lostcarnival | ⇨ SAY UNCLE

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⇨ 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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After she's done with the Ringmaster-whether for a few seconds, or a number of minutes-Reira is quiet. She still wears her maid clothing-still has the stones, in particular, covering her face and skin in ways that even cause the appearance of small spikes at certain points. For some it could be ghastly familiar-for others it's merely a nasty reminder of what occurred, especially in tandem with the reality of it all. The venom is still present-only the fog of mental haze created could be removed at this point, and the strong illness she feels is more than enough to warn her of that herself. It's not nausea, particularly. But it's illness, and strong, weighing upon her enough to feel in some ways worse than when she had while at the meal-table with everyone.

It's not a 'sharp'. But it's as 'strong'.

Even that however, is not as strong as her own feelings, which leave her sitting in silence for a few moments. The others, after all, are no doubt going to be coming in to talk.

Yuya gives them plenty of space for a while. He mills about listlessly as he watches the remains of the manor crumble in the distance, and the ground break into distant floating islands. He doesn't come close until the Ringmaster is already gone and Reira's left there, alone, waiting.

That's when he closes the distance between them, when he's sure her mind is herself again--she still looks awful and it makes his stomach twist. He may not have her empathy, but he can tell that this was all painful, so painful.

He stops right in front of her, still and silent for a moment before he slowly crouches down, one knee pressed to the dirt so that he can look her in the eyes.

"Reira."

Reira is breathing rather heavily, for someone who's only been sitting there the last few minutes. Perhaps it's the poison-but perhaps it's also something else, something that hasn't been allowed to properly eat at her until now. Her head is swimming-clear, yet swimming, and when Yuuya comes before her, she can barely find the strength to speak. "I...."

She manages, somehow. Trembling despite herself, and despite the fact that Yuuya's emotions aren't even so severe as to throw her off. "....I ruined....everything...."

She's back. His heart aches in sympathy with hers, but just as much he's so relieved. He's so glad that she's herself again. That she's far away from the Prince and he can't, he won't let him take her back.

He doesn't speak to argue with her. Instead he only shakes his head, fervently, and moves to wrap his arms around her and pull her close and hold her securely.

"I'm--" His voice breaks a little, and he stops and swallows a breath before he tries again. "I'm glad you're safe."

"But....But th..." She can barely find her words, and all at once she finds herself breaking once she's in the other's embrace. She wants to be strong-she wants to stand firm, she should be able to stand firm, be able to do something to help, anything to help, even if she's not allowed to leave, there's always something-

"But they're not...! And.... I got others caught....not just when I was...but after that, and then at the dance....and even....Even when people tried to help...! I....I..."

Yuya's squeezes her, gently, tilting his head against the top of hers as he closes his eyes. Reira may want to stand firm, but Yuya doesn't mind the tears that start falling down his face. He doesn't care, it matters so much that she's safe, that she's been returned.

"Reira," he says her name firmly. "It's not your fault, okay? It's not your fault what he did to you."

Yuya may carry his own responsibilities quite stubbornly, but he'll never let Reira blame herself for the violence from the fae. Something like this is just cruelty.

"I LEFT THE ROOM!" She screams, her voice muffled by shirt. "I could have been stronger..! I could have stayed there instead..! I didn't have to use Julien's portal, I didn't have to do anything, and he wouldn't have made me! He only asked once, AND I WAS THE ONE WHO AGREED!" the girl cries.

"And then I got CAUGHT..! And Julien did...And then Sans, and the other people....And then the party happened, and now everything's RUINED!"

Reira shakes. She shakes, and cries, and sucks in a breath. "He's just.....like mom was....and n....now, no one can even just try to make things work..."

"...Everyone has to fight, instead..."

Yuya shakes his head again, breathly deeply, slowly, to keep himself at least calmer than Reira is. She almost lost herself, she needs him to be strong.

"He should have known better in the first place," he mumbles, his tone a little bit bitter. To himself, he's sure this wouldn't have happened had he been with Reira, had he known why she left her room. But he's still angry that it was allowed to happen in the first place.

