lostcarnival | burn away your self doubt with the fire underneath you (literally)

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burn away your self doubt with the fire underneath you (literally)

Who: Nightrunners, engineers, and anyone who wants to check out the new facilities.
What: WELCOME TO THE GRIND aka. training yard construction + actual use. Prompts/ideas of what you can find there are in the log text and in this OOC post; otherwise it's a make-your-own-toplevel kind of log!
When: After the engineering meeting; through the end of the Carnival's stay in Mainframe and the break.
Where: The newly-cleared training yard space in the woods!
Warnings: Shenanigansss.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
With magic, absurdly powerful Pokemon, and combined experience putting together ridiculous shit at the Carnival's disposal, training yard construction goes by much faster than it would in an ordinary world. All facilities will be completed by the time the Carnival wraps up performance week.

People are free to come and go to work on various components for the training yard, gawk at the ongoing construction, provide useless side-commentary, or even attempt to help! Unfortunately, nobody here believes in wearing hard hats, so if you're not part of the official crew the risk is yours to take.

TRAINING YARD
A space dedicated to target practice, practicing forms, and more stationary kinds of exercises (many designed to prepare hapless miscreants who aren't quite ready for the obstacle course) for people who want to focus on something specific. Magic-resistant dummies are available for people who want to practice their magic or combat skills. Various beams, tightropes and poles of varying heights can be set up to improve balance. Climbing equipment of various types (such as walls and ropes) are also available.

It's basically a semi-customizable jungle gym with some target dummies to practice hitting things! Stick to whatever difficulty level suits you. It's mostly a bring your own weapon policy, but there are prop swords and balance poles that can serve as staves in a pinch.

OBSTACLE COURSE
The obstacle course spans the length of the clearing, and offers an opportunity to put together all the skills from the training yard. The basic layout is already pretty challenging on its own, but surprise, Peridot has also set it up so you can adjust the difficulty level depending on your level of experience.

On Normal mode, the course components are stationary. On Hard, things start moving around and actively getting in your way, like the tunnel starting to rotate and landings getting progressively harder as things disappear beneath you, and some parts of the course even have drones chasing you down with lasers to 'encourage' you to go faster. Sometimes things will be on fire to really encourage you to avoid them! On Death March the spinning is faster, there are lasers on everything you can conceivably put a laser on, and pyrotechnics have been rigged up so that the last part of the course has you flinging yourself out of the path of a controlled explosion (aim to land on the big X on the end for full points).

Where's the easy mode, you ask? Nothing in life is easy, why would this be?

There's a small signboard at the end of the course listing the shortest times it's taken someone to complete course. The Ringmaster currently holds the record, and no matter how she dares you to beat her, it's generally not recommended to try because faeries are big cheaters.

ARENA
There's a circular, elevated concrete platform towards the end of the obstacle course that functions as place to spar without holding back. It's surrounded by a moat (which coincidentally also serves as a place where anyone on fire because of the last bit of the obstacle course can throw themselves into) and there's a square-shaped sand pit in the center. Depending on the day, the moat might have robot crocodiles and it might be electrified or something? Actually getting into the arena seems to be a challenge all on its own, kind of like someone built it and then put everything else around it because it was cool in some strange reversal of painting yourself into a corner.

FIRST AID STATION

Haha just kidding there isn't one. There might be a small box with some bandages and antibiotic cream kind of thoughtlessly tucked behind training yard equipment though.

There's been an effort to reasonably fire-proof most items as possible, but it's not infallible. Acts of deliberately malicious destruction will subject vandals to being chased around by the obstacle course's laser-wielding attack drones and the ire of the Engineer. Have fun guys.

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Lauren actually is impressed, good job Strange. He looks at the path, stunned. Of course he knew magic that could shape earth, but it wasn't quite the same as this.

"Did you move the trees too? Or did you just put it between them?"

Whereas Strange just looks far too puffed up and proud of himself for his own good. A few more compliments and he'll be insufferable for the rest of the evening.

"I put it between the trees. I suppose I could have talked with the trees to ask them to move, but that sort of magic always takes longer than expected. Besides, as we're in the Ringmaster's domain, I doubt they'd be that receptive of me in the first place."

He nods in understanding, looking towards the trees that tower around them.

"They are stubborn." He'd tried speaking with them a few times, but they just didn't seem to speak quite the same language as him. It was as though there was some sort of enchantment keeping them quiet. To be honest, part of Lauren thought they weren't even really trees at all.

"Did you do this by commanding the earth or the stone?"

"The earth. There isn't as much stone here as I would have liked, or I would have asked the stone instead." After all, that's what he's used to. He made his roads in the peninsula out of rocks (though Portugal was much more rocky than the carnival probably ever would be.)

Still, the earth was receptive enough. And there were enough rocks to fill in holes and bumps as needed. What mattered was that the path was visible and smooth. Strange is explaining this as if it's all obvious, as if it's something that of course he could do, couldn't other magicians?

