Festive Abductions

https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t38362-the-child-snatcher

A new day. It was a new day… right? She rubbed her eyes and tried to remember if she had just taken a nap or if she’d woken up in the morning. It was still daylight outside but it was the kind of daylight that didn’t tell her if it was early afternoon or mid morning. Either way, she felt like shit for having such a messed up sleep schedule. She grunted as she flipped over on her bed and wondered what was going on outside. It sounded like the local festival was going on in full force. Nothing was wrong with that. She just wished they would keep it down though. Every once in a while there was a loud gong sound or a flower petal that floated into her room that’d make her sneeze. She probably should have picked a higher inn floor to sleep in, in hindsight. That’d also reduce all the noise from the people above her who felt the need to party all night. These factors all contributed to her having a grumpy morning that she didn’t think would be fixed with a complimentary breakfast. No, she was going to have to find something else to do today.

She headed downstairs after her morning routine that excluded doing her hair. She was then immediately thrust into the ambiance of the surrounding festivities. Flowers were put in her hair, paint splattered on her clothes, and some things that she probably wouldn’t notice until she got home tonight. She found it hard to resist getting pulled into the festivities herself. She often found herself spectating a fire dancer or a well choreographed dance. Next thing she knew she was getting her third plate of food and was chomping down on it by a fire and wondering why she had even come to this town to begin with. There had been a reason, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She absent mindedly tugged at her hair and tried to make it look presentable as she lazed around. She knew that the memory would come to her if she gave it enough time. She ruffled through her pockets too, not sure if she had a mission or job or whatever that would be of any use. She didn’t find anything though. Had she just come here to enjoy the scenery? Take part in this strange festival? No that couldn’t be it.

She walked up to a board that listed out a number of tasks that could be taken for money. One of the ones in the middle was something about missing children. Now that was hardly something that she wanted to let slip by. Missing kids were one of the saddest things she could think of as most of the time kids were innocent. There were some that she wouldn’t think twice about throwing into a cold dungeon for a couple days though… “No, let’s not think like that,” she muttered as she gritted her teeth. “I wonder if I can do anything to help with this though. I’d have to talk to people and it looks kind of… busy around here.” She looked around, wondering if anyone else was around that wanted to join up with her. Because there was no way in hell she was about to do something like this alone. An old man approached her and said, “even if you can’t find them you can at least find out the motives behind the kidnappings.” It was a good point, but she still didn’t want to go running off alone in this foreign place. Well, whatever. If nobody was going to show up…


610 words

Fantastico lived his life as a pirate from birth, even at a young age the prodigy understood that living the lifestyle he does involves some unredeemable sins. When he was twelve he set a well known shady bar on fire to settle a debt his crew had with one man in there. When he was fourteen he killed the father of one of his romantic partners in front of his whole family. He orchestrated several raids that have caused a few permanent injuries. In the life living outside the law, he racked up enough sins to keep a priest busy for days. However despite being an outlaw, he does live by a set of rules that he made. While he doesn't expect the rest of society to live by his rules, he does get annoyed at the least when someone breaks them, there are some that make him furious. The second most aggravating rule had been broken, and Fantastico was now on a war path. "Don't mess with kids."

Fantastico never knew where that rule had come from: the kindness and gentle part of his soul that comes from his mother, when he was ten years old and his father Jarko stabbed him and threw him overboard just to distract authorities, perhaps since he is a parent himself, or maybe a mix of everything. Regardless of what sparks the flame, if he hears about endangered children, he has been known to uncharacteristically disregard any treasure or reward just to deal out his own brand of justice. Today was no different. 

The red clad pirate had plenty times before broke apart many operations that snatched children from their homes or off the streets, and he'd seen things from sweatshops to almost unspeakable cruelty. However in every story he always got revenge, and simultaneously drank a lot after. It was midafternoon and Fantastico had just left a house on the eastern side in the fourth village he was visiting. His hair was a mess, the top four buttons of his shirt were undone, his red coat was loosely hung over his shoulder, and he was adjusting his belt as he left the house. "Well, got everything I could from here."

