lostcarnival | ⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

Blue is still under the vague impression humans did clothes the way gems did, and thus nothing as odious as unwashed laundry even enters her worldview! That's going to be a jarring thought once she realizes it, but for now that's just a tumble of random cloth that surely isn't important.

More interestingly, there's magic again and while it seems far less elaborate than what was before, it also seemed to have a whole lot more practical use. "You prefer such lighting over something a little more modern?"

It had its charms. A warm glow. One she knew she could replicate with a good craftsgem.. The vaccuum is set back down in an open space, and a moment taken to find the cord and begin unwinding it. That at least is obvious, and she heads for Strange with the business-looking end of said cord. Probably this would be obvious too. "The ringmaster certainly likes keeping your kind in these tiny cramped spaces.."

Tiny and cramped for a diamond maybe.

"I do," Strange responds, as he plugs the vacuum in to the outlet. "I suppose it's because I'm used to it. We didn't have half of these comforts back when I lived."

And yet, he's adapted enough that there are traces of modernity in the trailer. An electric kettle filched from somewhere, furniture arranged so that nothing blocks the outlets, and so on and so forth. He walks back over to the vacuum, giving it another once-over. That should hopefully work.

Though, as Blue mentions the tiny and cramped space, Strange can't help but laugh. "I'll grant that it's tiny and cramped but honestly, I've slept in worse conditions. At least here there's a comfortable bed and a roof over my head--which is more than the peninsula could give at times." Just said very matter-of-fact as if Blue would somehow know what the peninsula is.

Context tells her that it must have been his home, and she knows what a peninsula is at least, so ... it's easy to assume, and possibly wrongly, that he simply lived on such a place and it had tiny buildings. Why did humans enjoy tiny buildings so much? "Due to a lack of trade, or finances?"

Time travel, and people being pulled from other eras, has not yet been a thing she'd really thought about. It simply hasn't come up.

Now that the vacuum is plugged in, she sets the long hose and its business end aside for Strange to make use of, looking about for a piece of furniture that looked too big for him to move. That looked vaguely like a couch.. "The Ringmaster is at least generous in providing shelter for those who need it."

The couch is prodded dubiously, and then a hunt begins for somewhere to actually grab it from. Only option, the bottom edge. It comes off the ground with possibly alarming ease. What lies beneath remains to be seen!

As Blue goes to grab the bottom edge of the couch, Strange takes a few steps forward, as if to try and stop her from lifting (after all, he's going to help)...but then she just straight up easily lifts the entire thing.

Huh. Alright then. He didn't expect her to be that strong. It is fairly dirty under the couch, though most of the mess is dust and cobwebs. A few items have rolled under there as well: a shotglass, a candle, a few sheets of paper. Strange quickly moves towards the couch to pick up all the things that are too big to vacuum up before he starts the actual vacuuming. Those items are deposited in a stack on the floor, a few feet away from the couch.

Of course, he can still talk while picking up the too big to vacuum items. "It was due to the fact that it was war. I was on the front lines in the peninsula--half the time we'd sleep wherever we could find a roof over our heads, even if there weren't any beds or the roof wasn't intact in the first place. The trailers may be smaller than I'm used to, but at least I'm not rained on."

It'd be even more effortless for some other gems, but it seems being big has advantages. She'd probably get tired of holding it there eventually but for now, it's little enough to concern herself with for now. "Are wars terribly common among organics? You fight your own kind, or other species?"

Idle curiosity mostly, though you better believe she's watching what he does with that stuff that can't be vaccuumed; knowing what the machine can and can't do before finding out the hard way seemed wise. "..If you do not mind my asking. If it is a troublesome memory, please, disregard my question."

"I don't mind at all." Though, there are a few signs that Strange does mind. His expression tightens and he seems a little bit off and dazed as he talks about war. He doesn't really meet Blue's eyes, instead focusing on picking up some of the smaller things that would mess up the vacuum: paper clips, rubber bands, and so on. "They're terribly common, I'm afraid, and usually last multiple years. We fight our own kind--there isn't really another species to fight against."

By now, Strange has finished moving all the objects that would mess up the vacuum. "I'll be happy to talk more after this is done."

And, he flicks on the vacuum and it starts making loud vacuum noises. He starts vacuuming where the couch was--after all, he doesn't want Blue to hold it longer than she has to. And as he vacuums, it's pretty obvious that Strange has only used a vacuum once or twice in his life. He misses a few spots, he doesn't really have a pattern, and the entire effort is quite haphazard.

