#cinderella sanction quest

[qm-vox]

Everything The Light Touches - The Heartless Giant & The Glass Mountain

You know this story. It’s Winter - isn’t it always Winter? - and the night is dark and cold. Our Intrepid Heroine has run away from home. Why doesn’t matter; maybe her father yelled at her, or she’s had another argument with her mother. Maybe it’s not home she’s run away from, but a boy’s house (or a girl’s; dying cold and alone in the hard Winter is a tale as old as time, after all). Perhaps she ran away a long time ago, and this is not her first long, dark Winter. And someone says:

“I know somewhere bright and warm to stay.”

Someone more skittish, more cautious, someone not as cold and alone, would not take the stranger’s hand, but Our Heroine is Intrepid, and she does. And the stranger is as good as her word. It’s always bright and warm in the Glass Mountain.

The thing left behind to freeze in Our Heroine’s place dies, sometimes, becoming the latest matchstick girl discovered lost in the snow on some sad Christmas morning. You know this story, after all.

But not how it ends.

The Master - The Heartless Giant

Most of His slaves wish they could forget the Heartless Giant, but few ever do; whatever else their Homecoming erases from their mind, the image of the looming Giant remains seared into their minds and stalks their dreams. He is hideous amongst the Fae, looming nearly eighteen feet tall and clad in armor made from guttering, metallic light snatched from dying candles, broken bulbs, sputtering coals, and the eyes of dead men, which casts more shadow than light and makes the scabbed rashes that crawl over the Giant’s exposed flesh seem like rippling scales. Mismatched teeth, wrenched from the mouths of those who dared speak ill of Him, crowd the Giant’s mouth and drip with saliva constantly refreshed by His panting, too-long tongue.

A hole is there in the Giant’s armor, right where his heart should go at the front and the back. There is only a terrible Darkness there, which no light can illuminate. Those who challenge the Heartless Giant to battle and do not fall before His massive glass shield (studded with sharpened finger bones, each taken from a thief slain in the burning Glass Mountain) are snatched up in the Giant’s hand and crammed into His heart-hole. The lucky die; others crawl forth as miserable Darklings, emptied and cored, and are turned loose to stagger towards the mortal realms as best they can. Most will never make it.

The Heartless Giant covets beauty, glory, and light, but despises the work necessary to acquire it, and so He bends His energy to acquiring slaves that can forge these things in His name. Rarely does the Giant bother to snatch victims with His own calloused hands; squads of loyalists with His brand over what’s left of their hearts flit to and from the mortal realms with orders from the Giant clutched in their hands. There are many roles to fill in the Glass Mountain; the Giant requires guards, treasures human and post-human pets as adornments for His throne room, and needs artists, smiths, glaziers, engineers, and dreamers to forge new treasures for His vaults, for His hoards, and even, at times, to sell to others among the Fae. While most of His time is spent on His throne, idling away hours simply staring at the light of His own domain, the Heartless Giant trusts nothing and no one with the tally of His hoard, and counts each bauble, slag-glass coin, and fractured beam of light by hand when the mood strikes Him. He also puts the finishing touches on each and every Fetch forged in the Glass Mountain, ensuring that they will live half-lives as miserable and bleak as their originals are now condemned to.

The Land - The Glass Mountain

The Glass Mountain that is fortress, factory, and vault for the Heartless Giant sits beneath an endless land of Night in which other Fae and fae creatures prowl, politic, and prey on one another. Other Gentry sometimes try to breach the Mountain’s defenses, but few even go near it; its crystal-clear walls shine forth with flickering, strobing lights in all colors, sometimes warm like a forge, and other times strobing so brightly as to boil mortal eyes from their skulls if they aren’t shut in time. There is no obvious passage into the Glass Mountain, and its secret ways are guarded by the Heartless Giant’s fiercest slaves.

