⇨ 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 nods.] We're all... reincarnations, I guess.

[Split into four, but that requires a little more context first.] In the original dimension, they were Ray. Akaba Ray.

[He worries over his lip.] Akaba Leo's daughter.

[otoko]

A-AKABA?!

"Oh!! ...This... ...explains quite a lot, actually..."

Th-Then the reason he targeted Yuzu and the others, would have been to target his daughter..!!

"Yuuya... ...Akaba Reiji was unaware of this, wasn't he. ....How did he take this news, if this was the case..?"

[hippocarnival]

He wanted to bring her back. [His expression grows tight, and Koemi looks up at his distress.] He didn't know. Nobody did... I don't know how he feels about it. Zarc was so close to reviving and The Professor was already trying to merge them, there was too much that needed to be stopped.

... But we didn't stop any of it.

[otoko]

[It is the last point which draws a chill down their backs, both of them. Without realizing it, he's found himself with a hand on his daemon's head, calming himself, calming them...

And with a swallow-] ....Yuuya...if we didn't succeed...

"....How is it that you are here."

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya sucks in a breath, going quiet as he figures out how to proceed.

Koemi ceases her sulking finally and pulls herself up and back on the couch to cuddle in Yuya's lap.]

Um, you need to know first... Ray was the one who stopped Zarc originally. With four magic cards called the En cards. She used then to beat him in a duel and they split him. And her, and the dimensions.

Zarc wouldn't accept that. He planned to resurrect through us, so... The Professor said Ray followed so she could prevent it.

[otoko]

...So then....You fought Ray?

[Except something seems off here.] "Except you said 'originally'... ....If the professor was the one who re-split you, we wouldn't be having such a serious talk, would we..? ...So then who did it this time?"

[hippocarnival]

Ray split us, not the Professor. She gave up a lot to stop us...

[He pulls his daemon closer.] They had the En cards again, and... Reira and Ray used them to stop us again. But before the dimensions split, Reira... [He puts a hand to his chest.] She took Zarc out of us and into herself. The Ringmaster has him now.

And Yugo asked for us to be split again, so I guess that's how we're like this again... [Thank God for Rini.]

[otoko]

Aaauh, that was what I referred to after all. This second time, if Ray could not-

[And they freeze. ....Reira?]

"....The youngest brother..?" [No, wait-]

Sister..!? [Gongenzaka questions, eyes wide.] But how..!? And for that matter, why would she keep Zarc?

"A combination of contracts seems to have paid off here, but then, doesn't this mean Reira may also tell Yuzu of these matters?"

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya chuckles, but there's no mirth in it.] Yeah, turns out Reira is a girl.

I guess she was saving me. Zarc would have just resurrected through us again... [Because none of them had been strong enough to hold him back.

And then Yuya's attention snaps up when he realizes that.] Crap! She and Yugo are both here, and Yugo's a huge loudmouth! I have to talk to them!

[otoko]

MMMHN! That's right!

"Reira may catch on, given what we know of her, but Yuugo is a fool." [There is a slight grimace from Gongenzaka, but now is not the time to lament his thoughts running free.]

We should still discuss this later however, Yuuya-we cannot keep all of this from Yuzu for long.

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya grumbles, sinking against the couch.] Can you think of a way of explaining any of that without scarring her and making her panic? She doesn't need to know right now.

[otoko]

[Well alright, if he wants to talk about this now.] ....There are many ways to do so without instilling fear, and panic, Yuuya.

"The trick after all, is to do so without showing panic yourself."

[hippocarnival]

I'm not panicking. [Yuya can't even talk about it without being in blatant distress. Clinging to his daemon doesn't help that impression.] But that's a lot more serious than just other dimensions or Academia!

[betheman]

As was my death, news of which I, the man Gongenzaka, did not make better by holding back with fear.

"You are also very clearly in distress, perhaps we SHOULD talk about this now after all..."

[hippocarnival]

[He shoots Marishi a glare. Koemi wiggles around and sits up in his arms to interrupt, however.]

We don't want to hide it from her. It's just really hard for us to take, too. We've never had your confidence, with something like this...

[betheman]

"Which is why we talk about it." [As much as Gongenzaka grimaces as a result, he does have to agree.]

...It is difficult. But we cannot put it off, lest someone else speak for us.

"And far more harshly as well."

[hippocarnival]

[That's true. At least if Yuya does it, he knows Yuzu. He can phrase it better and be there for her. He knows he has to.]

... I know. But you'll be there, right?

[His tone isn't questioning. He knows Gongenzaka will be. He's just digging for the verbal confirmation.] If it was you, she'd definitely have to believe it.

[betheman]

Of course.

"We must still choose our words carefully however."

[hippocarnival]

Of course! [He rolls over, pressing his side against the back of the couch.] I said I don't want to scare her, but how do you tell someone that they're someone more than they thought they were and... not do that?

[betheman]

"You start with the truth."

More specifically, [he adds, frowning at Marishi,] ...You make it clear that things are alright. That you, and Reira, and Yuugo, and myself, are now here-and that the others will be as well.

"She'll no doubt be cross when she feels we've skipped over weeks of time without telling her,"

...But at the very least we'll be able to explain those weeks while she is aware that all comes through.

[hippocarnival]

I wasn't going to lie. But just 'tell the truth' doesn't mean anything! I don't think she even knows she has other people who look like her, yet...

[She does but Yuya didn't find out until episodes later.]

[otoko]

Yuuya. We were not saying you would lie, we were starting off with fact.

"And the fact is, that is what we start with-the truth of things is that things turn out well enough that we can see each other face to face."

From there, we determine what she knows, and explain what is necessary. What reason did she come here, on that note?

[hippocarnival]

... She wanted answers about what was happening with Sora and Kurosaki... and probably Yuto.

[Thats it, that's her contract.]

[otoko]

[Well that sucks.]

Yuuto?

"Well, we can certainly move into the matter of Zarc from Yuuto... ...It may be best to explain the point of the matter and work backward in this case then, however."

Aah... [Gongenzaka sighs.] Sora and Kurosaki both, after all, became our allies... ....with the point she came from, they were far from that...

[hippocarnival]

Sora was always a friend. [He says it a little defensively.

Okay, there was that betrayal shit during the battle royale but HE CHANGED. He wrinkles his nose a bit.] So we talk about Academia and the dimensions first, and then Zarc?