⇨ 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

[wilt]

[ He seems wary... like these could sear his roots off or something. But he burrows.

And rises on the top platform, nearest her. His roots are dangling from the bottom of the platform. ]

I guess that works... [ He seems a little nervous because if these disappear, he's just gonna flop on the ground. ]

[soft_focus]

[Good. Now it's Reira's turn-she's jumping to the platform-] H-up!

[wilt]

[ At first, totally shocked. He thinks she'll rock this thing around! And he'll be doomed forever. But no, the platform stays still. It's not like he can hold onto her leg with anything but his teeth, and he doesn't want to bite her. ]

This is really easy for you, isn't it?!

[soft_focus]

[She doesn't answer right away-instead...

She holds out her duel disk.] ....Here.

...Now you can go on this, right? Because it's a surface, but it won't go away if I turn it off.

[The platform-by the way-is entirely stationary. It's as though it's fused with the air itself, not even budging.]

[wilt]

[ He seems kind of wary, but--

Sure enough, he takes her word, and now he's on her duel disk. His roots cling around it just to reassure himself he's not falling. Good. Yes. Okay. ]

... huh.

It really works.

[ he feels tall ]

[soft_focus]

Mm~! [He didn't FEEL super nervous about things, but it sort of felt like what he had was trying really hard to copy it, so she had a feeling this might be better.]

....n now we just jump back, [She starts, already prepared to make the leap.

Might wanna close your eyes, Flowey.]

[wilt]

[ He hasn't gotten any fear back, so most of his tentativeness was about the structural integrity-- more instinct than fear! So he'll basically just watch as she jumps.

Papyrus would think this was the best. Dinosaur riding... but then he'd say "It's nothing compared to my sweet car that I drive across my dreams in my VERY DILIGENT sleep schedule."

He thinks he can feel something... by the way his mouth is stretching and his teeth are a bit bared, but his eyebrows are raised. ]

You do this every day? Suddenly being a bouncer doesn't sound half bad.

[soft_focus]

UMM-! [BOOF. They are...rather briefly surrounded by feathers, the girl turning the disk off as the T-Rex confusedly looks around. Where!? Where did the panels go!?!]

Mmm.... Not really, I guess. I do lots of jumping, [she explains,] ...But normally Ginko is with me, so we do things on the ground.

...I just thought this would be easier since he's not here right now. [Ginko is going to have a Heart Attack.]

[wilt]

Yeah... [ He's still looking nervous but uh-- he doesn't want to re-learn nervous. But he has to, right? He needs all of them to become Asriel again.

So like a daredevil, he stretches his stem as far as he can to survey how far they are from the ground (very far), the look of this thing (very beastly), and tries really hard to imagine what would happen if something spooked it beyond either of their control. He'd go flying, she'd be stuck up there, it would run into the carnival for sure. He could lose his contract for letting her get hurt just to get a view. She'd get hurt?

Something is struggling free, but what is it? ] S- so what if this thing decided to play like you were the biscuit on a dog's nose?

[soft_focus]

I'm too crunchy for that.

[That is, very literally, the only thing between them, as far as she can tell.] But.... ...I think they know that if something happened to me, something bad would happen to them too. Because Ginko and I always bring them food, and make sure they can play, or not be lonely.

...Normally, the dinosaurs are all gone, I think... ...so they can still have the things they like here.

...I don't think we can sit here all day though. They might not like that....

[Ahh...hmmm. She watches him as he stretches out though, blinking.] ....Can you do that...really far?

[wilt]

Ugh... I can, but--

[ He's still restraining himself from looking. You could never be very HIGH UP in the Underground unless you were in the garbage dump, after all.

Okay, no wimping out of it. He allows himself to grow-- long enough to stretch in front of the Dinosaur's eye.

Come on, feeling, slap him in the face! ]

[soft_focus]

[THE EYEBALL SWIVELS AND IMMEDIATELY STARES BACK AT FLOWEY-]

Wowwwwww.... [Reira is Oblivious.] ....You could do a lot of things with that, I think..!

1/2

[wilt]

[ ahhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧⱧᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼᕼあああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああ

SPIN THE FREAKING ROULETTE WHAT VERSION OF FEAR IS IT: IT'S JUST FEAR

He doesn't scream. He just retracts himself back to her level and doesn't face her. He both simultaneously does and doesn't feel the need to breathe. C'mon, Flowey, say something. ]

[wilt]

[ He just launches himself from her duel disk back to the ground, where he immediately burrows and takes -5 HP ]

[soft_focus]

AH-! [OHGOD NO-

Excuse her, excuse her, she is sliding down a T-Rex the awkward safe way until she can actually jump down and look for a Flower.] Asriel..!!!!

[Look it's no one but them and the T-Rex, names are Fine.]

[wilt]

[ There is muffled screaming beneath the earth.

It lasts a long, long time, until he pokes his head out of the ground. ]

H- hahahaha, I can't believe I could be such an Idiot that I slipped! Whoops! Guess you can call me lame just this once.

[soft_focus]

Ahhh.... [She's going to just...stare for a while, before finally sighing. Ok, he's 'okay'. And apparently brushing this off.] ...Is it ok to not do that, too?

[wilt]

Call me lame? Well, you don't gotta, but it's a nice opportunity to get away with!

[ There's a stammer in his voice. What the heck? He was scarier than that thing when he was Omega Flowey! And then again as Asriel Dreemurr! ]

[soft_focus]

[T-Rex, presently, is inspecting a little butterfly high in the air.]

....I don't even know what the word means, I just know people use it when they're being mean.... [Anyway.] ..................Do you like cats?

[wilt]

?

They're okay, as far as animals go. One I know usually sells garbage and stolen things. [ Is she talking about a massive tigerbeast or something? Fear is a very hard feeling to shake, he's learning... ]

[soft_focus]

We have some cats here....and this time, when I feed them, you can always be bigger than they are, instead of with Tyrannosaurus, if you want.

...One's a Peacat, and the other is 'Snat'.

....We might not see the third one though.

[wilt]

That sounds fine in comparison to that-- thing. [ It was going to eat him, he's certain. ] I don't mind if we visit them.

[ He leaps up to her forearm and wraps his roots around it. Easier than constantly popping up behind her, right? ]

[soft_focus]

[Apparently a lot better, as after a brief blink of surprise, she actually smiles.] Ok! [She decides, keeping her arm steady. This, at least, she's great at.] First we have to get the food, [She explains, heading back to the lonely rope that marks where the enchanted pen 'ends' and the other paths and bridges begin.] And then we can go feed them-and play with them too, since they have to play a bit every day. Peacat likes to be high, but sometimes he just shows his feathers. Snat doesn't have legs though, so we have to play different with him....

[wilt]

What are Peacats? And Snats? I've never heard of anything like that before. Where I used to live, we didn't have a ton of ... outside knowledge, so to speak.

[ Besides what he cheated to gain, of course. ]

[soft_focus]

Ummm... Peacat is...a cat, but with bird things. They have a bit feather tail, and they're blue, [She explains, walking back to the supply shed along the various rickety seeming bridges of vines.]

And...Snat is sort of long, but not snake long. They have to move like a snake though, so I guess that's why they're 'snat'.