lostcarnival | ⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 178 - B1: Day 6
Where: The Carnival and sometimes on top of the Heart of Stone.
What: Now that the Prince is dead and gone, there's a lot left to sort out. As the remaining servants are liberated and those captured by the Prince are tended to, it's time for recovery and goodbyes.
Warnings: Nothing in particular.

HOME GROUND↴

At long last, it is over. The Prince is dead, and all of his stolen Names have been restored - all that's left to do is treat the wounds and move on. For the first day or two, the Ringmaster will be arranging passage for the servants that are left, all of which have remembered their names for the first time in years. The earth elemental that had been trapped and forced to serve as the Prince's manor, the Heart of Stone, is happy to help for the moment. It appreciates the Ringmaster's mercy, and is free after untold eons of imprisonment.

Yet, there are plenty of aspects that are far from simple. There are still servants left mad and transformed into beasts, with no easy way to change them back. The Prince's spells outlive him, and those bearing his poison and his curses will have a difficult road ahead of them. Though most of the bestial servants have been rounded up, and a large number that had been reduced to unmoving statues returned, even the Ringmaster can't return them to normal so simply.

The next week is for rest and for settling remaining affairs. If you want to bid farewell to any particular NPCs, or assure care is given where it's needed, now is the time to do it.

► A CURE: The Ringmaster will tell everyone simply - there is no simple way to undo another fae's magic. The Prince's powers were essentially on par with hers, which means that those who have been transformed to stone and those that were cursed into beasts and driven insane are not something she can trivially fix. It will take the work of the carnival and a couple weeks of treatment to shed the curse of stone, and the maddened servants are an entirely separate matter. She will do what she can, but for the most part she is arranging for the Prince's servants to be cared for elsewhere. At least for now, the Ringmaster will be animating the stone portions of people's bodies with magic, though those portions will still be a bit clumsy and numb feeling.

► THE NEW HEARTSTONE: In the absence of the prince, the Heart of Stone will be taking over the remains of the Prince's realm and preventing it from collapsing into void. As it turns out, the manor had been an earth elemental all along - a form of Wyld Fae almost on par to the Prince and Ringmaster themselves. How the Heart of Stone was enslaved is a long story presumably, but the Ringmaster considers it to be a sign of the Prince's own depravity. The Heart will be allowing visitors for the first couple days of this period through the portal, but keep in mind you are essentially just walking around on its body. At least the realm has a floor, now, instead an endless abyss surrounding it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's an odd sight compared to everything he's seen concerning Sans all week. He doesn't know what to say anymore other than his name. They've won but it is nothing compared to this feeling like everything could standstill for a while longer.

His hand touches the floor with an extreme effort to push himself upwards. It's hard to do it without bending his back, something he can't really do right now, so the effort is there as he manages to get up onto one knee. He doesn't know how much help he can be right now but he can do what he's been wanting to do for a couple of days now and free this poor skeleton.

It's an odd sound as he hears something emerge and he hates to admit he's not on guard for an attack right now. Yet the rip is enough to signal he's too late and he manages himself to his feet with his hand placed on the door. Fingers slide into the groove of the lock to fix it the way it was before he pulled it out for privacy.

"You really shoul-" but then he just cuts himself off. He's already forced Sans into a lot of things recently and it isn't worth telling him to rest, "Yes, yes. Can you walk?"

Sans is experiencing similar problems. With the Prince gone, so is the thing that was keeping his limbs limber. He's back to how it was in the beneath, struggling to move his back and shoulders, his legs stiff and practically grinding at the joints.

He steps forward, still wide eyed and stunned, and then wavers. He drops down onto a knee, having to lean on the bone he's holding like a cane.

"It's still in me," he acknowledges, talking himself through it. "That poison. God." He puts a hand to the stone half of his face. "What did I do?"

That naturally flexibility he has is completely shot due to the petrification stretching down his shoulder blades and across his back. The wings aren't helping with their added weight and he's hiding a lot of it from visible eyes.

Sans looks worse than he is given he was in a full fledged fight a couple of days short of now. He takes his own heavy step forward with a testing motion in case Sans reacts defensively. If he allows him closer he'll move over to try to help him up onto his feet.

"It is," he says calmly. "You've been through a lot. Too much. Poisoned, fought for him, nearly died for him." He'll tell him he's dead in a minute if he remembers, "I can call him or bring you to him."

Sans seems like, in his haze, he's going to allow Tyki to help him up. That is, until he mentions the idea of being brought back to someone, and he immediately assumes he means the Prince.

He pulls away like he's been bitten, the revulsion at that idea obvious. There's a visible shiver of fear in him, too.

"No," he growls. "I don't want that creep anywhere near me."

He sounds genuinely afraid that Tyki is going to pull some kind of second turncoat and try to drag him back there.

He snorts lightly as the first sense of humor courses through him. His hand extends outwards with his palm upwards and while he can't lean forward right now he does his best to try to get a little lower on his level. He'll let Sans come to him instead of just trying to help him up anymore.

"No, I would never bring you anywhere near that vile being again," he says with unwavering conviction. For the first time in this entire week he feels he has a choice, "No, pal. I meant your brother... Sans," he says again, constantly repeating his name, "The Prince is dead. You don't have to worry about him anymore."

He lets that sink in. Dead. The bastard who... he's dead. And that's it. That's why he had his name back. He's never going to have to be in his presence again, and...

He can't help but feel like he's missing something. Some kind of resolution, some kind of feeling like he actually did something to free himself. He didn't. He'd just been totally gone as a person, and if this hadn't happened, he'd have been gone forever.

With just an empty, terrified soul left behind. It takes him a little while to get himself together after that, his hands clenched around his bone cane.

"Okay," he says, finally, and pushes himself up on the cane, getting to his feet without assistance. He falls silent for a while longer, staring at the floor. Eventually, he thinks of something he should say.

"Thanks. I gotta go."

His hand lowers to the side when it isn't taken and Sans helps himself up. Still his hands are there in case he falls as he's aware of how fragile he is thanks to Mari. Even without that somewhat knowledge Sans looks horrible and probably shouldn't be on his own.

Yet family is important and having interacted with Papyrus himself knowing he had tried to order a burger for the now wounded skeleton he's sure something happened between them. Sans was almost urging and body language was something he could read well.

He steps back to give him space and double checks he did undo the lock from inside of it before he opens the door and takes a step outside himself. He doesn't know how Sans plans to get around but he's quick to get out of his way so he can leave, "You're safe for now."

He looks down at Sans when he's thanked with a half smile and half of his reigning poker face. It's not something that happens often, "Sure, sure. See you around."

He's going to give walking a try, he supposes. He gives Tyki one last look, lingering and just a touch wary, but it's nothing personal. He feels on edge in a general sense, and despite Tyki's words, it's going to be hard to feel safe for a long while.

He walks past Tyki, going for the door, his eyes still on him. He half uses the bone weapon he's carrying as a cane.

"Sure. Bye."

And with that, he's stumbling out of the trailer and into the grass, looking for something he has no idea how to find.

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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