⇨ 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]

We shall, [ Strange remarks, with a nod.

And then, without warning, training dagger in hand, he lunges towards Syrlya, attempting to poke the man in the stomach. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya, having expected them to actually go out in the middle of the field again for a proper spell, is easily poked. HE jumps slightly as he feels the wood prod at his waist--which doesn't give as much as human flesh does, being much stiffer.

He looks between the dagger and Strange.] You realize that does not count.

[kingsroads]

So that's Strange one, Syrlya zero?

[ He knows it doesn't count, but that doesn't stop Strange from teasing slightly. Perhaps he's still used to Lambert's method of training, which involved everything happening from the time someone said 'go.' Or perhaps, and this is the most likely explanation, Strange is just trouble.

Still, he's smiling at Syrlya with an annoyingly innocent 'who ME?' sort of expression. ]

[chronosynthesis]

At best it is one to one, if I am being giving. [Because they both agreed that Syrlya won that mage fight.

Arm's length is a disadvantage to Syrlya with his longer blade, so he teleports backwards to put more space between the two of them. He immediately moves his sword to a defensive stance and waits.]

Go on, show me what you can do with that. Best two out of three?

[kingsroads]

[ With a grin, Strange moves to something remotely close to a defensive stance. Truth be told, his knife lessons have only just managed to progress to 'kind of decent' so he has no idea about stances or anything related to form. ]

Ready? Begin!

[ And again, he very obviously lunges towards Syrlya. Strange is gonna lose this fight as well. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[He probably is, because a month is a bit of a stretch against five years. Still, Syrlya pays on cautious defensive at first and simply parries Strange's attempts to reach him as he gauges his skill.

He lets it go for a minute before he twists and lunges forward on the aggressive to knock his sword against Strange's waist, coming in on the side of his dagger.]

[kingsroads]

[ To everyone's surprise, Strange manages to dodge Syrlya's attack! Which would be more impressive, if Strange himself didn't look way too surprised at the fact that he did a successful dodge. He goes in for another lunge, pretty much using the exact same form as the first lunge he did. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya is momentarily surprised, but he recovers quickly--Strange using the same thrust means he already knows how to block it, however, so he does and then ducks down to try and thrust his training sword up into Strange's gut.]

[kingsroads]

[ And then Strange gets a piece of wood poked in his stomach. Nope! Didn't dodge that one at all! It also has the effect of knocking the wind out a bit from Strange because again, jsut got hit in the stomach with a training sword.

Though, since Syrlya's here and close, Strange at least makes an attempt to poke him in the side with his dagger. ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Typically Syrlya would have a shield or another blade to block the incoming blows. As he doesn't, he instead tries to grab Strange's wrist before it can connect.] Attempting to take me out with you? I suppose you are used to the battlefield after all.

[kingsroads]

I did say earlier that I fought in the peninsula, [ said as if that's a perfectly logical explanation. All it means is that Strange has seen war.

Syrlya's got a good grip on his wrist—the dagger didn't connect. Leaning in slightly, he drops the dagger only to quickly catch it with his other hand. It's a complete accident but Strange is just playing it off like he totally meant to do that, as he attempts to poke Syrlya in the knee with the dagger (this despite the fact that he got a training sword to the gut, for the purpose of this exercise, he's 'dead'.) ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya releases his wrist after just a moment, pulling his sword back since the round is certainly done.

Which is why he doesn't comprehend why Strange is poking him in the knee, now. Is he just prodding him for the sake of it?]

If you're looking for a vital organ, you are going in the wrong direction.

[kingsroads]

I had no idea if we were still going or not, [ Strange simply answers.

This is a bullshit excuse! Let's quickly change the conversation! ]

If I may ask, how did you learn to fight in the first place? Where I'm from, a magician in combat is a rarity.

[chronosynthesis]

I thought being a mage was a rarity in your world? [It doesn't count if there's all of 3 of you.]

I learned from mentors and my time in the Vigil, and whatever tricks I managed to discover in the field of battle. Tyria has never lost its magic, so many races learned how to apply magic to combat thousands of years ago.

[After all, why throw one rock when you can summon a storm of them?]

[kingsroads]

Magic used to be more common. It practically flourished hundreds of years ago. But even then, the magicians of old seemed to be scholars and explorers more than conquerors or fighters.

[ Because when a faerie army rolls into town and takes over the northern chunk of England, YOU KIND OF LET SAID FAERIE ARMY BE AND DO WHATEVER THE HELL IT WANTS. ]

I'm afraid that I don't recognize one of your terms. Is the Vigil some sort of organization?

[chronosynthesis]

Ah--yes. A military dedicated to protecting the people of Tyria.

[All very noble, and he smiles fondly at the recollection. Strange's distinction causes him to pause.]

In Tyria almost everyone uses magic. It is in such abundance that you cannot separate it from living. A mage simply pursues the knowledge of magic much more intensely. Anyone can fight, or explore, and they can use magic as well. Even if they do not cultivate it, the ability is still there.

[kingsroads]

That sounds wonderful, [ Strange admits. He can't help it: he's DAMN jealous of a world where everyone uses magic, a world where anyone who wants to can be a magician. ]

I wish I could visit Tyria, if only for a little bit. It sounds amazing.

[chronosynthesis]

It's a wonderful place. [Coming end of the world notwithstanding. But even then, when he says it his tone carries such reverence and fondness for his world.

He absently digs the tip of the training sword into the dirt, leaning against it.] I do not see why you cannot someday. If the carnival proves anything, it is that the ability to cross to entire new worlds is very possible.

[kingsroads]

That all depends. I've something I need to do back home that I can't put off. But once I do that? Then maybe I will visit.

[ As wonderful as it would be to cross new worlds, to visit different places, to see everything that magic has touched, Strange first and foremost needs to save Arabella.

After that? Who knows! ]