⇨ JAILHOUSE ROCKS

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone who IS imprisoned, brainwashed, or infiltrating.
When: Day 175, 11:30PM onward.
Where: The Prince's shiny new fortress.
What: Those that have been imprisoned by the Prince languish in their underground cell, while those that are under his control continue to do his nasty bidding. Also, Foster might be here? We'll see how that goes.
Warnings: General fuckery, maybe torture.

THE LAIR OF THE BEAST↴ As the fortress comes into being, the Prince has been reaching far across his realm, beckoning his servants back to him and corralling as many helpless hostages as he can manage. In the case of the unfortunate carnival members who made the mistake of crossing him during their stay, they are being locked away in the most secure inner sanctums, held as collateral against their former master. Those freshly captured haven't yet been bent to his will, but they can certainly be neutralized. Carted away by security and pulled deep underground, there feels like there is little hope of them escaping on their own. ► GROUNDED: The Prince's dungeon is a simple one - in place of cages and manacles, there is only natural stone. A claustrophobic cave somewhere deep in the earth, those within it will soon be completely cut off from the outside world. All the prisoners will have been injected with manticore venom at some point or another, which will be slowly turning parts of their bodies to stone, and if that wasn't enough they have also been partially encased in the stone walls and pillars, as if phased halfway into the rock and left there in various positions. It is an enclosed area, and all the prisoners are within talking distance of each other - which is a good thing, because there isn't a lot else to do with their powers mostly bound and their bodies becoming less and less capable of movement. ► CONTROLLED: Those of the brainwashed that manage to return to the fortress will be set to work guarding and attending to these hostages, along with the help of some of the long term Manor servants. They still need to eat, right, and that can be difficult when you arms are stuck in a cave wall. Otherwise, there may come a time when the Prince calls upon them to do something more specific - and there's also the chance that the new prisoners will fall victim to his power and succumb to his control as well. With the poison in their bodies, it's only a matter of time before they lose themselves.

Comments

[wild_magic]

"Maybe when we got stuck in here and you can't heal yourself."

[mylastchance]

Lauren frowns, before leaning his weight against the wall. Susan please let him cheer you up. He wasn't going to die just from doing a back bend. He's more concerned about things like getting food and water personally than his lack of magic healing spells.

"Right."

[wild_magic]

Susan lapses back into silence again after that, not really having anything more to add to it unless Lauren does. He doesn't want to be here, he wants to just go home more than before, and knowing that it's his fault Lauren is here too... He just doesn't like it.

If Lauren doesn't break the silence again in a couple of minutes, then he can hear the familiar incantation of some of Susan's spells as he quietly says them again, hoping that maybe he can make them work, somehow.

[mylastchance]

Lauren sighs as he hears the phrases. It's not like it's irritating to hear, rather it's their inevitable failure to work that's irksome.

"Stop."

[wild_magic]

Surprisingly, he actually stops as soon as Lauren says that, although he doesn't stay quiet for long.

"I just thought, maybe if I tried again..."

[mylastchance]

"We'll get out. We just have to wait."

[wild_magic]

He bites his lip, not having a response to that. He's glad Lauren seems so sure for once, and it does help, but... He still can't help but worry.

[mylastchance]

He awkwardly peers over his shoulder to look at Susan, trying to tell what he's feeling.

[wild_magic]

Susan is looking down at the ground again, and vaguely kicks at it with his free foot. He doesn't want to get in an argument with Lauren. He just doesn't want that, and now it would be even worse with other people watching, anyway. He wants to believe Lauren's right, but right now, trapped like this, unable to fight, unable to do anything, his arm hurting from... Whatever weird thing they did, it's hard to believe it. He wants more than anything to just hug his brother but he can't even do that.

[mylastchance]

"Hey." he says, trying to get Susan's attention. "I mean it."

[wild_magic]

He sniffs quietly, not saying anything at first, but then he finally nods in response, although he still isn't looking to his brother.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. They saved everyone last time. I'm just...," he trails off, not wanting to put his fears in words.

[mylastchance]

He switches to elvish, not wanting to embarrass his brother.

"I know Susie. It's okay."

It's kind of awkward, but he reaches back with his hand to try and grab Susan's own.

[wild_magic]

He actually laughs a little as Lauren tries to reach for him, although it probably sounds a bit off with how he's trying to keep from crying. He reaches out his hand too to awkwardly grab it at this angle.

"I'm scared."

[mylastchance]

"I know." he repeats, giving his brother's hand a slight squeeze. "But we're going to be alright."

[wild_magic]

He squeezes back before letting his hand fall to his side again.

"You're sure?"

[mylastchance]

"I promise." he says, answering in common this time, however briefly. "I love you."

[wild_magic]

"...I know." Even in elvish that's a bit much for him to want to say back in public, sorry Lauren.

[anti_nonsense]

A manticore. Petrification. "Great." Rita doesn't sound impressed. She scans her surroundings, looking over the patches of rock afflicting the other prisoners. They're turning to stone... Will the venom progress until they're completely petrified?

Rita shakes her head, as if to dismiss any pessimistic thoughts of that nature.

"We'll be fine," she mutters, seemingly to reassure herself. "We're winning." She has reason to believe that... but most of all, right now, she needs to believe it.

