Lambert (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whattaprick) wrote2015-01-15 11:43 am
whattaprick) wrote2015-01-15 11:43 am
[PORTLAND, A NOT VERY CONCISE SUMMARY]
REFERENCES:
AU Role Call Post
AU Info/Plotting Post
PROLOGUE
In fair Oregon, where we lay our scene...
Twenty five years ago, this world underwent a process sometimes know as "the Severing", in which a magical ritual of great power was used to severe the ties between earth and a number of otherworldly realms that had been cross-inhabiting it. The realms of faerie, heaven, and hell were disconnected entirely, stranding many of their members on earth with no way of returning home. The details of this ritual and its purpose are elusive, but its effects have spanned the globe.
WEEK 1
It's the beginning of October, and strange things are afoot in Portland, the supernatural community is shaken by portents that no one fully understands. The local Circle finds itself suddenly prevailed upon to assist mages of the North American Enlightenment Council in investigating supernatural phenomena. The Pack, Portland's local werebeast community, is abuzz with rumors of some unknown event wounding the Earth Spirit.
Posters announcing an "Animal Fair" on October 7th have sprung up all over the city, marked by a handful of crow feathers, rose petals, and burned matches at every place they've been put up. The Rose Queen, one of the area's major fae, commands her subjects to investigate the origin of the posters. Several other individuals, human and otherwise, attempt to investigate the location that the Animal Fair is set to take place, but are repelled by a sense of a giant predator stalking their movements. Lambert Wolfe, a graduate student working as a librarian a the university and a barista at the Toe Beans Cat Cafe, is less amused by the posters, and takes them down around the cafe.
On a more mundane level, residents of an apartment building begin to sense they're being watched and find berries being left around the building. Amethyst, one of the weres living in the building, consumes one of these berries and promptly falls into a coma and is magically whisked away, prompting her warlock brother, Foster, to search for her. He asks his demon patron, Psi, to look into the potential origin of these berries. In the spirit of experimentation (and because not a lot of things are probably able to kill an angel) Psi feeds Sans a smoothie made with said berries to test the effect. Unfortunately, the smoothie ends up having a more detrimental effect than Psi expected.
Panicked, the demon recruits Ginko to help him bring Sans to the doctor to figure out a remedy, but before they can get there, they're waylaid by Nightshade -- one of the Rose Queen's assassins, and the source of the poison berries. Sans is taken, and Nightshade proceeds to grill her captives about her suspicions that they aren't what they appear to be ... or believe they are.
On October 3 Sanctuary, the local halfway house for changelings and other supernatural strays, finds itself beset with an infestation of black roses. Investigation by residents and allies reveals the roses to be magical and also extremely poisonous. They have also appeared in several places around the city where changelings are known to appear. While it's uncertain exactly what they portend, they're an ill omen for the changeling Steven Demayo, because they can only herald one thing: his mother, the Rose Queen.
On October 4 Angels receive a missive announcing the Hand of God's imminent arrival in Portland, following the rumors of demons heading demons heading toward the city. That same evening, having taken over a co-worker's shift after a premonition, Lambert and the changeling John Childermass have a close encounter of the fae kind. It turns out a Wyld Fae calling herself The Beast is responsible for the posters around town, and it's a challenge to the local fae: the Rose Queen, the Lord of Conflagration, and the Count of Crows to face her. While Childermass is a winter changeling, the Count of Crows' son, he currently serves the Rose Queen, and he's obliged to deliver the message to her. She does not take this well.
On October 6, Psi, Ginko, Foster and Greg Demayo enter Nightshade's realm to free Sans and Amethyst. Greg, as the Rose Queen's sometime-favorite, knows his way around the plants, but they prevail upon the aid of the mage Jonathan Strange, who has been somewhat feverishly researching the cause of all the disturbances, to provide a distraction by summoning the faerie to keep her occupied. It works a bit too well: the captives are rescued, while Strange ends up making an alliance with the the faerie and learns that the ritual responsible for the Severing twenty-five years ago has somehow been reactivated and that there's something unusual about his soul. In turn, Nightshade gains his oath that he will not help betray her in any way, and confirms her suspicions about his origins.
