Act 2/2.3

## Act 2.3 deals placed, stitches stricken

**May 2, 2019**

> The aetherians (Lemon, Brie, and Toy) arrange a party at the abandoned park near the edge of the city. Lemon states in his invitation that he has someone for them to meet. It is Natus, who has a proposition for a select number of people.
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### Open RP

* The group left behind with Lemon and Toy hang around the abandoned park until a pangolin-bear aberrant crashes into the area. As they try and fight it, arrows fly through the air in small bursts, which Lemon notes are aimed at each target’s vitals. Some of the arrows hit their target, and some turn out to be laced with something that causes Quinn and Klaus to go limp. (Numbing poison/anesthetic?) (They're fine later though.)

* Eventually the group kills the aberrant and a police squad shows up, stating that they’re investigating a group that didn’t report in for their shift at one of the watchtowers, as well as the fact that the group is on private property--and therefore, trespassing. The chief police lets the group go without fining them, and the officers take in the people that were shooting at them.

### Closed RP

* Ark, Bernice, Charlotte, Enfield, Jules, Petey, Reyes, Seth, and Typhoeus go with Natus to his home in the east end of the residential district. He states that he’d like to do a fortune telling of sorts for them.
* When they enter his house, he takes them to a room with shelves stretching to the ceiling that house candles and paperwork. There’s a single pedestal in the center of the room with a lining of paper placed around it, drops of magenta wax splatter the floor in places, denoting they’re just here to save the wooden flooring. What looks like bird bones are also on the pedestal, forming a circle around an empty candle holder.
* Natus begins his demonstration, putting a candle into the holder and shutting off the lights. When he lights the candle, the group can see flickers of visions within the light; it soon grows, the sounds and visions, until the group is taken to the scene of Felise’s wake.
* Natus explains that it’s a repeat as well as a vision that he saw before it came to pass. He states: “That’s the thing about a fate. Even if the nature of it is known, ordinarily, it cannot be changed.”
* He shows them two other scenes; one of Felise and Natus talking before he leaves for a week, and another of Natus at the cliff of a forest looking down at a crushed European car. Inside the car, he finds a plain human baby. He asks if the child would like to see this world (Aether), and when she grabs onto his finger, a small orange flame wreaths around their hands. Familiar golden horns grow out of the infant’s head, revealing the truth that Felise was really a human--simply changed. He explains that humans cannot exist in Aether without meeting certain requirements.
* Natus explains that he can see fated beginnings and endings, and has domain over them. He offers to alter fate for them, at a price that they believe to be a fair deal. The conditions are that it must be a beginning or ending that the person holds onto strongly, that there be a fate you'd like to replace it with, and that there's something you believe you can present--a deal, a desire, an oath, so that Natus can help facilitate it. He also cannot interact with the fates of those who haven’t come to Aether in a significant way. He warns that there may be dangerous repercussions, anywhere from injury to death, but he would like to act as the medium for them to change fate if they so wish.
* Bernice wishes for the chance at having a child again, and in exchange offers up her memory of her dead son. It succeeds. Bernice now has no recollection of ever having a son.
* Reyes wishes to exchange fates with Juniper and bring Luce back to life. It succeeds. Reyes becomes the Chariot, and Juniper the Hierophant; she also regains her sight, while Juniper loses hers.
* Charlotte wishes to exchange fates with Morgan and bring him back to life. It succeeds. Morgan is now the Emperor, and also an alter. In forging a new fate for her, Charlotte becomes the Hierophant, as well as an imp.
* Ark wishes for the chance to be born later in exchange for his life. It fails, and flames lash at him, leaving long stretches of blacked burns along his face, arms, and legs.
* Nothing about the timeline as the other characters know it has been changed; Luce and Morgan still died at one point in time, but are now back.