⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

Closed to Amethyst

[periphrasing]

It's finally over.

Even to an immortal being, the time the carnival spent at the Prince's manor, and then the subsequent collapse of said manor and the siege and challenge that immediately followed, all felt like they had lasted eons. Peridot can't remember ever having felt quite this tired before. Not after everything with the Cluster, not even after that time she had been kidnapped and brainwashed by vampires.

Well... She sure is tired now. It's not a physical weariness, but the kind of emotional exhaustion that saps so much out of you, you can't even think about where to head next. First she'd failed Lambert and Sans. She failed Lapis. She'd had to kill Lambert, and now he's unconscious in the medical tent, half petrified and struggling to recover...

That's where Peridot is leaving from now, emerging through the tent flaps looking like her mind's off on another planet entirely. It's not like she knows anything about humans, or their medical needs, so there isn't exactly anything she can do for Lambert. She'd be much more useful elsewhere.

If only she actually felt useful...

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst's been scurrying around the Carnival since people have started to come back from the hunt, looking for a few particular people who she isn't even sure are still here, never mind back safely from this newest trial. One of those people is Peridot, and it's an extremely good thing that that shade of lime green is so conspicuous; when she comes out of the medical tent, Amethyst spots her immediately, and waves and calls out to her with obvious relief.

"Hey!! Hey Peridot!! Over here!"

[periphrasing]

At first, Peridot thinks she's hearing things. She looks up blearily, squinting around the immediate vicinity without much hope of actually seeing anything.

When her gaze actually falls on a familiar purple someone, that's when she goes rigid.

"Amethyst...?" She says quietly at first, staring in disbelief.

The disbelief, the inaction, doesn't last for long. With scarcely a conscious thought she's running, yelling out of sheer joy: "Amethyst, AMETHYST IS HERE!" she yelps to no one in particular, sprinting, closing the gap, tripping over her own feet in her haste to greet her friend. She practically launches herself at the quartz, tackling her in an exuberant hug, clinging, cackling excitedly. "AMETHYST IS BACK!" she crows, almost like she needs to keep saying it out loud in order for it to be real.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst doesn't bother trying to stay upright; she lets the force of Peridot's enthusiasm bowl her over over without any complaint.

She does pull Peridot down with her, though.

"Pffff, miss me much?" she says, beaming, clearly thrilled.

[periphrasing]

Peridot is basically clinging on to her with all four limbs AND her tail, but she still pulls back enough to look up at Amethyst with big watery eyes:

"Yes," she croaks the unnecessary confirmation, all the excess stress of the last several weeks just. Wheezing out of her, at the sight of Amethyst's big goofy grin.

Then she grabs her face and pulls her into a big gay kiss, right there in the open, in the middle of the carnival grounds.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst is bright purple afterwards, glancing anxiously over her shoulder to see if anyone is?? Looking?? But apparently most people have other things to be getting on with right now, so she looks back at Peridot with a slightly nervous laugh.

"Geez, Per... are you OK?"

[periphrasing]

"No! I'm not okay!" she says loudly, and yeah, she's still holding on tight to the other gem. "You wouldn't believe the week we just had here, I mean guess everything is more or less alright now but so many HORRIBLE THINGS have been happening, and even before all that I--"

Peridot breaks off, taking a calming breath, exhaling through her teeth. "I'm just... really glad. That you're back," she says, looking kind of embarrassed.

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst, who has big chunky paw arms and gives pretty good hugs, squeezes her tight as she listens. "Yeah... I kind of heard about it." She leans up to kiss her chastely on the gem, which is OK to do because no one is listening. "Did anything... uh. Did anything happen to you?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot whimpers, and it's strange how such a tiny little kiss can be so soothing. She relaxes into the hug, letting out a shaky sigh. "No... I mean. I'm better off than some of the people here..." Subconsciously, her eyes flick over to the medical tent, the weariness in her expression intensifying.

"I got poisoned at one point I guess? But. I'm pretty sure I'm better now."

[drrdrrdrr]

Poisoned. Geez. Amethyst props herself up on one elbow, her other arm still around Peridot, partially so that she can look over the other gem's shoulder at the medical tent, and partially because of what she's about to ask:

"Yo -- is Steven okay?"

[periphrasing]

"Steven? Steven is fine," Peridot quickly informs her. "He's helping out in the medical tent right now, actually."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Phew. Okay." Amethyst lets her head drop forward, against Peridot's. "I was kinda worried you guys weren't even still gonna be here."

[periphrasing]

Maybe it's the location of her gem that causes it, but Peridot always finds those little forehead touches exceedingly comforting.

At Amethyst's comment, she just snorts. "What, like enough time would have passed while you were gone that we would have all finished our contracts and left without you?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeah, exactly like that," huffs Amethyst, a little embarrassed.

[periphrasing]

"I basically signed my current contract so that I could stick around and keep you company," Peridot reminds her, flashing a lopsided grin. "It would be pointless for me to leave, knowing you had to return here at some point. Besides, I actually like the carnival, generally speaking. I'm not desperate to leave it like Lapis is."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Aw, you nerd," says Amethyst, shoving Peridot's face away from her. She pauses, though, letting her hand sort of slide down Peridot's face and then drop in her lap. "Hey... how's it goin' with you an' Lapis, anyway?"

[periphrasing]

H a h a h a

Peridot's grin falters, just briefly, and when it reasserts itself, it's just as broad but much less genuine than before.

"Oh, you know... She's a little bit depressed after everything that just happened at the manor, but. She'll bounce back I'm sure! She always does. Other than that we've just been doing the usual! Hanging out, making our morps..."

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst leans forward a little, a slight frown pinching her brow.

"Yeah?" Something is definitely Up here, but she has no idea what and she's not sure how to approach it.

[periphrasing]

"Yyyyyyyup!" That phony grin is still plastered across her face. Peridot is terrible at lying but like hell she's going to spoil Amethyst's return by dropping all this Lapis Baggage on her lap.

Maybe realizing that she's letting the conversation tail off awkwardly if she just ends her answer there, she adds: "She turned into a literal bear at one of the stops we made while you were gone. That was pretty weird."

[drrdrrdrr]

Okay, yeah, she has no idea what to do with this. Maybe she can try and bring it up later...?

"... A bear?" She blinks. "Is it weird I kinda can't imagine her as a bear?"

[periphrasing]

Good luck, Amethyst. Peridot will sit on her concerns and frustrations about Lapis until she erodes.

"It was, admittedly, very strange," Peridot agrees with a nod. "Nearly everyone else at that stop had their souls emerge as these bizarre, talking animals called daemons? A few people managed to retain spells to summon them after the fact, so you may seem some around. Fair warning: Whatever you do, don't touch them."