❅ SHITTY LITTLE TOWN ❅ PART 3

[nightmods]

SHITTY LITTLE TOWN ❅ PART 3

The cracks are starting to show. People have been reforging connections. Rebuilding their senses of self.

Digging into things that are potentially sinister, their curiosity dangerously piqued. Now, too many truths are coming back to the surface for everything to stay suppressed.

Somewhere deep in the MineCorp mines, a wire snaps. Then another, and another.

PROMPTS

a)  A CRACK IN THE DAM

A feeling of déjà vu is commonplace, and people’s dreams start to contain more and more imagery that doesn’t align with the lives they know here in this shitty little town – fantastical sleighs, huge golden globes, fae and monsters. Some people stop automatically responding when their name is called, because the name they’re being called feels wrong. Others discover they have talents at skills they don’t remember ever trying before.

But it remains out of reach until they do something that affirms their true self, an act that goes down to the core of who they are. It might be true love’s kiss, or placing a hand on their signature weapon, or invoking certain words when speaking truth to power. One way or another, once that final requirement is met...it all comes flooding back.

b)  PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Your character remembers who they are, but their powers haven’t returned! The nefarious makers of the spell suppressing powers must be defeated. But who are the nefarious makers of the spell?

Several people have several parts of the puzzle. Time to put them together, anonymously, on the network. Skye has taken it upon herself to facilitate a discussion forum online with all accounts highly anonymized and access granted only by a password; details are being spread by word of mouth, friend to friend, always with the warning that just because the accounts are anonymous doesn’t mean that Goluboy or his people couldn’t try to sleuth people’s identities from context clues.

Skye sets a time for when the discussion forum will go live, and at midnight that evening, a website goes live with a simple comment post function and a message that all data will be deleted within 24 hours.

NETWORK LINK

The jig is up!

The source of the curse – and other mischief – is traced to Kyan Goluboy, and Noire Cygne. Confrontation with each of them will trigger counter-attacks and defenses.

c)  CONFRONTING CYGNE

As soon as Cygne is confronted, or receives word from Goluboy that the jig is up, wilis pour into town. Normally, these undead jilted brides will dance to death whoever they get their hands on, but in a hurry they’ll resort to tearing their prey apart. Any person who the wilis get their hands on will be overwhelmed by an empathetic sense of their grief, shame, and hatred, and control of their body will be taken over as they are swept into the deadly dance.

The wilis are strong against physical violence, but can be burned by sunlight, or artificial growlights. People dancing with wilis can be pulled out of their embrace and pulled to safety, but only those with formal dance training stand a chance of changing the course of the deadly waltz, once touched.

The sheriff’s department forms the final level of defense around Noire Cygne’s mansion and person. Get past the chaos of the wilis throughout town, and Sheriff Mallard and her deputies stand between your heroes and the town matriarch.

d)  CONFRONTING GOLUBOY

Destroying the torture machine hidden hidden in MineCorp will end the curse and restore all powers. Too bad everyone will have to sneak past mine workers and security guards who’ve been promised a big fat bonus for bringing your characters alive and restrained to Goluboy’s office. As the man himself would say, nothing makes a person work harder than money. Some of the wilis have made their way into the mines as well...

e)  AFTERMATH

The villains have been defeated!

What will your heroes do with them? Can any of their past victims still be saved? It’s time to convene and pass judgement on your captors, and check that every I is dotted and every T is crossed.

OOC DETAILS
❅ Event Length: This part of the plot will last until 10/15, and the situation with the npcs are meant to be resolved by then, though general CR threads can continue to be backtagged after that.

Comments

PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

[nightmods]

You can continue to ask the plot runners questions here or plurk them directly.

Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

[antigravboy]

If people try to leave town do they wind up just back in town again? Like if they go by the roads?

[irulian]

If the torture device is destroyed before a character gets their memories back, would that trigger the return of their memories or will they still have to do something else to reaffirm themselves?

Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

[furtitude]

Does the dossier on people no one would miss have any of the PCs on it that have been targeted like Cato or Logan, or any kids known to have gone missing in town, whether scholarship winners or skids or what have you.

I'm wondering how much would be cross referenced between "people who have gone missing/got nearly disappeared" vs people on their "nobody would miss" list.

Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

[antigravboy]

Boims and Miguel are gonna try to Macguver up everyone's phones being able to still connect for the group going into the mines, so they can talk to the group keeping watch outside, despite the depth.

