⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

"You're not both sorcerers, then?" Lambert, at least, doesn't sound unfamiliar with the term, but he doubts it has exactly the same implications it does back home. It already doesn't sound like the magic they're used to is quite like what they've dealt with before.

"Where I come from, that sounds like what we'd call a source. Still, never heard of anyone who was born just knowing how to use magic, no matter how powerful they were." He finds the thought funny enough to actually laugh, low and raspy.

"You can do things it takes them years to learn. Oh, they'd be pissed." Or, alternatively, they'd want to take him apart as a curiosity to study. Even he knows that isn't a thought to share right now.

[wild_magic]

Once again Lauren's explanations (or lack thereof) amuse Susan, but honestly it's not an important conversation, and he knows druids are supposed to be secretive anyway, so he doesn't butt in to make corrections there. Still, though, could his brother be any worse at conversation?

"Even in our world there's not lots of people like that, I think, most people have to learn magic from books, or get magic from Gods or nature or something... It doesn't really make sense." Not that he minds being an anomaly, but still.

He actually laughs though, thinking about people being pissed because of his magic. When he'd attempted to attend wizard school, it hadn't gone well because his magic was already stronger than lots of the other students, and none of their ways of doing things made any sense to him; it seems that's probably the case in other places too.

"I'm just special like that, I guess."

[mylastchance]

Lauren rolls his eyes at his brother's boasts. Susan isn't even wrong in saying he's special. People who were born with a natural ability for magic were rare. Most of their powers didn't even manifest until adulthood. Then there was Susan, his brother who had been a paltry two years old when he cast mage hand for the first time. It took most people years to learn spells Susan could cast as a child. Saying he was merely 'special' was an understatement.

Of course most people didn't believe a power like Susan's until they saw it themselves. It was easy for most adults to dismiss the claims of someone Susan's age. Lambert was more right than he realized when he said Susan's skills would upset people. Susan's abilities did upset people, even in Faerun. Though honestly that wasn't always because of his talent as much as it was the mistakes he made in the process. Whether it was disbelief, jealousy, or fear the end result was the same: distrust.

It was because of Susan's abilities that they lived in the woods by themselves instead of in town. It didn't bother Lauren and he knew Susan even preferred it. What did bother Lauren was people treating his brother like some kind of nuisance. Even now he isn't sure that Lambert actually believes Susan. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Susan could take care of himself in that regard. Still, it would be better if he did believe him.

"Susan was actually the one who kept me safe, when the vampires attacked." It isn't quite an agreement, but it's close. Still, there's something else Lambert said that he wants to know about.

"What is a 'source' in your world?" If they couldn't cast magic he didn't see how they would sound like Susan's description of a sorcerer. Still he's curious, especially in regards to things with natural magic abilities. If he ever wanted to curb Susan's outbursts these were the kinds of things he'd need to know about.

[whattaprick]

For better or worse, Strange hasn't seen fit to share with Lambert they've got a magical anomaly right under their noses. If they get out of here, whenever that is, he's going to have to remember to ask them to demonstrate sometime ... for now, the conversation's a way to pass the time, distract them from the fact that they're in a nasty hole in the ground. It doesn't particularly matter if he believes the extent of Susan's abilities, only that it works when it needs to.

Right now, for obvious reasons, it can't. So he'll just have to take their word for it. For now, since Lauren's asking...

"A source is just what the sorcerers call any person born with magic. Like I said, people usually need to learn how to use it in the first place. The ones with less of it, those are the pellars, wise women, soothsayers -- the sort of people you'd go to if your sheep got lost. On the other end, you've got sorceresses advising kings and hiding up in their towers with their books." He has to pause to cough raspily, shaking his head.

"The schools spend a lot of time looking for the strongest sources to train up. If they don't learn how to manage it, it can get messy."

aki says to go ahead and skip her!

[wild_magic]

"Messy how? Like... Explosions and teleporting and flying and unicorns and stuff?" You know, all the usual things that happen when his magic doesn't cooperate. He's pretty used to those kinda of mistakes, since they've followed him his whole life. It's the problem with understanding how to use magic like he does; he knows all about how to manipulate it to get what he wants, but doesn't know about what he's actually doing to avoid pulling the wrong thing out of place, and, well... That can definitely be a bad thing, even if the power it comes with is good.

[whattaprick]

"Is that what happens to you?" Lambert can't help snickering a little, probably imagining how the stuffy sorcerers back home would have reacted to that, but his tone gets a bit more serious when he continues.

"Most of the time, a source that doesn't learn to get a handle on their magic goes just crazy. 'Course, even they do learn how to control it, they might still go crazy anyway." For different reasons, but power corrupts and all that. "Explosions can still happen, though."

