lostcarnival | Performance and Dreamcatchers

Who: Joker, those working entertainment, and whoever wants to do fun arts and crafts
When: The day after the orientation, and then after the ringmaster's announcement
Where: The Big Tent and one of the side stages, respectively
What: Joker gets his performing ducks all in a row, and then does an arts and crafts corner. As you do. Mingle log!

At around ten in the morning, as he told a few other workers and anyone who'd been listening in on the walkie talkies, Joker starts to radio in those who are working under him to meet up in the big top. Hope you had breakfast and not a hangover! Of course, for anyone who tries not to attend, Joker will cheerfully hunt them down and bother them into going.

Sorry, mandatory, you know how it is.

It's later in the day, after the ringleaders' own announcement, that eventually Joker makes another of himself, this time to the general channel. It's an invitation to one of the side stages to make dreamcatchers together, for anyone who still craves company or simply doesn't know what the hell a dreamcatcher even is. Along with that, Joker has taken it upon himself to make sure signs advertising this are plastered all over the carnival.

He drew them himself. Please appreciate the scribbled stars.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, to judge by the way she hops right in, Jou Shan has an idea of how to make dreamcatchers--or something so close as to make no difference. She has the Tauren to thank for that. She does sort of keep an eye on what other people are doing, and if they look really lost, she's willing to give pointers, but she doesn't want to come off as either bossy or arrogant, because Jou intends to be neither of those things.]

Ah, I have not had a chance to do something like this in a while!

[Right now it doesn't look like much, but she has a small swirl of amethyst, lapis, and rhodochrosite beads in front of her, in preparation for when she works on the center. For now, though, she's still wrapping the outside in black leather and silver wire.]

[ Childermass hasn't gone too far from the stage since this morning, when Joker first called all of his new employees together. He hasn't been working on dreamcatchers, however. Instead, he's at the other end of the table, taking up space while writing away in a little leather-bound memorandum book. His own, though he's borrowed a new-fangled (that is to say, modern) pen from the mass of arts and crafts supplies scattered about.

And though he was at least aware of Jou Shan being nearby (he's hardly oblivious), he doesn't actually look up until she speaks up about her own work. ]

Oh? Have you made one of these before?

[ Because Childermass? Childermass has not. He knows nothing of dreamcatchers, save for what he's witnessed here already. ]

A few, yes! Mostly when I spent some time in Thunder Bluff. The Tauren there are very good at that--they are more a spiritual symbol to them, I think, perhaps. I respect that, or try, but I do not quite revere dreamcatchers as they do. But I am not shaman, either. I might, if I were.

[She seems to be able to talk and work at the same time; happily nattering away at Childermass while she twists wire into the center web, adorning it with her multihued beads. Jou is also eyeing another tray, this one with clear crystal and smoky quartz beads in them. Probably plotting another dreamcather even as they speak...]

A spiritual symbol?

[ But for what?

Aside from something to do with dreams. That much he can surmise on his own. He'll take one last moment to finish writing what he'd been in the middle of before, then tuck the book and pen both away into a pocket. The little book safely put aside, he's free to get up and move down a few chairs to sit by Jou instead.

It gives him a better look at what she's doing to make these things. ]

Is that all they are? Wrapped hoops with wire in between?

Well, yer certainly doin' well enough from where I'm standin'!

[And Joker is standing, looking over what people have made so far and stretching out his wooden fingers. It's a bit of a strange feeling, since they're not made of flesh, but hey.]

How many do ya plan on makin'?

Oh, Joker! Hello!

[She greets the stage manager with a friendly smile and a wave.] Not so many, I think. Many hands seem to be turned to this project--but I do not think the Ringmaster will be displeased if we go over her hundred, eh?

I was thinking five to start, but if I make more, so be it!

Well, I can’t imagine she’d discourage her workers ta not be enthusiastic.

[Hell, she’d…. Well, he’d say “over the moon”, but with things as they are, that might actually end up true. Flopping down not far away, he hums thoughtfully.]

If nothin’ else, it’s a good way ta pass the time. I mean, ha, not for the performers, but sometimes folks in other parts of the carnival like yerself end up with some spare time.

[ There are no pandaren in the ranks of the Ebon Blade. The mists of their island had not risen til long after the Lich King's rise and fall, and thus they were spared his wrath. Koltira himself has never truly met a pandaren; he spent that part of Azeroth's history locked away beneath the Undercity, knowing nothing, aware only of Sylvanas and her tender mercies.

He takes a seat beside Jou Shan, his impassive eyes fixed on her and her work. Though he has little interest in the task for its own sake, he well knows the evils of idle hands. Particularly his own. ]

Teach me.

[Jou Shan, on the other hand--or paw, if you prefer--has at least some passing familiarity with death knights, if not Koltira himself. She gestures to the bead tray full of colored gemstone beads, and sets out some wire and leather--silver and black seem fitting, here, but she won't choose more than that for him.]

First, you make a hoop. If you leave a bit of wire in a loop outside the leather, you can make it easier to hang, like so. [Her hoop is already wrapped in leather, but there's a bit of wire sticking out to hang it.] If you prefer to use leather to hang it, of course you may, but wire is more durable, hai?

Then I make the inside web, and put beads or crystals or such in there as I like. It is less a set pattern, and more what you think is right? What you prefer?

[She's trying to say there's no wrong way, really, but it might not be entirely clear, here.]

But you can see it is a web, hai? [She gestures to a finished one, even as she beings to make the aforementioned web, occasionally adorning this new one with a crystal bead here or there. This one is more simple than her first, which was a lavish little number in pink, blue, and purple. She is beading this one in quartz, both smoky and clear, with dark brown leather wrapped around the hoop. The feathers at the end are peacock eyes, to give it a hint of color.]

[ He observes her carefully, saying nothing as she describes the process. Her work is deft and elegant, undeniably so, and he'd like to emulate it if he can.

He makes the hoop, as instructed, and leaves the suggested tip of wire jutting out for hanging purposes. Her choice of colors sits fine with him, though he takes a few more beads from the tray--plastic sapphires, unnaturally blue and twinkling. He creates the pattern silently, a spider-web that's unconsciously similar to the designs carved into the floor at Acherus. It's what he knows.

His own fingers are agile; he's clearly used to working with hands. It's been years since he put those hands to such gentle use, though. ]

Hmm.

[ It's not quite finished. The sapphires are in place, but it looks plain. Too simple. ]

It is not right.

[ He holds it up, his expression already frustrated. He was better at this, once. ]

[Kerubim showed up a bit later than everyone else. He wasn't familiar with dreamcatchers, but the small crowd around the table had drawn his attention. Jou Shan in particular. She looked a bit different from the pandawa he was used to, but if she was from the World of Twelve he wanted to make her acquaintance. With so many other bizarre creatures about, it would be nice to have someone normal around.

He took the seat across from her, giving her a charming smile.]

And you seem quite skilled at it. I'll bet that dreamcatcher will turn out as pretty as you.

Performance and Dreamcatchers

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