This month's news from Alternative Views News

[brightwitch]

Front page article in the London Lambast Daily, 21st March

Mother of Witches announces new Magical Innovation Centre in Richmond
By Daisy Connell, Witch Correspondent

Yesterday Samantha Okeke, the Mother of Witches, officially announced the chosen location of her much-vaunted new Centre for Magical Innovation in Richmond. The selected venue is an impressive, modern building on a university campus in Teddington, Richmond, better known as a hub for scientific research.

The venue boasts state of the art facilities, including several laboratories, and was selected based on a combination of its cutting edge technological equipment, high security and excellent location.

Speaking on-location at the site for a press conference, the Mother said: "I am delighted to announce the location of our first new Centre for Magical Innovation. This inspiring and modern environment will enable us to be forward thinking, creative and rigorous in the application of new magic to address the challenges we face in today's society."

Refurbishment of the venue will take place over the next month, with the centre due to open by the end of April.

Summoning magic to become legal again?
The Mother also hinted that the Night Council is set to soften its stance on the use of magic relating to fae. She appeared to confirm rumours that Circle Daybreak have submitted a petition to the Night Council requesting that summoning magic no longer be classified as dark magic.

The previous Mother of Witches and current President of the Night Council, Sylvia Redbright, has always been known to be strongly against the use of any magic relating to fae.

At the time of writing, President Redbright was unavailable for comment.

For more on this story, go to page 5.

Article buried on page 9 in the London Lambast Daily, 21st March

Shopkeeper disappears
The proprietor of the dress shop Pins and Needles disappeared yesterday. "Mrs. Lotus" owned the dress shop in Harrow but did not turn up to open the premises on Monday. Believed to be a Seelie, local residents reported that it was typical for the rather odd shopkeeper to close up shop during summer months.

"I'd usually expect her to go when the clocks go forward, you know," said Alex Farley, the business owner next door, "which would be this weekend, so maybe she decided to take the time off a bit early. She forgot to lock up on Sunday afternoon too, so the shop was left open and empty all day. I don't know what that's about."

A request was put forward to the Night Council to investigate, and received the following response: "It is common knowledge that Seelie and Unseelie move back and forth between this world and the Other Realm. We do not believe this matter to be of any significance."

Front page article in Worldly Weirdness Weekly, 25th March

It's official: the Mother of Witches DID submit a petition to make summoning magic legal again!
By Charlene Pinter, Night Council Correspondent

Worldly Weirdness Weekly can officially confirm that the rumoured petition to the Night Council to make summoning magic legal WAS submitted by the Mother of Witches, Samantha Okeke. We can also exclusively reveal that:

• The Mother has already informed Circle Daybreak that summoning magic is not only allowed, but ENCOURAGED.
• She wants to train young witches to summon and control fae.
• She wants ALL witches to have their own familiar.

Go to page 4 for the full story and to find out why the President will HAVE to accept the petition.

Front page article in the London Lambast Daily, 31st March

Night Council makes U-turn in law on summoning magic
By Daisy Connell, Witch Correspondent

Today the Night Council announced that it has formally accepted the petition put forward by Samantha Okeke of Circle Daybreak to amend the definition of dark magic to no longer include summoning magic.

"Summoning magic is about protecting ourselves," said Peter Vrinak, the Night Council Vice President. "There has long been a hole in the law where spells to banish and trap aggressive fae have technically been counted as dark magic, even though they are absolutely vital for self-defence. We have seen fae activity in London especially increase over the past year and I for one welcome the opportunity to ensure that witches are trained to defend the supernatural community from these creatures. Efforts to contain the infestation in Bromley and Bexley have so far met with little success. This is a wise move from a new Mother who is unapologetic about putting London's needs first."

The revision to the law means that the following magic will now be allowed by both the Night Council and Circle Daybreak:

• Summoning fae
• Banishing fae
• Commanding fae (once summoned)
• Entering a contract with a fae (once summoned)
• Travelling to the Other Realm

Dark magic is still forbidden – but summoning magic no longer counts
After more than fifty years of summoning magic being forbidden by Circle Daybreak, much of the craft has been lost. It is expected that the Mother of Witches will seek to train young witches and build up expertise in this tricky and delicate area of magic.

