⇨ 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

[tacosgay]

Taako actually falls quiet as he thinks about that, murmuring a faint response; she is important.

She who?

He grits his teeth, and then remembers himself, turning it into a smile that he turns towards Strange as he and Flauta enter the cafe.

"Uh, thanks. So, uh, how'd you find this place?"

He makes conversation as he thinks, but it's obvious his mind is elsewhere; he can feel Flauta's rough scales brush against his throat as she shifts to look at him, and then back again to Strange and his own daemon.

[kingsroads]

"I was asking around for any places that had a good breakfast. Someone directed me here."

The cafe is a cute little restaurant, a small family business but large enough that all can fit comfortably inside (including the six foot seal). There are a few tables scattered around with seats of all different sizes for humans and daemons alike. The menu has moved to mostly lunch (mostly sandwiches) but there are a few breakfast items still up as well as a wide assortment of coffee and tea.

"Their recommendation wasn't wrong--the eggs are delicious," Strange pipes up, giving Taako a smile. "I've already eaten though, so I think I'll just get some tea."

[tacosgay]

"Huh," is all Taako responds; it's funny. The restaurants back home didn't look like this, but this building feels so familiar somehow. The memory seems just out of his reach, if it exists at all-- like it's on a shelf he has to stretch for.

For once, he actually does continue to try and reach it. Strange is right; he won't admit it out loud, but something is wrong, something important is... missing, and Taako can't remember what or why. But he feels like, if he keeps pulling at whatever threads he's given, sooner or later the whole thing will unravel.

"Uh-- yeah, maybe I'll try some of those eggs, huh? I'll be the judge of just how good they really are," he says, putting on an arrogant front, the appearance of his usual ego when it comes to his cooking, an attempt to disguise just how hard he's digging into his own mind.

"We were a professional chef back home," Flauta clarifies.

[kingsroads]

Strange's eyes light up at the thought of food. A professional chef? Well, good job Ringmaster for getting Taako in the carnival! He'll definitely have to try some of the man's cooking at some point.

"If you ever decide to experiment in the kitchen, I'll happily taste test the final product." His tone is light and teasing, trying to keep the mood from sinking too far back into Taako falling downwards into a sad memory spiral.

"As long as there's no pineapple in it, that is," Siobhan chimes in. A brief look of disgust flits across Strange and Siobhan's faces at the mere thought of pineapple.

[tacosgay]

"Oooh, anti-pineapple, huh?" Taako and Flauta glance at each other and shake their heads solemnly; Taako folds his arms with a sigh. "What a shame... and we were getting along so well, too."

Despite how serious his words are, there's the tiniest hint of a smirk at the edges of Taako's mouth; he sits back in his seat, and he shrugs his shoulders lightly, allowing that hint of a smirk to turn into something more proper.

"We'll just have to see if we can work something out, in that case... I guess."

[kingsroads]

"A side effect of the madness, I'm afraid," Strange remarks, with a light little laugh. It's exceedingly hard to tell whether he's joking or whether he's being serious: the enigmatic smile he's giving Taako certainly isn't helping matters.

"Though I do enjoy marmalade. And eggs, of course. Probably not marmalade on eggs, but if you're as good a chef as you say you are, I'm certain you can find a way to make that palatable."