Reverend Reverend please come quick 'cause I got something to admit

[unpocoloco]

Who: Ernesto OR Héctor + TWO Mingle spaces
What: TOUR AND A MOVIE PART TWO; STARING YOU? + NECROMANCY; HONEST EFFORTS (a.k.a, Héctor's failed revival this month is a truth spell.)
When: April, late in the month
Where: A filming location in Soliel, Daybreak Academy
Warning: N/A
Notes: People affected by Héctor's accidental truth spell can also bring this into the movie mingle. Have you ever lied without actually lying? Now's the time to learn!

TOUR AND A MOVIE

Filming is ramping up.

Just as before, Higher Daybreak faculty are encouraging participants to see this as a way of learning to use their magical skills in a way that is discrete and ensures the protection of the Veil. It's spoken of as a chance for students to better learn how to hide their abilities while still putting them to use, disguising them as various other talents. In turn, they'll be credited in the film's production once it's complete, as well as receive extra credits in related courses. And of course, besides the great publicity, what better way to make a hit movie than adding a magical touch to it?

While work around the set continues to be welcomed and encouraged, this month filmmakers are particularly keen on finding those who can fill a newly opened role for an extra! Daybreak students are being to the very rare and special opportunity to audition in, without even going through the gruelling ordeal of terse agents, discouraging phone calls, and dull waiting areas! Just line right up and give it your best!

The following roles are open:

-Kindly and Adoring Town's Person Number Five

-Irritable Officer Number Two

-Overdramatic Restaurant Employee (or Customer, adjusted to match ages)

On top of this extraordinary opportunity, the winning student will be treated to a day on the town with De La Cruz himself.

