Easter fun at the Redbright Institute (Scavenger Hunt!)

[undergroundmods]

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Spring is in the air and the Redbright Institute is hosting a weekend of Easter-themed family fun. The event is held outdoors on the Redbright grounds and includes an Easter egg trail, five-a-side football, croquet, arts and crafts, and a cake sale. Plus, a stall for refreshments selling tea and coffee for the adults and fruit juice for the kids. It's all decidedly kid-friendly and not magical at all. Expect to see lots of excitable children running around.

Of course, there is one event for the grown-ups: the much anticipated scavenger hunt! Teams sign up on the morning of 14th April and must solve all the clues by the event's close in order to win the grand prize.

Instructions for the Scavenger Hunt
• There are five clues to solve. You will receive each clue one at a time. Each clue leads to the location of the next clue.
• The answer to the clues is always either a person or a location (or sometimes both at once). To find the next clue, you must search the location or ask the person the clue points to. The answers are not all located in the Redbright Institute, which means your characters will be racing across London to try and find all the clues.
• Except for the first clue which you are given directly at reception when you sign up, every clue is wrapped up with a red ribbon. The ribbon itself has no significance, it just tells your characters that they've found the actual clue rather than a random object.
• You can ask for help up to three times. Help is provided by Mogget, who as you all know is very friendly. You need to tell him the clue you're struggling with before he can help you, so make sure you do that in your first tag to avoid wasting time.
• Everything above is ICly explained to your characters when they sign up so they know what to do. They also know about the time limit.
• When you think you know the answer to the clue, post ICly with your character searching that location or approaching a character and highlight that part of your tag in bold like this. This will allow me to quickly and easily see that you've answered a clue so that I can reply to either give you the next one or let you know to try again.
• Every character that participates will receive an Easter egg and a bonus two activity points!
• You have until 23:59 Sunday 16th April (GMT+1) to solve all the clues! If you manage to solve them all in the time limit and reach your end goal, the characters in the winning team(s) will receive an awesome prize and an extra bonus four activity points. If you don't solve them in the time limit, your team won't win the prize.
• One more tip: If you think you know the answer, go straight to that location or person in the first couple of tags! You can dally around for as many tags as you want, but that will waste time and make it less likely that you'll get through all five clues within the time limit.

[The scavenger hunt is closed to those characters who signed up, but the rest of this event is open to everyone! Feel free to mingle. If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.]

Comments

[stauncherhearted]

That's the thing Nancy looked for in people. So her relationship with Bill Sikes had been an abusive one. But he loved her, and he'd proved that time and time again. He was loyal to Nancy, and that made him everything she wanted. So she could, in a way, understand Cesare's reasoning.

"A damn good one, then." She winks at Cesare. "You could learn from him." She's teasing, of course.

[longterm]

Cesare's eyes widen and he looks at her, shocked and amused.

"Are you calling me not a good man? I'll have you know I'm great. I keep my word, I protect my friends and I have solid morals that I stick to." It just so happens that his morals don't exactly line up with the majority of the rest of the population. But still. He's consistent.

[stauncherhearted]

"All I'm saying is you could do with a few pointers. You wouldn't give up your cake to a pretty drunk girl, and you're straight. He did it without question, and without me asking. First step to being a good man is sharing cake."

She's got to wonder if Bill would have shared his cake with her.

Probably. If she sat on his lap and looked adorable enough.

Still, Nancy laughs and fills their glasses again, the fuzzy feeling starting to hit her head, as well as her stomach. Good. Keep the alcohol coming until she can't even walk.

[longterm]

Cesare scoffs and shakes his head.

"So you think I need help because I don't want to give a girl cake just because I thinks she's pretty? I don't know about you, but doing that sounds shady to me, as if I expect something in return." Cesare's at least better than that. He's very upfront about who he wants to sleep with. No underhand deals from him. At least not when it comes to sex.

[stauncherhearted]

"let me tell you a secret," she says, and beckons him closer. Then she starts to whisper: "you sometimes can do things just for the sake of it!" She laughs again. honestly, she usually thought any gestures of good-will were asking for something in return.

but she'd been drunk and there was cake.

[longterm]

Cesare leans in to listen to her before rolling his eyes and flopping back into the booth.

"The alcohol is getting to you. It's making you talk nonsense." Though he's only teasing. She can make as much or as little sense as she likes. Cesare is very happy to talk to her either way.

[stauncherhearted]

"No it isn't," Nancy says, and goes to pour herself more to drink. Apparently she was really enjoying letting loose. But that was the point, wasn't it? To split the bottle with Cesare?

"I'm making absolute perfect sense." This was the first time she'd completely let her hair down in front of Cesare. There was no decorum, no need to provide a perfect date, to perform. No, this was two friends getting drunk in a gay bar. And it felt absolutely amazing.

[longterm]

"Sure, sure, sure," Cesare responds, not believing it and repeating the word more times than he would if he were sober.

"You're rambling about cake and cute girls and people wanting to do things and it's barely coherent. No. In fact, it's not coherent at all. You shouldn't be having any more of this." He playfully starts pulling the bottle away from her on the table.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy gives him a pointed look across the table. She's intent to give him that look. Until he takes her bottle.

"Hey! Hey, no. Nooo way. We are sharing that. You an' me, and if you think I'm drunk, you should catch up, then." Totally making sense. Totally.

She raps her fist on the table, indicating, hey, more booze time.

