lostcarnival | ⇨ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Which is an understandable mistake, really. The aesthetics that come with being a gem could easily come from just living at the carnival too. Nope, though. The gem is purely his.

He swallows.

"That's because Rose Quartz was my mom," he says, hesitantly. "I'm only half gem, so... It's different for me." Which probably rings a lot of bells regarding his Portland situation. Rose Quartz? Rose Queen? Honestly.

Strange normally isn't the most observant sort of person. But even he can pick up the hesitancy in Steven's voice as he talks about his mother and he can pick up the parallels to the Portland situation. Hmm. It would probably be a good idea to not talk about Rose Quartz here and now, though he's burning at the seams with more questions. Portland's still on everybody's mind, after all.

"That's one of things I enjoy most about the carnival," Strange says, seemingly out of nowhere, though he'll quickly explain himself. "Back in my England, I've never met any gems. I've had no idea that they even existed. But here, I've met some and I'm learning so much about them--and you--than I ever would back home."

And at least in Strange's mind, that knowledge for the sake of knowledge, exploring things because they could, it's downright amazing.

Honestly, though Steven pauses for a moment to process that, his posture relaxes a little bit as Strange makes his observation - it's sort of a sweet sentiment, and one that speaks to Steven on a primal level. It's actually really difficult to prevent himself from reacting to that optimism with optimism in kind.

"That's right," Steven says, and he smiles sincerely, which looks kind of funny given how dramatic his make-up and wardrobe is right now. "Learning about people from different places can be so exciting, and..." Images of Homeworld flash through his mind, and he loses track of his thoughts.

He pauses, the momentum leaving him as he exhales.

The pause is enough to grab Strange's attention. He pauses for a moment before talking. He's already had one argument with Peridot as a result of his occasional thoughtlessness and Steven's been put through the ringer for the past month. For the first time in literal ages, Strange pauses and thinks before he decides not to ask about whatever's caused Steven to lose track of his thoughts.

Instead, he decides to shift the conversation to something else. They can talk more about different places later if they wanted.

"Of course, for me it's different times as well." And then, he realizes something. "You know, I don't think I ever asked you this: around what year are you from?"

That draws back Steven's attention, and for the moment he's almost forgotten that he's wearing a silly outfit and trying to be professionally sad. Almost. Still, it's enough for him to smile a bit again and give a more enthusiastic kind of reply.

"Oh, um... about 2015? When are you from? I guess you do dress kind of old timey..." Is this from Buddy's time period, he wonders? A lot of history just blends together in Steven's mind.

"1816--I'm from around two hundred years in your past." There we go. He still doesn't know what entirely to do with Steven's professional sadness and certainly doesn't know what to do to help poor Steven cope with any problems he's having, but he can easily distract the boy with fun questions about what an old fart Strange is and how timelines are crazy.

At least they might be able to get some mileage out of 'what do you mean you've never done this thing' for a while.

"Wow," Steven says, his lion ears lifting curiously. "They probably didn't have electricity or anything back then!" At least, he thinks so. His concept of history is honestly pretty foggy. "Did you ever go to America?"

He's basically assuming that Strange and Buddy are from the same time period, for no particular reason beyond them both being from 'the past.'

"They didn't and I haven't. I spent most of my time in England, though I did go to the continent occasionally. I was staying in Venice when I signed onto the carnival."

Once again, it doesn't really occur to Strange that Steven might not know which continent he's talking about when he says things like 'the continent.'

⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

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