⇨ 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

[pipers_son]

Add Joker to the list of people who doesn't like this at all. Instead of shouting out threats or derision, however, his ears flick upwards straining to hear whatever else might happen. Posture won't do any of them any good, which means there's only one thing left to try....

Joker is just pretty sure words won't do jack shit either, but he has to do something.

"Ya know," he says under the sound of Gongenzaka's enraged thrashing and snarling, "if ya do anythin' too severe ta us, but especially someone who's already on the brink... The Ringmaster isn't gonna be inclined ta barter with ya much. And, as is clearly bein' demonstrated-" He hopes, he has no idea what the hell is going on beyond this walls other than probably a shitshow. "-her and our own can make a real mess of things."

[wild_magic]

Susan has stayed mostly quiet, even before the Prince's arrival, but he's been watching carefully as the others talk. He frowns deeper as everyone just keeps talking, and finally now he feels like he has to say something.

"You guys are only going to make him angry, that'll just make it worse!" And honestly, without even knowing exactly what's going to happen, he's sure that making it worse is still possible and isn't something they even want to think about.

AND HERE WE GO

[npcarnival]

Despite any yelling, or jeering, or attempts at reasonable protest - the Prince continues on. He removes his paw from Sans's face, and instead places a single claw on the center of the monster's forehead.

"But you see," he explains, placidly. "I don't intend to give her a choice. I know full well what she values... and if she wishes to save the mortals she cares about so deeply from a similar fate, there will be little other option but to concede."

With practiced motions, the Prince begins weaving a spell. The specifics of it are impossible to follow, and anyone with an eye for magic will immediately be dazzled and overwhelmed by the sight of it. Incomprehensible words are spoken as power ripples through the Prince's fingers, into Sans's being, and then radiates to the rest of the room. Everyone will feel it, down to their very souls - a feeling of pressure, like something being forced through the seams of reality.

It builds, it builds... and then it breaks. As if something has finally given way and torn free, the Prince pulls his paw back from the monster, something in his palm glowing a brilliant cyan blue. For anyone that can see the light, they will have the stunned notion that they are looking at a word, but will have no frame of reference to process it - like letters that cannot be read or understood.

"█████," he says, the Name equally impossible to understand or hold in one's mind. "I claim that Name. █████ is mine."

He folds the light onto a page of an ornately covered pocketbook, and closes it. It is in that moment that the spell is complete, and its effects roll through reality like an infection. As the Prince pulls away from his victim, it will suddenly be clear - no one will be able to remember any name that the shivering skeleton before him is called, or ever was called. Just like that, his name is gone.

The trance of the casting passing, the monster's pupils have narrowed to pinpricks, horror and need overwhelming him. He squirms against his bonds, his gaze set on the Prince, pleading and hollow.

"No... Please," he begs frailly. "Please, give it back."

There is nothing else in the universe he needs and desires as much as the thing that has been taken from him. He would do anything to have it back.

go figure I do not have an angrier icon

[betheman]

If he was mad before, he sees nothing but white now. He doesn't know what happened-it feels like something did, and it's clear that something did, as though the words were plucked from his head, from his very soul, from all of reality itself.

If the sound he made before was loud, the one he makes now is thunderous-his vines do stretch, this time, the rocks too strong to let him do anything else he desires to do. But for all his spirit, all his rage...

The vines stop barely an inch before the Prince-whether from weakness of the body, the heart, the mind, is unknown, but they fall. "UNFORGIVABLE..!" he roars-tears falling down his cheeks, the beast panting with frustration. At the Prince, at himself, so greatly at himself-

"UN.....khh..." His voice is hoarse-he's shouted himself out in a span of seconds, it feels, but with pin-prick pupils and maddened eyes he can only stare.

"....Give it back to him.... ....I, the man Gongenzaka, beg of you..."

The words die on his tongue.

He knows that this thing will not agree.

[whattaprick]

There isn't any yelling from Lambert's end, nor any further insults. He looks from the skeleton on the floor to the Prince in his self-satisfaction, and makes a cold, furious resolution.

Whatever he takes, he'll see this Fae dead. One way or another. He doesn't know if that'll be enough to undo what's been done -- he didn't even know something like that was fucking possible to begin with -- but the fucker deserves it.

He doesn't even realize he's grinding his teeth together, or that smoke's begun to curl from his lips as he stares at what he can of the Prince. Heat's building up in his throat, the pressure growing too much to hold in, and he finally snarls, a sound that comes with a rush of flame that flares through the dank air of the cave towards the Prince, though whether it reaches its destination without fizzling out, or has any effect at all if it does, is another thing entirely.

After all, fire can only do so much to stone.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita watches wide-eyed when the Prince seems to begin casting a spell, but before long, she’s forced to squint, as if staring at a bright light. There’s some kind of intense, overwhelming power in what he’s doing... but she can’t tell what, exactly, that is. It’s not until the spell is complete, and the Prince has declared the skeleton's name claimed, that she has any inkling of what's going on. He took his name? What the hell does that mean?

...What was his name...?

It's not like they knew each other well or anything, but Rita's sure she knew that much about him. People mentioned him plenty of times before. It's like it's on the tip of her tongue... but clearly, it's nothing so innocent. Not when the skeleton himself looks as though his spirit has been thoroughly broken... There's something oddly horrifying about the sight, in a way she can't describe. It's just a name. Yet clearly, it's more than that.

But right now, it's not just the skeleton who looks like he's breaking down, and when Rita snaps out of her awe at the spell, she yells over at Gongenzaka, "Calm the hell down! Don't give him the satisfaction."

Lashing out, attacking, insulting their captor? Risky as it is, it's satisfying. It's people being themselves, despite where they are. Begging is another thing. Seeing them bend, break, crumble before the Prince... those are the pleasures she doesn't want him to have.