Would they be able to work? I figure they'd still be blocked from the outside world, but we'd want to have them just work through the rock and wanted an excuse for tech nerding.

If not, we can have them try to fix them up and just fail to have them work. Let us know.

a) IT'S ALL COMING BACK, IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW [closed to Dan]

[bringinghopewithme]

Aster has gotten into a habit of taking an afternoon break around the time Dan usually wakes up to get to work, of making a little sandwich for himself and because he's already making one, making another for Dan, and because he's taking a break anyway, making some coffee and getting out all the sugar and cream for Dan to make his the way he likes it. Call it perks of the job, he supposes, as he sits on the porch with his sandwich and a cup of tea and mulls over what to do about the monsters in the woods, about this town they can't get out of.

"Coffee's ready," he says with a nod, when he hears Dan coming onto the porch where he's posted up in a rocking chair with his half-sandwich.

IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW [closed to Dan]

[hallelujahjunction]

The last few days have gone alright. Dan’s drinking less; usually, a good humiliation will curb his excess for a few weeks, at least around other people. Now that he and Aster have had that hard conversation, Dan’s finding himself more at ease, less tense, glad to feel supported even if he knows he can’t be totally understood.

Working feels good, and his health’s continued to improve as they settle into their routines. Aster wakes Dan up with breakfast and coffee. Dan leaves the kitchen spotless and with some pan-fried veggies in the fridge for Aster to incorporate into his omelette in the morning. But Dan’s started saving the money he earns with a goal in mind, and today he decides it’s time to make his move.

“I love you,” Dan says in that casual way someone would say to any friend who brings them food. It feels so easy to say it to Aster. He takes his sandwich and reclines in one of the patio chairs, soaking up the sun with his shirt off.

“So, I wanted to talk to you about something. I just bought a car off Wade and I’m walking into town to pick it up today.” He takes a sip of coffee. “Don’t think it’s because I don’t love working here, but would you might help me with some job applications?”

[E-MAIL] (attachment) Sent to Loki, CC to Boimler, Miguel, and Brigid

[divasmio]

[ there is no subject, and a single line of text ]

fuck him up

[ The attachments are all photographs.

There are photos of a computer screen, each one detailing an e-mail exchange between Pallett and Callahan

The next photos are all of paper documents, detailing:

Dossiers detailing how certain townsfolk won't be missed

Evidence of the Occult - Texts written in strange languages, with little cloth bags of herbs and dead insects, among other things

Evidence that Goluboy and Cygne are working together. Her name and number are very clear on the documents and printed e-mails from her, with a list of names of people in town

Evidence that Cygne is aware people can't just walk out of town and that she's the only person who seems to be able to bring goods into town. ]

[to everyone]

[bestbrotherever]

Well then. What shall we do with this? Playing the two great powers against each other will clearly not work.

re: all

[ninjavampire]

The supernatural may play a bigger role here than you think.

[ attached is video footage from what appears to be a drone. Despite the fog, the camera quality is clear.

It shows the initial venture into the forest, the 'glitching' of the road repeating itself over and over, and the glimpse of the ghostly dancers inhabiting the forest. ]

[bostonhowler]

Honestly, when Goluboy took me into the mine, I didn't expect to come out. But he showed me this weird... well, corpse. It looked like an ancient sloth/bear/something? It had crystalized, so when the light hit it it almost glowed.

And then there was his comment about secret cannibal cults and Satanic rites, and I knew something was going on. But what can I do? I'm a mythology geek, sure, but I work at the mine.

Locked to npcs - cw: alcohol abuse

[worstverine]

Logan stumbles out of the bar thoroughly drunk - like he does most nights. He finally got cut off, which means he'll either hit the liquor store on the way home or stumble his way to another bar that'll serve him.

He tells himself it doesn't really matter which.

He tells himself there's no difference between being drunk alone at home or being drunk in a place that at least has human voices. He tells himself he doesn't prefer the latter.

The bars are all clustered near each other, eking out a pitiful existence in competition with each other, thriving off the misery of the town. He stumbles along towards the next bar, stuck in the rolling cogs of his numb and repetitive existence.

But after everything he lost...what else is there?

What else is there for him?

[shittylittlenpcs]

Here's one thing for him - a bag over his head.

Two people have him in a frog-march, and someone behind them speaks in a voice Logan will only recognize if he's met Kyan Goluboy in person before.

"Hurry the fuck up, the thing's hungry."

