⇨ 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

Peridot | OTA (mostly)

[periphrasing]

A) A very mandatory recovery period (OTA)
Peridot is hardly the only carnival member to made it back from Portland in less than stellar condition, but she is sporting one of the more peculiar injuries of the lot. "Soul damage", the Ringmaster had called it, during that single radio conversation they'd had shortly before she'd gone off and... expired, or however it was that she had described that little stunt. And wow. THAT sure was a thing. Peridot had, despite her condition, made herself available at the emergency supervisor's meeting that had followed, attending out of a stubborn, rigid sense of duty.

But that was the last time she would be seen outside of the supervisor's grove for the next several days following. Turns out, getting ritualistically stabbed through the soul? Really sucks. Peridot has never experienced the likes of such sheer pain and discomfort before in her thousands of years of life. Like, sure, gems can get injured! They can feel pain, and exhaustion, heck, in her own personal experience, she has had literal boulders dropped on her, and been crushed by large metal machinery that was falling from a great height. Out of all of those horrible, agonizing experiences, none of that even comes CLOSE in comparison to this.

So yeah. She's not going anywhere for a bit. Those who have heard of her noble sacrifice and wish to pay her a visit can find her in her trailer in the Supervisor's Grove. Laying on her bunk. Groaning. Whining. Probably complaining loudly and asking people to poof her so she doesn't have to deal with being conscious for the healing process, because laying around doing fuck all is the absolute worst.

B) It's angst farming. We're farming angst. (Closed to Steven)
As it turns out, five days is about the limit of what Peridot can take on the whole "sit in one spot and do nothing..." thing. Part of her restlessness could be attributed to Amethyst's departure, which she's still feeling pretty miserable about. She'd actually considered going back to their own world for a brief visit herself, but her injuries pretty much made that not an option. Later in the week, perhaps.

Portland was... a lot. For a lot of people. Peridot is feeling the absence of friends here, but also confusion about her "family" from there... it's a lot to cope with, and now one of her best friends isn't even around to help her through it. As a remedy she's been looking for a new project to throw herself at in the meantime, while she tries to make sense of it all. Something to keep her focused and occupied so that she's not just sitting around mulling the same questions over and over and over in her head.

She remembers that the last time she'd felt such pangs of loneliness and restlessness, she'd picked up farming. Well... She may know now that corn isn't going to talk back to her, but the idea of planting, of making something grow for a change, is an appealing one. That's why she's down near the lake now, scoping out potential plots of land that she can turn into a garden instead of resting like she should probably still be doing.

...A lot of this scoping seems to involve feebly dragging herself around so she can scoop up claw-fulls of dirt, and lifting the soil to her face so that she can lick it. Mlem.

C) Down at the obstacle course (Later in the week). (OTA)
Not being a fighter, Peridot doesn't usually have much cause to come down to the training grounds anymore, now that construction is finished. But today, she actually has a reason to be here! A new part of her physical form that requires further testing and investigation.

It's a prehensile tail. Or to be more accurate, it's still her old tail, but it has suddenly become prehensile following her return from Portland. She wants to see what it can really do. So if you're down in the area for some practice, you may just come across a tiny green gem clumsily scampering all over the climbing based obstacles, swinging upside down and catching herself with a tail that basically functions as a third arm now.

Despite her energetic motions, she does not seem like she's in a particularly good mood.

D) Wildcard!
Peridot will be spending most of her time on the carnival grounds rather than in the Summer City, but you may spot her out there as well since she'll be there looking for seeds to bring back for the farm.

C

[hippocarnival]

The obstacle course seems like a good place for Yuya to try and stretch his limbs before attempting any death-defying acrobatic stunts. He's not near enough shape to perform, but light exercise should be fine by this point, right? He can feel his strength returning, even if it's only a little bit.

He doesn't join Peridot, though. At first he just watches her from the sidelines until her swinging around finally turns towards him--and then he offers her a smile and an enthusiastic wave.