On top of all this, with the improving weather, more scenes are being shot outside and in the heart of Soliel. It's quite possible to wander on set entirely by accident! Just remember that maintaining the laws of the Veil during this important project is still of utmost importance.



~~~~~~



HONEST EFFORTS

Nothing happened. He took precautions, he followed the spell, he did everything right. He double-checked the runes and then triple checked the cage he'd set himself up in. There was light, there was energy, a whole burst of it shooting up around him and then darting out past the walls (and over the campus). And then nothing. He was still just as dead as before. He wasn't even a different kind of dead like his usual screw-ups led to. He made a flashy light show and nothing more. In a fit of frustration, he scraped the whole circle, packed up, and settled in to go back to work the next night.

But, with that morning, students and faculty alike around Daybreak may find themselves afflicted with a sudden need to be a little more candid than usual. Maybe a lot more candid.

The urge for honesty may manifest in being suddenly unable to lie-- either directly or at all. It might mean talking way too much. Maybe it means confessing things you've been bottling up, or simply showing who you are inside when you'd normally be inclined to hide it. It might just be something small and simple going throughout the day. Or, it could build into something so overwhelming it becomes impossible to bear until the truth is out. It varies from person to person and does, eventually, go away.

But it also may be intensified in those who might be just a bit too close to a certain someone...

Comments

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail winces and silently pinches the bridge of her nose.]

Fuck's sake, kid...

[She's not even surprised. She's disappointed, but she's not surprised. She knows that Rex is capable of that kind of thing, that can and has done frankly horrible things to people for questionable reasons.]

[It happened before she got here, she can put two and two together on the time frame as well as anyone. So she couldn't have prevented it by ratting his dumb ass out post-facto.]

[That doesn't feel like a comfort.]

Look. [She lets her hand drop into her lap with a sigh, and turns to meet Hector's gaze.] Seeing how he's still here and not under house arrest at minimum, I'm assuming someone had a come-to-Jesus meeting with him about keeping his goddamn hands to himself at some point. And I'm also pretty sure that does jack-all to make you feel better, which honestly? Fair.

But if he ever gets real stupid and tries to start shit with you again, just... tell him I said to back the fuck off this one, okay? [She can't make a moral argument against hurting people and won't bother trying. But the nice thing about "fuck you, dibs" is that it doesn't require one. From one career criminal to another, Rex might recognize that.] Can't promise he'll listen, but it might distract him enough for you to get outta dodge.

Point is, that's fucked up and you didn't deserve that. Sorry.

[She claps her hands together and straightens up brightly.]

Okay, emotional honesty moment done! Let's get this show on the road before we make it weird. [Neither of these men want to talk about their feelings and she respects this. She also does not want to talk about her feelings, unless "larceny" and "gay" count as feelings.]

[She reaches into one of her pockets, retrieves a flask, and pulls aside the front panel of her mask with a quiet mutter of:] Just, uh, gonna take care of this ahead of time...

[And then she Looks.]

[Pain to pain, the pain of the man sitting beside her- what more is needed, what greater connection is there than that? To hurt for another being, who hurts as you were hurt. There's a thread, there's a trace and a trail in that, just follow it and find...]

[Rage]

[Fury all-prevading, seething acid against the glass of a too-small container. Captive and- her hands clench involuntarily, familiar and foreign sensations brushing past each other briefly- bound, a prisoner without parole. Not dying, no, kept untouched and unaddressed in their cell- but God, is the prison not punishment enough? No torment is needed beyond being forced to remain silent and still in this place they hate hate hate hate-]

[Not far now, hate like a beacon, like a fire- he's closer than he knows, she knows they're here-]

[Jail doubles over, hacking and wheezing. Dimly, she registers that she's been coughing for a while without realizing it, while lost in the vision. It's only now that the cough's gone wet and choking that she noticed.]

[She lets the Sight fade and leans over to spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground, then takes a deep, wincing breath and flicks the cap off the flask, taking a swig of the contents.]

[Surprisingly, the smell isn't even remotely alcoholic- it's the scent of the heavy-duty cough syrup that the school infirmary provides, an alchemical recipe typically too finicky and expensive for her to brew while out on the road. Being able to use it consistently is a nice change, for her vocal chords if nothing else.]

Well, they ain't deader than you are. [It comes out a quiet rasp to start, but it's already a noticeable improvement as she continues to speak.] Probably less. Mad as hell about it, too.

Not real clear on what they are, but they aren't in danger exactly. Just... trapped and hurting and pissed as fuck about it. Like a cat that crawled into an alley to lick old wounds and then got boxed up in a dumpster. But, like. Forever.

Also? Turns out it's our dumpster. Whatever the this is, it's on campus somewhere. Was around you- [She points at Hector.] -sometime recent. Like today recent.

[She grimaces and wipes the blood off her chin.] Fucking Sight, always gotta get dramatic about shit... anyone got some gum or something? This tastes like ass.

[unpocoloco]

Thank you.

[He says that to Ekkehardt. It's hard to meet her eyes like she's trying to meet his, but he nods. He's fairly certain it was Ekkehardt who had, in fact, talked to him. He nods at her advice too, which is probably more useful. And again, he says;]

Thank you.

