⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

At the armadillo's words, Lambert half-raises a hand ... but it turns out someone is even more of a hothead than he is, for once. He raises his brows at Rita, then glances back at the woman, who seems far too alarmed to get proper answers out of her.

Enough. They're not getting anywhere like this. So he sighs, and with a short, sharp gesture, casts a spell. Immediately, the woman's eyes and the armadillo's become slightly unfocused as the magic takes hold. Lambert focuses his attention on her, putting just a bit of a heavier suggestion in his voice.

"Settle down. Just answer her question."

"Settle..." the woman echoes, speech slow and measured, before she goes on. "The Spectres came when people started opening portals to other worlds. They eat souls." As one, the woman and her daemon shiver, clinging to each other, the compulsion to remain calm not enough to stave off the fear (or so it would seem). "As long as your daemon is unsettled, you're safe. A child's daemon will protect them." She recites the words with the air of someone repeating a long-memorized proverb.

[anti_nonsense]

Was that magic just now? Rita thought she saw something in that gesture he made, but she isn't sure what it was.

When the woman appears to fall into a trance, however, Rita's eyes widen as she listens to her drone out a complete answer. Mind control...!? Krios recoils a bit, looking perturbed.

Rita snaps her head around to face Lambert. "What did you do?" she demands, uneasy.

[whattaprick]

"Calming her down, since you got her worked up," Lambert answers, without a touch of remorse or shame.

"It doesn't hurt them," the polecat murmurs, scanning the crowd. They aren't attracting any more attention than witch normally might, but... "Lambert. We should go. She mentioned a museum before, we can head there."

"Who died and left you in charge?" Lambert retorts, but it doesn't diminish the fact that it's solid advice. He waves a hand again, and the dazed look on the woman's face returns to one of just slightly disoriented confusion.

"Thanks for the help," he says, insincerely. "We'll be going now." And he turns on his heel and strides off, not bothering to see if Rita follows.

[anti_nonsense]

Stunned, Rita stands and watches him walk away... but before the woman can say anything more, she takes off after him in a jog. Krios shifts into the form of a red-black bird and flies after her. It's not long before she catches up to Lambert.

"You can use mind control spells?" she asks in a voice that's both strained and hushed from close beside him.

[whattaprick]

Lambert and his daemon glance back at Krios and Rita, like they're surprised to see her at his elbow -- and he'll slow down, just a bit, to make it so she doesn't have to run to keep up.

"Yeah, I can," he says, like it's no big deal. "All witchers learn it." They're also not really supposed to use it for things like that, since it's the sort of thing that gets them chased out of towns and hunted down, but no need to bore Rita with that shit.

[anti_nonsense]

"You do that a lot?" she asks, her tone accusatory. While Rita's not normally one to fuss over issues of morality, there are a few lines she doesn't like seeing crossed. Influencing a person's mind, manipulating them... it rubs her the wrong way. Even though she has some degree of trust in Lambert, it's hard not to imagine a spell like that being used on her.

"What's a monster hunter need a spell like that for, anyway?"

[whattaprick]

"Do I mess with people's heads all the time?" Lambert asks, with a touch of amusement, glancing at Rita with a raised brow. "No. Do I use it when I think I have to? Sure. I've used it to calm horses, stun monsters, and trick bandits into fighting each other when I'm outnumbered. And sometimes, I use it when I just don't feel like talking to someone."

With Rita so obviously worked up, it's simply second nature to answer that in a way that clearly intends to bait her further, but his daemon intervenes here.

"Witchers try not to use it, if they can help it! It draws too much attention, and it only works half the time anyway." She can't even honestly say Lambert would never use it on a friend, because he most certainly has... "If you wanted to see the real thing, you'd need to find a sorceress!"

[anti_nonsense]

Sure enough, Rita bristles at that last example and looks ready to start yelling when the daemon interferes. She listens, but with a displeased grimace.

"Sure got my attention..." Rita grumbles. "For the record, if you ever try it on me, I'll break your nose." This is why people don't like witchers, Lambert. It's not because you're a mutant, it's because you're an asshole.

"So, what, sorceresses do crap like that too?" Rita's not sure what's meant by the real thing, but chances are it's something she'd find even more repulsive.

[whattaprick]

At that, Lambert grins, glancing over at her. "What, are you worried? Doesn't that just mean you're admitting to being simple-minded?"

Celandine nips Lambert on the ear, scolding, and answers Rita's question while the witcher swears.

"Some of them can read minds. Some of them do more. A sorceress once compelled a witcher to humiliate every member of a town council who insulted her, and nobody knew he wasn't in his right mind until after."

[anti_nonsense]

Unsurprisingly, Rita doesn't take kindly to that suggestion. Bristling, she starts with, "Who are you calling simple, you..."

But with Celandine attempting to defuse the situation and explain, she stops to listen. Krios, who was flying overhead until now, swoops down to land on Rita's shoulder.

"Mind-reading, too?" Rita scoffs. "Don't they have laws where you're from? If anyone tried applying mind-control magic in Aspio, they'd get thrown out, probably jailed."

[whattaprick]

"It's not that common an ability. As for laws ... it depends where you are." Somehow, the Celandine's voice manages to communicate the sense of an audible shrug. Polecats, as a general rule, don't have the anatomy to pull that off.

"There are spells that sorcerers forbid, but not everyone's a sorcerer, or cares about their rules."

"And there are places where they'll kill you for using any kind of magic at all," Lambert interjects. "It's a pain. You end up having to take the long way around those places for years."

[anti_nonsense]

Killed for using any magic!? That gets a shocked look from Rita, which then turns to an expression of disgust. "Haven't people in your world heard of common sense? Ugh. Makes the idiots back home look reasonable in comparison..."

There are people who misuse magic, some to extents that infuriate Rita, and there are some who create setbacks for the advancement of magic... but actively persecuting mages!? The very idea seems absurd.

"How can they even justify that?" Krios chimes in, evidently sharing in her outrage. "Mages don't always get the respect they deserve, but only an idiot would want to get rid of them!"

[whattaprick]

Celandine hums under her breath. She doesn't seem to share in their outrage, but there is a wryness to her voice when she finally answers.

"You know fear doesn't usually have much to do with sense, don't you?" Her tail flicks lightly, head cocked. "Just now, you were afraid you could be controlled. Not hard to imagine there'd be people afraid enough to kill, is it?"

On that cheerful note, Lambert will interject: "Besides, there are a lot of idiots."