[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[Anarion]

Helen laughs at that last comment, just a short giggle, but then starts biting her lip. "I don't, I don't get it. You both look the same. And you haven't said anything like that to me in years. Not since I started middle school."

The coat rack cuts in. "That's because we don't have time for stupid stories like that. I'm sorry I ever filled your head with all that garbage. We need to work hard every day just to make ends meet. If you think about anything else, you'll just disappoint yourself."

[Thanqol]

Stephanie wasn't feeling particularly threatened at this point, quietly certain that this was all a misunderstanding and that they could straighten it out before too long.

"Yeah, stands to reason: that version of me is a hat rack underneath an illusion. Hat racks don't have super amazing imaginations." To the hat rack, "Look. I know this must all be kinda weird to you - it'd be weird to me but I'm kinda used to weird by now - but I'm sure that we can actually work things out."

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande takes a deep, calming breath. Stay cool. Stay cool, Marchande. Don't start barking. She can avoid barking. She can do that much. Yes. No barking. You don't need to stay cool... but don't bark.

She looks up, and says, more forcefully than she intended, "Stephanie? What do you mean she's a coat rack?!" She can't actually be a coat rack, ahahaha. That would be crazy.

[Thanqol]

"Why can't she be a coat rack?" Stephanie called back down. "Have you seen us? It's like that, but with coats."

[Anarion]

The coat rack says "Coat rack? What are you talking about? I'm Stephanie. Me. I get that you're a part of me or something because of all the dreams, but you're also some shadow monster thing. I..."

The coat rack is interrupted by Helen. "You're really Stephie? Why?! Why did you leave? Why did you leave me with her?!"
She starts sobbing. The coat rack shifts its cape uneasily.

[PhoeKun]

From the familiar to the cripplingly alien. Rose stands in the alleyway, bewildered yet somehow not surprised. A pretty little building like that in a place like this? There had to be a catch where Stephanie was involved, and in this case it was a... talking... coat rack. But of course.

Kalina blinks. She looks over at Charlotte, twitching and blinking and only half composed. Then at Marchande, laughing and incredulous, clinging to "normal" and maybe about to snap.

"...What do you suggest we do?" she asks of nobody in particular.

[Thanqol]

"Look, it was a -" she couldn't bring herself to say it was a mistake. "- I was lied to. I came back as soon as I knew,"

She grabbed the window and tried to yank it open, but didn't have anything remotely approaching the muscle mass required and she still really didn't want to break that glass.

[Anarion]

Those of you in the alley notice that a couple of lights have turned on. All that shouting and the crash, not to mention a young girl sobbing now. It's the sort of thing that can make a scene.

Meanwhile, Helen, still sobbing says "But you wanted to leave! I was holding you down! I knew it, I always knew it!"

[Thanqol]

Her mind scrambled for a lie.

"I - just - It was -" she stumbled over each excuse as soon as it started. She didn't have anything to say. Nothing she could say from out here.

She took a deep breath, stepped back, leaned against the rail, and lunged forwards both feet fully extended - launching herself through the glass and hopefully to a graceful landing where she'd be able to talk to her sister face-to-face.

[SiuiS]

Charlotte watched the blond girl... No, Stephanie, Charlotte watches Stephanie... As she argued with the window, about a coatracks and magic and long days. Kalina had a good question. Lights were coming on. Lights meant people were home, awake, and don't want to hear screams about coatracks. And then...

Well, she doesn't know what then. What do you do in the middle of the night when someone screams about coatracks? There is beating, or the oubliette, or leaving them in the woods for the grigs. Except those aren't things normal people do. Normal people go to bars and act happy or drive to work and want to go home the whole time or sit in class and get yelled at. Well, that was the answer wasn't it? Normal people wanted to go home. That makes them normal people. Simple!

Charlotte turns to Kalina, her expression one of plainly knowing and happy about it. "We go in. Stephanie invited us into her house, did she not miss?" and all the while she is patting herself down, hands feeling through the rags for... Something, some token. For a moment she looks confusedly annoyed but then strides to Marchande and begins checking her pockets, patting her waist, her hips, tugging the lapels of her coat, before she smiles and reaches in to the jacket of the suit - and after a moments focus, pulls out her hand, grasping something.

Spoiler

Show

using Discrete Conjuration, long description due to taking two "rounds" to spend the appropriate glamour.
Dice pool manipulation + Wyrd (4+1=) 5 -1 (never been in Marchande's pockets)
4, 8, 8, 8 - success
Charlotte needs some clothes >.<

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande took a deep breath, and licked her lips as she considered the situation. People were overhearing, and they were a motley bunch - and Stephanie was, like as not, about to get into trouble. They obviously needed to go inside. Wait, Charlotte just said that. But they needed a way to go inside. Rose. Strong enough to break a door down, or smash a window - no, that would make too much noise. How many entrances were there? Could they act like tenants, say that they'd been locked out and needed to get in? No, that wouldn't pass muster - that they were social workers here to help? Maybe.