Logan's lifted off the ground and thrown in the back of a van. The two guys pounce on him again, and attempt to bind his hands as the van peels out.

Little Cato

[sk8terh8ter]

locked to Crowley

[sk8terh8ter]

They've had to be careful. So far, nobody had made a fuss about his disappearance - probably because it might draw attention to Cygne and why he disappeared in the first place. But that doesn't mean her daughter's deputies aren't looking for him.

That's why they've been extremely careful as they go through the supermarket. Hanging close but not immediately next to each other, making it so nobody finds their circumstances suspicious, on the off chance they find Cato recognizable.

Cato would've left things to Crowley and stayed back in his apartment, where it was safe, but he'd been afraid to be left alone and he also needed his medication from the attached pharmacy. He knows a new bottle is waiting to be picked up and that it's a safer bet than trying to sneak back into his foster family's house for an almost-finished supply.

Even if someone recognizes him after the fact, the cops won't see the adult he came or left with. Everyone knows the supermarket's cameras never work, from all the times they've gotten robbed.

It works fine in the beginning. He gets his medicine and the pharmacist doesn't bat an eye because his foster parents never pick it up. Crowley shops and no one bothers him.

But either someone that knew one of the deputies, and therefore knew to keep an eye out for him, spotted him, or maybe a patrol car saw him while passing by outside, because all of a sudden, four deputies make their way to the door.

They fortunately aren't caught at the checkout but they're pretty close to it. Cato wheels around on his heel and grabs Crowley on the arm to wheel him around too and abandon their cart.

"Cool cool cool, there are cops, so we're heading out the back now, like it's mega super normal," he whispers. "Everyone uses the back, right?"

Closed to residents and visitors to Aster Warren's farm

[bestbrotherever]

Following this conversation on the anonymous post, Loki quickly heads for the Warren farm. Though he is careful to follow all traffic laws and not stand out until he arrives. Thankfully his "Lowell" persona didn't have a flashy car, though it's higher quality and in better condition than most of the town's standard.

But he manages to make it there without incident, at which point his car slows to a crawl up the driveway. He's keeping his eyes out for any familiar faces. And true to his comment, he's waving a kitchen knife playfully out the window.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan, in on the joke, waves a hunting knife back from the patio, then tucks it into the holster on his belt and trots down the driveway to open the gate and let Loki in. He's seen Loki around at the Pole, he thinks, but they haven't exchanged many conversations. Dan's frequently dispatched out to strange niche myth missions, and that's stopped him from getting to know everyone.

He's been happy to be with Bunny again with the full knowledge of who they are, but getting his memories back has been difficult. Dan thought that his family was just missing, not dead, and he had tricked himself into thinking closure would ease some of the pain. Closure, when it comes in the form of bloody memories of people dying, isn't actually a balm, it turns out. He looks a little strung out, and when he undoes the chain on the gate, he almost drops the lit cigarette from his mouth.

"Come on drive this way past the shed. We can hide your car where don't no one see you." He gestures with his hand. "Reckon we got a lot to chat about."

[also closed to residents of the Warren Family Farms]

[credit_not_blame]

[[after this conversation]]

There is some wild shit going on in the anonymous digital town forum, but the current thing most concerning Anna is that somebody (seemed like Dan?) had invited some knife-wielding maniac to come visit. Anna had only barely come down on the side of "warn Aster first" over getting the hell out of dodge, if only because he's a nice man and she'd feel bad about leaving him to be murdered.

Unfortunately, Anna finds Dan and the knife-wielding maniac before she finds Aster. She freezes for a moment, then tries to back up without alerting them to her presence. Even more unfortunately, in doing so, she knocks her hip against a side table and sends the books precariously balanced on it crashing to the floor.

"Shit."

Anna doesn't wait to see how the two men react, she turns on her heel and sprints back to her room.

[hallelujahjunction]

Anna was clear that she didn't trust him the last time they interacted, so after she moved into the farmhouse, Dan's been giving her her space. He makes himself scarce when she's around and mostly keeps to his room, the kitchen and the outdoors, not venturing into the wing of the house that she's taken over. It stung when he both admired her ability to set boundaries and avoid creeps and when he knew that his situation was much more innocent and virtuous than it looked like on his RAP sheet, but he shouldered it.

Now that Dan knows who Stacia is, he's even more heartbroken at the way she doesn't remember him enough to trust him.

