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]

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.

[kingsroads]

It'd be a hell of a lot easier to do things like that if you trusted me in the first place.

[whattaprick]

I do trust you.

I just don’t trust you with yourself.

[kingsroads]

In that case, you have a funny way of showing it.

[ lambert, it's like they JUST had a big fight where strange yelled at ya for not telling him the whole childermass deal. ]

[whattaprick]

[ Look, he already explained why he didn’t tell you! And it’s exactly this! ]

Do you trust me?

[kingsroads]

[ paaaaaaause.

and then, grumpily, like Strange doesn't want to admit this, ]

Yes.

[ HE'S STILL MAD, THOUGH. ]

[whattaprick]

Then trust that I’m making the right call.

[ A pause, and then— ]

I haven’t made a lot of those, lately. But there are things that matter to me.

[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?

[kingsroads]

Do you? Because as far as I can tell, neither you, Lambert, or Rita have even acknowledged the monumental stupidity of what you all did!

[chronosynthesis]

You were dead, Strange, so I am afraid you missed being part of that conversation.

Is your response always going to be to try and turn the conversation to someone else so you do not have to reconsider your behavior, Strange? Because if you are incapable of learning, you will continue to be more of a liability than any actual help.

[kingsroads]

Just because I'm criticizing you for your choices does not mean that I'm unaware of my own.

[ especially because he had a conversation with RM where she spells out some of the fun terms & conditions of his very rushed choice. ]

[chronosynthesis]

Then what will you change? [If he sounds disbelieving, he is.]

[kingsroads]

[ there's a long pause because urrrrrgh, he doesn't want to actually admit where he fucked up. ]

We need more information in order to better tailor strategies closer to each of the fae we might encounter. I made my agreement with Ignatius thinking that what happened would be like when I was with Nightshade. Likewise, we were all caught unaware by whatever the Count did with the shadows. A detailed plan of action against each fae we know of would be ideal, but a vague idea would suffice.

[ this is probably the most tactical Syrlya's ever heard Strange be in the entire time he knows him. it's intensely un-Strange like and downright WEIRD. ]

We also need to reevaluate how we think about the fae as a whole. [ and then, in a tone of voice that implies 'I know you're going to yell at me for this', Strange continues. ] I've asked the Ringmaster if I can talk with Ignatius whenever she's finished doing...whatever the hell she's doing with him. Hopefully that will provide some insights on fae society in general.