Those who escape the Glass Mountain have nightmares of being lost in invisible halls cut through with searing light and color. The bottomless foundries, workshops, weaving-rooms, forges, and sweatshops that burst with the Giant’s slaves (some still human, many anything but these days) shed heat into the Mountain and the endless Night outside, and the air twists and smokes but never quite ignites as a result. It’s all too easy to get lost in the twisting, identical hallways and end up hunted down by the Giant’s Changeling guards that blend in with the light and color of His domain. Sounds, too, move through the entirety of the Glass Mountain, and the constant noise of toil is sometimes cut through by the screams of those who have displeased their new master, or who must be adjusted to survive life in the Mountain.

Escape can be difficult. The Mountain does not connect to the Hedge directly, so the first challenge of any Lost that seeks their Homecoming is to exit it into the light-slashed Night without. Some hide among shipments of unfinished Fetches (waiting only the thin strips of shadow that will give them life, provided by the clients who hire the Giant’s slaves to make the simulacra), while others flee from work details on the surface of the Glass Mountain. Sometimes, though, the Giant simply turns one of the Lost loose, walking them through the Night outside and gently setting them down on the path leading home. These unfortunates learn far too late that the Heartless Giant delights in cruelty, and return home to ruin and sorrow.

The Brave and the Broken - Lost of the Glass Mountain

Lost of many Seemings emerge from the Glass Mountain, under their own power or as the terrified loyalists which serve the Heartless Giant, but there are trends. Darklings are somewhat common to make, coming as they do from brave heroes who try to oppose their oppressor, but they only rarely survive the resulting journey home; of those that do, some absorb the essence of the Mountain itself and stagger back as Mirrorskins that shed an oddly bright and hollow light (accenting the shadows near them rather than illuminating them), while others croak desperate deals with buckets of discarded glass and claw, at last, into the mortals realms as Razorhands with feathery glass hair and fingers with too many joints.

Wizened of many stripes are common to the Glass Mountain; alchemic Brewers charged with making dyes or brewing drinks to sustain the multitudes of workers, Artists with glass dust ground into skin that won’t stop bleeding, Drudges with cloths of woven metal that polish and clean and scrape the Mountain to a spotless shine, skittish Authors with stained glass manacles that pierce through their wrists or necks, made to write the poems exalting the Giant or flattering His allies. Some remember having authority, or something like it, in the Glass Mountain; the Wizened serve as project leaders for the beautiful things the Giant covets, and wield glass-tipped whips against His captive hobgoblins and mortals to ensure that high standards can be pushed ever-higher. Those who grow addicted to this power almost never escape.

Those the Heartless Giant keeps as His personal pets tend to become His Fairest and the few Beasts that emerge from the Glass Mountain, turned into decorations and bodyguards all at once. The Fairest come home with hazy memories of twin swords made all of glass with a rising light pinned within the blades, and some manage to make it home with the actual weapons themselves, while the Beasts usually remember little other than cages of glass and gold, and scraps of flesh burnt to cinders. Treasured and Polychromatics are the most common Fairest to rise within the cursed light of the Glass Mountain, but some individuals instead emerge as Dancers, Flamesirens, or Romancers. Those Beasts who survive are almost invariably Truefriends, though rumors of glittering birds with feathers made of precious gems - Windwings - sometimes reach the ears of the Giant’s escaped slaves.

Ogres are shockingly rare in the Glass Mountain, and mostly made on purpose; they haul great loads of molten glass or precious metals, or beat new tunnels into the groaning earth with their bare fists despite the cracking and shattering of their living arms. Even then, many who could become Ogres instead end up as one of the Giant’s many Elemental slaves, given that their master practices transformation rather than medicine. Those who survive and escape have a bitter force of will and an ironclad sense of self-identity that carries them far in the mortal realms. Gristlegrinders with maws of glass teeth and a habit of taking bites out of stone or metal, Stonebones who became harder than their labors, Gargantuans changed from stealing the meat and drink of the Giant himself, and riddling Trolls set as traps inside of the Heartless Giant’s bottomless vaults all come roaring free of the Glass Mountain to rest, flesh steaming from heat, in the mortal lands again. Many have all-glass prosthetics of surprising flexibility.

