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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Yes, this is going to be a regular thing, now! Not all locations will have much to investigate, necessarily, but I will be providing a section where people can make investigation requests for if their character wants to learn more about a setting than is immediately apparent. This can also be used to cover the broad strokes of interacting with various available NPCS.

Like before, you must be specific about what your character is doing to find new information, and you must keep your requests to one or two actions per comment. No big laundry lists of things your character is doing - it is much easier to handle taking it one topic at a time.

[This is occurring about a half hour after they return to the carnival. One thread only, please! Multiple people are welcome to tag, but this is only happening once, so it can't be broken up. No tag order.]

The Ringmaster delivers her address about fifteen minutes after arriving back at the carnival, while people are still waking up and recovering. She hopes they're up and about enough to hear it. She won't have time to do it again.

There is a trail of heavy ash that winds through the carnival grounds, heading towards the Big Top. If you follow it, you will eventually find the Ringmaster.

She looks closer to her usual self now, though she still has the wings, tail and horns of her dragon self. It's almost like she's been caught half way between her dragonic form and her humanoid one, whether intentionally or not. More foreboding, her skin seems to be molting into ash, sections of it already turned to dust and fallen away in chunks. It's not exactly gory - there's no blood - but it's unsettling to look at.

For now she is just standing in place, making vague magical gestures. Eventually, a small bird made of magical fire will emerge from her hands, and fly up towards the mountain tops.

Waking Up

Everything hurt.

On an ordinary day, Ash would just hum a few lyrics and feel better. But today wasn't an ordinary day, of course, and at this moment, well... she just didn't feel like using her magic. Call her crazy.

The catgirl pushed herself up on one elbow just in time for her Dratini to tackle her and knock her right back over. "Oof," she said quite cogently, putting an arm around the Pokemon to both greet it and restrain it as she levered herself up again.

"Everyone okay?" A general question posed to those nearby as she got to her feet, though she wasn't quite ready to meet anyone's eyes. She had so much apologizing to do, and a lot of effort to make herself seem like she wasn't an inch from despair.

On My Side

She'd put a lot of distance between her and the carnival, in the hopes that no one would take more than mild interest in her exit and she wouldn't accidentally cross paths with anyone else wandering the Summerlands.

And when she got far enough away, she stopped in her tracks, shut her eyes, and quietly began to sing.

It sounds like a whisper
It seems like a dream
It breaks and it falls
It tears at the seam

But Ash was Ash. Quietly didn't last. The music rose and so did her voice, till both rolled over the fields of the faelands in gentle, piercing harmony.

Suppose that it happens
Suppose that it's real
Supposing you're right
Suppose it won't heal forever

And I will get old and tired
And nothing will get to me
No one will want to have me
Longing to be set free

If only the sun would take me
If only the wind was on my side...

[Day 138 | Waking Up (joint prompt with Yugo, OTA)]

[Yuya doesn't even register when they're sucked out of Portland and, after Yugo pulls the Hand of God away, he's lying on the grass. He's staring blankly, unable to focus on anything despite his head lulling to the side or his eyes widening and squinting to try and take in the light. He's still swept up in the pain, and although the screaming has stopped his breathing still runs ragged and his chest feels tight as his soul throbs from being pierced with so much magic.

Yugo is sitting beside Yuya, still with the Hand of God in silent panic. He looks like he could really use some help dealing with this situation.]

[Day 140-142 | Bed Rest Visitations (OTA)]

[Since Yuya's affliction is more spiritual than physical, and they're certain it won't kill him, Yuya's been released to rest in his own trailer. He looks very much like death warmed over him, weary and pale and weak--but after a couple days of fading in and out he's coherent enough to be able to talk to people, sit up, and eat.

His and Tamaki's trailer is left unlocked so that he can welcome friends, given he isn't able to do much getting up. And anyone is a welcome face, because it doesn't take him long before he gets bored is lying in bed sleeping, staring at the wall, shuffling through the duel monster cards, or beating video games on his phone for the 5th time.]

[Day 143+ | The Carnival or Summer City (OTA)]

[Yuya doesn't tolerate being bedridden for very long. There's too many people he needs to talk to and--well, honestly nothing much to do. He's been taken off the performance schedule until he's actually recovered, so his desire to be up and about is mostly his own listlessness. He hates being still and stuck with just his own thoughts. So he slips out of his trailer whenever Tamaki is absent and nobody else is visiting.