He can't change that, though. He just needs to make things better for her now. "It's okay. It wasn't all your fault, and anyway, I forgive you!"

She insists, though. She shakes her head. "...I.... .....I don't deserve that," she whispers, shaking. "...And....it was a portal-it's.... ....You step in, and step out.... But it still happened, as if they knew...!"

"I don't believe that at all." Yuya shifts back slightly, an attempt to put space between them so he can look at her properly again, but she's clinging to his shirt and his arms don't quite let go and they remain in an embrace. He does look down, however, his gaze drifting sideways to stare at the stone flower in her hair.

"I don't really care about whose fault it is as long as your safe. I--I said I'd protect you and I meant it! I won't let something happen like this again."

"I don't..!" she repeats again, vibrating. ".............You can't say this isn't my fault....and that does matter. I'm not the only one here... ...and I could have made sure none of this happened."

There is a pause-and she adds.

"...Now I can't even help to make it alright again."

She's just a kid, and she thinks she's responsible for everything. Yuya worries over his lip for a moment, his cheek pressing against the top of her head as his posture starts to deflate.

"You don't know that's true. They could have broken rules anyway." Yuya, after all, couldn't stop the other lancers from being stupidly aggressive in Synchro. How could Reira have any power to dictate all these adults bigger than her?

"You got hurt. You don't need to fix anything right now. Let the rest of us do that!"

"When I got caught, Julien was caught with me. When Julien was caught, Sans went to find us....And when Sans was caught, two more people looked for him, and were caught too!" she explains, voice stable only now that she's spelling it out.

"....I know it's true, because no one broke the rules except to try and help..! And they're all STILL gone..!"

"And we're going to get them back!" He says it more strongly than he means, but it gives him enough to finally pull back from Reira. He moves to put his hands to her shoulders to gently nudge her back so that he can look at her.

"We're going to get everyone back and it's going to be fine, all right? Please trust us."

Trust him.

She can trust them to do that much. How can she not, with things as they are. If anything she has no choice but to do so, if she wants to see anyone alive. But as she looks up to Yuuya, all she can say is...

"...I know they'll come back. ....But that doesn't fix things."

"It's a start." Because they won't be fixing anything if they can't save them. To Yuya, what's important right now isn't blame--it's making sure that everyone escapes the Prince and recovers. That includes Reira.

"If you're really sorry, you can to apologize later. Right now you should stay in the carnival where it's safe."

"I'm already staying in here..!" she immediately protests in reply. "...I'm staying with a bed, and hot drinks, and..."

The girl shakes-and swallows. "....And I caused all this, but I can't do anything to help at least make it stop..! And that is important..!"

Yuya lets out a breath. He understands how she feels, but...

He keeps his hands firmly on her shoulders. "I don't want you to do anything except get better, okay? Nobody wants you to! We were really worried, and what's really important is that you stay away from the Prince and get better, okay?"

He's not sure why she feels so responsible for everything, but he's far more worried than mad and worried she'll go out and get hurt again if he doesn't dampen her desire to help.

"...And I already said I'm going to do that. ...I just want there to be something I can do from here, too." She's not going to go out. She promised not to go out.

But she doesn't want to feel useless in her trailer either.

"I want to do something too, but..." But they won't help anyone pointlessly endangering themselves, and the fae are so much stronger than them individually. He hates it, too, but that's the reality of it.

He can't even comfort Reira. He feels so helpless.

He holds his hand out for hers. "Come on, let's go to your trailer."

Much, much stronger, but then perhaps that was what it felt like facing Zarc as well, as duelists were batted away like flies. Reira herself can...cope with time. She can recover.

She thinks.

So she quietly nods, and takes his hand. "....Okay," she decides in the end.

There's no sense in arguing over such matters, after all.

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⇨ SAY UNCLE

CLOSED (Subject To Edit) | Yuuya, Yuzu, Strange

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i'd say thats a wrap whoop