Fireheart Elementals rival all of the Wizened for population of the Glass Mountain; the Heartless Giant’s guards, torturers, and soldiers have their flesh melted off and replaced by glass that encases their living organs, and when they fail Him something else is extracted and replaced with glass (these, too, dream of the blades the Giant gives them, and some few emerge with broken fingers still clutched around the hilts of razor-thin spathas made of stained glass which follow them into their dreams at night). Others are (re)born when a terrible accident happens in the forges and foundries and they become encased in molten glass, gold, silver, or even boiling water - they go leaping free, spared by some strange Arcadian whim, and smash their way out of the Mountain with stunning violence. Desperate slaves, more cunning than some of their peers, strike up a rapport with the elements of the Glass Mountain as they master the first inklings of Pledge and Contract, and some few Waterborn, Metalflesh, and Earthbones are forged this way, so out of place against the clear, glowing colors of their peers. Blightbents are thrown from the Mountain on a regular basis to fend for themselves in the endless Night outside. Some break back in to rescue others, and even succeed at times; most stagger back home with blackened lungs, runny eyes, and hands that drip with boiling waste materials and scorching chemicals to try and make the best of the lives the Giant has ruined.

The Motley Crew - Sample Lost

Rainbow John was a middle-class boy with a flair for the dramatic and a keen aesthetic eye. During his freshman year at college he made the mistake of falling for a bad girl who turned out to be a hell of a lot worse than he signed up for; she sold him to the Heartless Giant for another season of freedom in the mortal realms, and John became one of the Glass Mountain’s many Fairest decorations. John flirted with death for his entire Durance, keeping something resembling his sanity through sheer rage, cussedness, and rebellion, even as the Giant had his errant pet tortured, infected with living colors that whispered in his mind during quiet moments, melted the fat from his flesh over fires, and finally locked him away in a private cell - the moment John needed to break his way through the lock, steal his blades, and light out for the mortal realms with memories of home and a bright, kaleidoscopic rage leading the way.

The story of Colors Eriksdotter isn’t unusual for the Glass Mountain. The teenage daughter of a single father, Colors ran away from home after an argument with her father over his new girlfriend and accepted an offer to go somewhere warm and bright. Reforged to serve as one of the Heartless Giant’s Fireheart guards, Colors performed admirably in her duties until a moment of clarity shook her enough to break out and flee back to the mortal realms. She’s still struggling with violence-first solutions to her problems.

Jazz O’Brien fucked up. She fucked up so bad. Desperate to go home, she took a pact with the Giant - if she could survive the Darkness in his body, she could go home in His name and remain there as His servant. The Darkness turned her into a Mirrorskin Darkling, and the Giant’s twisted games have made her a slave in her own home. At first, Jazz was almost happy to kidnap her former bullies and rivals, but now those bullies and rivals are Fetches, and they serve as Jazz’s jailers. This wasn’t an exit, and now she doesn’t have a way back out.

Max of No House has a thing for windows. An Artist by nature and by profession, their memories of their Durance are blessedly(?) absent. Instead, they’ve taken like a moth to flame to a campaign of secretive graffiti, window art, and stealthily placed sculpture, reveling in the contrast of fame and anonymity it offers. The only trouble is their Court expects tithes, and the last time anyone asked Max to take a paying job that person got stabbed with a glass shard.

#Changeling: The Lost #rpg #fanfic #new avalon #cinderella sanction quest #violence #transformation

[fantastic-nonsense]

If you don't mind me asking, what are the ideas you have for your thesis?

Nah, I don’t mind. :)

Like I said, I have four ideas I’m working with that I sort of fleshed out a bit tonight since I had to turn my ideas and potential research questions into my professors on Sunday (I went ahead and did it a couple of days early because it is the second day of school and I am already hella swamped with work and am trying to get out in front of some of it). Given that I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing, some of these are still pretty broad.

