Lost Carnival Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ringleaders) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lostcarnival2017-09-04 07:53 pm
ringleaders) wrote in lostcarnival2017-09-04 07:53 pm
⇨ GREYSOL
Who: Everyone!
When: Day 155 - Day 169
Where: Greysol
What: The carnival resumes its tour, this time heading to Greysol, a city tied deeply into the fabric of the multiverse. Here, everyone has an animal companion from birth that is the second half of their soul - and thanks to the Ringmaster, so do you. (Remember,![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
joysweeper is our guest event runner for this location, and location specific questions should go to them.)
Warnings: Individually marked!
When: Day 155 - Day 169
Where: Greysol
What: The carnival resumes its tour, this time heading to Greysol, a city tied deeply into the fabric of the multiverse. Here, everyone has an animal companion from birth that is the second half of their soul - and thanks to the Ringmaster, so do you. (Remember,
Warnings: Individually marked!
THE CITY OF GREYSOL↴ The carnival arrives in a manicured park in the center of a big city that sprawls out along where the river reaches the ocean. It’s spring, early enough that nights are chilly, warm enough in the days that people and their souls savor the weather, and sometimes shelter together from the rain. Greysol was designed from the bottom up to accommodate the human-dæmon bond. Go out and see! ► THE SHAPE OF YOUR SOUL: The dæmon-forming spell kicks in at about four in the morning. Most characters will wake up with their souls in some small form, curled against them. Even if they were awake, they became dazed and unfocused while their souls were being drawn out of their bodies and have little memory of how it happened. Until that evening every character's dæmon is able to change shapes, and children and some teens will continue to do so. Most will settle on their permanent forms by evening. Characters without dæmons will just look on, and the few who are thousand-pound bears have to handle being really big. ► IT’S GOOD TO SETTLE: Elaine Tavis Aracari, sixteen-year-old daughter of two actors and a moving pictures sensation herself, just ‘settled’ - her dæmon Tavis stopped changing shape - as a stunning blue peacock. Settling is a major coming of age milestone and celebrated as such in different ways all over the world. She and her family are throwing a massive party in the central park and inviting the public to join in! Enjoy easy access to free catering, live music and showings of moving pictures, and displays of mostly trivial magic. There are also form readers from across the country setting up booths, happy to accept a small fee to inspect your dæmon’s settled or most favored forms and tell you what they mean. Is there anything to these analyses? Eh, maybe, but they’re flattering and fun. ► WITCHING HOURS: Characters who are clearly witches for this event will often be assumed to be in town for a lover, and people, witches and not, may want to know who that is. Humans usually regard them with wary respect and interest. Real witches living with their human families or on business quickly suspect that something’s up, but without clear and present danger take a relaxed wait-and-see attitude. Wait for long enough and any possible decision will come around again, they believe. There isn’t time to learn much witch magic, but witches, real and carnival-made, have an inherent power: the ability to fly using branches of “cloudpine”, an attractive soft-needled tree common in the park. Witches usually ride large branches as if they’re steeds but can use even short sprays, and you’ll probably see the few witches in the city coming to the park to do so. Why not try? ► BEAR PUN: Human-panserbjørn relations have historically been troubled, but have warmed in the past century. It’s the 65th anniversary of the breaking of the Siege of Bertin, a much-mythologized time when Spectres flooded Greysol and a company of panserbjørn arrived and directed efforts to get the survivors out of the city. A statue is being erected and many florid accounts of the story are being told. If you’re in a panserbjørn shape for the duration of the visit you will probably get thanked and celebrated by people trying to hide their nervousness of you. Expect someone to ask if your dæmon would be a human - it’s a common supposition. ► KERNER ISLAND: From the harbor you can see a wooded island. Although there are no rocks to speak of it sports a tall lighthouse, and nearly all boat traffic avoids it carefully. On a clear day someone with binoculars or a particularly sharp-eyed soul can see loads of trash, birds and various other animals that don’t seem local, and… children? Adults and settled teenagers will see tall vague shapes moving about too. When asked about it the most important thing adults will tell other adults is don’t go there. They’ll hold their dæmons close and tell you that on that island are things that eat souls. They may also admit with mixed pride and shame that it’s been a source of wealth and innovation for the city. There’s a facility there that can open windows into other worlds, and the children who can reach it can cross through and bring things back. Many of the children are recruited by research and development teams on the lookout for items they can use, but there are also kids out to have adventures or who’ve run away. More on this later. |
no subject
Taako's breathing is uneven as he holds himself up weakly, the pain ebbing away gradually as he forces his mind away from whatever just happened. Flauta curls loosely as his neck, shaking her little head.
"... yeah, uh," Taako begins after a long moment of collecting himself, amd he gives Strange a pained smile that falters and fades very quickly. "Shit. I think so."
"... something's wrong," Flauta says, and Taako just gives a sharp "pff!"
"Yeah, no shit." Then, to Strange, almost a clarification: "Yeah, uh... hoo. We were just talking, and then, all of a sudden, it was like I got struck by lightning."
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One thing's certain, whatever's just happened, it won't do either of them any good to stand there talking about it on a street corner. "Here," Strange says, offering Taako a hand to help the elf up. He'll happily help support him if needed, but getting back on his feet is the first part. "We'll get a little water and something to eat from that cafe across the street. How does that sound?"