And then Charlotte was feeling her up. No, just searching her; that didn't stop Marchande from making an embarrassed yelp as Charlotte dug through her pockets, and taking an unconscious step back. "Charlotte, I'm pretty sure that I-" And there, Charlotte smiled, and pulled her hand out of the inner pocket of her suit's jacket, grasping a small key. Marchande stared at it, making a quick consideration. "...already have a key that we can use to get in," she finished. Didn't Fate like it when they didn't make a fuss about things like that? She wasn't feeling like crossing it, not tonight. "Quick, let's go!"

[Anarion]

Her mind scrambled for a lie.

"I - just - It was -" she stumbled over each excuse as soon as it started. She didn't have anything to say. Nothing she could say from out here.

She took a deep breath, stepped back, leaned against the rail, and lunged forwards both feet fully extended - launching herself through the glass and hopefully to a graceful landing where she'd be able to talk to her sister face-to-face.

Stephanie was fast. She'd always been fast, faster than everything else around her. So it was maybe a bit surprising when this coat rack acted more swiftly than she and seemed to know what she was going to do even before she did. As she steps back the coat rack undoes the window latch covertly, and as she swings forward, it throws open the window. Expecting an impact, Stephanie instead goes flying into the room at full speed. Helen shrieks and the coat rack shouts
"I won't let you hurt her!" and jumps after Stephanie.

Spoiler

Show

Attempts to grapple as Stephanie comes in the window. Coat rack gets a +2 bonus because Stephanie can't really dodge but is moving fast. Still ends up on a chance die because 4 defense is a large number.

(1d10)[9]

The coat rack fails to grab Stephanie and the whole lot of them go tumbling in a heap that lands pretty much at Helen's feat, although Stephanie manages to maintain her balance reasonably well and is more or less standing.

------------------

Outside, you hear someone call out a window but can't see her due to the contrast between the light and dark exterior. "Hey, what are you girls doing down there? Is something happening?"

[Thanqol]

"I'm not going to hurt anyone!" Stephanie said, hopping backwards and raising her hands. "I just want to talk."

She completely dropped her defense, standing still and not dodging. It had been so long since this hadn't worked that she had no conception that it might not.

[SiuiS]

Panic. Panic. Panic.

The mantra repeats calmly in charlotte's head in a monotone meter. The window above still shuddering out its almost-broken slam. The other people looking out of their houses and asking awkward questions. She hesitates to answer, though decorum demands it. How would she answer anyway? Her fate, the fate of her friends, tumbled with this tumbler. It was act like nothing was wrong and go in, or call Stephanie and make good their escape to... Well, nowhere.

A few steps, a few breaths, and Charlotte is sliding the key along, feeling the teeth engaging inside. She holds the end, begins to turn...

[Anarion]

"You want to take my life away!" the coat rack snarls.

Helen appears rather dumbfounded for the moment, although she has stopped crying and is standing less than three feet from Stephanie.

-----------------

Outside, the key turns in the door. It's not perfect and feels like it catches for a moment, but a bit of pressure causes it to slide into place and the front door of the building unlocks.

[Thanqol]

"It's my life too," Stephanie said, "I'm sure we can work... something out. I mean, it wouldn't be fair just to kick you out..."

This, she was a lot less certain of.

[Anarion]

The coat rack seems...confused by that comment. Helen is also still a little stunned. After a moment, both start talking at once
rack: "Wait, you're okay with?"
Helen: "Hey, don't I get a say?"
Rack: "So you're going to stay?"
Helen: "Does that mean you're going to leave?" "
Rack: "No, she wants to take over!"
Helen: "But she didn't want anything to do with me."

---------------------

Outside, several lights have turned on and whoever was shouting is waiting for an answer. Inside, the hallway is narrow and relatively dim. This side of the building leads inside to an alcove that's only about 5 feet square. It has a set of mailboxes for all the apartments and a set of stairs that immediately go up (access to the first floor bakery is from the other side). The floor is bare and tiled in russet earthenware, while the walls are a drab gray.

[Thanqol]

And that was the break Stephanie needed. Suddenly she was back on firm ground where everything made sense. She smiled. Beamed.

"Sure! Just because you're a hat rack doesn't mean we can't be friends. I have way weirder friends than that. And we can work out a deal! If we all work together, as a team, think of all the stuff we could do!"

Already her imagination was running away from her. "It'd be like having an alter ego, except my alter ego would be a totally different person so no one would ever find out. You could run things during the day and I could run things at night. It'd be great!"

[Anarion]

"yeah, uhuh. And you would just come around anytime you felt like it? While I work hard every day actually paying the bills for this place? Why exactly would I agree to that? You'd better be planning to pay Helen's entire college tuition if that's what you want."

[Thanqol]

"Well... maybe I will!" Stephanie retorted. "How about that, then?

"Upon the name that we three share, let our Fate be truly shared.
"We three, against the world, to earn the place that was meant for us.
"May the day grant respect and wealth,
"May the night grant skill and whispers,
"May the twilight hold understanding and choice,
"Let the one who betrays this pact be judged and make restitution in the eyes of the others.
"But otherwise, let this year be one to remember.

Is this fair?"