Note: I’m an English/Political Science double major, but I only have to do a Poli Sci thesis (thank god), so obviously all of these are going to be more or less politics-focused.

Anyway, two of the thesis topics I’m looking at have to do with different aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

One of them is looking at how effective the BDS movement has been at achieving its stated goals thus far (since it is celebrating 12 years); if I wrote my thesis on this, I would likely be looking at their stated goals, tactics, and the results thus far.

For this topic, the research question would be “How effective has the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement been at achieving the movement’s stated goals?”

The other Israeli-Palestinian conflict-related topic I was looking at was comparing historical and current US governmental treatment of Native Americans with Israel’s treatment of ethnic Palestinians. This one would probably be a bit more involved and would likely have a policy focus, probably with a special focus on ethnic cleansing, reservations/areas that are “set aside” for specific populations, and the idea of self-governing but non-sovereign territories.

For this topic, the research question would probably be “Is the historical and current treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government comparable to the historical and current treatment of the United States government towards Native American populations?”

The third idea I have for my thesis concerns international human rights law and how the US adheres to or violates it. I was thinking about focusing on one of four conventions or treaties that the United States is not legally party to (either the Convention on the Rights of the Child, The Labor Conventions, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, or the International Criminal Court and the corresponding Rome Statute) and analyzing why the United States did not sign or ratify the treaty/convention and whether the government creates policy that adheres to it regardless of any international legal obligation they may or may not have.

The research question for this topic would likely be something along the lines of “Despite not being legally bound to follow [international covenant/treaty], does the United States government create and enact policy that adheres to the treaty despite the lack of international legal obligation to do so?”

The final idea that I’m bouncing around is more literature-based, given that I am also an English major and literature is my first love, and concerns fairy tales and how they are continually reinterpreted and retold in various cultures around the world throughout history. I was thinking that should I do this, my thesis would focus on how each culture reinterprets a particular tale to perpetuate their own particular political ideas and ideology and how the tale gets retooled to fit the culture and particular political context at the time (for example, the Brothers Grimm revising stories like ‘Cinderella’ in order to more successfully cater to the audience they found for their ‘Household Tales’ within their particular sociopolitical context).  I would pick one or two tales or tale types (most likely either Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella narratives) and then analyze various versions from cultures across the world (and from different time periods) in order to see how each particular iteration fits into the social, cultural, and political contexts that shaped it.

For this particular idea, my research question would likely be “How has the [insert fairy tale] narrative been reinterpreted and retooled to fit the particular cultural and political contexts of different cultures as the story moved around the world?”

So anyway, those are the four topics I’m bouncing around in my head at the moment, and I’ll be meeting with my professors on Tuesday to discuss which ones are actually good and feasible topics.

#personal #bri's college adventures #asks #Anonymous

[jacks-unsanctioned-editorials]

Talking the Talk

So here we are, most of a year into ‘so magic people exist and we’ve been lying about that for a long time’, and understandably there’s some questions about that hanging around the place. I’m not gonna get back into talking points about the Mask and why we couldn’t tell the truth, mostly because at this point you either believe us when we say we couldn’t turn it off, or you don’t and you’re not gonna be persuaded by an opinion blog from Maryland. I am going to get into some of the consequences of the Masked world that are just now starting to unravel, though. Y’all remember that interview in like May, just when things were hot off the presses, with Miss Missy Mystery in DC? If you haven’t seen it yet, look up ‘Changeling Historian’ on Youtube and click the first link. I really hate to be the guy who keeps kicking her when she’s down over this video but she kinda gets hot under the collar about the repeated questions; was this politician or historical figure Lost, what did Changelings do about slavery or Prohibition or World War One, that sorta thing. Not so big secret? This is more or less our reaction whenever you ask us that:

