lostcarnival | what's cooler than being cool? ice cold

Entry tags:

what's cooler than being cool? ice cold

Who: everyone!
What: hey wait a minute, why's it suddenly cold oh for fuck's sake Strange...
Where: the carnival + Alola
When: all of day 76!
Warnings: none, will edit if needed

the Carnival
Surprise, it's now winter.

Starting from the early hours of day 76, the Carnival is covered in snow, the temperature rapidly dropping from 'nice' to 'freezing.' Patterns of frost cover everything and icicles dangle from most buildings. Try to be careful as you're walking around, patches of the ground are frozen over and incredibly slick. Nobody be that dumbass who tries to stick their tongue to the ferris wheel, you're just going to regret it later. Enjoy the fact that almost anything that used to be a liquid is now frozen solid. All in all, it's like someone flipped a switch from summer to winter--there was absolutely no sign something like this would happen in the first place. Why not ask around to see what's up? Or, just enjoy the change of weather and pelt your friend in the face with a snowball, that's also an option. The Carnival re-enacting the plot of Frozen lasts all day, though things finally start to melt and/or magically vanish once dusk settles.

For all you vampires who've slept through most of this, the effects of winter still linger a bit after the faerie's vanished, though in slowly diminishing form. The temperature's a bit warmer and some of the liquids have started to melt, but it's still a bit uncomfortable. It's hard to clean up an entire magical wintery hellscape by yourself, okay?

Alola
Due to the way the Carnival drops people in Alola, it's entirely possible to miss the fact that something weird's going on at the Carnival. Still, some of the winter wonderland manages to seep it's way into the tropical paradise. For most people, the changes are noticeable but easily dealt with. The temperature drops to something more chilly but not downright freezing. Occasionally there are small flurries of snow, but they'll end up melting fairly quickly. Locals are downright confused, mentioning that really, it shouldn't be this cold, this weather is weirdly unseasonable.

Also, what's that weird little ice fox that keeps showing up? More and more ice Pokemon feel a little bit braver thanks to the cold temperatures and are willing to venture out into areas that ice Pokemon might not normally live in. Go train all your fire cats by having them beat up the sentient ice cream cones, everybody.

( ooc: here is the relevant ooc post! This is an open mingle-style log, so feel free to create your own threads, tag around & have some fun! )

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It's the best idea they have, anyway, so Childermass isn't about to dismiss it. He steps across the ice carefully, putting himself next to Strange and moving to put a hand on the other magician's shoulder, to help keep him steady on the ice.

"Then show me how. Mr. Norrell would write down spells for me to do often enough when he did not want to go out and do magic himself, so it can't be much more difficult than that."

Strange can't help but grin at that. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his tiny little notebook and a stub of a pencil. The notebook matches his mental state fairly well: it's a hodge-podge of drawings, notes, things jotted in the margins, sentences that start somewhere and never finish, and so forth, and finding a blank page takes longer than expected. Strange scribbles down the spell then, after a moment's pause, scribbles down a few extra notes. His handwriting is messy, but readable. Sorry, bud.

Of course, he could just outright tell Childermass the spell--he's got a feeling the man has a good memory. But it's always better to write these things down. If the candle isn't here, then at least Childermass could use the spell if he wanted to keep searching elsewhere.

"This is what I use," Strange explains as he gingerly tears that page out of the notebook. "It's a fairly basic spell but I've added in some alterations."

Which leaves Childermass to read over his shoulder while he scribbles it down on paper, up until the page gets handed to him. He'll read it over another time, twice more, then comments, "Seems like it should work. Let's try and see what we get."

At which point he will start going through the spell, expecting Strange to jump in without much warning. This was his idea, after all, and his own spell. He ought to be able to keep up. Of course, once they do get through with it, nothing new appears on the ice with them. Childermass frowns again when he looks around.

"That doesn't make sense. I did feel something happen," he says after, vaguely annoyed right up until the Growlithe hops up from where he was sitting and begins barking at the ice under their feet. It would seem on the ice was the wrong assumption, because if either of the magicians look down, they're going to see a very faint light barely visible in the solid ice a below, close enough to only just be visible but still far enough in to be a problem.

Edited 2017-04-20 16:51 (UTC)

And then they cast the spell. Moments later, Strange pauses and looks around, as if expecting something to happen. He felt it as well, the feeling that something went right. With a scowl, Strange starts to mutter the spell again, as if that will change something, before the Growlithe starts barking, breaking his conversation.

"Can't you quiet that--" But he cuts himself off shortly after. In looking down at the Growlithe, he spots the faint glow of the candle out of the corner of his eye. Irritation turns back to excitement as he looks back up at Childermass and that scowl melts right back into a grin. "Something did happen. The fiend hid it in the ice."

They know where it is! All the better, the sooner he can fix this, the sooner the carnival will get back to normal. Of course, now begins the problem of how to get the candle out. Strange bends down slightly, getting a better look at the candle. "Perhaps I can cast something involving fire...but we'd have to be careful to just melt around the candle, not the ice that we're standing on."