It's normal human signs of stress, and Blue.. isn't really familiar with them enough to pick up on it easily. It's probably for the best that shortly there's a noisy vaccuum cleaner going, which prevents any further questioning for a while.

It gives her time to think though, after a noticeable start at the sheer NOISE that thing makes. There were surely other species to fight. They seemed to have a war with their environment going as well.. but perhaps not on the peninsula Strange had called home.

The haphazard way he's using the vaccuum is clearly the hand of an expert, and she's going to do it exactly the way he is, later on in her own dwelling. That's how it's supposed to be used! Once the vaccuuming is SURELY FINISHED (it looks reasonable to her, but she had a lot of learning to do in that respect too), and the machine out of the way, the couch is set back down carefully. Dropping things made out of wood tended to break them. "I admit I had presumed there was an interplanetary argument, what with the vehicle and flag of ownership left upon your moon."

Eventually, the floor under the couch passes Strange's standards of 'good enough' and 'not a complete horrorshow.' He moves the vacuum out of the way, switches it off, and is about to tell Blue that she could set the couch down when she does so already. Perfect! That's one chore done and they made a wonderful team while doing so.

Unfortunately for Strange, this means it's back to talking about war. Fortunately for Strange, Blue's next sentence confuses him so much that he almost forgets about his reluctance to have this conversation.

A flag on the moon? A vehicle on the moon? What on earth vehicle could that be? Strange still defaults to things like 'boats' and 'carriages' when he thinks of vehicles, how could one of those get on the moon to begin with. He can't help but give Blue an entirely confused look.

"I'm afraid I've no idea what you're talking about," he admits. "I didn't know there was anything on the moon in the first place."

With the couch back down and the vaccuum off, the quiet afterward is almost deafening. Was that always going to happen?

"There's quite a few things on the moon," she responds with a brief, gently amused smile. "Only a small number of those crafted by human hands. Perhaps it was not your peninsula-folk who did it, but some tribe or other has chosen to put their claim there."

Maybe one of the ones who make the tall buildings, they seemed reasonably advanced for a primitive meat culture. Given a few more thousand years they might well be headed in the right direction!

Then again if humans were always fighting each other.. maybe this other group were Strange's enemies. "I admit I did not spend long looking, I was not supposed to be there." Or in Earth's vicinity at all for that matter!

Strange is still very confused. There's multiple things on the moon? And multiple things made by people on the moon? He's trying to rack his brain, thinking of if there's a way magic could send something to the moon but no, that can't be it, he can't think of any spells that could do something...though the idea is quite tempting, maybe if he used something like gunpowder and enhanced the projectile with magic, then it could work.

"Maybe this is one of those odd future things, because I'm fairly certain no one on my Earth could put something on the moon to begin with." In fact, the more Strange thinks about it, the more certain he is that it has to be one of those odd future things, like computers or anything digital. But that doesn't change the fact that he has no idea why someone would just put something on the moon.

And wait, Blue was on the moon?! Strange rubs his temple sightly, as if trying to stave off a headache. "How on earth did you go to the moon?"

"Or perhaps your peninsula is not enjoying the full benefits of human technology." She sounds thoughtful, as if it's a musing thought as opposed to an absolute. Time travel, as far as Blue is concerned, is completely impossible. If it were possible she wouldn't be here now!

The question on how she got there draws a laugh from the gem. When was the last time she'd actually laughed? It's not a bad sound at least, warm and pleasant. "Mister Strange, did you think I am an Earthling?" She shakes her head, amusement threatening every word. "I am from a planet very, very far away. Although some gems are made on Earth, I am not one of them. Traveling through space is as easy for my people as traveling over the sea is for yours."

A little part of Strange just smarts that he's being laughed at. However, Blue's laughter is pleasant, not mocking, so after one obligatory annoyed frown he'll let it slide, as his expression shifts into something more pleasant yet quizzical.

"Truth be told, I thought you were something more like the fae." Large, strong, a different color, oddly alien in some respects. It's not a bad guess, especially considering that the gems Strange has had the most contact with are Steven and Peridot, both of whom aren't exactly emblematic of the gem race. And honestly, Strange kind of wishes that Blue was something more like the fae. He's able to wrap his head around the whole different species bit, but space travel? How does he even start to understand that?

