lostcarnival | ⇨ GREYSOL

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⇨ 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,

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.

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"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?"

"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.

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."

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.

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."

"Do you think there might be any here in this city?" She's interested in seeing! And comparing. Maybe there were things she could employ in her own, though the likelihood of a human zoo being able to improve on her own designs, or Pink's, were excruciatingly unlikely.

She had no carnival or circus of her own. It would take designing all new gems for, and did they really have the resources for that? "It sounds almost more interesting than sitting here watching beings go by."

'Magpie', that must be the sort of bird it was, she'd seen others. Like the enormous pigeon that was Julien. "They are of a good size to bring places, not likely to get in the way." Magpie sized! She looks down at her daemon when he's declared a tiger, and he puts his whiskers forward in interest.

"A tiger. That sounds good enough for a diamond," he muses, almost more to himself than the other three present. "We shall have to visit this 'far east' if there is time."

"Oh, absolutely!" Sure, there are animal-like companions all over the place with how this world apparently is... But there's something very different between looking like an animal and being one. Nothing shows that better than some of the workers that have come through the carnival. Zecora is probably the best example out of all of them.

Still seeing is believing, so... Joker gives a low bow, his good arm folding neatly across his chest. As a butler and ringleader himself once, he knows how to make the best of them. On his shoulder, Aurora does one of her own, wings spreading out playfully. "Would my fair lady mind if I escorted her ta one?" He makes a slight wink- they're coworkers after all. He thinks he can get away with it... Probably.

While he's being a cheeky thing, Aurora preens a little. "You see magpies all over- they're even city birds." Pausing, she peers over at Tiger. "But your lot get worshipped some places, I hear, so there's that."

"Wonderful." Blue Diamond was still working out the differences between 'animal', 'thinking animal' and 'person'. This sort of thing was best left to gems made for science and philosophy, of which she was neither, but without having her empire to manage the issue for her, she had to gather that information for herself! Perhaps these zoos would help shed light on the issue.

His behavior is a little more charming than he knows. Blue is used to being served by the likes of Pearls, which might as well be butlers, and having someone act appropriately while not being also terrified out of their minds was particularly delightful. "Far be it from us to not accept such a kind offer. Company makes every visit to somewhere new far more interesting." All she has to do is unwind herself from her tiger; both feline and Diamond are graceful in the doing, in spite of how awkward it could have been.

A flashy little bird, perhaps it meant more than merely being common birds, if Joker's behavior was any sign.

"How fitting indeed then." The striped daemon stretches languorously, looking and sounding amused. Diamonds were to be worshiped. "What are your names, may I ask?"

"He's Joker," she chirps before the Joker in question has a chance to answer for himself, and he laughs a little.

Well, may as well go with it. "And she's Aurora," he finishes, amused at her even as he offers his arm to the woman. It feels like the kind of thing that is rather normal here, if what he's observed is any indication, unlike some worlds. Besides, if she'd liked what manners he could rustle up, maybe this would do as well. "And what may we call you, Miss?"

There is a brief moment's pause of tiger and gem where both must consider suddenly that the word 'Joker' may not mean what they're used to it meaning. It certainly isn't a job description, he seemed less an annoyance than something of such a title would be. "Please, call me Blue."

Simple, obvious, straightforward. Easy to remember! Hopefully he won't be too put off by the fact that Blue's an awfully tall lady too. There's another moment of hesitation when an arm is offered - she'd seen humans doing that, but why eluded her. It takes her a moment to duplicate what she'd seen others do, and take the offered arm carefully. "And this is Vajraneel."

Blue Diamond and ... Blue Diamond, albeit in some other tongue.

"Blue and Vajraneel." Joker says the words carefully, the latter more than the former, just to make sure he doesn't mispronounce. Years of traveling, both in England and in the carnival, have given him a small knack for other languages, but still. It never hurts to be careful.

Although he has to say, her careful actions make him grin a little bit more. "Is it the name or the arm that's catchin' ya off guard?" he says playfully, since those are the only things he can think to name. Either one wouldn't be a surprise.

If it's an improper pronunciation from its origins, neither Blue nor the tiger would likely be aware of it. As it is Joker seems to pronounce it the way they do, and both are satisfied with this. The striped daemon settles directly at Blue's side - a bit of observation might note they're rarely out of touching distance for long.

A daemon could go much further without discomfort! They're just not bothering. "A small amount of both," she admits, a touch reluctantly. "I mean no offense."

"Proper etiquette among humanity is still something we're learning."