He glances up as he sees her and knows she still doesn't remember herself from the fact that she didn't swagger in to insert herself into the conversation. He sets the half-assembled gun down and gets up to follow her, moving slowly in contrast to her sprint, and then stops at the base of the stairs rather than following her.

"Anna? Anna, we got something to talk about, but I ain't want to corner you."

ota

[blame_canada]

Wade is, surprise surprise, actually doing a little work in his lot. Mostly it's just scrubbing bird crap off of cars and cleaning off the glass

Except, when he gets to wiping down the side mirrors of a Honda Odyssey he stops. Because there is something wrong with his face.

Wrong is the wrong word for it, though. It's fine. Perfect even. The kind of face that could be on the big screen of he wasn't such a colossal trashfire of a human being. Nevertheless, there's something wrong with it.

...Or maybe the problem is that it's right. Too right. And Wade can't get the idea out of his head that it shouldn't be.

[thelittlestbub]

There's something to be said for this podunk little town. Cars usually aren't needed for the most part.

When she sees Wade's face, though, something superimposes itself over it. Something that isn't Wade's face, something that...

'Pool would be making jokes -

Who the hell is 'Pool, and why would they be making jokes? And why... June stops, knowing her name isn't June, but unsure as to what it could be. That makes no sense either. "Wade, I brought your delivery." She'd brought his food from the coffee shop. She wants to make a quip about not being his delivery girl, but.... No, that isn't right. She'd been asked to deliver and she had.

Wolvie would be rolling his -

No, something is very, very wrong.

Paul / OPEN (to any with mine access) / TW for descriptions of brutal injury

[divasmio]

The torture chamber at the end of the mine had a handful of cages built into the cavern. Turns out it's a great place to stash a whistleblower for an impromptu interrogation.

The gunshot wound in his leg had gotten minimal treatment before he was dragged down here. It had been enough to keep him alive for the time being — Crudely bandaged to stop the bleeding, at least — but it hadn't healed right. The few times he'd tried to walk, it hadn't supported his weight at all. Now it was starting to show signs of infection.

Goluboy and his goons had been trying to get Paul to name who he sent the evidence to, but he'd steadfastly kept his mouth shut. The interrogation tactics got increasingly brutal — At some point, Paul was certain that Goluboy had given up on the interrogation and was just enjoying his new punching bag.

Bloody, bruised, and zip-tied to a heavy chair, Paul had been floating in and out of consciousness for days. Being awake was nothing but pain, nausea and hunger. Sleep was nothing but nightmares filled with lightning and serpents and drowning.

At least in his sleep, the sharp, hot pain radiating from his leg wasn't as prominent. And every time he woke, it was getting easier and easier to fall back asleep. It probably wouldn't be much longer until he'd never have to wake up again.

[bestbrotherever]

Despite the rushed nature of the raid and the complete lack of powers, the expedition into the mine has gone well. Sure they've met resistance, but only mortals, and usually ones with enough self-preservation to be made to stand down, whether by trickery, appealing to reason, or threats. Loki's only had to bloody his knife a handful of times, and never with a man's lifeblood. The biggest disappointment was that nobody questioned seemed to know anything about possible prisoners in the mine.

So Loki wasn't full of much hope by the time they enter what seemed to be the torture chamber. He swept the room visually, looking for any defenders in hiding, and spots a human shape- but not one that posed a threat. Not with how he's locked in one of the cages, and slumped in a chair besides.

He pulls out his lockpicking knife and communication device as he moves close, wishing he had magic to make a light. Or cut the cage open. The man is in bad shape and his head is bowed, but the hair... it's golden, like Apollo's. He turns on the communicator, then gets to work on the lock, talking as he destroys it.

"Boimler. I have found an injured man. I believe he may be Apollo. Whoever he is, I will be bringing him out. Get the medical supplies ready."

[closed to aziraphale]

[demonicmiracle]

[After a harrowing fucking drive that raised more questions than it answered, Crowley had realized he was heading towards the library, some buried instinct telling him that it might provide some safety. The police are looking for Cato, and by extension him, but he knows better than to try leaving town, so this is — this is the best he can do.

They park a little distance away, in case the cops are searching for his car, and sneak the rest of the way to the library, something a little difficult in broad daylight, but Cato seems to have a knack for it.

Cato finds something that seems to catch his interest once they're inside and rushes off to a computer, after Crowley had extracted a promise that he wouldn't go too far and would be careful.

