lostcarnival | ⇨ ATLANTIS

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⇨ ATLANTIS

Who: Everyone!
When: The morning of D44 and onward.
Where: The ocean realm of Atlantis.
What: The carnival abruptly arrives at an underwater realm, and everyone is transfigured into merpeople just as suddenly.
Warnings: Body horror, I guess.

THE CITY OF ATLANTIS↴

The visit starts without much warning, but at least there is a full week of free time before performances start. In the meantime, your characters will be given ample opportunity to adjust their acts for an underwater audience, get used to their new fishy appendages, or just spend the whole time enjoying the sights and sounds of Atlantis city. King Triton will not be immediately seen, but it's possible to gain an audience with him if you get in contact with the ambassadors of the kingdom. Just, make sure that you're not wasting his time. He's a lot less patient with nonsense than the Ringmaster is.

► FISH FRIDAY: You fell asleep, whether or not that's something you usually do, and the next morning you wake up as one of the merfolk. A few last additions may grow in after you're awake, but for the most part everyone will have a method of swimming and a method of breathing underwater transfigured into them upon waking. Don't worry about your belongings - everything is waterproofed, and technology will work the same underwater as it does above it. That doesn't mean there won't be plenty to get used to, though.

► GREAT BLUE YONDER: The ocean realm where Atlantis resides is enormous, and the depths seem to be unending. Despite the fact that there doesn't seem to be any surface, sun glimmers all the way down to the ocean floor. Atlanteans use creatures like whales and dolphins as rides and beasts of burden, and they can be seen swimming in and out of the city as constantly as roadways filed with cars in earth civilization. Beyond that, there's everything you would expect to see on the ocean floor here - huge reefs of coral, both familiar and exotic, enormous ocean plants, deep ocean trenches, and all kinds of weird critters living in them. There are a mix of mythical and standard ocean creatures, and are likely a combined populations of many oceans worth of beings.

► THE ATLANTEAN MARKET: The Atlantean market (aka the "merket") is a long trench between rows of buildings in the middle of the city, lit with bio-luminescent plants and rocks, and filled with all kinds of weird mer stuff that you can buy. There are a great many individual booths, mostly with hand crafted wares and objects that have been salvaged from various sunken ships. The Ringmaster has already traded a large number of goods to the merfolk here, and has taken the profit to award each worker with 100 Atlantean Gold to spend as they please. One gold is worth roughly five USA dollars, for a comparison of how much that is. There is a top level set up below in which characters can make their purchases, and you can also handwave the purchase of random common, necessary items (food, drink, etc) at your convenience.

► TREASURE HUNTING: Right now, the only major salvage areas are a few left over sunken ships that have mostly been picked over by the merfolk. However, you are welcome to head over to them and explore, and see if fortune smiles on you when it comes to finding anything that hasn't been taken yet. The current options are three similar looking brigantine that all probably came from the same world. Merfolk do not seem to consider them to be anything extraordinary, though magical items and gold have allegedly been found within them. Whether or not anything is left, is the real question.

► LIMELIGHTING: Merfolk are curious and generally socially forward, as a species. This mean that they find the carnival's workers to be a fascinating novelty, and also are unafraid to make that fascination obvious. Given the opportunity, merfolk will demand your character's attention for bombardments of questions and for general socializing, especially if they are particularly unusual for some reason. Don't be surprised if you get invited to stay at total stranger's houses, or dragged off to a merfolk bar to surprise party with their friends. They'll let you say no, reluctantly, but they will also be pleased as punch to get up in your gill.

It's also possible to make some money, this way, if you're willing to do street performances, or are willing to sell your "skills" in a more private environment. Yes, there are opportunities to become a fish hooker if you are so inclined. Merfolk may also offer money to take you as arm candy to various public events, escort style. They don't consider this to be a particularly socially inappropriate thing to do, either.

You can ask general questions about this setting over on the event post. There are top levels below for buying Atlantean merch, and also for making dolla dolla, if your character is inclined to try.

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Susan had wasted no time in going to explore the city itself. His sea dragon tail had taken a little bit of practice to get the hang of, and he's probably still not the best swimmer around, but it was easily enough to check out the sights and sounds of the place.

...One of those sounds being some kind of fight starting. Susan is never one to shy away from conflict, and so he makes his way over, trying to figure out what's going on as he goes. He recognizes Childermass from the Carnival when he sees him (they may not have spoken much, but he does an act with his brother so it would be hard not to have seen him at least a few times), and when he sees him shove one of the merfolk away he swims right up to the group. He must be in trouble or something if he's pushing people around, right?

