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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's... a long story. The Prince keeps some dangerous objects around his study." The actual burning is 100% their own stupidity, but it only happened because of poisonous spiders.

But he at least follows Ginko's instructions and sits on the edge of the cot. He pulls his sleeve back carefully to reveal the extend of the damage, extending from his fingers to the middle of his bicep. But at least, as far as he can tell, the poison is gone. Unfortunately, that means the numbness is too and this is probably going to hurt.

"It is not as bad as it could be... if the damaged skin is removed, it will grow back." He just doesn't want to leave his arm raw and sticky and sensitive when he's still going to need it.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. Would your being in there have any connection to things blowing up the way they did?" Though his words might have the potential to sound accusatory, there's nothing of that in his tone.

Ginko pulls a stool up next to the cot, and leans over to examine the damage to Syrlya's arm while he sets down the supplies he'd picked from the shelf. "Grow back...?" Oh hang on, now that he's looking up close... "You aren't human, are you?"

~~Ginko don't just ask people if they're not human~~

"Oh, certainly. We stole the Blue Rose from him." His tone is airy as he says it, certainly confident in how they secured the Prince's powerful artifact for themselves. Too bad they already lost a dozen people to him beforehand, or else this could all be over.

As Ginko leans in, however, Syrlya just raises a brow and gives him a wry, amused expression. "That obvious, is it?"

He's a plant. "These are not changes brought about by exposure to fae magic."

"...That'd explain it, alright."

Ginko gives a quiet snort, leaning over to grab a scalpel from one of the shelves. Good thing they're nearby, really, since he hadn't exactly anticipated needing one to treat a burn.

"Now that I'm looking closer, yeah... stuff like this couldn't have happened unless you'd been here a while, and I don't recall seeing you around for that long. Anyway, if I'm going to need to take a totally different approach here, I might need more information. Like whether I should use rubbing alcohol to disinfect it or not."

Syrlya purses his lips as he considers how to explain this. "It may help to think less like a medic and more like a gardener."

He pinches the end of what of a long, charred leaves that make up the skin on his arm and carefully pulls it back. The edges start to crack, revealing part of where the foliage is just layered along other leaves and not entirely fused together. "It's only burned now, I think. If all of the damaged skin is removed, it will grow back on its own."

He flexes his fingers to test them. They're stiff, but responsive. "There's no need to disinfect, but bandages to protect it while it heals would be appreciated."

He nods, understanding pretty quickly. "Got it. Thanks; I'll keep that in mind." And tell the people who are actually on the medical team rather than just being busybodies who happen to have some medical knowledge.

"Now, try to hold still..." Ginko sets a hand gently on whatever part of Syrlya's arm is least burned, steadying it as he starts to work, cutting away charred skin. He tries to work in large pieces, not wanting to draw this out longer than necessary.

...Of course, to someone with interests like Ginko's, it's pretty damn fascinating to see the physical structures of a plant on such a humanoid form, but he's got just enough sense to keep his mouth shut. For the moment, anyway. While cutting charred skin off someone's arm isn't the best time to ask about their biology.

Syrlya nods, leaning back as he holds his arm out for Ginko. Most of the damaged skin is dry, now, flaking off in pieces as it peels off in long leaves that end close to his wrist. The skin underneath is a similiar color, a porous and sticky plant matter with gold sap oozing in the places that the removed skin cuts down too far.

Syrlya doesn't watch, necessarily, but he also isn't turning away. He's been on the medical table often enough that he doesn't do more than flinch and bite his lip as his arm is shredded down... but it still hurts.

Ginko works as quickly as he can, then trades out the scalpel for a roll of bandages. "Well, that's the hard part done. I'll wrap this up, then you can get back to... whatever part it is you're taking in all this. Preferably something that won't get you burned again."

Syrlya lets out a breath as the scapel as removed, leaving only the air against the more tender flesh below. "Mm--I make no promises, but fire does not seem to be the Prince's preferred element."

Which only brings to question how the hell Syrlya got burned in the first place. He holds his arm up limply, trying not to obstruct Ginko's bandaging.

"Hmm. That is unfortunate." Ginko lays out a layer of gauze before securing it in place with bandages, and, as he works, that very question comes to mind. "Mind if I ask how this happened?"

"... Let's say immolating my arm was a better alternative to what was happening to it before."

Because explaining the poison spider box is a little embarrassing, and it's a long story they don't have time for, anyway. "But thank you for this. At least it isn't my right hand."

"That bad, huh." He cannot even imagine, which he supposes might mean he would not actually like to know what happened.

He's still curious, of course, but he won't push if Syrlya would rather not talk about it.

He finishes up bandaging and sits back with a small nod. "No problem. I'm glad to hear you should be able to heal alright from here, too."

⇨ SAY UNCLE

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