Celebrations at the success of the venture are premature, as the Rose Queen's ire seems to have only grown: Sanctuary is overrun with black roses, forcing the residents to band together to fight off the infestation with all means at their disposal. While attempting to help control the roses, Greg is reunited with his son Steven, who he had no idea had escaped from his mother's realm. He promptly takes his son and gets the hell out of there, knowing the Rose Queen won't easily give up on what's hers.
WEEK 2
As the week wears on, more and more people begin regaining memories of a life outside Portland ... some of them even more fantastical than their current ones. Of course, there are those for whom there's no confusion at all -- who remember perfectly where they came from -- but none of them have a clue how they ended up here or why the people they remember seem to be living lives that aren't their own.
On the night of October 7, the Animal Fair opens ... and it's far more anticlimactic than most people could have anticipated. Various people turn into beasts or gain beastlike qualities that vanish with the dawn's light. Childermass delivers the Queen's message to the Beast, but shows his true colors: he's not any more inclined to be in the Rose Queen's service than he is to be under his father's thumb, and he'll gladly help her take the Rose Queen down if that's what she's aiming for.
Though the roses have been beaten back from Sanctuary, they continue to harass the changelings of the city. Yuya Sakaki recruits individuals around town to help him cast warding spells to keep the Rose Queen's influence out, whatever she may be trying to accomplish by trying to capture as many changelings as she can. Yet despite the best efforts at fending the Rose Queen's efforts off, some changelings do get captured. Greg ends up leaving Steven with the demon Blue and her son Rin as an alternative to the compromised Sanctuary. Unaware of his double dealing, the Rose Queen orders the protection of Childermass from the Count, believing k he may have reason to attempt reclaiming his lost son ... much the same way she's attempting to retrieve her own.
On the human side of things, members of the Council of Enlightenment are cracking down on all supernatural entities in Portland, treating them with suspicion. The head of Portland's Circle, Ashleigh, is pissed about this intrusion into her territory, but few obvious courses of action against them aren't immediately obvious. She receives an email from an anonymous sender -- a warlock who asks her to help him take something from the Council, something that will be the key to undoing the spell that's keeping all these supernatural beings trapped on Earth...
On October 9, Prudence Jaeger the Hand of God, finally arrives in Portland to hold a meeting with the angels. She explains that to the best of her knowledge -- though it's clear this is knowledge she's only learned from another source herself -- the recent uproar in the supernatural community is due to the spell holding the Severing in place being overloaded. She believes there's a unique opportunity to undo the spell from the inside ... and the key might be finding the individuals who've just arrived in Portland from outside the Earth.
During the meeting, Sora, a boy with precognitive abilities, receives a vision of Childermass being bled out for some ritual by the Count and his daughters. While he doesn't recognize the people in the vision, it may be prescient -- Childermass is heavily pursued by his sisters this week.
WEEK 3
For the outsiders, the individuals unwillingly pulled into this world, the discordant memories are becoming harder to shake. Their lives -- their real lives, the ones they've been made to forget -- intrude into their memories of Portland more than ever, some close to remembering everything. Several of the angels who've begun to recall other lives approach Prudence, among them Yugo, who shares the same face (and a strange connection) with Yuya.
The various supernatural forces in Portland are marshaling their forces to make their gambits this week. Under the leadership of Prudence, the angels are preparing to storm the Circle and take an artifact from the visiting Council members. The demons, who've been causing general low-level chaos, are following the angels' movements and are waiting to pounce. The Rose Queen and her allies as well as the Winter Court are growing ever bolder, so much so that it feels like to be oblivious to this all you must be very blind indeed.
Werebeasts and seers receive a vision that seems to hint at general widespread destruction and Pretty Scary Shit. Werebeasts Peridot, Foster, and Miko congregate to discuss this shared vision and try to understand what it's trying to warn them against. An elder of The Pack provides some vague guidance, but ultimately, communing with the Earth Spirit is something they have to manage themselves.
Lambert and Peridot
seek out the Beast. Childermass learns that his father, the Count of Crows, may be seeking him.
Under Nightshade's orders, Strange attempts to guilt-trip slash kidnap Steven for the Rose Queen but fails miserably.