"Is everything okay?" Normally he might use magic first and ask questions later, but with all of his spells being fire or lightning based, he knows it isn't a good idea. For now he'll have to just use his talking instead. It's basically his job after all, although maybe technically it isn't when they aren't on the Carnival grounds.

Susan's arrival alone might be what disarms the fight before it can even begin. Angered though he is, Childermass isn't about to throw any punches with Lauren's little brother showing up to the way he has. Someone older and it would have mattered much less, but one irritated look shot Susan's way later and he's lowering his fists back to his sides.

You don't drag a child into a fight. It's unconscionable.

"Yes," Childermass says, even if his sharp tone and the clenched set of his jaw say something totally different. He looks back over at the merman he'd previously shoved back (who looks equally as offended here) and the tense silence that's fallen between the two of them drags out for a moment before he adds, "Only a misunderstanding, I'm sure."

Susan doesn't know what's happened, but he can still see and feel the tension, even if there's no immediate fighting happening. He looks between Childermass and the merman, frowning as he tries to figure out just what's going on. If he'd been here earlier he might know better, but as it is... He only has to take his word for it, combined with the fact that he generally assumes the best of everyone. A misunderstanding at least seems like a possibility, who knows what mermaid culture is like.

He nods a little, still ready to try and fight if it really is a fight, but otherwise relaxing.

"Well, if you're sure... Misunderstandings do happen sometimes."

"Especially when in strange places, around strange people," Childermass adds pointedly, still watching the merman as he says that. If anything, that almost sounded like a warning being issued, perhaps along the lines of 'careful around people you don't know'. Whether or not the merfolk around them take that to heart, well, it's done mattering to him, though they do mutter some over there. Mostly, they don't get what Childermass's problem is.

But that's it. Since he's decided against an actual fist fight, it's best not to linger. He'll turn away from the merman and his friends, gesturing for Susan to follow along with a wave.

"Come along. I'd rather not stick around here right now."

It doesn't look like the mermen are angry enough to chase them down or anything, so with only another glance to the group Susan nods and turns to follow. Whatever the misunderstanding was it must have been bad if they aren't even going to try and explain themselves, but although Susan is curious as to what happened he doesn't push for an answer as they swim away.

"You didn't get hurt, right?" He saw him shove the merman, but he isn't sure if there was any fighting before that or not. It's at least worth asking, he thinks.

"Hm?" With how focused Childermass is on putting a whole lot of water-filled space between himself and that, he doesn't catch the question immediately. He glances over at Susan, frowning and looking perplexed for a few seconds before he actually realizes—

"No." Right, the boy had asked a question. "No, I didn't. Not unless you count my pride, which you should not. Though I suspect theirs is worse off."

He smiles cheekily at that answer.

"I don't think Lauren can heal pride injuries, anyway, so hopefully it's not too bad of one."

Well, even Childermass can't help but crack a weak smirk at that.

"I'll no doubt survive without," he assures Susan. "Though I was not aware your brother could heal in the first place."

He nods, more than happy to discuss his brother. "He can! He's really good at it, too. It's 'cause of all of his nature magic and... stuff. I don't really know what healing has to do with nature though, I can't understand his kind of magic."

And as good a topic change as any other.

"Because he's a druid," Childermass guesses. Lauren had mentioned that much at least. "Even stories from my own home marked druids as having some skill in healing, though whether it's actually true or not there, I do not know. Has he always had a knack for that? The magic he does?"

He's curious about what druids would be like in other places, but before he can ask he's distracted by the question and shakes his head.

"No, he couldn't do it at all when we were younger, but then after we got attacked there were these druids who came and saved everyone, and so he learned it from them. I don't really know how it works though, it doesn't make sense to me and he's not supposed to tell anyone 'cause it's a secret."

"A secret, hm? I see some things about magic never truly change," he says after, mostly thinking aloud now. It's not so much a secret anymore in England, either, but that's a different story. It doesn't involve druids at all. "So he chose to learn magic. I wonder why. He doesn't seem very happy about it, does he?"

Edited (words) 2017-01-19 03:54 (UTC)

"Well..." He pauses, thinking of how to phrase it.

