[Open and Closed] Hypnotic Takin' Over Me

[tearmeanewone]

Who: Elizabeth DeWitt, Eames, Lancelot, Simon, Alex, and assorted welcome guests!
What: Mind Control School is in session, Elizabeth has a mind to shut it down.
When: March 14th-16th
Where: Fontaine's School for Young Women in Camden, a cafe in Westminster
Warnings: Violence/mind control in Part III

[Part I, the 14th - Closed to Eames and Alex]

Before her class even steps through the gates, Elizabeth can feel the dark magic caked on the walls of the building. It's a familiar and unpleasant feeling that brings her back to times before she'd arrived in London, but focus comes quickly enough when she realizes that whether she wants to or not she's going inside the school with the rest of her fellow engineering students. She keeps herself alert as they meet their tour guide and enter.

The inside seems normal. Quiet, because, as the guide explains, the girls are all in class. But she promises that in a few minutes, they'll change classrooms and Elizabeth's class can see how perfectly the layout facilitates the flow of foot traffic from one room to another. She goes on about building planning and problem-solving for a few minutes as Elizabeth tries to sense where her discomfort is coming from. Without any kind of signalling noise, all of the doors open and girls of varying ages from grade-schoolers to teenagers come pouring out of the rooms.

It's silent aside from the sound of people walking. No talking, no socializing, nothing. No one crossing paths awkwardly or bumping into one another. And in three minutes all of the doors close again and the hall is empty. Her classmates think it's cool. Elizabeth thinks she's going to be sick. The magic is on all of them. They're moving in orderly rows because someone is puppeting them around.

[For Eames]

No luck finding the source during the tour, but Elizabeth breaks off from her class and circles around back behind the building. Once she's sure she's alone, she opens her bag, digs out her phone and a business card. It only had a number on it, and it had seemed so cool when she'd been blitzed, but now it's a little creepy.

She dials the number and waits for someone to answer.

"...This is Elizabeth, the... the witch?" Hard to say out loud in public, but who was around to hear? "How would you feel about breaking into a school this afternoon?"


[For Alex]

Plenty of evidence, but no face to put it to. She's already called Eames once, she's not going to listen to him turn her down over wasting more of his time. It's dark now though, maybe no one is around the classrooms and offices... she just has to get in.

Elizabeth gnaws her lip as she looks through the locked bars of the gate. It's going to be a rough climb on her own, but it's that or just hope that she can catch him when she comes back with help. Not the most solid of plans...

She should have brought help now, but better not to get a guardian or a Maiden involved if they come up empty-handed. So it's up the unadorned bars she goes, apparently...



[Part II, the 15th - Open]

So now what?

Elizabeth sits with her coffee, completing ignoring her course reading and zoning out on the little white spot floating in the middle of the cup. Who does she report a metahuman gone mad to? The Night Council? Will they do anything, or are there bigger things they're concerned with? Certainly not Norrell, he'd drag her over hot coals for even calling Eames, let alone partnering with him briefly. In both cases, Elizabeth believes that eighty-to-one hundred lives being lived under someone else's control should be a priority no matter what the circumstances, but everything in London seemed to be so bogged down in bureaucratic posturing.

...so she's doing something, apparently. By herself? Probably a colossal bad idea, she needed help in Virginia to take on other magic users and it's probably no different in London. But who to ask? She picks up her cup and sips at it, eyes still blank as she flicks through her list of contacts.



[Part III, the 16th - Closed to Lancelot and Simon]

In the end, the best thing to do would be to contact her friends who were guardians. This was the sort of thing they were supposed to do after all... keep order amongst the supernatural of London. But she'd insisted on coming herself, too, even if officially this problem should have been handed off to the Night Council. She hasn't been able to get the images of the girls' unseeing eyes out of her mind, and if she doesn't find closure on this she'll never sleep again.

She waits for Simon and Lancelot outside the gates after dark, her crossbow in a duffle bag on the ground for the moment. Elizabeth hopes they arrive before someone spots her just standing there...

Comments

[falsify]

"Ms. DeWitt, give me a minute."

There's hushed voices if she cares to listen, Eames excusing himself and a couple of other voices complaining about it in the background. Some rushed apologies and closing doors later, and Eames is back on the phone with a smile in his voice. "It's not my usual fare. What's so special about this school?"