[otoko]

Tunnels... Gongenzaka listens in silence, painting the image in his head. A series of tunnels, perhaps a basement, or similar. The rambling may be rattled, but at the very least it's giving him information, and Gongenzaka's lips curl back with disgust as Sans finishes his thought.

"....Kgh.... ....if not for the stone....I, the man Gongenzaka, would think it more venom," he remarks, though he finds himself looking over Sans with more focus despite that. "....Or perhaps that is still the case," he mutters, wrinkling his nose.

"...The servants... ....Whether through venom, or other methods....kuh-!" The man pauses, a series of coughs wracking his form mid-sentence. "Khh...hhahh... ....He does such things as punishment... ...I, the man Gongenzaka, met such a victim during the 'hunt' which was created.... Though....gh... I, the man Gongenzaka...did manage to help keep him safe, at least..!" he laughs, the sound quickly souring into pained noises.

"....perhaps....this arm can be restored later, at least..."

[anti_nonsense]

It's no surprise for Rita to see Joker here. He was caught shortly before she was, and in roughly the same way. If anything, she’s a little surprised that everyone else who was caught ended up in the same place as them. Not that she’s complaining about that part. It means she can tell who isn’t here; who made it. There’s good news to be found in that.

But the mood here is anything but celebratory, and a soft, melancholy song fills the silence between them. It’s not a bad song, exactly, but the very act of singing in a situation like this just strikes her as weird. She doesn't get it.

"Hey," she speaks up, turning her body slightly to face him. "You better not be freaking out over there."

[pipers_son]

At least being addressed has the song dwindle off, and Joker blinks for a moment as if snapping out of a daze. Which, he supposes, is accurate. He's well aware that something has been put into them, and poison does have that affect. Fucking manticores.

"Oh, I'm doin' just fine," he says, voice light enough to not show any sings of panic but not nearly bouncy enough to get away completely with the lie. "The others have ta have done somethin', judgin' by that god awful ruckus, don't ya think?"

[pipers_son]

That actually makes Joker bark out a laugh, a proper one. "Wouldn't that be somethin'," he mutters, a grin flickering across his face. Saved by piss. If only. It'd be hilarious to see the Prince's face reacting to an escape plan like that. So prissy and full of himself, playing human nobility, only to be done in by some douchebag pissing against the wall.

If only, if only.

Fantasizing about that doesn't last long at the question, and Joker snorts a little. "What, it don't fit the mood?" he asks before letting out a breath. "Anyway, s'probably the way I'm singin' it. Ya can make even a morbid song sound lively if yer truly singin' it." Best he can without his antlers smashing into the stone wall behind him, he rolls his neck a little to get the cricks out of it. "I was just keepin' myself occupied, but if yer requestin' a change of pace..." There's a pause as he goes through all the songs he knows. When he was singing to Julien, he really had to dig through his memory for good songs... But those had a purpose. Now he just needs something a little livelier...

It only takes a few seconds before his face splits into a shiteating grin, his atrocious sense of humor shining through once again. "Okay, I think I got somethin'. Let's try..." Clearing his throat, he gathers himself.... And immediately rises his voice, letting it bounce off of the dungeon's stony walls and probably be heard all the way down the halls.

"There ain't no graaaaaaave can hold my body down~!"

someone has to do it

[osteothropy]

"Shut up," Sans growls, while simultaneously sounding pretty lightheaded and disorientated at this point. The true life of the party, right here.

⇨ THE PRINCE RETURNS (EVENING DAY 176)

[npcarnival]

It's not until the next evening that the Prince returns to his prisoners in any meaningful sense. Servants have been in and out, handling feeding and other necessary housekeeping, but otherwise the dungeon has been left alone. The air is stagnant and increasingly oppressive, any smells being generated in the area onto becoming more thick with time.

There is no sense of time to being here. The only way to guess at measuring is by the routine of the servants, and even that might be off. Is time even real in a Faerie Realm?

At last, though, the Prince returns to his subjects. An ambient light enters the room the same moment he does, through a staircase tunnel that appears effortlessly in the rock. He doesn't bother speaking to any of them as he approaches - for all he's concerned they may as well not be there. That is, except for one.

He looks over Sans with a distant, clinical gaze. The skeleton is obviously getting increasingly worse for wear, through a combination of magical poisoning and general exhaustion. His derisive behaviour has only been getting more incoherent and futile as the day goes on, whatever enchantments that are controlling him seeming to wear away at his ability to form reasonable thoughts, like someone with a high fever.

Silently, the Prince will begin to place his claws against the places on Sans's bones where he is cracked, where the area of monster flesh will shift into stone, the cracks repairing themselves.

It will take him a few minutes to do this, so if you want to yell stuff at him, here is your chance.

[anti_nonsense]

Well, good. At least he's not going nuts. Probably.

"Yeah." Rita's tone is firm. Confident. "Looks like that idiot prince couldn't catch them, either. At this point, he's basically just a sore loser throwing a tantrum." Rita doesn't know what he kept hidden away that's so important, but if reaching it got such a big reaction out of him, it's probably a good sign.

Besides, now that she's already in as much trouble as she can be in, there's no need to hold back in badmouthing their host anymore. Rita's going to enjoy that bit of freedom to her heart's content.