And then Crowley had gone to look for Aziraphale, despite knowing the man likely wouldn't want to see him at all. He doesn't know where else to turn, though, doesn't know who he can trust, and even if Aziraphale hates him, Crowley knows he's a good man. So here is is, gently rapping his knuckles on the door to Aziraphale's little office.]

If you tell me you've got booze in there, I swear you'll never hear a bad word from me again.

[If he looks shaken and pale, that's between him and God.]

[oldbookshop]

[ Somewhere in his heart, Aziraphale always did know that tucking his cherished moments with Crowley away like a little mental rainy day hope chest would come in handy eventually. He supposes that was pessimistic. It's just nice to have them to think on when days get... well. Never mind that.

It's been nice while trying to wrap his mind around the situation they've all been forced into. The unsettling violation of having memories toyed with, suppressed, replaced. (Always a bit of a risk for an angel, maybe, but a standing hazard from Heaven is very different than. Than all this.) The complete cutoff of connection to angelic power, all but downgraded to a human. The implications of how his "family" was translated into this different life, which he doesn't want to think about and shouldn't even think about because it's different with humans. Obviously.

The last bit, at least, he had to cope with back in the Wilderlands. He doesn't care for it, but he knows how to make himself tolerate the loss. Only temporary, surely. Hopefully.

This is the worst of it, though. A moment like this one, where Crowley looks rattled and unsteady and Aziraphale isn't allowed to just-- take his hands. Touch his face. He's gotten spoiled the past few months, he supposes. Started getting used to being able to dole out affection when they're alone.

Crowley doesn't know him properly anymore. Just look at him. It's unwritten from all over his face.

If Aziraphale goes and scares him off before he can work out what puzzle piece will bring him back to himself, sends him running off into who knows what sort of danger-- oh, no. No. Can't allow that. It doesn't temper the concern at all, but Aziraphale has always been very good at restraining these sorts of feelings and impulses. It'll be fine. ]

What's happened?

[ It goes without saying that there is booze in here somewhere. Any Aziraphale worth his salt would have some on hand. (Although it's possible that he personally brought it with him from his human flat to this office this very morning. But still.) ]

[locked to NPC]

[millenyal_pink]

Even with her heavy coat it's cold, wet, and dark as Lady trudges up the road. A late night hike up to Ms. Cygne's house is a terrible idea, she knows it's a terrible idea, but she's seen some very disturbing claims being made and she can't wrap her head around why someone-- a child-- would lie about it.

Her face has gone numb by the time she gets to the house. She bangs on the door with a heavy fist even though she knows Ms. Cygne will hate it. A part of her feels bad. A part of her feels resentfulangryconfused-

Lady takes a deep breath. All she can do is wait.

[shittylittlenpcs]

Cygne's butler, being familiar with Lady, lets her into the parlor. He even brings her a towel to clean herself up before letting Cygne know she's here.

When Cygne greets Lady, she looks a little frazzled, as one might expect someone to be, receiving an unexpected guest at such a late hour with such rain pouring down. "Miss Bryant, dear, what in the world has got you out of your house so late?" Cygne asks, as she walks over to take Lady's hands. "Please tell me someone drove you, anything could be out at this hour."

Venturing into the Hell Mine

[ninjavampire]

For Boimler (Outside the Mine)

[ninjavampire]

With a perilous drive over the well-hidden dirt road, Miguel somehow managed to K-turn the ungainly MineCorp truck into a nook beside the secret Mine entrance. The truck bed is littered with aluminum crates and a messy freeway of cables snaking across them, with radio antennae sticking up like porcupine quills.  The vehicle and machinery granted them a bit of cover in the dark.

They weren't absolutely sure that the communications were going to work, and Miguel liked to over prepare rather than not, so there's plenty of spare parts. After some finagling, the knobs and toggle were switches set to something that performed decently, leaving them with the dimly crackling radio at the end of a very long, corkscrewed wire lead through the back window of the cabin.

Tapping his fingers on his legs with apprehension, Miguel releases the button on the radio speaker after there was confirmation on the other end that their comms were functional.

"The signal isn't as clear as I'd like, but it looks like it's working." he says to Boimler. Miguel was at least quick to drop the 'Raisin Guy' label after being corrected the first time.

Even in this mindwiped state, though, he was a perfectionist.