[
Type: Oath, True Name (Obscured)
Tasks: Alliance, Medial (-2), Endeavour Medial (-2) (Stephanie: Pay Helen's College Tuition)
Boons:
Helen: Ensorcellment (+2)
Fetch: Blessing, Medial (Resources 3-4 or +2, +2)
Stephanie: Adroitness +1 (Larceny), Blessing Greater (Contacts to 3, +3)
Sanction: Favour, Greater (-3)
Duration: Year and a Day +3
]

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande doesn't even need to stop and think about where Stephanie's apartment might be. Third floor, door quite probably facing the fire escape. Up she lopes, not sparing any thoughts as to how incongruous a woman in a business suit running up stairs might be at this hour. Stephanie needed her help; that was more important than anything else. If asked? Tell the truth: family reunion of an associate gone bad, associate used the fire escape to surprise family, but I don't go up fire escapes, get out of the way please so I can defuse the situation.

That was the plan, after all. Defuse it, somehow. Get them to stop fighting, even if it requires promises.

[Anarion]

The coat rack begins to answer. "Well, if you're really putting your money where you mouth is..."

"No."

The coat rack stops what it was saying and turns to look at Helen, who has set her legs a bit apart and looks about ready to handle a tackle from a sumo wrestler.

"I said no. You...both of you always want to do things to me. You didn't even ask what I wanted! What makes you think I want two different sisters, one working me to death during the day and the other one just running in and out at night when you feel like it? You, *points at hat rack* ever since I started middle school it's been nothing but work and boredom. No more stories, no more fun, I could barely have any friends. You make my life miserable! And you *points at Stephanie* you decided you could just leave me. And the other Stephanie is right, you probably never would have supported me anyway. I was always a burden and even now, you come back and you don't really care about me at all. *you can see tears at the corners of her eyes.* Well, **** you both!"

The coat rack cuts in and says "Helen! What I have I told you about using that word?"

"Shut up! You use it all the time, I'm not deaf. I said **** you both. Get out of this apartment. Find somewhere else to sleep tonight. I don't want to see either of you! I hate you!"


------------------------
Meanwhile, Marchande has no trouble navigating the hallways and keeping her sense of direction. The building isn't that large and the floor plan is a paragon of simple, straight lines. You arrive at the door just about the same time Helen finishes up what she's saying.

[Thanqol]

"Helly, I came back because I cared about you." Stephanie said, suddenly feeling like she'd lurched over a chasm, and scrambled to explain, "- and I didn't know - I'm -"

She couldn't lie to her sister. But she needed a way around the truth that she had a point.

"- it's a really long story?" she finished weakly.

[Anarion]

"Great, you can tell it some other time then. OUT! NOW!"

[Thanqol]

She looked at the hat rack helplessly.

Why had that one been the easy part?

She stepped back. Opened the door, held it open, and if the fetch stepped out she went immediately behind.

She stared blankly at the door, having absolutely no idea how to process any of that.

[Anarion]

The hat rack does indeed move to step out. However, it stops at the doorway when it finds itself facing a humanoid dog, a rather disturbing yet intriguing mannequin, and the most beautiful and most muscular angel it has ever seen.

[Thanqol]

"It's cool, they're with me," Stephanie said flatly, ushering her out. "Everyone, Hatsy, Hatsy, everyone."

[SiuiS]

Marchande takes off immediately and Charlotte breathes a sigh of relief. Checking the apartment layout hadn't even occurred to her; she usually just knows these things. And just when she was ready to ask, this!

Charlotte follows...

The hat rack does indeed move to step out. However, it stops at the doorway when it finds itself facing a humanoid dog, a rather disturbing yet intriguing mannequin, and the most beautiful and most muscular angel it has ever seen.

... And stops.

An awkward stillness. Stephanie beside some cross between snidely whiplash and a fantasia broomstick, both at the mercy of a smaller Stephanie. The air is tense, awkward. Charlotte, luckily, knows what to do.

"A pleasure, miss... Hatty?" Charlotte curtsies as best her rags will allow.

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande arrives at the apartment just in time to hear the end of that argument. For all that Stephanie had gushed about Helen, it seemed that her little sister was not in a good mood this evening. The door opens before she can knock, and there before her is- well, a coatrack with a top hat hanging off it, and a little blonde-haired girl who speaks with Stephanie's voice. Both throw a wrench into the works for a moment, and then Marchande places one hand on Stephanie's shoulder and says, "You are going to show me how you did that."

Then she's pushing past the two of them, rather brusquely, because right now everything's narrowed down to the fact that they need to use this apartment, they don't have anywhere else to go or any money to spend on a hotel room, and even if Helen's angry at her sisters right now, well, Charlotte and Rose had no part in that quarrel.

"Miss Helen," Marchande says quickly, before Stephanie can try and ruin things out of a sense of heroism and familial affection, "I need to speak to you for a moment."

[Anarion]

Helen pulls back a bit when three strange girls enter the apartment. When Marchande approaches her, she says
"Who are you? How do you know my name, and why are you *giggle* wearing pigtails with a suit?