Good to know she's recovering, too.

Re: C

[periphrasing]

Somehow, she hadn’t even considered that she might be gathering an audience. It’s not like she’s doing anything embarrassing, but Yuuya’s unexpected appearance startles her. She jerks with surprise and loses the grip she has with her tail, crashing to the ground and landing right on the very top of her head.

[hippocarnival]

"Ah--" Yuya gets up as she falls, making his way to her side to check up on Peridot. He sure didn't expect her to fall.

"Hey, are you okay?" Well, that's part of what he wanted to ask her anyway. Just not like this.

[periphrasing]

"Affirmative," the gem groans feebly. Indeed, her hair's kind of all messed up now, but other than that she's actually unscathed. Which is good, because your average human pulling off what she just did would probably result in a pretty serious neck injury.

Peridot sits up and scuffs some of the dirt our of her hair, and casts Yuya an odd look. "What do you want anyway? Please tell me you're not here because there's some other situation occurring that will require me to get soul-stabbed again."

She's... Only kind of joking.

[hippocarnival]

"What--no!" Yuya waves his hands, his expression sheepish. "No, I... uh, I actually wanted to apologize for that." For his really terrible warning and the pain it probably caused her--which he figures, given her ire right now, was severe. It sure was for him.

He rubs the back of his head absently. "I dragged you in really suddenly, and it ended up being really painful, and... sorry."

[periphrasing]

The gem looks surprised by that, sitting up a little straighter and blinking rapidly in her confusion. "It's fine," she acquiesces with a sigh, after a moment, her expression softening. "I mean, that was still a singularly painful and horrific experience that I never care to repeat in my life, but... I can also appreciate that we didn't exactly have the luxury of choice, at the time."

B

[starseedling]

When everyone had first gotten back to the carnival, Lion had abruptly appeared and completely bowled Steven over the moment he spotted him. He still has no idea what his feline friend was doing that whole experience, but whatever it was, it seemed to make him anxious in a way that Steven's never witnessed before.

So, they're going to spend some quality time together, Steven decided. There's a lot of people he feels like he should be spending some time with, and repairing the gaps left by being in Portland. Amethyst is gone already, and he doesn't know when she'll be back. Can't take any of this for granted.

He's planning on going back himself, even. Not for long. He doesn't want to leave anybody behind. It's just... it feels so far away, now.

Hanging out with Lion essentially means napping in Steven's experience, so as the sun is setting, the two of them are curled up together in the lake area. Bud is there too, and Steven is holding her nestled in his arms as Lion curls around the two of them, and it is all very serene - enough that it's pretty obvious when Peridot comes by, tiredly licking dirt. Steven sits up, and Lion makes a grumpy sound in reaction.

"Peridot!" he calls out, a little bit concerned. "I... didn't know you were up?"

Re: B

[periphrasing]

Peridot looks up abruptly in his direction, ears raised, still holding a fistful of dirt.

"Oh. Hi, Steven," she says mildly, uncharacteristically quiet. There's no exuberant greeting, no bounding over to greet him with a hug. It should be easy enough to tell that she's definitely not trying to be rude or stand-offish; she just seems exhausted. Which is kind of an unsettling look for her, to be frank. Clearly, she shouldn't be up and about...

[starseedling]

Steven frowns, though it's pretty much expected. He pats Lion on the mane, telling him that he'll he back in a minute, and gets up to go greet Peridot himself. He's still carrying Bud, though, who makes a few sleepy Fomantis noises while trying to cling to him with her mantis arms.

He knows she's just tired, but it's still a little awkward. She's been too exhausted for them to unpack much of what happened together, and he's not even sure if she wants to.

"Tasting... some dirt?" he asks, conversationally. Or an attempt at it, anyway.

