⇨ 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

Blue Diamond, OTA

[diamondsare]

-Shape of Your Soul-

Blue Diamond doesn't sleep, so she is awake and working on a few requisition forms when things go ... strange. Perhaps things going weird was normal after all, and the respite of a month's quiet and relaxation amidst the fae was abnormal. Time passes, and she's unaware of exactly how long, only a dimmest recollection of spinning gold specks in the quiet of the night, like dust motes in a sunbeam.

Were she human, she would have simply assume she spaced out, but this is something she has not done before. Clarity returns abrubtly, to find her clutching her pen a little too tightly and bewildered about the passage of time. On some level already aware she isn't alone, Blue does not start when a large paw reaches out from the shape beside her, to push the paperwork aside and press the hand holding the pen gently down.

And the creature speaks, in a voice that made all song seem flat and thin. "We need to have words, you and I."

Blue does not emerge from her tent until well into noontime. When she finally does, it's clearly prepared for the day's duties, shadowed closely by a large orange tiger. The enormous cat never changes shape or even color, already composed of the steady certainty that Blue operated by. She knows what she is, what her purpose is; so does he. But there's a lighter step to her stride, some unknowable burden a little bit lighter, the day a bit brighter, the future a touch more hopeful. The shade of grief that inevitably dogged her, was replaced for the time being in an orange, black and white coat of fur.

--

-General Vicinity Of Settling Party-

Glamours are awfully handy when you're ordinarily ridiculously tall and vividly blue. Wrapped in the appearance of a vaguely Indian woman with dusky skin and ornately embroidered blue gown and hooded cloak, Blue's still ... recognizable, for those who can see the glamour to begin with. She's a little exotic, and her tiger daemon obviously suits her regal bearing, but she's no Witch and nothing particularly unusual for the natives of Greysol.

Which means she's taking the opportunity to observe 'normal' humanity and what they're up to, seated beneath the spreading branches of a flowering fruit tree to observe, her daemon pressed close against her side; both seem to relish that easy contact, but how unordinary was that truly, in this place?

"What do you suppose they will be like, in another few thousand years? These ones will surely survive."

The tiger tears his own gaze away from watching people go back and forth, their daemons in attendance, studying Blue for a moment before returning to observation. "I do not know. It was easy to presume humanity had simply tried to retroengineer our own technology, but here.." His voice is pleasant, somewhere between tenor and baritone, warm and gentle. Masculine, without a doubt, though gems do not normally come in that sort.

"Each place develops differently, perhaps. Like those floating things in the air. I had not seen them before." A blimp, presumably, by the way both turn in perfect time to watch one creep gracefully through the air. Although it's presumably a private conversation, Blue's rarely been bothered by interruptions before..

-Wildcard-

[Got something else you want to do? Hit me up on discord or PM or somethin'!]

shape of your soul

[lionson]

Shiro is out and about at the time Blue is, and he is making no attempt to hide the fact that he is checking out everyone's daemons. Curiosity comes naturally to him, and while he's not normally one for symbolism and such he's actually thinking about those kinds of things right now. Someone has a parrot? They must be chatty. Stuff like that.

Some of the similarities he can see, but others he does not. Blue is in the latter group, because Shiro had definitely been expecting something more...well, pretty, or regal, or something like that. Not that tigers aren't regal, but they're also pretty dangerous, and so far he hasn't really seen any danger in Blue. Now he's starting to wonder if she has a bit of bite to her that she keeps hidden.

Shiro is paired with a rather large lioness, one whose head comes up to nearly his shoulder while she is on all-fours. Which might not be too impressive to the taller members of the carnival, but it's huge as far as Shiro is concerned. She does not look nearly as curious as Shiro does, but she is humoring him for the time being.

He will make an attempt to catch Blue's eye, waving her down as he says, "Hey there!" Much like Blue, Shiro is in a rather cheerful mood, one that feels lighter, as if a burden has bee lifted from his shoulders. This is the perfect time to talk to him, because he is in a genuinely good mood and that always leaves him feeling chatty.

[diamondsare]

As far as Blue is concerned that lioness is about the size one should be, since she only had her daemon to go off of. Maybe all the big ones were that size! She hasn't gotten the chance to really get a good look around yet though, too focused for a while on her own needs, and her own other half. It had been too long since someone understood completely why she did what she did, why she felt what she felt.

Maybe everyone was feeling that right now.

A 'hey there' catches her attention easily enough, and tiger and Diamond stop and turn to see almost as one being. She remembered him!

..And another him, one with a different voice and on a different world. "Good afternoon, Shiro. I see you've found a furry thing as well."

The tiger remembers too. He's staying close for now, but there's painfully obvious sudden interest; there's downsides to having one's 'heart' walking beside them.

[lionson]

It's too bad humans didn't come with facets like gems do, huh? It would be easier to keep track of them. Shiro 1 and Shiro 2, though which one is which is a matter of opinion.