"It was just me and him, 'cause everyone else died. And we couldn't live in a village because of my magic, we tried and it didn't go so well. So he did it because of me, so he could take care of me. I don't know if he likes it, even, really." It might be kind of a lot to tell someone he doesn't really know well at all, but Susan hasn't ever been one to shy away from things like that.

"You couldn't have lived with the druids?"

It is a lot, but that's children for you, even if Susan isn't particularly a young one. At least it gives him a better idea of the story behind the two brothers.

Childermass frowns, though not only over Susan's explanation. Slowing to a halt at an intersection somewhere further along the way they were going, he looks around, trying to figure out which route will take them back to the Carnival. He'd picked a direction to go at random before, so where they are in Atlantis is a mystery to even himself.

"Well, druids don't really live with other people, I think? Not even with other druids... We kind of lived with his teacher for a bit though, before Lauren's magic was strong enough. But we didn't really live with him, just close."

He doesn't think anything of it when Childermass stops, but when he looks around Susan looks around curiously too.

"Are you looking for something?"

"No, not really. I'm not familiar with this side of the city, that's all."

He won't bother pretending otherwise. If they really are lost, it's not like anything is stopping them from swimming above the city and checking for where the carnival is. He does glance back over at Susan after a fruitless moment of looking around them.

"So it was only you and your brother, due to your own magic?"

Susan looks around again before laughing a little.

"Well, that's okay! Maybe there's something on this side that's more interesting to see, anyway." Not that he knows what that might be, but still.

"But yeah... I accidentally lit the house on fire when we tried living in a village. My magic does that sometimes. So now we live by ourselves and it's more fun, anyway, I think."

"We're in Atlantis. Just about everything here is already more interesting to see," Childermass points out. It doesn't help with getting them unlost, of course, but it is still true. Case in point, he's pretty sure they're using glowing sea life (anemones, in this case) to light some of the darker alcoves along this route.

But it'll be Susan's dismissive 'my magic does that sometimes' comment that draws his attention over the area's lighting. He arches an eyebrow at that.

"And it's never crossed your mind to seek out a teacher of your own? Magic is hardly something you just let happen sometimes."

"Just because it's all interesting doesn't mean something can't be more interesting than the rest! And if there is something more interesting, I wanna see it." But of course glowing things doesn't seem too exciting, and so he's really just looking around randomly when Childermass asks that.

"Well, I did go to school once! But their magic didn't make any sense. It was all... Books, and rituals, and boring things like that. Not like real magic." Because of course if it isn't how he does it, it doesn't count as being real.

"Sounds like English magic," Childermass can't help but mention, though he'll take it being called boring and not real in stride. "If your brother's magic is different from yours and the school's magic was different from yours, it could be you needed to look elsewhere... Assuming you weren't being lazy in regards to the schoolwork they had there."

Which wasn't the kindest thing to suspect, but it wouldn't be the first time a magician's student didn't want to sit still and go through a seemingly endless amount of reading.

As for what else is around them, it's still very much like the rest of Atlantis, if only less grand, smaller. They've likely drifted into a more humble residential area for the common merfolk. The floating carts hooked up to dolphins or giant crabs are less intricate and there are fewer colors to the coral around them, though they make up for that with bright swathes of cloth drifting in the water. There's still quite a variety of strange sea creatures darting around, too, and occasionally a few younger merfolk chasing their pet manta ray around.

He laughs at the thought of being lazy, shaking his head.

"No, I wasn't lazy, it just was boring and didn't make sense. I don't know why anyone would do it their way when you can just make the magic do what you say instead." He knows not everyone can, but he just doesn't really understand how it makes sense to not be able to use magic like he can. "And I don't know where else to look, everyone is druids or wizards or clerics and those are all boring."

He shrugs as he keeps looking around the place, hoping to find some interesting thing to see, something to buy or something to play with or even just something else fun. Apparently whatever he's looking for isn't here though because even though he happily looks around, he just keeps swimming.

Hey, it's always a possibility.

"Then perhaps you need to look where there are no druids or wizards or clerics," is the best suggestion he can make regarding that. It won't help here, of course, since it'll be some time before Susan will even see his own world again, but it's still a thought. "Though that may mean leaving where behind what you and your brother are used to. I suppose the carnival makes decent practice for that..."

At this point, still lacking a real direction to go in, Childermass will fall behind a bit and let Susan pick where they swim off to. He'd only been interested in leaving the scene from before behind, so where they go next isn't all that important.

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⇨ ATLANTIS

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