Creating Consequences

She appears in the base of the lighthouse. The door is currently closed and it's fairly quiet.

Luna looks around the lighthouse for a light switch and the door. "Right, lemme see here, there should be a door out of here." (edited)

Theres an old lightswtitch but its fair;y easy to see without it. The door is directly ahead

Luna goes to open the door with a deep breath. The visor on her helmet is down, but it's still rather easy for her to see while still masking her identity.

She sees the woods ahead of her and the house connected to the lighthouse to her side.

Luna looks over at the house, "ah this must be Icarus's place." Then she's looking for any signs of the carnival, choosing to climb up one of the trees to get a better vantage point by taking her gloves off and using her innate felinity to assist. "Shoutouts to claws," Luna says to absolutely no one but herself.

Despite a lighthouse beside her that she can climb the inside of using the stairs, she makes it up the tree and can see the direction town is in (edited)

Luna smiles on seeing town, but then questions, "Ah there we go, wait why didn't I just go upstairs? Oh well, I've not done this in a while." Luna climbs back down and starts heading in the direction of town. Gloves are back on to hide her hands.

As she heads into town she notices theres various nonferals walking along the sidewalks or driving down streets. Its a fairly busy place and she finds a poster on a lightpost directing her tiwards the carnival. A happy depiction of gambit all dressed up as a jester is displayed on it.

Luna mutters to herself while looking around town, "man this place is cool. Just wish I wasn't going solo. Oh well." Luna follows the directions to get to the carnival, taking many deep breaths while doing so.

As she reaches the carnival she can see someone resembling mailman waiting at the front gates with his arms politely folded behind his back.

Luna walks up to this man. Her voice sounds oddly deeper than usual as she asks, "Hello. I am here. For a meeting with. Gambit. Are you. My Escort?"

The man nods and on hearing his voice it's clear its mailman, "Yes, Right this way." He begins to walk out into the carnival

Luna follows taking in all of the sights and sounds. She seems stressed out and is taking many deep breaths while walking.

They head further into the carnival before turning to a group of tents that seems mostly populated with workers rather than guests. Many are storing away boxes and supplies. They head up to the side of a building as he opens the door and holds it open for her.

Luna nods to Mailman. "Right, I'll be back soon." Her voice is back to normal as she walks into the tent. (edited)

She enters a large empty room with a concrete floor. Mailman enters with her as he closes the door, completely blocking out the loud bustling carnival from otside. Its mostly dark with a single light shedding down on a desk with a chair on either side. Gambit sits in the desk on the other side of the desk and tilts his head with a large smile, "I see you found your way here quite easily."

"Soundproofing, Mailman, and a single lit desk. Definitely nothing weird about this," Luna mutters under her breath. She then looks up at Gambit, "And yes, Gambit, I'm pretty good with directions. How are you doing?" Luna seems to be smiling considering her tone, but that's hard to tell with the helmet on.

Mailman walks around the desk and stands a few feet behind Gambit. Gambit giggles as he props his feet up on the desk, "So I take it you did some digging and think you've found a bit of info. Refresh me, what was it again?"

Luna shrugs, "All I know is y'all are bringing in fake IDs. The fact that not only you brought in Mailman to intimidate me and lead me into a soundproof room tells me I'm on the right track. Cuz if it was nothing to worry about, I wouldn't be here. Don't bullshit me Gamb."

"I run a lucrative buisness being the only carnival in town here or in Haze Borough. I obviously wouldn't want anyone spreading slander about what we are doing but that also means I wouldn't want to be ruining any fun surprises that could gather us more support either. "

Luna waves dismissively, "look, all I ever wanna search for is the truth. I'm not much more than a hobbyist detective. I go where I'm wanted and help solve mysteries, that's it. And for your information," She does air quotes, "Slander is false and damaging information. When it's the truth, it's no longer slander." Luna is still standing up and her stance is rather casual. (edited)

"It becomes slander when you don't understand the effect this is going to have on our plans here. We pay for false IDs to be created and sent out to good working people who are trying to overcome their bad pasts. This can be anything from someone wrong accused of hate or someone looking to change theor ways after spending time in jail. Since alot of people around here and especially haze borough are not very forgiving, it's almost manditory to start as a fresh slate to even get a job nowadays."