"I've made roads bigger than this before, of course. But there's no need to make something fit for an army to march on when at most two or three people will be walking down it at the same time."

He nods again, not much for verbal conversation. He could make the earth shake, he could create a geyser where there was one, but he could not make a road. Though he can't see this specific spell being particularly useful in a large variety of situations. After all, if people walked this way often enough a path would be created regardless. Still, it was a kind of magic he wasn't familiar with, and that was interesting. He looks to Strange, debating whether or not to ask him something.

"Could I see?"

Edited 2017-05-24 22:15 (UTC)

"See what? The magic?"

Because obviously Lauren's seen the road, it's just right there. There's a little note of hope in Strange's voice, an antsiness like a child about to perform. Because he hopes that Lauren is talking about seeing the magic. The opportunity to show off, the opportunity to show the strength and power of English magic and the strength and power of Strange himself isn't something he's just going to turn away.

"You certainly can. I just need to think of where the road should be...perhaps I can have it circle the entire training yard."

He is definitely talking about the magic, though Strange's eagerness strikes him as very strange. He ignores it, most of the people here were complete mysteries to him after all. As far as where another road should go, he isn't sure.

"... I could ruin part of this one if you want?"

Maybe just redoing a bit of one road would be better than making an entirely new one? He wasn't sure.

"No, you don't have to," Strange remarks, with a little frown, as he looks from the training yard, back to the carnival proper, then back to the training yard again. "I'll simply make a second road leading to the carnival," he explains, as if it's the easiest thing in the world. It would be better that way, of course. After all, roads could get flooded or washed out or muddy and so on and so on. It'd be more convenient if there were two roads to begin with.

Strange starts walking over to a less crowded (both in terms of people and of equipment) area of the training yard, assuming that Lauren will follow. As he does so, he idly reaches down and picks up a rock, tossing it up in the air and catching it a few times. Once they've reached the edge of the training yard, Strange plants his feet firmly in the dirt, holds the rock out with one hand and starts muttering slightly under his breath.

Nothing happens. The magic only starts when Strange stops muttering and carefully sets the rock down on the ground. Almost instantly, it sinks into the dirt. There's a rumbling beneath Strange and Lauren's feet as, out of nothing, a road starts to form, snaking between the trees towards the carnival. It's mostly a dirt road, wide enough for one or two people to pass side by side. The grass parts itself and sticks move out of the way as the road forms, but occasionally rocks sprout up from beneath the earth or move out of the way, filling in holes and making the path as smooth as possible.

And Strange just looks so goddamn smug as he turns towards Lauren. "Well?"

Personally Lauren thinks having two roads that lead the same place felt a bit redundant, but it certainly couldn't hurt to have two. He follows Strange watching the magician as he performs his trick. He watches him curiously, especially as he sees him using the stone. Didn't he have a focus to use instead? When the spell kicks in, only after strange sets down the rock he's surprised as well. It's just a odd way of doing magic to him, and he's honestly surprised to see magic done so differently.

"Amazing."

"Thank you," Strange responds, with a nod, still looking far too pleased with himself. And, whether Lauren realizes this or not, Strange is taking this as an opportunity to yammer about magic. "It's a variation of a spell I've cast before--I performed magic like this in the peninsula. Of course there, the roads were much longer and I had to undo the spell after a certain amount of time, so overall this was much easier."

He stands, walking across the new path, and then back again as though testing it. He nods, as though that confirmed something. (The ground is hard, paths are sturdy, shocking revelations all around.) It seemed like the spell was a simple verbal incantation requiring no somatic components.

"Does the rock have to be from the same place where the path is set? Or could it be any stone?"

"It works best if it's a rock from where the path is set. After all, it's easier to ask the rocks to make a path when you're working your magic through one of the rocks in the path in the first place."

Of course, he's only cast this particular spell a handful of times. And performing his magic in the Carnival still feels different than performing his magic in England--there's been plenty of moments where Strange needs to tweak a spell on the fly. But the theory still remains true, right? Right!

He nods, thinking it over. So it was as though Strange was appealing to the earth directly instead of using his magic as a force against it. That made sense considering just how much energy it would take to force the ground into a smooth road like this. Lauren hadn't seen anything like it before.

"It's different."

"What, my magic?" There's a pause, as Strange thinks it over. That does make sense that Lauren would be curious. There's certainly differences between Strange's magic and Susan's--he knows more about Lauren's brother's magic than Lauren's magic himself.

"Of course it would be different: it's English magic. Only Childermass and I perform that type in the carnival."

The qualifier 'English' doesn't mean anything to him. He doesn't know what it means, but it's clearly a very important distinction to Strange, so he decides not to question it. Whatever the magic was called didn't particularly matter to Lauren in the first place. No, what interested him most about the spell was that it was something different. Lauren had been here for a while now, and though he had seen people doing magic this was the first time he'd seen someone do something unique. Healing spells, vanishing spells, transformation spells, they were things he was used to, each of them amazing in there own way, but each something ordinary. So while the ability to make a road may have seemed relatively simple in comparison, it was still something new.

