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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Lambert glances over his shoulder, with obvious surprise and wariness that quickly settles once she tells him she has good news. People rarely seek him out for good news, after all. Most of the time, it's to tell him either something's gone terribly wrong, or they need him to kill something. Often both.

He had little enough interaction with Blue before the Carnival got dragged to Portland, but lucky for him? Her name is pretty literal, and she's pretty memorable.

"Oh yeah?" He gives her a smirk that mostly (he hopes) conceals how out of breath he really is. "What is it?"

"The silver-plated sword you'd asked for before ... all that recent trouble." Did he recall it? She hadn't forgotten, or the discussion about vampires. After Portland it seemed a little more important to have the proper weapons on hand. "I haven't been able to locate steel weapons with silver edges, but there is a smith here who makes blades that are both silver and hold a keen edge."

Fae magic, go figure. But if it works that's what's important. And perhaps if the fae sorcery part was uncomfortable, a visit with Mr. Strange could be arranged. "I have not yet acquired it for you because there are apparently many types of swords and I do not know which exactly you favor."

But she's so pleased at having found one.

To tell the truth, he'd entirely forgotten about it, but as she brings it up now, that at least prompts the recollection at the back of his mind. Point in her favor, though he didn't see anyone he recognized as her during that whole ... situation, so perhaps she'd retained all her memories then or didn't get up to much trouble.

"Huh," he says, with a blink. "That's handy." Handy enough to make him get off his ass and to his feet, forgetting about the whole 'resting' thing.

"Could you show me where they are?"

Blue the demon had been a fairly wary sort of creature, generally unwilling to get too embroiled in other people's bullshit. It served her and her family well enough but some events that others had experienced and knew well, she only had passing knowledge of now. Those didn't trouble her. The relationships did.

But she hadn't had any with Lambert so she can continue on as if nothing had occurred! "Of course. It is a bit of a walk however."

She ... wasn't overly familiar with how tired humans looked and what exhaustion even was, but maybe he was sitting here for a reason. "If the day's heat troubles you we can go slowly. I do not think the circus will be moving for a while, so there is no need to be rushing about if it is better to be otherwise."

"I'll be fine," Lambert answers, with an automatic scowl, pushing against the compulsion to be honest. He isn't, really. As Blue suspects, he sat down for a reason to begin with, but he's still furious at his own body's inability to recover as quickly as he wants it to, still wants to push it as much as he can. It's not as though he was the one to get stabbed by some holy artifact.

"There's nothing else to do, anyway. Having a new sword to get used to would be a better way to spend my time. Lead on." He nods for Blue to go ahead and show him the way, though if she does so he'll have to stop and catch his breath, light headed from the exertion.

The scowl is noted, with a slight arch of one eyebrow. She could question it, but ... she chooses not to. Somehow it seemed unlikely he was actually fine, and she decides the best choice of action was to simply keep an eye on it.

"Occasionally, doing nothing is the best thing to be doing." But her smile is easy, and Blue turns as bidden, waiting only until Lambert is at her side before proceeding. It's easy to lead from such a stance anyway, and let her keep closer watch. Her pace is ... languid, and there's really no telling if her casual stroll is on purpose for him, or because she simply can't be bothered to be rushed.

"It seems I should be able to pay for your blade using funds from the carnival, though I'm not entirely certain yet how that process works."

Lambert has the nagging sense he's being humored here, but ... he can't actually complain about the results. Blue keeps it to a pace that even he doesn't have too much trouble keeping up with, which means he's also got enough breath to talk.

"I've never tried it before either," he shrugs. "Without a treasurer around, I guess the Ringmaster would be the person to ask, but..." She's kind of indisposed, right now. Being an egg will tend to do that.

"Was that really the first thing you did when we got here? Go looking for a silver sword?"

It's hard to ask someone while they're still in their gem (egg, it's an egg, Blue), but she intended to once the Ringmaster actually emerged again. "I suppose it can wait for the time being. We will likely be here for a while."

And after the mess of the last month surely everyone wouldn't mind it. The people here were friendly enough, and the climate was pleasant, there was nothing hostile going on.. why not enjoy it? "Well.."

