⇨ 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]

Uh, wait, it's gonna be cold--[Well. Either she'll hear him or learn the hard way.]

[soft_focus]

[Psh, she already knows it'll be c-

OH GOD HER TEETH] MFGGHHMMNN...! [She very quickly pulls her face back, looking decidedly betrayed by her food.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya covers his mouth to stiffle a laugh.] Sorry! I didn't warn you fast enough... you'll enjoy it more if you lick it.

[soft_focus]

Mnnhhh.... ...why would you just lick food, that's slow...

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya moves to ruffle the top of her hair.] Because otherwise you get brainfreeze. Anyway, ice cream is better when you eat it slower.

[... Mostly because then you don't get brainfreeze, but Yuya makes a point by licking his own ice cream.] You want to sit outside and eat?

[soft_focus]

That wasn't my brain, that was my teeth, [She huffs, apparently quite fine with the ruffling at least.] ...Let's go sit though, [she adds. Sitting is good.]

[hippocarnival]

[He didn't make the name up, Reira. So he just shrugs, leading her outside the creamped little shop so they can sit on a bench just outside it.

Once they sit, Koemi finally jumps off of Yuya and sits beside him, on hand on his leg and she looks around attentively. Yuya, himself, is far more attentive of his ice cream cone.]

Hey, I didn't ask, but what's your daemon's name? [Because he can't keep calling it just 'Reira's daemon', right?]

[soft_focus]

There isn't one.

[Annnnd licking at this ice cream cone. Meanwhile, the daemon is shifting between various varieties of hamster, balanced by young versions of the daemons passing them now.]

[hippocarnival]

Haven't picked one yet? [Yuya raises a brow, looking over at her daemon. He wonders if that gets tiring, but daemons are souls and not actual animals, so... it's probably not the same?]

[soft_focus]

Ummm....I don't think they'll let me pick...

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya just looks confused at that.] It's your soul, right? Does it matter who picks, if you don't pick it together?

[soft_focus]

It matters.

[That is All the answer he's getting apparently.]

[hippocarnival]

... Okay. [He's not no refute for that.] Do you like your ice cream?

[soft_focus]

Mnh...

[Well, she has been licking it...]

...'s sweet.

[That's a Yes, probably.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya smiles.] Yeah, it's really sweet.

[He leans back on one hand, absently eating his ice cream as he stares out ahead. Koemi settles on the bench beside him.] Oh, Yuzu's here, by the way.

[Yuya jumps slightly.] That's right! I wanted to talk to you about that.

[soft_focus]

I know.

[...uh oh]

She lives in my trailer.

[...lick. lick.]

[hippocarnival]

--She what?! [Yuya almost leaps from his seat in shock.] You haven't said anything to her, have you?!

[That's vague.] I mean, she hasn't even seen Academia invade yet! She's clueless!

[soft_focus]

....I know.

[ Lick.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya presses his hands together as well as he can given it's taken up by an ice cream cone, bowing his head and pleading.] Please don't say anything! Gongenzaka and I are going to talk to her about it, she doesn't need to be scared by it.

[soft_focus]

[.....the silence given as she merely stares and continues to eat the ice cream is no doubt...not helping any nerves.]

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya opens an eye to stare back at her. This is definitely not helping his nerves.]

... Reira?

[soft_focus]

Yep?

[Ice creaaaaaaaaaaaaaam.]

[hippocarnival]

... Is that a 'yep, I promise not to tell Yuzu about what's going to happen or who she was'?

[soft_focus]

....

No, it's an 'I heard you'. [Annnd working her way at this...] ...If I already told her, wouldn't you know if she was upset though?

[hippocarnival]

Did you? [Yuya's voice goes up about three octaves, probably his blood pressure too. And his stress levels. Koemi also jerks up and stares alertly at Reira.]