I am a paid professional. I get it, I really do. This seems like the sort of thing you’d write down and brag about later. But we don’t really write things down. Or at least, we didn’t. And the Mask was a pretty comprehensive protection. In person, sure, you could see another Changeling as who they are, but by photo, by video, God forbid by portrait? Nope. Not even a little. The history of the Lost is the history of humanity, sure, but I could look at every single photo of, I dunno, World War 2 and at best give you 30% odds that I correctly identify any given person in them as having been a Changeling. Maybe a Winter boy could give you better odds but good luck getting them to even try. For the longest time, the Lost have been a secret even from one another. The Fairest of Lands is always watching, waiting, looking to drag us back, and that means most of us don’t travel. How do you know it’s safe where you’re going? How do you know you won’t get ambushed on the road, or attacked by monsters? It wasn’t just ignorance protecting Average Joe Mk. 1 from that, it was the fact that they couldn’t see. You see fae things, and they see you, and things are different. Likewise, knowledge about the Lost was inherently secret and special, so it was usually coded orally, kept in protected dreams or weird rhymes or elaborate ciphers to help prevent Them from getting at it. We’ve got a whole society of people who use magic to preserve memories specifically because Freeholds have been dragged under by writing the wrong thing down. Sound paranoid and stressful? Good, it should. That’s the life we lived. That we still live, honestly. The Unmasking has offered the chance to change things. For the first time, you can see that someone is Lost by video or photo or even by cell phone for the folks with weird voices. That’s such an amazingly, mind-blowingly big deal that it’s hard to wrap my head around it. It used to be that any given Freehold was absolutely reliant on services like the Sacred Couriers for news of anywhere else. Now we can turn on the news and get word of distant Freeholds. Once upon a time if you wanted to take the car ride from Alaric to New Avalon - you know, less than a fucking hour - you were insane, brave, or both. Now we take day trips for the hell of it, admittedly with respects paid to the locals since no one wants to cause trouble. Are we going to stop being local creatures? Probably not. There’s a lot more reasons than just fear keeping the Lost nailed to their home towns, especially since these days the Hedge seems restless and ready to boil over with weird shit. But you know, it’s nice to finally get to know each other. Talk our talks out, swap traditions, make friends. It’s one of the things I missed most from being Average Joe Mk. 1. Now if you’ll excuse me I gotta catch up on the latest from LA. Drama central, that town.

#You Don't Know Jack #New Avalon #Changeling: the Lost #rpg #Cinderella Sanction Quest #questing

[qm-vox]

We’re back in the saddle y’all! A side story for Cinderella Sanction Quest, following an oneiromancer from Kansas as he attempts to cure a coma. Come on it and take a vote!

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #rpg

[qm-vox]

"It makes sense," Dad says. "I don't think my shy little girl would have been into swords and public duels." "...I was definitely into swords," you admit, your face going black for some reason. Dad nods sagely. "The legends of sword lesbians are true." 

Cinderella Sanction Quest #35 is live.

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #Changeling: The Lost #broken masquerade #rpg #questing #running

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest #33 is up and running. Here’s hoping I can keep my life in order enough to keep up with it.

Wondering what the hell this is, or just straight-up new to New Avalon? Most of the archives (up through the end of Part Two: That Pain Again) are available in PDF format.

These stories are rooted in the Changeling: the Lost setting by White Wolf, and as such can get into some fairly heavy topics. Content warnings include, but are not limited to: violence, depictions of PTSD & depression, alcoholism (and how), cults & cult abuse (specifically, they include a member of the Lost Pantheon, one Rachael Reeds), sex trade abuse (in Part One: Take Me To Wonderland), body horror (relates to the violence), suicide (July at Christmas and Part Two: That Pain Again), and some content that trans readers report is close to...the experience (Fetch-related, mainly centered in Part Two: That Pain Again).

Longtime reader? Thread is live and waiting for your votes. New reader? I’m always ecstatic to hear questions, comments, discussion, & criticisms.

Thank y’all for your patience, and for reading!

#cinderella sanction quest #Changeling: The Lost #new avalon #broken masquerade #questing #running #rpg

[qm-vox]

Colors Eriksdotter (she’s the colorful one) and her Motley - Vickie Reeds, the Rook, and Forum Troll. This pic was done by Tredlocity, who has my endless thanks for his work and his patience. Rumor has it that if you throw money at him art may come out.

