⇨ SAY UNCLE

[ringleaders]

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.]

Comments

█████ | Day 177 Early Morning Onwards

[osteothropy]

After being sedated, he doesn't find it in himself to wake up for at least several hours. It feels like ever last inch of his strength has been used and burned at this point, and there's nothing left for opening his eyes. The rest is much needed, but his thoughts are still fitful, especially when he finally wakes.

Having been captured by a few carnival members during his poorly executed robbery attempt, he was brought to the Ringmaster, who did her best to try to draw his mind back to some amount of sense, while also putting a ward in him to prevent him from teleporting. Since then, he's just been relegated to one of the empty trailers in the living lot, under careful watch and still bound. It would be sort of indignant if he had any measure of that at the moment. Tyki had essentially just rolled him up in a blanket so that he couldn't use his arms like a frightened animal, and he's been left that way ever since.

Also, Mari's effort to capture him had also resulted in his skeletal tail completely with scorpion barb being turned into a fleshy blue tentacle, the same length but far more harmless. He has little idea of how to control the suckers built into the thing, so mostly it's just been getting stuck to stuff, and the way its connected to his pelvis is still a mystery. It sticks out past the blankets currently covering him, occasionally flopping around in his sleep.

Whenever there isn't anyone around to speak with him, he'll either be sleeping or trying in vain to escape. He still feels like there's somewhere he needs to be, even if the Ringmaster tried to break the worst of the compulsion enchantments. His name still belongs to the Prince, which means every part of him is under the Prince's control.

He's not himself, he's not anyone, and it doesn't feel like he will be ever again.

[spaghettimonster]

Even with the end of the erratic radio updates through the break-in attempt, Papyrus finds himself unable to totally calm down from his jittery watchfulness at the portal. He decides to spend the rest of the pre-dawn hours standing watch there anyway, since... who knows! Maybe there's an accomplice! Somebody else sneaking around! It's definitely not to avoid checking in on... him.

Really, though, he's beyond grateful that others managed to catch his brother. Not just for having caught him, ensuring that he's here and not getting even more extra hurt, where the Ringmaster can try to put things right. But that others did it, and so Papyrus doesn't need to outright fight with him. Again. With bones instead of just words.

Dawn comes and passes without incident. Enough time for him to brace himself to see whether the Ringmaster's efforts worked, to see what condition he's really in... and for there to be enough people up and about for him to head back into the carnival proper. He takes a couple detours, to the mess hall and his own trailer, before heading to the temporary prisoner lodging.

"Uh... brother? Are you awake?" Papyrus asks at the door, hesitating to open it until he hears a sound within. He carries with him a tray of food; whatever today's normal breakfast offerings are, plus the special request of burger and fries. A second attempt at an overture of connection, greased by the offer of favored food to show that there are things he knows.

No extra grease, though. Once was enough for that.

[osteothropy]

He would be ashamed to say in any other circumstance that he hasn't thought about Papyrus must. Relationships are a part of someone's identity, of course - how you relate to others is part of how you define yourself. As it is, he feels alone, lost in a void without meaning and without any connections to the rest of the world.

But that doesn't mean he's forgotten who Papyrus is, even if he's forgotten what he means to him. He knows Papyrus, he even knows that he feels fond of him. He just isn't totally sure why, and he has no reason to expect that the feeling is returned. He can remember a history of Papyrus's life, with himself excluded.

Somehow, this all feels very familiar.

It takes seeing him for these thoughts to rekindle. He's been lying in bed, fitfully resting and trying to keep calm. Lying still is hard when all he can think about how wrong he is and how he doesn't belong here. How, if he doesn't go back, he'll never have what was taken from him returned. That threat was implicit.

He looks at Papyrus as he enters, looking pretty pitiful with the way that confused sentimentality seems to take over. There's something here he really wishes that he could understand, to have access to, but he can't.

"Brother..." he repeats, vaguely, his eyes still half closed. That doesn't feel right. Even if it's not a word that's left his mind entirely, he doesn't see how it could apply to him. None of these pieces fit together. "Uh. Sorry."

[spaghettimonster]

Hearing 'brother' from that voice is strange, and that expression is stranger. It's surely not the first time Papyrus has entered his brother's room to find him half-asleep, confused, and apologetic. Not between days when he never bothered to get up and do things, days with hangovers from late nights at Grillby's... but this is a bigger kind of confusion.

"You usually just call me 'bro'," Papyrus offers, stepping a little further in, nudging things aside to make a relatively clean surface for the food tray. First goal, offer food, achieved. Next thing, turning to talk with his brother.

