[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

[khuimods]

Characters: ALL
Date: January 15
Location: At the Dreaming Bridge and all over Aifaran!
Situation: A large influx of Dreamfolk arrive in time for one of the Lunar Festivals, and they're all invited!
Warnings/Rating: N/A


A surprising amount of Dreamfolk have arrived within a short time frame - a peculiarity remarked upon by a number of Aifaran's residents. It is unusual in that it coincides with a lunar festival, one which only happens every fifty or so years.

Newcomers will find the streets packed with all sorts of people, stalls of fried and sugared foods, carnivalesque games and rides, and all other manner of things to do. Merchants are very keen to get their wares out there, and the stipend given may just burn a hole in your pocket when you see what's for sale.

Comments

hope 3 isn't a crowd

[afoolsgold]

Fun lost, and fear found. Or--something like it.

The Fool drifts into the same room as X and Conan, his expression vague and distant as though some part of this experience has transported him back in time. He pauses at the sight of a familiar face--X--but this hardly seems the right time to reminisce over their random encounter in the burning building.

"Empty," he says quietly, and turns to give one more look over his shoulder. "I've checked."

I don't mind!

[spoilsfun]

Conan gives the two strangers an assessing look. He didn't recognize him, but at the moment all that meant was that they had not been in Keeliai.

"Not really. It depends on what you think I'm looking for."

neither do I!

[psituational]

The Fool isn't a name X will forget any time soon. He's met others now with names they can't possibly have been born with, but that doesn't make the phenomenon any easier to hear.

In any case, someone familiar helping to pursue the mystery is always welcome. X acknowledges the Fool with a smile and a nod.

"I'm not sure," he confesses to the young investigator. He clearly can't judge by apparent age, but it's hard not to. "A lot of people have gone missing near here, though. So either you lost something in the dark, or..."

[afoolsgold]

In response, X receives a whimsical sort of smirk from the Fool, one accompanied by a 'fancy seeing you here' sort of glint in his eyes, but the friendliness is short-lived due to the circumstances. He turns his eyes to Conan and steps further into the room, gestures around them with one hand. "I think, perhaps, that's what drawn all three of us to this place. Rumours of those who have gone missing--and a desire to help."

[spoilsfun]

Another assessing look, and then a bright smile as Conan puts up his usual facade of helpfulness.

"That is what I came to look at here. Most of the stories said that this was the last place the missing people were seen. Unfortunately this is a public location, and it has been long enough since the disappearances took place that it will be difficult to determine what is a trace left behind by the victims and what was left behind by the people visiting the funhouse."

In Conan's opinion the local police should have shut down the area to preserve evidence as soon as the first reports came in. But it was far too late for that now.

[psituational]

He does not sound even remotely like the age he looks. That decides it -- X tucks the questions away for later, and focuses on why they're here now.

"What about the funhouse itself?" he asks. "It's not just one or two people who went missing. It sounds more like an elaborate plan, and if the funhouse was part of that plan, maybe whoever put it up is involved."

It doesn't explain those disappearances that aren't children, but it's somewhere to start.

[afoolsgold]

"I think whatever answers may remain here, they are beyond our shared abilities to discover them." This, the Fool says with some frustrated resignation, and a deep curl in his brows. He taps a finger against his lips, considers first Conan, then X, then lifts a finger. "I suggest we depart, for now. Perhaps we'll encounter someone on the streets who witnessed something we did not. If nothing else," and here he gives an uneasy look around them, drawing his hands towards his chest, "I would greatly prefer a change of scenery, if it is all the same to you."

[spoilsfun]

Conan was not pleased by the idea of abandoning an investigation uncompleted. He wasn't nearly done yet with investigating the area, and even if he couldn't find any clues here he had full intentions of staying here in case another disappearance happened. (Ignoring the chance that he could be one of the disappearances, of course. Conan still considered playing bait and valid investigative technique.)

"That's okay. I'm just going to stay here for now."

[psituational]

Ordinarily, X stays out of obvious arguments about to occur. It's far easier to mediate when you don't have a vested interest in how the argument turns out. In this instance, however, a couple of things weigh on his mind: the Fool's evident discomfort with the funhouse, and the fact that there's nothing to indicate Dreamfolk are any safer from the disappearances than anyone else.

Hmmm.

"Do you think you're going to find anything else?" asks X doubtfully. "The Fool is right -- we'll probably have better luck finding someone who saw what happened outside. Not everyone was last seen inside this place, just near it."