#Changeling: The Lost #new avalon #cinderella sanction quest #broken masquerade

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest Resuming Soon

(Art credit goes to Domochevsky, of https://wildwestscifi.net/)

Cinderella Sanction Quest will be resuming Monday, July 23rd, whenever I wake up to handle my shit. Initial posts may be slow, as I continue to finish out Delphi and the Argo-Nots (current live thread, with links to the other two, here: http://boards.4chan.org/qst/thread/2735337#top).

Are you a current reader looking to refresh yourself? The New Avalon archive link is here: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=New%20Avalon

Interested or just wondering what in blue fuck I’m talking about? Continue reading below!

Cinderella Sanction Quest (CSQ) is a Quest, a form of reader-participation story, which I run on the /qst/ board on 4chan. Readers of a quest collectively take the role of a character, voting on their actions and influencing those actions through write-ins and discussion. Not all readers of a quest vote; many simply follow the archives, or visit the live threads without engaging.

CSQ is the fourth of a series of quests set in the semi-fictional city of New Avalon, Maryland, the city that Baltimore was built to be but never became. Each follows the lives and struggles of Changelings (also known as the Lost), formerly human people kidnapped, abused, and ultimately changed by their exposure to an alien otherworld. Originally published by White Wolf, this overall setting was detailed in Changeling: the Lost as part of the second World of Darkness line, though New Avalon and the vast majority of its characters are my own creation.

While you could leap directly into Cinderella Sanction Quest, I’d advise that new readers look at the short one-shots set before it, both to get an introduction to New Avalon and to meet characters of ongoing importance.

New to the setting of Changeling: the Lost? In the archive link above (repeated here for ease of access: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=New%20Avalon), start with Scarred by Thorns, which follows a youngblood Darkling on the days after his Homecoming. After, check out King of New Avalon (set before Scarred by Thorns, and following an Ogre that seeks to fill the power vacuum in his native Court), then July at Christmas, wherein Zoe Morris is asked to throw a party and everyone decides to be dicks about it.

If those have your eye, CSQ awaits! Join Colors Eriksdotter,  Warlock Knight of the Spring Court, as she discovers something amiss with the teens of New Avalon and is turned loose on the trail of the so-called Wonderlanders.

(Art credit to Domochevsky)

(Colors Eriksdotter, Vickie Reeds, the Rook, and Forum Troll. Art credit goes to @tredlocity

Content Warnings: Cinderella Sanction Quest and the other New Avalon stories deal directly with trauma and abuse. Many of its characters struggle with mental health; more than a few are violent or even murderous. These stories contain violent scenes, torture, depictions of PTSD and depression, magical violations of consent, and gore. There are no warnings or tags in the work itself; things happen when they happen, sometimes suddenly, sometimes as the expected outcome of a long series of events. Audience commentary can also get transphobic and/or very clearly drunk in places, again with essentially no warning. Understand what I have said here and do as thou wilt.

Here’s hoping to see y’all in New Avalon!

#cinderella sanction quest #Changeling: The Lost #broken masquerade #questing #running #rpg #new avalon

[qm-vox]

One of my talented readers (Ms. Evy) was kind enough to put the New Avalon archives in PDF form, complete with Q&A content in the back of each one to help new and old readers with worldbuilding and other ideas! Been wanting to try out CSQ but unable to follow threads or otherwise disinclined to? Give these a shot.

#Changeling: The Lost #cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #broken masquerade #questing

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest #32 is up and running. Join us in the Hidden Hoard of Liz Malloy.

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #broken masquerade #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #rpg

[qm-vox]

CSQ Delayed

That feel when the site is having some kind of error. Everything else was lined up to post but since every attempt gets ‘connection error’ it’s gonna have to wait until tonight.

Sorry y’all.