Though... maybe eating it will be a challenge. He takes in the sight of the skeleton in the blanket cocoon, so thoroughly wrapped up around his brother (is it tied on?), that part's new. So is the tentacle tail, but that's just a transformation. The blanket, though, is it a comfort or a restraint? Hmm.

"But, uh. You don't have to, if you don't want. I won't mind." That's a lie. He'd mind, since denying family is basically estrangement, and he sure doesn't want that confirmed from their last talk.

But... well. Everything is terrible, but it's even more terrible for his brother. No sense guilting him about it.

[osteothropy]

He pushes himself up in his bed with his feet, and it becomes pretty obvious pretty fast that, yeah, the fabric around his upper half is binding his arms. It might be the kind of thing a swaddled baby might enjoy, but for him it's just frustrating and difficult. He'd be wearing some kind of cloak, but someone the cloth has been fused into a single continuous piece around his body.

"Are you really my..." He trails off before he can say it, because it feels fake, no matter how much he wants to believe it. "I know you, but I can't remember how."

He remembers being vicious to him recently, though, even if the motives are foggy. He'd been so angry, but now it feels so distant.

"Did you do something to me?" It's pretty easy to feel paranoid right now. Even lacking the worst if the enchantment, he feels like everyone is out to get him.

[prazerbutterfly]

Tyki had stayed there for a few hours with the burrito Warden. He had picked a spot on the floor with his back to the wall and dozed off. With his mind running a million miles an hour, his stomach aching with that constant hunger from not being able to hold down much food and his lack of sleep he found the peaceful quiet and a feeling of an accomplishment somewhat comforting. It's just that when he had woken up he was hungry again and had left in search of food while the burrito was still sleeping.

It's when he returns that he does his best not to be rude and startle him. His knuckles rap on the door very softly before he just walks right through it instead of opening it. His form emerges on the other side and he'll tilt his head to the sight of the Warden. He has a small understanding of what it is like for him at the moment. To lose oneself is staggering yet he's a little thankful to Childermass for fetching him before this was allowed to happen to him.

"It's just me," he announces as if that was suppose to help anything at all and he seats himself on the floor a good three feet away from the bed. He feels a little better now that he's slept and a part of him hoped that the burrito skeleton at least felt a little more rested.

[osteothropy]

He does feel a bit more rested, though his body is still filled with sickness and ache. Now that he's started to sleep, it's hard to stop. Even though he really feels like he needs to.

He's tried to push himself up, but he seems to be discovering that his arms are still bound for the first time. He struggles against it futilely, pressing his back against the wall.

"Let me out," he mumbles, trying to push the fabric off and totally failing. "Get this off me..."

His tail has partly wrapped itself around the burrito portion, like it's trying to help with zero effect.

[prazerbutterfly]

He understands that feeling. Tyki had finally gotten a good bit of rest alone with this quiet sleeping skeleton and now he just wanted to keep sleeping. If it wasn't for the hunger and the awareness that something bigger was going on he might've slept all day and possibly more.

He stares forward at the skeleton and listens to those words. He reaches out for a moment like he might actually untie him but then he stalls. Tyki knows if he manages to escape somehow even with the door sealed while he's inside and he's guarding it that would be bad for him and the nameless one.

"I want to, buddy," he starts off with a reluctant sounding tone, "But I can't. You look uncomfortable and I want to ease that. I just can't. Sorry."

[osteothropy]

What is he going to do? There's only one thing he knows to do, and it's been held far outside of his reach. The only future he has, the only need, is with his master - the one who has his Name. If he can't serve that purpose he has no purpose and he has nothing.

"I didn't get anything," he says, as if that is relevant to anyone. Well, he did stuff a few things in that pocket dimension, but he doesn't even know how to access that right now. "I know I can't do it, so just... let me go back. I'm... I'm not worth anything."

He's not even really a person.

Night of 177

[dorkypantsuit]

He stays outside the trailer for a long while before going inside. He knows his friend is inside, and he knows how he's hurting. He can feel it. The Warden's pain, his confusion, his urgent need to be somewhere he isn't. The skeleton's spirit had been ripped to pieces and carelessly sewn together again. There were still some missing pieces, things the Warden should have been and wasn't.

