lostcarnival | ⇨ SAY UNCLE

Entry tags:

⇨ SAY UNCLE

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.]

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Jasper is glancing around, confused and troubled, but she can't quite get it together to do anything about it, because any of her instinctive reactions to this kind of situation would count as making a scene.

When Peridot yells at her she looks up sharply, making her 2 foot high stack of hair sway. She reacts pretty automatically to having orders barked at her, but when they're coming from a Peridot she's not going to just take them.

"You, Peridot," she grinds out, clearly stressed out. "What's going on?"

"Wh-- THE CLODDING MANOR IS COLLAPSING!!!" Peridot squawks incredulously, and as she speaks, a crack starts to form in the floor between them both. She squeaks and jumps back a bit, trying to maintain her balance with all the tremors that are happening.

Crud... Blast it all, honestly-- she has so many other things to be worrying about right now! But it doesn't take much for Peridot to piece together that these guests-- the ones that didn't arrive along with the carnival-- are still under some kind of enchantment.

"You need to move-- WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE--" she shouts, gesturing angrily towards the balcony.

As the crack forms in the floor, Jasper steps back, and glances towards the balcony. She hadn't thought of that as an exit route, somehow -- she knows there's something affecting her by now, but it's still kind of difficult to actually think about it. Her impulse is to leap for it and then leap again and work out what to do next when she lands, but as soon as it rises to the front of her mind it's suppressed, making her grimace in confusion.

"...I can withstand a building falling on me," she growls stubbornly, and starts to walk stiffly towards the balcony.

She gapes at her, and watches her go for a ways. Incredible. Every time Peridot thinks Jasper can't keep surprising her with how bull-headed she can be, she does it all over again!

Chunks of the ceiling are starting to crash down onto the dance floor by this point, and it takes one landing a little too close for comfort to shake Peridot out of her stupor. She yelps and sprints after Jasper, dodging debris and trying her level best not to fall flat on her face in the process. She doesn't have time to argue with her about this! Peridot at least knows she can get access to the air from the balcony; maybe she can spot a safe place to retreat to from above. Jasper can fend for herself, surely--

Jasper can't fly. This only JUST NOW occurs to Peridot. Why the hell did she direct her to the balcony?! She'd been so concerned with charting her own escape she hadn't even considered...

The tech just wants to scream with frustration. A logic-driven, sensible Peridot would just leave Jasper where she is to figure things out for herself. She agrees, Jasper definitely COULD withstand having a building dropped on her! But she also knows that below that building is an infinite void, and she just can't shake the guilt at the idea of leaving someone, even another gem as obnoxious as Jasper, to that fate.

No. Scratch that. That's not where the guilt is coming from. The guilt is coming from the thought of how Steven would react if he found out that she'd just left Jasper to the fate of an infinite drop.

So Peridot screws her face up in concentration, calling on the latent magical energies of this world for energy, and forces another shape change-- something she's had to do FAR TOO MANY TIMES TODAY for her liking-- green light shimmering as she molds her weary, protesting form into that of a dragon. The bundle she's toting along that contains Lambert's sword gets passed back to her prehensile tail, which leaves her front talons free and clear for the moment when she slams into Jasper from behind and snatches her up by her broad, beefy shoulders.

She does, at least, have plenty of shoulder to grab, but between her personal bulk and the masses of dress that she's wearing Peridot has her work cut out for her lifting her. Being made out of light doesn't make Jasper any less heavy, apparently -- it's a good thing Peridot's dragon form is relatively big.

"What--" She twists in Peridot's grip, trying to see what it is that's grabbed her. She can't tell, from this angle, but the colour is familiar. So, kind of, are the claws.

"Peridot--?!" She sounds super indignant.

"Just-- Shut up, I'm trying to help you!" Peridot snaps, shouting over the sounds of rattling and crumbling architecture, as the impact of their collision takes them both out onto the balcony. Peridot doesn't even hesitate, she just spreads her wings wide and starts to beat them frantically.