Shiro grins at Blue's comment. "Yeah, it's pretty fitting too." Then he remembers that the name-thing doesn't mean as much to some people, but that he has kinda explained it to Blue once, so he elaborates on that. " 'son of the lion' is one of the meanings for my name, just like 'white' can be."

His daemon huffs a bit and nudges his hand with her nose, which prompts him to scratch her behind the ears. He's very much a cat person anyway, so this is perfect for him.

"But I gotta say, I was expecting you to have something more blue. Like a peacock."

[diamondsare]

"Are they an Earth species then?" She has no idea, and by the blank look that crosses the tiger's face, neither does he. Animal faces generally aren't that expressive but perhaps there's more flexibility in these souls-made-physical.

Maybe it would have to be. An earth-world to visit, and Homeworld had no life like this, she would never blend in at all.

'Peacock' must also be an Earth creature, she would have to find out what it is soon.

"I am blue." Perhaps daemons don't usually talk to other people, but the rules hadn't quite been explained and it seems the tiger is perfectly content to speak for himself. "It's simply hard to see like this." The striped cat sits neatly, and then pushes off so he's just sitting on his haunches, upright like a human might. There is a blue gem set in his chest, just like Blue's. .. Exactly like hers, really.. same size, same color, same shape. "We are Blue Diamonds."

Back down to all fours, to lean against the humanoid of the pair and say something quietly, not meant to be overheard.

"I believe the Carnival is going to get very crowded if this is how it works," Blue observes, a touch drily, though she does approach with careful deliberation, to get a better look at the towering lioness, probably to compare to her own feline companion. She won't touch, but she intends to look. Not a stripe to be seen!

The tiger apparently has no similar compunctions against touching, for as soon as they're close enough where he can do so without straining the bond between himself and Blue, he leans to headbutt the lioness in a manner that is suspiciously both familiar and affectionate.

By Blue's instant mortification, this is not with her permission.

[lionson]

Shiro nods in response to her question, since tigers are very much from Earth. But he is quickly distracted by Blue's daemon, both because it's talking to him (something that only his own daemon has done to him so far) and because that sure is a blue sheen right there. He really should have expected it, but somehow he had thought that Blue's tiger was just a normal tiger.

Shiro glances over to his lioness, who just gives the lion equivalent of a shrug. She doesn't get it either. So much for the soul knowing more than the mind.

The lioness is a bit surprised by the sudden affectionate gesture, because Shiro is equally as surprised by it. Shiro, being a cat-person, is well-versed in the language of cats. And that action right there, that definitely means 'you're an ok person, I'm cool with you' at the very least. The daemon is a bit preoccupied with the contact, moving from surprise to 'I am okay with this'.

Meanwhile, Shiro snickers as he grins at Blue. "Aww, Blue, I didn't know you felt that way about me." He has no reason to suspect it's anything other than a sign of friendliness, but he is also a shithead who would absolutely take a moment like this to tease someone.

Party

[pipers_son]

"It's like a hot air balloon," a high feminine voice says, and a small magpie suddenly darts through the air around them, clearly taking a gander at Blue and her own Daemon.

From nearby is Joker- seen around as the Stage Manager, no doubt, but not someone who's had a chance to talk lately- and he grins a little as he hops over to make sure him and Aurora aren't too far from each other. "Not she's seen any before now," he says playfully as the magpie flies back to his shoulder. "I say she's cheatin', myself. Enjoyin' the sights?"

[diamondsare]

"An airborne vehicle of some sort then. Is it a weapon?" The tiger swivels easily to track the little bird; there's something not-quite-bird about it that told both of them they were dealing with a daemon and not a wild animal. As for the bird's other half..

It is, at a glance, impossible for Blue to tell if she is dealing with someone human and changed, or someone of another similar but not related species. "Knowing from sources other than firsthand experience is acceptable, is it not?" Ever polite, she seems a touch amused , though it's hard not to watch the balloon ..blimp .. thing fly about and wonder how it stayed up. Hot air, truly?

"It's very interesting to watch. Humans, their companions. Such an incredible variety in the latter." Were all of them even real? She didn't know.

[pipers_son]

Sharp, in the way that birds do, Aurora cocks her head to the side. "I can't see any on it," she says thoughtfully. "But who knows? Regular hot air balloons don't, I know that much." She accepts an idle chin rub from Joker as she talks.

"I think it's probably just for travelin'," he finishes, relaxed. "Most humans can't grow wings or fly, so they get up there in other ways." Another grin flashes across his face. "We're stubborn when we care ta be." If there's any better example, it's probably a lot of people in the carnival.

"Still, yer right! Ya don't usually see this many kinds of animals unless it's in a zoo, or a menagerie like our own."