Her smile is back, though it's faint. She was amused, she just needed to work a little more at schooling herself. She'd been positively un-Diamondly in Portland. "Not the very first thing. I was searching for a few small items of personal interest and happened to notice a certain shop selling weapons. And of metals I didn't think could ever actually be used for cutting."

Silver, gold. Ones she didn't recognize. There was an absolute dearth of iron, but if fae had issues with it, that did make sense.

"She's the one moving the carnival. Can't exactly go anywhere without her," Lambert agrees, shrugging. Though he knows in his head that the respite is something needed physically, it's doing nothing for his mind. Too much time to think about things that shouldn't matter.

'Small items of personal interest,' though ... Lambert has a few things that qualify as that, himself. "Seems funny they'd have weapons, given how quiet this place is supposed to be," he says, off handed. "Hope they're more than just ceremonial."

"Preparedness is always wise." And keeping the quartzes, citrines and agates of this place equipped and ready to go seemed just as wise given everything Blue had been learning about the countless foes the Carnival seemed to collect.

Lambert happened to be one of those guards. Besides, he'd actually asked for something specific. "As far as I am able to discern they are true weapons and not merely .. ornaments. The weapon I examined for example held an edge against a steel bar quite reasonably."

At least she remembers exactly where they needed to go. The fae here and there are politely ignored, winged or no wings. They had places to be! At a rather slow pace, but. "Had it been the only one of keen edge I would have acquired it immediately but as there is a variety it seems wisest to allow the one who will wield it to select."

"Preparedness keeps people from getting killed. Or at least makes it a whole less likely," is Lambert's opinion on that. It's troublesome when half the Carnival seem fairly capable combatants in their own right, and the other half are ... children and adults who've never held a blade. Lambert's glad his job isn't trying to protect them, because he wouldn't know how to start.

"Good call," he nods. It's a statement of fact, more than anything else. "Though if it turns out to be any good, we might look into what else is worth arming the carnival with." He's skeptical, but only because the Summer Fae seem ... not a particularly aggressive bunch.

With the pace Blue is keeping, it's easy enough for him to keep up. As slowly as she's going, pushing himself to go any faster isn't actually going to accomplish anything except make him out of breath, but it does give him too much time to think and ask questions. Like...

"What weapons are you used to, in your own world?"

Edited 2017-08-30 13:43 (UTC)

There's a thoughtful patch of silence and a nod. Without anyone else really handling requisitions right now, that was going to fall on her shoulders, which she was ... actually rather comfortable with. Answering to someone else was the strange part in all of it! "Especially given our recent new foes."

She'd love to get cold iron into circulation but that was likely never going to happen.

Although it's not obvious, Blue is paying attention to how he's doing. If he becomes obviously and visibly tired, well even she recognizes that, and another stop can be conveniently found. Perhaps he needed more care from a medic!

"Hmmm." Weapons. She tucks her hands up her sleeves, thinking. "There isn't much we don't use as a weapon, depending on the circumstances and individual. Swords, spears, pikes, shields.. whips, chains. Energy weapons, projectiles.." Her society apparently isn't even REMOTELY picky. "Occasionally orbital weaponry or ship-based. In individual one-on-one combat however melee weapons of the traditional sort are preferred."

Considering Lambert's hit the point of fae transformation where he would definitely not even be able to hold iron without flinching anymore? Yeah, getting cold iron probably isn't going to be a thing.

Given how handily Peridot had whipped up the robots for the course, Lambert had some impression of the offensive capability of gems, but not exactly the whole picture.

"Orbital weaponry?" From the way he says the words, it's clear he doesn't fully grasp what they mean, but it sounds like pretty serious business. "How much fighting do gems do?"

"Truthfully not that much as of late." Not for a few thousand years, but you never know and it's best to be prepared! "But the utility of such weapons in mundane service cannot be denied."

She did favor things that have more than one use, but that too wasn't really Blue's purview. Sure, the occasional gem of her court might be involved, but rarely directly, they usually had other duties to attend to. "We are not particularly a warlike species, though we often choose to be prepared in the chance of encountering a hostile rival race."

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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