When asked if she believed that dark magic should be allowed, the Mother responded: "I am against dark magic. I fully support the Night Council's efforts to ensure that dark magic is not practised in our community, and that we do not damage the hearts and souls of our young witches by encouraging them to practise it. I am proud to lead Circle Daybreak and to continue to use our magic for good, for the betterment of the community, and to improve the lives of thousands of witches up and down the country."

For more on this story and rumours of the Maiden's involvement in the original petition, go to page 4.

[OOC: This post is open to anyone who wants to react or talk about any of the news! If you want to grab an NPC, just say so in your comment.]

Comments

Let's get mad (let's get ma~ad) (31st)

[falsify]

It's a meta-run cafe where Eames picks up today's Weird Papers, so he's not exactly bothering with pretending not to be magic today. Idly sets his tea to stir itself with a gesture of his hand while he flips through the pages and gets increasingly pissed off with everything they have to say.

(And yet, he doesn't think he's seen a single mention this month of the Mother of Witches blatantly trying to capture and imprison fae.)

He'd heard about the petition, but he didn't think the Night Council would be so stupid as to pass it, and yet. Another thing he's not bothering to hide is how mad he is at every word he's reading-- he's gonna have to buy this paper with the way he's clenching his fists as he reads it.

At least one of those pages is suffering some accidental ripping. Sorry y'all.

Finnick

[falsify]

Dealing with Finnick is kind of the part of all this Eames has been looking forward to the least. Eames has every confidence in Finnick's ability to do what they need to, it's just his ability to catastrophise he doesn't want to deal with. Especially when it comes to something he has every right to freak out about.

Fundamentally, if this is gonna be a situation where he has to deal with feelings, he'd much rather Not.

But he has enough faith in Finnick that even if he had a multitude of choices available to him, Eames would probably want to work with him anyway. Which is why he shows up at Finnick's place the same evening he's read today's headlines. Two coffees in a cup holder and a newspaper under his arm while he waits for Finnick to answer the door.

[thelittlemerman]

He knows it's Eames before he even opens the door, of course - the man's magical presence isn't exactly quiet - but that doesn't mean he manages to look less like the excellent mixture of disgusted and exhausted by the time the door swings open. The apartment's dim behind him and his tired eyes glance up and down the hall quickly before he turns back into the darkness.

"Come in," he says.

[falsify]

Finnick looks about how Eames feels and he offers a bit of a sympathetic frown as he follows, looking around at what of Finnick's place he can see in the dark. He decides it's a good thing he brought coffee, judging by the darkness and the exhaustion Finnick is radiating right now.

"Did I wake you?"

[thelittlemerman]

"No," Finnick says, sounding very much like his life is awful anyway. It is. There's a blanket strewn across the couch from where he's been miserably watching Netflix and trying to avoid thinking about all the bullshit going on in real life, but Finnick turns away from that and goes to the kitchen where he turns on a light and slouches in a chair.

"Why are you here?"

[falsify]

"Take it you haven't heard about the vote," Eames says, putting the coffees down and sliding a cup toward Finnick before doing the same with the paper.

[thelittlemerman]

"Of course I have," Finnick says, almost petulant as he pulls the coffee toward himself. "You think I just spend every day like this?"

He gestures around, clearly aware of how pathetic this whole situation is. No one was supposed to see it to be fair.

[falsify]

Probably best if he doesn't answer that, because it's not far from how he imagined Finnick spending his time, if he's honest. Maybe with less Netflix, but still a lot of laying in a cocoon of misery.

So Eames elects to push past that and raises his eyebrows, taking a sip of coffee before he answers, "so then you know why I'm here."

[thelittlemerman]

"I'd hoped I might have at least twelve hours before I was called to action," Finnick says, though it's more for himself than for Eames. This is terrible news, and they have to act on it quickly, but he knows he just needs a little bit of time to get through the pain of things before he can function properly.

"Do you have a plan?"