#cinderella sanction quest #rpg #Changeling: The Lost #new avalon #questing #broken masquerade

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest #28 is up and running.

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #philadelphia #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #rpg #broken masquerade

[qm-vox]

New thread of Cinderella Sanction Quest is up & running. Join us as we dream of the Fairest of Lands.

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #rpg

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest - Semper Fi

James’s father had been fond of the phrase ‘look on the bright side’. It’s the sort of useless platitude that a person ignores right up until their life goes completely fucking insane and all of a sudden ‘useless’ becomes ‘only rock in a sea of madness’.

So, the bad news: Agent James Nichols, former United States Marine, current member of Task Force: VALKYRIE, was living a lie that could cost him his job, his life, and/or his sanity at a moment’s notice.

The good news: lots of night shifts!

Being in the monster-hunting business meant a lot more nocturnal work than made any kind of scientific sense. Biologically speaking, there was no reason, whatsoever, for the overwhelming amount of light-shy horrors in James’s line of work. Being one of those horrors, he knew the actual reason was because humans were scared of the dark, and always would be. But there was no taking that to the boys and girls down in R&D, now was there?

James’s mouth said, “They send in more of those etheric goggles?” because it was still in this meeting, even if his mind wasn’t. His ears were trying to do their duty too, the poor bastards, but with his brain lost in itself they were having a hell of a time.

“Rounds,” Agent Michelle answered.

“That just -” Ricky started.

“We know,” Michelle and James said at the same time.

“Score one for government work,” Ricky muttered. Ricky was the kind of guy who grabbed a new styrofoam cup every time he wanted coffee. In a related story, Ricky had to buy his own cups, because the Old Man had had enough of buying them for him. “We hear from Geri Squad?”

“Nothing bad, check-ins at the usual times,” James answered, his brain actually latching onto this one. “Just like when you asked ten minutes ago.”

“Yeah, it’s just...”

“Something feels wrong,” Michelle finished, and her two work partners nodded silently. “Which is why we’re inside, having a bullshit meeting that could have been an email, because all of us want to be sure the other two are as scared as we are.”

“That’s weaponizing your psych degree,” James said, pointing his own cup - the rim chewed from compuslive nibbling - at Michelle.

“I’m sorry, which one of us decided to ‘distract’ the Old Man before the dock job by putting laxatives in his food?”

“And his drinks,” Ricky added.

“Leading to his hospitalization,” Michelle concluded.

“I was acquitted,” James’s mouth managed. His brain had gone back off on its own tangent. Something did feel wrong, something in the air but not like a scent. More like a darkness or, or -

Or a light, maybe? Like a nagging light, yeah. Something shining from a weird spot in the room, and you can’t quite figure out from where, or why, and if only you could just find it everything would be fine.

Hold up, James’s eyes interrupted. Michelle’s pointing an actual gun at you and she seems serious.

That’s crazy talk, James’s brain returned, and then it double-checked.

“Michelle, the fuck,” James said flatly, staring at the pistol in his fellow Agent’s hand. “What are you - Ricky, seriously?”

“You got something to tell us, James?” Ricky’s elbow twitched, just the faintest shake.

“Maybe? Why are there guns in our shitty meeting room?”

Michelle picked up her phone in one hand, tapped something, and turned it to James with the front camera on. He could see his face; lean, scarred just under the left eye from a bigass stinger, slight muzzle, thick fur done up in the style of facial hair. Lupine, mainly.

“That’s my face,” James’s mouth answered, because his brain was still working through it.

“Yeah, and what big eyes you have,” Michelle said slowly.

“Oh fuck me,” James and his brain said at the same time. “You can see me.”

“Yeah,” Michelle and Ricky answered.

“...If I said I can explain?”

*    *    *    *    *

Michelle and Ricky passed him off to the Old Man. The Old Man called in Project: TWILIGHT. TWILIGHT’s field boy recused himself from the interrogation, so that became one of their suits, who ended up getting dragged out by Michelle after he pulled a gun in the middle of questioning. Now it was James and some CIA spook he’d never met before, an Agent Vasquez. He had the chance to use the restroom and wash up before he got let back into the interrogation room. She came in a solid eight minutes later, with food.

