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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Amazing really. They'll be back, Julien knows, until a butterfly or the shadow of a cloud takes their fancy instead. He's too used to making friends he leaves behind soon after to really mind.

Julien powers on through his moment of hesitation at the living wood hand and shakes it, curious about the texture and if it has any give. A couple new eyes appear on his hand as he does, getting a closer look at it. This body, his human body, does look mostly human. Blue birdlike eyes come and go on it, his normal, regular eyes are a silvery blue, and his hair is blue primitive feathers, like on an emu. That's about it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Joker! Yeah, I've heard your name. I'm in wardrobe and makeup, so I'm supposed to keep an eye on what the performance wing's doing. Circumstances have kinda prevented that, but hey, there's time to make up for it."

Joker's hand is sure an experience, that's for certain. There's a certain strange kind of softness to them, necessary for them to be as flexible as they are, and yet at the same time... There's something very sturdy beneath it all that's more noticeable than human flesh, and hints of opalized wood peek out from between the bits of wood that twine together.

"Yeah, that, ah, happens." Joker shrugs, because it's true. This year, so far, more than ever. "Still, you've gone and met Carly properly, right?"

Well, that's fun. If not how it would've been weird and creepy he would have liked to investigate Joker's hand and examine it closely. There was nothing quite like this among the champions at home, not wholesale flesh replacement. Julien puts his hand back at his side, hooked casually at his belt.

"No, not properly! I know she's my boss and I've seen her around, but we haven't really talked. I should change that!"

So.... nothing happening with the eyes that had popped up. Well, Joker can handle that, and he lets his own hand rest on his hip. A low whistle slides between his teeth.

"Ya should! She just got the job, so she could use all the help she could get. She's been here for a while, but never as a supervisor. Support never hurts in a time like that, huh?"

Julien is totally staring because that's what's great about being able to make birdy-looking eyes appear just above his skin. You get to just look at things while maintaining steady normal eye contact. It also conveniently makes up for something he's found he doesn't like about being human-shaped compared to a giant bird; human vision is just really limited in a lot of ways, from color to speed of processing to a narrow field of view and the inability to see multiple things at once with any clarity.

"Makes sense! I'll have to do that." 'At a time like this'. Julien's smile is easy and never far from his face. It takes a wry aspect now. "Are there a lot of 'an intense thing happened so now we have a couple weeks to pull ourselves together' periods here, then?"

WELP. Joker does his best not to flinch and mostly succeeds. That's not exactly what he had meant, but also he can't blame anyone for asking. That kind of thing is.... Beyond everyone getting hurt, it's messed with their heads too.

"Nah, it's... Listen. When I first got here, I had a whole year of basically nothin'- Well." He pauses. "I almost got beheaded once but that's what happens when ya flirt with a king's daughter, so I brought that one on myself. But that year, and the year before that... I heard that was calm too." Grimacing, he shrugs. "This year has just been a bleedin' mess."

Whoops. Julien lets the smile fade. He hadn't meant to upset Joker but, still, he really has to know what he's gotten himself into here.

"What's changed? Does the Ringmaster have enemies who've like found her?" He wouldn't have thought basically leading a tourist campground that also performed would make that many people angry, but then again there are people who can get angry about anything. And there's no telling just what that woman has been doing, and maybe some of the employees...

"Well..." Curling his hand at his chin, Joker considers the question. "From what I understand, the one behind the vampire nonsense from not that long ago sure didn't like her.... But that one got- eaten or somethin'?"

Shruuuuuuuuuug.

"I was a bit unconscious for that." Probably because he tried to eat Childermass, but it's.... fine.

Remembering the smoke dragon monster who was also the Ringmaster going and biting the fire fae, Julien also shrugs. He can believe it. At least, he hopes it was the Ringmaster doing the eating and not the carnies. "Vampires? Oh boy. That sounds... well, terrifying."

A sensitive sort who also automatically downplays things that really upset him, Julien has his suspicions about Joker's nonchalance on the topic. Nothing for it but trying not to step in it too bad though. Maybe it's time for a subject change. "Your wings are gorgeous, by the way. Uh... how long have you had them?"

"Yeah." That's just about all that's getting out of him right now, his smile not budging an inch. Vampires are definitely terrifying. Let's not talk about it now.

Which means Julien's made a good chase of subject change, and Joker actually has to pause a second as he looks back at them. "Oh, probably over a year, suppose. Ringmaster gave 'em ta me as a present, I guess, when I became the stage manager. Although they've definitely... changed a bit." That is to say, one is the same magpie black, and another dove white.

....The glitteriness of the inmost feathers hasn't changed, however.