[tearmeanewone]

Oops. She hadn't thought to ask if he was busy or not, but it sounds like she's interrupted some kind of midday meeting... A fun one if the tones of complaint are anything to go by.

But, he sounds receptive enough to it, so she presses on. "I was just in there, and I'm almost certain someone has used some kind of magic to control between eighty to one hundred girls into complete order. I need to get back inside, though. I didn't see who the ring leader was. Kind of important if I'm going to do something about it."

[falsify]

It was, but he's used to it. Arthur seems to have a sixth sense for interrupting his "meetings," so at least this is more interesting than that.

Eames makes a quiet noise of consideration - that's certainly a skill headteachers across the country would be envious of. Well, colour him curious at least. Eames is quiet for a moment as he pulls out his laptop, "what school is it?"

[tearmeanewone]

Well, he's intrigued enough to ask, at least.

"Fontaine's School for Young Women. In Camden. I think there's only one, anyway."

Though a couple other things with 'Fontaine' on them popped up when she looked for an address prior to the trip. But just the one school, she thinks. She hopes.

[falsify]

First step: Google. The school has pretty good... Well, everything. Great OFSTED reports, great grades, parents love it. No collection of hundreds of teenage girls is ever this consistently well behaved, but he can't find a single complaint or even a less than outstanding comment about the school.

It's definitely suspicious.

"And what's in it for me if I help you out?" Eames asks. He doesn't do anything for charity after all.

[tearmeanewone]

Elizabeth is patient during the silence, realizing that Eames must have been doing his research before sticking his neck out. Fair enough, fair enough. But the question he asks is a good one-- because Elizabeth is fairly sure she has nothing Eames wants.

"...the knowledge that you freed dozens of lives from exploitative mind control?" Pause. "...that was a joke, you didn't hang up did you? ...you're just silently laughing, right?"

[falsify]

"I'm silently laughing." And shaking his head at the idea of him playing the good Samaritan. What a ludicrous concept. "It looks like there's a cafe near the school. Give me a couple of hours to finish up here, and then I'll come meet you. We can discuss this in person."

[tearmeanewone]

"A couple of hours?" Elizabeth looks around at where she is right now, hovering suspiciously behind a school for children, and realizes a split second later that she's really not in a position to be complaining. She pinches the bridge of her nose and nods.

"Right, okay, I'll meet you there."

[falsify]

Eames hangs up with a casual goodbye, and then a couple of hours later indeed, a teenage girl shows up in the cafe. A girl probably no older than about fifteen, totally nondescript and forgettable, and wearing a Fontaine's uniform. It may be a little alarming, all things considered, to have a girl from the school just sit down opposite, but anyone who's had a conversation or two with Eames can probably recognise the smirk and raised eyebrow.

And if not that, maybe there's the way she says, "Ms. DeWitt," with exactly the same cadence as Eames used on the phone earlier.

[facethewolves]

Alex is prowling. There's probably a less criminal-sounding word for it, but a euphemism wouldn't do much to hide the fact that she's scouting potential targets to rob - after all, she's dressed all in black and armed with a gun concealed in the small of her back. She's only going after criminal targets now, though. After almost getting caught last week, she's realized it's smarter not to steal from people who can go to the police.

When she spots a young woman peering through the bars of a school, she pauses and watches from her vantage point across the street.

She's not sure she should interfere - there could be a harmless explanation, or there could be a conflict that would only make Alex's life a lot more difficult if she got involved in it. But curiosity gets the better of her, and Alex pads silently across the street and stops in the shadow of the wall near the woman. "Lost your key?"

[tearmeanewone]

"Oh!"

Elizabeth jumps, clearly high-strung, clearly in a place she didn't belong in. She takes a moment to collect herself.

"No, ha. I don't have a key. My... younger sister goes here, she forgot her textbook. But I guess the gate is locked so..."

But she's not making a move to leave.

[facethewolves]

Alex is pretty sure this isn't about some textbook. The girl's way to jumpy, which means she's lying, which means there isn't a harmless explanation. Alex may have given up caring about a lot of things, but she doesn't like the idea of someone targeting kids.

"Wouldn't you just call for someone to let you in? Or wait til morning? Come on, go home." She takes a step towards the girl, ready to herd her off, or threaten her if it comes to that.

