⇨ 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

[puddingemote]

"It sounds hard..." Traveling around, dealing with all kinds of weird problems... Tamaki's not sure he likes that. He thinks he likes his own job better; even if there's some annoying things about it, at the end of the day it's just about making people happy, and that's fun. It's not so scary as some of what Ginko is talking about sounds like, even if some of it sounds cool, too. "Is that why not a lot of people do it?"

[dontpokethat]

"Yeah, that's a big part of it. It's hard, and can be dangerous... the pay isn't great, either." He frowns slightly, ears flicking at some past annoyance, then shakes his head.

"--Sorry, I don't mean to start complaining." But, also, yeah. There are a good few reasons he's never encouraged anyone to become a traveling mushi master.

[puddingemote]

Sounds pretty awful, now that he says all that. Tamaki looks thoughtful.

"What would you do instead? Work here?" The Carnival isn't too bad, he thinks, if a little dangerous sometimes.

[dontpokethat]

"That's... pretty much it." He laughs, quiet and somewhat wry. "I couldn't very well change jobs back home, so this is about the only other option I have."

In a lot of ways, he did enjoy being a mushi master. He was content with how his life had turned out, but... the carnival was certainly a welcome change of pace.

[puddingemote]

Tamaki thinks about it. At first he thought it was unfair, that the Carnival trapped people here, but now he's met people who would rather be here. It's good, for those people, that they have this.

"I wouldn't want to stay here forever," he says, thinking of his home, his friends, his sister who is closer than ever. No, he can't stay here longer than a year. "But I'm glad you can, if you wanted, Gin-san."

[dontpokethat]

"...Yeah. Honestly, I can see why so many people leave."

He knows this is dangerous, compared to where some people are from - and even besides that, the... lifestyle isn't really for everyone. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it's for him.

And, frankly, lots of people have more reason to go home than he does.

"But I... definitely do appreciate the time off, if it can be called that."

[puddingemote]

"Yeah. This is a lot less busy than my real job."

They get a whole week of downtime before performances - sure, he has to rehearse during then, but it's been awhile since Tamaki's gone so long without jam-packed days of performances, often rushing straight from school to get on a bus in time to make an afternoon talk show or on a plane to go across the country and perform. It's nice, that the Carnival itself travels without Tamaki having to do anything.

[dontpokethat]

"It really is pretty nice, all things considered. How often are you working back home, anyway?"

[puddingemote]

"Almost every day." He thinks back. "Because we were getting ready for a giant concert, and doing lots of interviews, and me and Sou-chan were filming a drama. So I was really busy. But Manager-" He pauses, then corrects himself. "My manager back home, she made sure I had some time off. But then Iorin made me do homework!"

He sounds annoyed by this especially.

"The day after I came here was supposed to be a day off. But I'm here instead."

[dontpokethat]

"Sounds like a crowded schedule, alright." He only actually understood a little over half of that, but he doesn't need to be intimately familiar with what 'filming a drama' means to know that that sounds like a lot of work to be doing.

"That's too bad. Makes it all the better that you get time off here, huh?"

[puddingemote]

"Yeah. And I've never been underwater before."

He's barely been to the beach before, really. While turning into a merman and coming deep under the ocean are hardly normal life experiences, there are plenty of others he's missed out on.

"I wish I could tell the guys back home about it..."

[dontpokethat]

"You can once your contract is up. ...Though I guess there's no guaranteeing that they'd believe it, huh."

It's too bad, really.

[puddingemote]

"I guess Mikki would believe me! ...But maybe no one would believe him."

Mitsuki isn't the type to make up stories, but this would just be too fantastical to believe for most people in his world.

[dontpokethat]

"Well, even if only one person knows, that's better than nobody having any idea. Besides, if news like this got around too much, you might end up swamped with questions."

Ginko doesn't really want to think about having to explain the carnival to countless people - hell, just explaining how it works to new arrivals can be enough of a pain sometimes.

[puddingemote]

"I guess that's true..."

The press can be bad enough about normal things; he's not sure he would even know enough to answer questions about the Carnival.

"Is anyone from your world here?"

[dontpokethat]

"Yeah, actually. You know Tanyuu, the woman who does makeup? We knew each other pretty well, even before getting here."

He's honestly glad that she's here; this would have been a whole lot tougher to deal with, especially early on, if he hadn't known anyone. And Tanyuu would probably be one of his first choices.

[puddingemote]

"I've seen her around," he says in confirmation. He hasn't talked to her at length, but he's certainly encountered her, getting ready for performances.

"Mikki's here from my world, too. We're in the same idol group."

He would agree with Ginko. Without Mitsuki around, the events of the Matrix might have been enough to break him right off the bat.

[dontpokethat]

"Yeah? Sounds like we both got pretty lucky, huh. Hard to imagine coming here without knowing anyone at all."

He kind of feels sorry for people who do get stuck here on their own. He can't imagine it's easy.