Luna takes a few moments to process this information. "Seems like the actual issue is Haze Borough's pickiness, but at the same time, it's heavily difficult to change societal minds, so I understand you there. It's just.. wouldn't making fake IDs just make everything worse? You'd need birth certificates and whatnot of the other person, and what if the employer still looks into their identity? There has to be another way forward instead of doing something illegal to help."

"Our best option right now is forging all of the necessary paper work. We keep up the front long enough for people to become well established emplyees with good work ethics and when the public does find out, they will be more likely to accept them. As they are already running well if not better with more workers on hand. Think of it like feeding your kid vegtiables to make them stronger. They might hate them at first but if you sneak a few in they will get bigger and stronger. When they are bigger and stronger they realize thats how it happened and become thankful."

Luna leans her head side to side in thought before responding, "I get that. I just worry all of this is gonna come crashing down on you when someone higher up finds out. I have no reason to snitch on y'all, you do you, it's got nothing to do with me or my investigations."

Luna then pauses for a couple moments and continues, "So what are you getting out of this? I can't imagine all of this is a Selfless Gambit. Get it? What's your cut in all of this?"

"I get redemption myself and for my loved ones. A chance for anyone to provide for their families and turn a new page."

Luna squints at Gambit, but he can't see that, "This whole thing feels sketchy as hell. You're performing an illegal operation to get convicts and those disliked by society to get jobs. And your repayment is 'redemption'? Come on dude, be real here. There's no way you're losing money for a selfless act. And considering Mailman, I have a feeling this is only the very opening of the rabbithole."

"Mailman here works for me becuase he seeks a fresh start aswell. Like it or not, this is happening for a good cuase."

Luna takes a deep breath. Her tone is starting to sound annoyed, even slightly angry, but she's trying to calm herself, "Yes, the person who not only attacked a friend of mine but also broke into my house is seeking a 'fresh start'. That's criminal behavior and you know it." (edited)

Gambit swings his head around to look at Mailman who remains facing forward and doesn't move any. Gambit swivels his head back around to face her with a smile, "Well consider that nolonger an issue from now on. I'll take care of that from here!"

Luna smiles underneath her helmet, "Ooooh someone's in trouble. And I'm sure you will."

Gambit snickers as he puts his hand to his face, "So I take it your curiosity has been quenched for now?"

Luna takes a moment to recall everything she wanted to ask, but then she nods, "Yeah, I think so. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me."

Gambit nods happily, "It's been a pleasure!" Mailman begins to walk towards the door to show Luna out but isntantly stops as Gambit holds an arm out. Gambit's tone has a slight shift, a hint of seriousness he's never had slips through for only a moment, "No need. She can leave without your help." His tone returns to its chipperself as he looks at Luna again, "You can slipsloop and disappear from here if you would like. No nonmagical eyes will judge you behind our closed doors."

Hearing the phrase 'non-magical eyes' causes a lightbulb to go off in Luna's mind. "Speaking of magic, are you guys by chance hiring? I have a talent that I'd love to show off to your audience."

"Depending what you offer." gestures towards her

Luna turns around and reaches into her messenger bag. She pulls out a freshly sealed deck of playing cards from it and hands it to Gambit. "I have in my hands here a sealed deck of 52 playing cards plus two jokers. Please open them up and inspect them for me? Make sure there's nothing weird about them."

They're playing cards with little humans on them for the face cards. Everything is in the expected order, plus the two jokers.

Gambit does so rather quickly, the cards glide bwteen his hands despite the oversized sleeves in the way and he holds it out to her. He clearly has alot of experience with them, "Done and done."

Luna takes the cards and does some surprisingly fancy riffle shuffles. She's doing all of this in front of Gambit, then she fans the deck face down in front of him, "Please, take a card, any card."

"Do not show me the card, just remember it and place it back in okay?"

Gambit takes it and puts it back

Luna nods and returns to the shuffle. "Awwright, so lemme tell you a story about a kid named Hat. So years ago, as the story goes, this kid was an awful magician, he tried to much to try and make it happen. And try after try, he would fail." When Luna says try, she pulls out a card that isn't Gambit's, playing like she's failing miserably. "Dammit, I keep trying. And I can't w-- Oh wait!"

Luna raises the visor on her helmet. The card Gambit picked out falls out and floats in front of him, "It was in my hat this whole time! Er.. Helmet! yeah!"

Gambit nods, "Sounds great! Though I would suggest throwing in a joke into the mix. So how often are you wanting to work?" 

