⇨ GREYSOL

[ringleaders]

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, joysweeper is our guest event runner for this location, and location specific questions should go to them.)
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.

Comments

[chronosynthesis]

[The stranger gestures to Syrlya's chest and asks about a pendant, to which Syrlya simply shakes his head.] No, I am not really one for jewelry--really, there isn't a need to be alarmed! I am... no different from the rest of you.

[It isn't said with confidence, though, and the other person doesn't quite buy it. Still, it's at least enough to get them to leave Syrlya alone and he lets out a breath of relief--until he turns around and see Rita clearly staring.]

Oh, thorns. [He murmurs under his breath before approaching her--might as well get it over with now.] Yes, did you need something?

[anti_nonsense]

[Darn. She was hoping he'd elaborate on that 'Mesmer' thing. But now that she has his attention, maybe she can ask him herself.]

See, you're being rude. [Krios admonishes her, apparently more sensitive to Syrlya's exasperation than Rita is. Rita responds simply by raising a hand to her shoulder and gently pinching his beak shut.]

I just happened to overhear. You said you're a Mesmer? I'm a scholar of magic, but I've never heard of that before. [She might as well be direct about what she wants.]

[chronosynthesis]

[Oh, so it isn't someone questioning his supposed lack of a daemon. That actually gets him to relax a bit. Scholar of magic, huh--he doesn't see himself as much of a scholar, but he is very interested in magic.] Yes--I am. It is a profession of magic very commonly practiced in Tyria.

[He gestures vaguely.] We are illusionists, and manipulate magic to manipulate reality. What sort of magic do you study?

[anti_nonsense]

Manipulate reality...? [That's different. It certainly doesn't sound like any magic Rita's familiar with.]

Me? I mainly specialize in combat magic and magic technology. We don't really have much in the way of illusion magic, where I'm from.

[Krios squirms his way out of her grip, then flaps his wings to help himself up onto Rita's head, where she can't silence him so easily. Not that he has anything he needs to say right now. Silently, he tilts his head around, seemingly looking for Syrlya's daemon.]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya's daemon is hard to find, but there is an owl perched about ten feet high on one of the ledges of a building, peering down.]

Do you not? My magic seems to be regarded quite differently other places... so much so that even the definition of it is not the same.

[He smiles wryly.] But 'combat magic' tells me even less about what you do. Almost anything can be combative if you use it that way.

[anti_nonsense]

[Krios spots the owl, and gives it an inquisitive look from atop Rita's head. Isn't it lonely up there? What a weirdo.]

[Rita, meanwhile, smirks at his words. He's not wrong, but it is a bit funny.] It's only about as vague as calling yourself an illusionist.

But... to be more specific, my magic uses five of the primary elements - earth, fire, wind, water and shadow - to create destructive spells. Fireballs, lightning bolts, that kind of thing. Of course, my magic tends to be on a more advanced level than just those basic artes.

[Of course, like he should know she's a sorcery genius. Duh.]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya chuckles.] I suppose so... you are the second outside of Tyria that I have heard favors the elements. It must be a common form of magic among these different worlds.

[That's still an interesting thought, but not as surprising now as it was when he first arrived to the carnival.] I have had a few take me for a magic user as is, but unfortunately none have elaborated what else these witches do aside from get far from their 'daemons'.

[anti_nonsense]

Supposedly they fly, and practice some form of magic, but I haven't heard anything specific about that so far. Everyone here seems familiar with magic as a concept, but it looks like most of them aren't that knowledgeable. [She sighs. It's nice, at least, to be in a world that has magic that's both practiced by humans and treated as a normal part of society, but it'd be even nicer to have more information to work with.]

[Also, she can't help but wonder...] I'm the second? Who's the other?

[chronosynthesis]

Another carnival member by the name of Jonathan Strange. [He assumes based on her wording (and her wings) that she's in the same boat at them, but he doesn't mention it.] I would not be surprised if the magic here shares a similar element, though I was hoping to discover it's roots and limitations.

[anti_nonsense]

Strange? [She thought it might be him.] Hmph. I suppose his magic could be described like that... [Evidently, Rita never really thought of it as similar to hers.]

I kinda hoped for the same. Guess I'd better either find a witch, or hit the books. This seems like a city that would have a proper library, anyway.

[chronosynthesis]

Well, he did make it rain. [That's an element, and they're known a very diverse manipulators in Tyria.]

A library would be an excellent resource. There must be something magical about these... daemons after all, if it's something so integral to their livelihood someone must have written it down.

[anti_nonsense]

[When he mentions the daemons, Rita looks up, meeting the eyes of her own daemon as he leans over and peers down from atop her head.]

