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 had to think about that, because it was a more complicated question than it seemed at the outset. "Both?" She said, and the word came out a question.

"I think I told you that my family went back to Nigeria when I was nine. And at the outset, even if all you know about Nigeria is the words 'Boko Haram,' why in the world would anybody do that is a legitimate question. Mama knew there was something that had to happen to me there, even if she didn't know what it was. And the reason that I... forgive her for my dad, is that he loves her enough that he did that for her. Because she had a feeling that she didn't even understand. Anyway, Chichi and Orlu were already there. And then Sasha joined us because he was effectively in exile as punishment for something he'd done.

"So we were all in Aba together by fate, or maybe it was just coincidence if you're not much into fate. And we realized pretty quickly that our elders wanted us to form a unit. But it would never have actually worked if we hadn't also loved each other so much and so quickly."

It was part of why she took offense whenever someone said or suggested that she would understand relationships better when she fell in love. She had already fallen in love, even if it wasn't necessarily sexual or romantic, but it was just as deep and binding.

[harrowgate]

Felix listened, head slightly tilted, all of his attention focused on what Sunny was telling him. If one wasn't accustomed to Felix Harrowgate's undivided attention it could be somewhat overwhelming. He was quiet for a long while, which was his way of acknowledging something important -- words were too easy for him, but silence was a currency he could spend on significance -- before he glanced off toward the horizon. "Not at all like the Cabal, then. That sounds... ideal."

[akatawitch]

Sunny's face warmed and she lowered her eyes. Whether or not she'd picked up consciously that Felix's undivided attention was rare, something in her did understand that. It wasn't that Felix had never listened to her, she knew that wasn't true, but he hadn't listened to her like that before. "I got very lucky," she agreed.

"We drive each other crazy and it doesn't look like we fit, but we really do. Sasha is our wit and daring, Chichi is our cunning and ambition, Orlu is our caution and our peacekeeper, and I... I'm our conscience and compassion."

[harrowgate]

Were the conversation casted only slightly differently, Felix might have slid in a little jibe about Sunny's compassion, but in all honesty, he couldn't deny the truth of it. Sunny tolerated him for some reason Felix could not fully fathom, and he did privately wonder if it was, at least in part, because she felt that Felix needed something he wasn't getting elsewhere. He just didn't know what that was.

After a moment, he noted dryly, "I think the Cabal would say that I'm their trial and error."

[akatawitch]

Sunny laughed aloud. "I can imagine. Chichi and Sasha would probably really like you." Orlu was harder to tell, but her more reckless friends? Definitely.

[harrowgate]

"It's pleasant to think I might fit in somewhere, even if it's half a world away," said Felix with a small but still-perfect smile. He didn't know if he was ready to confess the notion currently plaguing him: that his place might truly be more than just half a world away.

"Regardless... any other pet theories you might have on our out-of-control magic situation?"

[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.