A Spring Tradition [Lambeth raid]

[livesarejuststories]

The Unsuspecting
Early morning

At dawn, most people are still asleep, nestled soundly in their beds. Some might be stirring, but all is quiet. What is about to come? Has no warning. Except, if one's extremely perceptive, an influx of the feel of magic in the air.

Still, that could merely be the fault of the changing of the seasons, as the Seelie Court begins to grow in power.


The Surprise
Late morning

At precisely 11:11, something in the air shifts. The fae who had walked in -- that she cannot make a door still aggravates Lagertha extremely -- have changed their purpose. They are no longer merely idling around.

Instead, their magic is used to force open doors or windows.

The news will later report a rash of break ins, with jewellery and pieces of art going missing. Expensive, especially unique things (be they magical or not) are the prize. Cash? Matters little. Three children, left unattended for too long, also vanish.


The Aftermath
Early evening

Circle Daybreak made a fine show, Lagertha will give them that. She let those who opposed her see her as she is, not as she pretends to be. 'Lacy Brook' is still uncompromised.

And it is Lacy who sits at a coffee shop in Lambeth, listening to the news report. The angry police, the 'distraught' parents making a plea for the return of their children.

You shouldn't have been passed out drunk when your son was crying, she thinks as she listens to one single mother weep and wail. That boy? Is far better off under her care in the Other Realm. And she fully intends on keeping him.

"What is the world coming to?" she murmurs as the news story ends.

To her credit, she manages not to look or sound pleased with herself when she says it.

Comments

Surprise & Aftermath onward, OTA!

[knightscode]

[ Pick a point in his hunting, earlier or later or after! ]

Lancelot can sense something is happening. His senses are on high alert, and magic is everywhere. Fae magic.

He's sharp enough to know that, but tracing it is trickier. He can feel it, and try to follow it, but the flashes he gets aren't wildly helpful. Things breaking, children crying. When everything is slowly becoming saturated with it Lancelot finds it hard to pick at one thread.

Nevertheless, he will find them. He'll find them and make them turn around.

--

He's calm enough at first, calm enough to be organised and steady, but that wears.

When he walks past a building, gets the sense of something -- a child crying, he thinks? -- his hackles go up and he starts to lose patience. Money, jewellery, everything else. Things don't bother Lancelot. The fae shouldn't take it, but it can eventually be replaced.

So help him, if the fae are taking children again though -- then he'll really lose his cool. Lancelot stops to close his eyes, pinch the bridge of his tries to focus. There's nothing else for the moment, though, and he makes the mistake of starting to move before he opens his eyes -- nearly slamming into someone going by.

--

He was right, he was right. There's at least one child missing and he's sure it can't be a coincidence. He finds the place they were last seen and stands outside, phone in his hand as he tries to focus on picking something up. Come on, he thinks, give me something.

If he can be sure, if he can be totally sure about this then he's sending an alert out. Lancelot knows that fae won't necessarily hurt a child, but they are fickle enough creatures that he doesn't trust them with one. He's not exactly about to give a parent of the year award to the ones who raised him then dumped him, after all. He frowns hard at the building, probably looking particularly strange in the process as he tries to concentrate.

This skill would be a lot more useful if he could dictate what he picked up and when.

(Equally, it would probably be more useful to him if he tried to actually read up on how these things work. Time, though, isn't something he has infinite amounts of.)