undergrounds | #makedonalddrumpfagain

1. CAMPAIGN TRAIL (OPEN) - out and about, first half of April
Ringer wasn't a particularly showy person. Her version of campaigning was primarily to make anonymous donations and strategic deals, like encouraging Vrinak to support Estergaard in the hope that Redbright would discover his subterfuge and withdraw her support of him. Even if he was the best candidate for the position, she wanted the Night Council to splinter until it was a schism of dissenting opinions. The fish rots from the head; an untrue statement but a sentiment she understood.

Part of those deals was showing support for certain candidates. Faolan's was, perhaps ironically, the only button on her messenger bag as she distributed flyers for Vrinak and Merad in local supernatural haunts. She had agreed to donate to Norrell's campaign, but had no interest in publicly supporting him.

"Vote Vrinak," she said with a practiced repetition, neither enthusiastic or entirely droll, as she offered the person a flyer.

2. REGISTER FOR REDBRIGHT (OPEN) - Hillingdon House or Redbright Institute, first half of April
Thanks to a strategic deal with the Dean of Redbright, Ringer had been made a temporary outreach volunteer, meant to educate shapeshifters, metahumans, and the like about a school that wouldn't accept her and encourage them to register and attend. Though anything involving talking to strangers was far from the list of her ideal tasks, she took to it with relative ease because she did believe in education, even if it came with a pretentious and exclusionary attitude.

Ringer spent some time at Hillingdon, knowing it was the best place to find people new to the community and lot in their ways, and some near the Redbright Institute itself, to make her face visible to the Dean and prove that efforts were being made. Maybe no one would notice that a human hunter was promoting a supernatural school.

3. SLOWLY FREAKING OUT (CLOSED TO FAOLAN) - Ringer's flat, mid-April
There was something off about Ringer's morning. From accidentally breaking a mug to tripping while running to catch her train, the list of deviant behaviors continued to grow. She didn't even make it onto said train, turning around and heading back for her flat as anxiety about whatever was happening set in. A headache, a broken textbook spine. She spent a few hours by herself, performing repetitive actions at first and then curled up in her bed and failing to sleep. It was another few hours beyond that, in the afternoon, when she finally made the call to Faolan: 'Something's wrong. You need to come over.'

She waited there, still in bed, mobile in her hand, for her friend to arrive. Because he would know what to do. Or because, as much as Ringer loathed to admit it, she didn't entirely want to deal with it alone.

4. ENIGMATIC STUCK LIKE STATIC (CLOSED TO JAMES) - Cafe near James's work, mid-April
Ringer sat stiffly in her seat at the cafe, staring down at the cup of tea in front of her as she waited for James to arrive. Her hands rested on either side of the cup, a mockery of holding it, wondering how long it might be. It had been a simple enough dictation for his secretary: 'Tell him his cousin will be at the cafe by two and needs to have a chat.' Hopefully the message was passed along. She twisted her wrist to glance at her watch.

Her gaze lifted a moment before the door opened, pulled from her anticipation with the sight of the man himself. She made no motion to catch his attention, trusting he would find and join her without fanfare. Ringer didn't look tense or sleep deprived, didn't look like shit. But it was clear, with one look, that something had her extremely worried, an unusual expression for the girl who liked to show how calm and collected she could be in nearly any situation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Faolan isn't well-acquainted with curses himself, not as much as an actual curse-breaker or a witch themselves might be, but he had been cursed by the tea on Valentine's Day himself, and besides that. Well, both Lancelot and now Faolan himself had been effected by the onset of sudden abilities not unlike the ones that she's describing.

Of course, the latter weren't exactly to be classified as curses, but he isn't about to begin trying to guess how they came to pass either. He raises an eyebrow slightly in response to her explanation, though his concern seems to fade a little. "That hardly sounds like bad luck to me," he suggests, although he doesn't know himself. Perhaps it's heightened to a level that makes it suddenly disorienting to have to deal with. Like Lancelot's sudden onset telekinesis, for example. Or Faolan's own ability to detect supernatural magic that he had developed, for that matter.

"I broke a mug this morning," Ringer gestures idly over to the kitchen. "I also fell running to catch a train and have had a headache for-," A glance at her watch, "nearly six hours."

