lostcarnival | ⇨ GREYSOL

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not with more than seeing." Reira seems quite sure about this herself, and it becomes evident why in just a moment. "...They definitely can't. ...Because if the daemon side touches me, then the other side is hurt." It's a strong implication-and her voice is practically steel. "...The people here don't want to touch other daemons either.

"...If it means I can run though, I can do it. ...it really is okay," she adds, and her voice goes a little more appropriately quiet. "...Even if I got caught, they're not soldiers here," Reira murmurs.

"...they don't want to do the worst, so it's not the same as home. ...I know that."

Blue glances down at her tiger, who in the same motion looks up at her. Although nothing is actually said there's certainly some form of communication going on, one that sets the striped not-beast circling the small human child again. "They might, depending on the preciousness of what you've chosen to steal," the gem says, not ungently.

It seems straightforward, but on the other hand Reira really didn't seem to be preparing for what was likely inevitable. Everyone got caught eventually. "Are you prepared for a human being perhaps deciding to discard these unspoken rules and seizing your companion?"

Reira is not even remotely her responsibility but the idea of thievery sat so unpleasantly with her that she couldn't help but speak against it, even in a sidelong fashion.

In her mind, it is the foolhardy that get caught-the foolhardy, and also...well. "...Umnh-I won't be stealing everything...just things that might be important for here, so..."

A human discarding it though...Well. Her daemon briefly becomes an Extremely sharp looking sort of creature. Quite literally sharp, in fact. "...There were a lot of people like that where I used to live," she admits quietly. "....It's not good, but I know what to do because of it. ...They had me steal things sometimes too, but... ....it feels like I can decide if it's too dangerous to do, this time. ....I have that choice I think." And that's important, she feels. Since it seems like part of the worry here is....well, getting caught doing too much of it.

She knows not to get too far in the rabbit hole now though.

"What might be important to have that can't simply be ... 'paid for'?" Ah, commerce. Although Blue had been introduced to the idea of buying and selling and had a fairly reasonable grasp of it, she didn't have it all down pat. Surely everything a human had would have a price.

But she was proud of what she did know of how money worked, and she was pretty certain anything was for sale. Maybe Reira just didn't know she COULD buy things.

The spiky thing that was once a daemon is batted at very, very carefully by the tiger, whether this is to test sharpness or something else is a good question. "A choice to not steal is good," she muses. "Best to choose not to. If you find something you think must be stolen, perhaps investigate its cost first, payment can be easily found."

When in doubt, don't get into a situation where getting caught is an issue!

"I don't know!" It's quite the mystery actually. "....If I see people paying for things though, I guess I'll know then." ....Still stealing lots of shit though.

Like Money.

"...Having choices at all is good. ...It's nice to not be scared of what to do, any more," she hums, nodding in agreement with her own self. "...I'll make sure I look for the price first," she promises.

Stealing is 100% not okay and utterly improper. She's going to have to see about doing something about this untoward practice the Ringmaster is encouraging.

Still, she's done her best to hopefully sway this particular human away from such an uncouth path. "And remember, you don't have to pay for it yourself. The Ringmaster will do it." There's a pause, and a thoughtful noise. "I suppose I would, as there is no Treasurer yet."

Boy that's going to be a talk for sure. But, Reira does at least keep it in mind....albeit tucked neatly alongside the fact that the Ringmaster herself said she'd have to steal some things occasionally.

Well. "Um-you're standing in for the Treasurer..?"

"For now, yes. No-one else is available."

She hadn't much minded the workload, when one doesn't sleep finding something to do all night could take a bit of time, and a purpose beyond sitting about was nice.

"Until recently I also handled acquisitions."

"Oh! ....That's what Childermass does now," Reira observes aloud, nodding. "....umn...well, I'll make sure I talk to you then! ...Whenever something happens that needs money."

There's a pause, Blue glancing down to her tiger and he up at her, while both visibly weigh whether there's a point in reiterating the 'try to buy it first' path in light of this new information.

How much did humans truly understand, anyway?

"Yes, please do so. Remember if it is for the carnival money can be easily found." Including literally on the ground sometimes!

It varies, but Reira may well be doing some willful ignoring here.

As it is, she...seems mostly honest, for now. "Okay."

The deal is...probably solid.

⇨ GREYSOL

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end thread here maybe?