⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

Lambert snorts at the joke (really, Sans, you couldn't have set your sight on more low hanging fruit if you tried) and pretends to take a moment to consider Sans seriously, nose scrunched up.

"Guess it just means you can keep a better eye on what's going on around here. Seems handy enough." Though what Sans thinks of keeping such a visible reminder of their stay in Portland...

"Better than keeping the wings, anyway."

[osteothropy]

Making actually good jokes has never been Sans's MO. He beams gently as Lambert reciprocates the lazy eye jokes. One thing about all this shapeshifting is that you end up with plenty of pun fodder.

"Yeah? Not a wing fan?" Sans doesn't actually seem to have much opinion about wings or lack of wings. Instead, he is prompting Lambert for his own insight. "Guess you were more normal there than you are here."

[whattaprick]

"Extra set of limbs you can't grab anything with just gets in the way. Tail was hard enough to get used to as it is." He waves the limb in question, the tip of it curling at Sans in some jaunty tail version of a salute.

Thinking about being more 'normal,' though, is going to earn Sans a bit of a face. "Lucky me, huh? Guess I miss out on any souvenirs." Except the memories, though. Those are always going to be there.

[osteothropy]

Sans 'solutes' his own tail in a similar gesture, being blessed with his own conveniently grabby model of limb. He leans in closer to what Lambert is mixing, as if he's going to be able to identify it by smell.

"It's not so bad if you can actually fly with them. Though I'm not sure anything could beat angel wings, that way." It sounds an awful lot like Sans is actually fond of those angelic features. In fact, Sans seems pretty zen in general. Even in terms of his standard level of unreadibility.

"... So, jokes aside, you're not brewing poison here, are you?"

[whattaprick]

It's alcohol, is what Sans's senses will tell him. Nose-searingly (if he had mucous membranes to irritate, anyway) distilled, to a point where you have to wonder if anyone could even drink it and enjoy it or if it would just be like drinking bleach.

"Alcohol's the same thing, isn't it?" Lambert grins, but he shrugs a moment after. "Witcher potions aren't great, but they won't kill anyone here." He pauses to check in on the fluid he's been filtering, then glances casually back at Sans.

"The locals don't seem all that surprised to see us." His mouth twitches down a little as he says that. Yeah, he isn't too happy to see fae around. Considering recent experiences, he'd argue he can't be blamed for that. "Not the first time the carnival's crashed in here without warning, is it?"

[osteothropy]

Haha. Ew. Sans likes alcohol but he's more inclined towards lighter stuff, since as a monster, his tolerance is generally quite low. It's good for getting drunk, bad for nuking himself with whatever the hell this is.

He's a bit more subdued at that last question, though. It's an obvious observation, though.

"Nah..." he admits, shrugging a shoulder. "We were here not even a year ago, after those vampires attacked the carnival the first time. Seems like it's the RM's version of an emergency pit stop. Last time we ended up hanging out here for months."

[whattaprick]

One day, Lambert's going to find out how much of a lightweight Sans really is, and that's not going to end well for him.

Today, though, the skeleton's at least spared that, if only because the prospect of being stuck here for months is going to make Lambert frown.

"You think it'll be that long again? Did she turn into an egg that time, too?"

[osteothropy]

"Dunno. It seems like she just forgot that time passed or somethin' - once we reminded her we finally ended up moving on. A lot of it was just how huge of a shock it was, at the time. There were bodies to bury."

And despite how shit the second vampire attack was, no one actually died. Not permanently, anyway. It makes a huge difference.

"This is the first time anyone I know has seen her do this. Really puts her whole egg-based resurrection technique into context."