[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

[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.

[knightscode]

It's important to Lancelot, he cares about motive as much as justice! Sleep deprivation might be an important clue to all this!

Still, he lets it slide and waits for Simon -- follows them toward the gate and waits while Elizabeth picks it.

(How does she know how to pick a lock? Useful skill, but he probably doesn't want to know regardless).

It slides open and Lancelot glances down at Simon, holds open the gate so they can all step in and quietly closes it behind them. Better not to leave an obvious clue someone has broken in if they can help it.

"All right," he says quietly, "which is the quickest way through? Do you know if they have any Night Guards?"

Simon might hear them coming, at least, but Lancelot would rather not have to knock out any humans if they can help it.

[protagonized]

Well, that's a useful skill.

Simon's just as surprised as Lancelot at Elizabeth's apparent aptitude for breaking and entering. He'd originally pegged her as being too, well, nice to know how to pick a lock and get into private property. Obviously, he needs to stop making assumptions about people.

Shock doesn't really register on a canine face as well as a human one, though, so instead he gives Elizabeth a faint whine of approval. Well done with the magical trespassing.

His ears perk up when Lancelot mentions guards. He can't hear anything that might indicate they'd be there and shakes his head accordingly, in as best an analog to the human gesture as he can manage. Nothing that he can tell.

But it does seem suspiciously quiet.

[tearmeanewone]

A conversation for another time and place-- but aside from healing magic, lockpicking is probably the sort of magic she's the most familiar with. Years and years of trying to escape her tower, trying to break the combinations and enchantments on the locks keeping her inside, had left her with a very particular skill. She casts a look at Lancelot and Simon, realizing they apparently hadn't expected this from her a little too late, but presses on anyway.

"The last time I was here at night, there were no security guards of any kind. Which is a little strange, even for a school... right?" As someone who never went to a school with other people until recently, she has to double check with other people on this one. Elizabeth signals to the other two to follow her to the back door that lets out onto a little playground. Another spell and the deadbolt slides into the door and Elizabeth pushes it open to let Lancelot and Simon inside. Now they're really in the proverbial lion's den, and Elizabeth is very quiet as she jerks her head down the hallway and starts leading them down it-- His office is this way.

"Ezra Kowalski?" Elizabeth calls down the hall, looking nervously at each door they're passing. "Mr. Kowalski, I'm here with two Guardians from the Night Council, we'd like to speak with you."

Super late no starbucks

[knightscode]

The weight of the magical presence here is beginning to give Lancelot a headache. He reaches out to touch a wall, trying to get a feel for things a little more specifically. Memories of people enchanted, casting, but the magic is on all the students so it's largely a blur of... something unpleasant. He has to force himself to detach when he feels it begin to prick at him, the desire to quietly fall into line.

It helps that Elizabeth is, apparently, calmly introducing them. On the one hand, he appreciates directness. On the other, some form of plan or element of surprise might have helped. He glances down at Simon warily, gives a sort of half helpless shrug and drops into his best Official Voice. It's easier when you have police experience.

"Mr Kowalski?" he echoes, eyeing the doorways with a small sense of dread. "My name is Lancelot Dulac. I'm happy to show you some identification, if you could please make yourself known."