[diamondsare]

It could be a weapon. Tiger and Diamond scrutinize the offending blimp, but honestly it doesn't look very threatening, just interesting in an antiquated curiosity sort of way.

"It is good to be innovative," Blue says, sounding a bit distracted. That blimp, she was going to have to check one out. "Overcoming the flaws of one's nature through determination and technology is the only way to rise above, isn't it?"

Too bad they won't have time to. Poor humans. She brightens up suddenly, turning to look at Joker. "A zoo! Humans keep those? I have one!" It's full of humans. "You keep creatures like this in them? What are they called?" A little bird, she's sure. And some sort of .. cat.

[pipers_son]

The blimp is indeed rather benign in appearance, and neither the redhead or his avian companion seem particularly bothered by it. Joker's done some measure of snooping around, in the casual eavesdropping sort of way, and there's been no chatter about any wars or unhappy neighbors of the country sort. Why would there be any show of weapons? So all he says is, "Oh, I suppose it is, and it's always interestin' ta see."

Technology talk isn't one that he's particularly intelligent about, although he marvels well enough at it. It's when she brightens up about zoos that he perks up as well, and Aurora hops along his shoulder. "Oh, yeah, all over," he says, sweeping his hand out energetically as he talks. "Some high class folks- of which I can't be surprised that yer one- have private zoos for themselves, but then ya have places like travelin' circuses and carnivals that let other people see animals from places they've never been." Joker nods to his own bird. "My Aurora is a magpie, they tend to be everywhere."

"And you, mate," she says casually, peering down at Tiger, "are a tiger! From places like the far east, back where me and 'im are from."

Party

[hippocarnival]

Yuya finally breaks from the party after his little personal show on stage, weaving around the crowd with his otter daemon cradled securely in his arms. The tree looks nice and quiet from a distance, but it's not until he gets past everyone else that he spots Blue sitting there.

Well, it's not so much the company that bothers him. He stares a little longer as he approaches, his gaze adjusting to see through the glamour--and then he looks up to see what seems to have otherwise caught her attention.

"It looks like a blimp." As if that explains what a blimp is.

[diamondsare]

It is good, as far as Blue is concerned, that apparently humans DO come in colors beyond earth tones. Browns were nice, but they did get dull after a while, and here's red and green instead! While it's possible dye is involved, Blue chooses to believe somewhere on the planet this is normal and humans come in as many colors as gems do, at least in their extremities.

"A surely helpful description," Blue responds, tone and expression more amused than annoyed, her tiger only giving a brief flick of a tail to show this might not quite be genuine. "If one knows what a blimp is."

One must treat humans as if they are all freshly emerged and confused, after all.

"Which of course invites the less than helpful response of 'that's a blimp', doesn't it?" The tiger, it seems, is perfectly willing to make that addition and stall the inevitable.

"Would you like to join us? It's a good place to watch from."

[hippocarnival]

"Oh, uh--" He rubs the back of his head. How does one explain a blimp? "It's a big balloon with propellers on it."

Good enough. Since Blue is willing to relent part of her tree spot anyway, Yuya will take it. He plops down on her other side so as not to bother her daemon too much, though Koemi is crawling on his shoulder to peer at him. "Thanks--are you having fun?" He gestures to the party.

[diamondsare]

It's not a very detailed description, but it serves its purpose; the aircraft is far too distant to really make out balloon OR propellers, but the gem and tiger seem to take Yuya at his word. Surely he knows what he's talking about when it comes to this sort of thing.

The tiger shifts a little over, simply to provide a bit more space; neither he nor Blue are particularly small after all, and he didn't want to find out why the very idea of touching another person was so revolting. Less so the otter, which is regarded with whiskers forward and obvious interest.

"I am, yes." Blue's smile is rather pleasant, as her gaze returns to the people going about their business. "I know little of your people's behavior, it's a nice opportunity to learn." Like watching animals at a zoo! Fascinating, clever little creatures. "You were performing earlier, were you not?"

[hippocarnival]

"You want to learn about... humans?" He guesses, only because everyone in Greysol appears human. Just with some very different soul things going on.

That thought gets derailed quickly in his head, though, when she noticed his performance. It causes Yuya to immediately brighten up as he turns to her, and he and Koemi both hum with affirmation together. "That's right! Uh, I sort of snuck on while nobody was using it, but a lot of people were smiling."

The shape of your soul

[soft_focus]

Reira's daemon, unlike most others, refuses to settle-it changes every thirty seconds at the least, lasting sixty if it feels particularly good about something, and the forms vary from vastly fictional to blends of the 'real', to animals she's witnessed while within the carnival, to any number of non-humanoid duel monsters locked away in her head.

Or at least, they take the forms of younger, childish versions of such. It is very briefly that they witness the duo on their way to the acquisition tent suffice to say, but brief enough that they pause and stare (and enough perhaps that a minute long tiger cub, followed by lion cub, followed by attempted liger or tigon happens).

