⇨ SAY UNCLE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone who isn't in jail!
When: Day 175, 11:30PM onward.
Where: The Realm that used to contain Heartstone Manor.
What: Team carnival has gotten what they came for, but in the meantime they have lost what they came with. With his ace in the hole gone, the Prince is tearing apart the Heartstone Manor and reshaping it into an impregnable fortress to lock away his new most precious commodities - the Ringmaster's captured followers. Welcome to a hostage situation, this could take a while.
Warnings: Violence, and etc.

AFTER THE BALL↴ Around 11:30PM is when everything starts changing - and for most in Heartstone Manor, the triggers will have remained unseen. In the ongoing thunderstorm it was easy to miss, and the Prince losing control over his realm only occured before a small group of workers intent on saving the carnival from a terrible fate. An ancient High Fae artifact called the Blue Rose was stolen from the Prince, and in reaction he is being forced to abandon his plans of controlling the Ringmaster, instead trying to hide away in his realm for the purposes of saving his own skin. His main bartering chip? The workers that he's been capturing up to this point. He knows that, unlike himself, the Ringmaster cares about mortals, and especially about the ones who follow her. He's willing to bet that she won't allow them to die for the sake of her own convenience, and he's right. Now that the Blue Rose is the carnival's, she's intent to take back what was stolen from her, as well as the lives of all the servants that the Prince has been stealing away for eons. By whatever means necessary. ► SPLIT THE EARTH: Characters all across the Manor will be treated with initial tremours that will soon escalate into a full-fledged earthquake, capable of collapsing buildings and rending the earth. The cause of this is simple: the Prince is using his powers of elemental earth to reshape his realm into something more suited to protect him. Specifically, he is changing what was a manor house into a fortress meant to defend, and allowing the rest to collapse into ruin. The Manor is still nothing but a castle floating in a void - as the earth breaks apart, it will be nothing but an endless freefall between the floating chunks of debris. Over the next twelve house that earthen debris will be reshaping and solidifying into a new layout, but having to be there while it happens is one hell of a ride! ► BREAK THE ILLUSION: It's as the world starts shaking that the last of the Prince's spell over the minds of his guests will begin to fade away. However, it may wear off more slowly than is helpful in an emergency earthquake situation. The ballroom trance may linger even as lives are threatened, and it will take a pointed effort to make sure that everyone gets out of the Manor's collapse safely. At the same time, the illusionary guests will begin to fade and disappear. The ones that remain are the ones that are real, but it may be a bit painful to realize which ones were simply a lie to begin with. ► SAVE WHO YOU CAN: Despite being knocked out by a surprisingly massive blast from the Prince's magic crystal, the Ringmaster will manage to gather herself up eventually. When she does, the last of the storm will finally come to an end. She'll be doing what she can to try to gather up both servants of the Prince and all of her workers, but it'll be impossible to get to all of them first. A large portion of the servants have undoubtedly been stolen away by the Prince into his newly built fortress, but with the effort of carnival members new and old, they can still save as many as possible. Of course, those held in the Prince's most secure prisons will remain out of reach... for now. ► WAKE THE SUN: As the worst of the earthquakes stop and the new islands of floating land begin to settle, the clouds from the thunderstorm will finally pass, as the Ringmaster seems to summon up a sun to light the realm for the first time since the carnival's arrival. In reality it's sometime in the early, early morning by the Manor's schedule, but whatever! It's easier to not die when the sun is out, don't you think? The Prince's security and gargoyle soldiers are still out and about, and they're clearly interested in capturing as many hostages as possible. ► SIGN A CONTRACT: This is when the Ringmaster will be taking those that were summoned to the Prince's ball aside to offer them contracts in order to free them from the Prince's influence. She'll do her best to explain that the only way to wipe out his control is to take on a new 'master', but they can take some time to think about it if necessary. The truth is, of course, that until they officially sign onto the Ringmaster's camp, there will still be the chance that the Prince will be able to control them. ► WALK THE RUINS: One Day 176 things will have settled completely, with the land now forming a massive fortress on the far side of several large floating islands. The ruins of the old buildings will scatter those islands, forming towers that will swiftly gain small colonies of gargoyles, ready to swoop down and attack carnival members. Further complicating matters is the fact that the rending of the landscape has resulted in bursting open the underground prisons that the Prince had been keeping his most bestial servants, which mean all kinds of mortals long since twisted into the forms of giant spiders, scorpions, monstrous beasts, and other terrifying creatures will now be running amock on the islands, desperate for food. Try not to hold it against them - they didn't ask to be this way. ► REGROUP: While the Ringmaster doesn't want everyone to just run back home (if they do that, the Prince will undoubtedly make them unable to enter again, or at least take over the landscape more fully) she will manage to open a portal back to the carnival in the afternoon of Day 176, formed between two freshly grown trees. This means that carnival members will be able to fetch new clothing, supplies, weapons, and whatever they need to prepare for the battle ahead. Right now, the chaos is still unfolding, but the battle to save the Prince's captives is still ahead. [OOC: Gargoyles and transformed servants from the underbelly can be NPC'd from this point onward. Gargoyles are the Prince's most deadly servants made of extremely durable rock and bearing scorpion tails with venom that can turn bodies into stone. They want to grab anyone they can, trap them, and then fly them off to the Prince's dungeons as collateral. Don't let them! Transformed servants are the beasts who were freed from the underground prison they were left in to rot. They are servants that were transformed into monsters by the Prince, and most of them have been driven insane with bestial hunger from months and years of starvation and atmospheric poison. The Ringmaster is interested in helping them, to see if there is way they can be changed back, so if you have the heart nonlethal methods are most appreciated.]

