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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His hand drops back into his lap and he tries not to consider how uncomfortable the burrito skeleton might be. With Tyki inside he has disabled the lock with his power to choose. He'll fix it on his way out but right now he didn't want anyone else coming inside while he was there. He doesn't want another Strange incident on his hands.

"You're worth something to me," he says without thinking. Tyki doesn't even know him and yet the Warden was important. He was a person even if he didn't realize it. "If we let you go back he'll have you forever. I got away and you should have that opportunity as well. You just have to be patient. Well, you don't have to do anything but it is for the better."

The way that he internalizing that information probably isn't the way that Tyki intends it. He is literally someone's property in perhaps the most extreme way possible, given that the Prince essentially has signing rights to everything about his identity. Being worth something as a commodity makes more sense than being worth something on a human emotional level.

He knows that even if he went back he'd probably just be doing the same thing somewhere else. Waiting for the Prince to have need of him. Yet, in that context, he can imagine finding equilibrium... maybe just shutting off and letting himself fade out, like he should.

Being away from his owner and having people expect things of him feels like it's keeping him emotionally awake, and he doesn't really like it.

"You can't beat him," he says, hollowly.

That's what matters. No matter what they think they can do, they're not going to get his Name.

"Maybe not," he responds just as hollow and unbelieving. Tyki's not even sure of himself right now in what he would be able to do if he was face to face with the Prince again. He's sure though that the skeleton meant it as a collective whole.

He leans forward enough to set his hands on the bed and uses that as a brace to stand up enough to crawl up onto the bed with him. He's resting his back against the wall with a little more ease than he wants to show. The petrification on his back is heavy and so are the wings.

"But he can't own you if he's dead." He looks away from the warden and off to the side, "Killing is wrong. It's not worth it. It could be someone else. That's what I hear all the time. Yet, I'm pretty sure there is a handful of people here that would kill him to get your Name back." Somewhere in his mind he knows it is pointless to try to rationalize anything. Even Tyki didn't believe what others said when he was under his control.

That should make him feel something, shouldn't it? The idea that people would kill for him? Yet, it doesn't. It still doesn't feel like it means anything to him. Mostly he just feels like they shouldn't go through the trouble.

"Can he own me if I'm dead?" he asks, his voice falling low. There is a level of darkness he can't fully achieve when there is so little of substance inside of him, so instead it is only spoken with weariness.

He reaches out to grab the bit of cloak against his body and pulls him up into a sit with him against the wall. This is not how he imagined the Warden nor how he pictured him after hearing people talk about him. Two times he's seem him rather in a sorry and pathetic form other than what he saw at the ballroom.

"No," he answers. It's a deep seated question as even Tyki understands that. If he was dealt the bad hand that the skeleton has right now he'd ask the same thing. It wouldn't be hard either to end it right there. If they couldn't get his name back Tyki could easily...

"I'm not going to tell you it's going to be alright. I'm not going to give you false hope but I can ease your suffering in other ways other than that. Are you hungry? Need more pillows? A thicker blanket?" Do you want to go for a walk and get some fresh air?

"No," he grumbles, looking away from Tyki - he seems uncomfortable with being tugged around like that, but doesn't immediately object. "I've got enough blanket."

He sounds very slightly bitter as he shifts his arms around, without much avail. He stares at the wall, his eyes narrowed.

"You should just give up."

He looked uncomfortable just laying there and Tyki almost found it rude to just have him prone like that. "Oh? I wasn't sure," he responds dryly to that.

"Give up? On what. You? Myself again? If I did that I'd end up just like you. I've done that before about a year ago. Been swallowed up so deeply I didn't know who I was nor what I could do. I just wanted it to stop even if it meant I was dead."

He plucks an apple from his pocket and starts to slide his fingers over it with a strange effectiveness in peeling it from top to bottom. "I know it would be easier to just go back and turn myself in. It was simple serving him. I didn't have to worry about doing something wrong as long as I was doing what I was suppose to. I gave up trying to resist what he wanted of me."

"Yeah," is the only thing he can think to say at first. Yeah, that's pretty much his thoughts on the matter. He remembers that feeling, when he remembers so little else about himself. That makes that small fragment of identity more important than anything else.

"So... why haven't you?" he asks.

As the apple is peeled the skin will butterfly effect down against his lap. He'll eat it later but right now he was intent on other things. He waits for any response as thumb and forefinger slide through the apple to crack it into two halves, then into fourths, then eighths.

"Because I don't have a choice," he responds. "If we lose to him I'll end back up in his service anyways or maybe I'll be tossed into the trash like the others down in the hole we started in for not servicing him well enough." He pops a slice into his mouth and chews. It's the only thing he can keep down right now. "You have parts of you missing. Parts we may never get back."

He holds out the other slices near the skeleton's mouth unfolded in his hand with pieces missing if he wants to eat, "You don't have a choice right now whether to be free or not. Neither do I so why should I decide for myself?"

Edited 2017-11-07 03:06 (UTC)

Oh. Well, when put like that, it makes perfect sense. It's exactly what he's felt about this whole thing, that he doesn't have any choices, and can't possibly be given any. His shoulders go a little loose at the realization.

"We can't," he admits, glancing away. A few moments later, he contemplates the apple pieces he's being offered. He awkwardly grabs one of them with his teeth, allowing it to plop wholesale into his jaw without chewing, though he winces a little as he does.

"Was this going to happen to you, too?"

He could stay but if the carnival loses then he'd go right back to the Prince. He could leave and return but if the carnival wins he'd be right back at the carnival again. There just wasn't any choice anymore.

Tyki's hand doesn't lower in case the skeleton changes his mind and when he finally attempts a piece of apple he'll watch that body language. Ah right, he's hurt just as much as he's weak. If the skeleton tries again he'll assist him by pushing it into his mouth for him with his other hand.

"I was in that hole a day longer than you. Had I not been rescued there was a high possibility it would've happened. Cobweb had told me that all of the servants lose their names eventually." It's just they seemed functional. They thrived even if starved down in the Underbelly. The skeleton's case was different. It didn't feel the same.

He remembers that. He doesn't remember a lot of things, but he remembers that.

But why? How did they all end up there in the first place? He feels like he used to know what he did to end up like this, but any sense of meaning or context has faded for him. He's not the person that did something, he's what's left of them.

"Why did..." he mumbles, suddenly unsure. He stares into space, his eyes slightly wide and staring into space. "What did I do."

Why hasn't he thought about that before?

"All I know is that you got caught. Breaking the Prince's strict rules of curfew, attendance and etiquette gave him right to put us down in that hazardous place." It's strange talking to someone who should know what they did. He remembered everything even when he was enchanted. Views were just partially skewed.

"Your dogs showed up in the early hours of the morning. With that information I can assume you got caught after hours. In short, you broke curfew and the Prince put you down there."

His eyes haven't left the skeleton's face. He's searching for any recognition at all, "We were down there at least three more days. From there he influenced us with poison, starvation and mental strain. The mind is easy to manipulate if a body is weak. It's an effective strategy." His tone is not admiration at all.

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⇨ SAY UNCLE

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CW: might get a bit suicide ideationy here

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