On Execution Day ...

[tibbius]

... you each awaken early, knowing that this day, just before high noon, your friend and colleague will be strapped into the new electrified chair that has been set up in Trafalgar Square.

- Nathalie Chevalier

Describe where you are.

[cybersavant]

Andreas Thermopolous enters Trafalgar Square with his friend Reginald Blacke. "Reg, you have any idea why Stevie's being executed? I tried to visit, but wasn't allowed in.

[Urson]

Amos
Amos wakes when one of the other men snorts loudly. He rolls out of his hammock, reaching to brush the hair from his face- and missing. He glances at his stump for a second, as if he's forgotten.
He dresses awkwardly, trying not to wake any of the other roomers. 'Auntie Mary' might call this a hotel- but it's just a two-penny flophouse, like a thousand others.

He gathers his few belongings and makes his way to the street. He pilfers a turnip from a vegetable cart, munching on it like an apple as he makes his way along the cobbled streets. He nods to Skate Benjamin and Dumb Tom as he passes, the beggars returning his nod with a sketched hat-tip.

I should go pay me respects to Stevie... he says as he heads for Trafalgar Square. When he arrives, he'll try to get a front-row spot. Stevie had cheated Amos often enough, Amos felt he deserved a good view. IF he can't get a spot in the front, he'll look for a high place, so he can see over the crowd.

[Urson]

Amos
Amos has been watching the crowd gather, and watching the dips work the honest folks- a pocketwatch here, a few coins there, a tortoiseshell comb from a fine lady's hair...
He had seen the beggars come swarming in- both the frauds and those who really were crippled and unable to work. He considered whether to peach to the coppers, but decided he'd stay out of it this time.

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Present Time
The tunnel is cold and damp from the water of the artesian wells piped to the fountains in the square high above. Enfys couldn’t see how the chair was being powered when she was up in the street, which led her here. She guessed they must have run lines in the vertical shafts that connect the pipes from the fountains to the water table.

Early in the day
She looked around and saw a couple of toughs milling around a non descript solid oak door. Enfys snuck into the alley nearby, one second outside the other side the next second - the potential of this object Enfys clutched in her palm was starting to dawn on her. A combination of metal, glass, brass, and wood - very intricate and compact - which felt very nice to hold in the palm. It felt less nice to “shift” but that is how she found the stair. The stair that led to the tunnels below the square.

Present Time
“There must be wiring or something that will tell me how they are going to power that chair”, Enfys mutters to herself. She looks around carefully and continues working her way through the tunnel to find a generator.

[tibbius]

Reginald doesn't respond to Andreas - the professor seems distracted, probably pondering some esoteric theory of Arcana.

Amos notices the two swells pass near him. They pay well, he remembers. But they overlook him now.

Enfys stumbles on something in the near-black darkness of the passage. Crouching down, she touches warm moist canvas. It smells like lamp oil. Feeling with her hands she realizes that she's found a pair of cables, each about big enough to hold in her hand. The two cables run along the floor of the passage near the wall, but where she's stumbled they're coiled up and then run vertically up the wall from the coil. Looking up she sees a faint circular crack of light above her, an indeterminate distance. Probably the base of a fountain. She feels around and finds a cold metal vertical pipe that throbs with artesian flow. Yep, that's a fountain above her. She guessed right!

[Urson]

Amos
Amos nods when the swells have passed. His livelihood was made from being anonymous- he wouldn't have wanted those two to have acknowledged him. They knew where to find him.
From his vantage point, Amos squinted and studied the electrical chair. He didn't get any closer, but he was mighty curious as to how the thing worked.

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Enfys rubs the oil in her fingers, brings her fingers to her nose, and inhales quickly.

She explores the canvas cables with her hands and recognizes them as a possible power supply for the chair above. In the dark it is slow work to follow the cable back through the tunnels but she takes it slowly and traces her fingertips across the surface of the canvas. She follows them in the direction they are running through the tunnel looking for a source of the power that will run through them later in the day. She worries about a switch operator, she worries about others that may be down here, she worries about rats.

She grips her pickaxe firmly and takes care not to make additional noise with her manacles against the floor of the tunnel as she progresses further and further into the dark.

[cybersavant]

Andreas Thermopolous enters Trafalgar Square with his friend Reginald Blacke. "Reg, you have any idea why Stevie's being executed? I tried to visit, but wasn't allowed in.


Reginald doesn't respond to Andreas - the professor seems distracted, probably pondering some esoteric theory of Arcana.

Andreas stares a moment at Reginald, then scans the crowd before checking the time.

[tibbius]

Amos sees that thick things like cables run from a big box on the back of the chair to the base of a nearby fountain. There is a rough hole cut in the ground next to the base of the fountain and the cables go into the hole. The box on the back of the chair has a long wooden handle protruding. The handle points up.