Well, Joker is understanding of that. While Aurora has fluttered about plenty, glad to be in the air as much as her other half is she's quite content to be where she is.

...With some movement still, of course, as shown by the fact that she doesn't stop hopping from one shoulder to the other. "Well, he went and named himself," she explains and then cheekily adds, "Explains how weird it is, doesn't it?"

Joker snorts a little, even as he escorts Blue down the street. "Didn't hear ya complainin'," he teases her. "But she's right." With a laugh, he adjusts his hand just enough to point at himself. "I never got a name, so I had ta figure one out myself! I was gonna be a part of a different circus back home, so I figured, well, might as well make it a fun one, right?"

"...For a human, it might be a little strange." The whole naming yourself thing, anyway, that seemed like something everyone else did! But if he named himself, it probably had more meaning to him than just a random word, or even the context Blue knew it in.

Names after all, defined a person. Who they were, what they were. 'Joker' was how he defined himself.. "Was it anything like this one?"

Probably without the faerie leader. "In a general sense, we are certain specific details are likely to be very different." Curiosity is a difficult thing to try to ignore, and the tiger's not going to bother suggesting they stop until there's an obvious problem.

Definitely without the faerie leader.

Him and Aurora cock their heads to the side almost at the same time, already in sync despite how short a time the carnival has been in Greysol so far. "This one's a little fancier, I would wager," he says after a moment's consideration, "which is probably what ya get when yer a powerful lady and not just a gent off the street. We didn't have a ferris wheel, for one, which I think is rather the highlight of the whole place, so yer right there."

"But the core of it's always the same," Aurora says decisively. "The travelling, all the different people, givin' folks entertainment and things they'd never get ta see otherwise. A carnival is always a carnival when ya come down ta it. Some things, they don't ever change no matter the place, yeah?"

The ferris wheel. She'd been on it precisely once and had rather enjoyed the ride until it had gotten stuck.

For a time, daemon and Diamond are quiet, thinking this over and observing the people passing about. She trusts Joker knows where he's going, else he wouldn't have offered. Hopefully things like traffic and stoplights won't be a concern..

"Do human carnivals also acquire its workers through similar but ... less ... magical ways?" No wish granting presumably, but this 'payment' thing seemed to work in its stead for a great many individuals.

Having a second carnival to compare to was unexpectedly interesting.

Joker has a rough idea of where he's going, which will have to do. Besides, he can always ask directions, can't he? As they walk, occasionally Aurora flutters up off of his shoulder to take to the air, looking around for signs or certain streets. Inevitably, she always comes back, chittering directions into Joker's ear.

"Well, they're a tad similar, although yer right on less magical," Joker answers, waiting for Aurora to come back from her most recent flight up. "They get paid in, ah, monetary ways. Of course, for some, that's just a bonus."

A smile plays on his lips. "Some folks just want ta leave the place they live at, and the circus is a good way ta do that. Others don't have talents fit for regular society, so ta speak, but a circus will take anyone that can work well enough. So the experience is more the payment for them."

The little bird is watched, her exploratory short flights apparently quite useful.. but she's content with her striped companion. Perhaps he couldn't fly but she found him reassuring as he was.

Could a daemon shapeshift, if their person could? "Humans do seem to enjoy money and its various exchanges. All of this is from such similar commerce is it not?" Buildings and clothing and roads and people bustling here and there, and the flying things in the sky that may or may not be blimps!

"You sound as if you have personal experience with it." Carnivals, getting paid, the experience of being in one. She didn't want to pry but that too sounded interesting. "May I inquire further?"

Of course, Joker has every right to say no, and if he does she'll respect that even if she didn't much want to.

"Mm?" It takes him a half second to realize what she means, and then he nods. "Oh, yeah. Makes trade a bit easier, if everyone is passin' along the same thing in exchange!" A chuckle rolls out of him. "Although it'd be easier if us humans weren't all over and came up with our own ideas separate." Oh well. Things have worked out as best as possible, he guesses, although he's by no means an expert.

Aurora is on his shoulder just in time to hear that question, and she gives a delighted little hop. "Oh, we loved! The best part of our life, I would say."

If he lets her keep going, she won't stop and might spill something he'd rather she didn't. So Joker takes over, smiling. "Which is ta say that yer free ta ask whatever questions ya like. My whole family worked at that circus back in my home, so I got nothin' but fond memories~."

"It makes sense given your cultures, but I admit it's still a little strange to me." She was getting used to it, slowly! She had to, she was handling most of the treasury's administrative work lately, and that tended to mean COMMERCE.

