lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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.

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When Ginko gets close enough to see what's forming the break in the thick grass, and why, it takes a moment of effort, and a hand pressed over his mouth, to keep himself from laughing.

He crouches down next to Doll and cups his hands gently under the butterfly, seeing if he can get it to step onto his hands so he can get it off her face.

Don't laugh Ginko, she is a portrait of true suffering and endurance under fire here!

She closes her eye as Ginko attempts to gently lift the butterfly off her face. There is a bit of flustered flapping, but the butterfly happily transfers onto Ginko's hands. It likes it better, it's much higher than Doll's nose.

Doll, meanwhile, sits up and lets out a breath she's been holding for who knows how long. "Pah! Finally!" She looks at Ginko and her butterfly captor, grass in her hair, looking thoroughly harassed. "Little bugger couldn't make up 'is mind f'r nearly an hour!"

Once the butterfly has wandered onto just one of his hands, he slides the other into his pocket.

"You've been here for an hour?" Doll, you are not making this less funny. "That's some serious endurance, I'll give you that."

She's really not making it less of a point-and-laugh moment, but she doesn't mind. She's free of her immense burden, and the butterfly is cheerily wandering Ginko's hand. Win-win.

"Good thing I was lyin' down, otherwise coulda fainted dead away." In reality, it was probably like twenty minutes, but just laying there and staring at the sky while trying not to move tends to drag time out a little.

It's been a long time since she's seen Ginko, she realizes. One of the side-effects of Portland and how the dice rolled, so to speak. She's glad he's alright, and offers him a smile that's maybe a little more tired than usual. "Y'enjoyin' th'break?"

"Pretty lucky, huh." He hides his smile and sits down, extracting his hand from his pocket so he can keep his balance while he does.

"Absolutely. Seems like everyone needed one, after all... that." He makes a face. No need to elaborate further, he suspects - Doll's experience was presumably far different from his, but it seems safe to assume that it would have been just as strenuous, if not more so. "I take it you're having a good time?"

Butterfly problems aside.

"It's a nice place," Doll says, trying to sound enthusiastic. It's a work in progress, though, the return of her boundless enthusiasm for life and its mysteries. Portland is still running circles around her head, and she keeps thinking back to the many memories she has of it.

"Back at th'workhouse me 'n Joker used t'live at, there was a great big field too! Lots of grass, more grass than I'd ever seen b'fore! This just takes the cake, though." She inhales deeply and lets it out. "Smells real good out here."

"Sounds pretty nice." He lets out a quiet huff of air, staring up at the sky. "I can hardly imagine living anywhere without green in it for too long... except for in winter, I guess. That's kind of unavoidable."

Except for in the Carnival.

"It's not as nice, livin' without green," Doll agrees, laying back down so she can look at the sky too. "B'fore th'workhouse, we lived in th'East End. We were a right odd bunch of ragamuffins, sleepin' in alleys, never really seein' nothin' green an' fancy." Yes, Doll thinks grass is fancy.

"I dunno that I could go back t'the city. We traveled 'round so much, slept in so many fields, I got used ta it. Could fall asleep out here!"

Ginko goes quiet for a few seconds, watching Doll out of the corner of his eye. This... is about the first he's heard of that. Joker has talked about his family, of course, about the circus and all its performers - but never about sleeping in alleys.

He kind of doubts he'd find much out if he asked Joker, and he supposes he shouldn't push Doll about it. So he's just quiet for a moment before replying.

"Not gonna get any argument out of me. I never liked cities much, myself." He looks away again, a smile pulling at his mouth. "Places like this really are some of the best to fall asleep in, if you ask me."

"Oh they're not terrible jus'-- y'know, not as nice. Town's where y'see all the nicely dressed people! Ladies and their tall hats 'n such." She dresses very plainly, but her performance costume betrays how much she likes flowers and bows and frills. But they're special things, of course.

"Yeah-- I bet, when it gets dark, y'can see all the stars f'r miles 'n miles," she says, spreading her hands out. "Bet it's a right pretty thing t'see...

"C'mon, lay down, lay down!" she urges, patting the space behind Ginko.

He gives a soft laugh. "Guess so, huh? I spent more time in villages, myself, but you didn't seem to find many rich people there, either."

He guesses that's the benefit of being able to live where you want. Instead of wherever you get stuck, or anywhere you can get.

Her urging gets another laugh, and he lifts his hand a little to encourage the butterfly to fly off before he lies back in the grass. "Hey, y'don't have to tell me twice, you know."

Excellent. Doll squirms a little to make sure Ginko has enough room to lay down, grinning as the butterfly finally takes off to go harangue some other poor soul. Once the man is settled, Doll scoots closer and just... makes herself at home against him, her head resting against his shoulder. Not in a flirtatious or sensual way, she just wants to be close to somebody.

"Ahh, there we are," she says happily, closing her eyes. "Now I c'n really fall asleep right here. No stars, but nothin' wrong with a little mid-afternoon nap."

Ginko, admittedly, tenses a little when Doll moves. It's not like she's doing anything wrong, but being touched in any way still comes as something of a surprise, even after his time in the carnival.

He relaxes after just a moment, though, giving a quiet laugh. "You're not going to hear any argument from me on that. Sleeping in the sun is nice in its own way, anyway."

She's used to the tensing up-- most people don't expect her to get so friendly so quick, but she's learned that if they don't push her off immediately, it's probably okay.

~~Look Joker raised her, she can't be expected to have perfect manners.~~

"Mm, sure is, 'specially on lazy days where ya don't hafta be nowhere or do nothin'..." She presses her face into Ginko's shoulder and wiggles closer. There's a long stretch of silence where she listens to the grass and starts thinking.