Sylvia

[falsify]

Boy, is he getting sick of this building. But needs must and Eames is here now, getting the appointment wasn't the easiest and he sort of hopes it's because Sylvia's busy and not because nobody here wants to deal with him. He's perfectly polite to everyone whenever he has to deal with the Institute.

He keeps up that politeness, distant friendliness with the staff as he's shown to Sylvia's office, and he offers her a congenial smile, "how sick are you of my face?"

Don't answer that.

He continues on once the door is closed. She never seems one to shake hands with a fae so he bows his head instead, "thank you for your time."

[brightwitch]

If it helps at all, Sylvia isn't having the best time right now either. She smiles thinly when he comes in.

"Please, take a seat."

There's no guard in the room with her this time, although there are two men stationed outside the office as well as fresh chalk markings on the floor that will prevent Eames from crossing any further than the front of her desk. Once Sylvia walks behind it, he can't reach her. She doesn't know why he's here after all, but she does know that Samantha has stirred up a hornets' nest. This probably isn't a social call.

Sylvia sits down too and regards him for a moment before speaking. "If you're here to ask me to overturn the ruling on summoning magic, I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. The vote is legal and binding. It is what it is."

[falsify]

"Much as I'd like the thing reversed, I'm aware that's not how it works." Eames sighs as he sits, a brief moment of exhaustion in his expression as he notes the marks on the floor, though he's caught it and settled into a more unreadable mask when he looks back to Sylvia's face.

"I'm here to talk about where we go from here."

[brightwitch]

We? That's rather presumptuous. She raises her eyebrows but otherwise doesn't comment.

"I'm listening."

She'll hear him out, if nothing else. Truthfully, she hasn't decided yet what to do. It rankles her to even think it, but Samantha has outmanoeuvred her.

WHOOPS...

[falsify]

He catches the look, but isn't dissuaded. Eames doesn't mean for them to work together after all, quite the opposite in fact.

"I'm sure it's been quite lovely for you having us quiet and docile these past few months, and I had hoped to revisit things, hammer out some kind of real relationship between your Council and the fae. Maybe a seat so that those of us who primarily live on this side might have a voice."

Granted, his preferred situation is one where the Night Council fucked off forever, but in the real world where they can't be got rid of so easy? He could live with that.

Regardless, Eames hefts a heavy sigh, all faux-apology as he spreads his hands in a gesture as if to say it's out of his hands. "Unfortunately, even a gift so small as good behaviour can't in good conscience be given to people who'd aid and abet slavery."

I saw nothing

[brightwitch]

Well, that's a threat if she's ever heard one. Her hand unconsciously goes up to the silver amulet at her neck.

"Am I to assume that my school is in danger?"

If he targets her or anyone around her, she will fight back no matter what she thinks of fae being summoned or Samantha's far more permissive attitude to dark magic.

[falsify]

It's like no one trusts him to just be nice and decent or anything. Eames shakes his head, making an amused noise on an exhale, and lifts a hand in a gesture for her to be patient.

"You're misreading my intentions," he pauses briefly, thinking about the best way to say what he wants to say in as unambiguous a manner as he can, "I don't want to fight you, I'm not planning to attack you or your school. Though in the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit I probably won't intervene if somebody else wants to."

[brightwitch]

He's Unseelie and she's dealt with him before. No, she doesn't trust him to be nice or decent. She doesn't trust him full stop.

But at least now she's starting to get some clarity. Sylvia nods slowly. "Then what do you want? I don't want to misread your intentions, but what you said about good behaviour did sound like a threat."

He wouldn't make empty threats, would he? That seems counterproductive.

Nancy

[falsify]

All things considered, it shouldn't be any real surprise if Eames misses a few social calls. He's got a lot on his plate at the best of times, but this is a whole new kind of busy. Dinner with Nancy is kind of the last thing on his mind.

That, and like fuck is he setting foot in Cooper's flat after what the little shit did. He might not have proof, but it's not exactly the greatest feat of deductive reasoning to guess who voted which way.

He's not thinking about any of that when he answers the door to see Nancy-- he's on the phone but he starts hurrying it along to the end as he ushers her in and into the kitchen to sit at the little nook by the windows.

