[b]The Magician, Bondi:[/b]

Let’s go back to Pink for a moment, actually. 

The children are coming in for the show after the fireworks, what’s their first impression going to be? Luis is with them, as will ‘Sir Barrera’ - his full attention was here while Green made it to Luis study. 

What’s needed here is the same as the escapology act itself; maximizing the illusion of danger while making sure it’s too fun to stop it. Show too little risk, and Barrera will wander off. Too much risk and Barrera might end the show entirely. Or, worse, it might not be fun to watch anymore, and that would make Bondi and the children sad. Practically they’re your justification for being here, but that’s only the second reason it’s a worst case scenario. 

There are still other guards posted around the property, even if Barrera is distracted. Just, straight up? Even though it’s about to be obvious the kids love him, something about him is just [i]scary[/i]. 

You know the feeling you got as a kid when you did something wrong that, even if there was nobody around, somebody was going to find out and get you in trouble for it? That feeling there was somebody with authority who would just know what you did, and come and talk to you about it later? 

This guy gives that feeling to grown-ups. Luis might have talked down to him before, and that’s because it’s a thing he’s used to needing to do to get repeat guests here. 

Consider that feeling a stage hazard when his attention is [i]here[/i], too. 

But all of that, absolutely all of it, can be a secondary consideration that you can feel like will sort itself out. Just open with the show. 

[b]The Hierophant, Sophie:[/b]

Sophie walks you through the last few things for the padded room leaning on a cane, but much you already know from taking care of Everest. You already know where to place the automatic defibrillator patches on the guy (duh), how to place the spike in the arm for blood sugar monitoring with what’s basically a nailgun (painless despite how it looks, sounds and feels to pull the trigger), a lacerating dilaudid strip between the shoulder blades for emergency sedative doses, and a loose-fitting restraint-jacket that prevents ripping all that stuff off, and a voice-controlled TV in case he wakes up too much and gets bored. 

She’s impressed that you’ve even got the catheter and colostomy bag handled. Plumbing is one of those things you can’t future tech around too much. Sophie’s extremely impressed when Red can cover that on her own as well, though it’s much easier with a second pair of hands. 

“Most people find it hard that you need to hurt someone to do this stuff, they flinch too much.” Sophie says. “You got this shit down, though, Red. You’re made for surgical nursing. Knowing how to be bored 90% of the time, but you can’t predict when that 10% is going to happen and being able to handle that shit immediately? That’s what it’s all about.” She pauses. “Fuck I’m stupid. I’m so stupid for doing this. You mind walking me home?”

This starts out mostly meaning holding her cane while she hobbles up the front stairs using the handrail, then giving it back and holding the front door open for her. After that it just means… walking home. 

No insane opsec or switchbacks or hiding or whatever. She’s found herself a niche where she’s too valuable to the people who’d protect her and worthless to harm. She flips off a cop in the street with her free hand. “Piggies get me, and the patients just go back to being their problem to fix, and they don’t want that. And the people who go to me, where do they have if someone takes me out? I just got to make sure I don’t play favourites when I hire people, and I’m the Red Cross in Switzerland. It’s just the [i]clients[/i] we need the security for. That doesn’t leave the office, right?” She says this to herself as much as you. She’s psyching herself up for something. 

“Here.” She says, taking a turn into a park. Then swearing and being helped over some shrubs or bushes at the back of the park into an alley between two tall brick apartment buildings, dumpsters and the reek of wine in broken bottles on both sides. She unlocks a bathroom door in the side alley, then comes back out wearing a completely different outfit. This one’s just blue jeans, a faded red baseball shirt, and her hair pulled back into a single loose ponytail. Her makeups been washed off too. The bag of gothic scrubs ends up in a dumpster. “Thanks for waiting.” She kisses Red’s cheek. “Just up here now.”

Out of the alley, around, and past the apartments. At the end of the street is an honest to god house - a single story house in a Japanese style, low and flat where the shallow angle of the roof juts out like the blade of a safety razor. The front fence is tall and twisting black iron poles, and through the gaps between them you can see a huge doberman with sleek, shining fur, and the dog sees Red back. 

The dog darts and dances around the front yard barking, as loud as a cracking bullwhip. He runs through grass that is wildly overgrown and uncared for, filled with toys lost in the overgrowth, but the dog himself is obviously well-groomed and well-loved. The contrast is a testament to Sophie’s selective capacity to Give A Shit. 

“Taylor!” Sophie shouts over him as the dog tries to jump over the front fence to get at you. “Hey! Hey! Oh my god, you stupid dog, ” she laughs, “She’s not used to me having people over. I don’t - I hate people knowing where I live, I don’t even order delivery here. How are you with dogs, Red?” 

[b]The Star, Crystal:[/b]

“There are three choices.” She says at last, mostly to White. “I push the event to the day before, Thursday night, and we get ahead of this. It’d be the least controversial.” Is all she’ll say. Obviously this is the option she thinks is most sensible but she’ll be heartbroken if you pick it. Even just saying that she considered it a choice was pulling teeth. 

“Or Friday, so everyone is together when the news drops. We have everyone gathered the moment it happens, so we have our best chance to make a statement. It’s… I should at least one place where they can feel safe and loved when they need it.” This is the plan she thinks is most virtuous, but the set of her jaw and the wet flick of her eyes down make it clear that being there when it happens, knowing it’s about to happen, powerlessly watching it in [i]that room[/i] she has specifically made to celebrate these people it will hurt the most? Her mask will be immaculate while she shatters underneath it. 

“Or we go ahead as planned. The day after. The event will start as a place to heal and lick our wounds, and I will allocate more budget to security because there will be a riot by the end of it. That will be inevitable. But if they're violent here, they're not going somewhere like Sirius Drinks, or anyone else we can't warn about this.” Her wet eyes are red and she tries to hold eye contact with black, but can’t. This is the plan she wants the most. “This was meant to be my night, girls. Not my [i]Kristallnacht[/i].”