lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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⇨ 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.

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When everyone had first gotten back to the carnival, Lion had abruptly appeared and completely bowled Steven over the moment he spotted him. He still has no idea what his feline friend was doing that whole experience, but whatever it was, it seemed to make him anxious in a way that Steven's never witnessed before.

So, they're going to spend some quality time together, Steven decided. There's a lot of people he feels like he should be spending some time with, and repairing the gaps left by being in Portland. Amethyst is gone already, and he doesn't know when she'll be back. Can't take any of this for granted.

He's planning on going back himself, even. Not for long. He doesn't want to leave anybody behind. It's just... it feels so far away, now.

Hanging out with Lion essentially means napping in Steven's experience, so as the sun is setting, the two of them are curled up together in the lake area. Bud is there too, and Steven is holding her nestled in his arms as Lion curls around the two of them, and it is all very serene - enough that it's pretty obvious when Peridot comes by, tiredly licking dirt. Steven sits up, and Lion makes a grumpy sound in reaction.

"Peridot!" he calls out, a little bit concerned. "I... didn't know you were up?"

Peridot looks up abruptly in his direction, ears raised, still holding a fistful of dirt.

"Oh. Hi, Steven," she says mildly, uncharacteristically quiet. There's no exuberant greeting, no bounding over to greet him with a hug. It should be easy enough to tell that she's definitely not trying to be rude or stand-offish; she just seems exhausted. Which is kind of an unsettling look for her, to be frank. Clearly, she shouldn't be up and about...

Steven frowns, though it's pretty much expected. He pats Lion on the mane, telling him that he'll he back in a minute, and gets up to go greet Peridot himself. He's still carrying Bud, though, who makes a few sleepy Fomantis noises while trying to cling to him with her mantis arms.

He knows she's just tired, but it's still a little awkward. She's been too exhausted for them to unpack much of what happened together, and he's not even sure if she wants to.

"Tasting... some dirt?" he asks, conversationally. Or an attempt at it, anyway.

“Eh—? Oh.” She opens her fist, letting the soil fall to the ground, wiping her hand briefly on her pants to get the excess off. “Yes, I was just attempting to identify a suitable location somewhere around the lake’s edge that I could set aside for a new plant kindergarten. I’m going to have a lot of free time in my schedule to restructure, now that…”

She trails off, the corners of her mouth quirking into an uncomfortable frown. She doesn’t want to say it out loud. Saying it out loud somehow makes it more real. But that’s stupid, she knows it’s stupid, and she knows that holding her tongue isn’t going to change things one lick. Such thoughts are all just sentiment, born from an inability to accept the truth.

“…Now that Amethyst is gone,” Peridot says finally.

Steven is prepared to just be super into Peridot talking about gardens, hoping that it will help cheer her up, but then she goes straight into the actual problem - which is honestly surprising to him. He pauses and looks like he's going to say something, but then frowns and stops.

"Oh. Right." He manages, after tripping over a few other things he could say before they could make it to his mouth. He's just been waiting and hoping that her absence would be brief, but she never really gave anybody the chance to ask. He doesn't even know what she was doing that whole month.

"But... she'll be back, right? Like... the visits home are only supposed to be temporary, aren't they?"

"She has to be, at some point," Peridot agrees, scowling into the distance at nothing in particular. "She still has a contract to finish up."

Edited 2017-08-05 00:40 (UTC)

"Yeah..." Steven admits vaguely, after a moment. He stares at the ground awkwardly. "I'm... kinda thinking I might go home for a while, too." There's a pause, and he looks up, sheepishly. "Not too long! I just... feel like I need to refresh my memory. You know?"

Bud is starting to wake up at this point, with the sun setting. Fomantis are nocturnal, apparently - they spent most of the day basking in sunlight in normal circumstances, and spent the night scurrying around for better places to hide. No wonder she's so nervous all the time. She blinks up at Peridot, looking away from cuddling close to Steven, making vague Pokemon noises.

Edited 2017-08-05 00:50 (UTC)

It's a good thing he clarifies so quickly, because for a moment Peridot is just about to plunge into a spiral of panic over how all of her friends are leaving, and it shows in the sharp look she turns on him, and the way her expression starts to crumple.

"Oh. Yes," she says, trying to mask the relief in her voice. "I was kind of considering doing the same, actually, but now it's going to have to wait until after my stupid "soul wound" heals... Which by the way, is horrible, and I don't know how organics can stand spending so much time laying around doing nothing."

