⇨ 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

[kingsroads]

"There's rarely any use in being secret to begin with," Strange can't help but interject, with a frown. It's obvious from his tone that secrecy is one of his sore points, something that still sets him on edge a bit.

Ever the voice of reason, however, Siobhan quickly chimes in with, "If you don't know what they do, we'll need to set up precautions first. We can put out any literal fires, but if the spells change you? That's something only the Ringmaster can fix, not us."

[fortuneglass]

To that, Carly purses her lips. She shouldn't have any reason to hide this. Knowing the Ringmaster, the faerie would even be proud that she'd managed to steal away such a thing.

...And yet.... "....If things become that dangerous, we can get her involved. ...But I was trying to study this alone as it was..!!"

[kingsroads]

Strange can understand why Carly would want to study this alone. After all, if nothing happened, then there wasn't any need to get anyone's hopes up. But at the same time...he's been burned by the fae plenty enough already. Examining a book isn't the same thing as summoning one or forming an alliance, but Strange can't help but approach the matter with a bit of trepidation.

"If that's what you want," he eventually says, that small frown still on his face. "If you ask me to, I'll help no matter your decision. We just need to be careful."

Because hoo boy does Strange have worst case scenarios dancing around his head.

[insidescoop]

Is it what she wants? Carly's face is hot with shame, and she finds it difficult to even look to the others at this point. Her daemon may be more outspoken, but-

"We kept it quiet this long right?" she insists, Carly chewing her lip in the meantime. "Let's do it! Come on!"

"AH- W-wait," Carly realizes, "Now!?"

[kingsroads]

"Why not?" Strange asks, with a small grin. He's not doing anything, Carly's not doing anything, it's stopped raining, let's go carefully mess with magic!

"If you have a place we can work in, I don't see any harm in at least examining the book," Siobhan chimes in.

I GUESS TIME SKIP IS THE WAY TO GO... let's skippy-

[insidescoop]

"W..well.... ...I guess if we can find a trailer then...."

"Good!!" Iskai has already decided, flapping her fake wings. "Then what are we waiting for, let's ditch this stupid costume!!"

"K-Keep that bit down..!!"

WHOO TIME SKIP

[kingsroads]

And so, they make their way back to the carnival and back to the supervisor's grove. Strange tries to get some more information about this book from Carly--though he still can't shake the feeling that this is a bad idea. Portland still looms large in his mind and him accidentally freezing the carnival before that. The possibility that this could all go terribly wrong is pretty high.

Of course, he still wants to figure out what this magic can do. Once they're in one of the spare trailers and Carly's got the book out, Strange looks it over.

"Damn," he mutters, with a frown. "I've no idea what it says in the first place." He pauses and closes his eyes before opening them again, staring at the writing more intently, trying to see if he can get anything out of this with his magic detection. But nope, all the Third Eye's telling him is 'hey, this is from Portland.' Well that's obnoxious.

"I don't remember any spells of warding that could be useful." And the only person he does know with a specific warding ability might not be useful either: Yuya can only ward against fae magic, not general protective keep these two from exploding should something bad happen wards. "Let me fill a bucket of water and light a candle, just to be safe."

The Winter Court seemed to be mostly shadows and ice. A candle...well, it wouldn't do much, even if Strange used his magic to quickly make the flame larger. But it might do something. The bucket of water's just because look, he's seen you toss about fire magic Carly, better safe than sorry.

HECKYE the best thing is the magic should be more birds than anything apparently

[insidescoop]

In fact, it's probably astronomically high-yet...here they are. The notebook-it might as well be a journal except for the obvious connotations behind where it came from-opened upon the table, Strange looking over it with scrutiny.

"Eh, a bucket?" Carly asks as she listens to the warnings of warding. Carly herself has seen fit to cast a line about the inside limits of the trailer room; purple flame, unable to burn anything, will stand there once she wills it, and from there she's ready to pull up a cloak of the energy-sapping substance on demand. "...I have my fire ready to absorb anything if it can...." Hoooo. From here there's only one thing to do. The page is turned to the First spell.

"...Are you ready?" she'll ask, as soon as the candle and bucket are handy.

[kingsroads]

A few moments later, Strange is back with the candle and bucket of water. The water gets sat right near his feet as does the candlestick, while Strange lights a match. Lighting the candle, he picks it up, dropping the burnt match on the floor, ready to...hell if he knows, throw it at something or try to manipulate the fire from the candlestick if something were to pop up.

