You and I in a little toy shop by a bag of balloons... [Party Thread]

[thewalkin_dude]

((OOC: Enjoy the parade! Comment on the floats, band, politicians, whatever. Mingle! ^^ Also, Flagg gives off normal human psychic-ness to anyone who might be poking around

Comments

[cyfor]

And Cy makes a beeline for the person with the most interesting frequencies (or rather, lack of frequencies--he's so... normal. So absolutely ordinarily dull!) in the whole damn parade--that is to say, Mr. Flagg, Mr. Sleezeball, Mr. My-Guys-Will-Fuck-You-Up. Mr. Satan. She smiles up at him, dressed in her trench coat, and chirps, "You smell like the fox and the nighttime crowd. Why does your suit dance for its supper?"

[thewalkin_dude]

Randall Flagg insists that he is Mr. Will-Fuck-You-Up-Himself, assuming your getting fucked up is interesting enough for him to bother win. If not, the other title fits him fine enough.

He can feel his protection bristle as the crazy girl approaches him, but he waves a hand that tells them to ease up. He is the Devil after all. What does he have to fear of anyone? Why does he even need protection? Flagg doesn't, but it keeps up appearances.

Of course, Flagg doesn't need to run for Mayor either, but human politics are funny.

Flagg looks as uncomfortable as he can manage, as any politician (or normal person) would when approached by such a girl for the benefit of any voters watching. He is a master manipulator. "Are you sure you aren't lost, sweetheart?"

There's only a hint of his amusement in his eyes.

[cyfor]

Cy pokes him. Because this is what Cy does when she is condescended to--her best to make those around her more uncomfortable. "Who's lost? Not me. But you're missing something, qua sirrah sirree."

She leans a bit closer, squinting up at him. "Not your sweetheart, anyway."

[anjelsword]

She's in the crowd, a quiet shadow, watching the whole affair with an eye for the illegal. There's three people getting their pockets picked, one woman across the street whose purse just got cut, and an abnormal number of nonchalant drifters, not picking out targets or serving as distractions. Just wandering, aimless without being conspicuous, and scanning the crowd.

Oh yes, something's going on here, and Aniki is quite interested in what that might be.

[leanhungrytype]

The Organization is bankrolling this entire operation, but no one really needs to know that. Of course, that also means there's more than a few agents working their way through the crowd, keeping watch and possibly doing a little recruiting.

Not Anka. Anka doesn't recruit. She just likes to watch. And she's watching Aniki watching the crowd right now.

"Keep your eyes on things, low to the ground- sneaky, sneaky. Anka sees what you're doing," she announces coming up behind her and not even trying to be sneaky or discreet about it. If she's right, Aniki's the sort who would have felt her coming anyway.

[anjelsword]

She did, and the openness did a lot to reassure her that this girl wasn't planning on starting something. She glances at Anka with a half-smile and then goes back to watching the others working the crowd. "Not interested in being sneaky sneaky yourself?"

[leanhungrytype]

"Not particularly," Anka muses. "Could be if I wanted, but not today. Atmosphere is too festive for tactics. I don't take work to the place where I play."

Which is a lie, because this is almost work, but that's not what she's going to be telling people on the street. She gives Aniki an appraising look. "Is there something you seek or are you looking and hoping to find something you didn't know you'd lost?"

She's oddly fortune cookie-ish today.

[duology]

Ace is out and about, walking up and down along the parade and trying to relieve some stress.

To say that Ace is antsy would be inaccurate. Ace does not get antsy; she has always kept a very rigid control over her emotions, assuming there are emotions there at all. It's Dev who is the restless one, Dev who hasn't been able to sleep for the past two days, Dev who is in the back of Ace's mind doing the mental equivalent of pacing back and forth. It's been about three months since either of them has killed anyone. Ace isn't driven by the same needs that Dev is--and that's what it is, a need--but his restlessness is seeping over to her. All around, it's a bad situation. Ace was hoping that the noise and commotion of the parade would help to dispel it a little and maybe even put Dev to sleep, finally. So far it's been working, at least somewhat

[thewalkin_dude]

Flagg turns to her and smiles, all political, with a hint of something else . It is never clear what he knows and what he doesn't. His power has been severely cut since coming through the Rift, but he's still the Devil.

It's never easy to tell with him either way.

"I have several strategies," he says, with just a twinge of intensity in his gaze that would be hard for most normal people recognize. "They all seem obvious as hell, and you're going to wonder why no one else thought to do so. The biggest part of these strategies is increase and inform the police force and other emergency workers. They were not prepared to deal with the earthquake, the plague, and the other disasters of a less natural sort that have put this fair city in a choke hold over the past year. We can't stop all disasters from happening, but we can be better prepared for what this world throws at us and be one step ahead."

