⇨ 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

[hippocarnival]

Yuya scratches his cheek. "I was visiting the Summerlands one more time before we left and I ran into her talking with the Ringmaster."

So completely by accident. "She doesn't like the way the fae courts treat people, either. She said all the summer fae stay out of the way of humans, so I don't think she's on good terms with the Queen anymore." If the Summer Queen is part of heading this conquest for Arcadia, that's a decent guess.

[kingsroads]

"Well, at least we'll have one less fae to worry about in the inevitable fight," Strange remarks, with a little sigh. Because of course there's going to be an inevitable fight. That's the one thing that Strange is certain about in their dealings with the Summer Court, that it just isn't going to end with Portland.

"What else did she tell you?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya falls quiet for a moment. Not because he forgot anything they talked about, but because he needs to mentally draw the line between what he promised not to tell and what was all right to be open with.

"Uh... she said that she and the Ringmaster rebelled against the courts before, but not what that was." He shrugs a shoulder helplessly. If they were still conquering places, he probably doesn't need to say they weren't successful. "And she thanked me for saving the carnival... but that really wasn't just me!"

That wouldn't normally be something that would stick to him enough that he'd be telling other people about it, but he remembers that warm weight in his chest that it gave him and how mysterious the fae are has kept it on his mind when he thinks about them.

[kingsroads]

"No, but you were one of the ones who got your soul stabbed. I imagine that has more lasting effects than simply being knocked around by the fae."

Even if with some of the people at the ritual, 'knocking around' was replaced with 'horrifically beaten up.' Strange is listening, but it's obvious he's a bit disappointed with the information. That's it? That's a bit anticlimactic. The bit about the rebellion is good, he can add that to his notes, but the rest of that doesn't add anything new to the equation.

Then again, it's not like Yuya could have known what to ask to begin with.

"And that's all she told you? Just...small talk?"

[hippocarnival]

"So did Peridot," he points out helpfully. He'll always insist that his soul is fine and seeing Koemi run around is only proof of that.

He props his chin on his hand with a dull expression on his face. "Well, yeah. It's not like I went to find her on purpose for anything. We were just talking!"

And the Ringmaster told him to be polite, so 20 questions when he barged on their conversation seems a little much.

[kingsroads]

"But I'm not talking to Peridot right now," Strange points out, not very helpfully. Needless to say, he'll probably get on her case eventually for that 'yeah so your soul got mad stabbed' bit but she ain't here, so suck it up Yuya, you're getting all the concern.

Being someone who would interrupt a conversation with 20 questions, Strange is just frowning. What the heck, why couldn't you have talked about something useful! The state of fae politics or what the Summer Maiden can do, or all sorts of things like that. Strange is just kicking himself for missing that opportunity.

"Well, thank you for getting a little bit of information. We didn't know about the rebellion before. At least that's something new."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya raises a brow. Strange is not a subtle person, so Yuya has a feeling he really wanted to meet her for information and not just to see what she was like. Which isn't a bad thing, but Yuya is probably the last person you trust for recon.

"Couldn't the Ringmaster tell us more about the fae herself? I mean, she is one."

[kingsroads]

"There's a difference between 'could' and 'would,'" Strange explains, with a frown. Could the Ringmaster tell them? Absolutely. But would she tell them? Probably not. He can already see how the conversation goes, the Ringmaster brushing off his concerns with 'it's nothing to worry about' or 'I can take care of it' and not answering him in the slightest.

Which is really annoying to a specific nosy magician.

"I'm certain if we directly asked her, she'd find a way to dodge the question."

[hippocarnival]

"Why do you think she'd dodge the question?" He asks genuinely. Although he can guess why, if the conversation looks like it's going to turn upsetting. If she's really that troubled by the suffering they went through...

But it doesn't have to go that way, right?

[kingsroads]

"Because she's the Ringmaster," Strange replies, as if that's obvious enough. "She doesn't give anyone a straight answer or fully explain details unless she has to."

Yuya wasn't here for most of them, but Strange's resigned tone of voice implies that there have been plenty of times where the Ringmaster dodged questions, didn't give straight answers, or ignored some details entirely.

[hippocarnival]

"This seems like a good time for it to be 'has to'..." he frowns, is head tipping over further against his hand as he stares out at the waves. He's suddenly a little more deflated on the matter. "I know someone like that... but I really think it's better if people are honest and up front about stuff."

He stares blankly again for a long, quiet moment. "I mean, most of the time."

[kingsroads]

"I do too," Strange grumbles. "There's rarely any use in keeping secrets."