He has 100% forgotten that the fire dog is a fire dog.

Likely because Childermass failed entirely to warn him that the fire dog is literally a fire dog.

As Strange rambles on, Childermass simply looks down towards the faint light of the frozen candle, trying to judge the distance. It might work, it just might. He reaches into the back pocket of his slacks — out here on the ice, he's definitely starting to regret his choice of tropical attire — and pulls out that odd red tablet that everyone out in Alola seems to have in one form or another. By now, he's at least figured out the basic functions of the Pokedex and he can point it at the Growlithe, bringing up what it can do with a cheery little beep.

"Ah. That should do it," he says mostly to himself than the muttering Mr. Strange. "Growlithe." And the dog looks up from barking at the ice, attentive. "Flamethrower."

And the dog, for his own part, seems to understand well enough. He looks back down towards the candle he's been tracking and draws in a huuuuge breath, chest visibly expanding with it, even if only a little. At that point, Childermass is going to grab Strange by the arm and drag him away a few paces.

Why?

Because a few seconds later, a stream of fire practically erupts from the Growlithe's jaws, aimed straight down, directly at the ice. He doesn't seem too worried about the backlash of his own flame, either.

Strange is still muttering to himself, wondering if he should use this spell or that spell or perhaps if he added a little something else here, when Childermass yanks him away. Strange is a skinny noodle of a man so he's easily yankable. He opens his mouth, as if to complain about the yanking...when Growlithe suddenly breaths fire directly down at the ice.

Huh. That's new.

There's a very confused pause from Strange as he looks at the fire breathing dog. None of the other dogs he's seen could do that (because both of the other dogs he's seen are Rockruffs.) "Could your dog always do that?" he can't help but ask, a little interested and a lot wary. It's a fire breathing dog! What else can this weird thing do?

"He could. I did choose his breed for a very good reason, Mr. Strange, and this is only one of them," Childermass informs rather matter-of-factly. He put a lot of research behind his choice of weird elemental buddy, dude, so just trust him on this one.

The Growlithe lets the first long blast of fire trail off, hopping back a step to look over his handiwork. He's made a fairly deep dent in the ice, lake water that wasn't evaporated from the blast melting and dripping into a puddle at the bottom of a pit at least a yard deep now.

Leaving Strange where he dragged him off to, Childermass slides carefully back across the ice — he freezes any time he hears an unexpected creak — and close enough to the dog to look down the hole as well.

"Hm. Might need another blast or two."

Childermass might leave Strange where he got dragged off to but that doesn't mean Strange is going to stay there. He carefully walks back over towards Childermass and towards the hole, sticking his head over so that he can see just how deep the pit is. He has to hand it to the little dog: this is impressive.

"Hold on a moment." He can at least do something to help. Strange gestures towards the pit in the ice, raising his hand up as he does so. Moments later, the water that was collecting at the bottom of the hole rises up, out of the hole and shoots over towards a nearby tree on the lakeside. He's looking far too pleased with himself as he does this, though it's mostly because they've almost got it. They've almost found that candle and he can fix this.

"I think another blast would be sufficient, especially now that I've removed the water from the pit."

Childermass slides back a step, watching Strange remove the water without much need for commentary. When he turns back to agree with his own conclusion, just one more blast, he nods and looks back down at the Growlithe. The dog's been watching the two since they came up, tail wagging briefly when Childermass glances down again.

"Once more. Flamethrower," he tells him, waving down into the hole.

That's all the Growlithe needs, hopping back to it with a second intake of breath, followed by yet another stream of fire blasting from his jaws and down into the frozen pit.

As the fire from the dog's mouth stops, Strange casts his spell again, removing the water from the pit a second time. After all, he's most likely going down there to get that candle himself despite the fact that it's still really cold. The last thing he wants to do is catch chill.

Tentatively, Strange takes a few steps closer towards the ice before he peers in. He can't help it: Strange lets out a short, triumphant peal of laughter as he looks at Childermass with a wild grin.

"Your dog's done wonderfully—the candle's free. Don't go anywhere, this should only take a moment."

And, before Childermass can say anything, Strange starts to awkwardly climb down towards the candle, despite the fact that the hole doesn't really have any foot holds or anything to help him in the first place. There's a pretty good likelihood that he's going to fall in the attempt.

A very, very good likelihood. Childermass is already expecting it, which is why steps up to the edge of the hole and reaches down to grab at one of Strange's arms, at least trying to delay him for a moment. In the face of Strange's laughter and grinning, he's as sober as ever.

"Can't you just fetch it out with magic? Like you did the water?" Or it could be he was controlling the water and not just levitating it with something else. What a bother. "Or at the very least, let us destroy it from up here."

Because he is definitely going to fall down and then Childermass will have to go in after him and then they'll both be stuck in a hole.

Strange stops attempting to climb down towards the candle as Childermass grabs his arm. He pauses, listens, and it's like the idea of getting rid of the candle from up here never entered the other magician's mind because he just looks downright confused at that suggestion.

