lostcarnival | ⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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⇨ 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.

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Rohan is roused from his doze first, stretching and looking curiously at Feathers as he lands. He stretches out his nose to sniff curiously at the pokemon, and then shifts from a cat into a tiny bird to match Feathers.

Between the plucking and the tiny feet jumping on him, though, Sora doesn't take long to open his eyes and look around tiredly at the commotion. He shifts slightly, flipping from his side to his back to see the pair of birds better.

"What's up?" he asks Feathers quietly, reaching out a hand to pet his head.

All that can be answered from a bird, alas, is a soft coo, although Feathers does lean up into the pettings. Just as much as he can't answer anything, he can't ask any questions himself. Still, Feathers does his best, hopping around a little bit and cocking his head to the side as he looks over Sora's whole set up.

Sora pets Feathers quietly for a moment, before Rohan changes back to a cat again and yawns.

"I wonder where Joker is, if his bird is here?" Rohan asks, head tilting and looking around. Privately, Sora wonders the same thing. He sits up, stretching his arms above his head, and follows his daemon's gaze upwards.

"Is Joker up there?" he asks Feathers, hoping maybe he can give a clue, at least. Pokemon are pretty smart, after all.

True enough, they are fairly smart, and Feathers proves that by immediately nodding his head. His eyes go upwards as well, and he starts to flap up into the air once more.

He watches Feathers go for a moment, then gathers Rohan up in his arms and moves toward one of the poles that's holding the net up in the air. He can't fly here, in the carnival, not truly, but he can jump fairly high. Should be simple enough to get up there.

Sora allows Rohan to dissipate for the moment, then takes a few steps back to give him a start. Running forward, he jumps, shifts in the air, plants his feet on the pole, and then pushes off it for a second jump that gives him enough height to grab the side of the net. From there, it's easy to flip himself up and onto the ropes.

Feathers has landed somewhere in the middle, so he picks his way over to the spot where the majority of the blankets seem to have conglomerated. Is that some familiar hair sticking out of it?

If nothing else, there's some familiar antlers.

Although the blankets aren't really being used for their intended use. Sure, they're scattered along the net to make for more comfortable laying, but Joker isn't wrapped up in any of them. Instead, they make up more of a nest than anything. There are some pillows scattered about as well, and one in particular is pressed against his face with his wooden hand laying on top of it.

It's impressive that he's managed to fall asleep so soon after making that message over the radio... and that's because he hasn't. If Sora knows what to look for, it's obvious that he's not asleep. The breathing's not right for it.

Honestly, he can't tell if Joker's asleep or not. It's not like he's had a lot of practice checking. But he came all the way up here, and he's not about to go down now.

But, he doesn't want to disturb the man if he is sleeping, either. After thinking on it a moment, Sora does the only thing he can think of, and moves toward Joker, laying down and curling up next to him. It's maybe slightly weird, but he has too many (false?) memories of sleeping like this as a child to be bothered too much. They can talk, or they can not, but either way it's nice to be close to someone.

Ah, there's that strange misplaced nostalgia. Joker doesn't move much, even when Sora pinches at his wings a little bit as he shuffles into place. It's only when the younger boy seems to have settled does he move the pillow away from his face enough for his voice to be clear.

"Can't sleep well, huh?"

"Not really," Sora answers quietly. "Been sleeping for like three days already."

He pauses, absentmindedly tugging at his hair.

"...There's not much else to do, in the medical tent. They... wouldn't let me out. Just in case."

"Not much ta do up here, either, I'm afraid," Joker says, although he doubts pure boredom is the only reason for escaping the medical tent. It wasn't for him, after all. "Have ya been eatin' properly?"

It's really the only other thing he can think to ask.

"I dunno," he says truthfully, shrugging half-heartedly. Everything before yesterday was kind of a blur, anyway. Servants meals were irregular and stretched out under the Prince, and he hasn't really felt hungry today.

"Have you?"

Sora regrets saying that immediately. He already knows the answer to that, and the guilt crawls its way back up his spine, because it's his fault. It feels like his fault.

"Sorry," Sora adds after a moment of awkward silence.

From Joker's view, the question isn't an out of place one. After all, something very dire just happened, he's been unconscious for a day and then some, and his first course of action has been to get a bunch of pillows and blankets and make a mess.

So the sudden apology has him blink, and he cranes his neck a little so that he can look down at Sora in faint surprise.

"For what?" He can think of at least one thing, but he wants to be sure they're on the same page.

"Everything," is the vague answer he gives, followed by, "A bunch of stuff."

But then, that's not much of an apology. It sounds like he's not sure what he's sorry for. He starts again.

"For disobeying you. And getting caught. And then... everything after that."

Good. So they are on the same page. Letting out a small breath, Joker falls silent and lets his gaze drift up to the top of the tent.

"Everythin' after was outta yer control," he says, unable to stop himself from sounding a little tired. "But... There's a reason the Supervisors are around, alright? Things like that, where there's thin ice and everyone is worried about each other.... S'why we're around. But... we can't do anythin' if no one listens."

"Yeah, I know... I'm sorry," Sora repeats, voice quiet. Honestly, he's so used to doing everything himself. When no one else was doing anything, he rushed in. That was probably the biggest mistake.

Well.... There's no point in really pushing when he sounds like that, and has "mementos" from their time in the manor to never be able to forget. Joker lets out a long sigh and carefully pats his hair.

"Just remember. That's the best thing ta do from here on out."

Sora nods silently, then moves forward to hug Joker, as awkward as it is from their lying down positions. He almost wants to apologize again, but at this point he'd just be repeating himself. And besides, he's sure Joker already knows.

Oof. Well, at least he's flexible. It means Joker has found he can be comfortable in a great deal of positions. So he lets his hand rest over the boy and breathes out slowly.

"S'gonna be okay."

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⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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