Said with such an annoyed tone of voice that it's pretty obvious Strange has a personal grudge against someone keeping a secret or has personal reasons why he thinks secret keeping downright sucks. "Still, short of someone casting a spell of truth, there's not much either of us can do about it."

Fun fact: Strange doesn't know if spells of truth even exist in the first place.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods, as if he himself is not currently planning to keep a lot of very big secrets from someone he's close to. Look, there's always an exception to the rule.

He wrinkles his nose at that suggestion, though. "I don't think we need to go that far. Even if it's annoying, forcing someone like that..." Well, that still gets a bit too close to taking away their autonomy for his liking.

[kingsroads]

"Oh, there's no need to worry," Strange quickly responds, now that he's spotted Yuya's frown. "I don't know anyone who has any spells like that in the first place."

That is, he doesn't know anyone who has any spells like that yet. Strange hasn't yet learned about Lambert's magical mindwhammy.

[hippocarnival]

"It probably wouldn't work on the Ringmaster, anyway." So nobody should try, although he doubts Lambert would.

Out in the water, Koemi is starting to slowly float closer to the shore on her back. Yuya leans over and cups his hands to his mouth to call out to the daemons. "Hey, getting tired yet?"

[kingsroads]

Siobhan's also floating inward as well, though she looks like she's had an AMAZING time and can probably go for a little bit longer. Shaking his head, Strange laughs at the daemons.

"It's odd. They're certainly a part of our souls, I understand that much. But I wonder what it says about us that our souls are perfectly happy to splash around in the lake like that?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya smiles, reaching his hands out as Koemi reaches the shore and flips over. He gathers her up in his arms when she's close enough. "Probably that we know how to have a good time."

Yuya's an entertainer (and a fourteen year old kid)--bringing fun and being fun is kind of his thing. "What else are a seal and an otter going to do, anyway?"

[kingsroads]

"A valid point!" said with a laugh. Siobhan reaches the shore shortly afterwards, and Strange bends down to give her some head scratches when she's close enough.

"Though, given the choice, I think I'll have a good time away from the lake. Swimming isn't my strongest suit." He can't swim worth a damn. "Perhaps we could find a fountain large enough the next time these two want to play?"

[hippocarnival]

There is no damn way they're going to find a fountain big enough for Siobhan. "Yeah! I don't think they have any rules against playing in the fountains if we can find a big one."

Or if there is, Yuya's broken it enough times. He pats Koemi. "Or maybe a pool. There's gotta be something for daemons that need water."

[kingsroads]

"You'd think so. They've designed this city almost perfectly for daemons." Doors large enough for the bigger animals to enter, pavement of all different types, plenty of fountains around, things like that.

"I read in one of the books here that this world's had daemons for as long as they have records of. That's plenty of time to adjust and design entire cities around them."

Because of course Strange made a beeline for the history books, why wouldn't he?

[hippocarnival]

Of course he did, the nerd. Yuya does look interested in that as he looks up. "Really? That makes sense. If it was this sudden and I didn't know it was because of the carnival, I would have been a lot more worried, but they're so used to it. And it's kind of dangerous having your soul out like this, isn't it?"

[kingsroads]

"It is." With a little frown, Strange continues. "During the first day or so, Siobhan and I were still learning how to navigate this whole daemon thing. Every time she accidentally brushed up against someone, it felt wrong."

It's awkward as hell suddenly navigating with a bigass seal. But if just someone brushing up against Siobhan made him feel wrong and worried, imagine how it would feel if someone were to take her or grab her instead--granted, he doesn't have to worry about that much, have fun moving four hundred pounds sucker, but the other daemons were small enough for it to be an issue.

Bending down, Strange gives the seal a reassuring scratch on the head.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya frowns, glancing down at Koemi. "Koemi's small, so I haven't had any trouble keeping her close. It must be really hard with a bigger daemon."

He's really quite grateful she's so compact. He's had enough pain directly to his soul. "You're going to avoid that island, right?"

[kingsroads]

"Of course we are," both Strange and his daemon say at the same time. There's a pause, as if both are waiting to see who'll speak next, before Strange continues.

"Practically speaking, I can't swim. And since she's settled, no one will be willing to take us to the island in the first place." The matter of practicality aside, Siobhan chimes in with her own opinions. She frowns, nudging Strange with her head, as if pulling him closer somehow.

"Besides, things that eat souls...we don't want to deal with that."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods slowly, smiling a bit with relief. "Good. If those things really eat souls then I hope everyone avoids the island."

That's a vain hope. "But you really can't swim?" That probably makes having an aquatic daemon twice as difficult. Especially one that's too big to just stick in a basin or the bathroom sink.