Around the Carnival he attempts to take a walk down to the lake--stretch his legs, get a change of scenery, and not be surrounded by people worried about his physical state. The problem is that his state is genuinely bad, and instead of the lake he's leaning against somebody else's trailer for support, completely winded.

That doesn't stop him from trying to make it out to the Summer City a few days later, though. He makes it just outside the gate before he just plops himself down on the ground, letting out a wheeze before staring at the sprawling meadow and the bright city in the distance.]

Whoa... [This is nothing like the more imposing and less welcoming Summer Court from Portland.]

[At some point while resting, Yuya might wake up to find Rita sitting at his bedside, reading a heavy-looking book. She's wearing the tank top and shorts she had on when they first met in Alola, and she looks no worse for wear, though she has a new pair of large, feathered wings awkwardly tucked behind her while she sits.

He might vaguely recall seeing her like this at some point while he was drifting in and out of consciousness over the past couple days. Apparently, she's made a few visits in this short time.]

[Waking Up]

Doll has many memories of sleeping on cardboard, in doorways, on benches-- anywhere, really-- but she's never felt this disoriented waking up on the ground. Her head is spinning, her balance is all screwed up from her left eye returning to its former state, and for a good few seconds she has no idea where she is or why. She looks wildly around for Knotley or Joker or Snake, and slowly the world comes into focus. Trailers, the carnival. Yes, she was with a carnival and then... Portland? She'd had no idea where Portland was before a few weeks ago, she's from England for God's sake.

Her fingers slide under her bangs and a cold chill runs down her spine. No scales anymore, but the smooth and puckered skin of her burn is studded with what feels like small stones or gems. And turning her head knocks something into the ground-- a horn? An antler? She can't see, there's no reflective surface around, she's panicking. The parts of her that say this is normal and expected are vying for dominance over the parts of her that tell her this is abnormal and wrong and terrifying, and not knowing how to feel is what's ultimately causing her hands to shake. She needs someone more solid and steady than she is right now.

"Joker!!" She shouts, like she's five again and lost him in a crowd. Where is he? Is he okay? Does he need help? Oh God, where is he, she can't lose him again, what if Knotley hurt him as the Severing fell apart, or kept Snake? It feels like she's been beaten, but she struggles to get her legs under her nonetheless-- she has to find him, has to find Snake, has to find her family.

[Summer People]

The place they've landed is beautiful, it's true, and Doll wants to enjoy it. She's never seen such a beautiful place before, and even the yard in the workhouse had seemed like paradise all those years ago. This is exquisite, comparatively. Any other day, Doll would be running barefoot through the gently sloping fields, napping in the tall grass, and dancing all night before doing it all again the next day.

She can't, though. The ringmaster's words are still laying heavily on her shoulders, reminding her that somewhere inside her is a part of herself that wasn't as brave as she thought. Some part of her is just like Phantomhive, like Smile-- willing to tie herself to something murderous and twisted until she moved on his strings like a puppet, like a plaything. Like that demon's 'Dolly'.

Just remembering his voice makes her skin crawl, and the bruises he gave her from yanking her around aren't going to fade soon enough. Somehow, he took Snake too, because she didn't say no hard enough. She hadn't protected him enough. Just that fleeting thought is always enough to make her nose go red and tear up, no matter where she is or what she's doing.

She realizes it's happening again as a few fae are cooing over how cute she is and weaving flowers into her hair and around her little antlers. They look worried as she tears up, concerned that they've done something to hurt or upset her, but Doll shakes her head and tries to say she's alright, but all that comes out are little stutters and half-sobs. They look guiltily at whoever is witnessing this, and start to slink away. Maybe this is something better suited to someone with the carnival.

[For the most part, Yuya isn't an animated sleeper. Any dreams that would shake him about fail to overpower the weakness in his limbs, but as a couple days pass and he begins to have more moments of clarity, he manages to roll into positions that look a lot less "death bed". He's rolled partially on his side this time, one hand clinging to one of his cards and his Portland phone scattered at the edge of the bed.

Somehow he's still in the habit of checking it, even if he knows no more messages are going to come.

Yuya groans softly as he comes too, blinking the bleariness away. He realizes there's something close by, and he looks up at Rita, but it takes his brain a minute to catch up.]

Wh--Ah! [He jerks suddenly with surprise, staring at her.] Rita?