He said as he looked over towards the log, looking at the ghost and the doll sitting on a tree stump. Serene was the ghost that haunts Fantastico's ship the Phoenixa, which was currently in it's bottle form floating concealed in the thigh of the purple haired ghost. Candace was the short doll next to the other undead spirit. A doll made to be possessed by the spirit of a noble lady long since passed. Candace had her ball jointed arms crossed as she looked at the man finished getting dressed. "Well, that was long. How thorough was your investigation?" Serene meanwhile snickered as she saw people start to leave the small house behind him. "Two and counting- three, four, six- wait twins?" Fantastico shrugged as he pulled out a flask from his coat. "Last I checked, three mothers, two aunts, and about three fathers and uncles." Serene raised her eyebrow at the count. "Anyways, anything useful obtained during your, comforting interview?"  

Fantastico nodded as he pulled out a piece of folded piece of paper from his pocket. "I got as much records of what kid was doing what that day and a general timeframe. We're close to a net. But nothin' now. Howabout ye ladies. Did Local law sing any good tunes?" Candace sighed as she recalled the afternoon that she and the ghost had sneaking around the facility trying to obtain information. While Fantastico was getting as much he could from the locals, he sent the undead ladies to see how law enforcement was handling the crisis. It was clear that if wizards were on the job the matter was very serious. "Everything is happening in their blind zone, sneaking around their office told almost the same story."

Fantastico put the lid back on his flask as he was intrigued by the wording of the three foot doll. "Almost?" He asked hoping for something to speed along the investigation. "We're getting company, word is a Fairy Tail mage is joining the hunt." Fantasitco knew this was going to be a lot of gambling now. He suspected other mages would join eventually. "Better then Rune Knights at the very least." He sighed, handing the note to Candance before he gently lifted her up with one arm seated her on the other before he and Serene started to walk through the village, along the outskirts looking for anything suspicious. "Analyze the information, we're gonna have to continue our search and deal with the mage if they show up. Any details on them?"

Candace shook her head. "Nope. Hopefully you can talk your way out of this one if things go south." Fantastico chuckled at that, both spirits knew that Fantastico was a man of many skills. "We'll see."

WC 826
PWC 826
TWC 1436

Ivara was looking for something. Or maybe… was it someone? God it was hard to keep her thoughts straight today. She recalled committing to a mission and then she’d gone and gotten lunch and she’d barely just remembered that she had, in fact, wanted to follow through on her commitment. The problem was that nobody around her seemed to be interested in helping out, that’s why she’d taken a break in the first place. She was thinking about how to go about solving a mystery without being ‘in’ with the locals or having any special detective abilities. She felt like she was a little out of her league on this one. She never really dealt with some truly evil people before. Mostly just low level criminals that helped her claw her way up the ladder. She mulled over her thoughts for half an hour and came to the conclusion that she would at least give this mission an attempt, whether she had help or not. Finding some lost kids eh? That didn’t sound so bad. Especially since the kinds of people to do that were too scrawny to abduct adults. But maybe she’d do better not to underestimate her enemy.

So began Ivara’s journey throughout the town. She thought to go around asking people if they knew anything about the disappearances of the children. If only it were going to be that easy. If that were the case then this whole thing wouldn’t pay out so much money. That was okay though, because she had a couple tools at her disposal that would certainly help her. She went to the house of one of the kids that had been abducted and she knocked on the door. She was met by a crying man who didn’t look very well. He told her his sob story about how his kid had been taken from his very arms one night by an invisible force. Then he got into how his wife recently passed away and that was about the time that he went from a man to a crying infant rocking back and forth on the floor. Ivara wanted to throw up as this couldn’t get any sappier. “I’m here to do a job. Just… go cry in that corner over there so you don’t get in my way.” Ivara then let out a long sigh and got to work looking for clues.

“You say your kid was taken from your arms. Did that happen in this building?” She asked. The man said, “yes, right here in the living room,” between sobs. Ivara said, “okay. Let’s see if I can dial it back.” She tried to imagine what happened here. She used her connection to time itself to look into the past. “How far back was this exactly,” she inquired but at that moment she found exactly what she had been looking for so the man’s answer was lost to her. She soon found herself, mentally, in the room a few weeks ago. She saw something, it almost seemed like a ghost, take the kid and fly out of a window. She wished she were more powerful so she could extract more information, but that’s all she was about to get from this place. “Well it looks like you weren’t lying,” she told the father, “I’ll do my best to get your kid back.” She said that but… well she didn’t know what to do now. She was hoping to see a face at the very least but she had only seen that ghost. She rubbed her temples and walked out off the house and back into the street.