It is such an...impressive amount of certainty that radiates into the air.

It's almost paralyzing, for the lack of better words.

...It may well BE paralyzing in fact, excepting that.

Well. Blue Diamond is going into the tent she needs to go into- "Ah-!"

She hurriedly follows after, albeit making sure to keep safe distance from anything she might bump into, such as someone's tail, or the other's dress.

[diamondsare]

The tiger seems to take notice, of that ever shifting daemon if nothing else, measured blue gaze studying the little form for a moment before padding silently after his other half. It's interesting and worth noting, quiet enough to not be overheard.

That, in combination with the small noise that Reira makes, is enough to make the blue gem pause and turn back, studying first the small child and then her (for the moment) smaller daemon. She still doesn't quite ... understand how 'children' worked, beyond being half-sized humans, but that hadn't stopped much before.

"Hello. Are you going in?"

[soft_focus]

Little soon fades-briefly there is a rather large young eagle, and then some kind of griffon formed between those animals again, and so on, so on....the variety is in there, somewhere.

Reira herself focuses on the much much taller Blue Diamond, nodding. "UM-! Yes! I'm supposed to be a thief, so I have to steal things now that we're at a place to steal from."

This is not quite EXACTLY how it works, but it sort of hit the point.

[diamondsare]

"My, stealing." She does NOT approve. It's not her circus and thus her rules dno't apply but this whole thievery thing, surely it wasn't exactly necessary! Of course if one were intending to send someone out to steal, being small would be of benefit. "How terrible." And yet there's no judgment or reproach to Blue's tone in spite of the words and the feeling, it's just not her place to make that call.

"That may be difficult, with this one changing so much," the tiger murmurs, reaching out one enormous paw as if intending to try to hold Reira's daemon down, as if that would somehow help. "It's very noticeable."

[soft_focus]

"It's what the Ringmaster said," she merely replies, nodding. "...It's not that dangerous..." She has her reasons for that gauge, really.

As it is, the daemon instantly darts to the side with immeasurable speed, having swapped to a hummingbird.

"...That's why they just have to change into not noticeable things then." This looks easier said than done, but... ....Well. Every thirty seconds the hummingbird is apparently either still a bird of roughly the same size, or even just some sort of moth at one point. "...I can feel if someone's coming so I don't get caught though."

An interesting choice of words indeed.

....Bird may have a paw on their head, despite all of that.

Shape

[espigeon]

Julien passes by, just one body this time, the big one. His dæmon is in the form of a small brown bat riding on his feathered head. She sounds very much like he does, maybe a bit higher. "Okay, but look, once you get past the 'vampire' part, this one's great. Echolocation, the best teeth, super cute, totally nice! The only problem is it's not a pigeon. And a pigeon is objectively the best, so."

"How are you sure it's one of those two? C'mon. You haven't been like a cuttlefish yet," Julien says, forming and opening an eye under her little furry body. His usual eyes are actually larger than her body is right now, not counting her wings.

[diamondsare]

The bat actually doesn't register until she speaks. Blue isn't about to interrupt what may well be a private conversation, that wasn't proper, and staring at someone while they had such a discussion was also rude.

But the tiger is watching. The various daemons people had were interesting to keep tabs on; it doesn't actually surprise him (or Blue) that Julien's daemon ISN'T a pigeon, since there seems to be no species correlation anywhere else at all.

He leans slightly and murmurs something to Blue, who glances over briefly, eyebrows raised, then glances at Julien, then back down. Nothing is said - not yet.

[espigeon]

"I don't want to be a cuttlefish. I want to be something sweet. That flies." Julie's dæmon flicks into the form of a pigeon, her feathers mostly a metallic gold, her wings white. Even aside from the size differential she's much, much daintier than he is, with delicate features and a slender beak. "Yeah. I got the feeling this is gonna be it. I already picked out the best colors, even!"

"Noooooo. That's too much pigeon! I'm going to be a parody! Of course the guy who's a giant pigeon has a pigeon dæmon, they'll say." His tail shakes. There's laughter in his voice, even though he doesn't laugh out loud; doesn't have that reflex in this body. Now he turns his head, points his beak at Blue.

He has a very wide field of view, he did notice her and her tiger, his eyes are just constructed in a way that it's difficult to tell what he's looking at. "Hey, don't you think this is too much pigeon?"

[diamondsare]

Tiger and gem exchange another unreadable look when they're addressed, and the striped cat settles down on his haunches as if to wait.

"It is reasonable, that your friend is what you are." What's a pigeon? Was that a pigeon? "I am a Diamond, my companion is a Diamond, it is what it is meant to be."

That's not how it works at all but as far as she's concerned it is. If he's a certain sort of animal, why wouldn't someone bound as closely to him as another gem of the same cut?