Comments

[periphrasing]

Peridot looks like shit, feels like shit, and for once she's not willing to be a doormat to try and get 9S to like her. She is not having ANY OF THAT SHIT TODAY, BUDDY.

She tries to be welcoming to the newbies and introduces herself briefly, but damn if there isn't a lot on her mind atm, so it's hard for her to be as aggressively chipper and enthusiastic as she might normally be when greeting new team members. The news that Rita is missing is a pretty big blow too, and it only makes her even more determined to get out there and do something about this mess.

With everyone who's actually available assembled at this point, Peridot will first off address the fact that she's aware that many of the people on the engineering team have dual responsibilities for other teams, and if someone truly feels that, in this particular situation, they'd be more useful helping out at their secondary department than they would be in engineering, she encourages them to follow through on that. THAT SAID, she'll be quick to remind everyone that they all have specialized skills that no one else in the carnival has. Plenty of people here can throw a punch or swing a sword, but how many of them can build state-of-the-art defense systems and killer robots to defend the carnival with? They're uniquely equipped to tackle any problem the Ringmaster may be facing with creative solutions and good old fashioned INGENUITY.

She'll tell Scout she may have some parts in her private stores that could be of use in fixing her lightsaber issue, and she'll get to showing her in just a minute. For now she wants to know what everyone's intentions are. She wants to know right off the bat who's going to be determined to head out on the front lines.

[dressedtothe]

9S is definitely intends to head out to the front lines. Seeing as Peridot is his boss due to Lambert being indisposed, he'll give a rundown of what he can do:

- scan the immediate area for life, making it easier to be aware of enemies/possibly the hostages
- map out the immediate area. He can do it live (instead of the paper maps distributed to the Nightrunners at the manor), if you're partnered with him
- fite, tho he's not as good as an actual combat android
- can easily be reached because he has a robot secretary so you can call him for updates even when he's in the middle of fighting

Hilariously enough, repairs and building things is not his forte; he's better at taking things apart, and he will emphasise that fact as a way of avoiding being ordered to stay behind.

[textsfromhotland]

Guess who desperately does NOT want to go out to the front lines? I'll give you a hint: her name starts with A and ends in lphys.

She just kind of shuffles quietly to the back of the group and tries not to be seen.

[brightspot]

Considering Five's more used to fighting with guns and hand-to-hand rather than with magic and swords, fighting on the front lines isn't how she's going to be helpful here. But her intentions are to help, in whatever way she can. She wants to be useful. Her second job after engineering is thieving and somehow that doesn't seem like the best way to use her skills at the moment either.

The suggestion she makes is having her help with the building and/or programming things for defense, and her first thought there is: drones, because flying robots can sometimes have the element of surprise, plus they can be made small while still being effective, thus quicker to produce?

A little shrug. "It's just a thought."

[going a little out of order here, hope that's okay eep]

[periphrasing]

[It's fine, tag as you will! IF YOU CAN'T TELL I'M TOTALLY WINGING THIS...]

Peridot will readily agree that 9S's talents would be best applied elsewhere, so he gets no pushback on that. She'll suggest he get in touch with Mr. Strange, who she has been working with to mount a search and rescue effort for the hostages.

Alphys is allowed to slip to the back of the group without any grief, but she'll be addressed directly in a short moment after Peridot grins at Five's idea. She'll explain that she often fiddles with drones herself, and she has significant number of laser toting security drones she she sometimes employs during security breaches at the carnival. She'll suggest that maybe Five and Alphys can hang back and work on souping up the ones they've already got, or use them as blueprints/scavenge them for parts to turn them into something more direct assault capable? She expresses an intention to show them to her trailer and give them access to her private stash of supplies and parts that she's been scavenging during her years at the carnival, and this is also where Scout will hopefully find the parts she needs for her lightsaber.

[dressedtothe]

Cool, 9S totally just ollies out to find Strange bye team.

At least he'll tell everyone there his radio contact number in case anyone needs to get hold of him. Can't remember a string of 7 digits (81.93139) verbally supplied to you? Too bad; he's gone.

[humanhope]

So since Morgana's skills also lie... separate from building robots or whatever exactly it is they're doing, he's also going to excuse himself to go and try to find treasure or something see if he can help with the whole searching thing instead. Even if his other new boss is currently out of the picture. If Peridot thinks he's more helpful fixing things up around here though he'll lend a hand (paw?) but building security drones with weaponry, although it sounds pretty awesome, isn't quite his expertise.