Julien laughs, shakes his head. "That is a weird reason to grow wings, but I guess the reasons here are different, anyway." He inspects Joker's wings openly, his fingers curling and stretching out at his sides. He would like to touch, to feel for the joints and how they intersect with the man's body. You just don't do that, of course, but he doesn't see anything wrong with wanting.

"I've had wings for... man. More than a year too, by now. They work pretty differently back home, though - no one's a hexapod, I think." Maybe if someone became buggy? But they'd probably have to shrink for that.

"The carnival is run by a weird lady," he says dryly, not too concerned when the Ringmaster is out of commission like she is for the time being. With how things have been lately, he thinks he's allowed to shittalk her just a bit. Especially when she's not listening.

Best not think about that or his mood will get worse than it's already been for a while now. So he focuses on what Julien is saying, and blinks. "Hexwhat." While he likes to think he's become a lot more learned while traveling with the carnival, some things are still a bit outside his realm of knowledge.

"Mmm!" Julien agrees absently. That glitter is amazing, like and unlike the iridescent shine on his bird neck. Feathers are so great.

He straightens up out of his admiration and laughs self-consciously. "Sorry, sorry. Biology stuff. Six-limbed, or uh, like conceptually something six-limbed." Since Joker's just got the one arm and all. "I think my point was changes back home were more limited. Less flashy."

Julien forms an eye underneath one of his normal ones just so he can wink both the ones on that side.

Edited 2017-08-20 06:31 (UTC)

"Ah." Raising an eyebrow, his lips quirk up in amusement. "I think I can see that." Although he wonders if any transformation can be called less flashy no matter where it is.

Still. There's a more important question to ask.

"So what do ya call a five limbed creature?" he asks, grinning.

True, it's hard to beat getting an entire extra body. "Still weird as hell, but I got used to a lot of weirdness back home. I think I'm getting a handle on it here."

Julien matches the smile. If Joker will make quips about it, it's probably fine for Julien to if they're on the gentle side. "Pentapod! Like a starfish. Like most starfish, I guess. Or you call one Joker, if you know his name."

A lot of people can sometimes be a bit awkward with his missing arm- which isn't bad by any means. Still, Joker can't help but grin wider at the joke, a couple of laughs escaping him.

"Well! Now I'm expectin' ta get all sorts of pink skin~. How do ya think I would look like with it?"

He puts his head to one side, unwittingly very birdlike in that moment, and strokes his chin in exaggerated contemplation. "Hmmmm. You'd end up pretty cute, I'd think! Of course, you're pretty well there already."

He laughs, because lots of guys don't like comments like that and turning it into optionally-a-joke gives an out. "Might clash a little, too, but it'd work."

"Ah, the problem with bein' a redhead." Reaching up, he flips some of his hair a little and laughs as well. "If I had brown hair, just think about all the other things I could wear! Oh well. I clash as it is anyway." His wings flutter a bit to demonstrate what he means. The nature of the carnival is a menace to fashion, really.

"Ah, well! There's dye but even the kinds that wash out aren't always trustworthy. I used to bleach and dye all the time. It kinda sucks." Now he's got feather-hair and it's in a better, stronger blue than he'd usually managed... but he'd also rather liked the way blue had faded into silver over time.

"Harmony's just one flavor in the sundae, anyway."

"Not ta mention we'd have ta find a world that sells dye..." Joker shakes his head with an amused huff. "Sure wouldn't have worked with Atlantis, I'll tell ya that." As far as Joker knows, dye is a rather liquid affair.... Which doesn't work when everything around you is water.

"Did ya get that from a fortune cookie or some such thing?"

"Or co-opt another kind of dye if you felt like living dangerously! You know. Because things are so boring around here." He rolls his eyes, smiling. Just the main two eyes. The new, transient ones don't really move.

"No but it oughta be in one! Or like. Ice cream wrappers."

Is it stranger or better that only two of the eyes roll? Joker still isn't entirely sure. Still, he doesn't mention it, because it's not like he can really do it without being a huge hypocrite.

So instead, he snickers a little bit. "Well, if ya ever figure out how ta make either of those, we could probably get the cookhouse ta go along with it. If it's not too much trouble, any way. A little bit of light heartedness could be fun, eh?"

"I honestly have no idea how to make fortune cookies or ice cream without, like, dedicated machines for them. But I could make popsicles with hokey sayings on the sticks." The kind that at home had a joke on the dry part and the punchline covered in the frozen stuff.

"Hey, it works. And ya never know-" He nods his head to the nearby group of fae that are messing around. "Maybe ya could always trick that lot inta helping. They'd probably find it charmin' enough."

The fae's game has transmogrified at some point into something complicated involving hand slapping. Julien looks over with a smile. These fae are so easily amused, he's pretty sure they would let themselves be charmed by anyone and anything.

"There should be some Summer Fae who like cold drinks and icy treats, don't you think?"

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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