"Hey Ginko? C'n I ask you somethin'? It's a tough question, I dunno that there's an answer."

~~That's okay, Ginko barely knows what qualifies as good or bad manners anyway.~~

He gives a hum of agreement, then goes quiet until she speaks up again. Her question gets a small nod, and he twists to look at her. "Sure. I can try and answer the best I can, anyway."

She licks her lips briefly, trying to form the question in the most succinct way she can. "If... if y'didn' have no place t'go, an' y'had a choice t'stay here, would ya? Or d'ya think it's so bad here, that anythin' else would be better?"

...Ah.

For few seconds, Ginko goes quiet, staring up at the sky. Of course, Doll has no way of knowing how relevant that question actually is to Ginko's situation. If he goes back 'home', there will be nothing waiting for him. No great purpose to fulfill, nobody who he saw more than a few times a year, anyway. Sure, seeing Isaza or Adashino again would be nice, but... Before he did, there would be months and months of wandering in the way.

And yet, the carnival is certainly far from perfect, and seems to be getting riskier to stay in lately. He's had his doubts about whether he should stay, whether he can stay, what it will mean for him and those around him if he does.

But, all the same...

"...I think... I would stay. I can't speak for you, of course, but... I can imagine far worse things than staying here."

Doll looks at him while he speaks, taking in his answer and weighing it carefully. It's nice to hear that she's not the only one who thinks that things could be worse, but she's misjudged this situation once. She's not about to do it again without getting some second opinions.

"...in ah. In Portland?" she starts it like a question, in case he wants her to stop and not talk about it. "I made a contract with a demon. I had a memory of bein' picked up for a human sacrifice ritual, 'n the demon that came outta it saw I was dyin' and offered t'save me. I wanted ta live, so I said yes, I guess. Even though I prob'ly knew it was no good thing. Couple times, when we were act'lly there, I wondered if it woulda been better ta just... have said no back then. If it was braver."

She swallows. "I wanted ta make sure Joker'd be alright when I made a contract with th'Ringmaster. ...but I also wanted to live. Joker doesn' know that, he wanted me ta stay far away from this, but now I know how he must feel. Worryin' 'bout me all the time. An' I wonder... if I shoulda been brave and just..."

Accepted that she was dead and putting Joker through hell wasn't worth her life? Maybe?

"He said, all I gotta do is wait a year, 'n then it'll be over. But-- I'm afraid of what happens if I go."

That's... a lot to take in, for sure. It wouldn't quite be accurate to say it was more than Ginko expected, since he didn't have a lot in the way of expectations of what she might say to begin with. He's been here long enough to know better than to expect things about people's pasts.

There are a few moments before he replies, thinking over what all Doll said, but... the answer seems clear enough to him, when it comes down to it.

"Nobody can blame you for wanting to live - and you shouldn't blame yourself, either. I can see why you're worried, but you aren't obligated to risk giving up your life. I doubt that Joker would want you to, either. If he's upset about you being here, it's just because he thinks that you're in more danger than you were before... if you're not sure of that, and tell him as much, I think he'll understand."

She was a little afraid he was going to say that. Telling Joker did seem to be the easiest way to express her worries and reasoning, but her brother always seemed so stressed or just unwilling to talk about serious things that she never knew how to tell him without causing some kind of... distressing thing.

"I don' wanna upset him. Even though he couldn't 'ave done nothin', he'll feel somethin' terrible. How c'n I do that t'him right after what 'appened in Portland?"

"...Guess that makes sense." For all that Joker tries to pretend not to be bothered by anything, Ginko has noticed enough bits and pieces, tiny slip-ups, to come to suspect otherwise - and the more he hears from Doll, the more sure he is that there's something to those suspicions.

"Then... wait a while before telling him. But you should, eventually. In the meantime, maybe just talk to him, try and find out if there's anything you could do here that would make him feel better about all this."

"I told him, I promised him, that I would be careful. That I'd hide if he wanted me ta hide, stay back if he wanted me ta stay back-- 'n I will, I swear I will if it'll make 'im feel better."

Doll swallows and takes a moment to scrub at her eye and over her covered cheek. Nothing to see here, just a normal conversation. "Who'll look after 'im, though? If I'm not there?"

"Then that's something. It's better than nothing, you've made an effort." He doesn't know how reassuring any of this is, but-- he can hardly think of what else to say.

He twists to look over at her, letting out a quiet breath. "...We will. I promise you, Psi and I and the rest of the carnival are going to do whatever we can to take care of Joker. If you need to focus on keeping him from worrying, you can do that. Just do whatever you'd be most comfortable with."

Somehow it's not very reassuring, but Doll knows it's the best anyone can say. Right now, the only thing she can do is try to stay safe for Joker's sake, as best she can. That's all she can do, and surely Joker understands that.

Over her time at the carnival, she'd come to realize that Joker seemed to know the majority of the people-- and the majority seemed to really like him. Care for him. Ginko promising to look after Joker solidifies that supposition, and Doll stares at Ginko in understanding and perhaps... a little bit of sadness. She smiles through it though, like she always does, and hugs Ginko's arm a little closer.

"He's got a family here, don't he?" She'd never had to worry to begin with.

"...I suppose he does." He's got Psi, anyway, and he certainly seems close to all the performers. Ginko is pretty sure he's just in the 'friend' category, but... that's not a bad thing, really.

"But even if he worries, it must be good for him to have some of his family from home here, too."

⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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