LATE AF SEPT CATCHALL

[impostorsyndrome]

🧙 WHO: Kadoc and a bunch of people, including perhaps your character?!
⚔️️ WHAT: There sure is a lot of dumb shit happening in the month of September. Both OPEN and CLOSED prompts, the latter in the comments!
🕒 WHEN: IT'S—the month of September. (More specifically, the span from the beginning of the month to the first part of the event, ending before any dragon problems!)
🗺️ WHERE: Here there and everywhere, including Celliwig, ~the club~, straight up prison, and other assorted places around Camelot.
⚠️ WARNINGS: Eventual branding/tattoo/pain stuff, the subsequent servitude that comes along with that prompt, language, sexual themes in ~the club~, likely violence/actiony antics in the jailbreak, animal capture and implied slaughter for food in the event prompt, and I'll add anything else!


1. Kadoc the Stubborn Husky (early Sept., OPEN, thanks a lot Claude)

[Kadoc needs a second opinion. Maybe even a third, fourth, and further opinions. Claude is a lovable scamp and all, but Kadoc is a paranoid bastard, and he can't quite convince himself that he's not being had with the whole—howling thing. He sounds fine to his own ears! He's probably not an Animal Mage, although boy would this be a typically embarrassing way for that to make itself known if he were!

He needs confirmation, but after how that went with Claude, he can't quite bring himself to walk up to anyone and just start talking. What if he really is making dog noises?! So, instead, he's gathering his courage to approach people he recognizes as offworlders and . . . hold up his tablet, on which he has a Notes file open, with this typed in a large, visible font:]

I NEED YOUR HELP. NOTHING DANGEROUS.

[ . . . This could have been an email a network post, but he's not exactly on his game right now. Who can blame him?]


2. Jailhouse Rock (early Sept., CLOSED to Kate, Jailbreak quest)
Here!

3. Amanita Bigger Basket (early Sept., CLOSED to Ritsuka, Celliwig's month of magical mushes)
Here!

4. Super Smash Bros Part 2: The Revenge of the Smash (mid Sept., CLOSED to Itaru, The Pain-Tolerant Badass)
Here!

5. Your Obedient Servant (mid Sept., CLOSED to Rinea, The Caring Badass)
Here!

6. Lukewarm Knights (mid Sept., CLOSED to Gareth and Ritsuka, Hot Knights quest)
Here!


7. Jailbreak Part 2: The Great Goosening (late Sept., OPEN, the cute part of the event)

[Kadoc has had, to say the least, an unlucky month—but here finally there's a break, or at least a small pleasure. He's already spent plenty of time out in the wilderness gathering mushrooms this month and was debating whether to bother going on an end-of-month hunt, only for the hunt to come to him for once. A chance to grab a pre-fattened goose for their table to go with all those mushrooms? Don't mind if he does!

The geese have other ideas, of course. By now, Kadoc's managed to humanely return several of them to the farm; his Light magic helps there. It's no big deal to snap them up in cages of hard light and then carry those back to where they belong. But geese are smart. Geese are watching him. And when he finally snaps up the fattest of the geese he can find to take home for himself, shutting it up in another light cage and hefting it under his arm, that's when they make their move.

Catch Kadoc racing down the streets of Camelot, vaguely in the direction of his home, but mostly just in any direction that's away from the ten furious honking geese in hot pursuit of him. He's only barely watching where he's going. Watch out, or you could get swept up in this disaster and end up a feather pillow yourself!

Or save him. Someone, please save him from this entire month.]


(( Check out my plotting meme post here if you're interested in setting anything else up with Kadoc this month outside of the upcoming event; I'm happy to oblige! Also if I forgot to get one up hmu. It was a lot lol ))

Comments

[impostorsyndrome]

Trust me, I'd rather avoid one myself.