Later in the week, Tamaki the college student ghost
WEEK 4
TBA
FINALE
Shit got wrecked idek what else you need to know about this tbh.
AU Role Call Post
AU Info/Plotting Post
PROLOGUE
In fair Oregon, where we lay our scene...
Twenty five years ago, this world underwent a process sometimes know as "the Severing", in which a magical ritual of great power was used to severe the ties between earth and a number of otherworldly realms that had been cross-inhabiting it. The realms of faerie, heaven, and hell were disconnected entirely, stranding many of their members on earth with no way of returning home. The details of this ritual and its purpose are elusive, but its effects have spanned the globe.
WEEK 1
It's the beginning of October, and strange things are afoot in Portland, the supernatural community is shaken by portents that no one fully understands. The local Circle finds itself suddenly prevailed upon to assist mages of the North American Enlightenment Council in investigating supernatural phenomena. The Pack, Portland's local werebeast community, is abuzz with rumors of some unknown event wounding the Earth Spirit.
Posters announcing an "Animal Fair" on October 7th have sprung up all over the city, marked by a handful of crow feathers, rose petals, and burned matches at every place they've been put up. The Rose Queen, one of the area's major fae, commands her subjects to investigate the origin of the posters. Several other individuals, human and otherwise, attempt to investigate the location that the Animal Fair is set to take place, but are repelled by a sense of a giant predator stalking their movements. Lambert Wolfe, a graduate student working as a librarian a the university and a barista at the Toe Beans Cat Cafe, is less amused by the posters, and takes them down around the cafe.
On a more mundane level, residents of an apartment building begin to sense they're being watched and find berries being left around the building. Amethyst, one of the weres living in the building, consumes one of these berries and promptly falls into a coma and is magically whisked away, prompting her warlock brother, Foster, to search for her. He asks his demon patron, Psi, to look into the potential origin of these berries. In the spirit of experimentation (and because not a lot of things are probably able to kill an angel) Psi feeds Sans a smoothie made with said berries to test the effect. Unfortunately, the smoothie ends up having a more detrimental effect than Psi expected.
Panicked, the demon recruits Ginko to help him bring Sans to the doctor to figure out a remedy, but before they can get there, they're waylaid by Nightshade -- one of the Rose Queen's assassins, and the source of the poison berries. Sans is taken, and Nightshade proceeds to grill her captives about her suspicions that they aren't what they appear to be ... or believe they are.
On October 3 Sanctuary, the local halfway house for changelings and other supernatural strays, finds itself beset with an infestation of black roses. Investigation by residents and allies reveals the roses to be magical and also extremely poisonous. They have also appeared in several places around the city where changelings are known to appear. While it's uncertain exactly what they portend, they're an ill omen for the changeling Steven Demayo, because they can only herald one thing: his mother, the Rose Queen.
On October 4 Angels receive a missive announcing the Hand of God's imminent arrival in Portland, following the rumors of demons heading demons heading toward the city. That same evening, having taken over a co-worker's shift after a premonition, Lambert and the changeling John Childermass have a close encounter of the fae kind. It turns out a Wyld Fae calling herself The Beast is responsible for the posters around town, and it's a challenge to the local fae: the Rose Queen, the Lord of Conflagration, and the Count of Crows to face her. While Childermass is a winter changeling, the Count of Crows' son, he currently serves the Rose Queen, and he's obliged to deliver the message to her. She does not take this well.
On October 6, Psi, Ginko, Foster and Greg Demayo enter Nightshade's realm to free Sans and Amethyst. Greg, as the Rose Queen's sometime-favorite, knows his way around the plants, but they prevail upon the aid of the mage Jonathan Strange, who has been somewhat feverishly researching the cause of all the disturbances, to provide a distraction by summoning the faerie to keep her occupied. It works a bit too well: the captives are rescued, while Strange ends up making an alliance with the the faerie and learns that the ritual responsible for the Severing twenty-five years ago has somehow been reactivated and that there's something unusual about his soul. In turn, Nightshade gains his oath that he will not help betray her in any way, and confirms her suspicions about his origins.