"What about traveling through realms?" he can't help but ask. And then, as a point of clarification, he continues. "My world has the realm of men but also has the realm of faerie. In times of old, one could visit faerie by finding a brugh or some form of road or path that leads to there. Now, it can only be accessed through the mirrors."

"We do seem to share some things with the fae. But I must admit they are a mystery even to me." They looked organic, sometimes they even were, but other times they were smokeless fire or only smoke or strange creatures that defied reasonable scientific explanation. "Gems, much like humanity, are firmly rooted in the physical."

Although a good gem knew how to tie that into decorative knots and spit it out in such a fashion where it did resemble magic quite a bit.

Blue doesn't respond immediately, weighing this idea of 'realms' versus what she knew of reality. It did sound about right for different planes of existence, but traveling through them and being able to inhabit that place? "We do travel through them," she concludes at length, brow slightly furrowed. "But we cannot stop there. We call them other dimensions, and they are convenient to get from here to there far quicker than would ordinarily be possible." She shakes her head slightly. "Passing into such a place via a mirror and surviving it is beyond us."

It was ... almost a little insulting, thinking humans could do something a gem could not. Maybe being meat offered them special protections from the higher dimensions. "Though this is the realm of faerie now, is it not? Could you return home through a mirror?"

With a little smile, Strange shakes his head. "I cannot. The king's roads, what I use as the link between realms, aren't connected to the carnival. I can still travel through the mirrors, though I can only do it from mirror to mirror within carnival grounds."

Which, granted, is still pretty impressive, at least in his mind. But wouldn't it be amazing if Strange could somehow slip back home, just to check up on people or accomplish what needs to be accomplished, and slip back to the carnival within a few hours?

"If there was some way for the Ringmaster to connect the carnival to the king's roads, then I'm certain I could return home. However, I doubt that will happen." Partly because why would she do anything that might herald the loss of one of her employees, partly because the king's roads were built by the Raven King, a powerful magician from Strange's world, and it might not be a good idea to interfere with someone else's magic.

Though he can't help but feel a little bit smug as Blue mentioned how they couldn't pass through other realms or dimensions the way he could. For all of the amazing things gems could do, it seems humanity still had a few tricks up their sleeves.

"If it would be of use to her as well as the carnival, I am certain she would at least entertain the idea." She would, had they the capability, but escaping gems were rarely an issue these days. "Scouting might at the very least be swifter."

Strange had already had that going at least - the advantage. Gems didn't have magic, and he did. Humans did. What the gems did was merely technology in highly advanced ways. "Though it might be a subject worth broaching at another time. So soon after recent unrest she may be less... inclined."

Learning the Ringmaster's moods and tendencies was going to take time, Blue really can't keep going on applying LOGIC to fae anything.

"Agreed," Strange responds, with a nod. "The mages were the cause of so many problem back in that world, I doubt the Ringmaster would want to link the carnival to another world of potential magicians."

Granted, there's only a handful of practical magicians back in Strange's world--and of that handful, the carnival already had two so their numbers were already depleted. Still, magic was coming back to his England, more magic than Norrell or Childermass or Strange himself could realize. It wouldn't surprise him if the roads were connected, if the carnival came to visit, that even more people would discover their talent for magic.

"Of course, considering that our stays in worlds without magic occasionally go just as terribly, I wonder if that distinction even matters to her to begin with." Strange had a better grasp on the Ringmaster's moods and tendencies, simply because he's been here longer. The problem with him is, he just keeps thinking of things in such a terribly human way of thought.

Something said draws a long and thoughtful silence from Blue, who's clearly thinking about it. Things went terribly just as often as they did not, and magic need not be involved?

"I might wonder if perhaps it is less things go wrong in those worlds and more.. those that visit tend to cause trouble, intentionally or not. I know of a small number of gems who are simply magnets for disasters, it would not surprise me to think fae or humans have similar individuals."

Maybe it was the Ringmaster herself. Common denominators!

The thought is shaken off. One way or another, it wouldn't affect their need for preparedness any, or likely the Ringmaster's moods. In a few weeks.. or longer, it would be worth making a venture but not just yet. "Though, are your world's mages as troublesome? I can't imagine most dabble in things that might destroy their world."

There's something about Blue's statement that makes Strange smile. A wry smile plays on the corner of his lips, as he shakes his head. "My world has very few magicians to begin with--only a handful or so. And out of that handful, I'd say I'm the most trouble!"