Andreas notes the hands of the clock above the square. It is near 11 in the morning. Stevie should be in the chair within forty minutes time.

Enfys follows the cables along the floor. They go on a long way and it is dark. She keeps tripping on little objects. The narrow low-ceilinged tunnel abruptly opens up into a dimly lit space. She stands on gravel. Stretching to her left and right are metal rails. She hears a distant rattling noise. Stretching out her foot she touches the closer rail and feels it throbbing.

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Enfys feels the pulsing through the rail against her foot. She looks both directions down the track. She looks back in the direction of the cable she had been following and strikes on an idea.

Enfys steps back to the cable and uses her mattock to see if she can pry the cable with the adze shaped end. She will keep at this until she can determine if there is any slack in the line, or if she is strong enough to drag it towards the track.

[tibbius]

Enfys Tambrell
Enfys steps back to the cable and uses her mattock to see if she can pry the cable with the adze shaped end. She will keep at this until she can determine if there is any slack in the line, or if she is strong enough to drag it towards the track.

It's easy enough to pull a loop of the cable over the rail. The rattling noise grows louder and the rails begin audibly humming.

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Enfys unhooks her mattock from the cable once she has it positioned straddling the rail. She reaches into her pocket and grips the brass, glass, and wood object rubbing her thumb into a glass indentation. She feels her stomach drop and a feeling of her skin being tugged in too many directions all at once. An intense pressure is suddenly behind her ears, her eyes, and in her nose and then it releases.

She takes a few stumbling steps. Enfys is back in the tunnel. She turns to look back at the spot she just “shifted” from...

[tibbius]

The rattling grows to a clattering clamor, the rails sing a wailing song of steel, the glare of a headlamp swiftly approaches, there is a thunderous rush of noise and light. With sparks and smoke a driving engine boils past, passenger cars rumbling and screeching behind it as the wheels spin and slide on the line. Enfys catches a glimpse of disinterested faces turned away from the windows of the electric-lit carriages. Then the whole thing has passed in an explosion of blue-white sparks and a reeking of burnt oil. A flailing cable-end smacks the wall near where Enfys stands, then it falls limp to the floor.

The light-echoes of the severed cable's lightning shimmer in Enfys's eyes. She rubs them and turns away to trudge somewhere else. But where?

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Enfys makes a startled sound and her body jumps at the cable striking the wall. She rubs some oil from her cheek and smears some other grime from her hand across her face.

“Enfys...your luck is going to run out quickly at this rate”, she says in the dark. She knows this is only a delay of the spectacle execution. If need be they will surely use other means, she thinks.

Enfys works her way back the direction she came headed for the stair up to the street.

[Urson]

Amos

For the moment, Amos' curiosity is satisfied. He uses his stump like a club to fend off the hands of a street urchin who fancies himself a pickpocket. Child, if Captain Norrys and his crew catch you dipping in their territory, you'll be searching for coins at the bottom of the Thames.

[tibbius]

The crowd surges and parts with a clamor of anticipation. Stevie appears at the edge of the square, face down-turned and arms gripped by bobbies in their somber uniforms and funny tall hats. The coppers half-drag your colleague across the square toward the chair.

The general sentiment seems to be that the mob want to see someone burn in the chair, and don't care why.

[cybersavant]

Andreas Thermopolous enters Trafalgar Square with his friend Reginald Blacke. "Reg, you have any idea why Stevie's being executed? I tried to visit, but wasn't allowed in.
Reginald doesn't respond to Andreas - the professor seems distracted, probably pondering some esoteric theory of Arcana
Andreas stares a moment at Reginald, then scans the crowd before checking the time.

Andreas Thermopolous

"Reg, what're you thinkin' about?"

Andreas tries to see how many security personnel surround the area.

[Samwell Turleton]

Enfys Tambrell

Enfys climbs the stair listening for the ponderous footfalls of the toughs she saw outside the door. It was a real stroke of fortune she found this tunnel access stair in the first place. Recognizing the guards for what they were was a step towards trusting her own judgment. At the top of the stairs Enfys realizes she needs to "shift" one more time, she isn't ready for it but knows she must to make her way secretly back into the alley.

This time the tugging feeling and pressure lingers longer after the change of location has taken place. She pauses, pressing her back up against the bricks, and breathes a few deep breaths.

Enfys hears the rising clamor of the crowd but can't see above the heads of the thick mass of bodies. She is on the outside edge of the square looking in and sees a carriage paused in the road. She climbs the wheel to the window and up to the top platform. She looks over the gathered crowd and sees the bobbing movement of the enforcement officer's hats processing through the crowd.

Enfys explores her options...

[Urson]

Amos
As the uproar builds, Amos finds a column base to stand on. He watches in anticipation, both to see Stevie get his due, and to see this new device in operation.