that someone's lookin' out for us, that someone loves us

[slavophile]

( After searching the hunters' phone, decoding barely cryptic cypher, and triangulating what he realizes are coordinates, he brings everyone together. Timing is crucial.

The summer solstice is that evening.

Isaac, Bonnie, Gloria, Mia, Danny, the twins, and Hope are in William's room. )

It's the Astronomical Clock.

( "The abstract art?" Lizzie asks, remembering her meet-whatever with Danny in front of that very landmark.

Hope, Josie and Danny found the same. With the twins' begrudging acceptance of Jo's informative text (and not much more scolding, maybe it's coming), the plan comes together. With the summer equinox being about the incoming nourishment after action, then this is the local yearly ritual. )

Witches will be there in droves. In plain clothes, but there to reaffirm and grow their power. That is the hunters' target. What I don't know, is if this is a blunt assault. I downloaded schematics. This looks on the outside like an act of terrorism.

( So. Bomb. )

Every hunter we find is low on the totem pole. The higher ranked hunters run the ops. There will be civilians and civilian hunters. Low-ranked boy and Girl Scouts. It's dangerous.

( Which is why their answers are few and far between and why Cooper's double agent act only gets him so far. )

What do you think?

Comments

[blackstarred]

[The search is quick and perfunctory. She knows what she's looking for, and if she doesn't find it, she moves on. They don't have the time to be super thorough (18). She does try to avoid any of the staff if they can help it.]

[havethings]

( She's incredibly thorough, as is Hope, (18), but both notice something about the architecture and the layout of this building. Where they've been going, and where they end up, how after moving back in from the ladies' bathroom, they are back in the first office they searched. )

[blackstarred]

[Mia stops, and reaches out for Hope's arm.]

Is it just me or are you getting deja vu?

[havethings]

( She picks up the placard on the desk, advertising the same museum docent they've seen - if she's honest, three times-now. )

Like every office looks the same?

[blackstarred]

[Mia pauses before raising a hand.]

Can you do a counterspell? Like in D&D?

[Do not ask how she knows D&D, her mom was a nerd and so is her brother.]

[havethings]

Not exactly.

( ...She should meet Landon. When Hope tries to concentrate and close her eyes (2), the amount and substantiality of the magic blocks her completely. )

And not actually. This is premeditated. We're trapped inside. Someone wanted us to be.

[blackstarred]

[Mia tips her head to the side. Okay then. Two can play at that game.]

Do you think it's an illusion, or something more solid than that?

[Hope is the magic expert but she's worked along side witches before. There are levels to a spell like this.]

[havethings]

It's both. We are going in circles, and we're not all in the same room imagining we're not. But, this is powerful, Mia. They're altering our perception of reality. Maybe even our reality. My guess? They don't want us, or anyone else to find that bomb. We have to.

( They're not taking chances. )

[blackstarred]

[Mia nods considering carefully, before tipping her head to the side.]

If it's about what we can perceive, maybe we need to stop perceiving it.

[Mia, what does that even mean.

She pulls shifts and reaches into her bag, and pulls out laser distance tracker. Because if she's going to judge a distance, might as well be accurate.]

How far away do you think that wall is?

[havethings]

Six feet?

( For Hope, she's trying to locate anything out of the ordinary. It could be a dark object, or a spell. And if it's a spell, then they have to find the witch.

As for Mia's test, the laser treats the room as it looks. The room is accurate to size as it should be. )

[blackstarred]

[Right, because that's how she can see it. She then considers a moment.]

If you were using this tower for magical means, rather than simply looking to destroy it, you would want the bomb as far away from where you needed to be as possible, right?

[They need to get off this floor. She reaches back into her quiver and pulls out one of the detonating arrows.]

I have an idea. It's kind of a dramatic one.

[havethings]

( Sorry. She doesn't know. )

Probably. It would depend on what or who you wanted to bomb.

[blackstarred]

Well, let's look down first.

[And since she can't get out the normal way, she's gonna bash it.

Because yet again, she is her father's daughter.]

Hang on.

[And she'll slam the detonating arrow into the floor, intending to blow it out and send them to the floor below.]