Celebrations at the success of the venture are premature, as the Rose Queen's ire seems to have only grown: Sanctuary is overrun with black roses, forcing the residents to band together to fight off the infestation with all means at their disposal. While attempting to help control the roses, Greg is reunited with his son Steven, who he had no idea had escaped from his mother's realm. He promptly takes his son and gets the hell out of there, knowing the Rose Queen won't easily give up on what's hers.
WEEK 2
As the week wears on, more and more people begin regaining memories of a life outside Portland ... some of them even more fantastical than their current ones. Of course, there are those for whom there's no confusion at all -- who remember perfectly where they came from -- but none of them have a clue how they ended up here or why the people they remember seem to be living lives that aren't their own.
On the night of October 7, the Animal Fair opens ... and it's far more anticlimactic than most people could have anticipated. Various people turn into beasts or gain beastlike qualities that vanish with the dawn's light. Childermass delivers the Queen's message to the Beast, but shows his true colors: he's not any more inclined to be in the Rose Queen's service than he is to be under his father's thumb, and he'll gladly help her take the Rose Queen down if that's what she's aiming for.
Though the roses have been beaten back from Sanctuary, they continue to harass the changelings of the city. Yuya Sakaki recruits individuals around town to help him cast warding spells to keep the Rose Queen's influence out, whatever she may be trying to accomplish by trying to capture as many changelings as she can. Yet despite the best efforts at fending the Rose Queen's efforts off, some changelings do get captured. Greg ends up leaving Steven with the demon Blue and her son Rin as an alternative to the compromised Sanctuary. Unaware of his double dealing, the Rose Queen orders the protection of Childermass from the Count, believing k he may have reason to attempt reclaiming his lost son ... much the same way she's attempting to retrieve her own.
On the human side of things, members of the Council of Enlightenment are cracking down on all supernatural entities in Portland, treating them with suspicion. The head of Portland's Circle, Ashleigh, is pissed about this intrusion into her territory, but few obvious courses of action against them aren't immediately obvious. She receives an email from an anonymous sender -- a warlock who asks her to help him take something from the Council, something that will be the key to undoing the spell that's keeping all these supernatural beings trapped on Earth...
On October 9, Prudence Jaeger the Hand of God, finally arrives in Portland to hold a meeting with the angels. She explains that to the best of her knowledge -- though it's clear this is knowledge she's only learned from another source herself -- the recent uproar in the supernatural community is due to the spell holding the Severing in place being overloaded. She believes there's a unique opportunity to undo the spell from the inside ... and the key might be finding the individuals who've just arrived in Portland from outside the Earth.
During the meeting, Sora, a boy with precognitive abilities, receives a vision of Childermass being bled out for some ritual by the Count and his daughters. While he doesn't recognize the people in the vision, it may be prescient -- Childermass is heavily pursued by his sisters this week.
WEEK 3
For the outsiders, the individuals unwillingly pulled into this world, the discordant memories are becoming harder to shake. Their lives -- their real lives, the ones they've been made to forget -- intrude into their memories of Portland more than ever, some close to remembering everything. Several of the angels who've begun to recall other lives approach Prudence, among them Yugo, who shares the same face (and a strange connection) with Yuya.
The various supernatural forces in Portland are marshaling their forces to make their gambits this week. Under the leadership of Prudence, the angels are preparing to storm the Circle and take an artifact from the visiting Council members. The demons, who've been causing general low-level chaos, are following the angels' movements and are waiting to pounce. The Rose Queen and her allies as well as the Winter Court are growing ever bolder, so much so that it feels like to be oblivious to this all you must be very blind indeed.
Werebeasts and seers receive a vision that seems to hint at general widespread destruction and Pretty Scary Shit. Werebeasts Peridot, Foster, and Miko congregate to discuss this shared vision and try to understand what it's trying to warn them against. An elder of The Pack provides some vague guidance, but ultimately, communing with the Earth Spirit is something they have to manage themselves.
Lambert and Peridot
seek out the Beast. Childermass learns that his father, the Count of Crows, may be seeking him.
Under Nightshade's orders, Strange attempts to guilt-trip slash kidnap Steven for the Rose Queen but fails miserably.
Later in the week, Tamaki the college student ghost
WEEK 4
TBA
FINALE
Shit got wrecked idek what else you need to know about this tbh.