⇨ ATLANTIS

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[mossbuds]

His face goes through a couple different things. First, it's uncomprehending shock. Then, terror.

"You were shot?!" Lars's voice is shrill in that way it always gets when he's panicked. His eyes are stuck on the spot, and his expression then moves into something else—something uncalculated. Something more rare.

He's at a loss, for a second. His anxiety's given way to something else, finally.

"...Are you okay?"

He means more than just the gunshot, but doesn't bother being clear about it.

[starseedling]

Steven blushes a little, sort of surprised that Lars didn't know, and also that he's showing so much concern now. It's nice - or it would be, if the concept itself wasn't really scary.

"Y-Yeah. Peridot and me were just hanging out, and... one of those guys... just found us and started firing his gun. My powers didn't really work right in there, so..."

He shrugs his shoulders helplessly.

"I'm okay now! Zecora healed me and then I just napped a lot for a while, so... it-it's okay, right?"

[mossbuds]

"Uh..." Lars feels dumbfounded, kind of speechless by the explanation. It makes him feel all sorts of crazy, anxiety inducing stuff that he doesn't know how to articulate even to himself. "I mean..." Ah, there comes the panic. "It's... not okay that someone shot a little kid!! Steven! That's definitely not okay!!"

Lars realizes he should probably try to reign it in, though that's basically always impossible, and, in his opinion, almost always unnecessary. But Steven was obviously going through some messed up stuff. Lars clenches his fists by either side of his waist, closing his eyes tightly as he takes a deep breath. Which doesn't make sense, because he has gills now. But it's muscle memory.

He fans out his hands towards Steven, palms remaining parallel to his waist.

"I'm. It's great you're okay now. Just—" Lars presses his hand against his forehead, looking baffled and stressed. He pushes his kinda floaty tuft of hair out of the way of his face. Looking at Steven with that strange, kind of defeated posture, and having obtained all this information, Lars feels like, for the first time, he...

...kind of wishes he could do something.

But he can't. He's below ordinary in the matters of the supernatural and fantastic.

"—you know, that's...scary. And stressful. That's a lot, man."

[starseedling]

Steven doesn't really know what to do, and his first inclination is to assume he's made some kind of misstep with this conversation. He flushes pink, glancing away from Lars as the older boy manages to get the words out.

"Uhm. Yeah. Sorry..." He smiles faintly and apologetically. "I didn't mean to get all heavy about stuff, it just kinda... came up. It was kind of random, so I don't think the Agents meant anything by it, I think it was just their job..."

[mossbuds]

Lars feels like he feels a part of his brain pop, and he stubbornly slaps a lid on it. Do not freak out, he repeats to himself in a mantra, despite being infuriated by Steven's attitude, deeply concerned for his health and safety, and sort of terrified by the revealed events.

"Steven," Lars says evenly, this time momentarily holding his temples as he closes his eyes. "Steven, listen, stop trying to justify the actions of people who shoot people. Okay?"

[starseedling]

The first thing that comes to Steven's mind is that, well, Agents aren't really people the same way that humans are so maybe they never really had a choice - but that doesn't get anywhere close to coming out of his mouth. Instead he just feels bad in a way that is hard to describe, and hard to figure out how to fix. He wraps his arms around his chest, frowning.

"Okay..." he says softly, unsure of what to follow it up with. He just doesn't know what point there is to dwelling on how terrible those people may or may not have been, he just wanted to be fair.

(And also, it was so much easier to deal with what happened when he could think of it like a big accident instead of something that had been malicious to begin with.)

But now this is sort of awkward.

[mossbuds]

It definitely is, but Lars expected as much; feelings are always awkward, especially candid ones. That's why he tries to stay away from them, generally!! But this is not one of those times he can really do that, he thinks.

He feels like Steven doesn't get it, but also decides it's probably not worth the trouble of trying to get it through Steven's head. Infuriatingly kind little dumpling. Honestly, obnoxious.

Lars wilts with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as he glances at Steven almost sheepishly. He doesn't know why Steven's looking at him like that, like he's said something mean. But then again, he probably did. Whatever. Lars feels like he has no control over his general unpleasantness even when he isn't going out of his way to be an ass, so it wasn't worth worrying about too much.

"...I'm, uh..." But Lars doesn't want Steven thinking he's like, mad, exactly. He grimaces a little, like he's had a painful hiccup or something before his expression softens. "You know, I'm glad you're alright now or whatever, though..."

[starseedling]

Oh boy, is Steven ever ready to latch onto that bit of offered positivity! Let's just talk about that instead of whatever happened just now. That sounds way better!

"U-Uh oh, yeah!" he says, smiling more earnestly. "Thanks, Lars." He just sorta puts his hand on Lar's shoulder/collarbone, like a close cousin to just straight up putting his hand on his pec but somewhat less daring. "I guess I'm just too tough!"

[mossbuds]

Lars, uh... just assumes Steven missed, or something. Whatever, physics are different right now, or whatever? He smiles kind of tiredly. He agrees, even though it's not as emphatic as it might have been in the past; it's kind of had a taste of Steven being less tough than he thought, in some ways.

He extends a hand to push Steven's head gently in a not-so-aggressive hands-off kind of gesture.

"Yeah, apparently."