⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 138 - Day 152
Where: The Summerlands
What: The Ringmaster brings the carnival to the Summerlands immediately after being freed from Portland so that everyone can take a fucking nap. Her included.
Warnings: Individually marked! Most likely discussion of torture and trauma in here.

DAYS OF SUMMER↴ You made it! And things are back to normal... more or less. Upon waking, you will be greeted with a clear blue sky and gentle breeze – the carnival has found itself situated between a pair of mountain peaks, with great fields of flowers extending in the distance. In the other direction, you’ll see mountain-top cities and tall waterfalls accenting vast swaths of forest. Some of you will already know this place. It’s the Summerlands. You game here once to rest in safety nearly a year ago, and now you’ve come to rest once again. ► WAKING UP: Shortly after the carnival arrives, the Ringmaster will send out a somewhat cryptic radio message - but her immediate location won't be clear. Whatever items you had on your person at the time the Severing was broken will still be on your person, including whatever clothing. All of the animals and pets of the carnival will have returned to the grounds as well, though they are currently free from their designated living spaces. Things in the carnival will appeared to have naturally aged a month, as if the carnival was been sitting here empty and waiting while everyone was in Portland. The lawn needs mowing. ► SUMMER CITY: After the Summer Fae become aware of everyone's presence, they will welcome you into their city. There are stairs that lead up the sides of the mountains, but thankfully there are also magical means of getting up there as well. The Summer Fae will be willing to help workers with the injured as needed, offering herbal remedies and healing magic to those that want it. You'll also be invited to join them for dinner, but they will not be particularly offended if they are turned down, for now. ► SUMMER PEOPLE: The fae here will mostly enjoy the company of any carnival members that offer it - it doesn't seem that much happens here besides day after day of peaceful meditation and relaxation. It is not uncommon to see Summer Fae spent days doing exactly the same thing, whether that be enjoying the weather, listening to music, or dancing - the day and night periods may be similar to earth, but when you don't need rest it can all blur together just the same. Some of the fae work on feats of agriculture or craftsmanship, and while there is no particularly need to work in this place, they take pride in the fact that they do. ► NEW ARRIVALS: Though the Ringmaster will not be offering much guidance for the first week or so, eventually the carnival will begin running for a few small performance sessions, off and on, as a thank you to their fae hosts. The carnival will also be open to receiving new arrivals during that period, and so there will likely be some newbies to train and get orientated as well.

Comments

[ringleaders]

If there is one thing Strange will learn from talking to a lot of the Summer Fae, it's that most fae seem to know each other, either through meeting or through reputation. Unsurprisingly, then, most of the fae he talks to will know which ones he's talking about, though their amounts of specific gossip will vary. The Summer Fae are a bit out of touch with modern Arcadia because they've been willfully separated for a long time, but all of the individuals mentioned have been around since before that break.

Frost is a high ranking spy of the Winter Court, and in the past had been seen working for the Winter Queen herself. They don't know a ton about Frost given they are from a different court and it was some time ago, but at least one of them will claim that he was infatuated with the Winter Maiden of the time, and had generally made himself an awkward presence for the Summer Maiden and the Winter Maiden's relationship.

The Rose Queen is a prominent figure in the Summer Court, though she has a reputation for being a bit reclusive and strange. In the time before the Summer Fae left, she was already mostly known for her major role in colonization efforts, largely due to her superlative ability to claim territory and then hold onto it jealously. She spent more time on the edges of Arcadian territory than within its depths, which is part of where the reputation comes from.

Ignatius the Conflagration is a figure from the Summer Court's military, or whatever the closest approximate is. You send him somewhere if you want it nuked, essentially - he is quite powerful, but that power is not especially refined for anything besides destroying lots of stuff. He has a strong code of honour, and working with that code of honour is the best way to handle him.

Nightshade is a servant of the Summer Court, of the assassin/scout variety. The fae have all heard of her, at least, but she clearly doesn't hold any super important role in fae society. She mostly has a reputation for poisoning people.

The Count of Crows is largely a mystery. They know that he's from the Winter Court and were aware of him before you mentioned him, but they are not really clear on what his role is or what he does. A few will theorize that he's sent on covert missions - like messing with Summer Court colonies, for example.

[kingsroads]

In thanks, Strange will give the Summer Fae as much hot gossip as he can about everybody's actions in Portland, though he'll be purposefully vague on how the carnival got to Portland in the first place (cause fuck if he knows).

Also man, his ego just got a bit crushed considering that the fae who thought he was cute is the faerie equivalent of "nobody special."

[ringleaders]

It's okay Strange, because she can always be special to you.

How interested they seem about the specifics of the Portland action will vary, because some seem to respond to mentions of what the Courts have been doing (IE colonizing planets) as if it is mostly a pretty huge bummer. Imagine it sort of like talking about controversial politics to someone, when they are on the same side as you - some of them are into talking about it just to channel their spite, but others seem to be depressed by reflecting on how it's happening at all.

In terms of Nightshade specifically, it's not that she isn't formidable at what she does, it's just that she's always working at the behest of someone else - so anything she does is usually just associated with the person giving her orders, except in the footnotes.

[kingsroads]

He'll ask two more questions (mostly because this actually came up in the Childermass/Lambert/Strange thread as something to ask)

1: What exactly is the role of Summer Maiden/Winter Maiden? Is that a title or something?
2: How much did the Summer Fae know about the carnival before their arrival here? And then, when he gets the inevitable 'dude, you know y'all have stopped here before', Strange'll change his line of inquiry to okay, well how much do the fae in general know of Wyld Fae activities?

[ringleaders]

The Summer and Winter Maidens are a title for Fae at the very top of the court royalty. The Maiden, Queen, and Crone are considered the supreme rulers of all Faerie - which is ostensibly a matriarchy for that reason. The Queen is the role of the most direct power and sway, whereas the Maiden is essentially a Queen in training, and the Crone is a former Queen who has retired from her front facing duties. So, this pretty much means that the Summer Maiden is one of the top three most important fae in the Summer Court.

As for the Wyld Fae, they'll be a little bemused. The Ringmaster is a long time friend of the Maiden and is a Wyld Fae, but over all the Wyld Fae are a very diverse people with little central leadership. The impression one gets is that Wyld Fae are seen as formidable but wild beasts who refuse structure and usually only follow leadership once they've been drafted into either court. They don't mean this in a rude way, it's just the way the Wyld Fae are.