"Weekends would be great, though would you be okay if my girlfriend came along too? She has her own set of tricks up her sleeves and she'll be good!" Luna looks excited, a warm smile is on her face. 

Gambit nods, "I can have a side of the purple tent on the left hand side open on weekends. Swing by and you will paid by the hour for as long as you perform."

"Right on, thank you so much Gambit!" Luna smiles, "Anyway, I'd better go tell Hinata the great news. I'll see you next weekend?"

Luna disappears after waving goodbye

Luna is on the couch still and playing on her computer 

Hinata is playing Just Dance on the switch. She has zero shame.

Luna looks heavily shaken up.

"I am not going to the nonferal earth. Fuck all of that."

"But you've been complaining about FOMO Lu. Are you sure?" Hinata asks without turning around.

"Yes, I am very sure. I know my limits better than anyone else, and putting myself in danger no less than 5 months after getting killed in the previous iteration is fucking stupid."

"Are you sure though? Cuz let's be honest here. We're probably the best chance to break through some of the lies. And you've gotten a lot stronger since then. We all have." Hinata stares at Luna in the eyes, "and besides, you're not alone." Hinata winks

Luna tilts her head as a smile creeps along her face, "Okay, I'm not alone. I'm down for this then. Sate fomo and possibly make some progress on our own investigation."

Luna snaps her fingers. Her motorcycle helmet is summoned to the couch, then on pressing a button on her phone, her clothes instantly change to blue jeans, white sneakers, a hoodie, and black gloves on her hands. She equips the motorcycle helmet to herself. "Right, I'll be back soonish, hopefully not dead, though I'm fully expecting Gambit to strike, so uhhhhh," She equips a combat knife to her belt then disappears, hoping the lighthouse entrance is still the same. 

Hinata continues to play Just Dance (ironically the same Just Dance that had Poker Face hacked onto it), but she doesn't touch that song.

Luna reappears in the living room. "Hell yeah! I got Mailman in trouble AND we got ourselves a job!"

Hinata hugs Luna tightly. "hell yeah!"

Cole who was walking in from the hallway raises an eyebrow, "You did what"

Luna who's taking off her zipup hoodie and gloves responds, "I went to nonferal world to speak to Gambit about something I learned, and was able to tell him about Mailman breaking into our house and hurting Lochlan. And then I got a job at the carnival."

"We're gonna be magicians. But like stage magic."

Cole nods, "Right...well you two have fun with that i guess"

"Something up? I thought you would've been more excited to hear we got jobs on another world." Luna tilts her head.

Lochlan walks in and sists down

Cole sighs, "It's just not something i would do, i couldn't imagine working in the non-feral world"

"You think that's all I want to do? This gives me access to the carnival and the adjacent town. Plus money. I wanna investigate using more than just Datrs." Luna sighs and slumps on the couch.

Hinata shakes her head and leans next to Luna. She feels Luna's shoulders stiffened up from stress.

Cole shrugs, "You do you i suppose" Cole starts monitoring the security system idly

Theres no one there at the moment

Cole gets a notification on mailmans phone

Cole pulls out MailMan's phone and looks at the notification with slight confusion

he gets a text from Edgar.

E - You good?

Cole responds with "Why?"

E - I thought you wanted to talk to me after work but you didnt make it. You're never late to things. Did something happen between you and gambit?...OOOOOOO you're not in love are you?!?!!?

Cole responds with "Nothing happened between us"

E - OOOOOOOO you're in LOOOOOOOOVE anyways where did you want me to put that box you ordered?

Cole responds with "What did i order?"

Edgar - It's the prototypes you were looking at. I didn't order the full amount yet cuz we don't even know if it would work for the job

Cole responds with "Just put it somewhere, i'll look at them when i get back"

E - I put them by the third table. i dont think anyone will mess with it there

Cole responds with "Thanks, anything else?"

E - Nah good luck askin Gambit out 

Cole responds with "eyeroll emoji"

E - Ayo? Old man using the emotes now?

E - Gambit really is gettin to ya

Cole responds with "So what if i learn how to use emotes? And i'm not asking Gambit out"

E - Do it man. You already know Nor has been thinking about leaving you and I know your little secret too (edited)

Cole responds with "Yeah, yeah i know. And what little secret?"

E - I saw you smile when he called you a little guy one time :)

Cole responds with "This conversation is over"