WAKING UP: The first thing Julien does finding himself here and something like himself is open his inventory again and haul out his human body. Not caring that it's soaked to the skin, he throws his arms around his thick-ruffed neck and pulls himself closer with a folded wing. He doesn't cry, he doesn't speak, he just sits like that for a while. He needs the contact, and who's closer than yourself?

He is a sight. A scalded, bedraggled pigeon the size of a microcar, with a small young man drenched in seawater hanging off him. Later he'll remember he was trying to hide that he's a two-parter. Right now it just doesn't matter.

Eventually he opens his eyes and, oh, that's more than he was expecting. It takes a while to figure it out. He's carried that weird fluid angel tendency for eyes to appear and disappear, except these aren't really set into his flesh. It's not too big a deal. His bird eyes have a really wide field of view, and he's had some practice looking at the world out of four which normally aren't pointed in the same direction, this is just an expansion of that. And if the eyes appear and disappear and are kinda hovering against him like his inventory portal, that's honestly for the good, they're not fragile and vulnerable in the same way as his actual eyes.

SUMMER CITY: His unharmed human body is just too small compared to his scorched bird one to help it move around much, and there's a while where he doesn't want to move them too far apart. It's just so reassuring to care and be cared for, even if he's aware the whole time that he's playing both roles. Still, he's got a healing factor. Within a few days his bird self can be seen dozing in the sun or half submerged in the lake, while at the same time his human body is in the city. Or it goes the other way around! The fae obligingly find his plumage elegant and appealing and enjoy his guitar skills. It's kind of nice.

He's not easily recognizable as Iuliael, though his voice and the eyes that appear over his skin and feathers and clothes are the same. Over the next few weeks he's able to control them better, but more tend to appear when he's interested or excited about something.

WILD CARD? ?

It's beyond off-putting. In fact it's highly concerning, and were the Ringmaster not in the middle of making some obviously arcane gestures Marinette would have run over to her in a panic. The bird that appears when she's finished, however, is beautiful, and Marinette watches it fly away before realizing their leader is still kind of flaking apart.

"U-um... Are you okay?"

The Ringmaster looks back to her, vaguely surprised but only that. She's been trying to get a few things in order quickly, and thus she has been avoiding people who might stop her and ask questions of offer constructive criticism about her choices. Now, though... now it's fine.

"Not particularly, though the appreciate the question," she says. "I think I'm about spent."

She sounds more sheepish about that than anything else.

Well, Zangetsu had actually intended to find the Ringmaster and give her a piece of his mind. The mess her mistake had left in everyone's souls was making him a little nauseous. He needed to know that wasn't going to happen again.

But that was when he thought she was pretty much immortal and unbreakable. As he follows the ashes, he can begin to sense that is not the case. She was falling apart. Literally.

And if SHE fell apart, then their deal would fall apart, too.

"You look like hell, boss," he says in his creepy reverberating voice. No 'hello' here, apparently. "Yer not gonna die on us, are ya?"

"She did say she was expiring," Childermass chips in what is, frankly, a very obvious statement here.

He hadn't been there — not visibly, anyway — before, but he is now. He's sitting on the nearest of the Big Top bleachers, front row, leaning forward heavily, elbows on his knees. He is, much to his great annoyance, still very shirtless, thanks to the Winter Court. Still somewhat bloody, too, but that's not really important right now.

"On the radio. You told someone that."

"Rude," she replies, straightening herself out and 'brushing off' dust as if she's tidying her clothes - in reality, another junk of ashy flesh just falls off of her, and she shrugs. "But, yes. In about two minutes, I think. I wouldn't worry about it, though."

She turns around to face the two of them. Both still newbies! So tragic. Then, of course Childermass speaks.

"Childermass!" she calls out to him enthusiastically. "There you are! That's the most of your skin I've ever seen!"

Once she's recovered enough to get up and about, Peridot is going to want to talk to the locals and pick their brains a bit about farming. Specifically, she's on the hunt for seeds! Seeds for fruits and veggies, seeds for... weird fae plants, maybe? She'll try and barter for some if she has to.

"Guess you really weren't paying attention during the Celebration, then," he replies, though the other two won't have a single clue what that even references. Oh well. In any case, he's still sounding as dry as ever, even if he also sounds rougher than usual. It'll pass.

So, too, will the Ringmaster, apparently, which is a little worrying. Childermass makes an effort to sit up a little straighter, but he can't do much of that.

"You're making this sound like a temporary problem for you. Is it? All of this?"

The look on the zanpakutou's face is one of pure incredulity. She's talking about actually dying, while quipping with the human popsicle from the ritual.