Like she hasn't also, on numerous occasions, dabbled in the art of lazing, thanks to Amethyst. Like she didn't just think she was an organic herself for an entire month.

"It'd probably be easier if you liked sleeping more," he'll point out, with a small smile. He really doesn't know anything about what Peridot has been going through, besides the feelings of pain and discomfort he's been able to get a general empathetic feeling for. Gems don't often have to deal with lingering injuries.

Which, brings something to mind he's been feeling bad about, when seeing her so run down.

"...I'm sorry I didn't... try to stop them, or... or ask more questions... when the ritual happened. I didn't know what was going to happen and I knew we had to get out of there but... it wasn't fair that you got hurt because of it."

Edited 2017-08-05 01:23 (UTC)

I didn't mind sleeping as much when Amethyst was still around,
taking naps all the time everywhere and insisting I try it too, Peridot reflects briefly, but she quickly decides that's too embarrassing a thought to voice out loud.

At Steven's apology, she just blinks, ears twitching gently.

"Steven it's fine," Peridot reassures him once he's done. "Trust me, I've reviewed the events in my head numerous times, and I think what wound up happening really was the most practical solution, given the timing and the circumstances that were thrust upon the mission. I mean... It was still an agonizing and terrifying process that I never care to relive again, and the recovery has been torturous, but seriously... I don't blame you."

Edited 2017-08-05 20:16 (UTC)

It hard not to find words like 'agonizing' and 'tortuous' a bit wince-inducing, but Steven knows Peridot well enough to expect that level of somewhat grating honestly from her. Or, at the least, she would never be one to underplay the grandiosity of something she had done - good or bad.

"Okay," he says, with tiny little one shouldered shrug. "It was really big of you to do that for everyone," he adds a moment later, figuring he should give her the accolades she'd no doubt enjoy. "It was... really important for me and dad to get out of there when we did."

"I think pretty much everyone was more than ready to be done with that whole scene, once people's memories started coming back," Peridot snorts, but yeah, she looks pretty chuffed about the praise.

"...How is your dad, anyway?"

That question gives him pause. His instinct is to just say something vague and optimistic, but he hesitates on that, glancing off to stare into the trees.

"...I dunno," he says. "I mean... we're okay, and we're here now, and it's... it's fine, but... I know he wouldn't want to freak me out or anything."

He looks down.

"Things were... really bad, there. I guess I don't know how much of that is... still here."

"That seems to be the question that a lot of people here are struggling with," Peridot sighs wearily, glancing off towards the trees as well. She definitely counts herself among the questioning.

The green gem stares at her feet a moment and then says suddenly: "You know, this would be a lot easier to deal with? If people were actually up front with one another about their feelings." Her tail starts to twitch angrily, a spiteful expression marring her features. "Emotions make people act like such clods."

She didn't used to get it, didn't used to be able to understand at all how to talk about what she was feeling. Now? Now she just doesn't get why people would bother hiding those feelings, when it would objectively solve everything faster to just get them out and get them sorted with. Earthlings are so baffling about this kind of thing.

Steven blinks at her, still a little bit surprised by that opinion even though it does basically align with everything Peridot had become over the last few years. He can't help but smile - small but genuine - he can guess why she's particular upset about that at the moment.

Amethyst has always been pretty much the worst at that kind of thing. Though, she's gotten better... at least he thought so.

"Yeah... I guess they do, huh?" He ruffles his own hair, feeling a bit sheepish about saying that. There's a lot of things he can be upfront about, but...

"...I was really different in Portland. I know we didn't actually see each other a lot while we were there, but... I was just scared and sad all the time. Now that we're back here..."

He tries to think of how to phrase it, and then shrugs a shoulder, helplessly.

"...I don't want to keep feeling like that."

"I just want things to go back to normal," Peridot groans with a tone of agreement. "Back to the way things were before Portland... before Blue Diamond showed up..."

She's even more resentful of the Diamond now, knowing she was at least some small part of Amethyst's decision to leave the Carnival. All the resentment Peridot feels... she knows she can't put it on Amethyst, so Blue's as good a scapegoat as any.

"What happened to you in Portland, anyway? I remember some things but... The details are becoming gradually less clear." Which is a vexing sensation, to say the least. Usually her memory recall is near flawless.

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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What the hecky I thought I tagged this back already. SORRY

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