[May 20th-30th] Another Cause for Me to Fight (Richmond Territory Claim)

[dirtyredneck]

He'd been sucking it up for months. Holding back waiting to see if Daybreak would get off their ass and do something about the shit that had gone down in their territory since Raymond's rise (which ended promptly with his fall, a thing Daybreak had no hand in). But all they'd done in Richmond was decide to build that eye sore of an insult to all non-witches. 'Center for Magical Innovation'. Bullshit. Center for slavery of non-witches was more accurate. Starting with the fae.

When Faolan had spoken against it, Daryl had hopes that maybe what little loose leadership the clan had might be ready to get up off their ass and do something. But that didn't happen and a month passed while the Center sat there, getting used. It's visitors abusing folks in ways it was hard to get any proof of. Just rumor and small confessions of a few fae who'd been able to slip away. Some of the stray cats in the area talked about it, too. Didn't like how it 'felt'.

Another month had almost passed and Daryl was done with waiting. He'd set up small patrols with others he'd trusted among Hillingdon months ago. Stuff to help protect the residents in the ways that Daybreak had been neglecting to. It wouldn't take much to turn those patrols toward doing something more.

Richmond was basically his territory already. It was time to make it Hillingdon's too.

(Specific prompts in the comments)

Comments

21-27 May - Delinquents and defacement

[dirtyredneck]

While some of the patrols harass the people trying to campaign for the Night Council President, others take it upon themselves to do more obvious disruptive acts. Daryl himself encourages a lot of this, particularly among the feline population of the territory.

By the 25th there have been at least two incidents of graffiti blackening the windows of the Center and defacing the doors have occurred with little recourse on the side of the witches. Whoever's doing it seems to know how to get past any minor magical alarms or protections. Or maybe they're just lucky. And from the looks of things through the eyes of cats, Daryl's pretty sure it's more than just one person doing it.

Re: 21-27 May - Delinquents and defacement

[roddy_reinigen]

Roddy was among the delinquents spraying the walls and windows and, judging from the looks of it, he was having a bit of fun doing it, too. Although, it looked like he had a few friends helping him out, as rats swarmed and began chewing on anything they could get their teeth on, from the velvet rope outside, to tearing up the plants and gnawing on the trees, digging holes and dragging things out of the trash and generally making the place look like a filthy mess.

[ghoulaid]

Maybe Ghoul has been assisting in the local destructive efforts. Perhaps he's sprayed a couple walls, or broken the windows of a few nearby witch-owned businesses, or pulled black bags from dumpsters and strewn trash across some vehicles. But no one can say for sure that's what he's done. He just so happens to be coincidentally in areas where things have been wrong a few times, and his fingers being perpetually stained with paints possibly has nothing to do with the graffiti going on lately.

As far as anyone else is concerned, he's been on his best behavior. And being on his best behavior, he's of course very interested in the state of things in Richmond. When he makes another round past the Center, the last thing he expects to see is an army of rats tearing the place apart.

He should probably, like, do something about it since he's still technically allied with Daybreak, but all he can do is laugh. Because this is pretty great.

[roddy_reinigen]

When Roddy hears someone laughing, he turns, grinning, to see who it was.

"Hey, you should join in. This is fun!" And then he realized he recognized the guy. "I know you, you're the guy with the chihuahua!"

The one with the missing owner. Roddy momentarily wondered how that had turned out, but decided he didn't really care all that much.

[ghoulaid]

Oh. That's what he remembers. Of course it is. Ghoul's face twists up distastefully. "It wasn't my fuckin' dog!"

But, look, that's not the point. He moves closer, careful to step around any rats in his path instead of on them. He's not cruel, and besides, they're doing good work. He's happy to let them continue even if he does say, "Ain't supposed to be doin' all that, you know."

[roddy_reinigen]

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Wasn't supposed to be doing all this? Well, when had that ever stopped anyone?

"Sure, but doesn't a part of you want to let your rebellious side out?"

[bellbound]

It won't be long before the staff at the centre bring in the exterminators to do some pest control. But before they do that, Mogget goes on a little hunt of his own. He kills five rats before they seem to get the message and scurry off. Strange. Their numbers and odd behaviour would certainly seem to indicate interference by a shapeshifter, so he isn't surprised when he comes across a boy who smells a lot like rat.