Signing onto a faerie carnival, disrupting common opinions on magic, the fact that he's kind of wanted for arrest right now, Strange is undoubtedly the most troublesome mage in England. It's a fact which he's taking great amusement from and a little bit of pride in. Because why not be trouble? English magic needs troublesome magicians anyway.

"Thankfully, I don't plan on dabbling in any magic that would destroy the world and certainly haven't done so back in my England."

"Perhaps the Ringmaster enjoys collecting trouble," Blue muses, for a moment looking suspiciously mischievous. Playfulness isn't really strong in her nature these days, but a joke surely isn't out of place.

.. Maybe she really did like collecting trouble, that would explain the corrupted gems, but why would Blue be here then?

Blue pauses for a moment, weighing destructive magic and Strange's potential ability to use it. "If you wished to, would you be capable of magic of that level? Not to destroy the world, perhaps, but something ... approximately the same size?" She sounds thoughtful. "An attacking thing, that would threaten your planet."

Surely this is completely hypothetical.

One canon update later and the answer will be a bunch of worrying conjecture. More questions get opened when you literally bring magic back to an entire country. But as of now? Strange simply shakes his head.

"Not by myself. My magic can certainly be destructive--the peninsula's proof enough of that. But to destroy something around the size of a world would take more power and certainly more finesse than I currently have."

Of course, that opened up plenty of other options. Covens, organizations, spells designed to draw upon the power of something else. If he paired with the right magicians and they combined their powers, who knows what could happen? Though the thought that Blue is asking in the first place is...interesting.

"Of course, this all depends on the nature of the attacking thing itself. After all, it's certainly easier to stop a pilot than it would be to stop an entire ship."

That's almost too bad. In theory had there been one mage surely there were others, and perhaps SOMEONE among humankind could have interfered with the cluster. But as it seemed to her Strange might be one fo the few, or one of the most powerful, and he could not..

"I imagine it would, if you could reach the pilot." She sounds thoughtful. Perhaps it's just a thought experiment but it's one that has her interest. "Likewise weapons stationed in orbit. But that would be of little use against something on the scale of ... mm, an asteroid impact, or a very large volcano erupting."

Dangers, but not dangers one can rationally speak with normally!

Surprising no one, Strange has only the slightest idea about what Blue's talking about in the first place. He's seen levels of destruction he didn't know possible, thanks to the carnival. But a weapon that could destroy as much as a volcano? A weapon threatening Blue's planet to that extent? That's impressive and terrifying.

And yet, Strange can't help but feel a little annoyed. There's so much his magic could do that to be faced with something he might not be able to help with aggravates him to no end. Yes, he might not be able to physically stop the thing, but there were always other options!

"Still, I suppose I won't know what I can do unless I see the weapon itself--as well as see what the world's state of magic is like, of course. Some of the places we've traveled have barely had any magic to begin with."

"I can't imagine that Earth's magical state has changed that much between your time and mine. Bringing other worlds into the equation makes a hypothetical situation more convoluted." She has at least grasped that he WAS from a different time, which had taken a lot of work to begin with. Time travel simply wasn't a thing.

And yet.. "Though describing such a potential weapon would be ... difficult." And this seems perfectly truthful, as Blue has no idea at all what the Cluster is going to look like when it emerges, never mind how tiny fragile humanity was ever going to deal with it. "The trouble with hypotheticals I suppose."

"Can you at least try to describe it?" Because all Strange knows about the Cluster is that it's big, huge, has planetary destroying power, and is apparently a big deal to Blue. He wants to help--he should be able to help. He's a magician, dammit, what's the use of his power if it can't help in situations like this?

"There might be something learned in the description of the thing. Because honestly, I've no idea what this weapon is, except for large and powerful."

Blue makes a low, thoughtful noise. She really can't describe it, she's never seen a Cluster before. "I've no idea either," she confides, sounding a little amused. "That's the fun of inventing it. I suppose it would depend on the nature of such a thing. If it's natural and spaceborn, most objects in space tend to favor large and round.."

And alarmingly fast moving. That might be far too difficult for one person to stop.

Likewise the Cluster. "A living weapon would presumably have ..legs, a torso, perhaps a recognizable head, an opponent of that stripe at least would theoretically have many weaknesses."

⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)