It's her explanation for why she considered it to be bad luck at first. She's still not sure if she's stronger or if her muscles are more tense, not sure if she can actually hear better or is more aware in her state of hypervigilance. "The love potion's effects seemed to fade in a few hours. These effects seem ongoing."

If she focuses on the logic of it, maybe she can ignore the feelings that come with it. Curse, extraordinary abilities, werewolf bite. Whatever it is, she doesn't want it. Ringer is human. She wants to be human.

Faolan takes in a deep breath. Obviously, whatever tea she had been hit with, it hadn't been the same batch as his. Or he'd just been extra receptive to it, considering how long it had lasted for him.

"Okay," he responds again. "So enhanced senses. Strength. Any other side effects?" The headache is a bad side-effect, but besides that none of the things she's named seem to be inherently terrible. Aside from the loss of the mug, he supposes. Hopefully it wasn't anything that couldn't be replaced, at least. "You don't know at all when it might have started?"

Ringer can't tell if she's still feeling the effects of the tea or exactly how quickly they wore off, but the overwhelming inclinations she felt at first were definitely subdued as time went on. Now she feels predisposed to feelings that might not have otherwise been there. But that's a different subject entirely, one she has no intention of sharing.

"Not that I know of." She's not sure that the tripping was related to the strength, but it's also possible that it was irrelevant to what's happening to her. And it's not like she's about to go for a casual run without knowing what this is. "It started this morning. Within at least an hour of waking up, or while I slept."

It bothers her to see how calm he seems. This is her nightmare, the rug pulled out from under her, her world turning inside out. He's acting like it's another love potion. At best, her body has been tampered with. At worst, she's no longer human. Either one feels violating somehow. Ringer wonders if she's being overly sensitive, or if Faolan's become desensitized after dealing with it all so much.

Perhaps he has become a little desensitized with it all. After being cursed himself, after Lancelot's development of his telekinesis, then the development of his ability to detect magic, then Faolan's own development of similar abilities besides... Plus the fact that it does sound like regular metahuman phenomenon, even if Ringer herself certainly wasn't metahuman. At least, not that he knew of. But she wasn't in any sort of immediate danger, though the abilities were unexplained and why they had begun was still unknown.

Still, though. He understands that this isn't normal for her, and it's unnerving, and he will certainly help her if he can. He nods slightly in response to her words. "If it is a curse, do you know of any reason why you may have been the target of one?"

"I'm a hunter," she replies, her words as dry and thin as crisp tin foil. There are so many obvious reasons within that alone, but she continues. "I accidentally insulted a fae lord, I intentionally bribed a number of officials for the election, and I accused a pack leader of murder."

All said as factually as if rattling off what she had for breakfast. Ringer is careful, meticulous, and well-planned. She takes risks only as necessary and strategizes her alliances wherever possible. But things still happen and risks are taken. Which means making enemies, even if not many of them and no, to her knowledge, particularly strong ones. Eames and James both seem amused by her, if anything, and she can't think which candidate should know enough of her bribes to be bitter by them.

Faolan understands all too well what she means by that and the sentiments behind it. He'd been there, done that himself, as it were. So instead he nods slightly, trying to think things through with her. Trying not to give in to the desire to admit he isn't sure if he's the best one to consult on such a matter, all things considered. He hasn't got magic, and he wouldn't really know a curse from anything else for that matter.

"Did any of these people give you any reason to suspect that they might inflict such a thing on you from there?" Just because she insulted someone doesn't mean anything unless they took offense to it, for example.

"No," she replies honestly. Eames seems amused with her, the officials got money, and she and James have a unique and mostly positive relationship. Unless Eames is doing this to her to test her reaction, which seems like the kind of thing he might do. But then, reasonably, he would be checking in or watching her or something. Which he's not.

"Will you stay until I know what's happening?"

Faolan keeps himself from visibly reacting to her request, but it means a lot to him. That she would turn to him like this. And it means that she must really be worried, to let herself show enough of herself to put it out there.

He nods. "Of course," he responds. "I might not be much help as far as answers go, but." He inclines his head at her. "I can keep an eye out for you as good as any man. Better than most, or so I'd like to think." At least he knew what he was on the lookout for, after all.

#makedonalddrumpfagain

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