[duology]

Ace tilts her head a little and puts on a tiny, intrigued smile. Beneath the surface, the gears are spinning.

"Well, they do say that communication is the most important part of a relationship. That can't be all you have in mind, though."

"Better communication with the police" could mean anything, after all. Politicians are always good at saying nothing in a hundred words or less. The trick is to trip them up.

What's interesting is that this man seems to know something about the Rifts. Ace wonders just how many people in this city know--and how many of them are police, city workers, politicians.

[faithful_slayer]

Flagg kind of reminds Faith of her Mayor.

That ended really unpleasantly for all concerned.

Therefore, Faith is keeping her distance from him, but still hanging out in the crowd; getting by in a new place is all about who you know, and this seems like a useful way to maybe meet somebody important.

Hopefully she will manage not to turn into a tiny yappy dog.

[ohperilousplace]

Zoe's here, because every now and then her father decides that they should have family time and go out to things like parades. Right now, though, her parents are talking to someone about the announcement of a new candidate for mayor, and her brother's wandered off to she doesn't even know where, so she's wandered a little away from all of them, kind of wondering if maybe Maria might be here. She should have asked on the journals before they left...

Her eyes on someone halfway across the crowd, she bumps into Faith, squeaks a little, and jumps back, an automatic shield coming up invisibly and pushing Faith a few steps away before Zoe realizes what she's doing and stops. Maybe the older girl would just think it was the wind or something. ...Riiight. She's really got to stop doing that when she's startled.

"Um. Hi. Sorry. I didn't mean to... Sorry."

[faithful_slayer]

Faith has long since gotten used to being bumped up against; living in big cities does that. The whole 'small kid moving things with her mind,' though...that's new.

Kinda cool though.

"It's okay," she says, with a reassuring smile. "Nice trick."

[ohperilousplace]

Zoe looks up at him, widening her eyes in an attempt at innocence. It doesn't go over entirely believably, but no one suspects the cute preteen with the huge eyes and mop of curls. "Trick? Huh?" The sad thing is that this usually works with her parents, at least.

[shiksafemnista]

There's a woman in a soft gray pantsuit close at hand for the speech, and near enough afterwards that she'll notice if he's approached by any press and able to intervene should the need arise. She's tall, and at a cursory glance one might think she's an archangel, but look any closer, at the way she moves and carries herself, and that thought quickly goes away.

C.J. Cregg has worked on campaigns a good deal larger than this one, and she's an old hand at this. Just now, Flagg doesn't need her all that much, and she's devoted her attention to scanning the crowd. She doesn't actually expect to see anyone she knows, but there's always that chance - and if Sam or Josh or Toby or Danny or anyone she knew came through the Rift here in Chicago, if they'd be anywhere... it would be here.

She takes a couple steps to one side, trying to catch sight of one man's face, and one foot goes out from under her, slipping on a patch of ice that shouldn't even be there, it's been above freezing all day. She catches herself before she falls, and grimaces

[soldatceryi]

And there's a tall man walking nearby with the assistance of a cane... and still managing not to tumble over on anything. He's near enough that when she starts to slip his first instinct is to reach out and catch her elbow, setting her to rights again just in case she doesn't manage it on her own.

"Those shoes?" he asks, flicking the tip of his cane at her feet and giving her a raised eyebrow or two. "I think they are not so convenient, perhaps?"

[shiksafemnista]

CJ takes a moment to make sure she's absolutely steady on her feet - because she's used to the way things go for her by now, and if she doesn't, she's probably going to have her feet slip out from under her yet again and pull them both down. That done, she smiles at him - she has to look down to do it, but she's fairly used to that.

"It's not the shoes so much as a case of very extremely and persistently bad luck... but the shoes probably don't help." Sometimes she forgets that the temperature difference between Chicago and DC this year is a good twenty degrees, and why does anyone willingly live here, in any universe? "Thank you. There are probably only so many times I can fall down in public before they start considering me a liability."

[soldatceryi]

Ivan lets out a quiet chuckle. "Liability? No, it is not so bad. At least, in America, I do not think your mayors are so scary as some."

Oh, Ivan. If only you knew.

"Is an interesting parade, then," he says. "And an interesting man." He motions to Flagg. "For an interesting city. You think he he can do this?-take out the trash?" Clean up the city. Set the city to rights. Whatever. Ivan lived through a good part of the Soviet Union in Russia; the ones with the biggest answers usually end up causing the most trouble at the end.