[mylastchance]

Lauren hesitates to speak as his mind puts all that together. It seemed in Lambert's world even the number of people who could cast simple spells were rare. Then that must mean, "Sources are the only ones who can do magic where you're from."

He doesn't bother even asking for confirmation, assuming he's right. That must have been why Lambert seemed confused when Lauren didn't call himself a sorcerer. Normal people couldn't learn magic on his world. Only people like Susan, born with a natural gift would have been able to cast any spells at all.

"In Faerun anyone can learn magic. It just takes time. And dedication."

That was how he learned. And that was why he didn't need to worry about things going wrong in his casting.

[wild_magic]

"And being really boring, and talking to trees." Those are the important steps that Lauren is clearly neglecting to mention here. He knows first-hand about all of the very boring things that Lauren had to do to become a druid, although admittedly some of it was just what he imagined went on at their secret druid meetings or whatever.

[whattaprick]

"More or less. Priestesses and druids claim to get their powers from spirits or the gods, but if I had to guess they just have their own ways of training kids with the potential." He snickers, slightly. "They've got some pretty different views about how magic ought to be used. Personally, I try to stay out of it. Don't have the time to listen to stuck-up women and old men in robes talk my ear off about they think magic ought to be used."

[mylastchance]

It doesn't really make sense to him. If magic existed than everyone should be able to access it. For magic to be dependent on the individual, it meant that Lambert's world used an entirely different system of magic. Lauren couldn't even comprehend it. A world without the weave, one where magic was still possible. He didn't even know that much about the weave, but he still knew it was what made magic possible on Faerun. For only certain people to be able to use magic though, the weave would either need to discriminate or magic was something driven solely by the inner power of the individual. If that was the case then it was no wonder magic users, even trained ones, would be prone towards creating disasters. The weave kept balance, it was what prevented magic from reeking havoc on the fabric of their reality.

"That's terrifying..."

[wild_magic]

"I think lots of people can't really use magic where we're from either. It's a lot of work to learn it, with how many ways it is. If there's even less ways, then it would be really hard to learn it, right? Like... I know I couldn't learn to be a druid like Lauren. I don't understand all that nature stuff." It's a bit of a ramble, but he doesn't think about it. He knows a lot about the practical aspects of magic, or at least of how he uses magic, but he knows nothing about how it actually works... So he could be totally wrong, too. Not that he cares.

[whattaprick]

"Magic is terrifying," Lambert says, matter-of-fact, not really understanding what part of what he said Lauren is responding to -- but it doesn't matter. The sentiment would be the same regardless.

"Its chaos. It'll always seem that way to people who don't have it, and there'll always be those who want more of it." Lambert stifles a cough, shifting uncomfortably against the stone.

"But it's not like I'm the best person to talk to about using magic, anyway," he concludes. "Only reason I can use it is because I was made to."

[wild_magic]

"What kind of magic can you use?" He really wants to ask how someone can be made to use magic, but that doesn't seem like the sort of thing you can just say. He just hopes that Lauren realizes that too and doesn't ask it because he knows his brother isn't good at realizing what you shouldn't say to people.

[mylastchance]

"What do you mean you were made?"

[whattaprick]

"Back home? Just simple stuff," Lambert answers, waving his only free hand lazily, fingers moving through a brief flicker of signs -- to no effect, of course. "Knocking someone down, set them on fire, make ghosts corporeal ... things you can use in a fight."

As to Lauren's question, he shrugs. "And I meant it like it sounds. I was human, people did stuff to me, then I wasn't just human anymore."

[wild_magic]

"That's cool... Especially if you couldn't use it, before." It definitely sounds complicated, though. He's intrigued, even though he isn't normally super into how magic works, but right now without anything else to think about, it's interesting enough.

"I guess that fire magic is something lots of people can do."

[mylastchance]

He doesn't understand how you can just stop being human. Unless maybe it was something like lycanthropy. Even then, the infected were still human, they were just something else too. It doesn't make sense to him, but he doesn't ask about it again, instead preferring to puzzle it out on his own.

He's also never heard of a spell that turns ghosts corporeal, so that's where he redirects his attention for the moment. He's surprised Lambert calls it 'simple.' Then again, with how different magic was between worlds, should he really be surprised.

"How can magic be so different in so many places?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert could explain it further, sometime, but right now, it's too technical and he isn't particularly in the mood.

"You're asking the wrong person about both those things," he snickers. "Ask one of the real magicians, sometime." If they ever see them again, anyway.

"If I had to guess, fire's common because it's elemental. Even monsters like dragons and wyverns can use it." He coughs, slightly, making a rasping noise at the back of his throat. It takes a few tries before a small lick of flame puffs out in front of his face, a temporary flare of light in the relatively dim cave.

"...that's about as much as I can, right now."