[periphrasing]

“Eh—? Oh.” She opens her fist, letting the soil fall to the ground, wiping her hand briefly on her pants to get the excess off. “Yes, I was just attempting to identify a suitable location somewhere around the lake’s edge that I could set aside for a new plant kindergarten. I’m going to have a lot of free time in my schedule to restructure, now that…”

She trails off, the corners of her mouth quirking into an uncomfortable frown. She doesn’t want to say it out loud. Saying it out loud somehow makes it more real. But that’s stupid, she knows it’s stupid, and she knows that holding her tongue isn’t going to change things one lick. Such thoughts are all just sentiment, born from an inability to accept the truth.

“…Now that Amethyst is gone,” Peridot says finally.

[starseedling]

Steven is prepared to just be super into Peridot talking about gardens, hoping that it will help cheer her up, but then she goes straight into the actual problem - which is honestly surprising to him. He pauses and looks like he's going to say something, but then frowns and stops.

"Oh. Right." He manages, after tripping over a few other things he could say before they could make it to his mouth. He's just been waiting and hoping that her absence would be brief, but she never really gave anybody the chance to ask. He doesn't even know what she was doing that whole month.

"But... she'll be back, right? Like... the visits home are only supposed to be temporary, aren't they?"

[periphrasing]

"She has to be, at some point," Peridot agrees, scowling into the distance at nothing in particular. "She still has a contract to finish up."

C

[kingsroads]

That terrible mood is just going to get worse cause guess who's also shown up at the obstacle course, hint, it's Strange.

Strange certainly didn't come to the obstacle course to find new and inventive ways to cheat at the obstacle course, why would you think that? So far the cheating strategy involves 'call up the earth to make stairs or a bridge' but something more subtle would be best. Besides, he hasn't exactly practiced that cheating strategy yet and that doesn't help with the part of the obstacle course that Strange still hasn't found a way to cheat at: the dreaded rope climb.

That was stupid. He didn't have to climb ropes in the peninsula, he shouldn't have to do it now!

Unfortunately, as he reaches the training course, he spots Peridot. Strange still hasn't sorted out how precisely he feels about the gem: his dislike of her from the carnival keeps awkwardly butting up against his enjoyment of her from Portland. He's about to turn tail and just leave but, unfortunately, they make eye contact before he can do so.

"Glad to see you're in good shape," he can't help but remark, with a frown. Truth be told he is glad she's feeling better, but like hell he's going to tell her that.

[periphrasing]

Peridot returns that frown in kind, swinging up to perch and stare down at him from atop of one of the climbing bars. It actually puts her at a height taller than him, which makes for a nice change from the last time they ran into each other here.

"What do you want?" the gem asks without acknowledging his comment. Rather than sounding accusatory, she just sounds tired, unable to muster up the energy to put into being actively unpleasant or standoffish.

[kingsroads]

"I was going to train," Strange responds. He also sounds tired, though not as tired as Ms. Stabbed In The Soul over there. He also won't put more effort into being annoyed with Peridot because he did try to kill her during the ritual, even if that attempt was short-lived. He can be decent for a little while. "After all, this is a training ground."

He's just not going to train in the way that one would expect using a training ground. Unconventional training still counts as training.

[periphrasing]

"Hmmmm," is all Peridot has to say to that. She's still boring into Strange with narrowed eyes, her tail dangling off of the perch and swishing slowly.

"I received your missive," she informs him after a too-long pause, and gives absolutely no indication as to how its contents were received. If the awkwardness of this conversation is getting to her, she sure as hell isn't showing it.

[kingsroads]

Strange just kind of stands around awkwardly and is about to just go start training himself when Peridot starts talking again. His missive? That's an oddly fancy way to describe two sentences scribbled on paper and shoved underneath her door.

"Good," Strange simply responds, before he starts walking over towards the training area. "Half the carnival don't have any form of mailbox set up, I've no idea if they've even seen them or just kicked them underneath the couch." This is apparently a point of annoyance for Strange.