At Carly's question, Strange still frowns. Those second thoughts are plain and obvious on his face and yet he answers, "I suppose so."

His daemon's hanging out near the edge of the trailer, staying as far away from these bad decisions as possible.

[ringleaders]

As Carly reads the words of the spell, she will feel some of the book's dark power move through her - whatever she is doing, it seems to be affecting her, personally. It's a feeling that starts in her head and chest and rolls down to her toes-

-and, as she completes it, her shadow will break free of her, it's vague reflection of her silhouette starting to move around of its own accord, without much direction or purpose. As such, it won't be long before it starts wandering out of sight.

[insidescoop]

"EHHH!? H-Hey! Stay put!!" she shouts despite herself, eyes wide with fright. Her shadow should not be doing that, thank you!

...Though on the bright side, it's probably hard for a shadow to pass walls of light fire...

[kingsroads]

On one hand, this could be worse! But on the other hand, he has no idea what to do with this. What could shove someone's shadow back on? He's heard theories about spells to join together two objects but Strange doesn't know the practice.

One thing is certain though, it might be a pretty bad idea if the shadow started wandering freely in the carnival grounds. So, setting down his candle, Strange quickly walks towards the shadow and attempts to grab it by what looks like an arm.

He has no idea if this'll work or not but look, he's got to try something.

[ringleaders]

Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work. The shadow is as immaterial as a regular shadow would be, and though it seems to be somewhat repulsed by the light of nearby flames, it mostly just continues to waddle around aimlessly.

It also doesn't listen to Carly commands, verbal or otherwise.

[insidescoop]

Okay. This is very, very bad. Strange's hand passes right through it-and while the fire keeps the shadow from moving about, Carly's flailing at it doesn't help either. It just kind of....passes through and continues wandering aimlessly, leading Carly to stand there, quiet.

Oh.

Oh dear.

Erm. ".....T...this was a bad idea...huh..." It's not like it's dangerous but, well.

Now they're sort of stuck here huh. Unless they want to let the shadow loose.

Which she's certain is a terrible idea.

[kingsroads]

This...isn't going anywhere. Strange looks from the shadow, back to Carly, back to the shadow again. Come on, come on, he must know some magic that could help here.

Of course, Strange realizes the person who isn't the Ringmaster who would be a bigger help is Childermass. He does have shadow magic, after all. But he doesn't really want to hear another round of 'Jonathan Strange, you bloody idiot, don't meddle with magic you know nothing about, et cetera et cetera.' So, taking care of the problem himself it is.

"I could attempt to freeze the shadow back to you. I doubt that would help as I've no idea if it feels temperature, but it's worth a shot." However, he has absolutely no confidence in that idea, as shown by the small frown on his face and the exceedingly tentative tone in his voice.

"Otherwise, I've no idea how to even attempt to reattach a shadow."

[insidescoop]

"N...Neither do I..." she admits somewhat gloomily, sighing.

"I don't think it's reacting that way to things either..! If that was the case, wouldn't it be back on me again because of the fire?" It definitely seems more significantly harmful than. Well. Ice.

...

So one of them has a radio with 'm right?

[kingsroads]

Thankfully, Strange has a radio on him and is rapidly coming to the same conclusion that Carly is.

"You don't happen to know the Ringmaster's private channel off hand, do you?" She's a supervisor, this might be a thing. He continues talking as he rummages around in his coat pocket for the radio. Pulling it out, he holds it up to show Carly. "I don't think either of us wants the rest of the carnival to know about this."

[fortuneglass]

"....It...It's all 7, like a lottery ticket," she manages, a little busy covering her face with her hands now.

[kingsroads]

And then, he punches the channel in. Giving Carly a look that's hopefully reassuring, Strange starts to talk as the radio crackles to life.

"Hello there! Terribly sorry Ringmaster, but we'll need a bit of help. I'm afraid Miss Nagisa's almost lost her shadow." And then, he rattles off the location of the specific trailer they've borrowed for this experiment gone wrong.

Strange is just trying his hardest to sound chipper and calm and that nothing's wrong...but he's never been a good liar, and his voice falters slightly as he talks through the radio.

[fortuneglass]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Now she's Definitely sure she's going to be laughed at....

...Well at any case if necessary she'll lower the firewalls so the Ringmaster can actually get in..