Because whatever caused Taako that much pain, it's nothing that a little food and drink can help fix.
"Be careful," Siobhan warns, though not really moving from her place on the ground. She's a seal, what else could she do. "Try not to touch his daemon."
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To Strange's suggestion of food and drink, Taako gives a smile and a nod of his head as he makes it to his feet, already feeling more sure-footed the more time passes.
"Yeah, I mean, it can't hurt. Well. Probably not.". He smirks slightly, holding his hand up to allow Flauta back at his shoulders. "Apparently, anything around here can hurt."
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The fact that one couldn't be apart from their daemon and that feeling of intense regret whenever one of them tested the boundaries. That bizarre feeling deep in his gut whenever someone else's daemon accidentally brushes against him. What had started off as just oh, fun with a seal soul, has unintentionally become more.
"Still, it wouldn't be the carnival if we had one stop that went entirely smoothly. Even Alola had ghosts and firebreathing animals."
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"Shall we, then?"
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As they start to cross the street, Strange can't help but give Taako a very visible once-over. He's fine now, right? But that doesn't explain why he collapsed in the first place. Nosiness wins out as Strange decides to ask,
"Do you have any idea what precisely made you collapse like that? I only ask just because I haven't heard of anyone else dong so."
no subject
"... uh." He runs his fingers through his hair, the loose locks hanging near his face, his gaze falling. "I mean, it was weird... we were just talking about something, and then Flauta said this one thing--"
A name. He doesn't know how he knows it's a name. He still can't picture who it belongs to, but his mind automatically tries, and a fresh wave of ache washes over him; he remembers brown skin and blond hair, and he has to stop for a second and push his thoughts away from it.
"... uh... heh, okay, maybe I should just stop thinking about it? Like, I think that's the problem here." He finally looks back at Strange, his expression unusually disarmed. "There's something in my head that fucks me up when I try to think about it. Like... if I focus on it too hard, it's like my whole... situation goes to shit."
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Although, how can Taako know what to think about if he doesn't know what caused him to react that way? The way he described it, it seemed to Strange like something happened, though Taako didn't know what. This situation keeps getting more and more complex, something delightful yet annoying at the same time.
"I don't mean to be rude, but do you know what that 'one thing' was in the first place?"
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He accidentally reveals just how bad the pain is, or how upsetting it is at least, but, well. Strange doesn't seem to get it.
Or maybe he does, and he's totally right.
"It's a name," Flauta says at last, taking Taako by surprise; he hisses through his teeth, quickly making himself think about literally anything else before his mind can get dragged down that shitty rabbit hole of pain. "But we can't remember who it goes to."
"Gee, thanks, Flauta, really doing a great job of keeping our shit together," Taako says with a very real tone of annoyance.
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"Sometimes you have to push through the hurt in order to get what you want," Strange simply responds. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do: you are your own person and make your own decisions. But at least for me? If someone's name brought this strong a reaction, I'd stop at nothing to find out who they are. After all, obviously they're important."
He may be projecting a little. But, Strange is just treating this in a matter of fact sort of manner. As they finish crossing the street and reach that cafe, Strange holds open the door for Taako, Flauta, and Siobhan to enter.
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She who?
He grits his teeth, and then remembers himself, turning it into a smile that he turns towards Strange as he and Flauta enter the cafe.
"Uh, thanks. So, uh, how'd you find this place?"
He makes conversation as he thinks, but it's obvious his mind is elsewhere; he can feel Flauta's rough scales brush against his throat as she shifts to look at him, and then back again to Strange and his own daemon.
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The cafe is a cute little restaurant, a small family business but large enough that all can fit comfortably inside (including the six foot seal). There are a few tables scattered around with seats of all different sizes for humans and daemons alike. The menu has moved to mostly lunch (mostly sandwiches) but there are a few breakfast items still up as well as a wide assortment of coffee and tea.
"Their recommendation wasn't wrong--the eggs are delicious," Strange pipes up, giving Taako a smile. "I've already eaten though, so I think I'll just get some tea."
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For once, he actually does continue to try and reach it. Strange is right; he won't admit it out loud, but something is wrong, something important is... missing, and Taako can't remember what or why. But he feels like, if he keeps pulling at whatever threads he's given, sooner or later the whole thing will unravel.
"Uh-- yeah, maybe I'll try some of those eggs, huh? I'll be the judge of just how good they really are," he says, putting on an arrogant front, the appearance of his usual ego when it comes to his cooking, an attempt to disguise just how hard he's digging into his own mind.
"We were a professional chef back home," Flauta clarifies.
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"If you ever decide to experiment in the kitchen, I'll happily taste test the final product." His tone is light and teasing, trying to keep the mood from sinking too far back into Taako falling downwards into a sad memory spiral.
"As long as there's no pineapple in it, that is," Siobhan chimes in. A brief look of disgust flits across Strange and Siobhan's faces at the mere thought of pineapple.
no subject
Despite how serious his words are, there's the tiniest hint of a smirk at the edges of Taako's mouth; he sits back in his seat, and he shrugs his shoulders lightly, allowing that hint of a smirk to turn into something more proper.
"We'll just have to see if we can work something out, in that case... I guess."
no subject
"Though I do enjoy marmalade. And eggs, of course. Probably not marmalade on eggs, but if you're as good a chef as you say you are, I'm certain you can find a way to make that palatable."