"Wait. Hold on! You're gonna die? For REAL? And you're just... ok with this? What about our contract?!"

Sometime after a week or so of rest, Blue's going to be bothering aaalll the local smiths looking for a silver sword. Or a sword and a whole lot of silver, one way or another.

She points a finger gun at Childermass and makes a click, apparently signalling that he's correct. She puts her hands on her hips.

"I'm dying for real, yes, but... it is a temporary problem. I guess I could stand to be less cryptic about this, hmm? But... the surprise is really the only fun part of this happening so... bear with me."

She stretches her arms and more ash falls off. Her silhouette has been thoroughly mangled by this process already.

"Most of the time this doesn't come up... but fae do have their limits. I have a limit of energy, and between fighting that demon, and then the Summer Court... and then trying to write everything that mad spell did to us. I guess I have to pack it in for a while. Not long, though. Even by your standards."

Both of Julien is here following the ash trail, his smaller human self helping support his larger, haggard bird self, which is dropping feathers on one side and showing reddened skin underneath. Several extra eyes wink open scattered across his feathers and wet clothes and skin, usually winking back out of being before too long.

"Does it hurt?" is all he asks, curious enough to have heaved himselves up and came to see, too tired to get worked up about what this means and just what's happening now.

Waking up

Taako awakes in a whole lot of pain. There are other things that he notices, of course-- the color of the sky, the fact that he's outside instead of on the floor of the ritual site like he was when he apparently blacked out, the fact that he's not alone-- but the most overwhelming thing of all is the pain. Breathing hurts, existing hurts, everything hurts. For several minutes, it's all he can do to just lay there, staring up at that blue, blue sky, trying to figure out how to breathe without jarring his apparently still partially-broken ribs.

He never really sorts it out. He also certainly can't pick himself up.

It's not long before he's offered a bit of help by... a fae. Well, he can appreciate irony, and he certainly accepts it; while it's not a perfect fix, it leaves him able to get up and move himself to his trailer, which is where he's presently headed, an arm wrapped around his aching chest. He's still got his horns, though in a much smaller size, and... his face is glowing...? Somehow, in the transition between places, he's managed to pick up a couple of new features, one of which seems to be that his freckles are glowing a faint purple.

He's not aware of that himself, however. Right now, he's pretty focused on just getting back to his trailer so he can collapse and not talk to anyone for a while, because fuck this. Fuck all of this, and fuck existing, and fuck fae.

She looks in vague amusement at Julien walking with himself. She's only now getting to match her memories of creatures in Portland with members of her own carnival. She's not surprised one of Julien's bodies is damaged, though, based on that angel from before.

"I suppose that could be the word for it. But... not in any way that matters."

She pauses, as if mentally calculating something. Then:

"Well, that's about it. Any last questions? Do be concise."

Well, this one's probably important, so—

"Any orders for us besides 'wait here'?"

Which is assumed, seeing as the workers can't exactly move the carnival without her.

Time for HOT GOSSIP. Strange will be spending a lot of time chatting and gossiping with the fae about all sorts of matters. Once the conversation's gotten started (and closer to the midpoint of their stay than the first few days), he'll casually ask if they've heard of any of the fae from Portland + Frost and, if so, what could they tell him about them.

Urrgggkk. Ok. OK.

"So, let me get this straight; you ARE about to die. But you're... going to be back? So in addition to being a dragon, you're also a phoenix."

He glances at Childermass. That was also a good question. Just holding pattern until she returned? He suspected this place was more of a rest stop than an actual location.

"And, I guess -- do you need anything from us?"

She grins at them, as if that's the best question she could imagine him asking. She nods.

"You'll be safe. This is the best place in the multiverse that you could be."

The ash begins to float off of her like a gas more than solid chunks, like steam rising off of something hot. She notices this, checks her arms, and then exhales as if preparing for something. Here we go.

"Anyway, this is it. Please stand back, for the sake of your eyebrows."

And then, abruptly, she will erupt into violent, radiantly hot flame that consumes her body all at once, swirling into the air like the after effects of a bomb. You will get singed if you stay too close. It burns itself to death as quickly as it begins, and after less than thirty seconds, it will have settled into an enormous mound of ashes and soot.

There is a bump in the middle, as if something is buried within.

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⇨ THE SUMMERLANDS

⇨ INVESTIGATIONS

⇨ THE RINGMASTER

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TAAKO

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