Lifting the other gem is, indeed, a bit of a trial; he manages to lift a few feet off of the balcony, panting with the exertion. Peridot is already exhausted, and Jasper isn't exactly light. On top of that, Jasper's ridiculous hairdo keeps hitting her in the snout and making it REALLY difficult to see where they're going, to the point where she snarls at her: "Would you please get your numerous vertically restrained head tendrils OUT OF MY FACE?!"

Edited 2017-10-27 16:04 (UTC)

Jasper growls in frustration and tugs at her hair stack, which collapses into a semblance of its usual trailing manelike status, just, you know, with ribbons still in it. One of the flowers hits Peridot in the eye.

"Now tell me where you're taking me before I make you drop both of us!"

She doesn't sound like she doubts for a moment that she could. On the plus side, though, it seems like the combination of leaving the ballroom and having been roped into something that probably counts as making a scene whether she likes it or not seems to have broken the worst of the enchantment's hold on her.

To be fair, it's Jasper we're dealing with here. She almost certainly could knock Peridot right out of the sky if she really wanted to.

She grunts indignantly, clenching her flower struck eye shut, and wheezes her response. "Where am I taking-- I'm taking you AWAY FROM FALLING INTO THE INFINITE VOID BELOW THIS COLLAPSING BUILDING, YOU CLOD--"

As if on cue, the balcony gives way below them, and suddenly they're both several stories off the ground instead of a couple inches. Peridot squeaks, and adjusts her grip on Jasper's shoulders. She beats her wings with every ounce of strength she has left, trying to gain more altitude so she can scope out a safe place to fly to. "This is bad, bad bad bad--"

Jasper's eyes widen just a little as she looks down.

Ah.

Well.

She grits her teeth.

The strain that flying while carrying her is putting on Peridot isn't making her feel much better about this situation.

"I can shapeshift, you idiot," she snaps.

In Peridot's defense, it's kind of hard to think logically when the world is literally collapsing around you, and you've been going so hard that you're pretty much on the verge of dissipating your form out of sheer exhaustion.

"Well then DO IT," she snaps, groaning and hovering in place. This would be easier if she could just move forward, but if Jasper's going to be doing some changing she doesn't want to rock the boat, as it were.

Jasper doesn't shapeshift often. Her physical form is perfect, after all; she knows that for a fact even if she has doubts about what's inside her gem. But even with her relatively limited experience, she knows something's not right almost immediately when she starts trying to push her arms out into wings. Even as the effects of the magic on her mind have receded enough for her to get some clarity on the situation, the limits it's placed on her natural abilities are still in place -- and she never even realised in the first place, she was so caught up in dancing--!

She curses furiously as, instead of becoming useful wings, her arms just kind of lose their shape and spool out into a pair of limp, trailing noodles.

...Well that sure was a waste of time. And Peridot almost dared to get her hopes up.

"Nevermind, just-- Try to make yourself as light as possible or something!" she grits, and yeah, they're moving now, she can't keep exerting herself to stay in one spot like this. She needs to gain momentum, catch some air currents, something.

The ballroom is really coming down now, and the tech squeaks and accelerates upwards as fast as she can, and sorry Jasper, those claws are definitely digging into your shoulders pretty hard because Peridot is stressed and she has no sense of self-restraint right now.

Edited 2017-10-28 04:50 (UTC)

At least the limp noodles weigh a little less than Jasper's usual big meaty arms. She can't even move them. "Rrrghh," she snarls, unconcerned with Peridot's claws but extremely frustrated with this general situation, "What does a traitor like you want with getting me out of there in the first place?!"

Edited 2017-10-28 05:11 (UTC)

Jasper don't ask her that question. Don't make her think too hard about this. You're just reminding Peridot of how ridiculous of a gesture this is and making her regret helping you.