[stauncherhearted]

She's missed Eames. A lot. So she's disappointed when he's missed a few of their usual dates. Nancy likes their time together, it's important to her. Honestly her relationship with Eames is just important to her.

So she figures he's busy, maybe he forgot, and he gets a few sad texts. So finally, she's taking matters into her own hands, and arrives on his doorstep. When he lets her in, she does as bidden, taking a seat, and making sure to give proper attention to the pupper until Eames is off the phone. Once he is, she smiles brightly at him.

"Hey. I've missed you!"

[falsify]

He's pretty good at multitasking, wedges the phone between his shoulder and his ear while he takes out a pack of biscuits from the cupboard to set down on the table and flicks the kettle on. Eames rubs his ear with the heel of his hand and finally moves back to the table once he's hung up, still standing so he can attend to the tea, but at least she has his attention now.

"Sorry," he shrugs a shoulder, "been a busy month."

[stauncherhearted]

"It's alright," Nancy says automatically, looking up from Boxer to Eames. She keeps scritching at the dog, who seems very happy to see her. And she's happy to see him, too. Juliette is a sweetheart, but she's a cat, and that means she's a little standoffish to begin with. She won't say it out-loud, but sometimes, she really misses having a dog around.

Or two.

"How've you been, then?" She wants to wait a few minutes, or something, slowly lean into the subject she's brought here to discuss with him. Unfortunately, it's not her favorite subject: Fagin's done with her, according to Dodger. And if anyone's going to understand how exactly that effects her, it'll be Eames.

[falsify]

"Well Daybreak tried to make off with a bunch of fae and then the Council reversed its position on summoning magic," Eames says it all very casually as he makes a couple of cups of tea, a hefty dash of whiskey in his and a more acceptable one on Nancy's, tone and body language even as casual like it's no big deal. "So about as good as one can expect, I suppose."

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy rubs her temples. "Christ- I heard about the summoning magic- fucking bullshit, is what it is." Summoning magic was what had got her into her life from the get-go. Summoning, making deals, fucking around with the fae. It was dangerous. She knew that and she respected the fae. They weren't all the good sort like Eames was. There were people like Fagin out there, and with summoning magic allowed...

She remembered Kenzi on Halloween, her hand clasped tight around her wrist, twisting, crushing, breaking it with strength that wasn't her own. And for a time, she'd been afraid of Kenzi. Not on purpose, but deep inside because she hadn't recognized the look in her eyes. How different it had been from even Bill.

"I hate Samantha. I told you about meeting her, yeah?"

[falsify]

He'd laugh if she ever called him 'the good sort' out loud, but on a grand scale his dealings are pretty petty. No bartering for people’s souls pr children or anything of that sort.

Still, in this instance he doesn't much care about who's a good fae and who's a bad one. There's far more important issues to consider and he barely even pretends to be interested as he brings the teas over and sits down with a soft, "you didn't, no," to Nancy's question.

[stauncherhearted]

"It was on the Night Train," she says, launching into the table anyway, because it's a good story, or she'd like to say. "I was going to tell you, but-" ghosts, man. ghosts. She continues on anyway. "I went to speak with Sylvia, just to say hullo," because she is an idiot, "I figured it'd be better to talk to her rather than let her find me." It was no secret Sylvia was not Nancy's number one fan.

"She didn't know Cooper was my boyfriend- I said I lived with my boyfriend at the hearing, but she never asked who, so I never said. She got snippy about me deciding not to join a Daybreak coven. Anyway, that's when Samantha came up, and Sylvia explained it to her. Samantha wouldn't even let me explain before calling me a traitor. Can you believe it?"

As Nancy speaks, she's accepted her tea from Eames, and taken a first preliminary sip. "Anyway, it gets worse. She said back wherever the fuck she's from, traitors weren't even considered witches anymore!" It hurts, honestly. She'd found a place she'd felt like she belonged, away from Fagin, and Daybreak had destroyed it. Now they wanted her to join them, and when she didn't, they essentially shunned her.

"So fuck her, I say."