"Tut tut," he says, blood still on his mouth from the rat kills. "Defacing private property. Why don't you run along back to the sewer with the rest of your foul little friends?"

[roddy_reinigen]

When Roddy saw the blood on the cat's mouth, part of him thought, with a sinking feeling, that that was the danger he was putting the rats in, gathering them all here like this. However, when the he heard the cat's words, he suddenly became angry. It was under the cover of darkness and no one was around, so Roddy did a partial shift in an effort to look more intimidating before taking a step toward the cat.

"You're fae." Or so he'd assume, considering shifters generally could not talk in their animal forms. Not that it was a surprise. This whole thing was because of fae under witch control, so he wasn't surprised that one might be sent to stop him. What did surprise him was the sheer level of rudeness the fae took with him.

"So did your witch command you to act like that, or are you just an asshole on your own?"

[bellbound]

Oh, he's very much his charming self on his own, of course. And rat boy is looking more and more unattractive by the second.

"I'll let you be the judge of that." The cat stops at a safe distance, his eyes gleaming in the dark. He's called for security. If he can keep rat boy talking for just a minute longer, they'll be able to catch him. "You realise you've committed a crime."

[roddy_reinigen]

He knew, of course. Naturally, he knew. However, he'd let his anger get before his common sense when he heard that sewer quip.

"And let me guess. You're going to take me in, now."

Roddy had no doubt that he could, either, as was evidenced by the way Roddy took a step back. Sure, the feline form wasn't the most imposing, but he knew that fae were never what they seemed, and were never harmless. He shifted back to human, because he figured he'd have to run soon, and it wouldn't do to have a rat creature running through the streets.

"The thing is..." he said, taking a few more steps back, "You're going to have to catch me, first!"

And with that, he turned and ran.

[cabins]

Laura had heard all about this from some of the younger members of her pack. The ones who were apt to be more politically active in this time and place. She'd been learning so much about the politics here in the last month, and one thing that really upset her was finding out that the Mother of Witches was advocating for what amounted to magic slavery.

And, well, as an American and a former witch, she was super against this. Not. Cool.

The problem was that Katherine supported her, and it was a bad decision to go against her Alpha. But Laura couldn't stand by and watch this. She had a seat on both sides of the aisle. Sure, siding with Daybreak would perhaps win them a seat at the Council table. But all of those around them had made their declarations of loyalty clear. To stand with Daybreak would be stupid.

So here she was. Disobeying her Alpha in order to stick to her guns. Which, in this case, meant she was going to take some of the gorgeous flowers on the property, and use them to decorate her kitchen. Petty, but pretty.

[threadspun]

Well… Lillian was planning to light the flowers and other shrubs on fire but this is good. And less destructive.

Tucking the lighter away in her coat, she approaches Laura and politely clears her throat to make herself known. Then raises her arms, letting it be known that she's a friendly face- Honest! She has no love for this centre. Not by a long shot.

"Need help in that? I can recommend you a lovely flower arrangement with what they have here."

[cabins]

Less destructive, and a bit prettier, maybe? At least for a longer period of time? And who knew if there were people in there, after all.

Laura looks up from the bunches of flowers she has admittedly yanked from the ground. Fae. She can smell it.

"Oh, I'd love some," she says brightly. "As far as I'm concerned, these flowers are free to everyone, if you're interested."

[bellbound]

"Are they?" an arch voice interrupts. "I'm afraid not. You must have been misinformed."

They've had an unusually high number of attempted break-ins and property damage recently, which is why he's here, but he has to admit that he didn't expect to see the polite werewolf and the escapee Seelie together on the grounds. Apparently stealing flowers.

Mogget is in human form, dressed all in white, so Laura may not recognise him but he knows that Lillian will. His green eyes fall on the Seelie. "I see you've returned of your own will. Shall I escort you inside?"

[threadspun]

At first she does look scared but then the fear gives way to anger and indignation, remembering the cruelty she and the others were subjected to. Her body language changes, clenched fists and a rigid posture reflecting her feelings at the moment. Like hell she's going back in there. Like hell anyone is ever going back in there if she could help it.