"Uhhhhhh-- C-Can't-- talk-- and fly-- at the same time," she wheezes, artfully dodging that question. She doesn't even know where she's going, she's just trying to get enough height to cast around for a safe place to land.

Jasper scowls into the darkness. "Just don't think this means I owe anything to you or any of your dirty rebel friends," she says, although honestly this is more for her own benefit than anyone else's. The thought of being in any of the Crystal Gems' debt is appalling.

The worst thing about this entire situation is that Peridot is exerting herself way too hard already to be able to snark back at her effectively, and the fact that Jasper can't even see how aggressively she's rolling her eyes right now. She is regretting doing this more and more with each passing second.

"Just shut up and help me look for a clear spot to land," she pants, baring her teeth.

"Ugh," says Jasper, her arms trailing in the wind like one of those noodly guys they use to advertise car dealerships. They don't even have hands on the end. She squints into the dark. Did you know Jasper is short sighted

Peridot sure didn't!

"I don't know how long I can keep this up for," she grits out after what feels like hours of circling and frantically skimming the surrounding area. In actuality, it has only been a few seconds. But she feels just about spent at this point, the edges of her form flickering dangerously. "Do you see anything?"

"Maybe, but it's not like I can point to anything," grumbles Jasper. "Just find something that isn't in the middle of falling over and put me down already!!"

Edited 2017-10-29 00:16 (UTC)

"Don't you think I would have done it already if it were that easy--!?" Peridot starts to snarl, when something catches her eye.

"WAIT-- waitwaitwaitwaitwait, THERE!" It's people, congregating, no doubt about it. She could practically weep from relief. Without hesitation, she angles her wings and banks hard in that direction--

Annnnd suddenly, a chunk of building comes hurtling down and just barely misses them, making Peridot falter and twist in mid-air with a yelp. And, yup! There sure is a lot of rubble coming down all over the place!

Cue green dragon hurtling forward in a barely controlled descent, basically screaming non-stop and dodging falling rocks the whole way.

Edited 2017-10-29 04:54 (UTC)

Jasper hollers something angrily, but with the wind whipping at them both it's impossible to make out. A ribbon comes loose from her hair and slaps itself over Peridot's eyes.

Yeah GUESS WHO DOESN'T HAVE HER PAWS FREE TO GET THAT RIBBON OFF? This gem! Peridot squawks and shakes her head to try and dislodge it, but doing so just makes her flight path unsteady, and the forward momentum she has going has it pretty well pinned back.

"The land, I CAN'T SEE WHERE THE LAND IS!" she shouts. They're both dropping fast now, almost straight downwards--

Steven has already torn off the outer layers of his clothing - as nice as they were in concept, he's pretty sure he's not going to want to wear anything related to this whole affair again. Presently, he is among those congregating on something resembling a stable island in the voice, thanks to the presence of the Ringmaster. He's been working to drag a few people out, but now that he's run out of immediate lines of action, he's not sure what to do.

At least, until he hears Peridot screaming from up above. His eyes go wide, and without the luxury of being able to think about it, he bubbles himself. He's not really sure of whether or not this bubbles breaks falls, but he's not really sure about anything right now.

"W- AAHHH! PERIDOT PULL UP!"

It is too late. Jasper is smashed into the bubble face first, giving Steven a brief pink-tinted glimpse of her furious, grimacing face, and then the impact sends his bubble bouncing away across the ground, leaving Jasper to vigorously eat dirt.

Peridot has Jasper dangling by the shoulders, so when the quartz makes an impact, she's torn out of Peridot's grip, and thus Peridot's entire balance situation just goes completely sideways. Squalling, she also slams right into the ground, her momentum carrying her forward a few feet as she plows up furrows in the dirt and sends dust flying. By the time she comes to a stop, her head is literally buried. Like an ostrich in the sand.

⇨ SAY UNCLE

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I thought I'd tagged this back? Whoops