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]

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?

[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.

[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.

[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]

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

[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.

[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.

[kingsroads]

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

[whattaprick]

Then stop sulking I won’t let you throw yourself at things and find another way to protect us.

You’re more than just a soldier, you’re more than just a magician. You keep telling me there’s more ways to solve a problem than stabbing it, you get angry at me for solving problems the way I do, and then you turn around and do the same thing.

You invented a way to bring English magic back after hundreds of years because you wanted it bad enough. [ Let’s be real, 90% of that was ‘he figured it out because the Raven King made it that way,’ but Lambert doesn’t know that. ] You can’t tell me you can’t do something like that again.

[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]

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.

[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.

[kingsroads]

[ yes but have you considered the following: Strange has the self-preservation of a suicidal lemming. ]

And what is the way we do the job? Taking someone already rendered helpless and hurting them just because we can? Do we plan on doing that to all of our enemies now?

[chronosynthesis]

[That's the problem.]

I will debate the morality of that with you later, but do not use it to deflect from your repeatedly poor decisions! Do you care at all about the consequences of your actions?

[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]

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.

[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.

[anti_nonsense]

I... I know that! That's why I held back.

[Not so much because she gives a crap about duty, but because she couldn't put people in danger who didn't want to be.]

[whattaprick]

Looks like the radio didn’t tell us everything that happened then.

I want a proper report from you and Strange about it. What’s this about Ignatius looking for Lapis?

[anti_nonsense]

That... I don’t know. Any talk about Lapis must’ve been before I got there.

[whattaprick]

And before the radio was turned on.

[ Lambert’s tone says: he doesn’t like the sound of this! ]

[kingsroads]

Keep in mind that I don't remember the exact phrasing. [ thanks dying and fae torture! ] But Ignatius was looking for her specifically. He mentioned something about desertion? Anyway, West explained that Lapis had been taken by something and was out of commission. He turned his attention towards us at that point.

Zangetsu, West, and Jasper can confirm my details.

[whattaprick]

[ Theres a lengthy pause. ]

Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?