lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 138 - Day 152
Where: The Summerlands
What: The Ringmaster brings the carnival to the Summerlands immediately after being freed from Portland so that everyone can take a fucking nap. Her included.
Warnings: Individually marked! Most likely discussion of torture and trauma in here.

DAYS OF SUMMER↴

You made it! And things are back to normal... more or less. Upon waking, you will be greeted with a clear blue sky and gentle breeze – the carnival has found itself situated between a pair of mountain peaks, with great fields of flowers extending in the distance. In the other direction, you’ll see mountain-top cities and tall waterfalls accenting vast swaths of forest.

Some of you will already know this place. It’s the Summerlands. You game here once to rest in safety nearly a year ago, and now you’ve come to rest once again.

► WAKING UP: Shortly after the carnival arrives, the Ringmaster will send out a somewhat cryptic radio message - but her immediate location won't be clear. Whatever items you had on your person at the time the Severing was broken will still be on your person, including whatever clothing. All of the animals and pets of the carnival will have returned to the grounds as well, though they are currently free from their designated living spaces. Things in the carnival will appeared to have naturally aged a month, as if the carnival was been sitting here empty and waiting while everyone was in Portland. The lawn needs mowing.

► SUMMER CITY: After the Summer Fae become aware of everyone's presence, they will welcome you into their city. There are stairs that lead up the sides of the mountains, but thankfully there are also magical means of getting up there as well. The Summer Fae will be willing to help workers with the injured as needed, offering herbal remedies and healing magic to those that want it. You'll also be invited to join them for dinner, but they will not be particularly offended if they are turned down, for now.

► SUMMER PEOPLE: The fae here will mostly enjoy the company of any carnival members that offer it - it doesn't seem that much happens here besides day after day of peaceful meditation and relaxation. It is not uncommon to see Summer Fae spent days doing exactly the same thing, whether that be enjoying the weather, listening to music, or dancing - the day and night periods may be similar to earth, but when you don't need rest it can all blur together just the same. Some of the fae work on feats of agriculture or craftsmanship, and while there is no particularly need to work in this place, they take pride in the fact that they do.

► NEW ARRIVALS: Though the Ringmaster will not be offering much guidance for the first week or so, eventually the carnival will begin running for a few small performance sessions, off and on, as a thank you to their fae hosts. The carnival will also be open to receiving new arrivals during that period, and so there will likely be some newbies to train and get orientated as well.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Few things got to Ash faster and harder than people getting in another person's space, especially without apparent permission. Luckily for the fae they're already in retreat by the time Ash got there; she had sharp words on her tongue and chords in her fingers, ready to burn, but none were necessary. She spent a moment glaring fiercely at their retreat, before turning to Doll, all gentle empathy. "Hey... It's gonna be okay."

In truth, they'd just been trying to cheer her up. Doll hadn't objected to the flowers, she'd kind of liked them, but the reminder of how she'd left Snake behind snuck up on her. Before she knew it she was crying, and the fae really weren't equipped to deal with this kind of thing. It's probably best for everyone that they left.

Doll sniffs hard, trying to breathe while keeping her nose from running too much, and looks up at Ash despairingly. "No it's not. I left my brother behind, I should-- I tried to, but he just...!"

She covers her mouth with her hand, the guilt finally pushing her into full-blown crying. Doll was there to make sure her family stayed safe-- and she'd done the exact opposite.

Ash had misread and was continuing to misread the situation based on her own personal biases -- but honestly that was secondary, now, to the true problem she'd stumbled on to.

"Back -- back there?" She didn't ever want to say 'Portland' again; the word was downright profane now, in a way actual swear words really weren't any more. But anyone from the carnival would know what she meant.

Doll nods-- she knows exactly what Ash is talking about. "I shouldn't've let 'im do it, he was jus' tryin' t'help though. It seemed okay at the time but..." But it wasn't. It wasn't even okay at the time, she should have kept telling him no.

"I could've done somethin'."

"Did you make the best decision you could, at the time?" Ash had to bite down a surge of self-hatred. She had no right, no damn right at all, to talk to anyone about anything. Biggest hypocrite in the world, right here.

"No, I didn't," Doll sniffs deeply again and shakes her head emphatically and repeatedly. "I told him no, he said yes, I told him no again, he said yes-- I told him I wanted a meal and a bath and a bed, and he said yes. ...So I said yes."

She sold her brother for a shower and a meal and a bed. She's the absolute worst.

Absolute worst? The woman who had plotted to murder a friend in cold blood would never agree to that.

"Then all you can do is learn from the mistake... and be glad we're all here now instead of there, and what we did there hasn't chased us here."

"...Y'sure 'bout that?" Doll asks, her tone a tad cruel and accusatory. How can she 'learn' from what she'd done? Snake was gone, maybe still held by Knotley, chained to a demon for the rest of time. And it's because of her, because she didn't say no enough. This isn't something she learns from, this is something that will eat away at her for the rest of her life.

"Y'heard the Ringmaster-- what happened wasn' us, but it was us in some ways. That has chased me here, 'n it won' leave me be. Ever."

"No, I get that part. But..." How to put this in a way that at least sounded good? She was right back to hypocrisy of the worst sort, but maybe a thought that did nothing for her would comfort Doll a little.

So she spread the fingers of one hand wide, quirking inner muscles in just the right way to make her claws slide out of the splits at the end of each figure.

"I have claws. That's part of who I am, it's built into me. And that means at any time, I could hurt someone a lot. Just --" She curled in her fingers and twisted her wrist slightly, inviting the girl to consider just how much damage those claws could do if they sank into flesh and tugged. "But the important thing isn't that I can, it's whether or not I do. So it turns out that in different circumstances, I would be willing to claw someone? But the me I am here and now isn't, and the me I am here and now is who I am, even if the potential still exists for me to claw someone."

Those claws do look pretty serious, truth be told, and Doll gets what Ash is getting at. Part of her would do anything to survive, part of her isn't brave at all but opportunistic and desperate.

She nods and wraps her arms around her knees. "I s'pose next time, I'll know better what kinda choice I wanna make."

"Yeah. People screw up." Ash squatted down next to her, wavering between putting a comforting hand on Doll's back before ultimately, hesitantly, deciding not to. "Sometimes really badly, but you can at least learn from it."

Doll sniffles and looks a little sad when Ash decides not to put her hand on her back. She'd welcome it now, she's never been one to shy away from physical contact, but it's not like she can insist.

"He deserved better than bein' a lesson I had ta learn. That's all."

Ash worried a very great deal about physical boundaries. But at the sight of that expression, she did put her hand on Doll's back, offering what comfort she could.

"A lot of people deserve better than they get. And a lot of people deserve worse. It sucks that we got into the whole mess in the first place. And for the people who got stuck here at all, involuntarily, that sucks too."

⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

Summer People

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