[tearmeanewone]

"Well her homework's due tomorrow morning, I couldn't just let her down like that..."

This woman is very insistent that Elizabeth leave. She looks warily at the building then back at her. "Are you security? You could let me in."

[facethewolves]

Why this woman would be breaking into the school after hours, Alex has no idea. But she assumes it's something bad, something that's gonna hurt the kids.

If she chases her off, the woman could just come back tomorrow night. Might as well sort this out right here and now.

"Tell me what you're really doing, maybe I'll let you in." If there does turn out to be a good reason, Alex is pretty sure she can find a way into the school.

[tearmeanewone]

Well, one thing's for certain: she's not a security guard. She wouldn't let Elizabeth in if she thought she was up to something other than just fetching a book for a sibling, period. Maybe she's a good Samaritan? Though offering to break and enter doesn't exactly fit the picture. Maybe she's with Kowalski then...

"I have to speak with the headteacher, Kowalski," she says, bringing one of her hands casually in front of her body. "Do you know him?"

Either she doesn't and it's fine, or she does and Elizabeth has a shield spell ready to cover her.

[facethewolves]

Alex's eyes narrow at that. "What's so important it can't wait til morning?"

She's on edge enough to notice her hand moving, but since she's not reaching for a weapon, Alex doesn't think anything of it.

[tearmeanewone]

Uuuugh this woman asks so many questions, Elizabeth can almost feel bad for her electrical engineering professor now. And she still can't tell if this woman is with the guy or not, or if she could be controlled by him right now.

"Look, I just have to talk to him," she persists, backing up into the gate and gripping one of the bars. Frost starts climbing up the bar, freezing it. "I'm worried about his students."

III

[protagonized]

Human or dog? Human or dog?

Human, Simon decides eventually, figuring that Elizabeth (he's finally actually learned her name and can stop calling her "the cute American" in his head every time he sees her) has seen him as both and that he probably needs to be able to talk for at least part of the evening. Barks and growls get the general feeling across decently well, but they're shitty at portraying nuance.

He's nervous. He's done a few investigations for the Guardians since signing on last month, but nothing this big or important. Hell, the last time they had him out doing legwork like this it was to question a middle-aged housewife accused of buying banned books about dark magic (it turned out she was just an overly devoted fan of the paranormal romance genre and had accidentally stumbled into the real thing). Nothing nearly this important.

He walks up to Elizabeth in what he hopes is a casual way and smiles, trying not to remember how intensely awkward all of their other meetings have been. The whole first impression thing is pretty much shot by now.

"Hi."

[tearmeanewone]

This street goes both ways, Simon-- both times they've seen one another, she's spoken to him in a cutesy-pet-voice and frozen her dress into a iceberg life raft. The nexus of supernatural awkward is currently located in their three foot radius.

"Hi Simon," Elizabeth smiles and waves a little. "Thank you for coming. Lancelot should be arriving soon, too, then we can head inside. I don't have too much more information aside from what I already texted you both, unfortunately, but this should still be fairly straightforward."

Go inside, find Kowalski, encourage him to stop using mind-control magic on other people in the least violent way, go home and celebrate another win for free will in London.

[knightscode]

Lancelot is running a few minutes late, because despite it being only Wednesday the tubes have gotten themselves in a fuss over the wind and things on the track. He probably should have built in extra time but he didn't, and it's a universal law that if you cut things tight then that will be the day everything runs late. He's wrapped up in a plain black coat, hair a little wind-and-finger-ruffled and looking slightly harried but he's made it at least.

"Hi, sorry I'm late the District Line --" he gestures vaguely with one hand, shoves it back into his pocket as he breaths out and scans the school. He doesn't appear to have anything with him, unlike Elizabeth, but then again that's Lancelot's talent -- he doesn't need anything. "This feels unpleasant," he says mildly, as if commenting on the weather rather than a school. It makes him shiver, an unpleasant sort of thing he can't properly define. "We have a way in?"

[protagonized]

Simon flashes Lancelot a distracted smile by way of greeting as he pulls out his phone, reviewing the details of the case. It's not as if he hadn't been reading and re-reading Elizabeth's text on the bus over here, but he's nervous.