[And then he jumps with that loud clap. It startles him, but once she speaks, he can't help the wry laugh, or the smile that forms, just for a moment before she starts to reach into a vision.

He has to admit, he's never actually seen a seer work before. He knew Toki could get... strange. But that wasn't quite the same.

She coughs and he doesn't initially think much of it. Then again, his brows start to furrow. She doubles and he reaches out for her, worried.]

Jail! Are you okay?

[Jailbreak spits blood onto the ground. That's a solid no. He falls quiet to listen. It's a lot to take in.]

...Sorry, I've got nothing. [Dead and all.] Does that... always happen? The blood and stuff?

[He's coughed blood up before. It didn't end well.]

[spelleton]

[ Ekkehardt silently produces a handkerchief and, after a little bit of digging, a tin of travel sweets. He hands them over with the air of someone who's used to this minor part of caretaking; his expression hadn't so much as shifted during Jailbreak's coughing fit. It's something he's seen before, so he doesn't feel it necessary to speak. ]

cw: vague body-horror implications

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail waves a hand casually and gives Hector an only very slightly shaky thumbs-up.] We're cool, the Sight's just a bitch like that.

[God bless Ekkehardt, honestly.] You're a fucking saint, thanks. [It's surprisingly cheerful a tone, considering. She takes some of the sweets from the tin and crunches them happily like the gremlin she is, waiting a moment before replacing the front panel of her mask and answering the question. She doesn't bother with the handkerchief- blood's not the worst thing she's ever gotten on this shirt, it's fine.]

Depends on how hard I'm going on it. The Sight doesn't have the exact same side effects for every Seer, but whatever side effects you got are gonna kick in at least a little bit whenever a vision hits, whether you made it hit on purpose or not. You got your classic blind Seers, where it's fucking up their eyes, right?

[She gestures vaguely at her chest.] Me, I got a different major organ to worry about. Twenty-twenty vision, but... [She taps her gas mask with a finger.] This ain't just for show- it's magitech, does the breathing for me.

[A shrug, as she leans back against the bench again.] Smaller visions ain't too bad, this one just went deep real quick for a second there. Bigger ones... eh.

Honestly, at this point I'm just kinda pissed the spongy little fuckers haven't finished shriveling up and dying already. I'm waiting 'til they finally yeet outta my ribcage completely to swap in some bitchin' robot lungs.

[She probably won't actually end up coughing up the entirety of her lungs piecemeal over the years before she finally bites the bullet and gets someone else to help her with some surgery, but she's still going to be stubborn about it for a good while.]

[To be honest, it's hard to tell whether this is the truth compulsion or just her usual method of avoiding feeling ashamed of things by aggressively putting her own business out there, thus making it everyone else's problem.]

Point is, now we know that whatever's going down with your angry buddy ain't too obvious, not if we could all keep walking past it and not notice.

[unpocoloco]

That's horrible.

[He says that as Ekkehardt passes the mints and Jailbreak goes about happily. He looks vaguely horrified.

If he were in her place, he'd probably laugh it off to. Heck, he has laughed off some bad stuff. But it's much harder to do from the outside, even with robot lung jokes (that aren't actually jokes).]

Okay, uh... don't search again because that was... not good. But that does confirm what they said. And it means they're not at risk yet.

[So they have time. It's not Rex and whoever hurt them isn't touching them. They can breathe. Rather, he can.]

Ekkehardt, do you know of anything that could kind of contain a soul? Something that maybe would be carried around and effected by the potions people were throwing?

[spelleton]

There's plenty of things that can contain a soul, with the appropriate spells. [ He sort of waves a hand. ] Phylacteries have an outside barrier to prevent this sort of thing from happening, so it wouldn't be that. But you can put a soul inside something you create...toys, trinkets, valuable things.

Even inside another person, if you truly wanted it. I'm afraid that you're asking for a very broad category.

[nor_iron_bars]

Eh, could be worse. [See for example Toki's everything.]

[Jail frowns, looking thoughtful.] Y'know, maybe not that broad. [Gestures at Hector.] You said you met 'em when they got mixed up in that body-swapping prank, right?

So whatever their little prison cell is, we're talking about something that could and did get hit with one of those potions, and had the potion actually work like it was supposed to. Which means that whatever they got swapped out of, somebody else got swapped into.

Gotta admit, I don't exactly keep an eye on the discipline reports unless they're funny, but if they'd accidentally Cask of Amontillado'd some poor bastard into being trapped in a crystal necklace or cursed book or whatever for a few hours, I'd bet good money somebody woulda had a complaint for us about it.

[There was a confirmed case or fifty of people swapping with someone in a magical construct body- thank you, Sira- but nothing she can remember hearing about any actual inanimate objects.]

This is guesswork, but... [She counts off the points on her fingers.] A container that was around for the students to prank, wasn't something any of us thought shouldn't be here, registered as a valid target to the spellwork on the potions, wasn't bizarre enough that people were surprised to get swapped into it, and isn't a phylactery.

Smart money says we're looking for a person.

[unpocoloco]

Worse, sure, you could die coughing up blood or something.

[He mutters it because it might as well be to himself at that point.

But with that, he listens, brow furrowed. She makes good points all the way through. But that still leaves him stuck.]

Someone's soul is trapped in... someone else? I don't understand. Why wouldn't they say something? Or at least one of them.

Unless... unless that person's keeping them contained on purpose...