“I hope you can tolerate McDonald’s, because that’s what’s open. Greasy bag of death.” Vasquez tossed the paper sack to James’s side of the table. “Again, from the top.”

“What’s the point? You’re looking for inconsistencies in the story, fine. I get it. But you’re just gonna shoot me in the back of the head, so maybe, I dunno, do that. Bury me outdoors.”

“From the top, Agent Nichols.”

James sighed. “I’m the same James Nichols you recruited to Task Force: VALKYRIE. My unit was assaulted in the Mojave by an extra normal entity while on leave. Two of us died. A third was put down after he proved infected. My record speaks for itself.”

“It does,” Vasquez agreed. “If I have to eat this shit, you should too.” She took out a pair of fries and bit off their ends. “Seriously.”

“This cutting-edge CIA interrogation techniques?”

“My mother didn’t raise me to let people go hungry in my own house, and as of right now, I own this building and everyone in it. Eat your goddamn food.”

James fished a burger out of the bag, opened it, regretted opening it, and took a bite because hunger was stronger than his standards. He scarfed the thing, needing to feel something in his belly, before he kept going. “So...the county line job.”

“Operation Little Night,” Vasquez corrected. “You were cut off from your team.”

“You could say it like that. I was abducted. The thing that linked back up with the team wasn’t me.”

“The thing that linked back up with the team wasn’t visibly lupine,” the spook opined. 

“See, this shit here is why I think you’re just going to shoot me,” James snapped. “Do it or don’t, alright? I’d’ve shot me by now, because fuck me, one, and two, I’ve got no way to prove anything. Nothing but my word to say that I’m the kind of crazy motherfucker who went back to TFV knowing you’d assume I’m a monster and put two in my head. It was a dumbass move and I kept doing it for three years running! The vigilantes I’ve got under-the-table deals with? More people like this,” James gestured to his face. “The ‘tips’ I give out to my team that put us in the position to protect civilians? Magic. That what you wanna hear? Except you can’t verify that either, so fuck off and quit with the fuckin’ runaround.”

Vasquez leaned in, brown eyes locked on James’s. “So why come back, Mister Dumbass?”

“Why - Jesus, lady. Why do you think? I swore an oath. An oath I haven’t been released from.” James leaned back, disbelief in his eyes. “Maybe that’s just words to you over at the spookshow, but it’s not to me, and not to anyone I’ve served with. ‘Always faithful’.”

Vasquez looked thoughtful for a moment, and then tossed something bright and metal in front of James. He looked down, dumbly, at the key sitting there.

“You’ve got forty-five minutes to figure out your most convincing version of that speech before you give it to the brass,” Vasquez said. “They’ve gotta try and give it to the White House and Congress, so you better make it good. You’re the third one of you folks we’ve found in the ranks, and the other two had to be sedated.”

“What the hell happened?” James asked, even as he uncuffed himself.

“Who knows, but the gig is up, Agent Nichols. And VALKYRIE is calling its shot. You up for preventing a war before it can start?”

“You gonna feed me better than McDonald’s?”

“I’ll feed you your own asshole if you keep sassing my cooking in my own house, wolfboy.”

#cinderella sanction quest #Changeling: The Lost #rpg #questing #side story #Task Force: VALKYRIE #Broken Masquerade

[qm-vox]

Okay so I’m drunk as fuck and

Should probably update on the status of CSQ! I’ve got my children visiting for a week this month (normally they only visit once a year) so as much as I love y’all, you can get fucked. Look forward to a thread sometime in late December or else in January.

#cinderella sanction quest #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #MY SPAWN COMETH

[qm-vox]

Cinderella Sanction Quest #22 is up and running. We’re gonna feed the children.

#cinderella sanction quest #new avalon #rpg #Changeling: The Lost #questing #running #broken masquerade