I'd say there's no doubt of that. Makes me wonder what they're made of.

If they're a manifestation of our souls, or some magical construct, then how is it that they seem so much like solid matter? Maybe it's something like mana...

[chronosynthesis]

It could be a combination of magic and matter. [Not unlike elementals, or golems, or... himself, really.] Or it could be very dense magical energy.

[That seems most likely to Syrlya, but he's getting the impression lately that Tyrian magic might just be especially dense and physical. Magic almost was matter in itself, or at least behaved similarly to it.] Is mana a particular type of magic?

[anti_nonsense]

Mana is a sort of magical energy. At low densities, it can be imperceptible in the air around us, but at higher densities, it's almost indistinguishable from matter. [In a sense, it seems they're both thinking along the same lines.]

Although... until recently, it never really existed in large enough quantities to reliably study. There's still a lot that's unknown about it.

[chronosynthesis]

It sounds like what I understand the base of all magic to be... at lest, in Tyria. [He's finding that caveat of thought coming up more often. He hasn't realized at the time how different magic might be--but then, maybe they hadn't understood Tyrian magic as much as he thought.]

What makes other forms of magic different? Do they lack something?

[anti_nonsense]

Stability, I suppose. The other form of magic energy in my world, aer, is a lot farther from matter when you consider its properties... and the result is that it's more difficult to control, and prone to becoming imbalanced and distorted, causing severe environmental issues.

If your magic derives from something that, between the two, is more similar to mana, that's probably a good thing.

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya hums. 'Distorted and difficult to control' is about the nature of chaos energy, but it still had a certain structure to it that probably wasn't the same as Aer. And, well, that was sort of the nature of anything that was twisting up the very fabric of reality.

Probably not the same.] I see. And this mana has always been around, and has recently become more potent?

[anti_nonsense]

Well... in a sense.

The thing is, I recently worked out a formula that converts aer into mana. I plan on applying it on a large scale in the near future. [So it is becoming more potent... because of Rita.]

[chronosynthesis]

Hm... I hope I do not have to tell you, but be careful. [Any magic is dangerous if you get it in big enough quantities, let alone what creatures would try and do with that kind of magic.] Especially if you have no definitive knowledge of what increasing mana will do in the long term.

[They had hypothesis's too, after all. ]

[anti_nonsense]

It's true... replacing aer with mana might create a whole bunch of new problems. [At the moment, it looks like a miracle solution... but it's naive to think Rita can change something so vital not just to magic, but to all life in the world, without any ill effects.]

But there isn't any time to worry about that. Without mana conversion, humanity won't survive for much longer. So all we can do is go ahead with this plan, and deal with the consequences as they arise.

[Yep, it's reckless as all hell. But that's how Rita does things.]

[chronosynthesis]

[Humanity, huh? That's the sentiment they had about the dragon's, too, and somehow now they're between a rock and a hard place, instead of just a rock.

Syrlya tilts his head, curious.] Why is it that you would cease to survive?

[anti_nonsense]

It's a long story. [Rita scratches her chin, trying to think of how to condense it for someone who knows nothing of her world.]

Basically... a certain technology we've been using, which runs on aer, turned out to be upsetting the balance of aer throughout the world. This caused tons of problems, including the slow destruction of ecosystems, plants growing out of control, and monsters growing more aggressive than ever.

The worst of it, though, was that it led to the appearance of the Adephagos... magical beasts that mindlessly consume life. The first time they appeared, the ancients managed to drive them away and put up a barrier around the whole planet to keep them from coming back, but some idiot broke the barrier, and now a whole swarm of them is headed our way.

[chronosynthesis]

['Magic beats that mindlessly onsume life' hits too close for comfort, and Syrlya frowns.]

So you consider converting to a more stable magic more viable than ceasing the use of this technology at all? [That's... a fair assessment, probably. People could be horribly stubborn about their way of life, especially if it means giving up a convenience.] Can you barrier be restored with mana?

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita shakes her head sadly. She wishes, from the bottom of her heart, that they could keep the blastia. But that isn't realistic, and even if they could, it would probably just lead to a repeat of the same catastrophe sometime in the distant future.] Actually... part of my plan is to convert the cores of all devices across the world. We'll be losing our technology as a result.

And we can't restore the barrier. The original barrier wasn't powered by aer or mana, but with human lives.

[chronosynthesis]

Ah... hm. [That would be pretty damn inconvenient. So it's another rock and a hard place--can't keep the current magic, can't keep the current barrier, and their technology is getting crippled as a result.]

So you intend to fight them instead when they arrive? I hope your ancient races help you some information on that.