Even having just watched Strange cast the spell, Lauren doubted he'd be able to do something similar. It was becoming clearer all the time that people from different worlds had vastly different ways of manipulating magic. The worlds they went to only underscored that point. Magic seemed to work differently no matter where they went, and in some worlds it didn't work at all. Even weirder was that there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. There wasn't any explanation for why certain kinds of magic worked in some places and didn't in others. The island world with it's strange monsters had been the most peculiar in terms of magic, a world where animals could do magic and the people couldn't. It was bizarre, but even stranger than any weird rule a world seemed to have built around magic was the fact that none of those rules seemed to matter here in the carnival.

They'd been to places each with their own sets of magical rules, and yet as long as you remained within carnival grounds, no matter what power you had, it would work for you. It was quite difficult for Lauren to make sense of it. As difficult as it was to make sense of each individual worlds rules, the idea that once you were here they all got thrown out the window made things even harder to understand. Strange could speak with stones and the earth would listen, Susan could cast as easily as he ever could, Zecora would create her potions, and although in no one world could all these things happen simultaneously, at the carnival they could. Was this because of the Ringmaster's power? Did her own magic work as some sort of constant converter, translating things from one magical language to another that her world could understand? The amount of power something like that would take... You'd have to be some kind of god to accomplish it.

It's a startling idea, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whatever Strange is saying. Lauren actually forgets the other man is there for a moment as he gets lost in his thoughts. Then, he suddenly remembers, and feels quiet embarrassed about being silent for so long. He doesn't actually know how long he was just standing there thinking, but he hopes it wasn't too noticeable. He doesn't really have anything else to say either, but he knows he's expected to continue the conversation somehow even though he's already on a completely different train of thought. He's not really sure how to explain his thought process either. Well, saying anything was better than saying nothing, wasn't it?

"... Do you think there's a type of magic that would work anywhere?"

Edited 2017-06-28 02:25 (UTC)

Strange just...pauses and waits as Lauren goes through his train of thought, mostly because he's not entirely sure what to do in this situation. Is this how it feels when he starts rambling, leaving others behind as he goes off on a tear about magic or faeries? Huh. Maybe he should cut down on that. Strange waits for Lauren for a good ten seconds before he gets distracted by some dirt underneath his fingernails and all attention goes to trying to dig that piece of grit out with another fingernail.

And oh! He's asking a question! The bit of dirt is entirely forgotten as Strange looks up at Lauren with an expression that's pure him trying to convince Lauren that he was totally paying attention when he really, really wasn't. Thankfully, the question's simple enough.

"I don't think so," Strange answers, as if he knows precisely what he's talking about and isn't extrapolating based on an entirely limited sample size. Arrogance, thy name is Jonathan Strange. "Some worlds simply don't have magic in the first place--take the Matrix, for example. Even if one had the skill and the knowledge, you can't do anything if you don't have the proper tools."

The Matrix had something like magic, that One nonsense, but it wasn't magic. The Mainframe changed and warped people's magic into something more palatable for the setting, but it also wasn't magic. Strange's England used to not have magic, before he and Norrell started to bring it back. And Strange is certain that during his time at the Carnival, he'll run into even more worlds with nothing resembling magic. If there was a type of magic that worked in all of those worlds, it would have to be very powerful and, more importantly, very flexible.

He understands what Strange is saying, but he doesn't agree, not in the slightest.

"Would the Ringmaster bring us to a world where she couldn't use her power?"

He doesn't think so, meaning whatever sort of magic the Ringmaster possessed was guaranteed to work in more worlds than any other he knew of.

"Did the Ringmaster even go out into the worlds where we had less magic? I saw her out and about in Atlantis and know she was out and about during the Celebration, but did she explore the Mainframe or just stay back in the Carnival?"

Because that's the interesting part. No matter what world the Ringmaster linked the Carnival to, it still remained a beacon of magic. And did the magic of the Carnival override the lack of magic in some of the worlds they arrived at? Hell if Strange knew.

Honestly that's a good point. Lauren isn't sure which worlds the Ringmaster had explored and which she hadn't. Still...

"Why would she go somewhere if she didn't even care to visit it?" Of course, there were plenty of reasons she might go somewhere she had no interest in. At least, there were plenty of reasons for a normal person to do that, but the Ringmaster wasn't really normal. She was probably one of the most powerful beings he'd ever known. She might even be stronger than a dragon. He thinks of Vorgansharax immediately at the thought, but he pushes the negative memory away.

Edited 2017-06-29 22:11 (UTC)

"It's simple," Strange explains, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world. "We're a carnival. I imagine she'd go somewhere she doesn't want to because the pay's good."

After all, how many people in those non-magical worlds have ever seen feats of magic like those performed at the carnival to begin with? He doesn't have exact numbers off the top of his head, but Strange imagines that they'd manage to pick up more crowds in those sorts of places than they would in more magical places.

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burn away your self doubt with the fire underneath you (literally)

construction

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