For Miguel | Closed

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan reached out to Miguel directly; after Bunny ran off to try and find the edge of the curse's radius, Dan didn't have any ability to continue reading the network, and he feels protective of his hostage. Not because of any virtue Goluboy has, not even because of the information Goluboy hoards, but just because coming to himself has burdened Dan with so many memories of death. His family's deaths, his daughter's death, deaths from people on cases that went wrong, deaths from people Dan's had to kill on cases, deaths he's investigated that happened before he knew to be somewhere. He's got more death to process than he thinks he can. He doesn't want more.

The only evidence of any sort of power Dan got is the fact that Concrete Blonde is grazing outside, and comes up to Miguel for a pat on the nose as Miguel approaches. Dan pulls the door open.

Goluboy has at least fifty pounds of muscle on Dan, but Dan got the drop on him and has actually thrown a few punches in his life rather than just doing crossfit. As such, when he opens the door for Miguel, he's got a black eye and is staunching a nosebleed with a tissue, but the shouting from further inside the house - let me go, you'd better untie me, you pathetic bastard, I'll sue you into the ground after I rip you to pieces - is evidence that Dan got the upper hand.

"Miguel. You, uh, you remember the horse?" Dan isn't sure how else to ask if Miguel remembers being a Guardian.

[ninjavampire]

Miguel doesn't carry himself all too differently. His weariness is there, but it had a certain short-fused intensity that was absent before, less beaten down. The biggest hint of the change is actually the physical. It begs the question of how he would have explained the sudden increase in height and mass to his loved ones back home. There was only so much he could hide with clothes and lies.

His suit sat under the open, too-small button down that avoided tearing at his shoulders through some uncanny miracle. Dried blood flecked the cuffs and collar - whether that was his or someone else's would be left a mystery. His hands had been cleaned off since he'd changed back.

"I remember."

Concrete Blonde gets a gentle greeting, despite everything, stroking her nose with familiar care.

If Miguel felt angry, it was of an ice-cold variety. They still had a mission on their hands, so he would shove the re-opened grief into the proverbial marble in his chest until their mission was done. He gets right to business.

"How's the guest doing? In need of a trip to the nearest cliffside?" he floats the suggestion loudly enough for Goluboy to hear.

c) CONFRONTING CYGNE

[shittylittlenpcs]

Toplevels to follow.

1) I BURST OUT

[shittylittlenpcs]

The mines shudder as Goluboy’s terrible machine is destroyed.

The vibration shakes the town, all the way to Cygne’s mansion. Panes of glass rattle in the windows as the shockwave reaches the mansion, then the pond behind, where every swan in the water suddenly bursts out into a scared, wet, screaming teenager.

A chorus of “What the fuck? What the actual fuck?” “Isn’t that the Mason kid?” “She’s supposed to be in Sweden!” issue from the sheriffs’ deputies who break their posts around the mansion.

“Hold your positions!” yells Mallard, over her shotgun in the open window overlooking the porch. “Mom, the kids –”

“I am well fucking aware, dear, of the state of the kids!” Cygne shrieks, behind her butler with his AK-47. She reaches into her jacket, pulls out a crystal on a chain and throws it to the ground, shattering the crystal.

Mist pours in from the woods, filling the town. Spectral dancers move through the town, looking for victims.

“Good call, Mom,” Mallard starts to say, but she’s interrupted by a shout of panic from Jones the Butler. She turns from her post just long enough to see Cygne disappear down a hole in the ground floor of the house, a hole that disappears before Jones can jump into it.

Mallard screams into her radio. “They got her! They – someone took the Swan! All units, all units, find her! Find the Swan!” she shrieks, in the terrified tone of a child who’s failed her mother.

“What the hell!" a deputy screams, as shrieking teenage girls streaked with pond mud and algae run by, crying and cursing. "A bunch of swans just turned into kids, Sheriff, aren’t we going to do anything about that?”

“Fuck them kids!” Mallard shrieks. “Find my mother!” she looks out into the mist, aiming at an approaching figure and firing. “Give her back!”

e) AFTERMATH

[bringinghopewithme]

This is going to be the worst town hall ever.

After posting about it on the network, Bunny strolls between Bluebeard and Odile, unbound in their chairs except for the salt circle and chalk sigils written on the floor that keep them from getting up and walking away.

As people pour into the town hall, Bunny has both boomerangs up to defend against any attacks, one rear paw raised to drop each of their captors into pre-sigiled holes in the ground in case anyone gets any lethal ideas.

“We’re not killing them. We’re making them fix this place,” he says to each person who walks in, in a tone that says he’s not going to fight about it. “We’re here to figure out how to do that. Somebody got that pen and paper?”