[But it's not always a choice, and having backup in case it happens is quite appreciated. With that, he falls into step next to Kate, watching, seeing what she sees—now's the time. He can only obscure them visually, not mute their presence the way he would have been able to back home, but it won't be as necessary to do that if the guards are milling around themselves and distracted.

Kadoc moves a step away from her, passing his hand in front of them to pull up a light screen, of sorts: an illusion that reflects the light away from them so the eye can't perceive them. The gesture isn't necessary, but hey, he's gotta do something. It's a compulsion.]

—This is the last thing I'll say until we're through them. The closer you stay to me, the easier it'll be for me to hide us both. . . . Let's go.

[morns]

( ...good. truthfully, she doesn't expect to get out of this without some sort of confrontation, but as long as they're on the same page about the idea that "running in to fight every single guard would be dumb as fuck", they can at least stand a chance at not totally fucking this up. )

Understood.

( it doesn't take more than a few steps for Kate to fully realise that light magic's illusions don't extend to the audio, given that she can hear their steps just fine.

but she might have a solution for that as well. as they creep, she taps Kadoc on the shoulder, gesturing with her hands to try and communicate the idea of I can levitate us.

he's going to have to be okay with her hauling him off his feet, though. )

[impostorsyndrome]

[The meaning of the gesture doesn't really get through to him until it's happening, and then his eyes go wide and he sucks in a sharp breath—but he manages not to make any other noise than that, even though it takes all his willpower to hold it back. The greater part of him definitely wants to let out an embarrassing eep! or something. The eep is in his soul! In his body language! But blessedly not in his voice.

He lets the breath out veeeeery slowly as his brain processes what's actually happening here. Oh. Yes. She's obscuring any potential footsteps or crunching of the leaves under their weight. Smart! This is a good thing, that did not at all need to spike his adrenaline, and yet here he is anyway.

Once he's past that moment, he nods, too quickly. Yes, yes, he gets it now.]

[morns]

( this is a first, honestly, and as such, it takes extra effort to balance them both in the air as they move. thankfully, he doesn't give their plan away with any noises of surprise, and so she edges them closer.

closer still.

... honestly, the fact that they're almost at the building without any sign of some sort of magic cancelling enchantment making their lives harder is the strangest part of this whole thing so far. surely that's the kind of thing they'd do, right?

or maybe they don't think they need to. maybe they want their guards to have access to their magic.

hm... she's not sure which version of reality sounds worse. but ultimately, Kate supposes, worrying over it won't exactly change anything. they'll have to deal with any obstacles as they come instead of hypothesising.

but at least now they're beyond the gates of the prison, and the coast looks to be clear. )

... Alright?

( she keeps her voice a hiss, closer to someone who is, effectively, still a stranger than she might normally get while sober, and carefully lowers them both down. )

[impostorsyndrome]

—Yeah. Shit, you surprised me.

[There's no anger in the way he whispers it; it's not an accusation so much as a release of the tension of the moment. Kadoc rubs his face as he gathers himself. Even after he'd figured out what was going on, there'd been the concentration of having to maintain the illusion, and keep his breathing as silent as possible, while being moved like that . . . he, too, is protective of his personal space, and being in close is awkward for him. But it's necessary, and there's a time and a place for complaining about it. Now isn't it.

They're through. It's easier to maintain the visual illusion now that he doesn't have quite so much else to concentrate on, at least not yet. Soon enough they'll be in even closer quarters, and he'll have to—

Well, what? There's more than one way they could approach this. Kadoc shoots a glance at the main complex, chewing on his lip for a moment, thinking that over.]

. . . What's our plan? We could stake things out until they bring the prisoners out onto the grounds. That's probably the lowest risk, but it'll take the most time, and we'll have to hope we can tell who our target is without tipping anyone off. Or we could sneak inside. The old-fashioned way, or slipping in while we're invisible, or disguising ourselves as guards.