This was about the point that she would first see Fantastico. He walked along with his strange ensemble of… whatever those things were. One was like a doll and was that a… ghost girl? She didn’t know what to think really. She walked up to them and said, “hey, I’m looking for a ghost that might have a connection to some missing kids. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

An old man spoke up just as she’d finished talking. “god damn foreigners coming in to solve our problems for us. Just leave the ghosts alone and pray they don’t come for you too! No point in trying to fight the otherworldly forces!”

A bunch of other people chimed in, chastising Ivara for even trying to help. Well that was a just great.

740 wc
1350 pwc
2176 twc

Fantastico noted the woman appearing to investigate the townsfolk. He figured he had all he needed for the meantime and based on the girl's almost sociopathic tirade of an investigation. The red clad pirate had no desire to start an unnecessary conflict. However that would seem to become a lost cause rather quickly as he was approached by the woman. While he maintained a calm smile, he couldn't help but admire the beauty of the woman approaching him. However things took a sudden turn for the worse when she immediately went to assume that it was a ghost that kidnapped the children. Both Serene and Candace were visibly upset by the idea with the crowd that formed around them. "So much for keeping the investigation low profile..." Fantastico sighed.

Serene looked at Fantastico like he was spouting biblical blasphemy. "Low profile my ass, you slept with every grieving parent, aunt/uncle, or grandparent in half the reported towns, and the only reason you haven't done the other half is we haven't been there yet!" Fantastico knew that the more exposure this scene gets the harder it will be to keep going. He sighed and reached into his coat and pulled out his elemental flintlock pistol halfway which made some quiet immediately before the rest followed suit. He put the magical firearm away before addressing the crowd. "People please, no need for this hostility. We're not a bunch of foreigners- alright I'm from a pirate colony... Candace is from Minstrel... Serene comes from- alright we're a bunch of foreigners. But more then that, it doesn't matter. We're here to fight through hell to make sure your kids come home. I'm a father of six myself. I've taken the time to get to know many of you through my investigation."

He said walking around. "There's no ghost at work here people. I live with ghosts, I have long standing relationships with them, I know how they operate. But more then that I know how people operate..." Someone in the crowd had thrown a stale loaf of bread at Fantastico's side, but he caught it before dropping it down. "Stop torturing us! If you think our babies are alive bring them back to us you flamboyant ass!" Fantastico gave a casual smile. "I intend to, you see I think I've just about cracked this ghost case... Now I think I'll need this damn fine lady to help me out, please, do I seem like I am untrustworthy to all of you?"

Fantastico was a gambler in many regards, especially with his charisma and the spotlight. He had years of experience working the crowd. The crowd started to murmer before slowly dissipating, returning home with a lot of threats to Fantastico should he fail to keep his word. "Well... If Serene and I could die again I'd say you doomed us all, but just yourself Captain... Despite the fact that you weren't exactly wrong..." Candace said bluntly.

Serene shrugged. "I dunno, but he was right to do so, despite the fact that we could have gotten away easily, he chose to defuse so this sociopath can assist. We'd probably need her help to escort all the kids back to their various towns..." The ghost explained the reasoning of the pirate's actions. "You sure it isn't because he might seduce her later and using this to make sure he had at the very least a neutral standing?" The pirate rolled his eyes. "It can be several things Candace. Also don't take a saw to the arm that you're sitting on." He said before pulling out his flask from inside his coat and taking a swig, readying himself to introduce himself to the other mage.

"Yo! I'm Fantastico, the snide doll here is Candace, and the dead woman is Serene. We've been investigating the disappearance of children for a while now, we've been through half the afflicted towns and noticing a few trends here and there. What everything thinks of as ghosts, we're taking a different approach. A more basic approach that any mage or blue coat worth a damn would suspect first."

He tapped Candace on the head, the doll groaned and understood what the pirate wanted. She opened a small portal in the air and a scroll fell out of the portal before closing. "Basic telekinetics or complex hidden wire magic, and the rest is a matter of time."

He handed over Candace to Serene before unwrapping the scroll to show a map of the Phoenix mountain and the various settlements around. "According to the data, the kidnappings in this far area happened about here..." He marked the outer area on the east side of two settlements followed by a time. "Between about eight and nine thirty Repeated the same for two settlements that were roughly the same distance apart but between the first two. "These two about eight and quarter to nine... in houses around the outskirts... and so on and so forth. See a pattern?"

WC 880
PWC 1706
TWC 3056