Day 68: [NIGHTRUNNER CHANNEL]

[whattaprick]

If you haven’t been approached already, I’m letting you know now: we’ve got a couple of people asking about being let on the nightrunners. I told them they’d need to convince you, not me. You know what we do, you know the risks, and you know what I ask for — if they come to you, let me know how they do.

Also, I’ve banned Strange from going out on preliminary scouting or any mission with a more than average chance of running into the fae. Unless I or the Ringmaster specifically say otherwise, that stays. He can whine about it as much as he wants, but if you see him violating that order, I want you to tell me that too.

Comments

[chronosynthesis]

I presume they will make their intentions clear, but... who is it?

[He sounds equally surprised people are in a hurry to join after that. Maybe it's just becoming aware of the gravity of the situation.

No comment on Strange, he already anticipated that.]

[kingsroads]

If I'm banned, Rita should be as well. [ Strange isn't yelling, but his tone of voice is pure "fight me." He is NOT pleased about these developments. ]

In between being captured at the Manor and attacking Ignatius when our group ran into him in the Atheneaeum, she's shown herself to be repeatedly irresponsible and careless when dealing with the fae. If I hadn't intervened, she'd be the one captured or dead.

[chronosynthesis]

She attacked Ignatius? [That's... not actually surprising but also Syrlya hasn't heard anything about what lead up to Strange offering himself.

Which he's realizing now.] Wait, what did Ignatius do when he first found you in the Athenaeum?

[anti_nonsense]

Wh... hey!

If you've got a problem with me, you can say it to my face!

[kingsroads]

He was looking for Lazuli. [ which Strange honestly can't remember what for, just that it was a thing. ] When none of us said we had seen her, he offered us a deal. If one of us turned ourselves over to him, he would spare the rest. Otherwise he'd kill us.

Rita decided that the best way to respond to the offer was to attack him, risking all our lives in the process.

[kingsroads]

I said it to your face before I was captured. It's no use to try and attack a High Fae directly and yet you charged in there, planning to do just that.

[whattaprick]

That was stupid, but I deliberately provoked the Prince to attack me and Rita spent years growing up as Ignatius’s changeling. I attacked Nightshade when she showed up in Wismuth. I can’t hold people’s grudges or stupid plans against them.

I can definitely hold people’s two Summer Fae contracts and refusal to consider one of those fae an enemy against them. Like I said, you have a problem with that, you can quit this team anytime.

[chronosynthesis]

So his intentions were to force one of you to sacrifice yourselves from the start, or else leave bloody carnage. [That's what it sounds like to him. Why he was looking for Lapis, though, that's a bit of a concern. Was it because she was taken by the Winter Court and they wanted the leverage instead?]

Were you intending to escape if she hadn't?

[kingsroads]

Truth be told, I was intending to be rescued. [ which is a bit of a shameful admission in Strange's eyes but hey, there you go. ] The carnival's got a surprisingly good track record of taking our people back from the fae and the Ringmaster wouldn't leave anyone behind. I knew you all would come up with something to bring me back.

And if not, Lambert promised to kill me if I was enthralled again. I foolishly believed he'd do so.

[anti_nonsense]

That's bullcrap. I didn't attack Ignatius then. I just... [--made a lot of bluster, threatened it, yelled impotently--] really wanted to.

[...and before someone calls her on this...]

I attacked him after the deal was made, when he was bound by his word to spare us.

[kingsroads]

It must be so convenient to pick and choose which bits of Portland actually happened depending on when it suits you.

[ aka Strange is calling bullshit on that 'years growing up as Ignatius's changeling' statement ]

[chronosynthesis]

So... you were going to sacrifice yourself anyway, forcing more people to endanger themselves to rescue you by fighting Ignatuis anyway. [It's hard to tell if his dead tone is resignation or barely contained anger.]

And how much about the miracles did Ignatius learn from you again? The carnival? Will we find the Summer Court already there to acquire the mirror once we reach Eden if he already passed that information on?

[kingsroads]

If I remember correctly, your words were something like 'don't do this you idiot, fighting's our only chance.' If I didn't do what I did, you would have sealed the fate of everyone in our group.

[kingsroads]

I did my job. I kept the people who I was with safe. Isn't that the entire point of the Nightrunners?

[whattaprick]

[ Lambert’s got bad news for you buddy. ]

I’m not choosing. [ Lambert sounds unhappy just saying that, but he presses on. ]

Childermass asked the Ringmaster about it once. The Severing didn’t just change our memories or bodies, it bent reality. That’s how Childermass and Steven became faeblooded — because the Severing made them live it.

Don’t ask me how that works, because I don’t know.

[whattaprick]

And is our solution to every problem always going to be putting our bodies and souls on the line? Is that all we’ll ever be?

I said you couldn’t go out, Strange, not that you couldn’t use your brain. If there’s anything the Athenaeum showed us, plenty of people in the Carnival can help without being a nightrunner.

[whattaprick]

Susan and Jasper.

[ Lambert sounds fairly neutral on them both — not particularly excited, not particularly annoyed. ]

Both of them sound pretty serious about it. I don’t think either of them have ever said so much to me in the time I’ve been here.

[chronosynthesis]

Becoming a prisoner of the enemy is absolute worst way you could protect anybody! [Okay, now he's yelling.]

Did you even consider looking for an escape? Did you have any plan when you ventured halls to find our missing people that would actually be to lead them to safety? That would not require us to run back out there for you?!

[kingsroads]

If there's anything the Athenaeum showed us, it's that you need someone in the group to challenge you. I don't know if anyone here will do that.

[ except him, of course. ]

[whattaprick]

While you were dead, everyone else already told me they weren’t interested in doing something like that again.

Nobody else threatened to leave over it.

[anti_nonsense]

Hmph. Fine, it was reckless. I wanted him dead, more than anything in the world, and I would have tried it if there weren't three people in the room who weren't okay with betting their lives on that fight.

As for the Manor, I had no way of knowing what Childermass was up to. Lambert created an obvious distraction, so some of us took the opportunity to go after the Rose. At that point, there was no walking out of there peacefully for anyone. I couldn't just wait around and hope that someone else had a plan.

[chronosynthesis]

Your duty is to the carnival. It is not about what you want to do, but what you must in order to assure the lives and safety of everyone else.

[kingsroads]

I had less than five minutes between learning that the High Fae were here and Ignatius taking me to his realm! And in those five minutes, I was trying to keep Jasper, Rita, and Yuzu from doing something that would get them killed! I'd like to see you try and do something better under those circumstances.

[kingsroads]

I told you already, I can't let myself be a part of magic like that.

[chronosynthesis]

So you lack the experience to make a better decision under pressure. [He speaks with a little less edge in his tone, acknowledging what seems to be just fact--but it's still frustrating.]

You made a similar plea of sacrifice when we were devising ways to recover those who were hostage to the Prince. If martyring yourself is the only way you have to do your job, perhaps you aren't suited for it.