The Warden; it's the only thing he can think of to call his friend right now and he hates it. He hates knowing the Warden is suffering and he hates knowing he can't do a single thing about it. He wants to go inside and tell his friend that he's going to be okay. He wants to tell his friend that they have a plan and that they are going to get back what is his. They don't. He wants to see his friend, but he's ashamed, both of what he's forgotten and of what he can't say. So he stands, resting with his back against the trailer's outer wall.

He sees people come and go. He thinks about heading inside himself, but he can't. Once more, like so many times before, the Psionic is afraid. It isn't even a threat he faces. He knows if he meets with Sans he likely won't come to any harm. Rather it's the weight of his own feelings that bother him, frustration, anger, and sadness, all emotions he doesn't know what to do with in a situation where there was no solution in sight. He wondered just what it was he was supposed to do with all of this. He wondered if there was anyway he could be okay with his friend feeling this pain. They were questions he didn't have the answers too.

In the end, whether he has answers or not doesn't matter. He can't let his own cowardice keep him from seeing his friend any longer. It might be painful, it was true, but it might also help. That was really all he could hope for in the end.

"Hey." he murmurs, as he comes into the room, moving slowly so as not to startle the skeleton in case he was still feeling on edge.

[osteothropy]

He's obviously been scratching the wall with his feet, at this point, long claw marks stretching along the wall perpendicular to the bed. At some points this has been out of frustration and a desire to escape - at other times, it's been a symptom of boredom and ill ease.

...His stupid tentacle tail is also currently stuck to the wall by its suckers. To say that the skeleton looks like he's been stir-crazy is an understatement.

He's apparently in a lull when Psi enters, lying on his side and facing the wall, too tired to continue with fussing for the moment. His arms are still bound in the black fabric wrapped around his torso, large portions of his bone still replaced with greyish rock. He's slow to turn over when he hears someone come in. They aren't a stranger - at least, not to him. He knows who Psi is, it's just like its a puzzle piece separate from all context.

At first he just stares at him uneasily. He doesn't really know what he's expecting, one way or the other, but encountering these people seems to mostly result in making them upset.

"What do you want?" he asks, eventually. It's not impatiently or rudely, just a genuine question. What does this guy want him to do or say?

[dorkypantsuit]

The tail gets his attention first, the claw marks going unnoticed. He looks around the room, uneasy at the sight of it. He hate's feeling like the warden is their prisoner, and yet for the moment he had to be. It was for the Warden's safety more than their own, the Psionic had to take what comfort he could from that. Even still, it's off-putting enough that it takes him a moment to answer. Of course, there's also the other matter of not knowing what to say.

"I wanted to see you."

It's not exactly right. What he wanted was to see the Warden looking whole again. He didn't like seeing his friend looking so trapped, but this was the way things were for now. He couldn't ignore the bad just because it was painful to see.

"To see how you were doing."

[osteothropy]

"I'm not... anything..."

He's expressed similar sentiments many times today. By now, he's just had more hours to feel distressed and desperate. He doesn't even waste any time before he begins begging.

"Please let me go."

shortly after strange's radio announcement

[dontpokethat]

Once Ginko knows that the Warden is back, and where he is, he doesn't wait long to go find him. He doesn't speak when he first steps into the trailer, his presence announced only by the creak and click of the door opening and closing.

Even once he's inside, he just stands there for a moment, looking at him in silence. Then he sits down on the floor and curls his tail around himself.

"...Hey."

[osteothropy]

The warden is still on the bed. There's not much he can do on his feet when he's still tied up and nobody really wants him to wander, no matter how much he pleads otherwise. The situation has only been adding to his feelings of helplessness, but maybe he shouldn't be worrying about that. Maybe being like this is just the way things are now, and fighting it won't make a difference.

He notes what data he has on Ginko, devoid of much emotional context. There's no reason to anticipate violence, and with the desperate need to rest still weighing him down, all he can bring himself to do is gaze wearily at him.

[dontpokethat]

Ginko waits a few seconds, but... well, it seems that the skeleton doesn't have much to say. He's not looking good, either, and it makes Ginko all the more glad that he came by to check on him, as uncomfortable as seeing him like this may be.

Asking how he's feeling also strikes Ginko as a waste of time, so. He'll get right to the point.

"I'm going to need to look you over and take some samples, so we can work on finding out how to cure you. Is that alright?"

[osteothropy]

"Cure what?" he asks, finally, sitting himself up a little and pushing himself back into the corner. He has no instinctive fear of doctors or medical stuff, he just isn't even sure what Ginko wants to accomplish.

His gaze has become more suspicious, though, watching Ginko carefully.

