lostcarnival | ⇨ 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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"And if you had tried, we would only be down one more supervisor," Childermass points out, which would make her actually useless, but there won't be time to mention that part or even argue over it since there's suddenly far more unexpected arrivals than— well, he can't even say 'than expected', since he hadn't even expected them. Where did the Pokemon go hadn't even crossed his mind until right this moment, although the animated pumpkin gets the most peculiar of looks before he's forced to turn his attention elsewhere.

His first inclination is to try and reach for the prancing Mudbray, saying, "Butcher, stay still! Where did you even—" Ah, there, that's where they came from. The tremors should have given it away immediately. With Pig shoving her nose at his coat, he has to switch attention yet again to Butcher's pushy mother. Pig's the one who could tear his whole damn coat off if she felt like it, so Butcher will have to wait.

"You got out..." He says quietly, suddenly glad he'd never let Baker leave his own side. What would have happened if he'd left his pokeball behind in his room? In the manor? He turns, patting her nose, but also having to admit, "I'm sorry, girl. I don't have anything on me in this coat."

"Wh-- AUGH--!" Pumpkin basically sails into Peridot and knocks her flat on her back, and it takes her a second to process what's happening. There's no misidentifying that slimy orange tongue though.

"Pumpkin!? PUMPKIN!" Peridot snatches up the little dog and holds her straight up in the air triumphantly, overjoyed. She can barely even start getting to the bottom of the emotions that are overtaking her when her pokemon scuttles over top of her as well, half knocking the wind out of her.

"Oof-- STUMPY! Oh thank the stars, YOU'RE BOTH OKAY!" the gem practically wails, and she sits up and squeezes them both to her chest, and there's such an overwhelming tone of relief in her voice. Is she crying? MAYBE. ONLY A LITTLE. Given how everything else has gone so far, she half expected them to be lost in the Prince's realm forever.

Pig huffs in Childermass's face, giving him the best disappointed expression she can manage at the lack of food. She came here with a purpose, though, and once initial greetings are dispensed with she's already lifting her head, looking around. Searching for someone she was expecting to be there, but isn't.

Her easily distracted spawn has much simpler needs, slowing down to butt at Childermass's legs. Hopefully he doesn't end up joining Peridot on the ground or anything.

Speaking of the gem, hope she's ready to be subjected to more licking, because she absolutely is! Luckily neither of the hugging parties need to breathe or anything (Stumpy probably does, but she can't crush the breath out of the pokemon).

Thankfully, he doesn't, seeing how he's steadying himself against Pig before the little Mudbray gets a chance. It's still a difficult moment, considering how forceful the damn beasts can be. When he simply continues to push against his knees like that, it's inevitable. While Childermass won't be knocked over, he will let go of Pig and go down on one knee to bring himself to Butcher's level.

"Oh, cut it you, you fool," he mutters, reaching out to ruffle that blue mane of his. He does look back up towards Pig after that, however, because he knows what she's looking for. "I'm sorry, Pig. He..." God. How much do these creatures truly understand? Baker always came off as able to comprehend. Is that true for all of them? He sighs. "Lambert didn't make it out, Pig, but we are going to find him."

Peridot has sat up by this point, and pauses to stare, with Pumpkin still slurping at her cheek. She finally has to tear her gaze away when Childermass starts talking to Pig, and she squeezes the gourd and isopod both a little tighter. She frowns blankly at the ground and says nothing, momentarily too miserable for words.

Pig's a horse. Childermass honestly can't be expecting much in the way of conversation, can he? Her ears prick towards the magician, but after a moment of looking at him attentively, she does little more than lower her head to huff softly into the side of his head, tickling the feathers there.

Butcher, in the meantime, seems pleased enough with the attention he's getting, remains oblivious to the mood in the air. Satisfied he's gotten Childermass's attention, if only for a moment, his focus drifts and lands on Peridot, ears perking up. After a last butt of his head against the magician's fingers, he trots over the short distance to Peridot, sniffing at her curiously in a way more reminiscent of a puppy than the donkey he resembles.

Less conversation, more comprehension. Whether or not Pig does get it, he has no idea, though he will reach up again to pat her on the side of her face when she lowers it near him. As for Butcher, he lets him go do whatever he wants for now, even if that does include harassing Peridot.

He doesn't think Butcher will try and eat something like that pumpkin of hers. Hopefully. Really, really hopefully...

But now that watching the mudbray trot off has brought the gem back into view, he does feel the need to add, slightly awkward about it, "He's friendly." You know, just in case. "Probably too friendly, actually."

"Huh--?"

Peridot looks up from her brief moping session to see... Aaaahhh that's a large animal coming right towards her-- Not as large as Pig, who intimidates the hell out of the gem but. Still. Bigger than Stumpy, bigger than Pumpkin.

Speaking of Stumpy, the wimpod straight up panics at the sight of Butcher and wriggles free from her trainer's grasp, zipping around to cower behind her, spiky tail raised defensively. It's not surprising behavior to Peridot, who has come to expect that sort of reaction by this point. She's more focused on the mudbray anyway, making cautious eye contact with the pokemon. "Um... Hi there... Little guy..." she says uncertainly, reflexively leaning back a little as the donkey tries to sniff her.

Pumpkin is much more delighted. She barks a greeting, and will definitely slobber on Butcher if he gets too close.

⇨ SAY UNCLE

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Tags this back a thousand years later