[periphrasing]

Here she was, all prepared to give Strange shit for not apologizing for the thing that actually bothered her because yes, she's still more sore about him blaming the vampire incident on the failings of her tech than she is about his aborted attempt to kill her, and he's... Walking away without a single mention of the incident.

"You should just do what I do when I need to apologize," Peridot suggests, turning to watch him. "Record your apology onto a tape recorder and then demand that the person you're apologizing to sit still and listen while you play it back for them. And speaking of apologies..."

Are you picking up what she's putting down, Strange? She's waiting.

C / Wildcard

[cawnviction]

Crow has met a couple of people since his arrival to the carnival. Gotten some of his bearings, but he's itching to do something, anything, to keep his mind off what he'd left behind in his world and his rage fuelled encounter with his brother and his Dark Signer friend on his first day.

He figures he'd better get on to meeting this Peridot person he's supposed to be working under for a year. 'Short' and 'green', Yuya had said she looked like. So how hard can it be finding someone who looks like that? Yeah.

Eventually, Crow happens upon her while she's in the training grounds. From the description, he had expected some weirdness but he hadn't expected her to look... not human. But... he hasn't seen anyone else match that description, so there's nothing but to go for it!

"Hey!" he calls out while she's making use of the obstacle course. She doesn't look anything like a monkey, but with all the swinging around... "Monkey lady! You Peridot?"

[periphrasing]

"Nyeh!?!"

Peridot hears the sound of her name and immediately pauses what she's doing to try and pinpoint the source of it, scrambling up to perch atop one of the climbing obstacles that she's in the middle of using. She tracks the source of the sound back to... A human? One who she hasn't seen around here before, but who apparently knows her name already. Peridot appraises Crow through slightly narrowed eyes, a suspicious frown quirking her lips.

"Well first of all, I'm not a monkey," she corrects him dryly. "But to answer your question: Yes. I am Peridot. How can I be of assistance?"

[cawnviction]

Oh good, he's got the right person!

Suspicion... well, that's something he's used to dealing with. Nothing he's never seen before. Crow waves a hand dismissively, the other on his hip. "Heard you're my boss while I'm stuck working here."

Grinning broadly, as if he doesn't have a care in the world, Crow jerks a thumb back at his chest. "The name's Crow. I fix and modify stuff back home, but I can pick up new stuff real quick."

[periphrasing]

This information gets her to change her tune right quick. Peridot sits up a little straighter, her ears raised with interest.

"Oh! So you're a new recruit!" she says brightly. The gem swings down from her perch to approach; she lands kind of heavily on the ground, wobbling for a second as she rises to make her way over to him, already appraising him carefully.

The first thing Crow will probably notice, now that they're on equal ground, is just how short she actually is. Peridot extends a clawed hand, offering a polite shake. "The name's Peridot, and I'm what they call the Engineer around these parts. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Does it matter that she already knows he clearly already knows her name and title? NOPE, because this is a speech that she has memorized and adopted as part of her Cool and Friendly Boss persona, and goshdarnit she is going to stick to the script.

[cawnviction]

Crow terribly very tall himself, clocking in at 5' 9", but wow she's short. Puny, even? But he knows better than to underestimate someone who's small in size, heh. "Likewise." Crow reaches down and grips the clawed hand without hesitation, shaking it firmly before letting go.

Hesitation doesn't come naturally to Crow and neither does holding back his immediate thoughts. "I heard you were green, but not this green. You've been here a long time or something?"

Sorry I USUALLY TRY TO BE FASTER THAN THIS I'm in moving/packing hell

[periphrasing]

Peridot chuckles at him without missing a beat. She gets asked this question. A lot.

"Oh, no no no." Pause. "Well. I mean, yes, I have been here for quite some time, but that doesn't account for my color. I'm a gem! Green is my natural complexion." She jerks her head and waves for him to follow, and starts heading towards the exit to the obstacle course. "C'mon. I'll give you the tour while we chat a bit. Get nice and acquainted."