[longterm]

Cesare rolls his eyes, but slides the bottle back towards her.

"Don't you think you'll get ill? You're not exactly big." Cesare is a grown ass vampire who's been drinking alcohol from the time it was safer to drink than water. He knows Nancy likes to drink but he's never seen her this inebriated before. Though then again, she's always had to keep a certain level of composure with him before.

[stauncherhearted]

"I've been drinking since I was seven," she tells him pointedly. Just another way her life is incredibly fucked up. "Probably even before. Fagin don't care."

And so she didn't care, either. Besides, if he got his kids drunk, they were easier to make do what he wanted them to.

"I don't get sick." So she pours another drink, but waits for a few minutes. How many shots is she in? Five, six? Who gives a shit.

[longterm]

In any other situation, Cesare would pick up on Nancy's comment, but he's a bit too buzzed himself to notice. He just smiles at her as her swirls a shot in his glass.

"Well, I'm hungry. Do you think they do food here?" This isn't exactly the type of place that looks like it would do food but Cesare is nonetheless optimistic. Money can be particularly persuasive.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy glances around. "Maybe? Ask!" She pats the table between them again. "But don't most pubs?" Most she'd been in, anyway.

[longterm]

Cesare laughs and gives her a look. This isn't exactly a pub. It has too many strobe lights and quasi clothed men for that. But Cesare thinks he can get some food for the two of them. He speaks to a few people, passes a few notes and soon enough a large pepperoni pizza is on the table, still in its box from the pizzeria nextdoor. He grins at her as he pulls out a piece and places it on a napkin.

"You haven't gone vegetarian while on the straight and narrow, have you?" He hadn't thought to ask.

[stauncherhearted]

If anyone could make someone bring them pizza, it was Cesare Borgia. Nancy grins, leaning forward to smell the fresh pizza.

"Gods no. Still gotta keep my iron up." She reaches for the largest piece she could find. "Nah, I'll eat anything." You couldn't be picky when you were poor.

[longterm]

Cesare is reaching for little packets of salt and pepper as he talks, preparing his slice as he speaks to her.

"How is that going, by the way? Your business?" Contrary to popular belief, he is actually interested. He wants to know how things are turning out for her and if she's doing well. He wants her to do well.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy didn't bother with pepper. She's already chowing down on the pizza.

"Business?" She pauses. Oh! "I'm out of that game. At long fucking last, only took seven years." She rolls her eyes. "I got an honest job in Redmond. I work at an auto shop actually, doing inventory."

the only person that fed off of her now was cooper.

[longterm]

"Inventory? Sounds riveting," Cesare replies with an eye roll. "There are plenty of honest jobs at the Angelo, if you're interested, contrary to popular belief. You're welcome to one." It's the least he can do after she's been such a good...employee in the past. "Though I can understand if you want something of your own, without outside assistance." It's just an offer. She can take it or leave it. He's just trying to help.

[stauncherhearted]

"Oh, shush," she tells him. "I like numbers and I'm good with them." You didn't grow up poor to be bad at numbers. You had to count every penny. So inventory and the book-keeping that went along with it were right up her alley.

She blinks. "Oh- thank you. I really do appreciate that. If this doesn't pan out, I'll consider it. Thank you, Ces." She gives him a good, honest smile. It's nice to be able to talk to him like this, without all the innuendo and putting on a performance.

[longterm]

"Ces?" Cesare repeats with a quirk of his lip and a slight tilt of his head. "I haven't been called that since the sixties." After living for so long, perhaps Cesare should have gone by some other names, and every so often he did. But for some reason Cesare managed to stick and come back into everyone's vocabulary pretty quickly.

"You're very welcome, Nance," he replies to match her.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy laughs, it's always fun when Vampires show their true age.

"I like it. It's shorter. Less complicated." She'd always thought his name was Cesar like the Roman emperor before she actually learned how to pronounce his name.

As for Nance? She rolls her eyes at the nickname. "Nothing I haven't been called before," she teases. Nance, Nan, there weren't too many nicknames you could have for Nancy.

[longterm]

Had Nancy said that she thought his name was Cesar out loud, he would have been thrilled. Cesare has always been keen on Julius Caesar. He even has a collection of artefacts from the time period. Some guys collect Star Wars figures. Cesare collects Ancient Roman armour from 47 BC. It's all the same really.

"I'm sure you've heard plenty," Cesare responds, pulling a wary face. He has no doubt that Nancy has been called a wide range of dreadful things because of her profession.

[stauncherhearted]

But let's be real, Cesare also collected Star Wars figures.

"Oh yeah- everyone's got something t'call me." She's still chowing down on her pizza, now on her second slice. "I think insufferable cunt was my favorite." Of all the things she had ever been called, for some reason it stuck out in her mind.

[longterm]

Only the bad guys.

Well, that's a little awkward. Cesare is fairly sure he's called Nancy that at some point. The phrase sounds easy to him, as if he uses it fairly regularly and probably does. He doesn't remember using at her, but he's pretty certain he has. He winces ever so slightly.

"I was probably off my face drunk when I said that. And look: I got you pizza." As if that makes up for everything. At least it's a start.

[stauncherhearted]

Big Kylo Ren fan?

Nancy looks at him. "Oh- I didn't- I didn't mean to- I don't think you've ever called me that." She's not quite sure he has, actually. But maybe he did. After a while, all the insults blurred together.

"You did- and it's damn good pizza, too."