"I'd want it back to begin with—it's a good candle," said as if that's explanation enough. But no, as usual Childermass is right: it would be best if they fixed everything from up here. Or, at least, less slippery. That's not enough to entirely dampen Strange's enthusiasm, however, as he steps a few steps away from the edge of the pit but bends down so that he could get a closer look at the still flickering candle. He talks his actions through, so as not to explain himself over again and because Jonathan Strange is a fricken chatterbox.

"We don't need to destroy it, though. With summoning, you only need to extinguish the flame, not destroy the candle entirely." Strange closes his eyes, mutters something under his breath, then blows in the direction of the candle. Obviously he can't blow it out from here, but thanks to the spell, the breath becomes more of a gust of wind, powerful enough to travel to the bottom of the hole. The wind blows out the candle...and then seemingly nothing happens. The lake is still frozen and the ground is still covered in snow. However, the two magicians can feel something like a presence being lifted and a definite lack of active faerie magic in the carnival. It certainly seems like enough for Strange, who shakily gets back to his feet.

"Of course, the enchantment would stay if the faerie returns to it's realm—I've theorized something like this would happen, it's wonderful to see it confirmed. Still, it will be easier to clean all this up now that there's not someone actively undoing my every action." All of his actions are explained as a teacher would to a pupil despite the fact that Strange is fairly certain Childermass would never attempt any summoning sort of magic himself.

That the lake remains frozen is a relief. Childermass hadn't expected so much ice to vanish immediately, but the possibility had crossed his mind and having to swim back to shore from the middle of the lake, not a fun idea. He looks down the hole at the candle, a thin tendril of smoke still rising from the wick.

"Because it's only ice and snow," he offers his own two cents. "Creating it all needed the faerie's magic, but after that, it's not so unnatural. I'm sure given enough time, it would melt away on its own."

That said, how about they don't tempt fate and hang out here much longer? Especially since Strange has already mentioned wanting the candle back. You know, the candle down there in the ice hole with few to no handholds down. It's that which spurs him to act quicker than the other magician, trying to cut him getting stuck down there off at the head. He turns to look back at Strange.

"But it'll go faster with you fixing your mess, so let's get back to shore, shall we?"

"Call your dog back, would you? The damn thing probably won't listen to me."

It's said in an idle tone of voice. After all, it's hardly worth getting mad at the dog since it's just a dog. Besides, Strange has known this dog for half an hour tops and already he can tell that the dog is going to hate him for all eternity. That's just how these things seem to work, after all.

The ice gives a worrying cracking noise from a few feet away and yes, Childermass is right, getting off the ice and getting back to shore would be the best idea. So, awkwardly and tentatively, Strange starts to walk back towards the shore, slipping a bit as he does so because look, ice is slippery and ice that's starting to melt is even more slippery. Thankfully, he makes it back to the shore without any incident. Unfortunately, that candle is still in the hole.

"Maybe I'll just raise the candle from the lake bed later," he remarks, with a little frown. Because yeah, now that he's back on dry land and has remembered the candle in the first place, Strange doesn't want to go back out there and get it. Candles can dry off after being submerged in lakewater for a while, right? Maybe?

"Come on, then," Childermass tells the dog, gesturing for him to follow when he turns to go back across the lake. The Growlithe, of course, hops up to his feet to follow, having an easier time of crossing the ice on four legs over two once more. He keeps pace with the magicians this time, however, so there is that.

It's another long endeavor to get back to shore, even Childermass taking his time and walking carefully across the ice to avoid slipping and falling. The comment about the candle does get a, surprisingly enough, a faintly amused smirk out of the typically dour man.

"You can always get another candle, Mr. Strange. I'm sure the carnival has boxes of the very same kind in storage somewhere."

Because where else would he have gotten the first one? It can't possibly be unique. It's just wax.

"Oh, I know precisely where they're kept in storage." Strange can't help but smile a little. "I can show you sometime later, if you wish." Because yeah, asking for things? That's silly, why not creep around in storage and see where things are being kept and steal a couple of them that way? It's probably a good thing that the carnival didn't have an Acquisitioner for a while because yeah, Strange just straight up stole some supplies for himself.

No, this is just one of his quirks, him being difficult about the candle because it's the purpose of the thing (and that it's a really nice candle in the first place!)

Still, now that they're off the lake, time to actually start melting the thing. Thankfully, it's a lot easier to clean up something than it is to make the mess in the first place. Closing his eyes, he mutters a brief spell, gesturing towards the lake. The ice and snow start to melt. It's as if someone reversed video of snow, as the ice and snow float back up to the clouds before vanishing entirely. Strange is still facing the lake, concentrating and watching, but he's able to make a little bit of conversation.

"It'll be a while to get all of the carnival cleaned up, but I'm certain I can do it."

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what's cooler than being cool? ice cold

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me for this entire tag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v4sOvEa7AM

just don't kill the dog

dog gets to stay alive b/c how else will it properly torment strange later

strange and all his chickens too

best dog baker's gonna take care of the chicken problem

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