At least she didn't have to worry about spending her own money, she didn't have any. That both bird and Joker seem to have the same reaction - one that strikes her as pleased and not simply hiding an unexpectedly painful life - she relaxes a tiny bit. Blue knew that personal lives were private matters, and sometimes weren't pleasant.

But both daemon and human seemed to think it was a good time.

"What did you do there?" It's the tiger that gets to the question before Blue can.

"I was the ringleader for that circus!" If he had the arm to spare, he'd gesture grandly along with his laughter. Fortunately, Aurora is here for him in this world. She darts off before them, the light catching her feathers nicely as she slips and flutters through the air.

"So I did a lot of the same things that our Ringmaster does now. I hire folks, organize 'em for who gets ta perform, that sorta thing." Patiently, he waits for Aurora to land back on his shoulder before continuing. "I introduced the acts, too. That's an important part of the whole thing as a ringleader, y'see. Ya have ta help make the crowd all excited for what they're about ta see."

It's a visual display of what certainly seems to be carefree happiness, if it's a trick Blue is unaware. It was as far as she can tell, an administrative position. ... And that's a bit of a surprise too, by the whuff of bemusement from the tiger.

He really didn't seem the sort to be involved in that sort of busywork! "While the latter certainly seems to suit both of you well, as you are very attention-grabbing, I admit ... I had not expected administrative experience." That's what she gets for judging people on appearance!

But in her society your appearance really did dictate what you did.

"For human carnivals, are acts left to the discretion of the actors, or is that something also orchestrated by the ringleader?"

His grin might almost be described as a bit cheeky. "Ya wouldn't be the first ta be surprised that I'm quite responsible!" he teases, although it's true. "It's still a circus in the end, so even the responsible ones always look a bit odd ta anyone else outside of it." Still, even with the more tedious parts taken into account, Joker doesn't think there's a job anywhere else that he'd rather do.

Aurora pinches one of his ears inbetween her beak, lightly at least. "Ya wouldn't look right in plain suits anyway," she laughs, for all that it's true. They both know how he's like.

As he looks around, Joker thinks they might be getting closer. It's taking a while, but the buildings are becoming a little less clustered together. That means more room, somewhere, for lots of animals (some of them huge) to live at. "It's somethin' of both," he explains. "Someone will come up ta me and say that they're good at, say... Knife throwin'. I'll have them do a little demonstration, ta show me how good they are. If anyone has any potential, I'll keep 'em on so they can practice while havin' them do other work in the meantime. If they're really good, then I'll put them under the spotlight either if they're better than who I have already or ta give someone else a break."

While the vast bulk of Blue's attention is still on Joker and his little bird, it's hard to also not keep note of the creatures the humans here are tended to. Not too many enormous creatures, did that have a meaning too? Likely they wouldn't stay long enough to find out..

"I suppose were you not suited to it, you would not have done it," she acquiesces. If he'd been at it a while he HAD to be capable. "As I understand it humans are ... able to choose their areas of expertise? How do you gain the knowledge for such roles?"

That's a far bigger question, but it just didn't WORK that way as far as she understood things. Learning, education, school. What were they? "..Did you learn from another ring-leader?"

"Perhaps it is innate after all, and he was always meant to do such a thing," the tiger adds thoughtfully. It made sense to him!

While Joker has met a lot of individuals that could be considered foreign and strange in England, it's still quite the novelty to meet one that finds the idea of research and practice to be an unknown thing. Aurora makes her own little whistle, no doubt feeling the same things.

That's a lot to explain, however, and the tiger catches him off guard while he's sorting it through in his head. A laugh bounces out from him. "Well, yer not entirely wrong!" he says, still chuckling as Aurora titters on his shoulder. "I didn't learn from any other ringleaders, exactly... But I'm a big brother." There's only a brief pause before it occurs to him that he should explain a little bit further. "Me and a group of others alike enough decided ta live together and look after one another. None of us knew who was the oldest... So I guess it was just decided that I was the best suited ta bein' the big brother since I was so good with people and such."

"A good a reason as any," Aurora agrees. It'd certainly made sense when they were all just gutter kids.

Joker continues on. "So I got used ta the people part of the job pretty quickly, I like ta think. But things like learnin' the acts, or how ta do the practical stuff-" He motions his hand again slightly. "That I had ta learn from teachers, or practice."

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diamondsare - 2017-11-17 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

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⇨ GREYSOL

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