[havethings]

( Hope braces herself, (20) landing nimbly like the hybrid she is in the ankle deep water below. Looking up, the room above them is different, like they broke the spell in that corner. )

The spell must range only inside. Good thinking. Do you take bombs everywhere?

[blackstarred]

[Mia's landing is a little less graceful (12), her feet slipping on the silt in the water, but she resteadies herself and shrugs.]

Never know when you might need to blow something up.

[She then places her hand to her ear.]

Overwatch, there's some kind of labyrinth spell on the first floor. We blew our way down into the sewers, but we still haven't found the bomb yet.

[havethings]

( "Keep looking, I'll see if I can get to everyone inside." And he will in the other thread.

Meanwhile, in this one. )

They want us all to die like literal rats trapped in a literal maze. This is cruel, even for hunters.

[blackstarred]

I don't think this is all the hunters.

[There's more to this. She just hasn't figured it out yet. She glances around, before moving through the water to see if she sent them to the right floor (16).]

C'mon. We have to find that bomb.

[havethings]

( They search thoroughly, there's a dead end down one tunnel and another goes aways, but even in the crawlspaces, as far as Mia's search is concerned.

No bomb. )

[blackstarred]

Damnit.

[They make their way back to the hole Mia left in the floor. She looks up at the floor above them where they were.]

Back into the maze? We might not have another choice.

[havethings]

Back into the maze.

( AKA shit. Fine. This time, they end up in a storage room of some kind, the hole now gone as they reenter the spell. It doesn't mean the hole is no longer there, it just means this is one powerful metaphysical reality-bending spell! )

[blackstarred]

[As they dangle on the end of Mia's grappling hook, trying to fight the dizzying effect of the fake floor, the spell fizzles away, and they can see all the damage Mia's caused.

Thanks, whoever broke it.

She delicately drops down on the other side of the damage (15), opening the door to the storage room and darting out. As she comes up the other side, she finds the twins in the middle of a standoff between the witches and the hunters.]

Did we miss the party?

[jockwitch]

( As if on cue, the hunters all drop dead, but not one witch in the room moved a finger or flicked their wrists. Lizzie looks around them, then back in the direction Danny went. She looks at her sister for approval before running off.

"I'd say we made the murder party," Hope says, flippantly, trying to make sense of any of it. )

[blackstarred]

[Mia frowns as she makes her way closer to the nearest hunter to her. Crouching down, she checks the pulse of the body and looks up at the rest of the witches to shake her head.]

What the hell?

["They're a sacrifice. Whoever was trapping us in was sacrificing them." Josie tenses, before glancing around at the bodies. "We need to get out of here."]

[havethings]

( Hope approaches another hunter, waits for Mia's conclusion, and then searches everyone's faces. )

Or, this was the quick and dirty way for the Prague coven to save themselves. I know something about not giving somebody the whole plan.

( Bruno looks up from the body he inspects, getting to his feet.

"This was not the plan. There was no plan. We were here. That is all. Ask Isaac Lahey!"

Her sense motive check (3) keeps Hope on the train of her one-track mind. )

Isaac Lahey isn't here, but you are, and so are about half a dozen real people. Was this your spell?

( "No."

"Hope, he's not lying." Lizzie knows (nat 20), and she didn't catch up to Danny. Danny went up, Lizzie checked to see if he had run out.

She's Hope's friend, Hope has done the same thing to her, and this is not what that looks like, or how it feels. "Josie's right. The hunters were canon fodder and we could be to for all we know. That spell was taking from us, Hope. So, let's find Danny and get out of here."

"Leave, Hope Mikaelson," Bruno says, as a stern, firm order, and not a warning. Of course he's heard of Hope Mikaelson. Even with two living parents, Hope has genetics on her side and history. She has a mean streak a mile wide."I will not ask again." )

[blackstarred]

Overwatch, do you have a twenty on Lahey?

[Because where is Isaac. That is a very good question. But she will reach forward and place a hand on Hope's shoulder lightly.]

C'mon. Let's go sweep the square and see if there are any stragglers.

[Josie gives Hope a sympathetic look in return, before glancing to Lizzie. "We'll go find Danny. We'll meet you outside."]