical.

"It is, of course, only a hypothesis," she said when she trusted her voice again.

[harrowgate]

"Perhaps we don't test that one," said Felix briskly. "But we keep it in mind as a possibility. Are you... ?"

He lifted his brows and gestured toward her in a meaningless fashion, intended to express concern for her emotional state, but falling short of actually doing so. Because Felix hadn't the first clue how to ask about that sort of thing.

[akatawitch]

It was kind of pathetic, but it was Felix trying, and Sunny appreciated that. "You ever have one of those moments that you would consider doing just about anything to erase?" she said quietly. "He smiled when he killed himself."

[harrowgate]

Felix nodded slowly, just once, but did not elaborate. He had those moments, yes. Had starred in at least one of them. He had nothing to offer her because he could not have exorcised the demons from his own mind if he tried.

[akatawitch]

He had asked, or tried to at least, and she had answered the unspoken question. Sunny didn't expect anything more than that, only felt it right to let him know, 'if I'm weird right now, I'm trying to shove a decade old trauma back into its compartment.' She shrugged. "I'll be all right." She wasn't, but she would be. It wasn't the first time.

[harrowgate]

It was summer, and the sun was shining beyond the shade of the tree, and the shadows here were crisp and well-defined. Out here, both of them were a little bit safer from the darkness of memory.

"You will," Felix agreed. He had faith in Sunny's inner strength. He'd seen her use it, and knew she was stronger than the shadows. She had seen the thing that haunted his memories, too, and they both had fought against it. Felix hoped she knew, without his reminding her, that to a certain extent he understood.

[akatawitch]

She knew. Sunny could tell by the utter lack of sharpness, either cruel or teasing. She nodded once, and then smiled at him. "You are terrible at being a terrible friend."