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

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Hiiragi." Yuya looks troubled and Yuzu looks confused, but Strange just looks perfectly fine! Good job him, that's one person they've rescued out of...good lord, out of far too many.

"We need to get her out of the manor," he says, assuming charge of the situation mostly because he's the adult of the group. "I can carry Miss Akaba but if she starts to wake up again, I'll need the two of you to hold her steady so I can turn to smoke again."

Yuya's stuck staring at Reira for the moment, his arm wrapped loosely around her shoulders. All he has to do now is keep her safe. He only breaks his gaze when he sees Yuzu pick up he duel disk, and his gaze travels up her arms. It's superficial damage, but he frowns all the same.

"... Okay." He hesitates for a moment before gathering Reira in his arms and slowly standing up. He looks up at Strange, waiting for him to take her--although he won't actively offer her.

Yuzu nodded at what Strange had to say. Reira’s appearance made their initial attempt at escaping take a detour, but with Reira safe, it was time to get going.

“Alright, let’s get going. She said, reattaching her duel disk to her arm, wincing at the scratches on her arm. Reira has nails!

He does take Reira when offered. Though Strange is trying his hardest to carry her in a way that's a: comfortable and b: easy for him, it's pretty apparent that you can count on one hand the amount of times Strange has carried a child before.

"If you've an idea of the way out, then lead the way," he says as he awkwardly adjusts his grip on Reira. "I'm afraid I've gotten turned around here far too much already."

Yuya doesn't look satisfied as Strange takes Reira, but as, long as she's safe... He can at least lead them out.

"We can go back the way we came." He gestures for them to follow. They could get out, and then they could find the Ringmaster and she'd finally be able to help Reira.

Though he slows his pace enough to get beside Yuzu as they move, his eyes wandering down to her arms. He holds his hand out for hers. "Yuzu, let me see your arm?"

"M-My arm?" Yuzu said, blinking, holding up her arm. If anything, it didn't look like too much damage was done to it, but it certainly stung.

"If anything, I think I'll just need to get it looked at to make sure it was nothing but scratches..."

Its probably just because his nerves are frayed. Hes felt only more helpless in the Prince's castle, and even as he takes Yuzu's hand to inspect her arm, there's nothing to do for it anyway.

Nothing even needs to be done. She's fine, she's been fine this whole time. He's thankful, at least, for that much.

"Yeah. I don't think she hurt you that bad," he relents.

"To be quite honest, I think she hurt me more emotionally than physically. I've never seen her like that before..." Yuzu admitted.

And she hadn't. It was either stoic or normal little girl, not "I'm going to destroy you!"-level. Was she like this before or was this something the Prince did?

Yuya's expression twists. "It was probably the Prince. The fae can change people, and Gongenzaka said it was like poison in their souls..."

He looks back at Strange and Reira both. He remembers Portland, and the idea that the Prince did something similar to Reira...

It makes his chest burn hatefully. "But we won't let him to that to anyone else. We'll definitely save them."

Edited 2017-10-28 00:58 (UTC)

"Right. I believe you." Yuzu said, softly, nodding as she did. This was just one messed up trip and she hoped this would be the last of this kind.

"I hope everyone else is having a better time than us. As it stands, we're probably the worst of the bunch."

As Yuya looks back at him, Strange gives the kid a reassuring smile. Poison in their souls...he'll have to talk with those kidnapped later. The fact that there were so many different ways to warp one's mind wasn't that reassuring.

"Miss Akaba will be fine in the end. It might take a while, but the Ringmaster knows how to put one's mind back to sorts." He's obviously speaking from experience: something Yuya would know, but Yuzu wouldn't. "Though, I've a feeling those still captured are technically worse off than us."

Strange had only caught glimpses of that fight between Sans and Lambert but he has no idea where either of the men are right now.

Yuya manages a weak smile back, because he knows Strange is trying to reassure him. Being reminded thst the captured are probably suffering more doesn't let him feel better even for a moment, however.

He takes a deep breath, and at least he's long passed tears. "That just means we have to do everything to save them. They need us."

"Right..." Yuzu said. She does notice how upset Yuya seems to be and reaches over to at least squeeze his shoulder in reassurance.

"We'll make it through, Yuya. I know we will."

"Everything within reason," Strange reminds the two, as he adjusts his grip on Reira slightly. "Enough people have been lost already. Don't do anything dangerous without talking it through or telling someone else first."

He doesn't know enough about Yuzu to know if she needs the reminder, but Yuya's optimism and gumption was simultaneously inspiring and worrying. He might need the reminder.

Yuya smiles at Yuzu. He's not worried about himself making it through this, but he appreciates the sentiment at least.

Strange brings him right back down to earth, though, and his smile strains again. "We won't, because we're all going to do this together, aren't we?"

The whole carnival, because none of them can leave their friends behind. They're depending on them.

⇨ SAY UNCLE

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