He takes a cursory sniff. "Doesn't smell like fae," he says, feeling intensely awkward that part of the reason he's even here is his canine sense of smell. "I'm only smelling humans, but that could mean anything." Witches, metahumans. Shit, Simon's best friend is one step away from being able to control people like this, should he decide to develop his own particular powers of persuasion. Scary.

He glances over to Elizabeth. "Lots of, uh, perfume in the air, it being a girl's school and all. The alcohol numbs my nose a bit, so I'm not entirely sure how much more specific I can get. Sorry."

They're not even inside yet and he's already starting to get a headache.

[tearmeanewone]

"Don't worry about it, Lancelot," Elizabeth says, smiling and feeling much better now that she's not standing outside the school without any help at all. But it seems as though keeping this under the table and acting quickly has kept information leaks at bay. Or some nasty surprise is waiting inside...

"Unpleasant is putting it lightly as far as I'm concerned. This kind of dark magic feels too familiar to me," she sighs and buttons her coat nervously. "Well, guess I'm not going to start a collection of various fae that have tried to attack me tonight," she says with a brief smile at Lancelot. "But a human with abilities could be worse. Come on-- there's a gate at the back. I've picked it once, I can pick it again." So to speak. With a slight jerk of her head, she starts leading the group around the main gate and towards the back of the main school building.

"From what I got when I... eh... took a look at his computer files--" Should she admit to two guardians that she broke into his office? Probably not, but glossing over that-- "It seemed that he spends most nights working in his office. All of the save timestamps indicate two AM, four AM... either his computer refuses to update the clock, or he'll be in there when we get there."

[knightscode]

"Doesn't he sleep?" Lancelot questions, squinting around them warily. "If he's here so late and still in early no wonder he's behaving strangely, that little sleep is very bad for your health."

Lancelot, apparently team mother as well as Guardian. He nods, though, takes a half step back and begins to move in the direction of the back gate.

"You might be able to scout for us if you change," he adds to Simon, frowning in thought. "Animals aren't an immediate threat, or at least dogs aren't. Unless whoever it is can sense you aren''t a dog, of course, then it falls apart somewhat. If we can can get close without drawing attention I might be able to sense something more, but..." He trails off, tilts head head awkwardly here as he tries to find a delicate way to word it. "... Sometimes there are side effects."

[protagonized]

"Do any of us sleep?" Simon counters with a yawn. Just talking about it makes his own sleep deprivation seem significantly worse.

And here comes the part he was dreading. Simon's more prepared now; he brought a backpack to hold his clothes and he keeps a spare set in a locker at an all-night gym near his flat if he ever finds himself absolutely stranded. Still, the idea of stripping down to his skin in public on a cold night isn't the most appealing. To prepare, he removes his shoes, socks, and glasses and stows them in the backpack.

"Would you mind holding this for me while I change?" he asks Elizabeth sheepishly. "I don't want to just leave it lying around." Once that was taken care of...

"I'll just, uh, be 'round the corner for a couple of minutes."

Simon the white dog trots back into view a little while later, carrying his neatly-folded clothes in his mouth. He drops them in front of Elizabeth, pawing at the backpack.

[tearmeanewone]

"...Lancelot I'm not sure I'm too concerned about when he sleeps so much as I am with him using dark magic on unwitting children, but I'll put that on the list of conversation topics and if it comes up we'll definitely discuss it with him." Simon has a good point, though. Presuming she lives through this encounter, her weekly eight AM class is going to be horrible.

Whatever side-effects Lancelot is referring to, they sound like more than they're ready to handle while also trying to break someone's control over the girls. So she's grateful when Simon volunteers for the job. Though standing around while trying not to imagine Simon stripping behind an all-girls school with Lancelot is a little surreal ('So. How's Lily?' Also a dog, not getting away from the subject here).

When he reappears, Elizabeth scoops up the clothes and tucks them into the backpack, shouldering it for him. "I've got you covered. The gate's just over here."

Elizabeth leads them a few feet further to the gate. There's a fairly new looking lock, though Elizabeth doesn't seem bothered by it. Of all the magic she knows, this is the one thing she can do in her sleep-- she extends her hand and closes her eyes, twitching her fingers a few times as though manipulating the tumblers with a physical pick. After a two quiet seconds, Elizabeth twists her wrist and the deadbolt slides out of the gate.