[morns]

( this certainly isn't the ideal way to get close and personal with a stranger. she usually prefers something with more alcohol, fewer clothes, and less threat of being thrown in prison. but they're here now and there's money hanging in the balance of this whole thing.

one step down, they're closer and still shrouded from the guards, but Kadoc's thoughts have Kate pausing. she'd honestly just planned to dive inside and try and wing it. but now she has another person to rely on, and so she casts another look over the prison and its grounds. )

... You think we can use magic in there? ( the invisibility would be a fantastic boon if so, but if they get in there and suddenly find themselves without any magic, things could get unnecessarily messy.

hm, but identifying their prisoner...) She's a butch princess. ( which might narrow it down in the requester's mind, but hardly in Kate's. she doubts this chick is gonna be wandering through the prison with her crown on. ) S'pose we could yell her name and run.

( grab the person who reacts to their name, fuck off out of here?

okay, that's a desperation plan. )

[impostorsyndrome]

[That makes him smile, for real, sharp and fleeting but genuine, at the image: hell, it might not be the worst chance they have. Especially if she's right about magic. Kadoc realizes suddenly that he'd been taking it for granted that magic would be allowed, but—]

—It's likely the guards can use their magic. I doubt they'd wanna give them any kind of disadvantage in the situation. So with that in mind, it's probably equally likely that the prisoners can't use theirs. What would they do if some serial killer could just turn into a mouse and slip through the bars? Or hypnotize a guard into letting them out? . . . So the question is just how they enforce that. If we don't know that, we don't know shit.

[It could be that the prisoners are wearing some magical item that suppresses their magic, and then Kate and Kadoc will be fine. But it could also be that the guards are wearing some magical item that makes them immune to a complex-wide magic suppression spell, and then they're screwed. How are they supposed to find out before it's too late?

He hunches in on himself against the night chill—and out of nerves—and takes a closer look at the sprawling complex. Damn, if he were at home, he could sharpen his vision . . . but this is good enough.]

. . . Let's get as close to the building as we can and see what happens. If there's some kinda ward on the entire thing that makes all magic not work, it can't just apply indoors. They'd have to ward the outdoor exercise areas too. So if we can get that close without our magic shutting down, we're probably fine. . . . And if we can't, I guess we're gonna yell her name and run.

[morns]

( all possibilities are equally likely right now and that's annoying. but working off minimal information happens all too often in these quests, so they're just going to have to deal with it.

so, ultimately... )

Sounds good.

( they just need to sneak a bit closer, that can't be too hard, right?

yeah, that hope lasts about half a second, the length of time it takes for Kate to twist her head and see the upcoming patrol of three guards with their heads all swivelling, alert with fingers twitching as though ready to strike at anything remotely suspicious. )

[impostorsyndrome]

[Oh shit! . . . He almost says aloud, but he manages not to; instead he just lets out the tiniest hissing breath. But that's enough. The guards, fresh to their patrols after the shift change and not yet tired of being vigilant in every direction—damn, Kadoc thinks, he should have thought of that earlier, but he totally didn't—are on edge enough that one of them does swivel his head around in Kate and Kadoc's direction. The other two don't seem to have heard, but one notices her companion's reaction and pauses to look around herself.

Luckily, Kadoc has gotten very good at getting an illusory barrier up fast, and by the time the guards are looking in their direction, there's nothing to see. But their feet are on the ground again, and the guards are getting closer, which means any motion or sound on their parts is likely to be detected.

Goddamn.]

[morns]

( this isn't good. and despite the logical knowledge that there's probably no way they'd notice magic being used, Kate hesitates to lift them both up. hesitates to do anything.

the power to detect other powers doesn't exist here, but maybe something which approximates it does. at least, maybe it does for this prison.

her breathing stills, the itch to move overwhelming as she forces herself to stay still, and eventually, the guards pass.

fucking hell.

it's only once they walk out of earshot that Kate chances whispering. )

Be ready. They might sense us.

( if they haven't sensed the illusion, they probably won't sense the motion of Kate levitating and dragging Kadoc with her, but... well.

old habits, etc. )