"If that's the only thing you can threaten with me, I do suggest using it sparingly." She smiles and it doesn't reach her eyes, giving Mogget only the bare minimum of respect. After all, only one of them here is the free fae. "It does lose its impact after a while."

She takes a deep breath to calm herself and looks over to where Laura is, her expression softening in apology. "I'm sorry you have to be here for this… disagreement. Feel free to keep getting the flowers if you want. The ones over there- They last for a while, they'll be excellent additions to any arrangement."

Giving advice on picking flowers while trying to avoid getting recaptured by a minion of the Daybreak witches. Not exactly how Lillian thought she'll be sending her time.

[roddy_reinigen]

Roddy, meanwhile, had been encouraging the rats to dig and chew and generally cause destruction and mayhem when he recognized Laura as 'that teacher lady he talked to while waiting for his train'. And she was picking a flower, which might mean she was a part of their efforts?

Heading over, he greeted her, "Hey, if you'd like to grow some of those, too, I saw a quite a few of those same flowers dug up roots and all. Crazy what the local wildlife will do around here, right?"

[cabins]

The smell of rats is back. She'd previously only smelt it in the tube, but it causes her to look up even before Roddy speaks.

"Hello!" She can smell him so much better now, but she's happy to see a friendly face. "Really? That's fascinating. I'd love to have a few, start a garden." She stands, brushing off her skirt.

"How are you?'

[roddy_reinigen]

"I'm good. Spending a lot of time around here, actually. It's been very interesting."

Particularly the parts where he got to trash things.

"What about you? Have you been spending any time on the...redecorating efforts?"

[cabins]

"I don't suppose it would be wise to admit that out-loud," Laura says with a careful look over the top of her glasses. "But I've got a few places I think could do with a fresh bouquet." She gestures to the flowers.

[falsify]

It'd be remiss of him not to be here when this happens, he'd've prepared to be behind it himself but Eames'll take what he gets.

His magic isn't offensive, but people regularly underestimate the strength of illusions. After all, it's amazing how fast witches will evacuate when they think they're being firebombed. When they think there's monsters at the windows.

Eames himself is around, seemingly just watching. Drinking a coffee, talking to someone, whatever. Just the occasional twitch of his hand to give away what he's doing.

ota.

[specifiercity]

Arthur's wearing his lucky watch, but the look on his face is sour despite the good fortune. He's been wandering Richmond, looking for any fights that have broken out so he can try and shut them down, keep things moving in the right direction. It's annoying work and his mood is exacerbated by the fact that he knows he was close to doing this his way. Still, he's a man of action and he's not about to let Hillingdon fail this one, so his pistol is loaded with regular old bullets to inflict some non-fatal wounds and cause a bit of panic when he needs to.

Mostly, he's in the shadows, but he'll hide in plain sight whenever he can get away with it. Just a regular old human unaware of what's going on.

[falsify]

It's not hard to see Arthur's not happy about this; it's probably not the way he would've preferred to go about things. If he'd have done anything about this at all. Eames doesn't have a whole lot of faith in Arthur's willingness to get involved in a situation like this; it's part of why he's never asked.

Eames' own interest in whether Hillingdon can hold the area isn't huge — he'd prefer it if they did, but mostly he wants to get the witches out of the Innovation Centre long enough that he can get into the basement — but he still has a smidgen of sympathy for how stressed and annoyed Arthur must be, and it's enough that he brings Arthur a coffee when he spots him watching something or other.

[specifiercity]

Arthur almost feels bad when he sees the coffee in Eames' hand. He knows shutting down the Center is really important to prevent more fae being captured and used by Daybreak, but he wanted to figure out a way to make it stick. This is just asking for the witches to hit them back harder.

He can't say that much to Eames, though, so he just says, "thanks," and takes the coffee, his expression not changing.

[falsify]

Eames sighs, casting a glance down at the watch on Arthur's wrist and then to his own coffee.

"You don't look too happy about all this." That's right, he's getting straight to it.

[specifiercity]

Arthur presses his lips together and sighs through his nose.

"I just don't like the way we're doing this," he says, trying to be careful but obviously sounding frustrated. "It needed to be done, but..."