[motivenotfound]

Mari had been reluctant to leave his side to begin with, but there was a lot of other stuff that was still ongoing, and also, honestly, even vampires need to sleep. They just prefer to sleep, you know, during the day. She doesn't sleep very well, though, and when she finally gets sick of trying at some point past noon and kicks the covers off herself in a fit of pique, she turns right back up at the nameless skeleton's door, surprisingly tasteful cat umbrella in hand.

Most people would probably expect her to just throw the door open, but frankly, this has been too depressing for that, and her whole super genki girl schtick isn't really about being tone deaf so much as it is about being undaunted by little shit.

So she merely opens the door, and takes care to shut it tightly before closing her umbrella.

Then she sits her ass down on the floor with a sigh.

He's still asleep...

Well. That's fine. Probably better, really. She can wait.

[osteothropy]

It's been hard to escape the need for sleep. Now that he's been allowed to stop, to slow down, he barely feels like he has the strength to move himself.

He has to wake up eventually, though. Only one of his seven eyes opens at first, the one in the center of his forehead, peeking past the lid of his socket hazily and slowly putting together some sense of his physical location. A couple other eyes crack open after that, and he shifts in bed as his body goes tense.

Mari is the one that captured him, and he's still on edge about that. He's also on edge about other things he remembers about her, but can't relate to his own personal history. Did he feel... sad?

"What did you do to me?" he finally asks, apropos of nothing.

[motivenotfound]

Waiting could probably be called Mari's specialty. She waited fourteen years, keeping all the secrets she had to herself. But she also has kind of a history with people taking knocks to the head, or experiencing unspeakable things. Some of the things she's experienced are... uh. Well, she doesn't try explaining them for a reason.

Which is why she was prepared for... a lot of different greetings.

This isn't the worst one.

She pushes her glasses up her face and cocks her head.

"Do you want the good answer or the boring answer?"

[osteothropy]

He doesn't really understand the difference, nor does he actually have a coherent preference. His answer is short, and only slightly impatient.

"The actual one."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole was supposed to help out the Psionic and Childermass. But the skeleton made the Psionic sad and the skeleton made Childermass worried. And, most importantly for Cole, the skeleton hurt. So, he was going to help the skeleton. Besides, the pain and anguish and worry blazed brighter than anything else in the carnival.

He didn't really know why. It was something about names? People talked about it but nobody talked about it and Cole still didn't like the radio so he didn't really know. But that's fine. He didn't know a lot of things here. And so, the spirit slips into the trailer and just...kind of awkwardly stares at the skeleton for a moment.

Oh dear. Just reaching out to touch his thoughts tells Cole that this is a bigger mess of tangles than he expected. Like a ball of yarn that fell off the table and one of the cats started to play with. And yet, in the middle of it, there's this large gaping emptiness that Cole's not entirely sure he can help with even if he tried. He peers and stares before it clicks.

"You've forgotten!" he says, worry in his voice. "That shouldn't happen," Cole frantically continues, "not like this."

[osteothropy]

Who is this person

Most people that have come in, he has some kind of once sided knowledge of them. Historical details viewed through a lens of pure fact, without a clear emotional context. This guy, though. Who the fuck is this guy?

The skeleton just stares at him, not really comprehending what he's saying. He's still bundled up in bed, and resigned enough about everything that he doesn't both sitting up as someone new enters. His tentacle tail is currently stuck to the wall by its suckers.

"It's not just... memories," he explains flatly.

[hurtcomfort]

"I know that," Cole responds, as if it's obvious (despite the fact that it really, really isn't). He takes a few steps closer towards the skeleton, tilting his head slightly as if it will help him understand his mind easier. It doesn't. But it's worth a shot.

"The you is gone. Everyone is someone, even if they don't realize it. But you aren't. There's no you."

Okay so this conversation might be going south pretty fast. But Cole doesn't really know how to explain it. What makes the skeleton who he is just isn't there. There's memories, hurts and pains, but he's not anyone. Everyone has that little part of themselves present in their minds. But he doesn't. And this isn't right.

[osteothropy]

Fortunately, he's pretty much incapable of being offended about that being pointed out. It's what he's been telling people all morning. He's not a person, like this. It's just what he is, now.

"I tell people that," he says, bringing his knees a bit closer to himself on the bed. "But it doesn't make a difference. I don't think they understand."

Which is something that makes him feel even more helpless. He's physically, mentally, and emotionally bound, and no one seems to be able to comprehend what it's like inside of his jail cell. Yet... they all want to help, somehow, as if that's possible.